But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Ver. 11. But put forth thy hand] Make Job feel the weight of it, as good people usually do more than others; yet not ad exitium, to destruction but ad exercitium, to their training, their crosses are not penal, but probational, and medicinal. The same holy hand of God that was put forth to protect and bless Job shall be put forth to afflict him. It must needs be therefore done in measure, and in mercy. If he smite Job, it shall be in the branches only, and not at the root, Isaiah 27:8, for there is a blessing in it; his hand shall not be further put forth to smite than to save, Isaiah 59:1 Act 4:31 Psalms 144:7. If Satan or his instruments over do, and offer to exceed their commission, he will never endure it, Zechariah 1:15. This Satan knew very well, and therefore motioneth that God would put forth his hand and touch him; or, Put forth thy hand, I pray thee; or, Put forth thy hand a little (so some render it) and touch him; that is, lightly afflict him. Confer Genesis 26:11; Gen 26:19 Psalms 105:15 .
And touch all that he hath] Or, touch anything that he hath; so the word Col is used, Job 8:12 Proverbs 1:17. And it is as if he should say, Lay but some light loss upon him, and he will show his unsoundness; as if but light weights be hanged on rotten boughs, they will soon break; and as if wooden or earthen vessels be set empty to the fire, they will quickly crack.
And he will curse thee to thy face] Heb. If he do not curse thee, q.d. then I shall much marvel; or then say, I have no skill in him, if he will not thereupon bluster and blaspheme thee, and that openly, impudently, boldly, to thy very face, avowedly, as Caligula did; when he dared his Jove to a duel, with that hemistich in Homer, η μ αναειρ η εγω σε; as Mahomet, the Grand Seignior, greatly grieved with the dishonour and loss he had at Scodra, most horribly brake out into blasphemous words not fit to be related; as that black mouthed pope with his al despito di Dio. They set their mouths against heaven, saith the psalmist, and let fly at God himself; they howl upwards with the wolf when hunger bit; they utter their own harsh voice, as the parrot when beaten; and like birds of prey that have been long kept in the dark, are out of measure fierce and furious when once they come abroad, so are ignorant and graceless persons: but Job was none such, whatever the devil deemed and averred of him. Pompey, when he had lost the field, might, for want of grace, say that there was a mist over the eye of Providence. Brutus, when overcome by his enemy, Antony, may say in a rage, that all things are carried by blind fortune, by hap hazard (Dio.). Atque deos, atque astra vocat crudelia. The gods as well as the starts he called crude. Those miscreants in Malachi may say, it is but lost labour to serve the Lord, Malachi 3:14; but Satan, suggesting that Job would do any such thing if crossed, did (as one speaketh) either lie knowingly, or at least guess ignorantly.