If indeed ye will magnify [yourselves] against me, and plead against me my reproach:
Ver. 5. If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me] Or, Will you indeed magnify yourselves against me? sc. because of mine error, as Job 19:4, which yet ye have not convinced me of? Will ye insult me, therefore, and throw dirt upon me? Of Bonassus, a certain beast as big as an ox, Aristotle reporteth, that having horns bending inward and unfit for fight, after that he is wounded by the hunters, he fleeth for his life, and often letteth fly his dung for four yards or more, upon the dogs or men that pursue him, to their great annoyance (Hist Animal., lib. ix. cap. 4, 5). In like sort deal many disputers of this world; when they cannot make good their matter by strength of argument, they cast upon their adversaries the dung of calumnies, so seeking to magnify themselves against him, and pleading against him his reproach.
And plead against me my reproach] Affliction exposeth a man to reproach. Where the hedge is low the beast will be breaking over. See Zephaniah 3:12. See Trapp on " Zep 3:12 "