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

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

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

CHAPTER XIX. 1-29.

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

1 Then Job answered, and said:

2 How long will ye vex my soul,

VERS. 1-5.

and break me in pieces with words?

3 These ten times have ye reproached me;

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

4 And be it indeed that I have erred,

mine error remaineth with myself.

5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

and plead against me my reproach:

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

VERSES 6-20.

6 Know now that God hath overthrown me,

and hath compassed me with His net.

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

I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

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

9 He hath stripped me of my glory,

and taken the crown from my head.

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

and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

11 He hath also kindled His wrath against me,

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

12 His troops come together,

and raise up their way against me,

and encamp round about my tabernacle.

13 He hath put my brethren far from me,

and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

14 My kinsfolk have failed,

and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

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

I am alien in their sight.

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

I entreated him with my mouth.

17 My breath is strange to my wife,

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

I arose, and they spake against me.

19 All my inward friends abhorred me;

and they whom I loved are turned against me. 20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of

my teeth.

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

VERSES 21-27.

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

for the hand of God hath touched me.

22 Why do ye persecute me as God,

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

24

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

25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth,

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

26 and though after my skin worms destroy this body,

yet in my fl sh shall I see God;

27 whom I shall see for myself,

and mine eyes shall behold, and not another,

though my reins be consumed within me.

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

VERSES 28, 29.

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

29 Be ye afraid of the sword;

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

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

is in like manner followed by a short but forcible and impressive warning to the friends in view of their sinning against him (vers. 28-29). The whole discourse, accordingly, which is characterized by vivid emotion and decided contrarieties of feeling, contains four principal parts, which embrace five strophes of unequal length. The three longest of these strophes, each being of 7-8 verses, fall into the second and third parts, of which the former contains two strophes, the latter one. The short introductory and concluding strophes are identical with the first and fourth parts.

1. Deeply grieved by the warnings and threatenings of Bildad's discourse, which in these respects was but an echo of that of Eliphaz, Job, on the one side, advances his complaint even to the point of imploring pity from his opponents in view of his inexpressible misery; on the other hand, for the very reason that he, being innocent, finds himself deprived of all human help and sympathy, he lifts himself up to a more courageous confidence in God's assistance than he has ever yet exhibited. He expresses the welldefined hope of a vindication awaiting him-if not on this side of the grave, then at least beyond it-through the personal intervention of God, Ver. 2. The discourse begins-like that of appearing to him in visible form. That an- Bildad, with a Quousque tandem (7), which, guished complaint concerning his unspeakably however, is incomparably more emphatic and severe suffering (vers. 6-20) is preceded by a sharp word, addressed by way of introduction to has more to justify it significant than that of his accuser, because it How long will ye the friends, as having maliciously suspected his vex my soul and crush me with words?innocence (vers. 2–5). That inspired declaration of his hope in the divine vindication which is fut. energicum of 7, with the third rawas to take place in the Hereafter (vers. 21-27) | dical retained (GESEN. ¿75 [274], Rem. 16). In

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

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regard to the form (with suffix appended to the of the ful. energ. and with the union-vowel a), see GESEN. 260 [859], Rem. 3 [GREEN, 105 c]. Ver. 3 gives the reason for the N. Now already ten times is it that ye reproach me, viz., by assailing my innocence- here in the sense of "already, now already," comp. EWALD, 183 a [GESEN. 8 122, 2, Rem.; Lex. 3. It may, however, be equally well regarded as a pronoun, in its usual demonstrative sense, in the singular with with perhaps an interjectional force-"Lo! these ten times do ye reproach me.' So Renan: Voilà la dixième fois que vous m' insultez. Comp. Gen. xxvii. 36.-E.] "Ten times" stands naturally for a round number, or ideal perfection: Gen. xxxi. 7; Lev. xxvi. 26; Num. xiv. 22, etc. ["Ten, from being the number of the fingers on the human hand, is the number of human possibility, and from its position at the end of the row of numbers (in the decimal system) is the number of that which is perfected; as not only the Sanskrit dagan is

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

ye") לֹא-תָבֹשׁוּ הַהִכְרוּ stun me. The syntax of

stun [me] without shame, shamelessly"), as in chap. vi. 28; x. 16. Comp. GESEN. 142 [139], 36 [GREEN. 8269] - is a shortened Imperf. Hiph. for 7 (GESEN. 853 [852], Rem. 4,5 [see also GREEN, 894 c]), of a verb 2, which does not appear elsewhere, which, according to the Arabic, signifies "to stun," obstupefacere. The rendering "to maltreat, to abuse grossly," which rests on the authority of the ancient versions (LXX.: ¿níkεtové μoi, Vulg. opprimentes), and which is adopted by Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann, etc., gives essentially the same sense. [The rendering of E. V.: "ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me' seems to have been suggested by the use of in the sense of "not to know." The Hiph. form

