Ver. 1. My soul is weary of my life] Because it is a lifeless life. Mortis habet vires, a death more like. Life is sweet, and every creature maketh much of it, from the highest angel in heaven to the lowest worm on earth. The Scripture setteth it forth as a sweet mercy, Genesis 45:28 La 3:39 Es 7:3 Jer 39:18 51:5. But God can so embitter it with outward and inward troubles, that it shall become a burden. “I am weary of my life” (saith good Rebekah, Genesis 27:46), and “What good shall my life do me?” David, forced to be in bad company, cries, Oh that I had the wings of a dove, &c. Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, &c. Elijah, fleeing from Jezebel, requested for himself that he might die, saying, “It is enough, Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers,” 1 Kings 19:4. No: but God had provided some better thing for him (as the apostle speaketh in another case, Hebrews 11:40), for he was shortly after translated and taken out of the reach both of Jezebel, whom he feared, and of death, which he desired. Sed multi magni viri sub Eliae iunipero sedent, saith one, many good men sit under Elijah’ juniper, wishing to be out of the world, if God were so pleased, that they might rest from their labours, and be rid of their many burdens and bondages; as, in the mean while, they rather endure life than desire it, as holding it little better than hell, were it not for the hopes they have of heaven hereafter. I will leave my complaint upon myself] Liberty I will take to complain, whatever come of it. I will lay the reins in the neck, and let my passions have their full swing at my peril. See the like Job 13:3. Verum Iob hac in re nimius, saith Mercer, but Job was to blame in doing and saying thus; and it is to be attributed to the infirmity of the flesh, wherewith, although the spirit do notably combat, yet the flesh seemeth sometimes and in some sort to get the better. Nimis augusta res est, nuspiam errare, saith one; Triste mortalitatis privilegium est, licere aliquando peccare, saith another. The snow like swan hath black legs; and in many things we offend all: gold is not to be refused because it wanteth some grains, and hath a crack, &c. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul] And so seek to ease my grief by giving a vent unto it. But it is evident that such outbursts and overflowings of the gall and spleen come from a fulness of bad humours.
Ver. 2. I will say unto God, do not condemn me] You may say so as a humble suppliant, but not as holding yourself innocent, and therefore harshly dealt with. The Hebrew is, Do not make me wicked; rather do good, O Lord, to those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts; but lead me not forth with the workers of iniquity, as a malefactor is led forth to execution, Psalms 125:5. Show me wherefore thou contendest with me] i.e. Quare sic me affigas, saith Vatablus, why thou thus afflictest me, whether for sin or for trial; and this Job desired to know, not to satisfy his curiosity, but his conscience, as one well observeth; and that the world might be satisfied, the rash judgment of his friends confuted, and answered by a determination from heaven.
Ver. 3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress?] It is the guise of wicked judges to take this counsel, to follow this course; whom thou, being a most just and righteous judge, canst not confirm or encourage by thine own example, as it were by a light shining from above. Thus Job rhetoricateth; his complaints are high, yet ever with an alloy or mixture of modesty (Beza). That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands] i.e. Me, thy poor creature, wilt thou do and undo? make a man, and unmake him again for thy mind’s sake? Builders use not to ruin what they have built; artificers love and plead for their own handiwork; fathers foster their children with all tenderness. Some authors dote upon their own doings, as Laurentius Valla did upon his logic, as if there had been none such, calling it, in a bravado, Logicam Laurentinam; and as Campian the Jesuit did upon his ten leaden reasons, which he deemed and boasted to be unanswerable, Heliodorus would rather be unbishoped than yield that his Ethiopic history (a toilsome toy, but the brat of his brain) should be abolished. The saints are “God’s building,” 1 Corinthians 3:9; handy work, Ephesians 2:10; “children,” Romans 9:26; “epistles known and read of all men,” 2 Corinthians 3:2,3. This if we plead, when sorely afflicted (as the Church did, Isaiah 64:8, and David, Psalms 138:8, and Job here), we may have anything. See that notable text, Isaiah 45:11, and that other, Isaiah 59:16. And shine upon the counsel of the wicked?] That is, favour and further their designs. God makes his sun to shine upon such, but himself never shineth upon them. He may be angry enough with men, though they outwardly prosper; yea, to prosper in sin is a most heavy judgment. See Zechariah 1:15. [See Trapp on “Zec 1:15”]