Job 5:3

I have seen the foolish taking root,.... Such foolish wicked men as before described; those Eliphaz had observed to prosper in the world, and increase in riches, and even to have attained to a

I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation. The foolish - the wicked.

I have oft observed it in my experience. Having severely rebuked Job for his transports of passion and intemperate speeches against God, he now returns to his former argument, and proves that such dreadful and destructive judgments of God do not befall the righteous, but the wicked, as he observed, ,8. Withal, he answers an objection concerning the present and seeming prosperity of the wicked, which he confesseth that he himself had sometimes observed. The foolish, i. e. the wicked man, who is quite destitute of true, i.e. of spiritual and heavenly, wisdom. Taking root; not only prosperous for the present, but, as it seemed, from all secure for the future, being strongly fortified with power, and riches, and children too, so as there was no appearance nor danger of a change. Suddenly; in a moment, besides and before mine, and his own, and all other men’ s expectation. I cursed; either, 1. I judged that he was a cursed creature, notwithstanding all his prosperity; and I foresaw and foretold it by the rules of Scripture, or the direction of God’ s Spirit, that he would certainly sooner or later be stripped of all his blessings, and have God’ s curse fall heavily upon him. Or rather, 2. I saw and perceived, by, the event which followed his prosperity, that he was a man accursed of God. For he speaks not in these words of what his estate constantly was, even in the midst of his happiness, though even then he was really accursed; but of what it was by a sudden change. His habitation; or, as the Hebrew word signifies, his pleasant or commodious habitation; persons or things in it, or belonging to it, being comprehended in that word by a usual metonymy.

Job 5:3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.Ver. 3. I have seen the foolish taking root] q.d. I grant that wicked men are not always presently punished, sed Nemesis in tergo; et subito tollitur, qui diu toleratur. God’ s wrath is such as no wicked man can avert or avoid. This had Eliphaz well observed, "I have seen"; he had set a memorandum on God’ s just judgments, and marked his spits with his own stars, as one speaketh. Eliphaz was a man of much experience. See Job 4:8. In him that was true which Elihu saith should be, that days spake, and multitude of years taught wisdom, Job 32:7. Only herein he is mistaken, that he misapplieth all to Job, arguing from his outward condition to his inward; as if, therefore, he were wicked, because seemingly wretched. Thus the gloss he set was viperous, eating out the bowels of the text; it was a truth of God that he uttered, and the same in sense with that of David, Psalms 37:35; and that of Solomon, Proverbs 23:18. But why should he thus writhe it and wrest it, to make the tune sound to his own key? St Peter speaketh of some that wrest the Scriptures, 2 Peter 3:16, putting them upon the rack, and making them speak that which they never thought. And Tertullian saith of others, that they do murder the Scriptures for their own turns, and to serve their own purposes, Caedem scripturarum faciunt. The make a slaugter of the scriptures. But let us hear Eliphaz: "I have seen," saith he, and what more sure than sight? Numbers 16:14, "the foolish," the wilful fool, and perhaps he points at some one such rich fool as is mentioned Luke 12:20, not unknown to Job, and, as Eliphaz deemeth, a fit parallel for him, "taking root," dwelling alone in the earth, confirmed and settled in a fair estate, in a prosperous condition, as Nebuchadnezzar, that goodly tree, thought himself, Daniel 4:4; Daniel 4:22, and Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, who conceited that his kingdom was bound fast unto him with chains of adamant; but he was soon after cast out, and thereby convinced of singular folly (Aelian. Var. Hist. lib. 2). A tempest, or, at least, an axe, of Divine vengeance, can easily fell these rooted fast and best fruited trees, and lay them low enough, as he did Nebuchadnezzar, that club of the nations and rod of God’ s wrath, Isaiah 14:4-8 Daniel 4:22, &c., and Attila, the conquering Hun, who called himself the wrath of God and scourge of the world, and arrogantly said, that the stars of heaven fell before him, and the earth trembled (Jovius), but was soon after rooted up by impartial death in the midst of his nuptial solemnities, Subita morte extinctus est, sanguine copiose in fauces exundante et ex ore erumpente. He died suddenly, much blood pouring from his throat and his mouth.

(3) I cursed.—The word means, “I was able to declare distinctly, and I did declare without hesitation, that his lot would be as follows.” All these general results of experience have the sting of insinuation in them that they contain the key to Job’s unfortunate condition. There is secret unsoundness there which is the cause of the manifest and open misery. It is impossible that a man so stricken should be otherwise than, for some unknown reason, the guilty victim of the righteous wrath of a just judge.

Verse 3. I have seen the foolish taking root] I have seen wicked men for a time in prosperity, and becoming established in the earth; but I well knew, from God's manner of dealing with men, that they must soon be blasted. I even ventured to pronounce their doom; for I knew that, in the order of God's providence, that was inevitable. I cursed his habitation.

3. the foolish] Rather perhaps, a foolish man, the same word as in Job 5:2. Eliphaz cites an instance from his own experience confirming the truth stated in Job 5:2. He saw a man of this character taking root, and for the moment appearing to give promise of prosperity. but suddenly I cursed] The meaning is not that Eliphaz cursed his habitation before-hand, foreseeing that destruction would certainly overtake him; but that, though this fool appeared prosperous and seemed preparing for enduring happiness, suddenly God’s judgment fell on him, and Eliphaz, seeing his desolation and knowing the true meaning of it, pronounced his habitation accursed; and this he did “suddenly,” so speedily in the midst of his apparent luxuriance did the curse of God wither up the prosperity of the fool.

I have seen the foolish - The wicked. To confirm the sentiment which he had just advanced, Eliphaz appeals to his own observation, and says that though the wicked for a time seem to be prosperous,

3. Suddenly I cursed — He feels himself justified in acting upon what he had observed — that adversity trod upon the heel of wickedness.