sative particle, as in ch. xvi. 7; No, however, calamity). On & comp. ch. xix. 12, 15 seq. The interrogative for ', comp. ch. ii. 10 b. The . hey. Da, "to be troubled, grieved," is not

T

ז

different in sense from DIN, Is. xix. 10.

T

as

Ver. 26. For I hoped for good, and there came evil, etc. -For the thought comp. Is. lix. 9; Jer. xiv. 19. Respecting (Imperf. cons. Piel), comp. Ewald, & 232, h; the strengthening in the final vowel as in ch. i. 15. Ver. 27. In regard to the "boiling" ( in ch. xli. 23 [31]) of the bowels, comp. Lam. i. 20; ii. 11; Is. xvi. 11; Jer. xxxi. 20, etc. ["My bowels boiled." E. V., does not quite express the Pual "are made to boil,” the result of an external cause.] On DP, "to encounter any one, to fall upon him" [E. V. "prevent❞ obsolete], comp. Ps. xviii. 6 [5].

view that 'ya is compounded of and y "ruin, fall, destruction" (comp. Mic. i. 6, also the more frequent plur., Dy, ruins), is favored by the parallel expression T in the second member. The finally, in the sense of stretching out the hands in supplication, prayer, is at least indirectly supported by Ex. xvii. 11 seq., and similar passages (such as Ex. ix. 29; 1 Kings viii. 38; Is. i. 15; lxv. 2, etc.).—Or in his overthrow (will one not lift up) a cry on that account?—The interrogative extends its influence still over the second member. The suffix in 1793 refers back to the indefinite subject in , and belongs there- the heat of the sun, i e. not by the heat of Ver. 28. I go along blackened, without fore to the same one overtaken by the fall, and threatened with destruction (T as in ch. xii. the sun. the sun, not as one that is burnt by the heat of Since (comp. Cant. vi. 10; Is. 5). Respecting s "on that account, there- xxx. 26) denotes the sun as regards its heat, fore," see Ewald, 217, d; and on y(instead of which the Pesh. and Vulg. "a cry," comp. ch. xxxvi. 19 a.—It is possible read on 2) is not to he explained “without that instead of the harsh expression the sun light-in inconsolable darkness" (80 we should read something like (accord-Hahn, Delitzsch, Kamp.) [and probably E. V.: "I went mourning without the sun"]; which is all the less probable in that p can scarcely denote anything else than the dirty appearance of a mourner, covered with dust and ashes (comp. ch. vii. 5), such a blackening of the skin accordingly as would present an obvious contrast with that produced by the heat of the sun.

On

ing to Dillmann's conjecture). On the whole the explanation here propounded of this verse, which was variously misunderstood by the ancient versions and expositors, gives the only meaning suited to the context, for which reason the leading modern commentators (Ewald. Hirzel, Delitzsch, Dillmann, and on the whole Hahn, etc.) adhere to it. [Delitzsch thus explains the connection: "He knows that he is being hurried comp. ch. xxiv. 10.—I stand up in the forth to meet death; he knows it, and has also assembly, complaining aloud, giving free already made himself so familiar with this expression to my pain on account of my sufferthought, that the sooner he sees an end put to this his sorrowful life, the better-nevertheless ings. Sphere indeed not of the popular does one not stretch out one's hand when one is assembly in the gates-for the time was long falling?... or in his downfall raise a cry for since passed, when he, the leper, might take his help?" As Dillmann remarks, this meaning is place there (comp. ch. xxix. 7 seq.)—but the striking in itself (besides being simple and assembly of mourners, who surrounded him in, natural), and is in admirable harmony with the or near his house, and who, we are to undercontext. The E. V., after some of the. Rabbis, stand, were by no means limited to the three takes in the sense of "grave," although the friends. The opinion of Hirzel and Dillmann, meaning of its rendering is obscure. It would that pe means publice, is without support; seem to be that God will not stretch out His, Prov. xxvi. 26 argues against this signihand, in the way of deliverance, to the grave, although when He begins to destroy, men cry out for mercy. Wordsworth translates: only will He (God) not stretch out His hand (to help, see Prov. xxxi. 20; Hab. iii. 10) upon me, who am like a desolation or a ruin? And will not crying therefore (reach Him) in His destruction of me?"-Others (Ges., Con., Noyes, Carey, take 'ya (from ) to mean "prayer:" "Yea, there is no prayer, when He stretches out the hand; nor when He destroys can they cry for help," which is not so well suited to the connection, and is against the parallelism which makes it probable that before' is a preposition as ? before T.-E.]

