Job 36 commentary

Elihu only maintained that the affliction was sent for his trial; and lengthened because Job was not yet thoroughly humbled under it. He sought to ascribe righteousness to his Maker; to clear this truth, that God is righteous in all his ways. Such knowledge must be learned from the word and Spirit of God, for naturally we are estranged from it. The fitness of Elihu's discourse to the dispute between Job and his friends is plain. It pointed out to Job the true reason of those trials with which he had been pointed out to Job the true reason of those trials with which he had been visited. It taught that God had acted in mercy towards him, and the spiritual benefit he was to derive from them. It corrected the mistake of his friends, and showed that Job's calamities were for good.

Elihu here shows that God acts as righteous Governor. He is always ready to defend those that are injured. If our eye is ever toward God in duty, his eye will be ever upon us in mercy, and, when we are at the lowest, will not overlook us. God intends, when he afflicts us, to discover past sins to us, and to bring them to our remembrance. Also, to dispose our hearts to be taught: affliction makes people willing to learn, through the grace of God working with and by it. And further, to deter us from sinning for the future. It is a command, to have no more to do with sin. If we faithfully serve God, we have the promise of the life that now is, and the comforts of it, as far as is for God's glory and our good: and who would desire them any further? We have the possession of inward pleasures, the great peace which those have that love God's law. If the affliction fail in its work, let men expect the furnace to be heated till they are consumed. Those that die without knowledge, die without grace, and are undone for ever. See the nature of hypocrisy; it lies in the heart: that is for the world and the flesh, while perhaps the outside seems to be for God and religion. Whether sinners die in youth, or live long to heap up wrath, their case is dreadful. The souls of the wicked live after death, but it is in everlasting misery.

Elihu shows that Job caused the continuance of his own trouble. He cautions him not to persist in frowardness. Even good men need to be kept to their duty by the fear of God's wrath; the wisest and best have enough in them to deserve his stroke. Let not Job continue his unjust quarrel with God and his providence. And let us never dare to think favourably of sin, never indulge it, nor allow ourselves in it. Elihu thinks Job needed this caution, he having chosen rather to gratify his pride and humour by contending with God, than to mortify them by submitting, and accepting the punishment. It is absurd for us to think to teach Him who is himself the Fountain of light, truth, knowledge, and instruction. He teaches by the Bible, and that is the best book; teaches by his Son, and he is the best Master. He is just in all proceedings.

Elihu endeavours to fill Job with high thought of God, and so to persuade him into cheerful submission to his providence. Man may see God's works, and is capable of discerning his hand in them, which the beasts are not, therefore they ought to give him the glory. But while the worker of iniquity ought to tremble, the true believer should rejoice. Children should hear with pleasure their Father's voice, even when he speaks in terror to his enemies. There is no light but there may be a cloud to intercept it. The light of the favour of God, the light of his countenance, the most blessed light of all, even that light has many a cloud. The clouds of our sins cause the Lord to his face, and hinder the light of his loving-kindness from shining on our souls.

CHAPTER 36

Job 36:1-33.

1-2. Elihu maintains that afflictions are to the godly disciplinary, in order to lead them to attain a higher moral worth, and that the reason for their continuance is not, as the friends asserted, on account of the sufferer's extraordinary guilt, but because the discipline has not yet attained its object, namely, to lend him to humble himself penitently before God (Is 9:13; Jr 5:3). This is Elihu's fourth speech. He thus exceeds the ternary number of the others. Hence his formula of politeness (Job 36:2). Literally, "Wait yet but a little for me." Bear with me a little farther. I have yet (much, Job 32:18-20). There are Chaldeisms in this verse, agreeably to the view that the scene of the book is near the Euphrates and the Chaldees.

3. from afar--not trite commonplaces, but drawn from God's mighty works.

ascribe righteousness--whereas Job ascribed unrighteousness (Job 34:10, 12). A man, in enquiring into God's ways, should at the outset presume they are all just, be willing to find them so, and expect that the result of investigation will prove them to be so; such a one will never be disappointed [Barnes].

4. I will not "speak wickedly for God," as the friends (Job 13:4, 7, 8)--that is, vindicate God by unsound arguments.

he that is perfect, &c.--Rather, as the parallelism requires, "a man of integrity in sentiments is with thee" (is he with whom thou hast to do). Elihu means himself, as opposed to the dishonest reasonings of the friends (Job 21:34).

5. Rather, "strength of understanding" (heart) the force of the repetition of "mighty"; as "mighty" as God is, none is too low to be "despised" by Him; for His "might" lies especially in "His strength of understanding," whereby He searches out the most minute things, so as to give to each his right. Elihu confirms his exhortation (Job 35:14).

6. right ... poor--He espouses the cause of the afflicted.

7. (1Pe 3:12). God does not forsake the godly, as Job implied, but "establishes," or makes them sit on the throne as kings (1Sa 2:8; Psa 113:7, 8). True of believers in the highest sense, already in part (1Pe 2:9; Re 1:6); hereafter fully (Re 5:10; Job 22:5).

and they are--that they may be.

8-10. If they be afflicted, it is no proof that they are hypocrites, as the friends maintain, or that God disregards them, and is indifferent whether men are good or bad, as Job asserts: God is thereby "disciplining them," and "showing them their sins," and if they bow in a right spirit under God's visiting hand, the greatest blessings ensue.

11. serve--that is, worship; as in Is 19:23. God is to be supplied (compare Is 1:19, 20).

12. (Job 33:18).

without knowledge--that is, on account of their foolishness (Job 4:20, 21).

13-15. Same sentiment as Job 36:11, 12, expanded.

hypocrites--or, the ungodly [Maurer]; but "hypocrites" is perhaps a distinct class from the openly wicked (Job 36:12).

heap up wrath--of God against themselves (Ro 2:5). Umbreit translates, "nourish their wrath against God," instead of "crying" unto Him. This suits well the parallelism and the Hebrew. But the English Version gives a good parallelism, "hypocrites" answering to "cry not" (Job 27:8, 10); "heap up wrath" against themselves, to "He bindeth them" with fetters of affliction (Job 36:8).

16. Rather, "He will lead forth thee also out of the jaws of a strait" (Psa 18:19; 118:5).

broad place--expresses the liberty, and the well-supplied "table" the abundance of the prosperous (Psa 23:5; Is 25:6).

17. Rather, "But if thou art fulfilled (that is, entirely filled) with the judgment of the wicked (that is, the guilt incurring judgment" [Maurer]; or rather, as Umbreit, referring to Job 34:5-7, 36, the judgment pronounced on God by the guilty in misfortunes), judgment (God's judgment on the wicked, Jr 51:9, playing on the double meaning of "judgment") and justice shall closely follow each other [Umbreit].

18. (Nu 16:45; Psa 49:6, 7; Mt 16:26). Even the "ransom" by Jesus Christ (Job 33:24) will be of no avail to wilful despisers (He 10:26-29).

with his stroke--(Job 34:26). Umbreit translates, "Beware lest the wrath of God (thy severe calamity) lead thee to scorn" (Job 34:7; 27:23). This accords better with the verb in the parallel clause, which ought to be translated, "Let not the great ransom (of money, which thou canst give) seduce thee (Margin, turn thee aside, as if thou couldst deliver thyself from "wrath" by it). As the "scorn" in the first clause answers to the "judgment of the wicked" (Job 36:17), so "ransom" ("seduce") to "will he esteem riches" (Job 36:19). Thus, Job 36:18 is the transition between Job 36:17 and Job 36:19.

19. forces of strength--that is, resources of wealth (Psa 49:7; Pr 11:4).

20. Desire--pant for. Job had wished for death (Job 3:3-9, &c.).

night--(Joh 9:4).

when--rather, "whereby."

cut off--literally, "ascend," as the corn cut and lifted upon the wagon or stack (Job 36:26); so "cut off," "disappear."

in their place--literally, "under themselves"; so, without moving from their place, on the spot, suddenly (Job 40:12) [Maurer]. Umbreit's translation: "To ascend (which is really, as thou wilt find to thy cost, to descend) to the people below" (literally, "under themselves"), answers better to the parallelism and the Hebrew. Thou pantest for death as desirable, but it is a "night" or region of darkness; thy fancied ascent (amelioration) will prove a descent (deterioration) (Job 10:22); therefore desire it not.

21. regard--literally, "turn thyself to."

iniquity--namely, presumptuous speaking against God (Job 34:5, and above, see on Job 36:17, 18).

rather than--to bear "affliction" with pious patience. Men think it an alleviation to complain against God, but this is adding sin to sorrow; it is sin, not sorrow, which can really hurt us (contrast He 11:25).

22-25. God is not to be impiously arraigned, but to be praised for His might, shown in His works.

exalteth--rather, doeth lofty things, shows His exalted power [Umbreit] (Psa 21:13).

teacheth--(Psa 94:12, &c.). The connection is, returning to Job 36:5, God's "might" is shown in His "wisdom"; He alone can teach; yet, because He, as a sovereign, explains not all His dealings, forsooth Job must presume to teach Him (Is 40:13, 14; Ro 11:34; 1Co 2:16). So the transition to Job 36:23 is natural. Umbreit with the Septuagint translates, "Who is Lord," wrongly, as this meaning belongs to later Hebrew.

26. (Job 37:13). God's greatness in heaven and earth: a reason why Job should bow under His afflicting hand.

know him not--only in part (Job 36:25; 1Co 13:12).

his years--(Psa 90:2; 102:24, 27); applied to Jesus Christ (He 1:12).

27-28. The marvellous formation of rain (so Job 5:9, 10).

maketh small--Rather, "He draweth (up) to Him, He attracts (from the earth below) the drops of water; they (the drops of water) pour down rain, (which is) His vapor." "Vapor" is in apposition with "rain," marking the way in which rain is formed; namely, from the vapor drawn up by God into the air and then condensed into drops, which fall (Psa 147:8). The suspension of such a mass of water, and its descent not in a deluge, but in drops of vapory rain, are the marvel. The selection of this particular illustration of God's greatness forms a fit prelude to the storm in which God appears (Job 40:1).

29. (Job 37:5). God's marvels in thunder and lightnings.

spreadings, &c.--the canopy of thick clouds, which covers the heavens in a storm (Psa 105:39).

the noise--"crashing"; namely, thunder.

of his tabernacle--God being poetically said to have His pavilion amid dark clouds (Psa 18:11; Is 40:22).

30. light--lightning.

it--His tabernacle (Job 36:29). The light, in an instant spread over the vast mass of dark clouds, forms a striking picture.

spread--is repeated from Job 36:29 to form an antithesis. "He spreads not only clouds, but light."

covereth the bottom--roots.

of the sea--namely, with the light. In the storm the depths of ocean are laid bare; and the light "covers" them, at the same moment that it "spreads" across the dark sky. So in Psa 18:14, 15, the discovering of "the channels of waters" follows the "lightnings." Umbreit translates: "He spreadeth His light upon Himself, and covereth Himself with the roots of the sea" (Psa 104:2). God's garment is woven of celestial light and of the watery depths, raised to the sky to form His cloudy canopy. The phrase, "cover Himself with the roots of the sea," is harsh; but the image is grand.

31. These (rain and lightnings) are marvellous and not to be understood (Job 36:29), yet necessary. "For by them He judgeth (chastiseth on the one hand), &c. (and on the other, by them) He giveth meat" (food), &c. (Job 37:13; 38:23, 27; Ac 14:17).

32. Rather, "He covereth (both) His hands with light (lightning, Job 37:3, Margin), and giveth it a command against his adversary" (literally, the one "assailing" Him, Psa 8:2; 139:20; Job 21:19). Thus, as in Job 36:31, the twofold effects of His waters are set forth, so here, of His light; in the one hand, destructive lightning against the wicked; in the other, the genial light for good to His friends, &c. (Job 36:33) [Umbreit].

33. noise--rather, He revealeth it (literally, "announceth concerning it") to His friend (antithesis to adversary, Job 36:32, so the Hebrew is translated, Job 2:11); also to cattle and plants (literally, "that which shooteth up"; Ge 40:10; 41:22). As the genial effect of "water" in the growth of food, is mentioned, Job 36:31, so here that of "light" in cherishing cattle and plants [Umbreit]. If English Version, "noise" be retained, translate, "His noise (thunder) announces concerning Him (His coming in the tempest), the cattle (to announce) concerning Him when He is in the act of rising up" (in the storm). Some animals give various intimations that they are sensible of the approach of a storm [Virgil, Georgics, I.373, &c.].

Elihu also proceeded - Mr. Heath gives a good summary of this chapter. Elihu goes on to lay before Job the impropriety of his behavior towards God, and desires him to consider how vain it will prove. That God Almighty will never yield the point; that he will administer impartial justice to all men, Job 36:2-6. That the general course of his providence is to favor the righteous: and that though he may sometimes correct them in love, yet if they submit patiently to his fatherly corrections, they shall enjoy all manner of prosperity; but if they be stubborn, and will not submit, they will only draw down greater proofs of his displeasure, Job 36:7-16. He tells him that, had he followed the former course, he had probably, before now, been restored to his former condition; whereas, by persisting in the latter course, he was in a fair way of becoming a signal example of Divine justice, Job 36:17, Job 36:18. He therefore warns him to use the present opportunity, lest God should cut him off while he was in a state of rebellion against him; for with God neither wealth, power, nor any other argument that he could use, would be of any avail, Job 36:18-26. That God was infinitely powerful; there was no resisting him: and infinitely wise, as sufficiently appeared by his works; there was, therefore, no escaping out of his hands. That his purity was so great that the sun, in his presence, was more dim than the smallest ray of light when compared to that grand luminary; that his holiness was manifest by his aversion to iniquity; and his goodness, in supplying the wants of his creatures.

That I have yet to speak on God's behalf - I have other proofs to allege in behalf of God's justice and providence.

I will fetch my knowledge from afar - למרחוק lemerachok, "from the distant place," meaning probably both remote antiquity and heaven; see below. I will show thee that all antiquity and experience are on my side. I can bring proofs from the remotest ages and from the most distant countries to demonstrate that God is infinitely Wise, and can do nothing foolish or erroneous; that he is infinitely Powerful, and can bring all the purposes of his wisdom to effect; that he is infinitely Good, and can will nothing, and can do nothing that is not good in itself, and well calculated to do good to his creatures. And I shall show that his operations in the heavens and on the earth prove and demonstrate the whole.

And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker - By proving the above points, the righteous conduct of God, and his gracious government of the world, will be fully established. That Elihu brings his knowledge from afar - from every part of the creation, as well as from the Divine nature - is evident from the end of the chapter.

1. The omnipotence of God; - God is great.

2. The eternity of God - We know him not, the number of his years cannot be found out, Job 36:26.

3. From the economy of God in the atmosphere, in dews, rain, vapor, and the irrigation of the earth; - He maketh small the drops, etc., Job 36:27, Job 36:28.

4. In the thunder and lightning, by which he performs such wonders in the atmosphere, and executes such judgments in the world; - Also who can understand the noise of his tabernacle? He spreadeth his light upon it. He judgeth the people, etc., Job 36:29-33.

My words shall not be false - My words shall be truth without falsity.

He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee - "The perfection of knowledge is with thee." Thou art a sensible, well-informed man, and will be able to judge of what I say.

God is mighty and despiseth not any - He reproaches no man for his want of knowledge. If any man lack wisdom, he may come to God, who giveth liberally, and upbraideth not. I prefer this to the passive sense, will not be despised.

He is mighty - Literally, "He is mighty in strength of heart;" he can never be terrified nor alarmed.

He preserveth not the life - He will not give life to the wicked; all such forfeit life by their transgressions.

But giveth right - Justice will he give to the afflicted or humble, עניים aniyim.

He withdraweth not his eyes - Exactly similar to those words of David, Psa 34:15 : "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous."

But with kings are they on the throne - I think the words should be read thus: - "But with kings upon the throne shall he place them; and they shall be exalted for ever." The word וישיבם vaiyeshibem, he will establish or place them, should be added to the first clause, as I have done; and then the sense becomes much clearer. Instead of לנצח fo da lanetsach, forever, perhaps to victory would be a better sense: "But with kings upon the throne will he place them; and they shall be exalted or triumph to victory." This is precisely the same idea, and conveyed in nearly the same words, as that of our Lord: - "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne;" Rev 3:21. "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory," etc.; Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6.

And if they be bound in fetters - These are means which God uses, not of punishment, but of correction.

He showeth them their work - He shows them the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

That they have exceeded - יתגברו yithgabbaru, "that they have strengthened themselves," and did not trust in the living God; and therefore they would not help themselves when trouble came.

He openeth also their ear - He gives them to understand the reason why they are thus corrected, and commands them to return from those iniquities which have induced him to visit them with afflictions and distresses.

If they obey and serve him - There may appear in the course of Providence to be some exceptions to this general rule; but it is most true, that this is literally or spiritually fulfilled to all the genuine followers of God. Every man is happy, in whatsoever circumstances, whose heart is unreservedly dedicated to his Maker.

But if they obey not - This also is a general rule, from which, in the course of Providence, there are only few, and those only apparent, deviations. Instead of they shall perish by the sword, the meaning of the Hebrew בשלח יעברו beshelach yaaboru, is, "By a dart they shall pass by." They shall be in continual dangers, and often fall before they have lived out half their days. Mr. Good translates: They pass by as an arrow. The Vulgate: Transibunt per gladium. "They shall pass away by the sword."

But the hypocrites in heart - חנפי chanphey, the profligates, the impious, those who have neither the form nor the power of godliness. The hypocrite is he who has the form but not the power, though he wishes to be thought as inwardly righteous as he is outwardly correct; and he takes up the profession of religion only to serve secular ends. This is not the meaning of the word in the book of Job, where it frequently occurs.

They cry not - "Though he binds them, yet they cry not." They are too obstinate to humble themselves even under the mighty hand of God.

They die in youth - Exactly what the psalmist says, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days," Psa 55:23. Literally, the words of Elihu are, "They shall die in the youth of their soul."

