lowing shows, an accus. of the object, | exposed"] (comp. chap. vi. 20). In the object Dy Job certainly points immediately to himself, for certainly he only was the victim of the heartless conduct of the three. He purposely, however, expresses himself by a general propoideal, imaginative. In the second member, as the sing. suffix in 11 shows, he again speaks only of himself as the one who was ill-treated, continuing the description (by means of an enallage of number, similar to that in chap. xviii. 5; xxiv. 5, 16; xxvii. 23), as though he had in a written or . Hence literally: "and the eyes of his children languish," or "although the eyes of his children languish" (Ewald, Stickel, Heiligst., Hahn, Dillmann, etc.). Many of the ancients, and also De Wette, Delitzsch [Noyes, Con., Renan, Barnes, Wem., Car., Wordsw., Rod.], etc., translate: "Whoso spoileth friends, the eyes of his children must fail" (or, optatively, "may the eyes of his children fail!" So Rosenmüller, Vaihinger). [The E. V. adopts the same view of the general construction, but less "a pledge, security." It is not necessary with Reiske and Olsh. to change to arrhabonem meam. The following y, indicating the person with whom the pledge is deposition; for his whole description is as yet only sited, again represents God, precisely as in ch. xvi. 21, as being, so to speak, divided, or separated into two persons. The word of entreaty (which appears also in Is. xxxviii. 14, and Ps. cxix. 122, and which is here used with the accus. of the person following in the sense of "representing any one mediatorially as ¿yyvos or μeoirns) is replaced in the second member by the circumstantial phrase, to give surety by striking hands. For this is the meaning of the phrase, which elsewhere reads Por 2 (Prov. vi. 1; xvii. 18; xxii. 26), or simply (Prov. xi. 15). Here, however, where, instead of the person, the hand of the person is mentioned (T, instead of the simple , which, according to Prov. vi. 1, we might be led to expect), the reflexive Niphal is used; hence literally: "who will strike himself [scil. his hand] into my hand;" i. e. who will (by a solemn striking of hands, as in a pledge) bind himself to me to vindicate publicly my innocence? What man will do this if Thou, God, doest it not? : appropriately takes ph in the sense of "flattery:" "He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail."] In this way, doubtless, the harshness of that change of number is avoided; but so to predict (or even to wish for) the punishment of the evil-doer seems here too little suited to the context, and Ver. 4 assigns a reason for this prayer for especially does not agree with the contents of the God's intervention as his security in the short-well with the last member of the preceding following verse. [But it certainly agrees very sightedness and narrow-mindedness of the friends: for Thou hast closed [lit. hid] their heart to [lit. from] understanding (to [from] a correct knowledge in respect to my innocence), therefore Thou wilt not let them prevail: lit. wilt not exalt them, i. e. above me, who am unjustly injured by them, but wilt rather at last confound them by demonstrating my innocence (as actually came to pass, ch. xlii. 7). D, Imperf. Pil. of D with plur. suffix, is a contraction of pin, with omission of Dagh. forte in on account of the preceding long ô. The correction D (suggested by Dillm. with a reference to ch. xxxi. 15; xli. 2 K'ri) is unnecessary, as also the explanation of D as a Hithpael noun, signifying "striving upward, improvement, victory" (Ew.). Ver. 5 continues the consideration of the unfriendly conduct of the friends. Friends are delivered for a spoil, while the eyes of their (lit. "of his") children languish. phn, "a share of booty, spoil" (according to Num. xxxi. 36) denotes here in particular, as the word makes probable, mortgaged property, an article in pledge, distrained from a debtor by a judicial execution; phnan (for ph♬ niņ, comp. 1 Kings xiv. 2; Jer. xiii. 21) signifies to advertise and offer for sale such a pledged article in court; or, more simply and briefly, to distrain, to seize upon by means of a judicial execution. The subject of T is indefinite ["one exposes friends," i. e., "friends are verse, the thought of which it both confirms and friends, for they had betrayed friendship, and expands. God would not, could not, favor the thus had incurred judgment in which their posterity would share. Ver. 5 may be, as conjectured by some, a proverbial saying quoted by Job to emphasize ver. 46. The "pining of the last construction has in its favor, therefore: (1) eyes" is a frequent figure for suffering. This That it is suitable to the connection. (2) That it avoids the harshness of the other construction, with its sudden change of number, and its strained introduction of the reference to the bepointless when applied to the childless Job. (3) trayed one's children, which is particularly It takes away from ver. 4 the isolation which belongs to it, according to the other construction, and provides a much simpler transition from ver. 4 to ver. 5.