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النشر الإلكتروني

xi. 6; Wisd. xix. 12, etc. The signification of y elsewhere (=intercessor, Is. lix. 16) does not suit here. The change of the word into ya, "point of attack" (ch. vii. 20), proposed by Olshausen, is however untenable. The same may be said of Hahn's explanation of the word in this sense. Delitzsch renders it peculiarly: "and commissioneth it as one who hitteth the mark" ( as essentiæ, and y' after Isai. liii. 6). Delitzsch connects it with God, as "a sure aimer."-Wordsworth a little differently with the lightning: "He giveth it a command as an assailant, or an avenger."-Lee: "He layeth His commands upon it to destroy."Rosenmüller, Stickel, Elzas: "He commandeth it where to strike." Barnes, Carey: "He commandeth it in striking." The rendering of E. V.: "With clouds (2 for clouds from their fancied resemblance to hands) He covereth the light, and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt," pre-supposes too much. The rendering of the Commentary: "against the enemy," is that which is best supported by the etymology, grammatical form, and connection.-E.]

unheard of signification of "jealousy, fury of wrath" (Hahn: "a raging of wrath announces Him who is uprising;" and comp. Schlottmann); the changing of the word into app (Hitzig), or p (Böttcher, Dillmann, who at the same time read my instead of hy: "causing His anger to rage against iniquity"), etc. [Schlottmann's rendering, referred to above-and the fury of wrath against iniquity (or against transgressors)" is the one adopted by Fürst, Good, Lee, Bernard, Carey, Elzas.-The possible varieties of interpretation of the verse are endless. See the more important set forth in Schultens, Schlottmann, and Conant. The simplicity, lifelikeness, and appositeness of the rendering adopted in the Commy. (and by Ewald, Delitz., Gesenius, Renan, Wordsworth, Rodwell, and Conant-who however takes as object, rather than subject-“to the herds”) will commend it to most.-E.].

Ch. xxxvii. 1-5. Further description of the terror-working power of the thunder and lightning.

Ver. 1. Yea, because of this (?, comp. ch. xxxvi. 27), my heart trembleth, and quaketh out of its place; lit., "springs, or starts up," comp. ch. vi. 9. Why this should be regarded as "an exaggerated, hardly an elegant expression" (Dillmann), is not apparent.

Ver. 33. His thunder-cry announces Him; lit. "His alarm-cry makes announcement (1 Sam. xxvii. 11) concerning Him." iy in accordance with Ex. xxxii. 17; Mic. iv. 9; not [His friend, companion], as in- Ver. 2. Hear, O hear, the roar of His deed almost all the ancient versions take it voice.—, a summons to hear closely [LXX. : "The Lord will declare concerning this and attentively, comp. ch. xiii. 17; xxi. 2. The to His friend"]; also among the moderns Um- phenomena of the thunder and lightning seem, at breit and Schlottmann. ["He makes known to this particular moment of the description, so it (scil. the light, or lightning) His friend." So very near to the speaker and his hearers, that Barnes.] Just as little does it mean: "His some commentators, as Böttcher, Schlottmann, thought, decree" (Cocceius, Böttcher, Welte) Delitzsch, have found here at least an indication [Elzas: "By it He announceth His will."of the probability that the poet presupposes a E. V., Rosenm., etc.: "The noise thereof show- storm as advancing during the colloquy. It is, eth concerning it," taking the suffix to refer to however, evidently not an approaching thunderthe storm, not to God; which is altogether too storm to which the description refers, but one insipid]. The cattle even (announce) that which had been for some time already present, He is on the march; or: "concerning Him and which might be heard now loudly roaring who is coming upward." This is beyond a (see a), and now lowly murmuring or rumbling doubt the most satisfactory explanation of the (see b) [and the rumbling (27, E. V.: too gedifficult closing member -;-neral-"sound") that goeth forth out of an explanation which becomes still more obvious His mouth]. Comp. what Delitzsch himself if-instead of assuming, as is commonly done strikingly says: "The five-fold repetition of (so Rosenm., Stick., Ew., Vaih., Heil., Delitzsch, Sip-a word of sombre sound, for which our etc.), merely a general reference to the uneasy Stimme [Voice] is a miserable substitute-calls movements of animals at the first approach of a thunder-storm, and comparing with it passages to mind the seven nihip in Ps. xxix.” Against like Virgil, Georg. I., 373 seq.; Pliny, H. N. Dillmann's assertion, that if the poet had purXVIII., 35, etc., we suppose that the storm posed to represent the thunder-storm mentioned thus far described had occasioned under the in ch. xxxviii. 1 as here already advancing, he eyes of the assembly, before which Elihu speaks, would not have begun his series of physico-theoa certain bewilderment or destruction in a par- logical reflections with the storm, but would ticular herd of cattle;-if, accordingly, we have reserved it for the conclusion, it may be arassume an actual occasion to have been given for gued that at the close of his discourse, and after this description-an occasion which is not to be his digression in respect to the cold, rain season, more particularly defined, and so derive again etc. (vers. 6-13), Elihu does in fact again repeatout of the passage before us a confirmation of edly take up the phenomena of storms and atthe supposition advanced above on ver. 22. In mospheric changes; comp. on ch. xxxviii. 1. that case we need have recourse to none of the artificial and violent make-shifts, into the adoption of which expositors have fallen here, as e. g. the rendering of pp in the absolutely

