verse, declares the motive which might have | sage. Rather is it the case that Tav here, in acinfluenced Job to hide his sins, viz. the fear of cordance with a conventional, proverbial way of men. Because I feared the great multi-speaking (as tiwa among the Arabs signifies any tude.—¡ here as fem., comp. Ew. 8 174, b; branded sign, whether or not it be precisely in here (otherwise than in ch. xiii. 25) intran- the form of a cross), has acquired by synedoche sitive "to be afraid," with accus. of the thing ture attached, a writing subscribed, and for that the meaning-"a written document with signafeared. On b and c comp. ch. xxiv. 16. The "tribes" [in] whose contempt he fears this writing all that he has hitherto said in his own reason legally valid ;" and that Job means by (as in ch. xii. 5, 21) are the nobler families, justification, the sum total of his foregoing assehis own peers in rank, to be excluded from verations of innocence, that it is therefore an social intercourse with whom because of infa- apologetic document, a judicial vindication, to mous crimes would cause him apprehension. which he refers by this little word 17-this apWith his holding his peace," and "not going pears from the contrast with the accusation or forth at his door" (in c)-signs betraying an indictment of his opponent, which is immedievil conscience, Brentius strikingly compares ately mentioned in c. The supposition that Job the example of Demosthenes, who (according to was ignorant of writing, and for that reason was Plutarch, Demosth. 25) on one occasion made a compelled to put a simple † for his signature can sore throat a pretext for not speaking, whereas be inferred from the passage only by an inapin truth he had been bribed, and who was put propriate perversion of the proverbial and figuto the blush by an exclamation from one of the rative meaning of the language. Moreover ch. people: "He is not suffering from a sore throat, xix. 23 seq. can be made to lend 'only an appabut from a sore purse (ovx vñò ovváyxnç áîλ' vπ' rent support to this supposition. And (that I ápуvрáyxnç εi^ñøvα). [E. V. renders the verse had) the writing which mine adversary has interrogatively: "did I fear?" etc.; i. e. "if I written!-Grammatically this third membercovered my transgression, etc., was it because I 1 TD01-is connected with the first as a second feared the multitude?" The objection to this accus. to ; but according to its logical rendering, however, is that it is less in harmony import, it is conditioned by the second member; with the adjuratory tone of the context. Not a few commentators render this verse as the im- or, which is the same thing, 6 is simply a grammatical parenthesis, but at the same time it precation corresponding to ver. 22: "Then let me dread the great assembly," etc. serves to advance the thought. The "writing of So Schultens, the adversary Con., Noyes, Wemyss, Carey, Good, Lee, Barnes, in which Job's adversary, i. e., God (not the can only be the written charge, Elzas.-(Patrick makes 34 c the apodosis: "Then three friends, as Delitzsch explains, against the let me hold my peace, and go not forth," etc.). context) has laid down and fixed upon against It seems more natural however to regard the him. This charge of God's he wishes to see over "dread of the great assembly," and the contempt against his written defense, for which he is at of the great families of the land, as causes of the cowardly hypocrisy of ver. 33, rather tually prepared. Most earnestly does he yearn once ready, or rather which he has already acthan as its consequences.-Moreover, what the to know what God, whom he must otherwise hold discourse loses as regards completeness of struc- for a persecutor of innocence, really has against ture, it gains in impressiveness and energy by him. It is only from this interpretation of the the frequent parentheses and breaks, which cha-words (adopted by Ew., Hirz., Heiligst., Vaih., racterize this final strophe according to the view taken in the comm., and adopted by Ewald, Dillmann, Delitzsch, Schlottm., Rodwell, Wordsworth, Renan.-E.]

Vers. 35-37. The longest of the parentheses which interrupt the asseverations of our chapter, a shorter parenthesis being again incorporated even with this (ver. 35 b).-O that I had one who would hear me! to wit, in this assertion of my innocence. In this exclamation, as also in the following Job has God in view, for whose judicial interposition in his behalf he accordingly longs here again (as previously, ch. xiii. and xvi. seq.)-Behold my signature (lit. "my sign")-let the Almighty answer me. The meaning of this exclamation which finds its way into this tumult of feeling can only be this: There is the document of my defense, with my signature! Here I present my written vindication-let the Almighty examine it (comp. ver. 6), and deliver His sentence!" lit. "my mark, my signature" [not "my desire," (E. V., after Targ. and Vulg.), as though it were connected with ]; comp. the commentators on Ezek. ix. 4.-The cross-form of this sign (†), which has there a typical significance, would have no significance in this pas

means תּוי

ז'

