Carey, ^^^^®t.^v, The book of Job I WyW, fharih^ Q^frtafULotiHnn THE BOOK OF JOB, TEANSLATED EEOM THE HEBREW ON THE BASIS OF THE AUTHOEIZED VERSION : EXPLAINED • IN A LARGE BODY OF NOTES, CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL, AND HLUSTRATED '§10 €^ixnth from Various Movlis on Antiquities, 6fO0rn:pIjn, Sticntc, tU.f ALSO, BY EIGHTY WOODCUTS AND A MAP; WITH SIX PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS, AN ANALYTICAL PARAPHRASE, AND MEISNER'S AND DOEDEBLEIN'S SELECTION OF THE VARIOUS READINGS OF THE HEBREW TEXT EEOM THE COLLATIONS OF KENNICOTT AND DE ROSSI. BY y THE REV. CARTERET PRIAULX CAREY, M.A., INCUMBENT OP ST. JOUN'S, GUERNSET. LONDON : WERTHEIM, MACINTOSH, AND HUNT, 24, pateenostee-row, and 23, HOLLES-STEEET, CAVENDISU-SQUAEE. M DCCC LVIII. {_The rigid of Translation Li reserved.'\ LONDOX : ALES. MACINTOSH, PRINTER, GREAT NEW-STltrET. JOHN-HERBERT CARTERET, CARTERET WALTER, SAMUEL ROBERT, AND WILLIAM WILFRED, WITH THE PRAYER THAT THE BIBLE AND THE GOD OF THE BIBLE MAY BE THEIR GUIDE THROUGH LIFE AND THEIR HOPE IN DEATH, AND OF ONE OF THEM, ABDIEL ARCHIBALD M^CREA, TAKEN TO HEAVEN, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE FATHER, THE AUTHOR. INDEX. PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. Dissertation I. — The Book of Job a True History Dissertation II. — The Age in which Job lived . Dissertation III. — The Place where Job resided Dissertation IV. — The Author of the Book of Job Dissertation V. — Theology in the Days of Job . Dissertation VI. — The Various Readings Page 1 14 17 20 21 31 ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF JOB. Analysis 37 TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF JOB. PART I. — THE introductory NARRATIVE. — CHAPS. I., II. Chapter I. 49 PART II. — job's complaint. — CUAP. III. Chapter III. 54 part IU. — the controversy. CHAPS. IV. — XXXI. the first series in the CONTROVERSY. — CHAPS. IV. — XIV. 1. The First Discourse of Eliphaz.— Chaps, iv., v 2. Job's First Discourse. — Chaps, vi., vii. . 3. Bildad's First Discourse. — Chap. viii. . 4. Job's Second Discourse. — Chaps, ix., x. 5. Zophar's First Discourse. — Chap. xi. 6. Job's Third Discourse.— Chaps, xii. — xiv. 56 61 65 68 73 75 VI INDEX. THE SECOND SERIES IN THE CONTROVERSY. — CHAPS. XV. — XXI. 1. The Second Discourse of Eliphaz. — Chap. xv. . 2. Job's Fourth Discourse. — Chaps, xvi., xvii. 3. Bilclad's Second Discourse. — Chap, xviii. 4. Job's Fifth Discourse. — Chap. xix. 5. Zophar's Second Discourse. — Chap. xx. •6. Job's Sixth Discourse. — Chap. xxi. . . . 82 86 91 93 96 99 THE THIRD SERIES IN THE CONTROVEItSY. — CHAPS. XXII — XXXI. 1. The Third Discourse of Eliphaz. — Chap. xxii. . . . .103 2. Job's Seventh Discourse. — Chaps, xxiii., xxi v. . . .106 3. Bildad's Third Discourse. — Cliap. xxv. . . . .112 4. Job's Eighth Discourse. — Chap. xxvi. . . . . .112 5. Job's Ninth Discourse. — Chaps, xxvii., xxviii. . . . .114 6. Job's Tenth and Last Discourse. — Chaps, xxix. — xxxi. . .119 PART. IV THE INTERLOCUTION OF ELIHD. — CHAPS. XXXII. — XXXVII. 1. Elihu's First Discourse. — Chaps, xxxii. 6 — xxxiii. . . .130 2. Elihu's Second Discourse. — Chap, xxxiv. . . . .135 3. Elihu's Third Discourse. — Chap. xxxv. . . . . .139 4. Elihu's Fourth and Last Discourse. — Chaps, xxxvi., xxxvii. . .141 PART V. — THE INTERVENTION OF GOD. CHAPS. XXXVHI. XLU. 8. 1. God's First Address to Job. — Chaps, xxxviii., xxxix. . . . 147 2. God's Second Address to Job. — Chap. xl. 1, 2. . . . . 154 3. Job's First Reply.— Chap. xl. 3—5. . . . . .154 4. God's Third and Last Address to Job. — Chaps, xl. 6 — xli. . .154 5. Job's Second and Last Reply. — Chap. xlii. 1 — 6. . . .160 6. God's Address to Eliphaz. — Chap. xlii. 7, 8. . . . .160 PART VI. — THE CONCLUSION. — CHAP. XLII. 9 — 16. Job's Restoration, &c. — Chap. xlii. 9—16 . 161 NOTES ON THE BOOK OF JOB. Chap. i. 1 . 163 Chap. ILLUSTRATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB. 425 PREFACE. In the preliminary dissertations whicli precede ray translation I have treated upon the following subjects : — the Book of Job a True History — the Age in which he Lived — the Place where he Resided — the Author of the Book which bears his Name — ^Theology in his Days — and the Various Readings of the Hebrew Text. Previously to handling the first four of these subjects, I had, in addition to my own observations, carefully weighed all the arguments that have been advanced on both sides of these several questions respectively, paying particular attention to the first of them, as being the most important ; and the conclusions to which I have arrived are, — that the Book of Job is certainly a true history, giving a faithful and specific account of various actual and, in somp instances, remarkable facts, and of real persons : that the age in which the patriarch lived was almost certainly during the period of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt — that is, about thirty-five centuries ago : that the land of Uz was, in all likelihood, identical Avith that of Edom in its original boundaries, and therefore the most probably exact place of Job's residence was somewhere on the eastern side of the range of Mount Scir, and so, facing the Great Arabian Desert : and then, with respect to the authorship of the book which bears his name, whilst I have assumed its high antiquity as a necessary supposition, I have but vaguely hinted, what others have felt more certain about, that possibly Job himself may have been its compiler. In writing the two last of my dissertations I have had to depend upon my own rcsom'ces, very mainly so, at least, in the first case, and viii PREFACE. entirely so, in the last ; and I trust that neither of the subjects therein treated will be without interest and profit to the reader. From the first of them he will learn how extensive and practical w^as the range of theological knowledge in the days of the patriarch Job, comprising, as it did, acquaintance with all the attributes of God, both natural and moral, together with the distinct and full recognition of his being the creator and moral governor of our world as well as of a higher world and its higher order of beings ; including also the important facts both of the fall and of the redemption of man, and furnishing him at once with an extensive code of morals on the subject of his duty towards God and towards his fellow-men, and also with the motives to endeavour after the performance of those duties, by referring him not only to the justice, and mercifulness, and graciousness of God's character, but also to the certainty of a future judgment, and of a resurrection of the body, and of life everlasting. The last of the dissertations will, I trust, satisfactorily prove to the reader how very immaterially, for the most part, the sense of a passage is affected by the various readings, and will, I trust, as satisfactorily confirm him as to the general correctness of the received text : both of these — points surely of great importance to earnest and inquiring minds, and felt to be such by those especially who, in their honest researches after truth, may have entertained, in however small a degree, misgivings respecting them. It will not be out of place if I mention here that the various readings which I have appended at the foot of each page of the translation are the copious and judicious selection made by Doeder- lein and Meisner from the collations of Kennicott and De Rossi. I have spared no pains in presenting these various readings as accu- rately as possible, and Avith that object in view, in all doubtful cases I have referred to the copies of Kennicott and De Rossi in the British Museum, and so, have either verified or corrected the reading exhibited in the edition of Doederlein and Meisner in my possession. And further, for the benefit of the general reader, I have translated each various reading into English. Some may need to be apprised that the letters K. and De. R. are abbreviations of the names of the collators Kennicott and De Rossi, and that the numbers 1, 2, 3, &c.. PREFACE. IX refer to particular MSS. as numbered by the collators them- selves. Next in order to the preliminary dissertations will be found an analysis, which I have prepared with care, and with the object of presenting at one view the general argument and structure of the Book of Job. In addition to this, I have appended a somewhat more copious analysis, or, rather, analytical paraphrase, side by side with the translation, chiefly for the purpose of enabling the reader at a glance to follow up, in one unbroken and continuous course, the stream of thought of the several speakers. On the subject of the translation, I have to state that I see nothing formidable in the objections of those who would discourage any such attempts. If it be true that the Most High has delivered to us his revealed will in any one pai;ticular language, it is certainly our duty, as a matter of the utmost importance, to ascertain, as exactly as possible, the meaning of what is thus conveyed to us ; and no pains should be spared in the endeavour to render it accurately in a vernacular tongue. To be satisfied with what, however good, is allowed to be imperfect, is a principle which, however laudable in appearance, in reality evinces a degree of moral cowardice — a shrinking from imaginary consequences — and which, had it been allowed to operate in the earlier history of our version, might have found us with the authorized Bibles of Cranmer or of Matthews still in ordinary use. It must be admitted, indeed, that it is scarcely possible to overrate the learning of the translators of our present authorized version, whether as theologians or as linguists, or the judgment with which they executed the task imposed upon them, and so, handed down to us that fruit of their labours, which all scholars have deservedly eulogized, and which may well be every Englishman's boast ; still, on the other hand, it must also be admitted, even by those of their warmest admirers who are rcnlly capable of judging, that in many cases they have given indeterminate meanings, and in others have altogether mistaken the sense ; and that in some of these cases satisfactory elucidations have since been given, and corrections PREFACE. made by the learning and labours of other men. Added to which, the advance that has been made in the knowledge of the Hebrew and other Oriental languages, — the discovery of the laws of parallelism which govern the poetry of the Bible, as well as of the laws of the relation which exists between cognate words, together with the vast stores of knowledge that have recently been disinterred from their long- undisturbed tombs on the banks of the Nile and of the Tigris, or have been opened by the deciphering of hieroglyphics and of other primitive writing, — have certainly rendered us more independent of Rabbinic traditions and assistance in the interpretation of Hebrew than the translators of our Authorized Version could afford to be, and have spread before us fields of illustration, and have put into our possession means and sources of Biblical criticism which were utterly out of the reach of men since whose age a quarter of a millennium has passed away. AVith reference to my translation, I have only to add that I have taken the Authorized Version as its basis ; also, that I profess to be literal, so far, indeed, as in some instances to have preferred retaining Hebraisms rather than deviating too considerably from the original, though I am not aware of having carried out this principle in- consistently with any grammatical or other strict requirement of the English language or idiom; whilst in other instances I have chosen to sacrifice mere elegance rather than not give what has appeared to me the exact rendering of a particular word or passage ; and I would beg the merely English reader to bear this in mind, should he in some cases suppose that I might have selected some more high-sounding or more dignified or more apparently choice word or phrase than that which I have presented. In the case of seemingly ambiguous expressions, I have thought it best both to leave them as far as possible in their ambiguity, without pre- suming summarily to attach any definite meaning of my own to them, and also to offer explanations of them in the Notes, and so give the reader the opportunity of judging, and, if he pleases, of deciding for himself. The words which I have inserted in brackets do not appear in the original, yet, be it remembered, in most instances they are absolutely necessary to the completion of the TREFACE. XI sense, and, though not actually expressed, yet often are positively implied in the Hebrew context. I have felt no hesitation in adopting the method of exhibiting the parallelisms in separate lines. Objections have been made by some to this method, principally grounded on an over-scrupulous attach- meut to the older arrangement — an attachment which is clearly the result of habit rather than of conviction, as it is not defended by any arguments pretended to be conclusive, and indeed is admitted by one of the principal objectors. Dr. Lee, possibly to be a mere prejudice. My reasons for adopting the particular method adverted to are — 1st, That I am convinced that whilst primitive Oriental poetry, so far at least as the Bible enables us to judge, was wholly independent of all metrical laws, though not without just that extent of rhythm which euphouy, or perhaps a chanting style of recitation required, it consisted almost solely in the arrangement of language in parallel- isms, generally combined with a certain loftiness of style imusual in prose ; for the grand objection, that parallelisms are occasionally met with in prose, is of no more force than Avould be the denial that modern poetry is governed by metrical laws, because some kind of metrical arrangement is sometimes discoverable in prose. 2dly, That this method does not necessarily interfere with the ordinary divisions into chapters and verses, as these can still be retained for the purposes of reference. And odly, That the plain exhibition of the parallelisms to the reader, besides contributing to the assistance of the memory, is very frequently of material help in the discovery of the sense. So important do I deem this latter circumstance, that I may be excused if I enlarge upon it. The parallelisms throughout the Book of Job are for the most part distichs or couplets of lines, the correspondence between each of the two hemistichs or lines consisting in their respectively con- taining either homogeneous or antithetical words and sentiments, and so, in their answering one to the other. Variety, and at the same time beauty, are obtained by the modes of expression being diversified, by enlargement of sense, or by the introduction of some new idea in the latter hemistich, also by an inversion of the subject XU rUEFACE. and object, and by the one hemistich being made to express cause, and the other effect. This precise variety does not of course exist in every distich, though it does in many, and the reader will easily discover for himself some such principles of diversity pervading all. I subjoin ch. v. 11, in explanation of my meaning: — Setting on high those that are low, And those that mourn get raised into safety. Here we have, as homogeneous expressions, setting on high and get raised into safety, also those that are loio and those that mourn — a correspondence which brings cause and effect into view, as it is all but implied that the persons spoken of mourn because they are low, and that their* final position may be considered one of safety because they are set on high. The same expressions, on the other hand, may be placed in antithetical combination thus, — setting on high and those that are low, also, get raised into safety and those that mourn, — an antithesis which at once furnishes the additional idea that those persons who mourn do so, not only because, as before seen, they are low, but also because they are not at the time in a position of safety, that is, they are in danger. It will further be seen that the mode of expression is diversified here, the corresponding verbs being, the one active and the other passive ; whilst, at the same time, there is an inversion of the subject and object. By these means a too great monotony of style and apparent tautology are avoided, and the pleasure which variety produces is secured. This will be apparent by reading the distich as it would have stood but for the diversifications just noticed : — Setting on high those that are low, And raising into safety those that mourn. One purpose, however, that the speaker had evidently in view in the inversion of subject and object was to bring out more prominently cause and effect, for thus, in point of fact, the and in the second hemistich is equivalent to so that: a sense it could not otherwise have had. Occasional instances of triplets occur in this book ; Job uses them PREFACE. Xlll more frequently than any of the other speakers, EUhu almost as often, the three friends much more sparingly, and God only twice. In some cases the first clause of the triplet, standing inde- pendently, expresses a sentiment of which the two latter clauses, forming a correct parallelism together, are explanatory : so chap. x. 1, 3 ; xiv. 7. Or, sometimes the two first clauses express two sentiments in parallelism ; and then the third clause contains an inference, or sequence: so xiv. 19. The object of this, however, may be to avoid an unnecessary repetition of the same idea, as the passage, if expanded into two parallelisms, would stand thus, — As waters have worn away stones. So hast thou worn away the hope of man ; As its own floodings will sweep away the soil of the earth. So hast thou swept away the hope of man, Not unfrequently the third clause in a triplet is an unexpected, and, in one or two instances, an elegant, though more generally an awkward lengthening of the second, and contains some new idea which would scarcely be capable of expansion into two new hemistichs : refer to x. 15, 17, 22; xii. C; xxi. 17; xxiv. 12; xxvi. 14; xxix. 25; xxxix. 25, &c. This addition is sometimes necessary to the sense, but in several cases one of the three lines might be omitted without damaging the meaning : thus the thu-d line in xi. 6, and the second in xi. 20, in xii. 4, and in xiv. 5, &c., would not be missed. Sometimes where a pause is required at the end of one of the clauses, the triplet assumes a perfectly natural form : xiv. 14 ; xxviii. 28 ; xxxi. 35 ; xxxiv. 10; xxxviii. 41, &c. I consider that chap. xl. 9 — 14 may be regarded as an instance of the introverted, or what might be called concentering, form of parallelism — that is, not only have we here six separate couplets of parallelisms, but to a certain extent the extreme lines arc in paral- lelism, and so also is each of the other extreme lines as they approach the centre, and the two central lines are found likewise to be XIV PREFACE. parallels. The reader will best compreliend my meaning by seeing it exhibited at one view, thus : — Hast thou, then, an arm like God ? And canst thou thunder like him with a voice ? Deck thyself now with loftiness and grandeur ; And array thyself with majesty and state. Scatter abroad the outbursts of thine anger. And see any proud man and humble him : See any proud man and make him bend; And tread down the wicked in their place: Hide them in the dust together ; Bandage their faces in the hidden place. Then, even I "will confess to thee, That thine own right hand can save thee. Chap, xxxii. 21, 22, is a smaller form of the concentering parallelism. Where no kind of parallelism is found to exist between the two hemistichs of a distich, it seems to be intended that parallels should be inferred from each for the completion of the sense. Thus, chap, vi. 14, if fully expanded, would stand in alternate parallels : — For him that melteth away there is mercy from his friend, [And he showeth that he hath the fear of the Almighty ;] But [my friend hath no mercy towards me. And so] he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. But I must pause in this incomplete survey of this part of my subject, as I am unduly lengthening my preface ; I would only remark that the reader, availing himself of the few hints already furnished, may, by attention to the parallelisms, discover new beauties and enlarged meanings, which otherwise might escape his observation. Paranomasia, or the occurrence of words of similar sound in juxta- position, is very frequent in this book. These are ornaments which of course a translation cannot reproduce. PREFAOE. XV My Notes, which form the most bulky portion of this volume, arc intended both for the theological student and the general reader. I have not pretended to any devotional comments, as I conceive them to be unsuitable to a work purely critical and exegetical. At the same time, I trust that in many instances the explanations offered on particular passages will be found to furnish at least suggestive material for devout meditation. I have allowed no difficulty, so far as I am aware, to pass unnoticed, or without some attempt at grappling with it ; and in all cases in which I have felt doubtful I have not scrupled to acknowledge my uncertainty. And I believe I can candidly state that I have had no desire to support, and much less to obtrude, particular opinions, unless they have been so clearly embodied in the meaning of the sacred text as to be inseparable from it, and also that my simple aim throughout has been to ascertain the honest sense of every syllable and sentence in this portion of God's Word. "With this object before me, I have availed myself of every help within my reach ; and. the names of the several authors whom I have consulted appear from time to time in the body of the Notes. At the same time, I have not hesitated to take an independent view in numberless cases. The Illustrations consist, for the most part, of extracts from works (both English and Continental and classical) on Eastern countries, on antiquarian research, on natural history, and on geography ; and these extracts are intended to elucidate particular passages in this book. In this part of the volume will be found also about eighty illustrative woodcuts, engraved by Mr. James Johnston, of 30, Old Broad-street, City, being copied from the following authors and works, — Sir Gardiner Wilkinson (to whose admirable volumes on the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians I am indebted for a very large proportion of the woodcuts), Roscllini, Champollion, Niebuhr, Layard, "Lectures on the Results of the Great Exhi- bition," " Handbooks to the Assyrian and Egyptian Courts, Crystal Palace," and also the sculptures and pictures in the British jMuseum. It now remains for me only to remark that in the map which accompanies this work I have not distinguished by any peculiar styles of lettering between the primitive, and the classical, and the XVI rilEFACE. modern names, such distinction being made sufficiently apparent in the Notes. And now my task is ended, and I send forth my book, praying that, if it be God's will, his blessing may rest upon it, and that his name may be glorified. St. John's Parsonage, Guernset, Feb. 16, 1858. PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. DISSERTATION I. THE BOOK OF JOB A TRUE HISTORY. It may seem strange to many who revere God's Word, tliat it should be thought necessary to say anything in defence of what a book, universally admitted to be a portion of canonical Scripture, naturally assumes — that the history which it professes to narrate is fact, and not fiction. And yet, as exceptions of all sorts, and by all sorts of writers, have been taken against this position, and particularly so in the case of this book, more than of any other in the sacred volume ; and as some of these exceptions, although little better than ingenious, have come to us stamped with the authority of men of high standing both in place and literature, it would ill become a commentator of the book to ignore the arguments that have been advanced for the purpose of attacking its truthfulness, and of giving support to favorite preconceived theories. Happily for me the merits of the case have been gone into by others, and the question so far disposed of, that I shall feel under no obligation to do much more than state the objections that have been pressed into service, and bring forward tlie refutations with which they have been met, taking occasion, however, in some particulars, to add what is my own in the way of new argument. The assailants of the position referred to— that the narrative before us is a real history of persons and facts — may be ranged in two classes : — the first consisting of those who regard the book as a dramatic and allegorical composition, to some extent founded on fact ; and the second of those who regard it as purely a fiction, wrought up in the form of a parable, for the purpose of instruction. Bishop Warburton enjoys the unenviable distinction of originating the ingenious device maintained by the first class of opponents, and Maimonides is the father of the second. The sum-total of their arguments may be ranged together, and I am persuaded that not one of them will appear formidable to any whose minds are not warped by some favorite hypothesis which must any how be supported, and least of all to those who, in godly simplicity, are wont to expect that in the Bible, which claims for itself a Divine inspiration, and which purports to convey much teaching that can be only matter of revelation, there should be found state- B 3 PRELIM IN AUY DISSERTATIONS. ments of facts exciting man's wonder, and perhaps passing his comprehension. These remarks will especially apply to what appears to be the greatest objection pressed into their service by these schools of divines against the supposition that the book before us is a real record of real persons and f\icts. It is thought by them incredible that conversations should be conducted in heaven between the Almighty and Satan, and on this ground they conclude that any such repre- sentation is necessarily fictitious. Again, the regularity of the numbers in the census recorded of Job's farm stock, both before and after his affliction, and the mystic character supposed to attach to the number of his sons and daughters, are thought by these gentlemen to betray an artificial structure detrimental to the notion of historical truthfulness. Let me translate Rosenmuller's words on this part of the subject : — " It is not possible to think that the concurrence of so many round and doubled numbers in the narrative of Job's life can be consistent with the case [supposed]. He loses ten children, seven sons (wherein we must recognize the sacred number of the Orientals), and three daughters, and similarly, seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels ; besides a thousand oxen, and then the exact half of this, five hundred she-asses. Then, in place of this, there are restored to him, in numbers exactly doubled, fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, two thousand oxen, and one thousand she-asses, and the same number of children as before, seven sons and three daughters, and these born of a wife — his only remaining trial, and she by no means a filly, having previously been the mother of ten full-grown children." It is again supposed to be an unanswerable objection that the dialogues recorded are delivered in the sublimest poetry, and the more so as one of the speakers spoke under circumstances under which effusions in verse must, as is thought, be impossible. On this subject Rosenmuller asks — " Who can persuade himself that these conversations of Job and of his friends, which occupy by far the greatest portion of the work, really took place, and were faithfully committed to wi'iting ? Is it credible that a wretched man, worn out with grief, and already consumed and half dead under the pressure of disease, should, as though he were haranguing, make such speeches to his intimate acquaintances — speeches so long and so distinctly prepared, so full and so figurative, and moi'eover restricted to metrical laws ? Is it further credible that his replicants should have declaimed in the same strain ? Are these the discourses of men sitting at the bed-side of a prostrate friend? A. Shultens (Comment, iii. 1), it is true, with the view of persuading that this is by no means incredible, extols the power of the Arabs in improvising verse. But even granting that that race are much given to poetry, and even to unpremeditated poetry, still no one could ever persuade himself that (a thing which examples from poets of highest standing show surpass the power of human ingenuity) verse so perfect as to exceed anything that the world has ever heard of in the way of sublimity or of mournfulness, should be the effusion of colloquial discourses." Another objection to the historical character of this book has been drawn from one or two inconsistencies imagined to have been discovered in it. Such is that of Michaelis, and on which he relies as the mainstay of his cause. His argument is, that whilst Job, in xxx. 1, speaks contemptuously of the youth of his friends, THE BOOK OP JOB A TRUE HISTORY. 3 they, in xv. 10, claim for themselves a veiy decided seniority to him. Of like nature, also, is the objection of Bouillier, and which is advocated by RosenmuUer, that chapter xxx. makes Job refer to events which could not possibly have happened between the commencement of his misfortunes and his discussion with his friends. It is argued that we must believe that Job's friends hastened to condole with him so soon as they heard of the troubles that had befallen him, and that consequently no time is allowed in the narrative for the continued insults and triumph over his misfortunes, of that abandoned crew of profligates, of whose conduct he so bitterly complains. Amongst some of the smaller exceptions that have been taken up against the truthfulness of this book as a history, may be mentioned — the presumed incredibility that so good a man as »Tob should have been so afflicted of God, or that his successive calamities should have fallen upon him with such marvellous rapidity ; or that his seven thousand sheep should have been destroyed by lightning ; or that precisely one servant should have escaped each calamity to be the bearer of the mournful tidings of it to his master ; or that the conduct of his friends could have been so remarkable, as is stated, as that they should, at their first interview with him, have continued for seven days in silence ; or that they should so unexpectedly have evinced hostility towards him ; or that his name, signifying (as some critics pretend) repentance, should be so prophetic of his after- history ; or that his age at the time of his death should have been so considerable as it is represented in the narrative. Let us now more particularly review these several exceptions, beginning with those of smaller moment. If it be incredible that so good a man as Job should have been so afflicted of God, what becomes, I would ask, of all such statements of Scripture as declare that "many are the afflictions of the righteous" ? or what amount of confidence are we to place in the veracity of an apostle who, having been himself expressly set the task of learning " how great things he must suffer for Christ's name's sake," has recorded how faithful men who lived before his day, and "of whom the world was not worthy," " had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings ; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment ; were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth ; " and also how himself and his fellow-apostles were set forth by God himself, "last, as it were, appointed to death, and were made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men ; " and " were made as the filth of the earth and the off-scouring of all things " ? If Job must be a fictitious character, because it is incredible that he could have been so afflicted as the narrative would have us believe, then the suffering worthies whose cases are recorded by the Apostle must have been mere figments of his brain, and St. Paul and his fellow-apostles can themselves be regarded in no other light than as fictitious characters. Added to which, to assert the incredibility that- is here assumed is to deny the fact that even tlie best of men have that much of sinfulness about them that they deserve to suffer. It is, moreover, a questioning of the right of God to do what he wills with his own ; and so the question thus mooted involves the very question of his sovereignty, and then, too, it ignores the important fact — a fact taught by the b2 4 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. whole scope of the book, and by its position in the sacred canon — that God had high purposes to fulfil in permitting the enemy to inflict upon a righteous man all that fiendish malice and ingenuity could effect — purposes reflecting in heaven upon God's glory, and the power of his grace, and the victoiy or defeat of the enemy — purposes of mercy and goodness towards the sorely-tried sufferer — and pui'poses of strength and consolation towards all the afliicted righteous to the end of time. In the circumstances that furnish material for the three next objections, I can certainly discover nothing of so extraordinary a character as to warrant the smallest suspicion that the book which relates them is not a genuine history. That calamities the most tremendous do fall in rapid succession upon an individual, though happily not a frequent, yet is, unquestionably, at least, an occasional occurrence ; and the destruction of large American prairies, and of the thousands of animals they contain, by what at first was but a little fire, is evidence to us that a statement which mentions the destruction of seven thousand sheep in a fire originating from lightning (see notes on Ch. i. 16), is not neces- sarily a fiction ; nor, again, is there anything so extremely remarkable in the escape of only one person out of dangers in which the lives of many are sacrificed as to conclude that the account of such an occurrence must be fabulous ; added to which, it must be observed that, in the account before us, although each individual messenger congratulates himself on being the only survivor of the calamity he reports, it by no means follows that what his fears alone may have pictured was accurately true, nor does the history anywhere endorse his statement. But after all, let me add in reply to the three objections just examined, that even supposing that the circumstances adverted to were of a decidedly marvellous character (a supposition which I do not admit), would that, let me ask, fui-nish any premises from which an inference might be drawn against the truthfulness of this book as a history ? Does the Bible contain no true history in which miraculous occurrences are detailed ? Or, in judging of any Bible record, are we to ignore either the possibility or the fact of superhuman agency ? I have already stated, in passing, that the conduct of Job's friends both in their seven days' silence and in the hostility which they unexpectedly evinced to- wards him, has been regarded as unnatural and therefore as unreal. But I have yet to learn that conduct, on the part of individuals, which may strike us as being strange, is therefore to be regarded as fictitious; and, after all, much of the apparent strangeness in the long silence of these friends may be more closely connected with the habits of ancient nations and times than we are aware of, and further, there is nothing in the narrative which prevents our supposing that the silence in question had reference merely to the particular subject which afterwards came under discussion and which is the leading topic of the book. And then, in estimating the conduct of the friends towards Job, we must be careful not to attribute to them more of hostile motive than their speeches actually warrant ; — they appear to have been betrayed only into that acrimony of spirit which unfortunately is too common in religious controversies, even when those contro- versies are conducted by friends. The question discussed was one which was considered by all the speakers to be of vast moment, and we can scarcely be surprised at finding that these friends lost their tempers, and, in their zeal for the THE BOOK OF JOB A TRUE HISTORY. 5 doctrine which they stoutly maintained, forgot the moderation which they ought to have shown to their afflicted but superior antagonist. Equally weak with this last objection is that which is deduced from the meaning of his name, which, as it is said to signify repentance^ is supposed to be too pro- phetic of his after life to admit of its being regarded in any other light than as fictitious. But in the first place it is by no means certain that the name bears this meaning that has been attached to it ; and secondly, if it was (as indeed it probably was) prophetic of circumstances occurring in Job's history, this would be far from being an unprecedented instance, in patriarchal times, of a name having been given that proved to have been significant of events that afterwards transpired. Of all the objections that have been started, that which determines the fictitious character of this book on the ground of Job's being represented as having lived to an age far exceeding man's ordinary term, is perhaps the most whimsical, because it is urged by those who in the first place presume to decide, without the shadow of an argument, that the book must have been written during the Babylonish captivity, and then from this most fanciful and baseless hypothesis presume to argue that as the natural term of life at that period of man's history was limited to about seventy years, and as Job is said to have lived one hundred and forty years after his trials, therefore Job and his history is an undoubted fiction ! I have now noticed the smaller objections that have been raised against the position that the events and persons mentioned in this book are historical facts, and will now proceed to the examination of those which are of greater apparent magnitude. The grandest of all the objections appears to be that which decides upon the incredibility of the Almighty's conversing with Satan in heaven, and listening to the " news " (so Michaelis) which he reports from earth. Of this ill-timed witticism nothing need be said, as it adds no force to the objection ; nor need we be compelled to have recourse, as an expedient, to Dathe's singular theory, admired and adopted by some, but now exploded, — that the Satan here mentioned is by no means the devil, but a celestial ministering spirit whose special business it is to inspect men's characters so as to detect hypocrisy, and who, in the execution of this his ofiice, is necessarily somewhat suspicious of piety. One might have thought that so fanciful an invention was due to the desire of finding a solution of the difiiculty supposed to exist in the objection now under consideration, but no, Dathe, himself the discoverer of this new being in the heavenly hierarchy, after all, regards the whole transaction as a fiction. RosenmuUer, who is second in power to none of the opponents of the view that the book of Job is a true historic record, though himself an opponent, acts wisely in altogether waiving the objection now before us, with the admission, in passing, that the supposition that the interview between God and Satan is figurative only, does not necessarily invalidate the truthfulness of the other events recorded in tlie book. This in itself is really a sufiicient answer to the objection in question. The account here given of the appearance of Satan in heaven, and of the several dialogues between the Almighty and the arch-fiend, might very well have been a sort of scenic repi*esentation communicated in vision to the author of the book, and 6 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. that, in sucli a way as to be accommodated to our limited faculties, for the purpose of unravelHng the mystery of God's providence in his dealings with Job, — and yet this would by no means have interfered with the supposition that Job and his friends were real persons, and that all that is recorded respecting them did actually take place. It is unnecessary, however, that we should have to fall back upon any such explanation of this transaction in order to maintain our position. We can challenge our opponents to show that the account given in the two first chapters of this book of Satan's presentation of himself in heaven and of his conduct there is in any way incredible ; and whether, on the contrary, what is recorded there is not in many respects consonant with other statements of Scripture. He is, for instance, uniformly represented as being the enemy of mankind, and, in some instances, is spoken of as setting himself in opposition to God's people, and as being the accuser of the brethren (Zech. iii. 1, and Rev. xii. 10); he evidently moved God to permit him to tempt David to number Israel (compare 1 Chron. xxi. 1 with 2 Sam. xxiv. 1), and he certainly asked God to be allowed to try Peter, and sift him as wheat (Luke xxii. 31, 32). And that he and other evil spirits have, or at least, have had, access to heaven, and even converse with the Almighty there, is unquestionable from 1 Kings xxii. 19 — 23; Zech. ii. 13 — iii. 2, and Rev. xii. 7 — 12. Now, be it remembered, that the account of the transaction before us, even if entirely unsupported by any portion of Scripture, would have a most solemn and righteous demand upon our credence in its veracity on the ground of its position in the sacred canon, and so of its being a portion of that " all Scripture " which " is given by inspiration of God." What shall we say then of the audacity which ventures, in the face of such Scriptures as have been referred to, deliberately to pronounce the whole affair to be no more than a poetic fiction ? Besides, a poetic fiction of such a scene as is here presented to us would surely have been clothed in very different language, and we should have had considerably more detail : the magnificence of heaven, the gorgeous pomp of the celestial hierarchy on their state occasions, the majesty of the Almighty and his emblazoned throne, and the person and appearance of the arch-fiend would all have been described with exactest minuteness ; whereas here, whatever may be left to the imagination, nothing is afforded to the gratification of our curiosity in any of these respects, — we have a simple statement of certain facts, but no description of any kind whatever ; and this very simplicity of itself stamps the entire statement with the broad seal of truth. Again, the objection is thought to be insurmountable, that the round and doubled numbers, and the sacredness of some of them, betray an artificial structure. As to the exception made on the score of the roundness of the numbers, it probably was not convenient to the gentlemen making the exception to remember that all historians invariably give enumerations of population, armies, and the like, in round numbers ; and the probability is, that if the author of the book before us had thought proper to descend to such exact detail i» to make use of units, these same gentlemen would have been the first to exclaim against such preciseness as unhistoric in style, and a glaring proof of imposture. And further, if roundness of numbers is to determine that a book, apparently a history, is, in reality only a fable, then we must certainly account every historic book in the Bible to be fictitious, as they all notoriously abound in enumerations THE BOOK OF JOB A TRUE HISTORY. 7 of tliis kind. Those who are curious in tlae matter may, if tliey please, refer, amongst other passages, to 2 Chron. xxxv. 7 — 9 ; 1 Chron. v. 21 ; and Numb. xxxi. 32 — 34, where enumerations of cattle are given in round numbers, and in numbers to the full as remarkable in their proportions as those in the book before us. In these passages we have respectively 30,000 sheep and 3,000 bullocks ; 5,000 sheep and 500 oxen ; 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, and 2,000 asses ; 675,000 sheep, 72,000 beeves, and 61,000 asses. In the first and second sets the number of beeves is exactly one-tenth the number of sheep ; in the third set there are precisely five times as many sheep as camels, and just twenty-five times as many camels as asses ; and in the fourth set the relative proportions between the sheep, beeves, and asses, to some extent assimilates to the proportions between these same cattle in Job's property. And yet it is thought an insurmountable objection to the truthfulness of the enumeration of Job's farm stock, and so of the whole book, both that that enumeration should be given in round numbers, and that the number of asses should be exactly one-half the number of oxen ! The question which such objectors have seriously to meet is, whether or not the books of Numbei's, and of the Chronicles, and other professedly historic books of the Bible, herein beti-ay marks of artificial structure, and so in point of fact are mere fables written by good men for the purpose of instruction in piety. But then I shall be told that I have not yet fully met the entire objection presented. Job is said to have had seven thousand sheep and seven sons, and seven is a sacred number amongst the Orientals. And is its sacredness, I would ask, to exclude its use in ordinary purposes ? Is it a crime for a man to reckon either his family or his property by this mysterious number, or if a crime, is it not one that is so constantly perpetrated, as in no way to subtract from the credibility of any history that may state it ? If the mention of Job's 7,000 sheep is a fictitious contrivance, what shall we say about the 7,000 in Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal (1 Kings xix. 18) ; or about the army of 7,000 of Israel who conquered the Syrians (1 Kings xx. 15) ; or about the 7,000 men of might who were carried captive to Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. 16) ; or about the 7,000 Syrian men who fought in chariots, whom David slew (1 Chron. xix. 18); or about the 7,000 talents of silver which David prepared for the building of God's house ( 1 Chron. xxix. 4) ? The number 3,000 (about which, again, in this place, exception is made) is also of very frequent occurrence in Scripture. For instance, we read of 3,000 men of Judah going to Samson at the top of the rock Etam (Jud. xv. 11) ; of 3,000 men and women being on the roof of the house of Dagon when Samson made sport for the Philistines (Jud. xvi. 27) ; of 3,000 men of Israel whom Saul chose when he made war with the Philistines (1 Sam. xiii. 2); of the same number when on two occasions he sought for David (1 Sara, xxiv, 2, and xxvi. 2) ; of 3,000 sheep which were possessed by Nabal, a wealthy man in Maon (1 Sam. XXV. 2) ; and of 3,000 proverbs which were spoken by Solomon. (1 Kings iv. 32.) But then I shall be told that I have not noticed the remarkable coincidence between the seven thousand sheep and the three thousand camels on the one hand, and the seven sons and the three daughters on the other. And are there then no remarkable instances of coincidences in numbers in every-day life ? Or, what ought to be considered more to the point, are there none such to be found in Scripture 8 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. narrative ? Are the writings of the Evangelists to be summarily pronounced fables because they record that Jive thousand persons were upon one occasion fed with Jive barley loaves and two small fishes, and that on another occasion, when four thousand were fed with seven loaves and a few little fishes, seven baskets full of fragments were gathered up ? * As to the objection raised about the exact doubling of Job's property after his afiiictions, it appears to me, in the first place, that as Job was permitted to be tried very much for the purpose of confounding Satan, and of glorifying God, there was an antecedent probability that a just God would, at the close of his trial, make him ample compensation for his losses and his sufferings ; and, in the second place, that double compensation seems, from other passages of Scripture, to be the ordinary rule of God's dealing. Thus, in Isa. xl. 2, we read — " She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins ;" in Isa. Ixi. 7, "For your shame ye shall have double ; " " in their land they shall possess the double ; " and in Zech. ix. 12, " even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee." Michaelis tells us, as a further objection, that the same principle is found to extend to the years of Job's prosperity, which are multiplications of seventy. If the objection is to have the slightest weight, I presume that he means that on the principle of the doubling just referred to. Job's age at the period of his trial must have been seventy years, and that this was doubled to him afterwards. Now, if this be the meaning of M. Michaelis, it is evident that it is founded upon a mere assumption ; but, after all, if this assumption be correct (as perhaps it is), is there anything more remarkable in all this, than that the life of Moses should be divided, in its great eras, into three distinct periods of forty years each ? But it is also thought extraordinary, as I have stated before, that Job should have the same number of children after as before his trial — seven sons and three daughters, and " these (to quote Rosenmuller) born of a wife, his only remaining trial, and she by no means a filly, having previously been the mother of ten fuU- grown children." That Job should have had precisely the same number of children, and these in the same proportion of sons and daughters, after as before his trial, is, it must be admitted, remarkable, and certainly much else in this book is so ; but I am at a loss to understand why it should be incredible, for clearly it is not impossible, and in all apparent difficulties of this kind we must never lose sight of the intervention of an Almighty hand, and indeed, no doubt God does often act marvellously, just for the very purpose of arresting men's attention, and of making them, if possible, see and acknowledge his hand. As to the reference to Job's wife, but little need be said, as it is absolutely incumbent upon Dr. Rosen- muller— before he pronounces the history before us to be fictitious, on the ground of the incredibility of Job's wife being the mother of so many children — to prove that the history anywhere, either directly or indirectly, commits itself to the statement that the mother of Job's first family was also the mother of the second ; and if indeed it were so, however extraordinary, like instances are upon record ; and indeed, one is within my knowledge ; or, supposing that this were a case without a parallel, is nothing to be conceded to the fact, that God himself is represented as acting a very conspicuous part throughout the whole history ? * For furtlier particulars on the subject of tho numbering of Job's cattle, see the IIIustration8 on Ch. i. 3. THE BOOK OF JOB A TRUE HISTORY. 9 The objection next to be considered is derived from the supposed difficulty of men speaking in verse in a colloquial discourse, and that especially, under circum- stances the most unlikely for such a purpose. I have already stated the objection in full,* and in the w^ords of one of the objectors ; it remains now only to reply to it. As an argument in favour of the position that the book before us is a mere fable, it is of no conceivable value, for after the fullest allowance made to it, it could prove no more than that the several speakers did not use precisely the words here attributed to them ; for it must be conceded that they may have actually uttered the sentiments which they are said to have uttered, and that these may afterwards have been dressed up in language more ornate and poetical than that in which they were originally spoken. Curiously enough, this is admitted by Michaelis, where he is vigorously contending for the fabulous character of the book, and where, almost in the same breath in which he tells us that he considers that the poetical and sublime style of the book is "an irrefragable proof" in favor of his opinion, he notices what he calls " the very specious excuse " of Bishop Lowth — that the conversation and speeches of the different chai-acters have been poetically ornamented, and then immediately adds, " and this argument I do not wish to confute ! " That is, he does not wish to confute an argument which, if correct, breaks in pieces his " irrefragable proof," and at a blow annihilates the whole structure that he has been at such pains in building — that the book of Job is only a fable ! But again, it seems to have escaped those who lay so much stress upon the objection under consideration, that there is nothing in the narrative which in the slightest degree favors the conclusion that the several speeches were delivered in rapid succession ; and if not, then the speakers may have given that time and premeditation to their respective discourses which the importance of the subject under discussion certainly demanded. Nor must we forget to repeat that argument of Shultens which Rosenmuller notices slightingly, but, as I think, fails to confute — that the Arabs have a wonderful facility for extemporaneous effusions in verse. Added to which, Kosenmuller, in order to put his objection in the strongest possible point of view, assumes what has never yet been proved, and what rather seems contrary to fact so far as it is known, that Hebrew poetry is governed by metrical laws (" metri legibus adstrictos "). This, of course, would tend to render extemporaneous effusions more difficult, though certainly not impossible. But what if it be not true (as probably it is not) that Hebrew poetry is restricted to measured verse ? Then it follows that such poetry is no more than the genuine utterance of nature under certain circumstances, and is by no means the difficult thing that has been supposed. Nothing would be more easy, for instance, than for even Europeans, if such was their habit, to speak constantly in Iambic measure ; much more easy may we imagine it to be for an Oriental to deliver his sentiments (as indeed is his wont) in language which, though it be poetry of the very highest and most primitive order, does not appear to be fettered by any of those laws which the poets of Greece and Rome, and of modern ages, have conventionally imposed upon themselves. I am certainly inclined to conclude that the speeches before us were delivered much as they are written. The speakers themselves, if, at least, the view I have taken as to the * Sec page 2. 10 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. meaning of the word Tr'? (see note on ch. iv. 2) be correct, continually allude to the circumstance that they are speaking in poetry, or in what we might call verse. See ch. iv. 2 : — " If one attempt a word with tliee, wilt tliou find it tiresome ? But who can put restraint upon verse ? " Nor must we overlook the fact that, notwithstanding the irritability or the animus which provoked them to draAV uncharitable conclusions respecting each other, still there may have been a certain amount of inspiration which guided them in the truths they uttered. Elihu certainly lays claim to this, for himself at least (xxxii. 8) ; and St. Paul quotes a sentiment, uttered by another of the speakers, in such a way as though he regarded it as of inspired authority (1 Cor. iii. 19), " for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." After the exercise of the utmost research, two imaginary inconsistencies have been discovered, and of course paraded as so much internal evidence against the truthfulness of this book as a history. One of these, which is due to the ingenuity of Michaelis, is a supposed discrepancy between xxx. 1, and xv. 10; Job speaking in the first instance, as is asserted, contemptuously of the youth of his friends ; whilst they, in the second instance, claim for themselves a very decided seniority to him. A moment's consideration of the former of these passages and its context is sufficient to show that this piece of criticism rests solely upon a misinterpretation, as the persons of whom Job is there speaking as being younger than himself, obviously (see the notes) are not his friends. And Arch- bishop Magee well remarks that, " indeed an inconsistency so gross and obvious as this which is charged against the book of Job by the German Professor, can- not be other than seeming, and founded in some misapprehension of the meaning of the original. Even admitting the poem to be fabulous, he must have been a clumsy contriver who could in one place describe his characters as young, and in another as extremely aged, when urged to it by no necessity whatever, and at full liberty to frame his narrative as he pleased. And this want of comprehension should least of all have been objected by those critics who, in supposing the work to have been composed in an age and country different from those whose manners it professes to describe, are compelled, upon their own hypothesis, to ascribe to the writer an uncommon portion of address and refinement." The second supposed inconsistency requires but a passing notice. It is urged that, in ch. xxx., Job is made to refer to events for which no time is allowed between the commencement of his misfortunes and his discussion with his friends. In support of this it is argued that we must believe that Job's friends hastened to condole with him so soon as they heard of the troubles that had befallen him, and that consequently no time is allowed in the narrative for the continued insults and triumph over his misfortunes of that abandoned crew of profligates of whose conduct he so bitterly complains. Now, in the first place, we have here an argument resting upon a mere assumption ; and, in the second place, even allowing all that is assumed about the haste displayed by the worthy triumvirate in their desire to condole with their afflicted friend, and not allowing for the fact, that before stai'ting on their kindly errand they first communicated with each other on the subject, and finally arranged the time and place of their meeting, in order that they might journey together, all which must necessarily have occupied THE BOOK OF JOB A TRUE HISTORY. 11 time, I do not see any impossibility, or even improbability, in the supposition that the events recorded in oh. xxx. may have transpired within a few days. It certainly is no new thing, especially in the East, to see a potentate one day in the zenith of his glory, and surrounded by fawning courtiers, and the very next day exposed to the ribaldry and made the sport of the dregs of the people. It now remains for me, on this part of the subject, to make a few remarks on Bishop Warburton's extravagant theory, that the book of Job is an allegorical drama founded on fact. Here I shall content myself by referring the reader to Professor Lee's full and able refutation of it, and also by giving in extenso Arch- bishop Magee's remarks on the subject : — " This strange conceit " (says that prelate) " was the invention of Warburton. He considers Job, his wife, and his three friends, as designed to personate the Jewish people on their return from the captivity, their idolatrous wives, and the three great enemies of the Jews at that period, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. This allegorical scheme has been followed by Garnet, with some variations, whereby the history of Job is ingeniously strained to a description of the Jewish sufferings durijig the captivity. The whole of Warburton's system, 'the improbabilities of which,' as Peters observes, * are by no means glossed over by the elaborate reasonings and extravagant assertions of the learned writer,' is fully examined and refuted by that ingenious author in the first eight sections of his Critical Dissertation. " The arguments by which this extraordinary hypothesis has been supported are drawn from the highly poetic and figurative style of the work, whence it is inferred to be dramatic; and from the uusuitableness of particular actions and expressions to the real characters, which at the same time correspond to the persons whom these characters are supposed to represent, whence it is inferred to be allegorical. But from the first nothing more can be fairly deduced, than that the writer has not given the precise words of the speakers, but has dressed out the dialogue with the oi-naments of poetry, in a manner which, as Dathe truly tells us, is agreeable to the customs of the country in which the scene is laid : it being usual to represent the conferences of their wise men on philosophic questions in the most elevated strain of poetic diction. (See Dath. on Job, ch. iii.). And as to the second, it cannot appear to a sober reader in any other light than that of a wild and arbitrary fancy. Bishop Lowth declares that he has not been able to discover a single vestige of an allegorical meaning throughout the entire poem. It requires but a sound understanding to be satisfied that it has no such aspect. And, at all events, this strange hypothesis rests altogether upon another — namely, that the book was written in the age of those to whom it is supposed to bear this allegorical application. If then, as we shall hereafter see, there be no just ground fof assigning to the Avork so late a date, the whole of this airy fabric vanishes at once." So much for the objections that have been arrayed against the position that the Book of Job is a literal history of the trials of a real person bearing that name. It must, I think, appear that that position remains untouched by any one of the objections that have been advanced, and it will, I also think, be found that the book itself contains the strongest possible intrinsic evidence in support of that position ; and that this is further strengthened both by the direct attestation of 12 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. two inspired writers whose testimony is independent of each other, and also by the concurrent testimony of profane history and of local tradition. As to intrinsic evidence, the circumstantial detail of the narrator entirely forbids the supposition that the work can be allegorical, and everywhere bespeaks the relation of a true history. Thus we have presented to us the name not merely of the principal character, but the names also of other persons taking prominent though subordinate parts, — as Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. Nor is this all ; the locality of one of them is specified, and the families, if not also the localities, of the others are mentioned. Thus one of them is stated to have lived in the land of Uz, and the others respectively are called the Temanite, the Shuhite, and the Naamathite, whilst another of them is designated as being of the kindred of Ram. We are moreover told the exact number of the sons and of the daughters of the man about whom the book professes to treat, and an enumeration of his flocks and herds is also supplied to us. His character is described in the outset, and there is nothing in his numerous discourses or in the result of his trials which is in any way inconsistent with the description. The account of his sons and daughters, and of his anxiety about them, is related as matter of fact, and is perfectly natural. The bands of robbers who destroyed his servants and marauded his cattle are also mentioned by name, and in connexion with the wilderness, all which accurate and circumstantial detail would be out of place in any but a true history. But, above all, the reality of the person of Job is attested by the two inspired penmen, Ezekiel and St. James, who both refer to him as a real and not an imaginary person, and moreover make certain, and in both cases, different allusions to him, both as to his character and acts, which allusions could not have been made except on the supposition of their acquaintance with the book which bears his name, and which professes to treat of his history ; so that although the book itself (as Bishop Warburton objects) is not mentioned by them, yet, mani- festly, the reference they make is no less to the book, than to the person, of Job. In Ezekiel xiv. 14, and 18, we read — " Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it (the land), they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God." And, — " Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves." Now, I would ask whether it is in the smallest degree supposable, that if Job were a fictitious character, God himself would class him with two other persons, Noah and Daniel, who were unquestion- ably real characters, or whether God would mention him as one of " these three men" or whether God would speak of his having a soul, and a righteousness, and as being able to deliver his soul by that righteousness, and as being capable of offering intercessory prayer for others, and yet, as not prevailing to deliver them because of their exceeding wickedness ? Could any one thing of all this be ascribed to an imaginary being, and that by God himself ? Equally direct is the allusion in St. James, in ch. v. 10, 11, of his Epistle, — " Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suifering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the THE BOOK OF JOB A TRUE HISTORY. 13 end of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." Now I would ask again, is the supposition within the bounds of credibility, that the Apostle St. James, having directed his suffering brethren to the example of the suifering prophets of old in general, should instantly select as a particular case for their encouragement that of a fictitious person ; or that he should hold up to view, as a virtue to be imitated, the patience not of a real, but of a supposed, man ; or that he should speak of the Lord as having been very pitiful and of tender mercy towards a person who never had any real existence at all ? Surely the notion is as absurd as the entertainment of it is unwarrantable : but the truth is, when men have purposes to serve, or some favorite hypothesis to support, nothing is thought too preposterous, or irrational, so long as it can give some shadow of countenance to their theory, or remove out of its way some formidable objection that threatened to overwhelm it. Certain it is that the inspired passages just referred to, taken in their plain, rational, and obvious sense, with one sweep, destroy the fond and whimsical conceit that no such person as Job ever lived. Then, again, we may appeal to profane history, and to local tradition. On this part of the subject I shall, for the sake of conciseness, merely quote IMr. Home's brief summary of this part of the argument. He says, — " Further, no reasonable doubt can be entertained respecting the real existence of Job, when we consider that it is proved by the concurrent testimony of all eastern tradition : he is mentioned by the author of the book of Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity (Tobit ii. 12, in the vulgate version, which is supposed to have been executed from a more extended history of Tobit than the original of the Greek version) ; he is also repeatedly mentioned by Mohammed as a real character (Sale's Koran, pp. 271, 375, 4to. edit.; see also D'Herbelot's ' Bibliotheque Orientale,' voce Aiub, tom. L pp. 146, 147). The whole of his history, with many fabulous additions, was known among the Syrians and Chaldasans ; many of the noblest families among the Ai'abians are distinguished by his name, and boast of being descended from him. So late even as the end of the fourth century, we are told that there were many persons who went into Arabia to see Job's dunghill, which in the nature of things could not have subsisted through so many ages ; but the fact of superstitious persons making pilgrimages to it sufficiently attests the reality of his existence, as also do the traditionary accounts concerning the place of Job's abode." DISSERTATION II. THE AGE IN WHICH JOB LIVED. Having established the reality of the existence of Job, the next inquiry of interest, if not of importance, is, to determine, as nearly as it is possible to do so, the age in which he lived. The generality of writers agree in ascribing to him a very remote antiquity ; and amongst these are even some who, whilst they contend for the late production of the book, yet assent to the antiquity of the age in which he lived. Almost universal consent places him in Patriarchal times ; nor can Bernstein's and Rosenmuller's objections to this have any weight, as they are grounded on a mere assumption — an assumption, moreover, which is com- pletely disproved by modern discoveries in Egypt. The objections are — that Job speaks of a city, and evidently sometimes lived in a city ; that he alludes to written judicial documents, and other writings, to iron armour, and to a war horse, all which things, it is assumed, are incongruous with the patriarchal age ; that, moreover, Job's statement that he was not unjustly occupying other men's fields does not agree with that pastoral life which the Patriarchs led ; and that equally unsuitable to those times is the mention of kings building and restoring ruined cities, and possessing palaces crammed with gold, and the relation of men extracting the precious metals and stones of the earth by mining operations, and the fact that when Job lived wicked tyrants and oppressors were in existence. But does not, I would ask, the Bible speak of cities anterior to patriarchal times ; and does Dr. Rosenmuller seriously suppose that the world had advanced upwards of two thousand years in its history without witnessing the violence and oppres- sions of tyrants ? Was that the fabled golden age of poets ? Or, again, does Dr. Rosenmuller seriously suppose that, because the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for reasons sufficiently explained in their history, and commented upon in Hebrews xi., led pastoral lives, having no possessions of fields in a land that was not theirs, except by promise, and dwelling in tabernacles, and avoiding cities, therefoi'e all men who lived in their age did the like, and were all nomads ? Surely he is confounding the patriarchal age with the Patriarchs themselves, and would have us believe that because Job did not live precisely as they (who were manifestly, by St. Paul's showing, exceptional cases) lived, therefore he could not have been their contemporary. And then, as to the assumption that the advance in arts and civilization alluded to in this book is altogether beyond that early period of man's history, the monuments of ancient Egypt, some of them dating as far back as four thousand years ago, incontestably prove, by their pictorial representations, that men even then were no novices in all those arts and sciences which constitute the highest degree of civilization. The arguments which have been generally adduced in proof of the remoteness of the age in which Job lived are the following, and are sufliciently decisive on that point. THE AGE IN WHICH JOB LIVED. 15 The circumstance of the total silence of tlie disputants on the subjects connected with the Exodus of the Israelites, such as the plagues inflicted upon Egypt, the destruction of Pharaoh, and the various miracles wrought during the forty years' journeying through the wilderness, and all which would have been exactly apposite to the subject discussed by Job and his friends, as tending to vindicate the ways of God with man, is certainly an indication that those remarkable events were unknown to the disputants, and that so, in point of fact, they had not yet transpired. If this inference is correct, it places Job in an age at least prior to those events. " The length of Job's life places him in patriarchal times. He survived his trial one hundred and forty years (xlii. 16), and was probably not less at that time : for we read that his seven sons were all grown up, and had been settled in their own houses for a considerable time. (i. 4, 5.) He speaks of the ' sins of his youth ' (xiii. 26), and of the prosperity of ' his youth ; ' and yet Eliphaz addresses him as a novice, ' With us are Tjoth the very aged, much elder than thij father: (xv. 10.) " The general air of antiquity which pervades the manners recorded in the poem is a further evidence of its remote date. The manners and customs, indeed, critically correspond with that early period. Thus Job speaks of the most ancient kind of writing by sculpture (xix. 24) ; his riches also are reckoned by his cattle, (xlii. 12.) Further, Job acted as high priest in his family, according to the patriarchal usage." " The allusion made by Job to that species of idolatry alone which, by general consent, is admitted to have been the most ancient — namely, Zabianism, or the worship of the sun and moon — and also to the exertion of the judicial authority against it (xxxi. 26 — 28), is an swiditional and most complete proof of the high antiquity of the poem, as well as a decisive mark of the patriarchal age. "A further evidence of the remote antiquity of this book is the language of Job and his friends, who, being all Iduraeeans, or at least Arabians of the adjacent country, yet conversed in Hebrew. This carries us up to an age so early as that in which all the posterity of Abraham, Israelites, Iduma^ans, and Arabians, yet continued to speak one common language, and had not branched into different dialects." * Another argument is drawn by Bishop Lowth from the nature of the sacrifice offered by Job. This argument is, as stated by Archbishop Magce : — *' The nature of the saci'ifice offered by him in conformity to the Divine command, namely, seven oxen, and seven rams, similar to that of Balaam, and suitable to the respect entertained for the number seven in the earliest ages. This, though, as Mr. Henley observes, the ancient practice, might have been continued in Iduma;a after the promulgation of the Mosaic law, is far from being, as he asserts, destitute of weight, inasmuch as the sacrifice was offered bjj the command of God, who, although He might be supposed graciously to accommodate himself to the prevailing customs before the promulgation of the law, yet cannot be imagined, after He had prescribed a certain mode of sacrifice to the Israelites, to sanction by his express authority, in a country immediately adjoining, a mode entirely different, and one which the Mosaic code was intended to supersede." An argument that has not, so far as I know, been hitherto advanced is, that * Homo's " Introduction to the Study of tho Scripturca." 16 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. the admission of the Book of Job into the Jewish canon of Scripture is unaccountable on any other grounds than that Job lived during an age anterior to the institution of the Mosaic dispensation. The professed exclusiveness of that dispensation entirely forbad the entertainment of the idea that any man or set of men could live under the favour of God altogether independently of its prescriptions. And so, it is in the highest degree incredible that that dispensation could have sanctioned the introduction into its sacred writings of a book treating of pious men, and of one in particular, who is stated by God himself to have been more perfect, upright, and godly than any other on the earth, all of them manifestly living independently of the Mosaic ritual, as may be inferred from the nature of their sacrifices, and from the circumstance of one of them officiating as priest in his own family, and on one occasion on behalf of his friends, if these same pious men, and especially that supereminently godly man, had lived during any period after the establishment of that dispensation. Such a sanction would at once have been an admission that a Gentile not conforming to Jewish ordinances (the only religious ordinances which God countenanced during the existence of the Mosaic dispensation) could be in reality more holy than any contemporary Israelite — an admission that must have been utterly subversive of the authority of that dispensation, not to say contradictory to the general tenor of its teaching. The supposition that the Book of Job, if he lived after the promulgation of the law, could ever have been admitted into the Jewish canon of Scripture is to the full as incredible as would be the supposition that the Church of the apostolic age could ever have admitted into the New Testament canon the history of some pious Jew signally enjoying the favour of God, though unconverted to Christianity, and continuing to practise the rites of Judaism after the promulgation of the Gospel. The arguments thus far advanced sufficiently prove that Job must have lived, at latest, before the giving of the law, and probably somewhere during the patriarchal age; reference to one of his contemporaries, Eliphaz the Temanite, will now show us that we cannot place him earlier than the times of Jacob's sons. We learn from Gen. xxxvi. 10, 11, that Esau's eldest son was named Eliphaz, and that he was the father of Teman. Now, it is just possible that this Eliphaz may, (as Cain did, Gen. iv. 17,) have built a city and called it by the name of his son, and so may have been the Eliphaz the Temanite mentioned in the Book of Job ; and if so, this would certainly make Job contemporary with Jacob's sons — that is, it would place him during about the era of Joseph, and of the commencement of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt. But as we find from this book that the Sheba, evidently the descendants of Abraham's grandson of that name by Keturah (see the notes on i. 15), wisre already a tribe sufficiently powerful to make distant predatory incursions on a considerable scale, and as we can scarcely suppose them to have become so numerous and strong during the times of Eliphaz the son of Esau — that is, during the times of one of Abraham's great grandsons — it is, perhaps, more reasonable to suppose that our Eliphaz the Temanite was either a son or some near descendant of Teman the son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau. This, in connexion with all the previous arguments, would make the era in which Job lived range somewhere between the times of Joseph's grandchildren and the departure of Israel from Egypt, and I presume that this is as near an approximation to the date in history that is to be assigned to him as it is possible to reach. DISSERTATION III. THE PLACE WHERE JOB RESIDED. In close connexion with the inquiry respecting the age in which Job lived is the inquiry respecting the place of his residence. As he is said to have been the greatest of all " the sons of the East," and as this implies that he was himself one of them, our first business will be to endeavour to collect from Scripture, as nearly as possible, the geographical position of the country or countries inhabited by " the sons of the East." We learn from Gen. xxv. 1 — 6 that Abraham sent away the sons of his concubines eastward unto the East country, and amongst these are mentioned Midian, Shuah, and Sheba. We learn further from Judges vi. 3 that amongst the children of the East were numbered the Amalekites as well as the Midianites. Isaiah xi. 14 shows us that "they of the East " included also the people of Edom and of Moab and of Ammon ; and then Jeremiah xlix. 28 adds Kedar to the list. From all this we gather, with some considerable amount of certainty, that the countries inhabited by "the sons of the East" lay to the southward and eastward of Palestine, and, in fact, extended from Egypt to the Euphrates, embracing the whole of those two portions of the Arabian peninsula more recently called Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta. So far, we are enabled to determine, with some degree of correctness, that Job lived somewhere in that portion of the Arabian peninsula which lay between Egypt and the Euphrates, and south and east of Palestine. We shall now be able to reduce our geographical limits, and fix upon Job's actual country with somewhat more exactness, by examining particularly wliat position " the land of Uz " (of which land Job was an inhabitant, ch. i. 1) occupied amongst the lands peopled by " the sons of the East." The land of Uz appears to have been, to some extent at least, identical with that of Edom, for in Lam. iv. 21 we read: — "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz." Now, we should naturally infer from this that the Edomites were, at the time the prophet addressed them, inhabiting a land which, previously to their becoming possessed of it, if not afterwards, was called " the land of Uz." The questions then arise as to whether any other scripture relates, with more accuracy of detail, that the Edomites, or descendants of Esau as they were, did get possession of a land not originally theirs, and whether there is further scriptural evidence to show that that land or some part of it was, or at least might with great probability have been, call^ the land of Uz. For the solution of the first of these questions we turn to Deut. ii. 12, where we read: — " The Horims also dwelt in Seir before time ; but the children of P^sau succeeded (or, as in marg., inherited) them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead." And again, in ver. 22 :— " As He (God) did to c 18 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horims from before them ; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day." As to the solution of the second question, we are informed, by reference to Gen. xxxvi. 20, 21, 28, that the sons of Seir the Horite inhabited the land which was afterwards possessed by the Edomites, and that the name of one of the grandsons of this Seir the Horite was Uz. To all this may be added Gen. xiv. 6, and 1 Chron. i, 38, 42, which, although they do not furnish any new facts, confirm those just brought forward. And then from the whole we gather that, in the days of Jeremiah, the Edomites were in possession of a land known as the land of Uz ; that, previously to the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness, they had obtained possession of a land which they had conquered, and which, at the time of their conquest, belonged to the Horites or Horims, one of whom both gave his name to Mount Seir, a mountain range, covering, as is well known, a considerable portion of the land of Edom, and also was the grandfather of a person of the name of Uz. This, I think, renders it as conclusive as possible that the land of Edom and the land of Uz were, to some extent at least, identical ; or at all events that the land of Uz formed a portion of the territory of Edom. Nor does Jeremiah's (Jer. xxv. 20, 21) separate mention of them at all contradict this view ; for as the Edomites extended their conquests in later times, the prophet might very well distinguish between the later accessions to the Edomite territory and that which originally fell into their hands on their first formation into a consolidated people. From the circumstance that Job's property lay exposed to the plundering hordes inhabiting the desert and beyond it, I suppose his residence to have been somewhere on the eastern side of Mount Seir, as that natural barrier would have been an effectual protection had he been located on its western side ; and from the circumstance of his being possessed of a considerable tract of arable and of pasture land, I infer that his residence, and his city, of which he makes mention, were situated sufficiently near the eastern range of Seir to be within the cultivated limits of the vast desert that stretches easterly almost from the foot of that mountain to the banks of the Euphrates. Great pains have been taken to identify the land of Uz, or, as the LXX, render it, Xwpa 71 Awo-ms, with the Ato-irat {Aisitce) of Ptolemy, chiefly because this would seem to place Job nearer to the Euphrates, and so have made him apparently more accessible to the inroads of the Chaldeans ; but this reason is insuflicient, when weighed against the almost overwhelming scriptural evidence which determines that the land of Uz is the same as Mount Seir or Edom, or at least a part of Edom; nor need we be surprised that the Chaldeans should have crossed the entire of the vast Arabian desert on their plundering expeditions, as nothing is more certain, from the accounts of Burckhardt and of other modern travellers, than that this same is the practice of the Bedouin tribes to this day. Before leaving this part of the subject, I append an addition which appears at the end of the Septuagint version of this book. It corroborates the view that the land of Uz is in Edom. As an authority, however, it is worthless, as it is manifestly spurious ; at the same time, it is so far interesting as that it presents us with an opinion on the subject which, at least, is tolerably ancient. Some of its information is evidently derived from Gen. xxxvi. "But it is written that he (Job) shall rise again with those whom the Lord will raise up. This is THE PLACE WHERE JOB RESIDED. 19 translated out of a Syriac book. He dwelt in the land of Ausitis, on the confines of Idumasa and Arabia. His first name was Jobab ; and having married an Arabian woman, he had by her a son, whose name was Ennon. Now, he himself had for his father Zare one of the sons of Esau, and for his mother Bosorra ; so that he was fifth in descent from Abraham. Moreover, these were the kings who reigned in Edom, over which countiy he also bare rule. The first was Balak the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dennaba. And after Balak, Jobab, who is called Job ; and after him, Asom, who was governor over the region of Thaimanitis ; and after him, Adad, the son of Barad, who smote Madian in the plain of Moab ; and the name of his city was Gethaina. And the friends who came to him were Eliphaz of the sons of Esau, king of the Thaimanites; Baldad, the sovereign of the Saucheans; and Sophar, the king of the Minaians." C 2 DISSERTATION IV. THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF JOB. On the subject of the authorship of the book before us, I have little to say, as I conceive it to be a subject involved in the utmost obscurity, notwithstanding all that has been written with a view to its elucidation. Of the antiquity of the book I make no question. Its language, abounding as it does, with words and modes of spelling which apparently in later times had become obsolete, and in forms which at that time natural to it, afterwards characterized various dialects, carries us back to days in which the Hebrew was spoken in its primeval purity, and still retained some of those peculiar features which it subsequently lost, so soon as it had transmitted them to its daughter dialects. And then, if we are to suppose that the several discourses which constitute the great bulk of the book have been handed down to us with at least tolerable, if not with literal accuracy, a supposition that is nothing more than consistent with the veracity of that sacred volume in which the God of truth, by his will and providence, has placed them, — then it is no more than a requirement of common sense to suppose that these discourses were committed to writing almost immediately after they were spoken, or at least soon after the close of the discussion. It was as much God's will that they should be preserved for the benefit of succeeding ages, as it was his will that many of the discourses of our Lord, when upon earth, should be preserved for the use of his Church, and I doubt not but that the one set of discourses has been preserved with as much fidelity as the other ; and if so, it becomes impossible to suppose that the book before us was compiled at a time very much later than the transactions which it professes, (and that, certainly with great show of accuracy and minuteness of detail,) to record. A portion of the circumstances narrated in the first and second chapters must necessarily have been a matter of subsequent revelation, communicated perhaps, and not unlikely, to Job himself after his recovery; and the two last verses must of course have been added after his death. But whether Job himself was the com- piler of the book, and when and by whom it was introduced into the Jewish canon of Scripture, whether by Moses after his sojourn in Midian, or by David after his victories over the Edomites, are questions about which I conceive it to be impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. DISSERTATION V. THEOLOGY IN THE DAYS OF JOB. Having determined, with some amount of certainty, that the age in -which Job lived was that of the patriarchal dispensation, the theology contained in the book which narrates an important portion of his history becomes an object of interest scarcely second to that which is its more immediate subject, — the account, under peculiar circumstances, of the trials of a man of God. Incidentally, and in detached portions, in the course of that account, we meet with a somewhat copious body of divinity ; and it becomes an interesting task prompted by something more than mere curiosity, if we endeavour to gather up and ari'ange, in some sort of systematic order, the separate, and, in many instances, unconnected notices with which we are here furnished, respecting the knowledge, both doctrinal and ethical, of the people of God in that remote antiquity. In our endeavour to ascertain the extent of that knowledge, we need not limit ourselves to just that amount of divinity which appears in the discourses of the several human speakers who are here brought before us, but may include also whatever was taught by the Divine revelation which was made directly to Job and to his friends, and which closed the controversy, as well as by that also which must have been made to Job, respecting the occasion and purport of his trial, at some time subsequently to its termination. The theological subjects incidentally treated in this book may be regarded, for the sake of classification, as referring to God, to angels, to man, to morals, and to man's final destiny. GOD. Those subjects which have particular reference to God may be considered as having respect to his attributes, to his works, and to his moral government of the world. As regards His attributes, God is declared in manifold passages of the book to be sovereign and almighty, being wholly independent of every other being, accountable to none, doing whatsoever pleaseth him either in heaven or in earth, and accomplishing whatever he decrees, (ch.ix. 4 — 13 ; x. 7 ; xi. 10 ; xii. 14 — 25 ; xxiii. 13, 14; xxvi. 5—14; xxxiv. 13; xxxvi. 23; xxxvii. 23.) He is a spiritual Being, inasmuch as he is invisible though present, neither has he eyes of flesh, (ix. 11 ; X. 4; xxiii. 8, 9.) He is immutable, (xxiii. 13.) He is omniscient, for he sees all places, he knows all times, and the actions and characters of all men, is cognizant of all their steps, and none can, under any circumstances, escape his eye; he is able to judge angels, and needeth not that any should teach him. (xi. 11 ; xiv. 3, 16 ; xxi. 22 ; xxiv. 1 ; xxviii. 24 ; xxxiv. 21, 22.) He is wise, as much so as he is mighty, and indeed he is himself the source and the author of 22 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. all wisdom, (ix. 4; xii. 13, 16; xxviii. 20 — 28; xxxvi. 5.) He is in- comprehensible, being infinitely beyond all searcb or human investigation, (xi. 7 — 9 ; xxiii. 8, 9; xxxvi. 26; xxxvii. 23.) He is holi/, he sees defects in the holiest of men, and even in angels, is incapable of any kind of iniquity, and cer- tainly punishes it. (iv. 18; ix. 28 ; xv. 15 ; xxv. 5 ; xxxi. 2, 3 ; xxxiv. 10.) He is of terrible majesty, (xxv. 2 ; xxxvii. 22 — 24) ; and he is merciful, delivering men from various troubles, and especially from the consequences of their sins, loading them with benefits, and doing good even to the unthankful and the evil, (v. 19—23 ; xxii. 17, 18; xxxiii. 24; xxxvi. 15, 16.) On the subject of God's works, we learn from this book that, he was known in the patriarchal age as the Creator of all things, both visible and invisible, — the Creator, for instance, of the sun, moon, and stars (ix. 7, 9; xxxviii. 12 — 15, 19, 20, 24, 31 — 33); of the heavens and the various atmospheric phenomena (ix. 8 ; xxxvi. 27 — 33 ; xxxvii. 2 — 6, 9 — 22) ; of the earth with its seas (xxvi. 7; xxxviii. 4 — H); of the beasts of the earth (xxxix. — xli.) ; of angels, for they are called the sons of God (xxxviii. 7) ; and oi man (iv. 17 ; x. 8 — 12 ; xxxiii. 4 ; xxxv. 10.) And further, in his works of providence, he was known as showing himself marvellous, directing the course of nature, regulating the successive changes of day and night, and of the seasons, and of the weather, providing sustenance for the meanest of his creatures, and causing them to act according to the several instincts with which he has endowed them. (v. 9 — 16; ix. 5 — 10; xii. 15; xxxvii. 2 — 12; xxxviii. 12, 26, 31 — 41 ; xxxix. ; xl. 15—24 ; xli.) We come now to the subject of God's moral government of the world, and we find that, on one or two points connected with this subject, there was some little diversity in the opinions entertained at the period in which Job lived ; and, indeed, it was just the diversity of opinion held upon this subject which constitutes the basis of the controversy in this book. The notion, for instance, was held by some that virtue is always rewarded, and vice always punished by God in this life: it was maintained that the innocent never meet with an untimely destruction, nor are they ever cast off by God, and they always eventually triumph over their enemies, and even, if an ungodly man should become pious, he will be blessed with a life of ease and enjoyment ; whilst, on the other hand, the wicked certainly reap, by God's appointment, a harvest of misery, their hopes end in disappointment, they are kept in a state of constant alarm, exposed to every possible danger, their prosperity is extinguished, they become hopelessly entangled in a variety of snares, God's curse and man's imprecations are upon them, and at length they foi'feit their lives by some tei'rible death, (iv. 7 — 9; viii. 11—22; xi. 17—20; xv. 20—35 ; xviii. 5—21 ; xx. 5—29). It was also believed that there is a certain indissoluble connexion between si?i and trouble, — if a man lived a life of neglect of those duties which he owed to his fellow- creatures, and filled up a measure of iniquity, he must not be surprised if he is sur- rounded with troubles, and visited by a righteous judgment, (xxii. 10, 11; xxxvi. 17.) But again, it was, on the contrary, maintained by others that, on the whole, God deals equally with the good and the bad in this life, — he often destroys both equally, and seems indifferent if injustice is done to the innocent ; and, in a general way, prosperity or adversity cannot be regarded as criteria of character THEOLOGY IN THE DAYS OF JOB. 23 (ix. 22 — 24 ; xxi. 23 — 28) ; that, even not unfrequently, God appears to favor the wicked, giving tliem both security and abundance, many enjoyments of wealth and family, worldly pleasures, long life, and then a sudden and easy death (xii. 6 ; xxi. 7 — 13) ; that it was matter of daily experience that God seemed as though he took no notice of the criminal deeds of some of the worst of men, — the highway robber, the murderer, the thief, the adulterer, and the tyrannical despot all appeared to have full licence for the perpetration of their nefarious practices, (xxiv.) But then it was maintained, also, by the same party that held these views, that the prosperity of the wicked was not to be depended upon, that it was not in their own power, that its apparent stability was fictitious only, that there were many awful instances that proved this, and that after all, at best, the long prosperity of a wicked man was but the protracted pomp of a funeral procession ; he was being carried to the grave ; and however long delayed, a day of wrath and of destruction certainly awaited him. (xxi. 16 — 21, 29 — 33.) Notwithstanding this diversity of views entertained on the subject of God's moral government, there appear to have been many points connected with it, on which there was unanimity of opinion. All, for instance, seemed agreed that God teas just in all his dealings; it was impossible for him to act unrighteously. If he punished some for their sins, and removed punishment from others who repented, it was strictly just ; however much appearances might be against a righteous man in the eyes of human judges because of God's afilicting hand upon him, still God would certainly acquit and vindicate such an one at his bar ; sooner or later the wicked meet with condign punishment, sometimes in this world, certainly in the next ; God does deal with men according to their works, and cannot, under any circumstances, be biassed by respect of persons, neither can he be bribed ; and his justice is as extensive as his power, (viii. 3 — 7 ; xxiii. 2 — 7; xxvii. 13 — 23; xxxiv. 11, 12, 19; xxxvi. 19; xxxvii. 23.) Further, as the moral governor of the world, God is represented as being a close observer of men, marking them if they sin, knowing their characters as well as seeing their deeds of wickedness ; doing this, pot merely with the aggregate of men, but in each individual case, even numbering every step that is taken, observant of every act of righteousness, and incapable of being blinded (x. 14; xi. 11 ; xiv. 3, 16 ; xxiii. 10—12 ; xxxi. 4 ; xxxiv. 21, 22.) He cannot, however, be affected or swayed by the actions of men; a man's righteousness or wickedness can neither add to nor detract anything from God's glory; nor is God capable of being acted upon by intimidation, (xxii. 2 — 4 ; xxxv. 6—8.) His providences are undoubtedly often mysterious; it is apparently difficult to determine why life should ever have been given to those whose existence is one of continued and inconsolable misery, or, at least, why such persons should not have died in infancy, or why God should not reveal to his people the time when he purposes executing his wrath upon the ungodly ; or why he sliould seem to take no notice of, and so to be unconcerned about, the evil deeds which men are perpetrating everywhere, whether in the country, or in the city, or on the sea. (iii. 20 — 23 ; x. 18 ; xxiv. 1 — 18.) And yet it is equally clear that all his acts of providence arc subservient to his purposes, whether of mercy, or for the vindicatio?i of his holiness; by these acts he exalts the humble, and at the same time 24 PRELIMINAUY DISSERTATIONS. frustrates the plans of tlie designing ; at other times, by means of such providences as dreamSj sickness, and a human ministry, he saves men from the destruction into vphich they were recklessly plunging, and bringing them to true repentance, he renews their natures, and receives them into his favor. Heat, cold, snow, rain, and tempest, are all intended to accomplish certain important ends in the way of correction, or of mercy, or of judgment, (v. 9 — 16 j xxxiii. 14 — 30; xxxvii. 7, 13; xxxviii. 12, 13, 22, 23.) His providential dealings, are all of them, whether prosperous or afflictive, and tvhatever the means or agents employed, traceable to his hand. If an individual enjoys plenty and security, and a blessing rests on the work of his hands ; if he has light in darkness; if he is surrounded with every family comfort, and all nature ministers to him of its bounty, this is God's doing, (i. 9, 10, 21 ; xxix. 2 — 6.) Or if, on the other hand, every comfort be rem*oved ; if the individual be in a condition of apparently hopeless darkness, if full of terror, if abandoned to the merciless treatment of wicked men, if degraded, forsaken by friends and relatives, and insulted by menials ; if unjustly condemned, or if in intolerable pain, in all these cases, whether Satan, or cruel enemies, or false friends, or natural agencies be the instruments, God is represented as being the doer of it all. (i. 21 ; iii. 23; vi. 4 ; xvi. 11—14; xix. 6— 21 ; xxvii. 2; xxx. 16—23; xxxiii. 19. ) And in all these dispensations, whether prosperous or afflictive (though especially in the latter^, God, as the moral governor of the world, has generally a gracious design towards the individual with whom he so deals. If he crowns his creature with every blessing, it is in order to secure his service and his gratitude (i. 8 — 10) ; or, if he brings him into every possible circumstance of distress, his object is, by means of those afflictions, to insure the sufferer's ultimate happiness, by bringing him into such a state of mind as to be able, consistently with his justice, to protect him from every evil, and bestow upon him every blessing, (v. 17—26; xxxiii. 19—30; xxxvi. 8—12; xlii. 12.) It is further as moral governor of the world that God shows himself propitiou s to those loho, although they may have been very sinful, yet seek Him aright. Men may have sinned, and added to their sin by neglecting many Divine admonitions ; their transgressions may have been excessive ; they may have spoken unbecomingly of God ; yet if they turn to Him in humble confession, repentance, and obedience ; with sincere pi-ayer, and with sacrifice, then he is gracious to them, forgives their misdeeds, and lifts up the light of his coun- tenance upon them. (viii. 5, 6; xxxiii. 14 — 30; xxxvi. 9 — 11 ; xlii. 8.) Whilst, on the other hand, God shows that He loill not always strive with man, and if the afflicted and admonished sinner persists in his impenitence, he only brings upon himself swift destruction, (xxxvi. 8 — 10, 12 — 14, 17, 18.) And once more, it is in his capacity of moral governor that He judicially blinds and infatuates some, lohilst He imparts ivisdom to others, (xii. 17, 20, 24, 25 ; xvii. 4 ; xxxii. 8, 9 ; xxxiii. 16.) Also, that He communicates his will by revelation, (iv. 12 — 21 ; xxxiii. 14, 15.) Further, that He appoints marCs times. (xiv. 5.) And that He has in his own hands the power of life and death. (vi. 8, 9; xxxiv. 14, 15.) Having now considered those subjects which have particular reference to God, THEOLOGY IN THE DAYS OF JOB. 25 as being connected with his attributes, his works in general, and his moral government of the world, we may, in the next place, review what little is said in this book on the subject of the doctrine of angels. ANGELS. It was clearly known at that period that there are intelligent beings i?i the tmiverse, older thafi the world, superior to men, but subordinate to God — beings who are called God's so?is, who live in the same place in which He divells, or, at least, have access to his presence ; who are spoken of as being his messengers (this being the literal meaning of the word " angel "), and his servants, and also his holy ones, and who appear, from the fact of their presenting themselves to Him on certain occasions, . to be amenable to Him for the way in which they discharge whatever duties may be required of them ; and they are further repre- sented as being so far inferior to God, that in his eyes they have defect, and are liable to err, if not morally, yet intellectually ; at the same time, in the very way that their imperfection before God is mentioned, it is inferred that they are, next to Him, the most perfect of all beings, (i. 6 ; ii. 1 ; iv. 18 ; xv. 14 — 16 ; xxxviii. 7.) Another remarkable being is also noticed, and, indeed, performs no mean part in the transactions recorded in this book. It might be inferrred, from the way in which he is introduced, possibly, that he, also, is a son of God, no less than those other beings about whom we have just spoken — certainly that like them he is amenable to God, having to answer for his actions ; that he has the power of ranging through the tvhole earth ; and that he is observant of, and acquainted with, the general characters and circumstances of men. In character he is fiendish, being suspicious of virtue, envious, utterly opposed to what is good, malicious, cruel, and ready to inflict any amount of misery on mankind if he can but accomplish his malicious designs. Thus, in the history before us, in addition to the cruelties perpetrated upon Job, the lives of several human beings were destroyed, for the purpose of gratifying his wicked attempt to make God distrustful of the sincerity of the patriarch's piety. His power and craft are very considerable; he moved the Sheba and the Chaldeans to attack Job's property, and made them successful in their enterprise ; he caused the lightning to fall which set his pastures on fire and destroyed thousands of sheep and many human beings ; he raised the whirlwind which overturned the house, whereby all Job's children perished ; and he smote Job with a most loathsome and painful disease ; and, moreover, he so contrived matters, that the messengers who brought tidings to Job of the several calamities that had befallen him should arrive in rapid succession, and that the last messenger should be the reporter of the most terrible calamity of all. His power, however, is permitted only ; he is no more than an instrument in God's hands, and, with all his craft, he outivits himself, (i. 6—22; ii. 1—8; xlii. 7, 10, 12.) MAN. On the subject of man, it was known in the days of Job that he is God's creature, his body being curiously and carefully fashioned by God through every stage of its development, and his breath and life being the gift of God. (x. 8—12 ; xxvii. 3 ; xxxii. 22 ; xxxiii. 4.) It was further known that man was 26 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. originally formed out of clay, and that he is but dust. (x. 9; xxxiii. 6.) That he is exceedingly frail, easily crushed, constantly liable to instantaneous destruction, and may be compared to rottenness, to a moth-eaten garment, to a flower of the field, and to a flitting shadow, (iv. 19—21 ; xiii. 28 ; xiv. 1, 2.) He is insigni- jicant, and unicorthy of God's notice, (vii. 17, 18 j xxv. 6.) He is born to misery. (v. 7 ; xiv. 1.) He is a siyifid being, and that by nature, neither just nor pure in God's sight, abominable and filthy, drinking iniquity like water, and being thus unclean because produced from what is unclean, (iv. 17; ix. 2; xiv. 4; XV. 14, 16 ; xxv. 4.) However much afflicted, his punishment is less than he deserves (xi. 6) ; and he cannot justify himself before God ; in the very attempt at self-justification he only condemns himself; and whatever appearance of innocence he may put on, he is soon shown to be full of sin. (ix. 20, 21, 30, 31 ; X. 15 ; xxv. 4, 6.) He displays wonderful power and ingenuity, diving into the very depths of the earth, and overcoming all obstacles that would impede his progress in search of its hidden riches (xxviii. 1 — 11); but, with all this, he is ignorant of true wisdom, neither knowing its value, nor where it may be found (xxviii. 13, 14); and that, notwithstanding that it has been revealed to him. (xxviii. 28.) He is daring and untameable. (xi. 12.) Generally deaf to God's repeated admonitions (xxxiii. 14) ; and so recklessly bent upon proud and wicked pursuits that nothing but God's grace can restrain him. (xxxiii. 17, 18.) He is so far ignorant upon all subjects connected with physical science, as to be unable to produce them ; understanding nothing about the formation of the earth, or of the sea, or of the light, or of the abodes of darkness, or of meteorological phenomena ; neither can he direct the habits, or change the various and remarkable instincts, of the different animals that inhabit the same earth with himself ; nor is he a match in power with some of the larger and fiercer animals, (xxxviii. — xli.) He is moreover entirely dependent upon God every moment for the cojitinuance of life. (xxxiv. 14, 15.) And, in some cases, he becomes so degraded as to be little better than the brute, (xxx. 3 — 8.) Notwithstanding all this, he is capable of renewal ; he can become intimate with, and reconciled to his offended God, and in such a way as to delight in him ; he can exercise hope in God's pardoning mercy, can have faith in a Mediator, can repent of, and confess, and forsake his sins, and take God's law as his rule. (xiv. 16, 17; xvi. 19—21; xxii. 21, 22, 25, 26; xxxiii. 25 — 30.) At the same time, the best of men may be guilty of the folly of speaking loithout knowledge (xxxviii. 2 ; xlii. 3) ; and also of the folly of self- congratulation, falsely arguing, from the circumstance of their present enjoyment of God's favor, and of their temporal welfare, and of the universal respect in which they are held, that such prosperity shall continue for ever. (xxix. 18 — 25 j xxx. 26, 31.) MORALS. We come now to the subject of morals, and we may certainly gather from this book that it was extensively understood in the patriai-chal age. A large variety both of sins and of duties are here incidentally mentioned, the first being, for the most part, noticed with detestation, and the latter with approbation. We shall begin with the notice of those sins which are DiRECTLr against God. Idolatry in its first and most simple form, being that of the adoration THEOLOGY IN THE DAYS OF JOB. 27 of the principal heavenly bodies, is spoken of as a crime punishable by earthly judges, and as being a practical denial of the true God. (xxxi. 26 — 28.) Even covetousness is regarded in the light of idolatry, (xxxi. 24, 25.) Notice is also taken of that Atheism w^hich would, if it could, put God out of his own world, on the ground principally of the supposed or pretended unprofitableness of religion (xxi. 14, 15), and which is so far besotted as not even to seek Him in the hour of distress, (xxxv. 10 — 12.) Mention is likewise made of that scepticism which ignores the jyrovidence of God, arguing from his very greatness against the supposition that He concerns himself with mundane afiairs ; and it seems stated in this book that that was the species of irreligion which provoked God to destroy the antediluvian woi-ld with a flood, (xxii. 12 — 17.) Self-reliance and worldly confidences are condemned, (viii. 13 — 19.) Ingratitude to God is also spoken of in terms of reprobation (xxii. 18), and forgetfulness of Him (viii. 13); and also the sin of charging God with injustice or caprice, as though man's chastisement could be greater than he deserved. This sin is regarded as placing the offender in the same category with wicked persons, (i. 22 ; ii. 10 ; xxxiii. 8 — 12 ; xxxiv. 5 — 8.) Cloaking sin is likewise regarded as a great sin. (xxxi. 33, 34.) Doing harm to religion by the expression of wrong sentiments is also animadverted upon (xv. 4) ; and a feeling of impiety momentarily entertained i7i the heart is accounted a sin needing expiation by sacrifice (i. 5), or, if determinately expressed, is regarded as a virtual renunciation of godliness, (i. 11; ii. 5.) The SINS AGAINST OUR FELLOW-MEN which are particularly noticed in this book are — Contempt for older people on the part of the young (xix. 18); disrespect on the part of servants towards their masters (xix. 15, 16); ill- treatment of servants hy masters (xxxi, 13 — 15); neglect on the part of kinsfolk or acquaintance (xix. 18, 14) ; falseheartedness of friends, when they deceive the expectations that had been formed of them, and are found worse than useless in the day of trial, and when they act the part of enemies towards those whom they had professed to love, or, under the sacred name of friendship, wound where they ought to heal (vi. 14 — 23; xvi. 2 — 10; xix. 19); murder (xxiv. 14); seduction and fornication ; this is spoken of as a very heinous sin, provoking God's wrath, and entailing strange punishment upon the perpetrator, (xxxi. 1 — 8.) Adultery is also mentioned as a highly criminal act, punishable by human tribunals, and destructive as a consuming fire. (xxiv. 15; xxxi. 9 — 12.) Robbery, whether in the way of removing landmarks, or stealing property, or marauding, or stealing men for the purpose of enslaving them, or piracy, or extortion, (xxiv. 2 — 11, 18; xxxi. 38 — 40.) Tyrannical despotism, (xxiv. 21, 22.) Taking raiment as a pledge from the poor ; this is mentioned as a great wickedness, (xxii. 5, 6.) Withholding food from the famishing also a great wickedness, (xxii. 5, 7.) Ill-treating icidoics again a great wickedness, (xxii. 5, 9; xxiv. 3, 21.) Dealing unkindly towards the barren (xxiv. 21) ; also totoards the fatherless, (vi. 27 ; xxii. 9 ; xxiv. 3, 9.) Oppressing the helpless. (xxiv. 4, 7, 10, 11.) Flattery or partiality, (xxxii. 21, 22.) Rejoiciyig at the fall of an enemy (xxxi. 29—31); and imcharitablencss in general, cannot be defended on the ground of doing God service, (xiii. 7 — 10.) We come now to the consideration of duties which are enjoined, or at least 28 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. spoken of in terms of approbation in this book, and shall begin with THOSE WHICH HAVE DIRECT REFERENCE TO GOD. The fii'st and great commandment, at this time, seems to have had relation to the possession of that tvisdom which consists in fearing God, and in departing from evil. Job posssessed it in so eminent a degree that God, on that ground, spoke of him in terms of the highest commendation in the presence of the heavenly host. The Patriarch appears to have regarded it as the great command- ment that was originally given to man in Paradise, and he shows how greatly he was influenced by it in his conduct, (i. 1, 8 ; ii. 3 ; xxviii. 28 ; xxxi. 2 — 4, 14, 15, 23.) The duty of acquaintaiice loith God is pressed (xxii. 21); also of delighting in Him (xxii. 26) ; and of giving hearty attention to his revealed ivill. (xxii. 22.) Perseverance in piety is sjioken of as furnishing a ground of confidence, (ii. 3 ; xxiii. 10 — 12.) Bearing affliction with resignation and submission is highly commended (i. 20 — 22 ; ii. 3) ; and the duty of specially seeking God at such times is forcibly enjoined, committing our cause to Him, because He is so able to undertake it, and doing this under the assurance that He will certainly appear on our behalf, delivering us from the evils that we fear, and loading us with every possible good. (v. 8 — 26.) It is our duty also to call upon Him in prayer (viii. 5); but our prayer must be sincere ; there must be purity and uprightness, preparation of heart, and the renunciation of all sin, else God will not hear us. (viii. 6; xi. 13 — 15; xxvii. 9; xxxv. 13.) And then, if we thus pray, we have the fullest assurance that He will answer us. (xxii. 21 — 30.) Confession of sin, repentance, self-loathing, and deep self- abasement are also mentioned, and are illustrated in Job's own case. (xl. 4, 5 ; xlii. 2 — 6.) It is also incumbent upon us to glorify God because of his toorks. (xxxvi. 24, 25.) Majn's DUTIES TOAVARDS HIS NEIGHBOUR, as known in the days of Job, may be summed up in the following particulars : — Parental duty. Parents should be anxious about the spiritual well-being of their children, and should entreat God for them, and that continually, and should not bring them up in worldly pleasures and be concerned only about their earthly prosperity, (i. 5 ; xxi. 7 — 12.) It is a duty of even young children to be kind to orphans and widoics (xxxi. 18); of young men to be modest and retiring, especially in the presence of their superiors (xxix. 8 ; xxxii. 6, 7) ; and of persons of all classes and ages to behave deferentially to their rulers. (xxix. 8 — 10.) It is the duty of riders or judges to execute justice, taking the part of the oppressed, investigating every case with attention, righting the injured, and punishing the injurious, and so showing that their decisions do not belie the sacredness of their robes of office, (xxix. 11 — 17.) It is further their duty, for the public good, to take cognizance of, and to punish social crimes (xxxi. 11), as well as any outward and visible offence against the tcorship of the true God. (xxxi. 26 — 28.) It is the duty of masters to remember that their servants are the same flesh and blood as themselves, and to act justly towards them, (xxxi. 13 — 15.) It is the duty of friends and relatives to visit and sympathize with, and if necessary, and without being asked, give pecuniary assistance to any friend when in affliction, (ii. 11—13; vi. 14, 22, 23; xix. 21 ; xlii. 11.) It is likewise the duty of one friend to entreat God on behalf of the other. THEOLOGY IN THE DAYS OF JOB. 20 (xlii. 8 — 10.) It is a duty to sympathize with any zoho are in distress. (xxx. 25.) It is a duty, when we speak, to mean what we say. (xxxiii. 3.) Anger in a righteous cause is perhaps commendable, as when God is dishonored, or when men are unjustly dealt with, (xxxii. 1 — 3.) Substantial assistance should be afforded to such as have need, especially the poor, the widow, the fatherless, and the naked, (xxxi. 16 — 20.) Hospitality should be shown to strangers, (xxxi. 32.) Advice and instruction should be given to those who require it (iv. 3, 4) ; at the same time, we ought ourselves to put in practice the advice which we give to others (iv. 3 — 6) ; and we should be careful to advise only if we are capable of doing so. (xxvi. 2 — 4.) It is also a duty to practise habitual self- restraint, (xxxi. 1.) MAN'S FINAL DESTINY. The views held at this time on this important subject were undoubtedly obscure. It was reserved for the Gospel to bring " life and immortality to light," and to '= deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." The obscurity, however, in which the interesting question was involved, was far from being a total darkness ; there were some glimmerings of light which here and there broke into the caverns of death, and which, though insufficient altogether to dispel the surrounding gloom, still gave hope that it was but a passage leading on to light, and to regions of endless day beyond. The erroneous dogma of the transmigration of souls, which from the earliest ages, and beginning at Egypt, spread rapidly over the whole civilized world, certainly formed no part of the creed either of Job or of his friends. It was, in their minds, a settled fact, that man can die but once, and that, tvhen once dead, he can no more return to life on earth ; those who have seen him shall not see him again, when once he has gone to the grave, he is like a cloud which has completely vanished away ; of a tree there may be hope that, if cut down, it will, under certain advantageous circumstances, again grow, but respecting man no such hope can possibly be entertained, (vii. 8 — 10; x. 21 ; xiv. 7 — 12; xvi. 22 ; XX. 7 — 9.) The grave was regarded as a place in lohich those who desce7ided into it loere so separated from the ivorld as to be unconscious of and in- sensible to all that transpired ther-e. (xiv. 21.) It was looked upon as a place of dense darkness (x. 21, 22) and not to be desired by those who were unpi-epared. (xxxvi. 20.) There is no deliverance for the ungodly when once there, (xxxvi. 18, 19) ; nor is pardon to be obtained there, if not obtained before, (vii. 21.) It is a place into which the sins of the wicked accompany them. (xx. 11.) God's poicer and wrath are felt in that lower world, (xxvi. 5, 6.) A good man, however, has hope in his death ; he may see nothing before him of worldly happiness ; in that respect, the only prospect before him may be the grave, he may be reduced to such circumstances of distress as already to count himself there, he may feel as though already the worm were feeding on him, and his body fast hastening to corruption, and yet he has a hope, a hope which he carries with him into the grave, and which is not severed from him when he lies down there (xvii. 13 — 16) ; that grave is a place of calm rest, it is like the rest of sleep, there the wicked cannot trouble, the voice of the taskmaster is no more heard, there the bondsman reposes, the weary rests, and the slave is free. (iii. 13, 17 — 19.) It would appear 30 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. that it was considered tliat, in the grave, there is a separation between the righteous and the wicked, for it is represented that the ivicked dead are not "gathered" into the lot of the righteous, (xxvii. 19.) Further it was regarded as a place in xohich God secreted his people, for an appointed time, from the effects of his wrath, (xiv. 13.) The hope which a pious man entertained in descending into the grave appears to have been in a future resurrection of his body; he looked forward with quiet expectation to a time, appointed by God, when his re- novation should come ; when God would summon him, and he would obey the summons ; when God would yearn over that [body] which his own hands had originally made ; and when the man's iniquities would be found to have been all obliterated, (xiv. 13 — 17.) And indeed it ivould appear that there is no other real hope for man but this ; as surely as the waters wear away stones, and all things in nature suifer dissolution, so certainly does God destroy all man's hopes as far as this world is concerned ; God brings him to the grave, there his body goes to corruption, and, if he is to have a hope at all, it can be only that there is to be a renovation for him at an appointed time ; he knows that his body is to be destroyed, but then he knows also that in his flesh and with his own eyes, he shall, at some future period, see God, who is his living avenger, — a consummation for which he most devoutly longs. So ardently was the mind of Job set upon this, that he earnestly requested that the record of this his hope (his hope when all other hopes failed him) might be transmitted to posterity, (xiv. 14 — 22 ; xvii. 13 — 16, and xix. 23 — 27, taken in connexion with the whole preceding context.) It would further appear that at that time it was believed there would be a judgment, and that, in very proximate connexion both with the sword of the avenger and his standing on the earth, and with that period when the righteous should in their own flesh see God, in other woi*ds, a judgment at the time of the resurrection. (Compare xix. 29, with the pi'eceding context.) DISSERTATION VL THE VARIOUS READINGS. On the Book of Job 196 MSS. have been collated by Kennicott, and 113 by De Rossi, of which latter, 19 are what he calls foreign ; and to this list of his collations must be added 85 published copies, 4 of them also " foi-eign," thus making a total of 394 various copies of the Book of Job collated by the labours of these two men. For the purpose of making a somewhat minute inquiry into the character of the various readings, and that, chiefly with the view of pointing out to the reader how little they affect the sense, and how greatly they tend to confirm the general correctness of the received text, I have bestowed particular attention upon those of the first fifteen chapters of this book, both counting them, and arranging them respectively in various classes. In the copious selection of various readings presented in this work, there occur as many as 397 in the first fifteen chapters. Of these, 17 relate to changes of number, 2 to changes of gender, 5 to tlie addition of prepositions, 10 to the addition or omission of the particle riN (eth), 23 to the addition of a word or words, 34 to the substitution of one prepo- sition or particle for another, 47 to the addition or omission of the conjunc- tion 1 (waw), 15 to the substitution of one tense for another, 14 to the omission of an entire verse, 6 to the substitution of one conjugation for another, 12 to the omission of prepositions or particles, 5 to the addition of the definite article, 10 to the addition or omission of pronouns, 4 to the substitution of one pronoun for another, 54 to difference of spelling, 35 to the omission of words, and 104 to the substitution of one word for another. The seventeen instances in which the various readings furnish changes in NUMBER, such as singular for plural or plural for singular, occur in the following places :— Chap. i. 12, 15; ii. 12; iv. 6; v. 18, 20, 24; vi. 29; ix. 13; xi. 14; xii. 5 ; xiii. 14 ; xiv. 5 ; xv. 11, 12, 26, 29. These changes are, for the most part, immaterial. Thus, if we adopted the proposed readings, we should have in thy hands, instead oiin thy hand; it smote, instead of they smote ; both readings referring to the Sheba tribe ; on their head, instead of on their heads ; thy way, instead of thy ways, &c. The instances of change of gendeu are only two, and are to be found in chap. i. 14, and v. 21. In neither of these cases again is the sense in the slightest degree afiected. There are five cases in which prepositions not found in the received text are SUPPLIED in the various readings: — Chap. i. 3, 5, 6, 8 ; ii. 10. The second is a manifest correction, quite unnecessary, as the genius of the Hebrew would require the preposition to be understood here, though not expressed. The 32 PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS. addition in the third instance is immaterial, so far as the sense is concerned ; and in the first and two latter instances the addition is evidently superfluous. Ten of the instances of various reading have reference to the addition or OMISSION OF THE PARTICLE HW (^eth). It IS added in the following places : — Chap. i. 5, 9; ii. 5, 12; viii. 6; xi. 13; and it is omitted in ii. 6, 7, 10, 12. All this is very immaterial. The twenty-three instances of the addition of a avord or words to the received reading occur in i. 7, 9, 19, 22 ; ii. 13 ; iv. 6 ; vi. 10, 26 ; vii. 16 ; ix. 27 (twice) ; X. 15; xi. 8 ; xii. 2; xiii. 1 (twice), 2 (twice), 20; xiv. 5; xv. 4, 8, 25. All these are, for the most part, unimportant, and relate to the addition of such words (and those not in an essential sense) as all, the Eternal before God, at all, mighty in connexion with wind, I know, if, and the like. The addition of an entire sentence in xiv. 5 would be important, were it not a most manifest interpolation, and that, on the authority of only one MS. (See the "Various Readings" on the passage.) There are thirty-four instances of the substitution of one particle (mostly prepositions) for another, and they are to be found in i. 11, 12 ; ii. 2, 3 (twice), 4, 7, 11; V. 11, 14; vi. 10; vii. 4, 21; viii. 6, 17, 21; ix. 12, 30, 32, 33; xi. 17; xii. 9, 12, 14, 24; xiii. 9 (twice), 15; xiv. 8; xv. 3, 12, 14, 22, 24. Most of these in no way affect the sense, being the substitution of >'W (e/) for ^^ {gnal), riStt {meeth) for D3^^ {tnegnhn), and vice versa; 2 (ve') for 3 (che), and vice versa; '^^'^ {giialei) for "^"TJ? (gnadei), and the like. Only a few trivially affect the sense, such as 1^^ {aich) how instead of T^ (Jien^ behola. Of the forty-seven instances in which the conjunction T {waw) is omitted or supplied, it is omitted seven times in the following verses : — Chap. iii. 26 ; iv. 5, 6; V. 5; vii. 5; ix. 25; xi. 17; and it is supplied forty times in chap. i. 8 ; ii. 3, 5, 7 ; iii. 6, 7, 18, 26 ; iv. 5, 6, 20 ; v. 8, 9 ; vi. 6, 7, 10, 12, 25, 30; vii. 6, 18, 19; viii. 10, 18; ix. 4, 12, 24, 25; x. 5 ; xi. 2, 7; xiii. 3, 9, 27 ; xiv. 3, 16, 20; xv. 23, 28, 33. Both these omissions and additions are unimportant. In the following fifteen instances we meet with changes of moods or tenses : — Chap. i. 3; v. 5, 16, 18; vii. 20; ix. 18, 27; x. 20 (three times); xiv. 6, 13, 14; XV. 35 (twice). None of these materially affect the sense, except perhaps xiv. 14, where the inquiry respecting man after death might be rendered doth he live ? instead of shall he live ? In the number of chapters we are examining, fourteen entire verses are OMITTED by some MSS., namely, chap. i. 2 ; iii. 8 ; v. 24 ; viii. 19, 22 ; ix. 2, 3 ; xi. 13; xii. 10, 13; xiv. 4, 7; xv. 7, 12. These omissions have severally the support of only one MS., with the exception of those of chap. i. 2 ; viii. 22 ; XV. 12. The former of these omissions has the authority of three MSS., and the two latter have each the authority of two MSS. There are six instances in which one conjugation is exchanged for another: — Chap. i. 17; ii. 9; iv. 21 ; v. 19; xi. 10; xii. 14. In four of these cases Hiphil is substituted for Kal, in one of them Hithpael for Hiphil, and in the other Kal for Niphal. In none of these cases is the sense particularly affected except in chap. xi. 10, where we should have, if we adopted the reading of the one only MS. that proposes it, if he change instead of if he rush at. THE VARIOUS READINGS. 33 The twelve instances in which prepositions or particles are omitted are : Chap. ii. 2, 10; iii. 23; v. 15, 17; vi. 26; x. 11; xi. 11; xiii. 5, 28; xv. 17, 28 ; and they are such as these— from, also, behold, for, as, a ^ (h) paragogic, &c., none of them making any material alteration in the sense, and some of them evidently omitted because thought by recensors to be expletive and unne- cessary. In five instances the definite article rr (A) has been supplied in the various readings :— Chap. i. 16; iii. 6 ; v. 10; x. 9 ; xiv. 19. In none of these instances is this proposed change of any consequence. Of the ten instances in which pronouns are omitted or supplied, they are omitted in chap. ii. 7 ; v. 13; x. 18 ; xiv. 15; xv. 29 ; and they are supplied in V. 2; xii. 19; xiii. 18; xv. 20, 34. In most of these cases the pronoun, whether omitted or supplied, must be understood ; and hence these emenda- tions are unnecessary. In the following four instances one pronoun is substituted for another : — vii. 17; viii. 4; ix. 35; xiii. 1. These changes aflFect the sense only slightly, and have the support of only one MS. each, with the exception of the first, which has the support of three MSS., but which least of all affects the sense. There are as many as fifty-four instances of difference of spelling, and they occur in the following passages:— Chap. i. 4, 10 (twice), 18, 21 ; ii. 9, 11 ; iii. 25 ; iv. 2, 13, 18; v. 2, 17; vi. 2 (twice), 14, 27; vii. 1, 5 (twice), 13; viii. 7, 8, 11, 14,21; ix. 4, 12, 17, 32; x. 11, 16, 17 (twice); xii. 4, 11, 15, 16, 23; xiii. 4; xiv. 5, 8, 14, 19; xv. 7, 12, 13, 22, 24 (twice), 26, 31, 34. These changes consist in the substitution of 1 (w) for "^ (^ or i/), and vice versa ; of D (^s) for Q? (^s), of D (m) for 1 («) as a plural termination, of medial N (a) for "* {i or y), of final H [h] for W (a) (and vice versd) ; of medial '^ (ou) for i (o), of the shorter forms ^W (el) for mbs (eloah) and ^b (lev) for i^l^b (levav), of C5 (t) for r\ (t), of 2 (ts) for ^ (s), of the form of verb n"b for V"V, of ^ (sh) for iC (s), of T (d) for ? (z), of n (th) for T (d), and of the longer form "•"my (gnimmadi) for ""^^ (gnimmi) ; also in the omission of medials W (a), ^ (w), and ^ (i or y), of final ri ( 1 1 • 1 ii .^ n Li i house of their eldest 14 house 01 their brother the lirstborn ; and a mes- brother; when a mes- 1 T 1 1 • 1 m senger informs Jub senger came to Job and said, Ihe oxen were that the Shcba had ploughing, and the she-asses feeding beside them ; ^anTlr'^asse!. 3 15 and [the] Sheba fell upon and took them; and the '^'^^'^ ^"' ^'""'^'^^^ - young men have they smitten with the edge of the sword, and only I alone am escaped to tell thee. 16 While he was yet speaking, another came and said, —another messenger Fire of God fell from heaven and set on fii'e the fl!)ckrhave\era d"- sheep and the young men and consumed them ; ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^>~~ and only I alone am escaped to tell thee. J 7 While he was yet speaking, another came and —another teiis him • 1 mi /-n 1 1 p 1 ii 1 1 that the Chaldeans said: The Chaldeans lormed three columns, and had taken his camels 1 .1 T 1 J 1 ji 1 and slain his scr- opened upon the camels and took them ; and vants,— the young men have they smitten with the edge of the sword, and only I alone am escaped to tell 18 thee. He was still speaking, when another came _and another tciis 1 • 1 rni J J.1 lit him that a tornado and said, ihy sons and thy daughters were hadthrown do«-n the eating and drinking wine in the house of their ^Se^ wte"! 19 brother the firstborn; and behold, a great wind ^Jf^^^^fj^^^;;"^ ^'^- came from across the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the other MSS., K. read hmd instead of D3?r3, in either case {from). 13 In 30 K. 1" (ivtne) is omitted. 14 In 4 K. vn (tvere) is omitted. 1,34, 192, 224, 603, K. read pT instead of DH'T, in either case {beside them), the pronominal suffix being feminine in the former, and masculine in the latter instance. 15 In 80, 384, K. nnpm {and look them) is omitted. 188 K. reads nin {has smitten) JTistead of isrr {have smitten). In 252 K. nn? {alo7ie) is omitted. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB I. 13. 16 SO, 147, K. read D'h^nh instead of D'nbN. {God); the difference is imma- terial. 17 4 K. reads to'CD'i in Iliphil, instead of iu,cs'i {and spread themselves out, or and opened), the sense is not materially affected by either reading. 18 Many MSS. K. and De R. read tc" in- stead of "W. This is not very material : 203, 380, 989, ]3e R. read the de- fective ^2^. In 1 1 1 , 384, K. ]" {wine) is omitted. 19 118 K. supplies tvsd {a storm) after E 2 52 JOB I. 20. young people, and they died; and only I alone 20 am escaped to tell thee. Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell to the 21 earth and worshipped ; and said, Naked came I forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Eternal gave, and the Eter- nal hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the 22 Eternal. In all this, Job sinned not, nor did he give God foolishness. II. I. — Now the day arrived when the sous of God came to present themselves before the Eternal, and amongst them came Satan also, to present 2 himself before the Eternal, and the Eternal said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Eternal, and said, Erom posting to and fro in the earth, and from Avalking up and 3 down in it. And the Eternal said unto Satan, Hast thou well marked my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man perfect, and upright, fearing God, and departing from evil, and still holding fast his integrity, though thou didst set me against him, to devour him without 4 cause? And Satan answered the Eternal, and — Job demonstrates much grief, but at the same time entire resignation to God's will. On a set day Satan presented himself before God, and, being questioned, replied that he had traversed the earth, and that, if Job stiU maintained his piety, notwithstanding the afflictions that had befallen him, this was to be attributed to their not being sufficiently severe ; this God might soon prove by smiting him in his body. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB I. 21 76 K. reads posn ]o {^from instead of "iisn {from mi {icind). the north) across). 21 The Keri, and many MSS. K. read 'n«a' instead of 'na^ ; this is immaterial. 22 30, 176, 192, 250, K. 2, 552 De R. add vnEiDi [ivith his lips) after iv« (Job). II. 2 191 K, reads ;'Nn (as in I. 7), instead of niD '« : the meaning, tchence, re- mains the same in both cases. In 191 K. rnrp nx {fhe Eternal) is omitted ; instead of these words, 48, 158 (before emendation), K, read mrrbw («w^o the Eternal). 48, 80, 95, 130, 150, 170, 384, K. read f^nm [and walking), irL?XeSi(i of-j'^nnnoi {and from walking). 3 18, 30, and others, K. read *» instead of '?^?; this does not affect the sense. 76, 82, 128, 196, K. read «ti {and fearing), instead of «T {fearing). In 76, 95, 226, K. ia {against him) is omitted. Instead of ii 3 (before emendation) K. reads i''; the sense is much the same. 4 178 K. reads mn> bx {untu the Eternal), instead of mn' nn {the Eternal). JOB 11. 5. 53 said, " Skin for skin ; " yea, all that a man hath 5 will he give for his life : put forth, however, I pray thee, thine hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, [and see] if he doth not curse thee to thy 6 face. And the Eternal said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand, only take care of his life. 7 And Satan went forth from the presence of the Eternal, and smote Job with a malignant ulcera- 8 tion from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took a potsherd to scratch himself with it ; 9 and he was sitting among the ashes ; and his wife said unto him. Art thou still holding fast thine 10 integrity? Bless God and die. Aiid he said unto her. Thou speakest as one of the wicked women speaketh. Ay, shall we take good from God himself, and not take evil also ?