Ver. 3. Under the whole heaven He leadeth it forth-or: "He sends it forth, looses it" (7, Imperf. Kal. of the Aram. 770), i. e., the roaring and the rumbling. [The definition

Vers. 7-8 describe the effects of the cold of winter on men and beasts. ["The wonders of nature during the rough season (77, 179, Cant. ii. 11), between the autumnal and vernal equi

noxes, are meant; the rains after the autumnal

of the verb here adopted is preferred by Ewald, Fürst, Del., Dillm., Hirz., Lee, Carey, Wordsw., etc., on the ground that it is more appropriate as applied to the thunder (let loose through the immeasurable vault of heaven), and particularly to the zig-zag course of the lightning, than the sig- equinox (the early rain), which begin the seanification "to direct" (from ", which rests on son, and the rains before the vernal equinox (the the fundamental idea of straightness).-E.]. late rain, Zech. x. 11), which close it, with the And His lightning (lit. "His light") unto falls of snow between, which frequently produce the borders of the earth. In respect to great desolation, especially the proper winter, , see on chap. xxxviii. 13. As to the with its frosty winds and heavy showers, when thought, comp. Luke xvii. 24 and parallel pas-mads, is brought to a stand-still, and every one the business of the husbandman, as of the noVer. 4. After it roareth the sound of the retreats to his house or seeks a sheltering corthunder: He thundereth with the voice ner." Del.] of His majesty-lit. "He will thunder

sages.

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Ver. 7. The hand of every man He puts under a seal-so that it is disabled from car

winter frost on the hands of men is: that all

(D), voluntative, as also D in c).—And rying on field-work (comp. HOMER, Iliad, XVII. restraineth them not (i. e., the lightnings, the 549 seq.: os pá te épуwv ȧvýpísπovç ávéπavoev έñì particular rays of the N mentioned in ver. 8), xvovi). Respecting Dлn, comp. ch. xxxiii. when His voice resounds [lit. is heard]. 16. The object of this sealing influence of the -py, not "to track out, to follow up" (Sym- men of His work may come to knowledge machus, Vulg., Ewald [who renders interroga-i. e., that all men created by God may learn tively: "and will He not find them out when how mighty He is, and how entirely dependent His voice is heard?" i. e., track them in their on Him they are. "Men of His work" is a hiding-places with His thunder and lightning], somewhat singular collocation of words, which but in accordance with the Targ., y, to hold does not occur elsewhere, which, however, has back, refrenare, cohibere [the idea being that the roar of the thunder and the flash of the lightning follow in quick succession].

its parallel in the expression, "sheep of His hand," Ps. xcv. 7, and for that reason is not of necessity to be set aside in the way of conjecture. Ver. 5. God thundereth marvellously noverint singuli opera sua, furnishes a witness not At the same time, the rendering of the Vulg.: ut with His voice.- here used adverbi-altogether to be slighted in behalf of the emendaally=mirabiliter, as in Dan. viii. 24; Ps. lxv. 6; tion of Olshausen, favored also by Delitzschcxxxix. 14. In respect to b, comp. ch. v. 9; ix. x-ha nyah.

