صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

house is the most terrible calamity for the Sem-well as the DP, might certainly, according to ite; i. c., when all belonging to his family die, or are reduced to poverty, their habitation is desolated, and their ruins are become the by word of future generations. For the Bedouin especially, although his hair tent leaves no mark, the thought of the desolation of his house, the extinction of his hospitable hearth, is terrible." Ver. 16. His roots dry up from beneath, and his branch (as in ch. xiv. 9) withers above (not, "is lopped off," Del. [E. V., Conant, etc.] comp. above on ch. xiv. 2): ["the derivation from "to cut off," is here altogether untenable, for the cutting off of the branches of a tree dried up in the roots is meaningless." Dillm.]. The same vegetable figure, in illustration of the same thing; see above, ch. xv. 32 seq.; comp. Amos ii. 9; Is. v. 24, also the inscription on the sarcophagus of Eschmu

nazar: "Let there not be to him a root below or a branch above!"

Ver. 17. His memory perishes out of the land, and he has no (longer a) name on the (wide) plain. As in the first member denotes the "land with a settled population," so denotes the region outside of this inhabited land, the wide plain, steppe, wilderness. Comp. on ch. v. 10, also the parallel phrase in in Prov. viii. 26 (see on the passage).

Sixth Strophe (together with a closing verse): Vers. 18-21. [After his destruction the wicked lives in the memory of posterity only as a warning example].

Ver. 18. He is driven out of the light into the darkness (i. e., out of the light of life and happiness into the darkness of calamity and death), and chased out of the habitable world. 7, from the Hiph. 777 of the verb 77; used of the inhabited globe, the oikovutvn. The third plural of both verbs expresses the subject indefinitely, as in ch. iv. 19; vii. 3; xix. 26. It would be legitimate to take as the object referred to by the suffixes, not the wicked man himself, but his D and 1 (Seb. Schmidt, Ewald). The following verse however makes this interpretation less probable.

Ver. 19. No sprout, no shoot (remains) to him among his people.-The phrase "sprout and shoot" will most nearly and strikingly reproduce the short and forcible alliteration of

[ocr errors]

, which is found also in Gen. xxi. 23; Is. xiv. 22.—And there is no escaped one (77, as in Deut. ii. 34, etc.), in his dwellings. 2, lodging, dwelling," elsewhere only in Ps. lv. 16. The whole verse expresses, only still more directly and impressively, what was first of all said figuratively above in ver. 16. Ver. 20. They of the West are astonished on account of his day (i. e., the day of doom, of destruction; comp. D in Ps. xxxvii. 13; cxxxvii. 7; Obad. 12, etc.), and they of the East are seized with terror (lit.," they take fright," seize upon terror, in accordance with a mode of expression employed also in ch. xxi. 6; Isa. xiii. 8; Hos. x. 6. The D, as

the general usage of the words elsewhere, denote "posterity," together with the "ancestors” (i. e., the fathers, now living, of the later generations), hence the successors of the wicked, together with his contemporaries. So, besides the ancient versions [and E. V.], many moderns, Noyes, Conant, Wordsworth, Renan, Rodwell], e. g. Hirzel, Schlottmann, Hahn [Lee, Bernard, etc. A more suitable meaning is obtained, however, if (with Schultens, Oetinger, Umbreit, Ewald, Delitzsch, Dillmann), [Wemyss, Barnes, Carey, Elzas, Merx], we take the words in a local sense: the "men of the west," the "men of the east," the neighbors on both sides, those who live towards the east, and those who live towards the west [Dillmann inelegantly: "those to the rear, and those to the front"]. Comp. the well-known designation of the Mediterranean

the western sea), and of the) הים האחרון as

[Del.

Dead Sea as ' (the eastern sea).
objects to the former rendering: "The return
from the posterity to those then living is strange,
and the usage of the language is opposed to it;
for Dp is elsewhere always what belongs to
the previous age in relation to the speaker; e. g.
1 Sam. xxiv. 14; comp. Eccles. iv. 16." Schlott-
mann, on the other hand, argues that the tem-
poral sense is much better suited to the entire
connection than the local.]

