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will at the last terminate the course of the wicked (vers. 18-21, 24), qualifies the preceding accusation against the divine justice. Even this however is by no means a surrender to the doctrine of a retribution in this life, as taught by the friends. The chief emphasis even in this passage rests rather on the long delay (♫ ver. 22 a) in interposing for such punishment, on the long duration of their impunity from punishment, or even on the not uncommon prolongation of this state down to their natural death, to which they are subject in common with all men (ver. 24; see on the ver.). Job here certainly concedes something to his opponents, essentially however not much more than he had conceded already in ch. xxi. where (ver. 17 seq. ; 23 seq.) without denying the fact of the final punishment of the ungodly, he had represented it as much more commonly the case that they were spared any judicial inflictions down to the end of their life. The triumphant exclamation with which he ends his speech: "who will convict me of falsehood?" is intended simply to confirm this fact of experience, in accordance with which this impunitas hominum sceleratorum is the general rule, whereas their justa punitio is the exception, at least in this world.

him drain his cup of suffering to the dregs (ch. | one-sided in its tendency, he changes his tone xxiii. 13 seq.). ["Job's suspicion against God somewhat to be sure, and by strongly emphasizis as dreadful as it is childish. This is a pro-ing the certainty that a rigid judgment of God foundly tragic stroke. It is not to be understood as the sarcasm of defiance; on the contrary, as one of the childish thoughts into which melancholy bordering on madness falls. From the bright height of faith to which Job soars in ch. xix. 25 seq., he is here again drawn down into the most terrible depth of conflict, in which, like a blind man, he gropes after God, and because he cannot find Him thinks that He flees before him lest He should be overcome by him. The God of the present Job accounts his enemy; and the God of the future to whom his faith clings, who will and must vindicate him so soon as He only allows Himself to be found and seen-this Got is not to be found." Delitzsch.]. It is not the invisible essence of God in general, not that He cannot be discovered by those who seek Him on earth east or west, north or south (vers. 8-9)-it is not the pure spirituality and the divine omnipresence, which extinguishes his hope in God's interposition to vindicate and to redeem him. The thought of that divine unsearchableness, which he beautifully describes in a way that reminds us of Ps. cxxxix. 7-9, as well as of Zophar's first discourse (ch. xi. 8-9), could have had nothing terrible or cheerless for him. Just as little (as he expressly declares in the closing verse of the First Part, ch. xxiii. 17) would the con2. Job however does concede somewhat more templation of his woful physical condition, and here than there; he at least dwells longer on the the tragical calamities of his outward life have punishment of the ungodly, as a fact which is sufficed to plunge him into the fear of death and not altogether unheard of in the course of human dub despair. That which fills him with dis-destiny-whether the passage in which he demay and terror, that which makes his heart faint, and removes the prospect of his deliverance to the indefinite future, is that same predestinatianism, that same dread of a mysterious, inexorable, and as regards himself malign decree of God, which had already extorted repeatedly from him a cry of lamentation, and which had formed the dark back-ground which so often emerges behind his meditations thus far (comp. ch. vi. 9 seq.; vii. 12 seq.; ix. 22 sqq.; x. 13 seq.; xiii. 15 seq.; xvi. 12 sq.; xix. 6 seq.). No comforting, brightening, alleviating thought, no joyous soaring of hope in God's compassion, bringing help however late, is to be seen anywhere in this discourse, as was the case e. g. in ch. xvii. and xix. On the contrary the Second Division of the discourse lays out before us a much wider circle of phenomena and sentiments at variance with a righteous and merciful activity on the part of God. The experience which he had, or believed that he had, of God's treatment of him as unsympathetic and harsh, as being a mere exhibition of divine power, without the slightest trace of justice or fatherly kindness-this experience he utters in the general proposition: "that God had appointed no times of judgment, would let His friends see no days on this earth in which He would exercise righteous retribution" (ch. xxiv. 1). This proposition he expands into an eloquent description of the manifold injustice, which men of the most diverse classes inflict on one another, while the wrongs of the outraged and oppressed weaker party are never redressed or avenged (ch. xxiv. 2 seq). Toward the end of this picture, which is true in a sense, although

