Job Expounded, Commentary on Job · Chapter 10
¶ THE SVMME AND ORDER of the 10. Chapter.
IOB hauing as it weare cited his freinds before Gods iudgement feate, first he protesteth, that he is driuen to doe this which hee doth against his will, as being constrained by their false accusation to take this course, vers. 1. and thence forward he beginneth to plead his owne cause. And this one thing is in all these complaints to bee obserued, that Iobs purpose is not to present himselfe before Gods iudgement seate, as if he were voide of all sinne (for he doth both in verie manie places going before, and in the whole former Chapter, and also in the Chapter, following acknowledge the contrarie) but onelyonly to free himselfe from the wrongfull and slaunderous accusation of his aduersaries, who charged him with a dissembled holines and feare of God, and with much wicked and vniust dealing towards men: by which he had drawne vponupon himselfe this extraordinarie iudgement of God. Therefore he standeth in the defence of a good cause, and mainteineth a iust quarrell, howsoeuer partly the bitternes of his griefe, and partlie the indignitie of this shamelesse slaunder, wrung from him some speeches which might bewray mans infirmitie, which neuerthelesse he doth euer now and then mitigate. This therefore being set downe, which hee testifieth in the last verse of the former Chapter, and in the 7. verse of this chapter, namely, that he reuerenced and feared God from his verie heart according to his power, as afterward in the 29. Chapter he is compelled more plainely to lay open, and that hee was farre from doing or hauing done anie man iniurie: hereupon he reasoneth with himselfe, verse 2.3.4.5.6. how it should come to passe that God should deale more hardly and more vnmercifully with him, then with other most vvicked and vngodlie persons▪ and finding no meanes to resolue this doubt (vvhichwhich thing happened also to the Prophets, as Psal. 73. Ierem. Abac. 2.) he laboureth to mooue God vntounto compassion by sundrie arguments, dispairing vvholly of this life, & sometimes exceeding measure, but so, that he alvvaies confesseth himselfe to depend vponupon Gods vvill and heauenlie prouidence.
❧ CHAPTER X.
VERSE 1. My soule lotheth my life: I vvill leaue my speech vponupon my selfe: I vvill speake in the bitternes of my soule.
MY soule is wearie of this so miserable life: I will suffer my complaintes to hauehave their full swinge, as touching these afflictions which are laid vponupon me. I will vtter whatsoeuer the bitternes of my torments shall put in my minde.
2. I vvill say vntounto God, condemne me not: giuegive me to vnderstand, vvhat controuersie thou hast vvith me.
I wil speake vntounto God in this maner. Now, I beseech thee, let me not bee pronounced guiltie, neither giuegive sentence of condemnation against me, till such time, as I may vnderstand why, and for what cause I am called vntounto iudgement.
3 (Is it) good for thee, that thou oppresse, (that is, to vse oppression) (and) that thou abhorrest (that is to abhorre), the vvorke of thine hands: and to shine vponupon the counsell of the vvicked?
And to the end it may not seeme straunge to any, that I should craue this at thy hands; the matter it selfe doth compell me thus to do. For farre bee it from me, once to thinke, that thou art delighted with violent and wrongfull oppression of any man, or takest pleasure in the destruction of thine owne worke. For wicked iudges are accustomed to take this counsell and to follow this course, whom thou being a moste iust and righteous iudge canst not confirme or incourage by thine own example, as it were by a light shining from aboue.
4. Hast thou fleshie eyes, or doest thou see as man seeth?
May I thinke that thou seest into matters, no otherwise then wee vile and ignorant mortall men, whose carnall and bodilie eyes, in beholding these outward and sensible things doe so often deceiue vsus: and that therefore happily, thou either knowest me not, or else art caried away with affections, and not led by sure and well aduised iudgement?
5. Are thy dayes as mans daies? and (are) thy yeares as the daies of man?
6. That thou makest such inquisition for my vvickednes, and searchest out my sinne.
Finallie is thy life like to mans life, deuided into the spaces of daies and yeres; that to knowe whether I hauehave liued lewdlie and wickedly, according as these men lay to my charge, thou needest some respite & time to consider of the matter, & that I must needs be, as it were, put vponupon the rack.
7. Thou knovvest that I am guiltlesse of those crimes, and (yet) who may deliuer me out of thine hande?
What then may I doe or whether may I turne my selfe, wretch that I am? For truly those things are not incident to thy nature. But thou knowest that I am free from that lewde and wicked life, whereof these men would make me guiltie, and yet doest thou vse me so hardly and sharpely, as that I hauehave no meanes to escape or rid my selfe out of thine hands.
