If I be wicked, woe is me
In this world, and to all eternity; afflictions will abide me
here, and everlasting wrath hereafter: these are the woes that
belong to a wicked man; that is, a profane and abandoned sinner,
that lives in sin, and gives up himself to all manner of
wickedness; the Targum is,
``destruction to me from the great judgment;''utter ruin is my portion, as it is of all wicked and unrighteous persons, ( Isaiah 3:11 ) ;
and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not lift up my
head;
live a holy life and conversation, be righteous in the sight of
men, and behave so as not to know anything by himself, nor to be
conscious of living in any known sin; yet he could not take any
comfort from it, or have any pleasure in it, or speak peace to
himself on account of it, or glory in it and make his boast of
it; or lift up his head before God with boldness and confidence,
who is so pure and holy, and his eyes so quick in discerning the
sins of men: a good man derives his peace and comfort, not from
his own righteousness, but from the righteousness of Christ, and
puts his confidence in that only; he blushes, and is ashamed of
his own; and cannot, nay, "dare not lift up his head", as Mr.
Broughton, the Tigurine version, and others render it, through
shame, being sensible that nothing of his own can stand before an
holy God, or give him joy, peace, and pleasure there; the Targum
adds, "before the ungodly"; but this a man may do before men,
when he cannot before God:
[I am] full of confusion;
being in such a dilemma; let him be what he would, he was sure to
have affliction, sorrow, and distress, so that he knew not what
to say or do; or "reproach" F26, which he was loaded with by
his friends, and was occasioned by his afflictions, they judging
from thence that he was a wicked man, and justly punished for his
sins; the word used signifies a burning heat, such as a than
feels in his breast, and which flushes in his face, when he is
filled with anger or with shame:
therefore see thou mine affliction;
not with his eye of omniscience, that he knew he did, but with an
eye of pity and compassion, and deliver him from it; or, "I am
full with seeing mine affliction", as Jarchi; or, "[I am one]
that sees affliction" F1; that has an experience of it; sees
it all around me, and nothing else, ( Lamentations
3:1 ) ; am a "spectator" F2 of it, as some render it; but
not a mere spectator, but one that has a sensible feeling of it:
some take this and the former clause both to be an address to
God, and render them, "be satisfied with confusion, and behold my
affliction", as Broughton and others F3; let the present
calamity and confusion I am in be sufficient; let no more be laid
upon me; be content with what has been done, and pity me, and do
not lay thine hand heavier upon me, and add to my afflictions, as
he thought he did, by what follows.
F26 (zwlq) "contumeliis", Tigurine version; "ignominia", Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator, Michaelis.
F1 (yyne harw) "et videns afflictionem", Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator.
F2 "Et spectator adflictionis meae", Schultens.
F3 "Satiare ignominia", Junius & Tremellius.
