wields the weapon, as in Hab. 1. c. and Mic. ii. 1, are, however, so nearly identical as descriptive of the character here referred to, that either resolves itself into the other. Conant, who adopts the rendering of E. V.: "he into whose hand God bringeth" (E. V. adds "abundantly") i. e. whom God prospers, objects that by the other rendering "the thought is expressed very coarsely, as to form, when it might be done in the Hebrew with great felicity." It is difficult to see, however, how the sentence: "he who takes God in his hand" could be expressed more idiomatically or forcibly than in the words of the passage before us. look the retrospective reference which is to be 66 : .(בְּכָל־אֵלֶה before לֹא יָדַע) Wordsworth someposition of the words what differently: "who grasps God in his hand. The wicked, in his impious presumption, imagines that he can take God prisoner and lead Him as a captive by his power." But this is less natural than the above.-E.] Second Strophe: vers. 7-12. [Return to the thought of ver. 3-the shallowness of the friends' wisdom on the Divine. Such knowledge and deeper every one possessed who had eyes and ears. For (1) every creature in earth and sea and air proclaimed it (7-10); and (2) every man of thought and age uttered it in the general ear (11, 12) " DAV.] Ver. 7. But ask now even the beaststhey can teach thee.-[", recovery from the crushing thought of vers. 4-6, and strong antithesis to the assumption of the friends." as also in the second member, voluntative [or, jussive], hence not literally future they will teach it to thee"-as commonly rendered. Here the form of address is different from that adopted heretofore in this discourse, being now directed to one only of the friends, viz. to Zophar, to whose eulogy of the absolute wisdom of God (ch. xi. 7-9) reference is here made, with the accompanying purpose of presenting a still more copious and elaborate description of the same. -That the hand of Jehovah hath made · is, with Ewald, referred to the destiny of severe suffering and pain.' . Since as a glance at what follows shows, Job further on praises God as the governor of the universe, it may be expected that the reference is here to God as the creator and preserver of the world. Bildad had appealed to the sayings of the ancients, which have the long experience of the past in their favor, to support the justice of the Divine government; Job here appeals to the DELITZSCH.]-Apart from the Prologue (ch. i. absoluteness of the Divine rule over creation." Ver. 8. Or think thoughtfully on the earth: lit. "think on the earth," i. e. direct thoughtfully thy observation to the earth (which comes under consideration here, as is evident from what follows, as the place where the lower order of animals is found, the , Gen. ix. 2; 1 Kings v. 13), and acquire the instruction which may be derived from her. The render-21), the name occurs only here in the T: ing of as a substantive, in the sense of mouth of Job, for the reason doubtless that the Ver. 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all the bodies of men.-["Evidently these words are more naturally referred to the act of preservation than to that of creation." SCHLOTTM.] Ver. 9. Who would not know in all Observe the distinction between D. the lower this, etc. So is 3 to be rendered, giving principle of life, which fills all animals, and to the instrumental sense, not with Hahn-7, the godlike personal spirit of man. "who knows not concerning all this," which would yield too flat a sense, and lead us to over Otherwise in Eccles. iii. 19, 21, where П, in a wider sense, is ascribed even to the beasts. Vers. 11, 12. To the knowledge of God which | and here, where he is exposing the vulgarity of rests on the observation of the external cosmos (notitia Dei naturalis externa s. acquisita), is here added the human wisdom and insight which springs from experience, especially that of the aged, as a second source from which Job might draw (which may be regarded as the equivalent of that which is sometimes called notitia Dei naturalis interna). Ver. 11. Does not the ear prove sayings, even as [! adæquationis, as in ch. v. 7] the palate tastes food for itself (1, Dat. commodi). Both comparisons illustrate the power of judicious discrimination possessed by the human spirit, by which it discerns the inner worth of things, especially as it exists in aged persons of large experience. So again later in Elibu's discourse, ch. xxxiv. 