Ver. 16. For GOD maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me.] Which, by the weight of them, have broken my spirit, and made me so timorous, that I cannot but dread the danger I am in, of suffering more from his Almighty hand.

Ver. 17. Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither bath he covered the darkness from my face.] For still he keeps me alive under all these evils which I endure, and will not let me have the favour to die by that hand which strikes me so severely.

CHAP. XXIV.

THE ARGUMENT.-Upon farther consideration, Job thought good again to confute their rash assertion, about the plagues which always befal the wicked, by an induction of particulars that prove the contrary. Among which the wild Arabs, he tells them, are a notorious instance, whose profession is rapine, and yet they thrive and prosper in it, ver. 5. &c. ; and so do the more civilized oppressors, of whom he says something before, and again, ver. 11. 12.; where he seems to reflect upon hard landlords, and griping merchants, and traffickers in cities. To whom he adds murderers, adulterers, pirates, with several other villains, (in the conclusion of the chapter), who notwithstanding die like other men, and are not called to an account for their enormous crimes in this present world.

Ver. I. WHY, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him "not see his days?] But to answer a little what you have so often asserted: if punishments from the Almighty be so apparent and visible upon the wicked, why do not they who are truly pious see the public and open judgements?

Ver. 2. Some remove the land-marks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.] Especially when the wickedness of some of them is so notorious, that they violate all known rights; seizing on the lands of their neighbours, taking their cattle, and (not content with that) owning it when they have done, by putting them openly to their pastures.

Ver. 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.] If a poor fatherless child have an ass left him to carry his burden, they drive it away on some pretence or other; and have no more mercy than to take of the widow, for the security of her debt, the only ox she hath wherewith to plough her ground.

Ver. 4. They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.] They offer abuses to helpless people upon the high-way, so that the meaner sort dare not appear for fear of their insolence, or their violence.

Ver. 5. Behold, as wild asses in the desart, go they forth to their work, rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.] And you shall see others of them, who (making pillage their trade) leave the cities and towns, and go

to skulk in forests and desart places; where, becoming wild and savage, they live on rapine and spoil; in which they are so diligent, that those wildernesses (where they neither plough nor sow) maintain their families.

Ver. 6. They reap every one bis corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.] For they make inroads out of these woods into the neighbouring fields and vineyards, and thence wickedly carry the corn and the grapes, never regarding who is the owner of them.

Ver. 7. They cause the naked to lodge without cloathing, that they have no other covering in the cold.] They spare not the poor reapers and vintagers; but, stripping them to the very skin, leave them never a rag to defend them from the cold, when they go to rest after their wearisome labours.

Ver. 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock, for want of a shelter.] They are exposed (poor wretches!) to the injury of the weather, as they lie asleep at the foot of mountains; they have no whither to run, but into caves and holes of rocks, where they endeavour to shrowd themselves, when they see a tempest coming.

Ver. 9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.] Nay, the persons of men are not safe from the violence of these out-laws; but they snatch away young children from their mother's breasts, and carry away the poor, (pretending they owe them something), to make them their slaves.

Ver. 10. They cause them to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry :] Whom, when they have stolen, they will not allow so much as cloaths to cover their nakedness, nor let him that is ready to starve eat of the sheaf which he hath gleaned.

Ver. 11. Which make oil within their walls, and tread their wine-presses, and suffer thirst.] They cause these miserable creatures to press out their oil and their wine in their cellars; but let them not taste a drop, though they be ready to die with thirst.

Ver. 12. Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yea, GOD layeth not folly to them.] Whole cities groan under the oppression of some or other of these wicked men, and cry out like those that are dying of their wounds and yet God, who knows all this, doth not make them examples of his displeasure, nor can we tell when he will punish them for their injustice and cruelty.

Ver. 13. They are of those that rebel against the light: they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.] The world would be very empty, if he should destroy all such persons; for besides these open, there are more secret sinners, who look upon the light as their enemy; they dare not be seen in the day-time; or if they be espied, they presently seek to hide themselves, that they may not be discovered.

