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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

THE EPIC OF THE INNER LIFE

THE BOOK OF JOB

TRANSLATED ANEW, AND ACCOMPANIED WITH
NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY

JOHN F. GENUNG

SEVENTH EDITION

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
SThe (HtbetsiDt prcBjs', Cnmfirfogr
i89S

Copyright, 1891,
Bv JOHN F. GENUNG.
All rights reserved.

Tke Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Priuted by H. 0. Houghton & Co.

To
THE MEMORY OF
MY REVERED INSTRUCTORS IN HEBREW EXEGESIS
TAYLER LEWIS
AND
FRANZ DELITZSCH

PREFACE
' I "HE kind reception accorded to an article
-*- on " The Interpretation of the Book of
Job," published in the " Andover Review " for
November, 1888, has encouraged the author to
hope that a revision and completion of the
study therein outlined may not be unaccepta
ble to the reading public. In the carrying out
of this work, thanks are due first of all to the
editors and publishers of that Review, not only
for their ready permission to make such use
of that article as may seem necessary, but also
for the hearty Godspeed that they have given
to the undertaking. And now that the study
has assumed the proportions of a book, some
questions naturally arising about its form and
the general treatment here adopted require,
perhaps, the answer of a preface.
Those readers to whom the question-begging
name Epic, displayed on the title-page, is a
stumbling-block that must needs be removed

VI PREFACE
before they can with complacency read further,
are referred to pages 20-26 for a definition of
the modified sense in which I have ventured to
use the term.
The Book of Job, full as it is of religious
edification, is also a poem, a work of literary
art, to be read and judged as we would read
and judge any poem, with the same favoring
presuppositions, the same candor of criticism.
It has long been my conviction that if we
should make for it no demand but the literary
demand, seeking in the broad diffused light of
every day simply that unity of idea and treat
ment which we have a right to expect in every
work of art, the book would prove itself not
less sacred, rather more ; while also it would
gain greatly by stepping out of its age-con
structed frame of abstruse erudition into com
mon people's homes and hearts. Whether by
the present Translation, Notes, and Introduc
tory Study I have in any degree succeeded in
verifying this conviction must be left to my
readers to judge.
The question naturally arises, Why make
a new translation? why not use the noble

PREFACE vii
Revised Version ? Well, this is the answer
that a prolonged study of the book has made
increasingly evident : The Revised Version,
being the work of a company of scholars, rep
resents the average of their views ; it is the
somewhat colorless, or perhaps we may say
low-relief, product of many minds, all of whom
must sink to some extent their individual pref
erences in order to accommodate themselves to
a common and composite result. The work
as it lies before us is the verdict of a majority
vote. But the original was presumably the
work of one mind ; such at least it must be
presupposed until critical study compels an
other judgment. To get accurately at that
one mind's idea, as a whole and in all its parts,
it seemed to me necessary to pass the work
anew through the crucible of a single mind,
whose business it should be first to find what
the book supremely stands for, and then, with
out having to trim and modify in obedience to
divergent views, to estimate candidly and cor
rectly every shading of expression, every de
gree of intensity, every transition, every con
nection, in the light of that dominant idea. Of

viii PREFACE
course this necessitates retranslation. Trans
lation is interpretation ; it cannot be other
wise ; it must take more or less the color of
the mind that draws the idea out of the ori
ginal. True as this is of all translation, it is
especially the case in translation from the
Hebrew, in which language the provisions for
finer shadings of thought are so meagre, one
particle, for instance, having often to do duty
for a variety of relations. The Hebrew lan
guage presents its thought in great unsquared
blocks, sublime and simple ; and these the
translator has to square and polish, so that
they will joint together and make out of many
one structure. The only way to do this effect
ually is to live with the author's mind, in self-
effacing submission and obedience, until the
power is obtained to follow all his sequences,
anticipate his turnings and objections, gradu
ally embody all his thoughts into a complex
unity wherein every part shall be luminous
with the spirit of the whole. This I have
endeavored to do, not without a good deal of
painstaking labor. And the present transla
tion, whatever other merits or defects it may

PREFACE IX
have, will, I think, be found at least homoge
neous, the work of one mind interpreting one
idea. A new translation, from the " natural " point
of view, is also justified, as seems to me, by
the fact that there is a strong tendency in a
company translation, made in the interests of
Church and Christianity, to make every clause
at all hazards a source of spiritual and homilet-
ical edification. The custom of founding ser
mons on passages of Scripture, which latter
for this purpose are torn from their connec
tions, may be legitimate for religious instruc
tion, but its operation is sadly unfavorable to
the reading or translation of a book of Scrip
ture as a homogeneous whole. My hope is,
that the present attempt to translate the Book
of Job, with the sermonizing instinct for the
time being effaced, may prove not unfruitful in
suggestion. Having made- the translation with care, I
have then proceeded to treat it as if it were an
English poem. That is to say, the notes are
not devoted, in any great degree, to telling the
reader just how this and that passage got it-

X PREFACE
self done into English, or how many meanings
Dillmann and Delitzsch and Ewald and Zock-
ler found admissible, or how much suggestive-
ness there is in a certain Hebrew root or
idiom. Perhaps in so denying myself I have
missed a good chance to display learning ; but
for this I do not care, being more concerned
with the question what the ordinary reader
wants explained. The notes are accordingly
designed mainly to trace the sequences and
interdependencies of the thought, and to solve
briefly the difficulties inherent in the work of
a remote age and land. In the numerous
cross-references, too, from one part of the
book to the other, the reader may see how pre
dominant the endeavor has been to make the
book interpret itself. The author of a book,
after all, is his own best expositor.
As a further help to the reader, I have dis
carded the old division of the poem into chap
ters and verses, which often makes misleading
interruptions to the connection, and have
adopted a division into sections, according to
the natural articulation of the thought, retain
ing, however, for facility in comparison, the old

PREFACE XI
notation at the bottom of the page. To this
division into sections with their subdivisions,
a parallel, suggestive alike for its mechanical
helpfulness and for its delicate fitness to the
nature of the thought so articulated, may be
seen in the notation of Tennyson's " Maud,"
which is a " monodrama " worked out by a con
nected series of lyrics ; another, less closely
indicated, in the "In Memoriam," which also
portrays a progressive spiritual history by the
lyrical method, its individual sections purport
ing to be " short swallow-flights of song." The
value of these suggestions for the Book of Job
is obvious. Its method, too, is strongly lyrical ;
and by choosing the same manner of division
and subdivision as has given fitting physiog
nomy to the above-named poems, I set off the
speakers' changing yet progressive moods in
such wise that the eye as well as the mind of
the reader can better discriminate them.
So much for what seems necessary to ex
plain. If the other features of my book are
not self-justifying, no preface can justify them.
Amherst, Massachusetts.
February, 1891.

CONTENTS
PAGE
I. THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY
Preliminary — The Treatment required of the
Book of Job  $
I. Its Central and Ruling Idea 8
II. Its Literary Class — the Epic . . . .20
III. Connection and Continuity of its Parts . 29
IV. Considerations regarding its Origin,. . . 89
II. THE POEM
Persons  123
The Argument  125
Translation and Notes  131

I
THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY

" The aim in expounding a great poem should Be, not to discover
an endless variety of meanings often contradictory ', but whatever
it has of great and perennial significance ; for such it must have,
or it would long ago have ceased to be living and operative^ would
long ago have taken refuge hi the Chartreuse of great libraries,
dumb thenceforth to all mankind. We do not mean to say that this
minute exegesis is useless or unpraiseworthy, but only that it should
be subsidiary to the larger way" — Lowell, Essay on Dante.

STUDY OF THE BOOK OF JOB
WHEN we see the natural style," says
Pascal, " we are quite astonished and
delighted ; for we expected to see How the
i i /- i r. Book of Job
an author, and we find a man. Stu- mayhem-
perficially
dents who note merely the superficial interpreted.
traits of the Book of Job — its regular struc
ture, its long colloquies, its argumentative tone
— may easily discern therein only an author,
employing an elaborate and somewhat artificial
framework to group together for discussion
certain hard problems concerning man's des
tiny and God's dealings with him on the earth.
Is not this, as matter of fact, what we are di
rected to by the vast volume of interpretation
which for ages has been lavished on the book ?
Whatever else we may find in it, we are taught
to regard it first of all as a grand monument of
reasoning, as a world-debate between Job and
his friends, in which we are to look for a cate
gorical decision telling men for all time why
the righteous suffer. But surely its perpetual
outflashings of the natural style, which will not

4 THE BOOK OF JOB
brook the restraints of mere dialectics, nor stay
to build a coldly consistent structure
How the ,
"natural 0f thought, should be accepted as an
style,'1 even °
at first test, invitation to deeper search. These
makes
against such burning: words are much more than
interpreta- °
i""t- a debate. If ever a book revealed
a man, if ever through the indignant thrusts
of controversy were heard the beatings of a
warm human heart, it is in this story of the
patriarch of Uz. So much, whatever prob
lems have to be encountered later, is evident
even to a hasty perusal. The task of inter
pretation is not easy ; but let us at all events
follow the line of least resistance. Studied as
an argument cunningly put together by a
skilled reasoner, the Book of Job is beset with
difficulties well-nigh insurmountable. Studied
as the utterance of a man like ourselves, who
speaks out in the natural style what is in him,
it is the clear and unambiguous voice of hu
manity, which finds echo in all the world.
To restore this book to its natural style, to
The treat- read it without prepossessions in the
ZafiZ* broad light that falls on every man,
to-day, seems to me the kind of treatment
which it most needs to-day. For it has come
as contrasted down to us so thickly wrapped in a
-with the . -. . .
treatment-we covering oi associations erudite and
see it receiv- , ..... ...
ing. dogmatic that it is in no little danger

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 5
of being lost to the one class for whom it was
intended. "A noble book, all men's book," is
what Carlyle says of it ; yet to the plain reader
it appears rather an arsenal of texts for the
theologian, or a quarry of hard words for the
commentator, or a dilapidated relic of antiquity
to be carved and refashioned according to the
notions of the critic. Right and necessary as
such treatment is, perhaps, in its place, let it
once get the upper hand, as indeed it seems
very nearly to have done, and the book is de
graded into one of those " things in books'
clothing" which Charles Lamb accounted no
books at all, being doomed thenceforth to
stand by the side of other learned lumber fill
ing up scholars' shelves, and preserving the
credit of their libraries. Such a fate for the
Book of Job were melancholy indeed. For
the book was never written to satisfy itsmiversai
_ . human in-
an esoteric few. It came glowing terest.
from a large human heart, from the furnace of
universal human affliction ; and it is adapted
to reach every soul that has thought and suf
fered. The more we penetrate beyond the
mere skill of the author to communion in spirit
with the man, the more will this universal
character, this cry from the heart of humanity,
far beyond the jargon of a class or the cunning
performance of a pen, impress itself upon us.

6 THE BOOK OF JOB
Time and space are annihilated, and the unreal
vagaries of speculation seem outlived, as this
echo of our own deep consciousness comes
floating to us across the centuries. Such are
the characteristics that inhere in Pascal's natu
ral style. Such, too, are the marks of the true
world-poem, of the poem which, though neces
sarily speaking in the dialect of a nation and
an age, is the exponent of " those elementary
feelings which subsist permanently in the race,
and which are independent of time."
It is on these broad human lines, recogniz-
objectand ing the man beneath the written
prTsenf"" word, that we will try now to study
study. Qut tke meanmg 0f tjjis Book of Job.
The study will indeed reveal great problems,
whose filaments stretch out through the world
of theological and philosophical inquiry ; it
will not fail to deepen our sense of the marvel
ous literary art which has presided alike over
word and plan ; but, what is of more intimate
concern to us, it will disclose to our gaze in
clearer outlines one of the great of the earth,
I a man of fears and doubts like ourselves, ris-
1 ing up against his doom, which is humanity's
I doom, and conquering his way to hope and
peace. Invention or fact, the man Job is one
of the guiding figures of the ages, a world's
hero ; whose words, the record of a great con-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY J
flict and victory, we cannot afford to leave
cloistered among the learned few.
Of the characteristics of the book which ap
pear at first opening, none are more Twoiyj>es
obvious than this, that its structural t?sZ™tu%.
outline is twofold. On the one hand, mrrath"
its basis is simple narrative. It tells the story
of a man eminently good, prosperous, and
happy, who, at the instance of Satan, though
himself perceiving therein only God's venge
ful stroke, is suddenly deprived of everything
— property, children, health, the world's
esteem ; who, nevertheless, though accused
and deserted by relatives and friends, sturdily
refuses to own that his affliction is due to
sin, or that his punishment is just ; and who,
after marfy pains of doubt and conquests of
faith, is commended by Jehovah and: restored
to twice his former prosperity. On the other
hand, the main body of the work ^ argu_
looks like pure discussion and argu- ment'
mentj_Tob and his friends affirming and an
swering, reproving and recriminating, in three
elaborate cycles of discourse ; Elihu coming in,
full of words, after the friends are silenced; and
Jehovah pronouncing the final answer out of
the whirlwind. So prominent is this second
type of structure that it is no wonder the book

8 THE BOOK OF JOB
has been prevailingly judged by it ; yet the
which type question remains fairly open which of
tmtesT" the two should be regarded as giving
supreme law to the work ; nor is the question
How are the less pressing, how the combination
two inter
woven? can also be a harmony — argument
and action working together to set forth out of
many one comprehensive, dominant idea.
Important' questions these, with the satis-
significance factory investigation of which are
of these in- J . ,.,,,. . .
quiries. closely associated all the lines of in
quiry that this study will open : the various
considerations relating to the thought, the
form, the connection of parts, and the origin,
of the book before us.

First of all, it is important to inquire what
/. itscen- in this book is most central, what the
tral andrul-
mg idea. Book of Job supremely stands for ;
or, as the question is usually propounded,
what is its problem t
Any answer to this question, I suspect,
Difficulty of which reduces the teaching of the
"thiln'a* book to an abstract proposition, or
proposition. form 0£ worc[Si js bound to be unsatis
factory. The book is too much like life for
that. In real life and experience things do not
shape themselves to didactic ends. Good and

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 9
evil, wisdom and error, are subtly interwoven
with all events, but the pattern is not system
atic ; it is only in poetry that we are conducted
unfailingly to poetic justice. To force on
nature a didactic purpose is the mark of the
inferior artist. The Book of Job evinces the
consummate artistic genius that created it by
reading like a transcript from life, with its
struggles, its doubts, its eddying inconsisten
cies. The action reaches its end, not by the
arrow-line of a homiletic plan, but through
such gropings and stumblings, such gradual
discoveries of the true way, as must content
us all in this mystery-encompassed existence.
We may not unfitly apply to it what has been
said of Shakespeare's plays : " It teaches
many lessons, but not any one prom- y A
inent above another ; and when we shoTfstud-
have drawn from it all the direct in- fjfecc^eai
struction which it contains, there voL *' p' 2''
remains still something unresolved, — some
thing which the artist gives, and which the
philosopher cannot give." Every one who
has lived close to the betting heart of the
poem must feel how it fades and shrinks by
being turned into a mere moral tale. Like*
Mont Blanc, it radiates awe into many an en
raptured beholder, as it rises glorious in the
warm flooding sunshine that cheers the com-

IO THE BOOK OF JOB
mon world ; but interpose the cloud of didac
ticism, and the next moment it stands a
blanched, shivering, forbidding expanse of
snows and chasms.
Nor are the grounds of this feeling wholly
aesthetic. As a plain matter of interpretation,
too, we find that any form of words, however
felicitous, in which men attempt to imprison
the poem's teaching and purpose fails to satisfy
its whole idea ; some of its choicest portions
are sure to remain outside, ravelled and loose.
It is chiefly for this unconfessed reason, I
think, that modern critics have felt compelled
How such to manipulate the poem to suit their
actstfcrSi- own ideas, — cutting out passages ¦
here, and making conjectural emenda
tions there ; assigning one section to the original
author, who began well, and another to that
bite noir of criticism, the later editor or tran
scriber, who -bunglingly tried to steer the
poem's thought into a new channel. Taking
for granted that every part must at all events
square with some supreme didactic idea, their
suspicion naturalry^falls on whatever does not.
They have confessedly no other ground' to
work upon that is decisive ; apart from this
the poem looks like a unity, nor is there sign
of a record to prove later changes. And when
the critics, having once given free rein to the1

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY II
refashioning spirit, have cut and carved to their
hearts' content, there is nothing left but a torso.
To see how this works, let us examine_thfi_
preyailing idea of the desjgrt^r-pxob- nlustraied
lem, of the Book of Job, ajad_fol_low.it fjZ™*]£ng
a little into its logical consequences. view-
According to Professor Conant's view, the
subject of the book is "The mystery Conan{,s
of God's providential government of ajf^fuh
men ; '.' or, to put it more specifically "fo^and
in Professor Delitzsch's words, which n<"es^-v"-
come essentially to the same thing : " Warum
ergehen iiber den Gerechten Leiden
auf Leiden ? — das ist die Frage, deren CommenLr
. iiher das
Beantwortung sich das Buch Iob zur Buck iob,
... . . lded.,p.3.
Aufgabe macht. 1 Now it is beyond
doubt that this question, or some aspect of it,
plays a large part in determining the course,
or action, of the poem ; Job's friends, for ex
ample, din it into his ears until he is fain to
cry out, " I have heard many things like these."
But does it play the leading part ? that is, is
this the most central and inclusive subject, to
which all else is secondary, or is this itself a
motif in the exposition of a deeper idea ?
Let us see what results from making this
didactic idea supreme.
1 " Why does suffering on suffering befall the righteous ? —
that is the question to the answering of which the Book of
Job devotes itself."

[2 THE BOOK OF JOB
In the first place, this view subordinates the
divine and presumably directive element of the
How this book to the human ; making the book
d^Ztefthe' centre in a question raised and dis-
m^nTtfthe cussed by human disputants, and re-
human garding the Lord as appearing, in
the theophany at the end, mainly in order
to settle the point in dispute. At the same
time, the question propounded by Satan at the
beginning, " Doth Job fear God for nought ? "
and in fact the whole foundation laid in the
Prologue, is ignored from the point where
the discussion begins. Thus it cannot be said
that the introduction really introduces. This
and weak- fact operates to give a decided centrif-
SSSvtT ugal tendency to the Prologue ; nor,
Prologue. m{jee{j. are there wanting those who
would discard the Prologue as not belonging
to the original design of the book. It does, in
fact, seem to be a kind of intrusion, with its
glimpse into heaven and the divine counsels,
if, after all, the speculations of a company of be
wildered mortals so completely overshadow it.
A second and more fundamental result is,
that this view commits the Book of
view makes Job almost wholly to the argument-
the hook a . r
dehate-, see ative type of structure above men-
above ; p. 7 . ,
tioned ; making it the record of a
kind of debating club, wherein the question

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 13
is discussed at great length, for and against,
and is finally decided by the Lord from the
whirlwind. Thus, with the narrative element
practically ignored, the reader is left and ^a.
to work his way over arid fields of c$yn {£%"
dialectics, in search of a Q. E. D. ; <™ "<»"*'¦
and he may well wonder where a book that is
so harnessed to the plodding tasks of prose
could ever have got its acknowledged poetic
power. Apart from this aesthetic objection,
also, there are not wanting elements of the
book, even in its purely controversial portions,
which remonstrate against being pressed too
rigorously into such a mould. For one thing,
the Lord's assumed decision of the To such a
Question, when we come to examine debate the
1 Lords
it, is no decision : it does not address words are
no decision,
itself to what the men are debating
at all. In order to make it apply to the case,
we have to resort to what may be inferred
from this and that. This fact has not escaped
the notice of interpreters ; and Elihu, and Elihu
who is the wax nose of the critics, is ^X^defi-
brought in very opportunely, being as "auth^'f'L
much of a refuge on one theory as he
is a stumbling-block on others. And indeed
his words sum up the discussion, it must be
owned, more really than do the Lord's ; for
which reason he is regarded by some as fur-

14 THE BOOK OF JOB
nishing " the first half of the positive solution
of the problem." Thus it is given to
(lfnge),p. him, as he plumed himself on doing, to
2lS' set right both Job and his friends.
Yet here we encounter another difficulty ; for
Elihu is abruptly dismissed by the first word
Section from the whirlwind as one who " dark-
xxvi. t, 3. eneth counsel by words without
knowledge," and Job is singled out at the end,
of all the disputants, as the only one who has
section "spoken of God the thing that is
xxx. 3,12. rjght," if the poem is a debate, its
ending must be regarded as vague. Then
further, when we come to examine into the
mr is the manner in which the debaters answer
S's'ep- one another we find little of that vig-
consistent. orous g_ve ancj t^g which we asso-
ciate with the close grasp and analysis of a
question. The speakers wander wide of the
mark that we have set for them ; there is little
real progress in the reasoning, and much that
we have to explain, or excuse, on the conven
ient ground of Oriental discursiveness. Job,
who is regarded as the uncompromising antag
onist of all the others, not infrequently seems
see, for ex- to give away his case; and once, in-
tictxix/' deed, he so closely reechoes his op-
t2~43' ponents' thought that some interpre
ters have been inclined to give his speech to

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 1 5
Zophar. Then there is the twenty-eighth chap
ter, the magnificent praise of Wis- section xix.
dom, which certainly no one would *6~m*'
consent to banish from the poem ; yet into this
scheme of a debate it fits so poorly, and seems
with all its princely beauty so out of place,
that it is conjectured by Professor Delitzsch to
have been an insertion from the author's or
some later editor's portfolio.
We thus find that the debate theory, with
its assumed main subject, "The mystery of
God's providential government of men," does
not result in an exposition so homogeneous as
we j_aujd_:w.ish. Some parts of the
. , General re-
poem are left in rather unstable equi- suit of this
• view.
librium, while others have to be
pressed quite arbitrarily into the scheme that
we have made for them. The same fate would,
I feel sure, befall any other abstrac- unsatisfac-
tion, or general proposition, that ^"S^
might be taken as the supreme goal objeci
of the poem's teaching ; the trouble lies with
the didacticism itself- rather than with any
particular expression of it. Any object that
contemplates being wrought out by discussion
alone must of necessity leave the interpreter
stranded far short of his ideal resting-point,
which is only in that place where he sees all
the parts of the book in their proper position,

16 THE BOOK OF JOB
and doing what the deepest genius of the work
requires. It is no part of my present plan to enumer
ate the theories, sometimes gro-
ceftaiZ'me- tesquely far-fetched, that have been.
chanical in- . . . __._-.,
terpreta- imposed on this long-suffering Book
tions. .
of Job. Nor need I stay to describe
at length the arithmetical style of interpreta
tion, which works out the poem's problem, so
to say, by the rule of three ; laboriously com
puting the three sections of the book, the
three parts of the poem proper, the three cycles
of speeches, the three pairs in each cycle, the
three discourses of Elihu,1 the three strophes
in many of the speeches, and the three temp
tations of Job.* On this line of ex-
fectthepa^s position the tendency, already men-
ofthepoem. . - . . r T . , ,
tioned, to assign one of Job s speeches
to Zophar is augmented by the fact that
thereby the third round of debate and the
three-times-three speeches of Job and his
friends are charmingly completed ; and poor
Elihu's tenure is made more precarious by the
fact, forsooth, that he is a fourth speaker, who
comes unintroduced by the Prologue. All this
seems to me the sad result of trying to stretch
a living poem on the Procrustean rack of a
1 So reckoned, I suppose, in order to preserve the general
symmetry ; though as matter of fact Elihu speaks four times.

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY IJ
dead, mechanical plan. I ought not, perhaps,
to pass over Elihu with such slight notice
here, seeing that just now in the critical realm
he is everywhere spoken against ; nor would
I venture to leave him thus did I not hope to
make clear by and by that the poem, as it now
stands, has an artistic unity obvious enough
to reconcile him fully to his place.
For an artistic unity the poem certainly has ;
let not the foregoing criticisms be taken as
urged against that fact ; a unity more compre
hensive and poetic, and at the same time not
less absolute, than could be obtained Wherein
on the lines I have described. Only, centres the
artistic unl~
that unity centres in a person rather tyoftke
J f poem.
than in a system of thought or reason
ing ; it i_s_ Job himself, the man Job, with his
bewilderment of doubt, his utter honesty with
himself and the world, his outreaching faith, his
loyalty through all darkness and mystery to
what is Godlike, who is the solution of the Job-
problem, far more truly than Job's words, or
the words of Elihu, or the august address from
the whirlwind. How God deals with men, and
how men may interpret his dealings ; why
God sees fit to afflict the righteous ; these are
indeed important questions, and not to be
ignored ; but more vital still is the question
what Job is, becomes, achieves, in the fiery

1 8 THE BOOK OF JOB
trial of God's unexplained visitation. In the
answer to that personal question lies the su
preme answer to all the rest. It is not a mere
author that we find here, but a man. And as
we trace the progress of Job's soul, step by
step, revealed to us through his own words
and through the attacks of his friends, we
shall be brought to a contemplation of great
ness in life and character such as, for sub
limity, it will be hard to parallel in literature,
however highly we may value the divinest
creations of an ^Eschylus or a Milton.
Thus, in the person and spiritual history of
How this J°b> we are brought back to the nar-
"tZthinar^a- rative basis which, so long as we con-
tive element. ^^ Q^ ^ discourses Qf the poem>
we are in danger of ignoring. Under these
discourses we are to trace not the building of
a system, but the progress of a character, tried,
developed, victorious ; for they reveal how the
patriarch works out, or perhaps we may better
say embodies, the solution of a great problem.
What, then, is the problem, if such is its solu
tion ? We need not look far for the answer
statement to this question. The problem. Dro-
of the Job- , j\ „ __ _^ ' V "
problem. pounded by Satan at the outset, and
tested by permission of Jehovah, is, " Doth Job
iear God for nought ? " This is, of course,
the. sneer of utter selfishness against all that

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 19
is loyal and disinterested : it asks, in effect, Is
there such a thing as whole - souled, self-for
getting service of God, just for His sake and
for righteousness' sake ? Nor is such a ques
tion, we must admit, very strange in a world
where the fear of God is regarded as the sure
road to worldly prosperity. Where Howitan-
such an idea prevails it is quite possi- ageinwhich
1 1 r • 1 -^*~ 11 • itwaspro-
ble tor piety to become, to all intents pounded.
and purposes, merely a refined selfishness ;
how can we tell from the outside whether it
is serving God for His sake or because such
service is a paying investment ? Yes : there
is a place in history where the question just
fits in ; Satan has found the weak point in that
Old Testament standard of piety and its re
ward. And Job's life, as it is traced in the
glowing, indignant, faith-inspired words of his
complaint, is the triumphant answer. Hm) yoh
Job does fear God for nought: that "*"*
is, his integrity is no vulgar barter for wages,
as Satan supposes, but deeply founded in the
truth of things, — so deeply- that he. takes
leave of friends, of family, of life, nay, of God
himself, as he has hitherto regarded God, in
order to be true. And if Job, a man like our
selves, has wrought out the answer, then the
answer exists in humanity. There is such a
thing as disinterested piety, and it contains

20 THE BOOK OF JOB
whole worlds of faith and insight. Or, to
gather the history before us into a sentence :
There is a service of God which is not
The solution WORK FOR REWARD: IT IS A HEART-
aXpXlpoefi-n LOYALTY, A HUNGER AFTER God's
turn. PRESENCE, WHICH SURVIVES LOSS AND
CHASTISEMENT ; WHICH IN SPITE OF CONTRA
DICTORY SEEMING CLEAVES TO WHAT IS GoD-
LIKE AS THE NEEDLE SEEKS - THE— POLE J AND
WHICH REACHES UP OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND
HARDNESS OF THIS LIFE TO THE LIGHT AND
LOVE BEYOND.
This, if we must chill it down from the glow
of its personal and poetic utterance to a gene
ralization, is what, as I conceive, the Book of
Job stands for. But of this answer, as of the
problem, the hero is as little aware as the rest.
Wrought out in darkness and anguish, it is
known only to those celestial spectators who
rejoice, and to that scoffing spirit who is dis
comfited by it. For the answer is not put in
words, nor made a didactic issue : it is lived.
ii.
If, then, this poem centres in a hero, whose
//. its iu- spiritual achievements it makes known
erary class,
the Epic. to us, we have thus indicated the lit
erary class to which it is to be predominantly
assigned. I regard this ancient book as the

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 21
record of a sublime epic action, whose scene is
not the tumultuous battle-field, nor the arena
of rash adventure, but the solitary soul of a
righteous man. It contains, though in some
what unusual form, the governing elements of
an epic poem.
This designation of the poem as an epic,
however, is not to be made without The word
some confession of how little, as well taken in a
modified
as how much, there is to justify it. sense.
The whole genius of the Hebrew literature is
so' different from that of the Greeks that it is
only by an accommodation of terms that we
can apply to it the categories derived from the
forms of the latter. This poem, for instance,
looks at first sight more like a drama than
an epic ; it contains fairly individualized char
acters, and its thought is developed by means
of dialogue or colloquy. It has been called a
didactic_rjQem ; and such undoubtedly it is, if,
as many think, it is preeminently a debate.
Nor is there lacking in every part a lyric in
tensity which not infrequently seems almost to
sweep the action away from its logical moor
ings into its own headlong utterance of a
mood. Yet in spite of these unto- Matthew
. . r ¦ c i J Arnold, Es-
ward modifications, it is truittul ana saysinCriti- cism, second
significant to refer the poem to a pre- series.p.m-
vailing type. "We may rely upon it," says

22 THE BOOK OF JOB
Matthew Arnold, " that we shall not improve
upon the classification adopted by the Greeks
for kinds of poetry; that their categories of
epic, dramatic, lyric, and so forth, have a nat
ural propriety, and should be adhered to. It
may sometimes seem doubtful to which of two
categories a poem belongs ; whether this or
that poem is to be called, for instance, narra
tive or lyric, lyric or elegiac. But there is to
be found in every good poem a strain, a pre
dominant note, which determines the poem as
belonging to one of these kinds rather than
the other; and here is the best proof of the
value of the classification, and of the advantage
of adhering to it."
To the view of the poem's class which I
seeming have ventured here to take, there
lack of epic ...
action, presents itself at first thought a
grave objection. The narrative, the action,
seems lacking. The whole course of the poem
is developed through what Job and Eliphaz
and Bildad and the rest " answered and said."
and how ex- MaY there not, however, be an action
piained. disguised, an action wherein the
speaker's words, like windows, reveal the great
spiritual events that are taking place in the
speaker's soul ? I think I shall be able to
show that there is, and a grand one. An un
usual action it indeed is, for poetry ; perhaps

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 23
therefore, requiring just that union of struc
tural types, the narrative and the argumenta
tive, which I have already pointed out. Fur
ther, the Hebrew poetic style, with its basis
the parallelism, which pauses at the TheHetrew
end of every line and develops the ^arallelism:
thought by perpetual repetition and antithesis,
is singularly unadapted to narration, itsdisad_
— so unadapted, that when the He- vantae"
brew author has a simple story to tell, as, for
instance, in the Prologue and Epilogue to our
poem, he has spontaneous recourse to prose.
On the other hand, for a sententious
lesson, or mashal, for the brief and
telling utterance of emotion, aspiration, precept,
the Hebrew poetic style is a remarkably felici
tous medium. Now in the Book of Job we have
indeed a story, an action, but of very peculiar
kind : the scene, so far as appears to the eye,
only an ash-heap outside an Arab city, but to
the inner view the souL-pf" man with all its
warring passions, beliefs, convictions. It is
the spiritual history of the man of Uz, his
struggles and adventures, unknown to sense,
but real to faith, as his fervid thoughts "go
sounding on, a dim and perilous way." For
portraying such an action, so as to lay the in
most thoughts and feelings of one soul upon
another, this mashal style, with its trenchant

24 THE BOOK OF JOB
parallelisms, so far from being a disadvantage,
is perhaps the unique and only adequate me
dium. Through it not the author speaks, but
the man himself, laying bare the secrets of his
own heart, and charging his words with his
whole inner history. Curiously enough, a
somewhat similar method of developing a nar
rative action has been largely employed by the
poet of our own day who has done most to-
sound the depths of spiritual experience,
Robert Browning, whose so-called " dramatic
method "' is merely his deliberately adopted
way of bodying forth at once the inner and
outer elements of a story, —
Browning, " By makinS sPeak> myself kept out of view,
Sordello, be- The very man as he was wont to do,
ginning. ^n(j Jeavmg yOU t0 say tng rest £Qr fcm . „
and every student of Browning will testify to
the wonderful vividness with which each one
of his chosen characters is made to live a chap
ter of his life before our eyes.
But if so much is conceded to the dramatic
element, why not frankly call the poem a
drama ? Well, I am not disposed to quarrel
about the terms in which we are to designate
its form ; either term, epic or drama, has to be
accommodated to a new application. Yet why
call it a drama, and deny the term to the Pla
tonic dialogues ? for it is in these, I think, that

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 2$
our poem, as to structure, finds its nearest
dramatic parallel. It is because the action,
though to a degree dramatic in form, moves
for the most part independently of
the impact of mood on mood or of tlLlnZer-
characte* on character, that I am un- the'tUm
able to regard the poem as in the
truest sense dramatic ; and on the other hand,
it is because of the vigorous onset of spiritual
forces under the dialogue, self-moved even
more than set in motion from other minds, val
iantly meeting hostile doubts and trials, mak
ing memorable conquests in integrity and
faith, that I discern in this testing and triumph
of Job a predominating epic strain. Is it less
truly epic than that conflict of temptation in the
wilderness which Milton has sung, —
„. . Milton's
a conflict whose weapons were pier- Paradise

cing words and whose battle-ground
was the soul of the Son of Man ? I use the
term epic, because, whatever its technical .type,
the poem is the embodiment of a veritable epos,
of a history which, whether real or invented, lies
at the very basis of pure religion, full of sig
nificance for its integrity and perpetuity. What
I mean by this may be seen illustrated IUustraUi
in the Prometheus Bound of ^schy- %f„SZ?
lus, which is truly the embodiment of Bmnd'
a national epos, albeit in dramatic form. In that

26 THE BOOK OF JOB
poem as in this, quite apart from the dialogue
or narrative manner of presentation, which is
determined by the vogue of the age and the
conditions under which the work is published,
our paramountjnterest is centred jg^he legend
or saga which lies at the foundational* the he-
roic action which^gloH^^Tcjme revered, name
of universal tradition, amr jrf\ the national or
religious significance of the whole. These are
marks_of_the_epos ; and these are what give its
basal litejary-Gharacter_to theBobk ot Job.
That the poem before— us-was-mjt_ the pure
inyention of its author, but founded on

The legend- T . _ . .
ary basis of a I ob legend or tradition, is the con-
thepoem. -^  .  
elusion most in accord with what we
know of the literary ways of the Hebrew writ
ers. They wrote with practical objects in view,
appealing from real life to real life, and not in
order to please the world with the power or fe
licity of their literary achievements. Having
a history marvelously rich in life-lessons, whose
details and spirit had been faithfully instilled
by fathers into generations of sons, they had
a store of material which would ill brook to be
supplanted by mere efforts of the fancy ; es
pecially when, as in this case, the past was to
influence the destiny of the future. It is into
this treasure heap of tradition that Ezekiel
dips, when, in threatening calamity on the rec-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 2J
reant land, he says, " Though these three
men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in EzekUlxiv.
it, they should not deliver but their '*¦
own souls by their righteousness, saith the
Lord God." This we know because the Book
of Daniel was not yet written : Daniel was a
widely revered name ; Noah was an historic
name ; and this mention of Job seems to de
rive its significance more from an age-filling
tradition than from a book.
" When we inquire, however," says Professor
Davidson, "what elements of the
book really belong to the tradition, a joncam-
. , . bridge Bible
definite answer can hardly be given. M sdwois),
A tradition could scarcely exist which
did not contain the name of the hero, and the
name 'Job' is no doubt historical. A mere
namejhowever, could not be handed down with
out some circumstances connected with it ; and
we may assume that the outline oJLi&eLJxadkion^
included Job's great prosperity, the unparal
leled afflictions that befell him, and possibly
also his restoration. Whether more was em
braced may be uncertain." It was probably a
tradition full enough so that to those who were
farTUar with it, as to the Apostle
x; ' *• James v. li.
]c\ t :s's later age, could be said, " Ye
hjhnf heard of the patience of Job, and have
Sso the end of the Lord." Further to un-

28 THE BOOK OF JOB
ravel the various threads, traditional and other,
of which the book is woven together, could
serve no practical end. Suffice iLiojL us that
out of these simple materials, because they
repres^rTra'sptnfuaT experience that taxes the
whole gamut of expression to utter, some un
known author, grandly regardless of the tech
nical restraints of drama or lyric or narrative,
has given to the ages what we may regard as
the Hebrew national Epic, expressed in a style
and spirit peculiarlyjflej^rjgw.
J Every nation according to its genius. We
\often speak of that idea of symmetry
As an Epic, \ . J
job an expo- and beauty whose evolution seems to
nent of the J
national sfo.ave been the mission of the Greeks
^genius^*-^ .
in the world, and of that idea of law
and organism which we get from the Romans.
Not only through their art and their institu
tions, but also through the spirit of their liter
ature, these nations have impressed upon the
world their distinctive character. We know
also that no other nations have ever approached
the Hebrews in their genius for apprehending
spiritual truth. If the Hebrews were to give;.
to the world an epic, would it be a s* "' of
battle and bloodshed, or of strange adv niJto *s
beyond the seas? These by no mean .m€ to,
sent their national character. For t'aveel
-genuine expression of their life you rmeenfc-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 29
under the surface, in the soul, where worship
and aspiration and prophetic faith come face
to face with God. And what epos could more
truly gather into itself the most sacred ideal of
such a nation than this story of Job, the man
in whom was wrought the supreme test of what
it is to be perfect and upright, who on his ash-
heap, a veritable Hebrew Prometheus, contin
ued honest with himself, true to what he saw
in the world, loyal to what his soul told him
was divine, until the storm was past and his
foe shrank baffled away ? Is not such a theme
worth singing ?
The Epic of the Inner Life, — by this name
we may designate the book before
A , . . r. ¦ The Epic
us. As such its significance is more of the inner
b Life.
than Hebrew ; it extends far beyond
national bounds to the universal heart of hu
manity ; nay, it is with strange freshness and
application to the spiritual maladies of this
nineteenth century of Christ that the old Arab
chief's struggles and victories come to us, as
we turn the ancient pages anew.
hi.
That the narrative type of structure, which
is the basis of the poem, also preponderates
throughout, or at least is present in every part,
so far as the peculiar poetic style will admit,

30 THE BOOK OF JOB
is a not unreasonable conjecture. Let us see
///. Cm_ if this is so, by tracing what I have
'continuity'1 ventured to call its action, with spe-
cfitsparts. cial reference to its continuity and
the interdependence of its parts.
Job, a man perfect and upright, who has
always feared God and shunned evil,
and bash of and whose righteous life has always
the action. , . , r . r -
reaped its natural fruitage of honor
and prosperity, is suddenly overwhelmed with
the deepest afflictions ; one stroke following
hard upon another — loss of property, loss of
children, and finally the most loathsome and
painful bodily disease — until he can only long
for death. At first he accepts his afflictions
devoutly, attributing no injustice to God, and
sharply rebuking any suggestion of disloyalty ;
but as months of wretchedness pass, and
friends bring up in vain the commonplaces of
explanation which he and they have hitherto
held in common, his musing spirit finds itself
girt round with a darkness and mystery wholly
impenetrable. It is a problem which men's
wisdom has not yet solved. Consider the diffi
culties into which he is plunged. Of
Difficulties , . n , „
involved in the scene in heaven, where Satan has
Job^s case. moved the Lord "to destroy him
causelessly," Job has of course no knowledge.
No Satanic agency is visible; all the data

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 31
point to God as the direct inflicter of the
stroke. The four calamities occurring in one
day cannot be an accident ; the fire from
heaven and the wind from beyond the desert
cannot be casualties of this world, like the vio
lence of men ; and, most indubitable of all, his
disease, elephantiasis, is universally regarded
as the most dread sign of God's immediate vis
itation. It is taken for granted by all, Job, his
wife, and his friends, that he is for some reason
the object of God's wrath. Here, then, is Job's
difficulty : God is punishing him, — and for
what ? He is conscious of no sin to deserve
it ; his " heart does not reproach one of his
days." It is strange that he should perish
without knowing his crime ; strange, too, that
the heavens should be shut to every call of his
for explanation. To be so treated is to be shut
off from the "friendship of God," which has
always been the most cherished blessing of his
life. But this is only the beginning of his dis
tress. If he, a righteous man, is treated as if
he were wicked, then the world is out of joint ;
the bounds of right and wrong, of justice and
iniquity, are wholly confused ; and where is
the truth of things? Are the powers that
work unseen arrayed after all on the side of
evil, and against godliness ? Is it falsehood
that wins in this universe ? Such is the laby-

32 THE BOOK OF JOS
rinth of " dreadful and hideous thoughts "
through which Job must grope his way to the
light. The course that Job takes is set off very sug
gestively, by contrast, in the characters of the
dramatis persons with whom he is associated.
Of these, the most deeply contrasted to Job.
Contrast be- is Satan, the Accuser, at whose insti-
tween Job . , .
and Satan, gation the trial ot his integrity is
made. In studying this character, we need to
dismiss from our minds, for the time being,
the Satanic traits that come to light in other
parts of Scripture, and confine ourselves to
the record before us. 'The being who appears
Satan's here so familiarly among the sons of
character. Qod fe nQ Miltonic ^XSOX, TiO fflOn-
ster of black malignity and unconquerable ha
tred. The most striking trait of his character
''Seems to be simply restlessness, unquiet." In
nis " roaming to and fro in the earth and
walking up and down in it," and in his eager
ness to try experiments with Job, we are re
minded of that New Testament evil spirit,
who being cast out of a man " walketh through
see Luke dl7 places, seeking rest."/ A hqme-_
*'' 2* ^less, unquiet spirit : may we not say,
then, thaTin Satan our author portrays a spirit
unancnbTed"Txrany~ allegiance, a spirit who has
lost his moorings ? 'Being attached to no

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 33
Father of spirits, to steady him and give him
principle, all his regards centre in self- gratifi
cation ; having~Tio goal beyond the present,
he"rives~sirnply to appease the restlessness of the
moment?"" So we find him, naturally enough, a
m0ckfng7 detracting, reckless," impudent being,
observing and criticising all things, yet sympa-
t-hjzing_witri none, caring for no sufferings,
responding to no deep movements of heart, —
wriat Goethe calls a "schalk." 1 For a being
like this, such a thing as disinterested good
ness is simply non-existent ; he has no faculty
to comprehend it. When he asks the sarcastic
question, " Doth Job fear God for nought ? "
and when he lays the wager with God to sever
the patriarch from his allegiance, he is merely
speaking out of his own shallow selfishness,
and interpreting men as good or evil, just as
it happens, for a price. In polar contrast to
this stands Job. His soul is so „ „
 Job s con-
deeply anchored to what is good trasud
and true that the idea of barter, of
work and wages, finds no room in the calcu
lation, — nay, so deeply that he is forced to
1 Goethe's imitation of this opening scene of the Book of
Job, in his Prologue to Faust, brings out the traits of Satan's
character in several suggestive ways, which will be traced
more particularly in the notes to this section of the transla
tion.

34 THE BOOK OF JOB
cut loose from what his friends say of God, to
take his life in his hand and remonstrate with
God himself, as he looks out on a confused
world; and thus, putting uttermost faith in
goodness, he " voyages through strange seas of
thought alone," finding radiant landing-places
of faith one after another, until a new world
is discovered in which he comes to see that
being anchored to the good and true is being
anchored to God after all.
The other contrast is afforded by the friends
Contrast wbo come to visit him. They repre-
aUd'kl yob sent» with its outcome in character,
friends. the kind of philosophy that the whole
devout world, Job with the rest, has hitherto
held, a philosophy which ages of wisdom and
reflection have evolved. A philosophy, more
over, that through a long period of
advocates of national prosperity has crystallized
the Wisdom , r , ,
philosophy, into a very comfortable and conve-
compare be- J .
low, pp. 92, nient creed, well adapted to fair wea-
sqq. ther and to the routines of life. That
God deals with men by an unchanging and in
the main calculable law, — good receiving its
sure reward in prosperity, wickedness receiv
ing its unfailing desert in woe, — this we may
depend upon as the principle on which to
build our life. It is a good belief by which to
key men up to law and duty, a very effectual

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 35
police regulation for the world. But the fierce
light of Job's affliction, so strange and yoitakes
undeserved, opens his eyes to see in ^wudom
this philosophy imperfections hitherto doctrine-
unsuspected. FJfstTjof all he sees that it rests
on an incomplete induction of facts : for there
are afflicted righteous, — he is one, — and there
are unpunished wicked, filling the land with
their evil deeds. ThenjCsecondly^ — and here
is where his self -forgetting integrity evinces
its insight, — he sees that this belief may be
so held, nay, is actually so held by these very
friends, as to become merely a refined sort of
work-and-wages theory. Serve God, and you
will prosper ; if woes come, betokening GodJs
displeasure, turn to God anew, and prosper
again. If this were all, — and it very nearly
sums up the friends' creed, — we might with
only too much reason ask, Does such a be
liever fear God for nought ? But to Job's
quickened spiritual sense this is not all. The
old imperfect wisdom must be lifted to a higher
than worldly plane. In the black shadows that
surround him come flashes of unspeakable
things, new resting-places for faith, truths that
the unchastened soul cannot appreciate. Here,
then, is the contrast : the friends, who have
never been quickened by suffering, are conven
tional, speculative believers, their God a tradi-

36 THE BOOK OF JOB
tional God, remote, undelighted-in, their creed
a hide-bound system, essentially worldly and
selfish, for the sake of which they deny both
the righteousness of Job and the mystery of
evil that is in the world ; Job, whose affliction
has startled him with the sense that God's face
is darkened, turns loyally to God as flowers
turn to the sun, is in agony of doubt until he
can identify God with goodness and love, and
seeking supremely after light, reality, personal
communion, advances with increasing insight
until at the end he can say, " I had heard of
Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine
eye seeth Thee."
The voyage of Job's soul to God, his anchor-
The action age and bis light, which is the action
finr"hescdmKd foreshadowed in the foregoing con-
contrasts. trasts, we are now ready to trace
somewhat in detail.
The first feeling of a soul thus plunged into
How job undeserved misery we can readily
^flartin divine, — the sense of utter bewilder-
words- ment. This is the feeling that finds
expression in Job's first speech, wherein he
opens his mouth and curses his day.
Section ii. _ , T _ . _ J
Weariness of life, passionate desire
for death with its rest and its oblivion, which
are the emotions that shape his utterance, are
after all but the surface-waves of his agitation.;

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 37
its deep cause lies in his feeling that his life
has lost its guidance and direction. He is like
one whose way, hitherto free and clear, is sud
denly shut in by cloud and darkness.
" Wherefore giveth He light to the wretched,
And life to the bitter in soul ? . . . tffJzZthiS.
To a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in ? "
It is worthy of remark that Job's question is
not, why he is punished, but why a life so bit
ter and dark should have been given at alL
Punishment implies desert, or if not desert,
then injustice. To have given his affliction
the name of punishment would have set him at
once in the attitude of seeking for its cause,
either in himself or in God. That the cause
should be in himself, either as wicked, or even
as unconsciously corrupt through the innate
sinfulness of men, has never entered his mind ;
on the contrary, one great element of his be
wilderment is his consciousness of the watch
ful solicitude with which he has hitherto led a
life of faithful integrity before God : —
" For I feared a fear, and it hath overtaken me ; _ .. ..
Section 11.
And what I dreaded is come upon me. 51-54.
I was not heedless, nor was I at ease,
Nor was I at rest, — yet trouble came.'j
No more is he ready to fasten the cause, even
by remote implication, upon God. His friends

38 THE BOOK OF JOB
have not been at him yet with their theodicies ;
and Job is unwilling to theorize or to accuse
where there is no ray of light. The only out
let for his overburdened heart, in this opening
speech, is just to sigh over a life that contains
no reason for living.
Thus, with the mournful comfort that sym-
Effiectcf pathizing friends are still about him
yf^speech t0 share hfe woe> job pours Qut the
friends. y^^. fullness of hfe s(mL As he
pauses, however, he is surprised to find, not
murmurs of sympathy, but silence and averted
faces. The three friends have scented evil.
Here is a man who when the stroke comes is
not all submission, does not own that it is
clear and deserved. He must be set right, let
friendship stand or fall. Accordingly, with
very conciliatory words, as of_one who would
do an unpleasant duty in the gentlest way,
Eliphaz, the eldest and wisest of the three,
takes him in hand, and reminds him of his in«
consistency : —
" If one essay a word with thee, wilt thou be offended ?
Section Hi. Yet who can forbear speaking ?
*""'¦ Behold, thou hast admonished many,
And thou hast strengthened feeble hands ;
Thy words havfi confirmed the faltering,
And bowing knees hast thou made strong ;
But now it is come upon thee, — and thou faintest •
It toucheth thee, and thou art confounded."

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 39
Then he goes on to read Job a lecture, in
which he presents — in general terms, ^9257 -
and leaving Job to make his own ap- M^f" s7r^>
plications — the prevailing^ dogtrine, hitherto
unquestioned, of sin and retribution It is the
most elaborate discourse of the friends, and
anticipates substantially their whole argument,
Elihu' s included. It is the argument that
everything in the world comes by justice and
desert ; that punishment has its sufficient
cause in sin, open or secret ; and that thus in
God's wrath we may read and measure man's
wickedness. This is what Job has always
accepted as the fundamental principle of the
Hebrew philosophy ; nor is it to be called un
true, so much as inadequate and aside from
the present case. Of course it can have but
one implication. To talk of sin and punish
ment now, though in ever so general terms, is
merely to accuse Tob of sin. It -is meaningless
otherwise. So little is this implication dis
guised that forthwith Job is solemnly admon
ished to make his peace with God — as if he
had ever been at war with God ! But there
is the tell-tale leprosy; the friends cannot
get over that. If it does not mean that
some one has sinned, it seems to mean some
thing about God which it were impiety to
think of.

