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puts me back in the happy condition of that | blessings, and that close by his side, so that he time (so Rosenm., Welte, Vaih, etc.). Or, with was not compelled to go far; comp. Deut. the dative rendering of the suffix in (as in xxxii. 18. Is. xxvii. 4; Jer. ix. 1), "who gives to me like the months of the past," i. e. who makes me to live over such! (so usually). On the construction in 6 (the constr. state

tive clause), comp. Gesenius, 116, [114], 3. [Green, 255, 2].

T

is equivalent to שער

the case with ancient cities. [Comp. Abraham's relations to Hebron, as indicated in Gen. xxiii.]. In respect to the use of the space directly inside the gates of these cities as a place for assemblies of the people, comp. above, ch. v. 4; also xxxi. 4; Prov. i. 21; viii. 8, and often. When I prepared my seat in the market. in? the open space at the gate, as in Neh. viii. 1, 3, 16, etc. On the construction (the change from the Infin. to the finite verb), comp. ver. 3; ch. xxviii. 25.

Vers. 7-10. The honor and dignity which he then enjoyed. When I went forth to the gate up to the city. before the relay, towards the gate (comp. ch. xxviii. 11; Gen. xxvii. 3), not: "out at the gate" (as below, ch. xxxi. 34 П), for Job's residence was Ver. 3. When it (viz.) His lamp shone in the country, not in the city with Dy. For above my head.—ing, Inf. Kal of 5 with this same reason he speaks here of his going up the vowel a weakened to i (Ewald, 255, a), "up to the city;" for the city adjoin[Green, 139, 2], not Inf. Hiph. as Böttchering to him, was on an eminence, as was usually would render it, when after the Targ. he translates: "when He caused His lamp to shine." This Hiphil rendering could only be justified if (with Ewald in his comm.) we should read 12 (b). ["Probably alluding to the custom of suspending lamps in rooms or tents over the head. The language of this ver. is of course figurative, and implies prosperity and the divine favor." Carey]. On the anticipation of the subject by the suffix, comp. Ew., 309, c. Delitzsch quite too artificially refers the suffix in to God, and takes 172 as a self-corrective, explanatory permutative: "when He, His lamp shone, etc.' Ver. 4. As I was in the days of my har-standing-until I myself had sat. ["A most vest.—, "as, according as," resumes the simple in ''Ɔ and 'D'Ɔ, ver. 2. "The days of the harvest" are, as ver. 5 b shows, a figurative expression for ripe manhood ["the days of my prime" Carey], the ætas virilis suis fructibus foeta et exuberans (Schultens): comp. Ovid Metam. XV. 200. [The rendering of E. V. "in the days of my youth" (after Symmach. and the Vulg.) is less correct, as is shown by the reference above to ver. 5 b, the time referred to being that when he had his children about him, as well as by the word n itself, which means the time when the ripe fruit is gathered]. When Eloah's friendship was over my tent; i. e. dispensed protection and blessing above my habitation. D here meaning "familiarity, confidential intercourse," (as in ch. xix. 19; Ps. xxv. 14; lv. 15 [14]; Prov. iii. 22), not the celestial council of God, as in ch. xv. 8 (against

בהיות סוד either by ellipsis for בְּסוֹד"] .(Hirzel

or having the force of an active [verbalj noun, "His being familiar." Dillm.-Carey's explanation, though pushing the literal render. ing a little too far, is striking: "lit. in the seat or cushion of God being at my tent; i. e., when God was on such terms of familiar intercourse with me that he had, as it were, his accustomed seat at my tent"].

Ver. 5. On children as a most highly valued blessing, placed here next to God Himself, comp. Ps. cxxvii. 3 seq.; cxxviii. 3. Concerning Dy in this sense (not in that of "servants,") see above ch. i. 19; xxiv. 5.

