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النشر الإلكتروني

the speaker a sharp, bitterly satirical rebuff,
and then meets his propositions in regard to
God's greatness and holiness, not by denying
them, but by surpassing them with a far more
magnificent and eloquent description of the same
divine attributes. [And note particularly that
as Bildad's illustrations of his theme are drawn
from the heavenly hosts and luminaries, Job in
his reply dwells principally, though not exclu-
sively on God's greatness as manifested in the
heavens above.-E.]-The Strophe-scheme of
both discourses is very simple, Bildad's discourse
containing only two strophes, the first of three,
the second of two verses; Job's discourse con-
taining four strophes, each of three verses.
2. The last discourse of Bildad: ch. xxv.
Man
can neither argue with God, nor is he pure

before Him.

is doubtful in view of the indefiniteness
of the figurative form of expression.
upon whom does not His light arise ?—
And

עֵינִיהוּ .comp) אוֹרֵהוּ The emphatic suffix ehu in

ch. xxiv. *23) puts His light, to wit God's own light, in contrast with the derived lower light of His hosts. The expression is scarcely to be understood of the sunlight, which indeed itself belongs to the number of these 7: neither can Dip, be taken!! (neither here, nor ch. xi. 17). It is inadmissible accordingly to refer the words to the rising sun, as a sign of the fatherly beneficent solicitude of God for His earthly creatures (comp. Matth. v. 45. So against Mercier, Hirz. Hahn, Schlott., etc.). We are to understand them rather of that absolutely supraterrestrial light in which God dwells, which He wears as His garment, by which indeed He manifests His being, His heavenly doxa (Ps. civ. Ezek. i. 27 seq.; 1 Tim. vi. 16, etc.). In respect to this light Bildad asks: "upon whom does it not arise?" does it not surpass?" ["over whom (i. e. which The question is not: "whom of these beings of light) does it not rise, leaving it behind, and exceeding it in brightness?" Delitzsch], for Dip would scarcely be appropriate for this thought, since the degree of light is not measured by its height (against Ewald, Heiligst., Del.)-but: "upon whom does it not dispense blessings and happiness?" (Dillm.)

First Strophe: vers. 2-4.-Dominion and fear are with Him, who maketh peace in His high places.-, lit. "to wield domi-2; nion, to exercise sovereignty," a substantive Inf. absol. Hiph.; comp. Ewald, § 156, e.—[ is added in order to set forth the terrible majesty of this sovereignty.-Schlott.]cannot be understood as a more precise qualification of the subject: "He in His high places, He who is enthroned in the heights of heaven" (Reimarus, Umbreit, Hahn). It is rather a local qualification of the action affirmed of the subject. It accordingly describes the peace Ver. 4. How could a mortal be just founded by God as established in the heights of with God-(comp. ch. ix. 2): i. e. how could heaven, and so having reference to the inhabi- he appear before Him, to whose absolute power tants of heaven, and pre-supposing their former all heavenly beings are subject, arguing with strife. Bear in mind what was said above by Him, and making pretensions to righteousness? Job of God's "judging those in heaven" (ch. The second member, with which ch. iv. 17; xv. xxi. 22), and comp. Is. xxiv. 21; also below ch. 14 may be compared, stands connected with the xxvi. 13.—It is a weakening of the sense which principal thought of the discourse, which immeis scarcely justified by the language to under-diately follows, to the effect that no man posstand the passage as teaching God's agency in sesses purity or moral spotlessness before God. harmonizing either the elements of the heavenly Second Strophe: vers. 5-6. Kosmos (the perpetually recurring cycle, the Ver. 5. Behold, even the moon, it shineth wonderfully ordered paths of the stars, comp. not brightly, and the stars are not pure Clemens Rom. 1 Cor. xix.), or the discord of the in His eyes.--y, lit. "even to the moon," heavenly spirits, conceived of only in the most i. e. even as regards the moon. abstract possible manner, but in truth continu- the is the Vav of the apodosis; comp. In the following ally averted by God, and thus as teaching the maintenance, not the making or institution, of Gesen. 145 [142], 2; and see above ch. xxiii. peace (so Seb. Schmidt, J. Lange, Starke, etc.). 12. from, an alternate form, "Ewald explains the words of the heavenly found only here, of, to be bright, to shine; powers and spirits represented by the innumerable host of the stars, which might indeed comp. ch. xxxi. 26. Gekatilia's attempt to rensome time be at war among themselves, but der the verb-" to pitch a tent," is inadmissible, which are ever brought again by the Higher for that must have read D, in order to yield Power into order and peace. But nothing the meaning-" He pitcheth not his tent."whatever is said elsewhere of such a discord as now coming to pass in the upper world. All member, belongs also to the first. Comp. the The clause "in His eyes "-in the second analogies point rather to a definite fact which is parallel passages already cited in ch. iv. and assigned to the beginning of creation." Schlott.]. xv.-Furthermore it is only the physical light, Ver. 3. Is there any number to His the silver-white streaming brilliancy of the stars, armies? —1772, synonymous which is here put beside the absolute glory of which is used elsewhere in this sense, are God's God's light (which is at once physical and ethihosts or armies, the stars, first of all, indeed, cal). Scarcely is there reference to the angels the heavenly armies, together with the an- as inhabiting the stars, and to their moral pugels which rule and inhabit them (comp. rity (against Hirzel); from which however noabove on ch. xv. 15). Whether also the lower thing can be inferred unfavorable to the theory forces of nature, such as lightnings, winds, that the stars, i. e., the heavenly globes of the etc. (comp. ch. xxxviii. 19 seq.; Ps. civ. starry world, are inhabited by angels. 4, etc.) are intended, as Dillmann thinks

