16 Ver. 35. I am not myself. y. the mind wandering; as poor Lear says of himself:

I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

A number of the best modern commentators take this as a denial of guilt: "For I am not conscious to myself of wrong;' CONANT, literally, For I am not so in myself. Now, in many This seems to be ROSENMUELLER's view: haud quidem mei sum compos. languages, some such expression as this is used to denote deHIERONYMUS: Neque enim possum metuens rorangement-being not one's self, or firm (†) in one's self— spondere. See Note on 777 xxiii. 10.

7

'Tis to thy knowledge I appeal; I'm not (this) guilty man
But none can save me from thy power.

1 Ver. 1. My soul in bitterness. is an adjective (amarus). The phrase is, strictly, bitter of soul; bitter in my soul. The rendering given, if admissible, suits better the broken and passionate context.

2 Ver. 5. The mighty man: A sub-contrast seems intended between 1 and 2 as in iii. 17. 11, validus-miles, Jud. v. 30; Jer. xli. 16; Chald. 1, heros, miles, Ezek. ii. 20. Comp. Isa. ix. 4-giants-pakpóßiot. The want of the distinction makes the rendering very lame, as in E. V.: "Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as man's days?"

.Gen. vi גברים

8 Ver. 7. [This] guilty man. There is no claim of perfect innocence, but only that he is not the sinner whom

his friends hint, or his own inexplicable circumstances would imply.

4 Ver. 9. Turn me back to dust. The argument here goes beyond the first appearance; for Job certainly knew that he must die, even if he had not heard of the claration, Gen. iii. 19. It is the remediless remaining in this state that he deprecates, whether or not distinctly conscious of it as a dogma, or an idea. In such an abandonment there seems something inconsistent with God's care for men, and the pains he had taken in their construction, whether we call it creation or evolution.

Ver. 10. Like cheese. The use of this kind of language in the Koran (see Surat xxii. 5; xcvi. 2, and other places) points back to ancient Arabian conceptions and modes of speech. See also the same process more fully described in the Arabic of the old book of Apologues, entitled Calila Wa Dimna, p. 71, De Sacy Ed.

12

13

14

15

With skin and flesh, hast thou not clothed me round?
With bones and sinews woven firm my frame?

With life and goodness hast thou favored me,
Whilst o'er my breath thy providence hath watched.
But these things wast thou hiding in thy heart.
All this, I know, was fixed in thy' decree.
When e'er I sin, thine eye is noting it;
And thou wilt not absolve me from my guilt.
Yes, woe to me if I act wickedly;

If righteous, still may I not lift my head;

So full of shame am I; but see my misery;

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

For it swells high; so like a lion dost thou still pursue,
And still repeat thy wondrous dealing with me.
Against me dost thou bring new witnesses.

Thine anger with me dost thou still increase,
As ever changing hosts against me come.

Why didst thou bring me from the womb?
I should have died with no eye seeing me;
I should have been as though I'd never been,
From womb to grave translated speedily.
How few my days! O let Him then forbear
And turn from me, that for a moment I may smile,
Before I go whence I shall not return,

To the land of darkness, and the shades of death;
A land of gloom tenebrous,1° dense as night,
Land of the death shade, where no order reigns,
Where day is but a darkness visible."

Ver. 11. Woven. Compare Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16.

or imaginary, as having something of form, and thus a kind

7 Ver. 13. y. With thee. In thy most secret pur- of visibility, a dark, shadowy, waving, flying, floating thing,

pose.

* Ver. 15. But see 7. is imperative. To the objection that in so taking it the construction is broken up, the answer is, that it is all the more expressive. It was meant to be broken. The language is passionate, ejaculatory. 9 Ver. 16. 8. EWALD, DILLMANN, UMBREIT, DAVIDSON, all refer this to N, the head, in the preceding verse. MERX says, characteristically, that it is sinnlos, has no mean ing, and proceeds to change the text. W seems too far off, for a subject, and there is nothing conditional in the language: Should it lift, or if it lift up itself. then, etc.; DAVIDSON. CONANT also adopts this rendering. The E. V. refers it to my affliction just mentioned: it increaseth. So Rosenmüller, as also the Jewish Commentators, RASHI and ABEN EZRA. To the objection that is not congruous to affliction, the latter answers well that it is personified as elate and swelling in its triumph over the sufferer. Hence the rendering above.

