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ishment. The reference to the race of men im- | mediately preceding the Noachian deluge (the άрxalos Kóσμs of 2 Pet. ii. 5) is evident enough.

Fourth Strophe: vers. 16-20. Description of the destruction of those ungodly men as a divine judgment overtaking them after a season of prosperity, together with an application to the controversy suggested by Job's case in respect

to the doctrine of retribution.

Ver. 16. [The asterisk in the Hebrew Bible marks the verse as the middle of the book, there being 537 verses before, and the same number after this mark] Who were swept off (

lit. "were seized" comp. above on ch. xvi. 8) [Bernard, Rodwell, etc., "who became shrivelled (corpses) before, etc." Carey: "who got tied up... so that escape was impossible," but better as above,—“to be snatched away"] before the time--i. e. before there was any probability, according to human experience, that their hour had come; comp. the awpor of the LXX.

also above in ch. xv. 82 ini' xhạ. -as even in the present passage some Mss. read instead

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happy all their lives. El. says: No! these are the very sort of men who were visited by the judgment of the deluge, and you are just as bad as they, for you are treading in their steps." Carey].

Ver. 18. And yet he had filled their houses with blessings-(, prosperity, good, as below ver. 21 and ch. xxi. 25 ); a circumstantial clause, which stands connected with the principal verb in ver. 16, having a restrictive force, in order to express the contrast between the sudden judgment which overtakes the wicked, and the long season of prosperity preceding it, which gives to them the appearance of exemption from punishment. The formula of detestation which follows in Eliphaz intentionally takes as it were out of the mouth of Job (comp. ch. xxi. 16), in order to impress upon him that only he has the right thus to speak who does not doubt that God inflicts righteous retribution.

Ver. 19. The righteous will see it :-to wit the destruction which will one day befall the wicked (not the punishment inflicted on the sinners of the primeval world, which was long since past)-and rejoice, and the innocent will mock at them-at those who were once prosperous, but have now encountered the righteous penalty of their transgressions, in regard to whom accordingly the proverb will be verified-" he laughs best who laughs last." The triumphant joy of the righteous over the final punishment of the ungodly, which they shall live to see, and which Eliphaz here describes in such a way as to contrast with Job's previous utterances, ch. xvii. 8; xxi. 5, 6, is frequently described in the Old Testament; comp. Ps. lviii. 11 [10] seq.; Ixiv. 10 [9] seq.

of (com. Ps. cxxxix. 16). As a stream
their foundation was poured away—i. e.
it became fluid, so that they could no longer
stand on it, but sank down. Again a palpable
allusion to the deluge (scarcely to the fate of
Sodom and Gomorrah, in mentioning which the
rain of fire and brimstone (Gen. xix. 24; comp.
Job xviii. 15) would scarcely have been forgot-
ten:-against Ewald [and Davidson, Introd. ii.
229]). The construction of the words which we
have followed, according to which DTD is the
subject, nominat. of the predicate or pro-
duct, and py descriptive Imperf. Hoph. (not
an unusual alternate form of the Perf. Pual p
as Ewald supposes) appears as that which alone
is favored by the position of the words and the
accents. The following renderings are not so
good: "their place became a poured out stream"
(Hirzel: "whose foundation was a poured out
stream" (Umbr., Olsh.) [Rodwell]; "a stream
was poured out upon their foundation" (Rosenm.,
Hahn) [Lee, Carey: with which may be con-versary.
nected the rendering of E. V. Renan, Noyes,
Elzas: "whose foundation was overflown with
a flood," and of Conant: "their foundation was
poured away in a flood "].

Ver. 17. Who said unto God: Depart from us! and what could the Almighty do for them?-The sentiment of the ungodly is expressed first in the direct and then in the indirect form of speech, precisely as in ch. xix.

