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Verse 16. "Prepare raiment as the clay."-" Lay up" would be better than "prepare." That it was a custom in the patriarchal age to accumulate dresses, is a circumstance which we should scarcely have conjectured, though in strict conformity with existing usages in the East. If the custom of giving dresses in order to confer distinction or testify esteem existed so early, as it seems to have done from the intimations in Genesis, it would be giving a greater force is the passage to understand that this guilty but prosperous man was held in such honour by his superiors or equals as to have received his ample store of raiment in the way of presents. D'Herbelot (as quoted by Harmer, for we cannot find the passage in the edition of 1776) mentions that the poet Bokhteri of Cufah, in the ninth century, received so many presents of dresses in his lifetime, that at his death he was found possessed of a hundred complete suits, with two hundred shirts and five hundred turbans. But even, without this supposition, the Orientals have generally a sort of passion for collecting great quantities of clothing and of whatever belongs to personal equipment: a custom which, as observed by Chardin, is encouraged by the unchangeable character of eastern fashions, which precludes the apprehension that the collected raiment will be unsuitable for wear at any future time.

18. "Buildeth his house as a moth.”-It is well known that the genus Phalana, or moth, is divided into plant-moths and cloth-moths. It is generally supposed that the latter is here intended: but this is doubted by Dr. Good, who however observes, that the question is of no consequence. He says, "The house or building referred to is assuredly that provided by the insect in his larva or caterpillar state, as a temporary residence during its wonderful change from a chrysalis to a winged and perfect insect. The slightness of this habitation is well known to every one who has attended to the curious operations of the silkworm (Phalana mori), or the tribes indigenous to the plants of our own country-as Ph. pavonia, or emperor-moth; Ph. caja, tiger-moth; Ph. vinula, poplar or willow-moth, &c. Of these, some construct a solitary dwelling, while others, as Ph. fuscicauda, or brown-tail moth, are gregarious, vast numbers residing together under one common web, marshalled with the most exact regularity. The web of the cloth-moth, the principal of which is Ph. vestianella, is formed of the very substance of the cloth on which it reposes, devoured for this purpose, and afterwards worked into a tubular case, with open extremities; and generally approaching to the colour of the cloth by which the moth-worm is nourished."

"A booth that the keeper maketh.”—The reference is undoubtedly to those frail temporary sheds, constructed, for shelter from the sun, by the men set to watch the vineyards and orchards in the season when the fruits are ripening, to preserve them from the depredations or injuries of men, beasts, or birds. These erections, being intended only for the occasion, are of the very slightest fabric, being in fact little cabins of boughs and reeds, which, when the fruits are gathered, are either taken down or left to fall to pieces, or to be blown or beaten down during the winter. Hence the comparison of it to the house of the moth, and the point of the allusion.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1 There is a knowledge of natural things. 12 But uisdom is an excellent gift of God.

SURELY there is 'a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.

7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen: 8 The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

9 He putteth forth his hand upon the 'rock; he overturneth the mountains by the

2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and roots. brass is molten out of the stone.

3 He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.

4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from

men.

5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. 6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires and it hath dust of gold.

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3 Or, gold ore.
7 Heb. fine gold shall not be given for it.

10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks: and his eye seeth every precious thing.

11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

13 Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. 14 The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.

15 'It cannot be gotten for gold, neither 4 Or, flint. 5 Heb. from weeping. Rom. 11. 33, &c. Prov. 3. 13, 14, and 8. 11, 19, and 16. 16.

ill silver be weighed for the price there- | living, and kept close from the fowls of the 18air.

16 It cannot be valued with the gold of hir, with the precious onyx, or the sap

re.

7 The gold and the crystal cannot equal and the exchange of it shall not be for vels of fine gold.

8 No mention shall be made of 1ocoral, of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above ies.

9 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal neither shall it be valued with pure

1.

O "Whence then cometh wisdom? and re is the place of understanding?

22 Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. 23 God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof."

24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; 25 To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.

26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: 27 Then did he see it, and "declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. 28 And unto man he said, Behold, "the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to

1 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all depart from evil is understanding. t, vessels of fine gold. 10 Or, Ramoth. 11 Verse 12. 12 Or, heaven.