-E.] Ver. 6 seq. Continued description of the unfriendly conduct of the friends, only that the same is now directly charged on God. And He (viz., God, who is manifestly to be understood here as the subject of the verb) has set me for a proverb to the world.-, a substant. infinitive (comp. chap. xii. 4), means a proverb, simile, sensu objectivo, hence an object of ridicule [or, as in E. V., "by-word"]. Dy, lit. around Job (e.g., those "gipsy-like troglodytes" "nations," denotes here not the races living who are more fully described in chap. xxiv. 30, and who, Delitzsch thinks, may possibly be intended here), but the common people generally (vulgus, plebs), hence equivalent to the great multitude, the world; comp. Prov. xxiv. 24. And I must be one to be spit upon in the face. (only here in the O. T.) denotes spittle, an object spit upon; D' is in the closest union with it (comp. Num. xii. 14; Deut. T: (3189), 3 a-and not either of a physical return, as though, irritated by his words, they had made a movement to depart (Renan), or of a mental return from their hostility (see vi. 29).-E.]. In this sense it is followed by the supplementary verb in the Imperf., connected with it by XXV. 9). A is accordingly one into. I shall nevertheless not find a wise whose face any body spits, the object of the most unqualified public detestation. Comp. ch. xxx. 9 seq., from which passage it also appears that Job speaks here not only of that which his friends did to him, but that he uses Dy in a more comprehensive sense. Ver. 7. Then mine eye became dim with grief (y, as in chap. vi. 2; and comp. chap. xvi. 16; Ps. vi. 8 [7]; xxxi. 10 [9]), and all my members (lit. "my frames, bodily frames, or structures") are as shadows [better on account of the generic Д, "as a shadow"], i. e., so meagre and emaciated, like intangible shadows, or phantoms; comp. chap. xix. 20. man among you-i. e., your heart remains closed against a right understanding of my condition (see ver. 4), however often and persistently you may attempt to justify your attacks upon me. ["He means that they deceive themselves concerning the actual state of the case before them; for in reality he is meeting death without being deceived, or allowing himself to be deceived, about the matter." DEL.] Ver. 11 seq. prove this charge of a defective understanding on the part of the friends by setting forth the nearness of Job's end, and the almost complete exhaustion of his strength: this fact is fatal to their preconceived opinion as to the possibility of a joyful restoration of his prosVer. 8. The upright are astonished at perity, such as they had frequently set forth as this-because they cannot understand how depending on his sincere repentance. My things can come to such a pass with one of their days are gone (being quite near their endAnd the innocent is roused against comp. chap. xvi. 22), my plans are broken the ungodly-lit. "stirred up" by anger-in off (niet, lit. "connections, combinations," from an opposite sense to that of chap. xxxi. 29, de-on, "to bind together," the same as i elsescribing "the innocent man's sense of justice as being aroused on account of the prosperity of the, comp. Ps. xxxvii. 1; lxxiii." HIRZEL. sort. Ver. 8. Nevertheless the righteous holds where, chap. xxi. 27; xlii. 2;-but not sensu malo, but in the good sense of the plans of his life which had been destroyed), the nurslings [Pfleglinge] of my heart.- are things which are coveted and earnestly sought after, favorite projects, plans affectionately cherished; comp. , to long after, Ps. xxi. 3 [from which root Dillmann suggests the present noun may be derived (for ND, like for So appa fast on his way (the way of piety and rectitude in which he has hitherto walked), and he that is of clean hands (lit. "and the clean-ofhands," 7, as in Prov. xxii. 11) increaseth in strength (p, of inward increase, or growth of strength, as in Eccles. i. 18).—The whole verse is of great significance as an expres- from DN), which would give at once the meansion of the cheerful confidence in his innocence ing, "desires, coveted treasures." and deliverance which Job reaches after the bit-rently Zöckler. If, according to the prevailing ter reflections of ver. 5 seq. So far from realizing the reproach of Eliphaz in chap. xv. 4, that view, it be taken from ', the meaning will be Not so he would "destroy piety and diminish devotion peculia, cherished possessions.