,צבאיו with

TT:

:

Ver. 6. Much less then ("?, as in ch.

tions.

T:

IV. 16) mortal man, the worm, etc. In re-heavenly world.-The shades are made to gard to these figures of the maggot and the tremble.-D' are not "giants," as the Anworm, as setting forth the insignificance, weak- cient Versions render the word, but in accordness, and contemptibleness of man, comp. Ps. ance with the root 57 ("to be slack, relaxed, xxii. 7 [6]; also Ís. liii. 2, and similar descrip- exhausted," comp. Ewald, 8 55, e), “weak, powerless," namely, the marrowless and bloodless shades or forms of the underworld, the wretched inhabitants of the realm of the dead; so also in Ps. Is. xxvi. 14, 19; comp. ch. xiv. 9 seq. [It seems lxxxviii.; 11 [10]; Prov. ii. 18; ix. 18, and often: every way reasonable to associate with the idea of weakness, nervelessness, etc., here given to the word that of gigantic stature, when we remember that this same word did denote a race

3. Job's rejoinder: ch. xxvi. First Division (and Strophe): vers. 2-4: Sharp ironical rebuke of Bildad.

Ver. 2. How hast thou helped the powerless! here, like , is equivalent to an ironical—“How well! How excellent !" (comp. ch. xix. 28). -, lit. "no-power" is abstr. pro conc. the powerless; so also in by strengthless, the feeble; and in ver. 3 an

the

the unwise, ignorant. By these three parallel descriptive clauses Job means of course himself, as the object of the well-intended, but perverted attempts of the friends to teach him (not God, as Mercier, Schlottm., etc. explain) [as though Bildad had regarded God as too feeble to maintain His own cause. But against this explanation the choice of verbs, if nothing else, would be, as Delitzsch argues, decisive].

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יז

of earthly giants, and that the tendency of the
imagination to magnify the spectral forms of the
dead is so common, if not universal. So Good:
"The spectres of deified heroes were conceived,
in the first ages of the world, to be of vast and
more than mortal stature, as we learn from the
following of Lucretius:

Quippe et enim jam tum divûm mortalia secla
Egregias animo facies vigilante videbant;
Et magis in somnis mirando corporis actu."

