2. First Division: Job concedes the proposi- | tions of his opponents regarding God's immutable justice and absolute purity, but shows that for that very reason His power is all the more to be dreaded by mortals; ch. ix. 2-12. First Strophe: Vers. 2-4. [Impossibility of maintaining one's cause before God]. cial desire (Ewald) to emulate Eliphaz (to whom there is no particular reference in the speech as most comm. think), accounts for this piece of sublime picturing. Ewald has however finely remarked that the features Job fastens on are the dark and terror-inspiring, as was natural from the attitude in which he conceived God to stand to him." Davidson]. Ver. 5. Who removeth mountains, and they are not aware that (as in Ex. xi. 7; Ezek. xx. 26) He hath overturned them in His wrath.-[In favor of thus regarding Ver. 2. Of a truth [ironical as also in xii. 2] I know that it is so, viz., that what Bildad has set forth is quite true: that God ever does only that which is right, and that whatever proceeds from him must for that very reason be right. It is only to this leading proposition of Bildad's discourse (ch. viii. 3) that Job's remark as a conjunction rather than a relative, may here can refer, and not also to the discourse of be urged (1) The Perf. 157, which would otherEliphaz, to which reference is first made in the following member: [It seems hardly worth wise be Imperf.; comp. Dan ver. 7. (2). The while to make this distinction between two mem- introduction of a relative construction in a cobers of the same verse. Formally it is more naordinate clause, and being absent would be a tural indeed to suppose the opening remark to violation of the present participial construction of be addressed to Bildad, materially it doubtless the strophe. The use of the Imperf. in 6 6 and 7 b refers to both. "In his former reply to Eli- is different: those clauses being introduced by 1 phaz," says Hengstenberg, "he had sought to and subordinate.-E.]. The activity of the Divine work rather on the feelings of his friends. wrath bursts upon them so quickly and suddenly Having failed in this, as the discourse of Bildad that they are quite unconscious of the mighty shows, he now makes all that the friends had change which has been effected in them. spoken the subject of his criticism."]-And how should a mortal [N, man in his weakness and mortality] be right before God? . e., how should it be otherwise than as Eliphaz has declared in his fundamental proposition (ch. iv. 17), to wit, that "no man is just before God;" which proposition moreover Job here changes into one somewhat differing in sense: "no manoho and who, is as Dillmann says, to waver, to is right before God." Ver. 3. Should he desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand.—The subject in both members of the verse is man, not God, as Schlottman, Delitzsch, Kamphausen, explain. By "contending" is meant seeking to establish by controversy or discussion the right of man which is denied. The meaning of the second member of the verse is, that God, as infinitely man's superior, would overwhelm him with such a multitude of questions that he must stand before Him in mute embarrassment and shame, as was actually the case at last with Job, when God began to speak (ch. xxxviii. 1 sq.). Ver. 6. Who maketh the earth to tremble out of her place: viz., by earthquakes, comp. Isa. xiii. 13; Ps. xlvi. 3 [2], 4 [3]; and touching the climactic advance from the mountains to the earth, see Ps. xc. 2.-And her pillars are shaken [lit., rock themselves. The fundamental meaning of p, which is akin to rock, not to break. as Ges. and Fürst explain, summits, lifted above the earth, which are rather Ver. 7. Who bids the sun (D, a rare poetic term for the sun, as in Isa. xix. 18; comp. Ver. 4. The wise of heart and mighty inn, Judg. xiv. 18) ["perhaps (says Delitz.), strength-who has braved Him and re- from the same root as , one of the poetical mained unhurt?-The absolute cases on names of gold," seeing that in Isaiah 1. c. 'Ir ha T: ,[IIuotroduc עִיר הַחֶרֶס and refer | Heres is a play upon ,אליו are resumed in אמיץ כח and accordingly to God, and not to T (as Olshausen thinks). With p is to be supplied "who has hardened his neck against Him," (Deut. x. 16; 2 Kings. xvii. 14), i. e., bid Him defiance? Second Strophe: Vss. 5-7. A lofty poetic description of the irresistibleness of God's omnipotence, beginning with its destructive manifestations in nature. "Job having once conceived the power of God becomes fascinated by the very tremendousness of it-the invincible might of his and man's adversary charms his eye and compels him to gaze and shudder, and run over it feature after feature, unable to withdraw his look from it. This alone, and not any superfi and it riseth not, i. e., so that it does not shine forth (comp. Isa. lviii. 10), and so appears eclipsed.