of the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible his sin as small as possible, to represent himself (DP) obtains here, the original ? justly suspecting his innocence (chap. vi. 10, as in the main guiltless, and his friends as unhaving been set aside on account of its objec- 24, 26, 29 sq.; vii. 20), he in turn comes in contionable meaning [being too bold or blasphemous] flict with Eliphaz, the zealous champion of the "wherefore became I a burden to Thee?"-universal sinfulness of all men. In consequence and exchanged for the less objectionable by. In any case, this latter reading gives a striking sense. Ver. 21. And why dost Thou not pardon my transgression?- (with the vowel e, according to Ewald, 1526) [Green, 75, 1], here. The question expresses what was to be expected, instead of the incessant hostile assaults of God on him, the presumed sinner, if be had really transgressed, namely, the pardon of his guilt, since verily his end was now nigh. [And put away my iniquity.-According to Hengstenberg, there lies a certain irony in the use by Job of the strong expressions yw and py to designate the sins which to his consciousness proceeded only from infirmity.] For 2 (to pass over, to overlook, dyvoɛiv) as a synonym of , to bear, to forgive, comp. 2 Sam. xii. 13; xxiv. 10. For now shall I lie in the dust, and if Thou seekest after me, I am no more-i. e., death will soon hurry me away, and Thou wilt then have no further opportunity to show me favor; unless therefore Thou doest this immediately, Thy character will be seen to be that of a cruel being, who unnecessarily torments This reason for the question: why will not God forgive without further question or delay? is akin to the thought in vers. 7 a, 8b, and 16 b. men. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 1. In poetic elevation of thought, nervous strength of expression, and in wealth of figurative ornamentation, this first discourse of Job is not inferior to that of Eliphaz. It resembles the same also in that it conducts the argument more upon the basis of that Divine wisdom which belongs to mankind universally than of that which is specifically theocratic, and serves to express a religious consciousness which is firmly rooted in faith in a personal God (Eloah, Shaddai). That, however, which it sets forth as the contents and voice of this consciousness, with its faith in Jehovah, is no less obnoxious to the charge of one-sidedness, of beclouding the truth by many wrong representations and religiously impure sentiments, and indeed of partially eclipsing the same by grave errors, than the contents and tendency of that discourse of Eliphaz. There are one-sided representations, partly related and partly opposed to those of Eliphaz, to which we see Job here giving his adherence. Like him he is inclined to regard being a man and committing sin, or sensuousness and sinfulness, as inseparably connected together, and accordingly to look on the forgiveness of sin by God as a matter of course-as something which is to be expected on the part of man without giving himself any further concern on the subject (ch. vii. 21; comp. vi. 14; vii. 7, 8, 16). But in the disposition which he shows to make of the unqualified way in which he rejects the guiltiness in the matter of his suffering, he exhiconjectures of the latter respecting his moral bits a stronger pelagian bias, greater self-righteousness, and more of the conceited arrogance of virtue, than his opponent. And when he upbraids him, and the two other friends who are like-minded with him, with a want of love, with a lack of gentleness, and even with a faithless neglect of their duty to comfort him (ch. vi. 11– 20; especially ver. 14 sq.), this reproach seemseven quite apart from the bitter satirical tone in which it is clothed-in so far intemperate and exaggerated, in that he most decidedly declines to allow himself to be charged by them with any crime whatsoever, and so finds in their conduct only unfriendliness, hostility, and bitterness, and on the other hand wholly misapprehends the partial truth of that which is said by Eliphaz in their name. So far is he from submitting to being exhorted by them to penitence, that he seems conversion to them (chap. vi. 29)-like so many rather to think he must preach repentance and church-goers of our day, who, under the influ ence of pelagian prejudice and rationalistic blindness, complain of their preacher that, instead of ministering to them the consolation of the Gospel, he does nothing but exhort them to repent, thereby showing his own need of repentance (on account of "fanaticism, intolerance, hypocrisy, muckerism, obscurantism [puritanical bigotry]," etc.). Comp. Hengstenberg, p. 202: "It should not be overlooked that suffering would not have inflicted its crushing power on Job to such a degree if he had possessed the foundation of a theodicy in a deeper knowledge of human, and especially of his own, sinfulness. It is the lack of this that first gives to his suffering its real sting. . . For the sufferings of this life sometimes wax so great