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النشر الإلكتروني

being (Prov. viii. 25 seq.) It was, and is, in the same eternal form in which God is: uncreated, divinely internal.-V. GERLACH (on ver. 28): "He who would learn the secrets of the mighty must keep watch diligently at their

gates," says with truth an eastern proverb. Without the living moral followship of the heart with God it is vain to desire to know wisdom, which comes only from Him, and belongs only to Him.

SECOND CHIEF DIVISION OF THE POEM.

DISENTANGLEMENT OF THE MYSTERY THROUGH THE DISCOURSES OF JOB, ELIHU AND JEHOVAH.

CHAPTERS XXIX-XLII. 6.

First Stage of the Disentanglement.

CHAPS. XXIX-XXXI.

Job's Soliloquy, setting forth the truth that his suffering was not due to his moral conduct, that it must have therefore a deeper cause. [The negative side of the solution of the problem.]

1. Yearning retrospect at the fair prosperity of his former life.

CHAPTER XXIX.

a. Describing the outward appearance of this former prosperity.

VERS. 1-10.

1 Moreover, Job continued his parable, and said:

2 O that I were as in months past,

as in the days when God preserved me;

3 when His candle shined upon my head,

and when by His light I walked through darkness;

4 as I was in the days of my youth.

when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

5 when the Almighty was yet with me,

when my children were about me;

6 when I washed my steps with butter,

and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

7 when I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose, and stood up.

9 The princes refrained talking,

and laid their hand on their mouth.

10 The nobles held their peace,

and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

b. Pointing out the inward cause of this prosperity—his benevolence and integrity.

VERS. 11-17.

11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me;

and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

12 because I delivered the poor that cried;

and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me:

and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:

my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

15 I was eyes to the blind,

and feet was I to the lame.

16 I was a father to the poor;

and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

17 And I brake the jaws of the wicked,

and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

c. Describing that feature of his former prosperity which he now most painfully :nisses, viz., the universal honor shown to him, and his far-reaching influence: vers. 18 25.

18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days as the sand. 19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. 20 My glory was fresh in me,

and my bow was renewed in my hand. 21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

22 After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

23 And they waited for me as for the rain;

and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not;

and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

25 I chose out their way, and sat chief,

and dwelt as a king in the army,

as one that comforteth the mourners.

2. Sorrowful description of his present sad estate.

CHAPTER XXX.

a. The ignominy and contempt he receives from men: vers. 1-15.

1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained

to have set with the dogs of my flock.

2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness

in former time desolate and waste.

4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief);

6 To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys,

in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they brayed;

under the nettles they were gathered together.

8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men; they were viler than the earth.

9 And now am I their song,

yea, I am their byword.

10 They abhor me, they flee far from me,

and spare not to spit in my face.

11 Because He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

12 Upon my right hand rise the youth;

they push away my feet,

and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. 13 They mar my path,

they set forward my calamity,

they have no helper.

14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters; in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

15 Terrors are turned upon me:

they pursue my soul as the wind:

and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

b. The unspeakable misery which everywhere oppresses him: vers. 16-23.

16 And now my soul is poured out upon me;

the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season;

and my sinews take no rest.

18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed:

it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

19 He hath cast me into the mire,

and I am become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and Thou regardest me not.

21 Thou art become cruel to me;

with Thy strong hand Thou opposest Thyself against me. 22 Thou liftest me up to the wind;

Thou causest me to ride upon it,

and dissolvest my substance.

23 For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,

and to the house appointed for all living.

c. The disappointment of all his hopes: vers. 24-31.

24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?

was not my soul grieved for the poor?

26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me;

and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

27 My bowels boiled, and rested not:

the days of affliction prevented me.

28 I went mourning without the sun :

I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

29 I am a brother to dragons,

and a companion to owls.

30 My skin is black upon me,

and my bones are burned with heat.

31 My harp also is turned to mourning,

and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

3. Solemn asseveration of his innocence in respect to all open and secret sins.

CHAPTER XXXI.

a. He has abandoned himself to no wicked lust: vers. 1-8.

