If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
Ver. 31. If the men of my tabernacle said not] Contubernales, sive domestici; those of my family and familiarity. A man is to take heed of the iniquity of his heels, that is, of his followers and attendants at the heels, as some sense that text, Psalms 49:5, for these will be apt enough to put a man upon courses of revenge, as they dealt by David, 1 Samuel 24:4; 1 Samuel 26:8 2 Samuel 16:9, and by the Son of David, Luke 9:54. And thus Isidore, Cajetan, and others, interpret these words, as if they were added to the former, Job 31:29,30, further to commend Job's love to those that hated him. For although he were put on by his domestics, who seeing their master despitefully used, would have torn those of his enemies in pieces; yet he was not moved thereby, but contained and kept them in from such violence. Beza thus paraphraseth this text: And yet I protest that I wanted not besetters on, even among mine own household servants, who still persuaded me to requite those injuries which I received with most bitter revenge: nay, their minds were so incensed, that they cried out, That they should never be satisfied on them, no, not though they had eaten them up quickly.
Oh that we had of his flesh!] So barbarous and brutish is revenge. See Psalms 27:2. Erasmus telleth of a friar, Augustine of Antwerp, that he openly in the pulpit wished that Luther were there, that he might bite out his throat with his teeth (Epist. lib. 16, ad obtrectat.). I can hardly forbear with these nails of mine to be thy death, said Friar Brusierd to Bilney the martyr. At the town of Barr, in France, the Italians, in hatred of Lutheranism, broke forth into such fury, that they ripped up a living child, took out his liver, being as yet red hot, and ate it as meat. Christian, king of Denmark, pulled the dead body of his enemy Stevon, the Swedish general, out of the grave, inusitataque rabie dentibus adpetiit, and, like a mad dog, tore it with his teeth (Val. Max. Christian. 138). The Jews, in Trajan's time, having one Andrew for their captain, cut in pieces, about Cyrene, many Greeks and Romans, eating their flesh, besmearing themselves with their blood, and clothing themselves with their skins. The like they did also about Cyprus, and in Egypt, to the slaughtering of over four hundred thousand people. Tacitus noteth of the Jews in general, that they are very kind among themselves, but contra omnes alios hostile odium, against all others they bear hostile hatred. Homo homini daemon.
We cannot be satisfied] But with his heart blood. It is as easy to quench the fire of Etna as the thoughts fired by revenge, Plane inexplebile est viudictae desiderium (Mercer). See Psalms 124:3; Psalms 1:4 .