Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty - The Vulgate gives a better sense, Qui tollit ab amico suo misericordiam, timorem Domini dereliquit , "He who takes away mercy from his friend, hath cast off the fear of the Lord." The word lammas , which we render to him who is Afflicted, from masah , to dissolve, or waste away, is in thirty-two of Dr. Kennicott' s and De Rossi' s MSS. lemoes , "to him that despiseth his friend;" and hence the passage may be read: To him who despiseth his friend, it is a reproach; and he will forsake the fear of the Almighty: or, as Mr. Good translates,
"Shame to the man who despiseth his friend!
He indeed hath departed from the fear of the Almighty."
Eliphaz had, in effect, despised Job; and on this ground had acted any thing but the part of a friend towards him; and he well deserved the severe stroke which he here receives. A heathen said, Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur ; the full sense of which we have in our common adage: -
A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed.
Job' s friends, so called, supported each other in their attempts to blacken the character of this worthy man; and their hand became the heavier, because they supposed the hand of God was upon him. To each of them, individually, might be applied the words of another heathen: -
- Absentem qui rodit amicum,
Qui non defendit alio culpante; solutos
Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis,
Fingere qui non visa potest; commissa tacere
Qui nequit; hic niger est; hunc tu, Romane, caveto .
Hor. Satyr. lib. i., s. iv., ver. 81.
He who, malignant, tears an absent friend;
Or, when attack' d by others, don' t defend;
Who trivial bursts of laughter strives to raise,
And courts, of prating petulance, the praise;
Of things he never saw who tells his tale,
And friendship' s secrets knows not to conceal; -
This man is vile; here, Roman, fix your mark;
His soul' s as black as his complexion' s dark.
Francis.
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