40 THE BOOK OF JOB
The three friends all ply Job in turn with
essentially the same interpretation
Je'nluyof of the case, tjieir one object being_at_
friends' arTZ~all hazards to justify God. They
guments.  ' . ' " ;  , r ^l
vary mainly in the manner of-entor-
cing their views. Eliphaz, who assumes the
calmest and most judicial tone, draws
his arguments from the universal
"natural law in the spiritual world : "
" Bethink thee now : who that was guiltless hath perished ?
Section iii. And where have the upright been cut off ?
12-15- As I have seen, — they that plough iniquity,
And that sow wickedness, reap the same."
He has also a deep spiritual view, revealed
section ui to him as be says by a vision, of the
zz~43- corruption that lurks unseen in the
heart, rendering even angels unclean, and
making desert of punishment an inevitable ac
companiment of the creature. Such Calvinism
before Calvin as this, which reappears more
than once in the friends' arguments, is the
hardest blow directed at Job's sturdy con
sciousness of iruiQcence ; it "poisons
the wells." ^fiildad, whose anger is
roused by Job's assumption of righteousness
and complaint to God, emphasizes the perfect
justice that orders all tilings-:

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 41
" Will God pervert the right ?
Or will the Almighty pervert justice ? Section v.
If thy children have sinned against Him, 4-7-
So hath He given them over into the hand of their trans
gression," —

•V 
, r Zophar.

and corroborates his words by quoting from-
the wisdom of the ancients. Zophar.
wrrcrts still more incensed by Job's
passionate remonstrances with God and call
for explanation, urges the folly of seeking the
mystery of God's ways : -~~
" But oh that God might indeed speak,
And open His lips against thee, Section vii.
And show thee the hidden things of wisdom, — s'lS-
For there is fold on fold to truth ; —
Then know thou, that God abateth to thee of thine iniquity.
Canst thou find out the secret of God ?
Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ?
Heights of heaven ; — what canst thou do ?
Deeper than Sheol ; — what canst thou know ?
Longer than the earth is its measure,
And broader than the sea."
So by their triply bulwarked _axgumeiit the
friends seem to take away_all of^ Job|s_stand-
ing-ground. If he falls back on what his heart
assures him of his innocence, he is confronted
by the unescapable corruption of the creature ;
if he besieges the heavens for some explana
tion of his undeserved misery, he is driven
back by the mystery which forbids profane
approach. All that is permitted to him is to

42 THE BOOK OF JOB
bless the brazen hardness by which he is en
compassed, and to call it justice.
To these arguments of the friends Job does
Before an- not repty at length until all have
jobg£'es spoken. He is musing onward in a
%'his°™n way of his own. Yet he marks what
*"**'¦ they say, and it has its effect in
kindling his own thoughts, which in this part
of the poem rise to their highest intensity.
Nor does it occur to him to deny their asser
tions : to what they say he answers, " Of a
truth I know it is so, — who knoweth not
things like these ? " j^And yet from the begin
ning their well-rehearsed words are strangely
insipid ; familiar to him always, they have sud-
^denly shriveled into the commonest common
place, with no vitality, no power to reach the
source of his trouble : —
" Doth the wild ass bray over the fresh grass ?
Section iv. Or loweth the ox over his fodder ?
9~z+ Can it be eaten — what is tasteless, unsalted ? ,
Or is there savor in the white of an egg ?
My soul refuseth to touch !
They are as loathsome food to me."
It breaks his heart, too, to see his friends turn-
His pieafor ing away from him, just at this time
friendship. when & friend's open heart would be
a haven of refuge. Job has evidently built a
great deal on the love of friends ; and as this

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 43
fails him we shall see, in the sequel, how 'he
builds more, but on foundations that are out of
sight. Plaintively he beseeches them SeeKcHm
to return and show him wherein he iv-"8-t"-
has erred, to look with brotherly eyes into his
case. But there isjio_comfortJn_lhem. They^
are judging him by the visitation that has
overtaken him, and think that they are justify-,
ing God by withholding sympathy where God/
has apparently withdrawn favor. It is a case
wherein they deem that they must choose be
tween God and friendship ; but strange it is
to Job that their attitude toward him should
be determined by an intellectual theory rather
than by thatnatural brotlD£iiy_affi?ctio"-Jiidiich
is~"TTkest Godwithin the soul."
Meanwhile, one thing is left to Job : to be
honest with himself, to respect his Hhomre-
own convictions of right, to cherish ^yZith"*
the integrity that has always been his h""se!/-
life. The desire to leave this intact and be
yond the reach of temptation sharpens even
Jiis longing for death : —
"Oh that my request might come,
And that God would grant my longing ! Section iv.
That it would please God to crush me ; is-&.
That He would loose His hand and cut me off.
For then it would still be my comfort, —
Yea, I should exult in pain, though He spare not, —
That I have not denied the words of the Holy One."

44 THE BOOK OF JOB
Here, then, at the outset Job has struck the
key-note ; has reached the intrenchment where
the battle is to be fought out to the end : loy-
see section alty_to^Jnj3jDwn ideal of godlike and"
tv. 22-27. holy. /.It is with trembling conscious^
ness of his o\/n weakness that he sees the long
conflict before him ; but to live necessitates it.
As the friends go on with their pitiless ex
position of God's dealings with men,
ing order Job is becoming aware of the full sig-
out of chaos. (5=-= .
nifi can ce of his case. 1 It is a season
of testing, when his own state, physical and
spiritual, the doctrines in which he has always
believed, and the interpretations that the
friends are pressing upon him, all come up in
a disordered review before his mind and grad
ually crystallize into a definite conclusion.]
Eliphaz has already recounted what was re-"
section iii. vealed to him by vision, and intimated
44'47' that Job, by his anger, is losing the
ability to see as the immortals see. But Job will
not let himself be cut off from the judgment
section iv. 01 bis own case. He avers that in
59^"- calling himself righteous he is speak-
ingjout-of. a spirituaLrierceptio-n of good and
evil that is still sane and true. Strong in such
section iv. confidence, he addresses himself to
100-iob. the enigma before him. He cannot
understand why that unknown sin of his, if in-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 45
deed he is guilty, a sin which at the worst
is so venial that forgiveness may be sought
almost as a right, should be pursued relent
lessly, like a heinous crime, down to death.
Then, too, why will such a God give no ac
count, no explanation, no standard for man to
live by? Bildad says that nevertheless God
is just ; but in such a mystery as this The spjrit oJ
where is justice to be found? If "ctimvt-
this is justice, why, then| justice means God's
arbitrary will, God's infinite caprice ; and the
only way one can recognize justice is by noting
which way God's favor happens to set. No
man can maintain his ways before such a tri
bunal. Let him have never so righteous a
cause, it is but the turn of a hand for God to
prove him perverse. Nay, and into what
hideous confusion does such a government
throw the whole world ! No resource left for
what has been called righteousness ; the bounds
of good and evil, of right and duty, are wholly
obliterated. With such a state of things Job
will not have alliance. Thus, in re- job,sever.
cording his protest against a world lasiineNo-
so governed, he reaches his everlasting No.1
1 The expression is adopted' from Carlyle, whose chapter
on The Everlasting No, m Sartor Resartus (Book ii., chapter
vii.), reproduces with remarkable vigor the spirit of Job's pro
test. In both Carlyle and Job we trace the same fearlessness

46 THE BOOK OF JOB
Nothing can exceed the tremendous energy
To whkh °f Job's arraignment of God, as it is
sf-6g7o?re- given in the ninth chapter. The
**">***¦ whole chapter ought to be cited to
illustrate it ; here are a few lines : —
" Is the question of strength, — behold, the Mighty One He !
Of judgment, — ' Who will set Me a day ? '
S«riwB vi. -were \ righteous, mine own mouth would con
demn me ;
Perfect were I, yet would He prove me perverse.
Perfect I am, — I value not my soul — I despise my life —
It is all one — therefore I say,
Perfect and wicked He consumeth alike.
If the scourge destroyeth suddenly,
He mocketh at the dismay of the innocent.
The earth is given over into the hands of the wicked ;
The face of its judges He veileth ; —
If it is not He, who then is it ? "
Nor does he stop with mere censure in the
third person. Turning directly to God, with
of death, the same honesty of spirit, the same remonstrance
against a supposed unrighteous order of things, though Job's
is the sweeter and more temperate spirit. " Thus," says
Carlyle, "had the Everlasting No pealed authoritatively.
through all the recesses of my Being, of my Me ; and then
was it that my whole Me stood up, in native God-created
majesty, and with emphasis recorded its Protest. Such a Pro
test, the most important transaction in Life, may that same
Indignation and Defiance, in a psychological point of view be
fitly called. The Everlasting No had said : ' Behold, thou
art fatherless, outcast, and the Universe is mine (the Devil's) ;'
to which my whole Me now made answer : ' / am not thine,
but Free, and forever hate thee I ' "

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 47
amazing boldness he brings the Creator him
self to that bar of judgment which his stand
ard of justice, his sense of the godlike, has7
erected : —
" Is it beseeming to Thee that Thou shouldst oppress ;
That Thou shouldst despise the labor of Thy
hands, Section vi.
15-77.
Whilst Thou shinest on the counsel of the
wicked ? "
A sorely bewildered heart it is, bewildered
by its very integrity, that speaks through these--
burning words !
This is the passage, in especial, that com
mentators have referred to, when, tak
ing exception to God's own dictum, words Mas-
, , . ... T,fi phemous.
they have maintained that Job did
not always " speak of God the thing that is
right," but sometimes what is wrong, even
blasphemous. But consider : Job is not ar
raigning that God who is recognized as truth
and holiness ; rather, be is speaking in the in-
terests of truth and holiness, against that con
ventional God whom his friends Jiave_c_££aied
before his eyes out jaLtheir-arid theologies, the
God who by His own confession has Seeseciio„
been " moved against Job to destroy *¦ ms-
him causelessly," and of whose mysterious vis
itation, whatever its purpose, no man has yet
found a meaning in which the consciously up-

48 THE BOOK OF JOB
right soul can rest. Itisthe godlike in Job
rismg_up_ in_ xem.onstranc.e„ against "an appar-"
-enily misgoverned jvorid^ Is it, then,~io tar out
of the way ?
Prometheus, a god, chained on Mount Cau-
\~\ casus, could defy the rage of a god
/Job com- ) ,
Uaredwith /whose enmity and supremacy he was
\&ymetheutf . _. T , _
— ^ destined to outlive ; Job, a mortal
ready to die on his ash-heap, does not defy,
does not hate, does not forswear allegiance,
but sends into the darkness the immortal pro
test of the creature against what is ungodlike
and unjust. I confess the hero of the old He
brew epos seems to me the sublimer of the two.
Thus, by the time two of the friends have
spoken, their words, combined with Job's an
guish and bitter sense of wrong, have pressed
from him his remonstrance against what he
must recognize as the unjust order of things.
As yet he has not called in question the truth
job's eyes °f what they say. But when the third
tTnds*'^ friend, Zophar, follows in the same
"""• hard strain, with his angry rebuke of
Job for daring to call himself pure, and for pre
suming to pry into the secret of God, Job's
eyes aresuddenly opened. He begins to see
that theyaro~TToT~krrow everything after all ;
that, in fact, their spiritual insight is no more
to be trusted than his own : —

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 49
" Of a truth, ye are the people, 
And wisdom will die with you ! sJ.cbUm viii-
I also have understanding; as well as you ;
I am not inferior to you ;
And who knoweth not things like these ? "
What is true in their argument is not new ;
the "things like these" are the long-estab
lished commonplaces of doctrine. That the
whole world is God's handiwork ; that when
He doeth there is no undoing; that He deals
with righteous and sinful, with wise and fool
ish, with individual and nation, just as He will,
— these things none will question. Accord
ingly, his first answer to them, after section vm.
hearing what all have to say, is to re- I5'sb'
capitulate and indorse their general position,
summing up with these words : —
" Behold, all this hath mine eye seen ;
Mine ear hath heard and understood it well. jjjjfjfc* *""'
What ye know, that know I also ;
I am not inferior to you."
But all this has failed to touch his real issue
with them. In spite of the abstract what the
correctness of their doctrine, they are rw"h.
wholly wrong.
" But ye too, — forgers of lies are ye ; Section viii.
Patchers-up of nothings are ye all." &> b°-
For as he sees them maintaining God's jus
tice through thick and thin, and denying Job's
righteousness in order to do it, the thought

50 THE BOOK OF JOB
.flashes upon him that their term righteousness
is merely a conventional name 'for the winning
side ; they are calling his transparent integrity
sin, not because what is righteous in their na
ture compels them to see it so, but because,
forsooth, he is a leper. \ They have found out
by this affliction which way God's favor seems
to point, and they are Jjastening to ally them
selves with it and be^safe^jSuch a selfish use
of God rouses Job's soul to stinging rebuke : —
" Hear ye now my rebuke,
Section viii. And ]isten t0 the charges of my lips :
Will ye speak what is wrong, for God ?
And will ye, for Him, utter deceit ?
Will ye respect His person,
Or will ye be special pleaders for God ?
Would it be well, if He should search you out ?
Or will ye mock Him, as man mocketh man ?
He will surely convict you utterly,
If in secret ye are respecters of persons.
Shall not His majesty make you afraid,
And the dread of Him fall upon you ? 1 ¦
Your wise maxims are proverbs of ashes ;
Your bulwarks turn to bulwarks of clay."
Thus, piercing by the insight of truth to the
job's break heart of his friends' life, Job finds
with his -*
friends. that they are not serving God^for
nought ; they are shrewdly calculating where
1 " There is nothing good that is not entirely honest. Bet
ter for a man that all the world should grin at him for ever,
than that, failing in honesty, God should laugh him to scorn
but only once." ( Selkirk, Ethics and /Esthetics of Modern
Poetry, p. 87.)

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 51
the chances of reward and prosperity lie, and
shaping their views of right and wrong accord
ingly. This is enough ; no more alliance with
them. From this point onward JobIs_at±i±Jid-e
Upwards his friends is changed. He no longer
regards them as wise, nor does he let any more
words of theirs go unquestioned. Henceforth
he regards them as sp~ii il ually-bfetd;  ,
" For their heart hast Thou hid from understand- Section x.
ing,"— „ S7-
and treats them with the scorn tlue to those
whose pretensions have far outrun their wis
dom : —
" But you — all of you — return ye ! and come
, Section x.
now ' bq, 70.
For I shall not find a wise man among you."
He can no more look for help from friends ;
the question lies henceforth between his_soul_
and_God. Nor has this encounter with the selfishness
of his friends left Job the man he was. y„psever.
It has carried him over from the ever- lasime Yea"
lasting No to the everlasting Yea. Farewell,
now, fear and complaining ; farewell trust in
the outworn maxims of men : face to face with
death and the worst that his unseen enemy
can do, Job turns solemnly from his fellows,
and commits himself anew to the righteous
ness that has hitherto been his life, in supreme

52 THE BOOK OF JOB
faith that its issue, though at present he sees
it not, must be salvation : —
" Be silent ; let mejilone ; and speak will I,
Section viii. Let come upon me what will.
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth,
And put my life in my hand ?
Behold — He may slay me ; I may not hope ;
But my ways will I maintain to His face.1
Nay, that shall be to me also for salvation,
For no false one shall come into His presence."
It is an appeal from the God who works in the
impenetrable darkness without to the God who
has put holy impulses within, and a trust in
compare i the guidance of that honest human
John m. 21. heart which « condemns him not."

Section viii.

" Hear, oh hear my speech,
And let my declaration sound in your ears.
Behold, now have I set in order my cause ;
I know that I shall be justified."
1 To maintain his ways, to be true in the face of God and
the iron universe to that perfect and upright ideal which has
hitherto shaped his life, is in Job's soul the supreme impera
tive, compared with which the desire for restored health and
property or any earthly happiness never once comes to men
tion. " There is in man a Higher than Love of Happiness :
he can do without Happiness, and instead thereof find Bless
edness I Was it not to preach forth this same Higher that
sages and martyrs, the Poet and the Priest, in all times, have
spoken and suffered; bearing testimony, through life and
through death, of the Godlike that is in Man, and how in the
Godlike only has he Strength and Freedom ? . . . Love not
Pleasure ; love God. This is the Everlasting Yea, wherein
all contradiction is solved : wherein whoso walks and works
it is well with him." (Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, B. ii., chap, ix.)

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 53
This declaration we may regard as the bed
rock, so to say, of the Book of JoE To appre
ciate- wriaTTnneans for Job~Iolnake it, reflect
that the wisdom of man, the testimony of the
past, the utterance of trusted friends, have all
raised their voice in unison with a mysterious
visitation of God to declare the contrary. Job
is launching out into the darkness alone,_itak^
rjgg^ti^'aTia^lestmyrbh The belief that the pow
ers that work unseen, in spite of inexorable
appear5nies, aie-forrigfateousness:
Doth Job fear God for nought ? The sneer
of Satan is more than answered.
But having traced the progress of Job's soul
to this point, let us be clearly aware Estimate „f
what is done, what remains. And, in J«^«
fact, we find that he still has, as ¦far'
Browning expresses it, " all to traverse 'twixt
hope and despair." The achievement MaMy mg.
that we have noted thus far has been ative-
mainly negative. By remonstrance against an
arbitrary God, and by reaction against the self-
seeking theology of his friends, he has reached
a landing-place where he can say, "I know
that I shall be justified." That is much to
say ; but how or when ? His suffering remains
a fact, all too palpable ; he is at the gates of
death, with no outlook ; and all his importu
nate demand for explanation of the mystery is

54 THE BOOK OF JOB
but " shouting question after question into the
Sybil-cave of destiny, and receiving no answer
but an echo." Where shall he find some pou
sto whereon to lift the weary weight of the
problem that presses upon him ?
To see how, even along with his negative
remonstrances, he has been taking steps to
ward evolving a positive solution, let us turn
back a little and trace some elements of the
poem hitherto unmentioned.
The problem all comes from his absorbing
Basis of a quest for that divine presence and
%onticfhi!"~ communion from which this affliction
problem. has seemed to shut him out. " But
I, — to the Almighty would I speak, — I long
to make plea unto God," is the constant bur
den of his desire. Two questions there are, to
which his mind turns and returns with perti
nacious inquiry, and whose answer he must in
some way find, on his soul's way to God and
light. In his musings on these questions we
may trace what may be called Job's_positive
achievements in faith, his impetuous efforts to
enter the darkness that closes him round and
create what he sees ought to be. This part of
the action constitutes its most remarkable and
significant feature ; it admits us, as it were,
behind the veil of God's world-plan, where we
get a glimpse of revelation in the making.

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 55
And we see therein the part that man plays,
as co-worker with God ; for what the book be
fore us reveals of unseen things comes not
through the whirlwind ; it reaches us by way
of that darkened yet loyal and yearning heart
of Job.
The first question — implicit, of course — is,
How to bridge the chasm that has
. . ~ The question
opened between his ' soul and God ? how to ap-
... proach God.
From the beginning of his affliction
this question has presented itself in various
forms until it has become agonizing. God has
fenced up his way, that he cannot pass. To
his frantic inquiries why he is afflicted, God
vouchsafes no answer. Then the friends, fail
ing him as comforters, go on portraying a God
who is a grotesque projection of their own
hard selves, a Being throned above all judg
ment, all defense of the creature ; until Job is
constrained to raise against such a conception
his everlasting No. It is in the midst of this
protest that constructive faith begins to image
a solution, — negative at first, fond dwelling of
fancy on a state of things that he must confess
is not, but how good if it were. It is the idea
of a Daysman between him and God, who could
represent the cause of both.
" For He is not a man, like me, that I should answer Him,
That we should come together in judgment;

56 THE BOOK OF JOB
Nor is there any Daysman between us,
Section vi. Who might lay his hand on both of us ;
62-69. Who might remove His rod from upon me,
That the dread of Him should not unman me. ~i
Then would I speak, and would not fear Him;
For as I am now, I am not myself."
How necessary he considers to be the office
that a Daysman should fulfill is seen in the
request that he urges, as soon as his solemn
committal to his righteousness brings him to a
point where, having " set in order his cause,"
he can address himself definitively to God : —
" Only these two things do not Thou unto me, —
Section viii. Then will I not hide myself from Thy face ; —
qi-ab. Remove Thou Thy hand from upon me,
And let not Thy terror unman me ;
Then call Thou, and I will answer Thee,
Or I will speak, and return Thou answer to me."
Here is the need, the feeling of which has
evidently sunk deep into Job's heart. If only
there were in God something like man to ap
peal to !
The second question, or questioning, centres
Theques- a.bout the enigma of death. Like
tionof death. many a perpiexed soul after him, Job
has to beat his wings against the barriers of
the grave. Even if he were a transgressor,
the mystery is that God will not " look away
from him," will not forgive his sins and leave
him alone. Why pursue him so cruelly, if he is

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 57
destined so soon to drop into "the jaws of
vacant darkness and to cease ? " In this very
fact that God watches and judges such a
" driven leaf " as man, and pursues him out of
the world, there is a strange inconsistency.
The care seems so out of proportion to the
object ; it is like bending all the forces of the
universe to pick up a straw. Who shall solve
such a discrepancy ? Yet stay ; here is what
would be a solution, if it were only true, which,
alas, he cannot say : suppose man should live
again after death, as the tree that is cut down
sprouts anew !
" Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave,
Wouldst keep me secret till Thy wrath is past, section viii.
Wouldst set me a time, and remember me 1 '37-"44-
If a man die — might he live again ?
All the days of my service would I wait,
Until my renewal came ;
Thou wouldst call, and I would answer ;
Thou wouldst yearn after the work of Thy hands ! "
This solution, like the other, is suggested only
negatively, only as a radiant fancy, at first ; but
both are germinating seeds, and when we meet
them again they will have grown, by a kind of
unconscious cerebration on Job's part, into
greater things.
So much has Job achieved, in protesting and
creating, by the time the three friends have

58 THE BOOK OF JOB
spoken once. They are of course moved to
summary answer ; but it makes little difference
tsTtMZnd? now what they say. It is not so cer-
of%etioi tain to Job as it once was that they
"'"' have the secret of wisdom. Until
they all have spoken again, he does not address
himself to their arguments at all, being en
gaged in exploring the new xegiPB that his
questioning and his faith have opened. Let
us first follow him.
Eliphaz having spoken a second time, Job,
Examina-^ stopping for only a word in scorn of
wolat?c£* his unavailing speech, turns to the
ever-present subject of his affliction.
So severe, so pitiless, so inveterate is his an
guish, that he can only count its inflict er as
his enemy ; and\tiiat enemy he can do no
other than identify with God. He seems to
tax the power of language to its utmost to
job'sfaith portray the deadly conflict that God
SEES,™ is waging with him. Yet, by a
***' strange antinomy^he draws steadily
nearer to God for refuge. /The very whirl
wind and tempest of his remonstrance seems
only to lay bare more and more the inner
deeps of his essential godliness. Nay, he
seems almost to divide God against Himself,
to set God the Advocate over against God the
Chastiser, in his eager confidence that his hu-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 59
man ideals and affections must be represented
on high, and that he must have a Friend who
is the friend of righteousness.
" Earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry have no resting-place ! Section x.
Even now, behold, in heaven is my Witness, 4<-4&-
And mine Advocate is on high.
My friends are my scorners,
But unto God mine eye poureth tears,
That He would plead for man with God,
As the son of man for his neighbor."
Is not this the Daysman, whom Job was so de
spairingly dreaming of a little while See section
ago, now no longer in fancy but in full vu b4~
assurance? Tob has advanced from despair Jo
confidence ; he has a representative on high.
But that equally obtrusive fact of death re
curs : here he stands, with an Advo
cate in heaven, but with his life's rin/thZght
plans broken off and the eternal
darkness at hand.

of death.

" If I have any hope, the grave is my house ;
I have spread out my bed in the darkness ; Section •*•
To corruption I have said, ' My father thou I '
' My mother, and my sister ! ' — to the worm.
And where is now my hope ?
Yea, my hope — who shall discover it ?
Will the bars of Sheol fall down,
When together there is rest in the dust? "
Here he pauses while Bildad makes his second

60 THE BOOK OF JOB
speech ; and then, with the recurring thought
saionxii °f God's enmity, comes upon him the
12-41. crushing consciousness that his soul
isjdcmj^jajone in the ruins of a life; friends,
brethren, wife, kinsfolk, servants, all have for
saken him. One despairing cry he sends
forth, — " Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my
friends,
For the hand of God hath touched me ! "

Section xii. fnendSj

and then all at once he breaks out into that
avowal which for all the ages since has re
mained the supreme utterance of the
deemerpas- Book of Job, which gathers into one
sage* mighty assurance the solution of all
his problems, the final reach of his aspiring
faith, revealing in one view the Advocate on
high, the vindication beyond death, God his
restored friend, — and binding all together
with the exultant word, I know.
" Oh that now my words were written I
j^T *"' oh that they were inscribed in a book 1
That, with iron pen, and with lead,
They were graven in the rock, for ever !
f^T know that my Redeemer liveth ;
That He shall stand, survivor, over the dust ;
And after my skin is gone, they will rend this body,
.And I, from my flesh, shall see God.
Whom I shall see, I, for myself ;
Whom mine eyes shall behold, a stranger no more.
For this my reins consume within me I "

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 6l
As helping on toward this supreme landing-
place of Job's faith, consider what a The idea oJ
part the idea of friendship has played. ¦£ mSa
It is one of the leading, though less "¦fJ"b-
obtrusive, motifs of the poem. Just in propor
tion as the friends failed him, — as they be
came deceitful like a dried-up brook, as they
would not turn back and acknowledge his in
tegrity as it was, as they turned from compan
ions to scorners, as they persecuted him like
gods, — just in that proportion, along with his
faith in the triumph of righteousness, Job's
faith images also a triumph of love, a finding
of divine friendship, until one strong element
of this last declaration is his assertion that
some time G°d will be "a stranger no more."
It exemplifies Tennyson's description, in " The
Two Voices," of man struggling through dark
ness to find the meaning of his mysterious en
dowments : —

" He seems to hear a Heavenly Friend,

Tennyson,

And thro' thick veils to apprehend The Two
A labor working to an end."
TJiestruggle_is_over. From this point on
ward Job no more.iriquir£s_inta-God's h™??*-
¦J A is settled by
mysterious enmity and remoteness, £^'**?f"
nor into the~~unsolved "enigma of Redeemer.
death. He has laid up these questions in

62 THE BOOK OF JOB
that future where life's problems are all an
swered.1 But there remains the present world, the
world that all our experiences move
Return to . , ,.r ,_
the friends' in, with its perplexing facts ; and the
arguments. . .
friends in the meanwhile are saying
about it things that demand reply. Let us re
turn to them.
They are naturally enough angered at being
treated as spiritually blind, and at
See, for ex- ..... . .
ample, sec- having their wise maxims contemned.
twn xi. 4, 5, .
On their side, too, they regard Job s
words, so daring in remonstrance, so importu
nate in inquiry, as exceedingly dangerous, irrev
erent, blasphemous. " Nay," says Eliphaz, —
"Nay, and thou bringest piety to nought,
Section ix. And iessenest devotion before God ;
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I ;
And thy lips testify against thee."
Their anger against Job, together with their
1 Surprise has often been expressed that Job, having
reached such prophetic certitude of blessedness beyond this
life, does not make more of the idea in his succeeding argu
ment. I think it is to be explained partly on the ground that
this is an idea not argued out but believed in, and partly
because Job goes on to other things not requiring such a
solution. And so much may be said for the potency of the
Redeemer idea, that from this point the doubts that have
hitherto oppressed him absolutely disappear.

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 63
reactionary impulse to put their arguments in
the directest contrast to him, leads
. . , . , Namely, in
them, in this second round of sections tx.,_
. . . . xi., and xiii.
speeches, into intemperate, unconsid
ered language. However his piety may seem
to be tottering to its fall, they will declare
against wickedness so that none can misunder
stand or misinterpret their position with refer
ence to it. In the lurid pictures that all in
turn give of the awful fate of the wicked, it
seems to me the writer's obvious intention to
make the friends overreach themselves by as
sertions which, though not without a nucleus
of truth, are so exaggerated as to be gro
tesquely false to observed facts. Their posi
tion amounts to willful denial of what, if they
will but open their eyes, they cannot but
see. As in his first answer to them, Job waits till
all have spoken, and he has drawn , f^^r-
their fire, so to speak; then he turns ZZ'/Jf*
upon them. Not in anger, — the- ^ItSion
problem is too awful for that, — but
in shuddering amazement, Job portrays to his
friends what indeed is palpable to every one
who will be honest with himself and the world :
the wicked prospering, becoming old, and dy
ing in peace, apparently just as secure and
just as favored as the righteous.

64 THE BOOK OF JOB
" They fill out their days in weal ;
Section xiv. An(l m a moment they sink down to the grave.
24-29. And yet they said unto God, ' Depart from us ;
The knowledge of Thy ways we desire not.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him ?
And what gain we, if we pray to Him F ' "
Nor does he own this because he inclines to
their ways : —
Section xiv. " Behold not in their hand is their weal ;
30, 31. fhe counsel of the wicked — be it far from
me!"
it is mere honesty to facts that compels the
confession. The friends have let their im
agination riot in terrific descriptions of the
death of the wicked, and of the perpetual fear
that paralyzes their lives, in contrast to the
tranquil security of the righteous ; but to Job
it is the absolute equality of righteous and
wicked before God, so far as this life reveals,
that is so inexplicable : —
" Shall any teach knowledge unto God, —
Section xiv. ' Him — who judgeth them that are' high ?
43-52- Qne dieth in the fullness of his strength,
All at ease and quiet, —
His vessels full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones well moistened ;
And another dieth with a bitter soul,
And hath never tasted of good.
Together they lie down, in the dust,
And the worm spreadeth a covering over them."
This is his answer to them, in which he shows
them how entirely a figment of the mind is

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 65
their theory. So strongly has this view seized
upon his soul that, stopping for only a partial
reply to Eliphaz's third speech, he goes on to
give, in calmer mood, a detailed pic
ture of what he has already outlined, section ivi.
the world apparently void of divine
judgment, and filled with a perfect impunity
of lawless wickedness, — a picture whose
truthfulness he seals with a challenge, —
" If it be not so, who then will prove me false, Section xvi.
And make my words come to nought ? " 92> 93-
Eliphaz's third speech, which is a kind of
Parthian shot, betrays the natural
. - Eliphaz's
irritation due to the consciousness Mrdspeech,
. , . section xv.
that he is employing the last weak
runnings of his argument. He accuses Job
directly of various sins such as are
, . . ... Lines 8-27.
natural to his eminent position in
life, sins which Eliphaz has not discovered as
a fact, but deduced from Job's condition ; then
he censures Job's avowal of the evils
-, ,, t , Lines 28-3g.
in the world, as indicating a secret
hankering after wicked ways, — as if in order
to keep one's self from evil one must deny its
existence. In these considerations the friends'
argument reaches its reductio ad ab-
surdum. Eliphaz then concludes with
a beautiful exhortation to Job to remove iniquity

66 THE BOOK OF JOB
from his tents and reconcile himself to God.
This exhortation we may regard as the final
Thefriends' appeal of the friends, as they see Job
final appeal, drifted so far from them. Nor does
it go unanswered. To the charge of sin Job
job's re- replies later ; but this exhortation
sponse. elicits an immediate answer, in which
he gives utterance once for all tojiis-unchange- .
able attitude before God : —
" Oh that I knew where I might find Him ! —
Section xvi. Might come~eveh unto His dwelling-place !
4-13- I would set in order my cause before Him ;
And I would fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words He would answer me ;
And I would mark what He would say unto me.
Would He plead against me in the greatness of His might ?
Nay ; but surely He would give heed unto me.
There it would be an upright man pleading with Him,
And I should be delivered for ever from my Judge."
The calm height to which his faith by this
time has led him is suggestively indi-
has ad- cated in the way in which he confronts
vanced. . _ .
again that old problem, once so dis
turbing, of God's hidden face and refusal to be
found. Now it hardly moves him, while he
can say, —
Section ' " For He knoweth tne way that is mme ;
18, iq. He is trying me ; I shall come forth as gold."
The lesson of the disciplinary value of God's

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 61/
chastisements is generally regarded as Elihu's
contribution to the question. Does Elihu reach
a point higher than this ?
I called Eliphaz's exhortation the friends'
final appeal. Bildad~mc[ee(r speaks
. ,., ¦ Bildads
once more ; but what he says is a third speech,
virtual confession of defeat. His few
words are a feeble echo of Eliphaz's favorite
doctrine of man's innate depravity, the doctrine
that dies hardest, so to say ; but so manifestly
aside from the present case that Job ridicules
them in unmeasured terms : —
" How hast thou given help to the powerless ! Job's an-
How succored the nerveless arm ! tlon'xviii.
How hast thou counseled the unwise, *-7-
And made known truth in abundance !
To whom directest thou words ?
And whose breath goeth forth from thee ? " —
and then in turn carries on the same strain at
some length, as if to show how easy Insecti„n
it is to compose sublime — yet inap- *vau 8'23'
plicable — descriptions of God's power. To
take this view of the passage need not belittle
the utterances of either Job or Bildad, which
as matter of fact are true and full of eloquent
beauty ; it merely reveals by a striking illus
tration how entirely the friends have mistaken
the issue.
Zophar fails to appear the third time. Is

68 THE BOOK OF JOB
he needed ? Have we not reached the friends'
Zophar does natural stopping-place ?
Mrttiml So Job is left alone and victorious.
What now remains ? He has com-
iishhdh- mitted life and destiny to the issue of
righteousness ; he has gazed unflinch
ingly into this present evil world, and blinked
none of its evils ; he has by a creative faith
made triumphant discoveries in the world above
and beyond. What has he yet to do ?
''cf'thTpZZ Evidently to fit himself, so to speak,
into the sum of things, to find by
that same creative faith the road through this
life, where so often wickedness gets the pay,
and goodness the affliction. It is to this task,
this sober survey of a perplexing world, that
Job now addresses himself.
He begins with a solemn asseveration of his
mental and spiritual soundness whereby he is
able to see things as they are ; and anew
he commits himself unalterably to righteous
ness : —
" As God liveth, who hath taken away my right,
Section xix. And the Almighty, who hath embittered my
*-"¦ SOU1, -^
For yet whole is my breath within me,
And the spirit of God in my nostril, —
So surely my lips speak not perverseness,
Nor doth my tongue murmur deceit.
Far be it from me that I should justify you j

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 69
Till my breath is gone will I not let depart my integrity
from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go ;
My heart shall not reproach one of my days."
In such a survey of the world, the first
thing that calls for solution is the rhl!frot.
problem of the wicked, who are so tkkfdcZn-
secure in this life, and who at the ^Jxtx'60'
end, in a ripened old age, are gath- '2'43'
ered in like all others. It would be strange,
after all the assertions and denials, if he
should leave them without a final word, to
clear up what has caused him such trembling
dismay. Nor does he. Here, then, is the
truth about them. The wickedj_after_aIL_^«^^
not the future ; their life, ripi_b£ijig^fojanded
on the truth of things, cannot count on hope
or permanence. They are not anchored to
God ; all is precarious, unsafe, unstable. Be-'
sides, whatever else they gain, the blessing
paramount, that which alone, whether now or
hereafter, gives value to life, namely, delight in
God and sweet dependence on His will, they
miss entirely ; it is to them a thing non
existent. No greater woe than this is con
ceivable to Job. And this judgment of his,
while it raises spiritual estimates to a plant
immeasurably above that of the friends, also
throws light on his own standard of living ;

JO THE BOOK OF JOB
Job is unwittingly contrasting the wicked with
himself : —
" Be mine enemy as the wicked man,
Section xix. And ne that riseth against me as the unright-
**-i9- eous.
For what is the hope of the godless, when He cutteth off, —
When God draweth forth his soul ?
Will God hear his cry,
When distress cometh upon him ?
Doth he delight himself in the Almighty ?
Doth he call upon God at every time ? "
The picture that Job then draws of the wicked,
insectum which some have tried to give to
xix. 24-45. Zophar, merely follows this view into
detail. It is a statement, in vivid poetic form,
of what we call the logic of events, of the truth
which we see inlaid in the history of all human
affairs, that whatever does not make for right
eousness does not make for permanence. Its
drift is not unlike that of Bildad's first speech,
of which Job has already said, " Of a truths I
know it is so." The friends had a nucleus df
truth ; only they erred by overstatement and
I by purblind application ; Jobjias found the key
of things, and he follows it out by the standard
of the unseen and eternal.
If, then, the security of the wicked is only
The true a seeming, what isthe reality? If
%fe, sTction their course is follyTwhat is the true
wisdom of life, by which we may

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY "J\
walk calmly through the mystery that sur
rounds us, and solve it for ourselves, however
baffling the enigma of the world ? Here comes
in the twenty-eighth chapter. Is such a topic
out of place, or must we call it an interpola
tion from the author's portfolio ? See above,
Rather, it answers the question that *• Iy
most naturally arises here, and gives the prac
tical lesson in which the Book of Job both
begins and culminates. The hidden wisdom,
the way that no creature has found, —
" God understandeth the way thereto,
And He knoweth its place. Section xix.
For He looketh to the ends of the earth ; 02-104-
Under the whole heaven He seeth.
When He gave the wind its weight,
And meted out the waters in a measure, —
When He gave a law to the rain,
And a way to the flash of the thunder,
Then did He see, and declare it ;
He established it, yea, He searched it out.
And unto man He said,
¦Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
And to shun evil is understanding."
Thus Job, the man perfect and upright, who
feared God and shunned evil, has
. . ..... Summary.
held fast to the integrity with which
he began, until he has not only answered Sa
tan's question, but solved for every man the
problem of life. His solution is not new, nor
does it contradict the wise precepts of the

•J2 THE BOOK OF JOB
friends. And yet it is new ; for it comes now
with a whole world of fact and experience be
hind it, reporting that in the most searching
trial this rule of life has stood the test. To
fear God and shun evil is wisdom, in spite of
the affliction that righteousness suffers, in
spite of the prospered wickedness that is ram
pant in the world. And in the deepest sense,
too, the solution does contradict, if not the
friends' words, yet the friends' whole false atti
tude toward God ; for with Job, to fear God and
shun evil is not to fear and shun appearances,
or to trim the sails according to the way in
which the breeze of God's favor seems for the
time to set ; it is to be true to the soul's ideal
of the godlike, in scorn of consequence.
They say Job was impatient. If patience
was job means holding one consistent mind
impatient? through a hard experience, and if pa
tience has her perfect work in believing and
enduring,. was he impatient ?
Having reached this firm landing-place, with
clear view of the way through this
Job's retro- , ., . . / . , ° _
sped, sec- world s confusion, and with confident
tion xx. ....
outlook toward the vindication be
yond death, Job, as is natural, takes a retro
spect of his former happy and honored, life,"
now so inexplicably plunged into misery. Let
us bear in mind that he still regards himself ai

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY J^
standing on the brink of the grave, with no
hope more in this life. What he bears in his
hands now he brings to submit to the award
of that Divine Friend, whom he is to see here
after. This fact gives a new significance "to"
these three beautiful chapters in which he
brings his words to a close. In them he gath
ers up the threads of his life, one after an
other, for God and man to judge, and at the
end, full of that overmastering desire yob,s readir
for God's presence which all along £££X'
has supremely inspired him, he stands end'
ready for the word that shall vindicate him and
make him blessed : —
" Behold my sign ! let the Almighty answer me ! —
And the charge that mine Adversary hattTwrit- [S^™.**'
ten!
Surely I will lift it upon my shoulder ;
I will bind it unto me like a crown ;
I will declare to Him the number of my steps,
I will draw near unto Him like a prince."
Except half a dozen lines, which not improb
ably have become dislocated in transcription,
these words are the last of Job's stout-hearted
defense before God and the world. The tes
timony is all in ; and now, as the veil of flesh
is ready to drop away, Job is fully prepared for
the unseen meeting beyond.
With Job's words ended, and with the
friends put to silence, evidently at this point

74 THE BOOK OF JOB
the action is ready for its dinouement. What
shall this be ? If the poem is really
The action . , _r n-"r
ready for its a finished work of art, as all its f ea-
dinouement. tures thus far have inaicated, we nat
urally expect the ending to be directly related
to the main issue, and significant enough to
bring its deepest elements to solution. We
See above, have seen how signally this test fails,
pp. 13, u- jf we regard Jthe_ main issue as the
decision of a debate on the question why3hir
righteous sutter : the address from the- whirl
wind, with allJLls_.sublimity, does not really.
touch the question ; nor can Elihu be made to
furnish an answer without a great deal of ac
commodation and inference. But I think we
have become aware also of an issue far deeper
than this, an issue, not of words and reasoning,
but of life. The controversy of the friends
with Job has revealed an antagonism too deep
and radical to be settled by debate or by any
verbal decision. The nature of this antagonism
Satan indicated at the outset, when he charged
Job with serving God from selfish motives. Jt
is the question of serving God for reward, or
serving Uod disinterestedly, that is~at~sTake ;
a question for whose answer we must look be
low words and forms, into the deepest currents
of life. In his own person Job has indeed-
given a thorough refutation to the charge ;

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 75
but in the battle that he has had to wage with
his friends, he has dragged to light one See a6me
after another their Jndden motives, *¦*>¦
until hejias made it evident that they illustrate
just what'Satan sneered at. TheTfriends "are"
notTearing God for nought." Their whole the
ory of" religion is based on.' the idea of barter'
So deeply is this idea ingrained in their life
that, as we have seen, they have hastened
without scruple to desert Job and break all the
ties of friendship, in order to get on the fa
vorable side of God and keep their prospects
good ; so deeply that they have interpreted the
mystery of wickedness, not by the fact, but by
what they think God would like them to say.
This deep antagonism between the friends and
Job has manifested its effects in their general
attitude before God. Job's attitude has been
emphasized at every step, — supreme longing
for the restoration of God's presence. "jOh
that I knew where I might find _
0  See section
Him .^Ihas been the constant burden *"'¦*•
of his cry; and beginning with his despairing
wish for a Daysman, his creative faith has kept
on until he knew that somewhere beyond this
life he would see God as his friend. The whol£_
determination qf_ hisjife js_toward God. The
attitude~of the friends is no less evidently the
opposite. They are orthodox- and dogmatic.;...

•J6 THE BOOK OF JOB
they are zealous for the forms and decorums
of. religion ; but they manifest no hunger for
direct communion of spirit with God. Their
"Gad , is _a tradition, their religion a conven-
tion_ahjmi___They are perfectly content with
Teufelsdrockh's " absentee God, sitting at the
outside of the universe and seeing it go," so
long as they secure an honorable and prosper
ous way through life. Now what kind
dinouement of a dhiouement shall bring such an
antagonism as this to solution ? Do
we not naturally look for some scene wherein
the two contrasted classes shall stand, as it
were, naked before God, the thoughts of their
hearts revealed, not judged in words, but judg
ing themselves by their spontaneous, uncalcu-
lated conduct ?
If such is the reasonable expectation, what
could more fully answer to it than the
theophany, theophany which actually follows ? It
sections .
xxvi. and comes as a surprise to all of them,
xxvin., ful
fills this re- Job and the friends alike. Tob is
qmrement. ' ^ J
looking for a meeting somewhere out
of human view, where his integrity shall be
recognized as it is. The friends are looking
for nothing at all, unless it be some flash of
divine wrath against him whom they regard
as so bringing piety to nought. A surprise, it
makes of course also that profound and heart-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY -J -J
shaking impression which cannot but result
when the mortal comes face to face with the
supernatural. " We may disbelieve,"
says an eminent student of the human ne Had
mind, "in any manifestations of the stake-
supernatural ; but we cannot but be
lieve that were their occurrence possible, they
would profoundly affect the mind. Humboldt
says, that the effect of the first earthquake
shock is most bewildering, upsetting one of
the strongest articles of material faith, namely,
the fixedness of the earth. Any supernatural
appearance must have this effect of shaking
the foundations of the mind in an infinitely
greater degree." Some illustration of this we
have already seen indicated in Eliphaz's vision,
where, when the spirit glided before See seMon
his face, he was overwhelmed with 1"~22-^-
fear and trembling, and built the creed and con
duct of a lifetime on the communication he
then received. Of much profounder signifi
cance than any vision of spirits, and of corre
spondingly greater effect, must be the sublime
theophany of the whirlwind. It is like setting
up a divine judgment throne on the earth ; it
brings the glory of a holiness and truth wherein
each man may see himself, and wherein the
thoughts and ideals of each heart must neces
sarily be revealed. The way in which men

78 THE BOOK OF JOB
meet such a dread ordeal will show, through a
shrinking abjectness and terror on the one
side, who at heart is selfish and would be left
alone ; and on the other side, through a reverent
awe and joy, who, having the real determination
of heart toward God, rejoices to be warmed
and lighted by the sunshine of His presence.
For such a scene as this Job is fully ready,
his righteous life disclosed in epitome,
for the the. his record on his shoulder. But the
ofihany ; the r .
friends not friends ? They have retreated, one
yet ready.  _
by one, before the searching fire of
the patriarch's words, until they have nothing
more to say./ In order that we may see the
power of the Divine Presence manifested at
once on both classes, the friends, or at least
the spirit and principle that they represent,
must needs pass likewise in review and sum
mary before the reader. ' If this did not come
to pass, the action would be lacking in a very
important and necessary connecting link.
Here, then, and as I judge with precisely
this significance, intervene the discourses of
Elihu.1 In the character of Elihu the author
1 If the discourses of Elihu form no part of the original
poem, but were added, as the critics assert nowadays, by a
subsequent editor, then all I have to say is, I prefer to study
the poem in its latest edition. From the point of view here
taken, the writer who added such a finishing touch as this
was a master in his art, one who could be fully trusted to

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 79
presents the friends' side of the question, freed
from the heats and disturbances of Thedis.
controversy, and brought to its best emS?,™-
expression. Neither in word nor in ^.fw"
general attitude is he at issue with *S#$? «»
them. The only reason why his ^Lleo/the
wrath is kindled against them is be- *
cause their arguments have not been strong
enough to convict Job ; he represents con
fessedly what they would have said, but failed /
to say. He stands on the same presupposi
tions ; he reasons concerning the same inac
cessible, unapproachable God ; he finds the
same wicked tendencies in Job ; he points Job
to the same goal of restoration, discipline,
renewed prosperity. He is merely directing
Job in a little more minute terms than they
compose the whole poem, as indeed I am willing to believe
he did. In other words, I do not think the critics who would
expel Elihu have made out their case. From their concep
tion of the poem's scope and purpose he is in the way ; they
cannot help desiring his absence. Deduct the influence of
this fact, and the other arguments urged against him, argu
ments drawn from his alleged Aramaisms, his peculiarities of
speech, and the like, are confessedly inconclusive. He is un
deniably a little tedious ; he has words and idioms of his own ;
his character is individualized in a way quite different from
that of the friends ; but all this, whether so intended or not,
but serves to adapt him more exquisitely to the part he has
to play. What the critics would take away on the score of
its lack of harmony with the rest is more than made up by
dramatic fitness and skill.

80 THE BOOK OF JOB
have used to take proper measures for rein
statement in a life of earthly ease and comfort.
So far as we can see he has no more idea of
serving God for nought than have the friends.
Even his exhortation to Job to accept affliction
for the sake of discipline, true and sound as it
is, is quite consistent with the idea of getting
as distinguished from that of giving.
The conception of the character of Elihu is
Twofold to be interpreted with a twofold ref-
"fEuhu^' erence : to the friends, whose cause
*art' and life he represents ; and to the
coming theophany, which is to bring, as it were,
his spiritual testing.
As the champion of the friends' cause, he
possesses the advantages that inhere
thtchZm- in youth and fresh, enthusiastic en-
pion of the ,_,.. . ,,_.,
friends' ergy. I o him the world of ideas has
cause. . ...
just opened, full of intense interest ;
he is not hide-bound by the timid conservatism
of age or by the oracles of the past ; he has a
vigorous, constructive mind, fired by zeal and
insight. Many of his words are truly noble.
His discourse is rich in helpful things ; he
directs Job especially to the secondary revela
tions of God's will, — by dream, by vision, by
the chastisement of suffering, — and seeks thus
to lead the patriarch to repentance and devout
submission. All this we may freely concede ;

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 8 1
for we wifl remember that the issue of the
poem is not the issue of goodness with wicked
ness. Both sides alike represent righteous
ness and devout service of God ; it is only the
motive of such service, selfish or disinterested,
that Satan has called into question. And
what Elihu says, noble though it is, but serves
to identify him, as to standard and goal, with
the friends ; it is what consists with a merely
conventional faith and a traditional God.
As related to the subsequent theophany, the
conception of Elihu's character is not Eiihuas
without a certain grim humor, appar- y^TX-
ent especially in the sharply accentu- ophany-
ated contrast between his extravagant preten
sions at the beginning and his ludicrous abase
ment at the end. He opens his discourse
with a long account of the wonderful Seciimxxii.
thoughts he has and the wonderful 2~jS'
things he is going to do. Then, identifying
his thoughts with God's thoughts, he sets up
definitively for Job's Daysman, the one whom
Job had so longed for to stand between him
and God : —

" If thou art able, answer me ;
Set words in array before me, take thy Section
stand. xxii- "JS1*-
Behold I, according to thy word, stand for God ;
Out of clay am I moulded, also I ;

82 THE BOOK OF JOB
Behold, my terror shall not unman thee,
Nor will my burden on thee be heavy."
Compare this with Job's words in section vi.
sectionxxii. 62-69, and it is obvious what he has
84,85- jn mind. Elihu's idea of a Daysman
is a wise interpreter of life, a yb'a TT^ba, "a
messenger, an interpreter," not necessarily su
pernatural, but "one of a thousand," exception
ally gifted, and authorized by his gifts to speak,
— such a one, in short, as he himself feels
inspired to be. As he proceeds, he feels in
creasingly that he is the champion of God, the
channel of God's word to Job, through which
the whole controversy is to be settled.
" I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
Section And to my Maker will I ascribe justice ;
xxv. 4-7. jror 0f a surety my words are no lie ; —
It is the Perfect iri knowledge that is with thee."
So he continues his discourse, eloquently de
fending the Perfect in knowledge ; until across
seaionxxv. the desert is seen a storm rising.
sssqq. With great beauty he begins to des
cant on this, and so long as it is an ordinary
storm he employs it, with no little assumption
of wisdom, to Job's edification. But as it
nears, its phenomena become so exceptional
that his experience can no longer account for
it: it seems to betoken that God is indeed
coming, as Job has fervently desired, and as
the friends have rather savagely wished for

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 83
him. Whereat Elihu's words become confused;
he begins to retract his pretensions, stammers
an attempt at propitiation, and breaks off
abruptly, paralyzed by terror : —
" Give ear unto this, O Job ;
Stand, and ponder the marvelous things of section
God. *xv- W-"1-
Knowest thou how God layeth command upon them,
And maketh shine forth the light of His cloud ?
Knowest thou the poisings of the thick cloud,
The wonders of the Perfect in knowledge ? —
Thou whose garments are hot,
Because from the south the earth lieth sultry still, —
Canst thou spread out with Him the skies,
Firm, as a molten mirror ?
. . . O teach us what we may say to Him !
We cannot order it — it groweth so dark . . .
Hath one told Him that I am speaking . . .
Or hath a man said ... for he shall be swallowed up !
And now they no longer see the light, —
That splendor in the skies,
For a wind hath passed, and scattered them.
. . From the north a golden glory cometh . . .
Oh, with God is terrible majesty !
The Almighty — we have not found Him out ;
Vast in power, and in judgment,
And in abundance of righteousness ; —
He will not afflict ;
Therefore do men fear Him ;
He regardeth not any wise in their own conceit."
Thus the self-appointed Daysman shrinks away
before the test, and we hear no more from
him. A humiliating retreat for one who set

84 THE BOOK OF JOB
out so valiantly and self-con fidently to defend
God.1 The opening words from the whirlwind dis-
The Lord's miss Elihu abruptly, —
address
from the "Who is this, darkening counsel
•whirlwind, , . . . . . . ,,
sections With words, — but without knowledge ? "
xxvu and
xxviu. sec- Then the Lord addresses Job : —
tion xxvi. J
S-5. " Gird up thy loins now, like a strong man,
And I will ask thee ; and inform me thou."
The dread Presence is here ; and Job stands at
last before Him who seemed so far off, yet to
whom in all darkness Job's spirit turned, as
the needle to the pole. What now shall the
divine revelation be ?
Not what Job expected ; not perhaps what
1 At the end of Browning's Caliban upon Setebos, which is
his portrayal of a brutish being's speculations on God, there
is a striking though grotesque parallel to this closing scene of
Elihu: —
" What, what ? A curtain o'er the world at once I
Crickets stop hissing ; not a bird — or, yes,
There scuds His raven that has told Him all !
It was fool's play, this prattling ! Ha I The wind
Shoulders ihe pillared dust, death's house o' the move,
And fast invading fires begin I White blaze —
A tree's head snaps — and there, there, there, there, there,
His thunder follows ! Fool to gibe at Him !
Lo 1 'Lieth flat and loveth Setebos I
'Maketh his teeth meet through his upper lip,
Will let those quails fly, will not eat this month
One little mess of whelks, so he may 'scape ! "

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 85
our curiosity seeks. We look for the veil to
uproll and disclose mysteries beyond
1 . T , Character
numan research ; Job expects a hear- of the divine
-, . . r. . a -, -. . revelation.
ing and a justification. And what is
it ? Just the unending miracle that passes be
fore our eyes every day. In the heavens above,
in the earth beneath, in the great events of
creation and phenomena of nature, in the myr
iad life that fills land and air and ocean, we are
made to see that there is Wisdom and Power
sufficient for everything, to make every crea
ture fulfill its part in one infinite purpose and
will. No esoteric disclosure for some excep
tionally favored disciple, but what every one
may lift up his eyes and see. No apologies
for mysterious dealings, nor little systems of
men corrected, but the perpetual self -justifying
course of a harmonious universe. Is it not
sublimer so ? Would we desire the God of the
ages to measure reasoning with mortals, and
argue out a case ? Nay, it was more than
genius, it was inspiration, that kept the author
from such a fatuity.
Job hears, and makes his own application.
He had stood ready, like a prince, How job
bearing the record of his righteous Tord'f"
life on his shoulder. But what words'
seemed his worth, when he had only his
friends to compare with, seems in the infinite

86 THE BOOK OF JOB
light very small. When the Lord pauses for
his answer, he has no word to say. No claim
more of merit and a triumphant cause ; no
clamor for explanation ; all has melted away
in reverence and humility, being absorbed in
the~one blessed consciousness that Godis no
more a hearsay but a seen reality.
" I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,
Section But now mine eye seeth Thee ;
xxix. q-12. Wherefore I loathe me and repent
In dust and ashes."
Thus Job meets the test with that worship
which is at once rapture and pain ; takes his
place, so to say, with submission and self-ab
negation, in the sum of God's creatures, con
tent to fulfill his part with the rest.1 • This is
his vindication : to go on, with enlightened
eyes and chastened spirit. It is altogether in
keeping that in this vision, so profound in its
influence, self is lost, and reverent, trustful,
penitent love abides? "~
1 In the long train of creative works by which the Lord
teaches Job of Himself and His ways, we are reminded of
Milton's reflections in the Sonnet on his Blindness : —
" His state
Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest."
Nor is the lesson that Milton draws for his own conduct
dissimilar to the submissive attitude here taken by Job : 
" Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best."