• In all this Job sinned not with his lips. 11 Now three friends of Job heard of all this evil which had come upon him, and they came each from his own place — EHphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite ; for they had agreed together to come to condole Satan, having ob- tained permission, smites Job with a sore disease. Job, though in great misery, gives a meek and pious rebuke to an un- godly remark made by hia wife. Three of his friend?, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, visit him for the purpose of con- doling with him. Thry demonstrate considerable concern and amazement at the greatness of liis VARIOUS READINGS, JOB IT. 5. 18, 76, and other MSS. K. read d'^ini instead of nbw; the meaning is, lioio- ever, in both cases. 145 K. reads "p HN instead of "[t ; the meaning is fJdnc hand, in both cases. Many MSS. K. read "jy instead of ''!>» ; the meaning is to in both cases. 80, 99, K., 552 De R., read JTa (in thine hands), instead of "[Ta {in thine hand). 17, 76, 137, and other MSS. K. read p"> instead of "{n ; the meaning is only in both cases. In 201 K. hn is omitted before i«B3 ; this is immaterial. 224 K. reads crn instead of hnd; the meaning is from in both cases. 141 K. omits n« before avM ; this is imma- terial. The Keri and very many MSS. K. read "i5?i {even unto), instead of "W {unto). One MS. De R. reads TT {the crown), instead of "npT {his crown). 8 One MS. De R. reads Tiannb {to cut himself as in mourning), instead of Tcnn"? {to scratch himself). In 95 K. 12 {tfiih it) is omitted. 9 95 K. reads pinno {confirming thyself i«), instead of pinn {holding fist). 207 K. reads "J'ana instead of "innna ; the mean- ing is thy righteousness in both cases. 10 240 K., 597 Dc R., supply p {out of) before ni'?a3n {the wicked). In 172, 651, K. 03 {ay) is omitted. 70 K. reads nm instead of vr\ ^\H^• the meaning is evil in both cases. 11 30, 253, and other MSS., K. read Vjh 54 JOB II. 12. 12 with him, and to comfort him. And they hfted up affliction, and main- ,■,. o n 11 i" J 111 tain a profound then- eyes from aiar, and knew mm not ; and they silence for an entire lifted up their voice and wept ; and they rent each ^^^^' one his robe, and sprinkled dust upon their heads 13 towards heaven. And they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him ; for they saw that the pain was exceedingly great. III. 1. — After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed 2 his day. And Job ansivered, and said, 3 Perish the Day wherein I was born ; And the Night which said, A man is conceived. 4 That Day ! be it Darkness. Let not God from above require it ; Neither let Light shine upon it. 5 Let Darkness and the Shadow-of-death claim it ; Let a cloud settle upon it ; Let darkenings of the day-[light] affright it. 6 That Night ! Thick-darkness take it. Be it not united with the days of the year ; Into the number of the months let it not enter. 7 Lo ! that Night ! be it barren ; Let no peal of gladness come into it. 12 JoVs complaint. He curses his Birth- day, by praying that it may be unnoticed by God, not illu- miued by Light, re- claimed by Darkness, clouded, and ob- scured by eclipses, — — he curses also the Night which assisted at his conception, and prays that it may be utterly dark ; not counted in the calen- dar; neyer a season of happy marriage; VARIOUS READINGS, JOB II. 12. 13 {imto liim), instead of vb? {tq)on him). 48, 213 K, read '2onn instead of '3D\-in {the Temanite) ; this is immaterial. 32, 117, 245, K. read virr instead of nn'; the meaning is tot/eflicr in both cases. In 93, 145, and other MSS. K. n« is omitted ; this does not affect the sense. Various INISS. K. supply n« liefore □"'V {their voice) ; tliis does not affect the sense. 145, 196, 226, K. supply HN before "I'JS'Q {his robe) ; this does not affect the sense. 166, 170, K,, 379 De R., read CM\sn {their head), instead of crr't-Nn {their heads). 1 1 1, 145, K. omit yiN'J {xipon the ground). 95 K. supplies nm«Q {at all) after in {spake). In 95 K. '3 wi {they saio that), is omitted. III. 18 K. reads (as in ver. 4) "jcn 'n' {he it darkness) instead of ''::« innp' {thicic darkness take it). 179 K. reads Vni {and be it not) instead of ''« {be it not). 76 K. reads nairn instead of n:iD ; this does not affect the sense. 95 K. reads «"> ( [it shall] not) instead of "^n ( \_let it] not). In 924 De R. non {lo) is omitted. 1 79 K. reads "^iwi {and let no) instead of "?« {let no). JOB III. 8. 55 8 Let execrators of days note it infamous, Who are prepared to provoke tlie crocodile. 9 Let the stars of its twihght be dark ; Let it look for light and there be none ; And let it not see the eyelids of the dawn. 10 Because it shut not the doors of the belly [that received] me, And hid not trouble from mine eyes. 1 1 Why did I not die in the womb ? [Or] expire when I came forth from the belly ? 1 2 Wherefore did the knees anticipate me ? Or, why the breasts, that I should suck ? 13 Por now I had lain down, and been quiet ; I had slept, and then had had rest ; 14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who were building desolations for themselves ; 1 5 Or with princes who had gold. Who were filling their houses with silver. 16 (Or, as a hidden untimely -bu'th, I should not be, As infants that never saw light.) 1 7 There, the wicked cease from troubling ; And there, the weary are at rest. 18 The chained repose together ; They hear not the taskmaster's voice. 19 The small and great are there ; And the slave is free from his lord. 20 Why giveth He hght to him that is in misery ; And life to them that are bitter in soul ; 21 Who are longing for death, but it [cometh] not; And they dig for it more than for hid treasures ; execrated ; starless, and eudlcss. He qucotious why he had not died before, or at his birth ; or why, when bom, he had been at once so officiously attended to. — for, otherwise, he might have had rest in the grave, along with the grandees of the eartli, who [when surprised by death] were only building theh" own tombs, and hoarding wealth, or [he could wish] he had never existed at all ; at least, in the grave, there is no op- pression, no fatigue, no cruelty, no differ- ence of rank, and no slaverv. He further questions why God should give life to those to whom it is a burden, who cannot escape from their miseries, and whose great bappi- 18 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB III. 8. In 252 K. the whole of this verse is omitted. 163 K. reads dt» {there) instead of -in' {together). 17, 18, and other MSS., K. read n''"' {and not) instead of w"? {not). 56 JOB III. 22. 22 Who even dance for joy — [Ay] exult when they find the grave ? 23 [Why], to the man whose way is hidden ; And about whom God setteth a hedge ? 24 For, instead of my bread, cometh my sighing ; And hke waters are my roarings poured out. 25 For I apprehended evil, and it hath befallen me ; And that which I dreaded, hath come to me. 26 I had no security, and I had no quiet, And I had no rest, and trouble came. ness is to welcoTne death when at length it comes. — he, for instance, had never been hap- py ; sighs and groans were his meat and drink, and a presen- timent of evils had at all times haunted him. IV. 1. — Then ElijjJiaz the Temanite answered and said, 2 If one attempt a word with thee, wilt thou find it But who can put restraint upon verse ? [tiresome ? 3 Behold, thou hast corrected many ; And hands that were weak didst thou strengthen. 4 Him that was stumbling thy verse did raise ; And bending knees thou didst make firm. 5 But now it cometh unto thee, and thou findest it tiresome ; It toucheth thee, and thou art dismayed. 6 Is not thy religion thy confidence, And the perfectness of thy ways thy hope ? First discourse of Eliphaz. He cannot forbear speaking, even at the risk of making Job touchy. He reminds Job of the excellent advice he had often given others who needed it, and wonders that he did not now act upon it himself, and that the faith he had pro- fessed should fail him. VARIOUS READINGS, 22 80 K. reads hy instead of ^3; in this case the meaning would be, [af] the ' sepulchral mound, instead of \_for'\ joy- 23 In 80 K. h (to) in i^jb {to the man) has been erased. 24 In 157 K. 'sd"? [instead of) Is omitted. 80 K. reads i^n^i [and are given forth) instead of isnn [and are poured out). 25 111, 223, K. read ^ins^i instead of '3'nN'i [hath hefallen me) ; this does not affect the sense. 26 130 (before emendation) K. reads «''i 6 [and no) instead of n"? [no). 118 K. omits 1 [and) before n"? [no) in the second clause of the first hemistich. JOB III. 22. In 125 K. 'nnj ubi [and I had no rest) is omitted. IV. 2, and perhaps 80 and 117, K. read D''boa instead of p'^rsi ; this is imma- terial. 80, 147, K. read Ni'^n [whether not) instead of ^:!^ [behold). In 384 K. 1 [a7id) is omitted before vhn [thou findest it tiresome). 76 K. supplies 1 [and) before wn [it toucheth)^ 153 K. supplies «*rt [this) before "[nipn [thy hope). 166, 380, 586, 588, K., 349 (before emendation) De R. sup- ply "I [and or even) before "|nipn [thy JOB IV. 7. 57 7 Remember, I pray tliee, who that was innocent ever perished ? Or where have the upright been effaced ? S According to what I have seen, they that plough iniquity, And they that sow trouble, reap the same. 9 By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of his anger they nre consumed. 10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the dark lion, And the teeth of the young lions, are broken ; 11 The strong lion perisheth for lack of prey, And the sons of the lioness are scattered abroad.. 12 A communication also was unawares made to me, And my ear caught a whisper of it. 13 In mazy thoughts from visions of the night, When deep sleep falleth upon men ; 14 Fear came upon me, and a trembling. And made the whole of my bones to quake ; 15 And a spirit glided before me ; — The hair of my flesh bristled. 1 6 It stood, but I could not discern its form ; An object was before mine eyes ; And I heard a still voice, — 17 Shall a mortal be just with God? Shall a man be pure with his Maker ? He challenges Job to instance the case of a good man having perished : — — as to himself, he_ [Eliphaz] had in- variably observed that, in strict ana- logy with nature, the wicked reap what they sow, and the in- solence of a powerful brute is soon silenced, and then, when he call no longer injure, he perishes, and his family is dispersed. — Besides, he had received an oracular intimation, for he had seen in a vision which filled him with horror au indistinct apparition, — and had heard a voice in a whisper declaim against the folly of supposing that that God, who 13 VARIOUS HEADINGS, JOB IV. 7. hoj)c). In one MS. De R. i (and) is omitted before on (^the jjerfed))css). 120 K. reads "]3"n (jthi/ way) instead of yyy^ {thy ways). 89 K. reads P'^s {riyhteous) instead of 'p3 {innocent). Many MSS. K. read D^crDa instead of D'DriiJa {m mazy thoughts) ; this is im- material. 15 17 Perhaps 89 K. reads 'D ^ {before my month) instead of ':b ^ {before my face, i.e., before 7ne). 227 K. reads 'Cni {my head) instead of 'ica {my flesh). 186, 203, 873 (before emendation), De R. read inirrn ([by] his worh) ; 155 K., 380 De R. read "in'cro ([by] his works), instead of i^T° {with his Maker). 58 JOB IV. 18. 18 Behold, He putteth no trust in his servants, And His angels He chargeth with folly ; 19 Much more, dwellers in houses of clay, The foundation whereof is in dust ; They get crushed like a moth, [pieces. 20 From morning to evening are they beaten to Utterly they perish [and], none regardeth. 21 Is not the pre-eminence they had removed 1 They die, and not in wisdom ! [thee ; V. 1. — Summon, now, if there be any to answer And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn ? 2 For indignation slayeth the fool ; And jealousy killeth the simpleton. 3 I myself have seen a fool taking root ; And instantly I doomed his homestead — 4 " His children are far from safety, " And will be crushed in the gate and there will be no deliverer ; 5 " His harvest the hungry will eat, " And out of the very spikes will take it : " And the entrapper hath gaped for their wealth." 6 Though iniquity cometh not forth of the dust, Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; 7 But man is born unto trouble. As the sparks of the flame fly upward ; sees deficiency in his angels, can re- gard as innocent, men, — mere ephe- meral creatures, whose bodies are fragile clay, who lose what prestige they may have had, and die without wisdom. — K Job thought, by appealing, to find any that would assist him, he was mistaken, for every one's indignation is stirred up against a prosperous fool — as to himself, when- ever he had met with such, he had portended his ter- rible downfall, and that of his children, — injustice and rob- bery would (he had said) combine to ruui them. — Though sin and sorrow are both re- ferable to the fault of man's nature, and not to adventitious causes, yet if he were in Job's place, he VARIOUS READINGS, JOB IV. 18. 18 48 K. reads nVnn instead of nbnn; probably {folly) in both cases. 19 In 93 K. TO. {houses) is omitted. In 80 K. D11D' {their foundation) is omitted. 20 147 K. supplies"! {and) before ""^yo {none). 21 Perhaps 1 K. reads i'D' {shall remove) instead of 's^Dz (is removed). V. 2 1, 18, 30, and many other MSS. K.read oyD instead of «»3 : this is immaterial ; 153 K. reads id^s {Jiis indignation). Many MSS. K. 275, 346, 576, 680, 1014 (after emendation), De R. read r]«©' {gapeth for), instead of F]«ffii (^and — hath gaped for). 150 K. reads □"or {people), instead of D"'0S {t/ie en- trapper). 658 K. supplies y^ {lying in wait) before D'Dif. 95 K. reads ^p^T\ {their portion) instead of ob'n {their wealth). 17 (before emendation) K. reads it^J' {prevail, i.e., to fly), instead of trra:' ( go high, i.e., in flying). JOB V. 8. 59 8 Yet would I seek unto God, And unto God would I commit my cause. 9 He doetli great things and unsearchable, Marvellous things out of number. 1 0 Who giveth rain on the face of the earth, And sendeth waters on the face of the country ; 11 Setting on high those that are low, And those that mourn get raised into safety. 12 Breaking up the designs of the crafty. And their hands do nothing real ; 13 Taking the wise in their own craftiness, And the counsel of intriguers gocth headlong ; 14 They knock against darkness in the day-time. And they grope at noon-day as in the night. 15 So he saveth the desolate from their mouth. And the needy from the hand of the strong. 16 So there is hope for the destitute. And iniquity stoppeth her mouth. 17 Behold, blessed is the man whom God reproveth; Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. would address him- self to God — — whose operations are wonderful. — showing himself hountiful in his works of nature — — by his providence raising the down- cast— — frustrating and perplexing the crafty by the very intricacy and precipitation of their owti plots — — thus rescuing the poor from their violent counsels — and, so, furnishing the reduced with a ground of hope, and silencing evil men. — Further, he would have Job take afllic- tion in good part, be- cause of its blessed- VARIOUS READINGS, JOB V. 8. 8 17, 147, 1G6, 255, K. read"! {and) be- fore dVin {yet). 9 Many MSS. K. and De R. read r« "» {till there is not, i.e., searching) instead of I'W {and there is not). Many MSS. K. supply I {and) before m«'?D2 {mar- vellous things). 10 224 (after emendation) K. reads Vi>«n instead of pt< : this is immaterial. 1 1 76 K. reads mini instead of dito"' ; in both cases the meaning is on high. 13 89 (before emendation) K. reads nD"»3 (m craftiness) instead of Doirn {in their craftiness) ; 801 De R. reads cnmyn, •n-hich also means in their crafti- ness. 14 15 IG 17 80 K., 2, 59, 349, and many other MSS. De R. read nrbn {and— in the night), instead of nVbsi {and — as in the night). 99, 188, 192, 150, and other MSS. K. and De R. omit n {from) before nrrc {their jnouth) ; in that case the punctuation of iino would of course be ^T!'^( fi'om the sivord, i.e., of their mouth). 76 K., 552 (before emendation) De R. read V^pn instead of ni'cp ; the mean- ing here is stoppeth in either case. 17, 80, 147, K., 552, 380 (before emendation), De R. omit ri^n {behold). 32 K. reads Vn instead of r^tt*; the meaninsr is God in both cases. 60 JOB V. 18. 18 Por he puttetli to pain, and he bindeth up ; He smiteth, and his hands make whole. 19 In six distresses he shall deliver thee; Even in seven evil shall not touch thee. 20 In famine he shall redeem thee from death, And in vrar from the hands of the sword. 21 When the tongue lasheth, thou shalt be hid; And shalt not be afraid of havoc when it cometh. 22 At havoc and at starvation shalt thou laugh ; And shalt not be afraid of the beasts of the earth : 23 Tor with the stones of the field shalt thou be in covenant ; And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. 24 Thou shalt also know that thy tabernacle is in peace ; For thou shalt oversee thy homestead, and not err. 25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be many, And thine offspring as the grass of the earth. 26 Thou shalt come to the grave in a full age, Like the mounting up of a shock of wheat in its season. — if he did so, God ■would preserve him from every kind of evil — from famine — fi'om sword — — from calumny — — from desolating calamities — — and from wild beasts — — and would give him assurance that his home would be happy and well- ordered — that his offspring would be numerous, and that he should have a long life and a sea- sonable death. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB V. 18. 19 20 21 22 651 K. reads yno instead of yno'; the meaning is lie smiteth in both cases. The Keri, and very many MSS. K. read VT1 {and his hands), instead of iti {and his hand). 48 K. reads "^^ instead of w ; the meaning in either case is sJiall touch. 101 K. reads rrs^ instead of 3?i; this is immaterial. 384 K. reads to {from the hand), in- stead of 'TO {from the hands). 150, 188, 201, 95, 117, K. read «iin {it Cometh, third pers. fem.), instead of Nia' (third pers. masc). 170 K. reads rn©n {of the field), instead of p«n {of the earth). 147 K. reads Vi^ instead of "'«; this is immaterial here. 23 76, 101, K. read -p^n {of the earth), instead of nicn {of the field). 24 In 180 K. the whole of this verse is omitted. 32, 34, 82, 125, and other MSS. K. read f'?n« {thy tabernacles), instead of ~[''n« {^thy tabernacle). 25 In 207 K. iiuw l^><2«ai {and thine off- spring as the grass) is omitted. 95, 157, 249, 117 (before emendation), K. 610, 683, 737, 1012 (before emen- dation), De R. read mien {of the f eld), instead of yi«n {of the earth). 26 111 K. reads l^m {in thy strength), instead of nbsi {in full age). JOB V. 27. 61 27 Behold this! we have searched it out, thus Snch were the results Hear it and know thou it for thyself. [it is. he advises Job to profit by them. VI. 1 . — And Job answered, and said, 2 O that my vexation were exactly weighed, And ray calamity ! [that] they were raised in scales together, [seas. 3 Though now, that is heavier than the sand of the Therefore have my words been uttered at random, 4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me ; The poison whereof drinketh up my spirit ; The terrors of God are set in array against me. 5 Brayeth the wild ass over tender grass ? Doth the ox low over his fodder ? 6 Can that which is insipid be eaten without salt ? Is there taste in the slobber of an egg ? 7 [These] hath my soul refused to touch ; They are as food that sickeneth me. 8 O that what I ask might come, And that God would grant what I long for. 9 Even that it would please God to crush me, That he would let loose his hand and cut me off. 1 0 Then would my consolation still exist. And I would exult in pain though he spared not ; JoVs first discourse. Ho wishes that the weight of his suffer- ings might be more fairly estimated be- fore judgment was passed ou his words — sufferings which were from the imme- diate hand of God himself. — it was indeed as natural for him to complain, as it would be for a brute who had no food, or for a person who was forced to eat what went against his stomach. His prayer is, that God would destroy him, and such was the testimony of his conscience that, with such a prospect, he would gladly endure any pain, however excessive — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB VI. 2. VI. Many MSS. K. read 'r«3 instead of '©SD; this is immaterial. The Keri, and many MSS., K. 304, 680, 782 (before emendation), De R., read 'mm instead of 'mm ; this is immaterial. 384 Iv. reads nnrrt {cxclai7neth ?) in- stead of pnrn (brayeth?). 206 K. reads i"? '*''3 (tchat is not his), instead of iV^a [his fodder). 1 K. reads "jeto [that which is 2wtche(^ip or false) instead of "JEn {that ichich is itisipid). 125, 170, K,, read i (ami) before ^"On (is there ?) In 80 K. -ria (in the slohher) is omitted. 7 170 K. supplies i [and) before rran [they). 9 In 80 K. m'?N {God) is omitted. 10 9.J, 70, K., 349 De R., read nm {this) instead of mj? {still). 191 K, reads nw my {still this). Many MSS. K. supply 1 {and) before ''lorp vh {though he spared not). 93 K. reads 'Tan {words) instead of '^Qm {commands or tcords). 62 JOB VL 11. For I have not disowned the commands of the Holy One. 1 1 What is mv strength, that I should have hope ? —besides which, it •^ " *■ ■would be prepos- And vi^hat is my term, that I should prolong my terous for him, in *^ his present extreme desire ? weakness, to indiJge - „ „ worldly hopes or 12 Is my strength the strength oi stones i^ desires. Is my flesh copper ? 13 Surely rather, there is no help for me in myself; And substance hath been expelled out of me. 14 For him that melteth away there is mercy from Eiiphaz, having '' •' shown no mercy, his friend : could have no piety; and mdeed, all his But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. brethren had played him false, like those 15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a torrent, ton-ents m deserts, „ , ii . which swell with As the stream oi torrents that pass away ; wintry snows, but _ ^ _,_, . , ,1-11 i« J.1 • dry up in summer, 16 Which are turbid by reason oi the ice; and deceive the ex- TT ■! 1 ii ji • 1 pectation of caravans. Upon them doth the snow vanish. ^^jjeir former loud 17 What time they wax warm they are cut off; rhip"htd"L?him"to In their getting hot they are extinguished out of p^^;^^ 'buf?n''the their place. '^°^'' / f^^ *^7 1 were found wanting. 18 Caravans turn aside out of their way ; They go up into the waste, and they perish. 19 The caravans of Tenia looked out wistfully; The wayfaring companies of Sheba longed for them. 20 They are ashamed, for they had been confident ; They come up to it, and are covered with con- 21 For now, ye are nothing; [fusion. Ye behold a terror, and are afraid. , VARIOUS READINGS, JOB VI. 12. 12 17, 191, and 198, 224 (both after emendation), K. supply i {and) before nmcx {is myfiesli). 14 1, 60, and many other MSS., K., and De R. read d«d"5 instead of dtdV; in either case it means for Mm that melteth awai/. 21 The Keri, and very many MSS., K. and De R., and printed copies, read lb ([like] unto it) instead of «'' {not or nothing). 552 (before emendation) De R. reads '''^ ([such] unto me). Many MSS. K. and De R., and printed copies, read "i«"i''n {ye fear) instead of "iKin {ye behold). JOB VI. 22 63 22 Is it that I have said, Come, give me? Or, Out of your means give a bribe for me ? 23 Or, Rescue me out of the hand of an enemy ? Or, Out of the hand of tyrants redeem me ? 24 Teach me and I will be silent ; And cause me to understand wherein I have 25 How forcible are right words ! [errect. But how can reproof from you reprove ? 26 Do ye think to reprove verse. When the speeches of one in despair [go] for wind ? 27 Nay, ye let fall [the net] upon the orphan, And dig [a pit] for your friend. 28 But now, be pleased to face me ; And to your faces will it be, if I lie. 29 Turn again now, be there no injustice ; Yea, turn I yet again, my righteousness is in it. 30 Is there injustice in my tongue ? Can my palate be insensible to misfortunes ? VII. 1. — Hath not man a soldiership to serve upon earth ? And are not his days as the days of the hireling ? 2 [He is] as the slave [that] gaspeth for the shade ; And as the hireling [that] longeth for his wages. 3 So have I had to inherit months of vanity. And nights of weariness are apportioned me. — and, after all, he had not so severely tried their friendship as to ask pecuniary assistance. He is willing enough to listen, if only they will sliow him his error; but in this they had failed ; for, instead of speaking to the point, they had carped at mere words, and were en- deavouring to entrap him in his talk. — — He therefore now begs a less under- hand and a more fair examination of his cause, which he knows to be just — that he gave utter- ance to his feelings was no argument against liim. He had inherited the hard lot of a sol- dier who must serve his time, or of a bondsman ; and, like them, might certainly long for tlie termina- tion of his toil, or for some respite, — VARIOUS HEADINGS 25 17, 191, K., supply i (and) before no {how). 150 K, reads isbo: [agreeable) instead of "isto3 (forcible). 26 384 K. reads nni (when — zvincl) in- stead of nnbi (when— for tcind) ; 379 De R. reads t^s mil (^when — a mighty wind). 27 Many MSS. K. read 023?i instead of D33>n (your friend) in either case. 29 The Keri, and many MSS. K. read ^ci (and turn ye again) instead of '^ffii (and 30 JOB VI. 25. turn thou (fern.) again) : or '2iic niiglit be an old imperative form of tlie first person, turn I again. 170, 224 (after emendation), K. sup- ply 1 (and) before 'sn c^; (can my 2mlafe) . VII. The Keri, and very many MSS., K., read 'W instead of ^i this is imma- terial. 64 JOB VII. 4. 4 If I have lain down, then have I said, When shall I arise and the evening flee away ? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawn. 5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust ; My skin gathereth, and runneth : 6 My days have been swifter than the web, And are come to an end without hope. 7 Remember thou that my life is a wind ; Mine eye shall not return to see prosperity, [me ; 8 The eye of him that seeth me shall not observe Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be. 9 The cloud wasteth and passeth away : So he that goeth down into the grave shall not 10 He shall no more return to his house ; [come up ; Neither shall his place any more know him. 11 I also will not restrain my mouth ; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit ; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12 Am I a sea ! perhaps a sea-monster ! That thou settest a guard over me ? 13 When 1 have said, My bed shall comfort me, My couch shall ease my plaint. 14 Then hast thou scared me with dreams. And thou afirightest me by reason of visions : — but even at night he had no rest, — — his flesh waa a mass of ulcera- tion,— — and his thread of life had been rapidly told off; — so he prays God to remember that his life is a wind, — — or mere parsing cloud, and that when once he is gone he can no more return. Under such cir- cumstances, he will persist in his lamen- tations, and demands whether he is so un- goyemable as to re- quire such rigorous treatment ; even at night, when he hoped for some respite, he was haunted with frightful dreams, and tempted to self-de- struction— a tempta- tion which he prays God not to repeat. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB VII. 4. 3, 245 (before emendation), K., read '''J? {towards) instead of 'is? {unto). The Keri, and many MSS., K.., read Myi:ii instead of M3':)i {a clod of dust), in either case. Very many MSS., K., omit 1 {and) before «'x One MS., De R., reads Do'i instead of cxa"! ; the meaning in the former case is moi'e certainly melteth away, or, as in the particular sense here required, ru7ineth. 32, 201 (after emendation), De R., supply 1 {and) before 'Q' {my days). 95 K. omits 31n '30 {than a iceh), 9 1012 (before emendation) De R. reads \\Dt {smolie) instead of p3? {the cloud). 11 248 K, reads ion {in the bitterness) instead of "isa {in the anguish). 252 K. reads 'it'SJ {my soul) instead of 'nn (my spii'it). 13 166, 170, 223, K., read 'ms instead of 'Til"!? ; the meaning is iny couch, in either case. JOB YII. 15. 65 15 And. my soul maketli choice of strangling, — Death by my own hands have I refused. 16 1 shall not live for ever; Let me alone, for my days are vanity. 17 What is mortal-man that thou dost magnify him ? And that thou dost set thine heart upon him ? 18 For thou dost visit him every morning; Every moment dost thou try him. 19 How long wilt thou not look away from me, Nor let me go, just till I swallow down my spittle ? 20 I have sinned ! [Yet] what do I unto thee, 0 thou inspector of men ; Why hast thou set me as a butt for thee, So that I become a burden to myself? 21 And why dost thou not take away my transgres- sion, And let pass mine iniquity ? For now do I lie down in the dust ; And thou shalt seek me early, but I shall not be. He questions why God should take such unremittmg account of man, — — and why he should not intermit some- what of this severity in his case, — as sin cannot affect God, he cannot see why he should be such an object of Divine dis- pleasure, — and why he should not be pardoned, and that before it is just too late. 2 How long wilt thou recite these things ? VIII. 1. — Then answered Bildad the Shuite, and said, ^i^ {and) before it^^' {shall sjjeak). 18, 76, and many other MSS., K. read '''a instead of vh'^; the meaning is without in either case. Many MSS. K, 4, 33, 187, 193, 196, and other MSS., De R., read n:©' instead of «J©' ; this is immaterial. 4 K. reads in the second clause vh'^ instead of '^a ; the meaning is without in either case. JOB VIII. 14. 67 — and that however great theii* luxuri- ance and seeming independence, it is that only of hardy weeds which are phicked up almost as fast as they succes- sively appear. 14 OTIjose reliance sljall be cut off; - that what they gmn U3l)ose confidence is tlje fjoiise of tl)e a"\r ' TpX-: sptHfr, """^~ 15 %]t leanetft upon Iji's i)0U£;e, but it Dotlj not stanu ; ^t fastener!) upon it, but it Dotl) not abiDe, 10 f}t is lujiruriant before t!)e sun, 9lnti f)is sucker goetlj foitl) ober ijfs gartien: 17 #ber a ston]) beap are |)is roots enttntnen ; fit seetl) tlje insttie of stones. 18 m\)m be is tiestropeti out of bis place, Cljen Hotb it benp |)im, S salo tijee not* 19 33ebolti, tbis IS tlje jop of Ijis luap ! {he snatcheth away) instead of F]nn'; a merely immaterial difference in the spelling. Very many MSS. K. and De R. supply i {and) be- fore 'a {who). 76, 157, 248, K. read "i"? {to him) instead of Vjx {unto Jiim). JOB IX. 13. 69 1 3 God turneth not away liis wrath ; [Till] the helpers of pride have stooped under him. 14 How much less should I answer him, [And] choose out my words with him ? 15 Whom, though I were just, I Avould not answer; With my judge Avould I plead for mercy. 10 Though 1 had cited him, and he had answered me, I would not believe that he would give ear to my 1 7 For he bruiseth me with a storm, [voice ; And hath multiplied my wounds without cause. 18 He suffereth me not to draw my breath, But surfeiteth me with bitter things. 19 If [I appeal] to might, lo, he is strong: If to a judicial trial, who will make me the appointment ? [demn me. 20 If I plead not guilty, my own mouth would con- [If I say,] I am blameless, it would prove me perverse. 211 blameless ! I should not know my own soul ! I should repudiate my own life. 22 It is all one, therefore have I said [it] ; He putteth an end to the blameless and the 23 If the scourge slay suddenly, [guilty. He laughcth at the trial of the innocent. How then could ho [Job], even if ho were righteous, ven- ture to justify him- self with such a Being, or suppose that God would con- descend to arguo with liim ; and the more so, as God was treating him with great severity. Whether he had recourse to force or to law would be equally vain ; — — for however guilt- less, ho would only condemn himself if he set up a plea of innocence, and which, in point of fact, he could not do ; — — and in any case, [innocent or guilty], instances showed that the position is not tenable, that the good always escape trouble ; man VARIOUS READINGS, JOB IX. 13. 13 17 18 19 The Kerl, and many MSS. K. read vnnn {under him) instead of "innn ; this is im- terial; perhaps, the latter is an older form. 7G, 137, 245, K„ read mrDi {ti-ith a storm) instead of rni-iui ; this difference in the spelling is immaterial. 157 K. reads '^M'D {my transgressions) instead of 'S2D {my wounds). 147 K. reads '»3M} {hath surfeited) instead of '^viw {surfeiteth). 18 K., 874 De R., read '3T3>n {bear tvitness for tne) instead of '3i'i-v {jnnl-e me the aj)pointmcnt) ; 82 K., 1023 De R., read '3^i'" ('3 ly ? hath appointed for me); 48, 76, 147, 224, 245, 117 (before emendation), K., 244, 379 (before emendation), De R., read •'TJ^iv {toill mahe me to Jcnotc). 20 125 IC. reads i:naN (/ should laugh) instead of H-n {I plead not guilty). 21 102 K. reads p {behold) instead of en {blameless) ; 48 K. reads cn instead of en {if, i.e., if I should do so). 150 K. reads prnw (J should put far away) instead of dnon {T should repudiate). 23 18 K. reads crDb {at the melting airay) instead of hdo'j {at the triid). 70 JOB IX. 24. 24 A land is given into the hand of a wicked man, [Who] covereth the faces of the judges thereof. If it be not so, who [will contradict me ?] 25 As for my days, they have been faster than a poster ; They have fled ; they have not seen happiness ; 26 On have they glided like vessels of reed ; As an eagle swoopeth on the prey. 27 If I say, I will forget my plaint, I will leave off my [sad] looks, and brighten up : 28 I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent — 29 [That] I shall be held guilty : Wherefore then should I labour in vain ? 30 If I had washed myself in the very snow, And had cleaned my hands with soap ; 31 Then wouldest thou plunge me in the ditch ; And mine own clothes would abhor me. 32 For he is not, as I, a man, that I should answer him ; That we should come together in judgment. may be the instru- ment, but injustice often reigns, and the innocent suffer. — In his own case, his days had sped rapidly, without reahziug true happi- ness ; if he deter- mined upon banish- ing his anxieties, then, the conviction that God would hold him guilty overwhelmed him with fear, and made him feel the folly of any attempt at self- justification with God, who could, if he pleased, soon prove him, however generally innocent, to be gunty ; — — indeed, God'8 divine nature ren- dered a controversy between him and man ill - matched, 24 25 26 27 VARIOUS READINGS JOB IX. 24. 28 207 K. supplies i (and) before D« {if), 223 (before emendation), K., 368 (be- fore emendation), De R., omit "i {and) before 'Q' (my dai/s). Many MSS. K. supply 1 (and) before «'' {7iot), Very many MSS. K. and De R. read nr« {hostility) instead of n3« {reed). 48 K. reads t2im> {lashetli) instead of Ti)V£i' {swoopeth). 192 IC. reads 'mnx {Ihace said) instead of ''■\n« (/ am saying, or I say). 4 K. supplies ''10 {the rebellion, or the bitter- ness) before wuj {my plaint). 150 K. adds, at the close of this verse, miNi hn -h {I have a brother, and I icill rest). 196 K. reads ''2> {concerniny) instead of 29 30 32 ■JS {all). 16 K. reads 'nms? {my hones), instead of 'n2:J:> (?j?y sorrows). 196 Iv. reads w ([should] labour [be]) instead of I'^i'^ {should I labour). The Keri, and very many MSS., K. and De R., and printed editions, read 'Qi {in the waters), instead of fdi {in the very) ; 253 Iv., 829 De R. read -"oa {like the ivaters); 30, 150, apparently 1 K. 874, 593 (before emendation), De R., read "los {like the very). 170 K. reads ""'n {my life) instead of 'M {my hands). Various MSS. K. read inn> {together) instead of nn^; this is immaterial. 34, 99, K., read TDS-iJDb {to judgment) instead of p^^QJ {in judgment). JOB IX. 33. 71 33 There is no arbitrator between us ; He would lay his hand upon us both ; 34 He would take his rod from off me, And the fear of him would not frighten me : 35 1 would speak and not be afraid of him ; Por I am not so with myself. X. 1 . — My soul is weary of my life ! I will give way to my plaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul ; 2 I will say unto God, Condemn me not ; Let me know why thou contendest with me. 3 Is it good to thee that thou dost oppress, — That thou dost despise the work of thine hands,— And hast sliined upon the counsel of the wicked 4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? Seest thou as mortal-man seeth? 5 Are thy days as the days of mortal-man ? Are thy years as the days of a man, . 6 That thou inquirest for mine iniquity, And makest inquisition for my sin ? 7 Knowing as thou dost, that I am not guilty ; And [that] none can deliver out of thine hand. and he [Job] re- grets that there is no arbitrator to act between them, as in that case he would bo able to epeak without fear. He is determined to give vent to his feelings, and ac- cordingly expresses them, — — He calls upon God to explain upon what principle Ho condemns without hearing, oppresses his ow-n creature, and countenances wicked If God were short- siglited or short-Uved as mortals, then, ho [Job] miglit mider- stand why God should hastily en- deavour to discover his presumed guilt, by putting him to torture ; but God well knew that ho was innocent, and also had hun in safe custody. 33 34 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB IX. 33. 17, 30, 111, 125, 170, 180 (marg.), 95 (before emendation), K., 593, 715, 847, 874, 11, 380, 801, (the three latter before emendation), De R. read i"? (O that [there were]) ; 380 (after emenda- tion) De R. reads Kib (O that [there were]) instead of vh ([there is] no). 170 K. reads p [between) instead of 'ts (tipon). The'Masora notes that to in ij^aw is majusculum, i.e., somewhat large; such, however, is not the case in most of the MSS. K.; this of course is very immaterial. Tlie Masorite interpreta- tion of the magnitude of this letter in this place is that as ^ signifies nine, so Job is here praying that God, in removing his rod (V£ra), would, in point of fact, remove the nine cala- mities from which he was suffering. 35 160 K. reads "p» {ivith thee) instead of nrjy {with myself). X. 1 150, 207, 249, K., read nn«rN [I will complain) instead of maiN (/ will speak). 5 176 K. reads I'D© (an hireling) instead of iri:« iniortal-num). 17, 18, 224 (after emendation), K., supply i [and) before cw (if), i.e., at the coiumencc- ment of the second clause. 72 JOB X. 8 Thy hands have carved me out, and made me, And further, it was •^ • 1 1 strange that the Cre- And yet altogether on every side thou destroyest ator should destroy •^ ° "^ -^ that work which He me ! had been at the pains , 1 I 1 1 11 i.1 of creating, and that 9 O remember now, that thou madest me as tne that God who had , so curiously formed clay, him, and given him And yet thou bringest me back to dust ! £^ shouidTirihe 10 Didst not thou pom- me out as milk, SingThi^Xot And curdle me like cheese, sale destruction upon 11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And fence me with bones and sinews ? 12 [In giving] life, and [in] kindness, hast thou dealt with me ; And thy care hath preserved my spirit. 13 Yet didst thou treasure up these [evils] in thine I know that this was with thee. [heart ; 14 If I have sinned, thou hast marked me. And wilt not acquit me of mine iniquity. 15 If I be guilty, woe is unto me ! And [if] I be innocent, I cannot raise my head. Being fuU of shame, and sensible of my misery. 16 And [if] it did hold itself up, as a lion wouldest doing, he woliid only ,1 ■, , provoke God to in- tnOU nunt me ; Aict new evils upon And wouldest turn again, and act wondrously gj^'^^ji^jo^^i ^lo^^ flo-aiTitsf mp *° ^^^ supposition of agamsi me. his being a culprit. 17 Thou wouldest renew thy witnesses to confront — on this account, he saw that, whether guilty or innocent, his fate was inevit- able, — and however con- scious of innocence he might be, he dared And multiply thy vexation with me ; [me, A host of reinforcements [would be] upon me. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB X. 9. 11 15 111 K. supplies the definite article Ji before "iQy {dust). 18, 76, 223, K., read mn'jsi (and bones) instead of mossa {with hones). Many MSS., K., read D instead of HJ in '3D3iun {fence me) ; this is immaterial. 414 De R. reads 'npT? c«i {and if I he innocent) instead of ^'npT*^ {and [if] I he innocent). 16 17 30 K. substitutes n for x in NVonn {thou woiddest — act loondrously) ; this is im- material. 163 K. omits nj2 (before me, or, to con- front me). Many MSS., K., read D instead of ^ in 1«33>3 {thy vexation) ; this is immaterial. 80, 180, 250, K., read 'to^ instead of '03> {ivith me, or, ujmn me) in either case. JOB X. 18. 73 18 Why then didst thou bring me forth from the — Under such cir- , „ cumstances, ho won- WOmb I^ ders that God had I- 1 , 1 • 1 1 11 not removed him at might nave expu'ed, and no eye had seen me ; hig buth : 19 1 might have been as though I had not been ; I might have been borne from the belly to the grave. 20 Are not my days a few? Let Him leave me — and he condudcs , hy thinking that God alone, ought to allow him a Let Him put off from me, that I may brighten up shortly lie °mu^st^*^gj m"nrT li. r i'l±i to the unbroken dark- 21 iJeiore 1 go, and return no more, [a little ness of the grave. To a land of darkness, and of the shadow-of- death, — 22 A land of gloom, like thick-darkness itself, — Of the shadow-of-death without intermission. And it shineth like thick-darkness itself. XL 1. — T/ien ansiuered Zophar the NaamatJiite, and ^ophar's first dis- course. said, 2 Shall not the multitude of words be answered ? Job perhaps chuc- kles at the idea that And is a great talker to be justified? much talk argues hun * . / M I right and pure, and 3 Thy iictions are to put men to silence ! is incapable of an- And thou art to laugh, and no one put [thee] to shame ! 4 And thou art to say, " My doctrine is pure. And I have been clean in thine eyes ! " 5 But 0 that God had indeed spoken ! — But God, if He And that He would open his lips with thee ! cmUd soon s^how hin^ VARIOUS READINGS, JOB X. 18 18 145 K. reads »^3« (J mitjlit have been cut down) instead of »i3« {I might have exjiired). 118 K. reads hnti (^had seen) instead of ':N"in (had seen me). 19 34 K. reads tin i«i vh o'bbiyD {as infants that never saw light) (so chap. iii. 16) instead of "j^in ^■ypb ]Tiao (/ might have hecn home from the bcllg to the grave). 20 The Keri, and very many MSS., K., and De R., read ''^^^ {leave Tme] then alone) instead of ^"^ {let him leave [me] alone); 128, 207, 489,494,495, K., read ''^^ {leave [me] alone). The Keri, and most MSS., K., and De R., read n'\iJi {and put) instead of rra* {let him 2)tit). 21 223 K. omits V« {a land). XI. 2 223 K. supplies i {and) before vb {not). 74 JOB XI. 6. 6 And show unto tliee hidden things of wisdom ; For reahty and notion are double folds, And God deceiveth thee because of thine iniquity. 7 Canst thou, [by] searching, find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? 8 Heights of heavens ! what canst thou do ? Deeper than hell ! what canst thou know ? 9 The measm'e of it is longer than the earth, And it is broader than the sea. 10 If He rush at, and shut [one] up, And call out the public, who can hinder Him ? 1 1 For He at least knoweth vain men ; And He seeth wickedness, though [one] thinketh 12 For hollow man is full of heart, [it not. And man is born a wild ass's colt. 13 But if thou have prepared thine heart, Then spread out the palms of thy hands towards Him. [away ; 14 If there be wickedness in thine hand, put it far And let not iniquity dwell in thy tabernacles. 15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, And thou shalt be solid, and shalt not fear ; 16 For thou shalt forget misery. As waters that have passed away shalt thou remember [it]. that actual fact and mere notion are two distinct things, one being an outer, and so a deceiving, the other an inward, fold. Job was mistaken if he thought to dis- cover God's reasons and purposes ; there was a height and depth and length and breadth too illimit- able for him to reach ; — — and if that God wlio can detect secret wickedness (though the man, with his natural pluck and wildness, thinks not so) chooses to make an example of the offender, who is to hinder him ? If Job, however, would but turn to God with clean heart and hands, he would cease to feel dis- graced ; he would be bold, for his troubles would be forgotten; and — • VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XI. 7. 17, 163, 170, K., supply i {and) before d« (interrogative). 95 K. reads D'Ois (heavens) instead of 'ittJ {Almighty) ; in this case the translation would be. Canst thou find [A?m] at the confines of the heavens ? 34 K. inserts between this and the former verse ^ y^yc 'my nh^ diih' p nnD >12^ \D'n {behold He hreaketh down, and it shall not he built; lie shutteth up a man, and who shall open f). 10 153 Iv. reads ri^'^n^ ([if] he change) instead of ^'^^ ( [if] he rush at). 11 191 K. omits '3 {for). 12 76 K. reads aia"? instead of 2123; the meaning is probably the same in both cases — hollow. 13 252 K. omits the whole verse. 76 K. supplies the particle n« before "ji^ {thine heart) ; this is immaterial. 14 Very many MSS., K., and De R., read •jbriKa {in thy tabernacle) instead of ■pbrtxi {in thy tabernacles). JOB XL 17. 75 17 And [thine] age sliall rise more [bright] tlian the noontide : [shalt thou be. [Though] wrapped in gloom, as the morning 18 And thou shalt be confident, for there shall be hope ; Though thou hast blushed, thou shalt lie down in confidence. 19 Yea, thou shalt couch, and none shall scare thee And many shall stroke thy face. [up ; 20 But the eyes of the wicked shall pine. For refuge hath disappeared from them. And their hope is like the expiring of life. — a dawu of happi- ness of more than meridian splendour woukl succeed his night of sorrow; — — he would have a hope that maketh not ashamed ; and ho would be undis- turbed and caressed. — Not so, however, the wicked, whose hope positively dies. Xll. 1. — And Job answered, and said, 2 No doubt but ye are the people ; And wisdom shall die with you. 3 I, too, have mind as well as you ; I fall not [short] of you ^ And who hath not such things as these ? 4 I am [one that is] a laughing-stock to his friend ; [A man] that calleth upon God, and whom He will answer 1 A just, an upright man is a laughing-stock ! 5 E lantern,— contemptitile to tije tjinitinsgi of i)im tf)at \% secure, $s sot reatrfi for tjose bjl^o are of faltering foot. JoVs third discourse. His disputants are of course the embodi- ment of wisdom ; yet he considers himself, and any one else, quite as wise as they. They jeer at and despise him for his piety ; but, as the old proverb shows, they may yet be glad of his services. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XI. 17. 17 48 K. omits t [and) at the commence- ment of the first clause. 554, 589, 715, De R., read noi-n [(/loom) instead of nssri [icrajjped in gloom). 80, 111, K., 59, 249, 341, and many other MSS., De R., read ip33 {in the morn- ing) instead of ip33 {as the morning). XII. 18 K. supplies 'TOT (/ hnoiv) before o [hut, ox, that). 118 K. reads pin:? (« laughing-stock) instead of pirra ; this difference of spelling does not affect the mean- ing. 874 (before emendation) De R. reads tie"? {^for him that is vexed, or, dead (?) [there is contempt]) instead of td"? [a lantern). 33, 193, 196, 275, 304, 341, and many other MSS., De R., read mnttJ?"? [to the thinking) instead of nin'to'j {jto the thinkings). 76 JOB XIT. 6. 6 Tabernacles are safe for ravagers ; And full security is for those that provoke God ; To whom God bringeth [revenue] with his own hand. 7 But ask now any beast, and it shall teach thee ; And the fowl of the heavens, and it shall tell thee ; 8 Or address the earth, and it shall teach thee ; And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. 9 Who hath not known by every one of these That the hand of the Eternal hath made this. 10 In whose hand is the soul of all living. And the spirit of the flesh of all men. 11 Doth not the ear try verse. As the palate tasteth food for itself? 12 With the hoary is wisdom. And length of days is understanding. 13 With God is wisdom and power. Counsel and understanding are his., 14 Behold, He breaketh down, and it shall not be built ; He shutteth up a man, and it shall not be opened. 15 Behold, He withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; And He sendeth them forth, and they overturn the dry land. [They talk about] safety and prosperity, but these blessings are for freebooters [and not for him], — — and they might observe that, in all the kingdoms of the brute creation, the same principle holds good [the most ra- pacious are the most secure], by the providence of that God who made them all equally with man. It is only natu- ral that he should judge for himself ; and so, though he admits that old age and wisdom may be closely allied, yet he considers that God being powerful as well as wise, does what He pleases, and that his mode of pro- ceeding, with men or the natural world at large, cannot be re- ferred to any observ- able law ; whilst ex- perience confirms the fact of his so acting according to his own pleasure. 10 11 12 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XII. 9. 48 K. reads cs' {if) instead of 'o (who). 309, .562, 603 (all, marg.), 224, 228, 301, 476, K., 593, 801 (before emenda- tion), De R., read rribx (God), instead of nw (the Eternal). 180 K. omits the whole of this verse. 80, 94, 259, 384, K., read D'bn [verse) instead of f^'a • this difference in the spelling is immaterial. 48 (before emendation) K. reads □'©"'©^D {from ilie lioary) instead of D'm'ffiu (jrith the hoary). 13 157 K. omits the whole verse. 201 A. K. reads n'ffiin {reality) instead of nmm (and tender statidiny). 14 76 K. reads 1'« {how) instead of jn {behold). 32 K. reads Tao' {he shutteth up) instead of iJD'; this change of conjugation does not affect the mean- ing. \o 32, 192, 141 (apparently), K., read iffii"! {and they dry up) instead of lUJi'i ; this difference of spelling is imma- terial. JOB XII. IG. 77 10 With riim is strength and reaUty; The misled and the misleader are his. 17 He marcheth off counsellors stripped; And He maketh judges fools. 18 He looseth the authority of kings, And He bindeth a girdle on their loins. 1 9 He marcheth off priests stripped ; And He overthroweth heroes. 20 He removeth the lip from the trusty ; And He taketh away the judgment of the aged. 21 He poureth contempt upon nobles • And He looseneth the belt of the impetuous. 22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness ; And He bringeth to light the shadow-of- death. 23 He enlargeth the nations, and destroy eth them ; He spreadeth out the nations, and carrieth them off. [land, 24 He depriveth of sense the chiefs of the people of 3, And He causeth them to wander in a desert without 25 They grope in darkness, without light ; [a Avay. And He causeth them to wander as the drunkard. XIH. 1. — Lo ! all [this] hath mine eye seen ; Mine ear hath heard, and been attentive to it. — God both can and does; and so He often deprives the greatest of the very tilings aboixt which they most prided tliemsclves ; whether they be ministers of state, or judges, or kings, or hierarchs, or heroes, or senators, or noblemen, or war- riors. — ITe reveals the se- crets of closets, ag- grandises and then destroys nations, and suH'ers a people to get into inextricable difficulties through the folly of its rulers. — Such was his [Job's] experience, and it argued him VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XII. 16. 16 19 23 100, 245, K,, read na© instead of Ja»; the meaning is misled, in either case. 93, 191, K., 1012, De R., read Dn':nw {and — tJieh- heroes) instead of d'^h^ni {cmd — heroes). 259 K. reads pto' (Jte removeth ; this is a Chaldaic word) instead of fl''D' {he overthroweth). 275, 319, 447, 559, 587, 847, 380 (before emendation), 597 (after emen- dation), De R., read N'jtfp instead of N'jton (lie enlargeth) ; this difference of spelling is immaterial. 160 (marg.* 196, 249, 383, 603, K., read o'^din'' {peoples) instead of the second d'ij'' {the nations). 24 150 K. reads "inro {as [in] a desert) instead of inna (m a desert). XIII. 1 100, 125, 166, 196, 249, 252, 603, 224 (appai-ently), 245 (after emendation), K., 368, 587, and many oilier MSS., De R., supply '^'^^ {these things) after to {all) ; 715 (before emendation) De R. reads n'?« {these things), but omits to {all); 349 (before emendation) De R. reads nwi to {all this). 158 K. reads pni instead of pm ; in either case the meaning is, been attentive. 3 (before emendation) Iv. reads ''"' {for myself) instead of nb {to it). 78 JOB XIIL 2. 2 What ye know, I also have known -, I fall not f short] of you. 3 But I will speak unto the Almighty, And I do choose to argue with God : 4 For any how, ye are glossers of falsehood ; Physicians of a non-entity are ye all. 5 O that ye would be altogether silent ! And it would be [counted] to you for wisdom. 6 Hear now my argument, And listen to the pleadings of my lips. 7 Will ye speak iniquitously for God ? And will ye speak fallaciously for Him ? 8 Will ye show Him personal favor ? Will ye plead for God ? 9 Would it be well that He should search you out ? Can ye impose upon Him, as one may impose upon 10 He will most certainly reprove you, [man? If ye covertly show personal favor. 11 Shall not his majesty make you afraid? And shall not the dread of Him fall upon you ? 12 Your memorandums are parables of ashes ; Heaps of clay are your heaps. 13 Be silent [and hold oflP] from me, and myself will And let come upon me Avhat [will]. [speak. 14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth ? And put my own life in my hand ? not iuferior to his fricuds. — At all events, he would now argue with God [and not •with them], for they were mere embel- lishers and patchers up of false principles, and would best show their wisdom by si- lence. He would earnestly press upon them the consideration as to how far they could justify the hypociisy of speaking against their convictions of what was right and wrong, under pre- tence of defending God's cause, or how they could think to hoax God by such conduct ; — — and whether they ought not to be more under the influence of Divine fear : — — and then as to their heaps of pro- verbs, these were mere rubbish; [on all these accounts, therefore] they had best be silent. It might appear all but a suicidal act that he should ven- VARIOUS READINGS 111 K. supplies ]3 {so) before TiyT (J have known). 32 K, supplies ''3 {fo7') at the commencement of the second hemistich. 166, 225, K., read Dbi«i instead of dViw; in either case but expresses the meaning. 180, 191, K., omit '^^ (/, emphatic). Most MSS., K., and De R., read W« instead of ^"JW; a mere difference of spelling ; the meaning is, a non-entity. 76 K. omits "J {for) before nD3n(?(;tWoOT). 10 14 JOB XIIL 2. 2, 30, K., supplies "i {a7id) at the com- mencement of the second hemistich. 102, 147, K., read '3 {for) instead of CN (the interrogation). 150 K. reads 3 {as) instead of 2 {iqwn) before lEi^x {i)um). 76 K, omits the final ) in ]i>Jcn; this does not affect the sense. 422 K. omits hq-'js? {why). 32, 554, 715, 942, 1 (before emendation, foreign MS.), De R., read 'bs {my hands) in- stead of 'S3 {mij hand). JOB XIII. 15. 79 1 5 Though He should slay me, I will not wait ; ture to maintain his innocence before I will certainly defend my own ways before Ilim. God; but he win . , , , .,, , , . do BO at any risk, IG Ay 1 and that will be a salvation unto mc; and at once; and it proved at least lu3 consciousness of up- rightness. He wishes them to note the declara- tion he makes (be- cause assured of suc- cess) of his determi- nation to litigate with God, whether as plaintiff or de- fendant, begging for two provisoes only : —1st, that God would remove his allliction ; and 2dly, that God would not overawe him with his majesty. Eor an ungodly man cometh not before Him. 1 7 Hear ye attentively my verse, And my declaration with your ears. 18 Behold now, I have opened the proceedings ; I know that I shall be justified. 19 0 that He would contend with me ! For should I now be silent, I should expire. 20 Only do not two things with me ; Then will I not hide myself from thy face. 21 Put far away thine hand from off me ; And let not the dread of thee make me afraid. 22 Summon then, and I will answer ; Or I wiU speak, and reply thou unto me. 23 How many are my iniquities and my sins ? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. 24 Wherefore hid est thou thy face? And accountest me as thine enemy ? 25 Dost thou agitate a driven leaf? Or pursue the dry stubble ? 26 For thou writest bitter things against me, — for God was pro- _ " _ _ _ nouncing a bitter And makest me to inherit the iniquities of my sentence against him, and was executing it youth. BO severely, that ho . , , p • 11 (Job) was gradually 27 And thou puttest my leet into the clog, perishing under the . T 1 J n ,1 re L relentless treatment. And guardest all my paths ; [leet. Thou makest thy incisions upon the nerves of my Let God mform him what his mis- deeds were, and otherwise account for the strangeness of his deaUngs with him, — 15 20 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XIII. 15. 25 The Keri, and very many MSS., K., and De R., read "^ {in him) instead of vh {not). 48 K. reads instead Vjn {on him). 198 K. reads 'w instead of ''Nj this is immaterial. 150 K. reads "^eco {my trial) instead of tCEffin {the trial, or the procccdintjs). 95 K. supplies '3 {for) before w {then). 18 K. reads fTC?n {dost thou break) instead of V''"'^''^ if^°^^ '^"^ ^0^' tate). 27 253 K. reads "pi {in a thichet) instead of 1D3 (into the clorj). 248 K. omits ■js {all). 1, 76, 188, 201, K., supply 1 {and) before the commencement of the third clause. 80 JOB XIII. 28. 28 And he as a rotten thing consumeth ; As a garment which the moth hath eaten. XIV. 1 . — Man, born of woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble. 2 ■ He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down ; And he fleeth like a shadow, and stayeth not. 3 And yet, on such an one thou openest thine eyes ; And me thou bringest into judgment with thyself ! 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an, unclean ? Not one ! 5 Seeing that his days are determined, [That] the number of his months is with thee, [That] thou hast set him his bound which he shall not pass, 6 Look away from him, that he may pause, Until, as an hireling, he shall enjoy his [pay-]day. 7 Por there doth exist hope for the tree, If it be cut down, that it will renew, And that its sucker will not cease : Man, the child of woman, is full of cares, short-Uved as a flower, and un- stable as a shadow ; why, then, should God be so observant of his sins, which, moreover, are attri- butable to the fault of his nature — — and since God has definitely fixed his term of service, why should he not be allowed some Httle rest from toil before his final repose in the grave — — and the more so as there is no such hope for a man as there is for a tree : the latter, if cut VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XIII. 28. 28 30 K. omits 3 {as) in the fii'st clause. XIV. 1 253 K. reads nic« (construct state, but put for absolute) instead of niax {iDoman) ; this does not affect the meaning. 3 191, 245, K., read ^ve\ instead of t^«; I consider the meaning to be and yet in either case. 259 K. reads "[nh? in- stead of IP'S ; in either case, with thy- self. 4 17 K. omits the whole verse. 5 150 K. supplies, in the beginning of the verse, "[''m iNani nd'j::© Nono ^n' 'q T\S' inN, Who can bring [a clean thing] out of an unclean, which hath made itself unclean by its sin, and hath toalJced after its imayination ? This has been manifestly interpolated by a hand that was no friend to the doctrine of original sin. The sentiment here put into Job's mouth is the purest Pelagianism. 119 K. reads D'^nn instead of cann; in both cases the meaning is, decided upon, or determined. The Keri, and many MSS., K., read vpn (his bounds) instead of V" {his bound). 196 K. reads iDi" xbi (and he shall not stay) instead of lay vb^ (tchich he shall not pass). 245 K. reads "Jim instead of ''in^i ; this does not materially affect the sense, which, in either case, is, that he may patise. 147 K. reads n.sT (he shall see) instead of nST (he shall enjoy). 384 K. omits the whole verse. 1 01 K. reads «an (will — go forth) instead of binn (will — cease). JOB XIV. 8. 81 8 Though its root wax old in the earth, And its stump die in the dust ; 9 Tlu-ough the reek of water will it sprout, It will yield a crop just as a [new] plant. 10 But man dieth, and is prostrate ; Yea, man expireth, and where is he ? 1 1 Waters have run off from a lake, And a river will parch and dry up : 12 So man lietli down, and shall not arise : Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused up out of their sleep. 13 0 that thou wouldest secrete me in the grave, Wouldest hide me, till thine anger had turned away, Wouldest appoint me a set time, and then re- member me ! 14 [But,] if a man die, shall he live? All the days of my term of soldiership will I wait. Until my renovation come. 15 Thou shalt summon, and I will answer thee; After the work of thine hands Avilt thou hanker. 16 Though now thou numberest my steps. Thou wilt not keep watch over my sin ; 17 [Though] my transgression is sealed up in a bag. Thou wilt smear over mine iniquity. down, and even if its stump die, may again grow to matu- rity, but tlie former, however strong, when once dead, has no such innate vigor, but rather, hke water that has gone from its place, he also is gone, and can return no more whilst the heavens last. All, then, that he (Job) desired was, that God would hide him in the grave till his anger was turned away — — for as to the ques- tion of man's immor- tality, he [felt no dif- ficulty about it, and so], would await his renovation, when God would call him to judgment, but only to acquit iiim ; for though his judge seemed to be reserv- ing his sins against the day of account, yet lie would surely obliterate them before that period came — 10 13 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XIV. 8. 32 K. reads lOi"! in (o7- — in the dust) in- stead of icy^T {and— in the dust). 80 be- (fore emendation) K. reads iin: instead of wu {its stump) ; tiiis is immaterial, t and T being interchangeable letters. 170 K. omits v«i {and tchere is he) ; 574 De R. reads, instead of this, ]'ni {and he is not), 82 K. reads 2© (pra^terite) instead of 31© (infinitive) ; in either case the meaning is, had turned away. 14 15 IG 150 K. reads rrnn {doth he live) instead of rrn'H {shall he live). Very many MSS., K., read n3 instead of ni3 {come) ; this is immaterial. 155, 248, 80 (before emendation), K., read narn (/ will answer) instead of "I^i-M {I will ansicer thee). 593 (before emendation) De R. reads nn« {tlioii, emphatic) instead of r^ro {nine). Some MSS., K., supply i {and, or yet) before the second hemistich. G 82 JOB XIV. 18. the strongest things in nature are whether so man, so far as this world is concerned, is brought by God 1 8 For, otherwise, [as] a mountain falling will decay, _ [and indeed thera i J 1 •n r '4. ^ is no other hope for And a rock will remove irom its place ; u-,an than this], for 19 [As] waters have worn away stones, [As] its own floodings will sweep away the soil of J^^^^j^^^^'^,^ J^^^ the earth ; So hast thou destroyed the hope of man. , to utter destruction ; 20 To the last thou overpowerest him, and he goeth ; at death aii con- nexion between him Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him and this world is severed, and [in the away. case supposed] he is 21 His sons get honored, and he knoweth [it] not; own utto mi'iry. And they get small, and he doth not heed them : 22 [He heedeth] only that, as regards himself, his flesh is in pain ; And that, as regards himself, his soul mourneth. XV. 1. — T/ieti ansicered Elipliaz the Temanite, and Second discourse of . -, Eliphaz. said, 2 Will a wise man answer with windy knowledge. And will he fill his belly with the east wind ; 3 Arguing on with talk that is of no service, And with verse in which there is no profit ? 4 Nay, more, thou makest void religion. And shearest down devotion before God : 5 For thine own mouth teacheth thine iniquity. Although thou choosest the tongue of the crafty ; G Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I, And thine own lips bear witness against thee. He is certain that no wise man would go on arguing to no purpose ; but Job did more, for there was an irreligious tendency in his ar- guments, howevei* cleverly disguised ; and, indeed, this in itself condemnedhim. 19 20 21 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XIV. 19. 22 18 K. omits fM {only). 18 K. supplies the definite article n before px {earth) ; this is immaterial. 100 K. supplies a paragogic n to m2«n {thou hast destroyed) ; this is unim- portant, though unusual in theprseterite. 245 K.. supplies i {and) at the com- mencement of this verse. Ill K. reads iiSD^i {and they are tossed about), instead of iiJ^an {and they get small). XV. 80 K. reads 3 {as), instead of 3 {with) before im {talk). 32 K. supplies '•EDffio {the Judgments of) before n«T {religion). 80 (before emendation) K. reads 'o {who) instead of "^ {for). JOB XV. 7. 83 7 Wast thou born the first man ? And wast thou brought forth before the hills ? 8 Hast thou been listenmg in God's council ? And shearing wisdom to thine own self? 9 What hast thou known that we know not ? [What] understandest thou, and we are not con- versant with it ? 10 Amongst us is the hoary, and also the ancient, Greater in days than thy father. 11 Are the consolations of these too small for thee ? And a word with thee in gentleness ? 12 How thine heart taketh thee away ! And how thine eyes wink ! 13 For against God thou drawest thy breath, And hast brought forth verse from thy mouth. 14 What is mortal-man that he should be clean ? And one born of woman, that he shoidd be righteous ? 1 5 Behold He putteth no trust in his holy ones ; And in his eyes the heavens are not clean. IG How much less what is abominable and filthy, — Man that drinketh iniquity like water. He would ask Job whetlicr it was on the ground of priority of existence, or of a quasi-Divinity, that he assumed a mono- poly of wisdom ; and he challenges him to show wherein he had made good that claim ; — — it certainly was no proof of wisdom that he had set himself above the friendly words of men who were considerably his seniors ; and, indeed, Job in liis impulse and self- conceit had been speaking directly against God. — — and liow could ho suppose that man who is so weak, so fUthy, and with such a tliirst for sin, could be otherwise than unclean in the eyes of God, who sees defect even in hea- venly beings and things? VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XV. 7. 11 12 201 K. omits the whole verse. The Masora notes, and most of the MSS., K. consent, — that the ' in puj^ton {the Jirst) is superfluous. 158 (before emen- dation) K. reads nbbin {tvast thou cele- Irated), instead of nbbin {wast thou brought forth). 200 K. supplies nnsn (tvisdom) before sown ; in that case the meaning will be, — hast thou heard wisdom, Sfc. 76, 137, K. read nnn:n {consolation), in- stead of moiTOn (consolations) ; the two words are of different forms. 92, 157, K. omit the whole verse. 17, 32, K. read w (or), instead of i (and), before to {hotv). 1, 30, 192, K. 379, 780, De R., read praT instead of ^lon' (wink) ; this transposition of letters is immaterial; the former is the known form. 89 K. reads raT (in the sing, number). 13 3, 18, 76, 80, and other MSS., K., read d'Vo (verse) instead of f^o ; this is immaterial. 14 95, 170, K. read not {and how) instead of '31 (and— that). 15 The Keri, and many MSS., K. read v©ip3 {in his holy ones) instead of icipa (in his holy place) ; possibly this last may be the true reading ; the paral- lelism would thus be better pre- served. G 2 84 JOB XV. 17. 17 I will declare to tliee ; hearken unto me ; For this have I seen, and I will relate [it] ; 18 Which wise men have mentioned, If Job will listen, Tie ■will now recite AN ANCIENT LAY, handed down from some of the And, [as handed] from their fathers, have not kept ^^^ '^^^^ '^^ ^^-^^ 20 back uncorrupted teachers of religion. 19 Unto whom alone the land was given, And in the midst of whom no stranger passed. Cbe Uiicketi 10 U^ oton tormentor all \m [it says that] the couscience of a On^ly > wicked man is ever anti from m tgrant 10 ftinten tfte number IwlolSwit and die by sword ; — the Of [bis] pearg. 21 a fearful Doice [faitb] m 610 ear0 ; [C6at], in peace, tbe Deflroper i0 inuatilng l)im, 22 i^e telietjetf) not tbat fie fljall return out of t)arknef0 ; iBut tbat j)e i0 toatcben for tbe ftoorD. -if, by flight, he 23 9np tobere toanneretb be about for brean ; swrrd'o?iheTem/, i&e knotoetb tbat tbe na^ of r)aranef0 10 wjnt''an%nemy '^ xzm at bi0 bann. SSbt "' " "" 24 Diflref0 anD anguifl) make bim afraiD, Like a king reatip for tbe rout tbep out-- poUier bim. 17 20 22 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XV. 17. 240 K. omits the n paragogic in mi3D«i (and I will relate) ; this is imma- terial. 379 De R. reads vdu? (Ms years) instead of D'auj (years). 207 K. reads yoN' (he is [not] alert) instead of ]'D«' (he believeth). I, 18, 33, 34, and many other MSS., K. and De R. read 'Iesi instead of iQSi (but that he is watched) ; this is immaterial; the former is the more correct form. 191 K. reads 'bs instead of ''j.v; in either case for. 196 K. supi^lies i (and) before H'^n (any- where). 245 K. omits '3 s?t (he Jcnoweth that). 24 349, 379, 230 (before emendation), De R., read 3 instead of o before ~p'o (a king) ; in either case the meaning is like. 32 K., 587 De R., read n"n3b in- stead of "iiTib (for the rout) ; this dif- ference in the spelling is immaterial ; 235, 240 K. read "nob ; this again is an unimportant difference; 157 (before emendation) K., 737, 924, 379 (be- fore emendation), De R., read niT3b (for the clash (?) ) JOB XV. 25. 85 JFot f)e f)atJ flcctcften out fjis ftanti againli (Sod, ano againft tbe aimigfttp toas placing: tfte f)eto; ^e toas tunning: upon f)im toitb [out^ flretcbeo] neck, With tU tf)icfenef0 of tfte bolTes of bis tuclilerg* Cl)ougf) i)e cotjcreo Sis face toitf) ftis fat^ nef0, ano teas making: collops of fat upon fiis flanfes ; get fljall f)t inhabit Oeliropeo cities ; iJ)oufes toberein no man Otoelletf), ^bicb are reaDg to [become] beaps, I^e ftall not be ricb, neither Sijall bis fub-- fiance enoure; j^eitber (ball tbe offset of fucb erteno in tbe eartb- J&e (ball not Depart out of Darknefs; Cbe flalb (ball org up bis fucker, anD bg tbe breatb of aoD's moutb (ball be Depart, Tliis is the conse- quence of his having braved and even fought against God ; but well armed as he fancied himself to be, and secure in his pi'osperity, he will have to take up his abode in the ruins of destroyed cities ; — — and his end shall be that of a tree which can never floui'ish, or propagate its kind, if once the thunder - bolts of heaven have shorn it, and tlic stormy wind have over- turned it. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XV. 25. 7G K. supplies nrao ([with] a cover- ing (?) ) before ii^n' {loas itlaying the herd). 207 K. omits the ■• in '35fi {loith the thickness) ; this is probably imma- terial; 34, 368, 412, 554, and other MSB., De R., read 'i»2 {loith the co- verings). 76 K. reads f]D3 (silver) instead of "703 (Jlanhs). 245 K. supplies i {and) before D'na {houses). 80 K. omits the ^ {to) pre- fixed to uh-i. {heaps). 29 248 K. reads n2T {shall — increase) in- stead of Dip' {shall— endure). 207 K. reads ^yo {the offset) instead of 0^:0 {their offset); 380 De R. reads nb^n {their fold); 145 K. reads D>b:^ (off. sets) (see the note on this word). 30 259 K. reads 11?'% or rather, as De Rossi remarks, Tip*^ {and — shall he bur?}), instead of "^id'i {and — shall he depart). 86 JOB XV. 31. 31 Let none tcuCt in tfje tjanitg [tofterebp] tt iis milleD ; ifor uanitg lliall hz W targam : 32 3it fljall tje paiD in full fiefore t)i5 time, ann f)is tjcancf) Cball not be flourif&ins* 33 ^e ftall toting off l)i0 oton four grape as tbe t)ine ; ann ftall call off W oton iJloffom as tbe olitje. 34 jror tbe clan of tfte ungotilp ftall be barren; anD fire ftall netjour tbe tabernacles! of bribery. 35 Cbep go on conceiving trouble, anti giving birtb to Danitp ; ann tbeir bellp frametb Deception. THE MORAL is that vanity is ever repaid with vauity ; so that he who trusts in it shall bring nothing good to maturity, and shall ever §nd that trouble and disappointment are the true offspring of irreligion and bribery. XVI. 1. — T/ien Job answered, and said, 2 I have heard many things such as these : Troublesome comforters are ye all. 3 Is there any end to words of wind ? Or what teaseth thee that thou answerest ? 4 I also, as you, would speak, If only your selves were in my self's stead ; Job' s fourth dis- course. He objects that the statements of his friends are stale, and their topics of consolation topics of trouble ; — — [for] if they could but exchange places with him, they would 31 33 34 VARIOUS READINGS, The Keri, and very many MSS. K. and De R. read «t>153 (in the vanity), instead of id ; this is immaterial ; 35 95 K., 737 (before emendation), De R. read i«J3 {f^esh) instead of y^"^, i.e., let no Jlbsh that is misled fntst. 191 K. supplies "i (atid) before onn' (he shall ii-ring off). Ill, 226, 248, 253, K., 331, 597, 715, G67 (before emenda- tion), De R., read nttJi (his oton Jlesh) instead of "i"iD2 (his own sour grape). 244 (before emendation) De R. reads mob: instead of "nnb: (barren) ; this 3 difference consists only in the Arabic 4 pronunciation of the \ 48 K. reads JOB XV. 31. "ibn« (his tabernacle) instead of '"'nx (the tabernuclcs), 593, 715, De R., instead of iVi (and giving birth to), read i^;') (ajtd hath given birth to) ; and 589 De R. reads i]:} (and shall give birth to). 2, 180, K., read ip® (falsehood) instead of )"i« (ranitg). XVI. 147 K. supplies ''in (vanity) after 'TDnjD (comforters). 259 K. reads i (and) instead of in (or). 260 K. reads loo (as [with]) instead of im (with) before 'ii5«T (my head). JOB XVI. 5. 87 I would combine against you with verse, And would nod at you with ray head ; 5 I would harden you with my mouth, And my lips would be sparing of condolence. G If I should speak, my pain would not be assuaged ; And if I should forbear, what [of it] would leave me? 7 Surely now he hath tired me out ; Thou hast desolated all my clan, and tied me up .- 8 It became a witness, and rose up against me ; My leanness testifieth to my face ; 9 His wrath hath torn to pieces and he spiteth me. He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth ; Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10 They have gaped at me with their mouth ; My cheeks have they smitten with reproach ; They muster against me in fidl force. 11 God hath shut me up in [the power of] an un- godly man, And thrown me over into the hands of the wicked. 12 I was at ease, but he smashed me. And seized me by the neck, and dashed me ; And set me up as a mark for himself. find that he too •nould but aggravate them [in the use of Buch topics], and that in that case, whether they spoke, or wlictlicr they were silent, their pain would be as unmiti- gated as ever. EHphaz had indeed at length tired him, having doomed him and his, and made his sorrows an argu- ment of his giiilt. The rage of Eliphaz was that of a wild beast, — — and indeed of hke character was the conduct of all hia friends : — — it was Grod, how- ever, who had thus handed him over to the wicked, and who having ill-used him, had made him an object of attack to them, and so terribly had God's instru- ments executed his work, — Vx\RIOUS READINGS, JOB XVI. 5. 17, 18, and many other MSS., K., read DDU'DN« instead of QD^nNM (7 would harden you) ; this is immaterial. 237 K. omits Q« {if) before maiM (7 should speak). 80, 179, K., supply 1 {and) before the second clause in the first hemistich. 92 K. reads '3 {hut) instead of r]N {surely). 18, 30, 188, 191, 196, K., 214, 715 (after emendation), De R., read 'DOTcpm instead of ':riopm {and tied me up) ; this transposition of letters is probably unimportant, or the first of these Avords may be Chaldaic, and mean mid cut me off. 31 De R. reads ':'Qpni {and cut me off). The Targum reads '3nDi?:"i {and felled me). 8 198 K., 552 De R., read v:Da {to his face) instead of '3ca {to my face). 259 K. reads vd2 {to his moidh). 9 355 (after emendation) K. reads 'Dnn {is tearing me to jneces), instead of ^I'-i {hath torn to jneces). 10 76, 99, 153, 196, 245, 125 (before emendation), K., 596, 31, 373, (the two last before emendation), De R., omit a {with) before nrro {their mouth). 11 215 K. reads Vin (a fool) instead of Viy {an ungodly man). 12 235, 240, K read '35?SEri instead of ':23:jd'i {and dashed me) ; this does not aficct the meaning. 88 JOB XVI. 13. 13 His shooters beset me round about ; He splitteth my reins, and spareth not ; He poureth out my gall upon the ground. 14 He breacheth me, breach upon breach; He runneth upon me like a warrior. 15 1 have sewed sackcloth upon my skin ; And have abused my horn in the dust. 16 My face is inflamed by weeping, And upon mine eyelids is the shadow-of-death. 1 7 Because there is no violence in my hands. And my prayer is pure ! 18 0 earth ! cover thou not my blood ; And be there no place for my cry. 19 Ay, even now, behold, my witness is in the heavens. And my testifier is in the high places. 20 My interpreter is my friend. Unto God hath mine eye wept ; 21 And He will plead for a man with God, As a son of man [pleadeth] for his friend ; — that he (Job) had been reduced to the lowest degree of hu- mihation ; and all this forsooth because he was a pious man ! • — he prays, therefore, that the injuries he had received might be avenged, and he was confident they would, knowing that he had in heaven one who was his friend ; and who, knowing all facts, would correctly in- terpret, and would advocate his cause, even when he (Job) should have departed this life for ever. — 13 14 16 16 19 VARIOUS READINGS 223 K. reads D^nn {many) instead of vaT (Jiis shooters). The Masora notes a small y in the second V~1D (breach); it is not so in most MSS. K. The account which the Masorites give of this said small y is that, whilst Job was really suf- fering great calamities, and such as were made grounds of objection against him by his opponents, he re- garded them as stnall, and this gave him confidence that God would eventually dispose them all for liis good. The Keri, and many MSS. K, read Tioiori (plural number, masc.) instead of mman (singular number, fem.) ; the correction of the Keri is, I think, un- necessary, the noun D'3D (the face) is feminine in Ezek. xxi. 21, and is con- 20 JOB XVI. 13. strued with a verb in the sing, in Lam. iv. 16; in either case the render- ing of the word in question remains the same, — is iiiflamed. 76 K. reads nra h-2, instead of moVa {shadow-of-death) ; this is very imma- terial. 117 K. omits nnj? dj {ay, even now). 147 K. omits wn {behold) ; apparently 118 K. reads iin {co^ne now). 157, 235, K. omit D'Qffia (m the heavens). 70, 80, 100, and other MSS. K., 2, 203, 244, 304, and other MSS., De R., read nnoi instead of nrroji {and my testifier) ; this substitution of d (s) for ia (s) is immaterial. 196 K. supplies "i {and) at the com- mencement of the second hemistich. 34 K. reads 'ifs: {my soul) instead of "^'^ {mine eye). JOB XVI. 22. 89 22 When a few years shall have come, And I go the way I shall not retiu'n. XVII. i. — My sphit hath been broken : My days have been extinguished : For me are the catacombs. 2 If not, illusions beset me. And mine eye dwelleth on their pertinacity. 3 Engage, I pray thee, be surety for me with thyself ; Who else would strike hands with me ? 4 Because thou hast hidden understanding from their heart ; Therefore thou wilt not exalt [them]. 5 He that betrayeth friends to be made spoil of, The eyes of his children shall waste away. C So hath He set me up as a bye-word amongst And I am openly a subject of abuse. [people ; 7 Mine eye also is dim through vexation ; And my v/liole frame is as a shadow. — And as he knew (unless he was the victim of delusions), that the grave was now his only pro- spect, he begs his heavenly and only friend to engage to undertake for him. — As to his earthly friends, God had in- capacitated them ; one was a betrayer, and had so spoken as to make him au object of public scorn, and also to vex him, — the time, however, would come when good men judg- ing rightly of the whole case, whilst they would feel in- dignant at the con- duct of EUphaz, VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XVII. 1. XVII. 597 (before emendation) reads T^^^ (^{s sick) instead of ^^^^ {hath been broken) ; apparently 31 (before emendation), De R. reads n'?aj (hath been ivithered) 99 (before emendation) K. reads iosjh {have been, or, are enraged) instead of lariD {have been extinguished) ; 118, 166, 245 (after emendation), K. 31, 368, 380, 715, 34, 244, 349, 1012 (the four last before emendation), apparently 924 (before emendation), De R. sub- stitute T {d) for 1 {z) In this word, these being letters of the same organ renders such substitution immaterial, tlioughthe former mode of spelling is that which was in ordinary use. In 168 K. {for me) is erased. 369, 589 (before emendation), De R., read p"Vnn {deceivers or swaddlers) in- stead of D'bnn {illusions) ; in this case vh DM {if not) will have the sense of certainly. 118 K. reads moJ? {are staying) instead of 'idj? {are icith me, or beset me). 150, 95 (before emendation), K,, read •'23-13? {set me) instead of ^m? {be surety for me). 173 K. supplies m {this) after Nin -"q {who). 196 K. supplies d'od"? {openly, lit. before faces) after ':3'sn {he hath set me up). Very many MSS. K. substitute d (s) for ffi {s) in M»DO (through vexation) ; this different spelling is immaterial. Many MSS. K. and De R. read nii"-! instead of nsn {my frame) : this fuller spelling is immaterial ; 95 K. reads nisi ; the meaning remains the same, though the latter form is from iis="is\ 90 JOB XVIL 8. 8 Upright men will be amazed at this ; [migodly : And the innocent will be roused against the 9 But the righteous shall hold on his way ; And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger. 10 But as for you all, turn again now, and come on ; But I shall not find a wise man among you. 1 1 My days are passed away ; My contrivances are broken — The possessions of my heart. 12 [Yet] night put they for day ! And light near, out of very darkness ! 13 If I am to hope, the grave is my house ; I have spread my bed in the darkness. 14 To corruption, I have cried, Thou art my father ; To the worm, My mother and my sister. 1 5 Where then now is my hope ? Ay, my hope ! Who is to see it ? 16 To the cells of the grave shall it descend ; Yea, together shall we be set down on the dust. would, from his (Job's) example, be confirmed iu their own faith : — — nor were his friends likely to gain new wisdom by con- tinuing the argu- ment,— — he was a ruined man as far as thia world went, and yet they spote of pros- perity — but what had he to liope for in that point of view, seeing that he al- ready looked on the grave as his home, and on its worms as his nearest rela- tives ? — — did they question him then as to his hope? It would go with him into the grave itself, and would lie down with him there. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XVII. 8. 8 76 K. reads lois' {will fast) instead of "rac {ivill he amciMd). 10 380, 589, 242 (probably), 224, (the two last after emendation), K. 349,31, 517, (the two last before emendation), De K., read na'jD {you all) instead of n''3 (lit. them all, but which, by change of person, may be translated you nil). Some MSS. K. read ini' [let tliem come on) instead of i«2i {and come on). 249 K. reads d« {if) instead of «''i {htd — not), 196 K. puts D3n (a wise tnan) before Q32 {among you) ; this does not affect the sense; 166 K., 34 (be- fore emendation), De R. read nnn {amony them), and shorter on is the 14 15 16 reading of 244 (before emendation) DeR. 237 K. omits 'a« {tny father) ; in that case the rendering of the verse would be, — To corruption, I have cried, Thou art my mother ; and to the icorm, [^Thou art7\ my sister. 76 K. omits ^ {to) be- fore nm {the tvorm). 34 K. omits the whole verse. 191 K. omits "I {and or then) at its commence- ment. Ill, 237 K. omit 'mpm {ay, my hope !). 356 (before emendation) K. reads nnnj {it shall go dotvn) instead of nnj ([there shall be] a setting down [for us], i.e., we shall he set down). JOB XVIII. 1. 91 XVIII. 1. — TJien anstvered Bildad the Shuite, and said, 2 How long ere ye set limits to verse ? Use judgment, and afterwards let us speak. 3 Why should we be accounted as cattle ; And be unclean in each other's eyes ? 4 O thou that tearest thy self in thy wrath, For thy sake, is the earth to be deserted, And the rock removed from its place ? 5 Ay, the light of the wicked shall go out ; And the flame of his fire shall not shine. 6 The light in his tabernacle is darkened, And his lamp over him shall go out. 7 The strides of his might shall be straitened ; And his own counsel shall cast him down. 8 For he shall be sent into a net by his own feet, And shall himself walk upon the meshes. 9 The gin shall seize piim] by the heel ; The noose shall hold him fast : 10 The cord that snareth him is hidden in the ground ; And the trap that taketh him is on the pathway. Bildad'a second discourse. He regi*ets that they are all earning a reputation for stu- pidity, by not being able to terminate the controversy. Job must not think that natural laws are to be subverted in order to pacify him ; on the contrary, a wicked man shall suffer the natural consequence of liis sins; — he gets deprived of his home comforts, gets involved in sud- den difficulties by getting ensnared through his own want of circumspec- tion,— VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XVIII. 2. XVIII. 32, 250, Iv., read n3« {I pray you) in- stead of nD« {long) ; the rendering of the passage would in that case he,-^I 2n-ay you, until ye set limits, SfC, 8)'C., 137 K. reads n^2p (a snare, Arabic) in- stead of '22p {limits). 237, 240, 252 K,, substitute d {m) for ] (n) in ^V:)'? {to verse) ; this is immaterial ; 207 K. omits '^ {to) before "''o. 76 K. reads a instead of 3, before rmrii ; in either case the meaning is, — as cattle. 153 K. reads "(npys l^'o''^ {for the saJte of tliy righteousness) instead of "|:»obn (for thy sake). 95 K. sui)pHes the def. art. rt {the) before ri>< {earth) ; this is immaterial. 10 1, 34, 80, 245, K., read 2'3D {round about) instead of I'a© {the Jlame). 223, 245, K., 380 (before emendation) De R., read n'n© instead of nV^ {he shall he sent) ; this variation does not affect the sense, but the former is a somewhat unusual form of the Pual. 34 (before emendation) Ue R. omits 1 {i7ito) before nun {a net) ; if omitted, it must be understood ; 924 (before emen- dation) De R. reads 3 {as [into] ) in- stead of a {into) before nci (a net) ; 95, 170, 207, 128 (probably), K,, 2, 554, 683, 758, 953 (before emendation), De R., omit a {by) before i^jai {his ou-n feet). 179 K. supplies •>r^Tysy< {affrights him) at the end of the second hemistich. 92 JOB XVIII. 11. 11 Terrors on every side shall frighten hinij And because of his feet shall they bewilder him. 1 2 His strength shall be famished ; And destruction shall be ready at his side. 13 It shall eat the parts of his skin ; The first-born of death shall eat his parts. 14 His confidence shall be plucked out of his taber- nacle, For terror, like a king, shall march it off"; 15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle that it shall not be his own ; Brimstone shall be scattered over his homestead. 16 His roots shall Avither from beneath, And his crop shall droop from above. 17 His memory shall perish from the earth ; And he shall have no name abroad. 18 They shall drive him from light into darkness ; And from the world shall they chase him. 19 He shall have neither progeny nor race among his people ; And no residue in his places of sojourn. 20 The people of the west wiU be astonished at his day; And those of the east will be horrified. — gets terrified at his unlooked-for posi- tion, whilst a slow and lingering death is destroying hira, — — he loses all con- fidence, terrors mas- ter him, — — heaven fights against him, and then, — — withered, — — bhghted,— — ignoble, — — outlawed, a fugi- tive, and a vaga- bond,— — and childless, — — his awful end is a subject of terror and of warning to all the ■world. VARIOUS READINGS, 11 18 K. supplies '3 {for) at the com- mencement of the verse. 12 1 (foreign MS.) De R. supplies a {in) before "i:n (Jiis strength). 13 170 K. supplies i [and) before "JSX' {it shall eat). 16 14 715 (before emendation) De R. reads 3 instead of ^ before 'p'a {a king) ; in either case the meaning is, like. 379 18 De R. reads mn^a {terror) instead of ninba {terrors, i.e., great terror). 19 15 158 K. reads p«r (masc.) instead of ]iD^'n (fem.) ; in either case the mean- ing is, it shall dtcell. 48 K. reads JOB XVIII. 11. iWa {toithout him) instead of "I'J-'biD {that it shall not he his own). 155, 192, 223, K, 1, 3, 11, 57, 187, and many other MSS. De R., read Vrban ; this variation is immaterial. 32, 33, 118, 163, and other MSS. K., read i©3" instead of iwi' {shall wither) ; this is immaterial. 48 K, omits "i {atid) before the com- mencement of the second hemistich. 48 K. reads p {part) instead of p {progemj). 188 K. reads n'I instead of "NT {and no) ; this is immaterial. JOB XVIII. 21. 93 21 Surely such are the dwelHngs of the wicked; And this is the place of him [that] knoweth not God. XIX. 1. — Then Job answered, and said ^ 2 How long will ye grieve my soul, And crush me to pieces with verse ? 3 These ten times do ye disgrace me ; Ye are not ashamed that ye astound me. 4 And after all, if I have erred, With me doth mine error lodge. 5 If indeed ye will be big against me ; And argue my reproach against me : 6 Know now that God hath overset me ; And hath compassed me about with his toils. 7 Behold, I call aloud of violence, but I am not I cry out, but there is no justice. [answered; JoVs fifth discours'e. His friends are devoid of all modesty in their attacks, and seem to forget that if he had erred, he at least, and not they, must bear the con- sequences. He admits the fact on which they built their argument, that God liad indeed over- thrown him, and, so far, bad been deaf to his appeals for jus- tice,— VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XVIII. 21 21 2 K. reads Vi3? instead of^i» {the wicked) ; this is immaterial. XIX. 240 K. omits n^m-D {times). 139, 82 (before emendation), K., 244 (before emendation), De R., read iisnn (Clial- daic, ye darken me, or, Arabic, ye press upon me) instead of nDnn {ye astound me (?) ). Might not the read- ing originally have been "iiDnn {ye put to the blush)? (See the notes.) 264 K., 874, 953 (before emendation), 593 (probably), De R., read r^irtvi (ye com- bine) ; 597, 953 (after emendation), De R., read "nann {ye cut up, or ye augur) ; 1 De R. (apparently) reads TQiT\T\ {ye dig pits (?) ) ; 1 (foreign) De R. (apparently) reads nnn {ye speak [at me] ) ; 380 De R. (mai-g.) reads nsjn {ye regard [me] as a stranger); 76, 117, 223, 95 (before emendation), K., read '3 instead of '"^ {at, or to, me) ; the preposition is im- material. 117 (before emendation) K. omits ■> {and) at the commencement of the verse. 180 K. reads dni {and if) ; 18 K. reads ^« {besides); 153 K. reads fjNi {and besides) instead of on {if). 18, 32, 80, 168, 191, 235, K., reads imrjoi {and — 7ny fastness) ; in that case the clause would be, and against me he hath encomjjassed my fast- ness. 18, 30, 92, and other MSS. K., read pyiN instead of pri'N {I call aloud). This substitution of t (z) for s {ts) in the spelling is immaterial ; the latter is the more ancient, and so the more correct form. 2 (after emendation) De R. reads H]!-' {he doth [not] ansu-cr) instead of ™i-M (7 am [not] ansurrcd) ; 93 K. reads i-cco {Justice of him) instead of CQffiD {Justice). 94 JOB XIX. 8. 8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass ; — God had iiedged And upon my paths hath He set darkness. -had degraded him, am •'— had ruined him, and deprived him of all [earthly] hope, — — was treating him as an enemy, and laying siege against him, — 9 My glory hath He stripped from off me ; And He hath taken the crown from my head. 10 He hath ruined me on every side, and I going ; And my hope hath He pulled up like a tree. 1 1 He hath also kindled his anger against me ; And He maketh count of me as of his enemies 12 His battalions come in together, And bank up their way against me, And encamp round about my tabernacle. 13 My brethren hath He put far away from me ; —it was God's doing . , . . ., , „ that his brethren, And mme acquanitance are verily estranged irom kinsfolk, and for- -lA-l^T^•p^^^ i r i^ei" associates had 14 My kmsiolk have ceased ; [me : dropped his ac- And those whom I knew have forgotten me. quamtance, 15 Guests in my house, and my handmaids, count — that foreigners living in his own me a stranger ; liouse treated him T 1 c • • It • ^3 a, stranger, — i am become a toreigner m their eyes. 16 1 call to my servant, but he answereth not ; With my very mouth do I entreat him. 17 My spirit was strange to my wife ; Though I had been gracious to the children of 18 Even babes have despised me; [my bowels. If I rise, they speak at me ; — that his servant re- fused obedience, — — that his wife mis- understood him, — — that mere boys were openly disre- spectful to him, — 11 12 VARIOUS READINGS 186, 368, 554, 737, 874, 34, 593, (the two last before emendation), 1 (foreign, before emendation, apparently), De R., read "nn'n: [my path) instead of THiTi: [my j)aths). 1, 80, 111, 191, K., 379, 380, 597, 873, 953, 593, 596, 1012 (the three last before emendation), De R., read i {amongst) instead of 3 [as) before v^s {his enemies) ; 780 De R. reads vnjjo {more than his enemies). 100 K. reads Vjns'j {at his tents) instead of '^n«'7 {about my tabernacle). , JOB XIX. 8. 13 34 K. reads 'E'csn {he hath stripped off) instead of p'mrr {he hath put far away) ; 30 K. reads ip'nnn {have gone far away). 15 191 K. supplies i {and) at the com- mencement of the second clause. 16 100 K. reads '3:i" {he answereth me) ; and 34, 76, K., read norx (J cwi [not] anstcered) instead of nai" {he an- swereth). 18 173 K. reads O'Vin {fools) instead of D'Vw {babes). JOB XIX. 19. 95 19 All my intimate friends have abhorred me; And these [whom] I loved have turned against me. 20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh ; And I barely get oflP with the skin of my teeth. 21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, ye my friends, Por the hand of God hath stricken me. 22 Why do ye persecute me as God? And [why] not be satisfied with my flesh ? 23 (O that my verse might now be engraven ! 0 that it might be inscribed in the book ! 24 With a pen of iron and [with] lead, That it might be carved in the rock for ever ! 25 For I know that my Vindicator liveth, And that later He shall stand up upon the earth ; 26 And that after this my skin shall have been In my flesh I shall see God. [destroyed, 27 [AVhom] that I may see, [as] mine own ; And that mine eyes may behold, and not [as] a foe ; My reins within me pine with expectation.) 28 Because ye say, How shall we persecute him. And find a root of matter in him ? — that his dearest friends were against him, — — and that ho was reduced to a skele- ton. Seeing that God has so plagued him, ho considers he ought to have been an ob- ject of commisera- tion, and not of fur- ther persecution. [But suddenly re- membering that there is one who will vindicate his cause] he earnestly desires that the words he was about to utter might be transmitted as a lasting record to all generations ; — for he knows that he has a Vindicator — the hving God himself, whom, though he die, yet shall he see, and that, in the flesh — a consummation for wliich he was most ardently longing. — As to his perse- cuting friends, let them be afraid of the VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XIX. 19. 19 21 24 27 18, 2 (before emendation), K., read "•^ instead of '3 ; the meaning here is, againd mc, in either case. 118 (before emendation) K. reads '"« {me) instead of cnx [ye) ; 117 K. reads mrp {the Eternal) instead of t {the hand). 206 K. reads W3 [with the strength) instead of t25?2 [toith a jwn); 170 K. reads panDi [anight be insci-ihed) instead of ]i3ijn' {might he carved). 48 K. omits ':« nu;N {that I) ; 101 K. reads n"?N {Qod) instead of '^ [for myself, or mine own) ; 606 K. supplies mb.^ {God) before ''' ([as] mineoivn); 22jJ; K. omits i!<"i 'i'l""! [and mine eyes may behold) ; 245, 593, K., omit 'h'2 [imie with expectatioii) ; 378 K. reads ■js, and without points {all) ; 100 K. reads n-bo {reins) instead of 'n'ta {my reins) ; 444 K. reads 'n^D (/ «?« con- sumed) ; 76 K. omits V"3 {in my bosom, i.e., within me) ; 207 K. reads ^pT^'^ {by his appointment). 28 528 K.* supplies i {and) before '3 {be- cause) ; 157 K. omits hd Tio«n {ye say, h'jic) ; 497 K. omits i"? {him) in the first clause ; 235 K. reads "^n {God) ; 531 K. (probably) reads '"J (me) ; 166 K. omits the whole of the second clause ; 30 K. reads i^i {his words) instead of 131 {a word, or matter) ; most of the INISS. K. and De R. read ia {in him) instead of 'i {in mc)\ this reading I have adopted. 96 JOB XIX. 29. 29 Pear for yourselves, because of the sword, (For the wrath [due to] iniquity is the sword) ; In order ye may know that there is a judgment. sword of that Yindi- cator, and let them be assured that there is to be a judgment. XX. 1. — T//en answered Zopliar the Naamathite, and Zophar's second dis . course. said, 2 Therefore shall my thoughts reply for me ; And because of my hastiness that is in me : 3 I hear a reprimand disgraceful to me ; So the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me. 4 Is it from of old thou hast known this, TVom the placing of man on the earth ? 0 But the joyousness of the wicked is but of late, And the gladness of the ungodly lasts but a ^/^^^^ ^"^'^*'°" = ^^ moment. 6 Though his loftiness mount to the heavens. And his head reach the cloud. 7 Like his own dung shall he utterly perish ; They that saw him shall say, Where is he ? 8 As a dream shall he fly away, and not be found ; And shall be chased away as a vision of the night. He answers on the spur of the moment, for neither his temper nor sense can brook such rebuke. Whatever Job's pretensions might be, he assures him that the bravado of a wicked man is not 5 duration ; his may raise him to the skies, but he sliall perish utterly and vilely, and shall disappear as com- pletely as a di-eam. 29 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XIX. 29. Ill K. omits the whole of the second of the three clauses in this verse. 171, 311 (before emendation), K., read non instead of nnrr ; the word means wrath in both cases ; the former is in the construct state, perhaps the more cor- rect form, and on this account pro- bably has been so written in the above MSS. 224 K. omits mn [the sword). 2 (before emendation) De R. reads ]13?T [they, i.e., me» may Tinow) instead of ]Win [ye may Imotv). The Keri, and very many MSS. K., 304, 552, 941, and other MSS. De R., read pic instead of piiJ {that there is a judg- ment) ; this diiference is probably im- material. XX. 180 K. reads Q'3?UJn {the wicked) instead of P]3n {the ungodly). 1 (before emendation) K. reads Q'nujn {the heavens) instead of wo-a^ {to the heavens). Ill K. omits ^T'l {and shall he chased aivaxj) ; 125, 1 (probably), K. read "ITT ; in this case I presume the render- ing of the whole clause wo.ukl be, Though he vow, he shall he as a vision of the night. JOB XX. 9. 97 9 The eye that glanced on him shall do so no more; And his place shall never more behold him. 10 His children shall pacify the impoverished ; And his hands shall restore his wealth. 1 1 His bones are full of his secret [sin] ; And it shall lie down with him on the dnst. 12 Thongli wickedness be sweet in his mouth; [And] he hide it under his tongue ; 1 3 [Though] he spare it, and wiU not let it go ; [And] he hold it back in the midst of his palate ; 14 His meal shall be turned in his bowels ; The gall of asps shall be within him. 15 He hath swallowed wealth, and shall disgorge it; God shall eject it out of his belly. 1 6 He shall suck the poison of asps ; The tongue of the viper shall slay him. 1 7 He shall not gaze on rivulets ; [On] rivers of torrents, of honey, and of butter. — His children will have to make good his robberies ; and his sins, however secret, will cleave to him in the grave. — He may find wick- edness so delicious a morsel in his mouth that he will not part with it ; but its viru- lence will betray itself, when God forces him to dis- gorge what, in his rapacity, he ]\ad swallowed. — He need not think of feasting his eyes on luxurious land- 10 11 12 13 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XX. 9. 170 K. omits f^Din «bi [shall do so no more). 384 K. supplies ^ paragogic to i^Ji' [shall pacify) ; this is unimportant. 180 K. reads vnss? instead of vnrasj? [his hones) ; the latter is the more usual form, but this is immaterial. The Keri, and many MSS. K. read yryh^ [his secret sins) instead of yc>\bs [his secret sin). 180 K. reads y^V" (masculine) instead of 23irn (feminine) [it shall lie down). 170 K. omits dh [though). 2<52 K. reads "impn [his place) instead of "i^i^b [his tongue). 168 K. reads njso'i [he lets it jUno, Arabic) instead of n:r30'i {he holds it hack). 14 89, 117, 245, K., read nm-in [bitter- nesses) instead of mno [bitterness or gall). 15 80 K, supplies i [and) at the com- mencement of the second clause. 1 K. reads rribw instead of X God in both cases. 16 76 K. supplies i [and) at the com- mencement of the second clause. 384 K. reads "i::inn instead of iminn [shall slag him) ; the 3 epenthetic in the former case does not affect the sense. 17 IK. reads ni" [he shall [not] fear (?) ) instead of nt* [he shall [not] gaze on). 117 K. omits '"Jn: [torrents). 18 K. reads p© [oil) instead of nNom ©21 [of honey and of butter). H 98 JOB XX. 18. 18 He shall give back the cost of labour, and not scapes, as tiiough ' they were his, for he swallow [itj ; shall refund every To the full amount of its value, and shall not cobbed.— exult. 19 Because he broke, [then] abandoned the des- -because of his ' L -" heartless cruelties, robberies, and insa- tiable gluttony, — titute ; Embezzled a house, and was not building it ; 20 Because he never felt rest in his belly ; In his appetite he let nothing escape ; 21 Not a scrap remained, of his voracity; Therefore his prosperity shall not endure ; — therefore, just. -, - ,. when he is richest, 22 In the fulness of his abundance he shall be dis- he shau be brought into difficulties, his tressed ; -victims wUl become m, ■, -, f iiini 1" his enemies, and God The hand of every wretch shall be upon mm. will gire him abund- 23 There shall be for the filling of his belly ; JaT'- ' '""''' *' [God] shall cast upon him the bmiiing of his anger ; And shall rain upon him vv'hat he shall eat. 24 He shall flee from a weapon of iron ; A bow of copper shall slip through him. — an arrow shall bring liim down as he flees before the VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XX. 18. 18 20 21 22 145 K. reads i"':" instead of vv, the cost of lahoxir, in either case. Very many MSS. K. and Da R. read a (m) instead of 3 {according to, or to) before ^t\ [the full amount). 185 K. omits '3 {because). 252 K. omits 3?T {he felt). 155 K. supplies 1 {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 253 K. reads "nam {according to his desirableness [he shall not deliver himself]) instead of iTinm {in his cqypetite). 207 K. reads ma {lyrosperity) instead of lara {his prosperity). The Keri, and many MSS. K. read nxboi instead of niNboa, in the fulness 23 in either case; 125 K. reads nx^oa {according to the fubiess). Very many MSS. K. and De R. and published copies substitute ffi (s) for D (s) in ipED {his abmidance) ; this is imma- terial. 245 K. reads i"'S' instead of la' • in either case, with "''', the meaning is, he shall be distressed. 191, 201 K. supply 1 {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 48, 80, 251, 141 (before emendation), K., 37, 319, 1012, (the two last before emendation), De R., read na {vjjon them) instead of la («^jo?i /a»i) in the second clause. I JOB XX. 25. 99 25 It is drawn, and shall come out of [his] body, Even the flashing sword out of his gall : He is going ! terrors are upon him. 20 All stored up darkness shall be his treasure; A fire not blown shall devour him : The survivor in his tent shall fare ill. 27 Heaven shall unveil his iniquity ; And earth shall be rising up against him. 28 The stores of his house shall be carried off — Spilt in the day of his wrath. 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God ; And his heritage by the verdict of the Deity. XXI. 1. — Then Job answered, and said, 2 Listen to my verse with attention ; And let this be your condolence. 3 Bear with me, and I will speak ; And after I have spoken, thou shalt mock. 4 As to myself, is my complaint to man ? And why then should I not be impatient ? 5 Look ye at me and be astonished ; And lay [your] hand upon [your] mouth. sword, and tlie sword will then be thrust into his vitals. Horror seizes him as he dies, and then darkness and un- quenchable fire be- come his portion ; — — His household also suffers, for his sins being now revealed, everybody is in arms against him, and all that he left is taken. [Let Job be assured that] this is the lot of a bad man by God's decree. JoVs sixth discourse. The best condo- lence his friends could offer would be attentive con- sideration of his words ; their un- called - for inter- ference rendered his impatience excusa- ble, and his case demanded respectful silence from them. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XX. 25. 25 111 K. reads mno {quicMy) instead of 29 101 K. reads ■?»■), and 206 K. reads ''NH instead of ''nQ; in any case the meaning here will be, of the Deity. 26 111 K. reads mno [quicMy) instead of ni3Q {put of [his] hotly); 379 De R. reads irmnnb (from out of his gall) instead of "in-nnn {put of his gall) ; 80, 3 (before emendation), K. reads "imno {out of his bitterness, so, the Vulgate), and 554 De R., reads im-nno {out of his habitation, Chaldaic, and so, the LXX.). 554 De R. reads ng? ([which] he blew [not]) instead of nc: ([not] blown). 80, 245, 95 (before emendation), 1 (probably), K., 34, 244, 368, 369, 589, 610, and other MSS., De R., read »T {shall know [it]) instead of ^t {shall fare ill). XXI. 249 K. omits the whole verse. 32 K. appears to have read i:i'»''n (ye shall mock) instead of vshT^ {tliou shalt mock), a letter having been erased at the end of the word ; instead of this word, 196 K. reads fnN {with thee). 170 K. reads lonui instead of "incm ; in both cases the meaning is, and be astonished. H 2 100 JOB XXL (). 6 Por when I call to mind I am horrified ; And my flesh shuddereth. 7 Wherefore do the wicked live ? They last, yea they get mighty in wealth. 8 Their seed is estabhshed with them in their sight And their issue before their eyes. 9 Their houses are securely peaceful ; And the rod of God is not upon them ; 10 Their bull gendereth, and refuseth not, Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. 11 They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children frisk. 12 They Hft up [their voice] with the tabor and harp ! And rejoice at the sound of the pipe. 13 They wear out their days in prosperity; And in a moment go down to the grave. 14 They used to say to God, " Depart from us, For we dehght not in the knowledge of thy ways. 15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him? Or what shall we profit that we should meet him ? " IG Lo their prosperity is not in their own hand. The counsel of the wicked ! Be it far from me ! The consideration of his case made him tremble for the un- godly, for though it was apparently un- accountable that such men should enjoy health, pro- perty, offspring, and security, — — should prosper more than others in agricultural pursuits, and have such do- mestic pleasures as happy children and joyous music af- forded,— — and all this, to the end of their days, when they are re- moved by sudden death ; and the more unaccountable be- cause of the avowed atheistic and utili- tarian principles of such men, — yet he (Job) knows that this prosperity is not in their own power, and he ut- terly repudiates their principles : — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXI. 6. 9 10 11 12 13 99, 117, 141, and other MSS. K., omit "I {and or for) at the commencement of the verse. 89, 170, K., omit the whole verse. 95 (before emendation) K. reads i35? {disturheth (?) ) instead of ii3? [(/ender- eth). 92 K. reads psbc {thei/ cast forth) in- stead of inb©' {they send forth). Very many MSS. K. and De R., and published editions, read T\ra {like the tahor) instead of r|n3 {with the taior). The Keri, and many MSS. K. and 14 16 De R., read "'''3' {they consume) instead of iVt {they tvear out). Many MSS. K. and De R. read widi {and as [in] a moment) instead of 2?Ji3i {and in a moment). 48 K. reads "yn {thy way) instead of yy\-[ {thy ivays). 18, 92, 99, and other MSS. K., supply i {and or but) at the commencement of the second clause. 92, 95, 100, and other MSS. K. read 'oon instead of '30, in either case the meaning is, from mc. JOB XXL 17. 101 1 7 How oft the lamp of the wicked is put out ! And their ruin cometh upon them ! [God] doth apportion torments in his wrath. IS They are as straw before the wind; And as chaff that the whirlwind stealeth. 19 [How oft] God storeth up his iniquity for his children : . He repayeth him, and he knoweth it. 20 His own eyes see his entrapment ; And he drinketh of the wrath of the Almighty. 21 Tor what pleasure shall he have in his house after him, AVhen the number of his months has been cut 22 Shall any teach God knowledge, [off? Seeing He governeth dignities ? 23 This man dieth in the acme of his happiness ; Altogether at ease, and secure. 24 His half-dressed skins are full of milk ; And the marrow of his bones gets soaked. — [besides, God oftea does make examples of such men] fre- quently they are cast into the depths of adversity, and dis- appear like straw and chaff in a tempest, their children are to be visited for their sins, they foresee their own destruction, and already drink of wrath in the know- ledge that death must terminate their pre- sent enjoyments. And after all, God is the best judge of his own acts, and it is not because one man is prosperous all his days and another is never prosperous at all, and there is no distinction in their death, that men are to form their own VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXI. 18. 18 76 K. reads n233 {stealeth) instead of ini3a with the sufBx i ; this does not affect the sense. 20 The Keri, and very many MSS. K., read vry {Ins eyes) instead of i:'» {his eye). 554 De It. reads iT3 {his blow), and 89, 150, K., 610 De R., read iti {his hand, lit. on his hand) instead of iT3 {his entrapment) ; 683 (before emendation) De R. omits the word. 21 80 K. reads vjsp instead of li'sn; in either case the meaning is, have been cut off. 22 196 K,, 596 (before emendation) De R., read vb^ {shall not [God] teach, &c.) instead of "^nVh {whether to God, i.e., shall [any leach'\ God). 18 K. reads lobn {is teaching) instead of "iqV shall teach). 99 K., 31, 758, 874 (all before emendation), De R. read cm {blood, i.e., [God judgeth] blood ; so Cod. Vat, LXX., homicide, and another anonymous Greek interpreter in the Hexapla, slaughter) instead of D't2T {dir/nilies). 23 76 K., reads pNi» instead of ]-ivh^; in either case the meaning is, at ease. 125 K. reads ^P® {quiet) instead of rV^ri {a7id secure). 24 Many MSS. K. read vr^r- instead of vrcs {his half dressed shins); tliis de- fective spelling does not affect the sense ; and 596 (before emendation) De R. reads vj'jy {his business, or his affairs [?]). 145, 170, K., read vds» instead of vnioi'i"; in either case, Ajs6o«es. 103 JOB XXI. 25. 25 And that man dieth in bitterness of soul; And hath never eaten what is good. 26 They lie down ahke on the dust ; And worms cover them over. 27 Behold, I know your devices, And your designs to wrong me violently : 28 For ye say, " Where is the house of the prince ? And where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked ? " 29 Have ye not asked of way-faring men ? For ye would not have misunderstood their signs ; — 30 That the wicked is spared for the day of destruction ; They are borne in procession to the day of great wrath. 31 Who would tell him of his way to his face? And who would requite him what he hath done ? 32 So he is borne in procession to the catacombs ; And he anxiously watcheth for the tomb. 33 The clods of the valley are sweet unto him ; And he draweth everybody after him ; And there is no counting [the numbers] before him. conclusions, and (as his friends did in his case) argue that the aiQicted must neces- sarily be wicked : — — on the contrary, if they had been at the pains of inquiry, they might have learnt that the best informed and general opinion was, that a wicked man was per- mitted to prosper, that he might be re- served for future punishment, and be- cause none dared speak of his crimes, — and indeed his whole course of Hfe, however gratifying to his tastes and pride, was no better than a grand funeral procession which was conducting him to his last abode. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXI. 25. 25 379 De R. omits the prefix 3 before nivjD {good) ; it is not necessary that it should be expressed. 26 76, 248, 201 (after emendation), K., supply ] paragogic to 133\U' [thet/ lie down); this is immaterial. 117 K. reads i23'a' ('/if?/ dwell). 27 76 K. supplies ] paragogic to iDonn [ye ivrong) ; this is immaterial. 28 80, 166, 235, 252, K., read reairo in- stead of miDTTO [dioelUngs) ; this de- fective spelling is immaterial. 170 K. supplies the definite article n before D'SiDi {the icicked). 29 248 K. supplies bD {all or ant/) before ■pT n2i3? {way-faring men) ; 153 K. supplies "^ {unto) before these words. 76 K. reads iia^n {would ye [not] have confirmed 1), and 223 K. reads iipjn {would ye not have picked out, or pe- netrated ?) instead of "ii^^n (ye would [not] have misunderstood). 30 80 K. reads ii« {light) instead of t« {destruction). JOB XXI. 34. 103 34 HoAV vainly then do ye condole with me, For your ansAvers remain fallacies ! XXII. 1. — Then ElijjUaz the Temanite answered, and said, 2 Can a man be of service to God, Because, being wise, he is of service to him- self? 3 Is it pleasure to the Almighty that thou be righteous ? And gain, that thou make thy ways per- fect? 4 Will He argue with thee through fear of thee? Will he enter into a trial with thee ? 5 Is not thy wickedness great ? And thine iniquities are not ended, 6 For thou takest a pledge of thy brethren without cause ; And strippest off the garments of the naked. 7 Thou givest no water to the weary to drink ; And from the famished thou withholdest bread. — The condolence and nrgumcnts of his friends, therefore, were a mere sham. Third discourse of mipliaz. Does Job seriously suppose that his rin;hteousness could aifcct God ?— — or that God could therefore be com- pelled, through fear of him, to be put upon trial with him? — besides. Job, iti reality, had been, and still was, highly cri- minal ; — — he was a cruel ex- actor,— — indifferent to the wants of the poor, — 34 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXI. 34. 32 K. reads bi3> [unckedncss, or here adverbially, iviclicdly) instead of "J^n {vainly). XXII. loO K. reads pon [wretchedly poor) instead of pD' {can he of service) ; in this case pc would have to be supplied from the second clause. 18 K. reads nST [hnoioledge) instead of laJ {a man) ; in that case the next clause would be, because a icise man is of service, S)X. 4 K. reads pw {dtvelleth) instead of -OD' {is of service) in the second clause. 180 K. reads O'Vo {verse, or words) in- stead of '?''3\rr3 {being wise, or a wise man). 153, 223, K., read pn'Jn ([that] thou justify [thyself] ) instead of "["i^i*" ( [that thou be riyhteous) ; 18, 180, 188, 191, K., read noi {and what) instead of dni {atid —f) ; 284 K. reads ^^ni {thy way) instead of "joii {thy ivays). 76 Iv. omits 2 [into) before '^sco {a trial). 1, 2, 4, 31, 32, and many other MSS. De R., and published editions, read '^nw {thy brother) instead of ^'rrst {thy brethren) ; 157 K. reads ^33•| {and — the garment) instead of '^32^ {and — the garments). 104 JOB XXII. 8. 8 So the man of power hatli tlie earth to himself; And the man of favored person settleth in it. 9 Widows hast thou sent empty away ; And the arras of the fatherless are broken. 10 Therefore all around thee are snares ; And sudden fear confoundeth thee. 1 1 Or darkness, [so that] thou seest not ; And abundance of waters cover thee. 12 Is not God in the height of the heavens ? And behold the top of the stars, how high they are. 13 And thou hast said, " How should God know ? Can He judge behind thick darkness ? 14 Thick clouds are a veil to Him, and He seeth not; And He walketh on the orb of the heavens." 1 5 Dost thou keep to the old way. Which men of iniquity trod ? 16 (Who got tied up, and that, untimely; A stream was poured upon their foundation. 17 Who were saying unto God, "Depart from us." And [were questioning] what the Almighty could do for them : — only studious of securing his own in- terests,— — and he defeated the ends of justice with regard to widows and orphans : — — and hence his pre- sent danger and alarm. Job, moreover, was a sceptic ; he argued from the very im- mensity of God against the suppo- sition of his taking cognizance of human actions or affairs, — — and so was tread- ing in the very steps of the impious ante- diluvians, whose in- fidel and ungrateful speeches, however, were suddenly cut short by a flood. — As to himself, he (Eliphaz) " utterly repudiated such prin- ciples ; " — 13 14 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXII. 8 15 384 K. reads «ini2-i {mid the favorer [of persons] ) instead of «"ii2J3i {and the man of favored [person]). 119 K. substitutes n (A) for « (a) in XST {is, or here, are broken) ; the sub- stitution of one letter for the other is immaterial. 196 K. omits "?« {God); this word must be understood, if not expressed. 224 K. supplies the definite article n before Q'n© {the heavens) ; this is immaterial. 24 K. reads "pn^ instead • of "jbrin' ; in either case the meaning is, he icalkefh. 16 17 178 K. reads d^vh {for ever) instead of obw {ever, or old), 4, 48, 80, and many other MSS. K. and De R., read 3 {in) instead of 1 {and) before vis vh {not the time, i.e., untimely) ; 93, 125, 223, 228, 235, K., supply 1 {and) before in: {a stream). 525 K. supplies after no {the Almighty) i:aDn vh -|'3-n nj?ni; in that ease the meaning of the whole verse would be, Who were saying unto God, "Depart from us, and ivhat will the Almighty do ? and toe desire not the knowledge of thy tcays." JOB XXII. 18. 103 18 When yet He had filled their houses with good !) But, " the counsel of the wicked, be it far from 19 The righteous see and rejoice ; [me ! " —and righteous men And the innocent laugheth at them, [and saith,] wise than exult at aU an et T i. 1 n such instances of sig- 20 "Is not our adversary gone ? nai retribution. And [hath not] the fire eaten up their excel- lence? " 21 Get acquainted with Him, I pray thee, and be if Job would but get acquainted with at peace ; God, and obey big X) J.1 ii- 1 1 n i. ii laws, and repent, and Joy these tnmgs good shall come unto thee. cease to confide in 22 Receive, I pray thee, law from his mouth ; ^^n^, ^^XS And lay up his words in thine heart. truly prosperous ; his J t true treasure would 23 If thou return unto the Almidity, thou shalt be ^°. ^°'^' ^'^ ^"^^^ o "^ ' enjoy communion built ■ with Him, and pray with confidence, and Thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy taber- be answered; hisde- nacles. filled, and whatever . . i 1 n 1 p-i -r» 11 ^® determined would 24 Ay, set the [balsams oij Betser on the dust; be accomplished for And count the [gold of] Ophir as the rocks of ^^' torrents. 25 And the Almighty shall be thy balsams ; And heaps of silver unto thee. 26 For then shalt thou delight thyself in the Al- mighty ; And shalt lift up thy face unto God : VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXII. 18 18 118 K, supplies fjdd (^silver) before 2Vi {good); 107 K. omits l {and, or but) at the commencement of the second clause; 95 K. reads ':qo instead of ^20 {from me) ; this is immaterial. 21 191 K. reads "jm {tvith thyself) instead of iTO {tvith him) ; 203, 244, 277, 319, 368, and many other MSS. De R., and published editions, read ^n^iin {thj revenue [shall be good]) instead of ?|nfji2n {shall come unto thee). 23 145 K. reads "['''no {from unto, or with, thee), and most MSS. K. and Dc 11., and published editions, read "jbriNa {from thy tabernacle) instead of "pbn«Q {from thy tabernacles). 24 18, 34, 198, 223, 250, 158 (before emendation), X., 3, 873, 596 (before emendation), De R., read n'ffi' {he ivill place [iS-'c], i.e., God will enrich you with treasures) instead of n'ci {Ay, set). Many MSS. K., and most MSS. De R., read 3 {as) instead of a {in, or as) before "ns {the rock). 25 32, 178, K,, 35, 680 (after emendation), De R., read "p^a {thy balsam) instead of "psa {thy balsams). 106 JOB XXII. 27. 27 Thou shalt entreat Him, and He sliall hear thee ; And thou shalt' pay thy vows. 28 Yea, thou shalt decide, and command, and it sliall stand to thee ; And light shall shine upon thy ways. 29 When [men] are abased, thou shalt command —even to the extent , of his being an effec- exaltatlOn ; tual intercessor for ^ -, 1 1 • i 1 those who might And |_Godl will save the dejected. need his mediation; 30 He will deliver him that is not innocent ; wouid^owe their de"^ And he shall be delivered by the cleanness of rJIhteoutness" and thine hands. ^''^'''■ XXIII. 1. — T/iCii Job answered, and said, 2 To-day also, my complaint is rebellion ; My stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3 O that I knew where I might find Him ! I would come even unto his chair. 4 I would draw up the cause in order before And would fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know [with what] verse He answer me ; And would understand what He would say JoVs seventh dis- course. He must still be rebellious, and his sufferings warrant it. He only wishes that he could get access to God, for then he would plead his own cause, would know- God's designs, and would be streugth- 11 ened for the appa- WOUlU. rently unequal con- test by God him- self,— to me. Him VARIOUS READINGS, 27 48, 125, K., read "piJ {thy vow) instead of "jm: {thy votvs). 224 K. reads "j^-n {thy way) instead of ■jOiT (thy ways). 245 K. reads nwj instead of nij (exal- tation) ', the former is the more correct form. 48 (probably) K. reads, instead of this, n33, which also means exaltation. 34 K. omits the whole verse ; 1, 76, 80, 89, 117, 147, lo3, and other MSS. K., 1, 2, 3, 11, 31, and many other MSS. De R., read T3^« instead of T3''« ; the sense remains the same, — htm that is not innocent. 379 De R. reads '« {tohcrc ? or ivho f) instead of \^ (not) ; but it is difficult to extract any reason- able sense out of this leadinsr. 231, 28 29 30 JOB XXII. 27. 245 (before emendation), Iv., read "1133 (according to the clectnness) instead of "121 (hy the cleanness). 2, 30, 32, and many other MSS. K., read "[M (thi7te hand) instead of "['S3 (thine hands). XXIII. Very many MSS. K. and De R. read 'n'o, in full, instead of 'n© (my com- 2)laint) ; this is immaterial, 34 K. omits the whole verse ; 95 K. reads v.-i3?t (/ hnew him) instead of 'n5?T (Ihietc). 18 K. reads 'nnsin (my reproof) in- stead of 'laJ^' (He would answer me) ; 117 K. reads 'o (^who) instead of nn (ivhat). JOB XXIII. 6. 107 G Would He contend with me by main strength ? Nay, He certainly would put [it] in me. 7 There doth the upright debate with Him ; And I should altogether get quit of my judger. 8 Behold, I go to the East, but He is not [there] ; And to the West, but I cannot perceive Him : 9 To the North where He worketh, but I cannot get sight [of Him] ; He veileth the South, and I cannot see [Him]. 10 He, however, knoweth my way ; He'hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 1 1 My foot hath held fast to his step ; I have kept his way, and have not turned aside, — 12 The commandment of his lips, And have not gone back from my statute : I have treasured up the words of his mouth. 13 But He is on one thing, and who shall turn Him? What his soul desireth, that will He do ? 14 For He will accomplish what is appointed me ; And many such things are usual with Him. — and being inno- cent, would no longer be exposed to [the wrong] judg- ment of Elipbaz. — But in whatever quarter he looked, he failed to find God ; — — God, however, knew him, and his own consciousness of uprightness, and of strict adherence to God's laws, made liim confident of standing the severe test he was now un- dergoing ; — whilst, at the same time, he was aware that liis uprightness could not divert God from accomplishing what- ever purposes He had decreed for him. 10 11 12 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXIII. 6. 191 K. supplies i (afid) before n"? (not, or nai/). 196 K. supplies Nin (he) before i"«r {the vprk/ht). 147 K. reads msyi {hy his counsel) instead of iniDSi [where he worketh) ; 253 K. reads rnr>' {one can[not] see) instead of n«-i« (/ can[not] see). 32 K. supplies Nin {he, emphatic) before »T {he knoweth); 150 K. reads t^Dni {in his heinfi gracious) instead of '^^na {Jic hath tried mc). One MS. De R. reads is-jt (for va-ji, Ms ways) ; and 180 K. reads '3m {my tcay) instead of "i3"n {his ivay). 1, 80, 89, 92, 93, 147, and other MSS. K., II, 193, 269, 379, 593, 829 (the 13 two last before emendation), De R., omit 1 {and) before the commencement of the second clause ; 259, 245 (before emendation), K., read Vi^n {from his statute) instead of "V^'O {from my statute) ; 76, 100, 125, 160, and other MSS. K., 1, 186, 188, 304, and other MSS. De R., read 'D {my mouth) in- stead of VD {liis mouth). 1 (apparently) K., 249, 552, 574, De R., read 3 {as) instead of 2 {on) before in« {one thing) ; see Vulg. solus est. 18, 191, 196, 245, K., omit i {and) in the first clause. 76, 223 (after emendation), K., read TO?ni {that will it do) instead of ^Wi {that will he do). 108 JOB XXIII. 15. 1 5 Therefore am I confounded at his presence ; I consider, and am afraid of Him. 16 For God hath mmerved my heart ; And the Ahnighty hath confounded me ; 17 In that I was not cut off before the darkness ; And that He hid not thick darkness from me, XXIV. 1. — Why, since times are not hidden from the Ahnighty, Do not those who know Him get foresight of his 2 [Men] remove landmarks ; [days ? . They plunder a flock, and pasture [it]. 3 They drive the ass of the fatherless ; They cord the ox of the widow : 4 They turn the needy out of the way : The meek of the earth must hide themselves together, [wilderness, 5 Behold the wild asses, they go out into the Early at their business, after the prey : The desert is bread to them, for the little ones. — What confounds liim in the matter is, that Grod, in his eter- nal purpose, should not have spared him these troubles by a premature death. — It further puzzle3 him that the Om- niscient God should not give his people some foresight as to the time of his retri- butive justice. Some meu [for in- stance] carry on their dishonest practices, with violence, im- pudence, heartless- ness, and oppression. Others, like wild asses, scour the de- sert, and live by ma- rauding ; they strip cultivated fields, and VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXIII, 15. 15 16 32 K, reads VnriKi (is not this a mis- print for b^lii^, and am afraid f) instead of inD«i {and am afraid). 171 K. reads 2?^ri Qiath made evil) instead of "jin {Jiath made soft, or tinnervcd) ; 89 K. reads -aa'? instead of ■'2'' (??)«/ lieart) ; this is immaterial, XXIV, The Keri, and many MSS, K., read VVT1 (tliose who know him) instead of ^tTi {lie who knows him, i.e., each one of those who know him). The Kethib may, perhaps, be the more correct, 147, 176, 198, 231, K., 379, 596 (before emendation), De R., read 'I'Ti (those who know me); 31, 596 (before emen- dation), De R., read 'O' (?>?y da)/s) instead of vo' {his days). 245 K, supplies i {and) at the com- mencement of the second clause. 150 K. supplies j paragogic to i^nr {thei/ drive) ; this does not affect the sense. 1012 (before emendation) De R. reads 133 {the garment) instead of "mu {the ox). See the note on this verse, 200 (before emendation) K. reads nirabw {widoivs) instead of n:n"7« {ividoiv). The Keri, and very many MSS. K., 4, 196, 275, 304, 341, 414, 518, 552, and many other MSS, De R., read "35> instead of 't^s {the meek) ; this is immaterial, 118, 150, 158, 80, 245 (before emenda- tion), K., 4, 244, 380, 554, 737, 847, 941, 203, 715 (the two last before emendation), De R., read 3 {according to) instead of 2 {at) before D'?yD {their business) ; 180, 253, 601, K., 59, 188, 31, 683 (the two last before emenda- tion), De R., read d'^se'? {to their busi- ness). JOB XXIV. G. 109 6 In fields not their own do tliey reap ; And vineyards tliey wickedly gather. 7 The naked spend the night withont clothing ; And have no covering in the cold. 8 They are drenched with the rain of the moun- tains ; And hug the rock for want of shelter. 9 [Men] pluck the fatherless from the breast, And tie a cord on the meek. 10 Naked do they go without clothing; And famishing they carry sheaves. 1 1 They make oil within their walls ; They tread wine vats, and they thirst. 12 Out of the city mortals groan, And the soul of the wounded crieth out ; Yet God doth not impute fault. plunder travellers, who, being turned adrift without cloth- ing, are miserably- exposed to the incle- mency of the wea- ther. Others kidnap for slavery, and their victims are compelled to labour, in the midst of abundance, in a state of naked- ness, starvation, and thirst. Cities also are full of groaning crimes, of which, however, God takes not the slightest notice ; — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXIV. 6. 10 Many MSS. K. read n v ; and the Keri, and many MSS. K. and De R., ■nisp' instead of "n'Sp' ; in the two former cases the meaning is, they reaj), — in the latter case, they cause to he 7-ea2)ed. 379 De R. reads s^ct instead of y^; in either case the word may be used adverbially, u-icJcedly. 170 K. reads ^•aypb {they have gathered) instead of y^b'' {they gather); 249, 109 (foreign), De R., read the ordinary form of the word by substituting 12 for c. 100 K. reads X^ {spendeth the night) instead of lyV {spend the night) ; 384 K., 737 (after emendation) De R., omit the Q before '''3 ; this does not affect the meaning, without. 30, 76, and other MSS. K., omit 1 {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 1, 2, 76, 80, 95, and many other MSS. K., read '''in, and 92 K. reads n'73 instead of '"j^j in any case the meaning is, without. 11 .OS (before emendation) De R., 100 (apparently) K., read D'm-n© {two walls) ] some MSS. read am© (defec- tively) ; 30, 32, 33, 76, and many other MSS. K., read om-no (fully); 95 K. reads omi© (partly defective) ; and 180 (before emendation) K. reads □mi'© {their songs (?) ) instead of cmTO; the second, third, and fourth readings do not affect the meaning, their walls. 82 K. reads iiniJ' (either defectively, or perhaps Kal) instead of iTn:?' ; in either case the meaning is, they mahe oil. 147 K. reads i3"n' in- stead of 13"" ; in either case here the meaning is, they tread. 12 80 K. omits Tro {out of the city) ; 193 De R. reads o'nn [the dead) instead of Q'no {mortals) ; 1012 De R. reads risin ( [that the soul of the wounded] might he succoured, or saved) ; 245 K., 780 De R., read n'?'Dn {prayer) instead of nbon {fault). See the notes. 110 JOB XXIV. 13. 1 3 They are of those that rebel against the hght ; They acknowledge not its ways ; Neither do they abide in its paths. 14 Towards [day-] light riseth the murderer ; He slayeth the meek and needy ; And in the night he is altogether a thief. 15 Also the eye of the adulterer watcheth for the twilight, Saying, No eye shall notice me. And he putteth on a veil for the face : 16 He burro weth into houses in the dark. They keep themselves close by day ; They know not the light. 17 For morning to them is altogether the shadow-of- death ; Yea, they recognise the terrors of the shadow-of- death. 1 8 That other is swift on the face of the waters ; The portion of those on the land is despised ; He turneth not to the way of orchards. 19 Dryness and heat filch away snow waters ; [So doth] the grave [those that] have sinned. — the perpetrators of such crimes do thiir deeds ditring the darkness, and indeed hate hght : — — the murderer [for instance] slays early, and then steals at night ;— — the adulterer waits for nightfall, then disguises himself, and burrows into houses. — Both these classes of persons dread nothing so much as the day. — The pirate, de- spising the honest industry of land oc- cupations, pursues his career on the sea. All these die just as natui'aUy as others, they are forgotten, 13 14 16 17 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXIV. 13. 80, 76 (apparently), K., read 3 (as) instead of 2 (which here has the sense of of)', 100 K., 596 (before emen- dation) De R., read piMJ' {they return) ; 34 De R., reads 12^^ also {they return) instead of ^^'SJ; {they abide). 95 (before emendation) K. reads ^p' '33?"? {he loatheth the meek) instead of 'jjrbiDp' {he slayeth the meek). 80, 191, 248, K. supplies 1 {and) at the commencement of the third clause ; 101 K. reads i^t {they sec) ; and 207 K. reads i^i {they have seen) instead of "lyT {they knoio). 18, 32, and other MSS. K. read vin' (fully) instead of "nn*; this is imma- terial; in both cases the meaning is, altogether. 18 1 K. reads 'Je"? {like as) instead of 'DQ-Vi? {itjjon the face of); 277, 518 (before emendation) De R., read ''^j^J^ {thou shalt curse) instead of ''Vpn {is, or shall be, accursed, or despised); 18, 170, 191, 32 (probably) K., 553,554, 593, 34, 715 (the two last before emen- dation), De R., supply i {and) at the commencement of the third clause ; 1 96 K. omits -p-< {the waxj) ; 35 De R. reads D^ma {in bloods, i.e., in slaughter). 19 76 K. reads Win' ([those that] sw) instead of i«ion ([those that] have sinned). i JOB XXIV. 20. Ill 20 The womb that enjoyed him shall forget him ; A worm ! he shall never be remembered ; And iniquity shall be broken as a tree. 21 [One man] is evil entreating the barren that beareth not ; And is not over-kind to the widow. 