9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
scrape himself loithal. The word here used (^If?) has the sense of grating, scraping, sawing; or to scrape or rasp with an edged tool. The same word identically, as to letters, is used at present among the Arabs; meaning to rasp or scrape with any kind of tool. The idea here seems to be, that Job took the pieces of broken pottery that he found among the ashes to scrape himself with. H And he sat doicn among the ashes. On the expressions of grief among the ancients, see Notes on ch. i. 20. The general ideas of mourning among the nations of antiquity seem to have been, to strip oft* all their ornaments; to put on the coarsest apparel, and to place themselves in the most humiliating positions. To sit on the ground (see Note on Isa. iii. 26), or on a heap of ashes, or a pile of cinders, was a common mode of expressing sorrow. See Note on Isa. Iviii. 5. To wear sackcloth, to shave their heads and their beards, and to abstain from pleasant food and from all cheerful society, and to utter loud and long exclamations or shrieks, was also a common mode of indicating grief. The Vulgate renders this sedens in slerqzdlijiio, ' sitting on a dungiiil!.' The LXX, "and he took a shell to scrape off the ichor (ixoina), the sanies, or filtli produced by a running ulcer, and sat upon the ashes out of the city," implying that his grief was so excessive that he left the city and his friends, and went out to weep alone.
9. Then said his icife unto him. Some remarkable additions are made by the ancient versions to this passage. The Chaldee renders it, "and Dinah ('^3"^), his wife, said to him." The author of that paraphrase seems to have supposed that Job lived in the time of Jacob, and had married his daugliter Dinah. Gen. xxx. 21. Drusius says, that this was tlie opinion of tiie Hebrews, and quotes a declaration from the Gemara to this effect: " Job lived in the days of Jacob, and was born when the children of Israel went down into Egypt; and when they departed tiience he died He lived therefore 210 years, as long as they were in Egypt." This is mere tradition, but it shows the ancient impression as to the time when Job lived. The LXX have introduced a remarkable passage here, of which the following is a translation. *' After much time had elapsed, his v.ife said unto him, Hov/ long wilt thou persevere, saying. Behold, I will wait a little longer, cherishing the hope of my recovery? Behold, the memorial of thee has disappeared from the earth — those sons and daughters, the pangs and sorrows of my womb, for whom I toiled laboriously in vain. Even thou sittest among loathsome worms, passing the night in the open air, whilst I, a wanderer and a drudge, from place to place, and from house to house, watch the fcun till his going down, that I may rest from the toils and sorrows that now oppress me. But speak some word towards th.e Lord (ri (ytj^^ct fh y.vutnv) and die." Whence this addition had its origin, it is impossible now to say. Dr. Good says it is found in Theodotion, in the Syriac, and the Arabic (in this he errs, for it is not in the Syriac and Arabic in Walton's Polyglott), and in the Latin of St. Ambrose. Dathe suggests that it was probably added by some person who thought it incredible that an angry woman could be content with saying so little as is ascribed in the Hebrew to the wife of Job. It may have been originally written by some one in the margin of his Bible by way of parajdirase, and the transcriber, seeing it there, may have supposed it was omitted accidentally from the text, and so inserted it in the place where it now stands. It is one of the many instances, at all events, which ghow that implicit confidence is not to be placed in the Septuagint. There is not the slightest evidence that this was ever in the Hebrew text. It is not wholly unnatural, and as an exercise of the fancy is not without ingenuity and plausibility, and yet the simple but abrupt statement in the Hebrew seems best to accord with nature. The evident distress of the wife of Job, according to the whole narrative, is not so much that she was subjected to trials, and that she was com.pelled to wander about without a home, as that Job should be so patient, and that he did not yield to the temptation. IF Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Notes ver. 3. The question implies that, in her view, he ought not to be expected to manifest patience and resignation in these circumstances, lie had endured evils which showed that confidence ought not to be reposed in a God wlio would thus inflict them. This is all that we know of the wife of Job. Whether this was her general character, or whether slie yielded to the temptation of Satan and cursed God, and thus heightened the sorrows of Job by her unexpected impropriety of conduct, is unknown. It is not conclusive evidence that her general character was bad: and it may be that the strength of her usual virtue and piety was overcome by accumulated calamities. She expressed, however, the feelings of corrupt human nature everywhere when sorely af-
I flictcd. The suggestion?i-i// cross the mind, often with almost irresistible force, that a God who thus afflicts his creatures is not worthy of confidence j and many a time a child of God is tempted to give vent to feelings of rebellion and murmuring like this, and to renounce all his religion. TI Curse God. See Notes on ch. i. 11. The Hebrew word is the same. Dr. Good renders it, "And yet dost thou hold fast thine integrity, blessing God and dying.?" Noyes translates it, "Kenounce God, and die." Ivosenmuller and Umbreit, " Bid farewell t-o God, and die." Casteliio renders it. " Give thanks to God and
10 Bat he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What! shall " we receive good at the hand of
die." The response of Job, however (ver. 10), shows that he understood her as exciting him to reject, renounce, or curse God. The sense is, that she regarded liirn as unwortliy of confidence, and submission as unreasonable, and she wished Job to express this and be relieved from Itis misery. Roberts supposes that this was a heathen sentiment, and says that nothing is more common than for the heathen, under certain circumstances, to curse tiieir gods. " Tliat the man who has made expensive offerings to his deity, in hope of gaining some great blessing, and who lias been disappointed, will pour out all his imprecaiions on the god whose good offices have (as he believes) been prevented b}'- some superior deity. A man in reduced circumstances says, ' Yes, yes, my god has lost his eyes; they are put out; he cannot look after my afiairs.' ' Yes,' said an extremely rich devotee of the supreme god Siva, after he had lost liis property, ' Shall I serve, him anymore.'' What I make offerings to him! No, no. He is the lowest of ail gods!' " II And die. Probably she regarded God as astern and severe Being, and supposed •hat by indulging in blasphemy Job would provoke him to cut him off at once. She did not expect him to lay wicked hands on himself. She expected that God would at once interpose and destroy him. The sense is, that nothing but death was to be ex])ected, and tiie sooner he provoked God to cut him off from the land of the living, the better.
10. As one of the foolish ivomen spcffkcih. The word here rendered foolish ("''i-'^?, from ^^J)? means properl}^ stupid or foolisli, and then wicked, abandoned, impious — the idea of sm and folly being closely connected in the Scriptures, or sin
God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin ^ with his lips.
being regarded as supreme folly. 1 Sam. XXV. 25. 2 Sam. iii. 33. Ps. xiv. 1, liii. 2. The Arabs still use the word with the same compass of signification. Gcscnius. The word is here used in the sense of wicked; and the idea is, that the sentiment which she uttered was impious, or was such as were on the lips of the wicked. Sanctius supposes that there is a reference here to Idumean females, who, like other women, reproached and cast away their gods, if they did not obtain what they asked when they prayed to them. Homer represents Achilles and Menelaus as reproaching the gods. II. i. 353, iii. 365. See RosenmUller, Morgenland, ill loc. H What! shall ice receive good at the hand of God. Having received such abundant tokens of kindness from him, it was unreasonable to complain when they were taken away, and when he sent calamity in their stead. IT And shall we not receive evil? Shall we not expect it.-* Shall we not be willing to bear it when it comes.'' Shall we not have sufficient confidence in him to believe that his dealings are ordered in goodness and equity.'' Shall we at once lose all our confidence in our great Benefactor the moment he takes away our comforts, and visits us vv ith pain.'' TJiis is the true expression of piety. It submits to all the arrangements of God without a murmur. It receives blessings with gratitude; it is resigned when cahiraities are sent in their place. It esteems it as a mere favor to be permitted i) breathe the air which God has made, to look upon the light of his sun, to tread upon his earth, to inhale the fragrance of his flowers, and to enjoy the society of the friends whom he gives; and when he takes one or all away, it feels that he has taken only what belongs to him, and withdraws
11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came
a privilege to v/liicli we had no claim. In addition to that, true piety feels that all claim to any blessing, if it had ever existed, has been forfeited by sin. What right has a sinner to complain when God withdraws his favor, and subjects him to suffering.? What claim has he on God, that should make it wrong for Him to visit him with calamity.''
Wherefore doth a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins'?
TI In all this did not Job sin rtnth his lips. See Notes ch. i. 2-2. This remark is made here perhaps in contrast with what occurred afterwards. He subsequently did give utterance to improper sentiments, and was rebuked accordingly, but thus far wliat he had expressed was in accordance with truth, and with the feelings of most elevated piety.