Their life is among the unclean - בקדשים bakedeshim, among the whores, harlots, prostitutes, and sodomites. In this sense the word is used, though it also signifies consecrated persons; but we know that in idolatry characters of this kind were consecrated to Baal and Ashtaroth, Venus, Priapus, etc. Mr. Good translates the rabble. The Septuagint: Their life shalt be wounded by the angels.

And openeth their ears in oppression - He will let them know for what end they are afflicted, and why he permits them to be oppressed. The word יגל yigel might be translated he shall make them exult, or sing with joy, in oppression; like the three Hebrews in the burning fiery furnace.

Even so would he have removed thee - If thou hadst turned to, obeyed, and served him, thy present state would have been widely different from what it is.

But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked - As thou art acting like the wicked, so God deals with thee as he deals with them. Elihu is not a whit behind Job's other friends. None of them seems to have known any thing of the permission given by God to Satan to afflict and torment an innocent man.

Because there is wrath - This is a time in which God is punishing the wicked; take heed lest thou be cut off in a moment. Redeem the time; the days are evil.

Then a great ransom - When he determines to destroy, who can save?

Desire not the night - Thou hast wished for death; (here called night); desire it not; leave that with God. If he hear thee, and send death, thou mayest be cut off in a way at which thy soul would shudder.

Regard not iniquity - It is sinful to entertain such wishes; it is an insult to the providence of God. He sends affliction; he knows this to be best for thee: but thou hast preferred death to affliction, thereby setting thy wisdom against the wisdom of God. Many in affliction, long for death; and yet they are not prepared to appear before God! What madness is this! If he takes them at their wish, they are ruined for ever. Affliction may be the means of their salvation; the wished-for death, of their eternal destruction.

God exalteth by his power - He has brought thee low, but he can raise thee up. Thou art not yet out of the reach of his mercy. Thy affliction is a proof that he acts towards thee as a merciful Parent. He knows what is best to be done; he teaches thee how thou shouldst suffer and improve. Why sin against his kindness? Who can teach like him?

Who hath enjoined him his way - Has God taken instructions from any man how he shall govern the world?

Thou hast wrought iniquity? - Who can prove, in the whole compass of the creation, that there is one thing imperfect, superabundant, or out of its place? Who can show that there is, in the course of the Divine providence, one unrighteous, cruel, or unwise act? All the cunning and wickedness of man have never been able to find out the smallest flaw in the work of God.

Remember that thou magnify his work - Take this into consideration; instead of fretting against the dispensations of Divine providence, and quarrelling with thy Maker, attentively survey his works; consider the operation of his hands; and see the proofs of his wisdom in the plan of all, of his power in the production and support of all, and of his goodness in the end for which all have been made, and to which every operation in nature most obviously tends; and then magnify his work. Speak of him as thou shalt find; let the visible works of thy Maker prove to thee his eternal power and Godhead, and let nature lead thee to the Creator.

Every man may see it - He who says he can examine the earth with a philosophic eye, and the heavens with the eye of an astronomer, and yet says he cannot see in them a system of infinite skill and contrivance, must be ignorant of science, or lie against his conscience, and be utterly unworthy of confidence or respect.

God is great - He is omnipotent.

We know him not - He is unsearchable.

Neither can the number of his years be searched out - He is eternal.

These three propositions are an ample foundation for endless disquisition. As to paraphrase and comment, they need none in this place; they are too profound, comprehensive, and sublime.

He maketh small the drops of water - This appears simply to refer to evaporation, and perhaps it would be better to translate יגרע yegara, "he exhales;" detaches the smallest particles of the aqueous mass from the surface in order to form clouds, as reservoirs for the purpose of furnishing rain for the watering of the earth. God is seen in little things, as well as great things; and the inconceivably little, as well as the stupendously great, are equally the work of Omnipotence.

They pour down rain - These exceedingly minute drops or vapor become collected in clouds; and then, when agitated by winds, etc. many particles being united, they become too heavy to be sustained by the air in which they before were suspended, and so fall down in rain, which is either a mist, a drizzle, a shower, a storm, or a waterspout, according to the influence of different winds, or the presence and quantum of the electric fluid. And all this is proportioned, לאדו le-edo, "to its vapor," to the quantity of the fluid evaporated and condensed into clouds.

Which the clouds do drop - In proportion to the evaporation will be the clouds or masses of volatilized and suspended vapor; and in proportion to this will be the quantum of rain which in different forms will fall upon the earth. There is a remarkable addition to this verse in the Septuagint. I shall insert the whole verse: Ῥυησονται παλαιωματα, εσκιασε δε νεφη επι αμυθητῳ βροτῳ· ὡραν εθετο κτηνεσιν, οιδασι δε κοιτης ταξιν· επι τουτοις πασιν ουκ εξισταται σου ἡ διανοια, ουδε διαλλασσεται σου ἡ καρδια απο σωματος; "The rains descend, and the clouds cover with their shadows multitudes of men: he hath appointed to animals to know the order of their dwellings. At the contemplation of these things is not thy mind transported, and thy heart ready to part from thy body?"

Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds - Though the vapor appear to be fortuitously raised, and subject, when suspended in the atmosphere, to innumerable accidents, to different winds and currents which might drive it all to the sandy deserts, or direct its course so that it should fall again into the great deep from which it has been exhaled, without watering and refreshing the earth; yet so does the good and wise providence of God manage this matter, that every part of the arable terrene surface receives an ample supply; and in every place, where requisite, it may be truly said that "The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and water the earth, and cause it to bring forth and bud, that it may minister seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." In Egypt, where there is little or no rain, the earth is watered by the annual inundation of the Nile; there, because this system of evaporation is not necessary, it does not exist. Who can account for this economy? How are these clouds so judiciously and effectually spread through the atmosphere, so as to supply the wants of the earth, of men, and of cattle? I ask, with Elihu, "Who can understand the spreadings of these clouds?" And I should like to see that volunteer in the solution of paradoxes who would step forward and say, I am the man.

The noise of his tabernacle? - By the tabernacle we may understand the whole firmament or atmospheric expansion; the place where the Almighty seems more particularly to dwell; whence he sends forth the rain of his strength, and the thunder of his power. The noise must refer to the blowing of winds and tempests. or to the claps, peals, and rattling of thunder, by means of the electric fluid.

He spreadeth his light upon it - Or, as Mr. Good translates, "He throweth forth from it his flash." These two verses may both have an allusion to the sudden rarefaction of that part of the atmosphere whence the thunder proceeds, by the agency of the electric fluid; the rushing in of the air on each side to restore the equilibrium, which the passage of the fire had before destroyed. The noise produced by this sudden rushing in of the air, as well as that occasioned by the ignition of the hydrogen gas, which is one of the constituents of water, is the thunder of his tabernacle, viz., the atmosphere, where God appears, in such cases, to be manifesting his presence and his power. Elihu says that God spreadeth his light upon it. This is spoken in reference to the flashes and coruscations of lightning in the time of thunder storms, when, even in a dark night, a sudden flash illuminates for a moment the surface of the earth under that place.

And covereth the bottom of the sea - He doth whatsoever it pleaseth him in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, in the sea, and in all deep places. Yea, the depths of the sea are as much under his control and influence as the atmosphere, and its whole collection of vapours, meteors, and galvanic and electric fluids.

By them judgeth he the people - He makes storms, tempests, winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, thunder and lightning, drought and inundation, the instruments of his justice, to punish rebellious nations.

He giveth meat in abundance - Though by these he punishes offenders, yet through the same, as instruments, he provides for the wants of men and animals in general. Storms, tempests, and hurricanes, agitate the lower regions of the atmosphere, disperse noxious vapours, and thus render it fit for respiration; and without these it would soon become a stagnant, putrid, and deadly mass, in which neither animals could live, nor vegetables thrive. And by dews, rains, snows, frosts, winds, cold, and heat, he fructifies the earth, and causes it to bring forth abundantly, so that every thing living is filled with plenteousness. Some critics translate this latter clause thus: - He passeth sentence amain. I cannot see this meaning in the original words. Not one of the versions has so understood them; nor does this translation, supposing even that the Hebrew would bear it, give so fine and so elegant an idea as that of the common version. I always feel reluctant to give a sense in any case that is not supported in some of its parts by any of the ancient versions, and more especially when it is contrary to the whole of them; and still more particularly when opposed to the Arabic, which in the Book of Job, containing so many Arabisms, I consider to be of very great importance.

With clouds he covereth the light - This is all extraordinary saying, על כפים כמה אור al cappayim kissah or, which Mr. Good translates, "He brandisheth the blaze athwart the concave." The Vulgate, with which all the other versions less or more agree, has, In manibus abscondit lucem, "In his hands he hideth the light;" or, more literally, "By the hollow of his hands (כפים cappayim) he concealeth the light, (אור or,") the fountain of light, i.e., the Sun.

And commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt - I am afraid this is no translation of the original. Old Coverdale is better: - And at his commandement it commeth agayne; which is a near copy of the Vulgate. Here again Mr. Good departs from all the versions, both ancient and modern, by translating thus: - "And launcheth his penetrating bolt." Dr. Stock, in my opinion, comes nearer the original and the versions in his translation: - "And giveth charge as to what it shall meet."

The mending of the text by conjecture, to which we should only recur in desperate necessity, has furnished Mr. Good and Reiske with the above translation. For my own part, I must acknowledge an extreme difficulty both here and in the concluding verse, on which I am unwilling to lay a correcting hand. I think something of the doctrine of eclipses is here referred to; the defect of the solar light, by the interposition of the moon. So in the time of an eclipse God is represented as covering the body of the sun with the hollow of his hand, and thus obscuring the solar light, and then removing his hand so as to permit it to re-illuminate the earth.

Mr. Good gets his translation by dividing the words in a different manner from the present text. I shall give both: -

Hebrew: ויצו עליה במפגיע

Vayetsav aleyha bemaphgia

Mr. Good: ויצוע ליהב מפגיע

Veyezvo liahbe mapegio.

Of which he learnedly contends, "And launcheth his penetrating bolt," is the literal sense. The change here made, to produce the above meaning, is not a violent one; and I must leave the reader to judge of its importance.

The noise thereof showeth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapor - I think this translation very unhappy. I shall give each hemistich in the original: - יגיד עליו רעו

Yaggid alaiv reo מקנה אף על עולה

Mikneh aph al oleh.

I think this may be translated without any violence to any word in the text: -

Its loud noise (or his thunder) shall proclaim concerning him;

A magazine of wrath against iniquity.

This is literal, and gives, in my opinion, a proper meaning of the passage, and one in strict connection with the context. And it is worthy of remark that every wicked man trembles at the noise of thunder and the flash of lightning, and considers this a treasury of Divine wrath, emphatically called among us the artillery of the skies; and whenever the noise is heard, it is considered the voice of God. Thus the thunder declares concerning him. The next chapter, which is a continuation of the subject here, confirms and illustrates this meaning. For יגיד yaggid, Houbigant reads יניד yanid; and for מקנה mikneh, מקנאת mikkinath; and translates thus: "He agitates with himself his thunder, from the indignation of his wrath against iniquity."

Afar - From remote times, and places, and things. I will not confine my discourse to thy particular case, but wilt justify God by declaring his great and glorious works of creation and providence both in the heaven and in the earth, and the manner of his dealing with men in other parts and ages of the world. Ascribe - I will clear and maintain this truth, that God is righteous in all his ways.

He, &c. - Thou hast to do with a God of perfect knowledge, by whom all thy words and actions are weighed.

Despiseth - His greatness doth not make him (as it doth men) despise, or oppress the meanest. Wisdom - His strength is guided by wisdom, and therefore cannot do any thing unbecoming God, or unjust to his creatures.

But - He will certainly in his time deliver his oppressed ones.

He - Never ceases to care for and watch over them. Exalted - They continue to be exalted; they are not cast down from their dignity, as the wicked commonly are.

If - Through the vicissitude of worldly affairs, they are brought from their throne into a prison, as sometimes hath been done.

Work - Their evil works, by these afflictions he brings them to a sight of their sins. Exceeded - That they have greatly sinned by abusing their power and prosperity; which even good men are too prone to do.

Openeth - He inclines them to hearken to what God speaks by the rod.

Cry not - Unto God for help. Bindeth - With the cords of affliction.

Die - They provoke God to cut them off before their time. Unclean - Or, Sodomites; to whose destruction, he may allude. They shall die by some exemplary stroke of Divine vengeance. Yea, and after death, their life is among the unclean, the unclean spirits, the devil and his angels, for ever excluded from the new Jerusalem, into which no unclean thing shall enter.

Openeth - Causeth them to hear, and understand, and do, the will of God.

He would - If thou hadst opened thine ear to God's counsels. Into - A state of ease and freedom.

The judgment - Or, the sentence, thou hast justified the hard speeches which wicked men utter against God. Therefore - Therefore the just judgment of God takes hold on thee. Thou hast maintained their cause against God, and God passes against thee the sentence of condemnation due to wicked men.

Wrath - Conceived by God against thee. Then - If once God's wrath take hold of thee, no ransom will be accepted for thee.

Thy riches - If thou hadst as much of them as ever. Forces - The strongest forces.

The night - The night of death, which Job had often desired, for then, thou art irrecoverably gone: take heed of thy foolish and often repeated desire of death, lest God inflict it upon thee in anger.

Chosen - Thou hast chosen rather to quarrel with God, and censure his judgments, than quietly to submit to them.

Behold - God is omnipotent; and therefore can, either punish thee far worse, or deliver thee, if thou dost repent. He is also infinitely wise; and as none can work like him, so none can teach like him. Therefore do not presume to teach him how to govern the world. None teacheth with such authority and convincing evidence, with such condescension and compassion, with such power and efficacy as God doth, he teaches by the bible, and that is the best book; by his son, and he is the best master.

Remember - Call to mind this thy duty. Magnify - Every work which he doth; do not condemn any of his providential works, but adore them as done with admirable wisdom, and justice. Behold - With admiration and astonishment.

It - The power, and wisdom, and greatness of God are so manifest in all his works, that all who are not stupid, must see and acknowledge it. Afar off - The works of God are so great and conspicuous, that they may be seen at a great distance. Hence Elihu proceeds to give some instances, in the works of nature and common providence. His general aim is to shew, That God is the first cause and supreme director of all the creatures; whom therefore we ought with all humility and reverence to adore, That it is presumption in us to prescribe to him in his special providence toward men, when the operations even of common providence about the meteors, are so mysterious and unaccountable.

Neither - He is eternal, as in his being, so in all his counsels; which therefore must be infinitely above the comprehension of short - lived men.

For - Having affirmed that God's works are incomprehensibly great and glorious, he now proves it from the most common works of nature and providence. And hence he leaves it to Job to consider how much more deep and inconceivable the secret counsels of God must be. Water - He orders matters so wisely, that the waters which are in the clouds, do not fall down at once in spouts, which would be pernicious to the earth and to mankind; but by degrees, and in drops. According - According to the proportion of vapours which the heat of the sun hath drawn up by the earth or sea. So it notes that great work of God by which the rain is first made of vapours, and afterwards resolved into vapours, or into the matter of succeeding vapours, by a constant rotation.

Understand - Whence it comes to pass, that a small cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, suddenly spreads over the whole heavens: how the clouds come to be suddenly gathered, and so condensed as to bring forth thunder and lightning. Noise - The thunder produced in the clouds, which are often called God's tent or tabernacle.

Light - The lightning; fitly God's light, because God only can light it. It - Upon the cloud, which is in a manner the candlestick in which God sets up this light. The sea - The lightning spreads far and wide over all the parts of the sea, and pierceth deep, reaching even to the bottom of it.

Judgeth - By thunder and lightning, and rain from the clouds, he executes his judgments against ungodly people. Meat - Giveth meat. By the same clouds, he provides plentiful showers dropping fatness on the earth.

Clouds - With thick and black clouds spread over the whole heavens. Light - The sun. The cloud - Which God interposes as a veil between the sun and earth.

The noise - The thunder gives notice of the approaching rain. Also - And as the thunder, so also the cattle sheweth, concerning the vapour, concerning the coming of the rain, by a strange instinct, seeking for shelter, when a change of weather is near.

2. Suffer me a little , and I will shew thee that I have yet to speak on Gods behalf .

Give me thy patient attention but a little longer, and I have done.

That I have not said all that can be said to justifie God's proceedings against thee.

Marginal references: Heb. that there are yet words for God.

3. I will fetch my knowledge from afar , and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker .

i. e. From remote times, and places, and things. I will not confine my discourse to thy particular case, but will justifie God by declaring his great and glorious works of Creation and Providence both in the Heaven and Earth, and the manner of his dealing with men in other Parts and Ages of the World: for these are the chief Heads of the following Discourse, and therefore the best comment upon this general expression.

I will acknowledge that which is true, that God is righteous. He adds the words, my Maker, either 1. as an argument or evidence of God's righteousness; partly because it is not likely that God should be unjust to his own Creatures, since even men are not only just, but kind to their own Works and Relations: and partly because the Work of Creation gave unto God an absolute right and power to dispose of Job as he saw fit, as the Potter hath power over the Clay, Rom. 9. 21. and therefore there was no foundation for unrighteousness, nor any temptation upon God to do it: and partly because Man's Maker must needs be a Being of all possible perfection, and therefore one of perfect righteousness. Or, 2. as a motive or obligation upon him to plead God's cause. I do not engage my self in this Controversie out of a pragmatical or contentious humour, nor out of any prejudice or ill will to thee, but meerly from the sense of my duty to my blessed Creator. Withal he reflects upon Job as guilty of great folly and ingratitude in contending with him, in or by whom he lived, and moved, and had his being.

4. For truly, my words shall not be false : he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee .

I will not speak any thing against my own Conscience, nor against Truth, either to flatter God, or to vex thee, as thou supposest thy other Friends have done, Chap. 13. 7. and elsewhere.

