my is enraged against me, and cruelly sets himself to spy out the least occasion to calumniate me.

Ver. 10. They have gaped upon me with their mouths, they have smitten me upon the check reproachfully, they have gathered themselves together against me.] There is no small number of such as these, who look like so many wild beasts coming to devour me; having already most shamefully abused me, and joined themselves together, to give full satisfaction to their wrath, wherewith they are filled against me.

Ver. 11. GOD bath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.] So God will have it; who hath abandoned the protection of me, and delivered me bound into the hands of the ungodly, to use me at their pleasure.

Ver. 12. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: be bath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.] How happy was I heretofore! and now I am crushed in pieces. From an eminent condition he hath thrown me down into the most despicable; and there I am exposed (as a butt to the arrow) to all manner of indignities and

miseries.

Ver. 13. His archers compass me round about, be cleaveth my reins as under, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.] He is not content to take away all my goods, and destroy my family; but to the reproach of friends, (which strike like so many darts to my very heart), he hath added ulcers in every part of my body, with inward pains, which rack me without intermission; and, in one word, hath so mortally wounded me, as if my bowels were already shed upon the ground.

Ver. 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach, be runneth upon me like a giant.] Before one wound be closed, he makes another; and in such violent a manner, that I can make no more resistance, than a dwarf can do against a giant.

Ver. 15. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my born in the dust.] The sackcloth which I put on at the first, now cleaves so fast to me as if I had sewed it to my skin; and all my authority and honour is changed into contempt.

Ver. 16. My face is foul with weeping, and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death.] My face is dirty, and mine eyes in a manner quite put out by the very tears which have fallen from thence.

Ver. 17. Not for any injustice in mine hands; alsó my prayer is pure.] And yet I must still say, I never offered such a violence as this to any man, and was alway (so false is Eliphaz his accusation, xv. 4.) a sincere worshipper of God.

Ver. 18. O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.] If this be not true, let my blood be left to the dogs to lick when I am dead, and let neither God nor man regard my complaint when I am alive.

Ver. 19. Also now behold my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.] But what need of these imprecations? the great God who rules over all is my witness, and can testify how just I have been toward my neighbours, and how pious toward himself.

Ver. 20. My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto GOD.] From your judgement, therefore, (who, instead of comforting my innocence, scornfully set yourselves to defame me), I appeal to his; and beseech him with perpetual tears to vindicate me.

Ver. 21. 0 that one might plead for a man with GOD, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!] I am so assured of the goodness of my cause, (as well as of his justice), that I wish for nothing more than to have it speedily heard and tried by him, in the same manner that pleas are held before earthly judges.

Ver. 22. When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.] For my life cannot last long; and I know that when I am gone, I cannot return hither again for him to do me justice.

CHAP. XVII.

THE ARGUMENT.-Here Job desires he may be tried presently before God's tribunal, his life being just upon the point to expire, as he had said in the end of the former chapter; and continues to urge again in this, because his friends were very unfit judges in the case, and had passed such a sentence upon him, as upright men would never approve of Whereby they had given him a new vexation to hear them talk so idly, and put him in hope of recovering his happiness if he would follow their admonitions, when they saw him just dropping into the grave, which was the only thing, he saith, that he could hope for.

Ver. 1.

breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.] My vital spirits are spent, they give but a glimmering and dying light, whereby I can see nothing but graves on every side prepared for me.

Ver. 2. Are there not mockers with me ? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?] How can I support my spirits, when my friends, who should comfort me, mock at all I say for myself? This so bitterly exasperates me, that I cannot take a wink of sleep, nor think of any thing else.

Ver. 3. Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is be that will strike hands with me ?] Once more, therefore, I beseech thee, O God, to assure me that thou wilt judge my cause thyself: Let somebody undertake for thee: Who is it that on thy behalf will engage to do me right?

Not

Ver. 4. For thou hast bid their hearts from understanding; therefore shalt thou not exalt them.] these friends of mine, for they comprehend nothing of the way of thy judgements; therefore thou shalt not confer this honour on them who talk so absurdly.