13 Or, number it. 14 Psal. 111. 10. Prov. 1. 7, and 9. 10.

rse 1. “A vein for the silver."-It is generally conceived that the first portion of this chapter refers to the pros of mining, as conducted in the time of Job. It is interesting to know that there were then any such processes; his almost necessarily follows from the very nature of some of the metals mentioned, a tolerable supply of which I only be obtained by mining or excavations of some kind or other. Our version loses some of the points on which onnection of this interesting description depends. We will therefore give the version of Dr. Good, in which its ral force more clearly appears. Boothroyd's version does not essentially differ from this.

"There is a mine for the silver,

And a bed for the gold which men refine:
Iron is dug from the earth,

And the cock poureth forth copper.

Man delveth into the region of darkness,

And examineth to the utmost limit

The stores of darkness and death-shade:

He breaketh up the veins from the matrice,
Which, though nothing thought of under the foot,
Are drawn forth, are brandished among mankind.
The earth itself poureth forth bread;

But below it windeth a fiery region:

Sapphires are its stones,

And gold is its ground;

The eagle knoweth not its pathway,

Nor the eye of the vulture descrieth it;

The whelps of ferocious beasts have not tracked it,
Nor the ravenous lion sprung upon it.
Man thrusteth his hand into the sparry ore,
He up-turneth the mountains from the roots:
He cutteth out channels through the rocks,
And his eye discerneth every precious gem:
He restraineth the waters from oozing,
And maketh the hidden gloom become radiance."

is version does not essentially differ from our own; but it is more distinct and connected; for which reason we cited it here, without undertaking to say that all its phrases are such as we should have chosen. There can ly be a question as to the reference which the passage bears; and the information which it offers is in the highest e interesting, and might form the nucleus of a large dissertation. The passage, taken as a whole, shows that it this early period a much greater advance had been made in the metallurgic arts than is usually supposed; yet eater than is intimated in various passages of the Pentateuch and in the inferences which necessarily result from Yet here, in a connected description, the effect seems greater than that furnished by the brief intimations disI through the early books of Scripture.

cannot undertake a detailed illustration of this remarkable text; nor does such an explanation seem necessary. ink the best illustration which this most ancient Scriptural account can receive, will be from the most ancient at which heathen writers have furnished. This is the description which Agatharchides has given of the manner ch the gold mines of the Red Sea were worked by the ancient Egyptians. Agatharchides lived in the first century Christ, and the mines had then been worked as he describes at a very remote period. The present text is well ated by some parts of the description, the translation of which we give from the Egyptian Antiquities,' vol. ii.

ix.

e kings of Egypt compelled many poor people, together with their wives and children, to labour in the mines, n they underwent more suffering than can well be imagined. The hard rocks of the gold mountains being cleft iting them with burning wood, the workmen then apply their iron implements. The young and active, with immers, break the rock in pieces, and form a number of narrow passages, not running in straight lines, but fol: the direction of the vein of gold, which is as irregular in its course as the roots of a tree. The workmen have fastened on their forehead, by the aid of which they cut their way through the rock*, always following the white of stone. To keep them to their task, an overseer stands by, ready to inflict a blow on the lazy. The material thus loosened is carried out of the galleries by boys, and received at the mouth of the mine by old men and the · labourers, who then carry it to the epoptæ, or inspectors. These are young men, under thirty years of age, and vigorous, who pound the broken fragments in iron mortars with a stone pestle, till there is no piece larger pea. It is then placed on grinding-stones, or a kind of mill-stones, and women, three on each side, work at it s reduced to fine powder... The fine powder is then passed on to a set of workmen called sellangeis (Enλλayyus), ace it on a finely-polished board, not lying in a flat position but sloping a little. The sellangeus, after pouring rater on the board, rubs it with his hand, at first gently, but afterwards more vigorously, by which process the earthy particles slide off along the slope of the board, and the heavier parts are left behind. He then takes soft

es this help to explain the allusion, in verse 3 of the following chapter? "When his candle shined upon my head, en by his light I walked through darkness.” 505

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sponges, with which he presses on the board rather gently, which causes the lighter particles to adhere to the sponge, while the heavy shining grains still keep their place on the board, owing to their weight. From the sellangeis the gold particles are transferred to the roasters (ra), who measure and weigh all that they receive, before putting it into an earthen jar. With the gold particles they mix lead in a certain proportion, lumps of salt, a little tin, and barley bran, and putting a cover on the jar that fits tight, and smearing it all over, they burn it in a furnace for five days and nights without intermission. On the sixth day they cool the vessel and take out the gold, which they find somewhat diminished in quantity: all the other substances entirely disappear. These mines were worked under the ancient kings of Egypt, but abandoned during the occupation of the country by the Ethiopians, and afterwards by the Medes and Persians. Even at the present day we may find copper chisels or implements in the galleries (the use of iron not having been known at that time*), and innumerable skeletons of the wretched beings who lost their lives in the pas sages of the mine. The excavations are of great extent and reach down to the sea-coast."

