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Insensé!] for vanity shall be his possession | maging" (DP as in Lam. ii. 6; Prov. viii. 36, [; Ges., Fürst., Con., etc., like E. V. "re- etc.), proceeds from the wicked himself. compense:" Delitzsch: "not compensatio," but ference to the process of cutting off the sour permutatio, acquisitio; and so Ewald and Zöckler grape for the manufacture of vinegar (Wetzstein, -Eintausch, exchange]. , written the first Delitzsch) is altogether too remote here.-In retime, is used here essentially in the same gard to the variety of figures here derived from sense as in ch. vii. 3, and hence delusion, vathe vegetable kingdom, comp. further Ps. xcii. nity, evil. In the first instance the sense of emp; in general my Theol. Naturalis, p. 218 seq. 13 (12) seq.; Hos. xiv. 6 seq.; Sir. xxiv.; and tiness, deception predominates, in the second that of calamity (the evil consequences of trusting in vanity). For the sentiment comp. ch. iv. 8; Hos. viii. 8; and the New Testament pas sages which speak of sowing and reaping; Gal. vi. 7 seq.; 2 Cor. ix. 6.

Ver. 84. For the company of the profligate is barren.- as in ch. viii. 13; xiii. 16 (ch. iii. 7) is here and in ch. xxx. 8 used as a substant. in the sense of "stark death" Matth. xiii. 5; and signifies here not in(LXX.: Vávaros), barrenness, hard rock, comp. deed specially the family, as in ch. xvi. 7, but still the family circle, the kinsfolk, tribe, or clan.

And fire devours the tents of bribery: i. e., the fire of the Divine sentence (comp. ch. i. 16) consumes the tents built up by bribery, or the tents of those who take bribes (oikove dupaδεκτών, LXX.).

Ver. 35. They (the profligate, for in with) misery, and bring forth calamity.ver. 34 was collective) conceive (are pregnant

Ver. 32. While his day is not yet (lit. "in his not-day," i. e., before his appointed time has yet run its course; comp. ch. x. 22; xii. 24), it is fulfilled, viz., the evil that is to be exchanged, it passes to its fulfillment; or also: the exchange fulfills itself, referring back immediately to in, ver. 31,-so Hirzel, Dillmann. And his palm-branch (7 as in Isa. ix. 13; xix. 15) is no longer green, is dry, withered. The whole man is here represented as a palm-tree, but not green and flourishing, as in Ps. xcii. 13 (12), but as decaying with dried up branches- and py, synonyms, as in ch. iv. 8; comp. by which branches we are not to understand the parallel passages Ps. vii. 15 (14); Isa. xxxiii. particularly his children, especially seeing that 11; lix. 4. The Infinitives absolute in a, which only one is mentioned instead of several. are put first for emphasis, are followed in b by Ver. 33. He loses [or shakes off] like a the finite verb: and their body prepares devine his grapes (lit., his unripe grapes; ceit, i. e., their pregnant womb (not their "inripens falsehood, viz., for themselves; comp. ver. ward part," as Del. renders it) matures deceit, 31. For 2, to prepare, to adjust, comp. ch. xxvii. 17; xxxviii. 41; for , "deception," Gen. xxvii. 35; xxxiv. 13; Mic. vi. 11; Prov. xi. 1, etc.