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY' 87
What, now, has become of that problem
which most interpreters have taken
as the central theme of the Book of joh-probiem,
as generally
Job, — " the mystery of God s provi- propounded,
. is answered.
dential government of men ? In de- $" above,
nying to it the supreme significance,
it would be temerity, not to say blindness, so
to insult the critical mind of the ages as to
banish it altogether. Nor does Job himself
ignore it. Has he not asked virtually the
same question ? —
" Why are not judgment times determined by the Al
mighty ? Section xvi.
And they that know Him — why see they not 34,35-
His days ? "
And all this time, though he knew it not, he
has been living the answer. The grand con
clusion, the sum total, is expressed not in
words but in life : " Now mine eye seeth
Thee." Need one whose eyes are opened by
such a hard schooling ask why it was given ?
The answer is self-evident. Less than such
stern discipline would not have produced such
beauty and strength of human character. Less
than such severe chastening would not have
quickened Job's vision to see how subtly self
ish motives may work to impair the friend
ships and the wisdom of earth, and how suffir
cing is the refuge provided in the eternal Love

88 THE BOOK OF JOB
beyond this life. And the answer thus em
bodied in the patriarch's experience is a world-
answer, pointing to that mystery of travail and
suffering which everywhere underlies the deep
est insight, the highest achievements. Shall
we ask why God invades our ease and scourges
us onward and upward to the table-lands of
vision ? The new horizon and the purer air
and the stronger muscles are the sufficient rea
son. " The spirit of man is an instrument
which cannot give out its deepest, finest tones,
except under the immediate hand of the Di
vine Harmonist."
Then comes the Epilogue. Job is com
mended ; prays for "his friends, who
The Epi- r ... . .
togue, sec- are forgiven at his intercession ; is
Hon xxx. restored to health and double pros
perity. The frierids were righteous for the
sake of worldly good ;' Job was righteous"Tor~
the sake of God. At the end of his long quest
he found God and worldly good too ; the greater
brought with it the less. Some think his res
toration is an artistic blemish; that it would
have been a nobler ending if he had been left
suffering. It would be a blemish if this paltry
reward were the end which Job sought, and
for which the poem existed. But the quest
has already reached its supreme end in the
vision and restored favor of God ; this is merely

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 89
its incidental addition. And at least the old
poet has put God and prosperity in the right
relative places, in remarkable anticipation of
the precept, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness : and all these things
shall be added unto you." iv.
One more inquiry remains, the inquiry as to
its origin. What must have been the IV Consid-
age, and what the nation, out of which gardmg"'s
such a book could grow ? What gen- ttriein'
eral vogue of thinking could have environed
such colossal thought ? Genius may indeed be
a mighty tree, growing from an unseen germ
to be the one commanding object of the plain ;
but it is rooted in the same soil that nourishes
the shrubs at its feet. A great work
1 • 1 A poem's
of literature both feeds its age and is relation to
its age.
fed by it. What the book returns, in
transmuted and vitalized form, to its gener
ation is what it has already gathered out of
the hopes and needs and problems that sur
round it. Not that the highest literature
is merely the echo of the people's surging
thought, and no more ; we cannot say this of
Tennyson and Browning and Whittier and
Emerson to-day : it is rather the utterance of
those who, making the universal cause their

90 THE BOOK OF JOB
own, stand nearest the light, and bring the
people's inarticulate longings to expression.
The poets of an age, when they let their open
and genuine hearts speak, are its truest seers.
In them we hear, not one man alone, but the
vast body of the time, pervaded by a spirit of
hope or doubt or inquiry ; a spirit voiceless,
until the ^Eolian strings of the poet's heart feel
and answer to its breathings ; a spirit unguided,
until the seer's own disciplined and originative
personality conducts it to its dimly sought rest.
This is the truth to-day, and has been ever
since we could first trace the connection of
literature with history ; may we not say that
something like it was equally a truth twenty-
six centuries ago ? And when this Book of
Job comes home to the general spir-
Such relation . - - c , , . r . , , ,
to he sought ltual need as freshly as if it had been
for Job. . . J , ,. , , .
written to meet the maladies of this
nineteenth Christian century, may we not say
that its involution is equal to its evolution, and
that there was a great heart of the people in
that old time, out of which the book grew and
to which it thrilled responsive, as it does to
ours ?
Yet when by external tests we endeavor to
Difficulty of fix its age, we find the book very baf-
deiermining J
Usage. fling. Generations of scholars have
ransacked the ten centuries from Moses to

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 91
the Babylonian Exile to find a place where it'
would fit in. It seems to move in a region
unconnected with any period of history or cus
tom that we are acquainted with. It was be
cause the book has no traceable contact with
Mosaic legislation and ritual that it was con
jectured by old interpreters to be the work of
Moses' middle age, when he was a shepherd in
Midian. It is because the book speaks in the
Wisdom dialect, as did Solomon and his com
peers, that some students trace in it a shadowy
contact with Solomon's age. It is because for
the lesson of the book, intensely individual
though it seems, a national occasion and sig
nificance must at all hazards be postulated,
that its composition is by many assigned to a
time near or within the Exile period. But
none of these indications can be regarded as
conclusive. Nor is it easier to account for
what the book contains than for what it omits.
It evinces knowledge, not slight nor casual, of
Arabian deserts, Judsean mountain ravines,
mines of the Sinai peninsula, beasts and plants
of the Nile region; it contemplates modes of
life both pastoral and urban ; it purports to
represent a distant patriarchal time, Wnere to
yet breathes the air of a later civiliza- %££% its
tion. For the historic setting of such "**'"*¦
a product as this we must look, I think, be-

92 THE BOOK OF JOB
neath the vicissitudes of wars and dynasties,
beneath the surface of political movements,
legislation, ecclesiastical affairs, to that stratum
of national life where there is least to record,
yet where most truly history is made, that sub
soil of thought and custom where the great
body of the people live and work and think.
In such tranquil surroundings, if we can pene
trate thither, we shall find the influences that
lie at the roots of the Book of Job.
But are there obtainable data enough, after
all these centuries, to help us conjecture, by the
creative imagination, something of that far
away " spirit of the age " to which the Book of
Job supposably answers ? Let us gather up
what there is, and see.
One fact we may take with confidence as the
job a work starting-point of our inquiry, —the
fret wl- fact that the Book of Job belongs dis-
dom' tinctively to the so-called Wisdom
literature of the Hebrews ; being indeed, of all
the products of that literature, the grandest in
the reach and ripeness of its thought, and the
completest in its literary form.
What the Hebrews called Wisdom corre
sponds to what other nations call phi-
TheHebrew  r
wisdom or losophy. The books classified under
philosophy. •  . -
that name contain the thoughts of
earnest and observant minds on life, on con-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 93
duct, on worldly prudence, on divine things,
on the mystery that encompasses the world.
And they introduce us to a class of men, of
whom otherwise little is known, the "wise
men," who in an unofficial way, and with ob
jects less purely religious, taught and had in
fluence along with priests and prophets in
shaping the spiritual life of the Hebrew peo
ple. " The law shall not perish from yeremiaht
the priest," said the men who re- xviii-'s-
jected Jeremiah's prediction of evil, "nor coun
sel from the wise, nor the word from the
prophet." Each of these three classes had its
work to do in the Hebrew state, and each has
left its record in the Hebrew literature. The
Law and the Prophets, mighty as are their in
fluence and doctrine, leave an important part
unsupplied ; they are supplemented, as they
need to be, by the utterances of Wisdom.
And a fitting supplement these are ; for just
as through law and prophecy comes
t ¦ 1 1 ^e human
to us the voice of the divine, through character of
Wisdom.
the Wisdom literature we hear the
voice of the human. It is man thinking for
himself, interpreting what he sees about him
and above him by the free exercise of reason,
spiritual insight, faith. The note of law is au
thority ; the note of prophecy is, " Thus saith
the Lord." In both of these that which is

94 THE BOOK OF JOB
above takes the initiative, it lays behest on
man without cooperation of his, adapting itself
to human limitations, but not reflecting them.
In Wisdom the initiative is taken by man ; its
noteis inquiry and discovery. It is the result
of man's efforts, crude and short-sighted, it may
be, but his own, to think God's thoughts after
Him, and shape the world anew by the ideal of
man's constructive heart. Whatever it gen
eralizes from the world of experience is the
fruit of its honest and open-eyed observation.
Whatever conclusions it reaches regarding
man's duty and destiny rest on visible and veri
fiable facts. And whenever it pushes its in
quiries out into the mystery beyond this world,
it keeps within the bounds of a rational faith
and insight, as it interprets the things it be
holds, or boldly pronounces on that which
ought to be. This it is which gives such uni
versal human interest to the literature of Wis
dom. It is a literature that embodies, not the
oracles of priests and prophets, who, having
the nearer vision, speak as exempt from doubt
and mistake, but the halting yet progressive
thoughts of men like ourselves, who, sur
rounded by a world of perplexing experience,
must interrogate for its meaning the native in
sight with which every man is endowed. When
such men give counsel, the universal feeling

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 95
of comradeship provides ears to hear. And
whatever revelation of the unseen is achieved
by their yearning faith is revelation indeed.
Essentially a people's literature, then, is this
Hebrew Wisdom ; this, too, in the
. . ,. -T Wisdom, a
more natural and ordinary sense. Not people's m-
rr . , . P erature.
an official utterance, it rises out of
the people's every-day work and practical af
fairs, giving voice to the thoughts with which
their lives are most conversant. To kings and
laborers alike it gives direction and guidance :
gathering wisdom for men when they go to the
temple for prayer, and when they go to the
city-gate for counsel ; walking with them in the
field where they toil, and in the market-place
where they bargain. Its note is eminently in
dividual ; x herein lies one of its distinctive
characteristics. Law and ritual are prescribed
for the congregation ; prophecy addresses it
self to the nation at large, reading the nation's
history in the divine light. The counsel of the
1 Wellhausen, in his article on " Israel " in the Encyclopae
dia Britannica, makes this strong individualism of the Book of
Job an argument for its post-exilic origin, because he regards
the pre-exilic literature as suffused only with the national con
sciousness. But I think he does not take sufficient account
of the fundamental difference between the Wisdom literature
on the one hand and the Law and the Prophets on the other.
Wisdom was always individual even from its beginning, as
truly so before the Exile as after ; and the argument for the
age of the Book of Job must be made up on other grounds.

96 THE BOOK OF JOB
wise .concerns man as man ; and in no other
department of the literature are we brought so
near the great heart of the nation, so near to
men's common and secular pursuits, as in this,
where untitled and unmitred men take upon
themselves to speak out freely and in the nat
ural style what is in them. For this very rea
son, also, no other literature is so hard to con
nect, in our reading of it, with national events.
To find its era and origin we must find how it
answers to the general pervasive spirit of an
age. The beginnings of the Wisdom culture we
trace to the age of Solomon, a period
Beginning , i r t ^
of the cui- when, as never betore and perhaps as
dom in solo- never after, the Hebrew nation broke
man's time. ,,,,,_. .
through the shell of its narrow exclu-
siveness and became awake to broader and
more cosmopolitan interests. Solomon him
self, with his keen devotion to knowledge, his
judicial mind, and his "largeness of heart,"
was the impulse-giving centre. Through his
enterprises in commerce, in art, in internal im
provement, in foreign intercourse, a new and
larger spirit pervaded the air and began spon
taneously to blossom into literary expression.
Inquiring what such a rich and varied world
meant, and what were the laws of its successes
and failures, men began to formulate their

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 97
observations into generalized maxims, such as
we see in the Book of Proverbs. This book,
which contains the earliest Wisdom utterances
that have come down to us, is the natural lit
erary evolution from those " dark questions "
which Solomon put to the Queen of Sheba, or
exchanged with Hiram, King of Tyre ; and in
the aphoristic mashal style therein exemplified
is set the type for all the succeeding Wisdom
literature. How much of the thought of that
nascent time remains to us in written product
it is impossible to say ; but its spiritual attitude
and tendency was of a type so distinctive, and
so expressive of the character of the age and its
king, that down to the days of its latest devel
opment, only a century before Christ, the works
of the Wisdom literature still legitimated them
selves by the name of the wise son of David.
The Book of Proverbs, the Book of Job, the
Book of Ecclesiastes, and the two apocryphal
books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon,
which make up the extant body of the Hebrew
Wisdom, possess, with all their differences in
style and doctrine, a unity of character answer
ing to the free spirit of judgment and inquiry
impressed upon that literature at its birth.
But a beginning is only a beginning ; we
cannot expect a literature, however vigorous
the impulse of its inception, to leap into exist-

98 THE BOOK OF JOB
ence full grown. The proverbs and riddles and
dark questions with which Solomon
aTvdop- and his court amused themselves,
be allowed though they embody many an earnest
interrogation of life and the world,
are still ages away from that ripened and sea
soned product apparent in the Book
later culture of Job. Before we reach that su
preme achievement we must allow
time enough for the Poor Richard maxims
about diligence and prudence and industry and
temperance which form the staple of the early
mashal to have passed from truths into truisms ;
time enough for the Wisdom utterance to have
developed from detached observations into a
body of philosophy, and then to have hardened
into an orthodoxy, with its intolerance of new
things, and its disposition to make life or per
dition depend on what a man thinks ; time
enough for the culture of Wisdom to have long
departed from courts and palaces, and to have
become the occupation of a recognized guild,
with its blue blood, its sacred traditions, its
learned nomenclature ; time enough for the phi
losophy to have become so international that
it is taken as no strange thing for an author to
represent Edomites and Hauranites and Ara
maeans as speaking in a common religious dia
lect which in no way interferes with the dis-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 99
tinctive cult of any nation. When we bear in
mind how tenaciously theological views once
established hold their ground, contesting to
the death every inch of advance, we shall be
slow to reckon the period as brief which covers
the progress of ideas from Solomon to Job.
For not only does the book bear all the marks
of development just described, it sig- Homjob
nalizes also a new period of doubt '£££££/
succeeding to the first age of discov- °Sdoubt-
ery and generalization. In its pages the Wis
dom hitherto accepted is becoming old and
stale. Its sages are repeating their lessons by
rote : lessons faultless in rhetoric, but no
longer thrilling hearts to vital response, and
too inflexible to adapt themselves to new ex
periences. The Book of Job exists largely in
order to call into question that very founda
tion truth, which is to Wisdom what Newton's
law is to astronomy, that both righteous and
wicked receive in this life the fruit of their
deeds, prosperity or destruction. A new in
duction of life must be made, for in that
principle there are two fatally weak Weak points
points. A weak point first in its as- imheeariier
¦ r <¦ <¦ r 1 • Wisdom.
sumption of fact ; for so far as this see above, p.
. 35, also p. iq.
life reveals there is no difference be
tween the fate of the righteous and the fate
of the wicked. Open your eyes and see every-

IOO THE BOOK OF JOB
where the wicked dying in a prosperous and
honored old age ; and is not Job himself, the
man perfect and upright, suffering a misery
which if this standard is true is injustice ? A
second weak point it betrays in its fruit of
character. For under such a law of life men,
reckoning surely on prosperity as the reward
of their righteousness, will put up their right
eousness in the market to be sold for a price ;
so that the mocking spirit roaming to and fro
in the earth may with only too much reason
ask, " Doth that well-rewarded man serve God
for nought ? " Satan may be narrow and self
ish, but he has sharp eyes. He sees, what
also we see, that when we make God over from
a personal Sovereign to a law of nature, forth
with from servants we become masters, and
begin to mould that law to our own selfish pur
poses. That was no small discovery to make,
in those early days ; requiring, not only acumen
on the part of the individual, but a reenforcing
readiness and sympathy in the spirit of his
age ; and the fact that the author of the Book
of Job has made it indicates that the medita
tive years had passed through a long maturing
process, until some of their best-established
ideas, over ripe, were ready to fall.
But to give definite date to such a develop
ment as this, to locate it at its precise point in

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY IOI
the ages, is extremely hard, not to say wholly
uncertain. The tides of the spirit, DiMadty
which we are endeavoring to trace, "/£$£**
are not easily estimated by years. %££%%
Besides, all this belongs to the class tr°dvct-
of events of which little note is taken in the
more pretentious records that we call histori
cal. We see its fruits in literature, and to
some extent in the coloring of political prog
ress ; but to find its habitat we must, as I have
intimated, turn aside from courts and capitals,
with their alternations of good and wicked ad
ministrations and their fitful vogues of piety
and idolatry, to those quieter regions where
men think more and live a less changeful life.
We have not reached the real heart of Israel,
that Isaiah's "remnant" which was the idola
trous nation's sole redemption, when we have
merely traced what was going on at Samaria
and Jerusalem. While in these capitals of
Israel and Judah long lines of kings were cre
ating some surface agitation by playing their
little games of war and diplomacy ; while
priests were working out their elaborate rit
uals for the public religious service ; while
prophets were strenuously seeking to guide
political affairs according to principles of faith
and righteousness ; in those smaller towns and
country places which could on occasion fur-

102 THE BOOK OF JOB
nish a herdsman of Tekoa to prophesy or a
Barzillai the Gileadite to serve with his sub
stance the cause of a fugitive king, there was
all the time, we must believe, a deep undercur
rent of constructive, progressive thought, flow
ing and broadening from its remote source in
the ages, channeling its way through the real
ity that alone can vitalize any forms ; on which
current many earnest minds, unheeding the
world's fluctuations, were borne steadily for
ward toward their spiritual rest. Among these
minds, and with such tranquil surroundings,
dwelt the wise men who wrought at the prob
lems of life.
On what kind of a world, then, looked out
the wise man who wrote for us the
Background ._ _
oftiu Book Book of Job ? In the first place, as
of Job; the J f >
social state the whole atmosphere of the book
recognized. x
makes evident, it was a world of
tranquil, settled conditions of life ; these seem
section xx. to nu the whole background of the
'-so- writer's consciousness. When Job
looks back upon his life of helpful activity
among his neighbors and dependents and of
wise counsel in the city-gates, and when Eli
phaz says, —

Section ix. " that which I have seen will I declare ;
' '—77. Which wise men tell, ai
Things heard from their fathers,

Which wise men tell, and have not hidden,

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 1 03
Unto whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger hath passed among them," —
we seem to hear, not the voice of these charac
ters alone, but the voice of an author whose
dwelling-place has for ages been remote from
invasions and national upheavals. Such places
there must have been, many of them, in the
land of Judaea, where one dynasty occupied the
throne continuously from David to the Baby
lonian Captivity, and where the whole history is
notably lacking in the interest due to stormy
and revolutionary annals. In such regions
Peace under her olive could without interrup
tions maintain her traditions and dwell among
high thoughts.1 But, secondly, the very region
and era which would furnish such congenial
field for the culture of Wisdom would also be
pervaded by an atmosphere in which such Wis
dom, if unvitalized by doubts and new discov
eries, must inevitably grow old and crumble.
For that same settled permanence gave abun
dant opportunity for the rich to extend their
1 Nothing is clearer to my mind than that the Book of Job
contemplates a period not of adversity, but, if anything, of too
uniform and uninterrupted prosperity. Those who, assum
ing that it is a " national dramatic poem," project it into a
time of hardship when, like the Captivity for instance, the
lesson is needed that a righteous and favored nation may nev
ertheless be afflicted, seem to me to be doing violence to the
whole presupposition on which Job, as a wise reformer of his
age, is establishing a broader and deeper truth.

IO4 THE BOOK OF JOB
possessions and grow more selfish and heartless,
while the hungry poor were obliged
Compare ., , . , ,
section xvi. to tread the rich man s wine-press or
roam the wastes for bread. Society
would crystallize into classes, with their tyran
nies of the powerful over the weak, and of the
aristocratic over the humble. To oppress the
needy, or, what comes to the same, to let them
stand shivering and hungry at the rich man's
door would become, even with the nominally
righteous, more and more a matter of course ;
while with the unscrupulous and
section xvi. wicked the harshness of the unfeel-
60-73. ing creditor and the secret sins of the
luxurious idle would find their natural nesting-
place. All this, which but follows the universal
tendencies of human nature, reads almost like
a transcript from the book we are studying.
Consider what kind of social state that must
section xv. have been wherein Eliphaz could so
s's?- naturally predicate just these sins of
Job merely because the latter was rich ; where-
sectionsix., 'm professed sages who had their les-
xi.,xm. son oniy ky rote were blind to any
iniquity that existed apart from its doom of
misery, while at the same time the
Section xiv. , r T
pure soul of Job, touched with the
feeling of human wretchedness, was quivering
with dismay to see landmarks removed, cloth-

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 105
ing stripped from the needy debtor, famished
and thirsty toilers in the very fields SeclionxyL
and wine-vats of the wealthy, and yet i^LrJIee
apparently no flash of divine judgment "a/e)'
against such enormities. The age on which
our author looked was not especially idolatrous
or apostate, nor were the forms and decorums
of religion lacking ; it was an age whose easy
prosperity, too long unwatched and undis
turbed, was becoming heartless, callous to so
cial ills, heedlessly worldly.
And for such a social state what spiritual
guidance and admonition existed ? state „y
The wise men sat in the city - gates i£S£ t,
and went in and out among the peo- Jobst"Ke-
pie ; what did they teach ? As far as we can
judge, merely a wisdom that followed the age
instead of leading it, that cherished dead tradi
tion instead of striking out new truths for new
and living needs. The venerable Pro-
_ f" , . , . , . ThePro-
verbs of Solomon constituted its basis ; verbs ofSoi.
onion.
and these, with their thrifty laws of
success, might easily have become popular as a
rich man's book, making it so natural, as they
do, for men to draw the comfortable conclusion
that because righteousness is the means of
prospering in the earth therefore prosperity
is the evidence of righteousness. But in addi
tion to these there must have been accumu-

106 THE BOOK OF JOB
lated a considerable body of Wisdom, several
The eater specimens of which have been pre-
dfZfucVd served in the book before us. Bildad
from in job. and Eiiphaz quote explicitly from it,
iT-38°"Six' to prove the transitoriness and the
sS"71' present misery of the wicked ; Job
%%n xm' quotes a passage of similar import, in
Section viii. order to refute it ; and it is not un
likely that Job's description of God's
ways in history and Bildad's descrip-
Sections . . . . it ,
xvii., xviii. tion of His mysterious dealings above,
to which latter may be added Job's
continuation in the same strain, are transcripts
from a philosophy familiar to all the sages of
the time. To the same spirit, though proba
bly now first published, may be reckoned the
sections m. oracle of Eliphaz's vision, and per-
ifcfoi xlx' haps Job's praise of Wisdom. Elihu,
Sections rich ln words but obeying uncon-
xxii.-xxv. sciously the dominant traditions, tries
to bring Wisdom up to date in order to fit
Job's case ; he, and indeed all the friends, may
be regarded as finger-posts of the spiritual
teaching of Job's time. And what do we dis
cern in it, beyond the lines already laid down
in the Solomonic Wisdom ? The mashal is
more finished and rhetorical ; from a detached
apothegm of two lines it has become a con
tinuous and highly wrought picture ; but it is

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY I07
still ringing changes on the same old theme
of righteousness and reward, wickedness and
woe; and in reconciling the obvious discrep
ancies of the world it has advanced only far
enough to invent a doctrine of innate corrup
tion, which makes every man wicked enough
to deserve whatever punishment he gets. It
is a wisdom that occupies the social heights,
looking down upon miseries with which it
does not sympathize ; and it has so lost vi
tality that it leaves the world heed- Tnewise
less and undisturbed. Corresponding ^lira^jr.
with this is the spiritual state of its UucU state-
teachers. Their God has become a hearsay,
their teaching a conventionalism. Zealous to
justify God in all His ways, no calamity could
be greater to them than to meet God face to
face. Thus along with their age they have be
come unspiritual and worldly ; and deep be
neath their philosophy there lurks the dry-rot
of a selfishness which eats away their sensibil
ity to the highest and truest things.
Such a state of things as this brings its in
evitable reaction. Sooner or later Sa- How this
tans question of motive must come state of
things meets
to the front. Sooner or later also a* reaction.
such a spirit, permeating the remote corners
of society, must begin to leaven the nation's
affairs, and to attract the attention of the

108 THE BOOK OF JOB
prophets. The first of these, the question of
motive, has been raised and nobly answered by
in the Booh the author of the Book of Job ; who,
°-fJ°b- in all the splendor of the later mashal,
has conceived and written what is at once a
masterly arraignment of Wisdom's weak points
and a creative solution of the world's problem,
so woven together in portraying the character
of a historic hero as to make a world-epic, a
in the sublime monument of universal liter-
prophets. ature_ Butj meanwhile, has all this
social background of our poem been otherwise
lost to history ? Let us see. During the
prosperous days that culminated in the reign
of Hezekiah, in the kingdom of Judah, a coun
try prophet, Micah, looking upon the same
secluded scenes that we have imagined for our
Mkah ii. author, spoke such burning words as
'• 2- these : " Woe to them that devise
iniquity, and work evil upon their beds ! when
the morning is light, they practice it, because
it is in the power of their hand. And they
covet fields, and seize them ; and houses, and
take them away : and they oppress a man and
his house, even a man and his heritage."
Such sin as this was apparently the crying
evil of that time ; for we hear also
Isaiah v. 8. _ , . . ,
Micah s greater contemporary, Isaiah,
irom his point of observation at the capital

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 109
saying, "Woe unto them that join house to
house, that lay field to field, till there be no
room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the
midst of the land ! " Exactly this unchecked
covetousness of the landed proprietors, with
its attendant cruelty to the poor, we Sectim ml
have seen before : it is the first great ¦j6~-5''
evil specified by Job, in his detailed survey of
his surroundings ; nor can the friends ignore
it, blind as they are to many things, sections u.
when they see men dwelling in deso- S4! *'"¦ 37'
lated cities, and seizing on houses that they
would not build. The general religious condi
tion, too, recognized by these prophets, is not
at variance with what we have already traced
as connected with our poem. It is not idolatry
and apostasy that they denounce, so See Micah,
much as that formalism which freely v/sJiA'i.ii-
dedicates worldly goods and neglects I7;v-7'
moral obligations, which is scrupulous to ob
serve new-moons and sabbaths, but is all foul
ness and extortion within. "Seek , Isaiah • i. iy.
judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless, plead for the widow," is Isa
iah's summary of man's duty ; and Micah's
conclusion of the matter might be taken as the
motto of the Book of Job : " He hath
¦ , . . , Micah vi. 8.
•showed thee, O man, what is good ;
and what doth the Lord require of thee, but

1 IO THE BOOK OF JOB
to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God ? " Nor can we fail to
be struck by the remarkable parallelism be
tween the blind subserviency to a traditional
Wisdom on the part of Job's friends and the
isaiah xxix. kind of teaching that Isaiah observed
13,14- jn his age : «< Forasmuch as this
people draw nigh unto me, and with their
mouth and with their lips do honor me, but
have removed their heart far from me, and
their fear of me is a commandment of men
which hath been learned by rote : x therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work
among this people, even a marvelous work and
a wonder : and the wisdom of their wise men
shall perish, and the understanding of their
prudent men shall be hid." Is not this the
very portrait of the men whose well-conned wis
dom was so riddled by the honest doubts of Job ?
It seems to me, therefore, that we have
The Book of f°und an eminently probable date for
prlbaMy"e our poem. What so natural as that,
fti™qTHez- Just about at the time when the men
ekiah. Q£ Hezekiah, perhaps in response to
a kind of popular vogue, were giving enlarged
see Pro- currency to the old Solomonic lore,
verbs, xxv. 1. some unknown country poet, speak
ing not for a rich and thrifty class but for man
1 So the margin of the Revised Version.

THE INTROD UCTOR Y STUD Y III
as man, should have shown wherein that lore
was lacking, and by sifting it with doubt
should have fitted his times with a greater
truth ? Such, I am not reluctant to think, was
the origin of the Book of Job. And in so con
cluding, we see in many significant points how
the age and its needed lesson are met together.
With this conjecture agrees very well the
one seemingly clear recognition of contempo
rary history which the Book of Job yob,saUu.
contains. In the speech wherein Job ^«,w£"
concedes to his friends what he holds hal™*-
in common with them concerning God's ways,
he says : —

" With Him are wisdom and might ; 27-53-

To Him belong counsel and understanding. Sectim viiL

Behold, He teareth down, and it shall not be
builded ;
He shutteth up a man, and there shall be no opening.
Behold, He restraineth the waters, and they dry up ;
He letteth them forth, and they lay waste the earth.
With Him are strength and truth ;
The erring one and he that causeth to err are His.
Who leadeth counselors away captive ;
And judges He maketh fools.
The bond of kings He looseth,
And bindeth a cord upon their loins.
Who leadeth priests away captive ;
And the long established He overthroweth.
Who removeth the speech of trusted ones ;
And the discernment of the aged He taketh away.
Who poureth contempt on princes ;

112 THE BOOK OF JOB
And the girdle of the strong He looseth.
Who revealeth deep things out of darkness,
And bringeth forth to light the shadow of death.
Who maketh nations great, — and destroyeth them;
Who spreadeth nations out, — and leadeth them away.
Who dishearteneth the leaders of the people of the land,
And maketh them wander in a waste, where there is no path.
They grope in darkness without light ;
And He maketh them wander like a drunken man."
Here there is such insistence on the idea of
captivity — counselors, priests, and whole na
tions being pictured as led away, kings as de
throned and bound with cords, princes as
treated with contempt, strong leaders as trudg
ing in despair over the pathless desert — that
we most reasonably conclude some world-fill
ing event, or series of events, observed in the
author's lifetime,1 and still recent enough to
point a solemn moral, had made a deep impres
sion on his mind. He talks about such his
tory, whatever it was, much as we would talk
about the well-remembered events of the Civil
War ; only, according to the devout Hebrew
custom, he interprets the work of human agents
Historical as the permitted and appointed judg-
tcslftht ment of God. Now the period of
perwd. which we are speaking was just the
time when the Assyrians were vigorously en-
1 The two lines immediately succeeding the above are : —
*' Behold, all this hath mine eye seen ;
Mine ear hath heard and understood it well.'

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY

"3

gaged in prosecuting their conquests in the
countries around Judaea; of which conquests
the most striking and peculiar feature was de
portation of whole tribes and cities across the
deserts to Assyria, The northern Certain
kingdom fell in 722 b. c, seven years iyr%fcaiT
before Hezekiah came to the throne "msis-
of Judah. Arpad had been taken by Tiglath-
Pileser in 740 ; Damascus by the same, in 732.
Sargon, who became king of Assyria in the
same year in which Samaria fell, took Hamath
in 720, and not long after advanced almost to
the borders of Egypt in a war with the king
of Gaza. In 712 the embassy from Mero-
dach-Baladan, of Babylon, came to congratulate
King Hezekiah, and obtained, as was doubt
less their secret purpose, a sight of his trea
sures. In 711 Sargon captured the Philistine
city of Ashdod, and carried its inhabitants
away into captivity. It was not until 701,
when Sennacherib's invasion of Judaea was
checked by a sudden and mysterious calamity,
that the Assyrians ceased to threaten
T . _ . ,. . Date of the
Judaea and its surrounding nations.1 passage
T,r • i -, above cited.
May it not have been while these
events were still fresh in memory, yet long
1 These dates, which are the ones authenticated by the As
syrian inscriptions, are taken from Professor Driver's excel
lent Life and Times of Isaiah, in the Men of the Bible Series.

1 14 THE BOOK OF JOB
enough thereafter for the nation to have
learned its lesson and settled down to a pros
perous peace, that the author of the Book of
Job wrote the passage I have cited above ?
That it was much later than Hezekiah,
Objections to , , _. , ....
putting it say when Manasseh was disquieting
later. ,,. , ,,. ,, , .
the kingdom by his wholesale experi
ments in idolatry, does not seem to me so nat
urally borne out by the general complexion of
the book. Still less natural would it seem, es
pecially in view of the other characteristics of
the book that I have traced, to make the above
passage refer, as some do, to the captivity of
Judah, which began in 588. A second cap
tivity would have been too trite a story to be
expounded thus freshly and vividly ; and it
would more reasonably have been employed to
teach a national lesson, instead of the individ
ual or rather universal one of our book. Be
sides, we cannot well imagine the tranquil set
tled surroundings which, as we have seen,
evidently filled the writer's consciousness, to
have entered the work either of a captive exile
or of a lone survivor in a desolated land ; one
of which, if the writer lived in the Judaean cap
tivity, he must have been.
comparison lt ls in no unfitting place in the
Wtera'r^ Hebrew literature if we thus regard
works. the Book o{ job as contemp0rary

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 1 15
with the great Isaiah. At what period could
we find language or thought in greater vigor
or beauty ? Nor does it thus disagree with
whatever literature may, for likeness of style
or thought, be compared with it. At
1 ,. .i ,. ,.¦ -, , With Pro-
about that time, as we have seen, the verbs xxv.-
men of Hezekiah were making their
supplement to the Book of Proverbs ; and the
part that they added, chapters xxv. to xxix.,
shows t*he same tendency to extend the ma
shal from a detached couplet to a continuous
passage that we have noted in the Book of
Job. Not yet was the section written With Pro,
that introduces the Book of Proverbs verts '¦'"•
(chapters i. to ix.) ; that was the addition of
the latest compiler, who lived perhaps during
the reign of Josiah or a little before.1 When
1 " For my own part, I incline to connect the ' Praise of
Wisdom ' with the age of Deuteronomy. Apart from the
details to be mentioned elsewhere, it is clear (I speak now of
Prov. i.-ix.), that the tone of the exhortations, and the view
of religion as ' having the promise of the life that now is,'
correspond to similar characteristics of the Book of Deuter
onomy. And if we turn from the contents to the form of
this choice little book, the same hypothesis seems equally
suitable. The prophets had long since seen the necessity of
increasing their influence by committing the main points of
their discourses to writing ; some rhetorical passages indeed
were evidently composed to be read and not to be heard. It
was natural that the moralists should follow this example,
not only (as in the anthologies) by remodeling their wise
sayings for publication, but also by venturing on long and

Il6 THE BOOK OF JOB
we compare its praise of Wisdom, chapters
viii. and ix., with Job xxviii. (section xix.), it
is not difficult to estimate which is the earlier.
The Wisdom that is praised in Job as the
most precious thing in the world is still the
literal austere virtue toward which the early
sages directed their eyes ; while in Proverbs,
though no less glowingly portrayed, it has
passed into the feebler and less sincere artis
tic refinements of personification and allegory.
In the same way of greater refinement, less
simplicity and directness, the following pas
sage from Jeremiah bears the marks of a copy,
or a later echo, as compared with the passage
where Job opens his mouth and curses his day :
" Cursed be the day wherein I was born : let not the day
wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed
Zx'T^S; be the man who brought tidings to my father,
compare Job, saying, A man child is born unto thee ; making
him very glad. And let that man be as the cities
which the Lord overthrew, and repented not : and let him
hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontide ; because
he "slew me not from the womb ; and so my mother should
have been my grave, and her womb always great. Where
fore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow,
that my days should be consumed with shame ? "
Jeremiah began to prophesy about 618 b. c, in
the reign of Josiah. The way in which he
echoes the passage in Job seems to indicate
animated quasi-oratorical recommendations of great moral
truths." — Cheyne, Job and Solomon, p. 157.

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY llj
that the latter, which then, as now, must have
been, of all the book, the words most easily
and universally recalled, had existed so long as
to have become a household word. In model
ing his complaint after the words of the suf
ferer of Uz, the prophet was making the most
vivid portrayal of his own woes, connecting
them as he thus did with a woe that had be
come historic and sacred.
Several of the psalms, notably Psalms xxxvii.,
xlix., and lxxiii., touch upon one of Job's per
plexing problems, the prosperity and apparent
impunity of the wicked. They seem y„b com.
to present a rather later phase of the ^rttin^
thought than is apparent in the Book ** ""'
of Job : later, in this respect, that what Job
works out as a discovery and makes good
against the prevailing view is in these psalms
taken as an assured tenet of thought. Job is
the pioneer ; and these psalms, whenever they
were written, follow in the path that his sturdy
faith has blazed out.
For the great ideals which the Book of Job
contains, there is no other book, as comparison
Professor Cheyne has pointed out, ¥J$$?
which affords so striking a parallel as lxvt~
the Book of the Servant of Jehovah, Isaiah xl.
to lxvi. Pervading them both is the idea of a
servant of God pure and upright yet suffering,

1 1 8 THE BOOK OF JOB
a servant so afflicted that men turn their faces
from him, seeing in him the stroke of God's
wrath. Job is the man of every-day life, who
proves by his unconquerable integrity what it
is to serve God for His own holy sake. The
Servant of Jehovah is the idealized, mediatorial
man, moving in some mysterious sphere above
us and making intercession for sin, even while
he dwells on earth with us. Job reaches by
faith to the idea of a Heavenly Friend, in
consequence of whose intercession he will
some day see God a stranger no more. In
the Servant of Jehovah is portrayed, not only a
friend of humanity, but a somewhat developed
plan of vicarious atonement. The ideal in the
second Isaiah, which adapts itself 1 confessedly
to the national needs of the Babylonian Cap
tivity, seems to represent a considerably later
and more matured stage of theological thought.

Who was the author of the Book of Job it is
conclusion. idle to inquire- He represents, who
ever he was, the ripest thinking and
culture of an age which, just because it could
environ such a book, we cannot forbear to pro
nounce great; and with a self-abnegation
1 Whether by anticipation or actual composition, I leave
to the interpreters of Isaiah to decide among themselves.

THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 1 19
which to our modern literary ambitions seems
marvelous, he has committed his book to the
care of the ages without a name. Nor is it
unfitting so. The book is ours, all men's ; the
thankful world will always care for it reverently,
for it will never cease to be young. And as
we look back toward its origin, we shall be
glad to cherish this our priceless heritage, not
in the narrow human copyright due to name or
definite date, but as beholding therein a large
divine Idea, shaping itself out of the nebulous
confusion of a far distant period, and orbing
into a perfect star, in whose unchanging light
we, with the patriarchs, may walk.

II
THE POEM

" The spirit of man is an instrument -which cannot give out its
deepest, finest tones, except under the immediate hand of the Divine
Harmonist." — Principal Shairp.
" He seems to hear a Heavenly Friend,
And thro' thick veils to apprehend
A labor working to an end."
Tennyson.

PERSONS
The Lord (Jehovah).
Job, a wealthy landholder of Uz; a man perfect and upright,
Eliphaz, of Teman, in Idum<za ; a vener
able and devout wise man.
Bildad, of Shuah; a disciple of tradition- Friends of Job.
Zophar, of Naamah ; a dogmatist, elo
quent and impetuous.
Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite ; a young Aramman, full of
zeal and self-confidence.
The Satan, or Accuser ; the spirit that denies.
Job's Wife. Sons of God, Friends, Messengers, and Spectators.
Place : Uz, a country lying eastward of Palestine, between
Idumcea and Chaldma.
Time: The patriarchal age.

THE ARGUMENT
I. Prologue. — i. Job's prosperous estate and his piety.
n. His first trial determined in heaven, and inflicted on him
in the loss of family and possessions. III. His second trial
determined in heaven, and inflicted on his body in sore dis
ease, iv. His three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar,
visit him, and are silent at his affliction. (Chapters i., ii.)
II. Job. — Opens his mouth, and I. Curses the day of his
birth. II. Laments that he ever was born. in. Longs for
death, being in darkness and bewilderment as to the meaning
of his life. (Chapter iii.)
III. Eliphaz. — Addressing Job courteously, I. Reminds
him of the faith in which he had formerly found comfort.
II. Recounts a vision of his own, that revealed to him God's
unapproachable holiness, in. Warns Job of the danger of
anger against God's ways. iv. Directs Job to return to God
and be blest, v. Gives sweet promise to him who accepts
God's chastening, vi. Concludes. (Chapters iv., v.)
IV. Job. — I. Justifies his anger, and finds Eliphaz's words
insipid. II. Passionately desires death to release him, while
his integrity yet remains. III. Bewails the treachery of his
friends, and urges return of friendship, iv. Describes the
greatness and hopelessness of his anguish, v. Resolves to
speak out and seek explanation of God. (Chapters vi., vii.)
V. Bildad. — Reproaching Job for his rash words, I.
Maintains that God has dealt justly, yet promises restoration
to Job on condition of repentance and confession. II. From
the sayings of the ancients describes the precarious existence
of the wicked. III. But holds out promise to Job. (Chap
ter viii.)
VI. Job. — I. Acknowledging the truth of Bildad's words,

I 26 THE BOOK OF JOB
yet doubts how man can be just with God. 11. Complains
that God is so inaccessible, and on Bildad's data finds the
world's government out of joint. III. In his forlorn state,
so hopeless of maintaining his cause, longs for a Daysman,
whom yet he does not believe in. iv. In the boldness of de-"
spair arraigns God for His seeming hardness toward the work
of His hands, v. Implores a little rest before he goes hence.
(Chapters ix., x.)
VII. Zophar. — In great heat affirming that God is pun
ishing Job less than he deserves, 1. Reproaches Job for de
siring to find out God's hidden ways. u. Promises, as did
Bildad, restoration on condition of repentance and confession
of sin. (Chapter xi.)
VIII. Job. — Perceiving that the friends, after all, have
not the real secret of God, and cutting loose accordingly
from their doctrine, 1. Describes what he, in common with
them, may hold of God's mysterious dealings. 11. Accuses
them of asserting what is wrong, in order to propitiate God.
in. Commits himself to the firm faith that his own way of
honest integrity will issue in salvation, in spite of the present
seeming verdict of divine wrath, iv. Faces the stern pros
pect of death, and longs for return of life after the grave.
v. Yet acknowledges how groundless is such longing in any
analogies that we can here see or experience. (Chapters
xii., xiii., xiv.)
IX. Eliphaz. — Accusing Job, out of his own mouth, of
impiety, 1. Repeats his before-asserted doctrine of God's
holiness and man's uncleanness. 11. Describes, in the words
of ancient wise men, the lifelong terror of the wicked man,
and his inevitable doom in this world. (Chapter xv.)
X. Job. — Reminding his friends how easy it is for the
unafflicted to make theories, 1. Describes anew the ravages
of his disease, n. Affirms his certain belief that he has an
Advocate in heaven, in which belief he is able to meet their
reproaches calmly, in. Perceives the spiritual blindness of
his friends, and his own truer insight, iv. In this conscious
ness draws resignedly near the grave. (Chapters xvi., xvii.)

THE ARGUMENT 1 27
XI. Bildad. — Incensed that Job accounts him and his
fellows blind, 1. Describes, largely in terms of Job's afflic
tion, the sudden and terrible doom of the wicked. 11. Seals
it with an affirmation. (Chapter xviii.)
XII. Job. — Recognizing to the full but not yet answering
the friends' reproaches, I. Affirms anew that God is the Au
thor of his wrong, v/hich then he describes at length as God's
inveterate enmity. II. Bewails his loneliness, being deserted
of all his friends ; and implores pity. in. Breaks out into
the solemn affirmation that because his Redeemer liveth he
shall, beyond death, see God as his Friend, iv. In this con
fidence warns his friends against misjudging him. (Chapter
xix.) XIII. Zophar. — Replying in passionate haste, 1. De
scribes how short-lived and unsubstantial is the triumph of
the wicked. 11. How the sweetness of sin turns to a bitter
curse, till an outraged God sweeps away the wicked in dark
ness. III. Concludes. (Chapter xx.)
XIV. Job. — Calling for attention to his answer, 1. De
scribes his shuddering dismay at what he sees in the world,
and shows, in contradiction to what the friends have asserted,
how prosperously the wicked live, and how securely they die.
11. Yet disclaims sympathy with their ways. in. Challenges
his friends to gainsay the apparent equality of righteous and
wicked before God. iv. Denies their assertion that the
wicked are swept away by an earthly doom. v. Concludes
by branding their answers as falsehood. (Chapter xxi.)
XV. Eliphaz. — 1. Accuses Job directly of sinning and"-
trusting that God regards it not. II. Counts him as cherish
ing wicked ways. in. Gives him a final exhortation to put
away iniquity and return to God and renewed prosperity.
(Chapter xxii.)
XVI. Job. — Yielding to the strenuous impulse of his com
plaint, 1. Replies to the accusation of cherishing wickedness
by asserting his longing to find God and present his cause.
11. Bewails God's hidden face and inscrutable ways. in. De
scribes in detail the ways in which wicked men, all around

128 THE BOOK OF JOB
him, are sinning with impunity, iv. Denies at length the
common idea that the wicked are especially marked out for
earthly doom. v. Concludes by challenging disproof of his
words. (Chapters xxiii., xxiv.)
XVII. Bildad. — Describes, in lofty terms, God's unap
proachable holiness and man's necessary impurity before
Him. (Chapter xxv.)
XVIII. Job. — Ridiculing with scorn the inapplicableness
of Bildad's words, I. Continues, in similar strain, the descrip
tion of God's greatness and mystery, n. Yet avers that this
description touches but the outskirts, not the secret, of His
ways. (Chapter xxvi.)
XIX. Job. — The friends having exhausted their argu
ments, Job, resuming his discourse, I. Affirms anew, with a
solemn oath, the essential righteousness and truthfulness of
his life. II. Describes, in correction of his friends' intem
perate and one-sided portrayals, the real state of the wicked,
as insecure, without delight in God or hope of a blessed
future. III. Sets over against this the true Wisdom of life,
which is to fear God and shun evil. (Chapters xxvii., xxviii.)
XX. Job. — Pursuing his discourse further, I. Looks back
on the days of his former prosperity and honor, and describes
his life therein, n. Contrasts the woe and obloquy of the
present, wherein even the most degraded despise him.
III. Solemnly calls down judgment on himself if he have
sinned against righteousness and goodness, and with this
noble record stands ready to meet God. (Chapters xxix.,
xxx., xxxi.) THE WORDS OF JOB ARE ENDED.
XXI. Transition. — Elihu, a young speaker hitherto si
lent, perceiving on the one hand Job's stout justification of
his ways, and on the other the friends' inability to answer,
takes upon himself to set both parties right, his wrath being
kindled. (Chapter xxxii. 1-5.)
XXII. Elihu. — 1. Volubly describes his youth, his hesi
tation, and his final resolve to speak, being impelled by full-

THE ARGUMENT 1 29
ness of words, n. Takes upon himself, as a Daysman, to
represent to Job the cause of God. in. Censures Job for
his complaint that God answers not, and shows how God
answers both by vision and by affliction, iv. But maintains,
moreover, that these are to be interpreted by a messenger
from God, such as he evidently regards himself, that the
afflicted may penitently and joyfully return, v. Concludes,
by demanding either reply or further hearing. (Chapters
xxxii. 6-22, xxxiii.)
XXIII. Elihu. — Turning to the friends and requesting
a. candid hearing, 1. Condemns Job in that his defense of
himself censures God, whereas God will not pervert judg
ment. 11. Shows what it is to condemn the Just and Mighty
One, in whose hands are the destinies of all. ill. Counsels
for Job rather humility and confession of having sinned in
ignorance, than such arrogance as his. (Chapter xxxiv.)
XXIV. Elihu. — Addressing Job and the friends together,
1. Shows the folly of which Job is guilty in virtually making
his justice more than that of God, who is so high above our
conceptions, n. Explains that oppression comes upon the
poor because in their distress they turn not to God, who is
always ready to deliver. (Chapter xxxv.)
XXV. Elihu. — Calling yet for hearing, and identifying
his notions with God's hidden knowledge, 1. Shows how by
affliction God draws the soul in discipline to Himself, and
applies this in Job's case. II. Describes, by occasion of a
distant storm, the mighty works of God, which are beyond
us to comprehend, in. As the storm approaches and bursts
upon them, he becomes confused, incoherent in speech, and
finally breaks off abruptly in terror and abject confession of
ignorance. (Chapters xxxvi., xxxvii.)
XXVI. The Lord. — From the whirlwind dismissing
Elihu with a word, and calling on Job to answer, 1. Passes in
review before Job His great creative works, — earth, sea, and
light. II. Mentions the great things of common nature, —
snow, rain, and the influence of the stars, in. Describes the
wonderful animal life, which displays varied wisdom in its

130 THE BOOK OF JOB
creation and adaptation to its place, iv. Calls anew on Job
bidding him answer his own censurings of God. (Chapters
xxxviii., xxxix., xl. I, 2.)
XXVII. Job. — Is overwhelmed with the sense of his lit
tleness, and declines to answer. (Chapter xl. 3-5.)
XXVIII. The Lord. — Calling again for answer, 1. Bids
Job exert God's power, as he has presumed on God's judg
ment. 11. Describes Behemoth, which, though so powerful,
is inoffensive and submissive to man. in. Describes Levi
athan, which in overwhelming strength sets at nought all that
man can do ; how much more exalted, then, Leviathan's Cre
ator. (Chapter xl. 6-24, xii.)
XXIX. Job. — Having now the sight of God for which he
has longed, and no more hearsay, is content not to know all
and to abide in penitent humility. (Chapter xiii. 1-6.)
XXX. Epilogue. — 1. Job is commended before the
friends, because he has spoken concerning God the thing
that is right ; and at the Lord's behest he prays for them,
who are forgiven at his intercession, n. He is restored to
double his former prosperity, in. His subsequent happy
life, and his death in a ripe old age. (Chapter xiii. 7-17.)