-E.] suitable is the definition "possessions" (from before God," he holds fast on his godly way, yea, travels it still more joyously and vigorously, possidere, after Obad. ver. 17 and Isa. xiv. 23), than before (comp. Doctrinal and Ethical Re- while the rendering appa (LXX.), cords or marks). ["These words of Job (if we may be bands [or, as Del. suggests, "joints, instead of allowed the figure) are like a rocket, which valves of the heart"] (Gekat., Ewald) is entirely shoots above the tragic darkness of the book, unsupported, and decidedly opposed to the laws lighting it up suddenly, although only for a of the language. short time." DEL.] 5. Third Division: Sixth Strophe. Severe censure of the admonitions of the friends, as devoid of understanding, and without any power to comfort, vers. 10-16. as Ver. 12. They change night into day (comp. Isa. v. 20), inasmuch, to wit, as they picture before me joyous anticipations of life (thus 20 seq.; Zophar in chap. xi. 13 seq.), while notEliphaz in chap. v. 17 seq.; Bildad in chap. viii. withstanding I have before me only the dark night of death. Light is to be near (lit. "is near," i. e., according to their assertions) in the presence of darkness, i. e., there where the darkness is still present, or in conspectu; ', here therefore coram, comp. chap. xxiii. 17 (so Um Ver. 10. But as for ye all (Dh for Dha in 1 Kings xxii. 28, and Mic. i. 2 [corresponding more to the form of a vocative clause-Del.]; the preceding D is here written D, with sharpened tone, for the sake of assonance)-breit, Vaih., Del.). Others (Ew., Hirz., Stick., come on again, I pray.-, instead of the Dillm.) take in the comparative sense: light Imper. 1, which we might have expected, but is nearer than the face of darkness, i. e., than the which cannot stand so well at the beginning of visible darkness, which, however, is less suitable the clause (comp. Ew., 229) [besides that, as in the parallelism. The same is true of the exDelitzsch remarks, the first verb is used adver-planation of Welte-"and they bring the light bially, iterum, denuo, according to GESEN., 142 | near to the darkness;" of Rosenmüller-“light | nation so far as the syntax is concerned; but my house [or abode], have spread in the is near the darkness," and similarly the LXX.; of Schlottmann-"light, to which the darkness already draws near;" of Renan-"Ah! but your light resembles the darkness!" etc.-Note still further that here in vers. 11-12, where the tone of lamentation is resumed, those short, sob-like ejaculations appear again, which we have already met with above in vers. 1-2. [The explanation here given does not seem to harmonize perfectly with the context. With ver. 10 Job seems to dismiss the friends from his present discourse. He flings that verse at them as a parting contemptuous challenge, and so takes his leave of them. With ver. 11 he enters on the pathetic elegiac strain with which he closes each one of his Ver. 14. If I have cried out to the grave: discourses thus far (see chap. vii. 22; x. 20 seq.; Thou art my father!-, grave (comp. xiv. 18 seq.). Vers. 11, 12 are characterized, ch. ix. 31) in Heb. is strictly speaking feminine, as Zöckler justly remarks, by "brief, sob-like here, however, it is construed ad sensum as a ejaculations" (as in vers. 1, 2), which are more masculine (as is the case elsewhere with such befitting the elegy of a crushed heart than the feminines as up, non, ny, etc., comp. Ges., sarcasm of a bitter spirit. Job makes himself Thes., p. 1378). It is unnecessary with the the theme of the whole passage from ver. 11 to LXX., Vulg., Pesh., to take here in the ver. 16. He is pre-occupied exclusively with his own lamentable condition and prospects, not sense of "death," or with Nachman, Rosenm., with the course of his friends, any reference to Schlottm., Del. [E. V., Con., Car.], etc., to which after ver. 10 would interrupt the self-assign to it the meaning: "corruption, rottenabsorption of his sorrow. Supposing Job then to be occupied with himself solely, it follows that is to be taken impersonally, and the verse may be explained either-a. With Noyes: "Night hath become day to me (i. e. I have sleep less nights; I am as much awake by night as by day), the light bordereth on darkness (i. e. the day seems very short; the daylight seems to go as soon as it is come)." Or b. We may translate: "Night will (soon) take the place of day, light (in which I am tarrying for a brief season, awaiting my abode in Sheol, ver. 13) is not far from dark-drawn into union with the preceding ness (, prope abest ab; LXX. ¢ãç ¿yyò ἀπὸ προσώπου σκότους=οὐμακρὰν σκ'., according to Olympiodorus. - The use of with which Delitzsch objects to this rendering, is finely poetic. The darkness faces him, stares upon him, close at hand, just on the other side of this narrow term of light which is left to him). In favor of b may be urged: (1) The use of the fut. D, following the preterites in ver. 11.(2) The analogy of Is. v. 20, where?' means to put for, exchange, substitute. (3) It preserves the continuity of Job's reflections on his own condition, and his immediate prospects. (4) The thought is in admirable harmony with the description which immediately follows, in which he represents himself as lingering on the verge of Sheol, awaiting his speedy departure thither, preparing his couch in that darkness which is so near, etc.