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SECOND SERIES OF THE CONTROVERSIAL DISCOURSES.

THE ENTANGLEMENT INCREASING:
CHAPTERS XV-XXI.

I. Eliphaz and Job: XV-XVII.

A.-Eliphaz: God's punitive justice is revealed only against evil-doers.

CHAPTER XV.

1. Recital in the way of rebuke of all in Job's discourses that is perverted, and that bears testimony against his innocence:

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2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the East wind?

3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk?

or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4 Yea, thou castest off fear,

and restrainest prayer before God.

5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity,

and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

8 Hast thou heard the secret of God?

and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

9 What knowest thou that we know not?

what understandest thou, which is not in us?

10 With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away, and what do thy eyes wink at,

13 that thou turnest thy spirit against God,

and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

14 What is man, that he should be clean?

and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15 Behold He putteth no trust in His saints;

yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.

16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

17 I will show thee, hear me ;

and that which I have seen I will declare;

18 which wise men have told

from their fathers-and have not hid it:

19 unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

2. A didactic admonition on the subject of the retributive justice of God in the destiny of the ungodly.

VERSES 20-35.

20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

21 A dreadful sound is in his ears:

in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. 22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?

he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. 24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid;

they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.

25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God,

and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty:

26 he runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers;

27 because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks:

28 and he dwelleth in desolate cities,

and in houses which no man inhabiteth,

which are ready to become heaps.

29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth. 30 He shall not depart out of darkness;

the flame shall dry up his branches,

and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

31 Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity,

for vanity shall be his recompense.

32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,
and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity,
and their belly prepareth deceit.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

This second discourse of Eliphaz is again the longest of the attacks made on Job by his three opponents in this second series or act. Not only by its length, but also by its confident, impassioned tone, it gives evidence of being a deliverance of opinion by the oldest and most distinguished of the three, in short by their leader. Apart from certain indications of increased violence, however, it adds nothing at all that is new to that which had been previously maintained by Eliphaz against Job. Its first principal division (vers. 2-19) subjects that which was erroneous in Job's discourses to the same rigid criticism and censure, which culminates in a renewed and more emphatic application to Job of the doctrine advocated in the former discourse, of the impurity of all before God (vers. 14-19; comp. ch. iv. 17 seq.). The second division (vers. 20-35) is occupied with a prolonged dissertation on the

destiny of the ungodly, as an example repeating itself in accordance with God's righteous decree, and full of warning for Job. The first division comprises three strophes of five verses each, together with a shorter group of three verses (vers. 17-19), which forms the transition to the following division. The latter consists of three strophes, of which the middle one numbers six verses, the first and last each five.

2. First Division: Censuring the perversity of Job in his discourses, and pointing out the evidences which they gave of his gult; vers. 2-19.

First Strophe: Introduction [Job's discourses disprove his wisdom, injure religion, and testify against himself] vers. 2-6.

Ver. 2. Doth a wise man utter [or, answer with] windy knowledge?—Eliphaz begins each one of his three discourses with a question]. Job had clearly enough set himself forth as a Wise Man, ch. xii. 3; xiii 2. Hence this ironical contrast between this self-praise and the "windy" nature (comp. ch. viii. 2; xvi.

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3) of that which he really knew. And fill his breast [sein Inneres, his inward parts] with the stormy East wind?-So Delitzsch, whose translation is to be preferred on the score of taste to the more common and literal version: "and fill his belly with the East wind?" even if we grant that is not, without further qualification, synonymous with, and consequently not to be taken as a mere designation of the 'thinking inner part of man (although in favor of this application of it, as maintained by Delitzsch, we might cite, if not ver. 85 of this chapter, at least ch. xxxii. 18 seq.). In any case “East wind,” is here (as well as in Hos. xii. 2 [1] a stronger synonym of П, wind," and so describes the violence, or the ceaseless noisy bluster and roar of Job's discourses; and the " "belly," or the inward part, which must take into itself such discourses and labor for their refutation, appears as though it were a sail, or tent-canvas inflated by a heavy storm!

