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Ver. 7 seq. CoCCEIUS: He addresses Job here | when he becomes better known to himself, tremalmost in the same terms as God in ch. xxxviii. bles, carries with him his own torments, and but with another scope and purpose. Wisdom says in Prov. viii. 25, that it was begotten before the hills, i. e. that it is the eternal Son of God. This Wisdom alone was acquainted with all the mysteries of God the Father, to this Wisdom alone are owing the purification and justification of men, the full declaration of the gracious will of God, and the gift of the spirit of joy.

Vers. 14-16: BRENTIUS: These words are most true: no one in himself is clean, pure and just; but in God, through faith in Christ, we come into possession of all cleanness, purity and justification (John xv. 3; Rom. xv. 1, etc.).MERCIER: Eliphaz finds fault with man's nature which nevertheless by faith is made pure. ZEYSS: Although the holy angels are pure and holy spirits, neither their holiness nor that of man is to be compared with the infinitely perfect holiness of God, but God only is and remains the Most Holy One; Is. vi. 3.-OECOLAMPADIUS (on ver. 16): Here is beautifully described the misery of man, who is abominable by reason of innate depravity. a child of wrath, corrupted and degenerated from his first estate, and so inflamed with lust, that as one in the dropsy drinks water, so does he drink sin, and is never satisfied.

Ver. 20 seq.: IDEM: This is what he would say, that the wicked man, having an evil conscience within himself, at every time of his life

never hopes for good. Moses has finely illustrated this in Cain, Gen. iv.-CRAMER: The ungodly and hypocrites live in continual restlessness of heart; but blessed are they whose sins are forgiven; they attain rest and peace of conscience.-Comp. Prov. xxvii. 1: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion."

Ver. 29 seq. BRENTIUS: Eliphaz proceeds with his recital of the catalogue of curses on the wicked. . . . "His seed will burn up," i. e. the blessing of the wicked will be turned into a curse; and as the branches of trees are burned by fire, and scattered by the wind, which is called the Spirit [breath] of God, so do all the blessings of the wicked perish by the judgment of God, and the Spirit of His mouth.-CRAMER: The dire punishments which befall the ungodly give courage to the pious, and strengthen their faith, when they see how the former are recompensed for their ungodliness (Ps. xci. 8). . . Although the ungodly have many friends and many dependents, their name must nevertheless rot and perish (Prov. x. 7; Esth. vi. 13).— ZEYSS (on vers. 31-33): As the sowing, so the reaping. He who sows vanity will also reap vanity; calamity and destruction will happen to him for a recompense (Hos. viii. 7; Gal. vi. 8). When the ungodly think that their life is at its very best, they are often enough quite suddenly taken away (Luke xii. 17).

B.-Job: Although oppressed by his disconsolate condition, he nevertheless wishes and hopes that God will demonstrate his innocence, against the unreasonable accusations of his friends.

CHAPTER XVI-XVII.

(A brief preliminary repudiation of the discourses of the friends as aimless and unprofitable): CHAP. XVI. 1–5.

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2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

3 Shall vain words have an end?

or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? 4 I also could speak as ye do;

if your soul were in soul's stead,

my

I could heap up words against you,

and shake mine head at you.

5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth,

and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.

1. Lamentation on account of the disconsolateness of his condition, as forsaken and hated by God and men:

VERS. 6-17.

6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; and though I forbear, what am I eased?

7 But now He hath made me weary:

Thou hast made desolate all my company.

8 And Thou hast filled me with wrinkies, which is a witness against me;

and my leanness rising up in me

beareth witness to my face.

9 He teareth me in His wrath, who hateth me; He gnasheth upon me with His teeth;

mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully;
they have gathered themselves together against me.

11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly,

and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

12 I was at ease, but He hath broken me asunder;

He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His mark.

13 His archers compass me round about,

He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.

14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach;

He runneth upon me like a giant.

