. (comp. Zeph. ii. 15; Jer. xlix. 17). Or "out more or less remote. Comp. above Introd. § 7, of his home" (Hirz.), which rendering gives b; and see a fuller discussion of the subject in essentially the same meaning. Delitzsch ii. 86-89; to some extent also the mining experts who have commented on the following verses, such as v. Weltheim (in J. D. Mich., Orient. Bibl. 23, 7 seq.), and Rud. Nasse (Stud. u. Krit.. 1863, p. 105 seq.) possess true wisdom, which can be acquired only through the fear of God, which cannot, like the treasures of this earth (the only object for which the wicked plan and toil), be dug out, exchanged or bought. The proposition introduced by accordingly assigns a reason first of all for that which forms the contents of ch. xxvii. 11-23 (the prosperity of the ungodly cannot endure"), but secondarily and indirectly also that which is announced in ch. xxvii. 2-10 (Job is an upright man, and one who fears God, whose joy in God does not forsake him even in the midst of the deepest misery). [The miserable end of the ungodly is confirmed by this, that the wisdom of man, which he has despised, consists in the fear of God; and Job thereby attains at the same time the special aim of his teaching, which is announced at ch. xxvii. 11 by DN 718; viz. he has at the same time proved that he who retains the fear of God in the midst of his sufferings, though those sufferings are an insoluble mystery, cannot be a 4. Third Section: First Strophe. Chap. xxviii. 1-11. The difficulty, indeed the absolute impossibility, of attaining true wisdom by human skill and endeavor, described by means of an illustration taken from mining, which gives man Ver. 1. For there is for the silver a vein access to all valuable treasures of a material [Germ. Fundort, place where it is found], and sort, but which can by no means put him in pos- a place for the gold, which they refine.— session of that spiritual good which comes from The connection between this section and the God. The question-whence the author had ac- preceding, which is indicated by the causal quired so accurate a knowledge of mining as he here "for," is this: The phenomenon described in displays, seeing that the land of the Israelites was ch. xxvii. 11-23, that the wicked-with whom, comparatively poor in mineral treasures (comp. according to vers. 2-10 Job is not to be classed KEIL, Bibl. Archäol., p. 35 seq., 38)? may be an--meet with a terrible end without deliverance, swered, on the basis of Biblical and extra-Bibli-is to be explained by the fact that they do not cal sources of information, as follows: (1) The Jews in Palestine could not have been absolutely strangers to the business of mining, seeing that in Deut. viii. 9 there is expressly promised to them “a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." (2) Both Lebanon in the north, and the Idumean mountains in the south-east of Palestine proper, had copper mines, the particular location of these being at Phunon, or Phaino, Num. xxxiii. 42 seq., in the working of which it is certain that the Jews were occasionally interested; comp. Volney's Travels; Ritter, Erdkunde XVII. 1063; Gesenius, Thes. p. 1095; v. Rougemont, Bronzezeit, p. 87. (3) The Israelites possessed iron pits, possibly in South Lebanon, where in modern times such may still be found, together with smelting furnaces (Russegger, Reise I. 779, 778 seq.), but certainly in the country east of the Jordan, where, according to the testimony of Josephus, de B. Jud. IV. 8, 2, there was an "iron mountain” (σɩdnpovv õpoc) north of Moabitis, the "Cross Mountain," El Mirad of to-day, between the gorges of the Wadi Zerka and Wadi Arabun, west of Gerash; a mountain district in . . . . . And if we ponder the fact that Job which in our own century iron mines have been worked here and there (v. Rougemont, l. c.; Wetzstein in Delitzsch, II. 90-91). (4) Jerome testifies to the existence of ancient gold mines in Idumea (Opp. ed. Vall. III. 183). (5) The Israelites might also come occasionally into connection with the copper and iron mines of the Sinai-peninsula, in the development of which the Egyptian Pharaohs were conspicuously energetic (comp. Aristeas v. Haverkamp, p. 114; Lepsius, Briefe, p. 335 seq.; Ritter, Erdkunde XIV. 784 seq; v. Rougemont, l. c.