Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
Ver. 6. Whose house I have made the wilderness] That of Arabia especially near unto Job, where were whole droves of these wild asses. There are a sort of them also in Plara, one of the islands of the Aegean Sea. Hermits and anchorites seem to affect the same liberty; but where did God ever grant it them? Man is Zωον πολιτικον, saith Aristotle, Nature's good fellow, as one Englisheth him; and no sooner had the Philippians received the gospel but they were in fellowship to a day, Philippians 1:5. The communion of saints is as well a point of Christian practice as an article of Christian belief; and they have much to answer for who sty up themselves, and forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; these are in the ready way to utter apostasy, Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 10:39. He is not like to walk long who affecteth to walk alone. Two are better than one; and why, see Ecclesiastes 4:9; Ecclesiastes 4:11,12, with the notes.
And the barren land his dwellings] Heb. The salt place, that is, barren as if it had been sowen with salt, Jdg 9:45 Psalms 107:33,34. Salt is taken in Scripture to be both a cause and sign of barrenness, Deu 29:23 Zephaniah 2:9, though among us there are some kind of soils, they say, that are manured with salt, and thereby made fruitful; but in those hot and dry countries it was otherwise. In these barren places God provideth for the wild ass; and although he hath there but little food, yet he is lusty and nimble, and sayeth himself both from the hunter and from the ravage of other fierce and savage creatures, by his strength and swiftness. Xenophon telleth us, That Cyrus passing through the wilderness of Arabia, with his horsemen, there were many of these wild asses (Cyropaed. l. 3); who, being stirred, ran so swiftly away, that some horsemen following could not come near them; then standing still; but when the horsemen approached they fell again running as before, thus deluding them. Haec igitur bestia non mediocre mirabilis Dei potentiae vestigium est, saith Brentius. In this beast, therefore, there is much of God's great power and providence to be seen. And from hence also we may gather, saith another interpreter, that a little is enough to sustain men in the wilderness of this world. As the children of Israel also were here sustained, having nothing to eat but what God sent them down from heaven from day to day, forty years together. Nature is content with a little, grace with less.