Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With ver. 16a Elihu passes over to the application to Job of what fa 1 in the preceding strophe* Since it is usual to place ^ (like z: and ~s | it the beginning of the sentence, although not belonging to the member of the sentence which immediately follows, 1HW rx* for ink >|M AWT] cannot be remarkable. The prcet. ftW is not promissory, but Elihu says with what design God has decreed the present suffering for Job. IP rspn is like 2 Chron. xviii. 31: out of distress ("W for ">* by Rebia magnum), which has him in its jaws,

I threatens to swallow him, God brings him away to great prosperity; a thought which Elihi; -sses in the iflaag is either a I re clause *e beneath (gn not traitness of what is ben torum qua tub $4 pecial clause takes the plac* a, ver.

to come down gradu.i 1 seat one's *c iblo shall be full of fstnev ether it be ad

>n, accor gender of the governed liod an 1 II n dealii!, wher es a ju -ion, n Pi vhere it «g- have a prominent position, hut an ad versa redica-

:l-doer (evil just as atrwixrw? as the sad issue in which this judging at 1 manner suits is expressed: such judging and judgment rchendunt sciL i< M used like the Aram. ^0, to draw nearer, fast r (Ilabb. JVty ax at hand;, Arab, tarmuaka

I aw the -i.'iiitication tlm-k milk or cream (P&H ri**:"\ as i those who persuade tli hat cream can 1 I of hi> affl of bis passion; comp, L3.

adn If to be drawn by the 1.

of i nor to be allured from

.ht way by the ransom which! of him as I pcic d to happu. humble luboa i to the divin. though this ransom w connection is clear: an i lict i wouldst not < the judgment of G<

And all the effort.? of strength t

H / move people from i>lace!

I able to redeem uaelf fi ~g© nni'

1 1 r tome other way from tht age i i trac ^ eecot an I, and other paaaagaa, ai* laaa a: lght of ranv in 11;;/. tr.in%latca

I all the is li VBOOr I, ar upon Job to consider the nwlcaani

, to choose to lay an I ""-.

Most modern expoi LXX. Stwc&rty?, give and - the T ind J tlj all mand! to human research i

V • is not to be trans! th j Dncl q to d irho ihoold di oi; of the Inte < I hoee rale where baa the signifi '■:!1— Ombr.); on the anj;lui; All men— he continn implies, with pleasure and astonishment; mortal* upon it (reverentially) from afar, — the same thought as that which has already (eh. xxvi. 1 1) found the grandest expression in Job's mouth.

26 Beholdj God is exalted we know Him not entirely; TJlc nunc. it is unsearchable*

27 Fur He draweth down the drops krf They distil as rain in connection with its mist,

28 Which the clouds do drop^

Distil upon the multitude of men.

29 HVfo can altogether uncL tpreadinge of the clouds, TJie crash of His tabernacle?

The Waw of the quasi-conclusion in ver. 2i)l> corresponds to the Waw of the train of thought in ver. 26a (Ges. § 145, 2). v;,j' "1BDO is, as the subject-notion, conceived as a nominative (vicL on ch. iv. 6, vol. i. 91, note 1), not as in similar quasiantecedent clauses, e.g. ch. xxiii. 12, as an ace. of relation. N'3~ here and ch. xxxvii. 23 occurs otherwise only in Old Testament Chaldee. In what follows Elihu describes the wondrous origin of rain. u If Job had only come," says a Midrash (Jalkut, § 518), "to explain to us the matter of the race of the deluge (vid. especially ch. xxii. 15-18), it had been sufficient; and if Elihu had only come to explain to us the matter of the origin of rain (DW3 DTV WfrO), it had been enough." In Gesenius' Handworterbuch. ver. 27 is translated: when He has drawn up the drops of water to Himself, then, etc. But it is JW, not V%; and JH| neither in Hebr. nor in Arab, signifies attrahere in sublime (Rosenm.), but only attrahere (root "U) and detrahere; the latter signification is the prevailing one in Hebr. (ch. xv. 8, xxxvi. 7). With ^ the transcendent exaltation of the Being who survives all changes of creation is shown by an example: He draws away (drawrs off, as it were) the water-drops, viz. from the waters that are confined above on the circle of the sky, which

The cattle even that II, rva.hin,,.

the masses of water drawn up to tl,.pth, of

■nay be compared: ■ xhalation rises up out of

In botl, u nw would be eqomleot to rr,, -• which in and of foeU k fomSbU. Bol ha w] once witnessed a storm in the neighbourhood of the tea, will decide in favour of one of the three following explanations: (1) He covereth the uprooted ground of the sea (eomp. l\s. xviii. 15 sq.) with the subsiding waves (Blomenf.); but then ver. 30a would require to be understood of the light of the brightening sky following the darkness of the storm, which is improbable,n respect of ver. 32a. (2.) While the sky is brilliantly hghted up by the lightning, the abysses of the ocean are veiled ia a so much deeper darkness; the observation is correct but not less so another, that the lightning by a thunder-storm' especially when occurring at night, descends into the depths of the sea like snares that are cast down (D'na, ps. x;. 6) and the water is momentarily changed as it were into a sea of flame; accordingly it may be explained, (3.) Behold He spreadeth over Himself His light (viz. the light which incessantly illumines the world), and the roots of the sea, i.e the sea down to its depths, He covers with it, since He makes it light through and through (Stuhlm., Wolfs.). Thus, as it flml i! the li lightning His mtni-