11. JVoio ichen Job's three friends heard. It would seem from this that these men were his particular friends. ^\ They cajiic every one from his oicn place. His residence. This was the result of agreement or appointment thus to meet together. H Eliphaz the Temanite. This was the most prominent of his friends. In the ensuing discussion he regularly takes the lead, advances the most important and impressive considerations, and is followed and sustained by the others. The LXX render this Elicf.at b GaiftaivMi' i^aadiv-—' Eliphaz, the king of the Thcmanites.' The Hebrew does not intimate that he held any office or rank. The word rendered Temanile ("'3'2^'n) is a patronymic from "i^-ri Temdn, meaning properly at the rigid hand, and then the South. The Hebrew geographers arc always represented as looking to the East, and not towards the North, as we do; and hence, with lliem, the
every one from "liis own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, " and Bildad the Shuhite, ^ and Zophar
right hand denotes the South. A Teman is mentioned in Gen. xxxvi. 15, as a son of Eliphaz, and grandson of Esau; but there is no certainty that the country received its name from hiui, and if so, nothing can be determined tVom tiiis about the time when Eliphaz or Job lived. Eusebius places Thaeman in Arabia Petrrea, five miles from Petra (see Notes on Jsa. xvi. 1), and says that there was a Roman garrison tliere. The Teinanites were celebrated for wisdom. " Is wisdom no more in Teman.'" Jer. xlix. 7. The country was distinguished also for producing men of strength: " And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed." Obad. 9. That this country was a part of Idumea is apparent, not only from the fact that Teman was a descendant of Esau, who settled there, but from several places in the Scriptures. Thus in Ezek. xxv. 13, it is said, " I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and I will make it desolate from Teman, and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword." In Amos i. 12, Teman is mentioned as in the vicinity of Bozrah, atone time the capital of Idumea: " But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces ofBozrah." See Notcson Isa. xxi. 14. The inhabitants of this country were distinguished in early times for wisdom, and particularly for that kind of wisdom which is expressed in close observation of men and manners, and the course of events, and which was expressed in proverbs. TJius they are mentioned in the book ofBaruch, iii. 23: "The merchants of JMeran and of Theman, the authors of fibles, and searchers out of understanding, '' at m'OnXoyoL y.al hi }yX>iTr^Tul t?/; avremoiq. ^.hid BUdad the Shuhite. I'he second speaker uniformly in the following argument. The LXX render this, " Bildad the sovereign of the
the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together
all n^lL^ (meaning a pit) Avas the name of a son of Abraliam, by Keturah, and also of an Arabian tribe, descended from him. Gen. xxv. 2. " The country of the Shuhites," says Gesenius, " was not improbably the same with Xhel^ay.- y.ala of Ptolemy, 5, 15, eastward of Batanea." But the exact situation of the iSIiuhites is unknown. It is difficult to determine tlie geography of the tribes of Arabia, as many of them are migratory and unsettled. It would seem that Bildad did not reside very far from Eliphaz, for they made an agreement to go and visit Job. ^.find Zophar the jYaamathile. An inhabitant of Naamah, whose situation is unknown. The LXX render this, " Zophar, king of the Minaians — Miva(u)v ^aotlavq. A place by the name of Naamah is mentioned in Josh. XV. 41, as in the limits of the tribe of Judah. But this was u considerable distance from the residence of Job, and it is not probable that Zophar was far from that region. Conjecture is useless as to the place where he lived. The Editor of the Pictorial Bible, however, supposes that Zophar was from the town in Judah mentioned in Josh. XV. 41. He observes that this town is " mentioned in a list of the uttermost cities of Judah's lot, ' towards the coast of Edom southxcard;' it is farther among that portion of those towns that lay ' in the valley' (Josh. xv. 33), which valley is the same that contained Joktheel (Josh. XV. 38), which is supposed to have been Petra. Naamah was probably, therefore, in or near the Ghor or valley which extends from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba.— These considerations," he adds, " seem to establish the conclusion tjiat the scene of this book is laid in the land of Edom." In the first part of this verso, a remarkable addition occurs in the Chaldee paraphrase. —
to come " to mourn with him, and to comfort him.
It is as follows: "And the three friends of Job heard of all the evil which had come upon him, and when they saw the trees of his gardens (Chald. Paradise V'H'iQ^na) that they were dried up, and the bread of his support that it was turned into living j<"in),and the wine of his drink turned into blood (T|£firii V''"^^^'^'r '^^^l-^ ^^^?)-" Here is evidently the doctrine o^transuhstantiatlon^ the change of bread into flesh, and of wine into blood, and bears the marks of having been interpolated by some friend of the Papacy. But when or by whom it was done is unknown. It is a most stupid forgery. The evident intention of it was to sustain the doctrine of transubstantiation, by the plea that it was found far back in the times of Job, and that it could not be regarded, therefore, as an absurdity. To what extent it has ever been used by tho advocates of that doctrine, I have no means of ascertaining. Its interpolation here is a pretty sure proof of the conviction of the author of it that the doctrine is not found in any fair interpretation of the Bible. \iFor they had made an appointment together, They had agreed to go together, and they evidently set out on the journey together. The Chaldee — or some one who has interpolated a passage in the Chaldee — has introduced a circumstance in regard to the design of their coming, which savors also of the Papacy. It is as follows: " They came each one from his place, and for the merit of this they iccre freed from the place destined to them in Gehe7ina" (Diin^3), a passage evidently intended to defend the doctrine of purgatory, by the authority of the ancient CJialdee Paraphrase. ^ To come to mourn with him, and to comfort him. To show the appropriate sympathy of friends in a time of peculiar calami-
12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent
ty. 'I'licy Jid not come with an intention to reproacli him, or to charge him with being a liypocrite.
12 And u'heti they lifted up their eijcs afar off. " Wiien they saw him at tije distance at which they could formerly recognize him without difficulty, disease had so altered his appearance that at first sight they knew him not." JYorjes. ^They lifted vp their voice. This is a common expression in the Scriptures, to denote grief. Gen. xxvii. 38, xxix. 11. Judg. ii.4. Ruth i. 9. 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, et smpc al We learn to suppress the expressions of grief. The ancients gave vent to their sorrows aloud. — They even hired persons to aid them in their lamentations; and it became a professional business of women to devote themselves to the office of making an outcry on occasions of mourning. The same thing prevails in the East at present. Friends sit around the grave of the dead, or go there at different times, and give a long and doleful shriek or howl, as expressive of their grief. H And they rent every one his mantle. See Notes on ch. i. 20. ^[ And sprinkled dust upon their heads toivards heaven. Another expression of sorrow. Comp. Lam. ii. 10. Neh. ix. 1. 1 Sam. iv. 12. Josh. vii. 6. Ezek. xxvii. 30. The indications of grief here referred to, were such as were common in ancient times. They resemble, in a remarkable manner, the mode in which Achilles gave utterance to his sorrow, when informed of the death of Patroclus. Iliad xviii. 21-27.
A Binlden liorror shot through all the chief, And wiapp'il liis senses in the cloud of <rrief; Cast on ihc ground, with furious hands he
prea<l The scorching ashes oer his graceful head, His jmrple garments, and his golden hairs, Those he deforms with dust, and these he tears;
every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust " upon their heads toward heaven.
13 So they sat down' with
On the hard soil his groaning breast he threw. And roll'd and grovcU'd as to eaiih he grew, Pope.
Thus far the feelings of the three friends were entirely kind, and all that they did was expressive of sympathy for the sufferer.
13. So they sat down with him upon the ground. See Notes on ch. i. 20, ii. 8. Comp. Ezra ix. 3: "I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and my beard, and sat down astonished." II Seven days and seven nights. Seven days was the usual time of mourning among the Orientals. Thus they made public lamentation for Jacob seven days. Gen. 1. 10. Thus, on the death of Saul, they fasted seven days. 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. So the author of the book of Ecclesiasticu.'^ says, " Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead." Ch.xxii. 12. It cannot be supposed that they remained in the same place and posture for seven days and nights, but that they mourned with him during that time in the usual way. An instance of grief remarkably similar to this, continuing through a period of six days, is ascribed by Euripides to Orestes:
" 'Tis hence Orestes, agonized with griefs And sore disease, lies on his restless bed Delirious. Now six morns have winged their
flight. Since by his hands his parent massacred Burnt on the pile in ex[Matory flames. Stubljorn the while he keeps a rigid fast, Nor bathes, nor dressesjbut beneath Ids robes He skulks, and if he steals a pause from rage, 'Tis but to feel his weiglit of wo and weep."
IT And none spake a word to him.- That is, on the subject of his grief. They came to condole with him, but they had now nothing to say.
him upon the ground seven " days and seven nights, and none
riiey saw that his afHiction was much groiaer than they had anticipated. II /or theij smothat his grief icas very great. Tijis is given as a reason wliy they were silent. But how this produced silence, or why his great <^rief was a cause of their silence, is not intimated. Perhaps one or all of the tolJowing considerations may have led to it. (1.) They were amazed at the e.\tent of his sufferings. Amazement IS often expressed bv silence. We look upon that which is out of the usual course of events without beinoable to express any thing. We are "struck dumb" with wonder. (2.) The effect of great calamity is often to prevent utterance. Nothing is more n,)tural or common than profound silence when we go to the house of mourning. " It is the lesser cares only | that speak; the greater ones find not Ianeua<£e."
spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
Curc-e leves loquuntur, irigentes stupent. (3.) They might not have known wliat to say. They had come to sympathize with him, and to offer consolation. But their anticipated topios of consolation may have been seen to be inappropriate. The calamity was greater than they had before witnessed. The loss of propertv and children; the deep humiliation of a man who had been one of the most distinguished of the land; the severity of his bodily sufferings, and his changed and haggard appearance, i constituted so great a calamity, that | the usual topics of conversation did not meet the case. What they had to I say, was the result of careful obser- | vation on the usual course of events | and it is by no means improbable that ' they had never before witnessed sor- j rows so keen, and that they now saw thattheir maxims would by no means j lurnish consolation for such a case, j (4.) They seem to have been very I early thrown into doubt in regard to ' the real character of Job. They had ' regarded him as a pious man, and had come to him under that impression But his great afflictions seem soon to have shaken their confidence in his piety, and to have led them to ask themselves whether so great a sufferer could be the friend of God. Their subsequent reasonings show that it was with them a settled opinion that the righteous would be prospered, and that very great calamities wereproof of great criminality in the sight of God. It was not inconsistent with this belief to suppose that the righteous might be slightly afflicted, but when they saw such sorrows, they supposed they were altogether beyond what God could send upon his friends; and with this doubt on their minds, and this change in their views, they knew not what to say. How' could they con.sole him when it was their settled belief that great sufferings wereproof of great guilt.? They could say nothing which would not seem to be a departure from this, unless they assumed that he had been a hypocrite, and should administer reproof and rebuke for his sins. (5.) In this state of things, to administer rebuke would seem to be cruel. It would aggravate the sorrows which already were more than he could bear. They did, therefore, what the friends of the afiiicted are often compelled to do in regard to specific sufferings; they kept silence. As they could not comfort him, they would not aggravate his grief All they could have said would probably have been unmeaning generalities which would not meet his case, or would have been sententious maxims which would imply that he was a sinner and a hypocrite; and they were therefore dumb, until the bitter complaint of Job himself (ch. iii.) gave them an opportunity to state the train of thought which had passed through their minds during this protracted silence. Hoyv often do similar cases occur now — cases where consolation seems almcst impossible, and where any truths which might be urged, except the most abstract and unmeaning generalities,would tend only to aggravate the sorrows of the afflicted! When calamity comes upon a person as the result of his sins; when property is taken away which has been gained in an unlawful manner; when a friend dies, leaving no evidence that he was prepared; when it is impossible to speak of that friend without recalling the memory of his irreligious, prayerless, or dissolute life, how difficult is it to administer consolation! How often is the Christian friend constrained to close his lips in silence, or utter only torturing general truths that can give no consolation, or refer to facts which will tend only to open the wound in the heart deeper! To be silent at such times is all that can be done; or to commend the sufterer in humble prayer to God, an expedient which seems not to have been resorted to either by Job or his friends. It is remarkable that Job is not represented as calling upon God for support and it is as remarkable that his friends during these seven days of silent grief did not commend the case of their much afflicted friend to the Father of mercies. Had Joh prayed, he might have been kept from much of the improper feeli'hg to which he gave vent in the following chapter; had they prayed, they might have obtained much more just views of the government of God than they had hitherto
This chapter introduces the argument of the poem, which continues to ch. xlii. 6. The pathetic lamentation of Job, and his bittercomplaint, furnishes an occasion for the reply of Eliphaz in ch. iv., and gives rise to the argument which follows. Thus far liis friends, overwhelmed with astonishment and grief, had said nothing. They knew not what to say to comfort him, and they felt that if they said any thing, and expressed the convictions of their own minds, it could only give him pain. They were, therefore, silent. The lamentation and complaint of Job, however, furnished them with an opportunity to express their convictions fully, and in the following chapters they enter on the argument with great earnestness.
