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in ch. xiv., over the vanity and perishableness of the life of man on earth, which is compared now to a driven leaf, now to the process of mouldering, or being devoured by the moth, now to a fading flower, or a rock worn away and hollowed out by the waters, together with those passages which are interwoven with this lamentation, in which he glances at the beginning of life, poisoned by sin, and at its dismal outlook in the future appointed for it after death by the Divine justice, which is contemplated by itself, isolated from grace and mercy.-The following extracts from the older and later practical expositors may serve to indicate how these themes may be individually treated.

devoted him, as an evil-doer, to slow but certain | lamentation in the closing division, especially destruction. It is the same battle of freedom against necessity as in the Greek tragedy. Accordingly one is obliged to regard it as an error, arising from simple ignorance, when it has been recently maintained that the boundless oriental imagination is not equal to such a truly exalted task as that of representing in art and poetry the power of the human spirit, and the maintenance of its dignity in the conflict with hostile powers, because a task that can only be accomplished by an imagination formed with a perception of the importance of recognizing ascertained phenomena. In treating this subject, the book of Job not only attains to, but rises far above, the height attained by the Greek tragedy; for on the one hand it brings this conflict before us in all the fearful earnestness of a death-struggle; on the other however it does not leave us to the cheerless delusion that an absolute caprice moulds humau destiny. This tragic conflict with the Divine necessity is but the middle, not the beginning nor the end, of the book; for this god of fate is not the real God, but a delusion of Job's temptation. Human freedom does not succumb, but it comes forth from the battle, which is a refining fire to it as conqueror. The dualism, which the Greek tragedy leaves unexplained, is here cleared up. The book certainly presents much which, from its tragic character, suggests this idea of destiny, but it is not its final aim-it goes far beyond: it does not end in the destruction of its hero by fate; but the end is the destruction of the idea of this fate itself." Delitzsch I. 242 seq.].

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

The points of light which these three chapters exhibit in a doctrinal and ethical respect, have a background of gloom, here and there of profound blackness. The homiletic expositor nevertheless finds in them in rich abundance both texts for exhortation and comfort, and themes for didactic edification. Here belongs of course the beautiful passage containing the physicotheological argument for an infinitely powerful and wise Maker and Ruler of the world (ch. xii. 7-12)—a passage which in detail indeed exhibits no progressive development, but which does nevertheless present an occasion for such a teleologic advance of thought, in so far as it dwells first on the animal world, then on the realm of human life and its organic functions, in order to produce from both witnesses for a Supreme Wisdom ordering all things. But here still further belongs the description which follows of the Divine majesty and strength which display themselves in the catastrophes of human history (ch. xii. 13-25),-a description which may be made the foundation of reflections in the sphere of historical theology, or ethical theology, as well as the physico-theological argument. Here belongs again the passage which follows, in which Job sharply censures the unfriendly judgment and invidious carping of his opponents (ch. xiii. 1-12)—a passage which reminds us in many respects of New Testament teachings, as e. g. of Matt. vii. 1-5, and of Matt. xxiii. 2 seq.-Finally, we may put in this class the

us.

Ch. xiii. 7-10. BRENTIUS: All creatures proclaim the Creator, and cry out in speech that cannot be described: God has made me-as Paul also says (Rom. i. 19; comp. Ps. xix. 1 seq.). If any one therefore properly considers the nature of beasts, birds, fishes, he will discover the wonderful wisdom of the Creator (— certain examples of the same being here brought forward, such as the instinct which the deer and the partridge exhibit, the wonderful strength of the little sucking-fish [Echineïs]). Thus by the natures of animals the invisible majesty of God is made visible and manifest. For not only did God create all things, but He also preserves, nourishes and sustains all things: the breath, whether of beasts or of men, is all lodged in His hand.-COCCEIUS: What all these things severally contribute to the knowledge of the Creator, as it would be a most useful subject of thought, so it is too vast to be here set forth by Suffice it that Natural Theology is here established by Job. . . . When he says "this" (, ver. 9), he doubtless points out individual things. He thus confesses that every single thing was made and is governed by God, not only masses of things, and the universe as a whole, as the Jews dream. In fact individual animals, plants, etc., utter their testimony to the Divine efficiency. These opinions, either by the light of nature, or the intercourse of the fathers, were transmitted even to the gentiles, -HENGSTENBERG: In order to make the wisdom of the friends quite contemptible, Job attributes to the animals a knowledge of the Divine omnipotence and wisdom, their existence being an eloquent proof of those attributes, so that they can become teachers of the man who should be so blind and foolish as to fail to know the divine omnipotence and wisdom. That which can be learned from brutes, that as to which we may go to school to them, Job will not be so foolish as not to know, neither will he need to learn it first from his wise friends. . . . Just as here the animals, so in Ps. xix. the heavens are represented as declaring the glory of God, which is revealed in them. Jehovah, the most profound in significance of the Divine names, here bursts forth suddenly out of its concealment, the lower names of God being in this connection unsatisfactory. Jehovah, Jahveh, the One who Is, the absolute, pure Being, is most appropri ately the name by which to designate the First Cause of all existences.