that a moderate knowledge of what sinfulness is will be found altogether inadequate. Job's description in this section shows that very clearly. Its lesson is that even the mildest and most moderate pelagianism, or semi-pelagianism, must inevitably lead in its consequences to blasphemy." The most doubtful point of antagonism to Eliphaz into which Job is led is when, instead of complying with his repeated exhortations to humble himself beneath the mighty hand of God, he falls rather into the tone of bitter, angry contention and litigation with God, and goes so far as to accuse Him of injustice and want of compassion, speaking of the poisoned arrows of the Almighty which are in him (ch. vi. 4), attributing to God the purpose, or at least the disposition, to crush and destroy him, even though he had in no wise sinned against Him (ch. vi. 9, 10), charging Him with making ceaseless hostile assaults upon him, and decreeing wanton tortures for him (ch. vii. 12 sq.), and with reference to this giving Him in bitter sarcasm the name of a "watcher of men" (in the unfavorable sense of the expression), a hostile sentinel or jailer of men (ch. vii. 20). And these harsh and presumptu- | in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such ous speeches against God are accompanied by an one in the spirit of meekness" (Gal. vi. 1); no qualifications, or partial retractions, such as or: "Brethren, if any of you do err from the we find in nearly all the lamentations of the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that Psalmists, or of the Prophet Jeremiah, where he which converteth the sinner from the error they make use of similar expressions, and rep- of his way shall save a soul from death, and resent God now by this, and now by that figura- shall hide a multitude of sins" (James v. 19-20; tive expression, as their unsparing persecutor, comp. 1 Pet. iv. 8). and their stern unpitying judge. Job persists b. The sorrowful lamentation over the misery of in all that he says in this direction of a doubtful human life at the beginning of ch. vii. (vii. 1-6), character; he takes nothing of it back; he con- which, even in those parts of it that have special cludes his discourse immediately after the most reference to Job's fearful sufferings as a leper,. passionate and presumptuous of these sayings has admits of a measure of generalization, and anapassed from his lips. Comp. Delitzsch (i. 131 | logical extension to the condition of all men as seq.): "We should be mistaken if there were sinners, and as suffering in consequence of their sin in the expressions in themselves considered sins. For not only that which in this earthly by which Job describes God's hostility against life, with its thousand troubles and hardships, himself. We may compare, e. g. Lam. iii. 9, 10: resembles the service of the soldier and of the "He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone; hireling, but also the months of evil which are He hath made my paths crooked; He is to me to be lived through, and the nights of misery as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in the thicket." which are to be watched through, likewise the It is, moreover, not Job's peculiar sin that he many harbingers of death and of decay, swalthinks God has changed to an enemy against lowing up the bodily life corroded and disintehim; that is the view which comes from his grated by diseases of all kinds (comp. vers. 3-5) vision being beclouded by the conflict through which he is passing, as is frequently the case in the Psalms. His sin does not even consist in the inquiries, How long? and Wherefore? The Psalms, in that case, would abound in sin. But the sin is that he hangs on to these doubting questions, and thus attributes apparent mercilessness and injustice to God. And the friends constantly urge him on still deeper in this sin, the more persistently they attribute his suffering to his own unrighteousness. Jeremiah (in ch. iii. of the Lamentations), after similar complaints, adds: Then I repeated this to my heart, and took courage from it: the mercies of Jehovah, they have no end; His compassions do not cease, etc. Many of the Psalms that begin sorrowfully end in the same way; faith at length breaks through the clouds of doubt. But it should be remembered that the change of spiritual condition which, e. g. in Ps. vi., is condensed to the narrow limits of a lyric composition of eleven verses, is here in Job worked out with dramatic detail as a passage of his life's history: his faith, once so heroic, only smoulders under ashes; the friends, instead of fanning it to a flame, bury it still deeper, until at last it is set free from its bondage by Jehovah Himself, "Who appears in the whirlwind." 