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(in opposition to a familiar application of the theory of retribution set forth in the Law, Ex. xx. 5; Deut. xxiv. 16, an application controverted also by Jeremiah and Ezekiel), that God punishes with justice only where He exacts expiation of the evil-doer himself, and not of his children after him. The consequence that God does not punish where He ought to punish, is but a short remove from this proposition, which is accordingly easily liable to the reproach of speaking unbecomingly of God. The judgment of Job accordingly in the present discourse concerning God and His dealings with men's destinies is the less pure and correct in so far as it in no wise distinguishes between the God of the present, and the God of the future, as we find him doing in ch. xix. 25seq. For this reason, and because the sufferer begins anew to yield to the pressure of his outward and inward sufferings, the hope of a blessed future in the life beyond, which had previously irradiated his misery, is completely obscured.

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HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 6. ZEYSS: Because reason caunot comprehend the mystery of affliction, and why God often deals so severely with His children, it comes to pass that even in pious hearts mournful thoughts frequently spring up, and they tremble in their great sorrow; Ps. xxxvii. 1; lxxiii. 12; Jer. xii. 1, etc.-v. GERLACH: Doubts touching the rectitude of God's government of the world, have in them that which makes our inmost feelings quiver; the thought makes all the foundations of human existence quake. Ver. 7 seq. SEB. SCHMIDT: The happiness of the ungodly is described; and it is shown that they are happy (1) in themselves-ver. 7; (2) in their children-ver. 8; (3) in their housesver. 9; (4) in their cattle-ver. 10; (5) in their flocks-ver. 11: (6) in a life which is joyous and merry-ver. 12; (7) in a death which at the last 3. Notwithstanding this partial obscuration is not sad-ver. 13. WOHLFARTH: What must of his spiritual horizon, Job in the discourse be- we bear in mind, in order that we may not err as fore us utters much that is beautiful, profoundly to God and virtue, when we see the ungodly true, and heart-stirring. The first discourse prosperous, the godly afflicted? If Job recoiled pronounced by Job after the inspired pæan of from such a sight, who can blame him, a sufferer hope in ch. xix. 25 seq., there may be discerned sorely tried, and with but imperfect knowledge in it a certain hallowing influence thence pro- of God? But a Christian can and will guard ceeding, which justifies in a measure the remark himself against such doubts; for he knows that of Sanctius on that passage: "From this point according to God's sovereign decree outward on to the end of the book Job is not the same prosperity has often no relation to a man's as he has been heretofore." His description of moral worth; that the good things of this world the success and abounding prosperity of the un- will not long make man happy, and that without godly, by its many points of contact with simia peaceful conscience happiness in this earth is lar moral pictures, such as Ps. xxxvii.; Ps. impossible; that frequently the earthly prosperlxxiii.; Jer. xii. 1 seq.; Hab. i. 18 seq.; Eccles. ity which the wicked enjoy is the means of their vii., etc., commends itself as being perfectly true, punishment; that the place of retribution is not and derived from life. Especially does the cir- yet in this world; and that God, whose counsels cumstance that in his observation of the pros- we cannot penetrate, will notwithstanding asperity of the wicked he shows himself continu-suredly compensate pious sufferers for their ally inclined to restrain himself within the earthly losses. bounds of modesty, and the limitations prescribed by the contemplation of the unsearcha ble operations of God, give him an indisputable advantage over the description of his opponents (and especially of his immediate predecessor Zophar), which is one-sided in the opposite direction, and for that very reason less true. "The speeches of Zophar and of Job are both true and false, both one-sided, and therefore mutually supplementary. If, however, we consider further, that Job is not able to deny the occurrence Ver. 27 seq. STARKE (after Osiander and the of such examples of punishment, such revela-Tübingen Bible): The ungodly are often higniy tions of the retributive justice of God, as those exalted in order that afterwards their fall may which Zophar represents as occurring regularly be so much the greater. Although in this world, and without exception; that, however, on the occupying high places, they do evil without terother hand, exceptional instances undeniably doror, and are punished by nobody, there will exist, and the friends are obliged to be blind to come nevertheless a day of judgment, when their them, because otherwise the whole structure of wickedness will be brought to view, and before their opposition would fall in,—it is manifest ❘ all the world they will be put to shame.