or = 8μpas, late or unripe grape; comp. Isa. xviii. 5; Jer. xxxi. 29; Ezek. xviii. 2) and casts down, like an olive, his blossoms, i. e., without seeing fruit, this, as is well-known, being the case with the olive every other year, for only in each second year does it bear olives in anything like abundance; comp. Wetzstein in Delitzsch [I. 272 n. "In order to appreciate the point of the comparison, it is needful to know that the Syrian olive-tree bears fruit plentifully the first, third, and fifth years, but rests during the second, fourth, and sixth. It blossoms in these years also, but the blossoms fall off almost entirely without any berries being formed." Add the following from Thomson's Land and the Book: "The olive is the most prodigal of all fruit-bearing trees in flowers. It literally bends under the load of them. But then not one in a hundred comes to maturity. The tree casts them off by millions, as if they were of no more value than flakes of snow, which they closely resemble. So it will be with those who put their trust in vanity. Cast off they melt away, and no one takes the trouble to ask after such empty, useless things, etc." I. 72]. The verb Don in a is variously rendered by commentators; e. g., "broken [man bricht, impersonal] as from a vine are his unripe grapes," Schlott.; or: "He (God) tears off as of a vine his young grapes" (Del., Hahn); or: "he (the wicked) wrongs as a vine his unripe grapes" (Hupfeld). The rendering given above (Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann) [E. V., Con., Noy., Carey, Ren., Rod.], etc.), is favored by the parallelism of the second member, which shows that the "injuring, da

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DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

1. Job's persistence in holding what the friends assume to be a delusion, and especially in maintaining an attitude of presumptuous defiance towards God, compels them to enter on a new circle of the discussion with him. This is opened by Eliphaz in the new arraignment of Job before us. In respect of doctrinal contents this discourse exhibits little or nothing that is new, as indeed is the case generally with what the friends produce from this point on. It revolves, as well as that which Bildad and Zophar say in the sequel, altogether about the old thesis, that Job's sufferings have a penal significance. The speakers assume that to have been sufficiently demonstrated by what they have said before, and accordingly do not undertake to prove it further to they imagine that they have only to warn and him, but being themselves unqualifiedly right, threaten and upbraid him in a tone of the harshest reproof. The fact that Job had spoken excitedly, daringly, and inconsiderately against God, is, to their minds, transparent proof, which needs no further confirmation, of the correctness of their coarse syllogism: "All suffering is the penalty of sin; Job suffers severely; therefore, Job is a great sinner." And so assuming him to be impenitent, and hardened in presumption, they break out all the more violently against

him, with the purpose not of instructing him | of the prosperity of the penitent and righteous more thoroughly, but of more sharply blaming man with which the first discourse of Eliphaz and chastising him. The consequence is that closes (chap. v. 17-27). The contrast between these later discourses of the friends become more the two descriptions, which are related to each and more meagre in their doctrinal and ethical other like the serene, bright and laughing day contents, and abound more and more in contro- and the gloomy night, is in many respects sugversial sharpness and polemic bitterness. They gestive and noteworthy; but it is not to the give evidence of a temper which has been aroused speaker's advantage. In the former case, in to more aggressive vehemence towards Job, aim- painting that bright picture, he may be viewed ing at his conversion as one laboring under a as a prophet, unconsciously predicting that which delusion, and, at the same time, of increasing was at last actually to come to pass according to monotonousness and unproductiveness in the de- God's decree. But here, in painting this gloomy velopment of their peculiar views, their funda- night scene, which is purposely designed as a mental dogma remaining substantially unchanged mirror by the contemplation of which Job might throughout. be alarmed, this tendency to prophesy evil shows 2. Of these arraignments belonging to the se- him to be decidedly entangled in error. Indeed cond act (or stage) of the discussion, and having the point where this warning culminates, to wit, as just stated a polemic far more than a doctrinal the charge of self-deception and of hypocritical significance, the preceding discourse by Eliphaz lying, which having been first introduced in ver. is the first, and, at the same time, the fullest in 5 seq., is repeated in the criminating wordmatter, and the most original. Its fundamental-at the close (ver. 35), involves in itself proposition (vers. 14, 15) is indeed nothing else gross injustice, and is an abortive attack which than a repetition of that which the same speaker recoils on the accuser himself with destructive had previously propounded to Job as truth re-effect, besides depriving the whole description ceived by him through a divine revelation (chap. of its full moral value, and even detracting from iv. 12 seq.). Here, however, by the parallel jux-its poetic beauty.

