Paraphrase on the Book of Job, Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI.
1. BUt Job being no whit more1. But Iob answered, and said: convinced or confuted by Zophans foregoing discourse, thus againe replies upon him:
2. Doe mee that favour, as to give2. Heare diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations. mee also leave to speake, and to lend me your eares, which, seeing you have no other comforts for me, shall be in stead of comfort to me.
3. Have but patience to heare me,3. Suffer mee that I may speake, and after that I have spoken, mock on. and when I have done, say you your pleasure.
4. I see it is in vaine to make my4. As for mee, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? mone to man, if I looke for help there, the Lord knowes I am in a piteous case; for I find no comfort from him.
5. I beseech you consider what I5. Marke mee, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. say, that you may reforme your error, and together with mee, may with amazement admire the waies of God, which are wonderfull; and give over thus presumptuously to give boundaries to him in his administration towards men.
6. And well may I bid you wonder,6. Even when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. and be astonished hereat; for, for mine owne part, when I call to minde, and consider Gods wonderfull proceedings toward my selfe, what I was, and what I am, they astonish me with most formidable amazement, nor am I able to plum their depth.
7. And I pray you, if it be as you7. Wherefore doe the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? say, That God only layeth his heavie hand upon the wicked, and that they escape not wrath & punishment, how then comes it to passe (which you cannot deny but are eye-witnesses of) that the wicked live in health and heartsease, till they be as old as the oldest, and equall, if not exceed, whomsoever in power?
8. Their posterity doe as well as8. Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. heart can wish, and they live to see them thrive like themselves, and to joy in their present prosperity and undoubted hopes of future happinesse.
9. There is no such feare befalls9. Their houses are safe from feare, neither is the rod of God upon them. them as you speake of, but they live secure and free both from the feare and feeling of punishment, God afflicts them not one jot.
10. But contrarily, all things hit, and10. Their Bull gendereth, and faileth not, their Cow calveth, and casteth not her calfe. nothing misseth to make them happy, and rich, they have profit and pleasure at will; for their bull gendereth and faileth lesse than other mens, and their Cowes calve, and miscarry seldome or never.
11. None are more happy in the11. They send forth their little ones like a flocke, and their children dance. multitude of children than they, nor no mens children lead merrier lives than theirs, dancing and joviallizing.
12. At the sound of all the choisest12. They take the timbrell and harpe, and rejoyce at the sound of the organ. instruments of musique, which wit can invent, or money can buy, wherewith they take their fill of pleasure and sport.
13. And they live all their life long13. They spend their daies in wealth, and in a moment goe downe to the grave. in this manner, never tasting sorrow, and moreover, when their time comes to die, they have as easie deaths as one would wish, without any sore or lingring paines and diseases, they depart in a trice.
14. Thus they live, and thus they14. Therefore they say unto God, depart from us: for wee desire not the knowledge of thy waies. die, yea, not with standing that they are so far from being lesse wicked for this their prosperous condition, as that it makes them the more sinfull and presumptuous against God, even in effect to dare to say (for their lives shew as much) we care not for thee, nor have no need of thee, thy waies are not our waies, and therefore keepe them to thy selfe; for wee will yeeld neither subjection nor obedience to thee nor them.
15. We are able to stand upon our15. What is the Allmighty, that wee should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? owne legs, and wee are free for to doe our owne wills, why should wee then abridge our selves, and become slaves to one whose power wee respect not, nor can it doe us any hurt, be it never so great, and to whom wee scorne to be beholden for any thing, who need nothing?
16. Lo, now, how unagreeable this16. Lo, their good is not in their hand, the counsell of the wicked is farre from me. is to what you say, that God ever despoiles them of all they have, and leaves them naked; and yet how ever this my necessitous estate differs from that of theirs, so commended by you, yet say you what you will, I am not for all that in love with their prosperous condition; much good do it them, far be it from me to wish their happinesse in their way, and upon their termes, for I have never trod their paths.
17. You cannot deny but that experience17. How oft is the candle of the wicked put out? and how out commeth their destruction upon them? God distributeth sorrowes in his anger. proves this true which I have said, that many wicked men doe thus passe unpunished, and prosper; nor againe, on the other hand doe I deny, but that too the glory of the wicked is oft eclipsed, and destruction oft overtakes them, yea, I acknowledge it to be true, that God doth distribute and send afflicting plagues and punishments in his just displeasure upon them many times.