Ver. 22 seq. STARKE: In holy fear we should wonder at God's judgments; but we should by no means sit in judgment upon them, nor inquire after the reason of His conduct; Is. xlv. 9. V. GERLACH: The righteous and the ungodly have both their various destinies, but these have nothing to do with their position before God; there lies another mystery behind which our short-sighted speeches and thoughts cannot unveil.

THIRD SERIES OF CONTROVERSIAL DISCOURSES.

THE ENTANGLEMENT REACHING ITS EXTREME POINT.

CHAPTERS XXII-XXVIII.

I. Eliphaz and Job: Chapter XXII-XXIV.

-Eliphaz: Reiterated accusation of Job, from whose severe sufferings it must of necessity be inferred that he had sinned grievously, and

needed to repent:

CHAP. XXII. 1-20.

1. The charge made openly that Job is a great sinner:

VERS. 1-10.

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 Can a man be profitable unto God,

as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? or is it gain to Him that thou makest thy ways perfect?

4 Will He reprove thee for fear of thee?

will He enter with thee unto judgment?

5 Is not thy wickedness great?

and thine iniquities infinite?

6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,

and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth :

and the honorable man dwelt in it.

9 Thou hast sent widows away empty,

and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

10 Therefore snares are round about thee,

and sudden fear troubleth thee.

2. Earnest warning not to incur yet severer punishments:

VERSES 11-20.

11 Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.

12 Is not God in the height of heaven?

and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

13 And thou sayest, How doth God know?

can He judge through the dark cloud?

14 Thick clouds are a covering to Him, that He seeth not; and He walketh in the circuit of heaven.

15 Hast thou marked the old way,

which wicked men have trodden?

16 Which were cut down out of time,

whose foundation was overflown with a flood;

17 which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?

18 Yet He filled their houses with good things: bit the counsel of the wicked is far from me

19 The righteous see it, and are glad

and the innocent laugh them to scorn:

20" Whereas our substance is not cut down,

but the remnaut of them the fire consumeth."

3. Admonition to repent, accompanied by the announcement of the certain restoration of his prosperity to him when penitent :

VERSES 21-30.

21 Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth,

and lay up His words in thine heart.

23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust,

and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.

25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence,

and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty,

and shalt lift up thy face unto God.

27 Thou shalt make.thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee,

and thou shalt pay thy vows.

28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee:

and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up;
and He shall save the humble person.

30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent;
and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

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1. Without controverting Job's position in ch. xxi., that the present life furnishes numerous examples of the prosperity of the ungodly, and of calamity to the pious, but at the same time without abandoning in the slightest degree his former argument in favor of an external doctrine of retribution, Eliphaz adheres to his assumption that the cause of Job's calamities and misery could lie only in sins of a grievous character (vers. 2-10), with which he now proaches him particularly and in detail (vers. 6-9),-sins of arrogance, of cruelty, and of injustice towards his neighbor. Then follows an earnest warning against pursuing any further his unholy thoughts and speeches, as otherwise his final doom, like that of all the wicked from the earliest times must be a terrible one (vers. 11-20)-a position indeed which Job also might urge to prove the alleged injustice of God's treatment of him. To this sharp warning succeeds a conciliatory invitation to repent and to return to God, and to enter into possession of the blessings promised by God to the penitent, the whole discourse having a conclusion similar to that of the first discourse of Eliphaz (vers. 21-30) This third and last discourse of Eliphaz falls into three divisions, exactly equal in length, and each of these embraces two strophes substan

tially equal in length, consisting of five verses each (the first, however, only of four).

