Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 9:24

24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked ; he covereth the faces of the Judges thereof ; if not , where, and who is he ?

i. e. The possession and dominion of men and things on earth.

To wit, by God the great Lord and disposer of it by his providence.

Into their power. As good men are scourged, v. 23. so the wicked are advanced, and prospered in this world.

i. e. He blinds their eyes that they cannot discern between truth and falshood, justice and unrighteousness: He. Who? Either 1. the wicked last mentioned, who either by power or by gifts corrupts the Officers of justice. Or rather 2. God, whom the pronoun, he, designed all along this Chapter: Who is oft said to blind the minds of men, which he doth not positively by making them blind, but privatively by withdrawing his own light, and leaving them to their own mistakes and lusts. Or by Iudges he may here mean those who are worthy of that name, and duly administer that Office; Whose faces God may be said to cover, because he removeth them from their high places into obscurity, and covers them with contempt, and in a manner passeth a sentence of condemnation and destruction upon them; Covering of the face being the usual posture of condemned persons and of men in great misery: Of which see Esth. 7. 8. Psal. 44. 22. Isa. 15. 17. Ier. 14. 4. So the sense of this verse is, God commonly advanceth wicked men into power and honour, and casteth down men of true worth and vertue from their Seats.

If it be not as I say, If God do not these things.

Either 1. Who will con[illegible: 1+ letters]ute me by solid arguments? Or 2. Who doth these things? Who but God doth dispose of the world in this manner?