An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…

Eliphaz puts the same language upon him (Chap. 15.2, 3.) Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the East wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? Thus his Friends accused him of that for which he now accuseth them; and he himself had accused them once and again of this before: So (Chap. 12.2, 3.) Who knoweth not such things as these? They are but vulgar truths which you have told me; and (Chap. 13.1, 2.) Lo mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard, and understood it, what ye know, the same do I know also; I am not inferior to you. You produce nothing all this while, but what I am well acquainted with; which is fully the sense of this Verse: I have heard many such things: that is,¹ Every man can speak as much as this. Here Job plays the Orator, or Rhetorician, whose business and design (as the great Orator tells us) is as much as he can to extenuate, and lay low the arguments, or reasons, of him that he opposeth. Job stands as Defendant here, his Friends as Plaintiffs; therefore he endeavours to render their Charge weak, and what they said sinewless, I have heard many such things as these.

Eliphaz puts the same language upon him (Chap. 15.2, 3.) Should a wise man utter vaine knowledge, and fill his belly with the East winde? Should he reason with unprofitable talke? Or with speeches wherewith he can doe no good? Thus his Freinds accused him of that for which he now accuseth them; and he himselfe had accused them once and againe of this before: So (Chap. 12.2, 3.) Who knoweth not such things as these? They are but vulgar truths which you have told me; and (Chap. 13.1, 2.) Loe mine eye hath seen all this, mine eare hath heard, and understood it, what yee know, the same doe I know also; I am not inferiour to you. You produce nothing all this while, but what I am well acquainted with; which is fully the sense of this Verse: I have heard many such things: that is,¹ Every man can speak as much as this. Here Job playes the Oratour, or Rhetorician, whose businesse and designe (as the great Orator tells us) is as much as he can to extenuate, and lay low the arguments, or reasons, of him that he opposeth. Job stands as Defendant here, his Freinds as Plaintifs; therefore he endeavours to render their Charge weak, and what they sayd sinnewlesse, I have heard many such things as these.