Job · Chapter 24

V. 1. Why-Why (how comes it to pass) seeing times, (the fittest seasons for every, action, and particularly for the punishment of wicked men,) are not hidden from, or unknown to the Almighty God, (seeing all times, and men that live, and things that are done, or to be done in their times and seasons, are exactly known to God) do they that know him, (who love and obey him) not see (whence is it that they cannot discern) his (that is, God’s) days? His times and seasons which he takes for the punishment of ungodly men; which if they were constant and fixed in this life, they would not be unknown to good men, to whom God uses to reveal his secrets.

Verse 1. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty] Mr. Good translates: “Wherefore are not doomsdays kept by the Almighty, so that his offenders may eye their periods?” Doomsdays are here used in the same sense as term times; and the wish is, that God would appoint such times that the falsely accused might look forward to them with comfort; knowing that, on their arrival, they should have a fair hearing, and their innocence be publicly declared; and their detractors, and the unjust in general, meet with their deserts. But God reserves the knowledge of these things to himself. “The holy patriarch,” says Mr. Good, “has uniformly admitted that in the aggregate scale of Providence the just are rewarded and the wicked punished for their respective deeds, in some period or other of their lives. But he has contended in various places, and especially in Job 21:7-13, that the exceptions to this general rule are numerous: so numerous, as to be sufficient to render the whole scheme of providential interposition perfectly mysterious and incomprehensible, Job 23:8-12; so in the passage before us: if the retribution ye speak of be universal, and which I am ready to admit to a certain extent to be true and unquestionable, I not only ask, Why do the just ever suffer in the midst of their righteousness? but, Why do not the wicked see such retribution displayed before their eyes by stated judgments, so that they may at one and the same time know and tremble?”

Verse 1. Why, &c. — Job, having by his complaints, in the foregoing chapter, given vent to his passion, and thereby gained some ease, breaks them off abruptly, and now applies himself to a further discussion of the doctrinal controversy between him and his friends, concerning the prosperity of wicked people. That many live at ease, who yet are ungodly and profane, and despise all the exercises of devotion, he had showed, chap. 21. Now he goes further, and shows that many who are mischievous to mankind, and live in open defiance of all the laws of justice and common honesty, yet thrive and succeed in their unrighteous practices; and we do not see them reckoned with in this world. He first lays down his general proposition, That the punishment of wicked people is not so visible and apparent as his friends supposed, and then proves it by an induction of particulars. Why — How comes it to pass; seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty — Seeing the fittest seasons for every action, and particularly for the punishment of wicked men, are not unknown to God: do they that know him — That love and obey him; not see his days? — The times and seasons which he takes for the punishment of ungodly men; which times are frequently called the days of the Lord, as Isaiah 2:12, and 13:6; Jeremiah 46:10; Acts 2:20. Surely, if they were constant and fixed in this life, they would not be unknown to good men, to whom God is wont to reveal his secrets. His words may be paraphrased a little more at large, thus: To answer a little what you have so often asserted: If punishments from God upon the wicked, in this world, are so certain as you say, why do not they who are truly pious see them openly inflicted? Surely it is most strange, that there are not some certain fixed times when God arises publicly, and in the face of the whole world inflicts these deserved punishments upon the wicked. Whereas, experience shows, that these visible judgments are very rarely inflicted, and many true worshippers of God pass through the world without ever seeing any thing of this kind. Heath renders the verse, Why are not stated seasons set apart by the Almighty? And why do not those who know him see his days? namely, of vengeance on the wicked.

THE WICKED OPPRESS, TRAMPLE UPON, AND SLAY, THE INNOCENT AND DEFENCELESS, 1-12. First strophe — If there be days of retribution, how is it that “God’s familiars” — those who know so much about God — never see his judgments? 1-4.

1. Times are not hidden, etc. — Rather, Why are times not appointed by the Almighty? and (why) do they that know him not see his days? Why, if it be as you say, that the wicked are punished in this world, (chap. 22:19, 20,) is it that the servants of God do not see such infliction of justice? Hidden — Tsaphan, reserved, appointed. God’s judgments, like his ways, are hidden from sight until he pleases to bring them to the light; hence the phrase is common to express that which is divinely determined. Know him — Literally, his knowers. Compare Psalm 36:10. His days — Answers to times, which may be regarded as periods with specific days. The prophets frequently speak of days of judgment, but more particularly of a future great day of God. Joel 1:15; Isaiah 2:12. Of such a day Enoch prophesied, (Jude 14,) and at no time probably has its lurid light died away from the sky.

Verse 2. Some remove the landmarks] Stones or posts were originally set up to ascertain the bounds of particular estates: and this was necessary in open countries, before hedges and fences were formed. Wicked and covetous men often removed the landmarks or termini, and set them in on their neighbours’ ground, that, by contracting their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbours’ landmarks. See Deuteronomy 19:14; 27:17, and the note on the former place, where the subject is considered at large. They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.] Mr. Good translates ירעו yiru, they destroy, deriving the word, not from רעה raah, to feed, but from [r ra, to rend, to destroy.

The Septuagint had read רעה roch, a shepherd; and therefore have translated poimnion sun poimeni arpasantev, “violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd.”

Verse 2. Some, &c. — In proof that wicked persons prosper, he instances in two sorts of unrighteous people, whom all the world saw thriving in their iniquity: 1st, Tyrants, and those that did wrong under pretence of law and authority; and, 2d, Robbers and plunderers, that did wrong by downright force, as the bands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who had lately plundered him. Remove the landmark — By which men’s lands are distinguished, and their properties secured, that so they may enlarge their own border by diminishing the estate of their neighbour — which is so great an act of injustice that it was not only very strictly forbidden by God in his law, but also declared execrable by the heathen, among some of whom it was permitted to any man to kill him that did it. Forging or destroying deeds is now a crime equivalent to this. They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof — They take away cattle by force, and use them as if they were their own. Or, they feed them; they do not hide, or kill them, but openly feed them in their pastures, without any remorse, or shame, or fear of punishment, either from God or man.

2. Some remove the landmarks — The violence of Job’s emotion is marked by his omission of the subject — the wicked. In times when landmarks were the sole evidence of the limits of land, their removal was deemed an outrage so gross that under Numa it was punished with death. See also Deuteronomy 19:14; 27:17. On a land boundary stone of the time of Merodach-Baladan I., about B.C. 1300, is the following inscription: “If a ruler, or eunuch, or a citizen, the memorial stone of this ground takes and destroys, in a place where it cannot be seen to anywhere shall place it in, and this stone tablet if a naka, or a brother, or a katu, or an evil one, or an enemy, or any other person, or the son of the owner of this land, shall act falsely, and shall destroy it, into the water or into the fire shall throw it, with a stone shall break it, from the hand of Maraduk-zakirizkur, (the grantee,) and his seed shall take it away, and above or below shall send it; the gods, Ann, Bel, and Hea, Ninip and Gula, these lords and all the gods on this stone tablet whose emblems are seen, violently may they destroy his name. A curse unmitigated may they curse over him. Calamity may they bring upon him. May his seed be swept away in evil, and not in good; and in the day of departing of life may he expire, and Shamas and Merodach tear him asunder, and may none mourn for him!” — GEORGE SMITH, Assyrian Discov., 236-241. And feed thereof — The same strong arm of violence that seized upon the flocks of the helpless, shamelessly feeds them in public view. It is supposed by some that Job, in this sad description of the poor and defenceless, (2-8,) had in mind the aboriginal people of his native land, the Horites, dwellers of Mount Seir, who had been dispossessed of their all, reduced to the grossest vassalage, and finally exterminated by the Edomites. Every land has had a like history of outrage and wrong.

