35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, 17 Here we are? 36 18Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? 37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or "who can stay the bottles of hea 38 When the dust "groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? 39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 22 40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41 "Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat. Eccles. 2.26. 19 Heb. who can cause to lie down. 20 Or, when the dust is turned into mire. 23 Heb. the life. Verse 14. "It is turned as clay to the seal."-Mr. Landseer, in his 'Sabæan Researches,' has some curious speculations upon this passage. He understands that the seal alluded to was one of such cylinders, revolving upon an axis, which we have noticed under 1 Kings xxi. Then he apprehends that the "turning" applies to the revolution of the cylindrical seal upon the clay that received the impression. Or, as the clay seems rather to be represented as turning to the seal, than the seal to the clay, he observes, that the whole verse might be explained by "the operation of impressing one of these ancient cylindrical signets on clay, which bends as the cylinder revolves in delivering its impression, stands round it curvedly as a garment (till you flatten it while in a moist state), and renders conspicuous to view the dark contents of the intaglio engraving." This last explanation we can by no means admit, whatever be said of the other; for there can be no idea of any use for such impressions as it supposes. It is a useful observation, made by him, however, that of all the substances to which he had applied these cylindrical signets, he found clay to be the best adapted both for receiving and retaining the impression. We think the text certainly states that impressions were for some purposes made by seals (of whatever kind) upon clay; and can by no means agree with Dr. Good, that the idea is derived from the operations of the potter. Seals are still applied to clay in the East, probably for the same purposes as in the time of Job: this is for the sealing of doors. We have often, in Eastern caravanserais, been struck by observing this process, as applied to apartments in which valuable property has been deposited. In such cases, the lock, which is easily picked, is considered an inadequate safeguard, a mass of clay is daubed over it, and impressed with a wooden seal. This of course does not prevent robberies; but it serves at once to make the fact known if any one has contrived or forced an entrance by the door, through which alone access can be obtained. As to the general signification of the verse, we incline to understand that the word, tithappek (in conj. Hithp. from TT) denotes change rather than literal revolution; and, consequently, that the passage compares the change which the day-spring produces on the face of nature, to that which the seal produced upon clay, impressing its blank and disagreeable mass with character and beauty. 22. “The treasures of the snow.”—This has not been clearly understood, nor do we profess to understand it. But the comparison of snow to "treasure," might suggest a reference to the extremely diversified and very beautiful forms of the crystals of which the flakes of snow are composed. When the air is calm and the cold intense, as in the Arctic regions, these crystals are observed in the most extensive variety, and the most regular and beautiful forms; and as the extreme north was considered as the great storehouse, so to speak, of cold and of all the phenomena which cold produces, one might venture to suspect a reference to the polar regions as to the "treasures of the snow." Captam Scoresby, who gave much attention to this and other Arctic phenomena, has figured ninety-six varieties of these crystals, and we have caused part of his representation to be copied. He divides all the forms into five principal classes, for the description of which we may refer to his work. If we might venture to suppose that the Almighty referred Job to such things as affording evidence of His wisdom and power, we should perceive a peculiar beauty in such a reference, from the fact that the examination of these crystals conveyed exactly this impression to the mind of Captain Scoresby. He says: "The extreme beauty and endless variety of the microscopic objects perceived in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, are perhaps fully equalled, if not surpassed, in both particulars, of beauty and variety, by the crystals of snow. The principal configurations are the stelliform and hexagonal; though almost every variety of shape of which the generating angle of 60° and 120° are susceptible, may, in the course of a few years' observation, be discovered. Some of the general varieties in the figures of the crystals may be referred to the temperature of the air; but the particular and endless modification of similar classes of crystals, can only be referred to the will and pleasure of the First Great Cause, whose works, even the most minute and evanescent, and in regions the most remote from human observation, are altogether admirable." No objection to the possibility of the reference here suggested can arise in this place from the consideration that Job could not have had any knowledge of such phenomena as these: for it will be observed that this, the first series of questions, refers distinctly to matters which he had not seen, did not know, could not understand; and then gradually proceeds to phenomena, objects, instincts, and circumstances, the aspects of which he might see and know externally, but the regulating principles of which he could not comprehend. This, indeed, though introduced here, for the particular occasion, the reader will find it useful to remember as a general observation. 31. "The Pleiades."