JOB

I
PROLOGUE

THERE was a man in the land of Uz,
whose name was Job ; and that man
was perfect and upright, one who feared God
Chap. i. i.
The narrative portions of the Book of Job, which comprise
the Prologue (section i.), the introduction of Elihu (section
xxi.), and the Epilogue (section xxx.), are written in prose ;
the rest (except the section headings) in poetry. To the Eng
lish reader the difference in tone, character of subject-matter,
and diction, are so plainly discernible that the distinction be
tween the two kinds of discourse cannot easily be mistaken.
The adoption of the paragraph form for the one, and of the
parallelistic form for the other, is as natural, and as fitting to
the thought, in a translation as in the original. It is this fact
which makes Hebrew poetry, as poetry, so susceptible of
reproduction in another language : the poetic form depends,
for the most part, on principles essential to the thought, as
passion, imagery, and elevation, rather than on, rules of quan
tity and assonance. The rhythm is such as our impassioned
prose makes to itself, — fashioned, that is, by the impelling
spirit within the thought to a regularity of flow and accent,
though not a strictly measured regularity like that of our

132 THE BOOK OF JOB L
and shunned evil. And there were born to
him seven sons and three daughters. And s
his property was seven thousand sheep, and
three thousand camels, and five hundred
yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses,
and a very great household ; and this man
was the greatest of all the sons of the East. 10
And his sons used to go and make a feast
Chap. i. 2-4.
metre. Its manifestation, the parallelism, is a thought-meas
ure rather than a form-measure.
Line i. The most probable location of the land of Uz,
which at best is matter of conjecture, is indicated in the table
of persons prefixed to the poem. What is of chief impor
tance to note here is, that the poet has laid his scene in a
land outside of Palestine, with its national traditions of law
and ritual ; and thus he has chosen a fitting place for an ac
tion that deals with the pure essentials of religion and morals.
3. Job's character, too, exemplifies that devout righteous
ness which is well-pleasing to God, whatever the external
form of service ; compare Acts x. 35. In the life of Job
the poet evidently intends to portray the plain and univer
sal ideal of a good life, such as every one can understand.
The word perfect is not to be complicated with modern dog
matic subtilties ; it corresponds not inaptly to Horace's integer
vitai, being the adjective of which integrity is the substantive.
6. The word translated sheep designates in Hebrew both
sheep and goats, corresponding to the German kleinvieh,
" small cattle."
9. The household included family, servants, and depen
dents. 10. The term sons of the East is a general designation for
all who lived in the regions eastward and southeastward of
Palestine.

I. PROLOGUE 133
at the house of each on his day ; and they
would send and invite their three sisters to
eat and drink with them. And so it was,
that whenever the feast-days came round, 15
Job sent and sanctified them ; and he rose
early in the morning and offered burnt offer
ings according to the number of them all ;
for Job said, " Haply my sons have sinned
and blasphemed God in their hearts." Thus 20
did Job continually. 11.
Now there was a day when the sons of
Chap. i. 4-6.
12. It would appear from the expression in section ii. 2,
that the day observed by each of the sons was his birthday.
Seven times a year, therefore, such a feast-day would come
round. 16. Job sanctified his children by some simple ceremony
of washing and change of garments, probably, such as is in
culcated in Genesis xxxv. a.
17. The form of sacrifice here mentioned was not such as
is laid down in the ceremonial law of Moses, but the simple
patriarchal form, such as from earliest times expressed the
primitive impulse to worship.
20. The word translated blasphemed, which occurs again
in lines 43 and 109, where it is translated renounce, and in line
119, where it is translated curse, primarily means bless. It
probably got its secondary meaning from the idea of giving
the good-by blessing, hence bidding farewell, renouncing.
22. Sons of God is an ancient term — see Genesis vi. 2 —
designating the spirit? who attend Him and work His will.

134 THE BOOK OF JOB I
God came to present themselves before the
Lord ; and among them came also Satan.
And the Lord said to Satan, "Whence 25
comest thou ? "
And Satan answered the Lord and said,
" From roaming to and fro in the earth, and
from walking up and down in it."
And the Lord said to Satan, " Hast thou 30
considered my servant Job, that there is
none like him in the earth, a man perfect
Chap. i. 6-8.
24. The word here translated the Lord is the Hebrew
name Jehovah. Outside of the Prologue and Epilogue the
name occurs only in section viii. 20. As the interlocutors are
all dwellers in lands outside of Palestine, it is natural that
they should apply to the Deity designations more general
than that of the national God of the Hebrews ; the writer,
however, being a Hebrew, has no such reason for avoiding
that name in the Prologue and Epilogue.
The Hebrew word Satan is literally the Satan, that is, the
Accuser ; being at the time this Prologue contemplates, a
designation rather than a name.
28. Satan's first account of himself betrays that lack of
dignity and stability which Goethe has taken as the basis for
his portrayal of Mephistopheles. He is a wandering spirit,
unattached to any allegiance, unsteadied by any principle ; his
only occupation being, apparently, to appease the restlessness
of an active mind, as well as he can, by incessantly roaming
over the earth and observing its affairs ; see Introductory
Study, p. 33. From this trait of unrest, the unrest of a spirit
who has lost his moorings, all other traits of Satan's charac
ter, as here brought to light, are naturally traceable.
31. Not the author alone, but the Lord Himself ac-

PROLOGUE

i3S

and upright, who feareth God and shunneth
evil ? "
And Satan answered the Lord and said, 35
" Doth Job fear God for nought ? Hast
Thou not -Thyself set a hedge about him,
and about his house, and about all that is
his, on every side ? Thou hast blessed the
work of his hands, and his property is «
spread out in the land. But put forth now
Thy hand, and touch all that he hath, — and
Chap. i. 8-1 i.
knowledges Job's good life ; nor does Satan deny it. That
Job is a true and upright man is to be accepted as an un
questionable element, so to say, in the hypothesis with which
we set out. And yet it is just this element which Job's friends,
merely on the ground of his affliction, deny.
36. Satan's question opens the whole argument, or prob
lem, of the poem. It discloses, for one thing, the weak point
of the current Wisdom philosophy, which, associating as by
an unfailing law of nature prosperity with righteousness and
destruction with wickedness, opens the way for a merely
selfish barter of religious service for worldly wages ; and
thus the question says, in effect, why not be righteous when
righteousness pays so well ? But for another thing, the ques
tion reveals Satan's character, which, as the sequel shows, is
in polar contrast to that of Job. A half wondering, half
sneering, wholly selfish question, the question of one who,
having no allegiance outside of self, has no ability to under
stand unselfishness, it says in effect, Is there such a thing as
disinterested integrity, goodness without thought of reward,
possible in the world ? See Introductory Study, p. 19.
42. And see if he will not renounce Thee. This is virtu
ally a wager, as if he had said, " My word for it, he will re-

I36 THE BOOK OF JOB I
see if he will not renounce Thee, to Thy
face." And the Lord said to Satan, " Behold all 45
that he hath is in thy power ; only, on him
self put not forth thy hand."
And Satan went forth from the presence
of the Lord.
And it was the day when his sons and his 50
daughters were eating and drinking wine in
the house of their brother the first-born.
And there came a messenger to Job, and
said, " The oxen were ploughing, and the she-
Chap. 1. 11-14.
nounce Thee." The disposition to wager, to try experiments
with the future, is quite in accord with the author's concep
tion of Satan's character. Having neither fixed principle in
himself nor connection with the Source of order outside,
Satan has not prophetic ability. He can appeal to chance,
but he cannot foresee. Goethe attributes, by a fine insight,
this same wagering disposition to his Mephistopheles : —
" The Lord. — Though still confused his service unto Me,
I soon shall lead him to a clearer morning.
Sees not the gardener, even while buds his tree,
Both flower and fruit the future years adorning ?
Mephistopheles. — What will you bet? There's still a chance
to gain him,
If unto me full leave you give,
Gently upon my road to train him ! "
On renounce, see note, line 20.
50. The day, — namely, the birthday of the eldest brother j
see note on line 12.

L PROLOGUE 137
asses feeding beside them ; and the Sabaeans 55
fell upon them and took them away ; and the
youths they killed with the edge of the
sword ; and I, only I alone, am escaped to
tell thee."
While this one was yet speaking, another 60
came and said, " Fire of God fell from
heaven, and burned the sheep and the
youths, and consumed them ; and I, only I
alone, am escaped to tell thee."
While this one was yet speaking, another 65
came and said, "The Chaldaeans made three
bands, and rushed upon the camels, and took
them away ; and the youths they killed with
the edge of the sword ; and I, only I alone,
am escaped to tell thee." 70
While this one was yet speaking, another
came and said, " Thy sons and thy daugh-
Chap. 1. 14-18.
55. Sabceans, — predatory hordes from the mountainous
regions southwest of Uz. In section iv. 39, the same people
are represented as traveling in caravans.
56. The youths, — that is, the servants who attended the
flocks. 61 . The expression fire of God is probably meant to des
ignate lightning, though there is something surprising, not
to say preternatural, in its destroying seven thousand sheep.
The storm in which it came we may regard as identical with
the hurricane reported by the fourth messenger.
66. Chaldceans, — marauding bands from the region north
and northeast of Uz.

138 THE BOOK OF JOB L
ters were eating and drinking wine in the
house of their brother the first-born ; and
behold, a great wind came from beyond the a
wilderness, and smote the four corners of
the house, and it fell upon the young men,
and they are dead ; and I, only I alone, am
escaped to tell thee."
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and so
shaved his head, and fell upon the ground
and worshiped, and said, "Naked came I
out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I
return thither. The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away : blessed be the ss
name of the Lord ! "
In all this Job sinned not, nor attributed
aught unbeseeming to God.
Chap. i. 18-22.
75. Great winds from beyond the desert lying east and
northeast of Uz are still a much dreaded and not unusual
phenomenon of that region.
78. To report the four messages in identical words is
not so much a crudeness as a naivete of the ancient narrative
method, which is not at all reluctant to repeat the same
words, and perhaps looks upon such repetition as a grace,
when the words are applicable to the same situation.
82. Job's attitude in this first trial is that of firm, almost
proud loyalty to God. He regards the stroke, indeed, as di
rectly from God ; but he has not yet begun to realize the
depth and the involvement of his visitation.
88. Aught unbeseeming, — that is, unworthy or ungodlike,
The word so translated means literally insipidity ox folly, and,

PROLOGUE

139

III.
Again it was the day when the sons of
God came to present themselves before the 90
Lord ; and among them came also Satan,
to present himself before the Lord.
And the Lord said to Satan, "Whence
comest thou ? "
And Satan answered the Lord and said, 95
" From roaming to and fro in the earth, and
from walking up and down in it."
And the Lord said to Satan, " Hast
thou considered my servant Job, that there
is none like him in the earth, a man perfect 109
and upright, who feareth God and shunneth
evil ? and he still holdeth fast his integrity,
Chap. ii. 1-3.
as applied to man, is a not unfrequent term for wickedness.
It is the quality in God's dealings concerning which Job begins
to question, as soon as the greatness of his affliction has be
come fully evident to him ; see section vi. 75, " Is it beseem
ing to Thee that Thou shouldst oppress ? " As yet, however,
he views his stroke as only the right of God to take away
what He has given.
102. The question whether Job would hold fast his integ
rity was the point at issue between the Lord and Satan. It
is worth while to note the simplicity and sufficingness of the
old conception, which the world does not well to outgrow,
that integrity or wholeness of the man is identical with loy
alty to God. The man who renounces God goes to wreck as
a man.

I40 THE BOOK OF JOB I.
though thou didst move me against him, to
destroy him causelessly."
And Satan answered the Lord and said, 105
" Skin for skin : all that a man hath will he
give for his life. But put forth now Thy
hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, —
and see if he will not renounce Thee, to Thy
face." 110
And the Lord said to Satan, " Behold, he
is in thy hand ; but spare his life."
And Satan went forth from the presence
of the Lord, and smote Job with grievous
boils, from the sole of his foot to his crown, us
Chap. ii. 3-7.
104. It will be serviceable, in estimating the justice of
Job's complaint, to bear in mind that God Himself is repre
sented as acknowledging that the visitation was causeless,
that is, not just to Job's deserts. In estimating himself as
unjustly punished, Job sees as God sees.
106. Skin for skin, — presumably a proverbial expression.
Its uncouthness, as used in such majestic Presence, accords
with the mocking, detracting, impudent character of Satan,
and perhaps furnishes the suggestion of Goethe's conception
of Mephistopheles as incapable of lofty and dignified speech,
"Verzeih', ich kann nicht hohe Worte machen." Nowhere
in the Prologue to Faust is the genius of Goethe more ex
quisitely displayed than in the shrewd, cutting, yet essentially
low language and imagery in which Mephistopheles' thoughts
are everywhere conveyed. It is of sarcasm and impudence
all compact.
114. These grievous boils, with the signs mentioned by
Job subsequently, indicate that the disease with which Satan

I. PROLOGUE I41
And Job took him a potsherd to scrape him
self with, and sat among the ashes.
And his wife said to him, " Dost thou still
hold fast thine integrity ? Curse God, and
die." 12a
And he said to her, "Thou speakest as
one of the foolish women speaketh. What !
shall we receive good from God, and shall
we not receive evil ? "
In all this Job sinned not with his lips. 125
Chap. ii. 8-10.
afflicted him was black leprosy, or elephantiasis, which, of all
diseases, was universally regarded as the most indubitable
sign of God's direct stroke. It is the cruel irony of Satan to
work as if he were God. Blake, in his picture of this scene,
represents Satan as wielding God's natural agencies.
117. The ashes, — that is, the heap of ashes and refuse, out
side the gates of the city, to which in Oriental lands the leper
is banished. 118. With true feminine tendency to think in the concrete
and leap straight to conclusions, Job's wife traces his afflic
tion directly to its personal cause, having no disposition to
philosophize, or to leave matters in abeyance.
119. Curse God, — the same word elsewhere translated blas
pheme or renounce ; see note on ling 20. The abrupt imper
ative here and the evident resentment that fills her words
seem to call for the translation curse as best representing the
animus of her suggestion.
122. The word foolish was the common Hebrew word for
vile or wicked.
123. As when God removed His gifts, so now when He sends
positive afflictions, Job's first attitude is strong and undoubt-
ing loyalty. Browning, in " Ferishtah's Fancies " (The Melon-
Seller), has thus drawn the lesson of this reply of Job : —

142 THE BOOK OF JOB I-

IV.
Now three friends of Job heard of all this
evil that had befallen him, and came, each
from his place : Eliphaz the Temanite, and
Bildad the Shiihite, and Zophar the Naama-
thite. And they made an appointment to-iso
Chap. ii. ii.
" ' How
Enormous thy abjection, — hell from heaven,
Made tenfold hell by contrast ! Whisper me !
Dost thou curse God for granting twelve years' bliss
Only to prove this day's the direr lot ? '
" Whereon the beggar raised a brow, once more
Luminous and imperial, from the rags.
1 Fool, does thy folly think my foolishness
Dwells rather on the fact that God appoints
A day of woe to the unworthy one,
Than that the unworthy one, by God's award,
Tasted joy twelve years long ? ' "
It is the every-day monotony of pain, here just beginning,
and with this the friends' hard reports of God, that rouses by
degrees an agony of inquiry and doubt.
127. And came ; but owing to the distance, and the leisurely
modes of travel and of sending reports in the East, very
likely the " months of wretchedness," of which Job speaks in
section iv. 66, intervened before the friends reached him.
Each from his place. Teman, in Idumsea, was noted, as
would appear from Jeremiah xlix. 7, for the wisdom of its in
habitants, — a distinction which Eliphaz well bears out. We
may perhaps regard Teman as the renowned seat of a kind of
university, if we may use so modern a term, where Wisdom
was especially cultivated. Of the dwelling-places of Bildad
and Zophar nothing positive is known.

L PROLOGUE 143
gether to come and mourn with him and
comfort him. And when they raised their
eyes from afar and knew him not, they lifted
up their voice and wept. And they rent
every man his mantle, and they sprinkled 135
dust on their heads toward heaven. And
they sat with him on the ground seven days
and seven nights ; and none spake word to
him ; for they saw that his affliction was
very great. uo
Chap. ii. 11-13.
132. Knew him not, — that is, so disfigured was he already
with the ravages of disease, that they did not recognize the
countenance they had so familiarly known in the past.
138. None spake word to him. The friends' shock of sur
prise was also a shock of disappointment. They had arranged
to go and comfort him ; but when they found him stricken
with elephantiasis, the special scourge of God, how could
they comfort whom God had afflicted ? So the silent days
gradually become ominous ; from sympathizers the friends
are changed to spectators, as they see that God's favor is
withdrawn. It is like what Isaiah describes, liii. 3, 4, of our
treatment of the servant of Jehovah : " He is despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ;
and we hid as it were our faces from him." The reason, too,
is the same : " We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted."
At this point the view into heaven is withdrawn, and the
scene is left with its two principal elements, their attitudes
already indicated : Job, ignorant of the Satanic origin of his
affliction, plunged into an abyss of punishment which, even
by the confession of God, is wholly without ground in justice ;
and the friends, who, judging by the outer sight of Job's

144 THE BOOK OF JOB
disease instead of the inner recognition of Job's unshaken
integrity, are already withdrawing sympathy and becoming
estranged. It is a supreme test alike of the loyalty of Job to
God, and of the current philosophy of life. Will Job prove
that his service of God is not for reward, but because of his
deep hunger for divine righteousness and communion ? And
if so, will he not reach a higher point than has been found in
that philosophy which counts on prosperity, or shuns de
struction, as its terms of allegiance ?

II
JOB
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed
his day. And Job answered and said :
I.
" Perish the day wherein I was born,
And the night which said, A man-child is
conceived.
That day — let it be darkness ;
Chap. iii. 1-4.
The opening of Job's first speech reveals something of the
obscure march of his soul during those silent days. From
being proudly trustful in God his musing spirit has sunk
back into passionate despair and blink bewilderment. It
seems to be the poet's intention to portray him as thrown for
the moment out of his orbit into a condition too elementary
for hope ; back of trust, back of religion, into that crude
necromantic superstition which curses days and deals in the
obscure mysteries of materialism. From this deep starting-
point he is to find his way upward to light and God again.
Line i. Cursed, — not the word used by Job's wife, sec
tion i. 119, but the usual word for imprecation on what is base
and worthless.
2. Job answered. In the Hebrew conception an answer
could be made, not only to the words of another, but to any
experience or state of things with which the soul was con
fronted. Hence Job meets his affliction with an answer.

146 THE BOOK OF JOB II.
Let not God inquire after it from above,
And let not light shine upon it.
Let darkness and shadow of death reclaim it ;
Let cloud rest upon it ;
Let darkenings of the day terrify it. 10
That night — thick darkness seize upon it ;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not come into the number of the months.
Lo ! that night — let it be barren ;
Let no joyful voice-come therein. 15
Let them curse it who curse days,
Who are skilled to rouse up leviathan.
Chap. iii. 4-8.
6. Inquire after it, — that is, so as to take account of it as
a day of history. It is to have no office in the sum of things,
and hence no record.
8. Reclaim it, — that is, let that day revert to the chaos
that belonged to time before the creation.
10. Darkenings of the day, — eclipses, which in unscientific
times and lands have always been regarded with terror as of
mysterious and sinister portent.
1 1 . Thick darkness, — that is, let it be plunged into a deeper
than natural night, the night, as it were, of night.
14. Barren, — that is, of births. The joyful voice, in the
next line, means the voice of gladness over new-begun lives.
16. Who curse days, — magicians who were supposed by
their spells and incantations to make days unlucky.
17. Rouse up leviathan, — according to an ancient solar
myth, the storm-dragon that swallows up the sun in cloud.
Perhaps the same myth is alluded to in the " monster of the
deep," section iv. 86, and in the "flying serpent," section
xviii. 25. See also Isaiah li. 9, and Jeremiah li. 34.

n. job 147
Let the stars of its dawning be darkened ;
Let it look for light and there be none ;
And let it not see the eyelids of the morning. 20
Because it shut not the doors of the womb that
bare me,
Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
11.
" Wherefore did I not die from the womb, —
Come forth from the belly, and breathe my
last ? •
Why were knees ready to meet me, 25
And why the breasts, that I might suck ?
Chap. iii. 9-12.
20. The eyelids of the morning. This beautiful figure,
which is used again in section xxviii. 73, has been trans
planted into English by Milton, Lycidas, 26 : —
" Under the opening eyelids of the Morn
We drove afield."
21. The womb that bare me, — literally, "my womb." In
this and the next line this strophe reaches its first definite
goal of feeling. So far Job's plaint has been only the spon
taneous overflow of anguish, venting itself blindly on the day
of birth, but as yet evolving no meaning out of the stroke.
Job is almost "stunned from his power to think;" but even
in his wild and aimless expression, being unchecked, there is
a use, as an assuager of pain and a means of bringing the
calmer mind. Compare Tennyson's In Memoriam, v. 2 ; xvi.
4. The first eighteen sections of In Memoriam are strik
ingly parallel in spirit to sections ii. and iv. of this Book of
Job, as portraying the slow emergence of a soul out of the
chaos of despair, and into a definite conception of its evil case.

148 THE BOOK OF JOB II.
For then had I lain down and been quiet ;
I had slept, — then would there be rest for
me, —
With kings and counselors of the earth,
Who built themselves ruins ; so
Or with princes who had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver ;
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, —
As infants that never saw light.
There the wicked cease from troubling, ss
And there the weary are at rest."
The prisoners are at ease together ;
They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
Small and great — both are there ;
And the servant is free from his lord. 40
Chap. iii. 13-19.
27. In this thought of rest and oblivion, which is the key
note of this second strophe, Job's plaint begins to gather to
its focus, though as yet he has formed no theory of his afflic
tion. 30. Built themselves ruins, — that is, palaces that decayed
and passed away, became ruins, after their builders' death.
Job is thinking of the kings and counselors of so long ago that
not only themselves but their works have passed into obliv
ion ; it is for such intensified oblivion that he longs.
35. There. It is a state rather than a place that Job is
contemplating, — a state of utter nothingness, which, by con
trast with the present, seems to have all the sweetness of
quiet, peace, and freedom. His thoughts go no farther than
the phenomenal aspect of death : —
" There is no other thing express'd
But long disquiet merged in rest."

II. JOB 149

III.
" Wherefore giveth He light to the wretched,
And life to the bitter in soul ? —
Who long for death, and it cometh not,
And dig for it, more than for hid treasures, ¦
Who are glad, even to exulting, «
And leap for joy, when they find the grave, —
To a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in ?
For instead of my food cometh my sighing,
Chap. iii. 20-24.
41. So at last Job's obscure meditations concentrate them
selves into a wherefore. In this depth of suffering, life has
become an insoluble problem.
47. The construction of this line is joined on to that of line
41 : " Wherefore giveth He light . . . and life ... to a man
whose way is hid." In this and the next line Job reaches
his defining-point, the real secret of his anguish of soul. He
has lost the clue to God and God's ways, being plunged into
an abyss of punishment for which he can find no cause. The
way that he has hitherto taken, with its consciousness of di
vine companionship and friendship (compare section xx. 7),
is suddenly closed ; there is no longer any outlook. From
this point he must grope his way, a long and weary road, be
fore he can say, " He knoweth the way that is mine ; " see
section xvi. 18, and compare xx. 122.
49. Instead of my food. The word translated " instead of "
may also mean " before.'7 The exact expression is obscure,
but the general meaning is that sighing fills as prominent a
place in life as food once did, giving woe as food used to give
pleasure and nourishment.

150 THE BOOK OF JOB IL
And poured out like water are my groans. so
For I feared a fear, and it hath overtaken me,
And what I dreaded is come upon me.
I was not heedless, nor was I at ease,
Nor was I at rest, — yet trouble came."
Chap. iii. 24-26.
51-54. I feared a fear. It is a common Hebrew idiom to
use a verb thus with a cognate noun. These lines, while
they reveal the genuineness of Job's piety, also betray the
comparatively crude nature of it hitherto. A touch of the
same quality has already been shown in his solicitude for his
sons, section i. 19, his fear lest some unsuspected sin, like a
grain of sand in the machinery, may have destroyed the deli
cate adjustment of their souls to God. Here, too, his piety
has been largely an uncertain, uncomfortable fear. It has
been negative rather than positive, a prophylactic against evil
rather than an unruffled confidence in God, an anxious en
deavor to avoid some blow in the dark rather than going on
to triumphs in light. One important result of Job's trial will
be to change his piety from negative to positive, from fear to
love ; so that what Satan intended for his destruction will
not only confirm his integrity, but exalt and refine his whole
relation to God. It is in this sense that Satan's tearing-down
may work also to building-up, — that, as Goethe says (Pro
logue to Faust) " er muss, als Teufel, schaffen."

Ill
ELIPHAZ
Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and
said :
" If one essay a word with thee, wilt thou be
offended ? —
Yet who can forbear speaking ?
i.
" Behold, thou hast admonished many,
And thou hast strengthened feeble hands ; 5
Chap. iv. 1-3.
Eliphaz, being the oldest and wisest of the friends, is in
some sense their spokesman, and strikes the keynote for all.
His present speech goes over nearly the whole ground of the
friends' argument.
Line 2. Job has paused in the expectation of sympathy;
he has counted on this consolation at least that friends are
around him, and that they will comfort him. Instead of
sympathy, however, he meets a courteous word deprecating
offense, which of course implies that the speaker must as a
disagreeable duty use rebuke and admonition.
4. Behold, thou hast admonished many. This is true. Job
has heretofore been not only a believer but a teacher of the
very same doctrine that Eliphaz now brings before him ; Eli
phaz is passing in review before Job the latter's own philos
ophy of life.

152 THE BOOK OF JOB III.
Thy words have confirmed the faltering,
And bowing knees hast thou made strong ;
But now it is come upon thee, — and thou
faintest ;
It toucheth thee, and thou art confounded.
Is not thy piety thy confidence ? 10
Thy hope — is it not the integrity of thy ways ?
Bethink thee now : who that was guiltless
hath perished,
And where- have the upright been cut off ?
As I have seen, — they that plough iniquity,
Chap. iv. 4-8.
8. The ground of Eliphaz's reproach is that Job fails to
apply his own key of life when the real difficulty comes, has
shown himself lacking in one of the acknowledged tests of
the philosophic mind, see Proverbs xxiv. 10. As yet Job has
uttered no rebellious word ; his offense consists in being be
wildered, in not being certain what it all means, — a real of
fense in the eyes of such a sage as Eliphaz, for it is a virtual
impeachment of the adequacy of the current Wisdom.
10. The word translated piety is the same that is elsewhere
translated fear. Fear of God and integrity, Job's standard of
life heretofore, ought to be his ground of confidence now ;
he ought to rest in them, and believe that they will receive
their natural reward in God's favor.
12-15. As tne Dasis of his argument, Eliphaz lays down
the universal law of sowing and reaping, making no applica
tions, but leaving Job to get what comfort or warning he can
from it. If Job is really upright, there is a gleam of comfort :
the word perished, which is the strongest Hebrew word for
destruction, may leave the implication open that at some
time his suffering will be turned, and not end in death. On
the other hand, the most natural implication is clearly oppr>

III. ELIPHAZ 153
And that sow wickedness, reap the same. 15
By the breath of God they perish,
And by the blast of His anger they are con
sumed.
The lion's cry, and the voice of the roaring
lion,
And the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
The strong lion perisheth for lack of prey, 20
And the lioness's whelps are scattered abroad.
11.
" To me once a word came stealthily,
And mine ear caught the whisper of it.
Chap. iv. 8-12.
site to this ; for if a man reaps what he sows, then the fact
that he is reaping misery is a prima facie indication that he
has somehow sown evil. Eliphaz and his friends err, not in
their general assertions, which are true enough, but in taking
too readily for granted that Job's affliction is a reaping.
Their theory of the world is not broad enough to make it
anything else, nor are they humble enough to own ignorance
of its cause.
18-21. Under the figure of vanquished lions, Eliphaz rep
resents that the wicked, however strong and fierce, must some
time meet their overthrow. It is a rhetorical amplification
which spreads out far beyond Job's case ; his wickedness, if
he has any, is by no means lionlike.
22. Seemingly aware that he has left the implication too
violent, and that indeed he must needs explain how it is pos
sible that there can be an equivalent in sin for so much afflic
tion as Job's, Eliphaz relates a vision that he once had, which
revealed to him the innate and inevitable sinfulness of the

I 54 THE BOOK OF JOB III.
In wandering thoughts from visions of the
night,
When deep sleep faileth upon men, 25
Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit glided before my face, —
The hair of my flesh rose up, —
Chap. iv. 13-15.
creature. On this vision the author of " Mark Rutherford "
comments : " Eliphaz is partly a rhetorician, and, like all per
sons with that gift, he is frequently carried off his feet and
ceases to touch the firm earth. His famous vision in the
night, which caused the hair of his flesh to stand up, is an ex
aggeration, and does nothing but declare what might as well
have been declared without it, that man is not just in the
eyes of perfect purity."
24. Wandering thoughts. These two words are necessary
to represent a single Hebrew word. It means the mingled
and confused thoughts that come without direction or con
trol of the will. Delitzsch translates gedankengewirr.
26. The vision, far from involving Eliphaz's real commu
nion with the supernatural, was evidently neither sought, nor
expected, nor enjoyed. It came and went, wholly beyond his
will or desire ; and simply left him proud of having received
such a communication, as if he were a specially favored repos
itory of hidden truth. With this compare how Job meets the
theophany at the end of the book, and how reverent and
humble it leaves him.
28. Nor did the vision in any sense bring God near. It
was only a spirit that Eliphaz saw, an intermediate agency;
and even the spirit's words but serve to remove God to an
inaccessible distance. The God here contemplated is the
God of the cool theorizer, not the God of palpitating human
life.

III. ELIPHAZ 155
It stood still, but its form I could not discern, 30
A figure before mine eyes ;
— Silence — and I heard a voice :
' Shall mortal man be just before God ?
Shall the strong man, before his Maker, be
pure ?
Behold, in His servants He putteth no
trust, 35
And He imputeth error unto His angels ;
How much more them that dwell in houses of
clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust ;
Chap. iv. 16-19.
30. "There is no such weird passage," says Professor
Cheyne of this description, " in the rest of the Old Testament.
It did not escape the attention of Milton, whose description
of death alludes to it : —
' If shape it could be called that shape had none,
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ;
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed.'
(Par. Lost, ii. 266.)"
37. The implication is, that however a man may seem
righteous by his own standard, by the standard of God's un
approachable purity he must necessarily be corrupt. Thus
the conception of justice and purity is so sublimated in de
gree as to become practically different in kind ; so unattain
able that man cannot choose but err, and that any punish
ment inflicted upon him cannot be other than right. This
is the beginning of that wholesale justification of God at
the expense of facts and consciousness, that Job afterward
detects and reproves (section viii. 63-76), and that Eliphaz
finally reduces to an absurdity (section xv. 6-21).

156 THE BOOK OF JOB HI.
Who are crushed like the moth ;
Who are beaten in pieces from morning to
evening, «
Who, for lack of one that regardeth, perish
for ever.
Is not their tent-cord within them plucked
away ?
They die, and not in wisdom.' in.
" Call now : is there that answereth thee ?
Chap. iv. 19 — v. 1.
42. Their tent-cm-d. A metaphor familiar enough in Ori
ental countries, where life is passed in tents, and where the
plucking away of the cord that supports the frail structure
lays the slight tenement in ruins at once. A striking image
of the precarious human life.
43. They die, and not in wisdom ; a euphemism for dying in
misery and woe. To a student of Hebrew philosophy, who
identifies goodness with wisdom, and wickedness with folly,
the expression would be suggestive.
The oracle of Eliphaz's vision condemns all men alike, not
because they are sinners merely, but because they are crea
tures, and especially, mortal creatures. Job's consciousness
of rectitude has no word to say in the matter ; under such a
judgment his only recourse would be to call himself a sinner,
and to call his punishment just, and this his honesty with
himself will not let him do.
44. Eliphaz thinks a good deal of his vision ; for the fact
that he is the recipient of supernatural communications is to
him evidence that he is in the way of true insight into the
deeps of life. To this happy condition he now contrasts Job's
forlorn case, by challenging the latter to obtain a similar

III. ELIPHAZ 157
And unto whom, of the holy, wilt thou
turn ? «
Nay, rather, anger destroyeth the foolish man,
Chap. v. 1, 2.
oracle ; implying that Job, not being, so to speak, in the
circuit of mystic communication, is therefore not in the way
of God's favor. Eliphaz attributes this, as line 46 implies,
to Job's anger at God's dealings, which shuts his heart to
celestial visitants ; his idea being evidently somewhat like
Tennyson's, in In Memoriam, xciv.: —
" In vain shalt thou, or any, call
The spirits from their golden day,
Except, like them, thou too canst say,
My spirit is at peace with all. . . .
" But when the heart is full of din,
And doubt beside the portal waits,
They can but listen at the gates,
And hear the household jar within."
45. The holy, — that is, probably, angelic spirits, sons of
God, such as are mentioned, section i. 22, 89 ; for there is no
evidence that Eliphaz had any conception of spirits of de
parted saints.
46. Still carefully avoiding any direct accusation of Job,
Eliphaz deprecates that anger which not only closes the spir
itual ear, but, so to say, burns out the life, disintegrates the
inner man. It is as a diligent student of spiritual things,
who has reached the secret of life in calm, that Eliphaz
speaks. At the same time it is evident that his soul has
never been ploughed by affliction, as Job's is ; for if it had
been, he would not speak so dispassionately, almost lightly,
of Job's profound disturbance, as if it were mere vexation or
fretfulness, which he should school himself to avoid. Eli
phaz's use of the word anger evidently stings Job; it is the
only word that Job takes up and answers, section iv. 2, when
he speaks again.

158 THE BOOK OF JOB III.
And the simple are slain by passion.
I myself saw a foolish man taking root,
But straightway I cursed his habitation.
His children are far from succor ; so
And they are crushed in the gate,
And there is none to deliver.
Whose harvest the hungry man devoureth,
And taketh it even from the thorns,
And the snare gapeth for their substance. w
For evil goeth not forth from the dust,
Chap. v. 2-6.
48. Taking root, — that is, becoming settled in life and
prosperity, in seeming exception to the rule that anger and
passion are disintegrating forces.
49. / cursed his habitation ; — that is, his dwelling-place was
desolated so suddenly that J. recognized it as blasted by the
judgment of God. These words seem to refer to some old
custom of cursing where God has evidently set the marks of
His wrath ; and indeed, does not the friends' whole treatment
of Job (compare section i. 138, note) illustrate the same
spirit ?
51. The gate of an Eastern city was the place where justice
was administered, or counsel obtained ; but to these whom
Eliphaz describes it is no refuge, because their oppressors, or
perhaps their rightful accusers, are so numerous and over
whelming. 54. In his greedy hunger he gleans even the last stray ears
of the harvest from the thorn-hedges that surround the fields.
56-59. Drawing a lesson from the seemingly hard fate of
the " foolish " man, but with a strong implication for Job,
Eliphaz maintains that the cause of our evils and afflictions is
to be sought, not in the world outside of us, nor in the acci
dents of time, but in our own nature, in antecedents as rigid

III. ELIPHAZ 159
Nor is it from the ground that trouble spring-
eth;
For man is born to trouble,
As the sons of the flame fly aloft.
iv.
" But I, I would seek unto God, m
Chap. v. 6-8.
as birth and heredity. The assertion that man is born to
trouble, as to an inevitable fate, does not hang together very
logically with Eliphaz's other doctrines, nor with his glowing
promises to Job. The author of " Mark Rutherford " says,
" A certain want of connection and pertinence is observable
in him. A man who is made up of what he hears or reads
always lacks unity and directness. Confronted by any diffi
culty or by any event which calls upon him, he answers, not
by an operation of his intellect on what is immediately before
him, but by detached remarks which he has collected, and
which are never a fused homogeneous whole. In conversa
tion he is the same, and will first propound one irrelevant
principle and then another, — the one, however, not leading to
the other, and sometimes contradicting it." It is this lack of
relevance and sequence, possibly, which Job has in mind in
his reply (section iv. 50, 51) when he. calls for "forthright
words." 59. Sons of the flame,— that is, sparks. This fine Hebrew
metaphor is worth perpetuating in a literal translation.
60 sqq. In directing Job to God, Eliphaz leaves his rather
rhetorical remarks so vague and general in their application
that Job takes up the same line of truth in a subsequent speech
(section vi. 2-35), and turns it in a quite different direction.
The couplet lines 62, 63 Job quotes almost verbatim in sec
tion vi. 18, 19, where see note.

l6o THE BOOK OF JOB III.
And unto the Mightiest would I commit my
cause ;
Who doeth great things, and unsearchable,
Marvelous things, and that without number.
Who giveth rain upon the face of the earth, 64
And sendeth water upon the face of the fields ;
To set the lowly in a high place,
And mourners are exalted to safety.
He bringeth to nought the devices of the
crafty,
That their hands can accomplish nothing real.
Chap. v. 8-14.
61. The common Hebrew word for God, Elohim, is de
rived from a root meaning mighty. As the word in line 61 is
the plural of the word for God in the previous line, it would
seem to be intended both as a variation and as a climax on
the other name ; hence the translation adopted here.
62 sqq. A God of power, who circumvents His enemies
and exalts His submissive favorites, — such is the conception
that underlies Eliphaz's exhortation. Herein is betrayed the
animus of his and the friends' philosophy, a spirit that we do
not discover at once, nor does Job suspect it till afterwards.
It is a philosophy that does not so much love God for His
sake and for the sake of godliness as use God for its own
selfish purposes; and this exhortation of Eliphaz to Job,
pious as it sounds, is virtually a scheme whereby the latter
may engineer himself into favor again.
69. The word translated " [no] thing real " is one of the
most abstract words in Hebrew, and seems to have been a
philosophical term evolved by the Hebrew Wisdom. It is
sometimes equivalent to truth, sometimes to reality. The
evolution of this term indicates considerable age and maturity
in the Wisdom philosophy when this book was written.

HI- ELIPHAZ l6l
He ensnareth the wise in their own cunning, 70
And the counsel of the subtile overreacheth
itself.
They meet with darkness in the daytime,
And at noontide they grope as in the night.
So from the sword, from their mouth,
And from the hand of the strong, — He rescu-
eth the needy. 75
So there is hope for the weak,
And iniquity shutteth her mouth.

"Behold, blessed is the man whom God cor-
recteth ;
Therefore despise not thou the chastening of
the Almighty.
For He it is that woundeth and bindeth up ; so
He bruiseth, and His hands make whole.
Chap. v. 14-20.
78. In this strophe, in which the present section reaches
its most rhetorical and beautiful expression, Eliphaz antici
pates the doctrine of God's chastening, which Elihu after
wards carries out to greater length. True as it is in the ab
stract, it errs in presupposing Job as needing to be restored
and corrected by chastisement. Here is the sticking-point
with Job. He is not conscious of a sinfulness that merits
such extremity of punishment, and he is too honest with him
self to acknowledge such sin. So the chastisement does not
chasten; and Eliphaz's words are in effect urging Job to
purchase God's favor by an insincere confession.

162 THE BOOK OF JOB III,
In six troubles shall He deliver thee,
And in seven shall no evil touch thee.
In famine He shall redeem thee from death,
And in war from the power of the sword. ss
When the tongue scourgeth thou shalt be hid,
Nor shalt thou be afraid of devastation when
it cometh.
At devastation and dearth thou shalt laugh ;
Nor hast thou aught to fear from the beast of
the earth.
For thou hast a league with the stones of the
field, 90
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace
with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tent is peace,
Shalt review thy household, and miss nothing.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed is numer
ous, Chap. v. 21-26.
89-91. Eliphaz has a profound idea of the harmony of man
with nature ; all things animate and inanimate strike hands
in the covenant of the righteous with God.
92 sqq. It will be observed that the supreme blessing here
contemplated by Eliphaz is essentially the restoration of
Job's former state, the blessing of prosperity and peace and
long life and numerous offspring. After such blessings Job
does not seem to seek ; one result of his suffering is that all
other desires give way in time to the supreme longing for
God's presence. It is in this longing that Job disappoints
Satan and leaves his friends far behind ; such pui e aspiration
they neither cherish nor appreciate.

m- ELIPHAZ 163
And thine offspring as the grass of the earth. 95
Thou shalt go to the grave in a ripe old age,
As the sheaf is garnered in, in its season.
VI.
" Lo, this ; we have searched it out ; so it is ;
Hear it, and know thou ; it is for thee."
Chap. v. 27.
96, 97. In these lines Eliphaz promises Job what actually
comes to pass. Other promises, too, made by the friends on
the condition of Job's confession of sin (see, for instance,
section v. 11-14; vii. 31-33; xv. 52, 58, 59), and fulfilled
though he continues to assert his righteousness, demonstrate
the poetic justice of his restoration, as recorded in the Epi
logue. 98. Lo, this ; we have searched it out. Eliphaz speaks doubt
less for all the students of Wisdom ; and this speech of his,
so strangely lacking in application, and seeming to contain so
many presuppositions of Job's case, may be so merely as be
ing a review of the Wisdom philosophy. In it we find men's
highest interpretation of life, as held in Job's day, an inter
pretation heretofore shared by the patriarch himself, until his
very affliction, with its passionate discoveries of faith, carried
men's thoughts to a reach higher still.

IV
JOB
And Job answered, and said :
i.
" Oh that mine ' anger ' were weighed, were
weighed,
And, laid in the balances against it, my wretch
edness !
For so it would be heavier than the sand of the
seas ;
Therefore it is, my words have been rash. =
For the arrows of Shaddai are within me,
Chap. vi. 1-4.
Line 2. The " anger " that Eliphaz has deprecated, section
iii. 46 (see note there), Job justifies, by referring to the unex
plained visitation that compels it. Looking into his affliction
honestly, and interpreting it according to the only data he
has, as God's especial displeasure, he sees only too much
reason for being profoundly disturbed and embittered in soul.
He is slow, however, to push his misery to its personal
Source ; it is not until line 83 that he can gird himself up to
brave his reverential piety and address a remonstrance to
God Himself.
6. Shaddai, — the word elsewhere translated " the Al-

IV. JOB 165
Whose poison my spirit drinketh up ;
God's terrors are in war-array against me.
Doth the wild ass bray over the fresh grass ?
Or loweth the ox over his fodder ? 10
Can it be eaten — what is tasteless, unsalted ?
Chap. vi. 4-6.
mighty;" a semi-poetic name of God, used more frequently
in Job than in other books of the Bible. Job seems thrown
back for the time, by his affliction, to the conception of God
as mere power ; he cannot trace motive or design in such a
visitation ; to him God is the Almighty One, who without
giving a reason does with mortal man as He will.
8. In war-array. This is Job's most frequent figure of
God's attitude toward him ; see section vi. 107 ; xii. 22-24.
He feels himself besieged by mysterious thronging hosts.
9 sqq. The trenchant interrogations fit well with the in
tensity of Job's emotion, quite in contrast to the leisurely
amplifying rhetoric of Eliphaz. See note, section iii. 56-59.
" The sixth and seventh chapters,'' says the author of " Mark
Rutherford," " are molten from end to end, and run in one
burning stream."
9. Job is not crying out for nothing ; if things were as they
should be, or even as explicable as Eliphaz would make out,
he would not complain. There is a mystery in his affliction
that no interpretation has touched.
11. The thought of the rich, toothsome food over which
the beasts are content rouses by contrast the thought of the
spiritual food that is set before Job. Eliphaz has passed in
review the Wisdom philosophy before him, and here is his
judgment upon it : it is insipid, like tasteless, unsalted food.
Not that Eliphaz's words are untrue: they simply do not
reach Job's case, do not find him, —
" And common is the commonplace,
And vacant chaff well meant for grain."
Job's new experience needs some new view of truth to ex-

1 66 THE BOOK OF JOB IV.
Or is there savor in the white of an egg ?
My soul refuseth to touch !
They are as loathsome food to me.
n.
" Oh that my request might come, is
And that God would grant my longing !
That it would please God to crush me,
That He would loose His hand and cut me off.
For then it would still be my comfort, —
Yea, I should exult in paiu, though He spare
not, — 20
That I have not denied the words of the Holy
One.
What is my strength, that I should endure ?
And what mine end, that I should be patient ?
Chap. vi. 6-ii.
plain it, some vitalized interpretation to which his awakened
soul can answer.
17. Job's anguish, spiritual and physical, is suggestively in
dicated in that strong word crush. What a wish !
19-21. In these words we read the strength of Job's loy
alty. The allegiance to what is godlike is the root even of
his longing for death ; he wishes to be cut off before tempta
tion has overcome him, to preserve his integrity intact even
at the expense of Ufe. This, after his wife has exhorted him
to " curse God and die."
22. This note of self-distrust, as Job looks forward to a life
of pain, deepens our sense of his heroic loyalty. To be pa
tient without any outlook, to endure without divine support,
— Job does not promise it, and he trembles at the prospect ;
but none the less he sets his feet on the toilsome way.

IV. JOB 167
Is my strength the strength of stones ?
Is my flesh of brass ? 25
Nay, is not my help within me gone,
And well-being driven away from me ?
in.
" Kindness from his friend is due to the de
spairing,
Who is losing hold of the fear of the Almighty.
My brethren kre deceitful, like a brook, 30
Like the channel of brooks that pass away ;
Which are turbid by reason of ice ;
Chap. vi. 12-16.
27. Well-being, — the word elsewhere translated "reality"
or " truth ; " see note, section iii. 69. Does Job mean that
he has lost the clue to the truth, the reality of things, so that
even patience and endurance may have no significance ?
28. It is- from this view of friendship that the way begins to
diverge by which Job arrives in time to anoint wholly oppo
site to theirs, where he is fully fixed by faith on God ; see
section x. 45, 46 ; xii. 25-56. That God has afflicted him is
no reason why friendship should be withdrawn; rather he
needs friends the more as he feels himself slipping away from
his old moorings in God. He desires simply that their natural
affection remain undisturbed by what they see of his disease,
and be kept faithful to his essential righteousness.
30. But they are not to be trusted to keep friendship in
such adversity as this. Like a brook ; the simile derives its
suggestiveness from the Oriental brooks, or wadies, which in
a rainy season suddenly become torrents, and in the dry sea
son disappear utterly. In the time of thirst, when they are
most needed, they are least trustworthy.

1 68 THE BOOK OF JOB IV.
Whereon the snow falling hideth itself.
What time heat toucheth them, they van
ish ;
When it is hot, they are dried up out of their
place. 35
The wayfarers along their course are turned
aside ;
They go up into the wastes, and perish.
The caravans of Tema looked ;
The companies of Sheba set their hope upon
them ;
They were ashamed because they had trusted ;
They reached the spot, and were dismayed. 41
See now, — ye are just like that ;
Ye have seen a terror, and are confounded.
Is it because I have said, Give to me ?
Chap. vi. 16-22.
33. One is reminded of Burns's familiar lines, —
" Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white — then melts for ever."
39. The companies of Sheba, — the same people is referred
to as the Sabaeans, mentioned in section i. 55.
43. The terror that the friends have seen is the awful spec
tacle of God's hand working His wrath in Job's leprosy; and
it confounds them because they suppose they must put their
condemnation where God has put His displeasure ; compare
note, section iii. 49. Recall also how they were taken aback
when they saw Job's affliction, section i. 138 ; see note there.
Their friendship, instead of being spontaneous and natural,
as Job desires, is at the mercy of their theology.
44. Job's plea for sympathy is the more reasonable because
kindness costs them nothing ; it is simply following nature.

IV- JOB j. 69
Or, Bestow of your wealth for my sake ? 45
Or, Deliver me from the hand of the enemy,
And from the oppressor's hand redeem me ?
Teach me, and I will hold my tongue ;
And make me understand wherein I have erred.
How cogent are forthright words ! 50
But your upbraiding — what doth it prove ?
Do ye think to censure words,
When they are a despairing man's words to the
wind ?
Nay, ye would even cast lots for the orphan,
And make traffic over your friend. 55
But now, be pleased to look upon me,
Chap. vi. 22-28.
50. Forthright words, words that go straight to their mark,
without evasion or covered meaning, are what Job, true to
Lhe universal experience of affliction, longs for ; and against
such he contrasts what to his sick sensitiveness seems their
"upbraiding," or perhaps we might render it their " insinua
tions." He is irritated because they speak in vague and gen
eral terms, begging the question of his guilt, and yet making
nothing pointed and clear ; see note, section iii. 56-59.
53. Job feels that the words pressed from him by pain are
no conclusive index of his true self. They are but " words
to the wind ; " and to found a reproof on such indications is
to him the extremity of heartlessness.
55. In his anguish Job states his friends' hardness with
cutting strength, and doubtless hyperbolically ; yet is not
their ignoring of truth for the sake of a theory, and their
haste to sacrifice friendship in order to get on the right side
of God, equivalent in a sense to " making traffic " over their
friend ?