V. 3. Pledge-Contrary to God’s law, first written in mens hearts, and afterwards in holy scripture, Exodus 22:26,27.

Verses 3, 4. They drive away the ass of the fatherless — Whose helpless condition required their pity and mercy. He says, the ass, to aggravate their sin, in that they robbed him who had but one ass. They take the widow’s ox — Thereby depriving her, not only of the ox itself, but of all the benefit of its labours, by which her life was sustained; for a pledge — Contrary to God’s law, first written in men’s hearts, and afterward in the Holy Scriptures, Exodus 22:26. They turn the needy out of the way — Out of the way of piety and virtue. They engage them to take evil courses by their examples, or promises, or threatenings. Or, out of their right, of which they deprive them, by subtlety or power. Or, rather, as the word Ërdm, middarech, more properly signifies, and as the next clause explains it, out of the highway, out of the path or place in which these oppressors walk and range. These needy persons labour to keep out of their way for fear of their further injuries and oppressions. The poor of the earth hide themselves, &c. — For fear of these wicked tyrants and persecutors.

Verse 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless. In Job’s time there was no regular government or empire, to bring neighbouring tyrants to justice; proof sufficient that this book is of the highest antiquity.

THE WICKED OPPRESS, TRAMPLE UPON, AND SLAY, THE INNOCENT AND DEFENCELESS, 1-12. First strophe — If there be days of retribution, how is it that “God’s familiars” — those who know so much about God — never see his judgments? 1-4.

1. Times are not hidden, etc. — Rather, Why are times not appointed by the Almighty? and (why) do they that know him not see his days? Why, if it be as you say, that the wicked are punished in this world, (chap. 22:19, 20,) is it that the servants of God do not see such infliction of justice? Hidden — Tsaphan, reserved, appointed. God’s judgments, like his ways, are hidden from sight until he pleases to bring them to the light; hence the phrase is common to express that which is divinely determined. Know him — Literally, his knowers. Compare Psalm 36:10. His days — Answers to times, which may be regarded as periods with specific days. The prophets frequently speak of days of judgment, but more particularly of a future great day of God. Joel 1:15; Isaiah 2:12. Of such a day Enoch prophesied, (Jude 14,) and at no time probably has its lurid light died away from the sky.

V. 4. Way-Out of the path or place in which these oppressors walk and range. They labour to keep out of their way for fear of their farther injuries. Hide-For fear of these tyrants.

Verse 4. They turn the needy out of the way] They will not permit them to go by the accustomed paths; they oblige them to take circuitous routes. When the Marquis of H. was made ranger of Richmond Park, he thought it his duty to shut up a pathway which had existed for a long time; and those who presumed, after this shutting up, to break the fence, and take that path as formerly, were prosecuted. A cobbler near the place entered an action against the marquis: the cause was tried, the marquis cast, and the path ordered to be opened, on the ground that it had, time out of mind, been a public undisputed path. When one asked the cobbler, “How he could have the boldness to go to law with the Marquis of H.?” he answered, “Because I did not like to leave the world worse than I found it.” All tolerated oppression and voluntary forfeiture of ancient rights, are injurious to society at large, and they who wink at them leave the world worse than they found it.

Verses 3, 4. They drive away the ass of the fatherless — Whose helpless condition required their pity and mercy. He says, the ass, to aggravate their sin, in that they robbed him who had but one ass. They take the widow’s ox — Thereby depriving her, not only of the ox itself, but of all the benefit of its labours, by which her life was sustained; for a pledge — Contrary to God’s law, first written in men’s hearts, and afterward in the Holy Scriptures, Exodus 22:26. They turn the needy out of the way — Out of the way of piety and virtue. They engage them to take evil courses by their examples, or promises, or threatenings. Or, out of their right, of which they deprive them, by subtlety or power. Or, rather, as the word Ërdm, middarech, more properly signifies, and as the next clause explains it, out of the highway, out of the path or place in which these oppressors walk and range. These needy persons labour to keep out of their way for fear of their further injuries and oppressions. The poor of the earth hide themselves, &c. — For fear of these wicked tyrants and persecutors.

4. Out of the way — To which all had equal rights. “Perhaps equivalent to our phrase, ‘kick out of the way.’” — Dillmann. The sense is, that the poor are forced to betake themselves to bypaths that they may escape overt acts of violence. Hide themselves — Are made to hide themselves. They huddle together in cave or den, like wild beasts, from the fury of the storm. Second strophe — Dispossessed of their homes, the poor are driven forth like wild animals into the desert, destitute, 5-8.

V. 5. Wild asses-Which are lawless, and fierce, and greedy of prey. Desert-Which is the proper habitation of wild asses. They-The oppressors. Go-To spoil and rob.

Verse 5. Rising betimes for a prey] The general sense here seems plain enough. There are some who live a lawless roaming life: make a predatory life their employment; for this purpose, frequent the wilderness, where they seize on and appropriate whatsoever they find, and by this method they and their families are supported.

Mr. Good says: “The sense has never yet been understood by any commentator;” and hence he proposes a different division of the words, placing hbr[ arabah, the desert or wilderness, in the first hemistich, thus:—

“Rising early for the pillage of the wilderness;

The bread of themselves and of their children.”

Others think that the words are spoken solely of the poor under the hand of oppression, who are driven away from their homes, and obliged to seek such support as the wilderness can afford. Such was originally the state of the Bedouins, and of the wandering Arab hordes in general: the oppression of the tyrannous governors obliged them to seek refuge in the deserts, where they still live in a roaming predatory life.

Verse 5. Behold, as wild asses — Which are lawless and fierce, and greedy of prey; in the desert — Which is the proper habitation of wild asses, Jeremiah 2:24: they go forth to their work — These oppressors go forth to spoil and rob, which is their constant work and trade: rising betimes for the prey — Beginning their work of plunder before the poor go to their daily labour. The wilderness yieldeth food for them — They are so diligent and industrious in their wicked work, that they fetch food for themselves and families even out of desert places, in which the owners can with difficulty subsist.

5. Behold… wild asses… desert — Job thus personifies these wretched exiles, driven away into the wilderness. The wild ass was proverbial for being untamable. It lived in great herds far from the haunts of men, and was, according to Ker Porter, of “prodigious swiftness.” See note, Job 11:12. That Job cannot, as Canon Cook thinks, mean robber hordes, is evident from the want of resemblance between them and the wild ass, which is not at all a beast of prey, but a timorous animal, whose only defence is swiftness of foot. Their work — That of seeking a precarious support; a meaning determined by the last clause of the verse. For a prey — Tareph; meat, food. The same word as in Proverbs 31:15. The wilderness, etc. — Literally, The desert to him is food for the children. The desert yields its herbs and roots, the scantiest fare, to him the father, who, as provider, represents the family. Their children — A stroke of tenderness; for children are the first to feel the pangs of hunger.

