Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

come a by-word to the world; and am the matter of minstrelsy and sport to mine enemies.

XVII. 12 They change the night into the day: the light is short because of darkness.

My great afflictions change my night into day; causing me to pass over that time of darkness without any rest, so as my thoughts are no less busy, than in the day-time; and so great is the darkness of my misery, that it eclipseth my day, and makes it either short, or none.

XVII. 13 If I wait, the grave is my house, &c.

Tell not me of any restoration of myself, or of my estate: all that I can wait for, is the grave; that shall, I hope, receive and shelter me.

XVII. 14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: and to the worms, Thou art my sister, and my mother.

I am even already entering into my grave; the corruption whereof hath already seized upon me; and I have yielded myself up unto it, and am as it were incorporated in it.

XVII. 16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

Those hopes, that you speak of, shall go down with me to the bottom of the grave, and shall rest with me together in the dust.

XVIII. 4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place? Hear now, thou, that talkest of tearing thy flesh with thy teeth for indignation and sorrow, what, dost thou think that thy clamour and complaint can prevail to alter God's just administration; so as the earth should be forsaken because thou speedest ill, and the rocks removed because thy misery continues?

XVIII. 8 He is cast into a net by his own feet.

He shall, by his own plots and devices, run himself into inextricable perplexities and miseries.

XVIII. 13 The firstborn of death shall devour all his strength. The most cruel and painful death shall make an end of all his power and glory.

XVIII. 14 And it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

His confidence shall, at the last, lead him into the extremest of all terrors, that can be conceived.

XVIII. 15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

Yea, this terror shall dwell and continue in his tabernacle, which, howsoever he possesseth, yet his conscience tells him is not his own, since he hath got it by extortion and violence; and God shall rain down brimstone upon it, as he did upon Sodom.

XVIII. 16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branches be cut off.

He shall be like unto a withered tree, whose roots, when they are once dried up below, the branches are presently cut down for fire

wood.

XVIII. 20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

Posterity shall be astonished to hear of the severe judgment of God executed upon him; and those, that lived in the same age with him, were affrighted at the sight of that vengeance which was inflicted upon him.

XIX. 3 These ten times have ye reproached me.

We have had ten several interlocutions, wherein you have most uncharitably and cruelly reproached me; ye have cast many and frequent aspersions of hypocrisy and wickedness upon mine

innocence.

XIX. 6 Know now that God hath overthrown me.

If I be (as I am) most miserable; alas! you should have considered, that it is God's hand that hath cast me down, which is both holy and irresistible.

XIX. 15 My maids count me for a stranger.

My very maid-servants look strangely and overlie upon me, as if I were not their master: the very meanest of my family slight and neglect me.

XIX. 17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated her for the children's sake of mine own body.

My wife, as she was ready to add unto my trial by her ill counsel, so now, she keeps aloof from me, and denies me the comfort and aid of her tendance in this extremity, though I intreated and importuned her, even by the remembrance of those children which she had borne from my loins, which were the dear pledges of our conjugal love.

XIX. 20 And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

I have nothing, that I can call skin, about me, but only that, which is of my gums; for the rest, the flesh hath shrunk from the skin, and the skin is gone into corruption.

XIX. 22 Why do ye persecute me as God?

If it hath pleased God to afflict me, will ye afflict me too? He knoweth upon what holy and just reasons he proceedeth with his creatures; it is not for you to arrogate this to yourselves; let it be enough therefore, that God's hand is upon me, though yours

be not.

XIX. 23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book, &c!

I am now to speak a sentence so memorable, that I could desire it should be recorded to all posterity for ever.

XIX. 25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

However I am judged by you, yet this is my comfort, that I know I have a Judge and gracious Redeemer to come, who lives eternally when ye shall be gone to dust, and shall one day come down to judge the quick and the dead, and shall in that last day of our general account present himself here upon earth to the eyes of all flesh:

XIX. 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

And though this skin, and this body of mine, shall now soon go to corruption and dust; yet in this very flesh of mine, raised up glorious by his Divine power, I shall see my God and Saviour:

XIX. 27 Whom I shall see myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.

I shall see him with these mine own eyes, and not with any others for me: I shall see and receive him as my just and gracious Deliverer; both from those powers of death, and all these false caJumniations which ye now cast upon me.

XIX. 28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

But ye should rather say; Alas, why do we persecute this distressed man any more, seeing we find, if we look to the very root and bottom of this our quarrel, that he is upright, and innocent of those things whereof we have accused him.