This idea will certainly add to the gloomy Ver. 3. .. and hast declared wisdom sublimity of the description here. Let one imain abundance (, lit. "for multitude") | gine the gigantic "marrowless, bloodless phan["an ironical hit at the poverty-stricken brevity toms or shades below writhe like a woman in of B.'s speech." Dillm.]. n, here as in travail as often as the majesty of the heavenly Ruler is felt by them, as perhaps by the raging ch. v. 12 may be rendered by "that which is to be accomplished," provided it be referred to the litzsch. "That even these beings, although othof the sea, or the quaking of the earth." Deintellectual world, and so understood as vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Mich.). Here indeed the erwise without feeling or motion, and situated at word is used ironically of its opposite. an immeasurable distance from God's dwellingVer. 4. To whom hast thou uttered place are sensible of the effects of God's activity, words?-i. e. whom hast thou been desirous-this is a much stronger witness to God's greatof reaching by thy words? for whom were thy of these shades, living far from God in the ness than aught that B. had alleged." Hirzel]. elaborate speeches coined? was it, possibly, for me, who have not been touched by them in the depths under the earth and under the seas So correctly the LXX.: τίνι ἀνήγγειλας (comp. b: "beneath the waters and their inhaphuara, and the Vulg.: quem docere voluisti? The bitants"), it is here said: "they are put in tertranslation: "with whose assistance (-) hast ror, they are made to tremble and quake” (in), thou utttered these words?" (Arnh. Hahn) Pul. from an, comp. Ewald, 141 b), an expres[Con.] seems indeed to be favored by b, but is sion which, like Ps. cxxxix. 8; Prov. xv. 11, is condemned by the construction of the verb T intended to describe the energy of the divine elsewhere in our book with a double accusative omnipotence as illimitable and filling all things, (so also ch. xxxi. 37; comp. Ezek. xliii. 10), and extending even down to Sheol. Comp. also does not agree so well with what precedes. James ii. 19, a passage otherwise related to the And whose breath went forth from thee? one before us, and perhaps suggested by it, but -i. e. from what kind of inspiration (inbreath-having a different purpose. [The rendering of ing) hast thou spoken? is it the divine? Num E. V. needs but to be compared with the above to Deo inspirante locutus es? The question involves show how erroneous and unsatisfactory it is. a biting irony; for the speech of Bildad, so poor-E.]. and meagre in thought, merely repeating a little of what Eliphaz had said already, might look accordingly as though it had been inspired by the latter.

4. Second Division: vers. 5-14: Eclipsing and surpassing the description given by Bildad of the exaltation and majesty of God by one far more glorious.

Second Strophe: vers. 5-7. While Bildad's description took its start from heaven, and its stars, Job begins by appealing to the realm of shades, together with its subterranean inhabitants as witnesses of the divine omnipotence and majesty, in order from this depth, the lowest foundation of all that is, to mount upward to the

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Ver. 6. Naked is the underworld before Him (comp. Heb. iv. 13: návтa đè yvμvà Kaì Teτραχηλισμένα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ), and the abyss of hell has no covering (for Him). Comp. on Prov. xv. 11, a passage parallel to this in matter, where 1 (lit. "destruction, annihilation") stands precisely as here as a synonym of

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; also Ps. cxxxix. 8, and below ch. xxxviii. 17. [The definition, "destruction, annihilation here given for 11 is of course not to be understood in the metaphysical sense of the extinction of being. It is the destruction of life, as enjoyed on the face of the earth; the extinction of light, the derangement

"Pillarless be spreads ont the heavens A canopy above the earth ..... What bears the atmosphere? 'Tis nothing, Nothing on nothing, and only nothing;" also the Arabian Audeddin Alnasaph (de`religione Sonnitar., princ. v. 2):

"Out of a breath He made the heavens ;" and already in the Koran, in its Sur. 13, v. 2, it is said: "It is Allah, who has built the heavens on high, without founding it on visible pillars." Comp. Umbreit on the ver.