This is meant either 1. of God. Thou hast to do with a God of perfect Knowledge by whom all thy words and actions are weighed; and therefore hast need to be more wary and circumspect in thy expressions and behaviour. Or rather 2. of himself, as the former part of the Verse is. And he speaketh of himself in the third Person for modesty's sake. He speaks not of absolute, but of comparative Perfection. And whatsoever perfection of Knowledge he had, he doth not ascribe it to himself but to God's Spirit, Chap. 32. 8. And the meaning may be this, Thou hast not to do with a Novice, but with one who hath accurately considered, and though God's grace doth fully understand these matters. Therefore hearken to me. But the word rendred perfect signifieth also sincere or upright, or right. And this may seem best to agree with the former Clause, wherein he saith that he would not speak what he knew to be [illegible: 1+ letters]alse, and now he adds, that he was and would be upright in the use of his knowledge, or in the delivery of his Opinion in this matter, and not be [illegible: 1 word] by any passion or prejudice either to speak otherwise than he thought, or to judge otherwise than he should.

Marginal references: Ch. 37. 16.

5. Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any : he is mighty in strength and wisdom. .

His greatness doth not make him (as it doth men) to scorn, or despise, or oppress the meanest. Though he may do what he pleaseth and none can hinder him, yet he will not use it to do any Man wrong, as Job seemed to in[illegible: 1+ letters]nuate, Chap. 10. 3. & 19. 7. & 23. 13.

His strength is guided by Wisdom, and therefore cannot be imployed to do any thing unbecoming God, or unjust to his Creatures; for either of these is folly. Or, in strength, or vertue of heart: for the and is not in the Hebrew. So the sense is, He is truly magnanimous, of a great and generous mind or heart, and therefore not unrighteous: for all injustice proceeds from littleness or weakness of Heart. Truly great Souls scorn unjust actions.

Marginal references: Chap. 9. 4. & 12. 13, 16. & 37. 23.; Heb. heart.

6. He preserveth not the life of the wicked : but giveth right to the poor .

To wit, for ever; but will in his due time forsake them, and give them up to the Destroyer. Or, he doth not or will not preserve is put for, he will certainly and dreadfully destroy by the Figure called M[illegible: 1+ letters]iosis, used Prov. 17. 21. and oft elsewhere.

He doth uphold, and he will certainly in his time deliver his poor oppressed Ones from all their Oppressours.

Marginal references: Or, afflicted.

7. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous : but with Kings are they on the Throne ; yea, he doth establish them for ever , and they are exalted .

He never ceaseth to care for and watch over them, no not when they are afflicted or persecuted, when he may seem to neglect them.

Though they may be oppressed for a time, yet ofttimes he not only delivers them, but also raiseth them to the highest Honour and Happiness in this life compare; 1 Sam. 2. 8. Psal. 113. 7, 8.

Their selicity is more stable and permanent than that of the wicked.

Having mentioned the cause, that God did establish them, he now mentions the effect, that [illegible: 1 word] are or continue to be exalted, they are not cast down from their Dignity, as the wicked commonly are.

Marginal references: Psal. 33. 18. & 34. 15.

8. And if they be bound in fetters , and be holden in cords of affliction:

If through the vicissitude of Worldly affairs, and the righteous judgment of God upon them for their sins they be brought from their Throne into a Prison, as sometimes hath been done.

Marginal references: Psal. 107. 10.

9. Then he sheweth them their work , and their transgressions, that they have exceeded .

i. e. Their evil works, as the next Clause explains and limits it. By these afflictions he brings them to a sight of their sins and to repentance, which is the way and means of their recovery.

That they have greatly sinned by abusing their Power and Prosperity, which even good men are too prone to do.

10. He openeth also their ear to discipline , and commandeth that they return from iniquity .

i. e. He enableth and enclineth them to hearken to what God speaks by the rod, who would not hear in the time of their Prosperity, like them; Jer. 22. 21.

Or, to instruction, i. e. to receive instruction: or to chastening, i. e. to hear the rod, and who hath appointed it, as is said, Mich. 6. 9.

Either by his Word o[illegible: 1+ letters] Spirit accompanying the affliction and discovering the mind and will of God in this dispensation.

Which is the chief cause of their Calamity.

Marginal references: Chap. 33. 16.

11. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity , and their years in pleasures .

God's admonition and command.

They shall be restored to their former Prosperity, and shall live and die in it. This he speaks according to the Tenour of God's promises especially in the Old Testament-state of the Church, and according to the common course and method of Gods Providence which Elihu and other good men had observed.

Abounding in worldly comforts and being enabled by God to rejoyce in them, which is God's gift, Eccles. 3. 13. and delighting themselves in God's love and favour to them.

Marginal references: Chap. 21. 13.

12. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the Sword, and they shall dye without knowledge .

The righteous spoken of v. 7. opposed to the Hypocrites here following, v. 13. for even good men may sometimes be disobe dient to Divine admonitions and may suffer deeply, yea, even death it self, for their folly; see 1 Cor. 11. 30.

In or for their ignorance or inadvertency or folly. Or, because they are without knowledge, because they are foolish, or brutish, and will not learn the Lessons which God so plainly teacheth them.

Marginal references: Heb. they shall [illegible: 1+ letters]ass away by the Sword. Chap. 33. 18.

13. But the hypocrite[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] heart heap up wrath : they cry not when he bindeth them .

Such as are truely void of that Piety which they profess. Whereby he either secretly insinuates that Iob was such an one: or gives him this occasion to search himself whether he were not so: or rather admonisheth him not to carry himself like such an one, as he had hitherto done, and for which he reproved him, Chap. 34. 8.

i. e. By their impious and obslinate carriage in all conditions, they treasure up God's wrath against themselves.

Unto God for help. They live in the gross neglect of God, and of Prayer.

To wit, with the cords of affliction expressed, v. 8. which is mentioned as an aggravation of their wickedness, because even wicked men, if not pro[illegible: 1+ letters]igately bad, will seek God in a time of affliction, Hosea 5. 15. Withal he secretly reflects upon Job as one that [illegible: 1 word] himself like a wicked Man, because though he cried out of God in way of complaint, yet he did not cry unto him by humble supplication.

Marginal references: Rom. 2. 5.

14. They die in youth , and their li[illegible: 1+ letters]e is among the unclean .

They provoke God to cut them off before their time. Heb. Their Soul (i. e. they themselves) shall die in [illegible: 1 word].

Or, rather life shall die or be extinct: which Verb is understood out of the former Clause after the manner of the Hebrews.

Or, the filthy, or W[illegible: 1+ letters]oremongers, or Sodomites; to whose destruction (which happened not long before this time) he may seem to allude. The sence is, They shall die by some dreadful and exemplary stroke of Divine vengeance.

Marginal references: Ch 15. 32▪ & 22 16. Psal. 55. 23.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] Soul [illegible: 1 word].; Or, [illegible: 1 word].

15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression .

i. e. Causeth them to hear, and understand▪ and do the will of God hearing being oft put for obeying. And this latter Clause seems to be added to intimate, that he will not deliver all afflicted Persons, but onely those whose Ears he openeth to receive his Counsels.

i. e. [illegible: 1+ letters]n the time of their oppression. Or, by oppression or tribulation, as the means of opening their Ears and Hearts.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word] ▪

16. Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place , where there is no straitness, and that which should be set on thy table; should be full of fatness.

If thou hadst opened thine Ear to God's counsels, and humbled thy self under his correcting hand, and sued to God for Mercy.

As this Verb is used, 2 Chron. 18. 31. Or, allured, or inti[illegible: 1+ letters]ed, or persuaded thee, as the word properly signifies: which possibly may here be emphatical, and may imply as that Iob had by his sins brought himself into these straits, so that God would have brought him out of them by the usual and regular way, to wit, by persuading him to turn from his sins, and humbly and earnestly to cry to God for Mercy, which if he had complied with, God would have delivered him.

Heb. out of the mouth or jaws of Tribulation; which like a wild Beast was ready to swallow him up.

i. e. Into a state of ease and freedom.

r Thy Dishes, or the food in them.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] of thy [illegible: 1 word].; Psal. 23. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

17. But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee .

Or, the cause, or sentence, as the word most properly signified. Thou hast fully pleaded their cause, and justified the hard and reproachful speeches which wicked men in their rage utter against God, condemning God and justifying themselves.

Or, therefore (which is oft understood) the sentence and judgment (or, the judicial sentence, to wit, of the wicked now mentioned) shall take hold on thee. Thou hast maintained their cause against God, and God shall pass against thee their sentence, or the Sentence of Condemnation due to such wicked men.

Marginal references: Or▪ [illegible: 1 word] and [illegible: 1 word], should [illegible: 1 word] thee.

18. Because there is wrath , beware le[illegible: 1+ letters]t he take thee away with his stroke : then a great ransom cannot deliver thee .

To wit, conceived by God against thee. Because by thy pleading the cause of the wicked, thou hast deserved that God should give sentence against thee, as was now said, and hast provoked God's wrath against thee, therefore look to thy self, and reconcile thy self to God by true repentance whilst thou mayest, and before sentence be executed upon thee.

This is not in the Hebrew, but is necessarily to be understood to make up the sence, and is oft understood in the like cases, and that before this Hebrew Particle Pen, as Gen. 3. 22. & 11. 4. & 42. 4. Isa. 36. 18. See the like also, Mat. 25. 9. Act. 5. 39.

Properly, with the stroke of his hand or foot. It is an allusion to men who oft express their anger by clapping their hands, or stamping with their feet.

For if once God's wrath take hold of thee, and sentence be executed upon thee before thou dost repent and humble thy self to thy judge, neither Riches, nor Friends, no nor any Person, or thing in Heaven and Earth can redeem thee, no Ransom or Price will be accepted for thee.

Marginal references: Psal. 49. [illegible: 1+ letters].; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] t[illegible: 1+ letters]ee [illegible: 1 word].

19. Will he esteem thy riches? no not Gold, nor all the [illegible: 1+ letters]orces of strength .

If thou couldst recover thy lost wealth or strength, or thy Friends would employ theirs on thy behalf, neither could the one ransom thee, nor the other rescue thee.

20. Desire not the night , when people are cut off in their place .

Either 1. properly, that in it thou mayest find some ease or rest, as men usually do. But this Iob did not much desire, for he complains that his nights were as restless as his days. Or rather 2. metaphorically, the night of Death, which is called the Night both in Scripture, as Iohn 9. 4. and in other Writers; and which Io[illegible: 1+ letters] had oft and earnestly desired and even thirsted after, as this Verb notes. See Ch. 7. 15. And this seems best to agree with the foregoing counsel, v. 18. beware l[illegible: 1+ letters]st [illegible: 1 word] take thee away with his stroke, for then, saith he, thou art irrecoverably lost and gone; and therefore take heed of thy foolish and oft r[illegible: 1+ letters]peated desire of death, le[illegible: 1+ letters] God inflict it upon thee in great anger.

Or, by which: which words are oft understood in divers Text[illegible: 1+ letters] of Scripture.

Even whole Nations and Bodies of People, which a[illegible: 1+ letters]e all God's Creatures as well as thou, and yet are not spared by him, but cut off in wrath, and many of them sent from one death to another; take heed therefore thou bee[illegible: 1+ letters] not added to the number.

Heb. are made to [illegible: 1 word] i. e. to vanish, or perish, or die, as this Verb is of[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] ▪ as J[illegible: 1+ letters]b 18. 16. Psal. 102. 25.

In their several places where they are: or, suddenly before they [illegible: 1+ letters]an remove out of the Place where the hand and stroke of God finds them: or, in the place where they are settled and surrounded with all manner of Comforts▪ and Supports, and Friends, all which could not prevent their being [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1+ letters]ossibly this phrase may allude to that expression of Job's, Chap. 29. 18. I shall die in my [illegible: 1+ letters]est.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]. 4.; [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 34. 20.

21. Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction .

Or look not to it, to wit▪ with an approving or cove[illegible: 1+ letters]ing eye, as this word is used, Prov. 23. 31.

Thou hast chosen rather to quarrel with God, and censure his judgments, than humbly and quietly to [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] to them, and to wait upon God by Faith and Prayer for deliverance [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] time and way.

22. Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him ?

Or, is [illegible: 1+ letters]igh, or ex[illegible: 1+ letters]lted, the active Verb being taken▪intransitively; which is not unusual in the Hebrew Tongue. This is a proper argument to force the foregoing counsels. God is omnipotent; and therefore can with great facility, either punish thee far worse, if thou be[illegible: 1+ letters]st obstinate and refr[illegible: 1+ letters]ctory; or deliver thee, if thou doest repent and return to him.

He is also infinitely wi[illegible: 1+ letters]e as well as powerful, and as none can work like him, so none can teach li[illegible: 1+ letters]e him Therefore do not presume to teach him how to govern the World or to order thy affairs, but know that whatsoever he doth with thee, or with any other men is best to be done. And therefore [illegible: 1+ letters]e willing to learn from him: learn obedience by the things which thou su[illegible: 1+ letters]erest from him; and do not follow thy own fancies or affections, but use the methods which God hath taught thee to get out of thy troubles, by submission, and prayer, and repentance. The words may be rendred. What Lord is like him For the word Mor[illegible: 1+ letters] in the Chaldee dialect signifies a Lord? This Translation suits with the former Clause of this Verse, but ours agrees well enough with that, and is confirmed by the following Verse.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span].

23. Who hath enjoyned him his way ? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity ?

Wherein he should walk, i. e. what courses and methods he shall use in the administration of humane affairs▪ If he had a Su periour Lord who gave him Laws for his actions, he might be accountable to him, and questionable for what he did: but he is Supream, absolute and uncontrollable, who hath no Law to regulate him, but his own holy Nature and blessed Will. And therefore how [illegible: 1+ letters]ash and impudent, [illegible: 1+ letters]nd absurd a thing is it for any Man to censure his proceedings?

Thou hast swerved from the Law and Rule given to thee.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters]. 13.; [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 34. 10.

24. Remember that thou magnifie his work , which men behold ?

Call to mind this thy duty, and take this matter into thy more serious thoughts, and it will prevent thy horrible mistakes and miscarriages.

So this Hebrew Particle is used here, v. 10. & Io[illegible: 1+ letters] 3. 12.

Or, his wo[illegible: 1+ letters]s▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]he singular number being put for the plural; every work which he doth; do not condemn any of his providential works [illegible: 1 word] thee or others, but adore and glorifie them as done with admirable wisdom, and justice, and faithfulness.

To wit, with [illegible: 1+ letters]iration and astonishment: which by their greatness and [illegible: 1 word] draw the eyes and minds of all men towards them: which deserve to be entertained with adoration and reverence of all men, not with censure and reproach.

25. Every man may see it : man may behold it afar off .

To wit, his work, last mentioned. The power, and wisdom, and greatness of God is so manifest in all his [illegible: 1 word], that all who are not blind or stupid, must needs see and acknowledge it.

The works of God are so great and conspicuous, that they may be seen at a great distance; whereas little things cannot be seen▪ unless we be near them. This translation and interpretation seems better to agree with the context than that which is more common, M[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] behold it (i. e. God's work or works) [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], i. e. They [illegible: 1+ letters]ee them darkly and imperfectly as things at a great distance, but not [illegible: 1 word] and plainly as things near at hand, and therefore they are so ap[illegible: 1+ letters] to mistake them, and misjudge of them.

26. Behold, God is great , and we know him not , neither can the number of his years be searched out .

Infinite in Majesty, and Power, and Wisdom, and all Perfections, and therefore just in all his ways.

To wit, perfectly. Though we see something of him in his works, as was now [illegible: 1 word], yet we see and know but little of him in comparison of that which is in him. He is incomprehensibly great in his E[illegible: 1+ letters]nce and in [illegible: 1 word] Works, and therefore be not so rash O Job, as to censure [illegible: 1 word] ways of God which thou cans[illegible: 1+ letters] not fully understand.

He is from everlasting to everlasting eternal, as in his being so in all his counsels, which therefore must be infinitely wise and above the comprehension of short-lived men.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] ▪ 2. & 1▪ [illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1+ letters]4. [illegible: 1 word] Heb. 1. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].

27. For he maketh small the drops of water , they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof :

Having affirmed that Gods works are incomprehensibly great and glorious, he now enters upon the proof of it; and he proveth it from the most common and vi[illegible: 1+ letters]ble works of Nature and Providence, which if thoroughly considered are full of wonder, and past the reach of the greatest Philosophers, who indeed speak of them only by guess, and by their [illegible: 1+ letters]rable disputations about them discover their ignorance in them. And hence he leaves it to Iob to consider how incomparably more deep and unconceivable, the secret counsels and judgments of God must needs be, and therefore how foolish and [illegible: 1 word] a thing it was for him to judge and censure them.

i. e. He orders matters so wisely and graciously, that the waters which are in the [illegible: 1+ letters]louds, do not fall down at once in Spouts, or Rivers, or Seas; which would be both unprofitable and pernicious to the Earth and to Mankind, but by degrees and in drops; which is best for mens safety and comfort, and for the refreshment of the Earth. And this [illegible: 1 word] observes as a wonderful work of God: without whose Providence herein those Waters might constantly or commonly fall in spouts, as [illegible: 1 word] part of them hath done.

Either the Waters, last mentioned: or the Clouds, as it is expr[illegible: 1+ letters]ed in the next Verse: or the active Verb is used impersonally, which is frequent in the Hebrew Language, they pour down rain, for, the rain is poured down.

Or [illegible: 1 word] or [illegible: 1 word], which word is borrowed from Metallis[illegible: 1+ letters], who dissolve Metals with Fire, and then pour them [illegible: 1+ letters]orth by degrees and in parcels, as the Clouds are dissolved and then poured forth in drops, as was now expressed.

i. e. According to the proportion of vapours which the heat of the Sun hath drawn up from the Earth or [illegible: 1+ letters]ea into the Clouds. Or, into the vapour thereof. So it notes that great work of God by which the Rain is first made of Vapours, and afterwards resolved into Vapours, or into the matter of succeeding Vapours, by a constant rotation and reciprocation.

