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narily associated with riches and power, must constitute, in the opinion of the speaker, the probable reason why Job, who was once rich and honored, had fallen so low, and been made to suffer the Divine chastisement.

Ver. 6. For thou didst distrain thy bre

man's conduct, whether it be thus or so, whether he act unwisely, (i. e. wickedly, Ps. xiv. 2 [1], or intelligently (i. e. piously, righteously); so that accordingly if the latter is the case, man cares only for his own well-being. In regard to 2D, lit. "to dwell beside one another, to become one's neighbor," and hence "to assist one an-thren without cause—i. e., without being in other, to be serviceable, to be profitable," comp. above on ch. xv. 3; also xxxv. 3. The pathetic plural form, with the signification of the singular, rhy, as in ch. xx. 23. [The use of by in the second member, instead of as in the first, is one of the Aramaisms, "which poetry gladly adopts" (Del.). Comp. Ps. xvi. 6].

we

thy superfluity under any necessity of doing so
(Hirzel). The brethren are naturally the next
of kin, fellow-clansmen, not specially brethren
in the more literal sense. If instead of
should with many MSS. and Editions (so also
Bähr and Delitzsch) read T, this singular
form, "thy brother," would nevertheless require

to be understood as a collective, as the second Al-member shows. And the clothes of the naked thou didst strip off.—By Dy we are to understand, of course, not those who are absolutely naked, but those who are scantily clothed, the half-naked poor, as in Isa. xx. 2; John xxi. 7; James ii. 15 (comp. also SENECA, De Beneficis, v. 13: si quis male vestitutum et pan"naked" ones by distraint of their last piece of nosum videt, nudum se vidisse dicit). To strip such apparel is forbidden not only by the law of Moses (Ex. xxii. 25 seq.; Deut. xxiv. 6, 10 seq.), but also by the sentiment of universal humanity. The same may be said of the proofs of cruelty enumerated in the following verse [ver. 7: Thou gavest no water to the fainting to drink, and thou didst refuse bread to the hungry]; comp. Isa. Iviii. 10, and for the opposite course Matt. x. 42.

Ver. 3. Is it an advantage to the mighty, if thou art righteous? en [lit. "pleasure"] means here, as the parallely in the second member shows, "interest, gain, advantage," as in ch. xxi. 21. Or a gain, if thou behavest blamelessly? lit. "if thou makest thy ways blameless" [or "perfect"] (DA, imperf. Hiph. of D, with the [Aramizing] doubling of the first radical; comp. Gesen. 2 66, Rem. 8), si integras facias vias tuas. The meaning of the whole question is: God gets no profit from men's righteousness; consequently the motives which determine him to inflict sufferings on men are neither selfish, nor arbitrary. Ver. 4. Will He because of thy godliness [lit. "fear, godly fear"] chastise thee, enter into judgment with thee? That is: if now then the cause of such a calamity as has befallen thee lies in thyself, can it be thy piety for which God punishes thee? Hirzel interprets 777 to mean: "from fear of thee," the suffix expressing the genit. of the object against the context, which requires a meaning antithetic to, ver. 5. [Hirzel's explanation is the one adopted also by Bernard, Wemyss, Carey, Renan, Rodwell, Elzas]. The meaning: "godly fear, piety" is all the more firmly established for by the fact that Eliphaz has already used this same word twice in this emphatic sense: chap. iv. 6 and chap. xv. 4 ["a genuine Eliphazian word, in accordance with the poet's method of assigning favorite words and habits to his speakers." EWALD].