22 And [another] hath drawn the mighty by his power ; When he riseth up, none feeleth sure of life. 23 [God] alloweth him to feel safe, and he resteth upon [it] : But His eyes are upon the ways of such. 24 They are exalted for a while, then are gone, And are driven along ; like all [others] they get shut up ; And like a topping ear of corn are they cut off. 25 Now, if it be not so, who will give me the lie, And set down my verse as nothing ? and theii' course of sin is inteiTuptt'd. — One refuses to per- form liis duty as a kinsman, where the kindness is most needed, — — another plays the despot with much cruehy and caprice, and God permits all this, though he ob- serves it, — such men are not exempted from death, but they soon come to an end like all others ; — [it is inexplicable, therefore, why God should not have re- vealed to bis servants when his judgment is to bej. He (Job) is satisfied that the fact he has advanced cannot be VARIOUS READINGS, 20 248 K. reads "'^ instead of «"? ; in either case, not, or here, never. 117 K. omits p3 (as a tree). 21 651 K. reads n«-n {seeth) instead of nin {is evil entreating). 22 117 K. reads i"m {of his life) instead of r'ni {of life). 23 80 K. reads i^cn {and lie looketh for it) instead of ]i'd {and he resteth upon); 715 De 11. reads in^rs?^ {to his eyes) instead of in-'i'Si {and Ms eyes) ; in that case the meaning of the whole sentence would be, and he dejjendeth upon his eyes being on their tvays. 24 147 K., 32, 349, 561, 874 (before emen- dation), 782 (apparently), 34 (before 25 emendation, apparently), 597 (probably, before emendation), 350 (after emen- dation), De R., read ^n {iJiey are silent) instead of ii^n {they are exalted). JOB XXIV. 20. Most MSS. K. and De R. read 2 {in, i.e., in all, meaning altogether) instead of 3 {like) in the second clause; 196, 245, 95 (before emendation), K., 596 (before emendation) De R., read ^iD^Jp' {they are enraged ; so LXX., iv KaifiaTi, in heat ; and Syr., irritators) ; 223 K. reads ps^p' {they get gathered) instea"d of pi'Dp' {they get shut up) ; 34, 147, 150, 155, 245 (before emendation), 80, 99 (probably), K., 203, 349, 379, 715, 801, 57, 304, 829 (the three last before emendation), Dc R., read 3 instead of 3 in the third clause ; in both cases here the meaning is, like. 801, 319 (before emendation), De R., and published editions, read b^) {before God) instead of '?«''. {as nothing) ; so Symmachus, Syr., Vulg., and Arab. 112 JOB XXV. 1, XXV. 1. — Then ansivered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, 2 Dominion and awe are with him ; He eflfectuateth peace in his high places. 3 Is there any number to his battahons ? And upon whom doth not his hght arise ? 4 How, then, should mortal-man be just with God ? Or how should he be clean who is woman-born ? 5 Behold even the moon, it giveth no brightness ; And the stars are not clean in his sight. 6 How much less mortal-man, that is a worm ! And the son of man, that is a maggot ! JBildaWs third dis- course. reigns God heaven in awful majesty and undis- turbed serenity, — his armies are countless, and his light is uni- versally diirused ; — how, then, could man be pure before such a God? If even the moon and stars fad in lustre, how great must be the defect in man, who is a mere worm of corruption ! XXVI. 1 . — The7i Job answered, and said, 2 How thou hast holpen him that hath no power [How] saved the arm that hath no strength ! 3 How thou hast counselled him^that hath wisdom ! And abundantly made known the reality ! 4 Before whom hast thou advanced verse ? And whose breath came forth from thee ? JoVs eighth dis- course. ! He comphments Bil- dad on the amazing force and wisdom of his speech, which, of no course, clears up the whole question ; and he begs to know for whom, and by what inspiration, it was spoken. VARIOUS READINGS, XXV. 30 K. reads "a? (iw respect of) instead of w {with). 737 (before emendation) De R. omits TS [unto, or even); 17 K. reads ''S' (unto) ; 1, 2, 4, 80, 95, and other MSS. K. and De R., omit i (and) in the second sentence of the first hemistich. It is not necessary that it should be expressed. 596 (before emendation) De R. supplies a i conversive before Vn«' {it giveth — brightness) ; 249 (before emendation) K. reads '^tt' (the same meaning, and a more correct form) ; 76, 95, 170, 172, 245, K. read V^' (this also may have the same mean- ing)- ■ JOB XXV. 4. XXVI. 240 K. reads nnscin instead of nrcin • this is immaterial; in either case the meaning is thou hast saved. 18, 95, 248, 249, 384, 603, K., 1, 1012, De R., readN'5'7, and 196 K. reads x"?! instead of x*?; in neither of these cases is the sense particularly affected, ([that hath] no). 188 K. reads rp {hand) instead of rrasn {ivisdom). 18 K. reads n'' {not) instead of y^ {abundantly). 102 K. reads n3>nn {liast thou caused to know) instead of m:n {hast thou ad- vanced). 76, 80, 224, K. read □''?o in- stead of pbn {verse) ; this is immaterial. 150 K. reads nny:i {and — sweetness) instead of nnffi2i {and— breath). 157 K. omits 'o {whose). JOB XXVI. 5. 113 5 The shades of the dead tremble [before Him],— [The places] beneath the waters, and they that dwell there. 6 Hell is naked before Him, And Perdition hath no covering. 7 He spreadeth the North over the void ; — Suspendeth the earth upon nothing ; — 8 Tieth up waters in his thick clouds, And the cloud is not rent under them ; — 9 Maketh fast the face of the canopy ; — Spreadeth his cloud over it : — 10 He hath circumscribed a bound over the face of the waters, Up to the confines of light and darkness. 1 1 The pillars of heaven vibrate ; And are astounded at his rebuke. 1 2 He stilleth the sea by his power ; And stampeth down [its] insolence by his know- ledge. 1 3 He brighteneth the heavens by his breath ; His hand woundeth the fleeing serpent. [Did Bildad talk of God's dominion ?] — that dominion ex- tends to the deepest depths of hell, and to the height of tho northern heavens ; here God suspends the earth, coops up water in rain clouds, spreads and fastens up the sky like a canopy, draws the horizon round the sea, where light and darkness meet, shakes the loftiest mountains, stamps upon the raging sea to calm it, clears the atmosphei'e, and ex- poses to view the constellation of tho serpent which He has fixed : — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXVI. 7. 76 K. supplies i [and) at the com- mencement of the second clause. 141, 155, 172, 178, 226, K., read nn ■•b2 in- stead of no^ba ; in either case, nothing. 76 K. reads ii© {compresseth) instead of Tis {tieth up). 196 K. reads d!?3 (m thick clouds) instead of viya {in his thick clouds). 18 K. omits i {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 145, 172, 259, 601, 250 (be- fore emendation), K., read vnnn {under it) instead of nnnn under them). The Keri, 664, 95, 158 (the two last before emendation), 82 (perhaps), K., and many MSS. De R. read kdd instead 10 12 of nD3 ; in either case throne, or ca7iopy. 17 K. reads mnn {the deep) instead of D'n {the waters). 224 (probably) K. reads d»o {froin with) instead of 03? {ivith). The Keri, and very many MSS. K. read in:i2nai instead of in32imi ; in either case the meaning is and by his knowledge : the first of these is the ordinary and known form of the word, and hence the emendation of the Keri. But nmn, the form presented in the Kethib, may be equally correct, though obsolete; the Oriental Jews read in:"i3n3i {and by his arrangement). 114 JOB XXVI. 14. 14 Behold, these arc outhncs of his ways ; —and yet how nttie ^ , 1 r 1 • ^° these, which are And how mere a whisper have we heard oi nim. mere outlines, reveal Who then can understand the thunder of his ness'^of GodT ^"^^^ " might ? XXVII. 1. — T/ien Job again took up Ms verse, and said, 2 [As] God liveth who hath put aside my right, And the Almighty, who hath embittered my soul ; 3 All the while my breath is in me, And God's spirit is in my nostrils, 4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, Nor my tongue utter deceit. 5 God forbid that I should judge you right : Till I die I will not part with my integrity. 6 I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go; Not [of any] of my days shall my heart reproach [me]; 7 It is my enemy that is really guilty ; And my assailant that is really iniquitous. JoFs ninth discourse. He solemnly de- clares that though God had not vindi- cated him, yet nothing would in- duce him, as long as he lived, to speak falsely respecting himself, and so, con- cede that they were right in their accusa- tions ; he would persist to the last in maintaining that his conscience was void of offence, and that they, who so ran- corously and without provocation attacked him, were in fact the guilty party. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXVI. 14, 14 The Keri, and very many MSS., K. and De R., and editions, read v3-n [his ways) instead of i3"n {Jiis way). The Keri reads vrnina [his might, plural), and very many MSS. K. and De R. have it fully vrrninj, instead of "in-nij [his might, singular) ; this reading of the Kethih is supported by 32, 349, 379, 380, .587, 610, 824, 874, 1, 596, (the two last before emendation), De R., all which MSS. read and punctuate Srrp.i. XXVII. 180 K. omits '3 [that) at the beginning of the verse; it is not necessary to express it in translation. 1 K. reads 'r,ciso [my judgment, or right) instead of 'DQic: [my breath). 191 K. reads dtiVk instead of m^N [God) ; this is im- material. 166 K. omits CN [if) in the second clause; this is not necessarily to be ex- pressed in translation. 30, 166, 224, 259, 141 (before emendation), K., 304, 380, 737, 942, 203, 683, (the two last before emendation), De R., read nann [shall utter, feminine) instead of njrr (masculine) ; the noun 'Jit'"? [my tongue) is of both gendex's, though more com- monly feminine. 32, 34, 40, 341, 379, 380, 597, 715, 737, 847, 874, De R., read nBi« (/ will let go) instead of nB-i« (/ ivill let it go). 92, 145, and other MSS. K., supply 1 [and) at the commencement of the second clause. JOB XXVII. 8. 115 8 For what is the hope of the ungodly when [God] shall cut off,— When God shall unsheath his soul ? 9 Will God hear his cry, When distress shall come upon him ? 10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times ? 11 1 will teach you of the hand of God. What is [usual] with the Almighty I wall not keep back. 12 Behold, yourselves, all of you, have seen [it]; Why then do ye trifle in vain ? 13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God ; And the heritage of tyrants [which] they receive from the Almighty. 14 If his children be multiplied, it is merely for the sword ; And his issue shall not have enough of bread. 1 5 His residue shall be sepulchred by Death ; And their widows shall not weep. 10 If he heap up silver as dust ; And prepare vesture as clay : [on. 17 He may prepare, but the righteous shall put [it] And the silver shall the innocent divide. 18 He hath built his house as a moth ; [made. And like a shed which a [vineyard-]keeper hath He could have no inducement to be ungodly, for be was well aware of the miserable end of such a character, whatever hope such might entertain during life. — He would describe to them, (what in- deed they knew, though that know- ledge had not pre- vented their talking absurdly), what that end was. — — The family of the ungodly man, who may survive him, die, either by sword or by famine, un- buried, and un- lamented. — — His hoarded wealth faUs into the hands of others moro deserving of it. — The house he had erected was merely a temporary abode for him. — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXVII. 9. 9 1 K. reads inpyssn {will — according to his cry f) instead of "iniTyan (^will — his cry ?). 10 32, 80, K., read 33»nn [tdlt thou delight iliyself) instead of 33rn' [icill he delight himself). 32 K. reads Nipn {u-ilt thou call upon) instead of nip' (^loill he call upon). 32, 76, 100, 173, and other MSS. K. supply "Jw (unto) before nibs {God). 11 223 K. omits T2 {by, or of the hand). 223 K. omits D5? {tchat is usual with). 13 34 K. omits the whole verse. 95 K. reads "jsn, by supposed error for '>«o {from God), instead of "^x-ns? {loith God). It is equally possible, however, that "«?n may have been a transcribei's error for "^m d». I 2 110 JOB XXVIL 19. 1 9 Rich, he shall lie down, but shall not be gathered [with the just] ; He openeth his eyes, and he is not. 20 Terrors shall overtake him as waters : In a night a whirlwind stealeth him away. 21 A blast shall take him up, and he is gone ; And it shall sweep him out of his place. 22 Yea, it shall drive upon him, and not spare, [Though] he scud from its stroke ; 23 It shall clap its hands at him. And whistle at him out of his place. XXVIII. 1. — There is indeed an outlet for the silver. And a place for the gold [which] they fine. 2 Iron is taken out of earth ; And stone is molten into copper. 3 [Man] hath set an end to darkness ; And unto the utmost limit searcheth he, — ■ The stone of thick-darkness and of the shadow-of- death. [dwelleth ; 4 He breaketh open a shaft away from [where] he Forgotten by the foot, these [men] hang sus- pended ; Away from human-kind they swing to and fro. 5 Whilst out of earth there cometh forth bread. Her nether parts are turned up as it were fire. — He may die rich, but then he wakes to the awful fact that he is lost. — — His destruction is sudden and terrible ; there is no escape from it ; like a whirlwind it catches him up in a moment, and then seems actually to mock his misery and despau". [Such an one never found wisdom.] Precious metals, indeed, however deeply hidden in the dark recesses of the earth, may be found, and are brought to light by the enterprise of man ; — — in quest of them he sinks the deep shaft, and works suspended by ropes ; he turns up the sparkling entrails of the earth that gives him bread, and finds sapphires and nug- gets ; the [subterra- VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXVII. 19. 19 21 22 23 32 K., 32, 380, De R., read f]iDx' {he shall (lather) instead of ^f^. {he shall he gathered). 1, 48, 119, and other MSS. K. substi- tute D for ^ in tmymn {and shall sweep him) ; this is immaterial. 607 K. omits this and the following verse. 242 (probably) K., reads ''ni' instead of rnr ; in that case the clause would stand, though he Jlee in alarm from its siro/ce. 1, 30, 76, and many other MSS. K. substitute d for fO in pDiS' {it shall clap); this is immaterial. 80 K. reads in'M {with their mouth) instead of iQ'SS {their hands, i.e., the hands of each). 4, 32, 403, 489, K., read ■in''?» {at them, i.e., at each of them) instead of vbs? {at him). XXVIII. 118 K. apparently reads ion {with, i.e., hy means of) instead of to3 {as it were). JOB XXVIII. 6. 117 6 Her stones are the place of the sapphire, nean] pat,ii which he takes is one unseen And lumps of gold lor man. by the keenest 7 [It is] a path which the bird of prey knoweth not, aS/ Ind'' untrodden And whereon the eve of the vulture doth not leasts *— glance. 8 The tribes of ferocious beasts do not tread it ; The lion passeth not upon it. 9 [Man] putteth his hand on flint ; He overturneth mountains from the root ; 10 He cutteth rivers in the rocks ; And his eye seeth every precious thing. 11 He bindeth floods that they weep not ; And bringeth forth what is hidden to light. 1 2 But where is wisdom to be found ? And where is the place of understanding ? 13 Mortal-man knoweth not its value ; Nor is it to be found in the land of the living. 14 The abyss saith, It is not in me. And the sea saith. It is not with me. 1 5 Gold of Segor shall not be given in lieu of it ; —The most precious Neither shall silver be weighed as the price of it. XsVit.'^nOT can^tL 16 It shall not be weighed with the gem of Ophir; ^"ai ?tT^the St expensive and exqui- site works of art cannot compete with it, and the treasures Nor shall a vessel of fine srold be the exchanere of °^ H'^ '''''' V'f 'T'' o *-■ pearls, arc ol tar loss it. [tioned ; worth.— 18 Coral and mother-of-pearl are not to be men- And the procuring of wisdom is more than of pearls. — he makes his way through flint, up- turns mountains, cuts channels iu rocks, stops the oozing water, lets nothing precious, however hidden, escape him, and brings all to light. —But where is •WIS- DOM to be found ? Not [as other pre- cious things], on the earth, or under the earth, or in the sea ; and indeed man is ignorant of its value. With the precious onyx or the sapphire. ] 7 Golden glass shall not be put along with it ; VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXVIII. 8. 8 2, 48, 89, and many other MSS. K. supply 1 {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 16 80 K. omits the whole verse. 250 K. substitutes n for n in rrhvn [it shall he weighed) ; this is immaterial. 48, 4 (probably), K., reads DD33 (?) (is not this a mistake for ED33 i.e., f)D31 {icith silver f) ) instead of cnDn {with the gem). 17 32, 349, 368, 379, 380, 552-554, 610, 737, 1012, De R., read '!!3 (msse/s), and 153 K. reads '"t^d (as a vessel) instead of ''?3 (rt vessel). 18 170 K. reads htoi (h/tg things) instead of maN-i {coral (?) ), 118 JOB XXVIII. 19. 19 The topaz of Cush shall not be matched with it ; With the clear gem shall it not be weighed. 20 Whence then is wisdom to come ? And where is the place of understanding ? 21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living ; And is concealed from the fowl of the heavens. 22 Perdition and Death have said, With our ears have we heard the report of it. 23 God hath knowledge of its way ; And he knoweth its place. 24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth ; He seeth under the whole heaven. 25 In making a weight for the wind ; And when he adjusted the waters in a measure ; 26 In his making a law for the rain, And a way for the lightning of the thunder ; 27 Then he saw, and he declared it ; He had knowledge of it, yea, and searched it out : 28 And he said unto the man, [^JOi^trom ; iSdjoItr, ti)e fear ot tije Uortr, tfjat is Entr to tiepact from rbil is untierstautJing. Whence then is WISDOM to be ob- tained ? It is not in the abode either of the living or the dead, nor is it in the air. — God only, being omniscient, knows where it is : he saw it when he regulated the various atmos- pheric phenomena, and it was then that he exhibited it ; — — and to the [newly- created] man he de- clared that WIS- DOM consists in the fear of God, and in departiire from evil. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXVIII. 19. 19 20 21 22 23 24 128, 245 (probably) K., read m:DD (this must be an error of the transcriber) instead of maD {topaz). 76, 245 (before emendation) K., read N2Qn {is to he found) instead of «i3n {is to come). 125 K, omits mnn: {is concealed). 80 K. reads rn?ia« instead of fwoir ; this is immaterial; in either case the meaning is the rejmrt of it. 89, 384, 422 (before emendation), K., 379, 597 (before emendation), De R., read \'':^^ {hath arramjed) instead of pn {hath knowledge of). 248 K. sup- plies HN before n3iT {its way) ; this is immaterial. 210 K. reads pn {he hath knowledge of) instead of »t {he knoweth). 76, 100, 145, 166, K., supply i {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 26 248 (margin) K.. reads nro? {he made) instead of in'swa {in his making). 245 (before emendation) K. reads pnb (a Rabbinic reading) instead of vinb {for the lightning). 27 80 (before emendation) K., 57, 610, 737, 801, K., read r^yir\ {he had know- ledge of it) instead of n:'Drt {he ad- justed it) : I have adopted the former reading. 28 76 K. omits p {behold). 168, 206, 242, 321, K., supply mrr {the Eternal) before '^ {the Lord). Most MSS. K. read mrp instead of '3i«. 224, 248, 590 K. omit n'H {that). 191 K. sup- plies the definite article n before Tvam {wisdom). JOB XXIX. 1. 119 XXIX. 1. — Then Job again took up his verse, and JoVs tenth and last . , discourse. said, [1, His former happy condition.'] He remembers his happier days, with the regret that they are gone — days when God was his guar- dian, his light, and his intimate fi*iend ; when his sons sur- rounded him, and nature was prodigal of its bounties for him. 2 0 that I were as in months of old ; As in the days when God did guard me ; 3 When his lamp shined over my head ; [And] by his light I walked through darkness ; 4 As I was in the days of my prime, When God was a visitor at my tent ; 5 While the Almighty was still with me, [And] my young men were around me ; 6 When I washed my steps in butter, And rocks along-side me poured out rivers of oil; 7 When I went from the gate up to the bench, [And] had my seat set in the broad- way ! 8 Young men saw me, and hid themselves ; And aged men rose, yea, stood. 9 Princes refrained from haranguing, And laid [their] hand upon their mouth. 10 The voice of nobles was suppressed, [mouth. And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their 11 When the ear heard [me], it blessed me; —the cars and eyes All .1 r -1 -i 1 •, I of those who heard And when the eye saw [niej, it bare witness unto ins magisterial de- cisions testified their ^"^ J joy, for ho was the 12 For I was wont to deliver the poor that cried, ttf Tatherie^^.^TiS perishing, and tho widow. — [In those days] when he went in state to the place of public assembly, the young retired and the aged stood, princes and nobles left olf talking. And the fatherless who had no helper. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXIX. 3. XXIX. 80 K. reads 3 {as [when]) instead of 3 {in, or here, when) . 223 K., 801 l)e R,, read nsonn instead of nom, probably in both cases, in butter ; the former is, so far as we know, the correct form. 18, 192, K. read j^'^m instead of n^'jm {from verse, here fro7n harangninc/) ; this is immaterial. 4 (before emenda- tion) K., reads a instead of ^; in both cases the rendering is upon. 12 76, 80, and other MSS. K., omit (a;?f?) before n^ {not or no) : it is not necessary that it should be expressed in translation; 32, 100, 102, 245, 300, K., read |W ; this does not aflFect the sense. 120 JOB XXIX. 13. 13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me ; And I made the heart of the widow to sing for 14 I put on justice, and it clothed me ; [joy. My equity was as a robe and bonnet. 15 1 was eyes to the blind ; And feet [was] I to the lame. 16 1 was a father to the needy ; And I searched into the cause of him that I knew 17 So I brake the tusks of the wicked, [not : And I flung the prey out of his teeth. — 18 And I said, " 1 shaU die in my nest ; " And shall multiply days as the sand. 19 " My root is laid open to the waters ; " And the dew lodgeth at night on my crop. 20 " My glory is new as I go on ; " And my bow getteth renewed in my hand. 21 " Men give ear to me and they wait, " And they keep silence merely for my counsel. 22 " After 1 have spoken, they [speak] not again ; " And my discom-se falleth in drops upon them. 23 " Yea they wait for me as for the rain ; " And open wide their mouth as for the showers of spring. 24 " I laugh to them, [but] they do not presume ; " Nor cause the light of my countenance to fall. — His robes of office were the true sym- bols of his qualifica- tions to act as judge; in his exact justice he was all things to all men as each had need, and whilst rescuing the op- pressed, he broke the power of the oppres- sor.— — He had oncefondly thought that those happy days would have lasted and been many, for, favored as he was by every advantage, he had observed no likeli- hood of decay in his prosperity ; — — men looked to him with opened • mouth expectation, thirsting for his counsel, and when he gave it, were satisfied : his conde- scending smile never led them to risk his anger by presump- tion ; he was their chief in peace, their king in war, and their comforter in distress. — 22 24 VARIOUS READINGS, 14 117, 245, K., read 'JW'iVi (Hiphil) in- stead of ^'WlV^ (Kal), and it clothed me, in both cases. 19 147, 651, K., read '"^s? instead of '"JW {to) ; this is not material. 20 166, K., reads rs'iccn 'byD (he hath stripped from off me), (how can this agree with the context?) instead of na? MJin {{$ new as I go on). 196 K. reads nffipi {a7id the how), instead of TiTDpi [(ind my hoiv). 21 80, 93, 139, 158, 172, 384, K., read JOB XXIX. 14. ^nssvch {for my counsels) instead of 'ns3> "iDb {merely for my counsel). 264 K. reads iJ*' {they go astray) in- stead of i3'£>' {they [speak] again). 18, 118, 147, and other MSS., K., read crpbj? instead of nn'"7« ; in either case, to than. Very many MSS. K. and De R., and published editions, supply 1 {and or hut) at the commencement of the second clause of the first hemi- stich. JOB XXIX. 25. 121 25 "I select their laws, I sit chief; " And in the troop I dwell the king : [" I am] the comforter of mourners." XXX. — 1. And now they laugh at me — [Men] younger in days than I ; — Whose fathers I would have disdained, To rank with the dogs of my flock ! 2 What cared I even for the strength of their hands, In whom the vigor of manhood was gone, 3 Through penury and stark hunger ? Who [but] yesterday were gnawing the desert, — The waste and the wasteness. 4 Who were cropping purslain on the shrub ; And the root of the broom was their bread. 5 They were driven out of society ; [Men] hallooed them as [they would] a thief. 6 They had to dwell in horrible glens, In holes of the earth, and of rocks. [2. Sis miserable state.'] — But now he was jibed by men who were his juniors, and whose fathers he would not have em- ployed in the most menial occupation, for they were a weak, half-starved set of wild fellows, subsist- ing on roots in the desert, hooted out of society, living in glens and holes, braying and herding like brutes among shrubs, — a bad and ignoble tribe. — 25 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXIX. 25. 224 (before emendation) K. supplies 3 (as) before ©«i {chief). 145 K. supplies 1 {and) at the commencement of the third clause. XXX. 350 K. substitutes s {is) for HJ (s) in V^w {they laugh) ; this is immaterial. 248 K. supplies riN before cni2« {whose fathers) ; this is immaterial. 1, 30, 80, 89, 95, 150, 259, 2G4, 48 (be- fore emendation), 158 (probably), K., 4, 275, 414, 941, 1014, 304, 552, 782, (the three last before emendation), De R., and published editions, read iDm {in opprobrium) instead of "^oni {through penwy). 207 K. reads ©ijn (a set of men (?) ) instead of hjon {but yesterday). 596 (before emendation) De R., reads ''i {the lowlands) instead of iJ {the midst, i.e., of men, or society). 32 K. supplies 1 {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 259 K. reads 12333 {as though they had stolen) instead of 3333 {as a thief). 32, 56, 196, 349, 380, 552, 553, 561, 597, 847, 940, 941, 1014, 953 (before emendation), De R., and published editions, read yili-,!, and 275, 379, 414, 554, 593, 596, 758, 801, 829, De R., and published editions read yiy^a instead of VilS|4 {in horrible), this appears to be immaterial ; 125, 95 (before emendation), K., read Vi"iM, and 245, 384, K. read pr3 {as [in] horri- ble). 122 JOB XXX. 7. 7 They brayed among the shrubs ; They huddled under the nettles. 8 A tribe of profligates, nay, a nameless tribe ; They were beaten out of the land. 9 And now I have, been their song ; And I am become verse for them. 10 They abhor me, they get away far from me ; And even to my face they forbear not spitting. 11 Yea they have every one loosed his cord, and humbled me ; And even to my face have they thrown off the bridle. 1 2 On [my] right hand a brood of youngsters riseth up ; They thrust aside my feet ; And they throw up their destructive roads against 13 They have torn up my path ; [me. They help forward my downfall ; They have none to assist them. 14 They come in as [through] a wide breach ; Under the ruins they come rolling in. — these were the men who now made ballads about him, subjected him to every indignity, and cast off all restraint before him : — — the unfledged ris- ing generation, of themselves, regularly attacked him, and brought about his downfall as systemati- cally, and as violently, as though they were besieging and assault- ing a fortified city, and so terrified was he that he lost at once his courage and his safety. — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXX. 7. 7 120, 253 K. substitute » (a) for n {h) in 'ip'^2'' {they hrayed) ; this is imma- terial. 237 K. reads Tyhrsn (plural) in- stead of ''iin (singular) ; in either case, probably, nettles. 89 K. substitutes ffi (s) for D (s) in inSD'' {tliey huddled) ; this is immaterial ; 379 De R. reads the word, Piel instead of Pual; this does not affect the sense; 34 (before emendation) De R. reads lorriD' {they were swept away). 10 137 K. supplies ''a {all) before iprn {they get aivay far). 100 K. reads '3QO in- stead of '30 {from me) ; this is imma- terial. The Keri, and many MSS. K., and very many De R., and published edi- tions, read 'in' {my cord) instead of iin' {Jiis cord). 153 K. reads '^'D' [my right hand) in- stead of p' [right hand). 176, 260, 11 12 264, 158, 178, 245, (the three last be- fore emendation), 99 (probably), 89 (apparently), K., 4, 59, 275, 379, and many other MSS. De R., and pub- lished editions, read nniD instead of nniD (a brood of youngsters) ; this is probably immaterial. 13 173, 245, K., 349, 379, 414, 188 (before emendation), De R., substitute s {ts) for D (s) in "ton: {they have torn up) ; this is immaterial, though the former is the known form. The Keri, and very many MSS. K. and De R., read 'mn"? instead of 'n'nb {my downfall) ; this is probably immaterial, though the former is the known form. 14 150, IC, reads am {proud) instead of am {luide). 76, 153, K., supply i {and) at the commencement of the second clause. JOB XXX. 15. 123 1 5 Terrors turn upon me ; They chase my bravery like the wind ; And my welfare hath passed away like a cloud. 1 6 Now also my soul poureth itself out upon me ; Days of affliction take hold of me. 1 7 The night picketh my bones from off me ; And the things that gnaw me take no rest. 18 My clothing hemmeth [me] round with great violence ; It girdeth me as the collar of my vest. 19 [God] hath cast me down to the mire ; And 1 am become like as dust and ashes. 20 1 cry unto thee, but thou dost not answer me ; 1 stand, but thou dost [not] notice me. 2 1 Thou art changed into a cruel one unto me ; With the strength of thy hand thou dealest ran- cor ously with me. 22 Taking me up to the wind, thou makest me ride ; And terrifying, thou meltest me. 23 Yea, 1 know thou art bringing me back to death ; And to the house appointed for all living. — Now also [instead of days of former happiness], he had days of sorrow, aris- ing from the inces- sant and intense pains of his disease which made his raiment intolerably tight, and by which God had reduced him to a state re- sembling dust and ashes. — — It was in vain that he cried to God for help, God had become cruel and rancorous towards him, making him the sport of the wind like a careering cloud, and this with the intention of de- stroying him. — VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXX. 15. 32 K. reads "jBnn (fut., 3rd pers. fern., Kal) instead of "ysnn (pret., 3rd pers. masc, Hophal) ; in either case, they turn; see the notes. 191, 95, 245, (the two last before emendation) ; 1 (probably), K. read 'n^ra (my j^a^A) instead of 'n2i: [my bravery). 737 De R. reads '''Qf^ {my bone) in- stead of 'Q^ (my bones). 34 (before emendation), De R. reads 3 {as) instead of ? (to). 2, 414, 683, 34 (after emendation), De R., read ^ {to) instead of 3 {as) ; instead of either, 30, 76, 118, 125, 93 (ap- parently), K. 263, 349, 552, 824, 188 (before cn^endation), 589, 874 (before emendation), 11 (apparently before emendation), 304, 529 (after emenda- 20 21 22 tion), De R., read a (with the same meaning, as), and 224 (after emenda- tion), K. reads D5> {tvith). 593 (before emendation) De R. reads «■? {not) after i {but) ; 356 K., 554 (be- fore emendation) De R., read ^2i3nn"i {and thou Jixcst thyself [against me]), 552, 597, 737 (before emendation), De R., read ]2i2n"i {Jmt thou dost [not] regard) instead of panm {but thou dost [not] notice). 1 18 K., 554 De R., read '■j instead of ""a, in either case here, me. 1, 384, 128 (apparently), 137 (before emendation), De R., read 'JEi'DttJn {thou casfest me doion) instead of ''3o:DTrn {lliou dealest rancorously with me). Very many MSS. K. read mmn ([in] reality), and with like sense, the Keri, 124 JOB XXX. 24. 24 Surely there is no begging off his putting forth [his] hand ; Though they cry out when he destroyeth. 25 For have I not wept as one w^hose day is hard? Hath not my soul been sad as one who is needy ? 26 Yet when I looked for good, came evil ; And when I was waiting for light came thick- darkness. 27 My bowels have boiled, and not been silent ; Days of affliction have taken me by surprise. 28 I have gone on blackening, but not by the sun ; I have stood up in the assembly, I cried out. 29 1 have been brother to jackals ; And an associate with hen ostriches. 30 My skin [peeling] off me has been black ; And my bones have been burned with heat. 31 My harp also is turned to wailing ; And my pipe to the voice of them that weep. XXXI. 1 I have made a covenant with mine eyes ; How then should 1 think upon a maid ? — He was certain that all deprecation of Q-od's anger was useless : he had wept and deprecated, but to no purpose, and indeed so far other- wise, new and unex- pected sorrows had come upon him. — — A miserable spec- tacle, he had tried also to awaken the sympathies of men ; he had harangued and vociferated like the noisiest beasts, but without effect ; and tliis, together with his burning dis- order, turned his former notes of joy into strains the most lugubrious. [3. Mis formal prO' testation of his inno' cenceJ] VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXX. 24. 24 25 and many MSS. Iv., read n^cn in- stead of niiun {thou terrifiest, or here, terrifying) ; see the notes. 32, 737 (before emendation), De R., read "n' (his hand) instead of f (hand). 153, 200, K., 593 (after emendation), De R. supply "i (and) at the commence- ment of the second clause. 384, K., 368, 737, 34 (before emendation) De R., read 3 instead of a, both much in the same sense, — ivhen. 17, 48, 76, 95, 173, 178, 180, 226, 245, 158 (be- fore emendation), K., 3, 34, 40, 56, and many other MSS. De R., read on"? (masculine) instead of pV (femi- nine) ; see the notes. 80, 102, 252, 259, 128 (before emen- dation), K., 40, 414, 552 (before emendation), De R., read 'lUp'' instead of ncpb ; in either case much the same meaning (as, ^c, hard). 150 K. reads noi» instead of nnjs? ; in either case, hath been sad. 95 K. omits "j (as) before ]V2« (one ivho is needy). 28 379, 953 (before emendation), 593 (probably before emendation), De R., read nnn (wartnth) instead of TOn (the sun). 93 K. supplies iy«J2 {in the gate) before "jnpi (in the assembly). 30 18 K. reads "j^n (darkness) instead of 3in (heat). XXXI. 1 356, K., 874 De R., read )3i3n« (should I set my intention) instead of ]2i2nN (should I think). JOB XXXL 2. 125 — and he prays that, if (being judged fairly) he be found to ]iave been guilty of seduction and its attendant vices, — he may never enjoy the labor of his hands : 3 And what would be [my] portion of God from He had sacredly •1 rj engaged that his eyes above r should not tempt And inheritance of the Almighty from on high ? ^^^ tir^^W'thf 3 Is there not destruction for the wicked? S^VusroS And strange punishment for workers of iniquity? ^^d of^tL f°TTh*^t 4 Doth not He see my ways ? ^^^ saw him ; And count all my steps ? 5 If I have walked with falsehood, And my foot have hasted unto deceit ; 6 (Let Him weigh me in an even balance, And let God know my integrity ;) 7 If my step should have turned aside from the way, And mine heart have walked after mine eyes. And a blot have cleaved to the palms of my hands ; 8 Let me sow, and another eat ; And let my produce be uprooted. 9 If my heart have been enticed about a— or, if guilty of adultery (a crime woman, punishable by man, k t -r 1 1 • t -/lyi 1 p • 1 3.nd itself a consum- And 1 have laid wait at the door ot my neigh- ing fire),— his own 1 . wife may be the ^""-^ > bond-slave of others. 10 Let my own wife grind for another maiij And let others bow down upon her. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXI. 4. 207 K. reads fn {the way) instead of nya (/«y steps), 32 K. omits the whole verse. 76, 223, 224 (margin), K., supply 'nn (»ie?i of) before xiic (falsehood). 1 K. reads 'Vr instead of "», unto in either case. 137 K.. reads p instead of ':q, from in either case. 100, 118, 160, 250 (margin), K. 40, 349, 780, 829, 304, 596, (the two last before emendation), 589 (after emendation), De R., read D10 instead of mxo ; probably in either case a blot, though the former is the known form ; some take D"i«a as noi«D {anythinff whatever). 89 K. (apparently) reads, nns: {have been opened) instead of nnE3 {have been enticed). 48 K. reads bn {towards) in- stead of "?3? {about). 95 K. supplies nn {the house) before '3>i (my neiyhbour). 245 (before emendation) K. reads 'nsiM (7 have tarried (?) according to the Arabic meaning) instead of 'naiM (J have laid wait). 126 JOB XXXI. 11. 11 For that is a villany, And it is an iniquity [to be dealt with by] the judges : 12 Yea it is a fire, it would eat up unto perdition ; And would uproot aU my increase. 13 If I should despise the right of my bondman, Or of my bondwoman in their dispute with me ; 14 What then should I do when God ariseth ? • And when he visiteth, what should I answer him ? 15 Was it not in the belly [that] he who made me made him ? And did he not fashion us in one womb ? 16 If I should keep back the destitute from [their] desire ; Or make the eyes of the widow to pine with ex- pectation ; 17 Or should eat my morsel myself alone, And the fatherless had not eaten thereof; 18 (Whereas, from my youth have I brought him up as a father, And her have I guided from my mother's womb ;) 19 If I should see any perishing for lack of clothing, And that the needy had no covering ; — He was also aware that if he took undue advantage of his ser- vants, who were of the same flesh and blood as himself, he would be self-con- demned when God judged ;— — and fiu'ther, he prays that, if he neglected the poor or the widow and fatherless (both of whom he had ever befriended), or, did not clothe the naked with the best of his wool, or, if he had ever menaced and taken advantage of the fatherless, — his arm may be com- pletely broken. — (From such sins however, the fear of 11 12 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXI. 11. The Keri, and many MSS. K., read N'n {that, fem.) instead of «in {that, masc). The Keri, and many MSS. K. and 379 De R., read Nini {and it, masc.) instead of N'rn {and it, fem.). 34, 166, 170, 180, 602, 100, 224, (the two last after emendation), K.., 56, 58, 275, and other MSS. De R., read 'V"?e {judicial) instead of d^Wd [the judges). 2, 17, 18, 76, 92, and many other MSS. K., read xin {it, masc.) instead of n't? {it, fem.) 80, 89, 95, 100, 153, and other MSS. K., 368, 369, 380, and 13 15 19 many other MSS. De R., read ^3"t {atid all) instead of ''^n {and among all). Many MSS. K. read nana instead of Dana, this is immaterial, in either case the meaning is, in their disjnite. 380 (before emendation) De R., reads in33D'i {and did he fashion him), 552 (before emendation) De R. reads ':2ian {and did he fashion me), and 48 K. reads 'i^y^ (same as last), instead of ■i:did'"i {atid did he fashion us). 76 K. reads D"n5? {naked) instead of nai« {perishing). JOB XXXI. 20. 1.27 20 If his loins did not bless me ; And he warmed not himself with the fleece of my sheep ; 21 If I have shaken my hand at the fatherless, When I saw I had support in the gate ; — 22 Let my shoulder drop from the blade, And my arm be broken off from the elbow. 23 (But destruction from God was a fear to me, And I was incapable by reason of his majesty.) 24 If I have made gold my dependance. Or have called the diamond, My confidence ; 25 If I should rejoice because my wealth is great. And because my hand hath gotten mightily ; 26 If I should see the sun when it shineth, Or the moon walking splendidly ; 27 And my heart should be secretly enticed, And my hand should kiss my mouth ; 28 (That also would be an iniquity [to be dealt with by] the judges, For I should have denied the God most high ;) 29 If I should rejoice at the calamity of him that hateth me. And get exhilarated when evil hath found him ; God had ever re- strained hitn.) Again, he prays that, if he had shown any idolatrous confidence or undue deUght in his wealth, or if he betrayed any idolatrous symptom of adoration of the sun or moon (an iniquity of which even a human judge must take cogni- zance),— if he re- joiced at his enemy's misfortune, • even though he had not imprecated it, — if those who lived with him were not in the habit of remarking upon his unbounded hospitaUty (a fact which he himself avouches), — or if ho had concealed any transgression, — he 20 21 25 26 27 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXI. 20. The Keri, and many MSS. K., read vsbn instead of isbn ; in both cases the meaning must be his loins. 80 K. reads dn {if) instead of '3 {when). 76 K. reads n:jd (masc.) instead of nM:?D (fern.) ; in either case, hath gotten. 95 (before emendation) K. reads ^ {it he(iinneth) instead of ^^ {it shineth). 180 K. omits the whole verse. 76 K. 28 29 reads pffi'i (masc.) instead of F^ni (fem.) {and should kiss). 1, 34, 19(5, K., read '3 {for) instead of DJ {also). 48, 95, K., read d-'V'jd {judges) instead of '^'''D {judicial). 172 (probably) K. reads nDirs {I should forget) instead of nDa;« (7 shoidd re- joice). 4, 379, 554, 561, 589, 596, 829, De R., read 'wjiDQ instead of 'Npiro ; in either case, him that hateth me. 128 JOB XXXI. 30. 30 Though I had not suffered the roof of my mouth By imprecating a curse upon his soul ; [to sin, 81 If the men of my tabernacle have not said, " Who can instance [any that] hath not been satisfied with his meat ? " 32 (The stranger lodgeth not in the street, I open my doors to the traveller ;) 33 If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, That I might hide my iniquity in my bosom ; 34 Then, let me be afraid of the great multitude. And let the contempt of the tribes dismay me ; Let me also be dumb, [and] not go forth from the 35 (O that 1 had one to hear me ! [door. Behold my authentic statement : let the Almighty ansvrer me ; And [O that] my adversary had written a bill [of indictment] ! may feel afraid of popular tumult and contempt, and be utterly dumb- founded through shame. Such being hia statement of him- self, he challenges God to refute it, and only wishes that a distinct bill of indict- ment had been drawn up against him, he would in that case VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXI. 30. 30 31 32 33 34, 76, 141, 201 (marg.), 210, 602, 18 (probably), 176 (apparently), K,, 554, 782, 942, 874 (before emendation), 368, 633 (after emendation), De R., read 'CB3 (jini/ soul) instead of 1002 (Ais soul). 245 K. reads "nox' (do— say) instead of iiDN (have — said). 715 (before emen- dation), De R. reads i {and) instead of n"? (not) in the second clause ; in that case the meaning of the clause would be, — O that we had of his jiesh, and we should he satisjied ; 170 K. omits vh {not), and 118, 201, K., read ^<''^ {and not). 248 K. reads i-aiCN {I shall be satisfied) ; 172 (probably) K. reads sairn {thou shalt he satisjied) instead of raia: {hath been, or we shall be, satis- fied). 93 K. reads iiJ' {sojourneth) instead of V"?^ {lodgeth). 48, 170, K., supply i {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 201 K. supplies 1 {a7id) at the com- 34 35 mencement of the verse. 593 De R, reads m^V; 111, 253, 245 (befo:. emendation), K., 349, 379, 589, 737, 829, 715 (before emendation), De R., read m«3 instead of d"i«3 ; in either case the meaning is, as Adam, or, as man. 2, 4, 230, 277, 349, and many other MSS. K., read 'i-ttJs {my trans- gression) instead of 'i^'Cf {my transgres- sions). 245 (before emendation) K. reads 'sni {in my palate), and 80 K. reads 'snD {as [in] my palate) instead of '^ni [in my hosotti). 17, 168, 245, 253, 384 (after emenda- tion), K., 269, 380, 715, 34, 593, 683, (the three last before emendation), De R., supply i {and) before n"? (not). 48, 170, 196, 207, 251, K., 349 De R., omit '"^ {to me, here /). 379 De R. reads raiub {to hear) instead of ^Q© {one hearing, or o)ie to hear). 76 K. supplies 1 {and or both) before 'MS?' {let— answer me). JOB XXXI. 3G. 129 36 Would not I carry it on my shoulder? I would swathe it [in] coronets upon me ; 37 I would tell him the number of my steps, I would approach him like a prince.) 38 If my soil should cry out against me, And the furrows of it should weep together ; 39 If I have eaten its strength without silver, And have made the soul of its lords to expire ; 40 Instead of wheat let there come up thorns. And instead of barley, weeds. The words of Job are ended. parade it, and would fearlessly approach God. [Finally], he prays that, if his land should cry against hiin,because obtained by violence or in- justice,— its produce may be noxious weeds instead of profitable grain. Here end Job's dis- courses. XXXII. 1 So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 And the anger of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the tribe of Ram, was kindled : against Job was his anger kindled, because of his having 3 justified his own self rather than God. Against his three friends also was his anger kindled, inas- much as they had found no answer, and yet had 4 condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were older than himself; Job's three frienils making no reply, Ehhu comes forward. His anger had been excited against Job for justifying himself, and against the three friends for condemn- ing him ; yet, beincj younger than these disputants, he did not venture to speak until he considered that their silence warranted his doing so, and he now accordingly addresses them. 36 37 38 39 VARIOUS READINGS, 18, 224, K., 610 (before emendation), De R., read laiyw (7 would put it on as mi ornament) instead of i:i3rN (/ would sicathe it). 32 K. reads mnpN (/ ivould 2»'esent it) instead of impn (J would ajiproach him). 34, 141, 224, K., substitute a {ts) for ^ (s) in p»in [should cry out) ; this is immaterial. 30, 76, 118, 125, 248, 139 (before emendation), K., read vfn instead of '"?a ; in either case, without. XXXII. 150 K. omits the particle nw before avu {Job) ; this is immaterial. 248 K. JOB XXXI. 36. reads Qn':'3>3 {in their eyes) instead of rrsi {in his own eyes) . 48 K. reads "jm n: {Nadav-el, i.e., made willing hy God) instead of ^UTO. {Barachel, i.e., God hath blessed). 250 K. reads 2"i (r«y, i.e., great) in- stead of m {Ha^n). 166 K. reads ii»« {because) instead of "ni?« bj> {inasmxich as). 245 (before emendation) K. reads nnnD {as to words) instead of onana {in words) ; in cither case the meaning of the whole passage is, [till Jb6] had spoken. 76 K. reads l {in) instead of ■? {as to) before D'Q' {days) ; in either case the meaning of the whole passage is, they were older than himself. K 130 JOB XXXII. 5. 5 and when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, his anger was kindled. 6 And Milm, the son of BaracJiel the Buzite, .answered, and said, I am young in days, and ye are old ; Therefore did I slink, and I was afraid. To declare my opinion before you. 7 I said, Let days speak, [wisdom. And let the multitude of years make known 8 But yet, it is a spirit in mortal-man, And the breath of the Almighty giveth them wit. 9 Not the great [in years] are wise. Neither do the aged understand judgment. 1 0 Therefore, say I, Hearken unto me ; I too will declare my opinion. 11 Behold, I have waited for your speeches ; I gave ear to the utmost of your understandings, — To the utmost of your searching out for verse ; 12 Aye, to the utmost of you gave I attention : And behold, there was none that refuted Job ; — Not one of you that answered his speeches. Elihv^s first dis- course. His youth and their age had made him shy of express- ing his opinion ; he had thought that age was connected with wisdom, but he now saw that this was not necessarily the case, but rather that the latter was a genius or direct gift of God, and therefore he also might express his opinion. As to the friends, he had paid the fullest attention to their laboured and imsuccessful argu- ments, and he assures them that the even- tual triumph must be God's, and not theirs ; and that it was his intention to eater this field of controversy in a very different spirit to that which they had displayed. 10 11 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXII. 5. 17 K. supplies nbxn {these) after Q'lCJ {nien). 80 K. reads '33« instead of '3« (7) ; this is immaterial. 48 K. reads 'n^'^n (7 was 2niined) instead of 'n"?"! {I did slink). 155 (probably) K. reads "^ {to) instead of 3 {in) before ttJi3« {mortal-man). 196 K., 554 De R., readwnffi {hearken ye) instead of n»oi2J {hearken thou) ; see the notes. 196 K. supplies D3n« {to you) after '3>t {my opinion). 76, 145, 158, K., read dj instead of f]N {too) ; this is immaterial. 100, 160, 245, 603, K., 349 (after emendation), De R., read pxN for pw {I gave ear); see the notes j 175 K. 12 reads instead px (7 attended), and 224 K. reads p« (7 applied myself). 95 K. reads D3n3i2n {your understanding) in- stead of D3\Ti3i2n {your understa7idings) ; 125, 157, K., 186, 349, 380, 780, 824, 596, 683, (the two last before emenda- tion), De R., read QS'mj'i^n {your arrangements [of speech] ). 33, 102, K. omit the : epenthetic in pipnn {your searching out) ; this is immaterial. 30, 80, 170, and other MSS. K. read □'"'a instead of ]'Vq {verse) ; this is imma- terial. 874 De R. reads cjnri {aye, your testi- monies) instead of Danyi {aye, to the utmost of you). JOB XXXII. 13. 131 13 Lest ye should say, We have found WISDOM; God shall vanquish him, not man, 14 And as he hath made no array of verse against me; So neither will I answer him with your words. 15 They are routed, they answer not again. They have put away verse from themselves ! 16 Yea I have waited, but they do not speak, — But they are at a stand, they answer not again. 17 I too [for] my part will answer; I too will declare my opinion; 18 For I am full of verse; The spirit of my belly compresseth me. 19 Behold, my belly is as wine which is not opened ; Like new wine-skins it is bursting. 20 I will speak, and it will give me breathing; I will open my lips, and will answer. He argues witli himself that, the disputants being si- lenced, it is reason- able that he should now break silence ; besides which, he can hold out no longer, but under the influence of a spirit within, he is bursting with eagerness to speak, and which he wiU now do to his relief, — previously cautioning himself, on natural and reli- gious grounds, against all bias of partiahty. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXII. 13. 13 245 K. reads i3mpp {shall prostrate him), and 207 K. reads i^etti (^shall pursue him) instead of i^dt {shall put him to Jlight, i.e., shall vanquish him). 18, 80, 93, and many other MSS. K., supply 1 [and) before wx'nV {not man). 14 4 K., 349 De R., read vbn {against him) instead of '"jn {against me). 34, 80, 139, 3 (probably), K. read D'''o instead of Y^t {verse) ; this is immaterial. 48 K. reads D3'nDN3i {so — according to your words) instead of DanoNm {so — with your words). 15 Most MSS. K. and De R. supply i {and) after irin {they are routed). 173 K. reads V''^^^ {they have made deep) in- stead of yp''vsr[ {they have put away) ; in that case crro would mean, not, from themselves, but, more than them- 16 18 19 selves, i.e., more than themselves could understand. 76 K. omits -nnj? o (but they are at a stand). Most MSS. K. supply i {and) before the last sentence in the second hemistich. The Ken, 1, 76, 93, 99, 137, 166, 196, and other MSS. K., 57, 349, 552, 593, 680, 758, 34, 559, (the two last before emendation), De R., read 'nN"7n instead of 'n'ra {I am full) ; the former is the more correct form. 349 De R. reads i {in) instead of 3 {like) before max {icine-ski?is). 758 De R. reads D'lmn ([of] artificers) in- stead of D'cnn {neiv) ; in that case mnw would mean bellows, so LXX. 170 K. reads lyp-" {that are burstinj) instead of Vpy {it is bursting). K 2 132 JOB XXXII. 21. 21 Let me not have respect to man or God ; Man I will not flatter with titles, 22 Por I know not how to flatter with titles ; [me. [Or God J in very small respect would my maker hold XXXIII. 1 Howbeit, hear I pray thee, O Job, my And give ear to all my words. [verse, 2 See I pray thee, I have opened my mouth ; My tongue in the roof of my mouth hath spoken. 3 The uprightness of my heart shall be my words. And my knowledge my lips shall purely verse. 4 The spirit of God did make me, And the breath of the Almighty gave me life. 5 If thou shalt be able, reply to me ; Set in array before me, take thy stand. 6 Behold, I am unto God just as thyself; I also was extracted from clay. 7 Behold, the dread of me shall not affi'ight thee ; And my load on thee shall not be heavy. 8 Surely thou hast said in mine ears, And I heard the sound of the verse, — 9 " I am pure without transgression ; " I am clean and have no iniquity. He begs the atten- tion of Job, promis- ing that in this dis- course, into which he was now fairly- launched, he will speak with honesty and without mystifi- cation. Job need not fear entering into contest with him, for he, no less than Job, was a mere creature, and extracted from clay, and so, could speak without necessarily inspiring awe. He had certainly- heard Job declare himself sinless, and complain of unneces- sary harshness on the part of God to- wards him ; in this, VARIOUS READINGS, 21 597 (after emendation) De R. reads b«i [and, or, or God) instead of ''«^ {and to), the reading of the Keri, and -which the MSS. have followed ; in the latter case the meaning of the verse would be. Let me not have resjiect to man, and to man I will not give flattering titles. 196 K. supplies "i [and) before m« (man) in the second clause. 196 (before emendation) K. reads njax (7 ivill hiiiUl tip) instead of hdsn (J will flatter with titles). 22 18 K, omits 'nsT {Iknotv). XXXIII. 1 170 K. omits N3 (Iprag thee). 2 163 K. omits «3 (Ijiray thee). 147 K. JOB XXXII. 21. reads m2n« (J will speah [with]) in- stead of mn {hath spoken). 18 K. supplies "i {and) before the second clause. 30 K. reads D'bta instead of •f)'0 {verse) ; this is immaterial. 30, 224 K. read, '=:« instead of '2N (J) ; this is immaterial. The Masora notes that ^n {clean), is written with a little n; it is not so in most MSS. K. Their account of this small letter is that, as Job had said he was fjn {clean), Elihu sarcastically quotes his state- ment, using the small letter in order to express the small amount of Job's clean- ness. 17 K. supplies i {and) at the commencement of the second clause. JOB XXXIII. 10. 133 10 " Behold, he findeth disallowances against me ; " He counteth me as an enemy unto him ; 11 "He putteth my feet into the clog ; " He guardeth all my paths." 12 Behold, in this thou art not right ; I answer thee, that God is greater than man. 13 Wherefore hast thou made thy complaint to him. Since to none of his words doth [man] answer ? 14 When God speaketh once, Yea twice, [man] doth not regard it. 15 In the dream of a night vision. When deep sleep falleth upon mortals. In slumberings upon the bed ; 16 Then uncovereth he the ear of mortals, And sealeth up their instruction. 17 To withdraw man from a work; And he covereth pride from the great man. 18 He keepeth back his soul from the pit. And his life from passing away like a dart. Job was decidedly wrong, and for this reason, that God is greater than man. He questions why Job should complaia to God, seeing man is deaf when God speaks, even when God speaks fre- quently ; — — one while God speaks by dreams, with the intent of restraining man from wickedness and pride, and so, of pre- serving him from sudden destruction. 10 11 13 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIII. 10. 30, 102, 166, 175, 191, 248, K., omit the second i in m«iDn (disallotvances) ; this is immaterial 259 K., 349 De R., supply 1 (and) at the commencement of the second clause. 30, 95, 147, (the two last before emen- dation), K., 349 De R., read isa {aside) instead of iD2 (into the cloy). 341, 379, 380, 554, 589, 737, 874, De R., read riian {complaints) instead of nian (hast tJiou made thy coinplaint) ; in the former case the first clause of the verse would be, l^Hierefore are comiilaints \jnadc'\ to hitn? 168, 172, 175, 223, 348, K., 341 De 11., omit the 1 in that same word; this is immaterial; 552 (before emendation) De R., reads \"i'ta'n {my cotnplaints). 14 15 16 17 125 K. reads nnwa (as it were once) instead of nn«3 (at one time=: once). 30, 118, 191, 245, 248, K., 597 (before emendation), De R., supply i (in) be- fore )vin (a night vision). 651 K. reads D'lC'N (7nen) instead of wma (mortals). 207 K. reads '3D©q (my bed) instead of 2D©)3 (the bed). 349 De R. reads Dnraoai (and — their instruction) instead of onotiai; this is probably immaterial. 95 K. supplies Q {from) before 3i« (man) ; the sense would in that case be, to withdraw a work from man. 157 K. reads 3"iji (and— a pit) instead of rnji (and — pride). 134 JOB XXXIIL 19. 19 He is argued with also upon his bed with pain ; And the controversy with his bones is lasting. 20 Also his appetite abhorreth bread, And his soul food of appetence. 21 His flesh consumeth away out of sight. And the transparent [coverings] of his bones are not to be seen. 22 And his soul draweth near to the pit. And his life to the destroyers. 23 If there be by him a messenger, — An interpreter, — one of a thousand. To show unto man God's uprightness, 24 And [God] is gracious to him, and saith, " Deliver him from going down to the pit ; " I have found a ransom." 25 His flesh becometh fresher than childhood ; He returneth to the days of his youth. 26 He supplicateth God, and he accepteth him. And he seeth his face with shouting ; [ness. For [God] rendereth to a mortal his righteous- 27 He singeth unto mortals, and he saith, " I sinned and perverted right, " And it was not requited me. Another while God enters into controTsrsy with him ou a bed of sickness ; the suf- ferei" craves for and yet nauseates food, gets reduced to a skeleton, and is on the brink of the grave. — — If at such a moment there be a divinely commis- sioned teacher near him, to convince him of God's right- eousness, and to declare God's gra- cious purpose of re- storing him to health ; then he re- covers his flesh like that of a child ; his prayers are accepted, and he rejoices in the favor of that God who is ever righteous in his dealings ; — — and, in songs of thankfulness, he ac- knowledges before others how gra- 19 21 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIII. 19. The Keri, and many MSS. K. and De R., read am {^and the multitude) ; and •with the same meaning many MSS. K., 304, 518, 553, 941, De R., read 2-11 instead of :i'Ti [a7id the controversy). 95, 153 K., read vmnss instead of vn!J5? {his bones) ; this is immaterial. Many MSS. K., 304, 782, and many other MSS. De R., read p« (fully) in- stead of ipA [lastitiff) ; this is immaterial. The Keri, and many MSS. K., read ic\Di (perhaps ])rotrude, or perhaps are broken), instead of 'Swi (perhaps and the transparent coverings) ; see the notes. 153, 196 K., read"i«Ti instead of i«^ {are [not] to be seen) ; this is imma- terial. 23 237 K. omits ■]s<'"3 (o messenger). 196 K. omits f^'d {an interpreter). 24 206, 454, K., read irnns {let him loose) instead of irn>iD {deliver him). 25 95 (probably) K. reads cbtdi (?) instead of ®D!Qi {fresher) ; I question whether the reading be so. 26 4 K. reads rnn' {the Eternal) instead of mbn {God). 158 K. supplies 3 {ac- cording to) before "mpirj {his righteous- ness). JOB XXXIII. 28. ]35 28 " He redeemed my soul from passing into th( pit; " And my life seeth tlie light." 29 Lo ! all these things worketh God, Double times ! thrice ! with man ; 30 To bring back his soul from the pit, That it may be enlightened with the light of life. 31 Listen 0 Job, hearken unto me; Keep silence, and I will speak. 32 If thou hast verse, reply to me ; * Speak, for I should delight in thy being right ; 33 If not, do thou hearken unto me ; Keep silence, and I will teach thee wisdom. ciously God has dealt with him, aa undeserving sinner, in delivering him from death. He (Elihu) as- sures Job that such is God's way of dealing repeatedly with man, with the mercifid design of saving him from destruction. — If Job purposes replying, lie is now ready to listen with all goodwill ; if not, he wiU continue his discourse, and be Job's teacher. XXXIV. 1. — And Milm answered, and said, 2 Hear O ye wise men my verse ; And ye men of knowledge give ear to me 3 For the ear trieth verse, As the palate tasteth food. MlihuHs second dis- course. Let wise men at- tend to him, and, by the exercise of a dis- criminating judg- ment whilst he speaks, determine 28 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIII. 28. 29 The Keri, and very many MSB., K. and De R, and published editions, read iffioi {his soul) instead of '^lOi {my soul). The Keri, and very many MSS., K. and De R., and published editions, read in^ni {a7id his life) instead of >n'ni {and my life). 80, 118, 125, 157, 95, 245, (the two last before emendation), 1 (apparently), K., 2, 34, 349, 380, 574, 683, 737, 941, 11, 579, 629, 715, 924, (the five last before emendation), 413 (after emendation), De R., read ii^s [as the lii/ht, or as [m] tJie lif/ht) instead of iix3 {in, or on the light, here simply the light). 145, 226, 249, 250 K., 629, 801 (before emenda- tion), 109 (foreign, margin), De R., read rrnn {shall be, or is) instead of nt<-in {seeth). 589 De R. reads D'»?rB {times, i.e.. many times) instead of D^P^Q {double times). 30 249 K. reads nrroo instead of nnc ':d {from the pit) ; this is immaterial. 32 379, 552, 554, 589, 596, 368 (before emendation), De R., read IJJ {a icord) instead of i?^ {speak). 33 166 K. supplies i {and) at the com- mencement of the verse. 48 K. reads ■i;i« 'd:v^i {and I IV ill speak) instead of nnan -jq"j«ni {and I will teach thee wisdom). XXXIV. 1 Instead of NirrVw {Elihu), 92, 99, 128 (the second « having marks of erasure), read in'bN, a mere difference of spelling, 2 30, 80, 92, and other MSS. K., read c-'h'o instead of ]^o (^veise) ; this is im- material. 136 JOB XXXIV. 4. 4 Let us choose to us judgment ; for themselves some Til 111' 1 fixed principle of Let us know among ourselves what is good. good. 5 Because Job hath said, " I am just, Since Job had ,, .i/-,Ti., , . ^ -I, asserted that God And (jrod hath put aside my right ; treated him with 6 " Concerning my right [he is] a false one ; (™^ lemark"^"' whS "My arrow[-wound] is mortal, without trans- p^-^^^ *;,,^;„- 7 (What man is there like Job ? fgression." ^^ ^Y't-^i!"' *^ V LO be on the high-road He drinketh laughter like water ; of consorting with ° evu-doers) ; and 8 And a-oeth the road to company with workers of ^^"^^^ he had further " , , At/ maintained that fel- iniquity, lowship with God r> • 1 1 was unserviceable; — And to walk with men of wickedness.) 9 And because he hath said, " It serveth not a man, " That he should delight himself with God ; " 10 Therefore hearken unto me ye men of sense. —let men of sense Far be it from God to do wickedly ; i^ ^was^^'tlTTmpute And [from] the Almighty to act iniquitously ; JeiuHing^men^theS 1 1 Because the work of a man he rendereth unto f^ q^ S^^sove- ^1"^' l^^J- superior to whom he And causeth every one to find accordinar to his ?T^® accountable for •' o the conduct of hi8 12 Most certainly God doth not act wickedly, government and if •^ •' ' he pleased, he might Neither doth the Almighty pervert rie;ht. instantly recall, iu , '' , ° all creation, that Hfe 13 Who hath encharged him with the earth ? which he himself had 'b And who hath laid [upon him] all the whole world ? 14 If he should give his regard to himself, [And] should gather to himself his spirit and his 1 5 All flesh would expire together, [breath ; And man would return to dust. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIV. 4. originally given. 4 245 K. supplies i (awr?) at the com- mencement of the second clause. 13 224 K. supplies idit (his toay) before n:>iN (the earth); 201 (after emenda- tion) K. reads the former of these words, and omits the latter. 14 178, 198, K., and the Oriental Jews, read i"''©' (he should turn) instead of D'^' (he should set, or give). 658 K. reads v"75> instead of vbs ; in either case, to himself. 15 18 K. reads mp' (would stand [upon, &c.]). 228 K. reads la^J' (would liedoion [upon, &c.]); and 145 K. reads Diffl' {He, i.e., God would lay) instead of aim* (would return). JOB XXXIV. IG. 137 16 Now, if [thou hast] understanding, hear this ; Give ear to the voice of my verse. 17 Ay, doth a hater of right hokl sway? And dost thou justly condemn a mighty one ? ] 8 Is one to say. Villain, to a king, [Or], Caitiff, unto nobles ? [of princes, 19 [How then to him] that accepteth not the persons Nor noticeth the opulent more than the destitute ; For they all are the work of his hands ? [night ; 20 They die in a moment, yea, in the middle of the The people is shocked, for they have passed away; And the mighty is removed, and not by hand. 21 For his eyes are upon the ways of a man, And he seeth all his steps. 22 There is no darkness nor shadow-of- death, Where the workers of iniquity may hide them- selves, [a man, 23 For he need not set [his eyes] a second time upon In order that he should go to God in judgment. 24 He breaketh mighty men to pieces without in- quiry. And he setteth up others in their stead. 25 Therefore he doth notice their deeds; For he overturned them in a night, and they are crushed. Let Job only ex- ercise reason, and he will see how impos- sible is the position that the Supreme Governor of the world can be unjust; and if it be wrong to tax earthly mo- narchs with unscru- pulous conduct, how much more so, so to tax him who, without respect of persons, deals alike with great and small, they all being his creatures. The death of a potentate, which perhaps shocks a nation by its sud- denness, is referable to the facts, that no darkness or secresy can hinder God's seeing every man's actions, and that God need not con- sider twice, or insti- tute any inquiry, before bringing the criminal to judg- ment. — Hence it follows that tlie catastrophe of such men is a proof of their guilt ; it is a warning to 16 18 19 20 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIV. 16. 379 De R. reads '^o (sing.) instead of '^'? (plural), nvj verse. 349 (before emendation) De R. reads ioi«n {doth any say ?) instead of ionh {is one to say ?) 76 K. supplies 'JE {the face, i.e., the jjcrson of) before »i© {the opulent). 180 K. omits this and the two follow- ing verses. 248 K. reads an^an (plural) instead of i'^n (singular), the mighty. 4, 18, 111, 180, 245, K., supply i {and) before ^'3 n"? {not by hand). 21 24 147 K. reads iSD' {Re counteth) instead of HNT {He seeth). 158 K. reads rT, and 349 De R. reads »"iT ; in either case the rendering would be. He knoweth, instead of n' {He breaketh to pieces). 82 K. reads D'T2N instead of d't^D; in either ca'se, mighty men. 16 K. reads )'« instead of n"; ; without, in either case. 196 K. reads inw {another) instead of DnnM {others). 138 JOB XXXIV. 26. 26 In that they were wicked did he strike them. In the open sight of others : 27 Por that they had turned away from after him. And had not attended to any of his ways. 28 In order to bring upon each the cry of the destitute ; For he heareth the cry of the meek. 29 And if he give quiet, who can cause trouble ? Or if he hide [his] face, who can behold him ? And this, in reference at once to the nation and to the man. 30 That an impious man may not reign, That he be not snares to the people. For shall any one say unto God, " I have borne what I was not bound ; " Things beyond what I see do thou teach me ; " If I have done evil, I will do so no more ? " 33 Is this thy view? He will requite it, though thou repudiate [it] ; But thou choosest [it], and not I ; Speak, therefore, what thou dost know. 34 Men of sense will say to me, (For a wise man doth hearken to me,) 35 "Job speaketh without knowledge, " And his words are without prudence." others, and an act of vengeance on God's part because they had slighted him, and «f retribution because of their oppression of the poor ; and if God, who hears the cry of the injured, does choose to grant relief to oppressed states, and to trouble the oppressor, none can hinder him ; and, by this act, the rojal malefactor is de- prived of the power of doing mischief, — 31 32 — For if punishinent be not because of sin, we must suppose that man may complain of penalties as being imjust or unaccount- able; — Job, who should speak more guard- edly, may, perhaps, repudiate such a sup- position ; but it is his conclusion, and he must be answerable for it. Men of sense will, of course, agree with him (Elihu) that Job's language is highly injudicious, and he wishes it to VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXiy. 26. 26 17, 384 (after emendation), K., substi- tutes « (s) for D (s) in cpED {did He strike them) ; this is immaterial. 28 125 K., 349 De R., read I'^w instead of v'W; upon each, in either case. 29 76 K. reads ijtmJ'' {can turn Him back) instead of 12111a' [can behold Him) ; 93 K. omits ^^p {at once). 30 172 (probably) K. reads '« {the nation) instead of 03? {the people). 31 48, 223, K., supply 1 {and) after 'hnw: {I have borne). 32 33 34 3, 30, 32, 100, and other MSS. K., 319, 349, 414, and other MSS. De R., read ^im {iniquity) instead of ^i» {evil). 384 K. supplies n (A) at the end of nD«o ( [though] thou repudiate) ; this is immaterial. 180 K. omits the whole verse. 1 K. reads noM {truth) instead of aa'' {sense). 157 (margin), 294, K., read imw {hearken) instead of now' {will say). JOB XXXIV. 36. 139 36 My wish is tliat Job might be tried to the utter- be thoroughly sifted, ^ as it gives open coun- mOSt ; tenance to irreligion. Because of [his] answers [siding] with wicked men. 37 For he addeth unto his sin ; He applaudeth irrehgion in the midst of us ; And he multipheth his words against God. XXXV. 1. — Blihi ansioered, and said, 2 Hast thou counted this to be judgment, [That] thou hast said, "I am more right than God " ? 3 Nay ! thou askest wherein it serveth thee, " Wherein do I profit more than had I sinned ? " 4 I will answer thee with verse ; And together with thee, thy friends. 5 Look at the heavens, and see ; And behold the clouds, they are higher than thou. 6 If thou hast sinned, what doest thou against Him? Yea, though thy transgressions were multiplied, what doest thou unto Him ? 7 If thou wert righteous, what givest thou Him ? Or what doth He receive from thy hand ? JSlihu^s third dis- course. Job had argued (conclusively in his own opinion) that, [his sufferings being unmerited], God was wrong and he right, and that his inno- cence had not availed him ; to this (which his friends had not answered) he [Elihu] would reply, — — that the height of the heavens was alone sufficient to teach men that, whilst their actions might aifect their fellows, they coidd not affect God. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIV. 36. 36 245 K. reads '3« (7) instead of '3« {imj wish is) ; 715, 34 (before emendation), De R., read mtin ([hisj answe?-) in- stead of T\2xdp\ ( [his] ansicers) ; many MSS. K. read the word fully, maicn, 89, 95, K., 34 (before emendation), De R., read 3 {like) instead of a ( [siding] tcith) ; 18, 245, K., omit 3, and 593 De R. reads Q {more than, or [derived] from). Many MSS. K. substitute « (s) for D (s) in piDD' (7/e applaudeth) ; this is immaterial. XXXV. 1 180 K. omits this and the three follow- ing verses. Many MSS. K. spell MW"?N instead of in'b« {Elihu). Many MSS. K. supply i {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 92 K. reads c'jts instead of X^ {verse) ; this is immaterial. 259 K. omits the whole verse. 378 K. supplies the definite article n before D^mi) {the clouds) ; this is immaterial. 271 A., 1 17 (probably), K., read ^b {unto him) instead of n {against him); 188 K. reads ]nn {givest tlwu) instead of Trmm {doest tltou). 201 K. reads nnjrn {doest thou) instead of ^nn {givest thou). 140 JOB XXXV. 8. 8 A man like thyself [doth] thy wickedness [affect], And a son of man, thy righteousness. 9 Because of a multitude [of oppressions] the oppressed cry out ; They cry because of the arm of the great. 10 But none saith, "Where is God my maker, " Who giveth songs in the night ; 11 "Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, " And maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven ? " 12 There they cry, but he answereth not ; [They cry] by reason of the haughtiness of the 13 God certainly doth not hear vanity; [wicked. Neither doth the Almighty see it. 14 How much less, since thou say est [that] thou seest him not, — [That] judgment is [not] before him, and [that] thou waitest [not] on him ! 15 And now, because he hath not at aU visited in his anger, Neither hath taken very much notice of insolence ; 16 Therefore Job openeth his mouth to no purpose; He multiplieth verse without knowledge. [Job had stated, correctly enough, that] men often cry out under their op- pressions, and yet are not noticed by God. But why was this ? Simply be- cause their cries were not addressed to Him as their great re- source, and God does not answer the vain howling of unbelief; and much less so if (according to Job's notion) He is no moral governor at all ; — and indeed this notion, that He was not a moral go- vernor, was certainly at the bottom of all Job's ignorant effu- sions. 10 11 12 VARIOUS READINGS, 368 De R. reads Q^;7ii»5 {oppressions) instead of D'piiJ? {the oppressed) ; 48, 111, 170, 248, K., 2, 40, 349, 801, 828, 847, 874, De R., read Q'pw {op- pressors). 249, 259, K., read yp'sr (Kal) instead of V'»i' (Hiphil) ; in either case, tliey cry out. Certain MSS. K. read 'r:bn {my God) instead of rrhn { God). 593, 597 (before emendation), De R., read 'SD'jo {who teacheth me) instead of iDCbo {who teacheth its) ; 125 K. reads men {the feld) instead of D'Diun {heaven). Many MSS. K. substitute i (r) for s {ts) 14 16 JOB XXXV. 9. in yp'srs.-' {they cry)', this is imma- terial. 34 K., 33, 349, 554, (the last three before emendation), 597, 782 (after emendation), De R., read 'jnon {thou seest me) instead of ^3"^^^n^ {thou seest him). Very many MSS. K. read ■i'i3' instead of nap: ; in either case, He multiplieth ; 100, 166,245 (before emendation), 117 (probably), K., 203, 277, 304, 349, and other MSS. De R., read Tir; and 158 (probably) K., 59, 380, 559, 593, 847, De R., read the same defectively, ^3y {He maheth heavy). JOB XXXVI. 1. 141 XXXVI. 1. — Eliliu added, cmd said, 2 Wait for me a little, and I will show thee \ Tor there still is verse on God's behalf. 3 I will fetch my opinion from afar, And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker ; 4 For verily my verse shall not be falsehood ; One sincere in [his] opinions is with thee. 5 Lo ! God is great, and despiseth not ; Great in strength, [great] in heart. 6 He letteth not the wicked live ; And he giveth the poor their right. 7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous ; And they being kings on the throne. He doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted. 8 Or if, being bound in fetters, They have been taken in cords of affliction • 9 Then he showeth them their work. And their transgressions, that they have been excessive : 10 And he openeth their ear to correction ; And commandeth them that they return from iniquity. Elihu^s fourth and last discourse. Job will soon see that he (Elihu) has still somewhat to say foi' God, whose ways he cannot but justify, and that, in all sin- cerity. God's power and generosity are a gua- rantee for the justice of his actions in pu- nishing wickedness and redressing wrong ; — — in the case of righteous monarchs, he establishes them, on their thrones, — — or if He suffer them to fall into the hands of their ene- mies, his object is to show them what needs correction in them, and so, to bring them to re- pentance ; and if they profit by this discipline, He re- stores their prospe- rity ; — whereas if they be disobedient VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVI. 1. XXXVI. 147, 137 (before emendation), K., read pi {answered) instead of f^Dn {added), 349 De R. reads rb^nb {for aglah). Is this a mistake for vhivh {for Agla), a name for God used by the Cab- balists ? It is composed of the first letters of the words in the following sentence: — '3i« nbiyb niaa nny, thou art miglity for ever, O Lord. Many MSS. K. and De R. omit i {and). One MS. De R. reads rvr\\ { [the wicked] shall [not] live) instead of Tvjy^ {He letteth [not the wicked] live). Various MSS. K., 304, 349, 587, 824, 379 (before emendation), 32 (after emendation), De R., and published editions, read "i^'S {his eye) instead of vo'S {his eyes). 349 De R. reads D»"i {and with) instead of n«i (which may mean here, a7id they being); 17, 160 (margin), 225, 384, 603, K., read rroab {in safety) instead of na:"? {for ever). 95 K. supplies 3 epenthetic to r\iyn {they have been excessive) ; this is im- material. 142 JOB XXXVI. 11. 1 1 If they obey, and serve ; They finish their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures. 12 But if they do not obey, They pass away Hke a dart. And expire in their lack of knowledge. 13 For the impious in heart lay up wrath ; They cry not when he bindeth them. 14 Their soul dieth like that of [prostitute] youths. And their life hke that of sodomites. 1 5 He delivereth the humble by his affliction ; And he uncovereth their ear by trouble. 16 Ay, and he would have urged thee out of the gorge of distress ; In place of it [woidd have been] roominess, not straitness ; And the setting down of thy tray would have been full of fatness, 17 But thou hast filled up the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and sentence hold together ! 18 Since [there is] wrath, [beware] lest he urge thee off" with a stroke. And a great ransom shall not turn thee from [it]. to his admonitiong, they suddenly die in their stupid iudiifer- — tor those whose hearts are wicked cannot stand the test of affliction, and in their end God treats them as the yilest of mankind ; — whilst in the case of the truly righteous, affliction is made to work its own cure ; and such it would have proved in Job's case; nay, God would any how have brought him out of distress into prosperity, but that he had filled up such a measure of iniquity as called for judg- ment,— — and this he should take care not to pro- voke, for, once pro- voked, neither wealth nor power could 11 12 16 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVI. 11. Many MSS. K. and De R., and pub- lished editions, read i"?!' [they wear away) instead of ■i''3' {they finish). 170, 248, K., read □n^m:\D% and 100 K. reads Qn"i:ici instead of Dn'iirn ; in either case, and their year's. 596 (before emendation) De R. omits the prefix a in '^23. In the former case the meaning is, without ; in the latter, in [their] lack. 1 K., 597 De R., supply i {and) before M^ {not). 17 147, 170, 224 (before emendation), K., read D'yun (plural) instead of yiBi (sin- gular), the iviched. 245 K. supplies 1 {and) at the commencement of the second hemistich. 384 K. reads "odd* {support [each other] ) instead of iDon' {hold together.) 18 Many MSS. K. substitute o (s) for « (s) in pc©3 {with a stroke); 48 K. reads pDE32 {with a decision) ; this is Rabbinic. JOB XXXVI. 19. 143 1 9 Will He esteem thine opulence ? [No!] not balsam, nor all the powers of might, 20 Pant not for the night, When people are carried oflP below : 21 Take heed, face not towards iniquity, Por, because of this, hast thou chosen [death] rather than affliction. 22 Behold, God exalteth himself in his power ; Who is Master like Him ? 23 Who hath encharged him with his way ? Or who hath said. Thou hast done wrong ? 24 Remember that thou magnify his doings. Which mortal-men have seen : 25 All mankind have gazed upon them ; Mortal-man beholdeth them from afar. 26 Lo ! God is great, passing knowledge ; The number of his years is unsearchable. 27 Tor he draineth off the drops of water ; They are strained into rain for his mist : 28 So that the skies flow down ; They drizzle copiously upon man. avert it ; the anxiety, therefore which he expressed for death was most foolish, and, the object being only to escape afflic- tion, it was sinful likewise. God is highly exalted, and has no superior to whom he is accountable, he should therefore be magnified in those works of his which are conspicuous to all men, and wliich exhibit, though in a way that cannot be explored, his eternal power and Godhead j — the formation of rain by the evapora- tion of water, and then its condensation into minute particles, and then its fall, — is 19 22 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVI. 19. 145 K. reads "p^n (Imth He esteemed) instead of "p®'^ (will He esteem). 157 K. omits the i (ou) in "py^ {thine opu- lence) ; this is immaterial. 17, 170, 95 (after emendation), K., 349 De R., supply 1 (and) before x'' (not) ; 163 K. reads i'? {for hmiself) instead of n'' {not) ; 201 (margin) K. reads 1^ {fo7- thee) instead of vh {not), and 226 K. omits it. 249 De R. omits nan {balsam (?) ) 80 K. omits i {his) in inDi {in his power). 99, 245, 259, 166 (after emen- dation), K., 368, 610, De R., supply i {and) at the beginning of the second hemistich, and 349 K. reads ^'«i {and there is no) instead of 'Q {who [is] ). 23 32 K. supplies *]i* {moreover) at the beginning of the verse. 384 K. reads *» {upon) instead of y'^'S {upon him) ; in that case the sentence would be, who hath inspected his icay. 76, 249, 117 (before emendation), K., read "^on' {would say) instead of "ra« {hath said). 25 80 K. omits oin {7nankind). 18, 249, K., supply ^ {unto) before pimo {froin afar). 26 Various MSS. K, and De R. omit i {and) before T" ^ {there is no search- ing, i.e., unsearchable). 27 252 K. supplies "j {itito) before "itoo {rain) ; this is immaterial. Many MSS. K. read n'^'' {for his calamity) instead of 'n«'' {for his 7nist). 144 JOB XXXVL 29. 29 Ay, doth [man] understand the spreadmgs of the cloud ? The uproar of his pavilion ? 30 (Behold, he hath spread his light over it; And hath covered the reaches of the sea.) 31 Eor by them he judgeth nations ; He giveth food in abundance. [lightning, 32 On the hollow of [his] hands hath he covered the And he giveth it commission in striking. 33 His noise announceth concerning him, — [He hath] a store of wrath against iniquity. XXXVII. 1. — Ay, at this doth my heart tremble, And it doth bound from out of its place. 2 Hark ! hark at the raging of his voice ! A grumbling sound goetli forth from his mouth. 3 Under the whole heaven he letteth it loose,^ Even his lightning over the ends of the earth. one of those works ; — the formation of the wide-spread thunder-cloud is another of his inexpli- cable works, and that, whether regarded in a physical or in a providential point of view, for the light- ning executes his command, and the thunder proclaims the resources of his wrath. As to himself, he (Elihu) owns to a feeling of great trepi- dation at the dread- ful sound of God's thunder : — God lets the hght- ning loose under the whole welkin, then VAEIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVI. 29. 29 245 K. reads ■'cVdo {the balancings) in- stead of 'XinDQ [the spreadings). 30 380 (before emendation), De R. sup- plies D'Q {the ivaters) before D'n [the sea). 32 226 (margin), 227, 253, 95, 178, (the two latter before emendation), 130 (probably) K., 369, 589, 593, 3, 579, 801, (the three latter before emendation), 380,447, (bothafteremendation),DeR., read vbs (masculine) instead of n^'^s? (fe- minine); in either case, unto it; in the former case the pronoun agrees with Ti^ [lightning), which is masculine, although this might be an exceptional instance. 30, 168, 1, 95, (the two latter before emendation), K., 32, 552, 589, 593, 610, 780, 801, 34, 379, 715, 737, 924, (the five latter before emendation), De R., substitute 3 [like) instead of 2 [in) before S'JOD [striking). 33 137 K. reads nri [evil) i.e., it (the light- ning) announceth concerning him evil, 2 1 instead of wi [his noise) ; 92, 93, 196, 223, K., read i5?n [his friend). 304 (before emendation), De R., reads injpn [his store) instead of T}:]!^ [a store), and 18, 32, 93, 196, K., 715, 593 (after emendation), De R., supply 1 [and) at the commencement of the second hemistich. 147 K. omits F]« [wrath) ; 596 (before emendation) De R. reads instead, 21 [great). 18, 76, 170, K., 31 (before emendation), 847 (after emendation), De R., omit ■?» (against) ; 3 (before emendation), 633 (probably before emendation), De R,, read instead, nV [not) ; 277 De R. reads "ja [all). 157 K. reads rrfrs, and 18, 76, 93, 111, 157, 158, 231, 239, 259, 270, 141 (before emendation) K. read defectively n"^, instead of nViy ; in either case this may mean iniquity ; 253 K. reads I'^iS' [his iniquity). XXXVII. 8 K. omits wia [at the raging). JOB XXXVII. 4. 145 4 After it tliere roareth a voice ; He tliunderetli with the voice of his majesty, And he stayeth them not when his voice is heard. 6 God thuudereth marvels with his voice ; Doing great things passing knowledge. G Por he saith to the snow, " Fall to the earth ; " Also [to] the shower of rain, And [to] the shower of his violent rains. 7 The hand of every man sealeth he up, That all the mortals he hath made may learn. 8 Then goetli the wild beast into [his] lair. And dwelleth in his abodes. 9 Out of its chamber cometh the tempest. And cold out of [its] scatterings. 10 Out of God's breath is given ice; And the breadth of the waters is compressed. 11 Even by [its] watering the thick cloud falleth headlong : Its own lightning scattereth the covering cloud. 12 And that veereth round about by his management ; That they may do all for which he ordereth them, — Earthwards, on the face of the world. 13 Be it for a scourge, be it for his earth, Be it for mercy. He supplieth it. tliunders awfully, and then no longer holds back the marvellous things that accompany the thunder, for at his word, down falls the snow, or the rain in torrents, — — man's labour is suspended that he may reflect, — the wild beast retires into his lair, tlie tempest sweeps along with its chill blast, God breathes upon the waters and they become ice-bound ; — by degrees the clouds are expended by their own discharge of rain and hghtning, and their wheelings about are under God's guidance, to fulfil his will on earth, whether in the way of judgment or of mercy. — 10 VARIOUS READINGS, 17, 219 (before emendation), 223 (after emendation), K., read aasy [he retard- eth them (this is a Chaldaic word) in- stead of D3pr' (lie stayeth them). 172 K. reads ^ry^, and 349, 379, 552, 593, 714, 4 (before emendation) De R., read sop: ; in either case, \each'\ heareth, instead of »P1b: (is heard). Many MSS. K. read mn, and 93, 111, 248 (before emendation), K. read 'in instead of Miri ; in either case, fall. 76, 111, K. reads pST3 instead of psioi (lit. m a squeeze) ; this does not affect the general sense, is compressed; 715 11 12 JOB XXXVII. 4. (before emendation) De R. reads npsiQD [as though compressed). 145 K. reads npiaoa [in a squeeze). 76 K. omits 'li (by [its] watering). Many MSS. De R. read p? (absolute) instead of |2?; (construct state), the covering cloud. 1 K. reads ™m [and behold) instead of Nirn [and that). The Keri, and many MSS. K., read vnbinnna (plural) instead of inbiannj (singular) ; in either case, his vianagement ; and 92 K. reads v"?2nn3, with probably the same meaning. 140 JOB XXXVII. 14. 14 Give ear to this, 0 Job : —Let Job reflect, Stand, and consider the marvels of God. thougir^scnribTe'''of 15 Knowest thou when God chargeth them, hf "tJws^'S And [when] he maketh the hghtning of his cloud r^tom^^SoSng in flneln P these agents, or how 16 Knowest thou about the poisings of the thick poised,— cloud, The marvels of Him that is perfect in all know- ledge;— 17 Thou! v/hose garments are warm, When he lulleth the earth from the south ? 18 Thou together with Him spreadest out the sky, —[but of course he does know, since] he [Which is] firm as a molten muTor : helps God to spread --. -, , in J tlic sky, and so, he 19 Make us [then] to know what we shall say to (Eiihu), conscious of , . his own ignorance, nini ; desires to be taught We cannot compose because of darkness. address "^GocC— ad° 20 Is it to be told Him that I shall speak, ^''who^'shCJd If any should say [it], he would indeed be swal- ;-;^j^ ^jf^^^^^J^^ lowed up : ^^^ ,/=^'^"f* s^tt ^ upon the golden hght 21 For now, men cannot see the sun, of *iie sun when the north wind has [So] splendid is he in the skies, scoured the heavens, '--'^ 1111 — ^ow then upon When a wind hath passed over, and cleared them. God, whose invisible , 111 brightness must be 22 Out 01 the north COmeth gold ; ^ terrible by reason of Upon God [there is] terrible majesty. aywho^'dVernot VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVII. 15. 15 76 K. omits the whole verse. 191 K. omits "iiN {the liyhtning). 16 48, 147, K., 349, 554, 941, 596 (before emendation), K., read mNbcj instead of m«'?nQ; in either case, the marvels. 153 K. reads D'Oi {lofty) instead of D'on {Jmn that is iJerfcct). 153 K. reads D'n {thunders) instead of D'»i {all knowledge). 17 76 K. reads n^an {perfect) instead of D'nn {warm). 19 34, 76, 89, and many other MSS. K., and De R., read ':i''mn {mahe mc to knotc) instead of i:3?mn {make us to knoio) . 21 380 (before emendation) De R., reads N'jn {cannot?) instead «'? {cannot). 89 (before emendation) K. reads w'n (fe- minine) instead of Nirr {he) ; in the former case ti« must be understood of the lightning, and not of the suti. 22 201, 228, K., 349, De R., read «nN' in- stead of nn«' , Cometh ; this is imma- terial. 76, 245, 249, 381, K., supply 1 {and) at the commencement of the second hemistich. JOB XXXVII. 23, 147 23 The Almiglity ! wc do not discover liira ; Vast in power and in judgment, And great in righteousness, he will not give answer. 24 Therefore let mortals fear him ; None of the wise in heart will pry. choose to answer [their impertinen- cies] ? — — It becomes mortals therefore to fear, and not gaze. XXXVIII. 1. — And the Eternal answered Joh out of the storm, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel, By verse without knowledge ? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man, And I will ask thee ; then make me to know. 4 Where wast thou when I founded the earth ? Declare, if thou hast the knowledge. 5 Who laid the measures thereof, for thou knowest ? Or who stretched the line upon it ? 6 Upon what are the bases thereof sunken ? Or who heaved down its corner stone. OocPs first dis- course. Let Job, who has been obscuring the subject in hand, now reply to the follow- ing questions. — Where was he when God con- structed the earth ? And what does he know of its archi- tect ? and of the laying of its founda- tions — an event which called forth shoutings of joy VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVII. 23. 23 24 92, 245, K., substitute D (s) for u? (s) in «"'3» {vast) ; this is immaterial. 349, 593, De R., read n:5?i {he will [not] give answer) instead of n:r {he tvill [not] afflict). 196 K., 31, 683, (both before emenda- tion), De R., supply n"? {not) before imuT (in that case, do [not] fear him). 224 K. omits vh {not, here none) ; in that case the clause would be, all the wise in heart tvill see. 170, 245, 384, K., 349, De R., supply i {and) at the commencement of the second hemi- stich. 758 De R. reads '«i' {will he fearing) instead of hnv {ivill pry) ; so also the LXX., Syr., Chald., and Arab. 380 De R. omits ''3 {all, with the nega- tion, tione). xxxvin. 1 The Keri, and many MSS. K. read :o {out of) with a final ^. 651 K. substi- tutes T» (s) for D (s) in rreon {the storm) ; this is immaterial. 80, 92, K., read n'Vm instead of ]'''m {bg verse) ; this is immaterial. 147 K. reads "n^'JS {like a hero) instead of n2:3 [like a man). Many MSS. K. and De R., and published editions, omit 1 {and) at the commencement of the second clause. 253, 1 (before emendation), K., sub- stitute 3 {as when, or about the time of) instead of 3 (here, ivhen). 349 De R. reads mon {the measure thereof) instead of h-'toq {the measures thereof). 30, 191, K., read vb» (mas- culine) instead of r^■'b^s (feminine, tqwn it) ; p« {the earth), with which this word agrees, is of common gender. l2 148 JOB XXXVIII. 7. 7 When the morning stars sang together, from the whole And all the sons of God shouted for joy, JhToeean IT bot^ 8 And he pent up the sea with doors, ^^^^ *^doudr'^ and When it burst from the womb [whence! it issued ; ^^»'^ness, and when L J ' limits were pre- 9 When I made the cloud its garment, ^^^^'^'^'^ to '^ ? And thick-darkness its swaddling-band, 10 And spanned my boundary about it, And placed a bar and doors, 11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no fm-ther, And here [a bound] shall be set to the pride of thy waves ? 12 Hast thou, since thy days, commanded the Has he, since his first existence, or- mornmg. And caused the day-spring to know his place, — 13 To take hold of the wings of the earth. That the wicked might be shaken out of it ? 14 It turneth round lik^ a seal of clay ; And [things] stand out as though [in] dress. 15 And from the wicked their own light is with- And the high-raised arm is broken. [holden ; dered the dajHght, which scares and interrupts evil-doers, by bringing out in full rehef every ob- ject on the revolving earth ? VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVIII. 7. 10 11 12 196 K. omits T^ {the morning). 32 K. reads m« (mati) instead of D'nV« (^God). 18 K., omits D'nbia (witfi doors). 157 K. substitutes 3 {as when) for 3 {wheii) before in^j {its bur stint/, or it burst). Variousj^lSS. K. substitute 3 {as when) for a {wJwh). 384 K., 579 De R, read 1011133 {when he made) instead of 'QTO3 {when I made). 158 K. omits the whole verse. The Keri, and many MSS. K. read HDi instead of nQi {and here) ; this is immaterial. 150 K., 597 (before emendation), De R., substitute 3 (as [to]) for 3 {to). The Keri, and many MSS. K. read Tr (probably, codes) instead of iixtbd (its code). 34 153 K. reads i« {or) instead of "i (and) ; in that case translate, or shall abund- ance, 8fc. ? 36 139 K. reads D« instead of n©; in either case, hatJi put. 38 651 K. reads n^nam (a)id its clods) in- stead of D'2:ni {and the clods). JOB XXXVIII. 39. 151 39 Canst thou hunt the prey for the honess ? And canst thou fill the appetite of the young lions, 40 When tliey couch in their lairs, [And] squat in the covert in ambush ? 41 Who prepare th for the raven his game? When his young cry out unto God, He wandereth about for lack of food. XXXIX. 1. — Knowest thou the time when the mountain-goats bear ? [hinds ? Canst thou keep watch over the calving of the 2 Canst thou count the months which they fulfil ? And knowest thou the time of their bearing ? 3 They bow themselves, they eject their young ; They cast out their labour-pains. [field ; 4 Their young fatten ; they grow up in the open They go forth, and return to them no more. 5 Who hath sent forth the wild ass free ; And who hath unloosed his bonds ? 6 Wliose house 1 have made the desert ; And the salt land his dwelling-places. 7 He laugheth at the tumult of the city ; He heareth not the shoutings of the driver : 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture ; And he searcheth after every green thing. 9 Will the wild ox list to serve thee ? Will he lodge the night at thy stalls ? — Can he hunt prey for the lion, or teil who [but God] pre- pares food for the hungiy and croaking raven ? — — Does he attend to the gestation of mountain goats and of hinds ? Are they riot rather, inde- pendent of his assist- ance on such occa- sions, and do they not, in fact, betray their habits of inde- pendence from an early period ? — Is it not God who has given to the wild ass imshackled free- dom, and the desert for a home, — a crea- ture that enjoys ab- solute exemption from all service to man, and ranges mountainous tracts in quest of his ? — Can Job induce the wild ox to be- come domesticated, 40 41 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXVIII. 40. 1012 De R. reads aiNiob instead of aiN lo'j (m ambush) ; this is imma- terial. 18 K. supplies •» {and) at the com- mencement of the verse. The Keri, and many MSS. K., read viV (plural) instead of nV (sing.) {his ynumj). XXXIX. 3 100 K. reads cm"?' {their (masc.) younff) instead of ]'r\n'T {their (fern.) youny). 16 K. reads i3^ {they walk), and 48 K. reads itri» {they see) instead of taT {they grow up). 664, 245 (before emenda- tion), 80 (probably), K., read ^^3 {in the pasture) instead of "i23 {in the open field). 201 K. omits rnp {the city). 153 JOB XXXIX. 10. 10 Canst tliou bind the wild ox in the furrow of his cord ? Will he harrow the valleys after thee ? 11 Canst thou trust him because his strength is great ? And canst thou leave thy labour to him ? 1 2 Canst thou believe in him that he will bring back thy seed, And gather up thy threshing-floor ? 13 The wing of the ostrich thrilleth joyously : Is the feather and plume [that] of the stork ? 14 For she leaveth her eggs to the earth. And warmeth [them] on the dust ; 15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them. And that the wild beast may trample them. 16 She is hard upon her young for [those] not hers; Fearless, her labour is in vain. 17 For God hath caused her to forget wisdom ; And hath not imparted to her understanding. 18 What time she lasheth herself on high, She laugheth at the horse and at his rider. and, because strong, to plough and barrow for liim, and carry bis corn, and tbresb ? — — Does not tbe os- trich differ from the stork [in disposition], for, thoughtless of the danger to which she exposes them, she lays her eggs on the bare ground, and, with [apparent] cruelty to her young, and want of caution, mistakes others for her own ? This sto- lidity of her nature in this respect is God's doing ; [but then] she can, when she pleases, outstrip the fleetest courser. VARIOUS READINGS, 11 IK. reads iVn instead of inD; both ■words mean, his strength. 12 100 K. omits the whole verse. The Keri, and many MSS., K., read Tffi-« [he will hring hacli) instead of 3W {he tvill 17 return [with]). 14 225 K. reads D'Si {eggs) instead of n'2'3 {her eggs) ; 170 K. reads iDS?i {and — [on] the dust) instead of 1Q3? b^$^ (and — on the dust). 15 18, 30, 48, and many other MSS. K., 1( read nmin instead of mnn ; in either case, 7nay crush them. 16 34, 111, K. read n-apn (fem.) instead of rriBpn (masc), and 95 (before emenda- tion) K. reads nicpn ; in either of these JOB XXXIX. 11. cases the meaning is, is hard upon. 76, 92, K., read n''3 instead of 'bi ; in either case, without, in connexion with "ms {fear), fearless. 130, 22 1, 150 (probably), K., read rron {hath hamhled \her'] ) instead of rrarr {hath caused her to forget); 18, 76, K. omits Tb (to her), and 3 (before emendation) K. reads ni with the same meaning. 48 (before emendation) K. reads Diinb instead of o^^m, and 18, 207, K., omit 3; in either case, o?« 7uV/7i. 118 K. omits N in xnon {she lasheth herself) ; this is immaterial. JOB XXXIX. 19. 153 19 Canst thou give power to the horse? Canst thou clothe his neck with quivering action ? 20 Canst thou make him start as the locust? The majesty of his snorting is terror ! 21 They paw in the vale, and each exulteth in strength ; He goeth out to encounter the weapon. 22 He laugheth at fear, and is undismayed ; And he turneth not back from the face of the sword. 23 Over him ringeth the quiver, — The flash of the lance and the dart. 24 With starts and rage he drinketh up the ground ; And he belie veth not that it is the sound of the trumpet : 25 When the trumpet is loud, he saith. Aha ! And from afar he snuff'eth the battle, — The thunder of the captains, and the shouting. 26 Doth the hawk take wing by thy wisdom. And spread out his pinions to the south ? 27 Mounteth up the eagle at thy bidding, That he may set his nest on high ? — Does Job supply the horse with muscle, and high blood, and action, and mettle, and rage ? How that creature paws the ground, and curvets! Dauntlessly he goes forth to the encounter, — his rider's armour rings upon him as he rushes forward full of spirited action, half unconscious of the sound of the trumpet, till, as it waxes louder, he snorts with satis- faction, and now snuffs the battle, and hears the shout of — Does the hawk fly by Job's wisdom ? Docs the eagle soar at his bidding ? That bird perches liis nest on the peak of the VARIOUS READINGS, 20 18 K. omits Tin {the majesty). 21 ISO K. omits TOi [in strength) ; 48 K. omits 3 (in) in that word. 22 118, 178 (before emendation), K., 596 25 (before emendation), De R. read nnEj"? {at the j>{t) instead of ^^D'J {at fear) ; 80 K. omits nn' nVi {and is undis- mayed) ; 176 K. reads Tin' instead of 26 nn' ; the meaning in either case, in connexion with vh'y, is, and is undis- mayed. 180 K. reads '3o {from) in- 27 stead of '3Cn {from the face of). 24 223, 245, K., read TDJ-m instead of wii ; in either case, and rage. 101 K. sub- stitutes n (A) for N {a) in MnJ' {he drinketh iip) ; this is immaterial. JOB XXXIX. 20. though the former form is unknown. 249 K. reads bipa {at the sound) instead of 'tV '3 {that it is the sound). 196 K. reads s"T {it, i.e., the trumpet, soimdeth) instead of mT {he snuffeth). 95, 245, K., supply i {and) before Dsn {the thunder). The Keri, and very many MSS. K., read vdw {his jyinions) instead of "idw {his jnnion). 180 K. reads y:^ {thy jn-esence) instead of I'D {thy bidding). 227, 259, 248 (before emendation), K., read DiT ( [that his nest] may he high) instead of Dn> ([that] he viay set [his nest] on high). 154 JOB XXXIX. 28. 28 He inhabiteth the rock, and maketh his lodgment, On the tooth of the rock, and the fastness : 29 From thence he prieth for food ; From afar his eyes behold : 30 And his broods gulp blood ; And where the slain are, there is he. XL. 1. — Moreover the Eternal answered Job, and said, 2 Will disputing with the Almighty correct [him] ? Let him that impleadeth God reply to it. loftiest crags, and from that high cita- del looks out for his quarry ; and, to get blood for his eaglets, he is present where- eyer there is carnage. [Jol reply.'] maTces no Oo(fs second dis- course. Is Job likely to gain his end by disputing ■with the Almighty ? 3 Jnd Job answered the Eternal, and said, 4 Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee ? I put my hand upon my mouth. 5 Once have I spoken, but I will not reply ; Yea, twice, but I will do so no more. JoVs first reply. He is vile, he has no answer, and will not attempt to 6 And the Eternal answered Job out of the storm, God's tUrd dis' y , , course. and said, 7 Gird up now thy loins like a man ; Let Job again pre- T -11 1 ii ii ^ L 1 P^^6 ^o'' controversy, 1 Will ask thee, then let me know. and say whether he 8 Wilt thou even pull to pieces my judgment ? might'to^Sstify him^ Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be penset— iet\im dh- in«;tifipd ? P^^J" ^^^ majesty and jutsliiieuf pQ^gj. |jy investing VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XXXIX. 30. 30 The Keri, and very many MSS. K., read vmDNi {and his broods) instead of "imaxi [atid Ms brood). 95 K. reads ibsbsr- (a Pilpel form) instead of XS^ ', in either case, gulp. 178 K. reads DM3 Nin (he is there) instead of «iri d© (there is he). XL. 270, 655—657, 664, K., commence this chapter from the sixth verse. 1 431 K, omits the whole verse. 2 249 K. supplies i (atid) at the com- mencement of the second hemistich; in that case the meaning would be, a7id will he that, ^-c, ^-c. Many MSS. K. and De R. omit i (but) in the second hemistich. The Keri, and many MSS. K., read 30 (ottt of) with a final ]-, 188 K. supplies the definite article n to ni^c (the storm), and also substitutes M? (s) for D (s); both these differences are immaterial. 30 K. reads i:s©o (judgment) instead of 'T2DfflQ (my judgment). JOB XL. 9. 155 9 Hast thou, then, an arm like God ? And canst thou thunder Kke Him with a voice ? 10 Deck thyself now with loftiness and grandeur; And array thyself with majesty and state. 1 1 Scatter abroad the outbursts of thine anger, And see any proud man, and humble him : 12 See any proud man, and make him bend ; And tread down the wicked in their place : 13 Hide them in the dust together; Bandage their faces in the hidden place. 14 Then, even I will confess to thee, • That thine own right hand can save thee. 1 5 Behold now the river-horse, whom I made with thee; He eateth grass as the ox. 10 Behold now his strength is in his loins ; And his might in the thews of his belly. 17 Like a cedar he moveth his tail ; The sinews of his haunches are interwoven. 18 His bones are tubes of copper. His [solid] bones as a bar of iron. 19 He is the first of the ways of God ; His maker presented [him] his scythe, himself with glory, and by bringing down to the grave, in his indignation, the proud and the ■wicked ; for if he can do this, He (God) will acknowledge hia self-sufficiency. Let him consider the river-horse, — a creature made at the same time as man, — herbivorous, — pecu- liarly strong in the loins and beUy, — full of interlaced sinew in the haunches, with bones like metal, one of God's earliest [earthly] productions, — fur- nished with a scythe- like tooth, so as to be both herbivorous and harmless ; he has his covert be- neath lotus shrubs, or among reeds in 10 11 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XL. 9. 12 158 (probably) K. reads "j^a instead of bto; in either case, like God. 80 K. reads "'V^'' {nnd — as [with] a voice) instead of Vipa (with a voice). Ill, 163, 164, 198, K., omit i {and) at the commencement of the second hemistich. 48 (margin) K, reads naj instead of HNS ; in either case, a 2)roud man. 249 K. reads inr^sm (and make him lend) ; and 101 K. reads the same, omitting i (and), instead of inbTiEm (and humble him). Many MSS. K. supply i {and) before injriDn (make him hend), and 249 K. reads in its place "inb'DTsni {and humble him). 17 95 K. omits the whole verse. 2, 17, 76, and other MSS. K., and many MSS. De R., read tbit ([his tail] starteth up) instead of VBIt (he moveth). The Keri, and many MSS. K., read vinD (plural) instead of nno (singular) ; in either case, his haunches. 19 379, De R., reads rrmn {the maker) in- stead of i«.T?rt (his maker). 82, 166, 170, 355, K., read W'y instead of U)J'; in either case, presented. 156 JOB XL. 20. 20 That the mountains might bring him provision, And all the beasts of the field might gambol there. 21 He lieth down beneath the wild lotuses, In the covert of the reed and the fen. 22 The wild lotuses cover him with their shade; The osiers of the water-course encompass him. 23 If a river overflow, he starteth not away ; He feeleth secure though the Jordan gush tO' his 24 He receiveth it up to his eyes ; [mouth ; His nose pierceth through snares. XLL 1. — Draw out the crocodile with a hook, And his tongue with a cord [which] thou sinkest. 2 Canst thou put a rush into his nose ? And bore his jaw tlu-ough with a spike ? 3 Will he multiply entreaties unto thee ? Will he speak soft things unto thee ? 4 Will he make an engagement with thee, [That] thou shalt take him ever as a slave ? swamps ; [being am- phibious,] so far from scampering away from any torrent, however overwhebning, he calmly receives its shock ; and he can breakthrough snares. Let Job catch, and then secure a croco- dile, as he would an ordinary fish ; though if he should succeed in making him captive, would that creature beg for his life on the con- dition of engaging in perpetual servitude ? could Job toy with him ? or, having agreed beforehand to VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XL. 20. 20 21 22 48 K. reads in'or {might couch) instead of ipms' {might gambol). 245 K. transposes this and the follow- ing verse. Ill K., 610, 873, De R., read iniD' {en- compass him) instead of insD' [cover him), in the first hemistich. 80 K. omits D'bwi" {the tcild lotuses). 380 (before emendation) De R., reads V72 {shade) instead of i''''^ {its, or here, their shade) ; 379 De R. reads ^))^ {its, or their shadows) ; 263 (before emen- dation) De R., 117 K., omit the word, and 188 K. reads i'^"'^ {its, or here, their rustling). 4, 186, 203, 275, 554, 589, 847, 34, 328, 593, 1014, (the four last before emendation,) De R., read ihdd' {cover him). 48 K. reads ^r^^yy, fully, (the former word indeed, without the points, might be read in the singular number), and 230, 596 (before emendation), 249 (after emen- dation), De R., read iriDD', also meaning {cover him) instead of iniD' {encompass him, or without the points, [each] en- com2iasses him). 23 Very many MSS. K. and De R., and published editions, supply i {and) in the second clause of the first hemi- stich ; the meaning would in that case be, lo, Jordan marj overjloic, and he S^c. 224 K. 369 De R., read Vcrr {he hendeth) instead of ncn' {he starteth). 24 76 K. reads "^rTX^ instead of ijnp" {he receiveth it) ; this is immaterial. XLL 2 253 K, reads iffi^ii {into his head) in- stead of lEMn {into his nose). 4 150 K. reads nm {manij things) instead of mD"» {soft things). JOB XLL 5. 157 5 Canst thou sport with him as a bird ? And canst thou bind him for thy girls ? 6 Let companies bargain for him, That they may divide him amongst traders ; 7 Canst thou fill his skin with pikes ? And his head with a fish-spear ? 8 Put thine hand upon him, Thou wilt no more remember the battle.: 9 Behold, that man's hope proveth false ; Would he not, even at the sight of him, be flung flat? 10 He would not be so fierce as to provoke him. Who then would make a stand before me ? 11 Who hath fore-officed me, and I must repay [him] ? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. 12 I will not be silent of his parts, Nor of the subject of the power and the beauty of his structure. 13 Who hath laid bare the face of his clothing ? Who would go into the doubling of his muzzle ? 14 Who hath opened the doors of his face ? The encompassings of his teeth [would be] a terror. furnish such a crea- ture to merchants, would he venture to contend with him ? Any man hoping for success in such a con- flict would be de- ceived, and would be prostrated even at the sight of him, and would hardly venture to provoke him. — Who then could stand before God ? and who could do this on the plea that God was beholden to him ? —On the subject of the parts of this creature, he (God) qvxestions whether any would dare uncover his coating, or go iuto or open his muzzle bristling with teeth ; he is covered with close- set concave shields. VARIOUS READINGS, Various MSS. K. and De R. substitute 10 D (i) for i» (s) in niDica [ivith jnkes) ; this is probably immaterial. 196 K. reads Vjn {tmto him) instead of v'?» {ujmt him). 48, 76, 80, 82, and other MSS. K., read JEd {thine hands) instead of "jDO {thine hand). 147 K. reads ^v\ry instead of f]Din {thou wilt [no] more) ; this is immaterial. 12 Most Hebrew copies begin the forty- first chapter at this verse ; 270, 655 — 657, 664, K., begin it at the next verse. 380 (probably) K. reads inbmn {thy hope) instead of mbmn {his, i.e., thai man^s hojte). JOB XLI. 7. The Keri, and very many MSS. K., read i:"ii27' (Kal) instead of i2T2r' (Hiphil) ; in either case, to jvovoke him. 4, 17, 18, 30, and many other MSS. K. and De R., read vod"? ; and 331, 715, De R., read, defectively, ijd'' ; in both cases, before him, instead of ■•JBb {before me). The Keri reads V? {for him) instead of n'' {not), but this is not supported by any MSS. 168 K. reads jm instead of I'm {and the beauty) ; this is immate- rial ; 801 (before emendation) De R. reads, instead of it, ]'«"i {and not). 158 JOB XLL 15. 15 Majestic are [his] concave shields, [As with] close seal shut. 16 One to the other do they join on, And not a breath entereth between them ; 17 Each one to his brother are they stuck ; They hold together, and they separate not. 18 His sneezings make a light to shine ; And his eyes are as the eye-lids of the dawn. 19 Out of his mouth lamps proceed; Sparks of fire escape. 20 Out of his nostrils issueth smoke, As of a pot heated and burning : 21 His soul kindleth live coals, And a flame issueth out of his mouth. 22 In his neck lodgeth Strength, And before him danceth Terror. 23 The dewlaps of his flesh stick fast ; Solid upon him, they cannot be moved. 24 His heart is solid as a stone, Yea, solid as a nether miU-stone.- — His snorting [in the water] illumines it, and [on his emerg- ing,] his eyes are like the rising dawn ; such is his inward ardor that he emits from his nostrils steam as from a burning caul- dron, and [tlie foam of the water scatter- ed] from his mouth, [has the appearance of] sparks of fire. — Of unbending power in the neck, everything reels be- fore him through terror, the softest parts of his flesh are compact, and his heart is hard and immoveable. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XLI. 16. 16 147 K. reads )'« instead of n"? ; in either case, not. 17 34 K. omits the whole verse ; 95 (before emendation) K. reads vnxa [to his brothers) instead of in'n.s»a [to his brother). 92 K. omits "nsbn' (they hold together). 19 18, 30, 32, 117, 163, K., 561, 304, 723, (the two last before emendation), De R., read 'i"n3 {like pots) ; 80, 93, 223, K., 31, 40, 57, 263, 414, 597, 610, 613, 828, De R., read 'm '3 {because pots) ; and 150 K. reads niT3 {with castings) instead of 'tit3 {spiarhs). 95, 240, 384, K., supply 3 epenthetic to vdi'on' {escape). 20 125, 128, 172, 89 (apparently), K., 2, 21 22 23 24 '552, 554, 574, 587, 597, 801, 723 (ap- parently), De R., read """13 {as of a burning pile) ; and 380 De R. reads Tn2 ( [as] in a p)ot) instead of iiis {as [of] a pot). 157 K. omits Tcn?n {kindleth). 147 K. reads ninbi instead of 3nbi {and a Jlame) ; this is immaterial. 422, 454, 76 (apparently), K., 203, 597, 610, 677, 780 (before emendation), 34, 380, 593, 940 (apparently, before emen- dation), De R., read pin {^-unneth) instead of y'nn {danceth). 223 K. omits the whole verse. 188 K. reads nnn instead of n'nnn; in either case, nether. JOB XLI. 25. 159 25 Because of his rising heroes are afraid ; Because of consternation they are bewildered. 26 The sword of him that reacheth at him cannot stand, [Nor] spear, [nor] mace, nor battle-axe. 27 Iron esteemeth he as straw. What is coppered, as rotten wood. 28 The bolt of the bow cannot make him flee ; Sling stones are turned with him into stubble. 29 Boomerangs are counted as stubble; And he laugheth at the brandishing of the lance. 30 His lower parts are sharp points of potsherds ; He sjDreadeth gold upon the mud. 3 1 He maketh the depth to boil like a pot ; He maketh the sea like a [boiling] pot of ointment. 32 He maketh a path to shine after him ; One would think the deep to be hoary. 33 There is not on earth a dominion as his, Who is made to be without dread. 34 He looketh down upon every high thing ; He is king over all the ferocious tribes. — on his emerging, valiant men lose their wits ; with him, hand to hand weapons are so much straw and rotten wood, and he is equally impervious to missiles. — His tail is set with sharp points, and the part of his body which he trails in the mud is golden- colored ; — he makes the deep river boil, and emits fragrance, and he leaves a shining wake after him. — His dominion is unsurpassed by that of any other animal, and he lords it over all wild beasts. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XLI. 25. 25 28 29 30 33 Most MSS. K. and De R., and pub- lished editions, read □"''« (ffods) or ''f* (God) instead of d'Vh (heroes), and 170 K. supplies U'nba (God). 1 K. reads ui^ro (are counted) instead of i3En: (are turned). 157 K. supplies nni (cut) after '32N (stones). 80, 384, K., read i^sn: (are turned) instead of "licn: (are counted) ; 379 (before emendation) I)e R. reads nm, and 801 (before emendation) De R. reads n'mn, instead of nmn ; all these liave probably the same meaning, — perhaps hoomerangs. 245 (before emendation) K. reads '©"in (new), and 3 (before emendation) K. reads iirr (a sword) instead of c^n (^iotsherds). 153, 95, 111,118, 3 (probably), K., 414, 34 723, 801, 35, 579, 737, (the three last before emendation,) 561 (after emen- dation), De R. read 'icyn instead of vm?n (ivho is made) ; the former is the correct form ; 1, 277, 3G8, 379, 596, 613, 940, 941, 789 (before emenda- tion), De R., read wyn (he icho made him). 117 (before emendation) K. reads '''?33 (without) instead of '^^b (to he without) . 2, 17, 95, and other MSS. K., supply 1 (and) at the commencement of the second hemistich. 597, 737, De R., omit ba (all). 11 K. omits '33 (tribes). 379 (before emendation), 737 (after emendation), De R., read n^c (sicim- jniug (?) ) instead of yrrd) (ferocious) ; so the LXX. translate, in the wafers ; and the Targum, Jishcs, 160 JOB XLIL 1. XLII. 1. — And Joh answered the Eternal, and said, 2 I know that thou art all-potent ; And no design of thme can be frustrated. 3 " Who " [indeed] " is this, " That obscureth counsel without knowledge ? " For so I have advanced what I understood not ; Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. 4 " Hear now " [thou saidest], " and I will speak ; " I will ask thee, then let me know." 5 I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; But now mine eye seeth thee. 6 Therefore do I repudiate [what I have said], And I repent in dust and ashes. JoVs second re^ly. He knowa that God does what He pleases, and he owns to the charge of his having mystified the subject he had han- dled, for he had dealt in things too abstruse for him. — — And now his only answer to God's challenge is, that now seeing God, he repudiates what he had uttered, and earnestly repents. 7 And it was [so], that after the Eternal had spoken these words unto Job, the Eternal said to EHphaz the Temanite, My anger is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends : for ye have not spoken of me aright, as [hath] 8 my servant Job. Now therefore take unto you seven bullocks and seven rams, and go God^s address to Eliphaz. — As Eliphaz and his two friends had, by their speeches, pro- voked his (God's) anger ; — they must appease it, by offer- ing sacrifices through the mediation of Job. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XLII. 2. XLII. The Keri, and most MSS. K. and De K., read 'TOT instead of np; (/ know) ; this is unimportant. 610 De R. reads ^3^ {thou knowest). 248 K. reads jcno [darkeneth) instead of D'bro {obscureth). 100 K. supplies D'bm {bj/ verse) before '"'a {without). 76 K. supplies p« {I understood) before vin {I knew) ; in that case the meaning would be, — / knew that I understood not. 89, 95, 145, K., 197 (before emenda- tion), De R., omit n3 {now) ; 610 De R. reads wyaffl instead of w ynic ; in either case the meaning is, hear 7iow. Ill K. supplies n"? {not) before iiin (J ivill speak). 201 K. supplies before ■[Vnitn (/ will ask thee) xbi 'joo mxbcj {and [I ■will] not [ask thee] things too tconderful for me) ; this would, of course, make the language Job's own. See the notes. 601 K. supplies "n {mij life) after rnVQii, which in that case would mean, I abhor, not / repudiate. 610 (before emenda- tion, apparently), De R., reads Dn« (/ melt) instead of the former. 683 De R. reads 'oniinji {and thou wilt com- fort me) instead of '•nonDi {and I repent). 153 K. reads nn« instead of ^^N {(fter) ; this is immaterial. 95 K. omits '''« {of me). 30, 33, 76, 80, and many other MSS. K. and De R., read 'iaj?a instead of •'^ys^i ; this does not affect the sense : in either case, as my servant. 201 K. omits cd"? {unto you). Many ]\1SS. K. read d'V« instead of D'^n : in either case, rams ; the former is the more accurate form. 19G K, reads JOB XLII. 8. ICl unto my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering; and Job my servant sliall pray for you ; — for him will I accept, — that I may not deal with you [after your] folly, for ye have not spoken of me aright as [hath] my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shu — This tiiey accord- hite [and] Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Eternal had said unto them : and the Eternal accepted Job. And the Eternal turned the captivity of Job, —After tins God re- 1 111 1 iiirri'T'i 1 stored to Job double when he had prayed on behali oi his iriends ; and ^ig former posses- the Eternal gave Job twice as much as he had ^^°^^' before. And there came to him all his brethren, and _His relations and all his sisters, and all his former acquaintance, and Mm Tom '^air^ual^ they ate bread with him in his house, and con- ^1 him^ndtat doled with him, and comforted him over all the ^^*^ }^}^' ^"^ P.^f" ' sent him with gilts evil which the Eternal had brought upon him ; ^^ money. and they each gave him one kesitah [of money], and one ring of gold. So the Eternal blessed the latter end of Job _Byaod'8 Messing, more than his beginning ; for he had fourteen ^a^; '"^ ^possesses thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a J^^^^! ^^^ ^'^^^^^ thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XLII. 8 D3n5?2 instead of QDi»a ; in either case, for yourselves ; this is unimportant. 1 K. omits the word. 260 K. reads nx instead of dm in the words «u:m vjd dn (Jiim will I accept) ; this does not change the sense, though it somewhat weakens the force of it. 18, 30, 80, 248, and many other MSS. K. and De R., read nan instead of naio : this does not affect the sense ; in cither case, as my servant. Very many MSS. Iv. and De R. supply 1 {ami) before iss {Zophar). 10 The Keri, and many MSS. K. read ni2© instead of noic; in either case, the captivity ; this is immatei'ial. 180, 384, K., read 3©"'i {and restored) instead of ^D'T (lit. and added, here, gave, i^fc). 11 173 K. reads inx instead of nnw {one [Kesitah]) ; this is immate- rial. 12 201 (margin) IC. reads in^ {a yoke, or, acre) ; the latter is pro- bably intended, instead of ^«^ {sheep)). M 1G2 JOB XLII. 13. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima ; and the name of the second, Kezia ; and the name of 15 the third, Keren-happuch. And there were not found in all the land women beautiful as the daughters of Job ; and their father gave them in- heritance among their brothers. 16 And Job lived after this a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations ; so Job died old, and full of days. — and the same number of sous and daughters as before ; — his three daugh- ters, wlio are very beautiful, receive an inheritance among their brethren. Job lives one hun- dred and forty years after this, and dies at a good old age. 13 14 15 VARIOUS READINGS, JOB XLIL 13. 48, 76, 95, 120, 147, 170, 207, K., 369, 589, 780, 683 (before emendation), De R., read nn© instead of nisnuj (seven) ; this is probably immaterial, the latter, however, is an anomalous form. 76 K. reads nTcbffii instead of \uibi25T (a)id three) ; this is immaterial. 118 K. omits the n (/<) in the name Ti:s''^P (Kezia, more accurately, Ketsi- ffntth). 196, 125 (before emendation), K., read 1NSD3 (^Ihere were found) instead of «sq: (there was fonnd) ; see the notes. 2, 597, 553, 589 (before emendation), 380 (after emendation), De R., read pb (to them, feminine) instead of onb (to thein, masculine). So in the next case, ill, 153, 384, K., 2, 597 (before 16 emendation), De R., read pix (their [fem.] father) instead of dh'^n (their [masc.] father). So again, 76, 384, K., 597 De R., read ]rvrMi (their [fem.] brothers) instead of or\^r[n (their [masc] brothers) ; in all these instances the masculine pronominal suffix is doubt- lessly the true reading, the idea in- tended being that these daughters were treated as sons. The Keri, and many MSS. K., read nsnn instead of «t"i (and saw) ; this is unimportant. 48, 196, K., omit n« before v:a (his sons) ; this is immaterial. 157, 196, K., read ^:2i instead of ':2 n«i; in either case, and the sons of. 18 K. reads n'SSix (forty) instead of 5?2-i« (four). NOTES. JOB I. 1. The land of Uz. (See Preliminary Dissertations, No. III.) His name was Job, 21*M (iyov) ; probably treated with enmity ; from ^.^ {ayav), to hate, to treat as an enemy, &c. Others understand it as meaning repenting, from the Arabic Ll?" to turn hack, whence <— 'V may mean one who returns to God. The former explanation seems preferable. Perfect. Cr) (tarn) implies completeness both as to quantity and to quality, — complete as a whole, and each part sound. This kind of perfection is, perhaps, best explained in the character given of Zechariah and Elizabeth " walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Upright. "^12!'^ (yashar), straightforivard in conduct. Departing from evil, — a necessary consequence of /eanw^' God. The Heathen could describe and approve of, though they could not imitate, such a character as this. So Horace, — " Integer viice, scelerisque puns ; " and — "Nil conscire nefas, nulla pallescere culpa." 3. His stock. This v.ord exactly answers to the Hebrew •''n3|7a (tniknehou). Live stock is particularly intended here. (See the Illustrations.) Shee^J, or a flock. This included both sheep and goats. A farm-service. '^^^V. (gnevuddah). This word, which occurs only here and in Gen. xxvi. 14, means either land under cultivation, or the hands by which it is cultivated, or both ; and so, perhaps, the word farm, or farm-service, Avould express it as well as any other words could do. I see no reason for the supposition entertained by some, that Job led a nomadic life ; on tlie contrary, he appears to have had a fixed residence in the neighbourhood of a city. lie must have had a considerable extent of land under cultivation, from the circumstance of his having had five hundred yoke of oxen. It is also evident, from the other passage in which the word "^^rf? {gjievuddah) occurs (Gen. xxvi. 12 — 14), that Isaac was an agriculturist as well as a breeder of cattle. 4. A picture of family good feeling and harmony, no doubt a source of satisfac- tion to Job, though not unmixed witli anxiety lest the pleasures here described should have some tendency to impiety. Went and made feasts. "sT/''^ {halak) is like our own word to go ; it means here, they went on making feasts, i. c, they were in the habit of doing so at stated periods. M 2 1C4 NOTES, JOB I. 4. Feasts, or lit., a feast. (See the Illustrations.) It would appear that Job's sons had, at this time, their own houses ; and were settled, though probably not immediately near, yet, at no great distance from their father and from each other. The daughters apparently were not settled, and probably were living under the paternal roof. His birth-day ; lit., his day; but probably birth-day is intended, as in chap, iii. 1, and Hosea vii. 5. That feasts were an ancient mode of celebrating birth- days is evident from Gen, xl. 20. By an unaccountable oversight, discovered too late for correction, the word birth-day and the previous word house are rendered in the Translation in the plural number ; the passage should stand, each in \_his'\ house on his \birth'\-day. (See the Illustrations.) 5. Had gone round; i.e., once in each year; not at the recurrence of each birth-day feast, but at the annual termination of the whole of them. ^S'^pH (hikkiphou) conveys this sense. Some expositors have thought otherwise. Se7it, and sanctified them, not sent for them, as some render it, but, com- missioned some fit person to go and purify them, or charge them to purify them- selves by lustrations, &c., preparatory to the sacrifices which he was about to otfer on their behalf. Job did this, as, in the event of any uncleanness attaching to them, it would have disqualified them from any participation in the benefit of the sacrifice. Thus Jacob sanctified his household, or rather charged them to sanctify themselves, preparatory to his offering sacrifices at Bethel. (Gen. XXXV. 1 — 7.) So also the Israelites were sanctified, i.e., charged to sanctify themselves, preparatory to their meeting with God on Mount Sinai. (Exod. xix. 10 — 15.) Just so again, Samuel sanctified Jesse and his sons, i. e., charged them to sanctify themselves, previously to his offering sacrifice for them. (1 Sam. xvi. 5.) The heifer which he was directed by God (ver. 2) to take on the occasion was probably for the purpose of purification. (Numb. xix. 9, 19, 20.) Under the law, people who were ceremonially unclean could not partake in sacrificial rites until they had been cleansed. Tbe significancy of the act is explained in Ps. xxvi. 6, " I will wash mine hands in innocency ; so will I compass thine altar, O Lord." He rose up early in the morning, — probably an ordinary practice observed on days when solemn sacrifices were offered. (Exod. xxxii. 6.) Offered burnt offerings. In patriarchal times the head of the family was its priest. (Gen. viii. 20; xii. 7, 8; xiii. 18; xxvi. 25; xxxiii. 20; xxxv. 6, 7.) The nT*!? (^gnolah), whole burnt off^ering, was not the only offering in use previously to the giving of the law. We read both of the riS^n {khattath), sin- offering, and the ^'^P'^ (miiikhah), meal-offering, in Gen. iv. 3 — 7. 3Iay be. This peradventure expresses both a proper paternal anxiety on the part of Job for the religious welfare of his children, and also it is a proof of the general good conduct of his sons. There was evidently nothing whatever in their outward behaviour, so far as he knew, that called for animadversion. At the same time, they were not now under the paternal roof, and therefore his eye could not be so constantly upon them ; and hence his anxiety. Nothing is said here about his daughters ; they were probably still at home with him ; and so, under his more immediate supervision, though it is possible that they may be included in the word D^3 (chullam), of them all. NOTES, JOB I. 5. 165 And have cursed God in their hearts. The meaning of "H"!? (berech) here is a vexed question. Its meaning in hundreds of passages of Scripture is, to bless ; and as tliere are only two places (ver. 11, and 1 Kings xxi. 10) in which it does not appear possible to give it this meaning, it has been thought by some that it should be ti'anslated here in its common sense, to bless. Of those who take this view, Dr. Lee, and indeed others before him, suppose that D"''77M (^elohim) here means false gods, or idols. Lee also understands the passage in 1 Kings xxi. 10 in precisely the same sense; but in that case it is inconceivable how blessing " the king" could be a punishable offence ; besides which, D"^n^'r?. [elohim) ought not to be taken in the sense of idols unless there is something in the passage that very strongly indicates that such is its meaning. Dr. Good en- deavours to get over the difficulty by giving a negative power to the "1 which connects the two verbs — thus, " may have sinned nor blessed God ; " and then, in support of this, he lays down an extraordinary canon on the subject, the substance of which is, he assumes that 1 is, in itself, an imperfect negative, and that it may take a full negative power whenever it connects two opposite pro- positions. This bold affirmation is without material proof, and needs no refutation. For some time I considered that the word "iT"^2 (jberech) ought to be here translated bless, and that, chiefly because, out of hundreds of passages in which it occurs, there are but the two, to which I have alluded above, in which this, or any similar rendering of it, is apparently inadmissible. It is the rendering of the Vulgate, " benedixerint" though not of the old Itala, which has " maledixerint." The sense however, which I attached to it with the rendering bless differed widely both from that adopted by Lee and from that advanced by Good. I understood it thus: — May be my sons have sinned, and have blessed God in their hearts, i.e., my sons have, perhaps, been guilty of some sin, and, without repenting of it, or without any consciousness of God's anger on account of it, have still thought of God as though He were pleased with them, and, with a sort of self- justifying satisfaction, have felt happy in his supposed favor, and thankful to liim for their prosperity. This self-deception is exceedingly common, and perhaps more felt under the influence of wine than at any other time; and the sense thus conveyed is sufficiently natural ; but then, my objection to this my own former view, and the ground on account of which I abandoned it, is — 1st, that the Hebrew phraseology demands here, that the two verbs in the clause should not be understood as containing two distinct and independent ideas, and that the second is, in point of fact, no more than an explanation of the first ; and that so, the meaning cannot be — My sons have sinned, and then, have added to that sin by moreover doing so and so; but, they have sinned by doing so and so. 2dly, that the "^"1? {berech) in ver. 11 cannot possibly have the meaning of bless, and that its proximity to the one before us renders it probable that they both must have the same meaning — that whatever sense be given to the word in ver. 11 is the sense required here; and 3dly, that as it is evident, both from ver. 11 and also from 1 Kings xxi. 10, that'^Tlrl must sometimes have the significa- tion of cursing, or some such signification ; and as that signification, thus estab- lished as possible, is the most suited to the sense here, it is the signification which ought probably to be attached to it in the present instance. The attempts 160 NOTES, JOB I. 5. made by Lee and Good (both on different grounds, and by different arguments) to force the meaning of bless on the two passages, just referred to, do too much violence to the language to be considered tenable for a moment. I must not pass unnoticed another sense which has been given to "H"?.?^ {berech), with much show of plausibility, and supported by eminent expositors. It is said that, as ^"1? [berech) was used as a formula of salutation both at meeting and parting (and which is unquestionable), its use in the latter of these senses may very well furnish the idea, not simply of taking leave, but of dismissing, renouncing, and the like ; and that so, the meaning here may be, Jiave renounced God in their hearts. In support of this, it is urged that p^atpere in Greek, and valete in Latin, are similarly used ; and many quotations are adduced in proof of this. I may observe, that this use of the phrase is sufficiently common in English, for, in ordinary parlance, we speak of saying good bye to a person in the sense of renouncing his society and having nothing more to do with him ; and, to wish good morning has, not unfrequently, the same polite significaucy. We borrow the same style of phraseology from our French neighbours when we speak of giving a man his conge. So, again, in cant language, Joy go ivith you is an ironical mode of pronouncing a blessing on a person who takes himself off when his presence is anything but indispensable ; and curiously enough, boiving, which is nothing more than salutation in dumb show, may often be similarly construed, for, to be bowed out of a room is a distinction too significant to be misunderstood, and not sufficiently enviable to be coveted by any. My objections to understanding T[12 (berech) in such a sense are — 1st, that if it ever had such a sense, that sense must have been common enough to warrant our expecting to find it frequently so used in the Scriptures, which contain copious expressions of every-day life ; whereas, in the whole Hebrew Bible, this word TfT'? (berech), which, in some form or other, occurs many hundred times, cannot have this particular sense attaching to it in more than three or, at most, four passages ; and 2dly, that if it ever had such a sense, that sense is of course ironical, and, as such, could scarcely be applied to the Divine Being without disrespect ; and yet, in the only passages in which it is supposed to be so used, it is applied to the Divine Being. It seems to me inconceivable that Job should have said, 3Iay be my. S07is have sinned, and have wished God good bye in their hearts, or that Satan should have said in ver. 11 to God of Job, He will tvish you good bye to your face. With regard to the rendering which I prefer to adopt, have cu7'sed, I have simply to observe that, as "H^? (^berech) must be understood in a bad sense in ver. 11, and in 1 Kings xxi. 10, there is no difficulty in so understanding it here; on the contrary, it appears more natural to do so. The question then arises, What bad sense is the one which most probably attaches to 'jj*!?? (berech) ? I have stated my objections to the first of the only two bad senses that can belong to it, — taking leave, and cursing. The second appears to me to be the most consonant with the general analogy of language, in which, the close connexion between the two different ideas of blessing and cursing is found in the fact that, originally, they are both of them acts of religious worship. The outward act of religious worship in their case is found in the root ^~12 (harach), to kneel — an act which may imply at once either (and which is the most natural and common) the NOTES, JOB I. 5. 