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of the errors and failures of which he had been | of heaven, so is their brightness a type of the guilty even during the hot conflict of suffering holiness of the inhabitants of heaven, just as imthrough which he had passed, that "repenting mediately after (in ver. 6) the mortality and in dust and ashes" to which God's treatment wretchedness of man is a type of his sinfulness. brought him at last, as one who had been af- In this contra-position there lies a profound flicted by his Heavenly Father, not indeed in ac- truth: Holiness and shining brightness, and sin cordance with the ordinary standard of retribu- and death's corruption correspond to each other. tion, but nevertheless not unjustly, not without In his frailty and mortality man has an incesa remedial and loving purpose. sant reminder of his sin and corruption; in seeing his outward lot he should humble himself inwardly before God.

3. That which is of greatest interest in the two short sections preceding not only to the scientific, but also to the practical and homiletic Ch. xxvi. 2-4. WOHLFARTH: After that Job expositor, are those elements of a poetic cosmo- has ironically shown to his friend the irrelevancy logy and physical theology, which in Bildad's of his reply, he takes a nobler revenge upon discourse are presented more briefly and more him, by delivering a much worthier eulogy on in the way of suggestion, but which in that of God's exalted greatness, of which notwithstandJob are exhibited in a more developed and com- ing and during his suffering he has a most vivid prehensive form. It is that material which at and penetrating conviction.-V. GERLACH: Job's an earlier day was treated by Baur in his Syste- frame of mind bordering on pride, which causes ma Mundi Jobæum (Hal. 1707), Scheuchzer in him altogether to misunderstand that which is his Jobi Physica Sacra, etc., and which to this glorious and exalted in Bildad's last discourse, day is a theme of no small interest in its theolo- belongs to the earthly folly which clings to him, gical aspects as well as in those related to cos- which is to be stripped away from him by the mology and the history of civilization. The fact sufferings and conflicts of his inner man, and that certain mythological representations, and which does at last really fall away from him. in particular a few traces of astronomical myths, The splendid description which follows, and esare scattered over this magnificent picture of pecially its humble conclusion (ver. 14), proves creation, and that the teachings of modern in the meanwhile that the fundamental disposiscience concerning the mechanism of the hea- tion of Job's heart was different from that which vens cannot be derived from it, cannot injure the the particular expressions uttered by him in his peculiarly high value of the description, nor de- more despondent moods, would seem to indicate. stroy its utility for practical purposes. It is in Ch. xxvi. 7 seq. BRENTIUS: The fact that God any case a view of the universe of incontroverti- stretches out the heavens, and supports the ble grandeur, which in all that is described in earth, without the aid of pillars, is a great arch. xxvi. 5-13 beholds only the "fringes" of gument in proof of His power (Ps. cii. 26). The God's glory as they hang over on earth (comp. poets relate that Atlas supports heaven on his Is. vi. 1), only a few meagre lineaments of the shoulders; but we acknowledge the true Atlas, entire divine manifestation, only a muffled mur- the Lord our God, who by His word supports mur echoing from afar off as a poor substitute both heaven and earth.-WOHLFARTH: The look for the thunder of His omnipotence. And in re- to heaven which Job bere requires us to take, spect to the purity and correctness of its repre- does not indeed reach upwards to the throne of sentations in detail, this physical theology of the Eternal (ver. 7 seq.). But although we canJob ranks sufficiently high, as is shown by that not now behold Him, who dwells in His inacceswhich is said of "hanging the earth upon noth-sible light, we can nevertheless feel His nearing" (ver. 7), a description of the fact no less surprising than the following descriptions of meteorological and geological processes are poetically bold and elevated.

Particular Passages.

Ch. xxv. 4 seq. COCCEIUS: Although in our eyes the stars may seem кaðapóv TI σTiλẞew (to shine with some degree of purity), nevertheless even they are outside of God's habitation, being esteemed unworthy to adorn His dwelling-place. ... How therefore can miserable man, who is mortal and diseased and liable to death, who is a son of Adam, who is no worthier than a worm, or a grub, who is made of earth, who crawls on the earth, who lives by the earth, who is at once foul and defiled, . . . . who in a word is as far below the stars, as the worm is below himself how shall he dare or be able to face God in His court, and on equal terms to argue with Him? Let him, along with the moon and the stars, keep himself in his own station, and he will enjoy God's favors; but let him attempt to exalt himself, and he will be crushed by the weight of the divine majesty.-V. GERLACH: As the hosts of heaven are types of the pure spirits

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ness, recognize His existence, experience His influence, see His greatness and majesty, when we pray to Him as the Being who stretches out the heavens above the earth like a tent, at whose beckoning the clouds open and water the thirsty earth, who has given to the water its bounds, etc. As the work bears witness to its master, so does the universe to its Creator, Preserver, and Ruler (Ps. xix. 5); and no despairing one bas ever beheld the eternal order which stands before him, and its mysterious, but ever beneficent movements, no sinner desiring salvation has ever tarried in the courts of this great temple of God, without being richly dowered with heavenly blessings.