* (6) What has been said above by no means excludes the possibility that in this description the poet in many particulars took for his basis traditional reports concerning the mines of distant lands, e. g. concerning the gold mines of Upper Egypt and Nubia (Diodorus iii. 11 seq.), concerning the gold and silver mines of the Phenicians in Spain (1 Macc. viii. 3; Plin. iii. 4; Diod. v. 35 seq.), concerning the emerald quarries of the Egyptians at Berenice, and other deposits of precious stones, has depicted the ungodly as a covetous rich man who is snatched away by sudden death from his immense possession of silver and other costly treasures, we see that ch. xxviii. confirms the preceding picture of punitive judgment in the following manner: silver and other precious metals come out of the earth, but wisdom, whose value exceeds all these earthly treasures, is to be found nowhere within the province of the creature; God alone possesses it, and from God alone it comes; and so far as man can and is to attain to it, it consists in the fear of the Lord and the forsaking of evil." Delitzsch.] The first verses of the chapter indeed down to the 11th, present nothing whatever as yet of that which serves directly to establish those antecedent propositions, they simply prepare the way for the demonstration proper, by describing the achievements of art and labor in the accumulation by men of their treasures, by means of which nevertheless wisdom can not be found. Hence ? may appropriately be rendered "for truly" (the "but" in ver. 12 corresponding to The name Mafkat, "Land of Copper," which the the "truly"). This connection between ch. Egyptians gave to the Sinaitic peninsula on account of those mines, is of late explained by Brugsch to mean "Land of xxviii. and xxvii. is erroneously exhibited, when Turquois." it being assumed by him that torquois was the any subordinate proposition of ch. xxvii. is principal product of the ancient Egyptian mines in that re-regarded as that which is to be established (as gion. Comp. H. Brugsch, Wanderung nach den Türkisminen der Sinai Halbinsel, 1868, 2d Ed., p. 66 seq. e. g., according to Hirzel, the question in ver. refers back to the חוֹקֵר before הוא 12: "why are ye so altogether vain? why do the stones of darkness and of death-shade, ye adhere to so perverse a delusion?" or accord-i. e. the stones under the earth, hidden in deep ing to Schlottmann the purpose to warn against darkness. the sin of making unfriendly charges, which he thinks is to be read between the lines in the indefinite subj. of D, who is continued through description vers. 11-23). These false concep- ver. 4, and again in vers. 9-11. tions of the connection, alike with the total Ver. 4. He breaketh [openeth, cutteth abandonment of all connection, which has led through] a shaft away from those who many critics to resort to arbitrary attempts to sojourn (above)., elsewhere river, valassign to ch. xxviii. another position (e. g. ac-ley [river-bed] (Wadi), is here—as is already cording to Pareau after ch. xxvi.; according to made probable by the verb 7, pointing to a Stuhlmann after ch. xxv.) or to question alto- violent breaking through (comp. ch. xvi. 14), gether its genuineness (Knobel, Bernsteincomp. Introd. 9, 1)—all these one-sided con- member of the verse-a mining passage in the and as is made still more apparent by the third ceptions rest, for the most part, on the assumption that it is the divine wisdom, which rules the earth, and that moreover a perpendicular shaft rather than a sloping gallery. universe, whose unsearchableness is described -Dyn, lit. in our chapter, and not rather wisdom regarded "away from one tarrying, a dweller," i. e. as a human possession, as a moral and intellectual removed from the human habitations found blessing bestowed by God on men, connected above, removing from them ever further and with genuine fear of God. Comp. Doctrinal deeper into the bowels of the earth. [Schlottand Ethical Remarks, No. 1. [E. V.'s rendering mann understands by the miner himself of by "surely" overlooks the connection, dwelling as a stranger in his loneliness; i. e. his and was probably prompted by the difficulty attending it, lit. "outlet" (comp. 1 Kings x. 28), the place where anything may be found, synonymous with the following Dipp. The word p is a relative clause: gold, which they refine, or wash out. In regard to ppi, lit. "to filter, to strain," as a technical term for purifying the precious metals from the stonealloy which is mixed with them, comp. Mal. iii. 3; Ps. xii. 7 [6]; 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. Comp. the passage relative to the gold mines of Upper Egypt, describing this process of crushing fine the gold-quartz, and of washing it out, this process accordingly of " 'gold-washing,' as practised by the ancients, in Diodor. iii. 11 seq., as well as the explanations in Klemm's Allgem. Kulturgesch. V. 503 seq., and in M. Uhlemann, Egypt. Alterthumskunde, II. 148 seq. shaft sinks ever further from the hut in which he dwells above. The use of is doubtless a little singular, and Schlottmann's explanation may be accepted so far as it may serve to account for it by the suggestion that those who do live in the vicinity of mines are naturally D sojourners, living there to ply their trade and shifting about as new mines or veins are discovered.-E.]