28. Which the clouds do drop, and distil upon man abundantly .

In such plenty as the necessities of the Earth require: which also is a wonderful work of God.

Marginal references: Heb. skies.

29. Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds , or the noise of his tabernacle .

Or rather. of a Cloud, as it is in the Hebrew, whence it comes to pass that a small Cloud no bigger than a Man's hand doth suddenly spread over the whole Heavens, how the Clouds come to be suddenly gathered together, and so condensed as to bring forth Thunder and Lightning, which here follows.

i. e. The Thunder produced in the Clouds, which are oft called God's Te[illegible: 1+ letters]t or tabernacle, as Psal. 18. 11. & 104. 3. because there he oft times seems to dwell and gives forth tokens of his powerful and glorious presence in those mighty works of Thundring and Lightning, wherewith men are frequently astonished and a[illegible: 1+ letters]righted.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word].

30. Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it , and covereth the bottom of the Sea .

i. e. The Lightning, of which the whole context speaks which is fitly called Gods Light, as it is called God's Lightning, Psal. 144. 6. because God only can light it.

i. e Upon the Cloud, which is in a manner the Candlestick, in which God sets up this Light.

The Lightning spreads far and wide over all the parts of the Sea, and pierceth deep reaching even to the bottom of it▪ and spreading it self upon it and so covering it like a g[illegible: 1+ letters]y and glorious Garment suddenly cast over and covering the Body of a Man or Woman, or as God is said to cover himself with light as with a Garment, Psal 104. 2.

Marginal references: Heb. the [illegible: 1+ letters]ots.

31. For by them judgeth he the people ; he giveth meat in abundance .

By Thunder and Lightning, he manifests his displ[illegible: 1+ letters]sure and executes his judgments against ungodly People or Countries.

Or, and (which conjunction is oft understood) he giveth meat, &c. i. e. By the self-same Clouds he punisheth wicked men by Thunder and Lightning, and provideth for others by those plentiful Showers which accompany them.

Marginal references: C[illegible: 1+ letters]. 37. 13. & 3[illegible: 1+ letters]. 2[illegible: 1+ letters].

32. With clouds he covereth the light , and commandeth it not to shine , by the cloud that cometh betwixt .

With thick and black Clouds spread over the whole Heavens, as it is in times of great Thunders and Lightnings. Heb▪ with hands; either the Clouds are so called for their resemblance to hands, 1 Kings 18. 44. as being hollow and spread abroad: or the meaning is, that God covereth the light as it were by the hollow of his Hand, as a man sometimes cov[illegible: 1+ letters]rs the light of a Candle.

Either the Lightning, or rather the Sun, which is fitly called Light, Iob 31. 26. Psal. 136▪ 7. as being the Fountain of Light.

Or, giveth a charge concerning it, to wit, that it shall be covered: Or forbiddeth it, as this Hebrew word joyned with this Proposition usually signifies, as Gen. 2. 17. & 28. 6▪ 1 Kings 2. 43. & 11. 11. and elsewhere, i. e. hindreth it, as it were by an express command or prohibition, from its usual and pro[illegible: 1+ letters]er work, to wit, from shining.

Which God interposeth as a vail between the Sun and Earth: by which he doth as it were deliver his command or prohibition to the Sun, that he should not shine.

33. The noise thereof sheweth concerning it ; the cattle also concerning the vapour .

To wit, of or within the black and thick Cloud, spoken of v. 32. Or [illegible: 1+ letters]is, i. e. Gods, noise, to wit, the Thunder, which is called Gods voice, Psal. 29. 4, 5.

To wit, the rain, which is the Principal subject of these Verses, of which he speaketh expresly, v. 27, 28. and of its Companions, the Clouds, and Thunder and Lightning in all the following Verses. The sense is, The Thunder gives notice of [illegible: 1+ letters]he approaching Rain.

And as the Thunder, so also the Cattle sheweth (which Verb is understood out of the foregoing Clause, after the manner) concerning the Vapour, i. e. concerning the coming of the Rain: but he puts Vapour for the Rain, because divers Cattle are very sagacious in this matter, and do not onely perceive the Rain when it is ready to fall, but foresee it at some distance by the Vapours which are drawn up by the Sun in great abundance, and by divers motions and actions give men timely notice of it, as hath been observed not onely by Husbandmen, but also by learned Authors.

Marginal references: Heb. that whic[illegible: 1+ letters] goeth up.

Job 36:1-4   1  Then Elihu continued and said:   2  Suffer me a little, and I will inform thee,

For there is something still to be said for Eloah.   3  I will fetch my knowledge from afar,

And to my Creator will I ascribe right.   4  For truly my words are not lies,

One perfect in knowledge stands before thee.

Elihu’s preceding three speeches were introduced by ויּען; this fourth, in honour of the number three, is introduced only as a continuation of the others. Job is to wait yet a little while, for he still has (= עוד לּי), or: there still are, words in favour of Eloah; i.e., what may be said in vindication of God against Job’s complaints and accusations is not yet exhausted. This appears to be the only instance of the Aramaic כּתּר being taken up as Hebr.; whereas הוּה, nunciare (Arab. wḥâ, I, IV), is a poetic Aramaism occurring even in Psa 19:3 (comp. on the construction Job 32:6); and זעיר (a diminutive form, after the manner of the Arab. zu‛air) belongs in Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13 to the popular language (of Jerusalem), but is here used poetically. The verb נשׂא, Job 36:3, is not to be understood according to נשׂא משׁל, but according to 1Ki 10:11; and למרחוק signifies, as also Job 39:29; Isa 37:26, e longinquo, viz., out of the wide realm of history and nature. The expression נתן צדק follows the analogy of (עז) נתן כבוד. דּעה, Job 36:4, interchanges with the דּע which belongs exclusively to Elihu, since Elihu styles himself תּמים דּעות, as Job 37:16 God תּמים דּעים (comp. 1Sa 2:3, אל דּעות). תמים in this combination with דעות cannot be intended of purity of character; but as Elihu there attributes absolute perfection of knowledge in every direction to God, so here, in reference to the theodicy which he opposes to Job, he claims faultlessness and clearness of perception.

Job 36:5-7   5  Behold, God is mighty, and yet doth not act scornfully,

Mighty in power of understanding.   6  He preserveth not the life of the ungodly,

And to the afflicted He giveth right.   7  He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous,

But with kings on the throne

He establisheth them for ever, and they are exalted.

The obj. that must be mentally supplied to ימאס ולא is, as in Job 42:6, to be derived from the connection. The idea of the verb is, as in Job 8:20 : He is exalted, without however looking down disdainfully (non despicit) from His height, or more definitely: without setting Himself above the justice due to even the meanest of His creatures - great in power of heart (comp. Job 34:33 אנשׁי לבב, Arab. ûlû - l - elbâb), i.e., understanding (νοῦς πνεῦμα), to see through right and wrong everywhere and altogether. Job 36:6, Job 36:7 describe how His rule among men evinces this not merely outward but spiritual superiority coupled with condescension to the lowly. The notion of the object, ואת־מלכים לכּסּא (as Isa 9:11 the subject), becomes the more distinctly prominent by virtue of the fut. consec. which follows like a conclusion, and takes it up again. Ewald thinks this explanation contrary to the accents and the structure of the sentence itself; but it is perfectly consistent with the former, and indisputably syntactic (Ges. §129, 2, b, and Ew. himself, §344, b). Psa 9:5, comp. Psa 132:12, Isa 47:1, shows how לכסא is intended (He causes them to sit upon the throne). Job 5:11; 1Sa 2:8; Psa 113:7. are parallel passages.

Job 36:8-10   8  And if they are bound with chains,

Holden in cords of affliction:   9  Then He declareth to them their doing

And their transgressions, that they have been vainglorious; 10  Then He openeth their ear to warning,

And commandeth them to turn from iniquity.

The subj. is in no case the רשׁעים (Hahn), but the צדיקים, or those who are as susceptible to discipline as it is needful to them, just as in Ps 107, which in general presents many instances for an extensive comparison with the speeches of Elihu. The chains, Job 36:8, are meant literally, and the bands, Job 36:8, figuratively; the Psalmist couples both in אסירי עני וברזל, Psa 107:10. The conclusion begins with Job 36:9, and is repeated in another application, Job 36:10. פּעל in the sense of maleficium, as Arab. fa‛alat, recalls מעשׂה, facinus, Job 33:17. כּי, Job 36:9, as in Job 36:10, an objective quod. It is not translated, however, quod invaluerint (Rosenm.), which is opposed to the most natural sense of the Hithpa., but according to Job 15:25 : quod sese extulerint. מוּסר, παιδεία, disciplina, interchanges here with the more rare מסר used in Job 33:16; there we have already also met with the phrase גּלה אזן, to uncover the ear, i.e., to open. אמר כּי corresponds to the Arab. amara an (bi - an), to command that. The fundamental thought of Elihu here once again comes unmistakeably to view: the sufferings of the righteous are well-meant chastisements, which are to wean them from the sins into which through carnal security they have fallen - a warning from God to penitence, designed to work their good.

Job 36:11-12 11  If they hear and yield,

They pass their days in prosperity

And their years in pleasure. 12  And if they hear not,

They pass away by the bow

And expire in lack of knowledge.

Since a declaration of the divine will has preceded in Job 36:10, it is more natural to take ויעבדוּ in the sense of obsequi, to do the will of another (as 1Ki 12:7, comp. מעבּד from עבד in the generalized sense of facere), than, with Umbr., in the sense of colere scil. Deum (as Isa 19:23, Arab. ‛âbid, one who reveres God, a godly person). Instead of יבלּוּ, Isa 65:22 (on which the Masora observes לית, i.e., “nowhere else”) and Job 21:13 Chethîb, 'it is here without dispute יכלּוּ (Targ. ישׁלּמוּן, peragent, as Eze 43:27). נעימים is, as Psa 16:6, a neutral masc.: amoena. On עבר בשׁלח, to precipitate one’s self into the weapon, i.e., to incur peremptory punishment, comp. Job 33:18. On בבלי דעת comp. Job 35:16; Job 4:21. Impenitence changes affliction, which is intended to be a means of rescue, into total destruction; yet there are some who will not be warned and affrighted by it.

Job 36:13-15 13  Yet the hypocrites in heart cherish wrath,

They cry not when He hath chained them. 14  Thus their soul dieth in the vigour of youth,

And their life is like that of the unclean. 15  Yet He delivereth the sufferer by his affliction,

And openeth their ear by oppression.

He who is angry with God in his affliction, and does not humbly pray to Him, shows thereby that he is a חנף, one estranged from God (on the idea of the root, vid., i. 216), and not a צדיק. This connection renders it natural to understand not the divine wrath by אף: θησαυρίζουσιν ὀργήν (Rosenm. after Rom 2:5), or: they heap up wrath upon themselves (Wolfson, who supplies עליהם), but the impatience, discontent, and murmuring of man himself: they cherish or harbour wrath, viz., בּלבּם (comp. Job 22:22, where שׁים בלב signifies to take to heart, but at the same time to preserve in the heart). Used thus absolutely, שׂים signifies elsewhere in the book, to give attention to, Job 4:20; Job 24:12; Job 34:23, or (as Arab. wḍ‛) to lay down a pledge; here it signifies reponunt s. recondunt (with an implied in ipsis), as also Arab. šâm , fut. i, to conceal with the idea of sinking into (immittentem), e.g., the sword in the sheath. With תּמת, for ותּמת (Isa 50:2) or ותמת, the punishment which issues forth undistinguished from this frustration of the divine purpose of grace follows ἀσυνδέτως, as e.g., Hos 7:16. חיּה interchanges with נפשׁ, as Job 33:22, Job 33:28; נער (likewise a favourite word with Elihu) is intended just as Job 33:25, and in the Psa 88:16, which resembles both the Elihu section and the rest of the book. The Beth of בּקּדשׁים has the sense of aeque ac (Targ. היך), as Job 34:36, comp. תּחת, Job 34:26. Jer. translates inter effeminatos; for קדשׁים (heathenish, equivalent to קדושׁים, as כּמרים, heathenish, equivalent to כּהנים) are the consecrated men, who yielded themselves up, like the women in honour of the deity, to passive, prematurely-enervating incontinence (vid., Keil on Deu 23:18), a heathenish abomination prevailing now and again even in Israel (1Ki 14:24; 1Ki 15:12; 1Ki 22:47), which was connected with the worship of Astarte and Baal that was transferred from Syria, and to which allusion is here made, in accordance with the scene of the book. For the sufferer, on the other hand, who suffers not merely of necessity, but willingly, this his suffering is a means of rescue and moral purification. Observe the play upon the words יחלּץ and בּלחץ. The Beth in both instances is, in accordance with Elihu’s fundamental thought, the Beth instrum.

Job 36:16-18 16  And He even bringeth thee out of the jaws of distress

To a broad place, whose ground hath no straitness,

And the adorning of thy table shall be full of fatness. 17  Yet thou art become full of the judging of the evil-doer:

Judging and judgment lay hold on one another! 18  For let not anger indeed entice thee to scorning,

And let not the greatness of the ransom mislead thee.

With Job 36:16 Elihu passes over to the application to Job of what he said in the preceding strophe. Since it is usual to place אף (like גּם and אך) at the beginning of the sentence, although not belonging to the member of the sentence which immediately follows, ואף הסיתך for והסית אף אתך cannot be remarkable. The praet. הסיתך is not promissory, but Elihu says with what design God has decreed the present suffering for Job. הסית מן is like 2Ch 18:31 : out of distress (צר for צר by Rebia magnum), which has him in its jaws, and threatens to swallow him, God brings him away to great prosperity; a thought which Elihu expresses in the imagery of the Psalms of a broad place and a bountiful table (comp. e.g., Psa 4:2; Psa 23:5). רחב is locative, and לא־מוּצק תּחתּיה is either a relative clause: whose beneath (ground) is not straitened, no-straitness (in which case מוּצק would not be constr. from the n. hophal. מוּצק, Isa.Isa 9:1, but absol. after the form מחנק, Job 7:15, Ew. §160, c, Anm. 4), Saad. Arab. lâ ḍı̂q fı̂ mûḍ‛hâ (cujus in loco non angustiae); or it is virtually an adj.: without (לא = בּלא, as Job 34:24), comp. on Job 12:24) straitness of what is beneath them, eorum quae sub se habet (comp. on Job 28:5). רחב is fem., like רחוב, Dan 9:25. A special clause takes the place of the locative, Job 36:16 : and the settling or spreading, i.e., the provision (from נוּח, to come down gradually, to seat one’s self) of thy table shall be full of fatness. מלא (whether it be adj. or verb) is treated by attraction, according to the gender of the governed noun; and it is unnecessary, with Rosenm. and others, to derive נחת from נחת (Aram. for ירד).

In Job 36:17, דּין is intended of Job’s negative judgment concerning God and His dealings (comp. Psa 76:9, where it signifies a judicial decision, and Pro 22:10, where it signifies a wrangling refusal of a fair decision). Job 36:17 is not a conditional clause (Hahn), in which case the praet. hypothet. would have a prominent position, but an adversative predicative clause: but (nevertheless) thou art full of the judging of the evil-doer (evil judging); after which, just as ἀσυνδέτως as Job 36:14, the sad issue in which this judging after the manner of evil-doers results is expressed: such judging and judgment border closely upon one another. Röd., Dietr., and Schlottm. have wrongly reproduced this idea, discerned by Ges., when they translate: judgment and sentence (guilt and punishment) shall seize thee. יתמכוּ, prehendunt scil. se (Ebr.: put forth the hand), is used like the Aram. סמך, to draw nearer, fasten together (Rabb. סמוּך, near at hand), Arab. tamâsaka (from Arab. msk = סמך, as e.g., hanash = נחשׁ). In Job 36:18 we leave the signification thick milk or cream (חמה = חמאה, as Job 29:6) to those who persuade themselves that cream can be metaphorically equivalent to superfluity (Ew., Hirz., Vaih., Hlgst.). Renan’s translation: N'espère pas détourner la colère de Dieu par une amende, we also leave as a simple puzzle to its discoverer, who, with this one exception, is destitute of thoughts proper to the book of Job. In general, the thought, “do not imagine by riches, by a great ransom, to be able to satisfy the claims of God,” is altogether out of place here. Moreover, חמה, which, as e.g., דּאגה, Pro 12:25 (Ew. §174, g), is construed as masc., cannot be understood of God’s wrath, since the poet by הסית will not at one time have ascribed to God a well-meant incitation, at another an enticement in malam partem. That which allures is Job’s own חמה, and that not the excitement of his affliction (Hahn), but of his passion; comp. אף, Job 36:13. שׂפק is, however, to be explained according to Job 34:37, comp. Job 27:23 (clapping of hands = derision); and כּפר signifies reconciliation or expiation, as Job 33:24. Elihu admonishes Job not to allow himself to be drawn by the heat of passion into derision, or to deride; nor to be allured from the right way by the ransom which is required of him as the price of restoration to happiness, viz., humble submission to the divine chastisement, as though this ransom were exceeding great. The connection is clear: an adverse verdict (דּין) and condemnation (משׁפּט) are closely connected; for (כּי) hastiness of temper, let it not (פּן( ton ti ) lead thee astray ... thou wouldst not escape the judgment of God!

Job 36:19-21 19  Shall thy crying place thee beyond distress,

And all the efforts of strength? 20  Long not for the night to come,

Which shall remove people from their place! 21  Take heed, incline not to evil;

For this thou hast desired more than affliction.