of order, the wasting away of all vital energy | classics, such as Lucretius II., 600 seq., Ovid, and beauty. Hence as describes the un-mention of the "pillars of the earth" in ch. ix. Fast. II., 269 seq.) does not conflict with the derworld as the insatiable receptacle of the de-6, for the reason that the "pillars" are conparted, demanding and drawing men into itself, ceived of as the inner roots or bones, the skeleorcus rapax, 2 gives us a glimpse yet deeper ton as it were of the body of the earth. It is into its abysmal horrors, its destructive, wast-only quite indirectly that the passage before us ing potencies. Hence the fearful significance can be used to prove the creation of the world with which in Rev. (ix. 11) it is applied, as the out of nothing. We may suggest as worthy of Hebrew equivalent to the Greek Apollyon, to the note the descriptions, which remind us of the angel of the bottomless pit.-E.]. one before us, in the more recent oriental poets, Ver. 7. Who stretcheth out the north-as e. g. the Persian Ferideddin Attar (in v. Hamern heavens over empty space.-The Par- mer, Geschichte der schönen Redek ünste Persiens, ticiples in this and the two following verses at- p. 141, 143): tach themselves to God, the logical subject of the ver. preceding [and are used to describe the divine activity herein specified as continuous]. Our rendering of D in the sense of the northern heavens, the northern half of the heavenly vault, has decisively in its favor the verb 701, which is never used of the stretching out or expansion of the earth, or a part of it, but always of the out-stretching of the heavenly vault, which is conceived of as a tent; comp. chap. ix. 8; Is. xl. 22; xliv. 24; Zech. xii. 1; Ps. civ. 2, Third Strophe: vers. 8-10. Who bindeth etc. It would be singular, moreover, if Job had up (or "shuts in," comp. Prov. xxx. 4, c) the first mentioned only a part of the earth, the waters in His clouds: which accordingly northern, and not until afterwards had men- are regarded as vessels [bags, bottles, etc.] or tioned it as a whole, however true it might be transparent enclosures for the waters of the that the popular notion of oriental antiquity, heavens above: without the clouds burstwhich represented the north of the earth as a ing under them (the waters); i. e. so that the part of it which abounded most in mountains, weight of these masses of water does not cause and was highest and heaviest, would seem to fa- them to pour themselves forth in torrents of vor this view (against Hirzel, Ewald, Heiligst., rain out of their cloud-vessels, implying that Schlottmann, Dillmann). [Ewald calls atten- this is as God expressly wills and orders it; tion to the corresponding Hindu notion concern-comp. Gen. vii. 11; viii. 2. [ By which nothing the north. Schlottmann thinks such a re-ing more or less is meant than that the physical ference to the north as the heaviest part of the and meteorological laws of rain are of God's apearth best suited to the connection. Dillmann pointment." Del.]. argues that it could not properly be affirmed of the heavens, that they are stretched out over the ]. The reference of to the northern shroudeth the outside of His throne-lit. hemisphere of the heavens (Umbreit, Vaih., Hahn., "of the throne," for D, as in 1 Kings x. 19 Olsh., Del., etc.) is favored also by this conside- is for ND, scarcely, as Hirzel thinks, by an ertion in addition to those already mentioned, that all the more important constellations which our ror of transcription for ND. But unquesbook mentions (the Bear, Pleiades, etc.) belong tionably "the throne" is simply "His throne," to this northern hemisphere, and that moreover God's throne in heaven (comp. Is. lxvi. 1; Matt. among other people of the ancient world, the v. 34). It is said of the face or outside (9) of "pole" (i. e. the north pole), and heaven," this throne, i. e., that side of it which is turned are used as synonyms; so especially among the towards this earth, that God "encloses" or Romans (Varro, de L. L. vii. 2, § 14; Ovid, Fast. "enshrouds" it by causing the clouds to come 6, 278; Horace, and other poets). The correct between it and the earth. ND, Piel from 18, view was substantially given by Brentius: Sy-used here of the artificial veiling, or unclosing, necdoche, a part for the whole; for Aquino, signifies to take which is Septentrio [North] is used for the hold of, in architecture to hold together by whole heaven or firmament. Hangeth the means of beams, or to fasten together... then earth upon nothing: , not anything also as usually in Chald. and Syr. to shut (by [lit. "not-what"]=nothing, here substantially means of cross-bars, Neh. vii. 3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds." Del. Hence synonymous with "the empty space," (comp. not exactly to hold back," E. V. but to "fasten Gen. i. 2), hence denoting the endless empty up." Merx understands the verb of bearing, space in which the earth (which according to holding up, and the verse to set forth the miraver. 10 is conceived of as a flat disk, rather than cle that God bears up the throne on which He as a ball), together with the overarching north-sits. But in that case would be superfluous. ern heavens, hangs freely. The cosmological E.]. Spreading over it His clouds-this conception of the suspension of the earth in the member of the verse explaining the former. empty space of the universe (with which may be

