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Job_22:9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Ver. 9. Thou hast sent widows away empty] A widow is a calamitous name: 2Sa_14:5, "I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is dead." As a tree whose root is uncovered thriveth not, so it fareth with a widow. R. Jona observeth, That in Hebrew she hath her name from dumbness, quod marito mortuo respondere non possit adversariis, et se adversus eos tueri, because now that her husband is dead, she cannot answer her adversaries, or defend herself against them. Vidua desolata et derelieta nihil est humiliatius: et proinde peculiariter viduarum iudex et vindex est Deus (Bain. in Pro_15:25). God, therefore, hath taken them and their orphans into his tuition, owning them as his clients, and commanding all men to be good to them. These, if Job had indeed sent away empty, not only not relieving their necessities, but ravishing their estates, adding the misery of poverty to that of their condition, he had surely subjected himself to the fierce wrath of God, their patron, by a specialty.
And the arms of the fatherless have been broken] Immanis iniuria, si ita res haberet, sed calumnia erat, saith Mercer. This had been a crying crime if it could have been proven against Job; but he was not the man. Some from these words conclude him a judge; others a king. Doubtless he was a potent person, and by his greatness could have borne out his foulest outrages, breaking through the lattice of the laws, as the larger flies do through a spider’s web. Sed alia de se infra profitebitur, saith Mercer here; but Job shall clear himself in the following chapters; where we shall find him described and characterised to have been the oracle of wisdom, the guardian of justice, the refuge of innocence, the comet of the guilty, the patron of peace, and pattern of piety, to magistrates especially, in the wise managing of all public affairs, both of judgment and mercy.