Ver. 8. And the man of the fist (absolute case)-his was the land, and the honored one was to dwell therein!-That is to say, according to the insolent, selfish, grasping views and principles which Eliphaz imputes to Job. The "man of the arm," or "of the fist" (UN), i. c., the powerful and violent man, as well as "the honored man" (D', as in Isa. iii. 3; ix. 14), is none other than Job himself, the proud, rich Emir, who, as Eliphaz maliciously conjectures, had driven away many of the poor and helpless from house and home, in order to seize upon the land far and wide for himself. According to the assumption that both expressions referred to another than Job, whom the latter had favored in his course of self-aggrandizement (Rosenmüller, Umbreit, Hahn [Noyes, Wemyss, Renan, Elzas-who translates: "As if the land belonged to the man of power alone; as if only the man of rank may dwell therein"]), the strong sense of the passage is needlessly weakened. That Job is not immediately addressed here, as in the verse just preceding, and again in the verse following, is to be explained by the vivid objectivizing tendency of the description.

Ver. 5. The conclusion, expressed in the interrogative form, like the preceding propositions in the syllogism. Is not thy wickedness great, and no end of thy transgressions?—Thus strongly does Eliphaz accuse Job here; for, entangled in legalism, he thinks that if the impossibility that God should cause the innocent to suffer be once for all firmly held, then, from the severity of the sufferings inflicted on any one, we may argue the greatness of the transgressions which are thus punished,-a piece of bad logic, seeing that it entirely overlooks the intermediate Ver. 9. Widows thou didst send away possibility which lies between those two ex-empty-when they came to thee as suptremes, that God may inflict suffering on such as pliants; and the arms of the orphans were are friends indeed, but not yet perfected in broken-in consequence, namely, of the treattheir piety, with a view to their trial or purifi- ment which such needy and helpless ones were cation. wont to receive from thee and those like thee. The discourse here assumes the objective generalizing tone, for the reason that Eliphaz is sen

Second Strophe: Vers. 6-10. Enumeration of a series of sins, which, seeing that they are ordi

rather than as an independent subject, followed by a relative clause: " darkness, that thou canst not see' (E. V., Umbreit, Noyes, Con., Lee, Renan, Rodwell, etc.).—E.]

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sible that the concrete proofs of the charge which he would be able to produce out of Job's former history would be all too few! The "arms of the orphans" is a figurative expression describing not their appeal for help, but all their powers Ver. 12. Is not Eloah the height of heaand rights, all upon which they could depend for ven? i. e. the heaven-high, infinitely exalted support. The same phrase--occurs One (comp. ch. xi. 8; [in view of which pasalso in Psalm xxxvii. 17; Ezek. xxx. 22. For sage, says Schlottmann, the construction of the "arms" as the symbol of strength, power, na as Accus. loci: "in the height of comp. ch. xl. 9; Psalm 1xxvii. 16 [15]; lxxxiii. 9 [8].

Ver. 10. Therefore snares are round about thee (a figure descriptive of destruction as besetting him around; comp. ch. xviii. 8-10), and terror suddenly comes upon [or affrights] thee (comp. Prov. iii. 25)—i. e., sudden deadly anguish, terror in view of thy approaching complete destruction, overpowers thee time after time. Comp. the similar description above in Bildad's discourse, ch. xviii. 11. ["To be noted is the frequent paronomasia of 5 and M." SCHLOTT.].

3. Second Division, or Double Strophe: the warning. If Job should presumptuously cast doubt on the Divine righteousness, and thereby make himself partaker of the sins of those in the primeval world who insolently denied God, he would draw down on himself the Divine judgment which had been ordained for those guilty of such wickedness, and which would without fail overtake them, however long and securely they might seem to enjoy their prosperity: vers. 11-20.

Third Strophe: vers. 11-15. Or seest thou not the darkness, and the flood of waters, which covereth thee?—That is, dost thou not then perceive in what destruction thou art already involved, and that in punishment for thy sins? "Darkness" and the 66 flood of waters" (the multitudinous heaving of waters, y as in Is. lx. 6) are here, as also in ch. xxvii. 20, a figure not of the sins of Job (Hahn), but of the night of suffering and of the deep misery, which, as Eliphaz thinks, had come upon him in consequence of his sins. is a relative clause, and logically belongs also to ; comp. Is. lx. 2. In mentioning darkness and a flood as bursting on Job, he has reference to the catastrophe of the deluge, which in the following verses he proceeds to hold up as a warning picture of terror (ver. 16). The whole verse forms a suitable transition from the accu