This chapter contains Job's complaint. At the end of seven days, when he saw no prospect of relief from his sufferings, and when his friends did not utter one word of condolence, he unburdens his heart in the language of hitter lamentation and despair. J^'oyes, The compl,.:nt comprises the following parts or subjects: —
He curses the day in which ho was born, using a great variety of strong, rash, and violent language, to show the deep detestation with which he regarded it — wishing that that day had perished, that night had rested on it, that it should not be numbered among the days of the year, and that it should be an accursed day never to be mentioned but with some expression of abhorrence, vs. 1 — 9.
He states the reason why he regarded it as accursed. It was because it did not prevent his birth, and thus save him from sorrow and despair, ver, 10.
He asks with impatience, why he did not die as soon as he was born? Why were any pains taken to keep him alive.' Why was he reserved to endure these bitter sorrows.' vs. 11, 12.
He states with great beauty, what would have occurred if he had died as soon as he was born. Then he would have been at rest. He would have slept as princes and kings do. lie would have been as unconscious of suffering as infants are who are not born. He would have been in that peaceful abode where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest j vrhere the chains of slavery are broken, and the servant is as free as his master, vs. 13 — ^20.
He asks, in the language of bitter complaint, why life is given to a man in misery, who does not desire it, and who longs impatiently for death? This implies a bitter complaint against God. Before this nothing had escaped him reflecting on God; but here, in the language of deep and excited feeling, he allows himself to insinuate that God is unjust and unkind, vs. 20—23.
In the close of his complaint, he discloses the foci tliat he had greatly feured these sufferin'-'s and that in the time of his prosperity ho had not felt tlrat he was secure. He had had an apprehension of a reverse of circumstances, and now the worst that he had dreaded hadcone, vs. 24-26
Tiiere is, undoubtedly, much in this complaint that is irreverent, impatient, and improper. Yet I he author of the poem has contrived to secure our sympathy in favor of the sufferer by the narrative which precedes. Had the hook commenced here, all would at once conclude lint Jo!) know nothing of proper feelings of submission, and was wholly a stranger to true piety. l!ui we hear this language v^hen by the prev.ous narrative we are disposed to pity the sufferer. He has been suhjecied to trials of the severest nature, and has found no one to condole with him, or to express a sentiment of kindness in his favor. Under this excess of suftering, and wrought up to this heii;ht of feeling, we are more inclined to pity him than to censure hfiri for liis oiiviously irreverent language. SSuch is the art of the poem that these complaints do not strike us as coming from a bad man, but as being the effect of momentary impatience and passion. They are not expressions indicating settled character and principles, but they are the lesult of the circumstances in which he was placed. Tiiey are felt to be such as not to demonstrate that he is a hypocrite, but such as to show.that while he was in the main " a man of integrity, he was too confident of it; a man oppressed with almost every imaginable evil, boiii corporeal and mental, and hurried beyond the limits of virtue by the strong influence of pain and affliction.'" Lowtli's Lectures on Hebrew ■poetry, xxxiv.
1. After this. Dr. Good renders this, "at h;ngth." It means after the long silence of liis friends, and after he saw that tliero was no prospect of rehef or of consolation. II OpcnedJoh his mouth. The usual formula in Hebrew to denote the commencement of a speech. See Matt. v. 2. Schultens contends that it means boldness and vehemency of speech, Ttaootjofa., or an opening of the mouth tor the purpose of accusing, expostulating, or complaining; or to begin to utter some sententious, profound, or sublime maxim; and in support of this he appeals to Ps. Ixxviii. 2, and Prov. viii. 6. There is probably, however, nothing more intended than to begin to speak. It is in accordance wit'i Oriental views, wliere an act of speaking is regarded as a grave and important matter, and is entered on with much deliberation. Blackwell (Life of Homer, p. 43) remarks tliat the Turks, Arabs, Hindoos, and the Orientals in general, have little inclination to society and to general conversation, that tliey seldom speak, and that their speeches are sententious and brief, unless they are much excited. With such men, to make a speech is a serious matter, as is indicated by the manner in whicb. their discourses are commonly introduced. " I will open my mouth," or they " opened ihe mouth," implying great deliberation and gravity. TJiis phrase occurs ofteii in Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, and in Virgil (Comp. ^n. vi. 75), as well as in the Bible. SeeBurder, in Rosenmuller's Morgenland, in loc. T[ jQnil cursed his day. The word rendered cifr^e here (?^l^'|'^)is different from that used in ch. i. ll, ii. 9. It is the proper word to denote to curse. The Syriac adds, " the day in which he was born." A similar expression occurs in Klopstock's Messias, Ges. iii.
gcbohren ward, Huchet. " When now of all her children robb'd, the desperate n. other enraged curses the day in which she bare, and was borne."
2 IT.9nd Job spake. Marg. as in Hebrew, answered. The Hebrew word here used ("^Jr;) to ansicer, is often employed when one commences a discourse, even {hough no question had preceded. It is somewiiat in the sense of replying to a subject, or of speaking in a case where a question might appropriately be a.^ktd. Isa. xiv. 10 (Heb), Zech. iii. 4, Dent. xxyi.5(Heb.), xxvii. 14 (Heb.). The word to ansvKr {dnny.oi'vofiat) is frequently used in this way in tlie New
3 Let ' the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in
3. Let the day jjcrish. ' Perish the day! O tlxat there had never been sucli a day I Let it be bJotted from the memory of man!' There is something singularly bold, sublime, and 2cild in this exclamation. It is a burst of feeling where there iiud been long restraint, and where now it breaks forth in the most vehement and impassioned manner. The word perish here ('^5^'^) expresses the optative^ and indicates strong desire. So the LXX, Vi.To/o/To, may it perish^ or be destroyed. Comp. ch. x. 18. " O that I had given up the ghost." Dr. Good says of this exclamation, " There is nothing that I know of, in ancient or modern poetry, equal to the entire burst, whether in the wildness and horror of t!ie imprecations, or the terrible sublimity of its imagery." The boldest and most animated of the Hebrew poets have imitated it, and have expressed themselves in almost the same language, in scenes of distress. A remarkably similar expression of feeling is made by Jeremiah.
Cursed be the day wherein I was born!
" A man child is born unto thee,"
The sense of this expression in Job is plain. He wished ^there never had been such a day, and then lie would not have been born. It is impossible to vindicate these expressions in Job and Jeremiah, unless it be on the supposition that it is highly wrought poetic language, caused by sorrow so acute that it could not be expressed in prose. We are to remember, however, if this seems to us inconsistent
ivJiicJi it was said, There is a man child conceived.
with the existence of true piety, that Job had far less light than we have, that he lived at an early period of the world, when the views of the divine government were obscure, and thai he was not sustained by the hope? and promises which the Christian possesses now. What light he had was probably that of tradition, and of the result of careful observation on the course of events. His topics of consolation must have been comparatively few. He had few or no promises to sustain him. He had not had before him, as we have, the example of the patient Redeemer. His faith was not sustained by those strong assurances which we have of the perfect rectitude of tiie divine government. Before we blame him too severely, we must place ourselves in imagination in his circumstances, and ask what our piety would have done under the trials which afflicted hivi. Yet with all allowances, it is not possible to vindicate this language; and while we cannot but admire its force and sublimity, and its unequalled power and boldness in expressing strong passion, we at the same time feel that there was a want of proper submission and patience. — It is the impassioned language of a man who felt that he could bear no more; and there can be no doubt that it gave to Satan the hope of his anticip; ted triumph. T\ Jind the night in w lich it was said. Dr. Good renders this, "And the night which shouted!" Noyes, " And the night which said." So Gesenius and Kosenmiiller, " Perish the night w^hich said, a man child is conceived." Tho Vulgate renders it, " The night in which it was said;" the LXX," That night in which they said." The Chaldee paraphrases the verse, " Perish the day in which I was born, and the angel who presided over my conception." Scott, quoted by Good, translates it, "Tlio night which hailed
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above,
tlie new-born man." The language tiiroughout tliis imprecation is that in which the night is personified, and addressed as if it were made glad by llie birth of a son. So Schultens says, " Inducitur enim JVox ilia quasi conscia viystcril, ct exultans ob spem prolis viriiis." Such personifications of day and night are common among the Arabs. See Schultens. It is a representation of day and night as "sympathizing with the joys and sorrows of nsankind, and is in the truest vein of Oriental poetry." "il There is a man child conceived. Heb. "1^5 — a man. Comp. John xvi. 21. The word " conceived " Dr. Good renders "brought forth." So Herder translates it. The LXX, ^ Jdni' aooF)' — /o, a male. 'J he common tranalation expresses the true sense of the original. The joy at the birth of a male in Oriental countries is much greater than that at the birth of a female. A remarkable instance of an imprecation on the day of one's birth is found in a Mohammedan book of modern times, in which the expressions are almost precisely the satne as in Job. " Malek i er Nasser Daud, prince of some tribes | in Palestine, from v/hich however he! had been driven, after many adverse | fortunes, died in a village near Da-! niascus in the year 1258. When the crusaders had desolated his country, i he deplored its misfortunes and his j own in a poem, from which Abulfe- \ da (Annals, p. 560) has quoted the following passage: ' O that my mother had remained unmarried all the days of her life! That God had determined no lord or consort for her! O that when he had destined her to an excellent, mild, and wise prince, | she had been one of those whom he had created barren; that she might never have known the happy intelligence that she had borne a man or woman! Or that, when she had carried me under her heart, I had lost -, ray life at my birth; and if I had been l born, and had seen the light, that, when the congratulating people hastened on their camels, I had been gathered to my fathers.' " The Greeks and the Romans had their unlucky days (rjfieQai (XTTocpQoiSfq, dies infausti); that is, days which were un propitious, or in which they expected no success in any enterprise or any enjoyment. Tacitus (Annals, xiv. 12) mentions that the Roman Senate, for the purpose of flattering Nero, decreed that the birth-day of Agrippina should be regarded as an accursed day: ut dies natalis i\grippina3 inter nefastos esset. See RosenuiOller, Alt. u. neue Morgenland, in loc. Expressions also simiUir to tliose before us, occur in Ovid, particularly in the following passage, Epist. ad Ibin.