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

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

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

verse

Ver. 5. Will ye really boast yourselves against me, and prove against me my reproach?-D is to be taken, with Schultens, Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann [Renan: "By what right do you dare to speak insolently to me, and do you pretend to convince me of disgrace?"], as an interrogative particle (an), and the whole as a question, with the chief emphasis resting on the verbs ("will you [magnify] boast yourselves," exhibit yourselves against me as great rhetoricians and advocates, by your elaborate accusations?) and ("will you judicially prove, demonstrate" my disgrace [, against me]? comp. chap. xiii. 3, 15, and often). This is the only construction which properly completes ver. 4. There is no take DN as a conditional particle—“if,” whether such completing of the sense obtained, if we we take the whole of the fifth verse as a hypothetical protasis, and ver. 6 as apodosis (so Clericus, Olshausen, Delitzsch) [E. V., Lee, Carey, Rodwell, Merx], or regard ver. 5a as protasis, and b as apodosis (so Umbreit, Stickel, Schlottmann [Noyes, Wemyss, Conant], etc. [Schlottmann exhibits the connection as follows: "In ver. 4 Job says-'Granted that I have erred, you ter.' need give yourselves no concern about the matIn ver. 5 he adds-If, nevertheless, you will concern yourselves about it, and in pride look down on me, it is at least incumbent on you not to assume without further proof that I have brought disgrace on myself by such an error, but to prove it against me with good arguments.' The repetition of DN seems to cor-relate vers. 4 and 5, so that if, as all agree, the first and second members of ver. 4 are related to each other as protasis and apodosis, the same would seem to be true of ver. 5.-E.]

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

Ver. 6. Know then (DN as in chap. ix. 24) ["elsewhere in questions, here strengthening the exclamation"-Schlott.] that Eloah has wrested me, i.e., has treated me unjustly, done me wrong, for py, comp. chap. viii. 3; xxxiv. 12; Lam. iii. 36. And compassed me round about with His net-like a hunter who has entirely robbed a wild beast of its liberty by the meshes of the net which envelop him around, so that he can find no way of escape. The expression describes the unforeseen and inexorable character of the dispensations which had burst on Job as the object of the Di-tility to God were concentrated in him"]. vine persecution; comp. Bildad's description,

Ver. 11. [He makes His anger burn against me, and He regards me as His foes], comp. ch. xiii. 24. The Imperfects alternating with Imperfects consecutive are, as above in ver. 10, and in what follows, used for the present, because present and continuous sufferings are described; comp. ch. xvi. 13, 14. [The plural in 73, either for the class, of which Job is one; or, as Delitzsch suggests, perhaps the expression is intentionally intensified here, in contrast with ch. xiii. 24; he, the one, is accounted by God as the host of His foes; He treats him as if all hos

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Ver. 12. Together all His troops advance.

chap. xviii. 8 seq. ["Bildad had said that the armies, synonymous with N, ch. x. wicked would be taken in his own snares. Job says that God had ensnared him." ELZAS.]

17, and denoting here, as there, the band of calamities, sufferings, and pains, which rush upon him. And cast up their way against me.

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Ver. 7. Lo! I cry-"Violence!" (pas an interjectional exclamation, found also Hab. i.-1, lit. "to heap up" their way, which is 2; comp. Jer. xx. 8) and am not heard (Prov. at the same time a rampart for carrying on the xxi. 13); I call out for help, and there is no justice-i. e., no justice shown in an impar- attack, a mound for offensive operations (550, tial examination and decision of my cause.- comp. 2 Sam. xx. 15; 2 Kings xix. 32; Ezek. ya, lit. "to cry aloud for help, to send forth a iv. 2) against Job, who is here represented as a In regard to this figure comp. cry for deliverance" (comp. Ps. xxx. 3 [2]; besieged fortress. lxxii. 12; lxxxviii. 14 [13]), from y, or ya above ch. xvi. 14; also in regard to the technics of siege operations among the ancient orientals, yu, "to be wide, to be in a prosperous situa- see Keil's Bibl. Archäol. 159. tion."

Ver. 8. He has hedged up my way, that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness on my paths.-Comp. chap. iii. 23; xiii. 27; also, as regards 17, "to fence up, to hedge up," Lam. iii. 7, 9; Hos. ii. 8 [6].