Dillm.) [Schlott., Noy., Car., Con., Rodw., Bar., Lee, all agreeing as to sense, but with slight variations as to construction] that any available sense is obtained, -not from taking the third member as dependent on in the second, in which case must denote either the "wit

ness of God to Job's innocence written in his consciousness (Hahn, and similarly Arnh., Stickel), or the charge preferred against Job by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Del.) neither of which explanations is suitable, for the following verses show that Job is here speaking of something which he does not yet have, but only wishes for.-In respect to the use of writing, which is here again presupposed in judicial proceedings, comp. on ch. xiii. 26.

Vers. 36, 37 declare what Job would do with that charge of his divine adversary, for which he here longs; he would wear it as a trophy, or as a distinguishing badge of honor on his shoulders" (comp. Isa. ix. 5, xxii. 22), and bind it around as an ornament for his head, lit., “as crowns,' i. e., as a crown consisting of diadems rising each out of the other (y-comp. Rev. xix. 12);-comp. on the one side ch. xxix. 14; Isa. lxi. 10; on the other side Col. ii. 14 (the

was done by the Capuchin Bolducius (1637), who would remove the three verses back so as to follow ver. 8; by Kennicott and Eichhorn, who would place them after ver. 25; by Stuhlmann, who assigned their position before ver. 35, and latterly by Delitzsch, who leaves undetermined the place, where they originally belonged.

Ver. 38. If my field cries out concern

handwriting which was blotted out by Christ through His being lifted up on the cross).-And further: The number of my steps would I declare to Him; i. e., before Him, the Divine Adversary (who however is at the same time conceived of as Judge, as in ch. xvi. 21) would I conceal none of my actions, but rather would I courageously confess all to Him (T as in Ps. xxxviii. 19; respecting the construc-ing me (for vengeance, on account of the wicked tion with a double accus., comp. above ch. xxvi. 4).—Like a prince would I draw near to Him; ie, draw nigh to Him with a firm stately step ( intens. of Kal, comp. Ezek. xxxvi. 8), as becomes a prince, not an accused person conscious of guilt; hence with a princely free and proud consciousness, not with that of a poor

sinner.

ii. 11), and all together its furrows weep treatment of its owner; comp. ch. xvi. 18; Hab. (a striking poetic representation of the figure of crying out against one).

life."

Ver. 40. Consequent, and emphatic close: Briars must (then) spring up (for me) instead of wheat, and stinking weeds instead of barley (the strong word only here, "odious weeds, darnel"). As to meaning, ver. 8 is similar; but the present formul of imprecation is incomparably harsher and stronger than that former one, as is shown by the doubled assonance, first the alliteration and

Ver. 39. If I have eaten its strength (i. e. its fruit, its products. comp. Gen. iv. 12) without payment, and have blown out the soul of its owner, i. e. by any kind of violence, by direct or indirect murder, have "caused him Vers. 38-40 follow up the general assertion, to expire;" comp. ch. xi. 20; and the proverbthat his conscience was not burdened with se-ial saying: "to snuff out the candle of one's cret sins, with a more particular example of his freedom from covert blood-guiltiness. He knows himself to be innocent in particular of the wickedness of removing boundaries by violence, and of the heaven-crying guilt of secret murder, such as he might possibly have committed (after Ahab's example, 1 Kings xxi. 1 seq.; comp. above ch. xxiv. 2; Isa. v. 8) in order to acquire a piece of land belonging to a weaker neighbor. That Job should close this series of asseverations of innocence with the mention of so heinous a crime will appear strange only so long as we do, and then the rhyme y and HUN).— not realize just how his opponents thus far had The short clause: "the words of Job are ended," judged in respect to the nature and occasion of which the Masoretes have inappropriately drawn into the network of the poetic accentuation, his suffering in consequence of their narrowminded, external theory of retribution. Their could scarcely have proceeded from the poet himself (as Carey and Hahn think, of whom the judgment indisputably was-and Eliphaz had once, at least, expressed it very openly and de- former is inclined even to regard them as Job's cidedly (see ch. xxii. 6-9):-Because Job has to own final dixi), but stand on the same plane of endure such extraordinary suffering, it must be critical value, and even of antiquity with the that he is burdened with some grievous sin, some inscription at the end of the second book of old secret bloody deed of murder, rapine, etc. ! Psalms (Ps. lxxii. 64), or with the closing words It is into this way of thinking of theirs that Job of Jer. li. 64. The LXX. have changed the enters when he concludes big answer with the words to καὶ ἐπαίσατο Ἰὼβ ῥίμασιν, in order to mention of just such a case, one which might bring them into connection with the historical seem sufficiently probable according to a human introductory verses in prose which follow (ch. estimate of the circumstances, and so intention-xxxii.). But according to their Hebrew conally reserves to the end the solemn repudiation of that suspicion, which might very easily cleave to him, and which, if well-founded, must have affected him most destructively. The whole discourse which indeed in its last division (ch. xxxi.) is essentially a self-vindication of the harshly and grievously accused sufferer-thus acquires an emphatic ending, which by the significant assonances that occur in the closing imprecation, ver. 40, reaches a very high degree of impressiveness, and produces a thrilling effect on those who heard and read it. This rhe-the height of the moral consciousness which Job torical artistic design in the close of the discourse is ignored, whether (with Hirzel and Heiligst.) we assume that it was the poet's purpose, that Job's discourse, which with ver. 38 seq., had taken a new start in further continuation of the series of asseverations touching his innocence, should seem to be interrupted by the sudden appearance of Jehovah (ch. xxxviii.), which takes place with striking effect (comp. Introd., 8 10, No. 1, and ad. 1); or assume a transposition of vers. 38-40 out of their original connection, as