Those expositors who found in Job 36:18 the warning, that Job should not imagine that he would be able to redeem himself from judgment by a large ransom, go on to explain: will He esteem thy riches? (Farisol, Rosenm., Umbr., Carey, Ebr., and others); or: will thy riches suffice? (Hirz., Schlottm.); or some other way (Ew.). But apart from the want of connection of this insinuation, which is otherwise not mentioned in the book, and apart from the violence which must be done to היערך to accommodate it to it, שׁוּע, although it might, as the abstract of שׁוע, Job 34:19, signify wealth (comp. Arab. sa‛at , amplitudo), is, however, according to the usage of the language (vid., Job 30:24), so far as we can trace it, a secondary form of שׁוע (שׁועה), a cry for help; and Job 35:9., Job 36:13, and other passages, also point to this signification. What follows is still less appropriate to this thought of ransom; Hirz. translates: Oh, not God and all the treasures of wealth! But בּצר is nowhere equivalent to בּצר, Job 22:24; but צר, Job 36:16, signifies distress; and the expression לא בצר, in a condition devoid of distress, is like לא בחכמה, Job 4:21, and לא ביד, Job 34:20. Finally, אמּיץ כּח signifies mighty in physical strength, Job 9:4, Job 9:19, and מאמצּי־כח strong proofs of strength, not “treasures of wealth.” Stick. correctly interprets: “Will thy wild raging cry, then, and all thine exertions, as a warrior puts them forth in the tumult of battle to work his way out, put thee where there is an open space?” but the figure of a warrior is, with Hahn, to be rejected; ערך is only a nice word for שׁית שׂים, to place, set up, Job 37:19.

Job 36:22-25 22  Behold, God acteth loftily in His strength;

Who is a teacher like unto Him? 23  Who hath appointed Him His way,

And who dare say: Thou doest iniquity!? 24  Remember that thou magnify His doing,

Which men have sung. 25  All men delight in it,

Mortal man looketh upon it from afar.

Most modern expositors, after the lxx δυνάστης, give אמת the signification lord, by comparing the Arab. mar - un (imru - un), Syr. mor (with the art. moro) or more (with the art. morjo), Chald. מרא, Talmud. מר (comp. Philo, ii. 522, ed. Mangey: οὃτως, viz., μάριν φασὶ τὸν κύριον ὀνομάζεστηαι παρὰ Σύροις), with it; but Rosenm., Arnh., Löwenthal, Wolfson, and Schlottm., after the Targ., Syr., and Jer., rightly abide by the signification: teacher. For (1) אמת (from הורה, Psa 25:8, Psa 25:12; Psa 32:8) has no etymological connection with mr (of מרא, Arab. maru'a , opimum, robustum esse); (2) it is, moreover, peculiar to Elihu to represent God as a teacher both by dreams and dispensations of affliction, Job 33:14, Job 34:32, and by His creatures, Job 35:11; and (3) the designation of God as an incomparable teacher is also not inappropriate here, after His rule is described in Job 36:22 as transcendently exalted, which on that very account commands to human research a reverence which esteems itself lightly. Job 36:23 is not to be translated: who overlooketh Him in His way? (פּקד with על of the personal and acc. of the neutral obj.), which is without support in the language; but: who has prescribed to Him (פקד על as Job 34:13) His way? i.e., as Rosenm. correctly interprets: quis ei praescripsit quae agere deberet, He is no mandatory, is responsible to no one, and under obligation to no one, and who should dare to say (quis dixerit; on the perf. comp. on Job 35:15): Thou doest evil? - man shall be a docile learner, not a self-satisfied, conceited censurer of the absolute One, whose rule is not to be judged according to the laws of another, but according to His own laws. Thus, then, shall Job remember (memento = cura ut) to extol (תשׂגּיא, Job 12:23) God’s doings, which have been sung (comp. e.g., Psa 104:22) by אנשׁים, men of the right order (Job 37:24); Jer. de quo cecinerunt viri. שׁרר nowhere has the signification intueri (Rosenm., Umbr.); on the other hand, Elihu is fond of direct (Job 33:27; Job 35:10) and indirect allusions to the Psalms. All men - he continues, with reference to God’s פּעל, working - behold it, viz., as בו implies, with pleasure and astonishment; mortals gaze upon it (reverentially) from afar, - the same thought as that which has already (Job 26:14) found the grandest expression in Job’s mouth.

Job 36:26-29 26  Behold, God is exalted-we know Him not entirely;

The number of His years, it is unsearchable. 27  For He draweth down the drops of water,

They distil as rain in connection with its mist, 28  Which the clouds do drop,

Distil upon the multitude of men. 29  Who can altogether understand the spreadings of the clouds,

The crash of His tabernacle?

The Waw of the quasi-conclusion in Job 36:26 corresponds to the Waw of the train of thought in Job 36:26 (Ges. §145, 2). מספּר שׁניו is, as the subject-notion, conceived as a nominative (vid., on Job 4:6), not as in similar quasi-antecedent clauses, e.g., Job 23:12, as an acc. of relation. שׂגּיא here and Job 37:23 occurs otherwise only in Old Testament Chaldee. In what follows Elihu describes the wondrous origin of rain. “If Job had only come,” says a Midrash (Jalkut, §518), “to explain to us the matter of the race of the deluge (vid., especially Job 22:15-18), it had been sufficient; and if Elihu had only come to explain to us the matter of the origin of rain (מעשׂה ירידת גשׁמים), it had been enough.” In Gesenius’ Handwörterbuch, Job 36:27 is translated: when He has drawn up the drops of water to Himself, then, etc. But it is יגרע, not גּרע; and גּרע neither in Hebr. nor in Arab. signifies attrahere in sublime (Rosenm.), but only attrahere (root גר) and detrahere; the latter signification is the prevailing one in Hebr. (Job 15:8; Job 36:7). With כּי the transcendent exaltation of the Being who survives all changes of creation is shown by an example: He draws away (draws off, as it were) the water-drops, viz., from the waters that are confined above on the circle of the sky, which pass over us as mist and cloud (vid., Genesis, S. 107); and these water-drops distil down (זקק, to ooze, distil, here not in a transitive but an intransitive signification, since the water-drops are the rain itself) as rain, לאדו, with its mist, i.e., since a mist produced by it (Gen 2:6) fills the expanse (רקיע), the downfall of which is just this rain, which, as Job 36:28 says, the clouds (called שׁחקים on account of its thin strata of air, in distinction from the next mist-circle) cause to flow gently down upon the multitude of men, i.e., far and wide over the mass of men who inhabit the district visited by the rain; both verbs are used transitively here, both נזל as Isa 45:8, and רעף, as evidently Pro 3:20. אף אם, Job 36:29, commences an intensive question: moreover, could one understand = could one completely understand; which certainly, according to the sense, is equivalent to: how much less (אף כּי). אם is, however, the interrogative an, and אף אם corresponds to האף in the first member of the double question, Job 34:17; Job 40:8. מפרשׂי are not the burstings, from פּרשׂ = פּרס, frangere, findere, but spreadings, as Eze 27:7 shows, from פּרשׂ, expandere, Psa 105:39, comp. supra on Job 36:9. It is the growth of the storm-clouds, which collect often from a beginning ”small as a man’s hand” (1Ki 18:44), that is intended; majestic omnipotence conceals itself behind these as in a סכּה (Psa 18:12) woven out of thick branches; and the rolling thunder is here called the crash (תּשׁאות, as Job 39:7, is formed from שׁוא, to rumble, whence also שׁואה, if it is not after the form גּולה, migration, exile, from שׁאה morf ,, vid., on Job 30:3) of this pavilion of clouds in which the Thunderer works.

Job 36:30-33 30  Behold, He spreadeth His light over Himself,

And the roots of the sea He covereth. 31  For thereby He judgeth peoples,

He giveth food in abundance. 32  Both hands He covereth over with light,

And directeth it as one who hitteth the mark. 33  His noise announceth Him,

The cattle even that He is approaching.

A few expositors (Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.) understand the celestial ocean, or the sea of the upper waters, by ים, Job 36:30; but it is more than questionable (vid., on Job 9:8) whether ים is used anywhere in this sense. Others as (Umbr., Ew.) the masses of water drawn up to the sky out of the depths of the sea, on which a Persian passage cited by Stick. (who, however, regards the Waw of ושׁרשׁי as Waw adaequationis) from Schebisteri may be compared: “an exhalation rises up out of the sea, and comes down at God’s command upon the deserts.” In both cases כּסּה would be equivalent to כסה עליו, obtegit se, which in and of itself is possible. But he who has once witnessed a storm in the neighbourhood of the sea, will decide in favour of one of the three following explanations: (1.) He covereth the uprooted ground of the sea (comp. Psa 18:15.) with the subsiding waves (Blumenf.); but then Job 36:30 would require to be understood of the light of the brightening sky following the darkness of the storm, which is improbable in respect of Job 36:32. (2.) While the sky is brilliantly lighted up by the lightning, the abysses of the ocean are veiled in a so much deeper darkness; the observation is correct, but not less so another, that the lightning by a thunder-storm, especially when occurring at night, descends into the depths of the sea like snares that are cast down (פּחים, Psa 11:6), and the water is momentarily changed as it were into a sea of flame; accordingly it may be explained, (3.) Behold, He spreadeth over Himself His light (viz., the light which incessantly illumines the world), and the roots of the sea, i.e., the sea down to its depths, He covers with it, since He makes it light through and through (Stuhlm. Wolfs.). Thus, as it appears, Jerome also interprets: Et (si voluerit) fulgurare lumine suo desuper, cardines quoque maris operiet.The Targ. translates אור, Job 36:30, Job 36:32, by מטרא, pluvia, according to the erroneous opinion of R. Jochanan: כל אורה שׁנאמר באליהוא אינו אלא בירידת גשׁמים. Aben-Ezra and Kimchi explain even עלי־אור, Isa 18:4, according to this passage. The lxx translates Job 36:30: ἰδοὺ ἐκτενεῖ ἐπ ̓ αὐτὸν ἠδώ (Cod. Alex. επ αυτον το τοξον; Cod. Sinait. επ αυτην ηωδη (with the corrections ηδω and τοξον), probably according to the reading אידו for אורו. But what connection have ἠδώ and rainbow?

This, that He makes the light of the lightning His manifestation (פּרשׂ עליו), and that He covers the earth down to the roots of the sea beneath with this light, is established in Job 36:31 from the design, partly judicial, partly beneficial, which exists in connection with it. בּם refers as neuter (like בּהם, Job 22:21) to the phenomena of the storm; מכבּיר (with the adverbial ל like לרב, Job 26:3), what makes great = a making great, abundance (only here), is n. hiphil. after the form משׁהית, perdens = perditio. In Job 36:32 God is represented under a military figure as a slinger of lightnings: He covers light over both hands, i.e., arms both completely with light (comp. סכסך and Arab. škk , totum se operire armis), and directs it (עליה referring to אור as fem. like Jer 13:16, and sometimes in the Talmud). But what is the meaning of בּמפגּיע? Hahn takes מפגיע as n. hiphil. like מכביר: an object of attack; but what then becomes of the original Hiphil signification? It ought to be בּמפגּע (Job 7:20), as Olsh. wishes to read it. Ew., Hirz., and others, after the example of Theod. (lxx), Syr., Jer., translate: against the adversary; מפגיע ;yrasre signifies indeed the opposite in Isa 49:16 : intercessor (properly, one who assails with prayers); however, it would be possible for this word, just as פגע c. acc. (which signifies usually a hostile meeting, Exo 5:3 and freq., but sometimes also a friendly, Isa 47:3; Isa 64:4), to be an ἐναντιόσημον. We prefer to abide by the usage of the language as we have it, according to which הפגיע signifies facere ut quid incurset s. petat, Isa 53:6; מפגיע therefore is one who hits, in opposition to one who misses the mark. The Beth is the Beth essentiae (vid., on Job 23:13), used here like Exo 6:3; Psa 55:19; Isa 40:10. With both hands He seizes the substance of the lightning, fills them with it so that they are completely covered by it, and gives it the command (appoints it its goal), a sure aimer!

The Address of Elihu. (b. c. 1520.)

1 Elihu also proceeded, and said, 2 Suffer me a little, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. 3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. 4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.

Once more Elihu begs the patience of the auditory, and Job's particularly, for he has not said all that he has to say, but he will not detain them long. Stand about me a little (so some read it), v. 2. "Let me have your attendance, your attention, awhile longer, and I will speak but this once, as plainly and as much to the purpose as I can." To gain this he pleads, 1. That he had a good cause, and a noble and very fruitful subject: I have yet to speak on God's behalf. He spoke as an advocate for God, and therefore might justly expect the ear of the court. Some indeed pretend to speak on God's behalf who really speak for themselves; but those who sincerely appear in the cause of God, and speak in behalf of his honour, his truths, his ways, his people, shall be sure neither to want instructions (it shall be given them in that same hour what they shall speak) nor to lose their cause or their fee. Nor need they fear lest they should exhaust their subject. Those that have spoken ever so much may yet find more to be spoken on God's behalf. 2. That he had something to offer that was uncommon, and out of the road of vulgar observation: I will fetch my knowledge from afar (v. 3), that is, "we will have recourse to our first principles and the highest notions we can make use of to serve any purpose." It is worth while to go far for this knowledge of God, to dig for it, to travel for it; it will recompense our pains, and, though far-fetched, is not dear-bought. 3. That his design was undeniably honest; for all he aimed at was to ascribe righteousness to his Maker, to maintain and clear this truth, that God is righteous in all his ways. In speaking of God, and speaking for him, it is good to remember that he is our Maker, to call him so, and therefore to be ready to do him and the interests of his kingdom the best service we can. If he be our Maker, we have our all from him, must use our all for him, and be very jealous for his honour. That his management should be very just and fair (v. 4): "My words shall not be false, neither disagreeable to the thing itself nor to my own thoughts and apprehensions. It is truth that I am contending for, and that for truth's sake, with all possible sincerity and plainness." He will make use of plain and solid arguments and not the subtleties and niceties of the schools. "He who is perfect or upright in knowledge is now reasoning with thee; and therefore let him not only have a fair hearing, but let what he says be taken in good part, as meant well." The perfection of our knowledge in this world is to be honest and sincere in searching out truth, in applying it to ourselves, and in making use of what we know for the good of others.

5 Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom. 6 He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor. 7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted. 8 And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction; 9 Then he showeth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. 10 He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. 11 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. 12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge. 13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them. 14 They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.

Elihu, being to speak on God's behalf, and particularly to ascribe righteousness to his Maker, here shows that the disposals of divine Providence are all, not only according to the eternal counsels of his will, but according to the eternal rules of equity. God acts as a righteous governor, for,

I. He does not think it below him to take notice of the meanest of his subjects, nor does poverty or obscurity set any at a distance from his favour. If men are mighty, they are apt to look with a haughty disdain upon those that are not of distinction and make no figure; but God is mighty, infinitely so, and yet he despises not any, v. 5. He humbles himself to take cognizance of the affairs of the meanest, to do them justice and to show them kindness. Job thought himself and his cause slighted because God did not immediately appear for him. "No," says Elihu, God despises not any, which is a good reason why we should honour all men. He is mighty in strength and wisdom, and yet does not look with contempt upon those that have but a little strength and wisdom, if they but mean honestly. Nay, for this reason he despises not any, because his wisdom and strength are incontestably infinite and therefore the condescensions of his grace can be no diminution to him. Those that are wise and good will not look upon any with scorn and disdain.

II. He gives no countenance to the greatest, if they be bad (v. 6): He preserves not the life of the wicked. Though their life may be prolonged, yet not under any special care of the divine Providence, but only its common protection. Job had said that the wicked live, become old, and are mighty in power, ch. xxi. 7. "No," says Elihu: "he seldom suffers wicked men to become old. He preserves not their life so long as they expected, nor with that comfort and satisfaction which are indeed our life; and their preservation is but a reservation for the day of wrath," Rom. ii. 5.

III. He is always ready to right those that are any way injured, and to plead their cause (v. 6): He gives right to the poor, avenges their quarrel upon their persecutors and forces them to make restitution of what they have robbed them of. If men will not right the injured poor, God will.

IV. He takes a particular care for the protection of his good subjects, v. 7. He not only looks on them, but he never looks off them: He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous. Though they may seem sometimes neglected and forgotten, and that befals them which looks like an oversight of Providence, yet tender careful eye of their heavenly Father never withdraws from them. If our eye be ever towards God in duty, his eye will be ever upon us in mercy, and, when we are at the lowest, will not overlook us.

1. Sometimes he prefers good people to places of trust and honour (v. 7): With kings are they on the throne, and every sheaf is made to bow to theirs. When righteous persons are advanced to places of honour and power, it is in mercy to them; for God's grace in them will both arm them against the temptations that attend preferment and enable them to improve the opportunity it gives them of doing good. It is also in mercy to those over whom they are set: When the righteous bear rule the city rejoices. If the righteous be advanced, they are established. Those that in honour keep a good conscience stand upon sure ground, and high places are not such slippery ground to them as they are to others. But, because it is not often that we see good men made great men in this world, this may be supposed to refer to the honour to which the righteous shall rise when their Redeemer shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; for then only they shall be exalted for ever, and established for ever; then shall they all shine forth as the sun, and be made kings and priests to our God.

2. If at any time he bring them into affliction, it is for the good of their souls, v. 8-10. Some good people are preferred to honour and power, but others are in trouble. Now observe, (1.) The distress supposed (v. 8): If they be bound in fetters, laid in prison as Joseph was, or holden in the cords of any other affliction, confined by pain and sickness, hampered by poverty, bound in their counsels, and, notwithstanding all their struggles, held long in this distress. This was Job's case; he was caught, and kept fast, in the cords of anguish (as some read it); but observe, (2.) The design God has, in bringing his people into such distresses as these; it is for the benefit of their souls, the consideration of which should reconcile us to affliction and make us think well of it. Three things God intends when he afflicts us:—[1.] To discover past sins to us, and to bring them to our remembrance. Then he shows them that amiss in them which before they did not see. He discovers to them the fact of sin: He shows them their work. Sin is our own work. If there be any good in us, it is God's work; and we are concerned to see what work we have made by sin. He discovers the fault of sin, shows them their transgressions of the law of God, and withal the sinfulness of sin, that they have exceeded, and have been beyond measure sinful. True penitents lay a load upon themselves, do not extenuate, but aggravate, their sins, and own that they have exceeded in them. Affliction sometimes answers to the sin; it serves, however, to awaken the conscience and puts men upon considering. [2.] To dispose our hearts to receive present instructions: Then he opens their ear to discipline, v. 10. Whom God chastens he teaches (Ps. xciv. 12), and the affliction makes people willing to learn, softens the wax, that it may receive the impression of the seal; yet it does not do this of itself, but the grace of God working with and by it; it is he that opens the ear, that opens the heart, who has the key of David. [3.] To deter and draw us off from iniquity for the future. This is the errand on which the affliction is sent; it is a command to return from iniquity, to have no more to do with sin, to turn from it with an aversion to it and a resolution never to return to it any more, Hos. xiv. 8.