taposition of "the heavens" with "the angels," 3. None the less, however, does the Sage of there is introduced into the description an ele-Teman, even when in error, remain a teacher of ment which is, in part at least, new, and not un- real wisdom, who has at his disposal genuine interesting (comp. the exegetical remarks on Chokmah material, however he may pervert its ver. 15). The application of the thesis to Job's application in detail. This same gloomy case is thereby made much more direct, wound-picture with which the discourse before us ing him much more sharply and relentlessly than closes, although it fails as to its special occasion before, as ver. 16 shows, where the harsh, "hi-and tendency, contains much that is worth pondeous" (Oetinger) description which El. gives dering. It is brilliantly distinguished by rare of the corruption of the natural man, is unmis- truth of nature and conformity to experience in takably aimed at Job himself, as the genuine exits descriptions, whether it treats of the inward ample of a hardened sinner. It will be seen from torment and distress of conscience of the wicked the extract from Seb. Schmidt in the homiletical (ver. 20 seq.), or of the cheerless and desperate remarks (see on ver. 2 seq.) how the harshness issue of his life (ver. 29 seq.),-the latter deof the charges preferred against Job in the first scription being particularly remarkable for the division (especially in vers. 2-13) reaches the profound truth and the beauty of the figures inextreme point of merciless severity, and how, troduced with such effective variety from the along with some censures which are certainly vegetable kingdom (see on ver. 33). But even merited (as, e. g., that he braves God, speaks in the first division there is not a little that is proud words, despises mild words of comfort and interesting and stimulating to profound reflecadmonition, etc.) there is much thrown in that is tion. This is especially true of ver. 7 seq., with unjust and untrue, especially the charge that he its censure of Job's conceit of superiority on the "chose the speech of the crafty," and hence that ground of his wisdom-a passage the significance he dealt in the deceitful subtleties and falsehoods of which is attested both by the recurrence of of an advocate. The discourse, however, preone of its characteristic turns of expression sents much that is better, that is objectively more (ver. 2) in the Solomonic Book of Proverbs, and true and valuable, and more creditable to the of another in Jehovah's address to Job (chap. speaker. Here we must reckon the whole of the xxxviii. 3 seq.). second division (vers. 20-35). Here we have a picture indisputably rich in poetic beauties, and in powerful and impressive passages, harmoniously complete in itself withal, and easily detached from its surroundings,-the picture of a wicked man, inwardly tormented by the pangs of an evil conscience, who after that he has for a long time enjoyed his apparent prosperity, at last succumbs to the combined power of the torments within, and of God's sentence without, and so comes to a horrible end. This passage-which reminds us of similar striking descriptions elsewhere of the foolish conduct of the ungodly and its merited retribution (as, e. g., Ps. i.; xxxv.; lii.; Prov. i. 18 seq.; iv. 14 seq.; v. 1 seq.)-forms an interesting counterpart to the magnificent picture

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

Ver. 2 seq.: SEB. SCHMIDT: He brings against Job the grave accusation of swelling up, as it were with the conceit of too great wisdom, and hence of sinning in more ways than one; thus he would convict him: (1) of vanity; (2) of causing scandal, and of encouraging men to neglect the fear of God-nay more, to fall into atheism; (3) of presumption, or of the conceit of too great wisdom; (4) of contempt for the word of God; (5) of proud anger against God.

WOHLFARTH: The reproaches which we bring against others are often only witnesses to our own guilt!

Ver. 7 seq. CoCCEIUS: He addresses Job here almost in the same terms as God in ch. xxxviii. but with another scope and purpose. Wisdom says in Prov. viii. 25, that it was begotten before the hills, i. e. that it is the eternal Son of God. This Wisdom alone was acquainted with all the mysteries of God the Father, to this Wisdom alone are owing the purification and justification of men, the full declaration of the gracious will of God, and the gift of the spirit of joy.

when he becomes better known to himself, trembles, carries with him his own torments, and never hopes for good. Moses has finely illustrated this in Cain, Gen. iv.-CRAMER: The ungodly and hypocrites live in continual restlessness of heart; but blessed are they whose sins are forgiven; they attain rest and peace of conscience.-Comp. Prov. xxvii. 1: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion."

