Job 34:7

After Eliud had laid this perversity on Job himself, he begins to reprimand him about this saying, "What man is like Job?" as if to say: There is no one like him who seems to be as perverse as he is. For it seemed the …

What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water, who goeth with the workers of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men? Behold, in seeking a judgment, he has pronounced a judgment; and after his own allegation, without waiting for any statement of blessed Job, he condemned him as deserving of condemnation from his intercourse with the wicked. For he says, What man is like Job? That we may be sure to understand, No one. And he subjoins, Who drinketh up scorning like water. For water, when drunk, is so liquid a draught, that it is not kept from being swallowed by any clamminess that it has. But to drink up scorning as water, is to mock God without any impediment in one's thoughts, so that no fear opposes the pride, which the tongue or the mind displays. But how far this judgment of his upon blessed Job errs from the roadway of truth, we learn from that solemn declaration of God, in which He says to the devil, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? [Job 1, 8] Behold how Eliu declares him to be a sinner beyond comparison, whom the Truth pronounces to be righteous beyond comparison. But it is the peculiar way with haughty preachers, that they are more desirous of strictly reproving their hearers even when distressed, than to cherish them in a kindly manner. For they study more to chide and reprove faults, than to encourage goodness with praise. For they are anxious to appear superior to other people, and they are better pleased when anger raises their feelings than when charity brings them down. They ever wish to find something, to smite sharply with reproof. Whence it is written, In the mouth of the, foolish is a rod of pride, [Prov. […]

What man is like Job,.... This is said as wondering at the part he acted, that a man so wise and good as Job was esteemed to be should behave in such a manner as he did; who drinketh up scorning like water?

What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water? - A similar image occurs in Job 15:16. The idea is, that he was full of reproachful speeches respecting God; of the language of irreverence and rebellion. He indulged in it as freely as a man drinks water; gathers up and imbibes all the language of reproach that he can find, and indulges in it as if it were perfectly harmless.

Drinketh up scorning like water? - This is a repetition of the charge made against Job by Eliphaz, Job 15:16. It is a proverbial expression, and seems to be formed, as a metaphor, from a camel drinking, who takes in a large draught of water, even the most turbid, on its setting out on a journey in a caravan, that it may serve it for a long time. Job deals largely in scorning; he fills his heart with it.