He looketh upon men
According to our version, and other interpreters, the sense is, God looks upon men as he does on all men in general, their ways and their works; and particularly he takes notice of men under affliction, and observes how they behave; if they are penitent and confess their sins, he restores them to health, and does them good both in body and soul. But most carry the sense another way, and interpret it of the sick man recovered, who looks upon his friends and relations about him, and any others that come within his reach; of he goes about them, as Aben Ezra explains the word; or will accompany with men, as Mr. Broughton; or sets them in rows, as Gersom, in order, as at a levee, that he may the better address them; or he shall direct himself to them, as the Targum; or shall sing over them or before them, so Schultens F20; in a joyful manner, in an exulting strain, express himself, as follows; for the phrase,
and [if any] say
F21, should be rendered, "and he shall say"; make the following confession of his acknowledgment of the goodness of God unto him;
I have sinned;
against God and man, and that has been the cause of all my afflictions; I am now sensible of it, and ingenuously own it:
and perverted [that which was] right:
have not done that which is right in the sight of God, nor what is just and right between man and man; have perverted the right ways of God, swerved from his commandments, and gone into crooked paths, with the workers of iniquity; and declined from, or perverted, justice and judgment among men;
and it profiteth me not;
as sin does not in the issue; though it promises profit and advantage, it does not yield it; but, on the contrary, much harm and mischief come by it.