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النشر الإلكتروني

Ver. 6. Know then (D as in chap. ix. 24) ["elsewhere in questions, here strengthening the exclamation"-Schlott.] that Eloah has wrested me, i. e., has treated me unjustly, done me wrong, ny for my, comp. chap.

Ver. 11. [He makes His anger burn against me, and He regards me as His foes], comp. ch. xiii. 24. The Imperfects alternating with Imperfects consecutive are, as above in ver. 10, and in what follows, used for the present, because present and continuous sufferings are described; comp. ch. xvi. 13, 14. either for the class, of which Job is one; or, as Delitzsch suggests, "perhaps the expression is intentionally intensified here, in contrast with ch. xiii. 24; he, the one, is accounted by God as the host of His foes; He treats him as if all hos

כְצָרָיו The plural in]

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viii. 3; xxxiv. 12; Lam. iii. 36. And compassed me round about with His net-like a hunter who has entirely robbed a wild beast of its liberty by the meshes of the net which envelop him around, so that he can find no way of escape. The expression describes the unforeseen and inexorable character of the dispensations which had burst on Job as the object of the Di-tility to God were concentrated in him "]. vine persecution; comp. Bildad's description, chap. xviii. 8 seq. ["Bildad had said that the, armies, synonymous with NY, ch. x. wicked would be taken in his own snares. Job says that God had ensnared him." ELZAS.]

Ver. 7. Lo! I cry-"Violence!" ( as an interjectional exclamation, found also Hab. i. 2; comp. Jer. xx. 8) and am not heard (Prov. xxi. 13); I call out for help, and there is no justice-i. e., no justice shown in an impartial examination and decision of my cause.— y, lit. "to cry aloud for help, to send forth a cry for deliverance" (comp. Ps. xxx. 3 [2]; lxxii. 12; lxxxviii. 14 [18]), from y, or y yu, “to be wide, to be in a prosperous situation."

Ver. 8. He has hedged up my way, that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness on my paths.-Comp. chap. iii. 23; xiii. 27; also, as regards 771, "to fence up, to hedge up," Lam. iii. 7, 9; Hos. ii. 8 [6].

Ver. 9. He has stripped me of mine honor; i. e., of my righteousness in the eyes of men; comp. ch. xxix. 14. The "crown of my head" in the parallel second member signifies the same thing; comp. Lam. v. 16. The same collocation of a "raiment of honor," and a "crown of the head," occurs also in Is. lxi. 10; lxii. 3; and suggested by these passages we find it often in evangelical church hymns [e. g., in the following from WATTS:

"Then let my soul march boldly on,
Press forward to the heavenly gate,
There peace and joy eternal reign,

And glittering robes for conquerors wait.
There shall I wear a starry crown,

Ver. 12. Together all His troops advance.

17, and denoting here, as there, the band of ca-
lamities, sufferings, and pains, which rush upon
him. And cast up their way against me.
-, lit. "to heap up" their way, which is
at the same time a rampart for carrying on the
attack, a mound for offensive operations (
comp. 2 Sam. xx. 15; 2 Kings xix. 32; Ezek.
iv. 2) against Job, who is here represented as a
besieged fortress. In regard to this figure comp.
above ch. xvi. 14; also in regard to the technics
of siege operations among the ancient orientals,

see Keil's Bibl. Archäol. 159.

First Division: Second Strophe: Vers. 18-20. Lamentation over his sufferings as proceeding from man.

