Chapter 4:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Esther Psalms
Job 4
Eliphaz owns Job's former usefulness, but infers from his
present state and behaviour, that he was an hypocrite, ver. 1-6. He
affirms that God never afflicts man, but for his wickedness, ver.
7-11. He confirms his assertion, by the words he heard in a vision,
ver. 12-21. By all this he aims to make Job both penitent and
patient under his sufferings.
Verse 2. If we, &c. - He speaks with great modesty. He will not
undertake the cause alone, but joins his friends with him. He will
not promise much, but only assay, or try if he could propose any
thing pertinent to Job's case. Withhold - When he hears such
words from such a person as thou art.
Verse 4. Feeble knees - Such as were weak hearted, and fainting under
their trials.
Verse 6. Thy fear - We now plainly see what was the nature of thy fear
of God, thy confidence in him, the uprightness of thy ways, and
thy hope in God's mercy. Thy present carriage discovers that it
was but mere talk and appearance.
Verse 7. Innocent - Therefore thou art guilty of some great, though
secret crimes, and thy sin hath now found thee out. Cut off - By
the sickle of Divine vengeance before his time, which is like to be
thy case. Eliphaz here advances another argument to prove Job an
hypocrite; taken not only from his impatience under afflictions,
but from his afflictions themselves.
Verse 8. Even - As thou hast never seen any example of a righteous man
cut off, so I have seen many of wicked men cut off for their
wickedness. They - They that designedly work wickedness, first
preparing themselves for it, and then continuing to execute it, as
husbandmen first plow the ground, and then cast in the feed. Reap
- The fruit of their iniquity, the just punishment of it.
Verse 9. The blast - Of his nostrils, as it follows; by his anger, which in
men shews itself, in the nostrils, by hot and frequent breathings
there, by a secret, but mighty judgment of God, they are blown
away as chaff by the wind.
Verse 10. The roaring - Nor can they escape, even were they strong as
lions, yea, as the strongest and fiercest of them. Broken - Which is
true literally; the lions when taken having most commonly their
teeth broken, as ancient and modern writers relate. But this is
meant of powerful tyrants, who are fitly compared to lions, Ezek
xxxii, 2; xxxviii, 13, who though for a time they persecute and
oppress other men, yet in due time they are restrained, and
broken, and crushed in pieces by the mighty power of God.
Possibly he may secretly accuse Job, or his children, that being
persons of great wealth and power, they had abused it to ruin their
neighbours, and therefore were justly cut off.
Verse 11. Scattered - Gone from their dens several ways to hunt for
prey, and can find none.
Verse 12. Now - To convince Job of the sin and folly of impatience,
Eliphaz relates a vision he had had, perhaps since he came to him.
Which in that age and state of the church, before the holy
scriptures were written, was the usual way of God's discovering
his mind to those that sought him. A thing - Hebrew. a word, from
God, a message. Secretly - Hebrew. was stolen, or brought by
stealth unto me, privately and secretly, as the word of God used to
come to the prophets, being spoken in their ear, as it was to
Samuel, with a low and still voice. He does not pretend to have
understood it fully; but something of it he perceived. How little a
portion is heard of God! How little do we know of him in this
world.
Verse 13. In thoughts - These thoughts arose from the visions of the
night, which it is probable he had seen before. Visions differed
from dreams herein, that God imparted his mind to men in dreams
when asleep, but in visions, when they were awake. And these
visions sometimes happened by day, but most frequently by night.
Sleep - In the dead of the night, when men usually are in a deep
sleep; though Eliphaz was not now asleep.
Verse 15. A spirit - An angel in visible shape, otherwise he could not
have discerned it. Stood up - Through that excessive horror
caused by so glorious, unusual, and terrible a presence.
Verse 16. Stood - Having passed by him to, and again, he made a stand,
and addressed himself to speak. The form - Exactly and distinctly.
An image - I saw some visible resemblance, though in a confused
manner. Silence - The spirit, which possibly had made some noise
with his motion, now standing still made no noise; all other
persons and things about me were silent, and I also kept in my
voice and breath, that I might distinctly hear. In the Hebrew, the
words run thus, silence and a voice I heard.
Verse 17. More just - Pretend more strictly to observe the laws of
justice? Shall (enosh) mortal, miserable man (so the word
signifies) be thus insolent? Nay, shall geber, the strongest and
most eminent man, stand in competition with God? Those that
find fault with the directions of the Divine law, the dispensations
of the Divine grace, or the disposal of the Divine providence, do
make themselves more just and pure than God: who being their
maker, is their Lord and owner: and the author of all the justice
and purity that is in man.
Verse 18. Servants - They are called his servants by way of eminency,
that general name being here appropriated to the chief of the kind,
to intimate that sovereign dominion which the great God hath
over the angels, and much more over men. With folly - Without
all doubt, this refers to those angels who foolishly and wickedly
fell from God.
Verse 19. How, &c. - The sense is, what strange presumption then is it
for a foolish and mortal man, to make himself more just than God.
In them - Who though they have immortal spirits, yet those spirits
dwell in mortal bodies, which are great clogs, and incumbrances,
and snares to them. These are called houses, (because they are the
receptacles of the soul, and the places of its settled abode) and
houses of clay, because they were made of clay, or earth, and to
note their great frailty and mutability; whereas the angels are free
spirits, unconfined to such carcasses, and dwell in celestial, and
glorious, and everlasting mansions. Whose - Whose very
foundation, no less than the rest of the building, is in the dust; had
their original from it, and must return to it. We stand but upon the
dust: some have an higher heap of dust to stand upon than others.
But still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us
up. Before - Sooner than a moth is crushed, which is easily done
by a gentle touch of the finger. Or, at the face of a moth. No
creature is so contemptible, but one time or other it may have the
body of man in its power.
Verse 20. Destroyed - All the day long, there is not a moment wherein
man is not sinking towards death and corruption. Perish - In
reference to this present worldly life, which when once lost is
never recovered. Regarding - Hebrew. without putting the heart to
it, this is so common a thing for all men, though never so high and
great, to perish in this manner, that no man heeds it, but passes it
by as a general accident not worthy of observation.
Verse 21. Excellency - Whatsoever is by common estimation excellent
in men, all their natural, and moral, and civil accomplishments, as
high birth, great riches, power and wisdom, these are so far from
preserving men from perishing, that they perish themselves,
together with those houses of clay in which they are lodged.
Without wisdom - Even without having attained that only wisdom
for which they came into the world. Shall such mean, weak,
foolish, sinful, dying creatures as this, pretend to be more just
than God, more pure than his maker? No: instead of quarrelling
with his afflictions, let him admire that he is out of hell.
Chapter 4:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Esther Psalms
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
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