heaven," is less probable than the construction
as predicate]).-And see now the head of
the stars (i. e. the highest of the stars, '
gen. partitivus) how high they are!- "how,"
or also "that," as in Gen. xlix. 15; 1 Sam. xiv.
29. The plural [by attraction] as in ch.
xxi. 21; comp. Ewald, 317, c. The whole
verse, in this reference to the Divine greatness
and exaltation, beginning as a question, and
passing over into a challenge, has for its object
the vindication of Him who is above the world,
and above man, against every thought which
would limit His knowledge, or cast any suspi-
cion on the perfect justice of His ways.

Ver. 13 seq. The doubt expressed by Job touching the justice of God in administering the affairs of the world is here interpreted by Eliphaz as a denial that God has any knowledge of earthly things, or feels any special concern in what happens to men. He therefore reproaches him with holding that erroneous, and almost atheistical conception of the Deity, which has since been advanced by the Epicureans (see e. g. Lucretius III. 640 seq.), and more recently by the English Deists. ["Eliphaz here attributes to Job, who in ch. xxi. 22 had appealed to the exaltation of God in opposition to the friends, a complete misconception of the truth, and thus skilfully turns against Job himself the weapon which the latter had just sought to wrest from him." Schlottmann]. And so thou thinkest what should God know?) will He judge (literally "say est") what knows God? (or: through (as in Gen. xxvi. 8; Joel ii. 9) the darkness of the clouds ?-i. e. judge us men on this lower earth, from which He, covered by the clouds, is wholly separated and shut off.

Ver. 14 continues this symbolical description of this total separation of God from the world: Clouds are a covering to Him, so that He sees not (comp. Lam. iii. 44), and He walks upon the vault (or "circle," Prov. viii. 27; sation in the preceding section to the warning earthly world, which is too small and insignifiIs. xl. 22) of the heaven-not therefore on this which now follows. [By the majority of versions and commentators ver. 11 is joined imme- cant for Him. Similar expressions of unbelief diately to the verse preceding, as its continua-earth may be found e. g. in Ps. lxxiii. 11; xciv. touching God's special concern for the affairs of tion. There is certainly a close connection between the two. But that Zöckler (after Dill-7; Is. xxix. 15; Ezek. viii. 12. mann) is correct in regarding ver. 11 as transitional to what follows, and so introducing the next strophe, is favored both by the use of the disjunctive rather than, and by the evident anticipation of ver. 16 in the Dy. This view requires the construction of n as the object of: "seest thou not the darkness?" (Ewald, Schlottm., Dillm., Delitzsch),

Ver. 15. Wilt thou keep in the path of the old world? (, to observe, follow, as in Ps. xviii. 22 [not "hast thou marked"? E. V. against which is the fut. D, and the connection] and Diy, as in Jer. vi. 16; xviii. 15), which the men of wickedness trod? i. e. insolent, ungodly and wicked men, as they are described in the following verses, both as to their arrogant deeds, and their righteous pun

ishment. The reference to the race of men im- | happy all their lives. El. says: No! these are mediately preceding the Noachian deluge (the άрxało κóσμоs of 2 Pet. ii. 5) is evident enough.

Fourth Strophe: vers. 16-20. Description of the destruction of those ungodly men as a divine judgment overtaking them after a season of prosperity, together with an application to the controversy suggested by Job's case in respect to the doctrine of retribution.