Ch. xxvi. 14. OECOLAMPADIUS: These tokens of divine power however great will nevertheless rightly be esteemed small, as being hardly a slight whisper in comparison with the mighty thunder. There is nothing therefore so frightful, but faith will be able to endure it, when it thus exercises itself in the works of God's power, especially with the word of promise added.— WOHLFARTH: We can survey only the smallest portion of God's immeasurable realm! What is the knowledge of the greatest sages but the

short-sighted vision of a worm! Our earth do we know of Him; how great is the sum of is a grain of sand in the All, the "drop of that which is hidden from us! (1 Cor. xiii.

a bucket," as the prophet says; and how little 9 seq.).

III. Job alone: His closing address to the vanquished friends. Chap. XXVII-XXVIII.

a. Renewed asseveration of his innocence, accompanied by a reference to his joy in God, which had not forsaken him even in the midst of his deepest misery. Chap. xxvii. 1-10.

1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said:

2

As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment;

and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

3 all the while my breath is in me,

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils ;

4 my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit.

5 God forbid that I should justify you:

till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. 6 My righteousness I hold fast, I will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked,

and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained,

when God taketh away his soul?

9 Will God hear his cry

when trouble cometh upon him?

10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty?

will he always call upon God?

b. Statement of his belief that the prosperity of the ungodly cannot endure, but that they must infallibly come to a terrible end. Vers. 11-23.

11 I will teach you by the hand of God;

that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

12 Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;

why then are ye thus altogether vain ?

13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

14 If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword;

and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death; and his widows shall not weep.

16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,

and prepare raiment as the clay;

17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,

and the innocent shall divide the silver.

18 He buildeth his house as a moth,

and as a booth that the keeper maketh.

19 The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered;

he openeth his eyes, and he is not!

20 Terrors take hold on him as waters,

a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

21 The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth:

and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.

22 For God shall cast upon him, and not spare:

He would fain flee out of his hand.

23 Men shall clap their hands at him,

and hiss him out of his place.

c. Declaration that true Wisdom, which alone can secure real well-being, and a correct solution of the dark enigmas of man's destiny, is to be found nowhere on earth, but only with God, and by means

of a pious submission to God. Chap. xxviii.

1 Surely there is a vein for the silver,

and a place for gold where they fine it.

2 Iron is taken out of the earth.

and brass is molten out of the stone.

3 He setteth an end to darkness,

and searcheth out all perfection:

the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. 4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants; even the waters forgotten of the foot:

they are dried up, they are gone away from men.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread:
and under it is turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires:
and it hath dust of gold.

7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth,
and which the vulture's eye hath not seen.
8 The lion's whelps have not trodden it
nor the fierce lion passed by it.

9 He putteth forth his hand upon the rock;
10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks;
and his eye seeth every precious thing.
he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing;

and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

12 But where shall wisdom be found?

and where is the place of understanding?

13 Man knoweth not the price thereof:

neither is it found in the land of the living.

14 The depth saith, It is not in me;

and the sea saith, It is not with me.

15 It cannot be gotten for gold,

neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,

with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:

and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls ;

for the price of wisdom is above rubies.

19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. 20 Whence then cometh wisdom?

and where is the place of understanding? 21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

22 Destruction and death say,

we have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

23 God understandeth the way thereof,

and He knoweth the place thereof.

24 For He looketh to the ends of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven;
25 to make the weight for the winds;

and He weigheth the waters by measure. 26 When He made a decree for the rain,

and a way for the lightning of the thunder; 27 Then did He see it, and declare it ;

He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. 28 And unto man He said:

Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

God, and the closest union with Him (ch. xxviii.). -These three sections are differently divided, the two former consisting of three short strophes (of three to five verses), the third of three long strophes (two of eleven, and one of six verses).

