torquere, volvere, and be explained "circulation, | periodic return," and even in its Egyptian form Koli (Copt. alloe) is to be traced back to this Shemitic radical signification (among the ancient Egyptians indeed the chief name of the phenix was béni, hierogl. bano, benno, which at the same time signifies "palm"). The phrase" to live as long as the phenix" is found also among other people of antiquity besides the Egyptians, e. g.. among the Greeks (poivikoç črn Biovv, Lucian, Hermot., p. 53); and the whole legend concerning the phenix living for five hundred years, then burning itself together with its nest, and again living glor fied, is in general as ancient as it is widely spread, especially in the East. Therefore it can neither seem strange, nor in any way objectionable, if a poetical book of the Holy Scripture should make reference to this myth (comp. the allusions to astronomical and other myths in ch. iii. 9; xxvi 28). Touching the proposition that the Egyptian nationality of the poet, or the Egyptian origin of his ideas does not fo low from this passage, see above, Intr. d., 8 7, b (where may also be found the most important literary sources of information respecting the legend of the phenix).

Vers. 1, 20 continue the expression, begun in ver. 18, of that which Job thought and hoped for. [According to E. V., ver. 19 resumes the description of Job's former condition: " My root was spread out, etc But these two verses are so different from the passage preceding, (vers. 11-27), in which Job speaks of his deeds of benefigence, and from the passage following (vers. 21-25) in which he describes his influence in the public assembly, and so much in harmony with ver. 18, in which he speaks of his prospects, as they seemed to his hopes, that the connection adopted by Zöckler, and most recent expositors, is decidedly to be preferred.-E ].

Ver. 19 My root will be open towards the water: i. e., my life will flourish, like a tree plentifully watered (comp. chap. xiv. 7 seq.; xviii. 16), and the dew will lie all night in my branches (comp. the same passages; also Gen. xxvii. 39; Prov. xix. 12; Ps. cxxxiii. 3, etc.)

=

Ver. 20. Mine honor will remain (ever) fresh with me (dóga, consideration, dignity, honor with God and men-not "soul' as Hahn explains ["to which is not appropriate as predicate," Del.], and my bow is renewed in my hand-the bow as a symbol of robust manliness, and strength for action, comp. 1 Sam. ii. 4; Ps. xlvi. 10 [9]; lxxvi. 4 [3]; Jerem. xlix. 35; li. 56, etc.-na, to make progress, to sprout forth (ch. xiv. 7); here to renew oneself, to grow young again. It is not necessary to supply, e. g.,, as Hirzel and Schlottmann do, on the basis of Isa. xl. 31.

Ver. 21 seq., exhibit in connection with the joyful hopes of Job, just described, which flowed forth directly out of the fulness of his prosperity, and in particular of the honor which he enjoyed, a full description of this honor, the narrative style of the discourse by 1, ver. 18, being resumed. Vers. 21-23 have for their subject

others than Job himself, the members of his tribe, not specially those who took part in the assemblies described in vers. 7-10; for which reason it is unnecessary to assume a transposition of the passage after ver. 10.

Ver. 21. They hearkened to me, and waited (n, pausal form, with Dagh. euphonic for 7, comp. Gesen. § 20, 2 c), and listened silently to my counsel (lit. "and were silent for or at my counsel"). Ver. 22. After my words they spoke not again-lit. "they did not repeat" (, non iterabant). On b comp. Deut. xxxii. 2; Cant. iv.

11; Prov. v. 3.

used of the refreshing [rain-like] dropping of Ver. 23. Further expansion of the figure last his discourse. They opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. The ip?, or latter rain in March or April, is, on account of the approaching harvest, which it helps to ripen, longed for with particular urgency in Palestine and the adjacent countries; comp. Deut. xi. 14; Jer. iii. 3: v. 24; Joel ii. 23; Hos. vi. 3, etc. One, to gape, pant, comp. Psalm cxix. 131.

