Paraphrase on the Book of Job, Chapter 24 – Chapter 25
CHAP. XXIV.
1. IF God be bound by his justice to1. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, doe they that know him, not see his daies? punish evill-doers in this life; why then is it, that he who knows the length of their life, and the time of their departure hence, yet suffers them to die unpunished? and why then doe not the godly, and they that serve him, alwaies see it so, but oft-times the contrary?
2. Yea, to instance in all sorts of2. Some remove the land-markes; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof: wicked men; some goe point-blancke against Gods Commandement, and privately doe injury to their neighbour for their owne advantage, robbing him of his right by removing his land-marke, and others with strong hand, take away other mens goods and cattell, and securely feed thereon.
3. They cruelly oppresse the fatherlesse,3. They drive away the Asse of the fatherlesse, they take the widdowes Oxe for a pledge. and mercilessely exact upon the widow.
4. They put poore folke to extreme4. They turn the needy out of the way: the poore of the earth hide themselves together. shifts, so as they know not how to live, and drive them to so narrow a scantling by inlarging their territories, that they are faine to croud together like Bees in a hive, and for cruelty and oppression dare not shew their faces.
5. See, if they rather like beasts,5. Behold, as wilde Asses in the desait, goe they forth to their worke, rising betimes for a prey: the wildernesse yeeldeth food for them and for their children. than men, doe not rove and ramble up and downe the earth for booty for them and theirs, and care for no body else, nor how they come by that they have.
6. There is nothing scapes them,6. They reape every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. but other mens, both corne and wine, by oppression they wickedly usurp, and swallow all.
7. They are utterly mercilesse, having7. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. no charity nor pity, but destitute the poore of their very bed-clothes, inhumanely exposing them to the extremity of cold without clothing.
8. Driving them to endure most8. They are wet with the showers of the mountaines, and embrace the rocke for want of a shelter. miserable hardship, even to lie out of doores in vehement stormes, and tempestuous weather, and to take up with the holes of the rockes for houses to dwell in.
9. They cruelly extort even the very9. They pluck the fatherlesse from the breast, and take a pledge of the poore. necessary food that should maintaine and keepe alive the widow and the childe, and contrary to all law of God and nature, unmercifully take and detaine the poore bodies pledge to his utter undoing.
10. Not sticking to strip him starke10. They cause him to goe naked without clothing, and they take away the sheafe from the hungry. naked of all, both clothing and food, that should either cover his nakednesse, or satisfie his hunger.
11. These oppressors make the poore11. Which make oile within their walls, and tread their wine-presses, and suffer thirst. labouring man to toile hard, and to scruze out for them their oile and their wine in the places where they themselves dwell safe and at ease; and yet compell him to suffer thirst the while, being by their cruelty abridged of his wages and livelyhood dearely earned, and not suffered so much as to taste of his owne labours.
12. In so much that the miserable12. Men grone from out of the city, and the soule of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. grones and outcries of the oppressed, that can have no justice done them are vehemently breathed forth to heaven, even as a man that lieth mortally wounded at the point of death; which one would thinke were an apt occasion, and a fit season for God to shew himself in, to right the poore innocent, and to punish the wicked oppressour, and yet for all this, we see he keeps silence and doth not plague them.
13. Yea, is not this true, even of13. They are of those that rebell against the light, they know not the waies thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. such men, whose lives are so notorious, that they hate the very light, which reproves and discovers their evill doings? does not (I say) God spare even them, whose owne consciences condemne themselves, driving them to act their deeds of darknesse by night, and not by day, secretly and not openly.
14. As for instance; the murtherous14. The murtherer rising with the light, killeth the poore & needy; and in the night is as a thiefe. and cruell-minded man, he early executes his mischievous designes with all speed and diligence upon the poore and needy soule, that can make no resistance, and then obscures himselfe in the night as a thiefe.
15. And so againe, the adulterous15. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and disguiseth his face. Whoremonger, he contrives and longs to fulfill his sinne which hee also effects in the darke by close and cunning carriage.