3. The opinion of Umbreit, Delitzsch, etc., that Job in this verse utters an admonition not to receive without proof the sayings of the ancients, to wit, those of which Bildad had previously spoken, ch. viii. 10("should not the ear prove the sayings?"), lacks proper support. A reference to that remote passage in the discourse of Bildad should have been more clearly indicated than by the accidental circumstance that there as here the word, "sayings, utterances," is used. Moreover the "aged" who are here mentioned (D, as in ch. xv. 10; xxix. 8) are by no means identical with the fathers of former generations, whom Bildad had mentioned there. Ver. 12. Among the aged is wisdom, and a long life (works, gives) understanding [or lit.length of days is understanding"]. The verse is related to the preceding as logical consequent to its antecedent: As the ear determines the value of words, or the palate the taste of food, so aged men have been able to acquire for themselves in the course of a long life a true insight into the nature of things, and a truly rational knowledge of the same, and I have been to school with such men, I have also ventured to draw from this source! This is the meaning of the passage as clearly appears from the context, and it makes it unnecessary to assume: a. with Starke, etc., that Job reckons himself among the aged, and as such sets himself in the fullness of his self-consciousness against the three friends as being younger than himself (which is distinctly refuted by what we find in ch. v. 26; xxix. 8, 18; xv. 10); b. with Ewald, to conjecture the loss of a passage after ver. 12, which would furnish the transition from that verse to ver. 23; c. with Dillmann, that originally ver. 12 stood before vers. 9, 10, thus immediately following ver. 8; d. with Delitzsch, Hengstenberg. etc., that ver. 23 is to be connected closely and immediately with ver. 12, so that thus the following order of thought would be expressed: assuredly wisdom is to be found among the aged, but in reality and in full measure it is to be found only with God, etc. [i.e. with Conant, that the verse is to be rendered interrogatively, on the ground that Job would not appeal to tradition in support of his positions to which Davidson replies that " Job assails tradition only where he has found it false; the friends' much-boasted insight, it is quite in place to refer to the facility any one had for coming in contact with such information; and in xiii. 2, where Job recapitulates xii. 13-25, these two sources of information, sight and hearsay are directly alluded to."-Besides Delitzsch and Hengstenberg, Schlottmann and Merx connect the verse with the preceding. On the contrary Con., Dav., Dillm.. Ren., Good, Wemyss, etc., connect it with the following, and correctly so on account of the strict connection in thought, and especially the resumption of the thought in varying language in ver. 16.-In answer to the objection of abruptness in the transition if ver. 13 be detached from the preceding, Davidson says well that "it is quite in place; the whole chapter and speech is abrupt and passionate." —E.]. First Division: Second Section: An animated description of the exercise of God's wisdom and power, by way of actual proof that he is by no means wanting in the knowledge of God, which Zophar had denied to him: vers. 13-25. [It is possible perhaps to exaggerate this idea that Job his opponents. Something there is of this no in the passage following is consciously emulating doubt, but it must not be forgotten that the description here given of the Divine wisdom and omnipotence is an important part of Job's argument, as tending to show that these attributes so far from being employed by the ends which they had described, are exercised to produce hopeless confusion and ruin in human affairs.-E.]. First double strophe: Vers. 13-18 (consisting of two strophes of 3 verses each). a. Vers. 13-15. [The theme in its most general statement]. Ver. 13. With Him are wisdom and might, His are counsel and discernment. The suffixes in and point back to Jehovah, vers. 9, 10, to whom the whole following description to ver. 25 in general relates. ["With Him, y, him, doubly emphatic (a) in opposition to the just mentioned wisdom of men, ver. 12; (b) with awe-ful omission of Divine name, and significant allusion and intonation in the pronoun." Dav.]