2. First Section: The asseveration of his innocence: ch. xxvii. 2-10.

(lit. "living is God!" a well-known Hebrew, First Strophe: vers. 2-4.-As God liveth and also Arabic formula of adjuration) [the only place where Job resorts to the oath], who hath taken away from me my right, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul: lit. who hath made bitter my soul" (LXX.: ó

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pas, comp. Col. iii. 19: mikpaívεova).

and God's breath is in my nostrils, i. e. I Ver. 3. For still all my breath is in me, of spirit to know what I say, to be a responsible am still possessed of enough freshness and vigor witness in behalf of my innocence. The older expositors, and among the moderns Schlottmann [Good, Noyes, Conant, Bernard, Carey, Rodwell, Elzas, Renan, Merx, and so E. V.] take the

1. Inasmuch as the opposition of the friends is silenced, before the last of the number attempts a third reply, the victor, after a short pause, takes up his discourse, "in order that, by collecting himself after the passion of the strife, he might express with greater calmness and clearness the convictions which have been formed within him as results of the colloquy thus far, and so to give to the colloquy the internal solution which was wanting" (Dillm.). It is not so much a triumphant self-contemplation, or a pathetic monologue, that he delivers, but a genuine didactic discourse, addressed to the vanquished friends, which, like the discourses of the previous discussion, is cast in the form, characteristic of the Chokmah, of a series of proverbs. It is hence expressly termed in the introductory verse (ch. xxvii. 1) a continuation of the "Mashal, i. e. of the proverbial discourse" (in regard to , "to utter, lit. to raise a proverb;" comp. Num. xxiii. 7, where the same expression is applied to a prophetic vatici-verse not as a parenthetic reason for the adjuration in ver. 2, but as the antecedent of ver. 4: nium of Balaam's). [is speech of a more "so long as my breath is yet in me," etc. But elevated tone and more figurative character; in that case the contents of the oath would have here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth a double introduction, first by 2, then by DN. of an elevated solemn mood. The introduction Moreover the words-hạ, as the of the ultimatum as reminds one of "the parallel passages, 2 Sam. i. 9; Hos. xiv. 3, show, proverb (el-methel) seals it in the mouth of the have not in the least the appearance of an Arab, since in common life it is customary to adverbial antecedent determination of time.use a pithy saying as the final proof at the con- [The older rendering is certainly to be preferred. clusion of a speech." Delitzsch.]-The follow- (1) It expresses a thought much more suitable ing are the contents of this proverbial discourse, for incorporation into an oath. "As God lives which is somewhat extended, and which, espe--while I live-I will speak only the truth"-is cially in its last principal division, is exceed- natural. "As God lives-and I take this oath ingly lofty and poetic: (1) An emphatic asseve- because I am fully competent to stand up to ration of his own innocence, which he has made what I am swearing-my lips shall not," etc.— repeatedly during the previous colloquy, and is decidedly unnatural. (2) The language at which he now puts forth as attested by his con- once suggests the simple idea of living-"breath tinued experience of God's friendship, and his (D) yet in me-the breath of Eloah in my joy in God (ch. xxvii. 2-10); (2) A description nostril." This is scarcely the language one -imitating and surpassing the similar descrip- would use in describing a particular inward contions of the friends in chs. xv.; xviii.; xx., etc. dition. (3) is simply transitional, intro-of the fearful divine judgment, which must of ducing after the oath a thought preparatory to necessity overtake the ungodly, and in view of the principal thought introduced by DN, a conwhich he indeed has every reason to adhere ear-struction which Delitzsch admits to be possible, nestly and zealously to God's ways (ch. xxvii. 11-23); (3) An exhibition of the nature of true though what there is perplexing in it, it is diffiwisdom, which alone can furnish correct solu-cult to see. (4) − is used adverbially as in tions of the dark enigmas of this earthly life, Ps. xxxix. 6; xlv. 14; Eccles. v. 15; hereand which is here set forth as a blessing abso-"wholly as long as" (see Gesenius and Fürst). lutely supra-sensual, to be obtained only through It thus strengthens the expression in a way that

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is altogether appropriate to the strong feeling | figurative expression: "cutting off the soul," which prompts the oath.-E.]

has always for its basis the same conception of Ver. 4 gives the contents of the oath, which the body as a tent, and of the internal thread the following verses unfold still more specifically of life as the tent-cord, which we came across and comprehensively. In regard to hy, lit. in ch. iv. 21. Possibly the expression: "drawing out" has the same explanation, although "perverseness," hence "falsehood, untruthful- this seems to have rather for its basis the comness," and its synonym 77, comp. ch. xiii. 7. parison of the body to a sheath for the soul (Dan. Second Strophe: vers. 5-7.-Far be it from vii. 15), so that accordingly we have a transime (lit. "for a profanation be it to me," comp. tion from one figure to another. [E. V. (after Ew. 329, a) to grant that you are in the the Vulgate, Syr., Targ.), Gesenius in Thes., right: wherein is seen in the second member Fürst, Con., Ber., Merx, Rod., Elz., translate -until I die I will not let my innocence "though he hath gained" scil. riches, be taken away from me (lit. "I will not let it depart from me"), i. e. I will not cease from asserting it continually.

vellicare.