2. Notwithstanding these manifold tokens of a profound and grievous darkening of soul from which Job suffered during this discourse, it presents scattered through it much that is true, much that is directly conducive to the knowledge and appropriation of revealed truth. To these points of light, in which is comprised whatever in the two chapters is really significant in a doctrinal and ethical respect, belong: (a) The beautiful sentiment: "To one that is despairing gentleness is due from his friends, even though he should have forsaken the fear of the Almighty" (ch. vi. 14); a genuine pearl of ethical theological wisdom, an unconscious prophetic saying, anticipating from afar such New Testament utterances as: "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick" (Matt. ix. 12); or: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken all this even suits more or less the experience which all men have of life, inasmuch as there is no one, under the present order of existence, who is absolutely free from the law of sin and death, which through our first parents has descended upon all the race; comp. Rom. vii. 24, 25; viii. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 16, etc. c. Connected with this lamentation is the reflection upon the evanescence and vanity of the days of man on earth, as well as upon the injustice and cruelty which would be exercised, if God should treat a being so weak and frail, so much like a breath in his nothingness, only according to the severity of His justice, and not rather according to the gracious fulness of His love and mercy (ch. vii. 7 seq.—especially ver. 21). In Job's sense, indeed, who does not adequately appreciate the bitter malignity and illdesert of sin, and who is inclined, in view of the helpless moral misery of mankind, to rest his appeal for the forgiveness of his sins by God, not on the ground of its being fitting, but on a ground of formal right, this reflection is inadmissible before God, proceeding equally from the pride of the natural man, and from moral levity. It sounds almost like the frivolous remark of a Voltaire, or a Heine, like the notorious saying: "Dieu me pardonnera, c'est_son metier!" At least it enables us to forebode how frivolous men might gradually reach such an abyss of wicked principles and of outrageous continued sinning against God's grace!-But even this reflection exhibits a certain relationship to those deep and undeniable truths in respect to the weakness of the natural man, and the necessity of pointing him to the power of divine grace which alone can deliver him, and which the Old Testament embodies in such expressions as those of Ps. lxxxix. 48; xc. 5 seq.; cii. 12 (11); ciii. 14, but the New Testament in its testimonies, infinitely more consoling, to the salvation which is found only in Christ, such as Acts iv. 12; Rom iii. 23 seq.; viii. 34 seq.; xi. 30 seq.; Gal. iii. 22; Eph. ii. 8 seq., as well as in the not less comforting assurances of the gracious hearing which our Heavenly Father will grant to all prayers addressed to Him in the name of Jesus, and in trust exercised only in His grace (Luke xi. 5-13; xviii. 1-8; John xiv. 13 seq.; xvi. 23 seq.). Comp. Hengstenberg, p. 215: "Job cannot once give up the thought that God is a God of love, and so it seems to him to contradict His nature if, through the immediate prospect of death, the opportunity is taken away from Him of making amends for His severity by love." ception of the other side of the grave, against which even the psalmists still struggle, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead had not been set forth at the time of Job, and of the author of the book of Job. The restoration of Israel buried in exile (Ezek. xxxvii.) first gave the impulse to it; and the resurrection of the Prince of Life, who was laid in the grave, set the seal upon it. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was first of all the actual overthrow of Hades. . . We shall see by and by how the more his friends torment him, the more he is urged on to the longing for a future life (ie. a bright Hereafter, full of life and being, à Hereafter worthy of the name); but the word of revelation, which could alone change desire into hope, is wanting. The more tragic and heart-rending Job's desire to be freed by death from his unbearable suffering is, the more touching and importunate is his prayer that God may consider that now soon he can no longer be an object of His mercy." ... HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. A sermon on the whole of the preceding discourse of Job must have two chief divisions: I. Job's complaint concerning his friends as poor comforters, ch. vi. II. Job's arraignment of God as his cruel, merciless persecutor. In both divisions it would be necessary to set forth so much of Job's utterances as is blameworthy, perverted, and one-sided, along with that which is of a higher character (such as, in the First Division, that passage particularly, which, from Job's stand-point, is comparatively justifiable, in which he claims gentle treatment, chap. vi. 14; and in the Second Division, more particularly the opening and closing verses of chap. vii.).