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lows, leaves it essentially unchanged, moving on the whole discourse closes (vers. 28, 29), will fail towards its historic consummation, according to of being set forth in the proper light and in their the plan which our poet has so grandly conceived organic connection. It is fitting accordingly to and so steadfastly pursued thus far. The light show that it is one who feels himself to be forwhich here breaks through the clouds is from a saken by God and men, to be cast out by this source much further than the setting of Job's world, and even by all that he held dearest in earthly day. It is a light even which sends for- it, who here suddenly leaps up to that hope out ward its reflection to the final earthly consum- of the most painful agitation and the profoundest mation, and which rests on the latter as an in- depression of spirit, being supported in this effable halo, giving to the radiant eve of the pa- flight by the train of thought developed in vers. triarch's life a sacred beauty such as without 21-24:-that when his contemporaries refuse to this passage could not have belonged to it. If, hear his appeals for compassion, and when the on the other hand, it were an anticipation of acknowledgment of his innocence, which he has Job's earthly restoration, it would be a sudden, reason to expect from posterity, presents itself violent, inexplicable thrusting of the solution as something which he can by no possibility live into the heart of the conflict, leaving the conflict to see for himself, God, the Everlasting One, who nevertheless to struggle on as before, and the is above all time, still remains to him as his only solution itself to be swallowed up and forgotten, consolation, although, indeed, a consolation all until it reappears at the close, having lost, how- the more sure and powerful. Not less is it to be ever, through this premature suggestion of it, shown how Job, feeling himself to be, as it were, the majesty which attends its unexpected coming. sanctified and lifted high above this lower It is true that the poet, with that rare irony earthly sphere by the thought of this God and which he knows so well how to use, introduces the joy of future union with Him, which he waits the friends as from time to time unconsciously for with such longing, immediately after the utterprophesying Job's restoration. But those inci-ance of his hope turns all the more sharply against dental and indirect anticipations have a very the friends, in order that being filled as yet by the different signification from what this solemn, thought of God's agency in judicial retribution, lofty, direct, and confident utterance from the through which he hopes one day to be justified hero himself would have, if it were referred to he may warn them still more urgently than the issue of the poem. before against becoming, through their continued harshness and injustice towards himself, the objects of God's retributive interposition, and of His eternal wrath. Essentially thus, only more briefly and comprehensively, does v. Gerlach give the course of thought in the entire discourse: "The pronounced sharpness, visible in the speeches of the friends, intensifies also in Job the strong and gloomy descriptions which he gives of his sufferings. But the wonderful notable antithesis which he presents-God Himself against God!-God in His dealings with him showing His anger, and inflicting punishment, but at the same time irresistibly revealing Himself to the inmost consciousness of faith as all-gracious, bringing deliverance and blessedness-this gives to the sufferer the clear light of a knowledge in which all his former faint yearnings shape themselves into fixed certainty. God appears to him as the holy and merciful manager of his cause, and even, after a painful end, as the Giver of a blessed eternal life. To the friends, however, he declares finally with sharp words, that although their legal security and rigor has already made them sure of victory, God's interposition in judgment will so much the more completely put them to shame.

(5) Per contra-the view advocated in the Commentary and in these Remarks has in its favor the following considerations:

a. It furnishes by far the most satisfactory explanation of the more difficult expressions of the text. See above.

b. It is most in harmony with the representations of the future found elsewhere in the book, especially chap. xiv. 13-15, of which this passage is at once the glorious counterpart and complement; that being a prophetic yearning for the recovery of his departed personality from the gloom of Sheol, a recovery which is to be a change into a new life, even as this is a prophetic pæan of a Divine interposition which is not only to vindicate his cause, but also to realize his restored personality as a witness of the scene.

c. It is most in harmony with the doctrinal development of the Old Testament. It carries us beyond the abstract idea of a disembodied immortality to an intermediate realistic conception of the resuscitation of the whole personality, a conception which is an indispensable steppingstone to the distinct recognition of the truth of the resurrection. The development of the doctrine would be incomplete, if not unintelligible, without the Book of Job, thus understood.-E.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

In the treatment of this chapter for practical edification, the passage in vers. 25-27 will of course be the centre and the goal of our meditations. It must not, however, be separated from its surroundings in such a way that on the one side the preparation and immediate occasion for the upsoaring of his soul in yearning and hope to God, to be found in the sorrowful plaint of vers. 6-20, and on the other side the stern and earnest warning to the friends, with which

Particular Passages.

