30 31 32 33 That to the day of doom the wicked man is" kept; And who requites him (here) what he hath done? 15 Ver. 22. Ah, how is this? A pause here, with an intervening thought, leading to what follows, may be rationally supposed. See ADDENDA, pa. 176. The words in brackets denote the transition. It is a very impassioned speech. Job's mind is revolving like that of Koheleth, when he so often says "I turned "-"I turned again to see "—I took another and another view of things, etc. The chief difference is that Koheleth is in a more calm and contemplative state, and gives outward notice of these mental changes, whilst Job silently broods over them, and then bursts forth. His state of soul, instead of being a meditative rest, is tumultuous, volcanic we might almost style it, as it sometimes shows itself. To expect of him closely connected and logical sequences, is itself most illogical. The statements in previous verses, apparently varying, but, in fact, only two parts of one picture viewed from different stand-points, naturally bring up the thought of the great diversity in the lives and deaths of men,-a fact inexplicable on any human theory. This again calls up the thought of some higher wisdom of God yet unknown to men. It is fully set forth in ch. xxviii., but Job is only approaching it here. It produces the silence of a moment, when he resumes: shall me teach God? and then goes on with the picture of diversity in human condition that had led to it. 10 Ver. 22. Teach God-see note below on ver. 30, and the pages in the ADDENDA there referred to. 17 Ver. 23. All quiet, Heb. 1. GESENIUS regards this strange form as a compound of and N. BEN GANACH, in his Hebrew Grammar entitled SEPHER HA RIKMA, page 18, maintains that it is only with an euphonic giving it a more intensive sense. 18 Ver. 24. His breasts y occurs but once. Some give it the sense of station for watering flocks (as derived from the Arabic) and then transferred to the flocks themselves. The parallelism, however, demands a word denoting some part of the body to correspond to bones in the second clause. There seems to be nothing better, after all, than the rendering breasts which E. V. got from the Targum, and which, as an expression of health, may be applicable to either sex. 19 Ver. 27. Thoughts to my hurt. מחשבות means evil thoughts. From the rendering of E. V., and that of most of the commentators, there would be derived the idea of plots or machinations (stratagems DELITZSCH renders it) or of something to be done to, or against, Job. But the words do not really demand this. i may refer simply to the false and unfavorable views they have indulged of Job's case and character. 20 Ver. 27. Wrongfully. has generally the associated thought of violence, but the essential idea is that of injustice. It seems to combine the two senses very much as the Greek üßpis-vẞpiw. 21 Ver. 28. Say ye. Equivalent to think ye, as oŋuì in Greek sometimes. 22 Ver. 29. Their signs; like mottoes borne on their standards--enigmatical devices, or, taken generally, any modes by which their sententious or traditional language is made known. 23 Ver. 30. To the day of doom the wicked man is kept. On the general interpretation of this verse, see EXCURSUS III. of the ADDENDA, pa. 182. 24 Ver. 30. Mighty wrath, Literally to the day of wraths, dies irarum. The word is the intensive plural. Ver. 30. Declares his way. Who dares tell him of the fearful TN to which his way leads, or of the day of wrath to which he is to be brought forth. Nothing could be more appropriate to the view taken of ver. 30 in E. V., and insisted on in EXCURSUS III. If ver. 30 refers to some great eschatological doom, however dimly conceived as belonging to some unknown period, then the word here, as placed in brackets, is implied in the emphasis of the passage. 26 Ver. 32. One keepeth watch. Various views are taken of this; but no one seems more simple and natural than the idea of a friend or relative keeping watch by the grave, whether as guardian or as mourner. The wicked man, too, has those who loved him in spite of his wickedness. The picture is a very touching one. 27 Ver. 33. Lightly press, The Hebrew Pliterally means are sweet, but may be applied to anything agreeable, or represented as such, whether in fancy or reality. Compare xxiv. 20: The worm feeds sweetly on him, or, his sweetness is the worm. The idea, in either case, is that of insensi means thoughts generally, i, especially with,bility to suffering, but strangely conceived of as having something of enjoyment. We do not wholly divest ourselves 34 And after him come all in lengthened train, of such feelings when we talk of the grave as a place of rest. Κούφα σοι Χθὼν ἐπάνω πεσεις—γύναι. Light fall the earth upon thee-lady. Ver. 33. Lengthened train. An idea clearly contained in the Hebrew D. See Jud. iv. 6, 7, where it denotes the drawing out of the military line; Ps. xxviii. 3: "Draw me not out (or let me not draw out) with the wicked." 