Ver. 6. When my steps were bathed in cream (comp. ch. xx. 17, where however we have the full form ), and the rock beside me poured out streams of oil; that which elsewhere was barren poured out costly

T:

Ver. 8. Then the young men saw me, and hid themselves; i. e. as soon as they And the gray-headed rose up, remained came in sight of me, from reverential awe.

the great reverence and respect which was paid,
elegant description, and exhibits most correctly
even by the old and decrepit, to the holy man in
passing along the streets, or when he sat in
public. They not only rose, which in men so
old and infirm was a great mark of distinction,
but they stood, they continued to do it, though
the attempt was so difficult." Lowth]. On the
construction, comp. Ewald, 285, b.
Ver. 9. Princes restrained themselves
as in ch. iv. 2;
xii. 15), and laid the hand on their mouth,
imposed on themselves reverential silence; comp.
ch. xxi. 5. ["What is meant is not that those
who were in the act of speaking stopped at Job's
entrance, but that when he wished to speak, even
princes, i. e. rulers of great bodies of men, or
those occupying the highest offices, refrained
from speech." Dillmann].

עָצַר בְּמִלִים) from speaking

Ver. 10. The voice of nobles hid itself,

lit. "hid themselves," for the verb

is put

קול

in agreement with the plur. dependent on
as the principal term, as in the similar cases in
ch. xv. 20; xxi. 21; xxii. 12. [Comp. Green,
277].-D'T! lit. "those who are visible"
(from 711) i. e. conspicuous, noble [nobiles]. On
comp. passages like Ps. cxxxvii. 6; Ezekiel

iii. 26.

Continuation. Second Strophe: vers. 11-17. Job's active benevolence and strict integrity as the inward cause of his former prosperity.

Ver. 11. For if an ear heard-it called me happy -lit. "for an ear heard, and then called me happy;" and similarly in the second member. The object of the hearing, as afterwards of the seeing, is neither Job's speeches in the assembly of the people ["if this ver. were a continuation of the description of the proceed

On a comp. Is. ix. 5; xxii. 21.—N seem to form a paronomasia here.

ings in the assembly, it would not be introduced Ver. 16. by Dillm.], nor his prosperity (Hahn, De- and Dr litzsch), but as ver. 12 seq. shows, his whole-And the cause of the unknown [the public and private activity. [For the reason mentioned by Dillmann is better translated "for" than "when" (E. V.)]. In regard to "to pronounce happy," comp. Prov. xxxi. 28; Cant. vi. 9. In regard to Ty, to bear favorable testimony to any one, comp. paprvpeiv Teve Luke iv. 22; Acts xv. 8.

Ver. 12. For I delivered the poor, that cried, and the orphan, who had no helper - a circumstantial clause, comp. Ew., 331). [The clause is either a third new object (so E. V.)], or a close definition of what precedes: the orphan and (in this state of orphanhood) helpless one. The latter is more probable both here and in the Salomonic primary passage Ps. lxxii. 12; in the other case - might be expected." Delitz.] The Imperfects describing that which is wont to be, as also in vers. 13, 16. As to the sentiment, comp. Ps. lxxii. 12.

strangers, the friendless] I searched out, i. e., in order to help them as their advocate, provided they were in the right.-, attributive clause, as in ch. xviii. 21; Is. xli. 3; lv. 5, and often. [E. V., "the cause which I knew not" is admissible, and gives essentially the same sense; but the other rendering is to be preferred, as furnishing a better parallel to the "blind, lame, poor," preceding.-The man whom nobody knew, or cared for, Job would willingly take for his client.-E.].

Ver. 17. I broke the teeth of the wicked

(the cohortative, ), as in ch. i. 15; xix. 20), and out of his teeth I plucked the prey.-For the description of hardhearted oppressors and tyrants (or unrighteous judges, of the figure of ravaging wild beasts, from which whom we are to think particularly here), under the prey is rescued, comp. Ps. iii. 8 [7]; lviii. 7 [6], etc.

4. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Vers. 18-25. The honor and the influence which Job once enjoyed, and the loss of which he mourns with es

and that he may die in the midst of his family," Delitzsch] (or also: "in my nest") shall I die; ther with my family, and property (comp. Ps. i. e., without having left or lost my home, togelxxxiv. 4 [3]), hence in an advanced, happy old age. And like the phenix have many The language also would admit of our rendering days: lit., "make many, multiply my days.'