15 I have sowed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

16 My face is foul with weeping,

and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

17 not for any injustice in mine hands;

also my prayer is pure.

2. Vivid expression of the hope of a future recognition of his innocence; CHAPTER XVI. 18-XVII. 9.

18 O earth, cover not thou my blood!

and let my cry have no place!

19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

20 My friends scorn me:

but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor'

22 When a few years are come,

then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

CHAP. XVII. 1. My breath is corrupt,

my days are extinct,

the graves are ready for me.

2 Are there not mockers with me?

and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with Thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

4 For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding? therefore shalt Thou not exalt them.

5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6 He hath made me also a byword of the people;

and aforetime I was as a tabret.

7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

8 Upright men shall be astonished at this,

and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

9 The righteous also shall hold on his way,

and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

3. Sharp censure of the admonitory speeches of the friends as unreasonable, and destitute of all power to comfort:

VERS. 10-16.

10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now;

for I cannot find one wise man among you.

11 My days are passed,

my purposes are broken off,

even the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. 13 If I wait, the grave is mine house;

I have made my bed in the darkness.

14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. 15 And where is now my hope?

as for my hope, who shall see it?

16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.

miserable comforters are ye all.
Spy,

מנחמי

lit. "comforters of distress" [Gen of attribute, Green, & 254, 6] are burdensome comforters (consolatores onerosi, Jer.), who, instead of comfort, minister only trouble and distress; comp. cb. xv. 11.

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on ch. vi. 25), signifies "to make sick, to afflict" (Ewald, Schlott., Dillm.), or again to goad, incite, vex" (Del.) [see the examples in notes on vi. 25 favoring this definition]: not "to make sweet, to sweeten,' as the Targ. interprets, as though

1. Heartlessly repulsed by his friends, and left without comfort, Job turns, more trustfully than in his previous apologies, to the God who evidenced Himself in his good conscience, of whom he cannot believe that He will leave him Ver. 3. Are windy words (now) at an forever without testifying to his innocence, end? Comp. ch. xv. 2, where Eliphaz rehowever cheerless a night of despair may in the proaches Job with windy speech-a reproach meanwhile surround him. It is in the expres- which Job now pays back in the same coin.— sion of his confidence, and of his inward yearning Or what vexes thee [addressed more partiand waiting for this Divine testimony to his innocence (ch. xvi. 18 to xvii. 9) that the significance cularly to Eliphaz] that thou answerest? of this discourse culminates, so far as it gives, Hiph. of 1, "to be sick, weak" (see pleasing evidence of progress beyond Job's former frame of mind. Along with this indeed it gives evidence that the spirit of hopeless and bitter complaint is, if not intensified, at least substantially unchanged and undiminished. The first principal division of the discourse (ch. xvi. 6-17) which precedes that expression of yearning confidence in God's help contains in particular an expression of cheerless lamentation over his condition, as one forsaken by God and men; while a shorter introduction prefaced to this division (ch. xvi. 2-5), as well as the concluding section, or third division (ch. xvii 10-16) are particularly occupied with a bitter complaint on account of the misunderstanding and heartless conduct of the friends.-The whole discourse comprises six long strophes, the first of which constitutes the introduction, extending through four verses, or ten stichs (ch. xvi. 2-5), while the first and second divisions contain each two strophes (of 6, 7 verses, or 14 stichs), the third division, however, only one strophe (of 7 verses, or 14 stichs).

2. Exordium of the discourse, or introductory strophe: A short preliminary repudiation of the discourses of the friends as aimless, and destitute of all power to comfort: ch xvi. 2-5.

Ver. 2. I have heard (already) many such things (ni, multa, as in ch. xxiii. 14), and

were without further qualification

moreover is not-quum (Hirz.), but as in ch. vi. 11 quod: "what vexes thee that thou answerest," or "to answer."