-Considerable difficulty has been at all times felt in determining the precise meaning of the astronomical terms used in the book of Job and in other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures. Our version, in the present chapter, follows the Septuagint, both in giving the synonyms of the Hebrew words, and in producing the original words where that ancient version did so, from being unable to offer such synonyms. In the present instance the Hebrew word is, kimah, which is clearly indicated as the constellation, the heliacal rising of which announced the return of spring. The word implies whatever is desirable, delightful, or lovely; and therefore admirably corresponds with that season of which it formed the cardinal constellation in the time of Job. That it denotes the Pleiades is generally agreed, and is probably the least doubtful of the determinations of the Septuagint. The Pleiades are well known to be a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus; and formed actually the leading constellation of the years, at the time in which we have supposed Job to live; but we should greatly err in attempting to fix a particular year, on the data which this fact offers. It is well known that the ancients determined the seasons by the rising and setting of certain constellations. Now, according to calculations formed on the usual rate of the precession of the equinoxes, the star Taigette, the northernmost of this constellation, was precisely in the colure of the vernal equinox 2136 years before Christ. This was before the birth of Abraham, according to the common chronology, and in his youth, according to the chronology of Dr. Hales; and we have seen that he employs a similar process, with respect to the star Aldebaran, to fix the trial of Job to the year 2337 B.C. Now the vice of this process is, that it fixes the trial to the year in which the constellation became the leader of the spring, whereas it might, with more probability, be in some much later year-the time of Jacob, for instance-in which it continued to be such, and was well known to be such. Goguet, who makes this calcu lation, yet feels quite at liberty under it to fix Job as a contemporary of Jacob. In fact the Pleiades might serve, in the same latitude, for many centuries as the cardinal constellation of spring. On this subject there is a good observation of Mr. Landseer's: "Before the colure of the vernal equinox passed into the Ram, and after it had quitted Aldebaran and the Hyades, the Pleiades were for about seven or eight centuries, or perhaps longer, esteemed to be the leading stars of the Sabæan year. It is not meant that the vernal colure continued to pass exactly through this cluster of stars for the above space of time, but that there were no other stars of the zodiac, between the Hyades and the first degree of Aries, sufficiently near to supersede them by becoming an astronomical mark." (Sabæan Researches,' p. 115.) We have the rather dwelt on this point here, because the conclusion to which we have referred, would not only close the discussion as to the time of Job on grounds which we think insufficient, but fixes it to a date which we think adverse to all the conclusions to which we have been conducted in our progress through the book. "Orion."—The word is, kesil, which denotes "a fool;" but as this has no apparent signification, we may recur to the Arabic meaning, which is "cold, inactivity, torpor,"- —a very significant name, for it is evidently the name of a constellation, the appearance of which denoted the approach of winter, as contrasted with the Kimah, which announced the presence of spring. Most writers now follow the opinion of Aben Ezra that the word kesil designates the Scorpion— a constellation opposed to the Pleiades by nearly the half of the heavens, and which announces the approach of winter when the other brings in the spring. The learned rabbi, indeed, fixes the denomination particularly to the star Antares, or the Scorpion's Heart, and in this also may be followed. The reader will not fail to observe the beauty of the contrast evolved by this explanation. Job is asked if he could hinder those "sweet influences" to which nature yields when Kimah announces the approach of spring; or whether he could loosen or retard that rigidity which contracts and binds up her fertile bosom, when the approach of winter is made known by Kesil. 32. “Mazzaroth.”—The word is, which is doubtless the same, with the Syrian exchange of for, as the bi, mazzaloth of 2 Kings xxiii. 5. There are two principal explanations. One of them makes the word to denote Sirius, or the Dog-star; while the other supposes the signs of the zodiac to be intended. The former interpretation has been very extensively received; but the mass of instructed opinion is doubtless in favour of the latter alternative, in which we also concur. It seems to have evidently that meaning in 2 Kings xxiii. 9; and here it well agrees with the context. The word is plural; and to "bring forth Mazzaroth (each) in its season" more clearly refers to the zodiacal signs, which appear successively above the horizon, than to anything else. It also comes in naturally after having spoken of two seasons of the year as announced by two different signs of the zodiac. (See Goguet, Sur les Constellations de Job.") Dr. J. M. Good supports this opinion by observing that, "To this term the Alcoran makes frequent allusions, hereby proving that it is a proper Arabian image, and which has probably never ceased to be common to their poets from the date of the book of Job. Thus, among other places, Sur. xv. We have placed the twelve signs in the heavens, and have set them out in various figures, for the observation of beholders."" We have of course understood the solar zodiac; but an idea was promulgated by Dr. John Hill, which has found support from Mr. Landseer, that the lunar zodiac is intended. It is certain that such a zodiac formed part of a very ancient system of Arabian astronomy; that is, as the sun was observed from month to month to pass from one house or sign to another; so the moon was also said to change her mansion every night. Both hypotheses imply the existence of the same constellations; and we think either better than the alternative of the Dog Star. The same explanation will also apply to both, namely, that "Jehovah alone possessed the power to bring forth Mazzaroth in its season;' that is to say, so to regulate or carry round the moon (or the sun), or its mansions, that, the mysterious cycle being completed, the pristine order of procession shall be renewed." “Areturus with his sons.”