:;i from the -:., psolly j neficial, which lirrht over both ] ith BflM ba. rim 3, bay. m b/tamita^m. W to abide by tl thelangoag re bare it, according

Corf.fi rith the correct bablyaccordii to which ribri signifies faotrt ut quid incur?,? ». y„/< Isa. lni. 6; Pitt therefore i| om who hits, in opposition to otM who misses the mark. The B$A is the 11,-th iUmtlCB (vld. on ch. xxiii. 13), used ken like Ex, vi. 8, Pi. lv. 19, Isa. xl. 10. W ith both hands I fa * Jm the substance of the lightning, iills them with it so that they are completely covered by it, and gives it the Command (appoints it its goal), a sure aimer!

Ver. 33a. Targ., Syr., Symm., Tlieod. (from which ver. 38 iq. is supplied in the LXX.1), Jer., Lnther, and others destroy the idea, since they translate ijn = VJJ^ tt ]u-s frjcnd (companion)." Among moderns, only Umbr. and Schlottm. adopt tliis signification; Bottch. and Welte, after the example of Cocceins, Tingstad, and others, attempt it with the signification "thought m determination;" but most expositors, from Ew. to Halm, decide in favour of the rendering as simple as it is consistent with the usage of the language and the connection: His noise (frl as Ex. xxxii. 17) gives tidings concerning Him (announces Him), In ver. 33£ Theod. (LXX.), Syr., and Jer. point ropo like our text, but translate possess™, with wliich we can do nothing. It seems that in the three attempts of the Targ. to translate ver. 33, the translators had "JO? and bUp before their mind, according to which Hahn translates: the arousing of anger (announces) the comer, which assumes npn instead of npn; and Schlottm.: fierce wrath (goes forth) over evil (according to Symm. tfjXov irepl aSiKias), which assumes the reading rfo? (nfcy), ^K[a, adooted also by Syr., Theod. (LXX.). Schultens even renders similarly: rubedinem flammantem nasi contra elatum, and Tingstad: zelum iro? in iniquitatem. But it is not probable that the language was acquainted with a subst. fl#D, exciting, although in Ezek. viii. 3 rupan is equivalent to WJjWi, so that one might

Lou: Id is perhaps right when he i after eh.

the phenomenon of the rtorm nhi 1 l »" Hm mind, but to that which is now to both hear constantly, Isa. vi. 9, and hear attentively" ch. an. 17; here it is the latter, tfl of thunder corresponds to the verbs j^, and u^v,, which can he similarly used. The repetition of i>ip five times calls to mind the seven nbtp (eTrra Ppovral) in Ps. xxix. The parallel is H& ver. 2b, a murmuring, as elsewhere of the roar of the lion and the cooing of the dove. The suff. of «# refers to the thunder which rolls through the immeasurable breadth under heaven; it is notj*r/. Pieloi yf> (Schlottm.), for "to give definite direction " (2 Chron..xxxii. 30) is not appropriate to thunder, but fid. Kal of nr#, to free, to unbind (Ew, Hirz., and most others). What ver. 3a says of thunder, ver. 36 says of light, i.e. the lightning: God sends it forth to the edges, wripvyes, i.e. ends, of the earth, m, ver. 4a, naturally refers to the lightning, which is followed by the roar of the thunder; and D??V; to the flashes, which, when once its rumble is beard, God does not restrain (3g? = 33? of the Targ., and Arab, 'aqgaba, to leave behind, postpone), but causes to flash forth in quick all m, nawUdge of Hu 01 worfc in collectively. The L'xpn-.vsion nhoe does not signify rain-dro| it, Ufa the Arab, omtdr, rain-show

The i nature during the pod d (•ph.MD.

meant; die nuns after the autumnal equinox (th y rain), which begin th, an 1 the raini the rental equii the late rain./ l », which close it, with the:' mow betweea, which frequently prodi ecially the | inter with J- ty winds andheavyahoi when the of the husbandmen aa of the noma py,,IU. r(.tn

This is the meaning of wet. 7: II- waleth np (^ enn as

— the Turkish Rju tulip. Thence vorago; huwijatun end hauhatr lupllCAted form), dly a very deep pit or well. But ti UM WOfdf, Jfiu-ijutu/t, huir<itu/t, uhvijatun, mahwdtun, aLso signify, like the usual ftjfc, the x^/ta between heaven and earth, i.«. the wide, empty space, the same as 'gauwun. The wider ificatfans, or rather applications and references of hawd: air set in motion, a current of air, wind, weather, are all secondary, and related to that primary signification as samd, rain-clouds, rain, grass produced by the rain, to the prim, signification height, heaven, vid. Mehren, Iihetorik