struction they do not seem to incline at all to such a connection. Jerome already recognized their character as an annotation of later origin; they found their way into his translation only by subsequent interpolation.-All Heb. MSS. indeed, as well as the ancient oriental versions (Targ., Pesh, etc). exhibit the addition, which must be accordingly of very high antiquity.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

1. Measured by the Old Testament standard,

occupies in this splendid final monologue deserves our wouder, and is even incomparable. He says much, and says it boldly, in behalf of the purity of his heart and life. He affirms this with such ardor and fulness of expression, that at times he seems to forget himself, and to contradict his former confessions touching his participation in the universal depravity of the race, as found in ch. xiii. 26; xiv. 4 (see e. g. ch xxix. 14; xxxi. 5-7, 35 seq.). He even relapses at one time into that tone of presumptuous accusation of God as

of righteous men known in ancient times. Such an one, far from being subject to the curse of wicked slander and calumny, could not be reckoned among ordinary sinners, or as a crafty hypocrite.

3. That, however, which exalts Job higher than all this is that which is said by him in the beginning of ch. xxxi. (ver. seq.; comp. ver. 7) in respect to his avoidance on principle even of all sins of thought, and impure lusts of the heart. "A covenant have I made for my eyes, and how should I fix my gaze on a maiden?" He who shows such earnestness as this in obeying the law of chastity, in avoiding all sinful lust, in extirpating even the slightest germs of sin in the play of thought, and in the look of the eyes-he strives after a holiness which is in fact better and more complete than the law of the Old Dispensation, with its prohibitions of coveting that which belongs to another (Ex. xx. 17; Deut. v. 21), could teach. He shows himself to be on the way which leads directly to that pure as well as complete righteousness and godlikeness, which has for its final aim purity of heart as the foundation and condition of one day beholding God, and which, in its activity towards men, takes the form of that perfect love which seeks nothing but good and blessing even for enemies, and devotes itself wholly and unreservedly to the kingdom of God-on the way, in short, to that holiness and purity of heart which Christ teaches and prescribes in the Sermon on the Mount. The fact that Job gives utterance to such high and clear conceptions of rectitude, virtue and holiness, is of especial interest for the reason that not one of the fundamental principles recognized by him is referred expressly to the Sinaitic law; but, on the contrary, the extra-Israelitish pre-Mosaic patriarchal character of his religious and ethical consciousness and activity is preserved throughout, and with conscious consistency by the poet in the description before us (comp. above on ch. xxxi. 24-27). In the strict accuracy with which this representation mirrors the characteristic features of the

