But now there is no umpire who can chide,
And lay his tempering hand upon us both.
O, would He take His rod away; '
So that His terror might not awe my soul;
Then fearless would I plead my cause;
For now I'm not myself.

16 Ver. 35. I am not myself. 70 y 8 yax5 . the mind wandering; as poor Loar says of himself: A number of the best modern commentatore take this as a

I fear I am not in my perfect mind. denial of guilt: “For I am not conscious to myself of wrong ;" CONANT, literally, For I am not so in myself. Now, in many

v | This seems to be ROSENMUELLER's view: haud quidem mei languages, some such expression as this is used to denote de

as this is used to denote do Eum compos. HIERONYMUS: Neque enim possum metuens to rangement-being not one's self, or firm (12) in one's self-| spondere. See Note on 'I 777 xxii, 10.

2

IS

CHAPTER X.

1 I am weary of my life,

Unto my inward plaint I yield myself;
O let me speak—my soul in bitterness."
Unto Eloah will I say, condemn me not;
0, let me know why thou dost strive with me?
Is it thy pleasure that thou should'st oppress ?
That thou should'st cast away thy handy work,
And shine upon the counsel of the wicked ?
Hast thou the eyes of flesh ?

Dost thou behold as mortal man beholdeth ?
5 Are thy days such as his,

Or even like the mighty: man, thy years ?
That thou should'st seek for my iniquity,
And hunt up all my sin.
'Tis to thy knowledge I appeal; I'm not (this) guilty man
But none can save me from thy power.
Still thine own hands have wrought me, fashioned me,

In every part—all round. Dost thou destroy ?
9 Remember, now, that thou hast made me as the clay;

And wilt thou turné me back to dust?
10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk ?

And curdled me like cheese ?

on hands have Dost thou destras the clay;

11

With skin and flesh, hast thou not clothed me round ?
With bones and sinewsø woven firm my frame?
With life and goodness hast thou favored me,
Whilst o'er my breath thy providence hath watched.
But these things wast thou hiding in thy heart.
All this, I know, was fixed in thy' decree.
When e'er I sin, thine eye is noting it;
And thou wilt not absolve me from my guilt.
Yes, woe to me if I act wickedly;
If righteous, still may I not lift my head ;
So full of shame am I; but see my misery;
For it swells high ; so like a lion dost thou still pursue,
And still repeat thy wondrous dealing with me.
Against me dost thou bring new witnesses.
Thine anger with me dost thou still increase,
As ever changing hosts against me come.

18

19

Why didst thou bring me from the womb ?
I should have died with no eye seeing me;
I should have been as though I'd never been,
From womb to grave translated speedily.
How few my days! Olet Him then forbear
And turn from me, that for a moment I may smile,
Before I go whence I shall not return,
To the land of darkness, and the shades of death;
A land of gloom tenebrous," dense as night,
Land of the death shade, where no order reigns,
Where day is but a darkness visible."

• Ver. 11. Woven. Compare Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16,

or imaginary, as having something of form, and thus a kind Ver. 13. 30 y. With thee. In thy most secret pur- of visibility,--a dark, shadowy, waving, flying, floating thing,

-a faintly glimmering, gleaming, gloaming, wavy motion, pose

shading off from light (gleam, glimmer) into gloom, or darks Ver. 15. But see 78. in imperative. To the ob

ness visible. A vibratory, pulsatory, flying, finttering, or jection that in so taking it the construction is broken up,

undulation of some kind, is the radical image in this whole the answer is, that it is all the more expressive. It was family of words (91, 7 y, Way, by metathesis yo'), meant to be broken. The language is passionato, ejaculatory. • Ver. 16. IX . EWALD, DILLMANN, UMBREIT, DAVIDSON,

and hence, along with flying, the apparently contradictory all refer this to "x , the head, in the preceding verse.

images of light and darkness. See LANGE Gen. Am. Ed., p. MERX saye, characteristically, that it is sinnlos, has no mean.

179, Note. So in the Greek imagery, darkness has wings. ing, and proceeds to change the text. wx seems too far

Night is called (ARISTCPH. Aves, 689) pedavórtepos, black off, for a subject, and there is nothing conditional in the

winged. (Compare Virg. Ra. II. 360, VI. 856). There is language: Should it lif, or if it lift up itself, then, etc.; DA the same radical image in the expression in DYDY VIDEON. COXANT also adopts this rendering. The E. V. roferg it to "jy my affliction just mentioned: it increaseth. So III, 9, XLI. 10, palpebræ aurora, eyelids of the dawn,-the Rosenmüller, as also the Jewish Commentators. RASHI and morning twilight, åpépas

& twilight, anepas Bebapov Soph. Antiq. 104. Com. ABEN EZRA. To the objection that nx) is not congruons to

,מועף and מעיף pare the words
Isa
.
viii
.23 ,22 .

CHAPTER XI.