scribes it be only a free quotation of the language of his opponents, as the later commentators in part exclaim (see on ver. 18 seq.), of the expression of his own conviction. And this indicates clearly enough progress for the better in his temper of mind and mode of thought, a progress which is still further indicated by the fact that in the preceding description of God as restraining Himself in the infliction of punishment a calm tone of objective description has a decided predominance, and nothing more is to be discerned of his former passionate, at times even blasphemous complaints touching the ty rannical harshness and cruel vindictiveness of the Almighty in persecuting him with poisoned arrows, sword-thrusts, and merciless scourgings. The terrible fatalistic phantom of a God exer, cising only His power, and not also His justice and love, which had formerly tortured him, has unmistakably assumed a milder form, of a less threatening aspect than heretofore. In consequence of this, as well as by virtue of the calm dignity which enables him to meet with complete serenity the violent assaults and detractions of Eliphaz, and to avoid all controversy of a better personal character, his superiority over his opponents becomes ever more apparent, his statements and arguments drive with ever greater directness at the only possible solution of the controversy, and even where he is onesided, as particularly in his description, in many respects impressive, of the course of the wicked, and of the needy ones whom they persecute (ch. xxiv. 2-17), his discussion has great value, and a fascinating power which is all the stronger by

virtue of the comparatively calm objective tone | fore this God. It is not his calamity in itself, of the treatment. It is in these indications of the growing purity and clearness of the sufferer's spiritual frame, that the practical and homiletic lessons of the present section can be most advantageously studied.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

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not even his own experience of the extremity to which this calamity has brought him from which he shrinks. What a deep glance is here given us into the heart of a sorely tried servant of God, who in his complaints and struggles, spite of all suffering, thinks only of God, and fears nothing so much as that the fellowship of his God having been withdrawn from him, his God should become a terror to him.

Ch. xxiii. ver. 3 seq.-OECOLAMPADIUS (on ver. 7): This word "disputing" or reprovCh. xxiv. 2 seq. WOHLFARTH: How should ing" expresses confidence rather than impa- the contemplation of the unnumbered sins, with tience or an unfavorable estimate of God. But which God's fair earth is stained, affec: us? if we blame this in Job, we must also blame Job was led thereby into temptation to doubt what John and others say; "if our hearts con- God's justice. Let it not be so with us, who, demn us not, then have we confidence toward enlightened by Christ, should see therein God." And wherefore does Christ command us rather: (a) a melancholy proof of the conto lift up our heads at His coming? ZEYss: tinual inclination of our nature to evil, and Faith and a good conscience are the two chief of the slothfulness of our spirit to strive against jewels of a Christian (1 Tim. i. 5). Happy he the same; (b) a touching evidence of the longwho has kept these. When oppressed he can suffering and patience of God; (c) an earnest appear with confidence before God. warning to be on our guard against every temptation; (d) an emphatic reminder of the day of judgment, which will recompense every man according to his works.

Ver. 17. STARKE: As works of the light are accompanied by a joyful conscience and good courage, so on the other hand with works of darkness there is nothing but fear, anguish and terror. For even the abandoned are not without an inward punishment in the conscience.-V. GERLACH: For sinners, who shun the light, the

Ver. 8 seq. BRENTIUS: Although God fills all things, and is all in all, we cannot approach Him, nor find Him without a Mediator; whether we seek Him before or behind, to the right hand or to the left, He is always afar off, we never lay hold upon Him. For even if we should attempt to approach Him without a mediator, we are deterred from having access to Him in part by the darkness in which He dwells. in part by His power and majesty, in part by His justice. Ver. 13 seq. ZEYSS: As God is one in His na-light of day itself is darkness, since through ture, so also is He unchangeable in His will (Num. xxiii. 19; 1 Sam. xv. 29). Let us therefore submit ourselves in humility and obedience to His good and holy will! The cross which He lays upon us is always less than our sins deserve; His chastisements are tempered with mercy; Ps. ciii. 10.-v. GERLACH (on ver. 17): In the consciousness of the treatment which he receives from the incomprehensible God, who has irrevocably determined every man's destiny, Job is penetrated by the profoundest terror be

their departure from the eternal light of God, they bear about with them night in their souls (comp. Matt. vi. 23; John xi. 10), and thus they feel its terrors even in the midst of the brightness of the day.

Ver. 23 seq. STARKE: Be not secure, if a sin passes unpunished; it is not on that account forgotten by God. The happier the ungodly are for a time, the more dangerous is their condition, and the more severely will they be punished at last.

II. Bildad and Job: Chap. XXV–XXVI.

A.-Bildad: Again setting forth the contrast between God's exaltation and human impotence.

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2. Man is not pure before God: vers. 5, 6.