1

I made a covenant with mine eyes;

why then should I think upon a maid?

2 For what portion of God is there from above?

and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

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b. He has acted uprightly in all his domestic life: vers. 9-13.

9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,

or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door;

10 then let my wife grind unto another,

and let others bow down upon her.

11 For this is a heinous crime;

yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction,

and would root out all mine increase.

13 If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me;

14 what then shall I do when God riseth up?

and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?

15 Did not He that made me in the womb make him?

and did not One fashion us in the womb?

c. He has constantly practised neighborly kindness and justice in civil life: vers. 16-23.

16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire,

or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17 or have eaten my morsel myself alone,

and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

18 (for from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father,

and I have guided her from my mother's womb ;)

19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,

or any poor without covering;

20 if his loins have not blessed me,

and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; 21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate;

22 then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone!

23 For destruction from God was a terror to me,

and by reason of His highness I could not endure.

d. He has not violated his more secret obligations to God and his neighbor: vers. 24-32.

24 If I have made gold my hope,

or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

25 if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,

and because mine hand had gotten much;

26 if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

27 and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

28 this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge;
for I should have denied the God that is above.
29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,
or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30 (-neither have I suffered my mouth to sin

by wishing a curse to his soul :)

31 if the men of my tabernacle said not,

O that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32 The stranger did not lodge in the street:

but I opened my doors to the traveller.

e. He has been guilty furthermore of no hypocrisy, or mere semblance of holiness, of no secret violence, or avaricious oppression of his neighbor: vers. 33-40.

33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam,

by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom :

34 did I fear a great multitude,

or did the contempt of families terrify me,

that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35 O that one would hear me!

behold, my

desire is that the Almighty would answer me,

and that mine adversary had written a book.

36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

37 I would declare unto Him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto Him.

38 If my land cry against me,

or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; 39 If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life; 40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat,

and cockle instead of barley.

The words of Job are ended.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. Although introduced by the same formula as the discourse immediately preceding (comp. ch. xxix. 1 with xxvii. 1), this last long series of Job's utterances exhibits decidedly & μɛráßaois eis àλλo yévos, a form and method esssentially new in comparison with the former controversial and argumentative discourses of the colloquy. They are not once addressed to the friends, who since ch. xxv. have been entirely silenced, and have not been provoked to further reply even by the elaborate instructions, which he imparts to them in ch. xxvii. xxviii. Instead of this they frequently appeal to God, and present, especially in the last section, a long series of solemn asseverations or adjurations uttered before God. They thus appear, in contrast with the interlocutory character of the discourses hitherto, as a genuine soliloquy by Job, which both by its contents and by its conspicuous length, forms a suitable transition to the following discourses, or groups of discourses by Elihu and Jehovah, which are in like manner of considerable length. The three principal sections are a yearning retrospect to the happy past (ch. xxix.), a description of the sorrowful present (ch. xxx.), and solemn asseverations of innocence in presence of the divine judge, or

God of the Future (ch. xxxi.). These divisions are very obvious, and justify the divisions into chapters founded on them as corresponding strictly to that intended by the poet himself. Neither can there be much doubt in regard to the more special sub-division of these chief divisions. The first and the second contain_respectively three long sub-divisions or strophes, of 8-9 verses each (once only, ch. xxx. 1 seq. of 15 verses, which long strophe indeed may also be divided into two shorter ones of 8 and 7 verses. In the third part there appear quite distinctly five groups of thought of 7-8 (once of 9) verses each.

2. First Division: The prosperity of the past: ch. xxix. ["It is very thoughtfully planned by the poet that Job, by this description of his former prosperity, unintentionally refutes the accusations of his friends, inasmuch as it furnishes a picture of his former life very different from that which they had ventured to assume. We have here the picture of a rich and highly distinguished chief of a tribe [or patriarch], who was happy only in spreading abroad happiness and blessing." Schlottmann].

First Strophe: vers. 2-10: The outward appearance of this former prosperity.

Ver. 2. Oh that it were to me [Oh that I were] as in months of yore! lit. "who gives (makes) me like the months of the past," who

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