1 raber, S. 107, Z. 14 ff. This hawa, however, also signifies in general: a broad, empty space, and by transferring the notion of " empty " to mind and heart, as the reduplicated forms huhatun and hauhdtun: devoid of understanding and devoid of courage, e.g. Koran xiv. 44: wa~afH~ datuhum hawdun, where Beidhuwi first explains hawd directly by chald emptiness, empty space, i.e., as he adds, chdlijetun 'an el-fahm, as one says of one without mind and courage qalbuhu hawdwi. Thence also hauwun, emptiness, a hole, i.e. in a wall or roof, a dormar-window (kauwe, kuwe), but also with the genit. of a person or thing: their hole, i.e. the space left empty by them, the side not taken up by them, e.g. qa'ada fi hauwihi, he set himself beside him. From the signification to be empty then comes, (1) hawat el-mar atu, i.e. vacua fait mulier = orba liberis, as #^a,

H >). Ti. ression is reraarkabl and bj ili- KM be as easily doe* ualy applied primary aigi » » dereloped the on, aa the wind, or what in -her

.. especially howerer from a> *nwards,

^it. j> poiir many aimiUr, the wor peases into the sign a of sound (at certainly also r

| falling haa a dull noise, and ao on, *«*xi;,, rumorem, ear from /rasp), hence Aairaf eiftauAu A of a

4 used both env, passions, and strong lore, and intellectually of free opir

B mere self-willed preference, caprices of the

*• at earth, they drew away anecmosl part U m; fe 1,!,]lt!l)

tkehmani the sooth (south, coup.

he. I, is translated by the Ttrg. ttom Kjmt. fa of two bom whirl, north wind, rain, and cold are «!

rived); the Tar- also has one of the Constellations in vieu

Bnw rme (from the window, U the window of the vault of ch. x.xxvki. 82); LXX.,)~u Se twv ixpwrrjpimu, we know not wherefore. Concerning ^-.-;r- (with causal |?) with reference to the wind, vid. on ch. iv. 15. #4 it gives, i.e. comes to light, is used as in Gen. xxxviii. 28, Prov. xiii. 10. The idea of p»0 (not fusum from P£ but coarctation from pw) cannot be doubtful in connection with the antithesis of 2ni comp. ch. xxxvi. 16, the idea is like ch. xxxviii. 30 (comp. Mutenebbi: « the flood is bound by bands of ice"); the 3 0f B| is, as ch. xxxvi. 32, the Beth essentia, used far more extensively in Hebr. than in Arab, as an exponent of the

(.blow away) the dust and other thiDgs."

vahh of Um natal m (becomes) itnitaaed rabic icons instead d v one* self

I lightniii rything that B ur.

]' »d; which* then followed by flifttodichan tf upon] man I or punuhment, man tor mercy, or Hi, earth for good with reference to man.

Ilien Elihu would think of the uninhabited eteppa in connection with hrj^i EN. Since a conditional ISM by the side of two correlatives is hazardous, we decide finally with the LXX, Targ, and all the old versions, in favour of the ■ e rendering of the threefold Wt, especially since it corresponds to the circumstances of the case.

Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God!

■ecessary to cot it as wr as from r (as mode Ormtmr mim in o+o.1 I also a word that in like ma s cxclu-

I he word is therefore a metaphor taken from the balance, *

1 sources and from tba mc language, in this significat.

Ges. § o3 2 fa*, the south </.,. by IIUaiw „f th(. ^^ of a,r winch come thence, without Din, signifvi dircctJ the, south wind),-thou who, when this happens/canst endure so little, that on the contrary the heat from without becomes perceptible to thee through thy clothes: dost thou now and then with Him keep the skv spread out, which for firmness is like a molten mirror? Elsewhere the hemispheric firmament, winch spans the earth with its sub-celestial waters is hkened to a clear sapphire Ex. nfc 10, a covering Ps civ 8 gauss Isa. xl. 22; the comparison with a mefallic mirror » here not from pvv, ver. 10, ch. xxxvi. 16, but from m is therefore to be understood according to Petavius: CW»» ii.;,,; Ho v cbali l of his un"

.1 that would be CK himself.

injures himself — how, on t: ntrary. would a patiently submissive waiting on Him be r led! This is the oonnection of thought, by which this final strophe is attached to what;, If we hare drawn the c I conclusion from ehi ii. 1, that Klihu" D of a storm is accompanied by m which was coming over the sky, iTRJAj with which the: h, as ch. xxxv. 15, draws towards the close, ii not to be under nclusive, but iporal: And at present one the light ("rfitof the sun, a> rh. xxxi. 26) which is bright in the ethereal heights f"Wja again a Hebr.-Arab. word,comp. WAtr, outshining, Bur- King, especially of the moon, when it dazzles with its brightness); yet it only requires a breath of wind to pass oit, and it clears it. "... brings the ethereal sky with the sunlight to view. Elihu hereby means to say that the God who is hidden only for a time, respecting whom one runs the risk of being in perplexity, can suddenly unveil Himself, to our surprise and confusion, and that therefore it becomes us to bow humbly and quietly to His present mysterious visitation. With respect to the removal of the clouds from the beclouded sun, to which ver. 21 refers, 2HT, ver. 22a, seems to signify the gold of the sun; esh-shemsu bi-tibrln, the sun is gold, says Abulola. Oriental and Classic literature furnishes a large number of instances in support of this calling the sunshine gold; and it should not perplex us here, where we have an Arabizing Hebrew poet before us, that not a sing passage can be brought forward from the Old Testame literature. But psarn is against this figurative rendering the ant (LXX. vicprj xpvcravyovvra). In Ezek. i. 4 the is good reason for the storm-clouds, which unfold fro their midst the glory of the heavenly Judge, who ride upon the cherubim, coming from the north; but wherefo should Elihu represent the sun's golden light as breakii through from the north? On the other hand, in the co ception of the ancients, the north is the proper region f gold: there griffins (ypvires) guard the gold-pits of tl

