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; 25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. 26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? 27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, 28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock and the strong place. 29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. 30 Her young ones also suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is she. 3. Conclusion of the discourse, together with Job's answer, announcing his humble submission. CHAP. XL. 1 And Jehovah answered Job, and said, 2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. 3 Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. It testifies against him by means of the deep most elevated style of poetic discourse, which in the influence of which the last remainder of insolent pride still adhering to Job must of necessity dissolve and disappear. The discourse forms one well-conceived, harmoniously constructed whole, consisting of two principal divisions of almost equal length, of which the first (ch. xxxviii. 4-38) refers to the creation and to inanimate nature, the second (chs. xxxviii. 39; xxxix. 30) to the animal kingdom, as sources of evidence proving the divine majesty. It is not necessary to resolve these two divisions into two separate discourses, as is done by Köster and Schlottmann, the former of whom even deems it necessary to resort to the violent operation of transposing the conclusion in ch. xl. 1-5, and putting it after ch. xxxviii. 36.-Each of these divisions may be subdivided into three strophegroups, or long strophes, consisting of 11-12 verses each, which may again be subdivided, according to the subjects described, into subordinate strophes or paragraphs, now longer and now shorter. Of these simple, short strophes the three long strophes of the first principal division (a, b and c) contain respectively three to four, whereas the last two long strophes, at least of the second chief division, which dwell on themes derived from the animal world, consist of but two short strophes respectively. TT: also here a similar presence and self-manifestation of the Highest is intended, taking place under the veil of those mighty phenomena of nature; hence only a symbolical, not a corporeal appearance of God. For this reason we may with some propriety describe the solution of the whole problem of our poem which is introduced by this divine appearance as "a solution in the consciousness" (Delitzsch). In any case the theophany which effects it is to be conceived of as one in which God "drew near to the earth veiled, perceptible indeed to the ear, and in His shining veil visible to the eye, but nevertheless veiled, and not presenting a bodily appearance" (Ewald). [In accordance with the explanation given above of ch. xxxvii. 21, 22, the yo out of which Jehovah speaks is not to be limited to the storm while raging, but refers rather to "the dark materials of the storm now pacified," the mountainous cloud-masses in the north, which having spent their thunder, were now looming up in "terrible majesty," while their open rifts disclosed the golden irradiation of the sunlight, a scene we may suppose not unlike that described by Wordsworth near the close of the Second Book of the Excursion. Such a scene, just preceded as it had been by the aweinspiring phenomena of the storm at its height would fitly usher in the Divine Presence, from which the words which are to end the controversy are about to proceed.-E.] 2. The Introduction: ch. xxxviii. 1-3.-Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm. -The "answering" or "replying" refers back Ver. 2. Who is this that darkens counto Job's repeated challenges, and especially to the last, found in ch. xxxi. 35: Let the sel: lit. "who is this, who is here ( comp. Gesenius, 122 [120], 2) darkening Almighty answer me!" (here, as also in ch. xl. 6 with medial 3; comp. Ewald, counsel?" without the article (instead of 9, 11, c [Green, ¿ 4, a]; which the K'ri in both, or instead of 'ny) is used intentionally cases sets aside) "out of the storm (thunder- in order to describe that which is darkened by storm);" not (as Luther translates) "out of a Job qualitatively, as something "which is a storm." It is beyond question an unsatisfac- counsel (or a plan)," as opposed to a whim, or tory explanation of the definite article to say a cruel caprice, such as