— In view of the length of the whole discourse, it will be better, for the most part, to divide it into d. Finally, the way in which Job, in ch. vii. 7-10, expresses himself concerning his destiny after death, though not properly belonging to the luminous side of his discourse, should still be reckoned among those expressions in it which contain positive instruction, and which are important in the development of the Old Testament Revelation. In this gloomy description of the dismal prospect beyond the grave, Job is as far as possible from exhibiting any hope of a resurrection, especially such as is so distinctly and gloriously revealed in Christianity. He knows nothing of such a hope. Just as little, however, does he know anything of any annihilation of his existence, of its total extinction after death. His disconsolateness in view of certain and near death is not that of the materialistic atheist, or of the heathen sage, who, with the hope of a resurrection, abandons also all hope of immortality. When in ver. 8, and in like manner, in ver. 21, he speaks of soon "being no more," this strong expression explains itself by means of the parallel passages which surround it, as meaning that he shall be no more on this earth, that this earthly life and earthly happiness will never again return (see ver. 76; 86; 21 c), but that, on the contrary, he anticipates a cheerless and prospectless confinement in Hades. He recognizes an existence after death, but one that is necessarily devoid of happiness, unilluminated by a single ray of the Messianic grace of salva-two texts, corresponding to the usual division by tion glimmering from afar. His outlook into the Hereafter is essentially one with his dread of Hades, the "king of terrors," the realm of a never-ending death gloom, a desolate and horrible darkness relieved by no light (comp. ch. x. 20 sq. xx. 9 sq.; also the similar gloomy descriptions of the condition of being in Hades in the Psalms: Ps. vi. 6 [5]; xxx. 10 [9]; lxxxviii. 11 [10] sq.; cxv. 17; in the Proverbs, in Ecclesiastes, etc.). He evidently belongs as yet to those who are groaning under the yoke of bondage to death, which preceded the coming of Christ, those whom the Epistle to the Hebrews designates as τούτους, ὅσοι φόβῳ θανάτου διὰ πανTÒS TOŬ Sãν ĚVOXO hoav dovλeías (ch. ii. 15). He stands, at least in the preceding discourse (it is otherwise later in ch. xix. 25 sq.), decidedly on the stand-point of those who, being as yet subject to the economia Legis, had not learned to view the destiny of the dead in the mild light of the grace of Jesus Christ. Comp. Brentius: "The condition of death or of Hades is such that by its own nature it holds all whom it embraces, and releases them not until Christ, the Son of God, shall by death descend into Hades, i. e. until He shall have died; for through Him, death and Hades being conquered, as many as have been renewed by faith are set free." Also Delitzsch (i. 130 sq.): "From this chaotic con chapters, having in view a final consideration of both chapters. The following thoughts from ancient and modern practical commentators may serve as hints for the homiletic treatment of particular passages. Chap. vi. 2 sq. STARKE: The cross must be weighed not according to reason, but in comparison with the future glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17.ZEYSS: That which the much afflicted Job said of the greatness, heaviness, and severity of his suffering, might with much more justice and in the truest sense be said of the suffering of our Redeemer. ... Chap. vi. 11 sq. BRENTIUS: Most truly, and at the same time most impatiently, Job confesses that he cannot endure patiently such torments of hell. . . . Verily, although it is impossible for the flesh to stand in judgment, in Christ all things are possible, and by His virtue even hell is conquered. When, therefore, you hear it said that no amount of fortitude will suffice to bear the wrath of God, you may learn to fear the Lord and to commit yourself to His hands, so that you may be delivered; for He says: Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. Chap. vi. 14 sq. Idem: Ungodly hypocritesif at any time they see one in affliction, they presently revile him with much chiding and upbraiding, and seeking out every thing about him from infancy up that is most disgraceful, if they do not report it, they at least suspect it. On the contrary, it is the nature of piety to plead, to reprove, to be urgent, evкaiρws ȧkaiρws, so long as the Lord spares, and grants time for repentance. For He Himself also bears the wicked with the utmost long-suffering, to the end that He might in the meanwhile by doctrine, exhortation and reproof persuade them to repentance. Ch. vi. 22 sq.: OSIANDER: Our flesh is altogether restive under the cross, and is wont to show particular resentment toward friends if they do not immediately come to our relief.STARKE (on ver. 24): A wise man is glad to be admonished when he has erred; James iii. 17. Chap. vii. 1 sq. SEB. SCHMIDT: Each of these (the servant and the hireling) continues in perpetual toils and miseries. Every man may rightly be compared with either, seeing that throughout his life he is overwhelmed with toils and miseries, looks in vain for rest before death. -STARKE: Our present life is nothing else than a service. Well for us if therein we serve God; but woe be to us if we yield ourselves to the service of sin; Rom. vi. 13.