—And setteth a seal round about the stars, seals them, i. e., veils them behind thick clouds, so that through their obscuration the night is darkened in the same measure as the day by an eclipse of the sun. In regard to obscurations of the heavenly bodies in general as indications of the Divine Power manifesting itself in destruction and punishment, comp. Ex. x. 21; Joel iii. 4 (ii. 31); Ezek. xxxii. 7 seq.; Rev. vi. 12; xvi. 10. Third Strophe: Vers. 8-10. The description of the Divine Omnipotence continued, more especially in respect to its creative operations in nature. [To be noted is the absence of the ar ticle with the participles in each of these three verses, which alike with its presence in each of the three preceding verses, is clearly a sign of the strophic arrangement.-E.] this Arabic term, which is suggested by the resemblance of the square part of the constellation to a bier, the three trailing stars, the benath na'ash, "daughters of the bier," being imagined to be the mourners, is doubtful. [The current form y decisively contradicts the derivation from wy] in that case, lit. “the fool,” is certainly Orion, who, according to the almost universal representation of the ancient world, was conceived of as a presumptuous and foolhardy giant, chained to the sky; comp. the mention of the , i. e., the "bands," or "fetters" of Orion in ch. xxxviii. 31, as well as the accordant testimony of the ancient versions (LXX.: 'Opiov, at least in the parallel passages ch. xxxviii. 31 and Isa. xiii. 10; similarly the Pesh., Targ., etc.). Against the reference to the star Canopus (Saad. Abulwalid, etc.), may be urged, apart from the high antiquity of the tradition which points to Orion, the context of the present passage as well as of ch. xxxviii. 31, and Am. v. 8, which indicates groups of stars, and not a single star.-The third constellation ? Ver. 8. Who spreadeth out the heavens alone. according to parallel passages, such as Isa. xl. 22; xliv. 24; Ps. civ. 2, where the heavenly vault is represented as an immense tent-canvass, is to be explained: "who stretcheth out, spreadeth out," not with Jerome, Ewald [Noyes, Davidson], etc., " who bows down, lets down." With the latter interpretation the clause would not agree; nor again the contents of ver. 9, where clearly God's activity as Creator, not as Destroyer, or as one shaking the firmament and the stars, is more fully set forth. And treads upon the heights of the sea, i. e., upon the high-dashing waves of the sea agitated by a storm, over which God marches as its ruler and controller (ch. xxxviii. 10 sq.) with sure and majestic tread, as upon the heights of the earth, according to Amos iv. 13; Mic. i. 3; Comp. Hab. iii. 15, also the excellent translation of the passage before us in the Sept.: REрinar@vi. e., the heap, is rendered "the Hyades" only ¿ñì varáoons is in' ¿dápovs. Hirzel and Schlott- in the Vulgate; the remaining ancient versions mann [Merx] understand the reference to be to however (also Saadia), and the Vulg. itself in the waters of the firmament, the heavenly cloud- the parallel passage, xxxviii. 31, render by vessels, or thunder-clouds (Gen. i. 6 sq.; Ps. civ. metás, Pleiades, so that beyond doubt it is to be 3; Ps. xviii. 12 (10); xxix. 3; Nah. i. 3). But understood of the group of seven stars in the these cloud-waters of the heavens are never else- neck of Taurus (known in German as the "cluckwhere in the Holy Scripture called "sea" (D); ing hen"); comp. Am. v. 8.--And the chamalso not in ch. xxxvi. 30 (see on the passage), bers of the South; i. e., the secret rooms or and still less in Rev. iv. 6; xv. 22; xxii. 1, spaces (penetralia) of the constellations of the where the va2acoa of glass in the heavenly world southern heavens, which to the inhabitant of the signifies something quite different from a sea of northern zones are visible only in part, or not at rain-clouds. ["The objection that this view of all. In any case 1 (defectively written for sea interferes with the harmony of description, mixing earth and heaven, is obviated by the consideration that the passage is a description of a storm where earth (sea) and heaven are mixed." Davidson]. Ver. 9. Who createth the Bear and Orion and Pleiades.—¡y is taken by Umbreit and Ewald as synonymous with ; "who darkens the Bear, etc.", against which however may be urged the use of y in ver. 10, likewise the description flowing out of the present passage in Am. v. 8, and finally the lack of evidence that Ty means tegere (which remark holds true also of ch. xv. 27; and xxiii. 9). Moreover the connection decidedly requires a verb of creating or making. ["This as well as all the other participles from ver. 5 on to be construed in the present, for the act of creation is conceived as continuous, renewing itself day by day." Dillmann. "Job next describes God as the Creator of the stars, by introducing a constellation of the northern (the Bear), one of the southern (Orion), and one of the eastern sky (the Pleiades)." Delitzsch]. Of the three names of northern constellations, which occur together in ch. xxxviii. 