“Deus servabit filiis illius dolorem patris, et cum reddiderit, tunc sciet.”
“God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it. his iniquity: that is, the punishment of his iniquity”
“It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.”
“You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.”
“Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children. Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it:”
The sorrow. Protestants, “his iniquity.” Marginal note, “that is the punishment.” (Haydock) — The children shall share in his punishment, (Calmet) when they have been partakers, or imitators of his injustice. (Haydock) — Know his offence, and whether there be a God (Calmet) and Providence. (Menochius)
III. He shows their folly herein, and utterly disclaims all concurrence with them (v. 19): Lo, their good is not in their hand, that is, they did not get it without God, and therefore they are very ungrateful to slight him thus. It was not their might, nor the power of their hand, that got them this wealth, and therefore they ought to remember God who gave it them. Nor can they keep it without God, and therefore they are very unwise to lose their interest in him and bid him to depart from them. Some give this sense of it: "Their good is in their barns and their bags, hoarded up there; it is not in their hand, to do good to others with it; and then what good does it do them?" "Therefore," says Job, "the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Far be it from me that I should be of their mind, say as they say, do as they do, and take my measures from them. Their posterity approve their sayings, though their way be their folly ( Ps 49 13); but I know better things than to walk in their counsel."
Verses 17-26 Job had described the prosperity of wicked people; in these verses he opposes this to what his friends had maintained about their certain ruin in this life. He reconciles this to the holiness and justice of God. Even while they prosper thus, they are light and worthless, of no account with God, or with wise men. In the height of their pomp and power, there is but a step between them and ruin. Job refers the difference Providence makes between one wicked man and another, into the wisdom of God. He is Judge of all the earth, and he will do right. So vast is the disproportion between time and eternity, that if hell be the lot of every sinner at last, it makes little difference if one goes singing thither, and another sighing. If one wicked man die in a palace, and another in a dungeon, the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, will be the same to them. Thus differences in this world are not worth perplexing ourselves about.
“If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? but if ill, shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? but the lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.”