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Ver. 3. An explanatory clause subordinate to the preceding interrogative clause:-Arguing with speech which availeth nought, and with words by which one can do no good. —The Inf. Absol. in can be taken neither as an interrogative finite verb (Hirzel, Renan: se defend il-par des vaines paroles? [" for though the Inf. Absol. is so used in a historical clause (ch. xv. 35) it is not in interrogative." Del.]), nor as the subject (Ewald: "to reprove with words profiteth not," etc.—as if this useless striving with words were opposed to a more efficient contention by the use of facts) [which yields indeed, as Dillmann remarks, a good meaning, to wit, that mere words availed nothing for self-justification, when opposed by facts, as e. g. the fact of his suffering, which was presumptive evidence against him. But such a contrast is not expressed. The of ver. 4 does not at all express it]. Rather is it joined to the preceding finite verbs in the sense of an ablative gerund (redarguendo s. disputando); comp. Ewald, 280, a.

most vital points.-E.]. In regard to the form [with feminine ending] see ch. iii. 4.— detrahere, to derogate from, to prejudice [Fürst: to weaken, to lessen]; comp. below ver. 8, where it conveys more the sense of " drawing to one's-self" [reserving, attrahere], and ch. Xxxvi. 7, where it means "withdrawing."

Ver. 5. For thy transgression teaches thy mouth: i. e., thou allowest thyself to be wholly influenced in what thou sayest by thy sin, thou showest thyself, even in thy words, to be entirely ruled by it. So correctly the Vulg., Raschi, Luther, Dillm. [Ewald, Schlottm.], for the probability is in favor of , which stands first, being the subject of the sentence. Moreover, the rendering which has latterly become current (since Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, etc.): "thy mouth teaches, i. e., exposes [E. V. ‹ ' uttereth'] thine iniquity," is at variance with the usual sense of , which signifies “to teach, to instruct," not "to show, to declare." [To which Schlottmann adds that this rendering secures a better connection between the first and second members of the verse. It exhibits to us "in a manner alike original and suitable, the internal motive from which Job's presumptuous and still crafty discourses proceed "].-And thou choosest the speech [lit. the tongue] of the crafty: (essentially as in ch. v. 12) i. e., thou doest as crafty offenders do, who, when accused, hypocritically set themselves forth as innocent, and indeed even take the offensive against their accusers, (as Job did in ch. xiii. 4 seq.). ["The perverse heart teaches the guilty same time so to arrange his words that in apman presumptuously to assail God, and at the pearance he is filled with the greatest zeal for the piety which he really undermines." Schlott.] nant, Carey], etc." The rendering of Rosenm., Hirzel [Noyes, Co"while thou (although thou) choosest, etc." is less satisfactory, and goes with the rendering of the first member, which is controverted above.

Ver. 6. Thy mouth condemns thee (see ch. ix. 20) and not I, and thy lips testify against thee.--The mouth is here personified as a judge pronouncing an unfavorable decision, declaring one guilty, while at the same time the lips figure as witnesses, or accusers (2, a voz forensis; for the masc. after the fem.

comp. Prov. v. 2; xxvi. 23). Comp. still further the New Testament parallel passage, Matth. xii. 37. ["These words, according to Eliphaz's meaning, place Job's guilt not merely in his words, but rather set forth these as confirming the sinful actions, which he is assumed to have committed on account of the sufferings which have been appointed for him." Schlott.].

Ver. 4. Yea more, thou [thyself] dost make void the fear of God., a strong copula, adding a new and more serious charge, like the phrase "over and above;" comp. ch. xiv. 3. [, emphatic-"even thou,' "who dost fancy thyself to be called on to remind us of the fear of God, ch. xiii. 9 seq.], absolute, as in ch. iv. 6; 7, "to remove, make void," as in ch. v. 12 [lit. to break, destroy: Rodwell: "thou dost break down piety"].And diminishest (devout) meditation be fore God, according to Ps. cii. 1; cxix. 97, 99, the same with "devotion, pious prayerful reflection" [should not therefore be rendered "prayer," although prayer is a prominent element in it. It includes the whole meditative side of piety, that over which a sanc-gated to himself]. tified sentiment rules, as 7 includes the prac- Ver. 7. Wast thou born as the first man? tical side, over which conscience rules. Eliphaz is the original form, which apcharges therefore that the tendency of Job's speech and conduct is to undermine piety in its most important strongholds, to injure it in its