Ver. 14. The murderer, rising with the light, killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.] The murderer, for instance, rises before the sun, to kill those whose poverty calls them up to early labour;

and then lurking all day in the close thickets and woods, he turns robber, and rifles rich men's houses in the night.

Ver. 15. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and disguiseth bis face. The adulterer also, whose eye hath let an unlawful love into his heart, waits for the dusk of the evening to favour his lewd desire: then he hopes nobody he meets withal will know him; but lest they should, he wraps his face in his cloak to prevent dis

covery,

Ver. 16. In the dark they dig through houses, which they bad marked for themselves in the day-time: they know not the light.] And when all are at rest, he will dig through the walls of houses, if there be no other way to come at the adulteress: the assignment was made between them in the day-time, and the place then marked out, at which he may most easily enter; but it is the night which brings them together to act the works of darkness.

Ver. 17. For the morning is to them even as the sha. dow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.] These are their delight, and if they chance to sleep too long together, and the morning surprise them, they are ready to die with Fear; if any one know them, they are in the very gonies of death.

Ver. 18. He is swift as the waters, their portion is tursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. To this wicked crew you may add the pirate, who robs upon the sea, and runs from one little creek to another in swift ships: which bring him in so much riches that he despises the employment of those who till the earth, and plant vineyards, as poor and unprofitable.

Ver. 19. Drought and heat consume the snow-waters; so doth the grave those which have sinned.] And yet all these, after they have spent their life in such horrid villanies, do not die of lingering and tormenting diseases; but go down to the grave as easily as snow water sinks into the dry ground when it is melted by the sun.

Ver. 20. The womb shall forget him, the worm shall feed sweetly on him, he shall be no more remembered, and avickedness shall be broken as a tree.] God sets no such mark of his displeasure upon him, but that his mother may soon forget him: the hand of justice doth not hang him on a gibbet for the birds to feed on; but he is carried to his grave like other men, to be the sweet food of worms. There he lies quietly, and neither he nor his wickedness are any more remembered than a tree which is broken all to shivers.

Ver. 21. He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not and doth not good to the widow.] This is true even of him, who, to hide his villany, kills the child in the womb of her whom he hath deflowered; and when he hath abused a poor widow, makes her no satisfaction.

Ver. 22. He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.] The greatest persons are not able to stand before him: when he

rises up to assassinate, there is no man, be he never sa strong, is sure of his life.

Ver. 23. Though it be given him to be in safety wherein he resteth, yet his eyes are upon their ways.] Though he give you his hand, and promise you security so solemnly, that you think you may rely upon him, yet he watches all occasions, and lies in wait secretly to do you mischief.

Ver. 24. They are exalted for a little while, but are gone, and brought low; they are taken out of the way, as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.] Thus these impious men flourish, and are lifted up a bove all other; and then they depart the world without any punishment: they are laid down and shut up in their graves like all other men; nay, they die as easily, (without those tedious pains which some endure), as the top of an ear of corn is cropt with your

hand.

Ver. 25. And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth] All this I know to be so true, that I challenge all the world to disprove me: I am sure it is not in any man's power to shew that my discourse is frivolous.

CHAP. XXV.

THE ARGUMENT.-The foregoing discourse of Job, in the 24th chapter, was so undeniable, that Bildad begins to break off the dispute: For he says not a word to it, but only advises him to speak more reverently of the majesty of God, than he imagined he had done in his appeal to him, chap.

xxiii.

Ver. 1. THEN answered Bildad the Shubite, and said,] Then Bildad, (whose turn it was

to speak), being unable to refute what Job had said, only desired him in a few words, to beware how he reflected upon the justice of God, or imagined himself to be just if he examined him. The words were these.

Ver. 2. Dominion and fear are with him; he maketh peace in his high places.] Take heed what thou sayest of God, the sovereign of the world, who ought to be worshipped by thee with the most awful reverence; as he is in the heavenly places, where they never rebel against his orders.

