Job 40:5

Once have I spoken; but I will not answer,.... Some think this refers to what he had just now said of his vileness, he had owned that, and that was all he had to say, or would say, he would give no

Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. Once ... twice - oftentimes, more than once (Job 33:14, cf. with 29, margin; Psalms 62:11), "I have spoken''-namely, against God.

I will not answer, or speak again; answering being oft put for speaking. I will contend no more with thee. Yea, twice, i.e. ofttimes, or again and again, the definite number being used indefinitely. I will proceed no further in such bold and presumptuous expressions and accusations of thy providence towards me. Vain therefore are the excuses which some interpreters make for Job, as if he were faultless in his foregoing discourses, when both God chargeth him with faultiness therein, and Job himself confesseth it.

Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.Ver. 5. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer] It is enough of that once: the saints, running out, and meeting with a bargain of sin, come back by weeping cross, and cry, What have I to do any more with wickedness? Hosea 14:8. Judah knew his daughter Tamar no more, Genesis 38:26. "If I have done iniquity, I will do no more," Job 34:31-32. That was Elihu’ s counsel; and now it is Job’ s practice. Yea, twice] That is, often; so eager was I set upon a dispute. This was an aggravation of Job’ s sin, the committing of it again and again. Numbers added to numbers are first ten times more; then a hundred; then a thousand, &c. "This hath been thy manner from thy youth," Jeremiah 22:21; that was an ill business. But I will proceed no further] sc. In this controversy. I will not come into the lists to contend with thee. I see there is no safety in such a contest. In many things we offend all, saith St James; and he is a perfect man who sinneth not with his tongue. But as he who hath drunk poison maketh haste to cast it up again, ere it get to the vitals; so should we deal by our daily misdoings. It is not falling into the water that drowns a man, but lying long under it. Bewail thy sin and hasten to get out of it.

Verse 5. Once have I spoken] See on Job 42:3, c. I will proceed no farther.] I shall attempt to justify myself no longer I have spoken repeatedly; and am confounded at my want of respect for my Maker, and at the high thoughts which I have entertained of my own righteousness. All is impurity in the presence of thy Majesty.

5. I will proceed no further] Or, but I will not again. The words “once”, “twice”, that is, sundry times, refer to what Job had often said in his speeches concerning the Almighty. The purpose of making these wonders of creation pass before Job’s eyes was to display God before him, and to heal the presumption of his heart. Every one of these wonders utters the name of God with a louder emphasis in Job’s ears. It is not any attribute of God that is dwelt upon, it is God in all the manifoldness of His being that passes before Job’s mind. It is entirely to misinterpret the design of these visions of creation presented to Job when we suppose that what is aimed at is to impress on Job the incomprehensibility of the Creator’s works, or the mystery that lies in them all; as if he was bidden consider that not in his own life alone, but everywhere, beneath his feet and around him, there lay unfathomable mysteries. The Lord does not reason with Job after the manner of the author of the Analogy of Religion. He does not say “you complain of darkness in your own history, look into the world and behold darkness everywhere”. This would have been sorry reasoning on the part of the Father of lights. On the contrary, He bids Job look away from his own darkness to the world which is luminous with God; and the exceeding light about God there, breaking on Job, swallows up his own darkness. It is scarcely just to say that what Jehovah demands of Job here is simple submission, that he should bow absolutely and unconditionally under God. If this had been the meaning of Jehovah’s speeches out of the storm there was no reason for His speaking. Silence would have been more effective; or if He had spoken, it should have been with the voice of the thunder, terrifying Job into the dust. That the Lord speaks at all implies that He says something that may be understood by the creature of His hand. His speaking may be indirect, and in parables, but it will contain meaning. It is true that the object of the Divine speeches is, partly at least, to bring Job’s heart to submission and cause him to assume his right place before the Creator. And this was necessary, for Job, as he acknowledges, had sinned against the majesty of God. But the Lord does not command Job to take this place; He induces him. And he does so by the only means that will ever induce any human spirit to put itself right with God, the revelation of Himself. This revelation given to Job was patient, broad, and manifold. It was anything but a categorical command. We, indeed, may feel now that the revelation might have been different, that it might have contained other traits. The traits which we desiderate could hardly, perhaps, have been exhibited on an Old Testament stage.

Once have I spoken - That is, in vindicating myself. He had once spoken of God in an irreverent and improper manner, and he now saw it. But I will not answer - I will not now answer, as I had expressed the wish to do.