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11 Because He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the brile before me.

12 Upon my right hand rise the youth;

they push away my feet,

and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. 13 They mar my path,

they set forward my calamity,

they have no helper.

14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters; in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

15 Terrors are turned upon me:

they pursue my soul as the wind:

and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

b. The unspeakable misery which everywhere oppresses him: vers. 16-23.

16 And now my soul is poured out upon me;

the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season;

and my sinews take no rest.

18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed:

it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

19 He hath cast me into the mire,

and I am become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not hear me:

I stand up, and Thou regardest me not.

21 Thou art become cruel to me;

with Thy strong hand Thou opposest Thyself against me.

22 Thou liftest me up to the wind;

Thou causest me to ride upon it,

and dissolvest my substance.

23 For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,

and to the house appointed for all living.

c. The disappointment of all his hopes: vers. 24-31.

24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?

was not my soul grieved for the poor?

26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me;

and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

27 My bowels boiled, and rested not:

the days of affliction prevented me.

28 I went mourning without the sun :

I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

29 I am a brother to dragons,

and a companion to owls.

30 My skin is black upon me,

and my bones are burned with heat.

31 My harp also is turned to mourning,

and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

3. Solemn asseveration of his innocence in respect to all open and secret sins.

CHAPTER XXXI.

a. He has abandoned himself to no wicked lust: vers. 1-8.

1 I made a covenant with mine eyes;

why then should I think upon a maid?

2 For what portion of God is there from above?.

and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3 Is not destruction to the wicked?

and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

4 Doth not He see my ways,

and count all my steps?

5 If I have walked with vanity, or if

my foot hath hasted to deceit ; 6 let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. 7 If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; 8 then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

b. He has acted uprightly in all his domestic life: vers. 9-13,

9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,

or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door;

10 then let my wife grind unto another,

and let others bow down upon her.

11 For this is a heinous crime;

yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction,

and would root out all mine increase.

13 If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me;

14 what then shall I do when God riseth up?

and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?

15 Did not He that made me in the womb make him?

and did not One fashion us in the womb?

c. He has constantly practised neighborly kindness and justice in civil life: vers. 16-23.

16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire,

or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17 or have eaten my morsel myself alone,

and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

18 (for from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father,

and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,

or any poor without covering;

20 if his loins have not blessed me,

and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; 21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,

when I saw my help in the gate;

22 then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone!

23 For destruction from God was a terror to me,

and by reason of His highness I could not endure.

d. He has not violated his more secret obligations to God and his neighbor: vers. 24-32.

24 If I have made gold my hope,

or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

25 if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,

and because mine hand had gotten much;

26 if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

27 and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand :

28 this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above.

29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30 (-neither have I suffered my mouth to sin

by wishing a curse to his soul :)

31 if the men of my tabernacle said not,

O that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32 The stranger did not lodge in the street:

but I opened my doors to the traveller.

e. He has been guilty furthermore of no hypocrisy, or mere semblance of holiness, of no secret violence, or avaricious oppression of his neighbor: vers. 33-40.

33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam,

by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom :

34 did I fear a great multitude,

or did the contempt of families terrify me,

that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35 O that one would hear me!

behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me,

and that mine adversary had written a book.

36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,

and bind it as a crown to me.

37 I would declare unto Him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto Him.

38 If my land cry against me,

or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

39 If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,
or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life;

40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat,

and cockle instead of barley.

The words of Job are ended.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

God of the Future (cn. xxx1.). These divisions are very obvious, and justify the divisions into chapters founded on them as corresponding strictly to that intended by the poet himself. Neither can there be much doubt in regard to the more special sub-division of these chief divisions. The first and the second contain respectively three long sub-divisions or strophes, of 8-9 verses each (once only, ch. xxx. 1 seq. of 15 verses, which long strophe indeed may also be divided into two shorter ones of 8 and 7 verses. In the third part there appear quite distinctly five groups of thought of 7-8 (once of 9) verses each.

