Ver. 1. Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said] Hic verisimile est aliquantisper Deum tacuisse, saith Mercer. Here it is likely that God held his peace awhile, and seeing that Job replied not, he added the following words, the more fully to convince and affect him. There is somewhat to do to reduce a sinner from the error of his way; yea, though he be in part regenerate, the flesh will play its part against the spirit. This must be considered, and all gentleness used to those that offend of infirmity, after God’s example here.
Ver. 2. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?] Or, Is it wisdom to contend with the Almighty? An disputare cum Omnipotente est eruditio? No, but the greatest folly and sottishness. Job might think otherwise, so long as he compared himself with others; but being once set by God in his super excellencies considered, he shall see his own nothingness, and sit down in silence and patience, though severely tried and sharply afflicted. He that reproveth God, let him answer it] Answer it if he can, or else yield the cause. Praestat herbam dare quam turpiter pugnare. But if Job have yet further a mind to question and quarrel God in any his ways and works, let it be heard what answer he can return to what hath been already spoken.
Ver. 3. Then Job answered the Lord, and said] It was time for him, if ever, to stoop to the Most High, so far condescending to his meanness, and to answer his expectation by acknowledging a fault, and promising amendment. Lo, this is the guise of a godly person: he may be out, but he will not usually be obstinate. A humble man will never be a heretic; convince him once, and he will yield: not so the obstinate and uncounselable person; he runs away with conviction, as the unruly horse doth with the bit between his teeth; and his wit will better serve to devise a thousand shifts to elude the truth than his pride will suffer him once to yield to it, and acknowledge his error.
Ver. 4. Behold, I am vile] Light and little worth; and therefore deserve to be slighted and laid by, as a broken vessel. The humble man vilifies, yea, nullifies, himself before God, as Abraham, Genesis 18:27; as Agur, Proverbs 30:3; as Paul, Ephesians 3:8; as that martyr who cried out, Gehenna sum Domine, Lord, Thou art heaven, but I am hell, &c. Tantillitas nostra, saith Ignatius of himself and his colleagues. Behold, I am an abject, saith Job here, contemptible and inconsiderable. This was well, but not all; an excellent confession, but not full enough: his meanness he acknowledgeth, and that he was no fit match for God; but not his sinfulness, with desire of pardon and deprecation of punishment; God therefore gives him not over so, but sets upon him a second time, Job 40:6, and brings him to it, Job 42:1. There must be some proportion between a man’s sin and his repentance, Ezra 9, and this God will bring all his Jobs to ere he leave them. What shall I answer thee?] I am silenced, and set down; I see there is no reasoning against thee; I acknowledge thy greatness so plainly and plentifully demonstrated in the foregoing discourse; and am well pleased that thou shouldest be justified when thou speakest and overcome when thou judgest, Psalms 51:4 Ro 3:4. I will lay my hand upon my mouth] I that have spoken more freely and boldly than I ought, Et ore patulo multa sine iudicio effutivi, and have opened my mouth more wide than was meet, will henceforth be better advised, and keep my mouth with a bridle, or muzzle, as Psalms 31:1. [See Trapp on “Job 21:5”]
Ver. 5. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer] It is enough of that once: the saints, running out, and meeting with a bargain of sin, come back by weeping cross, and cry, What have I to do any more with wickedness? Hosea 14:8. Judah knew his daughter Tamar no more, Genesis 38:26. “If I have done iniquity, I will do no more,” Job 34:31,32. That was Elihu’s counsel; and now it is Job’s practice. Yea, twice] That is, often; so eager was I set upon a dispute. This was an aggravation of Job’s sin, the committing of it again and again. Numbers added to numbers are first ten times more; then a hundred; then a thousand, &c. “This hath been thy manner from thy youth,” Jeremiah 22:21; that was an ill business. But I will proceed no further] sc. In this controversy. I will not come into the lists to contend with thee. I see there is no safety in such a contest. In many things we offend all, saith St James; and he is a perfect man who sinneth not with his tongue. But as he who hath drunk poison maketh haste to cast it up again, ere it get to the vitals; so should we deal by our daily misdoings. It is not falling into the water that drowns a man, but lying long under it. Bewail thy sin and hasten to get out of it.
Ver. 6. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of a whirlwind] As before, Job 38:1, notwithstanding Job’s submission. See the reason on Job 40:4. God took his outbursts against him so very ill, that he is not easily pacified; but the better to abase Job, and quite to break the neck of his pride, he answereth him again angrily, not by a soft and still voice, as be dealt by Elijah, but out of the whirlwind, though with some abatement of terror, as Rainban conceiveth from the leaving out here the notificative article set before segnarah, the whirlwind, in Job 38:1. Peter was not overly forward to comfort those that were pricked at heart with sense of sin and fear of wrath; but presseth them yet further to repent, Acts 2:38. Men are apt to slight and slubber over the work, doing it to the halves; and must therefore be held hard to it, lest it should not be done to purpose.