Ver. 29 seq. BRENTIUS: Eliphaz proceeds with his recital of the catalogue of curses on the wicked. . . . "His seed will burn up," i. e. the blessing of the wicked will be turned into a curse; and as the branches of trees are burned by fire, and scattered by the wind, which is called the Spirit [breath] of God, so do all the

Vers. 14-16: BRENTIUS: These words are most true: no one in himself is clean, pure and just; but in God, through faith in Christ, we come into possession of all cleanness, purity and justification (John xv. 8; Rom. xv. 1, etc.).— MERCIER: Eliphaz finds fault with man's nature which nevertheless by faith is made pure.-blessings of the wicked perish by the judgment ZEYSS: Although the holy angels are pure and holy spirits, neither their holiness nor that of man is to be compared with the infinitely perfect holiness of God, but God only is and remains the Most Holy One; Is. vi. 3.-OECOLAMPADIUS (on ver. 16): Here is beautifully described the misery of man, who is abominable by reason of innate depravity, a child of wrath, corrupted and degenerated from his first estate, and so inflamed with lust, that as one in the dropsy drinks water, so does he drink sin, and is never satisfied.

Ver. 20 seq. IDEM: This is what he would say, that the wicked man, having an evil conscience within himself, at every time of his life

of God, and the Spirit of His mouth.-CRAMER: The dire punishments which befall the ungodly give courage to the pious, and strengthen their faith, when they see how the former are recompensed for their ungodliness (Ps. xci. 8). . . Although the ungodly have many friends and many dependents, their name must nevertheless rot and perish (Prov. x. 7; Esth. vi. 13).— ZEYSS (on vers. 31-33): As the sowing. so the reaping, He who sows vanity will also reap vanity; calamity and destruction will happen to him for a recompense (Hos. viii. 7; Gal. vi. 8). When the ungodly think that their life is at its very best, they are often enough quite suddenly taken away (Luke xii. 17).

B.-Job: Although oppressed by his disconsolate condition, he nevertheless wishes and hopes that God will demonstrate his innocence, against the unreasonable accusations of his friends.

CHAPTER XVI-XVII.

(A brief preliminary repudiation of the discourses of the friends as aimless and unprofitable): CHAP. XVI. 1-5.

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

3 Shall vain words have an end?

or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

4 I also could speak as ye do;

if your soul were in my soul's stead,

I could heap up words against you,

and shake mine head at you.

5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth,

and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.

1. Lamentation on account of the disconsolateness of his condition, as forsaken and hated by God and men:

VERS. 6-17.

6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; and though I forbear, what am I eased?

7 But now He hath made me weary:

Thou hast made desolate all my company.

8 And Thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me; and my leanness rising up in me

beareth witness to my face.

9 He teareth me in His wrath, who hateth me;

He gnasheth upon me with His teeth;

mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully;
they have gathered themselves together against me.

11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly,

and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

12 I was at ease, but He hath broken me asunder;

He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His mark.

13 His archers compass me round about,

He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.

14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach;

He runneth upon me like a giant.

15 I have sowed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

16 My face is foul with weeping,

and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

17 not for any injustice in mine hands;

also my prayer is pure.

2. Vivid expression of the hope of a future recognition of his innocence; CHAPTER XVI, 18-XVII. 9.

18 O earth, cover not thou my blood!

and let my cry have no place!

19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

20 My friends scorn me:

but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor'

22 When a few years are come,

then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

CHAP. XVII. 1. My breath is corrupt,

my days are extinct,

the graves are ready for me.

2 Are there not mockers with me?

and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with Thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

4 For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding? therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.