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Ver. 4. I also indeed would speak like you, i. e., would be minded to serve you with such like discourses as your own [Dillmann, Conant, Renan, Rodwell, etc., with good reason prefer to render the subjunctive 2 "I could," or "might," rather than "would"].If your soul were instead of mine; i. e. in case you had my place, your persons were instead of mine. [Conant, however: "Your soul is not to be taken as a periphrasis of the personal pronoun. Soul, the seat of intelligence, mental activity and emotion, stands as the representative of these faculties in man, and is specially appropriate here, where there is immediate reference to what is thought, felt and suffered. The force of the expression is lost therefore by substituting ye and me."]-Would [or could] weave words against you.—

e is not “to make a league with words" (Gesen. [Rodwell], etc.), nor again: "to affect wisdom with words" (Ewa'd), but to "combine words, string them together like pearls.' Instead of the simple accus. of the object, the more choice construction with instrum. is used; comp. the following member, also ver. 10; Jer. xviii. 16; Lam. i. 17 (Gesen. 138 [135] 1, Rem. 3). [When he says: I would range together, etc., he gives them to understand that their speeches are more artificial than natural, more declamations than the

:

outgushings of the heart." Del.]-And shake my head at you; viz., as a gesture of scorn and malicious pleasure; comp. Ps. xxii. 8 [7]; Is. xxxvii. 22; Jer. xviii. 16; Sir. xii. 18; Matt. xxvii. 39. It should be borne in mind that what is hateful in such conduct is not to be charged upon Job (who indeed only states what

as a

that the friends had shown any such malignity as would be thus suggested. What Job says is, that he could multiply words of cold formal sympathy, that he could string out such words upon them, or towards them; and again that he could make with his head the customary oriental gesture of condolence ( here like 7, see above, ch. ii. 11 and comp. Gesen. sub. v.), this being by implication all the sympathy he had received from them.-E.]

the cheerlessness of his condition, as one for3. First Division. A lamentation concerning saken and persecuted by God and men.

6-17.

Vers.

From the friends,

the "miserable comforters," who leave him in
First Strophe: vers. 6-11.
his helplessness, he turns to himself, who is so
greatly in need of sympathy, because God has
delivered him over to the scorn and the cruelty
of the unrighteous.

Ver. 6. [He bethinks himself whether he
will continue the colloquy further. Already in
his grief, and solicited comfort.
the lamentation of ch. iii. Job had given vent to
The colloquy

departs from me, viz. of my pain? how much of my pain goes away from me, do I lose? The unexpressed answer would naturally be: Nought! On 1, comp. ch. xiv. 20.