28. As to the matter the passage reminds us of Job's last discourse, ch. xxi. 14, 15. The same arrogant God-renouncing utterances, which Job there attributes to the prosperous wicked described by him, is here imputed by Eliphaz to the objects of his description, in order to show to him that up to a certain point he agrees entirely with his representation of the relation of external prosperity to human sinfulness. ["El. no doubt intends this as a direct contradiction to Job's statement. The Patriarch had asserted that men of these atheistical principles were

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Ver. 20 contains the words in which this future triumph of the pious will be expressed. Verily (-ON as in ch. i. 11; xvii. 2) our adversaries are destroyed. (instead of which Olsh. needlessly proposes after Ps. xliv. 6; Ex. xv.-7) is a pausal form for 'p, from a root D'p, which occurs only here, meaning he who is set up" (partic. pass.), i. e. the adThe righteous designate the ungodly as their adversaries not in a personal, but an ethical sense, because God's enemies are also their enemies; comp. Ps. cxxxix. 21; Rom. xi. 28. And what is left to them a fire has devoured D, "their remnant, their residue,” to wit, in property and wealth; the remainder of their means; hardly "their super abundance" (Del.) ["for why should the fire devour only that which they had as a superfluity?" Dillm.] D is used here accordingly in another sense than in ch. iv. 21. a passage otherwise similar to the present. For the use of fire as a symbol of the divine decree of punishment effecting a radical extermination, comp. ch. xv. 34; xx. 26; Ez-k. xx. 28, etc.

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4 Third Division, or Double Strophe: vers. 2150: An admonition to repentance, and a promise of salvation to the penitent.

Fifth Strophe: vers 21-25: The admonition.
Ver. 21. Make friends now with Him,

shalt be built up, thou shalt put away, etc.," does not quite correctly set forth the logical relation of the clauses. E.]

and be at peace. on here with Dy, which gives a signification different from that found above in ver. 2, viz. "to make friends with any one, to draw nigh to any one," comp. James iv. 8. The following D is to be rendered as an Imperat. consec. (comp. Prov. iii. 4; and Gesen., which occurs only here and in the follow

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130 [127], 2; and be at peace, i. e. and so shalt thou be at peace." ["We distinguish best between 1 and D by regarding the former as expressing the conclu sion, the latter the preservation of peace." Schlottmann]. Thereby shall blessing come to thee-come upon thee, comp. ch. xx. 22. (instead of which many Mss. read

T T

is 8 sing. fem. imperf. with a doubled indication of its feminine form (first by and afterwards by 7), hence with suffix of the 2d person. Comp. in regard to such double feminines Delitzsch on the passage [who refers to Prov. i. 20; Ezek. xxiii. 20; Josh. vi. 17; 2 Sam. i. 26; Amos iv. 3], also Ewald 191, c; 249, c [Green 88, 3 f.]-Olsh. and Rödig. following certain Mss. would read "thereby will thine income be a good one." but this would impart to the discourse an artificial character, seeing that an earthly reward is not mentioned before ver. 25 seq. As to D, "thereby" (lit. "by these things") with neuter suffix, comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 18; Is. lxiv. 4; xxxviii. 16.

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Ver. 22. Receive, I pray, instruction out of His mouth.-God's mouth represented as the source of instruction in the higher truth, as in Prov. ii. 6 [El. as Dillm. says claiming to be himself the interpreter of God's teaching to Job].