2. First Division, or Double Strophe: the accusation: vers. 2-10.

First Strophe: vers. 2-5: Four interrogative sentences, which taken together exhibit a wellconstructed syllogism, of which the first two questions (vers. 2, 3) constitute the major premise, the third (ver. 4) the minor, the fourth (ver. 5) the conclusion. The major premise expresses the thought: The cause of Job's misery cannot lie in God, the All-sufficient One, to whom the conduct of men, whether good or evil, (wise or unwise) matters nothing. The minor premise affirms that the penalty which Job was enduring could not have been brought upon him by his piety. From this he draws a conclusion unfavorable to Job's moral character. man [, "a great man, a hero, etc.; man in short considered in his best estate;" Carey] profitable unto God? Nay, the intelligent man is profitable unto himself. The question, with its negative force, and the negative follow each other immediately, the latter introduced by '? in the sense of "nay, rather" [Conant: "for;" E. V. Wemyss, Elzas, less suitably; "as," regarding the second clause as a part of the question]. The meaning is: God, the absolutely Blessed One, who has everything and needs nothing, receives no advantage from

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constitute, in the opinion of the speaker, the probable reason why Job, who was once rich and honored, had fallen so low, and been made

to suffer the Divine chastisement.

Ver. 6. For thou didst distrain thy brethren without cause-i. e., without being in thy superfluity under any necessity of doing so (Hirzel). The brethren are naturally the next of kin, fellow-clansmen, not specially brethren

man's conduct, whether it be thus or so, whether | narily associated with riches and power, must he act unwisely, (i. e. wickedly, Ps. xiv. 2 [1], or intelligently (i. e. piously, righteously); so that accordingly if the latter is the case, man cares only for his own well-being. In regard to 3D, lit. "to dwell beside one another, to become one's neighbor," and hence "to assist one another, to be serviceable, to be profitable," comp. above on ch. xv. 3; also xxxv. 3. The pathetic plural form hy, with the signification of the singular, y, as in ch. xx. 28. [The use of hy in the second member, instead of as in the first, is one of the Aramaisms, "which poetry gladly adopts" (Del.). Comp. Ps. xvi. 6].

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we אַחִין If instead of

in the more literal sense. should with many MSS. and Editions (so also Bähr and Delitzsch) read, this singular form, "thy brother," would nevertheless require to be understood as a collective, as the second Ver. 3. Is it an advantage to the Al- member shows. And the clothes of the mighty, if thou art righteous? en [lit. naked thou didst strip off.—By D'p11y we "pleasure"] means here, as the parallely in are to understand, of course, not those who are the second member shows, "interest, gain, absolutely naked, but those who are scantily advantage," as in ch. xxi. 21. Or a gain, if clothed, the half-naked poor, as in Isa. xx 2; thou behavest blamelessly? lit. "if thou John xxi. 7; James ii. 15 (comp. also SENECA, makest thy ways blameless" [or perfect"] De Beneficis, v. 13: si quis male vestitutum et pan(DAA, imperf. Hiph. of DD, with the [Arami-naked" ones by distraint of their last piece of nosům videt, nudum se vidisse dicit). To strip such zing] doubling of the first radical; comp. Gesen. apparel is forbidden not only by the law of Moses 2 66, Rem. 8), si integras facias vias tuas. The (Ex. xxii. 25 seq.; Deut. xxiv. 6, 10 seq.), but also meaning of the whole question is: God gets no by the sentiment of universal humanity. The same profit from men's righteousness; consequently may be said of the proofs of cruelty enumerated the motives which determine him to inflict suf- in the following verse [ver. 7: Thou gavest ferings on men are neither selfish, nor arbitrary. no water to the fainting to drink, and Ver. 4. Will He because of thy godli-thou didst refuse bread to the hungry]; ness [lit. "fear, godly fear"] chastise thee, comp. Isa lviii. 10, and for the opposite course enter into judgment with thee? That is: Matt. x. 42. if now then the cause of such a calamity as has Ver. 8. And the man of the fist (absolute befallen thee lies in thyself, can it be thy piety case)-his was the land, and the honored for which God punishes thee? Hirzel interprets one was to dwell therein!-That is to say, 78 to mean: "from fear of thee," the suf- according to the insolent, selfish, grasping views fix expressing the genit. of the object against and principles which Eliphaz imputes to Job. the context, which requires a meaning antithetic The "man of the arm,' or "of the fist" tony, ver. 5. [Hirzel's explanation is the one), i. e., the powerful and violent man, adopted also by Bernard, Wemyss, Carey, Renan, Rodwell, Elzas]. The meaning: "godly fear, piety" is all the more firmly established for by the fact that Eliphaz has already used this same word twice in this emphatic sense: chap. iv. 6 and chap. xv. 4 ["a genuine Eliphazian word, in accordance with the poet's method of assigning favorite words and habits to his speakers." EWALD].