29 Ver. 33. Have gone before. Life a procession; one part coming, another passing, another gone. It reminds us of the monumental lines from the Greek Anthology: τὴν αὐτὴν ὁδόν ἣν πάντας ἐλθεῖν ἔστ ̓ ἀναγκαίως ἔχον, On the road that all must travel have they gone, All alike; even God's Elect present the same appearance of an ever-passing and disappearing procession: Part of the host have crossed the flood, The picture presented by Job is as touching as it is true and universal. The great distinguishing day of doom kept out of sight, the same sad destiny seems to await all mankind. All are marching to the tomb, and seem to lie down in it as their common place of rest. On this verse UMBREIT makes some of his characteristic remarks: Ein bitterer Ausspruch! He calls it: "a bitter or rancorous judgment. Is the wicked man extirpated from the earth by death, so follow him others without number," etc. (pa. 171). He would represent Job, in saying this, as governed by a spirit of morose misanthropy. On the contrary, the language of this and the preceding verse may be cited as evidence of what the translator has elsewhere insisted on (see ADDENDA, pa. 175), namely, the striking difference between the speeches of Job and those of the others. Impassioned, as his language is, in view of his own severe sufferings, there is, after all, the manifestation of a softer feeling when his revolving thoughts lead him to consider the common lot of humanity. In his second picture of the wicked man's wretchedness, or his afterthought, as we may call it, he alludes to their doom in some great judgment, all unknown and undetermined though it be; and that seems immediately to call up a tenderer language which looks very much like commiseration for the wicked man himself. He, too, lies down in the dust, like all other men. He, too, has some one who loves him, and who will watch mournfully by his grave. On him, too, will "lightly press the clods of the valley," as upon the most How lovely and innocent among "the dwellers in dust." different are these tender images from the fierce speech of Zophar, especially as it appears in the terrible pictures with which he concludes, xx. 23-27: "The gleaming weapon piercing through his gall," and his very food mingled with "the Almighty's rain of burning wrath." That is the language of one who seems to love such picturing, and actually to exult in the sinner's doom. He assumes towards Job the attribute of moral superiority; and, good man as he is, he cannot conceal the self-righteous feeling with which he so formally passes sentence at the close: This is the bad man's portion sent from God- There is more severity in Job's picture, xxvii. 13-23; but here there certainly seems to be an effusion of tenderness not to be found in the speeches of the others. They are cool, philosophical moralists, except when roused to indignation by Job's refusal to confess. He is the true hero, the mighty wrestler with sin and suffering. His moral sense goes deeper than theirs. He is more conscious of his own sin, of the common depravity, and, therefore, the more likely to lose sight of outward moral differences in the conJob comes nearer templation of the universal suffering. than they to the spirit of Christ and to the spirit of His language wben He says: "Think ye that they were sinners above all the Galileans? I tell you nay; but unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." T 30 Ver. 34. Empty breath. E. V. in vain. There is but the Hebrew word, or an, vapor, lenis aura, àtμós -so often used by Koheleth, though with a slightly differing form, Dan, "vanity of vanities." Here it denotes worthlessness; but the primary sense of words should be prevery significant. served in a translation, if possible, and especially if they are 31 Ver. 34. Offence. ; perverse action or thought against any one. Hence wrongful treatment consisting in continually taking a false view of Job's case, rather than actual falsehood in speech, or in abstract opinion. CHAPTER XXII. 1 2 3 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite and said:" The strong' man-can he profit God, 1 Ver. 2. The strong man. " as used in Job is generally emphatic-the strong, powerful, or rich man as distinguished from the common man, or man in general. Here Eliphaz would apply it peculiarly to Job as one who may have thought he was doing God service when he was serving himself, as Satan also charged, i. 9. it necessary. The picture suggested is that of a man who thinks he is serving God, profiting God, when his aim is thereby to profit himself, and who makes a great outcry when stripped, as he fancies, of these his gains. The connection and dependence of the gives the easy and appropriate sense in harmony with all that Eliphaz says afterwards. 2 Ver. 2. That thereby. Some take this parentheti-, the prudent man. There seems to be just a touch of cally; as DELITZSCH: "No indeed! the intelligent man is profitable to himself." So RENAN: Non; c'est a lui seul que le sage est utile. It is not easy to see what warrant there is for it grammatically, or what demand of the sense makes irony here: Prudent man as he is in such a calculation of the accruing advantages of outward piety. It may be well rendered adverbially: wisely serve himself. 6 May it not be that thou for nought hast held thy brother's pledge? 