Deepest pit. Literally hell. (Challoner) --- Hebrew, "We shall go down to the bars of the pit, when we shall rest together in the dust." My hope may be frustrated by death; (Haydock) or you, my friends, must also go to the house of eternity. (Calmet) CHAPTER XVII. Understand ye. Teach this man to comprehend what we say. He deigns not to address Job in person: but repeats most of his former remarks respecting the wicked, as if they were unquestionably applicable to Job, chap. viii. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "mark ye." Septuagint, "do thou attend." (Haydock) --- Baldad speaks to many who might be of Job's opinion, as he was a figure of the Church, defending the common cause; while his friends, like heretics, speak both true and false things. (St. Gregory xiv. 1.) (Worthington) Reputed. Septuagint, "silent as four-footed animals before thee? (Haydock) without discipline or understanding," chap. xvii. 4. (Menochius) Thou. Hebrew, "He teareth his soul in his fury!" (Haydock) --- This is spoken with an air of contempt, as if Job were mad, chap. xiii. 14. (Calmet) --- Place. We should expect to see such effects, as soon as we would allow that God punishes thee, without thy being guilty. Hitherto he has treated the wicked only with such rigour. Still thou wouldst assert that thou art a singular example of an innocent man under oppression! (Calmet) Light; prosperity, (Menochius) offspring, &c. (Calmet) Step. He shall be greatly embarrassed, (Menochius) like a man in a narrow pass, (Calmet) beset with thorns. (Haydock) (Proverbs iv. 12.) --- Septuagint, "the weakest have made a prey of his possessions.["] (Haydock) Meshes, or holes of the net. (Menochius) --- The more he strives to get out, the more he gets entangled. (Calmet) Thirst: the greedy hunter. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "the robber." (Haydock) Fears. Hunters used to place loose feathers round the wood, except where the gin was laid, in order to frighten the prey into it.Punice\'e6que agitant formidine penn\'e6. (Georg. iii.) (Jeremias xlviii. 44.) "Like timid stags, while you avoid the moving feathers, you are entrapped in the strongest nets." (St. Jerome, contra Lucif.) --- Every thing tends to fill the poor beast with alarm. So the devil, conscience, and enemies on all sides, best the wicked. (Calmet) First-born denotes the best, or the worst. (Haydock) --- Death. Hebrew, "of death," the devil, or a premature death, and most cruel enemy. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "But death devours his most beautiful things." (Haydock) Confidence. Septuagint, "health." --- Let. Protestants, "and it shall bring him to the king of terrors;" (Haydock) or, "thou (O God) shalt," &c. Septuagint, "let him be in the greatest (Calmet) want, on account of a royal accusation," (Haydock) of high treason. (Calmet) Tent, when he is gone to purify it.Et veniat qu\'e6 lustret anus lectumque locumque, Pr\'e6ferat et tremula sulphur et ova manu. (Ovid, Art.) --- Yet Moses does not mention sulphur as a thing proper for purifications. Some think that Baldad hints that his house will be destroyed with lightning, or rendered uninhabitable by a loathsome smell. CHAPTER XVIII. Harvest. Hebrew also, "branch;" (Calmet) his family, (Menochius) and all on which he trusted. (Calmet) --- All must be destroyed, root and branch. Them. Literally, "the first," who were witnesses of his misery. (Haydock) Ten times; very often. --- Oppress me. Hebrew word occurs no where else, and is variously translated. It may signify, "to dig a pit for me," chap vi. 27., and Psalm vi. 6. Job repeats nearly what he had said before, only with greater vehemence. He admits that Providence treats him in an unusual manner. Yet he still retains an assured hope, and arraigns his adversaries before the divine tribunal. (Calmet) --- Yet he rather hesitates; (ver. 4, 6.) and this species of ignorance is the folly of which he, at last, accuses himself, chap. xlii. 3. It was no real fault, chap. xlii. 8. (Haydock) With me. I alone am answerable for it. But I am no wiser for your remarks. If I have sinned, have I not been sufficiently punished? (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "Yea, truly, I was under a mistake; and the mistake still remains with me, to have spoken a word which was not becoming. But my speeches are erroneous and importunate." He talks thus ironically. (Haydock) Reproaches, which I endure, as if they were