—The Hebrew word translated Arcturus is y, aish, here, and y, ash, in chap. ix. 9. The etymology is uncertain. There are two opinions concerning what it denotes: one that it is Arcturus, the principal star in the constellation Bootes; and the other that it is the constellation Ursa Major, or the Great Bear. The difference is not very serious, being but that between the Bear and the Bear-keeper (Arcto-phylax), as Bootes, from its position and proximity to the Bear, was sometimes called. The two explanations will easily coalesce if we suppose that Arcturus, as representing the constellation Bootes, represented also the Bear as associated therewith. At any rate, that Ursa Major is intended may be well believed. Aben Ezra, in his commentary on Job, is clearly of this opinion. He says, "Aish is a northern constellation composed of seven stars." Further on he observes, "The number of the northern constellations is twenty-one ;" and afterwards, " Aish and her sons are the stars of the Great Bear." CHAPTER XXXIX. 1 Of the wild goats and hinds. 5 Of the wild ass. 9 The unicorn. 13 The peacock, stork, and ostrích. 19 The horse. 26 The hawk. 27 The eagle. KNOWEST thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when 'the hinds do calve? 2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth? 3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sor rows. 4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them. 5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? 6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the "barren land his dwellings. 7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. 8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing. 9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? 10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the vallies after thee? 11 Wilt thou trust him, because his 1 Psal. 29. 9. 2 Heb sait places. 3 Heb. of the exactor. 16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her labour is in vain without fear; 17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. 18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider. 19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? 20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. 21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet "the armed men. 22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. 23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. 24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. Or, the feathers of the stork and ostrich. 7 Heb. the armour. 5 Heb. terrors. 6 Or, his feet dig. 521 Verse 5. "Wild ass."-The original word is para, which the Septuagint renders by ovos ygos, or by the compound word "vaygos, both meaning "wild ass." These wild asses are often mentioned by ancient writers. The notice of Xenophon, whose description refers to the same desert on the skirts of which Job resided, is particularly interesting from its correspondence with the Scriptural intimations. After describing the march of the army of the younger Cyrus through Syria, he proceeds: "They then proceeded through Arabia*, still keeping the Euphrates on their right hand; and, in five days, made, through a desert, a distance of thirty-five parasangs. This country appeared to the eye a complete flat, and as smooth as the sea. It abounded in absinthum ; and whatever herb or shrub grew there had an aromatic scent: but no trees whatever appeared. Of wild creatures, the most numerous were, wild asses, with plenty of ostriches, besides bustards and roe-deer, which afforded sport to our horsemen. The wild ass, however, being swifter of foot than our horses, would, on gaining ground upon them, stand still and look around; and when their pursuers got nearly up to them, they would start off, and repeat the same trick; so that there remained to the hunters no other method of taking them, but by dividing themselves into dispersed parties which succeeded each other in the chace. The flesh of the wild asses taken in this manner, was found to be like that of the red-deer, but more tender." (Anabasis, l. 1.) This is a very correct account, not only of the animal, but of the desert region it inhabits. The method of hunting it is the same as here described; and the manner in which it repeatedly stops to give the pursuer an opportunity of approaching, and then starts off again, is a striking indication of an exulting, and even a derisive consciousness of its own superior speed. In Persia, the wild ass is prized above all other animals as an object of chace, not only from its fleetness, but the delicacy of its flesh, which made it a luxury even at royal tables. Kings have delighted to hunt it: and one of the best kings of Persia, Baharam the Fifth, whose favourite game was the wild ass, lost his life in the pursuit. The wild ass of the East is doubtless the parent stock to which we owe the useful domestic animal, which seems to have degenerated the further it has been removed from its parent seat in central Asia. Our cut will show that superior spirit and grace of form by which it is distinguished from the domestic ass. It is taller and much more dignified; it holds the head higher, and the legs are more elegantly shaped. Even the head, though large like that of the commen ass, in proportion to the body, has a finer appearance from the forehead being more arched; the neck by which it is sustained is also longer and has a more graceful bend. It bears a short mane of dark and woolly hair; and a stripe *They had crossed the Euphrates, and were therefore in Mesopotamia; but the desert part of this region is of precisely the same character as to the west of the river; and was, properly enough, considered part of Arabia Deserta by the ancients. 522 of dark, bushy hair also runs along the ridge of the back from the mane to the tail. The hair of the body generally is of a silver grey, inclining to flaxen colour in some parts, and white under the belly and inside the thighs. The hair is soft and silken, similar in its texture to that of the camel. Wild asses associate in herds under a leader; but sometimes solitary individuals are found, being perhaps stragglers from the main body. They are most usually found single or a few together in countries where there are no very extensive deserts; but in such countries they are by no means common. They are most abundantly found in the deserts of Tartary, and of the countries between the Tigris and the Indus; more particularly in the central parts of the region thus defined. We know that they were also found anciently in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Arabia Deserta; but from these regions they seem to have been, in the course of ages, almost entirely expelled or extirpated. 