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Ver. 9 ["describes the dark and thickly clouded sky that showers down the rain in the appointed rainy season." Del.] Who

draping it as it were) ["

66

en

compared parallel representations from the " refers to ND1, and the quadril. verb

is Inf. Absol. and may thus be rendered in Latin by expendendo, in our language by the Pres. Active Participle (comp. Ew. 141, c; and Del. on the ver.) [According to others, e. g., Dillmann, Green, 189 a, the vb. is preterite. Gesenius (Lex) regards the quadriliteral as a mixed form, from and 15. Delitzsch argues forcibly against this, and regards it as an intensive form of 5, formed by prosthesis, and an Arabic change of Sin into Shin.]

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Ver. 10 [passes from the waters above to the waters below]. He hath rounded off (encircled, an, comp. the yupwoev of the LXX.) a bound (pr as in ch. xiv. 5) for the face of the water, to the ending of the light beside the darkness: or "to the extremity (the confines, the boundary line) of the light with the darkness, ad lucis usque tenebrarumque confinia (Pareau). So correctly Del. and Dill. [E. V. Con., Words., Carey, Renan., Rod. Merx], while most moderns (Rosenm., Ewald, Hirz., Schlottm., Hahn, etc.) take - by itself in an adverbial sense, "most perfectly, most accurately," (comp. ch. xxviii. 3), take either as a remoter accus. of n (so Hirz.), or as Genit. to pn, standing at the head of the clause in the construct state (so Ewald). In either case, however, we get a construction which is much too harsh. As proving that

- is by no means necessarily used ad. verbially, comp. above ch. xi. 7. The meaning of the verse will be rightly apprehended only by referring it not to the limit in time between light and darkness, i. e. to the regular succession of day and night (Schlottm.), but to the limit in space, the line separating between the light and dark regions of the heavenly circle, which runs along the surface of the waters of the ocean, encircling the earth. "That is to say this description, like that in Prov. viii. 27, has for its basis the conception, prevalent also among the classic nations, and down into the middle ages, that the earth is encompassed all around by water, or a sea, that upon this earth-encircling ocean is marked out the circle of the celestial hemisphere, along which the sun and stars run their course (so that a part of the water lies within this circle) that the region of the stars, of the light, lies inside of this circle, and that the region of darkness begins outside of it; comp. Voss on Virg. Georg. I., 240 seq." Dilm.

Fourth Strophe: vers. 11-13. The pillars of heaven are made to tremble, and are astonished at His rebuke.Pillars of he ven" is the name which the poet gives to the mountains towering upon high, which seem as it were to bear up the arch of heaven; comp. the ancient classic legend of Atlas, and see above on ch. ix. 6. In speaking of these pillars as "moved to trembling" (, Piel. from Tiváσoε) ["the signification of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is secured to the verb" by forms in the Targ., Talm. and Arabic.-Del.], and as fleeing in astonishment before God's rebuking thunder (comp. Ps. civ. 7; Is. 1. 2; Nah. i. 4), the poet describes here

the phenomenon of an earthquake, or that of a tremendous thunderstorm (comp. Ps. xxix.; also Rev. vi. 12 seq.; xx. 11).