the merciless persecutor of innocence, and seems to find the only divine motive for his grievous lot to be a supposed pleasure by God in the infliction of torture, a one-sided exercise of His activity as a God of power, without any co-operation from His righteousness and love (ch. xxx., especially ver. 11 seq., 18, 20 seq.). But if in this there is to be recognized a remainder of the unsubdued presumption of the natural man in him, and a lack of proper depth, sharpness and clearness in his consciousness of sin, such as is possible only under the New Dispensation, he occupies a high place notwithstanding in the roll of Old Testament saints. He appears still, and that even in the protestation of innocence which he makes in his own behalf in this his last discourse, as a genuine prince in the midst of the heroes of faith and spiritual worthies of the time before Christ, as one who, when he suffered, had the right to be regarded as an innocent sufferer, and to meet with indignation every suspicion which implied that he was making expiation for secret sins, as the wicked must do. 2. This moral exaltation of Job is seen already in the way in which in ch. xxix. he describes his former prosperity. Among all the good things of the past which he longs to have back, he gives the pre-eminence to the fellowship and blessing of God, the fountain of all other good (ver. 2 seq). In describing the distinguished estimation in which he was then held among men, it is not the external honor as such which he makes most prominent, but the beneficent influence, which, by virtue of that distinction he was able to exert, the works of love, of righteousness and of mercy, in which he was then able to seek and to find his happiness, as the father and guide of many (ch. xxix. 12-17). In the midst of his bitterest complaints on account of the greatness of his losses and the depth of his misery, there come groanings that he can no more do as he was wont to do-weep with the distressed, and mourn with the needy, in order to bring them comfort, counsel and help (ch. xxx. 25). And what a noble horror of the sins of falsehood, of lying and deception, of adulte-inner, as well as of the outer life of the patrirous unchastity, of cruelty towards servants and archal age, and in the fidelity with which the all those needing help in any way, sounds forth East cherishes and preserves the traditions of through the asseverations of his innocence in the primeval world in general, these utterances the 31st chapter! With what penetrative truth of a man who survived in the recollections of and beauty does he grasp the two forms of idol- posterity as a moral pattern of the ætas patriaratry, the worship of gold on the part of the ava- charum, acquire indirectly even an apologetic ricious, and the worship of the stars by the importance which is not insignificant, in so far as it superstitious heathen, as two ways-only in proves the impossibility of conceiving historiappearance far removed from each other, but in cally of the moral civilization of the patriarchs truth most closely united together-of denying otherwise than as resting on the foundation of the one true and living God (vers. 24-28)! How posi ive revelation. Comp. Delitzsch [II. 172 decidedly he maintains the necessity of showing seq.]: "Job is not an Israelite, he is without love even to one's enemies, to say nothing of the pale of the positive, Sinaitic revelation; his one's fellow-men in general, known or unknown, religion is the old patriarchal religiou, which neighbors or foreigners (ver. 29 seq.)! With even in the present day is called din Ibrahim what indignation does he repel the suspicion of (the religion of Abraham, or din el-bedu the resecret, hypocritically concealed sins and deedsligion of the steppe) as the religion of those of violence, again solemnly appealing in the same connection to God to be a witness to the purity of his conscience and to be a judge of the innocence of his heart (ver. 33 seq.)! The man who could thus bear witness to his innocence could be a virtuous man of no ordinary sort. He was far from being one of the common class

Arabs who are not Moslem, or at least influenced by the penetrating Islamism, and is called by Mejânîshî el hanifije, as the patriarchally orthodox religion. As little as this religion, even in the present day, is acquainted with the specific Mohammedan commandments, so little knew Job of the specifically Israelitish. On the contrary,

his confession, which he lays down in this third monologue, coincides remarkably with the ten commandments of piety (el-felâh) peculiar to the din Ibrahim, although it differs in this respect, that it does not give the prominence to submission to the dispensations of God, that teslim which, as the whole of this didactic poem teaches by its issue is the study of the perfectly pious; also bravery in defense of holy property and rights is wanting, which among the wandering tribes is accounted as an essential part of the hebbet er-rih (inspiration of the Divine Being) i. e. active piety, and to which it is similarly related, as to the binding notion of honor' which was coined by the western chivalry of the middle ages. Job begins with the duty of chastity. Consistently with the prologue, which the drama itself nowhere belies, he is living in monogamy, as at the present day the orthodox Arabs, averse to Islamism, are not addicted to Moslem polygamy. With the confession of having maintained this marriage (although, to infer from the pro-longing to him which he must give up, the last logue, it was not an over-happy, deeply sympathetic one) sacred, and restrained himself not only from every adulterous act, but also from adulterous desires, his confessions begin. Here, in the middle of the Old Testament, without the pale of the Old Testament vóuoc, we meet just that moral strictness and depth, with which the Preacher on the Mount (Matt. v. 27 seq) opposes the spirit to the letter of the seventh commandment. As Biblical parallels to the strict observance of the law of monogamic chastity in the patriarchal age, as the passage before us affirms it of Job, may be mentioned Isaac and Joseph, as also Moses and Aaron.