8 Thy hands hauehave throughlie vvrought me and hauehave fashioned me vvhollie round about, and vvilt thou svvallovv me vp?
O my God thou art he, who with so great care hast framed me with thine owne hands, and exactlie fashioned all my members. A lasse wilt thou so violentlie deface thine owne worke, & destroy that which tbou hast made?
9. Remember I pray thee that thou hast made mee as the claie: and wilt thou bring mee into the dustt againe?
Remember I beseech thee, that of earth, like a potter, thou hast formed mee, and wilt resolue mee into dust againe: so that thou art not to shew and trie thy power in destroying me so brittle & so weake a vessell, and which shall returne into the dust, so sone as thou speakest the worde.
10 Hast thou not povvred me out like milke, and turned me to curds like cheese:
11. Thou hast clothed me vvith skinne and flesh, and couered me vvith bones and sinevves.
12. Thou hast dealt life and goodnesse vntounto me (that is, thou hast giuen me life accompanied with thy goodnesse & blessings) and thy prouidence hath preserued me.
13 And hast thou hid these things in thine hart? For J knovv that this (was) so vvith thee.
10 & 11 Thou truly art he, who, when I was first conceiued in my mothers wombe, beeing as milke strained, and afterwarde like a cheefe put together, clothedst me with skinne and flesh, and ioinedst me together with bones and sinewes.
12 My life moreouer hast thou beautified with wonderfull blessings, and daily preserued and watched ouer my spirite. 13 whence then proceedeth this change so suddeine & so contrarie? and how couldest thou both shew thy selfe so bountiful towards me, and yet these things which now I feele lie hidden in my harte? for well I am assured, that these things had not happened vntounto me, vnlesse thou hadst both willed and decreed that it shoulde be so.
14 If I hauehave sinned, thou also hast looked vntounto me, and thou hast not cleansed me from mine iniquitie.
15 If I am vvicked, vvoe is me therefore: but if I am iust I vvill not lift vp mine heade, beinge filled vvith shame, and seinge mine affliction.
14 I hauehave sinned, I confesse, verie often, and thou in like manner art wont to note mine offences, neither hast thou suffered me to escape vnpunnished.
15. But if I hauehave lewdelie and wickedly behaued my selfe, as these lay to my charge (whereof thou, O Lord, of all other canst best beare me witnes) I hauehave noe cause at all nor reason to complaine: but if with my whole power and indeuour I hauehave folowed and giuen my selfe to virtue and godlines, I am therefore nothing exalted, yea, I am greatlie disgraced and brought into this extreme misery, which I feele.
16. For it riseth aloft, (that is, it increaseth) and as a Lyon thou huntest me, & returnest, (that is thou doublest thy strokes) and art made merueilous (that is, shewest thy selfe merueilous) against me.
17. Thou bringest fresh vvitnes against me, and thou multipliest thine anger vponupon me: chaunges, (that is, miseries one exceedinge an other) and armies are vvith me.
16. For it increaseth more and more: insomuch, that euen as an eager and sauadge seeker of his pray, thou seemest to hunt me, continuallie pursuinge me as if thou hadst determined to shew thy might by my ouerthrow: for I hauehave scarsly receiued one blowe, when thou with loade strikest on another: which may stand for witnes of thy seueritie which thou vsest towardes me: In a worde, miseries doe assaile me by troupes, one succeding and foloweing in the neck of another.
18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me out of the wombe? (I vvould) I had perished, and that noe eye had sene me.
19. That I were as though J had not bene, but brought from the wombe vntounto the graue.
Didst thou therefore bring me out of my mothers womb, that I should thus perish? alas, why was it not rather thy pleasure that noe eye shoulde euer beholde me? 16. I would to God, I say, I had soe bene borne, as if I had neuer bene, to witt, caried from the wombe to the graue.
20. Are not my dayes fewe? leaue of then from me, and I shalbe a litle strengthened:
12. Before J goe and shall not returne: into the lande of darkenes and shadowe of death:
22. The lande of darkenes, as it were the darknes of the shadow of death, and not of order, (that is, vnpleasaunt and where nothing is in order) and where (that which) shineth, is darkenes.
20. Finally sith the remainder of my daies is short, I pray thee let me go, that I may euen breathe a litle 21. before I depart out of this life, into which I shall neuer returne againe, into that lande, where lothsome darkenes dwelleth, not the darkenes of the night, but the verie darkenes of death. 22. that lande I say, so darke as is darkenes it selfe; where the shadowe of death possessinge all things, there is no difference at all of day or night, neither of the seasons of the yere nor of the rising or setting of the Sun: where, to conclude, there is palpable darkenesse, when the Sunne shineth and giueth light vntounto the whole world besides.