Ver. 12. By His power He frightens up the sea.- here not intransitive as in ch. vii. 5; but transitive in the sense of "frightening up, arousing," rapáσoev (comp. Is. li. 15; Jer. xxxi. 35); hardly in the sense of intimidating, or putting at rest, as some expositors (Umbreit, Dillm. [Conant, Carey, Rod.], etc.) render the verb after the LXX. (KATÉTAVOεV). [E. V. "divideth" (and so Bernard) here, and in all the passages cited: but unsupported and less suitably.]—And by His understanding He smites Rahab in pieces.-Comp. on ch. ix. 13, where already it was shown to be necessary to understand 2 (LXX.: TÒ KηTOC) of a colossal demon-monster of legendary antiquity (not of Egypt, nor of the raging fury of the sea, to which , "to shatter, to dash in pieces" would not be suitable).

T:

Ver. 13. By His breath the heavens become bright: lit. "are brightness," a substantive found only here, which, however, does not denote a permanent quality of the heavens (Rosenm.), but one that is transiently [occasionally] produced by God [by His breath He scatters the clouds, and brightens the face of heaven]; His hand hath pierced the fleeing serpent.-nn, Po. from, Is. li. 9, hence perforavit, trucidavit; not Pil. from

or n, so that it would express the idea of forming, creating as the Targ., Jer., Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte, Renan [E. V., Con., Noy., Ber., Rod.], explain. For here again the discourse treats not of a creative energy of God, but of one that is exercised as a part of the established order of nature, and in all probability it discusses the same theme as that to which ch. iii. 8 refers, to wit, the production of eclipses of the sun and moon. For the popular superstition prevalent at the time of the composition of our book conceived of this phenomenon as consisting in the attempt of a dragon-like dark monster to swallow up these luminaries, accompanied by an intervention of God, who slays or strangles this monster ["so that it was customary to say, when the sun or moon was eclipsed: The Dragon, or the Flying Serpent, has wound around it; and on the other hand when it was released from the obscuration: God has killed the Dragon.' .""Dillm.] It is to this exercise of God's power, bringing deliverance, that the clause refers, while

T:

(the

same expression also in Is. xxvii. 1) denotes the monster referred to, which is represented as seized upon in the act of fleeing (before God), hence as "a fugitive, fleeing serpent." In that parallel passage in Isaiah, the LXX. rightly in the passage before us, dpákovтa árоoтáτm, translate by όφιν φεύγοντα, while their rendering whether we regard the language or the thought, is equally inadmissible with the coluber tortuosus of the Vulg. [followed by E. V. "crooked serpent"], or the serpentem vectem of the same version in Is. xxvii. 1 (comp. the bow ovykheίovra, "the barring serpent," of Symmachus).

TT

T

peaceful termination of the conflict (ch. xlii. 7-9) is remotely intimated. That which Bildad not at all touch the real point at issue, which actually brings forward is a truth which does Job himself has on former occasions expressly conceded (see ch. ix. 2; xiv. 4), the same truth which Eliphaz had in his first two discourses prominently emphasized, and in the renewed statement of which, at this time, Bildad closely copies even the expressions of his older associate. He "only reminds Job of the universal sinfulness of the human race once again, without direct accusation, in order that Job may himself and this admonition Job really needs, for his derive from it the admonition to humble himself; speeches are in many ways contrary to that humility which is still the duty of sinful man, even in connection with the best justified consciousness of right thoughts and actions towards the holy God" (Del.).