-E.] Ver. 13 seq. show how far Job was right in seeing before his eyes nothing but night and darkness, and in giving up the hope of a state of greater prosperity which was held up before him by the friends. Vers. 13, 14 form the conditional protasis, introduced by DN on which all the verbs in both verses depend, ver. 15 being the apodosis, introduced by consec. [Of which view of the construction, however, Delitzsch remarks: "There is no objection to this expla ness" as though it were derived from л, not from , fodere: moreover the existence of such a second substant. corruption is susceptible of certain proof from no other pashere given to the inward familiarity of Job with sage. In regard to the bold poetic expression the state of death which lay before him, comp. Ps. lxxxviii. 19 [18]; Prov. vii. 4; also below ch. xxx. 29. Ver. 15. Apodosis: Where then (as to DN, which, notwithstanding the accents, is to be where? comp. on ch. ix. 24) is (now) my who exhibits it to me as really well founded? who hope? Yea, my hope, who sees it? i. e., discloses it to me? In both clauses one and the same hope is intended, that viz. of the restoradeath [this hope, Dillmann remarks, being the tion of his prosperity in this life, even before hope which, according to the friends, he should have, not the hope which, according to ver. 13, he really has]. Ver. 16. To the bars of the grave it sinks down, when at the same time there is rest in the dust.-The subject here also is p, ver. 15, this hope being regarded as single, although the expression there was doubled. is a poetic alternate form for 77♬ (Ew., 191, Gesen., 8 47, Rem. 3), not third pers. plur., as the old translators [and E. V.] rendered the form, and as among moderns [Green, 288, Schlottm.], Böttcher and Dillmann take it, the latter supposing that the hope which Job really had, mentioned in ver. 18, and the hope attributed to him by the friends in ver. 15, are the two subjects of the verb.—y '13 are dead," not its "clefts" (Böttcher), nor its "bars of the underworld, of the realm of the "bounds" (Hahn); for again in Ex. xxv. 13 seq.; xxvii. 6 seq.; Hos. xi. 6, D' signifies “carrying poles," or "cross-beams" whereas, according to many other passages, (vectes). And Sheol is represented as provided with doors or er-God of the future, becomes apparent in gates (ch. xxxviii. 17; Îs. xxxviii. 10; Ps. ix. the earnest entreaty which is further on ad14 [13]; cvii. 18), its "cross-beams" or "bars" dressed to God, that He "would become a signify essentially the same with its gates (comp. bondsman with Himself" for Job, seeing that Lam. ii. 9). In ", "at the same time" (not He is the only possible guarantor of his inno"together" [E. V.], as Hahn renders it, under-cence (ch. xvii. 3). Not less does this duality standing it to be affirmed of the descending between a God of truth, who knows and attests hope, and of Job at his death), Job expresses his righteous conduct, and a God of absolute a thought similar to that in ch. xiv. 22, the power and fury, lie also at the foundation of the thought, namely, that the rest of his body in the confident declaration which concludes this whole dust coincides in time with the descent of the section, according to which the righteous man, soul to Hades. n, pausal form for untroubled by the suspicions and attacks of his "rest," signifies here the rest of the lifeless body in the grave: comp. Is. xxvi. 19; Ps. xxii. 30 [29]. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. enemies, "holds fast on his way," and in respect of his innocence and purity only "increases in strength" (ver. 9). That to which Job here gives expression, primarily indeed in the form of entreaty, of yearning desire, or as an inference from religious and ethical postulates, acquires, when considered in its historical connection with his deliverance, the significance of an indirect prophecy, referring not only to the actual historical issue of his own suffering (which in fact ends with just such a vindication as he here wishes for himself), but also in general to the completed reconciliation of God with sinful humanity in Christ.-For this work of reconciliation was accomplished, according to 2 Cor. v. 19, precisely as Job here wishes for it. God was in Christ, and reconciled the world to Himself. He officiated as Judge, acquitting, and as Advocate, vindicating, in one person. He became in Christ His own Mediator with humanity (Gal. iii. 20), and caused that "suretyship with Himself" to come to pass, which Job here wishes and longs for, in that He sent His own Son to be the "Mediator" (ucoirns, 1 Tim. ii. 5; Heb. xii. 24), or a "surety" (yyvos, Heb. vii. 22) of the New Covenant, and so established for fallen humanity, subject to sin and to death, its penalty, an eternal redemption, which is ever renewed in each individual. The older expositors have for the most part failed to recognize this profounder typical and prophetic sense of the passage, obscured as it is by the erroneous translations of the verses in question given by the LXX. and the Vulgate. Comp. however the remarks of Cocceius below on