Ver. 25. And lay down in (or cast down to) the dust the precious ore.-The word

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The

ing verse, signifies according to the etymology
as well as the connection precious metal, gold or
silver, and that in its crude, unprepared state,
as it is brought forth out of the shafts of the
mountain mines, hence "gold and silver ore,"
"virgin-gold" (Delitzsch). The laying down
of such metal in the dust" signifies that one re-
lieves himself of it as of worthless trash.
second member expresses the same thought still
more strongly. And among the pebbles of
the brooks (74 assonant with 2) the gold
of Ophir,- for the more complete and
common Tax one, comp. ch. xxviii. 16; Ps.
xlv. 10 [9], etc., also such modern mercantile
abbreviations as Mocha, Damask, Champagne,
etc. In regard to the much disputed location of
the land of Ophir (LXX. Qoɛip,-Cod. Al. how-
ever Zwoɛip, which reminds us of Sufâra, on the
peninsula of Guzerat, in India, as well as of the
Coptic Sofir, used as a name for India) comp.
the Realwörterbücher [Cy lopædias and Dic-
tionaries]; also Bähr on 1 Kings x. 22 [Vol. VI.
of this series, p. 122]. To the earlier theories
which located Ophir in India, or in Arabia has
who in a Report to the London Geographical So-
been added latterly that of Sir Rod. Murchison,
ciety is inclined to the opinion that the south-
African coast around the mouth of the Limpopo
river is the true Ophir of the Bible, supporting
his view in part by the conjectures of the well-
known archæologist, John Crawford (in his De-
scriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands),
which point to this locality, and in part by the
discoveries of districts abounding in gold, which
made since 1866 in this very region (north of the
the German traveller, K. Mauch, claims to have
colony of Natal). Comp. the Ausland, 1868,
No. 39: Die Goldfünde in der Kolonie Natal und
das Ophir der Bibel-which essay indeed rightly
prefers the combinations of K. Ritter, Chr. Las-
sen, etc. pointing to the East Indies, while an
article in the "Globus," Vol. 18, No. 24, p. 369
seeks to mediate between the two hypotheses by
supposing Ophir to be "a wild region on the
Indian Ocean, which embraced a part of the
eastern coast of Africa and of the western coast
of India."

Ver. 23. If thou returnest to the Almighty.-( as in Joel ii. 12: Am. iv. 6 seq.; Is. xix. 22) ["We are told by Rosenmüller that stands here for to, but we are rather inclined to think with Maimonides that it is purposely made use of in its real signification, viz., as far as, even to, right up to, close up to, in order to encourage Job, who was looked upon by the speaker as a very great sinner, by showing him that notwithstanding the enormities of his sins, he need not despair of coming through penitence again close up to his offended Creator." Bernard. Or, as Carey says, that his return must be no partial movement, "not one that would stop halt way, but a return quire to God"]. If thou removest iniquity far (puttest it far away) conditional from thy tents.-This second Ver. 25. Apodosis. Then will the Almighty clause, being parallel to the antecedent clause be thy treasure (D`, pl. of, hence lit. in a, needs no apodosis. It adds to the former "pieces of gold ore, pieces of metal") and silver a more specific qualification, which in itself in- in heaps to thee-scil. "will He be."-NiDția deed is not necessary, but which is appropriately which occurs elsewhere only in Num. xxiii. 22; illustrative of the former; comp. ch. xi. 14. The xxiv. 8; and Ps. xcv. 4. has received ver. difLXX, who in the first member read (Kai ferent explanations. According to these pasTateiwoŋc) instead of 2 construed the whole sages, however, it must signify "things standing verse as the antecedent, vers. 24, 25 as paren- out high and prominent Here, therefore it thetic, and ver. 26 as consequent-a dragging must mean either "high heaps of silver." or construction, which indeed has a parallel in ch.long, prominent bars of silver." xi. 13-15, but has less to justify it here in the sense and connection. [The E. V. in making the last clause a part of the apodosis-"thou

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The former

definition is favored by the fact that the Arabic certifies for the signification, "to tower, to grow, to mount upward," a meaning which the