Natus es infcli.x (ita Dii voluorc), nee uila Comnioda nascnnli Stella, levisve fuit.
Lux quoque natalis, ne quid nisi tristo videres, Turpi?, et inductis nuhibus atra fuit.
Sedit in adverse nocturnus culmine bubo, Funereoque graves cdidit ore sonos.
We have now similar days, which by common superstition are regarded as unlucky or inauspicious. The wish of Job eeems to be, that the day of his birth might be regarded as one of those days.
4. Let that day be darkness. Let it not be day; or, O, that it had not been day, that the sun had not risen, and that it had been night. H Let not God regard it from above. The word rendered here " regard" (^"'^'7) means properly to seek or inquire after, to ask for or demand. Dr. Good renders it here, " Let not God inclose it," but this meaning is not found in the Hebrew. Noyes renders it literally, "Let not God seek it." Herder," "Let not God inquire after it." The sense may be, either that Job wished the day sunk beneatii the horizon, or in the deep waters by which he conceived the earth to be surrounded, and prays that God would not seek it and bring it from its dark
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain ' it; let a
abode; or he desired that God would never inquire after it, that it might pass from his remembrance and be forgotten. What we value, we would wish God to remember and bless; what we dislike, we would wish him to forget. This seems to be the idea here. Job hated that day, and he wished all other beings to forget it. He wished it blotted out, so that even God would never inquire after it, but regard it as if it had never been. *[[ jYcither let the light shine upon it. Let it be utter darkness; let not a ray ever reveal it. It will be seen here that Job first curses the day. The amplification of the curse with which he commenced in the first part ofver. third, continues through the fourth and fifth verses; and then he returns to the night., v/hich also (in the latter part ofver. 3) he wished to be cursed. His desires in regard to that unliappy night, he expresses in vs. 6-10.
5. Let darkness and the shadow of death. The Hebrew word ^i^'^Vj tzdbndveth is exceedingly musical and poetical. It is derived from?^ tzel, a shadow, and ^)^ ma,veth, death; and is used to denote the deepest darkness. See Notes on Isa. ix. 2. It occurs frequently in the sacred Scriptures. C'omp. Job X 21,22 Ps. xxiii. 4. Job xii. 22, xvi. 16, xxiv. 17, xxxiv. 22, xxviii. 17. Amos v. 8, Jer. ii. 6. It is used to denote the abode of departed spirits, described by Job as *' a land of darkness, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death v.ithout any order, and where the light is as darkness." Job. x. 21,22. The idea seems to have been, that death was a dark and gloomy object that obstructed all light, and threw a baleful shade afar, and that that melancholy shade was thrown afar over the regions of the dead. The sense here is, that Job wished the deepest conceivable darkness to lest upon it. H Stain it.
cloud dwell upon it; '^ let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Marg. or challenge. Vulg. obscure it. LXX, "take or occupy it," ^Exld^ai. Dr. Good, crush it. Noyes, redeem it. Herder, seize it. This variety of interpretation has arisen in part from the twofold signification of the word here used,?5<^. The word means either to redeem., or to defile., -pollute., stain. These senses are not very closely connected, and I know not how the one has grown out of the other, unless it be that redemption was accomplished with blood, and that the frequent sprinkling of blood on an altar rendered it defiled, or unclean. In one sense, blood thus sprinkled would purify, when it took away sin; in another, it would render an object unclean or polluted. Gesenius says, that the latter signification occurs only in the later Hebrew. If the word here means to redeem., the sense is, that Job wislied darkness to resume its dominion over the day, and redeem it to itself, and thus wholly to exclude the light If the word means to defile or pollute, the sense is, that he desired the death-shade to stain the day wholly black; to take out every ray of light, and to render it wholly obscure. Gesenius renders it in the former sense. The sense which Reiske and Dr. Goodgive to the word, " crush it," is not found in the Hebrew. The word means to defile, stain, or pollute, in the following places, viz.: it is rendered;;o//wfc and polluted in Mai. i. 7, 12. Zeph. iii. 1. Lam. iv. 14. Ezraii. 62. Neh. vii. 64; defile or defiled in Isa. lix. 3. Dan. i. 8. Neh. xiii. 29; and stain in Isa. Ixiii. 3. It seems to me that this is the sense here, and that the meaning has been well explained by Schultens, that Job wished that his birthday should be involved in a deep stain, that it should be covered with clouds and storms, and made dark and dismal. Tiiis imprecation referred not only to the day on which he was bom, but to' each succeeding birth-day. Instead of its being on its return a bright and cheerful day, he wished that it might be annually a day of tempests and of terrors; a day so marked that it would excite attention as peculiarly gloomy and inauspicious. It was a day whose return conveyed no pleasure to his soul, and which he wished no one to observe with gratitude or joy. TI Let a cloud dwell upon it. There is, as Dr. Good and others have remarked, much sublimity jn this expression. The Hebrew word rendered a cloud (p'^^^} occurs nowhere else in this form. It is the feminine form of the word ■ji^, a cloudy and is used collectively to denote clouds; that is, cloud piled on cloud; clouds " condensed, impacted, heaped together " (Dr. Good), and hence the gathered tempest, the clouds assembled deep and dark, and ready to burst forth in the fury of a storm. Theodotion renders it aw- VBwfa, assembled clouds; and hence darkness. The LXX render it yvocpoq, tempest^ or thick darkness. So Jerome, caligo. The word rendered '* dwell upon it '" (l^^^), means properly to settle down., and there to abide or dwell. Perliaps the original notion was that of fixing a tent, and so Schuitens renders it. Tentorium figat super eo Xubes.^ " Let the cloud pitch its tent over it;" rendered by Dr. Good, *' The gathered tempest pavilion over it!" " This is an image," says Schuitens, " common among the Arabs." The sense is, that Job wished clouds piled on clouds to settle down on the day permanently, to make that day their abode, and to involve it in deep and eternal night. II Let the blackness of the day terrify it. Marg. " Or, Lei them terrify it as those who have a hitter day.^' There has been great variety in the interpretation of this passage. Dr. Good renders it, " The blasts of noontide terrify it." Noyes, "Let whatever darkens the day terrify ti." Herder," The blackness of misfortune terrify it." Jerome, Et involvatur amaritudine, ' let it be involved in bitterness.' The LXX, yaTaoa&fCtj tj fjfi/Qci^ ' let the day be cursed.' This variety has arisen from the difficulty of determining the sense of the Hebrew word used here and rendered " blackness," a»i>-|i*n^3 If it is supposed to be de* rived from the word *l^3 kdmdr, to be warm, to be hot, to burn, then it would mean the deadly heats of the day, the dry and sultry blasts which prevail so much in sandy deserts. — Some writers suppose that there is a reference here to the poisonous wind Samuni or Samiel, which sweeps over those deserts, and which is so much dreaded in the heat of summer. *' Men as well as animals are often suffocated with this wind. For during a great heat, a current of air often comes which is still hotter; and when men and animals are so exhausted that they almost faint away with the heat, it seems that this little addition quite deprives them of breath. — When a man is suffocated with this wind, or when, as they say, his heart is burst, blood is said to flow from his nose and ears two hours after his death. The body is said to remain long warm, to swell, to turn blue and green, and if the arm or leg is taken hold of to raise it up, the limb is said to come off." Burder's Oriental customs, No. 176. From the testimony of recent travellers, however, it would seem that the injurious effects of this wind have been greatly exaggerated. If this interpretation be the true one, then Job wished the day of his birth to be frightful and alarming, as when such a poisonous blast should sweep along all day, and render it a day of terror and dread. But this interpretation does not well suit the parallelism. Others, therefore, understand by the word, obscurations., or whatever darkens the day. Such is the interpretation of Gesenius, Bochart, Noyes, and some others. According to this, the reference is to eclipses or fearful storms which cover the day in darkness. The noun heie is not found
6 As for that night, let dark- j joined unto the days of the year, ness seize upon it; let it not be ' let it not come into the number
elsewhere; but the vr.rb C^^^) is used in the sense of being black and dark in Lam. v. 10: " Our skin \vas black like an oven, because of the terrible famine;" or perhaps more literally, " Our skin is scorched as v/ith a furnace, from the burning heat of famine." That which is burnt becomes black, and hence the word may mean that which is dark, obscure, and gloomy. Tliis meaning suits the parallelism, and is a sense which tho Hebrew will bear. Another interpretation regards the 2 kaph as a prefix before the word d"l""l73 blttcrwiss, and then the sense is, "according to the bitterness of the day;" that is, the greatest calamities which can happen to a day. This sense iS found in several of the ancient versions, and is adopted by RosenmuUer. To me it seems that the second interpretation proposed best suits the connection, and tbat the meaning is, that Job wished that every thing which could render the day gloomy and obscure might rest upon li. The Chaldee adds here, "Let it be as the bitterness of day — the grief with which Jeremiah was afflicted in being cut off from the house of the Sanctuary, and Jonah in being cast into the sea of Tarshish." 6. As for tliat night. Job, having cursed the dmj^ proceeds to utter a malediction on the night also. See ver. 3. This malediction extends to ver. 10. IT Let darJcncss seize upon it. Heb. Let it take it. Let deep and horrid darkness seize it as its own. Let no star arise upon it; let it be unbroken and uninterrupted gloom. The word darlnicss, however, does not quite express the force of the original. The word here used (^'^)<) is poetic, and denotes darkness more intense than is denoted by the word which is usually rendered darkness ("n^H). It is a darkness accompanied with clouds and with a tempest. lier- der understands it as meaning, thai darkness should seize upon that ni^-^ht and bear it away, so that it should not be joined to the months of the year. So the Chaldee. But the true sense is, that Job wished so deep darkness to possess it, that no star would rise up(ni it; no light whatever be seen A night like this Seneca beautifully describes in Agamemnon, vs. 661, scq.