a sure proof of your assertion. (Haydock) -- I must therefore refute you. (Calmet) With an equal judgment. St. Gregory explains these words thus: Job being a just man, and truly considering his own life, thought that his affliction was greater than his sins deserved; and in that respect, that the punishment was not equal, yet it was just, as coming from God, who give a crown of justice to those who suffer for righteousness' sake, and proves the just with tribulations, as gold is tried by fire. (Challoner) --- He knew that God would surely give a just reward, 2 Timothy iv. (St. Gregory xiv. 16.) (Worthington) --- The friends of Job had too contracted a notion of Providence, supposing that the virtuous could not be afflicted. Job allowed that the ordinary rules were not here observed. Hebrew, "the Lord hath perverted or overthrown me." (Calmet) --- This gave him no small uneasiness. If the thing had been as plain as it appears now to us, he might have refuted all with a bare denial. (Houbigant) Hear. Jeremias makes the same complaint, Lamentations iii. 8. (Calmet) Troops: "free-booters," (Haydock) or "soldiers." (Sanctius) --- Those nations made a practice of plundering one another's territories, without any declaration of war. Mercury and Autolychus are praised for thefts of this description. (Odys. xix.) See Judges xi. 3. Septuagint, "his temptations came rushing together upon me; lying down (Haydock) in ambush, (Calmet) they surrounded my paths." (Haydock) Entreated. Protestants add, "for the children's sake of mine own body." Septuagint, "I invited with flattering speeches the sons of my concubines. But they cast me from them for ever. When I arise, they speak against me." (Haydock) --- Interpreters generally suppose that Job speaks of the children by his inferior wives: though he might have some at home by the first wife, who were not old enough to be invited to the feast, with those who were destroyed. (Calmet) Fools; wicked men, (Menochius) or the meanest of the people, (Calmet) whom (Haydock) these unnatural children (Calmet) resembled. Hebrew, "young children." (Protestants) (Haydock) Some. Hebrew, "men of my secret." Septuagint, "who knew me;" my most intimate friends. --- And he. Hebrew and Septuagint, "They whom I love are." (Haydock) --- These ungratefully joined with the rest, in turning their backs on their benefactor. (Worthington) CHAPTER XIX. Teeth. I am like a skeleton, so strangely emaciated, and my flesh corrupted: even my bones are not entire. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "I have escaped with the skin of my teeth." Only my gums are left. My bones cut the skin. Symmachus, "I tore my skin with my teeth." Flesh? acting with the like inhumanity towards me. Am I not then sufficiently tormented in you opinion, that you insult over my distress? (Calmet) In a. Hebrew, "lead, in the rock for ever." (Protestants) Septuagint have, "for ever," after book, (ver. 23) and subjoins, "with a writing instrument of iron and (or) lead, or be engraven on the rocks for a memorial." Grabe insinuates that before there was only, "and on lead, or be engraven on the rocks." (Haydock) --- Instrument, means "a chisel," (Haydock) like c\'9clum from c\'9clo: " I engrave." (Pineda) --- St. Jerome, (ad Pam.) and the late editor of his works, retain this word, as the older editions of St. Gregory did; (Calmet) though certe, "surely," has been inserted instead, from several manuscripts by the Benedictines. (Haydock) --- Ancient manuscripts and Latin Bibles have more generally the latter word. But the received editions are supported by many manuscripts (Calmet) and the Septuagint Greek: eggluthenai, expresses as much. Celtis est, Greek:gluthaion. (Amama). (Casaub. in Atheneus vii. 20. p. 556.) --- An inscription, in Dalmatia, has the same sense: Neque hic atramentum vel papyrus aut membrana ulla adhuc; sed malleolo et celte literatus silex. "Here as yet was neither ink, nor paper, nor any parchments; but a flint stone was lettered with a mallet and a chisel.." The former modes of writing were not, in effect, invented by the days of Job. (Calmet) --- But it was long very usual to make use of lead. (Pineda) --- What he desired to have written in such durable characters, (Haydock) was the following sentence, in proof of his unshaken confidence in God, and as a refutation of his friends, who accused him of despair and blasphemy, (Calmet) as also the whole history of his conflict. His