Seven days, &c. They sat with him for a good part of the day, and of the night, during seven days: and spoke nothing all that time that could give him any uneasiness. (Challoner) (Menochius) (Olympiad.) --- They mourned for him as if he had been dead. Their mutual grief was too great for utterance. But the text seems to intimate that they remained with Job, all this time. (Scultet.) (Calmet) --- Their design in coming was really to afford him consolation; but being under a mistake, respecting the conduct of Providence towards mankind, (Calmet) they erred involuntarily, (Tirinus) and by attempting to prove their assertions, as if none but criminals could be so grievously afflicted, they eventually insulted the holy man, Tobias ii. 15. --- They argued on the principle, "that under a just God no one is miserable, unless he have deserved it;" not reflecting that god sometimes puts his best servants to the trial, that their merit and glory may increase. Notwithstanding their piety and learning, they became therefore the devil's most powerful agents unawares: (Calmet) and though they were not properly heretics, as they acquiesced when better informed, they were a figure of them, by drawing from many undeniable truths false inferences, and by a parade of learning, and of new things. (St. Gregory, Mor. iii. 24., and v. 18.) --- They also judged rashly of Job's secret behaviour. (Worthington) CHAPTER II. Cursed his day. Job cursed the day of his birth, not by way of wishing evil to any thing of God's creation; but only to express in a stronger manner his sense of human miseries in general, and of his own calamities in particular. (Challoner) --- He has these only in view: though, in another light, it is better for a man to be born, and to undergo any misery, that he may obtain eternal rewards. (Haydock) --- Some allowances must be made for extreme pain, and for the style of the Eastern (Calmet) poetry. (Haydock) --- Jeremias, (xx. 14.) Habacuc, (i. 2.) the psalmist, and even our Saviour in his agony, made use of such strong expressions, Matthew xxvi. 39., and xxvii. 46. Some heretics accuse Job of impatience and blasphemy. The devil, therefore came off with victory; and the praises given to Job's patience are false. He might offend by some degree of exaggeration. (Calmet) --- But even that is by no means clear. Time past could not be recalled, nor receive any injury by the maledictions. (Haydock) Praise, by the appearance of the stars, chap. xxxviii. 7. (Calmet) Day. The nations of Ethiopia, under the line, curse the sun as their greatest enemy. (Strabo xvii.) (Pliny, [Natural History?] v. 8.) --- They also brave the fury of the leviathan or crocodile, chap. xl. 27., and xli. 1., and Psalm lxxiii. 14. The natives of Tentyra, upon the Nile, were supposed to be a terror to that monster, or they were very courageous in entangling and pursuing it. (Seneca, q. 4. 2.) (Pliny viii. 25.) --- Leviathan. Protestants, "their mourning." De Dieu rejects this interpretation, substituting "and thou, leviathan, rouse up," &c. The fathers generally understand the devil to be thus designated. Septuagint, "he who is about to seize the great whale," (Haydock) or fish, which they also explain of the conflict of Satan with Jesus Christ." (Origen, &c.) Nor took. Septuagint, "for it would then have freed my eyes from labour." In the. Hebrew, "from the womb," (Haydock) or as soon as I was born. (Calmet) --- He seems to have lost sight of original sin, (ver. 1.) or there might be some method of having it remitted to children unborn, which we do not know. (Haydock) Knees, by my father or grandfather, Genesis xxx 3. (Homer, Iliad ix.) (Calmet) CHAPTER III. Sleep. So death is often styled.Olli dura quies oculos et ferreus urget Somnus: in \'e6ternam clauduntur lumina noctem. (Virgil, \'c6neid x.) Consuls. Hebrew, "counsellors," or any in great authority. Septuagint, "kings, the counsellors of the land, who rejoiced, boasting of their swords." The same word, choraboth, (Haydock) means both swords and solitudes. (Du Hamel) --- Those great ones had prepared their own tombs, which were usually in solitary places; (Calmet) or they had filled all with their extensive palaces; and removed the people to a distance. (Haydock) Houses, while alive; (Calmet) or their tombs were thus enriched with silver, (Menochius) as this practice was not uncommon, ver. 22. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] xiii. 15.) --- Marcian forbade it. St. Chrysostom complains it subsisted in his time. (Orat. Ann\'e6.) (Calmet) Light; dying in the womb. He expresses a desire that he had been thus prevented from feeling his present miseries and danger of sin. (Haydock) Tumult. In the grave they can no longer disturb the world. (Menochius) --- In strength. Septuagint, "in body." Both heroes and labourers then find rest, (Calmet) if they have lived virtuously. (Haydock) Bound in chains, like incorrigible slaves, (Calmet) or debtors. (Cocceius.) --- These were formerly treated with great severity, Luke xii. 59. (Calmet) Not. The feel the same eagerness for death as those who seek for a treasure; (Calmet) and when death is at hand, they rejoice no less than those who discover a grave, in which they hope to find some riches, ver. 15, 22. Grave, full of stores, or the place where they may repose. (Haydock) To. Why is life given to? &c. The uncertainty whether a man be worthy of love or hatred, (Ecclesiastes ix. 1.) and whether he will persevere to the end, is what fills Job with distress; though we