27

Ver. 13. The blessing of the lost (lit. "of one lost, perishing;" as in ch. xxxi. 19; Prov. xxxi. 6) came upon me; i. e., as bpecial sorrow. shows, the grateful wish that he might be blessed Ver. 18. And so then I thought [said]: from such miserable ones as had been rescued With my nest ["together with my nest," as by him, hardly the actual blessing which God implying a wish that he and his nest might pebestowed on him in answer to the prayer of such rish together, would be "unnatural, and diame(comp. Hermas, Past. Simil. 2). trically opposed to the character of an Arab, who Ver. 14. I had clothed myself with righ-wish that he may continue to live in his children, in the presence of death cherishes the twofold teousness, and it with me; i. e., in proportion as I exerted myself to exercise righteousness (P) toward my neighbor, the same [righteousness] took form, filled me inwardly in truth ["it put me on as a garment, i. e., it made me so its own, that my whole appearance was the representation of itself, as in Judg. vi. 34, and twice in the Chron., of the Spirit of Jehovah it is said that He puts on any one, induit, when He makes any one the organ of His own manifesta-n "sand," understanding the expression to tion," Delitzsch. Righteousness was as a robe refer to the multiplication of days like grains of to me, and I was as a robe to it. I put it on, sand; comp. "as the sand of the sea in 1 Ki. and it put me on; it identified itself with me." v. 9 [iv. 29 applying to Solomon's wisdom] and Words.] Not: "and it clothed me," as Rosen- often; also Ovid, Metam. XIV. 136 seq. quot hamüller, Arnh., Umbr. [E. V., Schlottm., Carey, beret corpora pulvis, tot mihi natales contingère vana Renan, Rod., Elz., etc.], arbitrarily render the rogavi. But against this interpretation, which second, thereby producing only a flat tau- Umbreit, Gesenius, Stickel, Vaih., Hahn, [E. V., is adopted by the Targ., Pesh., Saad., Luther, tology. [Ewald also: "it adorned me."-The Con., Noy., Ber., Carey, Words., Renan, Rodother rendering is adopted, or approved by Gesen., Fürst, Delitzsch, Dillmann, Wordsworth, well, Merx], and in favor of understanding Yin Noyes in his Notes]. The figure of being clothed of the phenix, that long-lived bird of the wellwith a moral quality or way of living to repre- known oriental legend (so most moderns since sent one as equipped, or adorned therewith, Rosenmüller) may be urged: (1) The oldest (comp. Isa. xi. 5; li. 9; lix. 17; Ps. cxxxii. 9), exegetical tradition in the Talmud, in the Midrais continued in the second member, where Job's shim, among the Masoretes and Rabbis (espestrict righteousness and spotless integrity (this cially Kimchi); (2) the versions-manifestly is what means; comp. Mic. iii. 8) are re-proceeding out of a misconception of this phenix presented as "a mantle and a tiara (turban);" comp. Is. lxi. 10.

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Ver. 15. Comp. Num. x. 31. To be anybody's eye, ear, foot (here "feet"), etc., is of course to supply these organs by the loving ministration of help, and to make it possible as it were to dis

pense with them.

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tradition-of the LXX.: WOTEρ σTÉλEXOS POLVIKOS; of the Itala: sicut arbor palma, and of the Vulg.: sicut palma; (3) and finally even the etymology of the word in (or han, as the Rabbis of Nahardea read, according to Kimchi) which it would seem must be derived (with Bochart) from n

others than Job himself, the members of his tribe, not specially those who took part in the assemblies described in vers. 7-10; for which reason it is unnecessary to assume a transposition of the passage after ver. 10.