12 13 Lo 10 where Eloah dwells! the heaven sublime!11 3 Ver. 4. For thy religion's sake. E. V. for fear of thee. So UMBREIT, "aus Furcht vor dir;" ROSENMUELLER, et al., out of respect, reverence, aus Ehrfurcht, which UMBREIT condemns. DELITZSCH rightly takes here subjectively -thy fear of God-thy professed religion, as in iv. 6; xv. 4. 4 Ver. 5. May it not be? See EXCURSUS IV., ADDENDA, pa. 185. T: 6 Ver. 6. May it not be? See Exc. IV., pa. 185. 6 Ver. 8. (Hast said). On these words in brackets, and their propriety as an essential part of a clear translation, see Exc. IV. p. 185; also remarks of Rabbi Tanchum there cited, on a similar case, Lam, iii. 36. 7 Ver. 10. Wherefore, it may be. See EXCURSUS IV., ADDENDA, p. 185. The passage treated as conjectural, or hypothetical, from ver. 5 to ver. 10. 8 Ver. 10. Canst not see. This refers probably to Job's supposed mental state, as one incapable, according to Eliphaz, of discovering his true moral condition. 9 Ver. 11. Thy soul; The translation full here, but in the very spirit of the Hebrew which uses, thy soul, for the personal pronoun. 10 Ver. 12. Lo!, here has evidently the force of an interjection calling attention, and is equivalent to . It is one of the clearest of the many cases specified by NOLDIUS where it has the sense of ecce. See Gen. xiii. 9; Deut. xi. 30: 1 Kings xv. 23, and scores of other places. It is in such cases rendered by the Syriac (Lo behold!) as it gives it in this very place. The LXX. in such cases have idov, and the Vulgate ecce. In the Hebrew itself, in passages precisely parallel in Kings and Chronicles (see examples in NOLDIUS) and are interchanged. So also in the Targum renderings. Its interjectional force appears here by its being put in parallelism with behold (idov) in the second clause. It is, moreover, the language of emotion here (of admiration) and therefore exclamatory and broken; literally: Lo Eloah! height of Heaven! as in xi. 8, heights of Heaven! or O, immeasurable height! : T 11 Ver. 12. Heaven sublime. 2) (Gaboah) is in Hebrew the emotional word for height in distinction from the more prosaic terms, and therefore the rendering sublime is chosen, not only to avoid a tantology in English, but as most expressive of the emotional. This appears from its other sense of glory. It is height with wonder (üos). It is strictly a construct noun without any words of assertion, or of place: Ecce, Eloah! Sublimitas Cœlorum! We must supply connective words. 12 Ver. 12. Behold the crown of stars. Literally the head of the stars (VN). Rendered in various ways: | DELITZSCH, head; 80 UMBREIT and others; CONANT, summit; RENAN, le front des etoiles. The crown seemed preferable, as denoting some brilliant star or constellations, nearly overhead, as those three brilliant constellations, the Swan, the Eagle and the Harp, with each a star of the first magnitude, appear almost directly overhead in the early part of the autumnal nights. It was first thought of rendering, the zenith, or the pole, but the first would be too astronomical, and the latter would be incorrect, for the pole star or stars are not overhead, and would not be selected for their altitude. It is a night scene,-a real scene. They are looking up to the very vertex of the heavens, at the constellations shining down upon them from the immeasurable spaces above. Nothing gives such a conception of altitude, when it is regarded as something emotional in distinction from the mere frigid mathematical estimate of abstract number. How very high they are! It is as when we read the old account of the Flood; not simply that the waters rose fifteen cubits, or more, over certain measurements. That may have come from tradition, or in some other way. There is little or no emotion in it. But when the writer says the waters rose, up-up,-IN-AND-higher-higher-we feel that it is a spectator who is describing the scene, or that it is all a designed and artful deception. So here; this emotional language: Lo! Eloah! sublimity of heaven! See! the crown of stars! how very high they are! ooov os! The rapt simplicity of the language, its broken, wondering utterances all show that if it is a painting, it is a painting from the life, the vivid representation of a real scene in which the emo tion overpowers and checks the language. It is a silent, heartfelt, admiration, like that of the Shepherd in Homer's exquisite night scene, Iliad viii, 559 πάντα δέ τ' εἶδεται ἄστρα γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα ποιμήν "When all the stars appear, and the Shepherd rejoices in his soul." 13 Ver. 13. 'Tis that thy thought is saying, But when had Job said this, or anything like it? It would not be easy to point it out, unless in some way, the language, ix. 8, could be tortured into some fashion of such a meaning namely, that God could not see because He was so high, and could not look through the cloud. Eliphaz, however, seems to pride himself upon the greatness of the other view which keenly does He seo every thing below Him. Compare Ps. he assumes to take, namely, that the higher God is, the more exiii. 