Ver. 1. My breath is corrupt] Which argueth that my inwards are imposthumated and rotten, so that I cannot in likelihood have long to live; Oh therefore that I might have a day of hearing and clearing before I die! But Job should have remembered that there will be at the last day a resurrection of names as well as of bodies; which he that believeth maketh not haste. Howsoever, it was not amiss for Job, so grievously diseased, and now well in years, to have thought himself to be dying and to discourse about these three particulars, that speak of him as a dying man. In the old the palm tree is full of blooms, the map of age is figured on his forehead, the calendars of death appear in the furrows of his face, the mourners are ready to go about the streets, and he is going to his long home, according to that elegant description, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 He should therefore say with Varro, Annus octogesimus me admonet, ut farcinas colligam, &c., It is high time for me to pack up, and to be gone out of this life; or rather, as Simeon, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace, &c. My days are extinct] As a candle, Proverbs 13:9. Or cut off, as a web, so some read it. The original word is found only here. The graves are ready for me] Heb. The graves for me; q.d. I bid adieu to all things else, and as the grave gapes for me, so do I gape for the grave, Ειθε μοι τουτο γενοιτο. I would it were even so, as Basil said, when Valens, the Arian emperor, threatened him with death. But why doth Job speak of graves in the plural? Surely, to show that he was besieged with many deaths; or else, because the dead are buried (as it were) first in their grave clothes, and then in the coffin, and then in the bier or hearse, and lastly in the sepulchre, which every place did, as it were, proffer to Job, and threaten him with death, in regard to his many pains and pressures, by the scoffs and taunts of his friends. For,
Ver. 2. Are there no mockers with me?] Heb. If there be not mockers with me, q.d. despeream, let me be punished, or let me be blamed for wishing to argue it out with God; so some Jewish doctors sense it. Job had before complained about his friends’ jeering and girding at him, Job 16:20. To be mocked in misery is no small aggravation. See what is threatened, Proverbs 1:26. The proverb is, Oculus, fides, et fama non patiuntur iocos, There is no jesting with a man’s eye, faith, and fame. Junius rendereth the text thus, Forasmuch as there are no mockings with me, I mean honestly, and deal plainly, and yet mine eye continueth in their provocations, neither can I be set right in their opinions, so prejudiced they are against me. And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?] Heb. Lodge or tarry all night in their provocations, or bitternesses? Broughton readeth, In these men’s vexing lodgeth mine eye; that is, I lodge not so much in my bed as in the thoughts of my friends’ unkindness. And indeed, saith one, a man may sleep better upon bare boards than upon hard words. Some refer it to the eye of his mind lifted up to God in prayer; but yet no sweetness coming from him either internally or externally. The former is rather to be followed.
Ver. 3. Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee] This Job speaketh not to Eliphaz (as R. Moses, Beza, and some others would have it), but to God himself, as Job 16:7, whom be desireth to lay down or appoint, as Exodus 1:11, and put in Christ as a surety to plead for him; see Hebrews 7:22; and so Brentius expoundeth it: There is one only surety, saith he, one only intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ, who if he appear not in the eyes of our faith, we have none else that can undertake for us to God; neither is there any creature which can stand in the judgment of God, though he would never so fain be surety for us: thus he. And accordingly our late learned annotators, reading the words thus: Appoint, I pray thee, my surety with thee; who is he then that will strike upon my hand? that is, Appoint Christ, who is with thee in heaven, and hath undertaken to be my surety; appoint him, I say, to plead my cause and to stand up for me, and then no man will dare to contend with me. And so it is suitable to the notes on [See Trapp on “Job 16:21”] [See Trapp on “Ro 8:33”] The Vulgate Latin (not altogether from the purpose, saith Brentius) translates the whole verse thus, Put me near thyself, and then let whoso will contend with me.
Ver. 4. Thou hast hid their heart from understanding] That is, thou hast hidden understanding from their heart, thou hast left them in the dark, destitute of a right judgment, while they condemn me to be a wicked person, because I am grievously afflicted; and thence it is that I do so confidently appeal to thee in Jesus Christ, since my friends are so far mistaken in this controversy. If God give not both light and sight, if he vouchsafe not to irradiate both organ and object, the best will be bemisted. Every good gift and perfect cometh from above, even from the Father of lights, James 1:17. It was he that made Reverend Doctor Sibbs (as one saith of him) spiritually rational and rationally spiritual; one that seemed to see the insides of nature and grace, and the world and heaven, by those perfect anatomies he had made of them all. Therefore shalt thou not exalt them] Therefore thou shalt not give them honour, so Broughton rendereth it. But that is not all. Litotes est, saith Mercer; it is a figure, wherein less is said, and more is meant; thou shalt not only not exalt them, but thou shalt also abase and humble them; this contestation shall be nothing at all to their commendation in the end. It is sound knowledge of the truth according to godliness, that exalteth a man, and makes him to be accounted of; and the contrary. Howbeit many great and good men have been greatly mistaken in very great controversies and transactions, as was Luther, Doctor resolutus, sed non in omnibus illuminatus. And yet how many learned able men hath his name misled in the point of consubstantiation! Ursin was carried away with it awhile, till he read his arguments, which he found to be little better than an illogical argument. Holy Greenham, when pressed to conformity to the ceremonies, by the bishop of Ely, who urged Luther’s approbation of them; and are you wiser than Luther? his sober and gracious answer was, I reverence more the revealed will of God in teaching Luther so many necessary things to salvation than I search into his secret will, why he hid his heart from understanding in things less necessary.