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Satan receives permission,

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him 1 to е

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A. M. 2484. although thou movedst me against his bone and his flesh, and he will A. M. 2484. destroy him without curse thee to thy face. 6 h And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; 2 but save his life. 7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore biles from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

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5 But put forth thy hand now, and touch 1 Heb. to swallow him ир. Chap. ix. 17. Chap. i. 11. his integrity? and, in vain hast thou excited me to destroy him: and Houbigant, He still retains his integrity, after thou hast excited me against him,|| body. that I might trouble him, in vain.

Verse 6. The Lord said, Behold, he is in thy

this way: do thy worst at him; afflict him to the uttermost of thy power. But save his life-Do not attempt to take that away which I will not suffer thee to do. God had mercy in store for Job, after this trial, and therefore he must survive it ; and how much soever he may be afflicted, his life must be given him for a prey. If God did not chain up the roaring lion, how soon would he devour us! As far as he permits the wrath of Satan and wicked men to proceed against his people, he will make it

whose heel that infernal serpent was permitted to bruise, to touch even his bone and his flesh, yea, and his life also; because, by dying, he was to do what Job could not do, to destroy him that had the power of death.

Verse 4. Skin for skin, &c.—The design of these|| hand-I give thee permission to try him even in words is plain, which was to detract from Job, and to diminish that honour and praise which God gave him, by pretending that he had done no more than the meanest men commonly do by the law of selfpreservation. And it is equally clear that this was a proverbial speech then in use, to denote the great value in which life is held, insomuch that, to preserve it, a man would suffer even his skin to be torn off. It may signify also that a man, in order to save his life, would willingly suffer himself to be stripped of all his property. But the words 13 beg-turn to his own praise and theirs, and the remainder nad naphsho, rendered here, for his life, ought thereof he will restrain. Job, in being thus malignrather to be rendered, for his person. For the ques-ed and afflicted by Satan, was a type of Christ; tion was not about his life, which Satan had not the impudence to desire; nor indeed could the trial be made, by taking away his life, whether he would hold fast his integrity; but rather by smiting him in his bone, and in his flesh. And Satan, in these words, insinuates that severe bodily pain was much more grievous to the human nature, and would be| less patiently borne by Job, than any outward calamities which did not affect his own person. It is as if he had said, How dear soever a man's goods, or servants, or children, may be to him, yet still his own person is dearer; and seeing that Job is still under no pain of body, and in no danger of losing his life, his constancy is not to be boasted of: nor is his holding fast his integrity amidst his losses, nor his patience under them, an evidence of his sincere and generous piety, but these things are rather effects of mere self-love: he is content with the loss of his estate, and even of his children too, so long as he sleeps in a whole skin; and is well pleased that thou wilt accept of these as a ransom in his stead. And it is not true patience which makes him seem to bear his troubles so submissively, but rather policy, that he may in this way appease thy wrath against him, and prevent those further plagues, which, for his hypocrisy, he fears thou wouldst otherwise bring upon his body.

Verse 7. Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord-Or, from the Lord, añо T8 Kvpie, as the LXX. render it. Compare Acts v. 41, They departed, ano Town T odpis, from the presence of the council that is, from the council. And smote Job with sore biles -E2Kε πоvnрw, with a foul ulcer, or evil inflammation, say the Seventy; breaking out and spreading itself over all his body. The biles, it seems, were like those inflicted upon the Egyptians, which are expressed by the same word, and threatened to the apostate Israelites, (Deut. xxviii. 27,) whereby he was made loathsome to himself and to his nearest relations, and filled with consuming pains in his body, and no less torments and anguish in his mind. From the sole of his foot unto his crown-In all the outward parts of his body. "His tongue," says Poole, "he spared, that it might be capable of uttering those blasphemies against God which Satan desired and expected him to utter." One boil, when it is gathering, is very distressing, and gives a man abundance of pain and uneasiness. What a condition was Job then in, who had biles all over his body, no Verse 5. But touch his bone and his flesh-part being free, and those as much inflamed, and of That is, smite him, not slightly, but to the quick, to as raging a heat, as Satan could make them! If the bones and marrow, so that he may feel pain and at any time we be exercised with sore and grievous anguish indeed: and he will curse thee to thy face-distempers, let us not think ourselves more hardly Will openly and daringly blaspheme thy perfections, and reproach the dispensations of thy providence, and so will let go his integrity. Satan knew, and we find by experience, that nothing has a greater

dealt with than God has sometimes dealt with the best of his saints and servants. We know not how far Satan may have a hand, by God's permission, in the diseases with which mankind, especially the

Job's wife reviles him.

