Job 5:14

They meet with darkness in the daytime,.... Which may denote their infatuation in things the most plain and clear, and which are obvious to everyone's view, even to such as are of much meaner

They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night. They meet. Judicial blindness often is sent upon keen men of the world (Deuteronomy 28:29).

i.e. In plain things they run into gross mistakes and errors, and commonly choose those counsels and courses which are worst for themselves. Darkness oft notes misery, but here ignorance or error, as it is also used 37:19, and elsewhere. Grope, like blind men to find their way, not knowing what to do.

Job 5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.Ver. 14. They meet with darkness in the daytime] They are infatuated and besotted; a spirit of giddiness seizeth them; ita ut in re clarissima destituantur prudentia, saith Vatablus, so that they cannot discern things that are evident and clear as the sun at noon day; they have light without, but want light within; they lack discretion and judgment to do for the best: this was threatened, Deuteronomy 28:29, and accordingly fulfilled upon those blind Pharisees, as our Saviour often calleth them, and now upon that whole nation, Romans 11:18 2 Corinthians 3:14. Since they crucified the Lord of glory, they never prospered in anything they uudertook, neither will they be driven out of that fool’ s paradise of a sublime dotage whereinto they have long since wrought themselves: They had bribed our William Rufus to hear them and favour them in a disputation against the Christians; but they lost the day, and their money together. Rabbi Judah, surnamed The holy, was intimate with Antoninus Plus, the emperor, and thought to have proselyted him but it would not be. Rabbi David Reubenita and Rabbi Solomon Molchu set upon Charles V, in the year of grace 1530, to convert him to Judaism, but with ill success; for they were presently imprisoned, and shortly after executed, Rabbi Solomon at Mantua, and Rabbi David in Spain. How they are benighted in their expositions of Scripture, troubling those clear fountains with their ridiculous conceits and foolish fables, I need not relate. Neither are many of the Popish interpreters (as they will be accounted) much wiser, being judicially blinded, given over to an injudicious mind, Romans 1:28, to the efficacy of error, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, so that They grope at noonday, as in the night] They have neither light nor sight left them, and this by a just hand of God upon them, because they closed up their eyes lest they should see, Acts 28:27, they would not receive the love of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:10. Therefore now it is hid from their eyes, and the light that is in them is darkness. Women and children see further into the mysteries of religion, than many of these learned doctors, these idol shepherds; God’ s sword being upon their arm, and upon their right eye, Zechariah 11:17, that is, both upon their power and policy, so that they are like owls, that can see better in the dark than in the light; and like moles, that dig dexterously underground, but are blind above ground, neither do they ever open their eyes till the pangs of death are upon them.

(14) Darkness in the daytime.—This is possibly an allusion to the Egyptian plague of darkness “that may be felt” (Exodus 10:21), as the words used are similar. This may be a note of probable date. (Compare Isaiah 59:10, where the thoughts correspond, but the words differ.) This is one of the many passages of Job in which there seems to be an indication of some acquaintance with the events related in the Pentateuch, though the points of contact are too slight for us to be quite sure of it.

Verse 14. They meet with darkness in the daytime] God confounds them and their measures; and, with all their cunning and dexterity, they are outwitted, and often act on their own projects, planned with care and skill, as if they had been the crudest conceptions of the most disordered minds. They act in noonday as if the sun were extinct, and their eyes put out. Thus does God "abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices."

14. A picture of the perplexity and bewilderment of those crafty men whose counsels God has come athwart, Job 5:13.

They meet with darkness in the day-time - Margin, “run into;” compare the notes at Isaiah 59:10.

14. They meet with darkness — They stumble against darkness. — , Thesaurus. A judicial visitation. They were deemed sharp-sighted among men. God sends upon them thick darkness.