Vulgate expresses here also (argentum coacerva- quently introduced with climactic force in 30 b. bitur tibi), while on the contrary the derivation-E.] And to the humbled one (i. e., to of the word from the root yo', "to shine" (comp. | thee, if thou art humbled; lit. "to him who has the LXX : καθαρὸν ὥσπερ ἀργύριον πεπυρωμένον), downcast eyes,” LXX.: κύφοντα ὀφθαλμοῖς) Εθ or even from "to be weary" (Gesen. in works out deliverance; i. e., God, who is Thes., Böttcher [Con. "silver sought with toil"]lso the subject of the first member in the foletc), has but slight etymological foundation. In lowing verse. It is not necessary therefore with regard to the sentiment in vers. 24-25 comp. the Pesh. and Vulg. to read the passive y New Testament parallels; like Matth. vi. 20, 33; xix. 21; Luke xii. 33; 1 Tim. vi. 16-19, etc. [The rendering of these two verses (24, 25) by the E. V. is to be rejected as inconsistent

cannot שִׁית עַל־עָפָר with the language (thus

be "to lay up as dust"), and as yielding a much feebler sense.-E.]

Ver. 30. He will rescue him that is not guiltless, and (yet more!) he is rescued by the pureness of thine hands (D'92 13 as in ch. xvii 9; Ps. xviii. 21 [20]; xxiv. 4); i. e., on account of thine innocence, which thou shalt then have recovered, God will be gracious even to others who need an atonement for their sins.

So great and transcendent an efficacy does Eliphaz assume that Job's future conversion will possess, without once anticipating that he (together with Bildad and Zophar) will turn out

אֵין נָקִי for אִי נָקִי) "to be the not-guiltless one

Sixth Strophe: vers. 26-30: Further expansion of the promise annexed to the admonition. — Yea, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty.—I confirmatory, as in cb. xi. 15: or argumentative-"for then," etc., which is the common rendering. For the rep- Ewald, 215, b) [Gesen., 149, 1], whom God resentation of God as the object of joy or delight will forgive only on Job's account; comp. ch. on the part of the righteous comp. Ps. xxxvii. 4; xlii. 8. [Another striking example of that draIs. lviii. 14. In regard to "lifting up the face" matic irony in which our author from time to as an expression of freedom from the conscious-time indulges, when he allows for a moment the light of the future to fall on his characters in ness of sin (the opposite of D, Gen. iv. such a way as to present the contrast between 6), comp. above ch. xi, 15.

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Ver. 27. If thou prayest to Him, etc.— A hypothetical antecedent without DN, as also in the following verse. As to yn to pray (lit. "to present incense"), comp Ex. viii. 4 [8], 25 [29]; x. 17. In respect to "discharging," i. e. "fulfilling" vows (here most naturally such as have been offered in connection with prayer), see Ps. xxi. 26 [25]; 1. 14; lxi. 6 [5], 9 [8]; lxv. 2 [1]. Comp. v. Gerlach on this passage (below in the Homiletical Remarks).

their thoughts and God's thoughts.-E.] Seb. Schmidt and J. D. Michaelis have already given the correct explanation, as follows: Liberabit Deus et propter puritatem manuum tuarum alios, quos propria innocentia ipsos deficiens ipsos deficiens non esset liberatura. So also substantially most moderns, while Hirzel arbitrarily understands by the not-guiltless one Job, with another subJect for the second member. Umbreit, howJob as the object of the first member (='P'), ever, gives a still harsher construction, taking and at the same time as subject of the second member, which he treats as addressed to God: yea, he (Job) is delivered by the pureness of Thy hands;" i. e., by Thy Divine righteousness. "to purpose, determine.” , either [E. V., in taking in its usual meaning of "a matter, anything," or "design, plan" (Del.). As to DP, "to come to pass, to be realized,' comp. Is. vii. 7; Prov. xv. 22; in respect to "light upon thy ways," see ch. xix. 8.