Ver. 6 seq. BRENTIUS: When conscience confronts the judgment, when it cries out to God in trouble, and its prayer is not answered, it accuses God of injustice. But the thoughts of a heart forsaken by the Lord are in this passage most beautifully described; for what else can it think, when all aid is withdrawn, than that God is unjust, if, after first taking sin away, He nevertheless pays the wages of sin, even death? and if again, after promising that He will be nigh to those who are in trouble, He seems not only not to be affected, but even to be

delighted by our calamities? When the flames of hell thus rage around us, we must look to Christ alone, who was made in all things like to His brethren, and was tempted that He might be able to succor those who are tempted. ZEYSS: There is no trial more grievous than when in affliction and suffering it seems as though God had become our enemy, has no compassion upon us, and will neither hear nor help. -IDEM (on ver. 13 seq.): To be forsaken and despised by one's own kindred and household companions is hard. But herein the children of God must become like their Saviour, who in His suffering was forsaken by all men, even by His dearest disciples and nearest relations: thus will they learn to build on no man, but only on the living God, who is ever true-EGARD: Friends do not (usually) adhere in trial and need; with prosperity they take their departure, forgetful of their love and troth. Men are liars; they are inconstant as the wind, which passes away. But because trial and need come from God, the withdrawal of friends is ascribed to God, for had He not caused the trial to come, the friends would have remained.

Ver. 23 seq. WOHLFARTH: The wish of the pious sufferer that his history might be preserved for posterity, was fulfilled. In hundreds of languages the truth is now proclaimed to all the people of the earth-that even the godly man is not free from suffering, but in the consciousness of his innocence, and in faith in God,

Providence and Immortality, he finds consola tion which will not permit him to sink, and his patient waiting for the glorious issue of God's dark dispensations, is crowned without fail,

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| substance of things hoped for, etc. (Heb. xi. 1).
For in Job nothing is less apparent than life
and the resurrection; rather is it hell that is
perceived. "Nevertheless," he says, "I know
that my Redeemer liveth, however He may now
seem to sleep and to be angry; nevertheless I
know and by faith I behold beneath this wrath
great favor, beneath this condemner a redeemer.
You will observe in this place how despair and
hope succeed each other by turns in the godly."
-STARKE (after Zeyss and Joach. Lange): As
surely as that Christ, our Redeemer, is risen
from death by His power, and is entered into
His glory, so surely will all who believe in Him
rise again to eternal life by His divine power.
The Messiah is in such wise the Living
One, yea more, the Life itself (John xiv. 6; xi.
25), in that he proves Himself to be the Living
One, by making us alive. . . . This is the best
comfort in the extremity of death, that as Christ
rose again from the dead, therefore we shall
arise with him (Rom. viii. 11; 1 Cor. xv.).—
V. GERLACH: It is remarkable in this passage
that Job, after indulging in those most gloomy
descriptions of the realm of the dead, which run
here soar up to such a joyous hope touching his
through his discourses from ch. iii. on, should
destiny after death. Precisely this, however,
constitutes the very kernel of the history that
become the means, first, of overcoming in him-
through his fellowship with God Job's sufferings
self that legal stand-point, with which that
was most closely
gloomy, cheerless outlook
united, and thereby of gaining the victory over
the friends with their legalistic tendencies.-
Moreover, we must not be led astray by the fact