desire has been granted. (Tirinus) Redeemer may be understood of the Deity, without confining it to the second Person; (Isaias xli. 14., and lxix. 7.; Piscator) though it may have a more peculiar reference to Christ: (Junius; Haydock) in whom he believed, as the Redeemer of all mankind. (Calmet) --- Earth. Yea, ere long I shall be restored to health, (St. Chrysostom; Grotius) as an earnest and figure of the resurrection. Nothing is more common, in Scripture, than for the same prophecy to have a double accomplishment; one soon after it is made public, and another more sublime and remote. Job seemed to have no expectation of surviving his present misery, (ver. 7., and chap. vii. 7., and xxiv. 15.) unless God now revealed it to him, as a figure of his future resurrection, founded on the hope of our Saviour's, which he expresses in much clearer terms. Hebrew, "I know that my Redeemer is living, and that he will raise himself one day upon the earth," (Calmet) like a conqueror, (Haydock) or wrestler, having overthrown his antagonist: (Amama) or, "he will stand the last upon the earth, or dust," (Piscator) ascending his throne, to judge all. (Deodat.) --- Yet Luther translates, "and one day he will raise me up from the earth;" which is not conformable to the Hebrew. Others explain, "he....will place this, my skin, after they (worms) shall have ruined it." (Pagnin; Montanus) --- But Amama suspects that the latter is not in earnest. Pineda defends the Vulgate and observes that yakum (Haydock) may signify, "will raise" himself, or "me;" the latter being at least a consequence of the former, if St. Jerome did not read it me in his copy. So St. Paul argues; If Christ be risen, we also shall rise again. Septuagint, "For I know that he is eternal, who will set me free," (Haydock) by death, "upon the earth." And I. Septuagint, "But he will raise up my body or skin, which has sustained these things. This now has been accomplished for me by the Lord; which I know within myself, which my eyes have seen, and not another. For all things are accomplished in my bosom." I am as fully convinced of this glorious event, (Haydock) as if it were past. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (Protestants, or in the margin, "After I shall awake, though this body be destroyed, yet out of," &c. Various other interpretations are given. (Haydock) --- But we had as well adhere to the Septuagint, Vulgate, &c. (Du Hamel) --- God. Sixtus V and some other editions, add "Saviour." (Calmet) --- Job would see the Messias by the eyes of his prosperity. (St. Augustine or Faustus, ser. 234. t. v. App.) (Sanctius) --- He hoped also to see God face to face in glory (Calmet) though not by means of his corporeal eyes, (Haydock) and to be restored to favour, so that God would no longer turn his back on him, chap. xlii. 5. St. Gregory, when legate at Constantinople, convinced the patriarch Eutychius, by this text, that after the resurrection, our bodies will be palpable, and not aerial only. (Calmet) --- It contains an express profession of Job's faith, on this head. We shall rise the same in substance. (Worthington) Myself. Hebrew, "for myself," and for my comfort; not like the reprobate, who shall see their judge to their eternal confusion. Job insists so much on this point, that he shews he in not speaking merely of the divine favour being restored to him, in the re-establishment of his health and affairs, but that he raises his mind to something more solid and desirable, of which the former was only a faint representation. (Calmet) --- "No one since Christ has spoken so plainly of the resurrection, as this man did before the coming of the Messias." (St. Jerome, ad Pam.) --- This. Hebrew, " though my reins be consumed within me;" (Protestants; Haydock) or, "my reins (desires and tender affections) are completed in my bosom." (Calmet) Let us. Septuagint, "Why do we contend against him? and the root of the word (reason) we shall find in him." He provokes us to speak thus. (Haydock) --- Hebrew reads, "in me." But the Chaldean, &c., "have him, " as the sequel requires; unless Job speak this in his own person. I am ready to answer you; or, have you really discovered in me any grounds for your virulent attack? (Calmet) Know. Septuagint, "And then they shall know that their power is nowhere;" or, "where is their substance?" (Grabe) (Haydock) --- Job menaces his friends with God's judgments, as they had done him. (Calmet) Therefore. From