CHAPTER II.

His pious reproof.

A. M. 2184. 8 And he took him a potsherd to || still scrape himself withal; and he sat

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down among the ashes.

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retain thine integrity? curse A. M. 2484. God, and die. 10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one

9¶Then said his wife unto him, 'Dost thou of the foolish women speaketh. What! "shall

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children of God, are afflicted; or what infections that prince of the air may spread, what inflammations may come from that fiery serpent. We read of one whom he had bound for many years, Luke xiii. 10. And should God suffer him to have his will against us, he would soon make the best and bravest of us very miserable. It is a judicious remark of Dr. Mede here, that it is not Job himself or his friends, but the author of the book, who attributes his calamities to Satan; for this writer's intention seems to have been to show, by a striking example, that the world is governed by the providence of God; and as the holy angels, whose ministry God makes use of in distributing his bountiful gifts, punctually execute all his commands; so Satan him-taining that he was innocent of those secret sins self, with his agents, are under the power of God, and cannot inflict any evils on mankind without the divine permission.

those that are dear to us. We ought, therefore, carefully to watch, that we be not drawn to any evil by them whom we love and value the most. Dost thou still retain thine integrity?--Art thou so weak as still to persist in the practice of righteousness, when it is not only unprofitable to thee, but the chief occasion of all these thy insupportable miseries, and when God himself not only forsakes and leaves thee in this helpless and hopeless condition, but is turned to be thy greatest enemy? This is evidently the meaning of the expression, holding fast his integrity, when used by God, speaking of Job, verse 3, and, it seems, must be its meaning here; and not, as some commentators have supposed, the main

with which his friends appeared to have charged him; a sense of the words which would not at all suit the connection in which this, or the third verse, Verse 8. And he took a potsherd, &c.-His chil- stands with the verses following. Curse God and dren and servants were all dead, his wife unkind, die-Seeing thy blessing and praising God avail and none of those whom he had formerly befriended thee so little, it is time for thee to change thy had so much sense of honour and gratitude as to language. Reproach him to his face, and tell him minister to him in his distress, to furnish him with of his injustice and unkindness to thee; and that he linen clothes, or lend a hand to cleanse or dress his loves his enemies and hates his friends, and that will running sores; either because the disease was loath- provoke him to take away thy life, and so end thy torsome and offensive, or because they apprehended ments. Or, Curse God, though thou die for it. This is it to be infectious. Being therefore deprived of the sense in which the same Hebrew word is evidently other relief, he laid hold on what was next at hand, || used by Satan, (chap. i. 11,) and, as it appears from a piece of a broken pot, or tile, to press out, or rethe next verse, that Job's wife was now under move, the purulent matter which was under his Satan's influence, and was an instrument employed ulcers, or flowed from them, and was the great by him to tempt her husband, and so to forward his cause of his pain; or to rub them, and allay the design, which certainly was to prevail with Job to itching, which, as they began to die away, probably curse or reproach God; this seems to be her meanbecame intolerable. The Hebrew word inn, le- ing. Inasmuch, however, as the original word, alhithgared, here used, which we translate to scrape though it sometimes evidently signifies to curse, yet himself, occurs nowhere else in the Bible, but is generally means to bless, it may be so interpreted said to be frequently used in Chaldee and Arabic in here if we consider Job's wife as speaking ironithe sense of pulling off bark or leaves from trees, cally, as many, even pious, persons, are represented and is here rendered by the LXX. va Tov xwpa fun, in the Scriptures to have spoken. The meaning that he might wipe off, or cleanse away, the corrupt then will be, Bless God and die-That is, I see thou matter. And sat down among the ashes-Enɩ ins art set upon blessing God; thou blessest him for KOTPLAS EEW TAS TOREWs, upon the dung-hill without giving, and thou blessest him for taking away and the city, say the Seventy. Here he would easily find thou art even blessing him for thy loathsome and a potsherd at hand, but not any clean and soft linen tormenting diseases, and he rewards thee accordclothes, much less any ointments, salves, or plasingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of ters, proper for the healing of his sores. But it is probable, if he had had such things at hand he would not have used them; for as he sat down in this place, in dust and ashes, as mourners used to do, humbling himself under the mighty hand of God, so, in the same spirit of self-abasement and humiliation, he Verse 10. But he said, Thou speakest as one of the would have declined all things that savoured of ten- foolish women speaketh--That is, like a rash, inconderness and delicacy, and have still used his potsherd.siderate, and weak woman, that does not understand Verse 9. Then said his wife-Whom Satan had nor mind what she says: or rather, like a wicked spared, that she might be a troubler and tempter to and profane person, for such are frequently called him. For it is his policy to send his temptations by fools in the Scriptures. Shall we receive good, &c.,

mercy for which thou blessest him. Go on, therefore, in this thy generous course, and die as a fool dieth. And, this being her meaning, it is not strange that he reproves her so sharply for it in the next words.