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Ver. 5. The conclusion, expressed in the interrogative form, like the preceding propositions in the syllogism. Is not thy wickedness great, and no end of thy transgressions ?-Thus strongly does Eliphaz accuse Job here; for, entangled in legalism, he thinks that if the impossibility that God should cause the innocent to suffer be once for all firmly held, then, from the severity of the sufferings inflicted on any one, we may argue the greatness of the transgressions which are thus punished,-a piece of bad logic, seeing that it entirely overlooks the intermediate possibility which lies between those two ex. tremes, that God may inflict suffering on such as are friends indeed, but not yet perfected in their piety, with a view to their trial or purification.

Second Strophe: Vers. 6-10. Enumeration of a series of sins, which, seeing that they are ordi

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as well as "the honored man" (D, as in
Isa. iii. 3; ix. 14), is none other than Job him-
self, the proud, rich Emir, who, as Eliphaz ma
liciously conjectures, had driven away many of
the poor and helpless from house and home, in
order to seize upon the land far and wide for
himself. According to the assumption that both
expressions referred to another than Job, whom
the latter had favored in his course of self-ag-
grandizement (Rosenmüller, Umbreit, Hahn
[Noyes, Wemyss, Renan, Elzas-who translates:
"As if the land belonged to the man of power
alone; as if only the man of rank may dwell
therein"]), the strong sense of the pass ge is
needlessly weakened. That Job is not immedi-
ately addressed here, as in the verse just pre-
ceding, and again in the verse following, is to he
explained by the vivid objectivizing tendency of
the description.

Ver. 9. Widows thou didst send away empty-when they came to thee as suppliants; and the arms of the orphans were broken-in consequence, namely, of the treatment which such needy and helpless ones were wont to receive from thee and those like thee. The discourse here assumes the objective generalizing tone, for the reason that Eliphaz is sen

sible that the concrete proofs of the charge which rather than as an independent subject, followed he would be able to produce out of Job's former by a relative clause: "darkness, that thou canst history would be all too few! The "arms of the not see" (E. V., Umbreit, Noyes, Con., Lee, orphans" is a figurative expression describing | Renan, Rodwell, etc.).—E.] not their appeal for help, but all their powers and rights, all upon which they could depend for support. The same phrase--occurs also in Psalm xxxvii. 17; Ezek. xxx. 22. For the "arms" as the symbol of strength, power, comp. ch. xl. 9; Psalm 1xxvii. 16 [15]; lxxxiii. 9 [8].

Ver. 10. Therefore snares are round about thee (a figure descriptive of destruction as besetting him around; comp. ch. xviii. 8-10), and terror suddenly comes upon [or affrights] thee (comp. Prov. iii. 25)-i. e., sudden deadly anguish, terror in view of thy approaching complete destruction, overpowers thee time after time. Comp. the similar description above in Bildad's discourse, ch. xviii. 11. ["To be noted is the frequent paronomasia of 5 and M." SCHLOTT.].

3. Second Division, or Double Strophe: the warning. If Job should presumptuously cast doubt on the Divine righteousness, and thereby make himself partaker of the sins of those in the primeval world who insolently denied God, he would draw down on himself the Divine judgment which had been ordained for those guilty of such wickedness, and which would without fail overtake them, however long and securely they might seem to enjoy their prosperity: vers. 11-20.

