For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Ver. 5. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity] Heb. Thy crooked, wry disposition, that standeth across to God and goodness, Psalms 51:5, Homo est inversus decalogus. Solomon speaketh of perverse lips, as if the upper lip stood where the nether should, Proverbs 4:24. And St Jude speaketh of hard speeches, uttered by ungodly sinners, Judges 1:15, such as Job was none, whatever Eliphaz, by misinterpreting, made of him, wresting his words to a wrong sense, as Psalms 54:5, and, by a spiritual unmannerliness, making the worst of what he spake; there being not anything that may not be taken with the left hand. Now, if this befell Job from his friends and those godly persons, what wonder though the like, and worse, be done to us by wicked enemies?
Qui id quod boni est excerpunt, dicunt quod mali est.
Nihil est quin male narrando possit depravarier. - (Terent. Phorm.)
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty ] Than the which nothing is a greater enemy to piety, saith an interpreter. Politicians formalize and enervate the power of truth, till at length they leave us a heartless and sapless religion, saith another. Such a one Eliphaz makes Job to be: q.d. Thou wast wont to speak prayer, but now thou speakest policy, yea, Thou choosest to do it, thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak right, Psalms 52:3. Thou hast as many turnings and windings in thy mind as the serpent hath in his body (so the Hebrew word seemeth to signify, Gen 3:1). Thus he heighteneth his charge, and layeth on yet more load.