Nox prima copluin sparscrat stelii>!
Cum snbito Inna conditur, stelize caclunt;
In astra pontiis tollitur, et coclum petit.
JVec una nox est, densa tenebras obruit
Caligo, et omni luce subducta, fretuni
Premunt tenebras lumina, et dirjc stjgis
Inferna nox est.
^ Let it not he joined unto the days of the year. Marg. rejoice among. So Good and Noyes render it. The word used here C^n"?), according to the present pointing, is the apocopated future of J^'^rj, to rejoice., to he glad. If the pointing were different (^H!!) it would be the future of 'iri^, to be one; to be united, or joined to. The Masoretic points are indeed of no absolute authority, but the interpretation which supposes the word to mean exult or rejoice, is moie poetical and beautiful. It is then a representation of the days of the year as rejoicing together, and a wish is expressed that that night might never be allowed to partake of the general joy while the months rolled around. In this interpretation Rosenmiiller and Gesenius concur. Dodvvell supposes that there is an allusion to a custom among tho ancients, by which inauspicious days were stricken from the calendar, and their place supplied by intcrcalarv days. But there is no evidence of the existence of such a custom in the time of Job. % Let it not come, d:c. Let it never be reckoned among the days which go to make up the number of the months. Let there be alw\ays a t»lank there: let its place always be wanting.
7 Lo, let that night be solitary; let no joyful voice come therein.
7. Lo, let that night he solitary. Dr. Good, " O! that night! Let it be a barren rock!" Noyes, " O let that night be unfruitful!" Herder, " Let that night be set apart by itself" The Hebrew word used here (n^^?S) means properly hard; then sterile, barren, as of a hard and rocky soil. It does not mean properly solitary, but that which is unproductiv^e and unfruitful. It is used of a woman who is barren, Isa. xlix. 21, and also of that which is lean, famished, emaciated with hunger. Job. xv. 34, xxx. 3. According to this it means that that should be a night in which none would be born — a night of loneliness and desolation. According to Jerome, it means t!iat the night should be solitary, lonely, and gloomy; a night in which no one would venture forth to make a journey, and in which none would come together to rejoice. Thus interpreted, the night would resemble that which is so beautifully described by Virgil, ^En. vi. 263:
Ibantot)3curi sola sub nocte per umbras, Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania rejna.
It is probable, however, that the fcn-mer is the correct interpretation. IT Let no joyful voice come therein. Let there be no sound of praise and rejoicing. Tiie Chaldee paraphrases this, " Let not the crowing of a cock be heard in it." The sense of the whole is, that Job wished that night to be wholly desolate. He wished there might be no assembling for amusement, congratulation, or praise; no marriage festivals, and no rejoicing at the birth of children; he would have it as noiseless, solitary, and sad, as if all animals and men were dead, and no voice were heard. It was a night hateful to him, and he would have it in no way remembered.. 8. Let them curse it who curse the
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who " are ready to raise up ^ their mourning.
day. This entire verse is exceedingly difficult, and many different expositions have been given of it. It seems evident that it refers to some well-known class of persons, who were accustomed to utter imprecations, and were supposed to have the power to render a day propitious or unpropitious — persons who had the power of divination or cnchautuicnt. A belief in such a power existed early in the world, and has prevailed in all savage and semi-barbarous nations, and oven in nations considerably advanced in civilization. The origin of this was a desire to look into futurity; and in order to accomplish this, a league was supposed to be made with the spirits of the dead, who were acquainted with the events of the invisible world, and who could be prevailed on to impart their knowledge ^o favored mortals. It was supposed, also, that by such union there might be a power exerted which v/ould appear to be miraculous. Such persons also claimed to be the favorites of heaven, and to be endowed with control over the elements, and over the destiny of men; to have the power to bless and to curse, to render propitious or calamitous. Balaam was believed to be endowed with this power, and hence he was sent for by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. Num. xxii. 5, 6. See Notes on Isa. viii. 19. The practice of cursing the day, or cursing the sun, is said by Herodotus to have prevailed among a people of Africa, whom he rails the Atlantes, living in the vicinity of Mount Atlas. " Of all mankind," says he, " of whom we have any knowledge, the Atlantes alone have no distinction of names; the body of the people are termed Atlantes, but their individuals have no appropriate appellation. When the sun is at the
9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark: let it look for
);ighest they heap on it reproaches and execrations, because their country and themselves are parched by its rays." Book iv. 184. The same account of them is found in Pliny, Nat. His. V. 8: Solem orientem occidentemque dira imprecatione contuentur. ut exitialem ipsis agrisque. See also Strabo, Lib. xvii. p. 780. Some have supposed, also, that there may be an allusion here to a custom whicJi seems early to have prevailed of hiring people to mourn for the dead, and who •irobably in their official lamentation bewailed or cursed the day of their calamity. Comp. Jer. ix. 17. 2 Chron. xxxv. 2.5. But the correct interpretation is doubtless that which refers it to pretended prophets, priests, or diviners — who were supposed to have power to render a day one of ill omen. Such a power Job wished exerted over that unhappy night when he was born. He desired that the curses of those who had power to render a day unpropitious or unlucky, should rest upon it. ^ Ji'lio are ready to raise up their raourning. This is not very intelligible, and it is evident that our translators were embarrassed by the passage. They seem to have supposed that there was an allusion here to the practice of employing professional mourners, and that the idea is, that Job wished that they might be employed to howl over the day as inauspicious, or as a day of ill omen. The margin is, as in the Heb., a leviathan. The word rendered ready (p'^y^r'J)^ means properly ready, prepared; and then practised or skilful. This is the idea here, that they were practised or skilful in calling up the leviathan. See Schultens in loc. The word rendered in the text mourning., and in the margin leviathan ('s^'^'f^)., in all other parts of the sacred Scriptures denotes an animal. See it explained in the light, but have none; neither lei it see the dawning of the day,
Notes on Isa. xxvii. 1, and more fullv in the Notes on Job xli. It usually denotes the crocodile, or some huge sea monster. Here it is evidently used to represent the most fierce, powerful and frightful of all the animals known, and the allusion is to some power claimed by necromancers to call forth the most terrific monsters at their will from distant places, from the " vasty deep," from morasses and impenetrable forests. The general claim was, that they had control over all nature; that they could curse the day, and make it of ill omen, and that the most mighty and terrible of land or sea monsters were entirely under their control. If they had such a power. Job wished that they would exercise it to curse the night in which he was born. On what pretensions they founded this claim is unknown. The power, however, of taming serpents, is practised in India at this day; and jugglers bear around with them the most deadly of the serpent race, having extracted their fangs, and creating among the credulous the belief that they have control over the most noxious animals. Probably some such art was claimed by the ancients, and to some such pretension Job alludes here.
y. Let the stars of the ticilight thereof he dark. That is, be extinguished, so that it shall be total darkness— darkness not even relieved by a single star. The word here rendered twilight (^\^.T) means properly a breathing; and hence the evening, when cooling breezes hlcw^ or gently breathe. It is used however to denote both the morning and the evening twilight, though here probably it means the latter. He wishes that the evening of that night, instead of being in any way illuminated, should set in with total darkness and continue so. The LXX render it, night. T[ Lei it look
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up
for lights hut have none. Personifying the night, and representing it as looking out anxiously for some ray of light. This is a heautiful poetic image — the image of JW^j-A^, dark and gloomy and sad, anxiously looking out for a single beam or a star to break in upon its darkness and diminish its gloom. IT JYeithei- let it see the daioning of the day. Margin, more literally and more beautifully, eye] ids of the morning. Tlie word rendered *' dawning " (^'^S^fil^) means properly the eyelashes (from h^2' to fy), and it is given to them from their flying or fluttering. The word rendered " day " ("^f!!^*) means the aurora, the morning. The sun when he is above the horizon is called by the poets the eye of day; and hence his earliest beams, before he is risen, are called the eyelids or eyelashes of the morning opening upon the world. This figure is common in the ancient classics, and occurs frequently in the Arabic poets. See Schultens m loc. Thus in Soph. Antiq. 104, the phrase occurs, 'yififQaq [iXftpaqov. So in Milton's Lycidas,
Under the opening eyelids of the dawn, We drive afield." Job's wish was, that there might be no star in the evening twilight, and that no ray might illuminate that of the morning; that it might be enveloped in perpetual, unbroken darkness.
10. Because it shut not up., &c. That is, because the accursed day and night did not do it. Aben Ezra supposes that God is meant here, and that the complaint of Job is that he did not close his mother's womb. But the more natural interpretation is to refer it to the Nvx&-r]fi^Qov — the night and the day which he had been cursing, on which he was born.
the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees " prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
Throughout the description the day and the night are personified, and are spoken of as active in introducing him into the world. He here curses them because they did not wholly prevent his birth. U Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. By preventing my being born. The meaning is, that he would not have known sorrow if he had then died.
1 1. Whifdic d Inot from the womb? Why did I not die as soon as I was born? Why were any pains taken to keep me alive.'' TJie suggestion of this question leads Job in the following verses into the beautiful description of what he would have been if he had then died. He complains, therefore, that any pains were taken by his friends to keep him alive, and that he was not suffered peacefully to expire. IT Give up the ghost. A phrase that is often used in the English version of the Bible to denote death. Gen. xlix. 33. Job xi. 20, xiv. 10. Jer. XV. 9. Matt, xxvii. 50. Acts V. 10. It conveys an idea, however, which is not necessarily in the original, though the idea in itself is not incorrect. The idea conveyed by the phrase is that of yielding up the spirit or soul^ while the sense of the original here and elsewhere is simply to expire, to die.
12. Why did the knees prevent me? That is, the lap of the nurse or of the mother, probably the latter The sense is, that if he had not been delicately and tenderly nursed, he would have died at once. He came he.plcss into the world, and but for the attention of others he would have soon died. Jahn supposes (Archre. § 161) that it was a common custom for the father, on the birth of a son, to clasp the new-born child to his bosom, while music was heard to sound, and
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should
by this ceremony to declare it as his own. That there was some such recognition of a child or expression of paternal regard, is apparent from Gen. 1. 23. Probably, however, the whole sense of the passage is expressed by the tender care which is necessarily shown to the new-born infant to preserve it alive. The word rendered "prevent" here (^'!!|^), means properly to anticipate, to go before, as the English word j^i'^f^cnt formerly did; and hence it means to go to meet any one in order to aid him in any way. There is much beauty in the word here. It refers to the provision which God has made in the tender affection of the parent to anticipate the wants of the child. The arrangement has been made beforehand. God has taken care when the feeble and helpless infant is born, that tender affection has been already created and prepared to meet it. It has not to be created then; it is not to be excited by the suffering of the child; it is already in existence as an active, powerful, and self-denying principle, to anticipate the wants of the new-born babe, and to save it from death.