-Who are forgotten of every step, lit. "of a foot" (7), i. e. of the foot the earth [hence "totally vanished from the or step of one travelling above on the surface of remembrance of those who pass by above"], not the foot of the man himself that is spoken of, as though his descent by a rope in the depths of the shaft were here described (V. Leonhardt in Umbr. and Hirzel). [On this use of ¡ after v, comp. Deut. xxxi. 21; Ps. xxxi. 13; "forgotten out of the mind, out of the heart"]. Moreover D' are identical, according to the accents, with the indef. subj. of (the interchange between sing. and plur. acc. to Ew. Ver. 2. Iron is brought up out of the ground. - here of the interior or deep ground, not of the surface as in ch. xxxix. 14; xli. 25 [33], and stone is smelted into cop- 319, a); hence the meaning is: those who per.- here not as in ch. xli. 15 Partic. work deep down in the shafts of the mines. Pual of py, but as in ch. xxix. 6 Imperf. of They are again referred to in the finite verbs in Pas-pr (the 3d pers. sing. masc. expressing C, which continue the participial construction: the indefinite subj.). [Gesenius not so well they hang far away from men, and swing. makes the verb transitive: "and stone pours from 5 (related to i) deorsum pendere, out brass."] Ver. 3. He has put an end [D still the indefinite subj., but as the description becomes more individual and concrete, it is better with E. V. to use from this point on the personal pron. "he"] to the darkness, viz. by the miner's lamp; and in every direction (lit. "to each remotest point, to every extremity, in all directions") [not as E. V. "all perfection," which is too general, missing the idiomatic use of the phrase; nor adverbially: "to the utmost," or "most closely:"_"non might be used according to the accents, accompanies (meaning the same with Dy), not y, as Jahn and Schlottm. think. The adventurous swinging of those engaged in digging the ore out of the steep sides of the shafts, hanging down by a rope, is in these few, simple words beautifully and clearly portrayed. It is the situation described by Pliny (H. N. xxxiii. 4, 21: is qui cædit, funibus pendet, ut procul intuenti species ne ferarum quidem, sed alitum fiat. dentes majori ex parte librant et lineas itineri præducunt, etc. [The above rendering, adopted by all modern exegetes, gives a meaning so appropriate to the language and connection, and withal plained according to -, Ezek. v. 10, to so beautiful, vivid and graphic that it seems all the winds.'" Delitzsch] he searcheth strange that all the ancient and most of the -is to be ex לכל תכלית thus adverbially, but Pen modern versions of Scripture, including E V., | begun in ver. 7 of the inaccessibleness of the should have so completely darkened the mean- subterranean passage-ways. The proud beasts ing. The source of the difficulty lay doubtless of prey (lit. "sons of pride;" so also in ch. xli. in which being taken in its customary meaning of "river, flood," threw everything into confusion. Add to this a probable want of familiarity with mining operations on the part of the early translators, and the result will not seem so surprising.-E.] Ver. 5 states what the miners are doing in the depths.-The earth-out of it cometh forth the bread-corn (on? as in Ps. civ. 14), but under it it is overturned like fire: i. e. as fire incessantly destroys, and turns what is uppermost lowermost. ["Man's restless search, which rummages everything through, is com pared to the unrestrainable ravaging fire." "is 26 [34]) have not trodden it.-That this finely illustrative phrase ["sons of pride"] refers to the haughty, majestically stepping beasts of prey ["seeking the most secret retreat, and shunning no danger," Del.], appears clearly enough from the parallel use of in b (comp. ch. iv. 10). Ver. 9. On the flint (the hardest of all stones) he lays his hand (the subject being man, as the overturner of mountains; see b, and respecting the use there of , radicitus, "from the root," comp. above ch. xiii. 27; xix. 28. ["n something like our "to take in hand," of an undertaking requiring strong יד Del.] Instead of Jerome reads ID: determination and courage, which here consists overturned with fire," which some moderns pre-in blasting, etc. Del.] How the hand is laid fer (Hirz., Scalott.), who find a reference here on flint and similar hard stones is described by to the blasting of the miners. But this is too remote. ["The principal thought is the process of breaking through; the means are not so much regarded; and fire was not the only means. Dillmann. Some commentators have fancied in this verse a trace of what modern criticism calls Pliny l. c.: Occursant silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt. sæpius vero, quoniam id cuniculos fumo et vapore strangulat, cædunt fractariis CL. libras habentibus, etc. Ver. 10. Through the rocks he cutteth "sentimentalism," as though Job were protest-passages.