Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Job
Book: Job
Chapter: 11
Overview:
Zophar reproves
Job.
(1-6) God's perfections and almighty
power.
(7-12) Zophar assures
Job of blessings if he repented.
(13-20)
1-6 Zophar attacked
Job with great vehemence. He represented
him as a
Man that loved to hear himself speak, though he could
say nothing to the purpose, and as a
Man that maintained
falsehoods. He desired
God would show
Job that less
Punishment
was exacted than he deserved. We are ready, with much
Assurance,
to
Call God to act in our quarrels, and to think that if he
would but speak, he would take our part. We ought to leave all
disputes to the
Judgment of
God, which we are sure is according
to
Truth; but those are not always right who are most forward to
Appeal to the Divine
Judgment.
7-12 Zophar speaks
Well concerning
God and his greatness and
Glory, concerning
Man and his vanity and folly. See here what
Man is; and let him be humbled.
God sees this concerning vain
Man, that he would be
Wise, would be thought
So, though he is
born like a wild
Ass's colt,
So unteachable and untameable.
Man
is a vain
Creature; empty,
So the
Word is. Yet he is a proud
Creature, and self-conceited. He would be
Wise, would be thought
So, though he will not submit to the laws of
Wisdom. He would be
Wise, he reaches after forbidden
Wisdom, and, like his first
parents, aiming to be
Wise above what is written, loses the tree
of
Life for the tree of knowledge. Is such a
Creature as this
fit to contend with
God?
13-20 Zophar exhorts
Job to
Repentance, and gives him
encouragement, yet mixed with hard thoughts of him. He thought
that worldly prosperity was always the
Lot of the righteous, and
that
Job was to be deemed a
Hypocrite unless his prosperity was
restored. Then shalt thou lift up thy
Face without spot; that
is, thou mayst come boldly to the
Throne of
Grace, and not with
the terror and amazement expressed in ch. 9:34. If we are
looked upon in the
Face of the Anointed, our faces that were
cast down may be lifted up; though polluted, being now washed
with the
Blood of
Christ, they may be lifted up without spot. We
may draw near in full
Assurance of
Faith, when we are sprinkled
from an evil
Conscience, Heb 10:22.