Ver. 3. Is there any number of his armies? and upon hom doth not bis light arise ? Hath he not innumerable troops of angels and other creatures, all ready to execute his pleasure? And where is the man that is out of the verge of his all-overspreading providence?

Ver. 4. How then can man be justified with GOD? or can he be clean that is born of a woman? Why then doth such a pitiful wretch as he talk of his righ teousness, before this glorious Majesty? He forgets sure the condition of his birth, who pretends to purity in his sight.

爵

Ver. 5. Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.] Let a man

. Ver. 23. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall biss him out of his place.] At which the beholders shall rejoice, and applaud God's righteous judgement, (which I confess he sometimes executes): They shall hiss at his name when he is dead, in that very place where he hath been so much magnified.

CHAP. XXVIII.

THE ARGUMENT.-The connection of this chapter with the foregoing, I hope I have truly expressed in the first verse. And that being found, it is not difficult to see at what it drives, viz. to stop the busy inquiry of mankind, who are very wise, he shews, in other things, but have not wit enough to comprehend the reasons why God doth not inflict those punishments upon all wicked men, which fall upon, some. It is not needful to set down here how this argument is managed, (with such admirable elegance of words, and such weightiness of matter, as make it deserve the name of Mashal, Parable, or Proverb), because it will sufficiently appear in the Paraphrase.

Ver. 1. SURELY there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold, where they find it.] You would have me give a reason, perhaps, why God punishes some wicked men, and not all; but the wit and industry of mankind, which have discovered mines of silver and gold, must not think to find out this secret, which God hath reserved to himself.

Ver. 2. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.] They invent means to extract iron and brass out of the earth and out of stone.

Ver. 3. He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection; the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.] There is no mine so dismally dark, but there some man or other sets things in order for his work; he searches to the very bottom of it, and finds out those stones which lie in the most abstruse and hidden parts of the earth.

Ver. 4. The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants; even the waters forgotten of the foot; they are dried up, they are gone away from men.] A flood breaks out from some neighbouring place, and disturbs the miners, (for the waters seem as if they would stagnate there, and never stir à foot); but, by the hard labour of man, they are drained, and leave the place dry again.

Ver. 5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and under it is turned up as it were fire.] Out of the surface of the earth he gets herbs and corn for his food and sustenance, and underneath it he finds lime and brimstone, and such like fiery stuff, for other

paths which no bird of prey knoweth, which the most quicksighted among them hath never seen; Ver. 8. The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.] Where the wildest beasts, who search for solitary places, never made their den, or so much as approached, no, not the ravenous lions, whose hunger leads them every where to seek satisfaction.

Ver. 9. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.] He digs through the hardest rocks by his obstinate labour, and undermines mountains, that he may find the treasure hid in their bowels.

Ver. 10. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks, and his eyes seeth every precious thing.] And if he meet with waters which hinder his work, he cuts a channel through the rock to convey them away, and never rests till he hath discovered every thing that may requite his indefatigable pains.

Ver. 11. He bindeth the floods from overflowing, and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.] Nay, more than this, he stops the course of rivers, and leaves not a drop remaining, that he may bring to light all that is hidden in the bottom of them.

Ver. 12. But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?] But though he be so successful in these searches, he must not think to comprehend the reasons of wise Providence. He may study as long as he pleases, and weary himself with busy inquiries, but never be able, with all his labour, to dive into the bottom of this secret, why God doth not punish all the wicked who so insolently

contemn him.

Ver. 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living.] Alas! this wisdom is not to be purchased with all that wretched man hath to give for it; it is not a thing that any part of this world affords.

Ver. 14. The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me.] The miners, poor souls, dig they never so deep, are never like to come within the reach of it; nor is it to be fetched by the mariner from any of those countries to which he sails.

Ver. 15. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.] All the gold and silver which men have heaped up by such long toil and labour, are too inconsiderable a price to be offered for it.