Second Strophe: Vers. 7-11. [Ironical questioning in regard to the extraordinary superiority which Job's conduct implied that he arro

pears again in Josh. xxi. 10, and is retained by the Samaritans; 7, instead of which we

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have in ch. viii. 8 1, which has passed into | lxxxix. 8 [7]. [“ Here God is represented in Origeneral use, and is hence chosen by the K'ri." ental language as seated in a divan, or council Dillm.] in the constr. st followed by the collec- of state, . . . and El. asks of Job whether he had tive D; hence lit. "as first of men.-Delitzsch been admitted to that council" Barnes.]-And dost thou keep back wisdom to thyself? takes D as predicate nominative: "wast thou Пn without the article, denoting the absolute as the first one born as a man?" a rendering which is altogether too artificial. The question divine wisdom; comp. ch. xi. 6; xii. 2; Prov. presupposes that the first-created man, by virtue viii. 1 seq. In regard to y, see above on ver. of his having proceeded immediately from God's 4. [Gesenius: "Dost thou reserve all wisdom hand, possessed the deepest insight into the mys- to thyself?" like the Arabic, to absorb, drink Fürst: "to snatch away: hast thou purteries of the Divine process of creation. Comp. up. the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalists, the Kajo- loined wisdom to thyself? i. e. captured it as a morts of the Avesta (πproc åvрwo of the booty."] The representation of the First Man, Manicheans), the Manu (i. e, "the thinking endowed with the highest wisdom, a witness of God's activity in creating and ordering the one") of the Brahmanic legends of creation as well as the ironical proverb of the Hindûs: world, still lies at the bottom of these questions. "Aye, aye, he is the first man, no wonder he is Comp. God's questions at a later period to Job: ch. xxxviii. 3 seq. so wise!" (Roberts, Oriental Illustrations, p. 276). "Eliphaz evidently gives in these two verses the conception of a First Man, (like the Manu of the Hindus), possessed as such of the highest wisdom, a being who before the foundations of the earth were laid, was present, a listener, as it were, to the deliberations concerning creation in the council of God, and thus a partaker at least of creative wisdom (ch. xxviii. 23 Ver. 10. Both the gray-headed and the or: "also seq), without being identified with the Divine aged [hoary] are among us; .” Dillm. 46 Many erroneously understand among us are the gray-headed, are the aged;" this expression as signifying simply the greatest for the D2 is inverted, as in ch. ii. 10, and as in antiquity, so that the sense would be: dost thou the parallel passages there cited. is equivacombine in thyself the wisdom of all the centu-lent to: "in our generation, in our race." ries, from the creation of the world on? This conception would be unsuitable for the reason that it would have no reality corresponding to it, the first man being conceived of as dead long since." Schlott.] And wast thou brought forth before the hills?-in, passive of

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"to whirl" [hence to writhe, be in pain, travail], Ps. xc. 2.-Precisely the same expression occurs in Prov. viii. 25 b, an utterance of God's Eternal Wisdom, which is doubtless an intentional allusion to this passage. [So also Delitzsch. Schlottmann, on the contrary, thinks it indisputable that this passage contains an allusion, if not to the passage in Proverbs, then to an original source common to both, so that

the sense would be: "art thou the essential Di

vine Wisdom itself, through which God created
the world?" The verse thus furnishes a preg-
nant and energetic progression of thought and
expression. "Being born before the hills," and
"sitting in God's council," could not be taken as
accidentia sine subjecto, which without having a
real substratum, are sarcastically predicated of
Job, but they must be regarded as inhering in a
definite subject, with which Job is now com-
pared, as immediately before he was compared
with the first man; and this makes it necessary
that we should think of the ante-mundane Wis-
dom described in Prov. viii., which from an early
period was brought into special relation to the
first man. Ewald accordingly paraphrases vers.
7, 8: "Thou, who wouldest be wiser than all
other men,
dost thou stand perchance at the head
of humanity, like the Logos, the first alike in age,
and in worth and nearness to God?"]

