John Trapp on Job 29:17

Verſe 17. And I brake the jawes of the wicked] It is a mercy to have Judges, ſaith One, Modò audeant quaeſentiunt, as the Oratour hath it: ſo they dare do as their conſciences tell them they ſhould do. Job was ſuch a Judge,Cic. pro Milom. he feared not to encounter and keep under thoſe unruly Beaſts and Belialiſts, who oppreſſed the poor, and then doubted not to oppoſe with creſt and breſt whatſoever ſtood in the way of their humours and luſts, Hîc forti magnoque animo opus fuit, ſaith One: Here Jobs courage was put to the proof, if ever. Is it nothing to break the Jaw-bones of the wicked, to take the prey out of the Lions mouth, and to reſcue the oppreſſed from the man that is too mighty for him? Is it nothing to encounter the Hydra of ſin, to oppoſe the current of times and torrent of vice, to turn the wheel over the wicked, and to leave them as powerleſſe as old Entellus in Virgil did Dares; whom his fellowes led away well beaten, and well nigh broken, Jactantemque utroque cáput,Virg. Aeneid. craſſumque crúorem Ore rejectantem, miſtoſque in ſanguine dentes?

And pluckt the ſpoile out of his teeth.] i.e. I made him make reſtitution of his ill gotten goods, whether by fraud or force. So that Jobs Court, we ſee, was not vitiorum ſentina, ſed virtutum Officina; his courſe was, Parcere ſubjectis, & debellare ſuperbos, to fuccour the afflicted, and to puniſh the proud. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Dio. Auguſtus the Emperor was wont to ſay, That ſuch an one only was fit to be a Magiſtrate, that was free from foule offence himſelfe, and could withſtand the corruptions of the times, keep a conſtant countermotion to the evil manners of the multitude: as Cato was ever inveying againſt covetouſneſſe and riot in the Roman State. Here alſo we have in Job the lively picture of a good Magiſtrate, much better then that of Caeſar Borgia, that Villain,De Principe P. 185 whom Machiavel propoſeth as the only pattern for Princes to imitate.