10; xxxvi. 26. The verse ends for the time the description, so far as it relates to the storm, and by a general observation respecting God's greatness leads the way to the following examples of

the same.

7. Continuation. The phenomena of winter, such as snow, rain, the north wind, frost, etc.:

ch. xxxvii. 6-13.

to

In regard to ver. 8 [Then creeps the beast into his covert, and in his lairs doth he remain] comp. Psalm civ. 22, where, it is true, that which is spoken of is not exactly the influence of winter in causing beasts to seek out places of shelter.

Ver. 9. Out of the secret chamber cometh

Vaihinger, Welte, Delitzsch) [E. V.], the language here refers rather to storms from the north or north-east, as certainly as that below in ver. 17 the sultry and heating quality of the

Ver. 6. For to the snow He saith-Fall the storm.-, "chamber" (penetrale clausto the earth.- erroneously rendered "Be" trum) denotes the enclosure out of which the by the LXX., Targ, Pesh. [E. V.] (on the constorm-wind rushes forth, as in chap. xxxviii. 22 trary, correctly by Jerome ut descendat), is Im-(comp. Psalm cxxxv. 7) mention is made of the "storehouses" of the snow. perat. of 1, "to fall" (lit. "to gape, Comp. ch. ix. 9— "chambers of the south," with which expression yawn"), a root obtaining elsewhere only in Arabic as a verb; hence another of the Arabisms the one before us is not to be identified without of this Elihu section, as in ch. xxxiv. 36; XXXV. the south or south-east (Rosenmüller, Umbreit, further qualification. For instead of storms from 15, etc. In the two following members the of extends its influence: (also) to the rain-shower (D, a heavy, pouring rain; a stronger term than ), and the rain-show. south wind is intended. And cold from the ers of His strength-i.e., His mighty, pouring cloud-scatterers. - D', probably Partic. rain-showers (the plural structure similar to D'a hip in ch. xxx. 31; comp. Ewald, 270, c). The rain, being by far the most common form in which the moisture of the atmosphere is precipitated during the Syro-Arabian winter, where it comes down particularly in the late autumn (as the early rain), and in the early spring (as the latter rain), is by the double designation more strongly emphasized than the snow. Comp. still further, as a parallel in thought, Isa. lv. 10.

Piel. plnr. from , "to sweep away, to scatter," hence dispergentes (sci!. venti), the cloudsweepers, a designation of violent cold storms (as in Arab. darijat, they which blow away; Kor. Sur. 51, 1), which indeed are also to be regarded as coming from the north or east; comp. ch. i. 19. The ancient versions seem not to have understood the word which occurs only here. Thus the LXX.: åπò т☎ν åкрwтηpiwv (a corruption perchance of арkτýwv?); Vulg.: ab arcturo; Aq.,

Ver. 10. From the breath of God there is ¡n (impersonal as also Prov. xiii. 10) ["there cometh, there is given"] ice-viz., when a cold blast, proceeding from God, sweeps over the face of the water, by means of which, according to b, "the breadth of the waters (is brought) into a strait" (comp. ch. xxxvi. 16), i. e., is solidified, and so fettered as it were, is arrested in its free, flowing movement. Precisely thus the Arabic poet, Montenebbi: "the flood is chained by bands of ice." In respect to the apparent contradiction between this representation and the physical fact of the expansion of freezing water, see below on chap. xxxviii. 30.