:

66

But

Ver. 25. Or did I not weep for him that was in trouble? lit. for "the hard of day," for "him that is afflicted by a day" (a day of

language does refer to an assembly of the people, not to any other gathering.

fication, rather than for it, for there in fact the

Ver. 29. I am become a brother to jackals [Vulg., E. V.: "dragons' ], a companion of ostriches [E. V. here as elsewhere incorrectly owls"], . e. in respect to the loud, mournful howling of these animals of the desert (see Mic. i. 8). The reference is not so well taken to their solitariness, although this also may be taken into the account; for the life of a leper, shut off from all intercourse with the public, and put out of the city, must at all times be comparatively deserted, notwithstanding all the groups of sympathizing visitors, who might occasionally gather about him. [See note in Delitzsch ii. 171; also Smith's Bib. Dict. gon," "Ostrich."]

Dra

Ver. 30. My skin, being black, peels off | 13, where also may be found the parallel from me: lit. "is become black from me." "inheritance." On hypp, "from above," comp. ch. xvi. 19; xxv. 2; and in particular such New Testament passages as Rom. i. 18 (áñ' ovpavov), James i. 17 (ăvodɛv), etc.

as in ver. 17; the blackness of the skin (produced by the heat of the disease) as in ver. 19 [where, however, it is referred rather to the dirt adhering to it]; comp. ch. vii. 5.-Respecting from 1, "to glow, to be hot," comp. Ezek. xxiv. 11; Is. xxiv. 6.

Ver. 31 forms a comprehensive close to the whole preceding description: And so my harp (comp. ch. xxi. 12) was turned to mourning, and my pipe (comp. the same passage) to tones of lamentation; lit. "to the voice of the weeping." Job's former cheerfulness and joyousness (comp. ch. xxix. 24) appears here under the striking emblem of the tones of musical instruments sounding forth clearly and joyously, but now become mute. Similar descriptions in Ps. xxx. 12 [11]; Lam. v. 15; Amos viii. 10, etc. [" Thus the second part of the monologue closes. It is Job's last sorrowful lament before the catastrophe. What a delicate touch of the poet is it that he makes this lament, ver. 31, die away so melodiously. One hears the prolonged vibration of its elegiac strains. The festive and joyous music is hushed; the only tones are tones of sadness and lament, mesto flebile." Delitzsch].

Ver. 4. Doth not He (, referring back to mix, ver. 2) [and emphatic: He-doth He not see, etc.] see my ways, and doth He not count all my steps?-Comp. Ps. exxxix. 2 seq. It was accordingly the thought of God as the omniscient heavenly Judge, which influenced Job to avoid most rigidly even such sinful desires and thoughts as were merely internal!

: T

TT

(comp. Dy,

Vers. 5-8. The first in the series of the many adjurations, beginning with DN, in which Job continues the assertion of his innocence to the close of the discourse.—If I have walked [had intercourse] with falsehood (N here as a synonym of the following, not simply "vanity" [E. V] but "falsehood, a false nature, lying") and my foot hath hasThird Division: Job's asseveration of his inno-tened to deceit.- from a verb nun, cence in presence of the God of the future: ch. xxxi. not found elsewhere; and signifying not "to be First Strophe: Vers. 1-8. The avoidance of all silent," " but "to hasten " (like ) is an altersinful lust, which he had constantly practiced.— nate form of the more common A covenant have I made with mine eyes, and how should I fix my gaze on a maiden? i. e., with adulterous intent (comp. рòç Tò ¿πIνμñοαι aντip, Matth. v. 28; comp. Sir. ix. 5). The whole verse affirms that Job had not once violated the marriage covenant in which he lived (and which, ch. ii. 9-comp. ch. xix. 17shows to have been monogamous) by adulterous inclinations, to say nothing of unchaste actions. In respect to the significance of this utterance of a godly man in the patriarchal age, in connection with the history of morals and civilization, comp. below "Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks." The words instead of

:

or Dy) are literally rendered: "to prescribe, to dictate a covenant to the eyes. Job appears accordingly as the superior, prescribing to his organ of vision its conduct, dictating to it all the conditions of the agreement. It is unnecessary, and even erroneous, to translate the verbs as pluperfects ("I had made a covenant-. how should I have looked upon," etc.-so e. g., Umbreit, Hahn, Vaih.), for Job would by no means describe these principles of chastity, which he observed, as something belonging merely to the earlier past.