V. 6. They-The oppressors. Wicked-Of such as themselves: so they promiscuously robbed all, even their brethren in iniquity.

Verse 6. They reap every one his corn in the field] This is perfectly characteristic. These wandering hordes often make sudden irruptions, and carry off the harvest of grain, olives, vines, &c., and plunge with it into the wilderness, where none can follow them. The Chaldee gives the same sense: “They reap in a field that is not their own, and cut off the vineyard of the wicked.”

Verse 6. They reap every one his corn in the field — The words, every one, are not in the original, and ought not to have been inserted here, as they alter the sense. The clause would be better translated without them. They reap his corn in the field; that is, these plunderers make incursions, reap and take away the corn of the honest, industrious husbandman, which he had sown for the support of his family. They gather the vintage of the wicked — Or, rather, the vintage of wickedness; that is, they plunder the vineyards of the honest, just man, as well as his corn-fields.

6. Corn — Various kinds of grain mixed together in the sowing, and which served as fodder for cattle. Gather — They glean the few grapes left in the vineyards of the wicked. These are they whom hunger drives back into the fields of the rich by night; so Merx thinks.

V. 7. Naked-Those whom they stripped of their garments and coverings.

Verse 7. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing] Or rather, They spend the night naked, without clothing; and without a covering from the cold: another characteristic of the wandering Arabs. They are ill-fed, ill-clothed. and often miserable off, even for tents. They can have little household stuff: as they are plunderers, they are often obliged to fly for their lives, and cannot encumber themselves with what is not absolutely needful.

Verse 7. They cause the naked — That is, those whom they have made naked, whom they have stripped of their garments and coverings; so far were they from exercising charity or even justice toward them; to lodge without clothing — To sleep in the night without bed-clothes to cover them; that they have no covering in the cold — Of the night, in the winter season. This verse perhaps would be better rendered thus, They cause men to lodge naked, because they have no clothing, (that is, because they leave them nothing wherewith they can clothe themselves,) and no covering in the cold; they leave them neither raiment to wear in the day, nor a covering in the night.

7. They cause the naked — The verb, here, is not causative. Naked, they pass the night without clothing. Travellers in Arabia Petrea uniformly speak of the days as intensely hot and the nights as correspondingly cold.

V. 8. Wet-With the rain-water, which runs down the rocks or mountains into the caves, to which they fled for shelter. Rock-Are glad when they can find a cleft of a rock in which they may have some protection against the weather.

Verse 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains] Mr. Good thinks that torrents, not showers, is the proper translation of the original זרם zerem; but I think showers of the mountain strictly proper. I have seen many of these in mountainous countries, where the tails of water-spouts have been intercepted and broken, and the outpouring of them would be incredible to those who have never witnessed similar phenomena. The rain fell in torrents, and produced torrents on the land, carrying away earth and stones and every thing before them, scooping out great gullies in the sides of the mountains. Mountain torrents are not produced but by such extraordinary outpourings of rain, formed either by water-spouts, or by vast masses of clouds intercepted and broken to pieces by the mountain tops.

And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.] In such cases as that related above, the firm rock is the only shelter which can be found, or safely trusted.

Verse 8. They are wet — That is, the poor, being stripped of their raiment, and forced away from their houses; with the showers of the mountains — With the rain-water, which, in great showers, runs down from the rocks or mountains into the caves or holes in the sides of them, to which they have fled for shelter. And embrace the rock — That is, are glad when they can find a cavern, or cleft of a rock, in which they may have some protection against the injuries of the weather, and a hiding-place from the fury of their oppressors.

8. Showers — Better, Storms. Embrace the rock — In order to cover at least some part of the body. This closely agrees with what Niebuhr says of the modern wandering Arabs near Mount Sinai: “Those who cannot afford a tent spread out a cloth upon four or six stakes; and others spread their cloth near a tree, or endeavour to shelter themselves from the heat and the rain in the cavities of the rocks.”

Third strophe — The wretched poor are treated worse than the brute, and in the cities even, the blood of the innocent cries to God in vain, 9-12.

V. 9. They-The oppressors. Pluck-Out of covetousness; they will not allow the mother time for the suckling of her infant.

Verse 9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast] They forcibly take young children in order that they may bring them up in a state of slavery. This verse is the commencement of a new paragraph, and points out the arbitrary dealings of oppressors, under despotic governors. Take a pledge of the poor.] Oppressive landlords who let out their grounds at an exorbitant rent, which the poor labourers, though using the utmost diligence, are unable at all times to pay; and then the unfeeling wretch sells then up, as the phrase here is, or takes their cow, their horse, their cart, or their bed, in pledge, that the money shall be paid in such a time. This is one of the crying sins of some countries of Europe.

Verses 9, 10. They — The wicked oppressors; pluck the fatherless from the breast — Either out of cruelty, not sparing poor infants, or out of covetousness, not allowing the mother time for the suckling of her infant. They take away the sheaf from the hungry — That single sheaf, which the poor man had got with the sweat of his brow, to satisfy his hunger.

9. They — The high-handed oppressors of whom he had spoken in verse

4. “Inhuman creditors take the fatherless and still tender orphan away from its mother, in order to bring it up as a slave, and so to obtain payment.” — Delitzsch. Take a pledge — What the poor has on they take as a pledge. — GESENIUS. Mosaical legislation protected the outer garment of the poor, as it served for a covering by night. Exodus 22:26.

V. 10. The sheaf-That single sheaf which the poor man had got with the sweat of his brow to satisfy his hunger.

Verse 10. They cause him to go naked] These cruel, hard-hearted oppressors seize the cloth made for the family wear, or the wool and flax out of which such clothes should be made.

And they take away the sheaf] Seize the grain as soon as it is reaped, that they may pay themselves the exorbitant rent at which they have leased out their land: and thus the sheaf—the thraves and ricks, by which they should have been supported, are taken away from the hungry.

Verses 9, 10. They — The wicked oppressors; pluck the fatherless from the breast — Either out of cruelty, not sparing poor infants, or out of covetousness, not allowing the mother time for the suckling of her infant. They take away the sheaf from the hungry — That single sheaf, which the poor man had got with the sweat of his brow, to satisfy his hunger.

10. They cause — wklh is used, not in a causative but frequentative sense. (Which) go naked without clothing, and hungry they bear the sheaf. God’s care for oxen forbade that they should be muzzled while they trod the corn, Deuteronomy 25:4. Man’s cruelty degrades man to a beast of burden, and forbids him to eat of the sheaves he bears.

V. 11. Walls-Within the walls of the oppressors for their use. Suffer-Because they are not permitted to quench their thirst out of the wine which they make.

Verse 11. Make oil within their walls] Thus stripped of all that on which they depended for clothing and food, they are obliged to become vassals to their lord, labour in the fields on scanty fare, or tread their wine-presses, from the produce of which they are not permitted to quench their thirst.

