Chapter 5:
| 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 5
Sin occasions destruction, ver. 1-5. Affliction is the common lot
of mankind, ver. 6-7. In affliction we should fly to God, who is
both able and willing to help, ver. 8-16. He will deliver them that
trust in him, ver. 17-27.
Verse 1. Call - Call them all as it were by their names: will not every
good man confirm what I say? If - Try if there be any one saint
that will defend thee in these bold expostulations with God. Thou
mayst find fools or wicked men, to do it: but not one of the
children of God.
Verse 2. Killeth - A man's wrath, and impatience, preys upon his spirit,
and so hastens his death; and provokes God to cut him off. The
foolish - The rash and inconsiderate man, who does not weigh
things impartially. Envy, &c. - I perceive thou art full of envy at
wicked men, who seem to be in a happier condition than thou, and
of wrath against God; and this shews thee to be a foolish and
weak man. For those men, notwithstanding their present
prosperity, are doomed to great and certain misery. I have myself
seen the proof of this.
Verse 3. Foolish - The wicked man. Root - Not only prosperous for the
present, but, as it seemed, firm and secure for the future. Suddenly
- In a moment, beyond mine, and his own, and all other mens
expectation. Cursed - l saw by the event which followed his
prosperity, that he was a man accursed of God.
Verse 4. Children - Whose greatness he designed in all his enterprizes,
supposing his family would be established for ever. Safely - Are
exposed to dangers and calamities, and can neither preserve
themselves, nor the inheritance which their fathers left them.
There is no question but he glances here, at the death of Job's
children.
Verse 5. Harvest - Which they confidently expect to reap after all their
cost and labour, but are sadly and suddenly disappointed. The
hungry - The hungry Sabeans eat it up. Thorns - Out of the fields:
in spite of all dangers or difficulties in their way.
Verse 6. The dust - It springs not up by merely natural causes, as herbs
grow out of the earth: but from God. Eliphaz here begins to
change his voice, as if he would atone for the hard words he had
spoken.
Verse 7. Is born - He is so commonly exposed to various troubles, as if
he were born to no other end: affliction is become natural to man,
and is transmitted from parents, to children, as their constant
inheritance; God having allotted this portion to mankind for their
sins. And therefore thou takest a wrong course in complaining so
bitterly of that which thou shouldest patiently bear, as the
common lot of mankind. As - As naturally, and as generally, as
the sparks of fire fly upward. Why then should we be surprized at
our afflictions as strange, or quarrel with them, as hard?
Verse 8. I would - If I were in thy condition. Seek - By prayer, and
humiliation, and submission, imploring his pardon, and favour.
Verse 9. Who, &c. - Here Eliphaz enters upon a discourse of the infinite
perfection of God's nature and works; which he doth as an
argument to enforce the exhortation to seek and commit his cause
to God, ver. 8, because God was infinitely able either to punish
him yet far worse, if he continued to provoke him; or to raise him
from the dust, if he humbly addressed himself to him: and that by
a representation of God's excellency and glory, and of that vast
disproportion which was between God and Job, he might
convince Job of his great sin in speaking so boldly and
irreverently of him. marvelous - Which (though common, and
therefore neglected and despised, yet) are matter of wonder to the
wisest men. The works of nature are mysteries: the most curious
searches come far short of full discoveries: and the works of
Providence are still more deep and unaccountable.
Verse 10. Rain - He begins with this ordinary work of God, in which he
implies that there is something wonderful, as indeed there is in the
rise of it from the earth, in the strange hanging of that heavy body
in the air, and in the distribution of it as God sees fit; and how
much more in the hidden paths of Divine Providence?
Verse 11. To set up - That is, he setteth up. Another example of God's
great and wonderful works. He gives this instance to comfort and
encourage Job to seek to God, because he can raise him out of his
greatest depths.
Verse 13. The wise - Men wise to do evil, and wise in the opinion of the
world, he not only deceives in their hopes and counsels, but turns
them against themselves. Froward - Or, wrestlers: such as wind
and turn every way, as wrestlers do, and will leave no means
untried to accomplish their counsels. Is carried - Is tumbled down
and broken, and that by their own precipitation.
Verse 14. Meet - In plain things they run into gross mistakes, and chuse
those courses which are worst for themselves. Darkness often
notes misery, but here ignorance or error. Grope - Like blind men
to find their way, not knowing what to do.
Verse 15. Mouth - Which was ready to swallow them up.
Verse 16. So - So he obtains what he hoped for from God, to whom he
committed his cause. Iniquity - Wicked men. Stoppeth - They are
silenced and confounded, finding that not only the poor are got
out of their snares, but the oppressors themselves are ensnared in
them.
Verse 17. Behold - Eliphaz concludes his discourse, with giving Job a
comfortable hope, if he humbled himself before God. Happy -
Hebrew. Blessednesses (various and great happiness) belong to
that man whom God rebukes. The reason is plain, because
afflictions are pledges of God's love, which no man can buy too
dear; and are necessary to purge out sin, and thereby to prevent
infinite and eternal miseries. Without respect to this, the
proposition could not be true. And therefore it plainly shews, that
good men in those ancient times, had the belief, and hope of
everlasting blessedness. Despise not - Do not abhor it as a thing
pernicious, refuse it as a thing useless, or slight it as an
unnecessary thing. But more is designed than is exprest.
Reverence the chastening of the Lord: have an humble, aweful
regard to his correcting hand, and study to answer the design of it.
The Almighty - Who is able to support and comfort thee in thy
troubles, and deliver thee out of them: and also to add more
calamities to them, if thou art obstinate and incorrigible.
Verse 18. For he, &c. - God's usual method is, first to humble, and then
to exalt. And he never makes a wound too great, too deep for his
own cure.
Verse 19. Deliver - If thou seekest to him by prayer and repentance.
Here he applies himself to Job directly. Six - Manifold and
repeated. Touch - So as to destroy thee. Thou shalt have a good
issue out of all thy troubles, though they are both great and many.
Verse 20. He shall - These things he utters with more confidence,
because the rewards or punishments of this life, were more
constantly distributed to men in the Old Testament according to
their good or bad behaviour, than they are now: and because it
was his opinion, that great afflictions were the certain evidences
of wickedness; and consequently, that great deliverances would
infallibly follow upon true repentance.
Verse 22. Laugh - With a laughter of joy and triumph, arising from a just
security and confidence in God's watchful and gracious
providence.
Verse 23. League - Thou shalt be free from annoyance thereby, as if
they had made an inviolable league with thee. This is a bold
metaphor, but such as are frequent both in scripture and other
authors. This is an addition to the former privilege; they shall not
hurt thee, ver. 22, nay, they shall befriend thee, as being at peace
with thee. Our covenant with God is a covenant with all the
creatures, that they shall do us no hurt, but serve and be ready to
do us good.
Verse 24. Know - By certain experience.
Verse 25. Know - By assurance from God's promises, and the
impressions of his Spirit; and by experience in due time.
Verse 26. Full age - In a mature and old, but vigourous age, as the word
implies. It is a great blessing, to live to a full age, and not to have
the number of our years cut short. Much more, to be willing to
die, to come chearfully to the grave: and to die seasonably, just in
the bed-time, when our souls are ripe for God.
Verse 27. Searched - This is no rash or hasty conceit, but what both I
and my brethren have learned by deep consideration, long
experience, and diligent observation. Know thou - Know it for
thyself; (So the word is) with application to thy own case. That
which we thus hear and know for ourselves, we hear and know for
our good.
Chapter 5:
| 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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