Christ declared to that young man who boasted that he had kept all the commandments of the law from his youth up, that one thing was lacking, even to give up all his earthly possessions, and to secure an imperishable treasure in heaven (Mark xviii. 21, and the parallel passages), our poet first introduces Elihu, as a representative of the highest that human wisdom can teach and accomplish apart from a divine revelation, and then the revealing voice of God Himself, crying out to his hero a humiliating-"One thing thou lackest!" This one thing which Job yet lacked in order to be acknowledged by God as His well-beloved servant, and to be received again into His favor, is to humble himself beneath God's mighty hand, willingly to accept all His dispensations as wise, gracious, and just, to be thoroughly delivered from that sinful self-exaltation, in which he had dared to find fault with God, and to be enraged against His alleged severity. This was the last thing beremnant of earthly impure dross, from which the gold of his heart must be set free, in order that he might become partaker of the divine grace of justification. In order really and completely to comprehend the divine wisdom, which in ch. xxviii. he had so strikingly described as a precious treasure in heaven transcending all earthly jewels, in order actually to travel the hidden way to her, with that accurate knowledge of it which he had there portrayed, this one thing was still lacking to him:-the humble acknowledgment that even in his case God had acted altogether justly, altogether lovingly, altogether as a Father. To the possession of this one precious pearl he was led forward by Elihu and Jehovah through the two remaining stages in the solution of the problem.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

4. The fact that Job towards the end of his monologue (not quite at the end of it-see above on ch. xxxi. 38 seq.) repeats his previously uttered wish for a judicial interposition of God in his behalf is significant in so far as in this demand the triumph of his consciousness of innocence, by virtue of which he knows that he is se- In unfolding the rich contents of the three cured against all dangers of defeat, expresses preceding chapters according to their connection itself most strongly and clearly; and in this with the entire structure of the poem, and in assame connection the practical goal of his apolo-signing to these contents their true position in getic testimony hitherto is evident in his press- the inner progress of the action, it will be well ing on to the conclusion of the entire action. to bestow special attention on the parallel just This conclusion of the action does not indeed now indicated (Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, follow immediately, inasmuch as a human No. 4) between Job and the rich young man. Job, teacher of wisdom next makes his appearance earnestly and honestly striving after the kingas the harbinger of Jehovah's appearance,-pre-dom of God, after an eternal fellowship of the paring the way for it. This however takes life with God, with this in view receiving and place exactly in the way, and with the result enumerating all the moral treasures of his spirit which Job himself has wished and hoped for- and of his life, who notwithstanding his wealth the trial to which God finally condescends at in such treasures is discovered to be not yet just Job's repeated request, being such as yields for before God; or, more briefly: Job, the Old its result not a clean victory for Job, but rather Testament seeker after happiness, contemplating a thorough humiliation of the pride and pre- himself in the mirror of the law (Job, the protosumption, hitherto unknown to himself. But type of that rich man, to whose perfection one even this incongruity between Job's desire and thing was yet lacking);-such might be the the way in which God grants it, corresponds statement of the theme of a comprehensive meperfectly to the poet's plan, and is a most bril- ditation on the material before us, according to liant evidence of the purity and loftiness of his its relations to that which precedes, and to that religious and moral way of thinking, in which which follows. The length of the discourse ina conscience so wonderfully delicate and enlightened deed would necessitate a division into several as that which Job had disclosed in these his closing parts, of which any one could not very well exdiscourses nevertheless appears as in need of repen-ceed the limits of one of the three chapters. The tance, and unable to secure from God a verdict of practical expositor will find the richest yield of unconditional justification. In like manner as fruitful hortatory motives in the two bright pic

tures which constitute the opening and the close of the long soliloquy (ch. xxix. and xxxi.), whereas the gloomy night-piece which they enclose (ch. xxx.) seems in this respect relatively poor, and when compared with the similar descriptive lamentations in Job's previous discourses, exhibits scarcely anything that is essentially new.

Particular Passages.

Ch. xxix. 2 seq. COCCEIUS: Job indeed in this place seems not so much to desire his former happiness, as to contrast the pleasure of a good conscience and of a friendship with God formed in youth, with his present fearful sufferings... He wishes for his former condition, adorned as it was with tokens of divine favor, not for the sake of those tokens, to wit, plenteousness and sweetness of life, but for the sake of that of which they were the seal... He distinguishes between his own chief good, and the things connected with it. . . . . He brings forward his riches as a testimony of the past, not as a necessity of the present. For he knew that even a beggar can delight in God.-V. GERLACH: That which constitutes the kernel of the description here again is the constant nearness of God, the consciousness of His approbation, the certainty of His guidance; this is accompanied by the happy recollection that he had employed the honor which God had granted to him, the riches which He had bestowed on him, only to bless others: in short his position was that of a princely, royal representative of God on earth.