Ver. 16. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire.] Though it be the purest gold which comes from Ophir, together with all the precious stones wherewith that rich country abounds, they are of so little value,

Ver. 17. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.] That if you should add the gold and the crystal which are brought from other places, with all the vessels made by the art of man of the most refined and massy gold, they could do nothing to obtain it.

Vel 18. No mention shall be made of coral, or of

pearls; for the price of wisdom is above rubies.] The precious stones which are fetched out of the mountains of the East are not worthy to be named with it; men may dive into the sea, and fetch up pearls, but this wisdom lies a great deal deeper.

Ver. 19. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.] The Arabian topaz, which is so much esteemed for its wonderful lustre, doth not come near it; nor are all the golden ornaments which they wear in those parts proportion

able to it.

Ver. 20. Whence, then, cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?] By what means, then, shall we get this wisdom of which we are desirous? Who can shew us where it lies, that we may go and search for it?

Ver. 21. Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.] We may ask this question as often as we please, but none can resolve us, for it is concealed from all men living; the most soaring wits were never able to disclose it.

Ver. 22. Destruction aud death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.] Death is the best in

THE ARGUMENT.-To such discourses as these, Job presumes his friends would have given greater attention than it seems they did, had not the vileness of his present condition made his speeches als contemptible. And therefore he puts them in mind with what reverence all his orations were formerly received by great and small, wishing God would restore to him those happy days; and inserting all along so remarkable instances of his integrity, (especially as a judge), in the height of his princely prosperity, when he had an uncontroulable power to do as he pleased, and yet not abused it, but employed it constantly for the defence and comfort of the meanest people in his province.

said,] Here Job made another pause, to see if his friends would return any answer; but they continuing silent, he proceeded in his eloquent vindication of himself, saying,

Ver. 23. GOD understandeth the way thereof, and be knoweth the place thereof.] None but God understands the way and method of his own providence; he alone knows the place of that wisdom we inquire after, which is no where else but in his own mind

Ver. 24. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven:] For who should go vern the world but he, whose understanding is infinite, and sees the motions of all creatures, from one end of it to the other?

Ver. 25. To make the weight for the winds; and he weigbeth the waters by measure.] Which he hath set in such exact order, and given to them such just measures, that the wind cannot blow, nor the waters flow, but in those proportions which he hath prescribed.

Ver. 26. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder :] To the like laws he hath bound the rain, and appointed the course which the thundering cloud shall take.

Ver. 27. Then did he see it, and declare it; be prepared it, yea, and searched it out.] And when he ordered all these things, he was pleased in the wisdom which he saw in his works; he made it visible and apparent; he fixed it, therefore, and made these jaws perpetual, because, after all the search that could be made, he found no fault in it.

Ver. 28. And unto man be said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.] And making man at the same time, he imprinted this sense upon his heart, that he ught to be an humble adorer, not a censurer, of his VOL. III.

Ver. 2. Ob that I were as in months past, as in the days when GOD preserved me!] Oh that God would re-establish me in that happy condition, wherein, some time ago, I was a principal part of his care! You would then give a greater regard to my words, than you do now in my misfortune;

Ver. 3. When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness:] Which has left me nothing but only wishes, that he would restore me those pleasant days, when I saw nothing but continued tokens of his favour, by which I pass ed untouched through all the inconveniences and troubles of this life.

Ver. 4. As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of GOD was upon my tabernacle:] Oh the flourishing season of that prosperous estate! Would it were possible to recall the felicity of those days, when the divine Providence treated me so kindly, that all my answers were held for oracles :

Ver. 5. When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me:] When the Almighty goodness had not ceased to be gracious to me; but I saw myself surrounded with my children and servants, waiting to know my pleasure :

Ver. 6. When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil:] When my lands were so fertile, and blessed with such plenty, as if the rivers had flowed with butter and oil:

Ver. 7. When I went out to the gate, through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street,] When I went in state to the court of judgement, and sat on the bench in the open place, where the people are wont to have their causes heard:

Ver. 8. The young men saw me, and hid themselves,

and the aged arose, and stood up :] And the youth, seeing me appear, were seized with such fear, that they durst not look me in the face; and the aged no sooner perceived me, but they rose up from their seats; and, in token of reverence, stood in my presence. Ver. 9. The princes refrained talking, and laid their band on their mouth.] Immediately ensued a general silence, the princes themselves breaking off their discourses, and not taking the liberty to speak a word. Ver. 10. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.] The nobles and great commanders could not have heard me with greater attention and stillness, if they had quite lost their voices, or their tongues had been tied to the

roof of their mouths.