Ver. 7. Nevertheless-now He hath ex

he could do if he had before him the friends, weak and miserable as he is now, and should then follow the promptings of the natural man), but on the friends, before whom Job here holds up as in a mirror the hatefulness of their own thus far had shown that from them he had no conduct. [In regard to the rendering of comfort to expect. Should he then speak furby "against," and the explanation of ther, in order to procure at least some alleviagesture of scorn, see below on ver. 5] tion of his grief? but he cannot anticipate even He must Ver. 5. Would [could] strengthen you this as the result of his speaking. with my mouth: i. e. with mere words, in- accordingly be silent; yet even then he is no stead of with deeds of a love that wins the heart. better off." Dillm.]-If I speak (voluntative [On the form DOYNN with Tsere shortened to after DN, see Ew. 355, b) my grief is not Hhirik, see Green, 104, h.]—And the sym- assuaged; if I forbear (voluntative without pathy of my lips (T), commisseration, sympa-D, as in ch. xi. 17; Ps. lxxiii. 16, etc.), what thy, only here; comp. the phrase, similar in sound, 1, "fruit of the lips," Is. lvii. 19) should assuage, scil. your grief. "to soothe, restrain, check," here without an obj. as in Is. lviii. 1. The following verse easily hausted me, viz. God, not the pain (N, ver. enables us to supply, as the object. [The 6), which the Vulg., Aben-Ezra, etc., regard as E. V., Wem., Bar., Elz., etc., render this as a the subj. The particle, which belongs to the contrast with ver. 4, as though Job, after there describing what he might do if they were in his whole sentence, signifies neither: "of a truth, yea place, describes here what, on the other hand, verily!" (Ew.) nor "only" [=entirely], as though he really would do. But there is nothing to it belonged only to 8 (Hirz., Hahn, etc.), indicate such a contrast. Ver. 5 is most simply but it has here an adversative meaning, and and naturally the continuation of ver. 4.-The states, in opposition to the two previously menirony of the passage is most keen and cutting. tioned possibilities of speaking and being silent, If you were in my place, says Job, if your soul what is actually the case with Job; hence it were tried as mine is, I could speak windy words should be rendered "still, nevertheless," verum in abundance as you have done, I could string tamen: [Renan: Mais quoi! "He is absolutely them out one after another, and nod my head to incapable of offering any resistance to his pain, comfort: oh, yes! all such comfort-sympathy and care has also been taken that no solacing of the head, of the mouth, of the lips, I could word shall come to him from any quarter," Del. lavish upon you-that is cheap enough, as your See the next clause].-Thou hast desolated conduct shows-but as for the heart, that is all my circle. There not "rabble,” as in quite another matter! It will be seen from ch. xv. 34, but sensu bono-circle of friends and this paraphrase of Job's language that a some- family dependents (Carey: all my clan). ["This what different view is taken of one mention of the family is altogether in place, seeexpressions, particularly in ver. 4, from that ing that the loss of the same must be doubly felt given above by Zöckler. It seems unnecessary by him now that his friends are hostile to him." and unnatural to suppose that Job would in ver. Schlott.]. The Pesh. reads "all my testimony" 4 describe himself as framing words against(), i. e., all that witness in my behalf, all them, and indulging in gestures of malicious mockery, and then in ver. 5 as strengthening and soothing them with words-but nothing more. Moreover the expressions of ver. 4 would thus lose their point, there being no reason to suppose

or two

my prosperity (so also Hahn among the moderns), to which however D is not particularly suitable. Note moreover the transition, bearing witness as it does to the vivid excite

ment of the speaker's feelings, from the declara- | me (a gesture of insolent mockery, as in Ps. tions concerning God in the third person (which we find in the first member, and which appear again ver. 9 seq.), and the mournful plaintive address to Him here and in ver. 8, in which the description before us is directly continued.

signifies קמט

the circumstance that God makes him suffer so severely is-so at least it seems-a witness of his guilt. [This clause, taken in connection especially with the following parallelism, seems certainly to favor the rendering of the Vulg; E. V., etc. thou hast filled me with wrinkles

which like his "leanness" is visible. The cor

xxii. 8 [7]; Jer. lvii. 4); with abuse (i. e., with abusive speech) they strike me on the cheeks (comp. Mic. iv. 14 [v. 1]; Lam. iii. 30; John xviii. 22; xix. 3); together they strengthen themselves against me, or again: they complete; fill themselves up [= fill up their ranks] against me, for means

(Isa.

"to gather themselves together to a No
xxxi. 4), a heap;" not "to equip themselves
with a full suit of armor," as Hirzel would ex-
plain, supplying -The whole of this lamen-