Vers. 11-13 return to the description of the phenomena of clouds and rain, occasioned by a new phase of the storm just taking place, consisting in the outpouring of rain in extraordinary abundance. Schlottmann correctly: "The storm in its magnificent approach drifts victoriously before all the senses of Elihu, so that from all other images brought forward as they are with a certain haste, he ever recurs to that of the storm" (comp. Del.).

Ver. 11. Also he loadeth with moisture

TT: IT:

This

Theod.: and Maloup (similarly the Targ.) turning round about, hither and thither," etc. [Fürst and Lee: the Northern constellations; Thus understood, it would be better to adhere to Mercier: Septentriones; Good: the Arctic cham- the singular renderin ̧ of "cloud" in ver. 11, as bers; Renan: the north winds, etc.]. being more individual and vivid.—E.]. niapp, "round about," as elsewhere 'p, or ni’ap.— Piloted by Him (lit. "by His pilotings," the clouds being thought of as God's ships, or ing to their doings-i.e., according to the coursers; comp. Ps. xviii. 11 [10] seq.) accordeconomic relation between those actions and the actions of men, God having established a strict agency of His clouds in heaven, now yielding a blessing and now working destruction. reference of the suffix in Dyph to men (Ewald, Hirzel, Heil., Dillm.) is favored by ver. 13, as also by the Masoretic accentuation, which forbids the connection of Dy with what follows, according to the view which finds favor with the majority of modern commentators-" that they may do whatever he commandeth them on the face," etc. [To which add the use of the strongly individualizing and descriptive N at the beginning of the verse, after which it is altogether unlikely that the plural suffix would be used, especially seeing that again in ver. 13 b the sing. suffix is used, Y.-E.] The third member expresses the object of the verb by-Whatsothe clouds-comp. ch. xxvi. 8.-, from 1, ever He commands to them upon the signifies "moisture, wet," and ", related to globe. The pleonastic expression no, "burden," is "to load, to make heavy." All explanations which take as one word [lit. "the habitable land (of) the earth"] occurs again in Prov. viii. Respecting the form from the root (or ) are against the con-y, comp. already ch. xxxiv. 13. nection, e. g., "serenity [brightness] dispels the clouds" (Targ., Rosenm., Umbreit [Bernard, Barnes, Elzas], etc.); frumentum (2) desiderat nubes (Vulg., Symmach.); KλɛKTOV KATATλýσσει vɛpéλn (LXX., and similarly Theod., Pesh.). [Gesenius, Noyes: "In rain He casts down the thick cloud." Carey: By (its) watering the thick cloud falleth headlong." But the vers. which follow, and particularly ver. 12 a, are scarcely consistent with the idea that the cloud has cast down its contents. E. V. also seems to take actively-"by watering He wearieth the thick cloud;" the meaning being apparently that by showering down its contents the cloud is wearied or worn away; against which the objection just noted holds.-E.]. He spreadeth far and wide the clouds of His light-i. e., the thunder-clouds, pregnant with lightning, through which the lightning flashes; comp. ch. xxxvi. 29; and in respect to 1, "to scatter, to spread abroad," comp. chap. xxxviii. 24.

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Ver. 13. More specific statement of the object for which God steers the clouds in accordance with the conduct of men: be it for a scourge, when it is (necessary) for His earth, or for a blessing, He causeth it to come.--DN. is not co-ordinate with the two other conditional clauses (Rosenm., Umbreit, Del. [E. V., Noyes, Words., Carey, Rod.]; "now for a scourge, now for the benefit of His earth, now for mercy," etc.), but subordinate [as is proved (1) by the "whether for a decided contrast between scourge" and "or for mercy," each at the beginning of its half-verse; a contrast and a proportion of parts which would be destroyed by introducing another co-ordinate D; (2) by the tautology which ensues from making the second clause with DN co-ordinate, there being really no material difference between "for the benefit of His land" (or earth), and "for mercy."-E.] The earth is called "His earth," because it is Ver. 12. And these-round about they God's possession (comp. ch. xxxiv. 13), and the turn themselves.- cannot refer to God before differs from the? before the other (Rosenmüller, Schlottmann) [Lee; also Good two nouns, in that it introduces a Dat. commodi. and Elzas, who, however, both render nipp In respect to "chastisement," comp. ch. "seasons (courses)]. It can be referred only xxi. 9.

