John Trapp on Job 2:12

Verſe 12. And when they lift up their eyes afarre off] Hence ſome conclude that Job lay abroad, as lepers uſed.

And knew him not] for they had never ſeen him before, but in a ſplendidous faſhion; now then to ſee him in ſuch a pickle, that he hàd loſt all form and faſhion, more like a dead beaſt, then a living man; this amazed and amuſed them; they might alſo by this ſo ſad a ſpectacle, be admoniſhed of their own mutable and miſerable condition (Aut ſumus, aut fuimus, aut poſſumus eſſe quod hic eſt) and have the ſame thoughts, as the Pſalmiſt afterwards had, Man being in honour, abideth not; Pſal. 45.12▪ he is like the beaſts that periſh, pecoribus morticinis, ſaith Tremellius, the beaſts that die of the murraine, and ſo become carrion, and are good for nothing. Job was now no otherwiſe to be ſeene, then as a ſtinking carcaſſe full of ſores, more like then a living man, as he painteth out himſelf in moſt lively colours.

They lifted up their voice and wept] Good men are apt to do ſo, ſaith the Poet, & faciles motus mens generoſa capit; we are bound to weep with thoſe that weep, and to be both pitifull and courteous, 1 Pet. 3. To him that is in miſery, pity ſhould be ſhewed from his friend. (it was ſo to Job here at firſt) but he forſaketh the fear of the Lord, Job 6.14. Jobs friends did ſo, when amazed with the greatneſſe of his calamity, they therehence concluded him an arrant hypocrite, unworthy of any one word of comfort.

And they rent every one his mantle] His ſtately mantle, his robe of ſtate, ſuch as men of great honour uſed to weare, Stolam regiam. Some Hebrewes and Jeſuites will have theſe three friends of Job to have been Kings; ſuch I believe they were as the three Kings of Collen, ſo the Papiſts call thoſe wiſe men, Matth. 1.2. be they what they will; they rent every man his mantle in token of greateſt ſorrow at their friends calamity, a ceremony not unuſual among other Nations, then thoſe of the Eaſt. Suetonius telleth us, that Julius Caeſar, when he had paſſed his Army th River Rebican, In vita C. Jul Caeſar. and was marching toward Rome, he made a ſpeech to his Souldiers, weeping and rending his garment: that thereby he might teſtifie to them what a grief it was to him to fight againſt his Country: which he would never have done, had there not been a neceſſity.

And ſprinkled duſt upon their heads toward heaven] They ſo threw it up into the air, that it might fall upon their heads: to import 1. That all things were full of ſorrowful confuſion, as here earth and air were mingled. 2. That themſelves and all mortals were but duſt, Gen. 18. a little dirt neatly made up) and to duſt they ſhould return, Gen. 3 little deſerving in the mean while to tread upon the earth, or to be above ground, Joſh. 7.6. See chap. 1.16.