. The verse before us forms as it were the theme of this description, which presents Job's own personal confession of faith in respect to the nature and wisdom of God. It is therefore neither an expression of the doctrinal views of a "hoary antiquity," or of the aged sages of ver. 12 (Umbreit) [Ewald, Schlottm.], nor a statement of that which is alone to be esteemed as genuine Divine wisdom, in antithesis to the more imperfect "wisdom of the aged' (Delitzsch, Hengstenberg). There is to be sure a certain progression of thought from ver. 11 on the adaptation to their uses of the organs of hearing and of taste, the wisdom of men of age and experience, and the wisdom of God, transcending all else, and united with the highest power, are related to each other as positive, comparative and superlative. But there is not the slightest intimation of the thought that the absolute wisdom of God casts into the shade those rudiments of itself which are to be found in the sphere of the creature, or would hold them up as utterly worthless. Rather is what is said their good, are in His hand, and constrained to of the same in our verse in some measure the serve His purposes. He thus makes evil, moral fruit, or a specimen of the wisdom of the aged. which Job also claims to possess, as a pupil of and intellectual, subservient to the good: Gen. 1. such aged men. Comp. below Cocceius, in the 20; Ps. xviii. 27. [11 and here are to Homiletical Remarks on ch. xii. 10-13. Of the be understood not so much in the ethical as in four designations of the absolute Divine intelli- the intellectual sense: if a man thinks himself gence here given, which accord with the lan-wise because he is superior to another, and can guage of Is. xi. 2, and the accumulation of which lead him astray, in comparison with God's wisintensifies the expression to the utmost, dom the deceiver is not greater (in understanddenotes that side of God's intelligence which ing) than the deceived; He has them both in "perceives things in the ground of their being, his hand, etc." Dillm.] aud in the reality of their existence" ["the general word and idea comprehensive of all others,' Dav.]. 7 that "which is able to carry out the plans, purposes, and decisions of this universal wisdom against all hindrance and opposition" ["virtus, vir." Dav.];, that "which is never perplexed as to the best way of reaching its purpose;" , that "which can penetrate to the bottom of what is true and false, sound and corrupt, and distinguish between them:" Delitzsch; ["actively force, passively strength, firmne-s:" Dav.] Ver. 17. He leads counsellors away stripped: or "who leads counsellors, etc."-for from this point on to the end of the description (ver. 24) Job speaking of God uses the present participle. The circumstantial accus., which here and in ver. 19 is used in connection with Thi, (and that in the singular, like Di¬y, ch. xxiv. 7, 10), is rendered by the ancient versions "captive," or "chained" (LXX., Targ. on ver. tos), whereas etymologically the signification 19: aixuanrovs; Targ. on ver. 17: catenis vinconly one that is authenticated. The word there"made naked (exutus), violently stripped" is the עָרוֹם וְיָחֵף fore is equivalent to the expression Ver. 14. Lo, He tears down, and it is not built up (again). This is the first example of the irresistible exercise of this absolute might and wisdom of God. Job describes it as directed "naked and barefoot," Is. xx. 4, not to "barefoot above all else to the work of tearing down and alone, as Oehler, Hitzig, Dillmann, etc., destroying, because in his recent mournful exsuppose from comparison with the LXX. in Mic. periences he had been led to know it on this side i. 8. Naturally we are to understand the deof its activity; comp. ch. ix. 5 seq., where inscription here to be of counsellors led away like manner the mention of the destructive acti-stripped as captives taken in war: comp. Is. l. c. vities of the Divine omnipotence precedes that and 2 Chron. xxviii. 15, as also what pertains to of its creative and constructive operation. Whe-Dy, ther there is a reference to Zophar's expression (ch. xi. 10; so Dillmann) is doubtful. He shuts up a man (lit. "He shuts over a man"), and it cannot be opened. The expression ,על "to shut over any one," is to be explained from the fact that use was frequently made of pits, perhaps of cisterns, as prisons. or dungeons: comp. Gen. xxxvii. 