Ver. 24. I laughed upon them when they

despaired-lit. when they did not have confidence" (, absol. as in Isa. vii. 9; comp. Psalm cxvi. 10; and is a circumstantial clause without this lacking, however, being supplied in many MSS. and Eds.). The meaning can be only: "even when they were despondent, I knew how to cheer them up by my friendly smiles." This is the only meaning with which the second member agrees which cannot harmonize with the usual explanation: "I smiled at them, they believed it not" (LXX., Vulg., Saad., Luther [E. V., Noy., Rod., Ren., Merx], and most moderus). [The reverence in which I was held was so great, that if I laid aside my gravity, and was familiar with them, they could scarcely believe that they were so highly honored; my very smiles were received with awe" Noyes]. And the light of my countenance (i. e., my cheerful visage, comp. Prov. xvi. 15) they could not darken; lit. "they could not cause to fall, cast down," comp. Gen. iv. 5, 6; tion appeared, the cheerfulness of my counteJer. iii. 12.-["However despondent their posinance they could not cause to pass away." DEL.]

Ver. 25. I would gladly take the way to them (comp. chap. xxviii. 23); i. e., I took pleasure in sitting in the midst of them, and in This is the only meaning taking part in affairs. that is favored by what follows;-the rendering of Hahn and Delitzsch: "I chose ut for them the way they should go" ["I made the way plain which they should take in order to get out of their hopeless and miserable state." DEL. This is the meaning also suggested by E. V.] is opposed by the consideration that 2, to choose," never means "to prescribe, determine, enjoin." In the passage which follows, "sitting as chief" () is immediately defined more in the concrete by the clause, 29, "like a

king in the midst of the army;" but then the altogether too military aspect of this figure (comp. chap. xv. 24; xix. 12) is again softened by making the business of the king surrounded by his armies to be not leading them to battle, but "comforting the mourners." Whether in this expression there is intended a thrust at the friends on account of their unskilful way of comforting (as Ewald and Dillmann think), may very much be doubted.

Second Division: The wretchedness of the present. Chap. xxx. First Strophe (or Double Strophe). vers. 1-15. The ignominy and contempt which he receives from men, put in glaring contrast with the high honor just described. The contrast is heightened all the more by the fact that the men now introduced as insulting and mocking him are of the very lowest and most contemptible sort; being the same class of men whose restless, vagabond life has already been described in ch. xxiv. 4-8, only more briefly

than here.

Ver. 1. And now they laugh at me who are younger than I in days-the good-fornothing rabble of children belonging to that abandoned class. What a humiliation for him before whom the aged stood up! ["The first line of the verse which is marked off by MerchaMahpach is intentionally so disproportionately long to form a deep and long-breathed beginning to the lamentation which is now begun." Del.] They whose fathers I would have dis dained to set with the dogs of my flock (Dyn, "to make like, to put on a level with," not to set over, y, præficere, as Schultens, Rosemn., Schlottm. explain). From this strong expression of contempt it does not follow that Job was now indulging in haughty or tyrannical inhuman thoughts [the considerate sympathy expressed by Job in ch. xxiv. 4-8 regarding this same class of men should be borne in mind in judging of Job's spirit here also; yet it cannot be denied that the pride of the grand dignified old Emir does flash through the words.-E.], but only that that rabble was immeasureably destitute, and moreover morally abandoned, thievish, false, improvident, and generally useless.

Ver. 2. Even the strength of their hands -what should it be to me?-i. e. "and even (LXX. kai yɛ) as regards themselves, those

youngsters, of what use could the strength of their hands be to me?" Why this was of no use to him is explained in b: for them full ripe ness is lost, i. e., enervated, miserable creatures that they are, they do not once reach ripe manly vigor (7 as in ch. v. 26). [Hence not "old age, as in E. V., which is both less correct and less expressive.] Why they do not, the verses immediately following show.