that in the end Job's victory is set even for this Ver. 25 seq. OECOLAMPADIUS: These are the life, and that he receives an earthly compensawords of Job's faith, nay, of that of the Church tion for his losses. The meaning of this turn Universal, which desires that they may be trans- of events is that God gives to His servant, who mitted to all ages: "And I know," etc. has shown himself to be animated by such firm conWe, taking faith for our teacher, and remem-fidence in Himself, more than he could ask or think. bering what great things Job has declared beforehand he is about to set forth here, understand it of the resurrection. We believe that we shall see Christ, our Judge, in this body which we now bear about, and in no other, with these eyes, and no others. For as Christ rose again in the same body in which He suffered and was buried, so we also shall rise again in the same body in which we now carry on our warfare.BRENTIUS: A most clear confession of faith! From this passage it may be seen what is the method of true faith, viz., in death to believe in life, in hell to believe in heaven, in wrath and judgment to believe in God the Redeemer, as the Apostle, whoever he may bave been, truly says in writing to the Hebrews: Faith is the

Ver. 28 seq. SEB. SCHMIDT: Job's friends knew that there is a judgment, and they had proceeded from this principle in their discussions thus far. Job accordingly would speak of the subject here not in the abstract, but in connection with the matter under consideration: "in order that ye may know that God will administer judgment in respect to all iniquities of the sword, which you among yourselves imagine to be of no consequence, and not to be feared, and that He will punish them severely."-CRAMER: God indeed punishes much even in this life; but much is reserved for the last judgment. Hence he who escapes temporal punishment here, will not for that reason escape all divine punishment.

most

III. Zophar and Job: Ch. XX.—XXI.

A.-Zophar: For a time indeed the evil-doer can be prosperous; but so much the more terrible and irremediable will be his destruction.

CHAPTER XX.

1. Introduction-censuring Job with violence, and Theme of the discourse: vers. 1-5

1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:

2

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,

and for this I make haste.

3 I have heard the check of my reproach,

and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

4 Knowest thou not this of old,

since man was placed upon earth,

5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

2. Expansion of the theme, showing from experience that the prosperity and riches of the ungodly must end in the deepest misery: vers. 6-29.

6

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach unto the clouds;

7 yet he shall perish forever, like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found;
yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more;
neither shall his place any more behold him.
10 His children shall seek to please the poor,
and his hands shall restore their goods.
11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth,
which shall lie down with him in the dust.

12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,
though he hide it under his tongue;
13 though he spare, and forsake it not,
but keep it still within his mouth:

14 yet his meat in his bowels is turned,
it is the gall of asps within him.

15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again:

God shall cast them out of his belly.

16 He shall suck the poison of asps;

the viper's tongue shall slay him.

17 He shall not see the rivers,

the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

18 That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein

19 Because he hath oppressed, and hath forsaken the poor;

because he bath violently taken away a house which he builded not;

20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly,

he shall not save of that which he desired.

21 There shall none of his meat be left;

therefore shall no man look for his goods.

22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits; every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

23 When he is about to fill his belly,

God shall cast the fury of His wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon,

and the bow of steel shall strike him through. 25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body;

yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall; terrors are upon him!

26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places; a fire not blown shall consume him;

it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle. 27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity;

and the earth shall rise up against him.

28 The increase of his house shall depart,

and his goods shall flow away in the day of His wrath.' 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. A new variation of the favorite theme of the friends-the perishableness of the prosperity of the ungodly. The formula by which it is this time expressed is (ver. 5): "The triumphing of the wicked is of short duration, and the joy of the ungodly only for a moment." In the further development of this thought the wicked, who encounters inevitable destruction, is described as a rich man, who avariciously seizes on the pos sessions of others, and whose property, unjustly acquired, becomes the prey of an exterminating fire that destroys himself, and all that belongs This on the one side links itself to the former description of Eliphaz, ch. xv. 25 seq., on the other side, however, it glances aside with malicious suspicion at the former prosperity of Job, the foundation of which the speaker would indicate as presumably impure and unrighteous. -The discourse is divided into a short introduction (vers. 2-5), and a discussion extending through four strophes of six verses each (in one instance of five), together with a closing verse, which stands as an isolated epiphonema.

to him.

2. Introduction, together with the theme of the discourse: vers. 2-5.

answer to me..