XX. 10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

His children shall be glad to make restitution to the poor, and to stop their clamorous mouths with a late satisfaction; yea perhaps himself, with his own hands, shall give back his extorted goods.

XX. 11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth.

He shall, in his old decrepid age, feel the smart of the sins of his lawless youth; they shall stick by him when he hath forgotten them.

XX. 14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

Howsoever he have taken great pleasure in his sins, and, in the very act of them they have gone down sweet; yet, in the end, he shall find them painful, yea as deadly as the venom of asps.

XX. 17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

Howsoever he hath promised himself great contentment and felicity in his lawless courses, yet he shall find himself utterly disappointed; his hopes shall fail him, and leave him quite destitute of all comforts,

XX. 21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

He shall not have so much as meat left to his mouth; much less shall there be ought for other men to hope for, after him.

XX. 22 Every hand of the wicked (or, troublesome) shall ome upon him.

Every band of those, whom he hath cruelly spoiled, shall be upon him; each of them shall vex him, whether with suits or violence, to recover his own.

XX. 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

When he desires and hopes to avoid a lesser danger, he shall fall into a greater.

XX. 26 A fire unblown shall consume him.

A fire, not kindled by man, but sent down from heaven in the just judgment of God, shall consume him, as thou, O Job, hast, not long since, had lamentable proof.

XXI. 4 Is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

If I had only to do with man, in this my misery, and had no other to make my complaint unto, I had just reason to be utterly dejected; but now, I have a God to make my moan unto.

XXI. 6 Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

When I bethink myself of my own grievous calamity, and, on the contrary side, of the great and apparent prosperity of wicked men, I am so vexed and disquieted with the consideration hereof, that my very flesh trembleth.

XXI. 16 Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Yet, for all that, the prosperity of the wicked is not in their own hands, to continue at pleasure: no, they are in the power of that just God, who can crush them when he thinks good; and therefore, far be it from me, notwithstanding all their outward peace and glory, to yield unto the ways of wickedness.

XXI. 19 God layeth up his iniquity for his children.

God reserveth the outward punishment of his iniquity, to be, besides his own person, inflicted upon his children after him.

XXI. 24 His breasts (or, pails) are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

The udders of his cattle, and his pails, are full of milk; and his bones are strong, and his flesh firm and succulent; so as, both his outward estate and his body do exceedingly prosper and flourish. XXI, 28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

Ye say in a secret scorn; Where is now the house of this great man, that hath borne himself as a prince amongst his neighbours; or what is become of this wicked man's habitation? He pretended godliness, but this very desolation shews what he was.

XXI. 31 Who shall declare his way to his face? or who shall repay him what he hath done?

He is so great and imperious, that no man dares reprove him for his faults; or offer to punish him for his injuries done.

XXI. 33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him. He shall be glad to rest in the grave; and, by the law of nature, every man shall follow after him, in his own time, to that common receptacle of all flesh; as there are also innumerable gone thither before him.

XXII. 8 The mighty man, he had the earth.

Thou, through thy covetousness and pride, didst engross the earth to thyself.

XXII. 11 Abundance of water covers thee.

Affliction, like a violent stream, bears thee over, and covers thee, as drowning in the bottom of it.

XXII. 15 Hast thou not marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

Hast thou not observed the course, that God hath of old wont to take with the wicked?

XXII. 20 Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.

This is the lot of wicked men; whereas we, that are righteous and godly, speed otherwise: our substance is both continued and multiplied; but as for them, that, which remains of their riches, together with their persons, shall be consumed with the fire of God's displeasure.

XXII. 29 When men are cast down, then shalt thou say, There is a lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

When thou seest good men cast down, then shalt thou, by the strength of thy faith, say; There shall be an exaltation for these men; and God will find a time to deliver and honour the humble person.

XXII. 30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

He shall deliver a whole island, for the sake of one innocent and righteous man; and if thou wert he, the pureness of thy hands should obtain this favour from him, that for his respect to thee he would spare many.

XXIII. 2 Even to day is my complaint bitter : my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

Even still I have every day more cause than other, to complain of my great affliction; and the stroke, that I feel from God, is more heavy than my groanings can express.

XXIII. 3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!

Oh that I knew where and how I might meet with God; that I might lay open my estate before him, and, in an humble manner, argue the case of my suffering with him!

XXIII. 6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

I know he is gracious: he would not stand either upon his rigour or his power with me; but would mercifully sustain me, and give me courage and ability to stand out in the maintenance of my sincerity before him.

XXIII. 7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

Upon these terms, a man of upright heart might hold a lowly contestation with him; which once done, being absolved by his most

« PoprzedniaDalej »