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to 1, or "clouds," ver. 11. [The most 8. Conclusion. b. Application: chap. xxvii. natural way of accounting for its use here is to with Him, Job should draw from His wonderful 14-24. Instead of censuring God, or quarreling understand it as descriptive, Elihu pointing out operations in the natural world the right conthe cloud at the time--"And there it is!clusion in regard to the mystery of his suffering.

The appeals and questions addressed to Job to
the end of the discourse, are seriously intended.
An unprejudiced consideration of the passage
will find in it no tace "a lofty irony
(Schlottmann, Ewald, Dillmann).

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Ver. 14. Hearken unto this, O Job, stand still, etc. Both "this" (N), and the "wonders of God" in b, point not to what follows, but to the contents of the preceding de-eteth (Conant, lulls') the earth by the southscriptions.

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extent also by Carey's paraphrase-" You, Job, can readily enough feel the changes of the weather, but you cannot give any explanation of them." The rendering, How (i. e., dost thou know how) thy garments are warm, when, etc.", is certainly insipid enough. In favor of the rendering adopted above see further on ver. 18. The rendering of b with E. V., when He quiwind," is admissible, although on account of the Ver. 15. Dost thou know how God com- absence of the suffix after Open the subject is mandeth them?—y D, as in Ex. v. 8, and more probably, with the verb in the inoften, of imposing commands upon, not, as in transitive sense-to be tranquil, or rather in ch. xxxiv. 23, of "setting one's thoughts on any- Hiph. to enjoy tranquillity, to find rest. The thing" (Rosenmüller, Hirzel, Delitzsch [Conant, appropriateness of the language of this verse as Rodwell, Gesenius; i. e., when God planned (E. descriptive of summer heat will appear from the V., "disposed") them]). D is not (according following extract from Thomson's Land and the Book (Vol. II., p. 312): "The sirocco to-day is to the authorities just mentioned) a determina- of the quiet kind, and they are often more overtion of time when, but a specification of the ob- powering than the others. I encountered one a ject of yan, this specification being further year ago on my way from Lydd to Jerusalem. enlarged by the Perf. consec. p. [Accord- Just such clouds covered the sky, collecting, as ing to this explanation is used partitively af- these are doing, into darker groups about the tops of the mountains, and a stranger to the tery, like the Greek genit. after verbs of country would have expected rain. Pale lightknowing, "to have knowledge of," hence of par-nings played through the air like forked tongues tial knowledge. See Ewald, 217, 3, 2, 7]. The of burnished steel, but there was no thunder and suffix in Dhy refers back either to the "won- no wind. The heat however became intolerable, and I escaped from the burning highway into a ders of God," ver. 14 b, or to the "clouds," ver. dark-vaulted room at the lower Bethhoron. I 11 8q. 46 Causing the light of the clouds to then fully understood what Isaiah (ch. xxv. 5), shine," in b (comp. ch. iii. 4; x. 3, etc.) is a cir- meant when he said, Thou shalt bring down the cumlocution for the simple idea of lightning; noise of the strangers as the heat in a dry place, comp. ver. 11 b. Ver. 16. Dost thou understand the ba- as the heat with the shadow of a cloud-that is, as such heat brings down the noise, and makes lancings of the clouds ?pp from the earth quiet-a figure used by Job (ch. xxxvii. 17) when he says, Thy garments are warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind. We can testify that the garments are not only warm, but hot. This sensation of dry hot clothes is only experienced during the siroccos, and on such a day, too, one understands the other effects mentioned by the prophet, bringing down the noise, and quieting the earth. There is no living thing abroad to make a noise. The birds hide in thickest shades, the fowls pant under the walls with open mouth and drooping wings, the flocks and herds take shelter in caves and under great rocks, the laborers retire from the fields, and close the windows and doors of their houses, and travelers hasten, as I did, to take shelter in the first cool place they can find. No one has energy enough to make a noise, and the very air is too weak and languid to stir the pendent leaves even of the tall poplars."-E.]