13. For now should I have Iain still. In this verse Job uses fow expressions to describe the state in which he would have been if he had been so happy as to have died when an infant. It is evidently a very pleasant subject to him, and he puts it in a great variety of form. He uses the words which express the most quiet repose, a state of perfect rest, a gentle slumber; andtlienin the next verses he says, that instead of being in the miserable condition in which he then was, he would have been in the same state with kings and the most illustrious men of the earth. TT / should have lain still— "^t^^^^. I should have been lyifig doicn^ as one does who is taking grateful repose. This is a word of less strength than any of those which follow. IT jind been quiet — I3lp\!jl<. A word of stronger signification than that before used. It means to rest, to lie down, to have quiet. It is used of one who is never troubled, harassed, or infested by others. Judges iii. 11, v. 31, viii, 28, and of one who has no fear or dread, Ps. Ixxvi. 9. The meaning is, that he would not only have lain down, but would have been perfectly tranquil. Nothing would have harassed him, nothing would have given him any annoyance. IT / should have slept — '^ri?^'!]'. This expression also is in advance of those before used. There would not only have been quiet., but there would have been a calm and gentle slumber. Sleep is often represented as " the kinsman of death." Thus Virgil speaks of it:
This comparison is an obvious one, and is frequently used in the classic writers. It is employed to denote the calmness, stillness, and quiet of death. In the Scriptures it frequently occurs, and with a significancy far more beautiful. It is there employed not only to denote the tranquillity of death, but also to denote the Christian hopes of a resurrection and the prospect of being awakened out of the long sleep. We lie down to rest at night with the hope of awaking again. We sleep calmly, with the expectation that it will be only a temporary repose, and that we shall be aroused, invigorated for augmented toil, and refreshed for sweeter pleasure. So the Christian lies down in the grave. So the infant is committed to the calm slumber of the tomb. It may be a sleep stretching on tljrough many nights and weeks and years and centuries, and even
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which buiJt deso-
behold he beauties of creation; the ear will be unstopped to hear the sweet voice of friendship and the harmony of music; and the frame VMll be raised up beautiful and immorta to engage in the service of the God that made us. Com p. Ps. xiii r 3,xc. 5. John xi. 11. ICor. xv 51
}Jl'T- '"'' ^A' ''■ ^^- Whether J^i used the word m this sense and with this understanding, has been made a matter of question, and will be considered more fully in the examination of the passage in ch. xix. 25-27. 1 Thai had I been at rest. Instead of the troubles and anxieties which I now experience. That is, he would have been lying in calm and honorabJe repose with the kings and princes of the earth. '
A ^'^■Jp:i^'.^'^^S^^- Roposingasthey t^'^: •'" '' '^'^ ^""Sunge of calm meditation on what would have been the consequence if he had died when he was an infant. He seems to delight to dwell on it. He contrasts it with his present situation. He pauses on the thought that that would have been an honorable repose. He would have been numbered with kings and princes. Is there not here a little spice of ambition even in his sorrows and humiliation? Job had been an eminently rich man; a man greatlv honored; an emir; a magistrate: one m whose presence even princes refrained talking, and before whom nobles held their peace, ch. xxix 9 Now he was stripped of his honors, and made to sit in ashes. But had he died vv'.ien an infant, he would have been numbered with kings and counsellors and would have shared their.ot. Death is repulsive; but Job takes comfort in the thought that he would have been associated with the most exalted and honorable amon^ men There is some consolation in the idea that when an infant dies he IS associated with the most honored
-oulder back to dust, and be forgo, en, we are sharing the same lot with the most beautiful, lovely, wis. pious and mighty of the rice. To Chris lans there is the richest of all consokations in the thought that they will sleep as their Saviour did in the omb and that the grave, naturally.! repulsive, has been made sacred Ld even attractive by being the place where the Redeemer reposed ^ Why should wc tremble to convey Their bodies to the tomb ^
JT M counsellors of the earth. ^reat and wise men who were qualihed to give counsel to kings in times of emergency. H Which built desolate places for themselves Gesenuis supposes that the word here used (r.Tn-in) ^eans palaces which would soon be in ruins. So Noves renders it, " Who build up for them- '^^'««-r"i"s •'" That is, ihey build splendid palaces, or perliaps tombs, which are destined soon to fall to ruin. Dr. Good renders it, " Who restored to themselves the ruined wastes;" that is, the princes who restored to their former magnificence the rums of ancient cities, and built their palaces in them. But it seems to me that the idea is difl^erent. It is that kings constructed for their own burial, magnificent tombs or mausoeums, which were lonely and desolate places, where they might lie in still and solemn grandeur. Comp. JNotes on ]sa. xiv. 18. Sometimes these were immense excavations from rocks; and sometimes they wero stupendous structures built as tombs.
What more desolate and lonely places could be conceived than the Pyramids of Egypt — reared probably as the burial-places of kings? What more lonely and solitary than the small room in the centre of one of those immense structures, where the body of the monarch is supposed to have been deposited? And what more emphatic than the expression — though " so nearly pleonastic that it may be omitted" (JVoijes) — "for themselves"? To my view, that is far from being pleonastic. It is full of emphasis. The immense structure was made for them. It was not to be a common burial-place; it was not for the public good; it was not to be an abode for the living and a contributer to their happiness: it was a matter of supreme selfishness and pride — an immense structure built only FOR THEMSELVES. With such persons lying in their places of lonely grandeur. Job felt it would be an honor to be associated. Compared with his present condition it was one of dignity; and he earnestly wished that it might have been his lot thus early to have been consigned to the fellowship of the dead. It may be some confirmation of this view to remark, that the land of Edom, near which Job is supposed to have lived, contains at this day some of the most wonderful sepulchral monuments of the world. Comp. Notes on Isa. xvi. 1. The following cuts, taken from Laborde, will give an illustration of those tombs. It is true that those sepulchres are of a much later date than tiie time of Job, nor could the art of sculpture in his time have been such as these specimens exhibit; but it is interesting to find such illustrations of the general idea in the very region where Job lived. The following cut is the facade of a tomb in Pelra, in Idumea, and will illustrate the magnificence which wag sometimes shown in their structure.
The annexed cut shows the entrances to several of those tombs exca vated in the side of the rocks. Such sepulchres abound in Persia and on the banks of the Nile in Egypt opposite to Thebes.
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
15. Oi' zcith princes that had gold. That is, he would have been united witli tiie rich and tlie great. Is there not here too also a slight evidence of the fondness for wealth, which might have been one of the errors of tliis good man? Would it not seem that such was his estimate of the injportunce of being esteemed rich, that he would count it an honor to be united with the alHuent in death, rather than be subjected to a condition of poverty and want among the living.'' IT IVho filled their houses V'ith silver. Rosenmiiller supposes that there is reference here to the custom among the ancients of burying treasures with the dead, and that the word houses refers to the tombs or mausoleums which they erected. That such a custom prevailed, there can be no doubt. Josephus informs us that large quantities of treasure were buried in the tomb with David, which afterwards was taken out for the supply of an army; and Schultens (in loc.) says that the custom pre- \ailed extensively among the Arabs. The custom of burying valuable objects witli the dead was practised also anu)ng the aborigines of this country, and is to this day practised in Africa. If this be the sense here, tlien the idea of Job was, that he would have been in his grave united with those who even there were accompanied with wealth, rather than sufrering the loss of all his property as he was among the living.
IG. Or as an hidden untimely birth. As an abortion which is hid, or concealed; that is, which is soon removed from the sight. iSo the Psalmirit, Iviii. 8:
Ae a snail wliich meltetli, lot tliem dissolve; As the untimely birth of a woman, that they n'.ay not see tlio sun.
birth " I had not been; as infants ivMch never saw light.
17 There the wicked cense frojii troubling; and there the ^ weary be at rest.
is used by Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 8, with reference to himself See Notes on tj;at place. IF / liad not been. I should have perished; I should not have been a man, as I m)W am, subject to calamity. The meaning is, that he j would have been taken away and concealed, as such an untimely birth is, and that he would never have been numbered among the living and the sufiering. II As infants which never saw lioht. Job expresses here no opinion of their future condition, or on the question whether such infants had immortal souls. He is simply saying that his lot would have been as theirs was, and that he would have been saved from the sorrows which he now experienced.
17. There the wiched cease from troubling. In the grave — where kings and princes and infants lie. This verse is often applied to heaven, and the language is such as will express the condition of that blessed world. But as used by Job it had no such reference. It relates only to the grave. It is language which beautifully exjiresses the condition of the dead, and the desirableness even of an abode in the tomb. They who are there, are free from the vexations and annoyances to which men are exposed in this life. The wicked cannot torture their limbs by the fires j of persecution, or wound their feelings by slander, or oj)press and harass them in regard to their property, or distress them by thwarting their plans, or injure them by impugning their motives. All is peaceful anu calm in the grave, and thei-e is a place where the malicious designs oi wicked men cannot reach us. The object of this verse and the two following is, to show the reasons why it was desirable to be in the grave, rather than to live and to sufter the ills
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the
of this life. We are not to suppose that. Job referred exclusively to his own \ case in all this, lie is describing, in general, the happy condition of the dead, and we have no reason to think that he had been particularly annoyed by wicked men. But tiio pious often are; and hence it should be a matter ofgratitudc that there is one place, at least, where the wicked cannot annoy the good; and where the persecuted, the oppressed, and the slandered may lie down in peace. If ^ind there the %ceary be at rest. Marg. Wearied in strength. The margin is in accordance with the Hebrew. The meaning is, those whose strength is exhausted; who are worn down by the toils and cares of life, and who feel the need of rest. Never was more beautiful language employed than occurs in this verse. AV'hat u charm such language throws even over the grave — like strewing flowers, and planting roses around the tomb! Who should fear to die, if ])repared, when such is to be the condition of the dead.' Who is there that is not in some way troubled by the wicked — by their thoughtless, ungodly life; by persecution, contempt, and slander? Comp. 2 Peter' ii. 8. Ps. xxxix. 1. Who is there that is not at some time weary with his load of care, anxiety, and trouble. Who is there whose strength does not become exhausted, and to whom rest is not grateful and refreshing? And who is there, therefore, to whom, if prepared for heaven, the grave would not be a place of calm and grateful rest? And though true religion will not prompt us to wish that we had lain down there in early childhood, as Job wished, yet no dictate of piety is violated when we look forward with calm delight to the time when loe may repose where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary be at rest. O grave, thou art a peaceful spot! Thy rest is calm: thy slumbers are sweet.
Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear Invade tliy Ijounils. No mortal woos Can reach llic peaceful sleeper hero, Wliilc angels watch the soft icposc.
18. There the prisoners rest together. Herder translates this, " There the prisoners rejoice in their freedom." The LXX, strangely enough, " There they of old (ot ato'jnoi) assembled together (ofio&v ftador) have not heard the voice of the exactor." The Hebrew word ■jJ^^ means to rest, to be quiet, to be tranquil: and the sense is, that they arc in the grave freed from chains and oppressions. If They hear not the voice of tlie oppressor. Of him who exacted taxes, and who laid on them heavy burdens, and who imprisoned them for imaginary crimes. He who is botmd in chains, and who has no other prospect of release, can look for it in the grave and will find it there. Similar sentiments are found respecting death in Seneca nd Marciain, 20: " JMors omnibus finis, multis remedium, quibusdam votum; hajc servitutem invito domino remittit; hfficcaptivorum catenas levat; haec a carcere reducit, quos exire imperiuin impotens vetuerat; hiee exulibus, in patriam semper animum oculosque tendentibus, ostendit, niliil interesse inter quos quisque jaceat; Iijec, ubi res communes fortuna male divisit, et jpquo jure genitos alium alii donavit, excRquat omnia; hsec est, quai niliil quidquam alieno fecit arbitrio; lia^c est, ea qua nemo humilitatem suam sensit; haec est, qua? nulli paruit." The sense in Job is, that all arc at liberty in death. Chains no longer bind; prisons no longer incarcerate. the voice of oppression no longer alarms.
19. The small und the great are there. The old and the }oung, the liigh and the low. Death lovehj all. Jt shows no respect to nge; ii spares none because they are vigorous
there; and the servant is free from his mastei.
20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life
young, or beautiful. This sentiment has probably been expressed in various forms in all languages, for all men are made deeply sensible of its truth. The classic reader will recall the ancient proverb,
Omne capax movet urna nomen. Tristis unda scilicet omnibus, Q,uicunque terrse munere vescimur,
Enaviganda, sive reges, Sive inopos erimus coloni. Divesne prisco natus ablnacho Nil interest, an pauper et infima
De gente sub dio moreris Victima nil miserantis Orci. Omnes eodem cogimur. Omnium Versatur unia. Serius, ocyus,
^ ^nd the servant is free from his master. Slavery is at an end in the grave. The master can no longer tax the powers of the slave, can no longer scourge him or exact his uncompensated toil. Slavery earlyexisted, and there is evidence here that it was known in the time of Job. But Job did not regard it as a desirable institution; for assuredly that is not desirable from which death would be regarded as a release, or where death would be preferable. Men often ta.k about slavery as a valuable condition of society, and sometimes appeal even to the Scriptures to sustain it; but Job felt that ittnas xcorsc than death, and that the grave was to be preferred because there the slave would be free from his master. The word here used and rendered " free " (*'\13BH) properly expresses manumis-
21 Which 1 long " for death, but it Cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
sion from slavery. See it explained at length in my Notes on Isa. Iviii. 6.
20. Wherefore is licrht given to him that is in misery. The word light here is used undoubtedly to denote life. This verse commences a new part of Job's complaint. It is that God keeps men alive who would prefer to die; that he furnishes them with the means of sustaining existence, and actually preserves them, when they would consider it an inestimable blessing to expire. Schultens remarks, on this part of the chapter, that the tone of Job's complaint is considerably modified. He has given vent to his strong feelings, and the language here is more mild and gentle. Still it implies a reflection on God. It is not the language of humble submission. It contains an implied charge of cruelty and injustice; and it laid the foundation for some of the just reproofs which follow. TT And life unto the litter in soul. Who are suffering bitter grief. We use the word hitter yet to denote great grief and pain.
21. Which long for death. Whose pain and anguish are so great that they would regard it as a privilege to die. Much as men dread death, and much as they have occasion to dread what is beyond, yet there is no doubt tiiat this often occurs. Pain becomes so intense, and suffering is so protracted, that they would regard it as a privilege to be permitted to die. Yet that sorrow must be intense which prompts to this wish, and usually must be long continued. In ordinary cases, such is the love of life, and such the dread of death and of what is beyond, that men are willing to bear all that human nature can endure rather than meet death. See Notes
22 Whicli rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave 1
expressed with unsurpassed beauty by Shakspeare:
Fof w'no would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and tlie spurns That patient merit of the unworthy take?, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life. But that the dread of something after death — The undiscovered country, from wliose bourne No traveller returns— puzzles the will; And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.
Hamlet. ^ And dig for it. That is, express a stronger desire for it than men do who dig for treasures in the earth. Nothing would more forcibl^^ express the intense desire to die than this expression.
22. Which rejoice exceedingly. Heb. "Who rejoice upon joy or exuhation " (l3'^^""'b5>) that is, with exceedingly great joy. TT When they cayijind the grave. Wliat an expression! How strikingly does it express the intense desire to die, and the depth of a man's sorrow, when it becomes a matter of exultation for him to be permitted to lie down in the corruption and decay of the tomb! A somewhat similar sentiment occurs in Euripides, as quoted by Cicero, Tusc. Qua'st. Lib. 1, cap. 48:
Nam nos decebat, domum Liigore, ubi esset aliquis in lucem editus, flumanse vitae varia rcputantes mala; At, qui laho-es morte finissot graves, Ilunc om.ni amicos laude et laetitia exsequi.
23. Why is light given to a man whose loayis hid? That is, who does not know what way to take, and who sees no escape from the misery that surrounds him. "IT Whom God hath hedged in. See Notes, ch. i. 10. The meaning here is, that God had surrounded him as with a high wall or hedge, so that he could not move freely. Job asks with impatience, why light, i. e. life, should be ffiven
23 JVliy is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged " in?
to such a man? Why should he not be permitted to die.' This closes the complaint of Job, and the remaining verses of the chapter contain a statement of his sorrowful condition, and of the fact that he had now been called to suffer all that he had ever apprehended. — In regard to the questions here proposed by Job (vs 20-23), we may remark, that there was doubtless much impatience on his part, and not a little improper feeling. The language shows that Job was not absolutely sinless; but let us not harshly blame him. T'""'.it he says, is a statement of feelings which often pass through the mind, • though they are not often expressed. Who, in deep and protracted sorrows, has not found such questions rising up in his soul — questions which required all his energ)^, and all his firmness of principle, and all the strength which he could gain by prayer, to suppress.' To the questions themselves, it may be difficult to give an answer; and it is certain that none of the friends of Job furnished a solution of the difficulty. When it is asked, vv'hy a man is kept in misery on earth, when he would be glad to be released by death, perhaps the following, among others, may be the reasons: (1.) Those sufferings may be the very means which are needful to develop the true state of the soul. Such was the case witli Job. (2) They may be the proper punishment of sin in tlie heart, of which the individual was not fully aware, but which may he distinctly seen by God. There may be pride, and the love of ease, and self-confidence, and ambition, and a desire of reputation. Sucli appear to have been some of the besetting sins of Job. (3.) They are needful to teach true submission, and to show whether a man is willing to resign himself to God. (4.) They may be the very things which are necessary
24 For my sighing cometh before ' I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
to prepare the individual to die. At the same time that men often desire death, and feel that it would be a relief, it might be to tliem the greatest possible ealaniity. They may be wholly unprepared for it. For a sinner, the grave contains no rest; the eternal world furnishes no repose. One design of God in such sorrows may be, to show to the wicked how intolerable will be future j)ain, and how important it is for them to be ready to die. If they cannot bear the pains and sorrows of a few hours in this short life, how can they endure eternal suflerings.'' If it is so desirable to be released from the sorrows of the body here, — if it is felt that the grave, with all that is repulsive in it, would be a place of repose, how important is it to find some way to be secured from everlasting pains! The ti-ue place of release from suffering for a sinner, is not the grave; it is in the pardoning mercy of God, and in that pure heaven to which he is invited through the blood of the cross.' In that holy heaven is the only real repose from suffering and from sin; and heaven will be all the sweeter in proportion to the extremity of [laia w^hicii is endured on earth. 24. For 'Mij sighhtg cometlt before I eat. Marg. My meat. Dr. Good renders this, " Behold! my sighing takes the place of my daily food," and refers to Ps. xlii. 3, as an illustration:
My tears aie my meat day and niglit. Ho substanti.aily Schullens renders it, and explain.^.'.t as meaning, " My sighing come? in the manner of my ibod," Suspiriv.m od modurri panis veniens — and nupposes it to mean that his sighs and groans were like his daily food; or were constant and unceasing. Dr Noyes explains it as meaning, " My sighing comes on when I begin to eat, and prevents my
25 For ~ the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of
2 I feared a fear, and it came upon me,
taking my daily nourishment;" and appeals to a similar expression in Juvenal. Sat. xiii. 211: Perpetua anxietas,necmensaG tempore cessat. RosenmfUler gives substantially the same explanation, and remarks, also, that some suppose that the njouth, hands, and tongue of Job were so affected with disease, that the effort to eat increased his sufferings, and brought on a renewal of liis sorrows. The same view is given by Origen; and this is probably the correct sense. IT.Rnd my roarings. My deep and heavy groans. H Jlre poured out like theuHiters. That is, (1.) inmimber — they were like rolling billows, or like the heaving deep. (2) Perhaps also in sound like them. His groans were like the troubled ocean, that can be lieard afar. Perhaps, also, (3.) he means to say that his groans were attended with " a flood of tears," or that his tears were like the waves of the sea. There is some hyperbole in the figure, in whichever way it is understood; but we are to remember that his feelings were deeply excited, and that the Orientals were in the habit of expressing themselves in a mode, which to us, of more phlegmatic temperament, may seem extravagant in tiie extreme. We have, however, a similar expression when we say of one that " he burst into a fiood of tears.''