18. God I know does bring them18. They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaffe that the storme carrieth away. and theirs to ruine and destruction, and disperseth their ill gotten goods up and downe into a thousand mens hands.
19. And maketh their children divers19. God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it. times feele the smart of their fathers sins; yea, hee makes the wicked man live to see and know the reward of his owne evill waies.
20. He himselfe is made the spectator20. His eyes shall see his destruction, and hee shall drinke of the wrath of the Almighty. of his owne ruine, and to drinke deepe of the cup of the Lords anger.
21. So that the pleasure hee tooke21. For what pleasure hath hee in his house after him, when the number of his moneths is cut off in the midst? in the hope hee conceived of making his house famous and honourable after him, shall quite vanish by sudden destruction or death, happening in his prime.
22. Will you dare then thus to teach22. Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high? God what he should doe? will you set bounds to his actions, and measure his judgements by your rule, seeing they are so farre beyond us, and his waies past our finding out; and seeing he is Judge of the Angells, who are so farre above us in all manner of excellencies, the wisdome of whose waies even they notwithstanding are ignorant of.
23. Must you not needs confesse an23. One dieth in his ful strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. unsearchablenesse in Gods waies, such as is without the compasse of any mans reach, when as he pleaseth to doe such wonderfull contradictory things in mans reason, and to shew himselfe so free an agent in the things aforesaid, as also in these that follow; sparing whom hee pleas…th, and likewise afflicting whom, and for what time, and in what measure himselfe liketh, as we continually see and behold; for instance, Doth he not summon one a way by death, even then, when hee is most likely to live, and when he least lookes for it, or desires it?
24. When there is not the least decay24. His breasts are full of milke, and his bones are moistened with marrow. in him to cause it, but that nature is every way perfect and complete.
25. And doth not another man (we25. And another dieth in the bitternesse of his soule, and never eateth with pleasure. know no reason why) lie and die under wofull pressures of minde and body, never enjoying good houre in all his life?
26. Thus does God doe his pleasure26. They shall lie downe in the dust, and the wormes shall cover them. upon men, and variously dispence his providence to them here, and yet however hee seeme to favour or disfavour them (which is also strange) death concludes them, and the grave receives them all alike, and there they fare alike, the wormes devouring one as well as another.
27. Alas, I easily perceive you imply27. Behold, I know your thoughts, & the devices which you wrongfully imagine against me. and meane mee to be the wicked man that God hath done & executed all these things upon for my supposed wickednesse, (wherein (I speake it knowingly) you are utterly mistaken; for I am no such man, and you doe me exceding much wrong to thinke so of me, whilest ignorantly you judge me by the event and Gods afflicting hand upon mee.
28. The whilest you say in derision,28. For ye say, Where is the house of the prince, and where are the dwelling places of the wicked? where is this mans princely pompe, that but even now was so splendidous? What is become of all the glory, that hee in the pride of his heart had thought to have gained and laid up for himselfe and his? and of all the great revenew and goodly houses that he and they by wicked meanes had compassed and built to wicked ends and purposes?
29. Is it not notorious what he was,29. Have yee not asked them that goe by the way? and doe yee not know their tokens? and cannot every man point him out now for wicked and naught, that seeth these markes and judgements upon him? will any man say, that ever any had the like but such an one?
30. Doe not all men know that the30. That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. time will come, that God will certainly reckon with a wicked man for his wickednesse, and at last, without faile, bring ruine upon his head, and will make him an example of his justice to all the world, in the day that he chooseth to execute his wrath upon him?
31. Although no man dare reprove him, and tell him he doth wrong, nor31. Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? right himselfe upon him, or attempt to punish him, because of his imperiousnesse and oppressing might.
32. Yet shall God bring him low,32. Yet shall hee be brought to the grave, and shall remaine in the tombe. his judgements shall bring him to his grave, even to an everlasting farewell to his former estate.
33. God shall so afflict him that he33. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him. shall desire death as the only way that remaines to give him ease, and this say you, shall be, and ever hath beene the case of every wicked man, as well as his.
34. Now, how vainly may any one34. How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falshood? judge, doe you goe about to comfort me, which yet you would be thought to doe; when as you apply nothing rightly to mee, nor affirme nothing rightly of mee; and seeing all your discourses are composed of nothing but mistakes and errors touching God and mee, affirming that hee afflicts none but wicked men, and that I am and must needs be wicked, because I am afflicted, both which are false.