Ver. 5. He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even in the eyes of his children shall fail.] I must speak the truth of them, (though it displease them), and not soothe them up in their errors; for he that flatters his friends, when he should reprove them, may look long enough before either he or his children find one that will deal sincerely with them..

Ver. 6. He hath made me also a by-word of the

people, and aforetime I was as a tabret.] This very person who spoke last hath made me a proverb in every body's mouth; and it is the vulgar pastime to talk of my calamities.

Ver. 7. Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.] No wonder then that excessive sorrow hath darkened mine eyes, and that all the flesh of my body is so consumed, that I am but the fhadow of a man.

Ver. 8. Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.] Upright men hereafter will be astonished at the cruel sentence which my friends pass upon me; and the innocent will resolutely oppose the wicked, when he judges the worse of piety, because of my afflictions.

Ver. 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way, and be that bath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.] The righteous will not be moved by such arguments to change his purpose of well-doing, much less will he do any evil action, but grow rather the better by adversity, and add perseverance to his piety.

Ver. 10. But as for you all, do you return, and come now; for I cannot find on: wise man among you.] And truly I wish that all you who have charged me so heavily, would consider things better, and hearken to what I have said; for I must tell you again, there is not a man of you who judges truly of my case.

Ver. 11. My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.] Repent of your harsh censures before I die, as I must speedily, my joys being quite gone, and all the hopeful designs which had possessed my heart being utterly subverted. Ver. 12. They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.] Instead whereof other thoughts are come to torment me, which will not let me sleep in the night, nor enjoy any pleasure in the day.

Ver. 13. If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.] If I hope for any thing now, (as you would have me), it is for a grave; that is the only house I can promise myself; there I am going to rest in a bed where I shall not be disturbed.

Ver. 14. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister.] I have already made so near an alliance with death, that my father and mother, and nearest kindred, are nothing so near me as worms and rotten

Dess.

Ver. 15. And where is now my hope? as for my bope, who shall see it?] How vain then are all the hopes you would have me feed myself withal? (xi. 15. 16. &c.) Who shall see, when I am sure I shall not, the happiness you would have me look for here?

Ver. 16. They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust. All these hopes you speak of shall sink down into the bottom of the grave, when you, my friends, as well as I, shall take up your lodging in the dust.

CHIA P. XVIII.

THE ARGUMENT.-In this chapter Bildad again takes up the dispute, and pretends to reply to what Job had said. But I do not see any thing new, saving the description he makes, (as Eliphaz had done before him), of the ruin which shall inevitably fall, according to the fixed rules of providence, (so he fancied), upon the wicked and his family; notwithstanding all the asistance that his friends and allies can lend him for his preservation. And this he seems to imply was the fate of Job, whom he doth not so much as exhort to repentance, (as he had done in his former discourse, chap. viii.), being very angry with him, that he had no higher esteem of their wisdom.

Ver. 1. THEN answered Bildad the Skubite, and said,] Then Bildad the Shuhite, seeing Job continue in his first opinion, rose up and said,

Ver. 2. How long will it be ere you make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.] How long shall we continue this dispute? let us make an end of it, unless he will attend better to our reasons; then we will go on to argue with him.

Ver. 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?] To what purpose is it to talk with one who tells us we understand nothing, (xvii. 4. 10.), but looks upon us as a company of dull beasts, into whom nothing of wisdom will enter?

Ver. 4. He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?] Such is his passion, which will not let him see how he himself, like a wild beast, tears his own soul in pieces with impatient. anger. What art thou, that God for thy sake should cease to govern the world by his own laws, which are fixed and immutable?

Ver. 5. Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.] Say what thou wilt, it is an everlasting truth, that the wicked shall not continue in the splendour wherein we sometime see him but though he seem to sit as by a great fire, (warm in his wealth, and honour, and power), there shall not remain so much as a spark to comfort him.

:

Ver. 6. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.] The glory of his family shall be turned into contempt, and all their joy shall end in sorrow.

Ver. 7. The steps of his strength shall be straightened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.] The attempts which his power makes to perserve his greatness shall but more perplex him; and his own devices shall prove his overthrow.