Ch. xxix. 18 seq. CRAMER: On earth there is nothing that endures; if it goes well with any one, let him suspect that it may go ill with him (Sir. ii, 26).—V. GERLACH: In Job's allusion to the ancient legend of the phoenix, there lies a certain irony: I had hoped in respect to the permanence of my happiness that which was most incredible, most impossible, etc.

a great tribulation, and inflicts deep wounds on their hearts, but even in this they must become like Christ their head (Heb. xii. 3)!—IDEM (on ver. 15): When God afflicts His children in the body, or by some other grievous outward calamity, this is seldom unaccompanied by inward trials, anguish, fear and terror; it is with them, as with the Apostle-without fightings, within fears (2 Cor. vii. 5).

Ch. xxxi. 1 seq. OECOLAMPADIUS: He sets before our eyes one who is absolutely righteous in every particular; for a man will not escape the wrath of God, if he is merciful to the wretched, while at the same time he pollutes himself with various lusts and crimes. He accordingly indulges in holy boasting that he had been blameless in the law, that he had kept his members from abominable sins, and devoted himself to the service of righteousness, keeping his eyes from lusting after a woman, his tongue from guile and falsehood, his hands and feet from cruelty, violence, revenge and rapacity. For he who puts such a watch upon his senses, he will easily be perfected in all things.— STARKE: Forasmuch as it is through the eyes, for the most part, that whatsoever excites the lust finds its way into the heart, Job naturally begins with his watchfulness over this sense; from which it may be seen that he understood the divine law far better than the Pharisees in the time of Christ (Matt. v. 27 seq.).

Ver. 16 seq. STARKE: He who does good to the poor will not remain unblesse i (Ps. xli. 2 [1] seq.). Clothing the naked is a deed of mercy (Is. lviii. 7 seq.) which Christ will hereafter praise on the last day (Matt. xxv. 36).

Ver. 24 seq. OECOLAMPADIUS: See what a chain of virtues he links together, and what innocence he preserves through all things! It is not those only who acquire riches by plunder and lawlessness who incur God's wrath, but those even who trust in riches honestly acquired, and who prefer them to God, so that they become their idol and their mammon. . . . The pious and grateful man would say: I have received from God; but they whose God is gold, have no God.-STARKE: It was a proof of great constancy on the part of Job to serve the true God faithfully in the midst of idolaters, and to be most solicitous to show the more subtle idolatry of avarice as well as the more gross idolatry of sun and stars.

Ch. xxx. seq. BRENTIUS: From all these things (enumerated in the preceding chapter), Job's authority is eulogized, that we may learn with what honor God sometimes distinguishes the pious. But in this chapter we are taught with what a cross He afflicts them that they may be tried; for it behooves the godly to be proved on the right hand and on the left, as Paul says 2 Cor. vi. 7 (comp. Phil. iv. 12). But this is written for our instruction, that we may learn that nothing in the whole world, however excel- Ver. 35 seq. OSIANDER: Even godly people lent, endures, but that all things go to ruin; for have flesh and blood, and often say things of both the heavens and the earth will perish, how which they must afterwards repent, and which much more carnal glory, authority and happi- they themselves cannot praise.- WOHLFARTH: ness (Is. xl.).-IDEM (on ver. 12): Temptation "I will, I can render an account before the is two-fold, on the right hand, and on the left. Lord"-thus speaks Job in the consciousness We are tempted on the right when fleshly joys, that he has never committed a gross sin-nay, health, riches, majesty, glory abound-a tempta- has even shunned most carefully the minor and tion which, as it is most agreeable to the flesh, more secret offenses. Was he, however, quite so also is it most dangerous. so sure of this? Was he in truth so absolutely tempted on the left by crosses, afflictions and blameless before God, to whom we must confess: evils of whatever sort, more safely, however, Lord, when I have done all things, I am still and with less danger, for we are more readily an unprofitable servant! Who can mark the taught by the cross than destroyed by it. number of his transgressions?" etc. There ZEYSS: To be the objects of extreme contempt belongs in truth more to this than a man geneand ridicule from the world is to pious believers rally believes when he calls God as a witness.

We are