Ver. 13. My brethren He drives far away from me to wit God, to whom here, precisely as in ch. xvii. 6, even the injustice proceeding from men is ascribed. For this reason the reading p is perfectly in place, and it is unnecessary after the ȧntornoav of the LXX. to change it to pnn. To the term "brethren" (which as in Ps. lxix. 9 [8], is to be understood literally, not in the wider sense of relatives), who are described as turning away from him, corresponds in ver. 14 a the term 'P, "kinsmen" (Ps. xxxviii. 12 [11]). In like manner we find as parallel to the yți, i. e., "knowers, confidants," in ver. 13 b, the Dy, i. e., those familiarly known, intimate friends, in ver. 14 b (comp. in regard to it Ps. xxxi. 12 [11]; lxxxviii. 9 [8]. As synonyms in the wider sense there appear in house-associates, or sojourners" in ver. 15 (Vulg., inquilini domus meæ) Ver. 10. He breaks me down on every and finally (ver. 19), those who belong side: like a building doomed to destruction, for to the circle of closest intimacy, bosom-friends, such is the representation here given of Job's (comp. ch. xxix. 4; Ps. lv. 15 [14]), so that the outward man together with his state of pros-notion of friendship is here presented in six difperity; comp. ch. xvi. 14; [so that I pass ferent phases and gradations, comp. on ch. xviii. away], and uproots. like a tree, my hope: 8-10.-As for the rest ver. 13 6 is lit., i. e., he takes entirely away from me the pros"are become only [or, nothing but] strange to pect of a restoration of my prosperity, leaves it no foundation or bottom, like a plant which is me," i. e., entirely and altogether strange; and uprooted, and which for that reason inevitably, ver. 14 a, means “ they cease," i. e., to be withers (comp. ch. xiv. 19; xvii. 15). As to friends, they leave off, fail (comp. ch. xiv. 7), , lit."to tear out, to pluck up wholly out withdraw from me. of the ground," comp. ch. iv. 21, where the object spoken of is the tent-stake.

And triumph in Almighty grace,
While all the armies of the skies

Join in my glorious Leader's praise"].*

*The above extract from Watts will supply for the English reader the place of the extract given by our author from P. GERHARD's hymn: "Ein Lümmlein geht und trägt die Schuld.”

גָרֵי בֵית the sequel

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Ver. 15. My house associates [="they that dwell in mine house," E. V.], and my maids (this doubled expression denoting all the domestics, including hired servants and the like; comp. above) are become strange to me

[properly, "count me for a stranger," E. V.]. | logue, has already been shown in the Introd., The verb is governed as to gender by 28, 3. We need not therefore follow the critics the subject next preceding: comp. Gesen. & 60; who are there refuted in deciding that the proEwald, 339 e [Green, & 276, 1]. logue is not genuine; nor assume (with EichVer. 16. I call to my servant, and he an-horn and Olsh.) that the poet has here for once swers not. Whether this disobedient servant forgotten himself, and lost sight of his scheme as We are rather to supis to be viewed as the overseer, or house-stew-set forth in ch. i. 18, 19. ard, like Eliezer in the house of Abraham, Gen. xxiv. (Del.), is in view of the simplicity of the language at least doubtful.-With my mouth must I entreat him.-For the Imperf. in the sense of must, comp. ch. xv. 30; xvii. 2.

(comp. Ps. lxxxix. 2 [1]; cix. 30), expresses here not, as in ch. xvi. 5, a contrast with that which proceeds out of the heart, but with a mere wink, or any dumb intimation of what might be

desired of him.

Ver. 17. My breath is offensive to my wife.-, from 7, to be strange, to be estranged, expresses simply by virtue of this signification the idea of "being repugnant, repulsive," so that we need not derive it from a particular verb '1, "to be loathsome;" and

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pose (with Ewald, 1st Ed., Hirz., Heiligst., Hahn, Dillmann, etc.), that the reference is to grandchildren, the offspring left behind by the unfortunate sons-in favor of which may be cited the similar use of D' in a wider sense in Gen. xxix. 5; xxxi. 28, etc.: or else (with the LXX., Symmachus, J. D. Michaelis, Schär., Rosenm., Dathe, Ewald, 2d Ed.) to his children by concubines (viovç пahhaкidwv pov, LXX.) a supposition however with which ch. xxxi. 1 seems scarcely to agree, however true it may be that in the patriarchal age, to which our poet assigns Job, rigid monogamistic views did not prevail. The explanation of Stuhlm., Gesen., Umbr., Schlott., Del., [Noyes, Conant, Elzas, Merx] is also linguistically possible, that stands for