Ver. 16. [The asterisk in the Hebrew Bible marks the verse as the middle of the book, there being 537 verses before, and the same number after this mark] Who were swept off (

lit. "were seized" comp. above on ch. xvi. 8) [Bernard, Rodwell, etc., "who became shrivelled (corpses) before, etc." Carey: "who got tied up... so that escape was impossible," but better as above,-"to be snatched away"] before the time-i. e. before there was any probability, according to human experience, that their hour had come; comp. the ȧwpot of the LXX. also above in ch. xv. 32 ipi

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-as even in the present passage some Mss. read instead of (com. Ps. cxxxix. 16). As a stream their foundation was poured away—i. e. it became fluid, so that they could no longer stand on it, but sank down. Again a palpable allusion to the deluge (scarcely to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, in mentioning which the rain of fire and brimstone (Gen. xix. 24; comp. Job xviii. 15) would scarcely have been forgotten:-against Ewald [and Davidson, Introd. ii. 229]). The construction of the words which we have followed, according to which DTD is the subject, nominat. of the predicate or product, and py descriptive Imperf. Hoph. (not an unusual alternate form of the Perf. Pual P as Ewald supposes) appears as that which alone is favored by the position of the words and the accents. The following renderings are not so good: "their place became a poured out stream" (Hirzel: "whose foundation was a poured out stream" (Umbr., Olsh.) [Rodwell]; "a stream was poured out upon their foundation" (Rosenm., Hahn) [Lee, Carey: with which may be connected the rendering of E. V. Renan, Noyes, Elzas: "whose foundation was overflown with a flood," and of Conant: "their foundation was poured away in a flood "].

Ver. 17. Who said unto God: Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do for them?-The sentiment of the ungodly is expressed first in the direct and then in the indirect form of speech, precisely as in ch. xix.

28. As to the matter the passage reminds us of Job's last discourse, ch. xxi. 14, 15. The same arrogant God-renouncing utterances, which Job there attributes to the prosperous wicked described by him, is here imputed by Eliphaz to the objects of his description, in order to show to him that up to a certain point he agrees entirely with his representation of the relation of external prosperity to human sinfulness. ["El. no doubt intends this as a direct contradiction to Job's statement. The Patriarch had asserted that men of these atheistical principles were

the very sort of men who were visited by the judgment of the deluge, and you are just as bad as they, for you are treading in their steps." Carey].

Ver. 18. And yet he had filled their houses with blessings-(, prosperity, good, as below ver. 21 and ch. xxi. 25 maio); circumstantial clause, which stands connected with the principal verb in ver. 16, having a restrictive force, in order to express the contrast between the sudden judgment which overtakes the wicked, and the long season of prosperity preceding it, which gives to them the appearance of exemption from punishment. The formula of detestation which follows in Eliphaz intentionally takes as it were out of the mouth of Job (comp. ch. xxi. 16), in order to impress upon him that only he has the right thus to speak who does not doubt that God inflicts righteous retribution.

Ver. 19. The righteous will see it :-to wit, the destruction which will one day befall the wicked (not the punishment inflicted on the sinners of the primeval world, which was long will mock at them-at those who were once since past)-and rejoice, and the innocent prosperous, but have now encountered the righteous penalty of their transgressions, in regard to whom accordingly the proverb will be verified-" he laughs best who laughs last." The triumphant joy of the righteous over the final punishment of the ungodly, which they shall live to see, and which Eliphaz here describes in such a way as to contrast with Job's previous utterances, ch. xvii. 8; xxi. 5, 6, is frequently described in the Old Testament; comp. Ps. lviii. 11 [10] seq.; lxiv. 10 [9] seq.

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Ver. 20 contains the words in which this future triumph of the pious will be expressed. Verily (-D as in ch. i. 11; xvii. 2) our adversaries are destroyed. ' (instead of which Olsh. needlessly proposes after Ps. xliv. 6; Ex. xv. 7) is a pausal form for from a root D'p, which occurs only here, meaning "he who is set up" (partic. pass.), i. e. the adversary. The righteous designate the ungodly as their adversaries not in a personal, but an ethical sense, because God's enemies are also their enemies; comp. Ps. cxxxix. 21; Rom. xi. 28. And what is left to them a fire has devoured D, "their remnant, their residue," to wit, in property and wealth; the remainder of their means; hardly "their super-abundance" (Del.) ["for why should the fire devour only that which they had as a superfluity?" Dillm.] D is used here accordingly in another sense than in ch. iv. 21, a passage otherwise similar to the present. For the use of fire as a symbol of the divine decree of punishment effecting a radical extermination, comp. ch. xv. 34; xx. 26; Ezek. xx. 28, etc.