31, 32, y, or as it is written in that later passage , denotes unmistakably the Great Bear, or Charles's Wain, the Septentrio of the Romans, and the n'ash (l), i. e., “ bier" of the Arabians. Whether the word is etymologically related to :־ ז points to the southern heavens, and since '77 predominantly signifies "apartments, chambers, halls," less frequently "store-rooms, reservoirs," the reference to the "reservoirs of the south wind" (LXX: rapeia vórov; some modern interpreters also, as Ges., etc.) is less natural, especially as the description continues to treat of the objects of the southern skies. [Dillmann, after recognizing the rendering of the LXX. as admissible, remarks: "On the other side the author certainly knew nothing of the constellations of the southern hemisphere; at the same time as one who had travelled (or at least as one familiar with the results attained in his day by the observation of physical with the fact that the further South men travel, phenomena,-E.) he might well be acquainted the more stars and constellations are visible in the heavens; these are to the man who lives in the North, secluded as it were in the inmost chambers of the heavenly pavilion, and are for that reason invisible; it is of these hidden spaces' (Hirzel) of the South, with their stars, that we are here to think "]. Ver. 10. Who doeth great things, past out number: agreeing almost verbatim with finding out, and marvelous things withwhat Eliphaz had said previously, ch. v. 9, in describing the wondrous greatness of the Divine Power-an agreement, indeed, which is intentional, Job being determined to concede as fully as possible the affirmations of his friends re- | violent, insolent and stormy nature" (comp. ch. specting this point. Fourth Strophe: vers. 11, 12. God puts forth xxvi. 12), may be simply rendered, as this irresistible omnipotence not only in nature, by Luther, Umbreit, and most of the older both in earth and in heaven, but also in that expositors: "insolent," or "proud helpers" which befalls individual human lives, as Job [and so E. V., Con., Dav., Hengst.]. But apart himself had experienced.-[" There is great from the colorless, tame signification which thus skill in making Job touch merely the outstand- results [to which add the vague generality of ing points, illuminate only with a single ray the the description, weakening the contrast between heaven-reaching heights of the Divine power; 13b and 14 a; and the incompleteness of the that in itself is not his immediate theme-it is expression, whether we translate, "proud helpthe crushing effect this power has on feebleers,' which suggests the query-helpers of man; and to this he hastens on with sudden what? or "helpers of pride."-E.], the Perf. strides." Dav. "After the extended descrip-nny, lit. "have stooped," leads us to conjecture tion [just given] of the Divine omnipotence (which Ewald wrongly characterizes as "altogether too much of a digression," whereas it is entirely pertinent to the subject, and all that follows proceeds out of it), the short hasty glance which in this and the following verse is cast on miserable mortal man, makes an impression so much the more pointed." SCHLOTTMAN.] Ver. 11. Lo! [ in this and the following verse, vividly descriptive, and also strongly individualizing himself as the victim of the irresistible omnipotence just described] He passes by me [and I see Kim not; He sweeps before me, and I perceive Him not.-The imperfect verb for present, "being an exclamation of felt, though unseen, nearness of God." Dav.-' in ch. iv. 15 of "a spirit;" here of the Infinite Spirit, sweeping past him on His career of destruction.-E.], synonymous with as in ch. iv. 15, forms an assonance with the parallel of the following verse. Ver. 12. [Lo! He snatches away (scil. His prey)], who will hold Him back; or: "turn Him back" (2), viz. from His course: hence equivalent to: "who will put himself as an obstacle in His way?" (comp. ch. xi. 10; xxiii. 13). 3. Second Division: The oppressive thought of God's overwhelming and arbitrary power incites him, the innocent sufferer, to speak defiantly against God: vers. 13-35. First Section: vers. 13-24: A general complaint of the severity and arbitrariness with which God abuses the exercise of His illimitable omnipotence towards man. First Strophe: vers. 13-16. [The mightiest cannot withstand Him, how much less I ?] Ver. 13. [By some put in strophic connection with the verses preceding; but ver. 12 appropriately closes the first division, while ver. 13 is the basis of what follows. Observe especially the contrast between the "helpers of Rahab" in 13 b, and "I" in 14 a.