T

lies outside of the strophe-structure of the disVer. 21. A concluding verse, which properly course, similar to ch. v. 27; viii. 19.-Only thus does it befall the dwellings of the unrighteous, and thus the place of him who ( without, comp. ch. xxix. 16; Gesen., 116 [3 121], 3), knew not God: i. e. did not recognize and honor God, did not concern himself about Him (ch. xxiv. 1). Hahn, Dillmann, etc., correctly render at the beginning of this verse not affirmatively,="yea, surely," but restrictively-"only so, not otherwise does it happen to the dwellings of the dering that Bildad's whole description receives unrighteous," etc. For it is only by this renthe emphatic conclusion which was to be expected after its solemn and pathetic opening, ver. 5 seq.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

1. Bildad appears here again, as in his former Eliphaz, without being able to present much that discourse, ch. viii., as essentially an imitator of is new in comparison with his older associate and predecessor. So far as his picture of the restless condition and irretrievable destruction of the wicked (ver. 4 seq.) is in all essentials a copy of that of Eliphaz in ch. xv. 20 seq., while at the same time this, instead of being the subject of a particular section, runs through his entire argument as its all-controlling theme, he appears poorer in original ideas than his model. At the same time he rivals, and indeed surpasses, his associate now again, as before, in wealth of imagery and in the variety of his illustrations derived from the life of nature and humanity, for the vivid and skilful handling of which the

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

speaker is pre-eminently distinguished among | ment, far below his opponent. The practical the three friends. He uses the peculiar phrase- commentator, especially when engaged in the ology of the Chokmah with consummate art; continuous exposition of the whole poem, cannot and this aptness and elegance of style compen- help keeping in view these considerations, which sates in a measure for its lack of originality. impair the religious and ethical value of this Especially does his terrible portraiture of the discourse. In its characteristic traits and mowicked man encountering his doom, like that tives, it yields comparatively little that is of Eliphaz in ch. xv., or even in a higher degree directly profitable and edifying. than that in some particulars, acquire by virtue of these qualities a peculiar significance as regards its æsthetic beauty, its relation to scriptural theology, and its parenetic value. "The description is terribly brilliant, solemn and pathetic, as becomes the stern preacher of repentance with haughty mien and pharisaic self-confidence; it is none the less beautiful, and, considered in itself, also true-a masterpiece of the poet's skill in poetic idealizing, and in apportioning out the truth in dramatic form." (Delitzsch i. 332). Especially are the gradual steps in the destruction of the wicked (ver. 12 seq.), and the participation of all that he leaves behind him, of his posterity, his property, and his memory, in his own sudden downfall and total ruin (ver. 15 seq.), described with masterly power. All this is presented with such internal truth, and in such harmony with the experiences of all mankind, that the description, considered in itself, and detached from its connections, is well adapted to exert a salutary influence for all time in the way of warning and exhortation, and edification even for the Christian world.

2. It is true nevertheless that the malignant application to the person of Job of the sharp points and venomous stings of this portraiture, wonderful as it is in itself, destroys the pure enjoyment of the study of it, and warns the thoughtful reader at every step to exercise caution in the acceptance of these maxims of wisdom, which, while sounding beautifully, are applied solely and altogether in the service of an illiberal legal pharisaic and narrow view of life. ["Bildad knows nothing of the worth and power which a man attains by a righteous heart. By faith he is removed from the domain of God's justice, which recompenses according to the law of works, and before the power of faith even rocks remove from their place" (see ver. 4). Delitzsch.] The unmistakable directness of the allusions to Job's former calamities (in vers. 12-14 which point to the frightful disease which afflicted him; in ver. 15, where the shower of brimstone is a reminder of ch. i. 16 seq., and in ver. 16, where the "withering of the branch" points to the death of the children) takes away from the description, although true in itself, that which alone could constitute it a universal truth, and lowers it to the doubtful rank of a representation having a partisan purpose. It compels us to regard its author, moreover, as a preacher of morality entangled in a carnal, external, legal dogmatism, destitute of all earnest, deep and pure experience of the nature of human sin, as well as of the divine righteousness, and for that very reason misunderstanding the real significance of Job's sufferings, and doing gross injustice to his person. We are thus constrained to put Bildad, as a practical representative and teacher of the Divine wisdom of the Old Testa