Job had represented that as applied to D it means that storm God's dealings with him as being. ["Two which "always, or as a rule, is wont to announce things are implied in what is here said to Job: and to accompany the appearance of God, when- that his suffering is founded on a plan of God's, ever He draws nigh to the earth in majesty and and that he by his perverse speeches is guilty in the character of a judge" (Dillmann). In of distorting and mistaking this plan (in repreview of the way in which the most ancient Old senting it as caprice without a plan)." Dilm. Testament sources describe the theophanies of Job's ignorant words had “darkened" God's plan the patriarchal age in general, this generic ren- by obscuring or keeping out of sight its intelligent dering of the article is not at all suitable (comp. benevolent features]. The participle also 1 Kings xix. 11: "the Lord was not in the wind"). The only explanation of the used rather than the Perf., because down to the here, as well as in ch. xl. 6, which is linguisti- very end of his speaking Job hd misunderstood cally and historically satisfactory, is that which he had recalled nothing of what he had said in God's counsel, and even during Elihu's discourses finds in it a reference to Elihu's description of a violent thunder-storm in his last discourse (ch. this particular. For to the instruction and rexxxvi. 37)—a reference which at the same time proofs of this last speaker he had made no other confirms not only our interpretation of this dis- response than persistent profound silence. He course given above, but also its genuineness, when Jehovah himself began to speak as still a actually appeared accordingly at the moment and the authenticity of Elihu's discourses in "darkener of counsel," however true it might general. Placing ourselves (along with the commentators cited above on ch. xxxvi.) on this, the only correct point of view, we see at once the impossibility of viewing "God's speaking out of the storm as taking place through a corporeal appearance of Jehovah in human form. On the contrary, precisely in the same way that Elihu's description pre-supposed only an invisible approach and manifestation of God in the storm-clouds, in their thunder and lightning, so is be that his conversion to a better frame of mind ner-stone?" where the "laying down" ( jacere) of the corner-stone points to the wonderful ease with which the entire work was accomplished. to God's plan (ch. xxxi. 35 seq.) by the appearance of God cannot be intended even if these chapters were in fact not genuine (comp. remarks on that passage). And especially would the assumption that the interpolator of the Elihu Ver. 7. When the morning-stars sang discourses had been prompted by this expres-out together, and all the sons of God sion, , purposely to avoid introducing shouted for joy. The Infinitive 1 is conJob within the limits of that section as making tinued in b by the finite verb, as in ver. 13, and any confession whatever of his penitence, pre- often. The whole description determines the suppose on the part of the interpolator a degree time of the fact of the founding of the earth of artistic deliberation, nay more, of crafty cun- (Karaẞoλǹ кóσμоν) spoken of in ver. 6. The ning absolutely without a parallel in the entire founding is here set forth as a festal celebration Bible literature. (comp. Ezra ii. 10; Zech. iv. 7) attended by all the heavenly hosts, which are here mentioned by the double designation "sons of God" (comp. ch. i. 6; ii. 1) and "morning stars, i. e., creatures of such glory, that they surpass all other creatures of God in the same way that the brightness of the morning-star (p = Ver. 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man—i, e., in preparation for the contest with me (comp. ch. xii. 21). According to b this contest is to consist in a series of questions to be addressed by God to Job and to be answered by the latter; hence formally or apparently in the very thing which Job himself had in ch. xiii. 22, Is. xiv. 12, Lucifer) eclipses all the other wished for; in reality however God so overwhelms him by the humiliating contents of these questions that the absolute inequality of the contending parties and Job's guilt become apparent -earth: vers. 4-7. Ver. 4. Where wast thou when I founded the earth? (A question similar to that of Eliphaz above: ch. xv. 7 seq.). Declare it if thou hast understanding-to wit, of the way in which this process was carried on. This same How of the process of founding the earth is also the unexpressed object of "declare!" In respect to "to have an understanding of anything,' comp. Is. xxix. 24; Prov. iv. 1; 2 Chron. ii. 12. Ver. 5. Who hath fixed its measure that thou shouldest know it?