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and said,

A flood of words ; demands it no reply?
A man all lips ! shall he be justified ?
Thy clamors, shall they silence men ?
That thou may'st thus rave on without rebuke;
And say, my doctrine, it is pure,
I'm guiltless in Thy sight.
O were it so that God would really speak;
And for thy silencing? His lips unclose;
And show thee wisdom's hidden depths, -
Truth's twofold form.
For know it well; less than thy debt doth God exact of thee

Eloah's secret, canst thou find it out?
Or Shaddai's perfect way canst thou explore ?
Higher than Heaven's height, what canst thou do?
Deeper than Sheol's depths, what canst thou know?
Its measurement is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.
When He is passing by, and makes arrest,
And calls to judgment, who can answer him?
For well He knows the men of vanity;
Their evil sees, though seeming not to heed."
Since man, vain man, has madness in his heart;8
A foal of the wild ass, so is he born.

1 Ver. 5. Or, were it really so : The force of 518: Would seen by Him. For God ouly knows what human sin deserten, God take Job at his word and appear in very truth?

and every chastisement, short of the great retribution, has ? Ver. 5. apy, in controversy with thee, as elsewhere

mercy mingled with it. And then this admirably leads to

the train of thought that follows in the exclamations below, used. For thy con founding; to stop thy mouth.

ver. 7. V is rendered debt to preserve the figure, which is 8 Ver. 6. DELITZSCA, literally, “that she (wisdom) is troofold"-overlooking 10in. DAVIDSON paraphrases: Dou

sanetioned in the New Testament: “ Forgive us our debls; OUT ble, he says, is equivalent to manifold, and juin he ren

sins." ders insight, as EWALD does. Most commentators give the

6 Ver. 7. Pn. Mystery—unsearchableness. literal sense, double, Do we not get a good explanation of 0 The emphasis is on the divine names 1715x and '70, as this from ch. xxviii., where two forms of wisdom are set

in viii. 3. forth, namely, the Divine wisdom, or the mystery of God's

7 Ver. 11. jan' *3. The meaning is that it does not providence, and the wisdom mentioned at the end of that chapter, the wisdoni which is for man," the fear of the Lord," require from him a special act of study or attention, as it submission, and "departure from evil." Vin is substance, I does from men. He never loseg sight of it. He sees it reality, truth-things as they are, W'. ovoia; but it is to be though he does not seem to be looking at it. The conjugacontemplated under tro aspects, as pertaining to God, and astion Hith. has this sense of making to be, or assuming to be pertaining to man. See SIRACH xxxiii, 15 : xlii. 24: TAVTQ what the verb signifies,--to make one's-self observant. RASCHI dloga, ev katévavti évós, K. T. A.

explains it well of God's " keeping still, and long-suffering, 4 Ver. 6. EWALD renders: “Overlooks much of thy guilt," as though he did not take note of it"-in' *70 12). which is not far from E. V. UMBREIT, DELITZSCH, DILLMANN, DAVIDSON, with the Targum, give it the sense of nv) (Hiph.

8 Ver. 12. 225. The word does not denote wisdom, as n0n), to forget, or cause to forget, giving in

the many commentators take it, or the want of wisdom, directly. force of a partitive: from or of,-a portion of thy sin. "God or in the sense of stupidity, as GESENIUS interprets it, but to be remembers not all thy sin. The Syriac rendere it, forgivelh.

full of heart, in the sense of courage (cor, Latin cordatus some Vugate has the other sense of 10), that of exacting like a

times), spirit, eagerness, metllesomeness, ferocity, etc. In Cant. creditor. And this is the rendering of E. V., which, after

iv. 9 the piel, A BS (of which this may be regarded as the all, seems the best, and most in harmony with the context. It is grammatical, too, since > in 73112, may denote the passive), means, thou hast excited, roused, roarmed my heart.

13

17

(But as for thee), If thou prepare thy heart,
And spread thy hands (in humble prayer) before him,-
Putting it far away, if sin be in thy hand,
Nor letting wrong abide within thy tents,-
Then shalt thou lift thy face without a stain ;
Then shalt thou stand secure, with nought to dread.
For thy sharp pain shalt thou forget,
And like the passing waters, think of it no more.
Brighter than noon shall life" again arise ;
And what is darkness?? now shall be like morn.
Then shalt thou be assured that there is hope;
Though now ashamed,' in peace shalt thou lie down,
And take thy rest with none to make afraid ;
Whilst many [who have scorned] shall seek thy face.
But as for wicked men, their eyes shall fail ;
Their refuge perishes ;
Their hope— tis like the parting breath.

.