5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not;

yea, the stars are not pure in His sight.

6 How much less man, that is a worm;

and the son of man, which is a worm?

B.-Job: Rebuke of his opponent, accompanied by a description, far surpassing his, of the exaltation and greatness of God.

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2 How hast thou helped him that is without power?
how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom?
and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?

4 To whom hast thou uttered words?

and whose spirit came from thee?

2. Description of the incomparable sovereignty and exaltation of God, given to surpass the far less spirited effort of Bildad in this direction: vers. 5-14.

5 Dead things are formed

from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. 6 Hell is naked before Him,

and destruction hath no covering.

7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,
and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

8 He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds;
and the cloud is not rent under them.

9 He holdeth back the face of His throne,
and spreadeth His cloud upon it.

10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds,
until the day and night come to an end.

11 The pillars of heaven tremble,

and are astonished at His reproof.

12 He divideth the sea with His power,

and by His understanding He smiteth through the proud. 13 By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens ;

His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

14 Lo, these are parts of His ways:

but how little a portion is heard of Him?
but the thunder of His power who can understand?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

1. Job's reply to the last assaults of Eliphaz had certainly avoided all personality, but had at the same time asserted his complete innocence in very strong, almost objectionable language (ch. xxiii. 10-12). It is more particularly to this vulnerable point that Bildad turns his attention in this, his last discourse, which limits itself to showing how unbecoming it is for man -this miserable worm of the earth-to arrogate to himself any right whatever before God, or to

impute to himself any justice. In substance, accordingly, he lays down only two propositions, and that without enlarging on them, to wit: (1) Man cannot argue with God, the Almighty; (2) Before God, the Holy One, man cannot be pure. In this discourse, which closes the series of attacks on Job, he describes the divine greatness and exaltation, a description which is decidedly meagre, made up only of repetitions of what Eliphaz had said in his former discourses (comp. ch. iv. 17 seq.; xv. 14 seq.). No wonder that Job discovers the opportunity thus presented to him, and in his reply, first of all, addresses to

of the figurative form of expression. And upon whom does not His light arise ?—

עֵינִיהוּ .comp) אוֹרֵהוּ The emphatic suffix ehu in

the speaker a sharp, bitterly satirical rebuff, is doubtful in view of the indefiniteness and then meets his propositions in regard to God's greatness and holiness, not by denying them, but by surpassing them with a far more magnificent and eloquent description of the same divine attributes. [And note particularly that as Bildad's illustrations of his theme are drawn from the heavenly hosts and luminaries, Job in his reply dwells principally, though not exclusively on God's greatness as manifested in the heavens above.-E.]-The Strophe-scheme of both discourses is very simple, Bildad's discourse containing only two strophes, the first of three, the second of two verses; Job's discourse containing four strophes, each of three verses.

2. The last discourse of Bildad: ch. xxv. Man can neither argue with God, nor is he pure

before Him.

ch. xxiv. 23) puts His light, to wit God's own light, in contrast with the derived lower light of His hosts. The expression is scarcely to be understood of the sunlight, which indeed itself belongs to the number of these D' neither can Dip be taken (neither here, nor ch. xi. 17). It is inadmissible accordingly to refer the words to the rising sun, as a sign of the fatherly beneficent solicitude of God for His earthly creatures (comp Matth. v. 45. So against Mercier, Hirz. Hahn, Schlott., etc.). We are to understand them rather of that absolutely supraterrestrial light in which God dwells, which He wears as His garment, by which indeed He manifests His being, His heavenly doxa (Ps. civ. 2; Ezek. i. 27 seq.; 1 Tim. vi. 16, etc.). In respect to this light Bildad asks: "upon whom does it not arise?" The question is not: "whom does it not surpass?" ["over whom (i. e. which of these beings of light) does it not rise, leaving it behind, and exceeding it in brightness?" Delitzsch], for Dp would scarcely be appropriate for this thought, since the degree of light is not measured by its height (against Ewald, Heiligst., Del.)-but: "upon whom does it not dispense blessings and happiness?" (Dillm.)

Ver. 4. How could a mortal be just with God-(comp. ch. ix. 2): i. e. how could he appear before Him, to whose absolute power all heavenly beings are subject, arguing with Him, and making pretensions to righteousness? The second member, with which ch. iv. 17; xv. 14 may be compared, stands connected with the principal thought of the discourse, which imme

sesses purity or moral spotlessness before God. Second Strophe: vers. 5-6.