Ver. 3 seq. OECOLAMPADIUS: Truly the ungodly are vile in the eyes of the godly, and are recognized as being more stupid than brutes; but this is in accordance with a healthy judg ment, and free from contempt. For the world was even crucified to Paul, yet what did he not do that he might benefit those who were in the world? The godly therefore seem vile to the ungodly in quite a different sense from that in which the ungodly seem vile to the godly; for to the one class belongs charity, which the other class in every way neglect; the former act without pride, the latter with the utmost pride.BRENTIUS (on ver. 4): It is no common trial of faith, that we must think of ourselves as not being of such consequence with God that He for our sakes should change common events, and His own pre-established order. We seem to think that God rather will change His usual

...

course on our account.—WOHLFARTH: God's plan is indeed unchangeable and without exceptions, alike in the realm of nature, and in that of spirit. But we must beware of erring by arguing from that which is external to that which is internal. In that which pertains to the spiritual, the higher, that which is to decide is, not external indications, but reason, Scripture, and conscience.

Ver. 5 seq. BRENTIUS: These curses on the wicked are that his light may be put out, and that the spark of his fire may not shine. For the Lord and His Word are true light and splendor, as David says (Ps. xxxvi. 10 [9]; cxix. 105). The wicked have neither, for they say in their heart: There is no God.-V. GERLACH: The light is here in general the symbol of a clear knowledge of man's destiny, of serene consciousness in the whole life (Matt. vi. 22 seq.); the light of the tent carries the symbol further, and points to this clearness, even in a man's daily household affairs, as something which ceases to be for the ungodly.

Ver. 17 seq. LANGE: The memory which a man leaves behind him is of little consequence; it is enough if we are known to God in respect of that which is good. Many righteous souls are hidden from the world, because they have wrought their works in the most quiet way in God (John iii. 21); while, on the contrary, many an ungodly man makes noise and disturbance enough, so that he is talked about after his death. But to the believing child of God it is still granted as his special beatitude that he shall see God, who will make his life an example, bringing it forth into the light, and causing it even after his death to shed a sweet savor to the praise of God (Prov. x. 7).

[ocr errors]

Ver. 21. BRENTIUS: Truly it is not without

purpose that the Holy Spirit so often, even ad | opinions nevertheless are most true, and are

fastidium sets forth in this book the judgment which befalls the ungodly; it is to admonish us, lest we should be disturbed by the prosperity of the ungodly, knowing that the judgment hangs over their head, and will be executed most speedily, as you have most impressively set forth in regard to this matter in Ps. Ixxiii. For although the application of these judgments to Job by the friends is altogether forced, their

written for our instruction.-WOHLFARTH (on that any one truly reveres God? Not by his vers. 5-21): By what tokens can we determine scrupulous attention to the external observances of religion, not by the external events which befall him, not by the individual good works which he does, but by the faith which he confesses, by the whole direction of his life toward that which is Godlike, by the composure with | which he dies: Ps. lxxiii. 17, 19, etc.

B.-Job: His misery is well-deserving of sympathy; it will, however, all the more certainly end in his conspicuous vindication by God, although not perchance till the life beyond.

CHAPTER XIX. 1–29.

(Introduction: Reproachful censure of the friends for maliciously suspecting his innocence:)

1 Then Job answered, and said:

2 How long will ye vex my soul,

VERS. 1-5.

and break me in pieces with words?

3 These ten times have ye reproached me;

ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

4 And be it indeed that I have erred,

mine error remaineth with myself.

5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

and plead against me my reproach:

1. Sorrowful complaint because of the suffering inflicted on him by God and men:

VERSES 6-20.

6 Know now that God hath overthrown me,

and hath compassed me with His net.

7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard;

I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

8 He hath fenced up my way, that I cannot pass, and He hath set darkness in my paths.

9 He hath stripped me of my glory,

and taken the crown from my head.

10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone;

and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

11 He hath also kindled His wrath against me,

and He counteth me unto Him as one of His enemies.

12 His troops come together,

and raise up their way against me,

and encamp round about my tabernacle.