Ver. 8. And hast seized me (not "Thou makest me wrinkled," Vulg., Luther [E. V., Lee, Rodwell] or "shrivelest me together," Del.-for "to press together, to fasten firmly together;" comp. ch. xxii. 16. [Wordsworth attempts somewhat peculiarly to combine the two definitions: "Thou hast bound me fast with wrinkles, as with a chain"].-It is become a witness, viz., the fact that thou hast seized me;tation, which reminds us of Ps. xxii., is general in its form; it contemplates nevertheless the hostile attacks made by the friends on Job. as in particular the word " together" in the third member shows-in hearing which the friends aimed at in the strong expressions of the speaker, could not help feeling that they were personally bilities hurt by such expressions as those of even as he on his part must have had his sensiEliphaz in ch. xv. 16 (see on the passage). xxiii. 16 [15]) to the unrighteous, and Ver. 11. God delivers me (comp. Deut. Casts me headlong into the hand of the wicked. Imperf. Kal. of (contracted from ", Ges., 70 [68], Rem. 3). ["The preformative Jod has Metheg in correct texts, so that we need not suppose, with Ralbag, a similar in meaning to " Del ]. præcipitem me dat; comp. LXX. ¿ppiye and Symmachus évéẞale.- in the first member, "the perverted one, the reprobate, the unrighteous." or again" the boy" [der Bube, "or the boyish, childish, knavish one"] as Del. explains it, (referring to ch. xix. 18; xxii. 11), is used collectively for the plur., as the parallel term 'y in b shows.

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The winess against Job is naturally something rugation of the skin was a feature of elephantiasis more marked even than the emaciation of the body, and would hardly be omitted in so vivid a description of his condition as Job here gives. The primary signification of "seizing," or compressing" should not however be lost sight of; indeed it adds much to the terrible force of the representation to retain it, and, with Wordsworth, to combine the two definitions, only in a somewhat different way from his; the true conception being that God-who in ver. 12 is represented as seizing Job and dashing him in pieces, -is here represented as seizing, compressing him, until his body is shriveled, crumpled up into wrinkles.-E.]. In opposition to Ewald, who changes into (, see ch. vi. 2; xxx. 13), and translates accor lingly: "and calamity seized me as a witness-comp. Del. and Dillm. on the passage: [who object that it would leave without much of its force and emphasis, and that the construction would be too condensed and artificial].-And my leanness has appeared against me, accusing me to the face (speaking out against me, comp ch. xv. 66). On n consumption, emaciation, comp. Ps. cix. 24. The signification rests on a metaphor similar to that by virtue of which a dried-up brook is called a "liar" (ch. vi. 15

seq.).

TT

=

Ver. 9. His anger has torn and made war upon me; He has gnashed against me with His teeth; as mine enemy He has whetted His eyes against me. God, who is now again spoken of in the third person, is imagined as a ferocious beast of prey, who is enraged against Job. So above in ch. x. 16.-As to the tearing," comp. Hos. vi. 1; the "making war," ch. xxx. 21; the "whetting" or "sharpening" of the eyes, Ps. vii. 13 [12]: also the acies oculorum of the Romans, and the modern expression, "to shoot a murderous look at any

one

Ver. 10. Men also, like God, fall upon Job, as his enemies, resembling beasts of prey. They have opened wide their mouth against

Second Strophe: Vers. 12-17. Continuation of the description of the cruel and hostile treatment he had received from God, notwithstanding his innocence.

Ver. 12. I was at ease, and He then shattered me. , secure, unharmed, suspecting no evil; comp ch. xxi. 23; iii. 26.-1979. Pilp. of 5 with strong intensive signification-" to shatter, to crush in pieces;" so also the followto beat in pieces, to dash ing axe, from psd,

to pieces." ["He compares himself to a man
who is seized by the hair of his head, and thrown
down a precipice, where his limbs are broken.
He probably alludes to some ancient mode of
punishing criminals." Wemyss]. Observe the
onomatopoetic element of these intensive forms,
which furthermore are to be understood not lit-
erally or physically, but in a figurative sense of
the sudden shattering of prosperity, and peace
of soul.-And set me for a mark.
(from, pɛiv, like aкoñóç from oкintesdal),
target, mark, as in 1 Sam. xx. 20; Lam. iii. 12;
comp. y above in ch. vii. 20.

Ver. 13 expands the figure in ch. xii. c.-His arrows whirred about me. 2, not "his troops, his archers" (Rabb. [E. V., Noy., Con..

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