999 narrow pass of the Caucasus along the Gordyaean moui

Sp£ and among the Scythians it is brought to light by the an

£o£ (ib. xxxiii. 4). Egypt could indeed provide itself with go' o< from Ethiopia, and the Phoenicians brought the gold <

Si Ophir, already mentioned in the book of Job, from Indu

°J but the north was regarded as the fabulously most products chief mine of gold; to speak more definitely: Northern Asi with the Altai mountains.1 Thus therefore ch. xxviii. 1, is to be compared here.

What Job describes so grandly and minutely in ch. xxviii viz. that man lays bare the hidden treasures of the earth interior, but that the wisdom of God still transcends him, here expressed no less grandly and compendiously: Froi the north cometh gold, which man wrests from the darkne* of the gloomy unknown region of the north (P2?, £o0o9, froi pv, cogn. }DD, lots,2 via. p. 53, note, comp. p. 11, note); upo

1 Vid. the art. Gold, S. 91, 101, in Ersch and Gruber. The India traditions concerning Uttaraguru (the "High Mountain"), and concen ing the northern seat of the god of wealth Kuvera, have no connectio here; on their origin comp. Lassen, Indische Alter thumskunde, i. 848.

2 The verb nsv, obducere, does not belong here, but to riD¥, and signi fies properly to flatten (as ypl, to make thin and thick by striking]

loah, on the contrary, is terrible majesty (not genitival: rror of majesty, Ew. § 293, c), i.e. it covers Him like a irment (Ps. civ. 1), making Him inaccessible (nin, glory as sounding praise, vid. on ch. xxxix. 20, like TQ3 as imposing gnity). The beclouded sun, ver. 21 said, has lost none of e intensity of its light, although man has to wait for the moving of the clouds to behold it again. So, when God's)ings are mysterious to us, we have to wait, without murmurg, for His solution of the mystery. While from the north imes gold — ver. 22 continues — which is obtained by laying ire the interior of the northern mountains, God, on the her hand, is surrounded by inaccessibly terrible glory: the lmighty — thus ver. 23 completes the thought towards which >r. 22 tends — we cannot reach, the Great in power, i.e. the iture of the Absolute One remains beyond us, the counsel the Almighty impenetrable; still we can at all times be srtain of this, that what He does is right and good: " Right id the fulness of justice ("tfll according to the Masora, not "31) He perverteth not." The expression is remarkable: 3^'lp H3y is, like the Talmudic H H3y? equivalent elsewhere

M^b nan; and that He does not pervert njm":n? affirms iat justice in its whole compass is not perverted by Him; "is acts are therefore perfectly and in every way consistent ith it: ng^Trtfl is the abstract, to TM pHX, ch. xxxiv. 17, Lerefore summa justitia. One may feel tempted to draw DCto) to r\2 NW, and to read 31| according to Prov. xiv. 29 stead of ^% but the expression gained by so doing is still ore difficult than the combination H3JP K?... ES^DI; not erely difficult, however, but putting a false point in place ■ a correct one, is the reading rw_ so (LXX., Syr., Jer.), imp. ^aLg, to strike on something flat (whence el~musdfaha, the salution by striking the hand), and *_jL^, to strike with the flat hand on lything, therefore diducendo obducerc.

myi • man. ntuaftkm rightly dhrid judging of Hi maintaining our own right at the U and of thus avoiding tl. at humbling of one's self o ■ cll- iiK. ment. The twofold peculiarity of Elihu's speeches comes out in this fourth as prominent' inii him of coarse common sins as the three have done, but because even the best of men suffer for hidden moral defects, which must be perceived by them in order not to periih on account of them. Elihu here does for Job just what in Banyan (PUgrmh JVoyress) the man in the Interior's home doee, irhen 1 i the room, so that Christian had been almost choked with the dost that flew about.

Then (2) tl ich that (iod inak of JUSt Mich sufferings aa Job's now arc, in order to brinff man to a knowledge of his hidden d. and to bless him the more abundantly if he will be saved from them; that thus the sufferings of those who fear God are a wholesome medicine, disciplinary chastenings, and saving warnings; and that therefore true, not merely fei_ must be proved in the school of affliction by earnest lamination, remorseful self-accusa- tion, and humble submission.