Verses 11, 12. Which make oil within their walls — The walls of the rich oppressors, for their use and benefit. And tread their wine-presses — That is, the grapes in their wine-presses; and suffer thirst — Because they are not permitted to quench their thirst out of the wine which they make. Men groan — Under the burden of injuries and grievous oppressions; from out of the city — Not only in deserts, or less inhabited places, where these tyrants have the greater opportunity to practise their villanies; but even in cities, where there is a face of order, and government, and courts of justice, and a multitude of people to observe and restrain such actions; whereby they plainly declare that they neither fear God nor reverence man. The soul of the wounded crieth out — The life or blood of those who are wounded to death (as the word µyllj, chalalim, properly signifies) crieth aloud to God for vengeance; yet God layeth not folly to them — Does not appear to impute, or lay to their charge, this folly, or wickedness; does not punish them for it as it deserves.

11. Within their walls — Compare Proverbs 24:31. Tread… presses — See note, 1:13. Wilkinson (Domestic Life, etc., 63-65) says of the ancient Egyptians: “Their winepress was frequently in or near the vineyard; the grapes were trodden by the feet, but they were subjected to another process of twisting in a bag,” etc. And suffer thirst — Mr Addison, in one of his letters from Italy, presents a similar picture of its “poor inhabitant,” who: —

Starves, in the midst of nature’s bounty curst,

And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.

V. 12. Groan-Under grievous oppressions. Soul-The life or blood of those who are wounded to death, as this word properly signifies, crieth aloud to God for vengeance. Yet-Yet God doth not punish them.

Verse 12. Men groan from out of the city] This is a new paragraph. After having shown the oppressions carried on in the country, he takes a view of those carried on in the town. Here the miseries are too numerous to be detailed. The poor in such places are often in the most wretched state; they are not only badly fed, and miserably clothed, but also most unwholesomely lodged. I was once appointed with a benevolent gentleman, J. S., Esq., to visit a district in St. Giles’s London, to know the real state of the poor. We took the district in House Row, and found each dwelling full of people, dirt, and wretchedness. Neither old nor young had the appearance of health: some were sick, and others lying dead, in the same place! Several beds, if they might be called such, on the floor in the same apartment; and, in one single house, sixty souls! These were groaning under various evils; and the soul of the wounded, wounded in spirit, and afflicted in body, cried out to God and man for help! It would have required no subtle investigation to have traced all these miseries to the doors, the hands, the lips, and the hearts, of ruthless landlords; or to oppressive systems of public expenditure in the support of ruinous wars, and the stagnation of trade and destruction of commerce occasioned by them: to which must be added the enormous taxation to meet this expenditure.

Yet God layeth not folly to them.] He does not impute their calamities to their own folly. Or, according to the Vulgate, Et Deus inultum abire non patitur; “And God will not leave (these disorders) unpunished.” But the Hebrew may be translated And God doth not attend to their prayers. Job’s object was to show, in opposition to the mistaken doctrine of his friends, that God did not hastily punish every evil work, nor reward every good one. That vice often went long unpunished, and virtue unrewarded; and that we must not judge of a man’s state either by his prosperity or adversity. Therefore, there might be cases in which the innocent oppressed poor were crying to God for a redress of their grievances, and were not immediately heard; and in which their oppressors were faring sumptuously every day, without any apparent mark of the Divine displeasure. These sentiments occur frequently.

Verses 11, 12. Which make oil within their walls — The walls of the rich oppressors, for their use and benefit. And tread their wine-presses — That is, the grapes in their wine-presses; and suffer thirst — Because they are not permitted to quench their thirst out of the wine which they make. Men groan — Under the burden of injuries and grievous oppressions; from out of the city — Not only in deserts, or less inhabited places, where these tyrants have the greater opportunity to practise their villanies; but even in cities, where there is a face of order, and government, and courts of justice, and a multitude of people to observe and restrain such actions; whereby they plainly declare that they neither fear God nor reverence man. The soul of the wounded crieth out — The life or blood of those who are wounded to death (as the word µyllj, chalalim, properly signifies) crieth aloud to God for vengeance; yet God layeth not folly to them — Does not appear to impute, or lay to their charge, this folly, or wickedness; does not punish them for it as it deserves.

12. Men groan — By changing the pointing of µytm (men) to µytm (the dead,) Ewald, Zockler, etc., read, “Out of the cities the dying groan;” but, against this, is the past participal form mathim, (the dead.) From out of the city — Like scenes of enormity to those that darken desert and town are enacted within the crowded city, where, on the contrary, might be expected some outflow of sympathy, and not only the power, but the disposition, to redress wrong. The wounded — The slain, (Furst.) Even cold prose does not disdain to speak of “the cry of the slayers and the slain.” — Thucydides, 7:70, 71. Crieth out — To heaven for vengeance, (Hitzig.) Layeth not — Regardeth not. The µyc is the same as in Job 23:6, which see. Folly — In the sense of abomination or anomaly, subversive of all moral order in the world. Note on chap. 1:22. Omit to them.

Second half — GROSSEST MALEFACTORS AGAINST THE LIGHT AND AGAINST GOD, — WHOM ON ACCOUNT OF THE SECRECY OF THEIR CRIMES HEAVEN ALONE CAN PUNISH — EVEN THESE ESCAPE

V. 13. Light-As well the light of reason and conscience, as the light of Divine revelation, which was then in good measure imparted to the people of God, and shortly after committed to writing. Know not-They do not approve, nor love, or chuse them.

Verse 13. They-rebel against the light] Speaking of wicked men. They rebel against the light of God in their consciences, and his light in his word. They are tyrants in grain, and care neither for God nor the poor. They know not the ways thereof—they will not learn their duty to God or man. Nor abide in the paths thereof—if brought at any time to a better mind, they speedily relapse; and are steady only in cruelty and mischief. This is the character of the oppressors of suffering humanity, and of sinners audacious and hardened.

This whole verse Mr. Good translates in the following manner:— They are indignant of the light;

They respect not its progress;

And will not return to its paths.

They hate good; they regard not its operation; they go out of the way of righteousness, and refuse to return.

Verse 13. Those that rebel against the light — Who sin impudently, in the face of the sun, and obstinately, in spite of all their light, as well the light of reason and conscience, which abhors and condemns their wicked actions, as the light of divine revelation, which was then, in good measure, imparted to the people of God, and shortly after committed to writing; all which they set at defiance, sinning with manifest contempt of God, and of men, and of their own consciences. They know not the ways thereof — That is, of the light, or such ways and courses as are agreeable to the light; they do not approve, love, or choose them. Nor abide in the paths thereof — If they begin to walk in those paths: and do some good actions, yet they do not persevere in well-doing: they are not constant and fixed in a good course of life.

FROM ALL EARTHLY RETRIBUTION, BY AN OPPORTUNE DEATH, 13-25. First strophe — Blackest miscreants rebel against the light and burrow in the night, defying the God who professedly sees in secret, while they say, “No eye shall see me,” 13-17.

13. Those that rebel against the light — Job now introduces another class of evildoers, the workers in the dark — murderers, thieves, adulterers. He has thus far spoken of the lawless who practice evil in the broad daylight, and those, too, whom law, “as yet unmitigated by the Mosaic code,” may have seemed to shield, such as usurers, tyrants, and rich, heartless employers. He will now speak of greater monsters, those who “have become rebels against the light,” and who undermine all institutions, human and divine. The light of the day is a fit emblem of a higher and purer essence shining within the soul of man. All sin begins in rebellion against the light. Its very essence is hatred of the light. John 3:20. The ways of light it eschews, and its paths it abhors, until the soul, perverted and stunted, becomes one with the darkness. Man makes for himself the moral world wherein he shall dwell. And this, a sky of light or of darkness, has its reflex influences upon the soul. Under these it becomes a child of light, (1 Thessalonians 5:5,) and eventually light itself, (Ephesians 5:8,) or it becomes a “child of the night.” and is in like manner transformed into darkness. Ephesians 5:8.

