Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_507.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-23 | 7KB | 142 lines

\\INTRODUCTION TO JOB 40\\

\*In this chapter Job is called upon to give in his
answer, \\#Job 40:1,2\\, which he does in the most humble
manner, acknowledging his vileness and folly, \\#Job 40:3-5\\;
and then the Lord proceeds to give him
further conviction of his superior justice and power,
\\#Job 40:6-9\\; and one thing he proposes to him, to humble
the proud, if he could, and then he would own his own
right hand could save him, \\#Job 40:10-15\\; and observes
to him another instance of his power in a creature
called behemoth, which he had made, and gives a description
of, \\#Job 40:15-24\\.

\*Ver. 1. \\Moreover the Lord answered Job\\, &c.] The
Lord having discoursed largely of the works of nature,
in order to reconcile the mind of Job to his works of
providence, stopped and made a pause for a little
space, that Job might answer if he thought fit; but he
being entirely silent, the Lord began again:
\*\\and said\\; as follows:

\*Ver. 2. \\Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct [him]\\?
&c.] Is he capable of it? He ought to
be that takes upon him to dispute with God, to object
or reply to him; that brings a charge against him,
enters the lists, and litigates a point with him; which
Job wanted to be at. But could he or any other instruct
him, who is the God of knowledge, the all-wise
and only-wise God; who gives man wisdom, and
teaches him knowledge? What folly is it to pretend
to instruct him! Or can such an one be %instructed%?
as the Targum: he is not in the way of instruction;
he that submits to the chastising hand of God may be
instructed thereby, but not he that contends with him;
see \\#Ps 94:12\\. Or should he be one that is instructed?
no, he ought to be an instructor, and not one
instructed; a teacher, and not one that is taught; he
should be above all instruction from God or man that
will dispute with the Almighty, The word for instruct
has the signification of chastisement, because instruction
sometimes comes that way; and then the sense
either is, shall a man contend with the Almighty that
chastises him? Does it become a son or a servant to
strive against a parent or a master that corrects him?
Or does not he deserve to be chastised that acts such a
part? Some derive the word from one that signifies to
remove or depart, and give the sense, shall the abundance,
the all-sufficiency of God, go from him to
another, to a man; and so he, instead of God, be the
all-sufficient one? Or rather the meaning of the
clause is, has there not been much, enough, and more
than enough said, Job, to chastise thee, and convince
thee of thy mistakes? must more be said? is there any
need of it?
\*\\he that reproveth God, let him answer it\\;
he that reproves God, for his words, or works, or ways,
finding fault with either of them, ought to answer
to the question now put; or to any or all of those in
the preceding chapters, and not be silent as Job now
was.

\*Ver. 3. \\Then Job answered the Lord\\, &c.] Finding
that he was obliged to answer, he did, but with some
reluctance:
\*\\and said\\; as follows:

\*Ver. 4. \\Behold, I am vile\\, &c.] Or %light% {a}; which
may have respect either to his words and arguments,
which he thought had force in them, but now he saw
they had none; or to his works and actions, the integrity
of his life, and the uprightness of his ways, which
he imagined were weighty and of great importance,
but now being weighed in the balances of justice were
found wanting; or it may refer to his original meanness
and distance from God, being dust and ashes, and
nothing in comparison of him i and so the Septuagint
version is, %I am nothing%; see \\#Isa 40:17\\; or rather to
the original vileness and sinfulness of his nature he had
now a sight of, and saw how he had been breaking
forth in unbecoming expressions concerning God
and his providence: the nature of man is exceeding
vile and sinful; his heart desperately wicked; his
thoughts, and the imaginations of them, evil, and
that continually; his mind and conscience are defiled;
his affections inordinate, and his understanding and
will sadly depraved; he is vile in soul and body; of
all which an enlightened man is convinced, and will
acknowledge;
\*\\what shall I answer thee\\? I am not
able to answer thee, who am but dust and ashes; what
more can I say than to acknowledge my levity, vanity,
and vileness? he that talked so big, and in such a
blustering manner of answering God, as in \\#Job 13:22
31:35-37\\; now has nothing to say for himself;
\*\\I will lay mine hand upon my mouth\\; impose
silence upon himself, and as it were lay a restraint
upon himself from speaking: it looks as if there were
some workings in Job's heart; he thought he could
say something, and make some reply, but durst not,
for fear of offending yet more and more, and therefore
curbed it in; see \\#Ps 39:1\\.

\*Ver. 5. \\Once have I spoken; but I will not answer\\,
&c.] Some think this refers to what he had just now
said of his vileness, he had owned that, and that was all
he had to say, or would say, he would give no other
answer; Jarchi says, some suppose he has respect to
his words in \\#Job 9:22\\;
\*\\yea, twice; but I will proceed no further\\;
the meaning seems to be, that he who
had once and again, or very often, at least in some
instances, spoken very imprudently and indecently, for
the future would take care not to speak in such a
manner: for this confession was not quite free and full;
and therefore the Lord takes him in hand again, to
bring him to make a more full and ingenuous one, as he
does in \\#Job 42:1-6\\.

\*Ver. 6. \\Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the
whirlwind\\, &c.] Some think that the whirlwind ceased
while the Lord spake the words in \\#Job 40:2\\; which encouraged
Job to make the answer he did; but others
are of opinion that it continued, and now increased,
and was more boisterous than before. The Targum
calls it the whirlwind of tribulation: comfort does not
always follow immediately on first convictions; Job,
though humbled, was not yet humbled enough: God
will have a fuller confession of sin from him: it was
not sufficient to say he was Vile, he must declare his
sorrow for his sin, his abhorrence of it, and of himself
for it, and his repentance of it; and that he had said
things of God he ought not to have said, and which he
understood not; and though he had said he would
answer no more, God will make him say more, and
therefore continued the whirlwind, and to speak out of
it; for he had more to say to him, and give him further
proof of his power to his full conviction;
\*\\and said\\; as follows.

{a} \^ytlq\^ %levis sum%, Cocceius, Michaelis; %leviter locutus sum%,
    V. L.