So

Ver. 6. In regard to in a, meaning "to let something go, to let it fall," comp. ch. vii. 19. My heart reproacheth not one of my days.-, lit. "to pluck, to pick off," carpere, here is unquestionably synonymous substantially with "conscience." Luther translated it both here and in Josh. xiv. 7; comp. also 1 Sam. xxiv. 6 [5]; 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, where it may also be translated "conscience" (see in general Vilmar, Theolog. Moral. I., p. 66). Most modern commentators rightly take in , as partitive-"one of my days;" the temporal rendering of the expression adopted by the ancients, as also by Ewald (=while I live, in omni vita mea, Vulg.) [E. V.], necessitates the harsh and scarcely admissible rendering of as intransitive, or as reflexive ("does not blame itself," Ewald) [E. V. supplies "me"]. It remains to be said, that this asseveration of innocence (like that in ch. xxiii. 10 seq.) is, in some measure, exaggerated, when compared with the mention which Job makes earlier of "the sins of his youth," ch. xiii. 26.

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or "though he despoil." The meaning "to plunder or "gain" is certainly more in harmony with the usage of the verb in Kal, and avoids the mixture of metaphor according to the other construction.-E.]

Vers. 9, 10. Will God hear his cry? Can he delight himself in the Almighty? etc. The meaning of these questions is that to him there shall be neither the hearing of his prayers, nor a joyful, trustful and loving fellowship with God ( as in ch. xxii. 26). Job accordingly claims for himself both these things (comp. ch. xiii. 16), and thereby leaves out of the account transient obscurations of his spirit, like that in consequence of which he mourns (ch. xix. 7) that his prayer is not heard. ble overthrow of the wicked: vers. 11-23. The 3. Second Section: Description of the inevitaby Job seems at first sight to exhibit with the striking correspondence which this description well-known descriptions of the friends, especially in the second series of the colloquy, and this notwithstanding the fact that Job himself only just before, in chs. xxi. and xxiv., has maintained the happiness of the wicked to the end of their life, have led some to assume a transposition, or confusion of the text (Kennicott, StuhlVer. 7. Mine enemy must appear as the mann, Bernstein, [Bernard, Wemyss, Elzas]; wicked, and mine adversary as the uncomp. Introd. 9, 1); others, to suppose that righteous: viz. as the penalty of their falsely Job is here simply repeating the opinion of his suspecting and disputing my innocence. Only opponents, without purposing to make it his this optative rendering of the Jussive is own (Eichhorn, Das Buch Hiob übers., etc., 1824; suited to the context, not the concessive: "though Böckel, 2d Ed. 1830). But the contradiction to mine enemy be an evil-doer, I am none" (Hirz.). Job's former utterances is only apparent, for: As to Depp, comp. ch. xx. 27; Ps. lix. 2. (1) The opinion that the prosperity of the wicked cannot endure has been repeatedly put forth ["The idea conveyed in is hostility of feel- even by himself, at least in principle (comp. ch. xxi. 16; xxiii. 15; xxiv. 12; comp. also below ing; in opp, hostility of action, and that ini-ch. xxxi. 3 seq.). (2) The erroneous and objectiative. It is, to some extent, expressive of unprovoked assault." Carey.]

tionably one-sided utterances regarding God as a hard-hearted persecutor of innocence, and author of the prosperity of many evil-doers, which he has heretofore frequently put forth,

Third Strophe: vers. 8-10.-For what is the hope of an ungodly man when He cutteth off, when Eloah draweth out his soul?-needed to be counteracted by the truths which This question is to be understood from the two former discourses of Job, in which, when confronting death, he placed his hope with animated emphasis on God, as his final deliverer and avenger (chs. xvii. and xix.). In contrast with such a joyful hope reaching out beyond death, the evil-doer has nothing more to hope for, when once God has cut off his thread of life, and drawn out his soul out of the mortal body enclosing it ( Imperf. apoc. Kal. from 7, extrahere, cognate with and ). The

supplement and rectify these one-sided errors. (3) It was of importance to Job, not so much to instruct the friends in regard to the fact that the impending destruction of the ungodly was certain--for that they had long known this fact is expressly set forth in ver. 12-as rather to place this phenomenon in the right light, in opposition to the perverted application which they had made of it, and to exhibit its profound connection with the order of the universe as established by the only wise God. This end he accomplishes by subsequently introducing a

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