Ver. 9. He has stripped me of mine honor; i. e., of my righteousness in the eyes of men; comp. ch. xxix. 14. The crown of my head" in the parallel second member signifies the same thing; comp. Lam. v. 16. The same collocation of a "raiment of honor," and "crown of the head," occurs also in Is. Ixi. 10; lxii. 3; and suggested by these passages we find it often in eva gelical church hymns [e. g., in the following from WATTS:

"Then let my soul march boldly on, Pre-s forward to the heavenly gate, There peace adj y eternal reign,

a

First Divis on: Second Strophe: Vers. 13–20. Lamentation over his sufferings as proceeding from man.

Ver. 13. My brethren He drives far away from me to wit God, to whom here, precisely as in ch. xvii. 6, even the injustice proceeding For this reason the readfrom men is ascribed. ing pn is perfectly in place, and it is unnecessary after the arέornoav of the LXX. to change it to pn. To the term "brethren " (which as in Ps. lxix. 9 [8], is to be understood literally, not in the wider sense of relatives), who are described as turning away from him, corresponds in ver. 14 a the term D, "kinsmen" (Ps. xxxviii. 12 [11]). In like manner we find as parallel to the 'y', i. e., "knowers, confidants." in ver. 13 b, the D', i. e., those familiarly known, intimate friends, in ver. 14 b (comp. in regard to it Ps. xxxi. 12 [11]; lxxxviii. 9 [8]. As synonyms in the wider sense there appear in house-associates, or sojourners" in ver. 15 (Vulg., inquilini domus mes mex) Ver. 10. He breaks me down on every and finally (ver. 19), those who belong side: like a building doomed to destruction, for to the circle of closest intimacy, bosom-friends, such is the representation here given of Job's outward man together with his state of pros- notion of friendship is here presented in six dif(comp. ch. xxix. 4; Ps. lv. 15 [14]), so that the perity; comp. ch. xvi. 14; [so that I pass away], and uproots like a tree, my hope: 8-10.-As for the rest ver. 13 6 is lit., ferent phases and gradations, comp. on ch. xviii. i. e, he takes entirely away from me the prospect of a restoration of my prosperity, leaves it "are become only [or, nothing but] strange to no foundation or bottom, like a plant which is me," i. e., entirely and altogether strange; and uprooted, and which for that reason inevitably, ver. 14 a, means “ they cease," i. e., to be withers (comp. ch. xiv. 19; xvii. 15). As to friends, they leave off, fail (comp. ch. xiv. 7), y, lit.to tear out, to pluck up wholly out of the ground," comp. ch. iv. 21, where the object spoken of is the tent-stake.

And glittering robes fo conquerors wait.
There shall I wear a starry crown,
And triump in Almighty grace,
While all the armies of the skies

Join in my glorious Leader's praise"].*

*The above extract from Watts will supply for the English reader the place f the extract given by our author from P. GERHARD's hymn: "Ein Lümmlein geht und trägt die Schuld."

גָרֵי־בֵית the sequel

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Ver. 15. My house associates [ that dwell in mine house," E. V ], and my maids (this doubled expression denoting all the domestics, including hired servants and the like; comp. above) are become strange to me

[properly, "count me for a stranger," E. V.].logue, has already been shown in the Introd., The verb 'n is governed as to gender by 7 8, 3. We need not therefore follow the critics the subject next preceding: comp. Gesen. 8 60; who are there refuted in deciding that the proEwald, 339 c [Green, 276, 1]. logue is not genuine; nor assume (with EichVer. 16. I call to my servant, and he an-horn and Olsh.) that the poet has here for once swers not. Whether this disobedient servant forgotten himself, and lost sight of his scheme as We are rather to supis to be viewed as the overseer, or house-stew-set forth in ch. i. 18, 19. ard, like Eliezer in the house of Abraham, Gen. xxiv. (Del.), is in view of the simplicity of the language at least doubtful.-With my mouth must I entreat him.-For the Imperf. in the sense of must, comp. ch. xv. 30; xvii. 2.