170 THE BOOK OF JOB IV.
And surely 1 will not lie to your face.
Return, I pray ; let there be no hardness ;
Yea, return ; — I am still righteous therein.
Is there perverseness in my tongue ? m
Cannot my taste discern what is wicked ?
Chap. vi. 28-30.
57. Will not lie, — that is, he will not represent himself be
fore them as he is not ; his sin and his integrity will alike be
open and manifest, to be recognized as they are. Their con
duct toward him virtually assumes that all his professions of
righteousness are lying, — disproved, that is, by his leprosy.
58. Return, — that is, from their coldness and suspicion to
the confidence that they had in him before his affliction ; be
just to the facts that they have always seen. It is a plea to
be held innocent until he is proved guilty.
Hardness, — the same word translated perverseness in 1. 60.
It seems to refer to that warped, twisted, perverted mind due
to prejudice and bigotry ; and Job's plea is a plea for candor.
61. My taste, literally my palate, meaning here, not the aes
thetic sense that we associate with taste, but spiritual sense
and insight. Job avers that his spiritual sense is not blunted ;
that when he says he is righteous it is from a real discern
ment, as keen and true as it ever was, of good and evil.
Both Job and the friends recognize that one's spiritual dis
cernment of truth may be impaired or destroyed, so that evil
and good may cease to appear in their real guise ; and Job is
evidently solicitous to keep this fine sense intact in all his
affliction ; see section viii. 23, 24 ; x. 40 ; xix. 4, 5. He
comes to see clearly after a while that the friends' spiritual
insight is not true ; see section x. 59, 60, 70 ; and Eliphaz
likewise seems to think that fob has blinded himself by sin, —
see section xv. 20. Which party has the real " perverseness ''
will appear in the final event.

IV. JOB iji
IV.
" Hath not man a hard service on the earth ?
And are not his days as the days of a hireling ?
As the servant, who panteth for the shadow, m
And as the hireling, who longeth for his wages,
So I am made heir to months of wretchedness,
And nights of distress are doled out to me.
When I lie down I say, How long till I arise !
And the evening stretcheth itself out,
And I am wearied with tossings till the dawn.
My flesh is clothed with worms and crusts of
earth ; 71
Chap. vii. 1-5.
62. Job's affliction opens his heart to sympathize with all
who suffer, and with mankind in general, whose lot is a hard
one ; and thus he feels himself a representative-of humanity.
We are reminded of Tennyson's similar use of his sorrow to
broaden his sympathy in In Memoriam, xcix. : —
" O wheresoever those may be,
Betwixt the slumber of the poles,
To-day they count as kindred souls ;
They know me not, but mourn with me."
A hard service ; — the Hebrew word refers to such a service
as a soldier has to fulfill ; a war-fare, war-service.
64. For the shadow, — that is, on the sun-dial, the shadow
that indicates the time to cease work.
66. This would seem to imply, what is likely enough, that
a considerable time had elapsed from the beginning of his
affliction to the coming of the friends. See note, section
i. 127.67. Doled out, slowly and reluctantly, as it were, every one
counting for its utmost in pain.

172 THE BOOK OF JOB IV.
My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle ;
And they are consumed away, without any
hope.
Remember Thou, that my life is a breath ; 75
Never again shall mine eye see good.
The eye of him that looketh after me shall not
espy me ;
Thine eyes will seek me, — and I am not.
The cloud vanisheth away, and is gone ;
So he that goeth down to Sheol shall not come
up again ; so
Chap. vii. 5-9.
71, 72. These lines describe what are said to be verita
ble characteristics of elephantiasis, or black leprosy. The
" crusts of earth " refer to the hardened ash-colored scab that
forms over the sores.
73. To look back upon, and in comparison with their fruit-
lessness of result, his hopeless days seem very short, however
irksome in the passing. Perhaps they seem so short because
he has " taken wings of foresight " and can look upon them
as it were from a distance, or in the large view which we ap
ply to the sum total of human life in general. He identifies
himself with the race.
75. The thought of his brief life and its hopelessness gives
him the first impulse to address himself directly to God,
though not at first with remonstrance. It is his first approach
to that mystery of death, the idea of which plays such a large
part in the achievements of his faith throughout the poem.
See Introductory Study, p. 56.
80. Sheol, — the Hebrew word designating the unseen
abode of the dead ; a neutral word presupposing neither mis-

IV. JOB 173
Never again shall he return to his house,
Nor shall his place know him any more.
v.
" So therefore I, I will not restrain my mouth ;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit ;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 85
Am I a sea, or a monster of the deep,
That Thou settest a watch over me ?
When I say, My bed shall comfort me,
My couch shall help me bear my complaints, —
Chap. vii. 10-13.
ery nor happiness, and not infrequently used much as we use
the words " the grave," to denote the final undefined resting-
place of all.
83. Face to face with death, as the utmost that suffering
can do, Job resolves to speak out what is in him. " It is
stated by Dr. Livingstone, the celebrated explorer of Africa,
that the blow of a lion's paw upon his shoulder, which was
so severe as to break his arm, completely annihilated fear."
Job's trembling solicitude lest he should " lose hold of the fear
of the Almighty " (compare section ii. 51-54 ; iv. 29) is passing
away as he faces death, and in its place is rising a boldness
before God which mounts in his next speech to the amazing
height of his everlasting No ; see section vi. 70-85, and note
thereon. It is a time for nothing but utter honesty with self
and with God.
86. Am I a sea ? — that is, one of the great objects or
forces of nature, on which supposably God must exert tran
scendent power, to tame or restrain it. His suffering, which
of course he has to refer to God, seems out of all proportion
to his own importance ; why such attention to a creature so
insignificant ?

174 THE BOOK OF JOB IV.
Then Thou scarest me with dreams, 90
And with visions dost Thou terrify me.
So that my soul chooseth strangling,
Yea, death, rather than these my bones.
I am filled with loathing ; let me not live al-
way ;
Cease from me ; for my days are a breath. 95
What is mortal man, that Thou magnifiest
him,
And that Thou settest Thy thought upon him ?
That Thou visitest him every morning,
And every moment dost try him ?
How long wilt Thou not look away from me, 100
Nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle ?
If I have sinned, what could I do unto Thee ?
Chap. vii. 14-20.
90. Even sleep, filled as it is with the vivid and distressing
dreams of sickness, fails to bring oblivion of pain. Blake
illustrates this verse by a figure of Satan hovering in the
guise of God over Job's couch.
93. These my bones, — referring to his emaciation, one of
the marks of his disease, which left him a skeleton.
96. A reminiscence of Psalm viii. 4, in a kind of " bitter
parody," as it has been called. For whereas in the psalm
the feeling is grateful wonder that God, the Creator of the
worlds, should condescend to such a lowly creature as man,
here the feeling is perplexity that the same great God should
be so relentless in pursuing man with affliction.
101. Till I swallow my spittle, — that is, the smallest ap
preciable time. Probably an expression in common use.
102. The greatness of Job's punishment, so far beyond
what natural and spiritual law can explain or demand, gives

IV. JOB 175
Watcher of men, wherefore hast Thou set me
as Thy mark ?
So that I am become a burden to myself ?
And why wilt Thou not pardon my transgres
sion, 105
And take away mine iniquity ?
For now I shall sleep in the dust,
And Thou wilt seek for me, — and I am not."
Chap. vii. 20, 21.
this visitation the look of vindictiveness, as if God were mak
ing some conduct of Job a personal matter ; so the question
what Job could possibly do to injure God is not unnaturally
suggested. A question that in the abstract men had pon
dered and answered ; see section xv. 2-5 ; xxiv. 8-1 5, and
compare Psalm xvi. 2, 3. The distance between God and
men is so vast that neither can sin injure nor righteousness
benefit Him, — " For merit lives from man to man,
And not from mau, O Lord, to Thee."
In this idea of God, as throned high above the creature's
merits and sins, Job and the friends are not as yet at issue ; but
the latter acquiesce in it as a necessity of the creature's lowli
ness and impurity (see section iii. 35, 36; ix. 26-31 ; xvii. 6, 7),
while they make sin a natural, self-punishing thing (compare
section iii. 14, 15) : Job, on the other hand, turns straight to
God, seeking for light, interpretation, communion, while he
mourns over His remoteness (section ii. 47, 48), and cannot
rest until he has come to see God as He is (xxix. 10).
105. Job seems to claim pardon almost indignantly, as if it
were a right. Even the God who will by no means acquit
(see Exodus xxxiv. 7) may be called on for pardon ; and
much more, when the sin is below consciousness, not to be
merciful is not to be just.
107. For now I shall sleep in the dust ; — this, after all, is

176 THE BOOK OF JOB IV.
what makes Job's inquiries and expostulations so natural.
So near death as he is, the logic of his case demands pardon ;
for what is the significance of torturing by pain a life so soon
to go out ? The thought of a life beyond has not risen to
Job's mind out of this enigma.

V
BILDAD
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said :
" How long wilt thou speak such things ?
For the words of thy mouth are a mighty
wind. I.
" Will God pervert the right ?
Or will the Almighty pervert justice ? 5
If thy children have sinned against Him,
So hath He given them over into the hand of
their transgression. Chap. viii. 1-4.
Line 2. Bildad replies with considerably more heat than
Eliphaz ; Job's words have irritated and disquieted him, hav
ing roused him to indignation, as a strong wind makes a man
shelter and defend himself.
4. The mere fact that Job is bewildered and asks God for
explanation of his affliction astonishes Bildad, for it seems to
impugn God's justice, the fundamental thing in Bildad's
creed. His philosophy is not so broad as Eliphaz's, but per
haps all the more clear ; and w^th a kind of brutal directness
he blurts out what is in his mind; though with some rem
nants of courtesy he applies his explanation to the children
who were so mysteriously slain, and forbears to accuse Job,
except by implication.

178 THE BOOK OF JOB V.
But thou — if thou wilt seek earnestly unto
God,
And to the Almighty make supplication, —
So be that thou art pure and upright, — 10
Verily then He will awake for thee,
And will restore the habitation of thy right
eousness.
Then, though thy beginning be small,
Thine end shall increase exceedingly.
11.
" For inquire now of the generation gone, w
Chap. viii. 5-8.
8-14. This very accurately describes both Job's attitude
toward God and what afterward befell him ; only it contem
plates Job's approach to God as a return from sin and rebel
lion rather than as the hunger of an unselfishly righteous
heart. We see through it all the irreconcilable difference
between the friends' point of view and Job's ; the friends
reasoning that Job is a leper, and therefore, of course, a sin
ner ; Job asserting, I am a righteous man, and my leprosy
is a mystery that I cannot penetrate.
10. This is put in slyly, as a delicate implication that Job
is not all that he should be in purity and uprightness.
12. Observe that Bildad, like Eliphaz, sets before Job
merely a promise of reinstatement, restoration to worldly
prosperity ; compare note on section iii. 92 sqq. This is all
that the friends contemplate, and is their measure of blessing.
Job's ideal is much higher, being measured by nothing short
of God's presence.
1 5. Bildad is a disciple of tradition, drawing his philosophy
of life from the sayings and precepts of the ancients, the well-

V. BILDAD 179
And give heed to the research of their fa
thers, —
For of yesterday are we, and know nothing ;
For our days are a shadow on the earth; —
Will they not teach thee, speak to thee,
And from their heart bring forth sayings ? — 20
' Doth the rush grow tall without mire ?
Doth the marsh-grass thrive without water ?
While yet in its greenness it is uncut,
Yet sooner than all herbs it drieth up.
So are the ways of all that forget God ; 25
And the hope of the unholy shall perish.
Whose confidence is cut asunder,
And whose trust is but the spider's house.
He leaneth upon his house, and it standeth
not ;
He graspeth it fast, and it abideth not. 30
Chap. viii. 8-15.
tested wisdom of the ages. It is worthy of remark that the
wisdom that he represents is already regarded as venerable,
and as having reached ripened and irrefragable results.
zi. Here the sayings of the fathers begin, and they are not
without great beauty and impressiveness. Nor is exception
to be taken to them. Job assents to them at once (section vi.
2), and when he comes to sum up the significance of the
world his result is nearly the same as Bildad's (section xix.
14-19). In fact, these sayings embody truths that have be
come truisms ; they are perhaps the oldest statement of what
we call the logic of events. It was a great discovery of man,
and fresher in Job's days than now, to know that the powers
of history and the world were with good, and against wicked-

180 THE BOOK OF JOB V.
Green he is, hi the sunshine,.
And his sprouts shoot forth over his garden ;
Over heaps of stone his roots are entwined;
He looketh upon a house of stone.
If he be destroyed from his place, 35
It straightway disowneth him — I never saw
thee.
Behold, this is the joy of his way ;
And out of the dust shall others spring up.'
in.
" Behold, God will not despise the perfect man,
Nor will He grasp the hand of the wicked. 40
While He filleth thy mouth with laughter,
And thy lips with a song of joy,
They that hate thee shall be clothed with
shame,
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more."
Chap. viii. 16-22.
ness. Our book takes this idea, the law of spiritual gravita
tion, so to say, in the tenacity of its prime vigor, before the
exceptions, as exemplified in Job's life, came to be recog
nized ; and it is apparently one object of the author to submit
this spiritual law to its needed regulative of doubt.
39. God will not despise the perfect man ; but apparently
God despises Job, for Job is suffering God's distinctive
scourge. The ending of Bildad's speech, courteous though it
is, comes weighted with this implication, and conditions its
promise on his being pure and upright (1. 10). The courtesy
is thus only a clumsy disguise to what is really cutting and
harsh.

VI
JOB
And Job answered, and said

" Of a truth I know it is so ;
And yet — how shall a mortal be just with God ?
Chap. ix. i, 2.
The vague and aimless questioning which Eliphaz's lecture
roused in Job is in the present section precipitated, so to say,
by the influence of Bildad's rigid assertion of divine justice,
into sharp doubt and despair. There is no other section of the
poem in which the tide of passion and remonstrance rises so
high. It retraverses in the main the field of thought that
was opened in section iv., only with more assurance and defi-
niteness ; being, as it were, a higher sweep of the wave of
Job's meditations toward the culmination of his problem, and
with negative beginnings of a solution.
Lines 2, 3. To Bildad's assertion that God is just, and
that He gives to righteous and wicked their deserts, Job ac
cords undoubting assent. That is not his difficulty ; the real
question regards man's relation to God, man's justice, which
from Job's point of view of a just man suffering unmerited
punishment is wholly obscure. The question asks in effect,
What does justice mean ?
3. Both Eliphaz (section iii. 34) and Bildad (xvii. 6, 7) ask
the same question, but with a different setting and involve
ment. They contemplate God as so unapproachably pure

1 82 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
Should he desire to contend with Him,
He could not answer Him one of a thousand. 5
Wise in heart, and mighty in strength, —
Who hath defied Him, and remained secure ?
Who removeth mountains, and they know not
That He hath overturned them in His anger.
Who maketh the earth to tremble from its place,
And the pillars thereof are shaken. 11
Who speaketh to the sun, and it shineth not ;
And setteth a seal round about the stars.
Who stretcheth out the heavens alone,
And walketh upon the heights of the sea. is
Who maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the secret chambers of the south.
Chap. ix. 3-9.
that man's utmost righteousness can be only a far-away re
flection, a broken light. Job's question, on the other hand,
implies that man cannot be just because he cannot be sure
of the standard of justice. This undeserved and apparently
unmotived suffering of his confuses all known standards ; it
makes God seem to wanton in power for the mere power's
sake. 4. To contend, — that is, on equal terms, as men contend in
law. A legal term.
8 sqq. In these descriptions Job has in mind merely God's
power, so vast as to be wholly beyond human explanation, in
motive or principle.
12. A description of eclipse, which in unscientific nations
is always one of the most impressive and mysterious phe
nomena of nature.
17. The secret chambers of the south are the supposed quar
ter whence the rain comes.

VI. JOB 183
Who doeth great things, past searching out,
And marvelous things, past numbering.
11.
" Lo ! He goeth by me, and I see Him not ; 20
He passeth along, and I perceive Him not.
Lo ! He snatcheth away, and who will restrain
Him ?
Who will say to Him, What doest Thou ?
God will not turn away His wrath ; —
Beneath it bowed the helpers of Rahab ; 25
How much less shall I answer Him, —
Choosing out my words against Him !
Chap. ix. 10-14.
18, 19. These lines are quoted almost verbatim from Eli
phaz, section iii. 62, 63, though with a somewhat different
connection and implication.
20. I see Him not, — this is the source of -Job's deepest
trouble ; compare section ii. 47, 48. He has lost the stand
ard of life, the means of tracing God ; to what there is in
man, in his ideals and definitions, God no longer corresponds.
Tennyson's address to his dead friend,
" But thou art turn'd to something strange,
' And I have lost the links that bound
Thy changes,"
comes to mind as a parallel to Job's feeling as he mourns
over God's withdrawn friendship. God is simply a vast
Power working in the dark, inscrutable, unrestrainable.
25. Rahab, — literally the proud one. There is here an al
lusion to some legend, now lost, of some Titanic war against
God, such as is apparently alluded to in Genesis vi. 4. Per
haps Bildad's words, section xvii. 3, refer to the same event.

1 84 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
Whom, though I were righteous, I could not
answer ;
I must supplicate Him that judgeth me.
If I should call, and He should answer me, 30
I would not believe that He listened to my
voice, —
He — who overwhelmeth me with tempest,
And multiplieth my wounds without cause.
Who suffereth me not to recover my breath,
For He surfeit eth me with bitternesses. 35
Is the question of strength, — behold, the
Mighty One He !
Chap. ix. 15-19.
29. Job's righteous cause ought to give him the right to
answer as defendant ; instead of that he must entreat as cul
prit. The Accuser is also the Judge, setting His own stand
ard of judgment, and accountable to none. This consider
ation ploughs deeply; in fact, does it not strike the rock
against which all interpretations of the world on the mere
score of human justice and desert must be shattered ?
31. I would not believe ; the next line tells why, — because
deeds, louder than words, disprove all that his words could
say. 33. Without cause, — this consideration defines Job's issue
with the friends ; and we, who know the Prologue, know that
Job, on God's own confession (section i. 104), has pronounced
truly. This is no plea of sinlessness ; Job would not make
such a plea; but a complaint of multiplied wounds, — punish
ment far beyond its desert. All sense of proportion between
desert and punishment is lost in this experience.
36-47. In these lines Job reaches his most agonized height
of doubt, and his words evince, from the human point of

VI. JOB 1 85
Of judgment, — ' Who will set Me a day ? '
Were I righteous, mine own mouth would con
demn me ;
Perfect were I, yet would He prove me per
verse.
Perfect I am, — I value not my soul — I de
spise my life — 40
It is all one — therefore I say,
Perfect and wicked He consumeth alike.
If the scourge destroyeth suddenly,
Chap. ix. 19-23.
view, how insoluble is the world-problem on the Unes of hu
man righteousness and reward, work and wages. The same
truth is recognized, from the divine side, by the address from
the whirlwind ; see section xxvi. 145, 146.
37. Who will Set Me a day ? — that is, to come into judg
ment with Me. This is God's supposed answer, implying
His transcendence, so great that no one will venture to ap
proach Him with a plea.
38. Mine own mouth, being so infinitely crude and unskilled
in speech, as compared with God, could only demonstrate in
feriority in argument.
40, 41. With full view of its awful boldness, and of its
possible utter futility, Job yet ventures to assert himself, to
bring his integrity into the field with God. It is an amazing
conception, — the mortal thus in strife with the Creator.
The beginning of this bold resolve we have already seen, in
section iv. 83-85, in Job's determination to speak out; see
note there.
41. It is all one, — that is, whether Job be crushed now or
writhe in anguish a little longer. While he has voice, there
fore, he will lay open the thoughts of his honest soul.

1 86 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
He mocketh at the dismay of the innocent.
The earth is given over into the hands of the
wicked ; «
The face of its judges He veileth ; —
If it is not He, who then is it ?
in.
" My days are swifter than a courier,
Are fled away, and have seen no good.
Chap. ix. 23-25.
44. He mocketh, — hard words these, but on the principle
by which Job is judging God, not beyond the data of actual
experience and observation. Indeed, from the Hebrew point
of view, which attributes natural events directly to God, Job is
saying no more than do the moderns when they call Nature
" red in tooth and claw." Nor can we well escape Job's con
clusion, if we judge merely by the standard that his friends
press upon him.
45. Job speaks bitterly and too strongly here ; but he is
looking at a real fact, which later he expands in calmer mood;
see sections xiv. 12-69 ! xv'- 34~93-
46. The face of its judges He veileth, —that is, so that abso
lute truth and right are matter of uncertainty, to be estab
lished, if at all, by dialectics, and not seen face to face. And
this is true if, as the friends maintain, God is afflicting Job in
order to define sin and righteousness.
47. Job has of course no means of tracing Satan's agency ;
but the asking of this question betrays what a pain it is to him,
as well as what a dark problem it raises, to attribute such
things to God.
48 sqq. In more plaintive mood Job recurs to the thought
of the brevity and fruitlessness of life, a thought already
broached in section iv. 73, 74. « The complaint of Job is not

VI. JOB 187
They have swept by, like the ships of reed, 50
As the eagle swoopeth upon its prey.
If my thought be — I will forget my plaint,
Change my aspect, and be cheerful,
Yet I shudder at all my pains ;
I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent; 55
I, I must be counted guilty ; —
Wherefore then this bootless labor ?
If I should wash myself in snow,
And cleanse my hands with lye,
Even then Thou wouldst plunge me into the
ditch, 60
Chap. ix. 26, 31.
merely of the brevity of human life ; it is that he can see no
reason for that brevity ; it is that it seems cruel that it should
last only long enough to cease ; it is that he has no light to
show him life and immortality beyond the grave. It is of
mystery that he complains, — of mystery which, unexplained,
makes God seem cruel or capricious."
50. The ships of reed, — presumably such as he, or the au
thor of the book, may have seen in Egypt, light and swift.
But the word is uncertain, being found only here.
55) 56- Job has in mind, doubtless, Eliphaz's theory, which
may have been his own formerly, of man's innate and neces
sary corruptness ; see section iii. 33-43- He has not learned
to question this yet ; though the mystery presses hard upon
him here, that he should in his own consciousness be inno
cent, yet be held guilty.
60. It comes to the idea of arbitrary power : God is so
great that He can compel Job to be what He holds him to
be. A bitter extremity of logic, that God, who has all the
power, simply works His own inscrutable will, and man has
neither knowledge nor resource.

1 88 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
So that my garments would abhor me.
For He is not a man, like me, that I should
answer Him,
That we should come together in judgment ;
Nor is there any Daysman between us,
Who might lay his hand on both of us, &
Who might remove His rod from upon me,
That the dread of Him should not unman me.
Then would I speak, and would not fear Him ;
For as I am now, I am not myself.
Chap. ix. 31-35.
62. He is not a man, like me ; — this characteristic of God,
removing Him from all human standards and conceptions,
and making justice and mercy as between God and man
mere empty names, is the ultimate root of Job's problem.
His deeply felt need, which his unexplained punishment
makes palpable, is that God should be like man, — that there
should be some common ground of understanding between
them. Thus his outreach from the depths is Messianic.
64. Nor is there any Daysman, — only a negative assertion
this, but noteworthy as suggesting what would solve his prob
lem if only it were true, and especially noteworthy as origi
nating with the human, with Job. And though only negative,
yet it is to him such a fascinating idea that he broods upon
it, and turns it over in his mind, and finally comes to believe
and assert it ; see sections x. 43-48 ; xii. 50-56 ; and Intro
ductory Study, p. 54.
66, 67. With these two»lines compare section viii. 91-94.
These are the two immediate things that Job desires to have
done, and he images the Daysman as the ideal agency to do
them. 69. Of this line I take the view of Dr. Tayler Lewis, and
translate somewhat freely, in order to make the expression

VI. JOB 189

IV.
" My soul is weary of my life ; 70
I will let loose my plaint over myself ;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, Hold me not guilty ;
Make me know wherefore Thou contendest
with me. Chap. x. i, 2.
plain in English. " The word imadi (with myself) denotes
something nearer, more familiar, than im (another word for
with) would hav3 done ; . . . lo ken imadi, not so with me,
would seem to give us the idea of de-rangement or being not
one's self — out of himself."
70 sqq. The stormy passages of the book, and especially
those passages in which a special reach of faith and insight
is attained, are followed by passages of more calm charac
ter, in which the comfort of the suggestion infuses itself into
his further thought and comes to be taken for granted. This
is true whether the suggestion is negative, or conjectural, or
positive ; for indeed Job's reaches of faith pass through all
these stages before they are thoroughly wrought out into ex
pression. In this section the stormy passage that defines the
chaos of the moral world is followed by the suggestion of the
Daysman, which would solve the problem from Job's point
of view. This idea, negative though it is, calms him. The
succeeding verses in this calmer mood do not take the Days
man for granted indeed, but attempt in the absence of a
Daysman to present the remonstrance directly to God.
71. I will let loose my plaint ; — as if it were a flood, to be
let gush forth with risk of devastation and drowning. With
these lines compare section iv. 83-85, and note there. The
coming passage, lines 75-107, wherein Job so boldly arraigns

190 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
Is it beseeming to Thee that Thou shouldst
oppress, 75
That Thou shouldst despise the labor of Thy
hands,
Whilst Thou shinest on the counsel of the
wicked ?
Do eyes of flesh belong to Thee ?
Or seest Thou as a mortal seeth ?
Are Thy days like a mortal's days, so
Or Thy years like the days of a man,
Chap. x. 3-5.
God to His face, we may call, in Carlyle's phrase, Job's Ever
lasting No ; see Introductory Study, p. 45, and footnote.
75. Is it beseeming, — that is, worthy of God as God. At
the outset of his misery Job would not " attribute aught un
beseeming to God" (section i. 87). Neither does he here;
he does rather what is more honest and open, goes straight
to God with his difficulty and seeks explanation by some prin
ciple that he can understand. It is like Abraham's question,
Genesis xviii. 25 : " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right?" That Thou shouldst oppress ; — notice that Job uses the
word presupposing his innocence ; not punish, as if he were
guilty. 76. The creature reading the Creator a lesson. Job is giv
ing deep expression to his own creative consciousness ; and
such consciousness demands love in the world.
" Who trusted God was love indeed,
And love creation's final law."
This is enlarged upon, in Job's peculiar meditative way, lines
86-95 below.
78-83. To search narrowly after hidden sin, as if it were a

VL JOB I9I
That Thou searchest after mine iniquity,
And makest inquisition for my sin ?
Though Thou knowest that I am not guilty,
And there is no deliverer out of Thy hand, ss
Thy hands have fashioned me and finished
me,
Together, all round ; — yet Thou wouldst de
stroy me !
Remember now that Thou hast moulded me
as in clay ;
And wilt Thou turn me unto dust again ?
Didst Thou not pour me out like milk, so
And curdle me like cheese, —
Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And with bones and sinews weave me to
gether ?
Life and favor hast Thou granted unto me, 94
And Thy providence hath preserved my spirit.
Chap. x. 6-12.
matter of uncertainty, is like man, not like God ; it is not
calmly wise, it is not consistent with omniscience or omnipo
tence. For omniscience should know Job's integrity without
such elaborate inquisition ; and omnipotence can crush with
out giving account to any one.
86-95. The vividness with which God's process of creation
is conceived and portrayed is an indication of the keenness
with which Job realizes the awful inconsistency that confronts
him. The wantonness of the destruction heightens his sense
of the wonderfulness of creation.

I92 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
And yet in Thy heart Thou hast hid these
things,
I know that this was in Thy mind :
If I sin, Thou takest account of me,
Nor wilt Thou absolve me from mine iniquity.
If I am wicked, woe unto me ! 100
And if righteous, yet may I not lift up my
head, —
Filled as I am with shame, and seeing my
misery, —
And should it lift itself, like a lion wouldst
Thou hunt me,
And show anew Thy wonders upon me.
Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me, ios
And Thou multipliest Thy displeasure toward
me,
With changing host on host 'opposing me.
Chap. x. 13-17.
97. This was in Thy mind, — namely, what follows, that
God should hunt out every sin and pursue it relentlessly.
This, then, is what creation and preservation mean ! Just
about what the friends' doctrine involves, only reduced to a
somewhat sharper antithesis, and viewed from Job's standing-
point. There is a bitter irony in this passage. Although
Job says " I know," yet we cannot read these words as his
real and settled conviction ; he cannot rest in it any time at
all. It is merely the awful reductio ad absurdum to which
the friends' views and his own former philosophy lead.
104-107. At the ends of these lines there is a wealth of
Hebrew prepositions which can be rendered only approxi
mately in idiomatic English.
107. Literally, changes and a host. Job's most frequently
recurring image to describe his afflictions ; see section iv. 8.

VI. JOB 193
V.
"Wherefore then didst Thou bring me forth
from the womb ?
I might have breathed my last, and eye had
not seen me ;
As though I had never been might I be, — no
Carried forth from the belly to the tomb.
Are not my days few ?
Let Him cease then ; let Him leave me alone,
That I may be cheerful a little while,
Before I go hence, and return not, U5
To the land of darkness and shadow of death,
A land of blackness, like midnight,
Chap. x. 18-22.
108. Wherefore then ? Job's question of section ii. 23, 41
repeated, with the added significance imparted to it by all the
steps and involvements through which his thought has passed.
After all that the friends have urged, after all the aspects in
which the case may be viewed, it remains true that there is
no satisfactory solution of life. This may be regarded as the
summing-up of the present section, comprising the dreary
outcome of the friends' philosophy.
112 sqq. Compare section iv. 75-95.
116. To the land of darkness. By the side of his present
misery the darkest aspect of death makes a picture on which
Job's imagination dwells fondly. Of course he is using
merely the language of phenomena, a language not conclu
sive for or against a belief in immortality. To such language
he holds himself strictly ; nor will he commit himself to a
solution beyond, except as a rational faith can accept it.

I94 THE BOOK OF JOB VI.
Of the shadow of death, and without order,
And where the shining is like midnight."

Chap. x. 22.

119. It is the superlative of darkness when even the shinr
i„g — what light there supposably is — is like midnight

VII

ZOPHAR

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and
said:
" Shall a throng of words go unanswered,
And a man of lips be counted in the right ?
Shall thy babblings put men to silence,
That thou mayest mock, with none to shame
thee, 5
And say, My doctrine is pure,
And clean am I in Thy sight ?
Chap. xi. 1-4.
Zophar's indignation rises still higher than that of the oth
ers; being a. narrower man, his views are correspondingly
more intense and dogmatic. With no pretense of courtesy,
he characterizes Job as a " man of lips," whose words are
mere babbling and mocking.
Line 4. The word men means men of full growth, mature
men ; and there seems to be an implication in the word bab
blings that Job is childish. Perhaps the fact that Job's words
reach no resting-point, but remain gyrating in uncertainty, is
what makes them seem so barren and childish. The com
placency of a cut-and-dried theory !
7. Clean am I, — this is the sticking-point with the friends.
Job's words seem presumptuous insistence on what all ortho-

I96 THE BOOK OF JOB VII.
But oh, that God would indeed speak,
And open His lips against thee,
And show thee the hidden things of wis
dom, — 10
For there is fold on fold to truth, —
Then know thou, that God abateth to thee, of
thine iniquity. Chap. xi. 5, 6.
dox thinking has disclaimed. That no mortal can be clean
in God's sight is perhaps the most unquestionable article of
their philosophy; see sections iii. 33-37; ix. 26-31; xvii.
6-1 1. And Zophar is just the man to be bitter and bigoted
over it.
8. Would indeed speak, — probably an allusion to what Job
says, section vi. 4-7, 26-33 > *n(i t0 Job's general demand
for explanation of his misery.
11. For there is fold on fold to truth, — literally, truth is
twofold. The word translated truth is elsewhere translated
reality ; see note, section iii. 69. This theory of a. twofold
and mystical sense in truth is a significant indication of the
refinement that the Hebrew Wisdom had reached by feeding
on its speculations.
12. God abateth to thee, — that is, even in this punishment
does not take account of all the evil Job has done. To say
this is not personal spite ; it is merely the extreme to which
the theory of man's necessary depravity, unchecked by sober
sense, may lead, — an extreme that requires a twofold inter
pretation of things to substantiate.
Observe how the friends have gathered heat as they pro
ceeded. Eliphaz was courteous and indirect, exhorting
merely to repentance ; Bildad spoke of the sons' calamity as
just ; Zophar finds Job's punishment less than his desert.

VII. ZOPHAR

197

I.
" Canst thou find out the secret of God ?
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfec
tion ?
Heights of heaven, — what canst thou do ? 15
Deeper than Sheol, — what canst thou know ?
Longer than the earth its measure,
And broader than the sea.
If He pass by, and apprehend, and call to judg
ment,
Who then shall prevent Him ? 20
For He, He knoweth false men ;
And He seeth wickedness, though He seemeth
not to heed.
But the witless will never become wise,
Till the wild-ass' foal be born a man.
Chap. xi. 7-12.
13-18. Nothing can be more beautiful or true than these
words, abstractly considered ; and it is only Zophar's point
of view that makes them convict Job of presumption. Job
has been trying to find merely what concerns him as a re
sponsible being, something that he feels he has a right to
know if he is judged on grounds of mere justice; but Zophar
identifies this with presumptuous curiosity about God's hid
den ways.
21, 22. Zophar and the others have an intellectual delight
in God's inscrutableness; as they are not hurt by it, they like
to note the sudden stroke that overtakes the sinner. Suffer
ing has changed all that in Job ; see section iv. 62, and note.
23, 24. Literally, the witless will become wise when (and)

198 THE BOOK OF JOB VII.
II.
" But thou, if thou wilt direct thy heart, »
And spread forth thy hands unto Him, —
If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away,
And let not perverseness dwell in thy tents, —
Then surely shalt thou lift up thy face without
spot,
And thou shalt be steadfast and not fear. 80
For thou shalt forget misery,
Shalt remember it as waters that have passed
away ;
And brighter than noonday shall the future
arise ;
And be it never so dark, it shall be as the
morning. Chap. xi. 13-17.
the wild-ass1 foal will be born a man, — that is, never ; pre
sumably a proverb. Does not the use of this proverb indi
cate that Wisdom culture was becoming intolerant, — as the
Pharisees came afterward to say, " This people that knoweth
not the law are cursed " ?
25. The same call to repentance that Eliphaz (section iii.
60 sqq.) and Bildad (section v. 8-14) have given. It is in
more courteous tone than the foregoing lines ; but its animus
is still evident, in the fact that it traverses Job's presupposi
tion entirely and exhorts to what Job can do only as a con
fessed sinner.
27, 28. Zophar puts in the same kind of saving clause that
Bildad has done (section v. 10), but not quite so delicately.

VII. ZOPHAR 199
And thou shalt be confident because there is
hope, 35
And shalt look around thee and lie down se
curely.
Thou shalt lie down and none shall make thee
afraid. ;
And great ones shall pay court unto thee.
But the eyes of the wicked shall waste away,
And refuge vanisheth from them ; 40
And their hope is — to breathe forth their life."
Chap. xi. 18-20.
39. A tag about the wicked, to give a bite to the end of
his speech.
41. Their hope is, etc., — a contrast to what he has just
said (1. 35) about the repentant righteous man, and possibly
a little hint against Job's rash desire to die. The paradox of
the expression is like Bildad's " This is the joy of his way,"
section v. 37, and is probably one of the aphoristic crystalli
zations of the Wisdom philosophy.

VIII JOB
And Job answered, and said :
" Of a truth, ye are the people,
And wisdom will die with you !
I also have understanding, as well as you ;
I am not inferior to you ;
And who knoweth not things like these ?
Chap. xii. 1-3.
Hitherto Job's attitude toward his friends has been that
of unquestioning assent. Agreeing with all their assertions,
he has endeavored, but wholly without result, to make their
philosophy explain these perplexing facts. Now that all
three have spoken, however, and revealed their' uniform
drift, the barrenness of their generalizations flashes upon
hitn, and he sees that they have not touched the difficulties
of the case at all. They have urged no more than he has
always known. From this point his attitude toward them
changes. They no longer stand to him as representatives
of wisdom ; and this section, ceasing to arraign God, ar
raigns the friends instead.
Line 6. The friends' words are the veriest commonplace ;
strangely insipid as they seemed from the first — see section
iv. 11, note — they have become but more evidently so as
they multiplied.

VIII. JOB 20 1
A laughing-stock to his friend — such must I
be, —
I who call upon God, and whom He answer
eth, —
A laughing-stock I, the just, the upright.
For woe there is contempt in the thought of
the secure ; 10
It awaiteth them whose feet stumble.
The tents of spoilers are at peace ;
And there is full security to them that provoke
God,
To him that carrieth his God in his hand.

"Nay, ask now the beasts, and they will teach
thee, 15
Chap. xii. 4-7.
7. A laughing-stock, — because his perplexities are ignored
and contemned, while his fundamental righteousness is coolly
denied. 10. The friends are secure ; they do not look at suffering
through sufferers' eyes ; they can contemn a woe that they
do not feel.
12-15. These lines are the logical sequence of the previous.
Those who live in high-handed wickedness, whose spear or
sword is all the God and deliverer they desire, have the same
unfeeling, security ; like the friends, they have the arrogance
of the upper hand. This consideration carries on the thought
first broached in section vi. 45, advancing it one step toward
that view of the wicked and their ways which Job carries out
in sections xiv. 12-67 \ xvi. 34~9I-
15 sqq. In these lines, as far as 1. 56, Job takes up and iter-

202 THE BOOK OF JOB VIII.
And the bird of the heaven, and it will tell
thee ;
Or direct thy thought to the earth, and it will
teach thee,
And the fishes of the sea will recount unto
thee.
Who knoweth not, by all these,
That the hand of Jehovah worketh thus ? 20
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
And the spirit of all human flesh.
Doth not the ear try words,
As the palate tasteth meat for itself ?
Doth wisdom dwell with hoary heads, 25
And is length of days understanding?
With Him are wisdom and might ;
Chap. xii. 7-13.
ates what is true in the views of the friends, at the same time
broadening its application. Everything, both good and evil,
is in God's hands ; no Eliphaz's vision, or Bildad's traditional
wisdom, or Zophar's occult philosophy, is needed to prove
that ; the commonest things teach it.
20. The hand of Jehovah, — this is the only place in the
poem, aside from the Prologue and the Epilogue, where the
name Jehovah occurs ; see note, section i. 24. Jehovah, the
God of the Hebrews, is here recognized as the universal God.
23-26. The wisdom of which the friends think so much is
not the gift or prerogative of years ; it is revealed to a native
insight as natural as taste or hearing ; hence Job can trust his
own conclusions as well as those of the friends. In this con
fidence he leaves their philosophy, and sets out for himself.
27 sqq. In these lines Job gives the results of his observa-

VIII. JOB 203
To Him belong counsel and understanding.
Behold, He teareth down, and it shall not be
builded ;
He shutteth up a man, and there shall be no
opening. 30
Behold, He restraineth the waters, and they
dry up ;
He letteth them forth, and they lay waste the
earth.
With Him are strength and truth ;
The erring one and he that causeth to err are
His.
Who leadeth counselors away captive ; 35
And judges He maketh fools.
Chap. xii. 13-17.
tion in nature and history. In the main it is in the same line
as the friends' philosophy, possibly drawn from the great
body of Wisdom literature, but differing from it (see especially
1. 34) in making God's dealings irrespective of human sin and
desert. So far as the moral character of God herein involved
is concerned, He might be an irresponsible and arbitrary ty
rant, giving no reasons and caring for no justifications. This
is an important step in advance of the friends' wisdom ; it
clears the ground, so to say, of their narrow moral considera
tions, and forms a clean basis on which to build anew.
35. So much is said here of captivity, and of removal (see
"• 35> 39. 48), and with such apparent marks of an eye-wit
ness (see 1. 53), that we naturally conclude some great na
tional upheaval was fresh in memory, the writer putting his
own memories into the mouth of the patriarch. To me this
event seems most probably to have been the fall of the
Northern Kingdom ; see Introductory Study, pp. 1 1 1-1 14.

204 THE BOOK OF JOB VIII.
The bond of kings He looseth,
And bindeth a cord upon their loins.
Who leadeth priests away captive ;
And the long established He overthroweth. 40
Who removeth the speech of trusted ones ;
And the discernment of the aged He taketh
away.
Who poureth contempt on princes ;
And the girdle of the strong He looseth.
Who revealeth deep things out of darkness^ 45
And brirtgeth forth to light the shadow of
death.
Who maketh nations great, — and destroyeth
them;
Who spreadeth nations out, and leadeth them
away.
Who dishearteneth the leaders of the people of
the land,
And maketh them wander in a waste where
there is no path. 50
They grope in darkness without light ;
And He maketh them wander like a drunken
man.
Behold, all this hath mine eye seen ;
Mine ear hath heard and understood it well.
Chap. xii. 18 — xiii. 1.
53~5°. J°b has thus accurately defined how far he and the
friends are at one ; they agree in ascribing all events to God.
But from this point their paths diverge.

VIII. JOB 205
What ye know, that know I also ; 55
I am not inferior to you. 11.
" But I, — to the Almighty would I speak ;
I long to make plea unto God.
But ye too, — -forgers of lies are ye ;
Patchers-up of nothings are ye all. 60
Would that ye were silent altogether !
And it would be to you for wisdom.
Hear ye now my rebuke,
And listen to the charges of my lips.
Will ye speak what is wrong, for God ? 65
And will ye, for Him, utter deceit ?
Chap. xiii. 2-7.
57, 58. Taking Zophar at his word (see section vii. 8) Job
would invite God's answer by making plea to Him. In the
absence of a Daysman to represent his cause (section vi. 62-
69), Job approaches God directly, as indeed he has ap
proached Him before (vi. 70-107), but in much better spirit
now. 59. Forgers of lies. What the friends have said, true
though it is, is only the half-truth, which in their application
of it has all the effect of a lie. Two essential elements they
have ignored : the fact, illustrated by Job's affliction, that
man may be punished though righteous ; and the converse,
taught by obvious facts, that man may be wicked and pros
per. Hence their philosophizings are of no worth at all ; see
lk 75, 76.
65 sqq. At this sublime point the utter honesty of Job's heart
comes in conflict with what he must recognize as dishonesty

206 THE BOOK OF JOB VIII.
Will ye respect His person ? v
Or will ye be special pleaders for God ?
Would it be well, if He should search you
out?
Or will ye mock Him, as man mocketh man ? 70
He will surely convict you utterly,
If in secret ye are respecters of persons.
Shall not His majesty make you afraid,
And the dread of Him fall upon you ?
Your wise maxims are proverbs of ashes ; 75
Your bulwarks turn to bulwarks of clay.
111.
" Be silent ; let me alone ; and speak will I,
Let come upon me what will.
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth,
And put my life in my hand ? so
Chap. xiii. 8-14.
on the part of the friends. In denying facts in order to jus
tify God they are simply currying favor with God, respecting
His person in opposition to candid conviction.
69-74. Job takes his stand on God's truth; dark though
the divine ways are, Job is afraid to be dishonest to convic
tion before Him. Thus his philosophy comes home at last
to personal character.
75. It was in the maxim or aphoristic form that the utter
ances of Hebrew Wisdom were formulated ; this remark of
Job is in effect the condemnation of their whole philosophy.
77, 78. This emphatic preface is Job's hint of the impor
tance and significance of what he is going to say. He is
going to make a declaration on which life and death hangs.

VIII. JOB 207
Behold — He may slay me ; I may not hope ;
But my ways will I maintain, to His face.
Nay, that shall be to me also for salvation,
For no false one shall come into His presence.
Hear, oh hear my speech, es
And let my declaration sound in your ears.
Behold, now have I set in order my cause ;
I know that I shall be justified.
Who is he that will contend with me ? —
For then would I be silent and give up my life. 90
Chap. xiii. 15-19.
81. A more authentic reading, as well as the homogeneity
of the context, seems to make it necessary that the much-
loved text " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him "
shall yield to the translation here given.
82. My ways will I maintain. This is not foolhardy pre
sumption on Job's part ; from 11. 69-74 it is apparent that he is
afraid to do otherwise. This declaration we call Job's ever
lasting Yea, in which he definitely leaves his friends, who are
trying to have him forsake his ways and repent, and commits
the event of his life, as he has hitherto lived it, to God ; see
Introductory Study, p. 52, footnote.
83. But at the same time he does this in faith, that only on
the issue of truth can salvation be found. To maintain the
ways that he sees to be right will be, must be, his salvation.
85. Another call to attention, indicating Job's confidence in
the importance of his declaration.
87, 88. Job regards himself throughout as a defendant
bringing a righteous cause to God.
89, 90. These lines indicate how deeply Job's avowal has
taken hold of his life. So sure is he, of its truth that if it
were possible for one to make good the opposite, then life
would have no more significance for him ; his whole being is
committed to this position of his.

208 THE BOOK OF JOB VIII.
Only these two things do not Thou unto me, —
Then will I not hide myself from Thy face :
Remove Thou Thy hand from upon me,
And let not Thy terror unman me ;
Then call Thousand I will answer Thee, 95
Or I will speak, and return Thou answer to me.
How many are mine iniquities and my sins ?
My transgressions and my sins make Thou
known to me.
Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face,
And countest me for Thine enemy ? 100
Wilt Thou chase away a driven leaf,
And pursue after the dry stubble ?
For Thou writest bitter things against me,
And makest me inherit the sins of my youth.
And Thou puttest my feet in the stocks, 105
And keepest watch on all my paths.
Chap. xiii. 20-37.
91. Comparing this passage with section vi. 64-69, we see
that the two things for which Job asks here are just the
boons that he associates with a Daysman. Note, then, the
place of this plea. As soon as Job, committing life and des
tiny to his integrity, feels that he has reached a point where
God and he may stand together, and where, believing that
God will hear and heed, he may set in order his cause, he
makes his plea for that which a Daysman would secure.
97, 99. How many ? and Wherefore ? These are the prob
lems that have all along perplexed Job ; but he now urges
them as part of the cause which he has " set in order."
103. Writest bitter things, — as it were an indictment, which
Job has to answer.

VIII. JOB 209
On the soles of my feet hast Thou set Thy
mark ;
On one who as a rotten thing consumeth away,
As a garment that is moth-eaten. IV.
" Man, born of woman, no
Scant of days, and full of unrest,
Cometh forth, like a flower, and withereth,
Fleeth like the shadow, and abideth not.
Yet on such a one dost Thou open Thine eyes,
And me bringest Thou into judgment with
Thee. 115

Chap. xiii. 27 — xiv. 3.
107. Hast Thou set Thy mark, — as a driver marks a camel
so that he can trace it. " The grievance that Job complains
of, in this case, would be like putting such a mark upon an
old worn-out camel, which, instead of straying, was unable
to stand up." — Tayler Lewis.
no. The thought of his diseased and exhausted condition
brings anew the thought of death, round which his mind has
already eddied ; here, however, he begins to work toward a
solution of the perplexing fact, though, as in the case of the
Daysman, only negatively at first.
115. By this skillful transition to the first person Job iden
tifies himself with the race, and reveals his consciousness
that his case is a lesson for all humanity. A similar manner
of expression is used in Tennyson's In Memoriam, cix. 6 : —
" All these have been, and thee mine eyes
Have look'd on."

2IO THE BOOK OF JOB VIII.
Oh that a pure could come from an impure !
— Not one !
If his days are determined,
The number of his months with Thee,
His bounds if Thou hast set, that he may not
pass them, 120
Then look away from him, that he may rest,
Until he shall enjoy, as a hireling, his day.
For there is yet hope for a tree ;
If it is cut down, it will shoot up again,
And its tender sprout will not fail. 125
Though its root should grow old in the earth,
And in the dust its trunk should die,
Yet through the scent of water it sprouteth
again, Chap. xiv. 4-9.
116, 117. Job's thought, in this ejaculation, seems to be,
Oh, that all these pains and diseases, all this frailty and suf
fering of humanity, might issue in completion rather than in
corruption ; that they had some result corresponding to their
severity ; but in the present outlook they seem wholly fruit
less of their due. It is this longing that apparently supplies
the impulse for his further conjectures on death and renewed
life. .
120. His bounds, — the human soul of Job is too large for
its dwelling-place ; it beats blindly against its earthly limita
tions, longing to pass them.
122. As a hireling, — a doubtful enjoyment, merely making
the best of a hard matter ; see section iv. 62-67.
123. An analogy occurs to Job, which is full of suggestion
for better things and rouses great thoughts of what ought
to be.

VIII. JOB 211
And putteth forth boughs like a young plant.
But man dieth, and is fallen prostrate ; iso
But man gaspeth out his breath, — and where
is he ?
Waters fail from the sea,
And the river wasteth and drieth up :
So man lieth down, and riseth not ;
Till the heavens be no more they will not
awake, 135
Nor be roused out of their sleep.
Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave,
Wouldst keep me secret until Thy wrath is
past,
Wouldst set me a time, and remember me !
If a man die — might he live again ? wo
Chap. xiv. 9-14.
130-133. Yet Job sternly represses the application of the
figure, and makes it yield to the counter-analogy of the fail
ing waters. Throughout this passage, to the end of the sec
tion, there is a conflict between intellect and imagination,
reason and fancy, the seen and the longed-for. And alto
gether we have here such a picture of faith struggling to get
free from the inexorable suggestions of this phenomenal life
and find a free standing-point in the unseen beyond, as can
hardly be paralleled elsewhere in literature.
137. This longing, which surges up unsubdued by the pre
vious analogy, seems to be suggested by the last clause about
sleep. " If sleep and death be truly one," — then, there may
be a waking ! For a parallel passage, read Tennyson's In
Memoriam, xliii.
140. Might he live again ? The whole context indicates
that Job asks this question, with the thought — provisionally,

212 THE BOOK OF JOB VIII.
All the days of my service would I wait,
Until my renewal came ;
Thou wouldst call, and I would answer ;
Thou wouldst yearn after the work of Thy
hands !
For then wouldst Thou number my steps, 145
Nor wouldst Thou watch upon my sin ;
Sealed up in a bag would my transgression be,
And Thou wouldst sew up mine iniquity.
Chap. xiv. 14-17.
of course — of the affirmative answer in mind. Hence the
translation " might he live." The translation " shall he live "
would be the oratorical interrogation suggesting a negative
answer, which would be quite out of place here. It is this
affirmative answer which Job uses as an implied basis for the
succeeding lines, 141-148.
141. My service, — the same war-fare, or war-service, which
Job attributes to himself, as representative of humanity, in
section iv. 62.
142. My renewal, — Job uses this word apparently in remi
niscence of his analogy of the tree, 1. 124, where the word
" will shoot up " has the same Hebrew root. If man should
live again, then he would be renewed like the tree, and could
wait in hope.
144. How persistently Job presupposes in God a love like
that of a father ! — see section vi. 75, 76; 86^ 87. In this re
spect he is in contrast to the hard theology of his friends ;
and it is on this line of affection — Creator for creature,
friend for friend, an affection which in his relations here on
earth has failed — that he reaches his greatest achievements
in faith.
145-148. A contrast to God's present treatment of him;
see 11. 103-109. If Job were to live again, his steps would be

VIII. JOB 213
V.
"And yet — the mountain falling crumbleth
away,
And the rock removeth out of its place. 150
Water weareth down the stones ;
Its floods sweep away the dust of the earth ;
And the hope of mortal man Thou makest
perish.
Thou overpowerest him for ever, and he pass-
eth ;
Thou changest his countenance, and sendest
him away. 155
His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it
not ;
They are brought to shame, and he doth not
regard it.
Only his flesh upon him suffereth pain ;
And his soul within him mourneth."
Chap. xiv. 18-22.
all numbered, his account made up and sealed, ready for the
final award. " So that still garden of the souls
In many a figured leaf enrolls
The total world since life began."
149. And yet, — Job is not quite ready to commit himself to
the fancy that he has indulged ; he makes his way cautiously,
inductively. The mountains, the most permanent objects
that we see, gradually crumble down to dust. Job cannot
ignore this analogy ; and so for the time he seems to be
left where he began ; but his thought is only germinating, and
when we meet it again it will have grown perceptibly.:

IX
ELIPHAZ
And Eliphaz the Temanite answered, and said :
" Shall a wise man answer windy knowledge,
And fill his belly with the east wind, —
Reasoning with a word that availeth not,
And with speeches wherein is no profit ? s
Nay, and thou bringest piety to nought,
And lessenest devotion before God ;
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,
Chap. xv. 1-5.
Line 2. A wise man. Eliphaz, who comes from Teman,
a place famed for its wisdom, evidently prides himself on be
longing to the guild of wise men ; which guild he regards
Job, hitherto an eminent member thereof, as dishonoring by
his strange ideas, which to Eliphaz are " windy knowledge."
6. To the friends' conception of God, which demands a
hushed, subdued, unreasoning worship, Job has been very
irreverent, not to say rebellious. They cannot reconcile his
wild remonstrances with piety.
8. Thine iniquity. Eliphaz can attribute Job's bold words
only to high-handed defiance of God ; there is no room in his
system for honest doubt and inquiry. Even Job's assump
tion of honesty, as would seem from the next line, looks to
him like craft.

