The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 362

Vere. 5 .....20.~Eliphaz to Job: Z, A false accusation. I. A OHARGI!: OP PLAGRAM'I! lMMORALlTY, 1. Oene1·ally preferred. (Ver. 5.) All sin may be justly characterized NI grent, being commiUcd against e. great God, e. gree.t Law, great li:;ht, great love, great obllgntions, and great penalties; and fSVery man's iniquities may be stylerl "without an enrl,'1 i.e. numberless, since David says of his, "They are more than the hairs of mine hea.d" (Ps, xl. 12); but Eliphaz designs to represent Job's wickedness as exception- ally flagrant in comparison with that of ordinary sinners, and a fortiori of such good people as Bildad, Zophar, and himself (cf. Luke xviii.11), and Job's crimes as not only already beyonrl computation, but, probably, as even then not terminated (Carey). 2. Specifically detailed. More abominable wickedness can scarcely be imagined. (1) Merciless extortion (ver. 6). Job harl exacted in pledge from his unhappy creditor the large upper garment of Orientals, and had not restored it at sundown, as was afterwards commanded by Moses (Exod. xxii. 26, 27)-a sin in Job's case aggravated by several considerations, as e.g. that his creditor was his '' brother," i.e. either a relative or, at any rate, e. fellow-countryman, and not a stranger; that he was poor, and would be rendered comparatively destitute without his upper raiment; and that the pledge had been taken from him "for nought," or without cause, i.e. either had been exacted though the debt was small, such as rich Job might have overlooked, or the pledge had in value greatly exceeded the debt, or it had been retained after the debt was paid. (2) Heart- less inhospitality (ver. 7). It was regarded in Oriental countries, especially in early times, as both a dictate of nature and a mark of piety, to provide kindly entertainment and comfortable shelter for famished and hungry travellers (Gen. xviii. 4, 5; xix. 2 ; xxi. 14, 15; xxix. 13; Exod. ii. 20). Nevertheless, according to Elihu, Job had" not given water to the weary to drink," and" had withholden bread from the hungry "-a charge which, though unjustly preferred against Job (eh. xxxi. 17, 32), will yet be righteously advanced against not a few professing Christians (Matt. xxv. 44), who are enjoined by the gospel to "nse hospitality without grudging" (Rom. xii. 13; 1 Tim. iii. 2; Titus i. 8,'; Heh. xiii. 2; 1 Pet. iv. 9). (3) Barefaced robbery (ver. 8). Con- ceiving that the land was made for the rich and the mighty and the noble-a. delusion which has survived in the minds of the earth's "mighties" and "honourables" from Job's day to this (Ps. cxv. 16)-Job, "the man of the arm," had by force or by fraud dispossessed the poor of their possessions and acquired them for himself. The wicked- ness is the same whether a man robs his neighbour with the help of the law or in defiance o( it; and legislation tending to drive the poor from the soil is legalized robbery. (4) Pitiless oppression (ver. 9). Instead of proving a shield and defender of helpless widows and orphans, a duty prompted by humanity anil prescribed by religion (Exod. xx:ii. 22; Jas. i. 27), in imitation of God himself (Ps. lirviii. 5), Job, Elihu says, not only turned a deaf ear to their cries of distress and solicitations for aid, like the unjust judge in the parable (Luke xviii. 2-5), but, like tha Pharisees who devoured widows' houses (Matt. xxiii. 14; Mark xii. 40; Luke xx. 47), took advantage of their friendless and helpless condition to defraud them of the last fragment of their possessions, thus "breaking the arms of the fatherless," i.e; taking away everything on which they relied. The crime of robbing the poor because he is poor is one that God will avenge (Prov. =ii. 22, 23). Orphans and widows are God's peculiar care. 3. Plausibly cO'llstructed. The charge pre- ferred by Eliphaz had this mark of truthfulness, that the crimes specified were such as a rich and powerful prince might naturally have been supposed to commit. Men's vices as well as their virtues usually adjust themselves to external surroundings as well as to internal dispositions. All men have their characteristic and besetting sins, whjle there are other forms of wickedness which they cannot commit. A person may shun burglary and yet perpetrate forgery. He who cannot steal a purse may yet appropriate a.n inheri- tance. A man may avoid the vulgar sin of drunkenness and yet fall into the greater wickedness of whoredom. 4. Ostensibly proved. Elipha.z could point to Job's calami- ties as evidence that what he had alleged was true. That calamity had been (1) suduen in its coming, it had caught him like a snare; it was (2) terrifying in its effects, filling the mind of Job with inwaru fears; (3) unavoidable in its endurauce-out of the dark- ness that encompassed him no way of escape could be detected; (4) overwhelming in it11 measure, being likened to a multitude of waters; and it would be (5) fatal in its end, there being no hope of other issue, so far as Eliphaz could see, but that Job should be sub- mer&ft in the see. of trouble that surged around him. It was useless, then, to say that  876 'NIE BOOK OF JOB. [cl!. ttn, 1-80