T

headstrong; , heart, in IIebrew, being used for feeling or and solidity. It may be that the meaning here is derived passion, as well as for intellect. UMBREIT, EWALD and De- from the cognate ' (3) stabilire. LITZSCH take it as a proverb, and give it the forced rendering

| 11 Ver. 17. 5o. aiw-time-passing—a very pathetic in the words of the latter) Before an empty head gaineth understanding,

| word. Comp. Ps. xxxix. 6; xvii. 14; 1xxxix. 48. An ass's foal would be born a man.

13 Ver. 17. Darkness, Dayna word of the same This is not only frigid, in itself, and forced, and at war with class with those mentioned in note on X. 22. the gravity of the original, but cannot be brought gramma

18 Ver. 18. Ashamed. This is the rendering of Gesetically out of the words. Man, vain man. The repetition is

nius, giving to the same sense it has in vi, 20. The to give emphasis to that expressive word ).

other sense of the verb, to dig, and that derived from it, to

search, are very forced here. See E. V., DAVIDSON, DELITZSCH, Ver. 14. This verse evidently comes in parenthetically, and others. UMBREIT gets from SCHULTENA, and the Arabic, and therefore the participial form gives the best mode of the sense of protecting, which better suits the context, but is rendering.

philologically without weight. The Vulgate gives the sense 10 Ver. 15. psp. Primary sense fusion, thence mollen,

of digging. The LXX, as is most commonly the case in Job,

is worthless. Merx renders very beautifully, though freelythence the idea of a metallic column igurative of firmness Und, ob beschämt zuvor, noch sicher ruhn.

CHAPTER XII.

1 Then answered Job and said:

2

Ye are the people, there's no doubt ;
And wisdom dies with you.
But I have understanding like yourselves ;
In nothing do I fall below your mark.
Who knoweth not such things as these?
Sport to his friend l yes, such am I become,
Though one who calls on God, and whom he hears;
A sport, (your) sport! A man upright and true!

8

9

But surely ask the beasts and they will teach;
The birds of heaven will make it known to thee;
Or converses hold with earth, and it will speak;
The fishes of the sea will tell it thee:
Who knoweth not, by every one of these,
Jehovah's hand it is that doeth this ?
In whose hand lieth every breathing life;
The spirit of all flesh-of every man.
Doth not the ear try words,
As tastes the palate food ?
So with the old is sage experience ;6
With length of days doth understanding dwell.

? Ver. 5. A wasted lamp: 12 795. Literally a / “ think upon.” It thus makes a very appropriate prayer

for men in such & dark tempest: that the sky would clear lamp of contempt, but the figure demands the idea of that

up, or that God would shine upon them through it. So in for which it is despised--worn out, exhausted, either in its structure or its oil, and, therefore, thrown away as useless.

Cant. v. 24, nwy means something shining, polished. So The passage has been regarded as very difficult. Obscurita COCCEIUS and some of the older commentators, Christian tem summam hujus versus omnes interpretes agnoscunt, says Schultens, “The words of this text are dark,” says the

and Jewish. If we give to ninoy here this primary sense learned Paritan CARYL in his quaint style, "and there are

of shining, splendor (whether of the thoughts or of the outnot a few who make the lamp the darkest word in it." And

ward state), then the antithesis it presents to to, the then he goes on to note the other rendering given by Aben

cast off, used up torch, is no longer “incongruous," but Ezra, and which has since been adopted by the principal

very happy: the poor wasted thing, which Job Bo much modern interpreters, except UMBREIT. It divides the word

resembled, as contrasted with the splendors of wealth, or 795 into the noun 7'9 destruction, calamity or misfortune

the high imaginings of a soul at ease. It is the very image

used Isai. xlii. 3, the sputtering wick or lamp, 77772 n u ? generally, and the servile S, the preposition, with the sense of for or in place of: "for misfortune, contempt."

contempt."The (the “smoking flax"), and cited by our Saviour, Matt.

The translator was at first inclined to this view. It is, however,

xii, 20. full of difficulties, though in some of its aspects seeming

3 Ver. 6. All confident. Plural noun with superlaquite plausible. The rendering which EWALD, DELITZSCH and

tive sense, others give to the words immediately following seems to

4 Ver. 6. Into whose bands, etc. This is rendered buit it, especially as expressed in the concise and happy way

by some: “who take God in their hand;" regarding 5 as of MERX:

repeated here from the line above. So DAVIDSON and DeDom Unglück Hohn, so wähnen Sichere :

LITZSCH. The sense they get is, that wicked men make their For suffering scorn ; so fancy the secure;

hand (their own power) their God. For this there is cited Scorn ever ready for the tottering man.

Hlabak. i. 11, and VIRG. Aen. x. 774: 27. Dextra mihi Deus.

DELITZSCH renders it very strangely: “ who take Elosh in So the translator first rendered it, relying for the sense their hand." The use of Eloah, however, seems strongly

against this. The ellipsis in the other rendering is quite A more thorough study, however, produced the conviction

נָכוֹן of

,ready to hall ,אני לצלע נָכון ,18 .on P8

.
xxxviii