-y, not: "for thou surely knowest it" (Schlottmann) [Good, Lee, Barnes, Carey, Renan, Elzas], but so that thou shouldest know it” (`? as in ch. iii. 12). [Dillmann objects to the rendering, "for thou knowest," that the verb should be in T that case ; an objection which may also be urged against the rendering of E. V., Sept., Vulg., Umbreit, Rosenmüller, Bernard, "if thou knowest." Compare TD in ver. 4 b.]. "The inquires not after the person of the Architect, the same being sufficiently known, but rather after His character, and that of His activity-what kind of a being must He be who could fix the earth's measure like that of a building?" (Dillmann). Ver. 6. Whereon were its pillars sunken -i. e., on what kind of a foundation? D' lit. "pedestals," comp. Ex. xxvi. 19 seq.; Can ticles v. 15. The meaning of the question is of course that already indicated in ch. ix. 6, and xxvi. 7, according to which passages the earth hangs free in space. The question in b refers to the same thing: "or who laid down her cor the stars. As another example of this generic gene- B. Questions respecting the shutting up of the sea within bounds: vers. 8-11. Ver. 8. And (who) shut up the sea with doors?—, which is attached to in ver. 6, is used with reference to the waters of the i. the contrary makes the earth to emerge out of it is certainly admissible to read with the the primitive sea, which enveloped and covered everything. But the science of geology recog- K'rinn ; the anarthrous of the nizes not only elevations, but depressions by sink- first member by no means requires us to remove ing of land or mountain masses (comp. Friedr. the definite article from the dawn, which is alPfaff, Das Wasser, Munich, 1870, p. 250 seq.). ways only one. ["The mention of its 'place' Especially do the recent "Deep Sea Explora- here seems to be an allusion to the fact that it tions," as they are called, seem to be altogether does not always occupy the same position. At favorable to the essential correctness of the bib- one season of the year it appears on the equator, lical view presented here and also in Gen. vii. at another north, at another south of it, and is 11; viii. 2, which regards the interior of the constantly varying its position. Yet it always earth as originally occupied by water (comp. knows its place. It never fails to appear where Pfaff, p. 90 seq.; Hermann Gropp, Untersuchung by the long-observed laws it ought to appear." Barnes]. en und Erfahrungen über das Verhalten des Grundwassers und der Quellen, Lippstadt, 1868). Ver 9. When I made the cloud its garment, etc. A striking poetic description of that which in Gen. ii. 6 seq. is narrated in historic prose. In respect to , "wrapping, swaddling-cloth," comp. the corresponding verb in Ezek. xvi. 4. [By this expression the ocean is obviously compared to a babe. "God thus in grand language expresses how manageable was the ocean to Him." Carey]. Ver. 10. And brake for it (lit. "over it") my bound, etc. The verb which is not here equivalent to 1, "to appoint," as Arnheim, Wette, Hahn [Lee, Bernard, Noyes, Conant, Wemyss, Barnes, Renan] think, [or according to Rosenmüller, Umbreit, Carey, "to span," after the Arabic] vividly portrays the abrupt fissures of the sea-coast, which is often so high and steep. Comp. the Homeric Tì pnyμīvi daλaoons. On pi, "bound," comp. ch. xxvi. 10; Prov. viii. 29; Jer. v. 22. On b comp. ver, 8 a. וְלֹא אֹסִיף) no further Ver. 11. Hitherto shalt thou come, and scil. i); here let one set against the pride of thy waves, scil. "a dam, a bound." The verb "let one place" is used passively [and impersonally] for let there be placed" (comp. Gesen. 137 [134]). It is not necessary, with the Vulg. and Pesh. to read, "here shalt thou stay the pride of thy waves," or, with Codurcus, Ewald, and others to make ND the subj. (in the sense of "this place"). On the pride of the waves" ="proud waves," comp. Ps. lxxxix. 