Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_100_t.lzh/3_196.TXT

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gether was a proof; and partly that these afflictions
might the more look like the judgments of God upon
him, just as the men of the old world were eating and
drinking when the flood came and destroyed them all,
Luke xvii. 27. and for the same reasons these Were all
brought upon him in one day, to crush him the more;
and that it might be thought the hand of God was in
it, in a way of wrath and vengeance, and so irritate
him to curse him to his face, which was what Satan
aimed at; see Isa. xlvii. 8, 9. Rev. xviii. 7, 8.
Ver. 14. And there came a messenger unto Job, &c.]
Not a messenger of Satan, as Jarchi, or one of his
angels, or evil spirits; theugh this is a sense which is
embraced not only by some Jewish Rubbins, but by
several of the ancient Christian writers, as Sanctius on
the place observes; and such they suppose the other
messengers after mentioned were; but both this and
they were servants of Job, ,who escaped the calamity
that came upon the rest of their fellow-servants: and
said, the oxen were ploughing : the 500 yoke of oxen
Job had, ver. 5. which were all out in the fields, and
employed in ploughing them; and to plough with
such was usual in those times and countries, as it now
is in some places; see 1 Kings xix. 19. and the asses
feeding beside them; beside the oxen, where they were
ploughing, in pasture-ground, adjoining to the arable
land; and beside the servants that were ploughing
with the oxen: at their hands {b}; as it may be literally
rendered, just by them, under their eye and care; or
in their places {c}; where they should be, and where
they used to feed d; these were the 500 asses, male and
female, reckoned among Job's substance, ver. 3. which
were brought hither to feed, and some for the servants
to ride on; this ploughed land being at some distance
from Job's house; and others to carry the seed that was
was to be sown here: now the situation and employ-
ment of these creatures are particularly mentioned, to
shew that they were in their proper places, and at
their proper work; and that what befell them was not
owing to the want of care of them, or to the indolence
an{t negligence of the servants.
Ver. 15. And the Sabeansfell upon them, &c.] Or,
Shebafell{e}; that is, as Aben Ezra and Sirecon Bar
Tzemach suppiy it, an host of the Sabeans, or a com-
pany of thein; these were not the descendants of that
Sheba that sprung from Ham, Gen. x. 7. nor of him
that came from Shere, ver. 28. but from Sheba, the
son ofJokshan, a son of Abraham by Keturah, who
with the rest of her sons were sent into the east-
country, the country of Job; and these Sabeans, who
descended from the same, were his near neighbouts,
Gen. xxv. 3, 6. they were the inhabitants of one of the
Arabins,. it is generally said Arabia Felix; but that is
not likely, since it was a very plentiful country, the
inhabitants of which had no need to rob and plunder
others; and besides was at a great distance fi'om the
piace of Job's habitation, and lay to the south, and not
the east; though Strabo f indeed says, that the Sa-
beans inhabited Arabia Felix, and made excursions
into Syria, which agrees with these Sabeans; but
rather Arabia Deserta, as Spanheim g has abundantly
proved, a barren place; hence we read of Sabeans
from the wilderness, Ezek. xxiii. 42. the inhabitants of
which lived upon the plunder of others; and these
being naturally given to spoil and rapine, were fit per-
sons for Satan to work upon, as he does in the chil-
dren of disobedience; into whose hearts he put it to
make such a descent on Job's fields, and carry off his
cattle, as they did; they fell upon his oxen and asses
at once and unawares, in a body, in an hostile and
furious manner: and took them away; as a booty;
they did not kill them, but drove them off the ground,
and led them into their own country for their use and
service: yea, they have slain the servants with the edge
of the sword; who were ploughing with the oxen, and
looking after the asses, and who might make an oppo-
sition, though in vain; this was an addition to
affliction, that not only his cattle were carried off,
but his servants were slain, who were born in his
house, or bought with his money: and I only am es-
caped alone to tell thee; this single servant was pre-
served, either by the specitd providence of God, in
kindness to Job, that he might know of a certainty,
and exactly, and what had befallen him, and how it
came to pass, which men are naturally desirous of; or
else, as it is generally thought, through the malice and
cunning of Satan, that the tidings might the sooner be
brought to him, and more readily be believed by him,
and strike him with the greater surprise, a servant of
his own runuing with it, whom he knew, and could
believe; and he appearing with the utmost concern of
mind, and horror in his countenance.
Ver. 16. While he was yet speaking, there came also
another, &c.] Another messenger, one of Job's ser-
vants, from another part of his fields where his sheep
were grazing, and was one of those that kept them;
he came with another piece of bad news, even before
the other had finished his whole account; and the
same is observed of all the other messengers that fol-
low: so Satan ordered it, that all Job's afflictions
should come upon him at once, and the news of them
be brought him as thick and as fast as they could, to
surprise hitn the tnore into some rash expressions against
God; that he might have no intermission, no breath-
ing-time; no time for prayer to God to support him
under the affliction, and sanctify it unto him; no time
for meditation upon, or recollection of, past experi-
ences of divine goodness, or of promises that might
have been useful to him; but they came one upon the
back of another, to hurry him into some indecent
carriage and behaviour towards God, being considered
by hiin as his judgments upon him: and said, the fire
of God is f allen from heaven; which the servant thought,
or Satan put it into his mind to say, that it came im-
mediately fi'om God, like that which destroyed Nadab
and Abihu and the murtnurers in the camp of Israel,
Lev. x. 2. Numb. xi. 1. or, as it is commonly thought,
is so called, because a most vehement one, as a vehe-
ment flame is called the flame of the Lord, Cant. viii.
6. this being such a fire as was never known, since the


{b} \^Mhydy le\^ ad manus eorum, Mercerus.
{c} Suis locis, Vatablus, Schmidt; so Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Bar
Tzemach.
{d} More solito, Schultens.
{e} \^abv lptw\^ et delapsa est Seba, Montanus, Bolducius; et irruit
Sheba, Schmidt, Cocceius.
{f} Geograph. l. 16. p. 536.
{g} Histor. Jobi, c. 3. sect. 12. p. 44, &c.