Thick clouds [are] a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.
Ver. 14. Thick clouds are a covering to him] He lieth close hid among the clouds, and seeth nothing. But be the clouds never so thick, Christ's eyes are a flaming fire, Revelation 1:14. And the school of nature teacheth, that the fiery eye needeth no outward light, but seeth extra mittendo, by sending out a ray, &c. He will freely blot out the sins of his people as a cloud, and their transgressions as a thick cloud, Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 43:25; but the clouds cannot hinder him from sight of their sins; for he is all eye, ολοφθαλμος, and darkness and light are both alike to him, Psalms 139:12. A cloud may come between the body of the sun and us, and the whole hemisphere may be masked and overcast, as we call it, but nothing can keep God from eyeing and ordering all things.
And he walketh in the circuit of heaven] Where it seemeth thou thinkest he only manageth matters and beareth rule, and not below. So indeed the Peripatetics thought, and taught. Agreeably whereunto Lysippus made Alexander's picture looking up to heaven, with this posy,
Iuppiter, asserni terram mihi, tu assere caelum.
With which picture Alexander was so delighted that he proclaimed that none should take his picture but Lysippus, Plin. l. 6, c. 16.
Augustus also heard with delight,
Divisum imperium cum Iove Caesar habet (Virgil. Vita).
Caesar has with Jupiter divided the empire. And the Great Turk, vexed at his great loss in the last assault of Scodra, most horribly blasphemed against God, saying, That it were enough for him to have care of heavenly things, and not to cross him in his worldly actions. The atheist here taketh it for granted that God hath enough to do to walk from place to place in heaven (as princes do in their progress), and to order those heavenly bodies how they shall affect these lower bodies, by their light, heat, and influence, &c. Fain they would confine him to that circuit or circle (the heavens are supposed to be spherical and circular), that he might meddle no further. Fain they would persuade themselves and others that God hath cast off the care of earthly business, and committed all to fate and fortune; that many might live far more comfortably if they were less conscientious; that it nothing concerneth God, whether men do or not do this or that, &c. Such dust heaps as these may be easily found in every corner; for all places are full of them, and so is hell too. As for Job, the counsel of these wicked ones was far from him, Job 21:16, he was the worse to think of them, whatever Eliphaz (by mistake of his meaning, at the least) thought of him.