167 imploration of a blessing, or the imprecation of a curse. lu Hebrew, this difference of sense must be determined bj the context ; in Latin and its more modern languages, it is readily ascertained by the addition of a qualifying prepo- sition to the word in its first and most natural sense ; thus, from ^"12 {barach) to kneel, and "ill? (berech) (most naturally) to sue for a blessing either for oneself or for another, comes the Latin precor, to pray ; and then, by the addition of a qualifying preposition, imprecor, chiefly to imprecate a curse. Job, in expressing his anxiety lest his sons should have sinned by cursing God in their hearts, means that he feared that possibly, under the excitement of convivial mirth, heightened perhaps by wine, his sons might have indulged, in their hearts, light and irreverent thoughts of God. He does not suppose that they had been guilty of this either in word or in action, but only in heart ; and so, like the word mag be above, this shows alike the proper anxiety of the pious parent and the general good conduct of the family. Having now dwelt upon the three different renderings which may possibly be given to "iT~!5 {berech) in this place, and having dealt as fairly as possible with each, in giving my reasons for preferring that which I have retained in my trans- lation, I feel how difficult it is positively to determine which is the most correct ; and therefore, I must leave it to the reader as, in great measure, still an open question. □''P^n'vl {chol haiyamim), lit,, all the days; not, however, expressive par- ticularly of the days of the feasts, but, of continuance. It is an ordinary phrase in Hebrew, and means continually. So in Gen. xliii. 9, &c., &c. 6. The day arrived. The article seems to indicate a set time. The sons of God. In Gen. vi. 2 " sons of God " are evidently godly men, as distinguished from the ungodly; but in Job xxxviii. 7 "sons of God" are unquestionably angels; and it is almost as unquestionable that such are meant here. Game to present themselves, '^'^1^'i^^ to stand, or rather to take their stand, for the purpose of rendering to God an account of the performance of duties which had been given them to discharge, and of receiving fresh orders respecting further duties. I see no objection to accepting all that is here stated as a literal fact. I certainly do not suppose that it is a mere fiction, introduced by way of preface and embellishment to the poem which follows ; nor can I even subscribe to the opinion of those who conceive that the description of the scene here represented is bon-owed from the mode of conducting an earthly royal audience. I am disposed to think rather that royalty and its attendant circumstances is an instinctive imitation, on the part of man, of the regal government of God. Scripture describes God as robed in awful majesty, enthroned in inaccessible light, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim, with thousand thousands ministering unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him ; round about his tiirone angelic beings pour forth their unceasing adorations ; throughout his vast universal empire are Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers ; and ministering spirits are continually winging their flight on some commission of judgment or of mercy. In all this we behold God cax'rying on his illimitable government through the instrumentality of his heavenly hosts, having not only, so to speak, his ministers of state immediately around him, but also his vice- 168 NOTES, JOB I. 6. gerents. And so, in like manner, earthly kings, who, in a sense, are in the place of God — i.e., who exercise sovereignty under Him — have their officers of state about them, and also their viceroys in various parts of their dominion, who in some instances have, at stated periods, to present themselves before their sovereigns, to render an account of their respective governments, or pay homage in token of their dependance, or renew their fealty, and receive anew, as it were, the investiture of their respective governments. And among them came Satan also, being obliged, probably, thus to present himself, and render Jiis account also as to the way in which he had exercised the high power and authority which God permits him to hold, as " the god of this world," and the " prince of the power of the air," and " the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience," and as having under him "angels " ("the Devil and his angels "). For various wise reasons God permits him to exercise this authority — of course within certain prescribed bounds, and Satan is amenable for the way in which he does exercise it ; and as he always does this ill ; whilst he thus gives God occasion out of evil to be constantly educing good, so also he is only treasuring up for himself wrath against the day of wrath. The ordinary meaning of 1^^ {Satan') is an opponent in general, whether in the field of battle or in a court of justice, and such an opponent as is actuated hy an unrelenting animosity ; with the article, l^t^^? {hassatan) means the great opponent of God and man — Satan, by way of eminence. It was in the character of an opponent to Israel that he provoked David to number Israel, and so occasioned the death of seventy thousand persons. (See 1 Chron. xxi. 1, 14.) In the record given of this same transaction in 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, we read that it was God who "moved" David to number Israel. By comparing these two passages together, I infer that Satan asked, and then obtained permission of God thus to tempt David, much as in the instance of Job before us, and of Peter in the New Testament — " Behold, Satan hath desired (z. e., hath asked) to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." In his character of bitter opponent, Satan is more than once exhibited as maii^s accuser. So in the case before us ; and again in that very remarkable case in Zech. iii. 1, &c., &c., where Joshua the High Priest is represented as standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. Compare with this, Ps. cix. 6 : — " Let Satan stand at his right hand," i. e., to accuse him ; and compare also Rev. xii. 10: — "Now is come salvation, &c., for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." In ver. 9 this accuser is expressly designated as "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan." He is also called both Satan and the Devil in the account of our Lord's tempta- tion. (Matt. iv. 1, 10.) It is important to observe this, because it puts it, to ray mind, beyond question that Satan and the Devil are one and the same being, and so confutes, if it needed confutation, the absurd notion of Dathe and others, that the Satan mentioned in this book was a good spirit commissioned by God to inspect the conduct of men, and one who, from his own observation and an over- suspicious temper, doubted whether true piety could exist without some corre- sponding inducement in the way of self-advantage. This wild theory, however, never met with much favor, and soon fell into disrepute. Satan is further described in Scripture as the tempter ; so he tempted David (1 Chron. xxi. ]), NOTES, JOB I. G. 169 and Peter (Luke xxii. 31), and Christ (Matt. iv. 1, &c.), and Judas (John xiii. 2, compared with Luke xxii. 3, where the Devil and Satan are again proved to be identical), and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts v. 1 — 3) ; and he is the deceiver of the nations. (Rev. xx. 1 — 3.) Tlie scene which is here introduced to our notice is not unlike that in 1 Kings xxii. 19 — 23. There we have God sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left ; and on the Lord's saying, " Who shall persuade (marg., deceive) Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead ? " an evil spirit comes forth and stands before the Lord, and says, " I will persuade him ; " and in answer to the Lord's inquiry, " Wherewith ? " furtlier replies, " I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets ; " to whom the Lord replies, " Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also : go forth, and do so." It is evident that, in the earliest ages, there was considerable knowledge respecting angelic Beings both good and evil, and particularly respecting one who w^as pre-eminently the Evil one. This knowledge is traceable in the religious systems of tlie most ancient nations, and particularly in those of the Persians and Egyptians. In the ancient Persian theology, as taught in the Zendavesta, Ormusd or Oromaze was the God of all good; Ahriman, his adversary, the author of all evil. Ormusd had his good angels, whom he had created (" sons of God "), around him. Ahriman had also his evil angels. Ahriman is constantly engaged in corrupting and endeavouring to destroy whatever good Ormusd does, and that, with various success ; but a predestined time is coming when Ahriman, having brought into the world famine and pestilence, is to be entirely destroyed by these very instruments, after which, men are to be of one tongue, and are to live in a state of happiness. (See " Dictionaire de Bayle," on Zoroaster ; also an infidel work, entitled " Origine de tons les Cultes.") Not unlike this also are the Egyptian legends respecting Osiris, the good god, and Seth or Typhon, the author of evil. In these traditions of early ages we see much truth mixed up witli what is purely ftibulous and awfully erroneous ; as in Persian theology, which teaclies that light and darkness are two eternal principles, and tliat from them Ormusd and Ahriman severally had their origin. But then, the fact of the existence of some truth shows to how great an extent revelation had prevailed in early times. Those argue incorrectly, who maintain that the Hebrews derived their views respecting Satan from their captivity at Babylon and consequent intercourse with Persia. The converse rather is the fact. The Persians must have derived their views of Satan from some of the earlier books of God's Word, and probably that of Job amongst the number — views which they did not long hold in the purity in wliich they first received them. The Eternal, — '*^'Y^\ — Yehowah. It is commonly supposed that the vowel points of this word are not its own, but borrowed from ''3'^?^ (Ado?iai) Lord, the word w^iich the Jews always substitute for it in reading, from a superstitious reverence for the Name, and a supposition that its true pronunciation is lost. And hence tlie LXX. render it by 6 Krptos, and our translators have followed them by rendering it almost invariably the Lord, distinguishing it from ''3'lS (^Adonai) Lord merely by the use of capital letters. Some have conjectured that Hin.'^ (Yahewoh), and others, that n^n"; {Yaheioeh) were the ancient true pronuncia- 170 NOTES, JOB I. 6. tions ; but, after all, there is some ground for the supposition that nini ( Yehowah) may be the true form ; and indeed, the majority of proper names compounded with the word, leads to this supposition. As to the meaning of it, as our ordinary translation — the LORD is decidedly incorrect, and as the retention of the word Jehovah would convey no particular idea to the English reader, and as our word — the Eternal, expresses its meaning more nearly than any other in our language, I have thought good so to translate it. Much of the force which belongs to the word is lost in many important passages, in which the incorrect the LORD is given. I might multiply such passages, but will merely refer to these few — Ps. cii. 12; cxxxv. 13 ; Isa. xli. 4 ; xlii. 5, 6, 8 ; xliii. 11 — 13 ; xliv. 6—8 ; xlv. 17, 21 ; li. 15 ; liv. 5 ; Exod. iii. 13—15 ; vi. 2, 3, 6—8 ; Hosea xii. 5 ; Mai. iii. 6 ; Ps. xc. 1, 2 ; xci. 2, 9. As to the full meaning of nin"^, (Yehotvah) see Rev. i. 8 — " Which is, and which was, and which is to come." See also Exod. iii. 14, ^^•7^. "'?'?;? ^v'^r? i^hei/eh asher eheyeh) — / am that I am, i.e., I am that which I have been and shall be ; in other words, an eternal and unchangeable Being. 7. And the Eternal said unto Satan, Sfc. Probably the other " sons of God " were similarly interrogated, each in his turn, but nothing is said of this, as it has no concern with the history of Job. Just as the fact, that God carries on his government of the universe by the use of means instead of by the exercise of immediate power, does not derogate from his Omnipotence ; so, it is no necessary derogation of his Omniscience to suppose, that, in the carrying out of his sovereign purposes, he requires communications or reports to be made to him by his agents, quite as though he were previously ignorant of the facts respecting which the information is given. So, God knows beforehand our wants and desires, yet he says to us, " What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ? " and he requires that we should actually express to him what those wants and desires are. The same may be said also as to the confession of our sins ; and I doubt not but that the same principle holds good throughout the whole moral government of God, and that his angels, as responsible creatures, have personally to answer before him, and give him account of their actions, just as though he were not, every instant, exactly cognizant of their conduct. From posting to and fro, Sfc. ta'lJZ? (shoot) is to whip, lash, ^c. ; hence, to lash into speed, whether oneself or another, or as we say, to whip along. One of Satan's objects in these rapid roving expeditions through the earth is explained in 1 Peter v. 8. Compare Shakespeare's account of the witches, — *' The weird sisters, hand iu hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go about, about ; Thrice, &c." 8. Hast thou well marked, S^c. ^? "T?? ^^^H (h'samta Ubhecha gnal) is lit., Hast thou set thine heart on, i.e., for the purpose of attentively considering, — a sense which the Hebrew idiom requires. It is probable from this question, that Satan had well marked Job, and had done so for the purpose of finding, if possible, occasion of accusation against him. We may observe further from this leading question, on the part of God, that although, as the sequel shows, Job's trials are traceable to the malice of Satan, yet NOTES, JOB I. 8. 171 they are traceable beyond this to the purpose of God. The question which led to Job's afflictions originated witli God ; but God's object, as we now see, was one of mercy towards his servant. (James v. 11.) My servant Job that there is none like him, S^c. It is thus that God is not ashamed to acknowledge his servants, notwithstanding their many imperfections, before the hosts of heaven and hell ; and that God can make it manifest that even human virtue (of course by his grace only) can be proof against the most violent assaults of the Prince of darkness. 9. Doth Job fear God for nought "? A truly diabolical insinuation, that Job's religion was nothing worth, being merely self-interested. For nought. C2n [khinnam) gratuitously. 10. Hast thou not hedged about him 2 By God's blessing upon the work of his hands. Job's extensive property was well fenced in and enclosed ; and this might be regarded as emblematic of the comfort and protection which God bestowed. It is, I think, implied here that Job's property was literally hedged in, and if so, here is an additional argument to show that Job did not lead a nomadic life. His stock. -inSj^P (miknehou) — his live-stock. Is spread abroad. V"]? (parais) — spread abroad like an inundation of pent-up waters that have broken forth. 11. Put forth, however. The force of Q^^^l (rveoolam) hei'e is, but however that may be, i.e., be it, or be it not, that Job's religion is interested, at all events put it to the test. A truly Satanic proposal. And see if he doth not. ^7 DS (?>« lo) lit., if not ; this formula is often used in adjuration, the full sense being, if he does not, S)C., S)-c., then may I be, ^c, Curse thee to thy face. For the meaning of "H"^? (berech) here, see note on V. 5. 13. The day arrived, — when it came round to the turn of the eldest brother to entertain his brothers and sisters. 14. The 0XC71 "TJ?'? (Jiabbakar). This word being collective, and also of common gender, is in construction with the plural and feminine rTltZ?"^!! {kho- reshoth), and also with the plural and masculine ^'T!'''"!'! (yedeihem). (See the Illustrations.) She-asses. Shc-asses are, on account of their milk, far more in request in the East than he-asses. The circumstance that the asses were feeding by the side of the oxen as the latter were ploughing, looks much as if Job was at this time engaged in ex- tending his estate — ploughing up new ground, up to that time used as pasture land, 15. The Sheba. There are three persons bearing the name of Sheba early- mentioned in the Bible — one of them the great-grandson of Ham, and the two others descended from Shem. The genealogy of the first stands thus : — Ham — Cdsh— Raamau — Sheba. (Gen. x. 6, 7.) The descent of the second Sheba is from Shem through Joktan, thus: — Siiem — Arpiiaxad — Salah — Eber — JoKTAN — SiiEBA. (Gen. X. 22 — 28.) The descent of the third Sheba is from Shem through Jokshan, the son of Abraham, by Keturah, his second wife; it stands thus : — Siiem — Arphaxad — Salaii — Ebek — Peleg — Reu — Serc< 172 NOTES, JOB I. 15. Naiior — Terah — Abraham — Joksiian — Sheba. (Gen. xi. 10 — 26, and xxv. 1-3.) The question then arises, — Which of these three Shebas was the progenitor of the tribe which is here described as making an irruption into Job's territory and carrying off his herds ? To determine this, at least as far as it can be determined, we must endeavour to discover in what localities the descendants of these different Shebas settled. (See the map.) We begin with the Sheba who was the son of Raamah. There is very little question but that this first Sheba was located in that part of Arabia which abuts upon the entrance of the Persian Gulf, as his own name, together with the names of his father and grandfather, and of some of his uncles, and of his brother, are clearly traceable in the classical and modern nomen- clature of towns, mountains, districts, &c., in that part of the country. His own name Sheba is preserved in the Asabi (lit.. The Sabi), in the Montes Asaborum, and in the villages now called Beldan Beni Shab. His brother Dedan is identified with the town of Dadena ; and his father Rnamah, or Ragnemah, with that of Rhegama, now Raumps. His uncle, Havilah, or Haivilah, has transmitted the name of Owhalie in the district called Bahrein, and which, though at some distance up the Persian Gulf, is sufficiently near to help in establishing the identity of these different places with the names of their respective settlers. Further, his grandfather's name, Cush, is retained in Ciiscan; and finally, that of his great-grandfather. Ham, is found in the "littus Hammceum " of Pliny (lit., the shore of Ham), as also in its chief town, Maham. The amount of evidence thus adduced leaves it, I think, unquestionable that the Sheba who was the son of Raamah and grandson of Cush settled in that region of the Arabian Peninsula which lies near the entrance of the Persian Gulf; added to which, I would observe that Ezekiel (xxvii. 22) evidently couples his name with that of his father, and speaks of their descendants as being merchants who occupied in the fairs of Tyre, with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and with gold. It is certainly confirmatory of the above remarks that in the neighbourhood of the Asabi, or the Sheba, was situated the gold coast of Arabia (the " littus Hammaicm.," where, as Pliny says, there is gold), and also the Libanotophoros mons, ov frankincense-bearing mountain. We must now endeavour to ascertain the locality of the second Sheba men- tioned in Scripture, i.e., the son of Joktan. It is, I think, incontestably proved (see Bochart, and Forstei-'s Arabia), 1st, that the Beni Kahtan, or sons of Kahtan, a numerous and wide-spread tribe, existing to this day, in Arabia, are the Katabeni of classical geography, and are, as the Arabs themselves affirm, the Jocktanites ; and 2dly, that whilst these Beni Kahtan are to be found in the whole southern division of Arabia, their point of centralization is Yemen, the extreme south, and that their metropolis was the celebrated Mareb, or Saba (as it is also called), i.e., Sheba.* This Sheba, then, the capital of the Joktanites, was evidently so called after Sheba the son of Joktan. Now if, in addition to * This Shcha was no doubt the metropolis of tlie kiugclom of the Queen of Slicba. She is called by our Lord the Queen of the South — lit. of Yemen, and is described as coming from " the uttermost parts of the earth ; " this, the southera extremity of Arabia, might very well be called in those days. NOTES, JOB I. 1/3. 173 this evidence, we find, in the neighbourhood of this very region, names in the classical geography of Arabia, (some of them existing to this day,) manifestly derived from the names of many of the brothers of Sheba, the son of Joktan ; no room is left to question the fact that Sheba the son of Joktan settled near the extreme south of Arabia, i.e., in the region more or less bordering upon the straits of Bab-el-Mandev. The names of seven of Sheba's brothers were Hazarmavetli (or it might be written Hadarmauth), Jerah, Uzal (or OzaT), Diklah, Obal, Havilah, and Johab. Now all these names may be traced respectively, in the neighbourhood of Sabe or Sheba, in the AdramitcB and the Hadramaut, in the tribe called the Beni Jerhd (or Ser/id), in Ozcd (or Uzal), the ancient name of the town of Sanaa, and in the Ocelis of Ptolemy, the modern Cella, a port near the straits of Bab-el-Mandev ; in the tribe of the DuWielaitcB (pronounced Duklaeitce) ; in the " Avalites sitms," or gulph of Obal, on the western side of the strait of Bab-el-Mandev ; in the province of Khaulan, and in the tribe of the Beni Jobub. It remains for us now to look out for the locality of the settlements of the third Sheba mentioned in Scripture — Sheba the son of Jokshan, and grandson of Abraham by Keturah. From Gen. xxv. 6 we learn that Abraham, whilst he yet lived, sent off the sons of his concubines "eastward unto the east country." "We should expect, therefore, to find the settlements of Jokshan and of his son Sheba, somewhere eastward of the place where Abraham resided ; now as the Sabe of Ptolemy lay east of Palestine, and as, from what we have already shown, it could not be the locality of either the Raamanite or the Joktanite Sheba, the inference is that it must have been the locality in which the Jokshanite Sheba settled ; and moreover (as Bochart has observed), Strabo places the Sabeans in that part of Arabia which borders on Syria, and is near the Nabatteans. Now, further, these Nabatceans were the descendants of Nebaioth, the first-born of Ishmael, and therefore the iSrst-cousin of Sheba the son of Jokshan ; and so, the collocation is just what might have been expected, and there can be little question but that the Sabeans, who, according to Strabo, were in the vicinity of the Nabata^ans, were the Sheba of Jokshan. To which may be added, in the way of confirmation, that the Dedanim, or descendants of Dedan, the brother of the Jokshanite Sheba, were in that same neighbourhood. I agree, then, with those who place the settlements of Sheba the son of Jokshan somewhere in the northern part of Arabia, to the east of Palestine, and towards the river Euphrates. Thus the three Shebas are found to occupy thi-ee distinct cox-ners in the great Arabian Peninsula. The first, or the Raamanite Sheba, being situated near the entrance of the Persian Gulph ; the second, or the Joktanite Sheba, in the neighbourhood of the strait of Bab-el-Mandev ; and the third, or the Jokshanite Sheba, at the northern extremity of the vast country, — the three being respectively at the angles of a nearly equilateral triangle, whose sides are each about a thousand miles in length. The immense distance of the two first Shebas from what we have already sup- posed to be the locality of Job's residence, renders it very improbable, not to say impossible, that either of them could have been the depredators mentioned in the text ; whereas, on the other hand, the fact of the third Sheba being at no 174 NOTES, JOB I. 15. considerable distance from him, and with nothing but desert between them, it is very probable that they were the party who made the foray into his estates ; added to which, Strabo speaks of both the Sabeans and Nabataeans as being in the habit of making predatory excursions ; and such is the character, to this day, of the Bedouin Arabs, who occupy that same portion of the Peninsula. And the Sheba fell upon and took them — lit., and Sheba fell S^c. I take Sheba here to mean the city Sheba (the Sabe of Ptolemy). The notion of a city is, I think, signified by the absence of the article, and by the gender of vbri {tippol\ and of t^nf^ri (tikkakhem), which is feminine. The inhabitants of the city, or the tribe are of course meant (so I have rendered it) ; and this is more fully shown by the plural masc, 'IS'? (Jiikkov), they have smitten. (See the Illustrations.) The young men, i.e., the servants. This use of the word is sufficiently common in all languages ; so, Trats, puer, gargon, boy, &c. Am escaped. The H paragogic in H^/^S (immaletah), though preceded by 1 conversive, is evidently expressive of the earnestness of mind employed in the endeavour to effect an escape. 16. Fire of God. Probably lightning. Set on fire. The idea expressed by ? "ips {bagnar be) is that of fire fastening upon fuel previously to burning it. The flock of sheep and goats were probably pasturing in a wilderness of stunted trees and shrubs, and these, becoming ignited by the lightning, would soon be in a blaze which might overspread many miles of country, and destroy all ani- mal life within its reach ; just so, jungles in India, and prairies in America, are often consumed, together with every living creature within them, to an immense extent. 17. The Chaldeans. This ancient people appear, from the evidence of the classical geographers, to have ranged over the wilderness territory that stretches from the Persian Gulph, along the banks of the Euphrates, to the north-western parts of Syria ; their true locality being the neighbourhood of Babylon, where they were evidently early consolidated into a kingdom by some of the first of the Assyrian monarchs. See Isa. xxiii. 13, " Behold the land of the Chaldeans ; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness : they set up the towers thereof ; they raised up the palaces thereof." Their descendants may to this day be recognized in the Beni Khaled, an Arab race who lord it over the other tribes of their neighbourhood, — Lachsa, immediately south of the Euphrates, on the north-western coast of the Persian Gulph, and who scour the country between Bagdad and Aleppo on their predatory excursions. Niebuhr says of them, Vol. III., page 29-1, " Tout le district {i.e., Lachsa, the situation of which I have given above) appartient a la tribu Beni Khaled, une des plus puissantes parmi les Arabes, laquelle s'etend si avant dans le desert qu'elle inquiete souvent les caravanes entre Bagdad et Haleb La plus grande partie de ce pays est habitee par les Bedouins, et par di verses tribus Arabes qui reconnoissent la souverainete de la tribu Beni Khaled." And again he says, page 333, "Beni Khaled est une des plus, puissantes tribus qu'il y ait en Arabic, non seulement parcequ'elle possede beaucoup de chameaux, et regne sur plusieurs autres petites tribus riches en betail ; mais encore parcequ'elle a conquis les villes et villages du Lachsa." I NOTES, JOB I. 17. 175 think that this statement of Niebuhr's respecting the ivealth of this tribe in camels is worthy of observation ; it certainly is not a little remarkable that the object of a marauding expedition of its ancestors, in the days of Job, was a tempting prize of camels. This remark further throws, perhaps, some light upon Mr. Forster's explanation of the reason why the Chaldeans are called Q^'rjjp? (chasdim) in Scripture. He says (Vol. I. xli., note), " This famous people of antiquity went by both names, being called Chasdim (from the root 12?D (chsd), Tribiis digitis mulsit camelam — DefcBcavit hutyruni) most probably from their pastoral habits, and Chaldeans, as being the settled branch of the great Bedouin tribe of Beni Khaled, who occupy the ancient Chaldea, and the parts adjoining it, to this day." It seems to have escaped Mr. Forster's observation, when he conjectured that the name Chasdim might be derived from an Arabic word, signifying milking a camel with three fingers, and straining the butter, with probable allusion to " their pastoral habits," that this same people cer- tainly made it their business to possess themselves with camels in the days of Job, and that to this day, according to Niebuhr, they possess a great number of camels. Three columns — lit. three heads. I take the meaning I have given to be the correct one. Gesenius understands D"*tpS"^ (roshim) here in the sense of sutns or amounts, and so bands, &c., &c., or, as we might say, sets; this, however, is forced ; it appears to me rather to indicate a body of tx'oops advancing, or making head in column. Opened — ^tD^?^ (iphshetou), i.e., expanded, or spread themselves out. These Chaldeans, having advanced in three separate columns, extended into line when at convenient distance, and so, enclosed the whole of Job's camels, together with their keepers. 1 8. He was still speaking. We have "T? (gnad), here, instead of *Ti37 (gnod) which is in the similar passages in the former verses. The distinction is not very important. Perhaps the present form is somewhat the strongest. I have endeavoured to observe the distinction, such as it is, in my translation. 19. From across the wilderiiess. As such storms usually come from the south, this argues that Job's locality was on the north side of the Arabian desert. (See, however, a different reading.) The four corners of the house. This argues, as Lee has properly remarked, that this violent wind must have been a tornado. (See the Illustrations.) It is to be observed, with regard to these four calamities which befell Job, and which have just been enumerated, that it is not necessary to suppose that they actually occurred in the order in which the intelligence of them was conveyed to him. Though Satan, in his malice, so contrived, that the messengers of the sad tidings should reach Job in rapid and regular succession, it is obvious that the distances these messengers had to travel may have been very various. It is further to be ascribed to Satan's malicious contrivance, that the news of the calamity which was the most terrible was that which arrived last. If Job had been first informed of the sudden, and apparently judicial, death of his children, all his other losses would have appeared comparatively trifling. 20. Then. When Job had heard the climax of his misfortunes. Job arose and rent. Arose here means no more than set about. We use our 170 NOTES, JOB I. 20. words go and take in a very similar sense ; indeed the passage before us might be translated without impropriety, Job ivent and rent, &c., or Job took and rent, &c. It is easy to see how this metaphorical meaning might easily be attached to Q-V (koum) to arise. The idea is of a person being engaged in some particular occupation, then rising up and leaving it off, in order to enter upon some other occupation. In process of time the word would naturally enough be used even in cases where there was no actual rising up of the person, and where all that was intended to be expressed would be the setting about some pursuit diiferent from that in which the person had been previously engaged. In ordinary cases, change of action would imply also change of position, but not necessarily always so ; and yet the same verb might be used in both cases. In Arabic, D^P (kani) means both to arise and also to begin. Compare with this the Latin ordior, to begin, or take a thing in hand; probably derived from orior, to arise. His robe, "1^??^ {megnilo). By a comparison of all the passages in Scripture in which this word occurs, I am of opinion that it was a garment strictly regal or sacerdotal. It was a sort of large fringed shawl, which, when worn, hung down to the feet. (See the Illustrations.) Rent his robe, — probably the most expensive of his garments, and, as I am inclined to believe (see note above), the badge of his royalty. This rending of his robe must not be regarded as indicative of a temporary excitement on the part of Job. To rend one's garments was, in the East, the ordinary token of moui'ning ; and in short, the expression, which is very common in Scripture, is not unlike, at least in idea, our own expression of going in mourning, or putting on mourning. And shaved his head, — another token of mourning. This custom was evidently practised by the Jews as well as by other nations ; there are allusions to it in Scripture, and allusions, moreover, which seem to sanction it. The prohibition in Lev. xxi. 5 refers to the priests only, and that in Deut. xiv. 1 to a particular mode of cutting or shaving the hair, and which was probably forbidden as being an imitation of the idolatrous practices of the Heathen. The conclusions, there- fore, which Lee draws from the circumstance of Job's shaving his head, however correct in point of fact, are of no value as far as argument is concerned. He says: — "This could not have taken place under the law of Moses, it being specifically forbidden. (Lev. xxi. 5 ; Deut. xiv. 1.) Job could not, therefore, have been a Jew, nor could this book have been recommended to the Jews under the law on the supposition that he was a Jew." The ancient Orientals appear to have paid such mai'ked care, in the dressing of the hair of their heads and of their beards, that to deprive themselves of these ornaments must have been an act of great self-denial, and must have betokened great grief. (See the Illustrations.) And fell to the earth. So also Joshua, on an occasion of great sorrow. (Josh. vii. 6.) And rvorshipped. In this act was a marvellous triumph of Job's faith, a vindication also of the high character which God had given him, and confusion to the enemy who had called it in question. 21. Thither, — i.e., to my mother's womb, which is mentioned previously. In NOTES, JOB I. 21. 177 tlie former case Job uses the expression literally ; iu the latter case, figurativelj, as ai^plied to the earth. Solomon evidently copied, in Eccles v. 15, the idea here presented. •^riii'' isj of course, for "^^1^^^. This dropping of the ^ is sufficiently common. Blessed be the name, S)C. This result of Job's trial was diametrically opposite to what Satan had predicted, (ver. 11.) 22. In all this. It is difficult to determine from the mere language whether the meaning is, in all this that happened to him, or in all this that he said. I certainly prefer the former sense as more natural. It is so self-evident that Job did not sin in the words he uttered that it would have been needless to aver it ; it is the sense given by the LXX. and the Vulgate. Nor did he give God foolishness. This rendering is so literal that it has the same indeterminate meaning as the original, for the sense may be either that Job did not ascribe foolishness (i.e., senselessness, or want of wise jiurpose) to God, or that Job did not speak foolish words to God ; in that case the 7ior will have the sense of not even. Not only did Job not sin, but not even did he say aught foolishly, &c. JOB II. I, 2. See the Notes on chap. i. 6, 7. 3. Still holding fast his integrity, — maintaining his perfect piety in spite of his trials, in^ri (Jummatho) might be rendered his perfectness. On the word perfect, see the Note, chap. i. 1. Thou didst set me, ^"^iyo^ (J,esitheni). There is no doubt, whatever its deriva- tion may be, that this word means to instigate, move, set, and the like. I take it to be very much i.q. riW (shooth) ; in that case the word set will be the exact rendering. Without cause, — as the event has shown. 4. Skin for skin. This was evidently a proverbial saying; but though the general import of it is clear, yet not its particular meaning, and a variety of inferpretations have consequently been put upon it. The best and most generally received are — 1. That a man will readily sacrifice the skin, i.e., the person or the life of another, for the preservation of his own skin ; and that, on this principle. Job might be supposed to care comparatively little for the loss of his earthly goods, and even of his children, inasmuch as, at all events, his own life was spared. 2. That, in matters of barter, articles exchanged must be equivalent — as, for instance, one skin for another skin ; i. e., in point of fact, like for like ; but that in Job's case what he had parted with was by no means equivalent to what he retained ; he could very readily give up all that he had, so long as he remained secure of his life. A third sense given is, that all external things, (as skin for skin,) are exchangeable articles, but not so, the internal life ; there is nothing for which that can be exchanged. Other solutions besides these have been given, but so decidedly unsatisfactory, as doing violence either to the language or to sense, as not to be worth notice ; but even the above are to my mind far from satisfactory. My own view is, that the proverb contains a sort of ' reduclio ad absurdum ' argument, thus : — Never expect a man to part ivith his N 178 NOTES, JOB II. 4. sMn unless you supply him (mother, — an impossible condition, and therefore equivalent to, Never expect that a man will part tvith his skin on any conditions whatever ; in other Avords, On no terms will a man part with his life. And then Satan draws a sort of inverse inference from this : — Nay more, to save his life, a marl ivill willingly part tvith everything else. 5. See the Notes on i. 11. 6. Only. Hence Satan was permitted to afflict Job in his person to the very uttermost, with the proviso that the affliction was not to terminate fatally. This condition Job, of course, could not know. 7. A malignant ulceration, V^ TOP (shekhin ragn). We may discover some- thing of the nature of this dreadful disease with which Job was afflicted, by reference to other passages of Scripture in which the word V^^ (shekhin), which was one of the particular symptoms of the disease, occurs ; and also by consider- ing other symptoms of it, which are given in various parts of the Book of Job. The word ^H^ (shekhin) itself means afi inflamed ulceration, and is ordinarily translated boil or botch ; it seems to have been particularly common in Egypt, as it, or at least a peculiar kind of it, is called " the botch of Egypt." (Deut. xxviii. 27.) It was one of the ten plagues inflicted on Egypt, which is sufficient to prove its virulent character ; and it was so painful that the magicians who were smitten with it were not able to stand before Moses. (Ex. ix. 10, 11.) It was one of the early symptoms of leprosy. (Lev. xiii. 18, 19.) It was, moreover, a disease which, in its more virulent character, was denounced against the Israelites as a judgment in case of their disobedience, and is described as being both intolerable and incui-able. (Deut. xxviii. 27, 28, 35.) This disease nearly proved fatal to Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii. 1 and 21); and, in his case, was accompanied with pining sickness — if the authorized version be correct (ver. 12), with excruciating pains in the bones (ver. 13), and with great depression, (ver. 14.) In Job's case, the disease must have assumed a most virulent form, as it is specially designated 3?"J {ragn), malignant, and as it extended over the whole of his body, covering him from head to foot. Its general diagnosis may be learnt from incidental allusions to it and notices of it that occur throughout this book. It was accompanied with an itching so intolerable, at least in its early stage, and probably before the formation of purulent matter, that the sufferer had recourse to scratching himself with an instrument for relief (ver. 8) ; it so changed his features that he was scarcely recognisable (ver. 12) ; and it was accompanied with severe bodily pain. (ver. 13.) It was further characterized by loss of appetite, by constant sighing, and even by roaring (iii. 24 ; see also xxxiii. 20) ; by irritability (vi. 2); by loss of spirits, and by considerable dejection (ver. 4); by an intense longing for death (ver. 9) ; by utter prosti-ation, self- abandonment, extreme debility, and the sensation of a melting languor (vers. 11 — 14), accompanied by restless nights (vii. 4); the flesh bred vermin, the skin pulverized, and also suppurated (ver. 5) ; there was the restless and vain hope of getting rest by change of posture (ver. 13); sleep, when obtained, was attended by terrifying dreams (ver. 14), and a temptation to commit suicide was strongly presented to the mind (vers. 15, 16); extensive salivation was, perhaps, one of its symptoms (ver. 19); there was no intermission of pain, nor cessation in the formation of new pustules, and there was difficulty of respiration (ix. 17, 18); NOTES, JOB II. 7. .179 a weariness of life was experienced, and there was no self-control in lamenta- tion (x. 1); the face was marked with spots (xi. 15); perhaps the feet felt as if bound in a clog (xiii. 27); the flesh had an appearance as of rottenness or a moth-eaten garment (ver. 28) ; there was emaciation in those parts of the body which were not swollen (xvi. 8, and xxxiii. 21); also constant weeping, and a deathlike appearance about the eyes (ver. 16); and, possibly, occasional effusions of blood (ver. 18); the disease was not regarded as immediately mortal (xvi. 22), yet there was no prospect of eventual recovery (xvii. 1, and xxx. 23); the wretched sufferer became an object so disgusting as to be abhorred by his nearest relatives and most intimate friends (xix. 13 — 19); thei-e was great tenseness of skin (ver. 20) ; also a sensation as of the bones being wrenched, and the flesh picked off them (perhaps violent muscular twitchings), especially at night, the season for repose (xxx. 17); the body swelled (at least in some parts), so that even the loose Oriental clothing was felt to be tight (ver. 18) ; there was a general appearance as if covered with dust and ashes (ver. 19) ; also whirling sensations (vertigo) (ver. 22); and blackness of skin, and great internal heat. (ver. 30.) This disease under which Job was labouring has generally been identified as that which ordinarily goes under the name of Elephantiasis, a disorder having many of the characteristics of, and being evidently of the same type as. Leprosy and Psoi'a, though, in its malignant form, far more severe than either of these affections. It is apparently also allied to Syphilis, but not necessarily attributable to the same cause. Its syphilitic appearance, however, may have made Job fear that he laboured under the imputation, in the eyes of his friends, of having led an unchaste life ; and hence, in his vindication of his character in general, in chap, xxxi., the very sins of which he first makes mention, with marked abhorrence, and of which he appears most anxious to clear himself, are those of fornication and adultery. (Chap. xxxi. 1 — 12.) Tlie disease in question has been called Elephantiasis, from a supposed resemblance between it and the appearance of an elephant ; as AretEeus says, in form, in colour, and in size {et specie, et colore, et magnitudine). It has sometimes been called Leontiasis also, from the circumstance that it gives a lion-like aspect to the faces of those who are affected with it. The name of Satyriasis has also been given to it, according to some, from the redness which it imparts to the cheeks, and great distention of the ears and of other portions of the face which it occasions, or, according to others, from the venereal desires which it excites, though this latter symptom, so far from being established as such, has been found to have no existence whatever in a very large number of cases. Tlie following notices of this disease by writers ancient and modern, and which I subjoin in brief, may be interesting to some readers : — Lucretius refers to it, and distinguishes Egypt as being the only countiy in which it was engendered — " Est elephas morbus qui, propter flumina Nili, Gignitur j-Egypto in media, neque prseterea usquam." Celsus, who flourished about the middle of the first century, speaks of it as a disorder that attacks the whole system, and even the bones, covering the body thickly with spots and tumours, red at first, but gradually becoming black. The skin, thickened in some parts, but attenuated in othei's, assumes a scaly appear- N 2 180 NOTES, JOB II. 7. ance ; the body is emaciated, though the face, legs, and feet swell, and, if the disease is of long duration, the fingers and toes get buried in the swelling ; a slight fever supervening carries off the suffering patient. Pliny, who wrote at about the same period, speaks of small pimples first appearing about the face ; then of the entire skin drying up, becoming spotty, variously coloured, in some parts fat, in others thin, or covered with scabs ; at last getting black, and producing pressure of the flesh upon the bones, whilst the toes and fingers swell. AretfBus, who wrote towards the close of the first century, has been charged with exaggerating, in his description of this disease. The extracts from that writer, however, which follow are taken from the already abridged account given by Adams : — " There are large callous eminences on the skin, and the veins appear enlarged, owing to a thickening of the vessels, and not to a plethora of blood. The hairs of the head, pubes, and other parts of the body, drop ofi". The face, in particular, is affected with callous tubercles or warts, and it is not uncommon for the tongue and most parts of the body to be also covered with them. The eyebrows are thickened, stripped of their hair, and hang down like those of the lion. The general appearance of the skin, covered as it is with hard tubercles, and intei'sected with deep fissures, is said to bear some re- semblance to that of the elephant. Sometimes particular members, such as the nose, feet, fingers, the whole hand, or the pudenda, will die and drop off; and it is not uncommon for incurable ulcers to break forth on different parts of the body. Dyspufea and a sense of suffocation are occasionally present. He says it is dangerous to have any intercourse with persons labouring under the disease, no less than in the case of the plague, as both are readily communicated by respiration." According -to Michaelis, in his questions proposed for the con- sideration of Niebuhr and his fellow-travellers in Arabia, Aretteus mentions also that persons afflicted with this disorder are troubled in their sleep by frightful dreams, more cruel than even sleeplessness itself; and likewise that the eyes become disfigured, and assume the appearance of sombre night. Rosenmiiller also quotes a passage from Aretteus, showing that the eruption is scratched with a feeling of pleasure. Amongst other applications of a detergent nature, as being useful in the treatment of the disease, Aretteus speaks highly of a soap used by the Celts for cleaning their clothes. If that remedy was in use in the days of Job, not impossibly he alludes to it in chap. ix. 30, 31 : — " If I had washed myself in the very snow, And had cleaned my hands with soap ; Then wouldost thou plunge me in the ditch ; And mine own clothes would ahhor me." Galen w^rote about the middle of tlie second century. " He has briefly mentioned," says Adams, "that in this disease the nose becomes flattened, the lips thick, and the ears extenuated ; the whole appearance resembling that of a satyr ; and he ranks elephantiasis with cancerous swellings." Octavius Horatianus, a writer of the fourth century, speaks of spots principally affecting the face, and of the general vitiation of the flesh. Aiitius, who flourished in the fifth century, says that " the first symptoms (I quote from Adams) of the disease are torpor, slow respiration, constipated NOTES, JOB II. 7. 181 bowels, urine like that of cattle, continued eructations, and strong venereal appetites ; and when it is determined to the skin, the cheeks and chin become thickened, and of a livid colour ; the veins below the tongue are varicose, and eminences are fonned all over the body, but especially on the forehead and chin. The body becomes increased in bulk, and is borne down by an intolerable sense of heaviness. Those affected with it become pusillanimous, and shun the haunts of men." Paul of -^gina, who died a.d. 630, speaks of elephantiasis as incurable, and as it were a cancer of the whole body. He states that it is formed from black bile, or, when more malignant, from yellow bile overheated ; and that when once the patient is overpowered by the disease, the case is to be abandoned, though he conceives that if the extremities have not fallen off, nor external ulceration taken place, nor hard swellings appeared, remedies may be applied Avith effect. Paul of ^lEgina does not appear to have added to the remarks of preceding writers, from whom he copied, as those who succeeded him have copied from him. Avicenna, or more properlj Ebu-sina, an Arabian physician of the eleventh century, " states (says Mr. Adams) that, although this disease begins internally, its first symptoms are manifested on the extremities. He then describes minutely the symptoms — namely, redness of the face, inclining to lividity ; falling off of the hairs, enlargement of the veins, affection of the breathing, thickening and discoloration of the lips ; and afterwards ulceration of different parts of the body, corrosion of the cartilages of the nose, then falling off of the nose and extremities, loss of voice, &c." Actuarius, a writer of the 13th century, "calls elephantiasis (Mr. Adams in- forms us) a cancer of the whole body, which preys upon all the flesh, and derives its origin from black bile corroding everything like fire. The first symptoms of it are a falling-off of the hairs of the eyebrows and chin, tumours on the face, an alteration of the appearance of the eyes, a change of the voice, turgidity of the sublingual veins, and afterwards cutaneous eruptions of an intractable nature." Should the reader be desirous of pursuing his inquiry into the nature and characteristics of this disease further, he may consult the translation of Paulus iEgineta, with a commentary by Francis Adams, and also an able article by Al. Cazenave in the " Dictionnaire de IMedicine," as well as the several writers whose opinions have been given above. I observe that one of the remedies prescribed by all these writers, with all but universal consent, is the theriac of vipers, and indeed one of them commends, above all things else, eating the flesh of vipers boiled in broth with certain vege- tables which he enumerates. Was this remedy resorted to in the days of Job ? If so, possibly allusion is made to it in ch. xx. 14 — 16, where Zophar is speakings in evident reference to what had beMlen Job, of the condign punishment with which secret sinners are often visited. Michaelis, in his " Questions proposees a une societe de savants," wonders whether, as Job speaks of himself as being -covered with worms, and as writers on the subject of elephantiasis have not noticed this as one of its chai'actcristics, — it is a usual accompaniment of that disorder. I should suppose that in this, and indeed in all other cutaneous diseases, the breeding of worms in the flesh would be 182 NOTES, JOB II. 7. a natural result unless great care were taken to guard against the evil ; I heard but lately of a case of small-pox, in which maggots were extensively generated, arising from neglect on the part of the sufferer's friends in not applying for timely medical assistance. After consideration of the descriptions of the disease, as given by the various me- dical authors above referred to, compared with the diagnosis of that under which Job laboured (so far at least as we can arrive at it), I come to the conclusion that whilst Job's disorder was elephantiasis in its leading features, yet it was of so aggravated a type, as to present characteristics which do not present themselves in the ordinary forms of the disease ; and I think we must bear in mind that, on this occasion, a supernatural agency was directly employed, and divine permission obtained, to exercise that agency to the fullest extent of its malignity without actually destroying the life of its tortured victim, — a consideration which will sufficiently account for any symptoms that may be noticed in the case before us of an extraordinary character. I am led to this latter observation chiefly by the remark of a medical friend, who, writing to me briefly on the subject, says: " The disease referred to may have been an aggravated form of the leprosy of the ancients, or something like it, but it should be recollected that that which was inflicted, or allowed to be inflicted of God, may have differed from what was usually observed even then, or may have been more severe'ihvin what was usually seen." The same gentleman goes on to observe, — " In some respects the descrip- tion might answer to forms of constitutional and aggravated syphilis such as was observed in France in the time of Francis the First after the Italian campaign, or even as late as the end of the last century in France, and in the Peninsula in the time of the Peninsular war." Certainly Satan in his diabolical malice may have contrived to give a syphilitic appearance to Job's disease, that he might be suspected of having entailed it upon himself by the illicit indulgence of venereal appetites. Zophar seems to allude to such a disease in xx. 11 — " His bones are full of Ms secret sin ; And it shall lie down with him on the dust." Job also perhaps alludes to that disorder in ch. xxxi. 3, where he speaks of " strange punishment " being the award of such sins, and of which he there declares his innocence. 8. And he took a potsherd. I have retained the ordinary rendering of ^1D (kheres) i.e., a potsherd, because I have scarcely sufficient authority to substitute another meaning ; but as the root and its cognates (see next note) have the primary signification of scraping, rasping, scratching, &c. (hence ^111 {kheres) the itch), I am inclined to think that ^"T!'!!' {kheres) here means some instrument that was specially used for the purpose of scratching ; the word might literally be rendered a grater, though, if that be its meaning, it would be different both in its use and construction from what we understand by that word. Such instru- ments are used to this day for that^purpose in the East, and Rosenmiiller, who does not notice the primary meaning of ti?"T.n {kharas) and its cognates, quotes Martial where he describes an instrument called scalptorium, used by the Romans, and wliich, judging from the passage in question, was made in the form of a hand for NOTES, JOB II. 7. 183 tlie purpose of scratching tlie body in such parts as the natural hand could not reach. The epigram is the 84th in Book XIV. : — " SCALPTOEITJM. Defendet manus hcec scapulas mordente molesto JPtilice, vel si quid pulice sordidius." " TJiis Jiand tvill defend the back of your shoulders from the liting, teazing flea, or if there he aught more filthy than a fleaP i2 l~i2nnb (leMthgared bo) — to scratch himself with it. T]3 (garad) and all its cognates : ^"12 (garav), n-]2 {garah), 37"l3 (garog?i), "^"ll (garar), '^TJ {kha- rat), Uy^ {kharas), '^IT} (kharas), (see note above,) and n"in (kharath), have all the signification of scratching, rasping, scraping, grating, and the like. Sitting among the ashes, — probably in token of utter humiliation and grief. Compare Isa. Iviii. 5 ; Ixi. 3 ; Jer. vi. 26 ; Lara. iii. 16 ; Dan. ix. 3 ; Jonah iii. 6 ; and Matt. xi. 21. P. Still holding fast thine integrity/? See the note on ver. 3. Bless God and die, i.e., bless God and thou shalt die for doing so; for, in Hebrew, the second of two imperatives usually states the result or consequence of performing the action commanded in the first — so, " Do this and live " means, do this, and in the doing of it, thou shalt live. Job's wife evidently alludes to v^hat Job had said in i. 21 ; and so, the full force of her words seems to be this : — "When God stripped you of your property and children you blessed him, saying, — " Blessed be the name of the Eternal," and now, all the good which this piece of piety on your part has got for you, is this terrible disease superadded to your other misfortunes ; you had therefore better bless God again, and then, the next consequence of such piety will be death, for there is nothing else that remains to be inflicted. Nothing could well be more taunting than this. The temptation must needs be a fearful one which suggests to us that our calamities are the con- sequence of our religion. God's people, however, must be content to be some- times told, that they are " fools for their pains." 10. Thou speakest as one of the wiched tvomen speaketh. Job does not directly tax his wife with being wicked ; he may have had a better opinion of her general character than that, and have felt that some allowance w^as to be made for the exasperation of mind under which she had just spoken ; he merely tells her that the sentiments she uttered were such as might be expected only from the lips of such women as were utterly destitute of piety. Wicked, The word ^"i ''?? (nevaloth) has a wide range of signification ; it evidently refers to a particular class of persons who were notoriously devoid of religion, and means fallen, corrupt, foolish, profligate, and the like. Ay, <^c. The force of (pV) (gam) here has been overlooked ; the authorized version renders it by ivhat ! this, however, is incorrect. The meaning which I attach to it here (if the rest of the sentence is to be taken as a question) is, ay ; and then the sense of the whole passage will be, — The sentiment you have expressed, that the more I retain my piety the more likely God is to destroy me (see note on previous verse), is not only impious, it is, moreover (D2 gam), un- reasonable, for if we take good from God, surely it is only right that we should take evil also. It is questionable, however, whether this latter sentence is to be 184 NOTES, JOB II. 10. taken in an interrogative form, and if not, then tlie meaning will be, — » Your sentiment is such as one might have expected from that class of women who have thrown off the fear of God, but not from you ; added to ivhich (D2 gam), it involves this other wrong notion, that we are to receive good but not evil from God. From God himself. The ^ISQ here has this force ; it implies that the good and evil (temporal of course are here meant) which we receive come to us directly (not indirectly) from God, and that he is the Author of them : so, Isa. xlv. 7, a passage which, by-the-bye, being particularly addressed to Cyrus, was evidently aimed against the fundamental doctrine of the Persian theology, which taught the independent authorships of good and evil. And perhaps, indeed, Job may here have been anxious to refute a sentiment which savoured of Magian error, and which may even in those times have been extensively entertained ; Job may have perceived in his wife's mind something of the notion that all this evil, that had come upon them, could not have come from God, but from some other power, and that God himself could not defend his servants from it. Job sinned not ivith his lips, — a great proof of that perfection of his, of which God had spoken. (See James iii. 2.) 11. Three friends of Job, — not as the authorized version has it, Job's three friends. Eliphaz the Temanite. This Eliphaz was, no doubt, a descendant of Teman the son of Eliphaz the son of Esau by his Avife Adah. (Gen. xxxvi. 10, 11 ; 1 Chron. i. 35, 36.) This Teman was the duke or chieftain of one of the Edomite tribes (Gen. xxxvi. 15 ; 1 Chron. i. 51, 53) ; and of this tribe and of the country which bore his name we have mention made in Gen. xxxvi. 34 ; Jer. xlix. 7, 20; Ezek. xxv. 13; Amos i. 12; Obad. 9; Hab. iii. 3. It must not be confounded with Tema, a people who descended from Tema the son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 15), and of whom we shall have occasion to speak more fully in considering chap. vi. 19. It is difficult to determine accurately the locality occupied by the tribe and descendants of Teman, nor do the passages of Scripture referred to thi'ow much light upon the subject. We gather from them that when Edom was consolidated into one large kingdom, and governed by kings, instead of, as at first, by many apparently independent dukes, one at least of these kings was a Temanite (Gen. xxxvi. 34) ; and afterwards Teman assumed so prominent a position in the kingdom as to be often all but identified with it. (Jer. xlix. 7, 20 ; Ezek. xxv. 13 ; Obad. 8, 9.) Amos, in chap. i. 12, apparently speaks of Bozrah as being its capital; and in Isa. Ixiii. 1 Bozrah is apparently spoken of as being the capital of Edom. From Jer. xlix. 21 and Hab. iii. 3 we mio-ht infer that some part of Teman was in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea and the wilderness of Sinai. (Forster's "Arabia," voh ii., p. 33.) On the whole, however, it would appear that the Temanite race extended over a con- siderable portion of the territory of Edom, and that it was to be found in the neighbourhood of Bozrah and of Dinhabah, a city which, being written Daihab in the Syriac version, has been identified with Odaib, and the Thauba of Ptolemy, and which was situated in the great northern desert of Arabia, about midway between Palestine and the mouth of the Euphrates. And it is about NOTES, JOB II. 11. 185 here that the Thimanei of Pliny would be placed, whom he speaks of as anciently a mid-land tribe of Arabia^ and neai- the Nabataji : — " Nunc et reliqua medi- terranea ejus dicantur. Nabatajis Thiraaneos junxerunt veteres." (Plin. vi. 32.) These Thimanei I take to be the tribe of Teman, and not that of Tema, though Forster endeavours to identify them Avith the latter. We have no data for determining where Eliphaz the Temanite lived, but there is, I think, evidence to show that the people to whom he belonged were, Avhen considered as the leading tribe of Edom, to be found extending from the Eastern or Elanitic arm of the Red Sea half-way across the desert towards the Euphrates. The modern Maan was probably anciently the capital of Teman Proper, and being in, what we have assumed to be. Job's neighbourhood, was, not improbably, the residence of Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite. The Shuhite or Shukhite tribe were probably the de- scendants of Shuah or Shuakh (n-1t27j, the youngest of Abraham's sons by Keturah. (Gen. xxv. 2.) This name Shuakh may be found in the Saiace of Pliny, vi. 32, a town which he places amongst the Zamareni, perhaps the descendants of Zimran the brother of Shuakh, and now the Shammar tribe dwelling midway between the Red Sea and the mouth of the Euphrates, and one of whose towns still retains the name of Sekiale or El Saiak. I am surprised that Forster, who identifies the Saiace of Pliny with El Saiak, does not notice the affinity of its nomenclature with Shuakh. His desire to identify Shuakh with the Chaldean Shoa (?'i27 (shoagn), a very different word) mentioned by Ezekiel (xxiii. 23) has, doubtless, caused him to overlook this. Zophar the Naamathite. Of this Zophar nothing is known beyond the mention of him in this book, nor does Scripture throw any light upon either his race or his locality ; and Forster, in his " Arabia," says : — " The place of Zophar the Naamathite I have not succeeded in tracing." Pliny, however, speaks of an inland Arabian tribe, which, I think, is not improbably that of the A'«cr»m^/u"; he calls them the Amathei, the first syllable, Na, being dropped. This dropping of the first syllable is very common in Arabic, and indeed in Eastern, nomen- clature in generah Foi'ster (who places the Amathei in Temama, though there is little similarity of name) himself speaks in another place of " the suppression of the initiatory syllable of names : as Apatei for Napatei, or Nabatei ; Maan for Teman ; &c." And he tells us in a note that, '* unacquaintedness with this idiomatic variety has been the cause of sad false criticism in commentators upon the classics. Thus Hardouin ignorantly corrects the Armalchar of Pliny to Naarmalchar, where both forms of the name are equally correct." Now, this is exactly to the point, just as the Armalchar of Pliny is really the same name as Naarmalchar ; so the Amathei of Pliny is, with great probabiHty, the same name as Naamathei, The probability becomes more considerable when we find that Pliny evidently places the Amathei in juxtaposition with the Zamareni and their town Saiace, which we have just presumed to be the Shuakh of Bildad. Thus Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite would be near neighbours, which is precisely what we should expect from the history before us. It seems to me, further, not improbable that the modern tribe the Beni Nat/m are the descendants of the ancient Naamathites or Be7ii Naamah. This tribe ife mentioned by Burckhardt as being a very powerful tribe of Arabs ; they range 186 NOTES, JOB II. 11. the desert from the south-east of the Dead Sea up towards the Hauran, though their more fixed locality seems to be near Maan, which, by the way, is the ancient Teman. A place marked in the maps Bir Nam, the well of Nam, may possibly be named after them. They had agreed together, or they had appointed both the time when, and the place at which, they xoere to meet, in order to visit Job. This concert on their part implies that they lived at no great distance from one another. To condole with him. The Orientals are remarkable for the way in which they exhibit their grief by outward gesticulations. "^^3 (nood) is, in the first instance, expressive of that continued shaking [of the head] often observable in persons who are plunged in deep sorrow ; and then, thus to shake the head with any one will mean to condole with him. And to comfort him. An afflicted person is usually more accessible to comfort when there has been a previous manifestation of condolence. Nothing could be better than the intentions of these friends. 12. And kneio him not, — i.e., they did not recognise him as the same person he had formerly been. This implies that his disease had materially changed his appearance. Rent — his robe. See the Notes on chap. i. 20. If my remarks there respecting the meaning of the ^^"^.P (^megnil) are correct, we may infer that Job's three friends were respectively chieftains of tribes. The Septuagint, either by tradition or by presumption, has given to them the regal title ; it calls Eliphaz "the king of the Thaimanites ; " Bildad, " the sovereign of the Saucheans ; " and Zophar, " the king 'of the Minaians." Sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. So (as Eosenmiiller and others point out) Josh. vii. 6 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 19 ; Ezek. xxvii. 30 ; Lam. ii. 10 ; Acts xxii. 23. (See the Illustrations.) 13. They sat dotvn with him upon the ground. Thus they shared, at least in outward demonstration, his humiliation and grief. (See ver. 8.) Seven days and seven nights. RosenmUller refers to Gen. 1. 10 ; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13; 1 Chron. x. 12; Ezek. iii. 15; Ecclus. xxii. 12, in order to show that this was the time ordinarily spent by the Orientals on occasions of solemn mourning. No7ie spake a word unto him. They refrained from commenting upon the subject of his afflictions. They probably already judged, from the intensity of his sufferings, that his former profession of piety was mere hypocrisy, and that he was now justly visited by the wrath of God; and as, under such circumstances, any remarks of theirs, if honestly made, would only have added to his sufferings, they abstained from all comment, until Job's hasty exclamations in the next chapter gave them the opportunity of stating the opinions which they, too rashly and too uncharitably, formed. {^So Barnes.) JOB III. 1. After this, — at the end of the seven days spoken of in the preceding chapter. His day, — the day of his birth. (See note on i. 4.) 2. Answered. A word often used in Hebrew, as here, at the commencement NOTES, JOB III. 2. 187 of a discourse, and which, when so used, may be more philosophical in its signifi- cation than at first sight appears, as it probably denotes a correspondence between the speaker's discourse and the occurrences which suggest it. Thus here, Job makes answer to the circumstances in which he is placed, and which have just been related in the foregoing narrative. And said. Job had not as yet sinned with his lips, but had probably, during the last seven days, begun 'entertaining hard thoughts on the subject of his afflictions, which were now aggravated by the continued silence, and perhaps suspicious looks, of his friends ; these hard thoughts could no longer be repressed, and he accordingly gives vent to them in the strong and impassioned language which follows. The difficulty which evidently had been working in Job's mind, and which he now expresses at large, is one which is very common — the question why God should create a creature to misery. 3. Perish the day. Let it be blotted out of all remembrance. And the night which said, Sfc. The night in question is here personified, and is poetically represented as reporting what it might be supposed as having been privy to. I prefer to take •^^V' {harah) in its literal sense of co7iceiving, and not, as some understand it, of giving birth to. Verse 10, I think, estal?lishes that the night of his conception is here alluded to. Job's passionate exclamations are not unlike those of Jeremiah in ch. xx. 14 — 18, but they are more sublime. Rosenmuller cites an instance of imprecations uttered by an Oriental on the day of his birth, in the thirteenth century, very similar to that before us. The words are quoted by Abulfeda, in his Annals, from a poem written by the sufierer him- self, whose name was Naser Daoud, a chieftain in Palestine, who was driven from his country by the Crusaders. Rosenmiiller gives the quotation in the Latin of Reiske, from which the following is translated : — " Would that my mother had remaijied unmarried all her life, undestined by my God to a lord and husband! Would that, as he had destined her to a prince discreet, prudent, jmre and sioeet, both in his \_aneestral] root and \^family'\ branches, he had destined her to be one of those ichom [he destines'] barren, that she might never have heard the joyful messenger of the birth of her offspring, whether it were male, or what is ivorse [female'] ! Or since she did carry me in the wotnb, would that she had lost at once her burden and her life by an unpropitious birth ! " 4. That day. The day of my birth. That day ! be it darkness. There is a fine description in Shakespeare of the unnatural darkness of the day which succeeded the night in which Duncan was murdered by Macbeth : — " By the clock, 'tis day. And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, That darkness does the face of earth intoinb, When liying light should kiss it ? " Require it — ''ntl?~i*7^_ (idreshehoii). Put it in requisition for any particular pur- pose, or look after it, i.e., expend care or thought about it, or seek it, with the view of recovering it from darkness, or make inquisition ov search for it, with a view of finding it. 5. Claim it. The root ^S3 (gaal) means both to redeem or re-claim, and also 188 NOTES, JOB III. 5. to pollute. The first is by far its most usual signification, and appears to me to offer a decidedly preferable sense in the present passage. Job intimates that the day of his birth must, of right, have originally belonged to darkness and death, "and he expresses his wish that they might recover what was really their own ; time was when that day had no existence ; may it there- fore return to that prior condition. A cloud — nD317 (^gnencmah). A feminine form of ^^"^ {gnanari) ; it occurs only in this place ; it seems to mean what we ordinarily call a mass of cloud. Job, in this and the following clause, explains in what ways he desires that this particular day may be given up to darkness, namely, by its being involved in a dense and thick cloud, and by its suffering successive eclipses of the light that should otherwise have shone upon it. Settle. This appears to be the pi'imai-y meaning of l?^"* {shachan). Darkenings — "^"H^""?? (chimrirei). This must, I think, be referred to the root "n^S {chamar\ it teas black, S^c, and not to "^l^ {marar), it was bitter, as, in the latter case, the ? of similitude would too much enfeeble the idea intended ; besides which, the notion of something dark manifestly accords better with the whole context than that of bitterness. It must be admitted that the form "^"^"IP? {chimrir) is so far anomalous as that we should have expected it to be written "^^l^? {chamrir) ; but no great amount of dependance is to be placed upon the vowel points; nor even then can we, at this distance of time, and with com- paratively an imperfect knowledge of the language, presume to discard whatever may seem to us anomalous. It is moreover certain (as Lee observes) that "(-) and (•) are often substituted for each other." Grotius and others understand here Q^'?^? (chemarini) idolatrous priests ; but the reduplication of the word as it stands in the text is a sufficient objection to this view. Taking D^"1/"!^3 [chimririm) then, from "l^S (chamar), it will signify darkenings, blackenings, obscurations, or the like, and this, in connexion with day, may most probably mean eclipses of the sun. This notion is strengthened by the following word, affright, which implies that sort of super- natural darkness which eclipses produce, and which usually inspired dread. Affright it. Poet, for make that day an object of terror. Comp. Milton : — " As when the sun, new risen, Loots through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams; or from beliind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change Perj)lexes monarchs." 6. That night. The night in which he was conceived. Be it not united — "^ni (JMad). If we follow the punctuation we must translate let it not rejoice, from Hin (JihadaJi) ; but if we read "in"*, {yekhad), from ^^T (jjakhad), we have the rendering which I have adopted, and which is more in accordance with the parallelism. The Chaldee so translates it ; the Vulg., let it not he counted with, and the LXX., let it not be amongst. They evidently read "Tn.">. (jjekhad). 7. Barren. T^O?! (gahnood). This word in Arabic signifies hard bare rock, hence, as an adj., stark, hard, unyielding, barren, sterile, and the like. The NOTES, JOB III. 7. 189 meaning of tlie whole verse seems to be, — Let no marriage or any bridal festivities take place on that night. 8. The difficulty of this verse has no doubt been the cause of its omission in one of the MSS. collated by Kennicott. DV"''^."!'^ (prerei yoin) ; lit., the curscrs of a day, i.e., as we may suppose, jjersons whose practice or profession it was to imprecate ill luck upon some particular day or days. 7J!PJ1? '^~?y D"^'7"'riV.'7 — {hagnethidim gnorer livyathaii). Who are prepared to provoke the crocodile. The creature here mentioned as leviathan I believe to be the crocodile (see this matter discussed in the notes on ch. xli.) ; and so the meaning is, persons who are ready, or in a state of preparation for, or equipped (as we might say), to stir up and encounter that formidable monster, the crocodile. Here is evident allusion to some ancient custom, and it becomes an interesting subject of inquiry whether any record of it has been handed down to us. If I mistake not, we have some such record. We are certainly informed of a particular class of people in ancient Egypt who, so far from uniting with the rest of their countrymen in veneration for the crocodile, regarded it, in some sort, in the light of a supernatural enemy, and superstitiously set apart certain days for the very purpose of attacking and destroying it. Sir G. Wilkinson, in his work on the ancient Egyptians, thus notices the custom : — " Plutarch affirms that the people of Apollinopolis used to eat the crocodile ; this, however, was not a general custom, but merely upon a certain occasion connected with religious superstition, and intended to show their abhorrence of Typhon, the evil genius of whom it was an emblem. They have likewise," he continues, " a solemn hunt of this animal upon a particular day, set apart for the purpose, at which they kill as many of them as they can, and afterwards throw their dead bodies before the temple of their god, assigning this reason for their practice, that it was in the shape of a crocodile Typhon eluded the pursuit of Orus." D"^1T1V. (gnethidim) — Prepared, ready, expert. Wilkinson (" Ancient Egyp- tians," new ed., Vol. I., 242) says, — "The Ten tyrites. were so expert from long habit in catching, and even in overcoming this powerful animal (the crocodile), in the water, that they were known to follow it into the Nile, and bring it by force to the shore." The sense of the entire verse seems to be, Let that night be stigmatized with names the most odious, by that particular class of men whose practice it is solemnly to devote certain days to the object of waging war with the evil demon in the person of the crocodile. (See the Illustrations.) 9. The meaning is, — Let that night be dark from its very evening, and let it be hopeless and endless, with no day to succeed it. Its twilight. Probably the evening twilight is here meant. Let it look for. nif? (^katvah) is to look for a thing loith longing anxiety. The eyelids of the dawn, — i.e., the first rays of the sun as he rises, which, poetically supposing him to be the eye of day, may be compared to eyelashes. Schultens has largely illustrated this by citations from Greek, Latin, and Arabic poets. 10. ''3tD3 \n^"^ {dalthei vitiii), lit., the doors of my belly. It shut not, — so as to prevent my being conceived. 190 NOTES, JOB III. 10. And hid not. The not is not expressed in the Hebrew, but may be understood from the negation in the previous chiuse ; or the verse may be thus translated ; — " Because it shut not the doors of the lelly that received me. And it tvould have hidden trouble from mine eyes." In either case the sense is much the same. As in ver. 3, the Night is per- sonified, and is poetically represented as having been privy to, and announcing, at least to itself, the fact of Job's conception ; so here it is poetically supposed to have had the power of hindering that conception had it been so pleased, and it is cursed because it did not exercise that power. 11. In the womb. So the LXX. and the Vulgate; lit., from the loomb, i.e., from the time of my being there. If I mistake not, ^O'lP {merekhem) is used in the same sense in the similar passage in Jer. xx. 17, which I would thus translate : — " Because he killed me not in the womb, And my mother had been mj grave, And her womb had been always great [with me]." (So Roser^i tiller.) 12. Wherefore did the knees, SfC.'^ Why were they so officiously prompt as to be in readiness to receive me at the moment of my birth ? Or why the breasts Sfc.'? Why were these also in a state of readiness at once to minister to the support of that miserable life which I had just received? ^IrJ {kadam), which I have translated anticipate, besides having the general notion of beiiig beforehand, often means being beforehand with another in offices of kindness. 13. For now, — i.e., supposing that it had been as I wish; that I had died either in the womb, or at the moment of my birth. / had lain doivn, — in my grave, as on a bed. I had slept, — in death. Being quiet and having rest are negative ideas, and seem chiefly to imply perfect freedom from all mental trouble and bodily suffering. 14. Job here remarks, with that keen irony which is often sharpened by suffering, that, if he had died in infancy, his lot would have been at least as happy as that of those departed kings and other great men who, whilst they were upon earth, were ambitious of greatness, but attained to no more of it than the amassing of wealth, and the construction for themselves of those mausoleums in desolate places, in which they now lie. Desolations, — i.e., as we may infer from the connexion of this word with CiSn i^liabbonini), buildings in desolate places. Various senses have been attached to this, but I have little doubt but that Job here alludes to the vast sepulchres built by monarchs and other great men in those ages, and not improbably there may be particular allusion to the pyramids of Egypt, two of which (if the most received dates are correct) were of then recent construction. (See the lUusti'ations.) For themselves. There is bitter sarcasm in these words. These great men, who spent their lives in nothing better than in building vast tombs, built them, not for others, but for themselves ; and thex'e they now, each of them, lie alone in NOTES, JOB III. 14. 191 their glory. See this sort of vanity condemned in Isa. xxii. 15 — 18, where also the ^? (lecha), for thyself, is as emphatic as the "IJ^v (Jamo) here, for themselves. \ 15. Their houses. This, again, is full of irony. Job calls their grand burial- places their houses, which, during their life, they store with treasures, as though, in so doing, they were making provision for their comfort and enjoyment when dead. There is no objection, however, to take the word horises here in its ordinary acceptation, in w^iich case, equally as in the other, the folly of amassing wealth is hinted at. It was, however, by no means unusual to deposit coiFers of the precious metals in burial-places. 16. I should not he, — i.e., I should not be in existence. As these words imply the non-es^istence of children untimely born, at least of such as never saw light, or never had life at all, so Job, by the very contrast of these with those whom he mentions previously, certainly implies that the latter, though dead, were still in a state of being. In other words, if the inferences be correct, Job held the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. I take this verse to be a parenthesis. 17. Job, in this and the two following verses, gives, as a reason for his wish that he had died in infancy, that the condition of death is superior to that of life. There, — i. e., in the grave, along with the dead. Cease from troubling. I am glad to retain the translation of the authorized version, both on account of its beauty and also because of its ambiguity ; for ^51 (rogez), troubling, may refer either to the disquietude with which the wicked are themselves agitated, or to that which they inflict upon others. I think that both the context and the parallelism in the succeeding verses require the latter sense ; and then the verse has this meaning, that in the grave, both those who disquieted others, and those who were disquieted, rest, — the one, from causing trouble ; the other, from being troubled. The iceary, — lit., the wearied of strength. Those who are thoroughly worn out by excessive labour, or probably, as is implied in the former clause, by the oppressions of the wicked. 18. The chained. Prisoners taken in war, and criminals chained and con- demned to hard labour and rigorous treatment at the hands of barbarous over- seers, are probably here intended. (See the Illustrations.) Ii^33 (^nogesh), taskmaster. In this word are contained also the notions of driving, exacting, and oppressing. 19. The word "'tt'pn {khophshi),free, determines that T?!!? {gneved) here means slave, rather than servant. 20. Why giveth He, ^c. ? In Hebrew, the name of God is often suppressed where it is understood; and in this particular instance, Job may have felt the impi'opriety of connecting that name with the question which he was raisings By light is of course to be understood life, as the parallelism shows. 21. Diodorus says, of those whose miserable lot it was to labour in the gold mines of Egypt, (and to which, perhaps, allusion is here made in the second clause,) that they longed for death, as a condition far preferable to life. (See the lUust. on ver. 18.) 22. Who even dance for joy,— more lit., who are glad even unto dancing. ^'^? {giV) is gladness expressed by gesture, and especially by dancing. 192 NOTES, JOB IIT. 22. Exult, ii^^^ {soos) is gladness expressed by leaping. There is, therefore, a climax here: — Who even dance for joy— (yea more) leap lohen they find the grave. 23. Why, — i.e., Why giveth He light? This is to be understood from ver. 20. And about xohom God setteth a hedge. This aggravates the case. Not only is the way of such a wretch hidden, so that he is utterly at a loss what course to take, but God so hems him in on every side with difficulties and miseries that, take what course he will, he cannot escape from them. (Comp. Hosea ii. 6 and Job xix. 8.) 24. Job here refers particularly to his own case. For. Why, for instance, did God give me life, for I am a miserable man ; and as a proof of my misery, instead of my bread, &c. Bread and icater often denote food and drink in general. Not unlike the sentiment here expressed are Ps. xlii. 3, " My tears have been my meat day and night," and Ps. cii. 9, " I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping." Instead of. "^^Dy (Jiphenei) is used in a similar sense in 1 Sam. i. 16: — " Count not thine handmaid/or C^.r?) a daughter of Belial" So also Job iv. 19. The parallelism requires this sense in the present passage, and by so translating it, all difficulty is removed. And like tcaters, 8)-c., — i.e., instead of being able to drink. My incessant roarings (which prevent my doing so) are poured out like continued and noisy volumes of water. The former clause determines this to be the meaning. 25. Schultens' objection (which Rosenmiiller and others adopt) to translate this and the following verse in the past tense is weak. He urges the apparent impossibility of Job's being able to have presentiment of such dreadful and unheard-of afflictions as those he was now suffering. But surely Job only means that in his prosperity he was in continual dread of some reverse, and that his presentiments on that score had too unfortunately been realized. For, ^c. A second reason for his questioning why life should have been given to him. Even in prosperity he was unhappy, because full of apprehensions. I apprehended evil, — lit., I feared a fear. The evil which Job had constantly apprehended, and which at length had befallen him, was probably that some signal judgment of God would fall upon his children, as he feared that they might make their feasts occasions of impiety. We certainly learn from chap. i. 5 how much anxiety he felt for them on all such recurring occasions. JOB IV. 1. Eliphaz the Temanite. See the Notes on ii. 11. 2. I see no reason for following many, amongst whom Rosenmiiller, and after him Lee, who weaken the force of the passage by understanding "^S? (nissah), to attempt, in tlie sense of ^^. {nissa), to take up. Verse, Vv'^ {millin). This word has, I conceive, been misunderstood in its being supposed to be no more than a word poetically substituted for "1^"^ [davar), a word. It is only used in poetry, and, as I think, only with reference to poetry. It is of very frequent occurrence in this book, and in every instance our word NOTES, JOB IV. 2. 193 verse seems very suitably to express its meaninDf. Its root, v7tt (malar), though used once in prose (Gen. xxi. 7), (if indeed it be not verse, being a sort of song of thanksgiving), appears to have evident reference to verse : — " Who would have uttered in verse (i.e., who would have recited in prophetic strains) unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck ? " The only other passages in which the word, either as a noun or verb, occurs, except iu this book, are, — 2 Sam. xxiii. 2 : — " The Spirit of the Eternal spake by me ; And Jiis verse was on my tongue." Ps. xix. 4 : — *' Then- line (chord) is gone out through all the earth ; And their verse to the end of the world." Ps. cvi. 2 ■ Who can recite in verse the mighty acts of the Eternal ? Who can show forth all his praise ? " Ps. cxxxix. 4 : — " For there is not a verse on my tongiie ; But lo, thou, O Eternal, knowest it altogether." And Prov. xxiii. 9 : — " Speak not in the ears of a fool ; For he will despise the wisdom of tJij/ verse." Some have considered this introduction as highly courteous on the part of Eliphaz, but I think that the unchai'itable character of the man at once betrays itself. He commences by insinuating (for his question is a decided insinuation) that, such is the irritable state of Job's mind that, merely to attempt to talk to him would be a ground of annoyance, and too severe a trial for his temper ; and then, he immediately adds that (take it as Job may) he will speak, it being impossible to forbear speaking; thus already implying that Job's language had been of that aggravating character that no one who had heard him could refrain from giving it a reply. This is concealed under the apology that, when once a poetic fire is kindled, there is no possibility of holding back utterance. 3. Corrected many, i.e., set many right who were wrong, either by argument, or, as magistrate, by reprimand, or by the infliction of penalties. Ha7ids that loere %veak, — whether thi'ough sloth, or fear, or irresolution, or sorrow. Didst thou strengthen, — either by admonition, or encouragement, or advice, or comfort, as the case might be. The tense may here denote habit, — thou wast xoont to strengthen. And so in the following verse. 5. No irony can be more keen, no invective more bitter, than is conveyed in this and the following verse. It cometh, it toucheth, i.e., similar misfortune to that which has befallen othei's, which made their hands weak, and caused them to stumble, &c., &c., and about which you were in the habit of giving such admirable advice, has now fallen upon you. G. RosenmiUler is perhaps right in supposing that ^nii^ri (tikivothecha) is trans- posed, and should stand the last word in the verse ; both the parallelism and the sense seem to require this. Would it not be more simple, however, to suppose that the right reading is '^"^P^"? °^ ^ri?i?^1 (ivetikioathecha torn deracheicha) ? o 194 NOTES, JOB IV. 0. This would remove all difficulties. The 1 is supplied before ^O^i?^ in 166, 380; 586, 588, K., and 349 (before emendation) De R., and one MS. of De R., omits the 1 before Ch . 77/y religion, — lit., thy fear, i.e., of God ; this word is frequently used in Scrip- ture in precisely the same sense as our word religion. 7. As, in the former verse, Eliphaz insinuates that Job, being without confidence, was therefore without true religion, and that, having no hope, he was therefore very far from having that perfection which he had professed ; so, in this verse, he lays down the position which is maintained throughout the whole book by Job's antagonists, — that no man falls into great misfortunes, except as a punis'hment for his sins ; and Eliphaz here challenges Job to produce, if he can, an instance to the contrary. This opinion, so stoutly maintained by Eliphaz and his friends, is undoubtedly incorrect ; yet it is some extenuation of their error, that in those days, God did inflict more summary judgments upon grave offenders, than he does under the present dispensation. The fact of an innocent man being visited with great temporal calamities was apparently a puzzle even to Job him- self. Effaced, — perhaps alluding to the entire extermination of Job's children, and so, in point of fact, to his extermination also. 8. The sense of this and the former verse seems to be, — I think you cannot produce an instance of any blameless man having been ever visited with signal judgment, and, on the other hand, so far as my own experience extends, I have certainly observed that the wicked do not go unpunished. If this thei'e- fore be true, (and of which I can have no doubt), it becomes a natural inference that your present calamities are a just visitation from heaven, — the natural harvest, in short, of what you have sown. By the three gradations of ploughing, sowi7ig, and reaping, we may probably understand, the devising of evil, then the perpetration of it, and then its punish- ment. That plough, SfC. — i.e., fields of iniquity. That sow, (§-c. — i.e., seeds of trouble. Reap the same — i.e., reap the fruits of iniquity and of trouble. Rosenmiiller refers to the following passages as similar, — Ps. vii. 14 — 16 ; Hosea viii. 7 ; x. 12, 13 ; and Gal. vi. 8. 9. Breath — blast. The metaphor of the preceding verse is in some measure continued ; allusion is here evidently made to those blighting winds which some- times destroy corn and other similar crops. 10. 11. The meaning of these verses appears to be, (with special reference to Job,)— Retributive justice sooner or later overtakes violent oppressors and their families ; for God silences the insolent menaces of such men, deprives them of those means by which they inflicted injury upon others ; and so, being no longer able to live by spoliation, they perish, and their families become dispersed. !l2?n3 {jiittagnoii), — are broken. This, of course, properly belongs to the last noun, but, by a figure sufficiently common, applies also to the preceding nouns ; the meaning if fully expi'essed would be, the roaring and the voice &c. are stopped, and the teeth &c. are broken. Schultens thinks that the metaphor of broken is not too bold as applied to roaring and voice, and not unaptly quotes Cicero in Sul- NOTES, JOB IV. 10, 11. 195 lana. Excutient tibi islam verborum jactationem. And, Noli aculeos orationis mece, qui reconditi sunt, excussos arbitrari. We have in these verses, no less than five distinct names given to the lion ; some of these certainly mark distinction of age, and others probably denote either sex or some characteristic peculiarity. Thus the "•"*?? (chephit-) is a young lion older than the "^^^ {gour) or tohelp (which, however, is not mentioned here by name), but not come to full growth, old enough, how- ever, to hunt prey for himself. The "'l^. (ari) appears to have been the ordinary generic name for the full-grown lion, and M"'^ ^ (lavi) the proper denomination for a lioness, as seems probable from Gen. xlix. 9 ; Job xxxviii. 39 ; and Ezekiel xix. 2, 3, and especially from the latter passage, in which, I agree with Bochart, in thinking that the Masorites have been mistaken in their punctuation in substitut- ing the anomalous feminine form ^*?7 (levia) for ^"'^^ (^«*^*)- ^^ *^^^^ latter passage we have a gi'ouping of the four names of the lion just specified. " And say, What is thy mother ? A lioness (^^? / levia) ; she lay down among lions (ni"**lW. araioth) ; she nourished her whelps (I7"'*^-^^ goureiah) among young lions (Cn^DS chephirini). And she brought up one of her whelps : it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey, it devoured men." It is more difficult to determine tchat hind of lion is meant by ^nti? {shahhaT), or why it is so called ; Bochart 's conjecture is not improbable, that it may be the dark coloicred lion from "T?^ (shahhar) to be black, the liquids ^ (/) and "1 (/•) being interchanged. The ^1^ (laish) has been presumed by some to be an old decrepid lion, one so worn out as to be no longer able to hunt prey for himself; this supposition has been derived chiefly from this present passnge in Job, but it is amply confuted by reference to Prov. xxx. 30. " A lion (p'^.7 laish) which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away from any." We may therefore rather infer from this latter passage that the ^?y {laish) is the strongest species of lion, and this view of it accords well with our text. 12. The vision, of which we have an account in this and the following verses, seems to have been narrated by Eliphaz in order to prove, upon Divine authority, that, after all, the very best of men are full of faults in the sight of a holy God ; and so, no man may think himself so good as to claim exemption from the common and just fate of all mortals. The tacit inference, I suppose to be, that Job had flattered himself that his professions of superior sanctity ought to have procured for him an immunity from many of those troubles to which flesh is heir ; if such have been his notions, (Eliphaz implies,) let him now learn, from a Divine oracle, and from his present perishing condition, how thoroughly he has been mistaken . There is no ground for supposing that the vision here introduced was a fiction on the part of Eliphaz, for such visions were common in those days ; and more- over the narrative before us has many internal marks of truthfulness. The sim- plicity of the style, its circumstances of awe, and the important truths conveyed by it, are evidences in favor of its reality, — to say nothing of the fact, that, had it been an invention, the narrator would have contrived to make the application to Job more direct. A communication, — "l^"^ (davar) lit., a word; but it here means, as it often does, an oracular communication from God. O 2 196 NOTES, JOB IV. 12. Also, i.e., besides my experience derived from personal observation (and abouf which I have just spoken), I have also had a direct revelation from heaven which bears upon the subject. ^Si") [yegunnai)) — loas unawares made; or as we should say, and which is per- haps a more exact rendering of the Hebrew, — it stole upon me, or, as it is passive, — it tvas smuggled in upon me, i.e., it came upon me unexpectedly, and without any seeking on my part. In using this expression, Eliphaz, I think, implies that he had had this vision since the time of his visit to Job, and that it had come to him without any prayer on his part, and was therefore the more remarkable and the more worthy of Job's attention. ini^ (menehou) is instead of ^n3ip (minneJiou), a form which occurs in Ps. Ixviii. 24. 13. From visions, niai^trip (mekhezionoth). The force of V^ (min) gives the sense here, — thoughts arising out of visions. Umbreit understands it as meaning before visiotis, but "IP cannot have the sense of before, though it might have the sense of apart from, — but I prefer here, out of. W^B^'xp {segnippim) are, in the first instance, branches, then branchings of the mind, — or, as we might say, ramifications of thought. 14. The ivhole of my bones, — lit., the multitude of my bones. 15. A spirit. Rosenmiiller suggests that n^"l {ruahh) might here be trans- lated wind, rather than spirit, and refers to 1 Kings xix. 11, and Acts ii. 2, as evidence to show that literal wind has sometimes preceded manifestations of Deity; and to Isaiah xxi. 1, where the verb nV^ (khalaph) is used with reference to wind. Lee is unnecessarily severe upon Rosenmiiller for the suggestion. 16. n^D"^ {demamali) — a lull after a storm; so Ps. cvii. 29. Compare the nttl^'l 7ip (Jkol demamah) in 1 Kings xix. 12, — the still small voice which Elijah heard immediately after the violent wind that rent the rocks in pieces. / heard a still voice, — lit., / heard stillness, and a voice ; or it may be translated — There was a lull, and I heard a voice. 17. The authorized version renders this verse. Shall mortal man he more just than God ? shall a man be more pure than his maker ? This translation is not incorrect, as far as grammar is concerned ; but the objections to it are, that no sane man would ever have supposed that he was more just and more pure than God, and so it was not necessary that any revelation should be made on the subject. Moreover, the rendering which I have adopted accords better with the next verse. The preposition V^ (min) in '?'^^^.'^ {meeloah) is here equivalent to D^ (gnim) or "'PD? (liphenei) ; it has manifestly that sense, as Rosenmuller shows, in Numb, xxxii. 22, and in Jer. li. 5. Compare the present passage with ix. 2. Or the force of Vr^ {min) here is, — Shall a mortal be just {i.e., pronounced such) by a verdict from God ? 2?i3W (enosh) is sometimes used in poetry in an individual sense, and I have preferred so to render it here, i.e., a mortal, as the parallelism is better preserved. "1331 {gcver) is a man who has all the characteristics of what we understand by the term manliness. NOTES, JOB IV. 18. 197 f ■ 1 8. These words are clearly a continuation of the oracular revelation made to Eliphaz, as no uninspired man could have ipade the assertion they contain. Servants. Angelic ministers, as the parallelism points out. Putteth no trust. Does not count them so secure in their standing as to depend upon them with full confidence. Of course this is speaking in some degree after the manner of men. With folly, — "^^V^f? (taholah) does not occur elsewhere in Scripture ; various renderings have been given to it, for the most part guesses, such as default, defect, &c., none of them probably far from the truth ; the most apparently accurate supposition is that it is a form from ^7"^ (halal), and so that it means folly — folly, however, negative rather than positive — deficiency of wisdom, but not vice. God sees in his angels an incapacity to act with the same perfect wisdom which he himself possesses. 19. Much more. Supply, '"^^^ ? "^H^ D^b;-^3 (c/«i ycrsm taholah vc,^c.\ he chargeth with folly — H^ (ajih) for ''? ^^ {aph chi). Compare the parallel places, XV. 16 ; XXV. 6. The foundation whereof I^W (ashcr) may relate either to "*3?tp {shochenei) dwellers, or to "'^S (Jjottei) houses ; with Rosenmiiller, I prefer the latter, as foundations are applied more properly to houses than to inhabitants. By houses of clay are of course meant our frail bodies. Comp. 2 Cor. v. 1. C^S?!'! {jfedacheouni). Lit., they crush them, that is, anybody crushes them ; and so the meaning is, they get crushed. "*3pb (liphenei). Generally translated before. The objection is, that it is untrue that a moth — tt?l7 {gnash) — ever destroys either houses or bodies ; besides, W.?*? (dichhe), he crushed, cannot with any propriety be referred to the action of a moth ; "'3^7 {liphetiei), therefore, must be understood here in its rather unusual sense of the Latin instar. (See note on iii. 24.) 20. From morjiijig to evening. Man's life, at longest, is but as a day (Ps. xc. 5, 6), and during the short span usually allotted, he is liable at any moment to destruction, so frail is the material of which he is composed. After D"'J?'?? (mesim) supply ^ (lev). ^^57 (lanetsakh), lit., unto completion, so, adverbially, completely or utterly. 21. The pre-eminence they had — lit., their pre-eminence in them. Whatever they peculiarly excelled in ; their prestige, perhaps, would express the original. As "lOv {yether) means the cord of a tent as well as excellency, and 3?p3 {nasagn) means in its primary sense to pull up the stakes of a tent, in order to departure, some comparison may be intended here between death and the removal of a tent. Compare 2 Cor. v. 1. And not in wisdom. Their life has been a continued course of vanity and folly, and such also is their death : the vanity of all that they prided themselves about is then made apparent. JOB V. 1. Summon now. M^[7 {kara) is evidently to be taken here in its forensic sense, i.e., call to a judicial tribunal. The force of ^^3 (wa) here is excessively ironical. You Job wish to arraign the justice of God, Jiow do it, if you can, after such a statement as you have just heard from heaven. 198 NOTES, JOB V. 1. If there he any to answer thee. If you do issue the summons (as in truth yoa had best do (^5))' ^^'" 7°^ certain th^t there is any who will undertake the office of respondent to you, and who, on the part of God, will accept the challenge you make, and be his advocate ? And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn ? And when you have found a respondent, what angel or good man will you call in, to conduct the case for you, and proceed with you in judgment against God ; what angel or good man will advocate your principles ? The sense of the verse is difficult, owing to the ambiguity that attaches to the meaning of the word I^''^"T|7 (kedoshim), holy ones. It evidently refers to God in Prov. ix. 10 and xxx. 3 ; to saints or pious persons in Ps. xvi. 3 and xxxiv. 10 (9, in the auth, vers.) ; and to angels in this book, xv. 15 (if, at least, we adopt the reading of the Keri. See the note on that verse). Angels are probably meant in this instance^ — a probability which is grounded on the apparent reference of the word to the beings spoken of in v. 18 of the former chapter. It is possible, however, that both saints and angels may be intended here by C^^p (kedoshitn). The probable connexion with the next verse gives some countenance to this view. 2. 27^3 (chagnas) and ^^^P. (hineah). It is difficult to determine whether these words here mean, 1st, that indignatio?i which God has against sin, and that jealousy for his honor, both which provoke him to destroy the sinner who has been so foolish as to excite his just anger ; or 2dly, that indignation and jealousy which are generally conceived by their fellow men towards those, and especially the wicked, who are in prosperity, and which not unfrequently prove the occasion of their ruin by stirring up enemies against them ; or, lastly, that indignation and jealousy which foolish men entertain, when they are in great trouble, and which, fiUing them with rage and irritation against the God who afflicts them, and with discontent with their lot, and fretful envyings and repinings at the happiness of others, not unfrequently, hasten their death. The first and second of these views appear to be the most in accordance both with the previous and the following context. The "^2 (chi)for seems to have this force, — it is useless your attempting to arraign God, or to appeal to any in support of your cause. Every one, whether it be God, or angels, or pious persons, will be against you ; and why ? Because (or for, ^^ (chi) ), the indignation and the jealousy of all are stirred up against a wicked fool (thus Ehphaz implies that Job was such), and so far from any being disposed to befriend him, all will be found ready to fight against him and destroy him. v"'"1.^5 (aivil)—the fool The book of Proverbs thoroughly exposes the moral turpitude attaching to such a character, by pointing out, his contempt for true wisdom (Prov. i. 7) ; his talkativeness (x. 8) ; his self conceit (xii. 15); his irritability of temper (xii. 16, and xxvii. 3) ; his pride (xiv. 3) ; his deceitful- ness (xiv. 8) ; his ridicule of sin (xiv. 9) ; his delight in vain conversation (xv. 14); his error and fretfulness against God (xix. 3); his meddling disposition (xx. 3) ; the sinfulness of his thoughts (xxiv. 9) ; and his incorrigibleness (xxvi. 11, and xxvii. 22). In all these passages the words used are either ^^l!^ {aioil) a fool or ri7-lS (iwiveleth), folly. nOS (j)otheh)~the simpleton. One who is easily duped— an easy prey to NOTES, JOB V. 2. 199 . temptation ; pei-liaps here, one who is so silly as to suppose that his prosperity will last for ever. This character, also, is well portrayed in the Proverbs, where he is called ''^J> (pethi). He is soon enticed by temptation (Prov. ix. 14 — 18); is credulous (xiv. 15); easily decoyed by flattery (vii. 7, &c., &c.); and is heedless (xxii. 3). 3. Eliphaz again refers to his own personal observation. As a proof (he says) how true it is that a wicked fool has no friends to whom he can turn, and how exposed he is, on account of that indignation and jealousy that all feel when they see him in prosperity, I may mention, that in my own case, whenever I have seen a rich fool prospering, I have at once expressed my feelings, by foreboding that misfortune would soon overtake him. / myself. The "^3S< {ani) marks emphasis. Homestead. This appears to me exactly to suit the word n."1.3 {iiuiceh), a pleasant, snug habitation, surrounded with every convenience. / doomed. I declared very positively, and without hesitation, that a curse would fall upon that man's house. I knew that it was doomed to destruction, and said so. I said (and certainly with some inward satisfaction), at the time that I saw his great prosperity, " His children are far from safety," &c., &c. (See the Illustrations.) 4. The words which Eliphaz said, either to himself or to others, when he fore- told the doom of some prosperous fool. His children, Sfc. This is severely pointed against Job, though there is just enough variety in the case to prevent its being too marked. Crushed in the gate. Involved in utter ruin by losing their cause in a court of justice. "'?'?^ (shagnar) — the gate — the place where all causes were tried, and judgment given. See Deut. xxv. 7 ; Job xxxi. 21 ; Prov. xxii. 22; Is. xxix. 21 ; and Amos v. 10, 12, 15. 5. His harvest, lit., whose harvest. To avoid ambiguity, I have substituted the possessive for the relative pronoun. Out of the very sjnkes, lit., €ve7i up to out of spikes — the full meaning of which appears to be, — the famished thief will venture right up to the spiked enclosure where the grain is stored, and will succeed in carrying it off. D^?? (tsinnim) — spikes. (See the Illustrations.) C^? (tsammim). This word has sorely perplexed all commentators. Lee takes it from D'l^ (tsoum) (of course rejecting the points), and translates fasting, which, he considers, forms a good parallelism with ^iV^ {ragnev) the hungry. On tlie same ground many translate, thirsting, as if from WD^ (tsame). The ancient versions, except the Chaldce, favor this view ; but the great objection to it is, that ^''^^■f (tsemeim) should in that case have been the reading. Others translate, robber, from the Arabic Qtt^ {tsmni), he struck loith a club, stone, or sivord ; or from the Arabic Q"*^^ (tsamim) a hardy, mighty man. Others again, understand, a trap, from D^^ (tsamam), to weave, to tivine, &c. That CJi^ (^tsamam) is the root I have no doubt, and that D"^??? (^tsammim) is a noun of the same form as P'*?-? (tsaddik) ; but it strikes me that both the sense and the parallelism here require a person and not a thing — and therefore I would understand, a person weaving or plotting evil devices — a schemer or an cntrapper ; the cognate D^J {zamam) particularly favors this signification. 200 NOTES, JOB V. 5. Hath gaped. The schemer has ah'eady set his heart upon getting theii' property, and notwithstanding their present security, is already concerting measures to possess himself of it, so soon as opportunity shall present itself. 6. Eliphaz having ministered reproof, now proceeds to give counsel. From this verse to ver. 17, he advises Job to commit himself to God ; and then, from ver. 17 to the end of the chapter, to submit himself to Him. Though. I so translate "'S {chi) here, because I take S^^i^ (oulam) yet, in ver. 8 to be its apodosis. It is the rendering of the authorized version ; but there is some difficulty connected with it, which I wonder commentators should have left unnoticed. Iniquity cometh not forth, ^c, ^-c. Eliphaz seems to allude here to what he had said in chap. iv. 8 : — " They that plough iniquity, and they that sow trouble, reap the same." And therefore he means here that the harvest of iniquity and trouble which men reap is not, after all, the spontaneous produce of the ground. Man may reap it, but it is of his own sowing ; and so its cause must be referred not to the earth, but to himself. 7. But. "'S (chi) has this adversative sense here, as it follows a negation ; its more ordinary meaning, for, would, however, perhaps be equally suitable, nor would the sense be materially changed. 3Ian is born unto trouble. Not born into the condition of it, but born to it, as a child is born to a parent ; in other words, man is the child of trouble. It is as much part and parcel of his nature, as it is of the nature of sparks that they take the same direction as the parent flame from which they spring, and which is upward. Eliphaz makes an omission here, which he leaves to be supplied by obvious inference from the parallelism, which would be otherwise incomplete. The omission may be thus supplied : — " Iniquity cometli not forth of the dust ; [Therefore] neither doth trouble spring out of the ground. But man is naturally a child of trouble [Because he is naturally a child of iniquity]." That is, though a man reaps a harvest of troubles arising from iniquities, yet he must not refer either of these to the chance productions of tlie earth, but must refer them to himself. Sin and sorrow, which are as cause and effect, are both of them elements of his nature. The sparks of the flame, '^27T "^pS (benei resheph), lit., the sons of the flame. There is no doubt that ^^"} (resheijh) means something that is ignited ; and so, the sons of anything ignited will, in accordance with Hebrew phraseology, be sparks. Some prefer to make H^"} (resheph) mean a bird, but without sufficient authority. '^'.'^^ (yotdlad). If this be the Pret. Pual of "f?^ (yalad), then -I is substituted by a Chaldaism for ••. ; or if it be the Fut. Hophal, then the Dagesh is super- fluous. 8. Vet would I seek, S)-c., S)-c., — i.e.. Although the sum and substance of all that I have told you is, that man is naturally a sinner, and as such is naturally exposed to trouble, yet, for all that, I would, on many accounts, when in trouble, refer the whole of my case to God. NOTES, JOB V. 8. 201 Would I. "^PW (ani) is emphatic. Whatever others might be disposed to do, at all events /, under such circumstances, would, &c., &c. 9. Eliphaz now states reasons why Job might confidently commit his cause to God. This verse is a general statement of God's power, wisdom, &c. The particulars follow. A7id unsearchable, — lit., and there is no searching out. Out of number, — lit., till there be no numbering. Notwithstanding that the telescope and microscope have searched out and counted almost infinitely more than Eliphaz knew of God's great and wonderful things, yet the statement of this verse is doubtlessly as true now, as when it was first made : his great things are still unsearchable, his marvellous things incalculable. 10. Eliphaz instances rain as one of God's great and marvellous things. By rain, understand also its effects. It is frequently spoken of as being God's gift. (Ps. Ixviii. 9 ; Isa. v. 6 ; Jer. v. 24, xiv. 22 ; 1 Kings xvii. 1 ; Amos iv. 8 ; Matt. V. 45; Acts xiv. 17; James v. 17.) Waters. Rivers, &c. The country, ni^^in (khoutsoth), outside places. 1 1. Setting, WW^ (lasoum). This is connected with the ninth rather than the tenth verse. ? (Je) may be supplied, from the former hemistich, before 37^?. {yeshagn). Setting on high, S,-c. Another proof that God does great things and unsearch- able, &c., derived, not from the consideration of any of his works of creation, as in the former verse, but from that of his works of providence. 12. n^iP'li^ (toushiyah). This word has given some trouble. I think that our word reality exactly expresses it. Do nothing real. Do nothing to any purpose. They are not suffered to carry out their intentions. 13. Tahing. Snaring them in their own nets. Quoted by St. Paul, 1 Cor. iii. 19. □^yijlpp iniphtalim). Intricate men — men of complicated designs, intriguers. Goeth headlong, or gets precipitated. Their plans are ruined by the very rashness of their design and the hastiness of their execution ; and by all this, God's jDurposes are fulfilled. 14. This hallucination is judicial. In the clearest light they are unable to see, and so, knock against objects as though it were dark ; or should this make them more wary, they can only gi'ope. The sense of the passage is, that God discon- certs their wicked devices, by causing them to stumble upon difficulties where there are really no difficulties at all, and by utterly perplexing them, when, in point of fact, there is no reason for such perplexity. 15. I have but little hesitation in adopting the change of punctuation of ^"'n^ (fnehherev) from the sivord, originally proposed by Capellus, and sup- ported by Michaelis, Dathe, Doderlein, Hufnagel, &c., and reading ^'^t'^ (mohhorav) the desolated, or the laid waste. This restores the parallelism ; avoids the awkwardness of having to supply, in the first clause, P''2t:^ {avion) the needy, out of the second ; gets over the difficulty of the awkward construction of Dn^Sp ^"jnP (^mehherev mippiheni) from the sword, from their mouth ; and 203 NOTES, JOB V. 15. disembarrasses the whole verse, about which, Schultens confesses — " Impeditior nexus, nee sensus usque quoque liquidus." From their mouth, — i. e., from the devices which they had concerted together. From the hand of the strong. Preventing the execution of their devices. 16. ^"!J {dal\ destitute, penniless, utterly devoid of any earthly resources whatever. For such an one there is hope, for God can be everything to him. So there is hope, Syc., — i. e., God's ordinary providential dealings, by which, he disappoints designing men, and rescues their intended victims out of their hands, furnish, if rightly considered, a strong ground of hope to those who are reduced, and in themselves helpless. Thus has Eliphaz made out his reasons why Job should address himself to God. The observation both of God's works and ways tends to show that He is infinite in power and goodness ; and therefore any sincerely upright person may, in his deepest distresses, approach Him with hopeful- ness. I think it is evident that, in the administration of this good advice and apparent consolation to Job on the part of Eliphaz, there is in the mind of the latter an undercurrent of uncharitable suspicion, the purport of which is, — if you, Job, are the victim of misfortune — if you are sincerely upright — you will cherish this hope, and, instead of inveighing against God, you will commit yourself to Him ; but it may be that you have been a crafty and designing man, and that God has, in these terrible afflictions, been disappointing all your purposes : I do not say that there is hope for you under such circumstances. And iniquity stoppelh her mouth. Iniquity (which is here personified), per- ceiving how manifestly God's hand is against her, is forced, in spite of herself, to be silent. 17. Behold. A remarkable sight, an afilicted man blessed. Compare the paradoxes, Matt. v. 1 — 12. Despise not. The verb DS^ (maas) contains the many ideas of despising, loathing, rejecting, and slighting ; and so the passage before us may mean, — Do not, through pride, despise God's correction as a thing to be ashamed of; or. Do not loathe it as a man nauseates physic ; or, Do not reject it as a thing that is useless ; or. Do not slight it as a thing which may be passed by unnoticed. Blessed is the man, Sfc. Eliphaz, having advised Job to commit himself to God, now proceeds to advise him to submit himself to Him ; and he recommends this duty, by pointing out the blessings that result when affliction is taken in good part. 18. For. One reason why an afflicted man should submit himself to God. He putteth to pain, or He hurteth. This second rendering would well suit 2 Kings iii. 19 : — " And hurt every good piece of land with stones." Make whole. The first meaning of ^p"J (rapha) is to sew, then to sew up a xoound, then metaph. to heal. 19. In six distresses. A definite number for an indefinite. However many your afflictions, you shall be delivered out of all, and in none of them will there be anything that is really evil. 20. Famine, and war. Two signal public calamities. In Hebrew face, mouth, and hands ai'e attributed to the sword. By the first expression Ave may understand its being unsheathed for action ; by tlie secondy its devouring power ; and by the third, its stroke. NOTES, JOB V. 21. 203 21. When the tongue lasheth,— lit, in the lash of the tongue. Compare the whole clause with Ps. xxxi. 20. 22. Shalt' thou laugh. Not with a laughter of sinful unbelief, as in Gen. xviii. 12; nor of sinful contempt for what is good, as in 2 Chron. xxx. 10; nor of self-confidence, as in Habak. i. 10 ; nor of mere worldliness, as in Luke vi. 25 ; nor of inconsiderateness, as in Eccles. ii. 2 ; but from faith in God's promises, as in Gen. xvii. 17; and from holy scorn, as in Ps. ii. 4. Beasts of the earth. One of God's means of executing judgment. (Jer. xv. 3.) 23. Stones of the field. These may be considered as — 1. Dangers in the way. The godly man's covenant with them is God's promise to him. (Ps. xci. 11, 12.) 2. A hindrance to cultivation. (Isa. v. 2 ; Matt. xiii. 5.) Yet even stones and rocks shall yield the godly some produce, and keep him from starvation. (Deut. xxxii. 13.) 3. Stone fences. A defence of property against wild beasts. (Isa. V. 2, 5.) 4. Boundary stones. A defence of property against encroachers. And, 5. Stones ivere sometimes thrown to destroy property. (2 Kings iii. 25.) Shalt thou be in covenant, — lit., shall be thy covenant. 24. In the former verses are promises either of deliverance or of preservation from certain specified evils ; in this and the three following verses are given assurances of positive blessings. Thou shalt hnoiv, — by experience, or by assurance. Thy tabernacle is in peace, — from foreign, civil, and domestic strife. Thou shalt oversee thy homestead, and not err. This is literal, and gives, as I think, the correct sense of the passage. There will be no mismanagement in the superintendence of your farm, household, &c. The difficulty of this verse has led to its omission in one of the MSS. collated by Kennicott. 25. As the grass, — i.e., in respect of quantity. 26. In ftdl age. Tlie word n75 {chelakh) occurs only once again in the Bible, and that, in this book, chap. xxx. 2. It seems to denote something that has arrived at its acme of perfection as respects age ; probably a ripe old age. Like the mounting up. Perhaps this may mean like the stackitig. (See the Illustrations.) 27. Know thou it for thyself. Take advantage of my investigations and ex- perience. JOB VL 2. 0 that my vexation, ^c. I only wish (Job imports) that the vexation I feel, and the misfortune I have suflTered, could be fairly weighed togethei', it would then be found that the former by no means exceeds the latter, and that notwith- standing the severe remarks of Eliphaz, I have indeed just ground for complaint. Vexation, C?;^3 [chagnas) may mean either that which worries or frets, or irri- tability and fretfulncss ; I think that the context requires it to be understood here in the latter of these senses. Our word vexation has about the same ambiguity as the original. Exactly weighed. The notion of exactness is expressed in the original by the conjunction of the infinitive with the finitive verb, — ^^iplp (shakol) with y\}^\ {ishshakel). (See the Illustrations.) 204 NOTES, JOB VI. 2. That they loere raised, supply ^ [loo) from the former clause, and understand, 'INtp'^ (iseou) impersonally. Raised iji scales together, — so as to be fairly weighed together. 3. Although I admit that the vexation I feel exceeds even the sand of the sea in weight, yet I do wish it to be correctly estimated, from a conviction that, com- pared with the aggravation of my calamities, it has not been too excessive ; and it is on account of this exceeding great vexation of mind, which, however, by no means outweighs the cause of it, that my words have been uttered at random. That is heavier, — the verb being masculine, determines its reference to the word vexation, and not to calamity. I have endeavoured to express this by sub- stituting that for it. Uttered at random, — "^^7 {Idg^tah), which may very well be the root of -1^7 {Jagnoii), gives us in Arabic, according to Castell, the meanings, lociitusfuit, pec, temere, nee ex animo, vana effutivit ; all which admirably suit the present passage. 4. For, — a reason why the vexation I feel, and which I have expressed, is not too excessive. The arrows, S^c. Rosenmiiller and others have given some apt quotations from ancient authors on the subject of poisoned arrows — amongst others that from Virg., -3ineid IX. 773 : — Ungere tela manu, ferrumque arrnare veneno. Arrows are often attributed to God in Scripture, and they are described as swift, Zech. ix. 14 ; unexpected, Ps. xci. 5 ; sharp, Ps. xlv. 5 ; not to be drawn out, Ps. xxxviii. 1,2; and deadly, when sent in wrath, Deut. xxxii. 42. It is possible that in this verse Job is describing the pains and other effects of his disease ; if so, those pains were like burning wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows, and which produced a sensation of increasing exhaustion, accompanied by a sense of the invasion of great and irresistible terrors : and all this heightened by the feeling that the dreadful infliction was not from the hand of man, but im- mediately from that of God Almighty. 5. Animals, neither wild nor domestic, are wont to complain if they are sup- plied with what is suitable to their natui'es ; when they do complain, it is only because they are expressing their natural wants ; and just so with myself (says Job), be assured that the complaints I utter are not without cause ; if I were surrounded with every thing that was agreeable to my desires, I too, could be as content as are the wild ass or the ox, when they are supplied with abundant and suitable provision. 6. Can any person eat what goes against his stomach ? Anything that is tasteless in itself, such as the white of an egg, is unpalatable until mixed with salt. The afiiictions that I endure are unpalatable to me, and there is no admix- ture of any kind of hope or comfort that might render them in some degree palatable ; how then can it be expected that I should be forced to swallow them down without betraying the disgust which I consequently feel ? Some conceive that Job alludes here to, what he might consider, the insipidity of the discourse of Eliphaz, but this view interferes with the context, in which Job is showing that he had just ground for giving utterance to those complaints upon which Eliphaz had animadverted. ri'^ttv'O {hhallamooth). A variety of conjectures have been offered respecting NOTES, JOB VI. 6. 205 this word ; some surmising that it may be a herb called purslain, in which case, 'l'*1 (n>) would be its slimy substance. Lee makes it to be cheese, and '^"'1 (Wr) its tvhey. The Jewish interpretation, however, and that of the Targums, seems preferable ; they conceive n^l^sbn {khallamooth) to be the same as "l"i^7^ (khelemon), the yolk of an egg; and so, "^"'l {rir), saliva, and especially drivel, Avill, in this connexion, naturally enough signify the white of the egg, — that slimy substance which envelopes the yolk, and which, as is known, is tasteless. The white of the undressed e^^ is here called "^"^l (rir) slobber, probably, in order to heighten the idea of disgust that is intended to be conveyed. 7. If I cannot stomach my afflictions, it may look like refractoriness, but it is no more than natural ; for they are to my taste like the most disgusting food. These. This word is not expressed, but is clearly understood. Job refers to his afflictions, which hQ compares to food which is so unpalatable as necessarily to excite loathing. 8. Job having defended his complaints, on the ground that they were not cause- less, now goes even beyond what he had before expressed on the subject of death ; he had regretted his birth ; he now prays that he may speedily die. What I ask, lit., my request. What I long for, lit., my longing. 10. My consolatio7i. Namely, my religion, as Job shows in the third clause ; the testimony of my conscience to my uprightness, and so, my hope and confidence in God ; these I know would outlive my dissolution, and, under these circumstances, so bright a prospect as speedy deliverance would enable me even to rejoice in present sufferings. I loould exult — nibp^ [asalledah). This word occurs only in this passage, and is probably the same as the Arabic word ^yLa {tsld) (D and ^ being inter- changed), to leap as a horse striking sparks fi-om stones, and hence (as in all words of leaping, jumping S^-c), to exult. The Sept. render the word by rjX\6fjii]v, and the Vulg. by saliebam (so Gesenius). For I have not disow7ied, S)-c. — ^•f^inp N7 (/o chikhadti). This verb conveys the ideas of denying, and covering so as to conceal. The full meaning is, so far from disowning God's precepts or laws of any kind, it has been my habit openly to acknowlege myself bound by them, and constantly to practise them. Ps. xl. 9, 10 throws some light upon the passage, — " I have preached righteousness in the great congregation : lo, I have not refrained ray lips, O LORD, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart ; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation : I have not concealed "'■Hinp Mv (Jo chikhadti) thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation." Job, in this verse, explains the ground of his desire to die, and clearly shows, as I think, that he entertained none of those earthly hopes which Eliphaz had set before him (v. 19 — 26). He had evidently abandoned all expectation of restora- tion to worldly prosperity, and if so, this state of Job's mind assists us in determining the meaning of the celebrated and controverted passage in xix. 25. 1 1 . What is my strength, Sfc. My physical strength is too fiir gone to admit of my entertaining any such worldly hopes as Eliphaz would fain have me embrace (v. 19—26). 206 NOTES, JOB VI. 11. And what is my term, ^c. Or, even supposing I still lived, and had enjoyment of such things, yet my time must necessarily be so short as to render it not worth while to foster any such desires. ^^^. (nephesh), in its meaning of desire, applies peculiarly to desires of animal gratification, such as eating, drinking, and all other corporeal enjoyments, as well as all mental indulgences. The nature then, of the desire expressed in the second hemistich, sufficiently explains the character of the hope spoken of in the parallel place in the first hemistich, and altogether, this verse greatly corroborates the view taken of the last. Not unlike this is Ps. xxxix. 5, 6, 7. 12. In this verse again. Job shows that he has not the slightest expectation of restoration to health. 13. Interpreters, generally, have involved themselves in inextricable difficulties about this verse ; and that, from not observing that the interrogative Q^n {Jmim) here is strongly affirmative of the preceding implied negative proposition, which is put also in an interrogative form, thus — Is Job a man of immense strength ? \_No .'] Surely rather (D^H (Jmim) ) he is devoid of all self-sufficiency ? Or if it be translated in its interrogative form, the ">* (lo), not, which is implied in the preceding interrogative must be supplied here, as though it were S7 DSn (Jiaim lo). Is it not that, S^c. And substance, Sfc. I am so weak as to have no remaining substance of body. Expelled. This is the exact meaning of "^l^^? {niddekhah), and in some measure corresponds with the ordinary medical use of it. 14. As a general rule, any man, with any pretence to piety, extends mercy towards a friend in the extremity of suffi^ring ; but my friend (says Job) has shown me no mercy, therefore he cannot pretend to any present piety. Such appears to me to be Job's meaning. It is common enough to leave premises to be inferred from a conclusion, and such I conceive to be the case here. Besides which, inferences may often be suggested merely by the parallelism ; here it is implied in the first clause, by inference from the second, that a man who does not show mercy to his dying friend, shows, ipso facto, that he is no longer under the fear of God ; whilst again, it is implied in the second clause, by inference from the first, that as Job's friend is here stated to be no longer under the fear of God, Job considered that that friend had not shown him mercy. This sort of inferential meaning to be supplied from parallel clauses is very common in the book of Proverbs, and often furnishes a largeness of sense which ordinarily is unobserved. That melteth away. This expression is evidently closely connected with that in the former vei'se — substance hath been expelled out of me. 15. Job, having taxed Eliphaz in particular, with want of mercy, and with impiety, now reproaches all his friends with failure of duty. Their professions of friendship, which had been as noisy and as full of promise as winter torrents in the desert, like them also, were found to have disappeared in the real hour of need. That scorching sun of affliction, which would have rendered offices of friendship most grateful and refreshing to Job, had been the veiy means of disappointing his hopes, and of showing him how foolish and misplaced those hopes had been. Nothing can be more beautiful and affecting than the lively picture, which Job NOTES, JOB VI. 15. 207 here draws, of the disappointment he experienced at the conduct of his friends. My brethren. This expression tends to aggravate the faithless conduct of his friends. Dealt deceitfully as a torrent. Compare Isa. Iviii. 1 1 (margin), " Like a spring of water, whose waters deceive not ; " also xxxiii. 16, "Bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be sure," or va.i\\Qv faithful — '^^'^^.^^ (neamanim). 16. Turbid. Dark and swollen. By reason of the ice. Probably owing to the masses of floating ice which these torrents carry down with them. Upon them, ^c, Sfc. The snow, by melting away, disappears (lit., hides itself), but helps to swell them ; and on both these accounts, — the dislodgment of ice and the accumulation of snow water, these mountain torrents are turbid. 17. What time they ivax loarm, 4'C. ^"^^ (zarav) occurs here only, and has been variously translated. If we take it from the Arabic, ^S'ltp (mizrav), a cha7inel, then we may render the passage, — so soon as they are channelled out^ they are cut off; i.e., they have scarcely time to form their watercourse before they become spent. Or, if the Syriac ^~IT (zrv) is our guide, then the passage will run thus ; — so soon as they get narroived, they are cut off. The parallel, however, seems to require some other meaning ; and as we have in Hebrew ^"}? (tsarav), ^1'^ (tsaraph), ^1^^ (saraph), T!? (saraph), Il'^n (kharav), '^1'^ {gnarav), all conveying ideas of burning or drying up (the very meaning required to correspond with "i^H {khummd) in the next hemistich), it seems most natural to consider ^'IJ {zarav) as cognate with them. In their getting hot, — lit., in its getti?ig hot, — i.e., one and the other of these torrents. 18. Turti aside out of their loay. Being induced to do so in the hope of finding one of these torrents, which, from its size, when they had passed it some time previously, had given promise of a plentiful and constant supply of water. The objections to the rendering of the authorized version are, — that it makes the description of the drying up of the streams in question too lengthened ; that description properly ends at ver. 17; and if we understand this present verse as referring to the same subject, it becomes unmeaning tautology. And further, as the word mn"lW {prkhoth) undoubtedly means caravans in the next verse, it is highly probable that it should have the same signification in this. As the men composing the caravan are to be understood in riin"]M (orkhoth), this noun agrees with a verb and pronoun which are in the masculine gender. 