1 Sam. xv. 19, from a root no, synonymous with ').

Ver. 6. Parenthetic demand upon God, that He should be willing to prove the truth of Job's utterances (not the consequent of the hypothetic antecedent in the preceding verse, as Delitzsch [E. V.], would make it).-Let Him (God) weigh me in a just balance; or "in the balance of justice," the same emblem of the decisive Divine judgment to which the inscription in the case of Belshazzar refers (Dan. v. 25), and which appears in the proverbial language of the Arabs as "the balance of works;" in like manner among the Greeks as an attribute of Themis, or Dike, etc.

Ver. 7. Continuation of the asseveratory antecedent in ver. 5, introduced by an Imperf. of the Past-expressing the continuousness of the actions described-interchanging with the Perf. (as again below in vers. 13, 16-20, etc.)-If my steps turned aside from the way, i. e., from the right way, prescribed by God (comp. ch. xxiii. 11), which is forsaken when, as the thought is expressed in b, one "walks after his own eyes," i. e., allows himself to be swayed by the lusts of the eye (comp. Jer. xviii. 12; 1 John ii. 16).— And a spot cleaved to my hands, to wit, a spot of immoral actions, especially such as are avaricious. Comp. Ps. vii. 4 [3] seq.; Deut. xiii. 17, etc.-DIND instead of the usual form DD (comp. ch. xi. 15), found also Dan. i. 4.

Vers. 2-4 continue the reflections, beginning with ver. 16, which had restrained him from unchaste lusts, and this in the form of three questions, of which the first (ver. 2) is answered by the second and third (vers. 3 and 4).—And (thus did I think-) what would be the Ver. 8. Consequent: then shall I sow and dispensation of Eloah from above?-pn another eat; i. e., the fruits of my labor shall he enjoyed by another, instead of myself (beis the portion assigned by God, the dispensation cause I have stained it by the fraudulent approof His just retribution; comp. ch. xx. 29; xxvii. | priation of the property of others); the same

humane friendliness of Job's conduct toward his house-slaves. If I despised the right of my servant, of my maid-if those who were often treated as absolutely without any rights, certainly not on the basis of the Mosaic law (comp. Ex. xxi. 1 seq., 20 seq.). Job, the patriarchal saint, appears accordingly in this re

thought as above in ch. xxvii. 16 seq.; comp. Lev. xxvi. 16; Deut. xxviii. 33; Amos v. 11, etc. -And may my products be rooted out! D'NYNY used here not of children, offspring [E. V.] (as in ch. v. 25; xxi. 8; xxvii. 14), but according to a of the growth of the soil as planted by the owner, which so far as it shall not fall into the hands of others shall be destroyed (comp.spect also as a fore-runner of the theocratic Is. xxxiv. 1; xlii. 5).

spirit; comp. Abraham's relations to Eliezer, Gen. xv. 2; xxiv. 2 seq.

9. Continuation. Second Strophe: Vers. 9-15. Ver. 14. What should I do when God The righteousness which he had exercised in all the affairs of his domestic life.-If my heart arose? etc. Umbreit, stickel, Vaih., Welte, Dehas been befooled on account of [or enlitzsch [E. V. Con., Carey, Noy., Words., Merx], ticed towards] a woman; i. e., a married correctly construe this verse as the apodosis of woman, for the sins of whicb Job here acquits the preceding, here exceptionally introduced by his conscience are those of the more flagrant sort,, not as a parenthetic clause, which would then like David's transgression with Bathsheba, not simple acts of unchastity, such as were described above in ver. 1.-As to b, comp. ch. xxiv. 15, and particularly Prov. vii. 7 seq.

Ver. 10. Consequent: Then let my wife grind for another; i. e., not simply grind with the hand-mill for him as his slave (Ex. xi. 5; Isa. xlvii. 2; Matth. xxiv. 41), but according to the testimony of the Ancient Versions (LXX. Vulg., Targ.) and the Jewish expositors-it refers to sexual intercourse in concubinage-this obscene sense being still more distinctly expressed in b.-, Aram. plur. as in ch. iv. 2; xxiv. 22.

have no consequent after it (Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann), [Schlottmann, Renau, Rod., Elz.]. In respect to the "rising up" of God, to wit, for judgment, comp. ch. xix. 25; on TP to "inquire into," comp. Ps. xvii. 3; on ', "to reply,"

ch. xiii. 22.

