Thou liftest me up to the wind
Of affliction and adversity, to be carried up with it, and tossed
about by it, as chaff or stubble, or a dry leaf, being no more
able to stand up against it than such things are to oppose the
wind; though some interpret this of God's lifting him up in his
state of prosperity, in which he was very visible and conspicuous
to all, and enjoyed much light and comfort; but then he raised
him to such an estate, with a view to cast him down, and that his
fall and ruin might be the greater; and so this is observed as a
proof of his being become cruel to him:
thou causest me to ride [upon it];
seemingly in great pomp and state, but in great uncertainty and
danger, being at best in a slippery place, in very fickle
circumstances, as the event showed; or rather the sense is, that
he was swiftly carried into destruction, as if he rode on the
wings of the wind to it, and was hurried thither at once, as soon
as he was taken up with the tempest of adversity:
and dissolvest my substance;
his outward substance, his wealth and riches, his family, and the
health of his body, all which as it were melted away, or were
carried away as with a flood; and so as the metaphor of a
tempestuous wind is used in the former clause, here that of an
overflowing flood, which removed from him what seemed to be the
most solid and substantial: the word is sometimes used for
wisdom, and even sound wisdom, ( Proverbs 2:7
) ( Micah 6:9
) ; wherefore some have interpreted it of his being at his wits'
end, of losing his reason and understanding, and which were at
least disturbed and confounded by his afflictions; but his
discourses and speeches show the contrary, and he himself denies
that wisdom was driven from him, ( Job 6:13 ) .