IX. ELIPHAZ 215
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I ;
And thy lips testify against thee. 11

"Wast thou born the first man ?
And wast thou brought forth before the hills ?
Didst thou listen in the council of God ?
And didst thou draw wisdom to thyself ? 15
What knowest thou that we know not ?
What understandest thou, and the same is not
in us ?
Yea, the grey-haired, yea, the aged man, is
amongst us,
Fuller of days than thy father.
Are the consolations of God too small for
thee, 20
And a word spoken unto thee kindly ?
Chap. xv. 5-11.
16. Job's ideas so strike out from the beaten path that he
talks like one with a new source of knowledge. His assertion
that he knows all that they have told him (section viii. 6, 55),
and his contempt of their philosophy, is galling to Eliphaz.
18. The aged man, — not only the old men who are actu
ally alive, but those who live still in their words of wisdom ;
see next clause, and section v. 15 sq., as well as this present
section, 11. 32-35.
20. Consolations of God, — such is the name that Eliphaz
gives to his admonitions, a name that evidently rankles in
Job's mind ; see section xiv. 3.

2l6 THE BOOK OF JOB IX.
Why hath thy heart carried thee away,
And why quiver thine eyes, —
That thou turnest thy spirit against God,
Andiettest forth such words out of thy mouth ?
What is mortal man, that he should be clean, 26
And that the woman -born should be right
eous ?
Behold, in His holy ones He putteth no trust,
And the heavens are not clean in His eyes ; 29
How much less the abominable and corrupt, —
Man, that drinketh in perverseness as water !
11.
" I will show thee ; listen thou to me ;
And that which I have seen will I declare ;
Which wise men tell, and have not hidden, —
Things heard from their fathers, 35
Chap. xv. 12-18.
24. Job has turned his spirit against the friends' concep
tion of God, a Being without affection, and dealing only ac
cording to iron justice.
26-31. Eliphaz here repeats, with some tendency to inten
sification, what his vision revealed to him, section iii. 33-39.
It is the Old Testament doctrine of total depravity ; and how
far the wise men's speculations had emphasized it is apparent
from 11. 30, 31.
34-37. These lines indicate that the guild of Wise Men, of
whom we first hear in connection with Solomon, was already
ancient enough to have established a philosophy which was
an implicit oracle. The Wisdom had become an orthodoxy,
priding itself on its antiquity, and on the fact that no inter-

IX. ELIPHAZ 217
Unto whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger hath passed among them : —
' All his days the wicked is in torment,
And the number of his years reserved to the
oppressor.
A voice of terrors is in his ears ; 40
In peace the spoiler cometh upon him.
He hath no hope of returning out of darkness,
And he is marked out for the sword.
He wandereth about for bread — where is it ?
He knoweth that just at hand is a day of
darkness, 46
Trouble and anguish make him afraid, —
Overcome him, as a king ready for onset.
Chap. xv. 19-24.
mixture of strange doctrine had ever been permitted. An
international philosophy too ; for Eliphaz is of Teman, and
none of his auditors are represented as of Palestine. All
this is proof of the ripened age of the Hebrew Wisdom at
the time when the Book of Job was written.
38. Here begin the words of the fathers. Eliphaz brings
up this lurid picture of the wicked in order to counteract
Job's intimations that the wicked are prospered while the
righteous suffer. Such intimations, in direct contradiction to
the conclusions of wisdom, seem to open the door to all kinds
of violence and infidelity ; it lets down the barriers of doubt
and admits indefinable riotings of extravagant doctrine. So
Eliphaz, who gives the tone to the others, desires to put him
self strongly on record for God ; hence this purely theoretical
picture of the wicked, drawn not for truth, but for theological
consistency, and erring grossly by exaggeration ; see, for in
stance, 11. 57, 58, which Job will show to be palpably untrue.

2l8 THE BOOK OF JOB IX.
Because he stretcheth out his hand against
God,
And against the Almighty maketh himself
strong, —
Runneth against Him with hardened neck, so
With the thick bosses of his bucklers ; —
Because he covereth his face with his fat,
And gathereth suet upon his loins,
And dwelleth in desolated cities,
In houses that no man would inhabit, 55
Which are doomed to be heaps of stones ; —
Therefore he shall not be rich, nor shall his
substance endure ;
Neither shall their possessions spread out in
the earth.
He shall not escape out of darkness ;
Chap. xv. 25-30.
48. This line is perhaps a covert warning to Job who
seems dangerously near doing the same thing. The second
clause, or apodosis, of the sentence begins at 1. 57.
50. With hardened neck, — like a bull, which rushes blindly
against whatever rouses its wrath.
52. His prosperity makes him obtuse and unspiritual ; in
different to divine things. Eliphaz has exalted ideas of spir
itual insight and keenness ; compare sections iii. 44-47 ; xv.
18-21. 54. Desolated cities, — perhaps cities that he himself, as
conqueror or as heartless rich man, has desolated in order to
make them his own residence ; or it may be cities that, as
dwelling-places of the cursed and godless, are viewed in anti
cipation as desolated ; compare section iii. 49, " I cursed his
habitation."

IX. ELIPHAZ 219
A flame shall dry up his tender shoots, co
And by the breath of His mouth shall he pass
away.
Let him not trust in vanity ; he is deceived ;
For vanity shall be his recompense.
While yet his time is not, it shall be paid in
full ;
And his palm-branch is no longer green. 65
He shall cast off, like a vine, his unripe grapes ;
And shall scatter his blossoms, like the olive.
For the company of the profane is barren,
And fire devoureth the tents of bribery.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth ini
quity, , 70
And their womb matureth deceit.' "
Chap. xv. 30-35.
61. Compare Eliphaz's earlier words, section iii. 16.
62-67. As Eliphaz has apparently no conception of a fu
ture state of retribution, his words seem to assert that the
wicked will have their fearful recompense in this life ; Prov
erbs xi. 31 may be taken as the key to his and the friends'
philosophy ; a position that Job, when the time comes, will
controvert with vigor.
In the above speech of Eliphaz it seems to be the writer's
intention to make him overstate his doctrine and make it ob
viously untrue to fact ; see Introductory Study, p. 63.

X
JOB
And Job answered, and said :
" I have heard many things like these !
Tormenting comforters are ye all.
Is there any end to words of wind ?
Or what hath provoked thee, that thou an-
swerest thus ? 5
I also could speak as ye do,
Were your soul in my soul's stead ;
I could compose words against you ;
Chap. xvi. 1-4,
Line 3. Eliphaz has just blamed Job (section ix. 20) for
despising the " consolations of God." Job retorts that the
friends are administering just the reverse of consolation ;
they are tormenting comforters.
5. Job seems to recognize in Eliphaz's answer a heat and
violence of assertion so much beyond the demands of the
subject that it has the look of personal vindictiveness. He
cannot understand how such honest doubt as his own should
rouse such odium theologicum.
8. Compose words, — this expression contains a double sar
casm. It implies that their minds are so calm, so untouched
by deep affliction, that they can have leisure to put together
pleasing and faultless rhetoric. At the same time it implies

X JOB 221
And I could shake my head over you ;
I could strengthen you — with my mouth, 10
And my lip-sympathy could sustain you.

" If I speak, my anguish is not assuaged ;
And if I forbear, what am I eased ?
Nay — now hath He wearied me out ;
Thou hast desolated all my household, is
Chap. xvi. 4-7.
that their rhetoric is unreal, unfaithful to fact, being merely
words, intellectual performance, not the outflow of the heart.
9. Job is not slow to recognize what their general pictures
of the fate of the wicked mean ; they are shaking their head
over him.
12. Leaving here what Eliphaz has said, Job returns to his
own line of thinking, which he laid down at the end of sec
tion viii. with the unsolved problem of death. It is the
thought of his suffering that he now takes up, and especially
with reference to the author of it.
14. The notable thing of this whole passage is that Job
hardly knows how to identify the author of his misery. He
speaks here of " He," without naming God ; in the next
breath he turns directly to God and says "Thou" (1. 15);
again it is " His anger " (1. 19), as if Job were reluctant to
tax God directly with it; then it is "mine enemy" (1. 21), as
if it were some fell power whom he dared not name. Anon
it is " they" (1. 22), as if it were an army of foes, or as if his
friends were combined with the unseen powers. Clearly Job
is hesitating to ascribe to God such hatred as he must recog
nize in his punishment ; he is groping after the God of love,
and unwittingly drawing near to Him.

222 THE BOOK OF JOB X.
And Thou hast shriveled me up, till it is be
come a witness ;
Yea, my leanness riseth up against me ;
It beareth witness to my face.
His anger teareth and hateth me ;
He gnasheth upon me with his teeth ; 20
Mine enemy whetteth his eyes against me.
They gape upon me with their mouth ;
With scorn they smite me on the- cheek ;
As one man they combine themselves against
me.
God delivereth me to the perverse, 25
And into the hands of wicked ones He casteth
me headlong. Chap. xvi. 8-1 i.
16, 17. Extreme emaciation is one accompaniment of ele
phantiasis. 19. An exaggerated picture this, charged with the bitter
ness of long anguish. The hatred that is portrayed in it is
its estranging feature ; such hatred is so opposite to Job's
conception of the Godlike (compare sections vi. 75, 76;
86-89 > v"'. J44) tnat be is wholly bewildered by it.
22. Who are " they ? " Certainly not the friends. I think
the word is Job's undefined term for the powers of evil ; per
haps he uses the plural as typical of the manifold wickedness
that opposes the good.
25, 26. The perverse, wicked ones, seem to be left unde
fined, whether men or unseen powers. Or perhaps it may
also mean that this punishment, being due to the wicked,
identifies him with them, compels him to be counted in their
company.

X. JOB 223
I was at ease, — and He hath shattered me,
Yea, hath seized me by the neck and dashed
me down ;
And He hath set me up for His mark.
His arrows beset me round about ; 30
He cleaveth asunder my reins, and spareth not ;
He poureth out my gall upon the earth ;
He breaketh me through, breach on breach ;
He runneth upon me as a mighty man of war.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, 35
And have thrust my horn into the dust.
My face is burning red from weeping,
And on mine eyelids is the shadow of death ;
Yet not for any violence in my hands ;
And my prayer too is pure. 40
Chap. xvi. 12-17.
27 sqq. Job describes his suffering in such strong terms
that it is most natural to take it as typical, and Job himself
as a type of the suffering righteous. There is veritable Mes
sianic language here (see especially 11. 20-26), such as we
find in Second Isaiah, though not yet so idealized into the
suffering Servant of Jehovah. See Introductory Study, p.
117. 29. The same image that is employed in section iv. 103.
30-34. Job habitually uses this image of war and siege to
describe God's treatment of him ; see sections iv. 8 ; vi. 107 ;
xii. 22-24.
40. A profound yet very practical test this of one's integrity
before God. One is reminded of Coleridge's Ancient Mari
ner, who relates that as soon as he could look on God's crea
tures with love instead of hatred, " that self-same moment I
could pray."

224 THE BOOK OF JOB X.

II.
" Earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry have no resting-place !
Even now, behold, in heaven is my witness,
And mine advocate is on high;
My friends are my scorners, 45
But unto God mine eye poureth tears,
That he would plead for man with God,
And as the son of man for his neighbor.
For a- few years will pass,
And I shall go the way whence I shall not
return. 50
Chap. xvi. 18-22.
42. The old idea, expressed in the Cain incident (Genesis
iv. 10), that a murdered man's blood cries out for vengeance.
Of course this puts in the strongest terms Job's sense of in
justice. 43. Yet in the next breath Job turns for vindication to the
very quarter whence he has supposed the injustice comes. In
his thought he seems to divide the God who oppresses him
from a God who loves him and represents his cause ; at least
he commits himself by a mighty reach of faith to an Advo
cate on high, though he does not clearly identify such an
Advocate fully with God.
47. Job evidently thinks of the Advocate as the Daysman
whom he so longed for (section vi. 62-69) > and we see the
advance he has made in faith by the fact that the being
whose existence he despairingly denied then he now acknow
ledges with passionate assertion.
48. It is Job's hunger for love, his longing for friendship,
that works especially to drive him to the Advocate ; see 1. 45.
50. Yet here his idea of the Advocate stops ; it must take

X. JOB 22$
My breath is spent ; my days are quenched ;
For me are left only the graves.
Were it not that mockery is with me,
Mine eye could rest calmly on their taunts.
111.
" Give now the pledge ; be Thou surety for me
with Thyself ; — 55
Who is he that striketh hands with me ?
For their heart hast Thou hid from understand
ing ;
Therefore wilt Thou not exalt them.
Chap. xvii. 1-4.
another surge of faith before he connects his immortality
therewith. 52. The graves, — a curious plural. Perhaps the word was
used to designate the cemetery, the place of graves.
53, 54. Job's thought of the Advocate has so calmed his
mind in the contemplation of death that he speaks as if con
tent to go, — see, also, 11. 72-83; the only drawback to his
calmness is that he has " mockery " to meet and set right.
His friends are saying things that demand answer ; Job refers
doubtless to their intemperate assertions about the wicked,
which he will soon address himself to refute.
55, 56. Full of the idea of an Advocate, Job turns sponta
neously to God as if to make a covenant ; then he seems to
pause, as if uncertain whether to identify the Advocate with
God or not.
57. The insight that Job's faith has given him makes him
see also that the friends are spiritually blind; he has mis
trusted this before (see section viii. 2, 3) ; now he knows it.
From this point on he is their open antagonist.

226 THE BOOK OF JOB X.
He betrayeth friends for a prey,
And the eyes of his children fail.' «o
And He hath made me a by-word of peoples ;
And I am become as one to be spit upon in
the face.
Dim too, from sorrow, is mine eye,
And my members are as a shadow, all of them.
For this shall the upright be amazed, 65
And the pure shall be roused to anger against
the profane ;
But the righteous shall hold on his way,
And the clean of hands shall wax stronger and
stronger.
But you — all of you — return ye ! and come
now!
For I shall not find a wise man among you. to
Chap. xvii. 5-10.
59, 60. Presumably an aphorism or proverbial expression
which Job here quotes as applicable to his friends. Whoever
betrays friends incurs a spiritual blindness which descends to
his posterity. He has already said bitterly of them that they
would make traffic over their friend (section iv. 55) ; he has
convicted them also of speaking what is wrong, for God (sec
tion viii. 65). Hence the pertinence of the proverb, now that
he is fully aware of their spiritual blindness.
61. Job seems to take up typical language again, and to
look upon himself as an object-lesson to the ages.
65-68. This passage seems to prophesy that the bounds
and definitions of righteousness are to be henceforth more
clear by reason of his affliction ; his trial is to be the crucible
in which great truths are wrought out.
69, 70. To emphasize how far his thought has borne him

iviy pians are Dronen on, —
The treasures of my heart.
Night they put for day ;
The light draweth near the face of darkness. 75
If I have any hope, the grave is my house ;
I have spread out my bed in the darkness.
To corruption I have said, ' My father thou ! '
' My mother, and my sister ! ' — to the worm.
And where is now my hope ? so
Yea, my hope — who shall discover it ?
Will the bars of Sheol fall down,
When together there is rest in the dust ? "
Chap. xvii. 11-16.
beyond them, he calls ironically to his friends, and throws
despite on their wisdom.
71 sqq. Job accepts the near doom of death, and draws con
sciously towards it, but with much more calmness than here
tofore, as if, whether explicable or not, it were surely right.
This is certainly a step gained.
76. The grave, — literally, Sheol ; but the word was often
used as we use the word grave; see note, section iv. 80.

XI
BILDAD
And Bildad the Shuhite answered, and said :
" How long will ye hunt for words ?
Consider well, — and afterward will we speak.
Wherefore are we accounted as the brute —
Are regarded as vile in your eyes ? s
Thou that tearest thyself in thy rage,
Shall the earth be forsaken for thy sake,
And the rock be removed from its place ?
Chap, xviii. 1-4.
Line 2. Addressed to the other friends ; alluding to Job's
reproach in the foregoing section (1. 8), that their pleas were
only words, and implying that deeper arguments, founded
more on the laboriously sought truth of things, must be ad
duced. 4. Accounted as the brute, — this is merely the coarser and
bitterer language in which Bildad interprets Job's assertion,
" Their heart hast Thou hid from understanding " (section
x- 57)-
6. Job's profound disturbance of soul seems to Bildad like
rage, and to oppose the well-established conclusions of Wis
dom seems to him like the childish madness which would
attempt to overthrow mountains.

XI. BILDAD 229

" Verily, the light of the wicked shall go out,
And the flame of his fire shall not shine. 10
Light darkeneth in his tent,
And his lamp above him goeth out.
Straitened are the strides of his might ;
And his own counsel casteth him down.
For he is cast into a net by his own feet ; is
And he chooseth his way over a pitfall.
The trap seizeth his heel ;
The snare layeth fast hold upon him ;
Hidden in the ground for him is a cord,
And a noose for him in the pathway. 20
Chap, xviii. 5-10.
9. Bildad takes up the same theme that Eliphaz has laid
down, — the fate of the wicked ; but he carries out his prom
ise (1. 3) to ground it more carefully in truth by hinting con
tinually at Job's condition, as a case in point.
Line 9 is a stock assertion of Wisdom (see Proverbs xxiv.
20), which Job submits, in section xiv. 32, to the test of ob
served fact.
11. Perhaps an allusion to Job's complaint that God had
" desolated his household," section x. 1 5 ; and the obverse of
Eliphaz's assertion, section iii. 92.
12. His lamp above him, — the. great lamp suspended in
the top of the tent.
13. The wicked is represented as a wealthy and powerful
man, in just such a condition as Job's has been.
15-22. A kind of exaggeration of Eliphaz's words, section
ix. 38-43, and making the wicked man's fate more definitely
the consequence of his own foolish counsel and infatuation.

23O THE BOOK OF JOB XI
Round about him terrors make him afraid,
And chase him away at his heels.
His might standeth hunger-bitten ;
And ruin is ready at his side.
It shall devour the parts of his skin ; 25
It shall devour his members — the firstborn of
death.
He is torn out of his tent wherein he trusted,
And he is led away to the king of terrors.
There shall dwell in his tent that which is none
of his ;
Brimstone shall be showered on his habitation.
Underneath, his roots dry up ; 31
And from above, his branch withereth.
His memory perisheth out of the earth ;
And no longer hath he a name on the face of
the fields.
They drive him out from light into darkness, 35
Chap, xviii. 11-18.
21, 22. Bildad apparently alludes here, as Eliphaz has al
ready alluded, section ix. 40, to Job's description of his terri
fying visions, section iv. 90, 91.
23-26. An allusion to Job's emaciation and disfigured con
dition ; see sections x. 16-18, 64 ; iv. 71, 72.
27. Is not this a heartless allusion to Job as a. leper, cast
out of his tent to the ash-heap outside of the city, with an
ill-concealed threat of death added thereto ?
30. Apparently an allusion to the inhabitants of Sodom,
Genesis xix. 24, who were historical types of extreme wicked
ness requited.
35- They, — perhaps the mysterious unseen powers of Ne-

XI. BILDAD 23 1
And chase him from the world.
Offspring and descendant hath he none among
his people ;
Nor is there an escaped one in his dwelling-
places.
At his day shall they of later time be aston
ished,
As they that were before were seized with ter
ror. 40
11.
" Verily, such are the dwellings of the wicked ;
And this is the place of him that knoweth not
God." Chap, xviii. 18-21.
mesis and vengeance, whom Job has already referred to as
pursuing him, section x. 22.
37. Job's children, it will be remembered, have perished in
his calamity.
39, 40. Job conceives that the righteous shall be amazed
at his case, section x. 65-68; Bildad makes the astonish
ment due to his wickedness. This same astonishment the
friends have already shown, section i. 134-140 ; see also sec
tion iv, 43, and note.

XII JOB
And Job answered, and said :
" How long will ye vex my soul,
And break me in pieces with words ?
These ten times do ye reproach me ;
Ye are not ashamed to act as strangers to me.

" And be it of a truth that I have erred,
With me remaineth mine error.
Chap. xix. 1-4.
Line 2. Bildad's speech has been, as we have seen, an ex
asperating series of allusions to Job's diseased condition, as
illustrating the punishment of the wicked and as prophesying
worse things. Job does not yet answer these insinuations ;
but they are not lost on him — only delayed.
5. As strangers, — this idea furnishes the cue to the present
section. They have ceased to be friends to him ; they coolly
doom him to an awful fate, as if they had never had bonds of
sympathy with him. To one like Job, who yearns for affec
tion and sympathy (see section iv. 56-61), this fact is the bit
terest drop in his cup.
7. That is, Job's error, even supposing it real, is not a mat-

XII. JOB 233
If in sooth ye magnify yourselves against me,
And prove against me my reproach,
Know then that God hath wronged me, w
And hath encompassed me with His net.
Behold, I cry out — violence ! — and am not
heard ;
I shriek for help, and there is no judgment.
He hath fenced up my way, and I cannot pass ;
And over my paths hath He set darkness. 15
My glory hath He stripped off from me,
And He hath taken the crown from my head.
He breaketh me down on every side, — and I
am gone ;
And He uprooteth, like a tree, my hope.
He maketh His anger burn against me, 20
And counteth me as He doth His enemies.
Chap. xix. 5-1 1.
ter that concerns them, or that should operate to estrange
them from him ; it is wholly between him and God.
8-1 1. In these words Job makes his final defiant answer to
his friends' insinuations ; they are fastening his " reproach "
upon him as the deserving cause ; Job maintains unalterably
that God has wronged him. If that be wickedness, let them
make the most of it.
12 sqq. As in burning indignation Job has portrayed his
affliction before God, section x. 12-40, so now before his
friends, in calmer and more pensive mood, he enlarges on his
evil case. It is merely an amplification and summary of what
he has said before.
14, 15. Compare section ii. 47, 48.
18. Compare section x. 80-83.

234 THE BOOK OF JOB XIL
Together come His troops ;
And they cast up their way against me,
And encamp round about my tent.

n.
" My brethren hath He removed far from me ; as
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged
from me.
My kinsfolk stand aloof ;
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
Dwellers in my house, and my maids, —
As a stranger they account me ; 3«
I am become an alien in their eyes.
I call to my servant, and he answereth not ;
I have to entreat him with my mouth.
My breath is strange to my wife,
And I am loathsome to the sons of my body. 35
Even the boys despise me ;
Chap. xix. 12-18.
22-24. The recurring figure of a siege ; compare section x.
30-34, and note there.
25 sqq. Job now enlarges on what he suggested, 1. 5. As
in section x. 12-40 he approached his belief in an Advocate
through the thought of God's enmity to him, so here he ap
proaches his belief in a Redeemer, a next of kin, through the
thought of the friendship that fails on earth, which thought
he here sets forth in its strongest expression. It is in this
thought of his loneliness that Job reaches here the profound-
est depth of his trial ; here also we are brought nearest to
the yearning human heart of the man.

XII. JOB 235
I try to rise, and they speak jeeringly against
me.
All mine inward friends abhor me ;
And those I love have turned against me.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, 40
And shrunk away is the covering of my teeth.
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my
friends !
For the hand of God hath touched me !
Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh ? 45
in.
" Oh that now my words were written !
Oh that they were inscribed in a book !
Chap. xix. 18-23.
38. Mine inward friends, — literally, men of my secret in
tercourse, or counsel. The same word is used for the friend
ship of God, section xx. 7.
41. Of this line, whose expression is very obscure in the
original, I take the view of Dr. Tayler Lewis. It seems to
describe that corpse-like appearance of the leper, wherein the
face seems like a half-covered skull, with teeth protruding
and hollow eyes.
44, 45. That is, why take God's prerogative in hand, and
give reproach merely because He has inflicted suffering. It
is a plea to let natural feelings of compassion have free
course, and not to bestow their regards and reproaches theo
retically. 46. The extreme depth of woe to which Job has just
reached is immediately followed by a height of conviction so
great and significant that Job would make the expression of

236 THE BOOK OF JOB XII.
That, with iron pen, and with lead,
They were graven in the rock, for ever !
I know that my redeemer liveth ; so
That he will sta.nd, survivor, over the dust ;
And after my skin is gone, they will rend this
body, Chap. xix. 24-26.
it monumental, permanent. In the same way Job has called
solemn attention before to assertions that in his view are
especially important ; see section viii. 63, 77, 85. This, how
ever, as being his supreme confession, reached by long strug
gle through darkness, is prefaced by the most emphatic note
of attention.
48.' A reference to the ancient manner of engraving inscrip
tions on the rocks. After being cut in, the lines were filled
with molten lead, and thus made more legible and permanent.
50. My redeemer, — so it seems best to translate here,
rather than disturb the associations of the passage ; because
not enough would be gained by the more accurate term
Avenger to pay for the change. The word denotes the next
of kin, whose duty it was to avenge the blood of a murdered
man (see Numbers xxxv. 19), and to succor the bereaved and
needy (see Ruth iii. 9-13; iv. 1-8). With wonderful skill Job
chooses the word that gathers into itself all that he has longed
for ; it means one who will befriend him, avenge his wrong, be
his Daysman, make God his friend again. Note too that it is
the word to which he was led through the thought of failing
earthly friendship, just as the word Advocate was the term to
which he was led through the thought of God's injustice and
enmity ; section x. 44.
52. They will rend, — the mysterious they again (see sec
tions x. 22 ; xi. 35) ; unnamable powers of destiny. — This
body; only the word this is expressed in the original; and
Job may be thought of as indicating by a gesture his wasted
frame, too loathsome and disfigured to be named.

XII. JOB 237
And I, from my flesh, shall see God ;
Whom I shall see, I, for myself ;
Whom mine eyes shall behold, a stranger no
more. 55
Oh, for this my reins consume within me !
IV.
" If ye say, ' How we will persecute him ! '
Chap. xix. 26-28.
53. From my flesh, — in this translation I have preserved
exactly the same ambiguity that exists in the original : it may
mean either being in the flesh and looking out, or being out
of the flesh. The context favors the latter meaning ; but
nothing positive can be gathered, nor do I believe the dis
crimination was in the author's mind between disembodied
immortality and resurrection of the body. I am inclined to
think it is an emphatic way of saying " in my truest self," the
word flesh being used somewhat as the word for bone is used
in a common Hebrew idiom ; c. g., " as the bone of heaven,"
for " as the heaven itself," Exodus xxiv. 10.
55. Even yet Job does not clearly identify the Redeemer
with God ; he merely says that in consequence of the Re
deemer's living and representing his cause he shall see God,
and God will be his friend. Still the remarkable Messianic
idea lingers, which we have noticed in other passages ; and
we hardly know whether the author is thinking of one being
or two. But there is a great advance beyond the idea of sec
tion x. 43-48 ; for there God had not ceased to be an enemy
who was to be conciliated through an Advocate ; here God
is " a stranger no more."
57-61. It is quite in accordance with Job's custom else
where (see sections x. 69, 70 ; xiv. 68, 69 ; xvi. 92, 93) to fol
low one of his passages of deep and true insight by a note of
warning in which the friends' purblindness is recognized.

238 THE BOOK OF JOB XII.
And that the root of the matter is found in
me, —
Be ye afraid of the sword ;
For there is wrath against the sins of the
sword, 60
That ye may know there is a judgment."
Chap. xix. 28, 29.
This is the most solemn passage of the kind, as befits the
lofty reach of faith that precedes it.
58. That is, if ye still maintain (compare 11. 8, 9) that I am
the culprit, that the cause of this punishment lies in my guilt.
Job seems to think, what also has been intimated before (see
sections iii. 44, note ; iv. 61, note; see also xix. 4-7), that his
spiritual insight achieving this revelation of a vindication after
death proves his heart and conduct also pure. Both he and
the friends would deny true insight to a wicked man.
59. That is, the sword of God's wrath, of which they are in
danger if they set themselves against a conviction so pure as
this of his.
From this point onward, Job no more struggles with the
problem of death ; a fact which indicates that the immortality
here recognized is henceforth taken for granted. Nor is God
any more regarded as an enemy ; note rather the different at
titude in section xvi. 4-13.

XIII
ZOPHAR
And Zophar the Naamathite answered, and
said :
" Therefore do my thoughts give me answer,
And for such cause is this my haste within
me, —
Chiding, to my reproof, must I hear !
And the spirit out of mine understanding re-
plieth. 5
Chap. xx. 1-3.
Line 2. Therefore, — referring forward to line 4. Zophar
replies with headlong haste, being incensed at Job's insinu
ation 'that they who have preached repentance to him are
themselves in imminent danger of sin. — My thoughts, — the
same word that is used of the "wandering thoughts" of
Eliphaz's vision ; see section iii. 24, note. It may indicate
here the tumultuous emotions that have been roused by his
indignation, a rush and confusion of thought.
5. Spirit, — in the sense of zeal. In section xi. Bildad pro
fessed to give a well-considered speech (1. 3), and made it a
series of undisguised allusions to the various features of Job's
calamity, which he employed as a portrayal of the wicked ;
Zophar, impelled by hot zeal and indignation, draws a picture
that is declamatory, intemperate, and largely fanciful, having
little if any traceable connection with sober fact.

24O THE BOOK OF JOB XIII.
I.
" What ! thou surely knowest this, from of old,
Since Adam was placed upon the earth,
That the triumph of the wicked is short-lived,
And the joy of the ungodly but for a moment.
Though his summit mount up to heaven, 10
And his head reach unto the clouds,
Yet like his own dung shall he perish utterly ;
They that see him shall say, Where is he ?
Like a dream he flitteth, and is no more found,
And he is chased away, as a spectre of the
night. 15
Eye hath looked upon him, — it looketh not
again ; Chap. xx. 4-9.
6. From of old, — what Zophar says, though exaggerated
by passion and rhetoric, is really one of the long-settled re
sults of Wisdom, which he is astonished to hear traversed.
8. The triumph of the wicked, — perhaps an allusion to
Job's solemn exaltation in his discovery of a Redeemer, sec
tion xii. 50-56. Strange blindness, that would view such a
triumph as the triumph of the wicked !
10. The rhetorical tendency of Zophar's speech is manifest
especially in his labored amplification of each picture that he
brings up, with the evident attempt to make everything as
vivid and intense as possible; note this in 11. 10-15; 22-31 ;
33> 36-4°; 47~5 1. He lets his imagination riot in terrific
images. 16. Hath looked, — the original word means a mere momen
tary glance, as if he had vanished in a twinkling.

XIII. ZOPHAR 241
And no more shall his place behold him.
His sons shall seek the favor of the poor ;
And his hands shall restore his wealth.
His bones are full of his youth, 20
But it shall lie down with him in the dust.
11.
"Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
And he hideth it under his tongue,
Spareth it, and is loath to let it go,
And holdeth it back in his palate, 25
Yet in his bowels his bread is changed,
It is the gall of asps within him.
He hath swallowed down riches, and must
vomit them up ;
Out of his belly God will cast them forth.
It is the poison of asps that he sucketh in ; 30
The tongue of the adder shall slay him.
Never more shall he gaze upon the streams,
The floods, the brooks of honey and cream.
Chap. xx. 9-17.
20. His youth, — the strength, the vigor, of youth.
22 sqq. Another rhetorical tendency is manifest here, in
Zophar's evident desire to trace the wicked man's fate as a
history, from the height of his prosperity to the fearful dis
aster at death.
26. It is to this that Zophar reduces the prosperity of the
wicked, — the wicked seeming to enjoy, perhaps really enjoy
ing, the first taste of evil, but finding it unreal and bitter to
his soul. A picture not without basis, but conceived here in
mere fancy.

242 THE BOOK OF JOB XIII.
He must restore the fruit of toil, and not de
vour it ;
As borrowed wealth it is, and he hath no joy
therein ; ss
Because he oppressed, he abandoned the poor,
Seized upon a house that he would not build, —
Because he knew not rest in his belly,
In his greed would let nothing escape, —
No, not a shred that he could devour, — 40
Therefore his prosperity shall not endure ;
In the fullness of his abundance shall he be
straitened ;
Upon him shall come every hand of the
wretched.
So shall it be, until his belly is filled :
He shall cast upon him the fire of His wrath, 45
And shall rain it upon him with his food.
Fleeth he from the iron armor,
The bow of brass pierceth him through ;
He draweth it out, — and it cometh forth from
his body,
The gleaming shaft, from his gall, — so
Terrors come upon him !
All darkness is laid up for his hid treasures ;
Chap. xx. 18-26.
37. Compare section ix. 54-56. The friends seem to have
in mind some notorious evil of rich men seizing houses by
violence and turning them to their own use.

XIII. ZOPHAR 243
A fire not blown shall consume him ;
It shall feed upon the last remnant in his tent.
Heaven shall reveal his iniquity, 55
And earth shall rise up against him.
The increase of his house shall depart,
Shall flow away in the day of His wrath.
m.
" Such is the portion of the wicked man, from
God,
And the heritage decreed from the Mighty
One." eo
Chap. xx. 26-29.
53. A fire not blown, — self-enkindled, so eager is it to burn.
59, 60. It seems to be the author's intention in this speech
to run the friends' threefold portrayal of the fate of the
wicked into mere froth and declamation, which soon Job's
honest sense will sweep away. The whole, though the most
violent and vivid of the three, is after all vague : the horrible
woes it denounces on the wicked are not referred to cause
and ground, nor are they easily verifiable in fact.

XIV JOB
And Job answered, and said :
" Hear, oh hear ye my word,
And be this the ' consolations ' ye give.
Suffer me, and I will speak ;
And after I have spoken, — then mock thou.

" As for me, is my complaint unto man ?
Chap. xxi. 1-4.
The three friends have all spoken in the same strain, por
traying in violent and exaggerated terms the doom of the
wicked ; but to their arguments Job has deigned no answer
until now. The present speech, however, squarely traverses
what they have said, and indicates that he has merely waited
for what all had to urge, that he might answer all of them at
once. Line 3. Consolations, — an allusion to "the consolations of
God " (section ix. 20), with which Eliphaz has plied him.
6. Zophar's heat and haste arose from the " chiding " that
he must hear (section xiii. 4), as if it were a personal matter ;
Job's complaint is directed not against man, but against what
he must see in the world.

XIV. JOB 245
And wherefore should not my spirit be short
ened ?
Turn ye unto me, and be amazed,
And lay hand upon mouth.
Even as I think thereon, I am dismayed, 10
And shuddering seizeth on my flesh.
Wherefore do the wicked live,
Become old, yea, wax mighty in power ?
Their seed is established around them, in their
sight,
And their offspring before their eyes. is
Their houses are peace, far from fear ;
And no rod of God is upon them.
Their bull gendereth, and doth not fail ;
Chap. xxi. 4-10.
7. Alluding, perhaps, to what Eliphaz has said to him, sec
tion ix. 22-25, and Bildad, section xi. 6.
8-1 1. The friends have so reveled in their highly colored
descriptions that they have almost exulted over the fate of
the wicked ; Job, on the other hand, full of sympathy with
right and truth, must view with amazement the confused
order of things : it is not what he wishes to see.
12 sqq. This is the appeal to plain and palpable fact which
Job sets over against the friends' theory. It is essentially
the expansion of what he has touched upon before ; see sec
tions vi. 45, 77 ; viii. 12-14.
14 sqq. Of course Job does not mean to say that they have
all this material welfare because they are wicked ; that is not
the issue. His point, made against the whole tenor of the
friends' arguments, is simply that, being wicked, they are not
treated according to their wickedness. Contrary to the law
of Hebrew Wisdom they are prospered in the earth ; they

246 THE BOOK OF JOB XI'V.
Lightly calveth their cow, and casteth not her
calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, 20
And their children dance.
They sing to timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They fill out their days in weal ;
And in a moment they sink down to the
grave. 25
And yet they said unto God, ' Depart from us ;
The knowledge of Thy ways we desire not.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve
Him ?
And what gain we, if we pray unto Him ? '
Chap. xxi. 10-15.
have the pleasures of sin and the good of life too ; so that on
the mere scale of justice, if that is all that governs the uni
verse, in a very true sense " the earth is given over into the
hands of the wicked " (section vi. 45).
24, 25. That is, not a moment is left, so far as we can see,
for the fearful doom that has been ascribed to them. This
is a square contradiction of what all the friends have main
tained ; see especially sections ix. 38-47 ; 59-61 ; xi. 27, 28,
35, 36; and most recklessly stated of all, xiii. 44-58.
28. Observe how the wicked speak of God as what, a neu
ter, a thing, to be taken advantage of ; all their thought is
pitched in the key of selfishness and gain. This is Job's por
trayal of the exact opposite of his own feeling ; to him such
a spirit is the centre of all wickedness.

XIV. JOB 247
II.
" Behold, not in their hand is their weal. 30
The counsel of the wicked — be it far from me !
in.
" How often doth the lamp of the wicked go
out,
And their destruction come upon them,
Or He distribute woes in His anger ?
How often are they as straw before the wind, 35
And as chaff which the storm snatcheth
away ?
' God layeth up his iniquity for his children ' ? —
Chap. xxi. 16-19.
30. Yet Job does not say this, as the friends assert after
ward (see sections xv. 28, 29; xxiii. 12-17, 76-80), because he
is in sympathy with wicked ways ; it is mere loyalty to fact
that compels the admission. Nor does he maintain that they
are the authors of their own weal ; it is still, in some myste
rious way which none have found out, in the hands of God.
32. How often ? A challenge as to the truth of Bildad's
assertion, section xi. 9-12. The friends ought to specify how
universal a fact their theory contemplates ; it is in truth not
universal enough, not distinctive enough, to be a fact at all.
35. Job quotes the substance of his friends' assertions here,
though not in the same imagery; compare sections xi. 21, 22 ;
35,36; xiii. 14, 15.
37. This question is a fair representation, in more con
densed form, of what the friends have maintained ; see sec
tions iii. 50-52 ; xiii. 18-21.

248 THE BOOK OF JOB XIV.
On him let Him requite, and he shall feel it ;
Let his own eyes see his ruin,
And let himself drink from the wrath of the
Almighty. 40
For what careth he for his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off ?
Shall any teach knowledge unto God, —
Him — who judgeth them that are high ?
One dieth in the fullness of his strength, 45
All at ease and quiet, —
His vessels full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones well moistened ;
And another dieth with a bitter soul,
And hath never tasted of good. 50
Chap. xxi. 19-25.
38 sq. Out of Job's strong sense of justice rises this de
mand for the individual punishment of the wicked. It is the
earliest remonstrance against the old Hebrew idea that pos
terity suffers for ancestral sins ; a remonstrance that becomes
incorporated in revealed prophetic word, in Ezekiel xviii.
See also Jeremiah xxxi. 29, 30. The human, out of its own
needs and insight, makes the discovery, and in due time the
divine comes to define and sanction it.
41. What caretk he ? It is from the depth of Job's unsel
fish love that the foregoing demand comes ; for he sees that
in the cold selfishness of the wicked punishment reserved for
posterity does not touch his soul at all, — it does not punish
sin of that kind.
45-52. These lines describe the accurate fact, so far as we
can see ; namely, that righteous and wicked fare alike ; moral
desert, at least on this earth, having apparently nothing to do
with their doom.

XIV. JOB 249
Together they lie down, in the dust,
And the worm spreadeth a covering over them.
IV.
" Behold, I know your thoughts,
And the devices whereby ye wrong me.
For ye say, ' Where is the tyrant's house, »
And where the tent, wherein the wicked
dwelt ? '
Have ye not inquired of the wayfarers ?
And do ye not know their tokens, —
That in the day of destruction the wicked is
- spared,
That in the day of wrath they are led away ? 60
Who then will declare his way to his face ?
And hath he done aught, who will requite it
unto him ?
For he — he is carried to his grave,

Chap. xxi. 26-32.
S3> 54- J°b divines the answer that is in their mind, a kind
of manufactured answer urged out of spite, and meets it.
55. They are supposably asking him to adduce cases that
prove their wholesale assertions untrue.
57. And Job replies that the prosperity of the wicked,
which he proceeds again to enlarge upon, is so notorious that
all who travel abroad, who look about them at all, cannot
fail to observe it.
59 sqq. We are still to bear in mind here what has been
said in the note to 1. 14 sqq. It is a portrayal of what is as
likely'to befall the wicked as the righteous.

25© THE BOOK OF JOB XIV.
And watch is kept over his tomb ;
Sweetly lie upon him the clods of the valley ; es
And after him draw all men,
As there were numberless before him.
v.
" How then comfort ye me with vanity,
Since your answers remain falsehood ? "
Chap. xxi. 32-34.
66. Men follow and imitate the wicked, just as they do the
good; it is the rule of the world to imitate success, apart from
moral considerations. Compare Ecclesiastes iv. 15, 16.
69. Falsehood, — that is, untrue to obvious fact

XV
ELIPHAZ
And Eliphaz the Temanite answered, and
said : i.
" Can a man be profitable unto God,
As the prudent getteth profit unto himself ?
Is it a pleasure to the Almighty that thou art
righteous,
Or is it a gain, that thou makest thy ways per
fect ? 5
Is it for thy piety that He reproveth thee, —
Chap. xxii. 1-4.
Lines 2, 3. The expression here is a little obscure on ac
count of the turning around of the comparison. It means,
" Is man's righteousness a thing out of which God gets profit,
as a prudent man turns things to his advantage."
4, 5. This question merely embodies the logical sequence
of Eliphaz's favorite doctrine, expressed in sections iii. 33-37 ;
ix. 26-31. The doctrine removes God to such an inaccessi
ble distance that He is really unaffected by either righteous
ness or wickedness : He rewards and punishes in an abstract,
mechanical way, merely because He has made it the law of a
universe which He is sitting outside of and seeing go.
6. Eliphaz's syllogism is very simple. God is evidently

252 THE BOOK OF JOB XV.
That He cometh with thee into judgment ?
May not thy wickedness be great,
And no end to thine iniquities ?
For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother
causelessly, 10
And stripped off the clothes of the naked ;
Thou hast given no water to the faint,
And from the hungry hast withholden bread ;
While the man of the strong arm — his was
the land,
And the respected of persons dwelt therein ! is
Widows hast thou sent away empty ;

Chap. xxii. 4-9.
punishing Job. It cannot be for righteousness. Hence it
must be for wickedness.
7. Thus Eliphaz comes at last to his final shot, — the direct
charge of wickedness against Job. It is, as we see, merely a
conclusion of dialectics, which his doctrine of man's necessary
and inevitable corruption bears him out in drawing. Has not
the doctrine of total depravity in our own day brought forth
just as grave, if not so particular, accusations of sin ?
10 sqq. These specific charges are of course wholly theo
retic, nor are they inaptly made. They name such things as
might be done by a busy rich man like Job, through forget-
fulness or indifference, or such things as may have been done
in his name by servants. Any of them might take place at
the gate of a prince without his knowledge. The expression
" man of the strong arm," I. 14, by which Eliphaz character
izes such as Job, shows how he accounts for such sin : the
man whose strength and wealth, and whose absorption with
his favored friends (I. 15), make him indifferent to needs and
distress because removed from them.

XV. ELIPHAZ 253
And the arms of the fatherless have been
broken.
Therefore it is that snares are about thee,
And fear terrifieth thee suddenly.
Or seest thou not the darkness, 20
And the deluge of waters that covereth thee ?
Is not God the summit of heaven ?
And see the crown of the stars — how high !
And so thou sayest, ' What doth God know ?
Can He judge through the thick cloud ? 25
Clouds are a covering to Him, and He seeth
not ;
And He walketh by Himself on the vault of
heaven.' 11.
" Wilt thou cherish the way of old,
Wherein trod the men of wickedness ?
Chap. xxii. 9-15.
18, 19. Such is the ground on which Eliphaz interprets
Job's dismay and amazement confessed in the previous sec
tion (8-1 i)l
20, 21. As much as to say, Your suffering is a fact, — why
do you thus ignore it, and what else can you make of it ?
22-27. Another way, this, of accounting for Job's theorized
lapse into sin, — he may have supposed that God would not
see him, being so far away. To whom so naturally as to
Eliphaz would such a reason occur ? At the same time it is
not improbable that he has in mind Job's complaints of God's
remoteness ; see sections vi. 20, 21 ; viii. 99; xii. 12-15.
28 sqq. To Eliphaz Job's candid acknowledgment of

254 THE BOOK OF JOB XV.
Who were snatched away, and the time was
not yet ; 30
Whose foundation flowed away, a river.
Who said unto God, ' Depart from us ; '
And, ' What will the Almighty do unto us ? '
And yet — ' He filleth their houses with good,'
thou sayest ;
While also thou sayest, ' The counsel of the
wicked be far from me ! ' 35
The righteous see, and are glad ;
And the innocent make a by-word of them :
'Verily,' they say, 'our adversaries are cut
down,
And their remains doth the fire devour.'
Chap. xxii. 16-20.
wicked prosperity seems dangerously near " cherishing "
wicked ways.
32, 33. Eliphaz quotes nearly the same questions attributed
by Job to the wicked who were prospered (section xiv.
26-28), to characterize the wicked of old who were snatched
away. Thus by going back to antiquity he makes his only
attempt to disprove Job's appeal to fact.
34. A condensation of what Job has said, section xiv.
14-24. 35. See section xiv. 31.
36-39. Job has viewed the confused order of things with
amazement and dismay, nor does he exult over the wicked ;
and thereby, thinks Eliphaz, he proves himself a sympathizer
with evil. A righteous man will curse where God has pun
ished ; compare section iii. 49. That is the way to " justify
God ; " perhaps, also, it is his covert way of defending his
treatment of Job.

XV. ELIPHAZ 255
III.
" Reconcile thyself with Him now, and be at
peace ; 40
Thereby good shall come unto thee.
Receive now instruction from His mouth,
And lay up His words in thy heart.
If thou wilt return to the Almighty, thou shalt
be built up, —
So thou removest iniquity far from thy tents ; —
And put thou thy precious ore in the dust, 46
And Ophir in the stones of the brooks ;
So shall the Almighty be thy precious ore,
And silver of the mine shalt thou have.
Chap. xxii. 21-25.
40. Reconcile thyself. This word, presupposing guilt and
sin on Job's part, is what invalidates the whole force of this
beautiful passage, which is the final appeal of the friends to
Job. Abstractly there is nothing whatever to be urged
against the lines ; but in implication, and as here applied,
they gather into themselves all the charges that Eliphaz has
made. 45. It has been pointed out before (see sections v. 10, note ;
vii. 27, 28) how in their exhortations the friends put in a sly
clause presupposing Job's iniquity.
46. That is, despise earthly riches, renounce the affection
for wordly goods which has made thee presumably indifferent
to the poor.
47. Ophir, — that is, gold of Ophir. The gold was so
much spoken of that the country where it was found came to
designate it ; as we say damask and morocco for products of
Damascus and Morocco.

256 THE BOOK OF JOB XV.
For then "shall thy delight be in the Al
mighty ; 50
And thou shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Thou shalt pray to Him, and He will hear thee ;
And thy vows shalt thou fully perform.
Thou shalt purpose a thing, and it shall be
established to thee ;
And upon thy ways shall light shine. 55
Though they lead downward, yet thou sayest,
'Aloft!'
And the lowly of eyes shall He save.
He shall deliver him that is not guiltless ;
Who will be delivered through the cleanness of
thy hands." Chap. xxii. 26-30.
51. Eliphaz has regarded Job as bitter and rebellious
against God ; see section ix. 22-24. From such hard enmity
he promises Job return.
52. Alluding perhaps to Job's complaint, section xii. 12, 13.
55. See section xii. 15.
57. Eliphaz has already asked Job, "Why quiver thine
eyes ? " (section ix. 23), as if Job were angry and defiant ;
and this is the contrast that he would inculcate.
58, 59. It is worthy of note that in his closing words Eli.
phaz prophesies what actually did take place, section xxx. ;
only the friends were the ones who were " not guiltless," and
Job's whole course was on the highest authority justified.

XVI JOB
And Job answered, and said :
" Defiant, even to-day, is my complaint,
Though my hand lieth heavy on my groaning.

" Oh that I knew where I might find Him ! —
Might come even unto His dwelling-place ! s
I would set in order my cause before Him ;
And I would fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words He would answer me ;
And I would mark what He would say unto
me.
Chap, xxiii. 1-5.
Line 2. Defiant, — that is, defying his efforts at repression,
and ready to break forth in spite of him.
4 sqq. Job's "complaint" does not begin till 1. 14; he de
lays it long enough to give a brief but fervent response to
Eliphaz's exhortation. Eliphaz has bidden him return to God
(section xv. 40-44), and given him sweet promises if he
will so do ; Job takes him at his word, so far forth at least,
that he longs supremely after God's presence; though he
turns to God not as a sinner, but as a man with a just and
righteous cause.

258 THE BOOK OF JOB XVI.
Would He plead against me in the greatness
of His might ? 10
Nay ; but surely He would give heed unto me.
There it would be an upright man pleading
with Him ;
And I should be delivered for ever from my
Judge. 11.
" Behold, I go eastward, but He is not there ;
And toward the west, yet I perceive Him
not ; 15
Northward, where He worketh, but I discover
Him not ;
And in the south He hideth Himself, and I
see Him not.
Yet He knoweth the way that is mine ;
Chap, xxiii. 6-10.
10. This question, with its negative answer, indicates how
far Job has advanced in his conviction of God's favor since
he conquered his way to the assurance that his Redeemer
liveth. He is sure now that if he could find God he would
find Him a friend.
12, 13. This utterance of calm confidence is just the oppo
site of that complaint of Job's earlier days, section vi. 26-29.
Something has assuredly wrought to " remove God's hand
from upon him " (sections vi. 66 ; viii. 93) ; it is that faith
which has enabled him to identify God with his Advocate and
Redeemer. 18. Yet, — literally, ^t-. It is an elliptical expression ; as if
he had said, " Yet I will not despair for He knoweth," etc.