Ver. 8. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.] He shall entangle himself by his own wiles; and having contrived himself into

suffice you, that I am sensible it is God's doing; who, having laid me thus low, and environed me with unavoidable miseries, calls upon you to compassionate, rather than reproach me.

Ver. 7. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not beard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgement.] And my case is the more pitiable, because I know not the cause of all this, nor can have any audience or redress, though I appeal to God with the loudest cries, and protest to him that I am innocent.

Ver. 8. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.] There is no way open for my escape; but his plagues surround me so on every side, that I am at my wit's end, and know not which way to turn myself.

Ver. 9. He bath stript me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.] He hath not merely stripped me of my ornaments, and taken that dignity and authority from me wherewith I was invested;

Ver. 10. He bath destroyed me on every side, and I àm gone; and mine hope hath be removed like a tree.] But brought me to such utter ruin, that, like a tree plucked up by the very roots, I have not so much as hope remaining, which is the only comfort of the miserable.

Ver. 11. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and be counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.] For he hath done all this with such violence, as if he were extremely incensed against me, and looked upon me as his enemy.

Ver. 12. His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.] Whole armies of evils, by his order, have at the same time invaded me, and laid such a strait siege to me, that not the smallest comfort I had could escape their fury.

Ver. 13. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.] I looked for some relief from my brethren, but they were so astonished at the number and dreadfulness of my calamities, that they durst not approach me; and as for my neighbours, who formerly so much courted my acquaintance, they truly keep aloof off, as if they

had never known me.

Ver. 14. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends bave forgotten me.] They whom nature inclined to it, have failed to perform the duties of humanity towards me; and they to whom I was tied by a stronger bond than nature, have forgotten the friendship there was between us.

Ver. 15. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.] They that have been kindly entertained at my house, nay, the people of my family, have for got the respect they were wont to give me, and look upon me as if they had no relation to me.

Ver. 16. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.] I called to my slave, and he regarded not what I said; no, not when I beseeched him, as if he had been my master.

Ver. 17. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body-]

Which is the less wonder, since I am become so loathsome, that my wife will not come near me, though I have conjured her to do it by the dear memory of our children, those common pledges of our mutual love.

Ver. 18. Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.] After these examples, young children and fools despise me; and when I rise up to invite them to me, abusive language is all the return they make to my courtesy.

Ver. 19. All my inward friends abhorred me; and they whom I loved are turned against me.] And, which is worst of all, the men whom I entrusted with my greatest secrets cannot endure me; and they who received so many tokens of my love are become mine enemies.

Ver. 20. My bone cleaveth to my skin, and to my Ash, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.] All these afflictions have so wasted me, that I am little more than skin and bone; a mouth to complain withal is all the flesh that is left me.

Ver. 21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me.] O ye my friends, (if you still deserve that name), who are the only persons that undertake to comfort me, have pity, have pity, I beseech you, upon a miserable wretch, and consider what wounds the hand of God hath given me.

Ver. 22. Why do ye persecute me as GOD, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Will you assume the same prerogative, and think you have the same right to afflict me? and doth it not suffice you to see my body all consumed, but you will vex my very soul also with your perverse reasonings?

Ver. 23. Ob that my words were now written! ob that they were printed in a book!] Oh that the protes. tations and appeals I have so often made might remain upon record, and be registered in the public acts and monuments!

Ver. 24. That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!] May they be graven upon a plate of lead with an iron pen; nay, cut into a rock or marble pillar, to continue to all posterity!

Ver. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.] For my hope, which was as dead as myself, (xvii. 13. 15. XX. 10.), begins to revive; because, though I seem for the present to be forsaken of God, yet I know that he can hereafter deliver me out of this miserable condition, since he lives for ever; and will, I doubt not, at last appear victorious over all the enemies which now oppress me.

Ver. 26. And though after my skin, vorms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see GOD:] And though. the worms which have eaten my skin should proceed to consume the rest of this wretched body, yet I. feel my soul inspired with a comfortable belief, that before I die I shall see myself restored, by the mercy, of God, to a happy estate.