24; Jer. xxxviii. 6; Lam. iii. 53. Where this species of incarceration is not intended, 1 is used either with the accus. or with (comp. ch. iii. 10; and 1 Sam. i. 6). Ver. 15. Lo, He restrains the waters, and they dry up (Is. 1. 38); He letteth them forth (again), and they overturn the earth. A remarkable parallel in thought to this description of the operation of the Divine omnipotence in the visible creation, now withdrawing and now giving life, but ever mighty in its agency, may be found in Ps. civ. 29, 30. A reference to Zophar's comparison of past calamity with vanished waters (ch. xi. 16) is scarcely to be recognized. b. Vers. 16-18. [Resumption of the themespecially of the Divine wisdom bringing confusion and humiliation on earth's mightiest]. Ver. 16. With Him are strength and true knowledge (, precisely as in ch. xi. 6). His are the deceived and the deceiver [the erring one, and the one who causes to err]: i. e., His intelligence is so far superior to that of man that alike he who abuses his wisdom in leading others astray, and he who uses it for "counsellors" in ch. iii. 14. And judges He makes fools., as in Isa. xliv. 25, to infatuate, to show to be fools. Such an infatuation of judges as would cause the miliceed directly from them (as in the breaking out tary and political ruin of their country to proof great catastrophes over certain kingdoms, e. g. over Egypt, Is. xix. 17 seq.; over Israel and Judah, 2 Kings xix. 26, etc.), is not necessarily to be assumed here (comp. v. 20), although catastrophes of that character are here especially prominent in the thought of the speaker. Ver. 18. He looses the bond of kings; i. e., He looses the bond, or the fetters, with which kings bind their subjects, He breaks the tyrannical yoke of kings, and brings them rather into bond ge and captivity, or as the second member expresses this thought more in the concrete: He "binds a girdle on their loins." It seems that lit. "girdle," in this second member should accord with D1 in the first. So much the more should the latter be pointed, and be construed as stat. to אָמַר from מאסר =) מוֹסֵר .constr. Comp bind). Of less authority, etymologically, is the interpretation required by the Masoretic punctuation regarded as st. constr. of pip, "discipline, castigatio," although it gives a sense quite nearly related to the preceding, it being presupposed that "discipline" is to be understood in the sense of "rule, authority" (so among the moderns, Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Hahn, Delitzsch [Ges., Carey], etc.). But "discipline" is a dif b. Vers. 22-25. [The Divine energy as especially operative among nations]. ferent conception from "authority," and "ne can very well take for its object pin, fetters, ch. xxxix. 5; Ps. cxvi. 16, but not castigationem.” Ver. 22. [This verse must naturally form the So Dillmann correctly, who also however rightly prelude to the deeper exercise of power and inrejects the interpretation of Ewald, Hirzel, Hei- sight among nations, and its highest generalizaligst., Welte, etc., according to which' tion, comp. 16 b." Dav.].-He discovere th denotes "the fetters, with which kings are deep things out of the darkness, and bound," so that the relation between a and b brings forth to light the shadow of death; would be not that of a logical progression, but | i. e., not: He puts into execution His hidden of direct antithesis, as in ver. 15. [Hengsten- purposes in the destiny of nations" (Schlottm.), berg calls attention to the paronomasia of DN,["for who would call the hidden ground of all Second Double Strophe: Vers. 19-25 (divided into one strophe of three, and one of four verses): [The description continued: the agency of the Divine wisdom in confounding the great of earth]. 