Ver. 28. If thou purposest anything, so shall it come to pass to thee.- lit. "to cut off," here as an Aramaism in the sense of

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Ver. 29. When they lead downwards

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viz. thy ways (as to be, "to make low, to
lead downwards," comp. Jer. xiii. 18), then
thou sayest-Upward!—, syncopated
form of (Ewald 2 62, b; 73. b), lit. "up-
lifting;" here as an interjection, meaning
"upward! arise!" not, however, as a petition
in a prayer (Dillm., etc.), but as a triumphant
exclamation in thanksgiving. [This rendering
is certainly not free from objection, especially

on account of the artificial cast which it seems

to give to the expression The rendering of E. V., however: "when men are cast down, then thou shalt say, etc.," is still less satisfactory, destroying as it does the connection between the first and second members, leaving two verbs, brown and yor, with subjects unexpressed, and introducing in a a thought which is scarcely suited to this connection, and which is subse

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island," gives a rendering which is seen at once to be altogether unsuitable.-E.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.

1. Eliphaz in the second part of this new disthoroughly than before the proposition advanced course is prompted to discuss somewhat more by Job (ch. xxi.) touching the frequent contradiction between the moral desert and the outward lot of men, which he does indeed only by representing the prosperity of the wicked, the existence of which he cannot deny, as only apparent, and quickly passing away (vers. 1520). Following upon this discussion, which has in it little that is personal, and which concerns itself rather with the subject-matter, he resumes the tone of fatherly admonition and persuasion by promises of good found in his first discourse, instead of continuing the purely threatening tone of the second (ch. xv.), closing even with a prophetic picture so full of light, that it quite rivals in the freshness and glow of its colors that found at the close of the first discourse (ch. v. 17 seq.), and breathes a spirit which certainly proves him to be in his way Job's sincere

well-wisher. In all these particulars, and to this extent, Eliphaz, the oldest of Job's friends and their leader, here at the beginning of the third act of the colloquy exhibits progress for the better in his way of thinking-a progress, moreover, to which Job himself contributes by the skill with which he vindicates himself, and the moral superiority of his spirit. On the other hand, however, it must be said that he is guilty of misunderstanding and of misrepresenting in a one-sided manner Job's doubts resulting from the disproportion between human desert and happiness (vers. 13, 14), and so perverts them, as though Job had advanced frivolous epicurean conceptions of the Deity, and thus denied a special Providence, leaving the destinies of men on earth to be ruled over by accident. In close connection with this gross misconception of Job's opinions, and serving to explain it, is the re-affirmation which he makes in the First Divi- | sion through the medium of a downright syllogism (vers. 2-5) of grievous crime on the part of Job as the ground of his sufferings, proceeding so far even as to name particular sins of which he arbitrarily assumes him to be guilty, and pushing his charges to the most outrageous excess (vers. 6-9). In both these respects we see an advance on the part of the speaker in an evil direction, an increasing bitterness, a constant stubborn refusal to entertain the truth. We accordingly find in this discourse in one direction certainly an apparent preparation for a peaceful solution and harmonious reconciliation of the conflict; but in another direction, and that the very one which is important and decisive, it simply contributes to the heightening of the conflict, and by inciting Job to bitterness, makes it more and more impossible for the sorely tried sufferer to enter upon a truly calm and convincing exhibition of the goodness of his cause, and thus points with a necessity which ever becomes more and more imperative, to the final intervention of a higher Arbiter as the only way of unraveling the entangled coil of the controversy.

2. In consequence of this advance both in a good and an evil direction, this new discourse of Eliphaz bears in a much higher degree than his two former ones the character of a peculiar double-sidedness, and self-contradiction in its expressions. Considered in itself it is "the purest truth, expressed in the most striking and beautiful form; but as an answer to the speech of Job the dogma of the friends itself is destroyed in it, by the false conclusion by which it is obliged to justify itself to itself" (Delitzsch). In one respect its expressions breathe the spirit of a genuine prophet, of a divinely enlightened teacher of wisdom of the patriarchal age. But in another respect, in that, namely, which concerns the sharply malicious tendency which they reveal against Job, they seem like the sayings of a false prophet, and even of a passionate accuser and spiteful suspecter of suffering innocence. They have a double sound to them, like the expressions of one who is at once a Moses and a Balaam. "According to their general substance these speeches are genuine diamonds; according to their special application they are false ones" (Delitzsch).-Eliphaz gives utterance