10 Ver. 22. Gloom tenebrous. The true impression of this remarkable language (vers. 21 and 22) can only be ob tained by a close study of the words ny and yin. They are of a class which, in distinction from, or mere privative darkness, represent its positive idea, whether real

-a faintly glimmering, gleaming, gloaming, wary motion, shading off from light (gleam, glimmer) into gloom, or darkness visible. A vibratory, pulsatory, flying, fluttering, or undulation of some kind, is the radical image in this whole family of words (y, quy, qroy, by metathesis y'), and hence, along with flying, the apparently contradictory images of light and darkness. See LANGE Gep. Am. Ed., p. 179, Note. So in the Greek imagery, darkness has wings. Night is called (ARISTCPH. Aves. 689) μeλavónтeроs, black winged. (Compare VIRG. Æn. II. 360, VI. 856). There is

For know it well; less than thy debt doth God exact of thee.

seen by Him. For God ouly knows what human sin deserves, and every chastisement, short of the great retribution, has mercy mingled with it. And then this admirably leads to the train of thought that follows in the exclamations below, ver. 7. is rendered debt to preserve the figure, which is

8 Ver. 6. DELITZSCH, literally, "that she (wisdom) is twofold-overlooking . DAVIDSON paraphrases: Dou-sanctioned in the New Testament: "Forgive us our debts; our

sins."

6 Ver. 7.

14 שרי and אלוה The emphasis is on the divine names 6

The meaning is that it does not ולא יתבונן .11 .Ver

ble, he says, is equivalent to manifold, and he renders insight, as EWALD does. Most commentators give the literal sense, double. Do we not get a good explanation of this from ch, xxviii., where two forms of wisdom are set forth, namely, the Divine wisdom, or the mystery of God's providence, and the wisdom mentioned at the end of that chapter, the wisdom which is for man, "the fear of the Lord," submission, and “departure from evil.” is substance, reality, truth-things as they are, V. ovoía; but it is to be contemplated under two aspects, as pertaining to God, and as pertaining to man. See SIRACH XXXiii. 15: xlii. 24: márτa δισσά, ἓν κατέναντι ενός, κ. τ. λ.

4 Ver. 6. EWALD renders: "Overlooks much of thy guilt," which is not far from E. V. UMBREIT, DELITZSCH, DILLMANN, DAVIDSON, with the Targum, give it the sense of 7 (Hiph.

), to forget, or cause to forget, giving in the force of a partitive: from or of a portion of thy sin. "God remembers not all thy sin. The Syriac renders it, forgiveth. Vulgate has the other sense of , that of exacting like a creditor. And this is the rendering of E. V., which, after all, seems the best, and most in harmony with the context. It is grammatical, too, since in 7, may denote the comparison of less, as well as that of more, to be determined by the context. The partitive rendering: "a portion of thy sin," seems tame. The rendering above given preserves well the association of ideas. This is one of those secrets of God's wisdom, the upper wisdom, or the side of the duplicate

in viii. 3.

8 Ver. 12. The word does not denote wisdom, as many commentators take it, or the want of wisdom, directly, or in the sense of stupidity, as GESENIUS interprets it, but to be full of heart, in the sense of courage (cor, Latin cordatus sometimes), spirit, eagerness, mettlesomeness, ferocity, etc. In Cant. iv. 9 the piel, (of which this may be regarded as the passive), means, thou hast excited, roused, warmed my heart. There can be but little doubt as to the meaning, since the second clause gives a figurative explanation of it. It suggests Ecclesiastes ix. 3, Daaba nıbbı, “madness in their

hearts"-whence the above translation. Some accommodation to it in English might be found in the words heady,