Ver. 15. In the womb did not my Ma(TIN, one and the same God) fashion us in ker make him (also), and did not One the belly?, syncopated Pilel-form, with suffix of the 1st pers. plur., for n (Ewald, 81, a; comp. 250, a). For the thought comp. on the one side, ch. x. 8-12; on the other Vers. 11, 12. Energetic expression of detesta-side the use made of the identity of creation and tion for the sin of adultery just mentioned.-For community of origin on the part of masters and such a thing (N) [this] would be an in- servants as a motive for the humane treatment famous act, and that (No7) a sin [crime to of the latter by the former in Eph. vi. 9 (also be brought] before the judges. So accord- Mal. ii. 10). [The position of gives some ing to the K'thibh, which with N points back emphasis to the thought that the womb is the to that which is mentioned in ver. 9, but with common source of our earthly life, or as Depoints back to , "transgression, deed of litzsch expresses it, that God has fashioned us infamy" ["the usual Thora-word for the shame- in the womb "in an equally animal way," a less, subtle encroachments of sensual desires." thought "which smites down all pride."—E.]. Del.], while the K ri unnecessarily reads N in both instances by would be, so written (within the absol. state) crimen, et crimen quidem judicum (comp. Gesen., 116 [114] Rem.). Still the conjecture is natural that we are to read either, as in ver. 28

cr.

judiciale, or, hey, er. judicum. The meaning of the expression is furthermore similar to EvoXos Tn Kpios, Matth. v. 21 seq.

Ver. 12. For it would be a fire which would devour even to the abyss, i. e., which would not rest before it had brought me, consumed by a wicked adulterous passion, to merited punishment in the abyss of hell; comp. Prov. vi. 27 seq.; vii. 26 seq.; Sir. ix. 8; James iii. 6, and in respect to 1172 see above ch. xxvi. 6: xxviii. 22,-and which would root out all my increase, i. e., burn out the roots beneath it. The before - may be expressed by the translation: "and which should undertake the act of outrooting upon my whole produce," (Delitzsch) [Beth objecti, corresponding to the Greek genitive expressing not an entire full coincidence, but an action about and upon the object. See Ewald, 217].

Ver. 13 seq. A new adjuration touching the

Continuation. Third Strophe; vers. 16-23: His righteous and merciful conduct toward his neighbors, or in the sphere of civil life (comp. above ch. xxix. 12-17). After the first hypothe parenthesis, in ver. 18, then three new anthetic antecedent, in ver. 16, follows immediately tecedent passages, beginning with DN (or NS-DN), until finally, in ver. 22, the common consequent of these four antecedents is stated. If I refused to the poor their desire [or, if I held back the poor from their desire] ( construed otherwise than in ch. xxii. 7; comp. Eccles. ii. 10; Num. xxiv. 11); and caused the widow's eyes to fail-from looking out with yearning for help; comp. ch. xi. 20; xvii.

5; and in particular on nha comp. Lev. xxvi.

16; 1 Sam. ii. 33.

Ver. 18. Parenthesis, repudiating the thought that he could have treated widows or orphans so cruelly as he had just described-introduced by in the signification-"nay, rather" comp. Ps. cxxx. 4; Mich. vi.4, and often). Nay indeed from my youth he grew up to me as to a father, viz., the orphan; the position of the subjects in respect to those of ver. 16 and ver. 17 is chiastic [inverted]. The suffix in "372 has the force of a dative (Ewald, ¿ 815, 6), and

T:

one who has not been satisfied with his flesh? lit. "who gives one not satisfied with his flesh?"

נִשְׂבַּע ;4 .as in ch. xiv מִי יִתֵּן

T

T:

book could not have been written before the 7th | obliged to say: where would there be Cent. B. C., it may be said, that the kissing of the hand does not appear in the Zoroastrian ritual of prayer, and also that the sun and moon are represented in the Avesta as genii created Partic. Niph. in the accus. depending on by Ahuramazda, and consequently not as being themselves gods to be worshipped. Equally (comp. also ver. 35, and above ch. xxix. 2).— arbitrary with this derivation of the passage here means the same with i, 1 Sam. from the Zend religion by Ewald, is Dillmann's xxv. 11, the flesh of his slaughtered cattle. The assertion, that it was only from the time of King figurative expression: "to eat any body's flesh" Ahaz, and still more under Manasseb, that the in the sense of backbiting, calumniating (ch. adoration of the host of heaven" began pro- xix. 22) is not to be found here. perly to exercise a seductive influence on the people of Israel, and that it was only from that point on that it could be regarded as a sign of particular veligious purity that one had never, not even in secret, yielded to this temptation." As though our poet did not know perfectly well

Ver. 32. The stranger did not pass the night without; opened my doors to the

אֹרֶן or אִישׁ אֹר is rather to be taken as אֹרַח | what traits he ought to introduce into the pic

ture of his hero, who is consistently represented as belonging to the patriarchal age! Comp. against this unnecessary assumption of an anachronism, of which the poet had been guilty, in the history of civilization or religion, the Introduction, 6, II., ƒ.