Ver. 21. They hearkened to me, and waited (n, pausal form, with Dagh. euphonic for , comp. Gesen. § 20, 2 c), and listened silently to my counsel (lit. "and were silent for or at my counsel"). Ver. 22. After my words they spoke not again-lit. "they did not repeat" (, non iterabant). On b comp. Deut. xxxii. 2; Cant. iv.

torquere, volvere, and be explained "circulation, | periodic return," and even in its Egyptian form Koli (Copt. alloe) is to be traced back to this Shemitic radical signification (among the ancient Egyptians indeed the chief name of the phenix was beni, hierogl. bano, benno, which at the same time signifies "palm"). The phrase" to live as long as the phenix" is found also among other people of antiquity besides the Egyptians, e. g., among the Greeks (poivikos čтη Biovv, Lucian, Hermot., p. 53); and the whole legend concerning the phenix living for five hundred years, then burning itself together with its nest, and again living glorified, is in general as ancient as it is widely spread, especially in the East. Therefore it can neither seem strange, nor in any way objectionable, if a poetical book of the Holy used of the refreshing [rain-like] dropping of Ver. 23. Further expansion of the figure last Scripture should make reference to this myth his discourse. They opened their mouth (comp. the allusions to astronomical and other myths in ch. iii. 9; xxvi. 28). Touching the wide as for the latter rain. The p or proposition that the Egyptian nationality of the latter rain in March or April, is, on account of poet, or the Egyptian origin of his ideas does the approaching harvest, which it helps to ripen, not follow from this passage, see above, Introd., longed for with particular urgency in Palestine 8 7, 6 (where may also be found the most im- and the adjacent countries; comp. Deut. xi. 14; portant literary sources of information respect-Jer. iii. 3; v. 24; Joel ii. 23; Hos. vi. 3, etc. ing the legend of the phenix). One, to gape, pant, comp. Psalm

Vers. 19, 20 continue the expression, begun in ver. 18, of that which Job thought and hoped for. [According to E. V., ver. 19 resumes the description of Job's former condition: "My root was spread out, etc." But these two verses are so different from the passage preceding, (vers. 11-27), in which Job speaks of his deeds of beneficence, and from the passage following (vers. 21-25) in which he describes his influence in the public assembly, and so much in harmony with ver. 18, in which he speaks of his prospects, as they seemed to his hopes, that the connection adopted by Zöckler, and most recent expositors, is decidedly to be preferred.-E.].

Ver. 19. My root will be open towards the water: i. e., my life will flourish, like a tree plentifully watered (comp. chap. xiv. 7 seq.; xviii. 16), and the dew will lie all night in my branches (comp. the same passages; also Gen. xxvii. 39; Prov. xix. 12; Ps. cxxxiii. 3, etc.)

TT

Ver. 20. Mine honor will remain (ever) fresh with me (72 dóga, consideration, dignity, honor with God and men-not "soul" as Hahn explains ["to which is not appropriate as predicate," Del.], and my bow is renewed in my hand-the bow as a symbol of robust manliness, and strength for action, comp. 1 Sam. ii. 4; Ps. xlvi. 10 [9]; lxxvi. 4 [3]; Jerem. xlix. 35; li. 56, etc.-n, to make progress, to sprout forth (ch. xiv. 7); here to renew oneself, to grow young again. It is not necessary to supply, e. g., no, as Hirzel and Schlottmann do, on the basis of Isa. xl. 31.

Ver. 21 seq., exhibit in connection with the joyful hopes of Job, just described, which flowed forth directly out of the fulness of his prosperity, and in particular of the honor which he enjoyed, a full description of this honor, the narrative style of the discourse by 1, ver. 18, being resumed. Vers. 21-23 have for their subject

11; Prov. v. 3.

cxix. 131.

:

Ver. 24. I laughed upon them when they despaired-lit. "when they did not have confidence", absol. as in Isa. vii. 9; comp. Psalm cxvi. 10; and is a circumstantial clause without 1—this lacking, however, being supplied in many MSS. and Eds.). The meaning can be only: "even when they were despondent, I knew how to cheer them up by my which the second member agrees which cannot This is the only meaning with friendly smiles." harmonize with the usual explanation: "I smiled at them, they believed it not" (LXX., Vulg., Saad., Luther [E. V., Noy., Rod., Ren., Merx], I was held was so great, that if I laid aside my and most moderns). [The reverence in which gravity, and was familiar with them, they could scarcely believe that they were so highly honored; my very smiles were received with awe" (i. e., my cheerful visage, comp. Prov. xvi. 15) Noyes]. And the light of my countenance they could not darken; lit. "they could not cause to fall, cast down," comp. Gen. iv. 5, 6; tion appeared, the cheerfulness of my counteJer. iii. 12.-["However despondent their posinance they could not cause to pass away." DEL.]