-D', an Egyptian word, which ing against ruthlessly ravaging as with fire the signifies literally water-canals, must here, like interior of that generous earth which on its sur- in ver. 4, signify subterranean passages or face yields bread for the support of man. Job is, however, fixing his attention solely on the agent-man, who not satisfied with what grows out of the earth, digs for treasure into its deep est recesses.-E.] Ver. 6. The place of the sapphire (Dip as in ver. 1 a, the place where it may be found) are its stones, viz. the earth's, ver. 5; in the midst of its gones is found the sapphire, which is mentioned here as a specimen of precious stones of the highest value-And nuggets of gold (or "gold ore," hardly "gold-dust" as Hirzel thinks) become his, viz. the miner's (so Schult., Rosenm., Ewald, Dillmann). Or: nuggets of gold belong to it," the place (DIP) where the sapphire is found (Hahn, Schlottm., Delitzsch). The reader may take his choice between these two relations of 12; the brevity of the expression makes it impossible to decide with certainty. Ver. 7. The path (thither) no bird of prey hath known [and the vulture's eye hath not gazed upon it]. is a prefixed nom. absol. like in ver. 5. It may indeed also be taken as in opposition to Dip in ver. 6 עַפְרוֹת זָהָב hardly to) pits for mining. And further, according to b, what is intended are galleries, horizontal excavations, in which the ore is dug out, and precious stones discovered. The word can scarcely be used of wet conduits, or canals to carry off the water accumulating in the pits, of which Job does not begin to speak until the following verse (against v. Weltheim, etc.). [The rendering "rivers" (E V., Con., Car., Rod., etc.) would be still more misleading, because more vague, than canals," which is not without plausible arguments in its favor. Add however to Zöckler's arguments in favor of the rendering "passages, galleries," the sequence in the second member: And his eye sees every precious thing; which, as Delitzsch says, “is consistently connected with what precedes, since by cutting these cuniculi the courses of the ore (veins), and any precious stones that may also be embedded there, are laid bare.”—E.] Ver. 11. That they may not drip he stops up passage-ways.-, lit. "away from dripping" [weeping], or: "against the dripping," i. e. against the oozing through of the water in the excavations, to which the shafts and galleries, especially when old, were so easily as Ewald thinks), in liable. an, as elsewhere an, to stop or dam up, to bind up surgically (comp. van, the surgeon, or wound-healer in Is. iii. 7; i. 6). which case the rendering would be: "the path, T: Ver. 8 carries out yet further the description seems in general to mean the same as above, and D' ver. 10, to wit, excavations, shafts, pits, galleries. Nevertheless it may also denote "the seams of water" breaking through the walls of these excavations, thus directly denoting that which must be stopped up (Del.).—And so (through all these efforts and skilful contrivances) he brings to the 5. Continuation: Second Strophe: vers. 12-22. Application of the preceding description to wisdom as a higher good, unattainable by the outward seeking and searching of men. ["Most expositors since Schultens, as e. g. Hirz., Schlott., etc, assume out of hand that the Wisdom treated of here is the divine wisdom, as the principle which maintains the moral and natural order of the universe. But that the divine wisdom is to be found only with God, not with a creature, is something so very self-evident, and the exaltation of the divine wisdom above all human comprehension was a proposition so universally recognized, being also long since maintained and conceded by both the contending parties of our book (chs. xi. and xii.), that it is not apparent why Job should here lay such stress upon it." Dillm.] T: T T: T Ver. 16. In regard to the gold of Ophir (here D, fine gold of Ophir) comp. ch. xxii. 24; respecting the onyx stone (D, lit. “pale, lean") comp. the commentators on Gen. ii. 12. Vers. 17-19. Further description of the incomparable and unattainable value of wisdom, standing in a similar connection with vers. 15, 16, as Prov. iii. 15 with Prov. iii. 14.-Gold and glass are not equal to it.- intrans. with Accus.-æquare aliquid, as in ver 19; Ps. lxxxix. 7. In respect to the high valuation of glass by the ancients (, or as some MSS., Ed's., and D. Kimchi read-) comp. Winer, Realw., Vol. I., 432 [and Eng. Bib. Dietionaries, Art "Glass"]. In respect to in b, "exchange, equivalent," comp. ch. xv. 31; xx. 18. Ver. 18. Corals and crystal are not to be named, not to be mentioned, i. e., in comparison with it, with wisdom (in regard to the construction of the passive with the accus., comp. Gesen., ? 