66 appearances in God, my!" Dilllm.], but: plans and wickedness of men which are hidden He brings forth into the light all the dark in darkness;" comp. 1 Cor. iv. 5: pwriσel rà PUT TOU OKÓTOUS K. T. 2., and the proverb: "There is nothing spun so fine but all comes to the light;" see also ch. xxiv. 13 seq.; Is. xxix. a. Vers. 19-21. [Special classes of leaders 15; Rom. xiii. 12; 1 Thes. v. 5, etc. [" Deep brought to shame described]. things out of the darkness, nippy, must mean hidden tendencies and principles, e. g., those running under national life, ver. 23, naturally more subtle and multiplex than those governing individual manifestation on however elevated a scale) and darkness, and shadow of death, figures (xi. 8) descriptive of the profoundest secresy. These secret tendencies in national life and thought— never suspected by men who are silently carried on by them-He detects and overmasters either to check or to fulfil." David. A truth" which brings joy to the good, but terror to all the children of darkness (xxiv. 13 seq.), and not without threatening significance even to the friends of Job." Dillmann]. Ver. 19. He leads priests away spoiled (see on ver. 17), and those firmly established He overthrows. "priests," not "princes" (E. V.) In many of the States of antiquity the priests were personages no less important, were indeed even more important and honored than the secular authorities." Dillm. "The juxtaposition of priests and kings here points to the ancient form of priestly rule, as we encounter the same in the person of Jethro and in part also in Melchizedek." Schlott.].-All obfirmly-enduring" [perpetual], which survive the changes of time. Hence the term is applied, e. g. to water which Ver. 23. He makes nations great, and— does not become dry (aquæ perennes), or firmly founded rocks (Jer. xlix. 19; 1. 44), or mighty, destroys them; He spreads nations abroad invincible nations (Jer. v. 15), or, as here, dis-and-causes them to be carried away (or: tinguished and influential persons (Vulg., optimates). [50, “slip, in Piel, overthrow, aptly antithetic [to '." Dav.]. אִיתָנִים jects are called Ver. 20. He takes away the speech of the most eloquent: lit. of "the trusted," of those who have been tried as a people's orators and counsellors; for they are the DN (from 18, to make firm, trustworthy. not from DN to speak, as D. Kimchi thinks, who would explain the word diserti, as though it were punctuated D). On b comp. Hos. iv. 11; and as regards D, "taste, judgment, tact," see 1 Sam. xxv. 33. "carries them away captive," comp. 7, synonymous with an, abducere in servitutem; also 2 Kings xviii. 11). [Rodwell: "then straitens them: leads them, i. e., back into their former borders"]. Instead of the LXX. (^avov) as well as some of the Rabbis read "who infatuates, makes fools." But the first member of the verse corresponds strictly in sense to the second, on which account the Masoretic Ver. 21. He pours contempt on nobles (exactly the same expression as in Ps. cvii. 40), and looses the girdle of the strong, (D'p' lit."containing of great capacity" [Delitzsch: "to hold together, especially to concentrate strength on anything"] only here and ch. xli. 7; i. e., He disables them for the contest (by causing the under-garments to hang down loosely, thus proving a hindrance for conflict; comp. Is. v. 27; also below ch. xxxviii. 3; xl. 7). The transla-signify tion of Delitzsch is altogether too forced, and by consequence insipid: "He pours contempt on the rulers of the state, and makes loose the belt of the mighty." TT | גוים translated "nations," Dy people, for "nin, Inf. absol. as obj. of the verb; comp. ch. ix. 18; and for the signification of, "to plead, to vindicate one's cause against an accusation," comp. Amos v. 10; Isa. xxix. 21; also below ver. 15, ch. xix. 5. pan, to desire, to be inclined, here essentially as in ch. ix. 3. [79 always for in pause]. That passage (ix. 3) certainly stands in some measure in contradiction to this, implying as it does the impossibility of contending with God; it is however a contest of another sort from that which is intended there that he proposes here, a contest not of one arrogantly taking the offensive, but of one driven by necessity to the defensive. is the mass held together by the ties of a common origin, language, and country; Dy, the people bound together by unity of government." Delitzsch]. And makes them wander in a pathless waste: (777 No5, synonymous with - or with comp.ch. xxxviii. 26; and Ewald, & 286, 8). The whole verse, the second member of which recurs verbatim in Ps. cvii. 40 presents an exact Hebrew equivalent for the Latin proverb: quem Deus perdere vult, prius dementat, a proverb on which the history of many a people and kingdom, from the earliest antiquity down to the present, furnishes an actual commentary that may well make the heart tremble. Concerning the catastrophes of historic nationalities in the most ancient times, which the poet here may not improbably have had before his mind, comp. Introd., 6, e. Ver. 4. But ye are (only) forgers of lies.