Behold, I [am] according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay.
Ver. 6. Behold, I am according to thy wish] Heb. According to thy mouth. If the saints do but open their mouths wide God will fill them; he will give them not only the desires of their hearts, but the request of their lips, Psalms 21:2, fulfil all their counsel, Psalms 20:4, in that very way, by that very means, they wished it: he fitteth his mercy ad cardinem desiderii; and lets it be to his even as they will. Was it not so with Job here?
In God's stead] Heb. For God, to act and plead for him, and to show how thou hast dealt with him. So ministers are said to be in Christ's stead, 2 Corinthians 5:20. A great mercy, that he will treat with us by men like ourselves.
I also am formed out of the clay] Et non ex meliore luto effictus, of the same make and matter with thyself, cut out of the same lump, digged out of the same pit. He alludeth to Genesis 2:7, the wonderful formation of those protoplasts, as a potter mouldeth his pots, cutting them out of the lump. And the like God doth for men still, by that, viz. πλαστικη, that is in the seed, making it prolific, and generative.