An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

is true of all power; the primary design of it is for protection, rather than for destruction, and not at all for oppression or vexation. Magistrates have Swords, but they are Shields, not Swords; they have a Sword to cut off evil doers, and by that the good are preserved and defended. Such mighty ones, who delight to be Swords, but care not to be Shields, who are all for cutting and destroying, not at all for saving, relieving, and protecting, (such mighty ones, I say) caused the oppressed to cry, yea to cry out in Jobs time; and in what times soever they are, they make the oppressed cry out. And the matter, that Elihu supposed Job was offended at, was, that God did not hear the cry of these oppressed ones, nor appear ⟨p. 62⟩for their deliverance; which yet he hath declared himself ready to, as David afterward describeth him, (Psa. 12.5.) For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise (saith the Lord) I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. But Job hearing this cry of the oppressed, or crying out of his own oppression, and God seeming not to regard it, was stumbled at the matter. To remove this, Elihu answers in the next verse.

is true of all power; the primary designe of it is for protection, rather than for destruction, and not at all for oppression or vexation. Magistrates have Swords, but they are Shields, not Swords; they have a Sword to cut off evil doers, and by that the good are preserved and defended. Such mighty ones, who delight to be Swords, but care not to be Shields, who are all for cutting and destroying, not at all for saving, relieving, and protecting, (such mighty ones, I say) caused the oppressed to cry, yea to cry out in Jobs time; and in what times soever they are, they make the oppressed cry out. And the matter, that Elihu supposed Job was offended at, was, that God did not hear the cry of these oppressed ones, nor appear ⟨p. 62⟩for their deliverance; which yet he hath declared himself ready to, as David afterward describeth him, (Psa. 12.5.) For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise (saith the Lord) I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. But Job hearing this cry of the oppressed, or crying out of his own oppression, and God seeming not to regard it, was stumbled at the matter. To remove this, Elihu answers in the next verse.