תהו .comp)

unquestionably signifies waste and devastation," or "wild and wilderness" 1721, Gen. i. 2; pian pia, Nah. ii. 11; and similar examples of assonance). The preceding however is difficult. Elsewhere it is an adverb of time: "the past night, last evening [and so, yesterday]," but here evidently a substantive, and in the constr. state It is explained to mean either: "the yesterday of wasteness and desolation," i. e., "that which has long been wasteness," etc. (Hirzel, Ewald) [Schlott., Renan, to whom may be added Good, Lee, Carey, Elzas, who connect with the participle, translating-"who yesterday were gnawers," etc., or: "the night, the darkness of the wilWords., Barnes, Bernard, Rodwell, the last two derness" (Targ., Rabbis, Gesen., Del.) [Noyes, taking DN,, and as three independent nouns,—“gloom, waste, desolation"]. Of these darkness appears nowhere else (not even in Jer. constructions the former is to be preferred, since ii. 6, 31) as a characteristic predicate of the wilthe darkness of the wilderness" produces a derness," and since especially the "gnawing of thought singularly harsh. Dillmann's explanaon: "already yesterday a pure wilderness" where therefore there is nothing to be found to-day), is linguistically harsh; and Olshausen's emendation arbitrary. [E. V., following the LXX. Targ.. and most of the old expositors, translates Dp “fleeing,” a rendering which besides being far less vivid and pently their proper habitation. forcible, is less suitable, the desert being evisense of "gnawing" reminds of, ch. xxiv. 5. It will be seen also that E. V. follows the adverbial construction of N, but "the wilderness in former time desolate and waste" suggests verbial, the force of DN must be to enhance the no very definite or consistent meaning. If admisery and hopelessness of their condition. They lived in what was not only now, but what had long been a desert-a fact which made the prospect of getting their support from it all the more cheerless.-E.].

in the ערק

Ver. 4. They who pluck the salt-wort by the bushes-in the place therefore where such small plants could first live, despite the scorching heat of the desert sun; in the shadow, that is, of larger bushes, especially of that perian desert under the name sîn, of which Wetzrennial, branchy bush which is found in the Systein treats in Delitzsch.- is the orach, or salt-wort (also sea-purslain, atriplex halimus L., comp. LXX.: aqua), a plant which in its younger and more tender leaves furnishes some nourishment, although of a miserable sort; comp. Athenæus, Deipnos. IV., 161, where it is said of poor Pythagoreans: äλua трúуovтes kai κακὰ τοιαῦτα συλλέγοντες.—And broom-roots (genista monosperma) is edible, is indeed asserted are their bread. That the root of the broom only here; still we need not doubt it, nor read e. g., Don, "in order to warm themselves," (Gesenius), as though here as in Ps. cxx. 4, only the use of the broom as fuel was spoken of.

Comp. Michaelis. Neue orient. Bibl. V, 45, and Wetzstein in Del. [II., 143.-And see Smith's Bib. Dic., "Juniper," "Mallows"].

Ver. 5. Out of the midst (of men) they are hunted, e medio pelluntur. 13, lit. that which is within, i. e., here the circle of human social life, human society. They cry after them as (after) a thief. 12, as though they were a thief; comp. 92, ch. xxix. 23.

is natural to assume the existence of a particular class of men in the country inhabited by Job as having furnished the historical occasion and theme of both descriptions. Since now in both passages a troglodyte way of living (dwelling in clefts of the rock and in obscure places, comp. above ch. xxiv. 4, 8) and the condition of having been driven out of their former habitations (comp. ch. xxiv. 4) are mentioned as prominent characteristics of these wretched ones, it becomes particularly probable that the people intended are the Choreans, or Chorites (Luther: Horites) [E. V.: "Horims"] who dwelt in holes, the abo

