Ver. 1. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty] Heb. Why are not times hidden from the Almighty? q.d. Who could think any otherwise, that had not been at the sanctuary, Psalms 73:17, and there heard, Woe to the wicked! it shall go ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be (sooner or later) given unto him? Isaiah 3:11. The Jewish doctors conclude, but falsely, from this text, that Job denied the Divine providence. And the Vulgate Latin, to solve the matter and save Job from the imputation of epicurism, takes the boldness to leave out the interrogative why, and rendereth it thus, The times are not hidden from the Almighty; lest, by making it a question, Job should affirm that times and events are hidden from God, or at least should wish and desire that they were so. Vatablus thinketh that Job here putteth on the person of one that denieth God’s providence, or at least doubteth it; as if he should say, Ye, my friends, say that nothing is hidden from God, and I now demand of you how the times, and those things which are done in time, can be otherwise than hid from him, when as we see wicked men so to take their swing in sin, and yet, for aught we see, to escape unpunished? It should seem, by his winking at wicked practices, that he takes no care how things are carried in this present world; as certainly he would do were he diligens mundi oeconomus, aut rerum humanarum conscius (Brent.). This indeed might stagger a David or a Jeremiah in a passion, as Psalms 73:2-17 Jer 12:1, and make a Diagoras or an Averroes turn atheist; but Job was better instructed in this point, as appeareth by many passages in this Book. See Job 21:16,22. Neither can any such thing be concluded from this text, if we take in the latter part of the verse. Do they that know him not see his days?] The whole verse should be read thus, Why are not times hidden from the Almighty, seeing that they that know him do not see his days? that is, since his most knowing servants could never observe the times and the seasons (of punishing graceless persons here) which he hath put in his own power, Acts 1:7. Abraham indeed (by special favour) was told that Sodom should be suddenly destroyed. And Moses could say, Wrath is gone out from the Lord, take a censer, &c., Numbers 16:46. As any one is more faithful and familiar with God, so much better and earlier doth he discern his judgments on the wicked, and is affected therewith. See Habakkuk 3:16. [See Trapp on “Hab 3:16”] But there is no certain rule given us by what punishment to conclude a man wicked; neither can we safely say at what time or what manner and measure God will punish the ungodly in this present life. That of Austin is very right. Some wicked God punisheth here, lest his providence, and but some, lest his patience and promise of judgment, should be called into question.
Ver. 2. Some remove the landmarks] Here he instanceth in all sorts of wicked persons, with their seculi laetitia, impunita nequitia; they go pointblank against God’s commandments; they please not him, and are contrary to all men; and yet who but they, so long as it will last? Some remove (or touch) the landmarks, which the very heathens held to be sacred, and not once to be touched. Numa, king of the Romans, made a law, that if any hid or removed a landmark he should be slain, by the next that met him, as a sacriligious person, or public pest, Inter ethnicos Terminus numinis loco habitus est. God’s law curseth such an offender, Deuteronomy 27:15-26, and the civil laws pass sentence of death upon him. The Chaldee paraphrast and old Rabbis understand this and the following offences, of the old world, full of rapacity and impiety. But are there not the like and worse evils found also among us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, in these last and worst times, as Bernard fitly yoketh them? In his ultimis et pessimis temporibus. Read the catalogue and compare. Reckon, also, that you then read or hear this chapter aright, when, applying each passage to yourselves, you learn to wash your hands in innocence, or at least in tears for these abominations; as also, if ye be not offended at the prosperity of those who fall into all or but some of these wickednesses, since the time is at hand when account must be given of all things done in the body, whether good or evil. They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof] Though they eat that on earth which they shall digest in hell. Or, and feed them; viz. openly and impudently, with as much insolence as injustice; and as if they had got them by right, and not by rapine and robbery. Lavater upon the text maketh mention of a certain Helvetian tyrant, who violently took away the oxen from the plough of an honest countryman, and told him that it was fit that clowns should draw the plough themselves, without the help of oxen.
Ver. 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless] The only ass of orphans, those helpless, shiftless creatures, so merciless are these abigei, which is no small aggravation of their injustice. [see 2 Samuel 12:3] For all sins are not equal, as the Stoics once held, but lighter or heavier according to their circumstances. To rob the rich is a great offence, but to pillage the poor is far greater. They take the widow’s ox for a pledge] Without which she cannot plough; or, her cow, as some render it, without which she and her children cannot live. A poor bo dy’s livelihood is his life (as that poor widow’s was ολον τον βιον, Mark 12:44, and the like is said of the haemorrhoisse, Luke 8:43), crush this snail in his shell, and you kill him. Now therefore albeit it be not unlawful to take a pledge for security in some cases; yet courtesy must be used, and mercy must be shown to orphans, widows, strangers, and such like, because they are God’s clients, and he hath taken them into his special care and tuition.