this concession which thou hast just made. (Menochius) --- Various. Hebrew, "Hence do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I hasten." Septuagint, "I did not thus suspect that thou wouldst contradict these things," &c. (Haydock) --- Sophar only speaks this second time; and he produces little new, but begins with an air of more moderation, as if the arguments of Job had made some impression upon him. (Calmet) --- He attempts to prove that the wicked have no comfort long; which is true in one sense, as all time is short, though they may prosper all their lives, as Job corrects his observation, chap. xxi. 13. (Worthington) I know. Hebrew and Septuagint, "dost thou not know?" Pride. Septuagint, "presents." (Haydock) --- Riches may be meant by pride. (Calmet) Hill. Hebrew, "his own dung." (Haydock) (Proverbs x. 7.) Fleeth. The poets assign wings to sleep and to dreams. (Homer, &c.) Isaias (xxix. 7.) describes a man who dreams that he is eating, and finds himself hungry when he awakes. Such is the live of the avaricious, (Calmet) and of all wicked people. (Haydock) Behold him, as if it were susceptible of resentment, and entered into the views of God, chap vii. 10., and Psalm xxvi. 35. (Calmet) Be. Hebrew, "seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods," which the wicked had gotten by oppression. (Haydock) Vices of, is not in Hebrew, but must be understood. (Haydock) --- Youth. Some translate, "hidden." Sophar perhaps accuses Job of some secret abominations, for which he was afflicted with the venereal disease. At least, nothing is more common than to see people brought to old age and infirmities unnumbered, (Calmet) before their time, in consequence of riotous living in their youth. (Haydock) --- Youth may also denote the sin in which we are born, which is the source of all our maladies, and is always dragging us towards the grave. (Calmet) Evil of any king, and particularly (Haydock) injustice, which at first seems sweet, but will prove in the end a mortal poison. (Calmet) --- The unjust will be forced to restore his ill-gotten goods, or suffer eternally for the neglect, ver. 14, 18. (Haydock) --- Habitual sins are also overcome with most difficulty, ver. 11. (Menochius) Head. Hebrew, "venom." Septuagint, "the wrath of dragons." (Calmet) --- Vipers. The same Hebrew term is elsewhere rendered basilisk, or asp. The precise import of such things is not easily ascertained. (Pineda) --- Tongue. The ancients thought that serpents communicated the venom by the tongue, or sting. Moderns think they do it rather by the teeth. (Calmet) Butter. The impious may have a short-lived pleasure, but it will not give perfect satisfaction. The poets use similar expressions. (Calmet)Mella fluant illi, ferat et rubus asper amomum. (Virgil) Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant. (Met. i.) Suffer eternal torments. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "according to his substance, shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice." (Protestants) Them. Death will overtake him, like the rich man, Luke xii. 20. (Calmet) Continue. Hebrew, "no one shall look for his goods." The sinner eat up all in his life-time, or saw his possessions slip from him. (Haydock) --- At least, he shall not take them with him to the grave. (Calmet) May. Hebrew, "And when he shall be about to fill his belly," like king Baltassar, death shall hurry him away. (Calmet) --- Rain. Septuagint, "hurl sorrows upon him," (Haydock) by an untimely death, followed with eternal hunger and thirst. Thus was treat the rich glutton, Luke xvi. 22. (Calmet) Brass; of which metal the strongest bows were made. Protestants have, "steel:" (Haydock) but brass was used by the ancients for the same purpose. (Calmet) --- This proverb shews that those who endeavour to escape from men, fall into the hands of God. (Delrio. Adag. 9, t. ii.)Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charbydim. (Virgil) (Menochius) The sword is, occurs not in the Vulgate, (Haydock) though it be in the Complutensianand Sixtine editions. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; the glittering sword cometh out of his gall; terrors are upon him." Protestants, "May likewise the dart come out through his body," &c. (Haydock) --- Ones. Hebrew, " Enim; giants, who formerly inhabited the land of Moab, near the eastern Idumea. Their name might be placed for any cruel enemies. (Calmet) Darkness, or misery. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "Terrors upon him, and all darkness may await him." (Haydock) --- He shall find no means of escaping. (Calmet) --- Kindled. Hebrew, "blown." St. Gregory observes that hell-fire is corporeal, but very different from our material fire. Chaldean, &c., explain this passage in the same sense. It may also intimate interior anguish, (Calmet) lightning, (Vatable) pestilence, (Grotius) and every species of calamity. (Calmet) --- Tabernacle, in hell. (Menochius) --- We may also translate, "he who is left," (Haydock) the offspring shall be also miserable. (Menochius) Heavens, as his sins have cried for vengeance, Genesis xviii. 20. (Calmet) --- All creatures shall fight against the wicked. (Menochius) Exposed. Hebrew, "the bud, (Calmet) or increase of his house, shall depart," (Haydock) and be led away into captivity, (Calmet) and ruined. Septuagint, "Let final destruction draw away his house, and the day of wrath overtake him." CHAPTER XX. Doings. Literally, "words." Hebrew, "of his decree." (Haydock) --- This is what he may expect for him impiety both in words and actions. (Calmet) Do. "After your opinion." (Menochius) --- Symmachus, "hear." Septuagint, "may this be for your consolation," (Hebrew) which I shall receive from you, or which you may make use of, if you should be afflicted (Calmet) as I am. (Haydock) --- Job undertakes to show that the wicked are sometimes suffered to enjoy a long prosperity. Troubled. Hebrew, "Why is not my spirit shortened" by death, if your assertion be true? (Haydock) or why may I not be "troubled," since I have to deal, not with an enlightened judge, but with men who are under the greatest prejudices? (Calmet) --- I seem to you to dispute against God. Have I not then reason to tremble? ver. 6. (Haydock) --- Though he disputed with men, it was concerning Providence and eternal things. (Worthington) Hearken to. Literally, "look steadfastly on me." (Haydock) --- Compare my present with my former condition, and do not pretend to fathom God's judgments; which fall me also with astonishment, when I consider why the virtuous are distressed, and the wicked prosper, ver. 7. --- Mouth be silent. Harpocrates, the god of silence, was represented in this posture; and Virgil says, Intentique ora tenebant. (\'c6neid ii.) --- Septuagint, "upon the cheek," like men in deep consideration. (Calmet) Riches. This is what fills me with great anxiety. Yet it quite destroys the force of your argument, (Calmet) since you pretend that the prosperity of the wicked is never of long duration. We see them, however, live to an advanced old age, (Haydock) continually offending God, and annoying their neighbours. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "yea, they grow old in riches." Sight. The Jews esteemed this as the greatest blessing and mark of God's favour. Yet it was also equivocal, as it was often possessed by the wicked. (Calmet) Rod. Divine judgments. (Menochius) (Psalm lxxii. 5.) Cattle. Literally, "ox," bos. Protestants, "their bull gendereth, and faileth not." (Haydock) --- But Bochart explains it of the cows' bringing forth every year. (Calmet) --- Ox is used in the same sense, both by sacred and profane authors. (Haydock) --- A great part of the riches of these nations consisted in cattle, Psalm cxliii. 14., and Zacharias viii. 5. Their. Septuagint, "They continue like eternal sheep, as if they and their flocks would never die. (Calmet) --- And play, is to shew the nature of the dance. It is not in Hebrew. (Haydock) --- The children are healthy and sportive. (Menochius) --- Septuagint, "they play before them." (Haydock) Moment. Septuagint, "in the rest of the lower region, Greek: adou, they shall be laid," (Haydock) in the grave. (Menochius) --- A sudden death, without agony or sickness, (Haydock) was the choice of Julius C\'e6sar, the night before he was slain. Repentinum inopinatumque pr\'e6tulerat. (Suetonius) --- But the enlightened servant of God would rather desire time to do penance, and to prepare for death. For who shall presume that he has that charity which banisheth fear? (Calmet) --- Hell. The same term is used for the place where the damned are tormented, as for that where the souls of the just waited (chap. vii., and xvii.) for their Redeemer's coming. But here Job is speaking of the apparent happiness of the wicked; (Haycock) and only alludes to the grave, (Calmet; Menochius) or comfortable death and burial of