Ver. 25. I would gladly take the way to them (comp. chap. xxviii. 23); i. e., I took pleasure in sitting in the midst of them, and in taking part in affairs. This is the only meaning that is favored by what follows;-the rendering of Hahn and Delitzsch: "I chose out for them the way they should go" ["I made the way plain which they should take in order to get out of their hopeless and miserable state." DEL. This is the meaning also suggested by E. V.] is opposed by the consideration that, to choose, never means "to prescribe, determine, enjoin." In the passage which follows, "sitting as chief" (N) is immediately defined more in the concrete by the clause, 77, "like a

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king in the midst of the army;" but then the altogether too military aspect of this figure (comp. chap. xv. 24; xix. 12) is again softened by making the business of the king surrounded by his armies to be not leading them to battle, but "comforting the mourners.' Whether in this expression there is intended a thrust at the friends on account of their unskilful way of comforting (as Ewald and Dillmann think), may very much be doubted.

Second Division: The wretchedness of the present. Chap. xxx. First Strophe (or Double Strophe). vers. 1-15. The ignominy and contempt which he receives from men, put in glaring contrast with the high honor just described. The contrast is heightened all the more by the fact that the men now introduced as insulting and mocking him are of the very lowest and most contemptible sort; being the same class of men whose restless, vagabond life has already been described in ch. xxiv. 4-8, only more briefly

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תהו .comp)

unquestionably signifies "waste and devastation," or "wild and wilderness " 17, Gen. i. 2; pani pia, Nah. ii. 11; and similar examples of assonance). The preceding however is difficult. Elsewhere it is an adverb of time: "the past night, last evening [and so, yesterday]," but here evidently a substantive, and in the constr. state. It is explained to mean either: "the yesterday of wasteness and wasteness," etc. (Hirzel, Ewald) [Schlott., Redesolation,' i. e., "that which has long been nan, to whom may be added Good, Lee, Carey, Elzas, who connect with the participle, translating-"who yesterday were gnawers," etc., or: "the night, the darkness of the wilWords., Barnes, Bernard, Rodwell, the last two derness" (Targ., Rabbis, Gesen., Del.) [Noyes, taking DN, V, and D as three independent nouns,-"gloom, waste, desolation"]. Of these darkness appears nowhere else (not even in Jer. constructions the former is to be preferred, since Ver. 1. And now they laugh at me who ii. 6, 31) as a characteristic predicate of the wilare younger than I in days-the good-for-derness," and since especially the "gnawing of nothing rabble of children belonging to that the darkness of the wilderness" produces a abandoned class. What a humiliation for him thought singularly harsh. Dillmann's explanabefore whom the aged stood up! ["The first on: "already yesterday a pure wilderness line of the verse which is marked off by Mercha-(where therefore there is nothing to be found Mahpach is intentionally so disproportionately to-day), is linguistically harsh; and Olshausen's long to form a deep and long-breathed beginning emendation--arbitrary. [E. V. to the lamentation which is now begun." Del.] following the LXX. Targ., and most of the old They whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock (Dyn, "to make like, to put on a level with," not to set over, hy, præficere, as Schultens, Rosemn., Schlottm. explain). From this strong expression of contempt it does not follow that Job was now indulging in haughty or tyrannical inhuman thoughts [the considerate sympathy expressed by Job in ch. xxiv. 4-8 regarding this same class of men should be borne in mind in

than here.

judging of Job's spirit here also; yet it cannot be denied that the pride of the grand dignified old Emir does flash through the words.-E.], but only that that rabble was immeasureably destitute, and moreover morally abandoned, thievish, false, improvident, and generally useless.