ch. xvi. 19 seq. 1. The central point of this new reply of Job's -and it is that which principally shows progress on the part of the sorely afflicted sufferer out of his spiritual darkness to a clearer perception and a brighter frame of mind-lies in the expression of a yearning hope in his future justification by God, which is found in the last section but one of the discourse, and which constitutes the real kernel of the argument. Inasmuch as the friends, instead of ministering to him loving sympathy and true comfort were become his "mockers" (ch. xvi. 20), he finds himself all the more urgently driven to God alone as his helper, and the guardian of his innocence. Hence it is that he now suddenly turns to the same God, whom he had just before described in the strongest language as his ferocious, deadly enemy and persecutor, as well as the author of the suffering inflicted on him even by his human enemies, and, full of confidence, calls Him his "witness in heaven," and his "attestor on high" (ver. 19), who is already near to him, and who will not permit the earth to drink up his blood, which cries out to heaven, and thus to silence his self-vindication (ver. 18). Nay, more: he lifts up his tearful eye with courageous supplication to God, praying Him that He would "do justice" to him before Himself, that He would represent him before His own judicial tribunal, interceding in his behalf, 2. Although however Job seems by the proacquitting him, and thus vindicating his inno- found truth and the striking power of these bold cence against his human accusers (ver. 21). prophetic anticipations of his future vindication We see distinctly here how Job's idea of God to be making most significant advances in the becomes brighter in that it becomes dualized direction of more correct knowledge, and to be (in that he prays to God Himself, the author at any rate far above the limited and elementary of his sufferings, as his deliverer and helper). conceptions of his friends, there is nevertheless The God who delivers Job to death as guilty, in the midst of all this soaring of his purer and and the God who cannot leave him unvindicated better consciousness to God one thing percepti-even though it should be only after death-bly wanting. It is the penitent confession of his come forth distinct and separate as darkness from light out of the chaos of temptation. . . . Thus Job becomes here the prophet of the issue of his own course of suffering; and over his relation to Eloah and to the friends, of whom the former abandons him to the sinner's death, and the latter declare him to be guilty, hovers the form of the God of the future, which now breaks through the darkness, from whom Job believingly awaits and implores what the God of the present withholds from him" (Del. i. 310311). The same duality between the God of the present as a God of terror, and the Redeem-cence. sins. He not only calls himself a " righteous" man, and "pure of hands," (ch. xvii. 9), but with all earnestness he regards himself as such (comp. ch. xvi. 17). He will by no means admit that his suffering is in any sense, or in any degree whatever, the punishment of his sins. In this particular he falls short of that which he himself has before this expressly conceded (ch. xiv. 4). As the friends, in consequence of their superficial judgment, greatly exaggerated his guilt, so he, by no means free as yet from Pelagian self-righteousness, exaggerates his inno The justification which he wishes and hopes for, is not the New Testament dikaiwois, words: "I am made a byword to the world,” that Divine act of grace declaring the repentant ch. xvii. 6, with Ps. xliv. 15 [14], and lxix. 12 sinner righteous. It is only the Divine attesta- [11]); also the servant of Jehovah in the setion of an innocence and freedom from sin, which cond division of Isaiah; comp. ch. xvii. 8, "the he deems himself to possess in perfection. It righteous are astonished thereat," with Isa. lii. thus stands very nearly related to that lawyer's 14; also ch. xvi. 16, 17-"My face is burning "willing to justify himself" which is mentioned red with weeping, etc., although no wrong in Luke x. 29; and is altogether different from cleaves to my hands," etc., with Isa. liii. 9— that disposition which at last the actual justifi- "although he hath done no violence, neither is cation and restoration of Job to favor produced any deceit found in his mouth:"-likewise ch. (ch. xlii. 6). Again-what he says in ch. xvi. xvi. 19-"Even now behold in heaven my wit15 seq. of thrusting his horn into the dust, of ness," with Is. 1. 