1. Although introduced by the same formula as the discourse immediately preceding (comp. ch. xxix. 1 with xxvii. 1), this last long series of Job's utterances exhibits decidedly a uɛráßariç εiç ààño yέvoç, a form and method esssentially new in comparison with the former controversial and argumentative discourses of the colloquy. They are not once addressed to the friends, who since ch. xxv. have been entirely silenced, and have not been provoked to further reply even by the elaborate instructions, which he imparts to them in ch. xxvii. xxviii. In- 2. First Division: The prosperity of the past: stead of this they frequently appeal to God, and ch. xxix. ["It is very thoughtfully planned by present, especially in the last section, a long the poet that Job, by this description of his forseries of solemn asseverations or adjurations mer prosperity, unintentionally refutes the accuuttered before God. They thus appear, in con- sations of his friends, inasmuch as it furnishes trast with the interlocutory character of the dis- a picture of his former life very different from courses hitherto, as a genuine soliloquy by Job, that which they had ventured to assume. We which both by its contents and by its conspicu-have here the picture of a rich and highly disous length, forms a suitable transition to the fol- tinguished chief of a tribe [or patriarch], who lowing discourses, or groups of discourses by was happy only in spreading abroad happiness Elihu and Jehovah, which are in like manner of and blessing." Schlottmann]. considerable length. The three principal sections are a yearning retrospect to the happy past (ch. xxix.), a description of the sorrowful present (ch. xxx.), and solemn asseverations of innocence in presence of the divine judge, or

First Strophe: vers. 2-10: The outward appearance of this former prosperity.

Ver. 2. Oh that it were to me [Oh that I were] as in months of yore! lit. "who gives (makes) me like the months of the past," who

puts me back in the happy condition of that | blessings, and that close by his side, so that he time (so Rosenm., Welte, Vaih, etc.). Or, with was not compelled to go far; comp. Deut. the dative rendering of the suffix in (as in xxxii. 13. Is. xxvii. 4; Jer. ix. 1), "who gives to me like Vers. 7-10. The honor and dignity which he the months of the past," i. e. who makes me to then enjoyed. When I went forth to the live over such! (so usually). On the construc- gate up to the city. y is equivalent to tion in 6 (the constr. state before the relay, towards the gate (comp. ch. xxviii. 11; tive clause), comp. Gesenius, 116, [114], 3. Gen. xxvii. 3), not: "out at the gate" (as be[Green, 255, 2]. low, ch. xxxi. 34 ), for Job's residence was Ver. 3. When it (viz.) His lamp shone in the country, not in the city with Dy. For above my head.—, Inf. Kal of 5 with this same reason he speaks here of his going up the vowel a weakened to i (Ewald, 255, a), "up to the city;" for the city adjoin[Green, 139, 2], not Inf. Hiph. as Böttchering to him, was on an eminence, as was usually would render it, when after the Targ. he translates: "when He caused His lamp to shine." This Hiphil rendering could only be justified if (with Ewald in his comm.) we should read in (b). [Probably alluding to the custom of suspending lamps in rooms or tents over the head. The language of this ver. is of course figurative, and implies prosperity and the divine favor." Carey]. On the anticipation of the subject 17 by the suffix, comp. Ew., 8 309, c. Delitzsch quite too artificially refers the suffix in to God, and takes 17 as a self-corrective, explanatory permutative: "when He, His lamp shone, etc.'

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.2 .ver כימי and כירחי simple ; in

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Ver. 4. As I was in the days of my harvest.—UN, “as, according as," resumes the "The days of the harvest are, as ver. 5 b shows, a figurative expression for ripe manhood ["the days of my prime" Carey], the ætas virilis suis fructibus fæta et exuberans (Schultens): comp. Ovid Metam. XV. 200. [The rendering of E. V. "in the days of my youth" (after Symmach. and the Vulg.) is less correct, as is shown by the reference above to ver. 5 6, the time referred to being that

when he had his children about him, as well as by the word itself, which means the time when the ripe fruit is gathered]. When Eloah's friendship was over my tent; i. e. dispensed protection and blessing above my habitation. here meaning "1amiliarity, confidential intercourse," (as in ch. xix. 19; Ps. xxv. 14; lv. 15 [14]; Prov. iii. 22), not the celestial council of God, as in ch. xv. 8 (against

בְּהְיוֹת סוד either by ellipsis for בְּסוֹד] .(Hirzel

or having the force of an active [verbal] | noun, "His being familiar." Dillm.-Carey's explanation, though pushing the literal render. ing a little too far, is striking: "lit. in the seat or cushion of God being at my tent; i. e., when God was on such terms of familiar intercourse with me that he had, as it were, his accustomed seat at my tent"].

