And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Ver. 7. And the Lord said unto Satan] Either by forming and creating a voice in the air, as Mat 3:17 Job 12:25, or by an inward word, after an unspeakable manner; manifesting his will, as he willed, to Satan. The schoolmen have great disputes about the speech of spirits, but this they agree in, that the intention of one spirit is as plain an expression of his mind by another spirit (when he hath a will that the other should understand it) as the voice of one man is to another.
Whence comest thou?] This the Lord asketh not as if he were ignorant; for he knows all things, and that from eternity, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open before his eyes, Hebrews 4:13; yea, in him all things subsist, Colossians 1:17, so that there can be no motion of the creature without his privity: God, therefore, thus interrogateth Satan, that he might show himself to be his judge, and that he might exact a confession out of his own mouth.
Then Satan answered the Lord] The word signifieth to speak in witness bearing, Exodus 20:16 .
From going to and fro in the earth] He saith not, from instigating men to all manner of wickedness, from ranging up and down as a roaring lion, to devour souls, from sinning that sin against the Holy Ghost every moment, &c. All this he cunningly dissembleth, and saith, in effect, as once Gehazi did, Thy servant was nowhere, or for no hurt to any, when as he is never but doing mischief; as Pliny saith of the scorpion, that there is not one minute wherein it doth not put forth the sting. Is not the hand of Joab in this business? So, is not Satan in all the sins of the wicked, and in most of the troubles of the godly? Heu quam furit Satan, et impellit securos homines ad horrenda flagitia! &c., saith Luther. Oh how doth Satan range and rage, that he may glut himself with the blood of souls! In prosperity he makes men lay their hearts too near it, in adversity to lay it too near their hearts. Upon Job he tried both these stratagems.
And from walking up and down in it] A great peripatetic he is, and he walks the rounds; for he is yet a prisoner at large, only he hath his fetters upon his heels, Judges 1:6, and in them he frisketh up and down, and fetcheth a circuit to spy faults, and to take advantages. Mr Broughton rendereth it, from searching to and fro in the earth, &c. Non dormitat semper vigil ille synagogae suae Episcopus, saith one, he is vigilant and diligent, restless and unquiet, as Cain (whom Amama calleth the devil's patriarch) could settle nowhere, but ran up and down as a fugitive and a vagabond, Genesis 4:12. It is said, Matthew 12:45, that this unclean spirit walketh in dry places seeking rest and finding none. Not but that dry and wet are all one with him, but it importeth his restlessness. See the like Jeremiah 17:5, to run to and fro is the condition and curse of those that are once departed from God. "Take heed, brethren," saith the apostle, "lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God," and wandering after worldly vanities, Hebrews 3:12. Take heed of giving, way to wilful distractions in holy duties. Men's hearts are oft so divided and dissipated, that if after any duty they should put this question that God doth here to Satan, Whence comest thou? the answer should be, From compassing the earth, &c.