Wherefore are we counted as beasts, [and] reputed vile in your sight?
Ver. 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, &c.] Here he taxeth Job with pride and arrogance; grounding upon those words of his taken at the worst, Job 12:7; Job 17:4; Job 17:10, and not considering his case, that he was full of pain, which maketh wise men touchy (as oppression maketh them mad, Ecc 7:7), and that they had sorely provoked him by their bitter taunts and scurrilous invectives, which called for so sharp a currycomb. Pessime autem habet hypocrisin, si contemnatur, Hypocrisy loves not to be sighted, saith Brentius here. And Gregory upon this text saith, that in Bildad heretics are set forth, who stomach it much that the faithful take upon them to reprove them, as carried away by error; as if the knowledge of the truth resided in themselves only, and all others had no more understanding than beasts. "This people which know not the law are cursed," say those Pharisees, John 7:49. "Ye know nothing at all," saith Caiaphas to his assessors, John 11:49. The Gnostics and Illuminates referred to themselves as being the only knowing men. But if Bildad had been right, he would neither have so far misconstrued Job's words nor yet have been behind to fool himself, as Asaph in a similar case did, Psalms 73:22, where he useth the plural of the words here used in the singular, calling himself, Behemoth, id est, magnam et crassam bestiam, a great and a gross beast.
And reputed vile in your sight?] Heb. Polluted or unclean; that is, as beasts unfit for food, much less fit for sacrifice. The same Hebrew word signifieth polluted and vile. Every wicked man is a vile man, be he never so high and honourable in the world's account, as Antiochus, Daniel 11:21; is called a vile person, and yet he was the great king of Syria, surnamed Epiphanes, or illustrious, and by the flattering Samaritans he was styled, Antiochus, the mighty God. See Psalms 15:4 .