Beyond the immediate purpose for which we have quoted this passage, it may be observed that probably all the gold mentioned in Scripture underwent more or less such processes as those here described; it being however only necessary that the gold found in brooks and rivers should be subjected to the later operations, or some like them. We may add to this description of the misery of working in these mines, that, after the final desolation of Judæa, great numbers of the Jews were sent to work in the Egyptian mines.

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7. " Vulture."-TN, ayyah, the Vultur fulvus, or Griffon-Vulture. This is a splendid bird, diffused over the south of Europe, Turkey, Persia, and Africa. It feeds on putrid flesh, like the rest of the family; and makes its nest in the clefts of the rock, from whence it can survey the distant plains, and mark the fallen prey. In length it is about three feet six inches, with an expanse of wings reaching to eight or nine. The colour of the full grown bird is a deep rufous grey, becoming black on the quill-feathers and tail. The head and neck are not entirely bare, but are covered with a short close down, and the beautiful ruff is of a pure white. Travellers, astonished at the extraordinary distance from which these birds can descry a carcase, have debated whether they were guided by sight or by scent; but the beautiful and picturesque accuracy of the Book of Job, on many points of natural history, seems here to afford us its high authority in ascribing it to the eye.

16. "Onyx."-See Gen. ii. 12.-" Sapphire:" see Exod. xxiv. 10.

Vulture's Head.

17. "Crystal," zekukiht.-As this word implies purity, and thence transparency, it may perhaps have been applied to the diamond, which we all know is the most brilliant and most precious of all the precious stones.

18. "Coral."-The word is N, ramoth, which is rendered "coral," in conformity with the opinion of the Hebrew interpreters and the renderings of the Oriental versions; and although certainty cannot be attained, we are disposed to rest in the conclusion thus authorized. We shall therefore take it to be represented by the coral of commerce. This valuable substance is well known as a marine production, bearing some resemblance to the stem of a plant divided into branches. The bark is composed of numerous minute creatures, closely united into one family, so to speak. Each individual seems to consist of a sac, serving for a stomach, and eight tentacula or arms disposed around the orifice, or mouth, and which are employed in conveying food to the mouth. They form, together, a most perfect community, since that which is eaten by one contributes to the nourishment of the whole. The calcareous substance with which these animals are associated is formed with them, until at last with succeeding generations of their countless multitudes, enormous masses are formed, which, rising near the surface of the water, endanger navigation, or, rising above it, form islands, which ultimately acquire soil and vegetable produce, and become fit for the abode of men. But it is not correct to describe these masses as formed by the animals, since this substance is no more their work than the shell is the work of the oyster. The soft gelatinous polypus and its calcareous dwelling, are equally the result of those plastic and unfolding energies which the Creator has impressed upon this department of nature. We have the rather mentioned these particulars, because much of this was probably known to Job, as the Red Sea abounds, in a remarkable degree, with coral masses, reefs of which extend throughout, and in some places rise ten fathoms above the water, as already mentioned in the note to Exod. xiii. 18. One of the largest islands in the Gulf, that of Kameran, is formed entirely of coral rock, which rises, without any inequality of surface, to the height of twenty feet above the level of the sea. As the coral rock is soft, and easily cut, most of the

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Coral.

* He therefore means copper in the early part of this extract, though he uses a word that signifies iron.

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houses on the south-western coast of Arabia are built entirely with it. The Gulf has indeed been in all ages celebrated for its coral, which strengthens the probability that it is here intended by Job, as it could scarcely fail to have been known to him. As this substance was anciently held in very high esteem, we need not wonder to find it mentioned along with the onyx and sapphire.

"Pearls"-See Gen. ii.

"Rubies," peninim.-The ruby is considered by mineralogists as a variety of the sapphire. It is, with the exception of the sapphire or blue variety, next to the diamond in hardness. The oriental ruby is of a beautiful red or crimson. The form in which the crystals often present themselves is that of a six-sided pyramid or a six-sided prism with very acute angles; these angles seem to be alluded to in the Hebrew word peninim, which signifies angles or

corners.