V. 14. Poor-Where he finds nothing to satisfy his covetousness, he exercises his cruelty.

Verse 14. The murderer rising with the light] Perhaps the words should be read as Mr. Good has done:—

With the daylight ariseth the murderer;

Poor and needy, he sheddeth blood.

This description is suitable to a highwayman; one who robs in daylight, and who has been impelled by poverty and distress to use this most unlawful and perilous mode to get bread; and for fear of being discovered or taken, commits murder, and thus adds crime to crime.

In the night is as a thief.] Having been a highwayman in the daytime, he turns footpad or housebreaker by night; and thus goes on from sin to sin. There have been several instances like the case above, where poverty and distress have induced a man to go to the highway and rob, to repair the ruin of himself and family. I shall introduce an authentic story of this kind, which the reader may find at the end of this chapter. See Clarke “Job 24:25”.

Verses 14, 15. The murderer rising with the light — As soon as the light appears, using no less diligence in his wicked practices than labourers do in their honest and daily employments; killeth the poor and needy — Where he finds nothing to satisfy his covetousness, he exerciseth his cruelty. And in the night is as a thief — He is really a thief; the particle as being often used to express, not the resemblance, but the truth, of the thing. In the night they rob men secretly and cunningly, as in the day-time they do it more openly and avowedly. The adulterer waiteth for the twilight — Namely, for the evening twilight, which is his opportunity; saying — In his heart; No eye shall see me — Comforting himself with the thoughts of secrecy and impunity; and disguiseth his face — Hebrew, putteth his face in secret; covers it with a mask that he may not be discovered.

14. With the light — Literally, At the light. Toward daybreak, the time when travellers in the East, on account of the extreme heat of the day, pursue their journey. In the night — The murderer of the dawn is the thief of the night. Dr. Robinson was aroused at night by a sudden alarm. “Our Arabs,” he says, (i, 270,) “were evidently alarmed. They said, if thieves, they would steal upon us at midnight; if robbers, they would come down upon us toward morning.”

Verse 15. The eye also of the adulterer] This is another sin particularly of the city. The adulterer has made his assignation; he has marked the house of her into whose good graces he has insinuated himself, called digging through the house; he waits impatiently for the dusk; and then goes forth, having muffled or disguised his face, and spends a criminal night with the faithless wife of another man. The morning dawns: but it is to him as the shadow of death, lest he should be detected before he can reach his own home. And if one know him—if he happen to be recognized in coming out of the forbidden house; the terrors of death seize upon him, being afraid that the thing shall be brought to light, or that he shall be called to account, a sanguinary account, by the injured husband.

This seems to be the general sense of the very natural picture which Job draws in the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses. {Job 24:15-17}

Verses 14, 15. The murderer rising with the light — As soon as the light appears, using no less diligence in his wicked practices than labourers do in their honest and daily employments; killeth the poor and needy — Where he finds nothing to satisfy his covetousness, he exerciseth his cruelty. And in the night is as a thief — He is really a thief; the particle as being often used to express, not the resemblance, but the truth, of the thing. In the night they rob men secretly and cunningly, as in the day-time they do it more openly and avowedly. The adulterer waiteth for the twilight — Namely, for the evening twilight, which is his opportunity; saying — In his heart; No eye shall see me — Comforting himself with the thoughts of secrecy and impunity; and disguiseth his face — Hebrew, putteth his face in secret; covers it with a mask that he may not be discovered.

15. Disguiseth his face — Puts a veil over the face: Wetzstein thinks a woman’s veil. “In Syrian towns,” he says, “women’s clothing is always chosen for such nocturnal sin. The man disguises himself in an izar, which covers him from head to foot, takes the mendil, veil, and goes with a lantern (without which at night every person is seized by the street watchman as a suspicious person) unhindered into a strange house.” Juvenal speaks of the rank adulterer with his head muffled in a Gallic hood, 8:144.

V. 16. They-The robber: having on that occasion inserted the mention of the adulterer as one who acted his sin in the same manner as the night-thief did, he now returns to him again.

Verse 16. In the dark they dig through houses] Thieves in Bengal very frequently dig through the mud wall and under the clay floors of houses, and, entering unperceived, plunder them while the inhabitants are asleep. Mr. Good’s version of this paragraph I shall lay before the reader:— Ver. 15. For the dark too watcheth the eye of the adulterer; Exclaiming, No eye shall behold me.

Then putteth he the muffler on his face;

Ver. 16. He wormeth into houses amidst the darkness.

In the daytime they seal themselves up,

They know not the light:

Ver. 17. For, the dawn they reckon to themselves as the death-shade; The horrors of the death-shade as it returneth.

Verses 16, 17. In the dark they dig through houses — Either the adulterer last mentioned, or rather the thief or robber, whose common practice this is, of whom he spake, verse 14; and having, on that occasion, inserted the mention of the adulterer, as one who acted his sin in the same manner as the night thief did, he now returns to the latter again: which they had marked for themselves — Distinguishing, by some secret mark, the house of some rich man which they intended to rob, and the part of the house where they resolved to enter it. They know not the light — Do not love nor make use of it, but abhor and shun it. For the morning is as the shadow of death — Terrible and hateful, because it both discovers them and hinders their practices. If one know them, &c. — If they are brought to light, or discovered, they are overwhelmed with deadly horrors and terrors.

16. They — Literally, he, used collectively for house-breakers. Dig through houses — In the East, the houses of the poorer classes are, according to Kitto, of three kinds: either of wicker hurdles daubed over with mud; or of mud, each layer being left to dry before another is laid on; or of sun-dried bricks with which straw has been mixed in order to strengthen them. — See KITTO, Daily Bib. Illus., in loc. The Greek called a burglar toicwrucov, “one who digs through the wall.” Which they had marked, etc. — Rather, They who by day shut themselves up. Hesiod calls thieves “men who sleep by day.” Apostasy from spiritual light manifests itself in aversion to natural light.

V. 17. Is-Terrible and hateful.

Verses 16, 17. In the dark they dig through houses — Either the adulterer last mentioned, or rather the thief or robber, whose common practice this is, of whom he spake, verse 14; and having, on that occasion, inserted the mention of the adulterer, as one who acted his sin in the same manner as the night thief did, he now returns to the latter again: which they had marked for themselves — Distinguishing, by some secret mark, the house of some rich man which they intended to rob, and the part of the house where they resolved to enter it. They know not the light — Do not love nor make use of it, but abhor and shun it. For the morning is as the shadow of death — Terrible and hateful, because it both discovers them and hinders their practices. If one know them, &c. — If they are brought to light, or discovered, they are overwhelmed with deadly horrors and terrors.

