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

Secondly, I conceive, those words, None saith, Where is God my maker? are rather to be referred to the oppressed, than to the oppressors: The oppressed cry indeed, but not unto God their maker. As Job said; (Job 24.12.) Men groan from out of the City, and the soul of the wounded crieth out, yet God layeth it not to heart; so here Elihu saith, men groan and cry, yet themselves lay not God to heart; None saith, Where is God my maker? Thus our translation seems to carry it, and thus 'tis most generally understood; None of the oppressed say, &c.

Secondly, I conceive, those words, None saith, Where is God my maker? are rather to be referred to the oppressed, than to the oppressors: The oppressed cry indeed, but not unto God their maker. As Job said; (Job 24.12.) Men groan from out of the City, and the soul of the wounded cryeth out, yet God layeth it not to heart; so here Elihu saith, men groan and cry, yet themselves lay not God to heart; None saith, Where is God my maker? Thus our translation seems to carry it, and thus 'tis most generally understood; None of the oppressed say, &c.

Taking this sense, Elihu here begins to assign the reason why the oppressed are not delivered. As if he had said, 'Tis true, there are a multitude of pressures and oppressions, and they transport all manner of men with passion; the oppressed cry, they make much ado, when they suffer, against them, under whom they suffer: But few or none are so wise, in such a case, as to recollect themselves, and make serious application to God, putting him in mind of his own gracious nature towards the work of his hands, to have mercy upon it, and in faith to seek to him for remedy and comfort, as being only able to relieve and glad the heart in great extremities; they look not to the hand of God, when they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty: they only toil and tear themselves with complaints, they cry out of this and that man, of this and that instrument; but, alas, they find neither redress nor deliverance, because they say not, Where is God my maker? That is, they are more forward to complain of wrong done them by men, than to remember what good, or what favours God hath done them; They do not particularly and specially apply themselves