Ver. 5. Behold, even the moon, it shineth not brightly, and the stars are not pure in His eyes.--, lit.

First Strophe: vers. 2-4-Dominion and fear are with Him, who maketh peace in His high places.—p, lit. "to wield dominion, to exercise sovereignty," a substantive Inf. absol. Hiph.; comp. Ewald, & 156, e.-[ is added in order to set forth the terrible majesty of this sovereignty.-Schlott.] cannot be understood as a more precise qualifi cation of the subject: "He in His high places, He who is enthroned in the heights of heaven" (Reimarus, Umbreit, Hahn). It is rather a local qualification of the action affirmed of the subject. It accordingly describes the peace founded by God as established in the heights of heaven, and so having reference to the inhabitants of heaven, and pre-supposing their former strife. Bear in mind what was said above by Job of God's "judging those in heaven" (ch. xxi. 22), and comp. Is. xxiv. 21; also below ch. xxvi. 13.—It is a weakening of the sense which is scarcely justified by the language to under-diately follows, to the effect that no man posstand the passage as teaching God's agency in harmonizing either the elements of the heavenly Kosmos (the perpetually recurring cycle, the wonderfully ordered paths of the stars, comp. Clemens Rom. 1 Cor. xix.), or the discord of the heavenly spirits, conceived of only in the most abstract possible manner, but in truth continu- the is the Vav of the apodosis; comp. ally averted by God, and thus as teaching the Gesen. 145 [142], 2; and see above ch. xxiii. maintenance, not the making or institution, of peace (so Seb. Schmidt, J. Lange, Starke, etc.). 12. from, an alternate form, ["Ewald explains the words of the heavenly found only here, of, to be bright, to shine; powers and spirits represented by the innumerable host of the stars, which might indeed der the verb-" to pitch a tent," is inadmissible, comp. ch. xxxi. 26. some time be at war among themselves, but which are ever brought again by the Higher for that must have read D, in order to yield Power into order and peace. But nothing the meaning-"He pitcheth not his tent."whatever is said elsewhere of such a discord as The clause-"in His eyes "-in the second now coming to pass in the upper world. All member, belongs also to the first. Comp. the analogies point rather to a definite fact which is parallel passages already cited in ch. iv. and assigned to the beginning of creation." Schlott.]. xv. Furthermore it is only the physical light, Ver. 3. Is there any number to His the silver-white streaming brilliancy of the stars, armies? —1771, synonymous with 1, which is here put beside the absolute glory of which is used elsewhere in this sense, are God's God's light (which is at once physical and ethihosts or armies, the stars, first of all, indeed, cal). Scarcely is there reference to the angels the heavenly armies, together with the anas inhabiting the stars, and to their moral pugels which rule and inhabit them (comp.rity (against Hirzel); from which however noabove on ch. xv. 15). Whether also the lower forces of nature, such as lightnings, winds, etc. (comp. ch. xxxviii. 19 seq.; Ps. civ. 4, etc.) are intended, as Dillmann thinks

T

i. e. even as regards the moon.

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דיי

even to the moon," In the following

Gekatilia's attempt to ren

thing can be inferred unfavorable to the theory that the stars, i. e., the heavenly globes of the starry world, are inhabited by angels.

Ver. 6. Much less then (?, as in ch.

xv. 16) mortal man, the worm, etc. In re heavenly world -The shades are made to gard to these figures of the maggot and the tremble.-D' are not "giants," as the Anworm, as setting forth the insignificance, weak-cient Versions render the word, but in accordness, and contemptibleness of man, comp. Ps. xxii. 7 [6]; also Is. liii. 2, and similar descrip

tions.

3. Job's rejoinder: ch. xxvi. First Division (and Strophe): vers. 2-4: Sharp ironical rebuke of Bildad.

Ver. 2. How hast thou helped the powerless! - here, like, is equivalent to an ironical" How well! How excellent!" (comp. ch. xix. 28). -, lit. "no-power" is abstr. pro conc. the powerless; so also in biy--the strengthless, the feeble; and in ver. 3 an