assuredly signifies here the breath (stinking (after ch. iii. 10), so that ' * would This according to b), having the same meaning as mean accordingly Job's natural brothers. theory however is inconsistent with the circumin the partly parallel passage ch. vii. 15; stance that Job has already made mention above, hence not "my discontent" (Hirzel) ["my spi- ver. 13, of his brothers; and that immediately rit, as agitated, querulous Gesen.; "depres- following the mention of his wife, the mention sion," Fürst]; nor "my sexual impulse" Arnh.; of his descendants would be more suitable than nor "my spirit" (Starke, [Carey] and ancient that of his brothers. [To which add this from commentators); nor "my person" (Pesh., Um- Bernard, that above, in ch. iii. 10, no ambiguity breit, Hahn) [Renan].-Jerome already cor- whatever could arise from the employment of rectly: halitum meum exhorruit uxor mea, and in in the sense of "mother's womb," whereas the same sense most of the moderns [so E. V.], "here, by using it in this sense, Job would have and my ill savor to the sons of my body. run such risk of having his meaning misunder- can neither signify: "my prayers, my stood, as ' might fairly be considered synoentreaties" (Gesen., with a reference to his nymous with, my loins, or "y, my bowGram., 91, 3-against which however compare els, that we find it quite impossible to believe Ewald, 259) [Noyes, Lee, Words., Elzas]; nor that if he had really wished to speak here of his my caresses (Arnh.) [Bernard, Rodw., Green, brethren, he would have applied to them such a Chrestom., and Gram. 139, 2-Kal Inf. of very ambiguous epithet." It has also been sug(with fem. termination ) to be gracious]; gested as a relief of the difficulty that children my lamentations, my groanings" (Hirzel, had been born to Job in the interval between the Vaih.) [Fürst]; nor yet finally-" and I pray to first series of calamities, and the infliction of the the sons of my body" (LXX., Vulg., Luth., etc.) disease, but such a conjecture is too precarious. [E. V., with different construction of the Wordsworth: "He is speaking of the greatest Others regard the expression as general. So "though I entreated for the children's sake of wretchedness in general terms"]. my own body"]; for all these constructions are Ver. 18. Even youngsters act contempalike opposed to the language and to the context. The word is rather (with Schär., Rosen., tuously towards me. Ew., Hahn, Schlott., Del., Dillm.), to be derived puer (root hay, comp. ch. xxi. 11) are little chilfrom the root 1, "to stink," which does not dren, such namely as are rude and impudent appear elsewhere indeed in Heb., but which is mockers, like those children of Bethel, 2 Kings quite common in Arab. and Syr., and is to be ii. 23 seq., which may be expressed by the word construed either as first pers. sing. Perf. Kal "youngsters" [Germ. "Buben": Bernard(and I smell offensively to the sons of my "wicked-little-children"], here as also above in body"), or, which is better suited to the paral-ch. xvi. 11.-It will also guard in particular lelism, as Infinitive substantive, in a being against the mistake of supposing that Job's still the predicate. This stench suggests in par- grandchildren are intended by these 'buy, ticular the fetid matter which issues from the festering and partially rotting limbs of the victim of elephantiasis. Comp. on ch. ii. 7; vii. 14. That by "the sons of my body" (1) we are not of necessity to understand the legitimate sons of Job, and hence that there is no contradiction between this passage and the pro

עול plur. of עֲוִילִים

(Hahn).-If I rise up (conditional clause, as in ch. xi. 17 [not as E. V., "I arose "]), they speak about me, make me the butt of jeering talk (237, as in Ps. 1. 20; Numb. xii. 1; xxi. 5).

Ver. 19. My bosom friends abhor me:(comp. above on ver. 13 seq.), and those whom

I loved (relative, as in ch. xv. 17) have turned against me.-This verse points particularly at Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, the once trusted friends, who are now become his violent opponents.