Elihu therefore in this agrees with the rest of the book, that he frees Job's affliction from the view wdiich accounts it the evil-doer's punishment (vid. ch. xxxii. 3). On the other hand, however, he nevertheless takes up a position apart from the rest of the book, by making Job's sin the cause of his affliction; while in the idea of tbe rest of the book Job's affliction has nothing whatever to do with Job's sin, except in so far as he allows himself to be drawn into sinful lanmia^e concerning God by the conflict of temptation into which the affliction plunges him. For after Jehovah has brought Job over this his sin, He acknowledges His servant (ch. xlii. 7) to be in the rirrht, against the three friends: his affliction is really not a merited affliction, it is not a result of retributive justice; it also had not chastisement as its design, it wTas an enigma, under which Job should have bowled humbly without striking against it — a decree, into the purpose of which the prologue permits us an insight, wdiich however remains unexplained to Job, or is only explained to him so far as the issue teaches him that it should be to him the way to a so much the more glorious testimony on the part of God Himself.

ed and composed, and in s unbec.goagecon.? God that his spe ind the the the bu<>k. It is tru r of ti.

and ii. 11.;;;: mutual rclati

.lion that he Ii h him 1 contact of the fourth speech

\\viii. and the of Jehovah, i. and that

• ill appearance he is a fellow-countryman of the older p

There are neither linguistic nor any other valid reasons in favour of assigning it to a much later period. He is the secomi r of the book, possibly the: ho brought to

:t the hitherto hidden treasure, enriched by his own insertion, which is inestimable in its relation to the history of the perception of the plan of redemption.

We now call to mind that in the last (according to our

. however, is him-ilf so diTUM and sua. upon his bfOW, 11 whose ha posedly rests 0 him, will h an himmlf • litems iii opposil I

I » rii -all this is e.\ IHoH ho • I of his at* I In of censure I and t in at war within hi v of faith l of co: »n go in the humble en ' n it u and the fear oi ol II i in the lemand that God mi wer drama mi thai G Ji Himself as J< ma;. q the l cannol aowle uch i he hafl |: himself fco himself anew io hii true ch*- ich cherish known nn< I when ill ap] I in lang I [ wrath I lo ing quite ponj in hii own,.alt him who wai\Uy ami inwardly humbled*

[Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, and said:]

2 Who tlten darkeneth counsel With word* without knowledge?

3 Grird up now thy loins as a men:

I icill question thee, and inform thou me!

u May the Almighty answer me! n Job has said, ch. xxxi. 35; He now really answers, and indeed out of the storm (Chethib, according to a mode of writing occurring only here and ch. xl. 6, nrWDTOO, arranged in two words by the Keri), which

. The correct eccentoatioo L ahl. cnly: i was based on to the mysfe the di rM. in;

',"" taken lit in t! use of novisse, but oognosctrs) to

: suppose that thou.vest it, and th ssjlai is ing of tl.:ii IS likened altogether to that of a building constructed by man. The question: upon what are the bases of its pill r foundati Rink (930, *— vl-, according ical s: ation, to press with something flat upon

Something, p« ejjb) to lay two flat things on one another, then both to form of stamp bj prcssur. 77, note, and to press into soft pliant stuff, or let down into, ii/u/tergere, or to sink into, Mia >, points to the fact of the earth hanging free in space, ch. xxvi. 7. Then no human being was present, for man was not yet created; the angels, however, beheld with rejoicing the founding of the place of the future human family, and the mighty acts of God in accordance with the decree of His love (as at the building of in ise between ibi stars h are b« -

I in thi dbnvo an though it were born us, and beautiful;1 so fM the beings of 1 and 7;' would bi in to in r. botl thci fulness < r, in which the morning

T man w\ was the first half, and the of

DCTi th i •:. I half of the primeval condition of the forming earth* He question does not, bon the DWl, in which tin and the waters of the earth were

M yel iparated, bat, passing over this intermediate condition of the forming earth, to the sea, the waters of which

1 shut up as by means of a door and bolt, when, first enshrouded in thick mist (which has remained from that time one of its natural peculiarities), and again and again manifesting its individuality, it broke forth (AN of the foetus,

Ps, xxii. 10) from the bowels of the, as yet, chaotic earth. That the sea, in spite of the flatness of its banks, does not flow over the land, is a work of omnipotence which broke over it, i.e. restraining it, a fixed bound (ph as ch. xxvi. 10, Prow viii. 29, Jer. v. 22, = ^33, Ps. civ. 9), viz. the steep and rugged walls of the basin of the sea, and which thereby established a firm barrier behind which it should be kept.

in L,,%2**r 1 ' it would I- the end of the strophe li is explained accordii Ii«l-

' thou mi >j h test; And that thou wdghteet know the }* 21 Thou knowest /'.

The root z: baa the primary notion of obtruding itself upon the senses (uiJ. Genesis. Si 635), whence 12: in Arabic of a rising country that pleases the eye (nabaka, a hill, a hillside), and here (cognate in root and meaning y33, Syr. Talmud. U?, 4_vj, UjJj scaturire) of gushing and bubbling water. Hitzig's conjecture, approved by Olsh., "^J, sets aside a word a/ioof of the grass to is and the town in the hot monthi — G final causes of these ph i which ( i 1 — the

:u of the qu \ { which must nol

:, an i in the >f the ruc- y hail, but also id rding to the scene of the i: it. W in has in his possession a writing of

Mohammed el-Cl bUB ir&wi, in which lie describes a fearful fall i in Ilanran, by which, in February 1860, innumerable herds of sheep, g I camels, and also many human beings perished.1 Wf ilV might, according to ch.

