John Trapp on Job 13:20

Verſe 20. Only do not two things unto me] Accord me only two conditions, and then I will not fly the combate: he knew he might have any thing of God that was fit and lawful to be asked. When poor men make requeſts to Princes, they uſually anſwer them as the Eccho doth the voice, the anſwer cuts off half the petition, and if they beg two boons at once, they may be glad that they get one. But God dealeth by his ſervants and ſuppliants not only as the Prophet did by the Shunamite (when he bad her ask what ſhe needed, and promiſed her a ſon, which ſhe moſt deſired, and yet through modeſty asked not, 1 King. 4.16.) but alſo as Naaman did by Gehezi, when asking one talent, he forced him to take two. This Job well knew, and therefore he beggeth two things at once; but better he had begged that one thing neceſſary, Patience; or if two, that beſt uſe of his preſent ſufferings. As we read of one good man,Mr. Leigh his Saints encouragement &c. pag. 164. Dr. Halls Rem. of prophaneneſſe. p. 143. that lying under great torments of the Stone, hee would often cry out while his friends melted with compaſſion towards him, The uſe, Lord, the uſe: And of Mr. William Perkins, that when he lay in his laſt and killing torment of the ſtone, hearing the by-ſtanders pray for a mitigation of his pain, he willed them not to pray for an caſe of his complaint, but for an increaſe of his patience: Thus if Job had done, he had done better: but by what he doth here, we may eaſily gather, that he expected no freedom from his miſery, but from God alone: and that hee was wont familiarly to impart to God all the thoughts and actings of his heart: and laſtly, that he acknowledged him to be a moſt righteous Judge, who would not deale with his people upon unequal conditions, but give them a faire trial.

Then will I not hide my ſelf from thee] i. e. I ſhall have no cauſe, either through fear or ſhame to hide my ſelf. It is not ſafe for a man to indent with God, and make a bargain with him: for ſo one may have the thing he would have, but better be without it; as thoſe workmen Matth. 20. who bargained for a peny a day, and yet when they had it, were no whit contented. Socrates thought it was not fit to ask of God any more then this, that he would beſtow good things upon us; but what, and how much, to leave that to him, not being over-earneſt, or preſuming to preſcribe ought. Sir Thomas Moors wife was mightily deſirous of a boy (that was her word) and ſhe had one that proved a fool; and ſaith her husband, you were never quiet till you had a Boy, and now you have one that will be all his life a Boy. But what were thoſe two things that Job was ſo earneſt for?