8 seq. (" He is near that justicontinuous weeping, of wearing sackcloth, has fieth me, who will condemn me?" etc.). Notno reference to signs of actual repentance (a view withstanding these and the like correspondences often met with in the ancient commentators); with the lameutations and prayers of other these things are simply indications of physical righteous sufferers, Seinecke (Der Grundgedanke pain, referring to a humiliation which proceeded des B. Hiob, 1863, p. 34 seq.) goes too far when, less out of a complete and profound acquaintance on the ground of such correspondences in this with sin, than out of the sense of severe painful and in other discourses of Job, he regards Job suffering (comp. above on this passage). With as being in general an allegorical figure of esthis defective knowledge of self, and partial self-sentially the same significance with the servant righteousness, in which Job shows himself to be of God in Isaiah, and hence as a poetic personias yet entangled, is closely connected the gross fication of the suffering people of Israel. Scarcely harshness of the judgment concerning the friends, can it be definitely said that the poet "by the with which he requites their inconsiderate words relation to the passion psalms stamped on the against himself; characterizing them as windy picture of the affliction of Job, has marked Job, phrase-mongers (ch. xvi. 3), as unwise (ch. xvii. whether consciously or unconsciously, as a typi4, 10), as impudent mockers (ch. xvi. 20; xvii. cal person; that by taking up, and not uninten2), as hard-hearted extortioners and distrainers tionally either, many national traits, he has (ch. xvii. 5), yea, as belonging to the category made it natural to interpret Job as a Mashal of of children of the world" (ch. xvii. 6), of the Israel" (Delitzsch I. 313). There is too evident unrighteous and wicked (ch. xvi. 10, 11), of the a lack of distinct intimations of such a purpose profligate (ch. xvii. 8). Closely connected with on the part of the poet to justify us in assuming it in like manner is the harsh and extreme judg- anything more than the fact that the illustrious ment in which he indulges of that which God sufferer of Uz has a typical significance for many does against him; the description which he pious sufferers of later (post-patriarchal, and gives of Him as a mighty warrior rushing upon post-solomonic) times, and that consequently him with inexorable, nay with bloodthirsty cru- later poets, the authors of the Lamentationelty (ch. xvi. 12-14), attributing to Him as the Psalms, or prophets (such as Isaiah, possibly alhigher cause all the ignominy and injustice which so Ezekiel and Zechariah) borrowed many parhe had suffered through the friends (ch. xvi. 11 ticular traits from the picture of his suffering. seq.; xvii. 6 seq.). And finally here belongs the Moreover, in view of the uncertainty touching gloomy hopelessness in respect to the issue of such a relation of the matter, we can only warn his life into which his spirit sinks down again, against any homiletic application of this Mes(ch. xvii. 11-16) from the courage and confidence sianic-allegorical conception of Job as being esto which it had been raised in the last section sentially identical with the "servant of God." This despair is in palpable contradic- The exposition for practical edification of the tion with the better confidence which like a flash section chap. xvi. 18-xvii. 9, with its rich yield of light had illuminated the darkness of his an- of thought in biblical theology and the history guished soul, although it is in unison with the of redemption, would gain little more by any atstate of the sufferer's heart in this stage of his tempts in this direction than the obscuration of education in the school of suffering, lacking as it the simple fact by useless and barren subtleties. does as yet the complete exactness and purity of moral self-knowledge, and as a consequence the real stability and joyfulness of faith in God's power to save. So it is that the hope, which again emerges in his next discourse, that his innocence will be acknowledged in a better hereafter, is by no means held by him with a firm and decided grasp, but rather appears only as a transient flash across the prevailing darkness of his soul. but one. 3. Job suffers as a righteous man, comparatively, and for that reason the complaints of his anguished heart in this discourse resemble even in manifold peculiarities of expression that which other righteous sufferers of the Old Testament say in the outgushings of their hearts, e. g., the Psalmist in Ps. xxii. (comp. above on ch. xvi. 10), Ps. xliv. and lxix. (comp. especially the HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Chap. xvi. 7 seq. OECOLAMPADIUS: He makes use of three motives most suitable for conciliating pity, to wit: the manifest severity of his sufferings (vers. 7-14), repentance (??—vers. 15-16), and innocence (vers. 17-21). Chap. xvi. 10 seq. BRENTIUS: There is this in God's judgment that is most grievous-that He seems to favor our adversaries, and to stand on their side, by prospering their counsels and efforts against us. Nor is there any one who can endure this trial, unless thoroughly fortified by the word of God. Thus Christ Himself laments, saying: "Dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked enclosed me" (Ps. xxii.).— CRAMER: O soul, remember here thy Saviour, to |