14

And spread thy hands (in humble prayer) before him,—
Putting it far away, if sin be in thy hand,

Nor letting wrong abide within thy tents,

15

Then shalt thou lift thy face without a stain;

16

Then shalt thou stand secure,10 with nought to dread.
For thy sharp pain shalt thou forget,

17

18

19

20

And like the passing waters, think of it no more.
Brighter than noon shall life" again arise;
And what is darkness12 now shall be like morn.
Then shalt thou be assured that there is hope;
Though now ashamed,13 in peace shalt thou lie down,
And take thy rest with none to make afraid;
Whilst many [who have scorned] shall seek thy face.
But as for wicked men, their eyes shall fail;
Their refuge perishes;

Their hope-'tis like the parting breath.

headstrong;, heart, in Hebrew, being used for feeling or
passion, as well as for intellect. UMBREIT, EWALD and DE-
LITZSCH take it as a proverb, and give it the forced rendering
(in the words of the latter)

Before an empty head gaineth understanding,
An ass's foal would be born a man.

This is not only frigid, in itself, and forced, and at war with
the gravity of the original, but cannot be brought gramma-
tically out of the words. Man, vain man. The repetition is
to give emphasis to that expressive word

Ver. 14. This verse evidently comes in parenthetically, and therefore the participial form gives the best mode of rendering.

10 Ver. 15. pp. Primary sense fusion, thence molten,

thence the idea of a metallic column figurative of firmness

and solidity. It may be that the meaning here is derived from the cognate 13 (3) stabilire.

11 Ver. 17. n. Alv-time-passing-a very pathetic
word. Comp. Ps. xxxix. 6; xvii. 14; lxxxix. 48.
12 Ver. 17. Darkness.
a word of the same

class with those mentioned in note on x. 22.
13 Ver. 18. Ashamed. This is the rendering of Gese-
nius, giving to the same sense it has in vi. 20. The
other sense of the verb, to dig, and that derived from it, to
search, are very forced here. See E. V., DAVIDSON, DELITZSCH,
and others. UMBREIT gets from SCHULTENS, and the Arabic,
the sense of protecting, which better suits the context, but is
philologically without weight. The Vulgate gives the sense
of digging. The LXX, as is most commonly the case in Job,
is worthless. Merx renders very beautifully, though freely-
Und, ob beschämt zuvor, noch sicher ruhn.

1 Ver. 4. Who calls on God. I who call on God. His offering sacrifice, i. 5, shows something Job means himself here, not only as a man of prayer, ♫ ip, but as one known among men for the public or official performance of religious worship. So CARYL intimates, referring to Ps. xcix. 6, "Moses and Aaron among bis priests, Samuel among those who call upon his name,'

of the priestly character. The verse is a vehement torrent of righteous indignation, and the best translation is that which keeps nearest to the Hebrew with all its abruptness. It was probably called out by Zophar's comparing him to "the wild ass," xi. 12.

13

With length of days doth understanding dwell.

With God, too, there is wisdom, strength is His,
Counsel to plan and never-erring skill.

2 Ver. 5. A wasted lamp: 79. Literally a lamp of contempt, but the figure demands the idea of that for which it is despised-worn out, exhausted, either in its structure or its oil, and, therefore, thrown away as useless. The passage has been regarded as very difficult. Obscuritatem summam hujus versus omnes interpretes agnoscunt, says Schultens. "The words of this text are dark," says the learned Puritan CARYL in his quaint style, "and there are not a few who make the lamp the darkest word in it." And then he goes on to note the other rendering given by Aben Ezra, and which has since been adopted by the principal modern interpreters, except UMBREIT. It divides the word To into the noun T destruction, calamity or misfortune generally, and the servile, the preposition, with the sense of for or in place of: "for misfortune, contempt." The translator was at first inclined to this view. It is, however, full of difficulties, though in some of its aspects seeming quite plausible. The rendering which EWALD, DELITZSCH and others give to the words immediately following seems to suit it, especially as expressed in the concise and happy way

of MERX:

נָכוֹן of

Dem Unglück Hohn, so wähnen Sichere:—
For suffering scorn; so fancy the secure;
Scorn ever ready for the tottering man.

