Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Ver. 5. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer] It is enough of that once: the saints, running out, and meeting with a bargain of sin, come back by weeping cross, and cry, What have I to do any more with wickedness? Hosea 14:8. Judah knew his daughter Tamar no more, Genesis 38:26. "If I have done iniquity, I will do no more," Job 34:31,32. That was Elihu's counsel; and now it is Job's practice.
Yea, twice] That is, often; so eager was I set upon a dispute. This was an aggravation of Job's sin, the committing of it again and again. Numbers added to numbers are first ten times more; then a hundred; then a thousand, &c. "This hath been thy manner from thy youth," Jeremiah 22:21; that was an ill business.
But I will proceed no further] sc. In this controversy. I will not come into the lists to contend with thee. I see there is no safety in such a contest. In many things we offend all, saith St James; and he is a perfect man who sinneth not with his tongue. But as he who hath drunk poison maketh haste to cast it up again, ere it get to the vitals; so should we deal by our daily misdoings. It is not falling into the water that drowns a man, but lying long under it. Bewail thy sin and hasten to get out of it.