Albert Barnes Commentary Job 18:4

"Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?" — Job 18:4 (ASV)

He tears himself - More correctly, “you that tear yourself in anger!” It is not an affirmation about Job, but it is a direct address to him. The meaning is, that he was in the paroxysms of a violent rage; he acted like a madman.

Shall the earth be forsaken for you? - A reproof of his pride and arrogance. “Shall everything be made to give way for you? Are you the only person in the world and of so much importance, that the earth is to be made vacant for you to dwell in? Are the interests of all others to be sacrificed for you, and is everything else to make way for you? Are all the laws of God’s government to be made to yield rather than that you should be punished?” Similar modes of expression to denote the insignificance of anyone who is proud and arrogant are still used among the Arabs. “Since Muhammed died, the Imams govern.” “The world will not suffer loss on your account.” “The world is not dependent on any one person.” T. Hunt, in Lowth’s Lectures on Hebrew Poetry. Rosenmuller’s Morgenland, in lec.

And shall the rock be removed out of its place? - “Shall the most firm and immutable things give way for your special accommodation? Shall the most important and settled principles of the divine administration be made to bend on your account?” These were not the principles and feelings of Job, and great injustice was done to him by this supposition. He was disposed to be submissive, for the most part, to the divine arrangement.

But this will describe the feelings of many a proud person, who supposes that divine arrangements should be made to bend for their special accommodation, and that the great, eternal principles of justice and right should give way, rather than they be dealt with as common sinners are or be cast into hell. Such people wish a special place of salvation for themselves.

They are too proud to be saved as others are. They complain in their hearts that they are made to suffer, to lose their property, to be sick, to die—as others do. They would wish to be treated with special mercy, and to have special enactments in their favor, and would have the eternal laws of right made to bend for their special accommodation. Such is the pride of the human heart!