3. If the affliction do its work, and accomplish that for which it is sent, he will comfort them again, according to the time that he has afflicted them (v. 11): If they obey and serve him,—if they comply with his design and serve his purpose in these dispensations,—if, when the affliction is removed, they continue in the same good mind that they were in when they were under the smart of it and perform the vows they made then,—if they live in obedience to God's commands, particularly those which relate to his service and worship, and in all instances make conscience of their duty to him,—then they shall spend their days in prosperity again and their years in true pleasures. Piety is the only sure way to prosperity and pleasure; this is a certain truth, and yet few will believe it. If we faithfully serve God, (1.) We have the promise of outward prosperity, the promise of the life that now is, and the comforts of it, as far as is for God's glory and our good; and who would desire them any further? (2.) We have the possession of inward pleasures, the comfort of communion with God and a good conscience, and that great peace which those have that love God's law. If we rejoice not in the Lord always, and in hope of eternal life, it is our own fault; and what better pleasures can we spend our years in?

4. If the affliction do not do its work, let them expect the furnace to be heated seven times hotter till they are consumed (v. 12): If they obey not, if they are not bettered by their afflictions, are not reclaimed and reformed, they shall perish by the sword of God's wrath. Those whom his rod does not cure his sword will kill; and the consuming fire will prevail if the refining fire do not; for when God judges he will overcome. If Ahaz, in his distress, trespass yet more against the Lord, this is that king Ahaz that is marked for ruin, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22; Jer. vi. 29, 30. God would have instructed them by their afflictions, but they received not instruction, would not take the hints that were given them; and therefore they shall die without knowledge, ere they are aware, without any further previous notices given them; or they shall die because they were without knowledge notwithstanding the means of knowledge which they were blessed with. Those that die without knowledge die without grace and are undone for ever.

V. He brings ruin upon hypocrites, the secret enemies of his kingdom (such as Elihu described, v. 12), who, though they were numbered among the righteous whom Elihu had spoken of before, yet did not obey God, but, being children of disobedience and darkness, become children of wrath and perdition; these are the hypocrites in heart, who heap up wrath, v. 13. See the nature of hypocrisy: it lies in the heart, which is for the world and the flesh when the outside seems to be for God and religion. Many that are saints in show and saints in word are hypocrites in heart. That spring is corrupt, and there is an evil treasure there. See the mischievousness of hypocrisy: hypocrites heap up wrath. They are doing that every day which is provoking to God, and will be reckoned with for it all together in the great day. They treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. ii. 5. Their sins are laid up in store with God among his treasures, Deut. xxxii. 34. Compare Jam. v. 3. As what goes up a vapour comes down a shower, so what goes up sin, if not repented of, will come down wrath. They think they are heaping up wealth, heaping up merits, but, when the treasures are opened, it will prove they were heaping up wrath. Observe, 1. What they do to heap up wrath. What is it that is so provoking? It is this, They cry not when he binds them, that is, when they are in affliction, bound with the cords of trouble, their hearts are hardened, they are stubborn and unhumbled, and will not cry to God nor make their application to him. They are stupid and senseless as stocks and stones, despising the chastening of the Lord. 2. What are the effects of that wrath? They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean, v. 14. This is the portion of hypocrites, whom Christ denounced many woes against. If they continue impenitent, (1.) They shall die a sudden death, die in youth, when death is most a surprise, and death (that is, the consequence of it) is always such to hypocrites; as those that die in youth die when they hoped to live, so hypocrites, at death, go to hell, when they hoped to go to heaven. When a wicked man dies his expectations shall perish. (2.) They shall die the second death. Their life, after death (for so it comes in here), is among the unclean, among the fornicators (so some), among the worst and vilest of sinners, notwithstanding their specious and plausible profession. It is among the Sodomites (so the margin), those filthy wretches, who going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7. The souls of the wicked live after death, but they live among the unclean, the unclean spirits, the devil and his angels, forever separated from the new Jerusalem, into which no unclean thing shall enter.

15 He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression. 16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. 17 But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee. 18 Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. 19 Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength. 20 Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place. 21 Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. 22 Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him? 23 Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?

Elihu here comes more closely to Job; and,

I. He tells him what God would have done for him before this if he had been duly humbled under his affliction. "We all know how ready God is to deliver the poor in his affliction (v. 15); he always was so. The poor in spirit, those that are of a broken and contrite heart, he looks upon with tenderness, and, when they are in affliction, is ready to help them. He opens their ears, and makes them to hear joy and gladness, even in their oppressions; while he does not yet deliver them he speaks to them good words and comfortable words, for the encouragement of their faith and patience, the silencing of their fears, and the balancing of their griefs; and even so (v. 16) would he have done to thee if thou hadst submitted to his providence and conducted thyself well; he would have delivered and comforted thee, and we should have had none of these complaints. If thou hadst accommodated thyself to the will of God, thy liberty and plenty would have been restored to thee with advantage." 1. "Thou wouldst have been enlarged, and not confined thus by thy sickness and disgrace: He would have removed thee into a broad place where is no straitness, and thou wouldst no longer have been cramped thus and have had all thy measures broken." 2. "Thou wouldst have been enriched, and wouldst not have been left in this poor condition; thou wouldst have had thy table richly spread, not only with food convenient, but with the finest of the wheat" (see Deut. xxxii. 14) "and the fattest of the flesh." Note, It ought to silence us under our afflictions to consider that, if we were better, it would be every way better with us: if we had answered the ends of an affliction, the affliction would be removed; and deliverance would come if we were ready for it. God would have done well for us if we had conducted ourselves well; Ps. lxxxi. 13, 14; Isa. xlviii. 18.

II. He charges him with standing in his own light, and makes him the cause of the continuance of his own trouble (v. 17): "But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked," that is, "Whatever thou art really, in this thing thou hast conducted thyself like a wicked man, hast spoken and done like the wicked, hast gratified them and served their cause; and therefore judgment and justice take hold on thee as a wicked man, because thou goest in company with them, actest as if thou wert in their interest, aiding and abetting. Thou hast maintained the cause of the wicked; and such as a man's cause is such will the judgment of God be upon him;" so bishop Patrick. It is dangerous being on the wrong side: accessaries to treason will be dealt with as principals.

III. He cautions him not to persist in his frowardness. Several good cautions he gives him to this purport.

1. Let him not make light of divine vengeance, nor be secure, as if he were in no danger of it (v. 18): "Because there is wrath" (that is, "because God is a righteous governor, who resents all the affronts given to his government, because he has revealed his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and because thou hast reason to fear that thou art under God's displeasure) therefore beware lest he take thee away suddenly with his stroke, and be so wise as to make thy peace with him quickly and get his anger turned away from thee." A warning to this purport Job had given his friends (ch. xix. 29): Be you afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword. Thus contenders are apt, with too much boldness, to bind one another over to the judgment of God and threaten one another with his wrath; but he that keeps a good conscience needs not fear the impotent menaces of proud men. But his was a friendly caution to Job, and necessary. Even good men have need to be kept to their duty by the fear of God's wrath. "Thou art a wise and good man, but beware lest he take thee away, for the wisest and best have enough in them to deserve his stroke."

2. Let him not promise himself that, if God's wrath should kindle against him, he could find out ways to escape the strokes of it. (1.) There is no escaping by money, no purchasing a pardon with silver, or gold, and such corruptible things: "Even a great ransom cannot deliver thee when God enters into judgment with thee. His justice cannot be bribed, nor any of the ministers of his justice. Will he esteem thy riches, and take from them a commutation of the punishment? No, not gold, v. 19. If thou hadst as much wealth as ever thou hadst, that would not ease thee, would not secure thee from the strokes of God's wrath, in the day of the revelation of which riches profit not," Prov. xi. 4. See Ps. xlix. 7, 8. (2.) There is no escaping by rescue: "If all the forces of strength were at thy command, if thou couldst muster ever so many servants and vassals to appear for thee to force thee out of the hands of divine vengeance, it were all in vain; God would not regard it. There is none that can deliver out of his hand." (3.) There is no escaping by absconding (v. 20): "Desire not the night, which often favours the retreat of a conquered army and covers it; think not that thou canst so escape the righteous judgment of God, for the darkness hideth not from him," Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12. See ch. xxxiv. 22. "Think not, because in the night people retire to their place, go up to their beds, and it is then easy to escape being discovered by them, that God also ascends to his place, and cannot see thee. No; he neither slumbers nor sleeps. His eyes are open upon the children of men, not only in all places, but at all times. No rocks nor mountains can shelter us from his eye." Some understand it of the night of death; that is the night by which men are cut off from their place, and Job had earnestly breathed for that night, as the hireling desires the evening, ch. vii. 2. "But do not do so," says Elihu; "for thou knowest not what the night of death is." Those that passionately wish for death, in hopes to make that their shelter from God's wrath, may perhaps be mistaken. There are those whom wrath pursues into that night.

3. Let him not continue his unjust quarrel with God and his providence, which hitherto he had persisted in when he should have submitted to the affliction (v. 21): "Take heed, look well to thy own spirit, and regard not iniquity, return not to it (so some), for it is at thy peril if thou do." Let us never dare to think a favourable thought of sin, never indulge it, nor allow ourselves in it. Elihu thinks Job had need of this caution, he having chosen iniquity rather than affliction, that is, having chosen rather to gratify his own pride and humour in contending with God than to mortify it by a submission to him and accepting the punishment. We may take it more generally, and observe that those who choose iniquity rather than affliction make a very foolish choice. Those that ease their cares by sinful pleasures, increase their wealth by sinful pursuits, escape their troubles by sinful projects, and evade sufferings for righteousness' sake by sinful compliances against their consciences, make a choice they will repent of; for there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction. It is an evil, and only evil.

4. Let him not dare to prescribe to God, nor give him his measures (v. 22, 23): "Behold, God exalteth by his power," that is, "He does, may, and can set up and pull down whom he pleases, and therefore it is not for thee nor me to contend with him." The more we magnify God the more do we humble and abase ourselves. Now consider, (1.) That God is an absolute sovereign: He exalts by his own power, and not by strength derived from any other. He exalts whom he pleases, exalts those that were afflicted and cast down, by the strength and power which he gives his people; and therefore who has enjoined him his way? Who presides above him in his way? Is there any superior from whom he has his commission and to whom he is accountable? No; he himself is supreme and independent. Who puts him in mind of his way? so some. Does the eternal Mind need a remembrancer? No; his own way, as well as ours, is ever before him. He has not received orders or instructions from any (Isa. lx. 13, 14), nor is he accountable to any. He enjoins to all the creatures their way; let not us then enjoin him his, but leave it to him to govern the world, who is fit to do it. (2.) That he is an incomparable teacher: Who teaches like him? It is absurd for us to teach him who is himself the fountain of light, truth, knowledge, and instruction. He that teaches man knowledge, and so as none else can, shall not he know? Ps. xciv. 9, 10. Shall we light a candle to the sun? Observe, When Elihu would give glory to God as a ruler he praises him as a teacher, for rulers must teach. God does so. He binds with the cords of a man. In this, as in other things, he is unequalled. None so fit to direct his own actions as he himself is. He knows what he has to do, and how to do it for the best, and needs no information nor advice. Solomon himself had a privy-council to advise him, but the King of kings has none. Nor is any so fit to direct our actions as he is. None teaches with such authority and convincing evidence, with such condescension and compassion, nor with such power and efficacy, as God does. He teaches by the Bible, and that is the best book, teaches by his Son, and he is the best Master. (3.) That he is unexceptionably just in all his proceedings: Who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? Not, Who dares say it? (many do iniquity, and those who tell them of it do so at their peril), but Who can say it? Who has any cause to say it? Who can say it and prove it? It is a maxim undoubtedly true, without limitation, that the King of kings can do no wrong.

24 Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold. 25 Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. 26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. 27 For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: 28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. 29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle? 30 Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea. 31 For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance. 32 With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt. 33 The noise thereof showeth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapour.

Elihu is here endeavouring to possess Job with great and high thoughts of God, and so to persuade him into a cheerful submission to his providence.

I. He represents the work of God, in general, as illustrious and conspicuous, v. 24. His whole work is so. God does nothing mean. This is a good reason why we should acquiesce in all the operations of his providence concerning us in particular. His visible works, those of nature, and which concern the world in general, are such as we admire and commend, and in which we observe the Creator's wisdom, power, and goodness; shall we then find fault with his dispensations concerning us, and the counsels of his will concerning our affairs? We are here called to consider the work of God, Eccl. vii. 13. 1. It is plain before our eyes, nothing more obvious: it is what men behold. Every man that has but half an eye may see it, may behold it afar off. Look which way we will, we see the productions of God's wisdom and power; we see that done, and that doing, concerning which we cannot but say, This is the work of God, the finger of God; it is the Lord's doing. Every man may see, afar off, the heaven and all its lights, the earth and all its fruits, to be the work of Omnipotence; much more when we behold them nigh at hand. Look at the minutest works of nature through a microscope; do they not appear curious? The eternal power and godhead of the Creator are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made, Rom. i. 20. Every man, even those that have not the benefit of divine revelation, may see this; for there is no speech or language where the voice of these natural constant preachers is not heard, Ps. xix. 3. 2. It ought to be marvellous in our eyes. The beauty and excellency of the work of God, and the agreement of all the parts of it, are what we must remember to magnify and highly to extol, not only justify it as right and good, and what cannot be blamed, but magnify it as wise and glorious, and such as no creature could contrive or produce. Man may see his works, and is capable of discerning his hand in them (which the beasts are not), and therefore ought to praise them and give him the glory of them.

II. He represents God, the author of them, as infinite and unsearchable, v. 26. The streams of being, power, and perfection should lead us to the fountain. God is great, infinitely so,—great in power, for he is omnipotent and independent,—great in wealth, for he is self-sufficient and all-sufficient,—great in himself,—great in all his works,—great, and therefore greatly to be praised,—great, and therefore we know him not. We know that he is, but not what he is. We know what he is not, but not what he is. We know in part, but not in perfection. This comes in here as a reason why we must not arraign his proceedings, nor find fault with what he does, because it is speaking evil of the things that we understand not and answering a matter before we hear if. We know not the duration of his existence, for it is infinite. The number of his years cannot possibly be searched out, for he is eternal; there is no number of them. He is a Being without beginning, succession, or period, whoever was, and ever will be, and ever the same, the great I AM. This is a good reason why we should not prescribe to him, nor quarrel with him, because, as he is, such are his operations, quite out of our reach.

III. He gives some instances of God's wisdom, power, and sovereign dominion, in the works of nature and the dispensations of common providence, beginning in this chapter with the clouds and the rain that descends from them. We need not be critical in examining either the phrase or the philosophy of this noble discourse. The general scope of it is to show that God is infinitely great, and the Lord of all, the first cause and supreme director of all the creatures, and has all power in heaven and earth (whom therefore we ought, with all humility and reverence, to adore, to speak well of, and to give honour to), and that it is presumption for us to prescribe to him the rules and methods of his special providence towards the children of men, or to expect from him an account of them, when the operations even of common providences about the meteors are so various and so mysterious and unaccountable. Elihu, to affect Job with God's sublimity and sovereignty, had directed him (ch. xxxv. 5) to look unto the clouds. In these verses he shows us what we may observe in the clouds we see which will lead us to consider the glorious perfections of their Creator. Consider the clouds,

1. As springs to this lower world, the source and treasure of its moisture, and the great bank through which it circulates—a very necessary provision, for its stagnation would be as hurtful to this lower world as that of the blood to the body of man. It is worth while to observe in this common occurrence, (1.) That the clouds above distil upon the earth below. If the heavens become brass, the earth becomes iron; therefore thus the promise of plenty runs, I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth. This intimates to us that every good gift is from above, from him who is both Father of lights and Father of the rain, and it instructs us to direct our prayers to him and to look up. (2.) That they are here said to distil upon man (v. 28); for, though indeed God causes it to rain in the wilderness where no man is (ch. xxxviii. 26, Ps. civ. 11), yet special respect is had to man herein, to whom the inferior creatures are all made serviceable and from whom the actual return of the tribute of praise is required. Among men, he causes his rain to fall upon the just and upon the unjust, Matt. v. 45. (3.) They are said to distil the water in small drops, not in spouts, as when the windows of heaven were opened, Gen. vii. 11. God waters the earth with that with which he once drowned it, only dispensing it in another manner, to let us know how much we lie at his mercy, and how kind he is, in giving rain by drops, that the benefit of it may be the further and the more equally diffused, as by an artificial water-pot. (4.) Though sometimes the rain comes in very small drops, yet, at other times, it pours down in great rain, and this difference between one shower and another must be resolved into the divine Providence which orders it so. (5.) Though it comes down in drops, yet it distils upon man abundantly (v. 28), and therefore is called the river of God which is full of water, Ps. lxv. 9. (6.) The clouds pour down according to the vapour that they draw up, v. 27. So just the heavens are to the earth, but the earth is not so in the return it makes. (7.) The produce of the clouds is sometimes a great terror, and at other times a great favour, to the earth, v. 31. When he pleases by them he judges the people he is angry with. Storms, and tempests, and excessive rains, destroying the fruits of the earth and causing inundations, come from the clouds; but, on the other hand, from them, usually, he gives meat in abundance; they drop fatness upon the pastures that are clothed with flocks, and the valleys that are covered with corn, Ps. lxv. 11-13. (8.) Notice is sometimes given of the approach of rain, v. 33. The noise thereof, among other things, shows concerning it. Hence we read (1 Kings xviii. 41) of the sound of abundance of rain, or (as it is in the margin) a sound of a noise of rain, before it came; and a welcome harbinger it was then. As the noise, so the face of the sky, shows concerning it, Luke xii. 56. The cattle also, by a strange instinct, are apprehensive of a change in the weather nigh at hand, and seek for shelter, shaming man, who will not foresee the evil and hide himself.