So the translator first rendered it, relying for the sense on Ps. xxxviii. 18, y, ready to halt. A more thorough study, however, produced the conviction that the older rendering of the VULGATE, the SYRIAC, the TARGUM, the Jewish commentators KIMCHI, RASCHI, BEN GERSON and others, JUNIUS and TREMELLIUS, LUTHER, E. V., MERCERUS, VATABLUS, COCCEIUS, and of the best of the anthorities cited in POOLE's Synopsis, is the correct one. ZÖCKLER says: "The sense of lamp makes an incongruous image in the picture." That depends, however, on what the picture is supposed to be. "A consumed or expiring lamp," says CONANT, "would be pertinent; but a torch de spised is like anything else that is despised, and the epithet requires some ground for the application." All this question of metaphorical congruity, however, depends upo another, namely, whether the right rendering is given to to shine. See Jerem. v. 28. Hence the noun, if rendered thoughts, must be regarded as figuratively denoting splendid, brilliant thoughts, imaginings, vain imaginations,-not simply cogitations. So niny, Ps. cxlvi. 4: In that day his proud imaginations (his splendid hopes) all perish. This is quite different from his thoughts, his thinking, as the annihilationist perverts that text. In Jonah i. 6 the Hithpahel may very pertinently be rendered shine upon, instead of,

is certainly עשת The primary sense of the verb .עשתות

"think upon." It thus makes a very appropriate prayer for men in such a dark tempest: that the sky would clear up, or that God would shine upon them through it. So in Cant. v. 24,

means something shining, polished. So CoCCEIUS and some of the older commentators, Christian and Jewish. If we give to y here this primary sense of shining, splendor (whether of the thoughts or of the outward state). then the antithesis it presents to T, the cast off, used up torch, is no longer "incongruous," but very happy: the poor wasted thing, which Job so much resembled, as contrasted with the splendors of wealth, or It is the very image the high imaginings of a soul at ease. used Isai. xlii. 3, the sputtering wick or lamp, and any (the "smoking flax"), and cited by our Saviour, Matt. xii. 20.

T:

3 Ver. 6. All confident. Plural noun with superlative sense.

4 Ver. 6. Into whose hands, etc. This is rendered by some: "who take God in their hand;" regarding as repeated here from the line above. So DAVIDSON and DELITZSCH. The sense they get is, that wicked men make their hand (their own power) their God. For this there is cited Habak. i. 11, and VIRG. Aen. x. 774: 27. Dextra mihi Deus. DELITZSCH renders it very strangely: "who take Eloah in their hand." The use of Eloah, however, seems strongly against this. The ellipsis in the other rendering is quite

facile.

5 Ver. 8. Delitzsch excellently renders "look thoughtfully to the ground." The reference in this whole appeal (vers. 7 and 8) is not, as Ewald thinks, to the destined purpose or divine reason in suffering and in pain. That belongs to the wisdom which "the eagle's eye hath not seen, and which is hid from all the fowls of the air;" xxviii. 7, 21, the deep wisdom of God. The allusion is rather to Zophar s expression of the fact, so pretentiously set forth, as it seemed to Job, when all nature, animate and inanimate, proclaims the existence of inexplicable mystery in the divine dealings. It is not the reason that we get from nature. but the fact, whether we understand it or not, that the hand of the Lord doeth all. 6 Ver. 12.

must be rendered experience to preserve the figures in the verse above.

7 Ver. 13. here is discernment or wisdom in adapt ing means to ends. The epithet is necessary because there is an evident intention to set in contrast the divine discernment, or perfect foresight, and the best human experience, as mentioned above ver. 12. DELITZSCH defines as "that which can penetrate to the bottom of what is true or false." There is here again a duality in wisdom as in xi. 6