Ver. 20. My bone cleaves to my skin and my flesh (comp. ch. x. 11), i. e., through my skin and my extremely emaciated flesh may be seen my bones, which seem to cleave, as it were, to that poor and loathsome integument. Comp. Lam. iv. 8; Ps. cii. 6 [5], and I am escaped only with the skin of my teeth:i. e., thus far only my gums (the flesh of my teeth, here called the skin of my teeth, because of their skinlike thinness and leanness of muscle) have been spared by this fearful disease,-so that I am able at least to speak, without having my mouth full of internal boils and sores (as is wont to be the case in the extreme stages of elephantiasis). This is the only satisfactory explanation, to which most moderns give in their adherence (Rosenm., Umbreit, Ewald, Hirzel, Vaih., Heil., Schlottm., Dillm.). This explanation of "the skin of the teeth" as the "gums," is undoubtedly the most obvious, simple, and natural. [Yet simpler, perhaps, is the view of Umbreit, Wordsworth, Noyes, Renan, Elzas, that it is a proverbial expression, describing a state in which one is stripped to the very minimum of possession, or emaciated to the last point. Wordsworth: "A proverbial paradox. I am reduced to a mere shadow, I am escaped with nothing, or next to nothing, so that my escape is hardly an escape. I am escaped with the skin of what has no skin, the skin of bone; comp. the Latin proverbs, Lana caprina (Horat., 1 Ep. xviii. 15), and Totum nil (Juvenal 3, 209)." To which may be added the humorous English proverb: "As fat as a hen in the forehead."-E.]. Other explanations are in part against the language, in part too artificial: such as a. That of Jerome, and many Catholic commentators, that by the skin of the teeth we are to understand the lips. b. That of Delitzsch, which explains it to mean particularly the periosteum (in distinction from the gums as if such a distinction could have been known to the ancient Hebrews! [and "as though the poet had written for doctors!" Dillm.]).c. That of Stickel and Hahn, who translate: "I am escaped with the nakedness of my teeth," [i. e., with naked teeth].-d. That of Le Clerc, who understands it of the gums as alone remaining, when the teeth have fallen out.

5. Second Division: Vers. 21-27. A lofty flight to a blessed hope in God, his future Redeemer and Avenger, introduced by a pathetic appeal to the friends, that they would be mercifully disposed towards him, as one who had been so deeply humiliated, and so heavily smitten by

the hand of God.

Ver. 21. ["Job here takes up a strain we have not heard previously. His natural strength becomes more and more feeble, and his tone weaker and weaker. It is a feeling of sadness that prevails in the preceding description of suffering, and now even stamps the address to the friends with a tone of importunate entreaty which shall, if possible, affect their hearts. They are indeed his friends, as the emphatic 'DAN affirms;

impelled towards him by sympathy, they are come, and at least stand by him while all other men flee from him." Del. Pity me, pity me (pathetically repeated) Oye my friends!] For the hand of Eloah hath touched me.-An allusion to the

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nature of his frightful disease, being a species of leprosy, i. e., of a y≥1 (2 Ki. xv. 5), a plaga Dei ["wherefore the suffering Messiah also bears the significant name 77, 'the leprous one from the school of Rabbi,' in the Talmud, after Isa. liii. 4, 8."]. One who is already treated with enough severity through the infliction of such a plague from God, ought not to be smitten also by men through the exercise of a merciless disposition, unfriendly words, etc.

Ver. 22. Why do ye persecute me as God, “by which he means not merely that they add their persecution to God's, but that they take upon themselves God's work, that they usurp to themselves a judicial divine authority; they act towards him as if they were superhuman, and therefore inhumanly." Del. And are not satiated with my flesh? i. e., continually devour my flesh, figuratively speaking, by false accusations, slanders, suspicions of my innocence, etc., gnaw me incessantly with the tooth of slander [comp. Engl. "backbiting "]. Comp. the equivalent figurative expression "slander" (diaßáhhew) in the Aram. of the book of Daniel (ch. iii. 8; vi. 25) [" to eat the pieces of any one"], in the Syriac, where the devil is called ochel-karso diáẞoλos, and in Arab. where "to eat the flesh, or a piece of any one " is equivalent to "slandering, backbiting."

