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

Secondly, he doth it by alluding to the furnishing of a mans table with store, not only of wholesome but of delicious meats, who before fared very hardly. This he doth in the close of the verse, and that which should be set on thy table, should be full of fatness. As if he had said, if thou hadst harkened to the voice of God, thou shouldst have had both liberty, and plenty, hadst thou been bettered by thy troubles, it had been better for thee, and much better with thee; thou hadst been enlarged fully, thou hadst been supplied abundantly with all manner of good things desirable, even to the utmost of thy desires: that's the general scope of this verse; more particularly.

Secondly, he doth it by alluding to the furnishing of a mans table with store, not only of wholsome but of delicious meates, who before fared very hardly. This he doth in the close of the verse, and that which should be set on thy table, should be full of fatness. As if he had said, if thou had'st harkened to the voyce of God, thou should'st have had both liberty, and plenty, had'st thou been bettered by thy troubles, it had been better for thee, and much better with thee; thou hadst been enlarged fully, thou hadst been supplyed abundantly with all manner of good things desirable, even to the utmost of thy desires: that's the general scope of this verse; more particularly.

Even so would he have removed thee out of a strait into a broad place. Some read the verse with a retro-respect, or as looking back to the time past; as if Elihu had bid Job remember his former experiences, whether God heretofore dealt not bountifully with him. To this sense (besides others) Mr. Broughton translates, which ⟨p. 280⟩hath turned thee from distresses mouth, ¹to largeness, where is no straitness, and that which was laid upon thy table was full of fatness: and he gives the gloss upon his own translation thus; God once made thee wealthy, and would again; thou hast had experience how good a master, and how liberal the Lord is to those that serve him, thou thy self didst enjoy prosperity a long time far from all trouble, or touch of affliction. Thus, (I say) some refer the words to the time past; but I rather keep to our own translation, which expresseth the original text, as an assurance of what Job should have had, and might have expected in time, had he complied as he ought, with the purpose of God in his afflictions.