-E.]-Eloah ceases not from His wrath [Eng. Ver. incorrectly begins with "if"]: lit. does not cause it to return," i. e. does not recall it ["it is as a storm wind sweeping all before it, or a mounting tide bearing down all resistance and strewing itself with wrecks." DAV.].-An affirmation the decided one-sidedness of which sufficiently appears from other passages, e g., from Ps. lxxviii. 38.The helpers of Rahab stoop under Him.So far as in and of itself denotes only "a a definite historical case ["a case of signal vengeance on some daring foe, who drew around him many daring helpers, would be more telling in this connection." DAV.] Moreover 7 iu fact appears elsewhere in a more concrete sense than that of "violent, presumptuous raging" (so also in ch. xxvi. 12, where see Com.). It signifies, to wit, as Is. li. 9; Ps. lxxxix. 11 [10] show, essentially the same with 1, hence a sea-monster (Kйтoç), and by virtue of this signification is used as a mythological and symbolical designation of Egypt (as well in the two passages just mentioned, as also in Is. xxx. 7 and Ps. lxxxvii. 4), the same country which elsewhere also is symbolically designated as or We are thus left to one of two significations for 277 in the present passage. We may, on the one hand, find in the passage a special reference to Egypt, and an allusion to some extraordinary event in the history of that country, whereby its rulers or allies were overwhelmed with defeat. In this case, it would be more natural with Hahn to think of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his mighty ones in the time of Moses [so Jarchi who understands by the "helpers" the guardian angels of the Egyptians, who came to their assistance, but were restrained by God], than with Olshausen to think of some unknown event in the history of Ancient Egypt, or even with Böttcher of the reign of Psammetich. Or, on the other hand, setting aside any special reference to Egypt, we can (with Ewald, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, Dillmann) regard it as an allusion to some legend, current among the nations of the East, according to which some gigantic sea-monster with its helpers was subdued by the Deity (comp. the Hindu myth of Indra's victory over the dusky demon Britras). In favor of this interpretation may be urged the parallel passage in ch. xxvi. 12, which certainly contains no reference to Egypt, as well as the rendering of the LXX., κήτη τὰ ὑπ ̓ οὐρανόν, which evidently points to an old tradition of the correct interpretation. ["Jerome translates qui portant orbem, probably following a Jewish tradition concerning giants which had been overcome by God and sentenced to bear the pillars of the earth." SCHLOTT. Dillmann argues forcibly, that the common application of these three terms, to Egypt can be explained לויתן and תנין רהב only by supposing that the first was related in signification to the other two names, being used not be intended to express: I could not believe that he answers me, but: I could not believe that He, the answerer, would hearken to me; His infinite exaltation would not permit such exaltation." DELITZSCH.] The whole verse is thus an advance in thought upon the preceding. description of Job's utter hopelessness of victory Second Strophe: Vers. 17-20. Continuing the in his controversy with God, clothed in purely hypothetical statements. Ver. 17. He who would overwhelm me like them of a sea-monster. He further remarks: "that the legend was widely known and possessed great vitality among the people is indicated by the fact that poets and prophets used it as a symbol of the imperial power of Egypt. It is not strange, accordingly, to find such a popular legend used for his purpose by a poet who elsewhere also derives his material on all sides from popular conceptions."] Add that it is more natural to seek the basis of this legend of Rahab either in obscure reminiscences which lingered among the ancients touching the gigantic sea-monsters of the primitive world in a tempest, and multiply my wounds (plesiosauri, ichthyosauri, etc.), or in a symbol-without cause; i. e., who would pursue me ical representation of the billowy swelling of the with assaults and calamities, even if I were inraging ocean, resembling an infuriated monster, nocent. [ may be taken either as relative, than to assign to it an astronomical basis, and or as conj. "for," (E. V. Con.) the one meaning to take 2 to be at the same time the name of really blends with the other, as in ver. 15 = a constellation such as Kōroç or Пpioris (Balæna quippe qui]. With the rendering of 'here Pistrix); for the context by no means points of necessity to such an astronomical application of adopted, "would overwhelm me" (so also Vaih.) the term (the mention of the constellations in we can leave unsolved the question, so difficult ver. 9 being too remote), and moreover in ch. of decision, whether, following the Aram. No, xxvi. 12 there is nothing of the kind indicated, and the testimony of the Ancient Versions (LXX. as Dillmann correctly observes, against Ewald, Krpin; Vulg. conteret), we render “10 Hirzel, Delitzsch. crush, to grind;" or, following the Arab. sâfa, I, an impotent, weak, sorely suffering mortal. and the Hebr. ; we render it "to snatch On comp. ch. iv. 19; on 3, "to answer, Dillmann, favor the latter rendering; but on the up, seize," (inhiare). Hirzel, Ewald, Umbreit, respond," see above on ver. 3.