must trust that God will suffer none to be tempted above their strength, 1 Corinthians x. 13. --- He finds himself surrounded with precipices, and in the dark. (Calmet) --- So God often tries this faithful servants. (Du Hamel) Sigh, through difficulty of swallowing, (Pineda) or sense of misery. (Haydock) Fear. In prosperity he feared the assaults of pride. Now he is in danger of yielding to impatience and despair. (Calmet) Dissembled my sufferings, making no complaint, not only during the seven days that his friends had been with him, but long before. Hebrew and Septuagint, "I was not in safety, nor at rest; neither was I indolent: (Haydock; in the administration of affairs. Calmet) yet trouble came." (Haydock) --- I have enjoyed no peace, since the wrath of the Lord has found me. (Calmet) --- In such a situation, Job might well beg to be delivered, (Haydock) and to pray that those things which obstructed his repose in God might be removed; considering them not so much as the works of God, as the effects of sin. (Pineda) (Worthington) --- In this light he cursed his birth-day, and will no longer look upon it as a joyful and happy day. (Du Hamel) Themanite. People of this city, about twelve miles from Petra, in Arabia, were renowned for wisdom, Jeremias xlix. 7., and Baruch ii. 22. Pythagoras therefore visited this country. (St. Cyril, contra Jul. x.) --- Eliphaz attempts to prove that no innocent person is chastised. He does not speak of small faults, to which any person may be exposed, and which God may severely punish. But he will have Job to be a great offender, at least in secret, and represents himself in too advantageous a light; though he was really a good man, and meant well. (Calmet) --- But this did not exempt him from sin, (chap. xlii.) no more than Eliu, chap. xxxii. Bonum ex integra causa; malum ex quolibet defectu; as theologians agree. (Haydock) Conceived? and to which the speech of Job had given occasion. (Menochius) --- Septuagint, "Who shall bear the force of thy words? For if thou," &c. (Haydock) Knees. It is just that thou shouldst apply thy instructions to thyself. (Menochius) And thou. Septuagint, "and has touched thee. But thou makest haste" (Haydock) to flee. Hebrew, "art consternated." We may easily prescribe for others, but when we are sick we know not what to do. (Calmet) Where? Septuagint, "Rather is not thy fear foolishness as well as thy hope, and the innocence of thy path?" (Haydock) --- Is not all hypocrisy? (Menochius) (Calmet) --- Many of the assertions of Job's friends are true, but their inferences are false. (Menochius) Destroyed? They never were eternally. But Abel and many other just persons, have been exposed to tribulation in this world, (Worthington) for their greater improvement. Yet Eliphaz falsely concludes from the sufferings of Job, that he must have been a criminal. (Calmet) --- If any one should now hold the same opinion, we should deem him very ignorant or foolish. But we have observed, (Preface) that this was not so obvious at that time. Cain, the giants, Her, Onan, Sodom, &c., had been made examples of divine vengeance. But a new order of things was now commencing. (Houbigant) Reap them. He insinuates that Job now reaps what he had sown, Galatians vi. 8. Tiger. Hebrew Layish, means also an "old lion." Septuagint Greek: murmekoleon, "ant-lion," which some have deemed fabulous, improperly. (Bochart, vi. 5.) (\'c6lian, xvii. 42.) --- Eliphaz tacitly accuses Job of violence and pride. (Ven. Bede) (Calmet) Private. Heretics pretend such obscure visions, rather to get credit than to edify others. (St. Gregory, v. 18.) (Worthington) --- Many suppose that Eliphaz was guilty of feigning: but the greatest part think that he had truly seen a vision, but did not draw the proper conclusion from it. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof." (Haydock) The horror. Hebrew, "thoughts," while I considered the cause of thy distress. (Calmet) Spirit: angel, or gentle breeze. (Calmet) And I. Protestants, " there was silence, and I heard a voice." Marginal note, "a still voice." Septuagint, "But I heard a breeze and a voice." (Haydock) Maker. It is thought that these were the words of the angel. If God punish without cause, may not the sufferer esteem himself the better of the two? You must therefore be guilty. (Calmet) --- Job would never dispute; but God was infinitely more pure than man, who may nevertheless be free from grievous sins. (Worthington) --- The highest angel has nothing but what he has received from God, in comparison with whom he is still as a mere nothing. But this does not prove that Job was a criminal, or that he pretended to arrogate to himself any excellence, independent of the giver of all good gifts. He did not assert that he was impeccable: yet, with God's grace, he might be innocent. (Calmet) Angels, who fell, as the fathers explain it. (Estius) (Tirinus) --- Hebrew, "behold, he put no trust in his servants, and his angels he charged with folly," chap. xv. 15., and xxv. 5., and 2 Peter ii. 4. (Protestants) (Haydock) Foundation. Children of Adam, whose bodies are taken from the dust. (Menochius) Understandeth. Hebrew, "regardeth." Septuagint, "can help himself." (Haydock) --- Man is justly punished because he does not reflect on what he ought. (Calmet) And they. Hebrew, "doth not their dignity pass away with them? They die without wisdom." (Haydock) --- This is but too frequently the case of the great ones of this world, who never discern true from false riches. (Calmet)