The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 491

another of hl!! land, the comm.one~t and most valuable sort of pto~rly, then b.e deetri. that he himself may be ·made the 'rictim of a like 01ipression, ihat he ruay sow and another reap, and that his "things which spring up," tlot hi!! descendants or children, 11.a elsewhere the word is employed (eh. v. 25; xxi. 8; xxvii. H), but, as the pn.talleliam demRnds, the produce of his ground, his har\T8St, may be rooted up. God's punish- ments are ofwn similar in kind to the offences they follow. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that ~hall he also reap" (GAi. vi. 7). - nr. 'WITH RESPECT TO TH"E LAW OF MA'RRIAGE. (Vers. 9-12.) Different from the opening section, which treated of seduction, the present stanza nlludes to the sin of adultery. In the former instance it is au unmarried virgin, in the latter it is a wedded wife, that is sinned against. The adulterous enterprise, which Job for himself disavows, is described in detail. 1. By its urigin. It takes its rise in a bewitched or befooled heart. "Out of the heart proceed adulteries" (Matt. xv. 19). Therefore '' keep the heart with all diligence" (Prov. iv. 23). This beguilement of the heart may be denberately effect~d by the adulterous woman displaying her charms so as to fasoinate her lover's eye (Prov. vii. 10-21); or, as in the case of David, it may result from lascivious admiration of the married woman's beauty. 2. By its practice. - 'l'he adulterous !<,ver, waiting for the twilight, disguiseth his face, and lieth io· wait' at ,his neighbour's door, obviously a common crime in Job's time (eh. xxiv. 15), as it after- wards was in David's and Solomon's (Ps. I. 18; Prov. vi. 24-29; vii. 5-9), Jeremiah's (v. 8) and Ezekiel's (xviii. 6), Christ's (John viii. 3-9) and the apostles' (1 Cor. vi. 9; 2 Pet. ii. 10). 3. By its criminality. Job stigmatizes it as an act of infamy; and an iniquity to be brought before the judges (ver. 11), meaning that, besides being a violation of the moral law (Exod. xx. 17), it is likewise an offence falling withiu the penal code of the land. Punished by death under Moses (Lev. xx. 10; Deut. xxii. 22), in patriarchal times it was visited by bumj..ng (Gen. xxxviii. 24). - Probably this was the penalty attached to it in the land of Uz (ver. 12). Most heathen nations cif antiquity pronounced it a capital offence. 4. By its demerit. The sinner ~ho'd-e'filed his neighbour's wife deserved to have the same sorrow meted out to himself-a. thought euphemistically expressed in ver. 10 (vide Exposition). So David's sin age.inst Uriah's wife was punished by Absalom's wickedness in lying with his father's concnbiues (2 Sam. xvi. 22). 5. By its restilts. In addition to civil penalties and provide;ntiid retributions, its ultimate issue is widespread sorrow, if not fatal ruin. Like a- ·con- 1mming fire, if persevered in, it has nothing but physical, moral, and eternal destruction for the perpetrator (Prov. vi. 32 ; vii. 23, 26, 27 ; 1 Car. vi. 18; Heb. xiii. 4; ; Rev. xxi. 8). Even a solitary act is like the takiug of a hot coal into one's bosom (Prov. 'yi. 27-29). Not only does it demoralize the nature of him who commits it, but it spreads soJ:Tow and desolation through the heart of her against whom it is committed. It breaks the peace of otherwise happy families. It awakens the demon of jealousy, even when it is not discovered. Detected or concealed, it is a secret fountain of death. IV. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF MASTER A:!."1> SERVANT. - (Vers. 13-15.) 1. '1.'he case supposed. Job instances a state of matters that might readily hav_e occurred in his household, viz. the existence of some ground of complaint against him, the master, on the part of his manservant or maidservant, i.e. his bondman or bond- woman. Such contendings and disputings between master and servant, which are not unusual in modern free society, were much more likely to arise in ancient times when servants were simply slaves. 2. The course pursued. In the event of any such charge or complaint being preferred against him, Job protests that he neither crushed it out by the strong hand of oppression nor tossed it aside with contemptuouR indifference, but gave it the most kindly attention and the most patient, careful, and impartial examina- tion. If his accusers proceeded to impeach him at a bar of justice, he did not deny them the right of public redress, as other masters might ha,•e done and as the Israelitish master was entitled by the Law to do. But counting them as persons, not as goods and chattels, he accorded to them equal rights in this matter with himself. Slavery in Job's house, as also in Abraham's, was a widely different thing from that practised in modern times. 3. The reasons aUeged. (1) He was answerable to God for the treatlllent he accorded to his aervants. He should tremble when God arose to judgment, and be speech- less when God came round &11 an Inspector, to examine into the controversy penrling between him and his servants, unless he acted on the iirinciples of strictest equity, 'file.& oir. U'Xt. 1-40.J TH1l1 800:K or JOB. 607