-Choose out other side Delitzsch successfully demonstrates my words against Him? i. e. weigh my that neither Gen. iii. 15 nor Ps. cxxxix. 11 (the words against Him (Dy as in, ch. x. 17; xi. 5; only passages outside of the present in which xvi. 21) with such care and skill [the in na indicating the mental effort involved], that I should always hit on the right expression, and thus escape all censure from Him. Ver. 14. How should I answer Him?— T :: Ver. 15. Whom I (even) if I were in the right (, sensu forensi) ["innocent, judicially free from blame"], could not answer, I must make supplication to Him as my judge, viz. for mercy ( with as in Esth. iv. 8). The Partic. Poel D is not essentially different in signification from the Partic. Kal , although it does differ somewhat from it, in so far as it denotes lit. an "assailant" or "adversary" (judicial opponent: , [Poel, expressing aim, endeavor], judicando vel litigando aliquem petere, comp. Ewald, 125, a). ["So overpowering is God's might that Job would be brought in litigating with Him to the humiliation of beseeching His very adversary-an idea which sufficiently answers Conant's charge, that to render assailant has very little point." DAV.] Ver. 16. Should I summon Him, and He answered me (if accordingly the case supposed to be necessary in 156 should actually happen, and be followed with results favorable to the suppliant), I would not believe that He would listen to me: i. e. I should not be able to repress the painful and awful thought that He, the heavenly and all-powerful Judge of the world, would grant me no hearing at all. ["The answer of God when summoned is represented in ver. 16 a as an actual result (præt. followed by fut. consec.), therefore ver. 16 6 can appears) necessarily requires the sense of "snatching," certainly not that of "sniffing." Ver. 18. Would not suffer me to draw my breath (comp. ch. vii. 19), but would surfeit me with bitterness [lit. plur. "bitternesses"]. For in the sense of "but, rather," comp. ch. v. 7; for the form. 7129, with Dagh. dirimens ["which gives the word a more pathetic expression," Del.], comp. Ges., 20, 2, 6. Ver. 19. If it be a question of the strength of the strong [others (E. V. Conant, Carey, Schlott.) connect with the following 737 but as the latter is always followed by the predicate, and such an exclamation in the mouth of God (see below) would be less natural than the simple interjection, the connection given in the text is to be preferred. The accents are not decisive,-E.]-lo, here (am I): [77 for as ch. xv. 23, is for 'N]—i. e., “would He say": He would immediately present Himself, whenever challenged to a trial of strength with His human antagonist. Similar is the sense of the second member :-Is it a question of right who will cite me (before the tribunal); viz., "would He say." [Whichever test of strength should be chosen, whether of physical strength in a trial-at-arms, or of moral strength, in a trial-at-law, what hope for weak and mortal man? E.] The whole verse, consisting of two elliptical conditional clauses, with two still shorter concluding clauses (also hypothetical), reminds us in a measure by its structure of Rom. viii. 33-34. Ver. 20. Were I (even) right, my mouth DD, ch. vi. 14. [E. V., Conant, Dav., Renan, would condemn me: i. e., from simple con- Hengst., Carey, Rod., etc., give to n here its fusion I saould not know how to make the right answer, so that my own mouth (', with logical customary sense of "trial," from D. Jerome accent on suffix, as in ch. xv. 6) would confess remarks that in the whole book Job says nothing more bitter than this.] The interpretation of me guilty, though I should still be innocent(PTY, as in ver. 15).