1 S be Hauranites say of snow as of fire: jahrik, it burn3 (brulant in French is also used of extreme cold), ch. i. 16 might also be understood of a fall of snow; but the tenor of the words there requires it to be understood of actual fire.

a striking again*) by forming itself into a firm solid mass (continuum, ch. xli. 0, comp. xxxvii. 10). Moreover, the questions all refer not merely to the analysis of the visible origin of the phenomena, hut to their final causes.

31 Canst thou join the twitting* of the Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion?

82 Canst thou bring forth the signs of the Zodiac at the right

And canst thou guide the Bear with its children? 33 Knowest thou the laws of heaven,

Or dost thou define its influence on the earth?

old bo betU the P ^TM A firmly hold that it rdfalfl to which in tin 5 thttl with us, and i ii\ Nevertheless the int chair. the heavens cannot be rightly i Semit 1 it is

, especially as this is; <^rz.

ib. the slothful i in m constellation of the B the pr lent day 1 • in tl 1 villages

, with the sons ai the attendants rtainly to be oomps chain - c, ipts), With wh: led to the sky; understood of iich one accused ere of it possible for: to cany off his camels through their negligence; and when the accused as-.id gone forth in pursuit of the marauders soon aft. the man exclaimed:

'T~ lie words meant, and was informed the '■ and is accordingly encompassed every night by the children of the Blain Nd ra, n ho are determined to take vengeance on the murderer. The sons (on which account poets usually say beni instead of benat A | with the corpse of their father, and the daughters follow. One of the latter is called waldane, a lying-in woman; she has

■ a generally known among the ag by way of explanation, ill §Ur«, rince it aiandi at the axil of tl but

•iadea, and rwca, ■ tnoona diamctcra abore

And the clodi cUaOi to<jtt/nr?

In livine omnii.. I Iliho con- stantly land the the -storm with the light- rtno I "=;*?mean meteotsand celestial phenomena. Eichb. (Hire, Halm) eom] the Ajrabic name fur the clow latter, whose root is ~-^' I ""—. pectare, is meant to be something that is remarkaMe in the I os: an atmospheric phenomenon, a mete- r (Ilirz.), or a phenomenon caused by v., Hahn), so that c.a. Umbr. translates: "Who hath put wisdom in the dark clouds, and given understandto the mete But the meaning which is thus extorted from the words in favour of the connection borders closely >n absurdit Why, then, shall nino, from 5U3J ^V^> oblinere, adipe obducere, not signify here, as in Ps. li. 8, the h | c. and in fact as the - lie show*, tlio connectioo * een attention, altl I mentioned

I, it v • the wotd had tone on n all '-urn pros] Thai this speei- l wa at least in the Ta! age, I i pm bin irho i wak< heavenly hosts to their duty; and Masius, in his Studies of Nah ihown how high the cock is over, t tip of cocks in the idolatry of the Semites was a a <jred to the stars: the Sabians offered co vulsohn, ii. 87) as the white cock of Jezides, different consonants, and if lx£ in the sense of ^^ -1. fortem esse, were to be supposed, ^2;J* would be a synon. of "123, which is likewise a name of the cock.

regarded by them as a symbol of the sun (Deutsch. Morgenland. Zeitschr. 1862, S. 365 f.).

In ver. 376 Jerome translates: et concentum coelorum quis dormire faciet; v3?, however, does not here signify harps, but bottles; and Wrt) is not: to lay to rest, but to lay down ss to empty, pour out, which the Kal also, like the Arab. sakaba, directly signifies. ^P?-1 might be taken actively: when it pours, but according to 1 Kings xxii. 35 the intransitive rendering is also possible: when the dust pours forth, i.e. flows together, P)R&?, to what is poured out, i.e. not: to the fluid, but in contrast: to a molten mass, i.e. as cast metal (to be explained not According to eh. xxii. 16, but according ao? to ch. xxxvii. 18), for the dry, sandy, dusty earth is made firm by the downfall of the rain (Arab. LDJ**u firmata est

J}; signification, which as it seems must be supposed: to bring o> together, from which the significations branch off, to thicken,

< become firm (inuraggab, supported), and to be seized with

39 Dost thou hunt for the prey of the lioness And still tlte desire of the young lions,

40 When they couch in the dens.

Sit in the thicket lying in wait for prey?