T:

4. Third Division, or Double Strophe: vers. 2130: An admonition to repentance, and a promise of salvation to the penitent.

Fifth Strophe: vers. 21-25: The admonition. Ver. 21. Make friends now with Him,

IT

T:

shalt be built up, thou shalt put away, etc.," does not quite correctly set forth the logical relation of the clauses. E.]

Ver. 25. And lay down in (or cast down to) the dust the precious ore.-The word

and be at peace. 2 here with Dy, which gives a signification different from that found above in ver. 2, viz. "to make friends with any one, to draw nigh to any one," comp. James iv. 8. The following is to be rendered as an Imperat. consec. (comp. Prov. iii. 4; and Gesen., which occurs only here and in the follow130 [127], 2; "and be at peace, i. e. "and so shalt thou be at peace." ["We distinguish best between 1 and D by regarding the former as expressing the conclusion, the latter the preservation of peace." Schlottmann]. Thereby shall blessing come to thee-come upon thee, comp. ch. xx. 22. (instead of which many Mss. read) is 3 sing. fem. imperf. with a doubled indication of its feminine form (first by ♬ and afterwards by 7), hence, with suffix of the 2d person. Comp. in regard to such double feminines Delitzsch on the passage [who refers to Prov. i. 20; Ezek. xxiii. 20; Josh. vi. 17; 2 Sam. i. 26; Amos iv. 3], also Ewald 191, c; 249, c [Green 88, 3 f.]-Olsh. and Rödig. following certain Mss. would read : "thereby will thine income be a good one," but this would impart to the discourse an artificial character, seeing that an earthly reward is not mentioned before ver. 25 seq. As to D, "thereby" (lit. "by these things") with neuter suffix, comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 18; Is. lxiv. 4; xxxviii. 16.

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Ver. 22. Receive, I pray, instruction out of His mouth.-God's mouth represented as the source of instruction in the higher truth, as in Prov. ii. 6 [El. as Dillm. says claiming to be himself the interpreter of God's teaching to Job].

