And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
Ver. 13. And thou sayest, How doth God know?] A brutish question, Psalms 94:7,8, and never of Job's making. There are a sort of such miscreants as believe nothing but what they see with their bodily eyes; and indeed, for a finite creature to believe the infinite attributes of God, he is not able to do it thoroughly, without supernatural grace; which therefore must be begged of God, James 1:5, that he would give us "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of our understanding being enlightened," &c., Ephesians 1:17,18. For want whereof, the wicked, blinded with sin, ask such senseless and blasphemous questions as this in the text, and those like this, Psa 10:11 Zephaniah 1:12; See Trapp on " Psa 10:11 " See Trapp on " Zep 1:12 " It is a ridiculous thing, saith Pliny, to think that the highest Majesty taketh care of human affairs; a service, doubtless, far below him, and unworthy of his greatness.
Can he judge through the dark cloud?] Can he discern through such a dark medium? Men cannot see God; and therefore some fools are apt to think that neither can he see them, Sicut pueri vultum obvelant, putantes sese tum non conspici (Lavat.). But that Job was far from any such thought, see Job 21:16; Job 21:22. To blame therefore was Eliphaz to charge him with such a wickedness; and all because he had said that in this life bad men oft prosper and better men suffer; which yet is verum tanquam ex tripode, very true, and not at all derogatory to the Divine providence.