Ver. 11. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me :] And (so far was I from being a tyrant, as you have accused me, xxii. 5. 6.) there was no ear heard the sentence I gave, but prized my integrity; no eye saw me after I had spoken, but you might have beheld therein the respect and honour which they all bare

me.

Ver. 12. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and such as bad none to help them.] Because I never failed to ease the poor when he complained of his oppressions; the fatherless, and such as had none to take their parts, ever found me their defender.

Ver. 13. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.] I had his prayer for my prosperity, whose life and estate I preserved when he was in danger of utter undoing; and I made the sorrowful widow such a joyful woman, that she openly proclaimed my praise.

Ver. 14. I put on righteousness, and it cloathed me: my judgement was as a robe and a diadem.] For in the morning I put on a resolution to do justly, together with my cloaths, and I never swerved from it all the day after, but looked upon the righteous sentence which I pronounced as a greater ornament than the purple robe on my shoulder, and the diadem upon my head.

Ver. 15. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.] I instructed him who did not well understand his own business, and assisted him who wanted means to carry on his cause.

Ver. 16. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not, I searched out.] For the poor 1 had such a paternal affection, that it made me his advocate as well as his judge; and I never left studying his cause, (when there was an obscurity in it), till I had cleared the business, and done him right.

Ver. 17. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and pluckt the spoil out of his teeth.] By which means I disabled the unjust to oppress them, and forced them to restore that which they had violently extorted from them.

Ver. 18. Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.] And having done

so many virtuous actions, and being in such high authority, I was apt to promise myself, that after an exceeding long and happy life, I should die quietly in mine own house, among my children and friends.

Ver. 19. My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.] For, being like a tree, whose root spreadeth out itself by the waters, and whose boughs are perpetually moistened by the sweet dew of heaven, I thought I should never wither.

Ver. 20. My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.] My esteem and reputation increased every day, and grew greater; and so did my power to defend the authority and dignity I had obtained :

Ver. 21. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.] Though there was no need I should employ it; for when I spake, all men gave me the greatest attention, and my words were a law to them.

Ver. 22. After my words they spake not again, and my speech dropped upon them.] Which, when I had uttered, no man contradicted, or so much as corrected, but it sweetly instilled itself, and sunk into their hearts.

Ver. 23. And they waited for me as for the rain : and they opened their mouths as for the latter rain.] For they expected my opinion with the same eager desire that the husbandman doth the showers, after he hath sown his seed; they gaped for it as the thirsty earth doth for the latter rain, to plump the corn.

Ver. 24. If I laughed on them, they believed it not, and the light of my countenance they cast not down.] The reverence they bare me was so great, that when I laid aside my gravity, and jested with them, they would not believe it, but still took all I said to be serious; and whatsoever pleasantness I used with them, it did not diminish my authority among them.

Ver. 25. I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.] But if I went to visit them, they still preserved their respect to me, and gave me the pre-eminence. And as my condescension to them did not make them less honour me, so their submission to me did not make me less familiar with them; for when I sat as a king, guarded with many troops of followers, I comforted the meanest, and would not suffer them to be dejected.

CHAP. XXX..

THE ARGUMENT-From the foregoing account of his ancient splendour, he takes occasion to annex a no less elegant description of the vileness of his present condition. Hoping that the consideration of such a prodigious change, (which he represents in several particulars, and not without some touches still upon his integrity), might at last move his hard-hearted friends to some compassion towards him; especially, when they saw how near he was