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Third Strophe: vers. 11-15. Or seest thou not the darkness, and the flood of waters. which covereth thee?-That is, dost thou not then perceive in what destruction thou art already involved, and that in punishment for thy sins? "Darkness" and the "flood of waters (the multitudinous heaving of waters, y as in Is. lx. 6) are here, as also in ch. xxvii. 20, a figure not of the sins of Job (Hahn), but of the night of suffering and of the deep misery, which, as Eliphaz thinks, had come upon him in consequence of his sins. is a relative clause, and logically belongs also to n; comp. Is. lx. 2. In mentioning darkness and a flood as bursting on Job, he has reference to the catastrophe of the deluge, which in the following verses he proceeds to hold up as a warning picture of terror (ver. 16). The whole verse forms a suitable transition from the accu

Ver. 12. Is not Eloah the height of heaven? i. e. the heaven-high, infinitely exalted One (comp. ch. xi. 8; [in view of which passage, says Schlottmann, the construction of D n as Accus. loci: "in the height of heaven," is less probable than the construction as predicate]).-And see now the head of the stars (i. e. the highest of the stars, D' gen. partitivus) how high they are!"how," or also "that," as in Gen. xlix. 15; 1 Sam. xiv. 29. The plural 17 [by attraction] as in ch. xxi. 21; comp. Ewald, 817, c. The whole verse, in this reference to the Divine greatness and exaltation, beginning as a question, and passing over into a challenge, has for its object the vindication of Him who is above the world, and above man, against every thought which would limit His knowlege, or cast any suspicion on the perfect justice of His ways.

Ver. 13 seq. The doubt expressed by Job touching the justice of God in administering the affairs of the world is here interpreted by Eliphaz as a denial that God has any knowledge of earthly things, or feels any special concern in what happens to men. He therefore reproaches him with holding that erroneous, and almost atheistical conception of the Deity, which has since been advanced by the Epicureans (see e. g. Lucretius III. 640 seq.), and more recently by the English Deists. ["Eliphaz here attributes to Job, who in ch. xxi. 22 had appealed to the exaltation of God in opposition to the friends, a complete misconception of the truth, and thus skilfully turns against Job himself the weapon which the latter had just sought to wrest from him." Schlottmann]. And so thou thinkest what should God know?) will He judge (literally sayest") what knows God? (or: through (2 as in Gen. xxvi. 8; Joel ii. 9) the darkness of the clouds ?—i. e. judge us men on this lower earth, from which He, covered by the clouds, is wholly separated and shut off.

Ver. 14 continues this symbolical description of this total separation of God from the world: Clouds are a covering to Him, so that He sees not (comp. Lam. iii. 44), and He walks upon the vault (or "circle," Prov. viii. 27;

earthly world, which is too small and insignificant for Him. Similar expressions of unbelief touching God's special concern for the affairs of earth may be found e. g. in Ps. lxxiii. 11; xciv.

sation in the preceding section to the warnings. xl. 22) of the heaven-not therefore on this which now follows. [By the majority of versions and commentators ver. 11 is joined immediately to the verse preceding, as its continuation. There is certainly a close connection between the two. But that Zöckler (af er D 11-7; Is. xxix. 15; Ezek. viii. 12. mann) is correct in regarding ver. 11 as transitional to what follows, and so introducing the next strophe, is favored both by the use of the disjunctive rather than, and by the evident anticipation of ver. 16 in the D-y. This view requires the construction of n as the "seest thou not the darkness?" (Ewald, Schlottm., Dillm., Delitzsch),

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Ver. 15. Wilt thou keep in the path of the old world? (, to observe, follow, as in Ps. xviii. 22 [not "hast thou marked"? E. V. against which is the fut. D, and the connection] and Diy, as in Jer. vi. 16; xviii. 15), which the men of wickedness trod? i. e. insolent, ungodly and wicked men, as they are described in the following verses, both as to their arrogant deeds, and their righteous pun

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