19. "Topaz." See Exod. xxviii. 17

CHAPTER XXIX.

13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the

Job bemoaneth himself of his former prosperity and widow's heart to sing for joy.

honour.

MOREOVER Job 'continued his parable, and said,

2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

3 When his 'candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle; 5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the

street!

8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves and the aged arose, and stood up. 9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave wit

ness to me:

12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

16 I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. 17 And I brake 'the jaws of the wicked, and 'plucked the spoil out of his teeth. 18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my

branch.

20 My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

22 After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

23 And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

25 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

1 Heb. added to take up. 2 Or, lamp. Heb. with me. 4 Heb. the voice of the nobles was hid.
6 Heb. cast. 7 Heb. opened. 8 Heb. new. 9 Heb. changed.

5 Heb. the jaw-teeth, or, the grinders.

Verse 7. "I went out to the gate...prepared my seat in the street!"-What follows describes Job as performing the duties and receiving the honour due to a civil magistrate or chief elder, or rather perhaps as emir or sheikh, of the place where he lived: for it seems as if he was not merely one of the principal persons, but the chief of them. The picture thus offered to us is very interesting, and in strict conformity with the existing usages of such a condition of Oriental society as that which the book describes. For the discharge of his public functions, he is described as proceeding to the gate of the city, the usual seat of judicature and public business, and at or near it "preparing (or taking) his seat." Seats thus in the open air are usually prepared by a servant placing a mat or carpet upon the ground, in some shady spot, as under a tree or a wall; or else at the spot, where he usually resorts on such occasions, a bench of masonry is prepared, on which the person sits after the mat or carpet has been laid upon it. Whether Job sat in either of these fashions cannot be known; but both are so simple and peculiarly Oriental ́as to suggest the probability.

8. "The young men saw me, and hid themselves.”—It is still customary in the East for young people to withdraw into the background, behind their seniors, when a great man is passing. Lads and young boys also are not allowed to bring themselves into view by mounting upon benches and posts, to enjoy the sight by overlooking the heads of grown people. Any attempt made by young people to obtrude themselves conspicuously is always immediately and decidedly repressed.

"The aged arose, and stood up.”—All do so; and this is expressed by its being intimated that even the aged did so; and therefore all. This custom needs no particular illustration, our own being the same.

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9. "Laid their hand on their mouth."-This is evidently mentioned as an act of high respect, and as expressing or enjoining silent attention. As such it is in some sort used among ourselves, and has been almost everywhere employed. But the employment of this action is very marked in the East; and chiefly to denote attention and unanswering deference. Mr. Roberts tells us that in India a person listens to the address of a judge with his hand upon his mouth. In some Persian sculptures, the persons attending on the king have their hands held up in a manner which significantly enjoins or expresses silent attention: and in one of the sculptures which we have introduced under Neh. i., the person before the king evidently has his hand held to his mouth. This, as explained by ancient writers, was done even while the person was speaking, in order to prevent his breath from exhaling towards the august personage before whom he stood. The usages of the East abound in such conventional decorums; some of them being very significant and others simply humiliating.

CHAPTER XXX.

1 Job's honour is turned into extreme contempt. 15 His prosperity into calamity. BUT now they that are 'younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

3 For want and famine they were 'solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) 6 To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in 'caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

8 They were children of fools, yea, children of 'base men: they were viler than the earth.

9 'And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, 'and spare not to spit in my face.

11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle 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.

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21 Thou art become cruel to me: with 10thy 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.

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

25 13Did 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.

Heb. holes. 8 Heb. my principal one.

Heb. yesternight.
my face.

5 Heb. men of no name. Heb. turned to be cruel.

1 Psal. 35. 13. Rom. 12, 15. 14 Heb. for him that was hard of day. 16 Or, ostriches,

Verse 4. “Mallows,”—(m, malluach; " Arborum cortices," Vulgate; λ, Septuagint.) Some suppose that this was a species of marsh samphire, the Salicornia fruticosa mentioned by Theophrastus under the name of his or pov, salt-wort, of which word the xa of the Septuagint is the plural form. The term malluach, or salt-wort, might have been applied to a plant, not for its taste, but for its appearance, and then it would suggest a species of

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