25. For the tiling tc kick I greatly feared. Marg. As in the Hebrew, " I feared a fear, and it came upon me." This verse, with the following, has received a considerable variety of exposition. Many have understood it as referring to his whole course of life, and suppose that Job meant to say that he was always apprehensive of some great calamity, such as that which had now comeupon him, and that in the timo I of his highest prosperity lie had lived is come unto me.
26 I was not in safety, neither
in continual alarm lest his property should be taken away, and lest he should be reduced to penury and suffering. This is the opinion of Drusius and Codurcus. In reply to this, Schultens has remarked, that such a supposition is contrary to all probability; that there was no reason to apprehend that such calamities as he now suffered, would come upon him; tliat they were so unusual that they could not have been anticipated; and that, therefore, the alarm here spoken of, could not refer to the general tenor of his life. That scenes to have been happy and calm, and perhaps, if any thing, too tranquil and secure. Most interpreters suppose that it refers to the state in wiiich he was during his trial, and that it is designed to describe the rapid succession of his woes. Such is the interpretation of Rosenmuller, Schultens, Drs. Good, Noyes, Gill, and others. According to this, it means that his calamities came on him in quick succession. He had no time after one calamity to become composed before another came. When he heard of one misfortune, he naturally dreaded another, and they came on with overwhelming rapidity. If this be the correct interpretation, it means that the source of his lamentation is not merely the greatness of his losses and his trials considered in the aggregate^ but the extraordinary rapidity with which they succeeded each other, thus rendering them much more difficult to be borne. Scech.i. He apprehended calamity, and it came suddenly. When one part of his property was taken, he had deep apprehensions respecting the rest; when all his property was seized or destroyed, he had alarm about his children; when the report came that they were dead, he feared some other affliction still. The sentiment is in accordance with human nature, lliat when we are visited with severe calamity in one form, we naturally dread
had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
it in another. The mind becomes exquisitely sensitive. The affections cluster around the objects of attachment which are left, and they become dear to us. When one child is taken away, our affections cling more closely to the one which survives, and any little illness alarms us, and the value of one object of affection is more and more increased — like the Sybil's leaves — as another is removed. It is an instinct of our nature, too, to apprehend calamity in quick succession when one comes. " Misfortunes seldom come alone j" and when we suffer the loss of one endeared object, we instinctively feel that there may be a succession of blows that will remove all our comforts from us. Such seems to have been the apprehension of Job.
26. / was not in safety. That is, I have, or I had no peace. '^J^l']^^ Sept. oiTf fiiirinvoa — I had no-peace The sense is, that his mind had been disturbed with fearful alarms; or perhaps that at that time he was filled with dread. U Kcither had I rest. Trouble comes upon me in every form, and I am a stranger wholly to peace. The accumulation of phrases here, all meaning nearly the same thing, is descriptive of a state of great agitation of mind. Such an accumulation is not uncommon in the Bible to denote any thing which language can scarcely describe. So in Isa. viii 22:
To the lind of darkness and the death-shade, The land of darkness like the hlackness of the death-shade, Where is no order, and where the light is as darkness. Til US in the Hamasa (quoted by Dr. Good), " Death, and devastation, and a remorseless disease, and a still heavier and more terrific family of evils." The Chaldee has made a reinaruiable addition here, arising from the general design in the author of that Paraphrase, to expLiin every thing. "Did I not dissemble when the annunciation was made to me respecting the oxen and the asses? Was I not stupid [unalarmed, or unmoved, r''21"Hl3]^ when the report came about the conflagration? Was I not quiet, when the report came respecting the camels? And did not indignation come, when the report was made respecting my sons?" TF Yet trouble came. Or rather, ' and trouble comes.' Tliis is one of the cumulative expressions to denote the rapidity and tlie intensity of his sorrows. Tiie word rendered trouble i'^^^) means properly trembling, commotion, disquiet. Here it signifies such misery as made him tremble. Once the word means wrath (Hab. iii.2); and it is so understood here by tJje LXX, who render it onyi'].
In regard to this chapter, containing the first speech of Job, we may remark, that it is impossible to approve the spirit whicli it exliibits, or to believe that it was acceptable to God. It laid the foundation for the reflections — many of them exceedingly just — in the following chapters, and led his friends to doubt whether such a man could be truly pious. The spirit which is manifested in this chapter, is undoubtedly far from (hat calm submission which religion should have produced, and from that which Job had before evinced. That he was, in the main, a man of eminent holiness and patience, the whole book demonstrates; but tliis chapter is one of the conclusive proofs that he was not absolutely free from imperfection. From the chapter we may learn, (1.) That even eminently jood men sometimes give utterance;o sentiments which are a departure Tom the spirit of religion, and which hey will have occasion to regret. Such w^as the case here. There was I language of complaint, and a bitterless of expiession, which religion jannot sanction, and which no pious man, on reflection, would approve. (2.) We see the effect of heavy aflliction on the mind. It sometimes becomes overwhelming. It is so great that all the ordinyy barriers against impatience are swept away. The sufferer is left to utter language of murmuring, and there is the impatient wish that life was closed, or that he had not existed. (3.) Wn are not to infer that because a man in affliction makes use of some expressions which we cannot approve, and which are not sanctioned by the word of God, that therefore he is not a good man. There may be true piety, yet it may be far from perfection; there may be in general submission to God, yet the calamity may be so overwhelming as to overcome the usual restraints on our corrupt and fallen nature: and when we remember how feeble is our nature at best, and how imperfect is the piety of the holiest of men, we should not harshly judge him who is left to express impatience in his trials, or who gives utterance to sentiments different from those which are sanctioned by the word of God. There h;ts been but one model of pure submission on earth — the Lord Jesus Christ; and after the contemplation of the best of men in their trials, we can see that there is imperfection i7i them, and that if we would survey absolute perfection in suffering, w^e must go to Gethsemane and to Calvary. (4.) Let us not make the expressions used by Job in this chapter our model in suffering. Let us not suppose that because he used such laiiguage, that therefore we may also. Let us not infer that because they are found in the Bible., that therefore they are right; or that because he was an unusually holy man, that it would be proper for us to use the same language that he did. The fact tJiat this book is a part of the inspired truth of revelation, does not make such language right. All that inspiration does, in such a case, is to secure an exact record of what was actually said; it does not, of necessity, sanction it any inore than an accurate historian can be supposed to approve all that he records. There may be important reasons why it should be preserved, but he who makes the record is not answerable for the truth or propriety of what is recorded. The narrative is true: the sentiment may be false. The historian may state exactly what was said or done: but what was said or done, may have violated every law of truth and justice; and unless the historian expresses some sentiment of approbation, he can in no sense be held answerable for it. So with the narratives in the Bible. Wliere a sentiment of approbation or disapprobation is expressed, there the sacred writer is answerable for it; in other cases he is answerable only for the correctness of the record. This view of the nature of inspiration will leave us at liberty freely to canvass the speeches made in the booJi of Job, and make it more important that we compare the sentiments in those speeches with other parts of the Bible, that we may know what to approve, and what was erroneous in Job or his friends.
The fourth and fifth chapters comprise the speech of Eli[,haz in reply to the intemperate language of Job. Hitherto his friends had maintained a profound silence in regard to his aflitctions — amazed hy tlie magnitude of liis sorrows, and unwilling to break in upon his grief, and perhaps pondering the question whether one who sutfered so mucli could he a good man. See Notes on ch. ii. 13. The bitter complaint of Job, however; his rash and intemperate language; his implied (barges against God, seem to have settled the question in the minds of his fiiends that he could not be a good man-and they proceed to addiess him in accordance with this belief. Eliphaz— as in the whole series of arguments — opens the discussion. He is the most mild of Job's accusers; yet; though his accusations are conducted with great art, and with a studious regard to urbanity of manner, they are terribly severe. It is not improbable that he w.TS the oldest of the friends of Job, as great respect was shown to the aged in those times, and they were expected to speak first. See ch. xxxii. 6. I'he speech of Eliphaz consists mainly of the statement of his own observations, that the rigliteous are prospered, and the wicked punished, in this world; and in solemn advice to Job to return to God, and commit his cause to him. There is not a direct chai'gc of hypocrisy, but it is implied throughout the argument, and the discussion which it brings on leads to this direct ch.argo in some of the subsequent speeches. The argument, which is one of groat beamy and power, consists of the following parts:
1. After duly apologizing for speaking at all, he proceeds to point out the incoiisistenc}' of a gooil man's repining under calamity, and the absurdity of his complaining and murmuring, who had so often e.yhortcd others to fortitude. This, to him, is strange and unaccountable, and inevitably leads to the question, whether Job could be a good man, ch, iv. 1— (>,
2. He then advances the sentiment t!;at no one ever perished who was innocent, and that the rigliteous were not cut oif, ch. iv. 7—11. He states, as the result of his own observation, tJiat they that plow wickedness and sow inicjuity, reap the same. They are destroyed by the blast of God, and consimied by the breath of his noslrils. Tliis sentiment he illustrates by his observation of the ways in which the fierce lion is destroyed; or, perhaps, using the word lion to denote savage and cruel men, he shows how they are cut off, cli. iv. 7—11. This is the main doctrine which he and his fiiends defend. It is, that misery implies guilt; tliat great caiamitits are a proof of hypocrisy or sin; and thus it is insinuated that the wickedness of Job is the cause of his present afflictions.
3 Tills position Eliphaz proceeds to defend, not only hy his own observation, but hy a remarkable revelation which he says he had formerly liad on thi.s very subject, ch. iv. 12—21. That vision was in the silence of the night. A spirit, whose form he could not discern, was before him, which proclaimed, in a deep and golemn voice, that man could not be more just than God; that even the angels were charged with folly; that men were deeply guilty before him, and ihat lie crushed and destroyed them on account of their transgressions
4. In confirmation of his views, Eliphaz appeals to the observation of the saints, and again urges his own experience on the sul)ject, eh. v. 1-5. He says that he, himself, had seen the wicked flourishing, but soon he had occiision to observe tluit they were overwhelmed with cal-'aiiity. 'I'heir children were crushed with sudden death, and thcit harvest was consumed or laid waste by the robber. Tiiough they seemed to be prosperous, yet he maintained that this was no exce])ti m to his general remark that God would punish the wicked in this world, and thiit calamity was proof of guilt.