Matthew Henry

And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them.

“Still he was the priest of the family, and at his altar they all attended, valuing their share in his prayers more than their share in his estate.”

Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns?

“"I see thou hast made a hedge about him, round about; " as if he had walked it round, to see if he could spy a single gap in it, for him to enter in at, to do him a mischief; but he was disappointed…”

But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

“God declared Job the best man then living: now, if Satan can prove him a hypocrite, it will follow that God had not one faithful servant among men and that there was no such thing as true and sincere piety in the world, but religion…”

“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.”

“He suffered Job to be tried, as he suffered Peter to be sifted, but took care that his faith should not fail ( Luke xxii. 32 ) and then the trial of it was found unto praise, and honour, and glory, 1 Pet. i.”

While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept…

“This was the greatest of Job's losses, and which could not but go nearest him; and therefore the devil reserved it for the last, that, if the other provocations failed, this might make him curse God.”

On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him. “Where have you come from?”

“He is asked the same question as before, Whence comest thou? and answers as before, From going to and fro in the earth; as if he had been doing no harm, though he had been abusing that good man.”

But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

“There is no disputing against sense. St. Paul himself had much ado to bear a thorn in the flesh, nor could he have borne it without special grace from Christ, 2 Cor. xii.”

And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.

“If God lay him among the ashes, there he will contentedly sit down. A low spirit becomes low circumstances, and will help to reconcile us to them. The LXX.”

Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”

“The Jews (who covet much to be wise above what is written) say that Job's wife was Dinah, Jacob's daughter: so the Chaldee paraphrase.”

Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home…

“Zophar is thought by some to be the same with Zepho, a descendant from Esau, Gen. xxvi. The preserving of so much wisdom and piety among those that were strangers to the covenants of promise was a happy presage of God's grace to the Gentiles…”

For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

“Is this Job, who was so much admired for his wisdom that unto him men gave ear, and kept silence at his counsel, and after his words they spoke not again? ch. xxix. Surely his wisdom failed him, (1.)”

Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

“To desire to die that we may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, and that we may be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, is the effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die only that…”

For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

“Then should I have been quiet; and had he kept his temper, his even easy temper still, which he was in as recorded in the two foregoing chapters, entirely resigned to the holy will of God and acquiescing in it, he might have been quiet…”

There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.

“There the weary are at rest. Heaven is more than a rest to the souls of the saints, but the grave is a rest to their bodies.”

Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure, who…

“Bitterness of soul, through spiritual grievances, makes life itself bitter. Why doth he give light? (so it is in the original): he means God, yet does not name him, though the devil had said, "He will curse thee to thy face;" but he tacitly reflects…”

Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure, who…

“It was Job's folly and weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may understand that when they…”

Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

“He saw no way open of deliverance, nor knew he what course to take; his way was hedged up with thorns, that he could not find his path. Even in his former prosperous state troubles were continually feared; so that then he was never easy,”

I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

“His griefs returned as duly as his meals, and affliction was his daily bread. Nay, so great was the extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh, but roar, and his roarings were poured out like the waters in a full…”

For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me. I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”

“He knew so much of the vanity of the world, and the troubles to which, of course, he was born, that he was not in safety, neither had he rest then.”

Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?

“Did not righteous Abel perish being innocent? and was he not cut off in the beginning of his days? Was not righteous Lot burnt out of house and harbour, and forced to retire to a melancholy cave?”

By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

“The man of sin is said to be consumed with the breath of Christ's mouth, 2 Thess. ii. Some think that in attributing the destruction of sinners to the blast of God, and the breath of his nostrils, he refers to the wind which blew…”

Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.

“And it is but a little of divine knowledge that the best receive in this world. We know little in comparison with what is to be known, and with what we shall know when we come to heaven.”

If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,

“I think it would bear this reading, repeating the negation, which is very common: He will put no trust in his saints; nor will he glory in his angels (in angelis suis non ponet gloriationem) or make his boast of them, as if their praises…”

I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.

“He seems here to parallel Job's case with that which is commonly the case of wicked people. Job had prospered for a time, seemed confirmed, and was secure in his prosperity; and it is common for foolish wicked men to do so: I have seen…”

The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

“16 So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth. Eliphaz, having touched Job in a very tender part, in mentioning both the loss of his estate and the death of his children as the just punishment of his sin, that he might not…”