Ver. 5. On children as a most highly valued blessing, placed here next to God Himself, comp. Ps. cxxvii. 3 seq.; cxxviii. 3. Concerning Dy in this sense (not in that of "servants,") see above ch. i. 19; xxiv. 5.

Ver. 6. When my steps were bathed in cream (comp. ch xx. 17, where however we have the full form), and the rock beside me poured out streams of oil; that which elsewhere was barren poured out costly

T:

the case with ancient cities. [Comp. Abraham's relations to Hebron, as indicated in Gen. xxiii.]. In respect to the use of the space directly inside the gates of these cities as a place for assemblies of the people, comp. above, ch. v. 4; also xxxi. 4; Prov. i. 21; viii. 3, and often. When I prepared my seat in the market. in? the open space at the gate, as in Neh viii. 1, 3, 16, etc. On the construction (the change from the Infin. to the finite verb), comp. ver. 3; ch. xxviii. 25.

Ver. 8. Then the young men saw me, and hid themselves; i. e. as soon as they And the gray-headed rose up, remained came in sight of me, from reverential awe. standing-until I myself had sat. ["A most elegant description, and exhibits most correctly the great reverence and respect which was paid, even by the old and decrepit, to the holy man in passing along the streets, or when he sat in public. They not only rose, which in men so old and infirm was a great mark of distinction, but they stood, they continued to do it, though the attempt was so difficult." Lowth]. On the construction, comp. Ewald, § 285, b.

Ver. 9. Princes restrained themselves

from speaking (Dpay, as in ch. iv. 2; xii. 15), and laid the hand on their mouth, imposed on themselves reverential silence; comp. ch. xxi. 5. [What is meant is not that those who were in the act of speaking stopped at Job's entrance, but that when he wished to speak, even princes, i. e. rulers of great bodies of men, or those occupying the highest offices, refrained from speech." Dillmann].

Ver. 10. The voice of nobles hid itself,

T::

קוֹל

lit. "hid themselves," for the verb N is put
in agreement with the plur. dependent on
as the principal term, as in the similar cases in
ch. xv. 20; xxi. 21; xxii. 12. [Comp. Green,

277].-D'T' lit. "those who are visible" (from 1) i. e. conspicuous, noble [nobiles]. On b comp. passages like Ps. cxxxvii. 6; Ezekiel iii. 26.

Continuation. Second Strophe: vers. 11-17. Job's active benevolence and strict integrity as the inward cause of his former prosperity.

Ver. 11. For if an ear heard-it called me happy lit. "for an ear heard, and then called me happy;" and similarly in the second member. The object of the hearing, as afterwards of the seeing, is neither Job's speeches in the assembly of the people ["if this ver. were a continuation of the description of the proceed.

On a comp. Is. ix. 5; xxii. 21.—JN seem to form a paronomasia here.

ings in the assembly, it would not be introduced Ver. 16. by Dillm.], nor his prosperity (Hahn, De- and D litzsch), but as ver. 12 seq. shows, his whole-And the cause of the unknown [the public and private activity. [For the reason strangers, the friendless] I searched out, i. e., mentioned by Dillmann is better translated in order to help them as their advocate, provided "for" than "when" (E. V.)]. In regard to they were in the right.-T, attributive "to pronounce happy," comp. Prov. xxxi. 28; Cant. vi. 9. In regard to Tyn, to bear fa-clause, as in ch. xviii. 21; Is. xli. 3; lv. 5, and often. [E. V., "the cause which I knew not" is admissible, and gives essentially the same sense; but the other rendering is to be preferred, as furnishing a better parallel to the "blind, lame, poor," preceding.-The man whom nobody knew, or cared for, Job would willingly take for his client.-E.].

vorable testimony to any one, comp. uapтvpεiv Tivi Luke iv. 22; Acts xv. 8.

Ver. 12. For I delivered the poor, that cried, and the orphan, who had no helper - a circumstantial clause, comp. Ew., 331). [The clause "is either a third new object (so E. V.)], or a close definition of what precedes: the orphan and (in this state of orphanhood) helpless one. The latter is more probable both here and in the Salomonic primary passage Ps. lxxii. 12; in the other case 1519-18 78 might be expected." Delitz.] The Imperfects describing that which is wont to be, as also in vers. 13, 16. As to the sentiment, comp. Ps. lxxii. 12.

