“Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, continued: Heb. added to take up”
Parable: speaking in a figurative poetic style, Numbers xxiii. 7. Job grants that God generally punishes the wicked, but he maintains that he also chastises the just; and hence admonishes all to revere his judgments and wisdom, and to decline from evil; which truths must always subsist, whatever may be the conduct of Providence. (Calmet) — Parables do not always imply similies, but sometimes pithy, and profound sentences, spoken by the wisest men.
“As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; vexed: Heb. made my soul bitter”
Judgment. Chaldean, “my rule of judging.” Septuagint, “Live the Lord, who hath judged me thus.” Symmachus, “hath despised my judgment.” The expression seems very harsh, and may be one of those which God blames, chap. xl. 3. (Estius) (Calmet) — Yet we shall examine that point later, chap. xlii. (Haydock) — He may only mean that he is so well convinced of his innocence, that he calls God to witness it, (Calmet) and adores his ways, (Haydock) in not permitting him to appear before his tribunal, (Calmet) to justify himself; (Menochius) so the he is abandoned to the rash judgments of others, chap. xxxiv. 5. Isaias (xl. 27.) and Sophonias (iii. 15.) speak in similar terms. (Calmet) — God deferred passing sentence, for Job’s greater trial. (Worthington)
“All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; the spirit: that is, the breath which God gave him”
Nostrils: while I live. (Haydock) — Genesis ii. 7., and Ezechiel xxxvii. 14. (Calmet)
“God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.”
Till. Never will I abandon this path, (Haydock) nor will I yield to your reasons, (Calmet) or cease to defend myself. (Menochius) — It would have been contrary to justice and charity, (Haydock) as well as to truth, to confess a false crime. (Worthington)
“Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.”
Enemy, or opponent. Hebrew, “my enemy shall be,” &c. (Haydock) — In effect, those who maintained the contrary to what Job taught, favoured the cause of impiety, as they represented God never punishing his servants, &c., (Calmet) which is contrary to experience; (Haydock) though it was not so evident at that time. (Houbigant) — Job is so far from thinking riches a proof of sanctity, that he rather would wish his enemy to have them, (Menochius) as they are too frequently an incentive to sin. (Haydock)
“For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?”
Soul, in death: What will it profit? &c., Matthew xvi. 26. All this proves demonstratively another world. (Calmet)
“Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?”
Him. Like Antiochus, the wicked pray only through fear of punishment, and their request is therefore rejected, 2 Machabees ix. 13. (Menochius)
“I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. by: or, being in the hand, etc”
Hand, or grace of God. — Hath, how he acts, and with what design. (Calmet) — Quid disponat Deus. (St. Augustine)
“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.”
Portion. This you have repeatedly asserted; and (Haydock) I acknowledge it is generally, but not always, the case. (Calmet)
“If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.”
Bread. Septuagint, “if they grow up to manhood, they shall beg,” Psalm xxxvi 25. (Haydock)
“Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.”
In death; without honour. (Sanctius) — Weep for him. Septuagint, “his widows no one shall lament, or pity.” (Haydock) (Psalm lxxvii. 63.) (Menochius)
“He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.”
Moth. Hebrew, “as the polar star.” (Junius) — But the Chaldean, &c., translate with the Vulgate, which agrees better with the latter part of the verse. The moth devours another’s property, like the wicked man, who lodges commodiously, though not at his own expense. — Keeper of a field, or of a vineyard. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “His house has slipt away like a moth, and what he has kept (or his riches) like a spider.” (Haydock) — The moth demolishes its own house, and is then disturbed, (Menochius) or thrown with the rotten wood into the fire.
“The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not.”
Nothing. His riches are all left behind! The men of riches have slept their sleep, and have found nothing in their hands. They awake as from a dream, (chap. xx. 8.; Haydock) and then they form a true estimate of things. (Menochius) — God chiefly punishes the wicked in death, Psalm lxxv. (Worthington)
“Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.”
Night. Darkness often denotes disgrace and misery.
“For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. he: Heb. in fleeing he would flee”
And he (God) shall, or Septuagint the wind, (Calmet) “shall fall upon him.” (Haydock) — Flee. Yet he will not escape, (Menochius) though he flee with all expedition. (Haydock)
“Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.”
Place. God having waited patiently a long time, at last displays the effects of his indignation, with a sort of contempt, Proverbs i. 26., and Ezechiel v. 13. (Calmet) (Psalm ii. 4.) (Menochius) (Pineda) — Every passenger who shall witness his fall, and his now abandoned place, shall also testify his approbation. (Haydock)