-

Ver. 2. Therefore do my thoughts give [¡, by some rendered "still, yet," (Umbreit, Noyes, Rodwell), or "truly," (Elzas), but incorrectly]. ' with Accus. of the person, as in ch. xiii. 22 [E. V., "cause me to answer," and so Fürst, and this would correspond with Zophar's eagerness to speak; but the other signification is the more common]. as in ch. iv. 13.—And hence (comes) the storming within me.-Lit. my haste in me”: here in the sense of perturbatio; and in immediate connection with win, and more precisely qualifying it, comp. ch. iv. 21.Both in a, and in b, point forward to the statement given in ver. 3 of the cause of Job's discontent and excitement. [“ On this ac

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count he feels called upon by his thoughts to answer, and hence his inward impulse leaves him no rest, because he hears from Job a contemptuous wounding reproof of himself." Ewald, Hahn, Wordsworth, etc., point backward to the closing menace of Job's discourse (ch. xix. 29) as the cause of Zophar's feeling].y, which is evidently separated from by the accentuation is used as a preposition "on account of," but without its complement. We must supply either 2 (from ¡ in a), or ; comp. the similar elliptical use of hy in Isa. lix. 18. To connect immediately with an: "because of my storming (Del. "because of my feeling") [" because of my eager haste," Ges., Con., Carey, Noyes] within me," produces a less symmetrical structure for the verse, and a flatter sense.

Ver. 3. A chiding to my shame must I hear! Comp. Isa. liii. 5 [chastisement of our peace," i. e., which tends to our peace; so here, the chastisement or chiding which tends to my shame.-The E. V.'s rendering, "check of my reproach " is scarcely intelligible. Neither is

have heard sufficiently exact for the fut. yous, which means rather "I have to hear." E.]-Nevertheless the spirit out of my understanding gives me an answer; i. e., "out of the fulness of its perception it furnishes me with information as to what is to be thought of Job with his insulting attacks" (Delitzsch), viz., that he is to be warned and punished as an ungodly man. [E. V., y, as Hiph. "causeth 66 answereth," and me to answer;" better as Kal This exorthus equivalent to ', ver. 2. dium is strikingly suggestive of the prominent traits of Zophar's character; his mental discursiveness and vivacity, or perhaps volatility, indicated by D'ay, his thoughts shot forth in various directions; his eager impetuosity, be could scarcely contain himself until Job had finished, and. then broke out hotly; his proud sensitive egotism, especially prominent in ver. 3 a, "the chiding of my shame must I hear;"

in,

Vers. 4, 5 present the substance of these communications of Zophar's spirit in the form of a question addressed to Job.

bis subjective self-sufficient dogmatism-"the, 1 Kings xiv. 10). This comparison, which spirit out of my understanding gives answer." It beyond a doubt expresses a meaning which is is questionable whether here is to be taken unfavorable and disgraceful to the ungodly man, as Renan explains, of the universal (not as he refers to his own dung; in the same way that this terms it "impersonal") spirit (comp. ch. xxxii. is at once swept away, on account of its ill odor, 8), speaking in man. The dogmatic character so is he speedily removed by the Divine judgof the speaker, and the prominence which he ment (comp. Ezek. 1. c.). In regard to the coarse gives to his own personality, is not altogether in harshness of the expression, comp. below, ver. harmony with such a view. Moreover, Elihu is 15, as also Zophar's former discourse, ch. xi. 12. put forward by the poet as the representative [The word is not low, as Ezek. iv. 12; Zeph. of an internal revelation, even as Eliphaz re-i. 17 shows, and the figure, though revolting, is presents the external. Zophar on the other hand still very expressive." Delitzsch]. The followrepresents the individual reason, as Bildad re-ing explanations involve an unsuitable softening presents the collective traditional wisdom of the [and weakening] of the sense. (1) The attempt race. See Introduction.-E.]. of Wetzstein in Delitzsch [I. 377 seq. adopted by Del. and Merx] to identify with the cowdung heaped up for fuel in the dwelling of the Ver. 5. Knowest thou this indeed [either wicked. (2) The attempt of Schultens, Ewald, "the question implying that the contrary would Hirz., Heiligst., [Con.], to read 1, "accordbe inferred from Job's language (Con.), or "sarcastically, equivalent to: thou surely know-ing to his greatness, in proportion as he was est; or in astonishment, what! dost thou not great," from 1, magnificentia, majestas [Good know!" (Del.) hence it is unnecessary (with E. (followed by Wemyss) adopts this with the adV., Ges., etc.), to supply the negative, ditional amendment of to 2, understanding from eternity (i. e., to be true, -, as a the passage to teach that the wicked perishes in virtual adjective, or as a virtual predicate-ac- translation of the Syriac: "like the whirlwind" the midst of his greatness]. (3) The unfounded cusative, Ewald 336, b), since man was placed upon the earth. D' Infinit. with an indefinite subject, "since one placed" [or, since the placing of] as in ch. xiii. 9.—DT, not precisely a proper name, referring to the first man, but collective or generic; comp. Deut. iv. 32.