-WOHLFARTH: Human life is a continuous strife and conflict; a conflict with the infirmities of the body, with the sufferings of this life, with sin! But why does thine eye look sad? Where there is strife, there is victory; and more than all, a noble prize is put before the Christian to strive for, both in this life and in the life beyond. Chap. vii. 5, 6. WEIM. BIB.: Our life is empty and fleeting, and all human beauty is perishable; Ps. cii. 4; cxliv. 4; ciii. 15.-WOHLFARTH: How swift the ceaseless flight of time! How rapidly the moments resolve themselves into hours, the hours into days, the days into months, the months into years! How much even the longest human life resembles a short dream of the morning! Yes, our life hastes away like a weaver's shuttle, like a breath, like a cloud! Chap. vii. 8-10. BRENTIUS (on ver. 9): A beautiful comparison. As a cloud passes away, vanishes, and returns not, so he who goes down into the under-world, and never returns from thence. In Hades there is no redemption through the feeling of despair, or by one's own strength or virtues, but there is abundant redemption even in hades through the Lord's compassion and restoring grace. (Comp. also the words of this expositor quoted above near the end of the Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks.) Chap. vii. 12-16: To those who are tried it seems as though God had shut them up in a dark prison, or had even thrust them from Him, while they are still in His hand!-It is not an uncommon thing for those who are tried to be haunted by the purpose of taking their own life; these persons must not be allowed to go unwatched. -WOHLFARTH: How shall we overcome the temptation to suicide? Chap. vii. 19-21 (on ver. 19): COCCEIUS: One of two things is to be desired by the godly : either that they may live without fear, that they may enjoy some good in this life, by which they may understand that God is at peace with them, and does not wish to show forth His wrath and justice towards them; or that they may die speedily. Now the godly live in perpetual afflictions and trials, or at least they are always troubled with anxiety and fear concerning them. Hence nothing is more natural than that they should desire to die at once. For truly to live without comfort is harder than to die. And so human nature is not able to bear even the least pressure of God's wrath. Hence it is plain to see what every discourse of Job's aims at, to wit, to possess the comfort of the Gospel.-JOACH. LANGE: We must truly humble ourselves under the mighty and heavy hand of God (1 Pet. v. 6). Only then do we come to know ourselves, and become poor in spirit, when we become a real burden to ourselves (ver. 20 c). And that is then the right way of becoming rich towards God (Matth. xi. 28; Luke xii. 21).-STARKE: All saints should with Job pray God for the forgiveness of their sins (Ps. xxxii. 6). . . . He who is assured of the forgiveness of his sins can die peacefully and joyfully, Luke ii. 29.-See Remarks by Hengstenberg and Delitzsch above, under "Doctrinal and Ethical." II. Bildad and Job: Chaps. VIII—X. A.-Bildad's rebuke: Man must not charge God with unrighteousness as Job has done, for God never does that which is unjust: CHAPTER VIII. 1. Censure of Job on account of his unjust accusation against God: VERS. 2-7. 1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said: 2 How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? 3 Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice? 4 If thy children have sinned against Him, and He have cast them away for their transgression, 5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty; 6 if thou wert pure and upright, surely now He would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. 7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. 2. Reference to the wise teachings of the ancients in respect to the merited end of those who forget God: VERSES 8-19. 8 For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: 9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow): 10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? 11 "Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water? 12 Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. 13 So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: 14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. 15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. 16 He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden. 17 His roots are wrapt about the heap, and seeth the place of stones. 18 If He destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee. 19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow." 3. A softened application of these teachings to the case of Job: VERSES 20-22. 20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help the evil doers: 21 Till He fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. 22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to nought. |