ing verse, signifies according to the etymology as well as the connection precious metal, gold or silver, and that in its crude, unprepared state, as it is brought forth out of the shafts of the mountain mines, hence "gold and silver ore," "virgin-gold" (Delitzsch). The "laying down of such metal in the dust" signifies that one relieves himself of it as of worthless trash. The second member expresses the same thought still more strongly. And among the pebbles of the brooks ( assonant with ") the gold of Ophir,- for the more complete and common ex one, comp. ch. xxviii. 16; Ps. xlv. 10 [9], etc., also such modern mercantile abbreviations as Mocha, Damask, Champagne, etc. In regard to the much disputed location of the land of Ophir (LXX. 'Qpeip,—Cod. Al. however Zoocip, which reminds us of Sufâra, on the peninsula of Guzerat, in India, as well as of the Coptic Sofir, used as a name for India) comp. the Realwörterbücher [Cyclopædias and Dictionaries]; also Bähr on 1 Kings x. 22 [Vol. VI. which located Ophir in India, or in Arabia has of this series, p. 122]. To the earlier theories who in a Report to the London Geographical Sobeen added latterly that of Sir Rod. Murchison, ciety is inclined to the opinion that the southAfrican coast around the mouth of the Limpopo river is the true Ophir of the Bible, supporting his view in part by the conjectures of the wellknown archeologist, John Crawford (in his DeVer. 23. If thou returnest to the Al- scriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands), mighty.-(as in Joel ii. 12; Am. iv. 6 which point to this locality, and in part by the seq. ; Is. xix. 22) ["We are told by Rosenmüller discoveries of districts abounding in gold, which that ¶1⁄2 stands here for to, but we are rather made since 1866 in this very region (north of the the German traveller, K. Mauch, claims to have inclined to think with Maimonides that it is pur- colony of Natal). Comp. the Ausland, 1868, posely made use of in its real signification, viz., No. 39: Die Goldfünde in der Kolonie Natal und as far as, even to, right up to, close up to, in order das Ophir der Bibel-which essay indeed rightly to encourage Job, who was looked upon by the prefers the combinations of K. Ritter, Chr. Lasspeaker as a very great sinner, by showing him sen, etc. pointing to the East Indies, while an that notwithstanding the enormities of his sins, article in the "Globus," Vol. 18, No. 24, p. 369 he need not despair of coming through penitence seeks to mediate between the two hypotheses by again close up to his offended Creator." Bernard.supposing Ophir to be "a wild region on the Or, as Carey says, that his return must be no partial movement, "not one that would stop half way, but a return quite to God"]. If thou removest iniquity far (puttest it far away) Ver. 25. Apodosis. Then will the Almighty from thy tents.-This second conditional clause, being parallel to the antecedent clause be thy treasure (D', pl. of 2, hence lit in a, needs no apodosis. It adds to the former "pieces of gold-ore, pieces of metal") and silver a more specific qualification, which in itself in- in heaps to thee-scil. "will He be.”—DVIA deed is not necessary, but which is appropriately which occurs elsewhere only in Num. xxiii. 22; illustrative of the former; comp. ch. xi. 14. The xxiv. 8; and Ps. xcv. 4, has received very difLXX., who in the first member read (Kal ferent explanations. According to these pasTateiwoŋs) instead of 2 construed the whole sages, however, it must signify "things standing verse as the antecedent, vers. 24, 25 as paren- out high and prominent." Here, therefore it thetic, and ver. 26 as consequent-a dragging must mean either "high heaps of silver," or The former construction, which indeed has a parallel in ch. "long, prominent bars of silver." xi. 13-15, but has less to justify it here in the definition is favored by the fact that the Arabic sense and connection. [The E. V. in making certifies for the signification, "to tower, to the last clause a part of the apodosis-"thou grow, to mount upward," a meaning which the

Indian Ocean, which embraced a part of the eastern coast of Africa and of the western coast of India."

Vulgate expresses here also (argentum coacervabitur tibi), while on the contrary the derivation of the word from the root y', "to shine" (comp. the LXX : καθαρὸν ὥσπερ ἀργύριον πεπυρωμένον), or even from "to be weary" (Gesen. in Thes., Böttcher [Con. "silver sought with toil"] etc), has but slight etymological foundation. In regard to the sentiment in vers. 24-25 comp. New Testament parallels; like Matth. vi. 20, 33; xix. 21; Luke xii. 33; 1 Tim. vi. 16-19, etc. [The rendering of these two verses (24, 25) by the E. V. is to be rejected as inconsistent

cannot שִׁית עַל־עָפָר with the language (thus

be "to lay up as dust"), and as yielding a much feebler sense.-E.]

quently introduced with climactic force in 30 b. E.] And to the humbled one (i. e., to thee, if thou art humbled; lit. "to him who has downcast eyes,” LXX.: κύφοντα ὀφθαλμοῖς) Ηe works out deliverance; i. e., God, who is also the subject of the first member in the following verse. It is not necessary therefore with the Pesh. and Vulg. to read the passive y

Ver. 30. He will rescue him that is not guiltless, and (yet more!) he is rescued by the pureness of thine hands (D'99 13 as in ch. xvii. 9; Ps. xviii. 21 [20]; xxiv. 4); i. e., on account of thine innocence, which thou shalt then have recovered, God will be gracious even to others who need an atonement for their sins.