Ver. 23 seq. As though despairing of the possibility of influencing the friends to withdraw from their attacks on his innocence, he now turns with ardent longing for the final vindication of the same to God, first of all uttering the wish that his own asseverations of the same might be preserved to the latest generations. [Ewald imagines a pause after ver. 22. Job waits to see what response the friends would make to his pitiful appeal. They are silent, show no signs of relenting. Job sees that he has nothing to hope for either from men, or the God of the present. But in his extremity he obtains a glimpse of the far-distant future, after his death, which fills him with a new and wonderful courage]. Oh that my words were but written ( here followed by ↑ consec. before the voluntative [future], on account of the intervening, comp. Deut. v. 26), that they were but inscribed (P), pausal form for P [see Ewald, 193, c, and Gesen., 67 (8 66) Rem. 8], Hoph. of рpn) in a book !— (20, with the Art., as this expression is always written-comp. Ex. xvii. 14; 1 Sam. x. 25, etc.

although no particular book is meant, but only in general a skin of an animal prepared for of his, which he thus desires to see transmitted writing [50], a writing-roll). These words for remembrance by after generations, are, as it is most natural to suppose, not those contained in ver. 25 seq., (Hahn, Schlottm.) [Scott, Good, Bernard, Words., Rodwell, Barnes], but the sufferer's former protestations of innocence, the assurances which from ch. vi. on he has conti

THE BOOK OF JOB.

nually put forth, that he suffers innocently. [In favor of this view, and against the other, Delitzsch argues: (1) It is improbable that the inscription would begin with 1.-(2) It is more likely that Job would wish to see inscribed that which was the expression of his habitual consciousness, than that which was but an occasional and transient flash of light through the darkness].

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affirms. [The rendering: "yea, verily," adopted by Schlotim., Words., Elzas, Merx, etc., is probably designed to express the ascensive meaning referred to above.] Forasmuch as is wanting after ny (as in ch. xxx. 23; Ps. ix. 21), we should translate simply in the oratio directa: "My Redeemer lives.", which according to ch. iii. 5 means literally "reclaimer, redeemVer. 24. That with an iron pen [or style] er," acquires a meaning that is entirely too speand with lead-i. e., in letters engraved by cial, when it is taken by Umbreit and some means of an iron style, or chisel, and then filled others [Renan, Rodwell, Elzas] to be D 4x1, in with lead, in order to make them more impe- the blood-avenger" (Num. xxxv. 12, 19), for rishable-they might be graven in the rock the previous discourse was not of Job in the forever! Instead of the LXX. read here, character of one murdered in his innocence, as also in Is. xxx. 8: 1, "for a witness, as and ch. xvi. 18 is too remote. After the analogy of Prov. xxiii. 11; Lam. iii. 58; Ps. cxix. 154, testimony," (eis paprípiov), an emendation how- we are to think in general of the restitution of ever which is unnecessary, for the rendering the honor and right of one who has been "forever" gives here a meaning that is quite suitable. The monumental inscription is indeed oppressed, and are accordingly to take in preferred to that on parchment just because of the sense of a defender, an avenger of honor-a its greater durability, which is the reason why meaning indeed which approaches that of a Job wishes for it here. In regard to the use of "blood-avenger" in so far as the expected deliboth methods of writing already in the Pre-Mo-verance [or vindication] is conceived of as saic age, see Introd., 2, No. 4, p. [For accounts of such inscriptions see ROBINSON'S Bibl. Researches in Palestine, I., 169, 188 seq., 552; WILSON'S Lands of the Bible, I., 184 seq.; Princeton Review, 1870, page 533 seq. "This wish was not in truth too high on Job's part; for we now know sufficiently well that of old in those lands it was sought to perpetuate by means of inscriptions in stones and rocks not only short legal precepts, but also longer documents, memorable historical events, public requests, prayers, etc. Such costly works it is true could in general be completed only by kings and princes; Job was however a man of power in his age, who might well express such a wish." Ewald].