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Ch. xii. 11-13. COCCEIUS: If the mind judges

concerning those things which are presented | the external affliction, internal trials are geneeither by signs, such as words, or by themselves, rally added.-(On ver. 26): Even the sins of as food to the palate, whether they are true or youth God brings to judgment in His own time false, useful or injurious; if by experience (by (Ps. xxv. 7). Think of that, young men and which many things are seen, heard, examined), women, and flee youthful lusts! by the knowledge of very many things, and of things hidden, and by sagacity it is fitted to make a proper use of things-does it not behoove that God, who gave these things should be omniscient without weakness, nay, with fulness of power, so that all things must obey His nod? For He beholds not, like man, that which belongs to another, but that which is His own. Nevertheless neither is judgment given to man for nought, but so that he may have some power of doing that which is useful, of refusing, or of not accepting that which is hurtful. Much less is God's wisdom to be exercised apart from omnipotence or sovereignty over all creatures.

Ch. xii. 16 seq. CRAMER: Not only true but also false teachers are God's property; but He uses the latter for punishment (2 Thess. ii. 10), yet in such a way that He knows how to bring forth good out of their ill beginning. The Lord is a great king over all gods; all that the earth produces is in His hand (Ps. xcv. 3); even faise religions must serve His purposes (comp. Oecolampadius, who remarks on ver. 16 b: I refer this to evdov pokɛíaç, or false religions, of which the whole earth is full; he says here, that they come to be by His nod and permission). Such might and majesty He displays particularly toward the mighty kings of earth, to whom He gives lands and people, and takes them away again, as He wills (Dan. iv. 29).-ZEYSS: Rulers, and those who occupy their place, should diligently pray to God that He would keep them from foolish and destructive measures (in diets, council-chambers, in regard to wars, etc.), in order that they may not plunge themselves and their subjects into great distress (1 Kings iii. 9).

Ch. xiii. 14 seq. BRENTIUS: You see from this passage that it is harder to endure the liability and dread of death than death itself. For it is not hard to die, seeing that whether disease precedes or not, death itself is sudden; but to hear in the conscience the sentence of death (scil. Thou shalt surely die!) this indeed is most hard! This voice no man can hear without despair, unless, on the other hand, the Lord should say to our soul: I am thy salvation!WOHLFARTH: "Earthly things lost-little lost; honor lost-much lost; God lost-all lost!" thus does Job admonish us.

Ch. xiii. 23-28. OECOLAMPADIUS: See the stages by which the calamities come, swelling one above the other. (1) To begin with, the face is hidden, and friendship is withheld; then (2) enmity is even declared; (3) persecution follows, and that without mercy, or regard for frailty; (4) reproaches and grave accusations are employed, and the memory of past delinquencies is revived; (5) guards are imposed, lest he should escape, and fetters in which he must rot. (Mercier and others, including of late Hengstenberg, have called attention to these same five stages.)-ZEYSS (on ver. 24): Besides

Ch. xiv. 1 seq. BRENTIUS: Man's misery is set forth by the simile of the flower; for bodily beauty and durability can be compared to nothing more suitably than to the flower and the shadow. . . . Verily with what miseries man is filled, is too well known to need reciting. For nowhere is there any state or condition of men which does not have its own cross and tribulation; and thus all things everywhere are filled with crosses. . . The thing to be done, therefore, is not to shun the cross, but to lay hold on Christ, in whom every cross is most easily borne.-ZEYSS: Although no man is by nature pure and holy (ver. 4), true believers nevertheless possess through Christ a two-fold purity: (1) in respect of their justification; (2) in respect of their sanctification and renewal: Heb. i. 3; ix. 14; 1 John i. 7, etc.

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Ch. xiv. 7 seq. ZEYSS: As a tree sprouts up again, so will men, who have been cut down by the axe of death, germinate again out of the grave on the Last Day; John v. 28, 29.—HENGSTENBERG: The prospect of a future life here vanishes away from Job. How indeed could it be otherwise, seeing that he has lost altogether out of his consciousness and experience the true nature of God, on which that hope rests, God's justice and mercy? In these circumstances the belief in an endless life must of necessity perish within him, for to this faith there was not given until the latter part of the Old Dispensation any firm declaration from God to which it could eling, while before that it existed rather in the form of a longing, a yearning, a hope. Further on, however, [in Job's history] it again recovers its power.

Ch. xiv. 13-17: See Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 1.