17. Shadow of death — Delitzsch, Dillmann, and others, make this phrase equivalent to depth of night — the subject of the verb. The passage reads, For to them all, the depth of night is morning: because they know the terrors of thick darkness (shadow of death.) Know — To be familiar with. Mercerus had early and fortunately hit upon the sense, “Nocturnal terrors are familiar to him; he neither fears nor cares for them… as if he had entered into a compact with them that they should not hurt him.” Midnight is his morning. The shadow of death is his daybreak when he rises to his work. He is as much at home in the horrors of darkness as the good are in the light of day.

V. 18. Swift-That is, he quickly passeth away with all his glory, as the waters which never stay in one place, but are always hasting away. Portion-His habitation and estate which he left behind him. He-He shall never more see or enjoy his vineyards, or other pleasant places and things, which seem to be comprehended under this particular.

Verse 18. He is swift as the waters] Literally, Light is he on the face of the waters: and cursed shall be their portion on the earth, which Mr. Good translates:—

Miserable is this man on the waters:

Deeply miserable the lot of those on dry land.

He beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.] These no longer flourish or bring forth fruit. The labour of the vintage fails.

Verse 18. He is swift as the waters — That is, the wicked man quickly passeth away, with all his glory, as the waters, which never stay in one place, but are always hasting away. Their portion — Or, his portion (for he still speaks of the same person, though with a change of the number) is cursed in the earth — His habitation and estate, which he leaves behind him, is accursed of God; and, by all men who live near it, or observe it, is pronounced accursed, because of the remarkable judgments of God upon it, and upon his posterity or family, to which he left it, and from whom it is strangely and unexpectedly alienated. He beholdeth not the way of the vineyards — He shall never more see or enjoy his vineyards, or other pleasant places and things, which seem to be comprehended under this particular. Thus, though Job constantly maintains against his friends, that many ungodly men do prosper, and escape punishment, in this life, yet, withal, he asserts that God will certainly, sooner or later, punish them; and that he sometimes doth it here, cutting them off by cruel and untimely deaths, or otherwise inflicting some notable judgment upon them, of which he also speaks Job 21:17.

18. He is swift as the waters — Better, Light is he on the face of the waters. A figure similar to that of the text appears in Hosea 10:7, “He is like foam (a twig, Sept.) on the face of the water.” Borne onward by the current, he is swift to disappear; while justice, with limping foot, (pede poena claudo. — HORACE, Carm., 3:2,) is too slow-paced to overtake him. Men may curse his “portion” when he is gone, but what cares he in the grave for public opinion? An exquisite stroke is that of the poet, He beholdeth not the way of the vineyards: scene of delights to him — of many a cool and shady walk — though of stern oppression for the poor, (verses 6-11.) The picture may remind the reader of a similar, but no more touching, one in “The Elegy,” that of the warm precincts of a cheerful day, on which the soul, departing, casts “one longing, lingering look behind.” The view of Carey and Hengstenberg, that Job speaks of pirates in this verse, is untenable.

Verse 19. Drought and heat consume the snow-waters] The public cisterns or large tanks which had been filled with water by the melting of the snow on the mountains, and which water was stored for the irrigation of their lands, had been entirely exhausted by the intensity of the heat, and the long continuance of drought.

So doth the grave those which have sinned.] For this whole paragraph we have only two words in the original; viz., wacj lwav sheol chatau, “the pit, they have sinned;” which Mr. Good translates:—”They fall to their lowest depth.”

I believe the meaning to be,—even the deepest tanks, which held most water, and retained it longest, had become exhausted; so that expectation and succour were cut off from this as well as from every other quarter. I have elsewhere shown that lwav sheol signifies, not only hell and the grave, but any deep pit; and, also, that acj chata signifies to miss the mark. Mr. Good, properly aware of these acceptations of the original words, has translated as above; and it is the only ground on which any consistent meaning can be given to the original.

Verse 19. Drought and heat consume the snow-waters — As the snow, though it doth for a time lie upon the ground, yet at last is dissolved into water by the heat of the season, and that water is quickly swallowed up by the earth when it is dry and thirsty; so ungodly sinners, though they live and prosper for a season, yet at last shall go into the grave, which will consume them, together with all their hopes and comforts; their merry life is followed by a sad and ofttimes sudden death; not with such a death as the godly die, which perfects them, and brings them to happiness, but with a consuming and never-dying death.

19. Consume the snow waters — The thought of the first clause of the preceding verse Job now proceeds to illustrate by an emblematic proverb. Travellers speak of mountain streams which have their rise in beds of snow, and which, as they descend into the plains, glide gently through the sands, each day becoming smaller, until at last the rivulet yields to the hot sky above and the parched sands beneath, and disappears in the arid wastes. See Job 6:17. Thus the grave (sheol) swallows up those that have sinned. “Job concedes to his friends that the wicked perish in their turn. But he cannot see in this a divine chastisement, for this is the common lot of men.” — Renan.

V. 20. Womb-His mother that bare him in her womb. Wickedness-The wicked man. Broken-Broken to pieces, or violently broken down, as the word signifies. Tree-Which being once broken down never grows again.

Verse 20. The womb shall forget him] The mother that bare him shall have no affection for him, nor be afflicted at his death. But the word רחם rechem signifies compassion, mercy. Mercy shall be unmindful of him. How dreadful such a state! When mercy itself forgets the sinner, his perdition slumbereth not.

The worm shall feed sweetly on him] The Chaldee has, “The cruel, who have neglected to commiserate the poor, shall be sweet to the worms.” He shall be brought into a state of the greatest degradation, and shall be no more remembered.

And wickedness shall be broken as a tree.] He shall be as a rotten or decayed tree, easily broken to pieces. If it were clear that hlw[ avlah, here rendered wickedness, has the same sense as hl[ aleh, a leaf, sucker, or shoot, then we might translate according to the ingenious version of Mr. Good; viz., But the shoot shall be broken off as a tree; which might, in this case, be supposed to refer to illicit commerce, the fruit of the womb becoming abortive.

Verse 20. The womb shall forget him — His mother that bare him, and much more the rest of his friends, shall seldom or never mention or remember him, but shall rather be ashamed to own their relation to one that lived such a vile and wretched life, and died such an accursed death. This portion he shall have, instead of that honour and renown which he thirsted and laboured for, and expected should perfume his name and memory. The worm shall feed sweetly on him — This proud and insolent tyrant, that preyed upon all his neighbours, shall himself become a prey to the contemptible worms; he shall be no more remembered — Namely, with honour, or so as to be desired; but his name shall rot, and scarcely ever be mentioned but with infamy. And wickedness shall be broken — The wicked man shall be broken to pieces, or violently broken down, as the word rbvt, tishaber, signifies; shall be utterly and irrecoverably destroyed; as a tree — Which being once broken never groweth again.

20. No more remembered — Nothing he recks, though a mother forget, and his name be blotted out from among men. Sweet to him shall be the worm, that is, the grave. Like a tree has the wicked man (wickedness) been broken suddenly from life, from its responsibilities and its tribunals. See note on Job 21:13.

V. 21. He-He here returns to the declaration of his farther wickednesses, the cause of these judgments. Barren-Barrenness was esteemed a curse and reproach; and so he added affliction to the afflicted.