Ver. 2. Even the strength of their hands -what should it be to me?-i. e. "and even (LXX. xai yɛ) as regards themselves, those youngsters, of what use could the strength of their hands be to me?" Why this was of no use to him is explained in b: for them full ripe

ness is lost, i. e., enervated, miserable creatures that they are, they do not once reach ripe manly vigor (7 as in ch. v. 26). [Hence not "old age," as in E. V., which is both less correct and less expressive.] Why they do not, the verses immediately following show.

Ver. 3. Through want and hunger (they are) starved; lit. they are "a hard stiff rock

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as in ch. xv. 34); they, who gnaw the dry steppe; i. e., gnaw away (py as in ver. 17) what grows there; comp. ch. 'xxiv. 5; which have long been a wild and a wilderness. According to the parallel passages ch. xxxviii. 27; and Zeph. i. xv.

expositors, translates Dp

5.

in the ערק

"fleeing,” a rendering which besides being far less vivid and forcible, is less suitable, the desert being evipently their proper habitation. sense of "gnawing" reminds of 1, ch. xxiv. adverbial construction of DN, but "the wilderIt will be seen also that E. V. follows the ness in former time desolate and waste" suggests no very definite or consistent meaning. If adVerbial, the force of DN must be to enhance the They lived in what was not only now, but what misery and hopelessness of their condition. had long been a desert-a fact which made the prospect of getting their support from it all the more cheerless.-E.].

Ver. 4. They who pluck the salt-wort by the bushes-in the place therefore where such small plants could first live, despite the scorching heat of the desert sun; in the shadow, that is, of larger bushes, especially of that perennial, branchy bush which is found in the Sy

rian desert under the name sîh, of which Wetzstein treats in Delitzsch.— is the orach, or salt-wort (also sea-purslain, atriplex halimus L., comp. LXX.: ahua), a plant which in its nourishment, although of a miserable sort; younger and more tender leaves furnishes some said of poor Pythagoreans: ahua τpúyovteç kaì comp. Athenæus, Deipnos. IV., 161, where it is κακὰ τοιαῦτα συλλέγοντες.—And broom-roots are their bread. -That the root of the broom

(genista monosperma) is edible, is indeed asserted only here; still we need not doubt it, nor read e. g., Don, "in order to warm themselves,” (Gesenius), as though here as in Ps. cxx. 4, only the use of the broom as fuel was spoken of.

Comp. Michaelis. Neue orient. Bibl. V, 45, and
Wetzstein in Del. [II., 143.-And see Smith's
Bib. Dic., "Juniper," "Mallows"].

Ver. 5. Out of the midst (of men) they are hunted, e medio pelluntur. 1, lit. that which is within, i. e., here the circle of human social life, human society. They cry after them as (after) a thief. 12, as though they were a thief; comp. 95, ch. xxix. 23.

Ver. 6. In the most horrid gorges they must dwell-lit. "in the horror of the gorges (in horridissima vallium regione; comp. ch. xli. 22; Ewald, 313, c) it is for them to dwell;" comp. Gesen., 132 ( 129], Rem. 1.-In holes of the earth and of the rocks. Hence they were genuine troglodytes; see below after ver. 8. Concerning 2, "earth, ground," see on

ch. xxviii. 2.

Ver. 7. Among the bushes they cry out. p above in ch. vi. 5 of the cry of the wild ass, here of the wild tones of the savage inhabitants of the steppes seeking food,-not their sermo barbarus; Pineda, Schlottmann [who refers to Herodotus' comparison of the language of the Ethiopian troglodytes to the screech of the nightowl. According to Delitzsch the word refers to their cries of lamentation and discontent over

