Job 31:10 [Then] let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.
Ver. 10. Then let my wife grind unto another] i.e. Let her be his slave, as Lam 5:13 Exodus 11:5 Matthew 24:41; or rather, let her be his whore; and may my sin, which hath served her for example, serve her also for excuse. Not that Job would hereby license his wife to commit filthiness (as those Lituanians, who have their connubii adiutores, co-helpers in wedlock, and prize them far above all their acquaintance, as Maginus relateth, Alienas permolere uxores (Horat.). Sic μυλλειν, i.e. molere, apud Theocrit. est coire; and as some wits among us, panders to their own beds, who, either for gain or for a quiet life, wink at their wives' disloyalty; and, as woodculvers or silly hedge sparrows, hatch and bring up that which cuckoos lay in their nests), but to set forth by this horrible imprecation how extremely he abhorred the sin of adultery.
And let others bow down upon her] A clean expression of an unclean act. Some Borborologi podicem ex ore faciunt, being like ducks, that ever have their noses puddling in puddles: sic hi spurcitias Veneris eliminant, delight in ribaldry and obscene language; as did Proculus, the emperor, and before him, that beast Tiberius. These are to be avoided as pests and botches of human society. So also are stage plays for that very cause, as the brothels of bawdry, the corrupters of youth, the canker of the commonwealth, as Plato, a heathen, complained. Filthiness and fornication should not be once named among Christians, Ephesians 5:3. Groves were flatly forbidden by God to be planted near the places of his worship; in detestation of that heathenish custom of Priapus's worshippers, promiscuously satisfying their lusts in a thicket after they had sacrificed; thereby, as they conceived, best pleasing their god.