41 Who provideth for the raven its food, When its young ones cry to God, They wander about without food?

On the wealth of the Old Testament language in names for the lion, vid. on ch. iv. 10 sq. tf?£ can be used of the lioness; the more exact name of the lioness is rvnp, for Nw is = Wj whence &K2?, lions, and nf*w, lionesses. The lioness is mentioned first, because she has to provide for her young ones (B'r!^); then the lions that are still young, but yet are left to themselves, ^"VEtt. The phrase Wl &6p (comp. n*n of life that needs nourishment, ch. xxxiii. 20) is equivalent to Bte I^O, Prov. vi. 30 {Psychol S. 204 ad fin.). The book of Psalms here furnishes parallels to every word: comp. on ver. 396, Ps. civ. 21; on V**, Ps. x. 10;l on nW*D, lustra, Ps. civ. 22 (compared on ch. xxxvii. 8 already); on H3D, tj'd, which is used just in the same way, Ps. x. 9, Jer. xxv. 38. The picture of the crying ravens has its parallel in Ps. cxlvii. 9. *?, quum, is followed by the fut. in the signif. of the pras., as Ps. xi. 3. As here, in the Sermon on the Mount in Luke xii. 24 the ravens, which by their hoarse croaking make themselves most observed everywhere among birds that seek their food, are mentioned instead of the fowls of heaven.

Ch. xxxix. 1 Dost thou know the bearing time of the wild goats of the rock? Observest thou the circles of the hinds?

2 Dost thou number the months which they fulfil, And knowest thou the time of their bringing forth?

3 They bow down, they let their young break through, They cast off their pains.

4 Their young ones gain strength, grow up in the

desert, They run away and do not return.

The strophe treats of the female chamois or steinbocks, ibices (perhaps including the certainly different kinds of chamois), and stags. The former are called ByiT., from 7JP,

1 The Semitic is rich in such words as describe the couching posture of beasts of prey lying in wait for their prey, which then in general signify

Jx. (a secondary formation from n?y, L:), to mount, therefore: rock-climbers. Wn is tVi/l P*7.: to oohlvetv, comp. the PuL ch. xv. 7. *lDt£ to observe, exactly as Eccl. xi. 4, 1 Sam, i. 12, Zech. xi. 11. In ver. 2 the question as to the expiration of the time of bearing is connected with that as to the time oi bringing forth. liQpn? plene, as ch. xiv. 16; n^? (Jittdna, like ny = niy? vid. p. 16, note) with an euphonic termination for l^np, as Gen. xlii. 36, xxi. 29, and also out of pause, Ruth i. 19, Ges. § 91, 1, rem. 2. Instead of njrfen Olsh. wishes to read njtp?Bn? but this (synon. ruatan) would be: they lei slip away; the former (synon. roypnn): they cause to divide, i.e. to break through (comp. Arab, feldh, the act of breaking through, freedom, prosperity). On JH3, to kneel down as the posture of one in travail, vid. 1 Sam. iv. 19. "They cast off their pains" is not meant of an easy working off oi the after-pains (Hirz., Schlottm.), but ^?n signifies in this phrase, as Schultens has first shown, meton. directly the already grown up, as being the fruit of earlier travail, e.g. in ^Eschylus, Agam. 1417 sq.; even the like phrase, ptyat whlva = edere fcetum, is found in Euripides, Ion 45. Thus born with ease, the young animals grow rapidly to maturity (D^n, pinguescere, pubescere, whence &vn, a dream as the result of puberty, vid. Psychol. S. 282), grow in the desert ("133, Targ. = pnn? vid. i. 329, note), seek the plain, and return not again to?? sibi h. e. sui juris esse volentes (Schult.), although it might also signify ad eas, for the Hebr. is rather confused on the question of the distinction of gender, and even in Dn^an and Drron the masc. is used eirLKoivoos- We, however, prefer to interpret according to ch. vi. 19, xxi v. 16. Moreover, Bochart is right: Non hie agitur de otiosa et mere speculativa cognitione, sed de ea cognitione, quce Deo propria est, qua res omnes non solum novit, sed et dirigit atque gubernat.

5 Who hath sent forth the wild ass free. And who loosed the bands of the wild ass,

6 Whose house I made the steppe, And his divelling the salt country?

7 He scorneth the tumult of the city, He heareth not the noise of the driver.

8 That which is seen upon the mountains is his pasture, And he sniff eth after every green thing.

On the wild ass (not: ass of the forest), vid. p. 19, note.1 l Hebr. and Arab, it is *03 (ferd or himdr el-wahsh, i.e. inus ferus), and Aram. *ri"W; the former describes it as a tdft-footed animal, the latter as an animal shy and difficult be tamed by the hand of man; " Kulan " is its Eastern siatic name. LXX. correctly translates: tl<; Se iariv 6 pel? ovov aypiov iXevOepov. ^pn is the ace. of the predi-

1 It is a dirty yellow with a white belly, single-hoofed and long-eared; \ hornless head somewhat resembles that of the gazelle, but is much rger; its hair has the dryness of the hair of the deer, and the animal forms e transition from the stag and deer genus to the ass. It is entirely stinct from the mahd or baqar el-wahsh, wild ox, whose large soft eyes e so much celebrated by the poets of the steppe. This latter is horned id double-hoofed, and forms the transition from the stag to the ox istinct from the rVm, DfcO, therefore perhaps an antelope of the kind

the Indian nilgau, blue ox, Portax tragocamelus]. I have not seen »th kinds of animals alive, but I have often seen their skins in the tents

the Ruwald. Both kinds are remarkable for their very swift running, id it is especially affirmed of the ferd that no rider can overtake it. le poets compare a troop of horsemen that come rushing up and vanish

the next moment to a herd of ferd. In spite of its difficulty and izardousness, the nomads are passionately given to hunting the wild ass, Ld the proverb cited by the Kamus: hull es-sed bigof el-ferd (every int sticks in the belly of the ferd, i.e. compared with that, every other mt is nothing), is perfectly correct. When the approach of a herd, which ways consists of several hundred, is betrayed by a cloud of dust which,n be seen many miles off, so many horsemen rise up from all sides in irsuit that the animals are usually scattered, and single ones are obtained j the dogs and by shots. The herd is called gemile, and its leader is tiled 'anud Cftjy), as witn gazelles. — Wetzst.