Job's three friends

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A. M. 2484, we receive good at the hand of || with him, and to comfort him. A. M. 2484. God, and shall we not receive evil? 12 And when they lifted up their eyes In all this did not Job Psin with his afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their lips. voice and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and "sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

13 So they sat down with him upon the ground

11 ¶ Now when Job's three a friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zo-seven days and seven nights, and none spake phar the Naamathite: for they had made an a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

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come to mourn

-9 Prov. xvii. 17. Gen. xxxvi. 11; Jer. xlix. 7.- s Gen. xxv. 2.

and shall we not receive evil?-Shall we poor worms give laws to our supreme Lord, and oblige him never to afflict us? And shall not those great and manifold mercies, which from time to time God hath given us, compensate these short afflictions? Ought we not to bless God for those mercies which we did not deserve, and contentedly bear those afflictions which we do deserve, and stand in need of, and by which, if it be not our own fault, we may get so much good. Shall we not receive-Shall we not expect to receive evil, namely, the evil of suffering? If God give us so many good things, shall we be surprised, or think it strange, if he sometimes afflict us, when he has told us, that prosperity and adversity are set the one against the other? 1 Pet. iv. 12. If we receive so many comforts, shall we not receive some afflictions, which will serve as foils to our comforts, to make them the more valuable? Shall we not be taught the worth of our mercies, by being made sometimes to want them, and as allays to our comforts, to make them the less dangerous, to keep the balance even, and to prevent our being lifted up above measure? 2 Cor. xii. 7. If we receive so much good for the body, shall we not receive some good for the soul? That is, some affliction, by which we may be made partakers of God's holiness? Heb. xii. 10. Let murmuring, therefore, as well as boasting, be for ever excluded. In all this did not Job sin with his lips-By any reflections upon God, by any impatient or unbecoming expression. In other words, he held fast his integrity in the sense explained above; which this demonstrates to be the true sense of that phrase.

Verse 11. When Job's three friends heard of all this, &c.—Who were persons eminent for birth and quality, for wisdom and knowledge, and for the profession of the true religion, being probably, as has been observed on chap. i. 1, of the posterity of Abraham, akin to Job, and living in the same country with him. See that note. The preserving so much wisdom and piety among those that were not children of the promise was a happy presage of God's grace to the Gentiles, when the partition wall should, in the latter days, be taken down. Esau lost the birthright, and when he should have regained it, was rejected, yet it appears many of his descendants inherited some of the best blessings.

Verse 12. When they lifted up their eyes afar off

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Namely, at some convenient distance from him; whom they found sitting upon the ground, probably in the open air. And knew him not-His countenance being so dreadfully changed and disfigured by the ulcers. They lifted up their voice and weptThrough their sympathy with him, and great grief for his heavy affliction. And they rent every one his mantle-As it was usual for people to do in great and sudden calamities. And sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven-Either on the upper part of their heads toward heaven, or threw it up into the air, so that it fell upon their heads, and showed the confusion they were in: all which things were marks of great grief and affliction, and were the usual ways of expressing sorrow in those days.

Verse 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground-In the same mournful posture wherein they found him, which indeed was the usual posture of mourners, condoling with him. Sitting on the ground, in the language of the eastern people, signifies their passing the time in the deepest mourning. Seven days and seven nights-Which was the usual time of mourning for the dead, Gen. 1. 10; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13, and therefore proper, both for Job's children, who were dead, and for Job himself, who was, in a manner, dead while he lived: not that they continued in this posture so long together, which the necessities of nature could not bear: but they spent a great, or the greatest, part of that time in sitting with him, and silent mourning over him. And none spake a word to him-About his afflictions or the cause of them, or, perhaps, about any thing. "A long silence," says Dr. Dodd, "is a very natural effect of an extraordinary grief, which overwhelms the mind, and creates a sort of stupor and astonishment. Thus we find the Prophet Ezekiel, chap. iii. 15, sitting with his brethren of the captivity by the river Chebar, for seven days, astonished, silent among them, as the Chaldee renders it; struck dumb, as it were, at the apprehension of their present miseries, and the still greater calamities coming on his country." And thus were Job's friends affected on this occasion; their long silence arising from the greatness of their grief for him, and their surprise and astonishment at the condition in which they found him. They probably, also, thought it proper to give him some further time to vent his own sorrows; and might, as yet, not know what to say to him: for

