Paraphrase on the Book of Job, Chapter 13
CHAP. XIII.
1. SO that you may see I am not a1. Lo, mine eye hath seene all this, mine eare hath heard and understood it. stranger to the power and wisdome of God, in his wonderfull ordering and disposing of things, but have taken diligent notice of it in the whole course of my life.
2. And therefore am not to be condemned2. What yee know, the same doe I know also, I am not inferiour unto you. as one that is ignorant of God by you, that can say no more of him than what I both know and believe, nor to be thought to have spoken what I have said all this while touching Gods dealing with mee, out of an ignorant presumption, but out of a faithfull knowledge both of God and my selfe.
3. In so much as I desire to conferre3. Surely I would speake to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. with God in stead of you; for because I know him to be perfectly wise and able to judge aright of things, which I finde you are not.
4. For through your ignorance,4. But yee are forgers of lies, yee are all Phyficians of no value. you create false maximes to judge me by, and so like unskilfull Physicians you administer mistaken physique.
5. O therefore that I could but intreate5. O that you would altogether hold your peace, and it should be your wisedome! you to be your owne friends and mine, so farre as to keepe silence, wherein you should shew more wisedome by farre, than in what you have said.
6. And have patience to heare what6. Heare now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips. I shall say for my selfe against your allegations, and for your instruction.
7. Know therefore, that wheras you7. Will you speake wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him? judge me to sinne against God, in that which I speake for my selfe, the offence is on your part; sor how thinke you? Is it not a sinne with unjust arguments to patronize Gods justice, and as if hee stood in need of your lies, to plead his cause with forged untruths?
8. Thinke you to please God by8. Will yee accept his person? will yee contend for God? shewing him any unjust favour in the maintenance of his cause against mee, or, as if hee were too weake to doe it himselfe; therefore doe you thinke to doe him a pleasure in taking upon you to frame arguments for him?
9. Be well advised, Doe you thinke9. Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, doe yee so mock him? that this kind of dealing will hold water with God, and will you venture him to finde out your colloguing, and by-respects? thinke you by flattery and part-taking to deceive and curry favour with God, as with man?
10. How ever you may thinke you10. He will surely reprove you, if you doe secretly accept persons. doe him acceptable service in these your unjust gratifications, yet assuredly he will shew that he abhorreth such dealings, and that hee will be maintained by his own righteousnesse without borrowing mens leasings: Nay, and though you doe it with never so plausible reasons in the eyes of men, yet you shall find that he that knoweth the heart, and hateth all accepting of persons, if hee spie unjust partiality there, though never so secret, hee will certainly punish you for it.
11. Shall not the majesty and excellency11. Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you? of God make you afraid to have such base thoughts of him? and his dreadfull greatnesse affright you out of such low conceits?
12. What? are such fraile creatures12. Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay. as you able to advantage God? who shall your selves be utterly extinct and forgotten as a thing of naught, and whose bodies shall be turned to earth.
13. Pray, vouchsafe me the favour13. Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speake, and let come on me what will. to hold your peace, and let me speake my mind without interruption, and at my perill be it, take you no thought.
14. Seeing you have so grossely erred14. Wherefore doe I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? in what you have said, both concerning God and my selfe, and that for certaine it is Gods way to exercise the righteous under afflictions; wherefore then should I be so foolish thus to torment my selfe, and cast away my confidence, for any thing that you say,15. Though hee slay mee, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintaine mine owne waies before him. or that I suffer?
15. No, I will never doe it, in so much, as if God should proceed, not onelyonly to lay upon me the extremity of affliction, but should also thereby bring me to deaths doore, yet I would continue to relie upon his mercy, and withall, I would defend mine honest sincerity before him to the last.
16. For I am sure, notwithstanding16. Hee also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him. my extreme affliction, the Lord both is, and will be my salvation, pardoning my sinne, and accepting my person; in confidence whereof, I dare put my selfe into the presence of God, which no hypocrite dare doe.
17. Therefore, doe not rashly censure17. Heare diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears. me, but give good heed to that which I speake, and to the profession of my faith which I make.
18. For though you through ignorance18. Behold now, I have ordered my cause, I know that I shall be justified. and prejudice know not how to judge of mee, yet be sure I have examined my selfe, and maturely considered mine own case, my faith and good conscience; and therefore whatsoever you think, I know upon good grounds, that for all mine affliction, God doth not punish mee for my sinnes, but that still hee accounts mee innocent and righteous.
19. Whereof I am so confident, as19. Who is hee that will plead with me? for now if I hold my toung, I shall give up the ghost. that I dare encounter any upon this point; and indeed, you have so tormented me by your reasonings, as that if I have not liberty granted me to justifie mine owne innocency, my heart will burst within me.
20. And if it shall please the Lord20. Only do not two things unto mee: then will I not hide my selfe from thee. himselfe to argue this case with me, I will but desire two conditions of him, and then I will not feare even to appeare before him.
21. One is, that he would take off21. Withdraw thine hand farre from me: and let not thy dread make mee afraid. from mee this heavie hand of his present affliction which overwhelmeth me with the violence of it, till my matter be heard: the other is, that hee would give mee courage to beare out this my humble contestation, so as I may not be confounded with the terrour of his dreadfull greatnesse so far surpassing mee.
22. Then oppose thou, and I will22. Then call thou, and I will answer; or let me speake, and answer thou me. answer, or let mee speake, and answer thou me.
23. Therefore I humbly aske of23. How many are mine iniquities and sins? make mee to know my transgression and my sin. thee, is it for any such greatnesse and multitude of iniquities and sinnes (as these men would beare mee in hand) that thou thus afflictest me? Then I beseech thee, make me to know that great transgression and sinne that hath so enraged thee against me; for I am not conscious to my selfe of any such, nor can I make it sinke into my mind, that thou thus afflictest me upon any such ground.
24. And if not, then wherefore dost24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? thou thus terribly frowne upon me, so as to give the world cause to thinke thou hatest me? Alas, am I fit to be esteemed an enemy worthy thy contesting with?
25. Or dost thou thinke it will be25. Wilt thou breake a leafe driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? any glory to thee to try thy strength, and to fight hand to hand with mee, who am a weake and feeble creature, not able to stand against thee, no more than a leafe before the winde, or stubble before the fire?
26. For thou arrestest me with manifold26. For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest mee to possesse the iniquities of my youth. & bitter plagues, and seemest as if thou couldest not be severe enough against mee, and makest mee oft-times to remember my former sinnes of old with fresh feare, as if they were unpardoned, and as if thou didst lay the punishment of them all on mee now at once.
27. For thou proceedest with all27. Thou puttest my feet also in the stockes, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heeles of my feet. severity against me, as against a grand malefactor, laying mee fast in afflictions, as in stocks, so that I can move no way to finde ease, and hast set, as it were, a watch over me, surrounding me with plagues, lest any way I should get liberty, and followest mee with continuall pursuit as a prisoner that is dog'd at heeles by his keeper from place to place lest he should escape.
28. And now, alas, what glory will28. And hee as a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that is motheaten. all this be to thee at last, seeing I a man am not able to stand against thee, but rot and consume away under thy plagues, which wasteth me as a moth wasteth a garment?