Ver. 7. Among the bushes they cry out. P above in ch. vi. 5 of the cry of the wild ass, here of the wild tones of the savage inhabitants of the steppes seeking food,-not their sermo barbarus; Pineda, Schlottmann [who refers to Herodotus' comparison of the language of the Ethiopian troglodytes to the screech of the nightowl. According to Delitzsch the word refers to their cries of lamentation and discontent over their desperate condition. There can be but little doubt that the word is intended to remind us of the comparison of these people to wild asses in ch. xxiv. 5, and so far the rendering of E. V. "bray," is not amiss]. Under nettles (brambles) they herd together; lit. "they must mix together, gather themselves." Most of the modern expositors render the Pual as a strict Passive, with the meaning, "they are poured [or stretched] out," which would be equivalent to "they lie down" [or are prostrate]: comp. Amos vi. 4, 7. But both the use of não in such passages as 1 Sam. xxvi. 19; Is. xiv. 1, and the testimony of the most ancient Versions (Vulg., Targ., and indeed the LXX. also: diŋtāvтo) favor rather the meaning of herding, or associating together. ["But neither the fut. nor the Pual (instead of which one would expect the Niph., or Hithpa.) is favorable to the latter interpretation: wherefore we decide in favor of the former, and find sufficient support for a Heb.-Arabic MDD in th signification effundere from a comparison of ch. xiv. 19 and the present passage.' Del.].

Ver. 8. Sons of fools, yea, sons of base men,--both expressions in opposition to the subject of the preceding verse. is used as a collective, and means the ungodly, as in Ps. xiv. 1.—, equivalent to ignobiles, infames, a construction similar to that in ch. xxvi. 2 [lit. sons of no-name']; comp. 286, g.-They are whipped out of the land; lit. indeed an attributive clause-"who are whipped," etc.; hence exiles, those who are diven forth out of their own home. [The rendering of E. V., "they were viler than the earth" was doubtless suggested by the use of the adjective

in

the sense of "afflicted, dejected"]. In view of the palpable identity of those pictured in these verses with those described in ch. xxiv. 4-8, it

were in part subjugated by the Edomites, in part exterminated, in part expelled (comp. Gen. xxxvi. 5; Deut. ii. 12, 22). Even if Job's home is to be looked for at some distance from Edomitis, e. g. in Hauran (comp on ch. i. 1) a considerable number of such Chorites (in, i. e. dwellers in holes, or caves) might have been living in his neighborhood; for driven out by the Edomites, they would have fled more particularly into the neighboring regions of Seir-Edom, and here indeed again they would have betaken themselves to the mountains with their caves, gorges, where they would have lived the same wretched life as their ancestors, who had been left behind in Edom. It is less likely that a cave-dwelling people in Hauran, different from these remnants of the Horites, are intended, e. g. the Itureans, who were notorious for their poverty, and waylaying mode of life (Del. and Wetzst.).

Ver. 9. In the second half of the Long Strophe, which also begins with ! Job turns his attention away from the wretches whom he has been elaborately describing back to himself. And now I am become their song of derision, I am become to them for a byword.--, elsewhere a stringed instrument, means here a song of derision, olhos (comp. Lam. iii. 14; Ps. lxix. 18 [12], 7, malicious, defamatory speech referring to the subject of the same (LXX.: 9pb22nμa).

Ver. 10. Abhorring me, they remove far from me (to wit, from very abhorrence), yea, they have not spared my face with spitting; i. e. when at any time they come near me, it is never without testifying their deepest contempt by spitting in my face (Matt. xxvi. 67; xxvii. 30). An unsuitable softening of the meaning is attempted by those expositors, who find expressed here merely "a spitting in his presence" (Hirzel, Umbreit, Scalottmann); this meaning would require rather than 9. Comp. also above ch. xvii. 6, where Job calls himself a

.for the people תּפֶת לְפָנִים

Ver. 11 seq. show why Job had been in such a way given over to be mocked at by the most wretched, because namely God and the divine powers which cause calamity had delivered him over to the same. For these are the principal subject in vers. 11-14, not those miserable outcasts of human society just spoken of (as Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, Stickel, Schlottm., Del. [Noy, Car., Rod. and appy. E. V.] explain). The correct view is given by LXX. and Vulg., and