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Job
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE BOOK OF
J O B.
THIS book of Job stands by itself, is not
connected with any other, and is therefore to be considered alone. Many
copies of the Hebrew Bible place it after the book of Psalms, and some
after the Proverbs, which perhaps has given occasion to some learned
men to imagine it to have been written by Isaiah or some of the later
prophets. But, as the subject appears to have been much more ancient,
so we have no reason to think but that the composition of the book was,
and that therefore it is most fitly placed first in this collection of
divine morals: also, being doctrinal, it is proper to precede and
introduce the book of Psalms, which is devotional, and the book of
Proverbs, which is practical; for how shall we worship or obey a God
whom we know not? As to this book,
I. We are sure that it is given by inspiration of God, though we are
not certain who was the penman of it. The Jews, though no friends to
Job, because he was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, yet, as
faithful conservators of the oracles of God committed to them,
always retained this book in their sacred canon. The history is
referred to by one apostle
and one passage
is quoted by another apostle, with the usual form of quoting scripture,
It is written,
1 Cor. iii. 19.
It is the opinion of many of the ancients that this history was written
by Moses himself in Midian, and delivered to his suffering brethren in
Egypt, for their support and comfort under their burdens, and the
encouragement of their hope that God would in due time deliver and
enrich them, as he did this patient sufferer. Some conjecture that it
was written originally in Arabic, and afterwards translated into
Hebrew, for the use of the Jewish church, by Solomon (so Monsieur
Jurieu) or some other inspired writer. It seems most probable to me
that Elihu was the penman of it, at least of the discourses, because
he mingles the words of a historian with those of a disputant: but
Moses perhaps wrote the first two chapters and the last, to give light
to the discourses; for in them God is frequently called Jehovah,
but not once in all the discourses, except
That name was but little known to the patriarchs before Moses,
If Job wrote it himself, some of the Jewish writers themselves own him
a prophet among the Gentiles; if Elihu, we find he had a spirit
of prophecy which filled him with matter and constrained him,
ch. xxxii. 18.
II. We are sure that it is, for the substance of it, a true history,
and not a romance, though the dialogues are poetical. No doubt there
was such a man as Job; the prophet Ezekiel names him with Noah and
Daniel,
The narrative we have here of his prosperity and piety, his strange
afflictions and exemplary patience, the substance of his conferences
with his friends, and God’s discourse with him out of the whirlwind,
with his return at length to a very prosperous condition, no doubt is
exactly true, though the inspired penman is allowed the usual liberty
of putting the matter of which Job and his friends discoursed into his
own words.
III. We are sure that it is very ancient, though we cannot fix the
precise time either when Job lived or when the book was written. So
many, so evident, are its hoary hairs, the marks of its antiquity, that
we have reason to think it of equal date with the book of Genesis
itself, and that holy Job was contemporary with Isaac and Jacob; though
not coheir with them of the promise of the earthly Canaan, yet a
joint-expectant with them of the better country, that is, the
heavenly. Probably he was of the posterity of Nahor, Abraham’s
brother, whose first-born was Uz
and in whose family religion was for some ages kept up, as appears,
where God is called, not only the God of Abraham, but the God
of Nahor. He lived before the age of man was shortened to seventy
or eighty, as it was in Moses’s time, before sacrifices were confined
to one altar, before the general apostasy of the nations from the
knowledge and worship of the true God, and while yet there was no other
idolatry known than the worship of the sun and moon, and that punished
by the Judges,
He lived while God was known by the name of God Almighty more
than by the name of Jehovah; for he is called Shaddai–the
Almighty, above thirty times in this book. He lived while divine
knowledge was conveyed, not by writing, but by tradition; for to that
appeals are here made,
xxi. 29; xv. 18; v. 1.
And we have therefore reason to think that he lived before Moses,
because here is no mention at all of the deliverance of Israel out of
Egypt, or the giving of the law. There is indeed one passage which
might be made to allude to the drowning of Pharaoh
(ch. xxvi. 12):
He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he
smiteth through Rahab, which name Egypt is frequently called by in
scripture, as
lxxxix. 10; Isa. li. 9.
But that may as well refer to the proud waves of the sea. We conclude
therefore that we are here got back to the patriarchal age, and,
besides its authority, we receive this book with veneration for its
antiquity.