19. The caravans of Tema. The father of this ti'ibe, who must not be confounded with Teman the progenitor of Eliphaz (about whom see Note on ii. 11), was the ninth son of Ishmael. (Gen. xxv. 15.) Isaiah xxi. 14 makes mention of this tribe, and describes it as affording shelter and provision to their neighbours, the Kedarites, when fleeing before the victorious arms of Nebu- chadnezzar : — •* The inliabitants of the land of Tenia brought water to him that was thirsty : They prevented with their bread him that lied." Forster has successfully shown, that Kedar occupied a portion of the coast of what is now called the Hedjaz; the presumption, therefore, is strong. 208 NOTES, JOB VI. 19. from the passage just quoted and its context, that some part at least of the land of Tema lay in the country which borders upon the Hedjaz on the east. Ptolemy mentions the city of Thema or Tema, (now called Teima), in the neighbourhood of the Nabataji, and in the territory of the Saraceni. He speaks also of the Themi as extending to the shores of the Persian Gulf. And in modern geography we find the Beni Temin occupying the great central desert in the northern part of the Nedjed. This tribe is unquestionably alluded to in the apocryphal book of Baruch, as it is there distinguished as being descended from Hagar (and so from Ishmael), and therefore is not to be confounded with the Teman of Esau. The allusion is interesting, as it points to the mercantile pursuits of that people, and so agrees with the mention by Job of their caravans. Baruch iii. 22, 23 : — " It (wisdom) hath not been heard of in Chanaan, Neither hath it been seen in Theman. The Agarenes that seek -wisdom ixpon earth, — The merchants of Meran and of Theman, — The authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding ; None of these have known the way of wisdom, Or remember her ]}aths." The allusion in the two last lines is probably to their knowledge of their own trackless deserts ; they could cross these, laden with the rich produce of the earth, from one distant market to the other, but they were ignorant of the way of that wisdom which is above the price of all merchandise. The Sheha. The tribe here referred to is probably that which occupied that portion of Arabia which is situated near the entrance of the Red Sea. (See Note on chap. i. 15.) They and the Tema were, no doubt, at this time, some of the principal carriers of merchandise from the emporiums on the south-eastern coast of Arabia to Canaan and Syria. It would be, when they arrived at that part of the northern desert which lies in the neighbourhood of Lebanon, that they would meet with the torrents of snow waters referred to by Job. This reference, as I think, undoubtedly points to that locality. Loohed out wistfully. In earnest search of these torrents. 20. Job intimates that he had been anxiously on the look out for the arrival of his friends ; he had raised high expectations of the refreshment he should receive from intercourse with them ; but had now to endure the mortification of finding how mistaken had been his confidence in them. The word ashamed here, as often elsewhere, conveys the notion of disappomt^ ment. They had been confident, — or more lit., each had been confident. Up to it. Either up to the place, or up to one or other of the streams. 21. Job now makes application of the foregoing illustration to his friends. Ye are nothing. Like a dried- up torrent. (See the Various Readings.) Ye behold a terror, ^c. You are scared because you see in me an object of terror ; and this confusion of yours renders you utterly useless as to the discharge of any ofiice of friendship. It is observable that Job does not so severely tax his friends in general, as Eliphaz in particular. He charges Eliphaz with positive impiety (ver. 14), but the friends in general merely as being utterly useless in the way of affording him comfort in his trouble, and so, of disappointing NOTES, JOB VI. 21. 209 his too sanguine expectations; and this failure on their part he generously ascribes to fear. 22, 23, Job now aggravates the conduct of his friends, by reminding them that the favors he had expected of them were not pecuniary (favors which are cer- tainly, in a general way, the severest tests of friendship) : — I have not asked you to relieve my poverty, nor to bribe a judge to deal leniently with me, nor to pay a ransom to an enemy for my deliverance. Is it that? "'pn (Jiechi). Is this the explanation that you can give for your unnatural conduct, that I have put your friendship to the severest tests possible ? Certainly not. 24. I am willing enough to learn, if you will only speak to the purpose. Only convince me that I am as guilty as you infer, and, in token of self-condemnation, I will utter no more complaints, and say nothing more in self-justification. 2o. Right words. Words of honesty and fairness, and straight to the point. Forcible is probably the best of the conjectured meanings that have been given to V"]? {marats), a word which seems to convey the ideas of pungency, sharp- ness, &c. (See Notes on xvi. 3.) 26. If you would convince, you should judge of facts rather than of mere poetic effusions, and especially those of one who has abandoned all hope of ameliorating his condition in this world. Verse. (See the Note on iv. 2.) 27. Nay, ye let fall, Sfc. Nay, more than this (for I understand the full force of your invectives), the reproofs which you have directed against my words are neither more nor less than evil attempts on your part to entrap me into other expressions, by which you hope that I may condemn myself, or lay myself more open to your attacks. Ye let fall, Sfc. The net, though not expressed, is probably to be understood, just as when we speak of letting fly we understand an arrow, or stone, or some other projectile. (See the Illustrations.) The orphan. Job means himself, as the parallelism shows. The word orphan here probably means one who is in the same forlorn position as the orphan may be supposed to be. Job certainly reflects here upon the conduct even of those of his friends who had not as yet spoken ; hence, they probably had, in some decided mannei', marked their approbation of the statements advanced by Eliphaz . 28. Job here exhorts his friends to act towards him in a more manly and straightforward way than they had done : instead of endeavouring to draw him into the snares which they had laid, but which, with all their subtlety, they could not conceal from him, let them boldly contend with him in fair and open argument. To your faces will it be if I lie. If you are willing to meet me in honest argument, instead of veiling yourselves under subterfuges, it will be sufficiently obvious to you whether, or not, the statements that I put forward in my own defence are correct. In plain words, — Be honest, and then you can judge. 29. Turn again noio, 'ggn\ which means to contract and to coagulate as milk, favors this rendering ; and the Syriac version gives, my skin is contracted. NOTES, JOB VII. G. 211 ^^^1 (immaes), from DMtt (maas), i. q., DDK) [masas), to melt andfioio away. Compare Ps. Iviii. 8. 6. The loeb, ^"Ji:J (areg). If a weaver's shuttle were intended, as many translate this word, we should have expected, as Schultens remarks, the form ^"1^.'? {maereg). In the second clause the metaphor might be preserved by translating (and indeed both renderings may, perhaps, be intended), And are come to an end without a thread. (See the Illustrations.) Another proof that Job had no expectation of recovery either of health or of former prosperity. 7. Remember thou. Job now addresses God. I have endeavoured to express this by inserting thou. My life is a wind. Compare Ps. Ixxviii. 39 : — " For he remembered that they were but flesh ; a wind that passeth aioay, and cometh not again." 8. Shall not observe me, — ^. e., when once I am gone. / shall not be. And so, it will be too late for you to confer any earthly blessings upon me, should such be your intention. 11. / also, 4'C. Such being the case, God having dealt so hardly with me, it belongs to me, as a kind of right, to speak out my grievance?, and /, for my part, will do it. The ^?^'D2 [gam ani) is emphatic. 12. Am I so boistei-ous and ungovernable, or so dreadfully fierce, that I require to be kept within bounds, as it were, by dykes and bars, &c., &c. ? 13. Shall ease, ^^c., — more lit., shall take off of my plaint. This use of the particle ? (be) in the sense of V^ (min) is rather unusual ; there is, however, a very good similar instance in Eccles. v. 14 (Heb. Bible), 15 (Au. Ver.). See also Nehemiah iv. 11 (Heb. Bible), 17 (Au. Ver.). My plaint. The rendering of the authorized version, tny complaint, though correct, is rather equivocal. ^'7'^'? (sikhi) is, 7ny complaint, in the sense of lamentation, not of malady. 15. The temptation to die by my own hands has been presented to me in my visions, and I have had to resist it, though it has been in spite of my natural inclination. We may infer, from the close connexion of this with the former verse, that in those terrifying visions, of which Job conceived God to be the author, Satan was permitted to tempt his victim to suicide. The horrible temp- tation must, of course, have been the stronger, if Job imagined that it proceeded from God himself; and the more so, as we know that he desired, above all things else, that release from his sufferings which he believed death alone could bring. Indeed, he admits the force of the temptation, in stating that his inclination decidedly sided with it, though happily he was able to reject it. My soul, — i.e., my strong desire. ^??5 (nephesh) has that force. 3Iaheth choice. "iH^ [bahhar) is to choose something that is presented to be either selected or rejected, approved of or disapproved of. Strangling, T'^^}^ (tnahhenak). This word can scarcely refer to that sensation of choking which, it is said, is experienced in elephantiasis. In the other two places in Scripture, in which it occurs, it refers to violent external strangulation (2 Sam. xvii. 23 ; Nahum ii. 13 (Heb. Bible), 12 (Au. Ver.)), and in the former of those places to a suicidal act. By my own hands, — lit., by my oivn boties. The bones of his fingers being p 2 212 NOTES, JOB VII. 15. the intended instruments of destruction if lie should perpetrate the crime to which he was tempted ; or, by the expression his own bones, Job may simply mean himself. Have I refused, ''^P^'^ (maasti). The parallelism requires that this word should belong to this clause, and accordingly I have so rendered it. It is manifestly in apposition with "^2723 '^H^ri {tivkhar 7iaphsi) ; and indeed this latter verb determines its sense here; for "ina {hakhar) and DHtt (inaas) have this close affinity, that they refer, though in two opposite ways, to the decision which is arrived at on some subject which has been submitted for approval or dis- approval; thus, "^na (bakhar) means to choose, and that, with a very decided preference ; whilst DSQ [maas) means to refuse with abhorrence. Umbi-eit's view of the passage is somewhat similar to that which I have given, though he misses the beauty of the parallelism and obscures the sense, by connect- ing "^ripwa [maasti) with the next verse. 16. I shall not live for ever. An argument by which Job repelled the tempta- tion to suicide which he has just noticed : sooner or later my sufferings must come to an end. And also an argument to persuade God to cease from tempting him to commit suicide. Job evidently thought that the temptation was from God. Let me alone. This may perhaps mean, — cease to alarm me with such frightful visions and with so dreadful a temptation. For my days are vanity. I need not have recourse to the expedient of self- destruction, since anyhow, my days will soon be ended. 17. Compare Ps. viii. 4 (A. V.), and cxliv. 3. That thou dost magnify him, i.e., that thou dost make him of that consequence as to notice him at all. That thou dost set thine heart upon him, i.e., that thou dost in any way make him an object of thy notice. 19. Just till I sicalloio down my spittle. Schultens, by some apt citations, has shown this to be an Arabic proverb, equivalent in meaning to momentary respite or delay. " Deglutire me fac salivam meam, pro Concede mihi tanticm mores ac spatii, quo earn glutire possim." And again he thus translates another Arabic quotation, — " Turn ille lassitudinem conqueri coepit ; ego vero rogare qui valeret, et quo tenderet. At ille, deglutire sinas me, inquit, salivam meam; nam sane confecit me iter meum." The meaning of the whole clause then, in our ordinary language, would be, — Let go your hold of me that I may have a little breathing time. Just till. "Ti' {gnad) seems to have this force here. 20. I have sinned! Supposing such to be the case, yet, &c., &c. Yet lohat do L unto thee? This has evidently the same sense as xxxv. 6. Be it so, that I have sinned, yet in what way can my sins affect thee ? A butt, — either in the sense of a target, or an object of attack. (See the Illus- trations.) 21. And why dost thou not take away, ^-c. Supposing that I have sinned, and seeing that my sins cannot really affect thee, why not pardon them ? Now do I lie down, i.e., I am about to do so. Lie down in the dust, lit., to the dust, — a pregnant construction ; the full mean- ing is, go to the dust and lie down iti it. NOTES, JOB VII. 21. 213 And thou shalt seek me early, S^c. "When once I am dead, all opportunity of your showing me any kindness in this life will be gone. JOB VIIL Bildad the Shuhite. See notes, ii. 11. 3. Does God so distort from their true end the principles of right and equity, as to award evil things to good men, or good things to bad men ? Job had not said this, but Bildad unfairly assumes that at least he had implied it. The words ^S {el), the mighty God, and ''"^^ [shaddai), the All-sufficient, are probably used to point out the improbability of sucli a God being swayed, as human judges may be, by motives of fear, or by weakness, or by bribes, or by any kind of personal considerations. 4. The particle CM (m), if, does not imply any uncertainty ; like the English word, it is often intended to be a strong affirmative, and is to be so understood here. Bildad most unjustly infers the guilt of Job's children from what he considers to have been their punishment, and here speaks in a way that must have been particularly galling to the heart of the bereaved father. Bildad's meaning in this and the preceding verse is, — Surely the fact, that your children have been justly punished, is no proof that God is an unjust judge. Have dismissed them, — in his capacity as Judge, either to banishment, or exe- cution, as the case might be. By the hand of their transgression, — thus making, as it were, their transgres- sion become the executioner of his justice. 5. Though God, in the exercise of strict justice, has punished your children, yet, if you will but appeal with earnestness to the mercy of that same great and Almighty Judge, you will find him clement. Bildad implies that Job had not done this, and, at the same time, infers that Job was in the position of a guilty criminal, who, unless he succeeded in pacifying his judge, must expect to be dealt with according to his crimes. If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, i.e., if you would make it your very first duty to seek God. 6. He tvould certainly, Sfc. ^2 (chi) here has tlie force of the Greek aXXa. If you were (what I infer you are not) pure and upright, then God would not leave you in your present misery, no, but he would, &c., &c. He would wake up. God is here represented as one who had been asleep, but who would wake up if he were sought early. And prosper, — or the meaning might be, he would salute with peace, or pronounce it a place of peace ; the very reverse of what Eliphaz had said he did, when he passed by the dwellings of wicked men who were prospering. See chap. V. 3, I doomed his homestead ; see also the note and illustration on that verse. Thy righteous home, — lit., the home or homestead of thy righteousness, 7. Though thy beginning were small. It is not certain whether Bildad means, that Job's former prosperity would seem small as compared with that which he might now expect ; or whether he means, that although Job's new prosperity might be small in its commencement, yet, in the end it v/oiild become great. 214 NOTES, JOB VIII. 8. 8. But, Sfc. Do not, however, receive my mere dictum, buti^sX it, by reference to the experience of antiquity. 9. As Biklad and his companions Avere very aged as compared with Job (see XV. 10), so, by depreciating his own and their wisdom, he in effect still more depreciates that of Job, Job must not depend upon even their wisdom, much less, therefore, upon his own ; he must rather consult the Patriarchs of bye-gone ages. A shadow, — as compared with the days of their progenitors ; so Gen. xlvii. 9. 10. Shall not they teach thee? You have asked to be taught (vi. 24) ; attend then, to what the wise men of antiquity have handed down to us. Teach thee, and speak to thee. This may mean, teach thee by speaking to thee ; or, their teaching, though now they be dead, will, if attended to, prove as in- fluential as the actual conversation of a living man might be supposed to be. Out of their heart, and therefore, experimental and valuable doctrine, not hasty assertions, but digested and premeditated truths. Verse. (See the Note on iv. 2.) 11. Eliphaz here recites what was probably the fragment of some ancient, and perhaps inspired, poem. Its admission into the book of Job, at all events, stamps the truths it contains with the seal of Divine authority. Can the paper-reed, ^c. The marshy nature of the ground in which the paper- reed grows is the true secret of its stately appearance ; so, the mere adventitious circumstance of outward prosperity is the only ground of a wicked man's elevation and greatness. Lift itself high. This refers, I conceive, not to the growth but to the erect and stately bearing of the plant, for which it is absolutely dependant upon abundant moisture. The imagery here employed, as well as the Egyptian word 'inw {akhou), flag, suggests, I think, the idea that this ancient lay may have been composed in Egypt. 12. Whilst yet in their vigour, S)'c. These succulent plants are so dependant upon moisture, that, even though they should not be cut down, yet when that which supports their vigour is withdrawn, they immediately wither ; and that, much sooner than other grasses which are not so showy in appearance, and whose growth is not so rapid. The application to the prosperity of wicked men is obvious : having no other greatness or happiness than that which worldly fortune o-ives, and no resources in themselves, the moment that goes, they are utterly ruined. The pronouns in this verse are in the singular number in the Hebrew, but as the reference is clearly to each of the plants specified in the preceding verse, I have rendered them in the plural number. 13. The moral derived from the foregoing illustration. Paths. They lead to the same miserable end. That forget God. Men who are forgetful of his being, or character, or works, whether of creation, or providence, or grace, or of his word, whether preceptive or promissory. The ungodly. There is no ground for rendering ^3n (Jihaneph) by the word hypocrite. And so, the hope of such an one is not a religious hope, but the hope that his worldly prosperity shall continue. 14. Some consider that this is the comment of Bildad himself upon the fragment he has just cited; but Bildad would scarcely commence remarks of his NOTES, JOB VIII. 14. 215 own with tlie pronoun "l^^ {asher). It seems more reasonable to believe that these words are still part of the poem cited. Relicmce, — i.e., the dependance which he places on something which he supposes to be firm and capable of supporting him, — just as a man rests the weight of his body, and, so to speak, leans, upon his loins, for this last word is the primary meaning of ^D3 (chesel); or it might perhaps be translated here, prop, — the thing itself on which he relies, just as in the parallel place in the next hemistich we have in^^^a (jnivtakho), his confidence, lit., the object of his confidence. The house of the spider, i.e., of course, the spider^ s web. Schultens cites a passage from the Koran not unlike the one before us, and indeed not improbably borrowed from it ; his translation of it is, — Similes smit illi, qui prceter Deum sibi Patronos assumunt, Araneo, domum struenti: infirmissima enim domuum domus est aranei, i.e.. Those ^oho put God aside to depend upon others arc like a spider constructing her house, for of all buildings that of the spider is the weakest. The spider weaves its web out of its own entrails, so the confidence of sinners usually comes from themselves. 15. He leaneth upon his house, S^c, — i.e., he rests upon and clings to the object of his worldly hopes with the same tenacity with which the spider holds on to its web, but to him that object proves as insecure as though it were a mere web. 16. A third similitude, setting forth the uncertain tenure by which a worldly man holds those possessions which constitute his prosperity and happiness. He is compared to some rank plant, probably a weed, which overspreads a portion of a garden, and clambers and penetrates stones, but which soon gets plucked away because of its uselessness and noxiousness. Luxuriant before the sun. So succulent and full of juice as to be uninjured by the heat of the sun. The case before us is of a plant which differs, in many respects, from the paper-reed mentioned in v. 11. That is dependent for moisture upon its marshy soil ; this seems to have an internal princijile of luxuriance independent of soil, as it can thrive, as we find afterwards, even over stones ; that withers by being deprived of that which supplies to it moisture and life ; this appears to fear no such termination to its existence, and yet, in another way its destruction is certain and sudden, — it is forcibly plucked up, and its very existence is forgotten. Over his garden, i.e., over the garden in which it grows. 11. A &t07iy heap. — This is the ordinary meaning of ^\ {gal), and the parallelism determines that it is to be used in this sense here ; besides which, to give ^2 {gcil) here the meaning of a well, which it has only in Cant. iv. 12, would be to destroy the beautiful contrast between this plant and those bibulous plants adverted to in v. 11, and which are wholly dependent for their existence upon plentiful moisture, whilst this is not so. Ue seeth the inside of stones, lit., he seeth the house of stones. This has been a source of great difficulty to commentators : I wonder it has not occurred to any to remember how frequently H"^!?! {beith) means not only house, but also within, or inside. The obvious meaning of the highly poetic expression, he seeth the inside of stones, is that this plant, with its fibrous roots, penetrates into the smallest interstices of stones, or gets in between one stone and another. In short, the idea intended is, that it is a plant that can flourish independently of soil. 216 NOTES, JOB VIII. 18. 18. When he is destroyed. The CM (im) here denotes that he certainly shall be destroyed. Is destroyed, lit., is swallowed tip. It denotes the application of some external force. This plant does not wither, as those in v. 11, but is violently torn up from its place. Then doth it deny him, S^c. As though the very ground which it covered were ashamed of it, and were glad to disown having had acquaintance with it. So, when a wicked rich man gets ruined, or meets with some violent end, his former acquaintances and boon companions are ashamed of their connexion with him, and are anxious to disown it if they can. 19. Behold, this is the joy of his loay ! Ironical. See this is the happy end he comes to. And another, and another, SfC. This is evidently the force of "^0^ (akher), another, in its connexion with the plural verb. Others sprint/ up, but then by one at a time, i.e., there is a constant succession of such plants. So, no sooner is one wicked rich man removed, than another is found ready, notwithstanding the fearful example before him, to occupy his position ; and indeed there are never wanting, in any place, a constant succession of such men. They come up rapidly, one after the other, to flourish, and then to perish. 20. Bildad now draws his own conclusions from the fragment of poetry which he had just cited, and draws Job's attention to, what he conceived to be, the lessons it contained. God loill not cast aivay a perfect man. God may try him, but not reject him. Bildad probably deduces this truth from the assumption that none of the cases, to which he has adverted, are applicable to that of a righteous man — that, in fact, neither the paper-reed, dependent on the marsh for its beauty and existence, nor the frail web of the spider, nor the thriving weed which grows up only to be rooted out, are, in any way, emblems of a righteous man, either in his true resources, or in the objects of his confidence, or in his end. Neither tvill he hold evil doers, S,-c. God will neither connive at their practices, nor help to raise them when they fall : when once their earthly prosperity fails, they have nothing whatever to fall back upon, for God, who is the only refuge at such times, -will not help them, and therefore their destruction is utter. 21. TifL Sfc. — "12? {ignad). This word has sorely tried expositors — some labouring to prove that it may mean even, others that it may mean whilst. The auth. vers, correctly retains its ordinary signification. The difficulty, of not understand^]!; it in that sense, arises from not observing that this verse is connected,, lAij mediately with the first clause of the preceding verse, as, in the same way, the second clause is referred to in the 22d verse. The full meaning then (a meaning which is developed by that change of persons which is common in Hebrew, and also by a pregnant construction) is, — God tvill not cast away a perfect man {and I mean you if you are such), till he fill your mouth, Sfc. ; in other words, if you are a perfect man, God, so far from finally castiiig you atcay, will not leave off dealing with you (here is a pregnant construction), till he have given you cause for rejoicing. 22. This verse is an amplification of the second clause of v. 20. Clothed loith shame. Both on account of the prosperity of the righteous, and ^heir own disgrace. NOTES, JOB VIII. 22. 217 It is to be observed that Bildad, whilst he holds out these fair promises to Job, evidently considers that he is not really the perfect man to whom such promises are applicable. JOB IX. 2. Verily, S)-c. I fully admit the truth of all that you have advanced : you have informed me of no principle of which I was ignorant before. Bui Jiotv shall, S)-c. But, with all the truths that you have advanced on the subject of God's punishing the wicked and prospering the righteous, you have not yet informed me how any mortal man can be accounted righteous with God. 3. If he be incUned. If God should, of his own free will and pleasure, choose to enter into controversy with a man, the trial must needs be so awful, and the man's case so desperate, that all attempt at self-defence would be impossible. Job further implies that God, if he pleases, has an undoubted right to afflict, and thus to enter into controversy with any man; and if so, the insinuations of his friends that his afflictions were necessarily a proof of his being ungodly were utterly groundless. The pronouns in this verse are somewhat ambiguous, but the only admissible sense is obvious. 4. TVho hath persisted against him. With the bold and stubborn determination of arguing his perfectness before God, or of arraigning the justice of God's dealings with him. "What man has ever succeeded, or come otF unhurt from any such controversy as this ? ^I? (lev), heart, or ^^!^ {gnoreph\ nech, may be supplied after rrtt?J7rT {hikshah^. 5. Job proceeds to illustrate God's wisdom and power, by referring to various acts in creation and providence ; and thus shows how impossible it is to suppose that any mortal can cope with God. lie removeth, S^c. This might be rendered, — Me removeth mountains and they know [if] not, [J«] that he hath overturned them in his tvrath. In this case the expression ther/ know it not is equivalent to suddenly. Com- pare Ps. XXXV. 8 (both the text and the marginal reading). 6. The dry land, lit., earth, but used here, evidently as in Gen. i. 10, i.e., earth or dry land, as contradistinguished from seas. The pillars thereof. Perhaps the granitic and other primary bases of the earth's crust. The great disruption described in this and the previous verse may very well apply to the deluge, — an event of then comparatively recent occurrence, — when the fountains of the great deep were broken up. By pillars, as here used, we must not imagine the tall stately columns of Grecian temples, but the heavy and massive supports of early Egyptian architecture, and thus, the com- parison, between pillars and the masses of rock that hold up the earth's crust, appears more appropriate. 7. And it riseth not. The darkness is such, that, in appearance, it is as though the sun had not risen. During the torrents that fell, when the windows 218 . NOTES, JOB IX. 7. of heaven were opened, at the time of the deluge, neither sun nor stars could Lave appeared, and the earth must have been enveloped in thick darkness. Not improbably the allusion is to that great event. Job judged of God's power, especially when displayed, as it then was, in controversy with man, by that extra- ordinary manifestation of it. Or possibly, this verse may mean no more than that God is the author of night and day ; it is by His word that the sun does not make its appearance during the night season, and also it is His veil that hides the stars in the day-time. 8. Bowing the heavens, S)~c. So Ps. xviii. 10 (Heb. Bible). This verse may be descriptive of God's coming down with his stormy clouds, and directing and controlling the floods of the deluge ; or it may refer to any ordinary tempest. 9. Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades. Much has been written to prove that these constellations are severally represented by ^^ {gnash), ^''P? (chesil), and na"^3 (chimah), and so satisfactorily, that I shall not think it necessary to enter into the subject. A few further remarks will be found in the Illustrations. Making, ^c. This does not refer to God's original creation of these constella- tions, but to his causing their appearance in the heavens at certain periods. And the chambers of the south. The constellations of the southern hemisphere;, as those in the first clause are chiefly in the northern hemisphere. 10. This is the same sentiment that Eliphaz had advanced in chap, v., ver. 9, and almost in the same words, though Job's statement is more strongly put. 11. Job passes on, from his mention of God's doings in the natural world, to speak more particularly of his dealings with man. We have here a very decided and remarkable reference to the invisibility and incomprehensibilitg of the Deity. He passeth near me. Perhaps more literally, He passeth over against me, — i. e., He meets me in my way. 12. God is absolute. Job probably alludes to what had befallen his children, and to the loss of his property. 13. However proudly men may behave themselves, — however much they may stand up for their rights, and impugn the justice of God when He does what He will with his own, — however much they may venture to call in question his proceedings, and say to Him, " What doest thou ? " yet God will not on this account withdraw his anger ; on the contrary, Pie will not cease to inflict it, until all such abettors of pride are humbled beneath his uplifted hand. 14. Hoiv much less, Sfc. God being so mighty, and all his creation, whether heavens, or earth, or mountains, or seas, or man, being so completely at his disposal, how should I, insignificant creature that I am, dare to contend with Him respecting the right which He possesses to do with me as He pleases. A7id choose out my tvords, Sj-c. So as to plead my cause with the greatest possible effect. 15. I wotdd not answer. On the supposition of his summoning me, I would not venture to dispute with Him, or attempt to set up any plea of self-justifi- cation. My judge, or Him that judgeth me. "^^pii^X? {ineshopheti) is probably a Poel participle. NOTES, JOB IX. IG. 219 16. ThoiKjh I had cited him. Though it were I who summoned Him to answer for his conduct towards me. Answered. Obeyed my summons. That he would give ear to my voice. That He would pay any attention to my representations, in the opening of the case, or in the course of the proceedings. 17, 18. God deals with me, so evidently according to his own sovereign will and pleasure, that I cannot think that He would consent to give up that sovereignty, by explaining to me, in consequence of representations on my part, the reasons of his dealings with me. Without cause. Either without any definite object iti view, or without sufficient ground of guiltiness 07i my part. 19. Lo, he is strong. npH V"*^^ [ammits hinneh) can scarcely be taken, as many have taken it, for V"'^'!? '"'?!'? {Idnneh ammits') ; and Houbigant's conjecture, that ^""^n (Jioii) is probably the correct reading rather than ''^^'r'J^ (Jiinneh ), is not sufficiently supported, even by similarity of letters, to warrant its entertainment. I concur in the very ingenious conjecture of SchnuiTer, adopted by Dathe, and cited by Rosenmuller, that the ^ in the following word D^l (tveim) belongs to the preceding HSn (^hinneh). This would give 'inan (^hinnehou) as the reading (a word which occurs in Jer. xviii. 3), and would remove all difficulty. TVho loill make me the appointment ? Settle the place and time, &c., for the judicial proceeding. Who is to undertake to make the necessary arrangements for such a trial ? 20. Jf I plead not guilty, — lit., if I justify myself. But then the expression is to be understood here in a strictly forensic sense. My oxen mouth looidd condemn me. It would convict me of falsehood ; or, through my ignorance, I should so commit myself as to say something that would lead to my conviction. Would prove me perverse, — lit., would pervert me. 21. / blameless, S^c. If I should set up such a plea, it would argue much ignorance of my own heart ; I should be acting as if I had no conscience ; and I should, in effect, be disavowing my veiy life, which I cannot but acknowledge to have been imperfect. This verse is difficult, and I give the above sense doubt- fully. 22. Whether I plead guilty or not guilty is, as I have intimated, alike ; for the fact is, that, so far as outward cii'cumstances go in this woi*ld, God puts no difference in his dealings between those two different classes of characters. 23. If the scourge. (See the Illustrations.) At the trial, Sfc, — i. e., at those afflictions, and, perhaps, unrighteous acts on the part of their fellow-creatures, whereby the faith and patience of the innocent are sorely tried. Dathe's conjecture to read CSri?p (pethaim) instead of C^riS (pitheom) is not bad, as it would certainly give a good parallehsm. The translation of the verse would then be : — " If the scourge slay fools, Jle laughs at the trial of the innocent." That is, whilst God utterly destroys sinners, at the same time He seems to take 220 NOTES, JOB IX. 23. pleasure in inflicting sorrows upon the good, though, those sorrows are in the shape of trials, and are not, as in the former case, of a penal character. I prefer, however, the received text and the translation I have given ; in which case the meaning is : — If that scourge (the emblem of executive power), which is in the hand of kings by God's authority, should, as is frequently the case, be unjustly uplifted, and the innocent should suffer ; God, by his very permission of such injustice, certainly seems to connive with those who are allowed to practise it with impunity, and even seems to join with them in their mockery of justice. 24. A case in point, and of frequent occurrence : — By God's overruling provi- dence, some country happens to be under the sway of a bad man, and the conse- quence is, that all justice is perverted, the judges being hoodwinked. Who ivill contradict me? The sense is incomplete unless some such word as ^35"^tp^ {jjachziveni) be supplied after ^^i^ (Jioii) ; and so, the sentence in full will be, just as it is given in xxiv. 25, ''35"^T?1 "^^ "^^^ ^ *• D^l {weim lo apho mi yachziveni) ; and this may be intended as a retort upon the question of Eliphaz in iv. 7 : — Remember, I pray thee, who that was innocent ever perished? or where have the upright been effaced? Yes, says Job, this is of common occurrence. God has only to make a wicked man king, and injustice becomes the order of the day ; the innocent do perish, and the upright are effaced ; and this, too, by God's providence. And this, neither Eliphaz nor any other person can deny. 25. As for my days, S)-c. And then, if I look at my own experience, I find it bears me out in the position I have just laid down, and which I have established by a case in point — that the innocent do suffer as well as the guilty. Happiness, — lit., good. 26. In this and the preceding verse Job mentions what travelled the most expeditiously, on land, on water, and through the air. Like, — lit., ivith, — i.e., along with; and so, as fast as. ^5^ {aveli). Eosenmiiller adopts the reading HS'^S (cdvh), which is found in many MSS. He punctuates it '^^'"^ (^aivah), hostility, and so, translates, hostile ships. I prefer, however, to retain the received text, and to take it in the same sense as the Arabic nS2M [avah), a reed. This agrees well with the ^^5"*?? (chelei gome), vessels of bulrushes, in Isa. xviii. 2, and (as Lee observes) those carried in them are there called O^'pf^ D'^pSpQ (inalachim kallim), swift messengers. (Seethe Illustrations.) Jerome's translation of the present passage, naves poma portantes, i.e., fruit-ships, and the Chaldee, cum navibus onustis fructibus delicatis, as if from the root 2?^ {civav), is too far-fetched ; and still worse, is the translation of some, skips of desire, meaning ships hastening, as it were, through desire, to reach port. 27. My jjlaint, — i. e., my lamentation, or my doleful sti'ain. 3Iy elegy would, perhaps, as well as any other word, express the original. The meaning of this and the two following verses appears to be : — If I have recourse to the expedient of endeavouring to forget my sorrows, and of persuading myself to take a more cheerful view of my case, I feel at once that I cannot do so,, fur the thought, that God will not clear me of the charge of guilt, rushes NOTES, JOB IX. 27. 221 upon me, and fills me with alarm ; and so, this expedient is as unsuccessful, as the others I have mentioned before. My sad looks. D"'33 {panim) has this meaning in 1 Sam. i. 18. Brighten up. This exactly corresponds with the original. 28. I knoio, — i.e., feel certain. The conviction again and again comes upon me that God will deal with me as guilty, and thus excites anew my worst fears. 29. That. Supply ""S {chi) from the preceding clause, and this removes all difficulty. r shall be held guilt?/, S)-c., — i.e., accounted so by God in any case, and dealt with by him as such. Why, then, should I be at any pains to clear myself? Why attempt what is impossible ? '60. It is generally supposed, I know not how far correctly, that snow has greater detergent properties than ordinary water. I prefer to retain the Kethib 1S33 ijbemo) rather than adopt the Keri "^^2 (bemi), and have so translated it. With soap. (See the Illustrations.) 31. Although I should be at great pains to make myself appear innocent, yet you would at once make me appear guilty. Job by no means acknowledges his guilt — not, at least, to the extent of considering that he deserved the sufferings that had been inflicted upon him. His argument is simply, that it is useless, for even a good man (as he evidently considers himself to have been), to contend with God on the subject of his innocence, for such are God's power and holiness, that, if He pleases to be extreme in marking all that is done amiss — if He chooses to enter into exact judgment, He can at once make the best of men appear most deeply guilty. Mine own clothes, S)-c., SfC. A strong poetical figure. My very clothes would shrink with abhorrence from coming in contact with a body so polluted. 32. He is not, as I, a man, S)-c. To enter into controversy with God would be sheer folly, for we are not on terms of equality. I might be able to vindicate myself and prove my entire innocence before a fellow-man, but not before Him who is a being of altogether another nature than my own, — who cannot enter into the infirmities of my nature, — who is too pure to behold the slightest iniquity without taking cognizance of it, — whose knowledge is such, that He is acquainted with the sin that may be in my inmost thoughts, and whose power is such, that He does what He wills. That I should answer him. That I, as defendant, should answer to the charges which He, as plaintiff, might proffer against me. (See the Illustrations.) That we should come together, S^c. That we should refer, as plaintiff and defendant, to a judicial decision. 33. No arbitrator. No judge to arbitrate. He would lay his hands, Sfc. If there were an arbitrator, he would, by liis authority, enforce fair play on both sides, and give an impartial verdict. I call the reader's attention to the very many MSS. which read ^ instead of ^7, — i.e., O that there were an arbitrator between us! 34. He would take his rod, S^-c. Such an arbitrator, if there were one to act between God and myself, would not, as God is now doing, lay punishment upon me before my case is tried. The rod, having been an instrument of castigation in 222 NOTES, JOB IX. 34. frequent use in very early ages, may have been regarded as the symbol of executive justice. (See the Illustrations.) And the fear of him, Sfc. Under such circumstances, I should be relieved from all those fears which now so operate upon me as to make me afraid of undertaking my own cause. 35. / ivould speak, S)'C. In such a case — that is, supposing that there were some impartial judge to arbitrate between God and myself, — I would make my depo- sitions without fear, feeling assured that no merely arbitrary power would be exercised against me. The language of Job in these last few verses is highly unbecoming. Extreme suffering is the only excuse (if excuse at all is to be admitted) for such rash and intemperate questioning of God's justice. For I am not so tvith myself. Perhaps this literal translation may mean, — I am not naturally timid ; I am not so with myself, and should not be so in the presence of an arbitrator. In the first instance, I had translated this clause, But in this state I have no self-possession ; or, as we should say, Under present circumstances I do not feel at home ivith myself I am, however, doubtful whether the Hebrew phraseology will admit of this latter meaning. JOB X. 1. My plaint, or plaintive ode, and which Job commences in the next verse, and continues to the end of the chapter. 2. Condemn me not — without, at least, first stating specifically what are the charges against me, and giving me an opportunity of replying to them. 3. Is it good to thee, Sfc. ? Job is unwilling to suppose the possibility that God is afflicting him in mere wanton pleasure, but he sees no alternative by which he can avoid entertaining the supposition ; for he cannot, for a moment, bring himself to think that God is contending with him because he is a sinful man. Job's position was certainly one of extreme difficulty, and every allowance must be made for it, before we judge him. He was not conscious of any moral obliquity, on account of which it was necessary that he should be dealt with so severely, and it did not enter into his mind that his affliction might be sent as a trial of his faith and patience. The icork. ?"'?'! {yegiagn), a work that has required some considerable amount of labour. 4. 5. Can it be that you are subject to any of the imperfections which belong to human nature, such as, defect of knowledge, and limited duration of life ? The reason of the question put in ver. 5 is given in the lattec clause of ver. 7. 6. Mahest inquisition, S^c. As men do, by means of torture, in order to extort from me some confession of crime. Cannot you judge correctly of my case without having recourse to such cruel expedients ? 7. Knowing as thou dost, — lit., upon thy knowledge ; — that is, it being upon thy knowledge, or, notwithstanding that thou knoivest. Inasmuch as you are omni- scient, (for it is not true that you see as man seeth,) you must already be aware of the general uprightness and sincerity of my conduct. And since further, as your existence is not limited like that of man (v. 5), and I cannot survive NOTES, JOB X. 7. 223 you, and so, cannot escape from your power ; why should I be so narrowly watched, like a presumed criminal who might possibly effect his escape, from an earthly judge, before the day of his trial, or might altogether get off, by the previous death of his accusers ? 8. And yet — thou destroyest me ! It is most mysterious to me that you should now be destroying, by a simultaneous combination of attacks, a work which you have so curiously and wonderfully wrought. 9. Madest me as the clay, — i.e., you formed me as the clay is foi'med in the hand of the potter, Tbe connexion of this verse with its context has been found most difficult. I consider that the first clause forms a parallelism with the first clause of the preceding verse, and that the latter clauses of both verses are also parallel ; and that Job's meaning is — It appears to me as mysterious, that you should destroy me, the work of your hands, as if a potter, after elaborating some beautiful work out of clay, should break it up and again reduce it to its original shapelessness. Job evidently did not sufficiently recognize the justice of God in making man's nature accountable for original sin. 10. 11. Job very properly looks beyond what are called natural causes, and ascribes his conception and gradual formation in the womb immediately to God. 12. He speaks here of God's goodness in first giving him life, and then, in having preserved it by his ever-watchful Pi-ovidence. This very proper acknow- ledgment on the part of Job is somewhat contradicted by what he says in v. 18. Job means, in fact, that it was a questionable sort of goodness, that is, that he could not reconcile what appeared to be loving-kindness on the part of God towards him, with God's after treatment of him. 13. Notwithstanding all the loving-kindness and care you have bestowed upon me, I feel certain that you all along intended, in your own mind, to bring these calamities upon me. Job intimates that God's conduct towards him, in this respect, was very mysterious. God had originally, with much wisdom, made him, and had assiduously kept him in being ; and yet, strange to say, in the very acts of this continued course of, so to speak, painstaking goodness, God must have always had it in his mind to afflict him. The word evils is not expressed in the original, but there is, I think, no doubt that it is to be understood. Job, by these things, alludes to the manifold sufferings by which God was destroying him on every side — v, 8. 14. 15. Innocent, — lit., righteous, but in a forensic sense, and evidently opposed to guilty in the previous verse. Being full of shame, S^c. I take ^?tf' (sevagn), and HS"] (reeh), as infinitives, and to be dealt with as gerunds in this place, and so the literal translation would be, — In being full of shame, and in seeing my misery. The Hebrews often employ the verb to see to express any other faculties of perception, whether of mind or body ; such as, hearing, tasting, feeling (as here), and the like. The meaning of these two verses appears to be this. God having long ago decreed (verse 13) to afflict me, I have no possible chance of escape ; any sin I may have committed has been sedulously observed, and will not be passed by ; and then, if I be pronounced guilty, I know that a dreadful penalty is inevitable. At the same time, however innocent I may be, yet I cannot look as if I were so ; for, the mere idea that I am already punisheil, and have already incurred reproach 224 NOTES, JOB X. 14, 15. through my affliction, has brow -beaten me, and makes me feel and look as though I were guilty and already condemned. 16. If it did hold itself up, — i.e., my head. If I did boldly maintain my inno- cence— even that would not avail me ; you would still pursue me like a lion and make a prey of me, and there would be no escape from your power. Wouldest turn again, and act wondrously, 8^-c, You would afflict me with new and marvellous sufferings. 17. If I did stand up in my own defence, so determined are you to carry out your designs (verse 13) against me, tliat you would only be the more exasperated, and would bring upon me new sorrows, and new pains, and new troubles of every kind, which would be like so many witnesses against me to make me appear guilty ; and so overwhelming and continued would they be, that there would be no standing against them. To confront me, — lit., before me, or, in my presence. • A host of reinforcements, lit., chayiges, or renewals and a host. Most translators have misunderstood this verse, and its elegant connexion with the preceding context, by rendering its verbs in the present tense, and thus destroying its manifestly conditional sense. 18. Why then, S^^c. Seeing you are so determined to carry your point against me, and accomplish your long- cherished designs, how is it, under such circum- stances, that you gave me being at all ? Why should I have been born to misery which I could not, by any possibility, have avoided ; and the more so, as I might just as easily have died in the womb, as have come out of it ? In this, and the following verse, Job is supposing a possible case, and its very possibility aggra- vates, in his view, the wrong which God had done him, in giving him, or at least in prolonging, his existence. 19. Job here ends that portion of his song of complaint which is addressed directly to God, and which he had begun in verse 2. 20. I have no hesitation here, notwithstanding the authority of many MSS., in preferring the written text vlH"' (ikhdl) {i.e., '''UT!. yekhedal) to the Masorite reading ''"JTHI {xoahhedal), and so, of course, ri"^^J (j/ashith) to ^'^^^. {iveshith). Let him leave me alone, — as in vii. 16. Let him put off from me, — i.e., let him take off what he has laid upon me. Job presses this, as before, on the ground that he has not much longer to live. 21. To a land of darkness, S^c. This of course is to be connected with the first, and not with tha second sentence of the previous clause. 22. Gloom, — nriSl? {gnephathah) is that kind of darkness which is produced by a covering intercepting and obscuring light. Thick-darkness itself I supply the pronoun in order to give the force of 1^3 (chemo). Without intermissio7i, or more lit., ^vithout successions. "I7.P {seder) means series, order, succession, and the like. Job's meaning appears to be, that in that dark land there is no vicissitude of day and night ; it is one unbroken, uninter- rupted night there. And it skineth, 8)'c., — i.e., the land shineth. This is a sequence and explanation of the previous clause ; in that land, there is no grateful succession of day and night, for the very daylight there is utter darkness. NOTES, JOB XI. 1. 225 JOB XL 1. Zophar the Naamathite, See note on ii, 1 1. 2. Shall not the multitude, ^c. Job perhaps thinks that because he has spoken at great length, he has silenced us, but he is much mistaken ; he must and shall be answered. A great talker, — lit., a man of lips. And is a great talker to he justified? Are we to take it for granted that long speeches, loud professions, and manifold assertions, are proofs that a man is in the right ? and are we to give countenance to this idea by being silent ? 3. There is no necessity for carrying on the interrogation fi'om the previous verse, and indeed much of the force and beauty of the passage is lost by doing so. Thy fictions, — '^"'"?.? {baddeicha); this word is usually referred to the root "flB (budad) in the sense of separation; hence, separation from truth, i.e., lies. If, how- ever, I referred it to this root, I should consider both from that root and the context here, that irrelevant talking was its meaning, but this sense would not be suitable to other passages in which the word ""occurs. Gesenius derives it from "^13 (hadad) i.q., ^'^'^ {bata), to babble, &c. ; it seems to me, however, more natural, to take it from "ll^ (badad), i.q., W^2 {bada), to form, to fashion like a potter, and then to devise, to feign ; in this case our word figment or fiction will exactly •correspond with the original. Lies is too strong an expression. Zophar charges Job with giving utterance to his own fancies and speculations, and which, in point of fact, were misrepresentations of the truth. 4. Thoit art to say I — and, forsooth, you are to say, &c., &c., without fear of contradiction. My doctrine, — Hj"??. (lekakh) is, something which is received and held and taught as a truth. 5. 0 that God had indeed spoken, — as you have challenged him to do. (x. 2.) 6. This verse is one of great difficulty. The translation I offer is literal. If we read VII (tvedeagji) for "P"]") (loedagn), a conjecture, which, besides furnishing a better sense, gives a more correct division of the clauses, and does away with what would be, in this place, the awkward necessity of taking an imperative in a future sense. rr^P^/n [toushiyah) from ^."l {yesh), and so, anything that is real, substantial, and matter of fact ; reality, as opposed to ideality. ?7. — (deagn). This word occurs again in this book — xxxii. 6, 10, 17, and xxxvi. 3. It means knowledge tchich is purely notio7ial, and so, ideal, mere opinion. It is here contrasted with reality. n^^ (iashsheh) from HtC'S («as/"1S {oiilam) but in the previous clause gives this force to V?n.^ {ekhepats). Job declines to have any further discussion with his friends upon the subject on which they had been, up to this time, arguing, for reasons which he gives in the next verse, namely, that they did no more than set off, what was false, to the best advantage. He prefers to refer the solution of the question to God himself, and in future to direct his inquiries to him. This Job does, after some preliminary obsA-vations addressed to his friends, from v. 20 to the end of his discourse. 4. Glossers. — I cannot see upon what authority the ideas of serving together, then oi fabricating, and then o^ forging, should have been given to vD^ (taphal). NOTES, JOB xm. 4,' 233 The Chaldee ^?^ (tephal) is to adhere, (in the Pihel, metaphorically, to stick to a tiling, i.e., to be assiduous), to anoint, to plaister over, to besmear, hence in Syriac to soil ; and in the Rabbinic use of the word we have the meaning of glazing earthenware jars, and other like things. Ye are glossers of falsehood, — you give a colouring to, and set off, what is really false to the best advantage. This suits the similar passage in Ps. cxix. 69. Such men are of course the most dangerous to deal with. Physicians of a non-entity, — i.e., the principle that you are attempting to doctor up with all the skill you can command, is after all a mere nothing — a thing that has no real existence. The word physician is from WQ"i {rapha\ to seiv up, to mend, and there may be allusion to this, here. Job's friends were patching up what was worthless. 5. So Proverbs xvii. 28. 6. This is no contradiction to what he had said in v. 3 ; for he does not address his friends on the subject upon which the discussion had hitherto principally turned, but merely assigns a reason why he will not attend again to their reasonings. 7. How can you justify your conduct when, under the pretence of vindicating God's dealings, you are dishonest enough (having no sufficient grounds except your own malevolence and suspiciousness to do so) to charge me with impiety ? Can you suppose that God desires such wicked artifices to be resorted to, in order to exculpate him from all appearance of injustice ? 8. Will ye shoiv him personal favor? — lit.. Will ye accept his person? as unrighteous judges who respect not so much the justice of the cause, as the in- fluence, &c., of the person. It is great hypocrisy when under the semblance of doing God right, we wrong our fellow-men ; Isa. Ixvi. 5, and John xvi. 2. fVill ye plead for God ? Does he stand in need of such advocates as you are ? It is a duty incumbent upon us to plead for God with those who are ignorant of him, or who affect to despise him, or who question his goodness ; but care must be taken that we do this in a way that becomes his gi-eatness and his righte- ousness ; not in a patronising spirit, and as though we were doing him great service, in attempting to vindicate his honour when assailed, and certainly not in a spirit of uncharitableness against those with whom we argue on his behalf. 9. Would it be to your advantage, if that heart-searching God, whom you cannot deceive, should expose the motives by which you are actuated, in con- demning me, under the pretence of vindicating his dealings ? 10. That God who hates and condemns all partiality in judgment cannot but hate and condemn it, even when ostensibly exercised in his favor. Covertly, — outwardly professing to judge foirly of the controversy between me and God; but biassed in your judgment by secret feelings of hostility towards me, and a secret wish to make me appear guilty, and that, in spite of your own convictions (which you are unjust enough not to acknowledge) that I am not so. 11. Ought you not to be deterred from such unscrupulous conduct by a sense of the awful majesty of God ? • 12. Your heaps of proverbial sayings are mere rubbish, — no better than the ashes of the men who long ago uttered them, no better than the mounds of clay 234 NOTES, JOB XIII. 13-. that mark tlieir burial places. This appears to me the meaning of this verse, which has occasioned much perplexity, and has been very variously rendered. The Ai-abs of old, like the present Arabs, apparently prided themselves in being able to quote abundant proverbs. So also the Spaniards, who no doubt had it from the Arabs : thus we find Sancho Panza bringing them out by dozens, on all occasions, to the great annoyance of his master Don Quixote. 13. I repeat my determination (v. 3 — 5), I will not enter into further argument with you upon the subject of our discussions — but will address myself to God — be the consequences what they may. Be silent [and hold off"] from me, — a pregnant construction ; supply '^ ''7'^! (loekhidelou) or some such word. 14. Why should I (do you suppose) act so cruelly towards my own self, as to run any risks, and expose myself to unnecessary danger ; if it be not from the confidence I feel of being able to justify myself before God as a sincere and honest man ? And put my own life in my hand, — the following passages sufficiently show that the meaning of this Hebrew phrase is, put myself in jeopardy, — Jud. xii. 3; I Sam. xix. 5 ; xxviii. 21 ; and Ps. cxix. 109. I am inclined to think that Job is here using some common proverbial expression. 15. Though he should slay me, I will not wait. — I have said that I will argue my case before God, and before him alone : be the consequences what they may (v. 13), I stand to this ; yea, though the consequence of my doing so should be, that I should provoke God to slay me outright, yet I am determined that I shall wait no longer in doing this. — This ex^^lanation exactly suits the context, and I see no reason whatever for departing from the original text ^^ (Jo) and for adopting the Masoretic reading "17 (lo). Defend my own ways before him. It is difficult to give concisely the full meaning of the original, — argue icith him that my ways are right, or put them in a right point of view that he may he convinced, &c., &c. 16. i^^n (Jiou) is here, that, not he; — so the Sept., Schultens, Rosenmiiller, Duthe, Lee, &c., &c. Ay ! and that ivill, ^c. And, moreover, this very fact of my determination to defend before him the principles and actions, &c., &c., of my life, is already an indication of my conscious uprightness and of my final triumph ; for in a general way, no ungodly person would venture upon such a step. 17. I mean what I say, in stating that it is my positive intention to argue my case with God, and therefore I wish you particularly to note that such is my intention. 18. / have opened the proceedings, — more lit., arrayed the trial, or drawn up every thing, as in battle array, and so, ready for the trial. I shall be Justified, — this does not mean, acquitted from charge of guilt, as though Job were a presumed criminal at the bar, but, my cause will be found to he a righteous one; Job appears here in the character of a litigant with God. 19. If we take ^^H"'?? (mi hou) as it stands in the text, the difficulties are in- superable. I gladly adopt Lee's conjecture that 1^^ (itten) ought to be understood, and the ellipsis thus supplied ^"^"}^ ^^^H ^ri*;'"^p (mi itten hou yariv). But I cannot agree with the view he takes of the latter clause of the verse. NOTES, JOB XIII. 19. 235 The meaning of the whole seems to be — Everything being now ready for the trial to proceed, and conscious of the justice of my cause (v. 18), I wish that God would accept my challenge, for it would now be death to me, having launched out thus far, not to go forward with the case. 20, 21. Only do not two things, ^c. The two things which are specified in the next verse. This is of course addressed to God. Job here wishes God to act towards him, as he (Job) had supposed that a fair arbitrator would act (see ix, 34, &c.). Then will I not hide myself, ^c, — as Adam, when conscious of guilt — Gen. iii. 8 — 10 ; or as a criminal who absconds that he may evade his trial. He now addresses himself to God, but, before proceeding with the case, he begs to make two provisoes, in order that he may be able to conduct it without any suspicion, on his part, of its being prejudged, or any fear of being brow-beaten by the terrible majesty of his opponent : he accox'dingly asks, first, for an entire cessation of his present sufferings ; • and secondly, that God's visible presence (which he seems all along to have expected, — an expectation which at length he appears to have realized — xxxviii. 1, and xlii. 5) might not be attended with any awful demonstrations of his Majesty. 22. He gives God the option of being either appellant or defendant. 23. Apparently forgetful of his offer in the former verse, he instantly assumes that he is the appellant and God the defendant, and opens the debate in most impassioned strains. This sudden outburst of Job's reminds one not a little of the " Quousque tandem, Catilina," of Cicero. How many, S)-c. Judging from the severity with which you have dealt with me, one would imagine that my sins must be multitudinous, but tell me what and how many they are, or inform me of even one of them. 24. Show me what is the ground of your evident displeasure, and of the hostility you evince towards me. 25. Job implies that God does so act in nature, and so also with him, but he cannot understand the reason of his doing so. Job does not question the fact, but the right of it. 26. Job again (see v. 23) apparently forgets himself, and regards God as plaintiff, himself as defendant. In the ancient Egyptian courts, the plaintiff always made his deposition of charges against the defendant in tvriting, and to some such deposition of charges on the part of God against Job reference may here be made. Or else the writing here alluded may have been the sentence of the Judge (see Ps. cxlix. 9, and Jer. xxii. 30). The Arabic ^SHD {chthav), a loriting, means also a judicial sentence. So Schultens, Rosenmuller, Dathe, &c., &c. 27. The clog — "^P (sa(/)— evidently some instrument which so bound the feet as to impede, but, as the next clause shows, not altogether hinder motion. I have not found anything in the way of illusti'ation of it. The feet of Joseph when a prisoner in Egypt were put into a ^5? (chevel), a fetter made of ''?."'.? (barzel) iron. See Ps. cv. 18. And guardest all my paths, — to prevent the possibility of my escape. Upon the nerves, &jc. This clause has occasioned much perplexity, arising 'from the supposition that the roots of the feet must necessarily mean the soles ; but it appears to me far more natural to understand by these roots, the 7ierves, which 236 NOTES, JOB XIII. 27. actually have the appearance of roots : the meaning of the whole thus becomes simple ; the clog when fastened upon the foot by degi'ees frets the skin, and then cuts into the nerves, causing of course intense pain. So we read of Joseph, " Whose feet they hurt with fetters," and the meaning of " his soul entered into the iron " may perhaps be, as it is given in the Prayer-book version, " the iron entered into his soul." Ps. cv. 18. God is here said to make these cuts, because the clog which actually makes them is of his fastening. Job may perhaps allude to some particular symptoms of his disease, such as great weight and intense pains in his legs, and which pre- vented his moving about except with great difficulty ; at all events, putting figurative language apart, the meaning in connexion with the previous verses is obviously this — not only do you bring grave charges against me, but you treat me as a criminal, who, you are determined, shall not escape. 28. And he, SfC. W'ln (^hou) is emphatic, he — the poor wretch just alluded to, whose feet are mangled with the clog into which they are inserted. Job of course means himself. He thus compares himself to some long-neglected prisoner, who, without any proof having been given of his guilt, is placed in con- finement, and who, instead of being brought to trial, is suffered to pine away and rot in misery. JOB XIV. 1. Of feio days, lit., short of days. 3. Thou openest thine eyes, — for the purpose of observing the least iniquity, in order to take judicial cognizance of it. And me, — who am this rotten thing — this moth-eaten garment — this child of feeble woman — this short-lived wretch — this flower soon cut down — this passing shadow. 4. Job here pleads the force of the law of fallen nature as an argument why God should deal less rigorously in judgment. 5. Is with thee. That it is in thy power to terminate them the moment the predestined period closes. 6. Look away. Cease to look upon him with the severity with which a task- master eyes the labourer at his work. TJiat he may pause. That he may have some cessation of toil. His pay-day. The day on which the hireling's term of engagement ends. In Job's case, and in that of toil-worn man in general, the day of death. Job here urges another argument, to persuade God to relax somewhat of his severity. Man has an appointed term, as in the case of an hireling ; let not God, then, be too exacting, but suffer him to have some little respite of his toils. 7. The tree. The tree has this hope, but man can have no such hope. I have no doubt the palm tree is here meant, called anciently otvi^ (phoenix) ; and from its powers of renewal, not improbably, the origin of the fable of the bird of that name. Z)oth exist — K?.'^ (yesh). It'will reneiv — I'^^D,!! (yakheliph). This word is so translated in Isa. xl. 31, and xli. 1. Job uses it again, as a noun, in v. 14, evidently with reference to the resurrection. NOTES, JOB XIV. 8. 237 8. Its stump. That which remains of it in the ground, supposing that it has been cut down. 9. Through the reek, or, exhalation, or, scent of ivater, — 0^^ {reyahh'). This word, perhaps, implies some degree of instinctive power in the tree to apprehend the nearness of water. Crop, The exact meaning of "l"^?)7 (katsir), and very appropriate, as applied to the fruit of the palm tree. (See the Illustrations.) Just as a neiv plant. I prefer taking 5?^3 (natagn) as a noun, rather than as a verb, as some do. 10. But man — "I??! (gewr), ue., man in his best estate, as we might say, the manly felloiv. ^7^ (adam) in the next clause is man in general. Is prostrate — ^^D,?. [yekhelash). This verb, it appears to me, is used here in striking contrast to T^^D,^ (yakheliph), it will renew, in v. 7. The tree (the palm tree for instance) has a certain innate vigour which enables it, when cut down, and to all appearance dead, to put forth foliage, wood, and fruit, and to live anew ; but man (take even the case of the "1??. (gever) the Jine manly felloio) has no such innate vigour. When once dead, there is no internal power in him whereby he can be resuscitated. Where is he ? He is gone, for ever, as far as this world and its present order of things is concerned. The argument implied from the 7th to the 10th verse appears to be this, — Since man cannot have the same hope, which there is for a tree, of reviving and living again in this world, when once dead, therefore he is an object of com- miseration ; and God, in his dealings with him, should take this melancholy fact into consideration. It is evident that the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, probably then current amongst the priests of Egypt, did not enter into Job's theology- — ^he appears rather to be refuting it. (See the Illustrations.) 11. An answer to the question in the previous verse, Man expireth, and where is he ? Such phenomena as lakes and rivers drying up and altogether disappearing have happened, and may continually occur in the ordinary course of nature ; they have gone, we know not whither ; so, man, when once he departs this life, alto- gether disappears from the earth, and so far as our natural reason or our natural senses can judge, we know not whither he is gone. A lake — D^ (yam), generally, a sea. But as the Hebrews called the smallest piece of water a sea, and as seas (properly so called) have never been known to dry up, we may correctly translate the word here by lake. 12. Shall not arise, so as to return to his former terrestrial condition. Till the heavens be no more, ^-c., Sfc. These words have no reference, either one way or the other, to the resurrection ; all that Job here intends is, that man when once dead can never again return to this earthly life. He expresses the same idea in vii. 7 — 10 ; x. 21 ; and xvi. 22. The phrase till the heavens be no more must be understood in the same sense as the expressions, ''As the days of heaven," "Shall endure as the sun before me," " Shall be established for ever as the moon," (Psalm Ixxxix. 29, 36, 37,) where the idea of duration is evidently in- tended. 238 NOTES, JOB XIV. 13. 13. Job again beseeclies God that he might die, a manifest proof, again, tliat he entertained no hope of restoration in this life. Secrete me. The word 72^ {tsaphan) is here very exactly applied to the dark and inaccessible recesses of ancient sepulchres. Wouldest appoint me a set time. Perhaps an allusion to the cycles fixed by the ancient corrupt teachers of religion, as the periods during which the departed soul underwent a variety of purgations previously to its returning to its original and celestial life. (See the Illustrations.) Job, in this verse, expresses his belief that, at some indefinite period or other, (it might be long after his death,) God's anger would pass away, and he should be restored to the Divine favor. Compai'e this passage with Isa. xxvi. 20, where "the chambers" spoken of have been interpreted, by some, as meaning the chambers of the grave. 14. If a man die shall he lice? This question has, naturally enough, been dis- cussed by man, in all ages, as one of vast importance to himself. It suddenly sug- gests itself to Job, whilst he is praying that God would hide him in the grave until the passing away of his anger. He puts it to himself in the form of an objection, but instantly answers it in a way that incontestably proves that he had at least a hope of immortality and life. Until my renovation come. It is not possible positively to determine whether Job is here expressing a hope of the resurrection of his body, or a hope of a change for the better at death. The word ^D'^yrj (^kheliphah) contains the dif- ferent, though consistent ideas of change, succession, and reneival. If Job is here referring to his death, then the translation should be, Until my recruiting come, i.e., until I obtain my discharge, by new recruits succeeding me, and this certainly corresponds well with ''^^^ {tsevai) my term of soldiership (see vii. 1), in the previous clause. If, however. Job is here speaking of his hope of the future resurrection of his body, then renovation will be the most proper rendering of nD'^vn (Jihelijihah) ; and to this I rather incline, as we have the same word as a verb, ^"'cn,- {yakheliph), a few verses before, obviously with the meaning of renewing ; and in the next verse, where Job expresses his belief that God will at some future day (whenever that may be) hanker after him, as the work of his hands, it seems to me more than probable that Job means, by. "the work of God's hands," his body rather than his spirit, or rather, both combined (see X. 8 — 12). Milton uses the word renovation with reference to the resurrection, — " To second life, Waked in the renovation of the just, Kesigns him up, with heaven and earth renewed." 15. This verse cannot be rendered in the imperative mood, as Rosenmiiller, Barnes, and others, have it, to get over the difiiculty of making this refer to some such future period as the resurrection. Thou shalt summon and I will anstcer thee. This must be understood, as xiii. 22, in a forensic sense ; and so, the meaning is, — After I have been ke23t for a certain period in the grave, during which time thine anger shall have been turned away (v. 13), then, because of the afi^ection thou bearest to me as the work of NOTES, JOB XIV. 15. 239 thine hands, thou wilt summon me to my trial, and I will gladly respond, knowing (see vers. 16, 17) that my sins will then have been obliterated by thy mercy. The work of thine hands. Job clearly means his body, about which he speaks so beautifully as being the work of God's hands in x, 8 — 12. \6. Although you now take exact and severe cognizance of all my deeds, yet, when the set time you shall have appointed for me (ver. 13) shall have arrived, when the time of my renovation (ver. 14) shall have come, and when you will summon me to judgment (ver. 15), then, it shall be found that you will not have so kept watch over my sin as to bring it forth to ray condemnation. From this and other passages it is clear that, whilst Job most pertinaciously persisted, in opposition to the insinuations of his friends, in asserting the general integrity of his life, and the fact that his affliction did not necessarily prove him ungodly, he, at the same time, was far from supposing that his conduct had been that of sinless perfection. 17. This verse has been entirely misunderstood through omitting to supply "*? {chi), though, from the previous verse, — a means by which the parallelism of the two verses is preserved. Though my transgression is now written upon documents which have been sealed up and put into a bag, ready to be brought out against me at judgment, yet I know that before that time comes you will have smeared over my iniquity (i.e., obliterated it from those documents upon which it has been written). Compare "''i"'-f? ^0^7 (khathttm hitsror), sealed up in a hag, with Hosea xiii. 12, " The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up ("'^"'^ (tsarour) put in a bag) ; his sin is hid." Thou wilt smear over: ^r^ (taphal), to cover over tcith plaister, or wax, or any kind o^ glaze ; also to besmear, daub, &c. See Note on xiii. 4. Perhaps our expression, to whitewash, would, in some sort, convey the sense intended. Compare this word with its cognate, '■?^ {taval), to dip, and then with the Arabic v)2I0 [tml), to colour, dye, &c. 18, 19. For otherwise, ^c. If man's hope be not such as I have represented it — a hope beyond the grave — a hope of immortality in another state of existence, then he has no hope at all; for his notions — if he has such — of returning again to this earth are utterly delusive, it being an unquestionable fact that Thou dost completely destroy him as far as this world is concerned. A mountain falling, S;c., .... the soil of the earth. These are geological truths. As the debris of a mass of rock that has fallen from a mountain decomposes and goes to waste ; and as a rock, however firm its hold may have been on the surrounding mass, does, from one cause and another, get dislodged, and can never re-occupy its former position ; or as waters have, by their continual action, worn away the hardest stones ; and as inundations do sweep away the alluvial deposits formed by the detritus of mountains, &c. ; so, man, so far as his hope respecting this world is coneei-ned, is brought to destruction ; — however mighty, however firmly seated, however determined his resistance, whatever the accumulation of his resources — it is impossible for him to hold out against the action of those various dispensations by which God, at length, and sometimes suddenly, brings him to nought. Umbreit notices the gradual series here, — mountains, rocks, stones, soil. The connexion of these verses with the preceding context has been generally 240 NOTES, JOB XIV. 18, 19. misunderstood. That connexion, of course, depends mainly upon the meaning of C751W1 (^weoulaiii) in ver. 18. As a noun, OblS {pidam) signifies a front; as a particle, it is strongly adversative, and ushers in some sentence, as it were, confronting, or opposite to, the former sentence ; hence, contrariwise or otherioise will correctly express its signification ; as though the speaker said, — You have looked at the question on one of its sides, now look at it on the opposite side. Thus it often means hut; and then, from its being thus put forward as a positive objection, it comes to signify certainly. Any of these meanings will be suitable here ; and therefore the true sense of the passage mainly rests upon the signification of the 1 (we). Now, as it appears to me that the whole context requires that the sentences which follow and depend upon this 1 (tee) should be causal, I have no hesitation in translating it for, which is one of its ordinary meanings ; and so, the connexion of the passage is this : — If you do not these things (mentioned in vers. 14 — 17), — if it be not true that man lives again, and that his sins are pardoned, &c., and that you receive him into another state, &c., &c., then there is no possible hope for man, for you certainly destroy him as far as this world is concerned. — I have dwelt upon this, for I think it of great importance, as showing the extent of a pious man's hope, in those days, respecting the future state, and also as exhibiting one of the strong arguments by which such a hope was supported, — because God certainly does not allow man to entertain hope as regards this world ; therefore the hope of a good man must necessarily be set on another state of existence. Will decay. This word — from the Latin de and cado to fall — well expresses ''?5 (naval). Compare its cognate, ^?3 {iiaphal), to fall. Will remove, — or get transferred. This is the ordinary and proper sense of POy {gnathak). Some, following the Septuagint, translate it, will wax old ; but as the idea of age, in this word, is always connected with permanency, durability, &c., the context will not admit of this sense here. Have worn away, — or rubbed away. Schultens, and after him Dathe, Rosenmiiller, Umbreit, Lee, &c., are agreed that the suffix in H'^O'^PP {sephikheyah) must be referred to D^^ {maim), according to an Arabic construction by no means unusual, by which a singular feminine suffix agrees with a plural masculine ; and that, for the same reason also, this same word is the nominative to ?112tt7ri {tishtoph). But, as regards the first of these propositions, I see no reason for going so far out of the way to account for an apparently awkward construction, when this feminine suffix may so naturally be referred to V!)^ (erets), and so, at the same time furnish a more suitable sense, — its own floodings, ^~c., i. e., the very floodings which the earth itself generates sweep away its own soil ; and so, the meaning may be, that, 'by God's appointment, nature herself contains the means of her own dissolution — furnishes the instruments of her own destruction ! So hast thou destroyed, S)-c. You have already destroyed man's hope of restora- tion to this life ; you prevent the possibility of his entertaining any such hope, by showing him, that, in nature, everything gets utterly destroyed by the lapse of time and by various fortuitous circumstances. 20. To the last thou overpowerest him. You are always showing yourself stronger than man in your perpetual contests with him, and you maintain this NOTES, JOB XIV. 20. 241 superiority over liim to the very end, when you dismiss him altogether from this scene of action. Thou changest his countenance. Causing the ravages of time and affliction to be marked by wrinkles on his face and grey hairs on his head, Sec, S:o. ; and then still more strongly at death. And sendest him away, — as it were into perpetual banishment. 21. So completely is man, when once dead, gone, that he has no longer any connexion whatever with this world ; whatever may be the condition of his family after his depai'ture, he is utterly ignorant of all that concerns them. 22. The only thing that he is conscious of is what concerns his then existing condition. His body is suffering dissolution in the grave, and his soul is mourning over the misery that has now come upon him. His hope had been of a worldly character, and it is now utterly and for ever destroyed. The feeling of pain which the body is capable of experiencing in life is here, by a highly poetical figure, attributed to the body in death, whilst it is being destroyed by worms and other agents of dissolution. Or Job may mean that, if there is no hope for man beyond this world, then indeed man's case is truly deplorable ; for as far as human cognizance by itself can go, all that we know about him, when he dies, is that he goes into the lonely tomb, where he is completely severed from all domestic ties; and where, for aught we know to the contraiy, he suffers with, and mourns over, his body whilst it is hastening to decay. I have given both these meanings as probable. I rather incline to the latter of them. JOB XV. A new round of disputation here commences, but, in it, no particularly new line of argument is taken by Job's opponents ; their language is more full of invective, and its application to him is more undisguised than before. 2. A wise man, cpn (Jchacham), equivalent to what we understand by a philosopher. You, Job, profess to be wise (xii. 2, 3 ; xiii. 2) ; but if you were so, would you have attempted your vindication with so much nonsense and to such little purpose as you have done ? The east wind. This wind is in its effects blasting (Gen. xli. 23), vehement (Ex. xiv. 21), destructive by its violence (Ps. xlviii. 7), nipping (Isa. xxvii. 8), and insufferably hot (Jonah iv. 8). Eliphaz insinuates that of like vehement and intolerable character were Job's words. 3. Arguing on. The infinitive absolute here conveys, I think, the idea of continuance. There is no profit. The parallelism is more complete by referring ^'^l^i^ (jjognil) to ^VP {inillim) rather than to D^C' [khacham). Supply ^ (be) before ^''rP (^millim) from the previous clause. Eliphaz explains in this verse what he means by windy knowledge, as in the next he shows in what way Job's sentiments might be compared to the destructive influence of the east wind. Verse. See the Note on chap. iv. 2. R 242 NOTES, JOB XV. 4. 4. Tilou, nriS? {attali), and therefore emphatic; thou, the very last person from whoai one could have expected to hear words so disparaging to re- ligion. The meaning of this verse appears to be : — Not only are your opinions un- profitable, but they are positively mischievous : their direct tendency is decidedly irreligious, for they are calculated to destroy in the minds of others all religious feeling, and to cut down to nothing all spirit of devotion. Eliphaz (iv. 6) had charged Job with being devoid of religious principle, but here he inveighs against him as talking in a strain that would make others irreligious also. He alludes probably to his desire to contend with God (xiii. 3, &c., 8fc.), to the assertions which he had made of his innocency, and especially to his statements respecting the equality of God's dealings with bad and good. (ix. 23 ; xii. 6.) If your position is true, that God makes no difference in his dealings between bad and good men, then good bye to all religion. nn'^ti? (^sUihali) means, amongst other things, meditation, prayer uttered from a sense of distress, and communing. I think that here, it is taken in a general sense, and means veiy much v/hat we understand by the word devotion iu its ordinary religious acceptation. 5. It is evident that your arguments are calculated to injure the religious principles of others, for, by them, you, in point of fact, give lessons of iniquity, and teach others to entertain notions as loose as your own; although, with much craftiness and address, you endeavour to cover your impieties by solemn pro- testations of innocence, by complaints of Divine injustice, and at the same time by the pretence of appealing to God for adjudication, &c. 6. Bear ivitness against thee n33^ (^gnanah), again in its forensic sense, — the ansioer made by the witnesses in refutation of the statements of the presumed criminal. You, Job, have stoutly denied the charges of impiety which we have brought against you ; but the words you have spoken are themselves so full of impiety that their very testimony is against you, and so, you are convicted, not so much by us, as out of your own mouth. 7. Compare this verse with Prov. viii. 23 — 26. 8. Are you a being of so superior an order as to enjoy the privilege of admis- sion into the secret counsels of God ? Shearing, — cutting it down, and restricting it to thyself. 9. We are not conversant luith it, — lit., it is not with us ; something like our expression, not being at home with a subject. Eliphaz challenges Job to make good his assumption of superior wisdom, by informing them, if he could, wherein his knowledge exceeded theirs. 11. Of these, — i.e., of these men who are gi-eater in days than thy father. I prefer the supposition that 7M [el) is here put for n^'W (elleh), these, than that it should be here translated God. ^VP {_megnai) then becomes properly contrasted with "I''?? (chabbir) in the former verse, and the general sense is decidedly better and more consistent. "We have instances of this substitution of ^W (el) for nbs (^elleh) in Gen. xix. 8, 25 ; xxvi. 3, 4 ; Lev. xviii. 27 ; Deut. iv. 42 ; vii. 22 ; xix. 11 ; and also in 1 Chron. xx. 8. It is true that these instances are limited, with only one exception, to the Pentateuch ; but be it remembered, that NOTES, JOB XV. 11, 243 there is strong evidence for the supposition that the Book of Job is of about the same date as the earlier portion of the Pentateuch. EHphaz evidently reflects here upon what Job had said in xiii. 4, In gentleness, t^wb (^laat), from the root ti^S (attat), not from ti^lfe (lout). And a ivord with thee in gentleness. Undei'stand, Is this also too small for thee ? 12. How thine heart, 8fC. To how extraordinary an extent you suffer yourself to be transported by mei'e passion. Thine eyes winh. As a man is apt to do when he is saying anything which, he conceives, proves him to be knowing. Job may possibly have done this in the course of his remarks ; and if so, of course to the great annoyance of his opponents. The word Qt"^ [razam) does not occur elsewhere in the Bible, but, without much doubt, it is the same, by transposition, as the Arabic ^S3"i (rmz), to wiiik with the eyebrows. ?'?'?"! (irmezoun) is found in some copies. 13. Hast brought forth ^se. Supply from the former clause, against God. Verse. (See the Note < h. iv. 2.) 14. 15. Eliphaz agai' irs to the oracle which he had before cited in iv. 17, 18. The heavens, i.e., probably, the heavenly powers, being in apposition with holy ones in the previous clause. I am not sure, however, that the Keri is here to be followed in its reading of Vtt?l(73 (bikdoshaiw). The text l£i?lp3 (bkdshiv) appears to me preferable ; the rendering would in that case be, i?i his holy jjlace, instead of in his holy ones, and this would form a more perfect parallelism with the heavens in the next clause ; in either case, however, the inhabitants, rather than the place itself, are intended. 16. IIoio much less, i.e., how much less clean. If that which is most clean to our thinking is impure before God, how impure is that which we know to be filthy ! Filthy — ^7.J?,5 (tieelakh). In the Arabic, we have for a meaning of this word, anything that has turned sour (as milk). If this be the primary meaning of the word, it suggests the idea, not only of man's corruption, but of his departure from original righteousness. 17. Eliphaz, having thus far inveighed against what he assumes to be the non- sense and mischievous tendency, and arrogance and impiety, and self-righteousness of Job's discourses, now proceeds to establish his former position, — that they are the wicked, and not the righteous, who are visited by signal judgments (iv. 7 — 11). He supports this view, by stating his own experience, and again, by reference to the recorded opinion of past ages. 18. Have not hcpt bach, i.e., on the contrary, have widely published, as know- ledge of importance. The word kept back may refer to the practice of idolatrous priests and teachers, who were looked up to as the Q'^P^CT {lihcchamini), but who withheld, much of what they knew, from the public, and revealed it only to the initiated. 19. The land. Perhaps that part of Arabia in which the Joktanites originally settled. (See Schultens, Dathe, and Forster's "Arabia.") It was probably somewhere amongst these that the ^""P^ri {khechamim), afterwards called the Magi, became celebrated. a 2 244 NOTES, JOB XV. 19. In the midst of w/io?n no stranger passed, — and therefore, as Eliphaz would infer, the religious views of these wise men were not contaminated by any foreign intercourse. As the immediate descendants of Shem, their fathers had received the pure ti-uth, untainted by any admixture of error, and had transmitted it in that same uncorrupted state to their descendants. 20. From this verse to the end of the chapter, Eliphaz cites some fragment of revealed truth, handed down from the more ancient fathers. The statements it contains are forcible, sublime, and in themselves just, but the application of them to Job by Eliphaz is of course inadmissible. Is Ids own tormentor. I cannot but think that the Hithpolel here must have a reflexive sense ; so Castell. The next verse explains that the torments he suffers, and which are the consequences of his wickedness, consist in the endurance of constant fears, on account of the peril of his life, in which he knows that he is placed. From the tyrant is hidden, d'c. He is constantly exposed to danger, and so is kept in a state of perpetual alarm, or, whilst he knows not when his end is to be, he is almost momentarily expecting to lose his life, by some hidden snare, or by the hand of an assassin. All this is enlarged upon in the following verses. 21. A fearful voice, lit., a voice of fears. I think that the sense requires the words which I have supplied in this verse, and the Hebrew readily admits of their being so supplied ; thus, — even in time of peace, the tyrant is kept in a state of constant alarm ; every sound he hears is, so to speak, a voice that tells him, whether it be really so or not, that he is about to be attacked. 22. ^2^ (tsaphou), evidently for "^^3^ (tsaphoui), which is the reading in many MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi. Whether in a season of peace, DT -'tt? (shalom), or in adversity, "JJ^TI {khoshecK), such an one always dreads evil. However, literal darkness may be intended here. That he is watched for the sword, i.e., watched for the purpose of being despatched by the sword. 23. Anyiohere — n*W {ciiyeh), lit., where ? but the answer implied is, wherever he can. Some prefer to read H^W {aiyah), in which case the meaning of the clause would be, He luandereth about to become food for the vulture ; so the Septuagint but none of the other ancient versions. 24. "i? {tsar\ and n)'/^!5p {inetsoukah), mean also siege and pressure, and are evidently used here in a military sense ; those evils besiege, and so closely invest the wretch, that he cannot possibly escape. For the rout. We know nothing about the word "1*n"^3 (chidoi-). I have, how- ever, followed most other commentators in supposing that it may be traced to the Arabic "'"T^ {chdr), turbid, tumultuous, Sfc, and so, may mean military tumult. 25. Was playing the hero, i.e., he was engaged in doing so, at the very time, when the above-mentioned calamities came upon him. "^^^O"! {ifhgabber), he was mahing himself a ~i"i22 {gihbor), a hero. 26. In the attitude of an armed warrior rushing to the fight. We have here an amplification of the previous verse. 27. Jiy fatness, and collops of fat, I think may be understood, in a metaphorical sense, the tyrant's wealth, and whatever else tended to his prosperity; and by his covering his face and his loins with these, we may understand his trusting in NOTES, JOB XV. 27. 245 tbem, as in pieces of armour, whilst he defied God ; they were, as it were, his helmet and his girdle. Allusion may also be intended to the luxurious and sensual life of such a person. 28. This verse does not speak of his crimes (as some have thought), but of the punishment of his crimes ; it does not mean that, by his tyrannies, he has reduced cities to the condition here described, but that he is condemned, as an exile from his land, to end his days in such places. 29, Db3p {ininlam) is another word of which we know nothing, and about which (as it stands) we cannot even conjecture satisfactorily. The ancient versions evidently either read, or conjectured the reading of, some other word — thus the Sept. translate it, their shadow, as though it were ^^r {(siUarn). The Syriac and Arabic have it, their toords, i.e., ^Dbp (inillam). And the Chaldee renders it, of theirs, i.e., CH/ 1'^ {inin laheni). One MS. has 1^7?^ {michlam), from n^3^ (^michleh), i.q , f^^PP (michia) a fold. So the rendering, in that case, would be, Neither shall the fold of such extend upon the earth, which gives a sense sufficiently good. The objection to the ordinary practice of refei-ring nbaa (jninlam) to a supposed root nv3 (jialah), which is conjectured to be equivalent to the Arabic ^13 (^noul), to give larf/elt/, Sj-c, or to ^'^2 {?iil) to obtain one's wishes, is, that in the Phoenicio-Shemitic languages (so Gesenius) there exists no root beginning with the letters ^3 (nl), and which in Arabic are incom- patible. As it is clear that^hve are left here solely to conjecture, I venture to suppose that there may be a transposition here (which is by no means unusual) of the two first letters of the word ; this, instead of ^^^^ (minlam), would give us ^^P? (nimhon), or, without the suffix, 7^3 (jiemel), which, from the root ^^3 (namal), to cut, would signify a, cutting, and as applied to a tree, would be understood just in the sense, I presume, in which we use it. The translation will then be, Neither shall the cutting (or offset^ of such extend in the earth. Jerome, curiously enough, seems to have had the idea that some such sense as this was required here, for he translates the passage, nee mittet in terrain radicem suam, neither shall he send his root info the earth ; and Rosenmiiller, who, although he takes ^^^P (minlarn) from the supposed root nvD (^nalah), in the sense of perfection or accomplishment, yet remarks on "^tS^. (i.tteli), " extendet se, ab arbore ductd metaphord, radices suas in terram latins diffundente, cui et max versu seq. comparabilur, et supra viii. 16, a Bildado cotnparatus est impius. I conceive it possible then, that the author, whom Eliphaz cites, may here be alluding to a tree (probably the palm-tree, the tree of the East, and to which the words "^^Vv {yegneshar) and "i^'^H (Jiheylo) in the preceding clause may very well apply, and might easily be so understood by an Oriental, as suggestive of straight- ness and of abundance or strength), and that the meaning of the speaker is, that the wicked man, unlike the palm-tree, shall not be flourishing either in growth or in produce ; neither shall his vigour be such as to render him abiding, nor shall the offsets {i.e., progeny) of such persons ever take root and spread themselves over the earth. (See notes and illustrations on xiv. 7, &c.) 30. Out oj darhness. The next clause, and indeed, as I think, the previous verse, show that the wicked man is here compared to a tree — a tree doomed to destruction, — and that, by the hand, not of man, but of God himself; and so, by darkness, we may here understand the darkness of the tempest which is about to 246 NOTES, JOB XV. 30. destroy it. The description in tlie whole verse is very graphic : the black storm envelopes the ill-fated tree, and there is no escape for it. It is then reduced to a mere charred stump by the lightning's stroke, and finally is removed by the violence of the blast that carries everything before it. — A dreadful picture of an impious man's end, and which Eliphaz very unjustly intends should apply to Job. Whatever the prosperity, &c., of such an one may have been. Divine wrath at length overtakes him ; impenetrable gloom thickens round him ; he is awfully stricken by successive and rapid judgments; and then is suddenly hurled from his ^lace by that Almighty power which he had, for so long a time, proudly defied (v. 25). The flash. No doubt lightning is intended. His sucker, or his suckers. Eliphaz probably intends that this should apply to Job's children and property, which had been destroyed, partly by the wind from the desert, and partly by lightning. (See chap. I.) God's mouth, lit., his mouth. 31. Vanity. ^1)2? {shaw) is here used in two senses ; in the first instance, it "means such vain things as riches, he, by which men of the world are usually seduced into error both of doctrine and practice, and in which they place their confidence ; and, in the second instance, it means, that disappointment which is the result of such confidence in what is vain. Shall be his bargain — iri^^o;;! {temouratho). That which he shall get in exchange for his ill-placed reliance on his prosperity. 32. It shall be paid in full, — lit., it shall be fulfilled; namely, his H^^Dri (temourah), barter or bargain, mentioned in tlie previous verse. He shall get his full amount of disappointment, and that, sooner than he bargained for. His branch. Gesenius considers, and with some amount of probability, that nSS (chippah) is the branch of a palm-tree. 33. Shall loring off. A bold poetical figure. The untimely destruction of his best hopes and immature plans will be as certainly the consequence of his vain confidence as though that destruction were his own act. In this and the preceding verse, the man who places confidence in his pro- sperity, as that it shall continue, is compared (as it seems to me) to the three diflferent sorts of fruit trees most important in the East, — first, to the palm, which must not rely too much on its situation near water, &c., for if that resource fail, which it may do, its branch must cease to flourish ; secondly, to the vine, which, however promising its show of fruit, may yet shed that fruit before it comes to maturity ; and thirdly, to the olive-tree, which, though full of fatness at first, may, from several causes, lose its blossoms, and so be unfruitful. 34. Clan, — lit., the assembly, or the gathering ; i.e., those whom he gathers round him. For the clan of the ungodly S)C., SfC. Himself, and his family, and his retainers, shall be sterile — i.e., bare as the hard rock (T1^^3 galmoud), being reduced to a state of complete destitution. Tabernacles of bribery. This is probably intended as a reflection upon Job, as though, in his magisterial capacity, he had been guilty of this sin. 35. They go on, S)C., S^c. I consider that the two infinitives absolute here denote continuance of action. So 2 Sam. xv. 30. The meaning appears to be : — Such men, in spite of successive disappoint- NOTES, JOB XV. 35. 247 ments, still persevere in procuring to themselves that misery which is only the natural consequence of their evil designs and acts. Their belly, S)-c., — -just as the uterus may be said to frame or form the embryo which it contains. These bad men have always some wicked design or other in embryo ; and this, when it comes to the birth, proves deceitful to their expecta- tions. Compare the Apostle's expression, " the deceitfulness of sin." JOB XVI. 2. I have heard, SfC. These are stale truths. Many such things, — or such things many times. So Jerome, audivi frequenter talia. Troublesome - comforters, — lit., comforters of trouble. You pretend to speak comfort to me, but, in point of fact, you speak only of trouble ; your arguments and statements are all so pointedly severe upon me, that they contradict your professions of speaking with a view to administer consolation. It is difficult to give an exact translation of v^l? ""^Qr^ {inenahhemei gnamal). It appears to me that the signification of the genitive here has the force not so much of an adjective as of an ablative, and that the meaning in full is, comforting with [arguments of] trouble ; and indeed, that the phrase in the singular would exactly mean what we understand by our own common expression, — a Job's comforter. Job probably alludes to what Eliphaz had said in xv. 11. 3. To icords of wind. Job here retorts upon Eliphaz the expression he had used. (xv. 2.) What teaseth thee ? Vl^ (marats) is an unknown word ; and much has been said in the endeavour to discover its meaning. I, have sought to arrive at this, by comparing the meanings of other words which may be considered as, to some extent at least, cognate with it. In ^"5?' ^'^ have the ideas of lashing with a whip, and contumaciousness ; in T]^ {marad), again, contumaciousness ; in •T^'9 {marah), again, the ideas of lashing with a whip, and contumaciousness ; in T]^ (marar), bitterness, acridncss, irritation; and then, by transposition of radical letters and substitution of one guttural for another, we have V??'^ (hhamets), signifying sharpness, sourness. We thus obtain general ideas of pungency, stinmlus, sharpness, and so on ; meanings which very well suit the different passages in which Vt)^ {marats) occurs — namely, besides in this verse, in vi. 25, *^ How forcible (or pungent) are right words ? " also in 1 Kings ii. 8, — A pungent curse, i. e., a curse which stung to the quick — a meaning which well agrees with the character of the curse in question (2 Sam. xvi. 5 — 13), and in Micah ii. 10, " sore destruction." 4. The n (Ji) paragogic in all the verbs in this verse is expressive of determi- nation under a stated condition — i.e., if, as I could wish (17, loti), so and so were the case, I ivoidd most certainly act in such and such a way. If only. ^ {lou), a particle, both conditional and optative, at the same time expressive of regret at the apparent impossibility of the condition being realized. There are, however, exceptions to this its general meaning. I would combine. Just as you have combined against me. By not observing 248 NOTES, JOB XVI. 4. this obvious allusion to tlie friends, this clause has given much trouble to expositors. Would nod at you tvith my head. In token of disapprobation, just as you do to me. 5. This verse is one of some difficnltj, as the more common meaning of V^^ (immets), to strengthen, is by no means apposite here to the context, for it would express a sense contradictory to the statements of the previous verse. Lee tells us that he takes !23^^W^^ (^eammitschetn) to be v^^ritten for Dj?."^!?^ VP^^ (eammits gneleichem), and translates it, / might prevail against you — a sense which satisfies the context, but scarcely the grammar. Dathe gives much the same meaning — prccvalerem vobis, but derives it in a different way, by proposing a different punctuation, D??^^^. {aematschem) ; but even this change will scarcely give the signification he attaches to it. I take V^^ (immets^ in a sense in which it is frequently used — that of hardening, a sense which appears to me to agree well with the context. I would harden you, i.e., I would (just as you do with me) confirm you in your own sentiments, and make you more obstinate than ever by the manner in which I would address you. And my lips, SfC, ^c, — lit., and the condolence oj" my lips ivould be sparing; i.e., I would not speak much to you in the way of comfort. With verse. See the Note on iv. 2. 6. The continuance of the Paragogic H (A) in each of the first verbs of the two clauses of this verse sufficiently establishes its intimate connexion with the preceding. Lee has observed this, but, strangely enough, he all but contradicts his own statement by beginning a new paragi'aph here. That the connexion is not to be easily understood is certain, and amongst all commentators I can find nothing satisfactory upon this subject. One thing, however, has been overlooked, and one which, I think, furnishes a key to understanding the passage before us. We must bear in mind that Job is here speaking on a supposition — the sup- position that his friends are in his position, and he in theirs, (ver. 4.) Whilst he admits the impossibility, yet he expresses the wish (^^, Ion) that it were so ; and he tells them that in that case he would deal with them as they were now dealing with him ; and further, that they would in that case find themselves just in the same predicament in which he now found himself — that of having no option of deciding whether he had best speak or be silent, as, in either case, the force of his disease would be as unabated as ever. I therefore understand the verse thus : — If I {i.e., if you, being, as I am supposing, in my stead) should speak, my (i.e., your) pain ivould not be assuaged. And so the next clause. 7. 8. He. Not Job's disease, as some have it ; nor God, as most interpret it ; but Eliphaz. Surely noio, S)-c. Certainly by this time Eliphaz has tired me out (alluding to what Eliphaz had said, iv. 2). Thou hast desolated, Sfc, — i.e., given over to desolation, or declared desolate ; a very common Hebraism. All my clan. In allusion to what Eliphaz had said in xv. 34. Circle would not be a bad translation of nil7 [gnedah) ; so Ewald translates it in German, kreis. NOTES, JOB XVI. 7, 8. 249 And tied me up. Like a sheep for the slaughter. After all that has been written on this word ^^rj {kamat), I am convinced that the meaning of the Arabic word is the right sense hei*e — to tie up the four legs of a sheep in order to kill it. It means also, to hind hand and foot as a captive ; and possibly that may be the sense in which it is used here, but I prefer the former meaning. It will be observed that I have paid no attention to the accents in connecting this verb so immediately with tlie preceding ; but this is of little consequence, and I see no other way of avoiding an exceedingly awkward construction and a disarrangement of the parallelisms. 3fy leanness. ^C? (chakhash) implies deficiency, either physical or moral ; not unlike owv \fOYi\. failing, though, in its moral sense, it has particular respect to want of truthfulness. The context sufficiently shows that it is used here in its physical sense. Time was when Job (according to the construction which Eliphaz put upon his case, xv. 27) had covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of fat upon his loins. But now the case was different. A disease inflicted by God had completely attenuated him ; and this circumstance was urged as an argument of his wickedness. The meaning of the two verses, then, appears to be this : — Eliphaz has certainly, as he expected (iv. 2), tired me out. And do you, Eliphaz, ask in what way you have done so ? I will tell you. You have denounced utter destruction against me and all my belongings ; you have represented me as so tied up by my calamities that escape is impossible ; and then you have urged these circumstances against me as so many proofs and evidences of my guilt. 9. Job here speaks of the animus which actuated Eliphaz, and which excited him to exhibit towards him the rage and ferocity of a wild beast. 10. They have gaped at me, ^c. They (my friends), like wild beasts, have opened toide their mouths, with intent of swallowing me up. Johnson has totally misunderstood this passage in quoting it in his Dictionary as an instance in which to gape upon means to stare at. The passage in Ps. xxii. 13, 14 (authorized version), is not unlike this. My cheeks have they smitten, Sfc. The greatest possible indignity that could be offered. Christ tells us not to resent it. (Matt. v. 39.) He was himself so treated. (Micah v. 1.) The meaning of the passage here is : — My friends have, by the reproaches which they have heaped upon me, treated me as ignominiously as though they had actually smitten me upon the cheek. St. Paul, if I mistake not, alludes to this passage, or at least seems to have it in his eye, when he says (2 Cor. xi. 20, 21), " If a man smite you on the face;" and then adds, in apparent explanation, "I speak as concerning reproach, 8fc.," i.e., as though you had been reproached with my weakness. 11. The two verbs in this verse may be translated in the past rather than in the present tense, because the idea intended is that of continuance of conse- quence, not continuance of action. Job does not mean that God was every moment shutting him up, but that, having once done so. He kept him shut up. An ungodly man, — i.e., Eliphaz. The wicked, — i.e., his friends. Job here refers the suflerings which he endured at the hands of his friends more immediately to the hand of God. 250 NOTES, JOB XVI. 12. 12. A play upon words is very frequent throughout this book ; in this instance, the English words smash and dash exactly express the meaning, and at the same time preserve the paranomasia of the corresponding Hebrew words. 13. His shooters, — i.e., his archers. My friends, who are God's instruments in the matter. God sets me up as a mark, and then sets my friends on to shoot at me. I'^S'] (rahbaho), his shooters, from ^?'J (ravav), = its cognate •^^'] {ravah), ;= n^T {ramah), to throw, shoot, &c., the letters ^ (»/) and 2 (b or v) being interchanged. We all know how necessarily we exchange m for b when under the influence of a cold. Just so, physical peculiarities of different tribes easily affect their language, and accountably produce the changes we meet with in dialects. He spUtteth my reins (or kidnci/s) ; He poureth out my gall; 8)-c. ; i.e.. He has inflicted mortal wounds upon me. 14. The allusions here are, of course, to the storming of a fortified city — first to the breaching of it, then to the assault. 15. I have been forced to humiliate myself in every possible way. Have abused my horn in the dust. I think that this means no more than a poetical way of stating, / have rolled my head in the dust, which was usually done in token of mourning. The head is here called the horn, in allusion to wild beasts, such as bulls, &c., which, when infuriated, rake up the dust with their horns. It is common to suppose that the horn here is to be understood as one of the insignia of power and dignity, and we are presented with illustrations from the present habits of the Druses of Mount Lebanon and of the Abyssinians, who wear such horns ; but I question exceedingly the antiquity of these ornaments ; they certainly are not found on the sculptures either in Egypt or at Nineveh. Their appearance on the heads of Deities is altogether beside the purpose. 16. Inflamed. n'lQ'^^n {khomarmeruli) gives the double idea oi\)^vag swollen and red. This word, in its true reading, is thii'd person feminine sing. ; but the Masoretic pointing gives it the pronunciation of the third masc. plural, in order to make it agree with ''^Q {panai), which is plural. See, however, the Various Readings. And upon mine eyelids, S^-c. — My powers of vision are impaired by excessive weeping; or, perhaps, — My sight is failing by reason of the near approach of death. 17. My very innocence, and the sincerity of my religion, are the cause of my sufferings ! The tacit inference intended by Job is, — If I were a man of robbery and of impiety, as you make me out to be, I should have escaped these mis- fortunes. The force of ^27 (gnal) here is, upon the circumstance that so and so is not the case, — i.e., because. In my hands, — i. e., when I spread them out before God in prayer, they are not stained with blood, or polluted with bribes, or robbery, or any such crimes. Isa. liii. 9 is a very parallel passage to this. 18. Job here compares himself to one who has been unjustly slain; and, in order that his blood may be avenged by God, he calls upon the earth not to conceal it, and not to suffer his cry to rest anywhere, that it may go NOTES, JOB XYI. 18. 251 up to heaven. Compare Gen. iv. 10, 11; xxxvii. 26; Isa. xxvi. 21; Ezek. xxiv. 7, 8. 19. Ay, even noio, S)-c. Yes, and I know that it shall be so, for God himself is my witness, and sooner or later He will avouch for me. We see here, as in a few other remarkable passages in this book. Job's faith rising immensely superior to, and triumphing over, all difficulties. His confidence was in God ; and hence the secret of its power. 20. My interpreter is my friend, S^-c. He who will interpret my motives, actions, &c., is really my friend, and so will put a fair and right construction upon them, and will not distort them or misinterpret me, as these my pretended friends have done. That interpreter, who is my friend, and who, being my witness (ver. 19), is cognizant of all the fjicts of the case as they really are, is God himself; and it is to Him, and to Him alone, that, with weeping eye, I make supplication. This verse and indeed the whole of this passage is most important, as setting forth tlie religious views and hopes of Job on the subject of a Mediator, — and as it is only after much consideration that I have translated the first clause (which in point of fact is the key to the whole passage) as I have done, — I must succinctly give my reasons for departing from the ordinary view that is taken of the passage. And 1st, the participial noun V?P (melits) occurs again in this book — xxxiii.' 23 ; and in three other places in Scripture, — Gen. xlii. 23 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 31 ; and Isa. xliii. 27 ; — in neither of which places can it mean a scorner (for which V!? (lets) is the proper word), and indeed, can only mean an interpreter or ambassador or mediator, or some similar word. 2ndly. Although ^¥ V^ (melitsai) (the word here) is in the plural number, yet there is no objection to consider it what grammarians call a pluralis excellentia? ; and the less so, on the supposition that the word is applied by Job to a superior being ; and so, it should be translated in the singular, the force of the plural giving it a superlative sense, equivalent to, — of all interpreters my best interpreter, — compare the very frequent use of ^$'TS. (adonai), and in this book, xxxv. 10, ''^V {gnosai), my Maker ; also in Eccles. xii. 1, ^''M'^2 {boreicha), thy Creator. Nor again can there be any objection (and for the same reasons) to regard "'j^l {regnai) as also a pluralis ex- cellentiai ; or, it may be plural simply by apposition ; we have a remarkable instance of two consecutive plural nouns, both having the sense of the singular, in Isa. liv. 5, " Thy Maker is thy husband^'' lit., thy makers \are\ thy husbands. 3rdly. As the plural here rests on the authority only of the vowel points, and which are little better than a kind of Jewish traditional commentary on tlie sense of Scripture, it is quite possible that the reading should have been ^Pl "^^"^ <^, {melitsi regni), or perhaps ^Vl "*^"' f'P {fnelitsai regni), and indeed this latter supposition will more easily account for the corruption (if such it be) of ""^JT (regni) into ''^"1 (regnai). Lee rather suspects a wilful corruption of the text, or at least supposes that ignorance of a divine Mediator may have led the Jews to determine that these words must be in the plural number, and applicable to Job's friends. 4thly. The preceding context seems to require a singular here, the person spoken of in v. 19 as "^13? (^gnedi) my witness, and "^"I^^-^ (sokodi), my testifier, being evidently the same person mentioned in this verse. And 5thly, the succeeding context seems to require the translation which is here given. 253 NOTES, JOB XVI. 20. for, on any other grounds, v. 21 is certainly not translatable without doing violence to the construction ; hence, Rosenmliller is obliged to make out that HSVI. ~)55b (veyochakh legever) is "concise dictum" for HDVl?? "^^5: "i^^"''^^ {oumi itten legever sheyocheahh) ; whilst Schultens acknowledges, in his prefatory remarks on the verse, " Impedita constructio multum peperit dissensum " ; and Dathe remarks of the second clause — " Ha3rent interpretes maxima in posteriori membro " — and then proceeds to understand 13 {hen) as a preposition instead of a noun, and so, makes the very common phrase ^7^'^? (^^'* adam), son of man, signify between a man. Now there is no necessity for incumbering ourselves with any such difficulties, for by simply translating the first clause of v. 20, My interpreter is my friend, every difficulty vanishes. Unto God hath mine eye xcept. Evidently the same divine person unto whom Jacob wept, the ^^?^ {malach), angel, and at the same time Cn ^S {elohim), God — see the incident as recorded in Gen. xxxii. 25 — 31, and the allusion to it in Hosea xii. 4. 21. And he tvill plead, — He, who is my loitness in heaven, being acquainted with all my ways, who is also my testifier there, and so, is ready to appear and bear testimony for me when occasion shall require ; who is my interpreter likewise, and as such, and being my friend, will put a right interpretation on my actions and motives, or will at least set them in such a point of view as that I shall be dealt with graciously ; and who, at the same time being the God unto whom I have confidingly poured out my sorrows, will not disappoint my confidence; — He will plead my cause with God, just as one man pleads on behalf of another. If this be the right interpretation (and 1 can conceive of no other without doing violence to the language), it is evident that Job here speaks of God at least in two different characters, I might almost say in two distinct personalities — on the one hand as an advocate, on the other, as a judge. Umbreit has some glimmering of the sense of the first clause, though he utterly misunderstands the second ; and he remarks on that first clause,—" With melancholy quaintness Job says, God must support me against God." There is nothing, however, either melancholy or quaint about Job's statement here; and it appears to me 'strange that Umbreit should have failed to discover the very pointed allusion that is here made to a divine Mediator. 22. ^yhen a feio years, SfC, — a pi'oof that Job did not expect his cause to be righted in this world. His hope is, that after a few years have passed away and he has gone no more to return, then his divine Mediator will take up his cause, and see him righted. We may gather from this also, that Job's disease was not considered as immediately mortal, — he evidently expected that his life would be prolonged for some few years yet. JOB XVII. 1. Job had alluded to the period of his death in the previous verse, and he now states his conviction that nothing would interfere with or interrupt that event, which, judging from circumstances, could not now be very far distant. His real meaning appears to be, — All my earthly happiness is gone, and nothing remains for me in prospect but the grave. NOTES, JOB XVII. 1. 253 My spirit hath been broken, — and so, there is no probability of its being mended again. My days have been extinguished, — ruy days of liappiness have been put out as a candle never to be re-lighted. Have been extinguished, — from '^'?\ {zagnadi) i. q., "i]??"^ {dagnach). Much has been said against this, but nothing better offered ; and moreover three MSS. of Kennicott and nine of De Rossi have the usual form 132713 {iidgnchw^. For me are the catacombs, — I have no other earthly prospect. The catacombs, — or the graves, probably referring to the many cells ordinarily cut in the sides of the rock, in ancient subterranean sepulchres. Here again, we have another proof that Job entertained no kind of hope of restoration in this life. He had full assurance indeed that he had one in heaven who would undertake and advocate his cause, but this was not to be in this life. (See the whole passage, xvi. 19 — xvii. 1.) 2. A verse which has been found full of difficulty, chiefly because com- mentators have been at the pains of going out of the way in order to discover its meaning, instead of taking it literally. If not, 8)-c. — I see nothing before me but the grave, unless it is that I am mistaken, and that I am the victim of the most extraordinary delusions, — delusions which, if they are such, are so obstinately fixed, that my eye does nothing but dwell upon them. Illusions beset me, — lit., illusions (not mockers, as the auth. vers, and many have it) are with me. Mine eye dwelleth, — lit., lodgeth, if they are deceptions (which I cannot think them to be), my eye at all events does nothing but rest upon them, as though they were realities. On their pertinacity, — DnTljpn^ (behammerotham). Infinitive Hiphil from J^"^^ (jnarah), to rebel, to be contumacious, to offer determined resistance, and the like, with dagesh euphonic in the ^ (m). Lee takes the word to be of the form nnan (Jiammerah) for H'lpan (Jiajimerah), as a verbal noun of the Niphal species. It might be a formative from "l^"? {hammer) Hiphil of "'^^ (natnar), and so, might be translated — their variegations, a word which would be suitable to the sense. I give a very decided preference, however, to the first- mentioned of these derivations, and to the sense which it conveys. 3. Job is still addressing himself to that divine Being in heaven, in whom he had just expressed his confidence as being his " witness " and his " testifier" and his "interpreter," and, who would undertake and plead his cause (xvi. 19 — 21); and he now prays him to engage himself as surety before God on his behalf, as he had none else to look to. Engage, I pray thee, — lit., put or deposit, I pray thee; the following "^^S"!!? {gnorveni) be surety for me and the next clause show that ^"[^ (yodcha) thitie hand must be supplied here, and so, give the meaning to tD"*^ {si7n), which I have here attached to it. We have the expression in full in Gen. xxiv. 2, and xlvii. 29 — T|^ ^3"a'*tt7 (^sim na yodcha), put noiv thine hand ; or the word to be supplied may be r3"i37 {gneravon), a gage or pledge. With reference to the last 254 NOTES, JOB XVII. 3. clause — Who else tvould strike hands, S)'C.? — see Prov. vi. 1; xi. 15 (marg. reading) ; xvii. 18 ; and xxii. 26. Be suretij for me with thyself, is a very striking expression as addressed to God. God is here appealed to, as himself a Mediator between man and himself. 4. Thou hast hidden understanding from their heart, — lit., thou hast hidden their heart from understanding ; — Thou hast rendered them incapable of acting as adjudicators in my cause, and therefore thou wilt not suffer them to be exalted to any such office. 5. So far from allowing them any grounds of exaltation, thou wilt severely punish them; for he that hetrayeth friends, 8fC., 8fc. Possibly this may have been some trite proverb which Job here introduces, and applies to the conduct of his friends who had (as he describes in v. 6) exposed him to the public to be made sport of. He that hetrayeth, — lit., he that pointeth out, or telleth of. To be made spoil of, — lit., to booty, or to spoil. Shall waste away, — i.e., with disappointed expectation. Compare the state- ment of this verse with Ps. cix., a psalm applied by Peter in Acts i. to the betrayer of our Lord — see especially verses 9 — 13. 6. ITe, — i. e., Eliphaz in particular. Not God, as some consider ; for Job is still addressing God. So hath he set me up, ^'C, — i-e., He has said such things about me that I am become a subject of common talk and ribaldry. He has betrayed me, and exposed me to the public, that I might be made sport of. Thus, this verse explains the sense which Job intended to be attached to the former verse. As to ^P'f^ (topheth), which I have translated a subject of abuse, we have in the Chaldee ^"Ij"! (toph), and in the ^thiopic ^SD (^tpha), to spit out; then in Arabic ^^n [tphph), to s'pit, and call a person ^^ toufa" with detestation. This word toufa appears to have been used as an exclamation expressive of contempt and abhorrence ; and so, as Rosenmi.Uler remarks, is not unlike the Aramaic ^f^l {rakka), paKa (raca) (Matt. v. 22), which is derived from PV^ (rahak), to spit. ^iri (jtoph) may be considered as ^^^H {toph), and this as cognate with 3^'^ (taav), which = ^V'!^ {tagnav), to abominate. Openly, ^"^^^r (Jephanim), — lit., to faces. "We may infer from this verse that these discussions were, to some extent, public, or at least that they were made subjects of much conversation far and wide ; and we may further infer, that as Job was aware that he was already what we should call toivn talk, so, these discussions must have occupied considerable time. 7. My frame. ^^'??^ {yetsurim), which occurs only here, means things formed or framed. Job probably intends by the word the several parts of which his bodily frame consisted. 8. Amazed. That I should have been so held up by Eliphaz to public scorn. Be roused, S)'c. All right-thinking men will work themselves up to a high pitch of indignation when they hear of the impious conduct of Eliphaz. 9. Job here consoles himself with the thought that hereafter, when his innocence should have been proved, good men in like circumstances, gathering consolation from the consideration of his history, would be the more confirmed by NOTES, JOB XVII. 9. 255 it in their faith and piety towards God. And no doubt, many an afflicted and persecuted child of God has taken fresh courage by meditating on the trials of this patriarch, according to the suggestion of James v. 11. 10. You all, — lit., all of them. This change of person is common enough in Hebrew Idiom. This, of course, is addressed to his friends. Turti again now, and come on, — or as we should say, return to the charge. Renew the controversy if you will, my opinion on the subject of your wisdom and of your boasted consolations will still be unchanged. Job seems to wax confident in making this challenge. His meaning is, as we learn from the sequel : — Attack me again with another round of arguments, but I tell you that you are all wrong, in attempting to buoy me up with hopes of an earthly character, on the condition of my repenting of what you consider my wicked ways. I tell you again that I have abandoned every merely worldly prospect. 11. Job, in this and the following verses, animadverts upon the want of wisdom which his friends had betrayed, in that, although all his worldly hopes were for ever gone, they continued holding out to him the expectation of a complete temporal restoration. Here again, if language means anything, we must be convinced that Job entertained no prospect whatever of a return to earthly happiness. Nor is there anything of a gloomy cast in his language here. He speaks of the things which he once most cherished as being all removed from him ; but his challenge to his friends in the previous verse, and his subsequent remarks, prove that he adverts to this fact without any great regret ; he seems rather to triumph in the thought of his severance from worldly hopes, as it made more precious to him that hope from which he knew that even death could not separate him. My contrivances are broken. Broken like a rope, "^ri '^T [zimmothai), — I have translated this word — my contrivances, as it is derived from the root QST (zammani), the first meaning of which appears from the Arabic to be — to hind, to tie ; hence, to lay snares, to plot, to design, &c. The possessions of my heart. The things that I once most doted upon, — those schemes and contrivances (so former clause) by which I once endeavoured to realize the various hopes of a worldly character which I then entertained ; — all these are now, and for ever, utterly destroyed. 12. My friends so distort truth that what is really bright and hopeful about my case, such as my sincerity, confidence in God, &c., &c., they put in a most gloomy point of view ; and on the other hand, though my worldly prospects are as dark as possible, they hold out vain hopes of speedy prosperity. Out of very darkness, — lit., out of the face of darkness. Job means, — My friends represent light as being near, as if it could come out of the face of darkness itself! 13. If I must entertain hope, as you would have me to do, pray what kind of hope shall it be? for I already look upon the grave as my home, and I have ah-eady, as it were, spread my bed in the dark sepulchre. 14. So certain am I of speedy dissolution, that I already claim relationship to the destructive agencies that will soon be at work on my body. 15. Such being the case, you may naturally inquire upon what my hope can 256 NOTES, JOB XVII. 15. be fixed, and who is to witness the accomplishment of it. I will tell you. (ver. 16.) 16. Many take '^1^ (baddei) to signify the bars of the grave; but the word means bars in the sense of staves for porterage, not in the sense oi fastenings (^cn'^nSj bcrikhhri) for a door or gate. I take it from "'1^ (jbadad), to divide or separate, and here to mean the divisions or separate places which were usually excavated in Eastern subterranean burial vaults ; and so, I translate it, cells. Tiyy^r} {teradnali) is plural ; and so the meaning is, — My hope in general, — i.e., all my hopes shall descend. Some, however, consider the n3 (iiah) here as paragogic, and refer to Judges v. 26 as a similar instance. Shall toe be set down, — lit., there shall be a setting doivn. Supply ^37 (Janou), for us. rin3 (nakhath) is a noun, from H''^ (noukh). The Sept. evidently under- stood the word as •^113 (jiekhath), from rin3 {nakhath), and so translated it* KaTa(3i](r6jj.e9a, loe shall go down. The meaning I have given, and which requires no alteration of the vowel points, is, I think, preferable. We have in the two clauses a graphic description of the placing of a body in its final resting-place. First, it descends into the subterranean vault, and then it is set down on i^V, gnal) the ground, in the cell which had been set apart for it. Job says that his hope would accompany him, and remain with him there. Certain it is, that if Job had no hope beyond the grave, he had indeed no hope at all. They must be blind who cannot see that his confidence in God had respect to a future, and not to a present, deliverance. JOB XVIII. 2. This and the next verse are addressed by Bildad to his friends. Annoyed that neither himself nor they have been able to terminate the already lengthened controversy, he blames them for some want of discretion in the matter, and intimates in ver. 3 that so prolonged a discussion could only have the effect of making them appear stupid in each other's eyes. Hoiv long ere ye, ^c, c5c, — i.e., I foresee no end to this dispute, unless, in oiir replies, we exercise more discretion before we speak. Bildad, to some extent, seems to include himself in this censure, but evidently more by way of politeness than of actual intention ; hence, of the three verbs, the last only is in the first person. Limits. "'^Si"? (Jtintsei) is for '*??)7 (hitstsei), the plural of Y'\}. (kets), an end. The Dagesh is here resolved into 3 {%), which is a Chaldaic usage. Others understand it as signifying traps, from Vt?!?- (Jcenets), root V3p {hits), which in Arabic signifies to hunt. The first, however, is the more natural solution. 3. Why should, Sic. Why should we have occasion to regard each other as stupid brutes ? And be unclean. Because accounted as beasts. In each other's eyes, — lit., in your eyes; but I think that Bildad's meaning clearly is, — Why should I appear so and so, &c., in your eyes, as you do in mine? ^y^t:^'^'^ {nitminou),hoxQ.'t^'^'^ {iamah), i.q., ^'^'^ {tame). NOTES, JOB XVIII. 4. 257 4. Is the usual course of nature to be interrupted to appease your insane rage? As ^"T]'^ {toreph), tearing, refers to the action of a wild beast, Bildad seems here to retort upon Job, — You, and not we, are like an infuriated beast, (xvi. 9, 10.) Thoii that tcarest thyself, S)-c., — lit., tearing his self, S)C., the meaning being, — [ Thou a person] tearing his oivti self, Sfc. Forth?/ sake, is the earth to be deserted, SfC, S,-c. ? Both this and the succeeding clause savour of proverbial phraseology. In a note on Lowth's " Lectures on Hebrew Poetry" (Lecture XXXIV.) are the following remai-ks : — "When the Orientals would reprove the pride or arrogance of any person, it is common for them to desire him to call to mind how little and contemptible he and every mortal is, in these or similar apothegms : — " ' What thourjh Moliammed were dead 1 " ' His Imauns (or ministers) conducted the affairs of the nation,^ " ' The universe shall not fall for his sake.* " ' The world does not subsist for one man alone.* Nay, this very phrase is still in use among the Arabic writers, V"'^ ''^ H^tV (gnzvth al arts), the earth is desolate. (Gol. Col., 1570.)" Eosenmiiller also cites Golius on the passage. 5. So far from God's departing from the ordinary course of nature to please you or anyone else, it will still hold good, as an invariable rule and natural consequence, that the prosperity of the wicked will come to an end. Light, — i.e., splendour, wealth, gloi'y, &c. Go out. "^jiJI"! {idegnach), not, be extinguished, but, go out of its own self. 6. Is darlcened. So certain is this of accomplishment that it may be regarded as having already taken place. His lamp over him, — i.e., suspended over him. Compare xxix. 3. Schultens cites a common expression among the Arabs, " Misfortune has put out my lamj)," as signifying misfortune has destroyed my hopes, &c., &c. 7. '*"'?."1 (yetserou), shall be straitened, from ~l?^ (t/atsar), i.q., ~1^^ {tsour\ The strides of his might, &c. Schultens has abundantly proved, by reference to many Arabic examples, how tritely this phrase is used by the Arabians to express rapid and sudden diminution of power ; the first he gives is from Iben Doreid : — " Whoso keei^eth not ivithin the bounds of strength, Sis ividest strides shall be straitened." 8. An explanation of the former verse, showing how the strides of an ungodly man suddenly become straitened, and how his own counsel casts him down ; even because, in the pursuit of his own counsel, his own feet, so to speak, carry him directly into the trap in which he becomes caught. 9. The gin shall seize him, he. Not, as some understand it, he shall take hold of the gin by the hetl. W^tp^ {tsammim), the noose. (See Note on ch. v. o.) The parallelism here requires that a thing or instrument, and not a person, be meant. 8 — 10. I take all the dilhrent words in these verses, the net, the meshes, the gin, the noose, and the cord, to be the several parts of the trap. All this must be understood here metaphorically, and not literally. As some foolish wild beast 258 NOTES, JOB XVIII. 