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We have here Job cursing his birth-day, and complaining that he was born, 1-10. Complaining that he did not die as soon as he was born, 11-19. Complaining that his life was continued now he was in misery, 20–26.

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A. M. 2494. AFTER this opened Job his mouth, and the night in which it was said, A. M. 2484. and cursed his day.

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2 And Job1 spake, and said,

There is a man-child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard

3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

1 Heb. answered.

NOTES ON CHAPTER III.

a

Chap. x. 18; Jer. xv. 10; xx. 14.

and for giving him life on that day. Some other pious persons, through a similar infirmity, when immersed in deep troubles, have vented their grief in the same unjustifiable way. See Jeremiah xx. 14.

,Jobad jom ivaled bo- יאבד יום אולד בו

Verse 1. After this Job opened his mouth-The days of mourning being now over, and no hopes appearing of Job's amendment, but his afflictions rather increasing, he bursts into a severe lamentation; he wishes he had never existed, or that his death had Verse 3. Here the metrical part of this book beimmediately followed his birth; life under such a gins, which in the original Hebrew is broken into load of calamity appearing to him the greatest afflic-short verses, and is very beautiful, thus: tiot. Undoubtedly Satan, who had been permitted to bring the fore-mentioned calamities upon him, and to torment his body so dreadfully, had also ob tained liberty to assault his mind with various and powerful temptations. This he now does with the utmost violence, injecting hard thoughts of God, as being severe, unjust, and his enemy; that he might shake his confidence and hope, and produce that horror and dismay, which might issue in his cursing God. For, as is justly observed by Mr. Scott, unless we bring these inward trials into the account, during which we may conclude that he was deprived of all comfortable sense of God's favour, and filled with a dread of his wrath, we shall not readily apprehend the reason of the change that took place in his conduct, from the entire resignation manifested in the preceding chapters, to the impatience which appears here, and in some of the subsequent parts of this book. But this consideration solves the difficulty: the inward conflict and anguish of his mind, added to all his outward sufferings, caused the remaining corruption of his nature to work so power- || fully, that at length it burst forth in many improper expressions. And cursed his day-His birth-day, as is evident from verse 3. In vain do some endeavour to excuse this and the following speeches of Job, who afterward is reproved by God, and severely accuses himself for them, chap. xxxviii. 2; xl. 4; xlii. 3, 6. And yet he does not proceed so far as to curse God, and therefore makes the devil a liar: but although he does not break forth into direct reproaches of God, yet he makes indirect reflections upon his proVerse 4. Let that day be darkness-I wish the sun vidence. His curse was sinful, both because it was had never risen on that day; or, which is the same vain, being applied to what was not capable of re-thing, that it had never been: and whensoever that ceiving blessing or cursing, and because it reflected day returns, instead of the cheering and refreshing blame on God for bringing that day into existence, beams of light arising upon it, I wish it may be co

Vehalailah amar horah geber. Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night which said, A man child is conceived. Let the day perish, &c.-So far from desiring, according to the general and prevailing custom, that my birth-day should be celebrated; that any singular tokens of joy and gratulation should be expressed on it, in remembrance of my coming into the world, my earnest and passionate desire is, that it may not so much as be reckoned one of the days of the year, but that both it and the remembrance of it may be utterly lost. And the night in which it was' said-With joy and triumph, as happy tidings, There is a man-child conceived-Or rather, brought forth, as the word, harah, signifies, (1 Chron. iv. 17,) for the exact time of conception is commonly unknown to women themselves, and certainly is not wont to be reported among men, as this day is supposed to be. Indeed, this latter clause is only a repetition of the former, expressing that, whether it was day or night when he was born, he wished the time to be forgotten. Heath translates the words, And the night which said, See, a man-child is born; and he observes, from Schultens, "that the bearing of a son was considered a matter of great consequence among the Arabians; the form of their appreciation of happiness to a new-married woman being, 'May you live happy, and bring forth male children.""

Job laments the

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JOB.