, to weigh (Ps. lviii. 8 [2]), to poise, a similar structure to that of , ch. xxxvi. 29, but not for that reason to be regarded as an interchangeable form of that word (against Ewald). Respecting Dy! DP in b, comp. on ch. xxxvi. 4. The form p instead of found only

here.

Vers. 17, 18 introduce a new, and at the same time the last digression from the phenomena of storms, which otherwise constitute throughout the principal theme of the description. Here it is to the phenomena which accompany the full blaze of the summer sun beaming in a perfectly serene and clear sky, that the speaker digresses. The U of ver. 17 is not a conjunction? (Rosenm, Umbreit, Hirzel) [Good, Lee, Noyes, Renan, Rodwell, Barnes, etc., and E. V.] or DN (Schlottmann), but a pronoun referring to Ver. 18. Dost thou with him arch over Job, the person addressed, and introducing a re- the sky? i. e., dost thou with Him give its lative clause, precedent to the interrogative sen- vaulting or out-spanning (Gen. i. 7 sq.) to the tence in ver. 18.-Thou, whose clothes (be- firmament of clouds ('p here essentially as come) hot, when the earth becomes sultry in ch. xxxv. 5), which is firm as a molten (lit. "becomes calm, still ") from the South; i. e., not merely by the south-wind, which Din mirror? "mirror," the same as could not signify, but by the united influence of Ex. xxxviii. 8. P, Partic. Hoph. from pr the solar heat and the torrid winds. So cor- (ch. xi. 15), indicating the preparation of the rectly Bolducius, Ewald, Stickel, Hahn, Delitz., mirror from molten and polished metal. With Dillmann [Carey, and, though less decidedly, this representation of the heavenly firmament Wordsworth], except that some of these commen-P7, σтeрéwμa), as constituting a smooth, shitators (Ewald, Dillmann), inappropriately find an ning, and solid mirror, may be compared, as ironical meaning in the words [conveyed to some most nearly resembling it, the representation of

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it as transparent sapphire (Ex. xxiv. 10), or, shines clearly in the bright clouds, inasmuch as more remotely, as a curtain (Ps. civ. 2) or gauze the wind has passed over it, and cleansed it of (Is. xl. 22) or a veil (Ps. cii. 27 [26]). [It should all obscurity" (Ros., Hirz., Ew., Dillm., [Schlottbe observed that the description here given of mann, Noyes, Conant, Lee, Carey, Wordsworth, the skies is especially appropriate to the daz- Rodwell, Elzas] etc.),—is not to assist but to obzling brilliancy of the oriental sky in summer, scure the comprehension of the passage. [The whence the well-known comparison of the sky in explanation of Delitzsch, adopted by our Commy. a season of heat and drought to "brass." It does not seem quite as clear as Zöckler reprewill thus be seen that those two verses, (17 and sents it. D'py is used by Elihu in two senses: 18) are in logical connection. Thou who art subject to the influences of the seasons, whose (1) in ch. xxxvi. 28 of the rain-clouds; (2) in garments are hot in summer, when the earth be-ch. xxxvii. 18 of the sky, or firmament. Decomes still from the South, canst thou claim to be associated with Him who spread on high yon blazing canopy, solid and burnished as a molten mirror? the comparison being with the molten metal used as mirrors.-E.]