13 He hath put my brethren far from me,

and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

14 My kinsfolk have failed,

and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger;

I am alien in their sight.

16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer;

I entreated him with my mouth.

17 My breath is strange to my wife,

though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body. 18 Yea, young children despised me;

I arose, and they spake against me.

19 All my inward friends abhorred me;

and they whom I loved are turned against me.

20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and my flesh,

and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

2. A lofty flight to a blessed hope in God, his future Redeemer and Avenger:

VERSES 21-27.

21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends!

for the hand of God hath touched me.

22 Why do ye persecute me as God,

and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23 O that my words were now written! O that they were printed in a book!

24

that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth,

and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

26 and though after my skin worms destroy this body,

yet in my flesh shall I see God;

27 whom I shall see for myself,

and mine eyes shall behold, and not another,

though my reins be consumed within me.

3. Earnest warning to the friends against the further continuance of their attacks:

VERSES 28, 29.

28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

29 Be ye afraid of the sword;

for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

rieties of feeling, contains four principal parts, which embrace five strophes of unequal length. The three longest of these strophes, each being of 7-8 verses, fall into the second and third parts, of which the former contains two strophes, the latter one. The short introductory and concluding strophes are identical with the first and fourth parts.

is in like manner followed by a short but forcible and impressive warning to the friends in view of their sinning against him (vers. 28-29). 1. Deeply grieved by the warnings and threat- The whole discourse, accordingly, which is chaenings of Bildad's discourse, which in these re-racterized by vivid emotion and decided contraspects was but an echo of that of Eliphaz, Job, on the one side, advances his complaint even to the point of imploring pity from his opponents in view of his inexpressible misery; on the other hand, for the very reason that he, being innocent, finds himself deprived of all human help and sympathy, he lifts himself up to a more courageous confidence in God's assistance than he has ever yet exhibited. He expresses the welldefined hope of a vindication awaiting him-if not on this side of the grave, then at least beyond it-through the personal intervention_of God, Ver. 2. The discourse begins-like that of appearing to him in visible form. That an- Bildad, with a Quousque tandem (N), which, guished complaint concerning his unspeakably however, is incomparably more emphatic and severe suffering (vers. 6-20) is preceded by a sharp word, addressed by way of introduction to significant than that of his accuser, because it has more to justify it How long will ye the friends, as having maliciously suspected his innocence (vers. 2-5). That inspired declara-Vex my soul and crush me with words?— tion of his hope in the divine vindication which is fut. energicum of, with the third rawas to take place in the Hereafter (vers. 21–27) | dical retained (GESEN. 875 [274], Rem. 16). In

2. Introduction: Reproachful censure of the friends for their malicious suspicion of his innocence (vers. 2-5).

regard to the form

(with suffix appended to the of the fut. energ. and with the union-vowel a), see GESEN. 260 [859], Rem. 3 [GREEN, 105 c].

TT

Ver. 3 gives the reason for the . Now already ten times is it that ye reproach me, viz., by assailing my innocence- here in the sense of "already, now already,' comp. EWALD, 183 a [GESEN. 122, 2, Rem.; Lex. 3. It may, however, be equally well regarded as a pronoun, in its usual demonstrative sense, in the singular with y, with perhaps an interjectional force-"Lo! these ten times do ye reproach me." So Renan: Voilà la dixième fois que vous m' insultez. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 36.-E.] "Ten times" stands naturally for a round number, or ideal perfection; Gen. xxxi. 7; Lev. xxvi. 26; Num. xiv. 22, etc. [Ten, from being the number of the fingers on the human hand, is the number of human possibility, and from its position at the end of the row of numbers (in the decimal system), is the number of that which is perfected; as not only the Sanskrit dagan is

traceable to the radical notion to seize, embrace,' but also the Semitic y is traceable to the radical notion, to bind, gather together' (cogn. p). They have already exhausted what is possible in reproaches-they have done their utmost." DEL.]. Comp. my Theologia Naturalis, p. 713 seq.; also LEYRER's Art. "Zahlen bei den Hebräern" in HERZOG's Real-Encyclop. XVIII. p. 378 seq.). Are not ashamed to

::