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taking place only after the sufferer's death. For the Goel is, is absolutely living (0, "he lives,” incomparably stronger than , for instance would have been) ['ʼn reminding us of "that name of God, hy ʼn, Dan. xii. 7, after which the Jewish oath per Anchialum in Martial is to be explained," Del., and indicating here the contrast between Him, the Living One, and Job, the dying one, Dillm.], while the object of His redemptive activity is by, “dust," and as b shows, at the time when He arises, has long been dust.-And as the Last will He arise upon the dust.- cannot possibly with Böttcher and others [so E. V., Lee, Conant, Ver. 25. Not because he despairs of the possi- Renan, Elzas] be construed in the adverbial bility of realizing this last wish (Dillm.), but It is clearly a substantive, used either in apposense "hereafter, in the latter time [or day]." because he knows for a certainty that God will not allow his testimony to his innocence to sition to 'g, the subj. of the first member, or pass down to posterity without His absolute confirmations of it, and hence because he reas the independent subj. of the second member, gards that wish for the eternal perpetuation signifies neither "Next-man" [Next-of-kin, Ger. identical in meaning with this. The word of his testimony as by no means a vain one, he Nachmann] in the sense of Avenger (vindez: continues:- And I know my Redeemer Ewald, Hirzel), nor the "Follower" lives, etc. The 1 in 'n is thus not used Hintermann, "backer"], "second" (Hahn), but [Germ. in an adversative sense (Luther, Ewald, Vaih., according to Is. xliv. 6; xlviii. 12, simply the Dillm. [Conant, Noyes, Lee], etc., but simply Last, he who survives all, an expression which continuative, or, if one prefers it, ascensive, is used here not with eschatological universality, introducing the end to which the realization of but with particular reference to Job, who is no the preceding wish is to lead. ["The progres- longer living (ch. xvii. 11 seq.). [Delitzsch, sive rendering seems to be preferable (to the however, and in a way which seems more suitaadversative), because the human vindication ble to the sublimity and scope of the passage: after death, which is the object of the wish "as the Last One, whose word shall avail in the expressed in ver. 23 seq. is still not essentially ages of eternity, when the strife of human voices different from the Divine vindication hoped for shall have long been silent."] Of this Last in ver. 25, which must not be regarded as an One, or this One who is hereafter to come, Job antithesis, but rather as a perfecting of the says: "He will stand up, He will arise" (DAP), other, designed for posterity. Ver. 25 is, how- viz. for his protection and his deliverance (Dp, ever, certainly a higher hope, to which the wish in ver. 23 seq. forms the stepping stone." Del.]tion of a judge to help one: Ps. xii. 6 [5]; Is. the customary term for the favorable intervenThe causal rendering (LXX., Vulgate, Stickel [E. V., Good, Carey, Renan].) is less probable, ii. 19, 21; xxxiii. 10, or also of a witness). He although not altogether meaningless, as Dillmann is thus to appear pyy, "upon the dust;"

perf. Piel of p3, "to break off" (in Piel used particularly of the hewing down of trees, Is. x. 34. Hence the third plur. here being used impersonally (comp. ch. iv. 19; vii. 3; xviii. 18), "after my skin, which is broken off," i. e. cut off piecemeal, mutilated, broken in pieces [E. V. unnecessarily supplies "worms" as subject]. The reference is to the skin together with the tender parts of the flesh [D7] adhering to it, which gradually rot away, so that the meaning is similar to that of ch. xviii. 13. The added at the end of this member of the verse cannot