5, 6, where God is said to be so high that "He stoops down to see the things even in the heavens,"-the lower heavens as well as things on earth. DELITZSCH renders A thou thinkest, or thoughtest for which there is the authority of Greek verbs of speaking, and in the same way for thinking or speaking to one's self. But Job no more thought this than said it. He could form as high notions of God's space altitude, as Eliphaz, and he never had the crude notion that God could not see from behind the cloud; but space altitude, 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "Behind the dark araphel" can He judge? All by Himself 15 on heaven's high dome He walks." Ah! wilt thou call to mind that way of old, They who were withered" up before their time,— Their strong foundations melted1s like a flood,— When He it was who filled their house with good, The righteous see it and rejoice; The guiltless make a byword" of their doom: Yea Ophir gold like pebbles of the stream. or space distance, was but little to him compared with that other idea of the Divine nearness to his soul, which he had somehow lost, and for which he so intensely mourned. We see this in the next chapter, and some of his language there about "not finding God on the right or on the left," may have been suggested by these very words by which Eliphaz sought to overwhelm him. It mattered little to him how high He might be above the stars. It was a present God for whom he longed, when he said, "O that I knew where I might find Him." Without the feeling of His near grace, the theistic idea, with its highest space conceptions, had as little moral value as the modern scientific deity, so far off in time, and who has done nothing since the first projection of "the nebular fluid " in empty space. 14 Ver. 13. The dark araphel. It was thought best to keep in the translation this grand sounding, and most significant Hebrew word. It denotes the nimbus, the black thunder cloud-caligo nubium. 15 Ver. 14. All by himself he walks. DELITZSCH: He walketh at His pleasure. The Hithpahel keeps the personal or reflex sense, denoting a course of action. Compare it as applied to man, Ps. xxxix. 7. Eliphaz seems to ascribe to Job the idea which Lucretius gives us of the gods as living by themselves, extra mundum, and taking no part in human affairs. See Luc. I. 57. 16 Ver. 15. Call to mind. 1, rendered observe, keep, etc. So CONANT and DELITZSCH. The other sense, to watch, to take note of, Ps. xvii. 4, seems better adapted to the warning style of Eliphaz. 17 Ver. 16. Withered up. See note ch. xvi. 18. 18 Ver. 16. Melted. py' is used of metals melted, dissolved, and thus poured forth, not of water generally. The rendering above given is not only truer, but more expressive. The reference would seem to be not to the flood, but to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, fused or melted by the volcanic lightning. This is confirmed, ver. 20, in the mockery or by-word of the righteous: "Their abundance hath the fire consumed." The overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah became a by-word in the Hebrew, as in the phrase, "the overturning of Sodom and Gomorrah," so often repeated by the Prophets. The same language passed into the Koran. See Note Genesis (Lange), pp. 442, 443. 19 Ver. 17. To them. One of the sudden changes of person so common in the Poetical Hebrew. 20 Ver. 18. That way of evil men. The second clause is a repetition of Job's language, xxi. 16. Eliphaz perhaps means to show that he can say this with more sincerity than Job. 21 Ver. 19. By-word. y here can hardly have the meaning of sport or derision, though that is its usual sense. We must not, indeed, judge it by our modern more Christianized feeling; but such a rendering would be incongruous to an event represented as long past, such as this evermemorable catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah. The way of speaking of it assumed the warning, but not the taunting or mocking form. See Note 18 and the reference there. Ver. 21. Make friends. 1. The Hiphil form here, we may suppose, is suggested by, and still preserves some of the sense of, the Kal., ver. 1. Make thyself truly profitable-serve Him truly, and not with a view to thy own profit, as is intimated, according to our rendering, in the second clause of ver. 1. UMBREIT well gives it: Zeig dich als treuen Diener ihm. 23 Ver. 21. Good shall come to thee. The term good-the divine blessing, as some render. When a man serves God without thinking of his own profit in so doing, then will he be truly profited. It confirms the view the translator has taken of the second clause of ver. 1. 24 Ver. 22. Instruction, 7. The absence of the article and the general style of the exhortation show that it is precept or instruction generally, and not the Mosaic law, or any fixed code, that is intended. 