Ver. 19. Teach us what we shall say to Him, the mighty Author and Preserver of this magnificent world-structure?-what we shall say to Him, that is, when we would argue with Him. We can set forth nothing (lit. "we cannot -set forth," scil. D'P) by reason of darkness, i. e., because of the darkness of our understanding; comp. Eccles. ii. 14; Is. lx. 2. In respect to, præ, propter, comp. chap.

litzsch takes it more in the latter sense here, translating: "the sunlight that is bright in the etherial heights." This interpretation however is forbidden by the Don) of c. It cannot be said that the wind clears the etherial heights. The suffix evidently shows that the "skies" here spoken of include the lower region of clouds. Moreover the explanation itself requires that somewhere in the verse mention should be made of the lower clouds, which for a time hide the light. But if 'n must include these clouds, which are blown away by the wind, Del.'s explanation becomes inconsistent with the preposition, which certainly cannot mean, according to Zöckler's suggestion, "behind the clouds," or above them. Moreover, as Dillmann Ver. 20. Shall it be told Him (2 opta- justly objects, the aspect in which God is about tive) that I would speak?-["Greatly in- to be presented is not that of One who, having creased vividness is imparted to the discourse by been hidden for a time suddenly reveals Himthis sudden transition from the first person plu- self, but rather that of One whose majesty is too ral to the first singular, as though Elihu would terrible for contemplation, and whose greatness realize on the instant, in his own person, all that is unsearchable. To which add that this is also was fearful in that which he assumes." Schlott- the prominent thought in the verse just precedmann]. Or did ever a man wish to be de-ing (ver. 20);-God is so great that to approach stroyed? lit., "did he say, that he would be (might become) destroyed?" (comp. xxxiv. 31). This question has for its basis something like the well-known Old Testament idea that "no man could see God and live." See Ex. xix. 21; xxxiii. 20; comp. Gen. xxxii. 30; Judg. vi. 22

xxiii. 17.

seq.; xiii. 22.

Ver. 21 seq. refers again to the storm which during the whole discourse is visible in the heavens, not however with the purpose merely to point it out or describe it, but to use the spectacle which the storm at the moment presents as a symbol of Job's condition and relation to God at

the time.

Ver. 21. And now indeed one sees not

Him is to risk annihilation. With this thought the other rendering stands in better connection,

so that the whole train of thought from ver. 20 on may be freely rendered as follows:-Shall it be announced to Him, the Eternal King, awful in glory, that I would speak to Him? Shall I utter the desire to be ushered unto His presence, whom to see is to perish? Even now men cannot look on the light-the symbol of His glory-as it blazes there in the skies, over which much less can they gaze on His terrible majesty! the wind has passed, clearing them up; ... Elihu seems to speak with a presentiment of the approaching presence of God.-E.].

Ver. 22 continues the description in ver 21 c the light, which is gleaming brightly of that which follows the obscuration of the sun by thunder-clouds: From the north comes (7 only here) in the clouds; i. e., which forth the golden brightness; — around notwithstanding the clouds that veil it, or, which Eloah (hovers) the sublimest splendor.— behind the clouds shines with its customary bril- These words are referred by most modern comliancy. But a wind passeth by and clear-mentators (following the Vulg.: ab aquilone aueth them away (dispels these clouds, so that it becomes quite clear again). The meaning of the passage can be only this-that "the God who is hidden only for a time, respecting whom one runs the risk of being in perplexity, can suddenly unveil Himself to our surprise and confusion, and that therefore it becomes us to bow humbly and quietly to His present mysterious visitation" (Delitzsch). To reject this thought, which is so clear, and so strikingly in harmony with the connection, and to substitute for it the other and much more artificial thought-"But now one cannot look upon the sunlight, while it

rum venit) to the metal gold, which comes out of the lands lying to the north (in favor of which they appeal to Herodotus, III., 116; Pliny, Hist. Nat., VI., 11; XXXIII., 4), and which accordingly, even if hard to obtain, is nevertheless at all times accessible to men, whereas God's majesty remains forever unapproachable to them. But whether in this view we find the tertium comparationis to be the remoteness of the northern lands (Ewald, Hirzel, Vaihinger, Welte) [Schlottmann, Lee, Conant, Dillmann], or the mysterious obscurity which veils them (Stickel, Hahn, Delitzsch), the com

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