And it was so, when the days of [their] feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings [according] to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Ver. 5. And it was so, that when the days of their feasting were gone about] Such was his holy care of them, and jealousy over them, that he would defer the work no longer; as knowing that sin will rankle in the conscience, and harden the heart, like poison in the body, it must be quickly cast up, ere it get to the vitals.
That Job sent and sanctified them] Though they were grown up, yet he kept them in awe, as appears by his command to sanctify themselves against the sacrifice, Ut se parent et purgent. So he nourished and purified theme. So did not Eli, but honoured his untoward sons above God, even then when those lewd lowlies kicked at his sacrifice, and at his offering which he had commanded in his habitation, 1 Samuel 2:29. Job knew that he was bound as well to the preservation, as to the observation, of God's commandments, to see that others (those especially of his familiarity and family) keep them as well as himself. When, therefore, the circle of days and feasting was finished, he waited not till the eighth day came, but at the end of the seventh he summoneth all his children to come before the Lord in holy duties, with the best preparations they could make; to wash their hands in innocence before they compassed God's altar, Psalms 26:6; to repent of their immoderations in mirth, or whatsoever other guilt they had any way contracted; lest he cast back their services as dirt upon their faces. The heathens, by the light of nature, saw that God was not to be served slightly and slubberingly. The Pythagoreans would not have men worship by the by, but make it their business, and prepare for it aforehand. And Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, commanded that men should not worship God for fashion, carelessly, and as doing somewhat else; but freed from all other cares and cumbers, ουκ ες παραδω προσκυνειν, αλλα οικοθεν παρασκευασαμενοι. ουκ εν παρεργω και αμελως, &c. (Plut.). The Jews had their preparation and their forepreparation to the passover (παρασκευη, προπαρασκευη): and as any man measureth to God in preparation, God will measure to him again in blessing.
And rose up early in the morning] Sanctificat, sanat, ditat quoque surgere mane. Sanctify, heal, enrich also to rise in the morning. The morning is the best time for holy duties. God should have the first of everything; then, also, men are freshest and freest from worldly businesses. The Philistines arose early to do sacrifice to their Dagon, or Tritan, as other heathens called him. They generally took the top of the morning (utpote quod παν εργον οφελλει) to offer to their dung hill deities, as holding that then they sat in their temples, and took notice of morning salutations. Homer brings in Nestor sacrificing in the morning; so do the Roman historians their Potitii and Pinarii, offering to Hercules upon their greatest altar of all. Argonauts do the like in Apollonius; and the Persian magi were wont to worship the rising sun with their early hymns.
And offered burnt offerings] Whole burnt offerings, not sacrifice only (as the Greek interpreter hath it), nor peace offerings, whereof himself might have had part; but burnt offerings, that were offered in fire unto God, and that according to the number of his sons; not one general family sacrifice only, but for every one, one. It appeareth, then, that Job was no penny father, no niggard in God's service, but lavished money out of the bag, and thought all too little that way. So did Solomon in that greatest sacrifice that ever we read of, 1 Kings 8:63, and his father David, when, out of his poverty, as he calleth it, he had prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, &c., which Sir Walter Raleigh casteth up to be more than any king in the world is worth; this is check to our tenacity and baseness (Hist. of the World, Part II., cap. 17, sect. 9).
For Job said] viz. In his heart, for God understandeth the language of the heart also, Psa 139:1 Genesis 20:11 .
It may be that my sons have sinned] Or, lest haply. He well knew the corruption of man's nature, wherein there is a πανσπερμια, seed place of all sins. He knew also how easily we overshoot ourselves at merry meetings, and give too much liberty to our tongues and appetites to run riot. He, therefore, seeks pardon for his children's suspected sins; he knew, besides unavoidable and involuntary infirmities (such as none are free from), they might be called to an account by a just and jealous God for their other men's sins, which they had not bewailed, 1 Corinthians 5:2, or not rebuked, at least by their countenance, as God doth, Psalms 80:16. Job was a man of a tender conscience, and therefore propounds to himself the worst; neither was it against charity in him to suspect ill of his children, while he intended their good, and turned his suspicion into a supplication. That his children were godly is put out of question, by his being at a question whether they had sinned. But how then doth it follow?
And cursed God in their hearts] And not blessed God, so Calvin rendereth it; not done him right, and therefore wrong, so Sanctius; they have not high and honourable conceptions of him, answerable to his excellent greatness; but, by base and bald thoughts, cast him, as it were, into a dishonourable mould, and not giving him the glory due to his name, that holy and reverend name, Psalms 111:9; great and dreadful among the heathen, Malachi 1:14. In the Hebrew it is, And blessed God, for cursed, by an euphemismus or antiphrasis; as when a harlot is called Kedesha, a holy woman, by contraries. So auri sacra (i.e. execranda) fames. sacrifice of gold (i.e. a curse) famine, The Hebrews so abhorred blasphemy against God, as they would not have the sound of it to be joined to the name of God, whom they commonly call Baruc-hu, the blessed one. So they would not take the name of leaven (that prohibited ware) into their mouths all the time of the feast of the passover (Elias Thisb.). So in their common talk they call a sow dabhar achar, another thing, because they were forbidden to eat swine's flesh.
Thus did Job continually] Heb. all the days; that is, in the renewed seasons, he was not weary of well doing, but steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, always renewing his repentance, and faith in Christ, figured by those sacrifices; for the ceremonial law was their gospel.