Sixth Strophe: vers. 26-30: Further expansion So great and transcendent an efficacy does Eliof the promise annexed to the admonition.— phaz assume that Job's future conversion will Yea, then shalt thou delight thyself in possess, without once anticipating that he (tothe Almighty.-IN- confirmatory, as in ch. gether with Bildad and Zophar) will turn out to be the not-guiltless one" (P for 'P xi. 15 or argumentative-"for then," etc., which is the common rendering. For the rep- Ewald, 215, b) [Gesen., 8 149, 1], whom God resentation of God as the object of joy or delight will forgive only on Job's account; comp. ch. on the part of the righteous comp. Ps. xxxvii. 4; xlii. 8. [Another striking example of that draIs. lviii. 14. In regard to "lifting up the face" matic irony in which our author from time to as an expression of freedom from the conscious-time indulges, when he allows for a moment the light of the future to fall on his characters in ness of sin (the opposite of D, Gen. iv. such a way as to present the contrast between 6), comp. above ch. xi. 15.

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their thoughts and God's thoughts.-E.] Seb. Ver. 27. If thou prayest to Him, etc.Schmidt and J. D. Michaelis have already given hypothetical antecedent without D, as the correct explanation, as follows: Liberabit also in the following verse. As to Deus et propter puritatem manuum tuarum alios, to pray (lit. "to present incense"), comp. Ex. viii. 4 [8], 25 [29]; x. 17. In respect to "discharging," i. e. "fulfilling" vows (here most naturally such as have been offered in connection with prayer), see Ps. xxii. 26 [25]; 1. 14; lxi. 6 [5], 9 [8]; lxv. 2 [1]. Comp. v. Gerlach on this passage (below in the Homiletical Remarks).

quos propria innocentia ipsos deficiens ipsos deficiens non esset liberatura. So also substantially most moderns, while Hirzel arbitrarily understands by the not-guiltless one Job, with another subject for the second member. Umbreit, howJob as the object of the first member (='P ever, gives a still harsher construction, taking and at the same time as subject of the second Ver. 28. If thou purposest anything, so member, which he treats as addressed to God: shall it come to pass to thee. lit. "to"yea, he (Job) is delivered by the pureness of cut off," here as an Aramaism in the sense of Thy hands;" i. e., by Thy Divine righteousness. "to purpose, determine." , either [E. V., in taking 'N in its usual meaning of "a matter, anything," or "design, plan" (Del.). As to DP, "to come to pass, to be realized," comp. Is. vii. 7; Prov. xv. 22; in respect to "light upon thy ways," see ch. xix. 8.

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Ver. 29. When they lead downwardsviz. thy ways (as to braun, "to make low, to lead downwards," comp. Jer. xiii. 18), then thou sayest-Upward! -, syncopated form of (Ewald % 62, b; 73, b), lit. "uplifting" here as an interjection, meaning "upward! arise!" not, however, as a petition in a prayer (Dillm., etc.), but as a triumphant exclamation in thanksgiving. [This rendering is certainly not free from objection, especially on account of the artificial cast which it seems to give to the expression. The rendering of E. V., however: "when men are cast down, then thou shalt say, etc.," is still less satisfactory, destroying as it does the connection between the first and second members, leaving two verbs, ben and yo, with subjects unexpressed, and introducing in a a thought which is scarcely suited to this connection, and which is subse

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island," gives a rendering which is seen at once to be altogether unsuitable.-E.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

1. Eliphaz in the second part of this new discourse is prompted to discuss somewhat more thoroughly than before the proposition advanced by Job (ch. xxi.) touching the frequent contradiction between the moral desert and the outward lot of men, which he does indeed only by representing the prosperity of the wicked, the existence of which he cannot deny, as only apparent, and quickly passing away (vers. 1520). Following upon this discussion, which has in it little that is personal, and which concerns itself rather with the subject-matter, he resumes the tone of fatherly admonition and persuasion by promises of good found in his first discourse, instead of continuing the purely threatening tone of the second (ch. xv.), closing even with a prophetic picture so full of light, that it quite rivals in the freshness and glow of its colors that found at the close of the first discourse (ch. v. 17 seq.), and breathes a spirit which certainly proves him to be in his way Job's sincere

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