the reprobate: though, at the same time, he may declare that their souls are buried in hell. (Haydock) Ways. The too common effect of riches, Proverbs xxx. 8., and Ecclesiasticus v. 2. Because, is not in Hebrew. "Lo, their good is not." They are not possessed of true riches, or of good sense. Alexandrian Septuagint, "For good things were in their hands: but the works of the impious are not pure." No: the more they possess, the greater is their perversity. Grabe substitutes Greek: oukathora, for Greek: kathara; God "does not behold" the works, &c., which is more conformable to the other editions; and thus the blasphemies of the impious are continued. (Haydock) --- When we are not sensible of our wants and dependance, we think less on God. (Calmet) --- Hand, or power, they are only the gifts of God; far be then such sentiments from me. (Calmet) How often. When do we witness the downfall of the wicked? (Mercer.) --- Or, in a contrary sense, how often are they miserable as well as the just? Such things are, therefore, a very equivocal argument, to prove either side of the question. Those who are afflicted, and cling closer to God, must be accounted virtuous and happy; while that prosperity is fatal which is an occasion of our neglecting his service. (Calmet) --- Job answers his own questions, ver. 7. If the wicked be happy for a time, their future state is deplorable, and often they forfeit even their temporal advantages. (Menochius) The sorrow. Protestants, "his iniquity." Marginal note, "that is the punishment. " (Haydock) --- The children shall share in his punishment, (Calmet) when they have been partakers, or imitators of his injustice. (Haydock) --- Know his offence, and whether there be a God (Calmet) and Providence. (Menochius) And if. Hebrew, "when" he is cut off in the midst of his days: he does not regard the happiness or misery of those whom he leaves behind. (Haydock) --- The children are rather taken away for his punishment, while he is living, as their misery would not touch him in the grave. (Menochius) Hale, or healthy. Hebrew, "in perfect strength." (Haydock) --- Septuagint, "simplicity, or folly." St. Augustine reads with the old Vulgate, "in the strength of his simplicity, (Calmet) or innocence. (Haydock) --- These outward appearances prove nothing for interior piety or wickedness. (Calmet) Bowels. Protestants, "breasts" (Marginal note, "milk-pails") are full of milk. But the Septuagint, Bochart, &c., agree with the Vulgate. Job describes a corpulent man (Calmet) living in luxury, like the glutton. (Haydock) Any. Hebrew, "ever having eaten with pleasure." (Haydock) Me. I perceive you are not convinced; and what you say respecting the wicked, is pointed at me. (Menochius) Prince. Job, (Menochius) or rather the tyrant, whose lot we know is miserable, as he falls a victim of God's justice, chap. xx. 7. CHAPTER XXI. Way. Travellers, who have seen foreign countries, (Vatable) or any one that may be passing, (Sanchez) will answer this objection (Haydock) in my favour. (Menochius) --- They will all agree in testifying that the wicked prosper, even for a long time. (Calmet) To the. He will be requited indeed, at last; or rather, when others are in the utmost danger, he will be protected as it were by God. Septuagint, (Calmet) or Theodotion, "the wicked is kept on high," Greek: chouthizetai. All from ver. 28 to 33 inclusively, is marked as an addition to the Septuagint by Grabe, who has supplied many similar omissions, of which Origen and St. Jerome complained. (Haydock) Done. Man is afraid, and God defers to take cognizance. (Calmet) Dead. Hebrew, "the sheaves," being quite ripe for harvest, and even in the tomb, the tyrant retains some sore of pre-eminence, as he is buried with honour, an set like a more elevated sheaf, to inspect the rest. (Calmet) --- Godiss, is rendered by Protestants, "tomb," (margin) "heap." But (chap. v. 26.) where only the word occurs again, we find "a shock of corn," and this comparison seems very suitable here. The damned shall watch, alas, when it will be to no purpose, among the heap of fellow-sufferers, who would not think while they had time to repent. After millions of night spent thus without sleep or ease, we may imagine we hear their mournful lamentations from the depth of the abyss. Always misery! and never any hope of ease! (Haydock) --- "Eternity," says Bridayne, (ser. in Maury's Eloq.) "is a pendulum, the vibration of which sounds