XVI. JOB 259
He is trying me : I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held fast unto His steps ; 20
His way have I kept, and turned not aside, —
The precept of His lips, and have not shunned
it.
More than aught mine own have I treasured
the words of His mouth.
But He — He abideth the same ; who shall
turn, Him ?
Yea, His soul desireth, and He doeth it. 25
For He will accomplish the thing appointed
for me,
And like these, many things that are with
Him. Chap, xxiii. 10-14.
This, too, is a discovery of Job's faith to be carefully noted.
It anticipates what Elihu urges afterward, sections xxii. and
xxv. Job, on his stoutly maintained ground of integrity, has
discovered the solution of his affliction. — The way that is
mine, literally, that is with me; the same particle whose
intimacy of relation has been mentioned, section vi. 69, note ;
my truest, sincerest, most habitual way.
23. More than aught mine own, — literally, more than mine
own law or behest. An obscure expression, but seeming to
mean, " more than anything to which I give authority or con
trol," that is, whatever is most mine.
24. In the light of Job's new solution note how differently
God's dealings look to him. He sees the same changeless,
inexorable, inscrutable work that he contemplated in sections
vi. 6-27 ; viii. 27-52 ; and the sight fills him with trembling
awe (compare section xiv. 7-1 1) ; but he does not, as then,
trace in it God's injustice and persecution ; he is content to

26o THE BOOK OF JOB XVI.
Therefore it is that I tremble before Him, —
That I consider, and am afraid of Him ;
And it- is God that maketh my heart soft ; so
The Almighty it is that confoundeth me.
For I am not dismayed by the face of dark
ness,
Nor by mine own face, which thick gloom
veileth.

in.
•"Why are not judgment-times determined by
the Almighty ?
And they that know Him — why see they not
His days ? 35
Chap, xxiii. 15 — xxiv. 1.
let it be so, though wondering at its darkness. This is his
only remaining problem, and it is to this that the Lord ad
dresses His words from the whirlwind, sections xxvi. and
xxviii. 32. Job has long ago taken leave of personal fear (see sec
tions vi. 40 ; viii. 77-80) ; he has approached death with calm
readiness (see section x. 71 sqq. note) ; and now he has got
beyond the dismay due to disease and blasted hope (contrast
sections vi. 32-35; 54; 105-107; x. 14-34; xii. 16-19). Surely
a great advance ; he has almost reached his goal.
34, 35. Here Job propounds his one remaining problem.
It is the problem that dismayed him in the previous section
(xiv. 10-13), and that is "defiant" in this (11. 2,3), namely,
why God does not, in His dealings with men, so determine the
bounds of right and wrong, that those who know Him can
trace the principles of His working. Why are things so

XVI. JOB 26l
There are who remove landmarks ;
Who seize upon flocks and pasture them ;
The ass of the fatherless they drive away ;
They take for pledge the ox of the widow.
They thrust the needy out of the way ; 40
The poor of the land must hide themselves to
gether.
Behold these then ! wild asses in the desert ;
Chap. xxiv. 2-5.
turned around — the righteous afflicted, the wicked secure in
impunity ? The former of these he has just answered for
himself '(11. 18, 19) ; now he addresses himself to the latter.
36 sqq. The ensuing lines portray forms of wickedness that
were doubtless most prevalent at the time when the Book of
Job was written. They seem to indicate a time when classes
were sharply distinguished ; the rich becoming richer and more
heartless, the poor thrust into a more grinding and hopeless
poverty. Such times consist best with long settled national
prosperity, free from political and social upheavals, such as
we can most reasonably associate with the later years of the
Jewish monarchy.
36. There are who remove landmarks. It is noteworthy that
in the first appendix to the original Solomonic Proverbs,
made near the time when the Book of Job was supposably
written, the injunction is twice given " not to remove the an
cient landmark " (Prov. xxii. 28 ; xxiii. 10) ; and that in Deu
teronomy, whose composition (or at least publication) dates
from a time not long after, the same injunction is both given
as a commandment (Deut. xix. 14) and sanctioned by a curse
(Deut. xxvii. 17). This would seem to indicate that the re
moval of landmarks, that is, wicked and unscrupulous en
largement of property-holdings, was one of the crying evils of
this time. See Introductory Study, pp. 104, 108 sq.
42. Namely, the poor of the land, who are forced to be-

262 THE BOOK OF JOB XVI.
They go forth in their work, seeking eagerly
for prey ;
The waste must be to them bread for their
children.
In the field they reap, each one, his fodder ; 45
And they glean the vineyard of the wicked.
Naked all night they lie, from lack of clothing ;
And they have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the storm of the mountain ;
And for lack of shelter they cling to the rock.
There are who tear away the fatherless from
the breast, 51
And take what the poor have on for pledge.
So these go about naked for lack of clothing,
And hungry they carry the sheaf ;
Between their walls these press out the oil ; 55
They tread the wine-vats and suffer thirst.
Groans arise from the city of the dying,
And the soul of the wounded crieth out ;
And God regardeth not the enormity.
There are of them that rebel against light, 60
Chap. xxiv. 5-13.
come wanderers and outlaws, gathering a precarious subsist
ence from land that is not theirs.
55. Between their walls, — namely, the walls of the rich
wicked, by whom they are so ground down with labor and en
slaved, that they have to go hungry in the midst of abundance.
59. Enormity, — in choosing this word I follow the transla
tion of Dr. Tayler Lewis. The original is the same word
translated " aught unbeseeming," in section i. 88, where see

XVI. JOB 263
That regard not the ways thereof.
Nor abide in its trodden paths.
With the light riseth up the murderer ;
He slayeth the poor and the needy ;
And in the night he is as a thief. es
The eye of the adulterer, too, watcheth for the
gloom,
Saying, No eye shall spy me out !
And he putteth a covering upon his face.
Men dig through houses in the darkness ;
In the daytime they shut themselves up ; 70
They know not the light.
For morning to them is just like midnight ;
Yea, they know well the terrors of the mid
night ! IV.
" ' Fleeting he is,' ye say, ' on the face of the
waters ; Chap. xxiv. 13-18.
note. The same root occurs in its literal meaning, section
iv. 11, where it is translated "tasteless." From " tasteless-
ness " the word may get the meaning absurdity, anomaly, or,
to use an analogous derivation, enormity (e-norma), some
thing monstrous, outside of orderly law and custom.
61. The ways and trodden paths of light are simply the cus
toms of right living, to which murder and adultery and rob
bery are opposed.
73. Midnight, which may contain terrors for others, is just
the working-time and congenial season of these ; compare
John iii. 20, 21.
74-84. In these lines Job draws, I think, on the body of

264 THE BOOK OF JOB XVI.
Cursed the portion of such in the land ; 75
He turneth not the way of the vineyards.
Drought and heat bear away the snow-water, —
The grave also them that have sinned.
There the womb will forget him,
While the worm batteneth upon him. so
No more will he be remembered ;
And like the tree iniquity shall be broken, —
Even he who devoureth the barren that bear-
eth not,
And doeth no kindness to the widow.'
Nay ; but He continueth the mighty by His
power ; 85
They rise up when they believed not that they
would live.
He giveth them to be secure, and they are at
rest ;
And His eyes are on their ways.
Chap. xxiv. 18-23.
Wisdom utterances from which the friends have freely quoted
(see sections v. 21-38 ; ix. 38-71), and which we may presume
to have been equally familiar to him (compare sections viii. 6 ;
53-56; x. 2). From the same body of Wisdom he may have
drawn, section viii. 27-52 ; and section xviii. 8-25 reads like a
passage from the same collection of truth. The present pas
sage, while it does not quote words that the friends have ac
tually used, maintains the same general tenor of thought, and
might well be put alongside of the words of Bildad, section v.,
or Eliphaz, section ix. It is as if Job had said, I call in ques
tion the whole Wisdom teaching on this point.
85-91. Having made his quotation, Job shows how one-

XVI. JOB 265
They rise to eminence ; — a little while, and
they are not !
They are brought low ; like all others they are
gathered in, 90
And are cut off, like the heads of corn.
" v.
" If it be not so, who then will prove me false,
And make my words come to nought ? "
Chap. xxiv. 24, 25.
sided it is by stating the actual fact. This passage is virtu
ally a repetition of what he has said, section xiv.
92. Job's conclusive and triumphant victory over his friends
is indicated by the challenge with which he here seals his
words. No one takes it up ; for though Bildad yet speaks,
his words are so aside from the issue as to be a virtual con
fession of defeat.

XVII
BILDAD
And Bildad the Shuhite answered, and said :
" Dominion and dread are with Him ;
Who maketh peace in His high places.
Is there any number to His armies ?
And on whom riseth not His light ? s
How then shall mortal man be just with God ?
And how shall the woman-born be clean ?
Chap. xxv. 1-4.
Bildad responds wholly without the rancor and bitterness
that have characterized the friends' answers hitherto, and
with general considerations quite apart from the question at
issue. Perhaps it is Job's persistent affirmation of his integ
rity, section xvi. 20-23, that immediately calls them forth ;
but Bildad no longer makes it a personal matter, and seems
to repeat his lesson almost mechanically, the chapter from
his well-conned Wisdom which is least to be called in ques
tion. Line 3. An allusion, apparently, to some traditional con
flict in heaven wherein God was victor ; compare section vi.
25, and note.
6. The same doctrine that Eliphaz has twice propounded,
once as the oracle of a vision (section iii. 33-43), and again
as the sacred word which it were impiety to deny (section ix.
26-31 ). All have taken it for granted, as the most indubitable

XVII. BILDAD 267
Behold, even the moon — it shineth not ;
And the stars are not pure in His eyes ;
How much less mortal man — a worm ! 10
And the son of man — a caterpillar ! "
Chap. xxv. 5, 6.
conclusion of orthodoxy ; besides, it is the doctrine that the
Wise Men can least afford to relinquish, being their conven
ient solvent of the world's mysteries of evil and retribution.
And it is this doctrine that Job's bold self-defense most rad
ically traverses. Not that Job really denies it; see, on the
contrary, Job's words in section viii. 116, 117 ; but his point
(see section vi. 33, note), that the proportion between man's
doings and God's dealings with him is too obviously unre
lated to be made a criterion of justice, is lost on them.

XVIII JOB
And Job answered, and said :
" How hast thou given help to the powerless !
How succored the nerveless arm !
How hast thou counseled the unwise,
And made known truth in abundance ! s
To whom directest thou words ?
And whose breath goeth forth from thee ?

" The giant shades tremble
Beneath the waters and their inhabitants.
Chap. xxvi. 1-5.
Job begins his answer by ridiculing Bildad's speech, inti
mating ironically that there is no savor, no depth or life, to
his words.
Line 6. Job's way of intimating that Bildad's words do
not fit the case ; they have no direction.
7. Whose breath, — that is, as inspiration. Evidently not
the breath of Him whose words reach their aim, and impart
knowledge and guidance.
8. The giant shades, — the word translated shades (rephaim)
is from a root meaning weak, powerless. But the same word
is used to designate a race of giants, Genesis xiv. 5 ; xv. 20 ;

XVIII. JOB 269
Naked lieth Sheol before Him, 10
And there is no covering to Abaddon.
He stretcheth out the North over the void ;
He hangeth the earth upon nothing.
He bindeth the waters in His thick clouds,
Chap. xxvi. 6-8.
Isaiah xvii. 5. " Here, in fact," says Dr. Tayler Lewis, " the
true force of the passage is best given by combining the two
ideas : the once mighty men of old now feeble wailing ghosts."
8 sqq. In the rest of the section Job takes up a strain sim
ilar to Bildad's, perhaps indeed a continuation of the same
well-known chapter of Wisdom, which, beginning with the
description of the heavens above, may have gone on to portray
God's control over the regions beneath. Both discourses
have the same mythological cast, quite different from the rest
of the book ; both are parts of the same general theme. Job
carries on Bildad's unfinished thought, as if he had said : O
yes ; I know the old story ; do not stop there, go on to the
end, it is just as applicable.
10, 11. Beneath the sea somewhere, according to the old
mythology, lay the world of the shades : Sheol, the general
place of departed spirits ; Abaddon, the place where destruc
tion is decreed. It is like the Greek conception of Hades
and Tartarus : — " Down to rayless Tartarus,
Deep, deep, in the great Gulf below the earth, —
As far beneath the Shades as earth from heaven.''
But how definite and localized these conceptions of the
shades and their dwelling-place had become at the time when
the Book of Job was written, it is impossible to say.
12. The North, — that is, probably the northern heavens.
The void seems to be the great empty space between the earth
and the stars.
14. The phenomenon of clouds, wherein vast bodies of

270 THE BOOK OF JOB XVIII.
And the cloud is not rent under them. 15
He closeth fast the face of His throne,
Spreading out His cloud over it.
He hath circled a bound on the face of the
waters,
Unto the margin of light with darkness.
The pillars of heaven rock, 20
And are aghast at His rebuke.
By His power He quelleth the sea ;
And by His skill He smiteth through Rahab.
By His breath the heavens become serene ;
His hand pierceth the flying serpent. 25
11.
" Behold, these are the outskirts of His ways ;
Chap. xxvi. 8-14.
water hung suspended over the earth, seems to have been an
object of great wonder and interest to the Hebrews ; compare
sections xxv. 55-64 ; xxvi. 54-59.
18. This seems to be a poetic description of the horizon,
especially as observed at sea.
23. Rahab, — literally, the proud one, has already been
mentioned by Job, section vi. 25. Some tradition, well known
to Job's hearers, but lost to us, is referred to.
24. To the Hebrews the wind was God's breath.
25. The flying serpent, — " according to the ancient my
thology, it is the Dragon, or Serpent, which eclipses the sun by
winding itself round it, and seeking to devour it." — Cox. In
Isaiah li. 9, the dragon and Rahab are associated, very much
as they are here ; see Cheyne's notes on Isaiah xxvii. 1 and
li- 9-

XVIII. JOB 271
And what whisper of a word have we heard of
Him!
But the thunder of His power, who can under
stand?" Chap. xxvi. 14.
28. What Job has described, drawing on the mythological
ideas of the time, seems occult, but is in reality very easy
compared with the great things that so perplex him.

XIX JOB
And Job took up his discourse further, and
said : i.
"As God liveth, who hath taken away my
right,
And the Almighty, who hath embittered my
soul, —
For yet whole is my breath within me,
Chap, xxvii. 1-3.
Line i. His discourse, — the Hebrew word mashal means
discourse in sententious or gnomic style, as represented in
proverbs and maxims. This was the style adopted as the
vehicle of the Hebrew Wisdom (see Introductory Study, p.
97), a style well adapted, with its condensed parallelisms,
to the utterance of weighty and memorable truths.
2. To what Job has yet to say, which may be regarded as
a summary of his views and life, he prefixes the most solemn
form of the Hebrew oath, " As God liveth." So sure is he of
the integrity that the friends have so attacked, and of his
true interpretation of God's workings.
4, 5. This asseveration he makes, moreover, in full assur
ance of his spiritual soundness and sanity. Of this he has
been certain all along (see sections iv. 59-61 ; viii. 23-26) ; and

xix. job 273
And the spirit of God in my nostril, — 5
So surely my lips speak not perverseness,
Nor doth my tongue murmur deceit.
Far be it from me that I should justify you ;
Till my breath is gone will I not let depart
mine integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let
it go ; 10
My heart shall not reproach one of my days.
11.
" Be mine enemy as the wicked man,
And he that riseth against me as the unright
eous. Chap, xxvii. 3-7.
by reason of it he could detect and rebuke their blindness
(see sections x. 56, 57 ; 69, 70 ; xii. 57-61 ) ; but they, on their
part, have regarded his vision as perverted (see sections iii.
44, and note; ix. 14-19; xv. 20, 21). A diseased body he
may have, but it is no diseased utterance that he is to make.
8. Justify you, — that is, in their identification of him with
the wicked, and by consequence, in the general view of God's
world, which this fundamental error of theirs darkens and
perverts. 12. So far from being a wicked man, he holds, as do they,
the wicked in abhorrence. This he has already said (section
xiv. 31) ; but they could not understand how he could at
tribute such prosperity to the wicked and yet not be in sym
pathy with them (section xv. 28-35). The mention of the
wicked here gives occasion to introduce the subject again,
and to settle it according to the insight of truth. Against
their intemperate and one-sided portrayals he has already

274 THE book of job xix.
For what is the hope of the godless, when He
cutteth off, —
When God draweth forth his soul ? u
Will God hear his cry,
When distress cometh upon him ?
Doth he delight himself in the Almighty ?
Doth he call upon God at every time ?
I will teach you of the hand of God ; 20
What is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
Behold, ye, all ye, have seen it ; —
Wherefore then this vanity, that ye vapor
forth ? Chap, xxvii. 8-12.
answered negatively, what the fate of the wicked is not ;
now, free from the heat of controversy, he will give his view
of what their fate is.
14. What is the hope ? — This is the keynote of Job's por
trayal of the wicked : they have no hope, no abiding future ;
the permanency of things is not theirs. Job can see this
clearly now, having conquered his way by faith to a hope be
yond this life.
¦ 18. These words furnish an expressive indication of the
pure standard of Job's righteousness : it is not merely service
for reward, but delight in God, unselfish devotion to God for
His own sake. The friends' conception has been distinctly
lower than this ; and it is this that Job has maintained
against Satan's sneer of the beginning. And now Job's con
ception of wickedness is just its opposite. To .him nothing
can be more deplorable than not to delight in God.
20-23. Job gives now his view of the real facts of life, a
view which also they have pursued blindly ; but with their
view has been mingled much " vanity ; " they have not seen
the case in its real ground and perspective. How could

XIX. JOB 275
This is the portion of a wicked man with
God,
And the heritage of the violent, which they
shall receive from the Almighty. 25
If his children increase, it is for the sword ;
And his offspring shall not be satisfied with
bread.
The remnants of his house shall be buried in
pestilence,
And his widows shall not make mourning.
Though he heap up silver as the dust, 30
And prepare raiment as the clay, —
Chap, xxvii. 13-16.
they, when they even viewed Job as wicked, and when they
were entangled in the erroneous law of Wisdom, about pros
perity and calamity ?
24 sqq. Job's portrayal, here beginning, is an exposition in
poetic language of what we call the logic of events. It is
the truth that only righteousness is well-built and permanent ;
the logic of wickedness is decay and destruction. Violence
begets and succumbs to violence ; being itself a tearing-down,
it has no future to count upon. To this idea is naturally
reducible all that Job here says, and all that is true in what
the friends have said, sections v., ix., xi., and xiii.
25. In considering these lines, bear in mind that the spe
cial aspect of wickedness that Job contemplates is violence,
oppression, the aspect that was probably most prevalent in
Job's time, and that was most directly opposed to his ideal
of life.
26. Of those who take the sword, the sword, sooner or
later, is the doom.
29. Violence and tyranny is a disintegrator even of natural
affection.

276. THE BOOK OF JOB XIX,
He will prepare, and. the righteous shall wear
it;
And the silver shall the innocent divide.
He buildeth his house as doth the moth,
And like a booth that a watchman makejth. ss
He lieth down rich — and never again !
He openeth his eyes — and he is not !
Terrors overtake him as the waters ;
By night a tempest stealeth him away ;
An east wind lifteth him up, and he vanish
ed 40
It stormeth him forth from his place;
It hurleth against him, and spareth not ;
Hither and thither he fleeth from its hand.
Men qlap their _hands at him,
And hiss at him from his desolated place, «
111.
" There is indeed a vein for the silver,
And a place for the gold that they refine.
Chap, xxvii. 17 — xxviii. 1.
32, 33* "But the meek shall inherit the earth."
35, A. booth, — such as were built for temporary shelter in
vineyards and gardens ; compare Isaiah i. 8.
37-45,. The rest of the- passage is an amplification, Ori
ental, but with this large interpretation not overwrought, of,
the same general idea of the instability and transitoriness
of whatever is built on evil.
46. Indeed, -1- literally,, "for there is." The for I am
inclined to view as equivalent to our idiom of a concessiye

XIX. JOB 277
Iron is taken out of the soil,
And molten stone becometh copper.
Man setteth an end to darkness, " so
And to the utmost limit he searcheth out
The stone of darkness and of the shadow of
death.
He breaketh the ravine remote from the set
tler;
And there, forgotten of the passer's foot,
Chap, xxviii. 2-4.
(indeed) preparing for a coming adversative (but) : " There
is indeed a vein for the silver, . . . but wisdom, where shall
it be found ? "
The connection of this 28th chapter with the rest of the
book has been a puzzle to some. But does it not follow
naturally ? Having portrayed the extreme of unwisdom (with
which in the old philosophy wickedness was identified), the
life that has not the future nor is built therefor, it is natural
that Job should next speak of its contrast, the true wisdom
and foresight whereby to build human life and character.
There are many marvelous things that man may know or
search out ; but many also are unsearchable. He cannot see
as God sees, perhaps cannot reach absolute truth. But there
is a wisdom for him, which points to the absolute good as the
needle points to the pole.
The description of mining operations, 11. 46-69, is given
with the vividness and accuracy of an eye-witness, and indi
cates that the writer was familiar with the mines of Egypt
and the Sinai peninsula.
50. An end to darkness, — that is, by illuminating it and
discovering its secrets.
52. Of the shadow of death, — this phrase indicates the un-
canniness that the Hebrew associated with darkness.

278 THE BOOK OF JOB XIX
They hang and swing, far off from mortal
man.
The earth — out of it cometh bread, m
And underneath it is upturned as it were by
fire.
Its stones are the place of the sapphire,
Arid clods of gold are there ; —
A path that no eagle hath known, 60
Nor hath the vulture's eye looked upon it.
The proud beast of prey hath not explored
it,
"Nor hath passed over it the roaring lion.
He putteth forth his hand to the flinty rock ;
He overturneth mountains from their root ; 65
He cutteth channels in the rocks ;
And every precious thing his eye seeth.
He bindeth up the streams from weeping ;
And the hidden thing he bringeth forth to
light.
But Wisdom — where shall it be found ? 70
Chap, xxviii. 4-12.
55. A vivid picture of miners hanging suspended from the
precipice and working so far below as to be unseen.
60. Man does indeed do wonders in exploring secret things,
but there is a mystery far beyond him, — the mystery of wis
dom. 68. From weeping, — that is, dripping. A miner's meta
phor, referring to the dripping of water into mines ; but well
worth translating literally for its beauty.
70. Though Job has freely criticised the conclusions of the

XIX. JOB 279
And where is the place of understanding ?
Mortal man knoweth not the price of it ;
Nor is it found in the land of the living.
The deep saith, It is not in me ;
The sea saith likewise, Not with me. 75
Fine gold shall not be given for it,
Nor shall silver be weighed as the exchange
thereof ;
It cannot be bought with the stamped gold of
Ophir,
With the precious onyx and the sapphire ;
Gold and glass cannot be prized with it, so
Nor is its exchange vases of fine gold.
Corals and crystal are not to be named with
it;
And the possession of wisdom; is above pearls.
The topaz of Ethiopia cannot be bartered for
it; Chap, xxviii. 12-19.
Hebrew Wisdom, as brought forth by the friends, and per
haps even as quoted by himself (see section xvi. 74 sqq.
note), yet of the true Wisdom he is still the loyal devotee.
And as the Book of Job is the ripest product of the Hebrew
Wisdom, so it is fitting that this chapter, its culmination and
crown, should be devoted to the definition and praise of Wis
dom. 78. The several Hebrew words for gold can be at best but
awkwardly reproduced in English ; but some attempt at dis
crimination can be made, as here, by a recourse to the root-
meanings. The " stamped gold " may refer to the peculiar
mark put upon the gold of Ophir.

280 THE BOOK OF JOB XIX.
It cannot be put in the balance with gold of
purest stamp. 85
But Wisdom — whence then cometh it ?
And where is the place of understanding ? —
Since it is hid from the eyes of all living,
And kept secret from the bird of the heaven ?
Abaddon and Death say, 90
'We have heard but a rumor of it with our
ears.'
God understandeth the way thereto,
And He knoweth its place.
For He looketh to the ends of the earth ;
Under the whole heaven He seeth. 95
When He gave the wind its weight,
And meted out the waters in a measure, —
When He gave a law to the rain,
And a way to the flash of the thunder, —
Then did He see, and declare it ; 100
He established it, yea, He searched it out.
And unto man He said,
Chap, xxvin. 19-28.
90. Abaddon, — or destruction. See section xviii. 10, 11,
and note.
96-99. Just as everything in nature is precisely determined,
just as the rain has its law and the lightning its appointed
direction (compare section xxv. 65, 66), so man has a law
which is his wisdom, a way of life in which alone he finds his
goal. 102. Unto man, — whatever is the law of other creatures
and forces, here is what alone concerns man.

XIX. JOB 28l
' Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom,
And to shun evil is understanding.' "
Chap, xxviii. 20-28.
103. The Lord, — the original word is not the name Jeho
vah, but a word meaning more specifically Lord or Master,
and perhaps especially appropriate here where as Creator He
is viewed in relation to His great works.
103, 104. These are just what Job started with, section i.
2, 3 ; but they have reached a significance far beyond what
they had then. He has tested and maintained them through
the fiercest fires of struggle and affliction ; and not only has
he proved them true, but he has defined as neyer before what
it involves to fear God and shun evil, — even all that Satan
doubted of him. Further, that very integrity has been to Job
for insight into the deeps of things ; the faith that was born
of his loyalty to what was holy and loving has indeed proved
itself " understanding." This, then, is the highest expression
of Job's vindication.

XX JOB
And Job took im his discourse yet further, and
said:

" Oh that I were as in months of old,
As in the days when God watched over me ;
When His lamp shone over my head,
When by His light I walked through dark
ness ; 5
As I was in mine autumn days,
When the friendship of God was over my tent ;
While yet the Almighty was with me,
And round about me were my children ;
When my steps were washed with cream, 10
Chap. xxix. 1-6.
Having thus reached the culmination of his argument, Job
here, in a retrospect, gathers up the threads of his past life
and his present affliction, to present them as his vindication
before God.
Line 4. Compare section xi. 11, 12, and note.
6. Mine autumn days, — days of ripeness and fruitfulness.
7. The friendship of God, — literally, " the secret of God."
Compare section xii. 38, and note.

XX. JOB 283
And the rock poured forth beside me streams
of oil ;
When I went forth to the gate by the city ;
When I fixed my seat in the open place.
Young men saw me, and withdrew themselves,
And old men arose and stood up ; 15
Princes checked their words,
And laid their hand upon their mouth ;
The voice of nobles was hushed,
And their tongue cleaved to their palate.
For the ear that heard blessed me ; 20
And the eye that saw bare witness for me ;
Because I had delivered the poor when he
cried,
The fatherless also, and him that had no
helper.
The blessing of the perishing came upon me,
And I made the widow's heart sing for joy. 25
Chap. xxix. 6-13.
12. The city gate was the place where counsel was held
and judgment pronounced. Job was eminent among the
judges and wise men.
13. The open place, near the gate, was more specifically the
place of judgment and assembly.
14-19. Marks of respect from various ages and ranks, in
dicating that Job had been recognized as " the greatest of all
the sons of the East " (section i. 10).
22-33. One of the most beautiful ancient portrayals of vir
tue, founded on a Christian ideal of love and mercy, rather
than on the ideal of mere justice and law-keeping, such as
afterward obtained among the Scribes and Pharisees.

284 THE BOOK OF JOB XX.
I clothed myself in justice, and it clothed itself
with me ;
As a mantle and as a turban was my judg
ment.
I was eyes to the blind,
And feet to the lame was I ;
A father was I to the needy, ao
And I searched out the cause of him that I
knew not.
And I brake the fangs of the wicked,
And from his teeth I snatched the prey.
And I said, ' I shall expire in my nest,
And like the phoenix I shall multiply days, as
My root shall be spread out to the waters,
And the dew shall lie all night on my branch.
My glory shall be fresh within me,
And my bow shall be renewed in my hand.'
Unto me they gave ear, and waited ; 40
And they were silent, listening for my counsel.
Chap. xxix. 14-21.
26. " Job clothed himself with righteousness, so that as a
man he was lost in the justice that clothed him ; and justice
clothed itself in him, — he on the other hand was justice be
come a person." — Davidson.
31. Job's helpful spirit was not dependent on the attrac
tion of relatives and personal friends : he that was a stranger
and had no natural claims fared just as well.
35. The phoenix, — the original word is not certainly known,
but seems to refer to that fabulous bird which is said to re
new its youth and attain a great age.

XX. JOB 285
After my words they spake not again ;
For upon them my speech descended gently,
And they waited for me as for the rain,
And opened their mouths wide as for the latter
rain. «
I laughed upon them when they were doubtful,
And the light of my countenance they cast not
down.
I chose their way, and sat as their head ;
And I dwelt as a king in the multitude, —
As one that comforteth mourners. 50
11.
" And now they mock at me, — men younger
in days than I,
Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs
of my flock.
Nay, the strength of their hands — what is
that to me ?
Men to whom the vigor of age is lost ;
Gaunt they are with want and hunger ; 55
Chap. xxix. 22 — xxx. 3.
42. They spake not again, — because the best and conclu
sive word had been spoken, and needed no supplement.
45. Like young birds opening their mouths for food.
51. The second division of Job's retrospect, here begin
ning, draws the sad contrast between that past and the joy
less present.
54-60. Job describes the outlaws and vagabonds of a pas
toral country, whose refuge is the desert ; the same class, per-

286 THE BOOK OF JOB XX.
Who gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of
wild and wilderness ;
Who pluck up the purslain by the sprouts,
And the root of the broom is their bread.
They are driven forth from_ society ;
Men cry after them as after a thief. 60
In the horror of the ravines must they dwell ;
In holes of the earth, and among the crags.
They bray among the thickets ;
Under the nettles they herd together.
Children of folly, yea, children of nameless
men, — 65
They are scourged out of the land.
And now their song of derision am I be
come ; Chap. xxx. 3-9.
haps, which he has represented, section xvi. 41-50, as added
to by the tyranny of the unscrupulous wicked around him.
56. Wild and wilderness, — in this translation an attempt
is made to reproduce something of the meaning and word
play effect of the original.
67. Even such men, the very dregs of humanity, despise
him because he is smitten of God. Even they, though under
the ban of men, are ready to curse where God has set His
mark of displeasure. Edmund Burke, speaking of the Cath
olic disabilities of his time, thus describes the disposition of
men to persecute : " This desire of having some one below
them descends to those who are the very lowest of all ; and
a Protestant cobbler, debased by his poverty, but exalted by
his share of the ruling Church, feels a. pride in knowing it is
by his generosity alone that the peer whose footman's instep
he measures is able to keep his chaplain from a jail."

XX. JOB 287
And I am to them for a byword.
They abhor me, they stand afar off from me ;
And from my face they withhold not their
spittle. 70
Because He hath loosed my cord and bowed
me down,
They also have cast off the bridle before me.
On my right hand they rise — a rabble ;
They thrust my feet aside ;
They cast up against me their destructive
ways. 75
They break up my path ;
They help forward my hurt ;
They — who themselves have no helper.
As through a wide breach they come in ;
Under the crash they roll themselves along ; —
All overturned upon me — terrors — si
They chase away mine honor like the wind ;
And like a cloud my prosperity passeth.
And now my soul within me is poured out ;
Days of affliction take fast hold upon me. ss
Chap. xxx. 9-16.
71, 72. This it is that has caused Job's sensitive and loving
heart the most poignant pain, — because men's treatment of
him does not proceed from genuine heart-feeling, but from
a conventional idea of what God's disposition is. Compare
section iv. 43, note.
75-80. The old figure of a host against him and a siege,
only now associated with men rather than with God's unseen
agencies.

288 THE BOOK OF JOB XX
Night pierceth out my bones away from me ;
And my gnawing pains lie not down to rest.
It is by great exertion that my garment is
changed ;
Like the collar of my tunic it clingeth about
me.
He hath cast me into the mire ; 90
And I have taken the semblance of dust and
ashes.
I cry unto Thee, and Thou answerest me not ;
I stand before Thee, and Thou beholdest me ;
Yet Thou art become cruel unto me ;
By the might of Thy hand Thou fetterest me. 95
Thou liftest me up on the wind, where Thou
makest me ride ;
And Thou dissolvest me in the crash of the
storm.
For I know that Thou turnest me back to
death, Chap. xxx. 17-23.
86. A vivid description of his fearful emaciation.
96,-97. The momentum of Job's vivid thought bears him
onward into very bold imagery ; descriptive probably of the
whirling, bewildering, perilous seeming spiritual experience
that he is compelled to undergo.
98. We will bear in mind that Job's greater calmness and
hopefulness of late have not been due to release from death or
suffering ; he still accepts the prospect of death, and draws
near to it with the assured hope of one who knows that his
Redeemer liveth.

XX. JOB 289
To the house of assembly for all living.
Surely, will not a man in ruins stretch out
his hand ? 100
Or in his calamity will he not cry out there
fore ?
Have not / wept for him whose day was hard ?
Hath not my soul grieved for the needy ?
Yet I looked for good, and there came evil ;
I waited for light, and there came darkness. 105
My bowels boil, and are not still ;
Days of anguish overtake me.
I go about darkened, but not with the sun's
glow;
When I stand in the assembly I must cry out
for pain.
Brother am I to the jackals, no
And companion to the daughters of the ostrich.
My blackened skin faileth from me,
And my bones burn up with heat.
Chap. xxx. 23-30.
102-105. An appeal to the compassion that should exist
above, corresponding to the like emotions of men. Such an-
thropopathism is the only basis on which man can philoso
phize ; and the fact that Job can find in the darkness no
counterpart to his highest self is the deepest cause of his per
plexity. 106 sqq. All this paragraph contains observed symptoms
and characteristics of elephantiasis.
no. He is cast out of society, and so compelled to be like
the beasts and birds of the desert.

290 THE BOOK OF JOB XX.
So is my harp turned to mourning,
And my pipe to the voice of them that weep, us
in.
" I made a covenant for mine eyes ;
How then should I look upon a maid ?
For what is the allotment of God from above,
And the heritage of the Almighty from on high ?
Is it not destruction to the wicked, 120
And disaster to the workers of iniquity ?
Is He not seeing my way,
And numbering all my steps ?
If I have walked with vanity,
And my foot hath made haste to deceit, — 125
Chap. xxx. 31 — xxxi. 5.
116. This third division of the section, here beginning,
contains Job's last and strongest asseverations of righteous
ness, a kind of solemn testimony which is to be lifted up be
fore God (11. 187-192,) to be seen and judged.
118-121. Job alludes to Zophar's description of the doom
of the wicked (see section xiii. 59, 60), the strongest that has
yet been given, as defining, whether exaggeratedly or not, the
stern warning by which he has kept himself from evil.
122. Thus he contradicts Eliphaz's accusation, section xv.
22-27; nay> 't has been one element of his complaint that
God has watched him, all too closely (sections iv. 100-104 !
viii. 106-109), an(i his longing to be laid away in the grave
has been sharpened by the thought that the watching and
numbering of steps would cease (section viii. 145-148). Yet
such consciousness has determined his whole life.
124, 125. The Hebrew manner of designating falseness of
life and word ; compare Psalm xxiv. 4.

XX. JOB 291
Let Him weigh me in scales of righteousness,
And let God know mine integrity ! —
If my step hath turned from the way,
And after mine eyes hath walked my heart,
And a stain hath cleaved to my hands, — wo
Let me sow, and another eat,
And my sprouted grain — let it be rooted out.
If my heart have been befooled by a woman,
And I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,
Let my wife grind for another, 135
And let others crouch over her ;
For that were an infamous thing, —
Yea, a crime that, for them that pass judg
ment.
For it is a fire ; unto Abaddon it devoureth ;
And all mine increase it would root out. 140
If I have spurned the right of my servant
and my handmaid,
When they have had controversy with me,
What then shall I do when God ariseth ?
And when He visiteth, what shall I answer
Him?

Chap. xxxi. 6-14.
126, 127. This parenthesis invites the strictest standard of
Judgment, as it accepts the severest penalty.
135. Grinding was the representative occupation of the
female slave, hence chosen as the mark that his wife is
domiciled and degraded in another house.
139. Unto Abaddon, — see section xviii. 10, II, note.

292 THE BOOK OF JOB XX.
Did not He that made me in the womb make
him ? 145
And did not one Being fashion us in the
belly ?
If I have kept back the poor from their de
sire,
And caused the widow's eyes to fail,
And have eaten my morsel alone,
And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof, — iso
Nay, from my youth he grew up to me as to a
father,
And from my mother's womb I protected
her ; —
If I have seen one perishing for lack of cloth
ing,
And the poor without covering, —
Nay, rather his loins blessed me, 155
And from the fleece of my iambs he warmed
himself ; — Chap. xxxi. 15-20.
145. Job retains the pure ideal of the oneness of all the
race, — an ideal which, it would seem, was fading in the gen
eral tendency of the time to separate classes ; compare sec
tion xvi. 36 sqq. note.
151. The fact of Job's compassion and benevolence is so
evident that he cannot finish bringing; up the contemplation
of its opposite even as a supposition; so again below, 11. 155,
175. He doubtless has in mind Eliphaz's vague accusations,
section xv. 10-17, which as he passes them in review are so
palpably false that he thus breaks them off.

XX. JOB 293
If I have lifted up my hand against the father
less,
When I saw mine ally in the gate,
Let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade,
And let mine arm be broken from its bone. 160
For fear was upon me of calamity from God ;
And because of His majesty I could not.
If I have made gold my trust,
And to the coined gold said, ' My confidence
thou ; ' 164
If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
And because my hand had gotten much ; —
If when I saw the sunlight as it shone,
And the moon walking in splendor,
My heart was enticed in secret,
And my hand kissed my mouth, no
Chap. xxxi. 21-27.
158. Mine ally, — another reminiscence of Eliphaz's accu
sation, section xv. 15, who represented that Job had neg
lected the needy because others, " the respected of person,"
were his closer favorites.
161, 162. This same fear was mentioned as the constant
attendant of his life, section ii. 51-54, where see note ; and
God's "majesty" has kept him from falseness and impelled
him to rebuke his friends for time-serving, section viii. 73.
163. Eliphaz's exhortation to Job, section xv. 46-48, has
seemed to imply that Job was too fond of money ; perhaps
this is introduced in allusion and answer to that.
167-170. A reference to the worship of the heavenly bodies,
which before the Babylonian exile, as Jeremiah xliv. 17 sqq.
indicates, was prevalent in Palestine.

294 THE BOOK OF JOB XX.
This too were a crime for the judges,
For so I had been false to God on high.
If I have rejoiced at the calamity of him that
hated me,
And have exulted because evil befell him, —
Nay, but I gave not my mouth to sin, 175
By invoking a curse on his life ;
In sooth, the men of my tent say,
'Who will show us one not filled with his
flesh ? '
The stranger lodged never without ;
I opened my doors to the wayfarer. wo
If like Adam I have covered my transgres
sions,
To hide mine iniquity in my bosom,
Because I feared the great multitude,
And the contempt of clans terrified me,
So that I was silent, went npt out of the
gate, — las
. . . Oh that I had one to hear me ! —
Chap. xxxi. 28-35.
173-176. Here Job avows a higher ideal than Eliphaz has
inculcated, for Eliphaz makes it a test of righteousness to
rejoice at the calamity of the wicked ; see section xv. 36-39 ;
also section iii. 49. Job is too merciful to rejoice at calamity.
175. See note on 1. 151 above.
181. Like Adam, — see Genesis iii. 8-n.
186. At this point in his retrospect Job comes suddenly to
realize that in no reasonable point has he failed. The sum
of his life, so far as he can compute it, has come out right ;

XX. JOB 295
Behold my sign ! let the Almighty answer
me ! —
And the charge that mine Adversary hath
written !
Surely, I will lift it upon my shoulder ;
I will bind it unto me like a crown ; 190
I will declare unto Him the number of my
steps ;
I will draw near unto Him like a prince.
If against me my land crieth out,
And its furrows weep together ; —
If I have eaten its strength without silver, 195
And caused its tenant to pant out his life ; —
Chap. xxxi. 36-39.
and he is ready to present the account to God for judgment
and award.
187 sq. My sign . . . and the charge, — this record of an
upright life, Job means. It is this record which constitutes
his only offense ; and as it has been visited by punishment,
it may be ironically named a " charge," an accusation, that in
all things he has been " a man perfect and upright, one that
feareth God and shunneth evil."
189 sq. Of such a charge he has no fear. He is proud to
come before God as a prince, on equal terms, as one who has
a just cause and is sure of vindication. This, all told off, is
the " number of his steps " which God has noted so narrowly
(see 1. 123), the "bitter things" which God has written
against him (see section viii. 103), no longer some unknown
and fearful sin, but a life of honor and integrity.
193-198. It seems probable that this last paragraph is dis
placed, as the previous passage forms the fitting and tri
umphant close to Job's words.

296 THE BOOK OF JOB XX.
Instead of wheat let briars come up,
And cockle instead of barley."

THE WORDS OF JOB ARE ENDED.
Chap. xxxi. 40.
198. Cockle, — from the derivation of the word the more
accurate translation would be stinkweed, which, however, it
was not thought best to adopt in the text.

XXI
TRANSITION
And these three men ceased to answer
Job, because he was righteous in his own
eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu, son
of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram. «
Chap, xxxii. i, z.
So far as the friends are concerned, Job has proved him
self invincible : his righteousness, as he by the loftiest stan
dards defines righteousness, they cannot successfully impugn.
The fact that he has silenced them, however, is not in itself
conclusive. There still remains the question how the two
parties stand in the absolute light ; and we have yet to learn
the result alike of Job's impassioned appeals for judgment,
and of the friends' confident assurance that they represent
the mind of God. To bring in the friends' cause anew, and
in its best and strongest statement, a fourth speaker, hitherto
unmentioned, is here introduced.
Line 4. Elihu's family and descent are given with much
particularity, as if he were a veritable historical personage ;
which of course we can neither affirm nor deny. Buz, who
is mentioned as his ancestor, was a son of Nahor (Genesis
xxii. 21), and the Buzites are evidently regarded by Jeremiah
(xxv. 23), along with Tema, as an Arab tribe.
5. The family of Ram. In 2 Chronicles xxii. 5, the Syri
ans, whose ordinary designation is Aramites, are called Ram-

298 THE BOOK OF JOB XXI.
Against Job was his wrath kindled, because
he justified himself rather than God ; and
against his three friends was his wrath kin
dled, because they found no answer where
with to condemn Job. Now Elihu had 10
waited for Job with his words, because they
were older than he ; and when Elihu saw
that there was no answer in the mouth of
the three men, his wrath was kindled.
Chap, xxxii. 2-5.
ites : this fact, together with the fact that the dialectic pecu
liarities of Elihu's speech are supposably Aramaean, would
make it most probable that Elihu was an Aramaean ; yet the
Buzite descent, mentioned in the foregoing note, is not
clearly in favor of this.
6. From Elihu's and the friends' point of view Job's justi
fication of himself would be of necessity condemnation of
God ; though Job has merely maintained his ways (compare
section viii. 81-84) regardless of logical consequences, and
with increasing trust in God's goodness and love.
9. It is not because the friends are wrong that Elihu is
angry with them, but because their argument is not strong
enough. His whole attitude is essentially one with theirs;
he merely enters the lists as a better representative of their
cause. 12-14. Elihu has the fire and impatience of youth; he is
irritated because their words, moving cautiously in the lines
of the ancient Wisdom, and keeping within the bounds of
tradition, are not like a direct " answer " fitted to the present
case. Speaking broadly, we may say, Elihu may be regarded
as furnishing the test whether the Wisdom philosophy will
have resources enough, in the hands of a new interpreter, to
meet the strain which Job's case and his valiant self-defense
impose upon it.

XXII

ELIHU

And Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, an
swered and said :

" Young am I in days, and ye are hoary ;
Wherefore I shrank and was afraid
To utter unto you what I know.
I said, Days should speak, 5
And multitude of years should make known
wisdom.
But truly, a spirit there is in mortal man,
And a breath of the Almighty, that giveth un
derstanding. Chap, xxxii. 6-8.
Line 2. Elihu's youth, while it explains his delay and dif
fidence, also determines the character of his thought, which
is self-confident, constructive, unconventional, less bound by
tradition and precedent than that of the friends.
7, 8. Through this reflection he leaps from excessive hes
itation, which after all has a kind of egotism about it, to ex
cessive boldness, even wordiness. He says so much about
his modesty that we begin to distrust it, — a clever bit of
characterization on the part of the author.

300 THE BOOK OF JOB XXII.
Not the great alone are wise,
Nor is it the aged that understand judgment. 10
Therefore I say, Listen unto me ;
I will utter knowledge, even I.
Behold, I waited for your words ;
I gave ear unto your reasonings,
Until ye should search out what to say. is
Yea, unto you I gave attention,
And behold — none that convinced Job,
None of you that answered his words.
Lest ye should say, We have found wisdom,
God will vanquish him, not man ; 20
For not against me hath he directed words,
Nor will I answer him with your arguments.
They are dismayed, they do not answer more ;
Words have fled away from them.
And I waited — for they did not speak, — &
Chap, xxxii. 9-16.
9, 10. This reflection that age is not necessarily a requisite
to wisdom is no more than Job has already made ; see sec
tion viii. 25, 26.
13 sqq. The present paragraph is made intentionally ver
bose, in order to set forth the character of the man. Con
sider how little is really said, and how many repetitions there
are. 20, 21. Elihu is so "stung by the splendor of a sudden
thought " that his self-confidence overleaps itself ; he identi
fies his thoughts with God's thoughts, and regards himself as
the mouthpiece of a divine communication.
25-29. The idea of being the vehicle of absolute truth
raises his conceit, and the pronoun / begins to play an im
portant part.

XXII. ELIHU 301
For they stood still, and did not answer more.
I will answer, yea I, for my part ;
I will utter knowledge, even I.
For I am full of words ;
The spirit in my breast constraineth me ; 30
Behold, my heart is as wine that hath no vent,
As new hottles that are ready to burst.
I will speak, and it will be a relief to me ;
I will open my lips and answer.
Let me not now accept the person of men, 35
Nor let me use flattery unto human kind ;
For I know not how to flatter, —
Else would my Maker soon take me away.
11.
"Yet hear now, O Job, my speech,
And unto all my words give ear. 40
Chap, xxxii. 16 — xxxiii. i.
32. Alas 1 he mistakes tumidity for inspiration ; let not this
fact, however, blind us to the real worth of his words. The
reader does not need to be reminded here that Elihu has in
mind the skin-bottles of the East.
35. Elihu prides himself on his impartiality and his original
views. Job accused the friends of special pleading for God
(see section viii. 65-68), and perhaps Elihu alludes to that;
but he turns it around. He will not accept either Job's per
son or the person of the friends. Eliphaz's wisdom, Bildad's
learning, Zophar's eloquence, are nothing except as they em
body reason and truth.
38. My Maker, — this designation of God is peculiar to
Elihu ; see sections xxiv. 18 ; xxv. 5.

302 THE BOOK OF JOB XXII.
Behold now, I have opened my mouth ;
My tongue hath spoken in my palate.
The uprightness of my heart are these words
of mine,
And my lips shall speak their knowledge sin
cerely.
The spirit of God hath made me ; «
And, the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.
If thou art able, answer me ;
Set words in array before me, take thy stand.
Behold, I, according to thy word, stand for
God ;
Out of clay am I moulded, also I ; to
Behold my terror shall not unman thee,
Nor will my burden upon thee be heavy.
Chap, xxxiii. 2-7.
45, 46. By these same characteristics he has identified him
self, 11. 7, 8, with mankind ; here he simply reminds Job that
it is as a man that he represents the mind of God. This he
says in preparation for the assumption that he is about to
make. 49. A reference to Job's1 wish for a Daysman, section vi.
62-69. Elihu is so sure of knowing God's mind that he as
sumes to fulfill Job's wish ; as a man he will stand between
Job and God, and mitigate the divine terrors. This of course
puts the whole idea of a Daysman on a lower plane, and en
tirely ignores the conquering faith by which Job found what
he sought. Job is beyond the need of what Elihu can offer ;
while Elihu is blind to the higher reaches of the Messianic
idea with which Job has been comforted.

XXII. ELIHU 303

III.
" Verily, thou hast said in mine ears,
And I have heard the voice of thy words :
' Pure am I, without transgression ; 55
Clean am I, and there is no iniquity in me.
Behold, He findeth occasions against me ;
He counteth me for His enemy ;
He putteth my feet in the stocks ;
He marketh all my paths.' 60
Behold, in this, I answer thee, thou art not
just;
For greater is God than mortal man.
Why makest thou complaint against Him,
That He answereth thee by no word of His ?
Chap, xxxiii. 8-13.
55, 56. Compare Job's words, sections vi. 40, 84 ; viii. 81,
82; x. 39, 40; xii. 59 (see note). The assertions of inno
cence that Job has made in reference to his excess of punish
ment Elihu takes as having been made in the absolute sense.
57. Not an exact quotation, but reproducing the sense of
such passages as section vi. 96-107.
58. Compare section xii. 21.
59, 60. Compare section viii. 105, 106.
62. That is, enough greater to have a transcendent stan
dard of judgment which man cannot discover. We have no
business, therefore, to say either what is human righteousness
or what is divine punishment.
64. This has been a very poignant element of Job's bewil
derment ; in fact, he has condensed his whole longing into a
desire for an answer. Elihu refers more immediately, per-

304 THE BOOK OF JOB XXII.
For God speaketh — once, 65
Yea, twice, while man regardeth it not :
In dream, in vision of the night,
When faileth deep sleep upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed,
Then uncovereth He the ear of men, 70
And setteth a seal upon the warning,
To make man put away his evil deed,
And to hide pride from the strong man ;
To keep back his soul from the pit,
And his life from passing by the dart. 75
He is chastened also with anguish upon his
bed, Chap, xxxiii. 14-19.
haps, to Job's words, section xx. 92 ; compare also section xii.
12, 13.
67. The first way in which God answers. Elihu means
dreams in general, with perhaps a reference to Eliphaz's
vision, section iii. 22-32, which was well utilized for instruc
tion, and to Job's terrifying visions, section iv- 90, 91, in which
Job has found no meaning.
71. Setteth a seal, — that is, gives it som<» mark or sign
whereby it can be interpreted as from God.
74. Tfie pit, — a favorite expression of Ellh'*'s, occurring
no fewer than five times in the present section. By it he
seems to mean, not necessarily death, but that extreme depth
of trial and affliction which would issue in death w«re it not
for deliverance.
75. The dart is the dart of Death, as the instrument of
retribution. 76. The second means whereby- God speaks, — affliction.
This is a direct reference to Job's suffering, which Elihu ir

XXII. ELIHU 305
And the strife of his bones is unceasing ;
And his life abhorreth bread,
And his soul dainty meat ;
His flesh consumeth away, out of sight, so
And laid bare are his bones, that before were
not seen ;
And his soul draweth near to the pit,
And his life to the Destroying Ones.
IV.
" If then there be with him a messenger,
An interpreter, one of a thousand, si
To show unto man what is right for him, —
Chap, xxxiii. 19-23.
terprets, not as punishment, but as a vehicle of instruction and
warning. Some of the main features of Job's disease are
specified in Elihu's description, so that the reference may be
made plain.
83. The Destroying Ones, — angels or agencies of fate ;
perhaps the mysterious "they" to which Job has several
times referred.
84. Here is introduced Elihu's theory of the way in which
these messages of God are to be made intelligible. Some
messenger is needed to trace God's mind and will through
the dream and the affliction. The word translated literally
messenger is the same word used to designate angel ; but in
the present case Elihu, who carefully ignores the supernat
ural, seems to mean himself, as a representative of God.
This is quite in accordance with his assumption of the Days
man's office, 11. 49-52, and with his general exalted opinion
of himself. He has arrived just in time to set things right.
85. One of a thousand, — that is, one exceptionally quali-

306- THE BOOK OF JOB

XXII

So doth He show grace, and say,
' Deliver him from going down to the pit ;
I have found a ransom.'
Fresher than a child's then cometh his
flesh ; m
He returneth to the days of his young vigor.
He prayeth unto God, who accepteth him,
And maketh him see His face with joy,
And giveth back to the mortal his righteous
ness.
Then he singeth before men, and saith : 95
' I sinned, and perverted the right,
Yet retribution came not upon me.
He hath delivered my soul from going to the
pit,
And my life shall behold the light.'
Chap, xxxiii. 24-28.
fied, by gifts and by the divine authorization that lies in his
endowments. 90-94. A prophecy of what actually took place, but not by
Elihu's intercession nor recognizing his principles.
96 sqq. Elihu has here a full-fledged theory of atonement,
— a theory which, like his Messiah-theory, is thoroughly
rationalistic. There is no supernatural element in it, except
what inheres in his theory of the Daysman. Observe also its
crudeness : it contemplates merely release from the punish
ment of sin, and its highest ideal is restoratiort to the welfare
of this life. In this respect it moves on a much lower plane
than does Job, with his confidence in a Redeemer arid his
hopeful readiness to meet death ; while it is also thoroughly
identical with the other friends' idea of blessing.