Ver. 8. Didst thou listen in the council of Eloah ?—, as in Jer. xxiii. 18; comp. Ps.

["Having obtained the secret of that council, art thou now keeping it wholly to thyself as a prime minister might be supposed to keep the purposes resolved on in the divan?" Barnes]

On ver. 9 comp. ch. xii. 3; xiii. 2, to which self-conscious utterances of Job Eliphaz here replies.

We

are to think, on the one side, of Job's appeal to
the aged men, to whom he owed his wisdom, ch.
xii. 12; on the other side, of the proverbial
wisdom of the "sons of the East," to whom the
three friends as well as Job belonged (1 Kings
iv. 30), especially that of the Temanites; see
above on ch. ii. 11. The supposition of Ewald,
Hirzel, Dillmann, etc., that Eliphaz, “in modestly
concealed Janguage," referred to himself, as the
most aged of the three, has but little probability,
for the statement:
"there is also among us
(three) a gray-headed, an aged man," would in
the mouth of El. himself have in it something
exceedingly forced, if he had thereby meant
himself; and the collective use of the sing.
and

presents not the slightest grammatical difficulty. Still further, if El. had (according to b) declared himself "more abundant in days than Job's father," he would have said of himself that which would have been simply mon

strous.

The correct explanation is given among the moderns by Rosenm., Arnheim, Umbreit, Delitzsch. ["It will be seen (infra xviii. 3) that

in the discussion carried on between Job and

his friends, he is not always regarded as a single individual, but rather as the representative of the party whose views he holds, that of the philosophers, namely, who wish to understand and account for everything; while his friends, as the contrary, represent the orthodox party, whose principle it is to declare everything that comes from God good and right, whether it be comprehensible or incomprehensible to the

human intellect.

in בְּעֵינֵיכֶם Hence the plural

your eyes, used by Bildad (though speaking to Job alone), in the chapter alluded to, i. e. in the eyes of you philosophers. In like manner, in

the verse before us El. says: Both gray-headed iv. 18, and hence used of the angels [see on ch.
and very aged men are amongst us. Amongst
us orthodox people." Bernard.]

Ver. 11. Are the consolations of God

(comp. ch. xxi. 2) too little for thee (lit. are they less than thee-comp. Num. xvi. 9; Is. vii. 13)? [The irony of the question is severe: Too little for thee are the consolations of God? The words reveal at the same time the narrow selfcomplacency of the speaker, the consolations of God being such as he and the friends had sought to administer, for which El., however, claims a Divine value and efficacy.-E.], and a word so gentle with thee? i. e. a word which, like my former discourse, dealt with thee so tenderly and gently. On N, elsewhere DN, lit. "for softness," i. e. softly, gently [e. g. Is. viii. 6 of the soft murmur and gentle flow of Siloah], comp. Ew. 8 217, d; % 243, c. Eliphaz here identifies his former address to Job with a consolation and admonition proceeding from God himself; as in fact in delivering the same (see ch. iv. 12 seq.), he ascribed the principal contents of it to a Divine communication. In regard to the gentleness which he here claims for that former discourse, comp. especially ch. iv. 2: v. 8. 17 seq.

Third Strophe: vers. 12-16. [Severe rebuke of Job's presumptuous discontent, founded on man's extreme sinfulness.]

Ver. 12. Why does thy heart carry thee away? np, auferre, abripere. [ here for deep inward agitation, excitement of feeling (Delitzsch: "wounded pride"). Why dost thou allow the stormy discontent of thy bosom to transport thee beyond thyself?-E.]-And why twinkle thine eyes? Di, åπ. λɛy: Aram. and Arab. 1, "to wink, to blink," said here of the angry, excited snapping, or rolling of the eyes [referring, according to Renan, to such a manifestation of angry impatience with the hypocrisy of El. at this point of his discourse; and similarly Noyes: "why this winking of thine eyes?"]. Comp. Cant. vi. 5 (according to the correct interpretation, see my remarks on the passage).

