21. Thou art become cruel to me:] It is remarkable, that the very same word is used, Jer. xxx. 14, where God Himself declares how He had dealt with His own people, and expresses it in the following terms: "I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one." Peters. — with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.] The turn of the sentence in the original is somewhat different, and is literally thus, "With Thy strong hand Thou hatest me;" which gives us a plain direc- Job maketh a solemn protestation Before CHRIST about 1890. mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. # CHAP. XXXI. Job maketh a solemn protestation of his integrity in several duties. I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? 26. — my bow was renewed in my hand.] A bow always bent is an image employed to represent unabated power and strength. Rosenmiller. 27. — my speech dropped upon them.] Like rain, refreshing them. Fragments to Calmet. 28. — as for the rain; — the latter rain.] In the foregoing verse, the soft insinuating force of his political and religious instruction was compared to the dropping dew. Here the copiousness of his eloquence is likened to the abundant rains which fall in autumn in those countries; and the high acceptableness of it, to the avidity with which the earth, burnt up by the summer's drought, devours those rains. The alteration which they produce in the withered fields is so astonishingly great, that Dr. Russel scruples not to call it "a resurrection of vegetable nature." The same ingenious author informs us, that the first autumnal rains fall about the middle of September; the second, or latter, about twenty or thirty days after. The first are inconsiderable, the latter fall in great abundance. Scott. Concerning what are usually called the former and the latter rains, see the notes on Deut. xi. 14; xxviii. 12. 29. If I laughed on them, &c.] Or sported and jested with them, that is, carried myself familiarly and pleasantly with them, it was so acceptable to them to see me well pleased with them, that they could scarce believe their senses. Yet my familiarity did not breed in them contempt or presumption, so as to grieve me or make my countenance fall, as it does in cases of shame or sorrow, Gen. iv. 5. They were very cautious not to abuse my smiles, or to give me any occasion to change my countenance or carriage towards them. Poole.