10 [9]. Y. Questions respecting the regular advance of the light of morning upon the earth: vers. 12-15. [The transition from the sea to the morning is not so abrupt as it appears. For the ancients supposed that the sun sets in the ocean, and at his rising comes out of it again." Noyes. "Here with genuine poetry the dawn sending forth its rays upon the earth immediately after creation is represented in its regular recurrence and in its moral significance. This member accordingly forms the transition to the following strophe; it is however first of all the logical conclusion of the first." Schlottmann]. Ver. 12. Hast thou since thy birth (lit. "from thy days") commanded the morning (i. e., to arise at its time), made known to the dawn its place, (lit. "made the dawn to know its place"). Instead of the K'thibh, | Ver. 13. That it may take hold on the borders (or "fringes") of the earth. The surface of the earth is conceived of as an outspread carpet, of the ends of which the dawn as it were takes hold all together as it rises suddenly and spreads itself rapidly (comp. ch. xxxvii. 3; Ps. cxxxix. 9), and this with the view of shaking out of it "the wicked, the evil-doers who, dreading the light, ply their business upon it by night;" i. e., of removing them from it at once. The passage contains an unmistakable allusion to Job's own previous description in ch. xxiv. 13 seq. God, anticipating herein in a certain measure the contents of His second discourse, would give Job to understand "how through the original order of creation as established by Himself human wrong is ever annulled again") Ewald. Comp. also v. 15). Ver. 14. That it may change like signetclay-i. e., the earth (yn onμavτpis, Herod. II. 38), which during the night is, as it were, a shapeless mass, like unsealed wax, but which, in the bright light of the morning, reveals the entire beauty of its changing forms, of its heights and depths, etc. The subj. of 3 is to be sought neither in the "morning" and "dayspring" of ver. 12 (Schultens, Rosenmüller), which is altogether too far removed from this but in the particular things found on the earth's clause, nor in the "borders" of ver. 13 (Ewald), surface. The effect of the morning on them is that they set themselves forth (or, all sets itself forth) like a garment," i. e., in all the manifold variegated forms and colors of gay apparel. Ver. 15. From the wicked their light is withheld-i. e., the darkness of the night with which they are so familiar [and which is to them what light is to others], comp. ch. xxiv. 16 seq. (Delitz.: "the light to which they are partial [ihr Lieblingslicht]). And the uplifted arm (is) broken-i. e., figuratively, in the sense that the light of the day compels it to desist from the violence, to fulfil which it had raised itself (comp. ch. xxii. 8). 4. Continuation: b. Questions respecting the heights and depths above and below the earth, and the natural forces proceeding from them: vers. 16-27. a. The depths under the earth: vers 16-18. Ver. 16. Hast thou come to the wellsprings of the sea?—i. e., to those fountains of the deep" of which the Mosaic account of the Flood makes mention; Gen. vii. 11; vii. 2 (comp. above on ver. 8). The phrase D-2), found only here, is not, with Olshausen and Hitzig, to be changed into D, for the root is evidently only a harsher variation of y, and so beyond a doubt expresses the notion of "welling, springing." Thus correctly the LXX: anyǹ) varáσons. [Jarchi, followed by Bernard, Lee, (and see Ewald and Schlottmann) defines D' to mean "entanglements, mazes (comp. ); but this meaning is less probable than the one more commonly received after the Sept.] In respect to pn in b, comp. above, ch. viii. 8; xi. 7. Ver. 17. Have the gates of death opened themselves to thee, etc.-Comp. ch. xxvi. 6, where the mention of the realm of the dead follows that of the sea precisely as here. On "death," as meaning the realm of the dead, comp. ch. xxviii. 22; and on sense, see ch. x. 21 seq. in the same Ver. 18. Hast thou made an examination unto the breadths of the earth.signifies, as also in chap. xxxii. 