XXII. ELIHU 307
Lo, all these things worketh God, 100
Twice, three times, with man ;
To bring back his soul from the pit,
To enlighten him with the light of life.

" Attend then, O Job, give ear unto me ;
Keep thou silence, and I will speak. 105
If there are words to be said, answer me ;
Speak, for I desire to justify thee.
If not, listen unto me thou ;
Be silent, and I will teach thee wisdom."
Chap, xxxin. 29-33.
101. Twice, three times, — a climax on 11. 65, 66, with per
haps an allusion to Elihu's intercession as messenger and in
terpreter, as the third way of God's working with man.

XXIII ELIHU
And Elihu answered further, and said :
" Hear, O wise men, my words,
And men of knowledge, give ear unto me.
For the ear testeth words,
As the palate tasteth what is eaten.
Let us choose to ourselves judgment ;
Let us know between us what is good

" For Job saith, ' I am righteous,
And God hath taken away my right.
Chap, xxxiv. 1-5.
Line 2. This section is addressed to the friends, with the
exception of a short diversion, 11. 31-34, in which Job is
brought into the audience with them.
4, 5. This is evidently a well-known Wisdom maxim ; Job
has already quoted it, section viii. 23, 24, as containing a self-
evident truth.
6, 7. Elihu's object in addressing the friends is to find
common ground with them, on which he can admonish Job.
He evidently regards himself as the champion of the friends'
cause. 8-1 1. These words, though (with the exception of 1. 9, see

XXIII. ELIHU 309
Against my right I am made to lie ; 10
Incurable is my wound, yet without crime of
mine.'
Who is a mighty man like Job ? —
Who drinketh in scorning like water,
Who consorteth with workers of iniquity,
And walketh with men of wickedness. is
For he hath said it avail eth not a man,
That he should delight himself with God.
Therefore, men of understanding, hear me :
Far be it — far be God from wickedness,
And the Almighty from iniquity. 20
For the work of man will He requite unto him,
And make every man find according to his way.
Yea, verily, God will not do wickedly,
Chap, xxxiv. 6-12.
section xix. 2) not literally quoted, are a not unfair represen
tation of the general tenor of Job's complaint.
13-17. This passage gives Elihu's idea of the logical out
come of Job's position. As Eliphaz has already complained
(see section ix. 6, 7), it seems to break down the barriers
between devoutness and scorn, and thus to make Job a com
panion of wicked men. Job has indeed disclaimed sympathy
with wickedness (section xiv. 30, 31), and this same sneer,
" What availeth ? " he has attributed to them (section xiv.
26-29) ; Dut Elihu ignores this fact, because the whole logic
. of Job's complaint seems to him to belie it.
18 sqq. In this paragraph Elihu occupies the friends'
ground of indiscriminate justification of God ; and for this he
urges only the reason of God's power, as if might made right
This of course is just the idea that Job has contested.

310 THE BOOK OF JOB XXIII.
Nor will the Almighty pervert judgment.
Who laid upon Him the charge of the earth, 25
And who disposed the whole world ?
If He should set His heart upon Hiihself,
And gather unto Himself His spirit and His
breath, —
All flesh Would gasp out its life together,
And man would return to dust. so

11.
" Oh, if thou wilt understand then, hear this ;
Give ear to the voice of my words.
Shall even a hater of right have dominion ?
And wilt thou condemn the Just, the Mighty ? —
Who saith to a king, Thou worthless ! 35
To nobles, Thou wicked one !
Who regardeth not the face of princes,
Nor heedeth the rich before the poor ;
For the work of His hands they are, all of
them. Chap, xxxiv. iz-19.
33, 34. A hater of right, — so Job appears to Elihu. Job
has condemned wrong wherever he saw it, even in God ; but
when it came to judging God, Elihu, who blindly identified
His justice and His might, regards Job's words as condemning
the right itself.
35 sqq. This paragraph merely amplifies the argument
outlined in 11. 25-30. The statements are true enough ; but
they ascribe to God nothing higher than arbitrary power.

XXIII. ELIHU 311
In a moment they die ; and at midnight, 40
The people rise in tumult, and rush to and fro ;
And the mighty is removed — yet not with
hands.
For His eyes are on the ways of each man,
And all his goings doth He see.
There is no darkness, and there is no shadow
of death, a
Where workers of iniquity may hide them
selves.
For He needeth not to set thought on a man
the second time,
That he should come to God in judgment.
He breaketh in pieces mighty men, inscruta
bly,
And setteth up others in their stead. so
Therefore He taketh note of their works,
And He overtumeth in the night, and they
are crushed.
He beateth them as He beateth the wicked,
In the place where all may see ;
Because they have turned back from Him, 55
Chap, xxxiv. 20-27.
40-42. Description of the national disturbance occasioned
by the death of a prince.
47. Because the first stroke does the work thoroughly ; com
pare Milton, Lycidas, 11. 130, 131 : —
" But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once and smite no more."

312 THE BOOK OF JOB XXIII.
And all His ways they have heeded not ;
That they may bring before Him the cry of
the poor ;
And the cry of the afflicted He will hear.
When He giveth quietness, who shall dis
turb ?
When He hideth His face, who shall spy Him
out ? 60
Be it with nation, or with man, He dealeth
alike ;
That the godless man may not bear rule,
Nor they that ensnare the people.

. in.
" For oh, had he but said unto God,
' I bear it — I will not offend — 65
Beyond what I see, teach me Thou, —
If I have wrought iniquity, I will no more ! * . . .
Chap, xxxiv. 27-32.
57. The end of God's way, after all, is righteousness and
mercy ; herein the parties are not in dispute, though Job does
not work out the problem so clearly, nor does he pass so
lightly as do the friends over such disturbing elements as are-
suggested in 11. 62, 63.
64. Addressed to the friends again.
65 sqq. What Elihu deprecates here is Job's hardness of
tone and lack of humility in asserting his right. He ought to
have been more ready to confess ignorance and take the atti
tude of a sinner.

XXIII. ELIHU 3 1 3
Shall He requite on thine own terms, and say,
' Whether thou spurnest, whether thou choosest,
Be it thou, and not I, 70
And, what thou knowest, speak ' ?
Men of understanding will say to me,
And the strong wise man, hearkening to me ;
'It is not in wisdom that Job hath spoken,
Nor have his words been in insight. 75
Would that Job might be tried to the utmost,
Because of his answers after the manner of
wicked men ;
For he addeth outrage to his sin ;
He clappeth his hands among us,
And multiplieth words against God.' " so
Chap, xxxiv. 33-37.
68-71. This passage is one of the most obscure in the
poem ; the above seems to me its most probable meaning.
I take it as Elihu's way of turning back upon himself Job's
general arrogance toward God, which is to the friends the
most offensive feature of Job's behavior.
73. The wise man, — it is in the interests of wisdom and
in the dialect of the " wise men " that Elihu is speaking.
76 sqq. Although Elihu is ordinarily very courteous in ad
dressing Job, yet here he brings forth the harshest seeming
judgment that has been pronounced. We will remember,
however, that he regards Job's affliction merely as a trial
wherein the latter is to be brought to hear and accept an in
terpreter, through whom he is to be restored (section xxii.
84-89). What he wishes here, therefore, is that Job's arro
gance, desperate as it is, may have a desperate enough rem
edy to cure it. It is not Job's death that he is wishing ; it is
the heroic treatment which will effectually humble him.

XXIV ELIHU
Again Elihu answered, and said

" Countest thou this for judgment,
When thou sayest, 'My justice is more than
God's'? —
For thou sayest, What advantage hast thou ? —
' What am I profited more than by my sin ? ' s
I will answer thee words,
And thy companions with thee.
Look unto the heavens, and see,
And survey the skies — high above thee they
are, — Chap. xxxv. 1-5.
Line 2. For judgment, — that is, for a true discrimination
of things, a right estimate of where justice lies between him
and God.
3. Thou sayest, — that is, virtually. From the friends'
point of view Job's complaint has involved such assertion.
7. Elihu's answer in this section is directed both to Job
and the friends. It deals more with general truths, which it
is of interest for all to know, than with Job's particular case.
8-15. To Elihu and the friends the heavens are the symbol

XXIV. ELIHU 315
If thou sinnest, what workest thou against
Him ? 10
And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what
doest thou to Him ?
If thou art righteous, what givest thou Him ?
Or what receiveth He from thy hand ?
It is to man such as thou that thy wickedness
cometh,
And to the son of man thy righteousness. 15
11.
" From the multitude of the oppressed men cry
out ;
They groan because of the arm of the mighty.
Yet no one saith, ' Where is God my Maker,
Who giveth songs in the night ; —
Chap. xxxv. 6-10.
of God's inaccessible distance. Eliphaz, in section xv. 22-27,
has used this same feeling of God's remoteness to account
for Job's imputed sin ; and indeed he has brought forth in
outline, and without application, this argument of Elihu's,
section xv. 2-5. Elihu seems to adduce it here in order to
ebuke Job for trying to judge God on human standards of
astice and make Him like man. God is not one to be bene
fited or defrauded by man's little doings ; hence Job's whole
implied demand of reciprocal relations between God and
man is a presumption.
16, 17. These two lines bring up, in very brief form, Job's
complaint of the oppression of the poor by the wicked, which
Elihu answers in his own way.
18-25. Elihu's explanation of this problem is similar to his

316 THE BOOK OF JOB XXIV.
Who teacheth us more than, the beasts of the
earth, 20
And more than the fowls of heaven maketh us
wise ? *
Therefore it is He heareth not,
When they cry because of the pride of the
wicked.
For surely, vanity will not God hear,
Nor will the Almighty regard it. 25
Yet no less when thou sayest thou discernest
Him not,
The cause is before Him : wait thou for Him.
And now, because He visiteth not in His
anger,
And doth not strictly regard transgression, —
Job openeth his mouth in vanity, 30
And multiplieth words without knowledge."
Chap. xxxv. 11-16.
explanation of Job's affliction. When the poor are op
pressed, it is their discipline, to draw them to God ; if they
fail to learn the lesson, their cry for help is vain.
20 sq. This question on the part of the poor implies doubt
of any Power to give them more than a brutish life, and is an
excuse for cherishing a lower existence than they are made
for. 28-31. The upshot of Elihu's criticism in this section
seems to be that Job is wrong in bringing God to the bar of
justice and right, because it leaves God's failure to punish
the wicked unexplained. Elihu is trying to justify God in all
His ways, and to make His dark dealings clear too ; and be
cause Job honestly calls them insoluble, Job's words are
vanity.

XXV
ELIHU
And Elihu continued, and said :
" Wait for me a little, and I will show thee ;
For there are yet words for God.
I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
And to my Maker will I ascribe justice ; s
For of a surety my words are no lie ; —
It is the Perfect in knowledge that is with thee.

"Behold, God is mighty, yet despiseth not, —
Is mighty in strength of understanding.
Chap, xxxvi. 1-5.
In the present section Elihu elaborates into a general doc
trine that idea of submission which he has inculcated upon
Job. Line 5. Elihu is much concerned to " justify the ways of
God to man ; " this in special reference to Job, whose affir
mations of innocence it was, with the sequent implication of
God's injustice to him, that kindled his wrath ; section xxi.
7. The Perfect in Knowledge, — by this term Elihu identi
fies his thoughts with the mind of God ; he is as confident of
his doctrine as if it were a veritable oracle. A delicate touch of
the author, — to make Elihu's conceit prepare his humiliation.

318 THE BOOK OF JOB XXV.
He will not let the wicked live ; 10
And justice will He give to the afflicted.
He withdraweth not His eyes from the right
eous ;
But with kings upon the throne
He maketh them sit for ever, and they are
exalted.
And if; bound in fetters, is
They be taken in toils of affliction,
And He showeth them their deed,
And their transgressions, that they have been
overweening,
And openeth their ear to discipline,
And speaketh, that they turn back from
iniquity, — 20
Chap, xxxvi. 6-10.
10, n. These two lines comprise Elihu's doctrine, which is
the general Wisdom doctrine, of God's final purpose. As it
contemplates no adjustment of things beyond this life, it is
merely the doctrine that Job has called in doubt, nor does it
make any advance on what the friends have maintained.
15. But here begins Elihu's own resolution of the doctrine.
The statement of the problem he draws from Job's case,
which embodies the difficulty in point. Affliction, he says, is
intended by God to produce confession of sin and a docile,
obedient spirit, responsive to discipline. This too is quite
consistent with the friends' system ; for, as in their view man
is of necessity corrupt, he can never fail to have sins to confess.
And in general it contains a noble and helpful truth. But it
falls short of the case of Job, who by the hypothesis is pure
and upright, and who finds, both in his affliction and in the
world, evils out of all proportion to any reasonable purpose

XXV. ELIHU 319
If then they hearken, and be obedient,
They shall fill out their days in good,
And their years in pleasantness.
And if they hearken not, they shall perish by
the dart,
And they shall Expire without knowledge. 25
Also the godless of heart, that cherish wrath,
That cry not out when He bindeth them, —
Their soul dieth in youth,
And their life is with the obscene.
He delivereth the afflicted by his affliction, 30
And openeth, by suffering, their ear ;
And thee also He lureth from the jaws of dis
tress,
Unto a broad place, where there is no strait-
ness;
And the furnishing of thy table shall be full of
fatness. Chap, xxxvi. 11-16.
of justice or discipline. It still fails to answer the question,
What of the man who, perfect in integrity and honest with
himself, will not confess to a sin that he does not feel ?
21-25. The end that Elihu contemplates is either restora
tion or utter ruin in death ; his thoughts are bounded by this
life, and leave no room for a solution beyond.
24. The dart, — Elihu's chosen symbol of God's vengeance
and retribution ; see section xxii. 75.
26-29. The same doctrine applied to the afflicted wicked ;
a repetition, essentially, of what Elihu has propounded, sec
tion xxiv. 16-25.
32. And thee also, — the thought gracefully turned from the

320 THE BOOK OF JOB XXV.
But hast thou filled the judgment of the
wicked, 35
Judgment and justice shall lay hold of thee.
For beware lest anger stir thee up against the
stroke,
And abundance of ransom "Shall not deliver
thee.
Shall then thy cry set thee forth out of distress,
And all the resources of wealth ? 40
Sigh not thou for the night,
When the nations go up from their place.
Keep thyself, lest thou turn unto iniquity ;
For thereto thou inclinest more than to afflic
tion. 11.
" Behold, God worketh loftily in His power ; 45
Chap, xxxvi. 17-22.
general to Job, by an idiom similar to section viii. 115, where
see note.
37. It is Job's " anger " (so they interpret his clear-eyed
indignation) which is the greatest difficulty both to Elihu and
to the friends ; compare section iii. 46.
41. This seems to refer to Job's wish for death, with its
rest and its dark oblivion.
44. Elihu strikes Job's balance as toward iniquity. He
does not accuse him directly of sin, as do the friends ; but in
thus judging Job's inclination of spirit he is at one with them :
he is as blind as they are to the real determination toward God
which underlies all Job's earnest remonstrances and all his
achievements of faith.
45. At this point, it seems most reasonable to conclude,

XXV. ELIHU 321
Who is a teacher like unto Him ?
Who hath laid upon Him His way ?
And who saith, Thou hast done iniquity ?
Take heed that thou magnify His work,
Which men celebrate in song. 50
All mankind gaze wonderingly thereon ;
Mortal man beholdeth it from afar.
Behold, God is exalted, and we know Him
not ;
The number of His years is unsearchable.
For He draweth up the water-drops, es
Chap, xxxvi. 22-27.
Elihu's attention is turned to the glory of God, perhaps by
the impressiveness of a distant storm, which he employs as
furnishing material for a didactic discourse.
47-50. The same view of God that Elihu has taken before ;
see section xxiii. 25 sq. A true enough view in itself ; but it
betrays, whether intentionally or not, the radical discordance
between the friends and Job. The truth of God's resistless
power over the world Job himself, far from disputing, affirms
with all emphasis, as a point whereon he accepts their doc
trine; see section viii. 15-56. But that, because God is
mighty, all His dealings, whatever their mysterious incon
sistency, must be called justice, — this, Job is too honest to
avow, and the disposition to avow it blindly and indiscrimi
nately, as Elihu is now doing, Job has censured in the friends,
as the disposition to be special pleaders for God ; see section
viii. 63-76. So this didactic discourse of Elihu's, true and
eloquent though it is, really opens the whole issue between
the friends and Job, and prepares the two parties to appear
before the God of the whirlwind in their contrasted spiritual
attitudes. 55. With this line Elihu begins to recognize the storm as

322 THE BOOK OF JOB XXV.
And they distil rain in place of the mist ;
Which then the skies pour down,
And drop upon men abundantly.'
Yea, is there that understandeth the spread-
ings of the cloud,
The crashings of His pavilion ? 60
Behold, He spreadeth thereon His light,
And the roots of the sea He covereth up ;
For by them He judgeth the nations ;
He giveth food in abundance.
Over both hands He wrappeth lightning, 65
And giveth it command where to strike.
His thunder-cry maketh report thereof,
The herd also, of the flame that ascendeth.
Yea, at this my heart trembleth,
And shuddereth from its place. 70
Hear ye, oh, hear the roar of His voice,
And the rumbling that goeth forth from His
mouth.
m Chap, xxxvi. 27 — xxxvii. 2.
the occasion of his discourse ; and while the storm is yet dis
tant he can, in a leisurely manner, draw other objects into his
disquisition, such as the sea, 1. 62, snow and ice, 11. 80, 88.
63. God judges the nations, Elihu says, by clouds and rain,
which indicate His will by giving or withholding their sup
ply. 68. This seems to refer to the perturbation of beasts in a
thunder-storm, or at the approach of a hurricane.
69-72. These lines seem to indicate definitely the approach
of the storm, at which he is disturbed, but not yet enough to
intermit his discourse.

XXV. ELIHU 323
Under all the heavens He sendeth it forth,
And His lightning to the edges of the earth.
After it resoundeth a voice, — 75
He thundereth with the voice of His majesty,
Nor doth He stay them when His voice is
heard.
God thundereth with His voice marvelously,
Doing great things, and we comprehend Him
not.
For to the snow He saith, Be thou upon
the earth, so
And the rain - flood, yea, the flood of His
mighty rains.
On the hand of every man He setteth a seal,
That all mortals whom He hath made may
know.
And the beast goeth into his covert,
And in his lair abideth. 85
Out of His chamber cometh the hurricane,
Chap, xxxvii. 3-9.
77. Nor doth He stay them, — the reference of them is ob
scure ; perhaps it means the lightnings.
80 sqq. In this paragraph the signs of the coming whirl
wind, or hurricane, become more definite ; which, so long as
he can look upon them calmly, Elihu associates didactically
with snow and ice.
82. God setteth a seal on men's hands ; that is, in the winter
and in the rainy season causes them to suspend work and
activity, going into their houses as the beasts go into their
coverts.

324 THE BOOK OF JOB XXV
And cold from the cloud-dispersers.
From the breath of God ice is given ;
And the broadness of the waters is straitened.
Also He loadeth the cloud with moisture; 90
He spreadeth the lightning-cloud abroad ;
And at His guidance it turneth itself about,
To do all that He commandeth it,
On the face of the terrestrial world ;
Whether for a scourge, or for the land, — 95
If for mercy He causeth it to come.
hi.
" Give ear unto this, O Job ;
Stand, and ponder the marvelous things of
God.
Knowest thou how God layeth command upon
them,
And maketh shine forth the light of His
cloud ? 100
Knowest thou the poisings of the thick cloud,
The wonders of the Perfect in knowledge ? —
Chap, xxxvii. 9-16.
87. The cloud-dispersers, — the clear cold winds that drive
away the clouds and leave the heavens serene.
97 sqq. Elihu's didactic spirit rises with the oncoming of
the storm, until it reaches its highest pitch of patronizing wis
dom, even to the extent of naming again (1. 102) the Perfect
in knowledge, with whom, as he has previously identified his
thought (1. 7), he now identifies the portents and marvels of
the storm.

XXV. ELIHU 325
Thou whose garments are hot,
Because from the south the earth lieth sultry
still, —
Canst thou spread out with Him the skies, 105
Firm, as a molten mirror ?
. . . Oh teach us what we may say to Him !
We cannot order it — it groweth so dark . . .
Hath one told Him that I am speaking ? . . .
Or hath a man said . . . for he shall be
swallowed up ! 110
And now they no longer see the light, —
That splendor in the skies,
For a wind hath passed, and scattered them.
. . . From the north a golden glory cometh ! . . .
Chap, xxxvii. 17-22.
103, 104. One sign of the whirlwind, which is preceded by
sultry heat and stillness.
106. Another sign, — the peculiar metallic appearance of
the sky.
107. At this point, as it would seem, the storm bursts upon
them, and with such exceptional features that Elihu must
regard it as betokening the immediate presence of Jehovah.
For this he is not prepared, nor has any of his discourse
manifested either desire for or conception of such a thing.
His succeeding words, accordingly, are confused and incoher
ent, indicating a vague terror of impending destruction.
m. With the passing of the mysterious light which accom
panied the storm, Elihu's spirit rebounds, and in comparative
calm he is resuming his disquisition.
114. From the north, — a new quarter of the heavens (com
pare 1. 104), and with manifestations wholly portentous. —

326 THE BOOK OF JOB XXV.
Oh, with God is terrible majesty ! us
The Almighty — we have not found Him out ;
Vast in power, and in judgment,
And in abundance of righteousness ; —
He will not afflict ;
Therefore do men fear Him ; 120
He regardeth not any wise in their own con
ceit." Chap, xxxvii. 22-24.
A golden glory, — literally, gold ; but in this connection it
can hardly refer to anything but the exceptionally splendid
light. 116. At which Elihu begins to retract his pretensions, and
in a kind of wheedling terror to bring God's mercies to
mind, as if in a confused attempt thereby to turn away the
wrath that seems so imminent. Quite in contrast to the self-
respecting boldness of Job when he took his life in his hand
(section viii. 80), in order to speak out to God's face what
was in him.
121. Wise in their own conceit, — literally, wise of heart.
Thus he characterizes himself, making thereby abject confes
sion of the futile pretensions of his wisdom.
This is the last of Elihu. He is self-judged. Though he
lias said many noble things, and represented the highest and
the truest that the friends could bring forth from the treas
ures of their Wisdom, yet, because of its unspiritual and
essentially selfish basis in their character, it does not enable
them to stand before the searching light of God's immediate
presence. A God who is undesired is unbearable ; it is only
aspiring love and purity of heart that can endure His face.

XXVI
THE LORD
And the Lord answered Job out of the whirl
wind, and said :
" Who is this, darkening counsel
With words, — but without knowledge ?
Gird up thy loins now, like a strong man,
And I will ask thee ; and inform Me thou. 5
Chap, xxxviii. 1-3.
The first words from the whirlwind dismiss Elihu abruptly
with a judgment just adapted to his pretensions. Full of
words he confessedly has been (section xxii. 29) ; but to set
up as the mouthpiece of the Perfect in knowledge (section
xxv. 7) is ol presumption too great to pass unrebuked.
" Without knowledge," — thus on Elihu the Divine verdict is
passed. Not so with Job. He is left rather to judge himself. From
his impregnable citadel of integrity he has looked into the
world of God's mysterious dealings, and while blinking none
of its difficulties his faith has imaged a God who is his Friend
and the Friend of righteousness. One difficulty remained,
however, which caused him dismay (section xvi. 24-33) : the
sight of God's changeless, inexorable, inscrutable work in the
world, where wicked and righteous live together in the same
apparently undiscriminating government. To this problem
we may regard the Lord's discourse as addressed ; not by

328 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVI.
I.
" Where wast thou, when I laid the founda
tions of the earth ?
Declare, if by knowledge thou understandest :
Who set its measurements, so thou knowest ;
Or who stretched the line over it ?
'On what were its piers deep-laid, 10
Or who placed its corner-stone, —
When the morning-stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy ?
Who shut up the sea with doors,
When it . brake forth — issued from the
womb, — w
When I made cloud its garment,
Chap, xxxviii. 4-9.
way of a narrow answer why, but rather, by passing in re
view before Job the greatness and variety of created things,
it raises him to a point where he has a broader horizon, and
can better judge of his position in the sum of things. His
vision is right (compare section xxx. 6), therefore he shall
have more to see ; " to him that hath shall be given."
Lines 6 sqq. This first part of the address deals with the
.transcendent things : earth and sea, light and darkness, —
things too great and too ancient to reveal their origin to man.
The earth is represented under the figure of a vast building.
13. The sons of God are mentioned in the Prologue (11. 22,
89) as God's ministering spirits, reporting on themselves and
the creation.
14 sqq. The sea, under the figure of a vast Being, born of
Chaos, full of proud ambition, but submissively in the power
of God.

XXVI. THE LORD 329
And thick gloom its swaddling-band, —
When I established over it my decree,
And set bars and doors,
And said, ' Thus far shalt thou come, and no
farther, 20
And here the pride of thy waves shall cease ' ?
Hast thou, since thy days began, commanded
the morning,
And taught the day-spring his place,
That he should lay hold of the skirts of the
earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it ? 25
That it should be changed as clay under the
seal,
And all things stand forth as in festal attire ?
That their light should be withholden from the
wicked,
And the uplifted arm be broken ?
Hast thou made thy way to the sources of
the sea, 30
And walked in the recesses of the deep ?
Chap, xxxviii. 9-16.
23. The Day-spring, or Dawn, personified as one who
" seizes the coverlet under which the earth has slept at its
four ends and shakes the evil-doers out of it like flies ; upon
which form and color return to the earth, as clay (a Baby
lonian image) receives a definite form from the seal, and as
the sad-colored night-wrapper is exchanged for the bright,
embroidered holiday-robe." — Cheyne.
28. Their light, — which is darkness, their deeds being evil.

330 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVI.
Have the gates of death been revealed to thee ?
And the gates of the shadow of death — hast
thou seen them ?
Hast thou comprehended the breadths of the
earth ?
Tell, if thou knowest it all, — m
Where is the way to where light dwelleth,
And darkness, where is its place, —
That thou shouldst trace it to its boundary,
And shouldst be acquainted with the paths to
its house.
Thou know ! — then thou wast already born, 40
And the number of thy days must be great !
11.
" Hast thou visited the treasuries of the snow ?
And the treasuries of the hail, hast thou seen
them, —
Which I have reserved for the time of distress,
For the day of onset and war ? 45
Where is the way to where the light is dis
persed,
When the East spreadeth abroad over the
earth ? Chap, xxxviii. 17-24.
45. Compare Joshua x. n. The hail is represented as
stored up in treasuries for direct use in human affairs.
47. Compare Tennyson : — " The wither'd moon
Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east."

XXVI. THE LORD 331
Who hath riven a channel for the rain-flood,
And a way for the lightning of the thun
der ?
To bring rain on a land where no man is, so
On the desert, where no son of Adam dwell-
eth;
To satisfy waste and wilderness,
And to cause the springing grass to grow ?
Is there indeed a father to the rain ?
Or who hath begotten the drops of dew ? 55
Out of whose womb came the ice,
And the hoar-frost of heaven, who brought it
forth ?
As in stone the waters hide themselves,
And the face of the deep congealeth.
Canst thou bind the fetters of the Pleiades, eo
Or loose the cords of Orion ?
Canst thou bring forth the Signs in their sea
son,
And canst thou guide the Bear with her sons ?
Knowest thou the laws of the heavens,
Chap, xxxviii. 25-33.
50, 51. Yet quite apart from human requirements, too,
God's natural powers are working in silence, doing just as
great and beneficent things where there is no eye to see.
60-63. In these lines there may be allusions to mythologi
cal ideas now unknown ; nor is the meaning of all the names
certain. The name of Orion, the " fool-hardy " giant, seems
to have come from some such myth. The Signs (Mazzaroth)
are supposably the signs of the Zodiac.

332 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVI.
Or wilt thou dispose their empire over the,
earth ? 65
Wilt thou raise thy voice unto the cloud,
That a flood of waters may cover thee ?
Wilt thou send forth lightnings, that they may
go,
And may say unto thee, Here we are ?
Who hath put wisdom into their reins ? 7c
Or who hath given understanding to the me
teor ?
Who numbereth the clouds in wisdom ?
And the bottles of heaven, who poureth them
out, —
When dust is molten into a mass,
And clods cleave fast together ? 75
111.
" Wilt thou hunt prey for the lioness,
And still the craving of the young lions, —
Chap, xxxviii. 33-39.
65. The always prevalent idea taken for granted, that the
heavens have influence on the seasons and affairs of earth.
70, 71. This passage, which is very obscure in the original,
is here given in what from derivation and context seems the
most probable meaning.
76 sqq. The succeeding examples illustrate the variety of
the providential care and wisdom manifest in the animal cre
ation, and by contrast man's utter lack of wisdom either to
control or to interpret. The lions and ravens are fed, yet by
means wholly inscrutable to man.

XXVI. THE LORD 333
When they lie crouching in their lairs,
When they lurk in the covert for ambush ?
Who provideth his prey for the raven, so
When his young cry out unto God,
And wander here and there, without meat ?
Knowest thou the bearing-time of the wild
goats of the rock ?
Wilt thou direct the travail of the hinds ?
Is it thou who numberest the months they ful
fill, 85
And hast thou known the time for them to
calve ?
They bow themselves, let their young cleave
the womb,
And thus they cast away their labor-pangs.
Their young ones fatten, grow up in the field,
Go forth, and return not again. 90
Who hath sent forth the wild-ass free,
And the bands of the fleet one who hath
loosed ?
Whose house I have made the wilderness,
And the salt-waste his lodging-place.
Chap, xxxviii. 40 — xxxix. 6.
83 sqq. The wild goats live a complete life, from birth to
death, in a Care just adapted to them, yet far apart from the
knowledge of man.
91 sqq. In the wild-ass is a freedom that scorns all control ;
yet there is some mysterious Wisdom that has " sent him
forth free."

334 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVL
He laugheth at the tumult of the city, 95
And the clamors of the driver will he not hear.
The choice spots of the mountain are his pas
ture ;
And after every green thing he searcheth.
Will the wild-ox be content to serve thee,
Or will he pass the night at thy crib ? 100
Wilt thou bind the wild-ox with his cord in the
furrow,
Or will he harrow the valleys after thee ?
Wilt thou trust him because his strength is
great,
And wilt thou commit unto him thy toil ?
Wilt thou rely on him to bring home thy seed,
And to gather thy threshing-floor ? 106
The wing of the ostrich beateth joyously,
But is it a kindly pinion and plume ?
For she leaveth her eggs to the earth,
And warm eth them upon the dust, uo
And forgetteth that a foot may crush them,
Chap, xxxix. 7-15.
99 sqq. In the wild-ox, likewise, we see provided in nature
a strength whose purpose no domestication can utilize or
human insight comprehend.
107 sqq. In the ostrich is seen a. variety of contradictory
traits, which no man is wise enough to reconcile and explain.
How interpret the Wisdom that would see fit to create a bird
at once wonderfully endowed with swiftness, to escape her
enemies, yet so foolish as to leave her young at the mercy of
every hostile foot ?

XXVI. THE LORD 335
And that the wild beast of the field may tram
ple them.
She dealeth hardly with her young, as though
they were not hers.
In vain her labor, being without fear ;
For God hath denied her wisdom, us
Nor hath she portion in understanding.
Yet what time she lasheth her pinions on high,
She scorn eth the horse and his rider.
Givest thou might unto the horse,
Or clothest thou his neck with the quivering
mane ? 120
Dost thou make him spring as a locust ?
The glory of his snorting is terrible.
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in
strength ;
He goeth to meet the weapons of war.
He mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed ; 125
And he turneth not back for the sword.
Upon him rattleth the quiver, —
Flaming of spear and javelin.
With rage and fury he devoureth the earth,
Chap, xxxix. 15-24.
119 sqq. The war-horse, which seems to be created for
battle, and to delight in the turmoil from which most animals
would flee, was an object of peculiar wonder to the Hebrew
mind, perhaps on account of the scarcity of horses in Pales
tine. There is no other description of animals in this section
in which the imaginative spirit expresses itself in such bold
and lofty terms.

336 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVI.
And he standeth not still, — for it is the voice
of the trumpet. uo
At every trumpet-blast he saith, Aha !
And from afar he scenteth battle,
Thunder of captains, and shouting.
Is it by thy wisdom that the hawk soareth
aloft,
And spreadeth her wings toward the south ? 135
Or is it at thy word that the eagle mounteth
upward,
And that he buildeth his nest on high ?
He dwelleth on the rock, and maketh his home
there,
On the tooth of the rock, and the strong hold.
From thence he spy eth out his prey ; mo
His eyes discern it from afar.
And his young ones suck up blood ;
And where the slain are, there is he."
Chap, xxxix. 24-30.
134 sqq. From one source of wisdom, which cannot be
man's, the hawk receives the instinct that directs her south
ward, and the eagle is guided to his rocky home, whence he
can spy out prey.
139. The tooth of the rock, — the Hebrew metaphor for the
sharp-pointed rocky summit.

XXVI. THE LORD 337
IV.
So the Lord answered Job, and said :
"Will the reprover contend with the Al
mighty ? 145
He that censureth God, let him answer it."
Chap. xl. i, 2.
144. This should not be printed as the beginning of a new
discourse, as is generally done ; it simply summarizes and ap
plies the foregoing section.
145. Job has desired to " bring his cause " before God (see
section xvi. 4-13) ; this indeed has been his most constant
longing, and for this we left him all ready, when he ceased
speaking (section xx. 1S6-192). Has he still the same desire,
after all this view of the various Wisdom inlaid in nature ?
Will he still " contend " (the legal term, see section vi. 4,
note) as a reprover and critic, after he has seen so much that
is beyond and above him ? The following words of Robert
Buchanan interpret well the significance of the Lord's ques
tion here, as related to the review of creation that has just
been given : " Because there is sin and misery in the world,
because hearts ache and bodies die, shall we turn upon this
sublimely exhaustless Being, and demand explanation ? Is it
not something to know how He delights in making, in end
less creating, and that One who thus delights cannot be cruel ?
The explanation will come."
146. He that is great enough to " censure," to pass judg
ment on God, is great enough to answer his own questions ;
if to him God's way is not self-justifying, no answer from out
side himself would justify it.

XXVII JOB
And Job answered the Lord, and said :
" Behold, I am too small : what shall I answer
Thee ?
I lay my hand upon my mouth.
Once have I spoken, and I will not answer ;
And twice, but I will not add thereto." s
Chap. xl. 3-5.
Line 2. The speech from the whirlwind has wrought its
purpose thus far : it has made Job see God's world in some
thing of its true perspective, and that he is not the centre of
the system, but only a very small unit in the infinite sum of
things. He does not presume to present his cause ; how
could he, so small, give it its true relation to the vast universe
of God's working ?
4. It is to be observed, however, that Job does not retract
what he has said ; he simply ventures, with humility and awe,
to let it remain before God just as it has been spoken.

XXVIII
THE LORD
And the Lord answered Job out of the whirl
wind, and said :
" Gird up thy loins now, like a strong man ;
I will ask thee ; and inform Me thou.

" Wilt thou even disannul my right ?
Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be
justified ? s
Chap. xl. 6-8.
Lines 4, 5. Job has come to see that he has no wisdom
wherewith to enter the lists against the infinite Wisdom of
the world, and pass judgment on what is so complex. The
Lord now takes him one step further back, and asks him
1 hy he should separate God's cause from his own, as if they
must be antagonists. Is there not room, in such a universe,
for both God's right and Job's ? Nay, and such belligerent
assertion of a mortal's "rights," — which assertion we will
remember Job has not yet withdrawn, — is that the attitude
for utter weakness to assume before infinite Power ? Ques
tioning like this, and from such a source, fulfills Elihu's wish
(section xxiii. 76) as no words of the friends could do ; it

34° THE BOOK OF JOB XXVIII.
Doth an arm like God's belong to thee ?
And wilt thou thunder with a voice like His ?
Put on now thy grandeur and majesty,
And array thyself with splendor and glory ;
Pour forth the overflowings of thy wrath, u
And behold all that is lofty, — and abase it ;
Behold all that is lofty, — bring it low,
And tread down the wicked where they stand
Hide them in the dust together ;
Bind up their faces in the hidden place ; is
And then will I with praise confess to thee
That thine own right hand can save thee.
n.
" Behold now Behemoth, which I made along
with thee : Chap. xl. 9-15.
" tries Job to the utmost," revealing and refining the real gold
of his character ; compare section xvi. 19. This is doubtless
its purpose, rather than to prove Job in the wrong.
6. The previous discourse of the Lord's has treated of the
various aspects of Divine wisdom ; this has to do more with
portrayals of God's power. With the power of God, as with
the wisdom, Job must measure himself.
17. As Job's assumed wisdom ought to be sufficient to re
solve its own problems (section xxvi. 146), so Job's assumed
power, implied in this attitude of condemning God for the
sake of his own rights, ought to be sufficient to save him.
Why should he be selfish any farther than he is really suffi
cient to himself ?
18. " The word behemoth may be a Heb. plur. of intensity,
signifying the beast or ox, par excellence ; but probably it is an

XXVIII. THE LORD 341
Grass, like the ox, doth he eat.
Behold now his strength in his loins, 20
And his power in the muscles of his belly.
He moveth his tail like a cedar ;
The sinews of his thigh are knit together ;
His bones are tubes of brass ;
His ribs like a bar of iron. 25
He — chief of the ways of God ; —
Only He that made him can make His sword
approach him.
Yet the mountains furnish him food ;
And all the beasts of the field may sport there.
Under the lotus-trees he lieth, 30
In the covert of reed and fen.
The lotus-trees weave him a shadow ;
And the willows of the brook encompass him.
Behold, the river rageth, and he trembleth not ;
He is steadfast though a Jordan rush against
his mouth. 35
Chap. xl. 15-23.
Egyptian name Hebraized. It has been supposed to be the
Egyptian p-ehe-mout, i. c, the water or river ox. At all events
the animal referred to appears to be the hippopotamus, or
river-horse, of the Greeks." — Davidson.
26-29. A beast of immense power, yet inoffensive ; unsub-
duable by any but God, yet living in harmony with other
beasts. 34-37. Nor is he lacking in courage : he resists fearlessly
the raging of the river ; yet he lets himself be captured and
subdued by man. Such is one manifestation of God's power
in nature.

342 THE BOOK OF fOB XXVIII.
Yet before his very eyes men capture him,
And pierce through his nose with snares.
in.
" Wilt thou draw out Leviathan with a hook ?
Or with a cord wilt thou press down his tongue ?
Wilt thou put a rope into his nose, 4«
Or with a spike bore through his jaw ?
Will he multiply supplications unto thee,
Or will he speak unto thee soft things ?
Will he make a covenant with thee,
That thou mayest take him as a servant for
ever ? a
Wilt thou sport with him as with a sparrow,
And bind him for thy maidens ?
Will the fisher-bands traffic over him,
And retail him among the Canaanites ?
Wilt thou fill his skin with barbed irons, so
And with fish-spears his head ?
Lay but thine hand upon him, —
And of battle think thereafter no more !
Chap. xl. 24 — xli. 8.
38. Leviathan, — probably the crocodile, the animal that
answers most nearly to the present description, though some
of the details are idealized.
49. The Canaanites, or Phoenicians, were the typical mer
chants of antiquity ; so that the words Canaanite and mer
chant became almost synonymous; see Zechariah xiv. 21;
Proverbs xxxi. 24.
5 V That is, one who attempts to vanquish him once will
never live to join battle with him again.

XXVIII. THE LORD 343
Behold, one's hope is belied ;
Nay, at very sight of him one is cast down ; 55
None so desperate as to stir him up, —
And who is he then that will take his stand
before Me ?
Who hath first put Me in his debt, that I
should requite ?
Nay, under all the heaven — whosoever he is,
he is mine.
I will not pass over in silence his limbs, 60
Nor the fame of his strength, nor the beauty
of his build.
Who will uncover the front of his array ?
Chap. xli. 9-13.
54. That is, one's hope to capture or subdue him.
56. Here, then, is a beast no greater in power, perhaps,
than behemoth, yet wholly contrasted in traits, being utterly
unsubduable ; this beast also, as well as behemoth, being the
handiwork of God, made along with man.
57-59- The lesson of these portrayals drawn. Both beasts
are vastly more powerful than man, the one mild, the other
fierce, yet both owing all they are to God. Shall man alone,
who belongs to God in the same sum of things, bring to his
Maker an unpaid demand ? In all these things, has God left
man's life unprovided for ? We are reminded of the lesson
drawn in Isaiah xl. 26-28.
60 sqq. To me there is no other passage in the Book of
Job so doubtful as is the remainder of this section. All the
rest of the book has the unity of tissue belonging to one lit
erary idea ; and at this point the argument naturally culmi
nates. Not that 11. 60-105 are discordant with the previous ;
they simply seem like a later addition put on to satisfy some

344 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVIII.
Into that twofold bridle who will enter ?
The gates of his face who shall open ?
The circuits of his teeth are terror. 65
A pride are the rows of his shields,
A seal each one, shut close and bound.
One cometh so near to the other
That no air can come between them ;
Each to his fellow, they are close joined ; 70
They cleave so together that they cannot be
sundered.
His neesings flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morn
ing.
From his mouth go forth burning torches, —
Sparks of fire issue forth. 75
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke,
Like a pot kindled, and like a rush-fire.
His breath setteth coals aflame,
Chap. xli. 13-21.
writer's love of description, but not adding to the argument
either in idea or in emotional effect.
63. His rows of teeth, " the term ' bridle ' referring particu
larly perhaps to the corners of his jaws."
66. The rows of his shields are the crocodile's armor of
scales. 72. His neesings, — the breath from his nostrils, which in
the sun is said to flash light.
73. " In the Egyptian hieroglyphs the eyes of the crocodile
are a symbol of the dawn." — Davidson. This same expres
sion, " eyelids of the morning," is used in section ii. 20, to
signify the dawn.

XXVIII. THE LORD 345
And a tongue of flame issuerh from his mouth.
On his neck lodgeth Might, so
And before him Horror leapeth.
The flanks of his flesh cleave together,
Molten upon him, immovable.
His heart is molten firm, like a stone ; —
Yea, molten firm, like a nether millstone. 85
When he riseth up, mighty ones are afraid ;
They lose their senses for terror.
Though one reach him with the sword, it hold-
eth not ;
Nor the spear, nor the dart, nor the coat of
mail.
He accounteth iron as straw, 90
And brass as rotten wood.
The son of the bow cannot make him flee ;
To chaff are sling-stones turned before him ;
As chaff too he regardeth a club,
And he laugheth at the shaking of a spear, os
His under parts are sharpened shards ;
Chap. xli. 21-30.
82. " The parts beneath his neck and belly, which in most
animals are soft and pendulous ; in him they are firm and
hard." — Davidson.
92. The son of the bow, — the Hebrew metaphor for arrow.
96, 97. " The scales of his belly, though smoother than
those on the back, still are sharp, particularly those under
the tail, and leave an impression on the mire where he has
lain as if a sharp threshing-sledge with teeth had stood on it
or gone over it (Isaiah xli. 15)." — Ib.

346 THE BOOK OF JOB XXVIII.
He spreadeth out a threshing-wain over the
mire.
He maketh the deep to boil like a cauldron ;
The sea he maketh like a pot of ointment.
After him shineth a pathway ; 100
One would think the deep turned to hoary
hair.
There is none on earth his master, —
He — created without fear.
On all that is high he looketh, —
He — king over all the sons of pride." 105
Chap, xll 30-34.
105. In section xix. 62, the "proud beast of prey " is liter
ally " the sons of pride ; " and here doubtless the expression
refers to the proud beasts.

XXIX JOB
And Job answered the Lord, and said :
" I know that Thou canst do everything ;
Nor is withholden from Thee any design.
' Who is this that hideth counsel without
knowledge ? ' —
Therefore have I uttered, and understood not, 5
Things too wonderful for me, and I knew not.
' Hear now,' Thou sayest, ' and I will speak ;
I will ask thee ; and inform Me thou ; ' —
Chap. xlii. 1-4.
Lines 2, 3. Job's eyes are open at last to perceive the uni
versality both of God's power and wisdom ; an all-pervading
Care in which he is content to take his place, hushing all
complaints and trusting where he cannot see. This is the
grand outcome of Job's experience; an outcome not merely
in a completed argument, but in a chastened, obedient, en
lightened character.
4. Quotation of the question regarding Elihu, section xxvi.
2, 3 ; which Job humbly takes up and applies to himself, thus
virtually assuming the burden not only of what he has rashly
uttered, but of the short-sighted speculations of his friends
also. 7, 8. The Lord's words to Job ; sections xxvi. 5 ; xxviii. 3.

348 THE BOOK OF JOB XXIX.
I had heard of Thee by hearing of the ear,
But now mine eye seeth Thee ; m
Wherefore I loathe me, and repent,
In dust and ashes." Chap. xlii. 5,6.
9-12. The past hard experience has brought Job immeas
urably nearer to God. Between this and his former spiritual
state there is all the difference between sight and hearsay.
God is no more a conventional God, the God of a philosophy,
but the real and actual Presence after which Job has longed ;
and the attitude that befits such communion is not the self-
complacent attitude of one who has triumphed, but the lowly
self-abasement of repentant, trustful love.
Job's repentance is not to be referred to some definite error
or event in which he has been proved wrong ; it is due to that
feeling of earthly impurity which cannot but rise when the
heart is laid bare before infinite Holiness, — like the feeling
which prompted the poet's prayer at the end of his work : —
11 Forgiye what seem'd my sin in me ;
What seem'd my worth since 1 began."

XXX
EPILOGUE I.
And so it was, after the Lord had spoken
these words to Job, that the Lord said to
Eliphaz the Temanite, " My wrath is kindled
against thee, and against thy two friends ;
for ye have not spoken concerning Me that s
Chap. xlii. 7.
The Epilogue, to which many have objected, is not with
out its justification in logical necessity. It does not indeed
portray Job's real reward, which was inward and spiritual ;
but it does reveal to his unspiritual friends the one vindica
tion which they have shown themselves able to appreciate, —
the vindication of prosperity in this life. If they could so
confidently promise restoration as the reward of his coming
to God by their prescribed way of repentance and confession
of sin, surely no smaller or less palpable blessing should
follow his brave maintenance of his righteous ways until God
Himself pronounces his course right.
Line 5. That which is right, — the whole trend of their
words toward God (for it is 'literally, " Ye have not spoken lo
Me") has been wrong ; for it has had its spring in a selfish
desire to secure God's favor by indiscriminate praise (see sec
tion viii. 63-76), and that selfish desire has led them to deny
Job's evident integrity, to manufacture for him a sin of which
he was not guilty, and to deny the obvious prosperity of the

350 THE BOOK OF JOB XXX.
which is right, as hath my servant Job.
And now take unto you seven bullocks and
seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and
offer a burnt-offering for yourselves, and my
servant Job will pray for you ; for his face ic
will I accept, — lest I deal with you after your
folly. For ye have not spoken concerning
me that which is right, as my servant Job
hath." And Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the is
Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went
and did as the Lord spake unto them ; and
the Lord accepted the face of Job.
And the Lord turned the captivity of Job
when -he prayed for his friends. And the ao
Lord added to all that had been Job's two
fold. Chap. xlii. 7-10.
wicked in the world. On the other hand, Job's words, bold
and outspoken though they were, have been honest, speaking
the truth as he saw truth, and charged through and through
with loyalty to what is just and loving and Godlike.
10. Job's intercession for the friends is a remarkable fulfill
ment of what they promised him he might do if he would
" reconcile himself " with God ; see section xv. 52, 58, 59.
15, 16. The three friends are mentioned; why not Elihu
also, who championed their cause ? Because he has already
judged himself. There would be the same propriety in mak
ing him appear again that there would be in making a char
acter in a drama who has just died reappear and receive the
plaudits of the audience.
19. This is merely the fulfillment of the friends' numerous

XXX. EPILOGUE 351
II.
And there came to him all his brethren,
and all his sisters, and all who had known
him before ; and they ate bread with him in 25
his house, and mourned with him, and com
forted him for all the evil that the Lord had
brought upon him. And they gave him,
each man a kesita, and each man a ring of
gold. so
And the Lord blessed the latter end of
Job more than his beginning ; for he had
fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand
camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a
thousand she-asses. And he had seven sons 35
and three daughters. And he called the
name of the first daughter Jemima, and the
name of the second Kezia, and the name of
the third Keren-happuch ; and in all the land
there were not found women so fair as the 40
daughters of Job ; and their father gave
them inheritance among their brethren.
Chap. xlii. 11-15.
promises ; see sections iii. 78-97 ; v. 8-14 ; vii. 25-38 ; xv.
40-59 ; xxii. 90-94.
29. A kesita, — an uncoined piece of money, which was
reckoned by weight; Genesis xxxiii. 19; Joshua xxiv. 32.
The mention of the kesita, which evidently belonged to pa
triarchal times, is perhaps one mark of the author's imitation
of patriarchal customs.

352 THE BOOK OF JOB XXX
III.
And Job lived after this a hundred and
forty years ; and he saw his sons and his
sons' sons, four generations. And Job died, 45
old and full of days. Chap. xlii. 16, 17.
43. Job's long life, conformed to the generous patriarchal
standard, is one of the illustrations of that slight framework
of legend on which our author presumably built; a frame
work that it would be a task both baffling and thankless to
reconstruct, because the whole soul of the poem is preemi
nently an outgrowth of the Wisdom thinking. Its interest for
us lies in its invention rather than in its legendary basis.
45. Compare Eliphaz's promise, section iii. 96, 97.

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