i. e., according to ch. xvii. 16; xx. 11; xxi. 26, | spannung), is an appositional relative clause, indisputably. -on the dust to which I shall soon referring to "y. It is found in the third plur. return (Gen. iii. 19; Eccles. iii. 20), or in which I shall soon be made to lie down, on the dust of my decayed body, or of my grave. This is the only meaning of the expression which suits the context (so Rosenm., Ewald, Vaih., Welte, Del., Dillmann [Conant, Elzas, Merx], etc.). Any other explanation does more or less violence to the language, whether with Umbreit we translate in a way altogether too classic, "in the arena;" or with Hahn, altogether too freely: “above the earth," i. e. in heaven! or with Jerome, Luther, and most of the ancients, altogether too dogmatically, and withal against the usage of the language, we find expressed an "awakening out of the earth;" or finally with possibly be interpreted as equivalent to ni Hirzel and others, we understand it in a way, "this shall be" (Targ., Gesen.) [for in altogether too rationalistic of an "appearing of that case I should have stood at the head of God on the earth," in the sense of ch. xxxviii., the clause]. We must either, with Arnheim, rejecting any reference to the continuance of Stickel, Hahn, Delitzsch [Lee, Rodwell, and life hereafter [this last rendering, however, preferred by Green], explain it to mean "so, in being adopted by not a few of the commentators this manner," connecting it in this sense adverwho refer the passage to the final resurrection: bially with p "thus torn to pieces," Del.), so e. g. Scott, Lee]. In opposition to all these or else explain it deictically, as pointing to the views, Dillmann says truly: "[Had Job intend- skin, or, since iy is strictly masc., as pointing ed here simply to express the hope of an appear-to the body as here represented by that term, ance of God for the purpose of deciding the con- the totality of Job's members and organs. [The troversy in favor of Job, p-hy would have distinction which the E. V. makes between the been unnecessary (comp. e. g. Ps. xii. 6), and "skin" and the "body," the destruction of the instead of Dip' he would have said 77 rather, latter being "after" that of the former seems not sufficiently warranted. Such a distinction for it is not said elsewhere that God arises on the must have been more clearly indicated. The dust when He appears; besides that God does construction is indeed a peculiar one, and yet not appear in ch. xxxviii. on the earth, but He exceedingly pathetic in its broken irregularity. speaks His final decision out of the storm. "And after my skin-when it is all fallen off by Rather do] the words express the expectation decay-this tattered thing which you now see!" of a who lives, even when Job lives no longer, who comes after him, and who for the open vindication of his right arises on the dust in which he is laid, or stands above his grave." (Analogies from Arabic usage compel us thus to understand the phrase of the grave, or the dust of the grave; see Delitzsch.) "The words thus lead us without doubt into the circle of thought indicated in ch. xvi. 18 (although at the same time beyond the same). He does not yet say whom he intends by this, because the main thought here is the certainty that such an one lives; not until ver. 26, after he has explained himself further, does he surprise the friends and himself by saying that the object of his hope is Eloah Himself."

E.] In respect to the various renderings of the ancients, especially those of the Targ., of Jerome, of Luther, etc., see below [Doctrinal and Ethical] the history of the exposition of the passage.-And free from my flesh, shall I behold Eloah.-If ' be explained "out of my flesh" [or, as in this sense it is rendered by many, "in my flesh," either referring it to his resurrection-body, E. V., Good, Lee, etc.; or] with a reference to the restored body of the sufferer (Eichh. v. Cölln, Knapp, Hofmann) [Noyes, Wemyss, Elz., Rod., who render by "in"], it would form an inappropriate antithesis to ip in a, which would be all the more strange, seeing that only a little before, in ver. 20, they had been used as in substance synonymous. Neither can the expression signify exactly "from behind, or within my flesh" (against Volck); this meaning would require, or

Ver. 26. And after my skin, which is broken in pieces, even this.- is not a conjunction belonging to 10p), "after that" (Targ., de Dieu, Gesenius [Schlott., Con., Word., Rod.], etc.), but as its position immediately (after Cant. iv. 1, 3; vi. 7). Hence ? before shows, a preposition [a prepos. is to be rendered privatively, "away from, withwhen used as a conjunc. being always followed out,"free from" (comp. ch. xi. 15; xxi. 9). In immediately by the verb; see ch. xlii. 7; Lev. that case, however, the reference is not to xiv. 43. Rendered as a prepos. the meaning of the last point of time in Job's earthly life, when the phrase "after my skin" will be "after the he would be relieved of all his flesh, i. e., would loss of it." Comp. ch. xxi. 21, 18, "after be completely reduced to a skeleton (Chrysost., him," to wit, after his death]. p, however Umbr., Hirz., Stickel, Heiligst., Hahn, Renan, etc.), but to his condition after departing from (which is not to be taken [with Hofmann, this earth, a condition which if not absolutely Schriftbeweis II., 2, 508] as a Chaldaizing incorporeal, is at least one of freedom from the variation of DP? an envelope, Germ. Um- body. It refers to the time when, freed from his

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