16. The thiefe in the like manner16. In the darke they digge through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day time: they know not the light. … the night-bird, making use of the day to plot, and of the night to ex…re his villany, not loving the light as inconvenient for his purpose and vexatious to his mind.
17. For when the morning comes,17. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrours of the shadow of death. hee is strucke with feare, like a man ready to die, he is in miserable dread, lest hee should be knowne or found of any.
18. He staies not long in a place, he18. He is swift as the waters, their portion is cursed in the earth: hee beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. flieth all company, his conscientiousnesse makes him lead a most miserably solitary, and base life, not daring to come nere any high way or place of concourse.
19. And so they spend their daies,19. Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. and will never leave sinning till death, but like as the snow remaines unwasted till the Summer sunne comes and melts it into the ground, so doe the wicked subsist and goe on, some in one way of wickednesse, some in another, till the period of death finish their course.
20. Then indeed he shall be extinct,20. The wombe shall forget him, the worme shall feed sweetly on him, he shall be no more remembred, and wickednesse shall be broken as a tree. and be as if he had never been, returned shall he be to the dust againe, and his memory shall perish, and his flourishing in wickednesse shall then have an end, as a tree that is broken or blowne downe with the wind.
21. But yet in the meane time, God21. He evill entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doth not good to the widow. may let him live long to doe much mischiefe, and to act many injuries unpunished, both evill intreating the solitary barren woman who hath none to pity her or take her part as others have, and to offer violence in stead of yeelding succour to the friendlesse widdow.
22. Yea, not onelyonly oppressing the22. He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. poore thus, but also bringing the rich to poverty by his overtopping might, dominering and tyrannizing over all sorts of men, and making them live in perpetuall feare of him and bondage to him.
23. But though he live never so long23. Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their waies. in safety and prosperity, exercising these courses, and rest never so confidently on it; yet I know he shall certainly be plagued at last (though not here) for the eyes of God marke him, and hee will be sure to reward him with just punishment.
24. Though God do (which no man24. They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low, they are taken out of the way, as all other, and cut off, as the tops of the ears of corne. can deny) exalt them here for a while, yet I acknowledge that in justice hee must, and will give an end to their waies, and by death cut them off; but yet oft-times no otherwaies than other men, not by any notorious judgement, but by a common and naturall death, without making difference, like corne in harvest.
25. And if this be not true that25. And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth? God doth many things above, and contrary to mans reason, and that hee lets wicked men spend their daies in wickednesse, and reserves their judgement till death, let any disprove mee that can.
CHAP. XXV.
1. BIldad the Shuhite, being moved1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, at Jobs boldnesse toward God, and confidence in himselfe, thus briefely makes answer to what he had spoken in the 23. Chapter.
2. God rules with Majesty in heaven,2. Dominion and feare are with him, hee maketh peace in his high places. and gives lawes to his Angells there, which they must obey, in which very place that there is peace, it is of his goodnesse and gracious decree, rather than of their merit.
3. Hath hee not whole armies of3. Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? Angells and other creatures in an infinite number, which are ready to execute his wrath upon whomsoever dare to contest against him? and doth not the Sun behold all men in all corners of the earth, so that God must needs much more see them what they are?
4. God then being of such perfect4. How then can man be justified with God? or how can hee be cleane that is born of a woman? holinesse, so terrible also, and so allseeing, how dares any man living, or how is it possible for him to stand it out with God (as thou boastest) in his owne justification, or for him that is naturally corrupt, begotten and borne of sinfull parents, to appeare pure in the eyes of such a God?
5. Consider, that by reason of the5 Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not yea, the starres are not pure in his sight. fall of man, the very creatures that in themselves are sinlesse, yea, the very Moone and Stars (that are so far from earth and so neer to heaven) have contracted defilement, and are blemished; so that with God for mans sake, and by mans sin, even they are not accounted free from pollution in his sight.
6. How much lesse man himselfe6. How much lesse man, that is a worme: and the sonne of man which is a worme? (whence they have taken infection) and all that come of him, who both father and sonne, are all alike earthly creatures made subject to corruption by sinne?