8 — 10. steps carelessly into the snare that is spread for him, so the ungodly man here spoken of, deliberately, though -without being conscious of it, gets entrapped in walking in the way of his own devices, and in pursuing his own counsels. The cord that snareth Jam, — lit., his cord. The trap that taketh him, — lit.. Ids trap. The pathway, — i.e., the pathway that he takes. 11. Terrors on every side, (SLc. Because he sees no way of escape, the trap securely holding his feet ; and the only prospect before him is starvation, or falling into the hands of those Avho thirst for his life. Because of his feet, — which are caught in the trap. This signification of y (/e) is sufficiently common. Bewilder him, — lit., scatter him, or as we might say, throw him abroad, put him in vonfusion, &c. 12. His strength is here poetically said to suffer the pangs of hunger. 13. The first-born of death, — i.e., death in its most terrible aspect. Not the worm, as some suppose, because that is after death, and all are equally devoured by it, which would not suit Bildad's argument ; but, perhcips, starvation, to which allusion is made in the former verse. It, — i.e., the first-born of death in tlie second clause ; or this might refer to destruction in the previous clause ; or the meaning may be, he shall eat the parts of his oion skin, being driven to do so by starvation. 14. riinv>2 {ballahoth), a plural noun ; it is here nominative to the verb, though that is in the singular number, as in xxvii. 20. This is by no means unusual. He will lose all presence of mind and the security which he once indulged in ; for terror, invading his tabernacle in the shape of awfid judgments from heaven (as explained in the next verse), will effectually expel every feeling of security, and will master him. Terror, — lit., terrors ; but, probably, a pluralis excellentite, and so, signifying great terror. Shall march it off, — i.e., shall march off" his confidence. 15. It shall dioell, &c., — i.e., terror shall dwell. That it shall not be his own. Terror, such as he cannot get rid of, having taken up its abode in his tabernacle, may more properly be considered the master of it than himself. 16. His crop. Alluding, no doubt, to the fruit of the palm tree. 7a'^_ (^immal). I agree with Rosenmiiller in taking this as 3 fut. Kal of the verb •^3 (jiamul), i.q., ^33 (naval), or ^?5^ {amal), he languished, drooped, 8jc., and this sense preserves the parallelism better than that of cutting off, as if from v^a (maul), or ^!?^ (mallal). Compare also the cognate ^23 (naphal), to fall, ^'c. For a similar instance of the interchange of ^ (m) and ^ (b or v) in ^'^^ (namal), i.q., ^?3 (jiaval), see '^3'^ {ravah), i.q., •^'^'J (j-amah), in ch. xvi. 13, and see the Note. 18. Being treated by every one as an outlaw, he shall be forced to hide himself by day, and venture out only at night. Or this may simply refer to the expulsion of his name from the memories and the converse of men, and this would agree well with the former verse. NOTES, JOB xYiir. 18. 259 From the ivorld, — i.e., from luimau society. 19. In his phicfs of sojrmrn. This implies that he shall be a wanderer. r^ (nin), and "T?5 {neked). Whatever may be the origin of these two words, there can be no question as to their general meaning. 20. Men in every part of the world will be astonished and horrified when they hear of his miserable end. The j)cople of the Wtst. ^''3 nQS {akheronim), — lit., those behind; but as behind was used by the Hebrews to signify the west, so probably here. This word occurs in Deut. xi. 24 ; xxxiv. 2 ; and Joel ii. 20, where hinder sea means ttvs^erw sea. At his day, — i.e., the day of his downfall. So Psalm xxxvii. 13, and cxxxvii. 7. Those of the East, — lit., those before. But this word is sometimes used to signify eastern, Ezek. xlvii. 18, and Joel ii. 20. Some understand by Q"*?~'[7|!:? {akheronim) and tD"^3X3'7)2 (Jkadmonini) posterity and ancestors, but I prefer, with others, the translation above. Will be horrified, — lit., ivill take hold of horror, much as we should say, ivdl take fright, 21. Such is the condition to which the households of the wicked get reduced. In more modern Arabic usage, a dwelling and a place sometimes have the signifi- cation of state and condition. JOB XIX. 2. How lo7}g. This is evidently intended as a set-off to Bildad's " how long " in xviii. 2. Crush me to pieces, as with a pestle in a mortar. ''35^S?lIj1 {tedacheounani), an Aramaic form for ''Prl^i^r'l'fr' (tedacheotineni). (Rosenmiiller.) IVith verse. (See the Note on ch. iv. 2.) 3. ^"i^r'.n (tahecheron), ye astound. Whether this word be Kal or Hiphil is comparatively of little consequence, so far as the sense is concerned ; if the former, the ( - ) is not easily accounted for ; if the latter, the ^ (i) is wanting between the second and third radicals. This, however, would be of small consequence compared with the discovery of the meaning of the word, which at best is uncertain. This word has been variously referred to n"i3 {chrh), and "133 (jichr), and even "12M (achr), as its root ; "^SH (fichr\ however, would seem to be more obviously the correct root ; and as it does not exist, so far at least as we know, in Hebrew, wc fall back upon the Arabic for a meaning, and there we have, to be struck tcith astonishment, amazed, &c. May not the reading originally have been 1~l-nn itkhprou), or in^'Qnn {tkhpirou), ye put me to the blush '? This would remove all difficulty, and would make the parallelism pei'fect. (See the Vaz'ious Readings.) These ten times seems to have been a common expression, meaning several times. (Gen. xxxi. 7 ; Numbers xiv. 22 ; Nehemiah iv. 12.) 4. With me, Sfc. It is I and not you that have to bear the consequences of my error ; [and, therefore, you might have been more sparing of invective]. After all, D3pS-«lW (^aph omnam) besides verily. Taking the extreme view of the case, admitting to the fullest extent all that you say. 2G0 NOTES, JOB XIX. 4. Doth mine error lodge. UmLreit remarks, " The proverbial expression of the origiual seems to be taken from harbouring a stranger who is an unpleasant guest." 5. 3fy reproach, — i.e., that Avhich you consider to be a reproach unto me, namely, my affliction. (Compare Gen. xxx. 23 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 39 ; 2 Sam. xiii. 13.) If (putting the case that) you are determined to maintain, at my expense, the high and dictatorial position you have assumed, by the argument, that my affliction, divinely sent, is a proof of my moral guilt ; I am ready to concede, to the fullest extent, that my affliction is indeed great, and from the hand of God himself (vers. 6 — 22) ; but I altogether repudiate your conclusion. (Vers. 23 — 29.) 6. Job admits that God had brought him into the same troubles which Bildad had just declared to be the merited lot of a wicked man (xviii. 7 — 10) ; and that those troubles certainly seemed to be inextricable. 7. Of violence. I complain to God, but in vain, of the violent wrong my friends do me in arguing that I must be guilty of some great crime. There is no justice. I acknowledge that my appeals to God to vindicate my aspersed character have as yet been fruitless. 9. Job means, that just as a king is degraded by being divested of his royal robes and other insignia of majesty, so, God had degraded him from a state of great dignity and prosperity. See this enlarged upon in ch. xxx. 1 — 15. 10. Ruined me. VO^ [nathats), is literally to beat, or break doion, such things as houses, cities, &c. It is here applied, like our word ruin, to a man's circum- stances. Pulled up. There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will again flourish. So says Job himself, (xiv. 7.) But of a tree pulled up there can be no hope. How evident again that Job had no hope of restoration in this life ! 11. "I '' (Jo) is pleonastic here. I have therefore omitted it in the translation. He maketh count, S^c. Not that Job considered that God really regarded him in the light of an enemy, but that he treated him as though he had been such. Job, though he could not explain this severe treatment, yet knew that God was his friend. (See ch. xvi. 19 — 21, and Notes.) 12. D^'l^l? (gedoudim), are literally the sections of an army. The whole language here is of course metaphorical, and is borrowed from siege operations, three successive stages of which are here alluded to — first, invasion ; secondly, the throwing up of entrenchments ; and then, complete investment. Come in together, S)-c. His troubles had come upon him more or less simul- taneously, and had thus far taken up a position of permanency. 14. Have ceased. I regard them as having ceased, because they no longer act towards me as persons related to me by the tie of kindred. Those whom I knew. Not, those lohoknew me, as in the former verse, and where I have rendered it my acquaintance, but, those whom I honoured by knoiving them, and from wliom, therefore. Job might have expected gratitude at least. 15. Guests, or sojourners. Whether these were dependants living in Job's house or passing travellers partaking of his hospitality is uncertain. The main idea intended is that they were at all events foreigners. My handmaids. These were probably purchased slaves, and so were also NOTES, JOB XIX. 15. 261 foreigners. The aggravation of Job's complaint here therefore is, that even tlie very strangers, who were living upon him, dealt with him as though he were a stranger in his own home. These handmaids (rnn^S. amahoth) were not treated as menials (^\^^^X0 shephakhoth), but rather as confidants of the mistress, and not unfrequently they were concubines of the master. So the Chaldee here; but ch. xxxi. 1 — 8 disproves that notion in this case. 16. There is not one of my servants who will obey me, even though I so far demean myself as to use entreaties, rather than issue commands. An intimation by hand, or other gesture, should have been sufficient to secure obedience from a servant ; but Job had to speak, and that, in the language of supplication. Very. I take this to be the force of "i'^ (wo) here. 17. This verse is full of difficulties. Is "^n^"! (roukhi) to be here translated my breath or my spirit? Is H^^T (^zarah) from "1^^ (zour), in the sense of being strange? or, i.q., Arab, dsar, or dsir, to be loathsome (compare ^"JJ (zara), Numbers xi. 20)? Then, again, is TllSn (4ihannothi) here, as in Exod. xxxiii. 19, first pers. pret. Kal of l^H (khana^i), he teas gracious? oris it the plural with suffix from the noun nan [khatinah), and so, for "^Hian (Jihannothai) ? And in that case, can it mean my eiitreaties, seeing that ]2n (khanan) never has the sense o^ entreating in Kal ? Or is ^O'^^n {khannothi) (see Ps. Ixxvii. 10) an infinitive form, as though from "^Dn {Jthanah), according to other similar anomalous forms which Rosenraiiller gives, as -niXSLl? (^shammoth) from ^'^^ {shamam) (Ez. xxxvi. 3), and ^•liv'^ {khaUothi), from ^^n (Jihalal) (Ps. Ixxvii. 11)? Then, is n~lT (^zarah) to be understood or not in the second clause of the verse ? And who are the ''3p3 "^32 (Jjenei vitni), lit., the children of my belly ? Are they the children of Job of whose death we read in chap. i. ? Or may "'^^r {vitni) be taken here in the same sense as in ch. iii. 10, and signify my [^mothei-^s^ belly, or wo)nb, and so, the children he speaks of mean his uterine brothers ? Or may "'P^? (vitni) mean my [ivife^sl tvomb, called his as belonging exclusively to him ? Or does it mean my oion body, as in Ps. cxxxii. 11? Or are these children to be understood as begotten of Job by his concubines, as the Sept. boldly translates ? These questions are more easily proposed than answered. However, I take '^rvn (roukhi) here to mean my spirit, in tlie sense of the general tone of my character, my disposition, S)-c., for had Job meant that his breath was, through his disease, so loathsome as to be strange or offensive to his wife, this would scarcely have constituted a sufficient ground of complaint against her. As to n"^T (zarah), I translate it icas strange, as from "^^^ (zour) ; at the same time I may remark that the Arab, dsar has, amongst other meanings, that of being refractory, and especially as applying to a disobedient wife, and also to a camel ichich from ivant of natural affection foi^sakes its neicly-born offspring — meanings certainly very suitable to the passage before us, the only difficulty in that case being that we should have to admit of an inverted construction of tlie sentence, as though it read ^J[^^^ "»n^"l7 rriT (Ishti zarah lerouhhi). Then '^rii3n (khannothi) I understand as first pers. pret. Kal. of ]?n (khanan), as in Exod. xxxiii. 19 ; and the "'^^^ "*?.? (benei vitni) to be the children of my bowels (Philemon 12). Job apparently alludes here to some occasion when the spirit upon which he had acted had appeared strange to his wife. That occasion not improbably was, when, hearing of tiie death of his children by the visitation of God (as recorded 262 NOTES, JOB XIX. 17. in chap, i.), he fell down upon the ground and worshipped, saying, "Naked came I forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Eternal gave, and the Eternal hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Eternal." To his less religious wife such conduct, under such circumstances, may have appeared unnatural, and she may have reproached him with it, as we find her actually doing in ch. ii. 9, on the occasion of his next afiliction. Job, however, had nothing to reproach himself about, either in submitting cheerfully to God's will under so trying a bereavement, or in reflecting on the way in which he had acted towards his children whilst they were alive ; he had ever acted graciously towards them (so the second clause of this verse); and the sacrifices he so continually offered on their behalf (ch. i. 5) were a proof of his love for them, and the concern he took about their truest interests. So that any reflections on the part of his wife (who evidently misunderstood the spirit upon which he acted), with refei'ence to what appeared to her his strange conduct at the time of their death, would be as unkind as they were undeserved : the allusion which (as I suppose) he now makes to the circumstance shows how keenly he felt such reproach. Under a somewhat similar though not nearly so afflictive dispensation, the spirit upon which David acted was misunderstood, though not made the subject of particular reproach, but only of remark (2 Sam. xii. 19 — 23). 18. Bales. Probably young persons, called here babes, by way of contempt. Some take C'^y'^ll). (^griewiliiv) here to mean loicked persons, as in xvi. 11. But it suits the context better to take the meaning (as it evidently is in xxi. 11), babes. If I rise, — to show them that respect which might not be expected from a person of my years. Speak at me. I think tlie Hebrew phrase is equivalent to our English; they direct their conversation against me, and in my hearing. 19. My hitimate friends, lit., men of my secret, i.e., associates who had my confidence, and, as such, were admitted to terras of great intimacy with me ; the next clause shows, as I conceive, that Job alludes to his friends then present. These. HT (^zeh) may have a plural sense here, as in verse 3, or may be taken distributively, this, meaning each one of these. At all events, its demonstrative force must not be lost sight of here, and therefore, I cannot agree with Lee and others in considering it as, more or less, equivalent to "^V?^. (asher), but rather, I conceive, that "^^^ [asher) must be supplied after it. 20. My bone cleaveih, S^^c. We have a similar expression in Lam. iv. 8, and Ps. cii. 5. Apparently the idea intended is, of the skin and flesh being so tense that there was no possibility of raising it from the bone ; and this probably, from extreme emaciation. And I barely get off with the skin of my teeth. There have been various conjectures as to the meaning of this clause. By the skin of the teeth I am inclined to understand, not the gums, as some take it, though the German Zahnfieisch, lit., tooth-flesh, seems to corroborate that notion, nor merely the lips, as Jerome and others, but the whole of the flesh which covers the upper and lower jaws, and which is partially detached from them. The meaning of the verse, then, as it appears to me, will be, — that the only part of Job's flesh and skin which did not adhere tightly to his bones was the integument which covers NOTES, JOB XIX. 20. 263 the teeth ; and even that was so tightly drawn over them by emaciation, that he might say it was all but, though not actually, glued to them. 22. As God. Lee translates, like a hero; this is fanciful, and his reasons are very insufficient. Job speaks a few verses before (v. 11) of God's counting him as an enemy, and indeed dealing with him as such, and so, the term persecuting, as applied to God, need not be considered out of place here. Besides which, the meaning here may be, just as though you were God ; admitting the right of God to deal with him as he pleases, he questions the right of his friends to do the same. And why not be satisfied loith my fiesh '? Why are you so ravenous as not to be content with feasting upon the sight of my extreme bodily sufferings, but you must needs add to my pangs by the infliction of the most cruel insults ? 23, 24. 3Iy verse. (See Note on iv. 2.) Might be engraven. ^0? {chatJtav) is evidently to be taken here in what must be its primary sense. The two other verbs wath which it is in apposition — namely, WJ^ {khakak) and 2?n (khatsav) convey the idea of cutting out, carving, S)-c., and with the last of these 2ri3 [chathav) is clearly, in some measure, cognate. "ipS? (bassepher), in the book. Perhaps book here means such leaves as are still used in the East for the purpose of recording, and upon which the writing is formed by the incision of some sharp instrument (V'^^O-?^, ichathevoun). The expression ' in the book,' seems to refer to some particular book ; perhaps that much of the Bible which was then extant, containing the records of the creation, and the history of the antediluvian world. In the Adite inscriptions found on rocks at Hasan Ghorab, and proved, as I think, by Forster to be as ancient as the period of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, and deciphered by him, there is a remarkable reference to a book of importance as being the depository of sacred truths. Plis translation of the part to which I now refer is as follows :— '^' Over us presided kings far removed from baseness, and stern chastisers of reprobate and wicked men, and they noted down for us, according to the doctrine of Hud ( fleber), good judgments written in a book, to be kept," 8cc., &c. I would suggest a change in the translation of this last word, to be kept. The word in the inscription is ff^ (zeh). This, Forster takes as from the Arabic root uj {zba), and defines it, from Golius, to be, i.q., t^*^*- (khml), " Portandum, sustinenduni, susce^nt; sustulit; onus imposuit; oneravit ; fecit, petiit, jussitve, ut portaret onus." Now Castell gives also very similar meanings — Portandum, sustinenduni, suscepit; sustulit; portavit. And compai'e with this the Chald. t^^"] {dava^ apportavit. All these meanings certainly convey the idea of something to be carried, something portable as we should say, and not some- thing to be kept; and that, I take to be the true meaning of the word in this inscription, a book that might be carried about from place to place, and always at hand for use, and so, contradistinguished fi'om writing upon rock. Job desires that his words might be written upon both. (Sec the Illustra* tions.) "^V. {gnet), a jien — in the first instance a chisel, or graver, but as it also signifies a pen, I have retained this meaning. A graver would Jiot convey the Avhole idea intended, because of course Job means that particular sort of graver which was used for the purpose of cutting out inscriptions in atone. Here is 204 NOTES, JOB XIX. 23, 24. evidence that the carving of letters, hieroglyphics, &c., was executed with tools of iron, and not necessarily entirely of bronze, as has been supposed. (See Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," First Edition, III., 249.) ■'^^P^ {gnophereth), lead, not [a pen] of lead, as some take it, that metal being of course out of the question for such a j^urpose ; nor, on a leaden tablet, as Jerome and others after him, but rather, lead poui-ed into the cavities of the letters after they had been cut out in the rock, for the purpose of preserving the sharpness of their edges. How clear it is, from this wish, that Job expected that the vindication of his conduct would be after his death, and not before it ; this is important in inter- preting the verses that follow. 25. "^3N"1 (^waani),—For I, — i.e., for as regards myself, the pronoun / being emphatic : whatever the creed of others may be, this at least is my belief, &c., &c. ''•'l^VI^ {yadagneti), I know, i.e, as matter of experience, and have known it. "* • ^:^ {.gocli), my Vindicator, — I regret that I cannot retain here the translation of the A. v., — Redeemer, for the word has become, so to speak, consecrated in this particular passage, by many sad though comforting associations: but HTS (jjodeh), as Lee remarks, is more properly the word for redeemer, in the sense of paying down a compensation price. The ^Sa (goel) might indeed be called upon, in the discharge of his duty as a vindicator, to pay money for the recovery of alienated estates, &c., but as this was only a part of his duty as a redresser of grievances, the term redeemer is not sufficiently full to express his exact office. The principal duties attaching to the office appear to have been, — 1st. To recover by purchase for the original possessor, being a kinsman, property which had become alienated by sale or mortgage, Lev. xxv. 25. 2dly. To deliver, whether by force or by ransom, a kinsman who had been taken into captivity, or sold into bondage — so Gen. xiv. 14 — 16. 3dly. To avenge the death of a murdered kinsman, — Numb. xxxv. 12; and 4thly. To marry the widow of a deceased childless kinsman. See the book of Ruth. "'H {khai), liveth, — I may and shall certainly die, but not so, my vindicator ; he liveth, and will certainly, at soihe future time, stand up to avenge my cause. 'i''~'D'[i (ahheron^ may perhaps here mean Last : and if so, the term is ap- parently applied by Job to the Vindicator with allusion to his being "^H {khai), for, as such he outlives all. It is worthy of observation that this term I'^'^O^ {akheron) is applied, in a very remarkable way, by God to himself, in two passages in Isaiah xliv. 6, and xlviii. 12, and both, in connexion with his calling himself the ^^^2 {go<^l) the vindicator, of Israel; this connexion is particularly obvious in the former instance, as it occurs in the same verse : — " Thus saith The Eternal, the king of Israel, " And his Vindicator, The Eternal [the God] of hosts, — •' I am First and I am Last, " And beside me there is no God." If this be the meaning here, probably St. Paul quotes this passage where he says, 1 Cor. xv. 45, " And so it is written. The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit." The word, however, may mean later in an indefinite sense; and, in the uncertainty, I have so translated it. NOTES, JOB XIX. 25. 265 He shall stand up upon the earth, — or upon the dust, meaning either tlie dust of the grave in particular, or the dust of the earth in general ; "^^^ {gnaphar) is often used in both senses in this book. Stand up, — to vindicate ; he shall not then, as now, seem to sit still, and take no notice. 26. This my skin, — perhaps, more literally, this \thing^ my skin, for HST (zoth) being feminine cannot strictly agree with ^1*127 (^nori), which is masculine ; Job may be supposed to point to his body, and to mean, — this thing which you behold, this half-decayed worn-out thing, — ray skin. Shall have been destroyed,— lit., they, i.e., some destructive agents or other (no matter what) shall have destroyed; and hence, the word may b(i rendered passively, of which there are not wanting innumerable examples. We are not sufficiently acquainted with the precise meaning of ^|25 (nakaph) to determine what sort of destruction is here intended, though I rather incline to that which is, perhaps rather too boldly, asserted in the A. V. — \worms'\ destroy ; we cer- tainly have in the Arabic ^^p3 (nkiph) worm-eaten; and then compare with this, the Hebrew ^i?^ [nakav), to perforate. I leave this, however, undetermined. In my flesh, — more properly, out of, oy from tny Jiesh, the flesh being the place, or the instrument of vision. / shall see God. Supply '^^'^']'^ {yadagneti) from the preceding verse, / know that I shall see God. God is evidently the same being whom he calls, just before, his Vindicator, and who, he knows, will stand later or Last upon the earth. To see God is evidently the great promise to, and the blessed hope of, God's people in all ages. Compare Isaiah xxxiii. 17; Matt. v. 8; John xvii. 21; 1 Cor. xiii. 12; 1 John iii, 2; and Rev. xxii. 4. 27. "'^^i (asher) I take here in the sense of '^^^_ "I ¥^7 {l^magnati asher), which is sufficiently usual. The parallelism will, I think, assist greatly in the translation of this verse, and so, I conceive that the words in apposition to each other, in the first and in the second hemistich, are^?^ (a«?), /, and "^TV (gneinai), mine eyes; •^TOf:? {ekhezeh), I may see, and ^^^"^ {raou) may behold ; "^7 {H) cis mine own (lit., to me, or for me), and ~IJ'^>^"1 (welo zar), and not as a foe. As mine own, — i.e., decidedly taking my part as my Gocl or Vindicator, and not allowing, as now, appearances to be against me. Not as a foe. God seems, by his silence and dealings with me, to be acting the part of an enemy against me (v. 6 — 13), but it will not be so then. Pine tvith expectation. For a similar use of '^z? (chalah) see Deut. xxviii. 32; Job xi. 20; Ps. Ixix. 3; Ixxxiv. 2; cxix. 81, 82; cxliii. 7; Jer. xiv. 6; Lam. iv. 17. ^P.'O'^ (bekheki), — Within me, lit., in my bosom; the bosom is regarded as the seat of strong desires. So many commentators have strongly contested that Job, in these three cele- brated verses (25, 26, 27), makes no allusion whatever to the resurrection of his body, and only to a restoration to health and perhaps other temporal blessings, that I feel it will not be out of place for me to state some of the reasons by which I have been led, after much careful consideration, to adhere to the commonly received opinion, that Job here makes a noble confession of his faith and hope respecting the resurrection of his body. 2GG NOTES, JOB XIX. 25 — 27. 1st. I consider that the words speak for themselves^ and that they cannot be made to mean aught else than a hope in the resurrection of the bodj, without doing great violence to their plain, and literal, and grammatical sense. My translation may not express this view quite so strongly as that of the authorized version, but I have studiously avoided giving, in any the slightest degree, any colouring to a word which I conceived the original did not exactly bear ; hence, I have not given ^^2 {goeV) so specific a meaning as Redeemer, though undoubtedly it has that sense : I have not rendered P'T!^ (cikheron), at the latter day, though possibly it may have that meaning : neither have I defined the particular sort of destruction implied in -l-r^^ (nikkephou), though, as I have noticed above, there is some little evidence in favor of its meaning destruction by worms : nor again have I made ■HST (zoth) signify this \bodi/\ though possibly it miglit do so. The words, however, as they stand, evidently point out thus much. — Job's assurance that a Being, whom he calls both his Vindicator and also God, was living ; not that he had any hope of immediate succour from that divine and living vindicator, — Jiis liope was respecting a future period which might be yet very remote, even when that vindicator should stand later or last upon the dust, either of the earth or of the dead (which of these I cannot determine), that, then, his skin and flesh (flesh is sufficiently implied by his statement in the next clause), having been destroyed by certain destructive agents (what agents is not clear, though perhaps worms), he would nevertheless, looking out from his body of flesh ("^"?^2Q mihbcsari) and with his eyes (just as a person might be said to look out of his house and through his windows), see God : and his reins within him, he declares, were even now consuming with the longing desire he felt for that period to arrive when he might himself see God, not, as now, apparently against him, but, as his vindicator, decidedly taking his part, and, not as a foe, but as a friend. 2ndly. I consider that the preface, ivhich ushers in these remarkable words, sufficiently indicates that the statements they contain must be of the highest im- portance, and such as cannot have a mere trivial or common-place meaning attached to them. The sublimity of the language in that preface and the desire expressed by Job that the words he was about to utter might be perpetuated to the remotest generations, are certainly out of place, if those words were to imply no more than an assurance that God would shortly restore his half-destroyed body to health, and assert his innocence in opposition to his adversaries. After reading so magnificent an exordium, it is scarcely possible to tui-n to Dathe's translation of the verses in question, or that of any other commentator who cannot see here a hope of the resurrection, without being reminded of Horace's " Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus." 3rdly. I consider that the icish tvhich Job repeatedly expressed that he might die, and that, as soon as possible, is utterly inconsistent with any assured hope o, bodily restoration. That such was his wish is evident from the following passages. It is implied in ch. iii, " 20 — 22, and very positively stated in ch. vi. 8, 9 : — " 0 that what I ask might come ; And that Grod would grant what I long for ! Even tliat it would please God to crush mc, That he woidd let loose his hand and cut me off." NOTES, JOB XIX. 25—27. 2G7 And again very plainly in xiv. 13 : — " 0 that thou woixldcst secrete me in the grave, Wonkiest hide mc, till thine anger had turned away, AVouldest appoint me a set time, and then remember me ! " If language means anything at all, nothing can be more clear than that Job here desires, and with much earnestness prays, that God would speedily take away his life ; nay more, he speaks of this as being, not only his request, but also his hope : how impossible then is it to reconcile with such a request and such a liope, the supposition of his entertaining the assurance that God would vindicate his cause, and restox-e to him, in this life, his flesh after it should have been destroyed ! But — 4thly. This last argument receives additional force when we consider that Job is at great pains constanth/ to disclaim any hope of a temporal restitution, — a liope which his friends exhorted hini to indulge, and which certain scholai's, and some good men who follow in their train, are determined to make him express. Eeference to the following passages will prove that his friends pressed him to indulge the hope of a temporal restitution. (Ch. v. 17 — 26; xi. 13 — 19, particidarly verses 16 and 17.) How completely he disclaims the entertainment of any such hope — and that, partly on the ground of, what he supposes to be, the impossibility of a physical restoration, — is obvious from the following extracts. In his first answer to Eliphaz, and in evident allusion to the worldly hope which that friend had just set before him (v. 17 — 26), he replies (vi. 11 — 13) : — " What is my strength, that I should entertain hope ? • , And what is my term, that I should prolong my desire ? Is my strength the strength of stones ? Is my flesh copi^er ? Surely rather, there is no help for me in myself : And substance hath been expelled out of me." See the notes on these verses. Examine also the following passage with the notes upon it — xvii. 11 — 16 : — " My days are passed away ; My contrivances are broken — The possessions of my heart. Yet night put they for day ! And light near, out of very darkness ! If I am to hope, tlie grave is my house ; I have spread my bed in the darkness. To corruption, I have ci'ied, Thou art my father j To the worm, My mother and my sister. Where then now is my hope ? Ay, my hope ! Who is to see it ? To the cells of the grave shall it descend ; Yea, together shall we bo set down on the dust." The plain sense of all this is, — My former worldly expectations are now at an end, and yet, my friends invert the true order of things ; they try to darken ray really bright hope, and persuade me to indulge a worldly hope when such is impossible. No ; if I am to have hope, it is not with reference to this world. I already regard myself as an inmate of the grave. My true hope, however, is not 2GS NOTES, JOB XIX. 25 — 27. extinct. No ! it will go with me into the very grave itself. (But see all this more fully explained in the notes on the passage.) And now, once more, refer to xix. 10:— " Q-od hath iniined me on every side, and I am going ; And my hope hath he pulled up like a tree." Could Job, I Avould ask, have spoken more fully, or more forcibly, or more to the point, than he has done in these passages just quoted, to make it as evident as possible that he utterly disavowed the entertainment of any expectation of a restoration in the flesh, or of any other such worldly hope as his friends pressed upon his attention ? And if so, what must we say to the inconsistency of his so suddenly, and in such sublime language, asserting the very contrary, if indeed, the verses before us must bear the meaning which some commentators have determined to give to them ? No ! Job is consistent throughout. He feels that he cannot, and he will not, cherish any such hope, and he repeatedly says so ; but at the same time he nobly proclaims what and where his hope is, even in God, whom, at some future time, and after his body shall have been utterly destroyed, he shall behold as his friend ; and that, in his own flesh, and with his own eyes. 5thly. I ur^e as a further argument that, — not only does Job repeatedly disclaim, as ive have just seen, a toorldly hope, but he has in the fourteenth chapter, decisively declared his real hope to be, — a hope full of life and immortality, and, as I believe, a hope in the resurrection. This latter, however, I do not press. It is suflicient for my purpose to show that he is speaking of a hope after death. I again refer, then, to chap. xiv. In the thirteenth verse Job prays that God would secrete him in the grave till his anger had turned away ; and then the question suddenly suggests itself to Job, — But does man really exist after death ? This question he most unhesitatingly answers in the affirmative, and, at the same time, very beautifully and feelingly describes the full assurance of hope which he entertained respecting himself on that important subject. He says (ver. 14):-- " But if a man die, shall he live ? All the days of my term of soldiership will I wait, Until my renovation come. Thou shalt summon, and I will answer thee ; After the work of thine hands wilt thou hanker. Though now thou numberest my steps, Thou wilt not keep watch over my sin ; Though my transgression is sealed up in a bag, Thou wilt smear over mine iniqtiity." See the Notes on this passage; and see also xvii. 15, 16. Why then, should it be thought a thing incredible that Job should express a somewhat similar hope in xix. 25—27 ? 6thly. And then, after all, the opinion I am here combatting, — that Job here entertains only a hope of temporal restoration, goes very much upon the supposi- tion that he must have been ignorant of a future state of rewards and punishments ; for if not, why contend so strenuously against the most obvious, and certainly the most literal sense of this passage ? I cannot, however, see upon what grounds such a supposition can be made to rest. On the contrary. Job's great piety, his knowledge of God, and, more than probably, his knowledge of the fii'st great NOTES, JOB XIX. 25 — 27. 269 promise, and of the prophecy of Enoch respecting the future coming of the Lord to judgment; and then the examples and conduct of such men as Abraham, and Isaac, and perhaps Jacob, who declared plainly that they were strangers and pilgrims here, and that they looked for a better country and for the city which hath foundations ; and then his own oft-repeated declarations that God did not make any particular distinction between the righteous and the wicked, so far as temporal blessings are concerned (see ix. 22 — 24), nay, rather, that often the ungodly prospered most (xii. 6), — all these circumstances put together go far to establish that, so far from Job's being ignorant of a future state, he must have known that there was such a state — a state in which God would deal with the righteous and the wicked according to rules of justice, rewarding or punishing each according as their deeds had been. 7thly. And then, lastly, we have the fact that a remarkable inscription has been found at Hasn Ghorab in Arabia, carved upon the surface of the solid rock, by that most ancient of Arab tribes, the Adites, the immediate descendants of Aws or Uz ; and that that inscription, lately deciphered by Mr. Forster, and supposed by him to be coeval with the time of the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt, conveys to us the imperishable record of the faith of that very ancient tribe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. The part of the inscription which contains this confession of the faith of an ancient people is as follows, according to Mr. Forster's translation : — " Over us presided kings far removed from baseness, And stern chastisers of reprobate and wicked men : And they noted down for us, according to the doctrine of Heber, good judgments, written in a book, to be kept : And we believed in miracles, in the resurrection, in the retui'n into the nostrils of the breath of hfe." On a subject so interesting I trust it may not be out of place to give also another and more literal translation of Mr. Forster's of the last line : — " And we proclaimed our belief in mysteries : in the miracle-mystery, in the resurrection- mystery, in the nostril-mystery." In the original, as deciphered by Mr. Forster, it reads thus : — " Wa ran sharkab oo wa uo darkab oo wa oo mesharkab „o wa ^,a menarkab." The alliteration of the words and the rhyming of the terminations are too remarkable to escape notice. Mr, Forster, whiLt struck with the rhyming, was convinced that those singular terminations must have been intended to convey some sense, though they had been left unnoticed in the Arabic translation furnished by Schultens ; and accordingly, on turning to Golius, he found that the lAi> (Jdiaha) signified occultavit, occidtatus, occultusque fuit ; lafuit; and its derivative ^^.>:>- (khab) res occulta et abscondita . . . . ; in other words, a mystery. I may add, in corroboration of the correctness of this view, that the word has the same meaning in the Hebrew, and Chaldee, and also in the Ethiopic, in which particularly it is used to signify mysterium, as in 1 Cor. xiii. 2 ; and not altogether foreign from this is the Syriac meaning, thick darkness. I am inclined to differ from Mr. Forster in his rendering of the word ^^ T.j^\ (shark), which he translates [^our'] belief, and takes from (Jj^ (shrk), and 270 NOTES, JOB XIX. 25 — 27. wliicli he defines from Golius to be, Socios consortesve addidit Deo ; atque ita credidit in Deum {lie added fellows to God, and so he believed in God) ; in otliei' words, in the Trinity, as Mr. Forster thinks ; but he has evidently mistaken the meaning of tlie word. Castell says of it : — " Socios, consortes addidit Deo ; atque ita perverse credidit in Deum (Jiereticus fait et infidelis),'' i. e., he added fellows to God, and so he believed wrongfully concerning God {loas a heretic and unbeliever). The fact is, the general sense of the word as given by Castell is : — Socitts, censors fuit, consortium inivit, commurdo, consortium ; he was an ally, a consort, xoent into partnership, communion, fellowship. And this I take to be its true meaning in this place: — We proclaimed \our~\ fellowship in mysteries; in other words, that we were of one communion in the partaking in the hope of certain mysteries — mystei'ies which are afterwards explained. The word ^\/^ {darTt) Mr. Forster takes from \^jd(drk\ and defines from Golius to be, Reparavit, resarcivit, restauravit ; and hence K.lj {darkt). Com-- prehensiva potentia, which he makes to mean miraculous power; but Castell gives it, Comprehensiva potentia animoa, — i.e., comprehensive (as applied to the power of mind or soul). It appeared to me at first that the more obvious signification, derived from the root, is restoration or restitution, and that is the meaning which I originally gave it here, referring it to what St. Peter calls " the restitution of all things " — a doctrine certainly closely connected with that of the resurrection, and yet sufliiciently distinct from it. Further consideration, however, has led me to propose another rendering. In addition to the three meanings given above — Reparavit, resarcivit, and restauravit, Castell adds also compre- hendit and compensavit. Noav, put these several ideas together, and we have the general sense of laying hold of and making compensation, and mending, and restoring ; in short, as I conceive, all that is included in the doctrine of the Atonement; and if so, we have indeed here the D727 T["11]; (derek gnolam), ^^ the old way." The translation, then, which I would propose is as follows : — " And we proclaimed [our] fellowship-in-naysteries : in the amendment-mystery, iu the resurrection-mystery, in the nostril-mystery." Here, then, we have the creed, graven with a pen of iron, and carved in the rock for ever, of a people who thus proclaimed it perhaps even before the days of Job himself ; and, from this imperishable record, we learn tliat men, whose fathers had conversed with the venerable Noah and the other survivors of the deluge, professed their belief in " the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." The depth of their sculpture in the marble at Hasn Ghorab of itself attests the heartiness of their AMEN to these all-important articles of faith. (For further particulars respecting this remarkable record, see the Illustrations.) I may now bring this long note to a conclusion, by briefly recapitulating the arguments which I have oflTered, in favor of the view that Job in this celebrated passage does express his hope in the future resurrection of his body, and against the view which supposes him to refer simply to a temporal restoration. If the words themselves of Job are to be taken in their literal and grammatical meaning, and if the pref\ice which ushers them in is to be regarded with that admiration which its grandeur and sublimity demand, and not as a piece of ridiculous and mis- placed bombast ; — if we are to believe that the Patriarch spoke honestly, and NOTES, JOB XIX. 25 — 27. 271 was not playing a part of the deepest duplicity, when he frequently declared how welcome death would be, and even prayed that it might speedily come; and when he often positively disclaimed all idea of entertaining any such, as he conceived, preposterous hope as that of a restoration in this life ; and when, further, he unequivocally asserted that his hope was beyond tlie grave ; — and if we are to believe further, from the general tenor of his argument throughout, that he could not be ignorant of a future state of rewards and punishments ; — and if, moreover, we find that a people, coeval at least with the time of tlie Patriarch, have transmitted to us, with a pen of iron on the surface of tlie hard rock, their faith in the resurrection and life everlasting — tlien, we have in all this, as I think, an amount of cumulative evidence to establish the commonly-received, though stoutly-impugned opinion, that Job had the fullest confidence that, though he should return to dust, yet he should rise again, and in his flesh see One who was at once his Vindicator and his God. I must, in closing, just notice an argument which has been much pressed against the view which I am maintaining, and. as it is an argument which some have thought very conclusive against it, it requires a distinct answer. It is, — that if Job is really here referring to the resurrection of the hochj, it is remarkable that none of the speakers afterivards make any comment vpon it, or in any icay advert to it. I briefly reply, that this silence on the part of the speakers afterwards is perfectly natural. Job's appeal to a period of time indefinitely far off, and to another state of existence, when his character would be vindicated and cleared of the aspersions now cast upon it, however comforting to his own mind, could of course be no proof of his innocence, and, as such, could not be accepted as an argument by his adversaries. An appeal of this kind is, in the present day, common enough, especially in cases where persons are unable to adduce any substantial proof to back their assertions of innocence. What is more common, for instance, than for them, under such circumstances, to say — "Well, the day of judgment will decide ; it will be seen then that I am blameless in this matter " ? Now, however consoling such an appeal may be to the individual making it, if it be sincere, yet nobody would think of accepting it as an argument ; and in a controversy it would probably be passed over, as here, without notice. 28. I had originally translated this verse, — "When ye shall be saying, IIow did we persecute him? Then the root of the matter shall biive beeu found in me." The expression, " the root of the matter" has become so conventional amongst us, that I could not bring myself to view it in any other light than in its ordinary and, I may say, religious acceptation. But, after mature deliberation, I adopt the view that the original means rather a ground of controversy, or material for adjudication, or quarrel, or ground of accusation, or some such sense ; besides which, the evidence is very strong in favour of reading "12 (bo) instead of "*? {bi). It was certainly the reading of the ancient versions, excepting the Syriac, and of nearly sixty MSS., collated by Kennicott, and is adopted by many excellent modern scholars ; added to which, ihe parallelism is preserved if, as we may do in that case, we take ^^'P? {iiimtsa) in the same person and number as tlie preceeding ^X^} {nirdaph). 272 NOTES, JOB XIX. 28. There is an evident connexion between this verse and the 22d, and the inter- mediate verses come in, as I think, in a sort of parenthesis. In ver. 22 Job speaks of the persecution which he received at the hands of his friends. Tlie thought suddenly flashes upon his mind that he has however a vindicator in heaven who will avenge him, and this leads him to make the noble confession of his faith and hope in verses 23 — 27. Having done this, he again recurs to the subject of the persecution he received at the hands of his friends, and bids them on that account to be afraid of the sword of the avenger. Compare this mention of a sword with Rev. xix. 15, 21. How shall ive persecute him, and find a root of matter in him f This shows the studied and systematic manner in which Job's friends carried on their virulent attacks upon him, and how determined they were in their endeavours to find something in him, upon which they might lay hold, and which they might urge against him as an evidence of criminality. 29. Fear for yourselves. You have expressed many fears on my account ; you would do well, however, to apply them to your own case. Sword, — i.e., of the Vindicator. See Rev. xix. II — 21. ni^il?, nan "^S (cM hhemah gnewonoth). I agree with those who consider that this is elliptical for nisi^/ r\'Gn ^"2 (chi hhetnah lagneivonoth). y''Vp (shaddin), for T'^ "'^^ (asher din). Rosenmiiller gives, as other instances where ^ (sha) occurs instead of the usual ^ (she), Jud. v. 7, and Cant. i. 7. In order ye may knoio, — i.e., I have made the remarkable statement, just uttered, respecting my hope in an avenging God, in order that you may feel assured that, though God does not now hear my appeal to him for judgment (see ver. 7), yet there is to be a judgment. JOB XX. 2. Therefore, in consequence of what you (Job) have just said. An abrupt exordium, and expressive of the hurry which Zophar feels. Thoughts □"^23727 (^segnippim). Ideas which suddenly and variously shoot out of the mind like the ramifications of a tree. The word occurs in chap. iv. 13. Reply for me, — suggest to me what to say ; lit., shall answer me, — i.e., shall teach me how to answer. The meaning of the verse appears to be, — So eager am I to refute what has just fallen from Job's lips, that I speak at once, and without premeditation, and shall only have to follow the suggestions of my thoughts as fast as they arise. "We may infer, from this apparently exceptional case, that there was a pause between the different speeches in this controversy. 3. A reprimand disgraceful to me, — lit., a reprimand of my disgrace. The spirit of Sfc. 1^ {min), from or out of ; therefore, the spirit emanating from, &c. 4. The supposition, that "^2 {chi) in the next verse must be necessarily relatively dependant upon nri!^"T^ {yadagnetah) in this, has been the occasion of considerable difficulty in the rendering of the first of these clauses ; and, in fact, I see no way of getting out of the difficulty in that case except, as has been done, by taking riMTri (Jiezoth) for HST \s>'r} (^helo zoth), and so making the question negative ; but NOTES, JOB XX. 4. 273 we need not have recourse to this, for we may take '''? (chi) in an adversative sense. Thou hast known this. Job had just said, — " I know that my Vindicator liveth," &c., &c. Zophar sarcastically asks him whether he was so ancient as to have obtained this knowledge from the beginning of the world. 5. But. ''S (chi), here in its adversative sense. You may have such and such hopes in God, butlQt me tell you that you are wrong, for the joyousness of the wicked, &c., &c, n33"l {renanaK), joyousness, or not unlike our word merriment ; gladness of heart accompanied by corresponding sounds of the voice. Is but of late, — lit., is from near. Lasts but a moment, — lit., is up to a moment, and then ends. There is the same idea of continuance in ^7.?. {gnedei) as in our word lasts. The beauty of the connexion, and, at the same time, contrast of ideas between ^'i~'i^P (jnikkarov) and 372'1'''"I5 {gnedei ragagn), has not, so far as I know, been noticed. The one implies that the happiness alluded to has but just begun ; the other, that it is soon or suddenly ended. 6. A similitude, as Rosenmiiller remarks, probably taken from a tree, and, as I think, the palm tree. See Dan. iv. 10, 11. Compare the expression with Horace's " Sublimi feriam sidera vertice." 7. His own dung. 1 Kings xiv. 10 ; 2 Kings ix. 37 ; Psalm Ixxxiii. 10 ; and Jer. viii. 2. They that saw him, — lit., they that see him. The meaning being that those that see him now shall at some future time say, &c., &c. All this seems in opposition to what Job had said in xix. 25 — 27. 8. And not be found, — lit., they {i.e., persons seeking him) shall not find him. As a dream shall he fly away. Compare Dan. ii. 5, " The thing (my dream) is gone from me." 9. Job had said much the same in vii. 8 — 10. ^inDTp {shezaphattou) for '''^•C'?J^ {shezaphathhou). This word occurs only here, and in chap, xxviii. 7, and Cant. i. 6. We have no very particular means of arriving at the meaning of this word except by judging of the requirements of the context in these three passages. It appears to me that glanced is a suitable meaning, as it refers both to vision (the requirement here and in chap, xxviii.) and also to the striking of the rays of the sun (the requirement of Cant. i. 6.) 10. Shall pacify the impoverished, — i.e., they will have to get into the good graces of the impoverished by refunding to them the property of which their father had robbed them, and by which means these persons had been brought into reduced circumstances. And his hands. Yea, even in his own lifetime he shall have to restore much of his ill-gotten wealth. Of course a compulsory restitution is intended, and such as Providence might in many ways force him to make. There are many who either take ^-"]^. (yeratstsou) for ^JJ i^ (yarotstsou), from Vr*^ {ratsats), he broke, &c. ; or who consider "^^7 {:>'(ttsah) as equivalent to V¥l {ratsats), just as nSl {dachah) = "n?"!T {dachach), ni'n {khatsah) =V?n khatsats, &c., &c. In this case, the translation would be, The impoverished ivill break his children hi pieces. The ancient versions favor this opinion. T 274 NOTES, JOB XX. 10. There are some nlso who take *1'^7t {yudaiw) in a distributive sense, and translate, their hands, i.e., the hands of each \of his children^ make restitution of his iveaJth. It is difficult to say whether PW (oivn) can signify ivealth except by inference. The verb of course infers it, but the word itself more properly means iniquity. And so, the sense in that case would be, shall make restitutio?i of his iniquity, — i.e., of whatever he acquired by iniquity — in fact, iU-gotte7i ivealth. 11. I prefer the opinion of those who take Ci?*"' ''^ [gnelownim) here (according to the reading of the Keri) as it is used in Ps. xc. 8, secret things, i.e., sins, and not, as some understand it, things, or sins of youth. But I see no reason for deviating with the Keri from the text "i^-lvl? {gneloumo), his secret thing, i.e., sin. ^Stpri [tishchav^, a verb feminine singular in regimen with (if we follow the ICeri) a noun plural (this is a common Arabic construction) ; or, if we follow the text, with a noun masculine, because the feminine noun riS^n {khattath) sin, is understood. Zophar evidently alludes here to what Job had said in xvii. 15, 16, about his hope going down with him into the grave. Zophar insinuates that Job's bones were full of some particular sin, hidden from the eyes of man, and that this, and not such a hope as he had boasted of, would descend with him into the sepulchre. On the dust. The bodies of the dead were not buried in the ground, but merely deposited 07i the ground inside the sepulchral cavern or tomb. 12. From this to verse 16 we have, as a simile, the case of a man who takes poison into his mouth, and who, deceived by its sweetness, retains it there for a while ; then at length swallows it, and soon feels its evil effects in excruciating pains and vomiting. Just so, the sinner may enjoy for a time his wickedness, and especially the fruits of his extortion and avarice ; but, sooner or later, he suffers the evil consequences of his folly, and is forced to disgorge the sweet morsel. Wickedness. "^V*^ (ragnah). Especially wickedness which inflicts an injury upon a fellow-man — the indulgence of all such passions as pride, ambition, avarice, envy, malice, revenge, &c. ; and which exhibit themselves in acts of injustice, extortion, rapine, violence, murder, &c. Such indulgence may be sweet for a time. Zophar intimates that Job was secretly guilty of this ; and indeed, in chap. xxii. 5 — 10, Eliphaz plainly accuses him of it. 13. Though he spare it, ^c. Careful not to swallow the morsel too soon, that he may have the longer enjoyment of it. Hold it back. He puts a restraint upon the natural impulse, which would be, to swallow it at once. Zophar insinuates that, though Job might not have been one of those sinners who devour sin greedily, he was a sinner of a more refined character ; his misdeeds might not be frequent, but they were secret, and attended with much refined gratification. His palate. The organ of taste. 14. Shall be turned. From sweet to bitter. 15. Wealth. Of course unjustly gotten. 16. The tongue of the viper. Compare Ps. cxl. 3. 17. He shall not gaze on. ^^7 {^aak), when followed by ? (be), has frequently the meaning of beholding with satisfaction ; as we should say, feasting the eyes with an object. So Ps. xxii. 17; xxxvii. 34; cxii. 8; cxviii. 7; and NOTES, JOB XX. 17. 275 Obatl. 12. The force of the apocopate here is expressive of an ardent wish on the part of the speaker— a wish amounting to an assurance of certainty : — Let him not feast his eyes ; or its full force may be, Let him not think that he shall feast his eyes. Rivulets. Streams by which lands were irrigated, and so, made productive in pasturage for cows and in flowers for bees ; whence the milk and the honey. Rivers of torrents. Expressive of great abundance. Compare Ovid's descrip- tion of the golden age, as quoted by Rosenmiiller : — " Fluminajam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibaiit." Mahomet describes his paradise much in the same style : — " Therein are rivers of incorruptible water ; and rivers of milk, the taste whereof changeth not ; and rivers of wine, pleasant to those who drink ; and rivers of clarified honey." There is nothing unseemly in the idea here presented of butter flowing down like a river, as butter in Arabia is eaten in a semi-liquid state. Butter and honey are ordinary food of the Arabs. See also Isa. vii. 15. 18. Here we have the plain meaning of what was figuratively expressed in ver. 15. •^?T (l/'^ff<^9^) I t^ks to be, not so much, labour, as that which it ear7is or produces ; and so here, it means either icages which had been fraudulently kept back, or such wealth as the sinner here spoken of bad been at some though iniquitous toil in procuring ; but I prefer the former of these senses. Sicalloiv it, — i.e., permanently, and so as to retain or enjoy it. To the full amount of its value, — lit., according to the -power of its exchange. There are those who understand it, — according to [his'] means, [so] shall his restitution be. The objection to this is, that ^^H (kheil) is in construct state, and n"l^S2^ {temourah^ can hardly be made to signify restitution. 19. The 1?'^V {gnal chen) in ver. 21 sufficiently shows us, as I think, how far we are to carry on the power of the causal particle ""S (chi). Rosenmiiller anticipates the illative 1?"^? {gnal chen) in the next verse, but for this I can see no reason. The destitute, — or the impoverished. tS'^y'^T (dallim) may signify either. If the former, it implies a condition so exhausted as to be helpless ; if the latter, that that condition has been produced by some agency. The agency here would be the wicked tyrant's avarice and violence. 20. He never felt rest hi his belly. Was a man of gluttonous habits, and never knew what it was to be satisfied with eating. M7 (Id) may here be translated never rather than not, because the action is continued, so far at least as the past is concerned. In his appetite, Sfc, — or iii his ardent desire; or it may mean, in his self- gratification. He devoured all that he could lay hands on. 21. Not a scrap, ^c. This is not simply a repetition of the former clause; that stated that the greedy man procured everything in the way of food that his appetite desired — this, that after he had eaten, nothing remained. Remained. I in some measure supply this word, but have not inserted it in brackets, for the sense of it is contained in the previous word T*"}^ (sarid) a remnant. 22. The hand of every wretch, — lit., every hand of a wretch ; or perhaps it T 2 276 NOTES, JOB XX. 22. might be translated, every stroke of wretchedness. I prefer the former, however. Every wretch, — those whom he has made wretched by his spoliations. 23. There shall be, S^c. This greedy glutton shall indeed have plenty to fill his belly with, but not of such kind as he would desire, as is explained in the next clauses, Thei-e is a sort of imprecation implied in "^H"! {ychi), and it might be rendered, let there be. By a kind of just retaliation, as this man had devoured wealth, &c., so now he shall have to eat " snares, fire, and brimstone," and such other things as God shall pour down upon him; just as in Ps, xi. 6, the wicked are said to drink these things (" this shall be the portion of their cup "), so here, the glutton shall have them for food. Upon him, — lit., upon them; i.e., upon all such. What he shall eat. This agrees well with the statement in the first clause. 24. He shall flee, ^c, — i.e., putting the case that he does escape out of one danger, it is only to fall into another. A boiv of copper. The more difficult, therefore, to pull, and so the more likely to overtake the fugitive. (See, however, the next note.) Shall slip through him, — i.e., probably the arrow from the bow. This word ^'^57'7^ (takhlephehou) implies also the notion of passing by him ; i.e., he thinks to escape, but it overtakes him, and indeed goes beyond him ; first, however, passing through him. I am not sure whether the expression, — a bow of copper shall slip through, or over him, may not mean that it shall be slipped over his head by his enemy, so as to take him. (See the Illustrations.) 25. It is drawn, — lit., he, i.e., some one draivs ; and so, the verb may be rendered passively, — the "iron weapon" from which the man flees is drawn. Nothing can be more graphic and vivid than the description in this and the preceding verse. The frightened wretch here spoken of runs away from the sword of his enemy, dreading a hand-to-hand encounter ; but his flight is suddenly arrested by an arrow from the powerful bow (or he is noosed by the bow itself) of his antagonist, who soon comes up, draws his flashing sword, rapidly thrusts it into the vitals of his fallen victim, and as rapidly draws it back out of his body. The expiring wretch feels that life is ebbing fast, and is overwhelmed with terrors. The flashing sword. P'J2 (barak) is properly lightning; but it is very frequently applied to the glittering of the blade of a drawn sword ; and so also, in Arabic, as Rosenmiiller observes, p"l^^3 (bark) is used to signify a sword. 26. Shall be his treasure, — lit., shall be for his treasures. As just now it was said that his greedy appetite should be well filled with judgments rained down upon him from heaven, so here it is intimated that, in laying up earthly treasures, he has only been treasuring up for himself wrath against the day of wrath ; and now that he is dead, he shall have the enjoyment of every species of horrible misery. Compare James v. 1 — 5 ; also Romans ii. 5. There is an allusion here to treasures being kept in dark places. A fire not bloivn, — and therefore supernatural ; like that in Isa. xxx. 33, and of which we have a more circumstantial account in Rev. xix. 20; xx. 10, 14, 15. That the doctrine of future rewards and punishments was not promulgated for the first time in our Lord's-day is, I think, sufficiently evidenced by the parable of the NOTES, JOB XX. 26. 277 rich man and Lazarus, wherein our Lord shows that it was not necessary for one to rise from the dead in order to testify about hell torments, as there was a sufficient revelation already made in " Moses and the prophets." Shall fare ill, — 3^'].'! {yeragn), Fut. Kal, from 37"!"^ {yaragn) ; it can scarcely be a Niphal form from J'?"^ {ragnagn), as some take it. By his wickedness, not only, has he brought upon himself a miserable death and eternal torment, but also, he has involved in temporal misfortunes those who belonged to him. The two first clauses in this verse are apparently intended to strike a blow at the hope which Job had so particularly expressed in xix. 25 — 27. 27, 28. These verses explain in what way the survivor in his tent shall fare ill. God, by judgments and other providential means, shall so bring his secret sins to light that everybody, exasperated at his conduct, will be taking up arms against him ; and even, when he himself is despatched, the property that he had amassed shall be carried off, and dispersed in various directions, in the day that wrath falls upon him ; and so, his family, household, &c., will be involved in the calamity occasioned by his sins. Unveil. This appears to be the primary meaning of H^a (^galah). Shall be rising tip. The continuance of action expressed by the participle has, I believe, been hitherto overlooked. The meaning seems to be, that every- body will be still in arms against him even after he is gone. (ver. 25.) T/ie stores of his house. The produce, or revenue, or income; any kind of wealth, in short, that had been brought into his house. The word itself, ^^'^\ {yevoul), is in the singular; but the following ^"l"!!? (riiggaroth) shows that a plui-al idea is intended, and I have so translated it. In the day of his lorath. I do not see, with others, that this must necessarily mean in the day of God's wrath, except, of course, in an implied sense. I understand it to mean — in the day that lorath comes upon him. 29. And his heritage, S)-c., — lit., and the heritage of his word, or cotnmaiid, or sentence, Sj-c, from God. The conclusion of this discourse is not unlike that of Bildad's in xviii. 21. JOB XXI. 2. My verse. See Note on iv. 2. yi?id let this be your condolence. You have come here with the avowed purpose of condoling with me. Let your way of expressing condolence be, not by loquacity on your part, but by a fixir and attentive consideration of what I say. 3. Thou shalt mock. This is probably pointedly addressed to the last speaker. 4. Is my complaint, 8fc. Job had already said, in xiii. 3, that he referred his case not to man, but to God ; by these present questions, therefore, he hints that he altogether declines the interference of his friends — that, in fact, they had no business to speak, and that he certainly had grounds for being impatient of any such interference. llliy then should I not be impatient'? — lit., Why should not my spirit be short ? — The ordinary Hebrew phrase for impatience. 278 NOTES, JOB XXI. 4. And why then. ?^'^!5 D^l {weim maddoiiagn), and if such be the case, as it is, that I have referred the matter, not to you, but to God, why, he. 5. If you consider my case with the attention it merits, you will be so astounded at my strange sufferings as to be unable to do otherwise than keep silence. The action of laying the hand upon the mouth was a token of silence. (See the Illustrations.) ^JStt'n (Jiashamtnou) Imp. Hiph. for ^ttiXDT\ (Jmshemmou). 6. When I call, S)'c., — or, if I have called to mind; i.e., if at any time I have done so, then, &c., &c. I consider that this verse is connected both with what goes before, and with what immediately follows. Job's meaning seems to be, — Whenever I, who am an innocent man, reflect upon the subject of my sufferings, and the prosperity of the ungodly, I am horrified at the thought of the awful punishment which awaits them hereafter. The idea intended is not unlike that phrase, " If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry '? " Shuddereth, — lit., taketh hold of terrors. 7. Wherefore, Sj-c. ? A question frequently asked by good men. See Ps. Ixxiii. and Jer. xii. 1, &c. Live, — i. e., have enjoyment of life. They last. This I take to be the exact meaning of PO^ {gnathak) he:*e. Get mighty in tvealth. Thus Job denies Zophar's position in xx. 5. 8. Their seed, S,-c., become permanent, and settle near them. This is contrary to what Bildad had said in xviii. 19, and to what Zophar had affirmed in XX. 10, 26. ^'*^^.^^. [tseetsaim) is exactly expressed by our word issue, thougb perhaps the reduplication rather implies issue's issue. 9. Are securely peaceful, — lit., are peace from {i.e., free from) fear. Compare this verse with Ps. Ixxiii. 5. 10. Their bull, — lit., his bull, i.e., the bull of each one ctf these persons. i")il2; (shoro) being masculine or feminine (though rarely the latter), the LXX., the Vulgate, Bochart, Schultens, Lee, &c., prefer to translate his coiv ; and so, make "1227 (gnibbar) to mean conceiveth ; but this is a sti'ained meaning of the word, though there is some authority for it in the Chaldee usage ; at all events, we should scarcely expect to find, in such a case as the present, masculine verbs with a noun intended to be regarded as feminine. I follow therefore the A. V., Rosenmiiller, Dathe, &c. "^^V {gnibbar). Transire facit, init. Refuseth not. Perhaps more literally, loatheth not. Galveth, — lit., is delivered. 11. Frisk — like young lambs. How sad that sin should spoil so exquisite a picture ! Not unlike this is Ps. evii. 41. 12. They lift tip, — supply D^ip (kolam) after ^i^PI (iseou). So Numb. xiv. 1, and Isaiah xlii. 11. The three musical instruments here mentioned are certainly the most ancient, and are naturally the most simple, and indeed may be regarded as the originals of every species of musical instrument that has since been invented, all which may be reduced to three kinds — string instruments, wind instruments, and instruments of percussion ; and the ~'"i33 (chinnor) harp, the NOTES, JOB XXI. 12. 279 ■^t'^^ {ffnougav) pipe, and the ^^ (toph) tabor, may be considered as the first representatives of each of these species respectively. The harp and pipe are the earliest upon record, being mentioned so early as in Gen. iv. 21 ; and in Gen. xxxi. 27 the tabor is mentioned in connexion with the harp. But, for more of this, see the Illustrations. 13. 77iei/ wear out — as one wears out a garment. The exact meaning of n^2 (Jmlah), and a sense, as I think, preferable to that of the Keri — ^v?^ (j/echallou) they consume. And in a moment, S^c, ^-c. This is intended to present another circumstance of their worldhj happiness, that their death is easy and sudden. So also Psalm Ixxiii. 4, " There are no bands in their death (they do not suffer the pangs of disease), but their strength is firm^ Of this kind was the death of Moses, Deut. xxxiv. 7. ^^^^.. {yekhattoii) for ^'"in."! (^yekhathou), with dagesh euphonic, from •Hna (^nakhath). 14. They used to say. This appears to me the force here of what is usually called the vaw conversive. 15. fVhat is the Almighty, Sfc. So Exod. v. 2 ; Prov. xxx. 9 ; and Mai. iii. 14. That we should meet him. 2?3Q {pagagri) means to meet either with hostile or with friendly intentions. The latter sense, of course, is intended here. Perhaps the closest approximation to the original, and, indeed, its exact rendering, would be, that we should come in contact tvith him. I take the general meaning here to be, that we should be on terms with hitn. This, of course, in reference to God, would involve the notion of the performance of all religious duties ; in short, the practical answer to the question of the why ? and the where ? and the hoio ? God is to be met. 16. Lo, their prosperity, <^-c. How foolish of them, therefore, to be so athe- istical ! Job afterwards shows that God does make it manifest that the prosperity of such men is not, after all, in their own power, and that God does frequently prove this by plunging them into adversity. Rosenmiiller wonders that no translator before Schultens had discovered that this first clause is to be understood as spoken ironically ; and so, he and indeed the German school in general, take the meaning to be, — Lo, (according to your ideas, my friends,) their prosperity is not in their hand ! (but I have shown you otherwise). According to this interpre- tation the force here of ir? (Jien) would be much that of our — andyet. The object of these interpreters is obvious ; they wish to get over the difficulty of making Job appear inconsistent, in first painting a picture of the worldly prosperity of the wicked, and then conceding to his friends that often liowever the reverse is true. The difficulty, it must be allowed, is a considerable one ; but, in order to make good their position, these commentators are obliged in the following verses frequently to do violence, as I think, to the plain structure of the language ; whereas the business of a translator is, not first to determine what the sense must be and then translate accordingly ; but rather, he must translate fairly, even though the sense should not be precisely wliat he might have presumed it should be. Of course such a rule as this is only a general principle, and is not without some particular modifi- cations. I think, however, that in the present instance, and in the subsequent 280 NOTES, JOB XXI. IG. verses, it has been too much transgressed in the attempt to make Job maintain throughout, in opposition to the assertion of his friends, that the wicked are uninterruptedly and universally prosperous in the world. The counsel of the wicked. Their contempt of religion, or their avowed principle that they see nothing of an utilitarian character about it (vers. 14, 15.) Be the principle correct or not as to its results, let me have nothing to do with such abominable reasoning. •^I'jn'^ {rakhekah). The preterite has the force here of a strong imperative, as though it were rendered must be far, i.e., it is far, and must be so. 17. How oft. "^^3 chammah. The German school just now referred to, and for reasons just stated, make this signify how seldom. To this I should see no objection (as how oft may certainly be the question of one doubting) were it not for difficulties which come afterwards. Job means, — notwithstanding the pros- pei'ity of the wicked in general, yet it must be admitted that it does often come to a very awful termination. I think Job's inference is, that such exceptional cases of the wicked being visited in this life, do not set aside the general rule that they Uvea life of uninterrupted pi'osperity ; Avhile, at the same time, such cases serve to show that there must be a retributive justice, if not in this world, at least in the next. Job trembles (ver. 6) when he reflects that, generally speaking, the ungodly are not punished in this life ; and the more so, because many instances of terrible judgments, inflicted on some, prove to him beyond all doubt that a just God must punish the prosperous ungodly after death. So far then. Job agrees with what Bildad had said (xviii. 5, and elsewhere), and with what his other friends had said ; but then his inference is very different from theirs. Their position was,^ God always punishes wicked men in this life, and their inference, though illogical, was, — Job is punished, and, therefore, he is wicked. Job's position was, — God sometimes does jmnish the wicked in this life, but generally not ; his inference is, — they are therefore 7-eserved for future punishment ; and such being the method of God's dealings, it is impossible for you to argue, from the adverse or prosperous circumstances in ivhich a man may be placed, what his moral character must be. 18. So Ps. i. 4. Stealeth — snatches up, and suddenly carries olF. 19. Storeth up — like treasure. P^ {own), may mean wealth as well as iniquity. The meaning of the whole is, — the riches which the children of the wicked shall have for their portion will be, by God's providence, not actual wealth, but the bitter fruits of the sins of their father. This is something like that statement in the Second Commandment, — "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Job, be it remembered, is speaking here of exceptional instances ; his ai'gument is, — this may be often, but is by no means always the case. Those, who maintain that Job does not admit of any exceptional cases at all, forget that they make him contend for a positive untruth, and one which his friends might easily have refuted by an appeal to every-day experience. A>id he knoiveth if, — i.e., feels the pressure of his punishment, and fully knows that it is an act of retribution on God's part for his sins. 20. His own eyes, Sfc. It is not usual for man or beast to fall into the trap which he sees beforehand. Job intimates, however, that not unfrequently the case is different with a wicked man. He clearly foi-esees, with as much certainty NOTES, JOB XXI. 20. 281 as ocular demonstration itself could give, that the course he is pursuing must end in destruction ; he sees the trap, and knows that it is prepared for him, and yet, he cannot avoid it ; and this very knowledge is already to some extent a punish- ment of his sin, for it necessarily is a source of misery ; and so, even now, " he drinketh of the wrath of the Almighty. " Entrapment. This very well suits the Arabic T^3 {chid), to which we must have recourse for the meaning of the Hebrew T*? (chid), that word occurring nowhere else in the Bible. n^n (hhemah), means poison, as well as ivrath. 21. Another ingredient, in the bitter cup of wrath which some wicked men have to drink even here, is derived from the reflection that they must go, and must leave behind them all that constitutes their happiness here. His house, — that is, wife, children, possessions, &c. Compare those touching lines of Horace : — " Linquenda iellus, ei domus, et placens Uxor ; neque harum, quas colis, arborum Te, prceter invisas cupressos, Ulla brevem dominum sequetur.'^ 22. Shall any, SfC. Job here rebukes the presumption of his friends, who, by maintaining that the wicked must invariably meet with the reward of their deeds in this life, in effect dictated what God ought or ought not to do in the moral government of the world. Such dictation on the part of any man argued the highest arrogance, seeing that God is sovereign ; and so, might do what seemed to Him good, without having his course of action prescribed by human views of right and wrong. Job goes on to show that, by God's sovereign will, the circumstances of men in this life are exceedingly different — one being prosperous to the end of his days (vers. 23, 24), and another never knowing what it is to be prosperous at all. (ver. 25.) His inference is that this is unaccountable, and quite beyond the ken of men, and that consequently, it is impossible to argue, from the temporal condition of any man, what his moral state may really be. He governeth. l^Qtt? (shaphat), does not always mean simply to judge, but also to exercise the office of magistrate, or ruler, or king, &c. ^"'P'3 {ramim), — lit., high things, or persons. No doubt, the latter is here meant. Whether it refers to angels or to men in the highest earthly stations is not easy to determine, though probably it refers to both. Our word — dignities — will sufficiently express either or both of these meanings. The general sense, of course, is, that God is sovereign. 23. This man, HT (zeh), opposed to the otlier HT {zeh) in ver. 25, which, therefore, means that man. Job is contrasting the very different worldly condition of two supposed cases of every day occurrence, and infers that nothing can be determined from their circumstances as to what their moral condition may be. In the acme of his hajypiness. This is a free translation, but it expresses the meaning of the original. D'H (torn), is perfectness of anything, whether of character, or of number, or oi fortune, prosperity, &c. I think from the context that the latter is here intended, and D^^ (gnetsem), lit., bone, is employed by the Hebrews much in the same sense as we use acme. 1^^.?^ {shalenan) is, evidently from the context, the same in sense as 1?^.^ (shaenan) (xii. 5). This introduction of a liquid letter is not altogether 282 NOTES, JOB XXI. 23. anomalous; thus we meet with "^pl^^l [zalgnaphah), violent heat, from ^?t {zagnaph), to be hot — so "f^tt^3 (jjalmoud) from the Arabic "fQ3 {'jmd). A ^ (r) is not unfrequently similarly inserted. I think that this is a preferable way of accounting for the formation of the word in question, than supposing it to be compounded of '^7'? (shalah) and l^^.^ (shaenan). 24. "T*3^^? {gnetinaho). As this word occurs nowhere else, and is unknown, it has been variously rendered. Jerome translates it viscera ejus {his bowels), and the LXX. have similarly ra eyKara avrov ; their reading therefore was probably 1>3"»tp2 (batinaiu)) : the Syriac renders it his flanks, as though the word were Va'^tp^. [gnetimaiw), in which case it might be supposed to be the same as the Chaldee ^^^^ {gnitma) or ^^^^ (itma), a side. If either of these meanings be adopted, it is necessary to read the last word of the clause "^.T} (khelev) fat, instead of ^4^ (hhalav) milk, which is the received reading. The translators of the A. V. have, in the text, adopted the meaning given by the Chaldee Paraphrast, but, in the margin, they have, with others, rendered 1"'3*'t2^. (gnetitiaiw) his milk- pails, which gives undoubtedly a good sense, but I know not from whence derived, unless it be for the Chaldee 1^1?^ (magnetati), an olive jar ; but if so, the meaning imposed is too far-fetched to be relied upon. Rosenmiiller, Dathe, and others render it loca pecorosa, and stationes pecoris {places for flocks) ; this meaning they get from the Arabic ^^^ {gntri) and ItiPQ {mgntn), which certainly do mean a watering-place for cattle where they lie down and drink; but to say that such places were full of milk because the cattle with their distenta ubera were there, would be, I think, hyper-poetical. Hahn thinks that because l^lj {gnatan) may be cognate with "l^S {atan), to bind, S)-c,, whence l'*^?;? (etoitn), thread, yarn, S)-c., therefore T^? {gnatin), may mean a sineu\ This, however, is too conjectural. Of all others, I think Lee's conjecture is the best ; he conceives that as the Arabic 1^37 [gjitn) signifies, besides the meaning given above, " maceravit pellem" {he soaked a skin), and as X''^'^ (gntin), in that language, signifies a skin, so, the word here means a bottle, because these utensils are, in the East, made of skins. Lee might have added that the word in Arabic means also, concinnavit pellem {he dressed a ski7i), and also pellis fcetens {a sti?iking skin). I agree with Lee in thinking that bottles are here intended, so far at least as the sense is concerned ; but I do not agree with him in supposing that the word should be translated bottles, but rather skins, or hides ; and that it signifies skins in the process of being converted into bottles, skins soaked that they may be softened and the hair may come off, — being dressed and still stinking, but not yet sufficiently prepared to be actually considered niisis {ovoth) or nilb^a {7iodoth) or Q"^ ('?? {nevalim) ; and hence, neither of these words is here used : I conceive then, the idea here intended to be, that so great is the abundance of milk, furnished by his flock, to the prosperous individual here described, that he is obliged to make use of and to fill his skins with it, before they have undergone the whole of the necessary dressing. By the translation I have given, the parallelism is also to some extent preserved, as there is a connexion of ideas between ski?is and bones. The second hemistich is a consequence of the former — the man has abundance of good things, his half-dressed skins are full of milk, and consequently in his bodily health he is vigorous and strong, the marroio of his bones gets soaked. Milk, it is well known, is one of the very principal articles of diet among the NOTES, JOB XXI. 25. 283 Ai'abs. (See Ilarmer's Illustrations on this subject, and also upon that of skin bottles). 25. And that man, ^c. Whilst the life of one man is so prosperous throughout, the life of another is one of privation and sorrow even to his death. 26. God's treatment of these two men had been very different during their life time, but he puts no distinction whatever between them in their death, at least so far as human observation goes ; both of them, both the man who had been prosperous all his days, and the man who had never known what prosperity was, ai-e similarly dealt with in death, both lie on the dust in the sepulchre, and both become the food of worms. Supposing, then, that the one who had been prosperous had been ungodly, whilst the other had been pious (and Job has intimated that this in general is the case), then it follows that God, who is just, must deal with these two men in another world in the way of rewards and punishments, as he certainly did not do so in this : and, as the requital of the deeds done in the body is thus shown to be future, rather than present, it follows that it is unsafe, or rather impossible, to argue unfavorably of any individual because he is afflicted, or favorably of those who may happen to be in circumstances of great worldly prosperity. Worms, lit., the worm, but taken of course in a collective sense. 27. -Your designs to wrong me violently, lit., the designs against me you wrong violently, i.e. \lvhereby^^ you wrong violently. I am quite aware of your malicious intentions and plot against me, to make me seem criminal, when I am not so, by urging that God necessarily afflicts the wicked, and that I must be wicked because I am afflicted. 28. For, — ''S {chi), or it may be rendered that, supplying ^^^l, {yadagneti) I knoiv, from the preceding verse, — / knoio that you are saying to yourselves, ^c. The former rendering however, is, I think, preferable, and the sense then is, — / hnow what you are devising against me, for you tauntingly ask the questioti, What has become of the great manh house, S^c., S)-c. ? Of the prince, — i. e., of Job. Dwellings, — the different compartments of the tent which, in a large eastern household, might be exceedingly numerous, 29. Have ye not asked, S^c. ? The question implies a negative answer ; — You have not taken the trouble to inquire into the opinions of men of other countries respecting the subject we are discussing, and you ought to have done so. For ye would not have misunderstood their signs. Had you been at the pains of enquiring of travellers, however foreign in their habits and language, you would at least have understood their signs (just as one traveller may point out to another the way he should take, even though they may not be able to comprehend each other's language). ^"'S?^ {tenacherou), — the full force of this word is,— misunderstanding a thing as being foreign. niriK {othoth), signs, such as persons would use who do not understand one another's speech. Cri7?l^ (malloiiakh), the same as the Syriac Wni'!?^ (maloulcha), a salt plant, as the root Hy^ (nielakh) salt, shows. Aben Beitar, a celebrated Arabian physician and botanist, states, as cited by Bochart and Rosenraiiller, that this plant is that which by the Greeks is called akifxov (evidently from aXs, salt) ; that it is a shrub of which hedges are formed ; that it is like the rharan (a white bramble), but has no thorns ; that its leaf is similar to that of the olive, but wider ; that it grows near the sea coast and about hedges ; and that the tops of it are eaten when young. This last circumstance exactly explains the expression in the text, "cropping purslain on the shrub." Pliny's description of the plant (xxii. 33) agrees well with that of Aben Beitar. Pie calls it Halimon, and says that it is a thick shrub, white, and without thorns, with the leaves of the olive, but softer, and that these are cooked for food. Rosenraiiller gives a cita- tion from Athenceus, by which it would appear that it was a food collected and eaten particularly by the poor, for he describes the poor Pythagoraeans as aXtyna Tpwyovre?, Ktti KttKa Toiairra crvXXeyovTcs, eating purslain, and gathering such like had things. The broom. Ci;^~) Qrothem) is the genista, called DOI {ratham) by the Arabs. It abounds in the deserts and sandy places of Egypt and Arabia, and is of sufficient height to afford shelter to a person sitting down. It was that under which Elijah sat when fleeing from Jezebel, 1 Kings xix. 4, 5 (translated juniper tree). The I'oots are bitter, and ai'e considered by the Arabs to make the best charcoal; hence we have in Ps. cxx. 4 coals q/" D"^^n"J (rethamim), i.e., brooin. (See the Illustrations.) 5. Out of society, 1?!"1Q {jnin gev), — Vit, out of the midst. So Cicero has, as z 338 NOTES, JOB XXX. 5. Rosenmiiller remarks, pellere e medio ; driven, as we sliould sav, from within the pale of society. Men hallooed them, — or, as we might also express it, hooted at them, or raised a hue and cry after them. Job means that these men, whose chiklren now made him their sport, were held in such contempt and detestation that they were not suffered to remain in the usual haunts of mankind ; and that, if ever they made their appearance there, they were chased away with a great hue and cry. 6. They had to dwell, y^Wl (Jishehon), — i.e., they were driven out, &c., &c., so as to divell. In other words, they were compelled to dwell. In horrible glens, — lit., in the horror of glens. The ^^^7? (jiekhalim), or xoadys of Arabia, are, in many cases, very much what we call glens. 7. So little were they removed from brutes, either in intellect or civilization. Is our word rude, i.e., Latin rudis, derived from riido, to bray ? The nettles. It is not certain that 7^"in (kharoul) has this signification. This sense seems to have been given to it from the burning sensation which that plant produces, and on the supposition that v"]!! {kharal) = ''ir^ {hharar). Certainly the Latin urtica is not improbably derived from uro. Or, as there is some similarity of sound, might ^^"IH (kharoul) be the Latin carduus, the thistle, artichoke, and all that class of plants ? 8. A tribe of profligates ; nay, a nameless tribe. I think the inference to be drawn from this and the preceding clause is, that these people lived promiscuously together, and thus literally they were ''^S (benei) children or a tribe, Cti? ^^y"^ (beli shem) without a name. The land here means habitable country, in contradistinction to those endlessly desolate deserts and frightful precipices and caverns to which the miserable rabble, of whom Job is speaking, were forced by civilized men to betake themselves. Were beaten out of the land. Compare with this the Hasn Ghorab insci'iptions as deciphered by Forster : — " Over us presided kings far removed from baseness, and stern chastisers of reprobate and wicked men^ (See the Illustrations.) ^9? {nacha) is a root of uncertain meaning, but is probably i.q. nD3 {iiachaK). 9. So, xvii. 6; Lara. iii. 14; and Ps. Ixix. 12. 10. And even to my face, S^-c, S^c. The greatest possible insult. The Vulgate and Rosenmiiller understand the phrase as meaning, — they forbear not to spit in my face ; but it is unnecessary to suppose that the indignity of which Job complains was carried to so outrageous an extent as this. I consider that the phrase is literally. They do not forbear spitting on account of my face, or presence, = they do not on account of my presence forbear, Sfc. ; i.e., my presence does not restrain them from, Sj-c. This force of TP (min) I have endeavoured to express by " even to my face." 11. Yea. ^2 (chi), has an explanatory force here. They have every one loosed. In the Hebrew the word is singular, and so the meaning is each one of them has loosed ; this I have expressed by inserting the words every one. His cord. I prefer the reading 1~in"' (ithro), i.e., T^O"! {ithro), to the Maso- retic alteration '^~'ri'! {ithri), as the parallelism is thus better preserved. I do not consider that '^•p.^. (yether) is to be taken here in the sense either of te?it rope or NOTES, J0J3 XXX. 11. 339 of bow-siring, but as signifying either tether, or halter, or lasso ; and, in that case, nriS (pittakh) will mean to loose in the sense of opening something that was fastened before, such as a knot or noose. The general sense of the passage is obvious, — these persons, one and all without exception, have now cast off all restraint, and subject me to the humiliation of seeing them act with the most unbridled disrespect towards me. Even to my face. ""^^Q (rnippanai), — lit., because of my face, i.e., because I am present. 12. A brood of youngsters. ^^'~^^ (pirekhakh). This word is not elsewhere used ; the root H^Q (parakh) is to germinate, &c., and so nn^Q [pirekhakh), as applied to a plant, would mean a set of young twigs ; but in the -ZEthiopic and Arabic, we find it applied to the young of birds in general (compare also the Hebrew 0"'?';? {ephroakh) and of fowls in particular, I suppose from the notion of still germinating as to their feathers. Job uses it here in a contemptuous sense — much as we should say an unfledged brood, or mere chicks. They thrust aside my feet, — they rudely jostle me. And they throio up, <^c., — and try to upset me. The language of this last clause is wholly metaphorical, and is borrowed from the military operations of besiegers. ^~l'n~iS (orekhoth), from ^TlS (aralch) to go, to go forward on a journey, generally signifies ^vays, paths, &c. ; but I think that both the meaning of the root and the verb ^70 (^sallal) throw up, admit of the use here of the more specific term advances ; I have, however, rendered the word by roads. Their destructive roads, — lit., the roads of their destruction, — i.e., the advances by which they intend to destroy me. 13. They have torn up my path. The language is still borrowed from military operations. They have none to assist them. This is ambiguous. It may mean either, they promote my destruction without the aid of others ; or, they are so bad a set that nobody will support or countenance them ; or indeed both these ideas may be intended. C»05 {nathas) does not elsewhere occur ; but both the sense required and also the analogy of cognates in general show that it must have a meaning similar to that of VO? {nathats) and '^r\^ {?iathas), to ob:^ (gnalas) and V^V (gnalats). 14. The language is still metaphorical, and taken from the assault of a city by storm. So soon as a breach is made in the wall, the assailants pour in tumultu- ously, and accomplish their purpose. 15. "n?'7'7 (Jiahepakh) and ^"^l^O {tiredopli) are two verbs in the singular number ; the one is masculine and the other feminine, and they both appear to be dependant on the feminine plural noun ninv2 (ballahotJi). This difficulty, however, is explicable, and a full sense is obtained, which must be conveyed by a paraphrase ratlier than by a translation. My view is, that "n^n*? {hahepakh) agrees with ninvia {ballahoth) in its aggregate idea of a multitude of terrors, whilst n '"'■^ {tiredoph) agrees with it in its individual idea of each separate terror ; hence the full sense of the passage is, — a multitude of terrors is turned upon me, every one of which chases, 8cc. My bravery. '^t^^'T? (ncdivah) signifies nobleness of nature and of birth, generosity, toillingness to make self-sacrifice, magnanimity, and the like. z 2 340 NOTES, JOB XXX. 15. The meaning of this verse seems to be, — all hope and courage have noio com- pletely failed me. I think that from the 12th to this verse, Job hints at the way in which he had lost his authority. There had been some systematic plot formed against him, chiefly, as it appears to me, by the young men of the ti'ibe or tribes over which he ruled ; they had gradually disconcerted his plans — they had mined and countermined, and at length, as by a violent assault, they had succeeded in their purpose, and had, at least to all intents and purposes, if not entirely, deposed him. As a commentary upon this, I would again refer to the history of an Arab sheik by Layard, adverted to in the Note on ver. 1. 16. Poureth itself out, — i.e., in tears. 17. The night picketh my hones, S^c, Strong poetical language, by which is meant, that even at night, the ordinary season of repose, Job's bones were in such agonies that the sensation was as if they were being picked out of him, or that the flesh was being picked off tlaem. And the things that gnaio me, S)-c. This clause is explanatory of the former. '*)2"1^ {gnorekai), lit., my gnawers, and the Arabic use of the word seems particu- larly to apply to the gnawing of flesh off a hone, which well suits the passage here. 18. All commentators and lexicographers, having determined that the ^?n (khaphas), of which the ^SHi*^"' (^ithkhappes) here is the Hithpahel, must have the same signification as the Chaldee D2r] [khephas) to search for, &c. ; and so, that the Hithpahel itself must mean here, as it does in three other passages (1 Samuel xxviii. 8 ; 1 Kings xx. 38 ; xxii. 30), to change or disguise oneself have been able to extract no kind of suitable sense out of the first clause of this verse, except by an unwarranted insertion of other words ; and even then, the sense thus obtained has not been satisfactory. Lee, indeed, has conjectured — but with- out giving any really solid grounds for the conjecture, except the requirements of the parallelism — that i^QHO'^. (ithkhappes) here must mean, it becomes hinding, pressing, confining. I feel persuaded that ^pn {hhaphas) here is equivalent to the Chaldee, ■HDn {khephath), which, as a noun, ?>\gm^Q^ the hem of a garment, and as a verb, to be hemmed (applied to a garment^ and that ^^n {khavash) to bitid is a cognate word. The Hithpahel then would have the sense of making a hem of oneself, i.e., of hemming in, or round, or about. This view makes the parallelism perfect, as the allusion to the hem of the clothing in the first clause exactly corresponds with the mention of the collar of the vest, and also with the notion of girding in the second. The collar, — or ^? (^pi^ mouth of the vest was a hole in the vest just large enough to pass the head through, and which fitted pretty closely round the neck, much as in the jerseys of the present day. Maimonides says that it had a strong binding round it to prevent its being rent in putting it on and off. VHi'^a ''S {pi middothaiio) in Psalm cxxxiii. 2 is evidently a mistranslation ; it should be rendered the collar, and not " the skirts " of his garments. The precious oil there described as being poui'ed on Aaron's head and ti'ickling down his beard, descended as far as the collar where his garments fitted round his neck, but not over his clothes and down to the very hem of them. (See Jennings' " Jewish Antiquities," p. 136 ; and, for the sort of collar and its tight fit, see the Illus- trations.) NOTES, JOB XXX. 18. 341 The meaning of the verse is, — The whole of my clothing presses me as tightly as the collar of my vest. This pressure of his clothes arose probably either from his being swelled to an unnatural size by his disease, or from his being so covered with ulcers that his raiment stuck to him. I think the first of these reasons is the most probable. 19. God hath cast me doivn, c^rc. The name of God is not expressed in the original. This is often the case in this book. The next verse shows, however, that it was probably running in the mind of the speaker at the time, and it would no doubt be sufficiently indicated by emphasis of tone. Hath cast me down to the mire, "i^nlp {lukhomer), not into tlie mire, which would be ""9'^^ {hakhomer\ The meaning is, — God has reduced me to a level with the very mire of the streets ; he has cast me down so low that I am in a position like it. This, it will be observed, corresponds with the comparison insti- tuted in the next clause. 20. I stand, — i.e., I stand praying. Thou dost not notice me, — supply the negative from the former clause. But I do not feel certain whether the latter clause ought not to be translated, — JIad I ceased, then hadst thou noticed me. 21. Of course such language as this on the part of Job towards God cannot be vindicated. 22. Terrifying, — lit., thou terrifiest. The word thus translated is in the unpointed text HltETl {thswh) ; the Masoretic interpretation of this word is n^tfri (tushwah) = n^ti?ri (^tushiyah) = n*tp-1i^ {toushiyah), reality, substance, completeness, &c. ; or, as it might be taken here adverbially, really, substantially, completely, or the like. But this is clumsy pointing, and the parallelism is more perfect if n^ltilTI (^thswh) be taken as a verb : in this case the pointing would be n!]'^^ {teshavweh), from the root Hltt? (shawah), either in the sense of ^"j^ (^shaw) vanity, (and so the meaning would be, thou bringest to nothing\ or, in the sense of the Chaldee, "^^^ {shewet) to be astounded, in the Ithpael "^l!'^^':' (Jtshtewei) to fear ; and so, the meaning here would be thou terrifiest, and this appears to me to be the most correct view to take of it. The absence of the conjunction T {w) between the two verbs in each clause is, I think, not so much for the purpose of marking rapidity of action as of expressing the connexion between cause and effect — a connexion too natural to need the aid of the conjunction ; and so, I take the meaning to be equivalent to this :— Thou maJcest me to ride on the wind, hy talcing me up into it; And then, hi/ terrifying, ihou meltest me. I have endeavoured to express this by rendering "'^Sffi'ri {tissaeiii) and rt^t^ri (^teshaviceh) as participles. The metaphor is evidently borrowed from the idea of a cloud being carried up and careering for a while on the storm, and then being dissolved by the very agitation to which it is subjected. The notion o^ melting with fear is sufficiently common. 23. Thou art bringing me back, 8)-c., — or, thou art making me to return, according to tlie original sentence, " Dust thou ai't, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen. iii. 19.) Job does not mean that God would thus brine; him back to death at 342 NOTES, JOB XXX. 23. some future time (such a sentiment would be an absurd truism), but that God was actually doing it then — another proof that he had no hope of restoration as far as this world was concerned. 24. There has been much difference of opinion about the meaning of this verse, and that, chiefly on account of the word ""Pfl {begni), which some take (as com- pounded of the preposition ^ (be) and the noun "'V {gni) a heap, in the sense either, according to some, of a heap of ruins, and applicable here to human remains after death ; or, according to others, of the heap of the grave. I prefer, however, the view of those who regai-d ^^r^ (begni) as a noun from "^V? (hagnah) = the very common Chaldee word '^^^ {begna) to seek, request, ask, deprecate, and the like ; and in this way it will correspond with ?^2^ (shouagti) in the next clause ; but I see no necessity for supplying the word tvhen before nytp"^ (ishlakh). The literal rendering would be, — There is no deprecation, he puts forth his hand, i.e., there is no deprecating his doing so. ITy^ {lahen) is feminine, perhaps to convey the notion of womanly fears in those who cry out when death is coming upon them. So in 2 Sam. iv. 6, Rechab and Eaanah, when about to assassinate Ishbosheth, are spoken of as 'i^^TJ (hennah) they [fern.), perhaps to express that the action they were about to perpetrate was a cowardly one. Some MSS. read Cn7 {lahetn), but this smacks of emen- dation. Doederlein's conjectural reading, ID? {lakhen) for grace, of which Dathe approves, is no improvement to the sense. When he destroyeth, — lit., in his destruction, i.e., in his destroying. 25. For, SfC. The force of nv'DS (im lo) here is ive7'e it otherwise, i.e., if it were not as I state, that there is no begging off, &c., &c., I certainly have had the opportunity of putting the matter to the test, for I have wept and cried as much as any in like circumstances could do, and the result shows that my assertion is correct. As, &)C. The force of < (Je) in both these clauses is according to the condi- tio7i of. Hath — been sad. There is no question but that Q?^ (gnagam) is the same in meaning as D^^ {agam) in the Chaldee and Arabic. 26. Job here gives the result of his experience : — I have cried for deliverance, and expected it, but in vain ; therefore it is evident that there is no such thing as deprecating God's anger when once He has put forth his hand to strike. / was waiting. The paragogic ^ (Ji) here, I think, expresses tendency, or habit. 27. The first clause of this verse seems to correspond with, and is a further amplification of, ver. 25 ; whilst the second clause corresponds with ver. 26. 3Iy bowels, ^'C, ^-c, — i.e., my feelings have been greatly stirred up, and have expressed themselves. 28. / have gone on blackening. This is the exactly literal rendering of ^ripbn "Tip (koder hillachti). The meaning is, — My skin has become darker and darker ; that, however, not by such natural cause as exposui'e to the rays of the sun, but by an internal heat, owing to my disease and the excitement of ray feelings. This clause is amplified in ver. 30. / have stood up, S)-c., S)-c. I have publicly expressed my grief and the state of my irritated feelings. This crying out in the assembly on the part of Job must, NOTES, JOB XXX. 28. 343 I think, have had reference not to his disease, or to the domestic calamities with wliich God had visited him, but rather to his political fall, and the change which he observed in the feelings both of chiefs and people towards him, and of which, he complains in the commencement of this chapter. The gist of Job's argument seems to be, — If crying out and uttering complaints could be of any avail, they certainly would have been so in my case, for I have mourned and cried both to God and man. 29. My cries and lamentations have been so prolonged, and so doleful, that I may class myself with creatures whose well-known habits are those of uttering the most dreadful yells and lamentable noises. Jackals. See Gesenius on the word !•(? (tari) or ^^ {tan), the singular of wliat is here the plural, and which must not be confounded with another ^'^'^^ {tannini), a word in the singular number. I have been brother, 8fc. This might be expressed in common English by — / have been next of kin to, S)-c., meaning / have been Just like, SfC. See Micali i. 8. The word there translated dragons is the same as in this passage. In Maunder's " Ti'easury of Natural History," the jackal is described as having " a voice peculiarly hideous, consisting of an indistinct bark and a piteous howl Jackals frequently go in great troops to hunt their prey, and by their dreadful yellings alarm and put to flight deer, antelopes, and other timid quadrupeds." Shaw, in his " Travels in Barbary," vol. ii., p. 348, gives the following account of the remarkable noises made by the ostrich : — " Whilst they (ostriches) ai'e engaged in these combats and assaults, they sometimes make a fierce, angiy, and hissing noise, with their throats inflated and their mouths open ; at other times, when less resistance is made, they have a chuckling or cackling voice, as in the poultry kind, and thereby seem to rejoice and laugh, as it were, at the tiraorous- ness of their adversary. But during the lonesome part of the night (as if their organs of voice had then attained a quite different tone), they often made a very doleful and hideous noise, which would sometimes be like the roaring of a lion ; at other times it would bear a nearer resemblance to the hoarser voices of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and the ox. I have often heard them groan, as if they were in the greatest agonies." 30. 3Iij skin peeling off me, — lit., my skin from off me ; a pregnant construction for my skin which has come off me; i.e., which has from time to time peeled off. Has been black. A proof of the intensity of my sufferings, and the inward heat that has been consuming me (as the next clause explains). Compare this verse with 28. 31. My harp and pipe, instead of giving forth, as formerly, music of merriment and joy, now emit only the most lugubrious strains. We speak in common parlance of changing one's pipes. (See the Illustrations on xxi. 12.) JOB XXXT. 1. Job now closes his discourses by a solemn vindication of his character, which had been attacked by his friends. In doing this, he draws an interesting picture both of his public and private virtues. On these he expatiates with 344 NOTES, JOB XXXI. 1. probably too much of self-satisfaction, and too much implication of injustice on the part of God ; at the same time, his motive was rather to prove his innocence, than to make any ostentatious boast. He commences by a protestation on the subject of his chastity, which had been so inviolate that, neither in look nor in thought had he been guilty in that respect ; he had kept himself clear from this sin by the exercise of an habitual self-restraint, which he compares to the obligation of a formal covenant engagement. Lee's idea, thatuob's wife was dead, and that his friends were now persuading him to marry again, is thoroughly out of place here ; besides which, ver. 10 is a refutation of it. With mine eyes, — more lit., Jor, or to, mine eyes. This implies that Job, as it were, himself prescribed the terms of the covenant to his eyes. How then should I think upon ? Of course with lustful imagination. 2. An additional ai'gument — the consideration of punishment. p/Pn (^khelek) and '^tPi- {nakhelah) are here to be taken in the sense of evil portion, and evil inheritance, as in xx. 29, and xxvii. 13. 3. An amplification of the former verse. Job here states what sort of portion and inheritance he knew he must receive at God's hands, had he been guilty of the particular sin about which he speaks in ver. 1. Strange punishment. "15^ (necher), according to the literal Hebrew, would simply mean strangeness, or perhaps in a particjilar application, as in the present instance, something mysterious. One of its meanings in Arabic is misfortune, calamity, and the like ; and in the ^thiopic, it is commonly employed to signify a miracle, prodigy, something portentous, and the like. <^ (nochron) in the Koran is frequently used in the sense of terrible punishment. Some have taken "^25 (necher) here in the sense of alienation, and have referred it^ to the word inheritance in the former verse. The reading "T33 (neched) is found in some MSS., the sense of which, according to the Arabic, would be, a calamitous life. 4. This may mean, — God can certainly testify as an eye-witness to my integrity. But I take it rather as another argument that weighed with Job in deterring him from sin — the argument of God's omniscience. 5. Falsehood. W^tZ? (^shaiv) has other meanings, but the parallel word in the next clause shows that this is the particular meaning here intended. Walked with falsehood. Acted upon dishonest principles. Hasted. This denotes progress in the course of sin here alluded to. tt^nri {takhash), from n^n (khashah), = ^^ri (khoush). I think the context shows that this verse has special reference to tlie deceit that is usually practised in attempts at seduction. 6. An abrupt parenthesis, marking great earnestness and consciousness of rectitude on the part of the speaker. An even balance, — lit., scales of justice. See Lev. xix. 36, where the expres- sion is used, and evidently in the sense here given in the translation. (See the" Illustrations.) My integrity. This word is used in evident opposition to the falsehood and deceit which Job disclaims in the preceding verse ; and if, as I believe from the context, it has reference to innocence with respect to the subject mentioned in NOTES, JOB XXXI. C. 345 ver. 1, then It Is used here just In the sense in which It Is applied to Ablmelech in Gen. xx. 5, 6. 7. From the ivaij. From the way of chastity, as the context requires. And mine heart, S^c. If I have broken the covenant with my eyes (alluded to in ver. 1), and have allowed my heart to be led astray by them. And a blot, S^c. By my being guilty of that particular sin. Q'lHXi (mouni) a blot, — as Q^S {rnoum). Some, however, adopt a different punctuation from the INIasoretic, and read the word C^^P (nieoimi), understanding it In the sense of n^^Sp (nieoumah) anything whatever. 8. The imprecation dependant upon the foregoing conditions. As respects the punishment here specified, compare Lev. xxvi. 16, and Deut. xxviii, 30, 38. My produce, ^^^.^j^ {tseetsaai) might be translated my issue, as in xxvii, 14; but the parallelism here requires that It should mean issue of the ground, such as crops, &c., and in that sense it Is used In Isa. xxxlv. 1, and xlli. 5. 9. A woman, ntfi'W (^isshah), — especially a married woman. Job, In the first eight verses, declares his Innocence of the sins of seduction and fornication ; he here protests his Innocence of the sin of adultery. Compare Prov. vii. 10. Let my own toife, Sfc. Let her become the property of another man, and, as such, have to fill the most menial occupations, as well as being his concubine. Grinding at the mill seems to have been the lowest drudgery in an Oriental household. (Exod. xl. 5 ; Isa. xlvil. 1, 2.) I do not accept the expression grinding in that sense which many have here attributed to It, making it equivalent In meaning to the second clause. It is true that the Latin molere is so used, but only of a man, not of a woman. 11. DvVf V^ {gnawon pelilim). The ellipsis here Is either □''b'^bsb '\^'^ {gnaioon lipelilim) an iniquity for judges, i.e., for judges to decide upon, or ^''/ 7? P^ PV {gnaioon gnetvon pelilim) an iniquity — an iniquity of judges. The sense is the same In either case; a judicial crime — a crime which of necessity comes under judicial cognizance. 12. Yea, it is a fire, 8^c. It is difficult to determine whether Job mentions this, as the natural consequence of the sin In question, that, both physically and morally, its tendency is to destroy him who is guilty of it, or whether he refers to the judicial sentence passed by the judge on the convicted criminal. It would appear that burning was the punishment with which the crime was visited at about that period. See Gen. xxxviii. 24. It would eat up unto perdition, — i.e.. It would utterly destroy. The ? (be) in 732^ (ouvechol) is evidently pleonastic. Fourteen MSS. cited by Kennicott, and many by De Rossi, read ^31 (ivechol). 13. Job now turns to other matters of righteousness which he declares he was in the habit of fulfilling. If I should despise. If ever I have done so, or should do so. Such is the force of the tense used here and in the following verses. Despise, i.e., think lightly of it, and trifle with It as a matter of no moment, and set it aside because I have the power of doing so. In their dispute with me. When they have some matter of complaint against me as to my treatment of them, &c. 14. Wheji God anseth, — to judgment. 346 NOTES, JOB XXXI. 14. When He visiteth, — as an inspector. 15. Myself and my bondsman have one common origin. We do not belong to two distinct classes of God's creatures, but are of one and the same race of beings by creation. Was it not m the belli/, Sfc. This is the most literal and obvious translation, and I wonder it should have been overlooked. The parallelism is preserved, without resorting to the rather clumsy necessity of making IHt^ (ekhad) in the next clause refer to one God. One womb. Not one and the same womb, this would be "T^^? ^0"v {rekhem haekhad) ; but one and the same sort of womb. 17. Had not eaten. This past tense, I think, implies not only that the fatherless shared in Job's portion, but that he had the first share allotted to him. Tliis would, I imagine, be consonant with the law of Oriental hospitality. 18. The sense requires that this verse should be regarded as a parenthesis. The force of ''? {chi) here is, So far from being guilty of, 8fC., &c., I have, on the contrary, done, &c., &c. Him, — the fatherless spoken of in the previous verse. Her, — the widow mentioned in verse 16. / have brought him up, ''^pl^ (gedela7ii), — lit., he greio up to me, i.e., under my fostering care. Whatever preposition is undei'stood before the pronominal suffix in this word, must of course be understood also before its apposite ^^^ (cheav), i.e., as [^o] a father. From my mothers womb. Job means by this, either that he had so acted at all times, or that the disposition to do so had been always natural to him, — that he had been born with that disposition. Compare Ps. Iviii. 3. 20. If his loins did not bless me, — because covered with garments with which I furnished him. C'tpDS (chevasini) are young sheep; hence Job did not put the poor off with refuse wool. 21. Shaken my hand at, — a gesture of menacing. I had support in the gate, — lit., my help was in the gate, i.e., I had influence to back me in the court of justice. 22. The punishment here imprecated is evidently particularly connected with the sin mentioned in the former verse, that of shaking the hand at, 8)^c. Thei-e is the authority of the Vulgate (but not of the Chald. Par., as its Latin translation would lead one to suppose), and partially of the Syriac, and that of several MSS. also, for reading HKipp {shichemah) and HDj^ (kanah) with a Mappik, in which case the translation would be, its shoidder-blade, and its elbow. My arm, — "^^ 'T^ {ezrognV), that part of the arm which extends from the elbow to the wrist, — the ulna. •^^i"? ihanali), the elbow, lit., a reed, but here that bone of the arm which is between the shoulder and the elbow, — the os humeri. 23. But, — ''S {chi\ but such is not the case, I have not done these things, /or I feared God. Job here declares that one great pi'inciple that proved to him a preservative from sin, was not so much the cognizance of a human judge as the fear of Almighty wrath. NOTES, JOB XXXT. 23. 347 I teas incapable, — i.e., of committing the sins just alluded to. 24. Job now disclaims the sin of avarice, a sin which he clearly connects with idolatiy. He says this probably in allusion to tlie remarks of Eliphaz, xxii. 24. Diamond, — Ci*^5 {chethem). (See note on xxviii. 16.) Or have called, — as if it were a God. 26. 'I'l^' ipr), light, here used poetically for the sim ; so in xxxvii. 21 ; Isa. xviii. 4 ; and Ilab. iii. 4. When it shineth, — probably at its rising. On the subject of this early species of idolatry, see Deut. iv. 19; 2 Kings xxiii. 5, 11 ; Ezek. viii. 16. Walking splendidly, — probably when full moon. 27. My hand should kiss my mouth. This not unlikely was the earliest gesture of adoration. Some readers may not perhaps be aware that the very meaning of the word adoration imports putting the hand to the mouth. 28. An iniquity, Sfc. See note on verse 11. Most high, — lit,, from above: above all the heavenly bodies and things. 29. 30. Job's meaning in these two verses is, — I never triumph over the misfortunes of an enemy, even though my conscience does not tax me with having ever wished that such misfortunes should befall him. How truly Job speaks to human nature ! How many there are who have that measure of religion, that they would feel it wrong to wish evil to an enemy, but who are really filled with a secret joy, when evil does come upon him. Job had more of the gospel spirit about him— the spirit of true charity. The roof of my mouth, — perhaps the ordinary form of cursing was principally articulated by the palate. By imprecating, i (^oayarsJiigriou eth iyov) they had condemned Job. There is a foolish conceit of the Jews, that before the making of eighteen emendations of the Scriptures by the hands of Ezra, this passage stood n^n"*"ns ^37''P"^^"1 (jvayarshignou eth yehoivah) they had condemned Jehovah. 4. Had waited till Job had spoken, — and consequently for his three friends also, who had spoken first. Lit., he had toaited for Job in words. 6. I did slink. This exactly expresses '^■fTly'^! (zakhalti) which means both to creep, or crawl, as a reptile, and also to be afraid. Our word to slink is derived from the Saxon slingan {to creep). Its exact meaning may be seen in the following passage of IMilton, where the poet, speaking of the serpent, says : — " JZe, after JSve seduced, vmninded shcnJc Into tJie wood fast ly" — (Par. Lost.) Young, lit., small. 8. A spirit. A divine spirit, as the parallel expression in the next clause shows. Elihu means, — But perhaps I am mistaken in having expected so much wisdom from men of years, and, as I had supposed, experience ; for, after all, wisdom is not so much a thing that can be acquired, as a gift from God. It is God's Spirit within, and not age, that gives perception and intuition to one man more than to another. It — W'^n (Jii) is emphatic, and implies that whatever understanding a man may have, it is not of himself, but is only of that Spirit of God which is in him. 9. Elihu means, — From the specimens of wisdom I have had before me in these recent discourses, I find that I must modify my original idea — that days ought to speak, and multitude of years to show wisdom ; I now see that this is not necessarily the case, that it does not necessarily follow, that because a man is old, he is therefore, wise. ^''?'] (rabbim), the great, either in authority, or learning, or tvealth, or age. Both the context and the parallelism restrict the meaning to the latter sense. Understand jxidgment. Take a right view of subjects in general. 10. Hearken unto me. This is addressed to Job alone. There is some MS. authority and of ancient versions for reading -IVP^ {shimgnou') hearken ye, instead of Hl^pp {shimgnali) hearken thou. But this savours of emendation, to get rid of a supposed difficulty, which lies in the fact that Elihu addresses the friends in the next verse. 11. To the utmost of. This is the force of "T?^ {gnad). ^.?''0'13^3J|1 (ttvounotheichem), your understandings, or reasoning faculties. I listened to you whilst you went as far as your understandings could carry you. Your searching out for verse, whereby to refute and silence Job. (See note on iv. 2.) rT« {azin) is for ]\TW« {aazin). So also, some MSS. 12. To the utmost of you, i.e., to the full extent of you. The Syriac translates this, / gave attention to your testimonies. Those translators must consequently have understood the word as D3"'"7.^.'l {ivegnedeichem') instead of ^5'^1^"'. (wegnadeichem) ; one MS. has a similar reading. 1 3. God shall vanquish him, not man. This was literally the case. NOTES, JOB XXXIl. 13. 351 JlUQ'?''. [idphennou), shall vanquish him, lit., shall drive him away, i.e., shall drive him away from his position, and so, shall conquer him. 14. As you, and not I, were the objects of Job's attack, I may be supposed to enter into this field of discussion entirely free from that passion and prejudice which betrayed you into the unwarrantable expressions and opinions you have advanced in your replies to him. 15. From this verse to the end of the chapter appears to be a soliloquy. Elihu seems to be addressing himself in a sort of rhapsodical spirit. They have put away, Sfc. Elihu sarcastically describes their being at a loss for new arguments, as though it were their own voluntary act, rather than their misfortune. They are routed — ^^H (Jihattou), utterly throtcn into confusion, like an army on the battle-field, by the arguments which Job has set in array ("^Vj gnarach) against them. 17. "^r!^^ (agneneh) is evidently for H^.^f^ (egneneh). 18. Elihu had before shown upon what grounds he might be permitted to speak. He now shows why he must speak. He could no longer exercise such control over himself as to remain silent. \n .•^ (jnalethi) is of course for "'•T'^.r^ (malethi). The spirit of my belly, i.e., the spirit that is within me. Belly. The Hebrew word 7^2 {heten) includes the whole inside part of the body from the neck to the lower part of the belly. The voice may be said to come from the breast, and more particularly so in the case of Oriental nations. Compresseth me. Makes me feel inwardly too small to hold it. 1 9. As ivine, i.e., as the bottles or skins which contain the wine, as the next clause shows, and the sense requires. New wine-skins. The inference is that it is new wine which is put into new skins, and hence their liability to burst, the new wine being in a state of fermentation. (See the Illustrations.) 21. The distinction between vM (^ciT) and ^^ (lo) ought to be observed here. The first implies the earnest desire not to do, S^c, the second the firm determination not to do, S)-c., ^c. The desire expressed in the first clause is addressed, not to others, but to him- self. He beseeches himself (^?' ' ^, al no) not to show partiality : as to using fawning language to man, that he utterly repudiates in the second clause. Or God — vWT {loal). I prefer to punctuate this ^^"l {xceel) rather than vN") (weel). The Masorites chose the latter, probably because they deemed the sentiment, which the former would convey, disrespectful to God. Elihu's meaning, as I take it, is, — that in the opinion he is about to pronounce, he deprecates being biassed by any desire of showing favor either to man or to God. Job had already accused his friends of a pretentious attempt to show God favor in the part they took in the conti'oversy, as though God would be pleased at it ; and he had warned them that thereby they were rather provoking his displeasure (ch. xiii. 7 — 10). Elihu professes his hope that he may not be guilty of this, and at the same time that he may not be guilty of siding with man against God. In short, he professes strict honesty of purpose, in the opinion which he is about to pass on the subjects in question — he will neither go on the one side, as far as Job's friends 352 NOTES, JOB XXXII. 21. had gone, as though thereby he were vindicating God's cause, nor, on the other side, will he seek to please and justify Job at God's expense, t^'^';' (ish) man is the word that is very properly placed here in opposition to God, as it is in many other parts of Scripture. Man. In the second clause the Hebrew woi'd for man is ^7^ (adam), and it is contrasted with ti7"^S (^ish) in the first clause, mw (adam) signifying ma?? in his lowest condition, common man; and Elihu means, — how can I think of showing deference to such an one by appellations of distinction ? 22. Or God. This I think is to be understood, from the first clause of the former verse, the two intermediate clauses referring to man, who is the first-mentioned in that first clause, and this clause referring to God. Elihu's meaning is, — I have said that I cannot show undue partiality for man, neither can I do so for God ; if I did so, then, &c., &c. In very small respect woidd my maker hold me. Not, as it is usually rendered, My maker would soon take me away, which scarcely makes sense, or, at least, that sense contains a hardly conceivable idea — the expectation of the punishment of death for the offence of showing partiality in the expression of an opinion in a controversy. The ^?^'t^'! {issaeni) in the second clause is evidently to be taken in the same meaning as the ^^^ (essa) in the first clause of the previous verse, and ^35 (^panai) may perhaps be understood, and thus the inverted parallelism is complete, the sense of the two verses being, — Let me be careful, in advancing my opinion, that I do not, from self-interested motives, show favor either to man or to God. As to showing it to man, that I cannot do, for it is contrary to my nature to flatter ; and if I show it to God, I am aware that thereby I shall be but forfeiting his favor. JOB XXXIII. 1. Howbeit. By way of coming to the point; or, Notwithstanding that I do not mean to flatter you. My verse. See Note on iv. 2. 2. See, I have now actually committed myself to speak. 3. My words, ^-c. I will speak in an honest and straightforward way, and just as I feel upon the subject. My lips shall verse, ^c, ^-c, — without disguise, or subterfuge, or any false ornaments of language, or admixtures of sentiments foreign to the subject. See Note on chap. iv. 2. Knowledge. ^PT (dagnath) means here, lohat I know. 4. You need not fear that I shall overawe you by any displays of majesty, for I am but a creature as thyself. 5. Elihu means, — Do not be afraid to do all this ; reply to me without fear of being overwhelmed with that majesty which might indeed deter you if God him- self were addressing you. You need be under no alarm in entering into contest with such as I am — a fellow-creature. There ought to be a comma after " canst " in the Authorized Version. 6. Behold, I am unto God just as thyself, &iC. ^''?? '^?^""?U {hen ani chephicha) . Many translate this, — Behold, I am according to thy mouth {i.e., according to the NOTES, JOB XXXIII. 6. 353 wish thou hast expressed) in the stead of God ; but although the Hebrew might admit of this rendering, yet it is unsuitable to the context and destroys the parallelism. The phrase ^""P? "^P^ (ani chephicha) corresponds pretty closely to our common expression, I am just your cut. For instances of a similar use of "•?? {chephi) see Gesenius. I was extracted. ^•T^r'^li^ (Jcoratsti), The allusion is to a potter, who with his hand squeezes and breaks off, or cuts off, a piece of clay from the larger lump in order to model it into some form. Elihu of course means, — You, Job, and myself have one common extraction. 7. Elihu evidently alludes to the wish which Job had expressed in xiii. 21 : — ■ " Put far away thine hand from off me ; And let not the dread of thee make me afraid." Hence many take "^SPW [achpi) here as though it were ^?3 (chappi) my hand. The LXX. have taken this view of it, — ^ x^^P /"■o^- The Chaldee Paraphrase, however, has '^P''^ (touni) my burden. ^SP^ {achjii) is evidently of the same root as the Arabic j__jj^| (achapha) to bind on a pack saddle ; and in the Chaldee we have ^?^t^ (ouchaph) a saddle. My load ov pack on thee shall not be heavy, in ordinary English phraseology would be, — / will not saddle you with r'ore than you can bear. S. The meaning of this verse is, — I am quite certain that I cannot be mistaken in 1. iw quoting your own words. 9. / am clean. ""P^S'^in (Jthaph anochi), ^2n {khphph), both in tlie Arabic and Chaldee means to scrub, ivash, and comb, with special reference to the head : so that, in its ordinary sense, ^0 (Jchajih) would probably mean clean as regards freedom from scurf, 8cc. ; in a moral sense, cleansed from sin. The two clauses put together denote the cleanness of the entire man. (See the Illustrations.) Elihu is scarcely free from the fault of misinterpreting Job's language ; at least he puts a sense upon it which Job had repudiated. (See ix. 2, and xiv. 4.) This misinterpretation, however, was probably unintentional. 10. Disallowances, — i.e., matters which he disalloivs. The meaning imputed to Job is, — God is unable to find in me any direct transgression of his law ; He therefore, for the purpose of proceeding against me with hostility, searches out and finds various little matters at which he takes exception, — things that I have done, not actually sinful, but which in severity of judgment he disallows. As the verb ^"^^rr {herd) unquestionably means to disallow, I have no hesitation in affixino- the meaning disallowance to the noun HS^aj^ (tenouah), and it is very suitable to the context. There is no reasonable ground for translating it occasion, hostility, alienation, and other various senses tliat have been attached to it. He counteth me, Sfc. Job had said this xiii. 24, and xix. 1 1 . 11. Reference is here made to xiii. 27. 12. Elihu informs Job that the sentiments which he (Job) had expressed with reference to the motives by which he supposed God was governed in his dealin^-s with him were wrong, and that that error arose from his measuring God by a human standard,— judging of Him as though He were little as man, and so, could be actuated by the same principles which usually sway men in their actions. Job A A 354 NOTES, JOB XXXIII. 12. had indeed often averred, and that, in the sublimest language, that God was greater than man, but, then, he had not made a right use of his own doctrine. In this. ri^T (zoth), — However correct in other respects, yet here you are wrong. Elihu does not tax Job, as the others had done, with crimes committed before his afflictions, but with sinful reflections which he had cast upon God in consequence of those afflictions. 1 3. Wlierefore hast thou made thy complaint to him ? not Wherefore hast thou disputed with him ^ This distinction has been overlooked, and hence the context has been entangled. For a similar use of 2"'"i (riv) followed by ^^ (el), see Jud. xxi. 22. The meaning of the whole verse is, — How can you think that God will hear you, when you so often have refused to hear Him when he has spoken ? Elihu somewhat softens this by making the application to Job indirectly, or rather, by making it of universal application. I am not sure whether I should not prefer reading with several MSS. rii^"^"! (rivoth). The meaning of the first clause would then be, — Wherefore are com- plaints \_made~\ to him ? 14. Speaketh, — by the voice of his providences, such as dreams, afflictions, &c., and which are afterwards specified by Elihu. Once, — and if men attended to that first admonition, it would not be necessary to repeat it. Regard it, — i.e., regard God's speaking. Man generally neglects to listen to God, when, by speaking mildly through such means as dreams. He endeavours to deter him from evil courses ; and even when God resorts to the severer measure of speaking through afflictions, man too often continues deaf to the appeal. 15. Elihu now instances three different ways in which God speaks to men for their profit: — first, through the medium of dreams (vers. 15 — 18) ; secondly, by personal afflictioii (vers. 19 — 22) ; and thirdly, by the intervention of a divinely- sent messenger (vers. 23 — 28). Job was now experiencing the second of these means, and Elihu probably assumes, whether justly or not, that he himself was the messenger referred to in the third instance. In the dream, S^c. In dreams during the night, and those, whether occurring in heavy sleep or in light slumbers. * Eliphaz, in chap. iv. 12, &c., had recorded an instance, in his own experience, in which he had been powerfully impressed by a divine admonition, received through the medium of a dream. 16. God first uncovers the ear, removing all impediments, in order to convey into it the requisite instruction, and then He closes it up, putting, as it were, a seal upon it in order to prevent the instruction so conveyed from escaping. Sevei'al kindred roots, as well as one of the Arabic meanings of the word, show that ^O^ (khatham) has the sense of shutting and lockitig up, as well as of setting a seal, and so, of sealing up. Their instruction. The Kethib is D~lD!2in (wvmsrm) ; this the Masorites have pointed D'^D^^'I (ouvemosaratn), a woi*d of no particular meaning, unless it signifies and on their chain. I think that not improbably the punctuation should be Q'^9'??^ (ouvemusaram) = Q'^^^JDi;^ {ouvemousaram). 17. To withdraw, Sfc. Some supply 'I^ {min) from the latter clause, before NOTES, JOB XXXIII. 17. 355 nti?5p {inagneseh), but this, I think, is unnecessary, as "^^P^P {magneseh) may- be taken absolutely, and signify as to a work, i.e., with regard to some purposed evil loork ; just as our word deed often means an evil deed. Or, perhaps, the punctuation might be ntt7!7p {megnesoli), and the meaning would then be. So as to turn aside man from to do, i.e., from perpetrating something intended. There are some who supply V^ (min) before 0"^^ (adam), as it stands before "i^? (g^ver) in the next clause, and so, make the parallel more complete. Or again, the clause might be translated, So as to make man put aicay a work. There are many remarkable instances in Scripture of the truth here stated, and the following cases may have been familiar to Elihu and to those whom he was addressing. Abime- lech (Gen. xx.), and Laban (Gen. xxxi. 24). He covereth pride, ^c, — He mercifully prevents the great man from accomplish- ing proud projects. Covereth pride, — and so, in point of fact, removes the temptation by putting it out of sight. This clause is parallel with the first clause of the previous verse, and God's covering pride is contrasted with his uncovering the ear, the latter being the instrumental cause of the former. nT2 {(gewali) is for nS2 (^geah) or "^^^j^ {gaewali). 18. He keepeth back, 8fC. It is here implied that pride leads to a pit-fall. Compare Prov. xvi. 18. Nebuchadnezzar was thus duly warned by a dream (Dan. iv.), but as he did not give heed to the warning, his pride met with the punishment forewarned. (Dan. iv. 28, &c., &c.) And his life from passing away like a dart. This is usually translated, — ^4^6? his life from perishing by the sword or dart; but the Hebrew HytS'^ ~i3}^p {rnegnevor bashshalakh) can scarcely admit of this rendering ; literally it is from passing away in a dart, i.e., after the manner of a dart : the preposition 2 (ie^ has often the signification of similitude. The meaning is, — By the means here spoken of, God often preserves man from sudden death. 