Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_100_t.lzh/3_199.TXT

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tice, and as sensible of his awful hand upon him, and as
being humbled .under it, and patiently submitting to it;
he did not stand up, and curse God to his face, as Satan
said he would, but fell upon his face to the ground;
he did not curse his King and his God, and look up-
wards, see Isa. viii. 21. but prostrated himself to the
earth in great humility before him; besides, this may
be considered as a prayer-gesture, since it follows:
and worshipped; that is, God, for who else should he
worship? he worshipped him internally in the exer-
cise of faith, hope, love, humility, patience, &c. and
he worshipped him externally by praising him, and
praying to him, expressing himself as in the next verse:
afflictions, when sanctified, humble good men, cause
them to lie low in the dust, and bring them near to
God, to the throne of his grace, and instead of arraign-
ing his providence, and finding fault with his dealings,
they adore his majesty, and celebrate his perfections.
Ver. 21. And said, naked came I out of my mother's
womb, &c.]] Either literally, where he was con-
ceived and lay, and from whence he came into the
world, though he afterwards wishes he never had, or
had flied as soon as he did, ch. iii. 10--12. and so it
is expressive of his birth, and the circumstance of
it; or figuratively, his mother earth, from whence
the first man sprang, and so all his posterity with him,
being as he of the earth, earthly, see F. ccl. xii. 7.
which sense is mentloned by Jarchi and Aben Ezra;
but the first sense seems best: the nakedness referred
to is not of the mind or soul, being destitute of righte-
ousness and holiness, with which the following clause
will by no means agree, but nakedness of body; and
therefore as soon as a child is born, one of the first
things done to it is to wrap it in clothes provided for
it, see Ezek. xvi. 4. Luke ft. 7. and also a being with-
out the things of this life; the apostle's words are a
proper comment on these, and explain them, and per-
haps these are refcrred to by him, we brought nothing
into this world, 1 Tim. vi. 7. this shews the necessity
of the early care of Providence over us, and what rea-
son we have to be thankful for unknown mercies at
tim time of birth, and in the state of ihfancy, Psal.
xxii. 9. and lxxi. 6. and what obligations children lie
under to parents, and what benefits they receive from
them at their first entrance into the world, and which
they should religiously requite when through old age
they stand in need of their ass:,stance, 1 Tim. v. 4.
and this may also serve to abate the pride of man,
who will have no reason to boast of his riches, nor of
his fine clothes, when he considers his original naked-
ness; and more especially the use of it may be, and
which seems to be the use Job made of it, to make
the mind easy under the greatest losses. Job consi-
dered he did not bring his substance, his servants, and
his children into the world with him; and now they
were taken from him, he was but as he was when he
came into the world,' and not at all the worse; he knew
how to be abased, and to abound, and in both was
content: and naked shall I return thither; not into his
mother's womb in a literal sense, which was impos-
sible, John iii. 4. but to the earth, and to the dust of
it, Gen. iii. 19. Eccl. xii. 7. pointing to it with his
finSer, on which he now lay; meaning that he should
go to the place appointed for him, the grave, tb- house

of all living, ch. xxx. '23. and so the Targum here has
it," to the house of the grave," where he should lie
unseen, as in his mother's womb, till the resurrection-
morn; which would be a kind of a regeneration of
him, when he should be delivered up from thence,
and enjoy a state of happiness and glory: he should
descend into the grave as naked as he was born, r,-:-
-specting not so much the nakedness of his body, as
being stripped of all worldly enjoyments, see Ecci. v.
15. and he says this in his present view of things ;. he
thought once he should have died in his nest, ch. xxix.
18. in the midst of all his prosperity, and left a large
substance to his children; but now all was taken away,
and for the present had no hope or expectation of a
restoration, as afterwards was; but whereas he was
now naked and bare of all, he expected he should
continue and die so: or this is said with respect to the
common case of' men, who it is certain cannot carry
any thing out of the world with them, either riches or
boaour, but must leave all behind them, 1 Tim. vi. 7.
Psal. xlix. 1(5, 17. which may serve to loosen the minds
of men from worldly things, not to set their eyes and
hearts upon them, nor to put their trust and confi-
dence in them; and good men may part with them,
especially at dcath with pleasure, since they will
have no further use of them, and will have a bet-
ter and a more enduring substance in their stead:
the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; all out-
ward enjoyments, al! the good things of this world, are
the Lord's, and at his dispose; the earth, and the
fulness of it; kingdoms, nations, countries, houses
and lands, the beasts of the field, and cattle on a thou-
sand hills; the gold and silver, and all the riches of
the earth: and these are the gifts of his providence to
the sons of men; nor have they any thing but in a
way of giving and receiving; and even what they en-
joy, through diligence and industry, is owing to the
blessing of God; and who gives not in such sort as
that he loses his property in what is given; this he
still retains, these are talents which he puts into the
hands of men to use for themselves and others, and
for which they are accountable to him; and they are
but stewards, with whom he will hereafter reckon,
and therefore has a right to take away when he pleases;
and both Job ascribes to God, not only the giving, but
the taking away: he does not attribute his losses to
second causes, to the Sabeans and Chaldeans, to the
fire from heaven, and the wind from the desert, but
to God, whose sovereign will and overruling hand were
in all; these were but the instruments of Satan, and
he had no power but what was given from God; and
therefore to the counsel of his will, who suffered it,
Job refers it, and for that reason sits down satisfied
and quiet. This is all to be understood of temporal
things only; for of spiritual things it cannot be said.
that God gives and takes away; such gifts are without
repentance, and are irreversible, Rom. xi. 29. the
Targum is, "the Word of the Lord hath given, and
"the Word of the Lord and the house of his.judg-
"meat hath taken away ;" the Septuagint and Vulgate
Latin versions add," as it pleased the Lord, so it is
"done :" blessed be the name of the Lord; for all his
blessings and mercies; for all the gifts of nature and
providence that had been bestowed,. which could not