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

Vers. 17. But thou hast fulfilled the Judgment of the wicked, therefore Judgment and Justice take hold on thee.

This is a home Application indeed, he speaks to his face, Thou hast done it, thou hast fulfilled the Judgment of the wicked; which is, as a home, so a very hard and heavy charge. Take a twofold Interpretation of it.

First, Some expound it (I think not rightly) of Jobs ill carriage in the time of his prosperity; as if Elihu had reflected upon that: Thou hast heretofore fulfilled the Judgment of the wicked, and that, First, by a general ill course of life. As Christ saith to the Pharisees (Math. 23.32.) Fill ye up the measure of your fathers; some conceive Elihu speaking to Job in that sense, Thou hast filled up the measure of the wicked, following them in their ⟨p. 290⟩evil ways.¹ Secondly, That in his Magistratical capacity, or that being a Magistrate, he had fulfilled the Judgment of the wicked; that is, what wicked men, and their bad Causes wanted of weight and t uth, of righteousness and goodness, that he filled up by favour, by accepting their persons, and giving countenance to their wickedness. Some charge him thus directly, Thou hast done the part or Office of an unjust Judg; when thou hadst power in thy hand, thou wast defective, short, or wanting, in discharging the Duty of an upright Judge, but didst the work of a corrupt Judge (corrupting Judgment) to the full; therefore now Justice and Judgment take hold of thee. But (as I said before) this is not a right Exposition of the Text; for Elihu never charged Job with a sinful course of life in former times, or before his affliction (as his friends had done) though he chaged him with much sin in his carriage under his afflictions; and it may be conceived, that Job heard Elihu more patiently and equally than he heard his friends, because Elihu dealt more equally and candidly with him, than his Fiends did; he did not lay it upon him, as if in the foregoing part of his life he had traded in wickedness; but only reproved him for his boldness, in dealing with, and appealing so often unto God, in his soars and sickness; or, because his spirit was not broken enough, notwithstanding those sore breakings and sicknesses, with which he was afflicted. So then, Elihu in saying this, intended not that Job had fulfilled the Judgment of the wicked, either by a wicked conversation, or by perverting Justice in favour of the wicked: Such a charge had been utterly inconsistent with the Testimony which God gave of him in the first Chapter of this Book.