Ver. 1. And Job answered and said] Being nipped and nettled with his friends’ hard usage of him, and harsh language to him, but especially with Zophar’s arrogant and lofty preface in the former chapter, he begins now to wax warm, and more roughly and roundly to shape them an answer.
Ver. 2. No doubt but ye are the people] The select peculiar people, the only ones, as a man is put for a good man, Jeremiah 5:1, a wife for a good wife, Proverbs 18:22, a name for a good name, Ecclesiastes 7:1. As Athens was said to be the Greece of Greece, and as one promising to show his friend all Athens at once, showed him Solon; or as the Latin poet, saying of Fabius Maximus, Hic patria est, murique urbis stant pectore in uno (Silius). So saith Job by a holy jeer (not to disgrace his friends, but to bring them to more modesty and moderation, if it might be), Certes, ye are not one or two men, but specimen totius orbis, an epitome of the world, or at least the representative of some whole people (Vatablus); ye have got away all the wit from myself and others, whom ye look upon as so many wild ass’s colts in comparison of yourselves. Thus the pope (Simon Magus like) pretends to be some great thing, Acts 8:9, even the Church virtual; and that in his breast, as in Noah’s ark, is comprehended all wisdom and worth. Ye know nothing at all, saith he (Caiaphas-like), to all others, John 11:49. So do his janizaries, the Jesuits, who will needs be taken for the only scholars, politicians, and orators of the world. The Church, say they, is the soul of the world; the clergy, of the Church; and we, of the clergy; the empire of learning is ours, &c. And wisdom shall die with you] As being locked up in your bosoms. Suetonius telleth us of Palaemon, the grammarian, that he was heard to say that learning was born with him, and would die with him. The Gnostics would needs be held the only knowing men; Illuminates, in Spain, the only spiritual men; Swenkfeldians, in Germany, styled themselves the confessors of the glory of Christ; our Antinomians, the hearers of the gospel, and of free grace. But what saith Solomon? “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth,” Proverbs 27:2. And that which had been much to a man’s commendation if from another, soundeth very slenderly from himself, saith Pliny. Aben Ezra and Rabbi Levi set another sense upon this verse, as if it were no irony, but a plain assertion to this effect: Questionless you are to be counted among the common sort of people. See John 7:49. Neither is there in you anything excellent or extraordinary, that ye should be looked upon as drained from the dregs or sifted from the brans of the very vulgar; your wisdom, if ever you had any, is even dead and decayed with you, and you have outlived your prime, &c.
Ver. 3. But I have understanding as well as you] Think not that you have engrossed all the knowledge, and that you have the monopoly of wisdom in your breasts; for surely I may come into the balance with you, and claim as great a share in understanding as yourselves. Zophar was pleased to call me hollow and heartless, Job 11:12; but I have a heart (so the Hebrew here hath it), that seat of understanding; and that shall appear in the ensuing discourse: where Job proveth that by solid arguments concerning which Zophar had but barely propounded. And whereas this patient man was not without his impatience, yet he discovereth more grace, even in his distempers, than his friends did in their seeming wise carnages. Breaking out in the body shows strength of nature. Some infirmities discover more good than some seeming beautiful actions. I am not inferior to you] Heb. I fall not lower than you. See Nehemiah 6:16 Es 6:13 Job 13:2. He meaneth that he was much their superior, and did better understand the doctrine of God’s providence than they. This he speaketh not out of any vain glory, or ambitious boasting, but as David, and Paul, and others after them did, commending themselves, either in defence of their own wronged innocence, or when it appeared unto them that the concealing of their good parts and practices might turn to the hindrance of the truth, or to the harm of the Church, or to the impairing and impeaching of God’s glory. In these cases self-commendation is not unseemly; but a Job may lawfully stand upon, not his comparisons only, but his disparisons also. Yea, who knoweth not eueh things as these?] viz. That God rewardeth the righteous, and punisheth the ungodly. The heathen saw this by the rush candle of nature’s dim light. “Doth not nature itself teach you?” saith Paul, 1 Corinthians 11:14. And again, “This ye know, that no whoremonger, &c., hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ,” Ephesians 5:5.
Ver. 4. Iam as one mocked of his neighbour] Those that should countenance and comfort me contemn and scorn me. I am their laughter and pastime; so he took it, since they sat so heavily upon the skirts of his conscience, and would not weigh his reasons brought in his own defence. Who calleth upon God, and he answereth him] i.e. I, Job, do make God my refuge when these jeering neighbours of mine do shame my counsel, Psalms 14:6, and would mock me out of my religion; but God favoureth me though men frown; and where human help faileth Divine appeareth. Or thus rather: I am derided by those who profess to call upon God, and to hear often from heaven. They are hard hearted to me, though themselves have liberally tasted of God’s tenderness; and they pull up the bridge of mercy before me, which themselves have oft gone over. The just upright man is laughed to scorn] “Shame shall be the promotion of fools,” Proverbs 3:35, and such a dissembler as Doeg may well be derided, Psalms 52:6,7. But what hath the righteous done? And why should just, upright Job be laughed to scorn? But this is no news. Christ and his people have ever been for signs and for wonders in this mad world, always beside itself in point of salvation. “He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey,” or is accounted mad, Isaiah 59:15. If he will needs be a just upright man, if he will live godly in Christ Jesus (if he be so set upon it, that none shall hinder him), he shall suffer persecution, this of the tongue howsoever, 2 Timothy 3:12. A wolf flieth not upon a painted sheep. We can look upon a painted toad with delight; it is the reality of godliness that is hated.