Loading...


Job 40:13

Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.

Hide them in the dust together,.... Either in the dust of death, that they may be seen no more in this world, in the same place and circumstances where they showed their pride and haughtiness; or in the dust of the grave, and let them have an inglorious burial, like that of malefactors thrown into some common pit together; as, when multitudes are slain in battle, a large pit is dug, and the bodies are cast in together without any order or decency; or it may be rendered "alike" {b}, let them be treated equally alike, no preference given to one above another;

and bind their faces in secret; alluding, as it is thought, to malefactors when condemned and about to be executed, whose faces are then covered, as Haman's was, Esther 7:8; or to the dead when buried, whose faces are bound with napkins, as Lazarus's was, John 11:44; the meaning of all these expressions is, that Job would abase and destroy, if he could, every proud man he met with, as God does, in the course of his providence, sooner or later. There had been instances of divine power in this way before, or in the times of Job, which might come to his knowledge; as the casting down of the proud angels out of heaven, 2 Peter 2:4; and of casting proud Adam out of paradise, Genesis 3:24; the drowning the proud giants of the old world, Genesis 7:23; and of dispersing the proud builders of Babel, Genesis 11:8; and of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, Genesis 19:24, one of whose reigning sins was pride,

Ezekiel 16:49; and of drowning proud Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea,

Exodus 15:4: which last seems to have been done much about the time Job lived.


{b} dxy "pariter", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens.

 

X
X