Ver. 28. Consequent (see above): This also were a crime to be punished; lit. "a judicial crime, one belonging to the judge:" comp. on ver. 11; and respecting the thought, Ex. xvii. 2 seq.-Because I should have denied the

God above (ver. 2); lit. "I should have denied [acted falsely] in respect to the God above;

else

כְחֵשׁ בְּ means here the same with כְּחֵשׁ לְ

where (ch. viii. 18; Is. lix. 13).

traveller. - might of itself signify— "towards the street" (Stickel, Delitzsch). But since this qualification would be superfluous, As to the thought, comp. the accounts of the hospitality of Abraham at Mamre, of Lot at Sodom, of the old man at Gibeah (Gen. xviii. 19; comp. Heb. xiii. 2; Judg. xix. 15 seq.); also the many popular anecdotes among the Arabs ble ("to open a guest-chamber" is in Arabic of divine punishments inflicted on the inhospitathe same as to establish one's own household), and the eulogies of the hospitality of the departed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Comp. WetzGräberwelt, 1868, p. 32 seq.; L. Stern, Das egypt. stein in Delitzsch [ii. 193], Brugsch, Die egypt. Todtengericht, in "Ausland," 1870, p. 1081 seq.

12. Conclusion: Fifth Strophe: vers. 33-40.— Job is not consciously guilty even of the hypocritical concealment of his sins, nor of secret misdeeds-a final series of asseverations, which is not only related to the preceding enumeration (as though the same were incomplete, and might be supposed to have been silent in regard to some of Job's transgressions), but which simply links itself to all the preceding assertions of his innocence, and concludes the same.

TT:

Vers. 29, 30. A new asseveration with an oath repudiating the suspicion that he had exhibited toward his enemies any hate or malice. For this hypothetic antecedent, as well as for all those which follow, beginning with DN down to ver. 38, the special consequent is wanting; not until ver. 38 seq. does this series of antapodota [antecedents or protases] reach its end. The Ver. 33. If I covered after the manner consequent in ver. 40, however, is, in respect of of men my wickedness; D, after the its contents, suited only to the antecedent pas way of the world, as people generally do; comp. sage immediately preceding, in vers. 38, 39, and Ps. lxxxii. 7 and Hos. vi. 7; for even in the latnot also to the verses preceding those.-Vers. 30, 32 and 35-37 are accordingly mere parenthe- than that which implies a reference to Gen. iii. ter passage this explanation is more natural ses. If I rejoiced over [or in] the destruc8: "as Adam (Targum, Schult., Rosenm., Hittion (T as in ch. xxx. 24) of him that hated zig, Umbr., v. Hofm., Del.) [E. V., Good, Lee, me. That the love of our enemies was already Con., Schlott., Words., Carey, etc.; and comp. required as a duty under the Old Dispensation Pusey on Hos. vi. 7. Conant observes of the is shown by Ex. xxiii. 4; Lev. xix. 18 (the lat- rendering ut homo that "there is little force in ter passage not without a characteristic limita- this. On the contrary there is pertinency and tion), but still more particularly by the Chok-point in the reference to a striking and wellmah-literature, e. g. Prov. xx. 22; xxiv. 17 seq.; xxv. 21 seq.

Ver. 31. Yet I did not ( with an adversative meaning for the copula) allow my palate (which is introduced here as the instrument of speech, as in ch. vi. 30 [where, however, it is rather the instrument of tasting, and so is used for the faculty of moral discrimination]) to sin, by a curse to ask for his life; i. e. by cursing to wish for his death.

Ver. 31 seq. He has also continually shown himself generous and hospitable towards his neighbor. If the people of my tent (i. e. my household associates, my domestics) were not

known example of this offense, as a notable illustration of its guilt." Such a reference to primeval history in a book that belongs to the literature of the Chokmah is, as Delitzsch remarks, not at all surprising. And certainly the extra-Israelitish cast of the book is no objection to the recognition of so widely prevalent a tradition as that of the Fall in the monotheistic East.]-Hiding (, Ew. 280, d) in my bosom my iniquity-n is a poetic equivalent of pn, found only here (but much more common in Aram.).

Ver. 34, closely connected with the preceding