The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 332

lZ-18,) (1) The wicked man's estimate or sin. He regards it as a dainty which communicates to his soul the same gratification that delicions viands do to the palate. A melancholy proof of the degradation into which man has sunk, that that which God pronounces e.n 11bomination he should contemplate with approbation ; that a. naturn which God formed to find its happiness in holy fellowship with himself should experience pleasure in disobedience. Yet to the carnal mind all sin possesses more or less a relish, while some forms of indulgence, such as intemperance in eating and drinking, inordinate ambition and avaricr, devotion to the frivolous, and often wicked, amusements of fashionable life, are attended with at least a seeming satisfaction. (2) The wicke<l man's delight in sin. He deals with it as an epicure does with a dainty-keeping bold of it as long as he is able, seeking to extract from it as much sweetness as possible, "biding it under bis tongue, sparing it and forsaking it not, but keeping it still in the middle of bis palate" (vers. 12, 13); as a glutton does with delicious food, eagerly devouring it, gulping it down with avidity, swallowing it with greediness (ver. 15), gormandizing and stuffing himself with the tasty viands with the voracity of a beast -a description applicable to the drunkard (Prov. xxiii. 20, 21), the debauchee (Prov. vii. 22), the covetous man (Isa, v. 8; lvi. 11). (3) 'fhe wicked man's recompense from sin. He shall be filled with misery by that in which be formerly delighted, as if the pleasant food of which be bad partaken had been changed in his stomach into the gall of asps (ver. 14). "Though wicked men relish sin at the time, roll it as a sweet plum in the mouth, and feel its deliciousness, the issue will be agony; it will turn into wormwood, it will rankle as a hellish virus in every vein of the soul" (Thomas). He shall be taken with a loathing for that which be formerly desired, viz. riches, which shall compel him to disgorge that which he gulped down with ~eedincss (ver. 15); nay, what he toiled so hard to obtain he shall not be permitted to retain, but shall be obliged to restore without having experienced from it any real enjoyment (ver. 18). Though conveying a cruel and malicious insinuation that Job's wealth had been unjustly acquired-:--which it was not-yet the sentiment is often true, especially of riches, that that which men pursue with avidity and accumulate with eager anticipa- tions of delight, seldom realizes the expectations it excites, often fills its possessors with disgust, and must eventually be given up, if not before, at least at death (Eccles. vi. 2; cf, 'Measure for Measure,' act iii. sc. 1). He shall be slain by the very thing which he supposed should be his life, the sweet morsel of sin which he sucked turning out to be the poison of asps, and as the deadly bite of a viper. So sin ever carries retribution in its own bosom, The fair fruit which was expected to mako Adam and Eve wise as gods left them overwhelmed with guilty shame (Gen. iii. 7); Samson's amorous dalliance with Delilah conducted him to Gaza's t>rison (Judg. xvi. 21); David's sin with Bathsheba proved like molten fire within his veins (Ps. xxxii. 4; li. 8); the wine-cup of the drunkard at last bites like a serpent and stings like an adder (Prov. xxili. 3i). He shall be excluded from any real happiness on earth. "He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter" (ver. 17). Much more, it may be added, he shall not attain to the felicity of the future Paradise of God. "The river of life, the wine of the kingdom, the fruits of Paradise, the joys at God's right band, the pleasures for evermore," are "all forfeited for the momentary pleasures of sin" (Robinson). 2. The picture of a powerful tyrant. (Vers. 19-28.) The portrait intended for Job. (1) 'l'he crimes laid to his charge are: (a) Merciless oppression, in the threefold form of grinding down, forsaking, and robbing the poor (cf. eh. xx.ii. 6, 7); conduct common in the era of the Preacht>r (Eccles. iii. 16) and in the days of primi- tive Christianity (Jas. ii. 6), though by no means infrequent in these times; conduct offensive in the sight of God and man (Eccles. vi. 8; vii. 7), and wholly unbecoming in a good (Isa, xxxiii. 15), but specially characteristic of a bad (Ps. lv. 3), man; conduct attaining its highest degree of wickedness when the poor oppress the poor (Prov. xxviii. 3), and certain to be fiercely avenged (Ps. xxxv. 10; Prov. xxii. 16 ; Isa. iii. 16; Jer. xxii. 16) by him who espouses the cause of the oppressed. (b) Insutiable greed, being represented as one who felt no quietness in bis belly, i.e. whose craviugs knew no bounds (ver. 20), and from whose covetousness nothing escape<l (ver. 21)-a si~.,11gainst which me::i. are warned in the Decalogue (Exod. xx. 17), and saints in the gospel (Luke xii. 15), and upon which woes are pronounced by the prophets (Isa, v, 8; Jer, Ii, 13; Micah ii, 2; flab, ii, 6), and judgments by the apostles (Rom,  THE BOOK OF JOB.