12, "to attend to anything strictly, to take a close observation of anything," the y indicating that this observation is complete, that it penetrates through to the extreme limit. The interrogative is omitted before, in order to avoid the concurrence of the two aspirates (Ewald, 324, b). On b comp. ver. 4, 2 refers not to the earth, but in the neuter sense, to the things spoken of in the questions just asked. [“To see the force of this (question), we must remember that the early conception of the earth was that it was a vast plain, and tha' in the time of Job its limits were unknown." Barnes. "Too much stress is commonly laid on the fact that when the poet wrote this, only a small part of the earth was known. Unquestionably the consciousness of the limitation of man's vision was in some respects strengthened by that fact; but that which is properly the main point here, to wit, the inability of man, at one glance to compass the whole earth and all its hidden depths retains all its ancient stress in connection with the widest geographical acquaintance with the surface of the earth." Schlottmann]. B. The heights of light above the earth: vers. 19-21. Ver. 19. What is the way (thither, where) the light dwells. On the relative clause i comp. Ges. 123 [121], 3, c. On b, comp. ch. xxviii. 1-12. The meaning of the whole verse is as follows: Both light and darkness have a first starting point or a final outlet, which is unapproachabie to man, and unattainable to his researches. ["As in Gen. i., the light is here regarded as a self-subsistent, natural force, independent of the heavenly luminaries by which it is transmitted: and herein modern investigation agrees with the direct observations of antiquity." Schlottm.] Ver. 20. That Thou mightest bring them (light and darkness) to their bound [lit. "it to its bound," the subjects just named considered separately]. as above in ver. 5. "to bring, to fetch;" comp. Gen. xxvii. 13; xlii. 16; xlviii. 9.—And that thou shouldest .lit לקח | know the paths of their house, i. e. "to their home, their abiding place" (comp. ch. xxviii. 23). It is possible that by this "knowing about the paths of their house" is meant taking back [escorting home] the light and darkness, just as in the first member mention is made of fetching, bringing them away; for the repetition of seems to indicate that the meaning of the two halves of the verse is not identi cal (Dillmann). Ver. 21 is evidently intended ironically: Thou knowest, for then wast thou born, i. e. at the time when light and darkness were created, and their respective boundaries were determined. The meaning is essentially the same as in eh. xv. 7. On the Imperf. with N 136, b. And the number of thy days is comp. Gesenius, & 127 [ 125], 4, a; Ewald, many.—The attraction in connection with as in ch. xv. 20; xxi. 21. [The interrogative rendering of this verse, as in E. V.: "Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born?" etc., is excessively flat It may be undesirable, as Barnes says, "to represent God as speaking in the language of irony and sarcasm, unless the But humiliating irony surely accords better rules of interpretation imperatively demand it.” with the dignity and character of the speaker, as well as with the connection, than pointless insipidity.-E.] y. Snow and hail, light and wind: vers. 22-24. Ver. 22. Hast thou come to the treasuries of the snow? Comp. on ch. xxxvii. 9. The figure of the "treasuries" (nis, magazines, storehouses) vividly represents the immense quantities in which snow and hail are wont to fall on the earth; comp. Ps. cxxxv. 7. Ver. 23 gives the purpose and rule of the Divine Government of the world, which snow and hail are constrained to subserve. Which I have reserved for the time of distress.— Such an (comp. ch. xv. 24; xxxvi. 16) may be caused in the east not only by a hailstorm (Ex. ix. 22; Hag. ii. 17; Sir. xxxix. 29), but even by a fall of snow. In February, 1860, innumerable herds of sheep, goats and camels, and also many men, were destroyed in Hauran by a snow-storm, in which snow fell in enor mous quantities, as described by Muhammed el-Chatib el-Bosrawi in a writing still in the possession of Consul Wetzstein (Delitzsch).-The second member refers to such cases as Josh. x. 11 (comp Is. xxviii. 17; xxx. 30; Ezek. xiii. 13; Ps. lxviii. 15 [14]; 1 Sam. vii. 10; 2 Sam. xxiii. 20), where violent bail or thunder-storms contributed to decide the issues of war in accordance with the divine decrees. Ver. 24. What is the way to where the light is parted [where] the east wind spreadeth over the earth.-The construction as in ver. 19 a. The light and the east wind (. e. a violent wind, a storm in general, comp. ch. xxvii. 21) are here immediately joined together, because the course of both these agents defies calculation, and because they are incredibly swift in their movements [possibly also because they both proceed from the same point |