Ch. xiv. 18 seq. CRAMER: Nothing on earth is so firmly established, but it must perish; and they who occupy themselves with the things of earth, must perish in them (Sir. xiv. 20 seq.; 1 John ii. 16 seq.).-ZEYSS: Although mountains, stones and rocks, yea, all that is in the world, are subject to change, God's word, and the grace therein promised for believers, stand fast forever; Ps. cxvii. 2; Isa. liv. 10.-VICT, ANDREE: Like an armed power the feeling of his present cheerless condition again overpowers Job, and again the feeble spark is extinguished, which had just before (vers. 13-17), illumined his soul with so tender a gleam of hope. To his former reflections on nature (vers. 7-12) he now opposes the fact, no less true, that even that which is most enduring in nature itself, such as mountains, rocks, and soils, must gradually decay. And so it seems to him now, in accordance with this fact, as though human life also were destined by God only to endless annihilation. Death it is-with its pale features so suddenly disfiguring the human countenance-which again stands in all its horror, and annihilating power, before his despairing soul!

SECOND SERIES OF THE CONTROVERSIAL DISCOURSES.

THE ENTANGLEMENT INCREASING:

CHAPTERS XV-XXI.

I. Eliphaz and Job: XV-XVII.

A.—Eliphaz: God's punitive justice is revealed only against evil-doers.

CHAPTER XV.

1. Recital in the way of rebuke of all in Job's discourses that is perverted, and that bears testi. mony against his innocence:

CHAPTER XV. 1–19.

1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the East wind?

3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk?

or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4 Yea, thou castest off fear,

and restrainest prayer before God.

5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity,

and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

8 Hast thou heard the secret of God?

and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

9 What knowest thou that we know not?

what understandest thou, which is not in us?

10 With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away, and what do thy eyes wink at,

13 that thou turnest thy spirit against God,

and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

14 What is man, that he should be clean?

and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15 Behold He putteth no trust in His saints;

yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.

16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

17 I will show thee, hear me ;

and that which I have seen I will declare;

18 which wise men have told

from their fathers-and have not hid it :

19 unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

2. A didactic admonition on the subject of the retributive justice of God in the destiny of the ungodly.

VERSES 20-35.

20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

21 A dreadful sound is in his ears:

in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?

he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. 24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid;

they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.

25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God,

and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty:

26 he runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers;

27 because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks:

28 and he dwelleth in desolate cities,

and in houses which no man inhabiteth,

which are ready to become heaps.

29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth. 30 He shall not depart out of darkness;

the flame shall dry up his branches,

and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

31 Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity, for vanity shall be his recompense.

32 It shall be accomplished before his time,

and his branch shall not be

green.

33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. This second discourse of Eliphaz is again the longest of the attacks made on Job by his three opponents in this second series or act. Not only by its length, but also by its confident, impassioned tone, it gives evidence of being a deliverance of opinion by the oldest and most distinguished of the three, in short by their leader. Apart from certain indications of increased violence, however, it adds nothing at all that is new to that which had been previously maintained by Eliphaz against Job. Its first principal division (vers. 2-19) subjects that which was erroneous in Job's discourses to the same rigid criticism and censure, which culminates in a renewed and more emphatic application to Job of the doctrine advocated in the former discourse, of the impurity of all before God (vers. 14-19; comp. ch. iv. 17 seq.). The second division (vers. 20-35) is occupied with a prolonged dissertation on the

destiny of the ungodly, as an example repeating itself in accordance with God's righteous decree, and full of warning for Job. The first division comprises three strophes of five verses each, together with a shorter group of three verses (vers. 17-19), which forms the transition to the following division. The latter consists of three strophes, of which the middle one numbers six verses, the first and last each five.

2. First Division: Censuring the perversity of Job in his discourses, and pointing out the evidences which they gave of his guilt; vers. 2-19.

First Strophe: Introduction [Job's discourses disprove his wisdom, injure religion, and testify against himself] vers. 2-6.

Ver. 2. Doth a wise man utter [or, answer with] windy knowledge?-[Eliphaz begins each one of his three discourses with a question]. Job had clearly enough set himself forth as a Wise Man, ch. xii. 3; xiii. 2. Hence this ironical contrast between this self-praise and the "windy" nature (comp. ch. viii. 2; xvi.

3) of that which he really knew. And fill his | most vital points.-E.]. In regard to the form breast [sein Inneres, his inward parts] with [with feminine ending] see ch. iii. 4.— the stormy East wind?-So Delitzsch, whose translation is to be preferred on the score of, detrahere, to derogate from, to prejudice taste to the more common and literal version: [Fürst: to weaken, to lessen]; comp. below ver. "and fill his belly with the East wind?" even if 8, where it conveys more the sense of "drawing we grant that is not, without further quali- to one's-self" [reserving, attrahere], and ch. xxxvi. 7, where it means "withdrawing." fication, synonymous with, and consequently not to be taken as a mere designation of the "thinking inner part" of man (although in favor of this application of it, as maintained by Delitzsch, we might cite, if not ver. 35 of this chapter, at least ch. xxxii. 18 seq.). In any case "East wind," is here (as well as in Hos. xii. 2 [1] a stronger synonym of 1, "wind," and so describes the violence, or the ceaseless noisy bluster and roar of Job's discourses; and the belly," or the inward part, which must take into itself such discourses and labor for their refutation, appears as though it were a sail, or tent-canvas inflated by a heavy storm!