the accent on I - P with. which the times i Dogmh in the <).1 m be earth-coloured, dirl * luW,\ the deer 1 Antil pe I Imud has retreat' > syllables with the chief t ming capable of b I of the e tulHma- are qu ' second word 1 if it

1 befo: HDS nfeflfl \ the tone of the i

D both t bat without the initial of the second as far as necessary a correc-.at is said in I... Anm.

the question, ver. 10';, shows that an animal whose home is OD the mountains is intended, viz., as Bochart, and recently Schlottm, (making use of an academic treatise of Lichtenatein on the antelopes, 1 82 1 |, baa proi i 1. the oryx, which the LXX. also probably understands when it translates fiovofcepcv*;: fox the Talmud. Bnp, mutilated from it,. ling to Chulliji, also ap] on Egyptian monnmen metimes with two horns, but mostly with one variously curled; and Loth Aristotle1 and Pliny •horned cloven-hoof; so? i that one mu>: supposition of a one-horned w || variety of the oryx (although iral history it is pp? not yel fully estab then there is n ally tolerably BjfS rtain information of ■ one-horned antelope both in Upper o< Asia and in Central Africa; and therefore there is sufficient fl ground I eking the origin of the tradition of the unicorn °J in an antelope, — perhaps rather like a b -with one horn rising out of the ints of i • the frontal suture. The proper buffalo, Bob iub(tlu$i cannot therefore trachtet, 1852) believed thai in s hum id the Ambni Collection at Vienna h E the Monocerdf (comp. Fechner's Central' blatt, but he is hardly right. J. W. von Mulli-r. Francis

G orer in Tropical South Afiri and

■ier travellers have heard the natives Bpeftk ingenuously of the unir but without >i it then. On the other hand, Hue and Gabet of this animal Wl to Calcutta: it v. centimetres long and 11 in eireumfer from the root it ran up to a gradually diminishing point. It was almost straight, black, etc.... Hodgson, when I consul at Nepal, had the good fortune to obtain an unicorn.... It is a kind of antelope, which in southern Thibet, that borders on Nepal, is called Tschiru. Hodgson sent a skin and horn to Calcutta; they came from an unicorn that died in the menagerie of the Raja of Nepal." The be intended, because it only came from India to Western Asia and Europe at a more recent date, but also not any other species whatever of this animal (Carey and others), which is recognisable by its flat horns, which are also near together, and its forbidding, staring, bloodshot eyes; for it is tameable, and is (even in modern Syria) used as a domestic animal. On the other hand there are antelopes which somewhat resemble the horse, others the ox (whence /3ov- /3a\o<;J fiovfiaXis, is a name for the antelope), others the deer and the ass. Schultens erroneously considers D&o to be the buffalo, being misled by a passage in the Divan of the Hudheilites, which gives the rim the by-name of dhu chadarn, i.e. oxen-like white- footed, which exactly applies to the A. oryx or even the A. leucoryx; for the former has white feet and legs striped lengthwise with black stripes, the latter white feet and legs. Just as little reason is there for imagining the rhinoceros after Aquila (and in part Jerome); pivo/cepcos is nothing but an unhappy rendering of the [Movo/cepo*? of the LXX. The question in ver. 106, as already observed, requires an animal that inhabits the mountains.

detailed description follows, and the suggestion is advanced that this Antilope Hodgsonii, as it has been proposed to call the Tschiru, is the one-horned oryx of the ancients. The existence of one-horned wild sheen (not antelopes), attested by R. von Schlagintweit (Zoologischer Garten, 1st year, S. 72), the horn of which consists of two parts gradually growing together, covered by one horn-sheath, does not depreciate the credibility of the account given by Huc-Gabet (to which Prof. Will has called my attention as being the most weighty testimony of the time). Another less minute account is to be found in the Arabic description of a journey (communicated to me by Prof. Fleischer) by Selim Bisteris (Beirut, 1856): In the menagerie of the Viceroy of Egypt he saw an animal of the colour of a gazelle, but the size and form of an ass, with a long straight horn between the ears, and (what, as he says, seldom go

. bol it ii natural to imagMM

Ai tii a nil I ind the ox-1 rya cannot be tamed by man, and employed in hie i the dom< and o\, so the ostrich, Although resembling the stork in its stiltlike structure, the colour of its feathers, end its rioua life*, still has characteristi illy different from tl me ought to look for according to this similarity, c"r"S ■ wail, prop. ■ tremulous shrill sound (t, iss name of the female