-Were I innocent-Helirzel and Delitzsch, founded on ch. xxii. 19: "His desire and delight are in the suffering of the innocent," gives a meaning altogether too strong, and not intended by the poet here. would prove me perverse [py with Chiriq of Hiphil shortened to Sheva: comp. Ges. 53 [52] Rem. 4]. The subject is "God," not my mouth' (Schlottmann) [Wordsworth, Davidson, Carey]; God would, even in case of my innocence, put me down as one py, one morally corrupt, and to be rejected. "Thus brooding over the thought, true in itself, that the creature when opposed to the heavenly Ruler of the Universe nust always be in the wrong, Job forgets the stil higher and more important truth that God's right in opposition to the creature is always the true objective right." Delitzsch. Third Strophe: Vers. 21-24. Open arraignment of God as an unrighteous Judge, condemning alike the inmcent and the guilty. Ver. 24. ["In this second illustration there is an advance in the thought, in so far as here a part at least of the wicked are excepted from the general ruin, nay, appear even as threatening the same to the pious." Schlott ]-A land [or better, because more in harmony with the sweeping and strong expressions here assigned to Job: the earth] is given over to [lit., into the hand of] the wicked, and the face of its judges He veileth: viz., while that continues, while the land is delivered to the wicked, so that they are able to play their wicked game with absolute impunity.-If (it is) not (so) now, who then does it? DN (so written also ch. xvii. 15; xix. 6, 23; xxiv. 25, but outside of the book of Job generally ) belongs according to the accents to the preceding conditional particles Ver. 21. I am innocent! In thus repeating the expressim N DA, Job asserts solemnly and peremptorily that which in ver. 206 he had in the same word: stated only conditionally.-I value not my soul: i. e., I give myself no D (comp. ch. xxiv. 25 and Gen. xxvii. 37); concern about the security of my life, I will give lit., therefore, "now then if not, who does it?" free utterance to hat confession, cost what it [Hirz., Con. and apparently Ew. connect with may. So rightly Lost commentators, while Delitzsch, against the onnection (see especially the the interrogative following-"who then?” quis 2d member) explains: "I know not myself, I quæso (Heiligst). Davidson also takes this view, am a mystery to mrself, and therefore have no although admitting that "the accentuation is desire to live longe,' [Hengstenberg: "We decidedly the other way," DN being used, as might explain: I should not know my soul,' if he says, " in impatient questions (Ew., & 105, d) I were to confess to transgressions, of which I Gen. xxvii. 33; Job xvii. 15; xix. 23"]. That know myself to be inocent; I should despise the present illustration of a land ill-governed and my life,' seeing I have nothing with which to delivered into the hands of the wicked had, as reproach myself. Beter however: I know not Dillmann says, its justification in the historic my soul,' so low is it sunk, I am become alto- background of the composition," cannot be afgether alius a me ipso; I must despise my life,' firmed with certainty in our ignorance of the dehistoric background:" though inI am so unspeakably wetched, that I must wish tails of this " to die"]. deed it is equally true that we can no more affirm the contrary. Ver. 22. It is all on: thus beyond question must the expression be rendered; not: "there is one measure wth which God rewards the good and the wicked (Targ., Rosenm., Hirzel); nor: "it is all the same whether man is guilty or innocent " (Delizsch).-Therefore I will say it out: [Dav. 'I will out with it"]. He destroys the innocet and the wicked: viz., God, whom Job intentiaally avoids naming; comp. ch. iii. 20. Vers. 23, 24. Two illustrions confirming the terrible accusation just brouht against God (ver. 22 b) that He destroys alike the innocent and the guilty. Ver. 23. If (His) scourgeslays suddenly, viz., men. By "scourg" is meant here not of course the scourge of he tongue (ch. v. 21) but a general calamity, sch as pestilence, war, famine, etc. (Isa. xxviii. 5). Then He mocks at the despair of the nnocent: i. e., He does not allow Himself to be'isturbed in His blessed repose when those who de afflicted with those calamities faint away fro despondency and despair: comp. Ps. ii. 4; lix.).—pp, from 4. Second Division.-Second Section: Vers. 25 35. Special application of that which is affirmed in the preceding section concerning God's arbitrary severity to his (Job's) condition. First Strophe: Vers. 25-28. [The swift flight of his days, and the unremitting pressure of his woes, make him despair of a release]. Ver. 25. For my days are swifter than a runner. ["introducing a particular case of the previous general: in this infinite wrong under which earth and the righteous writhe and moan, I also suffer." Dav.-" Days" here poetically personified. p, Perf., a deduction from past experience continuing in the present.—E.]. might, apparently, comparing this with the similar description in ch. vii. 6, denote a part of the weaver's loom, possibly the threads of the woof which are wound round the bobbin, (which the Coptic language actually calls "runners"). This signification however is by no means favored by the usage elsewhere in Hebrew of the word : this rather yields the signification |