Job 24

— and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.] Addison describes the misery of the oppressed peasants of Italy with the same beautiful energy: The poor inhabitant of that fruitful country

“Barron, in the midst of nature’s bounty, cursi. And in the leaden vineyard dies for thirst.” Scott.

In the East they still “tread” their grapes after the ancient manner. Dr. Chandler says, “August 20th; the vintage near Smyrna was now begun: the juice of the grapes was expressed for wine; a man with feet and legs bare treading the fruit in a kind of cistern, with a hole or vent near the bottom, and a vessel beneath to receive the liquor.” Parkhurst.

Ver. 2, 3. Dominion and fear are with him, &c.] He is an awful God, who hath the absolute dominion over all the world: He ordereth the very heavens so, that there is a perfect harmony in all the apparently contrary motions thereof: and contriveth all things so, that they agree to glorify Him! What innumerable troops of glorious angels hath He there above, and what infinite armies of His creatures to execute His will upon all occasions! And how gracious is He in sending forth His light into all the corners of the earth! and how wise in searching all the secrets of human actions and counsels! Bp. Hall.

Ver. 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power?] What powerful support hast thou given to one (Job himself) who is deprived of all strength? A sarcastic rebuke of Bildad. Rosemüller.

Job 24:4

4. How then can man be justified with God?] As to the origin of the general corruption and depravity of mankind, it seems to be here plainly intimated, that all men are corrupt by descent and inheritance. Bp. Sherlock. See chap. xiv. 3, 4; and the note on that passage.

5. To whom hast thou uttered words?] Dost thou think me ignorant of these things? or canst thou pretend to any extraordinary inspiration concerning them? Bp. Patrick.

Job 24:5

5. — and it shineth not;] In comparison of Him. Clark.

Chap. XXVI. This chapter contains Job’s answer to Bildad, in which he derideth Bildad’s dealing with

worm? and the son of man, which is a worm? # CHAP. XXVI.

5, 6. Dead things are formed from under the waters, &c.] In the Old Testament the region of departed souls, called in the Hebrew “Sheol,” was supposed to be divided into two parts, the upper and the lower: David makes mention of the latter, Ps. lxxxvi. 13, “Thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell.” Gehenna, or the place of perdition, was the name given to this lower part by the later Jews, who, in order to express the great depth to which they conceived it to be sunk, used to describe it as beneath the waters; their notion being, that the waters were placed below the earth, and that the earth floated upon them like a ship.

The above statement may seem to explain the following rendering of ver. 5, 6.

“The souls of the dead tremble: [The places] below the waters, and their inhabitants. The seat of spirits is naked before Him; And the region of destruction hath no covering.”

Here “the souls of the dead,” and “the inhabitants of the places” below the “abyss of waters,” appear to bear to each other the same proportion, that is found in the next verse to subsist between “the seat of spirits” and “the region of destruction;” or the Gehenna of the later Jews: so that the passage, on the whole, conveys this meaning; that nothing is or can be concealed from the all-seeing eye of God: that the souls of the dead tremble under His view, and the shades of the wicked, sunk to the bottom of the abyss, can even there find no covering from His sight. Peters, Dr. Magee, Windel.

The Hebrew word “Sheol” signifies “the invisible state of the dead:” and it seems nearly to answer to the Greek “Hades,” by which the Septuagint almost con-

Job 24:12

12. — out of the city.] The peaceful inhabitants of towna, who have been plundered by these rovers of the desert, cry to Heaven for redress, but in vain. Bp. Stock.

— yet God layeth not folly to them.] Doth not presently call them to account, nor charge their sin upon them. Caryl.

Job 24:13

13. They are of those that rebel against the light;] They sin shamelessly in the face of the sun, against the light of nature, conscience, and Divine revelation: they neither delight nor will walk in those ways to which by this light they are directed. Clark.

“They know not the ways thereof;” either, they do not desire or care to know them, they are willingly ignorant of them; or, they do not approve, nor love, nor choose to walk in them, as “knowing” frequently signifies in the language of Scripture. “Nor abide in the

VOL. I. beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.

Job 24:16

16. — they dig through houses.] The materials used for building in Job’s country seem to have been mud and slime, which are frequently employed in the East for this purpose: these walls of sunburnt brick, when moistened with copious showers, must have been liable to attacks of this kind; at the same time that the thickness of them makes the term digging peculiarly expressive. Harmer.

Job 24:18

18. He is swift as the waters; &c.] Thus doeth the evil man: but shall he prosper in his mischief? No: God shall be avenged of him; he shall pass away swiftly, even as a current of waters: and while he continues here, he enjoys what he has with a curse: his lot shall be barrenness, so that he shall not so much as look towards the way of the vineyards; he shall have no hope of receiving the benefit of his seasonable culture of the earth. Bp. Hall.

Job 24:20

20. The womb shall forget him;] His mother shall be ashamed to own her relation to him: he shall not be remembered with honour, but consigned to infamy: the wicked oppressor shall be utterly and irrecoverably destroyed, as a tree broken to pieces, which will never grow again. Clark, Poole.

Job 24:23

23. Though it be given him to be in safety, &c.] Though the wicked man seems to pass his time in much security and confidence, yet the eyes of God are so open upon his ways, that He observes him to take His advantages against him, and to inflict on him suitable judgments. Bp. Hall.

Job 24:25

25. And if it be not so now, &c.] If this be not a truth which I have maintained, namely, that God many times prospers the wicked and afflicts the righteous, let any one confute me if he can, and shew that my arguments are weak. Clark.

Job, having first described the impiety, the injustice, the cruelty, and other sins of the wicked, and having then desired his friends to take notice that God does not always display His vengeance upon them, but suffers