Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 42

2. I know that thou canst do every thing , and that no thought can be withholden from thee .

Not onely by power, but also by (for that he always thought) right; about which he had in some sort doubted and disputed. It is a Maxim in Law, that a Man can onely do that which he hath a right to do.

Whatsoever it pleaseth thee to do with thy Creatures.

He speaks either, 1. Of Iob's thoughts. Thou knowest me and all my sinful and unworthy thoughts of thy providential dealings with me, though I was not able to see the evil of them. Or 2. Of God's thoughts. Whatsoever thou thinkest or purposest to do, thou canst or mayest do it; and neither I nor any of thy Creatures can either restrain thee from it, or condemn thee for it, as I have boldly and wickedly presumed to do. So this last Clause of the Verse explains the former.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word] thought of th[illegible: 1+ letters]e▪ can be [illegible: 1+ letters]indred.

3. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledg ? therefore have I uttered that I understood not, things too wonderful for me, which I knew not .

i. e. What am I that I should dare to do so? Ah silly audacious wretch that I am, that I should be guilty of such madness!

Which words are repeated out of Ch. 38. 2. where they are explained.

Because my mind was without knowledge, therefore my speech was ignorant and foolish. Or, Being sensible of my ignorance and rashness, I think fit to make this humble and ingenious confession.

I have spoken foolishly and unadvisedly of things f[illegible: 1+ letters]r above my reach, even of God's infinite and soveraign Majesty and of his deep and unsearchable Counsels and Providence.

Marginal references: Chap. 38. [illegible: 1+ letters].; Psal. [illegible: 1+ letters]0. [illegible: 1+ letters]. & 13[illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1+ letters].

4. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak : I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

Hear and accept my humble and penitent confession and recantation.

Or, and enquire, to wit, counsel or instruction as a Scholar doth of his Master, as the following words note. I will no more saweily dispute the matter with thee, but beg information from thee. The words which God had uttered to Iob by way of challenge, Ch. 38. 3. & 40. 7. Iob returns to him again in way of submission.

5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee .

The knowledge which I had of thy Divine nature, and perfections and counsels was hitherto dark, and doubtful, and conjectura[illegible: 1+ letters] being grounded chiefly, if not onely upon the instructions and reports of other men, but now it is clear and certain, as being immediately inspired into my mind by this thy glorious Apparition and Revelation, and by the Operation of thy Holy Spirit; which makes these things as certain and evident to me as if I saw them with my bodily Eyes.

6. Wherefore I abhor my self , and repent in dust and ashes .

i. e. Dislike, and detest, and loath.

Or, my former words and carriage. One of these or some like supplement is necessary to compleat the sense, and is clearly gathered from the following words.

Sitting in dust and ashes; which hitherto I have done in token of my grief for my affliction, but now I desire and resolve to do in Testimony of my penitence for my sins.

7. And it was so that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite , My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends , for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath .

As the Eldest of the three, and because he spoke first and by his evil example le[illegible: 1+ letters] the rest into the same mistakes and miscarriages.

To wit. Bildad and Zophar, who are not excused but severely reproved, although they were drawn into the sin by Eliphaz his authority and influence. Elihu is not here reproved, because he dealt more justly and mercifully with Iob, and did not condemn his Person, but onely rebuke his sinful expressions.

Either, 1. as Iob hath now spoken: you have not acknowledged your errours as he hath done. Or rather, 2. as Iob did in his discourses with you. Which is not to be understood simply and absolutely (as is manifest from God's censure upon Iob for his hard and evil speeches of him) but comparatively; because Iob was not so much to be blamed as they, partly because his opinion concerning the methods of God's Providence, and the indifferency, and promiscuousness of its dispensations towards good and bad men was truer than theirs, which was that God did generally reward good men and punish sinners in this Life: partly because their misbelief of God's counsels and dealings with men was attended with horrid uncharitableness and cruelty towards Iob, whom they wounded with bitter and injurious speeches, and condemned as an Hypocrite, not onely without sufficient evidence as not being able to search his Heart, but upon false and frivolous grounds, to wit, his sore afflictions, and against many evidences of Piety which Iob had given: and partly because Iob's heavy pressures might easily cloud and darken his mind and draw forth his impatience and passionate speeches; which although it did not wholly excuse Iob, yet did certainly much extenuate his offences; whereas they were under no such temptations or provocations either from God or from Iob, but voluntarily broke forth into their hard, and severe, and untrue expressions concerning God's counsels and Iob's conditions, thereby adding affliction to him whom God did so sorely afflict, which was most unfriendly and inhumane.

8. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job , and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept : lest I deal with you after your folly , in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

Whom though you have censured and condemned as an Hypocrite I own for my faithful Servant, humane infirmity excepted.

By the hand of Iob, whom I do hereby constitute your Priest to pray and Sacrifice for you.

To wit, on your behalf as well as on his own.

Lest my wrath and just judgment take hold of you for your false and foolish speeches.

Marginal references: Heb. his face, or, person.

9. So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them : the LORD also accepted Job .

Shewing their repentance by their submission to God, and to Job for God's sake, and by taking shame to themselves.

Both for his Friends and for himself, as the next Verse explains it.

Marginal references: Heb. the face of Iob.

10. And the LORD turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends : also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

i. e. Brought him out of that state of Bondage, in which he had been so long held by Satan and by his own Spirit, and out of all his distresses and miseries. Or, returned Job's Captivity, i. e. the Persons and things which had been taken from him, not the same which he had lost, but other equivalent to them, and that with advantage.

Whereby he manifested his obedience to God and his true love and charity to them, in being so ready to forgive them and heartily to pray for them; for which God would not let him lose his reward.

An emphatical Particle. He not onely gave him as much as he lost, but double to it.

Marginal references: Heb. added all that had been to Iob unto the double.

11. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters , and all they that had been his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him , and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear-ring of gold .

When Job had humbled himself, and God was reconciled to Iob, he quickly turned the Hearts of his Friends to favour him, according to Prov. 16. 7. as during his impenitency, and [illegible: 1 word] his trial and humiliation he had alienated their Hearts from him, of which Iob so sadly complains.

Largely so called according to the Scripture-use of these Titles, to wit, his kindred distinguished from his other acquaintance.

i. e. Feasted with him, as that Phrase is commonly used in Scripture, to congratulate with him for God's great and glorious favour already vouchsafed to him in so eminent a Vision and Revelation.

They declared the sense which they had of his calamities whilst they were upon him, although they had hitherto wanted opportunity to express it.

Or, concerning all the evil; which though it was bitter to endure when it was present, yet the remembrance of it revived in him by the discourses of his Friends was very delightful, as is usual in such cases.

Partly to make up his former losses, and partly as a Testimony of their honorable respect to him.

12. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more then his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.

Not onely with Spiritual, but also with Temporal and Earthly Blessings.

14. And he called the name of the first, Jemima, and the name of the second, Kezia, and the name of the third, Keren-happuch.

Giving them such Names as signifie their excellent beauty of which see my Latin Synopsis.

15. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.

Gave his Daughters a share, and possibly an equal share with his Sons in his Inheritance: which in so plentiful an estate he might easily do, especially to such amiable Sisters without the envy of their Brethren: and which peradventure he did to oblige them to settle themselves amongst their Brethren, and to marry into their own Religious Kindred, not to Strangers, who in those times were generally swallowed up in the gulf of Idolatry.

17. So Job died being old, and full of days .

After God had turned his Captivity, as is said, v. 10.

By which length of his days it seems most probable that he lived before the times of Moses when the days of humane life were much shortned, as he complains.