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day of his birth. A. M. 2484. 5 Let darkness and the shadow 8 Let them curse it that curse the A. M. 2484. of death 2 stain it; let a cloud dwell day, who are ready to raise up 5 their upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. mourning. 6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day.

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my

7 Lo, let that night be solitary; let no joyful mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. voice come therein.

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11 Why died I not from the womb? why

Or, let it not rejoice among the days. Jer. ix. 17.—Or, a leviathan.- - Heb. the eyelids of the morning, Chap. xli. 18. d Chap. x. 18. every month be looked upon as perfect and complete without taking that night or day into the number.

Verse 7. Let that night be solitary-Destitute of all society of men, meeting and feasting together. Let it afford no entertainment or pleasure of any kind; let no joyful voice come therein-No music, no harmony of sound be heard, no cheerful or pleasing

much as once attempted, however engaging and affecting they may be.

Verse 5. Let darkness and the shadow of death—voice admitted! Let no expressions of joy be so Let the most dismal darkness, like that of the place of the dead, which is a land of darkness, and where the light is darkness, chap. x. 21, 22; or darkness so gross and palpable, that its horrors are insupportable; stain it-Take away its beauty and glory, and render it abominable as a filthy thing; or, rather, challenge or claim it, as the word xr, jigaluhu, here used, may properly be rendered, the verb x, gaal, signifying, primarily, to avenge, redeem, rescue, deliver, claim, possess. Indeed, as Houbigant justly observes, "There enters nothing of pollution into the idea of darkness." Let a cloud dwell upon it, &c.-Let the thickest clouds wholly possess it, and render it terrible to men. Dr. Waterland renders the last clause, Let the blackness make it hideous.

Verse 8. Let them curse it that curse the dayThat is, their birth-day: when their afflictions move them to curse their own birth-day, let them remember mine also, and bestow some curses upon it; who are ready to raise up their mourning-Who are full of sorrow, and always ready and always ready to pour out their cries, and tears, and complaints. A late writer paraphrases this verse as follows: "So little am I concerned to have my birth-night celebrated by any public demonstrations of joy, by any solemn blessing or giving of thanks, that I would rather choose to hire a set of those men, whose business it is to curse the days that are esteemed inauspicious, and who are always ready on such occasions. Let them be produced, and let them apply all their skill in raising their mournful voices to the highest pitch: and let them study to find out proper expressions to load it with the highest and heaviest imprecations." If the reader will consult Poole and Dodd on the passage, he will find some reasons adduced which go to justify this exposition; but for which we have not room here.

Verse 6. As for that night, let darkness seize up-| on it-Constant and extraordinary darkness, without the least glimmering of light from the moon or stars; darkness to the highest degree possible. Thus, as Job had thrown out his resentment against the day in which he was born, so now the severity of his cen- || sure falls on his birth-right; and his style, we find, increases and grows stronger. Our translation, indeed, makes no difference in the expression of dark- Verse 9. Let the stars of the twilight thereof, &c. ness; namely, "Let that day be darkness; as for that That adorn the heavens with so much beauty and night, let darkness seize upon it." But the Hebrew lustre, never be seen that night. Let it look for is very different: for Jn, choshec, is applied to the || light, but have none-Let it wait with the greatest day, and 8, ophel, to the night, which latter word impatience for some pleasing refreshment from signifies a much greater degree of darkness than the thick, heavy clouds hanging over it; but let not the former. See Joel ii. 2; in the Hebrew, where the smallest degree of light appear; neither let it see the latter word, s, ophelah, means thick and terrible dawning of the day-Neither let it perceive the least darkness. Let it not be joined unto the days of the glimpse of those bright rays, which, with so much year-Reckoned as one, or a part of one of them. swiftness, issue from the rising sun. Or rather, Let it not rejoice among the days, &c., for T, jechad, from 77, chadah, lætari, to rejoice, may properly be so rendered. Joy here, and terror verse 5, are poetically and figuratively ascribed to the day or night, with respect to men who may either rejoice or be affrighted therein. Let it not rejoice, that is, let it be a sad, and, as it were, a funeral day. Let it not come into the number of the months-May

Verse 10. Because it shut not up my mother's womb-Because it did not confine me to the dark prison of the womb, but suffered me to escape from thence; nor hid sorrow from mine eyes-Because it did not keep me from entering into this miserable life, and seeing or experiencing those bitter sorrows under which I now groan.

Verses 11, 12. Why died I not from the womb?—

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