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Ver. 17. I broke the teeth of the wicked (the cohortative, , as in ch. i. 15; xix. 20), and out of his teeth I plucked the prey. -For the description of hardhearted oppressors and tyrants (or unrighteous judges, of the figure of ravaging wild beasts, from which whom we are to think particularly here), under the prey is rescued, comp. Ps. iii. 8 [7]; lviii. 7 [6], etc.

4. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Vers. 18-25. The honor and the influence which Job once enjoyed, and the loss of which he mourns with es

Ver. 13. The blessing of the lost (lit. "of one lost, perishing;" 28 as in ch. xxxi. 19; | Prov. xxxi. 6) came upon me; i. e., as bpecial sorrow. shows, the grateful wish that he might be blessed from such miserable ones as had been rescued by him, hardly the actual blessing which God bestowed on him in answer to the prayer of such (comp. Hermas, Past. Simil. 2).

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Ver. 18. And so then I thought [said]: With my nest [together with my nest," as implying a wish that he and his nest might perish together, would be "unnatural, and diametrically opposed to the character of an Arab, who in the presence of death cherishes the twofold and that he may die in the midst of his family," wish that he may continue to live in his children, Delitzsch] (or also: "in my nest") shall I die; ther with my family, and property (comp. Ps. .e., without having left or lost my home, togelxxxiv. 4 [3]), hence in an advanced, happy old age. And like the phenix have many days: lit., "make many, multiply my days." The language also would admit of our rendering

i. e

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Ver. 14. I had clothed myself with righteousness, and it with me; i. e., in proportion as I exerted myself to exercise righteousness (P) toward my neighbor, the same [righteousness] took form, filled me inwardly in truth ["it put me on as a garment, i. e., it made me so its own, that my whole appearance was the representation of itself, as in Judg. vi. 84, and twice in the Chron., of the Spirit of Jehovah it is said that He puts on any one, induit, when He makes any one the organ of His own manifesta- "sand," understanding the expression to tion," Delitzsch. Righteousness was as a robe refer to the multiplication of days like grains of to me, and I was as a robe to it. I put it on, sand; comp. "as the sand of the sea in 1 Ki. and it put me on; it identified itself with me." v. 9 [iv. 29 applying to Solomon's wisdom] and Words.] Not: "and it clothed me," as Rosen- often; also Ovid, Metam. XIV. 136 seq. quot hamüller, Arnh., Umbr. [E. V., Schlottm., Carey, beret corpora pulvis, tot mihi natales contingere vana Renan, Rod., Elz., etc.], arbitrarily render the rogavi. But against this interpretation, which second, thereby producing only a flat tau- Umbreit, Gesenius, Stickel, Vaih., Hahn, [E. V., is adopted by the Targ., Pesh., Saad., Luther, tology. [Ewald also: "it adorned me."-The Con., Noy., Ber., Carey, Words., Renan, Rodother rendering is adopted, or approved by Gesen., Fürst, Delitzsch, Dillmann, Wordsworth, well, Merx], and in favor of understanding in Noyes in his Notes]. The figure of being clothed of the phenix, that long-lived bird of the wellwith a moral quality or way of living to repre- known oriental legend (so most moderns since sent one as equipped, or adorned therewith, Rosenmüller) may be urged: (1) The oldest (comp. Isa. xi. 5; li. 9; lix. 17; Ps. cxxxii. 9), exegetical tradition in the Talmud, in the Midrais continued in the second member, where Job's shim, among the Masoretes and Rabbis (espestrict righteousness and spotless integrity (this cially Kimchi); (2) the versions-manifestly is what means; comp. Mic. iii. 8) are re-proceeding out of a misconception of this phenix presented as a mantle and a tiara (turban);" tradition-of the LXX.: WOTEρ σTÉλEXOS POLVIKOS; of the Itala: sicut arbor palme, and of the Vulg.: sicut palma; (3) and finally even the etymology of the word in (or han, as the Rabbis of Nahardea read, according to Kimchi) which it would seem must be derived (with Bochart) from

comp. Is. lxi. 10.

Ver. 15. Comp. Num. x. 31. To be anybody's eye, ear, foot (here "feet"), etc., is of course to supply these organs by the loving ministration of help, and to make it possible as it were to dis

pense with them.

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