I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
Ver. 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes] This chapter, since it is one of the largest in all the book, so it is elegant, various, and very full of matter; for it shows us, as in a mirror, both what we should do and what we should not do. Good Melancthon, about the beginning of the Reformation, mournfully complained, Quos fugiamus habemus; quos sequamur non intelligimus, We have whom to flee from (meaning the Papists), but whom to follow, we yet understand not (by reason of the many divisions among Protestants). But here we may be at a better certainty; by treading in Job's footsteps, and striving to express him to the world; who against all the cavils and calumnies of his foe friends, makes it out here, that he is no hypocrite or flagitious person as they falsely charged him, but a man fearing God and eschewing evil, Job 1:1. Let therefore as many as would be perfect be thus minded and thus mannered; propounding to themselves the highest pitch and the best patterns; resolving to resemble them as much as may be. Here we have Job's holy care to flee fornication as a deadly evil; by avoiding the occasion, by taking bonds of his senses, and by doing all be could to be out of the way when the temptation came. Austin thanks God that the temptation and his heart met not. Job would prevent that mischief by laying laws upon his eyes, those windows of wickedness and loop holes of lust, the very door and bait of all evil concupiscence, Matthew 5:29 1 John 2:16, that flesh pleaslng lust, that nest egg of the devil (as one wittily calleth it), that eldest child of old Adam's strength, bearing name of the mother, which is called in general, lust, or concupiscence. Now that Job might not lust, he would not look on a forbidden object; for he knew that wanton glances cause contemplative wickedness; such as will soon break out into foul practices; as ill humours in the body do into sores and blotches, εκ του οραν γινεταιτο εραν, Ut vidi, ut perii! - oculi sunt in amore duces.
Why then should I think upon a maid?] Contemplarer in virginem, Lustfully consider her beauty, till my heart be hot as an oven with lawless lusts, and my body wollows in the mire of that abominable filth. For unbridled lust, like the wild fig, will soon mount over the wall; and those base, vain, wanton, capering thoughts will break out, if not timely suppressed; if we handle them not roughly at the door (as Elisha said), their master's feet will not be far behind them. Quell them therefore and crush them in the egg; it is not safe being at Satan's meal, though our spoon be never so long; remember, that of looking comes thinking; and of thinking, worse. Look upon the woeful chain of David's lust, and remember how many have died of the wound in the eye. The basilisk slayeth with his sight. Circe In Greek and Latin mythology the name of an enchantress who dwelt in the island of Aea, and transformed all who drank of her cup into swine; often used allusively. will enchant all that behold her. Irregular glancing, or inordinate gazing, is that which metamorphoseth a man into a beast, and makes him a prey to his own brutish affections. Hence David prayeth, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity," Psalms 119:37. Job here steppeth one degree further, from a prayer to a vow; yea, from a vow to an imprecation, Job 31:7. That his eyes should be eyes of adamant, that will turn only to one point; that he would not look but where he might lawfully like. Saints have a single eye (and contrariwise the wicked, Hos 3:1), like that Persian lady, who being at the marriage of Cyrus, and afterwards asked how she liked the bridegroom? How? said she, I know not; I saw no one but my husband. Charles V used to clap to his casement; and the young Lord Harrington to pull his hat over his eyes when fair ladies passed along.