Ver. 14. A recapitulating closing verse, stand- | relatively friendly-in a way in which the final ing outside of the schema of strophes.-Lo, these (pointing backwards, as in ch. xviii. 21) are the ends of His ways; or, "of His way," according to the K'thibh; the same wavering between 7 and to be seen also in Prov. viii. 22. The " "ends "" or "borders" (Delitzsch) [Conant, Words., etc.,] of God's ways are the extreme outlines of what He is doing in governing the world, those intimations of His heavenly activity which are lowest, and nearest, and most immediately accessible to our power of apprehension. And what a faintly whispering word (it is) that we hear!-37, lit. "and what a whisper of a word." For this combination of with a substantive in apposition, comp. Ps. xxx. 10; Is. xl. 18; and for you with of the attentive hearing of anything, see above ch. xxi. 2; also ch. xxxvii. 2. Of the fact that Job is still wanting in pro2; Gen. xxvii. 5; Ps. xcii. 12. Against the per humility, and in a profound perception of partitive rendering of 13, advocated by Schlott. sin, he at once proceeds to give evidence in his and Delitzsch, may be urged the plur. form rejoinder in ch. xxvi. In this he appears as "277, preferred by the Masoretes, as well as decisively victorious over his opponents, who the probability that to express this meaning the have shown themselves totally unequal to the preposition would rather have been used. problem to be solved, while he, by his emphatic [Here again, as in ch. iv. 12, the incorrect renreference to the incomprehensibleness and undering of E. V.: "How little a portion is heard searchableness of God's ways, had made at least of Him," mars the poetic beauty and graphic and had shown his appreciation of the mysan important advance towards its solution, contrast of the passage. On y Wordsworth tery as such in its entire significance. But remarks: "We feel as it were a zephyr of God's he makes his vanquished opponents duly Presence walking in the garden of this world in sensible of this superiority which he had the cool of the day."]-But the thunder of over them, when in replying to Bildad, the His omnipotence (according to the K'ri last speaker of the number, he wields the 1, "his energies") who can under- weapon of sarcasm in a way that is altogether stand? i. e. the full, unmodified manifestation merciless, and seeks to humiliate him by a euof His energies, the unsmothered "thunder-logy of the divine omnipotence and exaltation course" of His heavenly spheres (comp. what Raphael says in the Prologue to Faust) would be unbearable by us, frail, sinful children of earth. [Job could not have uttered in nobler language his deep feeling of the degree in which the divine glory surpasses all human knowledge. There resounds in it in truth an echo of the faroff divine thunder itself, and before this the poet has the friends now become entirely dumb.' Schlottm.]

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DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL.

1. That which Bildad brings forward against Job in ch. xxv. is so meagre, and possesses so little novelty, that it may be said, that in his discourse the opposition of the friends dies the death of exhaustion, and that the bitter irony of Job's rejoinder to it seems fully justified. For the real problem which underlies the whole controversy the great mystery touching the frequency with which the innocent suffer, which Job had again set forth so eloquently just before -that problem Bildad certainly does not consider. He avoids indeed those bitter personalities and odious accusations against Job with which Eliphaz had made his exit just before in a manner that was altogether unworthy, and takes his leave of the sufferer, whom he himself also had heretofore violently assailed, in a way that is

which is visibly intended to surpass and eclipse that which had been said by him. It is true indeed that this very description in its incomparable grandeur gives us to understand clearly enough how entirely filled and carried away Job is by its infinitely elevated theme, and how by virtue of his flight to this height of an inspired contemplation of God, every thought respecting the unrelenting, or even vindictive persecution of his opponents disappears, so that the closing reference to the unattainable height and glory of the divine nature and activity (ver. 14) is unaccompanied by any expression whatever of triumphant pride, or bitter enjoyment of their discomfiture (comp. V. Gerlach below, Homiletic Remarks on ch. xxvi. 2 seq.). The pure and undivided enthusiasm with which he surrenders himself to the contemplation of the Divine has manifestly an ennobling, purifying, and elevating influence on his spirit. It shows that he is not far removed at length from the goal of a perfectly correct and true solution of the dark mystery which occupies him. It makes it apparent that essentially one thing is lacking to him that he may press upward through the dark scenes of his conflict to the light of pure truth and peace with God, and that is-a humble submission beneath the dealings of the only wise and true God, dealings which are righteous even towards him, sincere repentance and confession

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