He taketh the wise in their own craftiness
As beasts are taken in a pit, or birds in a snare or net, or with
birdlime; so these crafty men, who are wise in their own opinion,
and really so in things natural, civil, and worldly, or however,
to do evil are entangled and taken in their own schemes; they
fall into the pit they have digged for others, and are snared in
the works of their own hands, as Haman and his sons were hanged
on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai, ( Esther 7:10 ) (
9:25 ) ; or,
"by their own craftiness" F17, by the crafty schemes they
themselves have formed: so sometimes those very things crafty men
design to prevent, are brought about by the very means they make
use of; thus Joseph's brethren designed to prevent the
accomplishment of his dreams, which portended their subjection to
him, ( Genesis
37:9 ) , by selling him to the Ishmaelites, who carried him
to Egypt, where, in process of time, he was made governor of the
land, and where his brethren became obedient to him, ( Genesis 42:6
) ; with which fact Eliphaz might be acquainted, it being not
long before his time: so the Jews, to prevent the Romans taking
away their city and nation, contrived to put Christ to death, and
did, whereby they brought the wrath of God upon them, executed by
those very persons; the same they did also, to prevent the spread
of his fame and glory in the world, and that he might not be
believed on as the Saviour of men, whereas, hereby he became the
Saviour of them; and he a crucified Christ, being preached to the
world by his ministers, the savour of his knowledge has been
diffused in every place, his glory great in all the earth, and
will be more so: the Targum applies this to the wise men of
Pharaoh, and the Apostle Paul to the Jewish doctors and wise
philosophers of the Gentiles, ( 1
Corinthians 3:19 ) ; which quotation proves the authority of
this book:
and the counsel of the froward is carried
headlong:
that is, the counsel or well contrived schemes of the crafty and
wise before mentioned, who twist and wind about, as the word
F18 here used signifies, that there is
no tracing their measures, and finding out the spring of them,
nor the ends they have in view; yet these are sometimes carried
on to execution in a rash and precipitate manner, and so
miscarry; and like a man that is had to a precipice, and is
thrown down from thence, and is destroyed at once, so are their
counsels and schemes dashed to pieces by the providence of God:
or, "is hastened" {s}; too much haste is made to accomplish it,
and so it comes to nought, through an over eagerness to have it
done at once; not waiting a fit opportunity for the
accomplishment of it.