Verse 21. He evil entreateth the barren] I believe the original word hlw should be translated he feedeth, and so the Vulgate understood the word: Pavit enim sterilem. He has been kind to the barren woman; but he has done no good to the widow. He has shown no mercy to large families; he has been an enemy to the procreation of children. Though he may, for particular reasons, have provided for a barren woman; yet the widow he has not comforted, she being old or infirm, or such as might not suit his purpose.

Verse 21. He evil-entreateth the barren — Job here returns to the declaration of his further acts of wickedness, the causes of these judgments; that heareth not — Barrenness was esteemed a curse and reproach; and so it is mentioned as an instance of this man’s wickedness, that he added affliction to the afflicted, whom he should have pitied and helped; but because the barren had no children, and the widows no husbands to defend or avenge their cause, he exercised cruelty upon them.

21. He evil entreateth — Better, He who evil entreated. The sterile woman, having no son to defend her, is taken for a type of feebleness. (Renan.) Doeth not good — An inscription in a tomb at Benihassan says of a ruler, “He injured no little child, he oppressed no widow… he treated the widow as a woman with a husband to protect her.” — BUNSEN, Egypt, 5:726-729.

Third strophe — Tyrants, too, God upholds in life, delivering them from dangerous sickness; until at last, ripe in years, they sink into the grave, bearing no marks of divine displeasure, 22-25.

V. 22. Draweth-Into his net.

Verse 22. He draweth also the mighty] Calmet gives the following version of the original: “He draws with him guards for his defense; he raises himself up, and does not feel assured of his life.” In the midst even of his guards he is afraid; and dares not put confidence in any person. This is an admirable delineation of the inquietudes and terrors of a tyrant.

Verse 22. He draweth also the mighty with his power — He draweth into his net, as Psalm 10:9, or to his party, to assist and serve him in his enterprises, those who are mighty in place, or wealth, or power; he practiseth upon these as well as upon the poor: he riseth up — Namely, against any man, as the same word µwq, kum, is rendered, Psalm 18:39, and 44:5. When he sets himself against a man and resolves to destroy him, no man is sure of life — None of them, whom he so opposes, can be secure of holding his life, but all such give themselves up as lost men, as knowing they cannot resist his greater power.

22. He draweth — Literally, He (God) preserveth the mighty by his power. For a similar use of Ëvm in the sense of “preserve,” “prolong,” see Psalm 36:10; 85:5; Isaiah 13:22. As frequently before, Job now shrinks from mentioning the name of Deity in such painful connexion. No man is sure of life — Hebrew, He (the wicked) riseth up and (though) he trusted not in life — that is, despaired of life. Canon Cook calls attention to hhayin, life, with its plural termination in, instead of im, which has been held to denote a late age for the book, and cites the Moabitic stone to show that the termination an is very ancient.

V. 23. Yet-Yet his eyes are upon their ways: although God gives them such strange successes, yet he sees and observes them all, and will in due time punish them.

Verse 23. Though it be given him to be in safety] The Vulgate gives this verse a singular turn: Dedit ei Deus locum pænitentiæ, et ille abutitur eo in superbiam, “God gave him space for repentance, but he has abused it through pride.” This is by no means conformable to the original. I think the words should be translated thus: “He gives them (i.e., the guards) to him for security, and he leans upon them; yet his eyes are upon their ways.” Though he have taken the guards, mentioned in the preceding verse, for his personal defence, and for this purpose he uses them; yet he is full of diffidence, and he is continually watching them lest they should be plotting his destruction. The true picture of an Eastern tyrant. Without are fightings; within are fears.

Verse 23. Though it be given him — Namely, of God; to be in safety — That is, Though God granteth to the oppressor to be for a time in apparent safety, and to live a comfortable life; whereon he resteth — His former experience of God’s long-suffering makes him confident of the continuance of it, so that he is not only happy in his present enjoyments, but also in his freedom from distracting fears of future miseries; yet his eyes are upon their ways — That is, the eyes of God, who, although he gives wicked men such strange successes and great prosperity, yet he sees and observes them all, and marks their whole conduct, and will in due time punish them severely.

23. Given… in safety, etc. — Rather, He (God) giveth him to be in safety, and he is sustained. His eyes — God’s eyes are upon their ways, in order to keep and preserve them.

V. 24. The way-Out of this world. Other-They can no more prevent or delay their death, than the meanest men in the world. Corn-In its greatest height and maturity.

Verse 24. They are exalted for a little while] Such tyrants are exalted for a time, for God putteth down one and raiseth up another; but he turns his hand against them, and they are gone. They are removed by his justice as all of the same character have been and shall be; time and judgment shall mow them down as the grass, and crop them off as the ears of ripe corn. They may flourish for a time, and continue their oppressions; but they shall at last come to an untimely end. Few tyrants ever visit the eternal world sicca morte, but by a violent death. All Eastern history is full of this great fact.

Verse 24. They are exalted for a little while — They live in honour and prosperity, but not for ever; it is only, at the most, during this short and mortal life, which lasts but for a very little time; and, therefore, their present happiness is not to be envied; nor is it any reproach to God’s providence, which has time enough to reckon with them hereafter; but are gone — Hebrew, wnnya, einennu, are not; namely, in this world, they die. And are brought low — As low as their graves. They are taken out of the way — Out of this world; as all other — They can no more prevent, or delay their death, than the meanest men in the world: and cut off — By the sickle of death, perhaps by the hand of violence; as the tops of the ears of corn — When in its greatest height and maturity; when they are arrived at their perfect stature of worldly power and glory, then God cuts them off, and that suddenly and unexpectedly.

24. But are gone — Better, And are no more. And they are brought low; like all, are they gathered, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. Taken out of the way — Kaphats, gathered; “snatched away,” (Delitzsch,) “crumpled together,” (Dillmann.) Underneath the word, as Job uses it, lies the idea, Delitzsch thinks, “of housing, gathering into a barn.” This, together with the following figure, bears the look of a reply to Eliphaz, with his rural picture of the death of the just. Job 5:26. Mature in wickedness, malefactors are cut off with no more evidence of divine judgment upon them than belongs to all mankind. Thus Job has turned the finely built fortress of the friends, and left them without an argument. His view of the orb of truth, however, has been of the side where the shadow was deepest. In the heat of debate he has magnified single instances into generals, and left a painful impression as to the providence of God in this world. The reader cannot, however, but feel, even here, that Job has confidence that God can and will solve the mystery.

Verse 25. And if it be not so now] Job has proved by examples that the righteous are often oppressed; that the wicked often triumph over the just, that the impious are always wretched even in the midst of their greatest prosperity; and he defies his friends to show one flaw in his argument, or an error in his illustration of it; and that existing facts are farther proofs of what he has advanced.

IN the preceding chapters we find Job’s friends having continual recourse to this assertion, which it is the grand object of all their discourses to prove, viz., The righteous are so distinguished in the approbation of God, that they live always in prosperity, and die in peace. On the other hand, Job contends that the dispensations of Providence are by no means thus equal in this life; that experience shows that the righteous are often in adversity, and the wicked in power and prosperity. Job’s friends had also endeavoured to prove that if a reported good man fell into adversity, it was a proof that his character had been mistaken, that he was an internal sinner and hypocrite; and that God, by these manifest proofs of his disapprobation, unmasked him. Hence they charged Job with hypocrisy and secret sins, because he was now suffering adversity, and that his sins must be of the most heinous nature, because his afflictions were uncommonly great. This Job repels by appeals to numerous facts where there was nothing equivocal in the character; where the bad was demonstrably bad, and yet in prosperity; and the good demonstrably good, and yet in adversity. It is strange that none of these could hit on a middle way: viz., The wicked may be in prosperity, but he is ever miserable in his soul: the righteous may be in adversity, but he is ever happy in his God. In these respects, God’s ways are always equal.