T: T

ance with the root ("to be slack, relaxed, exhausted," comp. Ewald, 2 55, e), “ weak, powerless," namely, the marrowless and bloodless shades or forms of the underworld, the wretched inhabitants of the realm of the dead; so also in Ps. lxxxviii.; 11 [10]; Prov. ii. 18; ix. 18, and often: Is. xxvi. 14, 19; comp. ch. xiv. 9 seq. [It seems every way reasonable to associate with the idea of weakness, nervelessness, etc., here given to the word that of gigantic stature, when we remember that this same word did denote a race

of earthly giants, and that the tendency of the imagination to magnify the spectral forms of the dead is so common, if not universal. So Good: the unwise, ignorant. By these three pa-The spectres of deified heroes were conceived, rallel descriptive clauses Job means of course in the first ages of the world, to be of vast and himself, as the object of the well-intended, but more than mortal stature, as we learn from the perverted attempts of the friends to teach him following of Lucretius: (not God, as Mercier, Schlottm., etc. explain) [as though Bildad had regarded God as too feeble to maintain His own cause. But against this explanation the choice of verbs, if nothing else, would be, as Delitzsch argues, decisive].

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Ver. 3. . . . . and hast declared wisdom in abundance (37, lit. "for multitude") ["an ironical hit at the poverty-stricken brevity of B.'s speech." Dillm.]. n, here as in ch. v. 12 may be rendered by "that which is to be accomplished," provided it be referred to the intellectual world, and so understood as vera et realis sapientia (J. H. Mich.). Here indeed the word is used ironically of its opposite.

Ver. 4. To whom hast thou uttered

words?-i. e. whom hast thou been desirous

Quippe et enim jam tum divûm mortalia secla Egregias animo facies vigilante videbant ; Et magis in somnis mirando corporis actu." This idea will certainly add to the gloomy sublimity of the description here. Let one imagine the gigantic "marrowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a woman in travail as often as the majesty of the heavenly Ruler is felt by them, as perhaps by the raging of the sea, or the quaking of the earth." Delitzsch. "That even these beings, although otherwise without feeling or motion, and situated at an immeasurable distance from God's dwellingplace are sensible of the effects of God's activity, -this is a much stronger witness to God's greatof these shades, living far from God in the ness than aught that B. had alleged." Hirzel]. depths under the earth and under the seas (comp. b: "beneath the waters and their inhabitants"), it is here said: "they are put in terror, they are made to tremble and quake” (abbin', Pul. from 4, comp. Ewald, 141 b), an expression which, like Ps. cxxxix. 8; Prov. xv. 11, is intended to describe the energy of the divine omnipotence as illimitable and filling all things, extending even down to Sheol. Comp. also James ii. 19, a passage otherwise related to the one before us, and perhaps suggested by it, but having a different purpose. [The rendering of E. V. needs but to be compared with the above to show how erroneous and unsatisfactory it is.

of reaching by thy words? for whom were thy
elaborate speeches coined? was it, possibly, for
me, who have not been touched by them in the
least ? So correctly the LXX.: rivi avhyyethas
phuara, and the Vulg.: quem docere voluisti? The
translation: "with whose assistance (-) hast
thou utttered these words?" (Arnh. Hahn)
[Con.] seems indeed to be favored by b, but is
condemned by the construction of the verb T
elsewhere in our book with a double accusative
(so also ch. xxxi. 37; comp. Ezek. xliii. 10), and
does not agree so well with what precedes.— |
And whose breath went forth from thee?
-i. e. from what kind of inspiration (inbreath-
ing) hast thou spoken? is it the divine? Num
Deo inspirante locutus es? The question involves
a biting irony; for the speech of Bildad, so poor-E.].
and meagre in thought, merely repeating a little
of what Eliphaz had said already, might look
accordingly as though it had been inspired by
the latter.

4. Second Division: vers. 5-14: Eclipsing and surpassing the description given by Bildad of the exaltation and majesty of God by one far more glorious.

Second Strophe: vers. 5-7. While Bildad's description took its start from heaven, and its stars, Job begins by appealing to the realm of shades, together with its subterranean inhabitants as witnesses of the divine omnipotence and majesty, in order from this depth, the lowest foundation of all that is, to mount upward to the

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Ver. 6. Naked is the underworld before Him (comp. Heb. iv. 13: návтa dè yvμvà Kaì TEτραχηλισμένα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ), and the abyss of hell has no covering (for Him). Comp. on Prov. xv. 11, a passage parallel to this in matter, where (lit. "destruction, annihilation") stands precisely as here as a synonym of ; also Ps. cxxxix. 8, and below ch. xxxviii. 17. [The definition, "destruction, annihilation" here given for 1178 is of course not to be understood in the metaphysical sense of the extinction of being. It is the destruction of life, as enjoyed on the face of the earth; the extinction of light, the derangement

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