Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Ver. 21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, &c.] To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friends; and to do otherwise is to forsake the fear of the Almighty, Job 6:14; See Trapp on " Job 6:14 " There was little either fear of God or mercy to men in that barbarous bishop of Spire, who denied to Henry IV, emperor of Germany (deposed after ten years' reign, and hardly bestead), a poor clerkship there in a monastery of his own foundation; which caused the miserable emperor to break out into these words of Job, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me." The Papists tell us that the souls in purgatory cry out to their friends on earth for help on this manner, and in these terms. But this is as much a fiction as purgatory itself is the pope's invention; who must needs be extremely pitiless to suffer so many souls to lie in such great torments, when he hath power to fetch them out at his pleasure.