2. As shadows to the upper world (v. 29): Can any understand the spreading of the clouds? They are spread over the earth as a curtain or canopy; how they come to be so, how stretched out, and how poised, as they are, we cannot understand, though we daily see they are so. Shall we then pretend to understand the reasons and methods of God's judicial proceedings with the children of men, whose characters and cases are so various, when we cannot account for the spreadings of the clouds, which cover the light? v. 32. It is a cloud coming betwixt, v. 32; ch. xxvi. 9. And this we are sensible of, that, by the interposition of the clouds between us and the sun, we are, (1.) Sometimes favoured; for they serve as an umbrella to shelter us from the violent heat of the sun, which otherwise would beat upon us. A cloud of dew in the heat of harvest is spoken of as a very great refreshment. Isa. xviii. 4. (2.) Sometimes we are by them frowned upon; for they darken the earth at noon-day and eclipse the light of the sun. Sin is compared to a cloud (Isa. xliv. 22), because it comes between us and the light of God's countenance and obstructs the shining of it. But though the clouds darken the sun for a time, and pour down rain, yet (post nubila Phoebus—the sun shines forth after the rain), after he has wearied the cloud, he spreads his light upon it, v. 30. There is a clear shining after rain, 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. The sunbeams are darted forth, and reach to cover even the bottom of the sea, thence to exhale a fresh supply of vapours, and so raise recruits for the clouds, v. 30. In all this, we must remember to magnify the work of God.

CHAP. XXXVI. Verſe 1. Elihu alſo proceeded and ſaid]

HEB. And Elihu added, viz. This his fourth Oration (not unlike the former) made in behalf, and for defence of Gods Juſtice, which he here further aſſerteth againſt Job (who had ſeemed to caſt ſome ſlur upon it) by arguments drawn from his wondrous works, the Meteors eſpecially: and all to prevail with Job, to ſubmit to Gods juſtice,Ex abundanti quae ſequuntur adjicit. and to implore his mercy.

Verſe 2. Suffer me a little, and I will ſhew thee] He promiſeth brevity, and thereby wooeth attention: brevity and perſpicuity are to great graces of ſpeech, and do very much win upon intelligent hearers, who love to hear much in few, and cannot away with tedious prolixities. When a great Trifler had made an empty diſcourſe in the preſence of Ariſtotle, and then cryed him mercy for troubling him ſo long: You have not troubled me at all, ſaid He, for I ſcarce hearkned to any one word you ſaid all this while.

That I have yet to ſpeak on Gods behalf] Heb. That there are yet words for God. His zeal for Gods glory drew from him this following ſpeech, wherein inſignis eſt Elihu & magnificus: Elihu excelleth himſelf; and appeareth to be no worſe an Orator then was M. Craſſus among the Romans,Cic. de Orat. l. 1. who had this commendation given him, Quod cum aliquid accuratiùs dixiſſet, ſemper ferè contigit ut nunquam dixiſſe meliùs putaretur, That when ever he ſpake, it was judged to be the very beſt that ever he ſpake.

Verſe 3. I will fetch my knowledg from afar] Even from heaven, as one taught of God; I will diſcourſe of ancient things (for [non-Latin text not transcribed]) and fetch my reaſons from the wonderful and ſublime works of God,De arduis atque admirandis Dei operibus. thoſe real demonſtrations of his Deity. Eſt autem planè hic Elihu mirus & egregius, ſaith Mercer: And he is not a little wronged by that French Paraphraſt, who ſaith of him, That he knew well how to begin a diſcourſe, but knew not how to end it: and that ſeeing well that his tediouſneſſe might make him troubleſome, he awakened his languiſhing Auditours by this artificial preface.

And will aſcribe righteouſneſſe to my Maker] This is both the maine propoſition of the enſuing Oration, and the main end of mans creation; viz. to glorifie his Maker, Rom. 11. ult. Rev. 4.11.

Verſe 4. For truly my words ſhall not be falſe] I ſhall deal truly and plainly with thee, my Diſcourſe ſhall be ſimple and ſolid, having no better ornament but that of Truth; which is like our firſt parents, moſt beautiful, when naked; 'twas ſin covered them, 'tis treachery hides this. Aperta veritas clauſos etiam oculos ferit, ſaith One.

He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee] Integer ſententiis; V[illegible: 2 letters]abl. meaning himſelf, who fully underſtood the buſineſſe betwixt them, and would faithfully deliver it. There are that hold God to be hereby meant. A pious ſenſe, but not ſo proper.

Verſe 5. Behold God is mighty, and deſpiſeth not any] Much leſſe oppreſſeth he any one in a good Cauſe, or tyrannically abuſeth his power to the cruſhing of an Innocent. He is equally good, as great; neither was Job well adviſed in ſeeming to ſunder theſe two excellencies in God, the one from the other; ſith whatſoever is in God is God; neither ought we to think of him otherwiſe, then of one not to be thought of; as of one, whoſe Wiſdom is his Juſtice, whoſe Juſtice is his Power, whoſe Power is his Mercy, and all Himſelf.

He is mighty in ſtrength and wiſdom] Or, He is mighty the ſtrength of the heart. He was ſo to David, Pſal. 138.3.Validus eſt, virt[illegible: 1 letter] animi. Trem In the day when I cryed, thou anſweredſt me, and ſtrengthnedſt me with ſtrength in my ſoul. At the ſack of Ziglag, in the fail of all outward comforts, David encouraged himſelf in the Lord his God, 1 Sam. 30.6. A Chriſtian is never without his cordial.

Ʋna eſt in trepida mihi re medicina, Jehovae Cor patrium, os verax, omnipotenſque manus.

Verſe 6. He preſerveth not the life of the wicked] He is no ſuch friend to them (though he be good to the godly) he greatly careth not what becomes of them. Their life they hold of him, and many good things beſides; for he is the Saviour (or Preſerver) of all men, but eſpecially of them that believe. But he ſuffereth not the wicked to live (as the Hebrew here hath it) he withdraweth them not from the hand of Juſtice, he bindeth not them up in the bundle of life, he reckoneth them not among the living in Jeruſalem, among the firſt born, whoſe names are written in heaven: he many times ſlayeth them with his owne hand, and cutteth them ſhort in righteouſneſſe: Or if not ſo, yet their preſervation is but a reſervation, &c.

But giveth right to the poor] Or, To the afflicted. For poverty is an affliction, and ſubjecteth a man to many injuries; Zeph. 3.12. they are an afflicted and poor people, but truſting in the name of the Lord, they ſhall be relieved and righted, not ſo ſoon perhaps as themſelves would, nor yet ſo long hence as their Oppreſſours would. In the Mount will the Lord be ſeen, who as he ſeldome comes at our times, ſo he never failes his owne time. Meane while this comfort they have:

Verſe 7. He with draweth not his eyes from the righteous] He is ſo loſt in love (as I may ſay) toward ſuch, that he cannot like to look beſide them: he beholdeth them when afflicted with ſingular care and complacency. Then, if ever, The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears open to their cry, Pſal. 34.15 then they may have any thing of God, their being no time like that for hearing of prayers, Zach. 13.9. Times of affliction are times of ſupplication, Pſal. 50.15. and 91.15. They are Molliſſima fandi tempora, Jer. 51.19, 20, 21. Then our hearts are largeſt, then Gods ears are openeſt. Neither his eares only, but his eyes too are buſied about his ſuffering ſervants, as the Gold-ſmiths are about the Gold caſt into the furnace, that no grain thereof be loſt. He ſits downe by the fire, ſaith Malachi, and tends it, as a Refiner and Purifier of ſilver, chap. 3.3. He refines them, but not as ſilver, Iſai. 48.10. that is, Not exactly, and to the utmoſt, leſt they ſhould be conſumed in that fiery tryal: he ſeeth to it, that the choice ſpirits of his people fail not before him, Iſai. 57.16. as they would do, if he ſhould bring upon them an evil, an only evil, Ezek. 7.5. and not in the midſt of judgement remember mercy.

But with Kings are they on the throne] i.e. He raiſeth them to higheſt honors, as he did Joſeph; whoſe fetters God in one houre changed into a chain of Gold, his ſtocks into a Chariot, his Jaile into a Palace, his Rags into fine linnen, &c. yea, as Jeremy's rags helped to draw him out of the dungeon, ſo do afflictions work out to Gods people, an exceeding exceeding, eternal weight of glory. Here perhaps they may be held under, but to him that overcometh, wil the Lord Chriſt grant to ſit with him in his throne, Rev. 3.21. The deluge of calamities may aſſault them, but it ſhall certainly exalt them. They ſhall have Crownes on their heads, and Palmes in their hands, and walk arm in arm with Angels. Some of the Hebrewes by Kings here underſtand Angels, as if it were written [non-Latin text not transcribed], not Melachim, but Maleachim.

Yea, he doth eſtabliſh them for ever, and they are exalted] Or, When they are exalted. This no earthly Prince can promiſe himſelf. Dionyſius, who thought his Kingdom had been tyed to him with cords of Adamant, was at length driven out of it. But Chriſts Kingdom is an everlaſting Kingdom, and he will not raign alone; if we ſuffer with him, we ſhall alſo raign together. Rom. 8.

Verſe 8. And if they be bound in fetters] If it ſo fall out, that through abuſe of their proſperity and preferment, they wander as they are men, out of the right way, and God ſends out afflictions as his Purſuivants to attach them, and ſay them in cold irons for their correction, and to prevent judgement, Pſal. 107.10.

And be holden in cords of affliction] Or, Poverty; ſo that irretiti funibus miſerè vixerint (as the Tigurines here tranſlate) they have onely priſoners pittances, which will neither keep them alive, nor ſuffer them to dye.

Verſe 9. Then he ſheweth them their work] By theſe ſharp waters he cleareth up their eye-ſight, and gives them to ſee their ſin the mother of their miſery. Vexatio dat intellectum; Smart makes wit. Manaſſeh for inſtance, and the Prodigal,Herodot. lib. 1. Liv. decad. 1. l. 5. and King Croeſus with his Nocumenta documenta, and Tullus Hoſtilius with his exceſs of devotion, when once he had paid for his learning.

And their tranſgreſſions that they have exceeded] Heb When they prevail; that before they grow too potent they may caſt them away; Ne illis victi in Gehennam deſcendant, leſt they hale them into hell.Mercer.

Verſe 10. Hee openeth alſo their eare to Diſcipline] See on chap. 33.16.

And commandeth that they return from iniquity] Unleſſe they will have it to be their ruine; whereof obſtinate ſinners, (who refuſe to return,) ſeem to be ambitious. Affliction ſanctified, is Lex practica, a practical Law, ſaith One: it is Verus Scripturae commentarius, an excellent Comment upon the Scripture, ſaith Another. David could not learn Gods Statutes till taught by this Free-School-maſter; curſt enough and crabbed, but ſuch as whereby God openeth mens eares to Diſcipline, and ſpeaketh to them to return from iniquity, which is a piece of learning, that people cannot pay too dear for.

Verſe 11 If they obey and ſerve him, they ſhall, &c.] Heb. They ſhall finiſh, they ſhall ſpend and end their dayes in proſperity, and their yeares in pleaſure, as Joſeph, Job, and ſome others have done, who lived and dyed with glory. Howbeit this Promiſe is to be underſtood with exception of the Croſſe, which yet God both can, and to his, will make profitable and pleaſant; as he did to that godly Prince, who being asked, How he could ſo well endure ſo long and hard impriſonment? anſwered, That he had therein felt the divine Conſolations of the Martyrs. But, Haud facilè invenies multis è millibus unum, Virtutem pretium qui putet eſſe ſui.

Verſe 12. But if they obey not, they ſhall periſh by the ſword] In gladium tranſibunt; they ſhall paſſe away by the ſword; that is, ſome evil end ſhall befal them, and worthily, becauſe they would not be warned, which is both a preſage and deſert of utter ruine. Leſſer and lighter judgements (where they work not) are foretokens of greater and heavier at the heels of them; as the black horſe in the Revelation followeth the red. And as clouds cluſter againſt a ſtorm, one following in the neck of the other, unleſſe the Sun break forth and ſcatter them; ſo do Gods judgements uſher in one another, and every leſſe a greater, unleſs Repentance, and better obedience take up the matter.

And they ſhall dye without knowledge] Heb. Becauſe they were without knowledge; and wilfully ſo. It was not a bare [illegible: 1 letter]eſcience, but an affected ignorance that undid them. Some render it, Non praeſentientes, they ſhall dye ſuddenly, and before they have bethought themſelves. It ſhould be our care, that death do not ſuddenly ſurprize us. No gueſt comes unawares to him, who keeps a conſtant Table. Every ſharp affliction is a warning piece, and let us ſo conceive of it. Stillicidia praecedunt ruinam.

Verſe 13. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath] Or, Yet: Or, Howbeit q.d. Theſe fowle ſinners, that have turned repentance into a form, and converted converſion it ſelf into ſin, though they ſee bad men made good, and good men made better by their afflictions, and incorrigible perſons deſtroyed before their eyes, yet they amend not by Gods hand upon them, but are the worſe for it: as Iron grows more cold after a heat, and as naughty boyes are more ſtupid and more ſtubborn after a whipping. Hypocritis nihil ſtupidius. Theſe hollow hearted ones heap up wrath againſt the day of wrath, as St. Paul makes up this ſaying, Rom. 2.5. which ſhall fall upon the Jew firſt, becauſe of his pretence to Religion, and then upon the Gentile. Nemo enim magis iram meretur, quam amicum ſimulans inīmicus, ſaith Bernard; No man more deſerveth wrath upon wrath, then a feigned friend, but true enemy. Such are all hypocrites, whether groſs or cloſe. And hence our Saviours ſeverity againſt ſuch in the Goſpel, but eſpecially Mat. 23. Neither let any ſuch Goat in ſheep-skin think to ſteal on Chriſts right hand at the laſt day: He ſhall uncaſe ſuch and caſhiere them, yea caſt them into the hotteſt fire of hell, whereof hypocrites are as the Free-holders, and other ſinners but as Tenants to them, for they ſhall have their portion with the Devil and hypocrites. Some render it, Ponunt ir[illegible: 1 letter]m, and expound it incandeſcunt in Deum: When they are afflicted, they wax hot againſt God, they gather wrath as a toad ſwelleth when handled, as a Serpent gathereth poiſon to ſpue out at thoſe who meddle with him.

They cry not when God binds them] Cry they do after a ſort, as Hogs do when to be ſtuck, or dogs, when tyed up from their meat. Murmure they do, and expoſtulate a wrong with God, as thoſe, Iſa. 58.2, 3. Non ita Deos coluimu[illegible: 1 letter], as that heathen hypocrite ſaid, We have not ſerved God ſo well, that he ſhould ſerve us no better: but pray they do not, unleſſe it be as thoſe hypocrites in Zachary, chap. 7. who faſted to themſelves, and prayed for their own ends, more to get off, their chaines then their ſinnes. They bear fruit to themſelves, as Ephraim, and ſee what comes of it.

Verſe 14 They dye in youth] They dye before their time, as Solomon expreſſeth it; then, when it were better for them to do any thing then to dye, for they are killed with death, as Jezebels children were, Rev. 2. Their ſoul dyeth, as the Hebrew here hath it. Their ſoul periſheth among the boyes, their life among that buggerers; as Beza tranſlateth this Text, and thus Paraphraſeth. Therefore as accurſed before God they dye, and are reckoned amongſt thoſe impure young men, whoſe youth being ſpent in all filthineſſe and uncleanneſſe, was ſubject to that moſt abominable luſt which is not to be named. The ſum of all is, ſaith Brentius, Hypocrita peribit turpiter; The Hypocrite ſhall once come to a ſhameful end. And when the fowle ſinner ſhall be damned, what ſhall become of the faire Profeſſour? God will lead ſuch forth with the workers of iniquity, yea, with the worſt kind of ſinners (Sodomites for inſtance) ſhall he puniſh them.

Verſe 15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction.] Oft in this life, as he did David ſignally, Pſal. 34.6.2 Tim. 4. This poor man (meaning himſelf) cryed, and the Lord heard him, and ſaved him out of all his troubles. So he pulled Paul out of the mouth of the Lion, yea, and the Lord ſhall deliver me from every evil work, and preſerve me unto his heavenly kingdome; where the Saints ſhall be ſure of full deliverance, and ſhall ſay of their afflictions, as that Adultereſs ſaid of her accuſers, John 8. They are all gone.

He openeth their ears in oppreſſion] Or, By oppreſſion, as by a key; he openeth the eares of their hearts to holy and wholſome counſel. This Elihu had ſaid before; but he ſaith it again for that end and purpoſe, that Job might rowſe up, and raiſe up himſelfe to the hope of a comfortable reſtauration; for as much as God afflicteth, not his to deſtroy them, but to make them partakers of his holineſſe; and that once done, to deliver them.

Verſe 16. Even ſo would he have removed thee, &c.] The ſin revocat ad hypotheſin; Here Elihu applyeth to Job that which he had more generally diſcourſed concerning godly mens afflictions turned to their greateſt good, if they be careful to improve the ſame. Heb. He would have perſwaded, or gently removed thee.

Out of the ſtrait, &c.] Heb. Out of the mouth of the ſtrait. A Metaphor from wild beaſts, that hold ſome prey in the mouth, ſaith Piſcator. Or from a pit, narrow at the top, and wide at the bottom, as R. Solomon, and ſome others, who underſtand it of hell. Brentius to the ſame ſenſe rendreth the Text thus, Eripiet te ab ore anguſtiae lato, ſub quo nullum eſt fundamentum, He ſhall deliver thee from the broad mouth of ſtraitneſs, under which there is no bottom.