5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

8 Upright men shall be astonished at this,

and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

9 The righteous also shall hold on his way,

and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

3. Sharp censure of the admonitory speeches of the friends as unreasonable, and destitute of all power to comfort:

VERS. 10-16.

10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now;

for I cannot find one wise man among you.

11 My days are passed,

my purposes are broken off,

even the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day:

the light is short because of darkness. 13 If I wait, the grave is mine house;

I have made my bed in the darkness.

14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. 15 And where is now my hope?

as for my hope, who shall see it?

16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

מנחמי

miserable comforters are ye all.
Spy, lit. "comforters of distress" [Gen. of
attribute, Green, 254, 6] are burdensome com-
forters (consolatores onerosi, Jer.), who, instead
of comfort, minister only trouble and distress;
comp. ch. xv. 11.

on ch. vi. 25), signifies "to make sick, to afflict" (Ewald, Schlott., Dillm.), or again "to goad, incite, vex" (Del.) [see the examples in notes on vi. 25 favoring this definition]: not "to make sweet, to sweeten," as the Targ. interprets, as though 7 were without further qualification

1. Heartlessly repulsed by his friends, and left without comfort, Job turns, more trustfully than in his previous apologies, to the God who evidenced Himself in his good conscience, of whom he cannot believe that He will leave him forever without testifying to his innocence, end? Comp. ch. xv. 2, where Eliphaz reVer. 3. Are windy words (now) at an however cheerless a night of despair may in the proaches Job with windy speech-a reproach meanwhile surround him. It is in the expres- which Job now pays back in the same coin.sion of his confidence, and of his inward yearning Or what vexes thee [addressed more partiand waiting for this Divine testimony to his innocence (ch. xvi. 18 to xvii. 9) that the significance cularly to Eliphaz] that thou answerest? of this discourse culminates, so far as it gives, Hiph. of 1, "to be sick, weak" (see pleasing evidence of progress beyond Job's former frame of mind. Along with this indeed it gives evidence that the spirit of hopeless and bitter complaint is, if not intensified, at least substantially unchanged and undiminished. The first principal division of the discourse (ch. xvi. 6-17) which precedes that expression of yearning confidence in God's help contains in particular an expression of cheerless lamentation over his condition, as one forsaken by God and men; while a shorter introduction prefaced to this division (ch. xvi. 2-5), as well as the concluding section, or third division (ch. xvii. 10-16) are particularly occupied with a bitter complaint on account of the misunderstanding and heartless conduct of the friends.-The whole discourse comprises six long strophes, the first of which constitutes the introduction, extending through four verses, or ten stichs (ch. xvi. 2-5), while the first and second divisions contain each two strophes (of 6, 7 verses, or 14 stichs), the third division, however, only one strophe (of 7 verses, or 14 stichs).

moreover is not-quum (Hirz.), but as in ch. vi. 11 quod: "what vexes thee that thou answerest," or "to answer."

Ver. 4. I also indeed would speak like you, i. e., would be minded to serve you with such like discourses as your own [Dillmann, Conant, Renan, Rodwell, etc., with good reason prefer to render the subjunctive "I could," or "might," rather than "would"].If your soul were instead of mine; i. e. in case you had my place, your persons were instead of mine. soul is not to be taken as a periphrasis of the [Conant, however: "Your personal pronoun. Soul, the seat of intelligence, 2. Exordium of the discourse, or introductory resentative of these faculties in man, and is spemental activity and emotion, stands as the repstrophe: A short preliminary repudiation of the cially appropriate here, where there is immediscourses of the friends as aimless, and desti-diate reference to what is thought, felt and tute of all power to comfort: ch. xvi. 2-5.

Ver. 2. I have heard (already) many such things (ni, multa, as in ch. xxiii. 14), and

therefore by substituting ye and me."]—Would suffered. The force of the expression is lost [or could] weave words against you.—

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