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The just shall put it on - Money is God's property. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord;" and though it may be abused for a time by unrighteous hands, God, in the course of his providence, brings it back to its proper use; and often the righteous possess the inheritance of the wicked.

The just shall put it on - The righteous shall wear it. It shall pass out of the hands of him who prepared it, into the hands of others. The meaning is, that the wicked, though they become rich, would not live to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. These two verses contain a beautiful illustration of what Dr. Jebb calls the introverted parallelism - where the fourth member answers to the first, and the third to the second:

“Though he heap up silver as the dust,

And prepare raiment as the clay,

The just shall put it (raiment) on,

And the innocent shall divide the silver.”

A similar instance occurs in Matthew 7:6:

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine,

Lest they (the swine) trample them under their feet.

And (the dogs) turn again and rend you.”

For a full illustration of the nature of Hebrew poetry, the reader may consult DeWette, Einleitung in die Psalmen, translated in the Biblical Repository, vol. iii. pp. 445ff, and Nordheimer‘s Hebrew Grammar, vol. ii. pp. 319ff; see also the Introduction to Job, Section V.

The innocent shall divide the silver - That is, the righteous shall come into possession of it, and divide it among themselves. The wicked who had gained it shall not be permitted to enjoy it.

Job's friends, on the same subject, spoke of the misery of wicked men before death as proportioned to their crimes; Job considered that if it were not so, still the consequences of their death would be dreadful. Job undertook to set this matter in a true light. Death to a godly man, is like a fair gale of wind to convey him to the heavenly country; but, to a wicked man, it is like a storm, that hurries him away to destruction. While he lived, he had the benefit of sparing mercy; but now the day of God's patience is over, and he will pour out upon him his wrath. When God casts down a man, there is no flying from, nor bearing up under his anger. Those who will not now flee to the arms of Divine grace, which are stretched out to receive them, will not be able to flee from the arms of Divine wrath, which will shortly be stretched out to destroy them. And what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and thus lose his own soul?