defence will be my offence; and mine own mouth shall condemn me, even when it goes about to acquit me." A good man, who knows the deceitfulness of his own heart, and is jealous over it with a godly jealousy, and has often discovered that amiss there, which had long lain undiscovered, is suspicious of more evil in himself than he is really conscious of, and therefore will by no means think of justifying himself before God. If we say, "We have no sin," we not only deceive ourselves, but we affront God, for we sin in saying so, and give the lie to the scripture, which has concluded all under sin. "If I say, I am perfect, I am sinless, God has nothing to lay to my charge, my very saying so shall prove me perverse, proud, ignorant, and presumptuous. Nay, though I were perfect, though God should pronounce me just, yet would I not know my soul; I would not be in care about the prolonging of my life, while it is loaded with all these miseries." Or, "Though I were free from gross sin, though my conscience should not charge me with any enormous crime, yet would I not believe my own heart so far as to insist upon my innocency, nor think my life worth striving for with God." In short, it is folly to contend with God, and our wisdom, as well as duty, to submit to him, and throw ourselves at his feet.
22. This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. 23. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?
Here Job touches briefly upon the main point now in dispute between him and his friends. They maintained that those who are righteous and good always prosper in this world, and none but the wicked are in misery and distress; he asserted, on the contrary, that it is a common thing for the wicked to prosper, and the righteous to be greatly afflicted: this is the one thing, the chief thing, wherein he and his friends differed; and they had not proved their assertion; therefore he abides by his; "I said it, and say it again, that all things come alike to all."
Now it must be owned,
1. That there is very much truth in what Job here means; that temporal judgments, when they are set abroad, fall both upon good and bad, and the destroying angel seldom distinguishes (though once he did) between the houses of the Israelites and the houses of the Egyptians.
In the judgment of Sodom, indeed, which is called the vengeance of eternal fire, (Jude vii.) far be it from God to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked; (Gen. xviii. 25.) but in judgments merely temporal the righteous have their share, and sometimes the greatest share. The sword devours one as well as another, Josiah as well as Ahab. Thus God destroys the perfect and the wicked, involves them both in the same common ruin; good and bad were sent together into Babylon, Jer. xxiv. 5, 9. If the scourge slay suddenly, and sweep down all before it, God will be well pleased to see how the same scourge, which is the perdition of the wicked, is the trial of the innocent, and of their faith, which will be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, 1 Pet. i. 7. Ps. lxvi. 10.
Against the just th' Almighty's arrows fly,
For he delights the innocent to try;
To show their constant and their God-like mind,
Not by afflictions broken, but refin'd.
Let this reconcile God's children to their troubles; they are but trials, designed for their honour and benefit; and, if God be pleased with them, let not them be displeased; if he laugh at the trial of the innocent, knowing how glorious the issue of it will be, at destruction and famine let them also laugh, (ch. v. 22.) and triumph over them, saying, O death, where is thy sting!
On the other hand, the wicked are so far from being made the marks of God's judgments, that the earth is given into their hand, v. 24. They enjoy large possessions and great power, have what they will, and do what they will. Into the hand of the wicked one: in the original, it is singular; the Devil, that wicked one, is called the god of this world, and boasts that into his hands it is delivered, Luke iv. 6. Or, into the hand of a wicked man, meaning (as Bishop Patrick and the Assembly's Annotations conjecture) some noted tyrant then living in those parts, whose great wickedness and great prosperity were well known both to Job and his friends. The wicked have the earth given them, but the righteous have heaven given them; and which is better—heaven without earth, or earth without heaven? God, in his providence, advances wicked men, while he covers the faces of those who are fit to be judges, who are wise and good, and qualified for government, and buries them alive in obscurity; perhaps suffers them to be run down and condemned, and to have their faces covered as criminals, by those wicked ones into whose hand the earth is given. We daily see this is done; if it be not God that doeth it, where and who is he that doeth it? To whom can it be ascribed but to Him that rules in the kingdoms of men, and gives them to whom he will? Dan. iv. 32.
2. Yet it must be owned that there is too much passion in what Job here says. The manner of expression is peevish: when he meant that God afflicts, he ought not to have said, He destroys both the perfect and the wicked: when he meant that God pleases himself with the trial of the innocent, he ought not to have said, He laughs at it, for he doth not afflict willingly. When the spirit is heated, either with dispute or with discontent, we have need to set a watch before the door of our lips, that we may observe decorum in speaking of divine things.
25. Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. 26. They are passed away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. 27. If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself; 28. I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. 29. If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? 30. If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean; 31. Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. 32. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judg ment. 33. Neither is there any days-man betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. 34. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me; 35. Then would I speak, and not fear him: but it is not so with me.
Job here grows more and more querulous, and