IV. We are sure that it is of great use to the church, and to every
good Christian, though there are many passages in it dark and hard to
be understood. We cannot perhaps be confident of the true meaning of
every Arabic word and phrase we meet with in it. It is a book that
finds a great deal of work for the critics; but enough is plain to make
the whole profitable, and it was all written for our learning.
1. This noble poem presents to us, in very clear and lively characters,
these five things among others:–
(1.) A monument of primitive theology. The first and great
principles of the light of nature, on which natural religion is
founded, are here, in a warm, and long, and learned dispute, not only
taken for granted on all sides and not the least doubt made of them,
but by common consent plainly laid down as eternal truths, illustrated
and urged as affecting commanding truths. Were ever the being of God,
his glorious attributes and perfections, his unsearchable wisdom, his
irresistible power, his inconceivable glory, his inflexible justice,
and his incontestable sovereignty, discoursed of with more clearness,
fulness, reverence, and divine eloquence, than in this book? The
creation of the world, and the government of it, are here admirably
described, not as matters of nice speculation, but as laying most
powerful obligations upon us to fear and serve, to submit to and trust
in, our Creator, owner, Lord, and ruler. Moral good and evil, virtue
and vice, were never drawn more to the life (the beauty of the one and
the deformity of the other) than in this book; nor the inviolable rule
of God’s judgment more plainly laid down, That happy are the
righteous, it shall be well with them; and Woe to the wicked, it
shall be ill with them. These are not questions of the schools to
keep the learned world in action, nor engines of state to keep the
unlearned world in awe; no, it appears by this book that they are
sacred truths of undoubted certainty, and which all the wise and sober
part of mankind have in every age subscribed and submitted to.
(2.) It presents us with a specimen of Gentile piety. This great
saint descended probably not from Abraham, but Nahor; or, if from
Abraham, not from Isaac, but from one of the sons of the concubines
that were sent into the east-country
(Gen. xxv. 6);
or, if from Isaac, yet not from Jacob, but Esau; so that he was out of
the pale of the covenant of peculiarity, no Israelite, no proselyte,
and yet none like him for religion, nor such a favourite of heaven upon
this earth. It was a truth therefore, before St. Peter perceived it,
that in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is
accepted of him,
Acts x. 35.
There were children of God scattered abroad
besides the incorporated children of the kingdom,
Matt. viii. 11, 12.
(3.) It presents us with an exposition of the book of
Providence, and a clear and satisfactory solution of many of the
difficult and obscure passages of it. The prosperity of the wicked and
the afflictions of the righteous have always been reckoned two as hard
chapters as any in that book; but they are here expounded, and
reconciled with the divine wisdom, purity, and goodness, by the end
of these things.
(4.) It presents us with a great example of patience and close
adherence to God in the midst of the sorest calamities. Sir Richard
Blackmore’s most ingenious pen, in his excellent preface to his
paraphrase on this book, makes Job a hero proper for an epic poem; for,
says he, “He appears brave in distress and valiant in affliction,
maintains his virtue, and with that his character, under the most
exasperating provocations that the malice of hell could invent, and
thereby gives a most noble example of passive fortitude, a character no
way inferior to that of the active hero,” &c.
(5.) It presents us with an illustrious type of Christ, the
particulars of which we shall endeavour to take notice of as we go
along. In general, Job was a great sufferer, was emptied and humbled,
but in order to his greater glory. So Christ abased himself, that we
might be exalted. The learned bishop Patrick quotes St. Jerome ore than
once speaking of Job as a type of Christ, who for the job that was
set before him endured the cross, who was persecuted, for a time,
by men and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised to be
an intercessor even for his friends and had added affliction to his
misery. When the apostle speaks of the patience of Job he
immediately takes notice of the end of the Lord, that is, of the
Lord Jesus (as some understand it), typified by Job,
2. In this book we have,
(1.) The history of Job’s sufferings, and his patience under them
not without a mixture of human frailty,
(2.) A dispute between him and his friends upon them, in which,
[1.] The opponents were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
[2.] The respondent was Job.
[3.] The moderators were, First, Elihu,
ch. xxxii.-xxxvii.
Secondly, God himself,
(3.) The issue of all in Job’s honour and prosperity,
Upon the whole, we learn that many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but that when the Lord delivers them out of them
all the trial of their faith will be found to praise, and
honour, and glory.
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