And that which ſhould be ſet on the table, &c.] Thou ſhouldſt eat of the fat, and drink of the ſweet, thou ſhouldſt have knowne no want of any thing, if thou hadſt not been wanting to thy ſelfe, in making the beſt uſe of thy troubles. See Pſal. 23.5.

Verſe 17. But thou haſt fulfilled the judgement of the wicked] But thou contrarily bluſtereſt againſt God, and blurteſt out ſuch words, that thou ſeemeſt to be as bad as the worſt, and to have little or no goodneſſe in thee. See chap. 34 8. It is a ſhame to Gods people to ſymbolize with the wicked; to be carnal in their ſpeeches or carriages, and to walk as men, 2 Cor. 3.3. They ſhould ſo ſpeak; and ſo do; as thoſe that ſhall be judged by the Law of liberty, Jam. 2.12.

Judgement and juſtice take hold of thee] Thou art worthily attached by the divine juſtice, which thou haſt quarrelled.

Verſe 18. Becauſe there is wrath, beware leſt he take thee away with his ſtroak] Beza readeth it thus, Surely it is wrath, take heed leſt with ſtroakes it take thee away; i.e. Certainely the wrath of God doth in this thy calamitie moſt manifeſtly ſhew it ſelf. Oh beware leſt he double his ſtroakes, and beat thee to pieces for thy diſobedience and ſtubborneſſe. With the froward God will wreſtle, Pſal. 18.26. and adde to their miſeries ſeven times more, and ſeven times and ſeven to that, Levit. 26.18, 21, 24, 28.

Then a great ranſome cannot deliver thee] Heb. Turn thee aſide, or help thee to decline; that is, to eſcape, no though thou ſhouldſt offer thouſands of Rams, or ten thouſand Rivers of Oyl, as Mie. 6.7.

Verſe 19. Will he eſteem thy riches?] Tremellius rendreth it, Thy Nobility. Others read it thus, Will be regard thy crying in thine adverſity? Or, That thou ſhouldſt not abide in adverſity? See Proverb. 10.2. and 11.4. with the Notes.

No, not gold] Which yet can do much with men. The Hebrew word ſignifieth, fineſt gold, Job. 22.24. and hath its name from defending, becauſe gold is a mans defence: With men it may be ſo, but not with God, Zeph. 1.18. See the Note there. Others read it, No not in affliction.

Nor all the forces of ſtrength] Which are poor things in compariſon of God, whoſe weakneſſe is ſtronger then men,Conantia frangere fra[illegible: 1 letter]gunt. 1 Corinth. 1.25. He need but to ariſe, and his enemies ſhall be ſcattered: yea, all that hate him, ſhall flye before him, Pſal. 68.1. As the Rocks repel the greateſt waves, ſo doth God his enemies.

Verſe 20. Deſire not the night, &c] That is, as ſome ſenſe it, do not thou peeviſhly deſire death (ſee chap. 7.15.) leſt it comes too ſoon, and it do by thee, as it doth by many an one, whom it cuts off in judgement. For ſurely in the ſtate thou art now in, thou oughteſt to fear an extraordinary kind of death, an inlet to eternal deſtruction, as in the Deluge, Sodom and Egypt. Others render it thus, Neither let it diſquiet thee in the night, how people are deſtroyed out of their place; that is, in the night ſeaſon,Vatabl. when thy mind is void of cares, puzzle not thy ſelf how and why ſome Nations periſh, and not others, but rather reſt thy ſelfe upon Gods providence and unſearchable wiſdome,Beza. and trouble not thy head in ſearching out the cauſe of this ſo ſudden misfortune. Brentius makes this the ſenſe, Noli impiè agere; Deſire not the night; that is, Deal not wickedly by complaining againſt God, and impatiently bearing his hand; as Theeves and Adulterers deſire the night for diſpatch of their deeds of darkneſs. Think not thou to hide thy ſelf in the dark from the dint of Gods diſpleaſure.

When people are cut off in their place] Heb. Aſcend under them: i.e. Riſe, that they may fall, Pſal. 102.10. as the light of a candle when it is ready to go out, flieth up, and then vaniſheth away: Or as the corn is firſt taken up by the hand of the Reaper, and then cut off, and laid flat on the ground.

Verſe 21. Take heed, regard not iniquity] This eſpecially of blaming Gods judgements, as if they were unequal. No more of that, ſaith Elihu. Cave tibi, ne conjicias oculos ad vanitatem, Beware thou caſt not an eye towards ſuch a vanity or iniquity as that is. This was very good counſel; and it is very well obſerved, that this whole following Treatiſe to the end of the thirty ſeventh chapter, is as it were a gentle lenitive of that foregoing ſharp rebuke which otherwiſe was likely to drive Job beſide all patience.

For this thou haſt choſen rather then affliction] That is, this forementioned iniquity of ſpeaking raſhly and wickedly againſt Gods proceedings with thee; this thou haſt choſen rather then to bear thine affliction (or, thy poverty) patiently. Now this was an ill choice; for,Epiſt. 3. quas non oportet mortes praeligere, ſaith Zuinglius; What deaths ought not a man rather to make choice of, what torments not rather undergo, yea, into what deepeſt gulf of hell it ſelf not rather enter, then wittingly and willingly to ſin againſt God? The ancient Martyrs would not be delivered upon baſe termes, Heb 11.35.Tertul. Daniel choſe rather to be thrown to the Lions, then to violate his conſcience, and ſo to have a Lion roaring in his own boſome. The Primitive Chriſtians cryed out, Ad Leonem magis quam Lenonem. I had rather enter into hell, being clear from ſin and innocent, quam peccati ſorde pollutus, coelorum regna tenere, then go to heaven, if I might, beſmeared with the filth of ſin, faith Anſelm. I had rather leap into a Bonfire and be burnt, ſaid another of the Ancients, then commit any ſin againſt God.Pint[illegible: 1 letter] ir. Daniel. Some write, that there is a certain little beaſt, called the Mouſe of Armenia, which will rather dye then be defiled with any filth: inſomuch that if her hole be beſmeared with dirt, ſhe will rather chuſe to be taken then polluted. Such ought the ſervants of God to be.

Verſe 22. Behold, God exalteth by his power.] Vulg. God is high in his ſtrength. He both exalteth himſelf and others, whenſoever he pleaſeth. Beza reads it, Behold God in his ſtrength is above all; q.d. It is he that muſt reſtore thee, if ever thou beeſt reſtored.

Who teacheth like him?] Vulg. None amongſt the Law-givers is like unto him. But the word Moreh ſignifieth a Doctor or a Teacher; as Moreh Nebuchim, a Teacher of perplexed things, an unriddler of Riddles. He knowes all things exactly, and does all things with ſingular skil and underſtanding. He hath many wayes of teaching people, and making them to profit, Iſai. 48.17. and one is, by afflictions, which Luther therefore fitly calleth Theologiam Chriſtianorum; the Chriſtians Syſtem of Divinity; as hath been before noted. Mr. Aſcham was a good School-Maſter (ſaith one) to Q. Elizabeth, but affliction was a better.

Verſe 23. Who hath enjoyned him his way?] q.d. Wilt thou take upon thee to teach this great Teacher how to govern the world? This were a ſtrange kind of arrogancy.

Or, Who can ſay, Thou haſt wrought iniquity?] Gods judgements are ſometimes ſecret, but alwayes juſt. Let not men reprehend what they do not yet comprehend, but content themſelves with a learned ignorance, till God ſhall further diſcover himſelfe, ſaying of Gods Works, as Socrates did of a certain Book that he had read, What I underſtand therein is very good, and ſo I think is that I underſtand not. When we come into an Artificers ſhop, we ſee many Tooles, the uſe whereof we know not, and yet we conclude they are of ſome uſe. Why then ſhould men raſhly cenſure Gods proceedings, which are many times in mediis contrariis, In Geneſ. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Naz. in Cypr. as Luther was wont to ſay, brought about by contrary means; that he may be the more admired, as Nazianzen giveth the reaſon. The Artificer with a crooked Tool makes ſtraight work. The Apothecary maketh of a poiſonful Viper a wholſome Triacle: ſo here. Far be it from us therefore to charge God with iniquity, for this were, with thoſe mad Manichees, to affirme,Manichaeorum diabolicus ſarcaſmus. Paraeus. That till he had created light, he dwelt in darkneſs, as if God were not an eternal Light, 1 John 1.5. 1 Tim. 6.16.

Verſe 24. Rememember that thou magnifie his works] His work of Creation; wherein the wiſdome, power, and goodneſſe of God is clearly manifeſted, Rom. 1.19 in that glorious ſtructure of the heavens eſpecially, which men behold. Or his work of Adminiſtration, and Gubernation, whereof David ſaith, All thy Works praiſe thee, O Lord; that is, they yeeld matter of magnifying thee; and thy Saints ſhall bleſſe thee, Pſal. 145.10. Remember that this be done, ſaith Elihu. Junius by Gods Works here underſtandeth Noahs Flood.

Which men behold] Or, Whereof men do ſing, ſaying,Id quod & prudentes viri olim veluti gnomâ quadam & communi ſententiâ jactarunt, dicentes, Omnis homo aſpicit &c. Brent. as in the next verſe,

Verſe 25. Every man may ſee it] ſcil. In quo eſt vel mica bonae mentis; for a brutiſh man knoweth it not, Pſal. 92.6, 7. But ſtupidus eſt, & dignus cui oculi eruantur ſaith Plato. He is a very blockhead, and worthy to have his eyes pulled out of his head, who looketh not above him, and about him, that he may magnifie and admire the wiſdom of the Creator of all, and Preſerver of mankind.

Man may behold it afar off] For heaven is far above earth, and it is a wonder that we can look to ſo admirable an height, and that the very eye is not tired in the way. And for things that are neerer to us, we ſee them but as through a glaſs obſcurely; our knowledg of them is very imperfect, 1 Cor 11.13. the reaſon of many things is above our reach. We read of one who had ſpent above forty yeares in finding out the Nature and Property of Bees, and yet was not fully ſatisfied of many things therein.

Verſe 26. Behold God is great] Yea, he is maximus in minimis, Greateſt and moſt of all ſeen in the meaneſt creatures; as in Ants more then in Elephants, &c.Brent. God ſheweth in his works of all ſorts, ſe aliquantum eſſe; ſed quantus ſit ru[illegible: 1 letter]ſus, operibus involuit; that he is very great, but how great he is, that appeares not.

Neither can the number of his years be ſearched out] How ſhould they ſay, when as his countenance is beyond all count, Pſal. 102.24, 27.Dan. 5 Yeares are here aſcribed unto him, and he is elſewhere called Ancient of dayes, and the haires of his head are ſaid to be white like ſnow, Rev. 1.14. but all this is ſpoken of God after the manner of men; and ſhould teach us, neither curiouſly to enquire into his counſels, nor diſcontentedly to complain of his doings.

Verſe 27. For he maketh ſmall the drops of water] Here Elihu beginneth to inſtance the greatneſſe of God in his works, and particularly in the Meteors; many of which Ariſtotle confeſſeth he underſtood not. And this I dare ſay, ſaith a learned Interpreter here, that there is not extent any Poem, either of the Greeks or Latines, which may be compared with this ſtately eloquence of Elihu in deſcribing thoſe natural effects which are cauſed in the air; and for the ſame cauſe are of the Philoſophers called Meteors, or aiëry impreſſions: as namely, clouds, rain hail, ſnow, thunder, lightning, and ſuch-like; whereof he here diſcourſeth very gravely, and learnedly: And firſt of rain, which he deſcribeth, 1. by the form or manner of producing it, verſ. 27, 28. 2. by the largeneſſe of the clouds, and their noiſe, verſ. 29. 3. by the ſuddain ſucceſſion of fair weather and foul, verſ. 30. and laſtly, by the different uſe thereof in the three laſt verſes of this Chapter, God maketh ſmall the drops of water; that is, he raineth by dividing the drops in the cloud, cauſing them to come down gut[illegible: 1 letter]atim, piece-meale; and not by whole ſpouts, or paile-fulls. Others read it, Subtrahit Deus, God draweth up drops of water; viz. out of the Sea, the rivers, and other moiſt places, whence thoſe vapours do aſcend, of which are generated thoſe drops of rain, Pſal. 147.8. He covereth the heaven with clouds, he prepareth rain for the earth, &c.

They powre down rain according to the vapours thereof] As the vapours are greater or leſſer, ſo is the rain. The rain aſcendeth in thin vapours, but deſcendeth oft in thick ſhowers: So do our poor Prayers come down in greateſt bleſſings; and we are ſure of as much mercy, as we bring faith to carry it away.

Verſe 28. Which the clouds do drop, and diſtil upon man abundantly] Hence the Dutch call it raegen, and we rained, à rigando, from watering the earth all over, at times: This is Gods work, and it ought to be marvellous in our eyes: it would be ſo, were it not ſo ordinary. Non ſactis id aſcribamus, multò minùs ſagis; the Heathens gave their gods the glory of it. The holy Ghoſt here, and elſwhere, ſetteth before us theſe common things, that when we ſee them, and yet know not the reaſon of them, we may gather, that we ought not over-curiouſly to pry into the profound judgements of God, which are far above the clouds, thoſe receptacles of rain; yea, far above the higheſt heavens.

Verſe 29. Alſo can any underſtand the ſpreading of the clouds?] That is, the skill that God ſheweth in ſpreading forth the clouds to that large extent, and muffling the whole heavens with them; ſo that Nature finds her ſelf buried in darkneſs? Some render it; the diviſions, or differences of the clouds; illic enim fiunt miracula magna. For ſome clouds are empty,Vatab. and anſwer not expectation (worthleſſe and vain boaſters are compared to ſuch,R. Levi. Prov. 25.14. Jude 12.) ſome yield rain, and drop fatneſſe. Some again, ſend forth hail, ſnow, froſt, ſtorm, thunder, lightnings, &c. Theſe are wonders in nature, far beyond humane apprehenſion. The clouds God maketh one while as ſome aiëry ſeas, to hold water; another while as ſome aiëry furnaces, whence he ſcattereth the ſuddain fires into all parts of the earth, aſtoniſhing the world with the fearful noiſe of that eruption. Out of the midſt of water he fetcheth fire, and hard ſtones out of the midſt of thin vapours. Haec ſunt ſanè admiranda & tremenda, ſaith Mercer. Theſe are wonderful things, and no leſſe dreadful. Is it not ſtrange, that of one and the ſame equal matter, viz. the vapours exhaled from the earth or water, ſo many ſeveral and different Meteors ſhould be engendred?

Or the noiſe of his Tabernacle] i.e. The ſwinging ſhowres, or ruſtling winds, or ratling thunder-claps, one in the neck of another, out of the clouds, called here, Gods Tabernacle; in quo velut abditus, tot rerum miracula creat, wherein he ſits in ſecret and unſeen, creating many ſtrange Meteors to ſend down upon the earth; whereof the profoundeſt Philoſopher of them all can give no certain and undoubted reaſon.

Verſe 30. Behold, he ſpreadeth his light upon it] That is, his fair weather, clearing up the cloudy sky, as ſome expound it: Or, us others, his lighting ſhot forth every way, Pſal. 18.13, 15. & 144.6. Or the ſun-beams ſpread upon the ſea, and drawing up vapours; unde mare hoc loco nubium radix dicitur, ſaith Brentius, whence the ſea is here called the root of the clouds: or the ſurface of the ſea is called the root of it, in regard of the wandring waves which are cut in ſunder, after the manner of roots; ſo ſaith Vatablus. Thoſe that by light here underſtand lightnings ſay, that God maketh them dart ſo abundantly through the waters of the ſea, that they do as it were cover all the bottom of it.

Verſe 31. For by them judgeth he the people] i.e. By rain and drought in exceſſe or defect, he puniſheth people at his pleaſure: whom, oh how eaſily could he affamiſh by denying them an harveſt or two: in granting whereof, he giveth teſtimony of his bounty, Job 14.17.

He giveth meat in abundance] ſc. By ſending moderate ſhowers fatning the earth: whereunto alſo the preaching of the Word is fitly compared, Iſai. 55.10.11. which thoſe that drink not in and fructifie, Deut. 32.2. are accurſed, Heb. 6.8.

Verſe 32. With clouds he covereth light] Heb. With the palmes of his hands; (ſo the clouds are called, ſee 1 King. 18.44.) he hideth light; that is, the Sunbeams, viz. when he ſendeth rain, the heavens are masked.

And commandeth it not to ſhine] Heb. And forbiddeth it (thoſe words, not to ſhine, are not in the original) propter intercedentem, Trem. Merlin. for the ſake of thoſe that intercede. He giveth rain or fair weather upon the prayers of his faithful people; who can thereby open and ſhut heaven, as did Elias, and the thundering Legion. R. Levi interpreteth this and the following verſe concerning thunder.

Verſe 33. The noiſe thereof ſheweth concerning it] The hurry-noiſe made in the air before a ſhower of rain, fore-ſhoweth it to be at hand.

The Cattel alſo concerning the vapour] Heb. Concerning that which goeth up: Hogs, Sheep, Oxen, &c. are much more quick-ſcented than men; and can perceive the vapours going up to cauſe rain, before men can ſee or feel them. Hence ſhepherds and herdſmen gather prognoſticks of rain, and are ſo weather-wiſe, as we call it.Ad dextram cuhantes oves pluviam portendunt. Merlin. Aben-Ezra noteth, that ſheep lying on the right-ſide, fore-ſignifie foul weather. See Virgil. Georg. lib. 1. and Plin. Nat. Hiſt. lib. 18. cap. 35. Some render this verſe (than which there if not an harder in all the book, ſaith Mercer) thus, Declaring toward him (who intercedeth) his good-will, toward the cattel, and alſo toward the encreaſe of the earth.