25 Ver. 23. To Shaddai turn. The exhortation here is also in the words of Zophar, xi. 14, “let not wrong abide,” etc. 26 Ver. 24. Lay up gold. The translator is satisfied that our E. V. is right here, though so many commentators vary from it, even so far as almost to reverse the thought. As CONANT, whose version is clearest and best expresses the sense of them all: Cast to the dust the precious ore, And the gold of Ophir to the stones of the brooks. That is, reject it; count it as dross-of no value. There are some very strong objections to this: 1. Such a contempt of wealth is not after the Old Testament style of speaking. Abraham is commended for his wealth; his great possessions are reckoned up as being a part of his own value. So is it with Job at the commencement and at the end. Sheep and camels are as much dross as the gold with which they are bought. 2. The translation objected to makes a jar in the general movement of the passage. There is nothing in its structure demanding a parenthesis, and the other view, which regards the gold and the silver as a blessing, is but an enlarged specification of the promise, good shall come to thee, ver. 21. It is, too, a part of the restoration or building up promised ver. 23, and so remarkably verified in the end of the book. 3. Job had, at that time, no gold of Ophir, or wealth of any kind, to cast away, and such advice to him in Eliphaz would seem to be a mockery, whilst making it the love of gold would be far-fetched here, even if it had any seeming warrant from the words. 4. never means to cast away, projicere, a sense which Gerenius gives to accommodate it to this one place. It is a very uniform word, meaning to put, place, etc., and when used in such a connection as this has almost the contrary meaning of depositing. laying up, treasuring up, etc. GESENIUS' reference to Ruth ifi. 15 has no applicability. The easy rendering there is: "Hey, to be weary—that which is obtained with great pains. measured the barley, and put it upon her," es a load. 5. In opposition to the idea of rejecting as worthless stands the evident fact, that the point of the comparison in "dust and pebbles" is not worthlessness of value or quality, but greatness of quantity. The other view (that of E. V.) is perfectly consistent with the context before and after. Eliphaz assures Job that if he repents (the common Arabic sense of Y 1), he shall be abundantly prospered, and gold may be a part of such prosperity as well as any other kind of property. the late Frankfort edition (Hebrew) of the Sepher Ha Rikma, pa. 34. What follows, ver. 25: The Almighty shall be thy treasure, is in harmony with this, and even made more emphatic by it: "Gold thou shalt have, the richest earthly treasures, but above all, and crowning all, the blessing of God." The view here taken was held by the best of the old commentators cited in POOLE's Synopsis; it is clearly maintained by ROSENMUELLER, and partially by UMBREIT. It is confirmed by the old Versions, especially the Syriac, which is remarkably clear: "Thou shalt gather (, lay up, treasure up) silver like dust, and gold of Ophir like the sands of the sea." 27 Ver. 25. Thy precious ore. A superlative word is wanted for the Hebrew intensive plural, 73. here may be taken as an imperative with a predictive sense; but it is better to regard it as an infinitive connected with ver. 23: "Yes, so built up as to put gold, or lay up gold, as dust." For a passage exactly parallel to the second clause, see 2 Chron. i. 15: ix. 27; "Solomon made silver in Jerusalem as plentiful, D'OND, as the stones." יז ז:־זי hy, in the first clause, is comparative from the idea of one thing placed by or right over another, or rather with the sense of over or beyond, like comparative, or the Greek apa sometimes. In the second clause, instead of 13, KENNICOTT found 13 in the more ancient editions. But it may make the same sense taken either way, as JONA BEN GANNACH (Aboul Walid), in his Grammar, pa. 34, gives a good many examples of what he styles in ', the beth of exchange, that is, of substitution or comparison-one thing in the place of another, and so performing the office of . See 28 Ver. 25. Silver from the mine. Literally, silver of toilings-obtained by hard labor, either from the depths of the earth (see xxviii. 3, 9), or from the high mountains (comp. Psalm xcv. 4, in, rendered “strength of the hills," or labors of the hills). It is the radical idea of T: 29 Ver. 29. Aloft-1=1, elevation, or elation in general. It is best taken here interjectionally, like our phrases, upward! onward. So ZoCKLER very happily: Wenn sie abwärts gehen, so sagst du, "empor!" The exhortation here is something like that which Eliphaz gave, iv. 3, 4, when he speaks of Job's having "strengthened the feeble and lifted up the sinking." So here, Job should use his experience for the raising up of the depressed. T * Ver. 30. The guilty, '-', literally, the not innocent, a milder expression than the guilty. " is a negative, an apocopated form of ', only occurring elsewhere 1 Sam. iv. 21, in the proper name Ichabod ('), improperly rendered, sometimes, where is the glory? It is literally no glory, or the glory gone. This particle, as a negative, becomes quite common in the later Rabbinical Hebrew, as in the frequent phrases,, impossible,, non necessarium. See, on this passage, the notes of CONANT and DELITZSCH. The latter regards Eliphaz as predicting what was actually fulfilled in himself and his companions, ch. xlii. 8, when they are delivered from condemnation and punishment on account of Job's superior purity. |