19. A second means by which God deals with man for his good, — affliction. He is argued with. God takes this method to convince hira that he is in error, &c., &c. The controversy with his bones, ^^c. I adopt the Kethib ^^1 (riv) in prefer- ence to the Keri ^"l"! {''ov), notwithstanding the authority of the ancient versions : ^"•"l (riv) forms an exact parallelism with HS^n (Jwuchakh), and ]nN (ethan) retains its proper sense of perennial, constant, &c. ; the awkwardness also is avoided of speaking of a robust multitude of bones, — meaning, of course, a multi- tude of strong bones ; or of supplying ^iWDQ {machov) pain before '{^'^ (ethan), as in the Authorized Version. God, by torturing his bones, may be said to engage in controversy with the man. 20. His appetite, — more literally, his life; but as regards the particular meaning which I have here given, compare chap, xxxviii. 39. Abhorreth. ^^^l!^. {zihemattoit). Although this word does not elsewhere occur, yet its meaning is pretty clearly ascertained from the Arabic. The suffix is pleonastic. His soul, — often, as here, signifies the seat of the appetites, &c., &c. This verse A A 2 356 NOTES, JOB XXXIII. 20, implies that there is a craving for food, whilst, at the same time, there is a loathing felt for it. 21. His fleshy S)-c. His flesh which, previously to his disease, was plump and beautiful in form, gradually disappears, and nothing is left to view but the ugly outline of mere skin and bone. There is some difficulty about the second clause. I am inclined to think that the Kethib "^^^ {sliphi) should be adhered to, and that the word should be read "'S^ {shuppei), an unknown noun, from the unknown root ^?^ {shaphaph). This root in the Arabic gives meanings which certainly are most suitable to the passage before us, — such as things that are transparent and pervious to the light, — as veils, and other coverings, an emaciated body, and the like. See Castell. And the transparent coverings, S)'C. Hence, he looks like a mere skeleton. 22. To the pit, — to the grave where the body goes to corruption. ^??. {nephesh) sotil is often used in Scripture for the mere animal life, and not always for that living principle which survives death. The destroyers. D''OPP {memithim.) This may refer to any of those destruc- tive agencies which God employs to terminate the vital functions. The Jewish notion of their being angels of death has no sufficient Scriptural warrant. The cases of the death of the firstborn in Egypt, and of the pestilence in the time of David, and of the destruction of Sennacherib's host, are too extraordinary, and so, probably, too exceptional likewise, to favor the view. 23. Elihu now adverts to a third method resorted to by God for the purpose of reclaiming man. This passage is one of those celebrated in this book as having been the occasion of much perplexity and of much variety in the views expressed by commentators. Those who are curious may see in Schultens a fair statement of the almost endless opinions advanced on this verse ; for greater convenience, however, he has reduced them to three classes : — one class of opinions holding that " the messenger " and " interpreter " here spoken of is strictly a human being, such as a prophet or priest ; a second class taking the view that "H^?^ (malach) is here literally an angel rather than an ordinary messenger ; and a third class contending that Christ the angel of the covenant is here intended. There is, to my mind, no warrant for either of the two latter suppositions. God, in dealing with men and communicating his will to them, uses, so far as we know, the ministry of men, and not of angels ; and had this passage referred to the Messiah, it would, one would think, have been so remarkable as not to have escaped the notice of the New Testament writers in their quotations. Lee lays much stress (and in fact it is his one great argument) upon the circumstance that 'H'^fP (malach), prior to the time of Job, always signified a literal aiigel, and never a messenger ; but he forgets that, in the very first chapter of this book, it repeatedly means a human messenger. Again, he would make V?P {melifs) signify an inter- cessor ov mediator, but gives no authority for taking the word here in that sense. The two latter clauses of this verse appear to me to be explanatory of the former clause, and to form a kind of parenthesis ; and so, Elihu's meaning is, — If the afflicted man happens to have by his side ('l''^?) {gnalaiv) a messenger (and by a messenger I mean such a man as is one out of a thousand, one who can inter- pret to his fellow -men the Divine will and the mysteries of Providence, and can convince them of the righteousness of all God's dealings), then, 8sc., &c. NOTES, JOB XXXIII. 23. 357 God's uprightness. The word God, though not expressed in the original, is, I think, sufficiently understood, the word D^'?^ [leadam) being inserted rather than i^ {lo), purposely, as it appears, to form an antithesis to it. Elihu evidently implies that he was himself just such a messenger and inter- preter as he is here describing; and that he was sent, in order to justify God's ways in the eyes of Job, who had hitherto been questioning the justice of God, in the afflictions he was enduring. Some comraentatoi-s are determined to discover here the doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness ; I am satisfied that that doctrine is scriptural (for if sin be remitted, — in other words, — if all defect of righteousness be covered by Christ's merit, what is this but the imputation of righteousness by Christ's merit ?), but I am equally satisfied that it was far from Elihu's thoughts ; whilst one cannot but admire the zeal of men earnestly to contend for holy and blessed scriptural doctrines, yet, it does great injury to the more general reception of those doctrines, to assert their existence in passages which, after all, may not really contain them. 24. This verse may possibly be made to apply to the grace of God in salvation, and to his deliverance of his people from everlasting death through the redemp- tion that is in Christ Jesus ; but such application of it can only be in the way of accommodation, as that is not the real meaning of the passage. Its plain and literal import is, that if God be pleased to deal graciously with the sick and dying man in question, then, on the consideration of that man's acknowledging his sins, and of his being brought through the ministiy of the messenger to a state of true repentance, God issues the command, that he is to recover from his sickness, and thus be delivered from going down into a premature grave. This case is not unlike that of Hezekiah ; indeed it so resembles it in many particulars, that I wonder it should have escaped (as I believe it has done) the notice of com- mentators. The case is recorded in Isaiah xxxviii. — Hezekiah being sick unto death, prays to the Lord for deliverance, — vers. 3 and 14 ; and then receives this message through the prophet Isaiah, — " Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years." Isaiah here is the messenger ("iT?;'^^ malach) to whom God says concerning Hezekiah, " Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom." The ~lr?3 "^0^9 {ma(sa(hi chopher) I have found a ransom, corresponds with " I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears." And "cople, in the second clause, and the particular reference in the third clause, show. In the middle of the night — ^^^v niUn (khetsoth layelah). This does not necessarily mean exactly at midnight. The people. The tribe or nation over whom monarchs, thus suddenly cut off, reigned. Is shocked. The original tt?373 ((/ag7iash) implies disturbance, such as is produced by an earthquake. It does not follow that such kings were loved by their subjects. The shock px'oduced is occasioned by the awful suddenness of the Divine stroke. 362 NOTES, JOB XXXIV. 20." • Not by hand. Not by human hand, and therefore by a manifest sti'oke of God, thus rendering the event the more awfuh 21. A reason why God is no respecter of persons — why he does not notice the opulent more than the destitute, even because he judges of men not by the circumstances of their station, but by their actions ; and which, by reason of his omniscience, he is well qualified to do, 23. It is as absurd to question the justice of God's dealings, when he punishes an individual by some sudden and severe stroke, as it is impossible for the workers of iniquity to hide themselves from God under cover of dai*kuess, and so, escape his eye ; for God need only look at a man once in order to perceive his sinfulness, and find sufiicient ground to bring him into judgment. This appears to me to be the obvious meaning of this confessedly difiicult verse. It is one that does no violence to the language, and it is suitable to the context. He need not set his eyes, ^c. I supply "'''5*'?? {gneinaiiv) his eyes, after D'^E?"' ^ (yasim), from v. 21. This is far more natural, and more suitable to the context than going back as far as v. 14 to fetch "12 / [libbo) his heart. ^V W ^"^P {sim gnain gnal) to set eyes upon, is a Hebrew phrase of frequent occurrence. The future tense in Hebrew has many shades of meaning ; here, it is he will not set, SfC, in the sense, there is no occasion that he should set, or, he must not set. 24. Without inquiry. So thoroughly cognizant is God of all the ways of men, that when he destroys even great men and puts others in their place, it is not necessary that he should go through even the formality of an investigation. 25. In a night. ^/'J^ {layelah) here is in the sense of by night, and this accords with the statement in v. 20. 26. rinri (takhath), somewhat in the sense of '^^^. ^On {takhath asher), the infinitive ^^'i'^rj (heyotham) being here understood. (See Gesenius). He struck, ^-c. P?9 (saphak), a word probably formed from the sound, and not unlike our English word smack. In the open sight of others, lit., in a place of spectators, i.e., God inflicts his judgments upon such men so as to make a public spectacle of them. It seems to me, however, that this clause is imperfect, and that ~lt?^ {asher) is redundant in the next; I am inclined therefore to reject the Masoretic punctuation, and to conjecture that the reading should be '^'^^ (asar), i.q., "ip^ (asar), and that it should be connected with this clause, in which case the rendering would be : — "In the open sight of others he ptit [theni] in bonds, For that they had turned away from after him" 2? («) is commonly employed in this book instead of D {s) ; thus we have in vi. 2, and other places, "^V? (chagnas) instead of D3?3 {chagnas), vexation. 27. A reason of the punishment inflicted upon them ; they had departed from God, and had not given heed to his will. Their fellow-men may have been ignorant that there existed such irreligion in them, but the omniscient God had noticed it. 28. In order to bring upon each, S^c, lit., upon him. This verse is a sequence of V. 26. God struck these persons with signal judgment, in order to bring upon them the cries of those whom they had oppressed, and then there is added as a general truth that God hears the cry of the weak, and this hearing implies avenging. 29. And if he give quiet, §c, S)-c. — putting the case that he does so. If in his • NOTES, JOB XXXIV. 29. 363 sovereign pleasure, nnd on hearing their crj, he chooses to shield the meek from further injury, and to reassure them, by disarming or cutting off their oppressors, then, it is not in the power of any man to disturb the enjoyment of that tranquillity. And on the other hand, if God choose, at the same time, to frown upon and to manifest his anger against the evil-doers in question, then, it is impossible for them to induce him to give them his countenance or favor. And this, in reference at once to the nation and to the man, i.e., God, by this act of vengeance, at once gives quiet to the oppressed nation, and troubles the wicked oppressor. 30. A continuation of the reason why God punished these men (v. 26), that tliey might be prevented from causing any further disturbance or mischief amongst their people, and which their high position had enabled them to perpetrate very extensively. The negative sense given to IP (wm) in both clauses is very common. ''U^piSJip (inimmokcshei) is for ''tj?!?^ HVijip (miheyoth moheshei). I think it not improbable that there is some reference throughout these latter verses to Job's punishment and deposition from office. God had acted thus towards him (Elihu implies), both because he had marked wickedness in him, and also to prevent his having the power of doing harm by mismanaged government. 31. This and the two next verses are, perhaps, as difficult as any in the book. Of this verse Schultens well says, " Insuperabilis ferme scopulus, ad quern magni sententiarum fluctus cooriuntur ; " and of verse 33 he remarks, " Perplexae non minus, quam prteruptte sententia3." For, Sfc, — i.e., God must have some good reasons, such as those I have just advanced, when He afflicts, Jbr surely it never can be becoming in any man to suppose that he has been punished without deserving it. Shall any one say, SfC, — i. e., is it proper that any one should say ? The sense, therefore, is much the same lis in the first clause of ver. 18. I have borne, S^c, Sfc. I agree with Schnurrer, that instead of v2n^^ [ekhebol), the reading should be ''?n^ {ekhaveV) ; in which case, my translation is quite literal. I see no other way of making sense of this clause, at least without offending against Hebrew idiom. The meaning as it stands is, — I have been afflicted more than I ought or than I was obliged to be. 32. Things beyond xohat I see, S^c, ^c. The language of arrogance. It amounts to this, — As far as I can judge, I am undeservedly afflicted ; if I am wrong in the supposition, I beg you will enlighten me on the subject. If I have done evil, Sfc. If I have sinned in a way commensurate to my afllictions (which I do not believe I have done), then I will sin no more. 33. Is this thy view? "^IpVTpn (Jiemegnimmecha), — lit.. Whether from with thee? i.e.. Does this proceed from thee? Is this what in effect you have stated ? = Are these your sentiments ? He will requite it. He will requite the self-righteousness and the arrogance of such sentiments as those just alluded to. It is observable that Elihu does not charge Job directly with having uttered the sentiments in question, but infers that they are sentiments which he held, or, rather, that they were conclusions to which Job's opinions, if carried out, necessarily led. Though thou repudiate it. However much you may repudiate the conclusions to which the principles you have expressed of necessity lead, yet you cannot alter 364 NOTES, JOB XXXIV. 3S. • the fact of their being legitimate deductions from the opinions you heave avowed ; and you may depend upon it, that God will deal with you accordingly. But thou choosest, S)-c. This, however, is no concern of mine ; the conclusion I have just drawn is in reality your sentiment, and not mine. Sjjeak, therefore, what thou dost hnoiu. If, indeed, you do repudiate the sentiments which I have shown to be fairly deducible from the maxims you have advanced, then let me advise you in future to speak more advisedly, and to confine your remarks to such subjects as you are acquainted with. 34. Men of sense tvill say, 8^c. Elihu seems tacitly to mean, — If you. Job's friends, are really men of sense, or if there are any other persons who hear me who have pretensions to wisdom, they will certainly tell me that they adopt the opinion which I have expressed with reference to Job. Sense. The word ^ (Jev\ besides signifying heart, is often used to express all such qualities as were supposed by the ancient Orientals to have their seat in the heart, such as understanding, affection, sense, ^"c. For a wise man doth hearken to me. A wise man, in hearing my arguments, will assent to their truth ; and therefore (according to the first clause and the next verse) he will tell me that, in point of fact, he adopts my conclusions. 36. To translate ''?^ {avi^ here, my father, would be incongruous ; and equally so to derive it from ^^"12 (io), and to suppose that it stands for ^''?!^ (avi), I will bring, or adduce. There can be little question but that the ^?''?? (tsaveina) I wish, of the Chaldee Paraphrase gives the true meaning. In this case, ''^^ (avi) is a form, with a pronominal suffix, from the root HSS (avah), to wish. My wish is that Job might be tried, c^c. My object and desire in the remarks I have made is, that Job's sentiments might be thoroughly tested, and so, exposed ; and that, because, although he may not himself mean it, I conceive them to be of a most dangerous tendency. ■JIIS ■'ti^pSlZl (beanshei awen), with, or amongst, wicked men, — i.e.. Job's remarks place him in the same category with wicked men ; whether actually wicked, or not, himself, he has, at all events, contended for their principles and opinions. 37. For he addeth, 8fc. Job, by his irreverent speaking about God, and by the manifest encouragement he thereby gives to irreligious principles, adds to his former sinfulness, whatever that may have been. Irreligion. V^P^ (peshagn) a breaking away from (Divine) authority; the very reverse of religion, which binds ijigo) to God. He applaudeth irreligion. If "l^'f? {chappaitv) be supplied to P'iSPI (ispok), the word will mean, he clappeth his hands; and that may be either in the way of triumph, or of scorn, &c. I take it in the former sense here, and connect it with 3^ti75 (peshagn). I am aware that I cannot adduce a particular instance of its being used in the exact sense I have given to it ; but it is, nevertheless, quite consonant with Hebrew idiom. Some understand P^P"', (ispok) to refer to the noisiness of Job's declamations. In that case, he clattereth would be a good word to express it. It is evident, from numerous ancient Egyptian paintings, that clapping or striking the hands together was generally adopted as an accompani- ment to musical instruments, and even to the liuman voice. The allusion here may be to this circumstance ; and so, the secondary meaning of P'^^P"! (ispok) would be, here, he forms an accompaniment to, or, he supports, plays in concert ivith, and the like. NOTES, JOB XXXV. 1. 30 5 JOB XXXV. 1. Elihu, having indirectly attacked Job, now turns from the friends, and appeals to the Patriarch's own judgment and natural sense of propriety. 2. Hast thou counted this to he judgment'? Do you really believe you could be right in saying, &c., &c. ? / am more right, 8fc., — not more righteous, as many make it. It would be preposterous to suppose that Elihu would even impute such a sentiment to Job. The meaning of Elihu is, that Job, in desiring that the cause pending between him and God might be tried, implied his conviction that God was afflicting him without cause, and, so far, was wrong in doing so. 3. WJierein it scrveth thee. Of what use is it to you (you say to yourself ) that you are in the right? in other words, — the blamelessness of your life renders your affliction unjust. More than had I sinned, — lit., more than my sin. 4. With verse. See Note on iv. 2. And together with thee, thy friends. Elihu considers that the arguments of the friends had been incomplete and inconclusive. 5 — 7. If the heavens be so high, how absurd the supposition that God, who is higher than they, can be in any way affected, either by your righteousness or unrighteousness. This sentiment of Elihu's must, of course, be received with such modifications, as other parts of Scripture impose upon it ; otherwise, if pressed too far, it would involve the Epicurean notion of the utter indifference of the Deity to mundane affairs. It is interesting in this, as in other instances, to observe what deep truths lie at the bottom of, and were doubtless the origin of, heathen errors. 8. This, together with the preceding remark, is only an amplification of what EHphaz had advanced in xxii. 2. You cannot bring God down to any human standard. God himself employs a somewhat similar argument in Isa. Iv. 8, 9. 9. There seems to be no particular connexion between this and the verses immediately preceding, but there is, I think, a connexion with the previous chapter. Elihu had there argued that God often, and whenever He pleases, does, in answer to the cry of the oppressed, visit oppressors with signal judgment ; but being awai-e, from what Job had already said (chap, xxiv.), that Job would meet this argument with the objection that, in a general way, God does not hearken to the cry of the oppressed, he now proceeds to explain why this is. liecause of a tmiltitude of oppressions the oppressed cry out. The Hebrew idiom is, Because of a multitude (of something) the oppressed cry out. The something, which is not expressed, is readily understood from the passive participle which immediately follows. Elihu evidently refers to, and grants the truth of, what Job had stated in xxiv. 12, and in what, indeed, is the general argument of that chapter, though he denies the inference that God is unjust in not attending to such cries, and explains why God is inattentive to them. The meaning is, — Job, you are quite right' in saying that oppressions abound, and that the oppressed cry out, and that yet God does not hear them ; but then, why 366 NOTES, JOB XXXV. 9. is this ? It is because these wretched sufferers have not the faith to address their cries to God. Cry out. The force of the Hiphil here is, cry out for help. 10. But, ^c. For the connexion, see the Note above. Who giveth songs in the night. The meaning is, that as it is God's nature and property to show mercy, and give grounds for thankfuhiess and praise, even in the darkest trials, so, if these persons addressed themselves to him in faith — i.e., in the belief that He is a God of this gracious character — they would, instead of uttering ineffectual bowlings under their misei'ies, soon have their prayers exchanged for songs of thanksgiving, even in the dark night of their calamity. 11. Elihu implies that the consideration that God has endowed man with reason, a gift so much more excellent than that instinct which is possessed by animals, ought to be an argument prevailing with men to induce them, in their sufferings, to apply to their bountiful God, instead of merely uttering such natural cries of anguish as are uttered by the brute creation. The gist of Elihu's argument in all this is, that the reason men are not comforted in their afflictions, and redressed, when they are oppressed by their fellow-mortals, is, that in their lamentations they do not really call upon God for help. 'l^pv'a (lyiallephenou) is for •^3Qy^*P {ineallephenoii). 12. This verse is capable of three interpretations, and it is, perhaps, difficult to determine which is preferable. The verse may either be taken in the sense in which I have given it above ; or the meaning may be that God does not hear the cries of the afflicted, because of the pride and wickedness of the sufferers, which prevents their addressing their cries to him ; or there may be a pregnant construction here, and so the passage may be translated, There they cry, but He heareth not \so as to deliver them'\ from the haughtiness of the wicked. Compare this with Ps. xxii. 21 : — " Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns; " i.e., Thou hast heard me \so as to deliver me"] from the horns, 8fc. 13. Vanity. The mere utterance of expressions which are without faith. See it. So as to regard it in any favorable point of view. 14. Elihu now shows that he intends the remarks just made to apply to Job with peculiar force. You are not answered and not noticed by God in your affliction ; not only because your lamentations are merely empty and unbelieving utterances of nature, but also, and especially, because, upon your own admission, you add positive impiety to your lack of religious feeling ; you have openly avowed both your scepticism on the subject of God's presence and of his inter- ference in human affairs, and also your impatient want of confidence in Him. It will be observed that I have carried the negative force of wb (Jo) from the first clause into the second ; and, indeed, unless this be done, I do not see how any sense, really suitable to the context, can be extracted from the passage. Job had not actually said what is here imputed to him ; but Elihu perhaps unfairly infers it, probably from the circumstance that Job had expressed a wish of being able to discover whereabouts God's judgment-seat was, so as to lay his cause before Him ; and that, together with the expression of that wish, Job had lamented his inability to see God at all. See chap, xxiii. 2 — 9. NOTES, JOB XXXV. 15. 3G7 15. Commentators have generally explained this with reference to God's dealings with Job, as though Elihu stated that those dealings had been more lenient than what was really deserved ; but this interpretation is, I think, erroneous. Job had expressed his wonder — first, that men who might be presumed innocent should be allowed to suffer so much as they often did at the hands of proud oppressors, and that under their sufferings and cries God did not appear for their relief; and secondly, that God permitted such wanton oppressors to go on in their proud and cruel career without punish- ment. Job had certainly expressed these sentiments, — but, not without some reference to God, and to a time of reckoning sooner or later. (See the whole of chap, xxiv.) Elihu, however, ascribes to him the sentiments, without giving him credit for the limitations which he had appended to them, and accordingly answers them in their broadest sense. With the first of them — that men who might be presumed innocent are not heard when groaning under their oppressions — he deals in vers. 9 — 13; and with regard to the second — that insolent op- pressors are pretty much allowed to do as they please without any particular animadversion on the part of God — he concludes, in vers. 15, 16, that Job had made this sentiment the basis of much of the empty verbosity and bombast that had marked his discourses. '^•'^l?"] {wegnattah), — And noiv. This gives intensity to what follows. Job has uttered such and such opinions, and now, as it were to crown all, because he supposes so and so to be the case, he says so and so. Because he — of insolence. Because [according to Job's statements] God does not exhibit any very marked displeasure against the cruel excesses of proud men. ^? (pash), not short for V^^ (peshagn) transgression, as some have it, nor vmltitude, i.e., of sins, as some Hebrew Doctors without particular authority render it, but, far more probably, from ^-IS (poiish), which, according to the Arabic, signifies to be proud, and used in Hab, i. 8 (see Gesenius) of a horseman leajjing proudly and fiercely . Not at all. I take this to be the force of V.^ (ain), as used in this passage. iSM li'JS (^pakad appo), — lit., hath visited [a« to] his anger ; i.e., so far as his anger was concerned. This may therefore be expressed by in his anger. 16. Job (according to Elihu) makes the fact of the apparent impunity with which proud and powerful men oppress, the subject of wordy, pointless, and ignorant harangues. To no purpose, v^n (Jievel), — lit., vanity. JOB XXXVI. 1. Elihu added, S^c. Jewish commentators remark here that Elihu, having spoken three times, which was as often as Job and his friends, with the exception of Zophar (who had allowed his last turn to pass by), had done, might reasonably have stopped here ; but that, as he did not, his so-to-speak extra discourse is intro- duced by the word added. 2. It has often been remarked, since Jarchi first noticed it, that the words in the sentence ^i^HMI 1^?)T_ "^/""iriS {chattar li zegneir waekhawwecha) are purely 368 NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 2. Chaldaic ; the corresponding sentence in Hebrew would be^T,''?^^ ^^^ ^?'7nin (hokhal li megnat waaggidecha). Verse. See Note on iv. 2. 3. P"in"JpY {lemerakhok), — lit., unto from, afar. The force of this might be expressed by translating ^^^ {essa) Itvill go to fetch. I will fetch my opinion from afar, — i.e., I will draw my arguments, in support of the opinion I advance, not from commonplace topics, but from a far more distant range of subjects. Elihu states in the next clause what opinion he intends to maintain, namely, that righteousness does belong to God. Elihu implies, — Let men take what view of it they please, let circumstances even seem to favor their view, that God acts unjustly, yet I defend this, as a fundamental truth, that God is just ; and this is my position in the arguments I am about to advance; / will ascribe righteousnees to my Maker. 4. My verse. See Note on iv. 2. One sincere in his opifiions is with thee. This and the preceding clause are addressed especially to tlob. Elihu is here speaking of himself, and says, — You have to deal with one who is honest in the views which he maintains. Sincere. CP^ {tamini), perfect loith regard to so?indness and sincerity. 5. And despiseth not, — understand, any who might be supposed to be despicable objects on account of their poverty or weakness, &c., &c. Elihu's argument is, that the very greatness of God is a guarantee for his impartiality. In the second clause Elihu explains that by God's greatness — he means his greatness both in power and in disposition — he is almighty and generous. 6. Live, — i.e., sooner or later God destroys the wicked. He giveth the poor, <^-c. He defends their cause, and rescues them out of the hand of the wicked. Their right. The pronoun here, though not actually expressed in the original, is understood, because tDS^Q [mishpat) is in statu constructo. 7. He loithdraweth not, ^c. Elihu's meaning in this and the following clauses is, that God does not withdraw his loving attention from a righteous man (so long, at least, as he continues such, see ver. 12, &c.), be his outward circumstances what they may ; putting the case that he is a king on the throne, God advances him to eminent and lasting prosperity ; or, putting the case that he is a deposed monarch, and in captivity, some transgression has been the occasion of this severe affliction. God, however, does not on that account withdraw his favor, but rather has appointed the affliction with a view to the man's correction and ultimate happiness. Job's friends had argued that it was impossible for a good man to be in affliction. Elihu here contradicts them : he says that it is qidte possible for a good man to he in affliction. Job himself had argued, that very frequently good men are in affliction, and that he could not account for it on any principles of justice: Elihu here shows that God is just in afflicting good men, that it is on account of faults they have committed, and that God actually so afflicts them with kindly intentions towards them . From the righteous, — lit., from a righteous man. But the plurals which follow show that this noun, though in the singular number, is to be taken in a collective sense. NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 7. 369 And they being. "riSI (weeth). I take this to be the force of the Hebrew here, putting the case that they are kings on thrones, then (the apodosis) God deals so and so. And they are exalted. A consequence of God's establishing them. 8. Or if, being bound, t^c. Or if, instead of being in possession of their thrones, these same righteous persons shall have fallen into misfortune, and having been first taken captives in war, in cords of afiiiction, have afterwards been bound in fetters. (See the Illustrations.) Cords of affliction, — or of humiliation. 9. Then, — the apodosis. That they have been excessive. It is difficult to say whether this refers to the persons or to their transgressions ; if to the former, then it means that they transgressed principally by being overbearing in their conduct : their exalted positions led them to be too proud, insolent, and oppressive. If the word refers to the transgressions, then it signifies that those transgressions exceeded such limits that it became necessary for God to take marked notice of them. 10. And he openeth their ear, Sfc. God having, in the first instance, by means of the correction employed, uncovered the ear of the afflicted man, and so, put it in a condition of ability to hear, he then, through that now unstopped organ, commands the sufferer to forsake his sins. Of course it is the spiritual ear that is here alluded to. 11. They finish, — 'IvD'^. {yechallou), some copies have ^v?"^. (jjevallou), they wear away; there appears to be the same uncertainty of the reading as in xxi. 13. 12. If they do not choose to profit by their afflictions, then their end is that they die suddenly ; and that, through their folly in not understanding God's design in afflicting them. They pass away like a dai't. See note on xxxiii. 18. 13. For. This is intended to substantiate the possibility that afflicted persons may not profit by their afflictions, and that it is not necessarily always that they " hear the rod and who hath appointed it ; " though perhaps hitherto apparently righteous, affliction shows what manner of men they really are, and brings to light their wickedness ; and so far from affliction being of any service to them, they are so bad and so incorrigible that they only go on treasuring up for them- selves wrath against the day of wrath. Lay up wrath, — in the same sense as in Romans ii. 5 ; though some understand this (but on insufficient grounds), as meaning that these persons lay up, i.e., cherish anger in their hearts against God. They cry ?iot, ^c, ^c. They do not turn to God with prayer when he afflicts them. When he bindeth them, — as in v. 8. It is man who binds them, but man being only the instrument, God is represented as the doer of it. 14. Their soul, ^c, — i.e., the souls of these persons (who being impious in heart, though perhaps apparently righteous in tlie eyes of others, are not changed for the better by their afflictions) die in the same lamentable state as the most abandoned characters ; their former apparent righteousness does not avail them, and that God who sees the impiety that exists in their hearts, classes them B B 370 NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 14. amongst the worst of men, and deals with them as such. Thus Elihu clearly brings out the truth, that affliction is a true touchstone of character ; before affliction there may have been no apparent difference between two individuals, both may have been equally moral and respectable in the eyes of their fellow-men ; calamity befalls them, and then is brought to light the fact, that there is grace in the heart of the one, impiety in that of the other ; the one acknowledges his sinfulness and repents, the other becomes hardened, and proves to be no better than persons who are guilty even of crimes unmentionable. Like that of prostitute youths, — lit., amongst the youth; the meaning is, — the persons in question are, in their death, or way of dying, classed by God amongst the youth, i.e., they die a death such as the youths hei'e alluded to die. The word Q'^t?'*!!!? (hedeshini) sodomites, in the next clause, determines what soi't of youths are here referred to, viz., prostitute youths. To say that these persons " die in youth," as many understand it, would be untrue, and moreover would destroy the point of Elihu's argument, for he is evidently speaking of pei'sons of ripe years (such as Job was) being afflicted, and of the two diiferent efTects of affliction upon them ; and further, the rendering I have given makes the parallelism complete. And their life. Supply from the former clause dieth. Like that of Sodomites. Not with the C"'ti7'n|7 (kedoshim) saints, as one might have expected from the former behaviour of these apparently righteous persons, but with the D''^"!!)? (kedeshim), inen consecrated by heathen rites to the vilest of crimes. All this is of course intended to apply to Job ; — if you are really a good man fallen into trouble, God is dealing mercifully ; he is showing you that you have been too proud and overbearing in your conduct, and the proof of your goodness will be that you will return to him in true humiliation and repentance, and then he will bring you out of trouble. Whereas, if your affliction only causes you to sin more against God and to restrain prayer before him, then such conduct proves you to be impious in heart, and if it be so, your fate, notwithstanding your past profession, will be as awful as that which befalls tlie most licentious profligates. 15. Elihu here draws a conclusion from his own statements just uttered. "When an afflicted righteous man is delivered, his affliction is in God's hands the means of his deliverance, for it is by means of troubles that God so opens the tears of those who are tried, as that they hear and obey his voice calling them to repentance. The 2 [he)'\n both clauses might be translated in instead of by, but the latter rendering gives much more point to the whole passage. The apparently paradoxical statement of the verse, that affliction works its own cure, is strengthened by a double paronomasia, which cannot be exactly rendered in English ; the following, however, would nearly express it : — "He redressetJi the humble [afflictecT] by his [Jmmhling] aJJUcllon, And he uncovereth their ear by distress." 16. This verse has, correctly enough, been counted full of difficulties, and has been generally misunderstood. The meaning is, — Not only is it true that Avhen an afflicted man is righteous his affliction is, in God's hands, a means of his NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 16. 371 deliverance (v. 15) ; but more than this, God does, by an actual putting forth of power, bring him out of his distress into circumstances of liberty and plenty. Elihu's inference is, — surely if you Job were really a righteous man, the matter would by this time have been proved — God would, by an act of power, have brought you out of your distress into a position of prosperity. Have urged thee. Elihu certainly implies a sort of gracious violence or compulsion on the part of God in bringing the good out of trouble. Compax-e Gen. xix. 15, 16. Out of the gorge of distress, — lit., out of the mouth of distress ; as "1^ (^tsar) in its primary sense means tiarroivness, and only in its secondary sense, distress ; gorge is a very suitable rendering for "^P {phi), lit., mouth. And the setting down, Sfc, — i.e., and your tray would be set doxonfull of fatness. ^n? {nakhath) is the setting down of, not the things set on. The irjl?'?^ (shulhhan) was evidently a moveable table corresponding in use to a large dinner tray. (See the Illustrations on this subject.) 17. But thou hast filled up, S^c, — i.e., putting the case that you have filled up, Sfc. ; Elihu evidently implies that Job had done this. There seems to be a play upon the word filling in this and the former verse, — so far from the result of your trial being repentance on your part, and on God's part prosperity for you and a weW filled table, you have rather filed up, by your impatience and observations upon God's justice, &c., that measure of iniquity which makes wicked men liable to judgment. Judgment and senteiice hold together. Seeing that you have rendered yourself liable to judgment, I would just remind you that the act of judgment and the delivery of tlie sentence are very closely connected ; — the one is a kind of natural consequence of, and follows very closely upon the other. t23t^D (mishpat) is often used to signify the decision to ivhich a Judge comes after he has tried a case. 18. Elihu implies, that the fact, that Job had not yet been delivered out of his affliction, and that he had apparently made no good use of the trial, but rather by ungodly tempers had been filling up that measure of iniquity which rendered him liable to judgment, was, rather than otherwise, a proof that ^Aere was divine wrath gone out against him, and that, such being the case, he ought to beware how he went on provoking God, else it might soon be too late ; destruction might come upon him in an instant, and no amount of ransom would e7iable him to avoid it. Beivare lest. This is not the only instance in which T? {pe7i), more usually, simply lest, has necessarily the extensive meaning here given to it. He urge thee off. ^ri'D"^, (yesithecha.) This is evidently intended to correspond witli the same word ^0^9'-^ {hesithecha) in ver. 16, thus, — God has not as yet by his mercy urged you out of your distress (ver. 16), take care that in his provoked wrath He does not altogether urge you away with a stroke. 19. Do not flatter yourself that wealth, influence, social position, or any other sucli adventitious circumstance can avail you with Ilim. fJill he ^'steem, ^-c, "H'^^jl'^. (JicyagnerocJi), ivill he put your opulence i?i compe- tition with other things of infinitely greater importance to Ilim, — such as his justice, holiness, &c. ? This is the full foi'ce of what I conceive to be implied in the word here used. B B 2 373 NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 19. Thine opulence. ^5^^ {shougnecha). This miglit be translated your cry, but tlie context determines the meaning here given to be the best. Not balsam. ''^tI (betsar), probably the same as "'^r^ (betser) in xxii. 24. For the meaning here given, and the immense value of this product, I must refer to the Note on that verse. All the powers of might. All such things as are generally supposed to make a person influential and powerful, — namely, money, knowledge, station, &c. 20. Pant not for the night. Do not be anxious to enter upon the state of death. Job had repeatedly expressed a wish to die, and had spoken of that state as one of ease and rest. Elihu cautions him against such a desire. Death, according to Elihu's view, at least for the wicked, was a continued night spent in lower regions. mien people are carried off below. I have endeavoured to preserve the ambiguity of the original, which may mean either that people from below (i.e., from this earth) are carried off, or that people are carried oflf to a place below. I incline to the latter signification. The whole verse may be thus paraphrased : — Do not long to enter upon that night of death, in which people are removed [from their earthly abodes] to subter- ranean habitations. 21. nt"b37 "IS {chi gnal zeh). The ^P (ff^al) in this phrase has been a con- siderable difficulty to commentators ; and no wonder, so long as they were deter- mined to make it dependent upon "ina {bakhar), which, of course, it could not be, without admitting a decidedly anomalous construction. The difficulty, how- ever, is removed by making the ^? (gnal) independent of "IH^ (bakhar), and by referring this latter word, as it obviously ought to be, to the subject of the previous verse, i.e., the night, &c., i. e., death. And so, the present verse might be paraphrased, — Take care lest your desire to die be a decided setting of your face upon iniquity ; and I warn you that it is such, for iniquity is really the reason why you make choice of death, rather than of bearing the affliction which God is pleased to send upon you. 22. Elihu now, in this and the following verses, adduces the greatness of God, as discoverable in his works, as another reason why Job should desist from the presumptuous language he had used with reference to God. Who is master. It is somewhat doubtful whether ^"|."^^ {moreh) here ought to be taken in its Chaldaic sense, as a lord, or in its more ordinary and Hebrew sio^nification, as a teacher: the former meaning is certainly moi'e suitable to the context. I have preferred, however, to retain the ambiguity, and so, have translated the word master. 23. Who hath encharged him with his way? — i.e., Who has given God direc- tions as to the course He must pursue ? Or it might be translated, Who hath supervised his way ? i.e.. Under what supervisor does God act ? Elihu had already advanced much the same sentiment in xxxiv. 13. The second clause. Who hath said, Thou hast done wrong? seems rather to favor .the second translation which I have given of the first clause ; but there are many instances which prove that at least the ordinary meaning of ^? ^P? (pakadgnal) is to give (^something) in charge to (some one). NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 24. 873 24. His doings, "'^r?^ (poolo) is singular, but often has a collective sense ; /lis work would not give the full force of the original. Which. Lee explains "li?^ {asher) in the sense of ""P^ 1¥^ V {lemagnan asher) ; but can it ever have such a sense before a preterite ? Have seen. Many, among whom Jerome and apparently the Chaldee, take ~l-1ti7 (^shour) in the sense of "^^^ («/«>) to sing, but this is unnecessary. 25. Have gazed upon them. ? HTn (Jikazah ve) is to look at ivith some degree of satisfaction. Mortal man beholdeth them from afar. Elihu's inference is, that this is right and proper, that it does not become mortals to pry too closely into the secret workings of God. Many of God's works are placed at a distance, though within sight ; and, being so placed, man should not presume to endeavour to get nearer to them. This I take to be Elihu's meaning, and if so, it is probably intended as a reproof to Job for his presuming to pry into the secrets of God's providential dealings. Job ought to magnify what God does, content to look at it at a distance. 26. God's greatness being utterly beyond all human comprehension, and his duration beyond all computation, that man must needs be arrogant who scans his actions with a cavilling spirit. Such is evidently the inference which, Elihu intends, Job should draw and apply to his own case. 27. For. As a proof that God is great. He draineth off the drops of water, — poetically for He reduceth or rarefeth water into drops. There is no foundation for giving the sense of draiving vjJ or attracting to ^"l^ (garagn), as has usually been done ; to reduce might be a correct translation of the word. The^ are strained, — or filtrated, or percolated, i.e., the water is strained, so as to become rain such as falls in a mist. The metaphorical meaning of ^i?^^ (i/azokkou) here is taken from the strainitig of liquids, and not from its other sense, the fusing of metals, as Lee and others understand it. In the first clause Elihu advances a general statement, — that God shows his greatness by rarefying water into minute drops ; and then the second clause contains a more particular description, — the water becomes the fine misty rain which God sends, by a process which Elihu compares to the straining of fluids. 28. So that. '^'^^. {asher), or it might be rendered, That the skies flow dotvn^ indicating design or purpose on the part of God. Drizzle. ^'^'V'V. {irgnephou), always applied to the dropping of small rain. In Proverbs iii. 20 it is used in reference to the dew, — the skies drizzle deiv. Com- pare Shakspeare's, — " When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew" 29. A?/. ^^ iflpk), besides, moreover, &c. Doth man understand. 1^?J CS (im yaviri) supply D^^ {adani) from tlie previous clause. It is scai'cely possible to give, in English, the full force of the irony here conveyed, by the really impossible, though apparently possible, suppo- sition suggested. The nearest approach to it would, I think, be, — Perhaps man does understand. A bare possibility is imagined with, at the same time, the highest amount of improbability. The cloud. ^"^ ignav) is particularly a dense cloud. The next clause shows 374 NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 29. that the sort of cloud specially referred to is the thunder-cloud which God is said to make use of as his pavilion. Compare Psalm xviii. 11 — 13. 30. Behold, He hath spread, ^-c, — i.e., Behold, with regard to the wide-spread dark cloud to which I am now drawing your attention, how God spreads out his light upon the upper surface of it, and Avith its under surface envelops in dark- ness the whole sea in its widest outspreadings. Elihu means that (so far at least as human vision can go), the canopy of cloud in the heavens is (from time to time) co-extensive with the utmost limits of the sea, and covers it with darkness ; whilst above that canopy all is wide-spread light and brightness. This verse has given much trouble, and has been misunderstood, chiefly in conse- quence of the supposition that C*n ''W')W (^shorshei hahjam), lit., roots of the sea, must mean the depths or bottoms of the sea ; but to say that God covers the bottoms of the sea with clouds would be sheer nonsense ; and to say here that He covers the bottoms of the sea with loaters (if that be the word to be understood), would be jumping from one subject to another : besides which, it seems to me much more natural to understand by the roots of the sea its extremities, and by Avhich it is, as it were, rooted to the coast : and the figure becomes the more beautiful, if we consider how reasonably the diffei-ent inlets, arms, creeks, &c., of the sea, in its sweep along the various shores, may be supposed to resemble the outspread roots of a tree. 31. For, S)'C. Elihu here proposes an augmentation of the difficulty of under- standing the spreadings of the cloud (ver. 29) ; there is not only the difficulty of understanding the physical laws, but there are also the providential laws, which o-ive being to, and which regulate the movements of these atmospheric bodies : and those providential laws, which so direct these outspreadings of the cloud as to make them means of inflicting judgments on nations, and at the same time of furnishing man with food, must be taken into the consideration, and they add con- siderably to the difficulty of investigation. By them, — of course by the spreadi7igs of the cloud, the subject upon which Elihu is speaking. It seems to me strange that this pronoun should have been referred to f^y other noun, as such reference only serves to complicate the passage. Hejudgeth nations, — chastises them by means of floods, lightning, whirlwinds, and any other destructive atmospheric agencies which accompany violent storms. He giveth food, Sfc. These same storms, so destructive in some instances, are in others most beneficial, especially in the promotion of fertilization. 32. On the hoUoiv of his hands, S)-c. I take the construction here to be pregnant, and to mean, — that God places the lightning on the hollow of his hands, and so, covers it from the view of men, who, of course, are underneath. In other words, the lightning is, according to Elihu's description, concealed from mortal eyes (until sent forth on its errand), by being o7i the upper, and not on the under surface of the clouds. The clouds are here poetically called God's hands, and the inference, or rather the assertion is, that He has them under his complete control. "lis {or), — light in general, but the context shows that lightning in particular is here intended. In striking, — or in coming into collision [loiih something^ The word striking is literal, and precisely the word we ordinarily use with reference to lightning. NOTES, JOB XXXVI. 32. 375 Totally different views have been taken of this verse. One of these I may express in the following words : — " He hath covered the light (i.e., the sun) with his hands, And heforliddeth it [to shine'\ by an intervention " {i.e., an intervention of some object, such as a cloud as in the case of storms, or the moon, or the earth's shadow, as during an eclipse). This is evidently the meaning which is to be attached to the authorized version. I prefer, however, the rendering I have given, on many accounts. 33. This verse is capable of innumerable renderings, and none of them so decidedly satisfactory as might be wished. The difficulty arises from the ambiguity of almost every word. For instance, 13?T1 {regno) may mean either his noise or its noise {i.e., the thunder of God, or of the cloud), or it may mean his friend, or again, his icill. Then, again, it is uncertain whether God, or the cloud, or the lightning, be the nominative to T*?^ {yaggid) ; and in like manner it is not clear to which of these vbr (gnalaiw) may relate. Again, the word '^5!?^ {mikneh) may mean either cattle or jjossession, or possibly it might be for ^5|7^ {mikne), as Lee has it, and which, if there be such a word, would no doubt mean zeal. (Barnes, by some strange oversight, reads "^.Ip^ (mikweh), and grounds his observations on it.) And further H^ {cqjh) may signify either lorath or also, -svhilst lastly nbiy {gnoleh) may mean a rising (perhaps of a storm), or, a plant, or it may be the same as nbij? {gnolah), for "^4^3 {gnaivlah) iniquity. The translation which I have given furnishes this sense, — God's thunder gives intimation respecting him that he has been storing up his wrath, and is now about to let it loose against iniquity. Not unlikely, thunder was actually heard at the time Elihu was speaking, and he tells Job that this sound portends that God is coming forth to punish ; the thunderbolt, however, is. so completely in God's power (v. 32) that it can strike only where he wills. As "^.^PP {mikneh) signifies both cattle and possessions, our word stock, or store, is a very suitable rendering. The verse might be translated : — " His noise (thunder) announceth him. Even cattle \_annoiince1 the rising \storrn\" Or again, for his noise, his friend {i.e., some one who is in God's confidence), may be substituted. And again, — " He announceth his tvill to it {i.e., to the lightning) j The zeal of [to] wrath against iniquitif." JOB XXXVII. 1 . There should be no separation of the chapters here. At this. Either at the noise of the thunder, then actually heard, or at the con- sideration of God's wrath against iniquity, or probably at both. Doth my heart tremble, <§-c. This effect of fear is sufficiently common. It is caused by the blood forsaking the extremities. 2. Hark I hark ! lit., hearken with a hearkening. 376 NOTES, JOB XXXVII. 2. Raging, grumbling. These are literal renderings of ^^T' (rogez) and H^ri (Jiegeli), and are sufficiently descriptive of thunder. Elihu here draws marked attention to the storm which was then probably rising, and out of which God shortly afterwards addressed Job (see xxxviii. 1). His voice. Thunder is often called God's voice (see Ps. xxix.). 3. ^nnp^ (ishrehou). Some take this from "^^^ {yashar), to direct; others, again, from "T^^ (sharah), i.q., Arab., iJj^ {shri)toJlash. But I prefer, with Lee, to take it from "T^?^ {sharah), i.q., Chald., ^"J^ {sherd) to loose. In this case, ^•^TIP") (ishrehou) is contracted for ^nn^tt?^ (ishrehehou). Lelteth it loose, i.e., the lightning. The ends of the earth, lit., the wings of, (^-c. A winged globe is common both in Egyptian and Assyrian sculpture. 4. After it, ^c, i.e., after the lightning is seen, the thunder is heard. He stayeth them not. Elihu leaves it for the moment to his hearers to guess, that, by them, he means the usual concomitants of thunder-storms, such as hail, rain, &c. These, however, he mentions almost immediately afterwards. 5. God thundereth marvels. Elihu now proceeds to speak of the effects which follow close upon the thunder, — the things which he stayeth not (as in the former verse), and these he calls marvels. The beauty of this passage is destroyed by translating this word adverbially. 6. ^."}r! (Jiewe), from ^^^^ (hawa), or Hin [hawah], and not an Aramaism for "iVX). {heyeh), as Rosenmiiller takes it. His violent rains, lit., rains of his strength. 7. Sealeth he up, ^c. During the season of snow and rain, i.e., during wintei", God seals up the hand of every man, by hindering him from engaging in his ^ ordinary agricultural pursuits. That all the mortals, S^c. God's object in thus obliging men to cease from their ordinary labours is, that they may know that it is his hand, and that they are dependent upon him ; and also, that they may acquii'e knowledge, by considei-ing' the wonders of nature at that season. These wonders Elihu goes on to describe. The mortals he hath made, lit,, men of his workmanship. Some take this to mean his labourers, i.e., men who may be said to labour for him, because they till his earth. But this appears to me a forced construction of the Hebrew. 8. Such is the inclemency of the weather at that season that even the wild beast is driven for shelter into his lurking-places. His abodes. Implying that he has more than one haunt which he frequents. 9. Elihu continues his description of winter weather. Another of its features is, that the tempest comes out of its hidden chamber in which it has been pent up, and that, as it drives along in its fury, it scatters cold in every direction. Commentators in general have seemed to think, that Elihu is giving information as to the particular quarters of the heavens from whence the tempest and the cold proceed, and so, they determine, upon very slight authority, that ""l v' {hheder') must mean the south, and C"!^P (mezarim) the north. The authority in the former instance is that, in ix. 9, "^1X1 {kheder) is used in connexion with the f?outb, and that, in Isa. xxi. 1, and Zech. ix. 14, the HC^D (souphah) tempest, is NOTES, JOB XXXVII. 9. 377 said to come from the south; and, in the latter instance, the authority is no higher than the circumstance that the north is the cold quarter, and the assumption that "^7.0 {kheder) must mean the south. But the context here, so far from being improved by any such departure from the first and literal meaning of the words in question, is to my mind rather altogether interrupted and spoiled. Its chamber. The pronoun is not expressed in the Hebrew, but the article here sufficiently implies it. A comparison seems intended between the N"i3^ (tavo) in this verse and that in the last, whilst, on the one hand, the wild beast goes into his lair, to secure himself from the tempest, on the other hand, the tempest comes out of the hiding- place where it has been pent up, and by its cold and fury drives everything before it. Its scatterings, i.e., the scatterings of the tempest. 10. The chill blast which produces ice is here called the breath of God, because it emanates from him. Is compressed, lit., is in a squeeze, being forced into that position by the contracting and congealing power of the freezing temperature. Some take P^-"'^ (^moutsak) as from P?^ {yotsah) to pour out, but it is better to take it from P''^ (tsouk) to compress, squeeze, &c., as it thus forms an evident contrast to ^n~) (rokhav) breadth, and very properly expresses the binding qualities of ice ; and moreover, the two same words occurring in xxxvi. 16, in manifest antithesis, confirm the meaning here given. 11. "^1 {ii), — probably for ''"1"! (rcwi), from n|}"1 (^rawah). See Gesenius. ri"!^ {tarakh), — I take this word in one of the Arabic senses which it undoubtedly has o^ falling headlong, "semet conjecit, projecit, se prcecipitem dedit, et dejecit se hinc deorsum." (Castell.) For ]3!^ (gnenan), construct, I am disposed to read 1317 (gnanati), absolute, a reading supported by the authority of fifteen MSS. collated by De Rossi. The parallelism is preserved in the translation I have given, and the meaning is sufficiently obvious without comment. The connexion with the context seems to be, — God, in his providential arrangements, has so ordained it, that storm and tempest cannot always last ; in their own discharge they exhaust themselves. 12. M^n") (ivehou). Many refer this to God, but the reflexive force of ^?nrip {mithhappech), veereth, or turneth itself about, rather shows its relation to 1?? ignanan) the cloud. r\'yi>^'2T}r\ (^takhebouloth), which I have translated management, is so evidently a nautical word relating to the steering, sailing, and general governance of a ship, that I suspect TJQnria {mithhappech) is here used in a nautical sense also, and not unlikely was often so used. I h^ve accordingly rendered it veereth; its ordinary meaning is turneth itself about. His management. Of course, God's management. I take "'??'^ {ashcr) to be here for "^^^? {baasher), on account of which, or for which. That they, i.e., the cloud and the lightning. 13. Be the object which God has in ordering his cloud and lightning to the earth what it may, whether to chastise man or to bless him, or whether God does it for the mere benefit of his own earth, in any case God is the doer of it ; he 378 NOTES, JOB XXXVII. 13. supplieth it — ^HS^JXp^ {yamtsiehou), i.e., he maketh it to he found, or findahle, or indeed we might translate the word, he Jindeth it, in the sense of he furnisheth it. 15. Chargeth them. ''? C^lti? {soum gnal) is to lay something upon another, here, to lay the command spoken of in v. 12, to enjoin, or to impose a task. Them. The cloud and the lightning, spoken of before, and also again in the next clause. This verse has, I think, been generally mistaken. Elihu is not speaking here of the mystery of the formation of lightning, but is arguing man's ignorance from the circumstance of its suddenness. Job (says Elihu) does not know ichen God is commissioning the thunderstorm on its errand ; neither does he know, till he actually sees the lightning flash, the instant in which it is to appear. This would not be quite ti'ue of the thunder. 16. The thick cloud, — 3V (^gnav), the dense, heavy cloud, surcharged with moisture. Elihu challenges Job to explain how this is suspended in the air. In all hnoioledge. The force of the plural Q''?'"! (degnim) may, perhaps, thus be given by the addition of the word all. 17. Thou, ivhose garments, Sfc. This is clearly the meaning of ^*''l21^"~'trN i^asher begadeiclui), in connexion with what goes before. And the sense is, — You, Job, can readily enough feel the changes of the weather, but you cannot give any explanation of them. When He lulleth, 8)-c. Thus producing a close atmosphere. 18. Thou, together icith Him, spreadest out, Sfc. V^f?"!^ {tarkiagn) is in the form of an assertion, and not of a question ; if the interrogative H (/«) be supplied, (which is usually done by commentators,) the bitter irony of the passage is destroyed. The force of it appears to be this : — Elihu says to Job, Do you know about the cloud, and about the lightning, &c. ? But of course you do, seeing that you, together with God, lay out the expanse of the firmament under which all these meteoric phenomena take place ; you are consequently, of course, able to instruct us, and we look to you for that instruction, (ver. 19.) Spreadest out. "^V.l, (rakagn) is to spread out like plates of metal, by heating it out. This idea corresponds well with the resemblance of a molten mirror mentioned in the next clause. The ancients probably considered that the sphere of the firmament was a transparent solid. Compare the ^aAKcov ovpavov of the Greek poets. 19. -The keen irony of the former verse is continued in this. You, being a joint artificer with God in the construction of the heavens, must necessarily be able to give us lessons as to how we ought to address ourselves to Him in his presence ; and we beg of you to do so, because, as to ourselves, such is our ignorance that we cannot put words or ideas together for such a purpose. What we shall say to Him. When He appears, as perhaps He may do, in the approaching storm. Cojnpose. "JJIV {ynarach) is to make regidar disposition of anything, such as forces, &c. ; here, words, as in xxxii. 14. Because of darkness. The external darkness produced by the gathering cloud is only a type of the darkness of my mind and of that of my friends. Job is so wise that he can see through this thick darkness, but we cannot. 20. Is it to he told Him, S^-c. Is it proper that I should let Him have intimation 'notes, job XXXVII. 20. 379 of my intention to enter into a controversy with Him ? Even the bearer of such a message would pay the penalty of his rashness. This verse is one of great difficulty, and this is the best sense that I can extract from it. 21, 22. Two verses of extraordinary difficulty. The argument appears to be, — If men cannot so much as gaze at the natural sun when it is shining in its greatest splendour — that is, when, by reason of a wind, the sky is clearest — how can it be supposed that mortals can endure to behold the tremendous majesty of God? And if they cannot even look upon such brightness, how much less can they approach such a glorious Being for the purpose of entering into controversy with Him ? This appears to be the scope of Elihu's ai'gument here, though he expresses it abruptly, and, as far as we can judge, confusedly; much as a man might be supposed to do, who felt aware (as he probably did at this moment) that God himself was about to appear. So splendid is he, — lit., splendid he. The sun's splendour is mentioned here as a reason why men cannot see (^. e., gaze at) that luminary ; and thei'efore my addition of the word so is not out of place. Gold. Poetically here for something that resembles gold — namely, the golden tints that sometimes emblazon the sky. Literal gold is surely quite out of the question. Out of the north cometh gold. This does not mean that golden tints are mostly observable in the northern quarter of the sky, for this would not be true, at least not in so southern a latitude as Arabia ; but the meaning is rather, — Out of the north comes the wind, which, by clearing the sky of clouds, causes it to blaze with the full effulgence of the sun. Upon God there is terrible majesty. Glorious as the heavens are when suffused with golden light, and gilded with the rays of the sun, whose blaze is too powerful for mortals to face, yet God must necessarily be invested with a glory far more terrible [and such, therefore, as we dare not attempt to gaze upon]. 23. We do not discover Him. With all our knowledge and all our bragging, we cannot dive into the mysteries of God's providential dealings. Our researches have, thus far certainly, been in vain. Vast in power, S)C. God is in every respect too great, in might, in wisdom, in justice, and in goodness, to be questioned about his acts; and if He is so questioned, He will not so far condescend as to give men an account of them. Give a?iswer. The received reading is n337"'"ST' (Jo yegnanneli) He will not afflict {i.e., unjustly) ; but this sense is somewhat out of place here, and therefore I prefer to read n3^'J'"N7 {Jo yagneneh), which has the support of some old and good MSS. 24. Elihu here draws his conclusion : — From all that I have advanced, it is clearly men's business to stand in awe of the Almighty, and not to look at Him with curious gaze ; and those who are truly wise will certainly act upon these principles. There is an evidently intentioned play upon the words 'in!lS'n'»_ {yereouhoii) and ni^"]^. {ireh') ; much as if we said, men ought to fear, and not to stare. Will pry, — lit., tvill see; Le., tvill see so as to try and find him out, look, or gaze with curiosity. 380 NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 1. JOB XXXVIIL 1. God himself now interposes — here called Jehovah, the Eternal. For other similar Divine appearances, see Exod. xix. 18; Num. ix. 15, &c. ; 1 Kings xix. 11, &c. ; Ezek. i. 4, &c. 2. Some think that this reproof is intended for Elihu, but Job evidently takes it to himself in his acknowledgment in xlii. 3. Darkeneth counsel. So far from throwing light upon God's ways, only makes them appear more obscure. Job had done this by his questionings, &c., as to the equity of the Divine government. By verse without knowledge. By talking without really understanding the true facts of the case. A common error. . Verse. See Note on iv. 2. 3. Gird up now, Sfc. Prepare now, if you can, to meet me on the battle-field [of controversy] like a hero. 4. God now commences putting questions to Job which are utterly beyond his power to answer. Where wast thou, ^c. .^ God implies, — How is it you were not there to assist me in the work ? Jf thou hast the knowledge, — lit., if thou knowest understanding. 5. Who laid the measures, thereof? Who stretched the line upon it ? Who determined upon its dimensions, and marked them out with lines of measurement previously to its construction. n'^'tjf^p (memaddeiah), its measures. Both the context and also the root "^7^ (maddad) determine this to be the meaning. 6. The bases thereof. The bases of the columns which may be supposed to support it. Sunkefi. The idea conveyed by 3??^ {tavagii) is of large massive stones being deposited, as the foundations of a building, into some soft, clayey stratum, and by their weight gradually settling down into a fixed position. Its corner-stone. Not, I think, the top corner-stone, but the corner-stone at the base. If it were the former, rTH^ (j/arah), cast, or heaved down, would scarcely be appropriate. Compare Isa. xxviii. 1 6, " Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." There certainly is no question but that only one stone is here spoken of, and that stone (Christ, of course) is at once a corner-stone and a foundation. See also Ps. cxviii. 22, " The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner ; " not in the sense of the top stone of the corner, but the principal corner- stone at the base. This is clear from 1 Pet. ii. 4 — 8, where he quotes both this passage from Ps. cxviii. and also that just referred to in Isa. xxviii., and applies the stone mentioned in both to Christ. He speaks of God's laying ii as a foundation, and making it (that same stone) the head, i.e., principal stone of the corner, and then states that that same stone was a stone of stumbling to the disobedient. How could it be called a stone of stumbling — i.e., how could people be said to fall against it — if it were a top stone ? When God laid it, it fell upon NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 0. 38 1 many, and destroyed them ; and since it has been laid, many fall upon it, and are broken. So our Lord's words in Matt. xxi. 44. I dwell at length upon this, because, as we shall see in our next verse, much of the beauty of the passage is lost by understanding n3Q (pinnah) here as a top corner-sto7ie. God is comparing his work of the creation of the world to that of an architect in the construction of a building. The proper measurements are first taken, and then the foundation is laid. That foundation does not consist of one stone, but of many, though there is one principal stone. There are, for the sides of the building, the bases, ^'^T]^. (edanim), on which the columns rest ; and then these are supported and held together by the ^32 ]3N (^even pinnah), the corner-stone. This, I think, throws some light on Eph. ii. 20, " Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor7ier-stone" The apostles on the one side and the prophets on the other side are the bases of the spiritual structure ; Jesus Christ is that principal foundation-stone, which is placed at the angle, and upon which the whole building may be said to rest and to hang together. 7. These joyful acclamations in heaven are usually understood to have taken place at the completion of the creation of the world ; but this is, I think, incorrect. (See the Note on the previous verse.) The period here assigned to the outbursts of acclamation amongst the celestial hosts is the period of the foundation of the world, — the time when its bases and its bottom corner-stone were laid. It is certainly remarkable that the same feeling which prompted angels to praise and shout for joy when God commenced the construction of a new world, now, instinctively as it were, moves men to exhibit (to compare great things with small) very similar transports at the laying the foundation of great public buildings — not to say even of private houses also ; it is a common practice of modern times, and may be traced to the most remote antiquity. We have an interesting account of this in Ezi-a iii. 10 — 13. "When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord," the people are there represented as expressing their joy, in just the same way, as the angels are here described as having manifested their gladness, when the foundations of the world were laid. " All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid ; " and also, " thei/ sang together by course, in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord." The Prophet Zechariah (iv. 7) alludes to this circumstance, — " Zerubbabel hath brought forth (not shall bring forth) the head (i.e., the principal) stone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." And then it is foretold of him that as he had thus laid the foundation, so also his hands should finish it. (vers. 8, 9.) The morning stars. Who these are is sufficiently explained in the parallel place in the next clause. The sons of God. Intelligent beings worthy of the appellation. Such, no doubt, as are usually called angels. 8. And he pent up, — i.e., God did so, at the same time that the sons of God shouted for joy, and when the foundations of the earth were laid. The question put to Job in verse 4 is implied here — " Where wast thou when God did this ? " Pent up. Confined the sea to one channel. 382 NOTES, JOB XXXVIIl. 8. With doors, — doors of the womb, figuratively great and strong barriers on botli sides, and which the mass of rusliing waters could not overflow. From the loomb. Perhaps from the centre of the earth. God is here comparing the first appearance of the sea at the time of the creation to a birth. The description does not i-efer to its after state when it was formed into oceans and seas, but to its first breaking forth from its womb, when such was its volume, that it needed the restraint which none but God could put on it ; God's power alone prevented the doors which kept it within bounds from giving way. 9. When, S^-c. The question is still implied, " Whei'e wast thou at that time ? " When I made the cloud, 4'c. No sooner is the ocean born than it is wrapped in clouds and thick darkness, and these ai'e its infantile dress and swaddling bands. God thus in grand language expresses how manageable was the ocean to him. Tliese clouds were probably formed by evaporations from it. 10. And spanned "'^^??|^t {ivaeshbor). The parallelism requires that this word should have here the sense of measuring : its ordinary Hebrew signification is that of breaking — hence some understand it here in the sense of breaking off a part loith a view to reduce to a determined measure. It is better, however, with others, to take the word here in its Arabic signification of measuring loith a span. 11. Shall be set, — lit., some one shall set — understand PH (khok) a bound, or some such word. The question put to Job in v. 4 is to be understood up to this verse — - " Where wast thou when I did all this, &c." ? Pride, — P^5 (gaon) is a proud uplifting, a term very suitable to the upheaving of the crested wave just as it seems vainly endeavouring to overpass tlie mark assigned to it on the shore, and upon which it immediately breaks in its fruitless effort. 12. Supposing, however, that you were not in being when I created the world, still let me ask you, have you, ever since the time of your birth, directed the outgoings of the morning ? The dag-spring to knoiv his place. Allusion seems to be here made, as Barnes thinks, to the fact that the rising of the sun is not always in the same place, being north or south of the equator according to the time of year, — thus constantly varying its position, yet always knowing its place. "in!^ nri^T. {iddagntah sshakhar). Here the H (A) is paragogic ; some MSS., however, read the ^I (k) as an article, the Dagesh in "^na? {sshakhar) seems to support this. 13. To take hold of. I have preserved the ambiguity of the original, as it is not determined whether the meaning is, that the dawn might take hold of or that you (Job) might take hold of. Jerome and Jarchi take the latter meaning, I incline to the former. If this be the correct view, the winged globe may perhaps convey the idea that the earth travels through space, and the dawn is here said to overtake the earth in its flight — compare the ""nti? "^Dp (chanphei shakhar) toings of the dawn, in Ps. cxxxix. 9. Whether this truth, thus enunciated by God himself, was understood by Job and his friends in its true and literal meaning, or whether they regarded it as a merely figurative expression, is of course doubtful. That the ivicked might be shaken out of it. If the former clause refers to Job NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. IS. 383 this of course also ; and the question for Job to consider is, whether he can (as God does) himself advance with the dawn, and chase away those who under cover of the night have been perpetrating deeds of darkness. But I prefer to understand this only of the dawn, which is thus represented as scaring away wicked doers by its approach. By a bold figure, the effect produced is described as such as one might naturally ascribe to some more violent agency, rather than to the gentle approach of the dawn. So completely are men who choose the night for their deeds of violence driven into their dark hiding-places by the approach of day, so entirely are they then out of sight, that it is all one as though they had been altogether violently shaken out of the earth. 14. This verse is one of great difficulty, and so, has been very variously interpreted. The rendering I have given is as literal (consistently with sense) as possible ; the exactly literal rendering would be. It turneth round like clay a seal, and they stand out (or up ov forth) as though dress. Though convinced from the first that this is the literal version of the original, it long remained an objection on my mind as to its meaning, that it seemed to advert to the fact of the rotatory motion of the earth, and which (I scarcely know on what grounds) I thought unlikely should be alluded to by God in an age so remote as that of Job. After much consideration, however, I have come to the conclusion that such is the true sense of the passage. I shall now consider the principal words separately. "r]Dn;nri (tithhappech) it (i.e., the earth, v. 13, as the fem. gender proves) turneth round, or turneth itself, and where the context requires continuance of action, it (joeth on turning itself, i.e., goeth round and round. I consider this to be its meaning in the only three other passages in Scripture in which it occurs, as here, in the Hithpahel form. The first is in Gen. iii. 24, DpCnrian nnrin tDnb nWI {luecth lahat hakherev hammithhappecheth), — the flashing sword that turned round and round; this may mean either that the sword continually made the circuit of the tree of life, or that it kept on revolving round its hilt as round an axis. The word occurs again in this book in xxxvii. 12, where it refers to the veering about of the clouds, or to their rolling themselves over in their passage across the heavens. We meet with it once more in Judges vii. 13, where, in a dream, a cake, v^7^ (tseloul), lit., a roll, see the root y?^ (^tsallal), of barley bread is described as rolling over, '^Vn'y^ {mithhappech), against a tent. ornn "l??n? {chekhomer khotham), — lit., like clay a seal, i.e., like clay [which is'] a seal, i.e., like a clay seal, a seal made of brick or pottery, or some such material. Now as the earth is hei-e said to turn round like such a seal, the question arises (not in order to determine the correctness of the rendering, but for the sake of illustration), whether there is any evidence extant, that in very ancient times seals were so made as to revolve; for the answer to this question I refer to the Illustrations, in whicli it is satisfactorily shown that there were, in remote times, seals in the form of cylinders, which revolved round axles intro- duced into them longitudinally. Some interpreters have referred to these, but then they have, to my mind, erred in comparing the dawn to the revolvino- cylinder, and the earth to the clay impressed by it, for, in the first place, the idea of comparing the advancing light of day to a heavy and opaque cylinder, is clumsy; and secondly, the Hebrew will not admit of such an interpretation without violence being done to the language. 384 NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 14. And things stand out. As in a cylindrical seal the objects engi-aved or 'stamped upon it successively come out to view as it turns round ; so, as the earth revolves round its axis, and successively brings portions of its surface under the light of day, these are made to stand out in bold relief — mountains and valleys and forests and rivers and seas and islands, w^hich were unseen, while the face of the earth was turned from the light, became grandly visible when that face is turned towards it. As though in dress, IK'-li? "1^23 {chemo levoush) — as though [^V^] gorgeous attire. As the earth turns round and presents any part of its surface to the light of day, every object stands out prominently, and as if it were magnificently clothed ; this idea of clothing may refer to the variety of colouring and also to the vegetation on the face of the earth. This and the following verse are a digression, in which God mentions one of the excellent effects of which daylight is productive, namely, the check which is thereby put to deeds of wickedness. 15. From the wicked their own light, S^c. Darkness is here figuratively called the light of the wicked. Day is their night, and night is their day. Job had said something like this in xxiv. 13, 15 — 17. And the high-raised arm is broken. By a bold figure, the dawn of day, because it approaches in time to arrest a meditated stroke, is said to break the arm uplifted to strike. 16. Q^"^??? {nivchei yam), the holes of the sea. There has been some diversity of opinion as to the meaning of the first of these words, as it occurs no- where else in Scripture. Schultens conceives that it may be the same as the Arabic word U-NX> (nbch) a hill with a pointed top, and that so it may refer to rocks, &c., at the bottom of the sea. Others, among whom Lee, suppose that the root may be '^^^ (bouch), to perplex, &c., and so, understand here the intricacies or labyrinths of the sea ; the form, however, from this root would be ""P^^ {nevouchei). The most numerous class of interpreters take the word from n32 (bachah) to weep, and understand by the toeepings of the sea its under- currents (the Sept. have irrjyrjv). Barnes supposes that the word may refer to under-springs at the bottom of the sea, which supply it with water. But all this is obviously unsatisfactory, as the term weepings is highly inappro- priate either to such immense volumes of water as tidal currents, or to water flowing upwards, and not downwards. The expression weepings of the sea can convey to my mind no other idea than droppings of the sea, such as might exist, if we imagine it oozing through the stratum which forms its bottom into subter- raneous places under that bottom. We know, however, of no such leakage of the sea, and God is evidently speaking here of the surface of the bottom of the great deep, and not of what may be in the more central parts of the earth. My view is that ^?23 (^nivchei) is, by a transposition sufficiently common, for "'r??? (nichvei), from ^?3 (nachav) = (by commutation of letters of same organ) ^H^ (nakav), to bore, to perforate, to hollow out, to excavate, and the like. Compare the cognates ni3 {chawah), n?^ {chaphaph), &c., &c. In this case the natural and obvious meaning of ""^P^ (nichvei), plur. const, of 2?D (iiechev), would be holes, caverns, &c., — a meaning than which none can be more suitable to the passage before us. NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 16. 385 To search, lit., in search of. 17. God now seems to descend from the depths of the sea into the lower parts of the earth. He certainly by his question implies that the abodes of the dead were then in those parts. Other passages of Scripture confirm what is here implied. See Note on xxvi. 6. And seest thou, S^c. The force is, — Not only have the gates of death not been opened to you, but you have not even seen the gates themselves. 18. Hast thou stretched thy attention to, ^-c. Amongst other objects of your consideration have you extended your attention so far as, "^^ {gnad), the limits of the earth's latitudes, — have you made yourself acquainted with its utmost bounds, and with all contained therein ? Breadths, — perhaps including length and breadth, distance in every direction, i.e., spaciousness generally, in contradistinction to depths, which are spoken of previously. 19. 20. The one, — lit., it. The parallelism of these two verses, both in its structure and sense, requires that the first clause of the latter verse should refer to the light, and the second to the darkness. This has been overlooked by inter- preters, and so, what I conceive to be the real force of the passage has been lost. Thou makest to understand. V^^ (tavin) is evidently Hiphil here. The sense of the two verses is, — State which is the way that leads to the dwelling-place of light, since you are in the habit of conducting it back to its own border at the close of day. And state also whereabouts is the habitation of dark- ness, since you usually point out to it, what course it must take to reach it, when, at the dawn of day, it retires from earth. 21. Thou knowest. Some understand this as a question, but I take it as an affirmative, ironically spoken. 22. Magazines. Hil^M (otseroth), — treasuries, as some take it, is but a secondary meaning of the word. Its first signification is storehouses, whether for provisions, or for implements of war, or for silver and gold and other such valuable articles. It is in this latter case only that the word, obviously enough, signifies treasuries. The snow and hail are here compared to implements of war, and are said to be laid up in store, ready for whatever time God may require them. By the magazines, in which they are described as being deposited, we may understand, — the natural causes or the peculiar atmospheric phenomena which combine to produce snow or hail whenever God wills to call these agencies into requisition. Compare Psalm cxxxv. 7. 23. Wliich, — i.e., the snow and hail, or, perhaps, the latter only. God has used the latter of these agents for the destruction and punishment of his enemies on several occasions. (See Exod. ix. 18 ; Josh. x. 11 ; Isaiah xxx. 30.) These same magazines are stored with weapons of wrath for the latter days also. (See Rev. viii. 7 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 22 ; Rev. xi. 19; xvi. 18—21.) Some understand the day of battle and of war here to signify the season of winter when the elements may be supposed to engage in fierce conflict. The literal sense, however, is preferable. 24. A very frequent construction : literally the passage is, — WJiere is the way the light is distributed; the east ivind is dispersed over the earths — but fully, C c 380 NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 24. Where is the ivay [to the place from whe7ice'] the light is distributed ; [and where is the way to the place from iohence\ the east loind, &c., &c. ? The meaning is, — Can you find your way to the focus of light from whence its rays in the eastern sky diverge and rapidly spread far and wide ? Or can you find your way to the point fi*om which the east wind starts when it blows and scatters itself in every direction over the face of the earth ? 25. Who divideth gutters, S^e. When heaven is overchai-ged with waters, who brings them to the earth, as in conduits, and so, prevents their falling in mass ? Gutters, — lit., a gutter, or ivatercourse, or pipe, or conduit, &c. 26. To rain, — is here active, not neuter, being Niphal ; the sense being to make it rain. 27. The circumstance that, in the distribution of rain, the same providential care is shown for uninhabited regions, as for countries in which human beings are located, is an argument that God, and not man, is the agent. To satisfy. Solomon tells us that one of the " four things that are never satisfied" is "the earth that is not filled with water." (Prov. xxx. 15, 16.) Perhaps he had our passage in his mind when he wrote this. The word ?^?Pn {hashiagn) to satisfy, is used with special reference to thirst in Isaiah Iviii. 1 1 ; Amos iv. 8, &c., &c. S^a {inotsa), — lit., a going forth. I take this to signify what we commonly understand by a groioth as applied to vegetation. It is remarkable how rapidly after a heavy rain, in tropical climates, a growth of grass comes up and covers what was before a desert. 28. "'z??^ {'sgl^i) globules, drops, or some such word, is evidently intended here ; but whether from v^t;? (agal) in the sense of collecting, or from 7_p2 (^galal) in that of rolling, or whether perhaps a compound of both, is diificult to say. 29. Both these clauses may refer either to paternity or to maternity : not unlikely the latter is intended here, as the former is undoubtedly referred to in the previous verse. 30. Like stone, 8^c. This may mean either that the waters, being in a congealed state, like stone, are no longer visible ; or that they are concealed as if they were lying under a facing of stone. Holdeth together. The surface being so frozen, that every portion of it holds fast together. 31. 32. The constellations are here described as passing through the heavens like chariots drawn by horses, and needing a charioteer to direct them and bring them forth in their proper times. This view seems to have escaped the notice of commentators, and hence the difficulty they have found in determining the sense of the passage. God's question to Job in effect is, — Is it you who binds on the bands of the [vertiaV] Pleiades [the harbingers of spring^ when it is time for them to commence running their course'? Is it you xoho unlooses the traces of [the autumnaH Orion [the harbinger of ivinter'], ivhen the period arrives in which he is to terminate his journey f As Orion sets when the Pleiades make their appear- ance, his journey may be said to end just as the Pleiades commence theirs ; the traces of his chariot are then unftistened. The notion of Orion chasing through the heavens after the Pleiades led the ancients to invent the myth of the attempt NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 31. 387 of Orion to violate the daughters of Pleione and Atlas (the Pleiades), and of their being placed in the heavens through the compassion of Juno after he had unsuc- cessfully pursued them for twelve years. According to the view I have taken, the binding on of the bands of the Pleiades and the loosing of the traces of Orion would together represent the complete revolution of a year ; and, indeed, if I mistake not, Amos makes mention of these constellations in that sense (ch. v. 8), " Seek him that maketh the seven stars (the Pleiades) and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning, and maketh the day dark with night : " in other words,— Seek him who regulates the periods both of years and days. I certainly agree with those who take ^^13"!??^ (magnedannoth) for ri1"13?n {magnennaddoth) by transposition of the letters, and so, give it the signification of bands, from the root "I?^ {gnanad) to hind. The parallelism requires some such meaning, and the he^iJiov of the Septuagint and the "'T?^ (sheirei) chains of the Chaldee confirm this. Moreover Cpl^'p {magnedannim) is used by the Talraud- ists in the sense of bands. The word ni2T2?a {magnedannoth) occurs again in 1 Sara. XV. 32, and there I should feel strongly inclined to translate it bands : " Agag came unto him (not delicately, as in the Authorised Version, but) in bands." 32. Canst thou bring forth, Sfc. Is it you who causes each sign of the Zodiac to traverse its path in its proper season ? In other words, — Do you direct the courses of the constellations in the path of the sun ? Is it you also who guides the [northern] constellation, the Bear [in its circuit round the north pole] ? ni"l-Ta [mazzaroth) the Zodiac. I follow those who take this word to be the same as nib-TK) {mazzaloth), the ^ (/) and "< (r) being interchanged ; the word in Job, however, being, I conceive, the original word, and afterwards softened. This will meet Ewald's objection, that whilst "• (r) often passes into ^ (Z), it is rare to find ^ {I) passing into "< (r). Hence, whilst I agree with those who consider that Hib-t^ {mazzaloth) means the Zodiac, I am scarcely disposed to agree in deriving the word from ^^TS (azal) to go, or from bV3 {nazal) to flow down, or (Arab.) to lodge, but rather from "l!^ {azar) to gird. I consider, then, that not improbably in process of time rii"l-Ta [mazzaroth) became softened into nib-ta {mazzaloth), in which form we find it in 2 Kings xxiii, 5 : eventually, the singular, v-TD {mazzal), came to signify an individual sign of the Zodiac, as nVi9 \i-V2 {mazzal talah) the sign of the ram, and then any constellation or star, together with its supposed stellar influence. The Rabbins called the Zodiac mbtan b^ba {glgl hmzlwth) the circle of the signs, also mbtan ")*1TS {azwr hmzlwth) the girdle of the signs, also mbtan IDIS {aphn hmzlwth) the wheel of the signs. 33. The laws of heaven,— the laws by which the heavenly bodies are regulated. These, therefore, were perhaps unknown in the days of Job. At the same time the context shows that the question refers to something more than mere knowledge, — i.e.. Do you know the laws of heaven so as to take upon yourself the manage- ment or execution of them ? Canst thou, on the earth, appoint its code ? Can you, being on the earth, give the heavenly bodies those written laws which they shall be bound to obey ? This sense agrees well with the preceding clause, and with the succeeding context. I c c 2 388 NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 33. had at first adopted the view generally taken, and had translated the passage. Canst thou appoint its sway over the earth ? But, on consideration, my objections to this sense are, — that it involves some little contradiction between the two clauses, for, in the first of them, the heavenly bodies are said to be bound by certain laws ; and then, in the second, they would be said to exercise dominion. And then, the mention of the sway of these bodies over the earth might savour somewhat of astrological influence. And further, I think that had "^^^^ (mishtar) been intended to signify sway, or any such word, it would have been followed by bp {gnal), and not by 21 (b). These objections are, I confess, slight, being far from unanswerable ; yet they are just sufficient to make me prefer the rendering I have given, and which is the view taken by Michaelis ; besides which, I would observe with regard to the word T^^'P (mishtar), (which occurs nowhere else and which is supposed to signify dominion, simply because the noun '^??2? (shoter) means a scribe, and then, by consequence a person in authority), that its root "1^27 {shatar) certainly means to lorite, and has no other meaning that we know of ; and then '^'^'0 (shetar) in Chaldee signifies a signed document, or toritten contract, see Jer. xxxii. 11 (Chald. Par.) ; and the same word is in common use amongst the Rabbins to signify any kind of hill of contract, indenture, or any legal writing. 34. Can you command the rain to fall at your pleasure. The second clause of this verse occurs in xxii. 11. There, however, it must be understood in a metaphorical sense. 35. Canst thou send forth, as on a commission. And they shall go. A7id here, as in the previous verse, has the force of so that. Here we are. This is probably said on their supposed return, — Here we are, w^e have executed your commission, and are now ready to receive further orders. 36. The notes of the commentators in general on this verse are exceedingly lengthy, from the supposed diflftculty of taking HintD {tukhoth) and "^l???^ {sechwi) in their ordinary acceptation of inward parts, and mind, or intellect. They have, however, created their own difficulty, by thinking it necessary to apply these words, if so translated, to man ; their argument then being, that the question, Who has endowed man with reason, <§c. .? would be incongruous here, as being wholly irrelevant both to the preceding and the succeeding context. Hence many of them have ransacked the Arabic and Chaldee for new meanings, and by far- fetched derivation have surmised that the words in question may mean meteors and phenomena of some kind, or have some such signification ; and so, they understand the passage to be, Who putteth wisdom in the meteors ? or giveth understanding to the phenomena? A fair sense, it must be confessed, and suitable to the context. But I think we have no right to distort known Hebrew words from their known meaning, unless there be imperative necessity, and unless the Arabic or other cognate dialects really bears us out in so doing. I see no diiliculty in the verse, by bearing in mind that, in the preceding verses, the clouds and lightnings are personified, being represented as persons who hear and readily obey cei-tain com- mands given to them by a superior, and that the article before riintS (^tukhoth) and ''IP??' (seckwi) implies, to some extent at least, that those words refer to those personified agents. And then the question seems perfectly natural. Who is it that NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 36. 3S9 endows the clouds and the lightnings with such wisdom and intellect, as that they should give that ready obedience, which they appear to do, to him who has the power of making them perform his high behests ? '^')'?^ {sechici), intellect. The power or the organ of perception, as the root demonstrates. 37. Who can count. Probably in the sense of mustering. Who acts the "1?0 (sopher), the census-scribe, with regard to the skies ? The skies. The Hebrew C3''i7?7?^ {shekhakim) has evidently precisely the same meaning as our word skies, and signifies the whole region of the atmosphere that surrounds the earth, and that, whether studded with clouds or perfectly serene. Who can couiit the skies in wisdom f Who, by his wisdom, can exercise such control over the ever-varying skies as to summon them all before him that he may take a census of them. As clouds and lightnings are personified in the former verses, so are the skies here. They present themselves at God's bidding, and he takes note of them. Or who can make the pitchers of heaven pour ? At God's bidding the skies present themselves before him (former clause), like so many water-carriers, and then at his further bidding they discharge the contents of their vessels to the earth. God's question of course implies that none but himself can do this. Pitchers. Commonly translated bottles, especially utres, i.e., skin bottles. I was at first disposed to follow this ordinary view, and to render the word water- bogs, but I find no sufficient evidence to show that "^!?ri3 (nivlei) can ever mean vessels of skin : on the contrary, what evidence we have proves that they were a kind of earthen jars. See Jer. xiii. 12 (compare "I will dash them," in v. 14) ; Isa. XXX. 14 ; Lam. iv. 2 ; Jer. xlviii. 12 ; Isa. xxii. 24. It is common to see, on ancient Egyptian pictures, jars or pitchers of wine laid up in cellars. Make . . . to pour — ^^?^^ {yashchiv). I take 232? (shachav) here to be the same as "H?^ (shaphach) to pour out, the letters being transposed, and ^ (Z») and S (ph) being interchanged. Or the word here may be the same as the Arabic DDD (^schb), which is also to pour out. We have the same expression — 3??.]['.n3ptt7 (^shichvath zeragn), effusio seminis — Lev. xv. 16, 17, 18, 32, &c., &c. 38. A description of the effect of the rain upon the dry ground ; the dust flows in streams like liquid metal, and then becomes solidified into a compact mass ; and the clods, which had become broken and detached by the preceding drought, are washed into close contact, and get stuck together. How impossible for man to make so great a change as this on the face of a country ; and yet a few hours' rain can eifect it. 39. God now refers Job to the animal creation, and remarks upon their instincts, and the wonderful adaptation of their natures to various purposes. The lioness. See the Note on iv. 10. The meaning here is, — Can you, as the lion, hunt the prey for the lioness ? The appetite. H^n (khayah) has the same sense here as in xxxiii. 20. Perhaps this sense would also be best in Ps. Ixxiv. 19. 40. They. Young lions ; but not too young to hunt prey. See Ezek. xix. 2, 3. And squat, in ambush, with a view of throwing themselves with a bound on their prey the moment they see him. ^^^^.I (yeshevou), if we take the Arabic 390 NOTES, JOB XXXVIII. 40. meaning, signifies, not only sit, but also leap, spring, &c. ; it is probable that the two ideas are intended to be combined here, sitting with a view to pouncing. Compare Ps. x. 8, and Ilosenmiiller's remarks on that passage. See the same word applied also in a similar sense to the "l^?? {chephir) young lion, in Ps. xvii. 12. 41. He ivandereth, i.e., the parent bird goes about in quest of food for his little ones who remain in the nest, and who, by their croakings, may be said to cry to God — a cry which he hears, and perfectly understands, and to which he attends, by supplying the parent bird with that in quest of which he is wandering about. ^3?n^ [ithegnou) is plural, and so, properly, is, they wander; but I conceive, with Lee, that it does not refer to the brood in the second, but to the raven in the first clause, and that, understood, not of any particular individual, but of the whole class. I have translated the word in the singular to make the passage more clear to the English reader. The ordinary rendering, which makes the young ravens wandering about in a famished state, in search of food, has given countenance to the old, but 1 believe now exploded fable, about old ravens casting their young out of the nests at an early age, to shift for themselves. There is a similar passage to this in Ps. cxlvii. 9. It appears that the raven is a great adept in finding his carrion, and other food. The expression, he wandereth about for lack of food, implies that, notwithstanding his adroitness, he would not be able to find what he wants, if God did not supply it to him, or rather, that the very adroitness with which he discovers it is attributable to his Creator. JOB XXXIX. 1. Knowest thou, Sfc. Have you that knowledge which is necessary to direct and superintend all the circumstances connected with the gestation of these wild creatures, who are so far removed from the haunts of men, and whose home is so inaccessible to him ? 3?'pp v3?|"^ {yagnelei selagn), mountain goats, quite lit., the mounters up of the rock. There is no doubt the animal here intended is the Ibex. It is said (see Maunder's " Treas. of Nat. Hist.") that, of this creature, " the fore-legs being con- siderably shorter than the hinder, enables these animals to ascend with more facility than to descend, and hence, when pursued, they always attempt to gain the summits of the mountains." I presume that it is from this circumstance that they are named n'*?.^,- {yagnelim). Keep watch over, — so that they may be safely delivered. 2. Canst thou count, 8fc., and Knowest thou, S^c. Can you keep an exact register of all this, and exercise such providential care over these creatures, the mountain goats and hinds, as to preserve them from dangers during the time of gestation, and then deliver them at the proper period ? On the contrary (God implies), does not all this take place without any intervention on your part ? I think Rosenmiiller mistakes the passage, and then he argues from the meaning which he attaches to it, that in the days of Job, the period of the gestation of hinds was as yet unknown. 3. They eject, lit., they cause to split through, i.e., through the womb. HyS (j)alahh) exactly corresponds with our word to split. NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 3. 391 They cast out their labour-pains, i.e., they cast out that which was the cause of their labour-pains. The meaning of the whole verse is, that the parturition of the mountain goat and of the hind is rapid, though not without pain, and that it is accomplished by Divine power, and without the intervention of Job. 4. The open field. "i? (bar), where it occurs elsewhere in the Bible, as a noun, means corn; but the context shows that here it must have that signification, which is common to it in the Chaldee, Samaritan, Sj'^riac, and Arabic, of a wild, open country, out of doors, &c., &c. These young creatures live independently : the inference is, it is God, and God alone, who watches over them, and protects and supports them. 0. Who is it that has made the wild ass to differ so much from other animals of the same kind, in this respect at least, that whilst they are under a yoke of servitude to man, he is free, and submits to no yoke ? The inference is, it is God who has given him this liberty, and who has exempted him from all servitude. As li'^^ {gnarod) in the second clause means, equally with W'l^ (pere) in the first clause, the wild ass, or some species of it, to avoid tautology, I have rendered this in the second instance merely by the personal pronoun. Had the Qiiagga been an inhabitant of Asia, I might have supposed that he was the animal intended by 'VTCS [gnarod). Who hath unloosed his botids ? In other words, who has given him that wild nature that he is never in bonds at all? 6. Whose house, ^e. To whom I have assigned the desert as a home. 7. The driver. '^T^'^ (noges), as applied to men, is a taskmaster ; as applied to animals, a driver. 8. The range. I retain this rendering of the Authorized Version, as it suffi- ciently expresses the meaning of "l-'^n"'. (jjethour), though the reconnoitering would, perhaps, be a more exact word ; and the sense would be, that which he gets by reconnoilering on the mountains is his pasture. 9. ^"^"^. (reim), written also D^n (reeni), and D''^"] (reeim). The wild ox, as I suppose. Much has been written upon the meaning of this word. It occurs seven times in the Scriptures, and is invariably rendered Unicorn by our translators. Some contend that that creature is intended, and that it is not a fabulous animal, as has been generally supposed. Others imagine it to be the Rhinoceros, whilst others suppose the Oryx to be meant ; others, again, the Buffalo ; and others, the tvild Ox. My reasons for taking the latter view are : — 1. Though the word Rem, C^"] (reim), occurs only seven times in the Bible, yet in four of those times it is associated with, and placed in parallelism with, bulls or bullocks ; hence it becomes highly probable that the creature in question is itself of the bovine species. Let us examine the passages. Deut. xxxiii. 17 : — " His (Joseph's) glory is like the firstling of liis hullocJc, And his horns are like the horns of the reem ; With them he shall push the people, Together to the ends of the earth (or land) ; And they (these horns) are the ten thousands of Ephraim, And they are the thousands of Manasseh." 392 NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 9. Joseph is compared in the first distich to a horned animal, called a bullock in the first clause, and a reem in the second. The use he is to make of his horns is described in the second distich — namely, to push away the people of the land (Canaan), and so make room for himself. And then, in the third distich, we are informed what these figurative horns (and which are the glory of Joseph) really are ; they are not representations so much of fierceness, &c., of character, as of multitudes — the one horn representing the multitudes of the tribe of his son Ephraim, and the other, the multitudes of the tribe of his other son, Manasseh. Surely, then, this passage alone furnishes a strong presumption that the Reem and the Bullock must be animals of the same species. Let us now refer to Psalm xxii., where we shall find a very remarkable inverted parallelism. In ver. 12 (A. V., ver. 13, Heb. Bible) we have: — " Many lulls have compassed me, Strong lulls of Bashan have beset me round." Ver. 13 (A. V.):— " They (my enemies) gaped upon me with their mouths, As a ravening and a roaring ^io»." Ver. 16 (A. V.) :— " For dogs have compassed me, The assembly of the iviclced have enclosed me." Ver. 20 (A. V.) :— " Deliver my soul from the sword. My darling from the power of the dog." Ver. 21 (A. V.):— " Save me from the lioiUs mouth, For thou hast heard [and saved] me from the horns of the remsP The inverted parallelism is obvious ; and so, only three species of animals are here mentioned — Dogs, Lions, and Bulls or Rems or Reems ; hence these two latter are animals of the same species. The next reference is to Psalm xxix. 6 : — " He maketh them (the mountains directly mentioned) to skip like a calf ; Lebanon and Sirion like a young reem." Here, again, it is obvious that as a calf is of the ox tribe, so also must be a young reem. Isaiah xxxiv. 6, 7, is also to the point, and, to my mind, quite conclusive : — " The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, It is made fat with fatness ; And with the blood of lamls and goats. With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bosi-ah, And a great slaughter in the land of Idumea j And the reems shall come down with them, And the hullocks with the lulls." The prophet is here comparing a great carnage that is to take place among the Edomites to a sacrifice of cattle to the Lord. That sacrifice of cattle is of the two kinds prescribed by the laiv — of the flock, and of the herd. (This I think NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 9. 393 very remarkable.) See Lev. i. 1 — 13. In other words, wliat may be dis- tinguished as caprine and bovine. The first class are specified in ver. 6. They are Iambs, goafs, and rams. And then, the second class, who are to "come down " or fall in slaughter along with those just mentioned, are, reems, bullocks, and bulls. Hence reems are bovine ; at the least, do not differ from bullocks and bulls more than goats differ from sheep and lambs ; and, indeed, if they were not of the ox tribe, they could not have been mentioned by the projjhet as cattle suitable for sacrifice. To my mind, this is very conclusive, and, taken in connexion with the three previous passages, it seems to put the question beyond all doubt. II. Having, by the examination of four of the seven passages of Scripture in which the word reem occurs, arrived at the conclusion that that creature must be one of the ox tribe, I pi'oceed to examine a fifth passage, which both corroborates the fact already deduced, that the creature in question is a species of ox, and also proves beyond all question, as it appears to me, that it must be a wild ox. The passage is that before us together with the three following verses. 1st. It corroborates the fact, already deduced, that the creature in question is a species of ox ; for it would be highly incongruous to speak of any other kind of animal as being seemingly capable of performing the duties belonging to the common ox, as is the case here. The mere idea of a hippopotamus, for instance, being stall-fed, or ploughing, or harrowing, or carting, is too ridiculous even to suppose. 2dly. This passage seems to me to prove, beyond all question, that if the reem be an ox at all, it must be a loild ox ; for it is introduced to our notice in connexion with other wild animals, certain species of which have been domesticated, such as the mountain-goat, the stag, and the wild ass. The analogy, then, of the context would lead us to suppose that such as the wild goat, or the stag that is removed from the haunts of man, or the wild ass, is to the common goat, and stag, and ass respectively, such is the reem to the common or domestic ox. Besides which, it is described in the passage before us as being manifestly an untameable animal, and one useless to man for any agricultural purpose. Judging from his outward appearance, anatomy, &c., one might have supposed him (such is God's intimation here) capable of ploughing, harrowing, &c. ; but experience shows that, such is his disposition, that he cannot be brought under the yoke. In short, whilst in all outward appearance he is an ox, yet in untameableness of disposition he shows himself to be the wild ox. The two other passages of Scripture in which the word reem occurs do not throw any very distinctive light upon the sort of animal intended ; they show that he was possessed of great " strength,^^ or, as the word may mean, " incapability of fatigice" (Numb, xxiii. 22), and that his horns were his glory (Ps. xcii. 10), — characteristics which, however applicable to the wild ox, are of course applicable to other powerful and horned animals. III. If the arguments already advanced prove incontestably that the reem must be a bovine animal, such animals as the unicorn, the rhinoceros, and the oryx, are of course at once excluded from the question. I would further press against the two former of these animals that Deut. xxxiii. 17, where the reem is described as having horns, is fatal to their claim. To say that some species of unicorns and rhinoceroses have been found with a smaller horn at the back of the larger 394 NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 9. is a mere evasion of the difficulty, for tlie smaller horn is so diminutive in size as scarcely to deserve mention. I am aware that it might be urged against me that, according to the very interpretation I have given to Deut. xxxiii. 17, the smaller horn might well refer to Manasseh, and the larger to Ephraim ; but, at all events, the action ascribed there to these horns — that of pushing or butting, np3 {nagahli) — is wholly unsuitable to such creatures as the unicorn (according to descriptions and specimens) or the rhinoceros. Further, one can scarcely imagine the young of the unwieldy rhinoceros being so skittish as to be compared in his gambols with a young calf, as in Ps. xxix. 6. Nor, again, is there any reason to suppose that such animals ever inhabited Idumea, a country wholly unsuited to them. And, moreover, the work supposed to be assigned to the reem in the chapter before us is, as I have already remarked, in the highest degree incongruous with the nature of the rhinoceros. This same argument tells also against the Oryx, added to which, it does not appear that that creature is untameable ; on the contrary, Wilkinson, in his " Ancient Egyptians," speaks of the oryx as " being among the animals tamed by the Egyptians, and kept in great numbers in the preserves of their villas." (Vol. iii., p. 24.) But the argument of all others upon which I lay stress to prove that the reem cannot be either the unicorn, or the rhinoceros, or the oryx, is, that none of those creatures are bovine. This ai-gument, of course, does not apply to the buffalo. My principal reason for thinking that the reem is a wild ox, and not a buffalo, is, that the Egyptian sculptures often represent the former, but never, so far as I know, the latter (see the Illustrations); and, indeed, there is no reason for presuming that the buffalo was ever an inhabitant of Arabia or Idumea. It has been urged in favour of the oryx that the Arabic 0'^"' (rini) signifies an antelope or gazelle ; but I observe that in Egyptian sculptures the syllable rn *^ is attached with other syllables as belonging to animals both of the cervine, and the caprine, and the bovine species, such as the ibex, the oryx, the wild ox, the gazelle, and the antelope, by which I would infer that these different animals were comprehended in those times under one genus. Just so I find over a sculptured wild ox the *=- f ^j^ \> tsva : compare the Hebrew "•?? {tsevi), a gazelle, and also Zebu, the name for the Indian ox. The inference I draw from the whole of my examination of the subject is, that the Hebrew D'*'?. {reirn) is properly the wild ox, and that possibly under that genus, such cervine animals as the oryx, antelope, 8)-c., may have been comprehended in the cognate dialects ; there is certainly some affinity between the bovine and the cervine races, as may be seen in such specimens as the nyl-ghau and the gnu (or bos elaphus, i.e., the ox-stag) ; but I contend for this, that in the Scripture use of the word the wild ox, and no other animal, is intended. Whilst engaged on this note, but after writing the above, I have received this day's "Illustrated London News "(Jan. 19, 1856), containing a copy of a veiy remarkable sculpture lately discovered at Nimroud. It represents a man driving before him a herd of oxen, all of which are represented as having only one horn, which protrudes from the centre of the forehead ; this of course was merely a con- ventional way of portraying this really two-horned animal; this, however, perhaps may account for the circumstance of the LXX. translating D"*"?. {reim) by unicorn; they may, after all, under that very word have meant the wild ox. NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 10. 395 10. In the furrow of his cord, — i.e., in such a furrow as liis cord, if he followed its guidance, would cause him to make. The meaning is, — ^you cannot, by cords or by any other means, induce the wild ox to draw the plough in the direction you may require ; you cannot force him to take a particular track. The valleys. This word may be poetically used here to signify the furrows ; the parallelism, I think, requires this sense. After thee. Some commentators have puzzled themselves here by taking it for granted that, in harrowing, the agriculturist follows instead of going before the ox. Whatever may be the case now, howeverj it does not appear to have been so in Job's day. 11, 12. Canst thou trust him, 8fC., — i.e., as explained in the next verse : can you so far trust him, on account of his great strength, as to suppose that he will cart your sheaves into your threshing-floor ? Canst thou leave thy labour, Sfc., — i.e., Can you place such confidence in him as to leave the produce of your toil his care, and imagine that he will convey to your granary the grain gathered up from the threshing-floor ? 13. ^"*??~! (renanim), — lit., screamers, songsters, or some such word. I con- ceive that there is no doubt, from the description which follows, that ostriches are meant. The ostrich (the cainel-bird of the Arabs) is a bird of great size and swiftness, and scours the deserts of Arabia, so that it is fitly introduced here in company with the other wild creatures which have their haunts in that country ; and its strange conduct towards its unhatched young, in apparently sometimes forsaking them (conduct, however, which as is explained here, results rather from stupidity than cruelty), makes the comparison which is instituted in this verse between it and the stork (a creature proverbially affectionate towards its young) very appropriate. The Arabs call the ostrich ffJ^ (dhlim) cruel; and so, it is, in the very epithet given to it, contrasted with the stork whose epithet-name is •^^"'^Q (hhesidah), pious, in the sense of affectionate. The wing of the ostrich thrilleth joyously. D 7^ {gnalas) seems to refer rather to sound than to motion, the translation I have given, thrilleth joyously, perhaps refers to both ; for the use of its wing to the ostrich see Pliny, N. H., x. 1, of which I give a translation : — " The African or Ethiopic ostriches are taller than a man on horseback, and swifter (compare below v. 18), its wings being given it for this purpose, to assist in running : otherwise they are not strictly birds, and are not raised from the ground." Is the feather and plume that of the stork f I think the meaning of this is, — however costly and however prized for its beauty the feather and plume of the ostrich may be, yet the one bird falls short of the other in kindliness of disposition, as is further explained in the following verses. It is evident that the LXX. could attach no meaning either to "^Di?-?- (^^" gnelasah) or to •^"^''PC. {hhesidah) or to n23 (notsah), as instead of translating these words, they have given them in Greek letters, vceXacrcra, aal^a, and viaaa ; unless it be that these words had, at that time, become Greek provincialisms. 14. Schultens here quotes a passage from Leo Africanus which is quite to the purpose, and which I translate for the benefit of the English reader ; speaking of the ostrich, he says, — " it lives in deserts where there is no water ; and lays eggs on the sand, about ten or twelve in number, of the size of cannon balls, and, 396 NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 14. more or less, fifteen pounds in weight ; being of very short memory it soon forgets tlie place, and so, a female bird finding these eggs, incubates and hatches them, whether they be her own or those of another." She leaveth. This word may be understood in the sense both of committing and of forsaking. And warmeth them on the dust. This may mean, either that she hatches them herself on the dust, or that she leaves them there to be hatched by the heat of the sun and sand or by the incubation of some other ostrich. It certainly appears to be an established fact of natural history that, the ostrich does frequently, from a variety of causes, leave her own eggs, and being unable to find them again, either takes up with some other nest, or gives over searching for them. 15. And forgetteth that the foot, S^c., — i.e., the female ostrich so acts in the selection of a place for her nest, as if she did not take into consideration the great danger to which her eggs are exposed by being laid on the open sand. In doing this, she of course only obeys a natural instinct, and this forms, like everything else, a part of God's providential arrangements ; at the same time, judging from the mere appearance of the thing, one might call that creature forgetful. 16. Another proof of the stolidity of the ostrich is that she sometimes forsakes her own nest for that of another ; and this, I think, is the meaning that is here conveyed. She is hard vpon her young, — which, being deserted by the mother-bird, either perish or are hatched by another bird. For those not her's, — in favor of those eggs which do not really belong to her; in Lament, iv. 3, we have an allusion to the cruelty of the ostrich towards its young, perhaps the allusion in that passage is to the fact which is stated in this. Fearless, ^c., — i.e., being loithout caution, she does not, as other birds do, provide against emergencies by building her nest in trees or on high rocks ; hence the foot of the wild beast may crush her eggs ; nor does she use suflScient care in marking the locality where she has laid them, hence, if she wanders at a distance, she cannot find them again, and thus her labour {in laying^ is, through her want of caution, i?i vain. n^'tppn (Jdkshiakh\ he is hard upon, is masculine, whereas we require a feminine here ; such changes of gender, however, are not unfrequent in Hebrew. 17. Hath caused her to forget wisdom. This is either a Hebraism or a highly poetic expression, signifying that God has not endowed the ostrich with wisdom at all, or at least not with that sagacity which he has imparted to other animals. God cites hers, therefore, as an exceptional case ; and the inference is, that he has done this according to his own good purpose, and that however strange it may appear, in the eyes of man, that a creature should instinctively act so foolishly as the ostrich seems to do, yet God has his reasons, reasons which man perhaps may be unable to divine. One apparent piece of folly commonly attributed to the ostrich is that that bird readily swallows large stones, hot bullets, and other such remarkable substances ; it is supposed, however, by some naturalists that these are as necessai'y to the organic functions of that creature as gravel in the crop of an ordinary fowl. Thus, what at first sight appears to be folly in that bird, may,, after all, be obedience to a wisely-ordained instinct. NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 18. 397 18. M"^"!^^ (tamri), — she lasheth herself. The ancient versions have for the most part taken H^a (niara) by metathesis for DWn (raam) = D^"l [roum), and so translate, she raiseth herself up. It is preferable, however, to take this word in the same sense as the Arabic i^Sj^ {mri), to lash a horse to quicken its speed. So the general meaning of the two clauses will be, — Whilst the rider is lashing his courser in pursuit of the ostrich, she also lasheth herself with her wings, and, outstripping both horse and rider, may be said to laugh at them. This seems introduced here, to point it out as a kind of compensation which God makes to the ostrich, for her apparent folly in other respects ; stupid as she may be in placing her eggs on the sand, or in mistaking those of another bird for her own ; yet, when hunted, in a moment she is up, and can soon distance her pursuers. 19. na^'l (ragnmah), quivering action. The Authorized Version renders this thunder, and there are many who defend this rendering ; but in the first place, although Cl?^ (^ragnam) means thunder, it is by no means clear that nD3?~!j {ragn- mah) must do so also. And secondly, the expression of clothing the neck of a horse with thunder conveys no very definite idea. Some of the defenders of that rendering endeavour to explain the incongruity by supposing, that the neighing of the horse, which may be supposed to proceed from the neck, may be meant. This, however, appears to me too absurd to be entertained for a moment. Bouillier's account of it is, I think, the best on that side of the question : — ■ " Tropum habes splendidissimum, reique sic appositum, ut nihil supra. Si equum generosum et bellacem cogites, ardua cervice, crispante juba superbientem, simul, vibrantibus coUis musculis, pugnam provocantem, atque cum hinnitu ignes nai'ibus, efflantem, quis neget, aptissima figura collum ejus tonitru velut amictum repra3sentari." This, however, at best, is unsatisfactory. Equally unsatisfactory is the notion that ^^^1 {ragnmah) may signify a mane. Gesenius makes the word mean a trembling (and there he is not far wrong), but also, poet., a mane, because in higli-bi-ed horses the mane appears to tremble. Others give it the meaning of a mane from the idea of terror, which the root D?"^ {ragnam) may be supposed to convey, just as the Greek (/)o/Sr/, a mane, may be from (jSo'^os, fear. Others, again, give this rendering from C2?n {rgnm), which in Chald. Aphel is, he lifted up, and instance the Greek Ao^ta, a mane, from K.6<^r], a summit. But all this is, after all, sheer guesswork ; and as, moreover, the guess does not furnish a very suitable word — as the parallelism requires something akin to power or mettle, or some such idea — we are bound to look out for some meaning of a more, satisfactory description. And I think that Schultens has furnished it. He considers that DV"^ (ragnam), in its primary signification, = T57"7 (ragnad), to tremble, which word in Arabic means both to tremble and to thunder ; and he further shows that there is a particular part of the flesh of the neck of a horse which is called by the Arabs by a peculiar name, n!i^")2 {phritsh), and which is defined by the Arabian lexicographers to be a portion of flesh or muscle in the neck of a horse which is continually trembling. There is in my mind, then, little doubt but that it is to this muscular action that reference is made in the text. 20. Canst thou make him start, S^c. ? ^3*^^2?"]i"]rT {hethargnishennou). The verb ^??") {ragnash) means primarily to tremble ; and then, I conceive that, when 398 NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 20. it has reference to onward movement, it means to proceed in the wavy line of tremulous motion, which series of oblique movements is what a horse goes through when, as he runs, he makes a succession of starts, first on one side, and then on the other, and not unlike what we call caracoling. Akin to this is the same word in the Arabic, ip^j {ragnasha^y which is, in the first instance, to tremble, and then is referred to the wagging of an aged camel's head, to the wagging gait of an ostrich in rapid motion, and to the wheeling flight of doves, — from all which we gather the idea of successive lateral and oblique motions. It is worthy of notice also that ^"in (kharag) is another Hebrew word signifying to tremble, and that ^^IC (Jchargol) is a locust; and further, that in Arabic also nb^in (khrglh) is a locust, and the verb ^^Tl {khrgl) is to move as a locust, a motion (whatever it may be) which the Arabs refer also to a horse. Hence the phrase D~137S 73"in {khrgl alphrs), lit., the horse goes locust-wise. Castell explains this also as meaning a horse going right and left. Our word caracole, which is applied to a well-known particular action of a horse, is evidently derived from the Spanish caracolear (in Catalan, caragolar, which comes still nearer to the Arabic). I have no doubt that this word is traceable to v!l"in {khrgl), and that it was introduced originally into Spain by the Arabs. The noun caracal in Spanish, and 'caragol in Catalan, signifies not only the particular action of a horse which we call caracoling, but also a snail, and indeed convolute shells in general, and other things of spiral or volute form. These, I should say, are derived from the verb. Locusts are compared to horses in Joel ii. 4. His snorting. Rosenmiiller has sufficiently shown that "^03 (nahhar) means snorting, and not the nostrils. Is terror, — i. e., is terrible. 21. They paw, — lit., they dig. The word is plural, referring to the whole class ; meaning that all such noble horses do the like. The pawing here alluded to is a well-known action of a high-spirited horse when impatient of delay. ppy (^gnemek) is not necessarily a valley in the strict sense of the word ; vale is a very suitable sense here. He goeth out. ^^^ (jjatsa) is often used in the military sense of going out to meet an enemy. 23. Over him ringeth the quiver. Bochart and others prefer to understand this as — Against him whizzeth the quiver, i.e., the arrow which the quiver contains; chiefly on the ground that it is no proof of courage in a horse that he bears with the clanging of the armour that is upon him or upon his rider. My objection to this is, that there is no description of an actual encounter here, but only of the impatience of the horse to enter into such encounter. In vers. 19, 20, and 21, he is described as full of poAver; the muscular quiverings of his neck show his mettle ; impatient of delay, he caracoles, snorts, and paws the ground, and curvets in the exuberance of strength; at length (ver. 21), he starts for the encounter, and is undismayed at the line of bristling steel that he sees drawn up to receive him ; his very speed makes the weapons which he carries rattle (ver. 22, 23) ; onward he goes, starting from side to side (ver. 24), snuffing up the ground in his fury, pi-icking up at the sound of the trumpet, and snorting with NOTES, JOB xxxix. 23. 399 triumph ; and catching a scent of the battle as he hears the loud hollaing of the captains and the shouting of the troopers (ver. 25). Another objection which I have to Bochart's view is, that making the quiver signify an arrow is so bold a figure that we ought not to have recourse to it for interpretation unless the literal sense is clearly impossible. That view is defended further on the ground that '^■fl {ra?iah) = ]?"J [ranan), which, amongst other meanings, refers to the noise made by a bowstring on the shooting of an arrow ; but although I admit it does mean the twa7iging of a boio, yet I find no authority for supposing that it can refer to the whizzing of an arrow. The flash of the lance, ^^c, — i.e., the flashing blade of, &c. 24.. Pf^ith starts. See Note on ver. 20. He drinketh up, S^-c. This is understood by many as describing the swiftness of the horse, as though in the rapidity of his flight he swallowed the ground over which he flew ; and in support of this, quotations to the same effect are given by Bochart and others from Arabic and Latin writers. But I scarcely think that the swiftness of the horse would be the subject of comment here, just after the remark that the ostrich " laugheth at the horse and at his rider." The action here denoted is that rather of a horse, who, as he goes forward, starts from side to side, jerking his head down to the ground, and in apparent rage snuffing it up with distended nostril. And he believeth not, S)'C. I see no reason for taking this in the sense of tiot standing still, however apposite the " stare loco nescit " of Virgil and of Statins may be. The more obvious meaning seems that, although the trumpet is sounding, he acts as though he did not hear it — as though he did not believe it to be the sound of the trumpet, because he bends his head down to the ground as he runs (as described in the previous clause), instead of jerking it up and pricking up his ears. 25. Wheji the trumpet is loud, ^c, — lit., at the plenty or abundance of the trumpet. The meaning, as compared with the former verse, is,- — So long as the blast of the trumpet is only distant, he acts as though he scarcely heard it, and was uncertain whether really or not it was the trumpet at all ; but so soon as he catches its full and prolonged note, and is no longer uncertain as to the meaning of that note, then he tosses up his head, and, pricking his ears, he gives a sudden snort, which resembles Aha ! both in its sound and in its tone of joy and triumph. From afar he snuffeth the battle. Not unlike this is Pliny's remark, speaking of horses, ^^ lidem prasagiunt pugnam^ The meaning, however, probably is, that the horse, by his restiveness, snorting, &c., looks as if he were snuffing the approaching battle ; and pei'haps this presage on the part of the animal is explained in the next clause. He snuffs the battle, because he hears the thunder of the captains (giving the word of command, and inciting their men to action) and the shouting along the whole line of the troops. There is, I conceive, no doubt that the whole of this magnificent description of what is usually called the war-horse relates to a cavalry-horse, and not to a chariot-horse. Cavalry was probably at this time in use amongst the Assyrians. The frequent representation of it on the sculptures, at a somewhat later date, is some proof of this ; but I much question whether it was in use amongst the 400 NOTES, JOB XXXIX. 25. Egyptians — at all events until a much later period. Certain it is that Egyptian cavalry is never delineated in the sculptures of that country. It is true that we read of chariots and horsemen forming Jacob's funeral cortege out of Egypt (Gen. 1. 9), and of chariots and horsemen pursuing the Israelites on their leaving Egypt (Ex. xiv. 9, 28) ; and in the song of Moses mention is made, alluding to Pharaoh's army, of " the horse and his rider." But I strongly suspect that t^'^S (parash), in earlier Hebrew, means only a horse, and not a horseman ; and that it is only at a later period that it came to have the latter signification. As to the mention of " the horse and his rider," " the rider " is there evidently the rider of the 25"!). (jechev), i.e., chariot. D~l5 (^phrs) is a horse, both in the Arabic and the Ethiopic. I am inclined to think that usually, in reference to an Egyptian war- chariot, the D-ID [sous) was the horse which the driver had particularly in hand, whilst the ^"^^ {parash) was the off-horse. (See the Illustrations.) 26. Take wing, "'^^i!! (yaever). Some understand this as m,oulting ; but I prefer the general view, that it refers to flying, soaring, and the like. Take wing gives the force of the Hiphil, and seems to me the exact meaning of the word. By thy wisdom, S)-c. Is it any intelligence on your part that supplies the hawk with those mechanical powers and with that instinct by which he takes wing and migrates at the proper season to a warmer climate ? 27. At thy bidding, — lit., at thy mouth, 28. The tooth of the rock, — i. e., the ledge, or ridge, or peak of the rock. So, in Switzerland, we have " Le dent du Midi," and other similar instances. 