But ye [are] forgers of lies, ye [are] all physicians of no value.
Ver. 4. But ye are forgers of lies] i.e. Ye create false maxims to judge me by; ye gather up without any order, and to no purpose, whatsoever cometh in your way to strengthen and maintain your false accusation against me. You are not only cencinnatores, forgers, but compactors, botchers, such as, by sewing one lie to another, do patch up a false and frivolous discourse, Mendacia mendaciis assuitis. So David, Psalms 119:69, The proud have forged (or pieced together, made it up as of many shreds) a lie against me. David saith of hypocrites, that their tongue frameth deceit, Psalms 50:19; and of Doeg, that his tongue devised mischief, like a sharp razor, doing deceit, Psalms 52:2. Jeremiah saith of his countrymen, that they had taught their tongues to speak lies, and were grown artists at it, Jeremiah 9:5; yea, that they had taken fast hold of deceit, and could not be got off without striving, Jeremiah 8:5. But these countrymen of Job were none such, for God said, "Surely they are my people, children that will not lie," Isaiah 63:8. And although every man be a liar, either by imposture or by impotence; yet it must be understood that these good men aimed at truth, and intended not to deceive Job, but to undeceive him rather. They maintained errors, but unwittingly; they charged him also (but unjustly) with hypocrisy. Hence this so severe a high charge, Ye are forgers of lies, such as our ruffians would revenge with a stab. But we must know, saith Merlin, that in those better times it was not so harsh a business in a serious disputation to call that a lie which was safely alleged by an adversary as today it is in this corrupt age of ours, wherein the greatest liars, though taken in the manner, yet take it extremely ill to be told of their fault. Besides, in the defence of God's cause, and the labouring truth, plain-dealing, even with our best friends, is best; so that the apostle's rule, Ephesians 4:31, be observed, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice."
Ye are all physicians of no value] Because you go to work upon wrong principles, and mistakenly ministered. Physicians he acknowledgeth them, and that they came with a good intent to comfort him; but, for lack of skill, instead of curing, they had well nigh killed him, because they judged amiss of his disease, and used corrosives instead of cordials. By the way, observe that God's word is not only the food, but the medicine of the soul, and may far more fitly be so called than the library of Alexandria was of old: for as the diseases of the body are healed by medicine seasonably and rightly used, so are the distempers of the soul by Scriptural consolations; neither shall we ever have cause to complain of them, as Cicero did of philosophical comforts, Nescio quomodo, &c., I know not how it cometh to pass, but this I find, that the disease is too hard for the medicine; or as the Romans did of Sulla's bloody government, that the remedy was worse than the malady. "How forcible are right words!" said Job, Job 6:25. And fair words, as physicians, cure the mind distempered with passion, saith the poet, Oργης νοσουσης εισιν ιατροι λογοι (Aeschyl.). Once, when Luther was in a great heat about something that had crossed him, Melancthon pacified him by repeating this verse,
Vince animos, iramque tuam, qui caetera vincis.
But Job's friends, as they were botchers of lies, so they were bunglers at healing him; they did, saith Lavater, as a surgeon who applieth a plaister to the hand of him whose grief is in his foot; or as that country mountebank in France, who was wont to give in writing to his patients for curing all diseases (Becan. sum. Theol., part 1, cap. 16),
Si vis curari de morbo nescio quali,
Accipias herbam, sed qualem nescio, nec quam:
Ponas neseio quo, curabere nescio quando.
These verses are rendered in English by one in the following way:
Your sore I know not what, do not foreslow
To cure with herbs, which whence I do not know:
Place them (well pounced) I know not where, and then
You shall be perfect whole, I know not when.
Such ουτιδανοι , nullities in the world, such no physicians, such idols, such extreme nothingnesses, good for nothing (as that rotten girdle in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 13:7 , those vine branches in Ezekiel 15:6,7 , that idol in St Paul, 1Co 8:4 ), were Job's friends to him, miserable comforters, Job 16:2 , adding to his affliction instead of easing it, and pushing at him as the whole herd of deer doth at that one that is wounded.