continually, Always! Never! In the mean while, a reprobate cries out: What o'clock is it? And the same voice answers, Eternity!" Thus at last the wicked shal awake from the sleep in which they have spent their days; (Haydock) and their watching, restless, and immortal souls (St. Thomas Aquinas) will bitterly lament their past folly. What profit will they derive from the honours paid to their corpse by surviving friends, (Haydock) even though they be embalmed, and seem to live in marble statues? (Pineda) Acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus. The Hebrew word, which St. Jerome has here rendered by the name Cocytus, (which the poets represent as a river in hell) signifies a valley or a torrent: and in this place, is taken for the low region of death, and hell: which willingly, as it were, receives the wicked at their death: who are ushered in by innumerable others that have gone before them; and are followed by multitudes above number. (Challoner) --- Isaias (xiv. 9.) and Ezechiel (xxxii. 21.) describe the splendid reception in hell of the kings of Babylon and of Egypt, nearly in the same manner as Job does that of any sinner who has lived in prosperity, chap. xxxviii. 17. He gives life to the whole creation, in the true spirit of poetry. (Calmet) --- The rich man is represented as tenderly embraced by his mother earth; (chap. i. 21.; Haydock) the very stones and turf press lightly upon him; as the ancients prayed, Sit tibi terra levis. Hebrew, "the stones or clods of the torrent (Calmet) shall be sweet to him, and he," &c. (Haydock) --- St. Jerome has chosen to mention a particular river, instead of the general term nel, "a torrent or vale," to intimate that Job is speaking of the state after death. --- Cocytus is a branch of the Styx, a river of Arcadia, of a noxious quality, which the poets have place in hell. (Pineda) --- Septuagint, "The pebbles of the torrent became sweet to him, and in his train every man shall come, and unnumbered men before him." Alexandrian manuscript has "men of number;" the two first letters of Greek: anarithmetoi being omitted. (Haydock) --- The Church reads in her office for St. Stephen, Lapides torrentis illi dulces fuerunt: ipsum sequuntur omnes anim\'e6 just\'e6. Many explain this passage of Job as a menace. The wicked have carried their insolence so far as to (Calmet) give orders to (Haydock) be buried with the utmost pomp: but in the other world, they shall be thrown ignominiously among the other dead. (St. Gregory, &c.) (Calmet) --- They were little moved with the thought of death, as it was common to all. But what will they think of eternal misery? (Haydock) Vain. These arguments shew that your assertions are destitute of proof, and afford me no comfort. (Calmet) Knowledge. How then canst thou dispute with God? Profit. God rules all with justice or with mercy: since, therefore, he punishes, it must be for some guilt, and not for his own advantage. But he might still chastise for the good of man, or to manifest his own power, John ix. 3. God also punishes the sinner for the wrong which he does to himself. (St. Augustine, Confessions iii. 8.) Any one may discover the sophism of Eliphaz. If God were indifferent with regard to our virtue, who would be able to advance one step towards him? (Calmet) --- Man is unprofitable indeed to God, but he may reap great advantage from piety himself; and this is what God desires, as well as his own glory, Matthew v. 17. (Worthington) Fear. Thus malefactors are condemned, that they may no longer disturb society. But may not God afflict the just, though he have nothing to fear? (Calmet) Iniquities. He adduces no fresh arguments, but boldly taxes Job with many crimes, which a person in his station might have committed. He rashly concludes that he must have fallen into some of them at least. (Calmet) Pledge. Hebrew, "person." Debtors might be sold, Matthew xviii. 