קדִים

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Ver. 5. For thy transgression teaches thy mouth: i. e., thou allowest thyself to be wholly influenced in what thou sayest by thy sin, thou showest thyself, even in thy words, to be entirely ruled by it. So correctly the Vulg., Raschi, Luther, Dillm. [Ewald, Schlottm.], for the probability is in favor of 2, which stands first, being the subject of the sentence. Moreover, the rendering which has latterly become current (since Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, etc.): thy mouth teaches, i. e., exposes [E. V. ' uttereth'] thine iniquity," is at variance with the usual sense of, which signifies "to teach, to instruct," not "to show, to declare." which Schlottmann adds that this rendering secures a better connection between the first and second members of the verse. It exhibits to us

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Ver. 3. An explanatory clause subordinate to the preceding interrogative clause:-Arguing with speech which availeth nought, and with words by which one can do no good. in a manner alike original and suitable, the -The Inf. Absol. can be taken neither as internal motive from which Job's presumptuous an interrogative finite verb (Hirzel, Renan: se and still crafty discourses proceed"].-And defend il-par des vaines paroles? [" for though the thou choosest the speech [lit. the tongue] Inf. Absol. is so used in a historical clause (ch. of the crafty: (y essentially as in ch. v. xv. 35) it is not in interrogative." Del.]), nor as 12) i. e., thou doest as crafty offenders do, who, the subject (Ewald: "to reprove with words pro-when accused, hypocritically set themselves forth fiteth not," etc.-as if this useless striving with as innocent, and indeed even take the offensive words were opposed to a more efficient conten-against their accusers, (as Job did in ch. xiii. tion by the use of facts) [which yields indeed, as Dillmann remarks, a good meaning, to wit, that mere words availed nothing for self-justification, when opposed by facts, as e. g. the fact of his suffering, which was presumptive evidence against him. But such a contrast is not expressed. The of ver. 4 does not at all express it]. Rather is it joined to the preceding finite verbs in the sense of an ablative gerund (redarguendo s. disputando); comp. Ewald, 280, a.

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man presumptuously to assail God, and at the 4 seq.). ["The perverse heart teaches the guilty same time so to arrange his words that in appearance he is filled with the greatest zeal for the piety which he really undermines." Schlott.] The rendering of Rosenm., Hirzel [Noyes, Conant, Carey], etc." "while thou (although thou) choosest, etc." is less satisfactory, and goes with the rendering of the first member, which is controverted above.

Ver. 6. Thy mouth condemns thee (see ch. ix. 20) and not I, and thy lips testify against thee.--The mouth is here personified as a judge pronouncing an unfavorable decision, declaring one guilty, while at the same time the lips figure as witnesses, or accusers (2, a voz forensis; for the masc. after the fem.

Ver. 4. Yea more, thou [thyself] dost make void the fear of God., a strong copula, adding a new and more serious charge, like the phrase "over and above;" comp. ch. xiv. 3., emphatic-" even thou," who dost fancy thyself to be called on to remind us of the fear of God, ch. xiii. 9 seq.], absolute, as in ch. iv. 6; 9, "to remove, make void," as in ch. v. 12 [lit. to break, destroy; Rodwell: "thou dost break down piety"].— And diminishest (devout) meditation before God, according to Ps. cii. 1; cxix. 97, 99, the same with "devotion, pious prayerful reflection" [should not therefore be rendered "prayer," although prayer is a prominent element in it. It includes the whole meditative side of piety, that over which a sanctified sentiment rules, as T includes the practical side, over which conscience rules. Eliphaz charges therefore that the tendency of Job's is the original form, which apspeech and conduct is to undermine piety in its pears again in Josh. xxi. 10, and is retained by most important strongholds, to injure it in its the Samaritans; 7, instead of which we

comp. Prov. v. 2; xxvi. 23). Comp. still further the New Testament parallel passage, Matth. xii. 87. ["These words, according to Eliphaz's meaning, place Job's guilt not merely in his words, but rather set forth these as confirming the sinful actions, which he is assumed to have committed on account of the sufferings which have been appointed for him." Schlott.].

Second Strophe: Vers. 7-11. [Ironical questioning in regard to the extraordinary superiority which Job's conduct implied that he arrogated to himself].

Ver. 7. Wast thou born as the first man?

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