to the purest and most elevated conceptions of God, and His infinitely wise and righteous dealings. At the very beginning of the first division he describes His blessed all-sufficiency; at the beginning of the second His heaven-high exaltation, His majesty comparable to the unchangeable brilliancy of the stars; and in the third division he sets forth with incomparable and truly impressive power His fatherly gentleness and compassion, which willingly hears the prayer of the penitent sinner. And what he affirms in respect to the inexorable rigor with which the justice of the same God inflicts punishment, as it was manifested in judgment upon the sinners of the primeval world, upon the ungodly antediluvians (vers. 15-18), even that produces an impression all the more deep and forcible in that it has for its setting those splendid descriptions radiating forth their mild brilliancy. Yet after all that inviting description of the divine all-sufficiency is used in the service of a low, external and vulgar theory of retribution, which is deduced from it by an audacious 80phism, and an unexampled logical leap (see on ver. 5). After all that admonitory reference to the majestic movement of God as the All-seeing Ruler of the universe, and the inexorable Avenger of the wicked, shoots wide of the mark in so far as it is aimed at Job, for it was neither true that Job had denied the special Providence and Omniscience of God (as Eliphaz in vers. 13, 14, by a crafty process of deduction, reproached him with doing), nor that his sins were of such a character that they could even approximately be compared with those of the insolent blasphemers and deniers of God in Noah's time. Finally, the beautiful words of promise in the closing division, with their reference to God's goodness as Father, and with their counsel to seek the love of this God as the most precious of all treasures (vers. 24, 25), are wanting in all true power of consolation for Job, and lose entirely their apparent value in consequence of that which precedes them. For if Job is to seek God as his heavenly treasure, it is presupposed that hitherto he has loved earthly treasures more than was right, nay, that he has been guilty of the sins and transgressions of grasping tyrants, as was intimated in the first division (vers. 6-9). And if Job had really sinned so wantonly, and subscribed to the atheis ic sentiments of the generation that was destroyed by the deluge, then all advice to repent and return to the Heavenly Father would be for him practically useless; at least from the stand-point of Eliphaz, characterized as it was by the pride of legal virtue, such an exhortation, together with the promise of good which accmpanied it, could scarcely have been uttered sincerely. [Should we not, however, make allowance for the perplexing dilemma in which the friends found themselves placed? Was there not a constant strife between the deductions of their logic and the instincts of their affection? Is it strange that the rigor of the former should be continually qualified by the tenderness of the latter? And does not our poet skillfully avail himself of this inconsistency to relieve what would otherwise be the intolerable harshness of their position?—E.]

3. This two-fold character appertaining to the utterances of Eliphaz, it is evident, increases largely the difficulty of the homiletic expounder of this chapter, especially if he would not simply seize upon and bring forth single pearls or gems, but consider the beautiful glittering jewel as a whole. For in order to a correct appreciation, and a truly fruitful application of the contents of the discourse, which is not wanting in richness, it is indispensable to avoid as much as possible any mutilation of so well-connected a whole, and to note everywhere not only what is true, but also what is false and one-sided in the utterances of the speaker. The Moses and the Balaam sides of the prophet must be exhibited together. Any other treatment, any one-sided favorable representation of the speaker's character would contradict the evident purpose of the poet, which is from the beginning to the end of this discourse to present truth and error blended and amalgamated together. This is especially indicated by the circumstance that Eliphaz at the close of the discourse appears wholly in the character of a pseudo-prophet, of the order of Balaam, and is compelled unwillingly to prophesy the issue of the controversy, and that too as one that is decidedly unfavorable to him and his associates. "He who now, considering himself as 'P, preaches penitence to Job, shall at last stand forth P, and will be one of the first who need Job's intercession as the servant of God, and whom he is able mediatorially to rescue by the purity of his hands" (Delitzsch-comp. above on vers. 29, 30).