143 [140] 1, a). v, (lit. "ice," Ver. 12. But wisdom-where is it found? which was regarded by the ancients as a prelike the Arab. gibs) denotes the quartz-crystal, And where (lit. "from where?" as in cious stone, and supposed to be a product of the ch. i. 7, and accompanying NY as in Hos. cold; Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 2, 9.—The Лi, xiv. 9 [8]) is the place of understanding? the mention of which precedes, seem to be "co, with the article, because wisdom is to rals," an explanation favored by what is conjecbe set forth as the well-known highest good of tured to be the radical signification of this word, man. With the principal term is con- "horns of bulls, or of wild oxen (from DNnected as an alternate notion, as is often comp. Pliny XIII. 51), as well as by its being the case in Proverbs, especially chs. i.-ix. The placed along with the less costly crystal; comp.also first term denotes wisdom rather on its practical Ezek. xxvi. 16, where indeed corals from the side, as the principle and art of right thinking Red Sea and the Indian Ocean are mentioned as and doing, or as the religious and moral recti- Tyrian articles of commerce. On the contrary tude taught by God; the second (with which D'' in 6 must be, according to Prov. iii. 15; , Prov. viii. 1, and лy, Prov. i. 2, alter-viii. 11; xx. 15; xxxi. 10, an exchangeable nate) pre-eminently on the theoretic side as the correct perception and way of thinking which lies at the basis of that right doing. Comp. the Introd. to the Solomonic Literature of Wisdom, 2, Note 3 (Vol. X., p. 7 of this series). Ver. 13. No mortal knows its price.(from vers. 17, 19) means lit. equivalent, price, value for purchase or exchange, the same with elsewhere. The LXX. probably read, which reading is preferred by some moderns, e. g., by Dillmann, as agreeing better with ver. 12 commodity of extraordinary value, which decides in favor of the signification "pearls" assigned (although not unanimously) to this word by tradition, however true it may be that in Lam. iv. 7 corals seem rather to be intended (or perhaps red pearls artificially prepared, like the Turkish rose-pearls of to-day). Comp. Carey [who agrees in rendering by corals," and doubtfully suggests "mother-of-pearl" for T 66 ]. Delitzsch renders the former of the two words by "pearls," the second by "corals" [so J. D. Michaelis Rödiger, Gesenius, Fürst; the Ver. 14. With the land of the living" [ver. two latter regarding and D' as equi18] i. e., the earth inhabited by men (comp. Ps. valent. See also in Smith's Bb. Dic.,-Art's., xxvii. 13; Is. xxxviii. 11, etc.) are connected the "Rubies," Pearls," "Coral"]. The word two other regions beneath heaven, in which wis-,"acquisition, possession," (from J, “10 dom might possibly be sought: (1) The "Deep" draw to oneself") only here in the O T.; re(Dinn) i. e., the subterranean abyss with its lated are pup, Gen. xv. 2, and pupp, Zeph. waters, out of which the visible waters on the surface of the earth are supplied (Gen. vii. 11; xlix. 25)-(2) The "Sea" (D) = 'Nкɛαvóc) as the chief reservoir of these visible waters. Ver. 15. Pure gold is not given for it. 1 is the same with 1, 1 Kings vi. 20; x. 21, not "shut up" [= carefully preserved], but according to the Targ. " purified" gold (aurum colatum, purgatum), hence gold acquired by heating, or smelting; comp. Diodor. I. c. ii 9. Ver. 19. The topaz from Ethiopia (Cush) is not equal to it.-The rendering topaz (TOTášov) for 9 is established by the testimony of most of the ancient versions in this passage, as well as in Ex. xxviii. 17; Ezek. xxviij 13. It is also favored by the statement of Pliny (xxxvii. 8) that the topaz comes principally from the islands of the Red Sea, as also by the probable identity of the name D with the San serit pita, yellow (comp. Gesen.) [and see the the subject God [should be in if the verse Lexicons, Delitzsch, Carey, etc, on the probable were antecedent]. Furthermore the Divine transposition of letters in the Hebrew and Greek "looking to the ends of the earth," etc., ver. forms]. In regard to b, comp. the very similar passage in ver 16 a). Ver. 20 again takes up the principal question propounded in ver. 12. The in is consecutive, and may be rendered by "then" (Ew., & 348, a). T: T:T-: Ver. 21. It is hidden (py, lit., "and moreover, and further it is hidden") from the eyes of all living, i. e.,, especially of all living beings on the earth; as in ch. xii. 10; Of these "living" b then particularly specifies the sharp-sighted, winged inhabitants of the upper regions of the air; comp. above Xxx. 33. ver. 7. "T Ver. 22 follows up the mention of that which is highest with that of the lowest: Hell and the abyss [lit. "destruction and death"] say, in connection with 1 (see on ch. xxvi. 6) means the realm of death, the abyss; comp. ch. xxxviii. 