v. 1].—And the heavens are not pure in
xlix. 13 (comp. Luke xv. 18, 21; Matt. xxi. 25),
His eyes. Dip is neither here, nor in Is.
to be taken as a synonym of D', or of

Targ. ), as many commentators) אַנְגְלֵי מְרוֹמָא

explain from the Targumists down to Hirzel, Heiligst., Welte [Schlott., Carey, Ren.], etc. Rather, as the parallel passage in ch. xxv. 5 incontestably shows, it designates the starry heavens, which are here contemplated in respect of their pure brilliancy, and their physical elevation above the impure earthly sphere. So cor["In rectly Umbreit, Delitzsch, Dillmann. comparison with the all-transcending holiness and purity of God, the creatures which ethically and physically are the purest, are impure. How in the representations of antiquity ethical and physical purity and impurity are throughout used interchangeably is well enough known." Dillmann.] The angels are indeed regarded as inhabiting the heavenly spheres, as is indisputably proved by the phrase D'DWN NAY (1 Kings xxii. 19; Is. xxiv. 21; Ps. cxlviii. 2; comp. Gen. ii. 1), and the fact that the Holy Scriptures everywhere speak of angels and the starry heavens together. Comp. Del. on this passage and on Gen. ii. 1; Hengstenberg; Ewald, K.-Ztg., 1869; Preface, No. 3, 4; Zöckler: Die Urgeschichte der Erde und des Menschen (1868), p. 12 seq.; also below, on ch. xxxviii. 7.

Ver. 16.

Much less then (?, quanto

minus, like above in ch. iv. 19) the abominable and corrupt (, lit. soured, one corrupted by the Chun Kakiaç, 1 Cor. v. 8, one "thoroughly corrupted,' Del.), the man who drinks iniquity like water, i. e. who is as eager to do iniquity, shows as much avidity for sin, as a thirsty man pants for water; comp. the repetition of this same figure by Elihu, also Ps. lxxiii. 10; Prov. xxvi. 6; Sir. xxiv. 21. The whole description relates to the moral corruption of mankind generally, of which Eliphaz intentionally holds up before Job "a more Ver. 13. Depending on the preceding verse: hideous picture" (according to Oetinger) than That thou turnest against God thy snort- the latter himself had given in ch. xiv. 4, ing. here meaning angry breathing, dvμóc because he has in view the impurity, ill-desert, ["thus expressed because it manifests itself in still further what he says ch. v. 7 on the sparkand need of repentance of Job himself. Comp. Tvéεw (Acts ix. 1), and has its rise in the velike proneness of man to sin and its penalty. (Eccl. vii. 9)." Delitzsch], as in Judg. viii. 3; Prov. xvi. 32; Is. xxv. 4; comp. above Job iv. 9.-And sendest forth words out of thy mouth? (comp. ch. iv. 2) as parallel with can mean here only vehement, intem-17), listen to me, and that which I have perate speaking, passionate words, not empty speaking, as Kamphn. explains it.

Ver. 14 repeats the principal proposition of Eliphaz in his former discourse (ch. iv. 17-20), with an accompanying reminder of Job's confession in ch. xiv. 4, which was in substantial harmony therewith. On comp ch.

xiv. 1.

T'

:

Ver. 15. Behold, in His holy ones He puts no trust. D', the same as D`77y', ch.

Fourth Strophe: vers. 17-19. Transition to the didactic discourse which follows in the form

of a captatio benevolentiæ.

Ver. 17. I will inform thee (comp. ch. xiii.

seen will I relate.— is neuter, as in Gen.

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vi. 15, or like above in ch. xiii. 16, and 'n is a relative clause; comp. Ges. 122 [3 120], 2- needs not (with Schlottm.) be understood in the sense of an ecstatic vision, of the prophetic sort, seeing that in ch. viii. 17; xxiii. 9; xxiv. 1; xxvii. 12, etc., it denotes also the knowledge or experience of sensible things. Moreover, as ver. 18 shows, Eliphaz makes a very de

finite distinction between that which is now to be communicated and a Divine revelation of

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