30. Water. Job's disposition was the reverse, chap. xxix. 15. Such inhumanity would hardly be conceived possible among us. But he Idumeans were guilty of it; (Numbers xx. 18., and Isaias xxi. 14.) and if it had not been probable, Eliphaz would not have dared to speak thus. (Calmet) It. Hebrew and Septuagint intimate that Job accepted persons, and gave sentence in favour of his rich friends. (Haydock) Arms; possessions, condemning orphans unjustly. Waters, and misery, (Calmet) which such conduct deserved. (Haydock) Stars: and of course, that his Providence regardeth not human affairs. (Calmet) --- When an infidel observed, "I think the gods are too great to want my adoration," Socrates well replied, "The greater they appear to thee, the more oughtest thou to treat them with respect and honour." (Xenophon, Memor.) Doth. Hebrew, "seeth not." Septuagint, "is not seen." --- Poles, on which the whole machine seems to turn. (Calmet) --- "Hipparchus intimated that there would be a time when the hinges, or poles of heaven, would be moved out of their places." (Colum. i. 1.) Hebrew and Septuagint, (according to Origen's edition, ver. 13 to 16) "he walketh about in the circuit of heaven." (Haydock)Immortali \'e6vo summa cum pace fruatur Semota a nostris rebus, sejunctaque longe. (Lucretius) This was the error of the Egyptians, (Aristotle, Mun. 84.) which Eliphaz unjustly lays to the charge of Job, as heretics often impute condemned tenets to Catholics. (Worthington) Wicked. Alexandrian Septuagint, "just." But Grabe substitutes unjust; (Haydock) as otherwise, Eliphaz would argue against his own principles: unless just be put ironically for hypocrites. (Calmet) --- Wilt thou imitate the ancient giants, before the deluge? (Calmet) Flood. Hebrew, "river," (Septuagint; Calmet) or "flood." (Protestants) This does not certainly allude to the deluge, though Job could not be unacquainted with an event (Haydock) which appears in the writings of the most ancient pagan authors. (Grotius, Relig.) From me. He thus insinuates that Job entertained such sentiments, though he seemed to condemn them, chap. xxi. 16. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "is far from him," God. Shall. Septuagint, "saw." The Jews explain this of Noe, who saw the ruin of the giants with pity, mixed with joy, as he approved of the divine judgments. (Vatable, &c.) --- The just can thus rejoice, only on this account; as they would not be just if they were devoid of charity. (St. Gregory) (Psalm lvii. 11., and cvi. 42.) (Calmet) Their. Hebrew, "our." (Calmet) --- "Whereas our substance is not cut down." (Protestants) (Haydock) --- But the Septuagint and Chaldean agree with the Vulgate, which gives a better sense. --- Fire, which consumed Sodom, &c. (Calmet) Law of Moses, (Rabbins) or rather (Haydock) the natural law, which teaches that God is just, and deserves to be adored. He addresses Job, as if he had acknowledged no law or restraint. Gold, to build and adorn thy habitation, ver. 23. Hebrew, "He will give thee gold instead of dust; (or more abundant) yea, gold of the torrents of Ophir." The Phasis is said to roll gold dust, which is of the purest kind, Genesis ii. 11. (Calmet) --- "Thou shalt lay upon gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir, as the stones of the brooks." (Protestants) (Haydock) --- This is an exaggeration, (3 Kings x. 27.; Calmet) and a sort of proverb, intimating that strength and plenty should succeed to infirmity. The foundations should be the hard rock, instead of earth, &c. Silver. Septuagint, "But he shall purify thee, as silver, which has passed the fire." (Haydock) Face, with confidence of being in favour and accepted. (Calmet) Vows, after obtaining thy requests. (Menochius) --- Et positis aris jam vota in littore solves. (Virgil, \'c6neid iii.) Decree. Thy projects shall succeed. Septuagint, "But he shall appoint for thee the rule of justice." (Haydock) Glory, as the gospel declares, Matthew xxiii. 12. The Hebrew is more perplexed. "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up;" (Protestants; Haydock) or "when thy eyes shall be cast down, they shall say to thee, Arise." (Calmet) Innocent. Hebrew, "He shall deliver even the man who is not innocent, and that for the sake of the purity of thy hands." (Chaldean; Junius, &c.) --- God will even spare the guilty, to manifest the regard which he has for the intercession of the saints. These interpreters have taken ai in the same sense as ain, which is the case, 1 Kings iv. 21. (Calmet) --- Others explain, "He shall deliver the island of the innocent, and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands." (Protestants) This also would shew the merit and protection of the saints, as a whole island may owe its safety to one of God's servants. In effect, the would stands by the prayers of the saints. (Haydock) --- All that has been said from ver. 21 tends to shew that God favours his friends; and, consequently, that he would never have punish Job, if he had not been guilty. (Calmet)