is natural to assume the existence of a particular class of men in the country inhabited by Job as having furnished the historical occasion and theme of both descriptions. Since now in both passages a troglodyte way of living (dwelling in clefts of the rock and in obscure places, comp. above ch. xxiv. 4, 8) and the condition of having been driven out of their former habitations (comp. ch. xxiv. 4) are mentioned as prominent characteristics of these wretched ones, it becomes particularly probable that the people intended are the Choreans, or Chorites (Luther: Horites) [E. V.: Horims"] who dwelt in holes, the aborigines of the mountain region of Seir, who were in part subjugated by the Edomites, in part exterminated, in part expelled (comp. Gen. xxxvi. 5; Deut. ii. 12, 22). Even if Job's home is to be looked for at some distance from Edomitis, e. g. in Hauran (comp. on. ch. i. 1) a considerable number of such Chorites (Din, i. e. dwellers in holes, or caves) might have been living in his neighborhood; for driven out by the Edomites, they would have fled more particularly into the neighboring regions of Seir-Edom, and here indeed again they would have betaken themselves to the mountains with their caves, gorges, where they would have lived the same wretched life as their ancestors, who had been left behind in Edom. It is less likely that a cave-dwelling people in Hauran, different from these remnants of the Horites, are intended, e. g. the Itureans, who were notorious for their poverty, and waylaying mode of life (Del. and Wetzst.).

their desperate condition. There can be but little doubt that the word is intended to remind us of the comparison of these people to wild asses in ch. xxiv. 5, and so far the rendering of E. V. “bray,” is not amiss]. Under nettles | (brambles) they herd together; lit. "they Ver. 9. In the second half of the Long Strophe, must mix together, gather themselves." Most which also begins with My! Job turns his atof the modern expositors render the Pual as a tention away from the wretches whom he has strict Passive, with the meaning, "they are been elaborately describing back to himself. poured [or stretched] out," which would be And now I am become their song of deequivalent to "they lie down" [or are pros- rision, I am become to them for a bytrate]: comp. Amos vi. 4, 7. But both the use word.--, elsewhere a stringed instrument, of 5 in such passages as 1 Sam. xxvi. 19; means here a song of derision, olhos (comp. Is. xiv. 1, and the testimony of the most ancient Versions (Vulg., Targ., and indeed the LXX. | Lam. iii. 14; Ps. lxix. 13 [12], also: diņrāvтo) favor rather the meaning of defamatory speech, referring to the subject of herding, or associating together. ["But neither the same (LXX.: píλλnμa). the fut. nor the Pual (instead of which one would expect the Niph., or Hithpa.) is favorable to the latter interpretation: wherefore we decide in favor of the former, and find sufficient support for a Heb.-Arabic DD in the signification effundere from a comparison of ch. xiv. 19 and the present passage." Del.].

Ver. 8. Sons of fools, yea, sons of base men, both expressions in opposition to the subject of the preceding verse. is used as a collective, and means the ungodly, as in Ps. xiv. 1.—, equivalent to ignobiles, infames, a construction similar to that in ch. xxvi. 2 [lit. "sons of no-name"]; comp. & 286, g.- -They are whipped out of the land; lit. indeed an attributive clause-"who are whipped," etc.; hence exiles, those who are driven forth out of their own home. [The rendering of E. V., "they were viler than the earth" was doubtless suggested by the use of the adjective in the sense of "afflicted, dejected"]. In view of the palpable identity of those pictured in these verses with those described in ch. xxiv. 4-8, it

,malicious ,מִלָּה

Ver. 10. Abhorring me, they remove far from me (to wit, from very abhorrence), yea, they have not spared my face with spitting; i. e. when at any time they come near me, it is never without testifying their deepest contempt by spitting in my face (Matt. xxvi. 67; xxvii. 30). An unsuitable softening of the meaning is attempted by those expositors, who find expressed here merely "a spitting in his presence" (Hirzel, Umbreit, Schlottmann); this meaning would require ' rather than "??. Comp. also above ch. xvii. 6, where Job calls himself a D? A for the people.

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Ver. 11 seq. show why Job had been in such a way given over to be mocked at by the most wretched, because namely God and the divine powers which cause calamity had delivered him over to the same. For these are the principal subject in vers. 11-14, not those miserable outcasts of human society just spoken of (as Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, Stickel, Schlottm., Del. [Noy, Car., Rod. and appy. E. V.] explain). The correct view is given by LXX. and Vulg., and

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