9. "Unicorn."-The original is here D, usually DN, reem, which the Septuagint has in this place and elsewhere rendered by povónspas, "one-horned "-equivalent to our "unicorn." No one now seeks for it in the heraldic animal that passes under the name, and which never had any but an imaginary existence. There is nothing in the Hebrew word to imply that the reem was one-horned: it is indeed mentioned as horned; and on referring to the pas sages in which the term is introduced, the only one which is quite distinct on this point seems clearly to intimate that the animal had two horns. That passage is Deut. xxxiii. 17: "His horns are like the horns of the 'reem;"" the word here is singular, not plural, and should have been "unicorn," not "unicorns," as in our version; but it would have been inconsistent to have said "the horns of the unicorn"-the one-horned, and therefore the word was put in the plural. The second passage is Psalm xxii. 21: "The horns of the unicorns," which affords no information. The third is Psalm xcii. 10, p, vattarem ki-reem karni), literally, "But thou wilt exalt, as the reem, my horn." If "horn" be supplied in the parallel, as in our version--" as the horn of the unicorn"-then there would be nearly the same evidence for concluding the reem had one horn, as the first cited text affords for its having two; but we should even then have to consider that it is usual, poetically or in common discourse, to speak of "the horn" of an animal that has actually two horns; but never of the "horns" of a creature that has but one. And as this text now stands, requiring an addition to make the assigned sense distinct, its authority therefore for giving the animal one horn, is not equal to that of Deut. xxxiii. 17, for giving it two. Therefore, as a matter of opinion, we should incline to think a wild buffalo, or some such animal, is intended. The present text seems to countenance this idea, for it describes the difficulty or impossibility of making the animal perform just such services as tame buffaloes or oxen actually do perform. If however a one-horned animal be contended for, we may take the rhinoceros; a cut of which has been given under Deut. xxxiii. This is the usual determination; and it has the sanction of the Vulgate, which here gives rhinoceros as the equivalent of monoceros. The horny projection on the forepart of this animal's head would entitle it, better certainly than any other known animal, to the title of "one-horned." The description "his strength is great," would apply with the greatest propriety to the rhinoceros, the strength of which is enormous; being also covered with an impenetrable skin, and so bulky, that it has been known to require eight men to lift the head of one of the African species into a cart. One species is a native of India (Rhinoceros Indicus), and there seem to be at least two in Africa; but their history and distinguishing characteristics have not been sufficiently investigated. To the illustration already given, we here add the head of another animal, which, at least so far as the horn is concerned, seems to approach nearer than the common rhinoceros to the monoceros or unicorn, as noticed by the ancients. The public is indebted for the knowledge of it to the Rev. John Campbell, who thus speaks of it in his 'Travels in South Africa,' (vol. ii. p. 294.) While in the Mashow territory, the Hottentots brought in a head different from that of any rhinoceros that had previously been killed:-"The common African rhinoceros has a crooked horn resembling a cock's spur, which rises about nine or ten inches above the nose and inclines backward; immediately behind this is a short thick horn. But the head they brought had a straight horn projecting three feet from the forehead, about ten inches above the tip of the nose. The projection of this great horn very much resembles that of the fanciful unicorn in the British arms. It has a small, thick, horny substance, eight inches long, immediately behind it, and which can hardly be observed on the animal at the distance of one hundred yards, and seems to be designed for keeping fast that which is penetrated by the long horn; so that this species must look like a unicorn (in the sense one-horned) when running in the field. The head resembled in size a nine-gallon cask, and measured three feet from the mouth to the ear, and, being much larger than that of the one with the crooked horn, and which measured eleven feet in length, the animal itself must have been still larger and more formidable. From its weight and the position of the horn, it appears capable of overcoming any creature hitherto known. Hardly any of the natives took the smallest notice of the head, but treated it as a thing familiar to them. As the entire horn is perfectly solid, the natives, I afterwards heard, make from one horn four handles for their battle-axes. Our people wounded another, which they reported to be much larger.' The author adds, in a note, that the head was so weighty, and the distance from the Cape so great, that it appeared necessary to cut off the under jaw and leave it behind. "The animal is considered by naturalists, since the arrival of the skull in London, to be the unicorn of the ancients, and the same that is described in Job xxxix." A fragment of the skull, with the horn, is deposited in the Museum of the London Missionary Society; and a representation of the head itself is given in the work from which these particulars are taken. Head of Campbell's Unicorn. 13. "Gavest thou the goodly wings," &c.-The words "Gavest thou" are not in the original, which is so difficult of construction in this instance, that the Greek translators of the Septuagint seem to have confessed their ignorance, by 3 x 2 523 |