29. He prieth, — ~l?n (Jchajyhar) first means, he digs for, he. ; thence, he grubs ; and so, he searches ; the first and literal meaning is not true of the eagle, and the next clause shows that searching with the eyes is particularly intended here. 30. Gulp, ^^?P"1 (jjegnalgnou). The meaning given to this word is conjectural ; but the sound, the requirement of the context, and the cognate, V^^ (louagn) to suck down greedily, all show that the meaning conjectured is probably correct, or at least not far wrong. Blood. The blood of the animals brought to the nest by the parent bird. Where the slain are, Sfc. Compare Matt. xxiv. 28, and see the Illustrations. JOB XL. 2. Will disputing, S)-c. Job making no reply to the questions just proposed to him, God presses him for an answer on other grounds. Job had often expressed himself as being anxious to enter into a disputation with God, on the ground that the severe treatment which he experienced at God's hands was undeserved. God now says to Job, — Have your wish ; dispute with me if you will ; but do you think, after what I have advanced on the subject of sundry of my providential acts, that any disputations on your part with me will be likely to have the eiFect of proving me wrong, and so of leading me to correct my error ? You consider my treatment of you unjust. Can you, do you think, pi'ove to me that it is so ? Let him that itnpleadeth God, — as you. Job, have done by arraigning my justice, &c. NOTES, JOB XL. 2. • 401 Reply to it. Let liirn answer my challenge by which I defy him to prove to me that I have been wrong in any of my dealings. I see no ground for taking I'iS'! (issor) as a noun, as Eosenniiiller does. 4. / put my hand, S)-c. In token of silence, and particularly of silence occasioned by astonishment and admiration. See xxi. 5 ; xxix. 9 ; and Jud. xviii. 19. 5. Once have I spoken but, S^c. I have already advanced certain statements, but I will not attempt to defend them. The language here is, of course (as often throughout this book), forensic. Yea, twice, ^-c. Yea, I acknowledge that I even repeated my rash statements, but I shall not do it again. 6. God here resumes the argument, which had been interrupted in order to give Job the opportunity of replying, and which he had now declined to do. I attach no particular importance to the omission of the article before ^7^P {segnarali) here. It occurs in xxxviii. 1. 7. Gird up now, S)C. See Note xxxviii. 3. 8. Wilt thou even, S)-c. The even is emphatic : — Will you, in attempting to vindicate yourself, so attack with your arguments my judicial decisions as to make them appear utterly vain and futile ? God implies that Job, in justifying himself, in effect condemned him ; if Job were really as righteous as he maintained, then God was unjust in afflicting him. 9. Hast thou then an arm, S)-c., — Canst thou thunder, 4'C. Have you such power and terrible majesty as God ? If not, why presume to enter into disputa- tion with me ? 10. Invest yourself, if you can, with a glory similar to mine. 1 1 . Cause, if you can, and as I do, your indignation against pride and insolence to be felt. The outbursts, •H'i'i^^ {gnevroth), or the overflowings. n^;<3 {geeh) proud, — or more literally what we should call high and mighty. 12. ^"TQ (hedoch). The root is 'm.'Q (hadach) ; it does not elsewhere occur in the Bible. There is, however, no question but that its general meaning must be tread down. Its cognates show this. 13. Hide them, Sfc, ^c. The meaning is, — if it is in your power, get rid of the wicked by natural death, as I can. In the dust, — i.e., of the grave. Bandage their faces, S^c, I think the allusion here is to the bandaging of mummies, or at least to bandaging with a shroud. In the hidden place, — in the sepulchre. 14. Do all this if you can, and then, even I, God though I be, am ready to acknowledge to you that you can be altogether independent of me, and that you need not have recourse to me for deliverance, as in that case you are, of course, able to deliver your own self. This is not without irony. 15. niana (^behemoth). What animal is meant by this behemoth is a question that has sorely puzzled commentators ; and before the time of Bochart many ridiculous notions were entertained upon the subject. Rabbinic writers revelled in the idea that he, and not " cattle " in general, was alluded to in Psalm 1. as the monster " upon a thousand hills," daily devouring the grass they furnished, and destined D D 402 NOTES, JOB XL. 15. himself at length to furnish a feast in the great day to God's favored people. The " fathers," for the most part, surrounded the subject with an awe equally dreadful, and in the Behemoth here, and in the Leviathan of the next chapter, saw nothing but mystical representations of the devil. Others again have here pictured to themselves some hieroglyphic monster that has no real existence. But these wild imaginations are surpassed by that of Bolducius, who, in the Behemoth, actually beholds Christ. More sober men have thought that beasts in general (so LXX. and Chald.), and especially cattle, might be here meant, and this is a position very strenuously defended by Lee. Good, with a plausible show of reason, contends for the mammoth or some other extinct pachydermatous animal. Many, amongst whom Schultens, consider that the elephant is the animal intended. But Bochart's view, which has since been very generally followed, with such exceptions, already named, as that of Lee, Schultens, Good, &c., is evidently the more correct, and without doubt the true one — that the behemoth is the hippo- potamus. If it be true, as there is every reason to suppose it is, that the leviathan in the next chapter is the crocodile, then it becomes perfectly natural to speak of the hippopotamus in connexion with it, these two being the most remarkable of amphibious animals, and both of them inhabitants of the Nile. Bochart moreover shows by innumerable quotations from ancient authors that these two animals are very generally spoken of together ; and he brings forward an array of the follow- ing writers who so speak of them : — Herodotus, Diodorus, Mela, Pliny, Solinus, Philo, Pausanias, Marcellinus, Isidorus, Eustathius, and Antiochenus. And then, if ni^Hr^ {behemoth) be a plural termination, it is by no means contrary to the genius of the Hebrew to regard it as the designation of one particular species of animals, as in that case the plural would only point to some superlative quality (probably size) in the animal. It is not, however, necessary to regard it as a plural form, nor indeed a Hebrew word at all. Both the word and its termination may be purely Egyptian, in which language oth is a very usual termination, — as omoth, anoth mothoth, &c., &c. And this is, I think, certainly borne out by the fact (see Gesenius) that the words P-ehe-mout (almost behemoth, and compare the Berber hauauit) denote in Coptic water ox (though whether used or not in that compounded form is uncertain), by which name {sea coio) we frequently call the hippopotamus. But perhaps, the strongest arguments, in favor of the behemoth being the hippo- potamus, will be found as we proceed in the consideration of the description itself that is given of the creature here and in the following verses. Whom I made with thee. Bochart takes "H^? {gnimmach) here to be near thee, and cites passages in which DV {gnini) has this signification ; and the mean- ing which he attaches to it is, that the hippopotamus might be considered as a neighbour of Job's ; just as the Nile, which was that creature's haunt, might be said to border upon Arabia, which was the patriarch's country. But I think that the Nile was not sufficiently near Job's country to justify any such interpretation as this, and as the ordinary signification of DV {gnim) with is very suitable here, I see no reason for deviating from it. The expression ivhom I made with thee means in its natural and obvious sense — whom I made along with thee, — i.e., at the same time as I made thee ; thus distinguishing him perhaps from such extinct races of animals as existed during a previous period. Job may not have under- NOTES, JOB XL. 15. 403 Stood it, but God may have meant that the Hippopotamus was not like the gigantic creatures of a former age, like the Megatherium or the Megalosaurus for instance, but that he was a creature that belonged to the same age as man. He eateth grass as the ox. The hippopotamus may be compared to an ox in the shape of its head and general bulkiness of its body, as well as also in the noise it makes, which is said to be " a peculiar kind of interrupted roar, between that of a bull and the braying of an elephant." — (Maunder.) From these resemblances the Italians call the animal bomarino, i.e., sea ox, and we sometimes call it the sea- cow. The comparison here, however, is not as respects any particular outward resemblance, but in the fact that the hippopotamus eats grass as the ox does. This is literally true : — " By night it quits its watery residence in search of its food, which consists of the herbage that grows near the banks of the rivers, and the surrounding pastures." — (Maunder.) Job's attention is called to this as a remark- able fact ; though so huge and terrible a monster, yet he is not, as might have been expected, carnivorous, but herbivorous. 16. The loins are for the most part the seat of strength. See Nahum ii. 1, and Psalm Ixix. 23. His might in the thews of his belli/. As the belly is the weakest and most vulnerable part of the elephant (as Bochart is at great pains to show), this passage excludes that animal from all claim to being the ri1X3n2 (^behemoth), and strengthens the view that the hippopotamus is intended, as the belly of that creature is remarkably tough, and covered with a hide so thick as to be impervious to musket balls. l"iW (on), — has sometimes special reference to masculine power, but I see no reason for supposing that to be the meaning here intended. ■ The thews. This word probably expresses C"]"^1^ (sheririm) as well as any other could do. It is a mistake to understand it in the same sense as '^')p (sharer) a navel, to say nothing of the awkwardness of supposing, in that case, that the word could be plural. It is rather the plural of '^'^1'^ (sharir), i.q., Chald. "i*""?^ (sherir) firm, hard, &c. ; hence here, firm or tough parts. 17. Like a cedar he moveth his tail. It is not the tail, but the animal himself, who is here compared to a cedar ; the idea conveyed being, — that as the trunk of a cedar remains immoveable whilst its branches wave to and to, so this creature moves his tail without its occasioning any movement in his body. The force of t"iM"ia , {chemo erez) is, — as though he tvere a cedar. Commentators have been much puzzled about this clause, because they have applied the comparison of the cedar to the tail of the animal, and indeed, with this notion, I had originally con- jectured that the reading might have been ^'TlS (ei-eg) perhaps a shuttle ; involving a very slight change in the appearance of the word, and giving a suitable sense ; besides corresponding excellently with the parallel word in the next hemistich, •13"it!?'^ (yesoregou) are interwoven, 3"1tp (sarag) and 2"1_S (arag) being cognate. The meaning, in that case, being, that the tail of the hippopotamus, as it moves backwards and forwards, has the resemblance of a shuttle when used in weaving, and that the sinews of his haunches are interwoven together, much as if a shuttle had done the work. 18. His bones, — i.e., his marrow-bones, as the context shows. For the same reason '^''^"J? (geramaiw) must mean kis solid bones ; perhaps the ribs. 19. ZTe is the first, ^-c. It is difficult to determine whether this means the V D 2 404 NOTES, JOB XL. 19. beginning, or the chief, and then it is not easy to see in what way either sense is applicable to the hippopotamus ; the former, however, is the most common and natural sense of n'*J2?H'n (^reshitli), and in that case the only possible meaning I can attach to it, as applied to the hippopotamus here, is that he is an animal of the same type as some that existed in the world previously to its latest formation as described in Gen. i. He is certainly not unlike the palceotherium, one of the largest discovered animals of ihejirst period, found in the tertiary series. Presented him. This is so exactly the literal rendering of ^^^. {yaggesh) that I wonder it should have escaped the notice of commentators who have been puzzled about the meaning of the word here ; and, moreover, it makes the rendering of "^3 (chi) in the next verse easy, and gives a natural sense to the whole passage. His scythe. 1S"jin (Jcharbo). The word ^"7-Q {hherev) is applied in Scripture to almost every variety of cutting instruments according to the context ; most generally a sivord, but besides this, a knife, a razor, a graving tool, an axe, Bochart has by a variety of citations abundantly proved that it, or the Chaldee ^^""^ (khrva), and the Phoenician harba are the same as the Greek apir-q, which seems to have been a kind of crooked sivord or falchion (falx), also a crooked dagger (Lat., sica, hence our sickle), and likewise a scythe. And it certainly is very remarkable, as he shows, that the teeth of the hippopotamus, which are long, sharp, and slightly curved, have by profane writers been compared to this weapon. Thus Nicander Theriac, v. 566 : — 'H LTTTTOV Tov NctAos VTrkp ^a'tV aWaXoecrcrav BooTKet, dpovprjo-LV Se KaKtjv CTrtySaAAerai "APIIHN . Autjluvialis equi, Nilus quern pascit adustam Trans jSain, atque Hai'pen damnosam immittit in agros . On which passage the Scholiast remarks, — The Harpe signifies a scythe ^piTrdvrjv (or sickle), and [the poet] so calls his (hippopotamus's) teeth, showing that he utterly devours the corn stalks. (See the Illustrations.) 20. That. A reason why God has furnished the hippopotamus with a scythe- like tooth; his food consisting of grasses, he is thus enabled to mow it down. The mountains. Those in the immediate neighbourhood of the river which is the haunt of the hippopotamus. Those which form the valley of the Nile, or perhaps the valley of the Jordan, would be the mountains which would most likely suggest themselves to the mind of Job on hearing this description. And all the beasts of the field might gambol there. The hippopotamus, although a beast of the river, nevertheless frequents also the localities which are the haunts of the beasts of the field. He in no way, however, disturbs their sports by his presence, for though so huge and fearful looking a monster, he is not a carnivorous, but strictly a graminivorous animal, having been so created by God, who purposely furnished him with a scythe-like tooth. 21. The loild lotuses —"Ci^^^ (tseelim). Some take this to be a Chaldaic form of t2'^77? (tselelim), shades, or shady trees ; but it is, I think, preferable to take s it, as Abulwalid, Schultens, Gesenius, Lee, and others have done, as from \[^ (dsal), to be slim, slender, &c. (gracilis, exiguus, tenuis, &c., see Castell), and then Med., Ye, JUj [dsayalon), the ivild lotus. This lotus, however, must not be con- NOTES, JOB XL. 21. 405 founded with that lotus which is a species o£ water-lily, and which grows in great abundance on canals and lagoons of the Nile, which is commonly called NymphcBa, or Nenoiiphar, by the Arabs, and which Herodotus tells us the Egyptians called Lotos. The plant alluded to here is a small tree or prickly shrub, sufficiently common in Africa, and yielding a ftirinaceous berry about the size of an olive ; it is the Sidar of the Arabs. In the covert of the reed and the fen, i.e., not only does the hippopotamus lie down under the lotus shrubs on the more dry ground, but also he lies down in the fen, where the reeds alFord a covert to him. Not unlikely the nij"? ri^fl {khaiyath kaneh) the beast of the reed in Ps, Ixviii. 31 is the hippopotamus, or perhaps the crocodile ; I think, however, the former, from its being there classed with bulls. Schultens gives an apt quotation here from Ammianus Marcelliuus, L. 22, — " Inter arundines celsas et squalentes nimia densitate hcec bellua cuhilia ponit." The mention of a fen here as being the haunt of the behemoth, certainly shuts out the elephant from all claim to being the creature here specified. 22. The tcild lotuses, S)-c. This forms a parallel with the first clause of the previous verse. These shrubs of the wild lotus under which he lies down form a shade for him. The osiers of the water-course, S^c. This, again, forms a parallel with the second clause of the previous verse. The reeds and osiers are very properly not said to shade him, as the lotus shrubs do, but to afford him a covert by encom- passing him. 23. P^y (gnashak) expresses violent, overbearing, oppressive conduct. As applied to a river, as here, overtvhelming would give a suitable sense. The Arabs use S^ {dhalama) in a precisely similar sense, referring it both to violent and unjust actions, and also to the overflowing of a river (see Castell). The best authorities have determined that "^H? {nahar), and not the hippopotamus, must be the nominative to this verb, as clearly no meaning could be deduced from the idea of his oppressing a river. That it should mean drinking a river, as in tlie Vulg. and our auth. vers., is too far fetched, and at the same time would be decidedly too hyperbolical. The LXX. have it lav ytvrjTat TrXrjixixvpa, if there should be an inundation. With this the Syriac and Arabic agree also, if a river should break forth. lie starteth not away. He does not jump up to run away from the danger, as all other animals would naturally do ; being amphibious, he stands his ground, and calmly awaits the shock of waters. Though the Jordan, Sfc. Whilst other animals would be in extreme terror, and would certainly perish if they could not effect a timely escape, the hippopotamus would not experience the slightest alarm, even though a river should burst forth (as the Jordan sometimes does) from its banks, and pour forth its flood over the surrounding country, and that, to such a depth as to reach even to the animal's mouth. Such is clearly the meaning of the passage, and fully demonstrates, I think, that the animal in question is the hippopotamus. The reason why the Jordan is the river particularly here used as an illustration is, I suppose, because not unlikely, rising as it docs at the foot of the snow-clad Lebanon, it was liable to more sudden and violent swellings than either the Euphi'ates or the Nile. It 406 NOTES, JOB XL. 23. is, in fact, more of a mountain torrent than either, and probably in its irruptions it drove away in consternation the lions and other wild beasts located in the thickets on its banks. Allusion seems to be made to this circumstance in Jer. xlix. 19, Avhere mention is made of the coming up of a lion from the swelling of Jordan, and also in Jer. xii. 5, the question is asked as importing a state of extreme danger, " How wilt thou do in the simlling of Jordan ? " The meaning in the text then is, so confident is the hippopotamus of his power to stem the most overwhelming tide, that not even such a sudden torrent as the swollen Jordan occasions would make him start up from his lair ; so far from this being the case, he calmly awaits it, and even receives it up to his eyes, as the next clause states. 24. He receiveth it up to his eyes. I cannot agree with those who give this passage the sense, let some one take him before his eyes, meaning, let anybody, if he can, capture this animal whilst he is on his guard — whilst he is looking on at those who are attempting to take him. The construction is very much forced to give this rendering. It appears to be much more natural, or rather, perhaps, necessary, that the beast in question should be the nominative to the verb ; in this way, also, the parallelism and sense are preserved in this and the three pre- ceding clauses, and the statement agrees admirably with the habits of the river- horse, which, when it swims, usually has the water up to its eyes. Up to his eyes. '^ {be) has very frequently the signification of "^V {gnad). His nose pierceth through snares. A further proof of his immense strength. He walks right through and breaks the nets that are spread for weaker creatures than himself. If C'^l&pia [moheshim) might apply to nets that are spread across rivers to intercept and catch fish ; this would apparently give additional force to the passage, and afford a natural introduction to the new subject in the next verse. JOB XLI. 1. Draw out — ^'ti^pri ' (timshoch). I take the future here to be a kind of per- missive mood on a potential condition, and this use of it in Hebrew is by no means uncommon. The full meaning will therefore be, draio out if you can, i.e., you may do it if you are able. The meaning of the whole clause is, fish up, if you can, a crocodile with a hook — try and catch him as you would an ordinary fish. There may be instances in which this has been done, but they are only exceptional cases. My reasons for considering the leviathan here to be the crocodile will appear in the course of the notes which follow. (See the Illus- trations.) And his tongue. It has been objected by some that the crocodile has no tongue. This, however, is not true. Certainly it is not extensible, but it exists, being attached by its marginal circumference to the lower jaw. 2. Supposing that you do catch a crocodile, can you then insert a rush into his snout, as you would do with an ordinary fish ? Wilkinson, speaking of the ancient Egyptian fishermen, says (without allusion to this passage), Vol. III., 61, — " They passed the stalk of a rush through the gills, and thus attached them (the fish) together, in order more conveniently to carry them home." (See the Illustrations.) The meaning here is. Can you treat a crocodile in the same manner ? With a spike, nin (Jihoakh) is literally a thorn. The context here seems to NOTES, JOB XLI. 2. 407 require a thorn of iron, or of some other metal, i.e., some kind of spike. llosenmiiller, borrowing from Oedmann an extract from Bruce, informs us that the Egyptian fishermen, having caught fish either witli hooks or nets, usually pass an iron ring through their jaws, to which a rope fastened on the bank is attached, so that the fish may be preserved alive, without the possibility of effecting their escape. It appears to me not unlikely that the spike here alluded to, after being inserted, was bent round so as to form a kind of ring, not unlike what is commonly put into the snout of pigs. The sense, of course, again is, — You cannot deal with a crocodile as you would with a common fish. 3. Will he multiply/ entreaties, ^-c. Lee supposes that allusion is here made to well-known cries of the dolphin, and he cites quotations of Bochart's, also from Petr. Gill, "A captis delphinis tanti fletus gemitusque fiunt, ut cUm in navi ubi jycrmulti delphini tenebantur pernoctdrem mihi acerbissimum dolorem inusserint." If, then, the supposition of such allusion in the text be correct, the meaning is, the crocodile is not a creature who, like the dolphin, by cries and moans seems to try to work upon your feelings, and to implore your pity. Soft things, — ■Hisn (racchoth), just the opposite of nic?,"? (Jmshoth) rough things, as in Gen. xlii. 30. 4. Will he be glad (as conquered enemies usually are) to accept the terms of being let off with his life, on the condition of his serving you for the rest of his days ? In plain words, it is impossible for you to think of reducing a creature like the crocodile to any kind of domestic service. 5. It is usual for commentators here, after Bochart, to quote Catullus, — " Passer, deliciee mece puellce, Quicum ludere, quern in sinu tenere, Quoi primum digitum dare adpetetiti, Et acris solet incitare morsus." But I do not think that that gives the correct meaning here. I am inclined to take pHtt? (sakhak) here in somewhat the same sense in which it is used in 2 Sam. ii. 14, as referring to sporting with weapons; in which case the word sport may have been used in the same way as we now use it with reference to the field. Certain it is (see Illustrations) that field sports were a favorite amusement with all classes of the ancient Egyptians ; and it appears, from the evidence of their paintings, that, on their foivling and fishing expeditions, they were accompanied by their sisters and daughters and other members of the family who assisted on these occasions. It is, I think, to such an occasion that allusion is here made. You cannot (God implies) include the crocodile in your field-sports, you cannot go and hunt him, as you go out and catch birds, and then bind him, as you bind them, for your sisters or daughters who accompany you on the expedition. The allusion in v. 1 and 2 is to the sport oi fishing, as here it is to that oi fowling; this connexion of the two is natural, and both are often represented on the same ancient Egyptian paintings. (See Illustrations). 6. 7. The first of these verses is one of the great puzzles of this book ; and the meaning of '>"'?''. {ichrou) constitutes the main difiiculty. As to the other words, •there is little doubt but that CISH (hhabbarim) means partners in trade, and Avhat we call companies, and that the word t^''??^? {chenagnenim), lit., Canaaiiites, means merchants, traffickers, traders, or the like. There is no doubt that many Canaanites were in very early times located in lower Egypt, and particularly in the Delta, and that they were there not simply as shepherds, as 408 NOTES, JOB XLI. 6, 7. they were usually called, but also as traders. The difficulty, then, of the verse is, as I have said, as to the meaning of *''~'3") (ichroii), the root "^l^ {charali) both in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, -ZEthiopic, and indeed all the kindred dialects, signifies to dig. In 2 Kings vi. 23, it seems to signify to make a feast. And in Deut. ii. 6, and Hosea iii. 2, it certainly means to buy. Hence the verse has been rendered by some. Will companies dig (i.e., a pitfall)ybr him ? w^hich if taken literally might apply well to the hippopotamus but not to the crocodile. Others, however, who render 'I"'?''- ijchrou) by dig, understand it in a kind of secondary sense as laying snares, 8)C. Others, again, translate the passage, Will companies make a banquet on him ? Others, again, Will companies malce a banquet over him'? implying the impossibility of fishing companies being able to feast on him as on an ordinary fish, or to celebrate his capture by a feast. The passage has also been rendered, Will companies 'purchase him ? This translation, how- ever, entirely ignores the preposition 71; (gnal). And once more, Lee has it. Will companies bargain over him ? This I prefer, but at the same time I see no special reason here for making the sentence interrogative, as it is not so in the original, and further it appears to me that ^? n"i3 {charah gnal), if in the sense of buying, ^c, would signify to bargain for rather than to bargain over ; I presume that, originally, passitig the contract of a picrchase was signified or ratified by some such act as digging, as being perhaps significant of payment of a purchase being originally made in manual labour or tillage, and that so the phrase ''? ^"^? (charah gnal) might signify, to pass a contract for the purchase of, Sj-c, or, as we say, to bargainfor. The sense, then, which I give the passage according to my translation, and taking it in connexion with the next verse is, — Putting the case that fishing companies should stipulate beforehand to pay you a certain price for the capture of the crocodile, in order that they might dispose of him to traders ; — are you so certain of being able to capture him as to enter into any such agreement ? It is not necessary to suppose from this that the crocodile was ever an article of merchandise ; all that is intended is, that Job could not deal with such a creature as if it were an ordinary article of commerce. Ca7ist thou fill, SfC, — i.e., supposing (as it is put in the previous verse) that fishing companies stipulate with you for the capture of a crocodile, are you certain that you will be able to fulfil your agreement ? Will you, do you think, be able to transfix his skin with sharp-pointed missiles, or his head with a spear such as is commonly used in fishing ? Bochart has very properly remarked that the creature here referred to cannot be the whale, because the process here alluded to is precisely the way in which whales can be and are captured ; whereas the impenetrable coating of the crocodile would render any such attempts utterly abortive. Lee replies vei'y lamely to this argument. For further information on the subject of jnkes and fish-spea?-s see the Illustrations. 8. Put thine hand, S,-c., — i.e.. Do so, if you dare, but I can tell you that, if you attempt it, you will at once be so terrified, as altogether to forget your intention of entering into conflict with the monster. 9. That mans hope, S^c, — lit., his hope, i.e., the hope of any person, whether you or any one else, who should make so rash an attempt under the vain expectation of succeeding. This is better than referring ilH/nln (tokhalto') to the crocodile, in which case it would mean the hope of him, i.e., the hope of ovei'coming him. NOTES, JOB XLI. 9, 409 Proveih false, — i.e., is found false. God speaks as if he saw the event actually occurring. Would he not he fiung, 8fC. The force of D? {gam) here is, not only does such a man find that his hope of overcoming the crocodile is deceptive, but more than that, he actually drops down with fright at the mere sight of the terrific monster. Bochart gives instances of the extreme terror that has been experienced by persons at the sight of a crocodile. 10. As to provoke him, — i.e., provoke him to a contest. Who then, SfC. Such then being the case, who can dare stand up and provoke me to a contest ? God probably implies that Job had daringly done so, though through ignorance of God's majesty and greatness. 11. Who hath fore-officed me, SfC. In all the dialects t3"T|7 (hadam) means to forestall, to be beforehand with, and the like ; the next verb Cytt' {shalam) seems to require that the particular meaning I have given should be attached here to the idea of forestalling, i.e., to forestall loith kindness. Schultens moreover contends (and after him Gesenius and Rosenmiiller) that the word has sometimes this particular sense in the Arabic, prcevenire heneficiis, though I cannot find this meaning in Castell. The Apostle, however, has given us the true interpretation of the whole verse, for it is evidently this which he quotes in Romans xi. 35, 36, — " Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto hira again ? For of him, and through, and to him, are all things." The force of the passage then as it stands here, is. Seeing that everything is mine, how is it possible that any one can have so laid me under obligatioti, as to pretend that he has a claim upon me ? Job to a certain extent had urged some such claim. 12. After a short digression God resumes the subject of the crocodile, by entering into a more particular description of that creature, than he had done before ; and he begins this by stating that he is about thus to enter into particulars. " l will not (he says) be silent of {or suppress mention of) his parts." U'^'1'2, {baddim) can scarcely be here translated limbs, — membra, as Rosenmiiller has it, — for God does not particularly describe these : the word does certainly sometimes mean limbs, branches, staves, c^c. ; but, in its first intention, it signifies separate portions, exactly what we call parts; it has this signification in xviii. 13. Si(bject,'^'y'\ (davar) — lit., tvord, matter, 8)-c. His structure, — "i^l^ (gnercho), more literally, his arrangement, i.e., the con- formation of his bones, muscles, skin, and general construction ; " the beauty " of this arrangement or organization does not therefore necessarily consist in external appearance, for on this subject but little perhaps could be said in favor of the crocodile, but it refers rather to the wonderful adaptation of the several parts of the animal to the purposes for which he was constructed by his maker. rn (khin) for IH (kheti). This is Chaldaic, and by no means anomalous. 13. Who hath laid bare, S)-c. Who has taken off the coating of the animal so as to make him naked ? in plain words, who has ventured to undress him ? HvS (^gillah) is to make naked by uncovering. The integument of the crocodile is here compared to clothing — IC'^Sy ; we might call it a coating just in the same sense. Schultens tells us that in Arabic 410 NOTES, JOB XLI. 13. 2?1^^ (Ibwsh) specially means a coat of mail covering the entire body. If so, this meaning would be very appropriate to the crocodile, but I cannot find it in Castell. Who would go into, S^c. Who would venture inside his double jaws, [for the purpose of exploring his teeth, and the inside of bis mouth in general] ? I'?"! (resen), precisely like our word muzzle, seems to have signified both a curb, or sort of halter, and also the part of the mouth or nose over which such curb or halter fits. At least it has that double meaning in the Arabic. The Greek ■^ak.ivo'i has also a similar sense. Bochart quotes from the Greek vocabulary of Pollux, IL, 4, § 20, who informs us that the extremities of the lip against either cheek are called xa^ii^ot. The doubling of his muzzle. I do not think that this refers to his double row of teeth, but to the gape of his jaws. (See the Illustrations.) 14. God here amplifies the question he had just proposed in the latter clause of the former verse. Who hath opened, S)~c. Not only would no one venture to go into the open jaws of the crocodile, but who has ever even ventured to open them when shut ? His formidable rows of teeth are quite sufficient to deter the boldest from making any such attempt. Bochart is very full in his description, both of the rictus or gape of the crocodile, and of the terrific character of his teeth. 15. In this and the two following verses God resumes the subject upon which he had touched in the question he had proposed in the first clause of v. 13, — " Who hath laid bare the face of his clothing V^ He proceeds to describe the coating of this remarkable creature. Those who claim for the ichale the honor of being the leviathan are driven to great shifts to explain these verses. Lee actually goes so far as to suppose that the dorsal-Jin of some of the whale tribe is here intended. 3Iajestic are his concave shields. Who then would dare to lay bare the ftice of his clothing ? I take majestic •^^[^■^ {gaewah\ lit., majesty, grandeur, or the like, to be in apposition with '^^''^ (eimah), terror, or jYightful, in the previous verse — that just as in the one case the frightful appearance of his teeth would deter any one from intruding into his mouth, so, in the other case, the majestic appearance of his shield-covered body would prevent any one from attempting to strip him of his coating. Bochart and others take '^')^}i (jgaewah) to be the same as I? (gaiv) the bach, and others again as ni2 {gewah) the body, but there is not the slightest necessity for departing from the ordinary meaning of the word. Ca^D ''i?.''2S (^ephikei magimiim) is a grand difficulty. Robora scutorum, which may mean strong shields, is Rosenmiiller's version, but it is doubtful whether P"*?^ (aphik) can signify strong. The lamince {plates) of Jerome, and timbones {bosses) of Lee, and others before him, are sheer guesses. The original meaning of the root P?^ {aphah) appears to have been to hold, to contai?i, and the like ; hence P"*?^ {aphik) has the meanings of a pipe, co7iduit, channel, tube, bed of a river, and the like. Literally, then, it would signify, in connection witli D''33K) {maginnim), the hollows of shields, which I take to signify hollotv or NOTES, JOB XLl. 15. 411 concave shields, and which we find were anciently worn upon the back ; and certainly the crocodile's body does appear as if it were enveloped with a number of these shields closely compacted together, as described in the next clause. (See the Illustrations.) We have the same idea in the testudo of the Latins, which means both the shell of the tortoise (which is not unlike that of the crocodile), and also a warlike covering consisting of uplifted shields held close together. Shut. 1^2D (^sagour) is singular, referring to each individual shield. 18. His sneezings make a light to shine. I understand this, as of the crocodile whilst under water, or just as he is rising to the surface; any sneezing or violent puflSng of the animal would have the effect of giving a white appearance to the water, the propulsion of air through water always producing this effect ; and I doubt not but that it is very remarkably so in the case of a crocodile : indeed, not improbably this whitish appearance would be the first intimation which a beholder on the bank would have of the near approach of this creature. His eyes are as the eye-lids of the dawn. His bright eyes suddenly appearing above the surface of the water are the intimation that the entire creature is about to emerge, just as the first streaks of dawn prognosticate the speedy rising of the sun above the horizon. Bochart informs us that in the Egyptian hieroglyphics the same image is adopted ; he quotes from the " Hiero." of Horus Apollo, I. 65. The passage is a very remarkable one, — "'Ai^aroA'^v Xeyovrcs, 8vo offtOaXfiovg KpoKo84t\ov ^ant Job. This of course is to be understood comparatively ; Job had spoken intemperately in many respects ; but then it may be urged in extenuation of this fault that he had done so under great provocation and excitement ; not only through his painful disease, but particularly through the bitter reproaches of his friends, who had argued from his afflictions that his former great pretensions to piety must have been purely hypocritical, and that, under the mask of religion, he was in reality a criminal of no ordinary stamp. To a good man, as Job was, such accusations must have been deeply painful, and may certainly be pleaded, as excuses to some extent, for some of the rash sentiments which he uttered. No such excuse can be offered on behalf of Eliphaz and his companions ; they were in the enjoyment of ease, and were not under the necessity of speaking in self-defence against base and false accusations. Besides which, perhaps partly through ignoi'ance and perhaps partly because it suited their purpose, they xoronghj contended that God, in his moral government of the world, afflicted none but the iniquitous, whereas Job righlhj enough vindicated the fact that the moral Governor of the universe afflicts, as he pleases, both good and bad alike. 8. Seven bullocks, and seven rams. Lee is right in asserting that this exact double offering was not prescribed under the Mosaic law ; that the passages referred to by Rosenmiiller — Lev. xxiii. 18, and Numb. xxix. 32 — do not prove it ; and that the fact of its having been occasionally offered, as in 1 Chron. XV. 26, and 2 Chron. xxix. 21, is no proof that it was commanded under that dispensation. The command here, therefore, seems rather to carry us back to patriarchal times, and when we find what we may suppose to have been a traditional practice of this identical rite in heathen Moab (see Numb, xxiii. 1, 2), it certainly becomes an argument in favor of the antiquity of this book. The same was practised in much later times. See Virg. vi. 38 : — Nunc grege de intaclo septem mactare jiivencos Prastiterit, totidem lectas, de more, hidentes. Go unto my servant Job. As your officiating priest, and your mediator ; he will present the oflfering which you bring, and he will intercede for you. Sacrificing E E 2 420 NOTES, JOB XLII. 8. and intercession were evidently sacerdotal functions even before the giving of the law. Job is here called God's servant no less than three times, perhaps with refer- ence to the sacerdotal office, and as a type of him who was to be in the truest sense God's servant, and who is often spoken of by the prophets under that designation. Shall pray for you. Just so, the great High Priest of the Church prays even for those who have insulted and blasphemed Him. For him tvill I accept. Him emphatic, — not you, but him. The force of this is expressed by C^5 ^3 (^chi im). 10. Turned the captivity. Probably a proverbial expression, signifying a delivery out of all misfortunes, and a restitution of former prosperity. And the Eternal gave Job twice as much as he had before, — lit., added all that had been to Job unto double. In what way God did this, and whether immedi- ately or by degrees, is neither possible nor necessary to determine. On behalf of his friends, — lit., on behalf of his friend, i.e., each of them indi- vidually. 1 1 . And there came to him all his brethren, ^-c. The estrangement and unkind conduct of these had been one ingredient in the cup of Job's misery : of this he bitterly complains in xix. 13, 14. The change in their conduct, here described, must be attributed primarily to God, in whose power are all hearts. The removal of Job's disease, the vindication of his character by God himself, and a general prosperous turn in his affairs, may have been secondary means by which the change of conduct was effected. One kesitah of money. ^X^'^ "^^^i? (kesitah ekhath). What the kesitah really was is difficult positively to determine. The word occurs in Gen. xxxiii. 19 ; Josh. xxiv. 32 (which latter passage is no more than a reference to the former) ; and also in this place. In these different instances it is rendered in the ancient versions sheep and lamb. Bochart has adduced six reasons to show that it cannot have that meaning, and that it must signify a piece of money. 1st. (I give his reasons as briefly as possible.) Wherever else in Scripture sheep or lambs are spoken of they are never called kesitah ; nor has the word any such meaning in any of the Hebrew dialects, such as the Chaldee, the Syriac, the Samaritan, the -3i^thiopic, or the Arabic. 2d. The Rabbinic expositors and lexicographers, with the exception of Aben Ezra, agree in translating kesitah, a piece of money, and one of them, R. Akiba,* mentions having met with a coin in Africa called kesitah. 3dly. In the absence of authoi'ity for the Masoretic selection of 27 (s) instead of ^ {sh) it may be assumed that the latter might have been preferable ; in which case the word in question might fairly be considered as connected with the root ^^^fj (kashat\ — a word containing the notion of truth, and in the Chaldee often applied to true measure in opposition to false, and which might therefore be supposed equally Upplicable to true coin in opposition to what was spurious. * It may be interesting to some readers to know that the R. AJdba here referi'ed to was a famous Kabbi who flourished shortly after the destruction of Jemsalem. His mother was a Jewess, but it is said that his father was a descendant of Sisera, the General of Jabin's army. He supported, both in his schools and in the battle-field, the claims of the celebrated Bar-kokab to be the true Messiah. Bemg taken by the troops sent by the Emperor Adrian against the insurgent Jews, he was massacred under cu-cumstances of great barbarity. (For a more full account see " Dictionaire Mlstorique " de M. Bayle.) NOTES, JOB XLII. 11. 421 4thly. Kesitah being feminine, if the word means a lamb, it must be only a female and not a male lamb ; but it is highly improbable that only ewe-lambs should have been the staple of Jacob's purchase in the one case, or of the gift of Job's friends in the other, otlily. Not only during, but long previously to, the time of Jacob, purchases were effected by actual money, eitlier weighed or counted, and not by barter, — as may be proved by the facts that Abraham had servants homjht tvith moiiei/ (Gen. xvii. 12, 13), that he bought the field of Ephron for four hundred shekels of silver, current with i/te merchant (xxiii. 16), that Joseph was sold for twenti/ [pieces] of silver (xxxvii. 28), that Joseph's brethren purchased corn for money i?}, full iveight (xliii. 21), and that at the same period of time the Egyptians bought corn for money, and it was only when money failed that they were permitted by Joseph to barter (xlvii. 14 — 16). And, 6thly, Acts vii. 16 probably refers to the transaction recorded in Gen. xxxiii. 19 and Josh. xxiv. 32 ; and if so, the hundi-ed kesitahs paid by Jacob are called a sum of money, Ti/xij? apyvpiov. I consider the above arguments of Bochart, of which I liave given the substance, so far conclusive as to decide that the kesitah was strictly a piece of money, and not an actual lamb : at the same time considerable deference is due to the autho- rity of the ancient versions which agree in translating kesitah by sheep or lamb. It strikes me that the two opinions are easily reconcileable by the supposition, not (as has been surmised) that the kesitah was a coin stamped with the imaore of a lamb, for it is almost certain that stamped money was not in use at so early a period as that of Jacob, but that the kesitah ivas a particidar weight, resembling iyi form that of a lamb. That it was a weight I consider probable from the Arabic root ^Cip (Jiasat), which means to measure out equally, and also a pair of scales ; and that the weight in question was in the form of a lamb I deem further probable from the fact that xoeights of that form were in use amongst the ancient Egyptians, and loere used for the purpose of iveighing money. (See the Illustrations.) I conceive then that the kesitah represented a sum of money, of one or more pieces (rings) of silver or of gold (most probably silver, as the ring of gold is mentioned here in the next clause ; compare also the expression ti/x.»js apyvpLov in Acts vii. 16), which was equivalent in weight to a particular weight of that name, and which had the resemblance of a lamb. According to the illustration, three rings of a particular money made one kesitah. In further confirmation of the above view, I would observe that the Egyptians used weights in the form also of bulls^ heads, and of lions and other animals. Weights of lions and ducks have also been discovered at Nineveh, with inscriptions upon them specifying their weight. I conceive that tlie Latin pecu?iia (money), derived from pecus (cattle), is so derived, not from its having been stamped with the effigies of cattle, but from its having been weighed with the kind of weights above-mentioned. One ring of gold. 2nt CTT^ (nezem zahav). Money was^ at this time in the form of rings. (See the Illustrations.) 12. There is nothing worthy of remark here except that Job's f\n'm property is described here as being exactly the double of what it was previously to his calamities, (i. 3.) (See the Illustrations on that chapter and verse.) 13. Tlie same number as before. Whether these were by a first or second wife it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. HSr^tt; {shivgnanah) occurs in this form nowhere else. Ewald takes it to mean a seven, just as we say a dozen. 423 NOTES, JOB XLII. 13. (Uinbreit.) Jarclii ridiculously thinks it may mean twice seven. His desire to make out that Job now had double the number of his former sons is evidently father to the idea. I have seen or heard it somewhere noticed (though I forget where) that the reason why Job's second family of childi'en were not double the number of his first family is, because the children of the first family, though dead, were not really lost to him, — though in another world, they were his still. The idea is very beautiful, and by no means improbable. 14. Jemima, n^"^P1 {yemimuh), — i.e., day-like ; and so corresponding, perhaps, to the Latin Diana. Or it may mean a dove. Kezia, — or cassia. An Oriental perfume. Keren- happuch. Horn of stibium. Names similar to these are familiar to readers of the " Arabian Nights' ^Entertainments," and they are common to this day in the East. 15. And there were not found, — lit., there was not found ; the sense being, JVo such thing was found as women beautiful as, S^c, ^c. Their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. The following extract from Forster's " Geography of Arabia " is so excellent and apposite that I cannot forbear transcribing it. Vol. ii., page 66 : — " Nor are the scriptural indications of that first of patriarchal blessings, a numerous posterity, confined to the sons of Job : as in the analogous cases of Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah, the blessing is extended to his daugliters ; and most remarkably ; since, while his seven sons are left unnamed, his three daughters are specially distinguished by name, as co-heirs with their brethren. The distinction here (at once so .marked and unexpected), the significancy of Scripture language taken into account, we well may rest assured is not without a diflference. And the difference which most naturally suggests itself is plainly this — that the daughters of Job should not only become the mothers of nations, but that they should " call the lands after their own names." Whether the names of Job's younger daughters may still live — that of Kezia in the Kisscei and Kissia of Ptolemy, a people and province east of the Euphrates and Tigris, or in the modern Khuzistan, or else in KazuaUy and the Kassanitce,* on the coast of Hedjaz ; and that of Keren Happuch in the town of Korna and people of the Abuccei,\ at the head of the Persian Gulf — I will not undertake to determine. But the name of the eldest daughter, Jemima, stands so accurately represented by that of Jemima or Jemama, the central province of the Arabian peninsula, that (the known origin of most names of localities in Arabia considered) the evidence of the probable derivation would be good, did it rest on the coincidence of name alone. In the instance of the province of Jemama, however, it so fortunately happens, we possess the wholly independent evidence of native tradition as to the territorial appellation having had its origin in a^emale proper name. The historical fact, that some kingdoms of Arabia were anciently governed by female sovereigns, is familiar to all. The province of Jemama is specially mentioned by the Arabs themselves as an example in point ; and (without the most distant reference to the daughter of Job) an Arab tradition of immemorial standing has preserved and handed down * This latter appears to mo most probable. — C. P. C. t Abuccei is the Arabic for Rapucmi. The sound of p does not exist in the Arabic language. (Forster's note.) KOTES, JOB XLII. 15. 423 to us the further fact, that this province originally derived its name, Jemama (or * the dove '), from Queen Jemama, the first sovereign of the land. That this ancient Arab Queen w^as no other than Jemima, the eldest daughter of Job, is a conclusion so natural in itself, so conformable w^ith the analogy of the l^atriarchal blessings, and so confirmed by the ascertained existence, in or near the land of Uz, of a people named the Agiiheni, Beni Ayuh, or sons of Job, as (in the judgment, at least, of the present writer) to shed a pleasing light upon the crowning blessings with which, in the Book of Job, God was pleased to reward the faith, the patience, and the ' good old age ' of the Patriarch of Uz," 16. Job lived after this a hundred and forty years. As we do not know how old he was when his affliction came upon him, we cannot precisely determine the age at which he died ; but as he had, previously to his affliction, a family of ten children, all grown-up, he could not have been less than sixty or seventy years. And as in other respects God gave him twice, as much as he had before, so perhaps also in this. The half, then, of one hundred and forty gives us seventy, and the two periods united make two hundred and ten — an age which unquestion- ably places Job in patriarchal times. I ILLUSTRATIONS. JOB I. 3. This verse is very suitably illustrated by the accompanying plate, in which herdsmen are represented on their way to render an exact enumeration of the cattle over which they have charge to the steward or proprietor. CATTLE, GOATS, ASSES, AND SHEEP, WITH THEIB NTJMBEES OVEE THEM. Fig. 1. Tlie number 834 over long-homed oxen. Fig. 2. 220 cows with calves. Fig. 3. 3,234 goats. Fig. 4. 760 asses. Fig. 5. 974 sheep. Fig. 7 gives in the account to the steward of the estate. In tlie original the two upper hues join the two lower at A and B. ''And Job's stock was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and Jive hundred yoke of oxen, and Jive hundred she-asses." 426 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB I, 3. Sir G. Wilkinson remarks on this plate that "the tomb where the subject occurs is at the Pyramids, dating upwards of 4,000 years ago." If we institute a comparison between Job's stock and that of the Egyptian proprietor in the plate before us, it stands thus: — An Egyptian Proprietor. Flock 4208 Oxen and cows 1054 Asses (apparently she-asses) . 760 Job. Flock 7000 Oxen 1000 She-asses 500 Camels 3000 It will be observed that the numbers in oxen and asses in both stocks re- markably approximate ; our Arabian proprietor has the advantage over the Egyptian farmer in the number of his flock and also in the additional possession of 3,000 camels, an animal common enough to Arabia, but not ordinarily found in Egypt, at least not usually appearing on its monuments. I think it probable that, although doubtless an exact account of his flocks and herds, &c., was, as in the Illustration before us, rendered to Job by his stewards from time to time, yet as there will of course have been some variations from year to year, the writer of the book before us has, for that reason amongst others, given the account of the stock in round numbers. 4. Feasts. The monuments of Ancient Egypt furnish most full and elaborate illustrations of the style in which feasts were conducted in these early times ; for copious illustrations and descriptive detail of the whole subject the reader is referred to Sir G. Wilkinson's work on the " Ancient Egyptians." It will suffice here merely to remark that the guests when invited to dinner assembled at about midday.* Some drove to the door of their entertainer in their chariots, others were borne in palanquins, and others walked. Water was brought to those who had arrived from a journey that they might wash their feet f before they entered the reception rooms : and all washed their hands previously to dining. As each guest took his seat, a servant in attendance anointed his head — one of the principal tokens of welcome.! While the dinner was preparing, and before all the company were assembled, those who had arrived were entertained, whilst wine was handed round, § with music consisting of the harp, lyre, guitar, tambourine, double and single pipe, flute and other instruments, together with the human voice ; and the amusement was further enhanced by the performances of hired dancers.,] When the repast was served, meats, vegetables, pastry, and viands of every description, were spread upon the overloaded tables or trays with unsparing profusion, and the wine T[ was in liberal abundance. The meat was killed the same day on which it was eaten, which explains the order of Joseph to " slay and make ready " for his brethren who were to dine with him the same day at noon. The guests sat * Josepli said, " These men shall dine with me at noon." — Gen. xliii. 16. t So Joseph ordered water for his brethren that they might wash then- feet before they ate. — Gen. xhii. 24. X Simon the Pharisee neglected both this and the former important formahty in the reception he gave to Christ, hence the rebuke, " Thou gavest me no water for my feet " — " my head with oil thou didst not anoint." — Luke vii. 44, 46. § " The harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, and wine, are at their feasts." — Isa. v. 12. II So at the feast given on the arrival of the prodigal son, there was " mi;sic and dancing." — Luke XV. 25. T[ " They drank wine, and were merry with him." — Gen. xliii. 34. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB I. 4. 427 on the ground, or on stools and chairs, and, having neither knives nor forks, they ate with their fingers, like the modern Asiatics, and invariably v*^ith the right hand. r'^jC, \\llliiji/ KITCHEN PREPAEATI0N3 FOR A FEAST. Figs, a a. Joints in caldrons on the dresser b. c a table. 1. Preparing a goose for the cook (2), who puts it into the boiler d. 3. Roasting a goose over a fire (e) of peculiar construction. 4. Cutting up the meat. / a kind of fan. g stewed meat over a pan of fire, or magoor. h a pan. i perhaps chops. k a knife. I a table with joints of meat. A DINNEB PAETY. His sons went and made feasts, each in his house. On his day, — i.e., probably birth- day (see Notes). Sir G. Wilkinson, " Ancient Egyptians," says, — " Every Egyptian attached much importance to the day and even to the hour of his birth ; and it is probable that, as in Persia, each individual kept his birth-day with great rejoicings, welcoming his friends with all the amusements of society, and a more than usual profusion of the delicacies of the table." 14. The oxen were ploughing, — of course yoked, as is clear from v. 3. Wil- kinson tells us in his work on the " Ancient Egyptians," — " The mode of yoking the beasts was exceedingly simple. Across the extremity of the pole, a wooden 428 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB I. 14. yoke or cross-bar, about fifty-five inches, or five feet in length, was fastened by a strap lashed backwards and forwards over a prominence projecting from the centre of the yoke, which corresponded to a similar peg, or knob, at the end of the pole ; and occasionally, in addition to these, was a ring passing over them as in some Greek chariots. At either end of the yoke was a flat or slightly concave projection, of semicircular form, which rested on a pad placed on the withers of the animal ; and through a hole on either side of it passed a thong for suspending the shoulder-pieces which formed the collar. These were two wooden bars, forked at about half their length, padded so as to px'otect the shoulder from friction, and connected at the lower end by a strong broad band passing under the throat. Sometimes the draught, instead of being from the withers, was from the head, the yoke being tied to the base of the horns " (as in the Illustration below). YOKE or AN ANCIENT PLOUGn. Figs. 1, 2. The back and front of the yoke. 3. Collar or shoulder-pieces attached to the yoke. 4, 4. The pieces of matting for protecting the two shoulders from friction. THE OXEN WEEE PLOUGHING. " The ancient plough was entirely of wood, and of as simple a form as that of modern Egypt. It consisted of a share, two handles, and the pole or beam — which last was inserted into the lower end of the stilt, or the base of the handles, and was strengthened by a rope connecting it with the heel. It had no coulter, nor were wheels applied to any Egyptian plough ; but it is probable that the point was shod with a metal sock either of bronze or iron. It was drawn by two oxen, and the ploughman guided and drove them with a long goad, without the ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB I. 14. 429 assistance of reins, which are used by the modern Egyptians. lie was some- times accompanied by another man, who drove the animals, while he managed the two handles of the plough; and sometimes the whip was substituted for the more usual goad. Cows were occasionally put to the plough ; and it may not have been unknown to them that the cow ploughs quicker than the ox." 15. The SKeha fell upon and took them. Burckhardt, in his "Notes on the Bedouins," says that " wealth among the Arabs is extremely precarious, and the most rapid changes of fortune are daily experienced. The bold incursions of robbers and sudden attacks of hostile parties reduce, in a few days, the richest man to a state of beggary ; and w^e may venture to say that there are not many fathers of families who have escaped such disasters." 17. The Chaldeans formed three columns, and opened upon the camels, and took them. If I am correct in the positions in the map which I have assigned to the Chaldeans and to the land of Uz, the distance seems very considerable for a predatory excursion. The following extract, howevei', from Burckhardt will show that like distances are ordinarily traversed at this day by the Bedouins on like excursions. He says : — " The usual mode of warfare is to surprise by sudden attacks. To effect this, the Arabs sometimes prepare an expedition against an enemy whose tents are at a distance of ten or twenty days from their own. The Aenezes are not unfrequently seen encamped in the Hauran, and making incursions into the territory of Mekka ; or a party of the Dhofyr Arabs from the vicinity of Baghdad, plundering the Aeneze encampments near Damascus ; or some of the Beni Sakhr tribe from Djebel Belkaa, seeking for pillage in the province of Irak Arabi." Thus, according to Burckhardt's statement, in some instances, the distance of ground traversed by the Bedouins for the purpose of plunder exceeds that of our Chaldean marauders. The distance from the Hauran to Mekka is about 800 miles, that from Baghdad to Damascus is about 450, and that from Djebel Belkaa to Irak Arabi is about 550. This last is about the distance that lay between the Chaldeans and the land of Uz ; and, indeed, the positions of these respective localities are about the same. 19. A great tvind came from across the wilderness. The following table of the different velocities and forces of the winds, according to their common appel- lations, may not be unacceptable to the reader : — Velocity, 1 mile per hour, Hardly perceptible. [ „ Just perceptible. t] Gentle pleasant wind. [ „ Pleasant brisk gale. i „ Very brisk. {• „ High winds. I » Very high. 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 ,, A storm or tempest. 60 „ A gx'eat storm. SO „ A hurricane. ,^y. {A hurricane that tears up trees, and " ( carries buildings, S^c, before it. 430 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB I. 19. The following is a description of a hurricane, quoted in " Bell's System of Geography," from which work the above extract is also taken : — " A hurricane is usually preceded by awful and certain prognostics. An unusual calm prevails ; not a breath of wind is felt ; the atmosphere is close and sultry ; the clouds w^ild, broken, and perpetually and rapidly shifting. At length a deep and portentous gloom gradually settles and overspreads the hemisphere ; the sun is enveloped in darkness ; a deep, hollow, murmuring sound is indistinctly heard, like the roaring of a distant cataract, or the howling of winds through remote woods ; rapid and transient gusts of wind and rain speedily succeed ; various birds of passage are seen hastily driving along the sky, or are thrown down by the violence of these gusts ; even the cattle grazing in the fields, as if instinctively aware of the approaching danger, withdraw to the thickets for shelter. The blasts soon become more impetuous ; at one moment they rage with inconceivable fury, and the ensuing instant seem, as it were, suddenly to expire. In a few hours the hurricane reaches its acme of violence, when all the winds of heaven, and from every point of the compass, winged with destruction, seem let loose from their caverns. The largest trees are thrown prostrate, or are shattered and stripped of their foliage ; the provision-grounds are laid waste ; the sugar-canes levelled to the earth, and in the more exposed situations torn up by the roots and wafted about like chaff. Many of the dwellings are blown down, or unroofed, and their inhabitants too often either buried in the ruins, or driven forth to perish un- sheltered." See also the Illustration on xxvii. 20 — 23. 20. Rent his robe. Probably a royal robe. (See the Notes.) EOBE WOBN BY THE AKCIENT ASSTEIAU MONABCHS. {Copied by the Author from the British Museum.) ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB I. 20. 431 And shaved his head. The Orientals evidently bestowed considerable pains in the way in which they dressed their hair and beards. (See the above Illustration.) Hence to shave this off must have been a serious loss, and must have betokened immense grief. JOB 11. 12. And sprinkled dust upon their he ids towtrds heaven. ANCIENT EGYPTIANS THROWING DTTST ON THEIR HEADS, IN TOKEN OF GRIEF. JOB III. 8. As the crocodile was the symbol of the Dremon Typhon, the second hemistich might, perhaps, be rendered, — Who are prepared to evoke Typhon ? in which case the following translation of a papyrus roll found at Thebes may be an apt illustration of the passage : — " I invoke thee who livest in empty space ; wind ; or terrible, invisible, all-powerful, god of gods ; maker of destruction ; and maker of desolation ; thou who hatest a flourishing family, since thou hast been expelled from Egypt, and out of foreign countries. Thou hast been named the all-destroyer, and the invincible. I invoke thee, Typhon Seth ; I perform thy magical rites, because I invoke thee by thy genuine name, by virtue of which thou canst not refuse to hear. (Here follow fourteen epithets, not Greek, each distinguished by a stroke above the word.) Come to me entire and walk, and throw down that man , or that woman , by cold and heat. He has wronged me, and has poured out the blood of the phyon in his house, or, she has, &c., &c. For this reason I perform profane ceremonies." (See "Enter- taining Knowledge." Egypt. Ant., vol. ii., p. 283.) The formula thus preserved is probably far more ancient than the MS. I could wish that we were ac- quainted with the fourteen epithets alluded to above, for this part of the formula seems to correspond well with ^H? {nakav) in the text, which means to call 432 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB III. 8. a person or thing names, sometimes good, generally bad; here, of course, tlie latter. In this passage it means to abuse, or brand ivith names of infamy or of execration, or note (like the Latin noto) with some mark of infamy. So the ancients marked their days with a white or black nota, according as they were fortunate or otherwise. 14. With kings and counsellors of the earth. Who were building desolations for themselves. The following account, from the " Handbook of the Egyptian Court, Crystal Palace," of two of the Pyramids will well illustrate the pains and cost which ancient kings and great men expended during their lives upon their places of sepulture (see the Notes), and also the propriety of the term " desolations " being applied to such structures : — " The second in size of these two gigantic buildings is beUeved to be a solid pile of stones all carefully squared. It stands upon nearly eleven acres of ground. Its base is square, which is the simplest of forms for stonework. Its four flat sides slope backwards, which gives to it the strongest of forms ; and they meet at a point four huhdred and sixty feet high. But nothing in its design shows that the builder when, he began it, had deter- mined how large it should be. " On the rocky ground, in the middle of this mountain of stone, is a small chamber, roofed with two sloping stones, and entered by a narrow horizontal passage, of which the entrance was carefully concealed in the masonry. Within that chamber is the sarcophagus for the owner's body." " The builder employed by Nef-Chofo evidently determined that his pyramid should surpass the former, both in safety against being opened, and in size. He began by tunnelling a passage down into the rock, and forming a small chamber 90 feet below the surface. Over this the pyramid is built. When the stonework rose to the height of 135 feet, he built the chamber for the sarcophagus. This ILLUSTRATIONS, JUIJ 111. 11. 433 was approached by a passage rising from the ground at the spot where the former passage began to descend. Tlie builder then showed what a great size he meant to give to his building by the care which he took lest the chamber in the middle of it should be crushed by the weight which he was going to place upon the top of it. Over this chamber, which he covered with a flat stone, he left four more spaces or chambers, each covered with a flat stone, and then a fifth roofed with a pair of sloping stones. Lest the workmen should be troubled when they had to return to the sarcophagus in this centre chamber, he left air- passages reaching to the surface of the pyramid. The building was then finished ; the body was placed in the sarcophagus. By way of barring the chamber against all future entrance, the workmen closed it by means of a square block which filled the whole passage. They probably shut some of themselves in, and these men then let themselves down by a well from this upper passage into the passage first made, 90 feet below the surf\\ce of the rock ; and thus returned to the open air. The cliamber under ground, which is at a level with the bottom of the well, and another small chamber at a level with the top of the well, seem to have been made for the use of the workmen in making good their retreat. Lastly, the builder closed up the only entrance by stonework, like the rest of the building. In forming the passages, the builder took the same care lest they should be crushed by the weights overhead, as in the case of the chief chamber. The chief passage, though only six feet wide, is not roofed over without the help of eight advancing courses of stone ; and the entrance is covered with an enormous block which is again protected by other yet larger blocks in the form of a sloping roof. When broken open, the name of Nef-Chofo was found painted on several of the stones. This pyramid is about forty feet higher, and each side of the base forty feet longer, than the former pyramid. It is higher than any tower, or column, or steeple, has ever been made. " To these two kings' ambitious wish of making themselves famous, to their religious care to keep their embalmed bodies safe against the day of resurrection, and to the noble aim of the architects to make buildings more large, more lasting, and more grand, than any that had yet been seen, we owe these greatest of works. Such works bear the marks of a rude age ; but the men who could produce buildings so simple and so grand were men of no ordinary minds. The pyramids naturally took their name from the Egyptian word Pi-rama, the mountain. They stand, with a few smaller pyramids, and countless other small tombs, on the low range of Lybian hills which divides the sands of the desert from the culti- vated fields near Mempliis." The dimensions of the great pyramid are stated to be as follows: — Surface of its foar sides, above 2 1 acres ; area of base, 1 3 acres ; perpendicular height, 479 feet; being 119 feet higher than St. Paul's, containing six times the mass of stone of Plymouth breakwater ; and (according to Herodotus) it occupied 20 years in building, and 1,600 talents of silver were expended in the mere item of furnishing the workmen with purges, leeks, and onions. The tombs of Egypt in general are on a scale of gi'eat extent and magnificence, and are usually built, not in cultivated places, but in or near deserts. They are often hewn in the solid rock, and are highly adorned. The excavated tract of rocky tombs at Thebes extends about two miles in length, and, as in the 434 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB III. 14. neighbourhood of Jizeh, there are deep shafts or walls, which are the approaches to deeper chambers, and to an endless number of winding recesses. (See "Enter- taining Knowledge," Egyptian Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 150, &c.) The annexed drawing will illustrate the correctness of the expression, desolations, or, desolate places. TOMB OF BEN! HASSAN. The following extract from a book, entitled, " Israel in Egypt," also affords an excellent illustration of the verse before us. It shows us, just what the text would lead us to infer, how entirely ancient kings devoted themselves to the work of building their tombs, as though it were the one great business of their reigns ; also, how often they were surprised by death whilst still in the act of building them ; and likewise, how well such places may be called desolations : — " The excavation and decoration of the tomb of a King of Egypt began on the day of his accession, and ended on the day of his death. The superintendence and direction of it were duties so sacred that even Pharaoh could not perform them by proxy. His own presence, his own directing mind, must be there, or the work stood still. At the instant of his death, it ceased altogether. In whatever state of imperfection it might be, no stroke of the chisel, no trace of the pen, passed over it again. The mummy of Pharaoh was laid in the vault — finished or unfinished — and the tomb was closed. So that there is much history to be read in the wild and desolate valley of the kings, in the desert of Western Thebes. The long reign of a pious monarch is marked by a suite of corridors and halls excavated in the mountain, to an extent which, threatens the stability of the superincumbent mass, and gorgeously and elaborately decorated with hiero- glyphics and reliefs, like the vault of Sethos I. A reign suddenly terminated by untimely death appears in the abrupt cessation of works in progress, promising great excellence and beauty when complete, like the tomb of Amenephthis." ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB III. 18, 20, 21. 485 18, 20, 21. The chained repose together ; They hear not the taskmaster's voice. Why giveth he light to him that is in misery ; And life to them that are bitter in soul ; Who are longing for death, but it cometh not ; And they dig for it more than for hid treasures'? Uiodorus (III, 11), as quoted by Sir G. Wilkinson, says, speaking of gold mines in Egypt, — " The kings of Egypt condemn to the mines notorious criminals, prisoners of war, persons convicted by false accusations, or the victims of resentment. And not only the individuals themselves, but sometimes even their whole family, are doomed to this labour, with the view of punishing the guilty, and profiting by their toil. The vast numbers employed in these mines ore bound in fetters, 'ajid compelled to work day and night xoithout intermission, and without the least hope of escape, for they set over them barbarian soldiers, who speak a foreign language, so that there is no possibility of conciliating them by persuasion, or the kind feelings which result from familiar converse The overseers urge them to their work with commands and blows No attention is paid to their persons ; they have not even a piece of rag to cover themselves ; and so wretched is their condition, that every one who witnesses it deplores the excessive misery they endure. No rest, no intermission from toil are given to the sick or maimed ; neither the weakness of age nor woman's infirmities are regarded ; all are driven to their work ivith the lash, till at last, overcome with the intolerable weight of their afflictions, they die in the midst of their toil. So that these unhappy creatures always expect worse to come than what they endure at the present, and long for death as far preferable to life." The parts of the above extracts which I have had printed in italics forcibly illustrate the language of Job in these verses. Here is an account of wretched creatures "c/^a^werf," or ^^ bound in fetters," often for no fault of their own, and condemned to miserable toil ; here is " the voice of the taskmaster," for they are urged to their woi'k by overseers with commands and blows ; here, that " repose " is not enjoyed which death alone can give, for their laboul* is without intermission, night and day ; every one who witnesses their condition (says the historian) deplores the excessive misery they endure ; and we might, in reading the account, almost be inclined to ask with Job, " Why giveth he light to him that is in misery ?" They must needs be "bitter of soul," when these unhappy creatures always expect worse to come than what they endure at the present. And whilst they are compelled by the lash to "dig for hid treasures," we can readily suppose that they look out far more eagerly for death than for gold, which (however successful their search), can bring them no relief. Indeed, the historian expressly tells us, almost in the words of Job, that they long for death as far preferable to life. V F 2 436 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB V. 3. KwwwwwwmmimmTTT^ T SENTENCE OE BLESSING AEFIXED TO A HOUSE. JOB V. 3. / doomed his homestead. If we may suppose that a custom, prevalent amongst the ancient Egyptians, of writing a lucky sentence over the entrance of a house, for a favorable omen, as " the good abode " (the munzel moharak of the modern Arabs), was also practised in the country of Job ; then this adds point to the remark of Eliphaz. He looked upon the snug villa of the fool who was living without God, and not- withstanding that the owner of it was taking root like the flourishing planta- tion within the enclosure, and notwith- standing that he deemed himself safe and prosperous under the talismanic virtue of the lucky omen inscribed upon his walls, he (Eliphaz) at once portended evil respecting him, and declared his habitation, so far from being blessed, to be cursed. Sir G. Wilkinson remarks, — " It was, perhaps, at the dedication of the house that these sentences were aflfixed ; and we may infer, from the early mention of this custom among the Jews (Deut. xx. 5), that it was derived from Egypt — a conjecture greatly strengthened by the circumstance of our finding even the store-rooms, vineyards, and gardens of the Egyptians placed under the protection of a tutelary deity." Homestead. The homesteads of the wealthy were even at that early age on a scale of considerable magnificence — if, at least, we may suppose that those in Job's neighbourhood bore some affinity to Egyptian villas. These, judging of them from plans and drawings taken from the sculptures, were of great extent, containing, within the outer circuit of the walls, not merely the sumptuous dwelling with its many ofiices attached to it, but also spacious granaries, commodious stabling, a large farm-yard, with sheds for housing the cattle, suitable tanks of water, and extensive gardens well stocked with the pome- granate, the fig, the date, and the vine. 5. Spikes. The word CSJ'^IJ (^tsinnim) certainly means shields, and in one place (Prov. xxii. 5) it is translated thorns. I am inclined to think, though I speak doubtfully, that its meaning here may be — the shield-like battlements or spikes which we find to have been common on the enclosures of ancient Egyptian villas and granaries, Wilkinson informs us that " the Egyp- tian battlements were an imitation of shields, which doubtless suggested the first idea of this mode of pro- tecting the besieged." He says in another place, speaking of the enclosure of villas, granaries, &c., — " The walls were usually built of crude brick .... and the summit was crowned either with Egyptian battlements, the usual cornice, a row of spikes in imitation of spear-heads, or A WALL, ENCLOSING A VILLA AND • i /- » GRANARIES, CROWNED WITH SPIKES, '^^''t" ^omc tuucy Ornament. EGYPTIAN BATTLEMENTS. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB V. 20. 437 26. liEAriNG AND STACKING COBN. Thou shall come to the grave in a full age, Like the mounting up (stacking) of a shock of wheat in its season. JOB VL 2. Were exactly weighed, Sfc> Wilkinson says, on the scales of the ancient Egyptians,—^" The principle of the common balance was simple and ingenious ; the beam passed through a ring suspended from a horizontal rod, immediately above and parallel to it, and when equally balanced, the ring, which was large enough to allow the beam to play freely, showed when the scales were equally poised, and had the additional effect of preventing the beam tilting when the goods were taken out of one and the weights suffered to remain in the other. To the lower part of the ring a small plummet was fixed, and this being touched by the hand and found to hang freely, indicated, without the necessity of looking at the beam, that the weight was just." ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCALES. 438 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB VI. 27. "3 a Tl vTov requires no other culture and attendance than to be well watered once in four or five days," &c. Calmet says, " The palm is much fonder of water than many other trees of the forest, &c And we learn from Sir Robert Wilson (" History of the Expedition to Egypt," p. 18), that when the English army landed in Egypt, in 1801, to expel the French from that country. Sir Sydney Smith assured the troops that icherever date trees greiv, water must be near ; and so they found it on digging usually roithin such a distance that the roots of the tree could obtain moisture from the fluid." The parts of the above extracts which are printed in italics are such as more immediately illustrate the passage before us. 7 — 10. Schultens gives a quotation from Horace very apposite to the idea ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XIV. 7 — 10. 447 conveyed in these verses : — " Redeunt jam gramina campis, Arboribusque coma; : Nos ubi decidimus, quo pius iEneas, &c., pulvis et umbra sumus." And equally apposite is the following beautiful extract from Moschus, quoted by Good in his work on Job, to which is subjoined Gisborne's elegant transla- tion : — Ai at, Tai fiaXa)(a.L fiev lirav Kara kwkov oXtovrat, *H TO. ^Aojpo, creAtva, to rcu^aXts ovkov avqOov, YoTepov av ^uyovri, kol cts eros aAAo (f>vovTL' AfXfi€<; S'ol jxeyaXoL kol Kaprepoi rj (TO(f>oi ai/ope^, Ottttotc Trpuna Oavw/xe?, dvoLKOOt. ev )(6ovl kolXo. Ev8o/i.es ev /xaXa jxaKpov aripfxova vrjypeTov vttvov. " The meanest herb we trample in the field, Or in the garden nurture, when its leaf. At winter's touch, is blasted, and its place Forgotten, soon its vernal buds renews. And from short slumber wakes to life again. Man wakes no more ! — Man, yaliant, glorious, wise, When death once chills him sinks in sleep profound, A long, unconscious, never-ending sleep." Good gives another very apposite extract from the Yajur Veda. The version is by Sir W. Jones : — " Since the tree, when feUed, springs again, still firesher from the root ; from what root springs mortal man, when felled by the hand of death ? " Say not he springs from seed : seed surely comes from the living. A tree, no doubt, rises from seed, and after death has a visible renewal. " But a tree which they have plucked up by the root, flourishes individually no more. From what root, then, springs mortal man, when felled by the hand of death ? " Say not he was bom before : he is born : who can make him spring again to birth ? " 7 — 22. As Job throughout this portion of the chapter, amongst other things, states his opinion, with very evident emphasis, that man, when once dead, can return no more to earth, and as we know, from chap. xxxi. 26, 27, that Sabeism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies, and which taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, was at that period in existence, it seems to me not unlikely that he here speaks with allusion to that doctrine, and wholly discountenances it. The doctrine in question appears to have originated in the Sabean notion that the soul, originally pure and an inhabitant of the highest heavens, gradually fell, by first conceiving the curiosity, and then the desire of mixing with matter ; from the moment of the indulgence of this fatal conceit, the tendency of the soul was down- wards, until, having passed through the sidereal heavens, and then through the several planets, and in each successive stage of degi'adation having contracted some new impurity, it finally arrived on earth, and became incorporated with matter. Nor could it reascend to its native heaven without undergoing a variety of purgations, which served the double purpose both of expiation and of purification : this was effected by the means of transmigration or the passage of the soul at the death of the body which it had inhabited, into some other body, and so on for a certain fixed cycle of ages, until the purgation was completed. The Egyptians embraced this doctrine at a very early period, and probably it 448 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XIV. 7 22. was already prevalent in some countries in the age of Job, though his statements in this chapter make it evident that it formed no part of his theology. In after ages this doctrine was extensively held by the Jews ; and from John ix. 2 it is clear that our Lord's disciples were, at one time at least, tinged with it. Amongst the fathers, Origen held it ; and Thomas Burnet remarks that it must have come down from heaven, for its origin is so remote that no person can trace either its father or mother, or its genealogy. It is refreshing to find that our patriarch did not admit any such absurdity into his creed. JOB XIX. 23 — 27. An inscription, carved upon the smoothed surface of a solid rock at Hasn Ghorab, at Hadramaut, in the South of Arabia, and discovered in 1834 by some officers of the Honorable East India Company's surveying vessel the Palinurus, is so remarkably appropriate to the subject of these verses as to warrant some lengthened notice being taken of it. Mr. Forster has been so fortunate as to decipher it, together with one or two other similar though minor inscriptions found in the same neighbourhood, and to his learned work on the historical geography of Arabia I am indebted for the whole of the condensed information contained in this note. He states that, " In all the inscriptions the size, depth, and regularity of the letters bespeak a skill and care in the execution admirably fitted to attain the object which they have attained (an object, as we gather from Job xix. 24, uppermost in contemplation in the earliest ages), to set at defiance the ravages of time." Mr. Forster, convinced of their antiquity by the descriptions given by the discoverers respecting the inclination of the walls, and the general Egyptian character of the ruins round them, and of their import- ance to the work in which he was then engaged (" The Historical Geography of Arabia"), carefully examined copies of them, though without much hope at first of ever succeeding in deciphering them, and was soon satisfied of the incorrectness of Mr. Wellsted's theory as to the affinity of the language to which they belonged with the Ethiopic. Being further satisfied that he had before him the primitive alphabet of a primitive language, he anxiously though doubtfully looked about for further light upon the interesting subject. When renewing his acquaintance with the " Monumenta Vetustiora Arabise " of Albei-t Schultens, he was struck with a title prefixed to two poems which spoke of them as most ancient, and as having been found on the marbles of ruined fortresses on the shore of Hadramaut, near Aden. Schultens professed to have extracted them from Novairi's " His- torical Geography," though in this, as Mr. Forster afterwards found, he was wrong, as they had been taken from the work of an earher writer, " the cele- brated Al-Kazwini." They were stated to have been discovered by Abderrah- man. Viceroy of Yemen, between the fortieth and fiftieth year of the Hejira, or about A.D. 660—670. Conceiving the idea that these professedly very ancient poems might be Arabic ti-anslations of the Hasn Ghorab inscriptions, Mr. Forster at once determined upon a comparison of the inscriptions with the supposed translations ; and finding a remarkable correspondence both in the length of the lines, in the number of letters, and in the frequent occurrence of particular letters in similai'ly respective ILLUSTRATIONS, JOH XIX. 23 '27. 449 situations, between the larger inscription and the larger poem published by Schultens, he was encouraged, by the help of what now appeared to him an undoubted translation, gradually to discover the power of the different letters, and so, the words which they composed, and then, by referring to Golius for tln-ir Arabic meanings, he produced the following translation, which agrees, for the most part, closely with the presumed Arabic translation originally extracted from Al-Kazwini : — o G 450 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XIX. 23 27. " We dwelt living long luxuriously in the Zenanas of this spacious mansion : our condition exempt from misfortvme and adversity. Kolled in through our channel The sea, swelling against om* castle with angry surge ; our fountains flowed, with murmuring fall, above The lofty palms : whose keepers planted dry dates in our valley date-grounds ; they sowed the arid rice. We hunted the mountain-goats, and the young hares, with gins and snares ; beguihng, we drew forth the fishes. We walked, with slow, proud gait, in needle-worked many coloured silk vestments, in whole silks, in grass-green chequered robes. Over us presided kings far removed from baseness, and stern chastisers of reprobate and wicked men. They noted down for us according to the doctrine of Heber, Good judgments written in a book to be kept ; * and we proclaimed our belief + in miracles, in the resurrection, in the return into the nostrils of the breath of hfe. Made an inroad robbers, and would do us violence ; collectively we_ rode forth, .... we and our generous youth, .... with stiff and sharp-pointed spears ; rushing onward Proud champions of our families and our wives ; fighting valiantly, upon coursers with long necks, dun-coloured, iron-gray, and bright bay, With our swords still woundmg and piercing our adversaries ; untU, charging home, we con- quered and crushed this refuse of mankind." Witli regard to the antiquity of this inscription, it may be remarked that, in the seventh century of our era, it was referred by the Arabs of that period to the limes of the Adites, the most ancient inhabitants of Arabia Felix, an opinion which has been confirmed by the fact of Mr. Forster's having been able to decipher, at the bottom of the inscription, the names of its two engravers, and also a statement that the people described is the famous lost tribe of Ad; and that the battle was fought with the Kedarite tribe of Ac. The former of these tribes — the heroes of the inscription before us — are represented by the Mahometan account, as given by Mr. Sale, as being descended from Ad, the son of Aws (Uz), the son of Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah ; which Ad, after the con- fusion of tongues, settled in Al Akhaf, or the winding sands in the province of Hadramaut, where his posterity greatly multiplied. God in order to humble them for their apostacy, and their refusal to listen to the preaching of the prophet Hud (Heber), (it would appear from the same account,) afflicted them with a drouglit for four years ; so that all their cattle perished, and themselves narrowly escaped a similar fate. Now it is somewhat remarkable that the substance of what is thus stated respecting them has been recorded of themselves on the two rock-graven inscriptions preserved in the Arabic translation furnished by Al- Kaswini, and one of which only (the earlier) has as yet been discovered at Uasn Ghorab. This earlier monument speaks of the creed of the tribe of Aws as Lcino- conformable to the doctrine of Hiid or Heber, whilst the second records the circumstance of their having been visited by drought and famine on account of their lapsing into apostacy. The whole of it is so interesting that I do not scruple to give it : — * I have given a different rendering of this word in my Notes on xix. 23. f For a diffci'cnt translation of these words — see Notes on xix. 25 — 27. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XIX. 23 27. 451 " 1. We dwelt at ease in tliis castle a long tract of time ; Nor had we a desire but for the region lord of the vineyard. 2. Hundreds of camels returned to us each day at evening, Their eye pleasant to behold in their resting-places. 3. And twice the number of our camels were our sheep, In comeliness like white does ; and also the slow-moving kine. 4. We dwelt m tliis castle seven years Of good life .... how difficult from memory its description ! 5. Then came years ban*en and burnt up : Wlien one evil year had passed away, tliere came another to succeed it. 6. And we became as though we had never seen a glimpse of good. They died : and neither foot nor hoof remained. 7. Thus fares it with liim who renders not thanks to God : His footsteps fail not to be blotted out from his dwelling." Now in both these poems we may trace, as Mr. Forster has already done, marks of the highest antiquity ; the evident importance attached in the first to tlie " needle- worked many-coloured silk vestments, whole-silks, grass-green chequered robes," reminds us of the Psalmist's description of the royal bride, " her clothing of wrought gold," " her raiment of needlework," and also of the vanity imputed in Deborah's song to the sanguine mother of Sisei-a who was contemplating in thought the " prey of divers colours of needle work " which was to be part of the reward of her son's imagined victories ; and further back of Joseph's " coat of many colours " (or stripes). In the second poem the importance attached to the possession of camels, sheep, and oxen as the representatives of wealth, carries us back to patriai'chal times, and forcibly reminds us of the opening of this book, chap. i. 3. But apart from this, allusion is made in it to an incident so similar to one recorded in Genesis, that we can scarcely hesitate to refer the two accounts to one and the same event. The poem, like the narrative in Genesis, speaks of seven years of plenty being succeeded by years of famine, during which, according to the first account, the cattle in Hadramaut died, obviously, as we may infer, because there was no Joseph there, as in Egypt, to be the instrument of preserving them ; and so extensive were the effects of the famine, that in the remarkable words of the inscription, " neither foot nor hoof remained" an expression which, Mr. Forster observes, is used by no other writer, so far as he knows, than Moses, — " And Moses said, — Our cattle also shall go with us ; there shall not an hoof he left behind." After Mr. Forster had come to these conclusions, he was not a little delighted at meeting with a wholly independent confirmation of the correctness of his view in referring the poem just cited to the age of Joseph. In a passage from Firazabaudi, — cited by Pocock, with no other view than that of proving the great antiquity of the art of writing among the llamyarites, — Ebn Hesliam I'elates that a flood of rain laid bare to view a sepulchre in Yemen, in which lay a woman, having on her neck seven collars of pearls ; and on her hands and her feet bracelets and ankle-rings and armlets, seven on each, and on every finger a ring in which was set a jewel of great price ; and at her head a coffer, filled with treasure, and a tablet with this in- scription : — G G 2 452 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XIX. 28 27. " In thy name, O God, the God of Hamyar. I, Tajah, the daughter of Dzu Shefar, sent my steward to Joseph. And he delaying to return to me ; I sent my handmaid, With a measure of silver, to bring me back a measure of flour : And not being able to procui-e it, I sent her with a measure of gold : And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measui'e of pearls : And not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground : And finding no profit in them, I am shut up here. Whosoever may hear of me, let them commiserate me. And should any woman adorn herself with an ornament From my ornaments, may she die no other death than my death." The reference in these lines to the famine recorded in Genesis, " when all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn," is so remarkable as to need no comment, except to surmise that the refusal to sell corn to this unfortunate Hamyaritic Princess may have been the effect of Egyptian jealousy of the power of that country and kingdom. But whatever may have been the cause of this cruelty, we have, in all tliis, presumptive evidence that the date of the Hamyarite inscriptions may be referred to the age of Joseph ; and if so, then their alpha- betical characters are the most ancient that are known, and indeed may lay claim, for aught we know to the contrary, to be the primitive alphabet of mankind. The inscriptions in the engraving at page 449 must not be confounded with those which have been described in this article. JOB XX. He shall JJee from a weapon of iron ; A bow of copper shall slip over him. (See Notes.) It is drawn, and shall come out of his body. Even the flashing stvord out of his gall : He is going ! Terrors are upon him. ILLUSTRATIONS, J 015 XXI. 0. 453 JOB XXI. 5. Lay your hand upon your mouth, — i. e., in token of silence. Sir G. Wilkinson having de- scribed the picture, which is here annexed, adds : — " A man, crouched behind some reeds, growing at a convenient distance from the spot, from which he could observe the birds as they came down, watched the net, and, enjoining silence by placing his hand over his mouth, beckoned to those holding the rope to keep themselves in readiness till he saw the birds assembled in sufficient number, when a wave of his hand gave the signal for closing the net. The Egyptian mode of indicating silence is evi- dently shown, from these scenes, to have been by placing " the hand on their mouth " (as in Job xxix, 9) — not, as generally sup- posed, by approaching the fore- finger to the lips ; and the Greeks erroneously concluded that the youthful Harpocrates was the deity of silence, from his ap- pearing in this attitude, which, however humiliating to the cha- racter of a deity, was only illus- trative of his extreme youth, and of a habit common to children in every country, whether of ancient or modern times." 12. The tabor. This simple instrument of percussion was, no doubt, used in the very earliest times, though the first mention that is made of it is in Gen. xxxi. 27. It frequently occurs in the ancient Egyptian pictures, is invariably in the hands of females, and varies in form. It seems to have been composed of a simple frame of wood, over which was stretched leather or parchment ; the accompaniment of jingling pieces of metal round its hoop appears to have been a more modern addition. It was much used both in civil and religious rqoicings, and was generally accompanied with dancing. 454 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXI. 12. THE TABOR. {Dratvn hy the Author^ The harp. ''IS? {chinnor), a stringed instrument, usually accompanied with singing by the performer. It had a melodious and agreeable sound. (Ps. Ixxxi. 2, and Isa. xxiii. 16.) Was used in feasts and on joyous occasions in general. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. (Isa. V. 12, xxiv. 8 ; and Gen. xxxi. 27.) It was used also for the purposes of pro- phesying, and revealing religious mysteries. (1 Sam. x. 5 ; 1 Chron. xxv. 3 ; and ILLUSTRATIONS, JOIJ XXI. 12. 455 Ps. xlix. 4.) It was evidently David's favorite instrument, and that in which he was much skilled. (1 Sam. xvi. 16 — 23.) It was much used for the purposes of psalmody in God's praise, as is evident from the frequent mention of it in the Psalms, and also elsewhere, in connexion with them ; and we learn from 1 Kings X. 12 that its framework was of wood ; and from Gen. iv. 21, that it was one of the instruments that was earliest invented. From this latter circumstance I infer that it cannot be the lyre, which I rather conceive to have been the ^33 (jwvel), and not likely, from its more complicated form, to have been the first of stringed instruments that was invented. As to Harmer's ingenious conjecture, that the 7?5 (^tievel), being a skin (J) — bottle, might also be a bagpipe, and that Josephus speaks, not of its twelve strings, but of its twelve sounds, <^Qoy^oi, I think that the circumstance of the absence of any such instrument as a bagpipe from the ancient Egyptian pictures disproves the conjecture. As the twang of the bow used in hunting probably furnished the first notion of a stringed instrument, and as the "1133 {ckinnor) was the stringed instrument earliest in use, we may reasonably conclude that, in its first form, it resembled a boio, and then, in process of time, received various modifications, until it gradually assumed the forms both of the harp and the guitar. The preceding and following Illustrations will explain this : — I suppose that figs. 1 and 2 exhibit the earliest form of the 1'i3? {chinnor) being nothing more than a bow with four strings and the addition at one end of a wooden belly to make it more sonorous. The gradual transition from this instru. ment, through figs. 3 and 4, to the more perfect harp at fig. 5, is obvious ; as is 5() ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXI. 12. also the straightening of the cui've, and its assuming the form of a guitar, as at fig. 6. The pipe, 23'137 {gnoiigav). The first invented of all wind instruments. (Gen. iv. 21.) It was probably in the first instance no more than a simple reed with holes boi'cd in it. The ancient Egyptians had flutes of various lengths, some of them considerably longer than those in common use now. The double pipe also was an accompaniment at their concerts. I cannot agree with those who think that by ^^^3>7 (gnougav) may be meant the Pandean pipes. This instrument occurs nowhere, so far as I know, in very ancient pictures or sculptures. It was comparatively a more recent invention, and probably derives its origin from the notion of the music of the spheres, the seven pipes of unequal length respectively representing the distances of the seven planets. Of this instrument. Pan, or the Universe, according to Greek mythology, is the inventor and performer. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PIPES AND FtPTES. {Copied ly the Author from Champollion.) They lift up their voice with the tabor and harp ; And rejoice at the sound of the pipe. ^ 30 — 33. Wilkinson gives the following account of the funeral procession of ancient Egyptian grandees, having previously stated that the pomp of a royal funeral was of course incomparably more magnificent : — " First came several servants carrying tables laden with fruit, cakes, flowers, vases of ointment, wine, and other liquids, with three young geese and a calf for sacrifice, chairs and wooden tablets, napkins, and other things. Then others bringing the smuU closets in which the mummy of the deceased and of his ancestors had been kept, while receiving the funeral liturgies previous to burial, and which sometimes contained the images of the gods. They also carried ILliUSTRATTONS, J()I5 XXI. 30 — 33. 457 daggers, bows, sandals, and fans ; each man having a kerchief or napkin on his shoulder. Next came a table of offerings, fauteuils, couches, boxes, and a chariot ; and then the charioteer with a pair of horses yoked in another car, which he drove as he followed on foot, in token of respect to his late master. After tliese were men carrying gold vases on a table, with other offerings, boxes, and a large case upon a sledge borne by four men, superintended by two func- tionaries of the priestly order ; then others bearing small images of his ancestors, arras, fans, the sceptres, signets, collars, necklaces, and other things pertaining to the king, in whose service he had held an important office. To these succeeded the bearers of a sacred boat, and that mysterious eye of Osiris, as God of Stability, so common on funeral monuments, — the same which was placed over the incision in the side of the body when embalmed ; as well as on the prow and rudder of the funeral boat ; was the emblem of Egypt ; and was frequently used as a sort of amulet, and deposited in the tombs. Others carried the well-known small images of blue pottery representing the deceased under the form of Osiris, and the bird emblematic of the soul. Following these were seven or more men, bearing upon staves, or wooden yokes, cases filled with flowers and bottles for libation ; and then seven or eight women, having their heads bound with fillets, beating tlieir breasts, throwing dust upon their heads, and uttering doleful lamen- tations for the deceased, intermixed with praises of his virtues. " One woman is seen in the picture turning round, in the act of adoration, towards a sacred case containing a sitting Cynocephalus, the emblem of the God of Letters, placed on a sledge drawn by four men ; the officiating high priest or pontiff, clad in a leopard-skin, following, having in his hand the censer and vase of libation, and accompanied by his attendants, bearing the various things required for the occasion. " Next came the hearse, placed in the consecrated boat upon a sledge, drawn by four oxen and by seven men, under the direction of a superintendent, who regulated the march of the procession. A high functionary of the priestly order walked close to the boat, in which the chief mourners, the nearest female relatives of the deceased, stood or sat at either end of the sarcophagus ; and sometimes his widow, holding a child in her arms, united her lamentations with prayers for her tender offspring, who added its tribute of sorrow to that of its afflicted mother. " The sarcophagus was decked with flowers ; and on the sides were painted alternately the emblems of Stability and Security (?) two by two (as on the sacred arks or shrines) upon separate panels, one of which was sometimes taken out to expose to view the head of the mummy within. " Behind the hearse followed the male relations and friends of the deceased ; some beating their breasts ; others, if not giving the same token of grief, at least showing their sorrow by their silence and solemn step, as they walked, leaning on their long sticks. These closed the procession. " Arrived at the sacred lake, the coffin was placed in the baris, or consecrated boat of the dead, towed by a larger one furnished with sails and cars, and havino- frequently a spacious cabin, which, in company with other sailing boats carryino- the mourners and all those things above mentioned appertaining to the funeral crossed to tlie other side. Arrived there, the procession went in the same order 458 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXI. 30 — 33. to the tomb ; at which the priest offered a sacrifice, with incense and libation ; the women still continuing their lamentations, united with prayers and praises of the deceased. " It frequently happened that the deceased, with his wife, if dead at the time of his funeral, was represented seated under a canopy, in lieu of the cofiin. Before him stood an altar laden with offerings, and a priest, opening a long roll of papyrus, read aloud the funeral ritual, and an account of his good deeds, in order to show to Osiris and the Assessors the extent of his piety and j-isti^T during his life. When the boats reached the other side of the lake, the yards were lowered to the top of the cabin, and all those engaged in the ceremony left them and proceeded to the tomb, from which they appear to have returned by land, without recrossing the lake. " Such was the funeral procession of a basilico-grammat, or royal scribe, a member of the priestly order. He lived during the four successive reigns of Thothmes III., Amunoph II., Thothmes IV., and Amunoph IIL, and held the office of tutor to one of the young princesses, as the sculptures inform us, which represent him nursing her on his knee, while entertaining a party of friends. The funerals of other persons differed in the order of the procession, as well as in the pomp displayed on the occasion ; and the mode of celebrating them appears to have depended on the arrangements made by the family, except in those particulars which were prescribed by law." {See Illustration opposite.^ Before closing, I add to the above an extract from Diodorus, as quoted by Mr. Gosse, in reference to the subject of the refusal of interment of those who had led vicious lives. He says : — " When a body is about to be interred, the relatives announce the day of burial to the judges, and to the fi'iends of the deceased, saying that the dead man is going to cross the lake. The boat is then put into the lake, having been before prepared for the purpose. But before the wooden chest which contains the corpse is put into the boat, it is permitted by law to any one to bring his accusation against the deceased. Should he be convicted of having led a wicked life, the body is excluded by the sentence of the judges from the privilege of interment." JOB XXII. 12 — 14. We have here the very doctrine which Epicurus promulgated with considerable success three hundred years before Christ; nor was it new when Eliphaz charged Job with it, for that uncharitable friend immediately reminds him that in holding such views as denying God's providence, and concern about the actions of men, he was but treading in the steps of those men whose impiety of this very complexion had been punished by the deluge. It must be admitted that Epicurus himself did not, either in his precepts or in his life, carry out his own doctrine to its legitimate consequences, though this was extensively done by his followers, who so far departed from the maxims and example of their teacher as to regard the immoderate indulgence of sensual pleasures as the great business of life. u Gently pleasant. •492 ) , , -^ V Pleasant, brisk. riO/ ) ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXVllI. 25. 469 Velocity of the wind, Perpendicular force on one square foot in miles per hour. avoirdupois pounds and parts. 20 25 . . . 1-968 1 3-075 1 ^^''y ^"sk. 30 . . , 35 . . . 4-429 ) g.Q2^j High wind. 40 . . . 45 . . . ^ ^^„ c Very high wind. 9-963 ) ^ ° 50 . . . 12-300 Storm or tempest. 60 17*715 Great storm. 80 . . . 31-490 Hurricane. 100 .. . i Hurricane that tears up trees and 1 carries buildings before it. JOB XXX. 3, 4. Who but yesterday were gnawing the desert^ — The waste and the wasteness. Who were cropping purslain on the shrub ; And the root of the broom was their bread. Moffat, the South African missionary, says of the Bushmen amongst the Hottentots : — " Hunger compels them to feed on everything edible. Ixias, wild garlic, mesembryanthemums, the core of aloes, gum of acacias, and several other plants and berries, some of which are extremely unwholesome, constitute their fruits of the field." And Burckhardt, speaking of a dearth in the desert of Arabia, says : — " No provisions of any kind were left in his own (the Sheik of the Beni Shammar) tent, nor could the tents of his Arabs furnish a morsel. Dry roots and shrubs of the desert had for several days served as food for these people." The broom, 00") {rothem). Barnes has given an apt quotation, which proves the rothem to be the broom, and not the juniper ; and which I borrow. It is from Dr. Robinson's " Biblical Researches," vol. i., p. 299 : — " The Retem is the largest and most conspicuous shrub of these deserts, growing thickly in the watercourses and valleys. Our Arabs always selected the place of encampment (if possible) in a place where it grew, in order to be sheltered by it at night from the wind ; and during the day, when they often went on in advance of the camels, we found them not unfrequently sitting or sleeping under a bush of retem, to protect them from the sun. It was in this very desert, a day's journey I'rom Beersheba, that the Pi'ophet Elijah lay down and slept beneath the same shrub. The roots ai-e very bitter, and are regarded by the Arabs as yielding the best charcoal. The Hebrew name ^kT^ (rothem) is the same as the present Arabic name." 8. A tribe of profligates ; nai/, a nameless tribe ; They ivere beaten out of the land. Amongst the numerous tribes of the Belouiu Arabs there are some few which 470 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXX. 8. are despised on account of the unfavourable opinion that is formed of them by their neighbours. Burckhardt (" Notes on the Bedouins," &c., vol. ii., p. 8) tells us that " the Fehely Arabs of Damascus are certain tribes who labour under the imputation of being persons of bad faith ; and in general it is found that this unfavorable opinion, which all the Bedouins entertain respecting them, is but too justly applicable to numerous individuals among them The Fehelys in particular are despised, because they do not scruple to steal from the tents of their friends." Of the Heteym, he observes : — " Of the innumerable tribes who people the deserts of Arabia, none is more dispersed, nor more frequently seen in all parts of that country, than the Heteym. In Syria, in Lower and Upper Egypt, along the whole coast of the Red Sea down to Yemen, in Nedjd and Mesopotamia, encampments of the Heteym are always to be found. Perhaps it is from this wandering disposition that they are much less respected than any other tribe. For one Bedouin to call another ' Heteymy ' is considered as a very serious insult ; for the Heteyms are despised as a mean race of people, and in most provinces the other Bedouins will not intermarry with them Conscious of the little esteem in which they are universally held, these Heteyms have renounced all their martial spirit, and have become of a peaceable character, but extremely shuffling, which renders them still more disliked." Of the Beni Kelb, i.e., the Dog tribe (compare ver. 1), Burckhardt remarks: — " They are described as being half-savage." 18. It girdeth me as the collar of my vest. See the Note on this verse. 31. COILAE OE AN ASSYRIAN VEST. {Copied hy the Auihor from the British Museum) See Illustrations on xxi. 12. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXI. G. 471 JOB XXXI. 6. The idea of men's actions, whether good or bad, being weighed was naturally enough of early origin : hence we find continually represented on Egyptian monuments and on mummy cases, the scales in which are being weighed the actions of the deceased individual whose is the monument or the case. {Copied hy the Author from ChampoUion.) Let him weigh me in an even balance. And let God know my integrity. In the picture before us, the good actions of a deceased individual are being weighed ; these are represented by a vase which is supposed to contain them, and which is placed in one of the scales ; in the other scale is an ostrich feather, the emblem of Truth or Justice. A report of the issue of the judgment is being read to Osii-is, who with his crook and flagellum is seated on his throne, at the foot of which sits the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the portals of the invisible world. The unhappy individual is evidently " found wanting ; " sentence is pronounced and is already being executed, for the condemned sinner, in the form of a pig, is being ferried back to earth under the guidance of a merciless monkey. 26, 27. If I should see the sun when it shineth, Or the moon walking splendidly ; And my heart should be secretly enticed. And my hand should kiss my mouth. The religion of Sabeism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies, had at this time evidently made some progress, though not to such an extent, in Job's country at least, as to be the established religion of the country. The following extracts which I have translated from the learned work of the infidel Dupuis will show how extensively and early this religion prevailed. He says, vol. i. 5 : — " The Syrians adored the stars of the constellation of the Fishes, and had consecrated their images in their temples (German Cass., c. 36). The worship of Adonis was established at Byblos and in the neighbourhood of the Lebanon (Lucian. de Dea Syria, p. 878), and all the learned agree that it was the Sun which was adored 472 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXI. 26, 27. under that title which answers to that of Lord (Macrob. Saturn i. c. 21). . . . Sanchoniatho, the most ancient Phoenician writer (Euseb. Prasp. Ev. i. 9), who himself does no more than interpret the ancient records of his country consecrated on tlie pillars of Thaut, tells us that the first men who inhabited Phoenicia raised their hands to heaven towards the sun, that they regarded him as the sole master of the heavens, and honoured him under the name of Beel-Samin (i.e., Lord of heaven) The Arabs, placed under a sky ever clear and serene, professed the same religion and adored the sun, the moon, and the stars. Abul- farage (Hist. Dynast, p. 101) informs us that not only did these people adore the stars in general, but each tribe was under the invocation of a particular star. The tribe of Hamyar was consecrated to the sun ; the tribe of Cennali to the moon ; the tribe of Misa was under the protection of that fine star of the bull — Aldebaran, &c Strabo speaks of an altar erected to the sun in Arabia Felix (Strabo xvi. 784), on which was burnt the most exquisite incense. In the Island of Panchaia, situated on the east of Arabia, was a fountain consecrated to the sun, which no one except the priests could approach (Diod. Sic. v. 44). . . . Abul- farage (Hist. Dyn., p. 184) relates that the Sabeans, when they pray, turn towards the north pole ; they pray three times a day, at the rising of the sun, at mid-day, and at sunset; and they bow three times before that star Diodorus Siculus (i., c. 10 and 11) informs us that the most ancient inhabitants of Egypt acknowledged two great first and eternal deities, — the sun and the moon ; — that they supposed that these two deities governed the world, and that everything which received nourishment and growth received it from them ; and that on them depended the entire grand work of the generation and of the perfection of all the effects produced in nature The most ancient Greeks, says Plato (in Cratylo), appear to have had no other gods than those which, to this day, the barbai-ians still adore; and those gods are the sun, the moon, the stars, the heaven, and the earth. . . . Augustine (de Civ. Dei, iv., c. 23) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Antiq. Rom. ii., p^ 114) affirm that Tatius coming to Rome to share the sceptre of Romulus raised temples to the sun, to the moon, to Saturn, to the light, and to fire, or to the tutelary deity of that element The same Dionysius (i., p. 44) speaks of a fountain consecrated to the sun in Latium, near which two altars were raised, one facing the east and the other the west ; it was on these altars that jEneas, on his arrival in Italy, offered to the Gods the homage of his first acknow- ledgments. Aurelian (Zozim. i., p. 383) built at Rome the temple of the sun, which he enriched with gold and precious stones. Before him Augustus had carried thither the images of the sun and of the moon which he had brought from Egypt (Suetonius) in his triumph over Antony and Cleopatra. Romulus originally had instituted the games of the circus, in honor of the solar deity (Chron. Alex., p. 25) and of the four elements which he controuls by his all- powerful action . . . . If we turn to Spain, — the most western country of the old Continent, — we find the worship of the sun and of nature carried by the Phoenicians on all the borders of the ocean. The sun, or the Phoenician Hercules, had his temple at Cadis in times the most remote At Byzantium, or Constantinople, was an ancient temple of the sun and of the moon Julius Cfesar (De Bell. Gall., vi. c. 21), the conqueror of Gaul, in speaking of the religion of the people that inhabited ancient ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXI. 26, 27. 473 Germany, assures us that tlie Germans adored no other than a visible cause and its principal agents, the sun, the moon, and fire, or Vulcan; and that they recognised as gods those only that they saw, and whose benign influence they felt." M. Dupuis remarks, also, that Sabeism evidently existed, to some extent at least, in England even in the time of Canute, as that monarch prescribed by law the worship that was rendered to the sun, to the moon, to fire, 8fC. He proves further by reference to very many authors that it was the ancient religion of every country throughout Asia ; that it was widespread through Africa, and extended even to the islands of the western ocean, whose inhabitants, when the Spaniards first arrived there, adored the sun, the moon, the planets, and the other stars. And lastly, he shows that in the new world, in America, this same religion was found co-extensive with its peoples and tribes, whether amongst the savages whose habitation was the wild wood, or in its civilized countries of Mexico and Peru. In the first case, the untutored savage, without temples or idols, simply lifted up his hands to adore the orb of day and the other heavenly bodies ; in the latter instances, the temples dedicated to the sun were of the grandest description, and their internal decorations of emblematic imagery blazed with massive gold. 31, 32. If the men of my tabernacle have not said, — Who can instance any that hath not been satisfied with his meat ? The stranger lodgeth not in the street, I open my doors to the traveller. The hospitality practised by Job has its counterpart in that which is exercised by the Bedouin sons of the desert to this day. " To be a Bedouin/' says Burckhardt (vol. i., 338), " is to be hospitable : his condition is so intimately connected with hospitality that no circumstances, how- ever urgent or embai'rassing, can ever palliate his neglect of that social virtue.... With very few exceptions a hungry Bedouin will always divide his scanty meal with a'still more hungry stranger, although he may not himself have the means of procuring a supply ; nor will he ever let the stranger know how much he has sacrificed to his necessities Djerba, the present powerful Sheikh of Beni Sharamar, in Mesopotamia, who is intimately connected in politics with the pashalic of Baghdad, was, many years ago, encamped in the province of Djebel Shammar, in the eastern desert, at a time when Arabia suffered most severely from dearth and famine. The cattle of himself and of his Arabs had already mostly perished from want of food, as no rain had fallen for a considerable time : at length there remained of all the cattle only two camels which belonged to him. Under these circumstances two respectable strangers alighted at his tent, and it was necessary to set a supper befoi'e them. No provisions of any kind were left in his own tent, nor could the tents of his Arabs furnish a morsel : dry roots and shrubs of the desert had for several days served as food to these people, and it was impossible to find either a goat or a lamb for the strangers' entertain- ment. Djerba could not bear the thought of allowing his guests to pass the night without supper, or that they should retire hungry to sleep. He therefore com- manded that one of his two camels should be killed. To this his wife objected, alleging that their children were too weak to follow the camp the next morning on foot, and that the camels were absolutely necessary for the removal of his own 474 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXI. 31, 32. family and of some of his neighbours' wives and children. ' We are hungry, it is true,' said one of the guests, ' but we are convinced of the validity of your argu- ments, and we shall trust to the mercy of God for finding a supply of food some- where to-morrow : yet,' added he, ' shall we be the cause that Djerba's enemies should reproach him for allowing a guest to be hungry in his tent ? ' This well- meant remark stung the noble-minded Sheikh to the soul : he silently went out of the tent, laid hold of his mare (the only treasure he possessed besides his camels), and throwing her on the ground, was engaged in tying her feet that he might kill her for his guests, when he heard from afar the noise of approaching camels : he paused, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing two camels arrive loaded with rice, which had been sent to him as a present from the province of Kasym. 35 — 37. 0 that I had one to hear me ! Behold my authentic statement : let the Almighty answer me ; And O that my adversary had written a bill of i?idictment ! Would not I carry it on my shoulder ? I would swathe it in coroiiets upon me ; I would tell him the number of my steps, I ivould approach him like a prince. This passage is, if I mistake not, illustrated in the following account of ancient Egyptian law courts, which I extract from Dr. Young's "Egyptian Antiquities" : — " It was the custom for the accuser to write down in detail the offence to be proved, and the manner in which the action was committed, and the estimated amount of the damage or the injury : the accused party then taking the depo- sitions of his opponents wrote his answer to each of them, either denying the facts, or njaintaining that they were not illegal, or, if they were illegal, that the damages were appreciated too highly : the accuser replied again in writing, and the accused party rejoined : and both having given in their writings to the judges, the thirty proceeded to deliver their opinions among themselves ; and lastly, the arch-judge touched one of the contending parties who was to be successful with the figure of Truth which he wore And this was done in order to supersede the influence of artificial eloquence and the fascination of personal appearance, which too often pervert the distribution of justice." JOB XXXII. 19. Wine-skins. These do not appear to have been in use amongst the ancient Egyptians : that people, as represented in their sculptures and pictures, poured their new wine into jars, and there kept it until it was drawn forth for use. Water-skins, however, were in use amongst them, as we observe from the accompanying illustration : — <}^m{ EGYPTIAN WATEE-SKINS BY lUE SIDE OJ? A TANK. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXII. 19. 475 Whether the Assyrian in the next illustration is carrying a wine-skin or a water-skin I cannot determine. {Copied by the Avihor from the British Museum.) JOB XXXIII. 9. I am clean, — i.e., clean as one who is well combed. (See the Notes.) That combs were in early use is evident from the accompanying illustration, represent- ing a portion of a comb found at Thebes. The material is of wood : — JOB XXXVI. 8. Or if being bound in fetters, They have been taken in cords of affliction. 476 16. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXVl. IG. A DINNER PARTT SEATED AT MOVEABLE TABLES OR TRAYS. SERVANTS CARRYING A TRAY LADEN WITH PROVISIONS. 17. The setting down of thy tray loould have been full of fatness. The food of the ancient Egyptians at their repasts was served on a sort of low tables, which had been previously loaded, perhaps in the kitchen, and which were carried into the dining-room by servants, much as trays are now brought in. One of these trays in the ab(^ve illustration is so over-piled with provisions that the Egyptian artist, with that love of caricature which we occasionally meet with in the drawings of that people, has portrayed one of the edibles in the act of falling to the ground. This excessive loading of the tray suitably illustrates the large promise of the text. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXVIII. 14. JOB XXXVIII. 477 14. It turneth round like a seal of clay. I have no doubt but that reference is here made to those cylindrical seals which have been found in vast quantities in Egypt, in Assyria, in Babylon, and in Persia. They were frequently made of lapis lazuli, rock-crystal, cornelian, amethyst, and other precious stones, and also, as Sir G. Wilkinson informs us, in Egypt of pottery, i.e., clay. They vpere rolled, when used, upon the object on which they were impressed much, as has been observed, like a garden-roller. JOB XXXIX. 9. OXEN AT THE STAXL. Will the wild ox list to serve thee ? Will he lodge the night at thy stalls ? 10. EGTrTIAN MOPE OF UINDINO OXEN TO THE PLOUGH. Canst thou bind the tcild ox in the furrow of his cord? The ancient Egyp- tians, according to the above illustration, sometimes bound their oxen to the plough by a cord fastened round the horns and attached to the yoke and handle. 478 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXIX. 19 25. 19—25. ASSYRIAN WAB-HOESES. {Designed and drawn hy the Author from Assyrian Sculptures, Canst thou give power to the horse ? Canst thou clothe his neck with quivering action ? Canst thou make him start as the locust ? The majesty of his snorting is terror ! They paw in the vale, and each exulteth in strength. He goeth out to encounter the weapon ; He laugheth at fear and is undismayed ; And he turneth not hack from the face of the sword. Over him ringeih the quiver, — The flash of the lance and the dart. With starts and rage he drinketh up the ground. And he helieveth not that it is the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet is loud, he saith, Aha ! And from afar he snuffeth the battle, — The thunder of the captains, and the shouting. The ancient Egyptians do not appear to have possessed any cavalry, as it never appears, either in their paintings or sculptures. It was, however, in great requisition amongst the Assyrians. Layard says on the subject :— " The horse- ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXIX. 19 25. 479 men formed a no less important part of the Assyrian army than the charioteers. Horsemen are seen in the most ancient sculptures in Nimroud, and I have already mentioned that disciplined bodies of cavalry were represented in the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik. We learn from the book of Judith that Holofernes had 12,000 archers on horseback. The King himself is never represented on horseback, although ahorse richly caparisoned, apparently for his use — perhaps to enable him to fly, should his chariot-horses be killed — is frequently seen led by a warrior and following his chariot. " In the earliest sculptures the horses, except such as are led behind the king's chariot, are unprovided with cloths or saddles. The rider is seated on the naked back of the animal. At a later period, however, a kind of pad appears to have been introduced ; and in a sculpture at Kouyunjik was represented a high saddle, not unlike that now in use in the East. " The horsemen were armed with bows, or with long spears. They wore short tunics, and their legs and feet were bare. When riding without pads or saddles, they sat with their knees almost on a level with the horse's back. After the introduction of saddles, their limbs appear to have been more free, and they wore greaves or boots, but were unprovided with stirrups. " When an archer on horseback was in battle, his horse was held and guided by a second horseman, who rode by his side. He was then able to discharge his arrows freely. On the monuments of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik, the cavalry are usually armed with the spear. When using this weapon they did not require a second horseman to hold the reins The horses of the Assyrians, as far as we can judge from the sculptures, were well formed, and apparently of noble blood No one can look at the horses of the early Assyrian sculptures without being convinced that they were drawn from the finest models. The head is small and well-shaped, the nostrils large and high, the neck arched, the body long, and the legs slender and sinewy. ' Their horses are swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves,' exclaims the prophet of the horses of the Chaldeans (Habakkuk i. 8) The magnificent description of the war-horse in Job shows that hoi'ses of the noblest breed were, at a very early period, not only known in Syria, but used in battle." .30. AN EAGLE PLUCKING OUT TlfE EYES OF A SOLDIER FALLEN ON THE BATTLB-FIELD. This occurs frequently on the Assyrian sculptures, and indeed almost invariably an eagle is portrayed accompanying the Assyrian armies in their battles. And where the slain are, there is he (the eagle). Compare with this the following extract from Burckhardt's Appendix on the subject of the war of the Bedouins. He says : — " While the battle rages, and horsemen or camel-riders contend in single 480 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XXXIX. 30. combat, or mix in general fight, flying or pursuing, the Beni Atye (a considerable tribe of the Arabs between Syria and the Red Sea, among whose numbers are the Omran, Howeytat, and Terabin) frequently utter with a loud voice the following verses : — Vou birds ivith the bald heads, you Rahham and Haddzy, If you desire human Jlesh, be present on the day of combat. The Rakham and Haddzy are birds of prey — the former an eagle, the latter a falcon. This battle-song is called by the Arabs Boushdn." These are the very birds which God classes together in the passage before us in verses 26 — 30. JOB XL. 19. His maker presented him his scythe, That the mountains might bring him provision. I must refer the reader to the illustration on ch. v. 26, where he will observe that the form of the ancient Egyptian scythe or reaping-hook was very similar to that of the tusks of the river-horse or hippopotamus. JOB XLI. PISHING WITH Geotjisd i;ait. Draw out the crocodile with a hook. And his tongue with a cord ivhich thou sinkest. Figure 1 in the above illustration sliows how fish were drawn out of the water with a hook; figure 2, hoio a cord urns sunk in order to catch them. The import of God's language to Job here isj — Deal, if you can, with the crocodile as you would with an ordinary fish^ 2. FISH CAERXEP OFF AFIFB HAVING BEEN ^ECUUEP. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XLI. 2. 481 Canst thou put a rush into his nose ? And bore his jaw through with a spike ? See the Note on this verse. 5,7. cs.a s »;2 S WD CD g Hi Zi o fc a „ C3 ^ 2 2 'o -^ g £> ^^ .5 ^ ^ W)T3 -^ .S "o •s'i» be 00 00 s op q t^ CO r« P -*-) 3 O CL» ^V^ C'anst thou sport with hint as a bird ? And. canst thou bind him for thy girls ? Canst thou fill his skin tvith pikes ? And his head ivith a fish- spear ? I I 482 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XLI. 13, 14. 13, 14. See the Notes on these verses. THE crocodile's HEAD. {Drawn hy the Author.) Who would go into the doubling of his muzzle ? Who hath opened the doors of his face ? The encompassings of his teeth would be a terror. 15. 17. See the Notes on these verses. EGYPTIAN CONCAVE SHIELD. ASSYRIAN CONCAA'E SHIELD. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XLI. 15, 17. iSS THE TESTUDO, OE TOBTOISE-SHAPED ASSEMBLAGE OF SHIELDS. (From the Column of Trajan.) PORTION OF THE CEOCODILE'S BACK, {Dratvn hy the Author.) Majestic are his concave shields. As with close seal shut. One to the other do the?/ join on, And not a breath entereth between them ; Each one to his brother are they stuck ; They hold together, and they separate not. 484 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XLI. 26 — 29. 26 — 29. See the Notes on these verses. ^ ll r 7/ % ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SWOED AND SPEAB. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MACES. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BATTLE- AXES. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BOW AND AEBOW. ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XLI. 26 — 29. 485 ANCIENT SLINGS. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN An Egyptian Slinging from An Assyrian Sling. boomeeangs. the top of a Mast. {Copied hy the Author from the British Museum.) The sword of him that reacheth at him cannot stand. Nor spear, nor mace, nor battle- aare. Iron esteemeth he as strata ; What is coppered, as rotten wood. The bolt of the bow cannot make himjlee ; Sling stones are turned with him into stubble. Boomerangs are counted as stubble; And he laugheth at the brandishing of the lance. 30. See the Notes on this verse. TAIL OF THE CEOCODILE. {Drawn by the Author.) His lower parts are sharp points of potsherds. 486 ILLUSTRATIONS, JOB XLII. 11. JOB XLII. 1 1 . One kesitah of money and one ring of gold. WEI&HING KINGS APPABENTIY OP SILTEE WITH WEIGHTS IN THE FOEM OF ANIMAIS. BING3 OF GOLD AND SILVEE. See the Notes on this verse. Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street. London. BS1415.C273 The Book of Job : translated from the Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00042 7155