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

responds with : my transgression remains with me, without being communicated to another, i. e., without having any influence over you or others to lead you astray, or involve you in participation of the guilt." DEL.]. So in substance-and correctly-Hirzel, Schlottmann, Hahn, Delitzsch, Dillmann [Renan, Carey, Rodwell], while Ewald and Olshausen, failing to perceive the relation of the first member as a hypothetical antecedent to the second member as its consequent and opposite, translate: "I have erred, I am fully conscious of my error." [If this be understood as a confession by Job of moral guilt, it is premature and out of place. Actual error (to wit, that he had vainly put his cording to Ewald, it is a confession of intellecconfidence in the justice of God), uttered with the view of softening the hostility of the friends, by the indirect admission, on the one hand, that their charges had some justification in the nonappearance of God; by the reminder, on the rather than them. But such a thought would be other hand, that his complaint was against God too obscurely expressed, and would imply too sudden a change from the tone of bitter reproach which pervades this opening strophe.-E.]

Ver. 5. Will ye really boast yourselves against me, and prove against me my reproach?-D is to be taken, with Schultens, Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann [Renan: "By what right do you dare to speak insolently to me, and do you pretend to convince me of disgrace?"], as an interrogative particle (=an), and the whole stun me. The syntax of verse as a question, with the chief emphasis ("ye stun [me] without shame, shamelessly"), as in resting on the verbs ("will you [magchap. vi. 28; x. 16. Comp. GESEN. 142 [139], nify] boast yourselves," exhibit yourselves 86 [GREEN, 269]. is a shortened Im- against me as great rhetoricians and advocates, perf. Hiph. for A (GRSEN. 858 [852], Rem. by your elaborate accusations?) and 4,5 [see also GREEN, 894 c]), of a verb 1, ("will you judicially prove, demonstrate" my which does not appear elsewhere, which, ac- disgrace [, against me]? comp. chap. xiii. 3, cording to the Arabic, signifies "to stun," ob-15, and often). This is the only construction stupefacere. The rendering "to maltreat, to abuse grossly," which rests on the authority of the ancient versions (LXX.: ETIKEιové poi, Vulg. opprimentes), and which is adopted by Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann, etc., gives essentially the same sense. [The rendering of E. V.: "ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me" seems to have been suggested by the use of

in the sense of "not to know." The Hiph. form of the verb, however, is not found in that sense, which is, moreover, less suitable to the context than the renderings given above.-E.]

Ver. 4. And verily even if I have erred (comp. chap. vi. 24) [D, double intensive, "yea, verily, comp. chap. xxxiv. 12], my error remains (then) with me, i. e., it is then known only to me (, "with me in my consciousness," comp. chap. xii. 3; xiv. 5), and so does not fall under your jurisdiction, does not call for your carping, unfriendly criticism; for such a wrong, being known to myself alone (and for that reason being of the lighter sort), I have to answer only to God. ["I shall have to expiate it, without your having on this account any right to take upon yourselves the office of God, and to treat me uncharitably; or what still better cor

which properly completes ver. 4. There is no take D as a conditional particle-"if," whether such completing of the sense obtained, if we we take the whole of the fifth verse as a hypothetical protasis, and ver. 6 as apodosis (so Clericus, Olshausen, Delitzsch) [E. V., Lee, Carey, Rodwell, Merx], or regard ver. 5 a as protasis, and b as apodosis (so Umbreit, Stickel, Schlottmann [Noyes, Wemyss, Conant], etc. [Schlottmann exhibits the connection as follows: "In ver. 4 Job says-Granted that I have erred, you ter.' In ver. 5 he adds-'If, nevertheless, you need give yourselves no concern about the matwill concern yourselves about it, and in pride look down on me, it is at least incumbent on you not to assume without further proof that I have brought disgrace on myself by such an error, but The repetition of DP seems to cor-relate vers. to prove it against me with good arguments.' 4 and 5, so that if, as all agree, the first and second members of ver. 4 are related to each other as protasis and apodosis, the same would seem to be true of ver. 5.—E.]

T: T

First Division: First Strophe. Vers. 6-12. Lamentation over his sufferings as proceeding from God.

« السابقةمتابعة »