17; Ps. ix. 14 [13]; Rev. i. 18. For the rest comp. above, ver. 14; for to say that they [destruction and death] have learned of wisdom only by hearsay is substantially the same with saying, as is said there of the sea and the deep, that they do not possess it. ["The ɔn ha ryp nazy, ver. 21, evidently points back to the 'ver. 10. In ver. 11 it is said that man brings the most secret thing to light. In ver. 22 that Divine wisdom is hidden even from the underworld." Schlott.]. 24, would need a telic qualification, referring the divine omniscience [God's looking every where and seeing every thing] to the creation and preservation of the order of nature, in order that it might not be understood as declaring the omniscience of God in abstracto. That He may appoint to the wind its weight, and weigh the water by measure. The careful "measurement" of wind and water, i. e., their relative apportionment, government, and management (comp. Isa. lx. 12), is a peculiarly characteristic example of God's wise administrative economy in creation: "Who sends the wind upon its course," etc. Instead of the Infinitive the finite verb appears in b, and that in the Perf. form, ¡, because the expression of purpose passes over into the expression of sequence, precisely as in chap. v. 21 (see on the v.). זז Ver. 26 seq. As the wisdom of God furnishes the means and basis of His government of the world, so in the exercise of His creative power was it the absolute norm, and is in consequence thereof the highest law for man's moral action, positively and negatively considered. When He appointed for the rain a law (when and how often it should fall, where it should cease; comp. Gen. ii. 5) and for the thunder flash a path (i. e., through the clouds; comp chap. xxxviii. 25), then saw He it and declared it-i. e., in thus exercising at the beginning His creative power, He beheld it, contemplated it (we 6. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Vers. 22-28 are to read NT with Mappiq in 17), as His eterThe final answer to the question, where and how nal pattern, according to which He made, orwisdom is to be found: to wit, only with God, dered, and ruled His creatures, and declared it and through the fear of God. ["The last of (79, lit. "and enumerated it"), i. e., unfolded these three divisions (of the chap.) into which its contents before men and His other rational the highest truths are compressed is for empha- creatures throughout the whole creation, which in sis the shortest, in its calmness and abrupt end-truth is nothing else than such a "development ing the most solemn, because the thought finds and historical realization" of the contents of eterno expression that is altogether adequate, float-nal wisdom. The attempt of Schult.. Ew., Dillm. ing in a height that is immeasurable, but opening to explain as meaning "to number through, a boundless field for further reflection." Ewald ] to review all over" (after ch. xxxviii. 87; Ps. Ver. 23. God knows the way to it, and cxxxix. 18) is less natural.-He established He knows its place.-D and N, in it, and also searched it out, i. e., He laid its foundations in the creation (comp. Prov. viii. emphatic contrast with the creatures mentioned 22, 23, where both verbs, p and, convey in ver. 13 seq., and ver. 21 seq. The suffix in the same idea of founding, establishing wisdom A is objective (comp. Gen. iii. 24) "the way as here), brought it to its complete actualVers. 24, 25 constitute one proposition which ization in creation, and then reviewed all its illustrates and explains the Divine possession of individual parts to see whether they all bore wisdom by a reference to God's agency in cre- the test of His examination. Comp. what is ating and governing the world (so correctly said in Gen. i. 31: "And God saw everything Ewald, Arnh., Dillm.) [E. V., Conant, Rodman]. that He had made, and behold, it was very good. -Or again: He set it up before Himself," for Against connecting ver. 25 with what follows, more attentive contemplation ( according more immediately with ver. 26, and then regarding vers. 25, 26 together as constituting the pro- as in chap. xxix. 7), and searched it out thoroughly, exploring its thoughts (so Wolff and tasis of ver. 27 lies the objection that y Dillmann) [the latter of whom says: "He set it cannot properly be translated either "when He up for contemplation, as an artist or an archimade," or "in that He made," as well as the tect puts up before himself the "]. It is fact that the gerundive Infinitive with cannot not necessary, with some MSS. and Eds. to read be put before its principal verb, together with, instead of ', as Döderl. and Ew. do. Ver. 28. And said to man: Behold, the the absence of a suffix after y referring to fear of the Lord is wisdom, etc.—He would to it." |