On Job 24:14, I have referred to the case of unfortunate men who, falling into adversity, madly have recourse to plunder to restore their ruined circumstances. The following anecdote is told of the justly celebrated Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, the grandfather of that highly benevolent, useful, learned, and eminent man, Granville Sharp, Esq., with whom I had for several years the honour of a personal acquaintance. “Never was any man, as well by the tenderness of his nature as by the impulse of religion, better disposed to succour the distressed, and relieve the necessities of the poor; to which merciful offices he had so strong an inclination that no reasonable solicitations were ever in danger of meeting with a repulse. Nay, he was more prone to seek out proper objects of his bounty, than to reject them when recommended; and so far was his charity from any suspicion of being extorted by importunity, that it appeared rather a delight than uneasiness to him to extend his liberality upon all proper occasions.”

For the same reason, a singular anecdote of the archbishop, related in the London Chronicle of Aug. 13, 1785, and always credited by his family, may be thought worth preserving.

“It was his lordship’s custom to have a saddle-horse attend his carriage, that in case of fatigue from sitting, he might take the refreshment of a ride. As he was thus going to his episcopal residence, and was got a mile or two before his carriage, a decent, well-looking young man came up with him; and, with a trembling hand and a faltering tongue presented a pistol to his lordship’s breast, and demanded his money. The archbishop, with great composure, turned about; and, looking steadfastly at him, desired he would remove that dangerous weapon, and tell him fairly his condition. ‘Sir! sir!’ with great agitation, cried the youth; ‘no words, ‘tis not a time; your money instantly.’ ‘Hear me, young man,’ said the archbishop; ‘you see I am an old man, and my life is of very little consequence: yours seems far otherwise. I am named Sharp, and am archbishop of York; my carriage and servants are behind. Tell me what money you want, and who you are, and I will not injure you, but prove a friend. Here, take this; and now ingenuously tell me how much you want to make you independent of so destructive a business as you are now engaged in.’ ‘O sir,’ replied the man, ‘I detest the business as much as you. I am-but-but-at home there are creditors who will not stay-fifty pounds, my lord, indeed would do what no tongue besides my own can tell.’ ‘Well, sir, I take it on your word; and, upon my honour, if you will, in a day or two, call on me at ___, what I have now given you shall be made up that sum.’ The highwayman looked at him, was silent, and went off; and, at the time appointed, actually waited on the archbishop, and assured his lordship his words had left impressions which nothing could ever destroy.

“Nothing more transpired for a year and a half or more; when one morning a person knocked at his grace’s gate, and with peculiar earnestness desired to see him. The archbishop ordered the stranger to be brought in. He entered the room where his lordship was, but had scarce advanced a few steps before his countenance changed, his knees tottered, and he sank almost breathless on the floor. On recovering, he requested an audience in private. The apartment being cleared, ‘My lord,’ said he, ‘you cannot have forgotten the circumstances at such a time and place; gratitude will never suffer them to be obliterated from my mind. In me, my lord, you now behold that once most wretched of mankind; but now, by your inexpressible humanity, rendered equal, perhaps superior, in happiness to millions. O, my lord!’ tears for a while preventing his utterance, ‘‘tis you, ‘tis you that have saved me, body and soul; ‘tis you that have saved a dear and much-loved wife, and a little brood of children, whom I tendered dearer than my life. Here are the fifty pounds; but never shall I find language to testify what I feel. Your God is your witness; your deed itself is your glory; and may heaven and all its blessings be your present and everlasting reward! I was the younger son of a wealthy man; your lordship knows him; his name was ___. My marriage alienated his affection; and my brother withdrew his love, and left me to sorrow and penury. A month since my brother died a bachelor and intestate. What was his, is become mine; and by your astonishing goodness, I am now at once the most penitent, the most grateful, and happiest of my species.’” See Prince Hoar’s life of Granville Sharp, Esq., page 13. I have no doubt there have been several cases of a similar kind, when the first step in delinquency was urged by necessity; but few of such wretched adventurers have met with an Archhishop Sharp. An early and pious education is the only means under God to prevent such dangerous steps, which generally lead to the most fearful catastrophe. Teach a child, that whom God loveth he chasteneth. Teach him, that God suffers men to hunger, and be in want, that he may try them if they will be faithful, and do them good in their latter end. Teach him, that he who patiently and meekly bears providential afflictions, shall be relieved and exalted in due time. Teach him, that it is no sin to die in the most abject poverty and affliction, brought on in the course of Divine providence, but that any attempts to alter his condition by robbery, knavery, cozening, and fraud, will be distinguished with heavy curses from the Almighty, and necessarily end in perdition and ruin. A child thus educated is not likely to abandon himself to unlawful courses.

JOB

Verse 25. And if it be not so now — Namely, as I have discoursed; if God does not often suffer wicked men to live long and prosperously in the world, before he punishes them; and if good men be not sometimes sorely afflicted here; if all things do not fall alike to all men in these matters; and if it do not from hence follow, that I am unjustly injured and condemned: who will make me a liar? Or, as Sol. Jarchi interprets the words, Let one of you come and make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth — Let them that can undertake to prove that my discourse is either false in itself, and then they prove me a liar; or foreign, and nothing to the purpose, and then they prove it frivolous and nothing worth. That, indeed, which is false is nothing worth: where there is not truth, how can there be goodness? But they that speak the words of truth and soberness, need not fear having what they say brought to the test, but can cheerfully submit it to a fair examination, as Job here submits what he had spoken.

FROM ALL EARTHLY RETRIBUTION, BY AN OPPORTUNE DEATH, 13-25. First strophe — Blackest miscreants rebel against the light and burrow in the night, defying the God who professedly sees in secret, while they say, “No eye shall see me,” 13-17.

13. Those that rebel against the light — Job now introduces another class of evildoers, the workers in the dark — murderers, thieves, adulterers. He has thus far spoken of the lawless who practice evil in the broad daylight, and those, too, whom law, “as yet unmitigated by the Mosaic code,” may have seemed to shield, such as usurers, tyrants, and rich, heartless employers. He will now speak of greater monsters, those who “have become rebels against the light,” and who undermine all institutions, human and divine. The light of the day is a fit emblem of a higher and purer essence shining within the soul of man. All sin begins in rebellion against the light. Its very essence is hatred of the light. John 3:20. The ways of light it eschews, and its paths it abhors, until the soul, perverted and stunted, becomes one with the darkness. Man makes for himself the moral world wherein he shall dwell. And this, a sky of light or of darkness, has its reflex influences upon the soul. Under these it becomes a child of light, (1 Thessalonians 5:5,) and eventually light itself, (Ephesians 5:8,) or it becomes a “child of the night.” and is in like manner transformed into darkness. Ephesians 5:8.