Ver. 5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short (lit., from near, i. e., not extending far; comp. Deut. xxxii. 17; Jer. xxiii. 23), and the joy of the ungodly only for a moment.- in y, like in 2 Kings ix. 22 expresses the idea of duration, "during, for." The whole question is intended to convey doubt and wonder that Job, judging by his speeches, was entirely unacquainted with the familiar proposition touching the short duration of the triumphing of the wicked which is made the theme of what follows. [This is Zophar's short and cutting rejoinder to Job's triumphant outburst in ch. xix. 25 seq.-That jubilant exclamation was, as Zophar indirectly suggests, a

שִׂמְחַת חָנַף that exulting joy a יִנְנַת רָשָׁע

3. The expansion of the theme: vers. 6-29. First Strophe: Vers. 6-11. [The wicked, however prosperous, perishes utterly, together with his family and acquisitions; he himself in the prime of life].

Ver. 6. Though his height ( from N, comp. Ps. lxxxix. 10) [i. c., his exaltation in rank and power] mount up to Heaven, and his head reach unto the clouds; comp. Isa. xiv. 13 seq.; Obad. 4. [, not causative (Del.), but parallel to hy, as a to NW].

Ver. 7. Like his dung he perishes forever; they who have seen him say: Where is he? The subj. here is the 1, ver. 5b, and so continues to the end of the description. 11, "like his dung," from a, globulus stercoris, Zeph. i. 17; Ezek. iv. 12,15 (comp.

,and so Fiirst ,גלגל - as גל or גלל regarding]

who however defines it to mean "chaff." Either of these renderings, as well as Wetzstein's, makes the suffix superfluous.-E.]. (4) The equally untenable rendering of some of the Rabbis (as Gekatilia, Nachamanides): "as he turns himself," or "in turning around, as one turns the hand around."

Ver. 8. As a dream he flies away [and is no more to be found: and he is scared away as a vision of the night].-For the use of "dream" and "night-vision" (ņ as in ch. iv. 13 ["so everywhere in the book of Job instead of in, from which it perhaps differs as visum from visio," Delitzsch]), as figures for that which is fleeting, quickly perishable, comp. Isa. xxix. 7; Ps. lxxiii. 20; xc. 5. 1, Hiph.: "is scared away," to wit, by God's judicial intervention; a stronger expression than the Active TT, "he flies."

Ver. 9. An eye has looked upon him (been sharply fixed upon him; as in ch. xxviii. 7); it does it not again; comp. ch. v. 3; vii. 8; viii. 18. [The verb is found in Cant. i. 6 in the sense of scorching, or making swarthy (cogn. adurere). Hence the signification of a fixed scorching look is attached to it by Delitzsch. It may at least be said of it that it means as much as our " scan, 66 ," or gaze upon." It is suggested perhaps by the lofty potude of the wicked in ver. 6. sition, the heaven-touching, cloud-capped attiSuch a height,

which the sun would (1) look on, and cause to glow, the eye of man would (1) gaze on intently. The clause is thus equivalent to: There

was a time when he was the observed of all observers, but it is so no more —E.].—And his

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