(comp. Ps. lxxxix. 2 [1]; cix. 30), expresses here not, as in ch. xvi. 5, a contrast with that which proceeds out of the heart, but with a mere wink, or any dumb intimation of what might be

desired of him.

would

pose (with Ewald, 1st Ed., Hirz., Heiligst., Hahn, Dillmann, etc.), that the reference is to grandchildren, the offspring left behind by the unfortunate sons-in favor of which may be cited the similar use of D' in a wider sense in Gen. xxix. 5; xxxi. 28, etc.: or else (with the LXX., Symmachus, J. D. Michaelis, Schär., Rosenm., Dathe, Ewald, 2d Ed.) to his children by concubines (viovç mahλakidwv μov, LXX.) a supposition however with which ch. xxxi. 1 seems scarcely to agree, however true it may be that in the paVer. 17. My breath is offensive to my triarchal age, to which our poet assigns Job, wife.-, from 7, to be strange, to be es-rigid monogamistic views did not prevail. The tranged, expresses simply by virtue of this sig- explanation of Stuhlm., Gesen., Umbr., Schlott., nification the idea of "being repugnant, repul- Del., [Noyes, Conant, Elzas, Merx] is also linsive," so that we need not derive it from a guistically possible, that stands for particular verb 7, "to be loathsome; and (after ch. iii. 10), so that 'assuredly signifies here the breath (stinking according to b), having the same meaning as in the partly parallel passage ch. vii. 15; hence not "my discontent" (Hirzel) ["my spirit, as agitated, querulous' Gesen.; "depression," Fürst]; nor "my sexual impulse" Arnb.; nor my spirit" (Starke, [Carey] and ancient commentators); nor " my person (Pesh., Umbreit, Hahn) [Renan].-Jerome already correctly: halitum meum exhorruit uxor mea, and in the same sense most of the moderns [so E. V.], and my ill savor to the sons of my body. -, can neither signify: "my prayers, my (Gesen., with a reference to his Gram., 91, 3-against which however compare Ewald, 259) [Noyes, Lee, Words., Elzas]; nor my caresses (Arnh.) [Bernard, Rodw., Green, Chrestom., and Gram. 139, 2-Kal Inf. of ¡n (with fem. termination ) to be gracious]; nor my lamentations, my groanings (Hirzel, Vaih.) [First]; nor yet finally-" and I pray to the sons of my body" (LXX., Vulg., Luth., etc.) [E. V., with different construction of the

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mean accordingly Job's natural brothers. This theory however is inconsistent with the circumstance that Job has already made mention above, ver. 13, of his brothers; and that immediately following the mention of his wife, the mention of his descendants would be more suitable than that of his brothers. [To which add this from Bernard, that above, in ch. iii. 10, no ambiguity whatever could arise from the employment of in the sense of "mother's womb." whereas "here, by using it in this sense, Job would have run such risk of having his meaning misunderstood, as might fairly be considered synonymous with, my loins, or 'y?, my bowels, that we find it quite impossible to believe that if he had really wished to speak here of his brethren, he would have applied to them such a very ambiguous epithet." It has also been suggested as a relief of the difficulty that children had been born to Job in the interval between the first series of calamities, and the infliction of the disease, but such a conjecture is too precarious. Others regard the expression as general. So Wordsworth: "He is speaking of the greatest though I entreated for the children's sake of wretchedness in general terms"]. my own body"]; for all these constructions are Ver. 18. Even youngsters act contempalike opposed to the language and to the context. The word is rather (with Schär., Rosen, tuously towards me. Ew., Hahn, Schlott., Del., Dillm.), to be derived puer (root hay, comp. ch. xxi. 11) are little chilfrom the root 1, "to stink," which does not dren, such namely as are rude and impudent appear elsewhere indeed in Heb., but which is mockers, like those children of Bethel, 2 Kings quite common in Arab. and Syr., and is to be ii. 23 seq., which may be expressed by the word construed either as first pers. sing. Perf. Kal "youngsters" [Germ. "Buben": Bernard("and I smell offensively to the sons of my "wicked-little-children"], here as also above in body"), or, which is better suited to the paral-ch. xvi. 11.-It will also guard in particular lelism, as Infinitive substantive, in a being against the mistake of supposing that Job's still the predicate. This stench suggests in par-grandchildren are intended by these buy, ticular the fetid matter which issues from the (Hahn).-If I rise up (conditional clause, as in festering and partially rotting limbs of the vicch. xi. 17 [not as E. V., "I arose "]), they tim of elephantiasis. Comp. on ch. ii. 7: vii. speak about me. make me the butt of jeering 14.-That by "the sons of my body" (1) talk (27, as in Ps. 1. 20; Numb. xii. 1; we are not of necessity to understand the legiti- xxi. 5). mate sons of Job, and hence that there is no contradiction between this passage and the pro

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Ver. 19. My bosom friends abhor me:(comp. above on ver. 13 seq.), and those whom

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