only by a certain force impressed on those things which are nearest to Himself, and gradually transmitted from them ;—an error which Scripture refutes when it says that God is a God at hand, and not a God afar off (Jer. xxiii. 23 seq ), for no part of creation is nearer to God than any other.-WOHLFARTH: "God is too exalted to trouble himself about the affairs of men:" thus do many still think, and walk accordingly in the path of unbelief, sin and destruction. Only the Tempter can persuade them to this. Just because God is the most exalted Being, nothing is hidden from Him; and He knows even our most secret actions, our most hidden wishes, our most silent sufferings (Jer. xxiii. 23 seq.; Ps. cxxxix. 1 seq.; Matt. vi. 8; 1 John iii. 20, etc.).

Ver. 17 seq. STARKE: As it is the wish and longing of the godly, that God would draw nigh to them, so, on the contrary, the burden of the song of the ungodly is: "Depart from us!"' They would gladly leave to God His heaven, if He would only leave to them their earthly pleasure.— God oftentimes seeks to allure the wicked to repentance by multiplying their earthly possessions; if, however, He does not succeed in this, it results only in their heavier condemnation. When they think that they are most firmly established, God suddenly casts them down, and brings them to nought (Ps. lxxii. 19). Ver. 19. WOHLFARTH: May the Christian also rejoice in the destruction of sinners? Eliphaz, in accordance with the way of thinking in his time, speaks of the pleasure of the righteous when sinners are seized by the hand of the Lord. Christ wept in sight of Jerusalem over its bardened inhabitants, and said: "How often," etc. (Matt. xxiii. 37; Luke xix. 42 seq.). . . When, BRENTIUS: This is indeed a most therefore, the Lord blesses the righteous, rejoice, beautiful exhortation to repentance which Eli-O Christian! but do not mock at the sinner, but phaz here delivers; but what is it to Job? Eli- save him when thou canst do it (James v. 19, phaz therefore sins in this direction, because 20),—when not, mourn for him as thy brother, that by these words he falsely charges Job with whose fate demands pity. iniquity and impiety, and this with no other reason for so doing than that he sees him to be afflicted. . . . Everything is well said, but carnally understood. For carnal wisdom thinks that in this life blessing attends the godly in temporal affairs, but a curse the ungodly; whereas truth teaches that in this life, to the godly, the blessing accompanies the curse, life death, salvation damnation; while, on the contrary, to the ungodly, the curse accompanies the blessing, death life, damnation salvation.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 2 seq.

Ver. 6 seq. STARKE (after the Tübingen Bible and Zeyss): To withhold a pledge which has been received, and to oppress the poor, are heinous sins, which cry out to heaven (Ex. xxii. 26 seq.). To sin against the widows, the orphans, the poor, the needy, etc., infallibly brings down severe punishment from God, as One who has His eye specially on those, Sir. xxxv. 18 seq.

Ver. 12 seq. COCCEIUS: It is an old error that God dwells in the highest summit of heaand touches those things which are lower

ven,

Vers. 23-25. STARKE: What sin tears down, God's grace builds up again. Having this, you are rich enough! The world's treasure and comfort are silver and gold. empty and perishable things; but the children of God's only, highest, and best portion is God Himself (Ps. lxxiii. 25 seq.).-V. GERLACH: If thou dost cling with the heart to God, thou canst throw away thy gold, or lose it without concern; the Almighty still remains thy perennial treasure; whereas, on the contrary, without Him the most laborious cares and watchings avail nothing.

Ver. 27. V. GERLACH: The paying of the vows, which is elsewhere presented more as a duty, appears here as a promise: God will ever grant thee so much, that thou shalt be able to fulfill all thy vows!

Ver. 30. Jo. LANGE: The intercession of a righteous man is so potent with God, that on account of it He spares even evil-doers, and visits them not with punishment (Gen. xviii. 28 seq.; Ezek. xiv. 14 seq.).

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