Ver. 27. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall bebold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.] He will not let me always lie under

these reproaches; but I begin to assure myself, that with these very eyes I shall see him vindicate my innocence; not only others, but I myself shall live to see it and I even faint away with vehement desire to behold that happy day.

Ver. 28. But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?] Which will make you repent that you have thus persecuted me, who have not without ground thus long disputed this matter with you, but am sure the right lies on my side, and not on yours.

Ver. 29. Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgement.] Take my advice therefore in good time, and dread the just displeasure of God against you for your perverse reasonings, (for his wrath punishes men's iniquities with the sword, or some such sore vengeance), whereby you will know to your cost, that there is a more righteous judgement than yours.

CHAP. XX.

THE ARGUMENT.-The abrupt beginning of this speech of Zophar shews that he was in a passion : which, though he pretends to bridle it, would not let him calmly consider the protestation which Job had made of his innocence. But he goes on in the old common place of the certain downfall of the wicked, be he never so powerful and well support ed. Which he illustrates, indeed, after an excel lent fashion, with great variety of figures and remarks upon histories as old as the world. In some of which he had observed, that the wicked after their fall had made notable attempts to get up again; but by the hand of God were so crushed, that they could never rise more. All the flaw in his discourse is this, (which was common to him with the rest), that he imagined God never varied from this method; and therefore Job, without doubt, was a very bad man, though it did not appear he was so any other way, but by his infelicity.

THEN answered Zaphar the Noamathite, and said,] Here Zophar, though he had no new thing to produce, hastily interrupted Job, and said,

Ver. 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.] These words of thine make my former thoughts return again; and do so provoke me, that I am not able to forbear speaking any longer.

Ver. 3. I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.] While thou pretendest to correct my errors, I have heard myself rather shamefully reproached; yet I will not suffer my passion to reply, but the clear light of my understanding shall answer for me.

Ver. 4. Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,] It seems thou dost not yet understand, though it be a truth as old as the world;

Ver. 5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?] That the happiness which the wicked and he that counterfeits piety so much boast of, is of no long standing, and will continue but for a few moments.

Ver. 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head touch the clouds ;] Though he should be advanced to the highest pitch of human greatness, and overtop all mankind as much as the highest trees do the lowest shrubs;

Ver. 7: Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?] Yet he shall fall as low as his dung-hill; and, like it, be cast out for ever with contempt: they who saw him so flourishing shall be astonished at his ruin, and ask with amazement, What is become of him?

Ver. 8. He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.] For his happiness hath no firmer foundation than a dream, of which we have no remembrance in the morning; or if we have, all the rich furniture and feasts which appear to us in our sleep, vanish in an instant as soon as we awake.

Ver. 9. The eye also which saw him, shall see him no more: neither shall his place any more behold him.] Just so shall he pass away, and all his glory with him: those eyes that were wont to gaze upon it with envy, shall lose the sight of it, and never behold it more.

Ver. 10. His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.] His children shall have enough to do to pacify the rage of the poor, whom he hath oppressed; and he shall be forced with shame to restore with his own hands the goods he hath extorted from them.

Ver. 11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.] His very bones are full of pain and auguish: All which punishments of his secret sins shall stick to him till they bring him to his grave.

Ver. 12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue :] Though wickedness, like some dangerous meats, be pleasant in the acting, as they are in the chewing; so that a man is as desirous to continue it, as a glutton is to keep a long relish of those sweet morsels upon his palate.

Ver. 13. Though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth :] Though he will by no means part with it, when he is told of danger; but still retains it, as the other doth that meat in his mouth, which he is told is no better than poison:

Ver. 14. Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.] Yet after it is committed, it wrings and gripes the conscience, as those dainty bits, when they are swallowed, do the bowels : the pleasure is turned into pain, the sweetness into such bitterness as brings the most sudden destruction.

Ver. 15. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: GOD shall cast them out of his belly.] His ill-gotten goods, for instance, which he devoured with so much greediness and insatiable desire, shall never thrive with him; but he shall be forced to refund them with a torment far exceeding the pleasure wherewith he got them: God himself