Ver. 1. But Job answered and said] Eliphaz thought he had silenced him, and set him down with so much reason, that he should have had nothing to reply; yet Job, desirous to disasperse himself, and to clear up his reputation, answered, and said. For indeed Negligere quid de se quisque sentiat, non solum arrogantis est, sed et dissoluti, saith one, that is, altogether to neglect what others think or speak of a man’s self, and not to make apology, is the part not only of a proud, but of a dissolute, person; silence sometimes argueth guiltiness, or at least it strengtheneth suspicion.
Ver. 2. Oh that my grief were throughly weighed] Heb. Were weighed by weighing. The word rendered grief signifieth also anger, and is the same with that wherewith Eliphaz began his speech, Job 5:2, where he saith, “Wrath killeth the foolish man,” pointing at Job, as an angry man exalting folly. Here, therefore, Job beginneth his refutation, wishing that that anger or grief of his, so hardly censured, were duly weighed in an even balance; for then it would appear that there was some reason for his passion, that he had enough upon him to cry for, and that he had not complained without a cause. We read of a certain philosopher, who, hearing of his son’s death, brake out into a loud lamentation; for which being reproved, Permittite, inquit, ut homo sim, Suffer me, I pray you, said he, to show myself to be a man, that is, sensible of my sufferings. And my calamity weighed in the balances together] That is, that my calamity were accurately set against my grief, my laments and my torments equally poised; it would then appear that I have not yet grieved or complained up to the height or weight of those calamities which are upon me. “Even to day is my complaint bitter” (saith he elsewhere in answer to Eliphaz too, interpreting his complaints to be rebellion against God): “my stroke is heavier than my groaning,” Job 23:2.
Ver. 3. For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea] How light soever thou, O Eliphaz, esteemest it, as being in a prosperous condition. It is easy to swim in a warm bath; and every bird can sing in a sunshine day. But grief lieth like a load of lead upon the soul, heavy and cold; afflicting it, as an unsupportable burden doth the body. It so oppressed the poor Israelites in Egypt, that they had no mind to hearken to Moses, Exodus 6:9. Solomon cries out, “A wounded spirit who can bear?” Proverbs 18:14. My soul is very heavy, and exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, saith our blessed Saviour, Matthew 26:37,38, then when the Father made all our sins to meet upon him, and he bare our griefs and carried our sorrows, Isaiah 53:4,12. Sure it is, that had he not been God as well as man, he had been utterly crushed by that inconceivable weight of sin and wrath that he then groaned under. Oh what will all Christless persons do in hell, where God shall lay upon them and not spare! they would fain fly out of his hand, Job 27:22, but that cannot be. Therefore my words are swallowed up] Vix loqui possum, vox faucibus haeret: I want words, which yet, if I had them at will, would be far too weak to utter the grief of my mind. Broughton rendereth it, Therefore my words fall short; they are semesa, saith Junius, half eaten before spoken; I am, as it were, gagged with grief; or, my words are even smothered up with sighs and sobs. Thus Job rhetoricates, and yet thinks himself greatly word bound.
Ver. 4. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me] What marvel, then, though his flesh had no rest, but he was troubled on every side, since without were fightings, within were fears? 2 Corinthians 7:5. The arrows, not of a mighty man, as Psalms 127:4, but of an Almighty God; troubles without and terrors within. David felt these arrows, and complaineth of them heavily, Psalms 38:1,2. “He shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded,” saith he of his enemies who had bent their bow and shot their arrows at him, even bitter words, Psalms 64:3,7. God will make his arrows drunk with the blood of such persons, Deuteronomy 32:42. But the arrows Job here complains of were poisoned or envenomed arrows. The poison whereof drinketh up my spirits] Drieth them up, and corrupts the blood in which the spirits are, sprinkling in my veins a mortal poison, working greatest dolour and distemper. The Scythians and other nations used to dip their darts in the blood and gall of asps and vipers, the venomous heat of which, like a fire in their flesh, killed the wounded with torments, the likest hell of any other; and hereunto Job alludeth. The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me] i.e. The terrible strokes of God, who seemeth to fight against me with his own hand, to rush upon me as the angel once did upon Balaam, with a drawn sword in his hand, threatening therewith to cut off my head, as David did Goliath’s, yea, to send me packing to hell, in the very suburbs whereof, methinks, I feel to be already; and shall not I be suffered to complain? A galled shoulder will shrink under a load, though it be but light; and a little water is heavy in a leaden vessel. But the word here used for terrors noteth the most terrible terrors, hellish terrors, and worse, for they are the terrors of God, surpassing great, 2 Corinthians 5:11, which made Jeremiah pray so hard, Be not thou a terror to me, O Lord, and then I care not greatly what befalleth me. “While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted,” saith Heman, Psalms 88:15. Add hereunto that these terrors of God had set themselves in array, they were in a military manner marshalled and imbattled against him, as Jeremiah 50:9. God afflicted Job methodically and resolvedly; he led up his army, as a reverend man phraseth it, exactly formed to a pitched battle against him, and this was truly terrible; for who, saith Moses, knoweth the power of his wrath? since the apprehension and approach of it was so terrible to an upright-hearted Job, to a heroical Luther, upon whom God’s terrors were so heavy for a time, ut nec calor, nec sanguis, nec sensus, nec vox superesset (In epist. ad Melancth.), that neither heat, nor blood, nor sense, nor voice remained, but his body seemed dead, as Justus Jonas, an eye-witness, reporteth: agreeable whereunto is that memorable speech of Luther, Nihil est tentatio vel universi mundi, et totius inferni in unum conflata, &c., The temptation and terror of all the world, nay, of all hell put together, is nothing to that wherein God setteth himself in battle-array against a poor soul; in which case that in excellent counsel that one giveth in these words, When thy sins and God’s wrath meeting in thy conscience make thee deadly sick, as Isaiah 33, then pour forth thy soul in confession; and as it will ease thee (as vomiting useth to do), so also it will move God to pity, and to give thee cordials and comforts to restore thee.