_ELIPHAZ SHEWETH THAT THE WICKED ARE ALWAYS PUNISHED BY AN AVENGING GOD; ON WHICH ACCOUNT HE HIGHLY EXTOLS THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD: HE EXHORTS JOB NOT TO DESPISE THE CHASTENING OF THE ALMIGHTY, AND TO ATTEND DILIGENTLY TO WHAT HE SAYS._ _Before Christ 1645._ _JOB 5:1. CALL NOW,_ &C.— Eliphaz here ur... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WRATH KILLETH, &C.— "It would surely well befit the fool, that impatience should be the murder of him; and the simple, that repining should bring him to his death." Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE SEEN THE FOOLISH, &C.— _I saw the profligate taking root, but I marked him out for sudden destruction._ This is the same thought as in Psalms 37:35 and drawn out at length in Psalms 73. See Heath and Schultens.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE GATE— _In the tempest._ See ch. Job 9:17 and Parkhurst on the word שׁער _shangar,_ 9.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE HARVEST, &C.— Heath renders this verse thus: _Whose harvest the hunger-starved shall devour, and shall take it even from among the thorn-fences; and the thirsty shall swallow down their substance._ In which last clause, the author means to express the suddenness of their destruction; as quick... [ Continue Reading ]
ALTHOUGH AFFLICTION COMETH NOT, &C.— The Hebrew is rather, _For iniquity cometh not forth out of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; i.e._ "As the wickedness of men does not proceed from any natural cause _in the origin of things,_ but from their own free-will, or from the abuse... [ Continue Reading ]
I WOULD SEEK UNTO GOD, &C.— i.e. (For Eliphaz had precluded him from all attempts to justify himself in the foregoing part of his advice.) "I would apply to God with a full and free confession of those sins which have drawn this sad calamity upon me:" to God, who was able to do wonders, as he presen... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THOSE WHICH MOURN, &C.— _That the obscure may be put in a place of safety._ See 2 Samuel 22:3 and Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SAVETH THE POOR FROM THE SWORD, FROM THEIR MOUTH, &C.— Schultens imagines that it should be read, _from the sword which proceedeth out of his mouth;_ and this reading receives no small confirmation from Psalms 57:4; Psalms 64:3. But Mr. Heath renders it, _He delivereth the desolate out of their m... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT BE HID, &C.— _If at any time a fire shall rage, thou shalt be hid; nor shalt thou fear imminent ruin._ Eliphaz seems to hint at those wicked persons who have been struck with fire from heaven, such as the inhabitants of Sodom. Houbigant. Heath renders the verse, _From the scourge of detra... [ Continue Reading ]
AT DESTRUCTION AND FAMINE— _At ravage and plundering._... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT BE IN LEAGUE WITH THE STONES OF THE FIELD— Houbigant reads, _For there shall be a covenant to thee with the fruits of the field;_ for I cannot acquiesce, says he, in the common interpretation; as both what goes before, and what follows after, seems averse from it; mention of _famine_ natu... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU SHALT KNOW THAT THY TABERNACLE, &C.— _Know moreover, that peace shall encompass thee at a tent; thou shalt visit thy habitation, and not be disappointed._ Heath. _Thou shalt provide for thy habitation, and shalt not be in want of any thing._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT COME TO THY GRAVE IN A FULL AGE, &C.— _In old age shalt thou come to the sepulchre, as the corn is heaped upon the threshing-floor in its season._ Thus Heath, more agreeably to the Hebrew.... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOW THOU IT FOR THY GOOD— _Attend thou, therefore, diligently;_ [לךֶ דע _dang lak;_] _know thou it for thyself; make application of it to thy own case;—know the original of the drawing._ Heath. REFLECTIONS.—1st, Eliphaz, confident in the goodness of his cause, defies Job to contradict his assertio... [ Continue Reading ]