— puts another antithetic sentence ואולם אתם alongside of the first which was introduced by Ds (ver. 3), without however laying any special stress on DA; hence: "and however, but again," etc.; not: "ye however " (Hirzel).— T Ver. 25. They grope in darkness without light and He makes them to wander like a drunken man. Comp. Is. xix. 14, and especially above in ch. v. 13, 14, a similar de- (from 5, "to plaster, to smear, scription by Eliphaz, which Job here seems desirous of surpassing, in order to prove that he is in no wise inferior to Eliphaz in experimental knowledge of the righteous judgments of God, the infinitely Wise and Mighty One. 4. Second Division: First Section: Resolution to appeal to the judicial decision of God, before which the harsh, unloving disposition of the friends will assuredly not be able to maintain itself, but will be put to shame: ch. xiii. 1-12. First Strophe: Vers. 1-6. [Impatience with the friends, and the purpose to appeal to God]. Ver. 1. Behold, mine eye hath seen all (that), mine ear hath heard and perceived all * כָּל-אֵלֶה here equivalent to כל- .for itself that has been here set forth," all that has been stated (from ch. xii. 13 on) in respect to the evidences of the Divine power and wisdom in the life of nature and men. [, dativus commodi, or perhaps only dat. ethicus: and has made it intelligible to itself (sibi); ? of the apprehension accompanying perception." Del.].-On ver. 2 comp. ch. xii. 3, the second member of which is here repeated word for word. T Ver. 3. But I will speak to the Almighty. 66 , but nevertheless," puts that which now follows in emphatic antithesis to the preceding: "notwithstanding that I know all this, I will still," etc. ["Three feelings lie at the back of this antithesis: (1) The folly of longer speaking to the friends. (2) The irrelevancy of all such knowledge as they paraded, and which Job had in abundance. (3) Antagonism to the prayer of Zophar that God would appear-Job desires nothing more nor better-but I, to the Almighty | will I speak." Dav.]. Observe also the significantly accented 'N, I (¿yà μèv), which puts the speaker in definite antithesis to those addressed (DAN, ver. 4, vuɛiç dè), as one who will not follow their advice to make penitent confession of his guilt towards God; who will rather plead against God.—I desire to plead with God. to paste together;" comp. 5, "plaster” Ez. xiii. 10 seq., and Talmudic grease) are lit. "daubers of lies," i. e., inventors of lies, concinfasteners of falsehood," assutores mendacii, as natores s. inventores mendacii; not: "imputers, Stickel, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, etc., explain both against philology and the context (neither ch. xiv. 17 nor Ps. cxix. 69 support this sarcinatores falsi, i. e., inanes, idutilis, as Hupfeld definition); nor again: "deceitful patchers," explains.-Physicians of no value are ye all. are not "patchers" [Con. "botchers"] of vanity," i. e., such as patch toOlsh., Dillm.), [Good, Con., Dav.], but in acgether empty unfounded assertions (Vulg., Ew., cordance with the universal usage of 7: "worthless, useless physicians," medici nihili, miserable quacks, who are incapable of applying heal. [Job calls their false presuppositions to Job's wounds the right medicine to soothe and regarding his guilt p, their vain attempts at a Theodicy and Theory of Providence'." Dav.]. Ver. 5. Oh that ye would be altogether silent-that would be reckoned to you for wisdom.-Comp. Prov. xvii. 28; the Latin proverb: Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses; also the honorable title, "bos mutus," the mute ox. given to Thomas Aquinas during his student life at Paris, by his fellow-students, as well as by his teacher, Albertus Magnus. The jussive, inni, is used in a consecutive sense: "then would it be, prove, pass for;" comp. Ewald, 2 347, a, Gesen., 128, 2. heed to the charges of my lips.-So corVer. 6. Hear now my reproof, and give rectly Hirzel, Dillm, Del., etc., while several other moderns explain: "Hear my defense [Con., E. V., "reasoning"], and attend to the arguments of my lips." As if i could signify anything else than theyyos, correptio (so cor |