The "Historical Introduction" to Job extends to two chapters. In the first we are given an account, firstly, of his outward circumstances—his abode, wealth, family, etc; and of his character (Job 1:1-5); secondly, of the circumstances under which God allowed him to be tried by afflictions (Job 1:6-12); thirdly, of the earlier afflictions themselves (Job 1:13-19); and, fourthly, of his behaviour under them (Job 1:20-22). The second chapter gives, firstly, the ground of his further trial (Job 2:1-6); secondly, the nature of it, and his behaviour under it (Job 2:7-10); and thirdly, the coming of his three friends to him, and their behaviour (Job 2:11-13). The narrative is characterized by remarkable simplicity and directness. It has a decided air of antiquity about it, and presents but few linguistic difficulties. Job 1:1 There was a man. This opening presents to us the Book of Job as a detached work, separate from and independent of all others. The historical books are generally united each to each by the you connective. In the land of Us. Uz, or Huz (Hebrew, עוּץ), seems to have been originally, like Judah, Moab, Ammon, Edom, etc; the name of a man. It was borne by a son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham (Genesis 22:21), and again by a son of Dishan, the son of Seir the Horite (Genesis 36:28). Some regard it as also a personal name in Genesis 10:23. But from this use it passed to the descendants of one or more of these patriarchs, and from them to the country or countries which they inhabited. The "land of Uz" is spoken of, not only in this passage, but also in Jeremiah 25:20 and Lamentations 4:21. These last-cited places seem to show that Jeremiah’s "land of Uz" was in or near Edom, and therefore south of Palestine; but as Uzzites, like so many nations of these ports, were migratory, we need not be surprised if the name Uz was, at different times, attached to various localities. Arabian tradition regards the region of the Hauran, north-east of Palestine, as Job’s country. The other geographical names in the Book of Job point to a more eastern location, one not far remote from the southern Euphrates, and the adjacent parts of Arabia Sheba, Dedan, Teman, Buz, Shuah, and Chesed (Casdim) all point to this locality. On the other hand, there is a passage in the inscriptions of Asshur-banipal which, associating together the names of Huz and Buz (Khazu and Bazu), appears to place them both in Central Arabia, not far from the Jebel Shnmmar. My own conclusion would be that, while the name "land of Uz" designated at various periods various localities, Job’s "land of Uz" lay a little west of the Lower Euphrates, on the borders of Chaldea and Arabia. Whose name was Job. In the Hebrew the name is "Iyyob," whence the "Eyoub" of the Arabs and the "Hiob" of the Germans. It is quite a distinct name from that of the third son of Issachar (Genesis 46:18), which is properly expressed by "Job," being יוֹב. Iyyob is supposed to be derived from aib (אָיִב), "to be hostile," and to mean "cruelly or hostilely treated," in which ease we must suppose it to have been first given to the patriarch in his later life, and to have superseded some other, as "Peter" superseded "Simon," and "Paul" superseded "Saul." According to a Jewish tradition, adopted by some of the Christian Fathers, Job’s original name was "Jobab," and under this name he reigned as King of Edom (Genesis 36:33). But this kingship is scarcely compatible with the view given of him in the Book of Job. The supposed connection of the name of Juba with that of Job is very doubtful. And that man was perfect. Tam (תָּם), the word translated "perfect," seems to mean "complete, entire, not wanting in any respect," It corresponds to the Greek τέλειος, and the Latin integer (comp. Horace, ’Od.,’ 1.22. 1, "Integer vitro, scelerisque purus’). It does not mean" absolutely sinless," which Job was not (comp. Job 9:20; Job 40:4). And upright. This is the exact meaning of yashar (יָשָׁר). "The Book of Jasher" was "the Book of the Upright" (βιβλίοντοῦεὐθοῦς, 2 Samuel 1:18). One that feared God, and eschewed evil; literally, fearing God and departing from evil. The same testimony is given of Job by God himself in verse 8, and again in Job 2:3 (comp. also Ezekiel 14:14, Ezekiel 14:20). We must suppose Job to have reached as near perfection as was possible tot man at the time. Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. The numbers three and seven, and their product, ten, are certainly sacred numbers, regarded as expressive of ideal perfection. But this does not prevent their being also historical. As Canon Cook observes, "Striking coincidences between outward facts and ideal numbers are not uncommon in the purely historical portions of Scripture". There are twelve apostles, seventy (7 × 10) disciples sent out by our Lord, seven deacons, three synoptic Gospels, twelve minor prophets, seven princes of Persia and Media, ten sons of Haman, three of Noah, Gomer, Terah, Levi, and Zeruiah, seven of Japhet, Mizraim, Seir the Horite, Gad, and Jesse (1 Chronicles 2:13-15), twelve of Ishmael, twelve of Jacob, etc. Our Lord is thirty (3 x 10) years old when he begins to teach, and his ministry lasts three years; he heals seven lepers, casts out of Mary Magdalene seven devils, speaks upon the cross seven "words," bids Peter forgive his brother "seventy times seven," etc. It is thus not only in vision or in prophecy, or in symbolical language, that these "ideal numbers" come to the front far more frequently than ethers, but also in the most matter-of-fact histories. Job 1:3 His substance also; literally, his acquisition (from קָנָה, acquirere), but used of wealth generally. Seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses. Note, first of all, the absence of horses or mules from this list—an indication of high antiquity. Horses were not known in Egypt till the time of the shepherd-kings, who introduced them from Asia. None are given to Abraham by the Pharaoh contemporary with him (Genesis 12:16). We hear of none as possessed by the patriarchs in Palestine; and, on the whole, it is not probable that they had been known in Western Asia very long before their introduction into Egypt. They are natives of Central Asia, where they are still found wild, and passed gradually by exportation to the more southern regions, Armenia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Arabia. Note, secondly, that the items of Job’s wealth accord with those of Abraham’s (Genesis 12:16). Thirdly, note that Job’s wealth in cattle is not beyond credibility. An Egyptian lord of the time of the fourth dynasty relates that he possessed above 1000 oxen and cows, 974 sheep, 2,235 goals, and 760 asses. Further, the proportion of the camels is noticeable, and implies a residence on the borders of the desert (see the comment on verse 1). and a very great household; literally, and a very great service, or retinue of servants. Oriental emirs and sheikhs consider it necessary for their dignity to maintain a number of attendants and retainers (except, perhaps, in feudal times) quite unknown to the West. Abraham had three hundred and eighteen trained servants, born in his house (Genesis 14:14). Egyptian households were "full of domestics," comprising attendants of all kinds—grooms, artisans, clerks, musicians, messengers, and the like. A sheikh, situated as Job was, would also require a certain number of guards, while for his cattle he would need a large body of shepherds, ox-herds, and the like. So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. The Beney Kedem, or "men of the east," literally, sons of the east, seems to include the entire population between Palestine and the Euphrates (Genesis 29:1; Judges 6:3; Judges 7:12; Judges 8:10; Isaiah 11:14; Jeremiah 49:28, etc.). Many tribes of Arabs are similarly designated at the present day, e.g. the Beni Harb, the Beni Suhr, the Bani Naim, the Bani Lain, etc. It would seem that the Phoenicians must have called themselves Beni Kedem when they settled in Greece, since the Greeks knew them as "Cadmeisns," and made them descendants of a mythic "Cadreus’ (Herod; 5.57-59). The name "Saracens" is to some extent analogous, since it means "Men of the morning." Job 1:4 And his sons went and feasted. "Went and feasted" seems to mean "were in the habit of feastlng" (Rosenmuller, Lee). In their houses. Each had his own residence, and the residence was not a tent, but a" house." Job and his sons were not mere nomads, but belonged to the settled population. The same is implied by the "ploughing of the oxen" (verse 14), and indeed by Job’s "yoke of oxen" in verse 3. Every one his day. Most commentators regard these feasts as birthday festivities. Each son in his turn, when his birthday arrived, entertained his six brothers. Others think that each of the seven brothers had his own special day of the week on which, he received his brothers at his table, so that the feasting was continuous. But this scarcely suits the context. And it is admitted that "his day" (in Job 3:1) means "his birthday." The celebration of birthdays by means of a feast was a very widespread custom in the East. And sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. This by itself is sufficient to show that the feasts were occasional, not continuous. Constant absence of daughters, day after day, from the parental board is inconceivable. Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about; rather, when the days of the feasting had come round; i.e. whenever one of the birthdays had arrived in due course, and the feasting had taken place. That Job sent and sanctified them. In the old world, outside the Mosaic Law, the father of the family was the priest, to whom alone it belonged to bless, purify, and offer sacrifice. Job, after each birthday-feast, sent, it would seem, for his sons, and purified them by the accustomed ablutions, or possibly by some other ceremonial process, regarding it as probable that, in the course of their feasting, they had contracted some defilement. It would seem by the next clause that the purification took place at the close of the day of festivity. And rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings. Burnt offerings were instituted soon after the Fall, as we learn from Genesis 4:4, and were in common use long before the Mosaic Law was given. The practice was common, so far as appears, to all the nations of antiquity, except the Persians (Herod; 1:132). According to the number of them all One, apparently, for each child, since each might have sinned in the way suggested. The offerings were clearly it. tended as expiatory. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Two wholly different meanings are assigned by good Hebraists to the expression ברך אחים. According to some, ברך has its usual sense, "to bless," and אלהים signifies "false gods," or "idols;" according to the others, who form the great majority, אלהים has its usual sense of "God," and ברך has the unusual sense of "curse". How the same word comes to have the two wholly opposite senses of "to bless" and "to curse" has been differently explained. Some think that, as men blessed their friends both on receiving them and on bidding them adieu, the word ברך got the sense of "bidding adieu to," "dismissing," "renouncing." Others regard the use of ברך for "to curse" as a mere euphemism, and compare the use of sacer and sacrari in Latin, and such expressions as "Bless the stupid man!" "What a blessed nuisance!" in English. The maledictory sense seems to be established by Job 2:9 and 1 Kings 21:10. By "cursing God in their hearts" Job probably means "forgetting him," "putting him out of sight," "not giving him the honour which is his due." Thus did Job continually; literally, as in the margin, all the days; i.e. whenever one of the festival-days occurred. Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. By "the sons of God" it is generally admitted that, in this place, the angels are meant (so again in Job 38:7). The meaning of the phrase is probably different in Genesis 6:2. Angels and men are alike "sons of God," as created by him, in his image, to obey and serve him. Christ, the "Only Begotten," is his Son in quite a different sense. We may gather, perhaps, from this place and Job 2:1 that there are fixed times at which the angelic host, often sent out by the Almighty on distant errands, has to gather together, one and all, before the great white throne, to pay homage to their Lord, and probably to give an account of their doings. And Satan came also among them. The word "Satan" has the article prefixed to it השׂתן here and elsewhere in Job, as in Zechariah 3:1, Zechariah 3:2 and in Luke 22:31; Revelation 12:9. Thus accompanied, it is less a proper name than an appellative—"the adversary". In 1 Chronicles 21:1, without the article, it is undoubtedly a proper name, as in the New Testament, passim. Accusation of men before God is one of the special offices of the evil spirit (see Zechariah 3:1, Zechariah 3:2), who is "the accuser of the brethren, he that accuses them before God day and night" (Revelation 12:10). The accusations that he makes may be either true or false, but they are so often false that his ordinary New Testament name is ὁδιάβολος, "the Slanderer." The existence of an evil spirit must have been known to all who read or heard the story of the fall of man (Genesis 3:1-24.), and the descriptive epithet, "the Adversary," is likely to have been in use from a very early date. The notion that the Satan of the Old Testament is a reflex of the Persian Ahriman, and that the Jews derived their belief upon the subject from the Persians, is quite untenable. The character and position of Satan in the Hebrew system are quite unlike those of Ahriman (Angro-mainyus) in the religion of the Zoroastrians. Job 1:7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? God condescends to address the evil spirit, and asks him questions—not that anything could be added to his own knowledge, but that the angels, who were present (Job 1:6), might hear and have their attention called to the doings of Satan, which would need to be watched by them, and sometimes to be restrained or prevented. Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. Satan, therefore, is not himself, like the bulk of his evil angels, "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the last day" (Jude 1:6). He searches the whole earth continually, never passing, never resting, but "going about," as St. Peter says (1 Peter 5:8), "like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," waiting till the coming of the "thousand years," when an angel will "bind him with a great chain, and cast him into the bottom-less pit" (Revelation 20:1, Revelation 20:2). It will be a happy day for the earth when that time comes. Job 1:8 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered? literally. Hast thou set thine heart on? equivalent to "Hast thou given thine attention to?" (comp. Isaiah 41:22; Haggai 1:5, Haggai 1:7). My servant Job; i.e. "my true servant, faithful in all that he does" (comp. Hebrews 3:5). It is a high honour to any man for God to acknowledge him as his servant (see Joshua 1:2; 1 Kings 11:13, etc.). That there is none like him in the earth; rather, for there is none like him (see the Revised Version). This is given as a reason why Satan should have paid special attention to his case, and is a sort of challenge: "Thou that art always spying out some defect or other in a righteous man, hast thou noted my servant Job, and discovered any fault in him?" A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil (see the comment on verse 1). Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Satan insinuates that Job’s motive is purely selfish. He serves God, not for love of God, or for love of goodness, but for what he gets by it. Satan is too shrewd to endeavour, as Job’s friends do later, to pick holes in Job’s conduct. No; that is exemplary. But the true character of acts is determined by the motive. What is Job’s motive? Does he not serve God to gain his protection and blessing? Similarly, in modem times, ungodly men argue that religious and devout persons are religious and devout with a view to their own interest, because they expect to gain by it, either in this world, or in the next, or in both. This is a form of calumny which it is impossible to escape. And bad men, who are conscious to themselves of never acting except from a selfish motive, may well imagine the same of others. It is rarely that such an insinuation can be disproved. In the present instance God vindicates his servant, and covers the adversary with shame, as the other adversaries and calumniators of righteousness will be covered at the last day. Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him? i.e. "hedged him around, protected him, made a sort of invisible fence about him, through which no evil could creep." This was undoubtedly true. God had so protected him. But the question was not as to this fact, but as to Job’s motive. Was it mere prudence?—tile desire to secure a continuance of this protection? And about his house; i.e. "his family"—his sons and daughters—the members of his household. And about all that he hath on every side. His possessions—land, houses, cattle, live stock of all kinds, furniture, goods and chattels. Thou hast blessed the work of his hands (comp. Psalms 1:3, where it is said of the righteous man. that "whatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper"). So it was with Job. God’s blessing was upon him, and success crowned all his enterprises. "The work of his hands" will include everything that he attempted. And his substance is increased in the land. In the former clause we have the cause, God’s blessing; in the latter the effect, a great increase in Job’s "substance," or "cattle" (marginal reading). (On the final number of his cattle, see verse 3.) Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now; literally, send forth thy hand, as a man does who strikes a blow (comp. Genesis 22:12; Exodus 3:20; Exodus 9:15, etc.). And touch all that he hath; or, smite all that he hath; i.e. ruin him, strip him of his possessions. And he will curse thee to thy face. Professor Lee translates, "If not, he will bless thee to thy face;" the LXX; "Surely he will bless thee to thy face;" Canon Cook, "See if he will not renounce thee openly." But the majority of Hebraists agree with the Authorized Version. Satan suggests that, if Job be stripped of his possessions, he will openly curse God, and renounce his worship. Here he did not so much calumniate, or lie, as show the evil thoughts that were in his own heart. No doubt he believed that Job would act as he said. Job 1:12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; literally, in thy hand, as in the margin. God withdraws his protection from Job’s possessions; he does not himself take them away, as Satan had suggested (verse 11); but he allows Satan, who can do nothing without his allowance, to deal with them as he pleases. As God dispenses blessings through the angelic host (Psalms 91:11, Psalms 91:12; Hebrews 1:14), so he, sometimes at any rate, allows spirits of evil to be the ministers of his chastisements. Only upon himself put not forth thine hand. The person of Job was not to be touched as yet. He was to be injured only in his belongings. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Having obtained a permission which he thought would serve his purpose, Satan did not delay, but promptly departed, to take advantage of the permission given him. To be in the presence of God must be an intense pain to the evil one. Job 1:13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house. One of the birthdays, the eldest brother’s probably, had come round, and the ordinary gathering (see Job 1:4) had taken place—the feasting and drinking had begun, while the father, remaining in his own house, was perhaps interceding with God for his children, or anxiously considering the possibility that, in their light-hearted merriment, they might have put God away altogether from their thoughts, and So have practically renounced him, when the series of calamities began. How often calamity comes to us when we are least expecting it, when all seems quiet about us, when everything is prospering—nay, even when a high festival-time has come, and the joy-bells are sounding in our ears, and our ’hearts are elated within us! Job was, at any rate, spared the sudden plunge from exuberant joy into the depths of woe. It was his habit to preserve an even temper, and neither to be greatly exalted, nor, unless under an extremity of suffering, to be greatly depressed. He was now, however, about to be subjected to a fiery trial. Job 1:14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were ploughing, and the asses (literally, the she-asses) feeding beside them (literally, at their hand). Note that, notwithstanding the festival, labour was still going on; there was no general holiday; the oxen were at work in the field, not perhaps all of them, but the greater number, for the ploughing-time is short in the Oriental countries, and the "earing" is all done at the same time. The bulk of Job’s labourers were probably engaged in the business, and they had brought the asses with them, probably to keep them under their eye, lest thieves should carry them off, when the catastrophe related in the next verse occurred. Job 1:15 And the Sabeans (literally, Sheba) fell upon them, and took them away. The Sabeans were the principal people of Arabia in ancient times, and the name seems to be used sometimes in the general sense of "Arabs" (see Psalms 72:10, Psalms 72:15; Jeremiah 6:20). We may suppose that hem, either the general sense is intended, or, if the specific one, then that, at the date whereto the story of Job belongs, there were Sabeans in Eastern as well as in Southern Arabia, in the neighbourhood of the Upper Persian Gulf as well as in the neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean. The plundering habits of all the Arab tribes are well known. Strabo says that the Sabeans, even at the height of their prosperity, made excursions for the sake of plunder into Arabia Petraea and even Syria (Strab; 16.4) Yea, they have slain; rather, they slew, or they smote. The servants; literally, the young men; i.e. the labourers who were engaged in ploughing, and would be in duty bound to resist the carrying off of the cattle. With the edge of the sword. The lance is the chief weapon of the modern Bedouin, but it may have been different anciently. Or the expression used may merely mean "with weapons of war." And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Professor Lee translates, "And I have hardly escaped alone to tell thee." Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking; literally, he yet speaking; ἔτιτούτονλαλοῦντος, LXX. The writer hurries his words to express the rapidity with which one announcement followed another (see Job 1:17, Job 1:18). There came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven. "The fire of God" is undoubtedly lightning (comp. Numbers 11:1-3; 2 Kings 1:10, 2 Kings 1:14; Psalms 78:21). This Satan, under permission, might wield, as being "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2): but there is, no doubt, something very extraordinary in a storm extending over the pastures occupied by nine thousand sheep, and destroying the whole of them (Cook) Still, it cannot be said that such a storm is impossible; and perhaps the damage done was not greater than that which followed on the seventh Egyptian plague (see Exodus 9:18-26). And hath burned up the sheep, and the servants; literally, the young men; i.e. the shepherds who were in attendance upon the sheep. And consumed them; literally, devoured them. Fire is often said to "devour" what it destroys. "The Egyptians," says Herodotus, "believe fire to be a live animal, which eats whatever it can seize, and then, glutted with the food, dies with the matter which it feeds upon" (Herod; 3.16). And I only am escaped alone to tell thee (see the comment on Job 1:15). Job 1:17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another (see the comment on Job 1:16). The exact repetition of a clause, without the alteration of a word or a letter, is very archaic (comp. Genesis 1:4, Genesis 1:8, Genesis 1:13, Genesis 1:19, Genesis 1:23, Genesis 1:31; and for another repetition, Genesis 1:10, Genesis 1:12, Genesis 1:18, Genesis 1:21, Genesis 1:25). And said, The Chaldeans; literally, the Casdim (כַשְׂדִים), which is the word uniformly used in the Hebrew where the Authorized Version has "Chaldeans" or "Chaldees." The native name seems to have been Kaldi or Kaldai, whence the Greek Χαλδαῖοι, and the Latin Chaldaei. It is very difficult to account for the Hebrews having substituted a sibilant for the liquid; but it was certainly done from the earliest period of their literature (Genesis 11:31) to the latest (see Targums, passim). Some derive the Hebrew Casdim from "Chesed," one of the sons of Nahor (Genesis 22:22); but Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees before Chesed was born (Genesis 22:20). And there is no evidence of any connection between Chesed, who was born at Haran, and the Babylonian Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were probably early settlers in Babylonia; by degrees they were pressed to the south, and gave the name of Chaldea to Lower Babylonia, or the tract nearest to the Persian Gulf (Strab; 16.1, § 66; Ptolemy, ’Geographia,’ 5.20). From a remote date they were a settled and civilized people; but no doubt originally they had the same predatory instincts as their neighbours. Made out three bands. Professor Lee translates, "appointed three captains," which is a possible meaning of the words; but the weight of authority supports the rendering of the Authorized Version. And fell upon the camels. Perhaps the most valuable part of Job’s possessions. Three thousand camels would be regarded as a splendid capture by any body of Oriental marauders. And have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants (literally, the young men, as in verse 16) with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee (compare the comment on verse 15). Job 1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said (see the comment on Job 1:16), Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house (comp. Job 1:13). It is a common proverb that "misfortunes never come singly." Shakespeare says they "come not single foes, but in battalions." Still, so overwhelming a series of calamities falling upon a single individual all in one day could not but strike those who heard of them as abnormal, and almost certainly supernatural. So Job’s friends concluded (Job 5:17). Job 1:19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness; rather, from across the wilderness—a wind which began in the region lying on the other side of the wilderness, and sweeping across it, came with full force upon the inhabited tract where Job and his sons were dwelling. The desert winds are often very violent. Generally they are Laden with heavy clouds of fine sand, which cause intolerable discomfort and thirst; but when they sweep over a rocky and gravelly region, they are simply of extreme violence, without other distressing feature. They then resemble the hurricanes or tornadoes of the West Indies. We may reasonably connect this hurricane with the thunderstorm of verse 16. And smote the four corners of the house, and it fell. The "houses" of the East are not the solid structures of heavy timber, brick, and stone to which we of the West are accustomed, but light fabrics of planks and palisades, thatched mostly with reeds. Houses of this kind, when the rain descends, and the winds blow and beat against them (Matthew 7:6), readily fall. Upon the young men; rather, the young persons. Na’ar (נער) is of both genders in early Hebrew (see Genesis 24:14, etc.). And they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Again, the calamity has a completeness which marks it as supernatural. The fall of a house does not usually destroy all the inmates. Job 1:20 Then Job arose. Not till the last calamity was announced did Job stir. The loss of his wealth little moved him. But when he heard that his children were destroyed, all of them "at one fell swoop," then he could endure no longer, but rose from the seat on which he was sitting, and showed forth his grief. First he rent his mantle, "the outer robe worn by men of rank" (Cook)—a customary sign of grief in the ancient world (Genesis 37:29, Genesis 37:34; Genesis 44:13; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Kings 19:1; Esther 4:1; Joe 2:13; Herod; 8.99; Livy, 1.13, etc.); then he shaved his head—another less usual but still not uncommon sign of grief, forbidden under the Law of the Jews (Le Job 21:5; Deuteronomy 14:1), but widely practised by the Gentiles (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 47:5; Jeremiah 48:37; Herod; 2.36; 9.24; Plut.,’Vit. Pelop.,’ § 34; Q. Gurt.,’Vit. Alex.,’ 10.5, § 17). And fell down upon the ground, and worshipped. After giving vent to his natural grief, Job made an act of adoration. Recognizing the fact that adversity, as well as prosperity comes from God, and submitting himself to the Divine will, he "worshipped." How often has his act flashed across the minds of Christians. and enabled them, in their dark hour, to imitate him, and repeat his words, "The Lord gave," etc.! Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither. There is some difficulty in the word "thither," since no man returns to his mother’s womb (John 3:4), at death or otherwise. The expression must not be pressed. It arises out of the analogy, constantly felt and acknowledged, between "mother" earth and a man’s actual mother (setup. Psalms 129:1-8:15). The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Job is here represented as knowing God by his name "Jehovah," though elsewhere the "great Name" appears once only in the words of Job (Job 12:9), and never in the words of his friends. The natural conclusion is that the name was known in the land of Uz at the time, but was very rarely used—scarcely, except in moments of excitement. Blessed be the Name of the Lord; literally, may the Name of Jehovah be blessed! The ermphatic word is kept for the last. According to Satan, Job was to have" cursed God to his face" (verse 11). The event is that he openly and resolutely blesses God. That the same word is used in its two opposite senses rather accentuates the antithesis. Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not. It was only the commencement of the probation; but so far, at any rate, Job had not sinned—he had preserved his integrity, had spoken and done rightly. Nor charged God foolishly; literally, gave not folly to God, which is explained to mean either "did not attribute to God anything inconsistent with wisdom and goodness" (Delitzsch, Merx), or "did not utter any foolishness against God" (Ewald, Dillmann, Cook). The latter is probably the true meaning (comp. Job 6:6; Job 24:12). Job 1:1-5 The hero of the poem. I. THE ’S NAME. Job. 1. Historical. Not fictitious, but real (Ezekiel 14:14; James 5:11). Even if the Book of Job proceeded from the brilliant Solomnnic period, the person of Job must be looked for in remote patriarchal times. 2. Significant. Meaning "Persecuted," or "Repenting,’ if not better connected with a root denoting "joyous exultation." Scripture names are frequently suggestive of traits in character (e.g. Jacob, Peter, Barnabas) or points in history (e.g. Abraham, Israel, Benjamin, Samuel). 3. Illustrious. Allied to that of princes (Genesis 46:13; Genesis 36:33), like whom probably he was descended from the father of the faithful (Genesis 25:6). The piety, no less than the intellectual endowments, of ancestors sometimes reappears in their posterity. 4. Honoured. Commended by God (Ezekiel 14:14), extolled by St. James (James 5:11), immortalized by the Hebrew bard. II. THE ’S COUNTRY. Uz. 1. Heathen. Though considerably civilized, as surviving monuments attest, the sons of the East were not embraced within the Abrahamic covenant, in which respect they fell behind the sons of Israel (Romans 9:4). For countries, as for individuals, the institutions of religion are a higher honour and a greater privilege than the blessings of civilization. Yet: 2. Not God-forsaken. If Job’s countrymen, like Abraham’s, were addicted to idolatry (Job 31:26-28). it is apparent that a remnant still adhered to the primeval faith of mankind. Probably no age or people has ever been wholly bereft of light from heaven or of the gracious influences of God’s Spirit. In the darkest times and most idolatrous lands God has been able to find a seed to serve him (1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:4, Romans 11:5). III. THE ’S PIETY. 1. Perfect. Used of Noah (Genesis 6:9) and of Abraham (Genesis 17:1); describes the patriarch’s religious character with reference to itself as (1) complete, full-orbed, well-proportioned, thoroughly symmetrical, possessing all the attributes and qualities indispensable to spiritual manhood—an ideal after which Old Testament saints strove (Psalms 119:6) and New Testament believers aspired (Acts 24:16), and which by Christ (Matthew 5:48), Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:23), and by St. James (James 1:4) is propounded as the goal of Christian attainment; and as (2) sincere, clear and transparent in motive, single and undivided in aim, pure and unmixed in affection, without guile, without hypocrisy, without duplicity—a quality again exemplified by David (Psalms 26:1), Zacharias and Elisabeth (Luke 1:6), Nathanael (John 1:47), St. Paul (2 Corinthians 4:2), and enjoined by Christ as a perpetual obligation (Colossians 3:22; 1 Timothy 1:5). 2. Upright. Defining Job’s piety in its relation to the law of right, as that which was "straight," or without deviation (i.e. conscious; Ecclesiastes 7:20), in either thought or act flora the prescribed path of duty, and also distinguishing it from the "crooked ways" of the ungodly (Psalms 125:4, Psalms 125:5; Proverbs 2:15), against which saints are warned (Joshua 1:7; Proverbs 4:25, Proverbs 4:27), and which they strive to shun (Psalms 101:3; Hebrews 13:18). 3. God-fearing. Setting forth the aspect which Job’s piety maintained towards God—an outlook not of dark, slavish terror, but of bright filial reverence and holy awe. such solemn and profound veneration as a contemplation of the Divine character is fitted to inspire (Psalms 89:7; Psalms 99:3), as Abraham cherished (Genesis 22:12), as is inculcated upon Christians (Hebrews 12:28), and as lies at the foundation of all true greatness (Psalms 111:10; Job 28:28; Proverbs 1:7). 4. Sin-hating. Completing the portrait of the patriarch’s religious character by depicting the attitude in which it stood to moral evil, whether in himself or in the world around, which was not a position of indifference or neutrality, but of active and determined hostility—a necessary feature in the character of the good man as portrayed in Scripture (Psalms 34:14; Psalms 37:27; Proverbs 14:6; Ephesians 5:11; 1 John 3:3, 1 John 3:6). IV. THE ’S ESTATE. 1. Extensive. It comprised seven thousand sheep, bespeaking him an opulent flockmaster; three thousand camels, implying that he acted as a princely merchant; five hundred yoke of oxen, pointing to a large farm; and five hundred she-asses, which were highly prized for their milk; while along with these it embraced "a very great household," or a multitude of servants, such as ploughmen, shepherds, camel-drivers, besides guards, overseers, traffickers, and scribes; from which it is certain that the patriarch could not have been an idler—thus showing that piety is not incompatible with great business activity, or the ordinary occupations of life necessarily detrimental to the culture of the soul (Romans 12:11). 2. Valuable. The different items of the above catalogue clearly show that Job was rich, material wealth being in his case allied with spiritual treasure, thus proving that, though good men are not always rich, as unfortunately rich men are not always good, it is yet by no means impossible to be both; witness Abraham (Genesis 13:2), IsaActs (Genesis 26:13, Genesis 26:14), Jacob (Genesis 32:10), Joseph of Arimathaea (Matthew 27:57). 3. Removable. As the event showed, and as is the case with the estate of every man, great or small, upon the earth (James 1:10, James 1:11; 1 John 2:17). V. THE ’S FAMILY. 1. Numerous. Under the Old Testament economy a large family was promised as a special recompense to the pious (Psalms 113:9; Psalms 127:4, Psalms 127:5; Psalms 128:1-4), and though an abundant offspring is not now a sign of grace or an evidence of religion, yet children are among the most precious of Heaven’s gifts, and happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. 2. Happy. Whether the entertainments they gave were birthday commemorations, or periodically returning religious festivals, or weekly banquets, they obviously formed a cheery and genial household. Innocent festivity is neither unbecoming nor irreligious, since it is not true that "man was made to mourn" (Burns), while it is true that God’s people are commanded to rejoice evermore (Ecclesiastes 9:7; Psalms 100:1; Philippians 4:4). 3. Loving. If Job’s family were mirthful, they were likewise harmonious and united. Few spectacles on earth are more beautiful than families whose members are endeared to one another by reciprocal affection (Psalms 133:1); and yet good men have often seen their households torn by unseemly strife; e.g. Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David. VI. THE ’S . 1. Reasonable. Gaiety and merry-making, while innocent in themselves and sanctioned by religion, have a tendency to cause the heart to forget God. Those who frequent social banquets and indulge in the world’s delicacies are apt to become lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:4); e.g. Solomon, Dives, Demas. 2. Becoming. As a pious man, Job could scarcely fail to be concerned about the behaviour of so many young people, especially while attending a feast. As a father, he was doubly constrained to have respect to their spiritual and eternal welfare. Even more is it the duty of a parent to train up his sons and daughters in the nurture and admonition of the Lord than to provide for their education and settlement in life (Ephesians 6:4). 3. Earnest. The father who could be at such pains and expense about the religious education of his children as Job appears to have heel was clearly in earnest, and might profitably be taken as a pattern by Christian parents. Contrast the parental negligence of Eli (1 Samuel 2:29). 4. Habitual. As Job’s zeal was prompt, so likewise was it constant. The godly practice of Divine worship was maintained with unwearied regularity, week after week, or at least upon the close of every festive occasion. As a parent’s responsibility for his children does not terminate with their childhood, so neither should his endeavours to promote their welfare cease with their arriving at the stage of manhood and womanhood. Learn: 1. God may have children outside the pale of the Church visible. 2. Prosperity and piety, though not commonly conjoined, are by no means incompatible. 3. God’s people should aim at the possession of a piety which is "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." 4. Good men’s families should themselves be good. 5. Pious parents should train their children in the fear of God and in the observance of his precepts. Job 1:1-5 Job. I. AN PRINCE. II. A WEALTHY MAN. III. AN EMINENT SAINT. IV. A GODLY PARENT. V. A PRIEST. Job 1:3 Wealth and piety. I. THEIR COMMON . 1. God’s gifts; and therefore to be received with thankfulness. 2. Man’s ornaments; and therefore to be borne humbly. 3. A Christian’s talents; and therefore to be used with fidelity. II. THEIR . 1. Wealth and piety are not necessarily incompatible. 2. Wealth and piety are often mutually destructive. 3. Wealth and piety may prove reciprocally helpful III. THEIR . 1. Piety may be obtained by all; wealth can be secured only by a few. 2. Piety is useful to all; wealth is injurious to some. 3. Piety will abide with all; wealth can remain with none. LESSONS. 1. They that have piety can do without wealth. 2. They that have wealth cannot do without piety. Job 1:4 Banqueting. I. AN ANCIENT CUSTOM. II. A . III. A NATURAL ACTION. IV. A . Job 1:5 Family worship. I. SHOULD PRECEDE THE OF THE DAY. Job rose up early in the morning. II. SHOULD BE IN THE . Job gathered all his sons to his devotions. III. SHOULD BE AFTER DUE . Job sanctified his sons by the customary ablutions. IV. SHOULD BE BY FAITH IN THE ATONING . Job offered up burnt offerings. V. SHOULD BE BY LIBERAL . Job presented victims to the number of them all. VI. SHOULD BE MARKED BY AND . Job interceded for his children. VII. SHOULD BE WITH . Job did so continually. Learn: (1) The duty, (2) the propriety, (3) the need, and (4) the value, of family worship. Job 1:6-12 The fundamental controversy of the poem. I. THE OF THE . The presence of Satan among the sons of God. 1. The celestial assembly. (1) The beings composing it. Sons of God, i.e. angels (vide Job 38:7 and cf. Psalms 29:1), here styled "sons of Elohim," to indicate their nature, as deriving their existence from God (cf. Luke 3:38); their dignity, as enjoying an exalted rank in the scale of being (cf. Daniel 3:25); and their office, as serving in the capacity of ministers to the Supreme (cf. Psalms 82:6). (2) The purpose of their gathering. "To present themselves before the Lord;" not to assist in the deliberations of the Infinite Mind Isaiah 40:13, Isaiah 40:14; Romans 11:34), but as ambassadors returning from their respective circuits to render account of their ministrations and to receive commissions for future execution. Even so must all God’s intelligent creatures upon earth appear before the dread tribunal of the skies (2 Corinthians 5:10), and every one give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:12). 2. The unexpected visitor. (1) The import of his name. "Satan;’ the adversary, the calumniator, the accuser; not the evil genius of the later theology of the Jews, but the dark, sullen spirit of Divine revelation, who headed the revolt in heaven against the authority of God (Revelation 12:7-9), seduced our first parents into sin (Genesis 3:1-6; Genesis 2:1-25 Genesis 11:3), tempted Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:1), warred against him throughout his entire career on earth (Matthew 13:39; Luke 10:18; John 12:31), now ruleth in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), and fights against the children of light (Ephesians 6:11-16). (2) The nature of his occupation. "Going to and fro through the earth, and walking up and down in it;" which points out his dominion—this lower world, i.e. conceived as alienated from God, and involved in moral and spiritual darkness (Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 5:19; Revelation 16:10); his activity,—though at present, in some cases, reserved in chains (Jud Romans 1:6), he is still permitted a large amount of liberty (1 Peter 5:8); his diligence,—he never intermits his business, but ever prosecutes his infernal errands, going to and fro, and walking up and down; his unrest, having, as afterwards Gain, fallen under a ban of wandering, which has doomed him to be always seeking rest, but finding none (Matthew 12:45), as ever since his children have been like the troubled sea which cannot rest (Isaiah 57:20, Isaiah 57:21). (3) The object of his coming. If to present himself before the Lord with the other sons of God (Job 2:1), i.e. to report concerning his wicked machinations, his appearance, we may rest assured, was wholly involuntary and compulsory, which may remind us that Satan, no less than other creatures, is subject to Divine authority; that Satan’s proceedings in the world are under the perpetual surveillance of the Almighty; and that Satan can neither travel further nor work longer than he receives express commission front Jehovah to do. But it is probable that the underlying motive of Satan’s intruding upon Heaven’s assembly was not to render an account of any mission with which he had been entrusted, but to prosecute his diabolic work of calumniating God’s children who were yet on earth (cf. Revelation 12:10; Zechariah 3:1). II. THE PARTIES TO THE . Jehovah and Satan. 1. Jehovah. (1) The self-existent and all-sufficient Deity (Exodus 3:14). (2) The Lord of angels (Job 4:18). (3) The Fear of saints (Genesis 31:42; Job 1:1). (4) The Governor of the universe (Job 9:12; Job 34:13; Job 36:23; Job 41:11). 2. Satan. (1) The creature of God. (2) The impersonation of evil. (3) The adversary of Christ. (4) The accuser of the brethren. III. THE SUBJECT OF THE . The disinterested character of piety or religion. 1. The Divine challenge. "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth?" The language of: (1) Divine condescension, is not only noticing a creature, but stooping to converse with an adversary, yea, with a devil (Psalms 113:6). (2) Divine observation, in particularizing Job by name, and dilating on his character, which demonstrates that God’s knowledge of his people extends to such minute details as the names they bear, the professions they make, the characters they possess (Exodus 33:12; Isaiah 49:1; John 10:3). (3) Divine admiration, in so commending Job’s piety as to show that he took a holy pride in his servant’s worth, as he ever does (Zephaniah 3:17). (4) Divine affection, in so speaking of the patriarch as to evince that he was a special object of Divine regard, calling him "my servant," as Christ afterwards styled his followers "my friends" (John 15:14). (5) And Divine protection, the question instinctively suggesting Jehovah’s jealous care of his servant (Zechariah 2:8). 2. The Satanic answer. "Doth Job fear God for nought?" etc. Containing: (1) A reluctant admission—that Job did fear God, and that, in respect of outward appearance at least of religion, he had attained to incomparable eminence. Saints should aim to possess a piety so conspicuous that, however aspersed, it cannot be contradicted, even by the devil. (2) A base insinuation—that the piety of the patriarch proceeded from purely mercenary motives. See the malignity of Satan in attempting to depreciate what he finds it impossible to deny—an art in which Satan’s servants are generally adepts. (3) A momentous implication—the higher question of the efficacy of the plan of redemption and the sufficiency of Divine grace being practically involved in the standing or falling of Job, whose sincerity was impeached. In the devil’s sermons there is always more than meets the ear (cf. Genesis 3:5). (4) An audacious proposition—that God should bring the question in debate to an issue by experiments on the patriarch, as if God had doubts concerning the integrity of his servant, or as if, although he had, he was likely to subject that servant to the ordeal of suffering in order to please the devil! Verily there are no limits to the impudence of Satan! (5) A rash prediction—that Job would forthwith, on the application of the touchstone of adversity, rebound to the opposite extreme and "curse God to his face," which he did not, showing that Satan’s prophecies, like his promises, generally turn out lies. IV. THE OF THE . By the trial of the patriarch. 1. The Divine permission. "Behold, all that he hath is in thy power." A permission (1) truly amazing when we consider by whom, to whom, and concerning whom it was given, how far it reached, and for what purpose it was designed; yet (2) perfectly justifiable, since Job’s possessions were more Jehovah’s than the patriarch’s (Psalms 24:1; Psalms 50:10-12; Exodus 19:5; Haggai 2:18; Ezekiel 18:4), as the patriarch afterwards recognized (Job 1:21), and might be disposed of as God pleased without the charge being incurred of doing wrong to his creature; and (3) absolutely necessary, if the trial was to be so conducted that no loophole should remain for the least suspicion of its thoroughness and impartiality; though at the same time (4) mercifully limited, only the patriarch’s possessions being put into the adversary’s power, and not his person as in the second trial (Job 2:7), God never suffering his people to be tried above that which they are able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), or more than is necessary. 2. The Divine limitation. "Only upon himself put not forth thine hand;" which reminds us (1) that Satan has no power against a saint further than God permits (John 19:11); (2) that God can set a bar to the malignity of Satan, as well as to the waves of the sea (Job 38:11) and the rage of man (Psalms 76:10); (3) that God can east a shield around the persons of his people in the day of their calamity (Job 22:25; Psalms 91:1-7); and (4) that God frequently protects his people against Satan’s assaults when they are not aware. Learn: 1. That if Satan can find his way into the assemblies of God’s sons in heaven, it need hardly surprise one to detect him amongst the congregations of God’s children on earth. 2. That if so eminent a saint as Job did not escape impeachment by the devil, it will not be wonderful if lesser saints should be accused. 3. That if God permitted a Job to be put into the devil’s power, as Christ allowed a Peter to be cast into Satan’s sieve, it may almost be expected that ordinary Christians will also be subjected to trial. 4. That if God set a limit to Satan’s power in dealing with his servant Job, he will not accord unlimited authority to the adversary when he comes to try those who are less able to withstand his assaults. 5. And that if Job was sustained when passing through the fiery ordeal, so will all who like Job are sincere in heart be upheld in the day of their calamity. Job 1:7 A sermon on Satan. I. THE OF SATAN’S PERSON. The question implies: 1. The existence and personality of the spirit of evil. 2. His angelic nature. 3. His incessant activity. 4. His unwearied vigilance. 5. The restlessness of his wicked heart. II. THE SPHERE OF SATAN’S ACTION. 1. Generally, the earth as opposed to heaven. 2. Particularly, (1) the human heart; (2) the human family; (3) the Christian Church; (4) the heathen world. III. THE MODE OF SATAN’S WORKING. 1. By temptation. 2. By accusation. Learn: 1. The necessity of watchfulness. 2. The value of prayer. 3. The importance of putting on the Christian armour. 4. The advantage of Christian work. Job 1:9 Doth Job fear God for nought? I. YES! God’s servants are not hypocrites. 1. Those who serve God from mercenary motives do not truly serve him at all (Isaiah 1:13). 2. Those who serve God sincerely adhere to him when all creature-comforts are withdrawn (Habakkuk 3:17). II. No I God’s servants do not go unrewarded. Like Job, they are honoured with: 1. Divine attention (Psalms 33:18). 2. Divine approbation (Psalms 147:11). 3. Divine provision (Psalms 34:9; Psalms 111:5). 4. Divine protection (Psalms 85:9); cf. the Old Testament saints in the times of Mal 3:16. Job 1:13-22 The first trial of the patriarch. I. THE FOR THE TRIAL. The patriarch at the height of his prosperity. The season pitched upon for making an assault upon the patriarch was a day of: 1. Festive rejoicing; when the patriarch’s family were convened at a banquet of unusual magnificence, "eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house;" such a sumptuous entertainment doubtless as became the firstborn to provide. 2. Busy industry; when the whole household of the patriarch was astir with unwonted activity: the ploughmen driving furrows through the soil with the assistance of the patient oxen, while the she-asses cropped the pastures in their vicinity; the shepherds tending the vast droves of sheep which spread themselves across the plain; and the camel-drivers going and returning with their caravans of costly merchandise. 3. Unmingled happiness; in which the patriarch, it may well be imagined, surveying his earthly lot, observing the loving unity and innocent gladness of his children, and beholding the fidelity and diligence of his servants, realized that his cup of terrestrial felicity was full and even overflowing. 4. Fancied security; in which not a cloud appeared in all the wide and clear horizon; not a shadow dimmed the brightness of the sky, not a speck of trouble anywhere could be detected to excite the patriarch’s alarm. It was such a day as seldom falls to the lot of God’s people on earth to enjoy; and the selection of that day above all others for casting down the patriarch from the pinnacle of his greatness and the summit of his felicity was doubtless craftily designed that the very loftiness of the patriarch’s elevation might intensify the depth and severity of his fall. II. THE OF THE TRIAL. The patriarch’s prosperity overthrown. 1. The swiftly completed ruin. (1) Sudden in its coming; the citadel of Job’s integrity being more likely to be carried by a coup de main than by a leisurely and deliberate attack, inasmuch as to be forewarned is also to be forearmed, and dangers that men see they can usually adopt measures to avert. (2) Universal in its sweep; the devil falling not a step behind, if he could not advance a step beyond, the Divine permission, with one terrible avalanche of disaster descending on the fair scene of the patriarch’s prosperity, and leaving not a spot unvisited by his devouring rage. (3) Pitiless in its devastation; exempting only four domestics (not sons! which might have been a mitigation; but the devil’s mercies are generally cruel), consigning all the rest to one overwhelming, remorseless destruction. (4) Cunning in its contrivance; being effected not directly and immediately by the devil himself, but by natural agencies—Sabeans and Chaldeans, lightnings and hurricanes—so that it might appear to be the work of God’s ordinary providence, and be ascribed by the stricken man to the Deity whom he served and adored. 2. The skilfully arranged report. (1) Messenger following upon messenger, like Ahimaaz speeding after Cushi (2 Samuel 18:22), so that the full tale of misfortunes might not be declared at once, but with exquisite torture protracted to the utmost. (2) Calamity heaped upon calamity; not a single messenger arriving with happy tidings, but each one with a heavier burden than his predecessor. (3) Stroke descending upon stroke; not one speaker having the grace, like Ahimaaz when reporting Absalom’s death to David, to mitigate the blow to the old man; but, like Cushi, each one with excruciating minuteness of detail dwelling on his tale of misery, and with something like selfish satisfaction emphasizing the fact of his own escape to be the bearer of the appalling news, not perceiving that that might only be an aggravation of the patriarch’s distress; and with no interruption in the awful torrent of adversity, not so much as a moment to breathe in, but on and on in one incessant stream: "While he was yet speaking;" and, "While he was yet speaking;" and, "While he was yet speaking." Clearly if Satan’s craft was conspicuous in his preparation for the trial, it was equally apparent is his management of the same. III. THE ISSUE OF THE TRIAL. The patriarch’s reception of the news. 1. With penitential sorrow; expressed in the symbolic actions of rending his garments (cf. Genesis 37:34; Joshua 7:6; 2 Samuel 1:11; 2 Samuel 3:31) and shaving his head (cf. Isaiah 15:2; Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 7:29; Jeremiah 41:5; Micah 1:16); the first revealing the vehemence and intensity of the patriarch’s emotion, and the second pointing to its calmness and moderation. 2. With pious resignation. Acknowledging: (1) His originally destitute condition: "Naked came I out of my mother’s womb;" so that his calamities had only set him where he was at first—an argument for contentment (1 Timothy 6:7). (2) His prospective departure from the world: "Naked shall I return thither;" so that after all he had but experienced a little earlier what was certain to befall him in the end (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:15; Ecclesiastes 12:7; and ’Measure for Measure,’ Acts 3. sc. 2)—an argument for submission. (3) His entire dependence upon God for all the blessings of his earthly lot: "The Lord gave;" so that he himself could claim no absolute ownership in anything he had lost (1 Corinthians 4:7; James 1:17)—an argument for acquiescence. (4) His devout recognition of the hand of God in his afflictions and losses: "The Lord hath taken away;" so that not only had he laid his hand upon him who had perfect right to do so, but in removing his possessions and children he had merely taken what was first his own—a fourth argument for resignation. 3. With lowly adoration. Falling on the ground and worshipping; thus giving the lie to Satan’s calumny by retaining his steadfastness and maintaining his integrity; not cursing God to his face, but solemnly, reverently, and devoutly adding, "Blessed be the Name of Jehovah!" IV. THE VERDICT ON THE TRIAL. The complete vindication of the patriarch. His triumphant passage through the appalling ordeal is: 1. Commended by God. The statement of the historian we must regard as but the transcript of the Divine judgment upon the trial: "In all this Job sinned not, neither charged God foolishly." 2. Admitted by Satan. This appears from Job 2:4, where, though the devil is prepared with an explanation of the cause, he is yet constrained to admit the fact of Job’s steadfast allegiance to Jehovah throughout his first onslaught. 3. Recorded by the historian. So that wherever this ancient poem finds a reader there shall the courage and fidelity of the stricken patriarch be known and admired. Learn: 1. That if God has his times and seasons, and Christ has his hours, and man his opportunities for working, so also the devil has his days for his Satanic movements. 2. That the devil’s assaults upon human virtue and Christian fidelity are always characterized by consummate wisdom as regards both the times and the instruments as well as the methods of attack. 3. That the power of Satan to injure man is well-nigh unlimited, at least when God permits. 4. That the most prosperous estate of man may, in a moment, be converted into the profoundest misery, as the brightest day may be followed by the darkest night. 5. That calamities seldom fall upon God’s people singly and alone, are apt to be misconstrued as to their origin and design, but should never fail to lead the heart closer to God. 6. That God’s people should in times of adversity remember their origin and prepare for their end. 7. That, whether suffering or rejoicing, saints should imitate the piety of Job, recognize God’s hand in everything, and "in everything give thanks." BY E. JOHNSON Introductory On the general teaching of the book. For all earnest readers; for all who can think seriously, feel deeply; all who have in their own persons loved and lost; who have known life in its brightest and its darkest moods; all, again, who have that fine gift of sympathy which makes the pain and woe of humanity their own;—this book has a most powerful attraction, a profound charm. Here we have suffering through all the scale of human being; suffering tuned to music most plaintive, which strikes some response from the chords of every human heart. Here, too, we have reflection upon suffering, intense thought bent without fear and without reserve upon the great questions of Life. Who has not, in some weary, desponding hour, at some time or other, sighed forth, "What is the meaning of it all?" It is a question which seems to answer itself joyously, or rather to require no asking, in the brighter days of life. Nature and the heart of man smile upon one another with the reflection of the gladness of the Creative Mind when he saw that all his works were very good. But in many a midnight hour of mental darkness the question that we thought answered and set at rest forces its presence upon us, and demands an answer of our reason. And Reason," from wave to wave of fancied misery driven," loses her bearings; ignorant of the latitude, she knows not whither to steer for a port. This is the mood of Job. And relief comes at length, in an unexpected way, from the Source whence alone it can come. We are taught the great lesson of suffering—to wait and to hope. He who tarries in patience until he beholds the "end of the Lord" shall find an abundant reward of his faith and constancy. I. THE ENIGMAS OF LIFE. Pain, loss, disease, exchanged for pleasure, gain, health, and riches. Man cannot understand this process. And he cannot willingly submit to what he does not understand. 1. He has an instinct for happiness, which he cannot deny without denying himself. He and all nature, he feels, and truly feels, were constructed for happiness. He is bound to work for this end, both in himself and others. The Creator (he is thus naturally taught to reason) must be a happy and happiness-loving Being, ever blessed, ever blessing. Thus, when a rebuff is given to these powerful and clear instincts, and their truth is suddenly extinguished, as it were, in the man’s own bosom; when all the springs of natural joy are in a moment dried up like the summer torrent of the East;—what wonder that he should complain? Is he the victim of some radical deception? Are all his thoughts illusions? Whence came those instincts for happiness, which one . 3. But Job, on the other hand, dares, with all the independence of the just thinker, of the man who cannot be untrue to the clearest light of his self-consciousness, to deny the application of this judgment to his case. He denies that his present sufferings point back to previous sins. Whatever be the solution of the problem, that, he knows, cannot be the true one. No deluge of religious commonplace shall move him from his fixed position, his conscious integrity of soul. No agony can wring from him an echo to the shallow cant of men who prate about suffering without really having suffered. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 2:1-13 This chapter concludes the "Introductory section." It consists of three parts. Job 2:1-6 contain an account of Satan’s second appearance in the courts of heaven, and of a second colloquy between him and the Almighty. Job 2:7-10 contain the sequel to this colloquy, viz. Satan’s further affliction of Job, and his conduct under it. Verses 11-13 contain an account of the arrival of Job’s three special friends to mourn with him and to comfort him; and of their behavior during the first seven days after their arrival Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God same to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. There is no "again" in the original. The words used are an exact repetition of those contained in Job 2:6 of Job 1:1-22. But they mark, no doubt, a second occasion on which the angelic host came to present themselves before the throne of God, and Satan came with them. To present himself before the Lord. These words are additional to those used in the former passage. We may gather from them, that, whereas on the former occasion Satan came only to observe, and with no intention of drawing God’s special attention to himself, he now had such intention, and looked forward to a colloquy. He anticipated, doubtless, that the circumstances of Job’s probation would be referred to, and he had prepared himself to make answer. Job 2:2 And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it (see the comment on Job 1:7, of which this is an almost exact repetition). Job 2:3 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou conquered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Thus far is identical with Job 1:1 (quod vide). The rest of the verse is additional, having reference to the conduct of Job under his earlier trials (Job 1:20-22). And still he holdeth fast his integrity. This has been justly called "the key-note of the whole book" (Cook). Satan had declared that Job’s integrity rested on no solid basis, and would easily be overthrown and disappear. God, confident in his servant’s faithfulness and truth, had allowed him to assail it. What was the result? God declares it with his own mouth. Job’s "integrity" had not been wrested from him; he still maintained it (Job 1:21, Job 1:22), as he was about to do till the end (Job 42:1-6). Compare the ideal "just man" of Horace— "Justum et tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranny Menta quatit solida, neque Anster, Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae …. Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae." (’Od.,’ 3.3.) Although thou movedst me against him (see Job 1:9-11), to destroy him; literally, to swallow him up; i.e. to ruin him, overwhelm him with calamities. Without cause; i.e. "when he had done nothing to deserve such treatment." Job 2:4 And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin. No doubt a proverbial expression, resembling "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth; Tit for tat," and the like; but not expressive of retaliation. Satan means that, to keep his own "skin" intact, a man will sacrifice another’s "skin;" even that of his nearest and dearest. Job, he insinuates, submitted to the loss of his children without a murmur, because he feared that otherwise God would stretch forth his hand against his person, and smite it or destroy it. He cannot imagine any motive for submission and apparent resignation but a selfish one (comp. Job 1:9). Yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life; i.e. "a man will submit to the loss, not only of all his possessions, but even of those whom he loves best, to save his own life—he will do anything for that." So the "false accuser." All the numerous acts of self-sacrifice which human history presents, and has presented from the first, are ignored. Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; i.e. "his person"—any part of his body. And he will curse thee to thy face (see the comment on Job 11:11). Job 2:6 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold he is in thine hand; i.e. "he is in thy power, to do with him as thou pleasest"—except in one respect. Again it is strongly marked that Satan’s power is under God’s control, and extends only so far as God shows. But save his life; rather, only spare his life (Revised Version). The didactic purposes for which God was allowing his faithful servant to be tried in the furnace of affliction would have been frustrated by Job’s removal from the earth. Individually he might equally well have been compensated in another world; but then the lesson of his example to living men, and the lesson of his story to all future generations of mankind, would have been lost. Besides, God but rarely, in the old world, gave a faithful servant, still in the full vigour of life (Job 42:16, Job 42:17), "over unto death" (Psalms 118:18). Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord (comp. Job 1:12, ad fin.). Satan, we may be sure, is always anxious to quit the immediate presence of God; for "what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14). But now he had a special motive for haste in his anxiety to put Job to the test. Doubtless he was confident that he would triumph. And smote Job with sore boils. "With a malignant inflammation" (Lee). It has been generally concluded, from the scattered notices of his malady contained in the Book of Job (especially Job 7:4, Job 7:5; Job 17:1; Job 19:17-20; and Job 30:17-19), that the disease with which Satan "smote Job’ was elephantiasis—sometimes called Elephantiasis Arabum—a marked and strongly developed form of leprosy (Rosenmuller, Michaelis, Professor Lee, Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes etc.). Elephantiasis is thus popularly described by Canon Cook, in the ’Speaker’s Commentary,’ vol. 4. p. 26; "An intense heat, a burning and ulcerous swelling, or leprosy in its most terrific form, taking its name from the appearance of the body, which is covered with a knotty, cancerous bark like the hide of an elephant; the whole frame is in a state of progressive dissolution, ending slowly but surely in death." A modern scientific work gives the following more exact, but more technical, account of the disease: "A non-contagious disease characterized by recurrence of febrile paroxysms, attended by inflammation, and progressive hypertrophy of the integument and areolar tissue, chiefly of the extremities and genital organs; and occasionally by swelling of the lymphatic glands, enlargement and dilatation of the lymphatics, and in some cases by the coexistence of chyluria, and the presence in the blood of certain nematode haematozoa, together with various symptoms of a morbid or depraved state of nutrition". The disease is not now regarded as incurable, though, without an entire change of scone and climate, it is regarded as very seldom cured. From the solo of his foot unto his crown. Elephantiasis is generally local, attacking some part of the body, as, especially, the extremities or the genital organs. But in the worst forms, the entire body suffers. Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal. "The surface of the integuments," says Dr. Quain, "is often much inflamed, and sometimes discharges a serous ichor, or chyle-like fluid, according to the extent to which the lymphatics are engaged in the particular ease". This "serous or lymph-like fluid" is occasionally "acrid and offensive." Job seems to have used his potsherd to scrape it away. And he sat down among the ashes. Not as a curative process, or even as an alleviation of his pains, but simply as was the custom of mourners (comp. Isaiah 47:3; Isaiah 58:5; Jeremiah 6:26; Ezekiel 27:30; Jonah 3:6). The LXX. renders, "on the dung-heap;" but this meaning, if a possible one, is highly improbable. Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Job’s wife had said nothing when the other calamities had taken place—then she had "refrained her tongue, and kept silence," though probably with some difficulty. Now she can endure no longer. To see her husband so afflicted, and so patient under his afflictions, is more than she can bear. Her mind is weak and ill regulated, and she suffers herself to become Satan’s ally and her husband’s worst enemy. It is noticeable that she urges her husband to do exactly that which Satan had suggested that he would do (Job 1:11; Job 2:5), and had evidently wished him to do, thus fighting on his side, and increasing her husband’s difficulties The only other mention of her (Job 19:17) implies that she was rather a hindrance than a help to Job. Curse God, and die; i.e. "renounce God, put all regard for him away from thee, even though he kill thee for so doing." Job’s wife implies that death is preferable to such a life as Job now leads and must expect to lead henceforward. Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh; rather, as one of the vile (or impious) women speaketh. Nabal, the term used, is expressive, not of mere natural folly, but of that perversion of the intellect which comes on men when their hearts and understandings are corrupted and degraded.. (see 2 Samuel 13:13; Psalms 14:1; Isaiah 32:6). What? shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? Job remembers all the good which he has received of God during his past life, all the blessings and prosperity bestowed on him (Job 1:2, Job 1:3), and asks—Would it be fair or right to take all the good things as a matter of course, and then to murmur if evil things are sent? He accepts both prosperity and affliction as coming from God, and expresses himself as willing to submit to his will. But he has, perhaps, scarcely attained to the conviction that whatever God sends to his faithful servants is always that which is best for them—that afflictions, in fact, are blessings in disguise, and ought to be received with gratitude, not with murmuring (comp. Hebrews 12:5-11). In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Thus far, that is, Job "kept the door of his mouth" strictly, righteously, piously. Later on he was not always so entirely free from fault. Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him. It is not to be supposed that Job had no more than three friends—indeed, Elihu the Buzzite appears later on as one of his friends (Job 32:2-6)—but he had three contemporaries with whom he was especially intimate, old men (Job 32:6), with whom he was probably accustomed to confer from time to time, and who were in the habit of giving him their advice. All three, apparently, lived at a distance; and it seems to have been some weeks before the news of his misfortunes reached them. When the news came they held communication one with another, and agreed to pay him visits of condolence at a certain definite time, which was determined upon between them. Some months—at least two—seem to have elapsed between the date of Job’s latest affliction and the time of their arrival (Job 7:3). They came every one from his own place. They had separate homes, and probably lived at some considerable distance from one another. Eliphaz the Temanite. There was an Eliphaz, the son of Esau by his wife Adah, who had a son Teman (Genesis 36:4; 1 Chronicles 1:35, 1 Chronicles 1:36); but it is not supposed that this can be the person here intended. The name Teman did not become geographical until the descendants of this Eliphaz’s son had multiplied into a tribe, when they gave name to the portion of Arabia which they inhabited. This tract seems to have been either a part of Edom, or in its immediate vicinity (Genesis 36:42, Genesis 36:43; Jeremiah 49:7, Jeremiah 49:8, Jeremiah 49:20; Ezekiel 25:15; Obadiah 1:8, Obadiah 1:9), but cannot be located with accuracy. The Temanitee were celebrated for their wisdom, as we learn from Jeremiah, who says (Jeremiah 49:7), "Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?" Job’s friend was probably among their wisest men at the time; and his discourses certainly show a considerable knowledge of human nature. They do not, however, solve the riddle of the universe. And Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad is a name which does not occur elsewhere in Scripture, neither is there any other mention of Shuhites. Conjecture has identified the Shuhites with the Saccaei of Ptolemy (’Geograph.,’ 5.15), whom he places in the neighbourhood of Batanaea and Trachonitis. But the Saccaei are unheard of till Ptolemy’s time, and seem to be a tribe of very small importance. Perhaps Bildad belonged to the people known to the Assyrians as the Tsukhi, or Sukhi, who dwelt on the Middle Euphrates from about Anah to Hit. And Zophar the Naamathite. Zophar, or rather Tsophar, is another unknown name. There was a Naamah, a city, in south-western Judaea (Joshua 15:41), to which Zophar may have belonged, though probably a region, rather than a city, is here intended. For they had made an appointment together; or, agreed together, by message or letter probably. To come to mourn with him and to comfort him. A good intention, at any rate, and one agreeable to the apostolic injunction to us to "weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15). That they failed to carry out their intention (Job 16:2; Job 21:34) was owing to a want of judgment, and, perhaps, in part, to a want of love. Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not. Job was seated on an ash-heap outside his dwelling (verse 8). The three friends, who had probably met by agreement at some point near his residence, and drew nigh together, saw the figure at some distance, and looked to see who it was. But Job was so disfigured by the disease that they failed to recognize him. They lifted up their voice, and wept. In the clamorous manner of Orientals (comp. Herod; 2.14; 3.119; 8.99; 9.24; and AEschylus, ’Persae’’ passim). And they rent every one his mantle (see the comment on Job 1:20), and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven (comp. Joshua 7:6; 1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2; 2 Samuel 13:19; Nehemiah 9:1; Ezekiel 27:30; Lamentations 2:10; and see also Homer, ’I1.,’ 18.22-24; Helioder, ’ Hist. AEth.; 1.) Job 2:13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights. Professor Lee supposes that this is not to be taken literally. "It means" he says, "that they sat with him a considerable length of time before they opened the question discussed in this book, not that they sat precisely seven days and seven nights, and said not so much as one word to him". But the period of" seven days" was appropriate to mournings (Genesis 1:10; 2 Samuel 31:13; Ezekiel 3:15), and if they could stay with him one day and one night without speaking, why not seven? Food would be brought them, and they might sleep rolled up in their begeds. The long silence may be accounted for by the fact that "among the Jews," and among Orientals generally, "it is a point of decorum, and one dictated by a fine and true feeling, not to speak to a person in deep affliction until he gives an intimation of a desire to be comforted" (Cook). So long as Job kept silence they had to keep silence, at least so far as he was concerned. They might speak to any attendants who drew near, and they might speak one to another. Note the words which follow: And none spake a word unto him None spake to him; but no etiquette imposed complete silence on them. For they saw that his grief was very great. So great that he could not as yet bear to be spoken to. Job 2:1-6 A new trial moved for. I. THE OLD . 1. The gathering of the sons of God. The recurrence of this celestial scene reminds us of: (1) the immutable sovereignty of Jehovah, who, on this second occasion as on the first, still appears enthroned amidst the principalities and powers of heaven—the devils also being subject to him (cf. 1 Peter 3:22); (2) the permanence of moral obligation in the heavenly world and amongst angels as well as on the earth, neither lapse of time nor change of circumstances having the slightest effect in releasing God’s intelligent creatures from the bonds of responsibility; and (3) the constancy and cheerfulness with which the inhabitants of the upper world delight to do God’s holy will—an example of obedience proposed for the study and imitation of believers (Matthew 6:10). 2. The reappearance of the adversary. If, on the former occasion, the entrance of Satan amongst God’s celestial sons might permissibly be regarded as an impertinent intrusion, in the present instance his return must be held as having taken place in accordance with a tacit understanding that, in due course, he should appear to report the result of his experiment with the patriarch, which, perhaps, may explain the introduction of the words, "to present himself before the Lord," omitted from the account of the first assembly. II. THE OLD RESUMED. 1. The patriarch’s enemy interrogated. "From whence comest thou?" Note (1) God’s universal cognizance of things that transpire on earth (Job 28:10, Job 28:24; Job 34:22); (2) God’s perpetual surveillance of the devil in his movements; and (3) God’s constant watchfulness against his attacks (Revelation 3:10). 2. The patriarch’s piety commended. "Hast thou considered my servant Job?" (see homiletics on Job 1:1, Job 1:8). Whether or not containing "a covert sneer at the baffled adversary," the question reminds us of: (1) God’s faithfulness towards his people. Nothwithstanding all that had occurred, Job was still God’s servant, and God as ready to own him for his servant as when the patriarch was rejoicing in the fulness of prosperity (Isaiah 44:21; Isaiah 54:10). (2) God’s judgment concerning his people. God can always distinguish between a man and his surroundings. The Omniscient judges no one by his material environment, but by the character of his heart (1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Samuel 7:20; Psalms 7:9). (3) God’s affection for his people. As Job’s afflictions had not destroyed his piety, so neither had they alienated God’s love. Never in the day of calamity does Jehovah renounce his saints, but rather, because of tribulation, clings to them with fonder affection (1 Samuel 12:22; Psalms 91:15; Romans 11:2; 2 Timothy 2:19; Revelation 2:9). 3. The patriarch’s sincerity attested. (1) The Divine satisfaction with the patriarch. "He still holdeth fast his integrity." Constancy in piety is a rare jewel in the saint’s casket, lends a special lustre to his other virtues, is ever highly prized by its possessor, and never fails to elicit Heaven’s commendation. The Divine approbation also, besides being an ample recompense for all the saint’s trials (Romans 8:18), is the only sure test of genuine religion (2 Corinthians 10:18), the greatest honour a saint can receive (Matthew 10:32), and the final portion of those who hold fast their integrity to the end (Malachi 3:17; Revelation 3:5). (2) The Divine indignation against Satan. "Although thou movedst me to destroy him." See the widely differing estimates of trouble taken by God and Satan. What the devil called a touch God calls a swallowing up: that marks the tenderness or God’s heart. Note the different relations in which God and Satan stood to Job’s affliction—God acting, and the devil tempting; marking God’s sovereignty, but Satan’s responsibility. "God’s afflicting of his people is (so to say) a blowing of the bellows to kindle his displeasure against wicked instruments (Isaiah 47:5, Isaiah 47:6; Zechariah 1:15)" (Hutcheson). (3) The Divine sorrow about himself. "Thou movedst me … without cause." Indicating the reluctance with which God in any case proceeds against a saint (Lamentations 3:33), and the regret which he felt in this case, since he knew so well there was no sufficient reason for entertaining a suspicion against the patriarch’s piety. Let it teach us that "though all men have sins enough to be the meritorious cause, yet oftentimes sin is not the moving cause of their afflictions" (Caryl). III. THE OLD CALUMNY REVIVED. Job’s victory in the previous conflict is by the devil: 1. Tacitly admitted. Satan finds it impossible to repel the statements advanced by Jehovah concerning his servant. Saints should study to live so that their piety cannot be contradicted, however much it may be aspersed by Satan and wicked men, and that God, when he speaks in commendation of their integrity, may be justified. 2. Reasonably explained. On the ground that the trial was not severe enough. "Skin for skin," etc.—a proverb, which, however explained (see Exposition), practically charges the patriarch with unnatural barbarity in disregarding the loss of his children since his own skin was saved, as well as with intense and revolting selfishness in making the supreme consideration, in all his thoughts and calculations, the preservation of his own life. 3. Wholly undervalued. As in his (the devil’s) estimation, proving nothing and contributing nothing to the solution of the grand problem in debate. Hence he does not hesitate to suggest that the matter should a second time be submitted to the ordeal of trial. IV. THE OLD . "But put forth thine hand now;" which demand was certainly: 1. Presumptuous; considering by whom it was made, Satan, and to whom it was addressed, Jehovah; thus showing the illimitable pride of the devil (Isaiah 14:12, Isaiah 14:13, Isaiah 14:14). 2. Unnecessary; remembering the person against whom it was directed, and the issue of the preceding trial to which he had been subjected. 3. Cruel; seeing that Job had already been afflicted by the double stroke of bankruptcy and bereavement, and this was a request that God would aggravate his misery by laying his hand upon his person. But who would ever look for humane and tender feelings in a devil? 4. Malignant; when regard is had to its object and motive—the latter being hostility to God and hatred of piety; the former the overthrow of Job’s religion and the damnation of Job’s person. V. THE OLD RENEWED. "Behold, he is in thine hand." The patriarch was again delivered up into the power of the adversary. 1. Sovereignly; God having a perfect right to dispose of the persons of his people, no less than their properties. 2. Really; to be tried in whatever manner his Satanic ingenuity might devise, always, of course, within the prescribed limits. 3. Immediately; from this time forward being rendered accessible to the hostile assaults of the adversary. Yet: 4. Reservedly; with certain restrictions as to his life, which was not to be taken from him. And also, one cannot help thinking: 5. Confidently; without the slightest apprehension of an unfavourable issue to the trial, so high was the estimation in which God held his servant. Learn: 1. Concerning the devil. That he is seldom satisfied with only one attempt against the virtue of a saint; that he is exceedingly unwilling to admit himself defeated on the field of spiritual conflict; and that he ever plants his fiercest batteries against the citadel of a saint’s integrity. 2. Concerning the saint. That he need hardly anticipate a long period of exemption from either trials or temptations; that whatever calamities befall him, he should labour to discern God’s providential hand in their occurrence; and that he, may confidently trust God will not give him over completely to the devil. 3. Concerning God. That though he may suffer his saints to be tried, he does not cease to love them; that though he may lengthen Satan’s chain, he doesn’t loosen it; and that, though he may sometimes listen to Satan’s charges against the saints, he never believes them. Job 2:4 The value of life. I. MORE THAN . 1. In origin; being the breath of God’s Spirit, while they are only the work of God’s hand. 2. In nature; being conscious of its own existence, while they are only dead, insensate things. 3. In capacities; being possessed of intellect, reason, conscience, will, while they have only properties and qualities peculiar to matter. 4. In design; being intended for the conscious enjoyment of God, while they can never consciously enjoy, but only obediently and passively glorify, their Maker. II. LESS THAN . 1. In character; being a natural endowment, while these are essentially gifts of grace. 2. In usefulness; without these being a failure so far as realizing its appropriate end is concerned, whereas these enhance the dignity and capabilities of life. 3. In happiness; life with grace being immensely more enjoyable than mere existence without Job 2:4. In duration; life being doomed to decay and dissolution, while the riches of the soul endure for ever. LESSONS. 1. Prize life as a gift of God. 2. Adorn life with the grace of God. 3. Use life for the glory of God. 4. Return life (when it is called for) into the hands of God. Job 2:4 Satan’s proverb. I. THE IMPORT OF IT. That a man will part with everything about him to save his life. II. THE OF IT. 1. Men will part with all outward things to save life. 2. Some men will even part with a good conscience to save life. 3. But there are those who would rather die than renounce their integrity. Job 2:7-10 The patriarch’s second trial. I. THE TWOFOLD ASSAULT UPON THE . 1. The infliction of a loathsome disease. (1) Its author. Satan. That diseases generally come through violation of hygienic laws is matter of everyday observation and of special scientific affirmation. But that Job’s malady had a diabolic origin, as had also many of the physical ailments that prevailed in the East about the time of Christ, must be accepted on the ground of revelation. And as in Christ’s day Beelzebub was permitted to wield a larger influence than usual over men’s bodies, that the power of Christ in destroying the works of the devil might be the more conspicuously displayed, so the exceptional ability of Satan to produce bodily malady in Job’s case existed solely for a special purpose. It would therefore be contrary to good theology as well as sound science to ascribe the "ills that flesh is heir to" to diabolic rather than to natural causes. (2) Its nature. "Sore boils;" supposed, and with probability, to have been a malignant form of elephantiasis, a disorder having many of the characteristics of leprosy. From incidental allusions scattered throughout the poem, it appears to have been an exceedingly painful disease, accompanied in its early stages by severe bodily itching (Job 2:8; Job 9:17, Job 9:18), and attended in its progress with extreme debility, and utter prostration of mind as well as body, leading to disturbed slumbers, terrifying dreams, and even suicidal temptations (Job 6:4, Job 6:11, Job 6:14; Job 7:4, Job 7:13, Job 7:14). A quickly spreading disease, rapidly covering the body with pustules, or boils, sometimes from head to foot (Job 2:7; Job 7:5). A certainly corrupting disease, producing emaciation, and causing rottenness in the flesh and bones (Job 13:28; Job 16:8; Job 33:21). A truly loathsome disease, rendering the wretched sufferer an object of disgust even to his nearest relatives and friends (Job 19:13-19) and ultimately, though not immediately, a mortal disease (Job 16:22; Job 17:1; Job 30:23). (3) Its design. To try the patriarch (a) by wearing out his strength, and so rendering him more accessible to the entrance of diabolic temptations; (b) by making him an object of abhorrence to mankind, and so in a manner cutting him off from human sympathy; and (c) by leading him to regard his malady as a special visitation from Heaven, and so tempting him to entertain harsh thoughts of Jehovah. 2. The injection of a vehement temptation. (1) The time when it was made. Not at the beginning of his malady, but after it had somewhat developed, when his strength was impaired, his nerves were unstrung, and his mind was depressed, and when, no longer permitted to enter the dwellings of men, he sat himself down upon the mezbele, or ash-heap, outside his dwelling—an object of loathing and disgust to passers-by. (2) The person through whom it was directed. Not the devil himself, since then it would scarcely have acquired the force of a temptation; nor even a friend like Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar—counsellors who afterwards fared rather badly at Job’s hands; but she who of all on earth was his nearest and dearest-his wife, the bride of his youth, the mother of his noble sons and fair girls now dead, the companion of his joys and sorrows. Beyond question, it was politic to attack the patriarch through his wife; and probably for this reason she was spared—not because having her was a greater trial to the good man than losing her would have been, but because the devil wanted a tool against her husband (of. Adam’s temptation through Eve). (3) The counsel which was offered. "Bless God" (sc. for the last time; i.e. "renounce him"), "and die!" perhaps words of wifely sympathy wrung from her loving bosom by the cruel sufferings which had been heaped upon her husband; certainly words of passionate vehemence calculated to bear down the opposition of a sufferer growing every day feebler through incessant pain; and words of much plausibility, suggesting a thought which seemingly had much in its favour, that his sufferings were to be ascribed purely to his religion; but also words of essential wickedness, since not only was the thought they suggested untrue, but the advice itself was wrong. II. THE TWOFOLD VICTORY OF THE . 1. The inroad of physical disease he met with patient submission. "He took a potsherd and scraped himself withal." Indulging in no complaints against Providence for afflicting him, and, when the malady had so far developed that his presence became offensive to his friends and neighbours, quietly retiring to the ash-heap. Admirable meekness! Exquisite patience! Incomparable submission! "In all this Job sinned not with his lips." 2. The entrance of wifely temptation he encountered with: (1) Deserved rebuke. "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh." Language distinctly bearing that the popular estimate of Job’s wife, which makes her to have been a sort of Oriental shrew, is incorrect, implying as it does that the patriarch was surprised to hear her talk so much out of character, not like a saint and the wife of a saint as she was, but like one of the foolish or ungodly women. Carried away by the tumultuousness of her womanly feeling, in a moment of passionate thoughtlessness she had lost her self-control, and given utterance to desperate words, which were such as to call for censure; and the faithful husband, much as he loved his wife, and laden as he was himself with misery, did not shrink from administering the needful admonition. (2) Lofty resignation. "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?" The voice, not of stoical indifference, or of heartless despair, or of cold, callous, reluctant acquiescence in a fate which cannot be escaped, but of intelligent and cheerful submission to a providence which he recognizes to be at once righteous and good. "In all this Job sinned not with his lips." Learn: 1. That God’s saints in this world have sometimes to endure trial upon trial 2. That periods of protracted suffering are spiritually more dangerous than sharp and sudden strokes of greater severity. 3. That the fiercest trials often arise at unexpected moments, and from least anticipated quarters. 4. That the most painful temptation a good man can experience is the temptation to renounce his religion. 5. That Satan’s mercies (e.g. in sparing Job’s wife) have always somewhat of cruelty in them. 6. That the greatest outward blessings may sometimes prove a snare—Job’s wife, and Adam’s. 7. That it is perilous for good men or women to give way to passion. 8. That in times of violent emotion a strong guard should be set upon the door of the lips. 9. That good people may sometimes give very bad advice. 10. That the devil’s prime aim in tempting men is to make them renounce God, and die. 11. That God’s people should on no account let go their integrity. 12. That those who have been recipients of God’s mercies should not repine when for their good he changes the dispensation. Job 2:9, Job 2:10 Job and his wife. I. A FOOLISH WOMAN. II. A HUSBAND. III. A SAINT. IV. A . Job 2:9, Job 2:10 Four voices. I. THE VOICE OF FOLLY. "Curse God, and die." II. THE VOICE OF REBUKE. "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh." III. THE VOICE OF . "We receive good at the hand of the Lord." IV. THE VOICE OF . "Shall we not receive evil?" Job 2:9, Job 2:10 (along with Genesis 3:1-6). Job and Adam: a parallel and a contrast. I. A . 1. Both were tempted. 2. By Satan. 3. Through their wives. 4. To renounce their allegiance to God. II. A . 1. In the times of their temptation. Adam when at the summit of felicity; Job when in the depth of misery. 2. In the modes of their temptation. Adam, assailed by the thought that God had unjustly deprived him of good; Job, by the suggestion that God had unrighteously afflicted him with evil. 3. In the results of their temptation. Adam fell; Job stood. See (1) in Adam the representative of all men; and (2) in Job the foreshadowing of the God-Man. Job 2:11-13 The patriarch’s third trial; or the coming of the friends. I. THE NAMES THEY BORE. 1. Eliphaz the Temanite. Probably a descendant of Teman, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau by his wife Adah (Genesis 36:10, Genesis 36:11; 1 Chronicles 1:35, 1 Chronicles 1:36); belonging to the race of Teman, which extended over a considerable portion of Arabia, about midway between Palestine and the Euphrates; very likely the oldest of the three friends. 2. Bildad the Shuhite. Perhaps sprung from Shush, the youngest son of Abraham by Keturah (Genesis 25:2), and residing in a district of Arabia, not far from the Temanite country; may be reasonably supposed the second oldest of the friends. 3. Zophar the Naamathite. Otherwise unknown except through this book; though, from his acquaintance with Bildad, Eliphaz, and Job, it may be inferred he also was a person of distinction. Probably all three were, like the patriarch in his prosperity, powerful Arabian sheiks. II. THE THEY . 1. Points of agreement. (1) Intellectual ability. Without alleging that air three stood upon the same platform in respect of mental calibre (which they did not, Eliphaz holding unmistakably the preeminence), it is apparent that they all were thinkers of no mean capacity. It is a special ornament to men in high social position to be possessed of corresponding mental faculties; besides immensely adding to their personal enjoyment and public usefulness (cf. Ecclesiastes 10:16). (2) Religious principle. Unquestionably good men, who not only revered Jehovah, but practised the Divine will so far as they understood it. They were likewise sincerely desirous of promoting Job’s highest welfare, while they unfeignedly sympathized with him in his appalling trouble. If we cannot quite adopt their speculative and religious formulas, any more than we can commend their wisdom or kindness in lecturing the patriarch as they did; on the other hand, it is due to them not to estimate their characters from the gall and wormwood outpoured on their devoted heads by Job, when stung to madness through their reproaches. (3) Mistaken views. All three were equally astray in the fundamental doctrine they propounded in the course of their debate with the patriarch, viz. that suffering was so indissolubly associated with sin that the one was the measure of the other—a theory which Job strenuously combats throughout the poem; thus giving rise to what we designate the second problem of the book, viz. as to the precise relation subsisting between sin and suffering as they appear on earth. 2. Points of difference. (1) Eliphaz, a man of erudition, a person given to profound spiritual reflection, a seer who discerned spirits, dreamed dreams, and enjoyed intercourse with the unseen world, may be held to represent the prophet of the period. (2) Bildad, of smaller build and narrower vision, a strong traditionalist in religion, with a profound veneration for the ancients, who accepted his theology from his ancestors without putting ugly questions as to its truth, and was prepared, by quoting maxims and citing proverbs of hoary antiquity, to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, was probably designed to typify the sage of the time. (3) Zophar the Naamathite, an echo of his friends as to sentiment, as to manner more boisterous and arrogant than either, full of commonplaces and conventional dogmas, which he enunciated with imposing dignity and tremendous authority, may be regarded as the good man of the day’ the vulgar but sincere formalist, who says sharp and bitter things, and always means what he says, as well as says what he means (Cox). III. THE TIDINGS THEY . How they learnt the news of Job’s evil fortunes is not related, but the fact that they did reminds us of: 1. The rapidity with which evil tidings usually spread; since it was obviously not long before the report of their friend’s calamities reached their ears. 2. The organic unity of society; which renders it impossible for any one to either suffer or rejoice alone (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26). 3. The special susceptibility of friendly hearts for learning of others’ woes. IV. THE MUTUAL THEY MADE. A token of: 1. Lively interest in the patriarch’s welfare. Seeing they must have communicated with each other concerning their neighbour’s evil hap, thus showing they were not indifferent to what had occurred. 2. Loving sympathy with the patriarch’s distress. For they meant to mourn with him and to comfort him, not to treat him to a mere call of ceremony. 3. High appreciation of the patriarch’s worth. Since they planned to go together to the scene of sorrow, which, if it did spring from a due regard to their own dignity as princes, was perhaps also traceable to their Sense of what was owing to the rank and worth of their old friend. It says much for the three neighbours that they did not neglect Job now that he was a poor, diseased leper. V. THE FERVENT EMOTION THEY . 1. Tearful sympathy. Catching a sight of their former neighbour, whom they had known and revered in his prosperity, now sitting on the ash-heap, outside his house, and hardly recognizing, in the emaciated features on which they gazed, the noble form of the quondam prince whose glory outshone the radiance of all his contemporaries, they lifted up their voices and wept. Orientals are proverbially more emotional and lachrymose than phlegmatic Occidentals; but still it must have been an affecting spectacle to behold the three great princes moved to tears by the patriarch’s distress. 2. Genuine amazement. "They rent every one his mantle." A symbol of horror and astonishment, as in the case of Jacob (Genesis 37:34), Joshua 7:6, Ezra 9:3, Caiaphas (Matthew 26:65). 3. Profound sorrow. "They sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven;" i.e. threw handfuls of dust into the air, as the Arabs still do, that it might fall upon their heads, in token that they were deeply moved by the troubles and calamities that had fallen on their friend. VI. THE THEY ASSUMED. It is unnecessary to suppose that they were absolutely silent, but merely that they spake nothing to him during all that period, certainly not in any way alluding to the cause of his distress. And this silent attitude may have been expressive of (1) ceremonial propriety’ if this was the customary manner of Oriental mourning, which is doubtful; but was more probably dictated by (2) delicate sensibility’ which forbade them to intrude upon the solitude of a sorrow so overpowering as that which they beheld; and (3) reverential awe’ as seeing in the patriarch one upon whom the hand of God was visibly laid (cf. Genesis 34:5; Leveticus Genesis 10:3; Psalms 46:10; Ezekiel 3:15); if it did not also spring from (4) rising suspicion’ the thought beginning to thrust itself into view, which indeed, according to their philosophy, could not long be repressed, that the agonized and wretched sufferer before them must have been, notwithstanding his previous high reputation for piety, a hypocrite at bottom, whose disguised insincerities and secret iniquities had at length drawn down upon him the just judgment of a holy and incensed God. Learn: 1. That good men may often misunderstand God’s truth, misconstrue God’s providence, and misjudge God’s people. 2. That good men should always study to be distinguished for sympathy towards the suffering and sorrowing. 3. That good men who aspire to be brothers of consolation should not forget that silence is sometimes more soothing than speech. 4. That good men should never cherish secret suspicious of those whom they seek to comfort. BY E. JOHNSON Job 2:1-10 Renewed assaults and temptations of the adversary. The first scene in this drama of affliction has closed, and a fresh one opens, bringing, however, no happy change, no alleviation, but rather an aggravation of the hero’s woe. A second time the adversary of mankind appears in the heavenly court to launch his malicious shafts of accusation against the servant of God. His purpose is now more intent, his aim more deadly, than ever. But we, as spectators, can see a bright light still steadily shining above the cloud in that unsmiling favour and kindness of the Eternal, who cannot, will not, desert his own. Looking more closely to the particulars, we see— I. THE PITY OF GOD FOR HIS . (Job 2:1-3.) Jehovah looks down and beholds "his servant Job," as he stands unshaken amidst a very hurricane of calamity, holding to his integrity as something dearer than life; and he condescends to expostulate with the accuser. Has not the trial gone far enough? Is not the test that Job has already undergone sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical observer of his truth? Must the furnace be heated still another degree? But the adversary is not content; and it would appear that, if further trial is demanded, the demand is not to be resisted, according to the laws of heaven. The moral government of the world may require this. Thus, while the pity of God would relieve from further suffering, his righteousness-which is his adherence to fixed law—may require its continuance, until every doubt concerning a particular character be solved. But the language ascribed to the heavenly Father is, meanwhile, full of the tenderest compassion. There is individualizing regard. There is recognition of integrity and innocence. There is profound sympathy. We are reminded of the touching words of Psa 103:1-22; "He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." II. In opposition to this, we observe THE OF THE DEVIL. 1. His specious plea against Job. (Verses 4, 5.) In the form of a proverb he launches a keen insinuation: "Skin for skin;" like after like; one thing after another will a man give for dear life. Job has only made a barter after all He loses all his property; but then he has that left which outweighs all the rest. The loss of goods teaches him to prize the health which is left. He feels the greatness of this blessing as he never felt it before. Any circumstance which teaches us the worth of a common blessing is so far an advantage to us. An eminent living man has said that, given health, we have no right to complain of anything in the world. Job, then, has only been half tempted after all; and the trial will only run its full course when it has assailed this last great, chief blessing—his health of body and of mind. Such is the "case" of the devilish prosecutor against Job. 2. The final test permitted. (Verses 6-8.) The All-disposer grants the permission: "He is in thy power; but spare his life!" And then a sudden poison strikes through the sufferer’s blood; he becomes from head to foot a mass of disease and loathsomeness, sits in ashes, scraping himself with a potsherd, to allay the fearful irritation of his malady. His mind is, of course, deeply affected by the illness of his body. Natural hope is extinct. It is a life in ruins. Yet that Divine and immortal principle we call the soul is still intact, still glimmers like a bright spark amidst the embers of a dying fire. III. IN THE GUISE OF . (Verses 9,10.) And now what remains of conscious life is to know one further shock; and the hand of woman, the voice of a wife, is employed to urge the tottering sufferer over the brink on which he sits, into despair and total renunciation of faith and God. Then his wife said to him," Dost thou still hold fast to thine innocence? Say farewell to God, and die!" 1. This is a second signal instance in which, in the Old Testament, woman plays the part of the tempter. There is instruction in this pointed fact. Woman is the weaker vessel, in mind as in body. She has less firmness of intellectual texture. Her weakness as well as her strength lies in feeling. She is quick in impulses, both of good and of evil. She represents passion, and man represents strength. On the whole, she is less capable of strong, profound, patient convictions, less able to take a large view of questions, to look beyond the present and immediate aspects of things. Here is the picture of a lively temper, quick to feel resentment at pain or gratitude for good; but a shallow understanding, unused to meditation and reflection on the deeper meanings of life. Her language is that of haste and passion. But this serves to bring out by contrast the calm, reflective piety, the convictions established by lifelong thought and experience of her husband. 2. The rebuke of Job to his wife. (1) "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women;" that is, thy language is like that of a heathen, not of one who has been trained in the knowledge and worship of the true God. The heathen turn fickly from one god to another as pleasure and pain or the caprice of fancy may suggest. For their gods are but idols, creatures of their own imagination, which they take up and cast down as children with their toys. But there is only one God for me! And that God, the eternally Wise and Good in all that he gives, in all that he withholds! (2) There are two sides of life’ and the one must be taken along with the other. Here, too, the language of manly reasonableness and of intelligent piety speaks out Life is a garment woven of both pleasure and pain, of seeming good and evil. The one conditions the other. All experience teaches that constant happiness is the lot of none. Why, then, should I expect to be an exception? Surely we are but crude scholars in life’s great school, so long as we think we are entitled to immunity from any particular form of suffering. We are still children who think they have a right to their own way, and are astonished to find themselves withstood. "Who told thee thou hadst a right to be happy? Art thou a vulture screaming for thy food?" "Couldst thou, Pausanias, learn How deep a fault is this! Couldst thou but once discern Thou hast no right to bliss!" Here, then, the weakness of distrust and the folly of despair in the human heart, represented by Job’s wife, stand opposed to the nobleness and grandeur of a fathomless confidence in the Eternal. God is the Author at last of all we suffer. Is that a reason for forsaking God? No, replies faith; it is a reason for reposing more entirely upon his everlasting arms. "If my bark sinks, ’tis to another sea."—J. Job 2:11-13 A picture of friendship. In this short section we have a beautiful picture of true friendship in its prompt sympathy, its ready offices. The three intimate friends of Job, on hearing of his troubles, arrange to visit him and offer the comfort of their presence and condolence. We are reminded— I. OF THE OF . Sympathy is the indispensable need of the heart. It deepens the colour of all our pleasures; it throws a gleam of light athwart our deepest gloom. "Rejoice with them that do rejoice; and weep with them that weep." Our joys do not burst into flower till they feel the warm atmosphere of friendship. Our heaviest griefs only cease to be crushing when we have poured our tale into the ear of one we love. One of the humblest, yet best offices a friend can render to a sufferer is to be a good listener. Draw him out; get him to talk; movement and change of mind are what he needs. Exertion, if only the exertion of speech, will do him good. Do not pour upon him a cataract of well-meaning but stunning commonplaces. Imitate the kindness of Job’s friends, but not their want of tact and perception. Let him only feel that in your presence he can relieve himself of all that is on his mind, and will not fail to be kindly understood. II. SILENCE IN THE OF SORROW. On the arrival of the friends, seeing the heart-rending condition of the noble chieftain, whom they had last seen in the height of his health and prosperity, now sitting in the open air, banished by disease from his dwelling, defaced by that disease beyond recognition, an utterly broken man, they express their grief by all the significant gestures of Eastern manners—weeping, rending their clothes, sprinkling dust upon their heads. They then take their places by his side, and keep a profound and mournful silence for a week, as Ezekiel did when he visited his countrymen captives by the river Chebar. What exquisite manners are taught us in the Bible! And the great superiority of its teaching in this respect over the common teaching of the world is that it founds all manners upon the heart. It is truth, love, sympathy, which can alone render us truly polite, refined, and delicate in our relations to others, teaching us always to put ourselves in thought in the other’s place. "There is a time to keep silence." In great grief we recognize the hand of God, and he bids us be still and own him. Our smaller feelings bubble, our deeper ones are dumb. There are times when reverence demands silence, and a single word is too much. Leave the sufferer alone at first. Let him collect himself; let him ask what God has to say to him in the still, small voice that comes after the earthquake and the storm. "Sacred silence, thou that art offspring of the deeper heart, frost of the mouth, and thaw of the mind!" Sit by your friend’s side, clasp his hand, say simply, "God comfort you, my brother!" In the earlier stage of a fresh and sudden grief this will be enough. We cannot doubt that the wounded heart of Job was greatly comforted by the silent presence of his sympathizing friends. It was better than all their spoken attempts at consolation. Let us thank God for friendship and for true friends; they are messengers from him. "God, who comforteth them that are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus!"—J. BY R. GREEN Job 2:1-10 The severer tests of faith. Job has triumphed in the severe ordeal. His possessions, his servants, his family, have been torn from him. In the bitterness of his sorrow he has "rent his mantle," and shown the signs of his humiliation by cutting off the hair of his head. But in the paroxysms of his grief he has "held fast his integrity;" he "sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." So far he has passed through the fire unscathed, and belied the false accusations of the adversary. But further trials are at hand. It is in accordance with the spirit and purpose of the book to represent the lowest condition of human sorrows. Besides loss of possessions and loss of his beloved children, Job must needs be subjected to the loss of health—to a dire and painful and loathsome disease. All this is aggravated by the unwise taunts and advice of his wile, and the prolonged and irritating accusations and false views of his friends. It is a condition of extreme suffering unrelieved by any human consolations. Job is alone in his sufferings, unsustained, his pain even increased by the very voices that should have brought comfort to him. Up to the time of his friends’ visit Job has remained unmoved in his uncomplaining integrity. "In all this did not Job sin with his lips." The test to which he was subjected by the severe and reproachful and unhelpful words of his friends is presented in its detailed relation throughout the book. We learn— I. THAT IT IS FOR EVEN THE MAN TO SUFFER IN THE DEGREE. It is one part of the purpose of the book to illustrate this truth for sufferers in all time, to make known that "many" may be "the afflictions of the righteous." II. THAT THE PURPOSE OF THESE EXTREME IS THE TESTING AND OF VIRTUE, which, even in the ease of the righteous, is necessarily imperfect. Reading through this book, it would appear that the work of Satan is to test virtue. Satan is called "the agent of probation." He displays a malignant and antagonistic spirit. But whatever may seem to be the motives on the one side, it is obviously the Divine purpose to make the testing an occasion of blessing to him who is tested. "When he is tried he shall receive a crown of life." Satan must be considered as a servant of the most high God, whose agency is employed in the spiritual discipline of the righteous. The conditions of temptation to evil are so intimately identified with all those of the human life, that we can only think of them as a necessary part of the present constitution under which human life is held. By it virtue is exposed to injury; but in its fires virtue is purified and perfected. III. THAT THE TRIUMPH OF VIRTUE IN TO EVIL AND TO UNDER THE OF PAIN, IS THE UTMOST TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SOUL, AND ENSURES THE HIGHEST REWARD. He who subjects the delicate life to the fierce blast of evil will not so expose it as needlessly to endanger its highest interests. Temptation does not appeal to the virtue of the heart, but to its remaining faultiness, which it exposes for destruction, and so proves its own beneficent action. IV. In the history of Job we further learn that EVEN LOFTY VIRTUE MAY RE BOWED DOWN, AND SHOW SIGNS OF BEFORE FINALLY . V. We also learn THE WISDOM OF TO THE TRIALS OF LIFE, HOWEVER SEVERE. Rebelliousness brings no ease to the troubled spirit. The only alternative offered to Job was, "Curse God, and die." The better course is to retain integrity, to sin not, nor charge God foolishly.—R.G. Job 2:11-13 Human impotence in presence of great sorrow. The prompting of pure and faithful friendship leads Job’s friends to hurry to his help. They "come to mourn with him and to comfort him." When yet afar off they lift up their eyes and behold their friend. But, alas! disease has wrought so great a change in him that they know him not. Then "they lifted up their voice, and wept." In their wild, ungoverned passionate grief "they rent every one his mantle," and seizing the dust of the ground they cast it in the air toward heaven, and let it fall on their heads in token of their grief. Thus with signs of deep suffering in sympathy with their friend they cast their cry with the sand upwards to heaven. Then, with great skill, the writer indicates the helplessness of men in the presence of overwhelming Sorrow. "They sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great." So the sorrow that extorted the wild cry of pity closed the lips of consolation. We behold the men staggered by the bitterness of their friend’s lot. He cannot help himself, and they cannot help him. How true a picture of all deep Sorrow! It is to be said by every severe sufferer as by the typical One," Of the people there was none with me;" for even tender, loving sympathy cannot penetrate to the depths of another’s sufferings. With these feelings we gaze on the sufferer, feeling how painful it is to be unable to extend a helpful hand or to speak an effectual word. It is humiliating to us. It is abasing to our pride. I. THE CAUSES OF OUR IN OF SEVERE ARE: 1. Our inability to descend to the depth of the sorrow of another. It is only as we ourselves are sufferers that we can know what others feel. We must have drunk of the same cup if we would know its bitterness. 2. But even though we have suffered as we see others suffer, no words, even of the tenderest pity, can effectually relieve the mourner. Hollow human words, words of merely pretended sympathy, only wound the sufferer more deeply; while words of true friendship, cooling and cheering as they may be, can take up no part of the burden. For a time they draw off the mind of the sufferer from his sorrow, but it returns as a flowing tide. II. THE TO A TRUE FRIEND OF TO AID THE . Days or hours of silence are days or hours of keen suffering to the faithful friend unable to stanch the wound, to abate the fever, to restore the lost possession or the lost friend. By all we are driven to— III. THE TRUE AND ONLY , THE GOD-MAN, who, having suffered, and having power to descend to the lowest depths of the human heart, and having the Divine resources at command, the power to inspire the word of consolation and supporting strength; and who, measuring the need of the sufferer, can abate the severity of bodily pain or mental anguish. To the sufferer the welcome of this honest sympathy opens the door for the incoming of the true Healer and Comforter and Helper, who can give strength to the feeble, and, above all, can sanctify sorrow and calamity to higher ends, and make all things work together for good. He can brighten hope and sustain faith and strengthen patience, can soothe the fretted spirit, and give peace and joy and life.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 2:4 Satan’s old saw (Browning). Satan was defeated in the first trial, but not convinced. With persistent malignity he proceeded to suggest a more severe test. It was no fault of his that the first test, hard as it was, had not gone to the utmost extremity; for he had been expressly limited by the words, "Only upon himself put not forth thine hand" (Job 2:12). He had gone to the full length of his tether, but that had not satisfied him; so he must apply for a larger privilege of mischief-making. He requests permission to touch the parson of Job, either quoting or coining the proverb which Browning has called "Satan’s old saw." I. THE FORCE OF THE PROVERB. Take it how you will—that a man will sacrifice a less vital part to save a more vital part, holding up his arm to shelter his head; or that he will give the lives of his cattle, slaves, children, to save his own body’s skin; or that he will sell hide after hide of precious skins from his warehouse, i.e. all his property, for his life—the proverb plainly means that a man will make any sacrifice to save his life. 1. There is an instinct of self-preservation. Here we come to an impulse of nature. When in a state of nature all creatures try to save their own lives at any coat. Even the would-be suicide, when once he finds himself drowning, screams for help, and clutches madly at the rope that is flung to him. Accordingly, juries usually bring in a verdict predicating an unsound mind in the case of any one who has succeeded in taking his own life. Now, this instinct of self-preservation is a gift from the Author of nature; it is innocent because Divine, and powerful because primitive. 2. Life is a first condition of all experience and possession. If a man loses his life he loses his all. He may sacrifice many things for the sake of one coveted end—selling all he has to buy one pearl of great price; he may risk his life on a great venture; but if he loses his life he can obtain nothing in return. "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own life?" (Matthew 16:26). 3. Life is seen to be supremely valued. Starving men become cannibals. In the siege of Jerusalem women boiled their own children for a last meal, natural affection itself being sacrificed to the instinct of self-preservation. Desperate men sell their lives dearly. II. THE FALSITY OF THE PROVERB. We must be on our guard how we quote texts from Scripture. This is especially important in the Book of Job, where the form is dramatic. The proverb before us is in Scripture; yet it is not from God, but from the devil. This very fact should make us suspicious about it. It looks like truth, but it comes from the "father of lies." 1. It denies the higher life. Satan refers to a natural instinct. But that instinct does not cover the whole of our being. His lie is the more deadly because it is the exaggeration of a truth, or rather because it is the statement of one truth which needs to be qualified with another truth. Bishop Butler has taught us that human nature in its fulness includes conscience. But conscience may go against the lower part of our nature. The higher life may dominate and suppress the instincts of the lower. 2. It ignores the fact of self-sacrifice. Satan uttered his saw as though it were a generalization from wide experience. We may have our fine theories as to how things ought to be; he will tell us how he finds them really existing in the world. The devil only perceives the lower life, only perceives the selfish side of man. He is the "spirit that denies," because he is blind. But self-sacrifice is as much a fact as self-preservation. The cross is its great witness. The good Shepherd giving his life for the sheep is the triumphant refutation of Satan’s old saw. So in a secondary way are Job in his fidelity, and every martyr and hero and Christ-like man.—W.F.A. Job 2:7, Job 2:8 Job’s leprosy. Satan has now obtained permission to go a step further, and lay his hand on the person of God’s servant. He uses the new privilege with skilful ingenuity, selecting the most horrible and loathsome disease, and smiting Job with the worst form of leprosy—elephantiasis. I. THE MISERY OF THE . 1. It touches the man himself. Hitherto the blows have fallen on his outer world, though, indeed, they have come very near to him in striking his children. Still, he has not felt them directly. Satan has drawn a marked line between these external troubles and personal troubles (verses 4, 5). Now he crosses the line. Every man must feel what touches himself, though some may be too callous, too unimaginative, or too unsympathetic fully to appreciate what is outside them. No man can feel his brother’s toothache as acutely as he feels his own. 2. It lays hold of his body. Bodily pain is not the worst form of suffering. A broken heart is infinitely more pitiable than a broken skin. Still, bodily pain has this about it, that it cannot be denied or eluded. It is a very tangible and unquestionable fact. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ The "Historical Introduction" ended, we come upon a long colloquy, in which the several dramatis personae speak for themselves, the writer, or compiler, only prefacing each speech with a very few necessary words. The speeches are, one and all of them, metrical; and are well represented in the Revised Version. The first colloquy extends from Job 3:1-26 to Job 14:22. Job 3:1 After this opened Job his mouth. The first to take the word is Job, as, indeed, etiquette made necessary, when the visit paid was one of condolence. It can only be conjectured what the feelings were which had kept him silent so long. We may, perhaps, suggest that in the countenances and manner of his friends he saw something which displeased him, something indicative of their belief that he had brought his afflictions upon himself by secret sins of a heinous character. Pharisaism finds it very difficult to conceal itself; signs of it are almost sure to escape; often it manifests itself, without a word spoken, most offensively. The phrase, "opened his mouth," is not to be dismissed merely as a Hebraism. It is one used only on solemn occasions, and implies the utterance of deep thoughts, well considered beforehand (Psalms 78:21; Matthew 5:2), or of feelings long repressed, and now at length allowed expression. And cursed his day; "cursed," i.e; the "day of his birth." Some critics think that "cursed" is too strong a word, and suggest "reviled;" but it cannot be denied that "to curse" is a frequent meaning of קָלל and it is difficult to see in Job’s words (verses 3-10) anything but a "curse" of a very intense character. To curse one’s natal day is not, perhaps, a very wise act, since it can have no effect on the day or on anything else; but so great a prophet as Jeremiah imitated Job in this respect (Jeremiah 20:14-18), so that before Christianity it would seem that men were allowed thus to relieve their feelings. All that such cursing means is that one wishes one had never been born. Job 3:2, Job 3:3 And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born. An idle wish, doubtless; the vague utterance of extreme despair. Days cannot perish, or, at any rate, one day cannot perish more than another. They all come, and then are gone; but no day can perish out of the year, which will always have its full complement of three hundred and sixty-five days till time shall be no more. But extreme despair does not reason. It simply gives utterance to the thoughts and wishes as they arise. Job knew that many of his thoughts were vain and foolish, and confesses it further on (see Job 6:3). And the night in which it was said; rather, which said. Day and night are, both of them, personified, as in Psalms 19:2. There is a man child conceived. A man child was always regarded in the ancient world as a special blessing, since thus the family was maintained in being. A girl passed into another family. Job 3:4 Let that day be darkness; i.e. let a cloud rest upon it—let it be regarded as a day of ill omen, "carbone notandus." Job recognizes that his wish, that the day should perish utterly, is vain, and limits himself now to the possible. Let not God regard it from above; i.e. let not God, from the heaven where he dwells, extend to it his protection and superintending care. Neither let the light shine upon it. Pleonastic, but having the sort of force which belongs to reiteration. Job 3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death. "The shadow of death" (צלמות) is a favourite expression in the Book of Job, where it occurs no fewer than nine times. Elsewhere it is rare, except in the Psalms, where it occurs four times. It is thought to be an archaic word. Stain it; rather, claim it, or claim it for their own (Revised Version). Let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. The hot, stifling "blackness" of the khamsin wind is probably meant, which suddenly turns the day into night, spreading all around a thick lurid darkness. When such a wind arises, we are told, "The sky instantly becomes black and heavy; the sun loses its splendour, and appears of a dim violet hue; a light, warm breeze is felt, which gradually increases in heat till it almost equals that of an oven. Though no vapour darkens the air, it becomes so grey and thick with the floating clouds of impalpable sand, that it is sometimes necessary to use candles at noonday". Job 3:6 As for that night. The night, that is, of Job’s conception (see above, verse 3). Let darkness seize upon it. The Revised Version has thick darkness’ but this is unnecessary. Let it not be joined unto the days of the year. According to the Massorites’ pointing, we should translate, "Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;" and so the Revised Version. But many of the best critics prefer the pointing which is followed by the LXX. and by King James’s translators. The succeeding clause strongly supports this interpretation. Let it not come into the number of the months (comp. verse 3, and the comment on it). Job wishes the day of his birth and the night of his conception to be utterly blotted out from the calendar; but, aware that this is impossible, he subsides into a milder class of imprecations. Job 3:7 Lo, let that night be solitary; or, sterile; "let no one be born in it." Lot no joyful voice come therein; literally, no song. Perhaps the moaning is, "Let no such joyful announcement be made," as that mentioned in Job 3:3. Job 3:8 Let them curse it that curse the day. Very different explanations are given of this passage. Some suppose it to mean, "Let those desperate men curse it who are in the habit of cursing their day," like Job himself (Job 3:1) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:14). Others suggest a reference to such as claimed power to curse days, and to divide them into the lucky and the unlucky. In this case Job would mean, "Let the sorcerers who curse days curse especially this day," and would thus seem, if not to sanction the practice, at any rate to express a certain amount of belief in the sorcerers’ power. The second clause has also a double interpretation, which adapts it to either of these two suggested meanings (vide infra). Who are ready to raise up their mourning. This is an impossible rendering. Translate (with the Revised Version), who are ready to rouse up leviathan. "Rousing leviathan" may be understood in two ways. It may be regarded as spoken in the literal sense of those who are rash enough and desperate enough to stir up the fury of the crocodile (see the comment on Job 41:1), or in a metaphorical sense of such as stir up to action by their sorceries the great power of evil, symbolized in Oriental mythologies by a huge serpent, or dragon, or crocodile. On the whole, the second and deeper sense seems preferable; and we may conceive of Job as believing in the power of sorcery, and wishing it used against the night which he so much dislikes. Job 3:9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; i.e. "let not even the light of a star illuminate the morning or evening twilight of that night; let it be dark from beginning to end, uncheered even by the ray of a star." Let it look for light, but have none. Again a personification. The night is regarded as consciously waiting in hope of the appearance of morning, but continually disappointed by the long lingering of the darkness. And let it not see the dawning of the day; rather, as in the margin and in the Revised Version, let it not behold the eyelids of the morning (compare Milton’s ’Lycidas,’ "Under the opening eyelids of the morn," and Soph; ’Antigone,’ χρυσσέηςἁμέραςβλέφαρον). Job 3:10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb; literally, of my womb; i.e. "of the womb which bare me." By a stretch of imagination, the night is supposed to have power to open or shut wombs, and is blamed for not having shut up the womb in which Job was conceived. Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes; i.e. "and did not so prevent all the sorrows that have befallen me." Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? "From the womb" must mean, "as soon as I came out of the womb," not "while I yet remained within it" (comp. Jeremiah 20:17, "Because he slew me not from the womb"). Many of the ancients thought that it was best not to be born; and next best, if one were born, to quit the earth as soon as possible. Herodotus says that with the Trauri, a tribe of Thracians, it was the custom, whenever a child was born, for all its kindred to sit round it in a circle, and weep for the woes that it would have to endure now that it was come into the world; while, on the other hand, whenever a person died, they buried him with laughter and rejoicings, since they said that he was now free from a host of sufferings, and enjoyed the completest happiness (Herod; Job 5:4). Sophocles expresses the feeling with great terseness and force: Μὴφῦναιτὸνἅπαντανικᾷλόγοντὸδἐπεὶφασῆβῆναικεῖθενὅθενπερἥκειπολὺδεύτερονὡστάχιστα: "Not to be born is best of all; once born, next best it is by far to go back there from whence one came as speedily as possible." Modem pessimism sums up all in the phrase that "life is not worth living." Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? As so often, the second clause of the distich repeats the idea of the first, merely varying the phraseology. Job 3:12 Why did the knees prevent me? i.e. "Why did my mother take me on her knees and nurse me, instead of casting me on the ground, where I should have perished?" There seems to be an allusion to the practice of parents only bringing up a certain number of their children. Or why the breasts that I should suck? i.e. "Why were breasts offered to me, that I should suck them? How much better would it have been if I had been allowed to perish of inanition!" Job 3:13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet. "In that case, I should now (עתָּה) have been lying still and resting myself," instead of tossing about, and being full of restlessness and suffering." I should have slept. The life in the intermediate state is called "sleep," even in the New Testament (Matthew 9:24; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 1 Corinthians 15:18, 1 Corinthians 15:51, etc.). Job, perhaps, imagined it to be, actually, a sound, dreamless slumber. Then should I have been at rest; literally, then (אז) would there have been rest for me." Job 3:14 With kings and counsellers of the earth. As a great man himself, nobly born probably, Job expects that his place in another world would have been with kings and nobles (see Isaiah 14:9-11, where the King of Babylon, on entering Sheol, finds himself among "all the kings of the nations"). Which built desolate places for themselves. Some understand "restorers of cities which had become waste and desolate;" others, "builders of edifices which, since they built them, have become desolate;" others, again, "builders of desolate and dreary piles," such as the Pyramids, and the rock-tombs common in Arabia, which were desolate and dreary from the time that they were built. The brevity studied by the writer makes his meaning somewhat obscure. Job 3:15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver. This may either mean simply," princes who were rich in silver and gold during their lifetime," or "princes who have gold and silver buried with them in their tombs." It was the custom in Egypt, in Phoenicia, and elsewhere throughout the East, to bury large quantities of treasure, especially gold and silver vessels, and jewellery, in the sepulchres of kings and other great men. A tomb of a Scythian king in the Crimea, opened about fifty years ago, contained a golden shield, a golden diadem, two silver vases, a vase in electrum, and a number of ornaments, partly in electrum and partly in gold. Another Scythian tomb near the Caspian, opened by the Russian authorities, contained ornaments set with rubies and emeralds, together with four sheets of gold, weighing forty pounds. A third, near Asterabad, contained a golden goblet, weighing seventy ounces; a pot, eleven ounces, and two small trumpets. The tombs of the kings and queens in Egypt were so richly supplied with treasure that, in the time of the twentieth dynasty, a thieves’ society was formed for plundering them, especially of their golden ornaments. The tomb of Cyrus the Great contained, we are told (Arrian, ’Exp. Alex.,’ Job 6:29), a golden couch, a golden table set out with drinking-cups, a golden bowl, and much elegant clothing adorned with gems. Phoenician tombs, in Cyprus especially, have recently yielded enormous treasures. If the "gold" and "silver" of the present passage refer to treasures buried with princes and kings, we must understand by the "houses" of the second clause their tombs. The Egyptians called their tombs their "eternal abodes" (Diod. Sic; 1.51). Job 3:16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. This is added as another way in which Job might have escaped his misery. Though conceived and brought to the birth, he might have been still-born, and so have known no suffering. Job 3:17 There. The word has no expressed antecedent, but the general tenor of the passage supplies one. "There" is equivalent to "in the grave." The wicked cease from troubling; i.e." cease from their state of continual perturbation and unrest" (comp. Isaiah 57:20, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt "). This is their condition, so long as they live; nothing satisfies them; they are always in trouble themselves, and always causing trouble to others. In the grave alone do they rest, or seem to rest. And there the weary be at rest; literally, the weary in strength’ or "in respect of strength;" i.e. those whose strength is utterly exhausted and worn out. Here Job undoubtedly alludes to himself. He looks to the grave as his only refuge, the only hope he has of recovering peace and tranquillity. Job 3:18 There the prisoners rest together. "There those who in life were prisoners, condemned to work at enforced labours, enjoy sweet rest together." They hear not the voice of the oppressor; rather, of the taskmaster (comp. Exodus 3:7; Exodus 5:6, where the same word is used). The task. master continually urged on the wearied labourers with such words as those of Exo 5:13, "Fulfil your works, fulfil your daily tasks. In the grave these hated sounds would not be heard. Job 3:19 The small and great are there; i.e. "all are there, the small and great alike;" for "Omnes eodem cogimur, cranium Versatur urna serius ocius Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum Exilium impositura cymbae." (Her; ’ Od.’) And the servant is free from his master; rather, the slave (עֶבֶד). Job 3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery? Why, Job asks, is the miserable man forced to continue on the earth and see the light to-day? Why is he not sent down at once to the darkness of the grave? Surely this would have been better. Man often speaks as if he were wiser than his Maker, and could have much improved the system of the universe, if he had had the arranging of it; but he scarcely means what he says commonly. Such talk is, however, foolish, as is all captious questioning concerning the ways of God. The proper answer to all such questioning is well given by Zophar in Job 11:7, Job 11:8, "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell (Sheol); what canst thou know?" And life unto the bitter in soul (see the comment on Job 11:11, ad fin.). Job 3:21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; literally, which wait for death’ anxiously and longingly (comp. Psalms 33:20). And dig for it more than for hid treasures; i.e. "seek it more earnestly than even they seek who dig for hid treasures." As Professor Lee remarks, "From the great instability of all Eastern governments, treasures were in Eastern countries often hid away". And hence treasure-seeking became a profession, which was pursued with avidity by a large number of persons. Even at the present day Orientals are so possessed with the idea, that they imagine every European, who is eager to unearth antiquities, must be seeking for buried treasure. Job 3:22 Which rejoice exceedingly; literally, to exultation’ or "to dancing;" i.e. so that they almost dance with joy. And are glad, when they can find the grave. Job speaks as if he knew of such eases; and, no doubt, the fact of suicide proves that among men there are some who prefer to die rather than live. But suicides are seldom altogether in possession of their senses. Of sane men it may be doubted whether one in a thousand, however miserable, really wishes to die, or is "glad when he can find the grave." In such thoughts as those to which Job here gives expression there is something morbid and unreal. Job 3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid? "Obscured," that is, "darkened," "placed under a cloud" (comp. Job 3:20, where the sentiment is nearly the same). And whom God hath hedged in. Not in the way of protection, as in Job 1:10, but of obstruction and confinement: (comp. Job 19:8 and Hosea 2:6). Job feels himself confined, imprisoned, blocked in. He can neither see the path which he ought to pursue nor take steps in any direction. Job 3:24 For my sighing cometh before I eat literally, before my meat; i.e. "more early and more constantly than my food" (Professor Lee). And my roarings are poured out. The word translated "roaring" is used primarily of the roar of a lion (Zechariah 11:3; comp. Amos 3:8); secondarily, of the loud cries uttered by men who suffer pain (see Psalms 22:1; Psalms 32:4). (On the loud cries of Orientals when suffering from grief or pain, see the comment on Job 2:12.) Like the waters; i.e. freely and copiously, without let or stint. Perhaps the loud sound of rushing water is also alluded to. Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me; literally, for I fear a fear, and it comes upon me. The meaning is not that the affliction which has come upon him is a thing which Job had feared when he was prosperous; but that now that he is in adversity, he is beset with fears, and that all his presentiments of evil are almost immediately accomplished. The second clause, And that which I was (rather, am) afraid of is come unto me, merely repeats and emphasizes the first (see the comment on verse 11). Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came. Some Hebraists give quite a different turn to this passage, rendering it as follows: "I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble cometh". Professor Lee, however, certainly one of the most eminent of modern Hebraists, maintains that the far more pregnant meaning of the Authorized Version gives the true sense. "If I rightly apprehend," he says, "the drift of the context here, Job means to have it understood that he is conscious of no instance in which he has relaxed from his religious obligations; of no season in which his fear and love of God have waxed weak; and, on this account, it was the more perplexing that such a complication of miseries had befallen him"; and he translates the passage, "I slackened not, neither was I quiet, neither took I rest; yet trouble came." Job’s complaint is thus far more pointedly terminated than by a mere otiose statement that, "without rest or pause, trouble came upon trouble." Job 3:1-10 The stricken patriarch’s lament: 1. Deploring his birth. I. . 1. The time. "After this;" i.e. after the seven days’ silence, after waiting, perhaps, for some expression of sympathy from his friends, perhaps also after discerning no mitigation in his misery—an indication that Job spoke not under the influence of some sudden paroxysm of grief, but with fixed resolve and after mature consideration. Language that is passionate may also be deliberate; and although hasty words are sometimes more excusable than composed utterances, as a rule it is wiser and better, especially when under strong emotion, to be "swift to hear, but slow to speak" (James 1:19). 2. The manner. "Opened Job his mouth." The usual Hebrew formula for intimating the commencement of a speech; this may also mark, in accordance with Oriental custom, the grave composure and solemn stateliness with which Job began his address, as well as hint at the exceptional character of his discourse. Already, since the beginning of his troubles, he had twice opened his mouth to bless God and justify his ways; never until now had he opened his mouth to curse. II. . 1. The sublimity of Job’s language. "There is nothing in ancient or modern poetry equal to the entire burst, whether in the wildness and horror of its imprecations, or the terrible sublimity of its imagery (Goode). "There is indeed a tremendous bulk and heat in his words; his imagination has Titanic grasp and violence in it. All nature’s powers he translates into living things" (Davidson). 2. The naturalness of Job’s language. Even on the hypothesis that the verses contain rather the formulated conceptions of the author than the ipsissima verba of Job, one cannot but feel the dramatic suitability of beth their thought and language to the situation, as well as to the individual to whom they have been assigned. It does not strike one as too lofty for a man of the intellectual calibre of Job; nor does it appear to be inappropriate as a vehicle for the burning thoughts that were then struggling for utterance within his grief-laden soul. 3. The influence of Job’s language. "The boldest and most animated poets of Jerusalem made it the model of their threnodies or grief-songs, whenever uttered in scenes of similar distress" (Goode; cf. Lamentations 3:1-20; Jeremiah 20:14 16; Ezekiel 30:14-18; Ezekiel 32:7-9, etc.). Among the instances in which modem poetry has been indebted to the imagery of the present chapter, may be mentioned Shakespeare, ’King John,’ Acts 3. sc. 1; Acts 3. sc. 4; ’Macbeth,’ Acts 2. sc. 4. III. WILD . 1. The day of his birth is in general terms execrated: "Let the day perish wherein I was born" (verse 3); meaning, let it be erased from the calendar of existence, let it be filled with misery, buried in obscurity, and loaded with dishonour, or let it be blotted out from all remembrance. After which in detail he prays that it may be: (1) Enshrouded in darkness (verse 4); unillumined by the light of heaven, which imparts loveliness to all mundane things—an imprecation conversely reminding us of the value of light. (2) Abandoned by God (verse 4), who, while interesting himself in all his other creatures, should never ask after it. "Job’s wish of darkness had done his day no great hurt, unless he had taken the eye of God from it also’ (Caryl). God’s favour is the greatest blessing of the creature; and neither day nor man can be truly happy from which that favour is withdrawn. (3) Reclaimed by death (verse 5): "Let darkness and deathshade claim it"—redeem it as a stray portion of their original kingdom, which had wandered into the realms of light, and carry it back to its primeval abode. Adhering to the metaphor which compares the light of day to a captive escaped from the prison-house of darkness, we may remember by whose power it was that the light was first liberated (Genesis 1:3), and whose hand it is that still directs it to the ends of the earth (Job 37:3). We may note too that we have a better Kinsman than Job’s day had—one who can buy us back, not like it, from light to darkness, but from darkness to light. (4) Haunted by terrors: "Let the blackness of the day terrify it" (verse 5); as if it were a living thing cowering and shrinking in abject horror before troops of black omens continually occuring on it, such as eclipses, unnatural obscurations, pestilential vapours, dark storm-clouds; meaning, let it be a day to inspire terror in all beholders. The human soul is easily alarmed by unusual phenomena; but why should it when God is in them (Psalms 97:1-5)? 2. The night of his conception he likewise anathematizes in general terms (verse 3); after which, personifying it, he measures out for it too a series of detailed imprecations, imploring that it might be: (1) Excluded from the calendar; being overtaken by the surging waves of primal darkness, seized and carried back upon its ebbing tide to "chaos and old night," so that it should never join in the choral procession of the days and months that compose the year (verse 6)—a foolish curse, since the blotting out of the night could have no effect upon his sorrow. (2) Destitute of gladness; "sitting in solitary, unrelieved gloom, nothing living and rejoicing in life coming from its womb, while other nights around it experience a parent’s joy, and ring with birthday rejoicing" (verse 7)—a cruel curse, which sought to transfer his own misery to others. (3) Cursed by enchanters, those who by their incantations can bring calamities on days otherwise propitious, rousing up leviathan (whether the crocodile, as the emblem of evil, or the dragon, i.e. the constellation of the serpent, as the enemy of the sun and moon, vide Exposition) to swallow it up (verse 8)—a superstitious curse, showing that good men are not always so enlightened as they should be. (4) Doomed to darkness; always trembling on the verge of daylight, but never beholding the eyelids of the dawn (verse 9)—a presumptuous curse, since it thought to arrest a divinely appointed ordinance. IV. . 1. Thinking nothing of the happiness of others. (1) Neither of his mother’s joy in his birth, who doubtless rejoiced over his advent into life, as Sarah did over Isaac’s, as Elisabeth did over John’s, and as every mother worthy of the name does over her babe’s; who probably, in the exultation of the moment, named him Job ("Joyous’), and experienced a fresh thrill of gladness every time she paused to note his opening manhood and his ripening piety;—of all which she would have been bereft had Job not been born. (2) Nor of the interest of others in his birthday, not, perhaps, because it was his, but because it was their own, or their children’s, or their parents’, or their friends’; and why should they have all their happiness blighted because Job counted it a terrible misfortune that he had been ushered into life? 2. Thinking continually upon the misery of himself. The sole reason for his tremendous imprecation is the tact that on that particular day (and night) he had entered on his miserable career of existence. Suffering and sorrow, which are sent, and supposed, to render men sympathetic, not unfrequently result in selfishness, especially when conjoined with impatience, which is "ordinarily a great ponderer of griefs, because they are ours, little weighing the troubles of others" (Hutcheson). V. TO . 1. Its extenuations. Much to be ascribed to (1) the emotional nature of Orientals; (2) the comparatively unenlightened age in which Job lived; (3) the extreme severity, multiplicity, and continuance of his troubles; and (4) the provocation he may have received from the reproachful and suspicious looks of his friends. 2. Its aggravations. With every disposition to palliate Job’s offence, it is impossible to acquit him of sin; for (1) he immoderately indulged his sorrow, which, though natural in itself, and at times becoming, and even sanctioned by religion, should yet never be permitted to exceed (1 Corinthians 7:30); (2) he overstepped the bounds of propriety in speech, employing phrases and terms full of passion as well as force, whereas saints should exercise restraint upon their tongues as well as tempers (Psalms 141:3; Colossians 4:6; Titus 2:8); (3) he used the language of imprecation, which became not a good man (Romans 12:14), and was a frequent mark of bad men (Psalms 10:7; Psalms 109:18); (4) if he cursed not God, he execrated God’s gift, his birthday, thus showing himself guilty of presumption in denouncing what God had blessed (Genesis 1:28; Psalms 127:1-5:8), and of ingratitude in despising what God had bestowed, viz. life (Genesis 2:7; Acts 17:28); (5) he did all this knowingly and deliberately (Job 3:1); and (6) without regard to the interests of others. Learn: 1. That a good man may stand long, and yet at length show symptoms of falling. "Be not highminded, but fear." 2. It is specially to be deplored when great gifts are employed for sinful purposes. Upon every talent should be inscribed, "Holiness to the Lord!" 3. That the tongue is a world of iniquity when it is set on fire of hell "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" 4. That every creature of God is good, and to be received with thanksgiving; even birthdays, for which saints should bless God while they live. 5. That though sins may be palliated, they still require to be pardoned; excuses do not cancel guilt. 6. That from the greatest depth of wickedness into which a child of God can fall, he may ultimately be recovered. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." Job 3:11-19 The stricken patriarch’s lament: 2. Bewailing his life. I. THE GIFT—LIFE. In bitterness of soul, Job not only laments that ever he had entered on the stage of existence at all, but with the perverse ingenuity of grief which looks at all things crosswise, he turns the very mercies of God into occasions of complaint, despising God’s care of him: 1. Before birth. "Why died I not from the womb?" i.e. while I was yet unborn; surely a display of monstrous ingratitude, since, if God did not protect the tender offspring of men prior to their birth, it would be impossible that they should ever see the light (contrast Psalms 139:13). 2. At birth. "Why did 1 not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?" To which he might himself have returned answer: (1) Because of God’s sovereign will; man being God’s creature (Genesis 5:1; Deuteronomy 4:32; Job 10:8; Job 12:10; Job 27:3; Job 33:4), and God ever doing according to his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of earth (Job 9:12; Job 12:9; Job 33:13). (2) Because of God’s great power, the hour of birth being a time so fraught with peril to a tender babe as well as to a suffering mother, that only God’s watchful guardianship can account for a child not dying as soon as it is born (Job 31:15; Psalms 71:6). (3) Because of God’s spontaneous kindness; life being a gift to the bestowal of which God can be moved by nothing but his own free favour, as Job afterwards acknowledged (Job 10:12). 3. After birth. "Why did the knees prevent"—i.e. anticipate—"me? or why the breasts that I should suck?" (verse 12). To which, again, he might have responded that man is so helpless in infancy that without the safe shelter of a father’s arms and the strong support of a father’s knees, as well as the warm nest of a mother’s bosom and the rich consolations of a mother’s breasts, he must inevitably perish. That God has provided these for man is a signal proof of the Divine wisdom and loving-kindness. That any should despise them is a mark of thoughtlessness, if not of depravity (cf. Psalms 22:9, Psalms 22:10; Psalms 71:5, Psalms 71:6). II. THE LOST —THE GRAVE. Thus undervaluing God’s great gift of life, he proceeds to depict a blessing of which he foolishly as well as sinfully supposes himself to have been deprived in consequence of having entered on the stage of existence, viz. the peaceful repose of the grave, in which he should have enjoyed: 1. Perfect rest’ "Now should I have lain still," like one reclining on his couch after the labours of the day—death being compared to a night of resting after the day of working life (Ecclesiastes 9:1-18; Ecclesiastes 10:1-20; Psalms 104:23; Revelation 14:13). "And been quiet"—at peace, withdrawn from every kind of trouble and annoyance—the grave being a place of absolute security against every form of temporal calamity (verses 17, 18; Ecclesiastes 9:5). "I should have slept"—death being often likened to a sleep (John 11:11; Acts 7:60; Acts 13:1-52:86; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:10). "Then had I been at rest;" my sleep being untroubled, a profound slumber unvisited by dreams—the rest of the grave being, especially for the good man, a couch of the most peaceful repose (Genesis 15:15; Ecclesiastes 12:5; Job 7:2 l; Job 30:23), in comparison with which Job’s maladies and miseries allowed him neither rest nor quiet. 2. Dignified companionship. "Then had I been at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth," etc. Enjoying a splendid association with the great ones of the earth, now lying in their magnificent mausoleums, instead of sitting, as I presently do, on this ash-heap, in sublime but sorrowful isolation, an object of loathing and disgust to passers-by. The human heart, in its seasons of distress, longs for society, in particular the society of sympathetic friends; and sometimes the loneliness of sorrow is so great that the thought of the grave, with its buried millions, presents to the sufferer a welcome relief. However obscure, isolated, miserable, the lot of a saint on earth, death introduces him to the noblest fellowships Ñ of his fathers (Genesis 15:15; Genesis 25:8); of "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23); of the Saviour (Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23). 3. Absolute equality. Whereas he was now spurned by his fellows, he would then, had he died in infancy, have attained to as much glory as the aforesaid counsellors, kings, and princes, who, notwithstanding their ambitious greatness, which had led them to construct gorgeous sepulchres and amass untold hoards of wealth, were now lying cold and stiff within their desolate palaces. Behold the vanity of earthly greatness!—monarchs mouldering in the dust (Isaiah 14:11; Ezekiel 32:23). See the impotence of wealth—it cannot arrest the footsteps of death (James 1:11; Luke 16:22). Note that death is a great leveller (Ecclesiastes 2:14, Ecclesiastes 2:16; Psalms 89:48; Hebrews 9:27), and the grave a place where distinctions are unknown (verse 19; Ecclesiastes 3:20). 4. Complete tranquillity. "As a hidden untimely birth I had not been, and as children that have never seen the light" (verse 16; cf. Ecclesiastes 6:4, Ecclesiastes 6:5); unconscious and still as non-existence itself, as those "upon whose unopened ear no cry of misery ever fell, and on whose unopened eye the light, and the evil which the light reveals, never broke;" a tranquillity deeper (and, in Job’s estimation, more blessed) than that of those who only attain rest after passing through life’s ills—a doctrine against which both the light of nature and the voice of revelation protest (vide homily on verse 16). 5. Entire emancipation. A perfect cessation from all life’s troubles, and a final escape from the exactions of his unseen oppressor. "There the wicked cease from troubling," etc. (verses 17-19; cf. Ecclesiastes 9:5-10)—a sentiment, again, which is only partially correct, i.e. so far as it relates to the ills of life. LESSONS. 1. God’s best gifts are often least appreciated. 2. Men frequently mistake ill for good. 3. What we have not commonly appears more desirable than what we have. 4. "Better is a living dog than a dead lion." 5. The grave is a poor place for a man to hide his sorrows in. 6. It is better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of. 7. It is well to scrutinize keenly all that we either think or say in trouble. 8. There is a greater sin than despising the gift of temporal existentence, viz. despising the offer of eternal life. Job 3:13-19 The grave. I. A REGION OF . II. A REALM OF SILENCE. III. AN ABODE OF DEEP . IV. A BED OF SLUMBER. V. A WORLD OF . VI. A PLACE OF . VII. A HOUSE OF LODGING. LESSONS. 1. Humility. 2. Contentment. 3. Diligence. 4. Watchfulness. Job 3:16 To be or not to be. I. AGAINST BEING AND IN FAVOUR OF NOT-BEING. 1. Life is little other than a capacity for suffering affliction. 2. At the best, life is so short, and man’s powers so feeble, that nothing he undertakes can attain to perfection. 3. In every instance life involves the terrible necessity and painful experience of dying. 4. Life always carries in its bosom the possibility of coming short of everlasting felicity. II. IN FAVOUR OF BEING AND AGAINST NOT-BEING. 1. Life in itself is a thing of pure enjoyment. 2. Man’s powers, though imperfect, are susceptible of infinite improvement. 3. The day of existence, whether long or short, affords a noble opportunity for serving God. 4. The fact that one is born gives him a chance, by being born again, of attaining to salvation and eternal life. LESSONS. 1. Notwithstanding all the miseries of human life, it is better to have been born than to have remained in non-existence. 2. Notwithstanding all its brevity and imperfection, life is worth living. 3. Because of all its hardships and sorrows, it should be given up with resignation when God recalls it to himself. Job 3:20-26 The stricken patriarch’s lament: 3. Desiring his death. I. DOLEFUL . Job pitifully wails forth that his soul was in bitterness because of: 1. The miseries of life. Which he depicts as: (1) inward trouble; not merely bodily pain, but mental anguish, bitterness of soul (verse 20); the acutest form of all distress (Proverbs 18:14; cf. ’Macbeth,’ Acts 5. sc. 3). (2) Constant trouble, which came to him as regularly as his daily bread: "My sighing cometh before I eat" (cf. Psalms 80:5; Isaiah 30:20). (3) Abundant trouble, like the gushing forth of waters: "My roarings are poured out like the waters" (verse 24)—a frequent image for affliction (cf. 2 Samuel 22:17; Psalms 42:7; Psalms 88:7). (4) Paralyzing trouble, terror overtaking him the moment he thought of it: "I feared a fear, and it came upon me" (verse 25; cf. "He that but fearer etc; ’Henry IV.,’ pt. 2, Acts 1. sc. 1). (5) Superfluous trouble; i.e. his misery had not sprung upon him revelling in sinful and luxurious ease, which might have afforded some justification for so appalling a visitation as had overtaken him; but when already he was a stricken man, another and a greater sorrow leapt forth upon him: "I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came" (verse 26). 2. The perplexities of providence. To these he alludes when he describes himself as a man "whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in" (verse 23). The term "way" is often put for course of life (Psalms 1:6; Proverbs 4:19; Isaiah 26:7; Jeremiah 10:23); and a man’s way may be said to be hid (i.e. to himself) when either its future character is concealed from his perception, or the reason for its present shape is not understood. Now, to all men a veil inscrutable separates the future, the immediate no less than the remote, from the present (Proverbs 27:1; James 4:14). The special ground of complaint felt by Job was, not so much that he had been subjected to adversity, but that he could not discern the reason of God’s mysterious dealings with him; that his sufferings so engirt him like a lofty wall, that he not only knew not which way to turn, but that he failed to discover any way to turn. The like perplexity has frequently been experienced by God’s people (of Jeremiah 12:1; Psalms 42:5; l73:2; Lamentations 3:7). But it is unreasonable to expect that God’s ways should be perfectly patent to the finite understanding. Man cannot always fathom the purposes or comprehend the plans of his fellow-creatures: how much less should he think to gauge the counsel of him whose wisdom is "fold over fold" (Job 11:6); or discern the reason of every dark dispensation that is measured out by him whose judgments are a great deep (Psalms 36:6)! Hence God charges his saints, when they see that clouds and darkness surround his throne, that his footsteps are in the sea, and that his way is not known, to preserve their souls in patience, to decline to be perplexed, and to calmly trust their present way and future course to him who always walketh in the light, and who, out of the greatest entanglements and darkest riddles of life, is able to evolve his own glory and their good (Psalms 37:5; Isaiah 26:3, Isaiah 26:4; Romans 8:28). II. . "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery," etc? (verses 20, 23). The interrogation indicated: 1. Astonishing presumption on the part of Job, not only in questioning the Supreme, seeing that he giveth no account of his doings unto any, and least of all to men (Job 33:13; Psalms 46:10; Jeremiah 18:6; Daniel 4:35); but much more in addressing to him such a question, which practically meant—Why should a man be sent into this world? or, if sent into it, why should he be kept in it, unless his existence is to be always encircled with the radiance of prosperity, and exhilarated with the wine of joy, and unless he is to be assisted both to pierce the veil of futurity and to penetrate the overshadowing clouds of the present? 2. Monstrous ingratitude; in first depreciating what, after Christ and salvation, is God’s highest gift to man, viz. existence; in forgetting the manifold blessings he had enjoyed during the former period of his prosperity; and in overlooking the fact that he had some good gifts remaining still. But men are prone to forget past mercies (Psalms 103:2; cf. ’Troilus and Cressida,’ Acts 3. sc. 3), and to appreciate what the)’ have not more highly than what they have. True thankfulness magnifies the gifts it has received, and does not grudge that the great Giver still reserves something to bestow (cf. ’Timon of Athens,’ Acts 3. sc. 6). 3. Extraordinary ignorance; in not discerning that the ultimate end and chief aim of life are not to render men happy, but to make them holy; not to make them wise as the gods (Genesis 3:5), but to form them into sons of God (Hebrews if. 10); and that these sublime purposes may be secured as well through adversity as through prosperity. But perhaps the absence of gospel light should explain and extenuate in Job’s case what in ours would be reprehensible in the extreme. III. . Job’s vehement longing for death bespoke: 1. An intense pressure of misery. Seeing that life is essentially joyous (Ecclesiastes 11:7), that men naturally cling to life above every earthly possession (Job 2:4), and that the intrinsic worth and happiness of life are a thousandfold increased by the addition of Heaven’s favour, it indicates an amount and degree of wretchedness transcending ordinary experience when a man yearns for life’s extinction, exults in the prospect of dissolution, would be blithe to find a grave, however humble or obscure— "Mad from life’s history, Glad to death’s mystery, Swift to be hurl’d, Anywhere, anywhere out of the world." (Hood, ’Bridge of Sighs.’) They who find life’s calamities in any measure tolerable have reason to bless God for laying on them no heavier burden than they are able to bear, and for imparting to them strength to bear the burden which he does impose. God’s grace alone keeps men from sinking beneath the weight and pressure of life’s ills. Contrast with Job’s present state of mind that of St. Paul in the Roman prison (Philippians 1:23). 2. An utter extinction of hope. "The miserable hath no other medicine, but only hope"—hope that things will eventually improve; that the clouds of adversity will yet give place to the fair sunshine of prosperity; but even this the patriarch appears to have abandoned. It would be incorrect to affirm that Job had absolutely lost his hold on God; but of hope in a return to health and happiness he had none. Yet in this Job erred—erred two ways: in thinking himself at the worst, which he was not; and in despairing of recovery, which he should not. It is seldom so sad with any one that it could not be sadder; and it is seldom so bad that it cannot be improved. All things are possible with God, and God reigneth; therefore nil desperandum either in nature or in grace. 3. A sad want of faith. Had Job been able calmly to trust himself and his future to God, it is certain he would not have so inordinately longed for death. He would have reasoned that neither the miseries of life nor the perplexities of providence were a sufficient reason for God’s cancelling the grant of life, or for a saint seeking the relief of death; since: (1) God has an absolute right to dispose of his creatures as he may. (2) No man has a claim on God for complete exemption from trouble. (3) Affliction in some shape or another is every man’s desert in this world. (4) The higher purposes of life may be secured better through adversity than through prosperity. (5) It is not certain that escape from misery would in every instance be attained by escape from life. (6) And it is possible for bodily calamity and mental trouble and soul-anguish to pass away before the end of life, while life once withdrawn can never be restored. Learn: 1. Men are apt to think there is no reason for that for which they can see no reason. 2. The best gifts of God may become burdensome to their possessors. 3. Some look for death, but cannot find it; death ever finds those for whom it looks. 4. Afflictions are commonly accompanied by much darkness, which faith only can illumine. 5. Though a man’s way is sometimes hid from himself, it never is concealed from God. Job 3:20 Two marvels that are no mysteries. I. LIVING MEN ARE OFTEN . 1. Surprising; when we consider (1) that men are the creatures of a loving God; (2) that their Creator designed them for happiness; (3) that the most abundant provision has been made for their felicity. Yet: 2. Not inexplicable; when we remember (1) that men are sinful creatures, and deserve to be miserable; (2) that men carry the true source of misery within themselves, in their sinful hearts; and (3) that men not unfrequently neglect that which alone can remove their misery—God’s grace and Christ’s blood. II. MEN OFTEN LIVING. 1. Astonishing; if we reflect upon (1) the frailty of life, and the ease with which it may be terminated; (2) the heaviness of that burden of sorrow it is sometimes called to support; (3) the intensity with which sufferers not unfrequently long for death. Still: 2. Not insoluble; if we recollect (1) how they are kept in life by the power of God; and (2) why they are kept in life, viz. (a) to glorify God, by exhibiting his power in sustaining them, and his grace in giving them opportunity to improve; (b) to benefit themselves, by allowing time for suffering, if possible, to perfect them in obedience; and, supposing this end attained, (c) to instruct their fellows how to bear and how to profit by affliction. Job 3:23 (along with Job 1:10). The two hedges; of the hedge of prosperity and the hedge of adversity. I. IN WHAT THEY COMPARE. 1. In being planted by God. Job’s prosperity was from God; his adversity was not without God. 2. In encircling the saint. Job was equally a pious man in both positions. 3. In being both removable. If Job’s prosperity was exchanged for adversity, his adversity was afterwards succeeded by prosperity, II. IN WHAT THEY . 1. In the frequency of their setting. Adversity a more frequent experience than prosperity. 2. In the comfort they afford. Prosperity a hedge of roses; adversity of thorns. 3. In the effects they produce. Prosperity more dangerous to a man’s spiritual interests than adversity. III. IN WHAT THEY SUGGEST. 1. That God’s hand is in everything. 2. That the saint’s good may be advanced by everything. 3. That the devil’s arrows shoot at everything. BY E. JOHNSON Job 3:1-26 The eloquence of grief. This book, so entirely true to nature, presents here one of the darkest moods of the grief-stricken heart. The first state is that of paralyzed silence, dumbness, inertia. Were this to continue, death must ensue. Stagnation will be fatal. The currents of thought and feeling must in some way be set flowing in their accustomed channels, as in the beautiful little poem of Tennyson on the mother suddenly bereaved of her warrior-lord- "All her maidens, wondering, said, She must weep or she must die." A period of agitation ensues when the mind resumes its natural functions; and the first mood that succeeds to silent prostration is that of bitter resentment and complaint. As we hail the irritability of a patient who has been deadly sick as the sign of returning convalescence, so we may look upon this petulance of grief when it finds at length a voice. We do not blame; we pity, and are tender towards the irritable invalid whose heart we know to be in its depth patient and true; and he who knows the heart better than we do is forbearing with those wild cries which suffering may wring from even constant and faithful bosoms like Job’s. We may read these words of passion with consideration if God can listen to them without rebuke. There are three turns in the thought here expressed. I. THE SPIRIT OF MAN IN REVOLT FROM LIFE. Curses on the day of his birth. (Verse 1-10.) There seems to be some reference to the ancient belief, which we find in later times among the Romans, in unlucky or ill-starred days. Such a day, to the sufferers present feeling, must have been the day of his birth. But he will learn better by-and-by. He cannot see things rightly through the present medium of pain. True religion teaches us—the Christian religion above all—that no "black" days are sent us from him who causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. It is only ill deeds that make ill days. We have met with Job’s complaint again and again in different forms. Men and women have complained that they were brought into the world without their consent being asked, and sometimes passionately exclaim, "I wish I had never been born!" Let us admit what our calm and healthy judgment dictates—these feelings are morbid and transitory; and they are partial, because they represent only one, and that an extreme, mood of the ever-changing mind. We must take our morning, not our midnight, moods if we would know the truth about ourselves. The instinct which leads us to keep birthdays with joy and mutual congratulation should instruct us in our debt of thankfulness: "Thanks that we were men!" II. THE OF DESPAIR. (Verses 11-19.) But such wishes against the inevitable and for the impossible, the mind, even in the paroxysm of despair, feels to be absurd. It sinks to a degree less irrational in the next wish that an early death had prevented all this misery. Would that a frost had nipped the just-blown flower (verses 11, 12)! Yet this mood is only a shade less unreasonable than the former. For does not the instinct which leads us all to speak of death in infancy and early childhood as "untimely, premature," rebuke this fretfulness, and witness to the truth again that life is a good? And does not the common aspiration after "length of days," so marked in the Old Testament, supply another argument in the same direction? Job will yet live to smile, from out of the depths of a serene old age, at these passionate clamours of a turbulent grief. Again, he passes into the contemplation of death with pleasure, with a deep craving for its rest. He describes, in simple, beautiful language, that final earthly resort, where agitated brains and restless hearts find at last peace (verses 17-19). Such a sentiment, again, is common to the experience of suffering hearts, is deeply embedded in the poetry of the world. But how far more common and frequent the happy, healthy mood which finds a zest and relish in the mere sense of existence, in the simple, natural pleasures of every day! The longing for the rest of the grave is the mood of intense weariness and disease; and it is counteracted by the mood of restored health, which longs for activity, even in heaven. Well has that poet, who has entered so deeply into all the phases of modern sadness, sung— "Whatever crazy Sorrow saith, No life that breathes with human breath Hath ever truly longed for death. life whereof our nerves are scant; Oh, life, not death, for which we pant; More life and fuller, that we want." III. OF LIFE’S . (Verses 20-26.) Once more, from longing for death, the distressed mind of the sufferer passes to impatient questioning. Why should life, if it is to be given to any, be given to sufferers who desire death? why should it be given to him who can find no rest, who is ever in dread of fresh woes? This complaint, again, is natural, but it is not wise. We are impatient of pain; we should otherwise have no quarrel with the mystery of being. But pain is a great fact in the constitution of the world; it is there; it is there evidently by Divine appointment; it cannot be glozed over nor explained away. The wisdom of piety is in reconciling ourselves to it as the dispensation of God, in submitting to it as his will, supporting it with patience. Then, "though no affliction for the present be joyous, but grievous, yet afterward it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11). In hope let us— "Strain through years To catch the far-off interest of tears." To the question of Job the answer is—Suffering is the signet of a majestic being. The light of eternity, falling athwart our tears, forms a rainbow prophetic of our glorious destiny. But the final and most significant of all answers is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is the union of highest life with extremest suffering. Born to suffer, and by suffering to be made perfect, the Lord Jesus Christ supplies for them that trust in him a power by which they can rise out of the mysterious darkness of pain, believing that what is tried, even as by fire, shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at his appearing. The study of this paroxysm of extreme pain of mind will be instructive if it help us to govern any similar moods which may arise in our own minds. LESSONS. 1. There is a natural and precious relief from mental pain in words, "Poor breathing orators of miseries! Let them have scope; though what they do impart Help nothing else, yet they do ease the heart." 2. God, our gracious Father, is not offended by our sincerity. Greater than our hearts, he knows all things. This book and many of the psalms teach us a childlike piety by repeating words in which sufferers poured forth all their complaints as well as thanksgivings into the ear of him who misunderstands nothing. 3. There is an exaggeration in all the moods of depression. We are prone to overstate the ills of life, and to forget the numberless hours of joy in which we have instinctively thanked God for the blessing of existence. 4. The very intensity and exaggeration of such moods point forward to a reaction. They will not continue long in the course of nature. God has mercifully so constructed this fine mechanism of body and mind that these extremes bring their own remedy. Patience, then. The hour is darkest that is nearest the dawn. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."—J. BY R. GREEN Job 3:1-12 Human infirmity revealed in deep affliction. Frail is the heart of man. With all its heroism, its endurance and power, yet the stout heart yields and the brave spirit is cowed. The strongest bends beneath the heavy pressure. But if the human life is to be truthfully presented, its failures as well as its excellences must be set forth. It is an evidence that the writer is attempting an impartial statement, and in the midst of his poetical representations is not led away to mere extravagance and exaggeration in depicting the qualities of the righteous man. Job’s strength of heart receives a shock. He is in the whirlpool of suffering and sorrow. He will recover himself in time; but for the present he is as one who has lost his balance. Let it not be forgotten how severe the strain upon him is. His possessions have been torn from him; his family stricken down by death; his body is the seat of a fierce and foul disease; his friends are powerless to help him. No wonder that "his grief was very great." Out of that grief springs his wail of complaint—the cry of a spirit overburdened. This is an instance of what may escape from the lips of a strong and good man under the pressure of unusual affliction. In judging the cry of sorrow or forming our estimate of the character of him who raises it, we must remember— I. THAT IT DOES NOT THE OF A CALM . The sufferer is so liable to be unmanned at such an hour. There is too vivid a perception of the pains of life for the cry to be an accurate judgment on life itself. II. THAT IT IS THE OF THE SOUL’S IN THE OF ITS . And although the true test of strength is in an ability to bear the heaviest pressure, yet that perfection of virtue by which the severest strain can be borne with calmness is only an uncommon experience; if, indeed, it can ever be found but in the Perfect One. III. THE HUMAN FRAILTY. In this instance Job, "the perfect man and upright," falls behind the one absolute Example of patient endurance of the severest sufferings. Job, judged by the ordinary standard of human life, must be pronounced a model of patient endurance. The inherent weakness, the true mark of humanity, is apparent here. The world needed one "greater than Job" as its typical Example of patience. IV. But in all we may also learn THE OF THAT CRY OF SORROW WHICH DEMANDS THE . In quietness and self-composure Job would not have cried thus. Reason is not always supreme. In moments of great suffering her authority is assailed, impaired, even sometimes lost. In our judgment upon the cries of our frail brethren, we must, therefore, extend our utmost charity, make every allowance for the extreme conditions of which they are the expressions; and in our own habit of life accustom ourselves so to receive our minor afflictions that we may be tutored to comport ourselves rightly under the extremset pressure.—R.G. Job 3:13-19 The grave a rest. In the toil and sorrow of life men long for rest. They lighten the toils and brighten the darkness of the present by the hope of repose and gladness in the future. Without such a hope life’s burdens would be much heavier than they are; and in some cases almost insupportable. As the worn labourer longs for the rest of the even-tide, so does the over-wrought spirit of the sad desire the rest of the grave. It is proper to consider if this is a healthy, a just, a well-grounded desire. To the grave men of widely different characters look for rest. Let us think of the grave— I. AS LONGED FOR BY THE WEARY. "Then had I been at rest." This is not always to be commended. The present is our time for toil. These are the hours of the day. They that sleep should sleep in the night. It is not a Christian spirit to wish life shorter. Rather should we ask for grace to be faithful, even unto death. Resignation, obedience, hope, will check the desire to diminish the term of life. What is suicide but the adding violence to this desire? For our change we must wait. II. AS THE ONLY REST KNOWN TO THE . By Christian teaching and discipline we learn where the spirit may find rest; and we are encouraged to wait for the end of our toil. But the ignorant know nothing of this good hope. III. THE GRAVE BRINGS NO REST TO THE . He owns rest who does a day’s work. To him that rest is sleep. To the idler death will bring no rest. It will change the canditions and surroundings of life. But it is a dire delusion to suppose that the spirit, in putting off the garment of the flesh, will escape from all toil. Its burdens are within itself, not in the fleshy tent. All sensation is in the mind during the bodily life, and all the sad weariness of the spirit, springing from consciousness of disobedience, that spirit carries with it. The sting of punishment for the wicked pierces the spirit; often through the flesh, it is true. But the sting is not left in the flesh, to be cast off when the body is laid down. The weapons of the spiritual foe penetrate beyond the clothes. The wicked deluded in life is deluded by death. Some long so eagerly for death that they rush through the thin veil that separates them from the regions of the dead. But it is rushing from darkness to light. It is rushing into the presence of the All-seeing One whose apprehended judgment upon life is the severest of all punishments. IV. THE REST OF THE GRAVE IS A TRUE REWARD TO THE . Fidelity in toil has its reward in rest. To the faithful ones it is sweet. But not as a mere cessation of activity. 1. It ends for them the time of exposure to temptation. 2. It marks the limits of probation. 3. It exchanges warfare for triumph; hard toil for honourable repose; danger for safety; the cross for the crown. 4. It brings the perfectness of all blessing in the everlasting life and the fulness of joy which are promised to the obedient and the pure.—R.G. Job 3:20-26 The unanswered question. From the lips of Job words escape which prove how deeply he suffered. "Why?" is ever on the lips of men when they consider God’s hidden work. But he giveth none account of his ways. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Happy the man who at all times is persuaded that justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. The question here proposed by Job is the unanswered question running through the whole book. Until all is accomplished, the design of the process is unexplained. That the afflictions of Job had some other purpose than merely to respond to Satan’s appeal, none will deny; but what the purpose was is not stated in words. The whole story alone explains it. New Testament readers have light upon the mystery of human suffering denied to the -saints of old. But with all the light and teaching granted, a veil of mystery still hangs over all. Partial answers may, however, be found. The demand of Job is unreasonable. It amounts to requiring that all who suffer should be permitted at once to end their sorrows in the silence of the grave. In other words, that none should suffer. "Why is life given unto the bitter in soul?" It is the cry of a sufferer distracted by his pain. Reasons why death should not come immediately to him that longs for it may be readily given. Let our thoughts rest on the purposes that are obviously answered by pain. I. ARISES FROM THE OF SOME NATURAL LAW, EITHER OR DONE. Pain, therefore, is the guardian of the life, giving sharp warning of disobedience or of ignorant exposure to wrong. How often would life be sacrificed in ignorance were not pain to declare the departure from the path of safety! This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job having ended his complaint, Eliphaz the Temanite, the first-named of his three friends (Job 2:11), and perhaps the eldest of them, takes the word, and endeavours to answer him. After a brief apology for venturing to speak at all (verse 2), he plunges into the controversy. Job has assumed that he is wholly guiltless of having given any cause for God to afflict him. Eliphaz lays it down in the most positive terms (verses 7, 8) that the innocent never suffer, only the wicked are afflicted. He then passes on to the description of a vision which has appeared to him (verses 12-21), from which he has learnt the lesson that men must not presume to be "more wise than their Maker." Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said (see the comment on Job 2:11). Job 4:2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? rather, If one assay a word against thee’ wilt thou be angry? Eliphaz feels that what he is about to say will be unwelcome, and, as it were, apologizes beforehand. Surely Job will not be angry if a friend just ventures a word. But who can withhold himself from speaking? Let Job be angry or not, Eliphaz must speak. It is impossible to hear such words as Job has uttered, and yet keep silence. God’s wisdom and justice have been impugned, and must be vindicated. Job 4:3 Behold, thou hast instructed many; or, corrected many. When others have been afflicted and murmured, thou hast corrected them, and shown them that they were suffering only what they deserved to suffer. In so doing, thou hast strengthened the weak hands; "given moral strength," i.e; "to those who were morally weak," upheld them, saved them from impatient words and hard thoughts of God. Job 4:4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling. Many a man, just on the point of falling, has been stopped in time by thy wise words and good advice to him. This is a strong testimony to Job’s kindliness of heart, and active sympathy with sufferers during the period of his prosperity. And thou hast strengthened the feeble knees; literally, the bowing knees—those that were just on the point of collapsing and giving way through exhaustion or feebleness (comp. Isaiah 35:3). Job 4:5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest. Now it is thy turn—calamity has come upon thee’ and all that thou weft wont to say to others is forgotten. The wise physician cannot heal himself. Instead of receiving thy chastisement in a right spirit, thou "faintest," or rather, "thou art angry, art offended"—as the same verb is also to be translated in the second verse. There is a tone of sarcasm about these remarks, which implies a certain hardness and want of real affection in the speaker, and which cannot but have been perceived by Job, and have detracted from the force of what Eliphaz urged. If one has to rebuke a friend, it should be done with great delicacy. Our "precious balms" should not be allowed to "break his head" (Psalms 141:6). It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled; or, perplexed—"confounded." Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? Translate, with the Revised Version, Is not thy fear of God thy confidence’ and thy hope the integrity of thy ways? The verse is composed, as usual, of two clauses, balancing each other; and the meaning seems to be that, if Job is as convinced of his piety and uprightness as he professes to be, he ought still to maintain confidence in God, and a full expectation of deliverance from his troubles. If he does not, what is the natural inference? Surely, that he is not so confident of his innocence as he professes to be. Job 4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? The heart of the matter is now approached. Job is called upon to "remember" the long-established moral axiom, that only evil-doing brings down upon men calamities, and that therefore, where calamities fall, them must be precedent wickedness. If he does not admit this, he-is challenged to bring forward examples, or even a single example, of suffering innocence. If he does admit it, he is left to apply the axiom to himself. Or where were the righteous cut off? Was the example of "righteous Abel" (Matthew 23:35) unknown to Eliphaz? And had he really never seen that noblest of all sights, the good man struggling with adversity? One would imagine it impossible to attain old age, in the world wherein we live, without becoming convinced by our own observation that good and evil, prosperity and adversity, are not distributed in this life according to moral desert; but a preconceived notion of what ought to have been seems here, as elsewhere so often in the field of speculation, to have blinded men to the actual facts of the ease, and driven them to invent explanations of the facts, which militated against their theories, of the most absurdly artificial character. To account for the sufferings of the righteous, the explanation of "secret sins" was introduced, and it was argued that, where affliction seemed to fall on the good man, his goodness was not real goodness—it was a counterfeit, a sham—the fabric of moral excellence, so fair to view, was honeycombed by secret vices, to which the seemingly good man was a prey. Of course, if the afflictions wore abnormal, extraordinary, then the secret sins must be of a most heinous and horrible kind to deserve such a terrible retribution. This is what Eliphaz hints to be the solution in Job’s case. God has seen his secret sins—he has "set them in the light of his countenance" (Psalms 90:8)—and is punishing them openly. Job’s duty is to humble himself before God, to confess, repent, and amend. Then, and then only, may he hope that God will remove his hand, and put an end to his sufferings Job 4:8 Even as I have seen; rather, according as I have seen—so far, that is, as my observation goes (see the Revised Version, which is supported by Professor Lee and Canon Cook). They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same (comp. Proverbs 22:8; Hosea 8:7; Hosea 10:13; Galatians 6:7, Galatians 6:8). The words translated "iniquity" and "wickedness" express in the original both moral and physical evil. Men sew the one and reap the other. Eliphaz extends this general rule into a universal law, or, at any rate, declares that he has never known an exception. He has not, therefore, been grieved and perplexed, like David, by "seeing the ungodly in such prosperity" (Psalms 73:3). He would seem not to have been a man of very keen observation. Job 4:9 By the blast of God they perish; rather, by the breath of God, as in Job 37:10. The word used (גִשְׁמָה) means always, as Professor Lee observes," a slight or gentle breathing." The slightest breath of God’s displeasure is enough to destroy those against whom it is directed. And by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. Here "blast" would be better than "breath," for רוח is a stronger word than נשׁמה. Similarly, רוח is a stronger word than יאבדו. The breath kills, the blast utterly consumes, transgressors. Job 4:10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. Wicked men, especially oppressors, are often compared to lions in Scripture (see Psalms 7:2; Psalms 10:9; Psalms 17:12, etc.; Ezekiel 19:3,Ezekiel 19:5; Nahum 2:12; Zephaniah 3:3, etc.). The meaning of Eliphaz is that, within his experience, all classes of wicked men, young, or old, or middle-aged, weak or strong, have received in this life the reward of their iniquity. However fiercely they might roar, however greedily they might devour, their roaring has died away, their teeth have been broken in their mouths, vengeance has lighted on them in some shape or other; they have paid the penalty of their transgressions. Five classes of lions seem to be spoken of in this and the following verses: (1) the whelp (Job 4:11); (2) the half-grown lion, just able to make its voice heard; (3) the young full-grown lion (cephir); (4) the lion in full maturity (ariyeh); and (5) the old lion which is growing decrepit (laish). To these is joined (Job 4:11) labi, "the lioness." Lions are still frequent in the Mesopotamian region, though no longer found in Palestine, nor in Arabia. Job 4:11 The old lion perisheth for lack of prey. The human counterpart of the "old lion" is the oppressor whose strength and cunning begin to fail him, who can no longer carry things with a high hand, enforce his will on men by bluster and throats, or even set traps for them so skilfully that they blindly walk into them. Political charlatans whose role is played out, bullies whose nerve is beginning to fail, cardsharpers whose manual dexterity has de-sorted them, come under this category. And the stout lion’s whelps; rather, the whelps of the lioness (see the Revised Version). Are scattered abroad. Even the seed of ill-doers suffer. They are involved in their parents’ punishment (see Exodus 20:5). Eliphaz darkly hints that Job may have been among the class of oppressors, or (at any rate) of transgressors, and that the untimely fate of his children may have been the consequence of his evil-doings. Job 4:12-21 Eliphaz proceeds to narrate a spiritual experience of a very strange and striking character. It was night, and he had fallen asleep, when suddenly he was, or seemed to himself to be, awake. A horrible fear came over him, and all his limbs trembled and quaked. Then a spirit seemed to pass before his face, while every hair on his body rose up and stiffened with horror. It did not simply pass across him, but stood still, in a formless form, which he could see but not clearly distinguish. There was a deep hush. Then out of the silence there seemed to come a voice, a whisper, which articulated solemn words. "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man," etc.? Supernatural visitations were vouchsafed by God to many besides the chosen people—to Laban, when he pursued Jacob (Genesis 31:24), to Abimelech (Genesis 20:6), to the Pharaoh of the time of Joseph (Genesis 41:1-7), to his chief butler (Genesis 40:9-11), and his chief baker (Genesis 40:16, Genesis 40:17), to Balaam the son of Beer (Numbers 22:12, Numbers 22:20; Numbers 23:5-10, Numbers 23:16-24; Numbers 24:3-9, Numbers 24:15-24), to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:28-35; Daniel 4:1-32), and others. The method and manner of these visitations raise a multitude of questions which it is impossible to answer, but are convincing evidence to all who believe Scripture to be true, that communications can pass between the spiritual and material worlds of a strange and mysterious character. The communication to Eliphaz may have been a mere vision, impressed upon his mind in sleep, or it may have been actually brought to him by a spiritual messenger, whom he could dimly see, and whose voice he was privileged to hear. Modern pseudo-science pronounces such seeing and hearing to be impossible. But poets are often clearer-sighted than scientists, and Shakespeare utters a pregnant truth when he says— "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Job 4:12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me; rather, a word (or, a message) was brought to me stealthily. And mine ear received a little thereof; rather, a whisper thereof (see the Revised Version, and comp. Job 26:14, and the Vulgate, which gives susurrus). As the form of the vision was not distinct to Eliphaz’s eyes (Job 4:16), so neither were the words which were uttered distinct to his ears. He thinks himself able, however, to give the sense of them (see Job 4:17-21). Job 4:13 In thoughts from the visions of the night; literally, in the perplexities of the visions of night; i.e. "in that perplexing time when—how, they know not—visions come to men." The word translated "thoughts" occurs only here and in Job 20:2. When deep sleep falleth on men. Something more than ordinary sleep seems to be meant—something more approaching to what we call "trance" (comp. Genesis 2:21; Genesis 15:12; 1 Samuel 26:12, where the same word is used). Job 4:14 Fear came upon me, and trembling; compare the "horror of great darkness’’ which fell upon Abraham (Genesis 15:12). Our nature shrinks from direct contact with the spiritual world, and our earthly frame shudders at the unearthly presence. Which made the multitude of my bones to shake; or, which made my bones greatly to shake (so the LXX.’ Professor Lee, and others). Job 4:15 Then a spirit passed before my face. It has been argued (Rosenmuller) that "a breath of air," and not "a spirit," is intended; but, in that ease, how are we to understand the expressions in the following verse: "it stood still," "the form thereof," "an image"? A breath of air, the very essence of which is to be in motion, cannot stand still, nor has it any "form," "appearance," or "image." Granted that the Hebrew ruakh (רוח) may mean—like the Greek πνεῦμα, and the Latin spiritus—either an actual spirit, or a breath, a wind, it follows that, in every place where it occurs, we must judge by the context which is meant. Here certainly the context points to an actual living spirit, as what Eliphaz intended. Whether a spirit really appeared to him is a separate question. The whole may have been a vision; but certainly the impression left on Eliphaz was that he had had a communication from the spirit-world. The hair of my flesh stood up. Not the hair of his head only, but every hair on his whole body, stiffened, bristled, and rose up on end in horror (see the comment on Job 4:14). Job 4:16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof. Canon Cook quotes, very appositely, Milton’s representation of Death as a fearful shape, "If shape it could be called that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb, Or substance might be called that shadow seemed." An image was before mine eyes; or, on appearance (LXX; μορφή). There was silence; or, a hush—"status aeris nullo motu turbati, et tranquillissimus" (Schulteus). And I heard a voice, saying. After a while the silence was broken by a voice, which whispered in Eliphaz’s ear (comp. Job 4:12). Job 4:17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? Is it to be supposed that the ways of God can be rightly criticized and condemned by man? Surely not; for then man must be more penetrated with the spirit of justice than the Almighty. If our thoughts are not as God’s thoughts, it must be, our thoughts that are wrong. Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Equally impossible. God alone is absolutely pure. The best man must be conscious to himself, as Isaiah was (Isaiah 6:5), of uncleanness. Job 4:18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; rather, he putteth no trust’ or he putteth not trust. The" servants" intended are those that minister to him directly in heaven, the members of the angelic host, as appears from the parallelism of the other clause of the verse. Even in them God does not trust implicitly, since he knows that they are frail and fallible, liable to err, etc; only kept from sin by his own sustaining and assisting grace (setup. Job 15:15, where Eliphaz expresses the same belief in his own person). And his angels he charged with folly; rather, chargeth. The exact meaning of the word translated "folly" is uncertain, since the word does not occur elsewhere. The LXX. renders by σκολιόντι, "crookedness;" Ewald, Dillmann, and others, by "error." The teaching clearly is that the angels are not perfect—the highest angelic excellence falls infinitely short of God’s perfectness. Even angels, therefore, would be incompetent judges of God’s doings. Job 4:19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay! rather, hew muck more cloth he not put trust in them that inhabit houses of clay! i.e. "earthly bodies," bodies made out of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7; setup, Job 33:6). Whose foundation is in the dust; i.e." whose origin was the dust of the ground," which were formed from it and must return to it, according to the words of Gen 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou must return." Which are crushed before the moth. This is somewhat obscure. It may mean, "which are so fragile that a moth, a fly, or other weak creature may destroy them," or "which are crushed with the same ease with which a moth is crushed and destroyed." Job 4:20 They are destroyed from morning to evening. Human bodies undergo a continuous destruction. From the moment that we are born we begin to die. Decay of powers is coeval with their first exercise. Our insidious foe, Death, marks us as his own from the very first breath that we draw. Our bodies are machines wound up to go for a certain time. The moment that we begin to use them we begin to wear them out. They perish for ever. The final result is that Our" houses of clay "perish, crumble to dust, disappear, and come to nothing. They "perish for ever," says Eliphaz, repeating what he believed the spirit of Job 4:15 to have said to him; but it is not clear that he understood more by this than that they perish and disappear for ever, so far as this life and this world are concerned. Without any regarding it. No one is surprised or thinks it hard. It is the lot of man, and every one’s mind is prepared for it. Job 4:21 Doth not their excellency which is in them go away! "Their excellency" (יתרם) would seem to mean that which is highest in them—their spirit, or soul. It does not make much difference if we translate, with the Old Testament Revisers" their tent-cord," since that would be merely a metaphor for the soul, which sustains the body as the tent-cord does the tent. What deserves especial remark is that the "excellency" does not perish; it goes away, departs, or is removed. They die, even without wisdom; literally, not in wisdom; i.e. not having learnt in the whole course of their lives that true wisdom which their life-trials were intended to teach them. Job 4:1-11 Eliphaz to Job: the opening of the second controversy: 1. The relation of suffering to sin. I. A . Eliphaz, the oldest and wisest of the friends, adopts an apologetic strain in replying to Job’s imprecation, representing the task assumed by him as: 1. Painful to Job; which it certainly was. In circumstances even the most favourable, it requires no little grace to receive admonition with equanimity; not to speak of counting it a kindness and esteeming it an excellent oil (Psalms 141:5), and embracing its dispenser with affection (Proverbs 9:8); and much more when that admonition is not only felt to be undeserved, but spoken at a time when the soul, crushed beneath the burden of its misery, wants sympathy rather than reproof, and when, besides, the reproof is unfeeling in its tone and somewhat flavoured with self-complacency on the part of the giver. If to hear and accept rebuke be a sign of grace (Proverbs 15:5) and a pathway to wisdom (Proverbs 15:32) and honour (Proverbs 13:18), it is much more a mark of tender piety and fine Christian sagacity to be able to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and to rebuke with long-suffering (2 Timothy 4:2). Reproof that lacerates seldom profits. 2. Distasteful to himself (Eliphaz). Charity dictates that the best construction, rather than the worst, should be put upon the conduct of the Temanite. Hence, instead of pronouncing his language coarse, haughty, arrogant, and violent, we regard it, especially in the introduction, as characterized by delicacy and consideration, hinting, as it manifestly does, that Eliphaz had entered on the office of Mentor to his friend with reluctance; and certainly an office so fitted to give pain, and so apt to produce harmful results, should never be engaged in except with palpable tokens of grief. 3. Required by cerise. "But who can withhold himself from speaking?" The impulse which Eliphaz confessed was not the kindling heat of poetic fire, but the moral constraint of duty. (1) Duty to God (Le Job 19:17). A safe rule never to distribute censure except when so impelled. Only "compulsion from our own spirit should not be mistaken for impulsion from God’s." Men who never speak but under a sense of duty, seldom speak unkindly or in vain. (2) Duty to Job (Proverbs 27:5). Unless satisfied of our own sincerity in aiming at the good of those we censure, it is better to be silent; nay, it is wrong to speak. (3) Duty to himself (Proverbs 28:23). The light possessed by Eliphaz would have made silence on his part both a gross dereliction of duty and an indirect participation in the sin of Job. If, therefore, he would keep his conscience clean, he must "assay to commune with his friend." II. A . The piety of Job was acknowledged by Eliphaz to have been: 1. Conspicuous. "Behold!" Eminent piety can usually speak for itself, always secure attention, and seldom fails to elicit commendation. Even so should Christians let their light shine (Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 2:12). 2. Philanthropic. Job’s piety was not simply intellectual and emotional, but also practical, aiming at the good of others. Like the great Exemplar (Matthew 20:28; Acts 10:38), of whom in some respects he was a type, this Arabian patriarch went about doing good (Job 29:12-17). So Christ instructs his followers to do (Matthew 10:42; Luke 10:37; John 14:15; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Galatians 5:14; Colossians 3:12-14). Where works of faith and labours of love are entirely absent, there is ground to suspect that genuine religion is not present (Galatians 5:22; James 1:27; 1 John 3:17). 3. Manifold. (1) Instructing the ignorant (Job 29:21-23), giving counsel as a prince or magistrate in the gate, or as a friend and leader supplying directions for daily duty. (2) Correcting the wayward—according to another translation—by either the infliction of penalties for wrong-doing or the administration of judicial reprimand. (3) Sustaining the weak, upholding the sinking and fainting heart by kindly sympathy, and strengthening the feeble knees and hands by helpful succour. 4. Habitual. The tenses of the verbs indicate customary actions and lifelong habits. Isolated good deeds do not necessarily proceed from gracious hearts; there can be no better evidence of saintship than a lifetime of holy walking. III. A . 1. That Job’s piety had failed where it ought to have stood. "But now it is come upon thee and, thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled" (verse 5). Either (1) an expression of sincere astonishment that Job, who had so often and so efficiently ministered consolation to others, should have proved faint-hearted when like trouble fell upon himself,—reminding us that it is easier to preach patience than to practise it, that they who counsel others should strive to illustrate their own precepts, and that the world is never slow in remarking the deficiencies of good men; or (2) an utterance of keen invective (if we adopt the uncharitable view of Eliphaz’s language), as if he meant to taunt Job with doing the very thing for which he had so piously admonished others, exhibiting the same craven spirit in adversity against which he had warned them,—an interpretation which, if it is correct, reminds us that good men are long in getting rid of their corruptions, that grace often finds a lodging in strange quarters, that the Horatian maxim of seeing and approving better things and yet following worse was not unknown to Eliphaz any more than to Paul; but on either hypothesis (3) the record of a frequent experience, Job having been neither the first nor the last who has felt himself unequal to the task of practising what he has tried to preach. 2. That Job’s confidence had stood where it ought to have failed. "Is not thy fear thy confidence? And thy hope, is it not the uprightness of thy ways?" (verse 6) (1) Perhaps implying that Job had been previously resting with complacent satisfaction on his religious character, and deriving hope of Divine favour from the elevation of his piety, which, if Job had been doing, he had been living in egregious error, since "by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh living be justified;" but the statement of Eliphaz was a gratuitous slander, which one good man should always be careful in circulating, saying, or even thinking about another, since God alone can read the heart. (2) Insinuating that this previous confidence on the part of Job had been ill grounded, inasmuch as his piety could not have been sincere, in which case Job must have been guilty of hypocrisy; but this, again, was a mere inference on the part of Eliphaz, and in point of fact was incorrect. (3) Directing Job to find encouragement and hope in a return to the fear of God and to moral rectitude of life—an advice which, as addressed to Job, was not required, and, as given by Eliphaz, was a pure impertinence. IV. A . 1. That good men never perish. "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?" (verse 7). (1) An unkind statement, even if it had been true; considering Job’s situation. If there is "a time to speak," there is also "a time to be silent;" and though it is unquestionably wrong to suppress or tamper with the truth, there is nothing in religion that requires one to proclaim all the truth irrespective of circumstances, or even to present truth under any circumstances in its most repulsive forms. (2) An incorrect statement, as well as an unkind one. It was contradicted by the plainest facts of history, as Job maintained, and as the least competent observer might have perceived (Genesis 4:8; Acts 2:22, Acts 2:23; Hebrews 11:37). Those who undertake to comfort sufferers, and those who propound philosophies of affliction (or, indeed, of anything), should be careful to adhere to truth. 2. That bad men always perish. "Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same" (verse 8); in which may be noted: (1) The graphic description of wicked men, who are depicted (a) metaphorically as ploughing iniquity and sowing wickedness, alluding, perhaps, to the deliberate purpose, mental activity, steady perseverance, onward progress, and eager expectation with which great criminals contrive and carry out their nefarious schemes; and (b) analogically, being likened to a lion passing through the successive stages of its development, and increasing as it grows in strength, ferocity, and violence. (2) The melancholy overthrow of wicked men, who are consumed (a) in accordance with the natural laws of retribution, reaping the whirlwind where they have sown the wind (Proverbs 22:8; Hosea 8:7; Hosea 10:13; Galatians 6:7, Galatians 6:8); (b) by the express visitation of God, perishing (as Job’s children did, is what he means) by the blast of God, and before the breath of his nostrils; and (c) to the complete extinction of their former greatness, the providentially overtaken and divinely punished transgressor being compared to an old lioness, once formidable and powerful, roaring and devouring, but now lying helpless and impotent, toothless and voiceless, dying for lack of prey, and abandoned even by her whelps. (3) The amount of truth in the representation, which is correct in so far as it describes individual cases; as e.g. the antediluvians, the cities of the plain, Adonibezek (Judges 1:7), Belshazzar (Daniel 5:22, Daniel 5:30), Herod (Acts 12:23); but incorrect in so far as it claims to be of universal application. Learn: 1. To cultivate the habit of politeness of speech. Courtesy is a dictate of religion as well as an element of virtue. 2. To commend where we can, and reprove only where we must. To detect goodness in others is a higher attainment than to espy faults. 3. To beware of trusting in self-righteousness, as much after conversion as before. The saint’s trust should never be in himself, but always in his God. 4. To be cautious in making general deductions from what may, after all, be isolated facts. One man’s observation does not afford a basis broad enough for the construction of a philosophy of life. 5. To think about the harvests we shall reap before commencing to plough and sow. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" Job 4:6-8 Affliction. I. THE SOURCE OF IT. 1. Negatively. (1) It comes not without a cause. "The curse causeless shall not come" (Proverbs 26:2). (2) It comes not for any cause; i.e. by haphazard, by accident, since the whole universe is under the dominion of law (Matthew 10:29). (3) It comes not from a material cause; it springs not from the ground; it is not the result of a man’s terrestrial environment 2. Positively. (1) It comes from within man himself; it is the fruit of his own sin (2) It comes in accordance with universal moral law, which connects sin and suffering together as cause and effect. (3) It comes as an inseparable concomitant of man’s nature. Man, when he is born, finds himself introduced into a scene of trouble. II. THE OF IT. 1. Universal. It is the portion, not of one man, or a few, or even of many, but of the race. It forms a portion of the birthright of humanity. 2. Certain. It is absolutely unavoidable. As surely as the sparks ascend, so surely will those sinful passions rage that entail suffering and misery. 3. Perpetual. Meeting man upon the threshold of his birth, it accompanies him throughout life till its close. III. THE ESCAPE FROM IT. 1. Not by refractory rebellion. Not by behaving like the fool, or like Job, who cursed his day, and fumed and fretted against his misery. 2. But by patient submission. "Humble thyself beneath the hand of God, and he shall lift thee up." Job 4:12-21 Eliphaz to Job: 2. A message from the spirit-world. I. THE DEVOUT SEER. 1. Reposing on his couch. A modern poet (Robert Buchanan, ’Book of Orm.,’ 1.), depicting how "in the beginning, ere time grew," the beautiful Maker of all things drew around his face, which has ever since been invisible to mortal eye, the wondrous veil of the firmament, represents that face as closest pressed in the daytime, when the sky is clearest, adding that at nightfall, when the darkness deepens and the stars swim out, and the evening wind begins to blow like the breath of God, that veil is backward drawn. It more, however, accords with universal experience that the unseen world seems in closest proximity to the human soul when it looks down through "the star-inwrought luminous folds of the wondrous veil." That the light of garish day has a tendency, by shutting man into his own little world, to shut out from his apprehension the infinitudes above, is not more certain than it is that the finite spirit becomes more quickly conscious of the supernatural amidst the darkness and silence of night, than when these have been succeeded by the radiance and turmoil of day. 2. Wrapt in meditation. If day be the season for labour, unquestionably night is the time most congenial for the exercise of thought, especially for revolving the great problems of religion. As David meditated on God in the night-watches (Psalms 63:6), and Asaph communed with his heart in the night, his wakeful spirit making diligent search into those brooding mysteries which oppressed his waking hours (Psalms 77:6), and as a Greater than either spent whole nights among the Galilaean hills in prayer to God (Luke 6:12), so Eliphaz had "thoughts from the visions of the night." 3. Raised into ecstasy. Disengaged from the activities and disturbances of waking existence, and soothed by the calming influences of night, the meditative prophet fell into a deep sleep, not simply such a profound slumber as steeps the senses in oblivion to all outward things, but such a supernatural repose as Adam was cast in before the creation of Eve (Genesis 2:21), and Abraham at the making of the covenant (Genesis 15:12). and Daniel on the banks of the Ulai (Daniel 8:18), in which, while for the time the human spirit is severed from its physically conditioned life, it is yet in the innermost depths of its being possessed of a conscious existence—a mode of being perhaps as nearly approaching what man’s disembodied state will be as anything we can think of. 4. Visited by revelations. The deep sleep just described having been that into which prophets and others were east when about to receive Divine communications (cf. Abraham, Genesis 15:12; Jacob, Genesis 28:12; Daniel 2:19; Peter, Acts 10:10; Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:2, 2 Corinthians 12:3). Eliphaz the entranced was honoured by a visitation from the unseen world of ghosts. II. THE SPECTRE. 1. The premonition of its coming. "Fear came upon me, and trembling" (verse 14). Even good men are not always able to contemplate the supernatural with self-possession (cf. Matthew 14:26; Luke 24:37). That man should evince a horror of visitors from the spirit-world is a melancholy proof of his fall, Innocence would not be discomposed by knowing that "millions of spirits walk this air, both when we wake and when we sleep" (Milton). But sinful man, being out of harmony with the Supreme Spirit and the entire circle of creation, universally feels afraid of the unseen world by which he is surrounded (cf. ’Macbeth,’ Acts 3. sc. 4). 2. The manner of its coming. Gliding suddenly out of the darkness in which the entranced seer lay, flitting softly and noiselessly along upon the still, supernatural atmosphere with which the chamber was filled, moving steadily up till it came in full view of the dreamer’s open eye, it stood! The sleeper saw and was perfectly conscious of its presence, could discern there was an image, a dim shadowy nebulous appearance, but felt altogether incompetent to analyze its features. Yet there is no reason to suppose that, like Macbeth’s sword, this formless spectre was "a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain" (’Macbeth,’ Acts 2. sc. 1). The Sadducees denied the existence of spirits (Acts 23:8); but the language of Christ (Luke 24:39) implies that they were wrong, though, of course, it does not sanction either the ancient superstitious belief in ghost-stories or the modern delusion of spirit-rapping. 3. The effect of its coming. The terror of anticipation felt by Eliphaz deepened rote a nameless horror, in which "the hair of his flesh stood up" (verse 15), "like quills upon the fretful porcupine" (’Hamlet,’ Acts 1. sc. 5), or rather like nails or spikes upon a wall, each individual bristle stiffening itself into a cold and chilling isolation. 4. The accompaniment of its coming. A still, small voice fell upon his ear, like a dead and stealthy whisper (cf. 1 Kings 19:12). III. THE SHADOWY VOICE. 1. A clear demonstration of the sinfulness of man. (1) A question proposed: "Shall mortal man be mere just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" (verse 17). A great question, which, read as it stands (Calvin, Davidson, Cox, etc.), may be described as (a) searching, going down into the foundations of man’s being, inquiring into the ideas he possesses of moral excellence and spiritual integrity, as well as the measures and degrees in which those ideas have been realized in his own personal existence; (b) elevating, lifting man up into the serene altitudes of absolute purity in which God dwells, and setting him down with the dimmed lustre of his imperfect goodness beside the clear white light of God’s ineffable rectitude; (c) discriminating, neither confounding the two things, man’s righteousness and God’s, as if they were one and the same, nor mistaking the one for the other, as if they almost rivalled one another in their splendour, but distinguishing each from the other as essentially diverse and apart, God’s righteousness and holiness being inherent, perfect, eternal, while that of man is derived, immature, capable of increase and diminution, mutable, and subject to decay; and (d) challenging, demanding of sinful man whether he would dare to exalt himself, in respect of justice and purity, above the supreme God, his Maker? Formally, perhaps, no one would be guilty of the immeasurable presumption implied in asserting that he was equal to this; yet practically ever), sinner makes the claim of having stricter ideas of moral and spiritual integrity than God, when he impeaches either the equity of the Divine dealings with, Or the justness of the Divine sentence of condemnation against, himself. (2) A premiss stated: "Behold, he puts no trust in his servants, and his angels he charges with folly [or, ’imputeth to them wrong’]" (verse 18). The impious assumption that the creature might surpass the Creator in moral purity, the ghost quickly disposes of by showing that the former cannot possibly equal the latter, and this he does by establishing the moral inferiority to God of even the highest intelligences, the unfallen angels who serve him day and night in his celestial temple. Even they, beings of exalted dignity and radiant goodness, when brought up alongside of the light inaccessible and full of glory of the Divine character, appear to have their lustre tarnished. Whence the next step is inevitable. (3) A deduction made: "How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay!" (verse 19). If man is inferior to the angels, then much more is he inferior to God; and man’s inferiority to angels the spirit next proves. 2. An affecting representation of human frailty. Contrasted with the angelic race, man is depicted as a creature (1) whose origin is mean, being characterized as a dweller in a clay house, whose foundation is in the dust (verse 19), the allusion being to his corporeal frame, which, being composed of material elements, incontestably proclaims his inferiority; (2) whose duration is short, he being an ephemerid who is" crushed before the moth" (verse 19) and "destroyed from morning to evening" (verse 20), i.e. in the course of a single day; (3) whose importance is small, he being regarded with such contempt, not only by higher orders of intelligence, but by the members of his own race, that he is a]lowed to die unheeded, "to perish for ever without any regarding it" (verse 20); (4) whose glory is evanescent, whatever grandeur or excellency man may attain on earth passing away with him when he dies: "Doth not their excellency which is in them go away?’ (verse 21); and (5) whose failure is conspicuous, man commonly dying as he was born, "without wisdom’" i.e. without having attained to more than the alphabet of knowledge. Yet, affecting as this picture of man is, it is only half true. It exhibits only one aspect of man’s nature and condition. If a dweller in a house of clay, man is yet of Divine origin, being the breath of God’s Spirit, and an immortal whose existence shall not be counted by years, and of such importance in the universe that God parted with his Son in order to effect his redemption, and whose true glory (Isaiah 60:19) shall never fade, and whose ultimate attainment to wisdom shall be made good in a brighter and better world. Learn: 1. That heaven is never far removed from the pious. 2. That those who think most about God obtain most communications from God. 3. That even good men may long remain, through fear of death and the unseen world, subject to bondage 4. That Divine voices seldom speak in tempests and hurricanes, but mostly in still, small voices. 5. That God, being higher than the highest, should be regarded by all his creatures with reverence and fear. 6. That man, even at his best state, is altogether vanity. 7. That, in the judgment of Heaven, no life is successful that terminates without having attained to wisdom. BY E. JOHNSON Job 4:1-11 Eliphaz and Job: forgotten truths called to mind. However misapplied to his particular case may have been the speeches of Job’s friends, there can be no dispute concerning the purity and the sublimity of the great truths for which they here appear as spokesmen. If not well directed to Job, they may be well directed to us. Each of the friends represents a certain aspect of the truths which relate man to God. In the speech of Eliphaz the main position taken is that man, in his ignorance and sinfulness, must be silent in presence of the all-just and all-holy God. I. OF PAST WITH PRESENT . (Verses 1-6.) Job is reminded of what he was, and asked to account for what he is. 1. The appeal to memory. A bright, a radiant memory it was. He had been the director of many—"guide, philosopher, and friend" to young and old in the perplexities of life. Again, he had been the comforter of the sorrowful and the weak; had strengthened the hands that hung down and the feeble knees: had led in straight paths the feet of those who erred. It is a beautiful picture of an amiable, benevolent, God-like career. He had not, like many, to look back upon a barren waste, a selfish and misspent life, but upon one filled with "deeds of light." Thanks to God if any man can turn in the hour of despondency to memories so fair and green! 2. Expostulation with his present mood. How is it, then, now that pain and grief have touched his own person, that he is so utterly cast down? Why not apply the medicine and the balm for your own disease and hurt which were found so healing in the case of others? If the remedy was ever good for them, ’twas because it was first good for you. If the counsel and the comfort you were wont to offer to the sick and sad had not been proved by you, it was of no avail to press them upon others. But if they accepted it and were blessed, why can you not now prescribe for your own malady’? "Physician, heal thyself. Sink in thyself, then ask what ails thee at that shrine!" 3. Appeal to the power of religion and to the consciousness of innocence. The sixth verse would be better rendered, "Is thy religion [fear of God] not thy confidence? thy hope the innocence of thy ways?" Religion is a great mainstay in all the storms of the soul. So long as a man can say, "It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good," he has a support which nothing can move. But so also is conscious integrity a grand spring of comfort, because of hope "hops that reaps not shame." To sow the seeds of virtue in health and activity is to reap the harvest of hope in illness, enforced idleness, in weakness, and in death. Hope is the kind nurse of the ailing and the old; and why is Job without the angelic ministry of her presence now? Let us put these questions of Eliphaz to ourselves. II. FROM . (Verses 7-11.) These Eliphaz proceeds to draw, Job still remaining silent at his first appeal. The inference is that there has been guilt to account for these great troubles. And the inference is justified by an appeal to the great teacher, experience. 1. General experience proves that calamity points to guilt. As a rule, it is not good men who sink, nor upright hearts that are utterly overwhelmed. There are, or seem to be, exceptions of which the philosophy of Eliphaz takes no account. But, indeed, how slight are upon the whole these seeming exceptions to the grand moral rule! As in grammar, so in life, the exceptions may be found, on closer examination, only to enlarge and illustrate our conception of the rule. 2. The teaching of experience is supported by that of nature. (Verse 8.) The laws of nature are constant. Every reaping implies a previous sowing, every harvest is the offspring of the early labour of the year. Therefore—this is the rigid reasoning of Eliphaz—this trouble of his friend implies a previous sowing in the fields of sin. It is the rough, broad statement of a sublime principle in the government of God. It is given without exceptions, but it will be time enough to look at the exceptions when we have first mastered the rule. 3. Pictures from nature, which illustrate this moral law. (Verses 9, 10, 11.) Nature flashes back her light upon those truths which we have first learned from experience and conscience. Two such pictures are here sketched. One is that of the violent blast from heaven, which breaks the rotten tree, hurls the dry leaves into the stream, scatters the worthless chaff. Such is the fate of the worthless man, the mind devoid of principle and therefore of vitality and worth. The other picture—and it is less familiar, and perhaps still more powerful—is that of the fierce lion, toothless, vainly roaring, perishing at last for lack of prey, its young ones all dispersed l Such, again, is the fate of the bold, bed man. To this end his devouring lusts have brought him. The appetite for sin continuing to the last—the food of appetite, nay, the very power to enjoy, at last withdrawn. Where, in the compass of so few lines, can we find so powerful an illustration of the wages and the end of sin? Side by side with this powerful image we may place some other pictures in which Scripture represents the doom of the unprincipled and godless man. He is like the chaff before the breeze, like the juniper in the desert, unwetted by the refreshing dew of heaven, like the tree all flourishing to-day, to-morrow feeling the stroke of the woodman’s axe, or like the dross which is consumed in the furnace where the true gold brightens, like the rapidly burning tow, or like a dream when one awakes—an image, the unreality of which is destined to be discovered and scorned.—J. Verse 12-5:7 The oracle in a dream of the night. Here we have the narration of one of those revelations in visions of the night, through which man so frequently learned in the elder time to know the will of the Eternal. Every line of the description is significant and impressive. I. THE OF THE NIGHT. 1. It is the season of solitude. In the daytime we have many to keep us company, to encourage us, it may be, in false or idle thoughts, or divert us from those that are serious. Now at last we are alone, and must stand face to face with self, with truth, with God. 2. It is the season of silence. There is no noise, no confusion, drowning the still, small voices which otherwise might be heard. 3. It is the time of darkness. The eye is no longer filled with sights that divert the fancy and unbend the fixity of the mind’s direction. Pascal says that the reason why men pursue field sports and other amusements with so much eagerness is that they may fly from themselves, which is a night that none can bear. But the darkness, throwing a veil above the bright outer world, flings the man back upon himself, forces him into the inner chamber of conscience. Happy those who have learned to employ the wakeful hours in self-communion and in communion with God, and who find that "night visions do befriend, while waking dreams are fatal." II. THE OF GOD’S VOICE. This is a thought made very prominent in the description, as in the revelation to Elijah on Horeb—the calmness and gentleness of the voice of the Unseen and the Divine. Eliphaz says the word "stole" upon him, and it was a "gentle sound" his ear received (Job 5:12). It was a "whispering voice" (Job 5:16), like the susurrus, or rustling of the leaves of a tree in the quiet air of night. For all who willingly listen, the voice of the great Father of spirits is calm, quiet, gentle, though strong and awful. Only upon the stubborn ear and obdurate heart does it peal in the end with thunder and menace. III. THE EFFECT UPON THE HUMAN HEART OF GOD’S VOICE. (Job 5:14.) It cannot be heard without awe and without terror. One tone of that voice vibrating through the whole consciousness awakens instantly all the sense of our weakness, our ignorance, and our sin. And here we have all the physical symptoms faithfully described which testify to the agitation of the soul in presence of the Unseen. There is a trembling and quivering of the whole frame in every limb. The hair stands on end. A materialistic philosophy, which either denies or ignores man’s relation to the Unseen, can never explain away these phenomena. They are involuntary witnesses to the reality of that power which besets us behind and before, which is "closer to us than our breathing, nearer than hands and feet," from which we cannot flee. IV. THE . (Job 5:15, Job 5:16.) It is well to note in what vague and awful touches the presence of the Divine is hinted. A spirit passes before the sleeper—it stands still—but its form, its features, cannot be exactly discerned. There is the like vagueness in Moses’ vision, and in that of Isaiah in the temple. For no man can look upon the face of God, no man can receive aught but the dimmest and faintest impression of that inexpressible form. These descriptions yield us lessons as public teachers. They remind us that a tone of reserve, a simplicity of description, not overpassing the reverential bounds of Scripture, the suggestion of a vast background of mystery, should accompany all that we venture to speak to men concerning God. V. THE ORACLE. (Verses 17-21.) It is a solemn rebuke to that spirit which Eliphaz thought he discerned in his friend—the assumption of innocence and righteousness in the presence of God. "For there is not a just man upon earth, which doeth good and sinneth not" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Its contents may be summed up m the words of the psalm (Psalms 143:2), "In thy sight shall no man living be justified." Its meaning is echoed in such words as these: "Righteous, O God, art thou in thy judgments" (Jeremiah 12:1); "Let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged" (Romans 3:4) There is no privilege of question, of criticism, of reproach, or complaint’ when man approaches the works of God. His part is to understand and to submit. The right of criticism implies some equality of knowledge; but how can this subsist between the creature and the Creator? "Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:20). Criticism is silenced in the presence of overwhelming superiority. There are a few great works even of human art before which the tongue of cavil and fault-finding is hushed. Who dares to sit in judgment on the sculptures of a Phidias, or the paintings of a Raphael, or the poems of a Shakespeare? Admiration, study, have here alone place. At least, in these mere human works, the presumption ever is that the master is right and the critic is a fool. How much more must this be so in the relation between the ignorant creature and the omniscient Creator? But in the oracle, this great truth is supported, not by a comparison of ignorant man with great geniuses, but by a comparison of men with angels. They are the immediate servants of the Most High; they stand nearer to him than man. Yet they are imperfect, unworthy of the full confidence of their Divine Lord, liable to error and mistake. How much more so man, who is conscious of sin as they are not—sin that disturbs his judgment, that clouds his perceptions! Again, the angels enjoy a life ever vigorous and young, that knows not decay nor death! But man inhabits a house of clay, an earthly tabernacle; he wears a "muddy vesture of decay," and lives on "this dim spot of earth." He is an ephemeral creature, living from dawn to sunset; easily crushed like a moth; living in dense ignorance, amid which death suddenly surprises him. This, it is true, is not the only aspect of human life. All is comparison. If man’s spiritual nature be contrasted with the shortness of his life and the feebleness of his powers, it rises into grandeur by the comparison. But if his mere intellect be brought into contrast with the Infinite Intelligence, then he must needs sink into insignificance. A true comparison will either teach us faith and hope, or humility; and both lessons are derived from the nearer view of the pro-founder knowledge of the greatness of God. VI. FROM THE ORACLE. 1. The idleness of complaints against God.. (Job 5:1.) For the very angels, should Job apply to one of them, would in the consciousness of their relation to the Supreme, adopt no complaint of the kind. 2. Such complaining spirit is the sign of a fatal folly. (Verses 2, 3.) ’Tis a sin which, if indulged, will slay the sinner. And here follows another powerful picture of the dread fatality attending upon the fool—upon him who would in thought and life nourish a quarrel with Heaven. He may for a time appear prosperous and firmly rooted, but the doom will fall upon him and his house. "I knew such a case," says Eliphaz, with emphasis. "Not blinded by the outward dazzle of his future, I, in abhorrence of his character, predicted his downfall; and it has come to pass. His sons, feeling all the weight of a father’s guilt, are thrust aside, and can obtain no justice at the hands of their fellows (verse 4). Those whom the father had oppressed seize, as in the hunger and thirst of the ’wild justice’ of revenge, upon the property of the sons; they ravage and despoil, and snatch the vainly guarded harvest even from among the thorns" (verse 5). LESSON. There is a cause of every human suffering, and that cause is not external, but internal (verses 6, 7). Not external. Not accidental. Not like the weed that springs from the earth, and which can be rooted out at will. But internal. The cause of man’s sufferings is deeply seated in his nature. He is born to suffer. He is a native of the territory of woe. As certain this as any physical law—as that sparks should fly upward, and that stones should fall. Vain, then, these murmurs against the course and constitution of things. Whatever is, is best. If sorrow be a great part of our destiny, resignation is our wisdom and our duty. And he who has learned calmly to bow before the inevitable, and to submit to law, is prepared to listen to those sweet consolations which Eliphaz proceeds to unfold from the nature of him whose will is to bless, not curse; who follows out, by the very means of pain and sorrow, the eternal counsels of love.—J. Job 4:1-6 The teacher tested. Throughout the words of Job’s friends many truths are to be found both accurately stated and beautifully illustrated; but in many cases—almost generally—a wrong application of them is made. The friends designing to be comforters do, through imperfect views of the mystery of human suffering, indeed become accusers, and make the burden heavier which they proposed to lighten. But the words now under consideration are perfectly true. He who had formerly been the instructor of many, and the strengthener of them of feeble knees, is now himself smitten, and he faints; he is touched and troubled. The lesson is therefore to the teacher who can pour out words of instruction to others, and to the comforter who aims at consoling the sorrowful. His principles will one day be tested in his own experience, and he will in his own life prove their truthfulness or their falsity. Eliphaz insinuates, if he does not actually affirm, Job’s failure. "To be forewarned is to be forearmed;" and the wise teacher will become a learner in presence of these words. We may, then, say— I. TRUTH MAKES ITS DEMANDS ON ITS . They ally themselves with it. They proclaim it. They declare their faith in it. They vouch for it. The more really a man is a teacher the more is he a disciple. It is the perfect alliance of the teacher with the truth he teaches that gives him power over others in its exposition. Upon him, then, the greatest demand is made that the truth he has affirmed should find its highest illustration in his own life—that his life should not give the lie to his lips. It is thus that— II. THE TEACHER OF TRUTH HAS THE BEST OF ITS MOST . Eliphaz could not yet see how Job, holding fast his integrity, would present a brilliant example of the truthfulness of his doctrine. To expound truth with the lips is possible to the simulator and hypocrite. He may say, and do not. He may declare the authority of a truth, and contradict that authority and his own saying by disobedience. Such were the Pharisees of our Lord’s time. From them truth received the highest homage by verbal acknowledgment, but they proved themselves untrue and unfaithful disciples of truth by the discredit they threw upon it by their disobedience to its requirements. The teacher of truth, making the truth his own by a thorough embrace of it, and a real and unfeigned sympathy with it, teaches more by his life than by his lips; for the one men discredit, but the other is undeniable. Fidelity in the teacher is the highest proof of his faith in his doctrine, and by it he pays the utmost tribute to the doctrine that he is able to pay. III. THE SUPREME DUTY OF THE TEACHER IS TO HIS . By his faithfulness his scholars are confirmed in their belief and steadfastness. It is a black crime for a man to proclaim a truth or a teaching that affects the life and hope of his fellow-men, and yet prove a traitor to it by unfaithfulness. The foundations of the hope of many have been shaken and even uprooted by such conduct. By how much the truth a man proclaims is important, by so much is the responsibility of his own treatment of that truth great. Job was a bright example of fidelity, though severely tried. IV. THE OF A TO A GREAT TRUTH. He who links himself with great truths is exalted by them. They honour him who houours them. They bring him to glory and true renown.—R.G. Job 4:7-11 The consequences of evil-doing. The New Testament teaching is, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It is precisely as the present verses. "They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." So does the testimony of the ages warn evil-doers. This rule is inevitable; it is just; it is natural; it is admonitory. I. THIS ORDER IS . He who has ordained the laws of nature, fixed, calm, indestructible, has also ordained that the doer of evil shall reap the fruit of his ill-doing. An inevitable Nemesis follows the steps of every offender against Divine laws. Sooner or later judgment is passed. No skilfulness can evade the omnipotent rule. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." Minutely did our Lord lay down the same teaching: "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." One may as well try to throw off the law of gravitation. It holds us all fast in its firm grip. So does this Divine law framed by the same hand. II. THIS LAW IS JUST. The wise and holy Ruler of all—"the Creator of all worlds, the Judge of all men"—will do right, does do right in the administrations of his holy laws. He is not vindictive. His anger is holy anger; his wrath is as truly just as his love is tender. He has laid the foundations of human life in righteousness. He is just; for he rendereth to every man according to his deeds. Without doubt he takes note of all the circumstances in which every one is placed, and neither accuses the guiltless nor excuses the guilty. Men find in their own acts the cause of their sufferings, and the justification of the righteous judgment of God. In every breast the most painful conviction will be the assurance of the perfect righteousness of the Divine ways, and the justice of every Divine infliction. The inward reflection of the Divine judgment of condemnation is the most painful of all judgments. III. THE OF THIS LAW IS NATURAL. Consequences follow causes with the same regularity of law in the moral as in the material world. A wrong thought gives a wrong bias to the mind, and leaves it so much the more liable to be influenced in a wrong direction; so of every word or deed of evil. Each wrong act is a seed cast into the ground, and it bears its fruit after its own kind to him Who sows it, Of evil, good cannot spring up. So every man by his wrong-doing treasures up for himself wrath against the day of wrath. He receives his reward in his character, in the condition of mind and life to which he is reduced by evil or elevated by goodness. IV. THIS LAW IS TO ALL. There is no escape by mere law from the ill consequences of any bad act. The inevitable consequences which follow all wrongdoing should warn men off from forbidden paths. "By the blast of God they perish" is the warning threat against the sowers of wickedness and them that "plough iniquity." Though men rage as the fierce lions, their roaring is broken; they perish, and their seed is scattered abroad.—R.G. Job 4:12-21 The condemnation of man in presence of the Divine holiness. With a figure of great boldness and grandeur Eliphaz urges his words upon Job. He is trying to illustrate the great principle of the righteous retributions of the Divine government. In the visions of the night there appeared a spirit to pass before his face, and in the dead silence he heard a voice saying, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" It cannot be. And the vision of Eliphaz finds its fulfilment in Job himself, who in the end is bowed down to the earth in self-abasing shame and condemnation. I. ALL MEN MUST OF BE SELF- IN OF THE DIVINE . Alas! we are all sinful; our best deeds are faulty, and the element of sinfulness mingles with all our acts as truly as the element of imperfectness. We cannot stand in the presence of the absolutely Perfect One. Even the rudest vanity must be appalled and humbled in his sight. II. THE OF THE DIVINE A CHECK TO SELF- . In the absence of a true and lofty standard of right, men boast themselves of their goodness. Measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, they are led to the proud assumption of fancied righteousness. The standards are faulty; even the faulty ones, therefore, reach them. He is wise who can say, "But now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." III. THE OF THE DIVINE A TO LOWLY, HUMBLE, FEAR. This fear is the beginning of wisdom; and the highest attainments of wisdom do not depart from this fear. It is the beginning and the consummation of holy wisdom. IV. THE PUREST AND MOST EXALTED BEINGS ARE ABASED IN THE DIVINE . "His angels he charged with folly." How much more, therefore, the children of the dust,—"them that dwell in houses of clay"!—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 4:1 Eliphaz the visionary. After Job has broken the seven days’ silence, each of his friends assays to comfort him, with that most irritating form of consolation—unsolicited advice. Although, perhaps, some of the critics have thought they detected greater differences Between the three friends than are really apparent from the narrative, we cannot but notice certain distinctive features. What they have in common is more pronounced than their points of difference. Thus they all three are friends of Job, who really desire to show their sympathy and help the sufferer. They all tender unasked counsel. They all assume an irritating position of superiority. They all adhere to the prevalent dogma that great calamity is to be accounted for as the punishment of great sin. They all believe in the justice of God and his readiness to forgive and restore if Job will but confess his sins and humble himself. But they manifest certain interesting differences. The first friend to speak is Eliphaz, who appears as a seer of visions. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 5:1-27 Eliphaz, having narrated his vision, and rehearsed the words which the spirit spoke in his ear, continues in his own person, first (Job 5:1-7) covertly reproaching Job, and then (verses 8-27) seeking to comfort him by the suggestion that, if he will place himself unreservedly in the hands of God, it is still possible that God may relent, remove his chastening hand, deliver him from his troubles, and even give him back all his former prosperity. The anticipation is in remarkable accordance with the ultimate event (Job 42:10-17), and shows that Eliphaz, if not a prophet in the higher sense, is at least a sagacious interpreter of God’s ways with men, and can very happily forecast the future. Job 5:1 Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; rather, call now; is there any that will answer thee? What aid, that is, wilt thou invoke, if thou turnest away from God, and reproachest him? Thinkest thou to find any one in heaven or earth to answer to the call and come to thy assistance? Utterly vain is any such hope. And to which of the saints wilt thou turn? By "the saints" are meant in this place "the holy angels" (comp. Job 15:15; Psalms 89:7; Zechariah 14:5). The question, "To which wilt thou turn?" seems to imply that there was already in Job’s time some knowledge of individual members of the angelic host, such as Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, etc; though we have no mention of any names of angels in Scripture until the time of Daniel (Daniel 8:16; Daniel 9:21). That invocation of angels was an actual practice in Job’s age is, however, scarcely proved by this passage. Job 5:2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one. For "wrath" and "envy "others suggest "vexaation" and "impatience" (Lee), or "vexation’’ and "jealousy" (Revised Version). The connection of thought seems to be, "For thou art quite foolish enough to let thy vexation and impatience prompt thee to such a course, which could only lead to thy destruction." Eliphaz is quite sure that trust in any other beside God, and appeal to any other against God, is utter folly, sinful infatuation, and must lead to the ruin of whoever indulges in it. Thus the invocation of angels receives no countenance from him, but the contrary. Job 5:3 I have seen the foolish taking root. The "I" is emphatic. "I myself have seen," etc. What Eliphaz had seen was that folly, i.e. sinful infatuation, was always punished. It might seem to prosper: the foolish man might seem to be taking root; but Eliphaz was not deceived by appearances—he saw through them, he knew that there was a curse upon the man’s house, and so pronounced it accursed. And the ruin which he had foreseen, it is implied, followed. But suddenly; rather, immediately, without hesitation. I cursed his habitation; i.e. "pronounced it accursed, declared that the curse of God rested upon it?" Job 5:4 His children are far from safety. The sins of the fathers arc visited upon the children. Eliphaz makes covert allusion to the death of Job’s children (Job 1:19). Feeling, however, that he is on delicate ground, he goes on into details which in no way fit their case. And (he says) they are crushed in the gate; i.e. they are oppressed, crushed, by litigations. The house once smitten of God, human beasts of prey enter in; claims are made against the children; lawsuits commenced; all the arts of chicanery set in motion; every effort made to strip them of their last penny. (For the sense here assigned to "the gate," see Job 29:7 and Job 31:21.) Neither is there any to deliver them. No one intercedes on their behalf, undertakes their detente in the courts, or makes any effort to avert their ruin. This picture of legal oppression accords very closely with what we know of the East in all ages (comp. Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 3:14, Isaiah 3:15; Isaiah 5:23; Isaiah 10:2, etc.). Oriental cowardice causes men to shrink from casting in their lot with those whom Misfortune has marked as her own. Job 5:5 Whose harvest the hungry eateth up. Covetous men rush in and "eat up" all that the family possesses, thus bringing it to the extreme of poverty and want. And taketh it even out of the thorns. Vain is any protection that may be devised. As hedges, even of the prickly pear, do not keep out a band of plunderers, so there is no obstacle which those bent on robbing them will not overcome. And the robber swalloweth up their substance; or, the thirsty; i.e. those who thirst after it. Job 5:6 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground. There is a tacit reference to what was said in Job 4:8. Affliction and trouble are not chance products of spontaneous growth. They only spring up when men have prepared the ground for them, and planted in it an evil seed. Job 5:7 Yet man is born unto trouble. Yet still, in point of fact, man is born to trouble. He has a corrupt nature, and always sins more or less. Each sin brings him into trouble, since it entails on him a punishment. As the sparks fly upward; literally, the sons of flame. Some suppose "meteoric flashes" to be meant: others suggest, "ignited arrows." But many good Hebraists maintain the rendering of the Authorized Version. Job 5:8 I would seek unto God; rather, as in the Revised Version; but as for me, I would seek’ etc.; i.e. if the case were mine, if I were afflicted as thou art, I would not betake myself to any of the angels (see Job 5:1), but would cast myself wholly upon God. It is necessarily implied that Job had not done so. And unto God would I commit my cause (comp. Psalms 37:5; Proverbs 16:3). Job 5:9 Which doeth great things and unsearchable. These are reasons why Job should "seek unto God." "Great things are those which he has done." There is none like unto him. His ways are "unsearchable;’’ no one may think fully to search them and seek them out (comp. Job 9:10; Job 37:5; Psalms 145:3: Romans 11:33). It may be that, if Job will appeal to him, a result will follow that at present seems impossible. For he doeth marvellous things without number (comp. Psalms 40:5; Psalms 72:18; Psalms 77:14; Psalms 136:4). Eliphaz proceeds to mention some of them. Job 5:10 Who giveth rain upon the earth. To the dweller in the parched regions of South-Western Asia rain is the greatest of all blessings, and seems the greatest, of all marvels. When for months and months together the sun has blazed all day long out of a cloudless sky, when the heaven that is over his head has been brass, and the earth that is under him iron (Deuteronomy 28:33), a great despair comes upon him, and that it should ever rain again seems almost an impossibility. Where is the rain to come from? From that cruel, glaring sky, which has pursued him with its hostility week after week, and month after month? Or from that parched earth in which, as it seems, no atom of moisture is left? When God at length gives rain, he scarcely believes his eyes. What? The blessed moisture is once more descending from the sky, and watering the earth, and quickening what seemed dead, and turning the desert into a garden! All Eastern poetry is full of the praises of rain, of its blessedness, of its marvellousness, and of its quickening power. Very naturally Eliphaz, in speaking of God’s marvellous works of mercy, mentions rain first, as, within his experience, one of the chief. And sendeth waters upon the fields. This is either the usual pleonastic repetition of the second hemistich, or (perhaps) a reference to the fountains and rills of water, which spring into being as a consequence of the rain. Job 5:11 To set up on high those that be low. God’s physical blessings are intended to subserve moral ends. He gives his rain, both the former and the latter, to raise up men from despair, to enable them to see in him a God of mercy as well as a God of vengeance; and with the same object, after withholding it from us for a while, he pours into our parched hearts the dew of his Holy Spirit. That those which mourn may be exalted to safety; or, "raised to safety" (Lee). Job 5:12 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty; or, frustrateth—makes them of no effect (comp. Psalms 33:10; Isaiah 8:10). Some suppose Eliphaz to insinuate here that Job’s apparent wisdom has not been true wisdom, but cunning or craft, and that therefore God has brought it to nought. But to us it rather seems that he enunciates a.general sentiment, and a true one. He is giving examples of the "marvellous things" which God does (verse 9), and naturally enumerates among them his victories over the craft and cunning of his adversaries (comp. Isaiah 44:25). So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise; literally, and their hands accomplish nothing solid. No substantial result is effected by all their scheming. Job 5:13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Men are, as Shakespeare says, "hoist with their own petard." They "fall into their own nets together" (Psalms 141:1-10:11), while the godly, their intended prey, "escape them." And this is God’s doing—it is his providence which brings it to pass. And the counsel of the froward is carried headlong; or, "put to confusion" (Lee). Job 5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime (comp Deuteronomy 28:29 and Isaiah 59:10). The metaphor expresses the bewilderment of the crafty, when they find their schemes foiled, and all their subtlety of no avail. Suddenly their light goes out; they know not what to do, or which way to turn; "their way is hid" (Job 3:23); they are baffled, perplexed, confounded. And grope in the noonday as in the night (comp. Job 12:25). A variant form of the preceding hemistich. Job 5:15 But he sayeth the poor from the sword, from their mouth; rather, from the sword of their mouth; i.e. from their cruel and destructive words (Psalms 57:4; Psalms 64:3; Proverbs 12:18), which cut "like a sharp razor" (Psalms 52:2). By calumny, innuendoes, lies, fraudulent representations, and the like, the ungodly work, perhaps, more injury than by their actions. And from the hand of the mighty. God delivers the poor both from their words and from their deeds. Job 5:16 So the poor hath hope. With the fall of each crafty oppressor, the poor man’s hopes revive. He feels that "God ruleth in Jacob, and unto the ends of the world" (Psalms 59:13). He recognizes the fact that the Almighty "maintains the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor" (Psalms 140:12), that he is "a Refuge for the oppressed, a Refuge in times of trouble" (Psalms 9:9). And iniquity stoppeth her mouth (comp. Psalms 107:42). Either "the oppressors themselves are struck dumb, recognizing the fact that God is against them;" or "those who perversely question God’s ways are struck dumb, seeing his retributive justice." If we understand the passage in the latter sense, we may see in it a reproof of Job’s murmurs against his treatment by God (Job 3:11-26). Job 5:17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth! This "opens," as Professor Lee observes, "a new view of the subject." Hitherto Eliphaz has regarded afflictions as simply punitive. Now it occurs to him that they are sometimes chastisements. The difference is that punishment has regard only to the past, to the breach of the moral law committed, and the retribution which has to follow it. Chastisement looks to the future. It aims at producing an effect in the mind of the person chastised, at benefiting him, and raising him in the scale of moral being. In this point of view afflictions are blessings (see Hebrews 12:5-11). Recognizing this, Eliphaz suddenly bursts out with the acknowledgment, "Happy is the man [or, ’blessings on the man’] whom God correcteth!" (Comp. Proverbs 3:11, Proverbs 3:12; Psalms 94:12; 1 Corinthians 11:32). He suggests to Job the idea that his sufferings are not punishments, but chastisements—that they may be but for a time. Let him receive them in a proper spirit; let him humble himself under them, and they may work altogether for his good, his latter end may surpass his early promise. Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Words quoted by the authors of Proverbs (Proverb s3:11), and of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:5), and well deserving to be laid up in the recollection of all faithful souls. They remind us that God’s chastenings are blessings or the contrary, as we make them. Accepted humbly, they improve men, exalt the moral character, purge it of its dross, and bring it nearer to the perfection at which God would have us aim (Matthew 5:48). Rejected, chafed against, received with discontent and murmurings, they injure us, cause our characters to deteriorate, sink us instead of raising us in the moral scale. Job was now undergoing the ordeal—with what result remained to be determined. Job 5:18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up. Metaphors drawn from the healing art. He "maketh sore"—applies the scalpel and the cautery when and where they are needed; and then, after a while, "bindeth up"—employs his lint and bandages; in both cases alike seeking the good of the sufferer. He woundeth, and his hands make whole (setup. Deuteronomy 32:39; Hosea 6:1). Job 5:19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven (comp. Amos 1:3, Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13, "For three transgressions … and for four"). An idiomatic way of expressing an indefinite number. There shall no evil touch thee; i.e. no real evil, nothing calculated to do thee real hurt. All affliction is "for the present grievous;" but if it "afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby" (Hebrews 12:11), it does not do us harm, but good. Job 5:20 In famine he shall redeem thee from death. Famine appears throughout the whole of Scripture as one of God’s severest chastisements (see Leviticus 26:19, 20; Deuteronomy 28:22-24; 2 Samuel 21:1; 2 Samuel 24:13; 2 Kings 8:1; Psalms 105:16; Isaiah 14:30; Jeremiah 24:10; Revelation 18:8). Ezekiel speaks of "the sword, the famine’ the noisome beast, and the pestilence," as God’s "four sore judgments" (Ezekiel 14:21). Miraculous deliverances from famine are related in Genesis 41:29-36; 1 Kings 17:10-16; 2 Kings 7:1-16. And in war from the power of the sword. In war God protects whom he will, and they seem to have charmed lives. They are covered with his feathers, and safe under his wings (Psalms 91:4). Job 5:21 Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue (comp. Psalms 31:20). God will also protect his own from "the scourge of the tongue," i.e. from calumny, from abuse, from bitter words (see the comment on Job 5:15). Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh; rather, of devastation. "Shod (שׁוֹר) populationes, praedationes, calamitosas tempestates, terrae motus, ruinas, incendia, mala omnia vasti-tatem inducentia, amplectitur" (Schultens). Job 5:22 At destruction (rather, devastation) and famine; rather, dearth. The word is not the same as that used in Job 5:20, but a weaker cue. Thou shalt laugh; "Thou shalt smile" (Lee). Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. "The beasts of the earth"—i.e. destructive and ferocious wild beasts, like the Indian "man-eaters"—are enumerated among God’s "four sore plagues". In ancient times they were sometimes so numerous in a country that men were afraid to occupy it. Job 5:23 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; i.e. there shall be peace between thee and all the rest of God’s creation, even "the stones of the field," against which thou shalt not dash thy foot (Psalms 91:12); and if the senseless stones am thus in league with thee, and refrain from doing thee hurt, much more mayest thou be sure that the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. For they are not altogether senseless, and will in some sort understand that thou art under God’s protection, and not to be molested by them. A misplaced ingenuity seeks to find either six or seven forms of calamity in the enumeration of Job 5:20-23; but there appear to be really only five: (1) famine; (2) war; (3) calumny; (4) devastation; and (5) noisome beasts. The expression used in Job 5:19—"six, yea, seven"—means, as already explained, an indefinite number. Job 5:24 And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; rather, thy tent; i.e. thy habitation, whatever it may be. Thou shalt feel assured of peace in thy dwelling, since God’s peace will rest upon it. And thou shalt visit thy habitation; or, thy fold (see the Revised Version). And shalt not sin; and shalt miss nothing (Revised Version). The exact meaning is very uncertain. Professor Lee renders, "Thou shalt not err;" Schultens, "Thou shalt not be disappointed of thy desires;" Rosenmuller, "Thou shalt not miss thy mark." Job 5:25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great. Little by little Eliphaz passes from a general description of the blessedness of those faithful ones who "despise not the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17) to a series of allusions which seem specially to touch Job’s case. Without claiming prophetical inspiration, he ventures to promise him in the future "the exact reverse of all that he had experienced" in the past—"a safe home, flocks untouched, a happy and prosperous family, a peaceful old age" (Cook). The promises may have sounded in Job’s ears as "a mockery" (ibid.); but it is creditable to the sagacity of Eliphaz that he ventured to make them. And thine offspring as the grass of the earth. The ordinary symbols for multitudinousness—the sand of the sea, and the stars of heaven—are here superseded by an entirely new one, "the grass of the earth." Undoubtedly it is equally appropriate, and perhaps more natural in a pastoral community. Job 5:26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age (comp. Genesis 15:15; Genesis 25:8; Genesis 35:29). Professor Lee translates, ’Thou shalt come to thy grave in honour." But, on the whole, the rendering of the Authorized Version may well stand. The expression used occurs only here and in Job 30:2. Like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season; literally, is lifted up. The shocks of corn were lifted up, and placed on a cart, for transfer to the barn or the threshing-floor. The emphasis, however, is on the closing words, "in his season." Eliphaz promises Job that he will reach a good ripe old age, and not die untimely. (For the result, see Job 42:17.) Job 5:27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is. Eliphaz does not claim to be delivering a Divine message, or in any way stating results which he has learnt from revelation. Rather is he declaring what he has "searched out;" i.e. gathered with much trouble from inquiry, observation, and experience. He is, however, quite confident that he has arrived at a true conclusion, and expects Job to accept it and act upon it. Hear it, and know thou it for thy good; literally, for thyself. Make the knowledge, i.e. which I have communicated to thee, thine own. Professor Lee observes, "Them is nothing in all this savouring of any asperity, as far as I can see, beyond the anxieties of true friendship. The sentiments delivered from verse 17 to the end of the chapter are not only most excellent in themselves, but perfectly applicable to Job’s case; and were, in the event, made good in every respect. It is true, we have not much sympathy expressed for Job’s bereavements and afflictions. And, in this respect, Eliphaz was, no doubt, to blame". Job 5:1-7 Eliphaz to Job: 3. The history of a fool. I. THE FOOL’S . 1. An impious fool. The mental and moral portrait of the aevil (verse 2) is minutely outlined in the Book of Proverbs, as distinguished by contempt of true wisdom (Proverbs 1:1-33;Proverbs 7:1-27), talkativeness (Proverbs 10:8), self-conceit (Proverbs 12:15), irritability of temper (Proverbs 12:16), pride (Proverbs 14:3), fretfulness against God (Proverbs 19:3), sinfulness of thought (Proverbs 24:9), etc; most of which qualities were, in the judgment of Eliphaz, possessed by the aevil whom he depicted, who was probably Job. 2. A moral simpleton. The potheh is also sketched in Proverbs, as one who is easily seduced by temptation (Proverbs 9:14-18) and flattery (Proverbs 7:7); who is destitute of any power of self-restraint, credulous of what he hears (Proverbs 14:15), and heedless of danger (Proverbs 27:12). According to Eliphaz, he is also marked by envy. II. THE FOOL’S . 1. Unheeded by God. "Call now, if there be any that will answer thee" (Verse 1); perhaps meaning, ironically, You had better prepare an indictment against the Deity." Practically, implies Eliphaz, this is what the sinner does who storms at the Divine dispensations towards him. All sin is more or less an impeachment of the Divine righteousness and equity (Genesis 3:1). Yet so utterly wild and extravagant is the idea of a puny, sinful creature like man entering the lists against God; so immeasurably foolish as well as presumptuous the imagination that Infinite Purity and Wisdom can be arraigned with any hope of success, that the speaker represents the sinner’s clamorous outcries as fining unheeded and unheard through the silent heavens. The Ineffable Supreme gives no indication that he is so much as conscious of his accuser’s presence; neither replying himself nor commissioning another to appear in his behalf. The silence of Heaven, frequently misconstrued by the sinner (Psalms 1:1-6:21), if indicative of the Divine patience and clemency, is no less eloquent of the Divine security against, and Divine contempt for, the sinner. 2. Unassisted by his fellow-creatures. "To which of the holy ones," saints or more probably angels, "wilt thou turn?" i.e. in order to procure help in thine outrageous suit against the Almighty. Eliphaz assumes that wicked men and fallen angels could not, while with equal confidence he asserts that good men and holy angels would not, assist a fool in any such presumptuous enterprise. The language graphically portrays the sinner’s impotence against God (Isaiah 27:4). III. THE FOOL’S MISERY. 1. Consumed with chagrin. "Wrath killeth the foolish man." The term "wrath" includes in its signification inward vexation at one’s own wretched lot. It is the opposite of that calm, quiescent, submissive meekness which a good man strives to evince in adversity, and which was exemplified by David (Psalms 39:9), St. Paul (2 Corinthians 6:9, 2 Corinthians 6:10), and Job (Job 1:21). 2. Eaten up of envy. "Envy slayeth the silly one." Fretfulness as regards one’s own particular condition is commonly associated with envy at the good (real or supposed) of others. As only a sincerely good man can heartily rejoice in the prosperity of his neighbour, so is it only a bad man, a moral weakling, who allows himself to be irritated thereby. David (Psalms 37:1), Asaph (Psalms 73:2), and St. Paul (Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:21), warn against this supreme manifestation of folly. 3. Devoured by rage. "Wrath [passion] killeth the foolish man." The prominent idea in the term "wrath" is that of indignation against the Arbiter of human destiny. It is the object of Eliphaz to depict at once the supreme unhappiness of the fool as the victim of his own evil passions, and the appalling destiny of the fool which is that of a moral suicide; his destruction, when it comes, being not so much inflicted by the stroke of God’s hand as wrought out by the inward violence of his own sinful lusts—a melancholy illustration of the auto-nemesis of sin. IV. THE FOOL’S . 1. Unexpected. Destruction springs upon the poor fool when least anticipated, when, having struck down his roots and sent forth his branches, he appears to be flourishing like a green bay tree (Psalms 37:35), and to have attained to a position of conspicuous prosperity, of great power, and absolute security (1 Samuel 25:37; Luke 12:20; Acts 12:23). 2. Sudden. In an instant the scene changes, and the fair tree of his prosperity stands scorched and blasted, leafless and bare. "Suddenly I cursed his habitation;" i.e. I beheld it cursed. This has sometimes been true, as Asaph testifies (Psalms 73:20), and as facts witness (Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Herod, the two Napoleons), though not always (Psalms 17:14; Psalms 73:4). 3. Visible. The approach of the fool’s fall, seldom apprehended by himself, is commonly foreseen by others. "Suddenly I cursed his habitation;" meaning that the moment Eliphaz beheld the foolish one taking root, he pronounced his homestead cursed; he could anticipate nothing for him but a speedy and swift engulfment in dark misfortune. So in the moral, no less than in the material, world, "coming events cast their shadows before." 4. Complete. The fool’s overthrow extends to: (1) His family. "His children are far from safety." Reduced to straitened circumstances in consequence of their father’s ruin, they mutually "crush each other in the gate;" i.e. consume each other in vexatious litigation, thus sharing in the punishment, while they follow in the steps, of their wicked parent. Nor does their misery excite the sympathy, or provoke the friendly interference, of onlookers. "Neither is there any to deliver." If it is prudent not to meddle with the strife of others (Proverbs 26:17), it is still doubtful if good men should be indifferent to the calamities of others, even though they are wicked (Proverbs 24:11). (2) His possessions. The famished thief, prowling about the fool’s farmyard, picks up whatever he can lay hands on, and, emboldened by the desolation he beholds, carries off the well-stacked grain. Though no man’s property can be said to enjoy an absolute immunity from thievish depredations (Matthew 6:19), yet it is certain that wicked men’s treasures are peculiarly liable to decay (James 5:3). Only the good man’s treasures in the heavens are permanently safe. Then" the robber swalloweth up [literally, ’ the snare gapeth for "his substance;" i.e. wicked schemers lie in wait to pounce upon his property, concerting measures to carry off what little has been left by the hungry thieves. When thief robs thief, then the devil gets his own. "When the soul of the wicked desireth evil, then his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes" (Proverbs 21:10). 5. Righteous. The calamity which overtakes the fool is not an accident or unfortunate mischance, not the production of earth and its physical constitution (verse 6), but the inevitable result of a law under which man, as a moral being, has been placed, viz. that if he sin, he shall suffer as certainly as the sparks fly upward. Learn: 1. There is no appeal for man against the judgments of a holy God. 2. When God forsakes a sinner, all the saints on earth (as well as angels in heaven) forsake him too. 3. The greatest enemy a sinner has is himself. 4. Rage against God’s judgments is more dangerous to a soul than are the judgments themselves. 5. Neither permanence nor prosperity is a certain mark of goodness, since foolish men may take root. 6. The prosperity of fools is a great trial to saints. 7. The curse of the Lord is in the habitation of the wicked. 8. Outward good things are no mark of the Divine favour. 9. When fathers eat sour grapes, the children’s teeth are set on edge. 10. Men frequently fail to enjoy that upon which they have bestowed much labour. 11. God often uses the wicked to punish the wicked in this life. 12. Man’s sufferings do not spring from his surroundings, but from himself. 13. The suffering condition of man is incontestable evidence of a fall. Job 5:8-16 Eliphaz to Job: 4. The saint’s confidence in God. I. THE SAINT’S . 1. Negatively. By way of contrast to the ungodly, who are depicted as (1) crafty, i.e. persons who cunningly concoct schemes against either God, Christ, or their neighbours (Psalms 2:2; Acts 4:25-28); (2) strong, i.e. violent, ferocious sinners, who use their swords as wild beasts their mouths, for devouring, eating up, God’s people as bread (Psalms 14:4). 2. Positively. Exhibiting them as (1) humble (verse 11), i.e. depressed or cast down, prostrated by affliction and, in consequence, dejected in spirit—a common experience with God’s people; (2) mourning (verse 11), i.e. going in squalid garments, expressive of penitential sorrow and self-abasement, and wherever grace exists it excites such emotions in the heart; (3) poor (verse 16), i.e. weak, feeble, thin, slender, too destitute of strength to be able, and too gentle and patient to care, to resist the assaults of the ungodly. The three above-mentioned characteristics may be compared with the persons specified in the first three Beatitudes—the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek (Matthew 5:3-5). II. THE SAINT’S GOD . 1. As a God of power. (1) Essentially great; El (verse 8) denoting God as the Strong or Mighty One, and suggesting a contrast to the feebleness of the saint, and the violence of the saint’s oppressor above alluded to. (2) Perpetually active; the omnipotence of God being not merely a potential ability residing in his infinite nature, but a vital energy continually proceeding forth in active operation (John 5:17). (3) Endlessly diversified; the plural Elohim (verse 8) pointing out the totality of his variously manifested nature, and his wonders being declared to be beyond computation—a statement whose correctness not even the discoveries of science have disproved. (4) Infinitely marvellous are the great things he performs, transcending the highest efforts of the human intellect to explain, understand, or even compute (Job 9:10; Job 11:7; Job 36:26; Psalms 145:3). 2. As a God of benevolence. Operating: (1) In the realm of nature; e.g by sending rain upon the earth—a miracle of Divine power and wisdom (Job 28:26)—to water the face of the thirsty soil, and cause the rivers to overflow their banks upon the pasture-grounds, to render them fruitful—a miracle of Divine goodness (Psalms 68:9; Jeremiah 5:24; Acts 14:7); that he might deliver men from dismal apprehensions as to prospective failure in the promised harvest, and convert their doleful vaticinations into triumphant hallelujahs—a miracle of grace and compassion (Psalms 147:8). (2) In the sphere of humanity; e.g. by (a) confounding the crafty,—exploding their schemes, neutralizing their actions, outwitting their cunning, precipitating their purposes, so causing their best-concocted devices to appear structures of consummate folly, and themselves to look like stupid bunglers, as helpless and perplexed as men stumbling in the darkness of night (examples: the tower-builders of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9; Potiphar’s wife, Genesis 39:1-23; Ahithophel, 2 Samuel 15:31; Haman, Esther 7:10); (b) rescuing the peer,—delivering them from the hands of their enemies (e.g. the Israelites from Egypt, Exodus 18:10; St. Peter from Herod, Acts 12:11; St. Paul from Nero, 2 Timothy 4:17), inspiring them with hope, and not only silencing their calumniators and oppressors, but sometimes striking them dumb with horror and amazement at God’s manifest interposition on behalf of his suffering servants. III. THE SAINT’S . 1. Emphatically. "Nevertheless I would" do so and so. As Eliphaz delicately insinuated that Job was a fool, so here he does not hesitate to propose himself as the perfect model of a wise man. No doubt this resulted from want of modesty on the part of Eliphaz; but still, overlooking this, the bold, unhesitating character of his avowal is not altogether unworthy of imitation. God’s saints and Christ’s followers should never be ashamed to confess their confidence in God, or avow their attachment to Christ (Matthew 5:16; Matthew 10:32; Romans 1:16). 2. Sincerely. "But I—I would seek unto God; unto God would I commit my cause." The speaker signifies that his trust in God was no mere lip-profession, but a heart-emotion which would lead him, if circumstanced as Job was, to have recourse to God, and to commit his cause to the Godhead in prayer and in the exercise of faith. And certainly, if God should be sought for at all times (1 Chronicles 16:11), he should specially be resorted to in time of trouble (Psalms 50:15)—"for counsel and direction in it; for comfort and support under it; for grace to glorify God by it; for deliverance in God’s own time and way out of it; for the spiritual benefit and improvement intended through it" (Robinson). 3. Hopefully. Though not affirmed at the outset, it is clearly expressed at the end. "So," i.e. by going to God and committing one’s cause to him, "the poor hath hope; "God having revealed himself as the Hearer, and therefore as the Answerer, of prayer (Exodus 22:27; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Job 12:4; Job 22:27; Psalms 34:17; Psalms 37:5; Matthew 21:22; Philippians 4:6); and this being sufficient ground for the saint’s confident expectation that God will interpose for his succour and salvation. Learn: 1. It is not enough to simply reprove those whom we believe to have erred; we must likewise instruct them how to amend. 2. The best thing to do with trouble of any sort is to carry it to the throne of grace, and leave it there. 3. There is no God like the saint’s God, the saint’s enemies themselves being judges. 4. God has given men and saints the highest reason to trust him: the first, the wonders of nature; the second, the marvels of grace. 5. The weakness of God is stronger than men, while the foolishness of God is wiser than men. 6. If God can turn the daylight into darkness round his enemies, he can also turn the darkness into light round himself and his people. 7. God can rescue his people from the greatest perils, from the mouth of the grave, and from the jaws of hell. 8. It is no vain thing to hope in God, since we are saved by hope, and God loveth them that hope in his mercy. 9. The tongues of wicked men, however they may now blaspheme the Name and revile the children of God, will yet be effectually put to silence. 10. When Christ comes at last to save his poor ones, the ungodly world will stand speechless and self-condemned. Job 5:8 Seeking unto God. I. WHAT IT . 1. Belief in the existence of God (Hebrews 11:6). 2. Consciousness of need (James 1:5). 3. Desire for Divine assistance (Psalms 63:1). II. WHAT IT IMPLIES. 1. A realization of God’s nearness to the soul (Psalms 145:18). 2. A solicitation of God’s help for the soul (Matthew 7:7; Hebrews 4:16). 3. An acceptation of God’s provisions for the soul (Matthew 5:6). III. WHAT IT . 1. Inward composure (Isaiah 26:3). 2. Hopeful expectation (Psalms 42:11). 3. Ultimate salvation (Psalms 37:5; Proverbs 16:3; Job 22:27). Learn: 1. The grace of God in permitting men to seek him. 2. The wisdom of men in availing themselves of this permission. Job 5:9 The great works of God. I. THE OF THE . A signal display of Divine power and wisdom. II. THE OF THE WORLD. A striking evidence of the Divine omniscience and omnipresence. III. THE OF THE RACE. A sublime revelation of Divine grace and compassion. Job 5:10 Rain. I. GOD’S . 1. Made by God (Job 28:26; Job 38:28; Jeremiah 14:22). 2. Sent by God (Psalms 65:10; Psalms 68:9; Jeremiah 5:24). 3. Withheld by God (1 Kings 17:1; Amos 4:7; Zechariah 14:17). II. EARTH’S SERVANT. 1. Cleansing the atmosphere. 2. Fertilizing the soil. 3. Filling the riverses 4 Moderating the heat, III. MAN’S TEACHER. 1. A symbol of truth (Deuteronomy 32:2; Isaiah 4:1-6:10). 2. An emblem of grace (Psalms 68:9; Hosea 6:3; Psalms 72:6). 3. A picture of prosperity (Job 29:23). Learn: 1. To value the gift (1 Kings 8:36). 2. To fear the Giver (Jeremiah 5:24) of rain. Job 5:16 The poor man’s hope. I. GREAT IN ITS . Looking for salvation. II. DIVINE IN ITS ORIGIN. Being implanted by God. III. FIRM IN ITS . Resting, not upon his own piety or strength, but upon God’s gracious interposition on his behalf. IV. PRESENT IN ITS . The poor hath hope; it forms a principle within them now. V. IN ITS . Upholding in trouble. VI. CERTAIN IN ITS END. Arriving at ultimate fulfilment. Job 5:17-27 Eliphaz to Job: 5. The blessedness of chastening. I. —ITS NATURE. 1. Its subject. Man, as a fallen being; for, though affliction cannot always be connected with particular transgressions as their immediate punishment, it is still true that man’s sinfulness is the fundamental reason of his being subjected to correction. 2. Its Author. God. A thought full of comfort to the chastened; since, God being just, their correction will never be allowed to exceed their deserts; being merciful, it will never be administered with undue severity; being wise, it will never be inflicted without an adequate design; and being powerful, it will never fail, where piously accepted, to accomplish its end. 3. Its instrument. Calamity, trouble, affliction, such as Job had experienced, and such as men undergo on earth. Those who suffer may derive consolation from the thought that the rod which smites them is not in the devil’s hand (except by Divine permission) or in the hand of blind, unfeeling fate, but in the hand of a loving and sympathetic God. 4. Its purpose. Man’s reformation. It is doubtful if any of the sufferings of this life are purely punitive and judicial, while there is reason to believe that all are corrective and remedial in their design. According to Eliphaz, they are meant to chastise man for his iniquity, to bring him to repentance, and to reduce him to obedient submission under God (cf. Job 33:17, Job 33:19; Psalms 94:12, Psalms 94:13; Proverbs 3:11; Hebrews 12:7-11). II. —ITS . 1. The wrong use of affliction. To despise it. Men do so when they (1) turn from it with aversion, loathing it as a nauseating physic, and evincing repugnance to submit themselves to its infliction; (2) receive it with indignation, raging against God for smiting them, challenging his goodness, impeaching his integrity, and questioning his wisdom in so plunging them into tribulation; (3) bear it with impatience, murmuring against its painfulness fretting over its continuance, and inordinately longing for its removal; (4) regard it with contempt, esteeming it as useless and unprofitable, and making no attempt to either find out or fall in with God’s special purpose in their correction; and (5) issue from it in impenitence, with the heart no softer and the spirit no humbler than when it was cast into the furnace. Such failure to improve the Divine chastisement, while common in the case of wicked men, is also not impossible to good men. 2. The right use of affliction. To receive it (1) with meek submission, recognizing our need of Divine chastisement in consequence of sin still remaining in us, if not in visitation for actual wickedness performed by us, and acknowledging the sovereignty and righteousness of God in laying on us such rebukes; (2) with patient endurance, remaining dumb and opening not our mouths, because God has done it (Psalms 39:9), or, if we do speak, adopting the language of Eli (1 Samuel 3:18), of Job (Job 1:21), of St. Paul (Acts 21:14), or of Christ (Matthew 26:39); (3) with holy gratitude, remembering the gracious purpose God has inseparably connected with affliction (Romans 5:3, Romans 5:4; Romans 8:28; Hebrews 12:11), and the representation he has given of affliction as a token of his love (Revelation 3:19; Hebrews 12:6); and (4) with intelligent co-operation, seeking, so far as in us lies, by self-examination, by repentance and faith, by laying aside every known sin, and by praying against all sin, to further God’s gracious designs in our correction. III. —ITS . 1. Divine healing. (1) The wounds requiring to be bound up and healed are those lacerations of spirit, painful and deep, which have been previously inflicted by the hand of God through the sharp instrument of affliction. That these wounds, however keen and incisive, are not designed to be mortal or suffered to continue open, but, after accomplishing their purpose, are to be closed should prove a source of comfort to the saint. (2) The Physician by whom the binding up and healing are to be effected is God, as Eliphaz declares (verse 18), and David testifies (Psalms 103:3), as Jehovah himself promised (Exodus 15:26), and as Christ taught (Matthew 9:12; Luke 4:18, Luke 4:23). This a second ground of comfort for the chastened spirit; since God, having caused the wounds, will best understand how to cure them, and God never makes a sore that he cannot heal, or inflicts a stroke that he cannot mend; and since God is possessed of all the qualities that are needful to constitute a successful chirurgeon, having "an eagle’s eye,—an all-seeing eye, seven eyes of providence and wisdom to look through our sores, and into all our distempers; a lady’s hand, soft and tender, to dress our wounds and pain us little; and a lion’s heart,—infinite courage and strength of spirit, to undertake the most ghastly wounds or swollen, putrified sores" (Caryl). (3) The bandages employed in the operation are the doctrines, promises, and consolations of the gospel (Psalms 107:20). 2. Divine protection. Generally, from whatever troubles may assail, from six, ay, from seven, i.e. from all possibilities of trouble; then particularly from: (1) Public calamity (verse 20). From famine, by causing the earth to yield its increase so as to avert famine (Psalms 67:6), by miraculous interposition so as to support in the midst of famine (Exodus 16:15, manna; 1 Kings 17:14, the widow’s barrel; 1 Kings 19:7, Elijah’s feast), by spiritual consolations should his people die of famine (Habakkuk 3:17); and from the sword, by removing occasions of war, by shielding while engaged in lawful war (if he so please in his wisdom), and by conducting safely out of war. (2) Private wrong (verse 21). From slander, by enabling the good man to escape it through blamelessness of character and life, as Daniel (Daniel 6:5); or by vindicating him against it through some favourable turn in providence (Psalms 37:6), as was the case with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:10, Jeremiah 20:11); or through miraculous interposition, as happened to the three Hebrew children (Daniel 3:25); or by rewarding him on account of it should it bring him hurt, as he did with St. Stephen (Acts 6:11); and from violence, i.e. the injuries and injustices perpetrated by the strong against the weak, not by preventing them altogether, for it is implied that they will come, but by keeping the soul from sinking under them through terror. (3) From personal misfortune; such as hunger, i.e. private destitution; and violence, viz; ravages of wild beasts on personal property; God enabling the saint, instead of regarding these with stoical indifference, to triumph over them as a means of effecting his highest good (Romans 5:3), since all things, even the stones and the wild boasts, will be in league with him, and contribute to his peace (Romans 8:28). 3. Divine blessing. (1) Health. "Thou shalt know that it is well with thy tent;" i.e. the inhabitants of thy home will be in safety from others, in harmony amongst themselves, and, generally speaking, in the enjoyment of peace and felicity. Domestic happiness—one of the greatest blessings a good man can enjoy. (2) Prosperity. "Thou shalt oversee thy household, and not err," or "count thy cattle, and miss none." The success attending ordinary avocations comes from God; yet it cannot now, as then, be deemed a proof of Divine favour, though it is still true that piety tends to sharpen the mind’s faculties, and to increase the hand’s diligence, thereby making godliness profitable for this life as well as that which is to come. (3) Posterity. "Thy seed will be many," and "thine offspring like the grass of the land." A numerous family one of the blessings of the old, a gracious family one of the blessings of the new, dispensation (Isaiah 44:3-5). (4) Length of days. "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full [ripe] age," indicating many years of living, so many as to fully mature the graces of the soul (Psalms 92:14) and to satisfy the saint’s desire for living (Psalms 91:16)—a promise first made to Abraham (Genesis 15:15), and afterwards given generally to the godly (Psalms 91:16); a promise also whose fulfilment is promoted by holy living (Proverbs 3:16; Psalms 34:12). (5) A peaceful death. "Thou shalt come to thy grave," willingly, quietly, peacefully, feeling dissolution to be no curse. (6) An honoured burial. "As the shock of corn is carried in its season" so shalt thou be reverently and respectfully consigned to the tomb. A peaceful grave and a decent burial esteemed by Orientals, who regarded the want of them as a token of Divine anger, which it sometimes was (Deuteronomy 28:26 Jeremiah 22:18,Jeremiah 22:19; Jeremiah 36:30). Learn: 1. "Happy are we if we receive chastening; for then God dealeth with us as sons." 2. "No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but rather grievous; nevertheless afterwards it bringeth forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness." 3. The soonest way to escape from chastening is to "hear the rod and him who hath appointed it." 4. It is better to be chastened as God’s children than condemned as God’s enemies. 5. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivereth him out of them all." 6. The best alliance against the ills of life is the friendship of the living God. 7. If God be for his people, nothing can be really against them. BY E. JOHNSON Job 5:8-27 Refuge from trouble in the thought of God. Conclusion of Eliphaz’s address. His language suddenly changes into a gentler strain. It is like the clearing of a dark sky, revealing once more the deep blue; or the bend of a stream which has been flowing through a stern gorge, now broadening out into a sunlit lake. I. THE AND OF GOD. (Job 5:8-16.) Let men turn to him for comfort and for strength. It is a bright gem of description. 1. God is the Supreme. (Job 5:8.) Let men look no lower than to the Highest. With him is the final appeal. He is Judge of all the earth. Clouds and darkness are round about him; but justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. 2. He is the great Worker. His scale and sphere of operation is vast, immeasurable, unsearchable (Job 5:9). His mode of operation is wonderful, past finding out. "His way is in the sea, his path in the great waters, his footsteps who has known?" The grandeur and marvel of his deeds are seen: (1) In nature. (Job 5:10.) One phenomenon is mentioned only as typical, in all important respects, of all the other tokens of his power in nature. It is the blessed gift of rain. For nothing in an Oriental clime speaks more powerfully to the senses and the feelings than this inestimable boon. Many other Scriptures witness this. First He gives the early and the latter rain;" "comes down like rain upon the mown grass," and "as showers that water the earth." ’Tis he who causes the refreshing showers to fall upon the fields of both the just and the unjust. The French peasants say, as they watch the rain failing on their vineyards, "Voici le vin qui descend du ciel!" "Here comes down the wine from heaven!" But what good things do not come down from heaven in the rain from the ever-blessing God? (2) In human life. In this broad field, common experience gains many a lesson of the same kind. Not one of the traits in this exquisite description of which the intelligent observer cannot say, "This is true to life!" He is seen to be the Exalter of the lowly and the sorrowful (Job 5:11). Who has not had brought home to him in many an instance the sense of this truth in the course of life? What tales of obscure and lowly worth rising into eminence; of deserted widows and orphans finding springs of help and succour marvellously opened to them in the hour of need can we not all tell? And we take delight in these narratives because they convince us that the constitution of life is not the mere mindless machinery which godless thinkers would make it out to be. We see that selfish craft and cunning are in the end disappointed and baffled (Job 5:12). Lies and cheats do not prosper long. The proverbs of the world bear their witness; common experience stamps them with the mark of truth. And this, too, is no accident, but the result of the righteous operation of God. We see that men overreach themselves and fall by their own snares (Job 5:13). "Vaulting ambition doth o’erleap itself, and falls on t’other side." And the sight gives us a deep pleasure, whatever pity we may feel for the victim of his conceit and folly, because here again we receive a communication of the will of God. We see self-confident men plunged into perplexity, infatuated, unable to steer their path aright, though the light is lull and clear about them (Job 5:14). There is a judicial blindness to be observed in certain cases; so that those who, in the pursuit of passion or interest, have extinguished conscience, become at last unable to see even their own interest, and make suicidal mistakes. Here, too, is the finger of a higher Power. 3. The object of Divine operation. (Job 5:15, Job 5:16.) In both nature and human life it is one—to lessen suffering, to protect innocence, to deliver from violence and persecution. II. THE OF DIVINE . (Job 5:17-27.) From the general evidences of the beneficence of God, we come down to one special and peculiar form of it, He is good to us in our pains as well as in our pleasures. His power is exercised to purify and chasten as well as to destroy. The recognition of this truth is one of the leading features of Scripture revelation. How different from the gloomy creed of the most enlightened heathen concerning suffering sent from heaven! He felt the wrath of his gods, but he never knew their blows as signs of a secret and remedial love. Where there is no belief in supreme righteousness, suffering must always be without relief. The blessedness here described is both internal and external. 1. Internal. The man is blessed (1) who recognizes his sufferings as corrections. Then their worst bitterness passes; despondency is cheered; hope dawns in the heart. He is blessed (2) who rejects not the warnings which they bring. He willingly takes the medicine, and submits to the direction of the heavenly Physician. But they aggravate their sufferings and inflame their ills who know they are being corrected, yet refuse to take the Divine hint for amendment; who are like the stubborn horse or ass chafing at the bit, resisting the guidance of the rein. He is blessed (3) who yields himself up implicitly to the Divine treatment, suffers his evils to be expelled, his follies to be plucked up by the roots. He is blessed (4) because he is thus brought into the deeper knowledge and fellowship of God. To know God as the Almighty Benefactor is one step in religion; to know him as the Almighty Chastiser is another and a higher. And this is never reached except through suffering, the deeper consciousness of sin, struggles with self, a higher purity, and a deeper peace. 2. External. The man at peace with himself and with God seems to bear a charmed life (Job 5:19). (1) Be defended from outward evils. (Job 5:20-22.) He passes through seas of trouble, and rides upon the crest of each advancing wave; passes through fire, and it hurts him not. The greatest outward calamities are mentioned, only to show how he rises superior to them all. "Famine." The histories of Elijah, of the widow of Zarephath, of the temptation of Jesus Christ, all illustrate the grand truth that man’s strength is derived, not from bread alone, but directly from the Word and will of God. The truth is a general one. It is that expressed by St. Paul that, though the outward man perish, the inward man may be renewed day by day. "The power of the sword," "devastation," "famine," "wild beasts," form the catalogue of the ills most common and most dreaded in ancient times. None of these can harm the man who is reconciled to God. The truth again is general, and admits of a twofold application. In the first place, history is full of the providential escapes of good men, in which every discerning mind will see the hand of God. But there are exceptions. No law of nature is set aside. The sword of the foe, the tooth of the lion, is not blunted, nor is the body hardened against hunger. Good men, like others, perish from these causes. But here the truth applies in another way. The souls of the martyrs flee to the altar of heaven (Revelation 6:9). or are borne from the scene of suffering to that of rest, as Lazarus to the besom of Abraham. In either case they are unharmed and happy in God. But another evil, more keenly felt in more civilized times, is the "scourge of the tongue." Slander— "Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie All comers of the world—kings, queens, and states, Maids, matrons—nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters." From this fearful scourge the blessed man is hidden, protected. Good men are often attacked, but cannot be destroyed, by slander. They do not feel it as do the consciously guilty. They, in the beautiful words of the psalm, are kept "secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." The slanderer does service to the upright man in the end by forcing him into a position of self-defence, or of silent dignity, which brings the true qualities of his character into a clearer light. (2) He is favoured with outward good. (Job 5:23-27.) The stones that afflict the fields with barrenness, the devouring beasts, seem to be in secret pact with him and refuse to do him harm. This is poetry wrapping up truth. We are reminded of the beautiful ode of the Roman poet (Horace, Job 1:22), where, dwelling on the theme that innocence is its own protection, its own arms, he tells as of the weft that fled from him all unarmed in the Sabine wood. The whole picture is that of the quiet pastoral life which we love to associate with innocence and the protection of Heaven. There is comfort in his tent; when he visits his pastures, no head of cattle is missing (for this is perhaps the true meaning of the latter clause of Job 5:24). Children and children’s children spring up around him; till he comes to his end crowned with silver hair, like the ripe sheaf carried home to the garner. With this description compare the noble ninety-first psalm. Eliphaz emphatically declares (Job 5:27) this to have been his experience. It was a picture drawn from life. We cannot doubt that it was realized in numberless instances in those early conditions of life; nay, it is so still. It hardly comes within the scope of such poetry to recognize the actual or seeming exceptions. And if we do not see the universal truth of the description of the good man’s career, we must recollect that life is a far more complicated and many-sided affair with us. It is far more difficult to trace the connection of cause and effect in the various courses of men. And we have this immense advantage over this early teacher—that we have a clearer view, a firmer belief of the extension of man’s career into eternity. All that appears exceptional and opposed to the laws of life laid down by Eliphaz, we doubt not, will be compensated and redressed in a future state.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 5:1-5 The lot of the foolish. By a skilful turn of thought, Eliphaz exhibits the consequences of human folly— 1. AS THEY AFFECT THE LIFE OF THE FOOLISH ONE. "Wrath killeth and envy slayeth" him. By his folly he excites the wrath or the envy of others, or his folly leads him into deadly courses. II. AS THEY AFFECT HIS LOT AND . His prosperity, even if it begin, is but of temporary duration. If he take root, suddenly his habitation is cursed. III. AS THEY AFFECT HIS FAMILY. His children are in danger—"far from safety." They are condemned by the judge sitting in the gate; are crushed, and are not found. "The seed of the wicked shall be cut off." IV. AS THEY AFFECT HIS . He soweth, but a stranger reapeth his harvests; his toil may be productive, but a "robber swalloweth" his substance. Dark is the picture thus presented of the judgments which fall upon the ungodly, the foolish, and the vain. If Eliphaz intended this to be a reflection upon Job, it was unmerited and uncalled for. The Divine judgment upon Job was, "My servant Job, a perfect and an upright man." Eliphaz argued from the particular to the general. However true it may be that the foolish suffers, it is not equally true that every sufferer is foolish. This was the error in Eliphaz’s mode of arguing. It is a common error. We know it may be said, "He whom thou lovest is sick."—R.G. Job 5:6, Job 5:7 The common lot. "Man is born unto trouble." I. IT IS AN RESULT OF HIS EXPOSED . II. IT IS A PART OF THE PRESENT ORDER OF THINGS. But— III. IT IS DUE TO THE OF THE RIGHT OF MAN TO HIS GOD, TO HIS , TO THE WORLD AROUND. "Affliction cometh not forth of the dust; neither doth trouble spring out of the ground." IV. IT IS USED AS A MEANS OF , , AND . We now know that that which we endure is for chastening—for that culture which every wise father seeks to secure for his sons. And when the afflictions are "not joyous, but grievous," even then "God dealeth with us as with sons." He takes up the sad and dark and painful things of our life, and uses them as instruments for our discipline, "that we might be partakers of his holiness." Most assuredly we may know that "the peaceable fruits of righteousness" are yielded to them who patiently endure these afflictions when they are "exercised thereby." Let us, therefore, learn: 1. Not to be surprised if" trouble" overtakes us. We are born in a land where it is very plentiful. 2. To see to it that our afflictions come of our frailty, not of our folly. 3. Patiently to await the end, when he shall have wrought out his purpose, who maketh "all things work together for good to them that love him."—R.G. Job 5:8-16 God the true Refuge in affliction. "I would seek unto God." Wisely did Eliphaz urge his friend to seek refuge in the only true and safe resort. "Under his feathers shalt thou trust." In the midst of all sorrows— "God is the Refuge of his saints, When storms of sharp distress invade; Ere we can offer our complaints, Behold him present with his aid." To seek this Refuge men are encouraged by— I. THE OF THE DIVINE POWER. He "doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number." Of these beautiful illustrations are to be found on every hand—in heaven, earth, the deep seas, in the processes of nature, in the government of men. II. THE DIVINE . His rich gifts made freely to the seas of men. "He giveth rain upon the earth’" which is at once a precious gift and a symbol of all blessings in its abundance, diffusion, preciousness, freeness to all. "He is kind to the evil and the unthankful, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust." III. THE DIVINE CONTROL OVER MEN. Especially illustrated in his dealing with the wicked. He takes compassion on the needy. "He setteth on high those that be low." He brings down the haughtiness of the foolish. He "disappointeth the devices of the crafty"—taketh the wicked in their own deceit. IV. THE DIVINE FOR THE POOR is a further encouragement to men to find their Refuge in God. He guardeth the poor and the feeble. He sayeth him from the sword of their mouth, their cruel words’ and from the hand of the mighty. The Divine Help of the poor, men have sung in all ages. "So the poor hath hope; The poor committeth himself unto thee." In this Refuge he is safe. The day of his trouble passes away. A Divine hand, unseen, upholds him while the pressure is heavy. Of the poor, as of the sparrows, it must be said, "God feedeth them." If men knew the loving-kindness of the Lord, and his great pitifulness, they would put their trust in him more willingly, and would find help and comfort.—R.G. Job 5:17-23 The blessedness of the Divine correction. This was known even in early times, but only fully taught in Now Testament times. It is a great encouragement to men to bear pain and sorrow to know that the Lord afflicts. "He maketh sore," but "he bindeth up;" "he woundeth," but his "hands make whole again." Being a Divine correction, a chastisement from his hand will be— I. A WISE . A good purpose will always be held in view. "Not willingly," "not for his pleasure," does he afflict. His aim is to promote our good—" that we may be partakers of his holiness." II. A . Mercy will temper it. "He remembereth we are but dust." He will no load of grief impose Beyond the strength that he bestows." If he brings low in affliction, it is that he may exalt in honour. If he takes away earthly possessions, it is that he may supplant them with heavenly. He weans the heart from the love of the temporal, that he may fix it on the eternal. It is, therefore— III. A BENIGN . Happy fruits follow it. If he afflicts, he heals. He delivers in six, yea, seven troubles. He redeems the famishing from death. He hides from the scourge of the tongue. He screens from the stroke of destruction. He draweth men into good ways; then, when they please the Lord, he maketh even their enemies to be at peace with them. Beautifully is this illustrated: "Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee." He who keeps the commandments of God is in harmony with the whole kingdom of God. This encourages to patience under trials. 1. It is the Lord’s chastisement. 2. It is controlled and regulated by a Divine hand. 3. It has a wise and worthy end in view. 4. It cometh to its blessed fruition in the sanctity and perfectness of human character.—R.G. Job 5:24-27 The final consequences of the Divine chastisement. He who in mercy afflicts, or in equal mercy takes up the evils and ills of life, and, using them as his own instruments, transmutes them into means of grace and blessing, will, after he has tried his servants by their exposure to the storms and pains of life, give them "a desired end." Sooner or later they see "the end of the Lord "—the end the Lord had in view. In these verses the happiest consequences are declared to follow those chastisements which the Lord bestowed during the process of suffering and exposure. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 6:1-30. and 7. contain Job’s reply to Eliphaz. In Job 6:1-30. he confines himself to three points: (1) a justification of his "grief"—i.e. of his vexation and impatience (Job 6:1-7); (2) a declaration that the destruction with which he has been threatened (Job 4:9-11, Job 4:21; Job 5:2), is exactly the thing which he most longs for (Job 6:8-13); and (3) a retort upon his friends, whom he regards as having all spoken by the mouth of Eliphaz, and whom he reproaches with their want of sympathy (Job 6:14-23), and with the weakness of their arguments (Job 6:24-30). Job 6:1, Job 6:2 But Job answered and said, Oh that my grief were throughly weighed! rather, my anger, or my vexation—the same word as that used by Eliphaz when reproaching Job, in Job 5:2. Job wishes that, before men blame him, they would calmly weigh the force of his feelings and expressions against the weight of the calamity which oppresses him. His words may seem too strong and too violent; but are they more than a just counterpoise to the extreme character of his afflictions? The weighing of words and thoughts was an essential element in the Egyptian conception of the judgment, where Thoth held the balance, and in the one scale were placed the merits of the deceased, in the other the image of Ma, or Truth, and his fate was determined by the side to which the balance inclined. And my calamity laid in the balances together. My calamity placed in one scale, and my vexation in the other, and so weighed, each against each. Job 6:3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea (comp. Proverbs 27:3, "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both;" see also Ecclesiasticus 22:15). Therefore my words are swallowed up; rather, as in the Revised Version, therefore have my words been rash. Job here excuses without justifying himself. The excessive character of his sufferings has, he declares, forced him to utter rash and violent words, as these wherein he cursed his day and wished that he had never been born (Job 3:1, Job 3:3-11). Some allowance ought to be made for rash speech uttered under such circumstances. Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are wlthin me (comp. Psalms 38:2, "For thine arrows stick fast in me"). So Shakespeare speaks of "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" for calamities generally. The metaphor is a very common one (see Deuteronomy 32:23, Deuteronomy 32:42; Psalms 7:13; Psalms 21:12; Psalms 45:5; Lamentations 3:13, Lamentations 3:14). The poison whereof. Poisoned arrows, such as are now employed by the savage tribes of Central Africa, were common in antiquity, though seldom used by civilized nations. Ovid declares that the Scythians of his time made use of them (’Tristia,’ 1, 2). Drinketh up my spirit; rather, my spirit drinketh up. Job’s spirit absorbs the poison that festers in his wounds, and therefore loses control over itself. This is his apology for his vehemence; he is well-nigh distraught. He adds, The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Besides actual pains and sufferings, he is assailed by fears. God’s terrors, i.e. all the other evils that he has at his disposal, are drawn up against him, as it were, in battle array, and still further agitate and distract his soul. What further troubles may not God bring upon him? Job 6:5 Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? literally, over grass; i.e. when he has grass under his feet, and has consequently no cause of complaint. Job means to say that his own complainings are as natural and instinctive as these of animals (On the species of wild asses known to Job, see the comment on Job 39:5.) Or loweth the ox over his fodder? The lowing of the ox, like the braying of the wild ass, is a complaint—a sign of distress and discomfort. Job 6:6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or, that which is insipid. Many critics suppose that in this and the following verse Job reproaches Eliphaz with the insipidity of his remarks, and declares that his soul refuses to touch such loathsome food. Others regard him as still speaking in his own defence, and justifying his expressions of disgust by the nauseous character of the food which had been put before him; i.e. of the treatment which he has received. Either explanation produces good sense; but perhaps the former is the more natural. Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? So our Revisers; and so Dillmann and Canon Cook. Professor Lee suggests "the whey of cheese" for "the white of an egg;" others, "the juice of purslaine." We have certainly no other evidence that eggs were eaten in primitive times. Job 6:7 The things that my soul refuse to touch are as my sorrowful meat; rather, as in the Revised Version, my soul refuseth to touch them; they are as loathsome meat to me. The doubt remains whether Job is speaking of the arguments of Eliphaz, or of the series of afflictions which have befallen him. Either explanation is possible. Job 6:8 Oh that I might have my request! Here the second point is taken up. Eliphaz has threatened Job with death, representing it as the last and most terrible of punishments (Job 4:9, Job 4:20, Job 4:21; Job 5:2). Job’s reply is that there is nothing he desires so much as death. His primary wish would have been never to have been born (Job 3:3-10); next to that, he would have desired an early death—the earlier the more acceptable (Job 3:11-19). As both these have been denied him, what he now desires, and earnestly asks for, is a speedy demise. It is not as yet clear what he thinks death to be, or whether he has any hope beyond the grave. Putting aside all such considerations, he here simply balances death against such a life as he now leads, and must expect to lead, since his disease is incurable, and decides in favour of death. It is not only his desire, but his "request" to God, that death may come to him quickly. And that God would grant me the thing that I long for; literally, my expectation’ or wish. The idea of taking his own life does not seem to have occurred to Job, as it would to a Greek (Plato, ’Phaedo,’ § 16) or a Roman (Pithy, ’Epist.,’ 1.12). He is too genuine a child of nature, too simple and unsophisticated, for such a thought to occur, and, if it occurred, would be too religious to entertain it for a moment. Like Aristotle, he would feel the act to be cowardly (Aristotle, ’Eth. Nic.,’ 5; sub fin.); and, like Plato (l.s.c.), he would view it as rebellion against the will of God. Job 6:9 Even that it would please God to destroy me; or, to crush me (Revised Version)—"to break me in pieces" (Lee). That he would let loose his hand; or, put forth his hand—stretch it out against me threateningly." And cut me off. "Cut me off bit by bit" (Lee); comp. Isaiah 38:12, where the same word is used of a weaver, who cuts the threads of his loom one by one, until the whole is liberated and comes away. Job 6:10 Then should I yet have comfort. First, the comfort that the end was come, and that he would be spared further sufferings; and further, the still greater comfort that he had endured to the end, and not. denied nor renounced his trust in religion and in all the "words of the Holy One." Professor Lee sees here "the recognition of a future life, expressed in words as plain and obvious as possible". But to us it seems that, if the idea is present at all, it is covered up, latent; only so far implied as it may be said to be implied in all willingness to die, since it may be argued that even the most wretched life possible would be preferred by any man to no life at all, and so that when men are content to die they must be expecting, whether consciously or not, a life beyond the grave, and be sustained by that expectation. Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; rather, yea, I would exult in anguish that did not spare. However great the pain that accompanied his death, Job would rejoice and exult in it, since by it his death was to be accomplished. For I have not concealed the words of the Holy One; rather, for I have not denied’ or renounced. It would be a part of Job’s satisfaction in dying that he had not let go his integrity. Rather he had held it fast, and not renounced or abandoned his trust in God and in religion. "The words of the Holy One are the commands of God, however made known to man" (Canon Cook). Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should hope? Eliphaz had suggested that Job might recover and be restored to his former prosperity (Job 5:18-26). Job rejects this suggestion. His strength is brought too low; it is not conceivable that he should be restored, he cannot entertain any such hope. And what is mine end, that I should prolong my life? rather, that I should stretch out my spirit. Job cannot look forward to such an "end" as Eliphaz prophesies for him; therefore he cannot bring himself to wait on with patience. Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass? It would require a man to have a body of brass, and strength like that of rocks, for him to be able to endure the ravages of such a disease, and yet to recover from it. Job cannot pretend to either. Job 6:13 Is not my help in me? rather, Is it not that I have no help in me? (Revised Version). Job feels that, instead of having exceptional strength of constitution to enable him to bear up against his exhausting malady, he is absolutely without strength. All his vital power is used up. There is no help in him. And is wisdom driven quite from me? rather, Is not soundness driven quite from me? Tushiyah seems to mean here "strength of constitution"—that internal soundness which resists the inroads of disease, and sometimes triumphs over the most serious maladies. Whatever reserve of this kind he may have possessed by nature, it is now, Job feels, altogether lost and gone from him. Job 6:14 To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend. Job begins here the third head of his reply to Eliphaz, in which he attacks him and his companions. The first duty of a comforter is to compassionate his afflicted friend, to condole with him, and show his sympathy with his sufferings. This is what every one looks for and expects as a matter of course. But Job has looked in vain. He has received no pity, no sympathy. Nothing has been offered him but arguments. And what arguments! How do they touch the point? How are they anything more than a venting of the speaker’s own self-righteousness? Let them fairly consider his case, and point out to him where he has been blamable. But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty; rather, even though he forsake the fear of the Almighty, or else might he forsake the fear of the Almighty. Job certainly does not mean to admit that he has renounced the fear of God, and become an apostate from religion; but only to assert, either, that, even had he done so, his friends ought still to have shown him kindness, or else that their not showing him kindness is the very way to drive him to apostasy. Job 6:15 My brethren; i.e. "my three friends," Eliphaz, who has spoken; Bildad and Zophar, who by their silence have shown their agreement with him. Have dealt deceitfully as a brook; i.e. "a winter torrent"—a "wady," to use the modern Arab expression. These watercourses are characteristic of Palestine and the adjacent regions. "During the winter months," says Dr. Cunningham Geikie, "they are often foaming rivers; but in the hot summer, when they would be of priceless value, their dry bed is generally the road from one point to another. The water rushes over the sheets of rock as it would from the roof of a house, and converging, as it descends, into minor streams in the higher wadies, these sweep on to a common channel in some central valley, and, thus united, swell in an incredibly short time into a deep, troubled, roaring flood, which fills the whole bottom of the wady with an irresistible torrent … The streams from Lebanon, and also from the high mountains of the Hauran. send down great floods of dark and troubled waters in spring, when the ice and snow of their summits are melted; but they dry up under the heat of summer, and the track of the torrent, with its chaos of boulders, stones, and gravel, seems as if it had not known a stream for ages. So Job’s friends had in former times seemed as if they would be true to him for ever; but their friendship had vanished, like the rush of the torrent that had passed away". And as the stream of brooks they pass away; or, the channel; i.e. the wady itself. Canon Cook well says on this, "The simile is remarkably complete. When little needed, the torrent overflows; when needed, it disappears. In winter it does not fertilize; in summer it is dried up. Nor is it merely useless; it deceives, alluring the traveller by the appearance of verdure, promising refreshment, and giving none." Job 6:16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice. Job seems to have seen wadys where, in the winter-time, the water was actually frozen into hard black ice. This scarcely occurs now in the countries bordering on Palestine; but may have occurred in the region where Job dwelt, formerly. "Dark, turbid water" can scarcely be intended. And wherein the snow is hid. Some suppose melted snow to be meant; but the deep wadies in the Hauran and elsewhere would easily conceal snowdrifts. Job 6:17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place (see the passage quoted from Dr. Geikie in the comment on Job 6:15). Job 6:18 The paths of their way are turned aside; rather, as in the Revised Version, the caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside. It seems impossible that the streams can be intended, since their paths are never "turned aside"—they simply shrink, fail, and dry up. But nothing is commoner than for caravans short of water to go out of their way in order to reach a wady, where they expect to be able to replenish their water-skins. If they are disappointed, if the wady is dry, they may be brought into great straits, and may even possibly perish. (For a probable instance, where dependence on a wady would, but for a miracle, have led to a great disaster, see 2 Kings 3:9-20.) They go to nothing, and perish; rather, they go up into the waste, and perish. Having vainly sought water in the dry wady, they ascend out of it, and enter the broad waste of the desert, where they too often miserably perish. Job 6:19 The troops of Tema looked. The Tema were an Arab tribe descended from Ishmael (Genesis 25:15). They are generally conjoined with Dedan (Isaiah 21:13,Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23), another Arab tribe, noted for carry-lug on a caravan trade. Both tribes probably wandered, and occupied at different periods different portions of the desert. The name, Tema, may linger in the modern city and district of Tayma on the confines of Syria, and upon the pilgrim-route between Damascus and Mecca. The "troops of Tema" probably looked for the "caravans" of Job 6:18 to arrive in their country; but they looked in vain. The desert had swallowed them up. The companies of Sheba waited for them. (On "Sheba," see the comment upon Job 1:15.) Job 6:20 They were confounded because they had hoped. Shame and confusion of face came upon them in consequence of their vain hope. In the same way, Job implies, he is ashamed of having looked for compassion and kindness from his friends. He should have been wiser and have known better. They came thither, and were ashamed. They not only hoped, but acted on their hope-let it turn them aside from their way (verse 18) and bring them to ruin. Job 6:21 For now ye are nothing. Like the dried-up torrents, the comforters had come to nought; were wholly useless and unprofitable. Another reading gives the sense, "Ye are like to them"—"ye comforters," i.e; "are like the winter torrents, and have misled me, as they misled the caravans." Ye see my casting down, and are afraid. Here Job penetrates to the motive which had produced the conduct of his friends. They had come with good intentions, meaning to comfort and console him; but when they came, and saw what a wreck he was, how utterly "broken up" and ruined, they began to be afraid of showing too much friendliness. They thought him an object of the Divine vengeance, and feared lest, if they showed him sympathy, they might involve themselves in his punishment. Job 6:22 Did I say, Bring unto me? The meaning is probably—If this be the ease, if ye are afraid of helping me, why have ye come? Did I ask for your aid? No. I neither requested you to bring me anything for myself, nor to make a present to any one on my behalf; much less did I call upon you to deliver me out of the hand of my enemies, to chastize the Chaldeans and the men of Sheba (Job 1:15, Job 1:17), and recoverse from them my property. No; I asked nothing at all of you; but when you came voluntarily, I did expect your pity (Job 6:14). Or, Give a reward for me of your substance? i.e. give a present on my behalf to some influential person, who might thereupon take up my cause and befriend me. There is no need of supposing a "bribe" to be meant. Job 6:23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? rather, from the hand of the violent man. Or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty? literally, of the oppressor (see the Revised Version). Job had not called on his friends to do any of these things. He had not worn out their patience by asking now for this, and now for that. But he had expected their compassion, and this was denied him. Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue. Job is willing to be taught, if his friends have any instruction to give. He is willing to be reproved. But not in such sort as he has been reproved by Eliphas. His words were not "words of uprightness." Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. Point out, that is, in what my assumed guilt consists. You maintain that my afflictions are deserved. Point out what in my conduct has deserved them. I am quite ready to be convinced. Job 6:25 How forcible are right words! literally, words of uprightness. Such words have a force that none can resist. If the charges made by Eliphaz had been right and true, and his arguments sound and just, then Job must have yielded to them, have confessed himself guilty, and bowed down with shame before his judges. But they had had no such constraining power. Therefore they were not "words of uprightness." But what doth your arguing reprove? literally, What doth your reproving reprove? That is—What exactly is it that ye think to be wrong in me? At what is your invective aimed? Job 6:26 Do ye imagine to reprove words? or, Do ye propose? "Is it your intention?" Am I to understand that you blame nothing in my conduct, but only the words that I have spoken? i.e. the words recorded in Job 3:1-26. And the speeshes of one that is desperate, which are as wind; or, whereas the speehes of one that is desperate are but as wind; literally, for the wind—spoken to the wind, for the wind to take hold of them and bear them away. Therefore not worth a reproof. Job 6:27 Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless; rather, on the fatherless would ye east lots (comp. Joe 3:3; Obadiah 1:11; Nahum 3:10). Job means to say they are so pitiless that they would cast lots for the children of an insolvent debtor condemned to become slaves at his death (see 2 Kings 4:1; Nehemiah 5:5). And ye dig a pit for your friend; or, ye would make merchandise of your friend’ as in the Revised Version. Job does not speak of what his friends had done, but of what he deems them capable of doing. Job 6:28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; rather, be pleased to look upon me. Professor Lee translates, "Look favorably upon me." But this addition is unnecessary. What Job desires is that his friends would look him straight in the face. Then they would not be able to doubt him. They would see that he was telling the truth. For it is evident unto you if I lie; rather, it will be evident unto you, etc. Others render the passage, "For surely I shall not lie to your face" (Schultens, Canon Cook, Revised Version). Job 6:29 Return, I pray you; i.e. "go back upon my case: reconsider it." And then, Let it not be iniquity; or, let there be no iniquity; i.e. let no injustice be done me. Yea, return again, my righteousness is in it If my cause be well considered, it will be seen that I am in no way blameworthy. Job 6:30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? (see Job 6:26). Job now justifies his words, which previously he had admitted to have been "rash" (verse 3). Perhaps he intends to distinguish between rashness and actual wickedness. Cannot my taste discern perverse things? i.e. I see no perversity or wickedness in what I have said. If there were any, I think I should discern it The reasoning is somewhat dangerous, since men are not infallible judges, not being unprejudiced judges, in their own case. Job’s ultimate verdict on himself is that he has "uttered that which he understood not" (Job 42:3)—wherefore he "abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Job 6:1-13 Job to Eliphaz: 1. Apologies and prayers. I. A MAN’S DEFENCE. 1. Job’s calamities surveyed. (1) Their weight. Heavier than the sand of the seas. Employed elsewhere to depict what is innumerable (Genesis 22:17; Psalms 78:27) and immeasurable (1 Kings 4:29; Jeremiah 33:22), the sand upon the seashore is here selected to set forth the notion of incomparable weight (Proverbs 27:3). Like the ocean beach stretching away measureless and oppressive, the sorrow of the patriarch was intolerably burdensome. Scripture designates as burdens afflictions and temporal calamities of all sorts, whether of individuals (Psalms 55:22; 2 Kings 9:25) or of nations (Isaiah 15:1; Isaiah 17:1; Isaiah 19:1). Yet more crushing and intolerable even than these is the burden laid by sin upon awakened and sensitive souls (Psalms 38:4). (2) Their intensity. Likened to the wounds of poisoned arrows, with a multitude of which Job describes himself as transfixed, not in body only, but in spirit too. Arrows are put in Scripture for afflictions, calamities, judgments, which, like them, are often swift (Zechariah 9:14), unexpected (Psalms 91:5), sharp (Psalms 45:5), difficult to be removed (Psalms 38:1, Psalms 38:2), and deadly, especially when sent in wrath (Deuteronomy 32:42). (3) Their effect. Exhausting; the venom shot into Job’s veins setting them on fire, corrupting his blood, inflaming his flesh, enfeebling his spirit, and generally producing a sensation of constantly increasing weakness; terrifying, inspiring his trembling heart with ghostly alarms and paralyzing fears, which seemed to gather round him like a troop of pale spectres from the outlying posts of God’s dominions, and to marshal themselves like a sable host against him; nauseating, causing his soul to revolt against them as the stomach turns sickly at the sight of loathsome food. (4) Their origin. From God. This was the principal aggravation of the patriarch’s misery. So long as a sufferer can see God’s face, the heaviest load of calamity will not crush him; but when God’s favour appears to be withdrawn, the spirit sinks like lead in the mighty waters (Job 9:13). 2. Job’s grief justified. (1) Compared with his calamities, it was not extravagant. His heated words (verse 3) had not been disproportioned to the misery which had given them expression. Not balancing the two things his friend had unjustly accused him of—impatience and rage. Weighed together, the overwhelming character of his sorrow would "swallow up" his words as a wholly inadequate utterance of his grief. That Eliphaz failed to estimate accurately the intensity of Job’s sufferings was natural, since no man can put himself exactly in another’s place, and only the heart that suffers can know its own bitterness (Proverbs 14:10). Yet charity should have moved him to judge with leniency, and speak with tenderness of, a grief whose cause he did not comprehend. At the same time, it is hardly doubtful that Job’s misery did not warrant the appalling outburst of Job 3:1-26.; but men at all times (and especially in affliction) are readier to excuse themselves than others. (2) Considered in itself, it was not unnatural. It was not without cause. Even the senseless ass and the stupid ox were wise enough to hold their tongues when placed in circumstances of asinine and bovine felicity; i.e. when they had plenty of food; and surely he had as much discernment as these irrational creatures, and could distinguish whether he was miserable or happy, and cry out or be silent accordingly. Then having a cause, it was likewise irrepressible, it being as impossible for him not to complain as it was for a person to eat what was unsavoury or tasteless without making wry faces and giving vent to his displeasure. II. A MAN’S PRAYER. 1. Job’s urgent request. "Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!" (verse 8)—that thing being death (cf. Job 3:21). Job longed for death as a release from his sufferings (Job 3:13); Elijah, under a sense of weariness and disappointment (1 Kings 19:4); Jonah, in a fit of rage and self-conceit (Jonah 4:8); St. Paul, through ardent longing for heaven (Philippians 1:23); Christ, through vehement desire after man’s salvation (Luke 12:50). 2. Job’s pitiful entreaty. "Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off" (verse 9). That Job does not think of taking his own life, although often strongly tempted to do so by his peculiar malady (Job 7:15, Job 7:16), although death was the paramount desire of his heart, and although he professed himself free from anxiety about the future, was a proof, not only of Job’s regard for the sanctity of life, and of his clear recognition of God’s proprietorship in that life, but also of his own moral integrity, and of the intensity with which he still shrank from the perpetration of known sin. 3. Job’s melancholy plea. "Then should I yet have comfort" (verse 10). The mere anticipation of a speedy dissolution would not only cause him to forget his misery, it would thrill him with extreme delight; yea, if God would but assure him that every stroke was hastening his end, he would bear without a murmur the most unsparing affliction that might be laid upon him. 4. Job’s twofold motive. (1) No fear of death. "For I have not concealed the words of the Holy One" (verse 10). Had Job been apprehensive of meeting God, he would not so earnestly have longed, or so vehemently entreated, to be removed. The only thing that could have damped his exultation in the prospect of death would have been uncertainty about his future. But of this he was devoid, since he had not concealed, i.e. had not denied or neglected, but openly has practised, the words of the Holy One. (2) No hope of life. "What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?" (verse 11). It was impossible that his strength, which was not that of stones or of brass (verse 12) could hold out much longer, and therefore idle in Eliphaz to speak, or him to think, of restoration. Nay, supposing he should recover, it could only be for so short a period that it was not worth while fostering expectation of it. But in point of fact, all natural power of rallying had departed from him, and nought remained that could be matured into health again (verse 13). Job clearly judged in this matter on the principles of sense and reason, forgetting that all things were possible with God, that God can raise a feeble man up from the very brink of the grave (Isaiah 38:10-20), ay, even from the dead (contrast the faith of Abraham, Romans 4:19; Hebrews 11:19), and that God delights to perfect his strength in human weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Learn: 1. Though religion requires sufferers to submit to God’s chastisements, it does not oblige them to yield to man’s unjust accusations. Job sinned not in replying to Eliphaz. 2. It is extremely hard to hold the balance evenly between the soul’s calamities and the heart’s griefs, whether in ourselves or others. Job blamed Eliphaz for not justly weighing his sufferings and his sorrow, while practically Eliphaz censured Job for a like offence. 3. Though it is a sore trial to a good man in affliction to miss the sympathy of friends, it is incomparably more painful and distressing to lone the sense of God’s favour, not to speak of experiencing the frowns of God’s anger. Shaddai’s arrows and Eloah’s terrors were infinitely harder for Job to bear than Eliphaz’s insinuations. 4. The best of men are "poore sillie creatures’ when God presseth them with judgments, quite incompetent to bear the shock of outward calamity unless God shall hold them up. Job’s standing upright in the midst of such a tempest of tribulation as swept around him was a proof, not of man’s strength, but of God’s grace. 5. It is no sin to long for death, provided we wait God’s time for its coming. Job, though urgent for release from his sufferings, would not be released by any hand but God’s. 6. The best way to overcome the fear of death is to have a comfortable outlook into the future. Job was not afraid of dying, because not afraid of meeting God. 7. The best preparation for both death and eternity is not to conceal from our vision, but to hide within our hearts, the words of the Holy One. Job 6:14-30 Job to Eliphaz: 2. Reproofs and retorts. I. . The behaviour of Eliphaz (and his friends) was: 1. Unnatural. Compassion for a suffering fellow-creature, much more for a friend, was a dictate of humanity (verse 14). The condition of Job pre-eminently claimed pitiful consideration. He was not only melting away, bodily and mentally, but spiritually he was in danger of "forsaking the fear of the Almighty," i.e. losing his hold on God, on God’s love and favour towards himself, and, as a consequence, on his integrity before and confidence in God (of. Psalms 38:6; Psalms 69:2). The withholding of sympathy from one in his condition was a deplorable dereliction of duty and a manifest token of unfeeling barbarity. 2. Inconsistent. Besides being a dictate of nature, the law of kindness is one of the plainest precepts of religion (Le Job 19:18; Zechariah 7:9; Luke 10:37; Romans 12:10-15; James 1:27), and its fulfilment one of the surest marks of moral and spiritual perfection (Psalms 112:4; Proverbs 31:26; Romans 13:8; Colossians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 4:12). The absence, therefore, of pity on the part of Eliphaz and his friends argued them destitute of genuine religion, or, according to another reading of the clause, showed them to be "forsaking the fear of Shaddai." 3. Injurious. A third interpretation understands Job to say that Eliphaz’s lack of sympathy had rendered it more difficult for him, Job, to believe in the kindness of his heavenly Friend—was, in fact, enough to cause him to forsake the fear of the Almighty. Earthly relationships were undoubtedly designed to be helpful for the right understanding of God’s relationship towards men; a father’s love to be an emblem of that of the Divine Father (Deuteronomy 8:5; Psalms 103:13; Matthew 7:11); a friend’s pity to interpret that of the Elder Brother (Proverbs 18:24). Hence the responsibility of so fulfilling these relationships that men shall be assisted rather than hindered on their heavenward way. 4. Disappointing. Eliphaz and his friends had deceived Job like a brook (verse 15), like the dried-up water of a mountain wady. The image, applied by Job to his brethren (verse 21) consists of four parts. (1) The winter torrent, noisy and full, turbid and swollen by thick blocks of floating ice and fast-falling flakes of snow, rushing down the precipitous ravine, and attracting by its loud roar and white foam the attention of desert travellers as they pass (verse 16),—an emblem of the loud and profuse protestations of friendship which were made by Eliphaz and his companions at a time when Job did not require them, and which gave promise of long continuance, like the waters of the brook. (2) The dry river-bed in summer-time, from which the streams have vanished, leaving only heaps of shingle or piles of boulders (verse 17),—an emblem of the quickness and completeness with which the loud-mouthed protestations of Job’s friends had disappeared, having gone to nothing, like the winter torrent, the hot sun that had shrivelled them up being Job’s deplorable and ghastly condition (verse 21). (3) The desert caravans turning aside in search of the water they had formerly observed, being still attracted by the unusual brightness and verdure of the wadys (verses 18, 19),—an emblem of the eagerness and confidence with which Job had anticipated sympathy and succour from his friends. (4) The consternation of the travellers, going up into the waste and perishing, being confounded at the miserable disappointment of their sanguine expectations, and ashamed that they had put their trust in what was so proverbially treacherous (verse 20),—an emblem of the utter collapse of Job’s hope and expectation from the coming of his friends. 5. Unreasonable. Job had not asked them for any great evidence of friendship, neither to relieve his sufferings by charitable gifts, nor to repair his losses by munificent contributions from their personal property, nor to restore his ruined fortunes by recovering them from the Chaldeans and Sabeans, as Abram delivered Lot and his goods from the hands of Chedorlaomer (Genesis 14:14). Simply he had craved their sympathy—a small enough boon, which would not have much impoverished them; and yet even that they had withheld. Jonathan dealt otherwise with David (1 Samuel 23:16). II. . The imputation which underlay the whole harangue of Eliphaz, Job resented as: 1. Unproved. "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred." A perfectly reasonable demand, since conviction should always precede condemnation. So Christ challenged his countrymen first to convince him of sin (John 8:46). And it is manifestly absurd to expect that men will listen to admonitions who are unconscious of having committed faults. Even God does not exhort to repentance without having first demonstrated man’s guilt. The first function of the Holy Spirit is to convince the world of sin (John 16:8). Job’s language also indicative of an honest and ingenuous mind. Willingness to be taught is a sign of humility and a token of sincerity. "A man that is willing to be taught is in a better condition than many who are able to teach. It argues a holier temper of the heart to be willing to be taught than to be able to teach. And it is far worse to be unwilling to learn than not to be knowing" (Caryl). 2. Ungenerous. While words of uprightness, i.e. honest speech, plain dealing, even reproof when necessary, had a force which Job could not resist, a pertinency he could not challenge, and a pungency he could not fail to feel and acknowledge, their language had been wholly mean and contemptible, fastening as it did on the despairing utterances of a poor wretch half-crazed with grief, which common consent allows should be regarded as wind, or given to the wind, as idle, meaningless, shifting, and therefore not to be too closely criticized, far less made the basis of a charge of guilt. And Job’s contention was substantially correct. Words thrown off in a hasty moment, under the influence of strong passion, are not always a perfectly safe and reliable index to the character of the soul, at least when judged by man. God alone is competent to estimate man’s moral and spiritual condition by his words (Matthew 12:37). All others should be guided by charity in interpreting the speech of agonized men (1 Corinthians 13:5). 3. Heartless. The men who could so make him an offender for a word were in Job’s estimation capable of any baseness, such pitiless and inhuman ruffians as would "enslave an orphan for his father’s debt, and then cast lots whose he should be" (Cox), or barter their dearest friend for pelf. Probably Job overstrained the case against Eliphaz and his companions; but men have perpetrated the villainies described, as e.g. the brethren of Joseph (Genesis 37:28) and Judas (Matthew 26:15). 4. Untrue. Job requests his friends to look into his face and say whether he did not carry the refutation of their slanders in his countenance (verse 28). The face is commonly a mirror to the soul. The glory of a pure soul shines through the face, illuminating, refining, etherealizing it; just as the moral gloom that enshrouds s wicked soul leaves its impress on the countenance, rendering its features coarse, brutal, sordid, revolting. There are faces that proclaim the depravity of the soul within as certainly as there are noble countenances that bear their own certificate of truth, sincerity, moral honesty, and spiritual refinement. 5. Unfair. The friends had started with a prejudice against Job, and, as a consequence, their decision had not been impartial. Accordingly, he invites them to renew their investigation, but on other principles and presuppositions: "Return, I pray you; let there be no unfairness, and my righteousness will be found to stand" (verse 29). 6. Insulting. Their insinuation practically charged Job with being a moral imbecile, who had no capacity to discriminate between right and wrong—an assumption he resented with the utmost vigour (verse 30), maintaining that, as surely as his palate could distinguish meats, his moral sense could discern right and wrong in the matter of his sufferings, and generally in the providential government of the world of which he next proceeds to speak. The capacity to distinguish between right and wrong is the highest function of intelligence, and is as certainly capable of perversion and obscuration through wilful ignorance and sin as susceptible of education and refinement through Christian instruction and practical holiness. Learn: 1. The duty of sympathizing with the suffering and sorrowful. Nature prompts to it; religion enjoins it; humanity claims it; the afflicted expect Job 2:2. The danger of putting stumbling-blocks in the way, to either keep men or withdraw men from the fear of God. 3. The folly of trusting in either princes or men’s sons, seeing that man’s goodness is commonly (except where grace intervenes)as transient as his greatness. 4. The painfulness of being deceived by any, but especially by those we trust. 5. The certain disappointment of those who lock to failing brooks for the water of eternal life. 6. The wickedness of censuring for sins that have been neither proved nor admitted. 7. The liability of man to error, and the only sure and certain pathway to truth, viz. a spirit of humble docility. 8. Truth is less dependent on argumentation than men are apt to suppose, being generally its own best witness. BY E. JOHNSON Job 6:1-13 The sufferer’s self-justification. (Job 6:1-30; Job 7:1-21.) We have seen that Eliphaz’s counsels, though well-meant, were ill-timed. They were right words’ but not fitly spoken as to person, time, and place. They cause the poor sufferer to wince afresh instead of soothing his pain. The tumult of his spirit is now aggravated into a very tempest of woe. The human spirit is a thing of moods. We have watched the marvellous changes that pass over the surface of a lake beneath a tempestuous sky. And such are the rapid changes of pain that now pass over the mind of Job, relieved here and there by flashes of calmer reflection, of faith and hope. The picture is instructive, teaching us how feeble and unstable a thing is the human mind, and how deeply it needs to look out from itself for a sure support in the Eternal. Let us briefly take note of these moods. Not without profit shall we try to understand them if we thereby cultivate that deeper sympathy with our brethren in adversity which Job seemed to demand at the hand of his friends in vain. I. THE OF THE OF . (Verses 1-14.) There are times when every nerve of the sensitive organization seems to be turned into a channel of pain; when the creature, instead of basking in the brilliant ether of unbounded joy, is submerged in a boundless ocean of misery. "All thy waves and billows have gone over me." It is with this feeling that Job exclaims, "Would that a term, a measure, a weight, might be applied to my sufferings!" A day, an hour, of such woe seems as an eternity! II. THE FEAR OF SINNING WITH THE TONGUE. Verse 3, which appears to mean, "Therefore my words idly bubbled," like the impatient cries and reproaches of little children against the parents whom they level But this is the only definite sin of which Job is conscious. And he prays that he may be delivered from it in this trying hour. So said the psalmist, "I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue." Let Christians imitate this example. Let them bridle their tongues with holy reverence, and cast upon them as a spell the prayer of Jesus in the garden. "Forgive these wild and wandering cries, Forgive them when they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise!" III. THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HIS TRACED TO GOD. (Verse 4.) It is his arrows which have fastened themselves with poisonous inflammation in his breast; his host of terrors that have beleaguered his soul. Though in such extreme moments it is hard to reconcile our sufferings with the goodness of God, it is well to hold firmly to the clue of Divine causation. That which has not come causelessly will not causelessly remain. This is the one crevice through which light steals into the dungeon: "God is in all I suffer." IV. APOLOGY FOR HIS . (Verses 5-7.) They are true to nature. God has given to all animals their natural voice of pleasure and of pain. And these voices express natural tastes and repugnances. The ox and the ass are silent at the well-filled stall. It is only when unsavoury food is offered that we hear the cries of complaint. And what an unsavoury mess is this which his friends would place before him, in their rigid application to him of the doctrine that his suffering witnesses his guilt! V. DEATH CRAVED AS A BOON. (Verses 8-13.) The very thought of it excites a frantic joy. Whereas Eliphaz had spoken of deliverance from death as one of the privileges of the blessed man, and of its lingering approach in a happy old age, Job would crave a speedy dismissal as the last boon which he feels entitled, in a clear conscience, to ask of God I "I have not denied the words of the Holy One; I shall not pass, an impenitent, rejected soul; grant me this last, this speedy favour, to die!" If such a state of mind excites our keenest pity, what shall we think of the condition of those Buddhists or pessimists among the heathen and ourselves, who have built a doctrine upon this horror-stricken mood, and teach that the highest good for man is absorption in some Nirvana of dreamless, unconscious nothingness? Truly, the gospel of Christ is the only remedy for these melancholy aberrations. M. Naville says that the impassioned earnestness of Lacroix, the great Indian missionary, which he had listened to in earlier years, was only fully understood by him when subsequent study had acquainted him with the gloomy beliefs of the Oriental world. VI. OF UTTER AND . (Verses 11-13.) He has neither strength nor patience to look forward to the end which is to reward endurance. Sooner or later death must be the end; and why not sooner rather than later? But weakness cannot wring from his tortured breast the confession of a guilt which conscience refuses to own. He has not denied the words of the Holy One. His heart has been true to God. This consciousness is still a kind of strength in weakness, and enables him to ask this last boon at God’s hands—a speedy death.—J. Job 6:14-21 The illusions of friendship. Oh, how sweet and blessed at this hour would the ministries of true friendship be! Job, in the shipwreck of fortune and of health, is like a poor swimmer clinging to a spar or fragment of rock with ebbing strength, looking vainly for the lifeboat, and the strong, rescuing arms of friends and saviours. Instead of this, his friends stand aloof, and lecture and lesson him on the supposed folly which has steered his bark upon the breakers. Here we see in one glance the greatest danger to which a human soul can be exposed, and the greatest service one human being can render another. I. THE HUMAN PERIL. What is it? The loss of life? Not in the common sense of those words. For the loss of life in this world is not necessarily the loss of the soul. The loss of worldly goods? Still less; for a man’s life consisteth not in these. The loss of family, of reputation, of health? All these may be repaired; but the loss of God is irreparable. The mangled tree may sprout again, and send forth vigorous suckers from its root; but how if that root itself be extirpated from its holding? It is the horror in the prospect of losing reverence, trust—of losing God—that now looms upon the patriarch’s soul. We need only refer to the twenty-second psalm—to those words quoted by our Saviour in the agony on the cross—to remind ourselves of the fearfulness of this last trial to every godly soul, II. THE HUMAN . It is to do something to save a sinking brother from such a fate. A cheerful faith is infectious. A noble courage will thrill in the vibrations of sympathy to another’s soul. And this is, then, the best office our friends can discharge for us in our greatest troubles. Let them remind us by their words, their prayers, their looks, their tones, of God. Let them not throw a new burden upon our drooping consciousness by reminding us of what we are or are not, but relieve us by telling us of what he is and ever will be—the Refuge and Strength of them that seek him. And this may be a fitting place to speak generally of— III. THE OF . By a beautiful image Job describes the failure of friendship. An unfaithful or unintelligent friend is like a brook swollen with snow and rain in spring-time, but dried in its channel under the scorching heat of summer. The poet says of one who has been lost to his sorrowing companions by death— "He is gone from the mountain, He is lost to the forest, Like a summer-dried fountain, When our need was the sorest!" The pathos of those words is, alas I applicable to living but absent or unsympathetic friends. There is nothing more beautiful or more useful in all the world than true friendship. Perhaps as "all other things seem to be symbols of love, so love is the highest symbol of friendship." But for the service of friendship there must be: 1. Constant affection. The equal flow of a deep river, not the intermittent gushings of a fickle fountain. 2. Habitual sympathy. We must feel with our friend so long as he is our friend. There are crimes which will break up this holy tie. Connivance at guilt can be no part of this sacred covenant. But so long as I can call my friend my friend, I must bear with his infirmities, "not make them greater than they are." How unhappy the knack of seeing all that can be said against our friend, with blindness to all that can be urged in his favour! We dread the coming of these "candid friends," so called. If there are unpleasant truths, let him hear them from another’s lips than ours. Let not the troubles of those we own by this sacred name be made occasions for airing the conceit of our superior wisdom, or indulging a vein of moralizing, but for unlocking all the treasures of our heart. 3. Lively imagination. Want of imagination, or, in other words, dulness and stupidity, is a great defect for general social intercourse. Men quarrel and fly asunder because they do not understand one another. They do not use the faculty of imagination to "put themselves in another’s place." And what may hinder general intercourse may be a fatal bar to friendship. "I am not understood:" what commoner complaint? Yet what is this high faculty given us for, but that, under the guidance of Christian love, we may identity another heart with our own, appropriate all its sorrowful experiences, and think and speak and feel towards others, as well as do unto them, as we would they should do unto us? But these demands for an ideal friendship are not, after all, to be satisfied by frail human nature. Let us, then, think: 4. These qualities of friendship can be only fully found in God. The Divine Friend!—he whose unfailing, self-replenished love alone is equal to supply the thirst of our hearts, whose sympathy is that of One who knows us better than we know ourselves; who numbers our hairs, and gathers our tears into his bottle; who needs to exercise no imagination in order to realize our condition, because he knows! O God! greater than our hearts, whose knowledge is the measure of thy sympathy, whose sympathy is fed from the eternal well-spring of thy love; God manifested in Jesus Christ; thou only art the Friend of our sorrow, the Sustainer of our help. LESSONS. May we listen with humble obedience to the voice which says to us, "Henceforth I call you friends"! As life wears, and many shallow torrents of earthly kindness are dried, may we experience more profoundly thy never-wasting fulness!—J. Job 6:22-27 Friendship: its rights and its disclaimers. In his agonized yearning for sympathy and tenderness, Job further appeals to the conscience and memory of his friends, seeking to put an end to this lacerating contention, and to be reconciled to them in peace. I. . True friendship disclaims the right to be exacting. We have no right to lay a tax on the property, or time, or energy of those whom we desire to grapple to us as with hooks of steel. All must be spontaneous, voluntary, free, in the mutual offices of friendship. There are a few noble hearts, indeed, with whom every benefit is a reason for another. Shakespeare has drawn the sublime picture of such a one in his ’Merchant of Venice,’ who stops not short at the loan of goods, but pledges his very flesh for his friend. But the counterpart is not to be found in actual life. God is he who alone invites our largest asking, wearies not of our urgency, giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not. The life laid down for us is the pledge that we cannot claim too much from him. The gospel does not fail to point us to the frailty of human nature, even in its noblest moods, in order to set in contrast the illustrious sacrifices of Christ for us. Job had not asked for gifts of substance from his friends to redeem him from durance, or for any other purpose. He had been wiser than to kill the tender plant of mutual good will by unseasonable exactions. And let us read ourselves the lesson that nothing will more surely or speedily break our happiest ties than to allow the hand we offer in affection to be put forth to buy, to traffic, to exact. II. CLAIMS. But we have great rights and privileges in friendship. These the patriarch insists upon now. He has a right to good words, which are worth much and cost little. He has a right, so long as he is regarded as a friend, to have the truth of his own statements accepted. He has a right to confidence. In distress he is entitled to tenderness, compassion, and efficient guidance by those whose minds are calm and unimpaired by woe. And above all, perhaps, just now, the right of self-defence is most precious, which these advisers seem obstinately to deny. How often is this tragedy enacted! We condemn good men, honest hearts, unheard; we refuse them a fair hearing. They do not easily explain themselves, or we, with our preoccupations and prejudices, are slow to understand. There may be greater ability to defend one’s self against the accusations of bitter foes than against the misconceptions of intimate friends. In fact, this is one of those severe trials in relation to our equals of which a recent preacher has so finely discoursed (Mozley, ’University Sermons ’). III. SELF-DEFENCE. Against what fault or sin are these monotonous and harsh reproofs directed? Is it against Job’s evil deeds? But they are not specified, and Job denies that they have been done. There is no keener injustice than vague attacks on a man without specification of the exact nature of the charges. Is it the present language of Job? True, hasty words may have escaped him; he fears it; but is the language of health and joy to be tested by the same measures, weighed in the same scales, with that which pain and intense distress extort from the lips? Job knows his heart has not been unfaithful to his God, whatever cries of agony and despair have been berne upon the wind. The whole section thus contains a pathetic appeal to the human conscience for human love; and it teaches us indirectly, bur. with great feeling, the duties of friendly ministry to others in their distress. LESSONS. 1. Calm guidance, healthy suggestions for the morbid intelligence. 2. The "sweetness" (verse 25) of right words of tender sympathy. 3. Abstinence from argument in such circumstances which only irritates and never soothes. 4. Considerate listening to explanations. 5. Hearty acceptance of honest self-vindications. In all these particulars we have bright examples set us by our blessed Saviour, who never broke the bruised reed nor quenched the smoking flax. By such methods of ministry we are to earn and prove the holy name of friend to our brethren, and lead men to believe that God has angels of blessing in human shape passing about the worn paths of misery in this world.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 6:1-13 A true estimate of grief under the severities of affliction. Even the strong man cries for help and release. Job, in his extreme sufferings, desires that a fair judgment may be formed of them and of his complaint. Put this into one seals, and them into the other, and behold which of them is the lighter. Thus he describes them— I. THE WEIGHT OF HIS . It is as the unknown weight of the sand of the seashore. Affliction is truly as the pressure of a great weight upon the frail body. The idea of patience is gained from bearing up under a load. Heavy is the load, indeed, under which this servant of the Lord is bowed down. It is not to be estimated. No onlooker can determine it. Therefore should judgment be withheld when from the life of the sufferer there escapes the sigh of complaint. He only knows his sufferings; and he may know that his cry does not fully represent them. The untouched observer but hears the cry, and cannot put that into comparison with a pain that he feels not, and the measure of which pain the cry is supposed to represent. How shall a just judgment, therefore, be given? II. THE OF THE PANG OF HIS . They pierce as doth an arrow; and are as poisoned arrows; and as arrows shot forth by no feeble arm, but by the Almighty. They penetrate to the inner spirit. The strength of their burning poison drinks up—burns up his spirit. He does not encounter a feeble foe. "The terrors of God set themselves in array" against him. Is it wonderful that his words are hasty? Is there not a cause? "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?" III. THE OF THE THINGS WITH WHICH HE HAS TO DO. "That which my soul refused"—from which I turned away in disgust—I am compelled to take as my daily bread. Yea, that which should give me comfort, even my refreshing food, is loathsome to me. Sadly does he thus represent the nature of the foul disease that cleaveth to him. The onlookers are pained, hut they taste it not. To him it is as his food. IV. HE FURTHER HIS AS SO SAD THAT HE LONGS FOR DEATH. "That it would please God to destroy me!" How low is life reduced when there seems to be no release but in the gravel Worn to the earth, this sufferer cries for an end to be put to his pains. He has not strength to bear up patiently under the weight of them. He cannot desire prolonged life; for what shall the end of it be? Weary, indeed, is that spirit that craves rest in the tomb. Job feels himself so utterly powerless, that continued endurance is impossible to him. He little knew that he could survive all—that he could yet pass through all, and bear honour to God, and perceive in the end the testimony of the Divine approbation. To him it was true, and he would prove it, though the words had not fallen on his ear, "With man it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." Job’s history, therefore, illustrates the sufficiency of the Divine grace to sustain men beneath the uttermost pressure of sorrow.—R.G. Job 6:14 The claims of the suffering on the pity of friends. Job’s friends come to condole with him. They are staggered by the severity of his sufferings, and remain silenced before him. When they open their lips they seem not only to try to account for the affliction, but they also appear to be anxious to justify their own inability to comfort their suffering friend. Their words add to Job’s heavy affliction instead of lightening his burden, and he cries out in his bitterness, "To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend." To whom should the suffering one turn if not to end? We see at once, in such circumstances, a friend’s duty and a friend’s demand. I. A FRIEND’S DUTY. 1. The true office of friendship is to enter fully into the circumstances of the friend; not to be indifferent to them, and therefore ignorant. True affection will inquire gently, wisely, and with care into the state, and the need, and the sorrow, and the hopes of the object of its attachment. Not for meddlesome curiosity, but from loving interest the friend’s heart will open to take in the tale of sorrow, even the words of complaint. 2. True friendship will lovingly sympathize. The eager pleading of the casual beggar strikes upon the closed ear of the stranger. No chord of pitiful sympathy vibrates, and no hand of help is outstretched. But to the appeals of friendship the heart opens; warm sympathy is stirred. The fluttering spirit finds rest on the besom of a friend. It is a duty one friend owes to another to show the utmost pitifulness of spirit—a pitifulness that should ripen to loving sympathy. No hardening of the heart, no refusal to be patient, no selfishness, can be found in the breast of the true friend. 3. True friendship will be ready with its help, springing forth with spontaneous eagerness to aid and comfort. It is possible for the friend to stick closer than a brother; and he shows the true spirit of a friend who, feeling perfectly at one with his loved companion, renders willing help to him. 4. The friendship which stimulates to pitiful and loving help in need rejoices also in the joy, the prosperity, and well-being of him to whom it cleaves. The two lives are one. David and Jonathan illustrate this, and happily a thousand examples are around us daily. He that findeth a true friend findeth a precious possession—a prize whose worth cannot be estimated. II. FOR THIS LOVING AND PITIFUL EVERY ONE MAY MAKE HIS JUST AND DEMAND ON HIS FRIEND. Friendship has its duties of fidelity, of kindness, and help; of confidence, trust, and good will. It has also its claims. It is a silent, mutual compact—each preparing to give that which it demands of the other; each expecting that which it knows it can bestow. It is the supreme satisfaction of true friendship that either of its members may turn to other in the confident, unquestioning assurance of meeting with true sympathy, with an open hand and a warm heart. For this friendship looks, and this it is justified in expecting. A faithful friend’s love faileth not; for "a friend loveth always." Even his very "wounds" are "faithful." Happy he who has found a friend in whom he can place the whole faith of his heart; and who is ready to reciprocate the same full, thorough, and trustworthy affection! 1. The wisdom of seeking a friend. 2. The law: "He that would have friends must show himself friendly."—R.G. Job 6:25 The power of right words; or, complaining stayed by instruction. Job has hitherto met with no comfort from those who came "to mourn with him, and to comfort him." From the inutility of their powerless words he turns aside with the bitter reflection on his lips, "How forcible are right words!" Words charged with truth, with great views of things, with tender sympathy, heal and guide and comfort the perplexed and saddened soul; while the words of false friends pierce as goads. Truth at all times is worthy of trust. The spirit, worn and weary, may rest in it and find peace. Consider the power of truth—the force of right Words— I. IN THE OF ERROR. Truth is the right, the straight, line which reveals and thereby condemns the crooked departures. Its own clear, calm utterance resolves the confusion of tortuous commingled error. It is by the simple statement of truth that the wrong of error is discovered and rebuked. Loudness of denunciation cannot contradict error, or unravel it, or expose it. Nor will mere logical demonstration; noise will not destroy darkness; nor will the gloom be illuminated by proving it to be darkness. But the quiet shining of the lamp will scatter the shades of black night. So truth in its own simplicity and realness effectually and alone disperses the gloom and guides the feet of the wanderer through the tangled path of error. Such words Job had not yet found. But the good Teacher was not far away; and finally Job was led to the open plain and the clear light and the straight way. II. RIGHT WORDS ARE IN THE OF DEEP SORROW. So Job thought. It was for such words he pined. He longed for the teaching that would bring him comfort, and not for the accusations that would make his burden heavier and his heart sadder. There is a deep truth relating to all human affliction. Looked at only as a derangement of human happiness, it is devoid of that completeness of view that would constitute it a truthful one. But looked at as a Divine correction, a discipline, a sharp warning or departure from law, and a just punishment for such departure; and looked at as under the control of the Almighty Father, it is seen to be invested with a momentous character, and to be. inflicted for the wisest and best purposes. Right words on it bring the mind to peace. They are forcible to counsel and to comfort; to warn of danger, to guide to safety, to console in suffering. Happy the sufferer who has an interpreter at band, who with right words can unveil the mystery, and make clear the ways of God to man! III. RIGHT WORDS ARE IN THE OF OF LIFE. They are wise words and kind. Even enemies are overcome by them. The right word is a word in harmony with the truth. Spoken with lips that speak truth habitually, and from a heart where truth finds its home, they carry conviction. They win the ear and the confidence of the listener. They have a force peculiar to themselves. They command. They are strong and cannot be shaken. They pierce, as doth an arrow, when they are words of condemnation founded on truth; and they comfort, and heal, and restore, and readjust, when they are spoken in kindness. The wise man searches for right words, and, having found them, speaks them in all simplicity. And the seeker after truth, or rest, or comfort welcomes them. They bear help on their wings, and are as reviving as the beams of the morning.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 6:2 This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 7:1-21 In this chapter Job first bewails his miserable fate, of which he expects no alleviation (verses 1-10); then claims an unlimited right of complaint (verse 11); and finally enters into direct expostulation with God—an expostulation which continues from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. At the close, he admits his sinfulness (verse 20), but asks impatiently why God does not pardon it instead of visiting it with such extreme vengeance (verse 21). Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? rather, Is there not a warfare (or, a time of service) to man upon earth? Has not each man a certain work appointed for him to do, and a certain limited time assigned him within which to do it? And thus, Are not his days also like the days of an hireling? Since the hireling is engaged to do a certain work in a certain time. Job 7:2 As a servant (or, a slave) panteth for the shadow; i.e. longs for the shades of evening to descend and bring the day to a close. The slavery of Job’s time was probably not unlike that of captive races in Egypt, so graphically portrayed in the early chapters of Exodus. The captive, working from morning to night at exhausting labour, would long intensely for the night to arrive, when his toil would come to an end. The inference is not drawn, but clearly is—so Job may be excused if he longs for death, now that he has reached old age, and that the work of his life is manifestly ended. And as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work; rather, for his wages. The word used (פעל) has the two meanings of "work" and "the wages of work" (see Jeremiah 22:13). Job 7:3 So am I made to possess months of vanity. "Months of vanity" are "months of which he can make no use "—"months which are no good to him." It has been concluded from this theft some considerable time had elapsed since Job was stricken by his disease. But he is perhaps looking to the future as much as to the past, anticipating a long, lingering illness. Elephantiasis is a disease which often lasts for years. And wearisome nights are appointed to me. To one stretched on a bed of sickness, the night is always more wearisome than the day. It has no changes, nothing to mark its flight. It seems almost interminable. In elephantiasis, however, it is a special feature of the disease that the sufferings of the patient are greatest at night. "In elephantiasis ansesthetica" says Dr. Erasmus Wilson, "a sense of dulness and heat pervades the surface, and there are sensations of tingling and prickling, and of burning heat. While the integument is insensible, there are deep-seated burning pains, sometimes of a bone or joint, sometimes of the vertebral column. These pains are greatest at night; they prevent sleep, and give rise to restlessness and frightful dreams". Job 7:4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? So Gesenius, Rosenmuller, and Delitzsch. Others translate, "the night is long" (Dillmann, Renan), or "the night seems endless" (Merx); comp. Deuteronomy 28:67, "At evening thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!" And I am full of tossings to and fro. Professor Lee understands "tossings of the mind," or "distracting thoughts;" but it is more probable that tossings of the body are meant. These are familiar to every bad sleeper. Unto the dawning of the day. A little rest sometimes visits the tired eyelids after a long, sleepless night. Job may refer to this, or he may simply mean that he lay tossing on his bed all through the night, till morning came, when he arose. Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms. The fons et origo mali in elephantiasis is a worm called filaria sanguinis hominid. It is a long, fine, thread-like creature, of a white colour, smooth; and devoid of markings. And clods of dust. This is rather poetical than strictly medical. The special characteristic of elephantiasis, from which it derives its name, is that the integument, or outer skin, is "formed into large masses or folds, with a rugose condition of the surface, not unlike the appearance of an elephant’s leg". But the swellings do not contain clods of dust. My skin is broken, and become loathsome. A common feature in elephantiasis is the development and gradual growth of solid papules or tubercles in the skin. These enlarge as the disease progresses, and after a time soften and break up; an nicer is then formed, and a discharge follows of a virulent and loathsome character. Presently the discharge steps; the ulcer heals; but only to break out again in another place. In the Revised Version the passage is rendered, My skin closeth up, and breaketh afresh. Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. Though each day is a weariness, yet, on looking back upon my whole life, it seems to have come and gone in a moment (comp. Job 9:25). And are spent without hope. Job does not share in the hopes which Eliphaz has held out (see Job 5:17-27). He has no hope but in death. Job 7:7 O remember that my life is wind! (comp. Psalms 78:39). The wind is an image of all that is vain, shifting, unstable, ready to pass away (Job 6:1-30:36; Proverbs 11:29; Ecclesiastes 5:16; Isaiah 26:18; Isaiah 41:9; Jeremiah 5:13, etc.). Mine eye shall no more see good. Another protest against the hopes flint Eliphaz has held out (see the comment on Job 7:6; and setup, Job 9:25). Job is still speaking of this life only, and not touching the question of another. Job 7:8 The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more; that is, I shall go down to the grave, and be no more seen upon earth. Neither friend nor enemy shall behold me after that. Thine eyes. God’s eyes. God still sees him and watches him; this is a certain consolation; but will it last? Are upon me, and I am not. I am on the point of disappearing. Even now I scarcely exist. Job 7:9 As the aloud is consumed and vanisheth away. In mountainous countries one sees clouds clinging to a mountain-side, which do not float away, but gradually shrink, and at last wholly disappear. They are "consumed" in the strictest sense of the word—the hot rays of the sun drink them up. So he that goeth down to the grave; rather, to Sheol; i.e. to the lower world, the abode of the departed. What exactly was Job’s idea of this world it is impossible to say, or whether it involved the continued separate identity of individual souls and their continued consciousness. In Isaiah’s conception both seem certainly to have been involved (Isaiah 14:9-18), and perhaps in Jacob’s (Genesis 37:35); but Job s creed on the subject can only be conjectured. It is certain, however, that both the Egyptians and the early Babylonians held the continuance after death of individual souls, their separate existence, and their consciousness. Shall come up no more. The Egyptian belief was that the soul would ultimately return to the body from which death separated it, and rein-habit it. But this belief was certainly not general among the nations of antiquity. Job 7:10 He shall return no more to his house. This is best taken literally. Men do not, after death, return to their houses and resume their old occupations. From the life in this world they disappear for ever. Neither shall his place know him any mere (comp. Psalms 103:16). Job 7:11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; rather, I moreover, will not refrain my lips; that is, "You may do as you like under affliction, I claim the right of complaining." Job has already pointed out that nature teaches the animals to complain when they suffer (Job 6:5). Why, then, should not he? Complaint is not necessarily murmuring; it is sometimes merely expostulation, which God allows (comp. Psalms 4:2; Psalms 77:3; Psalms 142:2, etc.). I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Extreme "anguish" and "bitter" suffering excuse complaints that would otherwise be, blare-able (comp. Job 6:2-4). Job 7:12 Job now begins his complaint, which is wholly addressed to God. The heads of it are: (1) that he is confined and restrained, allowed no liberty (verse 12); (2) that he is terrified by visions in the night (verses 13, 14); (3) that he is not "let alone" (verse 16); (4) that so much attention is paid to him (verses 17-19); (5) that he is made a butt for God’s arrows (verse 20); and (6) that he is not pardoned, but relentlessly persecuted (verse 21). Am I a sea, or a whale? rather, Am I a sea, or a sea-monster? Am I as wild and uncontrollable as the ocean, as fierce and savage as a crocodile or other monster of the deep? Do I not possess reason and conscience, by which I might be directed and guided? Why, then, am I treated as if I were without them? The sea must be watched, lest it break in upon the land; in Egypt there had been many such breaches, as the configuration of the coast, with its narrow belts of sand and its vast lagoons, shows; and crocodiles must be watched, lest they destroy human life; but is there any need that I should be watched, restrained, coerced, hedged in on every side (Job 3:23)? Am I so dangerous? Surely not. Some liberty therefore might have been safely given to me, instead of this irksome restraint. That thou settest a watch over me; or, a guard; i.e. a set of physical impediments, which leave me no freedom of action. Job 7:13, Job 7:14 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint. Sometimes, notwithstanding his many "wearisome nights" (Job 7:5), Job would entertain a hope of a few hours’ rest and tranquillity, as, wearied and exhausted, he sought his couch, and laid himself down upon it, but only to be disappointed. Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions. Unpleasant dreams are said to be a symptom, or at any rate a frequent concomitant, of elephantiasis; but Job seems to speak of something worse than these. Horrible visions came upon him, which he believed to be sent directly from the Almighty, and which effectually disturbed his rest, making night hideous. Probably this was one of the modes in which Satan was permitted to try and test him. Job 7:15 So that my soul chooseth strangling; i.e. "so that I would prefer strangling to such horrid dreams," which are worse than any physical sufferings. Some see here a reference to suicide: but this is s very forced explanation. Suicide, as already observed, seems never even to have occurred to the thoughts of Job (see the comment on Job 6:8). And death rather than my life; literally, rather than my bones. Death, that is, would be preferable to such a life as he leads, which is that of a living skeleton. Job 7:16 I loathe it; rather, I am wasted away—"ulceratus tabesco" (Schultens). I would not live alway; rather, I shall not live alway. Let me alone; for my days are vanity; literally, cease from me; i.e. "cease to trouble me"—with, perhaps, the further meaning. "cease to trouble thyself about me;" for I am sufficiently reduced to nothingness—my life is mere vanity. Job 7:17 What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? or, make so much of him—regard him as of such great importance (comp. Psalms 8:4). It seems, at first sight, an exalted idea of God to regard him as too lofty, too great, to be really concerned about so mean a creature, so poor a being, as man. Hence, among the Greeks, the Epicureans maintained that God paid no attention at all to this world, or to anything that happened in it, but dwelt secure and tranquil in the empyrean, with nothing to disturb, displease, or vex him. And the holy men of old sometimes fell into this same phase of thought, and expressed surprise and wonder that God, who dwelt on high, should "humble himself to consider the things in heaven and earth." "Lord," says David, or whoever was the author of the hundred and forty-fourth psalm, "what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him? Man k like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away" (Psalms 144:3, Psalms 144:4). But all, except Epicureans, agree that God does, in fact, so concern himself, and a little reflection is enough to show us that the opposite view, instead of exalting, really degrades God. To bring conscious, sentient beings into the world—beings capable of the intensest happiness or misery, and then to leave them wholly to themselves, to have no further care or thought of them, would be the part, not of a grand, glorious, and adorable Being, but of one destitute of any claim to our admiration. And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? This strong expression is not used of God elsewhere. But it well expresses the extreme tenderness and consideration that God has for man, and the deep love from which that tenderness and consideration spring. Job 7:18 And that thou shouldset visit him every morning, and try him every moment? Our whole life is a probation, not merely particular parts of it. God "tries us every moment’" if not with afflictions, then with blessings; if not with pains, then with pleasures. He is with us all the day long, and all our life long, equally in his mercies and in his chastisements. But Job was probably thinking only of the latter. Job 7:19 How long wilt thou not depart from me? rather, Wilt thou not look away from me? (see the Revised Version). Job does not go so far as to ask that God should "depart from" him. He knows, doubtless, that that would be the extreme of calamity. But he would have God sometimes turn away his eyes from him, and not always regard him so intently. There is something of the same tone of complaint in the psalmist’s utterance; "Thou art about my path, and about my bed, and spiest out all my ways" (Psalms 139:3, Prayer-book Version). Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? Even, i.e; for the shortest space of time passible. A proverbial expression. Job 7:20 I have sinned. This is not so much a confession as a concession, equivalent to "Granting that I have sinned," or, "Suppose that I have sinned." In that case, What shall I do unto thee? or, What can I do for thee? How is it in my power to do anything? Can I undo the past? Or can I make compensation in the future? Neither seems to Job to be possible. O thou Preserver of men; rather, thou Observer of men. A continuation of the complaint that God’s eye is always upon him. Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee? "A mark" (מפגע) is either "a butt," "a target for arrows," or else "an obstacle," "a stumbling-block," which God, by repeated blows, is removing out of his way. The latter meaning is preferred by Schultens and Professor Lee; the former by Rosenmuller and our Revisers. So that I am a burden to myself (comp. Psalms 38:4). Job 7:21 And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? Job feels that, if he has sinned, which he is ready to admit as possible, though he has certainly no deep conviction of sin (Job 6:24, Job 6:29, Job 6:30; Job 7:19), at any rate he has not sinned greatly, heinously; and therefore he cannot understand why he has not been forgiven. The idea that the Almighty cannot forgive sin except upon conditions, is unknown to him. Believing God to be a God of mercy, he regards him also, just as Nehemiah did, as a "God of pardons" (Nehemiah 9:17)—a belief which seems to have been instinctive with men of all nations. And it appears to him unaccountable that pardon has not been extended to himself. Like his "comforters." he makes the mistake of supposing that all his afflictions have been penal, are signs of God’s displeasure, and intended to crush and destroy him. He has not woke up to the difference between God’s punishments and his chastisements. Apparently, he does not know that "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," or that men are "made perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). For now shall I sleep in the dust. Now it is too late for pardon to avail anything. Death is nigh at hand. The final blow must soon be struck. And thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be. The idea seems to be—God will relent at last; he will seek to alleviate my sufferings; he will search for me diligently—but I shall have ceased to be. Job 7:1-10 Job to God: 1. The soliloquy of sorrow. I. A OF HUMAN LIFE. In contrast to the fascinating picture sketched by Eliphaz (Job 5:17-27), Job depicts human life in general, and his own sorrowful existence in particular, as: 1. A term of hard service. "Is there not an appointed time [literally, ’a warfare, a term of hard service’] on the earth?’ like that of a mercenary soldier hired out for military purposes to a foreign despot; and "are not his days like the days of an hireling?" i.e. a hired slave who has been let out to some pitiless taskmaster; both of whom, the soldier and the slave, "pant for the shadow" on the dial, and "long for their wages," to give them a release from their heavy toils. The language suggests: (1) That the period of human life is in every instance fixed, the Almighty having not only determined the bounds of our habitation (Acts 17:26), but the number of our months (Job 14:5), retaining in his own hand our times (Psalms 31:15), and measuring out our days (Psalms 39:4). (2) That the allotted space of human life is in every instance designed to be a season of service, not of ease, enjoyment, or indulgence, but of labour, endurance, and fatigue; not always hard in the sense alluded to by Job, viz. exacting, oppressive, exhausting, pitiless, but ever hard in the sense of being earnest, arduous, and continuous. Life was never meant for idleness. If God promises strength for the day, he first assigns work to the day (Deuteronomy 33:25). Christ recognized that the day of life was designed for toil (John 9:4). (3) That faithful work performed in time will in every instance meet with a just reward. As the hired soldier received his pay, and the slave obtained his wages, so will every one on earth be recompensed at last according to his works (Proverbs 24:12; Matthew 16:27; 2 Timothy 4:14). In particular every faithful labourer in Christ’s vineyard will receive his "penny" (Matthew 20:9). The doctrine of heavenly rewards is not inconsistent with the idea of free grace (Hebrews 11:26; Hebrews 12:2). (4) That good men may sometimes long to be released from their labours, not, however, like the bondman or the mercenary soldier, because they serve an exacting and alien taskmaster, who grinds them to the dust with oppression, but because, though not weary of their labours, they are weary in them, and would fain be at rest (cf. Paul, Philippians 1:2: 3; 2 Timothy 4:6). 2. A heritage of incessant misery. As realized in the experience of Job, this misery was: (1) Heaven-imposed in its origin; he having been made to possess (literally, "caused to inherit") it by compulsion, through the stern will of an unseen but relentless taskmaster, without himself having done anything to either originate or merit it. (verse 3)—a mode of representing human life which has a superficial truthfulness about it in so far as it asserts that affliction is the almost uniform experience of man on earth, that nothing enters into the composition of human history, either collectively or individually, without the expressly given sanction of God, and that no amount of wisdom or endeavour on the part of man will enable him to escape that particular earth-experience which by Divine wisdom and love has been assigned him as his inheritance, but is radically false in insinuating that God acts capriciously and tyrannically, and alleging that man neither shapes nor deserves his particular lot, since no fact is more apparent than that man, as a sinful being, deserves more affliction than he gets, and that, to a large extent at least, every individual is the master of his own destiny. (2) Tedious in its continuance; Job characterizing his days of affliction as months of vanity; i.e. months which come without bringing relief to the sufferer, and go leaving nothing in their trail but disappointed hopes, each day seeming like a month in duration, and his sleepless nights as "nights of weariness," measured out to him one by one in slow and solemn regularity, each one appearing to interminably lengthen itself out as if it would never come to an end. Behold the subtle alchemy of grief, which can change the pace of time, and make that go with leaden feet which mostly flies with lightning wing. (3) Painful in its character; arising from a combination of troubles not often meeting in the same individual. (a) Extinction of hope by day; the absolute expiry of everything like expectation of betterment, which must have been a greater burden to the heart of Job than ever the elephantiasis was to his body: "We are kept alive by hope" (Romans 8:24); but within the soul of Job the principle of life was gone. (b) Want of sleep by night. As sleep is one of God’s best gifts to man (Psalms 127:2), restoring nature’s exhausted powers, refreshing mind and body both (Ecclesiastes 5:12; Jeremiah 31:26; cf. Shakespeare, ’Henry IV.,’ Part II. Acts 3. so. 1), so is the want of it one of the heaviest afflictions that can befall a sufferer, arising sometimes from excessive labour, as with Jacob (Genesis 31:40); sometimes from intense bodily pain, as in the case of Job (verse 5); sometimes from disturbed thoughts, as with Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:1), Ahasuerus (Esther 6:1), and wicked men (Proverbs 4:16); the restless tossings to and fro of the body keeping time with the inward agitations of the mind. (c) Bodily pain both day and night, springing from a loathsome malady, detailed (verse 5) as breeding worms in his flesh, covering his skin with earth-coloured scales, causing it to stiffen and emit a purulent discharge, and commonly believed to be elephantiasis (see homiletics on Job 2:7). 3. A period of exceeding"brevity." "My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and vanish without hope" (verse 8); i.e. they flee more rapidly than the shuttle passes backwards and forwards in the warp of the weaver’s web, and vanish without hope of any to succeed them—i.e. of any days of happiness on earthman affecting emblem of the vanity and shortness of life. II. A PITIFUL FROM HUMAN SORROW. 1. The Being addressed. "Oh, remember!" Though not named, God is meant. It is well, though not always necessary, to invoke God by name in our prayers; but certainly it is better to leave God’s name out altogether than to introduce it too frequently into our devotions. That Job called on God in his calamity was a sign that his faith was not yet extinguished, and that he still retained his hold upon the God whom he had formerly professed to serve. It was likewise a more hopeful way of obtaining relief from, or support under, his troubles, since it is always better in our distresses "to cry to God than to complain to creatures" (Caryl). 2. The prayer presented. "Oh, remember!" As applied to God, the word signifies (1) to take notice, to observe, to bear in mind (Psalms 78:39); hence (2) to regard with pity (Psalms 132:1); and (3) to interpose with help (Genesis 8:1). God remembers when, so to speak, he allows an object to remain in the contemplation of his infinite mind so as to be suitably affected thereby. Job desires that God would (1) consider his case; (2) commiserate his person; and (3) commute his sorrow. This, however, does not imply that God ever forgets his people (Isaiah 49:15), though he may sometimes appear to do so (Psalms 13:1); or fails to sympathize with them in trouble (Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 66:13), though afflicted saints may sometimes imagine so (Psalms 44:24; Isaiah 49:14); or is indisposed to succour them (1 Samuel 2:9; Psalms 31:23; Psalms 91:1), though he frequently, for wise and good reasons, delays his intervention (Exodus 14:13; Matthew 14:25; Matthew 15:23). 3. The plea offered. The irrevocableness of life which Job depicts by means of two impressive images, comparing his sorrowful existence to: (1) A passing wind. "Oh, remember that my life is wind!" a breath, a puff of air (Psalms 78:39; Psalms 103:16)—an emblem suggestive of the frailty, the rapidity, and (more especially here) the irrevocability of life. Job interprets the metaphor with regard to himself by saying that when once he had departed this life: (a) His eye should never more see good (verse 7); i.e. it should never more return to enjoy the things that constitute (or are supposed to constitute) earthly felicity (cf. the language of Hezekiah, Isaiah 38:11). Life’s pleasures, opportunities, privileges, can only be enjoyed once. Yet good in the highest sense does not terminate with death. When a saint departs from this mortal scene he enters upon the chief good, the experience of nobler pleasures and loftier privileges than ever he possessed on earth (Job 19:27; Philippians 1:21). (b) Men’s eyes should never see him (verse 8); i.e. he should never more mingle in the society of the living, never more participate in the friendships and associations of time, having bid farewell to all companions and loved ones (cf. Ecclesiastes 9:9, Ecclesiastes 9:10)—an argument for living peacefully and lovingly amongst friends, companions, and neighbours, since we must soon be parted from them and they from us. (c) Even God’s eye should fail to see him (verse 8); i.e. God would not be able to do him good after he was dead, the present life being the only season in which man has an opportunity of receiving "gracious" visitation from God. It is too late to give a man a cordial when he is in his grave; and much more is it post horam to look for salvation when life is ended (2 Corinthians 6:2). (2) A vanishing cloud. "The cloud dissolves and disappears" (verse 9). The metaphor is appropriate, as setting forth the unsubstantial, transitory, and irrevocable character of human life (cf. James 4:14). Like the cloud which is quickly dispersed (often by a gentle puff of wind), vanishing into a realm where human vision cannot follow it, so man goeth down into Sheol, the unseen abode of departed spirits. And as the scattered cloud never again gathers itself upon the face of heaven, so never more does man revisit the upper air when once he has descended into "that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns." In particular, he never again returns to his house, neither shall his place in the family circle, at the social banquet, on change, and in the public assembly, know him any more (verse 10). Though the doctrine of immortality and the hope of a resurrection am not here insisted on, it does not follow that they were unknown to either Eliphaz or Job (Job 19:26). Learn: 1. Since life, and especially the Christian life, is a war-service (1 Timothy 6:12), it becomes saints not unnecessarily to entangle themselves with the affairs of this world (2 Timothy 2:4), but to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3). 2. Since God will faithfully recompense his servants (Proverbs 12:14; Romans 2:10; 1 Corinthians 3:8), they whom he has hired should be faithful in the rendering of service to him (Romans 12:11; Ephesians 6:6, Ephesians 6:7). 3. Since the natural life of man, even when taken at its best estate, is altogether vanity (Psalms 39:5, Psalms 39:11), it is the part of wisdom to aspire after that life which will never disappoint (John 4:14), never know affliction (Revelation 7:16, Revelation 7:17), and never pass away (1 John 2:17). 4. Since it is certain that we must all go down into the grave (Job 30:23; Psalms 89:48; John 9:4; Hebrews 9:27), it becomes us to prepare for that event (Psalms 39:4; 2 Kings 20:1; Philippians 1:21: 1 Peter 1:17). 5. Since it is equally certain that we shall all come up again out of our graves (Job 19:26; Daniel 12:2; John 11:23, John 11:24; Acts 24:15), it is folly not to seek before we die the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection (Philippians 3:11). Job 7:11-16 Job to God: 2. The opening of the third controversy. I. A . 1. The purport of it. To complain, not merely to repine against the misery of his lot, but to express his sense of Jehovah’s cruelty in first afflicting him and then vouchsafing him no response to his solemn and pathetic appeal. If murmurings against one’s outward estate are sometimes natural and even excusable, they are always perilous, even where not actually sinful. Those who begin by finding fault with their portion, generally end by reflecting on him by whom their portion has been bestowed. That Job did not curse God to his face, as the devil predicted, was a wonder, and was due more to grace than to himself. When the soul is in anguish it is better to be silent than to speak, to imitate David (Psalms 39:9) than to copy Job. 2. The spirit of it. With vehemence: "I will speak;" the tense expressing energy of language with passion: "In the anguish of my spirit;" with bitterness: "I will complain in the bitterness of my soul;"—all which were unwarrantable aggravations of his original offence, although Job, by commencing," I also," "I for my part," appeared to think he was not transgressing the bounds of right. And certainly language as vehement, extraordinary, and audacious can be quoted from other lips than Job’s, language not usually blamed as sinful; e.g. Jeremiah’s (Jeremiah 15:18). Still, men are prone to forget that, in contending with God, they have absolutely no "right," so called, and certainly none to address him with irreverent presumption or insinuate aught against his loving-kindness or justice. 3. The reason of it. "Therefore;" i.e. partly because his sufferings were great, and partly because his life was vanity, but chiefly because God was silent and did not condescend to listen to his prayer; not one of which reasons, nor even all of them together, were sufficient to justify his violent proposal. Great sufferings are no excuse for great complainings, since they are in themselves no more than man deserves, are always sent in love, and are capable, if accepted with meek submission, of yielding the highest good. So far from the transient and irrevocable character of life inducing querulous behaviour, it should prompt man to turn its golden moments to the best account; while God’s silence cannot give man the right to murmur, since God ever knows the best time to speak, whether in vindication of himself or in answering his people (Psalms 1:3). II. AN . 1. The comparison made. Almost impertinently, surely unbecomingly, Job asks whether God regarded him as a sea or a whale; i.e. as a mighty conflux of waters, a fierce, heaven-assaulting ocean, or as a huge aquatic monster, a great and terrible dragon of the prime, of which he was afraid and upon which accordingly he required to set a watch. Job’s intention was to say that surely God did entertain such a notion of the poor emaciated skeleton upon whom he was heaping such gigantic calamities. It was strangely irreverent, on Job’s part. so to speak, and wholly untrue besides. God esteemed neither him nor any of his intelligent creatures as a sea or a monster. God never speaks depreciatingly of man, and man never should of himself. Nor does God ever treat man like a sea or a whale, but always with a due regard to his intelligent and moral nature, in which respect man should copy God in dealing with himself. Least of all can it be raid that God is ever afraid of man; the only being that man can really injure by his insubordination and wickedness is himself. Yet, though incorrect in the sense intended by Job, it is sometimes sadly true that the heart of man is as restless (Isaiah 57:20), insatiable (Ecclesiastes 1:7), violent (Jud Job 1:13), destructive (Joshua 24:7), noisy (Jeremiah 6:23), as the sea, and as ferocious and ungovernable as the great monsters it contains. 2. The proof given. As the turbulent ocean requires to be bounded and restrained, and leviathan to he held in chains, so, says the patriarch, with grim irony, "thou settest a watch on me." Job was right in still recognizing God’s hand in his afflictions. Whatever be the second causes, the First Cause in all calamity that befalls a saint, as indeed in everything that happens, is God (Job 2:10; Isaiah 45:7; Amos 3:6). Yet he erred in his interpretation of God’s purpose in these afflictions. God watches over seas and whales, and over suffering men and saints at the same time, i.e. always, and by the same right—the right of his Divine sovereignty; and in the same way, by sending his omniscient glance into every corner of the universe; but not in the same spirit, watching ever against seas and whales, but always over men and saints; or for the same purpose, in the ease of seas and whales to restrain them from doing damage in his world, in the case of men and saints to rejoice over them to do them good. III. AN UNJUST . 1. The charge. "Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions" (verse 14). These dreams and visions, horrible shadows cast upon the background of his wakeful and excited imagination by the terrible disease from which he was suffering, were of a character entirely different from the dreams and visions depicted by Eliphaz (Job 4:13) as visiting the good man from God. In the distemper of his spirit, Job imputes them to God, whereas they ought to to have been properly ascribed to Satan. Had he simply desired, to recognize the Divine hand in his sufferings, his language would have been becoming and worthy of imitation; but if, as is more probable, he actually meant to charge God with being. the immediate Author of those pale phantoms and shadowy apparitions which banished sleep from his pillow and made him shiver with ghostly fear, he was surely verging on the borders of blasphemy. If not so heinous an offence as ascribing God’s work to the devil (Matthew 12:24), imputing Satan’s work to God is wholly without excuse. 2. The time. "When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then thou searest me with dreams." The best-founded expectations of man are not unfrequently disappointed. Even couches, formed for ease and comfort, often fail to impart them. They who most long for sleep’s refreshment have sometimes the greatest difficulty in obtaining it. It is vain to look for comfort in affliction, or ease in the midst of pain, to either beds or couches, or any instrument whatever apart from the Divine blessing. The true Source of consolation for diseased bodies, distressed minds, and disturbed spirits, is God (Psalms 42:5; Psalms 147:3; Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 66:5; 2 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 7:6). And as God delights to visit his suffering people on their beds (Job 35:10; Psalms 41:3; Psalms 42:8; Psalms 77:6), so the devil seldom fails to shoot his sharpest arrows and muster his fiercest terrors during the night. 3. The result. (1) A desire for immediate death. "So that my soul chooseth strangling," i.e. suffocation, a sensation of choking being frequently experienced in elephantiasis; "and death rather than my life," literally, "than my bones," i.e. than the emaciated skeleton I have become. Life in itself is not necessarily joyous and desirable. The amount of pleasure derivable from existence in large measure depends on its circumstances and conditions; and these may be so changed as to render existence a burden. Yet sufferers should rather bear their burdens than inordinately long for release (Job 14:14; Matthew 26:39), since it is "better to bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of;" since whatever be the weight of our affliction, it is God’s will that we should bear it; and since God is able to bring even an emaciated skeleton back from the brink of the grave. (2) A temptation to suicide, as some think. "So that my soul chooseth strangling" by external violence (cf. Nahum 2:12), yea, by a suicidal act (cf. 2 Samuel 17:23); to which the next words, "and death by these bones," are supposed to allude. Even if this were the correct interpretation (which is doubtful), it is satisfactory that those who adopt it understand the suicidal temptation to have been rejected by the patriarch, who exclaims, "I loathe it;" i.e. I detest and repudiate with horror the idea of taking my own life. Suicide is an act of supreme cowardice, springing, except where reason is overthrown, from inability to endure suffering or shame; an act of supreme folly, since it can only plunge its deluded perpetrator into deeper suffering and more public shame; an act of supreme impiety, inasmuch as it arrogates to man a power that belongs to God alone. (3) A prayer for at least temporary respite. "Let me alone; for my days are vanity;" meaning, "My life must soon be ended; therefore cease to harass me with dreams and visions; but vouchsafe to me a period of ease and comfort before I depart" (cf. Job 10:20, and vide homiletics). Learn: 1. The danger of too exclusive meditation on the vanity of life. It is apt, as in Job’s case, to foster sinful thoughts concerning God. 2. The propriety of always keeping a bridle on the lips (Psalms 39:2). When Job removed restraint from his mouth he spoke in anguish, complained in bitterness, questioned with irreverence, accused with rashness, desired with vehemence, entreated with impatience. 3. The tendency of the human heart, especially when blinded by grief and agitated by passion, to misconstrue God’s providential dealings with itself. 4. The certainty that good men may have much of the old unrenewed nature in them, lying unsuspected till occasion calls it forth. One would hardly have anticipated the outburst of temper which Job here displays. 5. The duty of thanking God for such common mercies as beds to sleep on and ability to use them. Many have beds who cannot sleep, and some would sleep who cannot find the beds. 6. The wickedness of, in any circumstances, undervaluing God’s great gift of life. Life in the midst of suffering may often more glorify God than existence in the midst of ease. 7. The inexpediency of rashly concluding that one’s days are vanity, since a man may be most useful when he least suspects it. Probably Job never served his age and generation so well as when passing through this terrible baptism of pain, sorrow, and temptation. Job 7:16 I would not live alway. I. THE CRY OF BITTER . Exemplified in the case of Elijah (1 Kings 19:4) and of Jonah (Jonah 4:8). II. THE WAIL OF GREAT SORROW. Illustrated by the experience of Job. III. THE VOICE OF DESPAIR. As with Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23) and Judas (Matthew 27:5). IV. THE OF AN . Witness the jailor of Philippi (Acts 16:27). V. THE OF FAITH. As employed by St. Paul (Philippians 1:23). Learn: 1. The necessity of departing from this life (Hebrews 9:27). 2. The importance of preparing for another (Itch. Job 11:10). Job 7:17-21 Job to God: 1. A remonstrance with Heaven. I. THE DIVINE CONDUCT . As that of: 1. A Man-watcher. (Verse 20; cf. verse 12.) Concerning this Divine espionage may be noted: (1) The object of it. Man (verse 17). Not some formidable opponent or powerful adversary, of whose movements the Almighty might reasonably be apprehensive, not some all-devouring ocean, or fierce ungovernable sea-monster (verse 12), but a poor, feeble, insignificant creature (enosh), a dull and spiritless hireling (soldier or slave), dragging out a term of hard service on the earth (verse 1), burdened with intolerable miseries (verse 3), whose days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle (verse 6), are even vanity (verse 16), and whose whole term of existence in this sublunary sphere is like a passing wind or vanishing cloud (verses 7-9), that melts away and never more returns. (2) The character of it. Job supposes that this great Man-watcher whom he describes first attributes an extravagant importance to the feeble and insignificant creature whose portrait has just been sketched: "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?" (cf. David’s language to Saul, 1 Samuel 24:14); then constitutes him an object of special, close, earnest, vigilant observation: "And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" (cf. Psalms 8:4; Psalms 144:3; Hebrews 2:6); next treats him like a prisoner subjected to regular inspection, in case he should either escape from confinement or be guilty of hatching plots against his keeper: "And that thou shouldest visit him every morning;" and finally puts him severely to the proof, i.e. by the thumbscrews and stocks of affliction: "And try him every moment." (3) The constancy of it. This terrible inspection Job represents, not as occasional or exceptional, which might have been tolerable, but as perpetual, without interruption and without cessations" every morning" and "every moment," the Divine eye never leaving him so long as to pin,nit him to swallow down his spittle. (4) The purpose of it. Not to bless man, as David liked to think of the Divine guardianship (Psalms 8:4), but to curse him, to find out his faults, to detect his failings, to discover his sins. This horrible picture of the all-seeing, silent, never-sleeping eye of the Eternal always fixed on man with its cold, clear, cruel, calculating, gaze, never seeming to move, but ever there, in the daytime and in the night season, dogging him at every turn, is happily not true of the saint (Psalms 34:15; Psalms 37:32:33; Psalms 121:1-8), though, alas it affords a fearfully vivid representation of the misery of the lost (Revelation 6:16, Revelation 6:17). 2. A Man-shooter. "Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee?" i.e. as a target to shoot at (cf. Job 6:4). Another outrageous impeachment of the Deity, implying that God, in afflicting Job, had been guilty of: (1) Manifest favouritism, in passing by others and selecting him as the object of his attacks. (2) Deliberate cruelty, in not merely sending a random or occasional shaft against Job, but in, so to speak, setting him up like a target, and taking calm and deliberate aim at his bosom. (3) Deep malevolence, as if God took the same delight in directing his arrows against him, Job, that an archer might do in practising at a butt, or a soldier in sending a shaft against a foe. (4) Unjustifiable hostility, since Job at least was quite unable to discern any cause for such extraordinary procedure. 3. A Man-oppressor. "Why hast thou made me an obstacle in thy way?" (according to another and perhaps a more exact translation); the idea being that Job was perpetually in God’s path, and that God, hating him and feeling him a burden (according to another reading of the next clause), rushed against him as if to destroy him, and so get rid of him. But God never so feels toward any man. He may hate man’s sin, but man himself he never hates. He may often find man, through sin, an obstacle in his path, but he never sets man up before him as an object of hostile assault. II. THE DIVINE CONDUCT . AS: 1. Unworthy. Job designs to hint that man’s insignificance makes it wholly unbecoming, if not mean, on God’s part to visit him with affliction; that such incessant vigilance as God exercises over man is altogether to attribute to him too much importance, that man, being so utterly frail and short-lived, it were nobler in God to permit him to enjoy his brief span of life in ease and comfort. A fallacious argument, since: (1) No being that God has made is too insignificant for God to care for. He cares for sparrows (Matthew 10:29), and for oxen (1 Corinthians 9:9), and why not for man (Matthew 10:31)? (2) If man is not too insignificant to sin, he cannot be too insignificant for God to keep his eye upon. The capacity of sinning gives man an importance in God’s universe that he would not otherwise have possessed. (3) Though man’s life on earth be short, the consequences of his evil deeds may live behind him; hence the impossibility of God withdrawing his control of mundane things. (4) The charge completely falls to the ground, since God watches over man, not in an evil sense, but in a good. 2. Unkind. Job’s language sets forth the Divine conduct in a most offensive light, as never for a solitary instant looking away from man, or allowing him a moment’s ease; but harassing him so incessantly that life becomes a burden, pursuing him so remorselessly that, do what he will, he can never get out of the Creator’s way. Thank God, such a picture is only true of the impenitent. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth" (Psalms 34:16). 3. Ungracious. Granting that he had committed faults, and that the great Man-watcher had detected sin in his past life. "Why dost thou not pardon my transgression?" asks Job, "and take away mine iniquity?" An exceedingly natural question, not, however, because man is so insignificant a creature, and human life so evanescent, and sin so comparatively trifling, but because (1) God is essentially merciful and gracious (Exodus 34:6); (2) in the exercise of mercy God specially delights (Jeremiah 9:24; Isaiah 43:25; Ezekiel 33:11; Micah 7:18); (3) the exercise of mercy is perfectly consistent with the other attributes of his Divine nature (Romans 3:25, Romans 3:26); (4) mercy more than justice redounds to the glory of God (Romans 9:23; 2 Corinthians 4:15; Ephesians 1:6; James 2:13); (5) mercy is more calculated to soften and subdue man than punishment; (6) no one but God can pardon transgression or take away sin (Psalms 32:5; Psalms 103:3; Isaiah 43:25; Luke 5:21); and (7) God has distinctly promised to pardon them that cast themselves upon his mercy (Romans 10:12, Romans 10:13; 1 John 1:9). Yet in perfect harmony with all this, the awakened sinner may, like Job, be denied the sense or the outward sign of forgiveness (in Job’s case the removal of trouble), because (1) he does not ask m the right spirit, with humility and self-abasement (Psalms 32:5; Psalms 51:4, Psalms 51:11), asking that as a matter of right which can only be obtained as a gift of grace,—men who think they have a claim on God cannot be forgiven (Luke 18:14); (2) he does not ask with the right plea, viz. in the Name of God (Psalms 106:8; Isaiah 43:25) or of Christ (John 14:13), but comes expecting to find favour on the ground of his own righteousness (Romans 9:32); (3) he does not ask for the right purpose, his object being escape from sin’s punishment rather than from sin itself (James 4:3); (4) he does not ask with sincere faith, but staggers at the promise through unbelief—ever an insuperable barrier to forgiveness (James 1:6); and sometimes (5) though he asks, God may have reasons for delay in granting the soul’s request, as e.g. to test the soul’s sincerity or earnestness, to complete the soul’s penitential submission, to quicken and intensify the soul’s faith, to heighten the soul’s appreciation of Divine mercy when it comes. 4. Unwise. "For now shall I sleep in the dust," etc. Job meant to say that, if God had any thoughts of mercy toward him at all, it was unwise to delay putting them into execution. Burdened with misery and unpardoned sin as he was, he would soon be gone. The pressure of such calamities as he endured must soon crush him into his grave; and then, should God, relenting, seek him to extend to him kindness, lo! he should not be. A beautiful picture, that of the Deity relenting towards man (cf. Isaiah 54:6-10; Jeremiah 31:18-20); an impressive sermon, that sow is the day of grace for both God and man—for man to seek (2 Corinthians 6:2), and for God to grant salvation (John 9:4). Learn: 1. That the most maligned Being in the universe is God, even his own people not always speaking him fair. 2. That, however mean and insignificant in himself, ms, has been more magnified by God than any other of his creatures. 3. That even afflictions are a token of God’s desire to exalt man, since only through them can he attain to purity. 4. That if man’s miseries are a heavy burden to himself, man’s sins are a heavier to God. 5. That if man’s iniquities are not removed, the reason lies with man, and not with God. 6. That God’s love to his people is unchanging; since, however he may seem to be angry with them, he is certain in the end to relent. 7. That God is grieved when men pass away from earth without experiencing his favour. Job 7:17 Lord, what is man? I. THE OF MAN. 1. In origin, allied to the dust. 2. In character’ defiled by sin. 3. In experience’ weighted with misery. 4. In duration, short-lived and evanescent. 5. In destiny’ doomed to dissolution. II. THE OF MAN. 1. Created in the Divine image. 2. Preserved by Divine care. 3. Redeemed by Divine love. 4. Renewed by Divine grace. 5. Immortalized by Divine life. 6. Crowned with Divine glory, already in Christ Jesus, and afterwards in them that are his. Lessons. 1. Since man is so insignificant, be humble. 2. Since man is so great be good. Job 7:21 A sinner’s inquiry. I. A . My transgression, mine iniquity. II. A . Of: 1. The possibility of pardon. 2. The meaning of pardon—to take away sin. III. AN . "Why dost thou not take away mine iniquity?" 1. A question natural to ask. 2. A question easy to answer (see preceding homiletics). BY E. JOHNSON Job 7:1-10 The weakness of man’s appeal to the clemency of God. I. GENERAL VIEW OF MAN’S MISERY AND HIS OWN. (Job 7:1-5.) Man is compared to a hireling with an appointed time of service, the end of which is wearily and wistfully looked for. The ideas suggested are (1) toilsomeness; (2) fatigue and exhaustion; (3) intense longing for rest. As the slave longs for the lengthening shadows of evening, the hired labourer for pay-time, so the oppressed sufferer, toiling beneath a load of pain, longs for the welcome end of death. He "would ’twere bedtime, and all well." Voluntary and moderate labour is one of the keenest delights of life; but forced and prolonged toll exhausts the very springs of enjoyment. Rest is the reward of moderate exertion, but to the excessive toiler or sufferer it is denied. We have a picture here of the extreme misery of sleeplessness, than which none can be more acute; the tossing through the wakeful hours of darkness, the mind travelling over and over again the same weary track of its melancholy contemplations. It may be appropriate here to think of the great blessing of sleep. Homer termed it "ambrosial." It was one of the great boons of Heaven to suffering mortals. It is "the season of all natures," as Shakespeare beautifully says. It is the preservation of sanity. Connected with this, the lesson of moderate exertion is one needed by many in these busy, striving days; and no less the fault of over-anxiety, and the duty of casting care upon God. on which the gospel insists so strongly. It is the life according to our true nature, and according to simple piety, which brings sound sleep by night, and healthy thought by day. II. ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, AND PRAYER. (Job 7:6-10.) The mood of self-pity continues. Then follows a lament on the shortness of life. It is compared to a weaver’s shuttle, to smoke, to the vanishing of a cloud, as it is elsewhere compared (Job 9:25) to the hasty passage of a courier, or, in the well-known old story of English history, to the flight of a bird through a hall and out into the darkness again. We may compare the following plaintive passage from the Greek poet AEschylus:— Ah! friend, behold and see What’s all the beauty of humanity? Can it be fair? What’s all the strength? can it be strong And what hope can they bear, These dying livers—living one day long? Ah! seest thou not, my friend, How feeble and slow And like a dream doth go This poor blind manhood, drifted from its end?" (Mrs. E. B. Browning’s translation.) We may draw from this passage the following lessons: 1. There is a constant sense of infirmity in human nature, and of the inexorable law of death. 2. The mind cannot submit patiently to this doom. Dear earthly affections (Job 7:8) cry out against it, and unconsciously witness for the immortality of the soul. 3. The thought of utter extinction cannot be endured by an awakened and elevated spirit (Job 7:10). These impotences and reluctances in the presence of decay and death are really tokens of immortality. We see them to be so in this instance, in an age when life and immortality were not brought to light. 4. The natural relief from all such sorrows and perplexities is in prayer (Job 7:7). The cry, "Oh, remember!" is not unheard by him who knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. There may be the clear consciousness of God where there is not the definite assurance of immortality. But a firm faith in him, when cherished and educated, leads ultimately to the conviction that the soul cannot perish.—J. Job 7:11-16 Fresh recourse to the relief of words. The prayer seems, in this dark state of despondency, in vain; and Job’s despair overflows all bounds and pours itself forth in a dark stream of thoughts and words. I. . One might suppose, he argues, from these intense oppressions, that he was some dangerous creature, who could not be chained down too closely nor be watched too narrowly (verse 12)—one to whom not a moment’s rest must be given, that he may not in his freedom commit some terrible injury. But is he such a being? is he a sea, or a living monster of the deep, to be so sharply tormented and guarded by God? Just so, he says (Job 13:20, "Thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and watchest narrowly all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet." Not even in sleep can he find rest—weakest and least dangerous of creatures though he be (Job 13:13, Job 13:14). II. RASH OF DESPAIR. (Job 13:15, Job 13:16.) He will rather be stifled, or in any way court death, than longer carry about this living skeleton, this wretched body which consists only of bones (comp. Job 19:20). He has a disgust for life, will not live for ever, for he has already lived too long. III. APPEAL TO THE JUSTICE OF GOD (Job 13:17-21.) After a renewed and passionate demand (Job 13:16) that God may give him at least a moment’s rest, since his life is already as good as vanished, and cannot abide, his language becomes somewhat more tranquil and contemplative. 1. Questionings: the insignificance of man as an object of Divine regard. (Job 13:17-19.) We may compare the question of the psalmist (Isaiah 8:4). It is there suggested by the magnificence of the mighty heavens: what is man in comparison with that vast and brilliant aggregate of constellations? Here the question is suggested by the greatness of the sufferers misery. What worth can he possess either for good or for evil, that he should be made the object of this incessant Divine attention? The answer to these obstinate questionings is found in the gospel. There man learns that it is the greatness and the value of the soul which makes him the object of the Divine pursuit; and then he learns, above all, that that pursuit is not inspired by the vengeance of an irritated adversary, or the caprice of an unjust tormentor, but by the love of an eternal Father, who chastises men for their profit, that they may be partakers of his holiness. 2. Consciousness of guilt. (Job 13:20, Job 13:21.) For the first time there is a reference on the part of Job to the concealed cause of suffering—sin. But it is only a general consciousness of infirmity, and an admission that possibly there may have been unwitting error on his part. He cannot confess a special sin of which his friends suppose him guilty, but of which his conscience is free. The words are rendered by some, "If I failed in that which I do unto thee, Preserver of men, why," etc.? Thus deeper than the sense of sin, deepest conviction of all in his heart, is: 3. Instinctive trust in the goodness of God. His reasoning is as follows: It may be necessary that God should punish man for guilt; but is this to hold so strictly that every slightest omission is severely scrutinized and sorely punished by God? Surely man is neither so strong for resistance to error, nor so dangerous, that he should be treated so harshly and jealously? Why, if there has been some fault in the conduct of Job, as seen by those all-penetrating eyes, does God loose all his arrows against him like a hunter aiming at a fixed mark (comp. Job 6:4; Job 16:12), shooting at him the poisonous darts of disease and suffering till he can no longer endure himself? Why does not God rather pardon him before it is too late, as, alas! according to all appearance, it now is, as Job sees nothing before him but the grave? This is no conflict of an infidel or rebellious spirit against its Maker. It is the pleading of a true child with its Father in heaven. It is the struggle of the soul against the iron pressure of that which we have learned to call natural law. The individual suffers, is sometimes crushed by natural law, while the mass are benefited. But above law is God. And out of this long picture of troubled thought the truth will presently flash into splendour, that in that loving and holy will of a Father the soul, emancipated from the troubles of time, shall find its eternal rest.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 7:1-6 The days of the hireling. Job speaks from the depth of suffering, and as yet he has no clear light upon the Divine purpose concerning him. God, who is his true Refuge, appears to be his Enemy; and he likens his miserable days to those of the oppressed slave. This he urges as a justification of the longing for rest which he has expressed. For him there is no prospect of that rest but in the grave. It is the cry of bitter subjection. 1. THE OF HUMAN LIFE TO THAT OF THE . It is an appointed lot. It is a lot of subjection. It is a life of toil and weariness. In Job’s case the comparison is most apt. But his thought is especially upon the longing of the hireling for the close of the day. For this the toil, the heat, the weariness, prepare him. Job’s condition is one of hard toil. He is weary even of his life. And his longing for the rest which death alone can bring is the precise point of his comparison. How often does life present no brighter or more beauteous aspect! Its many cares, its disappointments, its multiplied sorrows and keen, penetrating pains make life to many to be as the hard drudgery of the hireling. How many long for death as the hireling for night I In a true sense life is the life of a hireling, and the good Master who has sent us into his vineyard to toil will reward the faithful labourer with his sufficient hire. II. THE OF JOB’S LOT. He is to his own view as one whose toil is a grievous one. He is more than weary; and his longing for the shadows of evening is justified by what seems to him to be the hardness of his taskmaster. Earnestly he "desireth the shadow;" for long "months of vanity" he is "made to possess," and "wearisome nights are appointed’ to him. When the tired labourer lies down to rest in unconscious sleep, and to gain strength for the toil of the morrow, Job is "full of tossings to and fro." The dawn brings him no refreshment. The fevered night leaves him to encounter unprepared the enemy of the day. His poor afflicted body presents the saddest picture; "worms and clods of dust" clothe it, His "skin is broken;" his sores make his flesh "loathsome" to him, and his "days are spent without hope." From such a sufferer comes the word of complaining. It is little to be wondered at by one who remembers his own frailty. The picture of Job is a lesson for us, and, turning our thoughts from our own healthy life to the sufferings of the afflicted, let us learn our duty, and cherish: 1. The pitifulness of spirit which is due to all sufferers. 2. Their claim upon our help and sympathy. 3. The forbearance with which we should hear their complainings. 4. We also may, in our turn, become the sufferers, and need the comfort we now give to others. Thus may each man see himself in every sufferer, and learn to give that consolation he himself so soon may need.—R.G. Job 7:1-6 The weariness of sorrow. Expressing Itself— I. IN A DESIRE FOR THE CLOSE OF LIFE. (Job 7:2.) II. As A . (Job 7:3.) III. As A . (Job 7:4.) IV. AS A REVOLT FROM THE OF ITS . (Job 7:5.) V. AS A OF . (Job 7:6.)—R.G. Job 7:6-9 The speedy flight of life. In the multitude of his thoughts within him, Job glances at many of the painful aspects of life. His view is influenced by the condition of his spirit. With a longing for the grave, he nevertheless mourns over the rapid flight of his few days upon earth. Such a reflection every one may wisely make. Consider the expressive similes in which Job sees his hasty life represented. 1. His days are swifter than the weaver’s shuttle (verse 6). 2. They are as the wind (verse 7). 3. They are as the glance of the eye (verse 8). 4. They are as the cloud which is consumed, and which vanisheth away (verse 9). To what course of conduct should such a reflection lead? If life be so swiftly passed, can anything be done to abate its apparent evil? What is becoming to him whose days thus flee away? 1. A diligent and careful use and husbanding of time. 2. A concentration of attention on life’s essential work, avoiding all frivolous occupations of time which rob the soul of its days and leave no residuum of blessing or benefit. 3. A careful guard against confining the pursuits of life to those things which can be attained only in this present world. 4. A just estimate of the value of immortality, and a due attention to the interests that relate to it. 5. A patient endurance of life’s sorrows, seeing they will soon close; and a moderate absorption in life’s pleasures, for they speedily pass away. Life is very brief, but it is long enough to enable every one to lay hold on eternal life, to prepare himself for that eternal life, and to do work that hereafter may be reflected upon with pleasure.—R.G. Job 7:11-16 The cry of despair. Job is in the depth of his suffering. His heart is sore broken. He bursts forth with his loud complaint, which he can no longer restrain. His spirit seeks relief in its cry. Every cry is supposed to give relief. But the bitter cry of despair, coming up from the depths of excruciating sorrow, often marks the turning-point in the history of suffering. Its vanity and uselessness being made apparent, the soul returns to a calmer and more collected state. I. THE CRY OF DESPAIR IS WRUNG FROM THE HEART ONLY IN ITS . Brave and strong as the human spirit may be under suffering, there comes a moment when its strength fails. It reaches a climax of pain and anguish. It can hold out no more; and, in the passionate haste for relief, seeks it in its wild cry of despair. "I will speak in the anguish of my spirit." II. THE CRY OF DESPAIR IS VAIN. It fails to give ease to the suffering flesh; and, though an expression of the soul’s anguish, in itself it is powerless to relieve that anguish. It is liable to excite but to rebelliousness. It is as the struggle of one enclosed in a strong net; or as the folly of a child, in wild passion, kicking with bare foot against the stony rock. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 8:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Bildad the Shuhite has the second place in the passage where Job’s friends are first mentioned (Job 2:11), and occupies the same relative position in the dialogue. We may suppose him to have been younger than Eliphaz and older than Zophar. He does little more than repeat the arguments of Eliphaz, stating them, however, more bluntly, and with less of tact and consideration. The chief novelties of his discourse are an appeal to the teaching of past ages (verses 8-10), and the employment of new and forcible metaphors (verses 11-19). Job 8:2 How long wilt thou speak these things? An exclamation like that of Cicero, "Quousque tandem?" One or two outbreaks might be pardoned; but to persist was to abuse the patience of his hearers. And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? literally, be a strong wind; i.e. have all the bluster and vehemence of a tempest, which seeks to carry everything before it by sheer force and fury. The address is rude and unsympathetic. Job 8:3 Doth God pervert judgment? This was, no doubt, what Job’s words of expostulation might seem to imply. But he had never gone so far as to make the direct charge, and a true friend would have shrunk from taxing him with an impiety, witch could only be deduced from his speech by way of inference. It is our duty to put the best construction that we can on our friends’ words, no less than upon their actions. Or doth the Almighty pervert justice? "Justice" is not altogether the same thing with "judgment." Judgment is the act, justice the principle which underlies or ought to underlie the act. It is, of course, impossible for God to pervert either. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). Job 8:4 If thy children have sinned against him. Bildad assumes this absolutely; Eliphaz had only hinted at it (Job 10:4). Both presume to know what could be known only to the Searcher of hearts. And he have cast them away for their transgression; literally, and he have delivered them into the hand of their transgressions—abandoned them, that is, to the consequences of their wrong-doing. The allusion is, of course, to the fact recorded in Job 1:19. Job 8:5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes. Here we have again an echo of the words of Eliphaz (Job 5:8). There is a tacit assumption that Job has not had recourse to God, has not pleaded his cause with him or taken him into counsel; whereas all the evidence was the other way. Both when the first batch of calamities was reported to him (Job 1:14-19), and when the stroke of disease came (Job 2:10), Job cast his care on God, fell back on him, submitted himself to him unreservedly. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord," he said in the one case; in the other, "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" And make thy supplication to the Almighty; literally, make the Almighty gracious to thee." Job 8:6 If thou wert pure and upright. Job had asserted this, not in so many words, but substantially (Job 6:29, Job 6:30). We have God’s testimony that it was true (Job 1:8; Job 2:3); not, of course, in the sense that he was absolutely free from sin, but in that qualified sense in which "just," and "righteous," and "pure," and "holy" can be properly used of men. Bildad implies, without boldly asserting it, that he does not believe Job to deserve the epithets, either absolutely or in a qualified sense. If he were so, Surely now he (i.e. God) would awake for thee. This is a common anthropomorphism (see Psalms 7:6; Psalms 35:25; Psalms 44:23; Psalms 59:4, Psalms 59:5; Isaiah 51:9). And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous; or, make peaceful the habitation wherein thy righteousness dwelleth; i.e. make peaceful the habitation wherein thou, a righteous man ex hypothesi, dwellest. Job 8:7 Though thy beginning was small; rather, were small. Bildad does not refer to the past, but to the present. Though, if God were now to set to work to prosper Job, his beginning would be slender indeed, yet what the outcome might be none could know. God might prosper him greatly. Yet thy latter end should greatly increase. Here, once mere, Bildad does but follow in the steps of Eliphaz (see Job 5:18-26), prophesying smooth things, as be had done. It is difficult to believe that either comforter put any faith in the prospect which he held out, or imagined that Job would really be restored to prosperity. Rather there is a covert sarcasm in their words. If thou weft indeed so free from guilt as thou claimest to be, then thou wouldst be confident of a happy issue out of thy afflictions. If thou art not confident of such an issue, it is because thou art conscious of guilt. Job 8:8 For inquire … of the former age. Put the matter to the test of experience—not the short-lived experience of living men, but the treasure of experience which has been handed down from generation to generation since the remotest times, and which is embodied in proverbs—the expression of the concentrated wisdom of antiquity. Search out and see what has in former ages been thought concerning prosperous men, like thyself, when suddenly cast down and afflicted. And prepare thyself to the search of their fathers. Go back, i.e; to the past age, but do not stop there—pursue thy researches further and further to their remote ancestors. Bildad implies that the records of these remote times have been, in some way or other, preserved, either in writings or by oral tradition. Writing was certainly known in Egypt and Babylonia from a time anterior to Abraham, and to the Hittites at a date not very much later. Books of advice and instruction embodied in proverbs, or moral precepts, were among the earliest, in Egypt certainly. See the "Instructions of Amen-em-hat." in the ’Records of the Past,’ vol. if. pp. 11-16, and the ’Proverbs of Aphobis,’ published by the Revelation Dunbar Heath. Bildad’s speech is thought to indicate "special familiarity with Egypt." Job 8:9 For we are but of yesterday. "We," i.e. "of the present generation, old men though we may be, are but of yesterday; our experience is as nothing compared with the long, long experience of the past centuries, wherein the men of old "hived wisdom with each studious year," not, like ourselves, hurried and pressed by the shortness of the term to which life is now reduced, but having ample time for reflection and consideration in their long lives of five, six, seven, centuries (Genesis 11:10-17), which enabled them to give their attention to everything in its turn, and to exhaust all the experiences that human life has to offer. And know nothing; i.e. comparatively. Sir IsaActs Newton said that he felt like a child gathering shells upon the seashore, while the great ocean of truth lay unexplored before him. Because our days upon earth are a shadow (comp. Job 14:2; Psalms 102:11; Isaiah 40:6). So brief and fleeting that they can scarcely be called a reality. Job 8:10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart (see the comment on Job 8:8). Job 8:11 Can the rush grow up without mire? The word translated "rush" (גמא) is that which occurs also in Exodus if. 3: Isaiah 18:2 and Isaiah 35:7, as designating a plant common in Egypt, and which is only found in these four places. It is generally admitted that the "papyrus" is meant "a plant of the Cyperaceae’ or sedge family, which was formerly common in Egypt". The chief peculiarity of the papyrus is its triangular stem, which rises to the height of six or seven, sometimes even of thirteen or fourteen, feet, and terminates in a bunch of thread-like flowering branchlets. The pith of these stems was the material of which the ancient Egyptians made their paper. The papyrus is a water-plant, and needs an abundant supply, but would often spring up out of any small pool which the Nile left as it retired, and, when the water failed from the peel, would rapidly wither away. A fine papyrus plant was on view, with other water-plants, in the circular greenhouse in Kew Gardens, towards the end of the season of 1890. Can the flag grow without water "The flag" (אחוּ) seems to be the ordinary sedge, or marah-plant. Like the papyrus, it would often spring up in all its greenness from a pool or pond left by the retiring river, and then in a few days, when the water was dried up, would wither away. Both images represent the prosperity of the wicked, and were probably proverbial. Job 8:12 Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not out down. It grows and flourishes in a rich greenness up to a certain point; no one touches it; but the water fails from the root, and it fades, collapses, and is gone. It withereth before any other herb. The ground may be all green around it with ordinary grass and other herbs, since they only need a little moisture—the water-plant will collapse unless it has its full supply. Job 8:13 So are the paths of all that forget God. So, that is, do those proceed on their way by whom God has been forgotten, They spring up in apparent strength and lusty force; they flourish for a brief space; then, untouched by man’s hand, they suddenly fade, fall, and disappear, before the mass of their contemporaries. Job is, of course, glanced at in the expression, "all that forget God," though it is the last thing that he had done. And the hypocrite’s hope shall perish; or, the hope of the ungodly man shall perish (comp. Job 13:16; Job 15:34; Job 17:8, where the LXX. translates by ἀσεβὴς or παράνομος). Job 8:14 Whose hope shall be cut off; or, break in sunder (Revised Version). Here the second metaphor begins to come in. The ungodly, who has built up around him a house, and a body of dependants and friends, is like a spider which has spun itself a magnificent web, and thinks to find a defense in it. The moment it is put to the proof it breaks in sunder;" its delicate tracery is shattered; its fabric goes to nought. Job’s house had gone to nought before his person was smitten, and, though it had once been so strong, in the hour of trial had lent him no support at all. And whose trust shall be a spider’s web; literally, a spider’s house. All the trust of the ungodly, in whatever it consists, shall be as fragile, as frail, as unsubstantial, as the filmy structure that a spider spins with such ears and skill, but which a wind, or a wasp, or an inconsiderate movement of its own may shatter to bits. Job 8:15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. A spider’s web, once damaged, rapidly goes to pieces. It cannot be patched up. To "lean upon it" is to put its structure to a test which it is unable to bear. It cannot "stand" or "endure.’’ The ease is the same with all the supports of the ungodly. Job 8:16 He is green before the sun. Bildad here introduces a third and more elaborate simile. The hypocrite, or ungodly man (Job 8:13), is as a gourd (Jonah 4:6), or other rapidly growing plant, which shoots forth at sunrise with a wealth of greenery, spreading itself over a whole garden, and even sending forth its sprays and tendrils beyond it (comp. Genesis 49:22)—lovely to look at, and full, apparently, of life and vigour. And his branch shooteth forth in his garden; rather, over his garden, or beyond his, garden. Job 8:17 His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth (rather, he seeth) the place (literally, house) of stones. This passage is very obscure The word gal, translated heap, means sometimes a spring or stream of water (Son 4:12); and many of the best Hebraists regard it as having that meaning here (Buxtorf, Lee, Stanley Leathes, Revised Version). In this case we have to regard the rapidly growing plant as having its roots wrapped about the perennial spring, which was a not uncommon, and always a much-desired, feature of an Eastern garden. Thus nourished, it naturally increased and spread itself, and "was green before the sun." May we suppose that it "saw the house of stones," because the spring which nourished it gushed forth from the native rock so that its roots were in contact with both? Job 8:18 If he destroy him from his place; or, if he be destroyed. The verb seems to be best taken as impersonal. If he be destroyed in any way, suddenly or gradually, by a Divine stroke, or by human agency, or by the comparatively slow process of nature, in any ease the result is one, the flourishing plant is clean swept away, and the place of it knows it no more. Bildad’s words are very dramatic and expressive. Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee. The place shall be ashamed of having ever nurtured anything so vile, and shall declare that it never held such a growth. Job 8:19 Behold, this is the joy of his way. Bitterly ironical—This is what his rapid and rampant greenery comes to; this is how his triumphant career ends! Utter destruction, disappearance, obliteration! And out of the earth shall others grow. The destruction leaves room for something better to follow—a sounder, healthier, and less short-lived growth. Job 8:20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man. Bildad winds up with words of apparent trust in, and good will towards, Job. God is absolutely just, and will neither forsake the righteous man nor uphold the wicked one. If Job is, as he says, true to God, upright, and (humanly speaking) "perfect," then he has only to go on trusting God; God will not leave him "till he fill his mouth with laughing, and his lips with rejoicing" (verse 21); then "they that irate him shall be clothed with shame, and their dwelling-place shall come to nought’ (verse 22); but if, as we feel instinctively that Bildad believes, Job is not "perfect," but "an evil-doer," then he must expect no relief, no lull in his sufferings; he is obnoxious to all the threatenings which have formed the bulk of Bildad’s discourse (verses 8-20)—be may look to being cut off, like the rush and the flag (verses 11, 12), crushed like the spider’s web (verse 14), destroyed, and forgotten, like the rapidly growing gourd (Verses 16-19); he must look for no help from God (verse 20); but must be contented to pass away and make room for men of a better stamp (verse 19). Neither will he help the evil-doers; literally, neither will he grasp the hand of evil-doers; i.e. though he may support them for a while, he will not maintain them firmly and constantly. Job 8:21 Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. This is very elliptical. The full phrase would be, "God will not cast away a perfect man; therefore, if thou be such, he will not cast away thee, till he fill thy mouth with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing," or "with shouting for joy." Job 8:22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame (comp. Psalms 35:26); and the dwelling-place (literally, tent, or tabernacle) of the wicked shall come to nought (literally, shall not be). The words are involved and obscure, because Bildad does not wish to make his meaning plain. He has to invent phrases which may cut both ways, and, while they seem directed against Job’s enemies, may pain and wound Job himself. Job 8:1-7 Bildad to Job: 1. A bundle of mistakes. I. REBUKE. "Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said." Even if on Job’s part wholly deserved the admonition of Bildad was in itself worthy of censure, as being: 1. Impatient. "How long wilt thou speak these things?" It is due to every man who speaks in his defence, as Job did, to hear him patiently (Acts 26:3); much more if he speaks in affliction. Nay, patience towards all men is an eminent token of sincere religion (1 Thessalonians 5:14; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:24; Titus 3:2). Besides, they who rebuke others for impatience should not themselves be guilty of the same (Romans 2:21). 2. Unsympathetic. Throughout its entire length not a word indicates that Bildad cherished kindly feeling towards Job or pity for his deep distress. On the contrary, there is an amount of brutal plainness of speech that is hard to account for in a good man. Into whatever faults men may fall by their words or acts, their sufferings and sorrows should never fail to elicit our compassion (Job 6:14; Romans 12:15; Hebrews 13:3). Least of all should they rebuke other’s sins who cannot feel for others’ woes (Galatians 6:1; Titus 3:2, Titus 3:3). 3. Uncharitable. Bildad made no allowance for the anguish of spirit which had impelled Job to speak, but, like Eliphaz (Job 6:26), putting the worst passible construction on his words, contemptuously designated them as "these things," and characterized them as boisterous winds, vehement nothings, meaningless, but tempestuous, defying all restraints, overleaping all barriers, destroying all law and order in their course. "If sound speech that cannot be condemned" (Titus 2:8) be excellent in all, "speech always with grace, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6); is a special ornament of Christians; and "if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body" (James 3:2); yet, equally on the other, hand,, a charity that never faileth, that is not easily provoked, that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8), becometh them that hear. II. . "Doth God (El) pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty (Shaddai) pervert justice?" 1. Absolutely, no! It is impossible to conceive that the Divine Being, in his moral government of the universe, could even by a hair’s breadth transgress the bounds of rectitude. (1) If he did, he could not be El-Shaddai, the All-powerful and All-sufficient Deity; since sin is essentially weakness and imperfection, and Omnipotence inconceivable except in alliance with immaculate purity and absolute integrity. Hence (2) because of being El-Shaddai, not only has he no temptation to resort to inequitable dealings with his creatures, but the bare idea of "perverting justice" is impossible, is wholly unthinkable in connection with him, and even the faintest insinuation thereof infinitely false. (In this sense it is not clear that Job’ as Bildad suggests, had charged God with perversion.) Only the equity of God’s dealings is not always discernible by man. Though the Judge of all the earth cannot do otherwise than right (Genesis 18:25), the judged do not always perceive the justness of his decisions. Hereafter the entire course of the Divine procedure on earth will be vindicated in the presence of an assembled universe. Meantime that it is in perfect harmony with the eternal principles of truth and right is an article of faith and a fundamental axiom of reason. 2. Seemingly, yes. As understood by Bildad, it is doubtful if justice can be claimed for all God’s dealings with his intelligent creatures on earth. By justice Bildad meant the principle of rewarding good men with good things, and bad men with evil things, upon the earth and in time. He contended that God could by no possible consideration be induced to depart from administering mundane affairs on this plain and simple principle. Accordingly, he argued that, if men sinned, God was shut up by the aforesaid principle to punish them in time; and, vice versa, that if men were seen to be afflicted, the inference was irresistible that they had transgressed—otherwise God would be guilty of perverting justice in visiting them with tribulation. Similarly, he reasoned that God was bound to crown righteous men with prosperity; and that they who enjoyed good things in this life were only reaping the reward of virtue; although he likewise contended that if a good man relapsed into wickedness, he could not escape retribution in the shape of temporal calamity, while, if he repented, he would as surely be conducted back to his former prosperity. Now not one of these dogmatic positions of the ancient sage was correct; and against them all Job vehemently protested. The theory that connects all suffering with sin, though popular (John 9:2; Luke 13:1-5), is fallacious. The doctrine that good things are invariably a reward of goodness will not stand the test of facts (Luke 16:25). III. INAPT . 1. The case of Job’s children. (1) The assumption. "If thy children have sinned against him." Outrageously unfeeling was it, even if it had been true, so to lacerate the heart of a bereaved parent. "The words of the wise may be as goads" (Ecclesiastes 12:11), but the words of the good should be as "an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones" (Proverbs 16:24). "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright" (Proverbs 15:2), and "a prudent man covereth shame" (Proverbs 12:16). Entirely unwarranted, it was likewise atrociously cruel. Bildad had no reason whatever to assume that Job’s children had been guilty (in his sense) of wickedness against God. Job’s "it may be" (Job 1:5) was not proof that "it was." In the general sense in which "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), they had doubtless transgressed; in the particular sense that they had perpetrated positive offence against God evidence was completely awanting. Hence, because un-warrented, it was also heinously sinful. Bildad’s imputation was an offence against the dead, against the living, against God. (2) The inference. "So hath he cast them away for [or, ’delivered them over into the hand of their’] transgression." Superficially correct to the extent that all sin has a tendency to autonemesis—sooner or later it will avenge itself upon the perpetrator thereof (cf. Job 5:2), and that Job’s children had been suddenly cut off by God (Job 1:19); but radically vicious in attempting to connect these two—the principle and the fact—as cause and effect, since the history explicitly discovers (Job 1:12) that the wickedness of Job’s children was not the occasion of their destruction. They were cut off in pursuance of a divinely formed purpose to try Job. Yet this was no contravention of God’s absolute justice, though on Bildad’s principles it was quite inexplicable. 2. The case of Job himself. (1) The underlying hypothesis, which was false, viz. that Job was not pure and upright, even in the sense meant by Bildad (verse 6), which Job was, having, like St. Paul, a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward men (Acts 24:16), and like St. Peter the answer of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21). (2) The proffered counsel, which was good. What, To seek unto God; i.e. to make supplication unto him, to address him in prayer. Why? To make God gracious unto him, this beautiful idea being conveyed by the force of the reflex, hithpael of the verb (Davidson). When? Betimes; the verb signifying "to seek early,’ i.e. first in time and first in importance (cf. Proverbs 7:15; Proverbs 8:17; Job 24:5). How? Earnestly; this also being implied in the verb "to seek." (3) The promised blessing, which was doubtful. This was: (a) Protection. The cause: "He will watch over thee," instead of" watching against thee" (Job 7:12). The effect: "And make thy habitation secure;" salute it with peace, and preserve it in safety (cf. Eliphaz’s picture of the good man’s house, Job 5:24; and contrast his cursing of the wicked man’s abode, Job 5:8). The condition: "thy righteous habitation;" i.e. when thy habitation became the abode of a righteous man, God would pronounce it blessed and preserve it in peace. (b) Prosperity. "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." Bildad had no guarantee beyond his own theory for the prediction that a return on Job’s part to piety would be followed by a restoration to material prosperity. LESSONS. 1. "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). Bildad’s success would have been greater had his language been milder. 2. Those who undertake the work of teaching others should both see that what they teach is true, and study to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Bildad was wanting in both of these respects. 3. A half-truth is sometimes as dangerous as a whole lie. Bildad’s theology was of this sort. 4. Saints who are vehemently jealous for the Divine honour are often intensely unkind as well as unfair to their fellow-men. Bildad was as cruel towards Job as he was courageous in behalf of God. 5. Beware of sentencing those to perdition concerning whom God has not declared his mind. Bildad manifestly had no doubt as to the fate of Job’s children. 6. It is man’s duty to seek God betimes, whether the habitation of their righteousness prosper or no. Bildad’s prediction must not be accepted as equivalent to God’s promise. 7. The latter end of pens men, if not on earth, at least in heaven, will be one of greatness and glory combined. In this sense alone is Bildad’s statement certainly correct. Job 8:5, Job 8:6 The picture of a good man’s home. I. A PRAYING HOME. Where by both parents and children private and family devotion is observed. II. A PIOUS HOME. Where such devotion is the outcome and expression of inward spiritual life. III. A HOME. Where the inmates enjoy the blessed calm of forgiveness, and dwell in love towards one another. IV. A HOME. Where the eye of God continually rests upon the habitation and all who dwell therein. V. A HOME. Where true spiritual riches are possessed, and as much temporal fortune is enjoyed as God’s wisdom appoints. Job 8:8-22 Bildad to Job: 2. Wisdom from the ancients. I. THE . The world’s gray fathers, not the immediate predecessors of Job, Bildad, and their contemporaries, but the progenitors of these—their remote ancestors, who are here described as: 1. Early born. In contrast to the men of Job’s time, who are characterized as being late born, literally, "yesterday;" i.e. of yesterday, as if ascending the stream of time meant the same thing as approaching the primal fountains of truth—a popular fallacy which the royal Preacher corrects (Ecclesiastes 7:10). Antiquity is no sure test of truth; novelty is no sure mark of error. Rather error has a tendency to array itself in a quasi-sanctity derived from age. Many respectable fallacies and popular delusions have descended item remote times. Yet truth that bears the stamp of successive generations is all the more valuable on that account. 2. Long-lived. In comparison with their successors, who are here depicted as a short-lived generation: "Our days upon earth are a shadow" (verse 9); the probability being that Bildad alluded to the remarkable longevity of antediluvian times, and of the patriarchal era immediately succeeding, as affording greater opportunity for making and collecting the results of observations than the brief span of human life at the period when Job and he flourished. Yet the long leisure enjoyed by the Macrobii is now more than counterbalanced by the appliances of modern civilization. So that the results gathered in an ephemeral and shadowy life may rest upon a broader basis of experience than those collected by primeval sages in the course of centuries. Still, were each age dependent on the amount of knowledge it could accumulate for itself, the world’s advancement would be tedious, if not practically at a standstill. Hence the duty of recognizing our obligations to the past, and of transmitting to posterity, not diminished, but if possible augmented, the gathered stores of matured wisdom inherited from bygone generations. 3. Deep-thinking. As men who with powers fully exercised employed the leisure of centuries in observing the phenomena of Divine providence, in comparing their a priori theories with life’s facts; in investigating the profound problems of religion, and, after carefully elaborating the results, crystallized them in brief, sententious maxims, apothegms, parables, "bearing the impress of deep thought, and often deeply trying experience" (Davidson), which were passed along from age to age for the instruction of succeeding generations, in contrast with whom the contemporaries of Bildad and Job, and indeed the short-lived sages of modern times "know nothing." Bildad’s estimate of the relative values of ancient and modern thought subject to correction on the grounds above indicated. II. THE . 1. The proverb of the papyrus. (1) The image. A papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus, L.) a gome, so named from absorbing water, or a reed, an achu, like the Nile grass in Egypt (Genesis 41:2), springing up suddenly, not upon dry ground, but on river-banks, in marshes, upon the margin of canals, wherever there is water (verse 11), attaining to remarkable luxuriance even before it is ripe for the sickle, being the finest of all natural grasses (verse 12), then quickly disappearing, withering before any other herb, when once the fierce summer heats have licked up the scanty moisture which caused it to flourish (verse 12). (2) The interpretation. (a) The plant, an emblem of the ungodly man who lives in forgetfulness of God (verse 13). Forgetfulness of God, of God’s existence (Psalms 14:1), of God’s omniscience (Psalms 50:22), of God’s character (Isaiah 51:13; Isaiah 64:5), of God’s works (Deuteronomy 6:12; Psalms 78:10, of God’s Word (Ecclesiastes 12:1; Hosea 4:6), the essence of ungodliness (Psalms 9:17; Ezekiel 22:12). (b) The water, a symbol of that outward prosperity without which the hope of the ungodly cannot spring. A melancholy truth that wicked men, in whose thoughts God never is (Psalms 10:4), have sometimes a hope of eternal life. This not founded on a sure basis; on their own morality, ability, formality, or on some mistaken view they possess of the character of God, instead of on God’s mercy, Christ’s work, and the Spirit’s grace; Commonly dependent on outward circumstances, and not derived from an inherent principle of spiritual life. (c) The luxuriant verdure while the water lasts, a picture of the hypocrite’s display of religion while things continue prosperous. (d) The speedy withering when the water fails, a representation of the swift and utter collapse of the hypocrite’s religion and its hope when, in the providence of God, the fostering element of material prosperity is withdrawn. 2. The proverb of the spider’s web. (Psalms 78:14, Psalms 78:15.) Changing the simile, the wisdom of the ancients likens the hypocrite to a spider, and his hope to a spider’s web, In respect of (1) its construction, being deftly and dexterously, with much care and infinite elaboration, built up and fashioned; (2) its intention, being designed, like the spider’s web, for a habitation, a house for the soul in the day of trial and the day of death; (3) its attenuation, being as unsubstantial as a thin cobweb spun from the insect’s bowels, and like that fabricated mostly from the hypocrite’s own imagination; (4) its destruction, being easily cut asunder or detached from its main support, as the cobweb is by the lightest touch of broom or breath of wind; and (5) its deception, as miserably disappointing the sinner who trusts in it, leans upon it, expects to find support from it, as the cobweb does the spider who clings to it in vain, finding no safety in the threads of his gossamer palace, but along with them being precipitated into dark and dreary overthrow. 3. The proverb of the climbing plant. (Psalms 78:16-19.) Disentangling the moral from the fable, we have here presented, under the similitude of a creeping plant, the fortunes of an ungodly man in five stages. (1) Luxuriant prosperity; like the succulent plant swelling with sap in the sunshine, shooting forth leaves and branches over all the garden (Psalms 78:16), twining its roots about the heap of stone, "seeing the inside of stones (Carey), i.e. penetrating into the smallest interstices thereof, "living in the midst of flints" (LXX.), clasping and embracing the stony structure,—a striking image of exuberant and seemingly stable prosperity. (2) Complacent satisfaction; looking down proudly upon his material fortune, as the plant upon its house of stones, regarding it as a solid structure which he has reared and in which he anticipates finding repose. (3) Sudden destruction; being unexpectedly swallowed up, i.e, violently stricken down either by God (Delitzsch) or by it, the house of stones (David son); in the one case a monument of Divine retribution, in the other an example of the serf-destroying character of worldly prosperity—as the plant is, in an evil moment, torn up from its place among the stones. (4) Public contempt; the former boon companions of the hypocrite in his prosperous days ignoring him, feeling ashamed of him, denying all acquaintance with him, as if the very ground where, the uprooted plant grew were to. disown, it. (cf. Job 18:18; Job 20:27). "Behold, thus endeth his blissful course"—a grimly ironical expression. (5) Utter oblivion; the place left vacant by him in society being immediately filled, and himself completely forgotten; "others in succession springing up from the dust." What a sermon on the vanity of human greatness! The disappearance from the stage of time of one who has lived in affluence, grandeur, fame, but a momentary wonder, like the dropping of a stone into the calm bosom of a lake—a noise, a ripple, and then the stillness resumes its sway— "Or like the snowfall in the river, A moment white—then melts for ever." (Burns.) III. THE MORAL. 1. A general principle. God will neither reject a righteous nor assist a wicked man (Psalms 78:20). A good man may be cast down, but he cannot be cast off (Psalms 94:14; 2 Corinthians 4:9). The character (1 Samuel 12:22; 1 Samuel 15:29; Job 23:13; Malachi 2:16; Malachi 3:6), the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:31; 1 Kings 8:23; 2 Kings 13:23; Psalms 111:5), the promise (Leveticus 26:44; Isaiah 54:9; Hosea 2:19; Romans 11:29; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Hebrews 10:23), the people (Genesis 24:27; Joshua 23:14; 1 Samuel 12:22; 2 Samuel 23:5; Romans 11:2), of God, all combine to testify the impossibility of God’s turning his back upon a truly pious man,—a thought fall of comfort for the Christian (John 10:28). Equally do they proclaim the doctrine that God cannot really, however appearances may declare the contrary, take a had man by the hand. Otherwise his Word would be falsified (Psalms 34:16), his purity tarnished (Habakkuk 1:13), his Godhead forfeited (1 John 1:5),—an idea fraught with warning for the wicked. 2. A particular application. This being so, on the hypothesis of Job’s integrity, Job might with certitude reckon that God would not cast him off, hut interpose in his behalf, till prosperity once more dawned upon him, and his mouth was filled with laughing, and his tongue with rejoicing (verse 21); while the contrary portion would be allotted to all Job’s enemies and God’s, viz. shame and everlasting destruction (verse 22). What Bildad here affirms of the respective fortunes of the righteous and the wicked is only true when we take into reckoning the eternal futures of both, the everlasting happiness (Psalms 73:24; Isaiah 35:10; Daniel 12:3; Luke 10:20; Luke 12:32; Romans 2:7, Romans 2:10; Romans 8:18) of the saint, and the everlasting perdition of the ungodly (Matthew 25:46; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 21:8). Learn: 1. If it is wrong to over-estimate, it is also wrong to depreciate, the men and things of bygone days. 2. It is much safer in our reasonings to rest upon the results of experience than to build upon the speculations of fancy. 3. The brevity of life should stimulate to diligence in pursuit of knowledge. 4. The teachings of tradition, though not infallible, have a place and value of their own. 5. It is well that the tongue should only speak what the mind and heart have meditated and prepared. 6. Covet not material prosperity, which may exist without inward piety. 7. Beware of an appearance of religion which has no corresponding reality beneath. 8. The secret of soul-prosperity, as the source of spiritual vitality, is frequent meditation upon God. 9. The entire world of common things is full of parables of heavenly truth to them who can interpret the same. 10. It is possible to make a fair promise at the outset of a Christian profession, and yet eventually fall away. 11. The wicked man’s joy must ultimately be exchanged for sorrow. 12. The sorrows of earth in the case of God’s saints will be succeeded by the hallelujahs of heaven. Job 8:13 The hypocrite’s hope. I. A . The hypocrite is: 1. An ungodly person. He has an outward pretence of piety, but in reality be is destitute of true religion. 2. A forgetter of God. It is not necessary that his impiety should take the form of flagrant wickedness. That might be easily detected, and would be altogether inconsistent with an appearance of godliness. It is enough that he simply forgets God. II. AN AMAZING . The hypocrite finds himself possessed of a hope, i.e. of God’s favour and of eternal life; which hope is: 1. Like the papyrus, the fruit of his prosperity, wholly dependent on external circumstances. 2. Like the spider’s web, a flimsy, unsubstantial edifice, deftly fashioned out of his own imagination. 3. Like the gourd, complacently self-satisfying. III. A FEARFUL . The hypocrite’s hope shall perish: 1. Like the papyrus, it may droop suddenly. 2. Like the spider’s web, it may be destroyed violently. 3. Like the climbing plant, it will be blasted shamefully. LESSONS. 1. Examine well the grounds on which our hope of heaven rests. 2. Seek to be possessed of that good hope which comes through grace. BY E. JOHNSON Job 8:1-22 Shall not the Judge of all … do right? The supposed attack of Job, by implication, upon the justice of God gives an opening for renewed admonitions and rebukes on the part of his friends. Bildad now comes forward and delivers a discourse full of noble faith, however its principles may be in this case misapplied. Rebuking the grievous complaints of Job as a wind, full of noise and emptiness (verse 2), he proceeds— I. TO INSIST ON THE OF GOD. This is an axiom of his faith. God cannot do unrighteousness. It, is impious to admit the thought for a single moment into the mind. He insists on the inflexibility of God’s rectitude. He will not bend right and duty (verse 3). There can be no twisting, deviation, compromise, with God. His path is ever a straight line. Bildad will therefore rather draw an unfavorable conclusion about his friend than allow the slightest shadow to be cast on the splendour of the Supreme. Job may be guilty, nay, probably is so; but there can be no probability of any failure of right in God. The principle may appear somewhat harshly and rigidly stated; and yet from the sincere, even if narrow and limited, point of view of Bildad no doubt he is in the right. Rather seek any explanation of suffering, or leave it in mystery, than bring a charge against the unbending righteousness of God. 1. Application to the past and present. Following out this reasoning, the fate of Job’s sons would seem to point to the fact that they had committed a deadly sin. And so, too, Job’s present sufferings lead to the inference that he is very far from pure. The terrible example of his sons should be his warning. Yet this is expressed with some kindliness and forbearance. It is put hypothetically: "if thy sons" (verse 4). Bildad, though rigid in doctrine, is not untender at heart—a kind of character we often see exemplified in life. But we have the lesson again and again from the conduct of these friends that friendship demands intelligence as well as heart. There is a missing link in Bildad’s reasoning, which destroys its power in the present case. 2. Application to the future. There is hope for the sufferer if he will but betake himself in humility and repentance to God. (1) There must be the seeking, striving, straining, agonizing effort of the whole soul to recover its lost treasure—peace with him. (2) There must be prayer, the sincere expression of this desire (verse 5). In life and in thought there must be conversion from evil and towards him, the Good and the Holy, the Gracious, and the Forgiving. The result will be the recovery of the lost happiness. (a) Innocence will be restored (verse 6); grand hope and promise of the eternal gospel—the crimson stain may be removed from the heart and the hand, past sins and iniquities may be remembered no more. The possibility of a renovation of which men are tempted in themselves to despair. (b) Divine protection will be felt. God will watch over him (verse 6) or "awake for him." The Shepherd of Israel, who slumbers not, will guard him from evil by night and by day, in his going out and his coming in. (c) Peace will be in his homestead—the peace which dwells with right and innocence. Over garden and orchard, on fields and barns, and around the hearth, will be felt brooding the nameless presence of the favour of God. (d) There will be increase of prosperity (verse 7). The little one will become a thousand. The seed of right, germinating and producing, will grow to waving harvests of internal joy. of external good. Such are the cheering deductions from Bildad’s high principles, the suggestions of his profound faith. The righteous God will be true to the righteous man. Sin is the only root of sorrow, virtue and godliness the only secret of abiding and eternal bliss. II. APPEAL TO ANCIENT . 1. The wisdom of the primeval fathers the guide of to-day. Bildad founds this upon the fact that: (1) They lived to a greater age, according to the accepted tradition, than present men. They therefore knew better the abiding laws of life than we of lesser insight, who are of yesterday and brief-lived like shadows (verses 8, 9). (2) Their wisdom was that of ripe conviction (verse 10). They did not speak at second-hand nor repeat by rote what they had learnt. Theirs was the wisdom of the heart. Contempt is expressed in several places in this book for mere lip-wisdom, the froth of the mouth as opposed to the genuine utterances of the mind (Job 11:2; Job 15:3; Job 18:2). (3) There was therefore the stamp of sincerity on their wisdom. It came from men who had seen through life’s illusions and cheats, and who had touched the foundation of things. 2. Specimens of ancient wisdom. (Verse 11, seq.) Here Bildad passes into citation of some old sayings, which condense the truths of life. (1) The papyrus and the grass of the Nile. They cannot live without their proper element and nutriment of water; they quickly wither in its absence. So must it be with man where he is devoid of Divine grace (verse 13). A new figure is introduced in the "paths" of the forgetters of God—they are lost like a wind-swept tract in the desert (comp. Psalms 1:1-6.); and the hope of the unholy "goes under," disappears like the sun below the horizon’s verge, to be seen no more. (2) The spider’s web (verse 14). He who trusts in his own strength or resources, without God, will have his confidence rent from him as the spider’s web gives way at a slight touch or at the breath of the wind. The habitation which he thinks secure is but a gossamer thing; it cannot stand (verse 15). (3) The creeping plant in its pride (verses 16, 17). Before the burning glow of the sun, full of sap, it spreads over the garden, fixing itself firmly among the stones, and proudly lording it, as it were, over them. But when God withdraws the water, it perishes, unpitied by the home which it adorned. The wicked is thus denied and forsaken by his own connections, when he would rely upon them. Such is the pleasure of his way, turned into the deepest misery. Others spring from his remains, like suckers from the overthrown tree; let them take warning by his fate (verses 18, 19). What powerful images of the nonentity of evil! It never really was—and, its semblance passing away, not a trace is left behind. III. . (Verses 20-22.) 1. In the way of solace. God does not despise the innocent. This is a meiosis, a saying less than is meant. He regards, he tends, he loves them, feeds them with water in the desert, keeps them as the apple of his eye. His will is to make them happy—to bring smiles to the dejected lines of the mouth, and to fill it with the fruits of praise. 2. In the way of warning. He holds not fast the evil-doers’ hand," and therefore when they stumble they are helpless. The enemies of the good man will see with shame that he is raised up from every fall (verse 22); and once more, in final reverberation of the thunder of menace, the tent of the wicked shall vanish and be no more! LESSONS. 1. The distinction between seeming and real prosperity—that which is for a time and that which is for ever. 2. Life by Divine grace, and recovery from seeming ruin. Death without Divine grace, and overthrow of seeming prosperity.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 8:1-7 The Divine justice. The words of Bildad, as of Job’s other friends, are often marked by great beauty, and often embody principles of the highest practical value;, but they frequently err in their application. The judgment of the friends upon Job is based upon an error which the entire course of the book is designed to expose. Here a true principle is enunciated respecting the Divine justice; which is shown to manifest itself— I. IS A STRICT . (Verse 3.) "Doth God pervert judgment?" II. IS A OF . God gives the sinful up to the fruits of their wickedness (verse 4). But he shows both mercy and judgment. III. IS A OF THE . And he exalts his just judgment— IV. BY A ON BEHALF OF THE PURE. (Verses 6, 7.) So that no cause of complaint could remain. The Divine justice is (1) unimpeachable; (2) it is displayed in the punishment of vice; and (3) in the certain reward of virtue, even if long delayed (4) therefore may men without hesitation commit themselves (a) to its present treatment, and (b) to its final decisions.—R.G. Verses l-7 The unimpeachable character of the Divine judgment. He rendereth to every man according to his works. His ways are equal. I. HE THAT SINNETH IS . (Job 8:4.) II. HE HEARETH THE PRAYER OF THE . (Job 8:5.) III. HE THE . (Job 8:6.) IV. THOUGH HE , HE FINALLY THE UPRIGHT. (Job 8:7.) To this all the former ages bear testimony, as the recorded or traditional sayings of the ancients bear witness.—R.G. Job 8:8-19 The hypocrite’s hope. Back to the testimony of the ages (Job 8:8-10) Bildad refers his suffering friend, to find there evidences of the security of the perfect man and the worthlessness of the expectation of the hypocrite. With beautiful figurativeness he illustrates these truths, and only errs in the covert implication that in hypocrisy is to be found the cause of Job’s present sufferings. The hypocrite’s hope vain and deceitful. I. IT IS . Passing away as the "rush without mire, or the reed without water." Quickly it grows up, but as quickly withers. The promise of it is vain. "While it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb." II. IT IS AND . AS "the spider’s web." It is weak, unworthy of any confidence. As the gossamer thread is broken by a touch or even a breath of wind, so his expectation is cut off by the most trivial incident. It has no firmness, no endurance, no permanence. III. IT IS AND NEVER COMES TO . "It is green before the sun" With rapid haste it strides forth, but only with equal haste to fail. In its own judgment it is firm and enduring as a stone structure. With proud self-confidence so he prides himself. But it is that all may fall to ruin. The destroyer is at hand, even he who casts away. IV. IT IS AND , AND PASSES OUT OF MIND. Its very place denies it. "I have not seen thee." No greater joy or reward can the hypocrite’s hope afford him. Disappointment is his lot. He sows the seeds of vanity; vanity he reaps. He leans upon a thread which a breath may break. Deceitful himself, his hopes are as the heart which gave them birth. They return to their own. He created them; they are as their maker. From this rude disappointment men may guard (1) by sincerity of spirit, (2) by basing their hopes upon a true foundation, for which nothing prepares them but (3) a thorough honesty and cherished truthfulness.—R.G. Job 8:20-22 God’s care of the perfect man. To the Book of Job may all sufferers turn for consolation; for though Job is both covertly and openly reproached by his friends, yet through their words there shine many clear statements of truth, and many just reflections on the wisdom, the goodness, and the wise government of God. The Divine care of the upright is very strikingly affirmed. God’s care of the perfect man is— I. TENDER. God does not "cast away" nor despise him, but gently leads him by the hand, as he will not the evil-doers, helping him as none other can help. To that care we have learnt that we may commit ourselves, forasmuch as he careth for us. The Divine, pitiful, compassionate aid is given to meet the need of the frail man. Not therefore, rudely, or with rough and harsh, but with tender, treatment does help the perfect man. The Divine care for the upright is— II. . He is faithful to them who put their trust in him- He disappoints the hope of the ungodly, but not that of the righteous. As the hypocrite trusted to a spider’s web which had no strength, and to the unwatered flag which withered, so the perfect man finds in God a Rock of refuge, steadfast and unchangeable. He ever abides. The immutability of the Divine Name is one of the truest sources of consolation to the weary, the troubled, and sad at heart. III. The Divine care for the perfect man is further A TRUE CAUSE OF JOY AND . He fills the "mouth with laughing" and the "lips with rejoicing." God gives songs in the dark night of affliction, and brings the true consolation to the sufferer, causing him to shout aloud for very joy. He is a Hiding-place and a Refuge. He is a Spring of water and a Shadow from the heat of the day. He inspires strength to the soul, as with bread he nourishes the body; and comfort to the spirit, as with wine he revives the drooping. IV. The Divine care for the perfect man, in its retributive judgments, CASTS SHAME UPON HIS ENEMIES. Vindicating the character of his faithful one against the aspersion of his wicked foes, he causes "the dwelling-place" of that wicked one to "come to nought," and the wicked one himself to "be clothed with shame." Thus the Divine care is tender towards his befriended one the poor, frail, but faithful son of man—crowning him with honour and glory, making his crown to flourish, while clothing his enemies with shame and confusion of face.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 8:1 Bildad the pedant. Job’s second friend appears as a pedant, quoting the authority of antiquity, and relying on the tradition of the ancients. His character is not extinct, and the mischief of his blunders is with us to-day. I. THE POWER OF THE PEDANT. This man bases his influence on certain good qualities. 1. Experience. It is to be supposed that this is of some value. The garnered wealth of experience should be a great test of truth. The rule that has stood the strain of time appears to be confirmed in value. Ideas may be very captivating when they first flash out in their novelty, but some hidden flaw may make them utterly worthless. But the mellow maxim, ripened by years, and enriched with the juices of manifold experiences, comes to us with great claims on our confidence. 2. Humility. It seems to be more humble to trust to those who are older than ourselves, than to set up our own wisdom as a rival of theirs. Who are we that we should pretend to question the wisdom of the ages? 3. Reverence. On the other hand, the associations of antiquity command our reverence. We show respect to grey hairs, and we are moved to similar feelings in view of all signs of age. Coming out of a dim past, hoary with the years, ancient things acquire a certain sanctity. The grand minster, the ruined castle, the worm-eaten cabinet, the rare old book,—these things stifle our impertinent modern presumptions by the silent weight of their years. "I love everything that’s old," says Goldsmith; "old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine." II. THE FOLLY OF THE PEDANT. This reverence for antiquity may be abused, and it is abused by the pedant, who assumes that all modern requirements are to be settled by some musty rule of the ancients. There are many errors in such a position- 1. Lack of discrimination. Pope writes— "With sharpen’d sight pale antiquaries pore; Th’ inscriptions value, but the rust adore: This the blue varnish, that the green endears— The sacred rust of twice ten hundred years." Time has brought down loads of rubbish on its stream as welt as some precious cargoes of ancient experience. Pedants mistake scum for cream. 2. Misinterpretation of the value of antiquity. The earlier times, as Bacon tells us, were really the childhood of our race, and we are the true ancients. It is absurd to bind the practice of the adult age by the tentative ideas of infancy. What has been tried through the centuries, and being in frequent use has stood the test of time, has thereby acquired a certain value. But mere antiquity only means an origin in more primitive and less advanced times. 3. The superstition of forms. The pedant delights in forms and rules and exact precedents. But there are no true precedents for scores of things. Indeed, no two occasions are exactly alike. Therefore no human maxims can be large enough to embrace all circumstances. Life cannot be bound by formal rules. We must learn to look facts in the face, and dare to discard ancient maxims when they are proved to be false. Antiquity is venerable, but truth is more venerable. God has given us consciences, and he has promised us the help of his Spirit. Our best guide is not an ancient rule, but the living Christ, who is ever in the midst of his people.—W.F.A. Job 8:3 The justice of God. Bildad asks if it can be right for Job to complain as he does. Such conduct is an arraignment of the Divine justice. Human judges have been known to twist justice to suit their own purposes; this conduct was and is only too common in the East. But is it to be thought that God would act in this way? Surely the Judge of all the earth must do right (Genesis 18:25). I. GOD’S JUSTICE IS GOOD AND . It is the mistake of narrow, one-sided views to confine the idea of God’s justice to his relations with sin and punishment, and to regard it solely as that which provokes his wrath. This mistake leads people t,, have a horror of the very notion of God’s justice. They would be profoundly thankful if it could be blotted out of the list of his attributes. They regard it as solely inimical to them. Their supreme desire is to escape from its clutches. It is to them a most dreadful thing. How contrary is all this to the scriptural idea of the justice of God! In the Bible God’s justice is welcomed with delight in contrast to the terrible injustice of man. It is God’s righteousness, God’s fairness, God’s equal dealing. This must be good and desirable. II. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS NOT ALWAYS . Sometimes he seems to show himself in the same light as the unjust judges of imperfect human society. We cannot see the equity of his dealings. He even seems to be perverting judgment. Good men suffer, and evil men prosper. This is the common complaint of the Old Testament saints in their trouble (e.g. Psalms 73:3). But how is it possible if God is just? There is not only an apparent negligence that lets wrong be done among men unchecked. God himself appears to pervert justice in his own providential dealings, sending calamities to the innocent, and heaping favours on the guilty. This obvious fact was forced on the notice of men, and it raised most perplexing doubts at a time when temporal good was assumed to be the right reward of moral good. III. WE HAVE GOOD REASON TO TRUST THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 1. He is almighty. He has not the inducement to act unjustly that tempts the weak. Deceit and injustice are the refuges of feebleness. Cowards are unjust. Strength can afford to be magnanimous. 2. He is perfectly wise. He will not blunder into injustice, as the most immaculate human judge may do. 3. He is absolutely good. Our revelations of God’s character should assure us that his justice must be without a flaw, even though all appearances are against it. The faith that will not bear a strain is worthless. If we cannot trust God when he seems to be acting hardly and unfairly, it is little that we trust him when we can see that all is going well. The goodness of God is our security; we must judge of events by what we know of God in Christ, not of God by what we appear to discover in events. 4. Justice is not always what we should expect. The principle must be simple and intelligible. We must believe that justice in God must be what we know as justice—only infinitely exalted. But the application of this justice may be beyond our conceptions. It may be just for God to do what looks to us now as unfair. Here we must trust and wait for the end.—W.F.A. Job 8:7 A small beginning a great increase. With irritating admonitions—most galling in the cruel insinuation that Job’s children had died on account of their sins—Bildad presumes to assure Job that if only he is pure God will be just, and will awake to deliver him, so that, though he has a small beginning, his end shall be very great. This was all based on a very false and unjust idea of Job, his past conduct, and his present duty. Nevertheless in itself it opened up a true view of the course of one who is restored to right relations with God. I. THE MUST HAVE A SMALL . 1. In penitence. He must first humble himself in the very dust. No boasting can be admitted into the kingdom of heaven. 2. In childlikeness. We have to turn and become as little children if we are to enter God’s kingdom. This implies humility, simplicity of heart, and the utter self abandonment of faith. 3. In spiritual experience. We can but begin the Christian life as babes in Christ. Our knowledge is small, our strength slight, our spiritual attainment most imperfect. 4. In enjoyment of blessings. We may begin in temporal adversity. There is no promise that the Christian shall be a rich and prospereus man in the world. But whatever the external condition may be, the enjoyment of the real fruits of Divine grace will be but small until the soul has grown into the capacity to receive more of the blessings they bring. II. THE WILL HAVE A GREAT . 1. On earth. The Christian life should be one of progress, and it will be if it is healthy. Growth is a law of life, and it is a law that applies to the Divine life in the soul. The healthy Christian will grow in grace; his knowledge will expand; his spirituality will deepen; his capacity for service will widen; his enjoyment of the blessedness of the vision of God will become richer and more intense. 2. In heaven. The best comes last. The great increase is in the "latter end; This is different from the experience of natural life, which reaches a climax in middle life, and then turns towards the decrepitude of senile decay. But there is no such decline for the spiritual life so long as it is healthy. That life knows no old age; it partakes of the unfading glory of the Eternal. For the aged Christian there shall be "light at eventide;" and when his sun has set on earth, it shall rise in heaven in the larger glory of God’s eternal day. III. GOD LEADS THE RACE FROM A SMALL TO A . This is the case naturally in the population which has sprung from one pair of parents, until it has filled the earth with more than a thousand million souls, and which continues to increase at an unprecedented rate. The same is true of civilization and human progress. The law of human life on earth is one of advance and enlargement. Thus we are encouraged to look forward to the golden age. God is educating the race by the process of the centuries, and preparing it for great increase at the latter end. There was a grand advance beyond these Old Testament times when Christ brought in his gospel; the triumphs of the gospel speak of an enlarged increase. But the best is in store in the full coming of the kingdom of Christ. Therefore let us press forward in hope and an eager desire to do our part towards hastening the happy advent of the promised future.—W.F.A. Job 8:8 Lessons from history. Bildad invites Job to consult antiquity and to attend to that which the fathers have searched out. Even this pedant may remind us that wholesome lessons are to be culled from the gardens of the past. I. HISTORY TEACHES BY EXAMPLE. Here we can see truth in the concrete. The ideas which we discuss in the abstract are embodied and at work in the living facts of history. We can study republicanism in ancient Greece, and monarchy in the Roman empire; the consequences of heathenism in the pagan world, and the fruits of Christianity in the story of the gospel and its triumphs; the power of the gospel in the romance of missions, and the weakness of man in the failure and ruin of ancient Churches. Here we see not lifeless arguments, but living men. Therefore much of the Bible is history; God’s Word comes to us through man’s life. We should pay more attention to men and facts. II. HISTORY REVEALS THE ORIGIN OF AND . Most of those which we have to do with took their rise in a more or less remote past. If we can trace them back to their source, we can better judge of their whole characters. Much attention is given to the childhood and youth of a great man by his biographer, for therein lies the secret of his after-life. It is well to trace back the Christian story, and see how God has been shaping his Church through the ages. Our religion is emphatically historical. It springs from facts, things done in the past. In this respect it is unique among the religions of the world. All the doctrines of Christianity are lessons of history; they all take their rise in the story of Christ and his cross. Yet we are not bound by pedantic rules and frivolous precedents. We find the origin of our faith in certain facts. The interpretation of those facts must grow with our advancing knowledge, and the application of their lessons must vary with changing circumstances. III. HISTORY HELPS TO OF . If we are weak and lack independence of mind, it may weigh us down with the incubus of its precedents. This is how it affected Bildad with his veneration for the fathers, and this is how it affects those good Christian people who make the Church Fathers absolute authorities, when they should dare to trust a careful and devout interpretation of Scripture and the ultimate judgments of the Christian consciousness. Yet, on the other hand, there is a good use of the Fathers. The very variety of explanations of Christian doctrines in the past should teach us caution and a large wisdom in treating difficult subjects. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 9:1-35 Job, in answer to Bildad, admits the truth of his arguments, but declines to attempt the justification which can alone entitle him to accept the favourable side of Bildad’s alternative. Man cannot absolutely justify himself before God. It is in vain to attempt to do so. The contest is too unequal. On the one side perfect wisdom and absolute strength (verse 4); on the other, weakness, imperfection, ignorance. guilt (verses 17-20). And no "daysman," or umpire, between them; no third party to hold the balance even, and preside authoritatively over the controversy, and see that justice is done (verses 33-35). Were it otherwise, Job would not shrink from the controversy; but he thinks it ill arguing with omnipotent power. What he seems to lack is the absolute conviction expressed by Abraham in the emphatic words’" Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). Job 9:1, Job 9:2 And Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth. "I freely admit," is; "all that has been said." God would not cast away a perfectly righteous man (Job 8:20); and, of course, he punishes evil-doers. But, applied practically, what is the result? How should man be just with God? or, before God? Apart from any knowledge of the doctrine of original or inherited sin, each man feels, deep in his heart, that he is sinful—"a chief of sinners." Bradford looks upon the murderer as he mounts the scaffold, and says, "But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford!" Job has a similar conviction, that in the sight of God, righteousness, such as it is, shrinks away into insignificance, and is as nothing, cannot anyhow be relied upon. Such must be the attitude before God of every human soul that is not puffed up with pride or utterly insensate and sunk in apathy. Job 9:3 If he will contend with him; rather, if he should desire to contend with him; i.e. if, notwithstanding his knowledge of his own weakness and guilt, he should nevertheless be mad enough to desire to contend with God, then he will find that he cannot answer him one of a thousand. Of the charges which God might in his omniscience bring against him, he could not make a satisfactory reply to one in a thousand. It is not that Job admits any special guilt in himself; but such he feels to be the universal condition of humanity. "All have sinned in ten thousand ways, "and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Job 9:4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. The sense is strengthened if we omit "he is," and render, Wise in heart, and mighty in strength, who hath hardened’ etc.? God’s combination of perfect wisdom with infinite strength renders it hopeless for any man to contend with him. Who hath hardened himself against him; and hath prospered? Job fully admits the wisdom of all that Eliphaz (Job 4:17) and Bildad (Job 8:3-6) have said, or hinted, with respect to his inability wholly to justify himself. No one has ever taken this line of absolute self-justification, and prospered. Job 9:5-13 A magnificent description of the might and majesty of God, transcending anything in the Psalms, and comparable to the grandest passages of Isaiah (see especially Isaiah 40:21-24; Isaiah 43:15-20). Job 9:5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not; which overturneth them in his anger. Earthquakes are common in all the countries adjoining Syria and Palestine, and must always have been among the most striking manifestations of God’s power. There are several allusions to them in the Psalms (Psalms 8:8, Psalms 104:32). and historical mention of them in Numbers 16:32; 1 Kings 19:1; Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:4, Zechariah 14:5; Matthew 24:7. Josephus speaks of one which desolated Judaea in the reign of Herod the Great, and destroyed ten thousand people (’Ant. Jud.,’ Matthew 15:5. § 2). There was another in 1181, which was felt over the whole of the Hauran, and did great damage. A still more violent convulsion occurred in 1837, when the area affected extended five hundred miles from north to south, and from eighty to a hundred miles east and west. Tiberias and Safed were overthrown. The earth gaped in various places, and closed again. Fearful oscillations were felt. The hot springs of Tiberias mounted up to a temperature that ordinary thermometers could not mark, and the loss of life was considerable. The phrases used by Job are, of course, poetical. Earthquakes do not literally "remove" mountains, nor "overturn" them. They produce fissures, elevations, depressions, and the like; but they rarely much alter local features or the general configuration of a district. Job 9:6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place. This is a still more startling figure of speech; but comp. Psalms 46:2; Psalms 68:16; Psalms 114:4, Psalms 114:6. And the pillars thereof tremble. The earth is conceived of, poetically, as a huge edifice, supported on pillars (comp. Psalms 75:3), which in an earthquake are shaken, and impart their motion to the entire building. Rosenmuller’s quotation of Seneca, ’Nat. Quaest.,’ 6:20—"Fortasse ex aliqua parle terra veluti columnis quibusdam et pills sustinetur, quibus vitiatis et recedentibus tremit pondus impositum"—is apposite. Job 9:7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not. A magnificent idea of God’s power, and, of course, quite true. All the movements of the earth and of the heavenly bodies are movements which God causes, and could at any moment suspend. The sun only rises upon the earth each day because God causes it to rise. If he were once to intermit his hand, the whole universe would fall into confusion. And sealeth up the stars. Either covers them with a thick darkness, which their rays cannot penetrate, or otherwise renders them invisible. The idea is that God, if he pleases, can remove the stars out of man’s sight, hide them away, seal them up. Job 9:8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens (comp. Psalms 104:2; Isaiah 40:22). The heavens are regarded as spread out over the whole earth, like a curtain or awning over a tent, everywhere overshadowing and promoting it. This "stretching" or "spreading out" is felt to be one of the mightiest and most marvellous of the Creater’s works, and is constantly put forward in Scripture as a special evidence of his omnipotence (see, besides the pasages above quoted, Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 45:12; It. 13; Jeremiah 10:12). It adds to the marvellousness that God did it all "alone," or "by himself" (comp. Isaiah 44:24). And treadeth upon the waves of the sea; literally, the heights of the sea; i.e. the waves, which run mountains-high. God plants his feet upon these, to crush them in their proud might (comp. Psalms 93:5). Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades; literally, which maketh ’Ash’ Kesil’ and Kimah. The rendering of the LXX. (ὁποιῶνΠλειάδακαὶἝσπερονκαὶἈρκτοῦρον), supported, as it is, by most of the other ancient versions and by the Targums, has caused the stellar character of these names to be generally recognized; but the exact meaning of each term is, to some extent, still a matter of dispute. On the whole, it seems most probable that ’Ash, or ’Aish (Job 38:32), designates "the Great Bear," called by the Arabs Nahsh, while Kesil is the name of the constellation of Orion, and Kimah of that of the Pleiades. The word ’Ash means "a litter," and may be compared with the Greek ἅμαξα and our own" Charles’s Wain," both of them names given to the Great Bear, from a fancied resemblance of its form to that of a vehicle. Kesil means "an insolent, rich man" (Lee); and is often translated by "fool" in the Book of Pro 14:16; Proverbs 15:20; Proverbs 19:1; Proverbs 21:20, etc. It seems to have been an epitheton usitatum of Nimrod, who, according to Oriental tradition, made war upon the gods, and was bound in the sky for his impiety—the constellation being thenceforth called "the Giant" (Gibbor)’ or "the insolent one’ (Kesil), and later by the Greeks "Orion" (comp. Amos 5:8; and infra. Job 38:31). Kimah undoubtedly designates "the Pleiades." It occurs again, in connection with Kesil, in Job 38:31, and in Amos 5:8 The meaning is probably "a heap," "a cluster" (Lee); which was also the Greek idea: Πλειάδες, ὅτιπλείουςὁμοοῦκατὰμίανσυναγωγήν’ (Eustath; ’Comment. in Hom. II.,’ 18.488); and which has been also inimitably expressed by Tennyson in the line, "Like a swarm of dazzling fireflies tangled in a silver braid." And the chambers of the south. The Chaldeans called the zodiacal constellations "mansions of the sun" and "of the moon"; but these do not seem to be here intended. Rather Job has in his mind those immense spaces of the sky which lie behind his southern horizon; how far extending, he knows not. Though the circumnavigation of Africa was not effected until about B.C. 600, yet it is not improbable that he may have derived from travellers or merchants some knowledge of the Southern hemisphere. Job 9:10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. An almost exact repetition of the words of Eliphaz in Job 5:9. The repetition may have been conscious or unconscious. Job may have meant to say, "My view of God embraces all that you can tell me of him, and goes further;" or he may simply have used words concerning the Divine unsearchableness which were common in the mouths of religious men in his time (comp. Psalms 72:18; and infra, Job 11:7). Job 9:11 Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not. Near as God is to us, close as he comes to us, we cannot directly see him, or feel him, or perceive his presence. We know it by faith, we may feel it in our inmost spirits; but there is no manifestation of it to our senses. A sharp line divides the visible and invisible worlds; and this line, if it is ever crossed, is very rarely crossed. Job possibly reflects upon the pretension of Eliphaz to have had a physical consciousness of the visitation of a spirit (Job 4:15, Job 4:16), and asserts, with a tinge of sarcasm, that it is otherwise with him—the spirit-worm passes him by, and he receives no light, no illumination, no miraculous direction from it. He passeth on also. The same verb is used by Eliphaz (Job 4:15) in speaking of his spiritual visitation. But I perceive him not. Eliphaz perceived the presence of the spirit (Job 4:15, Job 4:16) and heard its voice (Job 4:16-21). Job seems to mean that he is not so favoured. Job 9:12 Behold, he taketh away; rather, he seizeth the prey (see the Revised Version). The expression is much stronger than that used in Job 1:21. Job seems to be smarting under the recollection of all that he has lost, and takes an aggrieved tone. Who can hinder him? (comp. Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 19:20). Who will say unto him, What doest thou? To have to do with such an irresistible Being, alone in his might, would indeed be terrible if, while absolutely powerful, unchecked and uncontrolled from without, he were not also absolutely good, and therefore controlled and checked by a law from within. This, however, Job, in his present mood, does not seem clearly to see. Job 9:13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. There is no "if" in the original; and the passage is best taken categorically: "God does not withdraw his anger;" i.e. the anger which he feels against those who resist him. "The helpers of Rahab do stoop [or, ’are prostrate’] under him." Rahab in this passage, and also in Job 26:12, as well us in Isaiah 51:9, seems to be used as the proper name of some great power of evil Such a power was recognized in the mythology of Egypt, under the names of Set (or Typhon) and of Apophia, the great serpent, continually represented as pierced by Horus. In the earlier Aryan myths there is a similar personification of evil in Vitre, called Dasiya, "the Destroyer," and at perpetual enmity with Indra and Agni. The Babylonians and Assyrians had a tradition of a great "war in heaven". carried on by seven spirits, who were finally reduced to subjection. All these seem to be distorted reminiscences of that great conflict, whereof the only trustworthy account is the one contained in the Revelation of St. John, "There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels"—the "helpers" of the present passage—"and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven" (Revelation 12:7, Revelation 12:8). Job, it seems, had inherited one of such traditions, one in which the power of evil was known as Rahab, "the Proud One;" and he means here to say that God not only holds men in subjection, but also beings much more powerful than man, as Rahab and his helpers, who had rebelled and made war on God, and been east down from heaven, and were now prostrate under God’s feet. Job 9:14 How much less shall I answer him? If he be the Lord of earth and heaven, if he rule the sun and the stars, if he tread down the sea, if he be impalpable and irresistible, if he hold the evil power and his helpers under restraint, how should I dare to answer him? How should any mere man do so? And choose out my words to reason with him? Job feels that he would be too much overwhelmed to choose his terms carefully, and yet a careless word might be an unpardonable offence. Job 9:15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. Even perfect righteousness, so far as possible in a creature, would not enable a non to stand up in controversy with him who "charges his angels with folly" (Job 4:18); and, moreover, to such righteousness Job does not pretend (see Job 7:20, Job 7:21). But I would make supplication to my Judge; rather, to mine adversary (see the Revised Version). Prayer is the only rightful attitude of even the best man before his Maker—prayer for mercy, prayer for pardon, prayer for grace, prayer for advance in holiness. Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me. "It," that is, "I had challenged God to a controversy, and he had granted it, and bidden me to plead my cause at his bar, yet could I not suppose that he had really hearkened to me, and would allow me boldly to stand up before him and freely to challenge his doings. Such condescension on his part, such an abnegation of his supremacy, is inconceivable, and! could not have acted on it." Yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice; rather, yet could I not believe. It was not that he would not have wished, but that he would not have been able, to believe. Job 9:17 For he breaketh me with a tempest. "God," that is, "would not be likely patiently to hear my justification, and calmly to weigh it, when he is already overwhelming me with his wrath, breaking and crushing me (comp. Genesis 3:15, where the same word שׁוּף is used) with a very storm of calamity." The sentiment can scarcely be justified, since it breathes something of a contamacious spirit. But this only shows that Job was not yet" made perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). And multiplieth my wounds without cause. A further assertion, not of absolute sinlessness, but of comparative innocence—of the belief that he had done nothing to deserve such a terrible punishment as he is suffering (comp. Job 6:24, Job 6:29). Job 9:18 He will not suffer me to take my breath. "He gives me no breathing-space," that is, "no time of relaxation or refreshment. My existence is one continual. misery." (comp. Job 7:3-6, Job 7:13-19). But filleth me with bitterness; literally, with bitter things’ or bitterness (Hebrew, מַמְּר וֹרִים). Job 9:19 If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong. Still the idea is, "How can I contend with God? If it is to be a trial of strength, it is he who is strong, not I; if it is to be a suit, or pleading for justice, who will appoint me a day?" And if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? (comp. below, Job 9:33). Job 9:20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. Since he could not wholly justify himself. "All men have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Job has already admitted the utterance of "rash words" (Job 6:3), and, at least hypothetically, that he "has sinned" (Job 7:20), and needs "pardon" for his "transgression" (Job 7:1-21:24). Job, if he tried to "justify himself," would have to acknowledge such shortcomings, such imperfections, such sins—at any rate, of infirmity—as would make his attempted justification a real self-condemnation. If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse; rather, even were I perfect, it (i.e. my mouth) would prove me perverse; i.e. supposing I were actually perfect, and tried to prove it, my speech would be so hesitating and confused, that I should only seem to be perverse. Job 9:21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life. The original is very elliptical and very obscure. The words run, I perfect—I know not myself—I abhor my life, which some explain as meaning, "Were I perfect, I should not know it myself; I despise my life under such conditions" (Stanley Loathes); others, "I am perfect" (i.e. guiltless of any plain offence), "but do not understand myself, and care not what becomes of me" (Canon Cook); others again, "Were I perfect, should I not know myself, and, knowing myself, despise my own life?" (Professor Lee). The Septuagint gives us no help, as it plainly follows a different reading. Probably our present text is a corrupt one. Job 9:22 This is one thing; rather, the matter is one’ or it is all one. There is no difference, that is, between the case of the righteous and the wicked; all are alike sinful in God’s sight, all equally "concluded under sin" (Galatians 3:22), and all consequently obnoxious to punishment at his hands (comp. Ecclesiastes 9:2). In a certain sense the statement is true, and corresponds with the argument of Romans 1-3.; but no account is taken here of God’s gracious forgiveness of sin, much less of the general scheme of redemption, or the compensation for earthly sufferings in an eternity of happiness, on which the hope of the Christian rests. Therefore I said it; rather, therefore I say, with the Revised Version. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. As far as this world is concerned, it is undoubtedly true that calamities fall alike upon the just and upon the unjust. Death is the lot of all; trouble, suffering, grief, the lot of all (Job 6:7). Nor can it even be said that the wicked in this world suffer more than the good. Their sufferings are more the natural consequence of their actions, but do not seem to exceed in amount or severity the sufferings of the good. But this only shows that there must be a future life to redress the apparent injustice of the present one, and set the balance right. Job 9:23 If the scourge slay suddenly. Such a "scourge" as war, or pestilence, or famine, is probably meant. If one of these be let loose upon a land, and slay, as it always does slay, indifferently the good and the bad, the innocent and the guilty, what is God’s attitude? Does he interpose to save the righteous? By no means. He looks on passively, indifferently. Job even goes further, and says, with an audacity that borders on irreverence, if it does not even overstep the border, He will laugh at the trial of the innocent. St. Jerome says, "There is nothing in the whole book harsher than this." It may, perhaps, be excused, partly as rhetorical, partly as needful for the full expansion of Job’s argument. But it is a fearful utterance. (Professor Lee’s attempt to explain the whole passage differently is scarcely a successful one.) Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. As a further proof of God’s indifference to the sufferings of the innocent, Job adduces the fact that, in the high places of the earth, are mostly set wicked persons, who oppress and persecute the righteous. This has probably been true, in the East at any rate, at all times. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof. God covers up the eyes of those who have to judge between the oppressors and the oppressed, so that they pervert judgment, and side with the oppressors. He does this, since he permits it to be done. Corrupt judges are among the perennial curses of the East. If not, where, and who is he? rather, If it be not he, who then is it? (see the Revised Version). Job argues that the established condition of things in human society must be ascribed to God, since (at least) he allows it. There is no one else to whom it can be ascribed. Job 9:25 Now my days are swifter than a post. Life slips away so fast that before it is well begun, it is ended. Job compares it to the swift passage of the trained runner, or messenger, who carried despatches for kings and other great personages in the olden times (see 2 Chronicles 30:6; Esther 3:13; Esther 8:10, Esther 8:14). Herodotus says of the trained runners employed by the Persians, "Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers" (Herod; 8.98). There is abundant evidence of the employment of such persons in ancient Egypt. They flee away, they see no good. It seems to Job that his prosperity (Job 1:2-5) was only for a moment. He scarcely could look on it before it was gone. Job 9:26 They are passed away as the swift ships; literally, like the ships of reed. The allusion is probably to the frail reed vessels of the Egyptians, of which many ancient writers speak (see Theophrastus, ’Hist. Plant.,’ 4.9; Pithy, ’Hist. Nat.,’ 6.56; 13.11; Luean, ’ Pharsalis,’ 4.36, etc.). They were long, light canoes, formed generally of the papyrus plant, and propelled either by a single paddle or by a punting-pole. They were fiat-bottomed and broad, like punts, with a stem and stern rising considerably above the level of the water. Isaiah speaks of them as "vessels of bulrushes," in which "swift messengers" were sent by the nations peopling the banks of the Nile (Isaiah 18:1, Isaiah 18:2). The Euphrates boats described by Herodotus (1.194) were of an entirely different construction, and cannot be here intended. They consisted of a framework of wood, which was covered with skins, and then coated with bitumen, and resembled the Welsh "coracles." As the eagle that hasteth to the prey; or, as the eagle that swoopeth on the prey (Revised Version). Job’s observation presents to him three types of swiftness—the trained runner upon the earth, the swift ships upon the waters, and the hungry eagle in the air. It seems to him that his life passes away as swiftly as any of these. Job 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint (comp. above, Job 7:13). Job represents himself as sometimes, for a moment, imagining that he might put aside his load of sorrow by not thinking of it. He tries, and says to himself, "I will forget," etc.; but in vain. The whole mass of his sufferings seems to rise up against him, and make even momentary forgetfulness impossible. I will leave off my heaviness; or, my black looks. And comfort myself (comp. Job 10:20 and Psalms 39:13, where the same verb is rendered "recover strength"). Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows (see the comment on Job 9:27). I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. The worst of all Job’s sorrows is the sense of alienation from God, which his unexampled sufferings have wrought in him. Though unconscious of having deserved them, he still, not unnaturally, looks upon them as marks of God s displeasure, proofs that God does not regard him as innocent. Job 9:29 If I be wicked; rather, I am wicked; i.e. I am accounted so—I am already condemned. The extreme afflictions raider which I suffer indicate that God has passed sentence upon me, and awarded me my punishment. Why then labour I in vain? i.e. Why argue? Why seek to justify myself, since no result is likely to follow? Nothing that I can say will alter God’s foregone conclusion. Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow-water (comp. Psalms 51:7). If I should succeed in purging myself of all guilt, and establishing, so far as words can do it, my spotless innocence even then what advantage should I gain? Snow-water does not really cleanse what is defiled better than any other water, but a lively fancy might suppose it to do so. Job indulges in this fancy, but then checks himself, and adds a prosaic alternative. And make my hands never so clean; rather, and make my hands clean with lye. Lye, or potash, is the principal and most essential ingredient in soap. and the readiest and best detergent. If Job cleanses himself to the very utmost, "Cut bone?" he asks. Job 9:31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch. Yet would God with ease undo his work, show his purity to be impure, his righteousness to be filthy rags, and thus, as it were, replunge him in the mire and clay from which he had sought to free himself, and hold him forth a more loathsome wretch than ever. And mine own clothes shall abhor me. So loathsome would he be that his very garments, stained and fouled by his disease, would shrink away from him and hate to touch him. Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him; and we should come together in judgment (comp. Job 9:2-14). On one of two conditions only, Job thinks, could the contest be even between himself and God. (1) If God, divesting himself of all his Divine attributes, became man; (2) if some thirdsman could be found, some umpire or arbitrator, to preside over the contest, and decide it. Neither condition, however, was (he thought) possible; and therefore no satisfactory judgment could take place. Recent commentators observe that the Christian scheme, which Job could not anticipate, provides almost a literal fulfilment of both conditions, since the God who is to judge us is "true Man," and is also a Mediator, or "Thirds-man," between us and the offended Father, with authority to make the final decision, ’the Father having committed all judgment unto the Son "(John 5:22), and" given him authority to execute judgment also’" for the very reason that he is "the Son of man" (John 5:27). Job 9:33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us; literally ’judge’ or arbitrator called a "daysman," since he appoints the day on which the arbitration is to come off. The LXX. renders by μεσίτης, "mediator." That might lay his hand upon us bosh. Moderate between us, that is; keep us both in cheek; assert an authority to which we must both submit. Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me; rather, who would remove his rod from me. Job means that it would be a part of the duty of the "daysman" to see that God’s rod was removed from him before he was called upon to plead, so that he might not labour under so erect a disadvantage as his sufferings would place him under. And let not his fear terrify me; or, and would not suffer his fear to terrify me; i.e. would not allow Job to be placed under the disadvantage, either of pain or of fear, either of actual or prospective suffering. Job 9:35 Then would I speak, and not fear him. Job has imagined conditions which are impossible; and says that, under the circumstances which he has imagined, he would not fear to justify himself before God. The assertion is over-daring, and, as Schultens says, shows the patriarch to be no longer master of himself, but carried away by the force of overwrought feeling. But it is not so with me; i.e. "I am not in such a position as to enter on my justification." I am weighted by my sufferings, and also by my fears. I therefore decline the contest. Job 9:1-4 Job to Bildad: 1. Bildad’s theology refuted. I. AN . "I know that it is so of a truth." The doctrine propounded by Bildad (Job 8:3), that in God’s dealings with mankind such a thing as either a perversion or miscarriage of justice was impossible, Job in a certain sense allows. Abstractly considered, the sentiment was one which Job cheerfully admitted. As expounded by Bildad, that the Divine government of the world was one of visible retributive justice, he expressly impugned its truth. Yet, in order to expose its fallacious character as well as to demonstrate its worthlessness, he is willing to proceed on the assumption of its truth- II. A . "How should man [literally, ’frail, perishable man’] be just," i.e. maintain his righteousness, establish his innocence, "with God?" Supposing, for the sake of argument, that such a sufferer possessed the inward, ineradicable conviction that he was innocent (i.e. free from notorious transgression): by what process could he vindicate his personal integrity so as to arrest the punitive hand of the Almighty? By none that would be availing, Job proceeds to show. In a profounder sense than is here employed, the question of the patriarch possesses a momentous significance for man. How shall man, the frail, sinful, and perishing, establish his righteousness before God? As in Job’s case, so in every man’s, the attempt to do so is a wild imagination, and can only result in failure, Not, however, because of the impossibility of establishing what really exists, as in Job’s view, but because the thing, the righteousness, is not there to be maintained; all the world being in inward consciousness, as well as in outward fact, guilty before God. III. AN . "If he will contend with him;" i.e. if the individual arraigned by Divine providence should propose to impeach the Divine equity, and even undertake to demonstrate his own innocence; or, as others interpret the pronouns, if God should be willing to enter into controversy with him, i.e. weak and imperfect man. According to the former explanation, the language is suggestive of sinful presumption; according to the latter, of gracious condescension; according to either, the subject of debate is not the question of man’s sinfulness in general, but of man’s guiltiness in respect of particular offences. IV. A . On two grounds Job protests that any such litigation with the Almighty as to man’s innocence of individual transgressions (much more, therefore, as to the question of man’s sinful condition) would be unavailing. 1. Man’s ignorance and frailty would disqualify him from replying to God’s accusations. Infinite in subtlety and endless in succession, the charges that by such an assailant might be brought against him would simply confound and paralyze him. Overpowered by terror at the ineffable majesty of his Divine opponent, he would entirely lose command of his poor faculties, such as they were, and would be utterly unable to repel so much as one charge in a thousand, even were they all untrue (verse 3; cf. Psalms 130:3). 2. God’s wisdom and strength would render it impossible for any one engaging in such an enterprise to escape unhurt. "Wise in heart, and.mighty in strength, who hath braved him and been successful?" (verse 4). The wisdom of the Almighty, which enables him to search the heart (1 Chronicles 28:9; Psalms 7:9), to understand the thoughts (Psalms 139:2), to know the works (Job 34:25), to consider the ways (Job 34:21), of men; and the power of the Omniscient, which secures that his counsel shall stand (Isaiah 46:10) and his purpose shall be fulfilled (Job 23:13, Job 23:14), clearly present a combination (Job 36:5; Job 37:23; Daniel 2:20), against which it is not only needless, but must for ever be positively ruinous, to strive. Learn 1. It becomes good men to acknowledge and confide in the righteousness of God. 2. The higher man s ideas use of God s holiness and equity, the lower fall his thoughts concerning his own impurity and iniquity. 3. As them can be no unrighteousness with God, so neither can there be any righteousness with man. 4. Though it is hopeless to contend with God in argument, it is not so to wrestle with him in prayer. 5. The best attitude for a frail and sinful man to assume before God is that of self-abasement and penitence. 6. Man’s ignorance and weakness are no match for God’s wisdom and might. 7. God’s wisdom and might have, for man’s advantage, been deposited in Christ, who is the Power and the Wisdom of God. Job 9:1-4 A gospel outline. I. A SUBLIME TRUTH. Them is no unrighteousness with God (Job 9:1), in either: 1. Permitting sin. (Psalms 92:5.) 2. Afflicting man. (Deuteronomy 8:5.) 3. Saving the penitent. (Romans 3:26; 1 John 1:9.) 4. Punishing the wicked. (Romans 3:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:6.) II. A FACT. It is impossible for man to establish his righteousness before God (Job 9:2), his guiltiness being: 1. Declared by Scripture. (Psalms 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:19, Romans 3:23.) 2. Attested by conscience. (Romans 2:15.) 3. Confirmed by experience. (Psalms 58:3; Ephesians 4:17, Ephesians 4:18; James 3:2.) III. AN . That man is utterly unable to answer God’s accusations against him (Job 9:3), in respect of either: (1) their numbers, man’s sins being as numerous as the hairs of his head (Psalms 40:12); or (2) their character, being infinitely heinous in the sight of God (Proverbs 15:9; Isaiah 43:24; Jeremiah 44:4); or (3) their proof, the evidence in support of God’s charges being clear and overwhelming (Genesis 18:21; Jeremiah 17:10). IV. A EVANGEL. That salvation may be found by yielding to God (Job 9:4). 1. Nothing but hurt can arise from braving and opposing God (Isaiah 27:4). 2. Certain salvation springs from humble submission to God . Job 9:5-10 Job to Bildad: 2. The majesty of God depicted. I. IN . 1. Overturning mountains. "Which removeth," i.e.. uprooteth or overtumeth, "the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger" (verse 5). Whatever be the allusion intended, whether to the convulsions of nature which occurred at the Flood, or to those usually associated with earthquakes, the language suggests the absoluteness of God’s control over nature, and in particular: (1) The greatness of his power, which, being able to uproot and overthrow mighty hills through its resistless force, must be competent to do the most stupendous works—must, in fact, be an agency to which there can be no impossibilities. The only power resembling it on earth is that of faith (Mark 9:23), to which also is ascribed the ability to remove mountains (Mark 11:23). (2) The suddenness of his power, the mountains being represented as overturned unexpectedly, in a moment, "without their knowing," which again reflects upon the vastness of that power which can effect so gigantic a feat without effort and without labour, so easily and naturally ("He toucheth the hills, and they smoker Psalms 104:32) that it is done instantaneously. (3) The fierceness of his power, especially when it is put forth in judgment, the uprooting of the mountains being depicted as a terrible manifestation of the Almighty’s wrath, concerning which the overturned hills seem to say, "Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him" (Nahum 1:6; cf. Habakkuk 3:6). 2. Convulsing the earth. "Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars," i.e. the internal foundations, "thereof tremble" (verse 6). Nothing is more seemingly stable than the solid globe (Psalms 119:90). Its original establishment was a sublime witness to the power and wisdom of its Creator (1 Samuel 2:8; Psalms 24:1, Psalms 24:2; Psalms 136:6; Jeremiah 51:15). Yet, by the mysterious forces treasured up within its dark retreats, the Almighty can make it tremble as if about to be dissolved (Psalms 104:32; Psalms 114:7), as he did at Sinai (Exodus 19:18; Psalms 68:8), and as once again he will do at the end of time (Hebrews 1:10; 2 Peter 3:10). The shaking of the earth is an emblem of Divine judgments (Isaiah 13:13). II. IN THE WONDERS OF THE SKY. 1. Obscuring the sun. "Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth [or, ’shineth’] not" (verse 7). Alluding to both natural and supernatural obscurations of the solar light, of the former of which ordinary eclipses may be taken as illustrations, while the Egyptian darkness will constitute a sample of the latter. (1) The sun is the most resplendent object in heaven. Here styled cherem, probably from its brilliant appearance (Delitzsch), or perhaps from its heat-giving properties (Gesenius). As such it is a silent witness to the great power of God (Genesis 1:16; Psalms 74:16; Psalms 136:7,Psalms 136:8; Jeremiah 31:35). (2) The sun is ever obedient to the will of its Creator. There is no part of God’s universe that is not under law. The greatest suns as well as the smallest atoms continually recognize his authority. The orb of day is equally obedient in rising and in setting (Ecclesiastes 1:5). As such, it is an eloquent teacher of obedience to man (Psalms 148:8). (3) The sun is never wearied of its beneficent mission to shine. And it always shines, except when commanded not. As such, it is a preacher of diligence to the Christian, who is commanded to let his light shine (Matthew 5:16). (4) When the sun is obscured or commanded not to shine, it is in judgment on the sins of man (Joe 2:31; Ames 8:9; Luke 21:25; Acts 2:20), as during the Egyptian darkness (Exodus 10:22) and at the time of the Crucifixion (Matthew 27:45). The darkened sun is an impressive and instructive emblem of the judgments God sends upon men and nations who neither value nor improve the light of truth and salvation they possess. 2. Concealing the stars. "And sealeth up the stars" (verse 7). The stars also are God’s creatures (Genesis 1:16), and as such are obedient to his control. The vast number, immense magnitudes, and incredible velocities of the heavenly bodies, as unfolded by modern astronomy, impart to us loftier conceptions of the Creatofs power than were possessed by devout Hebrews. The Divine wisdom also is significantly displayed in the regularity of their movements, which secures that they never fail to swim out into the blue sea of the celestial firmament when the light of day has departed. Yet the ease with which the splendor of the midnight sky can be extinguished, by pouring over it the brilliance of day, or drawing round it the thick gloom of clouds, is no less striking as a visible display of almighty wisdom and power, and one which must have appeared to an Oriental, looking up into a Syrian sky, infinitely more solemnizing than it does to an Occidental, who only sees the stars shining with a dimmer lustre. 3. Bringing down the clouds. "Which alone spreadeth out the heavens" (verse 8). The reference is probably not to the original creation of the firmament (Genesis 1:6), but to the visible descent of storm-clouds upon the sea (Psalms 18:9-11). The poet represents the striking phenomena of cloud-land as another exhibition of almighty power. The modern scientist imagines, when he has predicted the advent and measured the velocity of the tempest, he has effectually disposed of the Hebrew poet’s notion of supernaturalism in connection with the marvels of the sky. But the laws by which storm-clouds are built up and let down, swept along and finally dispersed, have not been spontaneously developed, or inherently possessed by, but externally imposed on, nature by him whose strength is in the clouds (Psalms 68:34), who employs them as his chariot (Psalms 104:3), and who when he pleases draws them across the face of heaven (Psalms 147:8). 4. Walking on the billows. "And treadeth upon the waves [literally, ’the heights’] of the sea" (verse 8); i.e. upon the fierce mountainous billows. The two clauses are descriptive of a storm at sea, in which sea and sky appear to intermingle (Psalms 107:25, Psalms 107:26). As the wind, so the water; as the sky, so the sea; as the cloud, so the wave, recognizes the authority of God. The Divine power is usually exhibited as calming the troubled billows (Psalms 65:7; Psalms 89:9, Psalms 89:13). Here Jehovah is portrayed as exciting a tempest, bringing down his clouds, sending forth his hurricanes, raising the still waters into gigantic billows, lashing the quiet sea into a wild and tumultuous commotion, and then going forth in sublime sovereignty amidst the hurricane he has produced, walking calmly upon the crested heights of the ocean, causing his voice to be heard above the loudest roar of the storm,and at length saying, "Peace, be still!" So Christ visibly walked upon the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:26). Another picture of God’s sovereignty over creation, another lesson of God’s ability to be the confidence of them that are afar off upon the sea (Psalms 65:8). III. IN THE OF THE STELLAR WORLD. 1. The constellations of the northern hemisphere. "Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades [literally, ’who made’]." (1) ’Ash; identified with Ursa Major, the Wain, the Bear, an exceedingly bright constellation in the northern sky, the Hebrew term signifying (according to some) "the Nightly Watcher" because of its never setting (Schultens), or perhaps with greater probability being contracted from an Arabic root n’ash, meaning "bier," the three stars in the tail being designated "Daughters of the Bier" (Gesenius); cf. Job 38:32. (2) Chesil; literally, "Fool," regarded by the Assyrians as the famous hunter Nimrod, styled by the Arabs "the Hero," and by the Chaldeans, "the Giant;" commonly allowed to be the splendid constellation Orion, which "stands like a great giant in the heavens south of Taurus and Gemini" (Carey). (3) Chimah; literally, "Heap;" the well-known cluster of stars named "the Pleiades," a sparkling group compared by Persian poets to s bouquet formed of jewels (Delitzsch). 2. The constellations of the southern hemisphere. "And the chambers of the south;" i.e. the regions of the southern sky, which are completely veiled from view to us, and only occasionally discovered to Arabian spectators. IV. IN THE OF THE . The sentiment of Job 38:10, which almost verbatim repeats the utterance of Eliphaz (Job 5:10), may be viewed as a general description of the mighty power of God in upholding, as well as creating, the stupendous fabric he has summoned into being. Regarded in this light, it describes the operations of Divine energy as: 1. Great. He "doeth great things" (Job 38:10). Everything that God does (in creation and providence) may be characterized as great (Psalms 92:5; Psalms 111:2), as being the production of infinite power. The distinction between great and little, when applied to Divine acts, exists only in the human understanding. The creation of a solar system is as easy to Omnipotence as the construction of an atom, and the formation of the latter as much dependent on Divine power as the production of the former. 2. Wonderful. "He doeth wondrous things." The wisdom displayed in the Divine works is conspicuous to every intelligent observer (Psalms 104:24). The marvels of creation are fully equalled by the wonders of providence. The formation of a crystal, the structure of a flower, the organization of an animal, are examples of the former; the Deluge, the Exodus from Egypt, the Babylonish exile, the incarnation and death of Christ, illustrations of the latter. 3. Unsearchable. He doeth things "past finding out." Much as modern science has discovered of the secrets of Nature, there are vast realms lying unexplored around and beyond her, into some of which it is doubtful if she will ever be able to penetrate. Her ascertained results also make it probable that there are works of God into which she cannot sink the plummet of her finite understanding; as e.g. the nature of electricity and magnetism, the mystery of life in all its forms and gradations, the mode in which matter and mind act and react upon one another. 4. Numerous. He doeth "wonders without number." The exquisite variety and the apparently limitless number of God’s works are impressive testimonies to the infinite power and matchless wisdom of the Creator. Learn: 1. There is no God like unto the God of the Christian (Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 33:26). 2. Nothing can transcend the power of God (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:17). 3. God is infinitely worthy of the reverence, confidence, affection, and obedience of his intelligent creatures (Psalms 89:7; Revelation 4:11). 4. It cannot but be dangerous to resist God’s will (Nahum 1:6; Isaiah 40:24; Hebrews 12:29). 5. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Psalms 27:1; Romans 8:31). Job 9:11-20 Job to Bildad: 3. Creator and creature in conflict. I. THE DIVINE . 1. His mysterious movements. "Lo! he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not" (verse 11). The language, recalling Eliphaz’s description of the shadowy spectre (Job 4:15), recognizes: (1) The personality of God. The Divine Being is not an impalpable abstraction or a dead unintelligent force, but a living, thinking, self-conscious Intelligence. Such a Deity is as much a necessity of reason as a postulate of revelation. (2) The activity of God. Not confounding the Creator and the creature as modern pantheism does, but ever maintaining a separation between the almighty Artificer of the universe and his works, biblical theology (both Hebrew and Christian) is also careful to avoid the error of deism, which, while believing in a Deity, removes him to a distance from his creation, setting him apart in cold, chilling isolation, amid the radiant splendours of a metaphysical perfection, and in particular interjecting between him and the realm of this sublunary sphere a gulf impassable by either him or man. Contrary to this, scriptural theism conceives God as an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Intelligence, continually superintending the universe he has made, as being ever present and ever active in all parts and places of his dominion (Psalms 130:1 -10; Jeremiah 23:23, Jeremiah 23:24; Ephesians 1:23; John 5:17). (3) The nearness of God. In a sense that is very real, God is never far from any one of us (Acts 17:27). Behind the veil which hides the unseen Eternities from mortal vision he continually sits, beholding all that transpires on earth; seeing all things and all persons, but ever remaining himself unseen. The besetting God of the Hebrew psalmist (Psalms 139:5) is the God of all men. Were the veil to be uplifted, it would at once be seen that God is always at hand. Sometimes it is lifted; as e.g. to Abraham (Genesis 15:1), to Hagar (Genesis 16:13), to Jacob (Genesis 28:13). And sometimes it is lifted to the soul when it remains closed to the bodily eye. God’s nearness to man received its highest and truest expression when the Eternal Word became incarnate and dwelt among us. (4) The invisibility of God. Absolutely, i.e. in his uncreated essence, the supreme Deity must always remain invisible to and incomprehensible by man (Job 23:8; John 1:18; John 6:46; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12), if not also by all finite beings (Job 11:7; Job 37:23; Isaiah 14:15). Relatively, he may be said to be visible when the spirit can recognize the working of his almighty finger, and invisible when that working or the reason of it is hid. Job complains that, while he can distinctly apprehend God to be passing by him in the events of providence and the phenomena of his individual experience, he is quite unable to discern God himself, i.e. to understand either the mode or the purpose of his mysterious movements (cf. Job 11:7-9; Job 37:5, Job 37:23; Psalms 77:19; Nahum 1:3; Matthew 11:25). 2. His resistless power. (1) Invincible. "Behold, he taketh away [or,’ he assails’], who can hinder him [or, ’who shall repel him’]?" (verse 12). Impossible for the human soul not to feel overpowered with a sense of weakness and utter defencelessness when God, by the hand of providence, or by the inward stroke of his Spirit, collides with it. It is, however, some mitigation to the soul’s distress, when it is able to recognize that the hand which strikes it is really God’s (1 Samuel 3:18; Psalms 39:9). (2) Unchallengeable. Who will say unto him, What doest thou? (verse 12). The sovereignty of God in removing, as well as in bestowing, creature comforts, such as possessions, children, etc; is as plainly demon strated by experience as emphatically asserted in Scripture; and should be as cheerfully admitted by all as it was by Job (Job 1:21; Job 2:10) and by Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:35) God’s sovereignty, however, does not mean mere arbitrary and imperious behaviour. When God rakes away (as also when he gives), he not only does what he has a perfect right to do, but the reasons present to his mind for doing it are such as cannot be impeached. God’s power always acts for the best, being allied with infinite wisdom; only God explains not his motives to creatures; but saints are ever satisfied that he doeth all things well. (3) Implacable. "Eloah restraineth not his anger" (verse 13); i.e. he never recalls it, never holds it in or turns it back until it has accomplished its purpose; but permits it, like a rising tide or sweeping hurricane, to carry all before it, so that "the proud helpers’ (literally," the helpers of Rahab," i.e. "the helpers of pride," meaning probably either combinations of proud rebels, such as the antediluvians, or, "associates of the proud one," viz. the devil, or perhaps simply wicked men who, inspired by pride, think to interpose between the Almighty and the objects of his displeasure; such persons as are described in Psalms 73:6-9; but vide Exposition) "stoop under him." The mightiest combinations and confederacies of wicked men and devils are utterly helpless against God (Psalms 2:1-3; Psalms 83:5, Psalms 83:8; Jud Psalms 1:6). Their source, pride (Psalms 10:2 4); their purpose, opposition to God (Psalms 12:3, Psalms 12:4); their end, destruction (Psalms 18:27; Proverbs 17:19; Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 13:11). 3. His unanswerable charges. (1) Because of man’s weakness. "How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?" (verse 14). A blessed thought that man is permitted to reason with God (Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 43:26), if not about his innocence, at least about his pardon and salvation. Persons who avail themselves of such permission should study to find appropriate language in which to state their case. Well-chosen words, if required in addressing man (Ecclesiastes 12:10), are much more indispensable in wrestling with God. Yet they who stand forth to plead with God should be profoundly impressed with a sense of their own unworthiness and insufficiency (Genesis 32:10; Isaiah 6:5), and should accordingly be clothed with humility (2 Samuel 7:18). (2) Because of God’s greatness. "Whom, though I were righteous, I would not answer, but I would make supplication to my Judge" (verse 15). A glimpse into the better nature of Job. Though repudiating the calumnies of his friends, and sometimes defending his own innocence with language indicating an approach at least to self-righteous presumption, he here appears overpowered with such a sense of the Divine majesty as to lay him prostrate in silence and self-abasement before him Note the solemn relation in which God stands to all men—that of Judge; the character which the best of men bear in his sight—unrighteous; the summons which shall one day be addressed to all—to stand forth and answer for their sins; the attitude which all men should take towards God in view of that event—the attitude of supplication. II. THE HUMAN . 1. Mistrusting the Divine condescension. Putting the case that he had summoned God into court, and that God had appeared, Job appears to conceive that a Being so infinitely exalted as he would not listen to the complaint of a frail mortal, or, if for a moment he did, would immediately break off in impatience and decline to listen further (verse 16). A total misrepresentation of the Divine character, contradicted alike by God’s descriptions of himself (Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 57:16; Psalms 91:15), and by the saints’ experience of his grace (Psalms 34:6; Psalms 40:17; Psalms 86:13). 2. Impeaching the Divine goodness. Describing the treatment he would meet at God’s hands, Job insinuates that it would be the opposite of kind; that God would u break him with a tempest," "multiply his wounds without cause," "not suffer him to take his breath," "fill him with bitterness" (verses 17, 18). As a matter of fact, the words present a literal account of Job’s sufferings, and the aspect in which they were beginning to look to himself. Conscious that his calamities were causeless so far as any wickedness on his part was concerned, which God also testified (Job 2:3), and unable to discern the secret purpose for which he was being subjected to such excruciating tortures, he can only fall back upon the hypothesis that God has turned to be his enemy. Faith would have kept him right; but Job’s faith, though not extinguished, was at this time suffering an eclipse. Sense and reason always misinterpret God. God never treats either saint or sinner as Job describes, aimlessly or maliciously, but always with tender love and for the loftiest ends (Hebrews 12:6, Hebrews 12:10). 3. Challenging the Divine equity. Practically he represents God as stifling the creature’s attempt to maintain his integrity by overpowering him with the dazzling magnificence of his Godhead; by rushing as it were into the open court of justice, and shouting to the poor bewildered appellant, "Is it a question of strength? Here am I. Is it a matter of right? Who will challenge me?" (verse 19). But this, again, was a distorted view of the Divine character. God has no need to be afraid of any investigation into his conduct, and just as little to apprehend that puny man could cure, it his infinite wisdom or overreach his almighty power. 4. Despairing of Divine acceptance. So hopeless does the contest seem to Job between a poor suffering creature like himself and a Being of infinite majesty like God, that he confesses the dire impossibility of being able to establish his innocence before the tribunal of the skies. God’s insufferable glory would so confound and stupefy him, that even if he were innocent, his own mouth would condemn him; were he guiltless, it would betray him (verse 20); i.e. he would, through sheer terror and amazement (1 Peter 3:6), stumble out his own condemnation, and, conscious of his integrity, would yet confess himself guilty. What Job here asserts concerning his integrity or freedom from such transgression as Eliphaz and Bildad charged against him is certainly correct in the case of every one who would dare to maintain his moral purity in the sight of God. The clear revelation of God’s majesty and holiness imparted to the awakened soul, when it appears as if standing face to face with God, renders it a hard task for man to uphold his sinlessness. If he attempted it, he would only stultify and condemn himself. Nay, he should not know his own soul (verse 21), but only thereby demonstrate his ignorance of himself (cf. 1 John 1:8). Learn: 1. It is impossible to entertain too exalted a conception of the great and holy God with whom we have to do. 2. It is quite possible, even for the best of men, to misconstrue God’s dealings with the soul, and to regard him as an adversary who is really a Friend. 3. It is well to remember, in every appearance of conflict between the Creator and the creature, that all the right lies upon the side of the former. 4. The nearer saints advance towards perfection, the readier they are to acknowledge their imperfection. 5. A humble and self-abased spirit before God is quite compatible with the maintenance of one’s blamelessness before men. Job 9:21-35 Job to Bildad: 4. The cries of a desparing soul. I. HIS . 1. Attested by his conscience. "Though I were perfect;" or, better, "I am guiltless" (verse 21). Before God Job did not claim to be absolutely spotless, but merely to be free from such transgressions of the moral law as his friends insinuated he must have committed to render him obnoxious to those palpable tokens of Divine displeasure which had overtaken him. Against this, however, he protested as a wholly baseless aspersion of his character, declaring his determination to maintain his integrity at all hazards, ay, even should it cost him his life. Yet would I not know [literally, ’I know not, i.e. I value not, care not for] my soul. I would despise [or, I despise ] my life" (verse 21). Vehement asseveration such as this would, of course, have been out of place, and altogether unjustifiable, unless Job had had the clearest and most irrefragable evidence of his own innocence behind it. But this Job professed to have in the inner testimony of his conscience, which declared him to be what Jehovah himself had already affirmed him to be—"a perfect man and an upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil" (Job 1:8). It is by no means impossible tot a good man to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men (Acts 23:1; Acts 24:16). Decisions registered before the court of conscience are always in accordance with truth. Conscience may be stupefied through sin, and prevented from delivering its testimony (Ephesians 4:19). It may even be perverted and constrained to call evil good (Acts 26:9). But where enlightened and free, it never fails to indicate the moral standing of the soul. Scripture distinctly recognizes the validity of the inner witness of conscience (Romans 8:16). And not unfrequently this witness is all that a good man can lean upon in times of adversity (e.g. Joseph, Genesis 39:21; Daniel, Daniel 1:8; SS. Peter and John, Acts 4:19; St. Paul, Titus 2:1-15:17; cf. Shakespeare, ’Henry VIII.,’ Acts 3. sc. 2). When it is so, the evidence of circumstance and appearance being all against him, he is fully warranted to rest upon it. If he trust it, it will support him. 2. Not disproved by his sufferings. The sole ground possessed by Eliphaz and Bildad for their calumnies was that Job had been overtaken by evil fortunes. But, besides repelling the charges themselves as contradicted by the clear verdict of his own conscience, he likewise repudiates the foundation on which they were based as diametrically opposed to the plain facts of history. So far from appearances being against Job, rightly interrogated they were rather in his favour. So far from God’s dealings with men being strictly retributive, so that Job’s guilt might warrantably be inferred from his misery, they were as nearly as possible the opposite. All experience showed: (1) That God frequently confounded the righteous and the wicked in one indiscriminate overthrow. "This is one thing [literally, ’it is all one ’], therefore I said [or, ’will say’] it, he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked’ (verse 22). An incontrovertible fact, which wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, tempests, and other disastrous occurrences, sufficiently attest, which thoughtful observers in all ages have noted (Ecclesiastes 9:1-18:23), and which has frequently perplexed the good (Genesis 18:24); but which, while it is not an injustice to the creature, even the righteous themselves being sinful, is as little an inequality on the part of the Creator, who, though not bound to justify his ways to sinful man, may yet have adopted this method of Divine government as best suited to meet the moral and spiritual improvement of mankind generally, to exercise the faith and develop the graces of the righteous, and to awaken within the soul a conviction of the necessity and certainty of a future state (Malachi 3:18; cf. Butler’s Analogy,’ Malachi 3:1-18.). (2) That God was indifferent to the miseries of the righteous. "If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the righteous" (verse 23); first at their sufferings, and then at the inward temptations to unbelief and despair that these sufferings occasion. This, however, is inconceivable. God cautions men against judging one another simply by appearances. Much more is it necessary to avoid this mistake in judging of God. "God doth not afflict the children of men," much less his own children, "willingly" (Lamentations 3:33). "Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face." God laughs at the wicked and their machinations (Psalms 2:4); never at his people and their sorrows (Exodus 3:7; Matthew 23:37; John 11:35). (3) That God seemingly extended favour to the wicked; first, generally, by promoting wicked men to positions of worldly influence and power: "The earth is given into the hand of the wicked’ (verse 24); and second, particularly, by committing the administration of justice to the ungodly: "He covereth the faces of the judges thereof" (verse 24); i.e. so that, through ignorance and corruption, being unable to discern between right and wrong, they legalize oppression and robbery, "framing mischief by a law." That such anomalies exist is undeniable (Psalms 12:8). And Job means to say that he holds God responsible for them. "If it is not he that is the Author of them, then who is it?" God is the moral Governor of the universe (Exodus 9:29; Psalms 47:2, Psalms 47:7; Psalms 83:18). The civil magistracy is a Divine institution (Proverbs 8:15, Proverbs 8:16). God alone has power to prevent the perversion of his own ordinance (Psalms 75:7; Daniel 2:21). God is not in ignorance that his people are oppressed (Ecclesiastes 5:8). And God has distinctly promised to exercise righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed (Psalms 103:6). Hence nobody is to blame but God, says Job. The logic is good, but the theology is bad. II. HIS LOT. 1. The impossibility of attaining to happiness. (1) The fleetness of his days had rendered this beyond his ability. His past life had vanished with incredible velocity: (a) like a quick-footed courier: "My days are [literally, ’were ’] swifter than a post" (verse 25), or state-runner carrying letters and despatches, sometimes able, when mounted on dromedaries, to travel a hundred and fifty miles a day; (b) like a fast-sailing ship, literally, "ships of reed," skiffs constructed of the papyros Nilotica’ and celebrated for their swiftness, "a little pinnace that may serve to make sport and pastime on the water, which turneth nimbly here and there, and goeth away apace" (Calvin); and (c) like a swift-flying eagle: "As the eagle that hasteth to the prey" (verse 26);—three images conveying an impressive picture of the brevity of man’s existence on the earth. (2) The vanity of his life was another cause of failure in reaching mundane felicity. His days had rushed by "without seeing good" (verse 25), or, "having seen no good;" which in Job’s case was not correct, as prior to his affliction he had attained to a high degree of both temporal and spiritual prosperity. Men are prone to forget past mercies. "Out of sight, out of mind," is frequently exemplified among saints. Perhaps no lives exist that never see good. Yet the noblest thing in God’s world is not to see, but to do, good. A life that does good may be short; it can never be wholly vain. 2. The impossibility of surmounting his sorrow. This also had. a double cause. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 10:1-22 Having answered Bildad, Job proceeds to pour out the bitterness of his soul in a pathetic complaint, which he addresses directly to God. There is not much that is novel in the long expostulation, which mainly goes over ground covered in Job 3:1-26; Job 6:1-30; Job 7:1-21; but some new grounds are alleged as pleas for mercy, if not for justice. These are (1) that he is God’s gesture, and in the past (at any rate) has been the object of his care (Job 7:3, Job 7:8-12); (2) that God must be above judging as man judges (Job 7:4, Job 7:5); (3) that God knows his innocence (Job 7:7); and (4) that he (Job) is entirely in God’s power (Job 7:7). In conclusion, Job begs for a little respite, a little time of comfort (verse 20), before he descends into the darkness of the grave (verses 21, 22). Job 10:1 My soul is weary of my life. This is better than the marginal rendering, and well expresses the original. It strikes the key-note of the chapter. I will leave my complaint upon myself; rather, I will give free course to my complaint over myself, or I will allow myself in the expression of it (see the Revised Version). Job implies that hitherto he has put some restraint upon himself, but now he will give full and free expression to his feelings. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (comp. Job 7:11). Job 10:2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; literally, do not pronounce me wicked My friends, as they call themselves, have, one and all, condemned me: do not thou also condemn me. A touching appeal! Show me wherefore thou contendest with me. One of Job’s principal trials is the perplexity into which his unexampled sufferings have thrown him. He cannot understand why he has been singled out for such tremendous punishment, when he is not conscious to himself of any impiety or other heinous sin against God. So now, when he has resolved to vent all the bitterness of his soul, he ventures to ask the question—Why is he so tried? What has he done to make God his enemy? Wherefore does God fight against him continually? Job 10:3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress? Job assumes that he is oppressed. He has no conception that his sufferings are a purification (John 15:2), intended to lead to the elevation and improvement of his moral character. He therefore asks—Is it worthy of God, is it good in him, is it compatible with his perfect excellence, to be an oppressor? It is a sort of argumentum ad verecundiam, well enough between man and man, but quite out of place between a man and his Maker. That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands (comp. Psalms 138:8). This argument is more legitimate. God may be expected, not to despise, but to care for, the work of his own hands (comp. Isaiah 19:25; Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 64:1-12:21; Isaiah 64:8; Ephesians 2:10). Every maker of a thing, as Aristotle says, loves his work, and naturally guards it, cares for it, and cherishes it. And shine upon the counsel of the wicked (comp. Job 9:24). The prosperity of evil-doers must arise, Job thinks, from God allowing his countenance to shine upon them. Job 10:4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Notwithstanding the anthropomorphism of their language, the sacred writers are as fully aware as their modern critics of the immateriality of God, and the immense gap that separates his nature from human nature. It is on this that Job now dwells. God, being so much above man, having eyes that are not of flesh, and seeing not as man sooth, ought not to judge as man judges, with partiality, or prejudice, or even with extreme severity (verse 6). Job 10:5 Are thy days as man’s days? In short-lived man, shortsightedness and prejudice are excusable, but not in one whose days are unlike man’s days—whose "years endure throughout all generations". Such a one ought to be above all human infirmity. Or thy years as man’s days? We should have expected "as man’s years." But it marks the disparity more strongly to say, "Are thy years not greater in number even than man’s [literally, ’a strong man’s’] days?" Job 10:6 That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin. It seems to Job that God must have been "extreme to mark what he has done amiss" (Psalms 130:3), must have searched into every corner of his life, and hunted out all his sins and shortcomings, to have been able to bring together against him a total commensurate or even approximately commensurate, with the punishment wherewith he has visited him. Job 10:7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; rather, although thou knowest (see the Revised Version). Conscious of his own integrity and faithfulness, Job feels that God too must know them; wherefore it seems to him all the harder that he should be made to suffer as if he were a "chief sinner." And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand. "’Tis excellent to have a giant’s strength; But tyrannous to use it like a giant." Job’s last ground of appeal is, that he is wholly at God s mercy, can look for no other deliverer, no other support or stay. Will not God, then, have pity, and "spare him a little, that he may recover his strength before he goes hence, and is no more seen "? (see Psalms 39:1-13:15; and comp. below, verse 20). Job 10:8-12 Here we have an expansion of the plea in Job 10:3, "Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest despise the work of thine own hands?" Job appeals to God, not only as his Greater, but as, up to a certain time, his Supporter and Sustainer. Job 10:8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about. Canon Cook observes with much truth, "The processes of nature are always attributed in Scripture to the immediate action of God. The formation of every individual stands, in the language of the Holy Ghost, precisely on the same footing as that of the first man". Yet thou dost destroy me; literally, devour me (comp. Job 9:17, Job 9:22). Job 10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; rather, that thou hast fashioned me as day; i.e. "Thou hast formed me, as a potter fashions a pot out of clay." This is scarcely a reference to Genesis 3:19, but rather an early use of what became a stock metaphor (comp. Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 30:14:; Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:21-29, etc.). And wilt thou bring us into dust again? After having fashioned me out of clay into a human form, wilt thou undo thine own work, crumble me into powder, and make me mere dust once more? Job 10:10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? "Didst not thou" i.e; "form me as an embryo in the womb, gradually solidifying my substance, and changing soft juices into a firm though tender mass?" Job 10:11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh. "To thee," that is, "I owe the delicate skin, which encloses my frame, and keeps it compact; to thee I owe the flesh whereof my frame chiefly consists." And hast fenced ms with bones and sinews; rather, and hast woven me, or knit me together (see the Revised Version, and comp. Psalms 139:13, where the same verb is used in the same sense). The idea is that the body altogether is woven and compacted of skin, bone, flesh, sinews, etc; into a delicate and elaborate garment. Job 10:12 Thou hast granted me life and favour. God, besides providing Job with a body so delicately and marvellously constructed, had added the gift of "life" (Genesis 2:7), and also that of "favour," or loving providential care, whereby his life was preserved from infancy to manhood, and from manhood to a ripe age, in peace and prosperity. Job has not forgotten his former state of temporal happiness (Job 1:2-5), nor ceased to feel gratitude to God for it (comp. Job 2:10). And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit; or, thy providence—"thy continual care." Job 10:13 And these things hast thou hid in thine heart; rather, get these things didst thou hide in thine heart; i.e. "Yet all the while, notwithstanding thy protecting care and gracious favour, thou wert hiding in thy heart the intention to bring all these evils upon me; thou couldst not but have known what thou wert about to do, though thou didst conceal thy intention, and allow no sign of it to escape thee." I know that this is with thee; rather, I know that this was with thee; i.e. this intention to destroy my happiness was "with thee"—present to thy thought—even while thou wert loading me with favour. Job’s statement cannot be gainsaid; but it involves no real charge against God, who assigns men prosperity or suffering as is best for them at the time. Job 10:14 If I sin, then thou markest me; rather, if I sinned, then thou didst observe me. Thou tookest note of all my sins as I committed them, and laidest them up in thy memory. And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. This record of my offences thou still hast against me, and I cannot expect that thou wilt acquit me of them. Without some one to atone for them, men cannot be acquitted of their offences. Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me! If, on the whole, this record of my sins be such that I am pronounced guilty before God, then I accept my doom. Woe unto me! I must submit to suffer. And if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. If, on the contrary, it be admitted that I have not sinned so grievously as to be pronounced unrighteous, even then I will not beast; I will not exalt myself; I will not hold up my head as if I were sinless. I am full of confusion. This clause should not be separated from the last. The sense runs on: "I will not lift up my head (being, as I am), full of confusion," or "of shame," through consciousness of my own imperfections (see the Revised Version). Therefore see thou mine affliction; rather, and seeing my afflictions. The sense given in the Authorized Version is maintained by Rosenmuller, De Wette, Stanley Leathes, and Merx, and defended by Canon Cook; but opposed by Schultens, Professor Lee, and our Revisers. If we accept the views of these last, the whole passage will run thus: "If I be [pronounced] wicked, woe unto reel but if righteous, yet will I not lift up my head, being [as I am] full of confusion, and seeing my afflictions." Job still views his afflictions as signs of God’s disfavour, and therefore proofs of his sinfulness. Job 10:16 For it increaseth. Thou huntest me. This passage is very obscure, and has been taken in several quite different senses. On the whole, it is not clear that any better meaning can be assigned to it than that of the Authorized Version, "For my affliction increaseth," or "is ever increasing. Thou huntest me;" i.e. thou art continually pursuing me with thy plagues, thy "arrows" (Job 6:4), thy" wounds" (Job 9:17), thy poisoned shafts (Job 6:4). Thou givest me no rest, therefore I am ever conscious of my afflictions. As a fierce lion. Schultens regards Job as the lion, and so Jarchi and others. But most commentators take the view that the lion is God (comp. Isaiah 31:4; Isaiah 38:13; Jeremiah 25:38; Lamentations 3:10; Hosea 5:14; Hosea 13:7, Hosea 13:8). And again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me; or, thou dealest marvellously with me; i.e. "inflictest on me strange and marvellous sufferings.’’ Job 10:17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me. Each fresh calamity that Job suffers is a new witness that God is displeased with him, both in his own eyes, and in those of his "comforters." Hie disease was no doubt continually progressing, and going from bad to worse, so that every day a new calamity seemed to befall him. And increasest thine indignation upon me; i.e. "makest it more and more evidently to appear, that thou art angry with me." Changes and war are against me; rather, changes and a host; i.e. attacks that are continually changing—a whole host of them, or "host after host", come against me. Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? A recurrence to his original complaint (Job 3:3-10); as if, after full consideration, he returned to the conviction that the root of the whole matter—the real thing of which he might justly complain—was that he had ever been born into the world alive! Oh that I had given up the ghost! Before birth, or in the act of birth (so Job 3:11). And no eye had seen me! "No eye," i.e; "had looked upon my living face." For then— Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. So short an existence would have been the next thing to no existence at all, and would have equally satisfied my wishes. Job 10:20 Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little. Job here returns from vague longings and idle aspirations to actual realities—the facts of the case—and asks, "Is not the time that I now have to live short? Must not my disease make an end of me in a very brief space? If so, then may I not make a request? My petition is that God will ’cease’ from me, grant me a respite, ’let me alone’ for a short time, remove his heavy hand, and allow me to ’take comfort a little,’ recover my strength, and obtain a breathing-space, before my actual end, before the time comes for my descent to Sheol," which is then (verses 21, 22) described. The parallel with Psalms 39:13 is striking. Job 10:21 Before I go whence I shall not return (comp. Job 7:9; and see 2 Samuel 12:23). Even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. Job’s idea of the receptacle of the dead, while it has some analogies with the Egyptian under-world, and even more with the Greek and Roman conceptions of Hades or Orcus, was probably derived from Babylonia, or Chaldea, on which the land that he inhabited bordered (Job 1:17). It was within the earth, consequently dark and sunless (compare the Umbrae of the Romans, and Euripides’s νέκρωνκευθμῶνακαὶσκότουπύλας), deep (Job 11:8), dreary, fastened with belts and bars (Job 17:16). The Babylonians spoke of it as "the abode of darkness and famine, where earth was men’s food, and their nourishment clay; where light was not seen, but in darkness they dwelt; where ghosts, like birds, fluttered their wings; and where, on the doors and on the door-posts, the dust lay undisturbed". Job 10:22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; or, a land of thick darkness (see the Revised Version). And of the shadow of death, without any order. The absence of order is a new and peculiar feature. We do not find it in the other accounts of Hades. But it lends additional horror and weirdness to the scene. And where the light is as darkness. Not, therefore, absolutely without light, but with such a light as Milton calls "darkness visible." Job 10:1-7 Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 1. The pathetic wail of a crushed heart. I. SOBBING IN THE EAR OF GOD. 1. The moan of a desponding heart. "My soul is weary of [literally, ’loathes’] my life" (verse 1). That which had rendered existence a disgust to Job was partly his intense bodily affliction, but chiefly the overwhelming strangeness of the Divine conduct towards him. If only he had been able to realize that, notwithstanding all contrary appearances, he was still an object of God’s compassionate regard, he would have doubtless been able to endure with continued patience and exemplary submission the appalling calamities which had overtaken him. But the heavenward outlook of Job’s spirit was obscured by gloomy clouds of doubt and fear. The conviction was beginning to force itself inward upon his soul that God was indeed turned to be his Adversary; and if that were really so, Job felt that life would not be worth living. So David estimated God’s favour as life, and God’s loving-kindness as better than life (Psalms 30:5; Psalms 63:3; cf. homiletics on Job 6:1-13). 2. The utterance of a fainting spirit. "I will leave my complaint upon myself" (verse 1); i.e. I will give it free scope, yield myself up to it, and permit it to take full possession of me. Job’s complaint was that God was treating him as guilty while he was inwardly conscious of being innocent. Had this been really so, Job would have had reason on his side. But as yet the Divine antagonism to which he alluded was only an inference from his great sufferings. Hence the attitude assumed by Job was indefensible. Much more was it inexcusable to give way to a spirit of railing against God. If angry feelings rose within him, it was his paramount duty to repress them. The absence of gospel light, however, may serve in part to extenuate Job’s offence. The Divine philosophy of affliction, as expounded by Christianity, was not understood by him. If, then, fainting under tribulation was wrong in the old Arabian patriarch, much more is it indefensible in a New Testament believer. 3. The resolve of an embittered soul. "I will speak in the bitterness of my soul" (verse 1). Job was at this time intensely miserable. Life was a burden. God was (or seemed to be) against him. His own spirit was stung with a keen sense of injustice. The result was that wild indignation against the Almighty was beginning to steal like a poison through his veins. His soul was fast getting set on fire of hell. In circumstances such as these, it was extremely unwise in Job to resolve to speak. Safety would have been better secured by silence. The only favourable feature in the case was that Job meant not to fling abroad his impassioned outcries on the wild winds, but to breathe them into the ear of God. If a saint or sinner should feel aggrieved with God, it is infinitely wiser to go direct with his complaint to God himself than to either brood over it in secret or tell it to the world. II. BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD. 1. Deprecating condemnation. "I will say unto God, Do not condemn me [literally, ’do not fasten guilt upon me’]" (verse 2). The words may be regarded either as the cry of a saint who is conscious of his own inward moral and spiritual integrity, but who, through bodily affliction or Satanic temptation, or both combined, has become suddenly apprehensive of having forfeited or lost the Divine favour; or as the prayer of a sinful soul awakened for the first time to a conviction of its guiltiness before God, which, in an agony of fear, it implores God not to fasten on it, but to cancel and forgive. In the first of these two senses it was used by Job, and by saints similarly situated it may still be employed. No greater consternation can seize upon the mind of a child of God than that produced by the fear that God intends to condemn him. But such a fear is groundless. Whom God justifies, them he also glorifies (Romans 8:30). "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Romans 11:29). There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). God ,nay sometimes hide his face from a saint (Isaiah 54:8), but he never finally turns his back upon him (Hebrews 13:5). In the second sense it is a prayer appropriate to all awakened sinners. And, thanks to Divine mercy, God never fastens guilt upon a soul that fastens it upon itself, never condemns those who sincerely condemn themselves (Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 43:25; 1 John 1:9). 2. Desiring illumination. "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me." God contends with men when in his providence he afflicts, and by his Spirit convicts, them. He contends with sinners on account of their unbelief (John 16:8, John 16:9) and wickedness generally; he may contend with his people on account of their backsliding (Micah 6:2; Revelation 2:4, Revelation 2:5), their formality (Revelation 3:1), their spiritual indifference (Revelation 3:15, Revelation 3:16), or simply to advance their individual improvement (Genesis 32:24). Yet when God does so contend with a saint the reason is not always patent (Job 37:21). Hence the prayer to be divinely instructed as to the grounds of God’s controversy with the soul is not only not sinful, but highly proper and advantageous. Only it should be presented with reverence, with humility, with docility. III. TO THE HEART OF GOD. Job remonstrates with God against the treatment accorded to him on two main grounds. 1. It is derogatory to the Divine character. "Is it good unto thee [literally, ’is it becoming’] that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?" (verse 3). Three considerations, according to Job, ought to have prevented God from inflicting upon him such tremendous calamities. (1) His personal greatness. It was not becoming in a Being so transcendently glorious and powerful as he was to be guilty of oppression. (2) His personal interest. What proprietor ever destroyed his own property? What potter ever dashed to the ground the exquisite vessel which his hands had just fashioned? But Job was God’s handiwork, and yet God despised him, and treated him as of no value! (3) His personal integrity. If God was a Being of absolute holiness and incorruptible justice, then it was clearly impossible that he could shine upon the counsel of the wicked, or favour bad men. But this, as it appeared to Job, was what God was doing in afflicting him. The threefold argument was good if Job’s premiss was correct. But Job’s description of the Divine conduct towards him was in all its particular, fallacious. The Almighty never oppresses any of his creatures, least of all man. The Creator never despises anything he has made, least of all his own children. The Governor of the universe cannot wrong the just, least of all can he favour the ungodly. Job’s argument therefore should have led him to seek another solution for the dark problem that perplexed him. It could not be that God was treating him as above depicted: God’s character forbade that. Neither could it be that he, Job, was guilty: the testimony of his own conscience protested against that. (It is not certain that a Christian would have been as tenacious of his own personal innocence as Job was.) Might it not, therefore, be that Job was putting a wrong construction on his sufferings? 2. It is inconsistent with the Divine perfectione. (1) With his omniscience. "Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?" (verse 4). If God were like man, a being of limited capacity in respect of knowledge, if he could only judge by appearance, then he might be acting in the present instance under a mistaken idea of the patriarch’s guilt. But against that rose the transcendent objection that God’s eyes were not "eyes of flesh" at all, but eyes "like a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:14), from which no thought can be withholden (Job 42:2), and which seeth every precious thing (Job 28:10). (2) With his eternity. "Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days, that thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?" (verses 5, 6). Job professes he could have understood the Almighty’s hot pursuit of him had the Almighty been a short-lived being like himself, and afraid that his creature might die before he had it out with him. But, then, God was not like man. There was no fear of God dying. Hence Job could not see the need for such a hasty and terrible inquisition as he had been subjected to. If to find out his sin was God’s object, why all this hurry? had not God an eternity to do it in? (3) With his justice. "Thou knowest [rather, ’although thou knowest’] that I am not guilty; and there is none that [rather, ’and although none’ ] can deliver out of thy hand" (verse 7). The Divine conduct would have been perfectly intelligible to Job on the hypothesis that God, like some petty tyrant, had resorted to the thumbscrews of affliction to extort confession from a prisoner whom he knew to be innocent, simply because he had the power so to do. But such a supposition was, of course, untenable. Therefore Job felt hemmed in on every side by inextricable difficulty, and was obliged to cry, "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me." LESSONS. 1. The best thing for burdened souls to do is to cast themselves and their burdens into God’s lap; not angrily, but humbly; not complainingly, but confidingly. 2. There is a wide difference between God’s contending with his people, and God’s condemning them; this he never, that he often, does. 3. When God’s character and God’s conduct appear in conflict, it becomes us to question our interpretations of the latter rather than renounce our trust in the former. Job 10:8-17 Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 2. An inexplicable contradiction. I. GOD’S FORMER LOVING CARE. 1. Minutely detailed. (1) In Job’s creation. This is first stated generally, the patriarch describing himself as having been made directly, by God’s hand: "Thine hands have made me and fashioned me;" perhaps in allusion to Genesis 1:26 (cf. Deuteronomy 4:32; Job 12:10; Job 34:19; Psalms 33:15; Isaiah 45:12); completely, in all his parts: "together [’literally,’ all of me ’] round about" (of. Psalms 139:15, Psalms 139:16; Exodus 4:11; Job 27:3; Psalms 94:9); carefully, with exquisite skill: "Thou hast made me as the clay,"—possibly an echo of Gen 2:7, though most probably the image is that of a potter moulding an exquisite vessel And certainly man is God’s noblest handiwork, whether we have regard to his physical structure or to his mental and moral organization, and much more if we include both in our contemplation (cf. ’Hamlet,’ Acts 2. sc. 2). The process of man’s formation is then sketched in four particulars, showing a remarkable acquaintance with the physiological phenomena connected with this mysterious subject: the generation of the child; the production of the embryo; the gradual development of the foetus; and the actual birth of the child (Genesis 2:10-12); for further information on which points the Exposition may be consulted. (2) In Job’s preservation. "Thy visitation [literally, ’thy providence’] hath preserved my spirit’ (verse 12). Man s continued existence on earth is as much a miracle of Divine power as his first introduction into life. Only Divine care constantly exercised could keep a delicate organism like the human body, and much more a complicated instrument like the human mind, from falling into disrepair, and eventually into dissolution. Man, too, has so many wants, that unless Divine goodness waited on him daily, he would speedily succumb beneath the stroke of death. Hence Scripture assigns our sustenance no less than our formation to God (Deuteronomy 8:3; Psalms 36:6; Acts 17:28). 2. Skilfully employed. As Job recalls the time when he was thus an object of God’s paternal solicitude, he cannot help lingering over the sweet memories with which it floods his soul. Setting up, too, these tender reminiscences against the dark background of his present sorrow, he feels melted and softened. The thought of that Divine love which had fashioned him and favoured him enkindles in his soul a strange yearning for its return, which makes him try, as it were, by recalling old times to God, to excite a touch of pity in the Divine heart. "Thine hands have made me; and yet thou destroyest me!" "Thou hast made me as clay; and yet thou reducest me to dust again!" There are few arguments that touch the heart of God so powerfully as the remembrance of former mercies. "Put me in remembrance," says God (Isaiah 43:26). "Forget not all his benefits," says David (Psalms 103:2; cf. Psalms 42:6; Psalms 77:10; Psalms 143:5). II. GOD’S PRESENT CRUEL . 1. The Divine plot. "And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee" (verse 13). Job conceived that his terrible afflictions were the outcome of a dark and deep design which God had formed concerning him before he was born; that, in fact, God had summoned him into existence precisely in order to persecute him in the way about to be described. That God worketh all things on earth according to the counsel of his will, that every event in history, as well as every incident in individual experience, has its place in an eternally existing and universe-embracing plan, is a truth of natural religion no less than of Divine revelation (Acts 15:18; Ephesians 1:11). But that God created any soul expressly for the purpose of rendering it miserable, either in time or eternity, is s simple perversion of truth, inconsistent alike with man’s fundamental notions of the Deity and Scripture’s explicit teachings as to the import of predestination. God never plots against either saint or sinner; but he never fails to plan for both—in which there should be comfort for the one (Romans 8:28), and a caution for the other (Proverbs 15:3, Proverbs 15:11; Psalms 33:15). 2. The fourfold net. Job unfolds the nature of that plot which he conceives God to have devised against him. (1) On the supposition of his sinning, God had determined to mark it against him: "If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity" (verse 14). The hypothesis was natural, since "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not" (Psalms 14:3; 1 Kings 8:46; Romans 3:12). The inference was also correct in the sense that God observeth all men’s sins (Psalms 33:13-15; Psalms 69:5; Proverbs 15:3; Hebrews 4:13), and can by no means acquit the guilty (Nahum 1:3; Exodus 20:5; Romans 6:23); but as insinuating that God lay in wait to catch men in transgression, or that he was swift to note and punish sin, it was decidedly incorrect (Psalms 130:3; Nehemiah 9:17; Exodus 34:6; Psalms 78:38). It is God’s highest glory that, though he sees, he is now able not to mark, iniquity; that he can both remit the trespass and acquit the sinner in consequence of Christ’s propitiation (Romans 3:25, Romans 3:26). (2) On the assumption of his perpetrating heinous wickedness, then his punishment would simply be unspeakable: "If I be wicked, woe unto me!" It is still true that obstinate and impenitent transgressors will not escape the just judgment of Almighty God (Isaiah 3:11; Isaiah 45:9; Proverbs 11:21; Job 31:3; Matthew 21:41; Matthew 24:51; Romans 1:18; if. 8), but it is likewise a blessed truth that the most notorious offender may be forgiven (Isaiah 1:18; Jeremiah 33:8; 1 John 1:7, 1 John 1:9; 1 Timothy 1:15). (3) If he should prove to be forensically guiltless, he must still demean himself as if he were a criminal: "If I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head." Job’s language here suggests two important truths—that no man, however conscious of innocence, can really lift up his head before God as if he were spotless; and that even those who can lift up their heads, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, have no room for self-exaltation (Romans 3:27). (4) Should he venture to indulge in such a feeling, then God would redouble his attempts to abase him; hunting him like a wild beast,—"Thou huntest [literally, ’wouldst hunt’] me as a fierce lion: and again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me [or, ’thou wouldst repeat thy miracles upon me’] "—prosecuting him like a culprit,—"Thou renewest thy witnesses against me;" besieging him like a fortress,—"Thou increasest [or, ’wouldst increase’] thine indignation against me, with host succeeding host against me." The imagery may set forth the intensity and variety of Job’s sufferings; but it is likewise fitted to suggest the vehement, relentless, and unceasing opposition which God offers to all attempts on man’s part to vindicate his own righteousness. It is God’s paramount aim, in providence and grace, to reduce man to a position of self-abasement and self-condemnation; and for this end he employs all the supernatural power of his Word and Spirit, all the evidence and testimony of the sinner’s own heart and life, all the vicissitudes and trials of his ordinary providence. God’s object in doing so is that he may be able to lift up the sinner’s bead. Learn: 1. That if God uses rigour towards man, he doth it not of any cruelty, since man is God’s handiwork. 2. That man, being God’s handiwork, should never cease to praise his Maker. 3. That man’s lowly origin should both keep him humble and remind him of his latter end. 4. That God’s power and grace should be recognized in man’s preservation as much as in man’s formation. 5. That" all things are naked and manifest to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." 6. That God, if swift to note, is still swifter to forgive, iniquity. 7. That the royal road to Heaven’s favour and forgiveness is through humility and self-abasement. 8. That the end of all Divine discipline on earth is to humble man in preparation for eternal exaltation. Job 10:18-22 Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 3. An old complaint renewed. I. A GREAT MERCY . Life. "Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?" (verse 18). Job here announces an important truth, that the extraction of an infant from the womb is practically God’s work (Psalms 22:9; Psalms 71:6), but likewise commits a sin in regarding as an evil fortune what, rightly pondered, should have been esteemed a valuable blessing. Life, as God bestows it, is a precious gift; though frequently, as man makes it, it proves a dreadful curse. Job’s ingratitude was all the more reprehensible that in his case life had been crowned with mercies—with great material wealth, with true domestic enjoyment, with immense social influence, with rich spiritual grace, with palpable Divine favour. II. A SINFUL REGRET . That he had not been carried from the womb to the grave. "Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!" (verse 18). Job’s regret was: 1. Sinful; inasmuch as it undervalued a Divine gift. 2. Unnatural; since it contradicted the instinct of love of life which the Creator has implanted in all his creatures. 3. Foolish; for though Job might have thereby escaped bodily pain, he would also have missed much happiness and many opportunities of glorifying God by doing good and enduring affliction. 4. Mistaken; as though Job had been carried from the womb to the grave, his expectation," I should have been as though I had not been," would not have proved correct. The child who opens its eyes on earth simply to shut them again does not return to the wide womb of nothingness when its tiny form is deposited in the dust. The fact of its being horn into Adam’s race constitutes it an immortal. The doctrine of annihilation, if not absolutely unphilosophical, is certainly unnatural and unscriptural. III. A OFFERED. For a brief respite in the midst of his sufferings. "Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little." 1. The prayer. "Let me alone." Job craved a momentary alleviation in his troubles. Few sufferers are without such interludes of ease. God mercifully mitigates human sorrow by granting brief periods of relief; otherwise men would be crushed, and the end of affliction defeated. 2. The purpose. "That I may be cheerful a little." Job could not brighten up while tormented by incessant pain and haunted by continual fear (Job 9:27). Only the lifting of God’s hand would remove the load from his heart and the cloud from his brow. And this he felt was desirable before he went to the under world. Most men will sympathize with Job in desiring a brief period of freedom from pain before passing into the eternal world, to enable them to calm their spirits, to collect their thoughts, to prepare their souls for the last conflict and the great hereafter. 3. The plea. "Are not my days few?" Job thought himself upon the brink of the grave. In this, however, he was mistaken. Most men deem themselves further from the unseen world than they really are (1 Samuel 20:3), but occasionally sufferers judge themselves nearer the close of life than they eventually prove to be. If the first is a sin of presumption, the second is an error caused by feeble faith. If the first is peculiar to youth and health, the second is not infrequent to suffering and age. IV. A DISMAL FUTURE . Hades. The melancholy region, into which Job anticipated almost instantaneous departure, was not the grave, which was, properly speaking, only the receptacle of the dead body; but Sheol, the abode of departed spirits. As conceived by Job and other Old Testament saints, this was not a place where the disembodied spirit either found annihilation or sank into unconsciousness, but a realm in which the spirit, existing apart from the body, retained its self-consciousness. Yet the gloom which overhung this silent and impenetrable land was such as to render it unattractive in the extreme. It was a land of: 1. Perpetual exile. "Before I go whence I shall not return" (verse 21); "the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns" (’Hamlet,’ Acts 3. sc. 1). 2. Thick darkness. "A land of darkness, as darkness itself" (verse 22). Four different terms are employed to depict the gloom of this dismal world; the first (used in Genesis 1:2) probably depicting a condition of things upon which light has not yet arisen; the second representing this lightless region as death’s shade, i.e. the veil which death draws around the eyes of men; the third setting forth this darkness as that which covers up or encircles all things; and the fourth pointing to the complete shotting off of light, the deepest and thickest gloom. This horrible picture the poet finishes by adding, "and the light is as the thick darkness," meaning that in that doleful region the daylight or the noontide is like the midnight gloom of earth: "not light, but darkness visible" (Milton, ’Paradise Lost,’ bk. 1.). 3. Complete disorder. A land "without any order" (verse 22); meaning either without form or outline, every object being so wrapt in gloom that it appears devoid of shape, or without regular succession, as of day and night; a realm without light, without beauty, without form, without order; a dark subterranean chaos filled with pale ghosts, waiting in comparative inactivity during that "night in which no man can work," for the dawning of the resurrection morn. Contrast with all this the Christian Paradise, where the spirits of just men made perfect are now for ever with the Lord; not a laud of exile from which one shall no more return, but a better country, even an heavenly, from which one shall go no more out (Revelation 3:12); not a region of darkness, but a bright realm of light (Revelation 21:23); not a chaos of confusion, but a glorious cosmos of life, order, and beauty (Revelation 21:1). Learn: 1. The danger of unsanctified affliction. 2. The power of Satan over the human heart. 3. The short-sightedness of sense and reason. 4. The propriety of ever being ready for our departure into the unseen world. 5. The value of the gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light. 6. The advantage possessed by those who live under the gospel dispensation. 7. The greater responsibility of those who enjoy greater light than Job did. BY E. JOHNSON Job 10:1-22 Appeal to the justice, knowledge, and goodness of God. In his extremity of maddening pain and in his contempt of life, Job resolves to give full way once more to words (verse 1). And as they pour forth in full flood from the bottom of his heart, we perceive that he has in reality truer and juster thoughts about God than those expressed in the preceding chapter. He proceeds to appeal one by one to the highest perfection which can be associated with the Divine Name. I. APPEAL TO THE AND OF GOD. (Verses 2-7.) 1. To his reasonableness and justice. (Verse 2.) "Condemn me not unheard, without cause assigned; make clear to my mind, which cannot deny its convictions, my guilt and its nature." Taking the analogy of our Lord’s reasoning in the sermon on the mount, if to condemn a man without cause is felt to be an odious injustice—if it is a cardinal point in a just earthly constitution (e.g. as expressed in our Habeas Corpus Act) that no man be seized and kept in prison without speedy opportunity of being confronted with his accusers—how can we ascribe such conduct to him who sits on the eternal throne? 2. To his equity. (Verse 3.) Can it be right that God should, on the one hand, cast down the weak and innocent, and, on the other, exalt and favour the unprincipled and the wicked? This would not be to hold even the scales, the eternal emblem of justice. The true solution to the question is given by Christ. God is good to all alike. The great gifts of nature—sunshine and rain—are common to good and evil, just and unjust. And as to spiritual blessings, which are of their nature conditional on human will and seeking, God is as good to all as their own state and disposition will suffer him to be. Are, then, the sufferings of the good contrary to his justice? Not so; but they come under that higher law which Job and his friends have yet to learn, that suffering is one of the forms and manifestations of Divine goodness in the education of human beings. 3. Appeal to his omniscience. (Verse 4.) God sees all things, from all beginnings, to all ends. He is not a short-sighted tyrant who is tempted to force by torture a confession of guilt from an unhappy prisoner against whom he has only a suspicion but no evidence. God knows that Job is innocent. But this fact should put an end to his murmurs, could he be wholly true to his higher faith in God. The right which God knows he will in the end declare, and will be seen to have throughout defended and protected. 4. Appeal to his eternal duration. (Verses 5, 6.) The calm and ever-abiding existence of God must surely free him from those temptations to which short-lived man is subject. Hurry, impatience, haste, impetuosity, are characteristics of humanity, because men know they have much to do, and but a short time in which to do it. Therefore the tyrant will snatch quickly at revenge for any affront or injury he may have suffered. But who can escape the power and the penalties of the Eternal? Once more: God knows he is innocent (verse 7)! II. THE BETWEEN THE CREATOR AND THE . (Verses 8-17.) 1. Comparison of the Creator and the creature to the potter and his work. (Verse 8.) The potter’s artistic work is a work on which care, thought, elaboration, have been spent; it is a" thing of beauty," and he designs it to be a "joy for ever." He will not wantonly destroy it, will not bear to see it so destroyed. Can we believe otherwise of God and his work? A most true and telling analogy, and on which may be founded an argument for the immortality of the soul. Had that idea come within the horizon of Job’s vision, his analogy would have afforded him profound comfort. 2. Contrast between the careful production and preservation’ and the seeming reckless destruction of the creature. (Verses 10-17.) On the one hand we see (verses 10, 11) the marvellous production and development of the bodily life from the embryo to the distinct and fully developed form, arranged with all the apparatus and mechanism of nutrition and of movement. What dazzling evidences of the thought which God has lavished upon his chief work do all the discoveries of physiology unfold! We may read side by side with this passage Psalms 139:1-24; and Addison’s noble hymn, "When all thy mercies, O my God." Then there is the endowment of this marvellous framework with the great gift of life, and manifold rich enjoyments, and its preservation through all the dangers of youth to the present moment (Psalms 139:12). But how dread the other side of the contrast! Behind this elaborate design there was concealed from the first, as it seems to Job’s gloomy reflection, a deliberate purpose of destruction—the reckless annihilation of this splendid work of Divine art (verse 13). Rather, if we do but rectify these perverted reasonings of a morbid and distressed mood, what noble and irresistible arguments do we derive from experience and from the science of our physical life for God’s eternal interest in that which is here contained in it—the soul which partakes of him, and cannot perish! Then follows a terrible picture of the relation in which the patriarch, in his misery, supposes himself to stand to God. He is in a "tetralemma," or net, from which he can see no escape. (1) If he commits the smallest error (verse 14), those all. searching eyes follow him with their ceaseless watch, and will exact the penalty of every fault. (2) If he should commit iniquity (verse 5)—that he has done so, however, before these sufferings, he must most solemnly deny—then he will be justly chastened. (3) But even if he were in the right, he must appear as a guilty one; cannot dare, freely and proudly, to raise his head—because full of ignominy, and with his own eyes beholding his humiliation (verse 15). (4) And should this innocent and insulted head, unable longer to endure the ignominy, rise in freedom and in pride—as Job is now doing, in fact, by. the tone of his speech—then God, wroth with his resistance, will send afresh the severest sufferings upon him; will hunt him like a lion; will reveal himself in fresh marvels of woe and judgment (verse 16); will produce fresh witnesses, in the shape of new pains, as accusers against him. Like hosts pouring one after another against one beleaguered city, so will these troubles thickly come on (verse 17). III. RENEWED BURST OF , ON LIFE, CRAVING FOR REST. (Verses 18-22.) Once more he wishes that he had never been (verses 18, 19, repeated from Job 3:11, etc.). Once more he urges his strong petition that he may enjoy one brief respite during these few short days that remain, free from the unceasing torment (verse 20), before he sinks for ever into the lower world. IV. PICTURE OF HADES, OR THE LOWER WORLD. 1. It is the "land of darkness and of gloom, like to midnight" (verses 21, 22). 2. Therefore it is the land of disorder and of confusion, where none who is accustomed to light and order can feel himself at home. 3. Though there be even there a slight change of day and night, yet even if it be bright there, it is as gloomy as midnight upon earth. We may compare those impressive pictures of the lower world and the state of the departed which we find in the ’Odyssey’ (11.)— "Never the sun, that giveth light to man, Looks down upon them with his golden eye, Or when he climbs the starry arch, or when Slope toward the earth, he wheels adown the sky; But sad night weighs upon them wearily." "In bondage through fear of death." The knowledge of another and a better life—denied to Job—is evidently the one thing needed to satisfy an honest mind, cast down in extreme suffering, overwhelmed in mystery, yet unable to renounce its faith in the justice and goodness of God. Christianity, by bringing life and immortality to light, spreads a great radiance over the world. It is the firm grasp of this Divine idea which enables man to support suffering with calmness and patience. Let this idea be taken away, and—as we see from the painful tone of those in our day who seriously put the question, "Is life worth living?"—even ordinary suffering may be resented as intolerable. LESSONS. 1. Confidence founded on our relation to God as a "faithful Creator." He cannot desert the work of his own hands. 2. His goodness in the past is an argument for trust for the time to come. 3. Insoluble perplexities are due to our own ignorance of the complete conditions of life. God is the most misunderstood of beings. 4. Every revelation is to be eagerly received, every habit of mind encouraged, which induces us to look on life as a good, death as a gain, and the scene beyond as one of eternal brightness for all faithful souls.—J Job 10:1-7 The supplicatory cry of deep sorrow. This is the cry of one who declares, "My soul is weary of my life." He opens his lips that the stream of his "complaint" may flow forth unchecked. Yet is he humble and subdued, though he adopts almost the tone of expostulation. He has confessed himself to be unequal to the contention. He cannot give answer to God; he has acknowledged his guilt and impotence. Now he would know "wherefore" God contends with him. This is the desire of even the most resigned sufferer. Certainly the cry which comes oft from the lips of the deeply afflicted is, "Why am I thus made to suffer?" If Christian principle and calm faith keep back the demand, "Show me wherefore," yet it is heard in the undertones of amazement and surprise at the unexplained and even severe dealings of a loving God—"Ah, it is mysterious!" The confession of the mysteriousness of human suffering is a suppressed cry for the mystery to be cleared up. Job’s cry takes the form of— I. A DESIRE TO RE FREED FROM . "I will say unto God, Do not condemn me." This the first desire of the resigned sufferer. Let it not be as a punishment for my transgression. "Condemn me not" is another form of urging, "Pardon my offence which! confess." It is a prayer for forgiveness. Up to this, the previous confession of unworthiness and even of sin has properly led. It is the first rest of the soul. While the unconfessed condemnations of guilt are upon it there can be no peace. Happy he who in the depth of his suffering makes his confession; happier still he who hears the word of gracious forgiveness. This is followed by— II. THE LONGING TO KNOW THE REASON FOR THE DIVINE . "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me." How natural to desire this! But the Divine ways are "past finding out." "He giveth none account of his ways" Certainly to Job came no sufficient answer. It remained for later days to learn, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" To all Job’s suggestions a negative reply may be given. 1. It is not "good" (i.e. pleasing) to God "to oppress," to (appear to) "despise" his creatures; or, as it would seem, "to shine upon the counsel of the wicked" 2. He has not "eyes of flesh" He does not see "as man seeth"—looking only on the outward appearance, and judging by that alone. God looketh on the heart, and estimates the human act by the motive which impels it. He makes allowance for human frailty more than even frail, erring man makes for his own brother. He is just in his view, and not warped as is the judgment of feeble flesh. 3. His days are not "as the days of man." His are the days of eternity, lie can wait until the future for a justification of Job’s conduct. He has not to make haste to bring about a crisis in Job’s history. He needs not to hurry to put Job to the proof. Our reflections on the Divine dealings may be justly corrected by duly pondering this history. In our assured integrity we may wait. In our conscious sinfulness we are safest in the Lord’s hands; from which, indeed, we cannot escape. "There is none that can deliver out of thine hand."—R.G. Job 10:8-12 Man the creature of God. Job now seeks consolation in other courses of reflection, although arising out of the foregoing. He would fain draw what comfort he can from the knowledge of the fact that he is the creature of God. "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about." Thy skill and patience, thy thought and attention, have been bestowed on me. Wilt thou forsake the work of thine hands? Is it solely for this time of trouble thou hast brought me forth? A calm meditation on the truth, "I am the creature of God, created by the Divine hands, the product of his activity," is calculated to bring consolation, for— I. IT IS A PLEDGE OF . Even erring man is thoughtful of his own work. Cod’s work is perfect. But it is so because he momentarily guards it. He carries forward all the processes which we moderns call "laws of nature." Job saw the "hand" of God in all the changes of the earth and heavens and of human life, Therefore to know I am a creature of God is to know my life is in his hands. I serve his purpose. He is Lord of all. Every act of his hand is pure blessing. He can do no evil. My creatureship is a sufficient pledge to me of certain blessing. He worketh for the good of all the creatures of his hands—sheep and oxen, birds of air and fish of sea. So his work in my limb is the truest warrant of good to me. II. IT IS A SOURCE OF COMFORT. No one can calmly reflect on the fact of his creatureship without finding cause for comfort. Each may leave himself in the hands of his Owner. It is the basis of the truest consolation. "I am thine" must warrant the prayer, "Save me." The human life may be left in the Divine hands. The poor, frail, helpless one may commit himself unto God. There is rich comfort in the knowledge of the fact that the Lord of the whole earth is my Creator. That he should "destroy," or appear to destroy, the poor sufferer is at once acknowledged to be matter of surprise. Under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty Creator every creature may find refuge. III. IT IS AN OF DIVINE CARE. "Wilt thou then bring me into dust again?" This is the inevitable thought in the heart of him who recognizes himself as the creature of God—who says, "Thou hast made me as the clay." It is the instinct of frail man to care for his own. How much more is it the Divine method! Already Job has declared his faith when saying, "Dost thou despise the work of thine own hands?" Thou hast raised me from the dust; wilt thou bring me into dust again? Writ thou frustrate thine own purpose? Thus Job reasons, and wisely. It is the assurance of calm wisdom, the faith which has firm foundation. He who has brought me into life, will care for me, will sustain me, will defend me. IV. SUCH AN IS A GROUND OF AND CALM REPOSE. Restful is the spirit of faith; and the more simple faith is in its reasonings, the more assured is its peace. Consciousness of sin would lead to distress of mind and to fear when it is remembered, "Thine hands have fashioned me;" but to the heart assured of its integrity, this truth is the ground of calm repose. Prayer may be based upon this. Faith here may find its support; love, its inspiration.—R.G. Job 10:13-17 The hidden purposes of affliction. Job has reasoned much, and he has asked for an explanation of the Divine purpose. "Wherefore contendest thou with me? Doubtless he judges, as do his friends, that suffering is the natural consequence and certain punishment of wrong-doing. But he is conscientious in affirming his innocence of transgression, and the Divine testimony to his goodness agrees with this (Job 2:3). What, then, is the explanation of the whole? Can we ever hope to know in this world what are the deep purposes of God in the afflictions of which the human life is capable, and especially in the sufferings of the godly? No. The purposes, though partially revealed, are still to a great extent "hidden"—hidden in the "heart" of God. Job feels himself hedged in. He is "full of confusion." We must remember Job had not the clear light in which we view the Divine work. Yet even from us his ways are hidden. We must say, "Clouds and darkness are round about him." I. WE MUST SEE IT TO BE NATURAL THAT THE DIVINE WAYS SHOULD BE HIDDEN FROM MEN. How should man be able to trace the Divine purpose? It is high; he cannot attain unto it. Hidden in the Divine mind—not always revealed by the incidents of affliction. "These things hast thou hid in thine heart." II. THE HIDING OF THE DIVINE IS A TEST TO FAITH. Faith in God needful in order to a right relation of the human soul towards God. It is the basis of peace; encouragement to obedience; ground of holy fear; help to holy love. But the testing of faith leads to a more spiritual dependence upon God, to a more frequent reference of the heart to him. Walking by faith honours God. Faith needed by the very conditions of human life. Its exercise promotes its growth. III. THE HIDING OF THE DIVINE PURPOSE IS A DESIGN ON THE PART OF GOD MORE TO WORK OUT HIS WILL MAN. The rebellious, not knowing it, cannot frustrate it. Secretly the Divine will is wrought out in the experience and history of the sufferer. The entire dependence of the soul on God is encouraged. This must lead to submission, and submission in faith. The reliance of the soul must be on the character of God, and not on circumstances and incidents. IV. THE HIDING OF THE DIVINE ISSUES IN THE OF THE SUPREME OF THE HUMAN —. Thus it has its "perfect work," and the soul is left "entire, lacking nothing." He who can patiently and trustfully wait upon God, bearing up under pressure of afflictive circumstances, gains s vigour and beauty of character. If patience be wanting, all other qualities of the character are impaired. Man’s wisdom is to be satisfied with committing himself to the hidden purposes of God. In faith to confide in them as wise and good. In patience to await their exposition when it shall please God to reveal them to him.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 10:1 Weariness of life. We need not wonder that Job was weary of his life. Beggared, bereft of his family, smitten with a painful and loathsome disease, tormented by the cruel comfort of his friends, he could see nothing but misery around and before him. Few, if any, have been in his sore plight. Yet others have felt the same weariness of life that the patriarch so naturally experienced. Let us look at the sorrowful condition and its Divine remedy. I. THE . 1. The misery of it. Life is naturally sweet. It is a most merciful arrangement of Providence that the hard lot which would seem to be unbearable when regarded from the outside has many alleviations and consolations for those to whose portion it has fallen. There are few lives on which no gleam of sunshine ever falls. But to be weary of life is to have lost all the sunshine, and to be in dark despair. Like "Mariana of the moated grange," the desolate one cries— I am aweary, aweary; O God that I were dead!" 2. The dangers of it. (1) It tempts to suicide, and that is sin. (2) It leads to the neglect of duty; for if a man has no hope or heart in life, it is difficult for him to take up its tasks. When life itself is no longer worth living, it is hard to summon any energy for work. (3) It blinds us to remedies. Like Hagar in her despair, we do not lift up our eyes to see the fountain. Despair justifies itself by blinding us to hope. 3. The causes of it. This weariness of life may spring item a terrible conjunction of external circumstances, as it did in part with Job. But internal causes usually co-operate. Sometimes the despair is a result of bodily or brain disease, and the sufferer must be pitied and treated accordingly. But it may come from brooding too much over the dark side of life, from distrust of God, from a consciousness of sin, or from impenitent and rebellious thoughts. Ennui is the product of indolence. Weariness of life is often a result of idle sentimentality. II. THE DIVINE REMEDY. This evil is not incurable. For the despair is a delusion. No one would be weary of life if he knew all its future possibilities. If the despair is a result of brain disorder, the remedy is in medicine, not theology. Here is a harder-land where the two faculties touch; therefore a man who practises either should not be a stranger to the other. Despair may give way to a change of scene and a bracing regimen without any arguments. But when the causes are deeper and more spiritual, a corresponding remedy must be looked for. This will not be found in any worldly philosophy of life. The wonder is not that some people are weary of life, but that all who are "without God in the world" are not also "without hope." Pessimism is the natural goal of the Epicurean. Life is not worth living without God. The great remedy for weariness of life is the discovery of the true worth of life when it is redeemed by Christ and consecrated to God. Then it is not dependent on pleasure for its motives, nor driven to despair by pain. It has a higher blessedness than any earthly possession can give, in doing God’s will on earth with the prospect of enjoying him for ever in hen yen. But even the unselfish service of our brother man will help to conquer weariness of life. If Mariana had been well occupied she might have overcome her misery. There is a healing grace in the discharge of duty, and more of it in losing ourselves while serving others.—W.F.A. Job 10:4 God’s vision of man. How does God see us? Is he SO far above us that he cannot quite see us as we are? Is he so great that he cannot conceive of our littleness? Are his ideas so different from our own that he cannot understand our life and sympathize with it? Or is not God so supreme in his vision of man that he cannot make the mistakes we make, and must see us truly just as we are? If w, why does God seem to act as though he had man’s limited vision? Questions of this sort seem to be perplexing Job. How can they be met? I. GOD SEES US TRULY AS WE ARE. It is no attribute of infinity to be above seeing what is small. Because God is infinite he can descend to the infinitely little as well as comprehend the infinitely great. Moreover, he does not treat us as insignificant beings unworthy of his notice, but he regards us as his children. The very hairs of our head are numbered by God. His greatness is seen in the truth and thoroughness of his vision. He does not look through distorting media, nor does he only see one aspect of things, as is the case with us. He sees all round everything, and he looks through all things. There is no secret hidden from God. He understands what he sees, for his infinite vision is accompanied by an infinite comprehension. II. GOD JUDGES US BY A HIGHER THAN OURS. We are hampered by narrow ideas; our judgment is warped and cramped by prejudice and error. Our ignorance, folly, and sin even mar the very standards by which we judge. God’s estimate is supremely fair, and it is after the very highest and purest ideas of judgment. III. GOD’S OF IS NOT ALIEN TO OURS. We might be dismayed by the very elevation and perfection of God’s method of judgment, thinking it totally different from our own. If this were the case conscience would be a delusion. But God is the Creator of conscience, and though this is limited, and in a measure perverted, still it retains the essential character given to it by God. "God made man in his own image" (Genesis 1:26). Therefore man’s honest judgment must be a reflection of God’s judgment. God ,sees as we see, so far as we see truly. His judgment is just the correction and perfection of our judgment. IV. GOD HAS ENTERED INTO OUR LIFE THAT HE MAY SEE US WITH OUR OWN EYES. This seems to be part of the purpose of the Incarnation. Christ is a brother-Man. He looks at us with human eyes. One with us by nature, he can perfectly understand us. We cannot even understand our favourite dog when he turns to us his dumb, pathetic gaze, for he is of a different species. Christ became one with us, one of our species. Thus we can understand him, and he can perfectly sympathize with us. Apart from Christ, God seems to be distant and altogether different from ourselves. In Christ he is one with us, near to us, and able to regard us with the eyes of a Brother.—W.F.A. Job 10:8 Creation and its consequences. Job appeals to God as his Maker. He remonstrates with the Creator for apparently destroying his own work. If God had first made man, why should God turn on his creature to "swallow him up"? This is not so much an appeal to pity or justice, as one to reason and consistency. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 11:1-20 Zophar, the Naamathite, the third of Job’s comforters (Job 2:11), and probably the youngest of them, now at last takes the word, and delivers an angry and violent speech. He begins by accusing Job of having spoken at undue length, and at the same time, boastfully and mockingly (verses 2-4). He then expresses a wish that God would take Job at his word, and really answer him, since he is sure that the result would be to show that Job had been punished much less than he. deserved to be (verses 5, 6). Job’s complaints against the justice of God’s dealings he meets by an assertion of God’s unsearchableness and perfect wisdom, which he contrasts with the folly of man (verse 7-12). Finally, he suggests that a stricken man, being guilty, should humble himself, put away his iniquity, and turn to God, in which ease he may expect a restoration to favour. Otherwise, he has only to look for wretchedness, failure, and despair (verses 18-20). Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said (see the comment on Job 2:11). Job 11:2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? A "multitude of words" is often reproved in Scripture, and taken as a sign of either folly (Ecclesiastes 5:8) or sin (Proverbs 10:19). Job had certainly been somewhat unduly verbose, and laid himself open to the taunt hero launched against him; but neither had brevity been studied by his other friends in their previous answers (Job 4:1-21; Job 5:1-27; Job 8:1-22.), nor is it greatly studied by Zophar here. And should a man full of talk be justified? literally, a man of lips’ which may mean either "a great talker" or "a man who makes many professions." There is a widespread prejudice against a great orator, and a widespread notion that a good cause does net need many words. Job 11:3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? or, thy boastings (see the Revised Version; and comp. Isaiah 16:5; Jeremiah 48:30). Zophar probably refers to such passages as Job 9:20, Job 9:35; Job 10:7, Job 10:15, where Job might seem to have justified himself altogether. And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed I It is not quite easy to see what in Job’s speeches up to this point could be regarded as "mocking." But perhaps Zophar would have thus characterized the following passages: Job 6:13, Job 6:14, Job 6:25-27; Job 7:12; Job 9:22-24. Job 11:4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure. Job had certainly not said this in so many words. In fact, he had not spoken of his "doctrine" (לקח), nor had he called either his doctrine or his conduct absolutely pure (זך). But, no doubt, he had maintained, in a certain sense, his innocency; not, indeed, his entire freedom from sin or guilt, but his honest endeavour to serve God and lead a good life. This was the real point disputed between him and his "comforters;" they argued, from his sufferings, that he must be a "chief sinner;" he maintained, from the testimony of his conscience, that he was free from all heinous sins. And I am clean in thine eyes (see above, Job 9:30; Job 10:7). Job 11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee! "Oh that God would do," i.e. "what thou hast challenged him to do"—show thee wherein he contends with thee! (comp. Job 10:2). Then how would thy reasonings be confuted, and thy boastings be brought low! Job 11:6 And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom! In God are "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid away" (ἀπόκρυφοι’ Colossians 2:3). Zophar wishes that he would reveal to Job this wisdom, or a portion of it, as, in that case, all his pride and self-confidence would be confounded and fall away. That they are double to that which is! This phrase is very obscure. Some translate, "For he (i.e. God) is twice as wise as thou;" others, "That it (i.e. wisdom) is manifold in effectual working;" others, again, "That they (i.e. the treasures of wisdom) are double (or manifold) in substance." Perhaps this last rendering is to be preferred. The treasures of wisdom that are hid away in God have many depths, secret and unexplored; they "lie, as it were, fold over fold, in unexpected complexities, defying the shallow and unscrutinizing gaze" (Professor Stanley Leathes). If they were revealed to Job, they would astonish, confound, silence, him. Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. "Be sure," i.e; "that God, so far from inflicting on thee a more severe punishment than thou deservest, in reality excuses much of thy guilt, and punishes thee less than is thy due." This is Zophar’s conclusion from his general knowledge of God’s dealings with man (comp. Ezra 9:13). Job 11:7 Canst thou by searching find out God? literally, Canst thou attain to the searching out of God? Canst thou suppose, that is, that, whatever thy wisdom, learning, subtlety, sagacity, power of insight, thou wilt be able to search out and fully know the character, attributes, modes of thought and action, of the Most High? No. In one sense, all men do well to profess them. selves "Agnostics"—not that they can know nothing of God, but that they can never know him fully, never exhaust the knowledge of him. As the apostle says, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God l how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" (Romans 11:33, Romans 11:34). Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? rather. Canst thou attain to the perfection of the Almighty? understand, i.e; his inconceivable perfectness. Job 11:8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? literally, heights of the heavens; what canst thou do? But the meaning is probably that expressed in the Authorized Version. God’s perfectness is unattainable by man’s thought, as the heights of the heavens are by his feet. Deeper than hell; literally, than Sheol, or the receptacle of the dead (see the comment on Job 10:21). St. Paul speaks of the "deep things," or rather, "the depths" (τὰβάθη) of God (see 1 Corinthians 2:10). What canst thou know? How small a part of the Divine nature can any man thoroughly comprehend and know! Job 11:9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. Zophar’s metaphors are drawn from the objects which, to his mind, exceed in extent all others. "The earth" and "the sea" represent to him the illimitable. Job 11:10 If he cut off; rather, if he advance (comp. Job 9:11). And shut up; or, imprison. Or gather together; rather, and call to judgment (see the Revised Version). If God, that is, advance against a man in hostile fashion, seize and imprison him, and then call him to judgment, what is to be said or done? who can interfere with him? Matters must take their course. There is no ground for complaint It is simply God’s mode of administering justice on the earth. Who can hinder him? literally, who can turn him sway? i.e. interfere with his action, interrupt it, divert it. Job 11:11 For he knoweth vain men. God is justified in these his judgments, even though he does not implead the man or bring him to account, or hear what he has got to say (Job 9:1-35:39), since he intuitively and at once "knoweth vain men;" sooth, that is, into the ground of the heart, and recognizes vanity, pretence, false seeming, so that he can judge infallibly without the forensic apparatus wherewith human tribunals are rightly surrounded, on account of the weakness and fallibility of human judges. He sooth wickedness also. If God can detect in a moment vanity, pretence, false seeming, much more can he detect actual wickedness; which Zophar assumes to have been detected in Job’s case. Will he not then consider it? rather, even though he consider it not (see the Revised Version). God does not need to pause and ponder and "consider" each case. He knows, without any such lengthened consideration, whether a man is true to him or not. Job 11:12 For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt; rather, and a vain man may get understanding, and the colt of a wild ass become a than. Zophar seems to mean that, through Divine discipline, such as that described in Job 11:10, a vain, foolish, puffed-up man may be reclaimed and become a man of understanding—a stubborn and untamed one, wild as the colt of a wild ass, grow into a real man, i.e. acquire sense and discretion. If this is the meaning, undoubtedly Job is glanced at (so Schultens, Dillmann, and Canon Cook). Job 11:13 If thou prepare thine heart. Having indicated God’s righteousness by these general remarks (Job 11:7-12), and implied that Job’s complaints are vain and futile, Zophar, in conclusion, addresses Job once more directly: "If thou (אתּה) prepare thine heart," cleanse it, that is, of all defilement, direct it, and set it straight (see Psalms 78:8) before God, then such and such results (set forth in verses 15-19) will follow. And stretch out thine hands toward him. The outward act of worship must follow the inward movement of the heart, for the turning to God to be complete. Job 11:14 If iniquity be in thine hand. Zophar assumes this to be probable, nay, almost certain. He has already told Job that God has exacted from him less than his iniquity (און, the same word) deserves (verse 6). Conformably with this view, he now suggests that it would not do for Job to stretch out to God in prayer a hand full of iniquity, and that therefore, previously to making his supplication, he would do well to lay his iniquity aside. In a general way, the advice is excellent; but it was insulting to Job, who denied that he had any definite act of sin on his conscience. Put it far away; i.e. repent of it, confess it to God; if the case admits of it, make reparation or restitution. And let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles; or, in thy tents. The insinuation seems to be that Job is a robber chief, and that his tent and the tents of his followers are full of ill-gotten spoils, the fruit of his raids upon the defenceless. Job 11:15 For then; rather, surely then (see the Revised Version). Shalt thou lift up thy face without spot. At present, Zophar implies, he could not do so. The stain of many sins was on him (Job 11:6, Job 11:11, Job 11:14). Yea, thou shalt be steadfast; literally, molten—perhaps "pure as refined metal" (see Isaiah 1:25), perhaps "bright as a metallic mass." And shalt not fear. "Shalt be freed," i.e.," from all the fears that disturb thee now" (see Job 3:26; Job 6:4; Job 7:14; Job 9:28, etc.). Job 11:16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery. All thy past misery shall be clean swept away from thy remembrance, because of the happy condition whereto thou shalt be raised (see Job 11:18, Job 11:19). "Sorrow’s memory" is not always "a sorrow still." And remember it as waters that pass away; i.e. remember it no more than a man remembers the shower that has passed away or the pool that is dried up. Job 11:17 And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; literally, shall arise above the noonday; i.e. "exceed it in splendour." Instead of the "thick darkness" to which Job is looking forward (Job 10:21, Job 10:22), he shall bask in a light brighter than that of the sun at noon. Thou shalt shine forth. The Hebrew cannot possibly bear this meaning. The uncommon word used is allied with עֵיפָה, "obscurity," and, if a verb, should mean "thou shalt be obscure," rather than "thou shalt shine forth." But it is perhaps a substantive, meaning "darkness;" and the translation of the Revised Version is perhaps correct: "Though there be darkness." Thou shalt be as the morning. "Thy light," as Professor Lee explains, "shall gradually rise and expand itself far and wide." It shall dispel the darkness, and take its place," shining more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). Job 11:18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope. Job, entering on this second period of prosperity, would be and feel secure; safe, i.e.’ from any return of calamity, because hope would once more animate him and be his predominant feeling. No doubt "hope springs eternal in the human breast;" and when Job’s prosperity was actually restored (Job 42:12-16), these anticipations had their fulfilment; but, as uttered by Zophar, there is a ring of insincerity about them, and we cannot but feel that his object in expatiating at length on the details of Job’s coming happiness is not to console and encourage his friend, but rather to annoy and exasperate him, since the entire basis on which he builds is the assumption of Job’s heinous guilt (verses 3, 6, 11, 14), and the prosperity which he promises is to follow upon an acknowledgment of guilt and a putting sway of iniquity (verses 13, 14), which he knew that Job wholly repudiated. Yea, thou shalt dig about thee. So Schultens, who understands it to mean that Job shall dig a moat around his habitation, to make himself perfectly secure. The verb has, however, two other meanings—"to investigate" or "search out," and "to blush;" and it is taken here in each of these meanings by some critics. Our Revisers translate, "Yea, thou shalt search about thee;" and so Canon Cook and Professor Stanley Loathes. Rosenmuller, on the other hand, and Professor Lee render the words by "Though thou shouldst blush," or "be ashamed." It is difficult to decide between such high authorities; but the fast that Job uses the verb in the sense of "search," "look after," in Job 39:29, and does not elsewhere use it in either of the other senses, should incline us to accept the rendering of the Revised Version. And thou shalt take thy rest in safety; or, securely; i.e. with a sense of being in perfect security. Job 11:19 Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; i.e. there shall be no more raids on the part of Sabeans (Job 1:15) or Chaldeans (Job 1:17) to affright and injure thee. Yea, many shall make suit unto thee. On the contrary, thy aid shall be invoked, thy interference on their behalf prayed for, by many. Job 11:20 Had Zophar ended with Job 11:19 Job might possibly have taken some comfort from his speech, holding out, as it did, a hope of restoration to God’s favour and a return to happiness. But, as if to accentuate the unfavourable view which he takes of Job’s conduct and character, he will not end with words of good omen, but appends a passage which has a ring of malice, menace, and condemnation. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail; or, waste away’ grew weary, i.e.’ of looking for a help that does not come, and a deliverer who does not make his appearance. And they shall not escape; literally, their refuge is perished from them. And their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost; rather, shall be the giving up of the ghost. They shall have no other hope but death—a manifest allusion to Job’s repeated declarations that he looks for death, longs for it, and has no expectation of any other deliverance (see Job 3:21, Job 3:22; Job 6:7, Job 6:8; Job 7:15; Job 10:1, Job 10:18. etc.). Such, says Zophar, is always the final condition of the wicked. Job 11:1-6 Zophar to Job: 1. The opinions of a dogmatist. I. ZOPHAR’S JOB. A severe but wholly unfounded indictment. 1. Loquacity. Job’s previous orations, so full of lofty sentiment and fervent emotion, he characterizes as "a multitude of words," and Job himself as "a man full of talk [literally, ’a man of lips’]." Prolixity in speech, though not a violation of God’s Law, is certainly a breach of good taste. Words should never be employed except to represent thoughts, and should always be carefully selected and skilfully compacted. If brevity he the soul of wit, it is also the heart of wisdom. Mere talkativeness is a fool’s gift (Ecclesiastes 5:3), and a frequent occasion of sin (Proverbs 10:19). On the other hand, "even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding’ (Proverbs 17:28). A wise man, also, is never so much in danger of being mistaken for a fool as when he forgets to put a bridle on his tongue. God’s people should be "swift to hear, slow to speak." 2. Boasting. Job’s vehement language Zophar describes as "big talk "—the noisy declamation of a loud-mouthed controversialist, who talks his opponents down by sheer force of clamour, foolishly supposing he has thereby overcome them in argument. Words of truth and soberness should be used by all (Acts 26:25). Religious men especially should be careful, particularly in the hearing of weak brethren, of extravagant assertions as to either their own piety or their thoughts about God. Job’s asseverations came near overstepping the limits of a just moderation; yet they appeared worse than they were because of Zophar’s failure to understand them. or sympathize with their speaker. 3. Mockery. Job’s sentiments Zophar pronounced to be wholly of an infidel tendency. But what Job scoffed at was only the representation of the Divine character and government which had been given by Eliphaz and Bildad. It may argue audacity and self-conceit to arraign the popular dogmas of the day; but one may do so, it is hoped, without being justly chargeable with impiety and unbelief. 4. Hypocrisy. Job’s steadfast assertion of personal integrity seemed to Zophar mere religious pretence. But if a man, who is at heart insincere, may yet be esteemed righteous by his fellows (Matthew 6:1-6), it is not impossible that one, who seems a hypocrite in man’s eyes, may in God’s sight be "perfect and entire." II. ZOPHAR’S GOD. Zophar suggests that, if God appeared to Job, he would be found: 1. Irresistible in teaching. "Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against [or, ’with thee’]" (verse 5). Thy complaints would then be silenced by the convincing light of God’s revelations! What Zophar here desiderated for his friend has been practically granted to all. "God manifest in the flesh," "the Man Christ Jesus," who appeared in the fulness of the times, is God’s Answer to all preceding and subsequent centuries perplexed with the dark problem of existence. No solution of life’s enigma but God’s ever satisfies a soul. God can accomplish what no human teacher can (Job 36:22); he can exhibit to the soul truth in its naked purity, causing it to commend itself to every man’s conscience, and, whether accepted or rejected, putting to silence all doubts and questionings as to its import (1 Corinthians 2:4-13; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:5). 2. Unsearchable in wisdom. "And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is [or perhaps, that it is fold upon fold’]." True wisdom lies deep. Its secrets are seldom patent to superficial observation. Hidden fold over fold, their discovery is a work of labour, the fruit of profound reflection, the result of Heaven’s revelation. Even that wisdom which is purely mundane requires patient, painful, persevering study (Proverbs 2:3, Proverbs 2:4); much more "that wisdom which cometh from above" (James 3:17). Most of all the wisdom of the Divine mind lies fold upon fold, deep, intricate, unfathomable, unsearchable, and therefore undiscoverable by man except through Divine revelation (see homiletics on next paragraph). 3. Merciful in judgment. "Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity [literally, ’forgets for thee of thy guilt’]" (verse 6). Designed for Job’s humiliation, the exhortation, nevertheless, contains precious truths. (1) That God can forget a man’s guilt, suffer it to drop out of his mind in such a way that it shall never plead against him for punishment (Isaiah 43:25; Romans 3:26). (2) That God, in point of fact, forgets a portion of every man’s guilt, since otherwise no man could stand before him (Psalms 130:3). Zophar failed to see (3) that God can forget all a sinner’s trespass, and exact from him nothing of what he deserves. Learn: 1. That all the opinions of a good man are not necessarily correct. 2. That it is sometimes harder to be just to one’s fellow-men than it is to be fair to God. 3. That man’s ideas of God and truth may be arraigned without incurring the charge of infidelity. 4. That men often behold sins in others which they cannot, though they should, see in themselves. 5. That good teaching should not be rejected, even though rudely proffered. 6. That even vulgar dogmatists may sometimes utter lofty truths. 7. That God is more merciful than even the best of men think. Job 11:6 A sermon on the Divine forbearance. I. THE DESERT OF SIN. 1. The nature of it. The punishment of death—temporal, spiritual, and eternal. 2. The severity of it. Were this penalty exacted from each transgressor to the full, it would mean the extinction of every spark of terrestrial happiness, the withdrawal from the sinful soul of every gracious influence, the absolute cessation of hope of eternal felicity beyond the grave, with all the misery which such a melancholy state of being would entail. 3. The certainty of it. That is, unless the execution of this awful penalty can be delayed. That it can, constitutes the glad tidings of the gospel. But where the gospel of the grace of God is not permitted to interpose for the sinner’s rescue, the infliction of this appalling retribution is inevitable. 4. The justness of it. To some minds it seems scarcely consistent with absolute equity to inflict so tremendous a chastisement upon feeble men for the trifling defalcations of a short lifetime. But this objection springs from imperfect notions of the heinousness of sin as committed against an infinite God and a holy Law. Besides, the penalty is that of the Divine Law, and we know that the Law is holy (Romans 7:12). II. THE OF GOD. 1. The proof of it. (1) Our own lives attest this. (2) God’s Word affirms this. (3) God’s providential dealings with men in general discover this. 2. The reason of it. (1) In mercy to man, because he willeth not that any should perish. (2) In justice to Christ, from whom the full penalty hath already been exacted. (3) For the honour of himself, the glory of his grace being the highest motive by which God can be actuated. III. THE OF MAN. "Know thou;" meaning that precious lessons should be derived from the study of so grand a truth. 1. Submission. It should silence all murmurings against afflictive dispensations. 2. Repentance. It ought to fill the human spirit with devout contrition. 3. Hope. It should teach man to "account the long-suffering of our God salvation." Job 11:7-12 Zophar to Job: 2. God’s wisdom and man’s folly. I. THE OF DIVINE WISDOM. 1. Unsearchable. Zophar’s interrogations (verse 7) may signify either that man can never fully understand God, or that man’s wisdom can never fully equal God’s. Taken either way, they mean that the Divine wisdom, already described as "fold upon fold" (verse 6), transcends the comprehension of a finite mind. Whether the knowledge of God attainable by the speculative reason is a real and immediate knowledge of God as he is, or "nothing more than a tissue of ambitious self-contradictions which only indicate what he is not" (Mansel, ’Limits of Religious Thought,’ lect. 4.) may be relegated to philosophers and metapyhsicians to determine. It is certain the Divine Being is unsearchable by man in his essence (Job 36:26; Job 37:23), in his Person (Genesis 32:29; Judges 13:18; John 1:1; John 10:30), in his attributes (Psalms 147:5), e.g. in his wisdom (Isaiah 40:28; Romans 11:33), in his works (Job 5:9; Job 9:10), and in his ways (Nahum 1:3; Romans 11:33). Hence man’s wisdom can never equal God’s. Man’s wisdom at the best can be fully comprehended; God’s cannot. 2. Infinite. That which renders the Divine wisdom unsearchable is its infinitude (verses 8, 9). The wisdom displayed by Deity in the creation, decoration, and preservation of the universe does not exhaust the fulness that his Godhead contains. Could the human mind explore the former in every possible direction, there would still remain in each an infinitude beyond, representing the deep things of Eloah, and the perfection of Shaddai. Most impressively does the language convey the thought of man’s inferiority to God in respect of wisdom. For if man by his utmost efforts cannot reach unto the perfection of the erect urea—if there be heights in heaven which he cannot scale, and depths in Sheol to which he cannot penetrate, if even the wide-rolling, far-resounding sea baffles him with its mystery—how much less should he hope to reach unto the perfection of the Creator? 3. Irresistible. "If he," i.e. the Almighty, acting under the guidance of his wisdom, "cut off [literally, ’should arrest’] and shut up," or imprison, "and gather together," i.e. a court to try man his prisoner, "then who can hinder him?" (verse 10).. A graphic picture representing (1) God’s ability to pursue, arrest, and shut up In prison those who offend against his holy Law, as he did with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8, Genesis 3:9), with Pharaoh (Exodus 14:23), with Jonah 1:4; as he still does with wicked men, pursuing them with the hot foot of an avenging providence (Proverbs 13:21), apprehending them with the strong hand of an awakened conscience (Acts 2:37; Acts 16:30), and as he will yet do with the finally impenitent who despise his offered grace (Matthew 10:28; Matthew 13:42; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). (2) The certainty that God will yet bring the ungodly into judgment at the last day (Job 21:30; Ecclesiastes 3:17; Matthew 24:30; Matthew 25:31; Romans 14:10; Hebrews 9:27), since he often does so prelusively and premonitorily on earth (Proverbs 11:31; Psalms 58:11). And (3) the impossibility of any one being able to either contend with him in argument or outwit him with chicanery (Job 9:4, Job 9:12, Job 9:14). Men may seem at present to reply successfully against God, denying his existence, ignoring his providence, impeaching his justice, vindicating themselves and repudiating the charges of his Law; but when God holds the great assize it will be seen how utterly vain as well as preposterously foolish have all their endeavours been. 4. Omniscient. God knows vain men, and thoroughly comprehends their wickedness, without requiring to reflect upon either them or it. His knowledge of men is (1) universal: "He knoweth men," i.e. he knows them all; (2) particular: "He knoweth vain men," he knows their characters and their works; (3) continuous, he constantly observes them; and (4) intuitive, he knows them at once and thoroughly, with all-seeing, all-searching glance. And this omniscience lays the basis for God’s invincibility in judgment. II. THE OF HUMAN FOLLY. In contrast to the transcendent wisdom of Eloah, Zophar depicts men, and in particular Job, as: 1. Morally worthless. "Vain men," literally, "men of nothingness," men devoid of principle, and "hollow men," he styles them. The appellation is by no means incorrect, as descriptive of man’s natural condition; man being now, in consequence of sin, emptied of all goodness and spiritual understanding. 2. Naturally witless. Prone to entertain exalted notions of his own wisdom, man is naturally senseless as a wild ass’s colt—which also is not wholly astray from the truth, the estate of man from his birth being one of much ignorance, especially with regard to things Divine. 3. Essentially heartless. Zophar designs to say that hollow-hearted man can only be humanized by the salutary discipline of affliction. The change wrought upon him by the fierce discipline of life is as great as it would be for a wild ass’s colt to become a man. But this implies that man is by sin dehumanized and without a heart. 4. Absolutely hopeless. Delitzsch reads, "But before an empty head gaineth understanding, a wild ass would become a man;" thus teaching that man’s folly is irremediable. This black picture, however, is not in all points according to truth. Sinful man may be born again, may obtain a new heart, may acquire an enlightened understanding, and may eventually be arrayed in stainless moral purity. Learn: 1. To revere the transcendent majesty of him who is infinite and unsearchable in wisdom. 2. To trust the providential government of him who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." 3. To believe the gracious revelations of him "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 4. To accept the heavenly gifts of him who "hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence." 5. To cherish deep humility before him "whose foolishness is wiser than men," and before whom man’s highest wisdom is but folly. 6. To be thankful to him whose "manifold wisdom" hath been revealed for the enlightenment and salvation of foolish men.. Job 11:13-20 Zophar to Job: 3. An exhortation to repentance. I. THE ACTINGS OF . 1. Preparation of the heart. "If thou prepare [literally, ’direct’] thy heart’" i.e. towards God. True penitence is a heart-work, beginning in the heart, relating to the heart, and carried on by the heart, though not without Divine assistance (Proverbs 16:1). (1) An arduous work; the verb implying serious purpose, fixed resolution, continuous effort; and the concentration of the heart upon anything, much more upon what is spiritually good, being ever a task of supreme difficulty (Jeremiah 17:9). (2) A complex work; the right setting or directing of the heart involving self-examination, to discover where the heart is wrong; serf-humiliation, or sincere sorrow on account of that wrongness of heart which is discovered; and self rectification, or the immediate, conscious, and deliberate reversal of that state of wrong (Psalms 119:59; Jeremiah 31:18, Jeremiah 31:19; Hosea 6:1). (3) A necessary work; Scripture invariably representing this Godward direction of the heart as a constituent element in true repentance (1 Samuel 7:3; 2 Chronicles 20:33), as the want of it is no less strongly stigmatized as a mark of impenitence and sin (Psalms 78:8). (4) A personal work; sinful man having many aids in the task expected of him, such as the external teaching of the Word, and the internal illumination of the Spirit, but still being himself held responsible for its actual performance. 2. Elevation of the soul. "If thou stretch out thine hands towards him," i.e. God; the lifting up and stretching forth of the hands being a common devotional attitude (Exodus 9:33; Ezra 9:5; 1 Kings 8:22), and hence a frequent biblical symbol of the outgoing and ascending of the soul to God in prayer (Psalms 63:4; Psalms 143:6; Isaiah 1:15). Such exercise implies a sense of the soul’s need of God, a yearning of the soul after God, a perception of the soul’s distance from God, an inward persuasion that this distance may be diminished, if not entirely removed, and the human soul again be at peace with God, and a fervent application that such confidential and loving relationship between the two may again be restored. 3. Reformation of the life. "If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles." This, no less than the two preceding, is indispensable to a complete work of penitence. Mere amendment of the external walk and conversation does not amount to, and will certainly not serve as a substitute for, the cleansing of the heart. On the other hand, the work of inward purification, though it could stand alone, would not suffice without a corresponding rectification of the daily life. True repentance consists in sorrowful acknowledgment of sin, and tearful supplication of mercy, followed by a steadfast resolution after new obedience. Beginning in the heart with the detection of sin, and proceeding to the lip with the confession of sin, it terminates in the life with the renunciation of sin (1 Samuel 7:3; Psalms 34:14; Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 4:1-6:7; Jeremiah 7:5; Matthew 3:8). And this renunciation must be complete. (1) The sin itself must be put away; all kind of it—open wickedness, secret iniquity, personal transgression, domestic wrong-doing, so far as this latter lies within one’s power (Genesis 18:19; 1 Samuel 2:12, 1 Samuel 2:17; 1 Samuel 3:11, 1 Samuel 3:14; Psalms 101:2, Psalms 101:7). (2) The separation effected must be thorough and final; sin being required to be not merely put away; but put far away—cast forth, like Hagar and Ishmael; like the scapegoat, into a land not inhabited, never to return. II. THE OF THE . 1. Cheerful confidence before God. (Verse 15.) Instead of cowering sorrow-stricken and shame-covered, like a trembling criminal, before his judge, filled with confusion and unable to lift up his head (Job 10:15), Job would be able to stand erect and firm, like a molten statue sitting squarely on its base, with no trace of tears upon his countenance, and no stain of punishable guilt upon his conscience. Nothing fills the soul with trembling and apprehension, or relaxes the cords and sinews of the heart, like a sense of unpardoned sin (Psalms 38:8). Nothing sooner shades the brow with gloom, or banishes the light of joy from the countenance (Genesis 4:5, Genesis 4:6; Luke 18:13), than the loss of Divine favour. On the contrary, nothing so effectually restores serenity of aspect and courageousness of soul to the individual as a consciousness of pardon. When the spot of guilt is removed from the conscience, the tear of sorrow is soon wiped from the face. A forgiven penitent may afterwards encounter affliction; but, sustained by the peace of God which passeth understanding, he can even joy in tribulation (Romans 5:3). 2. Perfect happiness in himself. (Verse 16.) That complete exemption from adversity would infallibly attend the repenting transgressor, was incorrect; that the inward comforts and enjoyments of the pardoned sinner would so surpass his former anguish as to cause it to be entirely forgotten, was as precious and consoling as it was true. The greatest happiness attainable or conceivable on earth is the joy of salvation, the joy which no man taketh from its possessor, the joy unspeakable and full of glory, which springs from a sense of acceptance with God. However deep the iron of conviction may have been driven into the penitent’s soul, however bitter the anguish that may have racked his spirit, the moment the stricken heart is visited with a sense of Heaven’s favour, it "remembereth no more the anguish for joy" that it has been forgiven. The only thing that can effectually drive out sorrow from the soul is the entrance of Heaven’s joy. 3. Radiant prosperity in life. (Verse 17.) Job’s after-career should be one of unclouded prosperity, which should shine around him with a brilliance outdazzling the noonday sun, and should never know decline or diminution; if it did, that decline would only be a gentle shading down as from meridian splendour to morning brightness, that diminution but a temporary obscuration, to be followed by the breaking forth of dawn. All this is, of course, true of the path of the just, only when spiritually considered. 4. Complete security on earth. "And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope." This marks the ground of the good man’s confidence. Assurance of God’s favour to an Old Testament saint was equivalent to a guarantee of permanent prosperity; to a New Testament believer it is tantamount to a promise of spiritual enrichment. Hence hope inspires the Christian with a feeling of security (Psalms 31:24; Psalms 146:5; Romans 5:5; Ephesians 6:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8). The following clauses indicate the completeness of the saint’s confidence. "Yea, thou shalt dig about thee [or, ’look around thee, inquiringly,’ searching into all possibilities of danger, and finding none], thou shalt take thy rest in safety. Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid." So did David (Psalms 3:5, Psalms 3:6; Psalms 4:8), and so may all God’s people, however circumstanced. 5. Growing influence among men. "Yea, many shall make suit unto thee;" literally, "shall stroke thy race," or caress thy cheeks, by way of flattery or supplication, perhaps both (Proverbs 19:6). A remarkable testimony to the influence of piety, which "would be more respected if it were more known" (Hutcheson). God’s Israels have power with men as well as with God (Genesis 32:28), and Christ’s followers are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). Hence the favour and friendship of saints and of the Church are frequently coveted and even solicited by the unbelieving and ungodly (Genesis 26:26-29; Psalms 45:12; Matthew 25:8). III. THE DOOM OF THE . 1. Bitter disapointment’ "But the eyes of the wicked shall fail," shall waste away with vain and anxious looking and longing for help which cometh not. He who expects God to either visit him with benign salvation or bless him with temporal prosperity while indulging in sin, is cherishing an ill-grounded hope. God may do the latter for wise purposes of his own; the former he cannot do. To anticipate that he will is to entertain a foolish dream (Job 8:14, Job 8:15). 2. Certain destruction. "They shall not escape;" literally, "their refuge perishes from them." As wicked men will not reach the good they look for, so neither will they avoid the evil they are afraid of. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished;" "The expectation of the wicked is wrath." Sooner or later calamity will overtake and overthrow the ungodly (Isaiah 13:9; Malachi 4:1; Ephesians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). Thanks to Divine grace, a refuge has been provided for the penitent—God himself (Psalms 46:1), or the hope of the gospel (Hebrews 6:18); but "how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). 3. Final despair. "Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost;" literally, "the breathing forth of the soul or life," i.e. it shall cease, and become utterly extinct. "The expectation of the wicked shall perish." "A wicked man’s hope is but a cold coal, and an evanishing thing. It is but like a sob or two of a dying man, and then he is gone" (Hutcheson). Learn: 1. True happiness and true religion begin at the same point and in the same thing, viz. penitence. 2. When a soul returns to God in penitence, God never fails to return to it with prosperity, if not temporal and material, at least spiritual and eternal. 3. Though true piety does not look for a reward on earth, it most commonly finds one. 4. The damnation of the impenitent is as certain as is the salvation of the penitent. BY E. JOHNSON Job 11:1-20 Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God. Zophar, the youngest of the friends, now comes forward once more to beat down the complaint of Job with the old arguments and commonplaces. To support his words, he does not appeal to a vision like Eliphaz, nor rely on the wisdom of the ancients like Bildad, but depends on his own understanding and zealous though narrow instinct for God. His whole speech is an example of the beauty and, at the same time, the defect of religious zeal. In anxiety for God’s honour he forgets to be considerate of his fellow-man. The general contents of the speech may be characterized as the rebuke of human ignorance. I. OF HUMAN . (Verses 1-4.) He terms Job’s outpourings a "torrent of words," "vain talk," and impious "mockery," a scoffing; and Job himself is an idle "prater." Further, he stoutly sums up all Job’s speeches as meaning shortly this: "My teaching is pure, and I am guiltless in God’s eyes." Job, in fact, has stepped quite out of his place, in Zophar’s opinion, laying down principles and doctrines instead of meekly and penitently suffering in silence. It is an unjust view, manifestly; and we should be warned against the danger, in pleading for God, of being unjust and unfair, hard and uncharitable, to our fellow-man. To fetter the tongue, to attempt to lay fetters on the free course of the mind, especially in its moment of sorrow, may be to inflict a cruel injury on a sensitive heart. II. WISH FOR GOD’S . (Verses 5, 6.) He desires that God in the fulness of his revelation, in the complete disclosure of knowledge and truth, may convince Job how "doubly strong" is Wisdom in her nature and penetrating power (verse 6). Here would Job learn that, so far from being unjustly punished, God has rather passed by much of his guilt, and punishes him far less than he deserves. Here two defects are contrasted. 1. Half-knowledge of God. This according, to Zophar, is Job’s condition. He has but a partial understanding of God; and the little that he sees he misapplies, and so is led into perplexity and passion. Zophar, assuming guilt in Job, deems, and wrongly, that Job is tempted to think only of his innocence, and to overlook his great and hidden sins. In the end (Job 38:1-41.), when God does manifest himself, Job does recognize that he is but a half-knower, but not that he is a hypocrite. 2. But there is, on the other hand, the assumption of knowledge on the part of the rebuking speaker which is not less a fault. This is, indeed, the error of all the friends, and it awaits the Divine answer. In seeking to remove the mote from Job’s eye, they are unconscious of the beam in their own. These differences may be reconciled if we bear in mind the great saying of St. Paul, that we see but in part, and know but in part, and that all perplexities are solved by an absolute faith in the Divine love. We see again and again illustrated in Divine things the truth that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." III. TO HUMAN : THE OF GOD. (Verses 7-9.) All measures of vastness, all ideas of infinity, are called in to impress this thought. The might and the wisdom of God are high as the unscalable heaven, deep as the dark lower world (comp. Job 22:12; Job 26:6). The infinity of God embraces the whole earth, and reaches beyond; it is longer than the firm land, broader than the broad sea, so that before it there is nothing too lofty, too obscure, too remote. It is the fixed thought-embrace of the universe. Will mortal man, then, be guilty of the folly of quarrelling with God’s wisdom and power, and so incur the full weight of his judgment? Rather let him be dumb, and open not his mouth, and say, "Thou hast done it." IV. HUMAN AND ABASHED BEFORE THE DIVINE . (Verses 10-12.) If God holds judgment with this supreme wisdom and power, then plainly man, be he never so stupid and obstinately ignorant of his guilt, must forthwith become conscious of it; and though he were furious and wild as a wild ass (comp. Job 39:5, Job 39:8), he must be subdued by that omnipotent power into tameness and docility. "The wild ass is now born as a man," converted by the terror of that moment of judgment. So speaks Zophar with caustic rebuke of what he considers the contumacy of Job. He seems to turn the language of Job, in Job 9:11, et seq’ to his own purpose. Thus the arrival of the Judge to execute judgment is in the rush of a rapid storm (Job 9:10). He "passes bye" and thereupon follows the "shutting-up" or arrest of the accused, that he may not escape during the judgment; and then the "gathering together" of the people to hear the judgment. V. WORDS OF HOPE AND PROMISE. (Job 9:13-20.) Severe as are the speeches of the three friends, they yet have a clear apprehension of the eternal gospel of God’s mercy, and insist on the unfailing hope set before the true penitent in that gospel. 1. Conditions. (1) (Job 9:13.) The "direction," or "preparation," or setting straight, of the heart. This is the first thing. Crooked feelings, perverted principles, must be rectified. There must be sincere penitence. Happiness does not begin with the outward life to pass into the inward; the process is the reverse. And the restoration must be in the same order. If the inward life be purified, the outward will flow into peace. (2) Along with this there must be the "spreading forth of the hands to God;" in other words, true prayer. The symbol is put for the thing signified, the rite for the reality. Very significant and beautiful was the Hebrew attitude of prayer. It expressed longing, urgency, the effort of the soul to seize and hold fast the unseen power and grace in time of need. (3) (Job 9:14.) There must be the removal of all previous iniquity from the home as well as the heart. Every vestige and association of it must be swept away—all that might remind the soul of forbidden pleasures, and tempt it into renewal of its sin. It might be well for a man in the endeavour to make his repentance thorough and sincere, and might help his mind to form new associations, to renew the face of his dwelling from top to bottom, and cast out all articles of furniture, pictures, utensils, etc; that might bring up the thought of former evil. For some minds it would at least be a wholesome discipline. At all events, let nothing be left undone to cleanse the heart, the imagination, the inward chambers of the soul, in preparation for the coming of the gracious renewing, consecrating presence of the Divine Guest. 2. The consequences of return to God. (1) Courage (Job 9:15), fresh, calm, and strong. Referring to Job’s complaint (Job 10:15) that he is compelled to bow his head in ignominy before the unworthy, his friend declares that he will be enabled to lift it up in the face of day. How serene the face, how clear the glance, how assured the step of the man who has no coward secret of ill in his heart, who by confession and repentance has made the mighty God his Friend! (2) Oblivion of sorrow. (Verse 16.) Is memory on the whole a greater blessing or torment? Alas! Job has lately found it to be the latter. The "remembering happier things" has proved his "crown of sorrow." Like a returning tide, it has cast his wrecked treasures at his feet. But on the turning of his heart to God these bitter memories shall be carried away, as on a flowing stream, till they pass out of sight and disappear. Thank God that we can remember; but thank God, too, that we can forget! (3) A season of brightness. (Verse 17.) Even if the darkness come, it will be comparatively light like the morning-exactly opposite to Job 10:22. For there is no darkness to him who has God as the Guest of his soul. (4) Rest unbroken by danger (Job 10:18, Job 10:19); cheerful hope in toil; the respect and homage of friends and suitors. For there is something magnetic in piety and goodness; it seems a kind of amber which attracts to itself. Such will be, ever are, the fruits of a heart free from guile, and at peace with God. Zophar’s enthusiastic picture is fitted to kindle a love of virtue and piety; but its exclusion of the facts and relations of life renders it but partially true, like the maxims of his two friends. We must be content to feel that there is a truth, and a very deep and Divine truth, in this sequence, without denying that there are complications of this truth with others, as in the case of Job, which God and eternity can alone unravel. VI. DARK PICTURE, IN , OF THE WICKED. (Verse 20.) 1. The languor of vain longing. Their eyes waste and consume with watching and tears for a dawn that never comes (comp. Psalms 6:7). 2. Escape from the prima of their woe is denied. 3. Hope and life are together extinguished.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 11:1-6 Self-complacency condemned. Even the lowly and humble are liable to over-estimate their own goodness, and the more so if roused to self-justification. All imperfect human judgments, given as Job’s were, under the influence of deep feeling, are liable to be coloured, to be overdrawn and extravagant. Job’s long speech in his own justification is likened by Zophar to a torrent. Zophar, like his companions, may judge Job harshly, wherein lies his error and theirs; but his words have a vein of truth in them. He is right in condemning the self-complacent, who can prate freely of his own goodness, whether he is judging Job rightly or wrongly. I. SELF- APT TO BURY ITSELF IN A OF WORDS. It would almost seem that the mere abundance of Job’s answers to all the accusations raised against him excites his friend’s retort. Yet how true is it that the self-complacent one, willing to justify himself, finds arguments in abundance! And, being on his defence, he is liable to view things with a prejudiced eye. The man "fall of talk" is in danger of burying truth in "the multitude of words." The greater need for guarding against the perils of exaggeration by how much many words are used. A strict watch necessary when the tongue runneth over. II. SELF- SHOWN IN SELF-. This the point of Zophar’s accusation. This the constant danger. A man at peace with himself, rightly or wrongly believing in his own innocence, is most liable to justify himself. The lowly self-accused spirit is freed from this especial danger. Self-justification shows the standard by which life is judged to be a low one. As men rise in goodness, and so in their clearer discernment of the true nature of righteousness, they are bowed down in self-abasement. The self-justified has but a poor and very imperfect standard of right before his eyes. "Shall no man make thee ashamed?" Therefore— III. SELF- HIDES THE OF GOD FROM THE EYES. The man comes up to his standard. He is open to no more teaching. His "doctrine is pure;" he is "clean"—at least, in his own "eyes." Such a man in danger of perverting judgment. To close the eyes to the Divine judgment upon the life, even though that judgment be severe, is to do irreparable harm to the character. Let the true light shine, though it reveal faults of the gravest kind and bring down the pride of men to the very earth. Zophar may not intend to accuse Job of intentional lying, but he does accuse him of error. Men must err in their judgments if the standards by which they judge are false. The eye blinded by self-complacency cannot see that which, if clearly seen, would condemn. IV. SELF- REBUKED BY AN VIEW OF THE DIVINE . To this Job was ultimately brought. We see him in the process—in the way. If God "speak," if he "open his lips," his words are sure to condemn. If he shows "the secrets of wisdom," then would appear his gracious forbearance, and, even in the case of the heavily afflicted, it would be revealed that he "exacteth less than iniquity deserveth." One day the clear light will shine, and not Job only, but every perplexed and suffering son of Adam, will see that the Lord is gracious and merciful, that he does not render to man the whole fruit of his evil doings. He remembers the frailty and error of men’s judgments, and is patient and forgiving.—R.G. Job 11:7-12 Man humbled before God. Vain man reasons upon the ways of God, and presumes to penetrate to the depths of the Divine wisdom. A professed wisdom lands him in folly. To scale the heavens is as easy as to "find out the Almighty to perfection," to fathom the depths of the Divine designs. Job and his friends and hosts of others of us attempt to explain the name and ways of God, but our efforts are vain, and but expose a folly equal to our ignorance. I. THE DIVINE NATURE AND THE DIVINE BEYOND THE OF MAN. How soon may a prudent reflection on either of these assure men that they "cannot attain unto" them! "High as heaven, deeper than hell," "longer than the earth," "broader than the sea,"—these are the terms used by Zophar in his just description. As well may man attempt to touch the height of heaven, to reach to the depth of Hades, to stretch his arms to compass sea and land from the far cast to the distant west, as to pretend to comprehend, within the compass of his feeble and limited knowledge, an adequate estimate of the Divine nature, an adequate understanding of the Divine counsels,—"to find out God." II. As the Divine Name is incomprehensible by man, and the Divine ways past his searching out, so is it equally BEYOND THE POWER OF MAN TO HINDER THE WORKING OUT OF THE DIVINE PURPOSE. In his ways God hides his wise design. He worketh towards a definite end. Men may oppose it in their folly or sinfulness, or seem to hinder it in their error. But like an onflowing tide it bears all before it. "Who can hinder him?" His work is an omnipotent work, as his Name is infinite. Against the might of God it is vain for feeble man to oppose his strength, or the energy of his will. The Divine "kingdom ruleth over all." III. It is, therefore, utterly FOR MAN TO ESCAPE THE OF GOD. Zophar would thus shut up Job unto self-abasement. Revealing his impotence before God, his inability so much as to know the Divine Name, or to grasp with his understanding the widespread ways of the Most High, he would compel Job to abasement—to a confession of guiltiness, to the wisdom of casting away his vain self-assurance, that of God he may be made wise. All these purposes are good in themselves, but the covert implication—God is angry with thee; God judgeth thee; "he seeth" thy "wickedness"—is harsh and erroneous. Like his brethren, he errs in the method of applying his good principles. Yet is it wise for all men (1) to learn their impotence before God; to bow to the Divine ways; (2) to assure themselves of the wisdom and goodness of the hidden purposes of God; (3) to commit themselves in lowly reverential trust to the overruling power and government of God. Thus the intractable one shall become gentle, docile, and obedient—the "wild ass’s colt" will become a man.—R.G. Job 11:13-19 The invitation to repentance. All Job’s friends would lead him to repentance. They see the judgments of God upon him in his afflictions. They know of no other cause for afflictions than as a punishment for wrong-doing. The conclusion is clear, "Thou hast sinned." This underlies all their speeches. But they have rightly seized the truth—God forgiveth the iniquity of the repentant. Therefore they urge their entreaty to their friend in one word, "Repent." And Zophar reveals to Job the method of repentance, the encouragement to it, and its reward. I. THE METHOD OF . 1. "Prepare thine heart." Give the heart its true direction—from evil towards God. 2. "Stretch out thine hands towards God"—in prayer—the true sign of repentance, the sign of lowly self-abasement, the very confession of sin, the opening of the heart with the lips to renounce evil, to sue for pardon. The hands stretched towards God is the human sign of return to him. 3. Put away iniquity. The actual renunciation of evil, forsaking and abandoning it with the heart and hands and voice lifted to God, is the certain and indubitable evidence of true repentance. No sorrow for sin becomes repentance until sin is by the sorrowing heart renounced. "If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away." II. THE TO . 1. "Then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot," i.e. of guilt. Thy heart, cleared of its guilt, shall be free and joyful. 2. And with consciousness of the Divine forgiveness thou wilt be able to look up without fear—"to lift up thy face"—to God. 3. Then sorrow shall be supplanted by peaceful joy. "Thou shalt forget thy misery." Thy grief shall leave no more trace than waters that flow by. 4. Then brightness shall dawn upon thy life, over its remainder shall be a time of gladness; "as the morning shalt thou be." III. THE REWARD OF . The encouragements to repentance are in themselves part of its reward, though that reward will be only truly, because only perfectly, found in the subsequent days of the life. Beautifully and cheeringly does this friend paint the rich prosperity of later days even to the overwhelmed sufferer. Although an error lurks beneath it all, which the teaching of the entire book is designed to correct; yet out of the bright encouragements, as out of an early morning, the full promise of blessing to the repentant arises. "Thou shalt be secure." The sense of security will take possession of the breast from which condemnation is removed. The assurance of the Divine forgiveness is a pledge of the Divine love, and the forgiven one hides in the God against whom in his folly he had sinned. Hope illumines the future, and his spirit, braced with holy courage, takes its rest in safety. He can lie down in peace and sleep, for he has gained a new trust in God. He defies his foes. Prosperity returns; "many make suit unto him: Such is the rich reward promised to Job by his friend, should he repent of his sin. True, as a great principle for human conduct it, however, lacks a correctness of application, for Job is not suffering for his sins. But every smitten one may learn the wisdom, the comfort, and the happy consequence of true repentance.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 11:1 Zophar, the man of the world. After the seer and the pedant comes Zophar, who poses as the man of the world. He can pretend to no supernatural illumination, neither has he any claims to put forth on the score of learning; but he thinks he knows men, he prides himself on his common sense, the ways of the world are familiar to him. Even from his low standpoint he thinks he can detect enough to condemn Job. We may see in Zophar the characteristics of a man of the world in his treatment of moral and religious questions, when he presents himself as a devout man and friendly adviser. I. HE IS . Zophar entirely agrees with the main position of Eliphaz and Bildad. He accepts the doctrines of the visionary when they have been endorsed by conventional society, and he echoes the traditions of antiquity after he has ascertained that they are not regarded as obsolete in his time. He has not the spiritual individuality to be singular. He will always side with the majority. The fear of Mrs. Grundy is ever before his eyes. It is bad form to be a heretic. Conventionality is orthodoxy with this man, and conventionality is the rule of his life. II. HE IS A MAN OF THE TIMES. He would rather despise the dreams of the visionary and the sayings of the pedant. He thinks himself a modern man. But he is no power in his day, for he is but the creature of his age. It is the duty of Christians not to follow the age, but to rule it. When the worldly Christian follows it, he enslaves himself, and does his best to subject the kingdom of heaven to the prince of this world. We ought to understand our times, sympathize with their need, use their advantages, work for their progress, but never be their creatures and drudges. III. HE IS BLIND TO THE TRUTH. The whole spiritual world is a nonentity to this man. Being religious and orthodox, he talks the language of Divine things; but his words are meaningless counters. The reality of those things is quite beyond his grasp. He thinks he knows men, but he only sees one side of the world. A whole hemisphere of human experience is turned away from his gaze. He is like a person on this world looking at the moon, seeing one side in varying phases, but never able to catch a glimpse of the other side of it. The truly spiritual, the generous, the mystical, are all obscure to him. We cannot know the best truth till we are liberated from the shackles of conventionality. IV. HE IS . Zophar joins his two friends in their condemnation of Job. The man of the world thinks himself broad-minded. Very often he is not over-scrupulous on moral questions that touch his own interest. But no one can be harder in condemning those who transgress the customs of the circle in which he moves. His religion has no softening, sweetening influence on him. It only seems to make him sour and disagreeable. So-called Christians of this stamp are the greatest possible hindrances to the progress of the gospel. It is their conduct that makes so many people hate the Christian religion.—W.F.A. Job 11:2 The provocation of a reply. Zophar will not take the trouble to be courteous. He rudely addresses Job as a "man full of talk." He has been irritated by the "multitude of words" that Job has poured forth. The very volume of the patriarch’s discourse provokes the man of the world to make a reply. I. THE OF FEELING FINDS VENT IN A OF WORDS. Speech is not all calculated and purposeful. Sometimes it is aimless and reckless. It is not always directed to the end of telling some fact or influencing some person. It may be just the irrepressible outcome of emotion. The most taciturn become eloquent when in a passion. Excitement needs a safety-valve. The swollen river must have a vent or it will overflow its banks. The hottest words do not always lead to the most violent actions; but the fire that burns under unnatural restraints is likely to burst forth at length in the most fearful conflagration. Let us be patient with the hasty, passionate words of souls that are deeply moved, not weighing them nicely, nor treasuring them up for future accusation. II. WORDS CANNOT BE BY THE . Zophar is vexed at Job’s eloquence. One reason is that he cannot understand it. The man of the world is always angry with what he cannot comprehend. It annoys him to think that there may be more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in his philosophy. The highest poetry is to him but a multitude of words. He is wearied with ’The Faery Queene;’ ’Paradise Lost’ is tedious to him. Browning he regards as a juggler with language. Even in Scripture the deepest utterances of psalmist and prophet are but empty words. Christ spoke in brief sententious utterances, graphic if enigmatic; yet even Christ’s discourses are but dead words to those who will not lend a sympathetic ear. We always misjudge our fellow-men when we do not sympathize with them; then the deepest utterances of their hearts are but "sound and fury signifying nothing." A Pilate could never understand the prayers of Gethsemane. III. A OF WORDS REPLY. Zophar is roused to answer Job with more asperity than he would have shown if the patriarch had maintained the dignified silence with which he had received his friends. This is unreasonable, unkind, wrong; still it is only what must be expected under the circumstances. The world will not be reasonable or kind in its treatment of us. Therefore it may be well for us to be on our guard against noisy opposition beyond what is inevitable. Self-restraint is a grace which brings its own reward. The abandon of passion is certain to lead to vexation of spirit. IV. THE OF GOD ENDURES A OF WORDS. He does not hear us for our much speaking. There is no virtue in long prayers (Matthew 6:7). But deep feeling will find expression in unceasing prayer. Then our Father listens with more patience than our friends, show to us. Job had good reason to be thankful that he could make his complaints to Heaven. God was more patient than Zophar. He is ever ready to listen to the cries of his children.—W.F.A. Job 11:5 Oh that God would speak! Zophar’s wish is most ungenerous. Feeling his own inability to give a complete reply to the complaints of Job, he expresses a desire that God may interpose and give the requisite answer. He really wants God to come as his advocate and speak on the side of conventional orthodoxy. But though he is now moved by an uncharitable thought, the desire that he is led to express is significant of a common need of mankind. Both Job and his accusers look for a Divine interposition, and long for a clear utterance of God’s mind. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ The discourse of Job, here begun, continues through three chapters (Job 12:1-25; Job 13:1-28; Job 14:1-22.). It is thought to form the conclusion of the first day’s colloquy. In it Job for the first time really pours scorn upon his friends, and makes a mock of them (see verses 2, 8, 20; Job 13:4-13). This, however, is a secondary matter; his main object is to justify his previous assertions, (1) that the whole course of mundane events, whether good or evil, must be attributed to God (verses 6-25); (2) that his sufferings entitle him to plead with God, and demand to know why he is so punished (Job 13:3-28). A comparatively mild expostulation concludes the first series of speeches (Job 14:1-22.). Job 12:1, Job 12:2 And Job answered and said, No doubt but ye are the people. Bitterly ironical. Ye are those to whom alone it belongs to speak—the only "people" to whom attention is due. And wisdom shall die with you. "At your death," i.e; "all wisdom will have fled the earth; there will be no one left who knows anything." At least, no doubt, you think so. Job 12:3 But I have understanding as well as you. "I, however, claim to have just as much understanding [literally, ’heart’] as you, and to be just as well entitled to speak, and to claim attention;" since I am not inferior to you. "I am not conscious," i.e; "of any inferiority to you, intellectual or moral. I do not fall below you in either respect." Yea, who knoweth not such things as these? "Not," Job means to say, "that much understanding is necessary in such a ease as this; any man of common intelligence can form a correct judgment on the point in dispute between us." The special point, in Job’s mind, seems to be God’s complete mastery over the world, and absolute control over all that takes place in it (see the introductory paragraph). Job 12:4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour. You have accused me of mockery (Job 11:3): but it is I that have been mocked of you. The allusion is probably to Job 11:2, Job 11:3, Job 11:11, Job 11:12, and Job 11:20. Who calleth upon God, and he answereth him. You mock me, though I have always clung to religion, have called upon God in prayer, and from time to time had my prayers answered by him. Thus it is the just upright man that is laughed to scorn. Job 12:5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease; rather, as in the Revised Version, In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it (i e. contempt) is ready for them whose foot dippeth. The meaning is, "I am despised and scorned by you who sit at ease, because my foot has slipped, and I have fallen into misfortune." Job 12:6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper. Having set at rest the personal question between himself and his friends, Job reverts to his main argument, and maintains that, the whole course of mundane events being under God’s governance, all the results are to be attributed to him, and among them both the prosperity of the wicked, and, by parity of reasoning, the sufferings of the righteous. And they that provoke God are secure (comp. Job 9:24; Job 10:3). Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. So both the Authorized and the Revised Versions; but recent critics mostly render, "who bring their God in their hand," i.e. "who regard their own right hand as their God" (comp. Virgil, ’Aen; 10:773, "Dextra mihi Dens") Job 12:7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee. Job here begins his review of all creation, to show that God has the absolute direction of it. The order of (1) beasts, (2) birds, (3) fishes, is that of dignity (comp. Genesis 9:2; Psalms 8:7, Psalms 8:8). Job maintains that, if appeal were made to the animal creation, and they were asked their position with respect to God, they would with one voice proclaim him their absolute Ruler and Director. And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee. The instincts of birds, their periodical migrations, their inherited habits, are as wonderful as anything in the Divine economy of the universe, and as much imply God’s continually directing hand. Job 12:8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. If the material earth be intended, the appeal must be to its orderly course, its summers and winters, its seedtime and harvest, its former and latter rains, its constant productivity, which, no less than animal instincts, speak of a single ruling power directing and ordering all things. If the creeping things of the earth, the reptile creation, be meant, then the argument is merely an expansion of that in the preceding verse. The instincts of reptiles are to be ascribed, no less than those of beasts and birds, to the constant superintending action and providence of the Almighty. And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. The testimony will be unanimous—beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes will unite in it. Job 12:9 Who knoweth not in all these; or, by all these; i.e. by all these instances. That the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? literally, the hand of Jehovah. The name "Jehovah does not occur elsewhere in the dialogue, though it is employed frequently in the historical sections (Job 1:6-12, Job 1:21; Job 2:1-7; Job 38:1; Job 40:1, Job 40:3,Job 40:6; Job 42:1, Job 42:7-12). The writer probably regards the name as unfamiliar, if not unknown, to Job’s neighbours, and therefore as avoided by him in his discussions with them. But here, for once, he forgets to be consistent with himself. Outside Scripture, the name is first found on the Moabite Stone, where it designates the God worshipped by the Israelites. Job 12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing. A brief summary of what had been said in Job 12:7, Job 12:8, to which is now appended the further statement, that in God’s hand—wholly dependent on him—is the entire race of mankind also. And the breath of all mankind; literally, and the spirit of all flesh of man. Job 12:11 Doth not the ear try words? and the month taste his meat? rather, as the palate tasteth its meat? (see the Revised Version). In other words, "Is it not as much the business of the ear to discriminate between wise and unwise words, as of the palate to determine between pleasant and unpleasant tastes?" The bearing of the verse on the general argument is not clear. Job 12:12 With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. Men get their wisdom gradually and painfully by much experience during a long stretch of time, so that it is not until they are" ancient" that we can call them wise or credit them with "understanding." But with God the case is wholly different. Job 12:13 With him is wisdom and strength. With God wisdom and strength dwell essentially. He is not wiser or stronger at one time than at another. Time and experience add nothing to the perfection of his attributes, which are unchangeable. Such wisdom infinitely transcends any to which man can attain, and therefore is doubtless the wisdom whereby the world is governed. He hath counsel and understanding. God has these qualities as his own. They are not acquired or imparted, but belong to him, necessarily and always. Job 12:14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. Professor Lee thinks that the allusion is to the cities of the plain (Genesis 19:24-29). But the sentiment is so general, that we may well doubt if particular instances were in Job’s mind. At any rate, the destructive agencies of nature must be as much included as any supernatural acts. He shutteth up a man (comp. Job 11:10). God "shuts up" men when be hedges them in with calamities or other circumstances, which take away from them all freedom of action (Job 3:23; Job 19:8) When he does this, the result follows—There can be no opening. No other power can give release. Job 12:15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up. God, at his pleasure, causes great droughts, which are among the worst calamities that can happen. He withholds the blessed rain from heaven (Deuteronomy 11:17; 1 Kings 8:35; 1 Kings 17:1), and the springs shrink, and the rivers dry up, and a fruitful land is turned into a desert, and famine stalks through the land, and men perish by thousands. Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth; i.e. he causes floods and inundations. Once upon a time he overwhelmed the whole earth, and destroyed almost the entire race of mankind, by a deluge of an extraordinary character, which so fixed itself in the human consciousness, that traces of it are to be found in the traditions of almost all the various races of men. But, beside this great occasion, he also in ten thousand other cases, causes, by means of floods, tremendous ruin and devastation, sweeping away crops and cattle, and even villages and cities, sometimes even "overturning the earth," causing lakes to burst, rivers to change their course, vast tracts of land to be permanently submerged, and the contour of coasts to be altered. Job 12:16 With him is strength and wisdom; rather (as in the Revised Version), with him is strength and effectual working. God has not only the wisdom to design the course of events (Job 12:13), but the power and ability to carry out all that he designs. The deceived and the deceiver are his. Not only does God rule the course of external nature, but also the doings of men. "Shall there be evil in a city, and shall not he have done it?" (Amos 3:6) He allows some to deceive, and others to be deceived. Moral evil is thus under his control, and, in a certain sense, may be celled his doing. But it behoves men, when they approach such great mysteries, to be very cautious and wary in their speech. Job touches with somewhat too bold a hand the deepest problems of the universe. Job 12:17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled. The wise of the earth cannot resist or escape him; he frustrates their designs and overthrows them, and, as it were, leads them away captive. And maketh the judges fools; rather, and judges maketh he fools. There is no article, and no particular judges are referred to (comp. Isaiah 44:25). Job 12:18 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. This may either mean that God at his pleasure both looses kings from captivity, and also binds them with a cord and causes them to be carried away captive; or that he looses the authority which kings have over their subjects, and then lets them be carried away captive by their enemies. The latter is perhaps the more probable sense. Job 12:19 He leadeth princes away spoiled; rather, priests (כהנים), as in the Revised Version. This is the only mention of "priests" in the Book of Job, and a priest-caste, such as that of Egypt or of Israel, can scarcely be meant. The priests are placed among the mighty, on a par with kings (verse 18), princes (verse 21), and "the strong" (verse 21). This context makes us naturally think of those priest-kings whom we hear of in the olden times, such as were Melchizedek (Genesis 19:18-20) and Jethro (Exodus 3:1; Exodus 18:1-27), and the Egyptian kings of the twenty-first dynasty, and Ethbaal of Tyre, and Sethos, and others. Job’s allusion is probably to persons of this exalted class, who no doubt were sometimes defeated and dragged into captivity, like other rulers and governors. And overthroweth the mighty. Schultens understands by ethanim (איחנים) "great teachers;" but the ordinary meaning of the word is "strong" or "mighty" (see Job 33:19; Micah 6:2). Job 12:20 He removeth away the speech of the trusty. God deprives trusted statesmen of their eloquence, destroys their reputation and their authority. And taketh away the understanding of the aged. He turns wise and aged men into fools and drivellers, weakening their judgments and reducing them to imbecility. Job 12:21 He poureth contempt upon princes; literally, upon the munificent. But the word has often the more generic sense of "princes," "great men" (see 1 Samuel 2:8; Proverbs 25:7, etc.). And weakeneth the strength of the mighty; literally, looseth the belt of the strong. But our version sufficiently expresses the meaning. Job 12:22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness. By "deep things" are probably meant the "deeply laid schemes" which wicked men concoct in darkness (or secrecy). These God often "discovers," or causes to be laid bare. English history can point to such a case in the discovery of the famous "Gunpowder Plot" in the second year of King James I. And bringeth out to light the shadow of death. There is nothing secret which God cannot, if he choose, reveal; nor is there anything hid which he cannot make known. Dark, murderous schemes, on which lies a shadow as of death, which men plan in secret, and keep hidden in their inmost thoughts, he can, and often does, cause to be brought to light and made manifest in the sight of all. Every such scheme, however carefully guarded and concealed, shall be one day made known (Matthew 10:26). Many are laid bare even in the lifetime of their devisers. Job 12:23 He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them. God’s providence concerns itself, not only with the fate of individual men, bet also with that of nations. With Israel, his "peculiar people" (Deuteronomy 14:2), he especially concerned himself, but not with Israel only. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Elam, Edom, Ammon, Moab, were likewise objects of his attention, of his guidance, of his chastening hand, of his avenging rod. Particular nations were consigned by God to the charge of particular angels (Daniel 10:13, Daniel 10:20). At his pleasure he can "increase" nations by blessing them with extraordinary fecundity (Exodus 1:7-12), or "destroy" them by internal decay, by civil wars, or by the swords of their neighbours. He enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again; i.e. "enlarges their bounds, or diminishes them." In Western Asia, where Job lived, empires were continually starting up, growing and expanding, increasing to vast dimensions, and then after a while shrinking back again to their original narrow limits Egypt, Elam, Babylon, and the Hittite nation were eases in point. Job 12:24 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth; rather. the chiefs of the people’ or "the popular chief talus" (Lee). He deprives these "chiefs" of their wisdom or courage, or both, and thus brings down the nations under their governance. And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way; rather, in a chaos—one of the words used in Genesis 1:2 to describe the condition of the material universe before God had ordered and arranged it. The chieftains, deprived of their "heart," are so confused and perplexed that they do not know what to do, or which way to turn. Job 12:25 They grope in the dark without light (comp. Job 5:14 and Deuteronomy 28:29). And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man; literally, to wander—to pursue a devious course instead of a straight one. Job 12:1-5 Job to Zophar: 1. The conduct of the friends criticized. I. . 1. With sarcastic admiration. "No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." Irony is a weapon difficult and dangerous to use, apt to wound the hand that wields it as well as the heart that feels it, and seldom becoming on the lips of any, least of all of good men. Admirably adapted to sting and lacerate, it rarely improves or conciliates those against whom it is directed. Yet, not being absolutely sinful, it may be employed with success against arrogant pretension and haughty assumption. Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:27), and St. Paul in his Epistles (Galatians 5:15; Philippians 3:2; 1 Corinthians 4:8), used satire with remarkable effect. Job also in the present instance may be held as justified in retorting on Zophar and his colleagues, whose conduct richly deserved castigation. 2. With vehement self-assertion. "But I have understanding [literally, ’a heart’] as well as you; I am not inferior to you [literally, ’I fall not beneath or behind you’]." Modesty, which at all times becomes good men (Proverbs 30:3; Daniel 2:30; John 1:27; 2 Corinthians 3:5), and is specially enjoined upon God’s people (Psalms 25:9; Isaiah 66:2; Micah 6:8), and Christ’s followers (Matthew 5:3; Matthew 18:4; Romans 12:3; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 5:5), need not prevent a frank self-assertion when one is, like Job, unjustly aspersed. It is sometimes false humility to sit with uncomplaining silence beneath the tongue of slander. Provided one indulge not in extravagant assertion, and assume not the credit of gifts and graces which have descended from above, a man may honestly and even boldly maintain his intellectual and moral worth, should these appear to be maliciously traduced. Job might have safely claimed to surpass his antagonists in mental capacity and acquaintance with the culture of the day, in ripe personal experience and ability to interpret the ways of God to man; but with much modesty he only aspires to be their equal, to have a heart (Anglice, a head, a brain) as well as they, and not to be the shallow-pated witling, or wild ass’s colt, they insinuated. 3. With scornful contempt. "Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?" The sublime wisdom with which they sought to overwhelm him was the veriest commonplace; their much-paraded teaching but a string of threadbare maxims, "familiar in the mouth as household words," of which he himself could supply an endless series of examples, as beautiful and more correct—which he does in the present chapter. It is a just ground of complaint when old and hackneyed sentiments in morals or religion, science or philosophy, are served up with the air of, and made to do duty for, original discoveries. Yet it is proper to remember that truth once apprehended by the mind does not deteriorate, or become less valuable, by age. Besides, it is of more consequence that a doctrine should be true than that it should be new. Still, new truth, or, what is often mistaken for such, new aspects of old truths, possess a singular fascination for vigorous and independent minds. II. UNKIND . 1. Its character described. "I am as one mocked of his neighbour;" "The just upright man is laughed to scorn." By serving up such trite platitudes as Job had listened to, they had simply been converting him and his calamities into a laughing-stock, because they saw him standing on the sharp edge of ruin, as a traveller might cast away "a despised lamp," of which he had no further need. To make a man the subject of laughter, the butt of ridicule, the object of scornful wit on account of either personal appearance (Genesis 21:9), bodily infirmity (2 Kings 2:23), providential adversity (Lamentations 2:15), or religious character (Psalms 42:3), is severely reprehended by the Word of God (Proverbs 3:34:; Proverbs 17:5; Proverbs 30:17). Yet good men may expect to receive such treatment at the hands of worldly unbelievers and nominal professors, since the like was meted out to Christ (Matthew 26:67, Matthew 26:68; Matthew 27:27-31; Luke 23:35), David (Psalms 22:7; Psalms 35:16; Psalms 69:11, Psalms 69:12), and the apostles (Acts 2:13), to Old Testament saints (2 Chronicles 30:10; 1 Kings 22:24; Hebrews 11:36), and New Testament preachers (Acts 17:32) and disciples (Jud Job 1:18). 2. Its aggravations recited. These were twofold. (1) Job, who had been subjected to this scornful laceration, had been (a) a good man, personally just and upright, and therefore such a one as saints should not have ridiculed; (b) one who had enjoyed confidential communications with Heaven—a man of prayer, who had called upon God and been answered by him—and therefore not a person to be lightly spoken of or to; and (c) a miserable sufferer overtaken by adversity—one who was "ready to slip with his feet," and on that account all the more requiring to be comforted instead of scorned. (2) They who had scorned him had been (a) his neighbours, his friends, at whose hands he should rather have received pity (Job 6:14); and (b) were themselves in the enjoyment of ease, which might have kindled in their flinty bosoms a spark of sympathy for his misfortunes. 3. Its extenuation stated. It was common. "Contempt for the weak, who totter and fall on slippery paths, is the habitual impulse of those who stand firmly on the firm ground of security, and see no reason why other men should not be as vigorous and ’resolute’ and prosperous as themselves" (Cox). The world worships success; failure is its unpardonable sin. When fortune smiles upon a person he is known of all; when adversity engulfs him, he is forgotten by all (Job 8:18). Recall the language of Buckingham on his way to execution: "This from a dying man receive as certain," etc. (’King Henry VIII.,’ Acts 2. sc; 1); and Mark Antony’s address over Ceasar’s dead body: "But yesterday," etc. (Julius Caesar,’ Acts 3. sc. 2). Learn: 1. If adversity has its uses, prosperity has its dangers, being prone to engender self-conceit, arrogance, lack of sympathy, and contempt for others. 2. Wisdom is the noblest excellence of man; yet of wisdom no man enjoys a monopoly. 3. It is no disparagement to truth to be styled commonplace, since precisely as it becomes commonplace does it accomplish its mission. 4. As prayer will not always hinder persecution, so neither should persecution by either friends or foes be allowed to extinguish prayer. 5. Few faults of men are so completely bad that no sort of extenuation can be discovered for them. Job 12:5-13 Job to Zophar: 2. The dogma of the friends demolished. I. BY THE FACTS OF . 1. The adverse fortunes of the good. Exemplified in Job’s own case, which showed (1) that a man might be upright and yet lull into misfortune; (2) that a person enjoying confidential relations with Heaven, calling upon God and receiving answers, might sink so low in the mire of adversity as to become a scorn and a byword, and be regarded as a sort of infidel and outcast; and (3) that the largest and heaviest portion of a good man’s affliction might even come from the good themselves, from those who enjoyed the reputation at least of being religious, from his neighbours and friends, who were themselves sitting in the sunshine of prosperity. And the entire veracity of these deductions is abundantly confirmed by the concurrent testimony of all past ages, by the histories, e.g. of Abel, of Joseph, of David, of Christ; while it is sustained by the voice of all contemporary observation. 2. The prosperous fortunes of the bad. Apt illustrations were at hand in the seemingly unchanging success which waited on the footsteps of those marauding caterans with which Arabia Deserta was overrun. (1) As to character, they were notoriously wicked, in fact, flagrantly immoral, outrageously ungodly. They were: (a) Robbers of men, violent and rapacious plunderers, who put might for right, "men of the arm" (Job 22:8), acting on "The good old rule, the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can;" like the Nephilim and Gibborim of Noah’s day, who deluged the world with immorality and violence (Genesis 6:4) (b) Defiers of God, impudent and audacious sinners who openly and presumptuously trampled on Heaven’s laws in order to obtain their unhallowed will, like the tower-builders of Babel (Genesis 11:4), like Pharaoh (Exodus 5:2), like Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:19-35), like wicked men generally, whose foolish tongues "talk loftily," and "set themselves against the heavens," and "walk through the earth" (Psalms 73:8, Psalms 73:9), and whose carnal minds, inflamed with enmity against God (Romans 8:7), conspire against the Lord and his Anointed (Psalms 2:2). (c) Worshippers of the sword, who had no deity but the dagger which they carried in their bands, as the glutton has no god but his belly (Philippians 3:19); who, like Lamech, made ballads to their rapiers (Genesis 4:23); like Laban, regarded brute force as the supreme power of the world (Genesis 31:29); and like the ancient Chaldeans, took military strength for their god (Habakkuk 1:11). (2) As to fortune’ it was as widely removed from that of the virtuous and pious as it could welt be. (a) Their tents were peaceful. That is, their habitations were tranquil, their families were united and numerous; their domestic felicity was deep (cf. Job 21:8-11; Psalms 17:14; Psalms 49:11). (b) Their persons were secure. Calamity seldom, almost never, overtook them. Winds and hurricanes that desolated the righteous left them untouched (Psalms 73:4). (c) Their baskets were full. Retaining the Authorized Version (Carey and others), we understand Job to have said that God brought to them abundantly with his own hand, as if he had taken them under his especial protection. II. BY THE OF THE . 1. The teachers. The entire circle of animate and inanimate creation—everything on the earth, in the air, and in the sea. The natural and the supernatural, the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual, the mundane and the heavenly, are in God’s universe so indissolubly linked together, and so wisely adjusted to each other, that the one is a picture or reflection of the other, the earthly and material an emblem of the heavenly and spiritual. Hence all nature is full of subtle analogies to things and thoughts existing in the realms above it—the intellectual, the moral, the spiritual, the human, the celestial. Hence the wise student of nature may find "Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." (’As You Like It,’ Acts 2. sc. 1.) Hence man is frequently counselled by Scripture writers to learn wisdom from the creatures. "Solomon sends us to the ant; Agur to the coney, the locust, the spider; Isaiah to the ox and the ass; Jeremiah to the stork, the turtle-dove, the crane, the swallow; and the heavenly Teacher himself to the fowls of the air" (Thomas). Of all teachers Christ stood indisputably first in interpreting the hidden thoughts of nature. 2. The teaching. While the creatures say much to man concerning God, his almighty power, unerring wisdom, unwearied goodness, and ever-watchful care; and concerning duty, reminding man that he, like them, should act in harmony with the laws of his nature, and in obedience to the will of his Creator (Psalms 148:7-13), they are here introduced as instructors on the subject of Divine providence. Among the lower creatures phenomena exist analogous to those above described as occurring in the higher world of men. How often is the harmless lamb devoured by the wolf, the kid by the panther, the gazelle by the tiger, the patient ass by the ferocious lion! Are not the eagle, the vulture, and the hawk but as rapacious robbers swooping down upon the dove the sparrow, and the robin? Can greater plunderers be found than the vast aquatic monsters, the whale, the shark, and the crocodile, which roam through the deep, striking terror among the lesser tribes that haunt the seas? And yet "who knoweth not in all these that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?" Well, if these things occur under God’s government among the lower creatures, why, asks Job, might similar occurrences not transpire under the same government among men? III. BY THE SAYINGS OF THE FATHERS. 1. The ground of their authority. The weight attached by Zophar, and indeed allowed by Job himself, to the maxims of antiquity, was derived from the fact that they were the concentrated wisdom of antecedent ages, which had been carefully elaborated by long-lived sages as the result of their individual and collective experience (vide homiletics on Job 8:8-22). 2. The limit of their authority. Granting that these sagacious apothegms and profound parables were fairly entitled to be heard, Job contended that they were not possessed of absolute authority. They were not to be accepted with unquestioning submission, but with wise and intelligent discrimination, the ear, and of course "the judgment which sits behind the ear," having been given to try words as the palate does food. And even at the best they were only human judgments, the thoughts of long-lived patriarchs, of much-observing as well as deep-reflecting sages, but not at all to be compared with the thoughts of him with whom is "wisdom and strength, counsel and understanding" (verse 13). They were, therefore, not to be accepted as final interpretations of the facts of providence, which were the concrete expressions of eternal Wisdom, as much as these traditional maxims were the abstract utterances of patriarchal wisdom. Man’s thoughts never can be more than a finite projection, or contracted image, of God’s. Hence the danger of setting man’s thoughts in place of God’s, investing confessions, catechisms, and symbolical books generally with the authority which belongs only to the supreme revelation of God’s mind. Hence also the folly of attempting to crush the boundless realm of God’s truth into the narrow dimensions of any formula, however beautiful or well-arranged, however strictly scientific or profoundly philosophic. The fundamental principles of all intelligent Protestantism may be summed up in two thoughts: man’s formulas are not the exact measure of God’s revelations; "prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." 3. The verdict of their authority. If rightly discriminated, the voice of patriarchal wisdom will be found to be on Job’s side; in support of which assertion he proceeds, in the next section, to recite other sayings of antiquity, which certainly give countenance rather to his than to their view of God’s providential government of the world and mankind. So perhaps it will be generally found that the best thoughts of men in all ages harmonize with the thoughts of God as expressed both in the Bible and in providence. Learn: 1. "He that is first in his own cause seemeth right; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him." 2. "A half-truth is sometimes as dangerous as a whole lie." 3. "In contemplation of created things, by steps we may ascend to God." 4. It is not true that "man is the measure of the universe." 5. "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in man’s philosophy." 6. "That alone is true antiquity which embraces the antiquity of the world, and not that which would refer us back to a period when the world was young." Job 12:13-25 Job to Zophar: 3. The providence of God described. I. As WISE AND . "With God is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding" (verse 13)—a sentiment repeated in verse 16. Of the two attributes here mentioned, the first is involved in his supreme Divinity; though in the connection Job seems to base it on his eternal existence, as if he meant to say, "You affirm that in length of days is understanding, and I grant it; but what then must be the wisdom of him who is eternal in his years?" The second, which is equally involved in the conception of Godhead, may here be said to rest upon the already stated fact that "in his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind" (verse 10). The Creator of the universe must be strong, and the Eternal Intelligence must be wise. Being, then, infinitely wise and powerful, the like qualities must appear in his handiwork. As the artist puts his conceptions into the painting which he executes, and the artificer directs attention to the work he has fashioned as a proof of his ability; so, reasons Job, will the providential government of God be seen, when thoroughly examined, to reflect the matchless wisdom of his omniscient mind, and attest the measureless force of his almighty hand. II. AS AND . "Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening" (verse 14). The first may allude to the destruction of the Tower of Babel, and the second to the confusion of tongues; though the reference may be more general, to such acts of destruction/and, by implication, of restoration) and of restraint (and again, by implication, of liberation) as attest his almighty power. Illustrations of the former may be found in the burning of Sodom by fire; the destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Titus; the overthrow of Babylon and Nineveh; the engulfment of Herculaneum and Pompeii by volcanic agency; while the shutting up of men in prisons may be regarded as having been exemplified in Joseph (Genesis 37:24), Jeremiah (Lamentations 3:53; cf. Jeremiah 38:6), Jonah 1:17. III. AS TO NATURE AND MAN. 1. To nature. "Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth" (Jonah 1:15). Perhaps exemplified in the first formation of the dry land (Genesis 1:9), and in the Deluge (Genesis 7:11); though more probably pointing to the Divine agency as the true cause of drought (1 Kings 17:1), and of floods or destructive inundations. 2. To man. "The deceived and the deceiver are his" (Jonah 1:16). Possibly alluding to himself and his companions (M. Good), though it is better to give the language a wider reference. Exemplified in Satan and man (Job 1:12; Revelation 20:3), the lying spirit and Ahab (1 Kings 22:22), antichrist and unbelievers (2 Thessalonians 2:11). The language forcibly expresses God’s complete control over all classes of men. IV. As AND . 1. Individuals. (1) Civic riflers. "He leadeth counsellors away spoiled [literally, ’naked,’ i.e. ’stripped of their official robes, and of their clothes and shoes as captives ’], and maketh judges fools," destroying their power and degrading their position (cf. Isaiah 3:2, Isaiah 3:4; Isaiah 40:23; Isaiah 44:25). "He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle" or cord; meaning either he unbinds their prisoners, and makes them prisoners instead, or he unlooses the jewelled girdle of kings, the insignia of royalty, and ties their loins with the cords of servitude. Illustrations: Zedekiah, Napoleon, etc. (2) Ecclesiastical officers. "He leadeth princes [literally, ’priests’] away spoiled [literal]y, ’stripped of their robes ’], and overthroweth the mighty [or, ’the long established’—those of great and high repute for sanctity and wisdom, probably such priest-princes as Melchizedek and Jethro].’ (3) Eloquent senators. "He removeth away the speech [literally, ’the lip’] of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged" (verse 20). So he turned the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness (2 Samuel 15:31). (4) Haughty nobles. "He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty;" literally, "looseth the girdle of the strong" (verse 21). The girdle being the belt by which the garments were fastened prior to undertaking any violent exertion, the language expresses the idea that it is God’s province either to impart or to withhold the strength requisite for any undertaking in which man may engage. (5) Intriguing politicians. "He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death" (verse 22). While the language may with perfect propriety be applied to the power possessed by God of disclosing truths which lie beyond the reach of the human intellect, as e.g. those of revelation, or of bringing to light recondite discoveries in science and philosophy, which are ever wrapt in impenetrable darkness till he is pleased to unfold them, the connection seems to rather point to God’s ability to read the secret thoughts and intentions of the human heart (Hebrews 4:12, Hebrews 4:13), and in particular to detect and expose "the deep and desperate designs of traitors, conspirators, and other state villains" (Good); as those, e.g. of Absalom against David (2 Samuel 15:6), and Haman against the Jews (Esther 3:9), of Herod against Christ (Matthew 2:8), and of the Jews against Paul (Acts 23:21), as the Catiline conspiracy in Rome, and the Gunpowder Plot in England. 2. Communities. (1) National tendencies. The deep things out of darkness and the discovered death-shade may also allude to "the hidden bents and currents which slowly give shape to the character and functions of a nation or ever it is aware, or ever even its rulers are aware, of them; that stream of tendency running partly underground for a while, which silently carries us we know not whither, we know not how, and lands us in enterprises and modes of national activity alien and opposed to those towards which our subtlest politicians supposed they were guiding us" (Cox). (2) National movements. "He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again" (verse 23). The original distribution of mankind into nations, and their dispersion over the face of earth, although effected in accordance with natural law, was directly the work of God (Genesis 10:1-32; Genesis 11:1-32.). So national increase and national diminution, national prosperity and national adversity, however these may seem to be the result of well-known and invariably operating causes, are traceable in the last analysis to the will and power of God (Psalms 22:28; Psalms 24:1; Psalms 47:2, Psalms 47:3; Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah 40:23; Daniel 4:17; Acts 17:26). He increased Israel in Egypt (Exodus 1:12), and diminished it in the wilderness (Numbers 14:29), advanced it to prosperity under David (2 Samuel 8:6, 2 Samuel 8:11, 2 Samuel 8:14), and gave it up to decay from the time of Rehoboam forward (1 Kings 12:24). He enlarged in turn Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome, and in turn straitened them. He has exalted Britain, America, Germany, but he has not deprived himself of power to bring them to the dust again. (3) National leaders. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way," leaving them to their own foolish and distracted counsels, so that "they grope in the dark without light," and causing them "to wander in a wilderness where there is no way" (verses 24, 25). It is not in man that walketh, whether he be a statesman or a ploughman, to direct his steps aright. They that guide either themselves or others by the light of their own understanding are like travellers who follow an ignis fatuus to their destruction. Hence no politician can safely guide a state, unless God first guides him. A gigantic intellect, splendid eloquence, prolonged experience, the subtlest craft, the most careful deliberation, the rarest sobriety of judgment, will not suffice for political success (of the highest kind) without the help of Divine wisdom and strength. Even a Solomon, if deserted by God, will begin to play the fool, and a Samson to be weak as other men. Learn: 1. To recognize God’s hand in the providential government of the world. Habitually to do so is no inconsiderable sign of a gracious heart. 2. Not to look for an exact distribution of rewards and punishments on earth. It is not included in the Divine programme that the justice of God’s procedure here shall always be perceptible by those to whom it relates. 3. To rest assured notwithstanding that God doeth all things well "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" 4. To reverently bow before the providential dispensations of him who reigns in heaven and rules on earth. Though his will is too absolute to be resisted, yet the choice of how we shall submit to that will has been placed in our hands. 5. To carry the thought of God’s overruling providence with us into all the relations and duties of life. It is a great help to piety to recollect that God is near. BY E. JOHNSON Job 12:1-6 The resentment of a wounded spirit. Repeated reproaches and accusations falling upon the conscience of an innocent man sting him into self-defence. They may do a service by rousing him out of stupor and weakness, and may bring to light the nobler qualities of his soul. We are indebted to the slanders of the Corinthians for some of the noblest self-revelations of St. Paul. I. OF SCORN. (Job 12:1-3.) With bitter irony Job rebukes the assumption of these men to know better than himself concerning matters which belonged to the common stock of intelligence, and in which he was in no wise inferior to them. To claim superior knowledge over others is always offensive. To do so against a sick and broken man from the vantage-ground of health and prosperity is nothing less than a cruelty. And to make this pretension in matters of common tradition and acceptance, where all stand about on a level, is an insult to the sufferer’s understanding. II. AGAINST THE COURSE OF THE WORLD. (Verses 4-6.) 1. Cruel inversions of life. Job, who in his just and innocent life, had hitherto stood in confidential relations with God, who had prayed and whose prayers had been heard, is now a butt for laughter and scorn. He calls now and God no longer hears (verse 4). 2. The injustice of human opinion. (Verse 5.) "Contempt belongs to misfortune, in the opinion of the secure." A true description of the opinion of the world. If "nothing succeeds like success; then nothing damns like failure in the common opinion of the unfeeling world. "It awaits those whose foot is slipping." As the herd of wolves turn upon the sick and fallen brute, so the thoughtless man tramples upon the man who is down. To those who are banded together by the tie of selfish pleasure only or convenience, the very sight of that which interferes for a moment with their content is hateful. How different the sanctified instincts of pity, compassion, and helpfulness which Christ has planted in his society, the Church! It is the mission of the Christian community to leaven with its principles the heartless mass of society. On the other hand, nothing succeeds like success; "restful dwellings" (verse 6) and confident security are enjoyed by the wasters or desolators who by word and deed hold God in contempt, and think to make him bend to their purposes. The rude man of violence, who owns no law but that of the strong hand, thinks that where force is there is God, and all must bow to force as if to God. So he "taketh God in his hand;" he "imputes his power unto his god;" he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense unto his drag (Habakkuk 1:11, Habakkuk 1:16). His motto is like that of the impious warrior, "My right hand is god" (Virg; ’AEn.’ 10.773, "Dextra mihi deus").—J. Job 12:7-12 The wisdom and tile power of God a truth universally known. It is not the peculiar possession of those fancied wise friends. It is a truth impressed on all nature and on the experience of man. I. APPEAL TO THE LIVING . (Job 12:7-10.) The beasts, the birds of the air, the earth with all its living growths, the creatures of the sea,—all bear traces of his skill, all receive from him their life and sustenance, all are subject to his omnipresent power (comp. Psalms 104:26-30). II. APPEAL TO THE OF AGE. As the palate tries and discriminates between the different dishes on the table, so does the ear try the various opinions to which it listens, and selects the best, the ripest, as its guide (Job 12:11). Long life means large experience, and largo experience gives the criterion of truth and the guide of life. Yet experience is but the book of common experiences. It fails us when we have to deal with the peculiar and the exceptional, which is the present situation of Job (verse 12). III. OF THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD. (Verses 13-25.) Here Job rivals and surpasses his friends. With repeated blows, as of the hammer on the anvil, he impresses the truth that the might and intelligence of the Supreme are irresistible, and before him all human craft and power must be reduced to impotence. The power and the wisdom of God alternately occupy his thought, appear and reappear in a variety of images.—J. Job 12:13-15, Job 12:18-21, Job 12:23-25 Images of the irresistible power of God. I. THE WALL, OR HOUSE, OR CITY THUS CANNOT BE BUILT UP AGAIN. (Job 12:14.) Swept with the besom of destruction, it becomes the possession of the bittern and pools of water (Isaiah 14:23). The ruined walls of Babylon and her charred gates defy the weary toil of the people (Jeremiah 51:58); she sinks, and shall not rise from the evil that Jehovah will bring upon her (Jeremiah 51:64). Men may build, but he will throw down (Malachi 1:4). II. THE PRISON-DOORS WHICH HE SHUTS NO MAN CAN OPEN. (Job 12:14.) He hath the key of David (Isaiah 22:22; Revelation 3:7). Vain all human bravery when the Lord hath determined to "deliver a man into the hand of his enemy" (1 Samuel 26:8). Yet there is a merciful aspect of this seeming harsh truth, as pointed out by St. Paul: "He hath shut them all up in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all" (Romans 11:32). III. THE DRYING UP AND SENDING OF FLOODS. (Job 12:15.) As illustrated in the ancient story of Gen 6:1-22. and 8; and of the drought in Elijah’s time (1 Kings 17:1-24.). He shuts the heaven (1 Kings 8:35), arid he alone can give showers (Jeremiah 14:22). IV. THE OF EARTHLY KINGS. (Genesis 6:18.) As illustrated in the carrying of Manasseh captive to Babylon (2 Chronicles 23:1-21.), and of Zedekiah (Jeremiah 52:1-34.). The thought is repeated in verse 21, and further illustrations may be drawn from the cases of Pharaoh, of Saul, of Ahab. V. THE OF SPEECH AND WISDOM. (Verse 20.) Men’s sagacity is turned to folly; their prudence is vain when it pleases him to put forth his power (comp. Isaiah 3:1-3). So in verse 24, where we are reminded of the striking judgment upon Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:1-37.). VI. THE AND OF NATIONS. (Verse 23.) The rise and fall of empires and peoples is determined by constant laws. Obedience to law means increase and prosperity; violation of law, decay and ruin. VII. AND are evidences of the practical power of God (verses 24, 25). Chaos, wandering, darkness, helpless vacillation, fall upon men and nations from time to time, because they have been unfaithful to the true light and the Divine leading.—J. Job 12:16, Job 12:17, Job 12:22 Instances of the overruling wisdom of God. I. THE AND THE ARE HIS. (Job 12:16.) He can cause the spirit of the faithless prophet to be a lying spirit (1 Kings 22:1-53.), to be deceived in his oracles, and incur destruction (Ezekiel 14:9). II. So THE JUDGES ARE MADE FOOLS. (Job 12:17.) In short, God hath made from time to time the wisdom of this world foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:1-31.), that no flesh might glory in his presence. III. HE BRINGS NEW OF TRUTH TO LIGHT. (Job 12:22.) This is the revelation of God in history, and its page is full of illustrations. The calling of Abraham; the raising up of Moses; the deliverance of Israel; the elevation of David, the "rod out of his stem’" the lowly Messiah; the progress of the gospel and triumph over the wisdom of Greece and pride of Rome; the beginnings of the Reformation,—are but a few of the salient points in this providential history of the world. The whole description is fitted to teach: (1) Humility in the sense of the feebleness of our power, the inferiority of our knowledge in presence of the power and wisdom of God. (2) Reverence in the study of history and the observation of nature. (3) Watchful and confident expectation of changes in the course of providence, by which iniquity will be overturned, the rule of falsehood be brought to an end, and the Divine kingdom be advanced in the world.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 12:1-6 Contempt the lot of misfortune. Job is driven to retort. He affirms his own competency to speak. He claims equality with his would-be teachers, whose words are yet far from healing or comforting his sorely afflicted heart. "I have understanding as well as you." But to him belongs the contempt which is the lot of misfortune. Sad is the story told in a sentence here, but repeated in every day’s history and in every land and every age. The selfish heart, rising to a higher level of prosperity, looks down, and looks contemptuously down, on him over whom Misfortune casts her dark shade. "The just upright man is laughed to scorn." Note the truth of this, its wrong and its remedy. I. TO THIS—THAT IS THE LOT OF . The testimony comes up from a thousand sufferers towards whom fortune has shown no favour. The wounds may be deep, the pangs of sorrow keen; dark desolation may encompass; but the joyful, the well-to-do, on whom the smile of prosperity rests, become incompetent to descend to the lowly lot. On such the tale of woe makes little impression. There is a sad, if not even natural, revulsion from the mere sight of suffering, and the step is easy from this to the bitter, scathing complaint, "Ah! he brought it all upon himself!’ From Job’s days downward the same has been ever seen. Prosperity seems to blind the eyes, to harden the heart, to withdraw the sympathies even from the friend overtaken in misfortune. It is an interruption to ease and felicity, to quiet and comfort. And Well-to-do resists as impertinent the appeals of the victim of misfortune; or, as here, takes up an accusation against him, and treats him as an offender. Everywhere the truth of this is seen. "He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thoughts of him that is at ease;" II. IT IS NOT MORE GENERAL THAN IT IS WRONG. It is unworthy, unbrotherly, unneighbourlike. The great Teacher hit the evil with his hard words, and exposed for ever to the gaze of men the self-sufficiency of the prosperous one and his carelessness as to the condition of the sufferer. He passes by on the other side, indisposed to help the poor wretch lying in his blood, stript and sore. Pride fills the heart to overflowing that is well-nigh full of treasure. There is little room in it for sympathy and pity, and the tender communion of sorrow. He who is lifted up does not feel that the lot of him who is trodden down is any affair of his. He cannot be hindered on his way. Shame upon the heart that is so far forgetful of the common interest that it leaves the needy and sad, and finds itself absorbed in its own comfort! The curl of contempt upon the lip and the hard word upon the tongue—Job fathomed this depth, and in the bitterness of his soul rebukes the wrong. III. WE TURN TO OTHER WORDS FOR THE OF THIS ERROR. True, Job by his irony accuses his severe friends, who transport themselves into accusers. In their hard words he traces the contempt of which he complains, and takes his lot with others who suffer like himself. He is not unmindful of the true Source of help. He is one who "calleth upon God." lie retains his integrity, and the consciousness of it gives him support even under this trouble. "The just upright man is laughed to scorn." But the assurance of his uprightness is a deep consolation. Here, then, are the true sources of help. The tested faith in God will find its reward, and the testimony of a good conscience is of price untold. By these Job is upheld, and by that strength which is secretly imparted to all faithful ones who call upon God, though it may seem as though they were abandoned and forgotten. If the "neighbour" mocketh, the righteous Judge does not mock; and though the trial is permitted and continued, a Divine and gracious end is reserved which Job lived fully to prove.—R.G. Job 12:7-10 The testimony of the creature to the Divine government. Job again vindicates himself in presence of his accusing friends. He professes his knowledge to be as theirs, and he even points them to the lower animals to find wisdom from them. The very beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, the fruitful field, the fishes in the deep, all tell the great truth—Jehovah reigns supreme. "In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind;" all proclaim the Almighty, all speak of the Ever-living One in whom all live. This testimony is witnessed— I. IN THE LIFE OF EVERY . Even man, at the head of all, is conscious of the dependence of his life upon some power higher than himself. There is one Lord of life, Author of all life, Supporter of all. Every individual life declares "the hand of the Lord hath wrought this." In his hand alone is "the soul "—the life "of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." He is the Creator and Preserver of every life. II. IN THE VARIETY OF LIFE. What an unlimited variety do we behold! The birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea, abound in a wide diversity of life. All speak of the infinite Creator, in whom are the possibilities of infinite life; who, of his own infinite resources, has created and made the whole. That the species vary according to the encircling conditions of their life does not detract from their testimony to the infinite and supreme Power. For the very existence of every life speaks of that Power. How great is he whose creative skill reveals itself in this unlimited variety! III. NOT LESS IS BORNE BY THE OF THE VAST . That age after age this power continues to bring forth, each after its own kind, is another testimony to the greatness of him "in whose hand is the soul of every living thing." The creation and preservation of the many species age after age speaks to the thoughtful mind of him who is the one Lord of all life, who by his omnipotent overruling preserves all in their order and in their continuance. IV. BUT IN THE OF THEIR BODIES ANOTHER IS BORNE. How delicate are the organs of the body—the powers of sight, of hearing, of activity; the strength of one, the delicacy of the structure of another! How wonderful are the nerves of the body, conveying the impression from the outer world to the brain! Equally so the blood-vessels, and the hidden powers by which the bones are built up, and again the powers of nutrition gathering food from without and assimilating it to the body in all its parts. This is done without the knowledge and consent of the creature; for the creature, even man, knows not how it is done. it is above him; it speaks definitely and distinctly and loudly of God, "in whose hand is the breath of all mankind." V. YET A FURTHER IS TO BE SEEN IN THE MADE FOR THE OF ALL. Notwithstanding the vastness of the realm in which creature-life is found, and the variety of the forms of life, each having its own peculiar needs, yet he "satisfieth the desire of every living thing," Food is abundant for man and beast, and of the fowls of the air it is truly said, "he feedeth them." So the Divine work is seen on every side; and from all the varieties of conscious life one testimony arises to the great truth, "The Lord reigneth." On every work the truth lies clearly impressed, "The hand of Jehovah made this."—R.G. Job 12:11-25 The Devine supremacy illustrated. Bildad appeals to "the ancients." Job replies, "I also know their teaching." But there is a wisdom higher than that of the ancients. Wisdom—unfailing wisdom—is a Divine attribute. From the earthly to the heavenly wisdom Job turns. He speaks of a higher and a mightier One—One "with whom is strength and wisdom," by which he rules. The supremacy of that Divine rule he illustrates from a very wide field of survey. He points to the evidences of the Divine almightiness— I. IN THE OF THE HUMAN TO THE DIVINE WILL. (Verse 14.) II. IN THE CONTROL OF THE MIGHTY OF NATURE. The very "waters" obey his behest (verse 15). III. IN EVEN THOSE THAT ERR AND THOSE THAT DECEIVE TO BE TO HIS WILL AND PURPOSE. (Verse 16.) IV. IN THE WISDOM OF THE WISE. Leading "counsellors away spoiled," and bringing down the judge to the level of the fool (verse 17). V. IN KINGS AND PRIESTS AND MIGHTY MEN. (Verses 18, 19.) VI. IN THE SPEECH OF THE AND ROBBING THE AGED OF THEIR . (Verse 20.) VII. IN CASTING UPON THE , AND MAKING THE STRONG TO TOTTER WITH . (Verse 21.) He giveth or taketh away wisdom and might as it pleaseth him, proving that he is wise and mighty above all; for these are his gifts to the children of men that have them. VIII. HE FURTHER SHOWS THAT THE HIDDEN THINGS OF ARE OPEN TO HIS VIEW. He discovereth the secret works of evil. Even the thick shadow of death cannot hide from him (verse 22). IX. HISTORY IS EQUALLY UNDER HIS CONTROL. His power is over the nations; he enlarges or straitens as he pleases. He scatters or gathers as he will (verse 23). X. THE VERY AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH ABE SUBJECT TO HIS SWAY. It is a little thing for him to remove the light of reason from them, confounding and Confusing them, and casting them into darkness and gloom. Elsewhere we learn why and when the Almighty deals thus with men. Job’s purpose is to show that man is as nothing before him. In his highest honour, in his utmost wisdom, in his greatest strength, he cannot Contend with Jehovah. Over the individual life in all its various conditions, over the Combined lives of men in their national or political combinations, he is still supreme. And over the heavens and the earth he is Lord—even over all. This is Job’s faith and his declaration. He can proclaim the supreme and absolute majesty of Jehovah as truly, and even more strikingly than his friends.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 12:2 Irony. I. IRONY IS TO BE FOUND IN . There is great variety in the style of Scripture. Almost every modification of language is to be found in the Bible, consecrated to some holy purpose. Even the faculty of humour is utilized, as in the incident of Balaam’s ass (Numbers 22:28-30), and in St. Paul’s recommendation that the woman who will not wear a veil had better complete the exposure of her head by being shorn (1 Corinthians 11:6). The prophets abound in irony. Christ used irony in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-20). II. THERE IS A PLACE FOR IRONY IN . Some evils can be best met just by being exposed. Now, irony is a method of showing a thing in an unexpected light, so that, while admitting all its claims, we make it apparent that those very claims are absurd. Slight failings will be best castigated with simple ridicule; more serious ones, if they are not great sins, with grave irony. III. IRONY. Each of Job’s three friends has now spoken. Though they were not alike in attainments nor in natural dispositions, they agreed in their dogmas and in their judgment of Job. A tone of conscious superiority and irritating censoriousness rings through all their speeches. This not only vexes Job; it prompts an ironical retaliation. It is dangerous to make grand pretensions. Humility is a great security, and when humility is lost, we lay ourselves open to attack on the ground of our assumptions. Pretentiousness does not only thus provoke ironical replies; it best meets its merited castigation by these replies, which humilitate it in a most unanswerable manner. IV. IRONY IS A WEAPON FOR A TO WIELD. It may be a lawful weapon- There are times when it can be used in the cause of righteousness with tremendous effect. But there is great danger lest the employment of it should destroy "the greatest thing in the world"—love. There is always a tendency to push it too far, and to go beyond wholesome rebuke in the direction of cruel scorn. This is distinctly unchristian. Moreover, as Job’s friends did not understand him, possibly he did not understand them. If so, his irony may have been too severe for justice. We should be careful that we are in no error before we venture to use irony against our brother. Even then, zeal for righteousness should be tempered by brotherly kindness. V. GOD IRONY IN . The Greek tragedians saw irony in fate. Man’s greatness was shown to be a very small thing, and his boasted success a mere bubble. The old classical idea was dark and hard, for it did not take into account the Fatherhood of God. But within God’s infinite purpose of love there is room for irony. By the slow unrolling of the course of events, the boasting of the pretentious ends in confusion. God humbles his creatures in their pride and vanity, giving them sudden falls, by means of which they cannot but feel their helplessness and littleness. The monarch is choked by a fly. Such things are not done vindictively, or in scorn; but because we are mined by boasting and saved in our humiliation. Thus the ugly weapon of irony may prepare us for the healing grace of the gospel.—W.F.A. Job 12:5 Contempt for the unfortunate. Like Jesus, when he prayed for his murderers, with the plea that they knew not what they were doing (Luke 23:34), though in much less perfect magnanimity, Job sees some excuse for the conduct of his censors. He finds that conduct to be an instance of a common rule of action, viz. that the prosperous despise the unfortunate. I. WE CANNOT THE TROUBLE WE DO NOT SHARE. Job’s vast woe was quite beyond the comprehension of his would-be sympathizers. They thought that they had fathomed its depths, and that they were in a position to adjudicate upon its merits. But they had scarcely skimmed its surface. They did not know what Job suffered; much less did they see why God had permitted him to be thus afflicted. The happy look flora their sunny homes on the dark abodes of misery, but they cannot understand the sorrows they have never tasted. They who have always had their wants satisfied simply do not know what hunger and thirst are. The unbroken family cannot conceive of the agony of bereavement II. WE ARE TEMPTED TO DESPISE THE TROUBLE WE DO NOT . As We have not the faculty to dive into its mystery, it seems to us a shallow thing. Therefore, when the sufferers appear to make much of it, we are inclined to think that they are exaggerating it; that they are giving way to it in a cowardly weakness; that they are indecently demonstrative or even shamming hypocritically. The rich are too often ready to regard the very poor as whining impostors. They who have never felt the pangs of conscience look with contempt on the penitent’s tears. III. WE MAY USE OUR OWN TROUBLE AS A MEANS OF OUR WITH THE OF OTHERS. Possibly this is one reason why it is sent to us. We have been too narrow and selfish in our view of it, thinking it must be confined to some effect directly and solely beneficial to ourselves. But it may be largely intended to prepare us for our work in helping others in trouble. The widow can sympathize with the widow; the poor show most kindness to the poor. The experience of the prostration of a great illness enables a person to understand and help sick people. Thus sorrow is a talent to be used for the good of others, by being invested in sympathy. IV. THE SORROWS OF CHRIST HELPED TO MAKE HIM A PERFECT SAVIOUR. If Christ understands anything, it is sorrow; for was he not "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief"? Therefore the sufferer who is despised by his prosperous brethren can turn with assurance of sympathy to the Saviour of men. Christ not only understands sorrow, he knows how to use it. He converted his cross into a lever for raising a fallen world. He will help his suffering disciples to despise their own sorrows while sympathizing with the sorrows of others. Strong in his victory over sin, sorrow, and death, Christ for ever sanctifies suffering. While the superficial may despise it, true Christians can now see in it a means of heavenly grace.—W.F.A. Job 12:7-10 Lessons of nature. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 13:1, Job 13:2 The first two verses of Job 13:1-28. are closely connected with Job 12:1-25; forming the natural termination to the first section of Job’s argument, that all results, whether good or evil, must be referred to God. Job 13:1 is little more than a repetition of Job 12:9 and Job 13:2 of Job 12:3. Job 13:1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it. All the particulars mentioned concerning God’s government of the world in Job 12:6-25 are derived by Job from his own experience. His eye has seen them or his ear has heard them. He is not indebted to others for information on these simple points, which he regards as necessarily impressed by their experience on all grown men (see Job 12:9). Job 13:2 What ye know, the same do I know also. Job’s friends have claimed to instruct him and set him right, on the ground of their age and experience (Job 4:8; Job 5:27; Job 8:8-10), He protests that, in the matters on which they have lectured him, they have no advantage over himself—he knows all that they know—in truth, the knowledge is open to all (see Job 12:3). I am not inferior unto you. An exact repetition of the second clause of Job 12:3. Job 13:3-13 The second section of Job’s argument is prefaced, like the first (Job 12:2-5), with a complaint with respect to the conduct of his opponents. He taxes them with the fabrication of lies (verse 4), with want of skill as physicians of souls (verse 4), with vindicating God by reasonings in which they do not themselves believe (verses 7, 8), and consequently with really mocking him (verse 9). Having warned them that they are more likely to offend God than to please him by such arguments as those that they have urged (verses 10-12), he calls on them to hold their peace, and allow him to plead his cause with God (verse 13). Job 13:3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty. It is not Job’s wish to argue his ease with his three friends, but to reason it out with God. His friends, however, interfere with this design, check it, thwart it, prevent him from carrying it out. He must therefore first speak a few words to them. And I desire to reason with God. Compare God’s own invitation to his people, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 1:18), and again, "Put me in remembrance, let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mayest be justified" (Isaiah 43:26); which indicate God’s gracious willingness to allow men to plead on their own behalf before him, and do their best to justify themselves. Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies. A harsh expression, indicating that Job was thoroughly exasperated. The lies which his friends had forged were, partly, misrepresentations of what he had said, as for example Job 11:4, but mainly statements, more or less covert, which implied that he had brought all his calamities on himself by a course of evil-doing (see Job 4:7, Job 4:8; Job 8:13, Job 8:14; Job 11:11, Job 11:14, Job 11:20). Ye are all physicians of no value. Job’s friends had come to him to "comfort" him (Job 2:11), and act as physicians of his soul. But they had entirely failed to be of the least service. They had not even understood his case. Job 13:5 Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace! The friends had "held their peace" for seven days after their arrival (Job 2:13). Oh that they would have held it altogether! Their words had done nothing but exasperate and goad almost to madness. There is a mournful pathos in Job’s entreates to them to be silent (comp verse 13). And it should be your wisdom. "Speech," it has been said, "is silvern, silence is golden." No doubt" there is a time for everything … a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (Ecclesiastes 3:1, Ecclesiastes 3:7); nor is the rule of La Trappe altogether a wise one. But probably ten times as much harm is done in the world by speaking as by keeping silence. "Words for God" need especial care and caution. If they do not do good, the harm that they may do is incalculable. Job 13:6 Hear now my reasoning. As his friends have not kept silence, but have spoken, Job claims a right to be heard in his turn. If it be thought that he is somewhat impatient, it must be remembered that his opponents are three to one, all eager to catch him in a fault, and not very mild in their reprimands. And hearken to the pleadings of my lips. Job’s "pleadings" are addressed, not to his friends, but to God, and are contained in verses 14-28 of the present, and the whole of the succeeding chapter. Job 13:7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? We are not to suppose that Job’s friends consciously used unsound and untrue arguments in their disputations with him on God’s behalf. On the contrary, they are to be regarded as convinced of the truth of their own reasonings—as brought up in the firm belief, that temporal prosperity or wretchedness was dealt out by God, immediately, by his own will, to his subjects according to their behaviour. Holding this, they naturally thought that Job, being so greatly afflicted, must be a great sinner, and, as they could not very plausibly allege any open sins against him, they saw in his sufferings a judgment on him for secret sins. "His chosen friends, as Mr. Froude says, "wise, good, pious men, as wisdom and piety were then, without one glimpse of the true cause of his sufferings, saw in them a judgment of this character. He became to them an illustration, and even (such are the paralogisms of men of this description) a proof of their theory that ’the prosperity of the wicked is but for a while;’ and instead of the comfort and help that they might have brought him, and which in the end they were made to bring him, he is to them no more than a text for the enunciation of solemn falsehood", i.e. of statements which were false, though solemnly believed by them to be true. And talk deceitfully for him. "Deceitfully,’’ because untruly, yet so plausibly as to be likely to deceive others. Job 13:8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God? Job intends to accuse his opponents of leaning unduly to God’s side, and being prepared to justify him in the teeth of reason and justice. This is like the conduct of a judge who should allow his decision to be biassed by favour towards one or the other party in a suit. Job 13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? "Are your motives in thus acting," Job asks his opponents, "so pure that they will stand the severity of God’s judgment when he turns his scrutiny upon you’ and searches out the grounds of your proceedings? Is not your real motive to carry favour with him because he is so great and powerful?" Or as one man mocketh another, do ye so meek him? You may impose on a man by so acting, but you will not impose on God. Job 13:10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons. Even though it is his own person which you accept, his own cause that you unduly favour, he, as the God of truth, and Maintainer of right, will assuredly reprove and condemn you. Job 13:11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid! and his dread fall upon you? Will not the very excellency and perfection of God cause you all the more to fear, since they will be arrayed against you? God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, who is no respecter of persons, and hates those who are respecters of persons, will by his very purity and truth be offended at your conduct, and induced to punish it, Job 13:12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes. The "remembrances" intended are probably the wise saws, embodiments of the ancient wisdom, on which Job’s adversaries have relied in their disputations with him (Job 4:7, Job 4:8; Job 8:8-11, etc.). These Job declares to be mere dust and ashes—useless, worthless, such as the first breath of air wilt blow away. Your bodies to bodies of clay; rather, your mounds’ or your defences (see the Revised Version). These defences, Job says—i.e, the arguments by which his opponents support their views—are no better than "defences of clay "—easy to batter down and destroy. The ancient defences of a town were usually either of stone, as at Khorsabad, or of crude brick faced with burnt brick, as at Babylon and elsewhere. But Job seems to be speaking of something more primitive than either of these—mere earthworks, like the Roman aggera, hastily thrown up and easy to level with the ground. Job 13:13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak; literally, be silent from me that I may speak; but our version gives the true meaning. Job repeats the entreaty with which he had bemoan (verses 5, 6). And let some on me what will. Job is prepared to face the worst. He feels, as he expresses it below (verse 19), that, if he holds his tongue, he must die. He must speak, and speak he will. After that, let God do as he may please—he will accept his punishment, if God thinks fit to punish him. Job 13:14-28 The appeal is now to God; but Job prefaces it by excusing his boldness (verses 14-19). Job 13:14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth! An obscure phrase, to be explained by the parallel in the second member of the verse. The general meaning is, "Why do I jeopardize everything—my body, taking it as it were between my teeth; and my soul, taking it as it were in my hand?" Neither idea will bear minute analysis; but the latter, at any rate, was known to the Greeks, and is common in English. And put my life in my hand (comp. Judges 12:3; 1 Samuel 19:5; 1 Samuel 28:21; Psalms 119:109). Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; rather, yet will I wait for him. The passage is one of the few in this book where there are two readings—לוֹ איחל and לאֹ איחל. Those who prefer the latter commonly render it, "I have no hope;" but it is pointed out by Canon Cook that there are reasons for regarding לֹא as an archaic form for לוֹ, which sometimes takes its place. If this be not allowed the reading לוֹ will have to be preferred, on the double authority of the versions and of the context. Job cannot possibly have said, in one verse, "I have no hope," and in the next, "He (God) shall be my Salvation." But I will maintain mine own ways before him; i.e. "I will maintain that they are right and good ways, not open to the imputations that my ’friends’ have cast upon them" (Job 4:7, Job 4:8; Job 8:6, Job 8:20; Job 11:11, Job 11:14, Job 11:20). Job 13:16 He also shall be my Salvation. Whatever God does to him (Job 13:13), whatever burden he lays upon him, though he even "slay" him (Job 13:15), yet Job is sure that ultimately, in one way or another, God will be his Salvation. It is this determined trustfulness which at once gives Job’s character its strength, and atones in a certain sense for his over-boldness in challenging God to a controversy. His heart is right with God. Though the secrets of the unseen world have been hidden from him, and the condition of man after death is a mystery on which he can only form vague conjectures, yet he is sure that in the end God will not fail him. For an hypocrite shall not come before him. If he were a hypocrite the case would be different; he would tremble before God, instead of feeling confident. But, knowing that he is honest and true, he is not afraid; he is bold to "come before him," and plead his cause before him. Job 13:17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears. A last appeal to his opponents to give him their full attention (comp. Job 13:6), Job 13:18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; i.e. I have prepared my pleadings, and arranged them; I know what I am about to say. Also I know that I shall be justified. I am confident, i.e.’ that tile cause, if it be fully heard, will be decided in my favour. It will appear that I have not brought my calamities upon myself by my own misdoings. Of justification, in the forensic sense, of imputed righteousness, with its concomitant ideas, Job, of course, knows nothing. Job 13:19 Who is he that will plead with me? Will God himself plead? Or will he depute some one, man or angel? Job is impatient that the pleadings should begin. For now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost. Some translate, "For now shall I hold my peace and give up the ghost," which they explain to mean, "If God does implead me, I shall take refuge in silence, and straightway expire." But this seems an impossible conclusion, when all that Job has been aiming at and striving for since his opponents taxed him with wickedness has been that he might "speak to the Almighty, and reason with God" (verse 3). It is far simpler to keep to the translation of the Authorized Version, and understand Job to mean that things have now reached a point at which he must either speak or expire. Job 13:20 Only do not two things unto me. Before beginning his plea, Job has two requests to make of God. (1) That he will put an end for a time to his bodily sufferings—suspend them, at any rate, while the pleading continues; (2) that he will during the same space abstain from terrifying him mentally, as he had done on previous occasions (Job 6:4; Job 7:14; Job 9:14; see below, Job 9:21). Then will I not hide myself from thee; literally, from thy face (comp. Job 9:34, Job 9:35, "Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: then would I speak, and not fear him "). Job 13:21 Withdraw thine hand far from me; i.e. "thy afflicting hand." Job views all his physical suffering as coming directly from the hand of God—momentarily caused by him, and therefore removable by him at any moment. He has no thought for secondary causes. And let not thy dread make me afraid. Job speaks here and elsewhere of spiritual terrors—those vague and impalpable fears which suggest themselves inwardly to the soul, and are tar more painful, far more dreadful, than any amount of bodily anguish. Unless he is free from these, as well as from physical pains, he cannot plead his cause freely and fully. Job 13:22 Then call thou, and I will answer. "Then"—when I am free from suffering, both mental and bodily—implead me, bring thy charges against me, and I will answer them. As Mr. Fronds observes, "Job himself had been educated in the same creed" as his comforters; "he, too, had been taught to see the hand of God in the outward dispensation". He therefore assumes that God will have a particular charge to make against him, in connection with each of the calamities that have come on him, and he is prepared to face these changes and confute them. At the same time, he is undoubtedly much confused and perplexed, not knowing how to reconcile his traditional belief with his internal consciousness of innocence. Or let me speak, and answer thou me. "Let me," i.e.’ "take the initiative, if thou preferrest it so—let me ask the questions, and do thou answer." Job 13:23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? This is scarcely, as Professor Stanley Leathes represents it, "a deep confession of personal sin". It is more in the nature of a remonstrance. "These sins of mine, for which I. am so grievously punished, what are they? Name them. How many are there of them? Let me know exactly what they are; and then I can question my conscience concerning them." Make me to know my transgression and my sin. These words imply that lie does not know them at present. He knows of some infirmities and lighter misdoings of his youth (Job 13:26); but he knows of no such sins as are commensurate with his sufferings. Job 13:24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? What is thy reason for withdrawing from me the light of thy countenance, and behaving towards me as though thou weft mine enemy? Job does not believe God to be his enemy. He knows that God will one day be his Salvation (verse 16); but he recognizes a present alienation, and desires to be made acquainted with the cause of it. Job 13:25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? Job compares himself to two of the weakest things in nature—a withered leaf, and a morsel of dry stubble. He cannot believe that God will employ his almighty strength in crushing and destroying what is so slight and feeble. A deep sense of God’s goodness and compassion underlies the thought. Job 13:26 For thou writest bitter things against me. The allusion seems to be to the ordinary practice in ancient law-courts of formulating a written acte d’accusation against supposed criminals. Keeping up the imagery of a court and pleadings, Job represents God as engaged in drawing up such a document against him. The "bitter things" are the charges which the acts contains. And makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. Job, like David, has to acknowledge "sins and offences" committed in his youth (Psalms 25:6). In considering what the indictment against him can be, he can only suppose that these old and long-forsaken sins are being remembered and brought up against him, and that he is being punished for them. He does not exclaim against this as injustice; he feels probably that there is no statute of limitations respecting sins and their punishment; but it can scarcely have seemed to him consistent with God’s goodness and mercifulness that the offences of his immature age should be visited upon him so bitterly. Job 13:27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks (comp. Job 33:11). The punishment is said to be still in use among the Bedouin Arabs. It was well known to the Israelites (Proverbs 7:22; Jeremiah 20:2; Jeremiah 29:26), to the Greeks (Herod; 9.87), and to the Romans (Acts 16:24). And lookest narrowly unto all my paths. Not allowing me to escape thee. Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet; rather, upon the soles of my feet. The "print" intended is probably a mark which the stocks were in the habit of making. Job 13:28 And he. The change of person is very strange, but not unknown to the Hebrew idiom. It is impossible that any one but Job himself can be meant. As a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten. An allusion to the character of the disease from which he is suffering. Job 13:1-16 Job to Zophar: 4. A wounded soul at bay. I. THE VOICE OF FIERCE . Transfixing on the spear-point of his remorseless logic the men who had mocked at his misery, and converted his very piety into a laughing-stock, with infinite scorn Job holds them up a spectacle to angels and to men, charging them with at least three most detestable offences. 1. Ignoring of facts. They had favoured him with their views of how God conducted the affairs of the universe, citing apothegms, quoting proverbs, and adducing similitudes carefully selected to bear out their peculiar dogmas and preconceived theories; but he too could string together wise saws extracted from the ancients, being in respect of traditionary lore not one whir behind them (verse 2), and he had done it (Job 12:6, Job 12:14-25). What is more, he had observed in the world around him exemplifications of everything he had advanced (verse 1); and, unless they had been as blind as moles and as senseless as the ass to whose offspring they had compared him, they too must have frequently perceived the same. But they had not been willing to discover anything inconsistent with their favourite dogma; or they had travelled through the world with their eyes shut and their ears closed; or they had not been at the trouble to reflect and compare. Inattention, or want of observation, inconsideration, or want of reflection, insincerity, or want of a genuine love for the truth, are three formidable barriers in the way of man’s advancement in knowledge. The first is the fault of the careless, the second of the foolish, the third of the ungodly. Eye and ear, being the soul’s best gateways for knowledge, should be kept continually open. But the testimonies and reports which enter by these gateways should be subjected to diligent inspection and careful comparison. The truth once found should never fail to secure admission into the inner chamber of the heart. 2. Forging of lies. Instead of patiently collecting and collating facts from the opened page of human history, and deducing therefrom conclusions as to the principle or principles of the Divine government, Job’s friends first invented a theory, and then looked about for musty proverbs to support it. They were not philosophers or theologians at all, but simply theorists, inventors of sophisms, stitchers together of falsehoods, and fabricators of vanities (verse 4), who had endeavoured to construct a theodicy by mingling together a little bit of fact and a large amount of fancy, or by patching together a handful of ancient platitudes. Much of modern science, philosophy, and even theology, proceeds upon the principle here so severely castigated. The true Baconian method of induction, first to ascertain with minute accuracy, not a few, but, as far as possible, all the facts of the case before pronouncing judgment as to the formula which shall explain them, is the only safe guide to be followed in philosophical discussion, scientific research, or theological investigation. A formula that does not embrace every known fact, much more that is contradicted by any known fact, cannot be correct. 3. Accepting of persons. Passing on to a more serious indictment, Job charges them with abject and contemptible sycophancy; with taking God’s side simply because they knew he was strong; with supporting his cause by means of arguments which were consciously insincere, and generally with playing the part of flatterers—a course of conduct which Job declares to be: (1) Wicked in itself. "Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?" (verse 7). To propound fallacious theories, least of all to do so knowingly and deliberately, never can be right, even though such theories are advanced in favour of God and religion. This is practically done when men attempt to buttress up Divine truth, advance the Divine cause, or vindicate the Divine character by means of sophistical arguments. But not even in this case does the end sanctify, the means. (2) Unjust towards himself. "Will ye accept his person? will ye contend, for God?" (verse 8). To side with God in any controversy which he maintains with the creature never can be wrong considered in itself (Romans 3:4), but to do so without regard to the rights of that creature with whom God contends never can be right. Job complained that, in declining to believe his protestations of integrity, and in cruelly assuming without proof that he was guilty, his friends were practically showing partiality towards God, and behaving with unfairness towards him. But it never can be fight, in order to justify God, to perpetrate injustice against man. (3) Displeasing to God. "Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?" (verse 9). Were God to investigate their conduct, he could not possibly extend to it his approbation. They would seem to him as persons who were attempting to jest with and deceive him, as men jest with and deceive their fellows. Their behaviour would be wholly abhorred by him whose patrons they had so presumptuous!y constituted themselves, since God never can approve of falsehoods or injustices even m support of his own cause, which stands in no need whatever of sophistries or patronage of any sort. (4) Certain of exposure. "Shall it be well with you when he searches you out? or may you deceive him as a man is deceived?" No! verily. "He will surely reprove you, if ye secretly accept persons." And this in two ways; by confounding their persons: "Shall not his excellency make you afraid?" and exploding their doctrines: "Your remembrances," i.e. your memorable sayings, "are," or shall be, "like unto ashes;" literally, "shall be proverbs of ashes;" i.e. they shall be demonstrated to be as valueless and as easily effaced as similitudes traced upon the dust; "and your ramparts," i.e. the arguments behind which ye entrench yourselves, "shall be ramparts of clay," as easily broken through as mud wails. II. THE VOICE OF . 1. An appeal from man to God. "Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God!" (verse 3). So David, when the mouth of the wicked and the tongue of the deceitful opened against him, addressed himself to God in prayer (Psalms 109:2-4). Christ also, when his enemies gaped upon him with their mouths, sought refuge against their calumnies in holy intercourse with God (Psalms 22:2-21; Matthew 27:39-46; John 11:42). The example of both is commended to saints when similarly circumstanced (Psalms 55:22; Psalms 91:15; Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7), and has been frequently followed. Many who have been denied justice at the hands of their fellows have been constrained to appeal to the tribunal of the skies. It is a great mercy that such a court exists for suffering men, and that its door is never closed against the suit of a distressed saint (Psalms 34:15; 1 Peter 3:12; Luke 18:7, Luke 18:8). On the contrary, God’s people are invited to repair to him in every time of trouble (Psalms 50:15; Psalms 62:8; Romans 12:12; Hebrews 4:16), when burdened by affliction, when overtaken by spiritual anxiety, when misunderstood by men. If we may not maintain our sinlessness before God (Psalms 69:5), we can at least uphold our integrity (Job 10:7; John 21:15, John 21:16; Romans 1:9). But whatever be our case, it will be by him both exactly appreciated and tenderly sympathized with. 2. A request for non-interference on the part of man. "Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace I and it should be your wisdom" (verse 5); "Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak" (verse 13). Job advances two reasons for desiderating silence on the part of his friends. (1) It would greatly enhance their reputation for wisdom (cf. Proverbs 17:28). It is one mark of wisdom to know when to be silent; and it is better to he always silent than to utter heartless sophistries and pointless platitudes like those of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. (2) It would greatly facilitate his converse with God. In the soul’s supreme moments of spiritual distress, few things are more irksome than the well-meant but almost always irritating admonitions and advices of good people. The ordinary mind fails to see that, as there is a joy, so also there is a sorrow, with which no stranger can intermeddle (Proverbs 14:10). Besides, the great controversy between God and the human soul must be fought out in solitude and in silence, like the struggle at the ford of Jabbok between the angel and Jacob (Genesis 32:24). 3. A determination to defend his cause with God. (1) At all hazards. Job is prepared to go forward, "let come on him what will;" "to take his flesh in his teeth, and put his life in his hand;’ to undergo death itself if need be. "Behold! he may slay me: I entertain no hope," i.e; of any other issue to the conflict: "yet will I maintain my ways before him." However this verse be translated (vide Exposition), it contains a threefold testimony—to Job’s deeply seated consciousness of his own personal integrity; to Job’s clear moral honesty, since a hypocrite would never have proposed to invite the Divine inspection of himself and his ways; and to Job’s exalted heroism, which would rather brave death than dishonour, clinging to God with invincible fidelity in spite of overwhelming temporal disaster and mental anxiety; yea, in the face of death and dissolution—a sublime refutation of the Satanic calumny (Job 2:5). (2) Yet not without hope. Job was inwardly persuaded that the ultimate result of his venture would be triumphant vindication and salvation. This conviction was grounded on the fact of his intense inward longing to stand face to face with God. His reasoning takes the form of a syllogism. It is impossible that a man conscious of hypocrisy should desire an interview with God. But such desire is the all-absorbing passion of my soul. Therefore I indulge the hope that! am not a hypocrite, and that he who now seems to be my Adversary will eventually prove my Salvation. Learn: 1. It is the delight of a good man, the sign of a wise man, and the duty of all men, to study the ways and works of God. 2. It is no sin to vindicate one’s character when that is wrongly aspersed. 3. It requires a good cause to enable a weak man to speak with the Almighty. 4. It is not a fault in manners to reprove good men when they tell lies. 5. It is a fault in good men when they depart from the troth even by a hair’s breadth. 6. It is infinitely wiser not to talk at all than to talk like a fool. 7. It is dangerous to summon allies from the devil’s camp, even when fighting in the Lord’s battles. 8. It is an insult to God to suppose that light and darkness, truth and error, sincerity and hypocrisy, righteousness and unrighteousness, Christ and Belial, can be confederates. 9. It is better to revere God’s holiness on earth than to tremble before his glorious power in a future world. 10. It is a poor defence that even a good man finds in lies and deceptions. 11. It is preferable to part with life than with faith in God. 12. It is certain that, though a humble believer may be slam, he never can be lost. Job 13:15, Job 13:16 Faith and assurance. I. JOB’S FAITH. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Mark: 1. The Object of Job’s faith. God, as the Justifier of the ungodly who believe, since Job did not claim to be sinless, and yet expected to be justified. 2. The trial of Job’s faith. The intense sufferings, both physical and mental, through which he passed. The faith of God’s people is commonly subjected to trial. Yet it is doubtful if any have ever experienced greater difficulties in the way of believing in God than Job did. 3. The intensity of Job’s faith. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Job was determined that no amount of hardship should prevent him from confiding in the God of mercy and salvation; in which respect he is well worthy of imitation by Christ’s followers. 4. The triumph of Job’s faith. It was no mere boast on the part of Job that he would cling to God at all hazards, as it has often proved on the part of over-confident believers (e.g. Peter); but the issue of his trim established the sincerity of his words. His faith was often rudely assaulted, and sometimes appeared to tremble, but it was never overthrown. II. JOB’S . "He also shall be my Salvation" (verse 16); "I know that I shall be justified." Assurance of salvation is clearly possible, since it was enjoyed by Abel (Hebrews 11:3), Enoch (Hebrews 11:6), Abraham (Genesis 15:6), Moses (Exodus 15:2), David (Psalms 18:2), St. Paul (Philippians 1:21; 2 Timothy 4:8); it is also extremely desirable for the saint’s usefulness, as much as for the saint’s comfort, and in every instance in which it is possessed must be based, as Job’s was, on: 1. Belief in the Divine testimony. Job knew that he would be justified, not because he was a sinless man, but because he trusted in God; and this is the first ground of assurance to an anxious soul. The sinner that believes is sure of salvation, because "he that believeth shall be saved;" and every one who trusts in him that justifieth the ungodly may with confidence affirm, "I know that I shall be justified." 2. Consciousness of personal sincerity. That is, if a man, after careful self examination, discovers in himself the tokens of true piety and Christian integrity, he is warranted to conclude that he has passed from death to life, and God will eventually prove his salvation. Job felt he was not a hypocrite, but a sincerely upright man; and hence he knew that God would not condemn him. St. John, in his Epistles, supplies marks by which a man may determine for himself whether or not he is a genuine Christian disciple. Learn: 1. That without faith there can be no assurance. 2. That wherever there is faith there ought to be assurance. Job 13:17-28 Job to God: resumption of the third controversy: 1. The pleading of a saint with Heaven. I. TO THE . 1. Public audience invited. Job requests his discomfited friends to be silent spectators of the ensuing trial, and to attentively consider the defence he was about to offer (verse 17). Intended chiefly for the ear of God, it should yet contain nothing unfit for publication in the hearing of men. Conscious of sincerity, Job had nothing to conceal. Guilelessness is ever a mark of true saintship. "A man with a clear conscience can stand fearlessly before the whole world." Undaunted courage is also characteristic of the godly (Psalms 27:1; Proverbs 28:1; 1 John 3:21), who, however, unlike Job, are emboldened, not by a sense of their own integrity, but by a calm reliance on the righteousness of Christ (Isaiah 45:24, Isaiah 45:25; Isaiah 50:7-9; Romans 8:32-34). 2. Perfect readiness expressed. Job asserts (verse 18) that he had carefully arranged the several pleas he should urge in vindication of his outraged integrity. And in this Job’s example may be followed with advantage. Neither saint nor sinner should irreverently and presumptuously intrude into God’s presence without having first composed his heart and, as far as possible, arranged his thoughts (Ecclesiastes 5:2). No man is ready for reasoning with God in prayer until he knows both what he wants and how to plead for it. 3. Hopeful confidence entertained. "I know that I shall be justified" (verse 18). This was no presumption on the part of Job, who probably based his justification before God, in the strictly forensic sense of absolution and acceptance, not upon his own righteousness, but upon the free favour of God, through the merit of his Redeemer (Job 19:25); but merely that inward consciousness of personal integrity which a good man may justly rely on as evidence of a gracious state, and by which he may encourage his fainting spirit when about to appear before God, like Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:3), David (Psalms 26:1), St. Peter (John 21:17), St. Paul (Romans 9:1), and St. John (1 John 3:21). Of course, it would be presumption were a sinful man, standing on his own righteousness, to expect that he would be justified before God (Psalms 143:2; Romans 3:20). But, trusting in the great propitiatory sacrifice of him who is "the Lord our Righteousness," the guiltiest and most unworthy sinner may draw near to God with holy boldness (Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:22), and with absolute assurance of acceptance and salvation (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:1), saying, "I know that I shall be justified." 4. Sinful impeachment challenged. "Who is he that will plead with me?" i.e. against me, contradicting and disproving what I now so fearlessly assert, viz. my personal integrity. If there is any, let him stand forth and establish his indictment. If be succeed in tarnishing my fair name, "I shall be silent, I shall give up the ghost," feeling that, honour gone, life itself can have no further charm for me. Many a one besides Job has felt that "good name in man and woman is the immediate jewel of their souls" (’Othello,’ Acts 3. sc. 3), "the immortal part" of themselves (ibid; Acts 2. sc. 3), and that, that being lost, nothing worthy of possessing can remain (cf.’Richard II.,’ Acts 1. sc. 1). Job’s language reminds us of St. Paul’s address to his accusers before Felix (Acts 24:16-21); and afterwards before Festus (Acts 25:11); also of the loftier challenge addressed by Christ to his countrymen (Isaiah 50:8; John 8:46). And though certainly believers cannot use the question as did Christ, and may sometimes have a difficulty in employing it in the sense of either Job or St. Paul, it is always open to them, as they keep their eyes on the cross, to exclaim, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?" (Romans 8:33). II. OF THE . 1. A cessation of his troubles. (Verse 21.) The hand of God a frequent biblical expression for affliction (1 Samuel 5:6, 1 Samuel 5:7; Psalms 32:4; Psalms 38:2; Isaiah 1:25), which is sent (Deuteronomy 8:5; 2 Samuel 7:14; Job 5:17; Psalms 94:12; Hebrews 12:6, Hebrews 12:7), guided (Job 33:17-19; Proverbs 3:11, Proverbs 3:12; Isaiah 48:10; Ezekiel 20:37), and removed (Psalms 50:15; Psalms 66:12; Zechariah 13:9; John 16:20; Matthew 5:4) by Divine wisdom and power. The fatherly chastisements of God are directly designed to refine and purify the saintly soul (Job 36:8, Job 36:10; Isaiah 48:10: Hebrews 12:11), and to draw it near his footstool in penitence and faith, humility and love (Hosea 5:15; Hebrews 12:9). Yet, not unfrequently, one of the first effects of bodily affliction upon a good man, especially if it be severe, is to discompose his mind, disturb his heart, and generally unfit him for converse with God.—Notwithstanding the spiritual benefits folded up in tribulation, there can be no greater blessing, even with a view to the exercises of religion, than mens sans in sano corpore. Much of the spiritual depression experienced by Christians is traceable to extreme bodily infirmity, though sometimes happy invalids can say with St. Paul," When I am weak, then am I strong;" "Most gladly will I glory in infirmities, that the power of God may rest upon me." Then, if pious souls, groaning beneath the pressure of physical maladies and mental anxieties, find it hard to concentrate their thoughts upon Divine things, what must be the madness of those who delay the work of repenting and pleading with God for forgiveness and salvation till they are lying on a sick-bed, racked with pain, and perhaps trembling in the grasp of death? 2. A removal of his fear. (Verse 21.) The Divine character has a terrifying, as well as an attractive, side to sinful man. The glory of the Divine purity is so effulgent (Job 4:18), of the Divine justice so incorruptible (Job 9:2), of the Divine wisdom so ineffable (Job 9:4), of the Divine strength so overwhelming (Job 9:19), that the human spirit instinctively shrinks back in alarm. Burdened with guilt, tainted with pollution, lying under condemnation, it cannot hold up its head in the presence of such awful majesty, but, falling prostrate before the footstool of heaven’s glorious King, exclaims, like Isaiah, "Woe is me; for I am undone!" (Isaiah 6:5); and like David, "In judgment enter not with me, thy servant poor; For why, this well I wet, no sinner can endure The sight of thee, O God." (Psalms 143:2, metrical version.) And like St. Peter, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8). Job felt that, unless his mind were relieved from such paralyzing views of the overwhelming grandeur of his invisible Judge, it would be utterly hopeless to expect he could even state his case aright, much less win his cause. Hence already he had craved the interposition of a daysman, who should both take away God’s rod and remove God’s fear (Job 9:34) in order to enable him to speak; and to this he apparently again recurs. Happily such a daysman has been provided for us in Christ, in whom the anxious sinner may now behold, not only the rod of Divine punishment removed, but the greatness of the Divine glory veiled, so that one who desires to speak with God may do so without a fear, "whether God himself opens the cause, or permits him to have the first word." III. OF THE . 1. A bold interrogation. (Verse 23.) (1) A valuable definition. Sin is ’avon, or perverse acting, a bending, twisting, or turning aside from the Divine Law; chattah, a false step, hence a failing, an error, a sin of weakness or infirmity; and pesha’, a breaking away, hence deliberate and malignant wickedness. The first epithet describes the nature of sin—" it is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the Law of God;" the second points to the source of sin—human weakness (Jeremiah 10:23); while the third indicates the heinousness of sin—it is essentially rebellion against God (Romans 8:7). Or the three expressions may allude to different kinds of sin, palpable offences, venial imperfections, notorious crimes, of all which Job was supposed to be guilty. (2) A candid confession. Whatever iniquities, sins, or transgressions Job had committed, God perfectly knew them, could reckon up their number and estimate their heinousness. Men often are unconscious of their faults, frequently forget their shortcomings, and can seldom realize the enormity of their wickednesses. But all these are patent to God’s omniscient mind (Psalms 69:5; Psalms 73:23; Luke 16:15; Hebrews 4:13). (3) A passionate supplication. That God would enable Job to understand the nature and enormity of those offences of which he had been guilty, and for which his friends alleged he was suffering. The prayer is admirably suited to and urgently needed by all, though not in the sense in which it was employed by Job. No man can attain to a clear discovery, of his own sinfulness, to an adequate estimate of the number of his misdeeds, to a just appreciation of their essential wickedness, except through Divine teaching. Such teaching God imparts through his Word (Psalms 94:12; Romans 7:9) and Spirit (John 16:8). (4) An obvious implication. Job designed it to be understood that he himself was unconscious of any such offences, though of course he did not claim to be entirely innocent. 2. An inexplicable problem. (Verse 24.) Here is (1) a painful experience, the sense of having lost the Divine favour, to a gracious soul the highest blessing attainable or even conceivable on earth (Psalms 30:5; Psalms 63:3); (2) a common experience, realized by David (Isaiah 13:1; Isaiah 22:1), by Heman (Psalms 88:14), and by Christ (Matthew 27:46), as well as by many of Christ’s followers since; (3) a mysterious experience, not that God should hide his face and seem to withdraw his favour from a sinful soul, but that, having once admitted a repenting and believing sinner to his love, he should to all appearance cast him off—a course of conduct for which Job was perfectly at a loss to account; yet (4) a needful experience, in the case of Christ to make him perfect as a Saviour, in that of Job, David, Heman, and others to make them perfect as saints. 3. A pathetic expostulation. (1) The unworthiness of the Divine conduct in afflicting Job. Absolutely powerless and insignificant had Job become through his long-continued trouble, like a fallen leaf upon the way, agitated and tossed by every passing wind, or like the withered stubble of a corn-field, and yet the Almighty assailed him with the full force of his Divine artillery, as if he were some formidable opponent whom it required the battalions of omnipotence to crush (verse 25). To Job’s mind it seemed wholly incongruous, entirely preposterous, completely unbecoming the Divine Majesty. So God’s procedure in providence oftentimes appears to sense and reason unworthy of his greatness and glory; but faith, coming to the rescue, reminds the doubting heart that doeth all things well. (2) The seeming injustice of God’s conduct in afflicting Job. Conscious of innocence in his riper years, Job could only offer, as the solution of that perplexing enigma by which he was confronted, that God was going back upon the sins of his youthful days, although these had long since been repented of and forgiven (verse 26). But sin once forgiven is for ever forgotten (Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:18, Micah 7:19). God never reproduces for punishment the transgression he has freely pardoned. Yet the iniquities of youth which have not been cancelled by Divine mercy have a strange power of self-resuscitation in riper years; and God often makes wicked men (e.g. the drunkard, the profligate), in accordance with the established and righteous laws of retribution, to inherit, or possess, or reap the hitter fruits in old age of the excesses and indulgences of youth. Hence the necessity of cultivating moral purity in youth, and the propriety in after-years of praying, "Remember not the sins of my youth" (Psalms 25:7). (3) The extreme severity of God’s conduct in afflicting Job, who was treated like a prisoner; whose feet were thrust into the stocks, as were those of Jer 20:2; Jeremiah 29:6, and of Paul and Silas (Acts 16:24); whose steps were narrowly watched, lest he should either enjoy too much freedom or attempt to escape (cf. Job 10:14; and see homiletics on Job 7:12-21), and whose liberty was (according to one interpretation), restrained within narrow limits, by a boundary or circle drawn around the soles of his feet (Jeremiah 29:27), and that though he, the chained, inspected, and immured prisoner, was a poor miserable creature, lying rotting on an ash-heap like a garment that the moth gnaweth (Jeremiah 29:28). Learn: 1. The gratitude which saints and sinners both owe to God for the throne of grace. 2. The sublime fearlessness with which the guiltiest no less than the godliest may approach that throne. 3. The liberty which all enjoy to pour out their hearts before God. 4. The propriety of seeking a more intimate acquaintance with the reality and power of indwelling sin. 5. The sinfulness of supposing that God ever treats any of his creatures as enemies. Job 13:23 The knowledge of sin. I. MAKE ME TO KNOW THE REALITY OF SIN, in case I should deny it and be deceived. II. MAKE ME TO KNOW THE POWER OF SIN, lest, being taken unawares, I should become its slave. III. MAKE ME TO KNOW THE OF SIN, lest, making light of it, I should be led to glory in my shame. IV. MAKE ME TO KNOW THE GUILT OF SIN, lest, being indifferent to its danger, I should, fail to seek escape. V. MAKE ME TO KNOW THE OF SIN, lest, doubting of God’s mercy, I should sink into despair. BY E. JOHNSON Job 13:1-22 Man’s injustice and the justice of God. Job proceeds to turn the tables upon these self-complacent friends, who are so disposed to moralize and find illustrations of their conceptions of the Divine righteousness at his expense. His friends, however, really do him a service; not, indeed, by manifesting the sympathy he craves, but by throwing him upon his own resources—still better, by throwing him upon his God. The tonic of opposition is sometimes far more needed in mental suffering than is the soothing draught of sympathy. The former braces, the latter enervates. It appears to be so now with Job. He rouses the forces of his soul, as the palm tree stirs up its vital energies beneath the weight attached to its branches; and he rushes upon the last cast. He will throw himself, regardless of consequences, upon the pity and justice of the Eternal.—J. Job 13:1-12 Correction of the friends. I. IN JOB’S ADDRESS. (Job 13:1-3.). He pauses for a moment before entering on a new course of thought. He asserts that his experience has not been without fruit. The eye, the ear, the mouth (Job 12:11), are the physical symbols of living and actual experience. So St. John: "That which we have heard,… seen with our eyes looked upon, and our bands have handled" (1 John 1:1). And in no particular is their knowledge, in virtue of which they presume to lake so high ground, superior to his own. II. RESOLVE. "To speak to the Almighty, to reason with God." It is a bold, yet a truly reverential and a believing resolve. It reminds us of Abraham pleading for the cities of the plain, It is founded on the firm apprehension of the moral attributes of God, which he cannot deny without denying himself. On this ground we may even venture safely. Boldly we may come to the throne of grace, and beseech God not to forsake the eternal throne of his holiness. III. OF THE OF HIS FRIENDS. (Verses 4-6.) No sooner is the resolve taken to appeal to God than new strength comes to the heart. Job rises above the cloud of misconstruction that has gathered about him, like the tall cliff towering above the clouds, and looks down with scorn on these "forgers of lies," these "worthless physicians." It is his turn to be the instructor, and theirs to hold their peace. IV. . (Verses 7-9.) He proceeds severely to expose their errors, and to lay bare the root from which they proceed. 1. They seek to honour God at the expense of truth, which is a corrupt zeal; for the God of truth can only be honoured by truth in words and deeds. 2. They are moved by the instinct of flattery, and thus become partial, one-sided advocates for God. But God is not exalted by depressing man, nor honoured by injustice done to his creatures. 3. Their accusations of others show ignorance of themselves. And how would it be if scrutiny were now to be made into their lives? and would they dare to cast the load of guilt on the unhappy in his awful presence? They are reflections like these which are needed to check the uncharitable thought and bridle the censorious tongue. V. MENACE. (Verses 10-12.) These grave faults cannot be committed with impunity. God would punish them for their partiality. His majesty, on his appearance, will confound them. They will be treated as sinners, and all their memoranda, their fine sayings, which they have got by heart rather than derived from deep experience (verse 12), will be scattered like dust and fall to the ground like crumbling structures of clay. "For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall be brought unto judgment." Thus Job shakes himself free from his shallow counsellors before turning solemnly to God. LESSONS. 1. In casting responsibility on others we may be incurring greater responsibility ourselves. 2. We should hesitate to apply truth to others before we have first applied it to ourselves. 3. Self-knowledge fits us for the office of counsel; blindness to self exposes us to rebuke and judgment.—J. Job 13:13-22 Job’s appeal to God. I. DREAD OF THE RESULT OF THE APPEAL COMES UPON HIS MIND AT THE VERY MOMENT OF HIS RESOLVE. (Verses 13-15.) So with Moses (Exodus 33:20), with Manoah and his wife (Judges 13:22); so with Abraham pleading for the cities of the plain (Genesis 18:23, et seq.). It is the consciousness of weakness in the presence of omnipotence, of sinfulness in the presence of perfect holiness, which checks the spirit on the threshold of the unseen world and the unseen Presence. Over the door of an Eastern temple (as Spenser tells the story) there was an inscription, "Be bold," and over a second door repeated, "Be bold;" and again, "Be bold, and evermore be bold;" but last of all over the inner door was written, "Be not too bold." So fear and reverence chasten the confidence with which the believing child of God, in the full confidence of right, draws near to him. II. TERROR LAID ASIDE. (Verses 15, 16.) There is solace to Job in the thought that he shall be able to speak forth his most sacred convictions before he dies (verse 15). But there is another and a nobler train of thought suggested here. His innocence will at last lead to his deliverance; for no unholy man dares appear before God; but he is not conscious of an unholy mind. Compare the noble fifteenth psalm. III. DEMAND FOR A HEARING FROM HIS . (Verses 17-19.) In this brief challenge we see all the features of the demeanour of a sincere and upright soul in the hour of trial. 1. Undaunted courage. 2. Presentiment of victory. 3. Readiness for all opponents and for all consequences. These are the arms which innocence furnishes, and in which the weakest and most defenceless may be arrayed as in a panoply. IV. . (Verses 20-22.) Before proceeding with his appeal, Job makes two requests: (1) that his pains may be assuaged; (2) that he may not be terrified by the sudden visitation of God (comp. Job 9:34). These he asks as the guarantees of the freedom of his speech. There is something deeply pathetic in this vacillation between confidence and fear—the confidence derived from the sense of innocence and right, the fear which the thought of the dread presence of the Divine must ever impress. LESSONS. 1. He who is most confident in the assurance of his innocence before man will be the most humble and timid in the presence of God. 2. Faith must finally overcome fear in every true heart.—J. Job 13:23-28 Self-defence before God: 1. The weak against the Strong. I. THE CRY OF INJURED . (Job 13:23.) He asks that he may have his sins enumerated and brought home to him, and that he may not thus ever be punished without the knowledge of the nature of his guilt. II. SENSE OF THE SILENCE AND OF GOD. (Job 13:24) God does not answer his challenge, and still his suffering continues, as if he were a foe to whom the Almighty deigns not to utter a word. The silence, the seeming deafness and dumbness of God before his creatures’ pitiful cries, is more awful than all his thunder. Oh that he would but speak, in whatever accents! Man can never cease to agonize, to pray, to wrestle with the Unseen, until he extorts some response to the cry and craving of his heart. III. PLAINT OF THE OF SELF IN THE OF . (Job 13:25.) He has two vivid figures to represent this weakness: (1) that of the leaf, driven to and fro by the wind, so feeble and vanishing a thing has his life become; (2) that of the dry and worthless stubble; and yet God is against him as if he would drive and purge away every vestige of his existence. His fan is in his hand, and he is winnowing his floor from this useless chaff! IV. SENSE OF THE OF HIS SIN. (Job 13:26.) In addition to his natural pains, he is loaded with the memories of long-past sins, which he had thought forgiven. The record of the sins of youth still seems to stand in the Divine book. Remembrance turns the past to pain. Men look indulgently on the "sins of youth," both in themselves and others. But here is a warning against these light views of transgression. The sowing of" wild oats" is certain, sooner or later, to be followed by a bitter harvest (comp. Psalms 25:7). V. THE SENSE OF BEING AND WATCHED. (Job 13:27.) He is like a criminal with his feet fastened in a block of wood, which he must carry with him wherever he goes. And all this power and violence, this watching and restraint, is put forth on one who is as helpless and broken as a worm-eaten, moth-gnawed garment (Job 13:28).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 13:15 Faith in God bringing resignation. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Thus doth Job declare his unshaken affiance in God. He lifts his thoughts from the reasonings of his friends; he rises superior, at least for the time, to the oppression of his sufferings, and with a boldness that does him honour, and a confidence warranted by his belief in the Divine Name, he gives utterance to an expression of faith which has passed from lip to lip all through the ages, and has been a classical formula of faith for the saddest and most deeply afflicted amongst the children of men. How is the world indebted to them who, with a true heroism, declare their faith in the wisdom and goodness of the Lord! I. FAITH IS NEEDED IN OF THE MANY HEAVY TRIALS OF THE HUMAN HEART. External sources of help are often cut off. They altogether fall. There is no hand of strength, no word of power, no sufficient consolation. In bodily affliction the skill of the wisest may be set at nought. In the trials of life all help from outward sources may fail. The sorrow is too deep for an unaided heart to bear up under. Where shall the afflicted soul hide? There is help only in spiritual sources. God is the final goal of the afflicted spirit. "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," is the ultimate utterance of the soul when all resources of help are cut off. But for this faith is needed—faith that apprehends the unseen and spiritual. The soul at Such times is borne up only by faith, and the faith that is needed is a supreme, lowly, unhesitating faith. Happy he who has it. II. FAITH IS BY THE OF GOD. This is the one unfailing refuge. This, of all, is most worthy of trust. We cannot always trust the words of human kindness, even friendship. The good resolves may fail from inability to fulfil them. We may be mistaken. Our trust may rest on a deceitful foundation. Our staff may break and pierce our hand. But we always know that the character of God is unassailable. He has an assured ground of confidence who trusts in the Name of the Lord, whose repose is in the Divine character. Absolute goodness, perfect wisdom, infinite love,—these form the warrant of faith. III. It is right and wise, therefore, THAT FAITH BE . Let him who has learnt where the soul may find refuge and help declare it to others. Let him glorify God by his feeble tribute. It is his best, if his lowliest, offering. How great an indignity we feel if any one disputes our veracity! But he who confides in our word and character, even in times when both are aspersed, pays to us the highest tribute of friendship and of faith. So let us bring our humble offerings of trust, of thankfulness, and love—our spiritual gold, frankincense, and myrrh—and lay them at the feet of the everlasting King. Though be lay the heaviest burdens upon me, I will not doubt his goodness; though he treat me as a dog, yet will I cleave to him. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." IV. Such a faith is SURE TO RE . 1. It has its reward in the peace of mind which it brings. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." The driven sparrow finds its house, and the swallow its nest. The dove returns to the ark. When there is no rest for the wounded spirit, it turns and finds its rest in God. Here it hides and waits in an assured hope. Job was brought to the very earth; but the Lord, who seemed to be slaying him, raised him up and gave him an abundant reward. 2. A further reward is secured in the character gained. 3. And yet a further one in the final Divine approbation of the faithful, trusting, submissive, obedient servant. Such faith shall not lose its reward.—R.G. Job 13:24 The reasons for sorrow. It has ever been a longing of the suffering heart of man to know why afflictions are permitted. Job is a striking example of the sufferer reduced to questioning. He makes his appeal for the reasons. "Wherefore hidest thou thy face?" Others have urged this inquiry. Even the Exemplar of all patient, submissive, trustful, obedient sufferers cried aloud, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" But the answer comes not to Job with the quickness he may have desired. Yet though he giveth none account of his ways, all may be assured his purposes are wise and good. In the light of later teachings we may read "the end of the Lord." That which we "endure" we know "is for chastening." This, then, is the answer in general to the cry, "Wherefore hidest thou thy face?" Then, as far as we can interpret the answer to the cry to which no answer is immediately given, we may say— I. A reason for sorrow may be found in ITS FITNESS TO BE A TEST OF FAITH. That faith should be tested, and so developed and perfected, is an obvious propriety. But for such testing it would be a dead, inoperative faculty. As the wing of the young eagle is strengthened by the demands made upon it when borne aloft, and then committed to its own unaided effort, so faith grows in strength by every appeal made to it. It is here experience is gained. By this men grow. The heart is made acquainted with "the ways of the Lord." The exercised faculty becomes familiarized with its duties. It learns to bear a heavier strain. Each successful performance of duty leaves it better fitted to act in future. The strong faith is the faith that has berne the severe test. II. A second reason may be found in THE OF . The heroic fortitude of the soul that can endure "as seeing him who is invisible" is not gained with suddenness. By slow steps is this height reached. By slow accretions is this grace perfected. The man unaccustomed to discomfort is unwilling to leave his freedom and ease, and to undertake toilsome and painful service. Sorrow oppresses the soul, but it thereby develops that power by which the soul is upheld. The slothful, self-indulgent spirit is unfitted for hard toil; and the world needs the willing labourer. There is a schooling of the soul by self-denial, by fasting. The substitute for the self-imposed training is the divinely imposed trial. The trial of faith is very precious if it leaves the soul steadier in patient endurance. By such trained souls is the world’s great work to be done. III. SORROW THE SOUL IN A LOWLY TO THE DIVINE WILL. "It is the Lord: let him do as seemeth him good," may be a defiant cry of rebellion: "Do thy worst;" or it may be a lowly, trustful, resigned committal of the life to the Divine purposes: "What he wills is best." The school of affliction is a hard school, but its patient scholars are well taught. And though "no affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." IV. SORROW MAY BE THE MEANS OF EVOKING THE MOST SINCERE AND OF . The histories of human suffering present us with examples of consummate and unflinching obedience, rendered in unquestioning acquiescence in the Divine purpose and in the pure love of the heart. The highest point ever reached by the obedient spirit was that of our great Pattern, who, in the depth of darkest affliction and sorrow of soul, patiently reiterated the sublime expression of a wholly consecrated service, "Nevertheless not my will, but thy will, be done."—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 13:1, Job 13:2 Trite sayings. Job’s complaint is that there was nothing new in his friends’ pretentious harangues. All their pompous airs of superiority and authority did not deceive the patriarch, and prevent him from detecting the essentially commonplace character of their ideas. I. MOST SAYINGS ARE TRITE. It is not often given to a man to discover a new truth. Even when a person makes a remark that is original in him, i.e. that he has not derived from any other man, the probability is that some one else has said something very like it before. Too often, when a man is pretentious of novelty, what is fresh is only the garb of his notion. The newest extravagances in religion are generally only old heresies exhumed and magnetized into a semblance of life. It is foolish to think of astounding the world with our ideal. Even in Job’s day people were weary of the little stock of notions that was in circulation among the most intelligent classes. II. THE FUSSY OF TRITE SAYINGS CAN DO NO GOOD. Job’s three friends only vexed the sorrowing man by repeating what he knew as well as they. The same mistake is often made in foolish attempts at administering consolation. No sayings are so trite as those that treat of suffering and its uses. The very commonness of the lot of suffering, and the very obviousness of some of its circumstances, have made the stock precepts of sorrow very familiar to all of us. It is useless to go to a person in trouble and repeat them once more. It would be better to be silent. Silence might affect him as a most original novelty. III. TRITE SAYINGS MAY BE TRUE AND . This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 14:1-22 This chapter, in which Job concludes the fourth of his addresses, is characterized by a tone of mild and gentle expostulation, which contrasts with the comparative vehemence and passion of the two preceding chapters. It would seem that the patriarch, having vented his feelings, experiences a certain relief, an interval of calm, in which, his own woes pressing less heavily upon him, he is content to moralize on the general condition of humanity. Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman. In this fact Job sees the origin of man’s inherent weakness. He is "born of a woman," who is "the weaker vessel" (1 Peter 3:7). He is conceived by her in uncleanness (Psalms 51:5; comp. below, Psalms 51:4), brought forth in sorrow and pain (Genesis 3:16) suckled at her breasts, placed for years under her guidance. No wonder that he shares the weakness of which she is a sort of type. Is of few days; literally, short of days. Length and shortness of days are, no doubt, relative; and it is difficult to say what term of life would not have seemed short to men as they looked back upon it. To Jacob, at the age of a hundred and thirty, it appeared that "few and evil had the days of the years of his life been" (Genesis 47:9). Methuselah, perhaps, thought the same. We all, as we come towards old age, and death draws manifestly near, feel as if we had only just begun to live, as if, at any rate, we had not done half our work, and were about to be cut off before our time. But would the case be seriously different if our tale of years were doubled? And fall of trouble (comp. Job 5:7). Job 14:2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. Few similes are more frequently used in Scripture (comp. Psalms 103:15; Isaiah 28:1, Isaiah 28:4; Isaiah 40:6, Isaiah 40:7; James 1:10, James 1:11; 1 Peter 1:24), and certainly none could have more poetic beauty. Eastern flowers do not often last much more than a day. He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not (comp. Job 7:2; Job 8:9; 1 Chronicles 29:15; Psalms 102:11; Psalms 109:23; Ecclesiastes 6:12, etc.). Shadows are always changing; but the shadows which flee away the fastest, and which Job has probably in his mind, are those of clouds, or other moving objects, which seem to chase each other over the earth, and never to continue for a single minute in one stay. Job 14:3 And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one? Is it compatible with God’s greatness, unchangeableness, and majesty to take any notice of so poor, weak, and unstable a creature as mortal man? The question has been often asked, and answered by many in the negative, as by the Epicureans of old. Job does not really entertain any doubt upon the point; but only intends to express his wonder that it should be so (comp. Psalms 8:4, and above, Job 7:17). And bringest me into judgment with thee? Especially astonishing is it, Job says, that God should condescend to try, pass judgment on, and punish so weak, worthless, and transitory a creature as himself. Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. It is scarcely true to say that "the fact of original sin is thus distinctly recognized". Original uncleanness and infirmity are recognized; but the uncleanness is material, and removable by material expiation (Le Job 12:2-8). It is rather man’s weakness than his sinfulness that is here under discussion. Job 14:5 Seeing his days are determined. Job here returns to the consideration of the shortness of man’s life. "His days are determined;’’ i.e. they are a limited period, known to and fixed beforehand by God. They are not like God’s days, which "endure throughout all generations" (Psalms 102:24). The number of his months are with thee. "With thee" means here "known to thee," "laid up in thy counsels." Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. "His bounds" are "the limit of his lifetime." The three clauses are pleonastic. One idea pervades them all. Job 14:6 Turn from him, that he may rest; literally, look away from him; i.e. "Cease to watch him and search him out so continually" (comp. Job 7:17, Job 7:18). "Then he will be able to have a breathing-time, an interval of peace and rest, before his departure from the earth." What Job had previously desired for himself (Job 10:20) he now asks for all humanity. Till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day. Hired labourers are glad when their day’s work is over. So man rejoices when life comes to an end. Job 14:7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down. God’s vegetable creation is better off, in respect of length of days, than man. Let a tree be cut down, it is not therefore of necessity destroyed. There is yet hope for it. The bare dry stump will sometimes put forth tender branches, which will grow and flourish, and renew the old life. Or, if the stump be quite dead, suckers may spring up from the root and grow into new trees as vigorous as the one that they replace (comp. Isaiah 11:1). Herodotus considered that all trees had this recuperative power, except the πίτυς, a species of fir (Herod; 6.37), and the traveller Shaw says that when a palm tree dies there is always a sucker ready to take its place. Pliny also observes of the laurel, "Viva-cissima est radix, ita ut, si truncus ina-ruerit, recisa arbor mox laetius frutificet" (’Hist. Nat.,’ 1.15. § 30). That it will sprout again. That is, from the spool or stump. Some trees, as the Spanish chest. nut, if cut down flush with the ground, throw up shoots from the entire circle of the stomp, often as many as fifteen or twenty. And that the tender branch thereof will not cease. The vigour of such shoots is very great. In a few years they grow to the height of the parent tree. If they are then removed they are quickly replaced by a fresh growth. Job 14:8, Job 14:9 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. After the stump is actually dead, suckers may be thrown up from the roots, if sufficient water be supplied to them; and these will put forth branches luxuriantly. Job 14:10 But man dieth. "Man" is here גבר, "the brave, strong man," not אדם or אנוֹשׁ, and the meaning is that man, however brave and’ strong, perishes. And wasteth away; i.e. "comes to nought, remains no strength or vitality." Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? "Where is he?" Job could not answer this question. He might say, "In Sheol." But where was Sheol, and what was Sheol? There was no written revelation on this subject, and no traditional knowledge on which dependence could be placed. The Hebrew notions on the subject were very vague and indeterminate; Job’s notions are likely to have been still vaguer. There is no reason to believe that he had any exact acquaintance with the tenets of the Egyptians. He may have known the Chaldean teaching, but it would not have carried him very far. Doubt and perplexity beset him whenever he turned his attention to the problem of man’s condition after death, and, excepting when carried away by a burst of enthusiasm, he seems to have regarded it as the highest wisdom, in matters of this kind, "to knew that he knew nothing." The question, "Where is he?" is an acknowledgment of this profound ignorance. Job 14:11 As the waters fail from the sea. The allusion seems to be to the actual desiccation of seas and rivers. Job, apparently, had known instances of both. A formation of new land in the place, of sea is always going on at the head of the Persian Gulf, through the deposits of the Tigris and Euphrates; and this formation was very rapid in ancient times, when the head of the gulf was narrower. The desiccation of river-courses is common in Mesopotamia, where arms thrown out by the Tigris and Euphrates get blocked, and then silted up. And the flood decayeth and drieth up; rather, and the river decayeth’ etc. (see the comment on the preceding clause). Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not. This is not an absolute denial of a final resurrection, since Job is speaking of the world as it lies before him, not of eventualities. Just as he sees the land encroach upon the sea, and remain land, and the river-courses, once dried up, remain dry, so he sees men descend into the grave and remain there, without rising up again. This is the established order of nature as it exists before his eyes. Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake. This order of things, Job believes, rightly enough, will continue as long as the heavens and the earth endure. What will happen afterwards he does not so much as inquire. It is remarked, ingeniously, that Job’s words, though not intended in this sense, exactly "coincide with the declarations of the New Testament, which make the resurrection simultaneous with the breaking up of the visible universe" (Canon Cook). Nor be raised out of their sleep. If "the glimmer of a hope" of the resurrection appears anywhere in verses 10-12, it is in the comparison of death to a sleep, which is inseparably connected in our minds with an awakening. Job 14:13 Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave! literally, in Sheol, which here does not so much mean "the grave," as the place of departed spirits, described in Job 10:21, Job 10:22. Job desires to have God’s protection in that" land of darkness," and to be "hidden" there by him until his wrath be past. It has been generally supposed that he means after his death; but Schultens thinks his desire was to descend to Sheol alive, and there remain, while his punishment continued, hidden from the eyes of men. That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past. Job assumes that, if he is being punished for his youthful sins (Job 13:26), his punishment will not be for long—at any rate, not for ever; God’s anger will at last be satisfied and cease. That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! How long he may have to suffer be does not greatly care. Only let it be "a set time"—a fixed, definite period—and at the end of it, let God "remember" him. Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? The question is clearly intended to be answered in the negative. It is not a dispassionate inquiry, but an expression of hopelessness. Let a man once die, and of course he cannot live again. Were it otherwise, then, Job says, all the days of my appointed time will I wait; or, rather (as in the Revised Version), all the days of my warfare would I wait; i.e. I would patiently endure any sufferings in the larger hope that would then be open to me. I would wait till my change (rather, my renewal) come. The exact nature of the ’renewal’’ which Job seems here to expect is obscure. Perhaps he is pursuing the idea, broached in verse 13, of his being conveyed alive to Hades, and looks forward to a furthur renewed life after he is released from that "land of darkness." Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; rather, thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee (see the Revised Version). In that case, when I quitted Hades, and renewed my life, thou wouldst assuredly summon me to thee, and I would respond to the summons. There would be sweet colloquy between us; for thou wilt (or, rather, wouldest) have a desire to the work of thine hands (comp. Job 10:8-11). Job assumes that God must love whatever he has created, and be drawn towards it by a secret, strong desire. Job 14:16 For now thou numberest my steps; rather, but now. Job, at this point, proceeds to contrast his actual condition with the ideal one which (in verses 13-15) his imagination has conjured up. God’s actual attitude towards him he regards as one, not of protecting love, but of jealous hostility. His "steps" are observed, counted—every divergence from the right path is noted—a false step, if he makes one, is at once punished. Dost thou not watch over my sin? (comp. Job 10:14). Job’s sins, he thinks, are watched for, spied out, taken note of, and remembered against him. Job 14:17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag (comp. Deuteronomy 32:34); i.e. God keeps account of all my transgressions. It is as if he put them all into a bag (compare "Put my tears into thy bottle," Psalms 56:8), whence they can be taken out and brought against me at any moment. They are "sealed up" in the bag for greater security. And thou sewest up mine iniquity. (So Ewald, Dillmaun, Canon Cook, and the Revised Version.) Others think the meaning to be, "Thou addest to my iniquity [continually];" i.e. by placing fresh sins to my account. (So Schultens and Rosenmuller.) Job 14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought. Job here resumes the lament ’over human infirmity, with which the chapter opens (verses 1-12); but he has, perhaps, in this passage, his own case mote distinctly presented to his consciousness. With the wealth of metaphor which characterizes his utterances, he compares the ruin of a prosperous man (1) to the sudden collapse of a mountain; (2) to the removal of a rock out of its place; (3) to the wearing away of stones by the constant flow of streams; and (4) to the destruction of alluvial tracts by floods. Mountains collapse, either by volcanic agency, which is quite as much shown in the subsidence as in the elevation of the soil, or by landslips, which are most usually the results of heavy rains. And the rock is removed out of his place. Rocks are sometimes split by frost, and topple over when a thaw comes; at other times, heavy floods remove them from their accustomed place; occasionally earthquakes overturn them, and cause them to fall with a crash. There is also a removal of rocks to much greeter distances, by means of glaciers and icebergs; but of these Job is not likely to have known. Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones. The power of the soft element of water, by continual washing or dripping, to wear away the hardest stone, has often been noticed, and is a frequent topic in poetry. Deep ravines have been worn in course of time, through broad and lofty mountain ranges by rivers, the stone yielding little by little to the action of the water, until at last a broad chasm is made. So the continual wearing action of calamity often lays low the prosperous. Thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; rather, as in the Revised Version, the overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth; i.e. "overflows of water, inundations, floods, not only make a way through rocks, but often carry off great tracts of rich soil, hurrying the alluvium down to the sea, and leaving in its place a marsh or a waste." And thou destroyest the hope of man. Even thus from time to time does God ruin and destroy the hopes of a prosperous man. Job 14:20 Thou prevailset for ever against him, and he passsth; rather, thou puttest forth thy power against him perpetually; i.e. thou art continually oppressing him, and crushing him by afflictions; and the consequence is that "he passes;" i.e. "he passes away, disappears, ceases to be." Thou changest his countenance. "Alterest," i.e, "its expression from cheerfulness to sadness, and its complexion from the hue of health to the sickly pallor of disease; settest the stamp of death upon it, and further dis-figurest it in the dreadful process of decay." And sendest him away. That is to say, "Thou removest him from the earth, dismissest him to Sheol, where thenceforth he remains?’ Job 14:21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not. The meaning seems to be, "If his sons come to honour, it is of no advantage to him; in the remote and wholly separate region of Sheol he will not be aware of it." The view is more dismal than that of Aristotle, who argues that the fate of those whom they have loved and left on earth will be sure to penetrate, in course of time (ἐπὶτιναχρόνον)’ to the departed, and cause them a certain amount of joy or sorrow (’Eth. Nic.,’ 1.11). And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. Equally, in the opposite case, if his sons are brought low, he is ignorant of it, and unaffected by their fate. Job 14:22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain. The best rendering is probably that which is placed in the margin of the Revised Version, only for himself his flesh hath pain, and for himself his soul mourneth. Nothing more is intended than to negative the idea that the future condition of his children will seriously affect a man who is suffering under God’s afflicting hand, either in this life or afterwards. He cannot but be occupied solely with himself. His own sufferings, whether of body or mind, win absorb all his attention. Job 14:1-6 Job to God: 2. The death-wail of humanity. I. THE WAIL OF IN THE EAR OF GOD. 1. The constitutional frailty of man. Moses, in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 1:26; Genesis 2:7), sets forth the dignity of man (Adam) as the crown of creation (Psalms 8:6), as the handiwork of God (Job 10:8; Psalms 100:3; Isaiah 15:1-9:12), as the image of his Maker (Genesis 9:6; Acts 17:29; 1 Corinthians 11:7). Job here supplies the companion picture of the misery of man by representing him as: (1) Descended from woman, who was not only taken out of weak man, but is expressly declared to be the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7), and is the subject of a special doom of weakness in herself and offspring in consequence of having been first in the transgression (Genesis 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:14)—all which may be said to entail on the human race, as it were by a threefold necessity, the pitiable heritage of frailty. (2) Sprung from the dust, out of which man emerged, and still emerges, like a flower (Psalms 103:15; Isaiah 40:6; James 1:10), and to which again, like the flower, he shall in due course return (Genesis 3:19); in the meanwhile, as he hovers between the cradle and the grave, his birthplace and his place of sepulture, being like the flower, a structure of exquisite loveliness and of admirable symmetry (Psalms 139:14), but after all delicate and tender as a flower, being, like it, only a handful of dexterously fashioned and beautifully painted dust. (3) Insubstantial as a shadow, which is not so much a thing as the image and reflection of a thing, the projection on the ground of an opaque body whose dark form intercepts the light of heaven, a metaphor applied already by Bildad to man’s days (Job 8:9; cf. Psalms 102:11; Psalms 144:4), but here with greater bohtness appropriated to depict the utter insignificance of man himself. 2. The extreme brevity of human life. The period of man’s continuance on earth is sorrowfully exhibited as: (1) Of definite extension (verse 5; cf. Job 7:1, Job 7:2). Uncertain in the eye of man himself (Ecclesiastes 9:11, Ecclesiastes 9:12), the hour of each one’s departure from this sublunary scene is accurately known by God (Jeremiah 28:16), in whose hands are not only the souls of all living things and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10), but their times as well (Psalms 31:15), to whose all-seeing eye the number of their months is as well known as the number of their hairs (Luke 12:7), who hath not only appointed the bounds of their habitation (Acts 17:26), but also determined their days, setting a bound to their goings on the face of the earth as effectually as he does to the waves of the sea (Job 38:11). And this doctrine of each man on earth having a predestined career is as philosophical as it is scriptural, the foreordination of the Almighty not interfering with the operation of natural laws and secondary causes. Nor is it contradicted by those texts of Scripture which seem to teach that the limit of man’s pilgrimage is determined by purely accidental circumstances (Job 15:32; Job 22:16; Psalms 55:23; Ecclesiastes 7:17). (2) Of short duration (verses 1, 2, 5, 6). Whether the expression, "of few days," literally, "curtailed as to days," contains an allusion to the fact that human life was shorter than it would have been had man continued innocent, or that in Job’s time it was shorter than it had been i, the world’s infancy, it is certain that an exceedingly impressive picture is presented by the phrases and images here employed, human life at the Longest being characterized as "months," then "days," and these only "few," and after that as "a day," as the brief season during which a flower blooms, as the short time during which the shadow runs. Contrasted with the age of the race, the duration of the earth, the lifetime of God, yea, contrasted with itself in prospective anticipation, the life of man, especially in the retrospect, is "but a handbreadth" (Psalms 39:5). (3) Of quick transition. Coming forth like a flower, man has scarcely begun to bloom when he is cut down (cf. ’ Henry VIII.,’ Acts 3. sc. 2). The few days that God allots him to live refuse to linger, but hurry on, like the shadow on the dial, never hasting, never resting, but ever moving, moving, moving on. "Tis but an hour ago since it was nine; And after one hour more, ’twill be eleven; And so, from hour to hour. we ripe and ripe, And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot.’ (’As You Like It,’ Acts 2. sc. 5.) 3. The intense severity of human sorrow. Besides being of few days, woman-born man is full of trouble, literally, "full of unrest," of inward commotion and of outward motion, its inevitable sequence and result. Though perhaps it is not true of any that their existence on earth is so completely "satiated with sorrow," that no interludes of joy remain, it is yet true of most that affliction forms a principal ingredient in their cup (Job 5:7), while of all it may be said that a considerable portion of their troubles springs from the spirit of unrest with which they are surcharged, and of which the primal cause is sin. "A few seem favourites of fate, in pleasure’s lap caressed," though even these are not "likewise truly blest" in the highest sense of the expression. "But oh! what crowds in every land Are wretched and forlorn," through bodily disease, mental anxiety, domestic sorrow, through "man’s inhumanity to man," through the fierce raging of inward passion, through the terrible cankerworm of sin! 4. The inherited corruption of man’s moral nature. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one?" (verse 4). Read as a wish, "Oh that a pure one could come from an impure!" (Delitzsch), the idea is the same, that purity is impossible to man because of his origin. Descended from woman, he brings with him into life a legacy of physical frailty, and, what is worse, of uncleanness. The language may perhaps be regarded as giving enunciation to the doctrine of original sin’ i.e. of the hereditary corruption of human nature—a doctrine pervading Scripture (Genesis 5:3; Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Psalms 51:5; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:12-20; Ephesians 2:3); involved in the universal prevalence of sin (Job 11:12; Psalms 58:3; Revelation 22:15); presupposed in the necessity of regeneration (John 3:6); confirmed by the experience of God’s people (Job 40:4; Psalms 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Romans 7:14); and harmonizing with the all-pervading law of nature that like begets like. II. THE APPEAL OF TO THE HEART OF GOD. 1. Deprecating judgment. "And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?" (verse 3). A favourite idea with Job that the very frailty and sinfulness of man should have been his protection against the Divine inspection and judicial visitation, that it was scarcely worthy of the Divine Majesty to set a watch upon a creature so insignificant and feeble as man, or consistent with equity to arraign at his bar a being whose weakness was constitutional and hereditary. But that original sin or hereditary weakness does not destroy the consciousness of individual responsibility, is proclaimed by Scripture (Genesis 4:7; Exodus 32:33; Job 31:3; Ezekiel 18:4), attested by conscience, and believed by society. And, though man is frail, he is neither powerless for evil, nor unimportant as a factor in the history of earth. Hence he cannot safely be overlooked. Neither is he unjustly brought into judgment. Still God allows himself to be moved to compassionate forbearance by both a contemplation of man’s frailty (Psalms 103:14), and a consideration of his inherited corruption (Genesis 6:3, Genesis 6:5). 2. Supplicating mercy. "Turn from him [literally, ’look away from him’], that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day" (verse 6). Considering that man has only a short day to live, Job entreats that that day may be mercifully exempted from such special sufferings as spring from a Divine marking and punishing of sin, in order that man, the poor hireling, may be able to perform his appointed task. On human life as a term of hard service, and man as a miserable hired drudge, see Job 7:1 (homiletics). The prayer tells us that no man can adequately execute the tasks assigned him by God on earth whose body is racked by pain and whose mind is tormented by spiritual fear. The soul that cannot look on God as a Friend, or upon whom God seems to look as an enemy, can never be at perfect rest (Isaiah 57:21). But he from whom God averts his face in the sense of not marking iniquity (Psalms 32:1), and much more upon whom God makes his face to shine in loving favour (Job 33:26; Psalms 89:15; John 16:22; Acts 2:28), possesses the true secret of happiness, and the noblest inspiration for Christian work In Christ the face of God is turned mercifully away from human sin, and compassionately towards human sorrow. Learn: 1. There is no room for pride of ancestry in man, since all alike are woman-born. 2 The lowly origin of man should impress the heart with humility. 3. Since man’s days are so full of trouble, it is a mercy they are few; and since they are so few, man should study to be patient under trouble. 4. The swift approach of death should stimulate to diligence and promote heavenly-mindedness. 5. The heart of God can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. 6. God will never open his eyes to judge their sins who first open their eyes to behold his mercy. 7. One special reason of our requiring mercy is our inherited corruption, since it proves that we are, root and branch, depraved. Job 14:2 Man as a flower. I. IN HIS ORIGIN. He springeth from the ground. II. IN HIS . He is composed of dust. III. IN HIS . His physical organism is as beautiful and delicate as that of a flower. IV. IN HIS FRAILTY. He is as easily destroyed as a flower. V. IN HIS . He is as short-lived as a flower. VI. IN HIS END. Like a flower, he returns to the dust. LESSONS. 1. Lowly thoughts of self. 2. Care of the body. 3. Preparation for the end. Job 14:7-15 Job to God: 3. A glimpse into the life beyond. I. "IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?" No! 1. The voice of nature is against it. "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again," etc. (verses 7-9). But nothing like this occurs in the case of man, of whom rather the cheerless proverb holds that, as the tree falls, so shall it lie (Ecclesiastes 11:3). Hewn down by the axe of death, or laid prostrate by age beneath the sod, there is in his decaying body no vital germ which can send forth tender sprouts. The earth contains no revivifying principle for him as for trees. The fine manly fellow, rejoicing in his vigorous health, begins to droop and to die; he gives up the ghost, or expires, and where is he? (verse 10). There is no subsequent resuscitation for him. No! Man’s appropriate emblem is not the trees, but the streams and the lakes. When man dies, he disappears completely from the present scene, like the dried-up waters of a lake, or of a mountain torrent that have forsaken their accustomed bed. 2. The testimony of experience is against it. A phenomenon so stupendous as the return of a dead and buried man to life has never once been witnessed. With a terrible uniformity of sadness, each age has followed its predecessor to the tomb. And there are those who affirm that this dreary monotony has never been interrupted; that the sum of human experience is the same to-day as it was in Job’s time; that "man lieth down, and riseth not" (verse 12); and that there is no reason to anticipate that it ever will be different, but much cause to conclude that for evermore it will continue the same (Ecclesiastes 1:9). But (1) uniformity of past experience cannot with absolute finality determine future events in a world governed by Omniscient Wisdom and Infinite Power; (2) in numerous instances already the principle of reckoning from past uniformity has been found to be unsafe, as e.g. the successive appearance of new species of living creatures on earth, according to either geological science or biblical revelation, the occurrence of the Deluge, the manifestation of Christ; (3) in particular the uniformity of experience referred to, viz. of the non-return of men from their graves, has, on the evidence of human testimony, been broken at least once by the resurrection of Christ; and (4) even had it not been broken once, such uniformity of past experience cannot be regarded as valid against the doctrine of a resurrection such as Scripture teaches, viz. a return of mankind to the earth, not successively at different times and in divers parts and parcels, but simultaneously in one united body. 3. The verdict of silence is against it. Not of true science, but of arrogantly talking, much asserting, materialism. What Job uses as beautiful similitudes (verses 7, 11, 18, 19) modern sages employ as scientific truth. Man, according to their findings, is of a piece with the great material world by which he is surrounded, in which there is continually going on a resistless process of disintegration and dissolution, before which he sooner or later succumbs, like the trees and the rocks, the mountains and the streams. To expect, therefore, that a dead man shall return to his place on earth is as unscientific as to anticipate that the alluvial deposits of the plain shall replace themselves upon the mountain’s sides from which they have been taken, or that the shattered rock shall resume its station in the crevice out of which it has fallen, or that the water of a lake which has evaporated shall again cover its desiccated bed, or the fleecy cloud which has dissolved and been dispersed shall recombine itself upon the face of heaven. II. "IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?" YES! 1. The phenomena of nature suggest it. "There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again." Why, then, should there not be hope of a man reviving from the bed of death? Why should not man have his springtime as well as the plants and flowers and roots? "Everything in nature is a sign of something higher and more living than itself, to follow in due course, and in turn announce a yet higher one; the mineral foretells the plant, the plant the animal, all things in their degree foretell mankind". Again, "The presignificance of animal forms and economy by plants extends to the whole of their organic functions, to many of their organs, even to their spontaneous movements, their habits and qualities". Many of the functions usually supposed to be characteristic of animals have a marvellous foreshadowing in vegetables, as e.g. the processes of eating and digesting food, the procreation and birth of offspring, the act of respiration and the repose of sleep. May it not, then, be maintained that the constantly recurring winter death, and spring revival of trees and plants and flowers, are prefigurements, not only of the sleeping and waking of animals generally, but also of the death and resurrection of man? 2. The instincts of humanity desire it. "Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol!" etc. (verse 13). Job had not, indeed, perfect certainty on the subject of his returning from Hades, but in the deepest yearnings of his soul, which here flashed up into momentary brightness, he longed for such a revival as is implied in the resurrection. And the argument derived from this is that the existence of such a hope in the human soul renders probable at least the doctrine of a resurrection. "Intuition is worth volumes of logic". "Where in the plan of nature do we find instincts falsified? Where do we see an instance of a creature instinctively craving a certain kind of food in a place where no such food can be found? Are the swallows deceived by their instinct when they fly away from clouds and storms to seek a warmer country? Do they not find a milder climate beyond the water? When the may-flies and other aquatic insects leave their shells, expand their winos, and soar from the water into the air, do they not find an atmosphere fitted to sustain them in a new stage of life? Yes. The voice of nature does not utter false prophecies. It is the call, the invitation, of the Creator addressed to his creatures. And if this be true with regard to the impulses of the physical life, why should it not be true with regard to the superior instincts of the soul?". 3. The dignity of man demands it. "Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands" (verse 15). It was utterly inconceivable that God could be happy so long as man, the noblest specimen of his handiwork, whom his own hands had fashioned with tender care and infinite skill (Job 10:3, Job 10:9), upon whom, as it were, he had impressed the stamp of his own Divinity (Genesis 1:26), and whom he had set at the very apex of creation (Psalms 8:6), was lying mouldering in the dust; nay, by the very necessities of the case, God would yearn (grow pale with anxiety and wan with longing) after his absent creature and child, and, eventually breaking in upon the silence of the grave, would summon the unconscious sleeper to arise. "Do you suppose," Job virtually asks, "that if I yearn after God as I do, God does not likewise yearn after me; that if it would add to my felicity to see God in the flesh, and to talk with him as a man talketh with his friend, it would not likewise intensify his blessedness to have me in my complete manhood by his side?" And in this idea of the essential dignity of man as God’s handiwork and God’s child, we are warranted to find, if not a certain demonstration, at least a strong presumption that man will yet attain to an embodied life be:. end the grave. 4. The witness of revelation proclaims it. Like other parts of the gospel scheme, the doctrine of a resurrection was only gradually unfolded. In antediluvian times it may have been suggested to thoughtful minds by the translation of Enoch. In the Abrahamic period the hope of a better country, even an heavenly, was strong in pious hearts; but it is not certain that this implied more than a belief in immortality, or in a continuous existence beyond the grave, though the case of Job clearly shows that even then men had begun to speculate about the probability of a return to the embodied state alter death, and the practice of embalming among the Egyptians has been held to prove that such a doctrine had even then become a popular belief. In the age of David the hope of a resurrection burned brighter and clearer (Psalms 16:11; Psalms 17:15). Isaiah spoke of a rising of Jehovah’s dead body, and of the earth casting forth her dead (Isaiah 26:19); Ezekiel, of an opening of the graves (Ezekiel 38:9, Ezekiel 38:18); Daniel, of an awaking out of sleep (Daniel 12:2). But not until the times of the gospel was the doctrine fully declared. Christ affirmed it (John 5:28, John 5:29); St. Peter proved it (Acts 2:25-32; Acts 12:1-25:34); St. Paul preached it (Acts 17:31) and wrote concerning it (Romans 8:11,Romans 8:12; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20). 5. The resurrection of Christ secures it. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20). The resurrection of Christ being as certain a fact of history as his death, the resurrection of his people at least is conclusively established (John 14:19; Romans 8:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:14), and the question of Job finally answered. LESSONS. 1. The importance of using life well, since no man returns to the present scene. 2. The strong consolation which the saint finds in the hope of a resurrection. Job 14:16-22 Job to God: 4. Falling back into the darkness. I. OVER HIS MISERY. 1. A sudden transition. Job’s anticipation of the future resurrection-life was a momentary inspiration; not a calm, clear, steady light, diffusing a cheerful radiance within his soul, and shining on his onward progress to the grave, but a bright meteoric flash shooting up before his mind’s eye, dazzling it for an instant by celestial splendours, and then plunging across the firmament of his soul into darkness. Like Moses on the summit of Mount Pisgah, looking out over Jordan towards the promised land; like Christ upon the snowy crown of Hermon, gazing far beyond the cross to the glory that was to follow, this great prophetic soul, with his vision clarified through suffering, having been set down by the grave’s mouth, looked across the dark Hadean world, and descried the resurrection-life beyond. But, alas! like the Pisgah-glimpse of Canaan and the transfiguration-glory of Mount Hermon, the beatific vision was not of long duration. It was a momentary parting of the veil before the undiscovered country—nothing more. It came, it paused not, it passed, it vanished. The old stream of sorrowful emotion, out of which Job had been lifted for a season, as St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven, resumed its course. He was once more in the full current of his misery. Such transitions are not infrequent in the Christian life—from light to darkness, from joy to sadness, from peace to trouble, from delightful anticipations of heaven to sorrowful forebodings of impending disaster. 2. An extraordinary misconception. Losing sight of the light from beyond the tomb, he is once more a wretched creature whose steps are watched, and whose sins are marked by an angry Judge. God appears to be dealing with him as a criminal, lying in wait, as it were, to detect his sins, preserving a careful enumeration of them, storing them up in a bundle as legal documents; or, better, in a purse as money or precious stones, and sealing it to ensure their production on the day of trial—nay, for that purpose, sewing them up in a sort of interior scrip (Cox), or tying them up together (Fry, Good), or stitching on to them additional charges (Gesenius, Delitzsch). The experience through which Job here passes was not new to himself (Job 7:18; Job 13:27), and has sometimes been approximated to by believers under the Law (Psalms 38:1-4; Psalms 88:7, Psalms 88:16), though, in the case of Christians, it should for ever be impossible, proceeding as it does upon a total misconception of the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Even under the Law such a picture as Job here sketches of the Divine treatment of a believing sinner should scarcely have been possible. As discovered to Moses, the character of Jehovah was "merciful and gracious" (Exodus 34:7); as known to David, "ready to forgive" (Psalms 86:5); as proclaimed by Micah, "delighting in mercy" (Micah 7:18) Much more as published by him who is the Image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), and who came to declare the Father (John 1:18), it it essentially love. The only being whom God ever treated as a criminal on account of sin was his own Son (Isaiah 53:6, Isaiah 53:10; Romans 4:25; 2 Corinthians 5:21). In view of Christ’s propitiatory work he dealt with men in a way of mercy even before the advent; since the sacrifice of Calvary God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses (2 Corinthians 5:19). Yet the language of Job is true in the case of sinners who are wilfully impenitent. Their iniquities are all observed by God, remembered by God, and, unless repented of and forgiven, will eventually be produced by God for their condemnation. 3. A strange contradiction. A moment before exulting in the thought that God’s affection for him when dead would be so great as to require the resuscitation of his lifeless body (verse 15), Job now pictures the same God as a malignant Adversary and an angry Judge. The two conceptions will not hold together. A little calm logic would have enabled Job to see this; but men are seldom logical at the grave’s mouth or in the grasp of an awakened conscience. It were well for Christians, and for men generally, to be distrustful of those representations of the Divine character which are cast up before the mind’s eye by either the soul’s fears or fancies. Pictures of the Deity evolved from the inner consciousness, whether by philosophers or theologians, are seldom congruous with one another, but are as variable as the passing moods of the changeful spirit. In the face of Jesus Christ alone can God be either fully or clearly seen; and there he is "without variableness, or shadow of turning." II. OF HIS LIFE. Job foresees nothing for him but the early extinction of that hope of life which has hitherto sustained him; and that for two reasons. 1. Decay appeared to be the universal law of nature. The most stable thinks on earth were incapable of resisting this inherent tendency to dissolution. Mountains. rocks, stones, the very soil, yielded to the well-nigh omnipotent forces of nature (verses 18, 19); how much less could weak and frail man overcome that all-pervading vim disintegrationis by which he was assailed, or escape that slow but inevitable destruction which engulfed all mundane things! "The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces," etc. (’Tempest,’ Acts 4. so. 1). 2. God seemed to have decreed his destruction. The consideration of man’s frailty, which might have been expected to move God to pity, in Job’s estimation had rather stirred him to relentless severity. He had instituted laws against which even the most durable things of earth were unable to stand; "and," as if these same laws were not sufficient of themselves to accomplish his destruction, "thou destroyest the hope of man" (verse 19). The hope of eluding death is a delusion (Hebrews 9:27). But it God destroys man’s hope of life, he mercifully supplants it, in the cause of believers, with a hope of immortality (1 Peter 1:3). III. HIS DEMISE. This Job expected would be: 1. Irresistible. "Thou prevailest for ever," either overpowerest (Gesenius, Davidson, Carey) or seizest him (Delitzsch) "for ever" (verse 20). The struggle of life against death, represented as a contest of man with God, who always proves the Victor (Ecclesiastes 6:10), so that "no man hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death ’ (Ecclesiastes 8:8), but from all men equally their breath is taken away, and they return to the dust (Psalms 104:29). 2. Speedy. "And he passeth’" literally, "he goeth’" i.e. into the unseen world. Notwithstanding all man’s attempts to resist the decree of dissolution, not much is required to complete his subjugation. His removal is easily effected. Simply God speaks to him (Psalms 90:3), or breathes upon him (Isaiah 40:7), and he moveth on, his valour overcome, his wisdom defeated, his strength paralyzed, his noble form prostrated in stillness and decay. 3. Humiliating. "Thou changest his countenance." Time writes wrinkles on the brow, cute ploughs furrows on the cheek, affliction ages and enfeebles the most stalwart frame; but, O Death! for rudely marring and disfiguring the fair temple of the body, man accords thee the palm. Death, which is exaltation to the spirit, is degradation to the body. To the one the gateway of glory, it is also to the other, though only for a time, the door of dishonour. 4. Final. "Thou sendest him away," as it were into perpetual banishment. If the language implies that man continues to preserve a conscious existence after departing from the earth, it as emphatically bars the way against any return to the present life. IV. THE STATIC. 1. A complete severance from mundane things. When man vanishes from this mortal scene, not only does the place which knows him now know him no more for ever (Job 7:10; Job 20:1-29. ’9; Psalms 103:16), but he himself has no more knowledge of the place. His connection with the world is completely at an end (Ecclesiastes 9:5). He returns no more to his house (Job 7:10), neither is he more concerned with the fortunes of his family (Verse 21). How far this correctly represents the Hadean world it is impossible to say. That disembodied spirits should retain the power of apprehending what transpires on earth is neither impossible nor inconceivable; and that they do may seem to derive countenance from Scripture (Luke 15:7; Luke 16:27; Hebrews 12:1). Still, it is doubtful if as many and potent arguments cannot be adduced against it; while it is certain that, even if departed souls are cognizant of mundane affairs, they will not be profoundly interested in such things as the temporal prosperity or adversity of their families. 2. An exclusive occupation with the interests of self. "But," or only, "his flesh upon him," or on account of himself, "shall have pain, and his soul within him," or on account of itself, "shall mourn" (verse 22). The dead man’s body is regarded as a sentient creature suffering extreme physical tortures while undergoing the process of dissolution; the dead man’s soul is depicted as filled with inconsolable sorrow on account of its unhappy lot. Scarcely removed from the conceptions entertained by heathen writers, such a picture as Job here outlines of the realm of departed saints is only true of the impenitent who die unsaved, but is as widely astray as possible from the truth concerning the spirits of just men made perfect, who, if they are occupied exclusively with their own affairs, do not bemoan an undone eternity, but exult in an exceeding, even an eternal, weight of glory, and who, if they do grieve over their absent bodies, lament not the pains they are suffering, but long for their emancipation from the power of death—"waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of the body" (Romans 8:23). Learn: 1. To think of God’s mercy as beyond disputation. 2. To contemplate death’s approach as inevitable. 3. To reflect more upon the glory of heaven than upon the gloom of the grave. 4. To keep the soul as much as possible disengaged from the affairs of time. 5. To seek for ourselves and children that honour which cometh from above. 6. To realize that a saint leaves all pain and mourning behind him when he enters the unseen world. 7. To thank God for all the light which has been shed around the grave and upon the future world by the gospel of Christ’s resurrection. Job 14:19 Blighted hopes. I. A COMMON . It is not more true that man hopes, than it is that he sooner or later becomes acquainted with disappointment. Young and old, rich and poor, wise and unwise, have their unrealized expectations. II. A DIVINE . Blighted hopes are no more accidents than are buds that never fulfil their promise, They form part of the great world-plan which has been devised by Infinite Wisdom. III. A . When God breaks a man’s earthly ideas, it is that he may find nobler ones in heaven; that, turning away his heart from mundane things, he may seek those things which are above. LESSONS. 1. Thank God for earth’s disappointments. 2. Seek to be possessed of that hope which fadeth not away. BY E. JOHNSON Job 14:1-12 1. Self-defence before God: 2. Plaint of the weakness and vanity of mankind. Job’s troubles are typical of the common doom of mankind—the "subjection, to vanity." And again (comp. Job 3:7; Job 7:1-5) he bursts forth into lamentation over the universal doom of sorrow. I. HIS NATURAL . (Verses 1-2.) His origin is in frailty; he is "born of woman." His course is brief, and full of unrest. He sees himself mirrored in all natural things that fleet and pass: (1) in the flower of the field, briefly blooming, doomed to the speedy scythe; (2) in the shadow, like that of a cloud, resting for a moment on the ground, then vanishing with its substance. "Man is a bubble," said the Greek proverb (πομφόλυξὁἄνθρωπος). He is like a morning mushroom, soon thrusting up its head into the air, and as soon turning into dust and forgetfulness (Jeremy Taylor). Homer calls man a leaf; Pindar, the "dream of a shadow." II. HIS MORAL . (Verses 3, 4.) On the natural frailty is founded the moral. And this poor, weak being is made accountable, dragged before the tribunal of God. And yet, asks Job, how is it possible that purity should be exacted of him? How can the product be diverse from the cause; the stream be of purer quality than the source? III. AND FOUNDED ON THESE FACTS. (Verses 5, 6.) If man, then, is so weak, and his life determined by so narrow bounds, were it not the part of Divine compassion and justice to give him some release and respite until his brief day of toil and suffering be altogether spent (comp. Job 7:17; Job 10:20)? It seems to Job, in the confusion of his bewildered thought, that God is laying on him a special and extraordinary weight of suffering, which makes his lot worse than that of the common hireling. IV. FURTHER IMAGES OF . (Verses 7-12.) Casting his eye upon the familiar scenes of nature, it seems that all things reflect the sad thought of the transiency and hopelessness of man’s fate, and even to exaggerate it. 1. Image of the tree The tree may be hewn down, but scions and suckers spring from its well-nourished root; an image used by the prophet to symbolize the spiritual Israel. The stump of the oak represents the remnant that survives the judgment, and this is the source whence the new Israel springs up after the destruction of the old (Isaiah 6:13). But when man is broken down and falls like the trunk of the tree, there is an end of him. This is undoubtedly a morbid perversion of the suggestion of nature. She by the sprouting scion teaches at least the great truth of the continuity and perpetual self-renewal of life, if she can tell no more. 2. Image of the dried-up waters. (Verse 11.) These forsake their wonted channels and flow in them no more (comp. Job 7:9). So, it seems to the eye of nature, man passes away in a mist from the earthly scene and leaves no trace behind. 3. Image of the abiding heavens. (Verse 12.) This is introduced, not in illustration of the transient life of man, but in contrast to it (comp. Psalms 89:29, Psalms 89:36, 87). The heavens appear eternally fixed, in contrast to the fluctuating scene below. They look calmly down, while man passes into the sleep of death, and into Sheol, whence there is no return. But when man rises into the full consciousness of his spiritual nature through the revelation of life and immortality, all seems passing compared with the life in God. The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, but God’s salvation shall not be abolished. He that doeth the will of God shall abide for ever.—J. Job 14:13-15 Self-defence before God: 3. Dawning of a new hope. The thoughts of the sufferer now carry him beyond the confines of the present life. He has just been speaking of Sheol, or Hades, as his destined end, and now the reflection occurs—What may happen then? It is the nature of thought to travel on and on, to know no bounds that it will not seek to overleap. It is perpetually asking, when one goal has been reached, for the after, the beyond. And in some such way must human thought have travelled towards the light of immortality, before the truth dawned by revelation on the world. Job evidently sees a glimmer of the truth, though it soon fades out, for want of definite knowledge, into darkness. I. LONGING FOR IN HADES FOR A SEASON. (Verse 13.) The intense desire, so frequently repeated, for a respite, marks the extremity of intolerable anguish. And if the source of it be God’s wrath, perhaps in time his heart will relent. Then let the appointed judgment be held, and the decision be made. At least may the wrath of God not pursue him into the darkness of the other world! II. A FUTURE LIFE . (Verse 14.) For if there is to be a future judgment, there must be a future life to be the subject of it. Perhaps this is the greatest question man can ask without the light of the gospel. But some preliminary answer is here suggested for a moment, though Job does not grasp it firmly, that the future life is guaranteed by the justice and the love of God. But it is observable how the very faintest thought of the possibility gives a new turn to feeling. Patience can only exist when there is hope. And Job feels he could patiently wait all the days of his earthly service were that hope assured. It awakens joy. A happy change must occur. The misunderstandings of the present will clear away. And with this is connected again the glimmering of— III. THE OF MAN’S ETERNAL TO GOD. The heart is made for God. How gladly, when he appears from out the clouds and darkness that surround him, will the heart respond to his call! God yearns for man. Man is his creature, his handiwork, his offspring. He cannot but regard man with tenderness, with eternal interest. Here again we find at the bottom of the patriarch’s heart the germ of that faith which the bright rays of the gospel were to bring to flower (verse 15). The revolt of the heart from false views of God. The picture of One who numbers his steps, and has an eye only for his sins, is inconsistent with the filial consciousness of God (verse 16). Yet there may be insufficient knowledge or faith to overcome this prevailing mood of despair (comp. Job 10:8-12).—J. Job 14:17-22 Self-defence before God: 4. Relapse into despondent imaginations. I. HE STILL ABOUNDS WITH VARIED FIGURES, THE VERY OF . God has taken his sins and placed them as in a bag, sealed for safety of deposit, that they may be reproduced against him. He appears like an accuser who heaps up scandals and offences against the unhappy object of his wrath (Job 14:17). II. IN THIS LIGHT OF HE FURTHER THE OF MANKIND. 1. The impossibility of resistance to their doom. (Job 14:18, Job 14:19.) Mountains and rocks are dissolved, hard stones are gradually dislocated, by the continuous action of water; their fragments are carried away by the flood. Much more must the feeble body of man give way at last. And so his mind must surrender the kindled light of God, which God destroys! 2. The overmastering power of God. (Job 14:20-22.) The mighty warrior overcomes the feeble resistance of his foe, and releases him only when he has set him before his face and given him a proof of his pre-walling three So God only releases man in death when all his beauty has passeth away, and there remains but the hideous corpse. In the lower world consciousness fails him; he knows nothing of the things of earth, joyous or sad; can render no help to the dear ones who survive him. In the lower world the dead man, without activity or energy, endures his bodily and mental pain in dreary solitude and stillness. So ends again this address with the gloomiest, most despondent outlook as to the other world, relieved only toe a moment by the fugitive hope of the life to come. LESSONS. 1. The heart has an instinct for immortality, derived from its revolt from extreme pain. Something within us tells us that we were not made to be eternally, irrecoverably miserable. 2. The truth of a future life comes in flashes upon the mind; for its retention we need the support of positive revelation. 3. The natural weakness and frailty of man is complemented by his spiritual power and greatness as partaker of an endless life.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 14:1, Job 14:2 Lessons from the brevity of human life. These words are consecrated to a supreme moment. Chosen to be the words spoken at the side of the grave, "while the corpse is made ready to be laid in the earth," they hear a solemn and overwhelming testimony to a truth men are apt, in the heat of the day, to forget. So many are the duties and toils of men that the hurry of a short life is hardly noticed, save when, by enforced attention, the thoughts recur to it. The truth is established—man’s life is short, it is sorrowful, its early promise is destroyed, it hurriedly passeth away, it lacks permanence and stability. What, then, is the proper course of conduct to pursue in such circumstances? I. IT IS WISE TO BE IN THE OF DUTY. Days lost cannot be recovered. The duty omitted cannot be afterwards attended to without intrenching upon some other. A watchfulness over the moments saves the hours. Diligence prevents waste, and the days are numbered. Diligence is imperative if life’s large work is to be done in its little time. He learns the value of time who diligently applies himself to his work. And no one has any time to lose. II. The brevity of life is AN TO UNDER TROUBLE, The way is not long. The strength is taxed, but not for long. The lit e of "few days" is "full of trouble." Happily it is but for a "few days." Life is not stretched out beyond endurance. And the vision of immortality may gild the horizon as the light of a setting sun. All the future to the humble and obedient is bright, and the present weary march is not longer than can be borne, even by feeble human strength. III. The brevity of human life may properly act as A CHECK AGAINST TOO HIGH AN OF EARTHLY THINGS. The things of time have their importance—their very great and solemn importance. And he who has a just view of the future will be the more likely to place a just estimate on the present. But he will "sit loose" to things of time. He will remember he is but a sojourner. That the goods and possessions he now calls his own will soon be held by other hands. He will therefore see that he must not put so high a price upon the present as to barter away the future and more durable possessions for it. Life opens to him like a flower in its beauty; it "cometh forth like a flower’ in its promise, but it "is cut down." It is vain to build too confidently on such a hope. It is unwise to live wholly for so uncertain a tenure, that fleeth as a shadow and continueth not. IV. The brevity of human life MAKES IT NEEDFUL THAT MEN SHOULD LOSE NO OF LAYING HOLD ON THE LIFE . The true preparation for the life to come—the permanent and enduring life—is to occupy this present one with careful and diligent fidelity. Great issues depend upon it. The condition of the future; the attainment of character; the recorded history; the everlasting approval or disapproval of the manner in which life has beer held, which the eternal Judge will pass upon it, and which will be reflected in the solitudes of the individual conscience.—R.G. Job 14:7-10 Sad views of life. If the tree be cut down, it springs again; but if man dieth, he wasteth away. Certainly, then, man’s hope is not in this life. The dismal views given in these few verses demand the full assurance of the resurrection. This is a feature of the Book of Job. It presents a negative view of human life. There is always a demand to be met. Only the fuller teachings of the New Testament meet it. Consider this aspect of human life with its demand for supplementary views in order to completeness and satisfaction. The complementary character of subsequent revelations. I. THE PRESENT LIFE OF MAN OF WHICH THAT THIS CANNOT BE THE VIEW OF LIFE. II. THE MORAL, , AND WHICH ARE BUT CALLED INTO PLAY DEMAND OTHER FOR THEIR FULL , AND THE OF THE VIEW OF LIFE WHEN. TO THE PRESENT ONLY. III. THE OF MEN TOWARDS THAT CANNOT BE IN THIS LIFE ARE A TO ITS . IV. THE IDEALS OF LIFE ARE SO FAR TO THE , THAT THEY BECOME A OF BETTER AND HIGHER THAN THE PRESENT LIFE. V. THE HOPE OF HIGHER THAN THE PRESENT IS IN THE BEST AND PUREST SOULS. VI. THE OF THE PRESENT WITH THE OF FOR GREAT AND PURE A FURTHER OF THE OF LIFE IF THE VIEW BE TO THE PRESENT. VII. ALL IS IN’ THE , AND IN THE CALM THEY GIVE OF THE OF THE DEAD AND THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME.—R.G. Job 14:14 The future life. "If a man die, shall he live again?" The true answer to this solemn question is the only sufficient response to the sad wail of the previous verses. "There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,… but man dieth, and wasteth away." The answer cometh from afar. It is difficult to determine the measure of light that Job had on the question of the future life. Read in the light of our New Testament teaching, some of his phrases are full of hope; but we may have put the hope there. Generally it is the language of inquiry, and often of inquiry unsatisfied. Sometimes faith bursts through all doubt and gloom, and the confidence of a strong and assured hope takes the place of tremulous fear. Still the question rings in every breast; still the longing for a fuller life in which the ideals of the present may be reached prevails; still men go to the side of the dark river and look into the gloom, and hoping and half fearing ask, "If a man die, shall he live again?" The only satisfactory answer to this comes to us from the lips of the Redeemer, and that is wholly and entirely satisfactory. We mark— I. THE EAGER, CRY OF MEN APART FROM DIVINE . II. THE PARTIAL OF THE TRUTH IN THE EARLIER . III. THE PERFECT AND MADE BY JESUS CHRIST Of this last we may notice. 1. Christ’s teachings all proceed on the assumption that there is a future life. 2. His teachings are constantly supported by an appeal to the future conditions of reward and punishment. 3. Very much of his teaching would be unmeaning and inexplicable in the absence of such future. 4. But he crowns all his teaching by himself becoming the Disputant, and affirming and demonstrating the future life. "But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the place concerning the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him." 5. He crowns all by the raising of the dead to life, and by the example of his own triumph over death. But Job had not this consolation, and he still abides in gloom, as must all who have not the perfect revelation of God.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 14:1, Job 14:2 The flower and the shadow. I. WHERE IS A COMMON IN ALL HUMAN LIFE. Job seems to be suffering from exceptional troubles. Yet he regards his condition as typical of that of mankind generally. He turns from himself to "man that is born of a woman." We differ in external circumstances, possessions, honours; in bodily, mental, and moral characteristics. But in our fundamental constitution we are alike. The points of resemblance are more numerous than the points of difference. 1. All born of women come in the common descent from the first parents. 2. All are frail and short-lived. 3. All suffer from the troubles of lit e. 4. All sin. 5. All have Christ for their brother, able and willing to be also their Saviour. 6. All may enter the eternal life and dwell for ever in the love of God, on the same conditions of repentance and faith. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ The second colloquy between Job and his friends is, like the first (ch. 3-14.), one in which all of them take part, and the same order of speakers is maintained. Job answers each speaker in turn; Eliphaz at some length (Job 16:1-22; Job 17:1-16.), the other two more briefly. The present chapter contains the second speech of Eliphaz. Compared with the first, it is harsh and violent in tone, assuming Job’s guilt, and reproaching him fiercely and rudely. It naturally divides into three portions: (1) a direct reproof of Job for presumption and impiety (verses 1-6); (2) a sarcastic reflection on him for conceit and arrogance (verses 7-16); (3) an exposition of God’s ways with man, based upon the experience of ancient sages (verses 17-35). Job 15:1, Job 15:2 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Should a wise man utter vain knowledge! literally, knowledge of wind—knowledge, i.e.’ which is vain, idle, inflated, without solidity or substance. Job, as setting up to be "a wise man," should not have indulged in such empty and foolish speaking. It is observable that Eliphaz does not point out what part of Job’s discourses he considers objectionable, but condemns the whole of them under this broad and general description, which even he could not have regarded as applicable to more than a portion of what Job had said. And fill his belly with the east wind? The east wind was regarded as the worst of winds. In Palestine it blew from the great Syrian and North Arabian desert, and was of the nature of a sirocco. (On its deleterious effects, see Genesis 41:6, Genesis 41:23; Jeremiah 18:17; Ezekiel 17:10; Ezekiel 19:12; Ezekiel 27:26; Hosea 13:15, etc.) Job 15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk! Such, Eliphaz implies, had been Job’s talk, altogether idle and unprofitable. A wise man should have abstained from such profitless arguments. They were speeches wherewith he could do no good. Job 15:4 Yea, thou castest off fear. To Eliphaz, Job’s words—his bold expostulations (Job 13:3, Job 13:15, Job 13:22, etc.), his declarations that he knows he will be justified (Job 13:8), and that God will be his Salvation (Job 13:16)—seem to imply that he has cast off altogether the fear of God, and is entirely devoid of reverence. Some of his expressions certainly seem over-bold; but, on the other hand, his sense of God’s purity, perfectness, and transcendent power is continually manifest, and should have saved him from the rude reproach here launched against him (comp. Job 9:1-13; Job 12:24 25; Job 13:11, Job 13:21, etc.). And restrainest prayer before God; rather, and hinderest devout meditation before God. Eliphaz means that Job expresses himself in a way so of. fensive to devout souls, that he disturbs their minds and prevents them from indulging in those pious meditations on the Divine goodness which would otherwise occupy them (comp. Psalms 119:97). Thus, according to Eliphaz, Job is not only irreligious himself, but the cause of irreligion in others. Job 15:5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity. Some render, "Thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth," causing it to utter such profane speeches (Vulgate, Dillmann, Canon Cook, Revised Version); but the translation of the Authorized Version is defensible on grammatical grounds, and yields a good sense, so that no alteration is necessary. And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty; or, the tongue of the subtle (comp. Genesis 3:1, where the epithet assigned to the serpent is the same). Eliphaz probably means to tax Job with cloaking his real impiety under a pretence of religiousness. Job 15:6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee. So of a greater than Job it was said, "He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death" (Matthew 26:65, Matthew 26:66). Malevolence delights in misunderstanding and misinterpreting the utterances of the righteous. And not I. A weak disclaimer! As if Job’s supposed guilt did not depend on the construction put upon his words. Yea, thine own lips testify against thee. Therefore, "what further need of witnesses?" Job 15:7 Art thou the first man that was born? That is, "Dost thou claim to have the wisdom of that first human intelligence, which, proceeding direct from God (Genesis 1:27), was without fault or flaw—a perfect intelligence, which judged all things aright?" It is not clear that Eliphaz had ever heard of Adam; but he evidently believed in a "first man," from whom all others were descended, and he attributed to this first man a mind and intellect surpassing those of all other men. His question is, of course, rather a scoff than an inquiry. He knows that Job makes no such foolish pretence; but he throws it in his teeth that, from what he has said, men might suppose he took some such view of himself. Or wast thou made before the hills? This is a taunt of the same kind as the previous one, but intensified. Wisdom is the result of experience. Art thou older than all the rest of us—older than the earth itself, than "the everlasting hills"? There were Greeks who claimed to be ethnically προσέληνοι, "older than the moon," but no inhabitant of earth was ever so foolish as to imagine himself individually more ancient than the earth on which he lived. Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? or, Hast thou been a hearer in the secret counsel of God?. No mortal man was ever admitted to the secret counsel of the Most Highest (comp. Romans 11:34). And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? or, Dost thou confine (appropriate) wisdom to thyself? i.e. Dost thou suppose that thou art the only wise man in all the world? (comp. Job 12:2, where Job had brought the same charge against his three friends). Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? So far as worldly wisdom went, this was probably quite true. Job was not more advanced in knowledge than Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. But he had a keener spiritual insight. He was wiser in the "wisdom which is from above." Perplexed and confused as were his thoughts concerning the Divine government of the universe, they were nearer the truth, more worthy of the Divine nature, than those of his adversaries. In his reply, without claiming any special wisdom, he pours contempt on their pretensions to spiritual understanding (Job 17:4, Job 17:10). What understandest thou, which is not in us? A mere repetition of the first member of the verse in different words. Job 15:10 With us are both the greyheaded and very aged men. "With us" seems to mean "of our party," or "on our side." Eliphaz claims that all the greybeards of the time, as well as all the ancient men of past times (comp. Job 8:8, and below, Job 8:18), are on his side. and think as he does. Much elder than thy father. Men, i.e.’ not merely of the preceding, but of much more distant generations His Latin to be supported by the voice of antiquity was, no doubt, in strict accordance with fact. Job 15:11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? By "the consolations of God" Eliphaz probably means the hopes which he and his friends had held out, speaking in God’s Name, that if Job would humble himself, and confess his guilt, and sue to God for pardon, he would be restored to favour, recover his prosperity, and live to a good old age in tranquil happiness (see Job 5:18-27; Job 8:20-22; Job 11:13-19). He wishes to know if Job thinks lightly of all this, regards it as of small account, will make no effort to obtain the blessings held out to him. This is all reasonable enough from his standpoint, that Job is conscious of secret heinous guilt; but it can make no impression on Job, who is conscious of the reverse. Is there any secret thing with thee? rather, And is the word [of small account that dealeth] gently with thee? Eliphaz considers that his own words and those of his two companions have been soft words, dealing "gently" with Job’s refractoriness, and that Job ought to have been impressed by them. Job 15:12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? or, Whither doth thine heart carry thee away? i.e. to what a pitch of presumption and audacity do thy proud thoughts carry thee? And what do thy eyes wink at? or, Wherefore do thy eyes roll? The verb used occurs only in this place. Its meaning is very doubtful. Job 15:13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God. To Eliphaz and his companions, the wild remonstrances of Job, Iris vehement expostulations and despairing outcries, are, one and all, nothing better than indications of a proud and rebellious spirit, that sets itself up against the Almighty, and openly contends with him. They view Job, after the speeches that he has made, as a declared rebel, and no longer regard it as incumbent upon them to use any "gentleness" in their reprimands. And lettest such words go out of thy mouth? It is remarkable that neither Eliphaz nor either of his friends ever points out what particular words of Job they object to and regard as impious, so as to give him the opportunity of defending, explaining, or retracting them. They take refuge in vague generalities, with which it is impossible to grapple. But this vagueness and want of logical accuracy is characteristic of the Oriental nations, who scarcely ever reason cogently or bring matters to a point. Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? A vain "beating of the air." Eliphaz had asserted the same truth in his first speech, when he said, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he taxeth with folly: how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay’ whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?" (Job 4:17-19); and Job had given his full assent to it, when he exclaimed, "I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand" (Job 9:2, Job 9:3). The true question was not whether Job or any other man was" clean," i.e. wholly sinless’ but whether Job had sinned so deeply and grievously that his sufferings were the natural and just punishment for his sins. And a mere repetition of the statement that all men were sinful and unclean was off the point—nihil ad rem-altogether futile and superfluous. And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? (setup. Job 25:4). The clause is a mere variant of the preceding one. Job 15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; rather, in his holy ones (see the Revised Version). The word "saint" has in course of time come to be so exclusively attached to holy men, that it can no longer be applied, without danger of being misunderstood, to angels. Eliphaz here, as in Job 5:1, speaks not of holy men, but of the holy angels. Without taxing them with sin, he is strongly convinced of their imperfection—their defective wisdom (Job 5:18), weakness, and untrustworthiness. His views are decidedly peculiar, and not borne out by the rest of Scripture. Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. The material heavens are probably intended. That limpid liquid blue in which the human eye sees no stain or speck, to the Divine eye is tinged with uncleanness The idea is that neither animate nor inanimate nature contains any form of being that is absolutely without spot or blemish. In God alone is there perfect purity. Job 15:16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? rather, How much less one that is abominable and impure, a man that drinketh in iniquity, etc.? It cannot be doubted that Job is individually pointed at. Not mankind generally, but a particular man, is intended; and the particular man can be none other than Job. Thus we see how the progress of the controversy has tended to exasperate the disputants, and change the "comforters" from smooth-tongued friends into open enemies and accusers. Job 15:17 I will show thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare. Eliphaz here introduces, with an elaborate preface (Job 15:17-19) what is either a citation from a book, as Professor Lee thinks, or a studied description by himself of the proceedings and consequent sufferings of the wicked. This description extends from Job 15:20 to the end of the chapter, and is plainly levelled at Job, though it may originally have been intended to apply to some other person or persons. Job 15:18 Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it (comp. Job 8:8-10). Whether the words are his own or not, the sentiments, at any rate, Eliphaz declares to have come down to him from remote times. The "wise men" to whom he refers may have been men of the Beni Kedem (Job 1:3). who were noted for their wisdom (1 Kings 4:30), or possibly Egyptians or Babylonians. Books containing moral aphorisms and instructions were certainly composed both in Egypt and in Babyhmia at a very ancient date. Job 15:19 Unto whom alone the earth was given. The reference is clearly to a very remote time, when men were comparatively few, and lived in quiet possession of their own lands, undisturbed by invasions, wars, or struggles for territory. Professor Lee thinks that the times immediately after, and even those before, the Flood are glanced at; while Schultens regards Eliphaz as alluding to the first settlements of the Joktanidae in Arabia. In either case, the passage tells in favour or, and not against, the antiquity of the Book of Job, since it marks the composer as "living at a time when the memory of an age of patriarchal simplicity was yet fresh in men’s minds" (Canon Cook). And no stranger passed among them. Races were not mixed up one with another, and so the purity of primitive doctrine remained undisturbed. Job 15:20-35 Schultens calls this "a magnificently elaborate oration, crowded with illustrations and metaphors, in which it is shown that the wicked cannot possibly escape being miserable, but that the punishment which they have so richly deserved assuredly awaits them, and is to be inflicted on them, as an example and terror to others, by a holy and just God, because, just as he loves virtue, so he pursues vice with a fierce and deadly hatred". Job 15:20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days. Certainly an over-statement of the truth. With a much nearer approach to the facts of the case, the Psalmist remarked, "I was grieved at the wicked: I do also see the ungodly in such prosperity. For they are in no peril of death, but are lusty and strong. They come in no misfortune like other folk; neither are they plagued like other men" (Psalms 73:3-5). And the number of years is hidden to the oppressor; rather, even the number of years that is laid up for the oppressor. So Merx and the Revised Version. Another possible meaning is, "And a [small] number of years is laid up," etc. If we take the former view, we must regard the clause as exegetical of "all his days." Job 15:21 A dreadful sound is in his ears; literally, a sound of terrors. Fears of all kinds beset him, lest he should lose his prosperity. Sometimes they seem actually to sound in his ears. Prosper as he may, he feels that in prosperity the destroyer shall one day come upon him. "The destroyer" may be either the destroying angel, or the avenger of blood, or a robber-chief at the head of a band of marauders. Job 15:22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness. He has no hope of recovering his prosperity, when calamity has once stricken him down, since he knows that his calamity is deserved, and feels that it is God’s judgment upon him for his sins. And he is waited for of the sword. He feels as if an enemy was lying in wait for him at every turn, with his sword drawn, ready to slay him. Professor Lee compares the words of Cain, "It shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me" (Genesis 4:14). Job 15:23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? This, again, might appropriately have been said of Cain, who was "a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth" (Genesis 4:14), and may at times have had difficulty in procuring his daily bread. At any rate, it is the frequent experience of the wicked who lose their ill-gotten gains, and are brought down to abject poverty, and actual want of the necessaries of life. "He wanders abroad to be the food of vultures" is a translation of the passage suggested by some moderns (as Merx), and has the support of the Septuagint, κατατέτακταιεῖςσῖταψυψίν. But it requires a slight change in the pointing. He knoweth that the day of darkness is nigh at hand. "The day of darkness" is probably the day of his decease: this he "knows," or at any rate, surmises, to be near. Job 15:24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. Eliphaz seems covertly to allude to Job’s misfortunes, which came against him with such force, and crushed him as a mighty king crushes his foes in battle. Job 15:25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God. The wicked man ventures even to threaten the Almighty. So in Eastern legend Nimrod was supposed to have done, and in Greek legend the giants. And strengtheneth himself against the Almighty; rather, behaveth himself proudly. See the Revised Version, and compare Schultens, who renders the Hebrew יתגבּר, by "ferocius et insolentius se gessit." Job 15:26 He runneth upon him, even on his neck; rather, with his neck. It is not God who runneth upon the wicked man, as our translators seem to have supposed, but the wicked man who rushes furiously against God. Like an infuriated bull, he makes his charge with his neck, i.e. with head lowered and neck stiffened, thinking to carry all before him. Upon the thick bosses of his bucklers; rather, with the thick bosses of his shield’ The metaphor of the bull is dropped, and God’s enemy represented as charging him like a warrior, with the shield-arm outstretched, and the heavy bosses of the shield pressing him down. Job 15:27 Because he covereth his face with his fatness. The ground and origin of the wicked man’s audacity is his luxurious and intemperate living. In the days of his prosperity he pampered his body, freely indulged all his carnal appetites, and gave himself up to gluttony and gourmandism. This depraved his moral nature, separated between him and God, and finally produced in him the insolence and presumption described in Job 15:25, Job 15:26 And maketh collops of fat on his flanks. The same idea, only very slightly varied, as so often in the second member of a verse. Job 15:28 And he dwelleth in desolate cities. Blot only was he sensual and gluttenous, but he was covetous and rapacious also. He dwelt in cities which his hand had desolated—in houses which no man inhabiteth—since he had driven their owners from them—and which were ready to become heaps, i.e. were in a ruinous condition. Job 15:29 He shall not be rich; i.e. he shall not increase, or maintain, his riches. Neither shall his substance continue, His riches shall make themselves wings, and take their departure. Neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth; rather, neither shall their possessions be extended upon the earth. (So Rosenmuller, Professor Lee, and Renan.) The transition from the singular to the plural is not unusual, when it is a class, and not an individual, that is really spoken of. Job 15:30 He shall not depart out of darkness (comp. Job 15:23, where the wicked man is threatened with "a day of darkness"). When the darkness once falls, it shall continue; there shall be no escaping out of it The flame shall dry up his branches; rather, a flame. The "flame" intended seems to be the wrath of God. ’ And by the breath of his mouth; i.e. "of God’s mouth" (comp. Job 4:9). Shall he go away; or, pass away; i.e. disappear, be consumed, perish. Job 15:31 Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity; rather, let him not trust in vanity (or, in falsehood)’ deceiving himself (see the Revised Version). All the supports and stays of the wicked are vanity—unsubstantial, futile, utterly vain and useless. It is only a man who "deceives himself" that can trust in them. For vanity shall be his recompense. Such as do so trust gain nothing by it; they sow vanity and reap vanity. Job 15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time. "It [i.e. the recompense] shall be accomplished [or, ’paid in full ’] before its time [i.e. before payment is due]." A vague threat, probably intended to signify that death will come upon the wicked man prematurely, before he has lived out halt the days of his natural life. And his branch shall not be green; i.e. he shall wither and fade, like a tree not planted by the waterside (Psalms 1:3). Job 15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine. Blight and untimely cold cause the vine to drop its grapes before they are mature. So the wicked man will be deprived, one by one, of his possessions. And shall cast off his flower as the olive. The olive often sheds its blossoms in vast numbers. "In spring," says Canon Tristram, "one may see the bloom, on the slightest breath of wind, shed like snowflakes, and perishing by millions". According to some commentators, this happens regularly in alternate years. Job 15:34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate; or, shall be sterile’ or barren’ like the vine and olive of the preceding verse. The entire company of the wicked shall suffer this punishment. And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. God’s lightning shall fall from heaven, and burn up the tents (i.e. the habitations) of those who take bribes to pervert justice. It is suggested that Eliphaz intends to accuse Job of the two secret sins of hypocrisy and corruption. Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity; rather, as in the margin, iniquity. And their belly prepareth deceit. Internally, i.e. in their inner nature—in their heart, as we should any—they make ready deceits. "The viscera," as Professor Lee observes, "are often made by the Hebrews the seat of thought." Job 15:1-16 Eliphaz to Job: Resumption of the second controversy: 1. An overwhelming indictment. I. OLD . 1. Unprofitable talk. The replies given by Job in the preceding colloquy Eliphaz characterizes as (1) unbecoming, altogether unworthy of a wise man such as Job had professed (Job 12:23; Job 13:2), and had indeed been recognized (Job 29:8, Job 29:9, Job 29:21, Job 29:23),to be—an allegation which, though not in point as directed against the patriarch, may suggest the propriety of wise, and much more of good, men always speaking and acting in character, watching over their words as well as works, and studying, if possible, to avoid even the appearance of inconsistency, especially in the eyes of weak brethren (Romans 14:21); (2) unsubstantial, mere empty harangues and impassioned tirades, "vain knowledge," literally, knowledge of wind (verse 2; cf. Job 8:2; Job 11:2), instead of sound and solid sense—a character, again, which could not fairly be ascribed to Job’s reasonings and supplications, though, alas! it not inaptly describes much of human speech and speculation; (3) worthless, being, in respect of use, only "unprofitable talk," "speeches by which no good is done" (verse 3), which, however magniloquently set forth and wearisomely iterated, contribute nothing towards the elucidation of a great problem, and serve in no degree to aid the speaker in making good his case; and (4) pernicious, in their ultimate results being comparable to nothing so appropriately as to the scorching (Jonah 4:8), blasting (Genesis 41:23), vehement (Exodus 14:21), and destructive (Psalms 48:7) east wind (verse 2)—and few things are more injurious to the minds that conceive them, or more hurtful to society at large when it must endure them, than such windy orations, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," like" tales told by idiots," such as are alluded to by Eliphaz, although amongst such it was incorrect to number the burning thoughts and winged words of Job. 2. Manifest impiety. Eliphaz had already (Job 4:6) insinuated that Job was devoid of true religion; here he regards the insinuation as substantiated by the conduct of Job himself in three particulars. (1) The adoption of irreligious sentiments (verse 4). The views propounded by Job were calculated to subvert the fundamental principle of all religion, viz. the fear of God, and to put an end to the outward expression of religion in devout meditation or prayer. Though wrong as to the estimate he put on Job’s theology, Eliphaz was right in regarding reverence for God as the foundation of all piety in man, in thinking that no man’s religion can be genuine which does not engender the spirit, and lead to the practice, of prayer, and in maintaining that good men should be careful of either entertaining views or promulgating doctrines which have a tendency, however slight, to hinder devotion or destroy veneration in themselves or others. (2) The publication of infidel opinions. Not only had Job allowed himself to form such unhallowed notions, but he had openly proclaimed them (verse 5). Hence Eliphaz inferred his heart could not be fight with God. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he" (Proverbs 23:7); and "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Luke 6:45). And certainly the deduction is a sound one, that no truly pious man will receive, far less disseminate, principles subversive, or even seemingly so, of the fear and worship of God. Only of such behaviour Job had not been guilty. (3) The defence of damnable heresies. It was impossible that wickedness could further go than it had done with Job, who had not only for himself embraced heretical beliefs, but had fearlessly stated them, and even unblushingly attempted to prove them, using for that purpose "the tongue of the crafty ’ (verse 5), of which he was a master. Undoubtedly it was outrageous ungodliness, if only the theology of the friends upon which Job had poured his withering scorn, biting sarcasm, and scalding indignation had been the infallible truth of God, which it was not. But Eliphaz and his brethren, thinking it to be so, pronounced Job a self-convicted sinner (verse 6). 3. Astounding presumption. Stung by Job’s ridicule of himself and his colleagues (Job 12:2), and forgetful that "a soft answer turneth away wrath," while "grievous words stir up anger’ (Proverbs 15:1) Eliphaz retorts, with a keen-edged irony scarcely second to Job’s, that no doubt Job was a wise man, a very wise man, in fact the only wise man, since (1) Job had been born first of men (verse 7), and as a consequence enjoyed "the most direct and profound insight into the mysteries of the world, which came into existence at the same time as himself" (Delitzsch); (2) had even preceded the mountains in his appearance upon earth (verse 7)—the mountains and hills being represented as the oldest of created things (Psalms 90:2), and the language being applied to Wisdom in the Book of Pro 8:23-26; (3) had been admitted to the cabinet of heaven, and listened to the councils of the Supreme (Proverbs 8:8), the allusion being to the divan of an Oriental prince; nay (4) as a consequence had engrossed or monopolized wisdom to himself, like some grand vizier whose soul was burdened with state secrets; and (5) was possessed of sources of information immensely superior to theirs, although with them were both the greyheaded and very aged men, much older than his father (Proverbs 8:10). 4. Contemptuous indifference. (1) To the consolations of God (Proverbs 8:11). That God is pre-eminently the God of all comfort and consolation (2 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 7:6): that he can comfort with a mother’s tenderness (Isaiah 66:13), a father’s pity (Psalms 103:13), a husband’s love (Hosea 2:14); that in Christ (Philippians 2:1) he hath provided rich consolations for his people (2 Corinthians 1:5), suitable for every circumstance and situation that may occur in their lives (2 Corinthians 1:4); that delightful wells of consolation are sometimes found in the events of providence (2 Corinthians 7:6), and always in the promises of the gospel (2 Peter 1:4), especially when applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost (John 14:26); that these consolations are not small in themselves, being abundant (2 Corinthians 1:5), satisfying (Isaiah 66:11), strong (Hebrews 6:18), and everlasting (2 Thessalonians 2:16), and. should by none be reputed small or lightly esteemed, considering the source whence they come, the love of God, the channel through which they flow, the cross of Christ, the Agent by whom they are applied, the Holy Spirit, the comfort they impart, the peace of God which passeth understanding, and the freeness with which they are bestowed, without money and without price; that all these are precious truths is undeniable; but Eliphaz understood by God’s consolations the promises held forth by himself and his friends in their discourses, which, however applicable they may have been to an unconverted sinner, were not suitable to meet the case of a suffering saint like Job. (2) To the kindness of men. Without doubt sincerely Eliphaz commends his own and his friends’ orations as gentle addresses, the utterances of tender pity (verse 11); and, if they were so, unquestionably Job erred in receiving them with such palpable scorn as he did. Kindness honestly offered, even when mistaken, and somewhat harsh and ungracious, should be politely, and even thankfully, received. But it is not so obvious as it seemed to Eliphaz that either he or Bildad, not to mention Zophar, had spoken tenderly. 5. Passionate rebellion. Job allowed his feelings to get the better of his understanding—his passion to overwhelm his judgment. It is the part of wisdom and the work of grace to restrain angry emotions (Proverbs 29:8; Ephesians 4:26). Uncontrolled excitement leads to sin (Proverbs 29:22). It had hurried Job into vehement expressions against God, which seemed to show an embittered and hostile spirit in (1) insolent grimaces, the winking of the eyes (verse 12) having the significance, it is probable, of the similar expressions in Psalms 35:19, Proverbs 6:3, and Isaiah 3:16; (2) wrathful opposition, the turning of the spirit (or of one’s rage) against God (Isaiah 3:13) being a characteristic of wicked men (Romans 8:7; Galatians 5:17); and (3) foolish speaking, Job’s discourses being styled "words," i.e. words as contrasted with wisdom, words destitute of meaning and intelligence. II. OLD . The crowning sin of Job, in the estimation of Eliphaz, was his persistent attempts at self-justification. As if to give this tremendous heresy its final quietus, the solemn Arabian seer once more advances the humbling doctrine of man’s universal depravity, which he establishes from a fourfold consideration. 1. Man’s constitutional frailty. Man is essentially a frail and diseased creature, enosh (verse 14); and, although physical weakness is not the same thing as moral pollution, yet the former is inconceivable except as the result of the latter. 2. Man’s depraved origin. Mortal man is descended from fallen woman, and, as a consequence, inherits her depravity. So Job admitted (Job 14:2), David bewailed (Psalms 51:5), and Christ taught (John 3:6). To this law human history knows of only one exception. Christ, though the Seed of the woman, was untainted by hereditary corruption. Holy in his birth (Luke 1:35), he continued throughout life "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). The moral purity of Jesus was indispensable to his mediator-ship (Hebrews 7:27). 3. Man’s inferiority to the angels. Man occupies a lower place in the universe than the angels who inhabit heaven (verse 15). Yet even these bright intelligences appear tarnished in God’s sight. How much less, then, can a claim of moral parity be made good for man? If God’s hell, less, the standard of all creature excellence, is so absolute that even the heavens with their holy inhabitants are not pure in his sight (verse 15), it is sheer folly to expect that man can establish his moral cleanness before the eyes of the Omniscient One (cf. Job 4:17, Job 4:18, homiletics). On the contrary, man must be entirely abominable in the estimation of a holy God, because wholly corrupt (verse 16), sin being that abominable thing which God hates (Jeremiah 44:4), and which renders everything it infects hateful, because of changing its nature, and making sour, putrid, corrupt, disorganized, what God had at first pronounced fair, orderly, and very good. 4. Man’s habitual practice. This the culminating proof of man’s total and universal depravity. Wherever man exists he is found to drink up iniquity like water; i.e. to commit sin as regularly, eagerly, abundantly, easily, naturally, as the ox or the horse drinks up water. Learn: 1. Men often fail to see in themselves the faults they condemn in others, 2. The faculty of speech was given to every man to profit withal. 3. The tongue is badly used when it is employed to either afflict saints or encourage sinners. 4. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." 5. Prayer is one of the natural instincts of the human heart. 6. A man’s creed is commonly an index to his character. 7. The man who condemns himself need not wonder if he be condemned by others. 8. The older a man grows the wiser should he become. 9. Divine consolation may be, but is not always, administered by man. 10. "Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." 11. The month should never be allowed to go wit. hoot a bridle. 12. The doctrine of man’s depravity is very old. Job 15:4 Restraining prayer. Of the reasons leading men to either neglect or discontinue the exercise of prayer, these will be found to be the chief. I. THERE IS NO GOD TO PRAY TO. This the reason of the atheist. But the existence of a supreme First Cause, possessed of intelligence and moral character, is to faith assured by: 1. The intuitions of the human mind, which may sometimes attempt to argue itself out of, but never needs to reason itself into, the belief in a Divine Being. 2. The witness of the creatures, which, by countless instances of special contrivance and design, attest the eternal power and Godhead of their Artificer (Romans 1:20). 3. The intimations of Scripture, which never demonstrate, but always assume, that a God exists, and man knows it. Hence, since there is a Supreme Being, the folly, as well as sin, of withholding from him that tribute of devotion which is his due. II. THERE IS NO IN PRAYER. The usual objections to the possibility of prayer may be here stated, such as that the whole universe having been placed under the dominion of fixed and invariable law, there can, properly speaking, be no room for the exercise of prayer; that the Bible itself, by representing all things as coming to pass in accordance with a prearranged plan, seems expressly to exclude the idea of prayer; that the multiplicity and even contradictoriness of human interests is so great as to reduce the whole business of praying to an absurdity; and that, as no one pretends to be able to dispense with his own labours even while he prays, it seems hard to know precisely wherein lies the special virtue of devotion. Without replying to these seriatim in this place, it may suffice to observe: 1. The exact import of the assertion that there is no efficacy in prayer, which is that the individual so asserting has been able to place himself precisely where God stands in relation to the universe, to make a survey of the entire compass of created things, to sound the unfathomable depths of the Divine resources, and, as the result of his examination, to announce that prayer cannot be answered; in other words, such a confident dogmatist arrogates to himself the attributes of God. 2. The complete worthlessness of the assertion when set against the testimony of the human consciousness, especially when supported by the evidence of incontrovertible fact that prayer can be, and has been, answered. III. THE ABSENCE OF A FELT NEED OF PRAYER. This is the reason of the worldling. The things he regards as constituting the summum bonum of existence—wealth, pleasure, fame, power, and such like—seem to belong to a sphere that is not much affected by prayer; while, having never experienced any desire for those spiritual realities comprehended in the gospel, blessing of salvation, viz. the pardon of sin, the renovation of the heart, the spirit of adoption, and so on, he has never deemed it necessary to trouble the King of heaven with supplications for their bestowal. But (1) the bleatings of the gospel are none the less indispensable for the soul’s happiness that the soul does not realize its lack of them; (2) the absence of any felt necessity for prayer is the best proof the soul can desire that prayer is in reality its one thing needful; (3) the exercise of prayer will not interfere with a just devotion to the ordinary businesses and duties of daily life; (4) not even the most material of earthly blessings belongs to a region that lies beyond the influence of prayer (Philippians 4:6). IV. THE LACK OF ANSWERS TO PRAYERS. This is the reason of the faithless Christian. And it is undoubtedly hard for a soul to keep on praying when to all appearance the ear of God is deaf. But in such circumstances the petitioner should consider (1) whether a prayer might not be answered without the praying one being distinctly conscious of it at the time; (2) whether the prayer to which no answer is returned may not simply be delayed, and not denied; (3) whether, even on the hypothesis of its denial, it may not after all be for the best that the thing asked for should be withheld; (4) whether the indispensable conditions of true prayer, such as faith (Hebrews 11:6; James 1:6), humility (Genesis 32:10), sincerity (Psalms 66:18), etc.. have been complied with. V. THE WANT OF ANY TRUE RELISH IN PRAYER. This is the reason of the spiritually declining saint. Now (1) it is certain that the exercise of prayer ought to be delightful to the Christian, prayer being as much a natural function of the gracious soul as breathing is of the body. But (2) it is equally apparent that over spiritual as well us physical functions times of languor steal, these being induced in the former mostly by a want of watchfulness against the encroachments of the world, or by a careless dalliance with sin, or by a growing spirit of formality. Hence (3) so far from being a reason for discontinuing devotion, the lack of spiritual relish should rather stir the praying soul to greater earnestness and zeal. VI. THE OF KNOWN SIN. This is the reason of the conscious backslider. Nothing so effectually extinguishes the altar-fire of a spiritual devotion as the practice of secret sin. (1) It disqualifies for coming to the throne (Isaiah 1:15); (2) it prevents God from listening to prayer (Psalms 66:18); (3) it deadens the spiritual life from which prayer comes (Psalms 32:3); (4) it represses all desire within the soul for converse with God; and (5) it finally silences the voice of prayer altogether. Job 15:17-35 Eliphaz to Job: 2. More wisdom from the ancients. I. THE OF THIS WISDOM. 1. Old; i.e. derived from a remote antiquity. The traditionary lore about to he cited by Eliphaz had been manufactured by primeval sages, from whom it had been carefully transmittal to the "wise men" who had told it to Eliphaz. The "fathers," "unto whom alone the earth was given," and "among whom no stranger passed," were either patriarchal descendants of Noah prior to the time of Peleg, when the earth was divided (Genesis 10:25), or the early progenitors of the Arabian races. 2. Pure; i.e. unmixed with foreign elements. Whether the ancients were pre-Pelegites or post-, the fact to which Eliphaz calls attention remains unaltered. "Purity of race was from the earliest times considered by the sons of the East as the sign of highest nobility" (Delitzsch). That this isolation of the Arabian fathers would tend to preserve the current of primitive tradition pure and unalloyed, and might even favour the healthy development of independent views, "derived from their own experience and undisturbed by foreign influence," can scarcely be questioned, it would seem also as if in the world’s infancy other methods of conserving Divine truth were impracticable. At least Israel was separated from the other nations of the earth in order to serve as a depositary for the gospel promise in order to preserve it till the fulness of the times. Hence she was forbidden to make marriage or other alliances with the nations around for fear of learning their ways. But now the truth of God, under the Christian dispensation, has been revealed with such clearness and fulness of illumination, that it does nor require to be hedged about by safeguards of race, nationality, etc.; though it is still true Christian people that "evil communications corrupt good manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33). 3. Certain; i.e. verified by experience. In the preceding colloquy Eliphaz had treated Job to wisdom he had learnt in ecstatic vision (Job 4:12); here he lays before him the results of observation through the ordinary channels of information. He does not claim for his approaching utterances the high authority of messages from the spirit-world; still, he guarantees their veracity on the double testimony of eye and ear. What the wise men had reported to his sense of hearing he had taken care to verify by the organ of seeing; so that practically he seems to say, "In the mouth of two witnesses is every word established." II. THE PURPORT OF THIS WISDOM. Briefly, it is the dogma that a moral order exists in the world, that good always comes to the good, and in particular that evil never fails to overtake the evil. 1. The wicked man’s doom. Painted in lurid colours, as consisting mainly in two things. (1) The terrors of an evil conscience, which are represented as: (a) Self-inflicted. "The wicked man writhes or torments himself" (verse 20). Conscience always is its own avenger. Gagged for a season, it eventually speaks out with greater power because of previous repression. "No man ever offended his own conscience, but first or last it was revenged upon him for it" (South). (b) Excruciatingly painful, like the pains of parturition. "Conscience is a thousand swords" (’King Richard III.,’ Acts 5. sc. 2). "Methought a legion of foul fiends environed me" (ibid; Acts 1. sc. 4). "The mind that broods o’er guilty woes is like the scorpion girt by fire" (Byron ’Giaour’). (c) Never ceasing; the anguish of the stricken wretch continuing "all his days." Except in rare instances, this part of Eliphaz’s description can scarcely be regarded as literally correct. Yet it teaches that, from one end of life to the other, the wicked man enjoys no security against his guilty fears, which may spring forth upon him at any moment, the exact instant when they shall do so being hidden from his view (verse 20). (d) Horribly terrifying; filling him with dismal forebodings of evil. The sound of approaching calamity ever ringing in his ears (verse 21), every footfall appears to be that of a destroyer: "How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?" (’Macbeth,’ Acts 2. sc. 2); and "The wicked flee when no man pursueth" (Proverbs 28:1). His imagination suggests, even in the midst of prosperity, that the devastator is upon him (verse 21), that every one who finds him shall slay him (Genesis 4:14), that his destruction will be sudden and complete—a fate reserved for unbelievers in the great day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:3). His guilty conscience peopling the dark with assassins causes him to live in constant terror of the sword (verse 22)—"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all" (’Hamlet,’ Acts 3. sc. 1). His feeble spirit agonized by fears of starvation even in the midst of abundance (verse 23), roams abroad in search of bread, saying, "Where is it?" and he becomes a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, like another Cain (Genesis 4:12), and like wicked men generally whose evil hearts are restless as the troubled sea (Isaiah 57:20). His crowding fears of impending calamity so unman him that when trouble and anguish gather round like royal armies prepared for battle, they paralyze him with dread, and render resistance or escape impossible (verse 24). (2) The miseries of an evil fortune form the second ingredient in his unhappy lot. He shall never attain to true, permanent, or abundant wealth. If he make money, he shall make nothing else. And that money shall take wings and flee away. So that, notwithstanding his apparent success, he shall be always a poor man. It is often true of the wicked that they make money only to put it into a bag with holes (Haggai 1:6). Ill-gotten wealth never lasts long. The wicked man shall never be out of misfortune, in himself or in his family. "He shall not escape darkness" (verse 30). He shall eventually be overwhelmed in ruin; painful, like the burning of a flame; speedy, like a blast of wind; divinely sent, the agent of his destruction being the breath of God’s mouth, which will ultimately consume the enemies of Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:15); and therefore complete and final, the wicked perishing utterly, as all the ungodly will do hereafter. 2. The wicked man’s crime. (1) Tyrannical oppression of men (verse 20). The ungodly persons alluded to by Eliphaz were proud imperious sinners who trampled recklessly on the rights of others. All sin is more or less an infringement of the rights sod liberties of men; and much of the wickedness with which earth is overrun partakes of this character—the strong tyrannizing over the weak, the ambitious making stepping-stones of those who are humble the powerful treading down the feeble and unresisting (cf. Cowper, ’Task,’ bk. 2.). The giants of Noah’s (Genesis 6:4) and the Arabian robbers of Job’s time (Job 12:6; Job 20:19) were men of this type. (2) Defiant antagonism to God (verses 25, 26). Hostility to God is the natural characteristic of the sinful heart (Romans 8:7); but all tyrannical oppression of men is practically a fighting against God. And the particular aggravation of the wicked man’s offence lies in this, that, though clearly understanding himself to be acting contrary to God’s Law, and thus virtually entering the lists against Jehovah, he persists in his nefarious behaviour, with much braggadocio "stretching out his hand," and "affecting to play the hero against God" (verse 25); with immeasurable insolence "strengthening himself against the Almighty," a feeble worm presuming to contend with the Lord of hosts; with infinite zest "running upon him," as if eager to close in mortal combat with his celestial Adversary (verse 26); with fierce determination, "with a stiffened neck," expressive of haughty resolution; with amazing self-sufficiency, dashing up against him with "the thick bosses of his bucklers" (verse 26), as if expecting to overwhelm the Supreme with ignominious defeat. Examples of such defiers of God may be found in Pharaoh (Exodus 5:2), Sennacherib (Isaiah 36:20), the crucifiers of Christ (Psalms 2:1; Acts 4:25-27); though all sin is essentially an insolent rejection of God’s rule and defiance of his authority (Luke 19:14, Luke 19:27). (3) Licentious indulgence of self (verse 27). The language describes one given over to gluttony, a person whose "god is his belly" (Philippians 3:19). Luxurious living an object of ambition to most men (Luke 12:19); a frequent mark of wicked men (Psalms 17:14; Psalms 73:7; Luke 16:19); a special danger for all men (Deuteronomy 8:12). Fat feeding and fair clothing have a tendency to beget and foster pride. "It is a common proverb that provender pricketh men" (Calvin). When Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked (Deuteronomy 32:15). If in politics and civil matters lean men are dangerous (’Julius Caesar,’ Acts 1. sc. 2), in religion it is mostly otherwise. Hence the wisdom of Agur’s prayer (Proverbs 30:8, Proverbs 30:9). (4) Complete insensibility to sin (verse 28). The wicked man takes up his abode in cities like Jericho (Joshua 6:26), which God’s curse has rendered desolate through some overwhelming visitation, thus evincing not so much his insolent defiance of God, as the stolidity of his wicked soul, his utter want of pious feeling, the complete callousness and deadness of his moral and spiritual nature. All sin gravitates towards "a conscience past feeling" (Ephesians 4:19). III. THE OF THIS WISDOM. 1. A wicked insinuation. "Let not him that is deceived" (verse 31), i.e. Job. Eliphaz charges Job with a false confidence in his own integrity. Though not true of Job, it is certain that of many it is not false. Hence the propriety of self-examination as to the grounds on which our assurance rests. If it rest on the Spirit’s witness to our faith in Christ, it is good and will never disappoint our expectations; if it is based on any of those "vanities" alluded to by Eliphaz, it is false, and will eventually overwhelm us in despair. 2. An excellent admonition. "Let him not trust in vanity." Everything outside of God and his favour, on which a human soul grounds its confidence of safety, or in which it thinks to find happiness, is vanity—moral excellence, evangelical fervour, general philanthropy, intellectual power, social position, commercial credit, political influence, no less than successful wickedness and unchecked antagonism to God. Yet the human heart is insanely prone to clasp these to its bosom, saying, "Be thou my confidence," instead of trusting in the living God. But to do so is the merest self-deception. For none of these things, nor all of them, can satisfy a human soul. Only God can so occupy the heart as to fill it with happiness and render it secure. God alone is the saint’s portion and trust. 3. A fearful prediction. "Vanity," probably in the sense of calamity, "shall be his recompense" (verse 31). And this reward, for which the self-deceived man toils, shall be paid: (1) Fully; "it shall be accomplished" (verse 32), i.e. his punishment will be fully measured out, his wage paid to the full—that wage being death (cf. Romans 6:23). (2) Prematurely; "before his time," i.e. before the natural termination of his life, sin having a tendency to shorten (Psalm Iv. 23), as godliness has to prolong life; before any of his schemes have reached completion, like a vine shaking off its unripe grapes and an olive casting off its flowers (verse 33). (3) Sadly; involving his family in his ruin, for "the family of the hypocrites shall be desolate" (verse 34), the wicked man carrying the contagion of ungodliness into his home, and bringing down upon it the curse of God (Proverbs 3:33), as certainly as the good man surrounds his children with an atmosphere of salvation (Luke 19:9; Acts 16:31), and draws down upon them by his prayers the benison of love. (4) Utterly; the judgments of the Almighty consuming the tabernacles of bribery and their wicked inhabitants, who conceive mischief and bring forth vanity, and whose belly prepareth deceit (verse 35). A description, again, which, though inapplicable to Job, for whom it was wrongfully meant, has sometimes been realized, as in the case of the cities of the plain. Learn: 1. That the true Divider of countries to nations and of lands to individuals is God. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. 2. That if the intercourse of peoples and tribes with one another be productive of good, it is by no means unattended with danger. Sinful practices and opinions are more easily adopted than their opposites. 3. That the way of transgressors is commonly as hard to themselves as to their victims. "Evil pursueth sinners." 4. That the fiercest enemy a soul has to encounter is an awakened conscience. It is hard to contend against a foe through whose face God looks. 5. That the biggest coward upon earth is a bragging tyrant who oppresses the weak. Man’s moral strength rises in proportion to the meekness with which he can endure, not the cruelty with which he can inflict, wrong. 6. That the man who thinks to conquer God in battle is a fool. The way to victory with God is by faith and prayer, humility and submission. 7. That a fat body may become the grave of a lean soul. The man that would have a prosperous and luxuriant soul must keep the body under. 8. That the best-deceived man on earth is he who trusts in earthly vanities. If he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, what must he be who trusts in unsubstantial nothingness? 9. That wicked men’s families are often ruined by their parents. A father should lead his child to heaven by holy deeds, not point him the way to hell by transgression. 10. That the ultimate perdition of ungodly men is sure. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." BY E. JOHNSON Job 15:1-19 Perversity and impenitence rebuked. In the next six chapters the controversy between Job and his friends takes a new and embittered turn. They muster their forces to put down the daring speaker, who as they deem has challenged the justice of God. They seek to humiliate him as a late-born, itinerant, and passionate man, who has incurred fresh guilt by his impious questionings and blasphemies. Eliphaz gives a terrible representation of the general truth that the wicked man, living for himself alone, must ever be exposed to torment, and his property and condition must ever be insecure, leaving Job to apply all this to himself. In the war of words the hope of reconciliation and mutual understanding is further and further banished. The present chapter (xv.) falls into two divisions: the first containing argument; the second the authoritative utterance of wisdom (verses 2-19, 20-35). I. : . (Verses 2-6.) Eliphaz, as the oldest and most experienced of the friends, seeks to abash and humiliate Job by raising doubts of his sense and wisdom. 1. The characteristics of unwisdom are indulgence in windy words—in "words from the paunch," the seat of wild and ungovernable passion, as constructed with words that are uttered from the heart (Job 8:10), and are those of experience, sense, and truth; in words that are useless because there are no corresponding deeds. Here is a good test of the value of speech—Has it any tendency to bear fruit in deeds? can it be followed up and expressed in deeds or no? Those words are vain on which we dare not set the stamp and seal of action. 2. Proofs of guilt. These wild speeches are not only idle, but worse, mischievous. The tongue is a powerful agent, either of good or evil. It builds up those who listen in faith and goodness, or loosens the root of piety in the soul. Further, the tongue may be used as the weapon of the crafty—a disingenuous means of defence. And does not this show that Job is utterly corrupt; that, like an unprincipled scoundrel, he would attempt to clear himself by throwing blame on others? II. . (Verses 7-13.) 1. Ironical rebuke of his assumption Is he the first-born man—older than the hills? Does he stand at the head of mankind, and, therefore, know better than all his fellows? So Ezekiel satirizes the King of Tyre, "Thou stalest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty" (Ezekiel 28:12). The Hindus have a proverb used in the same sense, "Yea, indeed, he is the first man; no wonder that he is so wise." The great Greek sage, on the other hand, being declared the wisest of men, interpreted the oracle as meaning that h-e alone of men knew that he was ignorant. It is better to place one’s self on a level with the meanest and the most ignorant than to assume superiority in matters about which all men may reasonably think themselves equally well informed. 2. Expostulation against a bitter temper. It is a temper that will not soften at the word of comfort, as the rock will not melt in the sun. Eliphaz thinks that all his good instruction and consolation have been lavished in vain upon this obdurate heart. The "refusing to be comforted," the obstinate nourishing of grief, is a temper that must be changed, otherwise the mental view cannot become clear and calm. Other signs of temper are pride; the heart carried away by its passionate egotism; the gleaming or rolling eyes (verse 12), and the unbridled wildness of the tongue. These symptoms prove a disease, and that disease is self-will. III. THE RIGHT OF AGAINST GOD DENIED. (Verses 14-16.) Here the speaker repeats himself, for he has nothing more deeply impressed upon his own mind than the folly and impatience of complaints from infirm man against the supreme and all-holy One (comp. Job 4:17—5:7). 1. The hereditary taint in man (verse 14). 2. The relative impurity of heavenly beings in the sight of God. 3. Man’s choice of sin (this is especially emphatic here). All these considerations show the impiety of daring to question any action of God. Man has a thirst for sin (verse 16): shall such a creature, from the edge of its muddy pool, lift itself presumingly against Heaven? IV. DEMAND FOR TO . (Verses 17-19.) In this short preface the wisdom of the speaker is described as (1) derived from personal experience; (2) confirmed by ancient tradition; (3) as pure, unadulterated wisdom, coming from a time when foreign opinions and foreign manners had not corrupted the simplicity of ancient truth.—J. Job 15:20-35 Warnings from the wisdom of experience. I. THE OF THE WICKED. (Job 15:20-24.) 1. Lifelong pain. Notwithstanding all appearances of ease and prosperity, the bad man only suffers. The sword seems ever suspended above the tyrant’s head. The serpent is ever busy with the tooth of remorse at his heart. 2. Dread fancies throng through every sound into his imagination; he is ever in terror of some sudden doom. He sees a darkness coming upon him from which there is no possibility of escape. In the glance of dread fancy he sees himself already singled out for the fatal sword-stroke. The gaunt shape of famine seems to haunt his steps; from his soft couch and splendid table he looks out into a dark scene, and realizes it as present; he is overcome by anguish and trouble, as a king is borne down amidst the turmoil of battle. Thus conscience makes the guilty man a coward, and the "native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought." "A guilty conscience! I ask no other hell." II. THE CAUSE OF HIS . (Job 15:25-28.) 1. Rebellion against God. This is presented under the powerful figure of a warrior, rushing against his foe, on the field, in headstrong fury. Self-will, leading to contempt of the moral order of God, and this to violent resistance to all moral restraint; here is the genesis and development of sin. See the history of Pharaoh. 2. His selfish life. He lives in luxury, pampering his body till he becomes a gross mass of flesh, full of carnal appetite. In his unsocial ambition and greed he has laid waste flourishing cities rich in men, that he may abide in them alone, as if he could not find place enough for the dwelling of his body, and preferred to live alone amidst wide desolation, rather than peacefully among a multitude of the happy. So in Isaiah 5:8, "Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!" "He enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people" (Habakkuk 2:5). "He builds a town with blood, and lays its foundations in iniquity "(Habakkuk 2:12). The picture is one of grasping, insatiable greed and covetousness, which shut a man out from the sympathy of his fellows. Some, however, take Isaiah 5:28 as referring further to an act of disobedience in fixing his dwelling among ruins, cursed by God and forbidden to future habitation. III. THE OF THE WICKED. (Isaiah 5:29 -33.) His hopes are disappointed, riches elude him, his accumulations melt away. Unlike the heavy harvest of the waving corn, he is rather like the tree whose roots do not sink deeply into the earth (Isaiah 5:29), so that every outward misfortune becomes in extreme source of danger—all his blossoms and fruits are cast away before the time of gathering! Then, again, the figure of darkness returns, which he only escapes, to fall into the glowing breath of God’s anger, which blasts everything that is green and fair in his prospects. IV. THE VANITY AND FOLLY OF THE WICKED. (Verses 34, 35.) He begins by trusting in vanity, in what is baseless, such as all absence of moral principle; and vanity, according to the moral constitution of the world, must be the end of his schemes. The time of ripeness and harvest must be that of destruction; or like the blossoms of the olive in certain years, which fall off without fruit being formed, his plans never come to maturity. The "brood" of the wicked man is unfruitful; the fire devours his tent. Or like the woman who has falsely conceived, and remains long in deception, but at last perceives with grief the nothingness of her hopes, so with the wicked man (comp. Is. Isaiah 7:14-17; Isaiah 33:11). LESSONS. 1. Goodness alone has substance, vitality, endurance, fruitfulness. 2. Evil is emptiness; it carries with it self-delusion; its end is disappointment and failure.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 15:2, Job 15:3 The wise man speaketh wisdom. There is a fitness of things, and wisdom becomes the wise man—the man who is either truly wise or who would presume to be wise. Let his words testify to the justness of his profession. Consider— I. THE OF WORDS OF FOLLY FROM THE LIPS OF THE WISE. All may reasonably hope that he who is tutored with knowledge, and who has accustomed himself to direct his knowledge to good ends, will speak only words of truth and soberness—words trustworthy and useful. For one known to be wise, or professing to be wise, to use words of foolishness is an utter incongruity. The speech is the expression of the soul. Out of the heart the mouth speaketh. The world has need of wisdom—need of its salt—to save it from the corruptions of error and folly. "Should a wise man utter vain knowledge?" It is inconsistent; it is misleading; it is destructive. II. THE OF THE WORDS OF HIM WHO TRULY WISDOM. To assume the position of the teacher, to dare to guide the ignorant, to set up one’s self as a ruler in the world of thought, is to assume a position of the highest possible importance. Knowingly or unknowingly, the world is led by the words of its teachers, good or bad. The souls of men are in the hands of the teacher. His words lead to life or death. The bulk of men are ignorant and timid, and therefore under the control of the stronger minds. The world’s sad history proves that men, like a flock of sheep, may be led into any path by their teachers. The dry and arid sands will not keep the feet of the sheep from following their leader and shepherd, nor will the rugged and stony ground. The world is led by the ears. How precious, then, to the world are words of true wisdom! Truly the feet of him who publisheth peace, and bringeth good tidings, are beautiful. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job answers the second speech of Eliphaz in a discourse which occupies two (short) chapters, and is thus not much more lengthy than the speech of his antagonist. His tone is very despairing. He finds no help at all in the speeches of the "comforters" (verses 2-6), and turns from them to consider once more the dealings of God with him (verses 7-14). Next, he describes his own proceedings under his afflictions, and appeals to earth and. heaven, and God in heaven, to take up his cause and help him (verses 15-22). In Job 17:1-16. he continues much in the same-strain, but with an intermixture of the topics, which is somewhat confusing. In Job 17:1, Job 17:2 he bewails himself; in Job 17:3 he makes an appeal to God; in Job 17:4, Job 17:5 he reflects upon his "comforters;" in Job 17:6-9 he returns to himself and his prospects; while in the remainder of the chapter (Job 17:10-16) he alternates between reproaches addressed to his friends (Job 17:10, Job 17:12) and lamentations over his own condition (Job 17:11, Job 17:13-16). Job 16:1, Job 16:2 Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things. There was nothing new in the second speech of Eliphaz, if we except its increased bitterness. Job had heard all the commonplaces about the universal sinfulness of man, and the invariable connection between sin and suffering, a thousand times before. It was the traditional belief in which he and all those about him had been brought up. But it brought him no relief. The reiteration of it only made him feel that there was neither comfort nor instruction to be got from his so-called "comforters." Hence his outburst. Miserable comforters are ye all! Job 16:3 Shall vain words have an end? literally, as in the margin, words of wind; i.e. words which pass by a man "as the idle wind which he regards not." Will his friends never bring their futile speaking to a close? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou anwerest? rather, what provoketh thee? (Revised Version) Job had begged that his friends would be silent (Job 13:5, Job 13:13). He supposes that they would have complied with his wish if he had not provoked them, but professes an inability to see what provocation he had given. His last speech, however, had certainly not been conciliatory (see Job 12:1-3; Job 13:4, Job 13:7, etc.). Job 16:4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you. It is only too easy to heap up rhetorical declamation against an unfortunate sufferer, whose physical and mental agonies absorb almost his whole attention. If you were in my place and condition, and I in yours, I could moralize in your tone and spirit for hours. And shake my head at you. A Hebrew mode of expressing condemnation of a man’s conduct (see Psalms 22:7; Isaiah 37:22; Jeremiah 18:16; Matthew 27:39, etc.). Job 16:5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth. The meaning is somewhat doubtful, and different renderings have been proposed. But the rendering of the Authorized Version is quite defensible, and is accepted by our Revisers. This gives the sense, "I, if I were in your place, would not act as you have acted, but, on the contrary, would do my best to strengthen you with words of comfort and encouragement." The moving of my lips should assuage your grief. (So Rosenmuller and our Revisers.) The words are a covert reproach of the three "friends" for not acting as Job declares that he would have acted if the positions had been reversed. Job 16:6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased! As it is, nor speech nor silence are of any avail. Neither of them brings me any relief. My sufferings continue as before, whichever course I take. Job 16:7 But now. These words mark a transition. Job turns from complaints against his "comforters" to an enumeration of his own sufferings. He hath made me weary. God has afflicted him with an intolerable sense of weariness. He is tired of life; tired of disputing with his friends; tired even of pouring out his lamentations and complaints and expostulations to God. His one desire is rest. So I have seen in the piombi of Venice, where political prisoners were tortured by cold and heat, and hunger and thirst, for long weeks or months, and brought to despair, such scratchings as the following: "Luigi A. implora pace, Giuseppe B. implore eterna quiete." Job has entreated for this boon of rest repeatedly (Job 3:13; Job 6:9; Job 7:15; Job 10:18, etc.). Thou hast made desolate all my company. The loss of his children has desolated his household; his other afflictions have alienated his friends. Job 16:8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles. So St. Jerome, Professor Lee, Dr. Stanley Leathes, and others; but the generality of modern commentators prefer the rendering, "Thou hast bound me fast," i.e. deprived me of all power of resisting or moving (comp. Psalms 88:8, "I am so fast in prison that I cannot get forth"). Which is a witness against me; i.e. a witness of thy displeasure, and so (as men suppose) of my guilt. And my leanness rising up in me heareth witness to my face; rather, my leanness rising up against me. This emaciation is taken as another witness of his extreme sinfulness. Job 16:9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me; literally, his wrath teareth, and he hateth me. God treats Job as severely as if he hated him. That he is actually hated of God Job does not believe; otherwise he would long since have ceased to call upon him, and pour out his heart before him. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth (comp. Psalms 35:16; Psalms 37:12). Mine enemy (or rather, adversary) sharpeneth his eyes upon me; i.e. makes me a whetstone on which he sharpens his angry glances. Job 16:10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth. The "man of sorrows" of the Old Testament is, in many respects, a type of the "Man of sorrows" of the New; and, in the Messianic psalms, David constantly applies to Christ expressions which Job had used in reference to himself (see Psalms 22:13). They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully (comp. Micah 5:1; Matthew 27:30; Luke 22:64; John 18:22). They have gathered themselves together against me (see Psalms 35:15, and compare, in illustration of the literal and historical sense, Job 30:1, Job 30:10-14). Job 16:11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly. All that Job had suffered at the hands of wicked men, the gibes of his "comforters," the insults and "derision ’ of "base men" (Job 30:1, Job 30:8-10), the desertion of many who might have been expected to have come to his aid, being by God’s per-minion, is attributed by Job to God himself, who has "delivered" him up to these "ungodly" ones, and permits them to add to and intensify his sufferings. He was not so ruthlessly treated as his great Anti-type; he was not bound with thongs, or crowned with thorns, or smitten with a reed, or scourged, or crucified—even the smiting on the cheek, spoken of in verse 10, was probably metaphorical; but he suffered, no doubt, grievously, through the scorn and contumely that assailed him, through his friends’ unkindness, and his enimies’ insolent triumph, and the rude jeers of the "abjects’" who made him their "song" and their "byword" (Job 30:9). And turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Job speaks as if God had wholly given him up, made him over to the wicked, to deal with him exactly as they chose. This, of course, was not so. If the malevolence of Satan was limited by the Divine will (Job 1:12; Job 2:6); so, much more, would the malevolence of man be limited. Job 16:12 I was at ease (compare the picture drawn in Job 1:1-5). Job had been "at ease," tranquil, prosperous, happy. He had been almost without a care, when suddenly "trouble came." But he hath broken me asunder; rather, he brake me asunder (see the Revised Version). In the midst of his ease and tranquillity, God suddenly poured out his chastisements, and "brake Job asunder," i.e. destroyed his life, ruined it and broke it down. He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces; or, dashed me to pieces. And set me up for his mark; i.e. as a target for his arrows (comp. Deuteronomy 32:23; Job 6:4; Psalms 7:13; Psalms 38:2, etc.; Lamentations 3:12). Job 16:13 His archers compass me round about. God is represented, not as himself the shooter of the arrows, but as surrounding Job with a body of archers, who are under his command and carry out his will. So, generally, Scripture represents the judgments of God as carried out by interior agents (see 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15; 2 Kings 19:35, etc.). He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare. The allusion is probably to Job’s physical sufferings, which included severe pains in the lumbar region. He poureth out my gall upon the ground. The rupture of the gallbladder causes the contents to be sprit upon the ground. Job 16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach. As an enemy, when he besieges a town, crushes its resistance by means of "breach upon breach." so is Job crushed by one attack after another. He runneth upon me like a giant; i.e. with overwhelming force—a force that is quite irresistible. Job 16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin. Another transition. Job turns to the consideration of how he has acted under his severe afflictions. In the first place, he has put on sackcloth, not for a time merely, as ordinary mourners do, hut for a permanency, so that he may be said to have sewn it to his skin. There is, perhaps, also an allusion to the adhesion of the garment to his many sores. And have defiled my horn in the dust. "My horn" is equivalent to "my pride," "my dignity." Job, when he left his state, and put on sackcloth, and "sat down among the ashes" (Job 2:8), denuded himself of his honour and dignity, and as it were trailed them in the dust Job 16:16 My face is foul with weeping He has wept so much that his face is stained with his tears. And on my eyelids is the shadow of death. There is an awful shadow on his eyes and eyelids, portending death Job 16:17 Not for any injustice in mine hands; or, not that there is any violence in my hands (scrap. Isaiah 53:9, where the expression used of the Messiah is nearly the same). Job repudiates the charge of rapine and robbery which Eliphaz has brought against him (Job 15:28, Job 15:34). His hands have not done violence to any. Also my prayer is pure. Neither has he been guilty of the hypocrisy which Eliphaz has also charged him with (Job 15:34). His prayers have been sincere and genuine. Job 16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood! There was a widespread belief in the ancient world that innocent blood, spilt upon the ground, cried to God for vengeance, and remained a dark blot upon the earth till it was avenged, or until it was covered up. Job apostrophizes the earth, and be-seethes it not to cover up his blood when he dies, as he expects to do, shortly. And let my cry have no place; i.e. let it have no hiding-place, but fill earth and heaven. Let it continue to be heard until it is answered. Job 16:19 Also now, behold, my Witness is in heaven; rather, even now (see the Revised Version). Job claims God for his Witness, looks to him for an ultimate vindication of his character, is sure that in one way or another he will make his righteousness clear as the noonday in the sight of men and angels (see Job 19:25-27, of which this is in some sort an anticipation). My record—or, he that vouches for me (Revised Version)—is on high—one of the so frequent pleonastic repetitions of one and the same idea. Job 16:20 My friends scorn me; literally, my scorners are my companions; i.e. I have to live with those who scorn me (comp. Job 30:1-13). But mine eye poureth out tears unto God. It is not to his "friends" or "companions," or "comforters," or any human aid, that Job turns in his distress. God alone is his Refuge. Forced by his woes to pass his time in weeping and mourning (see verse 16), it is to God that his heart turns, to God that he "pours out his tears." Hardly as he thinks God to have used him, bitterly as he sometimes ventures to complain, yet the idea never crosses him of looking for help or sympathy to any other quarter, of having recourse to any other support or stay. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15), expresses the deepest feeling of his heart, the firmost principle of his nature. Nothing overrides it. Even "out of the depths" his soul cries to the Lord (see Psalms 130:1). Job 16:21 Oh that one might plead for a man with God! The original here is obscure. It may mean, Oh that he (i.e. God himself) would plead for a man with God! i.e. would become a Mediator between himself and man, plead for him, undertake his defence, and obtain for him merciful consideration. Or, nearly as in the Authorized Version, Oh that one might plead for man (i.e. mankind at large) with God! interest him on their behalf, and obtain a merciful judgment for them. The former rendering is to be preferred. As a man pleadeth for his neighbour; literally, as a son of man (or, as the Son of man) pleadeth for his neighbour. If we take the simpler rendering, "as a son of man," then the meaning is simply, "Oh that God would plead for man with himself, as a man is wont to plead for his fellow-man!" But if we prefer the other rendering, "as the Son of man," a Messianic interpretation will be necessary. (So Professor Lee and Dr. Stanley Leathes) But Messianic interpretations of passages that do not require them, and that have no such traditional interpretation, require extreme caution. Job 16:22 When a few years are come; literally, a number of years, which generally means a small number. I shall go the way whence I shall not return. This verse would more fitly begin the following chapter, which opens in a similar strain, with an anticipation of the near approach of death Job 16:1-6 Job to Eliphaz: 1. Unacceptable comfort and unassuaged grief. I. COMFORT. Job characterizes the offered consolation of Eliphaz and his companions as: 1. In its nature common’ place. "I have heard many such things." Not that Job imagined self-evident and obvious maxims could not be true, or objected to a good lesson because it was common, or was himself "one of those nicelings who are always longing for I wet not what novelties, and cannot abide that a man should tell them one tale twice" (Calvin), like the Athenians (Acts 17:21), and some Christians of whom St. Paul writes (2 Timothy 4:3); but that either he desired to rebuke the assumption of the friends, who had pretentiously styled their stale platitudes "the consolations of God" (Job 15:11), by discovering them to be exceedingly trite observations, or he wished to draw attention to the greatness of his misery which refused to be comforted by common means. 2. In its pertinence powerless. "Shall vain words [literally, ’words of wind’] have an end?" If Job meant, by designating Eliphaz’s oration "words of wind," to repay him for the compliment contained in Job 15:2, most unquestionably Job was wrong, since good men should be meek (Galatians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 13:7; Ephesians 4:2), and meek men should rather hear reproach than resent it (1 Peter 2:20), being called thereunto by Christ’s precept (Matthew 11:29), promise (Matthew 5:5), and example (1 Peter 2:21); but if Job simply designed to direct attention to the fact that a truth might be precious in itself as well as eloquently set forth, and vet possess no relevancy to the subject under consideration—whistling past it, in fact, like the idle wind—he gave utterance to a valuable remark. The public ear groans at the quantity of windy talk, irrelevant observation, impertinent argument, and pointless discussion to which it is obliged to listen. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that good people and religious literature enjoy a monopoly of this sort of wisdom. As much weak (Scottice "feckless") palaver may be heard in parliaments and scientific congress as in pulpits and sermons. 3. In its spirit irascible. "What emboldeneth [literally, ’goadeth’] thee that thou answerest?" Eliphaz had thrown off the somewhat calm and philosophic manner that had distinguished him in his first address, had given way to temper, and allowed the heat of his spirit to communicate a degree of sharpness to his tongue. Between the two, the tongue and the temper, there is an intimate connection. It is hard to pour forth floods of glowing eloquence when the soul is like an icicle; but equally it is a task for the wisest, when the whole inner man is on fire, to keep the conflagration from shooting out lambent flames, and emitting fiery sounds from the mouth. "It is good to be zealously affected in a good thing;" but "the discretion of a man deferreth his anger," "lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, back-bitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults," and because "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," while "an angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression." 4. In its utterance facile. "I also could speak as you do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you." The allusion seems to be to the glibness with which Eliphaz and his copartners tossed their trite maxims from their tongues; which, says Job, is not a great thing after all, but, on the contrary, is rather a poor accomplishment, in which I myself could rival you. Fluent speech is a great ornament, as well as a powerful handmaid, to fine wisdom; but, as a substitute for wisdom, it is wholly contemptible. Nimble-tongued talkers should also remember that sometimes those hear them who could eclipse them at their own trade, but are restrained from doing so, if not by regard for their fellows, by respect for themselves. 5. In its character insincere. "I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would soothe you." The same sort of consolation they offered him, he could with perfect ease present to them—mere lip-salve, comfort proceeding from the teeth outward. But of course he would not, as they very well knew who had been acquainted with his previous manner of life (Job 29:11-17), and had even been constrained at the outset to acknowledge (Job 4:3, Job 4:4). Sincerity, that becomes and is binding upon all in every situation of life, is specially required of sympathizers. That which comes not from the heart never finds its way to the heart. Comfort without honesty wants the first element of success (1 Corinthians 13:1), and is as hateful to God as it is distasteful to man (Proverbs 27:14). 6. In its result irksome. "Miserable comforters [literally, ’comforters of trouble’] are ye all." Instead of soothing, it annoyed; instead of healing, it wounded; instead of helping, it weakened. And no wonder, if its character was as above depicted. II. GRIEF. Job declares that, much as his misery demanded right and effectual consolation, he was not able to find it in God, his friends, or himself. 1. No comfort from God. Not because God failed to appreciate his need of comfort (Genesis 21:17; Exodus 3:7; Isaiah 40:7), or that his case exceeded the Divine resources (2 Corinthians 1:3), or that the will on God’s part was wanting to alleviate his sorrow (Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 27:8; Isaiah 42:3; Isaiah 66:13; 2 Corinthians 7:6); but that God sometimes, for wise and good purposes of trial and discipline, hides his face from afflicted saints (Isaiah 54:7, Isaiah 54:8). 2. No help from man. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had only proved "comforters of trouble," broken reeds that pierce the hand of those who lean upon them. Job had not gone to them for consolation; it was they who had proffered comfort to him. But, in either case, the result would have been the same. Man’s resources in the shape of sympathy are soon exhausted. 3. No ease from himself. If he spoke, his grief was not assuaged; if he remained silent, he experienced no alleviation (verse 6). Common woes are usually relieved by tears or talking; and great sorrows, at least by great souls, full-orbed, self-contained, self-sufficient men, can be restrained, if not abated, by silent endurance; but Job’s misery refused to yield to any medicine. This should have moderated Job’s indignation against his friends, since if he, who best knew his own trouble, was unable to find a crumb of comfort in it, it was worse than foolish to expect that men, who in a manner only spoke at a venture, would be successful in ministering to a malady which they did not understand. Learn: 1. That truths which seem original to ordinary minds are often recognized by wiser and better-informed persons as exceedingly trite and commonplace. 2. That well-meaning people sometimes bandy words with one another, and call each other bad names, like vulgar scolds and common sinners. 3. That it is no uncommon thing for men in trouble, whether saints or sinners, to meet with miserable comforters and physicians of no value. 4. That the three requisites for comfort are sincerity. sympathy, and sagacity. 5. That God can place the most capable of men in positions which shall reveal their insufficiency. Job 16:7-17 Job to God: resumption of the third controversy: 1. The sorrows of a weary man. I. SENT. Whether directly addressed in the second person (verses 7, 8), or indirectly alluded to in the third (verses 7, 9, 12, 14), it is ever God to whom Job traces back his sufferings. It is faith’s function, as well as faith’s delight, to recognize God’s hand in affliction as in felicity; but not seldom sense intervenes to misconstrue the end and motive of God’s dealings with the saint, and to regard as indicative of anger and enmity what, rightly viewed, is rather symptomatic of affection and care (verse 17; Psalms 94:12; Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6; Revelation 3:19). From the first Job had connected his adversity with God’s appointment (Job 1:21; Job 2:10). For a long time he had struggled bravely, against the eloquent representations of his friends, to maintain his confidence in God’s affection, notwithstanding all untoward appearances. But now, under extreme pressure of misery, he is on the eve of giving way—talking quite openly of God as his enemy, whose wrath tears him and makes war upon him, and whose teeth sharpen themselves against him (verse 9). The stern facts which appear to shut him up to so reluctant an inference are three. 1. The inward testimony of his own consciousness. Though it would be wrong to say that this witness of an anguish-laden spirit expressed the maturely formed and definitely fixed judgment of the patriarch, it would yet be equally erroneous not to recognize that, for the moment, Job did believe that God had turned against him. Such a complete reversal of a good man’s consciousness was exceptional; the result, not of affliction alone, however severe and protracted, but of Satanic influence and temptation. It discloses the extraordinary power the devil has to work upon the human spirit. If he can so handle "a perfect man and an upright," it is not at all surprising he should be able to lead captive at his will "silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts" (2 Timothy 3:6), and even proud and imperious men who oppose themselves to the truth (2 Timothy 2:26). It reveals also how far a saint may go in a course of unbelief and backsliding without renouncing his integrity; and is fitted to suggest hope concerning many who are supposed to have lapsed entirely from the truth. It sheds a light upon the Divine Father’s forbearance and mercy, that he can see a saint misconstrue his providences, and calumniate his character, and yet lay not his sin to his charge (Job 42:7). 2. The expressed judgment of his fellow-men. Eliphaz had cited, as one of the items in the sinner’s doom, the desolation of his family (Job 15:34), and the obvious allusion to this remark in Job’s language, "Thou hast made desolate all my household" (verse 7), seems to intimate that Job regarded the cruel verdict of his friends upon his case as substantially correct. He could see, from a comparison of his sad condition with the sentiments they had uttered, that they, as well as he, had arrived at the inference that God was against him. 3. The palpable witness of his misery. His emaciated body, his weary and pinched face, his feeble and wasting frame, all covered over with ulcers, seemed to rise up and tell him to his face that God was dealing with him as with a convicted criminal. According to the theology of the period, this was strong circumstantial evidence against the patriarch; but circumstantial evidence often lies. Here it notoriously did, as afterwards it did in the case of Christ, whose marred face was no proof that he was "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4). "A marred and meagre visage may testify to our grief, but not to our guilt" (Robinson). II. SEVERE. 1. Their variety. Almost every form of calamity was heaped upon the patriarch. (1) Bodily distress; consisting of complete exhaustion of physical vigour (verse 7), unsightly enunciation of the countenance (verse 8), lamentable wasting of the once strong and goodly frame (verse 8). (2) Mental anguish; occasioned by the overthrow of his family (verse 7), the alienation of his friends, who beheld in his miseries a witness to his condemnation (verse 8); the opposition and insolence of wicked men, to whose mercy God had apparently abandoned him, who gaped upon him with their mouths, rejoicing in his misfortune, smote him upon the cheek reproachfully, adding insult to enmity, and conspired against him, in order to complete his destruction (verse 10)—an experience which in all its parts was predicted of Messiah and fulfilled in Christ (cf. Psalms 22:12-21 with Matthew 26:59, Matthew 26:67; and Psalms 2:1 with Acts 4:25-27). (3) Spiritual sorrow; arising, as above explained, from a sense of abandonment by God. 2. Their unexpectedness. Job had been at ease, prosperous and contented, fearing God and eschewing evil, when all at once misfortune leaped upon him, and God. seizing him, broke him in pieces. And this was an aggravation of the sufferers distress, that without apparent cause, and certainly without warning, he was hurled from the pinnacle of prosperity to the lowest depths of adversity; as the wicked will eventually be (Psalms 73:19), and as at any moment, though not for the same reason, the godly may be. Therefore let no one indulge in a vain confidence like David, that his mountain shall stand strong for ever (Psalms 30:6, Psalms 30:7); or like Job, that he shall die in his nest (Job 29:18); or like the daughter of the Chaldeans, that she shall be a lady for ever (Isaiah 47:7); but being forewarned, as the patriarch of Uz was not, let him also be forearmed. 3. Their violence. Job pictures the dreadful hostility of God against himself by means of three striking figures, in which he represents God as (1) a mighty Hunter, with wrathful soul and gnashing teeth and flaming eyes (verse 9) pursuing a poor frail, timid creature with a pack of fierce and yelping curs (verse 10), to which the prey when caught is mercilessly thrown (verse 11); (2) a gigantic Wrestler, strong in thew and sinew, seizing his antagonist by the neck, triumphantly holding him aloft in his clenched fist, and then furiously dashing him to the ground (verse 12); and (3) a skilful Archer, who, tying up his helpless enemy to a post, makes his arrows whistle for a time round the wretch’s head, so as to fill him with consternation without inflicting mortal injury, and then, having sported with him for a while, as a tiger might do with its prey, sends a shaft into a vital part (on the emptying of the gall-bladder, consult the Exposition), so that the miserable victim writhes in mortal agony. 4. Their degradation. The abject humiliation to which Job had been reduced by his sufferings is set forth in four particulars. (1) The sewing of sackcloth upon his loins. Sackcloth, the symbol of mourning (Genesis 37:34; 1 Chronicles 21:16; Psalms 35:13; Jonah 3:5, Jonah 3:6), is here represented as not only put upon the patriarch’s person, but sewed upon his skin; partly, perhaps, because of the ulcerous condition of his body, but partly also, it is probable, to indicate the depth of Job’s abasement. (2) The defiling of his horn with dust; the horn being the emblem of personal dignity and social honour (Psalms 132:17), and the meaning being that all Job’s glory was completely tarnished and laid low. This is one of the expressly designed results of affliction; and they who defile their horns in the dust before God when overtaken by his chastisements have taken the first step towards the final exaltation of their horns (Psalms 89:17). (3) The reddening of the eyes with weeping. Great grief makes strong men weep. Yet weeping for a sufficient cause is not unmanly. Examples: Abraham (Genesis 32:2), Joseph (Genesis 43:30), David (2 Samuel 18:33), Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:3), St. Paul (Philippians 3:13), Jesus (Luke 19:41; John 11:35). (4) The shading of the eyelids with gloom; an indication of approaching death. Death makes the eyelid droop, and wraps the eye itself in darkness. It was an aggravation of Job’s misery that it had brought him to the confines of the grave. III. WHOLLY . 1. His life had not been wicked. There had been no injustice, wrong, or evil deed of any kind in his hand, as his friends asserted. The hand being the instrument of action, clean hands are the symbol of an upright life (Job 17:9; Psalms 24:4). Where the hands are not clean the heart cannot be pure. 2. His devotions had not been insincere. Notwithstanding the imputations of his friends to the contrary (Job 15:4), his conscience told him that his prayer was pure. Genuine sincerity is one of the first requisites of devotion. "When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are" (Matthew 6:5). Learn: 1. That the same God who makes a saint weak and weary beneath life’s burdens can also impart strength and cheerfulness to bear them. 2. That one of the hardest works faith has to do is to oppose those representations of the Divine character and providence that are g yen by sense. 3. That, while the saint’s calamities are not always sent in punishment of sin, they are mostly designed to produce within the saint a spirit of self-humiliation. 4. That God never abandons a saint to the ungodly, though he will yet deliver over the ungodly to perdition. 5. That, next to the comfortable shining of God’s face upon a human soul, which Job at this time wanted, the best lodestar, while struggling over and through a sea of trouble, is the ineradicable conviction of one’s own sincerity, the testimony of a good conscience before God. Job 16:17 Acceptable prayer. I. WHEN TO THE RIGHT OBJECT. God (Psalms 65:2). Not, however, the God of our imaginations, or the God of nature simply; but the God of revelation and the God of grace, the God who hath manifested forth his glory in the Person of Jesus Christ. II. WHEN THROUGH THE RIGHT MEDIUM Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), the one Advocate for sinful men (1 John 2:1), the one High Priest over the house of God (Hebrews 7:25), the Daysman for whom Job longed (Job 9:33), the Redeemer to whom he looked forward (Job 19:25). III. WHEN OFFERED IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT. 1. Sincerely (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8). 2. Humbly (Genesis 32:10; Isaiah 66:2; Luke 18:13). 3. Believingly (Matthew 21:22; Hebrews 11:6; James 1:6). 4. Holily (1 Timothy 2:8); i.e. with renunciation of sin (Proverbs 15:8; Proverbs 21:27; Proverbs 28:9; Psalms 66:18), and with kind and forgiving dispositions (Mark 11:25). IV. WHEN ASKING FOR THE RIGHT THINGS. Things contained within the promises. These give to prayer a scope at once ample and sufficient. 1. Ample; since the promises are exceeding great and precious in their variety (2 Peter 1:4). 2. Sufficient; since they contain all things pertaining to life and godliness. Job 16:18-22 Job to God: 2. An appeal to God against God. I. A SUBLIME . "O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place!" (verse 18). 1. The explanation of the language. The allusion seems to be to Genesis 4:10, where the blood of Abel is represented as crying to God from the ground for vengeance upon its destroyer; and Job, in the lofty consciousness of his innocence, while momentarily anticipating death, calls upon the earth not to drink up his blood, but to permit its cry to "urge its way unhindered and unstilled towards heaven without finding a place of rest." But the student may consult the Exposition. 2. The import of the language. It contains a declaration on the part of Job that, though about to perish, he was innocent; and, since he regarded God as the Author of all his sufferings, it was virtually an accusation of God as the Shedder of his innocent blood. The style of address here employed is certainly not one that a good man may with safety imitate. II. A APPEAL. 1. To what quarter? Not to his friends who had mocked him (verse 20), but to God himself who had assailed him, to whom nevertheless he clung as for dear life, and whom he describes by a threefold characteristic. (1) His name; Eloah, the All-powerful Supreme, in contrast to man, to strong men and weak men alike, who are all at the best but dust; the mighty Maker of this universal frame, who giveth power unto the faint, and to them that have no might increaseth strength (Isaiah 40:29), and who hath revealed himself most graciously as a Refuge for the oppressed (Psalms 9:9; Deuteronomy 33:27; Jeremiah 16:19). (2) His occupation; that of a Witness, an Eye-witness, whose eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good (Proverbs 15:3), as those of Christ, the faithful Witness, are in the midst of the golden candlesticks (Revelation 2:1); and in particular whose eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose hearts are perfect toward him (2 Chronicles 16:9). The thought that God is a constant Eye-witness of everything on earth, and a silent Spectator of all that transpires within the deep places of the human heart, may fill the wicked with alarm, but is fraught with special comfort to the saint. (3) His dwelling-place; the heights, or heaven. God has three dwelling-places—eternity, the Church, and the saint’s heart (Isaiah 57:15); and he is never really absent from the third any more than from the second or the first. But when the saint, by reason of doubt, sorrow, or sin, cannot perceive him in the second or third, he may always find him in the first, seated on his high and glorious throne of grace. 2. In what spirit? Clearly (1) with firm faith. "Behold, my Witness is in heaven;" the first personal pronoun pointing to the existence of appropriating faith. So David says, "The Lord is my Shepherd" (Psalms 23:1). And (2) with confident expectation. "Behold!"—a note of triumph, as if a gleam of bright exultant hope had already begun to make sunshine in the sufferer’s soul. III. A FERVENT . 1. The earnestness of Job’s prayers. They were: (1) Persistent. His friends mocked him, accused him of impiety, insinuated that he had abandoned the habit of devotion; but, in spite of slander and misrepresentation, he continued "instant in prayer." Not fitful and intermittent devotion succeeds with God, but habitual and continual. Therefore pray without ceasing. It is a high mark of grace to be able to persevere in well-doing, and to keep on praying in face of opposition and ridicule from friends. (2) Tearful. Job presented not cold, formal, and listless petitions to the throne of grace, but warm, urgent, and forceful entreaties. When the eye waters, the heart melts. It is the stream of penitential feeling, or the flood of believing desire, which, welling up from the soul’s depths, sends liquid drops through the open gateway of the eye. David mourned after God with tears (Psalms 42:3). The father of the lunatic boy cried out with tears, "Lord, I believe" (Mark 9:24). 2. The burden of Job’s prayers. (1) That God would plead with himself in behalf of man; i.e. that he would vindicate Job against himself, by declaring him (Job) to be innocent, What Job here desired for himself has in a more exalted sense been done for all men by Christ, who through his cross has made intercession for the transgressors’ not to demonstrate their sinlessness or integrity, but to establish their righteousness before God. (2) That God would plead for the son of man against his friend; i.e. for Job against his friends, who wished to put him down as a hypocrite. This also God will do for all, if not here, in a future world. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43). IV. A REASON. 1. The brevity of life’s term. "When a few years are come" (verse 22). The short period of life that still remained would soon be ended. Time flies with all, but especially with the dying. 2. The hopelessness of man’s return from the tomb. "Then I shall go the way whence I shall not return (cf. Job 10:21). Learn: 1. That the God of faith alone is the true God. 2. That faith’s God is found in the page of revelation and in Jesus Christ, not in the mere conceptions of the human mind. 3. That faith’s God is the enemy of no man, but the Friend of all. 4. That the ear of faith’s God is never heavy that it cannot hear, or his hand shortened that it cannot save. BY E. JOHNSON Job 16:1-22 Deep dejection and irrepressible hope. In this reply Job refuses to make a direct rejoinder to the attack upon him; he is too utterly bowed down in his weakness. But— I. The first part of his speech consists of A BITTER SARCASM UPON THE IDLE TALK OF HIS FRIENDS. (Verses 1-5.) Their speeches are useless. They mean to comfort (Job 15:11); but their reasonings produce an opposite effect on his mind. They should cease; there must he something ailing those who are thus afflicted with the disease of words. Words will not heal the broken bones nor soothe the wounded heart. Were it so, then Job could act the part of comforter as well as they, in the case of their affliction. Thus with scorn he repels their futile attempts to "charm ache with air, and agony with words," to "patch grief with proverbs." "Brother, men Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting if, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Charm ache with air, and agony with words; No, no; ’tis all men’s office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of sorrow; But no man’s virtue, nor sufficiency, To be so moral when he shall endure The like himself: therefore give me no counsel: My griefs cry louder than advertisement." II. Next, he relapses into a OF HIS EXTREME MISERY. (Verses 6-17.) 1. The alternative of silence or of speech is equally unbearable. (Verse 6.) A healthy man can give vent to his feelings in talk; but no words suffice to check the flow of this immense grief. Would he do well to be silent? But, then, what grief would depart from him? None! There is no riddance either way. Speak or not, his suffering remains the same. 2. The instinct to pour forth his woe proves irrepressible, and he proceeds with the description of his terrible sufferings. (Verses 7-14.) His strength is exhausted. His house is desolate. His wrinkled and emaciated body is a spectacle to move his own pity. But still keener are the sufferings of his mind. The thought that God has inflicted this suffering, that he is, as he supposes, an object of the Divine wrath, fills his mind with intolerable gloom. And not only is God against him, but evil men seem to be employed as instruments of his wrath. They, envious of his former prosperity, and of his goodness, now gather around to heap every insult upon his head. Tracing again all to God, Job conceives of him under the image of a furious warrior, who has advanced against him in utmost violence, caused a shower of arrows to fall upon him, pierced him as with a sword, battered him into ruins as a strong wall is battered into breaches by the violence of the battering-ram. 3. His present condition. (Verses 15-17.) Humbling himself beneath the rod, he has adopted all the symbolic language of penitence and grief. He has put on the sackcloth; bowed his head to the dust; given himself to weeping until his eyes are heavy and his face is red. And all this "though there is no wrong in his hand, and his prayer is pure." III. THE HEAVEN- CRY OF . (Verses 18-22.) So soon as in the course of these sad reflections Job once more recurs to the consciousness of his innocence, new courage is born to his heart; in his very exhaustion he can still cry to Heaven in the might of a confidence that will yet wring an answer from God. He calls upon the earth not to hide his blood, and may his cry have no resting-place. The allusion is to the ancient sacred custom of blood-revenge (Genesis 4:10, Genesis 4:11; comp. Isaiah 26:21; 2 Samuel 1:21). But the circumstances under which the desire net to die unavenged here appears are quite unusual As one persecuted, not merely by man, but far more by God, near to death, he maintains his innocence before man and God. Here is a seeming contradiction between the dark thoughts just expressed of God, and this profound faith in the invisible and just Judge. Grief is full of inconsistencies and contradictions, arising from the imperfection of the understanding. They cannot be solved by thought, only as here by faith. Thus we come to another moment of calm amidst this terrible tempest of grief—another break in the sky amidst these storms. The chapter leaves the deposit of a noble consolation at our feet. 1. The existence of the Witness in heaven. An all-intelligent Witness, a feeling Witness, an all-remembering Witness of innocent suffering, is our heavenly Father. There may be ever an appeal to him from the unfeeling conduct and the mocking observation of men. 2. The certainty of a just decision in the end. "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." In all the sense of life’s mystery, and the temptation to doubt whether God be perfectly good and kind, let Patience, supported by faith, have her perfect work. Let us "remember Job," and "consider the end of the Lord"—J. BY R. GREEN Job 16:6 Sorrow without hope. Unalleviated by the words of his friends, Job turns round upon them, and in painful, half-passionate words retorts upon them their incompotency to give him consolation. "Miserable comforters are ye all." He is driven almost to despair. The painful alternative of speech or silence is before him; but neither offers him any hope, and he is compelled to reflect upon his helpless condition. He is exhausted. The future presents no prospect of alleviation. He has sorrow without hope. Such sorrow distinguished— I. BY ITS EXTREME . To endure pain of body or mind is hard enough, and many succumb to it. But if there be a gleam of hope the aching spirit clings to it and is upborne. When, however, no ray of brightness is apparent, when only the darkness of an undiminished sorrow is present, then is the painfulness of the circumstances in which the sufferer is placed heightened in a great degree. To suffer without hope of a termination is the very perfection of suffering. The poor heart searches for some avenue of escape, but none is present. It is thrown back again and again upon itself. This is extremest sorrow. To see only the long, unvaried line of suffering drawn out to the utmost future, and no break appearing, robs the soul of its one consolation in extreme trial—the hope of release. If a bound be put to sorrow it may be endured; but if no limit can be traced, and all probability of limitation be cut off, the case is desperate. The worst that can be said of any evil is—It is hopeless. II. Sorrow without hope is AN STRAIN UPON THE OF THE . To lose hope is to lose heart. The strong can bear up under the heavy burden, but the weak must yield. It is to add to the weight of the burden by every hour that elapses. Time, which so often comes to relieve the sorrowful, but brings a heavier load. The exhausted spirit bravely fighting against its oppressive surroundings is more and more driven to the conclusion that all effort is unavailing, and the added experience of every hour but confirms the assurance that there is no hope left. It is the severest of all strains that the spirit can be subjected to. It is the inevitable precursor of despair. III. Such sorrow reaches a climax of severity when, as in this case, THE APPEAL TO GOD, THE GREAT HELPER, IS . "He hath made me weary." He hath exhausted me. It is true a real help is in reserve for Job, but he does not know it. He suffers without hope. He has turned to man and found no relief. His cry to God is unavailing. If he "speak," his "grief is not assuaged.’ His cry returns upon him. If he "forbear," still he is not "eased." The world is indebted to this sufferer for the painful experiment of which he is the subject. Now the world knows that in patient endurance and unswerving fidelity there is assured hope. The hand of help may be hidden, but it is there. God may seem to be inattentive to the sorrowful cry, but he is only testing and proving his faithful servant, and the severity of the test marks the measure of the final award. Hence may we learn (1) that the apparent hopelessness of human sorrow is not a perfect representation; (2) the wisdom of maintaining the spirit of hope, even when we seem to have no encouragement to do so; (3) the certainty of a final relief and reward to the faithful.—R.G. Job 16:11-17 The severity of the Divine judgments. The mystery of the Divine dealings is revealed in this book. The view from a human standpoint is given. Job and his friends see not the spiritual side of the whole transaction. The Divine purpose is hidden. Job knows not that it is "Satan" that has instigated all these afflictions. He knows not that God has given permission for his trial. Nor does he know the limitations put upon that trial, nor the final issue. The severity of the Divine judgments (so are they in Job’s view) is represented in striking language. I. AS A OVER TO THE UNGODLY. He is cast into the hands of the evil-doer. II. As A OF . "I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder." III. As AN OF SEVERE PAINS. "He cleaveth my reins asunder." IV. As A OF . "He breaketh me with breach upon breach." These judgments evoke from Job: 1. The lowliest humiliation. He bows in "sackcloth," and lays his "horn in the dust." 2. He pours out his soul in penitence, and his face is even "foul with weeping." 3. Over him hangs the gloom "the shadow"—"of death." 4. In the consciousness of integrity he makes his "pure" prayer to God. The interest of these few lines is very great in the general working out of the plot of the history. Happy he who in the midst of his sorrows can bow in lowly penitence under the severities of the Divine judgments, still retaining the assurance of his sincerity, and waiting the final award.—R.G. Job 16:19, Job 16:20 The appeal of innocence to the highest tribunal. Job now turns from man to God. He has the assurance of faith—the full assurance which faith gives- that God will requite the injured and justify the pure. Man’s judgment is imperfect. He sees only the outboard circumstance; God looketh upon the heart. To him who knoweth all things Job turns; and to God his "eye poureth out tears." Before man can commit his cause to God with confidence the following is needful— I. A OF THE OF HUMAN . Job had thoroughly proved this. Howsoever wise the sayings of his friends, or however just their reflections, Job knew that their accusations of him were unfounded, and that therefore their conclusions were unjust. Hence he turned from them to that "record" of his life which was "on high." II. But this must be supported by A . None can truly commit his cause to God who knows within himself that he is guilty. At the final bar he knows most assuredly that his sin will find him out. But he whose spirit bears him witness of his uprightness, as Job’s did, and as the Divine judgments afterwards affirmed, may with calmness commit his way unto God. He knows that his true "Witness is in heaven." He shall bear testimony to Job’s integrity, uprightness, and purity. III. Further, AN FAITH IN GOD’S is needed in order to a calm committal of all to his arbitrament. Job, the "servant" of God, knew in whom he could confide. He feared God. On that fear faith builds with safety and assurance. A conception of God which is so low that it inspires no faith must preclude all loving, helpful hope in him. IV. On such foundations may rest A CALM TO AWAIT THE FINAL DIVINE AWARD. The upright, sincere, but misunderstood sufferer leaves all to the final judgment. The "witness" and the "record" are "on high." To that tribunal which is also on high he appeals, and with the "scorn" of his "friends’ breaking his already afflicted spirit he turns his tearful eyes "unto God." Self-assured integrity may always thus make its appeal to God, "the righteous Judge" to whose judgment-seat it is the highest wisdom of assailed innocence to appeal.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 16:2 Miserable comforters. Job is able to rise above his foolish, narrow-minded friends, and look down upon them with good-humoured, pitying irony. So little do they understand him! So proudly do they trust in their empty words! And it is all a delusion. Job is almost ready to forget their impertinence as he turns to the far more important question of God’s dealings with him. But first he gives them their true character. They are all "miserable comforters." I. FAIL FOR LACK OF . This thought is continually recurring in the course of the dramatic dialogue. It is at the root of the whole controversy. All the elaborate argumentation of the three wise men is so much empty wind, because they lack the first condition of consolation. We can never be reminded too often that sympathy is the first and absolute condition of all mutual helpfulness. But how is it that well-meaning friends lack it? There can be but one answer. The enemy of sympathy is selfishness. While we think much of ourselves, our own opinions, position, conduct, we must fail in sympathy, and our attempts to help others must come to the ground without any good results. In visiting the poor, nursing the sick, raising the fallen, saving the lost, teaching children, sympathy is the primary requisite for success. Christ is the true Friend of the suffering, because Christ sympathizes profoundly with all sufferings. We make a mistake when, like Job’s comforters, we try to console by offering advice. The sufferer wants not advice, but sympathy. Why should his misfortune give us a right to pose as his counsellors? He is more fitted to be our teacher, for he has been to the best of schools, the school of affliction. II. ADD TO THE GRIEFS WHICH THEY VAINLY TRY TO ASSUAGE. Thus Rousseau writes, "Consolation indiscreetly pressed upon us, when we are suffering under affliction, only serves to increase our pain and to render our grief more poignant." The reasons for this are not difficult to discover. 1. Disappointment. We expect something better from a friend. He should give us his sympathy, and if he fails to do so we feel ourselves to be unkindly treated, or at least we miss a comfort for which we were looking. 2. Weariness. The sufferer wants quiet. The look and tear of sympathy may console him, but many words are wearying to him. He is too full of iris own sad thoughts to find room for the ill-judged observations of untimely advisers. 3. Injustice. You cannot be just to a man without sympathy, because you cannot understand him till you enter into his deeper feelings. But nothing is more distressing than unjust treatment. Much of Job’s greatest trouble came from this source. III. WE NEED DIVINE GRACE TO HELP US TO BE TRUE . Perhaps we shrink from the task, seeing its difficulties. We would avoid the house of mourning lest our bungling attempts at consolation should add to its sorrows. But this is not brotherly. The Christian duty is to "weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15). To be true sympathizers we need to have self conquered by the grace of Christ. Perhaps one reason why some of us have much trouble is that we may be able to understand the trouble of other people, and so may become true comforters.—W.F.A. Job 16:6 Incurable grief. Job does not know what to do; neither speech nor silence will assuage his grief. It appears to be incurable. I. GREAT GRIEF SEEMS TO THE . 1. It cannot be measured. Feeling destroys the sense of proportion. Every one who suffers much is tempted to think himself the greatest of sufferers. A passion of emotion sweeps away all standards of comparison. The stormy sea appears to be unfathomable. 2. It excludes the thought of anything but itself. The black cloud shuts out the heavens and narrows the horizon. The world of sorrow is shrunken to the range of present, personal experience, Thus in overwhelming grief there is no room or power in the soul to conceive of a means of escape. The absorbing interest of pain will not allow a rival consciousness. 3. It is found to be irresistible. If a man thought he could conquer his grief or escape from it, surely he would not tamely submit to his torments unless he were a fanatic of asceticism. But if the pain cannot be set aside at once, it is difficult to believe that it will not endure for ever, for agony destroys the sense of time. II. GREAT GRIEF MAY NOT BE CURABLE BY MAN. There are diseases that no medicine can heal, and sorrows that no human aid can touch. Grief naturally tends to endure by its own creation of a habit of grieving. "Sorrow, like a heavy-hanging bell, Once set on ringing, with his own weight goes: Then little strength rings out the doleful knell." (Shakespeare) Some sorrows are evidently incurable by man. 1. The loss of those greatly beloved. No human comforter could bring back Job’s seven sons and three daughters from the dead. What word or work of man could touch his sorrow of utter bereavement? We know only too well that nothing on earth can make up for our greatest losses by death. 2. The discovery of a wasted life. When the old man comes to himself and finds that he has been living in a delusion, when he sees with bitter remorse that he has been squandering his years in folly and sin, what can man do to comfort him? The past can never be recovered. 3. The despair of guilt. If this is soothed by flattery and falsehood, a fatal mischief is done. But if the conscience is fairly roused, it cannot be thus soothed. To man sin is incurable. III. GRIEF THAT APPEARS TO BE MAY YET BE ALL CURED BY GOD. No child of God should despair, for infinite love and almighty energy can know of no impossibility. The gospel of Christ offers complete cure. 1. Present peace. (1) If the trouble is from sin, the peace is in pardon. All sin is curable by Christ, for "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Hebrews 7:25). (2) If the trouble is from any other cause, the peace is in the love of God. This love, which also brings the peace of forgiveness, is itself an infinite consolation. It is better to be Lazarus with God than Dives with purple and fine linen. 2. Future blessedness. The dead will not return to us. But we shall go to them. Christ promises to his people a home in the great house of God. There "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Revelation 7:17). The old wasted life cannot be given back in its pristine innocence. But the renewed soul may live a new life in God’s eternity.—W.F.A. Job 16:12 Shattered when at ease. This was Job’s awful fate. All was calm when the thunderbolt fell and dashed him to the ground. I. GOD GIVES TIMES OF EASE. This should be acknowledged even in the hours of suffering. Take life as a whole, and the intervals of ease are with most people much longer than the periods of trouble. Yet we are tempted to neglect them when giving the story of our life, and, like Jacob, to describe our days as "few and evil" (Genesis 47:9). Quiet times come from God quite as much as troublous times. It is an unjust view of providence to suppose that our ease comes from ourselves and the world, and only our trouble from God. II. TIMES OF EASE WILL NOT ENDURE FOR EVER. It is needless to be anticipating future trouble. Christ bids us not be anxious for the morrow. But we should be prepared for trouble. The man who has insured his house against a fire need not be always dreaming that it is in flames. Having made a proper provision, he can set aside all thoughts of danger. We require to have just so much perception of the uncertainty of life as to lead us to make the requisite provision for a reverse of fortune. The storm may come. Where shall we be when it is upon us? III. TIMES OF EASE ARE NOT IN AGAINST TIMES OF TROUBLE. As they may give place to very different times, they cannot ward off the unacceptable succession. The great temptation of the rich man is to trust in his wealth for what it can never purchase. Seeing that its range is wide, he is in danger of missing its limits. So the prosperous man is tempted to trust to his good fortune, as though the mere occurrence of what is agreeable were a cause of the same in the future. But trouble comes from outside a man’s circumstances, or from his own heart, which may be bankrupt while his estate is perfectly sound. IV. TIMES OF EASE SHOULD HELP US TO PREPARE FOR TIMES OF TROUBLE. Joseph laid up stores during the seven years of plenty in preparation for the coming seven years of famine. The prudent man will always try to put something by for a rainy day. Old age must be provided for by the forethought of earlier years. Thrift is a duty a man owes to his family whom he ought to support, and to his neighbours to whom he ought not to become a burden. Higher considerations require the same method of conduct. These present calm days afford us good opportunities for spiritual preparation. It is rare indeed that a man has power and disposition to enter into the deeper religious experiences on his death-bed if he has not made himself acquainted with them during the days of health and strength. Then death may surprise us at any time, and the only safety is in being always ready. A good use of the long, quiet, prosperous summer-time of life should leave us prepared to meet whatever wintry storms it may please God to send us. If we have the peace of God in our hearts, the most shattering blows will not destroy it, and that peace even in trouble will be far more precious to us than the times of ease of the lotus-eaters, with whom it was "always afternoon," but who knew not the deeper blessedness of peace in sorrow.—W.F.A. Job 16:17 (last clause, "My prayer is pure"). Purity of prayer. The impure prayer cannot be heard by God. It may be earnest, passionate, vehement, yet it must fall back rejected and confounded. Let us, then, consider in what purity of prayer consists. I. REALITY. The prayer that is not felt and meant in the heart is an impure offering of hypocrisy. Though it be uttered in the becoming phrases of devotion, it is to God as the howling of blasphemous demons. If there be no other sin in our prayer, insincerity is fatal. But it is not easy to be always true and real, especially in public acts of devotion, when a multitude of people are expected to be joining in the same prayer at the same moment. If, however, the heart is set on truly seeking God, he will not count the wandering thought of casual distractions as a mark of insincerity. The spirit may be willing while the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41), and God looks to the heart. What is essential is a true purpose and effort to worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit and i, truth (John 4:24). II. . We are all sinners, and therefore can only come to God as suppliants confessing our sin. Any other method of approach is false to our character and deeds. In the parable of the publican and the Pharisee it is just the contrition of the publican that meets with God’s approval. If we hold to our sin we cannot be received m our prayer. Though we may forget the ugly thing, or suppose that we have left it behind us, it is with us in the very house of God; it is even standing between us and God, a black and impenetrable barrier. III. FAITH. We cannot pray purely till we trust God. The prayer of unbelief is a wild cry in the darkness wrung from a soul by its utter distress. Surely God will pity such a cry, and in his infinite compassion he will do what is possible to save his benighted child. But the strength of communion with God that comes in prayer is only possible when we can trust God as our Father and completely confide in him. It is by believing, by trusting God, that we win great blessings in prayer. IV. . If Our prayer is a self-willed mandate claiming certain things from God which must be just according to our mind, it is defiled by impurity. We have not to dictate to God what he is to do for us. Our duty is to lay our case before God and then to leave it with him. He must do what he thinks best, not what we demand. The pure prayer will be submissive, saying, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." V. . Even in our submission we may still be selfish, for we may be convinced that it is best for ourselves that God should do with us what he thinks best, and may think of nothing else. Such prayers as "Bless me; save me; comfort me; fill me with good things," are narrow, and when they stand alone they are selfish. Christ’s model prayer is in the plural number," Our Father give us," etc. We need to enlarge our petitions with intercession for our brethren, and to include the wants of the world in our prayers. The purest prayer is one that chiefly seeks the glory of God—Christ’s prayer, "Father, glorify thy Name."—W.F.A. Job 16:19, Job 16:20 The Witness in heaven. Job turns from man to God. On earth he is misjudged, but in heaven there is One who sees all, and can witness both his woe and his integrity. More than this; he turns from God as the source of his calamity to God as his Saviour. Dr. S. Cox has pointed out that Job has here made a great discovery. He has found a higher God, a God of love, above the God who torments. Or rather, he has seen the true God above the false, conventional idea of God. To this God he appeals as his Witness in heaven. I. THERE IS A WITNESS IN HEAVEN. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 17:1-16 The general character of this chapter has been considered in the introductory section to Job 16:1-22. It is occupied mainly with Job’s complaints of his treatment by his friends, and his lamentations over his sufferings (verses 1-12). At the end he appeals to the grave, as the only hope or comfort left to him (verses 13-16). Job 17:1 My breath is corrupt; or, my spirit is oppressed. But the physical meaning is the more probable one. A fetid breath is one of the surest signs of approaching dissolution. My days are extinct; or, cut off. The verb used does not occur elsewhere. The graves are ready for me; or, the chambers of the grave are mine already. The plural form is best explained by regarding it as referring to the niches commonly cut in a sepulchral chamber to receive the bodies of the departed. Job 17:2 Are there not mockers with me? literally, mockeries—the abstract for the concrete. (For the sentiment, comp. Job 16:20 and Job 30:1-14.) And doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? i.e. "Have I anything else to look upon? Are not the mockers always about me, always provoking me?" Job 17:3 Lay down now; or, give now a pledge (see the Revised Version). The terms used in this verse are law terms. Job calls upon God to go into court with him, and, first of all, to deposit the caution-money which the court will require before it undertakes the investigation of the case. Next, he goes on to say, put me in a surety with thee; or rather (as in the Revised Version), be surety for me with thyself’ which is either the same thing with giving a pledge, or a further legal requirement. Finally, he asks the question, Who is he that will strike hands with me? meaning, "Who else is there but thyself, to whom I can look to be my surety, and by striking hands (comp. Proverbs 6:1) with me to accept the legal responsibility?" As Dr. Stanley Leathes says, "It is wonderful the way in which the language of Job fits in with what we have since and elsewhere learnt concerning the Persons in the Godhead." Job 17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding. My so-called friends will certainly not undertake for me, since thou hast blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts against me. Therefore shalt thou not exalt them. God will not exalt those who are without understanding. Job 17:5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends; rather, he that denounceth his friends for a prey. Job means to accuse his "comforters" of so acting. By their persistent belief in his grievous wickedness they give him up, as it were, for a prey to calamity, which they pronounce him to have deserved on account of his secret sins. Even the eyes of his children shall fail. Whoever so acts shall be punished, not only in his own person, but also in the persons of his descendants (comp. Exodus 20:5). Job 17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people. God, by the unprecedented character of his afflictions, has made Job a byword among the surrounding nations—a byword, that is, for an afflicted person. Job, by the manner in which he bore his afflictions, made himself a byword for patience and endurance among God’s people throughout all ages (see James 5:11). And aforetime I was as a tabret; rather, I am become an abomination before them; or, as our Revisers translate, I am become an open abhorring (comp. Job 30:10). Job 17:7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow (comp. Psalms 6:7; Psalms 31:9). Excessive weeping, such as stains the cheeks (Job 16:16), will also in most cases dim and dull the eyesight. And all my members are as a shadow. Weak, that is, worn out, unstable, fleeting, ready to pass away. Job 17:8 Upright men shall be astonied at this. When Job’s case comes to beknown, "upright men" will be astonished at it. They will marvel how it came to pass that such a man—so true, so faithful, so "perfect" (Job 1:1)—could have been allowed by God to suffer so terribly. In a world where, up to Job’s time, prosperity had been taken as the measure of goodness, the marvel was naturally great. Even now many a Christian is surprised and disturbed in mind if he gives the case prolonged and serious attention, though he holds the clue to it in that most enlightening phrase, "perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). And the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. On astonishment will follow indignation. When it becomes generally recognized that, in a vast number of eases, the righteous suffer, while the wicked enjoy great prosperity, good men’s feelings will be stirred up against these prosperous ones; they will wax indignant, and take part against them. Job 17:9 The righteous also; rather, yet the righteous. A strong opposing clause. Notwithstanding all the afflictions that befall him, and all the further afflictions which he anticipates, yet the truly righteous man shall hold on his way; i.e. maintain his righteous course, neither deviating from it to the right hand nor to the left, but holding to the strict line of rectitude without. wavering. Job is not thinking particularly of himself, but bent on testifying that righteous men generally act as they do, not from any hope of reward, but from principle and the bent of their characters. And he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Not only will the just man maintain his integrity, but, as time goes on, his goodness will be more and more firmly established (comp. Aristotle’s ’Theory of Habits’). Job 17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now. A challenge to his detractors. Return, all of you, to your old work of detraction, if you so please. I care not. Your accusations no longer vex me. For I cannot find one wise man among you. If I could the case would be different. But, as you have all shown yourselves wholly devoid of wisdom (comp. Job 42:8), what you say has no real importance. Job 17:11 My days are past. My days are slipping away from me. Life is well-nigh over. What, then, does it matter what you say? My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart; literally, the possessions of my heart’ all the store that it has accumulated—my desires, purposes, wishes. I no longer care to vindicate my innocence in the sight of men, or to clear my character from aspersions. Job 17:12 They change the night into day. They, my detractors, who are also my so-called "comforters," pretend to change my night into day; assure me that the cloud which rests on me is only for a time, and will ere long give place to the brightness of day, to a glorious burst of sunshine (see Job 5:18-26; Job 8:21, Job 8:22; Job 11:15-19). The light (they say) is short because of darkness; or, rather, is near because of the darkness. To extreme darkness shows that dawn must be near, that the day must soon break when my sorrow will be turned into joy. Job had not found himself comforted by these assurances, which lacked the ring of sincerity, and could not be accomplished except by miracle, which he did not feel that he had any right to expect. Job 17:13 If I wait, the grave is mine house; rather, surely I look for the grave (Sheol) as my house; i.e. I expect no return of prosperity, no renewal of life in a sumptuous mansion, no recovery of the state and dignity from which I have fallen—I look only for Sheol as my future abode and resting-place -there, in Sheol, I have made my bed in the darkness; i.e. I regard myself as already there, lying on my narrow bed in the darkness, at rest after my afflictions. Job 17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; i.e. I do not murmur; I accept my lot; I am ready to lie down with corruption, and embrace it, and call it "my father," and henceforth remain with it. The idea that the soul is still with the body in the grave, more or less closely attached to it, and sensible of its condition and changes, was widely prevalent in the ancient world. Where bodies were simply buried, the horrible imagination of a close association with corruption naturally and almost necessarily intruded itself, and led to such reflections as those of Job in this verse. It was partly to get rid of this terrible nightmare that the Egyptians were so careful to embalm the bodies of their dead, and that the Babylonians deposited them in baked clay coffins, which they filled with honey (Herod; 1.198); while others still more effectually prevented the process of corruption by cremation. The modern revival of cremation is remarkable as indicating a peculiar form of atavism or recurrence to ancient types. For many ages after the coming of Christ, men so separated between the soul and the body after death that the corruption of the grave had no horror for them. Now materialistic ideas have so far recurred, that many of those who believe the soul to live on after death are doubtful whether it may not still be attached to the body more or less, end, dreading contact with the corruption, of the latter, fall back upon the old remedy. To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. An expansion of the idea contained in the previous clause. Job 17:15 And where is now my hope? (comp. Job 14:13-15). At first sight it might seem that to cue in Sheol there could be no hope. But Job is too conscious of his own ignorance to dogmatize on such a subject. What does he know of Sheol? How can he be sure that it is "God’s last word to men"? There may be hope even to "the spirits which are in prison." Job’s question is, therefore, not to be taken as one of absolute incredulity, but as one of perplexed doubt. Is there hope for me anywhere? If so, where? As for my hope, who shall see it? i.e. what eye can penetrate the darkness of the future, and solve the riddle for me? Job 17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust. There is great difficulty in determining the subject to the verb "go down," which is the third person plural feminine, whereas the only plural substantive at all near—the word translated "bars"—is masculine. Some suppose Job’s hopes to be meant, "hope" in the preceding verse having the force of any number of "hopes" (so the R.V.) Others disregard the grammatical difficulty of the plural feminine verb, and, making "bars" the nominative, translate, "The bars of Sheol shall go down," i.e. "be broken down, perish;" or interrogatively, "Shall the bars of Sheol go down?" This rendering is thought to be "in harmony with the whole undercurrent of thought in the chapter;" but it has not approved itself to many commentators. The present commentator must acknowledge that he is unable to attach any satisfactory meaning to the words of the Hebrew text. Job 17:1-16 Job to God: 3. The requiem of a dying man. I. HIS . With three pathetic sighs the patriarch bemoans his dying condition. 1. The total collapse of his vital powers. Indicated by the shortness and offensiveness of his breath, announcing the approach of suffocation and decay. "My breath is corrupt." And to this at last must all come. The most vigorous physical health, as well as the feeblest, contains within it germs of putridity. Essentially, notwithstanding all its strength and beauty, the corporeal frame is "this corruptible." Therefore, "Thus saith the Lord … let not the mighty man glory in his might" (Jeremiah 9:23). 2. The speedy termination of his life. The complete extinction of the already feebly burning taper of his terrestrial existence was at hand. "My days are extinct." Life is fittingly compared to a candle (Job 21:17; Proverbs 24:20; cf. ’Macbeth,’ Acts 5. sc. 5), in respect of its definite extent, the rapidity with which it burns, the facility with which it can be extinguished, and the certainty that it shall at lest burn out. 3. The actual opening of his grave. Contemplated as having already taken place. "The graves are ready for me." Job’s wasted skeleton made it all too evident that he was prepared for them, and could with propriety exclaim, as afterwards the aged Gaunt— "Gaunt am I for the graye, gaunt as a grave, Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones." It is well betimes to contemplate the narrow house appointed for all the living; to "sit upon the ground," and "talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;" to reflect that— "Nothing can we call our own, but death: And that small model of the barren earth, Which serves as paste and cover to our bones." (’King Richard II.,’ Acts 2. so. 1; Acts 3. sc. 2.) It is well to realize that the tomb is but a step from the youngest, the fairest, the wisest, the strongest of Adam’s children, and prepare ourselves for it, as already it is prepared for us. II. BIDDING TO HIS FRIENDS. 1. Describing their character. He calls them mockers, who had trifled with his misery, laughed at his innocence, openly accused him of flagrant wickedness, consummate hypocrisy, and daring impiety (cf. Job 12:4). This vehement reassertion of Job’s estimate of their behaviour would fall with the greater force and impressiveness upon their ears, because of proceeding from the lips of a dying man (cf. ’King Richard II.,’ Acts 2. sc. 1, and ’King Henry VIII.,’ Acts 2. sc. 1, in which John o’ Gaunt and Buckingham call attention to the weightiness of dying men’s words). It would sound like the malediction of an expiring prophet. 2. Brooding over their calumnies. Their wicked insinuations had stung him to the quick, and were still rankling in his bosom. Not even death’s shadow or the grave’s gloom could hide them from his mental vision. As if with an evil fascination, his soul’s eye fastened on them, found a lodging with them, and could not shake them off. Easily had they been spoken, but not so easily could their remembrance be effaced. "Cutting words and cruel reproaches are not easily banished," especially when spoken by those from whom sympathy and kindness were expected. Hence the care which should be exercised not to inflict with the tongue wounds that only death can heal. 3. Predicting their discomfiture. "Therefore thou shalt not exalt them" (verse 4). Job means that in the hotly waged controversy between himself and his friends they will not be allowed to triumph, but be utterly routed and put to shame. And of this he points out the premonitory symptom, in that moral and spiritual blindness with which God had suffered them to be overtaken—"for thou hast hid their heart from understanding" (verse 4). Either they had wilfully called good evil, and put darkness for light, or they were wholly incapable of understanding true religion or appreciating spiritual integrity. Hence, in either case, it was impossible that they could be right. Apart altogether from their applicability to the friends, Job here lays hold of important truths; as e.g. (1) that the highest function of the spiritual understanding is to "discern spirits" (1 Corinthians 12:10; 1 John 4:1); (2) that the capacity of distinguishing the true from the false in religion belongs to no man by nature, but must be imparted by God (Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 12:11; 1 John 1:1-10:20); (3) that the absence of this power to recognize true moral worth and spiritual integrity not only disqualifies an individual from acting as a judge in the sphere of religion, but, ipso facto, proclaims him to be as yet outside of that sphere altogether; and (4) that God will certainly in the long run award the triumph to his own people and his own cause. 4. Announcing their punishment. (1) Its severity. Their wickedness should be avenged, not alone upon themselves, but upon their children, whose "eyes should fail," or languish (verse 5). That children suffer for the sins of parents is a fact of everyday experience; e.g. the families of drunkards, profligates, murderers, traitors, etc. It is a special sign of excessive wicked ness when its results affect the innocent descendants of its perpetrators. Hence God is said to visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate him (Exodus 20:5). The sin of Achan was visited on himself and his sons and daughters (Joshua 7:24, Joshua 7:25). The wickedness of Ahab was avenged on himself and his posterity (1 Kings 21:20). The leprosy of Naaman clung to Gehszi and his descendants (2 Kings 5:27). Over against this, however, stands the blessed fact that, though grace does not run in the blood, the piety of parents has a tendency to reproduce itself in the characters, as certainly it draws down blessings on the heads, of children. And as no greater felicity can be bestowed upon a parent than to contemplate the happiness of his household, so no greater sorrow can be his than to witness its destruction or dishonour. And such was the portion Job foretold for his mocking friends. (2) Its naturalness. It would be a punishment in all respects befitting their offence. They had trampled on their best affections, delivering up him, their friend, to be a spoil (verse 5); and so would they in turn be wounded in their parental loves. God’s retributions often show a striking correspondence to the crimes they avenge. Though the lex talionis has been abrogated by the gospel, it is still not unfrequently observed that they who take the sword perish by the sword (Matthew 26:52), and that" with what measure a man metes it is measured to him again" (Matthew 7:2). 5. Proclaiming their folly. With contemptuous disdain he invites them to renew their efforts to establish his guilt, to attack him with another round of arguments, telling them he has no fear of their success, knowing them, as he does, to be essential fools (verse 5). If the language evinces (1) amazing self-confidence, Job standing with his foot in the grave, and yet lifting up his head with unfaltering assurance to the skies; and (2) keen intellectual penetration, the speaker clearly discerning the fallacious character of the friends’ consolation that, if he repented, he would yet be restored to a life of prosperity; it also displays (3) extraordinary acerbity of feeling for a good man who might have been expected to hush his angry passions before lying down to sleep in the grave; and (4) excessive heat of language which ill became a saint, even of the days of Job. III. SEEKING REFUGE IN THE MERCY OF GOD. 1. The bold request. Turning from his friends and confronting death, Job entreats with a sublimely daring faith, which rises clear above the mists of despondency and the hurricanes of passion that alternately fill his breast, that God himself would strike hands with him, and engage to be Surety for his innocence against himself (verse 3). It is a by no means dim anticipation of the fundamental notion of the gospel, that, for the answering of all that God, as a righteous Lawgiver, can lay to the charge of man, God has himself become the Sponsor or Bondsman. What Job’s faith, standing as it were on the headlands of human thought, and looking out with prophetic eye into the vast terrain incognitam that spread out before him, craved for himself, that God would undertake the task of replying for him, not alone to the aspersions of his human calumniators, but also to the accusations and charges preferred against him by his Divine assailant, viz. God himself—this astounding entreaty on the part of poor, feeble, sinful humanity, as represented by Job, has been answered by the gospel of Jesus Christ, who came in the fulness of the times as God incarnate to champion the cause of lost man, and vindicate, not his innocence, but his righteousness before God. 2. The fourfold reason. Job bases his supplication on a variety of grounds. (1) The impossibility of finding help in any other quarter but with God. Who else [but God] should furnish surety to me?" (verse 3). Not man, since Job’s friends rather exulted in his conviction and condemnation as a criminal. Hence, if any one could act the part of bondsman, it must be God himself. So is it God alone who can either clear up the saint’s integrity or establish the sinner’s righteousness before God. "No hope can on the Law be built of justifying grace;" nay— "Vain is all human help for me: I dare not trust an earthly prop! My sole reliance is on thee; Thou art my Hope." (Elliot.) (2) The fact that God himself was the Author of his troubles. Humiliating as these were (verse 6), they had not come upon him accidentally, but by Divine permission. In so far, therefore, as they proclaimed him an object of God’s judicial wrath, they likewise made it clear that only God could effectually interpose for his deliverance. As Job was made a proverb and an object of contempt to his age (Job 30:9, Job 30:10), so was David (Psalms 35:15, Psalms 35:16), and the Messianic Sufferer spoken of in the Psalter (Psalms 22:6, Psalms 22:7; Psalms 69:7, Psalms 69:11, Psalms 69:12, Psalms 69:19), and the prophets (Isaiah 50:6; Isaiah 53:3), and Christ (Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:28, Matthew 27:29, Matthew 27:41-44), and so may Christians expect to be (1 Corinthians 4:9, 1 Corinthians 4:11, 1 Corinthians 4:13). (3) The circumstance that under the pressure of deep debasement he had wasted to a skeleton. Nothing impairs the strength or exhausts the vitality of the body like mental sorrow. Such inward anguish as Job had been subjected to makes the eye dim, the hair gray, the face old, and the entire frame feeble. Man’s frailty, and even man’s guiltiness, are recognized in Scripture as an argument for God’s merciful interposition (Psalms 6:2, Psalms 6:5, Psalms 6:7; Psalms 25:11). (4) The danger of all moral distinctions becoming confused if his integrity were not cleared up. If allowed to pass away under a cloud, the truly pious would be astonished at so mysterious a dispensation, as afterwards they were at Christ (Isaiah 52:14), and might even be led, like David (Psalms 37:7), Asaph (Psalms 73:3), and Jeremiah (xii. 1), to envy the lot of the ungodly, who, notwithstanding their impiety, are allowed to prosper. This danger is hardly possible under the gospel, which has made it patent, first in Christ, and then in his people, that a righteous servant el God may be a sufferer. Still the suretyship of God in Christ for man has established moral distinctions on a firmer basis than they ever were before (Romans 3:31). IV. IN FINAL VICTORY. Job’s life is seemingly about to expire in gloom. Job himself, nevertheless, avows his confident expectation that the righteous and pure-handed man, like himself, shall be ultimately vindicated (verse 9). The words suggest: 1. The purity of the righteous. They are a people who have "clean hands." Not that they are righteous or justified because of their clean hands. Even Job (Job 9:2), as well as David (Psalms 143:2) and St. Paul (Galatians 2:16), proclaimed that a man could not be justified by works before God. But clean hands are evidence of a pure heart. And holiness is a sure mark of faith. Nay, if purity of life be absent, the spirit of piety is not present. Faith without works is dead. Hence we are justified (as to the sincerity of our faith) by works; hence also "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 2. The progress of the righteous. They shall "wax stronger and stronger;" "They shall go from strength to strength." They shall progress: (1) Certainly. Wherever life is there must be growth. The soul possessed of grace cannot remain stagnant. A Christian not advancing towards the stature of a perfect man is unhealthy and unnatural. (2) Gradually. The full measure of their advancement will not be attained at once. From stage to stage go the heavenward pilgrims. First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear, is the law according to which the seed of the Word, no less than the seed of the field, ripens. First the new-born babe, then the youth, and after that the mature man, is the order of development for life spiritual as well as life physical. (3) Proportionately. They shall grow in such a way as to wax stronger and stronger. That is, they shall advance in all the parts and properties of the Christian life in brightness and tenacity of faith, in depth and sincerity of penitence, in ripeness and beauty of outward holiness, in warmth and fulness of love, in cheerfulness and joyousness of hope. 3. The perseverance of the righteous. They shall hold on their way (1) in spite of every sort of difficulty—the accusations of conscience, the power of indwelling corruption, the feebleness of faith, the pressure of affliction, the opposition of the world, the misrepresentations of friends, the wiles of the devil; (2) with willing determination, whatever else may be helpful to their progress, the co-operation of their own personal faith, intelligence, purpose, will, being absolutely indispensable, and these never failing entirely in the case of those who are truly upright in their hearts; (3) by the help of Divine grace, since, after all, "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," neither is it by man’s unaided strength alone, but rather by the power of God, that he is kept unto salvation; and (4) to the journey’s end, for it is written of God’s pilgrims that they shall all come to Zion, and of Christ’s sheep that they shall never perish. V. AGAIN INTO . Descending from the lofty altitude upon which his faith had for a moment stood, the patriarch a second time takes his stand beside the opened tomb, and finishes his requiem where he began it, by contemplating: 1. The approach of death, as: (1) The ending of his days,—"My days are past" (verse 11); which it is to every one—the finishing of life’s years and moments, the termination of days pleasant and prosperous as well as of days miserable and adverse, of days of toil and days of rest, days of suffering and days of rejoicing, days of sinning and days of praying, alas! also days of grace and days of discipline. (2) The interrupting of his thoughts,—"My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts," or cherished possessions, "of my heart" (verse 11); which again is true of all, of good and bad, of wise and foolish, of rich and poor alike, death’s hand remorselessly arresting the subtle thoughts of the busy brain, be it of philosopher or poet, statesman or merchant, and marring with equal unconcern the projects of the pious and the plots of the ungodly, the schemes of the tradesman and the intrigues of the diplomatist, the ambitious enterprises of the rich and the modest plans of the poor. (3) The disappointing of his hopes of life, the utter extinction of that expectation which his friends had so often urged him to cherish, viz. the hope of a return to prosperity on this side the grave, but which he had never seriously entertained, and which, if he had entertained it, was now completely shattered, the bare idea of looking for a restoration when one was manifestly stepping into darkness being as foolish as to look for daylight when the night was near. And so death deals with all men’s hopes—hopes of life, of prosperity, of happiness, of usefulness on earth,—intercepts them, cuts them off, engulfs them in darkness as the night does the day. 2. The descent into Sheol, which he regards as: (1) The resting-place of his body. "If I hope, it is for Sheol as my house. In darkness I make my bed" (verse 13). The grave is frequently spoken of as a house (Job 38:17), the house appointed for all living (Job 30:23), the long home of the departed (Ecclesiastes 12:5); and the only expectation of a worldly sort entertained by Job was that of entering this sepulchral habitation, in which already he had as it were spread his couch. (2) The habitation of his relatives, these relatives being corruption whom he esteemed as his father, and the worm whom he named his sister or his mother. "What an impressive description, and yet how true it is of all] The most vigorous frame, the most beautiful and graceful form, the meat brilliant complexion, has a near relationship to the worm, and will soon belong to the mouldering family beneath the ground" (Barnes). (3) The shelter of his true hope, the hope of a vindication, which, descending with him to the bars of the unseen world, might be lost to the eye of man, and in large measure to himself, but would rest beside him in the dust till the moment arrived for its public manifestation. Learn: 1. That death is never more than a step from any man. 2. That those who are daily travelling towards the grave should begin betimes to prepare for their future homes. 3. That the whips and scorns of time, the mockings and calumniations of friends or foes, can pursue a man no further than to the bounds of life. 4. That God’s people have already been delivered from their greatest adversary by the willing suretyship of Christ. 5. That the royal road to heavenly exaltation is the inward illumination of the mind. 6. That good men should never rejoice in, though they may sometimes foresee, and even foretell, the punishment of their enemies. 7. That the best safeguard of a saintly man in trouble is to trace every affliction to the hand of God. 8. That Christ’s followers should not now be astonished at the tribulation of themselves or others. 9. That the just man who perseveres in holiness will attain to everlasting life. 10. That if death terminates the life of man on earth, it begins the existence of a saint in heaven. 11. That man possesses nobler relatives than the worms and corruption. 12. That death may finish all terrestrial hopes, but it cannot injure the hope of everlasting life, laid up for us in heaven. BY E. JOHNSON Job 17:1-16 The just holds on his way. "The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon," says Lord Bacon. "Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comfort and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground; judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye." On this dark monotonous background of trouble, the bright colours of a spiritual faith and hope stand from time to time most brilliantly forth. Another example of this occurs in the present chapter. I. The first feeling presented is that of TO DIE UNDER . (Verses 1, 2.) But for this, he is resigned to his fate. He must in the course of a short time renounce life, for disease is fulfilling its course; and he would do so willingly, if only the mockery of his friends did not continually vex him, and his eye were not provoked by their incessant irritation. There is generally something, even in a state of extreme suffering, which makes it hard to die. But to die misunderstood; under the cloud of a false accusation; like one who, mistakenly condemned, has languished in the cell of a prison, and gone to a felon’s grave;—this must surely be the sharpest sting of death. II. The agony of this thought impels him to RENEWED TO GOD. (Verse 8.) As none among men will give the promise and take upon him to vindicate Job’s innocence after death, will God be bound as Surety for him, and undertake this duty? Thus once more we see how the extremity of suffering forces Job upon his deepest faith, can never force him from it. And he is bound to exchange his darker thoughts of God for these truer ones, apparently unconscious that they are inconsistent with one another. III. But there comes another RELAPSE INTO . (Verses 4-7.) He looks without, at the irritating spectacle of those complacent, unfriendly friends, and complains of their want of understanding, defying their authority. He accuses them of betraying him (verse 5 should probably be, "he that maketh a spoil of his friends," etc.), and threatens them with sorrow in consequence. Then again he turns to God as the source of all his sufferings, who has made his name, once so fair in reputation, now a byword and a scoff, and has brought him into his present utter languor and exhaustion (verse 7). IV. But once again there is a REVIVAL OF HIGH COURAGE AND HOPE. (Verses 8, 9.) He contemplates himself in this light as a reproach to all who behold him or know of his fate. The upright are thrown into amazed confusion, they are shocked at the spectacle; and the. innocent are stirred up against the profligate in indignation at their prosperity. But the just man will hold on his way, until the light again shines upon it; and he who has clean hands will, despite his present weakness, increase in strength. His words are "like a rocket which shoots above the tragic darkness of the book, lighting it up suddenly, though only for a short time ’ (comp. Psalms 73:1-28.). V. He then turns again upon his friends with a SHARP REPROOF OF THEIR FOOLISH WORDS. (Verses 10-16.) The sharp rebuke of verse 10 is followed by reasons. His strength is consumed, and his end is drawing near; his days are past, his plans cut off, and the fondest desires of his heart; and the light which they think to bring in consolation, is like to darkness (verses 11, 12). He goes on to justify himself for seeing nothing but darkness and night before him, and to reject the hope which they hold out of better days. His hope is fixed on Hades, on the dark, lower world alone (verse 13). He has said to corruption, "Father!" the worm he has designated "mother and sister"! And where, then, is this hope of restored health and prosperity of which you vainly talk? It disappears through the gates of Hades, and yonder in the dust will be alone his rest (verses 14-16). But how unlike are God’s thoughts and ways to those of man! Job thinks his fate is scaled; he will neither live nor recover his former joy. Yet God has strangely and gloriously ordained that both life and joy restored shall be his, as the happy issue of his sufferings shows. Thus does he lead to the gates of hell and bring up again (1 Samuel 2:6), leads through suffering to conquest over the fear of death, and to the germination and unfolding of a hope that is centred in the unseen.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 17:9 Progress in virtue. A later book declares "the path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." So here the stability and progressive character of the righteous is assured. I. IN VIRTUE IMPLIES A CAREFUL OF A GOOD WAY. It is characteristic of a righteous man that he has committed himself to a carefully chosen way. It is "his way." It describes a path and manner of life. It embraces his entire "conversation." He is not driven as with a wind and tossed from one course to another. One only path is before him, narrow it may be, and often hidden as a rugged mountain-path, demanding toil and watchfulness and effort to find it and to keep it. But this "his way" is chosen, and to it he has committed himself: He follows the path whithersoever it may lead him. II. Progress in virtue on the part of a righteous man implies that HE IN HIS CHOSEN AND WELL- PATH. Fickleness and vacillation are not qualities of true righteousness; but patience in well-doing always marks the truly righteous one. The high character of virtue, the gravity of the interests involved in the practice of virtue, the strong motives of virtuous principle, together with the apprehension of the rewards of righteous doing, are all motives to perseverance’ whilst to them is added the ministry of Divine grace. God helps the good and obedient and striving soul. Thus the inward principle of virtue, and the support which it gathers to itself, alike help to secure a steady progress. But steady progress in the path of virtuous living must issue in growth and perfectness of virtuous character. III. Steady progress in virtue is MARKED BY OF AND . The righteous man waxes "stronger and stronger." Holy principles gain a firmer hold upon his convictions. His life settles into a definiteness and stability of habit. He has greater power to resist evil; he has greater power over his own heart; he exerts a greater power over others around him. He is not moved from his integrity either by the fierce onslaughts of temptation or by the severities of trial. His life is pledged to a course of obedient living—to purity, truth, goodness. More and more he is established in his goings. He rises to greater brightness as the sun to greater strength. He gathers strength even from his afflictions. Deeper and deeper principles of holy living strike their firm roots into his whole spirit. He pursues his chosen and holy way undeterred by the many forms of temptation that assail him. In his righteousness he can "hold on his way," and with his "clean hands" he waxes "stronger and stronger" day by day.—R.G. Job 17:11 The premature arrest of the purposes of life. Job looks out from the sadness of his present condition, and turns in thought to his past days, to the purposes of those days—the hopes he had cherished, the plans he had laid, even the thoughts of his heart. Alas l they are dashed—broken off. His purposes not accomplished, his plans useless, his hopes frustrated, his thoughts disappointed, his very days are past! How sad! how painful! We may reflect— I. ON THE , TO WHICH EVERY ONE IS SUBJECT, OF HAVING THE OF HIS LIFE BROKEN OFF. No one can certainly calculate on the prolongation of his life. The plans wisely laid even for good and holy purposes may be frustrated. The thoughtfully devised scheme for usefulness, even for the highest service to men, as well as the prudent endeavour to promote the felicity of home, or to advance personal culture, may all be torn asunder or broken, snapped off without coming to maturity. None can calculate on the future. II. ON THE WISDOM OF SO FRAMING OUR OF LIFE THAT WE ALWAYS TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE OF ITS TENURE. No man has a just view of his life who does not consider how soon life’s plans may be overset, torn to shreds. Life is not assured to us. We have no pledge that we shall have time to finish the work we have begun. Hence it is wise to frame our estimate of life in view of the possibility that all our hopes may be disappointed, our purposes broken off, and the thoughts of our hearts never fulfilled. III. THE ARREST OF LIFE’S MAKES IT NEEDFUL THAT EVERY ONE SHOULD SEEK TO DO HIS WORK WHILE IS . Some work is given to every man to do, and time is given in which to do it. For no man is expected to do that for which he has not time. But no time may be wasted. The great lesson is again and again read in our hearing, "Work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man can work." The uncertainty of our life’s duration makes diligence imperative; it checks too confident an assurance of the future, and it makes it all-important that the life be grasped whose duration is assured. Happy he who can form good purposes and find time to fulfil them!—R.G. Job 17:13-16 The darkened hope. Sad indeed is the hope which is attained only in the grave, which has no clear vision beyond. Unillumined, uncheered, it has no brightness, no comfort. All that Job seems at present to hope for is the silence, the darkness, the rest, of the grave. There certainly does not dawn upon him file clear light of the future; at least the assurance of it is not declared in his words. It is the grave, the grave, and the grave only. Contemplate the condition of such as have this hope only. I. NO LIGHT IS CAST UPON LIFE’S . Job’s condition one of extreme sadness. He bears up with much bravery; but when his spirit is sorely pressed he buries his thoughts in the tomb. "I have made my bed in the darkness." No light comes from these dark shades to make brighter life’s gloom. "The grave," "darkness," "corruption," "the worm," "the bars of the pit," "the dust"—to these Job is reduced; he cannot rise above them. No ray of light can come thence to make his present path brighter. II. THIS HOPE GIVES NO EASE IN LIFE’S SORROWS. It awakens no holy emotion. It is a gloomy despair. Life ends in a tomb. The purposes of life are broken off with the ending of the day. Pain may cease then; but no ease comes thence to the afflicted one. To cry "father," "mother," "sister," to the worm and to corruption has no element of cheerfulness in it, no inspiration of brightening hope to relieve the gloomy sorrowfulness of the present. Such a future could not be anticipated but with the uttermost dread and abhorrence save by one pressed out of mind by the severity of his present afflictions. III. SUCH A HOPE IS , , . It leaves the soul with an unfilled void. In its incompleteness and unsatisfying character it points to the necessity for a better and Brighter hope. Human life lacks a harvest in the absence of something brighter than this. For the best life to go down into the grave as its final condition seems so anomalous that everywhere the longing for a brighter condition exists. IV. SUCH A HOPE STANDS IN TO THE CLEAR, , ASSURED HOPE OF THE FAITH. Life and immortality had not been brought fully to light when these gloomy words were written. It remained for the perfect revelation and the all-perfect Revealer to make known the brightness of that future which awaits the godly. Israel held possession of the hope of the resurrection; but it is part of the skilfulness of the teaching in this book that anything short of a fully assured immortality of Blessedness is insufficient to meet the utmost requirements of the human soul.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 17:3 A pledge from God. Job is assured by faith that God will ultimately vindicate his innocence; but meanwhile his horrible disease is eating into his very life, so that he fears he may not live to see the end when all shall be made clear. Therefore he prays for a pledge of the future liberation from calumny and vindication of his character. In other experiences we crave a pledge of the fulfilment of our most choice hopes. Let us consider what pledges God offers to us, and their significance. I. OBSERVE THE MANY KINDS OF PLEDGE WHICH GOD GIVES TO US. 1. In nature. Nature is full of promise. She is eloquent with prophecy. Her parabolic significance points to the spiritual and the eternal. The messages of God’s goodness in spring flowers and autumn fruits are real pledges from the hand of God, earnests of his greater goodness. 2. In instinct. God has implanted in our breasts ineradicable desires—thirst for truth, hunger for love, yearning for holiness. The very existence of these instincts are pledges of the satisfaction of them, for God would not mock his children and torment them with delusive hopes. We may all have some delusive hopes, indeed; but not by nature as original instincts. 3. In revelation. God reveals himself in nature and in instinct, but more explicitly in the utterances of inspired human teachers. The Bible is a Divine pledge. Its self-evidencing inspiration confirms his truthfulness. God will not, cannot lie. Therefore the promises of Scripture, and even its precepts, carry with them pledges of the future when what is then portrayed will be seen in experience. 4. In Christ. He is the great Pledge from God. By giving us his Son God has confirmed his Word. He has not only fulfilled Messianic prophecy; he has given-a token of his changeless purpose of love, and an earnest of his future redemption of the race. Christ is the one greatest Pledge from God. II. THE OF THE DIVINE PLEDGE. 1. To reveal truth (1) A pledge of pardon. Christ is to us a sign that God is willing to forgive sin and to welcome his penitent children. We are not left to vague surmises; we have a definite assurance in the mission and work of Christ. (2) A pledge of love. The root from which the pardon comes is love. Christ is the Proof that God loves us. (3) A pledge of character. The new Christian life is first seen in the Person of Christ. He lived it, and his experience is the pledge of what it will be when it is perfectly followed by his disciples. (4) A pledge of hope. Nature, instinct, and revelation point vaguely to the immortality of which Christ is the sure Pledge. He is the Firstfruits of the resurrection, the Pledge of eternal life to. his people. 2. To confirm faith. Job longed for a pledge from God. We have received pledges, and one of them of highest worth. The supply of what Job desired should have a great effect upon us. We are unreasonable if we disregard the pledge of God, and turn aside from it to plunge into despairing scepticism. Like Moses, we can see the promised land. We have a better assurance than Gideon’s fleece, in Christ and his resurrection Therefore our attitude should be one of calm, unflinching faith. It must be only o! faith, however; for we have not the inheritance as yet, but only a pledge of it. Still God’s pledge is an absolutely safe security.—W.F.A. Job 17:4 The heart that is hidden from understanding. Job is persuaded that God will not desert him. He even takes the very delusions of his tormentors as the pledge from God for which he has been praying; for these delusions seem to come from God, and to show that he has hidden the heart of the three friends from understanding. If it be so, they will not be exalted by God to trample on the sufferer in his misery. I. DEPENDS ON THE OF THE HEART If the heart is wrong the judgment will be at fault. We do not judge simply as we see with our eyes. The mental and spiritual condition within largely determines the shape and character of our convictions. Observe some of the states of the heart that hide it from understanding. 1. Obtuseness. The heart may be simply dull and blind to truth. if the light shines with meridian splendour, the man who has cataracts in his eyes will stumble into the ditch as surely as if he were walking in midnight darkness. Some men have no eyes of sympathy with which to see their neighbours; they cannot understand them. Some have no spiritual perceptions of God; and they cannot understand him. 2. Prejudice. We see with the mind as well as with the eyes. Our perception is an amalgam of sight and thought. If the thought is warped, the perception will be crooked. A prejudiced heart excludes truth from the understanding. 3. Passion. Strong feeling blinds the judgment by its own fiery fury. The enraged heart, the sin-loving heart, the ill-regulated heart, are all void of understanding. We need a new and clean heart that we may receive God’s truth. II. THE HEART FROM WHICH IS HIDDEN CANNOT ENJOY THE FAVOUR OF GOD. His favour does not depend on intellectual conditions. Purely mental perplexity is no barrier against the soul in its enjoyment of the Divine love, for God does not wait for perfect orthodoxy before he will help and bless his children. But we have now to do with quite another kind of error. The error which cuts off from God’s favour is moral; it springs from a perversion of heart. For this we are to blame, and therefore the loss it entails is justly deserved. The loss of God’s favour is seen throughout, both in the origin and in the results of the error. 1. In its origin. The startling thought of Job is that it is God who has hidden the heart from understanding. The blindness is judicial, a result of God’s action. This nay look like attributing moral evil to God. If Job in his terrible darkness meant anything of the kind, of course we know that he must have been in error. (1) But without going so far as this, we may see that God would withdraw his aiding Spirit from the perverse heart. The result would be to hide that heart from understanding,. (2) The laws of human life and thought which connect perversity of heart with lack of understanding proceed from God. (3) It is not well that truth should be understood by the perverse heart. Christ bade his disciples not cast their pearls before swine. The ideas for which we are not morally fit would be misapplied and degraded if we could receive them. 2. In its results. All error is dangerous, and moral error is fatal. God pities the bewildered doubter; he is angry with the perverse and wilful thinker, who goes wrong in thought because his heart is wrong. Such a man cannot prosper under the favour of God.—W.F.A. Job 17:7 The eye that is made dim by sorrow. Job has just been saying that God bad hidden the heart of his tormentors from understanding (verse 4). Now he sadly observes that sorrow has dimmed his own eye. It is not easy to see clearly through a veil of tears. Excessive weeping induces blindness. The sad soul sits in darkness. I. SORROW US FROM SEEING ALL THE TRUTH. It limits the range of vision even when it does not drive us down to the darkness of despair. 1. It is an emotion, and as such it absorbs our consciousness with internal feeling, and therefore does not permit it to look out in external observation. All subjectivity is unobservant. 2. It is a depressing influence. It tends to lower our vitality. It will scarcely let us lift up our eyes to see even when we have the power of vision. Poor Hagar was too broken-hearted to notice the well which was to restore life to her child. Thus in great grief the soul cannot see the Divine purpose, nor the love that is above all. Black clouds hide the heavens. A rain of tears blots out the earthly landscape. To the sorrowful eye there are no flowers in spring. II. SORROW SHOULD LEAD US TO FAITH. What if the eye be dim? We are not dependent on sight. Our part is to walk by faith. Too clear a landscape excludes the sense of mystery, and absorbs our attention in connection with things earthly and visible. It is well to feel our littleness, our darkness, our limitation. Then our sorrow really enlarges our lives, by leading us to look at the things which are not seen, but which are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). III. SORROW MAY OPEN OUR EYES TO NEW TRUTHS. The tears which blind us may also purge our vision. Shutting out the familiar sight of common scenes, they may open to us a new sight of heavenly truths. There have been revelations in sorrow. Jacob saw heaven opened when he was a fugitive for his life; Joseph interpreted dreams in prison, and Daniel in exile; Moses saw the burning bush in the wilderness; John beheld his great apocalypse when he was banished to Parinos. Poets learn in sorrow what they teach in song. IV. IT IS CRUEL TO BE HARSH WITH THOSE WHOSE COMES FROM SORROW. We must learn to distinguish this blindness from the lack of understanding which springs from a perverse heart, like that of the three friends (verse 4). Sinful and reckless scepticism deserves a severe rebuke. But this is very different from the doubt which is born of sorrow. In the hour of deepest grief it may be that all the heavens seem blurred and confused. The old landmarks are washed away in the deluge. We cannot see God, and his love is lost sight of. Even Christ in his bitter agony exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" V. GOD WILL GIVE CLEAR VISION TO THE SORROW-BLINDED EYE. When he wipes away the tears he will restore the sight. The burden of the mystery will not be borne for ever. We have only to walk for a season in the darkness. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalms 30:5). Then the very background of old troubles will throw up the new joys with the more intense splendour, and the previous blindness will make the new vision the more vivid and gladsome.—W.F.A. Job 17:9 Holding on and growing stronger. This is a cheering thought breaking out of Job’s doleful despair Job is rising from pessimism to hope and confidence. He gives us a double picture—the righteous holding on his way, the man with clean hands growing stronger and stronger. I. HOLDING ON. We see the righteous man quietly going forward, not turned aside by any obstacle, not cast down by any opposition, nor rushing madly forward, but not hanging back in fear, weariness, or indolence—like Goethe’s star, "unhasting and unresting." 1. Pursuing a continuous coarse. The righteous man has a way, and it is to this that he holds on. We must have a purpose if our life is not to be broken and become a failure. 2. Keeping to the course. The idea is that of holding on to the one right course. Here is persistency and perseverance. The way being right must not be forsaken on account of any difficulties. 3. Overcoming opposition. There may be no brilliant victory. But the righteous man succeeds in holding on his way. That is enough. That secures his success. The constantly flowing stream cuts through the granite cliff and scoops a huge valley out of the mountain-side. Patient perseverance wins in the end. 4. Walking in a right character. It is the righteous man of whom Job makes the glad assertion. The bad man may hold on for a time, when he does not meet with serious opposition; but he is not upheld by principle, and he is doomed to a final overthrow; for though his mad is broad and popular, it leads to destruction. Only a true moral and spiritual character has strength to hold on continuously when severely tried; only this character will be blessed by being allowed by God to go on to victory. Time is the great test of character. Weak and unworthy people may do brilliant things, and achieve temporary triumphs. It is the character of true worth that is" faithful unto death," and that holds on to the end. Many vessels that leave the port make shipwreck on their course; only those that are sound and well steered reach their desired haven. II. GROWING . The second thought is more emphatic. The progress is of the best kind. 1. With increase. The Christian course is more than a race; it is an ascent; it is a growth. God’s servant is not set to a treadmill. His walk is not a weary round. There is no monotony in the true Christian life. As he endures, so he is enlarged and enriched. 2. In strength. This is the special kind of increase to which Job refers. No doubt he was already beginning to feel it. He had lost wealth, but he had gained strength. Already the blows of adversity had begun to weld together tough fibres in his soul. He was stronger now than when all men bowed to him as the most powerful emir of the East. Here is the fruit of the victory won by overcoming opposition. Battle strengthens the hero. Climbing the "Hill Difficulty" develops the Pilgrim’s muscles. Now, God looks for energy in his servants. It is not enough that he shelters them in trouble. He gives them strength with which to hear it. "To them that have no might he increaseth strength" (Isaiah 40:29). 3. On condition of purity. The strength is for the man with clean hands. Sin enervates. Innocence is strong. The sinner may recover strength when his sin is forgiven and his heart purged. Therefore our business is to resist sin and cultivate purity of life; then God will give ever-increasing strength.—W.F.A. Job 17:11 Broken purposes. Job seems to be sinking back into despair after the hopeful and confident utterance of verse 9. Perhaps the explanation of the situation lies in the difficulty the patriarch experiences in squaring the convictions of his rising faith with the actual condition in which he now lies. He wonders how his innocence can be vindicated, how he can bold on and increase in strength, although he is now persuaded that God will help him ultimately to do so. Meanwhile all his purposes are broken. Let us notice three kinds of broken purposes I. BAD . Surely these should be broken. It is absurd to suppose that because an evil design has been conceived in the dark recesses of the imagination it must be effected. Bad purposes may be frustrated. 1. Broken by God. He knows the thoughts of men’s hearts, and can "frustrate their knavish tricks." What we call accidents are providential events; and how often has the purpose of sin been checked by these events! The destroying angel mows down the Assyrian host (2 Chronicles 32:21), A storm scatters the Armada. "Gunpowder treason" is discovered just before the meeting of Parliament. 2. Broken by their authors. The repentant sinner can stay his hand from further wickedness. He need feel under no obligation to fulfil his vows of evil. Indeed, there is no true repentance without the breaking off of bad purposes. Let us be thankful if all our bad purposes are not executed. II. GOOD . These also may be broken. 1. By adverse events. God will not frustrate a really good design. But we may find it impossible to accomplish the best of purposes. God purposed the salvation of the world, yet how far is his good purpose even from fulfilment! We know that he must triumph finally. But in the mean time the spirit of evil hinders. Job’s purposes were broken by Satan. God’s purposes are not only hindered by Satan; they are checked by the free will of men who are reluctant to acknowledge them. 2. By their authors. Good resolutions have paved a large place. How many of the plans of youth have been carried out in manhood? and how many of them have melted away as idle dreams? How far have the purposes of the Christian life been adhered to? Has the old sin been avoided, as we vowed it should be? Have we served God with singleness of heart? Have we denied ourselves and followed Christ, as we dreamed of doing when we first gave him our hearts? Have we lived unselfishly and in charity towards our neighbours? Do not such questions rouse a sickening sense of failure? Verily we have broken our good purposes most miserably. III. . These are of an intermediate character. Good in intention, they would not have turned out well if we had been permitted to execute them. Therefore God has frustrated them. Some of these are quite excellent, only they are altogether beyond our reach. The brave lifeboat crew tries to save the shipwrecked sailors, but, alas! the sea runs too high to permit them to approach, and their purpose is broken. Some whole lives seem to be failures simply because their owners have mistaken their vocation. The man who is a failure as a barrister might have become an excellent farmer; he has chosen an unsuitable sphere. We wish to do good. Then let us pray for light lest we blunder into mischief-making in the very effort to help our neighbours.—W.F.A. Job 17:15 The lost hope. Not only are Job’s purposes broken off. His hope is lost. At all events, it seems to be melting away, so that all chance of seeing its accomplishment appears to have gone. I. A VAIN HOPE MUST BE LOST. The reality will not depend on s man’s sanguine temperament, but upon its own causes. It is possible for a person to persuade himself into a condition of blissful confidence concerning his future, but the self-persuasion will not alter facts; and if he is drifting towards the rocks they will shatter him as surely as if he went in terror of their fatal neighbourhood. Note, then, some of he vain hopes that must perish. 1. The hope of success in cheating God. Some men live as hypocrites not merely to secure the favour of their fellows, but in the foolish fancy that by some jugglery they may even wriggle into the favour of Heaven. Such a hope must fail. 2. The hope of succeeding without God. This is not outrageously impudent like the hope last referred to. But it cannot succeed, for no man is sufficient of himself to overcome all the difficulties of life. 3. The hope of worldly sufficiency. It is thought that if Providence is kind, and a man has much laid by for days to come, he may look forward with confidence. This is the hope of the rich fool (Luke 12:20), and the unexpected changes of life, or death at last, must shatter it, II. A TRUE HOPE MAY BE LOST. 1. The Christian hope. This is a true hope. (1) It is founded on God’s strength, and he can never fail. We are encouraged to hope for salvation from One who is almighty. (2) It is secured by God’s truth. "He is faithful that promised" (Hebrews 10:23). To grow faint-hearted with the Christian hope is to distrust God. The hope depends on his Word, which cannot be broken. (3) It is guaranteed by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Christ is God’s Pledge of hope to his children. God would have wasted Christ on the world if he were not to fulfil the hopes that his Son raised. 2. The possibility of losing it. This must be considered in spite of the absolute security of the hope itself; for the hope may be good, and yet we may cease to hold it. The anchor may be sound, but the chain that unites it to the ship may be cut. (1) The hope may only be lost to consciousness. We may cease to enjoy it, cease to feel the hope within us. Yet we may not really be cut off from what the great hope of Christ promises. Job exclaims, "Where is now my hope?" only because he is blinded with grief. Our despair is not the measure of our faith. The mountain has not vanished because the fog has hidden it. Doubt does not destroy truth. Many a despondent Christian will realize the hopes which he is too faint-hearted to enjoy in anticipation. (2) The hope may be really lost. It is possible to see the hope afar off, as Balsam saw Israel’s hope, and yet to have no share in it ourselves. Or we may hold to the Christian hope in error without living the Christian life. Then we must be bitterly disappointed. Or, lastly, we may prove faithless and fall away from Christ. Therefore let us pray to be kept true, seeing that God is true, so that our fidelity is the only condition we now need to be assured of in order that our hope may not be lost.—W.F.A. Job 18:1-21 Bildad’s second speech is no improvement upon his first (Job 8:1-22.). He has evidently been exceedingly nettled by Job’s contemptuous words concerning his "comforters" (Job 16:2, Job 16:11; Job 17:10); and aims at nothing but venting his anger, and terrifying Job by a series of denunciations and threats. Job has become to him "the wicked man" (verses 5, 21), an embodiment of all that is evil, and one "that knoweth not God." No punishment is too severe for him. Job 18:1, Job 18:2 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? (So Rosenmuller, Gesenius, Welte, Merx, Lee, and Canon Cook.) Others render, "How long will ye lay snares for words?" which is a possible translation, but does not give a very good sense. Bildad, a tolerably concise speaker himself (see Job 8:2-22; Job 25:2-6), is impatient at the length of Job’s replies. He had already, in his former speech (Job 8:2), reproached Job with his prolixity; now he repeats the charge. The employment of the second person plural in this and the following verses is not very easily accounted for. Bildad can scarcely mean to blame his friend Eliphaz. Perhaps he regards Job as having supporters among the lookers-on, of whom there may have been several besides Elihu (Job 32:2). Mark; rather, consider; i.e. think a little, instead of talking. And afterwards we will speak. Then, calmly and without hurry, we will proceed to reply to what you have said. Job 18:3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts? The allusion is probably to Job 16:10, where Job spoke of his "comforters" as "gaping upon him with their mouths." And reputed vile in your sight! or, reckoned unclean. Job had spoken of his "miserable comforters" as "ungodly and wicked" (Job 16:11), without wisdom (Job 17:10) and without understanding (Job 17:4). But he had not said that they were "unclean." Bildad, therefore, misrepresents him. Job 18:4 He teareth himself in his anger. The Hebrew idiom, which allows of rapid transitions from the second to the third person, and vice versa, cannot be transferred without harshness to our modern speech. Our Revisers have given the true force of the original by discarding the third person, and translating, "Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger." There is probably an allusion to Job 16:9, where Job had represented God as "tearing him in his wrath." Bildad says it is not God who tests him—he tears himself. Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? i.e. "Shall the course of the world be altered to meet thy wishes, to suit thy case?" Job had wished for all manner of impossible things (Job 3:3-6; Job 9:32-35; Job 13:21, Job 13:22; Job 16:21; Job 17:3). Bildad’s reproach is thus not wholly unjust. But he makes no allowance for the wild utter-shoes of one who is half distraught. And shall the rock be removed out of his place? Shall that which is most solid and firm give way, and alter its nature? Job 18:5-21 Bildad, from this point, turns wholly to denunciation. He strings together a long series of menaces—probably ancient saws, drawn from "the wisdom of the Beni Kedem" (1 Kings 4:30), and descriptive of the wretched fate of the wicked man, with whom he identifies Job. Job 18:5 Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out. Whatever the wicked man may at any time have acquired of splendour, glory, honour, wealth, or prosperity, shall be taken from him, and as it were extinguished. And the spark of his fire shall not shine. Not a single trace of his splendour, not a spark, not a glimmer, shall remain. Job 18:6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. This is not, as Rosenmuller asserts, a mere repetition of the thought contained in the preceding verse with a change of terms, and a variation of metaphor. It is a denunciation of woe to the whole house of the ungodly man, not to himself only. As Schultens says, "Lumen ob-tenebratum in tentorio est fortuna domus extincta." And his candle shall be put out with him; rather, as in the Revised Version, his!amp above him shall be put out; i.e. the lamp which swings above him in his tent, or in his chamber, shall be extinguished. Darkness shall fall upon the whole house of the wicked man. Job 18:7 The steps of his strength shall he straitened. In the time of his prosperity the wicked man had a wide sphere within which to exercise his activity, and strode hither and thither at his pleasure. When punishment falls on him, his "steps will be straitened," i.e. his sphere narrowed, his activity cramped, his powers "cabined, cribbed, confined." And his own counsel shall cast him down (see Job 5:13; and comp. Psalms 7:14,-16; Psalms 9:16; Psalms 10:2; Hosea 10:6). Job 18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet. He walks of his own accord into a snare, not necessarily into one that he has himself set for others, as in Psalms 7:15; Psalms 9:15; Psalms 35:8; Psalms 57:6; and Proverbs 26:27; but either into one of his own setting, or into one laid for him by others (see Proverbs 26:10). And he walketh upon a snare. A mere repetition of the idea expressed in the preceding hemistich. Job 18:9 The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber (rather, the man-trap) shall prevail against him. Fifty years ago man-traps were commonly set at night in gardens and orchards in this country, which held intending thieves until the proprietor came and took them before a magistrate in the morning. (On the employment of such traps in antiquity, see Herod; 2:121. § 2.) Job 18:10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way; or, the noose is hid for him in the ground (see the Revised Version). Six different kinds of traps or snares are mentioned, "the speaker heaping together every word that he can find descriptive of the art of snaring." The art had been well studied by the Egyptians long before the age of Job, and a great variety of contrivances for capturing both beasts and birds are represented on the very early monuments. We may conclude from this passage that it had also been brought to an advanced stage of excellence in Syria and Arabia. Job 18:11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side. Vague fears, panic terrors, no longer subjective, but to his bewildered brain objective, shall seem to menace the wicked man on every side, and shall affright him continually. There is an allusion, doubtless, to what Job has said of the gloomy and terrifying thoughts which come over him from time to time (Job 3:25; Job 7:14; Job 9:28; Job 13:21) and fill him with consternation. And shall drive him to his feet; rather, shall chase him at his heels (see the Revised Version). Like a pack of hounds, or wolves, or jackals. Jackals are common in Palestine and the adjacent countries. They hunt in lacks, and generally run down their prey; but do not, unless hard pressed by hunger, attack men. Job 18:12 His strength shall be hunger-bitten. (So Dillmann, Cook, and the Revised Version.) To the other sufferings of the wicked man shall be added the pangs of hunger. His bodily strength shall disappear, as destitution and famine come upon him. And destruction shall be ready at his side. Ready to seize on him at any moment. Some translate, "ready for his halting" i.e. ready to seize on him in ease of his tripping or halting (so the Revised Version). Job 18:13 It shall devour the strength of his skin; literally, the bars of his skin, by which some understand "the muscles," some "the members," of his body. The general meaning is plain, that destruction shall always be close to him, and shall ultimately make him its own. Even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength. By "the firstborn of death" is probably intended, either some wasting disease generally, or perhaps the special disease from which Job is suffering. Job 18:14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle; rather, he shall be rooted out of his tabernacle (or, tent), which is his confidence, or wherein he trusteth; i.e. he shall be torn from the home, where he thought himself secure as in a stronghold. And it shall bring him; rather, one shall bring him, or, he shall be brought. To the king of terrors. Probably death, rather than Satan, is intended. None of Job’s "comforters" seems to have had any conception of Satan as a personal being, nor even Job himself. It is only the author. or arranger, of the book who recognizes the personality and power of the prince of darkness. Job 18:15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his; either, it (i.e. terror) shall dwell in his tabernacle, which is no longer his; or, they shall dwell in his tabernacle that are none of his; i.e. strangers shall inhabit the place where he dwelt heretofore (compare the Revised Version). Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. As God rained fire and brimstone out of heaven upon the cities of the plain (Genesis 19:24), so shall brimstone be scattered upon his habitation to ruin and destroy it (comp. Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalms 11:6). Job 18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath. He shall be like a tree whose roots no moisture reaches, and which, therefore, withers and dries up (comp. Job 14:8, Job 14:9; Job 29:19). And above shall his branch be cut off; or, be withered (comp. Job 14:2, where the same verb is used). Job 18:17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth (comp. Psalms 34:16; Psalms 109:13). This is always spoken of in Scripture as a great calamity, one of the greatest that can befall a man. It was felt as such, not only by the Jews, but by the Semitic people generally, whose earnest desire to perpetuate their memory is shown by the elaborate monuments and lengthy inscriptions which they set up in so many places. Arabian poetry, no less than Jewish, is penetrated by the idea. In one point of view it may seem a vulgar ambition; but, in another, it is a pathetic craving alter that continuance which the spirit of man naturally desires, but of which it has, apart from revelation, no assurance. And he shall have no name in the street; or, in the world without (comp. Job 5:10). Job 18:18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world (comp. Job 10:21, Job 10:22; Job 17:16). What Job represents as a welcome retreat, whither he would gladly withdraw himself, Bildad depicts as a banishment, into which he will be driven on account of his sins. Job 18:19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people; rather, nor grandson; i.e. "his posterity shall be clean put out" (Psalms 109:14). Nor any remaining in his dwellings; rather, in the places where he sojourned (compare the Revised Version, which gives "in his sojournings"). It is implied that the wicked man shall be a vagabond, without a home, sojourning now here, now there, for a short time. Neither among his own people, nor in these places of his temporary abode, shall he leave any descendant. Bildad probably intends to glance at the destruction of Job’s children (Job 1:19). Job 18:20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day; i.e. "at the time of his visitation" (comp. Psalms 37:13, "The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming;" and Psalms 137:7, "Remember the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem," i.e. the day of its overthrow). As they that went before were affrighted. His fate shall alarm equally his contemporaries and his successors, at possibly "the dwellers in the West and the dwellers in the East" Job 18:21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked. "Such as I have described is the general condition and manner of life of the man who is wicked." and this is the place (or, position) of him that knoweth not God. The singular number used both in this clause and the preceding indicates that the whole series of denunciations (Job 18:5-21) is levelled against an individual—viz. Job. Job 18:1-21 Bildad to Job: an Arabian orator’s discourse. I. THE FAULTY . Bildad possessed at least three qualifications indispensable to successful speaking—fervid imagination, glowing eloquence, and vehement passion. He was characterized also by three fatal defects—want of calmness, or self-containment, want of prudence, and want of sympathetic tenderness. Being destitute of these, he blundered like an inexperienced amateur, starting out on his oration in a hurricane of passion and ill humour, planting daggers in the breast he hoped to win by his eloquence, and forfeiting, by the very keenness of his invective, all possibility of effecting good impressions by his words. He impeached Job of: 1. Senseless verbosity. Of speaking at an undue length; of talking for talking’s sake; of hunting after words in order to overwhelm his opponents; of speaking without consideration, talking when he ought to have been thinking, making words do duty for ideas; of speaking instead of listening to his betters (verse 2). The first is the error of the facile-tongued; the second, of the shallow-pated; the third, of the conceited egotist. If Job sinned in either of these respects, he was not undeserving of reproof, much more if he erred in all. But Bildad, whose genius was not original, was probably moved to use the language of censure as much by a desire to imitate Eliphaz (Job 15:2), or to retort upon Job (Job 16:3), as by strong repugnance to the patriarch’s offence. 2. Unjustifiable contempt. Job had accused the friends of lacking spiritual discernment (Job 7:4). Bildad interpreted the charge to mean that Job regarded them as brute beasts, devoid of sense and reason (verse 3). If Job did so, he was guilty of altogether unwarranted depreciation of his fellows. That nature, which God made only a little short of Divinity (Psalms 8:5; Hebrews 2:6), must for ever be parted by a wide gulf from the irrational creation. Only when men voluntarily extinguish all spiritual susceptibility by continuance in sin can they be legitimately compared to the beasts that perish (Psalms 49:12, Psalms 49:20). This the friends had not done; and it is certain Job had not called them beasts. But, being men of a high spirit, they were quick to take offence. 3. Self-devouring rage. An old insinuation of Eliphaz’s reproduced (Job 5:2), with a specific allusion to Job’s language charging God with tearing him in his anger (Job 16:9), in contradistinction to which Bildad averred that Job tore himself, literally, "his soul," in his anger (verse 4), meaning that the patriarch’s misery was the fruit of his own frantic and excited behaviour, which again was the immediate result of his soul’s fretful and wrathful resentment against God’s providential inflictions. That Job’s behaviour under his unparalleled calamities was not perfect, is obvious; that his impatience was such as to call for censure from men, may be doubted (James 5:11). Yet Bildad’s reproach suggests that while all "anger is a short madness," it is supreme insanity to fume and fret at the Divine dispensations, and that the most miserable man on earth must surely be he whose soul swells with rage against God because of his paternal chastisements. 4. Egotistical presumption. In the judgment of Bildad, Job appeared to imagine that the Divine Law, which connected suffering with sin, should in his case be suspended; but that, Bildad assured the patriarch, would be as likely to occur as that, in order to oblige him, the earth which God had appointed for man’s habitation should become tenantless, or the rock which Heaven’s ordinance has rendered fixed and immovable should be suddenly transported from its place (verse 4). The reign of law in the material universe, and the fore-ordination of events in human history, have been frequently employed exactly as they are here used by Bildad, viz. to demonstrate the non-credibility of miracles, the inefficacy of prayer, the impossibility of such a thing as a special providence, and the intolerable arrogance of a being so mean and insignificant as man imagining that in any of the ways implied in these doctrines God would, in his behalf, interfere with the established order of things. But it h; no presumption to believe in what Scripture teaches—the possibility of miracles (Matthew 19:26), the efficacy of prayer (Psalms 65:2; Matthew 7:7; James 1:5), the reality of a special providence (Psalms 40:17; Matthew 10:30); since the first can be proved by adequate testimony, while the second and third are supported and confirmed by the inner witness of conscience. Even the case pronounced by Bildad to be impossible, viz. the suspension of the moral law of retribution, has come to pass. The salvation of man through the cross of Jesus Christ attests the fallacy of Bildad’s fundamental assumption. And now Bildad, having proceeded thus far with his oration, for any good he was likely to do to Job, might and should have prudently relapsed into silence. Nevertheless, he preached an eloquent discourse. II. THE LOFTY THEME. The subject descanted on by Bildad was the inevitable retribution which sooner or later overtook the wicked. Set forth under an emblem familiar to Oriental poetry, viz. the extinction of the fire in a dwelling, and of the lamp depending from the roof of a tent (verses 5, 6), it was depicted as: 1. Delayed. The evil-doer was not arrested by the hand of Providence the moment he set forth on his career, but was allowed for a season to thrive by his ungodliness, to amass wealth, acquire power, and secure friends, to become the head of a family or the chief of a clan, and to possess a tent, or rather a circle of tents, with his own commodious, well-furnished, richly ornamented, brilliantly lighted tabernacle in the midst. So Eliphaz saw the foolish taking root (Job 5:3), and David beheld the wicked spreading like a green bay tree (Psalms 37:35), and Asaph witnessed the ungodly prospering until at last they were suddenly overwhelmed (Psalms 73:13). 2. Certain. Nevertheless, i.e. notwithstanding all contrary appearances, the sinner’s own security, his determination to resist or evade the pursuing Nemesis, his fierce resentment when the hand of the destroyer should apprehend him, "the light of the wicked should be put out." Not absolutely and universally true of their terrestrial career, it is yet positively sure that the prosperity of the ungodly shall decline, if not on earth, at least in the future world. 3. Complete. The glow upon the sinner’s hearth and the lamp from his roof should be equally extinguished. The light in which he sunned himself, i.e. his personal comfort and happiness, and the light in which he shone to others, i.e. his greatness and glory, should alike fade and become dark. Sometimes such experience is the lot of God’s people, as the case of Job testifies. Happy they to whom Jehovah is an everlasting Light (Isaiah 60:19), and who, when they sit in temporal darkness, can rejoice in his cheering beams (Micah 7:8). III. THE . The wicked man’s career, from the moment of his apprehension by misfortune till the hour of his complete destruction, was next represented in a series of graphic pictures. In these he appears as: 1. Snared by calamity. (Verses 7-10.) (1) Unexpectedly; when, at the height of prosperity, in the fulness of pride, and conscious of strength, he stalks forth with giant strides to execute the wicked counsels he has formed (Job 5:3; Ecclesiastes 9:12; Luke 21:34, Luke 21:35; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). (2) Willingly; as if disdainfully defiant of every attempt to arrest his career, marching deliberately into the toffs, so that practically "his own counsel casts him down," and "his own feet thrust him into a net" A melancholy example of that "vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other side;" of that self avenging Nemesis which slumbers in the bosom of every sin, but especially of a great sin; of that terrible infatuation which sometimes seizes on the souls of wicked men, and impels them, with stupid blindness to, or reckless disregard of, consequences, forward to their own destruction. (3) Effectually; the gin taking him by the heel, and the noose holding him fast, so that first his proud steps become straitened, and finally himself is cast down. (4) Inevitably; the snare that is to arrest him lying already in the ground and only waiting his arrival, the import of which seems to be that the moment a transgressor enters on his evil path he starts upon a road that must sooner or later conduct him to ruin. 2. Haunted by terrors. (Verses 11, 12.) The evil conscience that he carries in his bosom, though long slumbering, at last awakes, inspires him with fearful forebodings of impending disaster, peoples all the atmosphere around him with ghostly apparitions which dog his footsteps, summons up before his startled vision, well-nigh every moment of his wretched existence, spectral shadows of coming woe, which paralyze his strength and utterly unman his wicked soul. (Cf. Eliphaz’s picture of a guilty conscience (Job 15:21), of which Bildad’s appears to be an echo and imitation.) 3. Arrested by disease. (Verses 13, 14.) (On the expression, "the firstborn of death," see Exposition.) The obvious allusion is to such a malady as Job’s leprosy, which, when it apprehends a sinner, (1) devours the strength (or bars) of his skin, i.e. consumes either the members of the body (Delitzsch), or" the muscles which are to the skin what bars are to a gate, or those passages and orifices, those inlets and outlets of the body, at which many forms of disease first display their presence and power (Cox); (2) ejects him from his house, causing him who formerly sat in confident security within his tent to remove, as under the ban of Divine displeasure, from the presence and habitations of his fellow-men; and (3) conducts him to the king of terrors, which death must ever be to the ungodly and impenitent, though to them who believe in Christ, who hath conquered death, its character and aspect are completely changed (1 Corinthians 15:55; Hebrews 2:14, Hebrews 2:15). 4. Overwhelmed with destruction. (Verses 15-17.) And this in three particulars: (1) the desolation of his homestead, which, being doomed, like Jericho, to remain ununhbited, is henceforth tenanted by "creatures and things strange to the deceased rich man, such as jackals and nettles" (Delitzisch), or haunted ever afterwards by ghostly terrors (Cox)—a thought which Bildad again copies from the preceeding speech of Eliphaz. (2) the extirpation of his family, even to its utter destruction, root and branch, so that neither he, the root, shall remain, nor any of the branches, his offspring, shall survive (verses 16, 19)—"the most terrible calamity that can happen to a Semite" (Wetstein, quoted by Delitzsch); (3) the extinction of his memory, the complete perishing of all remembrance of him, so that his name is never mentioned in the land or on the street (Proverbs 2:22; Proverbs 10:7; Psalms 34:16)—a pitiable doom for those to contemplate who have no hope of any immortality beyond the posthumous renown which their great power, extensive fame, or notorious wickedness may enable them to secure, though a comparatively small deprivation for them whose names are registered in heaven, and will be held in everlasting remembrance by God even if they should be forgotten by man. 5. Thrust into darkness. (Verse 18.) Chased from the world as unfit to live longer on the earth (Proverbs 14:32), as afterwards, though falsely, Christ (Luke 23:18) and St. Paul (Acts 22:22); driven away from the light of day into the darkness of death, from the light of prosperity into the darkness of misfortune, from the light of happiness into the darkness of misery—a terribly true picture of the fate of the impenitent. 6. Loaded with infamy. (Verse 20.) Transformed into an object of horror and amazement to (1) the people of all lands—"those who dwell in the East and those who dwell in the West" (Delitzsch); and (2) the people of all times—"them that come after," i.e. posterity, and "them that went before," i.e. the wicked man’s contemporaries. In this sense "the evil that men do lives after them," and "some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after" (1 Timothy 5:24). The language of Bildad is true of the Sodomites (2 Peter 2:6), Balsam (2 Peter 2:15, 2 Peter 2:16), Judas (Acts 1:18), and transgressors of a like order. IV. THE . That Job was the subject of Bildad’s sombre sketch is apparent from the portrait of Job’s character prefixed by the speaker to his dismal harangue, the resemblance in many points of Bildad’s imaginary picture to the actual history of the patriarch, and the sharp incisive manner in which the moral of his tale is pointed out (verse 21). Yet the preacher completely misdirected his discourse. For: 1. The character he portrayed did not belong to Job. Job was not a wicked man, and a man that knew not God, as Bildad was perfectly aware; but, as Job contended, and God himself allowed, "a perfect man and an upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil." 2. The sermon he preached did not apply to Job. Even of wicked men it was not always and universally true that retribution overtook them on account of their misdeeds. But of Job it was wholly incorrect that he was suffering for his sins. 3. The future he predicted was not experienced by Job. In part it seemed to be, but in its principal ingredients it was not. He was cast down from his prosperity, but he was not chased out of the world. The light was for a season extinguished in his dwelling, but it was afterward rekindled with greater brilliancy than before. His homestead was ruined, but not cursed, being afterwards re-erected and blessed. His first family was taken from him, but a second was bestowed. His name was not consigned to infamy, but has been crowned with everlasting renown. Learn: 1. That no preacher should carry personalities to the pulpit. 2. That a great text should, if possible, be followed by a great sermon. 3. That an orator should study to be true rather than brilliant in his illustrations. 4. That discourses otherwise good are sometimes delivered to the wrong hearers. 5. That the predictions of angry prophets are seldom fulfilled. BY E. JOHNSON Job 18:1-21 Renewed rebukes and warnings. Bildad again replies, mentioning that the passionate outbreaks of Job are useless. He holds fast to his original principle, that, according to the Law of God, the hardened sinner will suddenly meet his doom. And some secret sin, he persists, must be the cause of the present suffering. I. : OF JOB AS A FOOLISH AND VIOLENT SPEAKER. (Verses 1-4.) He is one who "hunts after words." Let him be truly sensible and rational, begs this confident Pharisaic preacher. "Why do you treat us as stupid beasts? ’ he indignantly expostulates. "You tear yourself to pieces in your anger, and think yourself lacerated by God" (comp. Job 7:16). Does Job exact the earth to be depopulated and rocks to be removed for his sake? Bildad thinks that Job’s repeated assertion of his innocence aims at the subversion of the moral order of the world—the holy order given by God (comp. Romans 3:5, Romans 3:6). It is a grand thought, though misapplied by the speaker. The order of God, alike in nature and the human spirit, is unchangeable, and admits of no exception. But this order is not to be misunderstood by drawing conclusions from the outward to the inward life. Where the higher, the spiritual, is concerned, reason, Scripture, and conscience, rather than any outward tokens, must decide the truth. II. OF THE DOOM OF THE SINNER. (Verses 5-21.) Most solemn and pathetic; a masterpiece of dramatic representation. A series of striking figures is made to pass before the eye of imagination. 1. The light of the wicked is put out; no flame leaps from his fire, no cheerful lamp hangs from his tent-roof. This is a favourite image (Job 21:17; Job 29:3; Psalms 18:28; Proverbs 13:9). The Arabs say, "Fate has put out my lamp" (verses 5, 6). 2. Another figure: his steps are hemmed in—current in the East—and his own counsel overthrows him (verse 7). 3. Again, the figure of the nets and snares and pitfalls, by which he meets his ruin (verses 8-10). Terrible thoughts and dread events throng around him, and pursue him, like the Erinnyes of the Greek mythology—messengers from God to disquiet his guilty soul (verse 11). 4. Disaster and ruin are personified in the poetic description. The one has an eager hunger for him; the other stands ready, like an armed foe, to cast him down (verse 12). III. The description now TAKES A MORE — TO THE STATE OF JOB. 1. His disease—the terrible elephantiasis—the "first-born of death," devours him piecemeal (verse 13). 2. Expelled from his secure abode, he advances into the power of the "king of terrors" (verse 14). He dwells in the tent of another, while brimstone from heaven desolates his former habitation (comp. Job 15:34; Deuteronomy 29:22, Deuteronomy 29:23; Psalms 11:6). This, it is said, is still at the present day the most dreadful of images to the mind of the Semitic peoples—the desolation of the home (verse 15). 3. Another figure: he is like a tree, withered at the root, and topped above (verse 16). An imprecation was written on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar, "Let him have neither roots below nor branches above]" (comp. Isaiah 5:24; Amos 2:9). 4. His memory passes away from the land, and his name is known over the wide steppe no more (verse 17; comp. Job 13:12). He is thrust out of the light of life and happiness into the darkness of calamity and death, and is hunted from the round habitable earth (verse 18). No scion nor shoot springs from him among the people; none escaped from his utter ruin in his dwellings (verse 19). 5. An awful impression is felt by all, in East and West alike, who contemplate so dreadful a doom. "Thus," concludes Bildad, "it befalleth the dwellings of the unrighteous, and the place of him that knew not—recognized and honoured not—God" (verses 20, 21). Detaching this address from its inappropriate application to the sufferer, it is in itself a noble piece of warning and exhortation. Letus gather from it a few lessons. 1. The curse of the wicked is the extinction of the light of God, who is the Light and Brightness of the righteous (verses 5, sqq.; Psalms 36:9, Psalms 36:10; Psalms 119:105). The light, again, may be taken as a figure for the clear knowledge of man’s destiny, a clear consciousness in the whole life (Matthew 6:22, Matthew 6:23). Then the light in the tent enhances the figure, and beautifully points to this clear consciousness in the daily relations of the house. 2. (Verses 17, sqq.) The memory a man leaves behind is not of so much consequence as the consciousness in life of being known to God. There are many true and hidden ones in the world, whose deeds are done in secret for God’s sake (John 3:21); and many godless ones, who make so great a stir and noise in the world that they are talked of after they are gone. It is a peculiar blessing to the child of God if he be made an example to any, and after his death a sweet savour ascends from his life to God’s praise (Proverbs 10:7). 3. The repeated descriptions of the doom of the ungodly are intended to quell our envy at the sight of unhallowed prospering, and direct our thoughts to the inward, the only real life. How can we judge whether any one is a true fearer of God? Not from his religious observances, not from the external fortunes which befall him, not from his individual good works; but from the faith which he owns, from the whole direction of his life to the Divine, from the frame of mind in which he dies (Psalms 73:17, Psalms 73:19, etc.; Wohlfarth).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 18:5-14 The fruits of impiety. Again Bildad speaks. He is not the sufferer, hut the judge. Be who came as a comforter utters but miserable words in the ears of the afflicted one. His words are true in themselves, but wrongly applied. Justly he describes the fruits of impiety. I. To THE IMPIOUS THE LIGHT OF IS FOR THE OF . His "lamp is put out." Sorrowfulness, sooner or later, overtakes him. For a time he is in great prosperity; but his sin finds him out. The ill-gotten gain of ungodliness has no blessing upon it, but a withering curse. Sooner or later the heyday of wicked rejoicing is exchanged for the blackness of dark night. Universal experience affirms this. It is a just punishment of wrong, and a warning to the tempted; while it admonishes the obedient, and declares "there is a God that judgeth in the earth." II. THE EVILLY FORMED PURPOSE OF IMPIETY FAILS. His "steps are straitened," how strong soever they may seem to be. Even his very counsel itself shall be a stumbling-block to cast the wicked down. The hope cherished without God must be disappointed; the selfish design is itself a trap for the feet of the ungodly. III. IMPIETY IN . "The snare is laid for him in the ground." The whole kingdom of right and truth is against him. Judgment waits on his steps. Sooner or later his feet will be in "the trap" that is laid "for him in the way." His course is not a plain, direct, clear course. His motives are confused. He hedges himself with difficulties. One wrong exposes him to another. At last "the gin takes him by the heel" IV. IMPIETY EXCITES TO FEAR AND DREAD. "Terrors make him afraid on every side." The awakened conscience makes a coward of him. He fears the rustling of the leaf. Judgment is passed in the secret chambers of his soul. He cannot escape. V. IMPIETY WASTES THE AND BRINGS THE LIFE DOWN TO . Sin is the transgression of law. Laws of life cannot be broken without the health failing. An impious spirit, unruled and uncontrolled by righteous principle, will pursue evil and dangerous courses, will yield to evil habits, and the strength of the life will be undermined. Then "the firstborn of death shall devour his strength." He becomes the prey of. destruction. He is brought "to the king of terrors." Thus the course of impiety ends in ignominy, shame, and destruction. "This is the portion of their cup." Darkness, difficulty, fear, wasted purpose and wasted strength finally issuing in death, are the inevitable fruits of impiety.—R.G. Job 18:15 The home of the wicked insecure. The blessing of the Lord is upon "the habitation of the just." This is the reward of righteousness. But the Divine judgment against the wicked is shown in permitting his house to become desolate. One of the oft-repeated promises to Israel is the blessing of the Lord upon the habitation. But "the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked." The practice of iniquity tends to destruction. It has no element of stability in it. The habitation of the wicked is insecure because— I. IT LACKS THE DEFENCE OF RIGHT . The righteousness which exalteth a nation establishes a house. On the health, the pursuits, the habits, the business, the family, right principles exert a beneficent influence. The absence of them is the precursor of evil of all kinds. The wall is broken down; protection is wanting. The home is a prey to evil. II. IT LACKS THE PROMISE OF THE DIVINE AND . It is as a field unwatered. There is no spring of hope within it. In the blessing of the Lord lies hidden the secret germ of all true prosperity, and all safety and permanence. Where that blessing is not, the house is as a tender plant unsheltered beneath a scorching sups. The Divine providence cannot be expected to work for the promotion of ends directly contrary to its own. The whole world, with its innumerable laws and its wise administration, is on the side of right, on the side of virtue and goodness. The blessing of the Lord, which makes the field to be fruitful, makes the abode of the righteous to be an abode of safety, of peace, and of blessing. The home of wickedness has none of these things. III. The home of the wicked finds NO TO ITS IN THE GOOD WILL OF MEN AROUND. The evil companions are not trustworthy. They turn aside as a deceitful bow. They are as likely to rejoice and make sport out of their companion’s downfall as to pity him under it; while the ungodly, having separated himself from the righteous, can find no sympathetic spirit amongst them. That the home of evil should be broken up is rather a cause of rejoicing, for it is the putting aside a cause of evil. This is the portion of the man that maketh not God his trust. He fights against his own best interests. He forsakes the only true and safe way. He puts himself in opposition to the great forces of righteousness which ever in the end prevail. He links his interests with that on which the withering curse of God rests, and "brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation." "His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off."—R.G. Job 18:16-21 The curse upon the family of the wicked. The permanent continuance of the family was one of the most coveted blessings of Eastern nations. Very deeply was this embedded in the minds of the peoples. It was, therefore, a signal curse of God to cut off the remembrance of a family from the earth. With cruel error Bildad points to the cutting off of Job’s family—at least, such is the presumption, otherwise his words are inappropriate here—and he seems to charge upon Job the sin of which the punishment was to be found in the death of his children. That Bildad states a true principle of Divine retribution all agree; his error was in its application. The cutting off the family of the ungodly is— I. A OF THE DIVINE AGAINST EVIL-DOING. It is frequently announced in Holy Scripture. God, the jealous God, visits "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." It is part of his holy and wise and just retribution. As he blesses the sons of the faithful for their fathers’ sakes, so he visits upon the children the offences of their fathers. The evil-doer withers as a plant without water. "His roots shall be dried up beneath." Therefore his branches spread not; but they are "cut off." The remembrance of him perishes from the earth, and his name from the street (verse 17). He dies away without descendant and without remembrance. II. This judgment is seen to be A OF WRONG-DOING. For evil is visited in various ways by the avenging Nemesis that hovers over all life. Evil undermines the health; it tends to habits and pursuits which are destructive of the peace arid security and progress of home. It puts man in conflict with his neighbour, and so men drive the evil-doer "from light into darkness." He is "chased out of the world." Even should his posterity be perpetuated, it is lost to sight. It sinks down in the world till it sinks out of view. III. This judgment STANDS IN DIRECT TO THE LOT OF THE —the man who knoweth God. Over his house is the Divine protection. "When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." The blessing of God rests upon the home and the doings of the righteous. Even though chastisement and calamity may fall upon him, they do not destroy him; rather, he, as a pruned tree, groweth the more and more fruitful God’s promise is unto the good, and unto their children after them. The family of the good man has the advantage Of a holy example. They are screened from a thousand perils, while innumerable blessings descend upon them in response to the prayer of faith. This will in the end be proved to be true of Job. IV. These judgments STAND AS A WARNING TO ALL PARENTS. They make the duty of parental piety more and more obvious. They illustrate the solemn responsibility of heads of houses, since their doings descend in their effects upon their children. They owe it to their offspring that they so live as rightly and beneficently to affect their lives. The blessing of God which rests upon the just, and the curse and condemnation of God upon the evil, are warnings to all. Upon those the eye of God rests, but upon these the curse of God. The abodes of wickedness, over which no blessing from on high hovers, are abodes of death and destruction. "Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God."—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 18:4 The individual need and the universal order. Bildad accuses Job of being unreasonable in expecting that the universal order should bend to suit a man’s individual need. He suggests a common difficulty in regard to the harmony between the particular and the general in the dispensations of Providence. I. THE MAN IS TEMPTED TO THINK OF HIS OWN NEED. We are all naturally self-centred, and trouble magnifies our sense of personality and peculiarity. Thus it comes about that each person is inclined to feel his own wants as of paramount importance, and to expect that the whole order of things must shape itself to meet his requirements. If that is not the case, and the world goes on in its large way, treating him as but a unit among the millions, a drop in the ocean of humanity, he feels himself slighted and wronged. A more reasonable view of the whole of God’s world and its interests should remove this foolish notion; but it can only be conquered when its moral character is attacked, and selfishness is made to give place to love. II. GOD GOVERNS THE WORLD FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE . We cannot judge of it till we can take a large and fair view of the wide field. The shadow which makes a corner look gloomy by itself is necessary for the completion of the whole picture. God-is not partial, selecting one for favour and neglecting a multitude. He is not like the aristocratic Roman, who looked down with scornful indifference on the ignoble plebs. There is nothing so democratic as nature. Here all alike are under exactly the same laws. As the great ship ploughs her way through the ocean, though children are crying and women are ill, the watch calls out his cheery word, "All’s well!" for the vessel is going right in spite of these individual distresses. III. THE GENERAL OF THE WORLD CANNOT BE UPSET TO SUIT NEEDS. Should the earth be depopulated for the sake of one man’s convenience? That is Bildad’s extravagant way of putting the thought; but the extravagance is only a magnifying of an idea which is foolish even within the smallest dimensions. That a man should ever expect a rock to move out of his path is absurd. As the massive rock will not stir, and as the traveller must either climb over it or go round it, so the course of nature generally will not budge before man’s will. He may dash himself against it, but the results will only be bruises and pain. As God has made all things well, and as the laws of nature make for life and welfare, it is a matter of profound thankfulness that foolish, selfish men cannot set them aside. IV. THE MAN IS HELPED THROUGH THE GENERAL COURSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD. There is a special providence. God does not deal with masses, but with men. The very hairs of our head are all numbered. It is in accordance with God’s perfect mind that he should so govern the whole that the result should be good for each. We have to learn to take our places in the great family of God with humility and sympathy for our brethren. Then we shall see that the rules of the household, which cannot be set aside to suit our whims and capricious fancies, are really good for us. It is better the rock should not be carried away. We are trained and strengthened by having to overcome the difficulty. Finally, it is in accordance with these principles that—through his atonement which magnifies the Law and makes it honourable—Christ brings a salvation for each soul which does not disarrange the general course of God’s government of the universe.—W.F.A Job 18:5, Job 18:6 The light extinguished. This is a favourite idea of Bildad’s, that occurs more than once in his harangue (e.g. Job 18:18). As usual, we may here follow the imagery of the Shuhite without applying it to Job. Wickedness extinguishes light. I. THE LIGHT OF . Bad men may be learned and good men may be ignorant in regard to the knowledge of the schools and the world. But there is a deeper knowledge from which sin excludes, a light to which wickedness simply blinds the eye. 1. The knowledge of God. Spiritual knowledge depends on sympathy. But God is holy. Therefore the unholy, being out of sympathy with him, cannot understand his thoughts or his ways. 2. The knowledge of goodness. The wicked life is spent in a state of ignorance concerning the very nature of the Christian life. No one knows what that better life is till he has tried to live it. 3. The knowledge of the largest truth. Sin degrades and narrows the soul. It shuts off that wide, comprehensive vision which is only possible when passion and lust and all dark experiences are removed. II. THE LIGHT OF LOVE. All sin is selfishness. The wicked man degrades the very name of love. Its true meaning is quite unknown to him; or if it dawn upon him in his better moments, as when he takes his little child upon his knee and looks into its innocent eyes, it is like a light from a far-off world, which only makes the foul darkness of the regions his soul inhabits the more visible to his startled apprehension. III. THE LIGHT OF JOY. There is a mad pleasure in sin, and for a while it seems to fulfil its deceitful promises. But it is not long before its dupe discovers his folly, and finds that his so-called pleasure is a mockery. Of real unalloyed gladness he has none. There are bitter dregs at the bottom of the cup of self-indulgent pleasure which he drinks so greedily. All that he delights in is superficial, transient, unreal. When he has made the most of it, it leaves the deeper hunger of his soul unsatisfied. IV. THE LIGHT OF LIFE. Light vitalizes; darkness is akin to death. The sinful soul is on the road to the gates of darkness, through which the road loads to the dreadful death which is its rightful wages. Already much of the light of life has faded away, and dim shadows as from the tomb hover about the career of wickedness. He who has chosen sin for his inheritance has chosen a sunless territory overshadowed by the dark wings of death. V. THE LIGHT OF GOD’S FAVOUR. When God lifts up his countenance upon any one, his light shines forth; for God is Light (1 John 1:5). But the wickedness that offends the Law of God necessarily removes the light of his favour. A certain temporary prosperity may remain, so that the foolish sinner may think himself a favourite of fortune. But there is no grace of God in it; and even in the glaring brightness of its immediate presence it is possible to see the meretricious tinsel, which is very different from the true glory of God’s goodness.—W.F.A. Job 18:8-10 The sinner entrapped by his own feet. According to Bildad’s representation, the wicked man needs no huntsman to run him to earth. His own fatuous course will lead him to ruin. his own foolish feet walk into the snare. I. THE READY SNARE. "The snare is laid for him in the ground." 1. Its author. It is laid for him. He does not make and set it; he does not know where it is. If he knew, of course he would avoid it. He does not even think of its existence. Were he to do so, he would be on his guard. Another has laid the snare. Man has a great enemy, watching to pounce on him—a robber of souls, who sets traps and gins for the unwary. Let us be on our guard. Like the Pilgrim, we are on the enchanter’s ground; this earth has become our foe’s territory. 2. Its character. A snare is a hidden device. The net is set among the bushes, the wires are hidden by the grass. Men are deluded into ruin. Deceitful appearances lure them to destruction. 3. Its condition. The snare is already laid. If we are not ready to meet our foe, he is ready for us. No one can accuse Satan of dilatoriness. He is beforehand with his schemes. He was prepared to entrap the first man. The snare was ready almost as soon as Eden was planted. 4. Its position. "In the way." (1) The bad man’s way. This is its most usual place. The snares are most numerous on the broad road. (2) The common way. The snares are also to be found on the narrow way that leads to life. The Christian is not out of danger. Bunyan’s enchanted ground lay right in the road to the Celestial City. We do not escape the dangers of temptation by becoming Christians. II. THE UNWARY FEET. The wicked man walks straight into the snare. Here is the difference between this man and the good man. There are snares about the path of the man of God; but a Divine light reveals them, and a Divine hand draws him back from his great peril. It is otherwise with the godless man. Note the reasons why his feet go straight for the snare. 1. Darkness. His light is put out (Job 18:5). If he started with a lantern, the foul atmosphere through which he has travelled has extinguished it. Now that he needs it in the place of peril, it is but a useless impediment. 2. Desertion of God. We are too blind to see all the snares that are set for our feet, but we may have the help of an unerring Guide. The sinner rejects the heavenly Guide. In proud independence he prefers to go alone. 3. Proneness to coil. The sinner sees a fascination in the region of the snare. Perhaps it is set in a bed of flowers, or in an orchard of fruit. It may be that some pleasant shady dell conceals it, or possibly it is hidden by a mossy couch that invites repose. At all events, it is most deceptive and powerful where sin most abounds. 4. Destiny. A sort of fatality dogs the footsteps of the sinner. Start how he may, he is sure to direct his feet at last straight for the snare. He is like one mesmerized. He can but walk into the net. The hideous explanation of his fascination for ruin is that he is no longer his own master. He has made himself the slave of Satan. Yet even he may find safety in the mighty deliverance of the Christ who came to destroy the works of the devil.—W.F.A. Job 18:14 The king of terrors. Men regard death as the king of terrors. Let us consider first the grounds of this notion, and then how it may be dispelled. I. LET US WHY DEATH IS AS THE KING OF TERRORS. Men instinctively think of death as "the grisly terror." "I fled, and cried out, ’Death!’ Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed From all her caves, and back resounded, ’Death!’" 1. It is opposed to the natural love of life. "All that a man hath win he give for his life." Therefore death appears as his enemy. Every living creature shuns it. The fear of it makes a tragedy of the chase. 2. It is irresistible. A veritable monarch. We may maintain a state of siege for a time, but we know we must all capitulate at last. When death storms the citadel in real earnest, no power can keep it out. 3. Its territory is unknown. The mystery of death adds to its terrors. If we saw more we might fear less. We launch our vessel on a dark sea, not knowing what surges beat on the further shore. 4. It comes in pain. We often say that the worst is over with the poor sufferer before the end has come. The bitterness of death has passed before death itself has been reached. Still there is suffering at the end of most lives, and we instinctively shrink from this. We cannot bring ourselves to face the thought of the death-struggle. 5. It takes us from all the light and joy of earth. The natural love of life is confirmed by experience. To die is "to lie in cold obstruction." All the sunshine and flowers of this fair world are gone, all the sweetness of companionship with the loved on earth. The soul is severed from its earthly delights. 6. It comes to each singly. Each soul must venture alone into the dread unknown. 7. It ushers us into future judgment. "After death the judgment" The sinner who dares not give an account of himself before God dreads to hear the summons from the messenger of the unseen. "The sting of death is sin." II. LET US SEE HOW DEATH CAN BE SOBBED OF ITS TERRORS. Christ dethrones the king of terrors, and wrests his dark kingdom away, flooding it with the light of his grace. The Christian can do more than the Roman hero and the Stoic philosopher who had learnt to me, t death "with an equal mind." He can say, "To me … to die is gain." 1. Christ removes the causes of the fear of death. He does not lull the fear as with an opiate, He dissipates it by abolishing its source, as one dissipates a malarious fog by draining the marsh from which it rises. He goes to the root by conquering sin, which is the most fundamental cause of the terror of death. Bringing pardon for past sin, he dispels the alarm of future judgment; and bringing purification of soul, he removes the indwelling sin that always shrinks from death as the foe of man. Then Christ helps us to face the pain, the darkness, and the mystery of death, by assuring us of his own supporting presence: "It is I; be not afraid." 2. Christ throws light on the region beyond death. He would not have us fix our attention on death. That is but a transient experience. At the worst it is a dark door to be passed through. The Christian will never dwell in the kingdom of death. To him death is "That golden key That open the palace of eternity." There is a triumph over death for those who, sleeping in Christ, wake to the life eternal. For them the king of terrors has ceased to be. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:26).—W.F.A. Job 18:16 Root and branch. Bildad dwells upon his favourite topic of the withering doom of the wicked. It is complete—root and branch are destroyed. A truth again, though inapplicable to Job. I. THE ROOTS DRIED UP. The roots stand for the sources of life and strength. Roots nourish the tree and hold it in its place. If they fail, all else must perish. 1. The roots are out of sight. The most important things are not the most prominent. The secret springs of toe soul are of vital interest. All that is visible to the eye may be untouched; yet if the hidden roots of our being fail we must be utterly undone. 2. The roots depend on nourishment. They are dried up for lack of moisture in the soil. There may be no defect in the roots; yet if the soil is drained dry they cannot perform their natural function of nourishing the soul. We are all dependent on what is outside us, in soul as well as in body. If the food of the soul is withdrawn, if the water of life no longer flows near to the roots of our spiritual being, no vigour of constitution, no inherent personal life, can survive. 3. The waters may fail. The course of the river may be deflected, or there may be a season of drought. We have nothing in ourselves or in the constitution of things to guarantee a continuance of supply in this case of our deepest wants. We have no right to that supply, no claim on the grace of God. The hand that gives may withhold. Therefore our continued prosperity depends absolutely on God’s continued favour. The insolent and rebellious independence that forfeits God’s grace withers the roots of the soul. II. THE BRANCH CUT OFF. The branch stands for the external growth. It is seen by all, snowed with blossoms and freshening with new green in the spring, or laden with luscious fruit in the autumn. When the root is dried up, leaves and fruit wither on the branch. But a more untimely fate may overtake it. It may be severed from the tree. Perhaps it is too stout and tough to be torn off in the gale, but it cannot resist the woodman’s axe. 1. The branch is cut off by an external calamity. This is what had happened to Job. His prosperity was suddenly wrenched away from him. The family into which his life had branched out was smitten; this branch was cut off from the parent stem. What we most love, rejoice in, and pride ourselves upon may be removed by the hand of death, or by some misfortune of life. 2. The cutting off of the branch may not be an unmitigated evil. It may be a pruning process. The tree may be running to wood rather than producing fruit. Mere growth of wealth and external prosperity may be taking the place of fruit-bearing in regard to the real good of life. Then it is to be observed that pruning a tree is not felling it. Though the branch is cut off, the trunk is left, and the life of the tree will yet be seen in a new and healthier growth. We must not despair at external disaster. If the life of God is in us, we shall survive it, and even triumph over it. 3. The most fatal condition is when the dying of the roots goes with the cutting off of the branch. If the internal resources are dried up when external calamity falls upon us, our condition is desperate. There is then nothing to fall back upon. External ruin only crowns and completes internal decay. . The gospel of Christ is as deep-searching and as far-reaching as the evil of in. It saves roots and branches, giving life to the soul, and also a Divine growth and prosperity.—W.F.A. Job 19:1-29 Job begins his answer to Bildad’s second speech by an expostulation against the unkindness of his friends, who break him in pieces, and torture him, with their reproaches (verses 1-5). He then once more, and more plainly than on any other occasion, recounts his woes. (1) His severe treatment by God (verses 6-13); (2) his harsh usage by his relatives and friends (verses 14-19): and (3) the pain caused him by his disease (verse 20); and appeals to his friends on these grounds for pity and forbearance (verses 21, 22). Next, he proceeds to make his great avowal, prefacing it with a wish for its preservation as a perpetual record (verses 23, 24); the avowal itself follows (verses 25-27); and the speech terminates with a warning to his "comforters,’’ that if they continue to persecute him, a judgment will fall upon them (verses 28, 29). Job 19:1, Job 19:2 Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? Job is no Stoic. He is not insensible to his friends’ attacks. On the contrary, their words sting him, torture him, "break him in pieces," wound his soul in its tenderest part. Bildad’s attack had been the cruellest of all, and it drives him to expostulation (verses 2-5) and entreaty (verses 21, 22). Job 19:3 These ten times have ye reproached me. (For the use of the expression "ten times" for "many times." "frequently." see Genesis 31:7, Genesis 31:41; Numbers 14:22; Nehemiah 4:12; Daniel 1:20, etc.) Ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me; rather, that ye deal hardly with me (see the Revised Version). The verb used does not occur elsewhere, hut seems to have the meaning of "ill use" or "ill treat". Job 19:4 And be it indeed that I have erred; or, done wrong. Job at no time maintains his impeccability. Sins of infirmity he frequently pleads guilty to, and specially to intemperate speech (see Job 6:26; Job 9:14, Job 9:20, etc.). Mine error remaineth with myself; i.e. "it remains mine; and I suffer the punishment." Job 19:5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me. If you have no sense of justice, and are disinclined to pay any heed to my expostulations; if you intend still to insist on magnifying.yourselves against me, and bringing up against me my "reproach;" then let me make appeal to your pity. Consider my whole condition—how I stand with God, who persecutes me and "destroys" me (Job 19:10); how I stand with my relatives and such other friends as I have beside yourselves, who disclaim and forsake me (Job 19:13-19); and how I am conditioned with respect to my body, emaciated and on the verge of death (Job 19:20); and then, if neither your friendship nor your sense of justice will induce you to abstain from persecuting me, abstain at any rate for pity’s sake (Job 19:21). And plead against me my reproach. Job’s special "reproach" was that God had laid his hand upon him. This was a manifest fact, and could not be denied. His "comforters" concluded from it that he was a monster of wickedness. Job 19:6 Know now that God hath overthrown me; or, perverted me—"subverted me in my cause" (see Lamentations 3:6). And hath compassed me with his net. Professor Lee thinks that the net, or rather noose, intended by the rare word מצוּד is the lasso, which was certainly employed in war (Herod; 7.85), and probably also in hunting, from ancient times in the East. Bildad had insinuated that Job had fallen into his own snare (Job 18:7-9); Job replies that the snare in which he is taken is from God. Job 19:7 Behold, I cry out of wrong; i.e. "I cry out that I am wronged." I complain that sufferings are inflicted on me that I have not deserved. This has been Job’s complaint from the first (Job 3:26; Job 6:29; Job 9:17, Job 9:22; Job 10:3, etc.). But I am not heard; i.e. "I am not listened to—my cry is not answered." I cry aloud, but there is no judgment; or, no decision—"no sentence." All Job’s appeals to God have elicited no reply from him. He still keeps silence. Job appears from the first to have anticipated such a theophany as ultimately takes place (ch. 38-41.) and vindicates his character. Job 19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass (comp. Job 3:25; Job 13:27; Hosea 2:6), and he hath set darkness in my paths. Job complains of the want of light; in his heart he cries, Ἐνδὲφάεικαὶὄλεσσον. Nothing vexes him so much as his inability to understand why he is afflicted. Job 19:9 He hath stripped me of my glory. The glory which he had in his prosperity; not exactly that of a king, but that of a great sheikh or emir—of one who was on a par with the noblest of those about him (see Job 1:3). And taken the crown from my head. Not an actual crown, which sheikhs do not wear, but a metaphor for dignity or honour. Job 19:10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone; or, broken me down. Job compares himself to a city, the walls of which are attacked on every side and broken down. His ruin is complete—he perishes. And mine hope hath he removed like a tree; rather, torn up like a tree. Job’s "hope" was, no doubt, to lead a tranquil and a godly life, surrounded by his relatives and friends, in favour with God and man, till old age came, and he descended, like a ripe shock of corn (Job 5:26), to the grave. This hope had been "torn up by the roots" when his calamities fell upon him. Job 19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me. It is not what has happened to him in the way of affliction and calamity that so much oppresses and crushes the patriarch, as the cause to which he, not unnaturally, ascribes his afflictions, vie. the wrath of God. Participating in the general creed of his time, he believes his sufferings to come direct from God, and to be proofs of God’s severe anger against him. He is not, however, prepared on this account to renounce God. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15) is still his inward sustaining thought and guiding principle. And he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. Job felt himself treated as an enemy of God, and supposed that God must consider him such. He either had no glimpse of the cheering truth, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" (Hebrews 12:6), or he could not imagine that such woes as his were mere chastenings. Job 19:12 His troops come together (comp. Job 16:13, "His archers compass me round about"). It seems to Job that God brings against him a whole army of assailants, who join their forces together and proceed to the attack. Clouds of archers, troops of ravagers, come about him, and fall upon him from every side. And raise up their way against me; rather, and cast up their bank against me. Job still regards himself as a besieged city (see verse 10), and represents his assailants as raising embankments to hem him in, or mounds from which to batter his defences (compare the Assyrian sculptures, passim). And encamp round about my tabernacle; i.e. "my tent," or "my dwelling." Job 19:13 He hath put my brethren far from me. Job had actual "brothers" (Job 42:11), who forsook him and "dealt deceitfully" with him (Job 6:15) during the time of his adversity, but were glad enough to return to him and "eat bread with him" in his later prosperous life. Their alienation from him during the period of his afflictions he here regards as among the trials laid upon him by God. Compare the similar woe of Job’s great Antitype (John 5:5, "For neither did his brethren believe on him"). And mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me (comp. Psalms 38:11; Psalms 69:9; Psalms 88:8, Psalms 88:18). The desertion of the afflicted by their fair-weather friends is a standing topic with the poets and moralists of all ages and nations. Job was not singular in this affliction. Job 19:14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me (see Psalms 41:9). Job 19:15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. Even the inmates of his house, male and female, his servants, guards, retainers, handmaids, and the like, looked on him and treated him as if unknown to them. I am an alien in their sight. Nay, not only as if unknown, hut "as an alien," i.e. a foreigner. Job 19:16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer. Astounding insolence in an Oriental servant or rather slave (עבד), who should have hung upon his master’s words, and striven to anticipate his wishes. I intreated him with my mouth. Begging him probably for some service which was distasteful, and which he declined to render. Job 19:17 My breath is strange to my wife. The breath of a sufferer from elephantiasis has often a fetid odour which is extremely disagreeable. Job’s wife, it would seem, held aloof from him on this account, so that he lost the tender offices which a wife is the fittest person to render. Though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. This translation is scarcely tenable, though no doubt it gives to the words used a most touching and pathetic sense. Translate, and I am loathsome to the children of my mother’s wench; i.e. to my brothers and sisters (comp. Job 42:11). It would seem that they also avoided Job’s presence, or at any rate any near approach to him. Under the circumstances, this is perhaps not surprising; but Job, in his extreme isolation, felt it keenly. Job 19:18 Yea, young children despised me. (So Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, and the Revised Version.) Others translate, "the vile," or "the perverse" (comp. Job 16:11). But the rendering of the Authorized Version receives support from Job 21:11. The forwardness of rude and ill-trained children to take part against God’s saints appears later in the history of Elisha (2 Kings 2:23, 2 Kings 2:24). I arose, and they spake against me; or, when I arise, they speak against me (compare. the Revised Version). Job 19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me; literally, all the men of my counsel; i.e. all those whom I was accustomed to consult, and whose advice I was wont to take, in any difficulty, by keeping aloof, have shown their abhorrence of me. And they whom I loved are turned against me (comp. Psalms 41:9; Psalms 55:12-14: Jeremiah 20:10). The saints of God in all ages, and however differently circumstanced, are assailed by almost the same trials and temptations. Whether it be Job, or David, or Jeremiah, or One greater than any of them, the desertion and unkindness of their nearest and dearest, as the bitterest of all sufferings, is almost sure to be included in their cup, which they must drink to the dregs, if they are to experience to the full "the precious uses of adversity." Job 19:20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh. Here the third source of Job’s misery is brought forward—his painful and incurable disease. This has brought him to such a pitch of emaciation that his bones seem to adhere to the tightened skin, and the scanty and shrunken muscles, that cover them (comp. Job 33:21 and Lamentations 4:8). Such emaciation of the general frame is quite compatible with the unsightly swelling of certain parts of the body which characterizes elephantiasis. And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. The expression is, no doubt, proverbial, and signifies "barely escaped;" but its origin is obscure. Job 19:21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my friends. On the enumeration of his various woes, Job’s appeal for pity follows. We must not regard it as addressed merely to the three so-called "friends" (Job 2:11) or "comforters" (Job 16:2), Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. It is an appeal to all those who are around him and about him, whose sympathies have been bither to estranged (verses 13-19), but whose regard he does not despair of winning back. Will they not, when they perceive the extremity and variety of his sufferings, be moved to compassion by them, and commiserate him in his day of calamity? For the hand of God hath touched me. To the "comforters" this is no argument. They deem him unworthy of pity on the very ground that he is "smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4); since they hold that, being so smitten, he must have’ deserved his calamity. But to unprejudiced persons, not wedded to a theory, such an aggravation of his woe would naturally seem to render him a greater object of pity and compassion. Job 19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God? i.e. Why are ye as hard on me as God himself? If I have offended him, what have I done to offend you? And are not satisfied with my flesh? i.e. "devour my flesh, like wild beasts, and yet are not satisfied." Job 19:23 Oh that my words were written! It is questioned what words of his Job is so anxious to have committed to writing—those that precede the expression of the wish, or those that follow, or both. As there is nothing that is very remarkable in the preceding words, whereas the latter are among the most striking in the book, the general opinion has been that he refers to these last. It is now universally allowed, even by those whose date for Job is the most remote, that books were common long before his time, and so that he might naturally have been familiar with them. Writing is, of course, even anterior to books, and was certainly in use before b.c. 2000. The earliest writing was probably on stone or brick, and was perhaps in every case hieroglyphical. When writing on papyrus, or parchment, or the bark of trees, came into use, a cursive character soon superseded the hieroglyphical, though the latter continued In be employed for religious purposes, and for inscriptions on stone. Oh that they were printed in a book! rather, inscribed, or engraved. The impression of the characters below the surface of the writing material, as in the Babylonian and Assyrian clay-tablets, seems to be pointed at. Job 19:24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! A peculiar kind of rock-inscription, of which, so far as I know, no specimens remain, appears to be here alluded to. Job wished the characters of his record to be cut deep into the rock with an iron chisel, and the incision made to be then filled up with lead (compare the mediaeval "brasses"). Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth. Numerous endeavours have been made to explain away the mysterious import of this verse. First, it is noted that a goel is any one who avenges or ransoms another, and especially that it is "the technical expression for the avenger of blood" so often mentioned in the Old Testament. It is suggested, therefore, that Job’s real meaning may be that he expects one of his relatives to arise after his death as the avenger of his blood, and to exact retribution for it. But unless in the case of a violent death at the hands of a man, which was not what Job expected for himself, there could be no avenger of blood. Job has already expressed his desire to have a thirdsman between him and God (Job 9:32-35), which thirdsman can scarcely be other than a Divine Personage. In Job 16:19 be has declared his conviction that" his Witness is in heaven." In Job 16:21 of the same chapter he longs to have an advocate to plead his cause with God. In Job 17:3 he calls upon God to be Surety for him. Therefore, as Dr. Stanley Leathes points out, "he has already recognized God as his Judge, his Umpire, his Advocate, his Witness, and his Surety, in some eases by formal confession of the fact, in others by earnest longing after, and aspiration for, some one to act in that capacity." After all this, it is not taking a very long step in advance to see and acknowledge in God his Goel, or "Redeemer." And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; rather, and that at the last he shall stand up over my dust. אַחַדון is not "one who comes after me;" but, if a noun, "the last one," as רִאשׁוֹן is "the first one "(Isaiah 44:6); if intended adverbially, "at the last"—i.e, at the end of all things. "At the latter day" is not an improper translation. Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body. The supposed ellipsis of "worms" is improbable, as is also that of "body." Translate, and after my skin has been thus destroyed—"thus" meaning, "as you see it before your eyes." Yet in my flesh shall I see God; literally, from my flesh—scarcely, as Renan takes it, "without my flesh," or "away from my flesh"—"prive de ma chair;" but rather, "from the standpoint of my flesh "—"in my body," not "out of my body"—shall I see God. This may be taken merely as a prophecy of the theophany recorded in ch. 38-42. (see especially Job 42:5). But the nexus with verse 25, and the expressions there used—"at the last," and "he shall stand up over my dust"—fully justify the traditional exegesis, which sees in the passage an avowal by Job of his confidence that he will see God "from his body" at the resurrection. Job 19:27 Whom I shall see for myself. Not by proxy, i.e.’ or through faith, or in a vision, but really, actually, I shall see him for myself. As Schultens observes, an unmistakable tone of exultation and triumph pervades the passage. And mine eyes shall behold, and not another; i.e. "not the eyes of another." I myself, retaining my personal identity, "the same true living man," shall with my own eyes look on my Redeemer. Though my reins be consumed within me. There is no "though "in the original. The clause is detached and independent, nor is it very easy to trace any connection between it and the rest of the verse. Schultens, however, thinks Job to mean that he is internally consumed by a burning desire to see the sight of which he has spoken. (So also Dr. Stanley Leathes.) Job 19:28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him? rather, if ye shall say’ How shall we persecute him? That is to say, "If, after what I have said, ye continue bitter against me, and take counsel together as to the best way of persecuting me, then, seeing the root of the matter (i.e. the essence of piety) is found in me, be ye afraid," etc. Job 19:29 Be ye afraid of the sword; i.e. "the sword of God’s justice, which will assuredly smite you if you persecute an innocent man." For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword; rather, for wrath is among the transgressions of the sward; i e. among the transgressions for which the sword is the fit punishment. It is "wrath" which leads Job’s "comforters" to Persecute him. That ye may know there is a judgment; or, so that ye will know there is a judgment’ When the blow comes upon them they will recognize that it has come upon them on account of their ill treatment of their friend. Job 19:1-22 Job to Bildad: 1. A reply, an appeal, a complaint. I. JOB’S REPLY TO HIS FRIENDS. Job accuses his three friends of: 1. Irritating words. (Verse 2.) Their solemn addresses and eloquent descriptions were an exquisite torture, harder to endure than the miseries of elephantiasis. The cruel insinuations and unkind reproaches contained in their speeches crushed him more deeply and lacerated him more keenly than all the sharp strokes of evil fortune he had lately suffered. Wounds inflicted by the tongue are worse to heal than those given by the hand. "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword’ (Proverbs 12:18); and to "talk to the grief of those whom God has wounded" (Psalms 69:26) is the severest of all kinds of persecution to sustain, as it is the wickedest of all sorts of crimes to commit. 2. Persistent hostility. (Verse 3.) Not once or twice simply had they charged him with being a notorious criminal, but they had harped upon this same string ad nauseam; they had carried their insulting behaviour to the furthest limits; the force of their acrimonious opposition could not further go. Their reproaches had well-nigh broken his great heart; cf. the language of David, who in his sufferings was a type of Messiah (Psalms 69:20). 3. Astounding callousness. (Verse 3.) Job was simply amazed at the cool indifference with which they could behold his sufferings, the unfeeling ease, if not the manifest delight, with which they could hurl their atrocious impeachments against him, and the utter insensibility which they displayed to his piteous appeals—amazed that one who claimed to be a friend of his should so completely show himself to be "A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch Incapable of pity, void and empty From any dram of mercy." (’The Merchant of Venice,’ Acts 4. sc. 1.) 4. Unnecessary cruelty. (Verse 4.) There was no "firm reason to be rendered" why they should thus remorselessly pursue him with their hate. They would not be called upon to expiate any of his unpunished crimes. Their theology and their saintly virtues would combine to shield them from that. Believing, as they did, that "the son shall not hear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son," but that "the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezekiel 18:20), there was no occasion to dread that any portion of the Divine retribution due to him would recoil on them. Hence they might have spared him any wanton aggravation of his woes. Job’s language reminds us (1) that men may be guilty of sins of which they are unconscious; (2) that the only thing in which man can claim a true proprietorship on earth is his sin; (3) that in the ultimate issues of Divine government every man must bear his own burden; and (4) that this consideration should move a good man rather to commiserate than condemn the wicked. 5. Arrogant assumption. In "pleading against him his reproach," i.e. in urging the intolerable miseries he suffered as a proof of his guilt, they were" magnifying themselves against him" (verse 5), i.e. tacitly boasting of their superior goodness. And as much perhaps as by anything in their language, the soul of Job was stung by the solemn Pharisaic aspect which sat upon their marble visages, and the atmosphere of awful sanctity in which they wrapt their holy persons. But true piety is ever meek and humble, never vaunteth herself, and is never puffed up, certainly never gloats over either the sins or the sufferings of others. A good man may magnify the grace of God that is in him (1 Corinthians 15:10), or the office that has been entrusted to him (Romans 11:13), but of himself he ever thinks with lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than himself (Philippians 2:3), whom he regards but as "less than the least of all saints" (Ephesians 3:8), if not as "the chief of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15). 6. Conspicuous falsehood. Bildad had alleged that Job, by his incorrigible wickedness, had been the author of his own misfortunes, that he had been cast into a net by his own feet (Job 18:8), that his calamity had come upon him as the recompense of his own crime; and to this Job replies with a direct contradiction, insisting that it was God who had flung his net about him, and that, if their theory of retribution was correct, God had wrested his cause and wronged him in so doing (verse 6). That Job’s feet were entangled in a net, the testimony of Job’s senses proclaimed. That this net had been cast around him by God, the eye of his faith could see. That God could not have done so on account of his wickedness, the inner witness of Job’s spirit cried aloud. Hence this theory of the friends, which sometimes lay across his soul like a nightmare, was a blunder, and the allegation of the friends that he was being punished for his iniquity was a lie. II. JOB’S DOLEFUL AGAINST GOD. 1. Treating him like a criminal And that in respect of two particulars. (1) Assailing him with violence: "Behold, I cry out of wrong;" literally, "I cry out Violence 1" (verse 7), "like a wayfarer surprised by brigands" (Cox). A strong metaphor, which may describe the suddenness and severity of the saint’s affliction, but never can apply to the Divine motive or purpose in afflicting, since God doth not afflict the children of men willingly, but for their profit (Lamentations 3:33; Hebrews 12:10); never rushes on his people like a giant (Job 16:14), or overpowers them like a highwayman, but chastises and corrects them as a father (Hebrews 12:7); and in all his inflictions never does them wrong or evinces hate, but confers on them a blessed privilege and manifests towards them the purest love (Hebrews 12:6) (2) Disregarding his outcries, withholding from him sympathy and succour: "Behold, I cry, but I am not heard;" extending to him neither hearing nor redress: "I cry aloud, but there is no judgment" (verse 7). A complaint, again, which may sometimes receive colour from the saint’s own thoughts and feelings, but which never can be really true of God, who never fails to sympathize with his people in affliction (Psalms 103:18; Isaiah 63:9; Hebrews 4:15), never disregards the prayer of the destitute (Psalms 102:17), never declines to aid them in distress (Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 43:2; 2 Corinthians 12:9), and certainly never denies them justice unless to give them mercy. 2. Punishing him as a convict. (Verses 8-10.) And that by: (1) Consigning him to prison (verse 8). The image that of a cell, or narrow space, bounded by a high wall or fence, shutting out the light of heaven, and shutting in the captive it confines (cf. Job 3:23; Job 13:27). Two frequent effects of affliction: to darken the soul’s look—its inward look by bringing sin to remembrance (1 Kings 17:18), its upward look by hiding God’s face (Job 13:24; Psalms 42:3, Psalms 42:10), its onward look by beclouding the path of duty (Isaiah 50:10); and to shorten the soul’s way, so that it can neither escape from its misery nor enjoy its wonted freedom in religious exercises or in ordinary duties, but feels itself shut up, first to absolute submission, and then to cheerful resignation. (2) Arraying him in prison robes (verse 9). Job’s robe and crown were his righteousness and integrity (Job 29:14). Of these he had been divested, and clothed in the unsightly as well as humiliating garment of affliction, which was to him, what a prison dress is to a convict, an outward badge of guilt. Job in this, however, doubly erred, first in thinking that affliction was either a proof of condemnation or a mark of degradation, and secondly in supposing that he had really lost either his crown or his robe. If by these latter he alluded merely to his former prosperity, that was certainly taken from him; and so whatever of an earthly nature man may glory in—wealth, honour, friends—God can strip him of at any moment. But the crown of righteousness which God sets upon a saint’s head is never wantonly displaced, and the garment of salvation which God wraps round a saint’s person can never, without his own fault, be removed. (3) Extinguishing his hope of liberty (verse 10). Like a ruined house whose stones lie scattered on every side, like a great tree plucked up by the roots, Job had no further expectation of seeing the splendid edifice of his prosperity rebuilt, or the expiring life of his sad heart revived. Like the prisoner of Chillon, he had no earthly hope of returning to freedom. "I had no thought, no feeling—none; Among the stones I stood a stone, And was scarce conscious what I wist, As shrubless crags within the mist," etc. (Byron, ’ Prisoner of Chillon,’ 9) Such a picture is true, not of the saint in the correction-house of affliction (Psalms 34:17), not even of the sinner in the prison-house of condemnation, who is yet a prisoner of hope (Zechariah 9:12), but only of the lost in the dungeon of everlasting death. 3. Counting him for an enemy. (1) Regarding him with anger (verse 11). Against this conclusion, however, Job manfully struggled, especially when replying to the friends, and ultimately triumphed; but at such times as he fell back to brood upon his inward misery, or turned his weary face upward to God, the thought threatened to overmaster him (cf. Job 13:24; Job 16:9). Yet all the while God was his real Friend, and regarded him with tenderest affection, which shows that God’s dealings with his people are often fur of painful and inexplicable mystery (Psalms 73:16; Psalms 77:19), that "behind a frowning providence" God frequently "hides a smiling face" (Revelation 3:19), that God’s people cannot always see the bright light which is in the cloud (Job 37:21; John 13:7), and that God only is a competent Expounder of his own acts. (2) Besieging him with trouble (verse 12). The magnificent imagery here employed is borrowed from the operations connected with a siege (vide Exposition). God’s armies were the calamities that had befallen Job. Afflictions and the causes that produce them, diseases and the germs from which they spring, misfortunes and the instruments that bring them about, are all under God’s command (Exodus 8:8; Exodus 9:6; Exodus 11:4; 2 Kings 19:1-37:85; Luke 7:7), advancing and retiring as he directs. 4. Cutting him off from human sympathy. (Verses 13-19.) A pitiful picture of abject degradation, even worse than that which Bildad predicted for the wicked man who should be chased from the world (Job 18:19). Surrounded by kinsmen and relatives, and still attended by wife and servants, he is to one and all an object of supreme contempt. (1) Those immediately outside the circle of his household (verses 13, 14), his "brethren" and "acquaintance," meaning probably his neighbours, with his "kinsfolk’ and "familiar friends," who were, as distinguished from the former, his relatives, had abandoned him. (2) Those within the circle of his household, from whom better things might have been expected, had followed their example. His domestics, not excepting the tender maidens whose sex might have "touched" them "with human gentleness and love," gave him no more obedience than a stranger. His body-servant, who was to him as Eliezer to Abraham (Genesis 24:2), and the centurion’s servant to his master (Luke 7:3), must now be entreated for what was formerly performed at the slightest glance or gesture. Even his wife, the mother of his noble sons and fair daughters, now dead, had forsaken him, her delicate sensibilities unable to endure the offensive exhalations from his body. His own brothers, sons of the same womb, turned away from the intolerable stench. (3) In short, all who saw him poured on him supreme contempt. The boys, probably of neighbouring families or clans, laughed at his feeble efforts to raise himself or stand upon his ash-heap. His "inward friends," those to whom he confided his secret thoughts and plans, now abhorred him. His very friends, to whom he had given his love, meaning probably Elipbaz, Bildad, and Zophar, had turned against him. III. JOB’S PITEOUS APPEAL FOR HIMSELF. 1. A pathetic representation. (Verse 20.) Indicating the ground of Job’s appeal. Bodily disease and mental anguish had reduced him to a skeleton, so that his bones appeared through his skin; the second clause, a cruz interpretum (vide Exposition), probably depicting extreme emaciation. His condition may remind us of the value of physical health, of its instability, and of the ease with which it can be made to consume away like a moth (Psalms 39:11). 2. A melting supplication. (Verse 21.) Expressive of the fervent of Job’s appeal. It was not much he craved—only pity, and that on two pleas: (1) The bond of friendship that subsisted between them. His terrible emaciation was enough to "Pluck commiseration of his state From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint" Much more, then, from those who were united to him by ties of affection (cf. Job 6:14, homiletics). (2) The severe affliction that had been laid upon him. "The hand of God hath touched me." The phrase descriptive of the source of Job’s affliction, but pointing chiefly to its intensity. 3. A tender expostulation. (Verse 22.) Were the miseries he was suffering at God’s hand not enough to satisfy their insatiable appetites or was God not able to exact retribution for his supposed iniquities, that they must assist him to crush the poor emaciated skeleton who had become his victim? Was it really come to this, that they were less merciful than God; that God’s thirst for vengeance, if so be it was that he was being punished, was more easily slaked than theirs? So, alas! it has been found that man’s tender mercies are cruel (2 Samuel 24:14), and in particular that when bigots turn persecutors they never cry, "Enough!" Learn: 1. There is a limit beyond which even good men are not expected to endure aspersions against their character. 2. It is a shame for professors of religion to indulge in suspicions, or utter slanders, against their brethren. 3. The greatest safeguard a suffering saint has, if also one of his acutest pains, is to connect his afflictions with God. 4. It is better to direct the soul’s plaint to God than to utter aloud the soul’s complaint against God. 5. The man has fallen low indeed who, besides being deserted by God (or appearing to be so), is also abandoned by man. 6. The woman who forsakes her husband in his hour of sorrow, not only violates her marriage vow, but proves herself unworthy of the honour of wifehood, and brings disgrace upon the name of woman. 7. It is an infinite mercy that God’s heart is not so little pitiful as man’& 8. A man’s flesh is all that a persecutor can devour. Job 19:23-29 Job to Bildad: 2. The inscription on the rock; of Job’s faith in a redeemer. I. THE PREFACE TO THE ; OR, THE FERVENT WISH OF A DYING MAN. 1. The culture of Job’s times. The origin of writing is lost in the mists of antiquity. The earliest known mode of writing was by means of a sharp-pointed instrument—stylus, or engraving tool, made of iron or steel. The first materials used for writing on were leaves of trees, skins, linen cloths, metal or wax plates, stone columns or rocks. Egyptian papyrus rolls and cuneiform tablets, dating from periods antecedent to the times of Abraham, have been recovered by the labours of modern archaeologists. Numerous inscriptions of the kind alluded to by Job have been found by Oriental travellers in Arabia. On the smoothed surface of a solid rock at Hish Ghorab at Hadramut, in Southern Arabia, an inscription of ten lines exists, dating, according to some, from the times of the Adites, the most ancient inhabitants of Arabia Felix, Ad the tribe-father having flourished cotemporaneously with the building of the Tower of Babel. The cliffs of the wady Mokatta, on the route of the Israelites, and in the vicinity of the Sinaitic mountains, contain many such inscriptions (on ancient stone inscriptions, see the Exposition). The knowledge of the art of writing at that early period confirms the belief, which other traces of primeval man also suggest, that humanity was not then a babe wrapt in swaddling-clothes, but a vigorous and intelligent adult, already far advanced in civilization. 2. The certainty of Job’s knowledge. What Job wished engraven on the rock was no mere probable conjecture, happy guess, philosophical speculation, or even secret aspiration, but a firm and certain personal conviction. If it be inquired how Job arrived at this immovable persuasion, it may be answered (1) that the lofty ideas here articulated were perhaps already in the air when Job lived, in confirmation of which may be cited a line from the Adite inscription above referred to: "We proclaimed our belief in miracles, in the resurrection, in the return into the nostrils of the breath of life;" (2) that the superior capacity of Job, manifestly the seer of his time, standing head and shoulders above his contemporaries in respect of intellectual power and poetic genius as well as moral and spiritual intuition, enabled him to discern and formulate the thoughts after which common minds were only dimly groping; (3) that the solemn proximity of Job to death, enabling him to realize the unseen with vividness, may have contributed to his extraordinary mental illumination on this occasion; (4) that the insoluble enigma of Job’s own experience appeared to drive him towards the entertainment of such a lofty hope as is here expressed; (5) that over and above all Job enjoyed the inward inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 3. The importance of Job’s words. (1) The time when they were uttered. They were, to all intents and purposes, his last dying testimony. "Oh, but they say, the tongues of dying men Enforce attention, like deep harmony, etc. (’King Richard II.,’ Acts 2. sc. 1.) (2) The significance of the words themselves. They formed the last and loftiest utterance of Job’s religious consciousness, struggling to embody to itself in well-defined ideas, and to express for others in intelligible language, the great hope which had arisen in his soul, and by which he had been secretly sustained throughout his terrible conflict with bodily affliction, personal calumniation, spiritual apprehension, seeming Divine desertion. They set forth the ground on which he based his assured expectation of an ultimate complete vindication against the misrepresentations of his friends, the accusations of his own affrighted conscience, ay, the apparently hostile assaults of God himself. (3) The value of the words to future times. Job had a clear presentiment that the truth he was about to utter would prove of value to all succeeding ages. Like a new star, it had shot out upon the dark firmament of his soul; and he wished it inscribed in the most permanent form of ancient literature—either engrossed in the state records, or chiselled upon the mountain rock, and filled in with lead to defy the ravages of time, that it might shine on for ever, like a bright particular star of hope, all through the night of time, irradiating the darkness of a sinful world, and cheering the hearts of dying men. 4. The fulfilment of Job’s prayer. In a sense, and to an extent undreamt of at the time, has the patriarch’s desire been granted. His words have been inscribed in the state records of the King of heaven. They have been engraved by the printing-press in a form more imperishable than could have been derived from the sculptors chisel. They have now been published in well-nigh every language under heaven. One of the latest to receive them was the modern Ethiopic or Abyssiaian, which possesses an affinity to the language which Job spoke. They will now be transmitted to the end of time, II. THE OF THE ; OR, THE LOFTY FAITH OF A SOUL. Up to this point five striking passages appear in the Book of Job. In the first (Job 9:32-35) Job expresses his ardent longing for a Daysman or Mediator who might lay his hand upon both him and God; in the second (Job 13:15, Job 13:16), his confident expectation of acceptance with God, or the strong inward assurance of his salvation; in the third (Job 14:13-15), his deeply seated hope of a resurrection-life beyond the grave and the Hadeau world; in the fourth (Job 16:18-21), his belief in the existence of a heavenly Witness who recognized his sincerity, and his earnest prayer that God might become man’s Advocate against himself (God); the fifth, the present passage, seems to gather all the preceding up into one triumphant shout of faith in a living, personal, divinely human Goel, or Redeemer, who should appear in the end of time to vindicate and save Job, and all who, like him, should have died in the faith, by a bodily resurrection from the grave. Analyzed, Job’s proposed inscription should contain a declaration of the following sublime truths. 1. The existence of a personal Redeemer. The goel, in the Mosaic code, was the next of kin, whose duty it was to redeem a captive or enslaved relative (Genesis 14:14-16); to buy back his sold or otherwise alienated inheritance (Leviticus 25:25, 26); to avenge The death of a murdered kinsman (Numbers 35:12); to marry his childless widow (Deuteronomy 25:5). Obviously, the office of the goel, or vindicator, existed in pre-Mosaic times, and was doubtless derived from primeval tradition. It was in accordance with the natural instincts of humanity, and was probably sanctioned by God, both at the first and under the Mosaic institutions, to strengthen the ties of natural affection among mankind, and also, perhaps chiefly, to suggest the hope and foreshadow the advent of the already promised Kinsman Avenger (Genesis 3:15). Hence Jehovah, the Deliverer of Israel from Egyptian bondage, was styled their Goel (Psalms 19:14; Psalms 78:35; Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 43:14). Hence the heavenly Witness, to whom Job looked for deliverance from his troubles, vindication of his aspersed character, emancipation from the power of the grave, and protection against his unseen adversary, whether God or Satan, was styled by him his Goel. And so is Christ the believer’s Goel, who redeems him from guilt and condemnation (Romans 3:24; Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:7; Titus 2:14), delivers him from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14, Hebrews 2:15; Romans 8:23), and shields him from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Nay, of Christ, Job’s Redeemer was a type in respect of being (1) a living Redeemer, i.e. a Redeemer who did not require to come into existence, but even then was, and would continue to be, even though Job himself should disappear amid the shadows of the tomb; (2) a Divine Redeemer, being called here expressly "God" (verse 26), as indeed Job’s language throughout, in the above-cited passages, assumes; and (3) a human Redeemer, since he was not only to be a Daysman (Job 9:33), but to appear or stand upon the earth (verse 25), and be visible to the eye of flesh;—all of which characteristics belong by preeminence to him who, while the Son of man (John 1:51; Hebrews 2:14), was yet "the true God and the Eternal Life" (1 John 5:20), "in whom was Life" (John 2:3), and who still claims to be "the First and the Last and the Living One" who "was dead," but is now "alive again for evermore" (Revelation 1:18). 2. The advent of this heavenly Redeemer to the earth. (1) Job’s language points unmistakably to a visible manifestation of this Divine-human Goel: "He shall stand," or "rise up’" i.e. to vindicate the cause of his people, the verb being that usually employed to designate the standing forth of a witness (Deuteronomy 19:15; Psalms 27:12), or the rising up of a helper or deliverer (Psalms 12:6; Psalms 94:16; Isaiah 33:10). (2) The scene of this interposition is said to be "on the earth;" literally, "upon the dust," meaning either of the ground or of the grave. As we cannot think Job believed himself to be the only individual in whose behalf the conquering Goal would arise, it is not to be supposed that he expected the apparition would take place exactly over his own particular tomb. Hence it is immaterial whether we supply "grave" or "ground." The phrase seems to point to a terrestrial appearance. (3) The time of this epiphany is declared to be "in the latter days." The word means "the last one;" and the sense of the clause is that "he," the Goel, "shall arise upon the earth as the last one," as the great Survivor who stands forth when the human family has run its course, and pronounces the finally decisive word upon all time’s controversies. Or, the word may be taken adverbially, as signifying "at last," at length, at some future date (in which sense some propose to read the clause, "upon the dust," i.e. over my dust, when I am dead), and as intimating Job’s faith that in the last age (cf. the New Testament phrases, "the ends of the world" (1 Corinthians 10:11), "the, last time" (1 John 2:18), for the whole period of the gospel dispensation) this Goel, or Kinsman Redeemer, should appear for the salvation of his people. Job’s language will thus include a reference to both the first and second advents of Christ, which, rightly viewed, are not disconnected events, but rather two related acts or scenes, the first and the last, in one great manifestation or epiphany of God’s eternal Son for the redemption of a lost world. 3. The saint’s return to an embodied existence on the earth beside his Redeemer. The phrase, "in my flesh [literally, ’from, or out of, my flesh’] shall I see God" (verse 26), may mean no more than that after Job’s "skin" or body was destroyed, i.e. after he had passed into the Hadean world, he would enjoy a spiritual vision of God, and it may readily be granted that such a rendering accords with the prevailing tone and current of Job’s theology and Job’s mind, neither of which was familiar with the idea of a resurrection-life beyond the unseen world of disembodied spirits. But Job at this moment was raised above the ordinary level of his spiritual consciousness. As already (Job 14:13-15) he had had a glimpse, transient but real, of such a life, so here it returns upon him once again with equal suddenness, but greater brightness—a glimpse of the happy land beyond the tomb, when, recalled to a physical existence on the earth, to which already his heavenly Goal had descended, looking out from his flesh he should see God; as if to emphasize which he adds, "Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another" (verse 27)—words which in themselves may not necessarily involve the resurrection of the body, but which, when taken in connection with the other considerations mentioned, tend not a little to confirm that interpretation. What Job only momentarily saw, and withal only dimly understood, has now been completely unveiled and expounded in the gospel, viz. the doctrine of a future resurrection. 4. The saint’s beatific vision of God in the person of his Kinsman Redeemer. Job expected to see God in the Hadean world, according to some; on the earth, in the flesh, according to the interpretation just given. Such a vision of God meant for Job exactly what it means for the Christian—salvation, i.e. acceptance before God, protection by God, likeness to God, fellowship with God. In fullest measure such a vision of God will be enjoyed only in the resurrection-life (John 14:3; John 17:24; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:2). In measure and degree only second to this will the saint behold God in the intermediate state (Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23). Even now, in a real though spiritual sense, such a vision is enjoyed by believers (Matthew 5:8). 5. The saint’s earnest longing for this future vision of his heavenly Friend. Job describes his reins, i.e. his heart, as pining away or languishing for the coming of this glorious apocalypse. Job’s friends had directed him to set his hopes on a return to temporal prosperity—to health, wealth, friends; in return, Job informs them that his soul desired nothing so much as God and his salvation. So the pre-Christian saints longed for the first advent of the Saviour, e.g. Abraham (John 8:56), Jacob (Genesis 49:18), David (Psalms 45:3, Psalms 45:4), Simeon (Luke 2:25), Anna (Luke 2:38). So Christian believers anticipate his second coming (Romans 8:23; Revelation 22:17). III. THE TO THE ; OR, THE EARNEST OF A SAINT. On two grounds Job dissuades his friends from attempting further to prove him guilty. 1. The wickedness of their conduct. Job’s language (verse 28) points to the studied and systematic character of their attacks upon his integrity. "But ye say, How shall we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter [i.e. the ground or occasion of such persecution] is in me?" Thinking they could discern in Job’s guilt ample justification for such invective and condemnation as they hurled against him, they wickedly exercised their ingenuity in devising means to punish him, or at least to make him feel their displeasure. Another rendering, "How shall we find o, round of persecution in him?" presents their behaviour in a light extremely odious, recalling the sleepless malignity of Daniel’s accusers (DanielDan 6:4, Daniel 6:5). To take "the root of the matter" as signifying the fundamental principles of piety is to make their conduct absolutely diabolic, and on a par with that of the scribes and Pharisees towards the Saviour (Matthew 12:14; Matthew 22:15; Luke 11:54; John 8:6). 2. The danger of their conduct. It would inevitably involve them in retribution. "Be ye afraid of the sword" (verse 29), the sword being a symbol of such judicial recompense, an overwhelming retribution, the absence of the article pointing to what is "boundless, endless, terrific’" (Delitzsch), a certain retribution, such crimes as have incurred the vengeance of the sword, literally, the expiations of the sword, ever being, or carrying along with them, wrath, i.e. the glow of the Divine anger, a prophetic retribution, foreshadowing a still more awful punishment in the future world, "that ye may know there is a judgment." Learn: 1. The duty of thankfulness to God for the blessings of civilization, especially for the invention of printing. 2. The illuminating power of sorrow, especially to a child of God. 3. The immortality that belongs to great ideas, especially to such as come through inspiration. 4. The sustaining influence of a good hope, especially the hope of a Redeemer. 5. The value of Christ’s advents to the world, especially of his second advent in glory. 6. The greater light enjoyed by the gospel Church, especially since the resurrection of the Saviour. BY E. JOHNSON Job 19:1-29 Unconquerable convictions. Job feels bitterly hurt by the speeches of Eliphaz and Bildad, and pleads, in face of their harsh constructions, for compassion in his unutterable sufferings. At the same time, he raises himself to bolder confidence in God’s help than ever before. He expresses the definite hope that, if not on this side the grave, then on the other side, a justification awaits him by the personal appearance of God. I. : CENSURE OF HIS FRIENDS AS OF HIS . (Verses 1-5.) "How long will ye trouble my soul, and crush me with words?" "Ten times," he says, speaking in round numbers, i.e. again and again, have they slandered him by attacks on h-is innocence; they are not ashamed to deafen him with their revilings. It is true, he again confesses (Job 6:24), he has sinned, but his sin remains with him alone; he is answerable to God alone, not to their unfeeling judgment. Is it their desire to magnify themselves—to play the part of great speakers and advocates, and bring home to him his disgrace by ingenious pleas? Vanity and self-conceit are at the bottom of much censoriousness; and Job here lays his finger upon the moral weakness of his self-constituted judges. II. LAMENT OVER THE CAUSED HIM BY GOD. (Verses 6-12.) God has wronged him, and surrounded him with his nets, as a hunter takes his prey, depriving it of all means of escape (verse 6). The sufferer cries out, "Violence!" but no answer is given; and there is no justice in response to his cry for help (verse 7). His way is fenced in, and darkness is on his paths (verse 8; comp. Job 3:23; Job 13:27; Lamentations 3:7, Lamentations 3:9; Hosea 2:6). God has stripped him of his honour and of his fair esteem in the eyes of men, and taken away the crown from his head (verse 9; comp. Job 29:14; Lamentations 5:16). "Honour ’ and the "crown" are two expressions for the same thing (Isaiah 61:10; Isaiah 62:3). God pulls him down on every side, like a building devoted to destruction; roots out the hope of his restoration, like a tree (verse 10). His warlike bands—wounds, pains, and woes of every kind—come on, and make their way against him as against a besieged fortress (verses 11, 12; comp. Job 16:14). All this is a true description of the thoughts of the heart from which Divine help has been withdrawn. It is a sore conflict, none sorer, when the mind is driven in its agony to view God as an end my, treating us unmercifully, willing neither to hear nor to help. Job is tempted to think God unjust; one who promises the forgiveness of sins, yet does not remove the penalty; promises his presence to the suffering, yet seems not to be touched by our woes—nay, even to delight in them. "In so great and glowing flames of hell we must look to Christ alone, who was made in all things like to his brethren, and was tempted, that he might succour them that are tempted" (Brenz). III. LAMENT OVER THE CAUSED HIM BY MAN. (Verses 13-20.) In such crises we turn to friendship for solace. But to Job this is denied. In six different forms he mentions his kindred and friends, only to complain of their coldness and alienation (verses 13, 14). His domestics, too (verse 15), to whom he had doubtless been a kind master, are become strange to him. His servant does not answer when he calls so that he is obliged to change parts with him, and beg his help as a favour (verse 16) His breath and diseased body make him offensive even to his wife, and sons, or "brethren’ (verse 17). The impudent little boys of the street, like those who mocked Elisha (2 Kings 2:23, sqq.), make a butt of him, indulging in sarcastic taunts when he rises to speak (verse 18). His bosom-friends abhor him, and those whom he had loved—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—turn against him as violent opponents (verse 19). His bones cleave to his skin and flesh, can be seen and felt through his emaciated flesh, and only the skin of his teeth, the thin film, has escaped the ravages of his fearful mainly. He can only just speak still, without his mouth being filled with boils and matter, as in the last stage of the disease (verse 20) Friends often fail in the time of sorest distress; they are summer-birds, and pass away when the colder weather sets in. Men are liars, fickle as the wind. Their alienation is ascribed to God, because he has caused the distress; if he had not caused the distress, they would have remained. Here, again, we are reminded that the child of God may be called to be conformed to the image of the Saviour’s sufferings. He knew what it was to be deserted by all men, even his dearest disciples and closest adherents. So we are to learn to build no confidence on man, but on the living God alone, whom faith can hold eternally fast. IV. RISE TO A BLESSED HOPE IN GOD, HIS ONLY AND AVENGER. (Verses 21-27.) This section is introduced by a woeful petition to his friends for compassion, "for the hand of God has touched him," alluding to the disease, which from its fearfulness was regarded as a stroke of God’s hand; and is it not the office of friendship to lend its hand to heal or soothe (verse 21)? Why, on the contrary, do they persecute him as God, assuming an authority that is superhuman, and so behaving unnaturally to him? They are not "satisfied with his flesh," continually piercing and ploughing it with the envenomed tooth of slander (verse 22). The appeal seems to be in vain, and he turns once more to God (verse 23, sqq.). Oh that his words were written down, inscribed in a book or roll, that those to come might read the fervent, repeated protestations of his innocence! That they were engraven with an iron pen, or cast with lead, so as to remain an indelible and eternal record! And, so long as there is a God, this wish for the perpetuation of his testimony cannot be in vain. It has been fulfilled. "In a hundred languages of the earth it announces to this day. to all peoples this truth: the good man is not free from sufferings, but in the consciousness of his innocence and in faith in God, providence, and immortality, he finds a consolation which suffers him not to fail; and his waiting for a glorious issue of God’s dark leadings will certainly be crowned" (Wohlforth). Verse 25, "And I know that my Redeemer lives." "Redeemer" is probably to be taken, not in the sense of blood-avenger, but in that of restorer of my honour, avenger of my honour; but the two meanings are connected. "And as Last One will he rise upon the dust." God is here viewed as he who will outlive all, especially in contrast to Job, now sinking into death. He will rise, stand up for Job’s defence and deliverance, on the dust in which he shall soon be laid. Verse 26, "And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall behold Eloah." He is thinking of the time when he shall be treed from his wretched suffering and lacerated "flesh," and shall see God as a glorified spirit. Verse 27, "Whom I shall behold for myself," i.e. in my own person, "and my eyes shall see, and not a stranger." "My reins be consumed within me," in longing after this glorious view. It is an expression of the desire of the deepest, tenderest part of the man for this high consummation. To discuss the different theological interpretations of this passage does not come within the scope of this part of the Commentary. Perhaps the best is that which steers between two extremes, and is adopted by many eminent expositors of the present day. It is that Job does not here express the hope of a bodily resurrection after death, but of a contemplation of God in the other world in a spiritually glorified state. It is the hope of immortality, rather than that of resurrection, to which he rises, with such clearness and definiteness, above that ancient Israelitish idea of Sheol, which he himself has admitted in earlier discourses. It is a glorious confession of faith—one that, in a fuller sense, may well be that of the catholic Church. And once more the property and power of faith are exhibited in all their lustre. It cleaves to life in the very jaws of death; believes in heaven, even when hell is yawning at its feet; looks to God as the Redeemer even amidst anger and judgment; detects beneath seeming wrath his mercy; sees, under the appearance of the condemner, the Redeemer. Faith is here the "substance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1). The best consolation in the trouble of death is that Christ is risen from the dead, and therefore we shall rise (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:1-58.). God gives more to his servant, who shows himself inspired by such firm confidence towards him, than he could ask or understand. V. SOLEMN WARNING TO HIS FRIENDS TO DESIST FROM THEIR ATTACKS. (Verses 28, 29.) "If ye think, How shall we persecute him? and (if ye think) the root of the ’matter is found in me"—that is, if you think the reason fur my sufferings is solely to be found in myself, in my sin—"be afraid of the sword," the avenging sword of God, "fur wrath falls in with the offences of the sword," which may mean either that wrath is a punishment of the sword, or that the punishments of the sword are with wrath—wrath overtakes them. "That ye may know there is a judgment!" They knew this already, and upon this expectation their own warnings had been founded. But Job gives the thought an application to themselves. "That you may know that Gas exercises judgment on all the offences of the sword, which you do not own nor fear in your case, and that he severely punishes them." Thus Job opens that wider view of the future, of that day of discrimination, when the first shall be last, and the last first—the innocent shall be justified, and the hypocrite exposed—which corrects the narrow dogmatism of the friends. God punishes many sins in this life; but many are reserved for the last judgment. Temporal suffering may be escaped, and yet sure punishment may be in store. On the other hand, temporal suffering may be innocently endured, but for the true servant of God there will be final acknowledgment and eternal honour.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 19:1-21 An appeal for pity. Job is brought lower and lower By the words of those from whom he might have expected a true consolation. He at length declares they "vex" his "soul," and "break" him "in pieces with words" He appeals for freedom. He would be let atone, for, as he had sorrowfully said, "miserable comforters are ye all." The great underlying teaching is the insufficiency of those views of human suffering which find its cause only in judgment upon wrong-doing. Job, the typical sufferer—typical for all future sufferers—undergoes the painfulness of being assailed by helpers who have but a partial and very imperfect view of all the circumstances of his case. And he appeals to them for ease. His cry to them is also a cry to Heaven for relief. I. His appeal for pity is based ON THE GROUND OF THE OF HIS . "Behold, I cry out of wrong." His friends have set themselves against him. They have become his judges rather than his consolers or vindicators. They "reproach" him and make themselves "strange" to him; they "magnify" themselves against him. They try to plead his reproach against him. It is the way of the imperfectly instructed human helper, and more and more clearly makes plain the necessity for a voice to be raised on behalf of the sufferer that shall be of one better instructed. II. But the appeal is urged ON THE GROUND OF THE OF HIS Job acknowledges his affliction to be of God, and he most tenderly and touchingly refers to the several features of his suffering. He cries out of wrong; he has no impartial and just hearing. He is encompassed by darkness from which he cannot escape; his honour is beclouded; his substance is destroyed; his hope has perished; he is dealt with as an enemy; his acquaintances are estranged; he is forgotten by his best friends; he is treated with indignity in his own home; he is offensive even to his wife; even young children despise him and speak against him—"they whom I loved are turned against me." Through the severity of his disease he is wasted to a skeleton; his "bone cleaveth" to his "skin." Surely this is a call for pity. Yet professed friends can stand by and argue with such a sufferer, seeking to prove his guiltiness and affirming all this to be the just punishment of his sin. III. He makes his further appeal to their pity ON THE GROUND OF . "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends!" It is reasonable to expect that professed friends will at least show pity to him for whom they have declared their great friendship. IV. His final appeal to them is ON THE GROUND OF HIS BEING THE STROKE OF GOD. "The hand of God hath touched me." Against the Almighty he cannot hope to contend. He is crushed under the Almighty’s power. This lowly confession does not abate the calm inward assurance of personal integrity. But the solution of the mysterious Divine ways is wanting. He endeavours to abide in patience. But human sympathy should strengthen the sufferer under the pressure of the Divine hand, and not add to the already excessive weight of his calamities. "Why do ye persecute me as God?" To whom should a sufferer turn if not to his friends? How obvious the office of friendship at such a time: 1. To sympathize. 2. To seek to ease the burden of the sufferer. 3. To strengthen by kindness and pity.—R.G. Job 19:23-29 The Divine Vindicator. Job awaits a final "judgment," of which he reminds his friends (verse 29). At present he is the accused one; and all appearances go to condemn him. True, his "record is on high." He knows that he has held fast his integrity. But he looks forward to a final vindication. He would, therefore, have his words "written," "printed in a book," "graven with an iron pen and lead in the rook for ever." This is the final cry of the consciously upright one. It is the triumph of integrity over false accusation. He can wait for judgment. He has turned his tearful eyes to God, who has delivered him for a time to the ungodly, but who will appear for him yet in due time. It is here that Job makes the noble boast in confidence of a Divine justification. It is one of the grandest utterances of faith. It has become the watchword of hope to succeeding generations. The interpretations of the words have been various. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 20:1-29 Zophar’s second speech is even more harsh than his first (Job 11:1-20.). He adds coarseness and rudeness to his former vehement hostility (Job 20:7, Job 20:15). His whole discourse is a covert denunciation of Job as a wicked man and a hypocrite (verses 5, 12, 19, 29), deservedly punished by God for a life of crime. He ends by prophesying Job’s violent death, the destruction of his house, and the rising up of heaven and earth in witness against him (verses 24-28). Job 20:1, Job 20:2 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer. Zophar "has heard the check of his reproach" (Job 20:3), i.e. the reproach contained in the last words of Job in the preceding chapter. Therefore his thoughts rise up within him, and com-psi him to make a reply. He cannot allow Job to shift the onus of guilt and the menace of punishment on his friends, when it is he, Job, that is the guilty person, over whom the judgments of God impend. And for this I make haste; rather, and because of my haste that is within me (see the Revised Version); i.e. "because I am of a hasty and impetuous temperament." Job 20:3 I have heard the check of my reproach; or, the reproof which putteth me to shame (Revised Version). Some suppose an allusion to Job 19:2, Job 19:3; but it is better to regard Zophar as enraged by Job 19:28, Job 19:29 of Job 19:1-29. And the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. This claim is not quite consistent with the acknowledgment of hastiness in Job 19:2. But it is no unusual thing for an impetuous and hasty man to declare that he speaks from the dictates of pure dispassionate reason. Job 20:4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth? These words scarcely "imply cognizance of the record (of the creation of man) in Genesis," as Canon Cook suggests; but they do imply belief in a creation of man, not an evolution; and in the existence of a continuous tradition, extending from that time to Job’s. The passage is among those which make for the high antiquity of the book. Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short (comp. Psalms 37:35, Psalms 37:36; Psalms 51:1-5; Psalms 73:17-19, etc.). This is one of the main points of dispute between Job and his opponents. It has been previously maintained by Eliphaz (Job 4:8-11; Job 5:3-5; Job 15:21, Job 15:29) and by Bildad (Job 8:11-19), as it is now by Zophar, and may be regarded as the traditional belief of the time, which scarcely any ventured to question. His own observation, however, has convinced Job that the fact is otherwise. He has seen the wicked "live, become old, and remain mighty in power" (Job 21:7); he has seen them "spend their days in wealth," and die quietly, as "in a moment" (Job 21:13). In Job 24:2-24 he seems to argue that this is the general, if not universal, lot of such persons. Later on, however, in Job 27:13-23, he retracts this view, or, at any rate, greatly modifies it, admitting that usually retribution does even in this life overtake the wicked. And this seems to be the general sentiment of mankind. "Raro antecedentem scelestum, Deseruit pede poena claudlo." (Horace, ’Od.,’ Job 3:2, ll. 31, 32.) There remains, however, the question whether the triumphing of the wicked can fairly be considered "short," and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. When we consider the lives of Dionysius the elder, Sylla, Marius, Tiberius, Louis XIV; Napoleon, it is difficult to answer this question in the affirmative. Job 20:6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens. "Though he reach," i.e; "the highest pitch of prosperity" (comp. Psalms 73:9). And his head reach unto the clouds (comp. Daniel 4:22, "Thou, O king, art grown and become strong: and thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven"). Job 20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung. Some understand "his own dung-heap," regarding the "ashes" of Job 2:8 as, in reality, a heap of refuse of all kinds; but it is simpler to suppose a plainer and more vulgar taunt. They which have seen him shall say, Where is he? i.e. "Whither hath he gone? What is become of him?" (comp. Isaiah 37:36). Job 20:8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; i.e. "as a dream flies, when one awaketh" (see Psalms 73:20; Isaiah 29:7, Isaiah 29:8). Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. A "vision of the night" is perhaps something more than a "dream;" but it is equally fugitive, equally unstable-with morning it wholly vanishes away. Job 20:9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; or, the eye which scanned him. The verb used (שָׁזַךְ) is a rare one, occurring only here, in Job 28:7, and in So Job 1:6. In the former passage it is used of a falcon, in the latter of the sun. Neither shall his place any more behold him (comp. Psalms 103:16, "The place thereof shall know it no more"). Job 20:10 His children shall seek to please the poor. Another rendering is, "The poor shall oppress his children," since the meaning of the verb יְרַחּוּ is doubtful. But the translation of the Authorized Version seems preferable. His children will curry favour with the poor, either by making restitution to them on account of their father’s injuries, or simply because they are friendless, and desire to ingratiate themselves with some one. And his hands shall restore their goods (comp. Job 20:15 and Job 20:18). He himself will be so crushed and broken in spirit that he will give back with his own hands the goods whereof he has deprived the poor. The restitution, i.e; will be made, in many cases, not by the oppressor’s children, but by the oppressor himself. Job 20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth; literally, his bones are full of his youth; i.e. lusty and strong, full of youthful vigour. There is no sign of weakness or decay about them. Yet they shall lie down with him in the dust. A little while, and these vigorous bones, this entire body, so full of life and youth, shall be lying with the man himself, with all that constitutes his personality, in the dust of death (comp. Job 20:24, Job 20:25). Job 20:12, Job 20:13 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth; i.e. though the wicked man delight in his wickedness, and gloat over it, and keep the thought of it in his mind, as a gourmand keeps, so long as he can, a delicious taste in his mouth; though he, as it were, hide it under his tongue, in order not to let it escape him; though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth, yet, notwithstanding all this, disgust and nausea arrive in course of time (see the next two verses). It is, perhaps, the most surprising among the phenomena of wickedness that men can gloat over it, voluntarily recur to it, make a boast of it, recount signal instances of it to their friends, and seem to find a satisfaction in the recollection. One would have expected that shame and self-disapproval and fear of retribution would have led them to dismiss their wicked acts from their thoughts as soon as possible. But certainly the fact is otherwise. Job 20:14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned. Still, a time comes when the self-complacency of the wicked man is shaken. He experiences a failure of health or spirits. Then, suddenly, it is as if the meat that he has swallowed had been turned to poison in his bowels, as if the gall of asps were within him. Compare what Bishop Butler says of the sudden waking up of a man’s conscience. The ancients seem to have known that the poison of serpents was a strong acid, and therefore supposed that it was secreted by the gallbladder (see Pliny, ’Hist. Nat.,’ 11:37). Job 20:15 He hath swallowed down riches and he shall vomit them up again. The wicked man shall be made to disgorge his ill-gotten gains. Either fear, or remorse, or a judicial sentence will force him to make restitution (see Job 20:10). God shall cast them out of his belly. Whatever is the immediate motive of the restitution: it will really be God’s doing. He will cause the fear, or the remorse, or bring about the judicial sentence. Job 20:16 He shall suck the poison of asps. Probably Zophar does not affix any very distinct meaning to his threats. He is content to utter a series of fierce-sounding but vague menaces, which he knows that Job will regard as launched against himself, and does not care whether they are taken metaphorically or literally. Job will be equally distressed in either ease. The viper’s tongue shall slay him. It is really the viper’s tooth, and not his tongue, that slays; but Zophar is not, any more than Job (Job 27:18), an accomplished naturalist. Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks. The wicked man shall suffer, not only positive pains, but what casuists call the poena damni, or "penalty of loss"—deprivation, in other words, of blessings which he would naturally have enjoyed but for his wickedness. Zophar here threatens him with the Joss of those paradisiacal delights which the Orientals associated with water in all its forms, whether as פּלגות, or "rills derived from larger streams," or as כהרי, "rivers," or as כחלי, "brooks" or "torrents," now strong and impetuous, now reduced to a mere thread These are said poetically to flow with honey and butter, not, of course, in any literal sense, such as Ovid may have meant, when, in describing the golden age, he said— "Flumina jam lactis, jam fiumina nectaris ibant;" (’Metaph.,’ 1.111.) but as fertilizing the land through which they ran, and so causing it to abound with bees and cattle, whence would be derived butter and honey. Compare the terms in which Canaan was described to the Israelites (Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17; Exodus 13:5; Deuteronomy 26:9, Deuteronomy 26:15, etc.). Job 20:18 That which he laboured for he shall restore. Even that which he gets by his own honest labour he shall have to part with and give up. He shall not swallow it down; i.e. "shall not absorb it, and make it his own." According to his substance shall the restitution be. So Schultens, Professor Lee, and Dr. Stanley Leathes, who understand Zophar as asserting that, in order to compensate those whom he has robbed, the wicked man will have to make over to them all the wealth that is honestly his Others translate, "According to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice" (see the Revised Version, and the commentaries of Ewald, Delitzsch, and Dillmann). Job 20:19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor. These charges are now for the first time insinuated against Job; later on, they are openly brought by Eliphaz (Job 22:5-9). Job denies them categorically in Job 29:11-17. They seem to have been pure calumnies, without an atom of foundation. Because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not. Another calumny, doubtless. Something like it was insinuated by Eliphaz in Job 15:28. Job 20:20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly; rather, became he knew no quietness in his belly’ or within him (see the Revised Version); i.e. because his greed and his rapacity were insatiable—he was never at rest, but continually oppressed and plundered the poor more and more (see the comment on Job 20:19). He shall not save of that which he desired; or, he shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth (see the Revised Version). For his oppression, for his violence, for his insatiable greed, he shall be punished by retaining nothing of all those delightful things which he had laid up for himself during the time that he was powerful and prosperous Job 20:21 There shall none of his meat be left; rather, there was nothing left that he detoured not, or nothing remained over from his eating (Schultens). Scarcely intended literally, as Canon Cook supposes. Rather said in reference to the wicked man’s persistent oppression and robbery of the poor, the needy, and the powerless (comp. Job 20:19, Job 20:20; and note our Lord’s words, "Ye devour widows’ houses," Matthew 23:14). Therefore shall no man look for his goods. This is an impossible rendering. Translate, with Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes, and our Revisers, therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In other words, a Nemesis shall overtake him. For his oppression and cruelty he shall be visited by the Divine auger; a sudden end shall be made of his prosperity, and he shall fall into penury and misfortune. Covert allusion is, no doubt, intended to Job’s sudden loss of his extraordinary prosperity by the series of calamities so graphically portrayed in Job 1:13-19. Job 20:22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits. Even while his wealth and prosperity remain, he shall find himself in difficulties, since every hand of the wicked (or rather, the hand of every one that is wretched) shall come upon him; i.e. all those who are poor and miserable, especially such as he has made poor and miserable, shall turn against him, and vex him. Job 20:23 When he is about to fill his belly (comp. Job 20:12-18); i.e. "when he is on the point of making some fresh attack upon the weak and defenceless." God shall east the fury of his wrath upon him (comp. Psalms 78:30, Psalms 78:31, where a far less harmful lust is noted as having brought down the Divine vengeance). And shall rain it upon him while he is eating; or, as his food (comp. Psalms 11:6, "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup"). Job 20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon. This is no indication of the late authorship of Job. Iron was in use in Egypt at a very early date. A thin plate of it was found by Colonel Howard Vyse embedded in the masonry of the great pyramid; and iron implements and ornaments, iron spear-heads, iron sickles, iron gimlets, iron keys, iron bracelets, iron wire, have been found in the early tombs not infrequently. That they are not more common is accounted for by the rapid oxidization of iron by exposure to the air, and its rapid decay in the nitrous soil of Egypt. The inhabitants of South-Western Asia were at no time much behind the Egyptians in their knowledge of the useful arts: and iron appears as a well-known metal in the Jewish Scriptures from the time of the Exodus (see Numbers 35:16; Deuteronomy 3:11; Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy 8:9; Deuteronomy 28:23; Joshua 8:31). It is true that the principal weapons of war continued to be made ordinarily of bronze, both in South-Western Asia and in Egypt, till a comparatively late period; but Zophar may mean to assign to the slayer of the wicked man weapons of a superior character. And the bow of steel shall strike him through. It is uncertain whether steel was known in the ancient world. But, whether or no, "steel" is not meant here. The word used in the original is nehushtah, which undoubtedly means either "copper" or "bronze." As copper would be too soft a material for a bow, we may assume bronze to be intended. The bronze used in Egypt was extremely elastic, and there would have been little difficulty in fashioning bows of it (on the existence of such bows, see 2 Samuel 26:5; Psalms 18:34). Job 20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; rather, he draweth it forth’ and it cometh out of his body (see the Revised Version). The stricken man draws the arrow from his flesh, the natural action of every one so wounded. If the arrow was simply tipped with a smooth iron point, it would be easy to withdraw it; but a barbed arrow could only be cut out. Yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall; rather, the glittering point. The arrow is supposed to have pierced the gall-bladder, and to be drawn forth from it. There would be little chance of recovery in such a case. Hence terrors are upon him. Job 20:26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places; literally, all darkness is reserved for his treasures’ which some understand of his hidden earthly treasures, which no one shall ever find—some of the retribution laid up for him by God, which will be such darkness as Job describes in Job 10:21, Job 10:22. A fire not blown shall consume him; i.e. "a fire lighted by no human hands," probably lightning or brimstone from heaven (Job his tent, i.e. in his dwelling. His wife, his children, if he has any, and his domestics, shall be involved in the general ruin. Job 20:27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. This is Zophar’s reply to the appeal which Job made (in Job 16:18, Job 16:19) to heaven and earth to bear their witness in his favour. Heaven, he says, instead of testifying to his innocence, will one day, when the books are opened (Revelation 20:12), "reveal his iniquity;" and earth, instead of echoing his cry, will "rise up" in indignation "against him." He will have none either in heaven or earth to take his part, or give any testimony in his favour. Job 20:28 The increase of his house shall depart. "The increase of his house" may be either his children and descendants; or his substance—that which he has accumulated. In the former case, the departure spoken of may be either death (see Job 20:26), or carrying into captivity; in the latter, general rapine and destruction. And his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. It seems to be necessary to supply some such nominative as "his goods," or "his treasure," צפוניו (see Job 20:26). These shall "flow away," i.e. melt and disappear, "in the day of his wrath," i.e. the day when wrath comes upon him. Job 20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God; i.e. the lot, or possession of a wicked man—that which God makes over to him as his own in the last resort, and which is all that he has to look for. In other words, it is the heritage appointed unto him by God (comp. Job 27:13). As to some God, at the last, will assign an inheritance of good, so to others he will appoint an inheritance of evil Job 20:1-29 Zophar to Job: an orthodox champion to the rescue. I. AN ORATOR . Threatened with Divine vengeance, Zophar advances to the combat in hopes of utterly confounding his antagonist. His appearance, manner, and address are characterized by: 1. Bold defiance. "Therefore," i.e. in view of what you have just spoken; nay, "nevertheless," i.e. in spite of all your grandiloquent talk about a sword. Zophar had been unmoved, equally by Job’s pathetic wail depicting his abandonment by God and man, and by Job’s sublime utterance respecting his Divine-human Goel. Job’s prayer for a drop of human pity had made no impression on his flinty bosom. Job’s suggestion that the law of retribution they so vehemently preached might one day receive unexpected illustration in themselves (Job 19:29) had touched him to the quick. Accordingly, to hide the writhings of his lacerated spirit, he assumes an aspect of courage which he does not possess. 2. Extreme perturbation. The inward agitation of his spirit he betrays in his language. His cogitations were confused. His "thoughts" shot up in all directions from his heart like the manifold and intricate ramifications of a tree (cf. Job 4:16). The word strikingly represents the mind’s activity under violent excitement. The soul of Zophar was perplexed. Job’s discourse had possessed the merit of enlisting the attention, if not the sympathy, of his hearer. It had moved the feelings, if it had not convinced the judgment. And Zophar, if he did not listen with a loving spirit, at least did not hearken with a vacant mind. Yet, considering the mental disturbance which Job’s speech had produced, Zophar would have acted prudently had he maintained a discreet silence. Troubled thoughts seldom fashion wise or weighty words; and, though vehement emotion, especially when under control, is of immense advantage to an orator, yet an intellect deranged by passion is divested of whatever power of conviction it might otherwise possess. 3. Indecent haste. Whether or not a pause usually intervened between the different speeches in this controversy, Zephyr would appear to have been exceptionally impatient to smite his adversary, and to have rushed into the arena of debate like a war-horse neighing for the battle. If the rush of feeling and the multitudinous array of ideas which Job’s words provoked did not "cause him to answer" (verse 2), they at least furnished him with what seemed a crushing rejoinder to the outspoken insolence to which he had been compelled to listen—a rejoinder made and ready, so that he required not to meditate, but simply to "follow the suggestions of his thoughts as fast as they arose" (Carey), which he did. It had been better infinitely that Zophar had exercised a little self-restraint—better for his own credit, since "he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly" (Pied. 14:29), since even good men are prone to err when they speak in haste (Psalms 116:11), since it is the part of a wise man to "refrain his lips" (Proverbs 10:19), and the commandment of God to "be not rash with one’s mouth" (Ecclesiastes 5:2), but to be "swift to hear, slow to speak" (James 1:19), and since "there is more hope of a fool than of him that is hasty in his words" (Proverbs 29:20); and it would have been better for Job’s comfort, since hasty words are seldom kindly words. 4. Virtuous resentment. Zophar, "the very pink and pattern of orthodoxy" (Cox), had been threatened with the sword. He had perfectly understood what Job meant by brandishing (metaphorically, of course) that lethal weapon before his eyes. It was designed as a "check of his reproach" (verse 3), a reprimand to overwhelm him with disgrace, which he, Zophar, now hurled back upon the speaker with indignant scorn. The wounding of Zophar’s self-esteem had been a more serious offence on Job’s part than the striking at his faith. Zophar "one of those hot-heads who pretend to fight for religion that is imperilled, while in reality" they are "only zealous for their own wounded vanity" (Delitzsch). Instead of answering Job’s arguments, which doubtless he could not, he wipes out, or imagines he wipers out, the gratuitous dishonour done to his reputation as an orthodox believer by vehement reassertion of the current faith. It is usual for those who cannot reply to an opponent’s objections to indulge in personal invectives and extravagant assertions. 5. Wonderful conceit. Zophar practically informs Job that if he (Zophar) does not confound him (Job) and his heretical doctrines, it is not for want of ability to do so. "The spirit of his understanding," i.e. the inner light of his intellectual discernment, the spirit emanating from the keen faculty of perception which he knows to be within him, furnishes him with all the information requisite for such a purpose. Now, doubtless, "there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding" (Job 32:8); but "this also is a vanity" which may be witnessed beneath the sun, that they who have the least of such understanding not unfrequently suppose themselves to have the most, while they who have the most are the least inclined to praise themselves on its account. II. THE FAITH . 1. With sarcastic sunrise. Zophar professes astonishment that Job required to be instructed on so obvious a point as the Divine law of retribution, considering (1) what a wise man Job was: "Knowest thou not this?" thou who knowest everything—an obvious allusion to Job 19:25; and (2) what an old law it was, having been "of old, since man was placed upon the earth." and therefore surely not beyond the cognizance of a man who could look to the world’s end. Zophar’s irony was clever, but not kind. 2. With evident relish. With ill-concealed gusto Zophar repeats the popular dogma of the day, that "the triumphing of the wicked is near [literally, ’is from near’], and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment," adding that "though his excellency," or exaltation, "mount up into heaven, yet shall he perish for over;" words suggestive of (1) the superficial character of the irreligious man’s happiness, which is commonly derived from things at hand, the creature-comforts by which he is surrounded; (2) the short-lived duration of the wicked man’s hope, which is only "from near," i.e. of recent origin, and continues but a little space, being doomed to perish at the close of life’s brief day at the furthest; (3) the seeming elevation of the hypocrite’s piety, which often appears to wear an extraordinary aspect of sanctity, setting its head among the clouds, while common saints have much ado to walk upon the earth without stumbling (Isaiah 65:5; Matthew 23:14; Luke 18:11); (4) the absolute certainty of the ungodly man’s overthrow, since he shall yet be cast down from the loftiest position of security to the lowest depths of degradation (Isaiah 14:13-15; Amos 9:2; Obadiah 1:4); (5) the terrible completeness of the sinner’s destruction—he shall perish, and that for ever. Had Zophar been a man of tender spirit, instead of a fierce and fiery bigot, he would not have exulted with such fiendish delight in a doom so appalling even in imagination. 3. With varied illustration. (1) A coarse metaphor. The wicked man shall perish "like his own dung," i.e. with abhorrence and contempt (1 Kings 14:10; 2 Kings 9:37; Psalms 83:10; Jeremiah 8:2)—a sentiment which, although not conveyed in polite language, is sometimes verified in this world in the case of notorious transgressors, and in the next world will certainly prove true of all the ungodly. (2) An impressive image. The prosperous wicked man is likened to an unsubstantial dream, which, with its magical phantasmagoria, highly excites the fancy of the sleeper, but which vanishes, when night is passed, into the limbo of oblivion. What Zophar here affirms of the individual is true of men generally. The sinful life is a tremendous unreality; it may often assume imposing shapes, fascinating to beholders; but, after all, is only a pretentious shadow, which will disappear when, at the dawning of eternal day, the good man awakes. The pious life alone has solidity and continuance. (3) A borrowed text. Zophar plagiarizes a sentiment (Job 19:9) from a previous address of Job (Job 7:8, Job 7:10). When preachers appropriate the thoughts of others, they should carefully acknowledge to whom they are indebted for their wisdom or eloquence. (4) A solemn reflection. That when a wicked man dies he commonly bequeaths a legacy of shame to his descendants, his children being obliged "to please the poor" (verse 10), i.e. to court the favour of the destitute whom his rapacity has impoverished, and, in his name, so that it might actually be held to be by his hands, to "restore the goods" of those whom his covetousness and oppression have redfaced to beggary. Nothing is more certain than that a father’s ungodliness is often visited upon his family (Ezekiel 18:2)—an argument for parental piety; that the whirligig of time brings strange revenges upon sinners, punishing them by the very inflictions they entailed on others, e.g. reducing their children to beggary as they had reduced the children of others (1 Samuel 15:33)—a proof of God’s overruling providence; that ill-gotten gain seldom proves a blessing to its possessors, mostly bringing misery into a man’s house instead of felicity (Genesis 13:11)—a caution against covetousness; and that God frequently compels the restitution of wealth unjustly acquired, sometimes by the power of grace (Luke 19:8), sometimes by the anguish of remorse (Matthew 27:3-5), sometimes by the hand of death (Psalms 39:6), sometimes by the superior craft of others (Genesis 30:37)—a reason for honest dealing. (5) A cruel innuendo. That Job had been wicked in his youth, that Job’s bones were even then full of the secret lusts of his early manhood, that at least his physical disease was the direct retribution of his previous excesses, and that these, his unrepented crimes, were about to descend with him to his grave (verse 11). Though not applicable to Job, at whom all commentators are agreed it is pointed (cf. Job 13:26; Job 17:15, Job 17:16), the language conveys a solemn warning as to youthful indulgence in sin, (a) its proneness to progress and develop into a licentious and profligate old age; (b) its tendency to avenge itself in time in a diseased body, an enfeebled mind, a premature death; and (c) its certainty, unless repented of, abandoned, and forgiven, to lie down with the transgressor in his grave, ay, to accompany him beyond the grave into the unseen world of eternity. III. AN . 1. The picture of a sinful epicure. (Verses 12-18.) (1) The wicked man’s estimate of sin. He regards it as a dainty which communicates to his soul the same gratification that delicious viands do to tide palate. A melancholy proof of the degradation into which man has sunk, that that which God pronounces an abomination he should contemplate with approbation; that a nature which God formed to find its happiness in holy fellowship with himself should experience pleasure in disobedience. Yet to the carnal mind all sin possesses more or less a relish, while some forms of indulgence, such as intemperance in eating and drinking, inordinate ambition and avarice, devotion to the frivolous, and often wicked, amusements of fashionable life, are attended with at least a seeming satisfaction. (2) The wicked man’s delight in sin. He deals with it as an epicure does with a dainty—keeping hold of it as long as he is able, seeking to extract from it as much sweetness as possible, "hiding it under his tongue, sparing it and forsaking it not, but keeping it still in the middle of his palate" (verses 12, 13); as a glutton does with delicious food, eagerly devouring it, gulping it down with avidity, swallowing it with greediness (verse 15), gormandizing and stuffing himself with the tasty viands with the voracity of a beast—a description applicable to the drunkard (Proverbs 23:20, Proverbs 23:21), the debauchee (Proverbs 7:22), the covetous man (Isaiah 5:8; Isaiah 56:11). (3) The wicked man’s recompense from sin. He shall be filled with misery by that in which he formerly delighted, as if the pleasant food of which he had partaken had been changed in his stomach into the gall of asps (verse 14). "Though wicked men relish sin at the time, roll it as a sweet plum in the mouth, and feel its deliciousness, the issue will be agony; it will turn into wormwood, it will rankle as a hellish virus in every vein of the soul" (Thomas). He shall be taken with a loathing for that which he formerly desired, viz. riches, which shall compel him to disgorge that which he gulped down with greediness (verse 15); nay, what he toiled so hard to obtain he shall not be permitted to retain, but shall be obliged to restore without having experienced from it any real enjoyment (verse 18). Though conveying a cruel and malicious insinuation that Job’s wealth had been unjustly acquired—which it was not—yet the sentiment is often true, especially of riches, that that which men pursue with avidity and accumulate with eager anticipations of delight, seldom realizes the expectations it excites, often fills its possessors with disgust, and must eventually be given up, if not before, at least at death (Ecclesiastes 6:2; cf. ’Measure for Measure,’ Acts 3. sc. 1). He shall be slain by the very thing which he supposed should be his life, the sweet morsel of sin which he sucked turning out to be the poison of asps, and as the deadly bite of a viper. So sin ever carries retribution in its own bosom. The fair fruit which was expected to make Adam and Eve wise as gods left them overwhelmed with guilty shame (Genesis 3:7); Samson’s amorous dalliance with Delilah conducted him to Gaza’s prison (Judges 16:21); David’s sin with Bathsheba proved like molten fire within his veins (Psalms 32:4; Psalms 51:8); the wine-cup of the drunkard at last bites like a serpent and stings like an adder (Proverbs 23:32). He shall be excluded from any real happiness on earth. "He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter" (verse 17). Much more, it may be added, he shall not attain to the felicity of the future Paradise of God. "The river of life, the wine of the kingdom, the fruits of Paradise, the joys at God’s right hand, the pleasures for evermore," are "all forfeited for the momentary pleasures of sin" (Robinson). 2. The picture of a powerful tyrant. (Verses 19-28.) The portrait intended for Job. (1) The crimes laid to his charge are: (a) Merciless oppression, in the threefold form of grinding down, forsaking, and robbing the poor (cf. Job 22:6, Job 22:7); conduct common in the era of the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 3:16) and in the days of primitive Christianity (James 2:6), though by no means infrequent in these times; conduct offensive in the sight of God and man (Ecclesiastes 6:8; Ecclesiastes 7:7), and wholly unbecoming in a good (Isaiah 33:15), but specially characteristic of a bad (Psalms 55:3), man; conduct attaining its highest degree of wickedness when the poor oppress the poor (Proverbs 28:3), and certain to be fiercely avenged (Psalms 35:10; Proverbs 22:16; Isaiah 3:15; Jeremiah 22:16) by him who espouses the cause of the oppressed. (b) Insatiable greed, being represented as one who felt no quietness in his belly, i.e. whose cravings knew no bounds (verse 20), and from whose covetousness nothing escaped (verse 21)—a sin against which men are warned in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:17), and saints in the gospel (Luke 12:15), and upon which woes are pronounced by the prophets (Isaiah 5:8; Jeremiah 51:13; Micah 2:9.; Habakkuk 2:6), and judgments by the apostles (Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:3, Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 13:5; James 5:1-3; 2 Peter 2:3). (2) The doom predicted as his portion is exhibited as: (a) Deceiving prosperity. He shall not be able to escape with that to which his soul clings as its dearest treasure (verse 20). Calamity shall overtake his accumulated spoil in spite of his most watchful care. His prosperity shall not continue (verse 21), but "in the fulness of his sufficiency" when rejoicing in abundance, "he shall be in straits" (verse 22), either dreading impending destitution, or being deprived of his property, as Job was, by the stroke of swift calamity. As no man’s riches can save him from peril (Psalms 49:7), so neither can any man save his riches when God commands them to take wings and flee away (Proverbs 23:5). God can take a sinner from his wealth (Luke 12:20) as easily as a sinner’s wealth from him (Genesis 19:29), or, permitting the wealth to remain, he can cause its possessor to feel in straits. (b) Thickening adversity. "Every hand of the wicked [literally, ’every hand of the wretched,’ i.e. every stroke that falls upon the wretched] shall come upon him." He shall be assailed by every form of trouble; as e.g. Divine wrath in the midst of his enjoyment (verse 23)—God, in order to fill his belly, raining down upon him the fiery glow of his indignation as he did upon the cities of the plain (Genesis 19:24), upon the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 11:33; Psalms 78:30, Psalms 78:31), and, according to Zophar, upon Job (Job 1:16). Sudden destruction in the midst of his oppressions (verses 24, 25). Fleeing from an adversary, he is pierced in the back by an arrow from a bow of steel. Drawing the gleaming weapon from his body, the metal head of the arrow from his gall, terrors of approaching death or of a fearful conscience encompass him. So God sometimes causes the sinner to be struck down in the very act of his wickedness (Numbers 16:31; 2 Samuel 8:5; 2 Kings 1:9, 2 Kings 1:10; Acts 5:5), and so are bold transgressors commonly transformed into cowards when death comes and conscience wakes. Complete annihilation of himself and his treasures (verse 26). Though concealed in the earth, these treasures will yet be laid bare by fire from heaven, which shall also burn up him and them (as the fire of God had already, literally, burnt up Job’s sheep and oxen, and was on the eve, metaphorically, of devouring himself), consigning both to a gloom darker than that which enshrouds the freebooter’s spoil—a doom reserved for the finally impenitent. Certain exposure of his wicked character and life (verse 27), not only heaven renouncing and abhorring the transgressor, but the earth also conspiring to ensure his detection. As certainly as God and the universe are on the side of saints (Romans 8:28), so certainly are they arrayed against the sinner. It was, perhaps, only poetry when Deborah and Barak sang that the heavenly powers fought for Israel, and the stars in their courses contended against Sisera (Judges 5:20); it was superstition which made the Melitans imagine Paul to be a wicked wretch whom Divine vengeance suffered not to live (Acts 28:4); it is plain prose and solemn truth when God says that heaven and earth are in league against the sinner. Final extinction for his house and its belongings in the day of wrath (verse 28), as appeared to be the case with Job, though it was not, and as will eventually be the case with the wicked, though they think not. IV. A SERMON APPLIED. 1. The elements of truth in this conclusion. These are: (1) That the wicked man has a portion or heritage, which he shall assuredly receive as the righteous reward of his ungodly life. Equally with the saint will the sinner be recompensed according to his works. (2) That this portion or heritage is decreed for the wicked man by God. As God appoints to all men their earthly lots, so does he determine the lots of all in the life beyond. (3) That this portion or heritage shall be bestowed upon him by the hand of God, so that his evading or eluding it will be wholly impossible. 2. The ingredients of error in this Conclusion. (1) The wicked man’s portion is not always bestowed upon him on earth: the first mistake of Zophar. (2) Even if bestowed on earth, it is not universally a heritage like that described above: Zophar’s second blunder. (3) If, again, it was exactly as portrayed, it did not apply to Job: the third mistake of Zophar, and the worst of the three. Learn: 1. That controversy, especially in religion (and politics), is seldom profitable, and almost always irritating. 2. That controversialists are commonly characterized more by exaggerated language than by convincing argumentation. 3. That no cause is advanced by either vulgarity of speech or personality of allusion. 4. That it is not uncommon for s careless reasoner to mistake a half-truth for a whole, an exceptional truth for a universal, an occasional truth for s perpetual. 5. That it is impossible for a wicked man to escape retribution, if not in this world, at least in the next. 6. That unpardoned sins are the worst grave that any man can lay his bones in. 7. That though sin may be attended with pleasure, it can never result in happiness. 8. That what prevents ultimate success to a sinner is the fact that God is against him. 9. That God knows when and how to strike his avenging blows so as to cause them to gall hardest on the object of his displeasure. 10. That the greatest calamity which can overtake a human soul is the wrath of God. BY E. JOHNSON Job 20:1-29 Godless prosperity short-lived. Here we have a new variation on the favourite theme of the friends—the inconstancy of godless prosperity. "The jubilation of the wicked is but of short duration, and the joy of the profligate but a moment." The wicked man is specially here described as a rich man, who greedily snatches at others’ property, and whose ill-gotten gains become a deadly consuming fire to him and all his. It is related to Eliphaz’s speech (Job 15:1-35.) as the superlative to the positive, and to Bildad’s (Job 18:1-21.) as the superlative to the comparative. Similar remarks to those, then, must here apply; and the description is in itself true, apt, and striking, but its evident animus against Job is fiercely unjust. I. CENSURE OF JOB: OF THE THEME. (Verses 1-5.) "Therefore my thoughts reply to me, and hence comes the storm of my bosom. Must I hear correction that insults me? But my spirit out of my understanding gives me an answer"—namely, of warning and chastisement to Job as a godless man (verses 1-3). Zophar then gives these suggestions of his spirit in the form of a question directed to Job: "Knowest thou this from eternity, since man was placed on the earth, that the triumph of the wicked endures but a short time, and the joy of the reprobate but a moment?" He is astonished that Job, as appears from his speeches, is unacquainted with this well-worn and familiar truth of experience (verses 4, 5). II. OF THE THEME. (Verses 6-29.) 1. "Though his glory mounts" to heaven, and his head reaches to the clouds (comp. Isaiah 14:13, Isaiah 14:14; Obadiah 1:4), like his dung he perishes for ever; they that saw him say, Where is he?" The coarsest and most contemptuous comparison seems to be purposely selected (verse 7). The next is that of the fugitive dream (verse 8; comp. Isaiah 29:7; Psalms 73:20; Psalms 90:5). Dreams and visions of the night! emptiest things! appearing to be something while they last, but leaving no trace behind when the sleeper wakes. The eye that has seen him shall see him no more; and the place where he seemed to move, a solid person of flesh and blood, beholds that figure no longer (nor. 9). The curse descends to his children; they are reduced to court the favour of humble folk, and they have to give up to their father’s creditors his ill-gotten wealth (verse 10). How often, though not without exception, do we see this to be the rule of life—the beggary or the wealth of children is rooted in the wickedness or goodness of the parents (Exodus 20:5; Psalms 37:25)! Let him who would see his children happy beware of sin. "His bones were full of youthful strength, and with him it lies in the bed of dust" (verse 11). 2. The inconstant prosperity of the wicked under the figure of sweet food, but deadly poison. (Verses 12-16.) "Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth, he hides it under his tongue," rolling it as a delicious morsel, he sparingly fosters it, and lets it not go, and keeps it back on his palate" (in five synonymous phrases the idea of the dwelling and gloating over the sweet morsel of sin is set forth, verses 12, 13); "yet his food is changed in his bowels—vipers’ poison is in his interior (verse 14). The riches he has swallowed God expels from his paunch. The drastic language betrays the energy and violence of Zophar’s feelings (verse 15). Then, recurring to the figure of verse 14, "the tongue of adders slays him"(Psalms 140:3), the deadly bite replacing in the description the deadly draught (verse 16; Proverbs 23:32). So God turns men’s "pleasant vices" into whips and scourges for their backs (’King Lear’). The sweet Dead Sea fruits that tempt the taste turn to ashes on the lips. Sinful pleasure turns to pain, It begins with sweetness, like sugar, but afterwards bites like a serpent (Proverbs 20:17; Sirach 21:2, et seq.). 3. (Verses 17-22.) "He may not see his pleasure in brooks, streams, floods of honey and cream" (verse 17). These are well-known biblical figures for luxury and fulness of prosperity (Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17). And where the classic poets describe the golden age these figures occur: "streams of milk, streams of nectar flowed" (Ovid, ’Metam.,’ 1.111, sqq.; Theocr; ’Id.,’ 5.124, sqq.; Virg; ’Eel.,’ 4.30; Her; ’Epod.,’ 16.47). "He gives back what he has gained, and enjoys it not; accord ing to the property of his barter he is not merry;" that is, in proportion as he employed unjust means of exchange, to obtain temporal goods and enjoyment, he does not rejoice in them, he must go without the mirth that he promised himself from them (verse 18). "For he crushed, and caused the lowly to he down." With what tender regard does biblical morality and law treat the poor and defenceless! what indignation does it testify against the oppressor! "He snatched houses for himself, and built them not." The meaning perhaps is, he built them not anew, did not succeed in rebuilding them according to his taste, because he could not possess them for a permanence (verse 19). "For he knew no rest in his belly." "The way of peace" (Isaiah 59:8) is not for restless greed and selfish hardness to others’ sufferings to tread. "Therefore he will not escape with that which is dearest to him" (verse 20). "Nothing escaped his greed, therefore his possessions shall not continue" (verse 21). "In the fulness of his super fluity he comes into straits; every hand of the wretched comes upon him" (verse 22). The clamours of those whom he has wronged, the cries of the widows, the orphans, the poor, make a din in the ears of the bad man; their hands stretch forth to seize the goods of which he has defrauded them. It is a striking picture of retribution. Perhalps the most salient point in this description is that of the insatiableness of greed. "The dire dropsy increases by self-indulgence, nor expels the thirst, unless the cause of disease flees from the veins, and the watery languor from the pale body," says Horace, in a noble ode on the use and abuse of riches. "You shall more widely rule," he says, "by taming the greedy spirit, than could you join Libya to far-off Gades" (’Od.’ 2.2). Riches cannot satisfy the soul, nor any earthly good, but only God (Ecclesiastes 1:8). The covetous temper finds as much want in what it has as in what it has not. No possessions, however great, can satisfy, us, until we have found the treasury of all good things in God. We are still little Alexanders, not content to rule over one world—grieved to hear there are no more (Brenz). 4. End of the wicked man in accordance with the Divine judgment. (Verses 28-28.) "That it may serve for the filling of his belly, he causes his fiery wrath to fall upon him" (comp. Job 18:15). ion the figure of filling the belly, cf. verse 20; Luke 15:16.) "And causes to rain upon him with his food;" that is, his food, the wages of his sin, is the just punishment from God (Luke 15:23). The description goes on to point out the means by which the wrathful judgment of Heaven is executed (Luke 15:24, sqq.). (1) Warlike examples: pursuit and wounds. "He flees from the iron harness, the brazen bow pierces him" (Judges 5:26). He draws the arrow from his body (Judges 3:22), and the shining steel comes out of his gall; the terrors of death come upon him (Luke 15:25). Then (2) some further descriptions of the Divine judgment, especially with reference to the property of the wicked. "All darkness is reserved for his treasures." His hoards are exposed to every casualty. He finds that he has been "treasuring up for himself—wrath!" (Romans 2:5). A fire that no human hands have kindled devours him, destroying the relies of former judgments (Luke 15:26). "The heavens disclose his guilt, and earth rises against him" (Luke 15:27). A striking contrast to Job 16:18, Job 16:19, where Job had appealed to heaven and earth as witnesses of his innocence. Thus denied and cast from both, the only place for the wicked is in Sheol, or Hades. The produce of his house must pass away, like wrecks floating down a flood, in the day of God’s wrath (verse 28). . "Such is the lot of the wicked man from God, and the heritage allotted to him by God" (verse 29). The witness of nature against the sinner—this is the most powerful concluding thought in this awe-striking address. Nature seems to be unconscious of men’s guilt, as of their virtues. The leaves of the forest do not shudder, the bright blue sky is not overcast, the earth does not quake when deeds of crime are done. Yet that majestic order represented by heaven and earth—the order which finds its reflection in the conscience of man—cannot be violated with impunity. It will avenge itself in the end. And we see from time to time striking types and prophecies of this in the way by which crime is detected from the traces left on the face of nature, or by the clues afforded by natural law. The light of day reveals the deed of the night-time, and the earth gives up her dead. If all sins thus leave some record, what rest or peace could there be for the guilty conscience except in the gospel, which assures us that in Christ the sins of the penitent and believing are "covered," and that his blood cleanseth from all sin?—J. BY R. GREEN Job 20:5-20 The temporary triumph of the wicked. Zophar now comes forth with wise words; but they are as arrows, slender, strong, and sharp, which, though drawn upon a strong bow, yet miss their mark. Only too true is his assertion of the brevity of the triumph of the evil-doer, the momentary joy of the hypocrite; only too accurate his forcible setting forth of the state and portion of the ungodly. Job has to hear again cruel words. His patient faith has yet to be further tested; his final triumph is postponed. I. HIS HONOR IS . If he raise himself so that "his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever;" "he shall fly away as a dream," so short is his grasp of any position of honour. II. HIS FAMILY IS BUT BRIEF. The goods he has gained by his ungodliness "his hands shall restore," and his children crouch to appease the poor. Ill-gotten gain is held by uncertain hands. For a time the ungodly seems to prosper, but it is that he may be consumed out of his place. III. HIS LIFE IS WASTED AND PASSETH AWAY. Even his youthful vigour fails him. it shall speedily "lie down with him in the dust." The practice of wickedness brings punishment on hint who offends. The tendency of wrong-doing is ever to prey upon the strength of the life. IV. THE OF SIN TO HIM ABE BUT FOR A SEASON. Though he ’hide" wickedness "under his tongue,’’ though it be "sweet in his mouth," yet shall it be turned to "the gall of asps within him." V. THE OF RICHES IS ONLY FOR A BRIEF PERIOD. Though he swallow them down, "he shall vomit them up again." Nothing has permanence with him. Changes come over him from sources he cannot trace and certainly could not foresee. His toil is fruitless. "That which he laboured for shall he restore … he shall not rejoice therein." Wickedness eats into the strength and joy of life. It exposes life to innumerable evils and robs it of its chief good. The wicked man has no pledge of permanent blessing. "He shall not save of that which he desired." Truly "the triumphing of the wicked is short."—R.G. Job 20:21-26 Disappointment to the wicked. Even when all promises well to the wicked, evil shall lurk under cover of the seeming prosperity. When he is about to satisfy himself, suddenly he shall be in straits. His hopes shall be blasted, his strong confidence disappointed. With a singular cluster of strong figures Zophar depicts the unsatisfying position of the wicked man. He is in the midst of enemies. Every source of help and joy seems to fail him. I. HE FINDS NO HELP IN MAN. "Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him." Even they of his own way of thinking disappoint him. They turn upon him. An ungodly man can have no true confidence in his ungodly associates. Evil in them enables them to detect evil in him. The spirit which they know within themselves to be wrong and untrustworthy, unkind and evil-plotting, they know w be the same in him. II. HE FINDS NO HELP IN GOD. "When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him." The wicked, so long as he continues wicked, has nothing to hope for from God. It was the joyful boast of one assailed on every hand, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" So if God be "against" a man, of what avail is it that any are "for" him? God is the best of friends, the most mighty of enemies. Not that in the Divine heart are any sentiments of enmity against the children of men, but men turn blessings into curses by the way they use them- So men make an enemy of their best Friend. III. HE FINDS NO HELP IN . The iron weapon which he might have grasped he shall flee from; and the bow of steel which he might have drawn shall strike him through. "Terrors’’ seize him, "darkness" hides in his secret places, "a fire not blown" consumes him. He is encompassed by foes. All things are against him. Though he prosper, yet "in the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits." "This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God"—R.G. Job 20:27 The final testimony against ungodliness. The wicked may hide himself "in his secret places," but his iniquity will be revealed. He cannot escape. For a time he may prosper and may practise deceit; but ultimately his doings shall be made known and meet with their just retribution. The natural consequence of wrongdoing is to go on from bad to worse until at length it bursts all restraint. Even the dull eye of the neighbour will detect the prevailing wrong, but the keen eye of a Divine justice cannot be escaped. Evil outwits itself. Its fruit appears in due time. Faultiness of life and conduct make themselves apparent. But should it be possible wholly to hide iniquity through life, and to die with the dreadful secret locked in the breast of the wrong-doer, yet there still remains a revelation which cannot be evaded. "The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him." This final testimony against ungodliness is.— I. . II. III. . IV. SEVERE.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 20:5 The short triumphing of the wicked. Zophar’s superficial view has truth in it as far as it goes. He is a man of the world, and he has kept his eyes open. What he has seen has been no illusion. It is not enough to explain the deeper mysteries of Job’s experience. Yet it has an obvious truth in it. I. THERE IS A OF THE WICKED. 1. This is seen in experience. Even Zophar, who finds it not exactly in accordance with his ideas of providence, still cannot but admit that it exists. A swindler fattens on the spoils of the robbery of widows and orphans. A Napoleon dominates Europe. 2. It is important to recognize the fact. We must make our theories accord with our experience and observation of the world. It is useless to comfort ourselves in the seclusion of our private meditation with an easy optimism, if this will not fit in with the events of everyday life. If we are not prepared to expect the triumph of the wicked, the sight of it will strike us with a shock of dismay. 3. The triumphing of the wicked does present a difficulty. It is contrary to our notion of justice. No doubt the narrow, conventional notion of the three friends was founded on a genuine sense of right and fitness. If there is to be no future judgment, and if this temporal state is typical of the whole course of life, here is an instance of gross injustice. We must therefore face it, and inquire what it means. II. THIS TRIUMPH IS SHORT. Zophar’s explanation is that the triumph will soon pass away, and will give place to overthrow and ruin. 1. This is seen on earth. As a rule, the swindler does not die rich. He usually outlives his gains. Great wickedness generally disappoints its owner. Napoleon finishing his career as an exile at St. Helena is typical of the most frequent end of a very bad course. But this is by no means a universal principle. The whole of a bad man’s life may be externally prosperous, right on to death. 2. This will be seen after death. We must extend our contemplation of the course of the wicked man. He dies, leaving wealth, pleasure, power, triumph, behind him. None of these can accompany him through the dark doors of death. He has laid up no treasures in the unseen world. There he is certainly beggared, and he has good ground for expecting the infliction of wellmented punishment. His short earthly life, but a moment when compared to eternity, is over, and with it all his triumphing has ceased. III. THE SHORT TRIUMPH OF THE WICKED IS . 1. It is fallacious because its brevity is hidden. The foolish man who glories in it does not see how swiftly it is slipping away from him. A triumph which must soon give place to shame is not worth much to its owner. 2. It is fallacious because it gives no solid satisfaction. The wicked glee of triumphing in sin is quite superficial. Often its very excitement is only a result of restless discordant passions. It wears a bold front, but it covers a weary spirit. If there is a spark of conscience left there must be a haunting fear—like the mummy at the Egyptian feast—that spoils the pleasure. IV. THE ONLY TRIUMPH IS THAT WHICH FOLLOWS A TRULY LIFE. 1. This is solid. It begins with victory over sin and self, our greatest enemies. 2. It is assured. It is brought about by the work of Christ; it is just sharing in his victory; and Christ must triumph. 3. It is eternal. On earth there may be shame and humiliation, but in heaven Christians are called to the joy of victory—to be "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37).—W.F.A. Job 20:12-17 The sweet taste of sin and its bitter after-taste. I. THE SWEET TASTE OF SIN. How can we account for the tact that if sin is essentially an evil thing it should ever be attractive to us? Surely its natural hatefulness should make it repulsive. If it is hideous in the sight of God, by what witchery can it be made to appear fascinating to our eyes? 1. It appeals to our lower desires. It makes its first appeal to nature. There was no evil at first in Adam and Eve, and yet sin was made attractive to them. Christ could not have been tempted unless sin had been made to wear a fair mask in his presence. The bodily appetites and the self-seeking desires are natural and innocent in themselves. But they should be kept under by our higher nature. If, however, the tempter appeals to them directly, he appeals to the prospect of natural pleasure. 2. It is aided by our selfish nature. We are all fallen creatures. If the fall has not taken the form of sensuality, it has certainly been accomplished in selfishness. Now sin appeals to our selfish nature, and promises personal gratification at the expense of righteousness. 3. It is intensified by corrupted desires. Sin perverts the natural appetites and corrupts the most innocent desires. The wicked thing which is first sought because of some promised result comes to be loved on its own account. As the miser loves his money, so the sinner loves his sin—first for what it can purchase, then on its own account. He is like a hypnotized person, to whom gall tastes like sugar, because he is deluded into believing evil to be his good. II. THE BITTER AFTER-TASTE OF SIN. Zophar rightly enlarges upon this subject. We do not need any amplification of the delights of sin. The very presentation of them to the imagination is degrading. The soul is soiled by contemplating them. We are quite ready to admit their strength. But it is not so easy to imagine vividly and to keep well in view the dreadful after-results. They are remote, unattractive, uncongenial. Therefore we need to be forced to see the results of sin in detail. Zophar narrates them with graphic ragout. Let us, then, consider the disagreeable details of the bitter after-taste. 1. It is pain within. The morsel is sweet in the mouth, and it is hidden under the tongue to keep it safe and to prolong the delicious enjoyment of it; yet when it is swallowed it becomes like the gall of asps. The recollection of past sin is a pain of conscience. Its very delights are turned to bitterness in the after-thought. Just in proportion to their tempting fascination before the deed is their repulsiveness after it has been committed. The foolish victim of temptation looks back on his orgies with disgust. He loathes himself, he grovels in humiliation. How could he have been such a fool as to sink to this shame and degradation? 2. It results in the loss of future delights. The sinner is made to give up his fiches. He is denied "the brooks, the rivers, the torrents of honey and butter," which he was greedily looking forward to. The justice of God will not permit him to revel for ever in wickedness. By his indulgence in sinful pleasures he has destroyed the faculty of innocent joy. His debauch has turned the garden of innocent delights into a desert. For such a man there is no hope but in complete regeneration. Yet that is possible. Even he can be converted, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus.—W.F.A. Job 20:19, Job 20:20 Oppressing the poor. This is a sin most frequently referred to in the Bible, a common wrong against which the prophets of Israel continually pretested with vehement indignation. Christ, usually mild and gentle, spoke in great anger of this wickedness (Matthew 23:14). St. James denounced it as not unknown among Christians (James 5:4). I. THE SIN. 1. Its various forms. It is not always seen in the bare and open fashion of primitive times. The sheikh exacts more than is due from his tribe, the Eastern landowner grinds down his fellaheen, the baron enslaves and robs his serfs, and we denounce the manifest wrong. But is not the same evil to be seen in the more decorous injustice of modern Western civilization? The great body of working men is now emancipated from the tyranny of past ages, and is able to assert itself and claim its rights. But below this powerful class is a mass of unskilled workers, the helpless men and women who crowd the lower quarters of great cities—the really poor. When advantage is taken of the poverty of these miserable people to grind them down, they are being robbed. With us the sweating system takes the place of the old territorial oppression. 2. Its invariable wickedness. Is the modern commercial oppression one whit less guilty than the old lordly tyranny? The evil is more disguised with us; it is more difficult to bring it home to its authors; our complicated civilization hushes it up—yet the cruelty and wickedness are as real as ever. II. THE . The writers of the Bible who denounced the sin of oppressing the poor continually threatened punishment to the guilty oppressors. 1. Direct loss. Zophar contemplates the actual loss of ill-gotten gains. This may happen in the present life. It will certainly occur at death. The oppressor can take none of the profits of his cruelty out of the world with him. 2. Disappointment. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits. Even without the loss of property difficulties will arise. The rich man may be murdered in his palace. Most oppressors live in fear. Trouble of mind mingles like gall in the sweetest cup of pleasures got by cruelty. III. THE CURE. Punishment is not cure. The fear of it may act as somewhat of a check. But we must go deeper for "the root of the matter" if we would cure it. Now undoubtedly in this case the root is not hard to find, for it is simply unmitigated selfishness. Therefore until men can be taught to substitute brotherliness for selfishness, oppression of the poor must continue. No social revolution, no legal enactment, no forcible change, can eradicate the evil. We must go for the cure of social evils to Christ. He is concerned with society as well as with the individual, and there is no hope for society until he is recognized as its Saviour and its Lord. Christianity instils brotherliness. No man can be a Christian who is destitute of this grace. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 21:1-34 Job answers Zophar, as he had answered Bildad, in a single not very lengthy chapter. After a few caustic introductory remarks (verses 2-4), he takes up the challenge which Zophar had thrown out, respecting the certain punishment, in this life, of the wicked (Job 20:4-29), and maintains, "in language of unparalleled boldness’’ (Cook), the converse of the proposition. The wicked, he says, live, grow old, attain to great power, have a numerous and flourishing offspring, prosper, grow rich, spend their time in feasting and jollity—nay, openly renounce God and decline to pray to him—yet suffer no harm, and when they die, go down to the grave without suffering, "in a moment" (verses 5-15). To the suggestion that from time to time they are cut off suddenly in a signal way, he answers, "How often is this?" or rather, "How seldom!" (verses 17, 18). To the further suggestion that they are punished in their children he replies, "How much better if they were punished in their own persons!" (verses 19-21). As it is, he argues, one event happens to all (verses 23-26). In conclusion, he observes that common opinion supports his view (verses 29-33), and denounces as futile the attempts of his comforters to convince him, since his views and theirs respecting the facts of God’s government are diametrically opposed to each other (verse 34). Job 21:1, Job 21:2 But Job answered and said, Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations. As ye have no other consolation to offer me, at least attend diligently to what I say. That will be some comfort to me, and I will accept it in lieu of the consolations which I might have looked for at your hands. Job 21:3 Suffer me that I may speak; or, suffer me, and I also will speak. There is an emphasis on the "I" (אנכי). Job implies that his opponents are not allowing him his fair share of the argument, which is an accusation that can scarcely be justified. Since the dialogue opened, Job’s speeches have occupied eleven chapters, those of his "comforters" seven only. But a controversialist who has much to say is apt to think that sufficient time is not allowed him. And after that I have spoken, mock on. Job does not hope to convince, or silence, or shame the other interlocutors. When he has said his say, all that he expects is mockery and derision. Job 21:4 As for me, is my complaint to man? Do I address myself to man, pour out my complaint to him, and expect him to redress my wrongs? No; far otherwise. I address myself to God, from whom alone I can look for effectual assistance. And if it were so; rather, and if so, if this is the case, if my appeal is to God, and he makes me no answer, then why should not my spirit be troubled? or, Why should I not be impatient? (Revised Version). Job thinks that he has a right to be impatient, if God does not vouchsafe him an answer. Job 21:5, Job 21:6 Here we have an abrupt transition. Job is about to controvert Zophar’s theory of the certain retribution that overtakes the wicked man in this life, and to maintain that, on the contrary, he usually prospers (verses 7-18). Knowing that, in thus running counter to the general religious teaching, he will arouse much horror and indignation on the part of those who hear him, he prefaces his remarks with a notice that they will cause astonishment, and an acknowledgment that he himself cannot reflect upon the subject without a feeling of alarm and dismay. He thus hopes partially to disarm his opponents. Job 21:5 Mark me; literally, look to me; i.e. "attend to me," for I am about to say something well worth attention. And be astonished. Prepare yourselves, i.e; for something that will astonish you. And lay your hand upon your mouth. Harpocrates, the Egyptian god of silence, was often represented with his finger on his lips. The symbolism is almost universal. Job begs his auditors to "refrain their lips," and, however much astonished, to keep silence until he has concluded. Job 21:6 Even when I remember; i.e. "when I think upon the subject." I am afraid, and trembling taketh held on my flesh. A shudder runs through his whole frame. His words will, he knows, seem to verge upon impiety. Job 21:7 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job asks for an explanation of the facts which his own experience has impressed upon him. He has seen that "the wicked live" quite as long as the righteous, that in many cases they attain to a ripe old age, and become among the powerful of the earth. The great "pyramid kings" of Egypt, whose cruel oppressions were remembered down to the time of Herodotus (Herod; 2.124-128), reigned respectively, according to Egyptian tradition, sixty-three and sixty-six years(Manetho ap. Euseb; ’Chronicles Can.,’ pars 2.). Rameses II; the cruel oppressor of the Jews, and the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled, had a reign of sixty-seven years. Job 21:8 Their seed is established in their sight with them (comp. Psalms 17:14; and see below, Job 27:14). It could scarcely be doubted that the wicked had as many children as the righteous, and often established them in posts of honour and emolument. And their offspring before their eyes. A pleonastic repetition. Job 21:9 Their houses are safe from fear; literally, their houses are in peace, without fear. Neither is the rod of God upon them. So Asaph, "They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men" (Psalms 73:5). The chastening rod of God does not seem to smite them. Job 21:10 Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; rather, their cow conceiveth Shor (שׁוֹר), which is of both genders, must here be taken as feminine. Their cow (rather, their heifer) calveth, and casteth not her calf. Both conception and birth are prosperous; there is neither barrenness nor abortion. Job 21:11 They send forth their little ones like a flock. Free, i.e. joyful and frolicsome, to disport themselves as they please. The picture is charmingly idyllic. And their children dance. Frisk, i.e. "and skip, and leap," like the young of cattle full of health, and in the enjoyment of plenty" (Lee). Job 21:12 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. The "timbrel" (תף) is probably the tambourine, an instrument used from a remote antiquity by the Orientals. It consisted of a round hoop of wood, into which were sometimes inserted jingling rings of metal, and upon which was stretched at one end a sheet of parchment. It is represented on the monuments both of Egypt and Phoenicia. The harp (כִנּוֹר) was, in the early times, a very simple instrument, consisting of a framework of wood, across which were stretched from four to seven strings, which were of catgut and of different lengths, and were sounded either with the hand or with a plectrum. The "organ" (עוּנָב) was, of course, not an organ in the modem sense of the word. It was either a pan’s pipe, which is a very primitive instrument, or more probably a double reed blown from the end, like a flageolet, examples of which are found in the remains both of Egypt and Phoenicia. Job 21:13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. They die, i.e.’ without suffering from any prolonged or severe illness, such as that grievous affliction from which Job himself was suffering. Probably Job does not mean to maintain all this absolutely, or as universally the case, but he wishes to force his friends to acknowledge that there are many exceptions to their universal law, that wickedness is always visited in this world with condign punishment, and he wants them to account for them exceptions (see verse 7). Job 21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us. It is this impunity which leads the wicked to renounce God altogether. They think that they get on very well without God, and consequently have no need to serve him. Job puts their thoughts into words (verses 14, 15), and thus very graphically represents their tone of feeling. For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. The wicked feel no interest in God; they do not trouble themselves about him; his ways are "far above out of their sight," and they do not care to know them. Job 21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? "Who is Jehovah," said Pharaoh to Moses, "that I should obey his voice? I know not Jehovah" (Exodus 5:2). So the ungodly in Job’s time. They pretend to have no knowledge of God, no sense of his claims upon them, no internal consciousness that they are bound to worship and obey him. They are agnostics of a pronounced type, or at least they profess to be such. What profit, they ask, should we have, if we pray to him? Expediency is everything with them. Will serving God do them any good? Will it advance their worldly interests? Persuade them of that, and they will be willing to pay him, at any rate, a lip-service. But, having prospered so long and so greatly without making any religious profession, they see no reason to believe that they would prosper more if they made one. Job 21:16 Lo, their good is not in their hand; i.e. their prosperity is not in their own power, not the result of their own efforts. God’s providence is, at least, one element in it, since he exalts men and abases them, he casteth down and lifteth up. Hence it would seem to follow that they are his favourites. Shall Job therefore cast in his lot with them? No, he says, a thousand times, No! The counsel of the wicked is far from me; or better, be the counsel of the wicked far from me! I will have nothing to do with it. I will cling to God. I will maintain my integrity. Satan had charged Job with serving God for the sake of temporal reward. Job had disproved the charge by still clinging to God, notwithstanding all his afflictions. Now he goes further, and declines to throw in his lot with the wicked, even although it should appear that the balance of prosperity is with them. Job 21:17 How oft is the candle of the wicked put out? This is not an exclamation, but a question, and is well rendered in the Revised Version, "How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?" Is not the signal downfall of the wicked prosperous man a comparatively rare occur-fence? How oft cometh their destruction upon them! When the problem here propounded came before Asaph, he seems to have solved it by the supposition that in all cases retribution visited the wicked in this life, and that they were cast down from their prosperity. "I went," he says, "into the sanctuary of God; then understood I the end of these men. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image" (Psalms 73:17-20). Job maintains that such a catastrophe happens but seldom, and that for the most part the wicked go down to the grave in peace. God distributeth sorrows in his anger. This is hot an independent clause. The sense runs on: How off is it that the candle of the wicked is put out, and that destruction cometh upon them’ and God showers sorrows upon them in his anger? (compare the comment on the next verse). Job 21:18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away; rather, How oft is it that they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff, etc.? The construction begun in the first clause of Job 21:17 is carried on to the end of Job 21:18. "Stubble" and "chaff" are ordinary figures for foolish and ungodly men, whom the blast of God’s anger swoops away to destruction (comp. Exodus 15:7; Psalms 1:4; Psalms 35:5; Psalms 83:13; Isaiah 27:13; Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 41:2, etc.). Job 21:19 God layeth up his iniquity for his children. Job supposes his opponents to make this answer to his arguments. "God," they may say, "punishes the wicked man in his children" (comp. Exodus 20:5). Job does not deny that he may do so, but suggests a better course in the next sentence. He rewardeth him; rather, let him recompense it on himself—let him make the wicked man himself suffer, and then he shall know it. He shall perceive and know that he is receiving the due reward of his wickedness. Job 21:20 His eyes shall see his destruction (or, let his own eyes see his destruction), and he shall drink (or, let him drink) of the wrath of the Almighty. It will impress him far more with a sense of his wickedness, and of his guilt in God’s sight, if he receives punishment in his own person, than if he merely suffers vicariously through his children. Job 21:21 For what pleasure hath he in his house after him? What does he care, ordinarily, about the happiness of his children and descendants? "Apres moi le deluge" is the selfish thought of bad men generally, when they cast a glance at the times which are to follow their decease. The fate of those whom they leave behind them troubles them but little. It would scarcely cause them a pang to know that their posterity would soon be "clean put out." When the number of his months is cut off in the midst; i.e. when his appointed time is come, and he knows that "the number of his months’ is accomplished. Job 21:22 Shall any teach God knowledge? Job has been searching the "deep things of God," speculating upon the method of the Divine government of the world, he has perhaps rashly ventured to "rush in where angels fear to tread." Now, however, he cheeks himself with the confession that God’s ways are inscrutable, his knowledge far beyond any knowledge possessed by man. Men must not presume to judge him; it is for him to judge them. Seeing he judgeth those that are high. None so exalted, none so advanced in wisdom and knowledge, none so venturesome in sounding depths that they cannot fathom, but God is above them, judges them, knows their hearts, and, according to his infallible wisdom, condemns or approves them. This is a chastening thought, and its effect on Job is to make him contract his sails, and, leaving the empyrean, content himself with s lower flight. Previously he has maintained, as if he were admitted to the Divine counsels, that the prosperity of the wicked was a rule of God’s government. Now he goes no further than to say that there is no rule discoverable. Happiness and misery are dispensed—as far as man can see—on no definite principle, and, at the end, one lot happens to all: all go down into the tomb, and lie in the dust, and the worms devour them (verses 23-26). Job 21:23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. Some continue healthy and vigorous in body, peaceful and satisfied in mind, up to the very moment of their departure (comp. Job 21:13, "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave"). Job 21:24 His breasts are full of milk; rather, his milk-pails, as in the margin. The main wealth of the time being cattle, the man whose milk-pails are always full is the prosperous man. And his bones are moistened with marrow. Being thus wealthy and prosperous, his body is fat and well nourished. Job 21:24 And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul. Others have to suffer terribly before death comes to them. Their whole life is wretched, and their spirit is embittered by their misfortunes. And never eateth with pleasure; rather, and never tasteth of good (see the Revised Version). Job 21:26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them. However different the circumstances of their life, men are alike in their death. One event happens to all. All die, are laid in the dust, and become the prey of worms. Job 21:27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices (or, surmisings) which ye wrongfully imagine against me. I know, i.e.’ what you think of me. I am quite aware that you regard me as having brought my afflictions upon myself by wicked deeds, which I have succeeded in keeping secret. You have not openly stated your surmises. but it has been easy for me to "read between the lines," and understand the true meaning of your insinuations, which are all wrongful and unjust. Job 21:28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? i.e. "What has become of the house of the powerful man (Job himself)? How is it fallen and gone to decay!" And where are the dwelling-places (literally, the tent of the habitations) of the wicked! Again Job is intended, although the insult is veiled by the plural form being used. Job supposes that his opponents will meet his statement, that the righteous are afflicted and the wicked prosper, by pointing to his own case as one in which wickedness has been punished. Job 21:29 Have ye not asked them that go by the way? Job refers his opponents to the first comer (τὸνἐπιόντα)—the merest passer-by. Let them ask his opinion, and see if he does not consider that, as a general rule, the wicked prosper. And do ye not know their tokens? or, their observations; i.e. the conclusions to which they have come upon the subject from their own observation and experience. Job 21:30 These conclusions are now set forth. They are, that the wicked is reserved for (or rather, spared in) the day of destruction, and that they shall be brought forth to (rather, removed out of the way in) the day of wrath. This, according to Job, was the popular sentiment of his time; and, no doubt, there is in all ages a large mass of fleeting opinion to the same effect. Striking examples of wickedness in high places draw attention, and provoke indignation, and are much talked about; whence arises an idea that such eases are common, and ultimately, by an unscientific generalization in the vulgar mind, that they form the rule, and not the exception to the rule. It requires some power of intellect to take a broad and comprehensive view over the whole of human life, and fairly to strike the balance. Such a view seems to have been taken by Bishop Butler (among others); and the conclusion, reached by calm investigation and philosophic thought, is that, on the whole, ever in this life, the balance of advantage rests with the virtuous, who really prosper more than the wicked, have greater and higher satisfactions, escape numerous forms of suffering, and approach more nearly to happiness. An exact apportionment of happiness and misery to desert is a thing that certainly in this life does not take place; but the tendency of virtue to accumulate to itself other goods is clear; and Job’s pessimistic view is certainly an untrue one, which we may suspect that he maintained, rather from a love of paradox, and from a desire to puzzle and confuse his friends, than from any conviction of its absolute truth. Job 21:31 Who shall declare his way to his face? rather, Who shall denounce? i.e. Who will be bold enough to tell the rich and powerful man that he is wicked? that his "way," or course of life, is altogether wrong? And who shall repay him what he hath done? Still less will any one be found who will take upon him to attack such a one, to prosecute him in courts or otherwise bring him to condign punishment. Thus, being castigated neither by God nor man, he enjoys complete impunity. Job 21:32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave; rather, he moreover is borne (in pomp) to the grave. Even in death the advantage is still with the wicked man. He is borne in procession to the grave—a mausoleum or a family vault—by a long train of mourners, who weep and lament for him, and pay him funeral honours. The poor virtuous man, on the other hand, is hastily thrust under the soil. And shall remain in in the tomb; or shall keep watch over his tomb. The allusion is probably to the custom, common certainly in Egypt and Phoenicia, of carving a figure of the deceased on the lid of his sarcophagus, to keep as it were watch over the remains deposited within. The figure was sometimes accompanied by an inscription, denouncing curses on those who should dare to violate the tomb or disturb the remains. Job 21:33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him. In his mausoleum, by the side of the running stream, the very clods of the valley, wherein his tomb is placed, shall be sweet and pleasant to him—death thus losing half its terrors. And all men shall draw after him. Some explain this of the lengthy funeral procession which follows his corpse to the grave, and take the next clause of the multitude, not forming part of the procession, who gather together at the tomb beforehand, waiting to see the obsequies; but, as Rosenmuller remarks, this explanation seems precluded by the previous mention of the funeral procession (Job 21:32), besides being otherwise unsatisfactory. The real reference is probably to the common topic of consolation implied in the "Omnes eodem cogimur" of Horace. He is happy in his death, or at any rate not unhappy, seeing that he only suffers the common fate. He will draw after him all future men, who will likewise inevitably perish, just as there are innumerable before him, who have travelled the same read and reached the same resting-place. Job 21:34 How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood? Your position, that the godly always prosper, while the wicked are afflicted and brought low, being an absolutely false one, your attempts to console and comfort me are wholly vain and futile. Why continue them? Most commentators consider the second colloquy here to end, and a pause to occur, before Eliphaz resumes the argument. Job 21:1-34 Job to Zophar: Audi alteram partem. I. THE SPIRIT OF JOB’S REPLY. 1. Intense earnestness. Indicated by the respectful invitation addressed to his friends to attend to his discourse, the nervous reduplication of the verb "hear," and the assurance that such behaviour on their part would more effectually console him than all their eloquent and laboured harangues. Job’s character of eminent sanctity, Job’s condition of extreme wretchedness, and Job’s condemnation by the three friends, all entitled him to receive from them a generous and patient hearing. Good men and great sufferers are usually in earnest when they do speak, especially when justifying the ways of God to man, and are well worthy of being listened to for both their own sakes and their subject’s. It is one of a saint’s sweetest consolations to be allowed to vindicate the cause of God and truth. 2. Absolute confidence. So satisfied did Job feel that what he was about to advance was in perfect accord with truth and right, that he was completely indifferent to all personal considerations in the declaration of it. It might expose him to further ridicule and calumnious animadversion, might intensify the suspicions already existing against him, and even lead to angrier and more direct accusations. He was prepared to meet these for the sake of liberty to publish what in his inmost conscience he believed to be the truth. Job’s example is well worthy of imitation. First, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind that what he purposes to speak is true, and then let him manifest the courage of his convictions by suffering for them if need be. 3. Self-justification. Job vindicates himself against the oft-repeated charge of impatience. (1) Admitting to his friends that their accusation was substantially correct. His spirit had been "shortened" (verse 4) by the perplexing enigma of Divine providence over which he had been brooding, as afterwards was that of David (Psalms 37:1), of Asaph (Psalms 73:3). of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 12:1); as men’s spirits are sometimes shortened, irritated, and rendered impatient, by difficulties (Numbers 21:4), temptations (Judges 16:16), afflictions (Exodus 6:9); and as God, more humano, represents his spirit as being shortened, filled with the impatience of compassion, through beholding the misery of man (Judges 10:16). (2) Denying their right to impute blame to him on that account, seeing that his complaint was directed against, not them, but God (verse 4). It was not their lack of sympathy with his sufferings that annoyed him, or even their virulent aspersions of his character, but the apparent inequality of God’s dealings with himself. A saint’s greatest trials always come from God. A good man can live without the commiseration or approbation of his fellows, but not without the communion or favour of his God (Psalms 30:5). The hardest problem a sanctified intelligence has to solve is not to account for the oppressions and injustices of man, but to solve seeming inconsistencies in God’s dispensations. (3) Maintaining the perfect reasonableness of his behaviour in so manifesting shortness of spirit under the awful mystery of Divine providence. If they, his friends, were in any respect different from him, it was because they were incapable of discerning the mystery. They had simply shut their eyes upon the hard problem before which he (Job) staggered, and then affirmed that the problem did not exist. So, often, good people to-day, through lack of intellectual capacity or spiritual sincerity, either do not see or do not steadily look at the difficulties by which earnest seekers after truth are perplexed, and accordingly withhold from these all expression of sympathy for their doubt, and unfeelingly condemn them for their unbelief; whereas could good people only see the difficulties which stand in the way of those whom they call sceptics, infidels, heretics, they would at least commiserate, if they did not participate in, the hesitation and uncertainty they condemn. 4. Profound reverence. Job could not contemplate the awful problem to which he alluded without trembling and bewilderment, The prosperity of the wicked was a theme that filled him with silent astonishment, that dazed his intellect the more he reflected on it, that seized his spirit with a sort of stupefaction—seeming as it did on the one hand (i.e. on the theory of the friends) to suggest blasphemous thoughts of God, and on the other hand (i.e. on the hypothesis advanced by him) to foreshadow appalling woes for the wicked. Job, who was not terrified by Eliphaz’s spectre, who was not moved by the prospect of Hades, was overpowered with consternation at what appeared to tarnish the Divine glory or to impair the happiness of man. So Abraham was jealous of the Divine honour (Genesis 18:25), and David was afraid of the Divine judgments upon the wicked (Psalms 119:20). So by all men, and in particular by all saints, should God’s Person be held in reverence (Psalms 89:7), and God’s Word be listened to with awe (Isaiah 66:2), and God’s works and ways in both the Church and the world be studied with silent wonder (Psalms 46:10; Habakkuk 2:20; Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13). II. THE OF JOB’S REPLY. The dogma of Zophar and his companions was contradicted by: 1. The facts of experience. (Verses 7-21.) In enlarging upon these, Job draws attention to three points. (1) The prosperity of the wicked (verses 7-13). This he represents as: (a) Long-continued, "the wicked" being permitted "to live and become old" (verse 7). Eliphaz had affirmed that the ungodly transgressor should die before his time (Job 15:20, Job 15:32), and Zophar had declared that the joy of the hypocrite was but for a moment (Job 20:5). These statements, Job asserts, were notoriously incorrect. (b) Greatly augmented, "the wicked’ not simply living long and happily, but, as if once more to confute Eliphaz (Job 15:29) and Zophar (Job 20:15), becoming "mighty in power, "attaining to vast wealth, and therefore to what wealth represents—influence, honour, pleasure—the three principal ingredients in the world’s cup of felicity, (c) Firmly established, the good fortunes of the wicked descending to their families, who, in express contradiction to the teaching of Eliphaz (Job 15:34), Bildad (Job 18:19), and Zophar (Job 20:10), grow up to manhood and womanhood, and permanently settle beside the patriarchal tents—one of the best and most highly valued blessings a parent can enjoy, as Job formerly knew from personal experience (Job 1:4, Job 1:5). (d) Perfectly secured, their houses being safe from fear, or "in peace, without alarm," and having no rod of God upon them (verse 9), as his had when attacked by Chaldean robbers, and desolated by Divine judgments—again in flagrant antithesis to Eliphaz (Job 15:34), Bildad (Job 18:15), and Zophar (Job 20:26). (e) Richly varied, consisting of material increase (verse 10), in opposition to Eliphaz (Job 15:29) and Zophar (Job 20:28); family enlargement (verse 11), against Bildad (Job 18:19); and social felicity (verse 12), instead of the lifelong misery awarded to them by Eliphaz (Job 15:20), Bildad (Job 18:11-14), and Zophar (Job 20:18). (f) Absolutely uninterrupted, their affluence and ease never ceasing throughout life, but attending them to the grave’s mouth, into which they quietly and quickly drop without experiencing either physical disease or mental misery (verse 13), thus attaining to the very culmination of mundane felicity—a picture widely different from that sketched by Eliphaz (Job 15:24), Bildad (Job 18:18), and Zophar (Job 20:11). (g) Divinely bestowed, Job adding (verse 16) that the true source of all the felicity and prosperity enjoyed by the wicked, though not recognized as such by them, was the hand of God, who is the primal Fountain of every benefit conferred on man, whether temporal or eternal, material or spiritual (James 1:17), who makes his sun to shine upon the evil and the good (Matthew 5:45), and who so deals with the ungodly to lead them to repentance (Romans 2:4). (2) The impiety of the prosperous (verses 14-16). This Job depicts in four particulars: (a) The strangeness of it. On the theory of the friends, these favourites of fortune ought to have been good; "and yet" (verse 14) they were the opposite. Though designed to engender piety in the heart, material prosperity, in point of fact, seldom does. Yet God’s goodness to the sinner is an aggravation of the sinner’s criminality against God. (b) The wickedness of it. The prosperous say to God, "Depart from us," not as Peter said to Christ (Luke 5:8), but rather as the Gadarenes besought him (Luke 8:37), desiring that God would leave them to the enjoyment of their lusts, as these latter wished to have their swine, not troubling them with either the reproofs of conscience, the checks of Providence, the precepts of his Law, or the prickings of his Spirit. What the sinner most fears the saint most desires—the presence and fellowship of God. What makes the wicked man’s hell constitutes the good man’s heaven. (c) The foolishness of it. The arguments adduced in its support are three: that the ways of God are undesirable—which was not the opinion of Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24), or of Noah (Genesis 6:9), of David (Psalms 138:5), of Solomon (Proverbs 3:17), of Isaiah, (Isaiah 55:2), of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:12-14), of St. Paul (Philippians 4:4), of St. Peter (1 Peter 1:8), or of St. John (1 John 5:3), and certainly not of Christ (Matthew 11:28-30); that the service of God is unreasonable—which it cannot be, considering who God is, Elohim, Jehovah, Shaddai, the All-powerful, All-sufficient, Self-existent, wonder-working Supreme, and the relations he sustains to man as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Judge; that the worship of God is unprofitable—which it is not, since, besides having the promise which belongs to godliness generally (1 Timothy 4:8), prayer has the special guarantee that its desires shall be fulfilled (Matthew 7:7; John 15:7), while it is inconceivable that a creature could commune with his Creator, or a saint hold fellowship with his Saviour, without experiencing therefrom, in continually augmenting measure, peace, joy, illumination, holiness, everything comprehended in what is styled "growth in grace." (d) The repulsiveness of it. The counsel of the wicked Job regards with abhorrence (verse 16); and so do all truly pious souls. 2. The plan of providence. (Verses 22-26.) This Job characterizes as (1) arranged by Divine wisdom,—to maintain a theory out of harmony with which, therefore, was a practical impeachment of the Divine wisdom, an attempt to teach God (verse 22), who can receive no accession to his knowledge or understanding from any of his creatures, an assumption of ability to prescribe to him the scheme in accordance with which his universe should be governed; (2) all-embracing in its sweep, comprehending in its provisions and enactments all creatures from the lowest to the highest, "those in heaven," i.e. angels, authorities, and powers, and "the highest" on earth, lordly potentates, mighty magnates, pretentious sages, as well as common serfs and lowly peasants, being subject to his sway, and therefore again, because of its all-inclusive character, scarcely admitting of criticism on the part of puny man; (3) non-retributive in its character, frequently assigning to the wicked man a life of ease and prosperity (verses 23, 24), and to the godly man a pilgrimage of poverty ending in a bitter death (verse 25), all the same as if it were regardless of the difference between virtue and vice, piety and wickedness, holiness and sin; and (4) indiscriminate in its execution, reducing good and bad alike to the same dead level of quality in the grave (verse 26), and therefore as unlike as possible to the plan of providence which should have prevailed had the theory of the friends been correct. 3. The testimony of ordinary men. (Verses 27-33.) The "tokens" of "them that go by the way," i.e. the observations made by them, abundantly declared six things concerning the ungodly, viz. (1) that they were not usually overwhelmed with retribution on earth and in time, as the friends asserted (verse 28), with special reference to Job (verse 27), whose homestead and family had been engulfed in ruin by swift calamity; (2) that they were generally exempted from the ills of life, even in a season of widespread adversity (verse 30), escaping the stroke of evil fortune by which other and better men were prostrated; (3) that they were commonly allowed to pass through the world without either punishment or reproof (verse 31), amenable to no human law, suffering no sort of check in their wickedness, because no one was bold enough to bear witness to them of their misdeeds, as Nathan did to David (2 Samuel 12:7), Elijah to Ahab (1 Kings 18:17), and John the Baptist to Herod (Matthew 14:4), or powerful enough to exact retribution for their offences; (4) that honour and prosperity attended them even to their graves, the wicked tyrant’s lifeless body being conducted, as were the corpses of rich men in the days of the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 8:10), and as probably was that of Dives (Luke 16:22), with immense pomp and magnificent ceremony, to "the vaults or chambers in sepulchral caverns or tombs in which the dead were laid" (Carey), where affectionate friends and relatives shall watch over his tomb (Good, Fry), or he himself shall keep guard over his heap, i.e. over the mound or pile in which he lies buried, looking down upon it in monumental effigy; (5) that even in the grave they suffer no disadvantage in comparison with other men, "the clods of the valley" being as "sweet" unto them (verse 33)as to the pious, which may be true so far as the insensate dust is concerned, though of course it is only an imagination that the tenants of the tomb can feel either pain or pleasure (Ecclesiastes 9:5, Ecclesiastes 9:6), but implies nothing as to the condition of their souls, which we know to be after death in a situation widely different from that of the righteous (Luke 16:23); and (6) that, in so far as death itself may be accounted an evil, it is one which they share in common with the rest of the race, every one in his turn coming after, as innumerable multitudes have already gone before, them (verse 33). III. THE OF JOB’S REPLY. 1. The consolation of his friends was vain. (1) It was inefficacious. It did not soothe him in his sorrow or help him to bear his burden, but very much the opposite (2) It was insincere. It was not really aimed at the comfort of the patriarch at all, but at his condemnation. It exhorted him to penitence instead of aiding him with friendly sympathy. (3) It was fallacious. It was based on wholly erroneous principles. This Job explicitly asserts. 2. The answers of his friends were wicked. (1) They were untrue. They misrepresented God by ascribing to him principles of government which he palpably repudiated; and they calumniated him, Job, by imputing to him sins of which he was innocent. Hence to that extent (2) they were also sinful. They were perfidious attempts to blacken the character of their suffering friend, and to curry favour with the King of heaven. Learn: 1. That a good man should never weary in contending for the cause of God and truth. 2. That a man who has God and truth upon his side has the best possible allies in debate. 3. That they who have no difficulties in their creeds are not the most likely to be possessed of truth. 4. That the best souls on earth are not necessarily those who have no hard problems to solve. 5. That on the whole continuous prosperity is less desirable as an earthly portion than perpetual adversity. 6. That God confers many of his best gifts upon the worst of men—families and flocks upon tyrants, Christ and salvation upon sinners. 7. That great wealth is prone to separate the soul from God. 8. That God’s people should shun the counsel, avoid the company, and abhor the conduct of wicked men. 9. That wicked men’s "Depart from us," will yet be answered by Christ’s "Depart from me." 10. That it is better to be God’s wheat than the devil’s chaff, since though the former may be bruised, the latter shall be blown away. 11. That the God who is able to judge angels is not likely to prove incapable of judging men. 12. That the wicked man’s glory upon earth is little better than the paraphernalia of a funeral procession. 13. That God’s ever-watchful eye is a better guardian of a saint’s dust than gilded mausoleums and monumental columns. BY E. JOHNSON Job 21:1-34 Diverse interpretations of life. The friends of Job remain entrenched in the one firm position, as they think it, which they have from the first taken up. No appeals on his part have availed to soften their hearts, or induce a reconsideration of the rigid theory of suffering which they have adopted. But he now, no longer confining himself to the assertion of his personal innocence, makes an attack upon their position. He dwells upon the great enigma of life—the prosperity of the wicked through the whole of life, in contrast to the misery and persecution which often fall to the lot of the righteous. In face of these contradictions, it is wrong and malicious of his friends to desire to fix guilt upon him because he suffers. I. ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS. (Verses 1-6.) He asks for a patient hearing, because he is not about to complain of man, but of a terrible enigma which may well excite the amazement, the dread wonder of men, as being beyond their power to unravel. He speaks as one the very foundations of whose faith are shaken, as he thinks of this painful and Perplexing "riddle of the earth." "Because reason cannot comprehend the mystery of the crees, and why nod deals often so hardly with his children, bitter thoughts will arise from time to time in devout hearts, and cause them to tremble in great dismay" (Zeyss). (See Psalms 37:1; Psalms 73:12; Jeremiah 12:1.) The solid columns of our reason, so to speak, are shaken by doubts of the justice of God’s government of the world. II. APPEAL TO : THE OF THE WICKED, WITH THE OF THE , IN THIS LIFE. (Verses 7-26.) 1. Traits of godless prosperity. (Verses 7-16.) (1) The wicked are fortunate in their persons (verse 7). Instead of being cut off by premature death, as Zophar had maintained, they remain in vigour to a good old age. (2) In their families. They see their posterity flourishing before them like young scions from the old root (verse 8). (3) In their houses. Peace dwells there, free from alarm, and no chastising rod of Providence falls upon them (verse 9). (4) In their herds and flocks—the great elements of Oriental wealth (verses 10, 11). (5) In their merry life. Sportive throngs of children play around them, full of joyous pranks and frolic, while the sound of music charms the ear (verses 11, 12). (6) Their easy death. Their days are spent in comfort to the very last, quite in opposition to the gloomy pictures which the friends have drawn of their fearful and violent ends (Job 11:20; Job 18:14; Job 20:11). They disappear suddenly, painlessly, into the unseen world—theirs is a euthanasia (verse 13)! Such a life may be lived, such a death may be met, without a spark of religion to justify or explain it (verses 14, 15). They are men, these wicked ones, whose language to God has been, "Depart from us!" Their happiness awakens no gratitude towards its Source; they deem worship and prayer to be useless. Job proceeds with his description, and declares further, to support his position, "Lo, not in their hand stands their good." That is, not they are, but God is himself, the Author of their prosperity; and it is this which makes the problem so dark and hard to solve. "The counsel of the wicked be far from reel’ (verse 16). Here flashes out once more the true, deep faith of the patriarch. Despite all the mystery and all the temptation, he will endure to the end; never will he renounce his God (Job 1:11; Job 2:5). 2. These lessons of experience confirmed, with reference to the positions of the friends. (Verses 17-21.) Bildad had spoken (Job 18:5, Job 18:12) of the quenching of the light of the wicked man and of his sudden overthrow. Job questions the universal application of this. "How often," etc.? is here equivalent to "How seldom," etc.! How often does God distribute sorrows in his anger? with allusion to Job 20:23 (Job 20:17). This doubting questioning still continues in Job 20:18, "How often do they become as straw before the wind, and like chaff which the tempest carries away?" (see Job 20:8, Job 20:9). "God lays up for his children his calamity?" referring to Eliphaz’s words (Job 20:4) and Zophar’s (Job 20:10). Job proceeds (verse 20) to refute this theory of satisfaction by substitution. "Let his eyes see his destruction; and of the fiery wrath of the Almighty let him drink!" The allusion is to Zophar (Job 20:23). And further, against this theory (verse 21); in his dull insensibility the wicked man cares nought for the fate of his posterity. "For what pleasure is his house after him?"—what interest or concern has the selfish egotist in the sufferings of his descendants after he is dead and gone? And if this be so, how can it be alleged that the wicked man is punished in his posterity? "If the number of his moons is allotted to him." The thought is that the selfish, pleasure-seeking bad man is content, if only he lives out the full measure of his days. What amidst these perplexities can keep the soul true to God and steadfast in the pursuit of goodness? Experience suggests these doubts; and a larger experience must solve them. The Christian knows that in God’s ordering of life the outward prosperity is often unrelated to moral worth. The good things of this world cannot satisfy; without a good conscience earthly happiness is impossible. Often the worldly prosperity enjoyed by the bad man is the means of his destruction. This is not the scene of final recompense and retribution. Doubtless God, whose counsels are inscrutable, will indemnify pious sufferers for these earthly privations. 3. Restatement of the enigma. (Verses 22-26.) The contrast in men’s destinies to our expectations involves a Divine counsel which we may not presume to understand. "Shall one teach God knowledge, who judges those that are high?" (verse 22). The friends had brought this thought forward (Job 4:18; Job 15:15) with the view of supporting their narrow theory of retribution. Conversely, Job would refute by the same means this short-sighted view, pointing to the unfathomable depth and mystery of the counsels and laws of God for the government of the world. Two examples illustrate this. One man dies in bodily ease and comfort—his troughs full of milk, strong and vigorous to the marrow of his bones (verses 23, 24). Another dies with bitterness in his soul, and has not enjoyed good (verse 25).And yet they are united in one common fate, though their moral worth is so different and so contrasted. "With one another they lie on the dust of the grave, and the worms cover them." "Both, heirs to some six feet of clod, are equal in the earth at last" (verse 26). III. OF HIS FRIENDS FOR THEIR PARTIAL OF THE OUTWARD OF MEN. (Verses 27-34.) He knows their thoughts, and the malice with which they ill-treat him, with the object of proving him by any means, fair or unfair, a hypocrite. "Where," they say, "is the house of the tyrant? and where the tent inhabited by wicked men?" Job alludes still to the repeated descriptions of Eliphaz and Bildad (Job 15:34; Job 18:15, Job 18:21) of the overthrow of the tent of the wicked man (verse 28). Have they, then, not asked the wanderers by the way (Lamentations 1:12; Psalms 80:12), and will they mistake their tokens? The instances of prosperous bad men and unhappy good men which these persons can produce—they must not misunderstand nor reject them. The "tokens" are the memorable and wonderful events of this kind (verse 29). Then follow the summary contents of these people’s experiences (verse 30): "That on the day of destruction the wicked is spared, on the day of wrath they are led away" from its devastating fury, so that they suffer nothing. "Who will show him his way to his face? and if he has acted, who will repay it to him?" (verse 31). This is Job’s question. It concerns God, the unfathomably wise and mighty Author of the destinies of men. "And he" (alluding to verse 30) "is brought to burial" in honour and pomp, "and on a mound he keeps watch," like one immortalized in a statue or tomb. His tumulus remains to record his name and memory, while Bildad had described the memory of the wicked as perishing from the earth, his name being forgotten. Verse 33, "The clods of the valley lie softly upon him"—the valleys being the favourite burying-places in the East—"and all the world draws after him," treading the same path which multitudes have done before. . (Verse 34.) "How will you now so vainly comfort me?" Falsehood only remains from their replies. There is some truth both in Zophar’s and in Job’s speeches. But both represent one side only of the truth. The end of the wicked man is that which Zophar depicts. Yet the temporal prosperity of the wicked, lasting to the latest hour of life, is often seen. Job cannot deny the facts of Zophar; but neither can Zophar deny the exceptions pointed out by Job. The friends are blind to these, because the admission of them would overthrow the whole battery of their attack. Job remains nearer to the truth than Zophar (Delitzsch). The godless are often greatly exalted, to fall the more deeply afterwards. "Raised up on high to be hurled down below" (Shakespeare). "Lofty towers have the heavier fall". But it is the belief in a future judgment and a future life which can alone give patience under the anomalies and contradictions of the present. The God who is "upright, true, and all-disposing" hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, and "reward every man according to his works." "This is certain, that God is infinitely just; whether or not we apprehend him, he is so. When we think his ways are imperfect, we should remember that the imperfection is only in our understanding. It is not the ground or the trees that turn round; but the truth is, we are giddy, and think so Because I cannot see the light, shall I say that the sun does not shine? There may be many reasons that may hinder me. Something may cover the eye, or the clouds may cover the sun, or it may be in another horizon, as in the night; but it is impossible for the sun, so long as it is a sun, not to shine It was not for Job’s sin that God afflicted him, but because he was freely pleased to do so; yet there was a reason for this pleasure which was to discover that grace of patience given him by God, to the astonishment of the world and the confutation of the devil" (South).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 21:7-15 The perverse misapplication of the Divine goodness. Job is ready with his answer. Although Zophar has correctly represented the judgments that come upon the wicked, and the evils to which wickedness not unfrequently lead, yet many cases of departure from this rule are to be observed. Job therefore proposes a counter-question," Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? "He then depicts the prosperity which again and again marks the career of the wicked, to whom the Divine bounty is shown (1) in prolonged life; (2) in the power and influence they are permitted to gain; (3) in their family prosperity; (4) in their freedom from calamity; (5) in their domestic security; (6) in their abundance and joy. This mystery Job does not instantly unravel But what is the effect of all this prosperity on the wicked? It does not humble him nor make him thankful As an uneven glass distorts the fairest image, so their impure and ill-regulated minds turn the goodness of God into an occasion of impious rejection. "Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us." The distortions of the evil mind pervert the goodness of God into— I. AN OF IMPIOUS DESPIAL OF THE DIVINE NAME. They refuse to know God. They shut out the knowledge of God from their hearts. With a wicked "Depart!" they resist the Holy One. They have no aspiration after a holy corn reunion, or the vision of the pure. The Lord is abhorrent to them. Their tastes are corrupt; their preferences are for evil. Truly they pervert and reverse all good things. They put darkness for light, and light for darkness. They put bitter for sweet, and sweet for hitter. The very call to adoration and praise they turn into an occasion of despisal and rejection. II. In their perversions they make the Divine goodness AN FOR A OF THE DIVINE WAYS. This is always the danger of them who have abundance and yet lack the fear of God. This is the basis of a teaching long afterwards touchingly taught concerning the rich, to whom it is so "hard" to "enter into the kingdom of heaven." The satisfied man becomes the self-satisfied, even though indebted to another for his possessions. Then the spirit of independence becomes a spirit of revulsion against all authority that might be raised over it. So they who "spend their days in wealth" say," We desire not the knowledge of thy ways." III. This same spirit ripens into AN REFUSAL TO SUBMIT TO THE DIVINE . "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?" So far is the goodness of God from leading him to repentance who is evil in spirit. Wickedness is the fruit of an ill-directed judgment, and it tends to impair the judgment more and more. It distorts all the moral sensibilities, and therefore all the moral processes. If the judgment were accurately to decide in favour of the Divine Law and its obligatory character, the perverted preferences of the mind would reject the testimony, and by a rude rebellion within would prevent a right decision from being arrived at. Even the check and restraint of the enlightened judgment becomes a signal for resistance. Its goad is kicked against; its repressions refused; its warning unheeded; its plain path, narrow and difficult to follow, is rejected, and a broad and easy way, in which the foolish heart finds its pleasure, chosen in preference. So the Divine authority is rejected and despised. The ill effects of rejecting the Divine authority are seen: 1. In the loss of the guidance of the supreme wisdom. 2. In the inevitable injuries resulting from following a false and erroneous judgment. 3. In the demoralization of the life. 4. In the final vindication of the Divine authority.—R.G. Job 21:30 The reservation of the Divine judgment. The expositions of these verses are various, and all true homiletics must be based on true exposition. But there is no diversity of opinion amongst expositors as to the final judgment of the wicked. Whatever, therefore, may be the aspect in which it is viewed by the argument of this chapter, it cannot be too loudly declared that judgment upon the wicked is reserved. That a final day of adjudication will come has its aspect of warning to the wrong-doer who temporarily escapes punishment, and its aspect of encouragement to the patient doer of that which is good, who is nevertheless called upon to suffer affliction. The reservation of the Divine judgment— I. A WARNING TO THE WICKED NOT TO PRESUME ON A PRESENT FROM . "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Thus is man perverse, blind, foolish. The declaration of a final, inevitable judgment is the effectual check upon foolish presumption. The wicked man is a weak man, whose own conscience makes a coward of him. The appeal to his fear and dread is the effectual check upon his carelessness. II. In the reservation of the Divine judgment, THE ONES MAY FIND A TRUE GROUND OF . Revenge is not a pious sentiment. To desire punishment upon the wicked from vindictive feelings is far from the pure mind; but he that is unjustly traduced may abide in hope that one day a Divine judgment will bring hidden things to light, and make the righteousness of the falsely accused shine as the light. The Divine judgments being always wise and good and just—the judgments of the loving God—they will find their echo of approval in the heart of every wise and just man. The final Divine judgments will commend themselves to the utmost tenderness of the human heart; for their absolute rightness will be apparent. III. The reservation of the Divine judgment against wickedness WILL AFFORD FOR THE FINAL OF THE DIVINE WAYS. In his great condescension it may please God to vindicate his dealings with the sons of men, when each will have evidence of the righteousness of his doings. Clouds and darkness may now hide the Divine purpose and the Divine methods of procedure; but all will be clearly revealed, and hidden iniquity be exposed and oppressed goodness vindicated and the Divine ways justified. The certainty, the strictness, the equity, the unbiassed rectitude of the Divine judgment, are causes for dreading it. A lowly, reverent, obedient spirit is the true preparation for the final award. Judgment, though delayed, will not be forgotten. "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked."—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 21:3 The right of reply. I. THE RIGHT OF REPLY IS JUSTLY CLAIMED. Job has heard enough from his friends. He is impatient to answer them. Surely they should allow him to do so. 1. This right is conceded law. The worst criminal may be defended by counsel, may call witnesses in his favour, may make his own statement. In civil eases both sides are heard before judgment is pronounced. 2. This right should be allowed in social life. It is not just to condemn any one unheard. There may come to us a damaging tale concerning a person; it is our duty to suspend our judgment till he has given his explanation. 3. This right ought to be permitted in theology. It was a theological as well as a personal discussion that Job was carrying on with his friends. But in theology people are most impatient of hearing anything contrary to their own views. Yet it is not just to condemn those who differ from us until we have heard what they have to say on their side of a question. II. THE RIGHT OF REPLY IS HELPFUL IN THE OF TRUTH. We are all tempted to take partial, one-sided views of things. It is only By bringing light from all quarters that we can see the rounded totality of truth. Therefore discussion helps truth. At first, indeed, it may not seem to do so, and, indeed, there seems to be a certain irony in it, for the most eager combatants are usually furthest from a just con-caption of what they are contending for. But after the discussion is over, those who look on are better able to understand the whole subject. Thus the discussion of Job and his friends throws light on the mystery of Providence. The creeds of Christendom were forged in the fires of controversy. Theology is a result of discussion. The right of reply has given breadth, depth, and definiteness to it. Truth is not helped by the persecution of error. III. THE RIGHT OF REPLY IS A TO THE . Job only asks for this. When he has spoken his friends may mock on. There is some humour in his tone, or perhaps a bitter scorn. Truth is strong. Only let it shine out in its native strength, and calumny must wither before it. Any unjust accusations will then only break themselves like waves that are dashed to pieces on the crags. We can afford to be indifferent to falsehood and error if we can speak out and let the truth be fairly seen. IV. THE RIGHT OF REPLY WILL BE GIVEN TO ALL, It will be of little use to those who are in the wrong. To be able to stand up in the searching light of eternity and reply for a bad case is no desirable privilege. Rather than attempt to reply, the self-convicted sinner will call on the mountains and hills to cover him. But those who are honestly endeavouring to make the truth manifest in face of great opposition and gross misapprehension may learn to possess their souls in patience if they will come to understand that the oppression and injustice are but temporary. Though silenced for a season, ultimately truth will speak out with a trumpet-voice. In conclusion, let us remember that God has a right of redly to all man’s foolish sophistry, to all his shuffling excuses. All error and pretence will be pulverized annihilated when God speaks his great answer to cavillers, unbelievers, and opponents of every kind.—W.F.A. Job 21:4 The complaint that goes beyond man. I. THE THAT IS OF MORE THAN MAN’S DOINGS. Job does not only complain of man’s injustice. That would be hard to bear; and yet a strong soul should be able to withstand it, trusting in a higher justice that will set all right at last. But the mystery, the horror, the agony, of Job’s complaint, spring from the persuasion that his troubles are to be attributed to a more than earthly origin. They are so huge and terrible that he cannot but ascribe them to a superhuman source. This fact intensifies the complaint in many respects. 1. The mystery of the supernatural. Man quails before it. The bravest hero who is not afraid of any human strength trembles at the thought of the unseen. 2. The power of the Divine. Job can resist man, but he cannot stand out against God. It is not mortal frailty, but immortal Omnipotence, that assails him. The contest is unequal. 3. The apparent injustice of the Just One. This is hardest of all. It would be possible to bear the lower injustice if assured of the impartiality and triumph of the higher justice. But when Job looks up for justice to its great central throne, even there he seems to see wrong, misapprehension, and unfair treatment. It is not that Job directly charges God with injustice; but there is in his heart an all-perplexing, baffling thought, discouraging confidence. Though we may not doubt God, it is hard to bear his hand when he seems to go against justice and love. Here is the great test of faith. II. THE THAT GOES BEYOND MAN’S EARS. As Job complains of what is done by more than man, so he cries to a power above the human. The sublimity of the drama is seen in its relations with the unseen world. It assumes more than heroic proportions. It is concerned with God as well as man. 1. The complaining cry. Job continually lifts up his voice to God. We have to learn to look above the earth. It is foolish to complain of God, but it is natural to complain to God. If we even think hard thoughts of God, it is not necessary for us to bury them in the secrecy of our own breasts. There they will only burn as hidden fires, and consume all faith and hope. It is far better to be courageous, and confess them frankly to God himself. He can understand them, judge them fairly, and see the sorrow and perplexity from which they have sprung. And it is he who can dissipate them. 2. The merciful Heaven. God hears every cry of his children, and when faith is mixed with fear he accepts the faith and dispels the fear. Men judge their fellows harshly for their complaining utterances. God is like the patient mother who soothes her fretful child. Though the cry is wrung from the heart in an agony of dismay, so that no hope of relief is visible through the blinding veil of tears, God does not fling it back with angered dignity; he treats it with pitying mercy. If only the soul will give itself utterly up to him, even in its darkness and despair, he will hear and save.—W.F.A. Job 21:7-21 The prosperity of the wicked. Job here gives his version of the old familiar theme. It is not as the three friends supposed. These neat maxims do not fit in with the facts of life as Job has seen them. The prosperity of the wicked is a real though a mysterious fact, one that cannot be gainsaid. I. THE FACTS AS IN LIFE. 1. An established family. Job’s home is desolate. The seed of the wicked is established in their sight. They have their children about them. 2. Security. (Verse 8.) "Their houses are safe from fear." They are not haunted by the alarms of guilt. On the contrary, they are very comfortable and self-satisfied (verse 9). 3. Freedom from chastisement. The rod of God is not upon them. The righteous man is chastised; the godless man is spared (verse 9). 4. Good fortune. Their cattle breed successfully (verse 10). The mishaps which fall to the lot of others avoid them. A certain good fortune follows them, even into those chances of life which are beyond human control. 5. Pleasure. These wicked people are not troubled by their sins. They have no puritanical scruples to sour them. They spend their days in gaiety (verses 11, 12). 6. Prosperity lasting till death. (Verse 13.) They do not have the reverse of fortune which the three moralizers assumed to be their lot. A long life of wealth and ease is followed by a quick and almost painless death. Here is unmitigated prosperity from the cradle to the grave. II. THE OF THESE FACTS. Because they are so prosperous the wicked harden themselves against God. 1. Dispensing with God. (Verse 14.) They think they can do very well without God. This world’s goods satisfy them, and of this world’s goods they have a sufficiency. They have no need to cry to God for help for they are not in trouble. They see no reason for prayer, for they have all they want without it. 2. Rejecting God. (Verse 15.) These prosperous wicked people go further than to live without God. They actually rebel against him. Being self-sufficient, they decline to admit that they are under any obligation to serve God. Thus their very prosperity increases their sin. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 22:1-30 Eliphaz returns to the attack, but with observations that are at first strangely pointless and irrelevant, e.g. on the unprofitableness of man to God (verses l, 2), and on the slight importance of Job’s case (verse 3). After this weak prelude, however, there is more vigour in his assault. In verses 4-9 he directly charges Job with a number of specified sins, and in verses 10, 11 declares his sufferings to be the consequence of them. He then proceeds to accuse him of denying God’s omniscience (verses 12-14), and, alter some not very successful attempts to retort on him his own words (verses 15-20), finally recurs to his favourite devices (see Job 5:17-26) of exhorting Job to submission and repentance, and promising him restoration to God’s favour and a return of prosperity (verses 21-30). Job 22:1, Job 22:2 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, Can a man be profitable unto God? Job had said nothing upon this point; but perhaps Eliphaz thinks his complaints and expostulations to imply a higher value in man, and a greater claim to consideration at God’s hands, than can rightly be challenged. Certainly God does not depend on man for profit or advantage of any kind. Neither our wisdom nor our goodness "extendeth to him." As he that is wise may be profitable unto himself; rather, truly he that is wise is profitable unto himself; i.e. to himself only, and not to God. Man’s intelligence and researches can add nothing to God’s knowledge. Job 22:3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? As "our goodness extendeth not to God," and as his all-perfect happiness knows neither increase nor diminution, we cannot he said to advantage him by our goodness. Still "good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ;" and God himself condescends to say that he "takes pleasure in his people," "in them that fear him" (Psalms 147:11; Psalms 149:4). Or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect? Of course, the "gain" is to the man himself, and not to God. He saves his soul alive. God has one more worshipper in the courts of heaven, one more voice added to the choir which hymns his praise for evermore, But what is one drop added to an ocean? Job 22:4 Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? rather, Is it for thy fear of him that he reproveth thee? Surely not. If he reproves thee, it must be because thou fearest him not. The fact of thy reproof is sure evidence of the fact of thy guilt. Will he enter with thee into judgment? rather, that he entereth with thee into judgment (see the Revised Version). Job 22:5 Is not thy wickedness great? Judging from the greatness of Job’s punishment, Eliphaz concludes, logically from his premisses, that his wickedness must be commensurate. He must have been guilty of almost every form of ill-doing. And thine iniquities infinite? literally, and is there not no end to thine iniquities? These general conclusions seem to Eliphaz to justify him in proceeding to the enumeration of details. Job 22:6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought; i.e. thou hast lent to thy brother on pledge, without reasonable cause, when thou weft rich enough to need no security (comp. Nehemiah 5:2-11). And stripped the naked of their clothing. When thy brother, on borrowing from thee, pledged his raiment, thou didst retain it, and so didst leave him to shiver all night without covering (see Exodus 22:26, Exodus 22:27). We may, perhaps, gather from this that the Mosaic Law on the subject was founded on an anterior custom widely prevalent in SouthWestern Asia. Job 22:7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink. To give water to the thirsty was regarded in the East as one of the most elementary duties of man to man. The self-justification of the dead in the Egyptian Hades contained the following passage: "I gave my bread to the hungry, and drink to him that was athirst; I clothed the naked with garments; I sheltered the wanderer" (’Ritual of the Dead,’ ch. CXXV. § 38). The same claim appears continually on Egyptian tombs. "All men respected me," we read on one; "I gave water to the thirsty; I set the wanderer in his path; I took away the oppressor, and put a stop to violence". In the proverbs assigned to Solomon, "which the men of Hezekiah copied out" (Proverbs 25:1), the duty was declared to be one owed even to enemies (see Proverbs 25:21, "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink"). Isaiah notices it as praiseworthy in the Temanites (Eliphaz’s people), that they "brought water to him that was thirsty’ and prevented with their bread him that fled" (Isaiah 21:14). Jael is praised for going further than this: He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish" (Judges 5:25). And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. Later on Job absolutely denies this, as well as many of the other charges. "If I have withheld," he says, "the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof," then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone" (Job 31:16-22). Job 22:8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; literally, as for the man of arm; i.e. the man strong of arm. Job’s retainers are probably meant, whom Eliphaz supposes to have been allowed by Job to oppress the poor, and have their own way in the world. This charge was doubtless as baseless as the others (comp. Job 29:16, Job 29:17). And the honourable man dwelt in it; of the accepted man—"the favoured man," i.e. those of whom Job approved and whom he favoured. Job 22:9 Thou hast sent widows away empty. Job, on the contrary, declares that he "caused the widow s heart to sing for joy" (Job 29:13). The sin of oppressing widows was one of which Job deeply felt the heinousness. He is certainly a priori not likely to have committed it (Job 1:1; Job 4:3, Job 4:4), and the prejudiced testimony of Eliphaz will scarcely convince any dispassionate person to the contrary. And the arms of the fatherless have been broken; i.e. the strength of the fatherless has been (by thy fault) taken flora them. Job has allowed them to be oppressed and ruined. The reply of Job is, "When the ear heard, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him" (Job 29:11, Job 29:12; see also Job 31:21, Job 31:22). Job 22:10 Therefore snares are round about thee. As Bildad had threatened (Job 18:8-10), and as Job himself had acknowledged (Job 19:6). And sudden fear troubleth thee (comp. Job 3:25; Job 7:14; Job 13:21, etc.). Job 22:11 Or darkness, that thou canst not see. Job had complained of the "darkness" that was "set in his paths" (Job 19:8), meaning probably his inability to discover the cause of his afflictions. And abundance of waters cover thee. The comparison of severe affliction to an overwhelming flood is very common in Scripture (see Psalms 42:7; Psalms 69:1-3, Psalms 69:14, Psalms 69:15; Psalms 124:4, Psalms 124:5; Lamentations 3:54, etc.). So Shakespeare speaks of "a sea of troubles." Job 22:12 Is not God in the height of heaven? From taxing Job with definite open sins, Eliphaz proceeds to accuse him of impious thoughts and principles. He does not acknowledge, Eliphaz says, either the majesty or the omniscience of God. Here he has, at any rate, some tangible ground for his reproaches. Job’s words have been over-bold, over-venturesome. He has seemed to forget the distance between God and man (Job 9:30-33; Job 10:2, Job 10:3; Job 13:3, etc.), and to call in question either God’s omniscience or his regard for moral distinctions (Job 9:22, Job 9:23; Job 21:7-13, Job 21:23-26). Hence Eliphaz is enabled to take a high tone and ask, "Hast thou forgotten that God is in the height of heaven, far up above all us poor wretched mortals? Dost thou need to be reminded of this? He is above the stars, and yet behold the height of the stars, how high they are! Even they are infinitely above men, yet how far below him!" (comp. Job 35:5). Job 22:13 And thou sayest, How doth God know? Job had not said this in so many words, but, by equalizing the godly and the wicked (Job 9:22; Job 21:23-26), he might be supposed to mean that God took no note of men’s conduct, and therefore had not a perfect knowledge of all things. The psalmist implies that many men so thought (Psalms 10:11; Psalms 73:11; Psalms 94:7). Can he judge through the dark cloud? rather, through the thick darkness. God was supposed to dwell remote from man, in the highest heaven, and, according to many, "clouds and darkness were round about him" (Psalms 97:2)—he "dwelt in the thick darkness" (1 Kings 8:12)—he "made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him was waters, and thick clouds of the skies" (Psalms 18:11). The imagery was, no doubt, at first used in reference to man’s inability to see and know God; but when men became familiar with it, they turned the metaphor round, and questioned God’s ability to see and know anything about man. Job had not really ever shared in these doubts; but it suits Eliphaz’s purpose to malign and misrepresent him. Job 22:14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not (see the comment on the preceding verse); and he walketh in the circuit of heaven; or, on the circumference of the heavens. The heavens are regarded as a solid vault, outside which is the place where God dwells. Job 22:15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? rather, Wilt thou keep the old way’ etc.? (see the Revised Version). Eliphaz assumes that it is Job’s intention to cast in his lot with these persons whose prosperous wickedness he has described in the preceding chapter (verses 7-15). And this notwithstanding Job’s final protest, "Be the counsel of the wicked far from me" (verse 16). He calls the mode of life pursued by these wicked persons "the old way," either with allusion to the seed of Cain before the Flood, who "corrupted their way" (Genesis 6:12), or perhaps with reference to the descendants of Nimrod after it. Job 22:16 Which were cut down (rather, swept or snatched away) out of time; i.e. before their time, prematurely. Whose foundation was overflown with a flood. Some suppose an allusion to the general destruction of mankind by the Noachian Deluge; but perhaps no more is meant than that the supports of the wicked are ordinarily loosened and carried away by a flood of calamity. No single event need be referred to. Job 22:17 Who said unto God, Depart from us (comp. Job 21:14). Eliphaz tries, though with no very great success, to turn Job’s words against him. And, What can the Almighty do for them? i.e. and ask what the Almighty can do for them. A change from the second to the third person, without any change of subject, is not unusual in Hebrew. The wicked renounce God, and bid him depart from them—conduct which they justify by asking what good he could do them if they acted otherwise. The idea is the same as that of Job 21:15, though not expressed so pointedly. What Eliphaz thinks to gain by echoing Job’s words is not very apparent. Job 22:18 Yet he filled their houses with good things. The "he" is emphatic (הוּא). Translate, Yet it was he that filled their houses with good things; and comp. Job 21:16, where the prosperity of the wicked is said not to have proceeded from themselves. But the counsel of the wicked is far from me; or, but let the counsel of the wicked be far from me. Again, Job’s words in Job 21:16 are echoed, perhaps that Eliphaz may show himself to be at least as pious as Job. Job 22:19 The righteous see it, and are glad; i.e. "the righteous see both the short-lived prosperity (Job 22:18) and the ultimate destruction (Job 22:16) of the wicked, and rejoice over them. especially over the latter" (comp. Psalms 58:10; Psalms 107:40-42; Proverbs 11:10). And the innocent laugh them to scorn (comp. Psalms 2:6). Scorn and derision are the just portion of the wicked, and in Old Testament times even saints did not scruple to pour them out on those who deserved them. But the gospel spirit is different. Job 22:20 Whereas our substance is not cut down. It is best to take these as the words of the righteous in their triumph over the wicked; but they can scarcely bear the interpretation given them in the Authorized Version. The clause is not really negative but affirmative, and the word קִים. does not mean "substance," but "adversary." Translate, Surely they that rose up against us (or, our adversaries) are cut off; and compare the Revised Version. The "adversaries" of the righteous are the "wicked men" who have been "snatched away before their time," and have had their "foundation overflown with a flood" (Job 22:16). But the remnant of them the fire consumeth; rather, and the remnant of them hath the fire consumed (see the Revised Version). The "fire" here, like the "flood" in Job 22:16, is a metaphor, and therefore not to be pressed. All that is essential is that the wicked are destroyed. Over this the "righteous" and the "innocent" rejoice. Job 22:21-30 At this point a transition occurs. Eliphaz turns away from reproaches, open or covert, designed to exhibit Job as an example of extreme wickedness, and falls back on those topics which were the main subjects of his first exhortation (Job 5:8-27), viz. an earnest appeal to Job to return to God, to repent and amend (verses 21-23) and a lavish outpouring of promises, or prophecies, that in that case he should be delivered from all his troubles, should recover his wealth and prosperity, obtain of God all that he should pray for, succeed in all his enterprises, and be able to help and ease others, even those who might be guilty in God’s sight (verses 24-30). Job 22:21 Acquaint now thyself with him (i.e. God), and be at peace; or, make, I beseech thee’ a trial of him, and be at peace; i.e. risk everything, throw thyself upon his mercy, and so make thy peace with him. To do so is well worth thy while, for thereby good shall come unto thee. It is a question what sort of "good" is meant. If we are to explain the "good" of this passage by Job 22:24, Job 22:25 exclusively, Eliphaz will become a mere utilitarian, and he will be rightly characterized as "selfish and sordid" (Cook)—an anticipation of the Mammon of Milton. But there seem to be no sufficient grounds for singling out Job 22:24, Job 22:25 from the rest of the passage, and regarding them as forming its key-note. The "good" which Eliphaz promises to Job includes, besides "the gold of Ophir" and "plenty of silver," such things as "delight in the Almighty," and confident trust in him (verse 26), God’s hearing of his prayers (verse 27), the shining of light upon his path (verse 28), his own payment of his vows (verse 27), his giving assistance to the poor and needy (verse 29), and even his deliverance of the guilty by the pureness of his hands (verse 30); so that other besides material considerations are clearly taken into account, and the worldly prosperity which Eliphaz promises forms a part only of the good result which he anticipates from the patriarch making his peace with the Almighty. Job 22:22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth; or, receive now instruction from his mouth. The supposition of some commentators, that the "Law of Moses" is intended, is negatived by the entire absence from the Book of any allusion to the details of the Mosaic legislation, as well as by the primitive character of the life depicted in the book, and the certainty that no one of the interlocutors is an Israelite. The Hebrew תּוֹרה, without the article prefixed, is properly "instruction," and is only to be assumed as meaning "the Law" when the context shows this meaning to be probable. The "instruction" to which Eliphaz here points, and which he regards as instruction from God’s mouth, is probably the teaching of religious men, such as himself, which he considered to have come from God originally, though, perhaps, he could not have explained how. And lay up his words in thine heart. This is a mere variant of the preceding clause, and adds no fresh idea. Job 22:23 If thou shalt return to the Almighty. Eliphaz, like Bildad in Job 8:5, and Zophar in Job 11:13, taxes Job with having fallen away from God, almost with having apostatized. All his prophecies of future prosperity rest upon the assumption that Job, having fallen away, is now about to turn to God, repent of his misdoings, and be again received with favour. Thou shall be built up; i.e. "restored, re-established! Thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles (comp. Job 11:14, where Zophar implies that Job’s tents have ill-gotten gains concealed in them). Job 22:24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust; rather, then shalt thou lay thy treasure in the dust; i.e. hold it in slight esteem, because of its abundance. And the gold of Ophir (literally, and Ophir) shall be to thee as the stones of the brooks,. "Ophir" stands, no doubt, for untold wealth, being the great gold- producing country (see 1 Kings 9:28; 1 Kings 10:11; 1 Kings 22:48, 1 Chronicles 29:1-30:41; Psalms 45:9; Isaiah 13:12). Job 22:25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defense; rather, thy treasure. The word is the same as that used in the first clause of Job 22:24, It properly signifies "ore." The general meaning of the passage seems to be, "However rich thou mayest be in the precious metals, thy true treasure—that which thou wilt value most—will be the Almighty himself." And thou shalt have plenty of silver; or, and he shall be previous silver unto thee (see the Revised Version). Job 22:26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty. God shall no longer be a terror and alarm to thee, as he is at present (Job 7:17-20; Job 9:17, Job 9:34; Job 10:15-17; Job 13:21; Job 19:6-13, etc.), but a source of rejoicing and joy. Thou shalt have blessings at his hands instead of sufferings, rewards instead of punishments. Therefore shalt thou delight in him, and shalt lift up thy rites unto God; i.e. "shalt turn towards him, like the sunflower towards the sun, end bask in the light of his countenance.’’ Job 22:27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee. Now Job prays, but is not heard; he asks for death, but it does not come; he begs for a respite from suffering, but it is refused him; he beseeches God to enter into argument with him (Job 9:32-34; Job 10:2), but God vouchsafes no answer. Let him follow Eliphaz’s advice, "return to the Almighty" (verse 23), humble himself in the dust, repent and "put away his iniquity" (verse 23), and then, Eliphaz promises him, all shall be changed—God will become gracious to him, will listen to him, and grant his requests, will remove his heavy hand, and crown him with mercy and loving-kindness. Then, he adds, thou shalt pay thy vows. Thou shalt have wealth enough, and strength enough, to pay any vows that thou hast made, which now in thy afflicted state thou canst not do. Vows are part of natural religion, and were widely prevalent over all the East in ancient times. The performance of vows, which was strictly enjoined in the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 23:21), must at all times have been felt as obligatory by the natural conscience. Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee. Whatever thou resolvest on, i.e; God shall ratify with his authority, and bring to pass in due time for thy benefit—a promise which has certainly "a touch of audacity" about it (Cook). David is less bold, but intends to give the same sort of encouragement when he says, "Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart; commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass (Psalms 37:4, Psalms 37:5). And the light shall shine upon thy ways. Job had complained of the "darkness" by which his path was shadowed (Job 19:8). Eliphaz promises that this cause of complaint shall be removed. Job’s way shall be "made plain before his face." A bright light shall illumine it—a light that shall ever "shine more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). Job 22:29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; rather, when men cast down’ and thou shalt say, Let there be lifting up; i.e. when oppressors have cast a man down, and thou appealest to God, and prayest for his lifting up, then he (i.e. God) shall save the humble person. God shall hear thy, prayer, and the oppressed person shall be rescued and saved. Job 22:30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent; rather, he shall deliver even him that is not innocent (see the Revised Version). It is now generally admitted that אי in this place is for אין, as in 1 Samuel 4:21; Proverbs 31:4. The meaning seems to be that God will deliver, at Job’s prayer, even guilty persons, who will be delivered by the pureness of Job’s hands. Eliphaz thus prophesies his own deliverance and that of his two friends from God’s wrath at the intercession of Job, as actually came to pass afterwards (see Job 42:7-9). Job 22:1-4 Eliphaz to Job: the third colloquy: the second controversy: 1. A fallacious syllogism. I. A SOUND PREMISS. That God’s government of mankind is entirely disinterested, his judicial retributions not being affected by considerations of personal benefit or hurt arising from the conduct of his creatures. 1. Not by expectation of advantage. (Verses 2, 3.) Here is: (1) An admission; that a wise man, rightly exercising his faculties in the sphere of natural life, may effectually promote his own advantage—a proposition incontrovertible by reason, since wisdom in this sense signifies superior discernment and ability, the capacity of employing means to accomplish ends (Ecclesiastes 10:10); and abundantly confirmed by experience, which attests that "by wisdom there is profit to them that see the sun" (Ecclesiastes 7:11), that "through wisdom is an house builded, and its chambers filled with all precious and pleasant riches" (Proverbs 24:3, Proverbs 24:4), and that "wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city" (Ecclesiastes 7:19). (2) An implication; that the same law holds good in the higher realm of religion; that a man acting wisely, i.e. living under the influence of that wisdom which cometh from above (James 3:17), filling his heart with that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom (Job 28:28; Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7;, Ecclesiastes 12:13), and shaping his ways in accordance with its instructions (Job 28:28; Proverbs 3:7; Proverbs 16:6), shall also advance his highest interests (Proverbs 4:8)—a sentiment likewise endorsed by Scripture (1 Timothy 4:8; 1 Timothy 6:6) and experience. (3) An admonition; that the above law does not apply to man’s relations to his Creator; that a man even in his best estate (Geber), which is wholly vanity (Psalms 39:5), clothing himself in righteousness, and striving, with apparent success, to make his ways perfect, as Job somewhat boldly asserted he had done (Job 9:21; Job 13:15), can center nothing in the shape of increase or profit upon God; that his piety, which may be useful to himself (Proverbs 19:8) and helpful to his neighbors (Ecclesiastes 9:15), does not reach as far as God in the way of bestowing advantage (Job 35:7; Psalms 16:2), neither augmenting his felicity nor enhancing his sufficiency (Romans 11:35), and therefore cannot enter into God’s calculations in the distribution of rewards and punishments among his subjects, as certainly it should not mingle with man’s cogitations about himself (Luke 17:10). (4) A qualification. Nevertheless, God not only expresses himself as it’ the piety of his people did contribute to his felicity (Numbers 14:8; 1 Kings 10:9; Psalms 37:23; Psalms 147:11) and advantage (Matthew’ Matthew 21:41), but pathetically complains that sinful men are "together become unprofitable" (Romans 3:12). 2. Not by fear of damage. (Verse 4.) Eliphaz appears to mean that God has as little reason to dread loss from man’s wickedness (Job 35:6) as to expect gain from his godliness, and therefore no need to defend himself against man by either punishing him with undeserved calamities, or weakening him through unmerited rebukes. The sentiment may remind us (1) of man’s weakness, which can do nothing against God, who sits enthroned in heaven far beyond the reach of man’s puny arm; (2) of sin’s folly, which by all its craft and contrivance can succeed in inflicting damage only on itself; (3) of God’s greatness, which remains unaffected by all the conspiracies of men and devils against his throne, his Law, his grace, his Person; (4) of affliction’s design, which is not to crush but to convert man, not to reduce him to weakness but to bring him to repentance, not to evince the Divine indignation against him bat to attest the Divine love and compassion towards him. II. THE . That Job was a sinner. 1. The inference appeared obvious. (1) It was evident that Job was a great sufferer. (2) It was self-contradictory to suppose that God was chastising him on account of his piety. So some read the words, "Will he reprove thee for fear of thee?" literally, "for, or on account of, thy fear," i.e. thy piety? No, verily. (3) It was inconceivable that God could be punishing him from any interested motive. Hence (4) it was a natural inference that Job’s calamities were judicial visitations on account of sins. Therefore (5) Job, in spite of appearances to the contrary, must be a great sinner—in fact, a criminal of gigantic proportions, as Eliphaz next proceeds to show (verses 5-9). Nevertheless: 2. The inference was wrong. Since (1) Job was not a sinner in the sense intended by his accuser, but, as his conscience testified and God had declared, a perfect man and an upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil. (2) Besides strict judicial retribution, and infliction of suffering from interested motives, there was a third alternative, of which Eliphaz appeared to be ignorant, viz. chastisement for the individual’s good (Hebrews 12:10)—the view of suffering subsequently brought into prominence by Elihu (Job 33:14-30), and constantly exhibited in the gospel. And (3) in point of fact, Job was not being treated Penally on account of any personal transgression. Hence (4) the inference of Eliphaz, though on his premisses correct, was essentially fallacious. Learn: 1. That the best saint has no more claim on God’s grace and favour than the worst sinner. 2. That God’s salvation of sinful men can in the case of none be of work and merit, but in the case of all must be of faith and grace. 3. That, as a special mark of condescension and kindness, God is pleased to accept and reward the services of his people as if they had been profitable unto himself. 4. That if God has no need of man’s righteousness, man has infinite need of God’s. 5. That, notwithstanding God derives no advantage from the piety of his creatures, he commands all men to make their ways perfect, 6. That, though God never reproves men out of fear, he sometimes does out of love. 7. That good people’s piety is sometimes better than their logic. Job 22:5-20 Eliphaz to Job: 2. A false accusation. I. A CHARGE OF . 1. Generally preferred. (Verse 5.) All sin may be justly characterized as great, being committed against a great God, a great Law, great light, great love, great obligations, and great penalties; and every man’s iniquities may be styled "without an end," i.e. numberless, since David says of his, "They are more than the hairs of mine head" (Psalms 40:12); but Eliphaz designs to represent Job’s wickedness as exception ally flagrant in comparison with that of ordinary sinners, and a fortiori of such good people as Bildad, Zophar, and himself (cf. Luke 18:11), and Job’s crimes as not only already beyond computation, but, probably, as even then not terminated (Carey). 2. Specifically detailed. More abominable wickedness can scarcely be imagined. (1) Merciless extortion (verse 6). Job had exacted in pledge from his unhappy creditor the large upper garment of Orientals, and had not restored it at sundown, as was afterwards commanded by Moses (Exodus 22:26, Exodus 22:27)—a sin in Job’s case aggravated by several considerations, as e.g. that his creditor was his" brother," i.e. either a relative or, at any rate, a fellow-countryman, and not a stranger; that he was poor, and would be rendered comparatively destitute without his upper raiment; and that the pledge had been taken from him "for nought," or without cause, i.e. either had been exacted though the debt was small, such as rich Job might have overlooked, or the pledge had in value greatly exceeded the debt, or it had been retained after the debt was paid. (2) Heart less inhospitality (verse 7). It was regarded in Oriental countries, especially in early times, as both a dictate of nature and a mark of piety, to provide kindly entertainment and comfortable shelter for famished and hungry travellers (Genesis 18:4, Genesis 18:5; Genesis 19:2; Genesis 21:14, Genesis 21:15; Genesis 29:13; Exodus 2:20). Nevertheless, according to Elihu, Job had "not given water to the weary to drink," and "bad withholden bread from the hungry"—a charge which, though unjustly preferred against Job (Job 31:17, Job 31:32), will yet be righteously advanced against not a few professing Christians (Matthew 25:44), who are enjoined by the gospel to "use hospitality without grudging". (3) Barefaced robbery (verse 8). Conceiving that the land was made for the rich and the mighty and the noble—a delusion which has survived in the minds of the earth’s "mighties" and "honourables" from Job’s day to this (Psalms 115:16)—Job, "the man of the arm," had by force or by fraud dispossessed the poor of their possessions and acquired them for himself. The wickedness is the same whether a man robs his neighbour with the help of the law or in defiance of it; and legislation tending to drive the poor from the soil is legalized robbery. (4) Pitiless oppression (verse 9). Instead of proving a shield and defender of helpless widows and orphans, a duty prompted by humanity and prescribed by religion (Exodus 22:22; James 1:27), in imitation of God himself (Psalms 68:5), Job, Elihu says, not only turned a deaf ear to their cries of distress and solicitations for aid, like the unjust judge in the parable (Luke 18:2-5), but, like the Pharisees who devoured widows’ houses, took advantage of their friendless and helpless condition to defraud them of the last fragment of their possessions, thus "breaking the arms of the fatherless," i.e. taking away everything on which they relied. The crime of robbing the poor because he is poor is one that God will avenge (Proverbs 22:22, Proverbs 22:23). Orphans and widows are God’s peculiar care. 3. Plausibly constructed. The charge preferred by Eliphaz had this mark of truthfulness, that the crimes specified were such as a rich and powerful prince might naturally have been supposed to commit. Men’s vices as well as their virtues usually adjust themselves to external surroundings as well as to internal dispositions. All men have their characteristic and besetting sins, while there are other forms of wickedness which they cannot commit. A person may shun burglary and yet perpetrate forgery. He who cannot steal a purse may yet appropriate an inheritance. A man may avoid the vulgar sin of drunkenness and yet fall into the greater wickedness of whoredom. 4. Ostensibly proved. Eliphaz could point to Job’8 calamities as evidence that what he had alleged was true. That calamity had been (1) sudden in its coming, it had caught him like a snare; it was (2) terrifying in its effects, filling the mind of Job with inward fears; (3) unavoidable in its endurance—out of the darkness that encompassed him no way of escape could be detected; (4) overwhelming in its measure, being likened to a multitude of waters; and it would be (5) fatal in its end, there being no hope of other issue, so far as Eliphaz could see, but that Job should be submerged in the sea of trouble that surged around him. It was useless, then, to say that proof was wanting. Yet was the charge of Eliphaz: 5. Wholly imagined. It was purely a creation of the Arabian seer’s fancy. Not only did Job declare it untrue, but Eliphaz himself must have known it to be baseless (cf. Job 4:3, Job 4:4). Either Eliphaz had allowed his excited and wrathful imagination to beguile his judgment, which was not like a seer, or he had taken up a slanderous report against Job, in spite of his better knowledge, which was not like a saint. But passion can disperse piety and confound reason, while malice will constrain even good people to believe lies. Envying and strife are the parents of confusion and every evil work (James 3:16). II. A CHARGE OF ATHEISM. 1. The import of this form of infidelity. It denies not the existence, but the overruling providence of God—in this respect differing from theoretical atheism. It places the Supreme at an infinite distance from the universe which he has called into being, setting him "in the height of heaven," banishing him, as it were, beyond the stars, where "he walketh in the circuit of the heavens," wrapped about by "clouds" which "veil him that he seeth not," alike ignorant of, and unconcerned about, anything that transpires in this lower sphere, and, of course, never interfering in any way with "the work of his hands," which, like a perfect piece of mechanism, goes without inspection or repair—in all this contradistinguished from pantheism, which believes in a God at hand, but at the same time confounds the Creator with his works. Practical atheism says, "The Almighty was once here present, but he has withdrawn ages ago; nature reigns, and all physical phenomena are the necessary result of mechanical laws" (Pearson on ’Infidelity,’ Job 3:1-26.). 2. The antiquity of this form of infidelity. This was the creed of the men of the antediluvian world, "the old way of the wicked, who were cut down out of time" (i.e. before their time), "whose foundation was overflown by a flood" (literally, "a river poured out was their firm foundation")—"a strong but suitable expression, referring probably to Noah’s flood" (Umbreit). Though not the faith of Job, it was that of some of Job’s contemporaries (Job 21:14), as afterwards of some of David’s (Psalms 10:11) and Asaph’s (Psalms 73:11), and at a later time of many Hebrews before and during the exile (Isaiah 29:15; Ezekiel 8:12). Among Greek philosophers it was the teaching of Epicurus and the atomists. The French encyclopaedists, the English deists of the last, and the Comtists of the present century, all concur in this opinion. It is the latest finding of modern materialistic science. 3. The origin of this form of infidelity. (1) Intellectual pride. The belief that man can, or ought to be able to, explain everything has as its correlative the astounding assumption that nothing can exist which man does not understand. Practically this is the fundamental article in the modern scientific religion of agnosticism, which consigns to the limbo of the unknowable everything outside the domain of the senses and the reason, among other things such a doctrine as that of an overruling providence. The human mind discerns an insuperable difficulty in harmonizing the theory of a continual Divine interposition with the scientific dogma of the reign of law—"How doth God know? can he judge through the dark?"—with the insignificance of this earth, which, in comparison with the boundless universe, is but as a drop to the ocean, and in particular with the majesty of God, whose Divine perfections and glory are thought not to admit of such a condescension to details as is implied in an overruling providence. (2) Heart-depravity. Even more than in intellectual obliquity does practical atheism take its rise in moral perversion. It is the doctrine of "the wicked," of the moral fool, of those whose hearts are alienated from God by wicked works, who are so destitute of spiritual life that they have nothing the Almighty can do for them, and who desire nothing more earnestly than to have no further thought of God, to be left alone to their own infidelity and sin. 4. The wickedness of this form of infidelity. Were there no indications of God’s overruling providence discernible, such amazing incredulity might in part at least be excusable. But proof in abundance existed which these atheists might have studied had they been willing, for "he had filled their houses with good things." So Paul told the men of Lystra that God had never left himself without a witness (Acts 14:17), and the Athenians that he was not far to seek, or find, from any one who looked upon the world with open eye and honest mind (Acts 17:26-28). Hence such infidelity is criminal, and to be held in abhorrence by all good men, as well as by Eliphaz and Job (Job 21:16). 5. The find doom of this form of infidelity. In opposition to Job, who maintained that men of atheistical principles flourished and were happy all their lives, Eliphaz contends that their common fate is rather that of the sinners who were engulfed by the Deluge (verse 16); which fate, though often (1) invisible to them, coming on them at the moment when they are saying, "Depart from us," as it did on the infidels of Noah’s day (Luke 17:26, Luke 17:27), is (2) progressing towards them, the righteous being able to discern its approach, though they, the wicked, cannot, "the secret of the Lord being with them that fear him," and "the Lord showing them what he is about to do," as he did to Abraham (Genesis 47:17) and Pharaoh (Genesis 41:28), and will ultimately prove (3) unavoidable by them, the fire of retribution being as certain to devour their abundance as it did that of the Sodomites (Luke 17:29), as well as (4) ignominious for them, the innocent mocking at them and exulting in their destruction, just as the worshippers of the beast shall yet be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb (Revelation 14:11). Learn: 1. That good men may tell lies. 2. That saints should be chary in preferring charges against one another. 3. That no cause can be permanently advanced by an untruth. 4. That atheism is an old sin, and is commonly associated with immorality. 5. That neither distance nor darkness can hide from God. 6. That the Almighty can do more for, or against men, than unbelievers imagine. 7. That God’s goodness does not always lead the ungodly to repentance. 8. That they who now scorn the righteous will eventually be scorned by the righteous. 9. That God must reign until all his adversaries are overthrown. Job 22:21-30 Eliphaz to Job: 3. An uncalled for exhortation. I. THE PATHWAY OF . 1. Acquaintance with God. The word points to such an intimate knowledge of God as might be secured by dwelling with him on familiar terms in the same house. The meaning is that Job required, as a first step towards temporal and spiritual recovery, to disabuse his mind of the obviously false impressions of the Divine character which he entertained, and to get to know God as he really was in the excellence and beauty of his Person. Ignorance of God—of his character as a God of love; of his purpose as a purpose of salvation; of his Gift, Christ Jesus, the outcome of his grace; of his gospel, which contains a free invitation to fallen sinners—is the fruitful cause of unbelief and sin (Ephesians 4:18), as, on the other hand, a thorough appreciation of God’s Name and character as revealed in Christ invariably leads to repentance and faith (Psalms 9:10). Such acquaintanceship with God can only be realized in and through Christ, who, as the "Image of the invisible God" "dwelt among us’" that men might see his glory; that, so to speak, God might become familiarized to man; that man might be able to get on speaking terms with God, and so come to understand God better than he had ever done before (John 14:7, John 14:9). 2. Reconciliation to God. The second clause, though sometimes read as consecutive, may be taken as jussive, and as intimating the second step in the sincere penitent’s return. There naturally rises out of a better acquaintance with God a laying aside of enmity towards him, or a making friends with him. Already God is reconciled to the sinner (2 Corinthians 5:18); or rather, he has objectively and legally set the sinful world in a state of reconciliation towards himself, i.e. he has turned away his judicial wrath from the world, so that now nothing prevents the instantaneous establishment of "peace," friendship, at-one-ment, between God and man, except man’s own disinclination and enmity. The publication of God’s reconciling work is the message of the gospel (2 Corinthians 5:19); the invitation addressed to man to discontinue hostility against God, to lay down the arms of rebellion, to live no more in a state of war against God, but o! amity and peace with God, constitutes the ministry of reconciliation. 3. Instruction from God. Accepting God’s gracious offer of forgiveness and salvation, and entering with him into a covenant of friendship, the penitent must next submit his seal to the Divine teaching (verse 22). God’s Law, first written on the tablets of the heart (Romans 2:15); afterwards promulgated from Sinai (Exodus 20:1); at a subsequent period amplified, illustrated, and enforced by the prophets (Hebrews 1:1); in the fulness of the times exemplified in the Person, character, and work of Jesus Christ (John 3:2; Hebrews 1:2); now reaches its find stage when engraven on the renewed heart by the Holy Ghost (2 Corinthians 3:3; Hebrews 8:10). To this Law God requires submission as one of the imperative conditions of enjoying his friendship; and this submission must be (1) sincere, proceeding from the heart; (2) implicit, yielding obedience to the utterances of his mouth; (3) complete, not to one or two of the utterances, but to all; and (4) cheerful, laying up his words in the heart with an earnest desire to bring the life into full accord with their instructions. 4. Holiness before God. Equally does the grace of repentance involve a hearty forsaking of sin and a steadfast resolution after new obedience (verse 23). This sentiment is a repetition from Bildad’s second oration (Job 11:14; vide homiletics), but is nevertheless true. No man really returns to God who continues to adhere to sin (Isaiah 55:7). If a man does return to God, he will "cease to do evil, and learn to do well" (Isaiah 1:16). Conversion means death to sin, but life to righteousness (Romans 6:6-22). Follow holiness is the all-comprehensive precept of the gospel (Hebrews 12:14). The Christian life is essentially an upward progress towards personal purity. This is assuredly the grand lesson of the grace of God that bringeth salvation (Titus 2:11, Titus 2:12). 5. Renunciation of all besides God. The genuinely contrite man must complete the evidence of his sincerity by abjuring everything in which he has formerly placed his trust, in particular his riches, even though these should happen to have been justly and honourably acquired, "laying down in the dust his gold, and placing among the pebbles of the brook the gold of Ophir" (verse 24); i.e. he must esteem them as absolutely worthless in comparison with religion—language which seems an anticipation of the sublime utterance of St. Paul (Philippians 3:7, Philippians 3:8). So Christ exhorted the rich young ruler to sell all that he had (Matthew 19:21), and called his disciples to leave all (Matthew 4:20). And so must saints still be willing to part with every treasure that might dispute with Christ the supreme affection and control of the heart (Matthew 10:37, Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Luke 14:26); in particular, neither trusting in uncertain riches (1 Timothy 6:11), nor attempting to serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). II. THE REWARD OF . 1. Inward peace. The first effect of such a penitent return to, and reconciliation with, God would, according to Eliphaz, be deliverance from mental disquietude (verse 21, Authorized Version). Laying down its weapons of rebellion, and closing with the Divine overtures of pardon, the contrite soul would experience a holy calm, "a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience." True peace of mind is unattainable in sin and under condemnation (Isaiah 57:21). It is only possible as the result of acceptance with God (Job 33:26; Psalms 29:11). Hence it is described in the gospel as the first effect of justification (Romans 5:1), as the great, gift bestowed by Christ upon his people (John 14:27; John 20:19), and as the certain experience of every believer (Romans 8:6; Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13). It is also represented as s peace which the world can neither give nor take away (John 14:27), as a peace which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7), whether by a saint or by a sinner. 2. Outward good. The subsequent enumeration of blessings attendant on the lowly penitent almost leads to the surmise that Eliphaz was thinking mainly of spiritual good (verse 21). Yet it is certain that temporal enlargement was not excluded from his contemplation. Probably he intended both; and "good" in the widest acceptation of the term is promised to believing followers of God in both the Old and New Testaments (Psalms 34:10; Psalms 84:11; Romans 8:28). Even things that in themselves wear an adverse aspect are transformed into benefits for the child of God (Hebrews 12:11). St. Paul gives an inventory of the saint’s "good" things (1 Corinthians 3:21). And these good things come to the saint without his labouring for them (Matthew 6:33), simply as the gift of God. 3. Domestic prosperity. The building up alluded to (verse 23), while capable of wider reference, may here be understood of family enlargement. Children are like olive plants about the table, i.e. noble sons and fair daughters; and to have many of them was a special mark of Divine favour under the Law (Psalms 128:3). Indeed, all right-thinking persons regard a numerous offspring as a blessing rather than a curse. 4. God for the soul’s Portion. In exchange for the castaway gold and silver, Job is promised that which constitutes the true riches, via. the Almighty himself, who should be to him "gold from the mine, and silver of the brightest lustre" (verse 25). So God represents himself as his people’s Portion (Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19), and as such he is claimed by his people (Psalms 16:5; Lamentations 3:24). His salvation also is depicted as the soul’s true treasure (Luke 16:11). At this point the recitation of the penitent’s reward may be said to culminate. The undermentioned benefits, though here exhibited as co-ordinate with the foregoing, are really nothing else than the unfolded contents of the last benefit recorded. The man who has God for a Portion will in consequence possess all the privileges that follow. 5. Delight in God’s presence. Instead of sitting melancholy and dejected, sullen and gloomy, before God, like another Cain, he will be able to lift up a serenely joyous face to God as a father reconciled (verse 26), and will not only exult in his acceptance (Romans 5:2), but delight in his Portion, i.e. take pleasure in studying God’s character as unveiled in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), in learning God’s will as revealed in the Bible (Isaiah 58:2), in obeying God’s Law as promulgated in the gospel (Romans 5:1-21:22), in enjoying God’s society in every situation and phase of life (1 John 1:7). 6. Acceptance in prayer. Taking God as his Portion, Job should have (1) free access to the throne of grace in order to present his petitions; (2) freedom of utterance in expressing the desires of his heart; (3) certain assurance that God would listen to his supplications; (4) sooner or later, answers to his petitions; (5) a spirit of thankfulness for mercies received and expected, which should lead him to vow an offering to God; and (6) the needful fidelity to enable him to keep his promise and pay that which he had vowed (verse 27). Note that all of these are comprehended in the blessings promised to Christ’s believing people (Philippians 4:6; Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:19-22; 1 John 5:14, 1 John 5:15). Here again the blessings that ensue are illustrations of the power with God which a good man possesses through believing prayer. 7. Success in his own undertakings. Job, or the penitent, would only need to "decree a thing" and it should be "established" unto him, so that" the light" of prosperity should shine on his ways (verse 28). The same promise is given to the Old Testament saint (Psalms 37:4 6) and the New Testament believer (Mark 11:22-24); and the promise was verified in the cases of Abraham’s servant (Genesis 24:12), Nehemiah 1:11, Elijah (1 Kings 17:1; James 5:16-18), and others. 8. Helpfulness to others in their troubles. (1) Encouraging the cast-down by his words, saying to them, "Arise" (verse 29), as St. Paul cheered the crew and passengers of the Alexandrian corn-ship in the storm (Acts 27:21-25); (2) saving the humble, literally, the downcast of eyes, by his prayers, as doubtless Epaphroditus was restored to health in answer to St. Paul’s entreaties (Philippians 2:26, Philippians 2:27), as St. Paul himself expected to be liberated from his Roman confinement in response to Philemon’s supplications (Philemon 1:22), and as the elders of the primitive Church knew that the prayer of faith would save the sick (James 5:15); and even (3) delivering the ungodly by his intercessions," rescuing the not-guiltless by the pureness of his hands "(verse 30), as Abraham would have saved Sodom had it only contained ten righteous persons (Genesis 18:23-32), and actually recovered the household of Abimelech (Genesis 20:7, Genesis 20:17), and as Job subsequently interceded for his friends (Job 42:7-9). Thus in all the three ways specified God’s people have power with God in behalf of others, and are honoured to co-operate with God in the noblest work in which a man can engage on earth, that of saving souls. Learn: 1. That many a noble sermon is preached to the wrong hearers. The discourse of Eliphaz, though lofty in its conceptions and moving in its strains, was not adapted to the case of Job. 2. That men’s creeds are sometimes better than those who hold them. The piety and spirituality of this exhortation stand at a higher elevation than the character of him who uttered it. 3. That more gospel light may be possessed by those outside the Church than those within suspect. Eliphaz’s sermon sounds like an anticipation of New Testament teaching. 4. That there is only one way of salvation for all countries and all times. Eliphaz preached to his listener what St. John Baptist, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John proclaimed to their hearers, "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." 5. That true happiness can be reached by none who do not first return to God. "There is no peace, saith our God, to the wicked." 6. That the pious poor man is richer than the godless millionaire. God is better as a Portion for the human soul than gold of Ophir. 7. That the royal road to all genuine success in life lies in establishing a friendship with Heaven. The man who delights in God shall have his desires granted, his prayers heard, and his plans fulfilled. 8. That the most influential men on earth are the truly pious. God’s Israels have power with both God and man. 9. That the wicked world is more indebted to the Church of God than it imagines. God’s saints and Christ’s followers are the salt of the earth. BY E. JOHNSON Job 22:1-30 Censorious and uncharitable reasoning. Eliphaz again takes up the word. He does not contest Job’s position, that life presents many examples of the prosperity of the godless, and of the calamities of the godly, but he still maintains that only grievous sins, such as he proceeds to specify—oppression, hard-heartedness, injustice to his neighbours—could be the cause of his misfortunes and miseries (verses 2-10). He then proceeds to give an earnest warning against further indulgence in profane thoughts and words, because the fatal end of the wicked man, whatever his course may have been, can be no other than dreadful, like that of all wicked men from olden time (verses 11-20). Then comes an invitation to repentance and conversion, and to the enjoyment of the blessings promised to the penitent by God (verses 21-30). I. OF JOB AS A GREAT SINNER. (Verses 2-10.) 1. These questions taken together (verses 2-5) form a syllogism (Zockler). The major premiss (verses 2, 3) expresses the thought: in God, the all-sufficing One, who is not affected by man’s good or evil, the cause of Job’s unhappiness cannot lie; the minor premiss shows that if Job himself bears the blame, this cannot possibly be because of his reverence for God (verse 4); and the conclusion is drawn to the prejudice of the moral character of Job (verse 5). "Does man bring profit to God? No, the man of sense profits himself." God needs nothing, and gains nothing, whether man’s conduct be wise or foolish; therefore if he has acted wisely, man is but cousulting his own interest. "Is it an advantage to the Almighty, if thou art just? or a gain, if thou makest thy ways sound?’ i.e. pure and free from blame and punishment. Therefore it cannot be selfish or arbitrary motives which determine God to afflict men. "Will he chastise thee for thy reverence, go with thee to judgment?" If the reason of your doom is to be found in yourself, can it be reverence to him for which he punishes you? It must be the very opposite. Then comes the conclusion, "Is thy wickedness not great, and of thy transgressions no end?" On the rigid principles of Eliphaz and his companions, no other conclusion can be drawn. "The things said are good, but they are carnally understood. For the wisdom of the flesh thinks that blessing outwardly belongs in this world to the godly, and to the ungodly, curses; but the truth teaches that the godly enjoy blessing in this life under the guise of cursing, life in death, salvation in seeming condemnation; but, on the contrary, the ungodly are cursed under the show of blessing, are dead while they live, are condemned though in seeming safety" (Brenz). 2. Enumeration of Job’s supposed sins (verses 6-10). They are the sins of the rich and powerful, such as Job had been. "For thou didst take a pledge of thy brother without cause," thine abundance rendering such measures against a poor neighbour unnecessary. Note the indignation with which the Bible ever treats sins against the poor and needy. "And stripped off the clothes of the naked," i.e. the ragged, the scantily clothed. Common humanity would forbid the taking of the last garment of such in pledge; and the Law of Moses strictly, prohibited it (Exodus 22:25,. sqq.; Deuteronomy 24:6, Deuteronomy 24:10, sqq.) "Thou gavest … not the thirsty water to drink, and didst refuse the hungry bread;" comp. Isaiah 58:10, and the beautiful contrast in the words of Christ concerning giving the cup of cold water to the little one (Matthew 10:42). "And the powerful man [literally, ’the man of arm’], his was the land, and the man of consideration was to dwell in it." A picture, as the speaker supposes, true to the life of what Job had been. "Widows thou didst send empty away, and the arms of the orphans were crushed’" i.e. their rights and their resources, all that they could rely on (Psalms 37:17; Ezekiel 30:22). "Therefore snares are round about thee, and terror comes upon thee suddenly" (comp. Job 18:11; Proverbs 3:25). The truth of God’s special care over widows and orphans, over the poor, the prisoners, and the oppressed is thus incidentally brought out with force. Sins against them are amongst the vilest that cry to Heaven (Sirach 35:14, 15, 18, sqq.). II. WARNING OF FURTHER . (Verses 11-20.) 1. "Or darkness that thou canst not see, and a flood of waters covers thee"—the night of woe and the deep misery which have come upon him in consequence of his sins (verse 1). "Is not Eloah heaven-high?"—infinitely exalted—"and do but behold the head [or, ’highest’] of the stars, how exalted they are!" (verse 12). Then how idle is every thought of the limitation of his power, and every doubt of the absolute justice of his doings! In verses 13,14 Job’s doubts of the justice of God’s government are construed by the speaker as denials of God’s knowledge of earthly things and his providence over mankind, like the Epicureans in ancient and the deists in modern times. "And thou sayest, What knoweth God? will he judge through the dark clouds? clouds are his covering, that he seeth not; and he walketh on the circumference of the heaven," deigning not to give heed to this little and insignificant earth. Similar expressions of ancient scepticism are found in Psalms 73:11; Psalms 94:7; Isaiah 29:15; Ezekiel 8:12. Its refutation is in the words of Jer 23:23, sqq.. God is not afar off, but near to every creature—not far from every one of us (Jeremiah 23:27, Jeremiah 23:28; Acts 17:1-34.). To think that God is too exalted to attend to our mean affairs, is to set out on the road of unbelief, sin, and ruin. Rather, because God is so exalted, nothing is hidden from him. He is as manifest in the microscopic dust as in the planetary worlds. He knows our most secret deeds, our inmost feelings, our sufferings that most retire from the notice of others (Jeremiah 23:23, Jeremiah 23:24; Psalms 139:1, sqq.; Matthew 6:8; 1 John 3:20). 2. The overthrow of the godless. (Jeremiah 23:15-20.) "Wilt thou observe the way of the old world, which men of perdition trod?"—alluding, perhaps, to those before the Deluge (2 Peter 2:5). Swept away before their time, their foundation was poured away like a stream, so that they could not remain (Jeremiah 23:16). These ungodly ones had said to God, "Depart from us;" had asked, "What can the Almighty do for us?" (Jeremiah 23:17). Job had in the previous chapter (verses 14, 15) put words like these into the mouth of the prosperous bad men; and now Eliphaz ascribes them to the subject of his description, to show Job that he approves up to a certain point of the representation he had made of the relation of external happiness to human guilt (Zockler). "And yet it was he that had filled their houses with blessing," giving the contrast between the sudden Divine judgments and the previous prosperous condition which suggested their exemption from punishment. "The counsel of the wicked be far from me!" exclaims the speaker (verse 18), echoing Job (Job 21:16), as if to imply only one who, like myself, has no doubt of God’s retributive justice, may dare thus to speak. The wish of the godly is that God may draw near, ever nearer, to him; that of the ungodly is always, "Remove, depart from us!" "They would willingly leave God his heaven, if he would only leave them their earthly comfort "(Starke). Verse 19, the overthrow of the wicked is a subject of rejoicing even of derision, to the righteous and innocent, according to the proverb, "He laughs best who laughs last" (comp. Psalms 58:10, Psalms 58:11; Psalms 64:9, 20). Verse 20 contains the words of triumph of the godly, "Verily, our adversaries are destroyed, and their remainder the fire has consumed." Contrast the spirit of Christ (Matthew 23:37; Luke 19:42, sqq.; James 5:19, James 5:20). III. TO AND PROMISE OF . (Verses 21-30.) 1. Exhortation. "Make friends with him, and be at peace" (James 4:8), "thereby blessing will come to thee ’ (verse 21); "Take instruction from his mouth" (Proverbs 2:6). "If thou returnest to the Almighty, thou wilt be built again; if thou put wrong far from thy tents, and lay in the dust the precious metal, and under the gravle of the brooks the Ophir gold"—getting rid of it as a worthless thing—"then will the Almighty be thy Treasure, and silver in heaps" (verses 23, 25; see on this sentiment the New Testament passages, Matthew 6:20, Matthew 6:33; Matthew 19:21; Luke 12:33; 1 Timothy 6:16-19). God’s grace builds up what sin destroys. To enjoy that grace is competency, is wealth. Deus meus et cranial (Psalms 73:25, Psalms 73:26). "Let thy heart rely on God, and thou mayest cast away thy gold, lose it without care; the Almighty remains thine inviolable Treasure; whilst, on the other hand, without him the most troubled watching and anxiety are of no avail" (vide Gerlach). 2. Promises continued. (Verses 26-30) "Yea, then thou writ delight thyself, in the Almighty, and lift up thy face to God" (verse 26), in the freedom of a conscience without guilt (Job 11:15; comp. Psalms 37:4; Isaiah 58:14). "If thou prayest to him, he will hear thee, and thy vows thou wilt pay" (Psalms 22:25; Psalms 50:14; Psalms 61:8; Psalms 65:2). The vow is looked at in the light of promise rather than of duty; God will always grant so much that thou canst fulfil all thy vows. "If thou resolvest on anything, it will come to pass, and light shall beam on thy way. If they [the ways] go downwards, thou sayest, Up!"—a cry of triumph and thanksgiving. "And to the cast down he gives help. He will deliver the not-innocent, and he is delivered by the cleanness of thy hands" (verses 28-30). For the sake of thy innocence, which thou shalt have regained, God will be gracious to others who need atonement for their guilt. Little does the Pharisaic speaker dream that it is he who will receive the pardon at God’s hands for Job’s sake (Job 42:8). The "prayer of a righteous man availeth much." At his intercession evil-doers may be spared, and not visited with the merited punishment (Genesis 18:23, Genesis 18:24; Ezekiel 14:14, sqq.).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 22:2-11 The impartiality of the Divine judgment. Eliphaz knows of no tense for suffering but sin. Doubtless sin—transgression of Divine laws—does lie deeply buried in the causes of human suffering. This is the fruitful seed from which widespread harvests of suffering grow. But it is not within the power of man to fix on the actual offender. Suffering occurs in a thousand instances where not the sufferer but another is the offender. To charge home, therefore, upon every sufferer the cause of his sufferings is an error. Into this error Job’s friends foil. But Eliphaz proclaims a great truth in affirming the judgment of God to be unbiassed. No unworthy motives move him in his decisions. They are true and righteous altogether. The impartiality of the Divine judgments is— This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Verses 1-24:25 Job replies to Eliphaz in a speech of no great length, which, though it occupies two chapters, runs to only forty-two verses. He begins by justifying the vehemence of his complaints, first, on the ground of the severity of his sufferings (verse 2), and secondly, on the ground of his conviction that, if God would bring him to an open trial before his tribunal, he would acquit him (verses 3-12). By the way, he complains that God hides himself, and cannot be found (verses 3, 8, 9). He then further complains that God is not to be bent from his purpose, which is set against Job (verses 13-17). In Job 24:1-25. he goes over ground already trodden, maintaining the general prosperity of the wicked, and their exemption from any special earthly punishment (Job 24:2-24). He winds up, finally, with a challenge to his opponents to disprove the truth of what he has said (Job 24:25). Job 23:1, Job 23:2 Then Job answered and said, Even to-day is my complaint bitter; i.e. even to-day, notwithstanding all that has been said by my opponents against my right to complain, I do complain, and as bitterly as ever. And I justify my complaint on the following ground—my stroke is heavier than my groaning. If I complain bitterly, I suffer even more bitterly (comp. Job 6:2). Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! This is the cry of the desolate human soul, feeling its need of God, and yet not knowing how to approach him. God seems to be very far removed from us. He is in heaven, and we are on earth; nay, he is in the highest heaven, or outside it, walking on its circumference (Job 22:14). How are we to approach near to him, so near as to be sure that he can hear us? How are we to "find" him? So, in all ages, has the human heart gone out to God, aspiring towards him, seeking after him, but, for the most part, baffled and disappointed. Job, like most other men in the olden times, though he has faith in God, though he serves him and prays to him, has yet the feeling that he is remote, distant, well-nigh inaccessible. It needed revelation to let man know that God is not far off, but very near to each one of us; that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). That I might come even to his seat! Job’s idea of bridging the distance between himself and God is that he should rise to the region where God is, not that God should condescend to come down to him. He wishes to "come to God’s seat"—to that awful throne in the heaven of heavens, where God sitteth, surrounded by his hosts of angels, dealing out justice and judgment to mortal men (comp. Psalms 9:4, Psalms 9:7; Psalms 11:4; Psalms 45:6; Isaiah 6:1). Job 23:4 I would order my cause before him. Job has put away the feelings of shame and diffidence, which were predominant with him when he said, "How should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand" (Job 9:2, Job 9:3); and again, "How much less shall I answer him, and cheese out my words to reason with him? Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer; but I would make my supplication to my Judge" (Job 9:14, Job 9:15). He now wishes to contend and argue and reason. This is quite in accordance with our experience. Many am the moods of man—various and conflicting his desires! His mind never continues long in one stay. And fill my mouth with arguments (comp. Psalms 38:14, where our translators render the same word by "reproofs," but where "arguments" or "pleadings" would be more appropriate). The LXX. has there ἐλεγμοὶ, and in the present passage ἔλεγχοι. The word is forensic. Job 23:5 I would know the words which he would answer me. It would be a satisfaction to Job in his present mood to know exactly how God would answer him, what reply he would make to his "arguments." The tone of thought is too bold for a creature, and would certainly not be becoming in Christians. And understand what he would say unto me. Here we have another of the redundant second clauses, which merely echo the idea contained in the previous clause. Job 23:6 Will he plead against me with his great power? rather, Would he contend against me in the greatness of his power? (see the Revised Version). That is, "Would he crush me by mere strength and force? Would he use against me that overwhelming might which he possesses? No, Job answers, certainly not; but he would put strength in me; or, rather, but he would give heed to me’ he would pay attention to my cause (comp. Job 4:20, ad fin; where the same verb is used). Job 23:7 There the righteous might dispute with him. There, before his high tribunal (Job 23:3), the upright man (ישׁר) might argue or reason with him, appealing from his justice to his mercy—from God the Judge to God the Saviour (Loathes), vindicating his integrity, acknowledging his transgressions, and pleading that they were sins of infirmity-and at last obtaining from God the acquittal anticipated in the second clause of the verse. In the absence of any revelation of an Advocate who will plead our cause before God for us, Job would seem to have been justified in expecting such a liberty of pleading his own cause as he here sets forth. So should I be delivered for ever from my Judge. The "Judge of all the earth" will certainly and necessarily "do right." Job’s conscience testifies to his substantial integrity and uprightness. He is, therefore, confident that, if he can once bring his cause to God’s cognizance, he will obtain acquittal and deliverance. Job 23:8, Job 23:9 Here Job returns to the complaint of verse 3. He cannot "find" God. God hides himself. It is in vain that he searches on every side. There is no manifestation, no open vision. Nothing, however, leads him to doubt God’s existence, or even his presence where he is unperceived. "Job’s conviction of God’s absolute presence comes out most strongly when he feels that he cannot discern him" (Cook). Job 23:8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; that is, "He is not there to my perceptions." I may believe it, but I have no sensible proof of it, and I cannot demonstrate it. And backward, but I cannot perceive him. In describing locality, the Hebrews, Arabs, and Orientals generally always imagined themselves to be looking eastward, facing the rising sun. Hence the same word is used for" in front," "forwards," and "the east;" for "behind," "backwards," and "the west;" for "the left hand" and "the north;" for "the right hand" and "the south." Job 23:9 On the left hand, where he doth work; literally, in his workshop. There is an ellipse after "workshop" of some phrase like "I look for him." But I cannot behold him; rather, but I apprehend him not—I cannot as it were, lay my hand upon him (LXX; οὐκάτεσχον). He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him; literally, and I do not see him. Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take; or, the way that is with me. My inability to find God does not in any way interfere with his perfect knowledge of me. God knows both "the way of the righteous" (Psalms 1:6) "and "the way of the wicked," which" he turns upside down "(Psalms 146:9). He is "about our path, and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways" (Psalms 139:2). When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold; i.e. as gold from the furnace, I shall come forth purified, when my trial is over (comp. Psalms 12:6; Isaiah 1:25; Jeremiah 6:29, Jeremiah 6:30; Jeremiah 9:7, etc.). Job seems at last to have woke up to the conception that there is a purifying power in affliction. Job 23:11 My foot hath held his steps; rather, hath held dose to his steps, or his path; i.e. I have followed in God’s way, and kept as close to it as possible. In other words. I have kept his way, and not declined from it. Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. Professor Lee rightly observes that this declaration "takes it for granted that, at least, some precepts of God had been revealed before this time". Them were "commandments" which Job recognized as having proceeded from God, and "words" which he looked upon as being the utterances of his mouth. This is strong evidence of a primeval revelation which, if not reduced to writing, had, at any rate, been handed down by tradition to Job’s day. Genesis 3:14-19 and Genesis 9:1-7 may afford the true explanation of this difficulty. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. This is scarcely strong enough. Job says, "I have treasured up’ taken to myself, and preserved the words of his mouth," either "more than my necessary food" or "more than my own law." If the former rendering be preferred, there is no need of explanation; if the latter, we must regard "my own law" as meaning "the law of my own mind, my own will, the will of the natural man" (Cook). Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? Once more we hear the voice of complaint. The happier tone of thought which extends from Job 23:6 to Job 23:12 grows out of a sanguine hope on Job’s part that God will bring him before his tribunal, and judge his cause according to righteousness. Now he bethinks himself that hitherto God, notwithstanding his prayers, has refused to summon him to his judgment-seat, and begins to fear that there is no likelihood of his changing. "He is One," or "in one." With him is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). How is it likely that he will act in the future otherwise than he has acts! in the past? What his soul desireth, even that he doeth. A somewhat harsh way of saying that God doeth that which seemeth him best—and which, therefore, is best. Job does not really suppose that God is actuated by caprice or favouritism. Job 23:14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me; i.e he will assuredly accomplish whatever he has decreed for me. I cannot expect that he will blench or change. And many such things are with him. He has many other weapons in his armoury, many other woes with which he might afflict me. Job 23:15 Therefore am I troubled at his presence. The thought of these further afflictions troubles me, and makes me shrink from his unseen presence. I know.not how soon he may lay a fresh burden upon me. When I consider, I am afraid of him. When I reflect on the many forms of suffering which I may still have to undergo, my fears increase, I tremble at the future. Job 23:16 For God maketh my heart soft; of faint’ as in Leviticus 26:36 and Deuteronomy 20:3. He takes away my courage, and leaves me a prey to terror. And the Almighty troubleth me. The verb used (the hiph. form of בהל) is a very strong one, and means "hath filled me with horror and consternation? Job 23:17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face. Job complains of two things: (1) That he was not cut off (i.e. removed from earth) before the great darkness fell upon his life (comp. Job 3:11-13). (2) That he was not "covered,’ i.e. sheltered and protected, by the love and care of God when the dark days came. Job 23:1-7 Job to Eliphaz: 1. The experience of a seeker after God. I. GREAT SORROW. (Verse 2.) Two wonders. 1. An afflicted man a seeker after God. Designed to recall men to God (Job 36:8, Job 36:9; Isaiah 19:22; Jeremiah 2:27; Hosea 5:15), temporal calamity is not always attended by so blessed a result. Unaccompanied by grace, it tends to harden rather than soften the human heart, to repel rather than attract the soul’s confidence and love. Happily, however, in Job’s case its natural tendencies were corrected. With greater urgency and vehemence than before, it impelled him to inquire after God (cf. 2 Chronicles 15:4; 2 Chronicles 33:12; Psalms 34:6; Psalms 77:2; Psalms 119:67; Hosea 6:1; Luke 15:18). 2. A seeker after God an afflicted man. Strange that one who sought God so sincerely as Job did should have been subjected to such overwhelming tribulation. Yet the more triumphant waxed Job’s faith, the heavier seemed to fall the pressure of his misery. Notwithstanding the lofty declarations of confidence in God which had fallen from his lips (Job 13:15; Job 19:25), his complaint still bade defiance, while Ms hand lay heavy upon his groaning (Delitzsch), refusing to let it go, because, of course, the cause of it was not removed. His physical disease was in no degree abated. The calumniations of his friends were aggravated, not ameliorated. The felt absence of God was become more intolerable than ever. Even the groaning which involuntarily escaped his lips was pronounced rebellion. But saints and seekers after God have no guarantee of exemption from trouble. Rather, trouble is to them as a refining fire. Hence the loftier their piety, the hotter may be made the furnace through which they walk. Nay, their afflictions may so abound, bodily pain, mental distress, spiritual desolation, that they are compelled to "groan, being burdened" (2 Corinthians 5:4); but, like true saints and genuine seekers after God, they will neither complain too bitterly nor groan too heavily, but study to keep their complaint in subjection, and to make their groaning less than their suffering. II. ARDENT LONGING. (Verse 2.) 1. A seeker after God at a loss to find him. Considering that God desires (Acts 17:27) and commands men to seek him (Isaiah Iv. 6), and promises that they who seek shall find (Matthew 7:7), it would almost seem as if such a thing should be impossible. But Job being witness, and David (Psalms 42:2), even a saint, losing his inward consciousness of God’s presence and favour, may be unable to recover either. And if a saint, then. much more a sinner, who has never yet met with God, may find it hard to reach his seat. It is, of course, certain that true seekers will ultimately find. Only the time of finding, for wise and holy purposes, may be delayed; sometimes to try the faith or increase the earnestness of the seeker, sometimes because of sin or wilful defect in the seeker, sometimes to make known to the seeker the unchallengeable sovereignty of God in discovering himself to men. 2. A seeker after God always possessed of certain characteristics; as: (1) Knowledge. Like Job, he may be ignorant of where God’s seat is; but he must know that God is, and has a seat. Like the Greeks who spoke to Andrew and Philip (John 12:21), he may not understand how to reach the Saviour’s presence; but he must be aware that a Saviour exists. The first step in seeking God or Christ is illumination. The minimum of knowledge for a seeker after God is more now than in the days of Job. God must be known as revealed in Christ. (2) Faith. Like Job, he must not simply know that God is and has a seat; he must believe that God is accessible to sinful men (Hebrews 11:6). Besides understanding where to find God, viz. anywhere, in Christ, seated on a throne of grace, we must apprehend the way to that throne to be continually open (2 Corinthians 5:19; Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:22). Faith in this now constitutes an indispensable prerequisite for genuine seeking after God. (3) Desire. Like Job, and like the Greeks who were anxious to see Jesus, the seeker after God must be in earnest. Those whose longings after God are as intense as were David’s (Psalms 63:1; Psalms 42:2) cannot always obtain access to his presence; but it is certain they who have no such warm aspirations will be denied, though they seek. III. HOLY . (Verses 4, 5.) The courage of the patriarch arose from three things. 1. Well-arranged thoughts. Coming into God’s presence, and commencing to plead before God’s throne, he would set forth his words in orderly array. This implied that Job had spent much time in communing with his heart. Thoughts seldom arrange themselves spontaneously or unconsciously, rather their arrangement requires deliberate and sometimes protracted mental effort. Intelligent disposition of the soul’s ideas and emotions before pressing forward to heaven’s throne is not only demanded by the ineffable majesty of him who sits upon the throne (Job 37:19), but is eminently conducive to the spiritual fortitude of him who as a suppliant approaches the throne. Thoroughly prepared and well-arranged words never fail to impart confidence to a speaker, as inward disorder is almost sure to overwhelm him with outward confusion. 2. Well-constructed arguments. Job meant that he was able to adduce convincing proofs of his integrity. What these were is not stated, but that he alluded to the witness of his past life may be reasonably conjectured. The best evidence of piety is the testimony of the outer walk and conversation (Matthew 7:20; John 15:8; Galatians 5:22; 1 John 3:10). Nor is any sign so assuring to the heart before God as the consciousness of inward sincerity when supported by the argument of outward propriety. And to this the believer may legitimately appeal in his pleadings before God, like St. Peter when he said to the risen Christ, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee" (John 21:17). 3. Well-assured hope. So confident is Job of having right upon his side, that he fears not to hear the decision of the Judge. In this Job was perhaps a little guilty of pride. The spirit here evinced is that of self-righteousness, rather than of trust in the mercy of God. Still, a child of God might now evince as great a confidence as Job without being open, like him, to the challenge of self-righteousness; might be able to anticipate the Judge’s decision without alarm, not because of his own personal integrity, but because of the all-sufficient merit of Jesus Christ (cf. Job 13:18, homiletics). IV. SUBLIME . Of two things Job declares himself satisfied. 1. God’s mercy towards him. (Verse 6.) God would not confound him with the fulness of his strength, or terrify him with his majesty (Job 9:34, q.v.), but would mercifully strengthen him to plead his cause, or, according to a more literal translation, would set his heart upon him, i.e. would regard him with affectionate attention, not only giving him a fair hearing, but dispelling his apprehensions, and enabling him to present his case with lucidity and completeness. What Job anticipated, the believer in God is promised. God will not overawe with his majesty any suppliant who comes to his throne; but will regard him with tender love (Proverbs 15:8; Zechariah 13:9; John 4:23); will listen to his cries (2 Chronicles 7:15; Psalms 34:15; Psalms 145:18); will even strengthen him with might by his Spirit in the inner man (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 8:26; Ephesians 2:18). 2. His victory through God. (Verse 7.) The sincerely upright man, having an opportunity to plead before God, would be certain of ultimate triumph over all who should seek to condemn him; and so shall the Christian believer come off victorious, when he stands before God’s throne, and be made more than a conqueror through him that loved us (Romans 8:33-39). Learn: 1. The first step towards blessedness is taken by man when he becomes a seeker after God. 2. A man may be getting nearer God, though all outward signs appear to proclaim the reverse. 3. The gospel has for ever rendered Job’s prayer unnecessary. 4. If a man fails to find God, he must be seeking for him in the wrong quarter or the wrong way. 5. They who come to God’s throne in earnest will find mercy to pardon, and grace to help in every time of need. Job 23:3 A great question answered. I. THE . "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" 1. Necessary; since man does not naturally understand either where or how to find God (Romans 1:28; 1 Corinthians 1:21; Ephesians 4:18). 2. Important; since only in the finding and knowing God lies the secret of true happiness (Job 22:21) and the pathway to eternal life (John 17:3). 3. Personal; since no man can find God for his neighbour, but every individual for himself alone (Ecclesiastes 11:9; Romans 2:6; Galatians 6:5). 4. Urgent; since the present is the only moment a soul can count upon for putting such a question (Proverbs 27:1; 2 Corinthians 6:2). II. THE ANSWER. God is to be found: 1. In the Person of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19), as opposed to the temple of nature, which may speak of God (Psalms 19:1; Romans 1:20), but does not unveil his presence like the Incarnation. 2. In the shrine of the human spirit (John 4:23, John 4:24), as opposed to definite localities. For the truly spiritual worshipper every spot of ground on which he stands is consecrated. 3. In the contrite heart (Isaiah 57:15), as opposed to the soul of the unbeliever. Learn: 1. The necessity of earnestness in seeking God. 2. The certainty of finding God, if sought in faith. Job 23:8-12 Job to Eliphaz: 2. A child of light walking in darkness. I. THE CHILD OF LIGHT. That Job was entitled to be so described will appear from a consideration of: 1. The creed he professed. It is obvious that Job believed in: (1) The existence of God. He was not one of those fools who in their hearts say, "No God!" (Psalms 14:1). Throughout this, as throughout his previous discourses, the personality of God is assumed, and indeed is frequently referred to without being named. (2) The providence of God. As little was the patriarch one of those practical atheists to whom he himself had alluded (Job 21:14). Eliphaz insinuated such a charge against the suffering saint whom he pretended to comfort. But Job implicitly repelled the imputation by recognizing that God’s presence, if unseen, was still around him, and God’s hand, though ever veiled, was always working. (3) The authority of God. Job recognized that the supreme Lawgiver for man was this invisible but omnipresent and continually working Deity, the commandment of whose lip and the word of whose mouth was the perpetually and universally binding rule of life and obedience, rather than the inward resolves, purposes, determinations of the individual, as is commonly but mistakenly supposed by the natural heart (Job 21:15; Exodus 5:2; Jeremiah 18:12; Luke 19:14). (4) The omniscience of God. Job believed not simply that God exercised a general superintendence over mundane affairs, but that his inspection of the world embraced a knowledge of particulars. Like Hagar in the wilderness, he could say, "Thou God seest me!" (Genesis 16:13). Like David, he could sing, "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me" (Psalms 40:17). Like Jeremiah, he could pray, "Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me" (Jeremiah 23:23). Like Peter, he could protest, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee" (John 21:17). Job regarded his whole life as lying continually beneath the eye of God: "He knoweth the way that is with me" So God’s eyes are always upon the ways of man (Job 34:21), and in particular of the righteous (Psalms 1:6). It is the part of a good man to walk before God (Genesis 17:1), and to rejoice that he can say, "All my ways are before thee" (Psalms 119:168). 2. The character he maintained. Besides being an intellectual believer in God, Job was: (1) An earnest seeker after God. Not content with knowing that God’s presence filled the universe around him, and that God’s hand was constantly working beside him in the mysterious phenomena of nature and providence (Job 9:11), Job desired a visible manifestation of and a personal acquaintance with this unseen Deity. Many believe in God’s existence, character, and work who never seek to know God himself, or make the slightest effort to secure his favour. Such a visible manifestation of God as Job craved, and afterwards obtained (Job 38:1-41:), has been vouchsafed to men in Christ, the Image of the invisible God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3), in whom alone, accordingly, God can now be found. (2) A faithful servant of God. Recognizing his allegiance to God, Job not only used means to acquaint himself with God’s will, as all saints should do, but accepted that will as the rule and pattern of his life: (a) cheerfully, making God’s way his way, like the Messianic Sufferer (Psalms 40:7, Psalms 40:8), and like Christ (John 6:38); (b) perpetually, adhering to God’s commandment always. (Psalms 119:44), rendering obedience not alone to precepts which accorded with his inclination, but to every word that proceeded from God s mouth (Psalms 119:88); (c) firmly, holding fast to God’s steps by his foot, resisting all attempts to cause him to decline or turn aside (Psalms 44:18; Psalms 119:88; (d) appreciatingly, esteeming the words of God’s mouth more than his necessary food (Authorized Version), like David (Psalms 19:10; Psalms 119:72), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:16), Daniel (Daniel 6:5, Daniel 6:10), Mary (Luke 10:39-42), and New Testament believers generally (1 Peter 2:2); according to another translation, (e) carefully, treasuring up God’s Word in his breast, like the Hebrew psalmist (Psalms 119:11); and (f) sacrificingly, preferring, Gods commandments to the inclinations, resolves, and purposes of his own heart, when at any time these came into collision, like St. Paul (Romans 7:22);—all which proclaimed Job a genuinely pious man. II. THE CHILD OF LIGHT IN . The passage exhibits Job in three different situations. 1. Encompassed by the darkness. The darkness alluded to not the cloud of outward pain and distress by which Job was overshadowed, but the inward mental and spiritual obscuration which these occasioned—the horrible eclipse which his faith suffered, the terrible revulsion of unrequited love which his soul experienced. A genuine believer and lover of God, who was conscious in his inmost soul of sincerity, who with admirable fortitude had shunned every evil way, and who with unrelaxing tenacity had adhered to the path of truth and right, preferring on every occasion God’s will to his own, he had yet lost all sense of the Divine favour as well as all conscioushess of the Divine presence. Though he earnestly longed to meet and made frantic efforts to obtain an interview with God, it was always in vain. "Behold, I go eastward, but he is not there; and westward, but I perceive him not. Northwards where he worketh, but I behold him not; he turneth aside southwards, and I see him not." Job meant that he looked in all directions for some visible manifestation of God before which he might come and plead his cause. Job’s spiritual desolation and fruitless longing after God are not without their counterparts in the experiences of Old Testament saints and New Testament believers (Isaiah 50:10; John 20:14), who sometimes, like David on account of sin (Psalms 30:7), or like Ethan through calamity (Psalms 89:46), or like Mary through bereavement (John 20:14), or like the travellers to Emmaus through spiritual dejection (Luke 24:17), are altogether unable to realize the comfortable shining of God’s favour and Christ’s love upon their souls. Job’s inward condition had its highest exemplification in the soul-desertion of Christ upon the cross. 2. Supported in the darkness. As God did not leave Christ entirely without consolations in the hour of his great sorrow, so neither does he leave any of his people (Isaiah 43:2; Hebrews 13:5). Job was upheld in the gloom by three considerations. (1) The knowledge of God’s presence. He could not see God, but he was perfectly aware that God could see him. Though God seemed far removed, Job knew that he was close at hand—if a veiled presence, yet still a presence. So Christ believed his Father to be nigh though his face was hid. And faith should teach saints to believe in the continual encompassing of God’s gracious presence, even when all inward sense of that presence has departed from the soul. (2) The consciousness of personal integrity. David could not, have enjoyed this when he lost God’s favour in consequence of sinning with Bathsheba. It is a terrible aggravation to the soul’s distress to know that through personal transgression one has relapsed into the gloom. On the other hand, the calm clear persuasion that one’s conduct has been such as not only conscience but God commends, must prove a rock of adamant beneath the fainting spirit. (3) The discernment of God’s purpose in affliction. This seemingly a new discovery to the patriarch. Formerly inclined to view his misfortunes as a token of Divine anger, he now regards them as sent for his trial, as designed to test his spiritual character as fire is employed to assay gold. So God did tempt Abraham ,(Genesis 22:1), and so believers are subjected to manifold temptations for "the trial’ of their faith (1 Peter 1:7). That saints are so tried proves them to be saints. This thought, conjoined with the gracious purpose aimed at in affliction, makes it possible for God’s people to glory in tribulations (Romans 5:3; 1 Peter 1:6; James 1:12). 3. Emerging from the darkness. Indirectly alluded to, but contemplated as certain. (1) At what time? "When he hath tried me," when the process of assaying has been completed, but not till then. Trouble and adversity are not removed from a child of God till they have done their work in him (Romans 5:3; Hebrews 12:11) as well as for him (2 Corinthians 4:17). But the great Refiner never keeps a soul in the furnace longer than is needful to accomplish its purification and salvation (Malachi 3:3). (2) In what manner? "As gold;" i.e. true as gold and shining like gold. Sincere saints are never injured by affliction, as pure gold is never hurt by the refiner’s pot. Heat only evinces the genuine quality of precious metal, and the fires of adversity only manifest the saint’s integrity of character. Adulterated metal is always harmed by the process of assaying, and untrue disciples are without fail detected in times of persecution and seasons of affliction (Matthew 24:12). But the sufferings of this present life only serve to refine and purify, to burnish and beautify, the faithful disciple and humble believer. (3) With what result? That he no longer walks in darkness, but in the light of God’s countenance, in the enjoyment of his friendship and favour for evermore. Learn: 1. It is better to be a child of light walking in darkness than a child of darkness walking in light, i.e. in the sparks of his own kindling. 2. Though God’s way is sometimes hid from a saint, the saint’s way is never hid from God. 3. It is a special privilege which the good man enjoys that he is never afflicted but with an eye to his improvement. 4. The severest season of trial through which a follower of God may be called to pass is certain to have an end. 5. The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. 6. The only way to happiness for man is the way of God. 7. It is a sure mark of wisdom to prefer God’s commandment to the wishes or resolves of self. Job 23:13-17 Job to Eliphaz: 3. A meditation on the Divine Being. I. LOFTY GOD. 1. The unity of the Divine nature. "For he is in one mind;" literally, "for he is in one" (verse 13). The interpretation which regards this as an allusion to the absolute majesty and undivided essence of the Deity, as in the sublime monotheistic confession of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4), though not accepted by all expositors, is yet pronounced by most to be perfectly admissible. How far Job had attained to a perception of the unique personality of the Godhead, as containing more hypostases (persons) than one, may be a subject of controversial discussion. But an utterance like the present seems to mark off Job by a wide gulf from ancient polytheistic idolaters. Job, his three friends, and doubtless many more besides, were monotheists, who held by the grand doctrine of the unity of Goal, which had descended to them in the line of primitive tradition, and which was subsequently republished to Israel from the summit of Mount Sinai. Nay, such passages as those which speak about a Daysman (Job 10:1-22:33), a heavenly Witness (Job 16:19-21), and a Kinsman Redeemer (Job 19:25), seem to intimate that Job at least, in his ecstatic moments, had caught a glimpse of the doctrine of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead, just as throughout the Old Testament generally the same doctrine is found lying in embryo, though not fully or distinctly revealed (cf. Genesis 1:1-3; Psalms 2:7; Psalms 33:6; Psalms 110:1). 2. The immutability of the Divine purpose. "But he is in one," i.e. one purpose or determination, e.g. towards Job. Hence adds the patriarch, "Who can turn him?" (verse 13), meaning, nothing could deflect him from his fixed resolution to treat Job as a criminal. Dropping out of view the misconception which gave tone and color to all Job’s representations of the Divine Being, the truth which remains, that the supreme God is unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, and therefore invariable and unalterable in his decrees and purposes, is in accordance not only with the teachings of Scripture (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Psalms 102:27; Proverbs 19:21; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Malachi 3:6; Acts 15:18), but with the dictates of reason. A Being not absolutely perfect in himself cannot be Divine. But a Being in himself absolutely perfect cannot be affected by anything from without or within so as to render him either less or more perfect than he is. Hence absolutely and in himself he must be" the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." If upon any of his dispensations towards the creature changes seem to pass, these changes, having been fixed and determined from the beginning, are in no degree inconsistent with his immutability. Whatever further alteration appears to surround his decrees is the result of change or variability in the creature. 3. The irresistibility of the Divine power. "And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth;" literally, "And his soul desireth, and he doeth" (verse 13). Not only does the Supreme Intelligence act in accordance with a plan, but he has power adequate to carry into complete realization every item and detail of that plan. Nay, with such ease does he accomplish his purposes, his resources being unlimited, that he has simply to speak and it is done, to command and it standeth fast (Psalms 33:9), or, as here represented, to form a wish and proceed to execute it (cf. Psalms 115:3; Isaiah 46:10, Isaiah 46:11; Jeremiah 32:17, Jeremiah 32:27; Daniel 4:25; Ephesians 1:11), without apprehension of defeat (Job 9:12; Job 11:10; Job 41:10, Job 41:11; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Isaiah 43:13); or failure (Job 42:2; Genesis 18:14; Luke 1:37; Ephesians 3:20). 4. The particularity of the Divine decrees. "For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me" (verse 14). What the Divine mind had preappointed as Job’s portion, the Divine hand was engaged in carrying out. The plan of the universe is one that provides for attention to individuals. Nothing is too vast for infinite wisdom and power to comprehend or execute; nothing too mean and insignificant for the Divine mind to notice, or the Divine hand to govern. The falling of a sparrow equally with the dissolution of an empire has a place in the programme of the world which is prearranged by God. The portion of the feeblest saint on earth is as truly prepared for him as is the place that shall be filled by a nation or a race. 5. The universality of the Divine government. "And many such things are with him." Possibly Job meant that God had many more applications and calamities of a like description wherewith to torture him; but the interpretation is not wrong which understands Job to say that his case was not exceptional, that his sufferings formed part of a great plan in which others besides himself were embraced; that, in fact, the supreme Ruler was exercising over mankind at large the same sort of irresistible sovereignty as over him, Job. And certainly the thought should in some degree mitigate the stroke of affliction when it falls on us, that no strange thing has happened to us, but only such as is common to men (1 Peter 4:12; 1 Peter 5:9). II. MINGLED TOWARDS GOD. 1. A sense of awe. "Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him" (verse 15). If the thought of an all-powerful, irresistibly and universally decreeing God arrayed against Job possessed him with inward fear and confusion, terror and dismay, much more should such emotions fill the minds of men who are as yet in their natural condition. And though in the case of such as have made peace with God there is no occasion for inward trepidation, slavish terror, or paralyzing fear, yet even they must find it difficult to contemplate the Divine character as above depicted without a consciousness of awe, without a feeling of profound veneration. So David remembered God, and was troubled (Psalms 77:3). Christ’s followers, however, have no need to be troubled by thoughts of either the Divine character or presence (John 14:1). "Perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). And we have received not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). 2. A consciousness of weakness. "For God maketh my heart soft" (verse 16), i.e. deprives it of strength, makes it faint and feeble (Deuteronomy 20:3; Isaiah 7:4; Jeremiah 51:46). The effect produced on Job by a contemplation of the Divine character as an all-wise, irresistibly powerful, moral Governor, who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will, is not infrequently experienced by serious minds. Nothing impresses men with a conviction of his feebleness like a vivid realization of the power and wisdom of God as displayed in the material universe (Psalms 8:5, Psalms 8:6); nothing affords a glimpse into his spiritual worthlessness and insufficiency like a luminous presentation before his soul’s eye of the moral majesty of God (Isaiah 6:5; Luke 5:8; Revelation 1:17). Indeed, the human heart never either breaks or becomes dejected, discerns its weakness or realizes its insufficiency, until it comes in contact with God, e.g. Moses (Exodus 4:10); Isaiah 6:5; Job (Job 42:6). 3. A feeling of perplexity. As understood by our translators, Job (verse 17) expresses amazement that God had not cat him off "before the darkness" of affliction had come upon him; i.e. either that God had kept him alive solely for the purpose of inflicting on him such mysterious suffering as he then endured (cf. Job 3:10), or that God had not removed him while at the height of prosperity, and in visible enjoyment of the Divine favour. So good people are often puzzled to understand why, in the providence of God, they should have been reserved for this or that particular ca]amity; and why, being what they are, sincere and humble followers of God, they should be treated with as much severity as if they were his foes. But this, of course, results from imperfect knowledge of’ the special design and gracious benefits of affliction. 4. A deficiency of faith. Otherwise interpreted, the language of Job (verse 17) asserts that what confounds him is not the external darkness covering his face, surrounding him on every side, and threatening to engulf him but the reward thought that God is against him. And just here Job evinces a lack of genuine trust, or spiritual confidence, in God. Had Job been as honest towards God as he was just towards himself, had he given God as full credit for sincerity as he claimed for himself, he would never have accused God of dealing with him as an enemy, but, rather than impeach God’s immutable love towards his faithful followers, would have sought another solution for the mystery of his sufferings. Learn: 1. The proper study of mankind is God. 2. The immutability of God is as full of comfort to God’s people as it is of terror to God’s adversaries. 3. When God’s purposes have been revealed, whether in providence or in grace, they should not be resisted, but received with meekness and submission. 4. Only one Being in the universe, viz. God, can do what his soul desireth; every other is dependent upon God’s will. 5. No man can be truly said to be the architect of his own future, since every man’s lot is assigned him by God. 6. When a saint is afraid of God’s presence, he has either taller into sin, like Adam (Genesis 3:10) and like David (Psalms 30:7), or has misconstrued the character of that appearance, like the apostles (John 6:19). 7. The breaking or the bruising of a sinner’s heart is a work for which only God is competent. 8. There are worse calamities than death to a good man; e.g. the loss, or supposed loss, of the Divine favour. 9. Whatever befalls a child of God on earth, he should never part with faith in his heavenly Father’s love. Job 23:13 The unchanging God. "He is in one mind" with regard to— I. THE PLAN OF THE . 1. There is such a plan. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18; Ephesians 1:11). 2. This plan is so perfect that it never requires subsequent modification (Job 36:4; Job 37:16; Psalms 104:24; Proverbs 3:19; Isaiah 40:13). 3. This plan is efficiently carried out in its minutest detail (Numbers 11:23; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Job 42:2; Psalms 33:9; Isaiah 14:24). II. THE SIN OF MAN. 1. That it is an abomination in his sight (Deuteronomy 25:16; Psalms 5:4; Proverbs 15:9; Jeremiah 44:4; Zechariah 8:17; Luke 16:15). 2. That it is infinitely dangerous to man (Numbers 16:38; Deuteronomy 29:18; Job 5:2; Proverbs 1:31; Ephesians 5:6). III. THE SCHEME OF . "There is none other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). From the Fall downwards, the gospel of the grace of God has been substantially the same-salvation. 1. In antediluvian times, through faith in the woman’s Seed (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 4:4). 2. In patriarchal times, through faith in Abraham’s promised Child (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 15:6). 3. In Mosaic times, through faith in the sacrificial Lamb, of which the Levitical offerings were the shadows and the types (Hebrews 9:8-10; Hebrews 10:3). 4. In the times of the monarchy, through faith in David’s Son (2 Samuel 7:15). 5. In the times of Isaiah, through faith in the suffering Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 53:1). 6. In the fulness of the times, through faith in him who was the woman’s Seed, Abraham’s Descendant, David’s Son, the suffering Servant of Jehovah, and the world’s Paschal Lamb, all in one. IV. THE PURPOSE OF . Ever since God’s mercy came to this fallen world, and that was immediately upon Adam’s transgression, the design aimed at in life’s discipline has been not to punish man, but to convert and save, to purify and perfect him (Genesis 3:23; Deuteronomy 8:5; Job 5:17; Psalms 94:12; Ezekiel 20:37; John 15:2; Acts 14:22; Romans 5:3; 1 Corinthians 11:32; Hebrews 12:7). V. THE DESTINY OF HIS PEOPLE. Though not as clearly understood or revealed in pre-Christian times as now under the gospel dispensation, it was still the same "better country, even an heavenly," to which saints in all ages have looked forward, Cf. Abraham (Hebrews 11:10), David (Psalms 17:15), Paul (Philippians 1:23; 2 Timothy 4:8). Conclusion. "Who can turn him?" 1. Consolation to the saint. 2. Condemnation to the wicked. BY E. JOHNSON Verse 1-24:25 Struggles of faith with doubt. To this long and severe accusation of Eliphaz the sufferer returns no reply. He comes back to the wish he has already expressed more than once, that God will appear as Witness and Judge of his innocence, and so put an end to this long embroilment (see Job 9:1-35. and 13.). He is distressed by the doubt that God has withdrawn himself from him, and left him to drain the cup of suffering to the dregs. And, again, many examples occur to him of wicked men who lived in happiness to a good old age, even to death; and he dwells on these pictures with a kind of pleasure, thinking to establish his position: the incomprehensibility of the Divine government.—J. Job 23:1-17 Longing for the appearance of the delivering and justifying God. I. . (Job 23:2-5.) So bitter is his complaint, "his hand is heavy upon his groaning," i.e. he must force groan after groan out of himself. Oh that he knew where to find the judgment-seat of God, and that he might have the opportunity of pleading his cause! (Job 23:3-5). He possesses still "faith and a good conscience," those best jewels of a Christian (1 Timothy 1:5), and can think of appearing before God, not with terror, but with confidence. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence with God" (1 John 3:21). II. DOUBT (Job 23:6-9) of the possibility of this intervention of God on his behalf. He timidly thinks of the overwhelming effect of God’s majesty upon him (comp. Job 9:34; Job 13:21). But here, relying on the consciousness of innocence, he casts the doubt away. "Would he contend with me in his omnipotence? No; he would only attend to me" (Job 23:6). It would be seen that it is a righteous man who enters into judgment with him, and Job would escape his Judge (verse 7). But then this cheerful expectation is checked by the thought that God is nowhere to be found—neither east nor west, north nor south (verses 8, 9), although present in all quarters (Psalms 139:8-10). Without the definite revelation of the gospel, we may readily lose ourselves in a vague and aimless pantheism. God is everywhere, yet nowhere; present in all things for the intellect, found in none by the heart. It is the doctrine of the Mediator, of the Man Christ Jesus, which resolves this contradiction. God must meet us in the form of man, otherwise he is but an abstraction. III. REASON OF GOD’S . (Verses 10-13.) According to Job, this is, that although God knows his innocence, he will not depart from his resolve not to be found of him. Verses 10-12 contain strong assertions of his innocence. God knows Job’s wonted way or manner of life; and, if proved, he would come out like gold from the furnace. His foot has kept firmly to God’s step, God’s way he has observed, and has not turned aside, nor departed from the commandment of his lips. "More than my own law I kept the words of his mouth," i.e. more than the dictates of pleasure or self-will (verse 12). "But he remains one, and who will turn him" from his design (comp. Psalms 33:9; Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29)? IV. AWE AND IN THE OF GOD. (Verses 14-17.) God will fulfil Job’s destiny, like that of many others (verse 14). The thought of this unfathomable counsel of God through which Job must suffer fills him with fearfulness and amazement (verse 15). It is God himself, not the mere sufferings, who has unnerved Job and overthrown him (verse 16). It is not the darkness of his trouble (Job 22:11) nor his own hideous form (Job 19:13-15) which have stupefied him. No, it is God alone who is the cause of this stupor, who is behind these sufferings with his incomprehensible counsels. Here, again, we see how deep is faith in the heart of Job, how inextinguishable the longing and the need for communion with God, which is life to him, and more than life l He can bear pain, he can dispense, if need be, with human sympathy; but he cannot bear the absence of God! As the plant in the cellar, so the faithful soul ever turns and struggles towards the light; and the only Light of the soul is God!—J. BY R. GREEN Job 23:3-13 The true support under deferred judgment. In the bitterness of his complaint and the heaviness of his stroke, Job makes known his desire to appeal directly to God. In the impossibility of this his faith is more and more severely tested; but he reposes in an assurance that the Divine eye is upon him, and he is confident of a just and even merciful sentence. So does conscious integrity uphold the tried and suffering believer, over whom for the present the shadows of suspicion gather, although the sufferer is tried by deferred judgment. I. THE DEMAND FOR A PATIENT HEARING. Only the consciously upright would desire to plead with his judge. The self-accused tries to hide from the keen eye of detection and exposure; but he who knows himself to be unjustly accused may well desire to appear before a righteous tribunal. It is a high testimony to Job’s character that he makes demand to be tried by One who cannot err (verses 3-7). But his longing is not allayed. A further test is applied to his character. For the present, at least, judgment is denied him. II. , A FURTHER TRIAL. To the unjustly condemned no severer testing could be given than the withholding of the desired judgment. Job’s hope is in God; but God is hidden. If he attempts to "go forward," behold "he is not there." If "backward," he "cannot perceive him." Turning to the right hand or to the left, it is the same. God, his Friend, is hidden. His only refuge is closed. How severely is faith tried and patience put to the proof by the hiding of God! The struggle is a spiritual one. The soul is cast upon the unseen. It is thrown back upon its integrity and upon its power to wait. It is the supreme test of faith. It precedes the dawn of the day of vindication, of judgment and deliverance. It is a further weight upon the already tried heart of the patriarch. To an afflicted spirit is added a suffering body, and for the present the cruel accusations of would-be friends, who mistake the discipline of God for his judgment against sin. III. IT IS HERE THAT JOB’S FAITH IN THE DIVINE JUSTICE SHINES OUT WITH . He knows God would not take advantage of his "great power" to plead that against him or to crush him with it. Nay, rather he would "put strength" in the poor suppliant. He would compassionate the oppressed, and concede to him. So Job comforts himself in the quiet repose upon the justice of the Divine decisions. The fruits of early obedience and faith are now gathered. He who sows in his own heart the seeds of Divine truth in earlier days, prepares for himself a harvest of consolation in the days of trial and adversity. Job is proving the blessedness of the man whose ways please the Lord. IV. ALL THIS IS BASED UPON JOB’S OF . With confidence he rebuts the accusations of his accusing friends. He rejoices in the assurance of the Divine cognizance of his doings: "He knoweth the way that I take." Happy the man who can appeal with confidence to the searching of the Divine eye! Job may have had cause sufficient to be abased before God, but he is conscious of innocence of the charges preferred by his friends. Thus is falsely accused innocence sustained when its judgment is deferred. And Job appears a bright example of the comfort derived in affliction from faith in God and consciousness of untarnished integrity.—R.G. Job 23:14-17 The humbled and overwhelmed sufferer. The position of Job is one of confusion and unexplained mystery. He is in the hands of the Almighty. His punishment, as some affirm it to be, is very heavy. It at times seems to be greater than he can bear. Yet he is uncondemned within. He holds fast to his integrity. Like his friends, he interprets sufferings into punishments for sin. Yet he is not conscious of sin, certainly not of sin to such a degree as to merit such heavy judgment. He is confounded. He can but yield. He believes in the Divine justice, although his faith in it is tried by the conflicting convictions of his mind and his inability to interpret the Divine ways. That his own righteousness will shine out ultimately he is persuaded. "When he hath tried me, "shall come forth as gold." In the mean while he is overpowered. The struggle is severe; the strain upon his faith is very great. It is the uninterpreted mystery, the apparent confliction of the Divine dealings, that bows Job to the earth. He is troubled at the Divine presence; when he thinks of God he is afraid, and his heart is dejected. This picture of the humbled, overwhelmed servant of God holding fast his faith in the consciousness of integrity, declares the true causes of the support which Job experienced in his overwhelming afflictions to be (1) a consciousness of integrity; (2) faith in the Divine Name; (3) patient anticipation of final vindication. I. Without THE OF Job could not be free from the sorrows which come of condemnation. The testimony of conscience to the wrongness and disobedience of life is the keenest and most penetrative of afflictions. It reaches to the very core of the spirit. The utmost sensibility of the soul is aroused. No outward calm can allay this inner agitation. But if there is peace within; if the soul is not at war with itself; if there is the inestimable consciousness of personal freedom from condemnation, the soul may writhe in its pain, but it is upheld by the assurance that the affliction comes not weighted with the burden of retribution. II. It is through this freedom from self-reproach and self-condemnation alone that TRUE FAITH IN GOD can be sustained. Job may be overwhelmed at the thought of God, but he lacks not faith in him; and them is no sense of buried wrong weakening his trust, or impairing the comfort that comes from a belief in the deep, if hidden, Divine approval. III. And it is this which supports him in THE HOPE OF A FINAL The unjustly condemned may wait. Trouble may overshadow him, he may be heavily burdened, his heart may quake and fear, but he knows he shall at last rise superior to all aspersions of evil-doing. Herein lies the secret of a sustaining peace in the midst of the severest of earth’s trials; this is the true ground of hope, this the encouragement to sustaining faith.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 23:2 The bitter complaint. Job’s comforters have failed. Their many words have not lightened his troubles. On the contrary, they have aggravated them. To external disaster has been added cruel misunderstanding and false accusation. Of all this Job naturally complains most bitterly. Many troubles are softened with time. It is not so with his. The same melancholy despondency, the same cry of agony, the same grievous complaining, are still with him. I. IT IS NATURAL TO GIVE TO GRIEF. In the East this is done with great demonstration, and even ostentation. Any extravagance is foolish; self-restraint is certainly more manly than a wild abandonment to sorrow. Yet it is neither necessary nor desirable to suppress all signs of feeling. God, who has made the fountain of tears, cannot require it to be always sealed. There is a relief in the natural expression of sorrow. To hide it in the bosom is to injure the soul. Extreme reserve and self-restraint may lead to insanity. We are more likely to think unjust thoughts of God when we brood over our wrongs in secret than when we venture to give an external expression to them. II. THE GRIEF EXCEEDS . Job feels that this is the case with his sorrow. Bitter as his complaint is, his stroke is heavier than his groaning. We are tempted to exaggerate the smaller troubles of life; but we cannot find adequate expression for the greater ones. They who have never suffered from those troubles cannot understand how keenly they are felt. It is, therefore, unjust to judge of the complaining spirit of other men, as the three friends did of Job’s. On the other hand, inexpressible grief is perfectly understood by God. It is no drawback to his sympathy that men cannot give full expression to their feelings, because he reads the heart. III. THE BITTER OF GRIEF SHOULD LEAD TO PRAYER. This is the case with Job; and after one brief utterance of his burdened soul, the suffering man turns at once to God (see verse 2). Then he must do more than give expression to grief. While God listens patiently to the complaints of his suffering children, it is not a worthy thing on their part only to burden him with those complaints. Submission, obedience, and trust should have a part in the utterance to God. IV. NO HUMAN GRIEF CAN EQUAL THAT OF CHRIST’S SORROWS. Job’s sufferings seemed to be unique. But they were fearfully surpassed by what Christ endured. To know that some one has suffered more is not to lighten the present sufferer’s load. On the contrary, this fact only makes the world look the darker and the more miserable. But there are characteristics of Christ’s sufferings that should help other sufferers. He shows us how to bear suffering. More than that, his suffering brings healing to others. "With his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Thus the sufferer may look for saving deliverance from his own trouble to the Christ who suffered for him.—W.F.A. Job 23:3 The search for God. I. ITS SOURCE. Job is prompted to seek God by his terrible troubles. The false accusations make him the more anxious to find the just Judge, who can clear up the dreadful misunderstandings and vindicate his injured cause. Thus the innocent man in trouble needs God. Still more does the guilty man; for no one can deliver from sin but he against whom one has sinned. Although it is most evident that many who thus need God are not actively seeking for him, yet, even if held back by fear or distracted by worldliness, all men have somewhere in the depths of their hearts the instinct of hunger for God. We need God, and we can have no rest till we find him. II. ITS HOPE. Job believes that, if only he can find God and come to his seat, justice will be done, and right will be apparent; for Job is only thinking of vindication. No doubt that result will follow. But others also enter into the great human hope for God. If he were only to vindicate the righteous, the great multitude of men could hope for little from him. But the great Judge who does this is the compassionate Father, who has pity on his children’s needs apart from their deserts. Thus the hope turns to the mercy of God for deliverance and blessing. Still, it is not wise to separate these two forms of the hope. God can only bless by leading us to righteousness; and it is really for our good that he is just. We need God not only that he may judge the righteous cause, but also that he may make the sinner righteous. III. ITS . Job expresses a deep, heartfelt desire with great anxiety. He has not yet found God. Others have been in the same condition—longing for God, yet finding him not. Where is the difficulty? 1. God is a Spirit. If we try to find God by earthly means we must fail. He is not hidden among the mountains or above the clouds. He is simply invisible by nature. We must look for him in spiritual ways. 2. We are sinful. Nothing so blinds us to God as sin. This first of all banishes us to a great distance from God, and then makes darkness about our way back. 3. Life is often perplexing and sorrowful. Job had lost the vision of God in his sorrow, rather than through sin. So had Christ on the cross when he cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Great grief seems to blot out the heavens and leave us in desolation. IV. ITS REWARD. Job did find God at last (Job 42:5). God has promised that they who seek him earnestly shall find him (Proverbs 8:17), and Christ that if men seek they shall find (Matthew 7:7). 1. God reveals himself to faith. We believe in order that we may see, trust in order that we may know. This is true of all knowledge of persons. 2. God is seen in Christ. Philip expressed the soul’s desire for God when he said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us;" and then Christ declared where the revelation of God was to be seen: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:8, John 14:9). 3. The full vision of God is dependent on purity of heart. Some know]edge of God can be had without this; but we cannot see him as he is till we are like him (Matthew 5:8).—W.F.A. Job 23:8, Job 23:9 The unseen God. Job enlarges on the idea of his search for God and the efforts that he has vainly made to find him. God is still invisible; searching has not found him. I. THE OF SEEING GOD. There is more to be said for modern agnosticism than for eighteenth-century deism. Pure rationalism will not find God. Physical science cannot discover him. The animal is dissected, the metal is melted in the crucible, but the analysis reveals not Divinity. We sweep the heavens with the telescope, and can see no Deity enthroned above the stars. But we are very foolish if we expect to find God in any of these ways. He is neither seen by the bodily eye nor discovered by the scientific faculty. Science, indeed, points to causation, and reveals order and thought; but she does not say how these things came to be. Natural theology prepares the way for the revelation of God; or, if it may be said that it is a revelation of God, still this comes only in such a large and confusing idea that we cannot find in it what we need—the revelation of our Father in heaven. II. THE MORAL OF SEEING GOD. Job’s search was not in regions of science. He looked abroad on the great world, and he probed into the deep musings of his own heart, but not as a philosopher seeking for a scientific explanation of the universe. It was his deep distress that drove him to God. He missed God in life, in the providential control of human affairs. It is not always easy to see God in this strangely confused human world, where so many things go wrong, and where so little seems to be done to keep them right. In his perplexity and distress man cries out, "Where is God? If there is indeed a God, why does he not declare himself? why does he not put forth his hand and rectify the world that so greatly needs him?" Whatever may be the theoretical scepticism that gathers round problems of science and philosophy, the moral doubt that springs from the experience of injustice and misery is much more keenly felt. III. THE TO SEE GOD. We cannot find him by means of our philosophy; we miss him in the dark struggles of man’s world of action and suffering. But why? Because we are looking for him in wrong directions. The true vision of God is only to be seen by means of spiritual fellowship with him. Meanwhile, although this is hard to obtain, we may console ourselves with the know]edge that if he does indeed exist, his being does not become shadowy and unreal just because we do not see him. It is desirable that we should have a more intimate acquaintance with our Father, but even before we have attained to this, even while we are blundering and stumbling in the darkness, God is truly existing, and is ruling over all. Our ignorance does not limit God’s being, our blindness does not cripple his activity. We cannot see him; we find it hard to trace his purposes among the tangled threads of life; all looks dark and aimless. Yet God is God, and therefore he will not desert his creatures. "God’s in his heaven, All’s right with the world." (Browning.) W.F.A. Job 23:10 God’s knowledge and man’s discipline. I. GOD’S . 1. The fact. Job has just been owning his difficulty in finding God. He searches in all directions, forward and backward, on the left hand and on the right, and he cannot discover God (verses 8, 9). But although it is so hard for him to attain to a knowledge of God, he is quite certain that God knows him. We are known by God before we think of acknowledging him, and when we are bewildered with the mystery of life all is clear and open to God. 2. Its scope. God knows the way that his servants take. (1) Past experiences. He knows what we have had to contend with, and why our lives have been vexed and tried. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ The general subject of this chapter is the prosperity of the wicked, whose proceedings and their results are traced out in detail (Job 24:2-24). A single note of perplexity (Job 24:1) forms a sufficient introduction; and a single note of challenge a sufficient epilogue (Job 24:25). Job 24:1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the almighty. By "times" seem to be meant God’s special periods of exhibiting himself in action as the moral Governor of the world, vindicating the righteous, and taking vengeance upon sinners. Such "times" are frequently spoken of in the prophetical Scriptures as "days of the Lord" (see Isaiah 2:12; Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 4:1; Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9; Joe 1:15; Joe 2:1, Joe 2:11; Obadiah 1:15; Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:14, etc.). They are, of course, "not hidden" from him, seeing that it is he who determines on them beforehand, and, when their fixed date is come, makes them special "days," or "times," different from all others. Do they who know him not see his days? i.e. why are even they, who know and serve God, kept in the dark as to these "times," so that they do not foresee them or know when they are coming? This is to Job a great perplexity. Job 24:2 Some remove the landmarks. (On this form of wickedness, see Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10; Hosea 5:10.) Where neighbouring properties are not divided by fences of any kind, as in the East generally, the only way of distinguishing between one man’s land and another’s is by termini, or "landmarks," which are generally low stone metes or bourns, placed at intervals on the boundary-line. An easy form of robbery was to displace these bourns, putting them further back on one’s neighbour’s land. They violently take away flocks. Others openly drive off their neighbours’ flocks from their pastures, mix them with their own flocks, and say that they are theirs (comp. Job 1:15-17). And feed thereof; rather, and feed them; i.e. pasture them. Job 24:3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless. This was another form of oppression. "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed?" says Samuel, on laying down his judgeship (1 Samuel 12:3). The "fatherless" were particularly liable to such ill treatment, seeing that they had lost their natural protector. They take the widow’s ox for a pledge. It may be true that this was nowhere a legal offence, not even among the Hebrews (Lee); but it was a real act of oppression, and forms a fitting counterpart to the injury done to the orphan. (On the natural tendency of selfish men to bear hard on these two classes, see Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:17; Deuteronomy 27:19; Psalms 94:6; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 10:2; Jeremiah 5:28; Zechariah 7:10.) Job 24:4 They turn the needy out of the way. Either "they force poor men to turn out of the road when they are using it, and wait till they have passed" (compare the recent practice of the Japanese daimios), or "they make the highways so dangerous with their violence that they compel the poor and needy to seek byways for safety" (Judges 5:6). The second hemistich favours the latter interpretation. The poor of the earth (or, the meek of the earth) hide themselves together. In the East there have always been superior and subject races, as well as proud nobles and down-trodden men of the same race. It is not clear of which of these two Job speaks. The former were often hunted out of all the desirable lands, and forced to fly to rooks and caves and holes in the ground, whence they were known as "Troglodytes." The latter, less frequently, handed together, and withdrew to remote and sequestered spots, where they might hope to live unmolested by their oppressors (Hebrews 11:38). Job 24:5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work. Plundering bands of wicked marauders scour the desert, like troops of wild asses, going forth early to their work, and late taking rest—rising betimes for a prey, and generally finding it, since the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. They are sure to find some plunder or other ere the day is over. Job 24:6 They reap every one his corn in the field. When they have scoured the desert, the marauders approach the cultivated ground bordering on it, and thence carry off, each of them. a quantity of "fodder," or "provender" (Revised Version), for the sustentation of their horses. And they gather the vintage of the wicked; rather, as in the margin, and the wicked gather the vintage. (So Rosenmuller and Professor Lee.) Sometimes they burst into the vineyards, and rob them, carrying off the ripe grapes. Job 24:7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing; rather, they lie all night naked, without clothing. The marauders are still the subject of the narrative. When engaged in their raids, they endure to pass the night without clothing, as the Bedouins are said to do to this day, so that they have no covering in the cold. They are so bent upon plunder that they do not mind these inconveniences. Job 24:8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. Further unpleasant consequences of marauding, hut endured without complaint by the wild robber-tribes. Job 24:9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast. Other oppressors, not of the marauding class, but dwellers in towns (Job 24:12), are so cruel that they tear the unweaned child of the debtor from the mother’s breast, as satisfaction for a debt, and carry him off into slavery. And take a pledge of the poor; literally, take in pledge that which is on the poor—in other words, their clothing. They will not lend to them on any other terms, and so force them to part with their garments, and go about naked. Even Hebrew creditors seem to have done this (Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:12, Deuteronomy 24:13); and the Mosaic Law did not forbid the practice, but only required the creditor to let the debtor have his garment at night, that he might sleep in it (Exodus 22:27; Deuteronomy 24:13). Job 24:10 They cause him to go naked without clothing; rather, they go naked without clothing. The effects of the oppression on its victims are now traced. First of all, the poor man, whose only wrap or cloak has been taken in pledge, is com-polled to go naked, or almost naked, both day and night, exposed alike to extremes of heat and cold. Secondly, he is compelled to reap and bind and carry home the sheaves of his oppressor, while he himself is half famished with hunger. The second clause of the verse is wrongly translated in the Authorized Version, where we read, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry; the real meaning being, "and they who are an hungered, carry the sheaves" (compare the Revised Version). Job 24:11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their wine-presses, and suffer thirst. In the third place, the same unfortunates are employed in the homesteads of their oppressors to express oil from the olives and wine from the rich clusters of grapes, while they themselves are tormented with unceasing thirst. Job 24:12 Men groan from out of the city. It is not only in the wild tracts bordering on the desert (Job 24:5-8), or on the large farms of rich landholders (Job 24:9-11), that oppression takes place. Men’s groans are heard also "from the city," and in the midst of the city, where murder, robbery, burglary, adultery, and other crimes of the deepest dye abound. Then the soul of the wounded crieth out. In appeals to God for help, or in inarticulate cries, the wounded spirit of the oppressed and injured vents itself. Yet God layeth not folly to them. Yet God seems to take no notice. He gives no sign of disapproval, but allows the oppressors to go on in their foolish courses unchecked. Job 24:13 They are of those who rebel against the light. These city oppressors go beyond the others in entirely rejecting the light of reason, conscience, and law. They threw off every restraint. The "light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" is nothing to them. They know not the ways thereof. They will not know, will not have anything to do with, the law of moral restraint—much less will they abide in the paths thereof; i.e. acknowledge and be guided by such restraints continually. On the contrary, Job 24:14 The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy. The murderer rises at the first glimpse of dawn—the time when mast men sleep most soundly. He cannot go about his wicked business in complete darkness. He has not the courage to attack the great and powerful, who might be well armed and have retainers to defend them, but enters the houses of a comparatively poor class, in which he is less afraid to risk himself. Here, in the night he is as a thief. He has not come into the house simply for murder. Theft is his main object. He will not take life unless he is resisted or discovered, and so, in a certain sense, driven to it. Job 24:15 The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me. There is an analogy between moral and physical light, and between moral and physical darkness. The class of men here spoken of (Job 24:14-16), who have rebelled against moral light (Job 24:13), and refused its ways, and rejected its paths, are no great lovers of physical light. Their deeds of darkness are only suited to be done in the dark, and they wait for the evening twilight or the dusk of dawn to engage in them. And he disguiseth his face. As a further precaution against discovery, the adulterer disguiseth, or covereth up, his face. The same is often done by thieves and murderers. Job 24:16 In the dark they dig through houses. In ancient times, burglary commonly took this form. Windows were few, and high up in the walls; doors were strongly fastened with bolts and bars. But the walls, being of clay, or rubble, or sun-dried brick, were weak and easily penetrable. This was especially the ease with party walls; and if burglars entered an unoccupied house, nothing was easier than to break through the slight partition which separated it from the house next door. The Greek word for "burglar" is τοιχώρυχος’" he who digs through a wall." Which they had marked for themselves in the daytime; rather, they shut themselves up in the daytime; literally, they seal themselves up; the meaning being that they carefully keep themselves close. Professor Lee, however, defends the Authorized Version. They know not the light; i.e. they avoid it, keep away from it, will have nothing to do with it. Job 24:17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death. They hate the morning light. It is associated in their minds with the idea of detection; for when it breaks in upon them unexpectedly in the midst of their ill deeds, detection commonly follows; and detection is a true "shadow of death," for it commonly means the gallows. If one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death; rather, for they know the terrors of the shadow of death (see the Revised Version). It is a familiar experience to them; as, whenever crime is severely punished, it is to the criminal class generally. Job 24:18 He is swift as the waters. "Locus obscurissimus" (Schulteus). Scarcely any two commentators agree even as to the subject on which Job proceeds to speak. Some regard him as giving his own judgment on the ultimate fate of the wicked; others, as anticipating what his opponents will say on the point. One recent expositor takes the passage as referring to the efforts made by the malefactors of verses 14-16 to escape from justice, and to the discredit and difficulty in which they involve themselves. Another suggests that Job here calls attention to a fresh class of oppressors, viz. water-thieves (see Strabo, Job 16:18), who, starting in light boats from some island in a lake or river, plundered the neighbouring lands, making the portions of the landholders worthless, and causing them to neglect the cultivation, even of their vineyards. If we accept this view, the proper translation of the present verse will be, Swift is he (i.e. the water-thief) upon the face of the waters: then is the portion of them who dwell in the land worthless; no one turneth his face toward his vine. yards. Job 24:19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so doth the grave those which have sinned. This rendering is further confirmed by the next verse. Accepting it, we must suppose Job to pass at this point to the consideration of the ultimate end of the wicked, though in verse 21 he returns to the consideration of their ill doings. The heat and drought of summer, he says, consume and dry up all the water which comes from the melting of the winter’s snows. So does Shoel, or the grave, absorb, and as it were consume, the wicked. Job 24:20 The womb shall forget him: Some regard this as equivalent to "Earth shall forget him;" but most suppose "the womb" to mean "his own mother." The worm shall feed sweetly on him (comp. Job 17:14). He shall be no more remembered. Oblivion shall fall upon him and his doings. And wickedness shall be broken as a tree. As a strong wind suddenly snaps off a tree at the root, so wickedness, in the person of the wicked man—the abstract for the concrete—shall be overtaken by death, and perish in a moment (comp. Job 24:24). Job 24:21 He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not. Oppressors of another class are perhaps here spoken of, or perhaps there is a mere return to the idea with which Job’s enumeration opened (verse 3), which was the oppression of the weaker and more defenceless classes. As barrenness in women was considered the greatest possible misfortune (1 Samuel 1:5-8; 1 Samuel 3:1-10), so oppressing one that was barren indicated extreme cruelty. And doeth not good to the widow; i.e. neglects to vindicate her cause—an admitted part of man’s duty (see Job 22:9; Job 29:13; Job 31:16). Job 24:22 He draweth also the mighty with his power; i.e. he draws to his side, and makes his helpers, those who are mighty, attracting them or compelling them to join him by the power which he already has. He riseth up, and no man is sure of life. This is also the translation of the Revised Version. Some commentators, however, prefer to render, "He riseth up, when he has despaired of life; "i.e. the wicked man, when he has been brought into trouble, either sickness or danger of death at the hands of Justice, to men’s surprise, "riseth up"—is delivered from the danger, and recovers his prosperity. Job 24:23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; rather, he (i.e. God) granteth him to be in security’ and thereon he resteth; i.e. God allows the escape of the wicked man from his trouble, and lets him live on, safe and secure, and the man himself rests on the security thus afforded him, quite contented with it. Yet his eyes are upon their ways. God’s eyes are still upon the ways of the wicked: they are, or seem to be, the objects of a special providential care. Job 24:24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; rather, they are exalted: after a little while they are gone’ they are brought low. Job has to admit that death comes upon wicked men at last; but he minimizes the terrors of their death, and exaggerates its alleviations. First, it comes on them when they have risen to eminence, have gained themselves a reputation, and "are exalted." Next, it is sudden and painless, preceded by no long, lingering illness, but just a sinking into non-existence; a tranquil passing away. Thirdly, it is at a ripe age, when they have reached the full term of human life, and are as ears of corn ripe for the harvest. Further, it is the common fate: They are taken out of the way as all other (comp. Job 9:22; Job 21:13), and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. We may gather from this expression that the reaping in the land of Uz was conducted in Job’s time much in the same way as it was in Egypt under the early Pharaohs, viz. by cutting the stalk with a sharp sickle almost immediately below the ear, and collecting the ears in baskets. Job 24:25 And if it be not so now; i.e. "if these things be not as I say." Who will make me a liar? Which of you will stand forth and disprove them, and so "make me a liar "? And make my speech nothing worth? Show, i.e.’ my whole discourse to be valueless. This bold challenge no one attempts to take up. Job 24:1-12 Job to Eliphaz: 4. An answer wanted to a great question’ I. AS STATED. That the Almighty does not call wicked men before his tribunal on earth. "Why are not times," i.e. of reckoning or punishment, "reserved," or kept in store, "by the Almighty, and why do they who know him see not his days?" i.e. his doomsdays, or days of judicial visitation on the wicked (verse 1). 1. A caution. The language does not imply either that there should not be, or that there do not exist, such times of reckoning with the ungodly, and indeed with all men. On the contrary, it tacitly assumes that God both ought to have, and in point of fact does have, days of retribution which are appropriately described as "his." That men ought to be judged for their characters and lives, the moral instincts of humanity proclaim; that men will be arraigned before Shaddai’s impartial tribunal, is explicitly asserted in Scripture (Job 21:30; Job 34:11; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Psalms 98:9; Daniel 7:10; Matthew 25:32; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 9:27). 2. An explanation. What the language asserts is that such court-days are not kept by the Almighty on earth, or at least that his people do not see them; in other words, that the godlessness of men is permitted to stalk forth on earth unchallenged and unavenged, without let or hindrance, pretty much as if there were no such tribunal in existence. And this fact, which Job so strenuously affirms, in addition to having been observed by Asaph (Psalms 73:5), David (Psalms 1:1-6:21), the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 8:11), Jeremiah 12:1, Habakkuk 1:15, Habakkuk 1:16, and others, is likewise recognized in Scripture generally as correct. II. A OFFERED. That the Almighty does not hold a regular assize on earth established by two patent facts. 1. The most execrable wickedness is suffered to rage without either punishment or restraint. The special form of ungodliness depicted is that of ruthless oppression of the helpless and defenceless, exemplified in such crimes as: (1) Secret fraud. "They," i.e. the tyrannical oppressors of the aborigines of the soil, "remove the landmarks," shift the stones or stakes which mark the boundary-line between the poor man’s plot and the rich man’s farm, so as to diminish the one and increase the other—an act of impiety denounced in the Law of Moses as worthy of, and certain to be punished by, the curse of God (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17), a crime practised in the days of Solomon (Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10) and of Hos 5:10, a form of wickedness not unknown to modern society. Every attempt by covert fraudulence to augment one’s own estate at the expense of a neighbour’s, whether that neighbour be poor or rich, is equivalent to a removing of the landmark between meum and tuum, and as such incurs the Divine displeasure. If one thing is more saddening than the prevalence of indirect and minute spoliation amongst all ranks and classes, it is that good men should not be able to sea that theft is still theft, although practised in infinitesimal proportions and by underhand contrivances, and that even wicked men should not be deterred from such nefarious actions by a recollection of God’s anathemas against the thief. (2) Barefaced robbery. "They violently take away flocks and feed them" (Hosea 5:2), not taking the trouble to dispose of the stolen sheep by slaughter or sale, but openly and coolly retaining them amongst their own, as the Sabeans had done with Job’s oxen (Job 1:14)—an aggravation of their crime that they were so shameless and audacious in its commission; but they who could brave God’s curse in order to remove a landmark would not likely shrink from enduring man’s scorn in order to steal a flock. Sin inevitably tends to sear the conscience and to petrify the feelings. (3) Pitiless exaction. "They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge" (verse 3). Besides being out of all proportion, and therefore unjust, to carry off an ass or an ox in payment of a trifling loan or debt, it was unspeakably heartless to proceed to such extremity against those whose friendless condition should have drawn forth sympathy and succour. It was also a clear violation of the Divine Law to appropriate what was so indispensable to the subsistence of an orphan as the one ass wherewith he laboured, or so needful for the widow as the ox which ploughed her plot of ground. For similar reasons the Mosaic Law forbade the taking in pledge of a widow’s raiment (Deuteronomy 24:17), and much more, it may be argued, of a widow’s yoke ox, or of an orphan’s ass (Exodus 22:22). The nether or the upper millstone also, for a like cause, was an illegal pledge (Deuteronomy 24:6). (4) Violent oppression. "They turn the needy out of the way" (verse 4), thrusting them out of their accustomed paths and pursuits, compelling them through fear to abandon the highways and travel through trackless regions, ejecting them by force from their wonted habitations and ancient possessions (cf. Job 22:8, homiletics). (5) Merciless subjugation. "They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor" (verse 9). So pitiless are these inhuman monsters, that they distrain not the widow’s ox merely, but her infant child as well, plucking it from her bosom, and carrying it off to be reared in miserable servitude; yea, if the second clause may be added to the first, after robbing the broken-hearted mother of her babe, stripping her of her raiment, and turning her forth naked and trembling to find food and clothing as best she may. It is doubtful if any American Legree or modern slave-driver ever eclipsed these ancient child-stealers in relentless barbarity. 2. The most extreme misery is allowed to go unnoticed and unrelieved. In three affecting pictures, according to one view of the poet’s meaning, he sketches the calamitous fate of the unhappy victims of those remorseless destroyers. The first (verses 5-8) depicts the melancholy fortunes of the poor of the land (perhaps the aboriginal inhabitants), who being cast forth from their ancient possessions are obliged to "hide themselves together" (verse 4), or to slink away out of sight, disappearing, as inferior races have since done, because unable to stand before the violence of their invaders. (1) Leading a gregarious and wandering life, like wild asses in the desert, like the vagrant gipsies of modern times, rising up early and going forth in search of food with an appetite as keen as if they were hunting prey, with infinite labour extracting a scanty subsistence for themselves and children from the innutritious roots and herbs of the inhospitable steppe. (2) Enraging in the lowest forms of menial service, being obliged to hire themselves out as day labourers, and the only work available for them being the cutting of fodder for the rich man’s cattle—not the better sorts of grain, lest they should be tempted to pluck and eat; or the gleaning of the late ripening grapes of the rich man’s vineyard—not the earliest and best, for fear they should seek to quench their thirst by devouring the luscious fruit. (3) Reduced to the saddest state of destitution, being without clothes, so that they must pass the night in a stripped and naked condition, exposed to the "frequent and continuous storms that visit the mountains," and without homes, so that "they embrace the rock for want of a shelter." The second picture (verses 10, 11) is, if possible, more excruciatingly painful in the aspect of wretchedness it presents. It recites the evil hap of those widows’ children who have been taken for their mothers’ debt, or of the poorer section of the conquering clan themselves who in turn have become victims of the haughty tyrants, and have been reduced to a condition little short of abject slavery. (1) Utter penury. In consequence of the oppressive exactions of their masters, they are compelled to part with the last stitch of clothing, and to slink away in almost entire nudity like a gang of slaves driven to the market or the cotton-field. (2) Unrequited toil. Hungry, they must not pluck a handful of ears from their overseer’s cornfield, a privilege not denied to the brute beasts beside them (Deuteronomy 25:4). Thirsty, they dare not moisten their parched tongues with the must running from the presses as they squeeze but the oil and tread down the grapes. The abominable wickedness of exacting labour without remuneration (and that also adequate), as is done in slavery, is severely reprehended in Scripture (Le Job 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:14, Deuteronomy 24:15; Jeremiah 22:13; James 5:4). The third picture (verse 12) alludes to the miseries of a densely populated city, where (1) oppression reigns as fierce and intolerable as exists in the country, causing men to groan in anguish—a description not exclusively applicable to an ancient Arabian town suddenly invaded by hordes of freebooters, but finding also too faithful realization in the great cities and large centres of population belonging to the nineteenth Christian century, in which the same spectacle is still seen, of the strong trampling on the weak, the rich on the poor, the lordly and tyrannical on the plebeian and servile; and where (2) strife rages, leading not unfrequently to bloodshed and murder, in which the soul of the wounded mourns—a state of things as often seen today as it was some five or six thousand years ago, nothing being so characteristic of the present times as just the internecine warfare existing between the various classes of society, and leading as a natural result to a prolific development of crimes against the person and estate. And all this sweltering abomination, this moral putridity, social disorder, and civil corruption which infests both town and country, the Almighty appears to be as indifferent to as he was in the days of Job (Psalms 1:1-6:21). III. AN URGENT ASKED. Why does not God call wicked men to account? 1. Not for want of power. Otherwise he would not be Shaddai, the Almighty, the all-powerful and all-sufficient Deity, whose ability to perform his counsel Job has just commented on (Job 23:13). 2. Not for lack of knowledge. Job’s atheistical contemporaries supposed that mundane affairs were concealed from the gaze of him who walked upon the circuit of the heavens, and whose feet were wrapped about with clouds (Job 22:13); but Job and his friends alike admitted that times, i.e. at any rate the main events and circumstances of terrestrial history, were not hidden from Shaddai’s omniscient glance (verse 1, Authorized Version). 3. Not for want of right. Both parties in the present controversy recognize that such appalling wickedness should not be suffered to go for ever unchallenged and unpunished, that such detestable criminals as above described ought to be arrested and brought before the tribunal of Heaven. Nay, on the theory of the friends, these workers of iniquity ought at once to be called to account. Yet notoriously, says Job, they are not. Hence it can only be: 4. For lack of will. It is not God’s intention to hold a circuit court here on earth, and try men for their misdeeds. In other words, the Divine government is not, so far as this world is concerned, as the friends contended, strictly retributive. Learn: 1. The impunity of sinners on earth is no proof that they shall enjoy like impunity hereafter. 2. That God’s people do not now discern his judgment throne is no argument that such a throne does not exist. 3. Little faults are as really sins, and as certain to be punished, as great offences. 4. Criminals who start with stealthy and minute acts of transgression are in danger of proceeding to large as well as open works of wickedness. 5. "Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." 6. Mighty despots may deprive the poor of their estates by either fair means or foul; but God regards the deed as spoliation and robbery. 7. It is a wiser policy to prevent pauperism from being developed in a state than to provide for it after it has been developed. 8. Town and country are much the same in their moral characteristics. 9. It is a mistake to infer from God’s silence that he neither sees nor cares for the wickedness and misery of man. Job 24:8 A threefold religious emblem; of the shelter of the rock. I. AN EMBLEM OF THE SINNER’S . 1. Exposed to a storm. Like the unhappy victims of tyrannical oppression, men, in their unconverted state, are liable to be overtaken by the tempest of God’s righteous wrath and indignation against sin (Psalms 11:6; Romans 1:18; Colossians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 6:16, Revelation 6:17), which will not assail the body merely, but destroy both soul and body in hell (Luke 12:5), and that for ever. 2. Destitute of shelter. Like the houseless and homeless wanderers among the mountains, unpardoned souls are without a refuge to which they can betake themselves in the day of their calamity. Driven forth from the place of safety in which they originally stood, they have now "no covering in the cold," no garment of righteousness in which they can wrap their trembling spirits. Nor can they by any wisdom, wealth, or labour of their own construct or discover for themselves a habitation and defence against the storm. II. AN EMBLEM OF THE GREAT OFFERED IN THE GOSPEL. As the shivering outcasts crept into the rocky caves on the mountain-side, so Christ has been set forth as a Rock and a Hiding-place (Isaiah 32:2). 1. Accessible by all; the approach to him being hindered by no formidable barriers, and no stupendous effort being required to reach his side (Romans 10:6), nothing beyond a simple exercise of faith which is within the ability of even a child. 2. Sufficient for all; there being room enough in Christ for all who come to him in faith (Luke 14:22), yea, for the entire world of mankind (Isaiah 45:22; John 3:16), if only they sincerely come to him; and perfect safety and protection for all who gain its shelter, complete defence against the charges of the Law, the accusations of conscience, the penalties of sin, the terrors of death, and of the wrath to come (Romans 5:1). 3. Free to all; every one who seeks his presence and assistance being accorded a welcome, without money and without price. "All the fitness he requireth Is to feel our need of him." III. AN EMBLEM OF THE ACT OF SAVING FAITH. As the miserable victims of the strong man’s oppression embraced the rock for a shelter, so must needy sinners embrace Christ the Rock. 1. With personal application; Christ being of no more use to a sinner without individual appropriation than the mountain rock would have been to those who did not cling to it. Faith is the hand that lays hold of and embraces Christ as he is exhibited in the gospel. 2. With fervent gratitude; giving thanks to God for his abundant mercy in providing such a shelter for the soul, as no doubt the poor creatures whom the mountain-storms drenched were grateful for even the protection of a cave. 3. With immediate action; allowing no delay to prevent the soul from fleeing from the storm of impending wrath to the hope set before it in the gospel. Job 24:13-25 Job to Eliphaz: 5. Ancient rebels against the light. I. THEIR BLACK . 1. They are hostile to the light. The light alluded to is the light of day. The wicked persons spoken of regard that light with aversion, as being unfavourable to the special forms of ungodliness they delight to practise. Distinguished from the previously mentioned sinners who transact their nefarious deeds openly and unblushingly beneath the clear firmament of heaven, these night-birds may be taken, in their general characteristics at least, as representatives of those evil-doers whom Christ designates (John 3:20) haters of the light. Light is a frequent biblical symbol for Divine truth (Proverbs 6:23; Psalms 119:105; Isaiah 2:5), and in particular for the gospel (Matthew 4:16; Luke 2:32; John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8). Hence the unbelieving and therefore unconverted wicked heart naturally looks upon the light of God’s Law and of Christ’s gospel with repugnance (Romans 8:7), and for the same reason, that the light condemns their works. 2. They know not the ways of the light. They have no familiarity with such modes of living as men practise in open day. The ordinary avocations of law-abiding citizens possess for them no interest and yield to them no enjoyment; in which respect again they fitly typify ungodly men in general, who neither know nor care for the ways of holiness and truth. The way of the wicked is a way of darkness (Proverbs 4:19; Romans 13:12), of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12), of disobedience (Romans 8:7), of folly (Proverbs 12:15), of sorrow (Proverbs 13:15), a way that is displeasing to God (Proverbs 15:9), and that leadeth unto death (Matthew 7:13; Romans 6:23). The way of truth (Psalms 119:30), of understanding (Isaiah 40:14), of holiness (Isaiah 35:8), of peace (Isaiah 59:8; Romans 3:17), of life (Matthew 7:14), they do not keep, love, or know. 3. They shun the paths of the light. They remove themselves and their nefarious practices as far as possible from the light, lest they should be seen of men. Even so evil workers come not to the light lest their deeds should be reproved (John 3:20). Honest men fear not to stand in the sun. Nor do children of the light require to wrap themselves in cloaks of darkness. But because God’s light (of the Law and the gospel) has a singular power of discovering men’s wickedness to themselves and others (Ephesians 5:13), the children of darkness avoid the light. II. THEIR DARK DEEDS. The poet sketches portraits of three of these ancient rebels against the light. 1. The murderer; whose villainies are described by a threefold characteristic. (1) The time of their perpetration—"at the dawn," i.e. just before the breaking forth of the morning light, or while it is yet dark, that hour being selected for (a) its adaptation to the works about to be performed, works of darkness (Romans 13:12), such as robbery and murder, which cannot bear the light, and (b) the facilities it affords for finding subjects on which to operate. (2) The victims of their perpetration—"the poor and needy," who by reason of penury are obliged at that early hour to be afoot, probably on the road to their daily tasks. Murder, in itself an atrocious crime, is immensely aggravated when, for the petty spoil which can thereby be obtained, it is committed against the indigent and feeble. (3) The manner of their perpetration—by sudden ambush. "At dawn the manslayer riseth up," i.e. out of his concealment, "and killeth the poor and the needy;" another aggravation of his wickedness. The language may also indicate the alacrity and earnestness with which this son of darkness, this child of the devil, sets about his unhallowed work; in which respect his conduct may administer rebuke to the children of light. 2. The adulterer; who also is possessed of the infernal sagacity to select the season most appropriate, and the manner most effective, for accomplishing his diabolic purpose. Not at early dawn, but with the falling of the evening twilight, he sallies forth towards his neighbour’s harem, saying, "No eye shall see me;" to render detection impossible, putting a mask upon his face, forgetting that masks hide from men, but not from God, who can see as well in darkness as in light. But most criminals and sinners omit to reckon with the invisible Spectator of their abominations. Notoriously so did Cain (Genesis 4:10), David (2 Samuel 11:4), Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:2). Yet, again, from even a teacher so unworthy as this violator of marriage sanctities, God’s people may derive a lesson to transact their deeds of light with wisdom and efficiency. 3. The burglar; who, already referred to as the highwayman of the morning dawn (verse 14), is reintroduced as the midnight housebreaker who, with pick and spade (the modern thief using crowbar and chisel, skeleton keys, etc.), digs beneath the mud walls of rich men’s abodes, marked by him during day (verses 16, 17). The more probable translation, however, sets forth the housebreaker’s horror of the light: "In the daytime they shut themselves up," because "they know not," i.e. hate, "the light:" and "to them together the morning is as the shadow of death," i.e. through fear of discovery; "for they are acquainted with," and therefore are greatly afraid of, "the terrors of the shadow of death." III. THEIR REWARDS. The treatment of neither of the two classes described in the present chapter is strictly retributive. 1. The fate of the petty criminals; i.e. of the murderer, the adulterer, the thief, and all included in the category of rebels against the light. According to Eliphaz, these creatures of the darkness should be overtaken with calamities proportioned to their crimes; but, according to Job, the contrary is the case—they are (1) prosperous in life, gliding down the stream and current of time like a light skiff (verse 18), experiencing no curse upon their heritages while they live; and (2) honoured in death, by being vouchsafed (a) a quick and easy disappearance from the earth, like the passing away of a light substance upon the face of the waters (cf. Job 9:26), instead of struggling towards the grave through protracted and painful suffering, or like the melting of snow before the scorching heats of summer (verse 19), going down into Sheol suddenly as in a moment (Job 21:13); and (b) a complete escape from the just penalties of their crimes, the curse not descending upon their heritages until they themselves have departed from the scene (verse 18), and though forgotten by the very mothers that bore them because of their wickedness, yet not compelled to eat the bitter fruits of their transgression, since by death their iniquity has been broken off like a tree, i.e. before it has had time to yield its appropriate results. 2. The fate of the rapacious despots; i.e. of those sketched in the preceding section (verses 2-12), who are here identified as the oppressors of barren and widowed women (verse 21). They, too, should be arrested by visible judgments; but altogether different, according to Job, is their lot. (1) They are preserved alive by that very hand which should rather slay them (verse 22). So were God to deal with any sinners on earth according to their iniquities they would instantly be cut down (Psalms 130:3). But God magnifies his grace and evinces his long-suffering towards sinful men by upholding in existence those who bid defiance to every danger, and even to God himself, who are not only insensible to all Divine impulses, but flagrant violators of all Divine laws. (2) They are raised up from sickness at the moment when they seem to be about to die (verse 22). The mercy God’s singer guarantees to the humble saint that considereth the poor (Psalms 41:1), and Christ’s servant promises to the believing Christian (James 5:15), is extended to the poor man’s oppressor, and the supreme God’s denier—another marvel of grace! (3) They are kept in security instead of living in constant terror (verse 23). Were God not to moderate the fears of good men, much more therefore of bad men, their lives would be intolerable. But God’s special providence watches over villains as well as over virtuous people, keeping both from danger, fear, and death, hoping thereby to lead the former to repentance, and seeking to induce the latter to confide in his grace. (4) They are exalted for a season in conscious prosperity instead of being humbled and cast down (verse 24)—an additional proof of God’s kindness towards them. And (5) when the end comes they only share in the common lot, being taken out of the way like all other men. Learn: 1. The unnatural wickedness of those who despise God’s mercies—even his common gifts of providence, but much more his grandest gift of grace. 2. It is an unmistakable evidence of depravity when a man loves the darkness rather than the light. 3. The present-day forms of wickedness are of extreme antiquity, some of them, such as murder, being nearly as old as the Fall. 4. The soul that hates the light has the seed-corn in his heart out of which the greatest crimes may be developed. 5. The truest security a man can have that he shall never perpetrate such wickedness as murder, adultery, etc; is to walk in the light. 6. The destruction of the most powerful sinner that walks the earth is a work of perfect ease to God. 7. A man’s triumph or superiority over his fellows terminates with the grave. 8. That wickedness must be great which causes a mother to forget her child. 9. That mercy must be great which continues when human love in its highest form is exhausted. 10. Death may seem to remove the curse from the sinner, but in reality it only conducts the sinner to the curse. 11. God’s goodness and mercy may follow a sinner to the grave’s mouth; there is no evidence that it can pursue him further. 12. It is appointed unto all men once to die. BY E. JOHNSON Job 24:1-12 Examples of God’s incomprehensible dealings. I. DEEDS OF AND FRAUD. (Job 24:1-4.) "Why are not times laid up," i.e. reserved, determined by the Almighty, "and why do those who know him (i.e. his friends) not see his days?"—the days when he arises to judgment, days of revelation, days of the Son of man (Ezekiel 30:3; Luke 17:22). Then comes a series of acts of violence, oppression, persecution, permitted by God the removal of landmarks (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10); the plunder of herds (Job 20:19); the taking of the property of the helpless in pledge (Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:6); the thrusting of the poor from the way into pathless spots, so that the miserable of the land are compelled to hide themselves from the intolerable oppression. II. THE MISERY OF THE . (Job 24:5-8) Job 24:5 is an apt description of the beggarly vagabond way of life of these Troglodytes, the types of the present Hottentots or Bushmen in South Africa: "As wild asses in the desert they go forth in their daily work, looking out for booty; the steppe gives them food for their children. On the field they reap the fodder of the cattle, and glean the vineyard of the wicked," thievishly not labouring in his service. Naked, cold, shelterless, exposed to the rain amidst the mountains, they cower for shelter among the rocks (verses- 7, 8). III. FURTHER OF TYRANNY. (Job 24:9-12.) The orphan is torn from the mother’s breast by cruel creditors, who intend to repay themselves by bringing up the child as a slave. The property of the poor is seized in pledge (comp. Amos 2:8; Micah 2:9). Then follows another picture of the victims of oppression, not now as wanderers of the steppe, but as the wretched denizens of inhabited cities (Job 24:10-12). In nakedness and hunger, they carry sheaves for the supply of the rich man’s table, while they themselves are starving. And thus the cry of those whose wages have been kept back by fraud goes up to Heaven (Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Timothy 5:18; James 5:4). We have a picture of ancient labour in the olive- and vine-growing East. While they press the olive or tread the wine-press they suffer cruelly from thirst. The groans of dying men fill the air, "and yet God never speaks a word!" "He heeds not the folly" with which these impious tyrants disregard and trample upon the moral order.—J. Job 24:13-25 Pictures of secret end unpunished evil-doers. I. THE AND THE . (Job 24:13-17.) A class of the wicked different from the foregoing is now placed before us; rebels, revolters against the light, who refuse to know anything of the ways of light, and to abide in its paths. These are the "children of darkness," so emphatically contrasted in the New Testament with the "children of light" (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:8, etc.; 1 Thessalonians 5:5). Before the morning breaks, the murderer rises, to strike down the poor and needy, and at night he carries on the trade of the thief. The adulterer waits for the dusk, and veils his face (Proverbs 7:9). In the darkness houses are broken into by men who have shut themselves up during the day—men who have no affinity with the light, as the description repeats (Job 24:16). To these malefactors the dense darkness is their morning; for then, when others sleep from daily toil, their vile work and trade begin, "because they know the terrors of the gloomy darkness’ (Job 24:17), being as. familiar with them as others are with the bright daytime. The joyous consciousness, the cheerful spirits of the children of the light, are contrasted with the fear, the anxiety, the incessant terrors of the children of darkness. Conscience, that makes cowards of all, will not suffer the most hardened to escape. "Certain dregs of conscience’ will remain even in the most imbruted; the murderer will start at the shadow of a falling leaf. When the light that is within a man has become darkness, the very blessed day itself is turned to night. In their revolt from God, the eternal Light, they carry about night in their bosom, and all their terrors are present to them in the brightness of the day (Matthew 6:23; John 11:10). II. ON THESE EVIL-DOERS; ITS . (Job 24:18-21.) They pass away swiftly as upon some gliding flood (Job 9:26; Hosea 10:7). His portion in the land being cursed—either by men or by God, or by both—the wicked man no more bends his steps to his vineyard and his other beloved possessions. Then—a powerful comparison—as dryness and heat carry away the short snows of winter, so the sinner evaporates as it were into hell (Psalms 49:14; Psalms 21:9). Forgotten by a mother’s womb! Deserted even of the most tenacious affections the human heart can know, worms make a dainty repast upon his flesh. He is like a blasted tree upon the heath, or a felled trunk in the forest (Job 19:10; Ecclesiastes 11:3; Daniel 4:10). For he was rotten at the core; the heart of kindly affections was eaten away; he had plundered the childless and dealt cruelly with the widow. III. , THOUGH CERTAIN, IS DELAYED. (Job 24:22-24.) "God maintains the tyrant for a long time by his power," does not execute judgment at once (Isaiah 13:22; Psalms 36:11; Psalms 85:6). Although the oppressor is sometimes in despair of life, yet he rises up and flourishes again. God grants him safety, and he is supported, and God’s eyes are upon his ways to protect and to bless. But it is for a little while only that this recovery and this security last—then they vanish (Genesis 5:24). Oppressors are bowed down, perish, pass away like ears of corn. Conclusion of Job’s address. "If it should not be so, who will punish me for lies, and make my speech as nought?" It is a triumphant expression of his superiority, maintained in these lessons of experience on the incomparable dealings of God in the destinies of men. Because sin seems unpunished, it is not forgotten. Retribution is certain, though it may be delayed. The "treacherous calm" is more to be dreaded than the "tempests overhead." The greater the forbearance and the long-suffering shown by God towards the wicked, the more severe their punishment in the end.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 24:1-22 Apparent anomalies in the Divine judgment. Job again points to the anomalous conditions of human life—goodness, which has its approval in every breast, and on which, by universal consent of belief, a Divine blessing rests, is nevertheless often overcast with the shadow of calamity; and, on the other hand, evil-doing, which merits only judgment, affliction, and correction, is often found to prosper. To it outward events seem to be favourable. Men sin without let or hindrance. Apparently, "God layeth not folly to them." This aspect of human affairs is much dwelt upon in the Book of Job; it seems to be one of the central themes of the book. It finds its exemplification in the case of Job himself. The principal idea of the book is the unravelling of this mysterious confusion. Punishment may follow evil-doing, but it does not always immediately accompany it. Therefore some explanation is needed. It is evident— I. THAT A TRUE OF THE DIVINE MUST NOT BE BASED ON MERE . Incidents do not always explain themselves. There are hidden springs of events. We know but little of every incident. We cannot trace its rise or its end. Other considerations must be taken into view besides the mere events on which judgment is to be passed. II. THE OF THE DIVINE MUST NOT BE BASED ON A PARTIAL VIEW. All the materials needed to enable one to form a just estimate of God’s dealings in any single instance are not always immediately to hand. Much is hidden. Many purposes are to be served as much by the Divine inaction as by the Divine work. Men expect judgment upon an evil work to be presently executed. The Divine hand is withheld for many purposes which are not apparent. All judgment, to be true, must take all things into account. A wide range of vision needed for this. Few have opportunity of making it; therefore judgment must be suspended. III. THE OF THE DIVINE CAN ONLY BE TRULY FORMED WHEN THE WHOLE OF GOD ARE MADE KNOWN. The one purpose most vital to S correct estimate may be withheld. It may be beyond the power of the human mind to grasp all. Certainly it is not possible to see all the bearings of the conduct of men. God alone can see the end from the beginning. In patience then must men wait for the end. A final judgment is needed to clear up the apparent anomalies of the present. Judgment upon the wicked is mercifully suspended that men may repent; chastisement falls upon the righteous for the perfecting of character. In due time the chastened, sorrowful, but good man shall receive an ample reward. These latter truths are especially illustrated in the history of Job.—R.G. Job 24:23, Job 24:24 The prosperity of the wicked unsolved. In the midst of many apparent anomalies in the method of the Divine dealing with evil-doing, there shines out one obvious indication of the Divine judgment against the evil-doer. "They are exalted for a little while," but suddenly they "are gone and brought low." Patiently the good Ruler waits, giving opportunity for repentance and amendment; but if the wicked return not, he will bend his bow and make ready his arrow upon the string. Iniquity shall not go wholly unpunished; nor shall that punishment be merely a hidden one—it shall be made apparent. Such is the general testimony and experience; but there are many striking instances which seem to contradict this view, and Job adduces the frequent prosperity of the evil-doer. I. THE OF THE WICKED IS AN MYSTERY. Even with the clearer light that now shines on human life it is not possible wholly to divest the mind of the feeling of surprise at the anomalous instances of prospering wickedness and suffering virtue. II. THE OF THE WICKED A FURTHER TO THE AND FAITH OF THE GODLY. It demands that the eye of faith be turned upwards to God. Events do not explain themselves. Nor are men able to find the Divine purposes revealed by events. More and more must the tried and tempted believer look off from the uncertain event, and place his faith in God alone. That faith is strained, but it grows thereby. III. THE OF THE WICKED IS NO OF DEFENCE FROM . Judgment lingers. It is even hidden. The good Lord of all would fain altogether restrain it. He rejoices in mercy. Wickedness often takes advantage of the withholding of judgment; but in this is no assurance that the judgment which is held back shall not be revealed. IV. THE OF THE WICKED NEEDS THE OF THE FUTURE. It points to a future judgment when men must give account, and seems to demand it. In that future what is mysterious in history will doubtless be made plain. No work can be fairly estimated until its completion. If it ever please the Lord of all to justify his dealings with men, he will do it in that dread judgment when each shall receive the due reward of his deeds. V. THE OF THE WICKED MAY BE A IN THE HOPE OF . God is kind, and waiteth long for the returning one, in hope that even the goodness of God may lead him to repentance. How often is this abused! but such is the spirit of wrong that it abuses the best of God’s gifts, and is indifferent to the kindest of God’s dealings. The Book of Job represents the entanglement of human affairs, but it throws light upon it and helps to resolve it. We live in clearer light, but the clearest light of all has yet to shine when we shall see light in his light. For this we must prepare and patiently wait.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 24:1 God’s special days. Job thinks that if it may not be always possible to see God, there may at least be certain times when he can be found. If he cannot be always giving an audience to his people, can he not be like a judge on circuit, allowing a day for those who would seek his aid at each part of his dominions? I. THERE ARE TIMES OF SPECIAL DIVINE . God does give, in some manner, what Job is asking for. There is the" day of the Lord," when he breaks through the settled order of the world, and sets his court as the Judge of all men. Such a day was often spoken of by. the Hebrew prophets. It came in Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem, and again in the later overthrow of the city by Titus and the Roman legions. It is predicted in the great final judgment of the world. So also there is a "day of the Lord" for individual men, when God breaks up the normal condition of life, and in the upheaval and confusion a Divine coming to judgment may be recognized. But God also has gracious seasons of visitation, "times of refreshing from the Lord." Then the soul perceives his nearness, and enters into the joy and light of his presence. II. GOD IS PRESENT WHEN HE DOES NOT HIMSELF. Although when thus simply stated this is a truism, it is certainly not commonly recognized in the world. Nobody denies it; yet many ignore it. God’s presence being invisible, and not generally evidenced by startling signs, men come to pass it by in their full absorption in secular pursuits. The practical question then arises—How may the constant unseen presence of God come to be more fully recognized? It is absolutely necessary that we should learn to withdraw ourselves more from the things that are seen and temporal. If the pressure of worldly pursuits is allowed to crowd the thought of God out of the soul, the result must be a perfect deadness in regard to his presence—a practical atheism, a living as though there were no God. When the desolation and dreariness of this life is perceived, we may well start back in horror from such a condition of spiritual decay. III. IT IS FOOLISH TO WAIT FOR A NEW OF GOD. Job seemed to need this because his position was peculiar, and he was set to work out new problems of providence. But we have, what he had not, the fuller revelation of God in Christ. What we now need is not a fresh revelation, but eyes to read and hearts to perceive the Christian revelation. External, visible manifestations of God are not to be looked for now. Miracles were useful in the childhood of the race and in the infancy of the Church, but we have no right to expect miracles to make God better known to us. With us the need is of an interior illumination. So long as our spiritual sympathies are blind to God, no external manifestation will satisfy our needs. At the same time, we may well pray for God’s hand to be stretched forth in action. There are huge wrongs in the world and sorrowful miseries. The Church cries out for the fuller coming of Christ in his kingdom.—W.F.A. Job 24:2 Removing the landmarks. This was an old offence under the Jewish Law (Deuteronomy 19:14). Here it appears first in a list of unjust actions. It introduces us to questions concerning the ethics of property. I. PRIVATE IS BY . We cannot say that this indubitable fact is a complete answer to the proposals of the socialist, because it is not the function of revelation to determine social systems. It comes in to regulate our conduct under existing arrangements. Still, the recognition of private property shows that it is not in itself an evil thing. It may be urged that similar arguments would apply to polygamy and slavery, both of which are recognized and regulated in the Bible. There is this difference, however, that an enlightened Christian conscience perceives that the last-named practices are evil, and could only have been tolerated for a time to prevent greater evils; but the Christian conscience does not repudiate the idea of private property. Socialism may be fairly presented and argued about on grounds of expediency; but it cannot claim Christian teaching as favouring it rather than a wise and brotherly exercise of the rights of property. The short, temporary experiment at Jerusalem, when the disciples held all things in common, whatever this was (and it was far short of socialism), soon broke down. It was never urged on apostolic authority; it cannot be quoted as the model for all Church life. II. PRIVATE NEEDS CLEAR . There must be landmarks, or there will be trespassing, springing from misunderstanding, leading to quarrelling. Wars between nations arise often out of disputes about boundaries, and private differences most frequently originate in a want of common agreement in the definition of rights. This is true of abstract as well as concrete rights. Nothing is more necessary for the maintenance of social order than that each individual in the state should know the limits that the just claims of others put upon his liberty. Absolute freedom is only possible on the prairie, or for a Robinson Crusoe on his solitary island. Directly we come to live in society we have to study mutual harmony, and to adjust the claims of neighbours. The perfect state becomes a sort of mosaic in which each individual has his place without overlapping that of his neighbour. III. ONLY WILL PREVENT THE ABUSE OF PRIVATE . Each man is tempted to enlarge upon his rights. Without considering himself a thief, he is urged to remove the landmarks to his own advantage. State justice and the strong arm of the law prevent this wrong as far as possible. But real justice between man and man can never be perfectly established by government. There are innumerable ways in which the strong can oppress the weak, and the cunning impose upon the unwary, without any interference by the law. We must have a spirit of justice in the people to prevent these evils. Now, it is the glory of the Old Testament that it constantly impresses on us the duty of justice and the sin of injustice. This grand lesson is not the less imperative because we live in New Testament times. The grace of Christ is the inspiration of all goodness. No one can be a true Christian who is not upright in business, and straightforward in his dealings with his neighbours. Christian charity does not dispense with the primitive duty of justice.—W.F.A. Job 24:4 Oppressing the poor. I. A COMMON . The Old Testament rings with denunciations of this evil, showing that it was rife in the days of ancient Israel. The New Testament repeats the denunciations of the Old. John the Baptist and Christ himself had to speak against unjust exactions. St. James suggests that the practice was even found in Christian Churches (James 5:4). It has not disappeared in our own day, though it often assumes subtle and deceptive forms. Many things contribute to an unfair treatment of the poor. 1. Their ignorance. They do not always know their rights, nor perceive where cunning men have an advantage over them. Thus they are not able to protect themselves fairly. 2. Their obscurity. It is difficult for a poor person who has been wronged to attract attention. Nobody knows him. He has no influential friends. 3. Their inability to obtain legal redress. Theoretically the law is equal in its treatment of rich and poor. Practically it is nothing of the kind. For the law is proverbially costly, and a poor man cannot afford to put its machinery in motion. 4. Their prejudiced position. People look askance at shabby clothes. If a man is low in the social scale, a certain stigma attaches to him in the eyes of money-worshippers. His poverty is a reproach. Our own day has seen the emancipation of labour. The organized working classes can exact their rights. But the very poor are beneath the help of the new trades union machinery. The tendency of the sweating system and of other forms of selfishness is to grind down and oppress the most helpless and needy. II. A GREAT SIN. The commonness of the practice does not lessen its guilt. Because many of the well-to-do people who manage affairs combine to get as much as they can for themselves out of the less fortunate people beneath them, they are not individually innocent. The law regards combination to do a wrong as conspiracy, and therefore as an aggravated offence; and conspiracy to oppress the poor is an aggravated offence in the sight of God. 1. Against justice. Poor men have their rights, even if the law cannot help them to exact them. A right is not the less morally inviolable because means cannot be found to put it in force. This may not be recognized now. But the righteous government of God cannot ignore the sin of trampling on the just claims of the helpless. 2. Against Christian brotherhood. Christ has taught us to rise above the plea of Cain, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" He has shown that we are not to regard ourselves as self-contained, or as having no interest in our neighbours. The parable of "the good Samaritan" has set before us for all time the pattern of the conduct that he approves of. All who need have claims upon us—claims springing directly out of their need and our neighbourhood in regard to them. Christ’s own life and work teach us that the helpless are our brothers. To oppress them is to commit an outrage against members of our own family. It is the mission of Christianity to spread the spirit of brotherhood among men, and so to substitute brotherly kindness for heartless oppression.—W.F.A. Job 24:12 The bitter cry of the city. An ominous characteristic of the social condition of modern England is the continuous draining of the population out of the rural districts into the cities. No greater scandal exists than the condition of the crowded multitudes in these great centres. From time to time we are roused by some prophet-voice that draws our attention to the misery and degradation of the city poor, and warns us of the danger that lurks therein. But it is not enough to be periodically startled, and to make occasional spasmodic efforts to remedy the evil. Continuous study and patient, unremitting toil are called for to cope with the dark problem. The bitter cry is shrill and penetrating, and of many voices. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 25:1-6 Far from accepting Job’s challenge, and grappling with the difficulty involved in the frequent, if not universal, prosperity of the wicked. Bildad, in his weak reply, entirely avoids the subject, and limits himself to briefly touching two old and well-worn topics—the might of God (verses 2, 3) and the universal sinfulness of men. On neither of these two points does he throw any fresh light. He avoids, however, the reckless charges of Eliphaz (Job 22:5-9) as well as the coarse menaces of Zophar (Job 20:5-29). Job 25:1, Job 25:2 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Dominion and fear are with him (i.e. with God). God is the absolute Sovereign of the universe, to whom, therefore, all created beings must perforce submit themselves. He is also terrible in his might, so that for their own sakes men should submit to his decrees. Through his active sovereignty, and the fear which he inspires, he maketh peace in his high places. The meaning may be that, through these high attributes, God maintains peace among the dwellers in the supernal regions; but beyond this there is a possible allusion to a time in which peace was disturbed, and the Almighty had to "make" it, or re-establish it, (On the subject of the "war in heaven," and the defeat and subjection of the rebels, see the comment on Job 9:13.) Job 25:3 Is there any number of his armies? (comp. Psalms 68:17, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels;" and Daniel 7:10, "Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;" see also 2 Kings 6:16, 2 Kings 6:17; Matthew 26:53; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 9:16). The number of the angels at any given time must be a definite one. But as there is nothing to limit the further exercise of creative power in this direction, the possible number is indefinite. And upon whom doth not his light arise? Upon what being among all the countless thousands whom he hath created, or will create, does not the brightness of his effulgence shine in such sort that they are illumined by him, and themselves shine with a mere reflected splendour? Job 25:4 How then can man be justified with God? If God’s creatures have no brightness of their own, and, when they shine, shine only with a reflected radiance, then certainly can no man be justified by his own merits. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman! (comp. Job 14:4, "Who shall bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one;" and the comment ad loc.). Job 25:5 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not. Observe, i.e; all that is purely bright in creation, "even to the moon," the most purely bright object of all, and consider that in God’s sight, compared to his radiance, it has no brightness—"it shineth not." Or turn your attention from the moon to the stars, rivals of the moon in purity and brilliance, and reflect that the stars are not pure in his sight. A sort of dusky veil overspreads them. Job 25:6 How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm? (comp. Psalms 22:6). How much less can man be pure in God’s sight? An undoubted truth, or rather, perhaps, a truism, but not to the point, for Job has never really maintained that he is without sin (see Job 7:20, Job 7:21; Job 9:2, Job 9:20, etc.). He has only maintained that his sins have not been of such a character as to account for his sufferings. Verses 14 Bildad to Job: The greatness of God and the littleness of man: an old sermon reproduced. I. THE OF GOD. To impress Job with suitable conceptions of the ineffable majesty of that Divine Being before whom he desired so confidently and, as it appeared to the speaker, so irreverently to come (Job 23:3-5), Bildad depicts God’s dominion as: 1. Absolute in its character. "Dominion is with him" (verse 2); i.e. as it is with no other. Earthly potentates derive their sovereignty from him (Proverbs 8:15; 1 Peter 2:14). He also is the Fountain of authority for whatever principalities and powers exist in the heavenly places (Colossians 1:16). But dominion exists in God essentially, absolutely, permanently. The uncreated, underived, and governmental supremacy of God is exhibited in Scripture with singular lucidity and fulness (Genesis 14:19; Deuteronomy 10:14; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Psalms 95:3; Matthew 11:25; Revelation 19:6). 2. Awe-inspiring in its influence. "Dominion and fear are with him" (verse 2), the term "fear" defining the effect produced upon the creaturely imagination by the sublime majesty of the unnamed Deity, Bildad’s omission of that Deity’s name being a striking illustration of the precise import of his words. Reverential awe is the proper attitude for a creature to assume in presence of God (Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 10:12; Joshua 24:14; 2 Kings 17:36; Psalms 2:11); who should be feared by the inhabitants of earth generally (Psalms 33:8), by his redeemed ones especially (Exodus 15:11; Psalms 89:17), by such as would serve him acceptably (Hebrews 12:28), by those who would dwell with him continually (Revelation 11:18), by angelic hosts (Isaiah 6:2) and glorified saints (Revelation 15:4). This fear should be based on the majestical government of God, as Lord of heaven and earth. 3. Peaceful in its efficiency. "He maketh peace in his high places" (verse 2), i.e. "among the celestial beings immediately surrounding him" (Delitzsch); producing (1) harmony instead of discord, quenching all symptoms of internal dissension, and, where internecine warfare may have broken out, restoring the contending combatants to a state of tranquil amity; (2) reconciliation instead of estrangement, pointing probably to some sublime act of mediation by which the holy angels were confirmed in obedience; and (3) subjugation instead of revolt, exhibiting his power so effectively against the rebel angels that they are completely prevented from working harm against his throne or empire, hut are kept in chains against the judgment of the great day. As God rules in heaven, so also does he reign on earth in and through Christ, who is our Peacemaker (Ephesians 2:14), having by his incarnation made peace (unity instead of division) between Jew and Gentile, by his cross produced at-one-ment (the reconciliation of both in one body unto God), and by his power will ultimately effect the complete subjugation of his foes (1 Corinthians 15:24 28). 4. Illimitable in its sway. "Is there any number of his armies?" (verse 3). The armies alluded to are (1) the angels (Psalms 103:21), who are represented in Scripture as an innumerable (Psalms 68:17; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 5:11) host, arrayed in military order (Daniel 4:35), whose shining legions are led on by the power of the supreme Creator (Psalms 104:4; Matthew 25:31), every individual member thereof being promptly obedient to that Creators will (Zechariah 6:5; Matthew 24:21; Hebrews 1:14). (2) The stars, which also are in Scripture depicted as an army (Isaiah 40:26), are discovered by modern science to be immensely more numerous than ever entered into the mind of Bildad to conceive. Though not intended by Bildad, God’s armies may be said also to include (3) the creatures generally, which are all in his hand and under his control 5. Beneficent in its administration. "And upon whom cloth not his light arise?" (verse 3). (1) The light of his material sun, whose cheering beams, created (Genesis 1:16) and directed by him, diffuse themselves abroad upon the face of earth (Psalms 19:6), awaking life, imparting health, producing beauty, inspiring joy, blessing all creatures animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, good and bad alike (Matthew 5:45). A sunless earth would be an arctic region of perpetual ice, a dismal chamber of horrors, a prison-house of misery, a cheerless sepulchre of death. Besides being signal demonstrations of God’s creative wisdom and power, the making of light and the disposition of it in a central orb are striking tokens of his goodness. (2) The light of his providential favour, in respect of which he is styled "the Father of lights" (James 1:17). The goodness of God, like the light of the sun, is freely flowing (James 1:5), far-extending (Psalms 33:5), all-enriching (Psalms 145:9), never-failing (Psalms 100:5). As the Divine beneficence blesses all God’s terrestrial creatures, we may rest assured it does not forget his celestial armies of saints and angels. (3) The light of his gracious truth, which is also set forth in Scripture under the emblem of light (Isaiah 2:5; Isaiah 9:2; John 12:35; 2 Corinthians 4:4), Christ, in whom that light is embodied (John 1:4; John 9:5), is characterized as the true Light (John 1:8, John 1:9), being designed for the saving illumination of the spiritually benighted, collectively and individually. The light of his gospel is destined to circle round the earth like the sun (Psalms 19:4; Romans 10:18). 6. All-transcending in its splendour. "Whom doth not his light surpass?" (Delitzsch), The resplendent Ruler of the numberless legions of heaven is One whose glory, i.e. as a personal Sovereign, outshines in radiance that of each and all of those beings of light over whom he reigns. These latter have no light they derive not from him, as the moon and planets have none they receive not from the sun, and Christians none that does not come to them from Christ, round whom they revolve like attendant satellites; and so the glory which the angels or other creatures have is as no glory by reason of "the glory that excelleth." II. THE OF MAN. With a painful lack of originality, Bildad, the master of ancient laws and popular traditions, quietly appropriates a sentiment which already Eliphaz had uttered (Job 4:17-21; Job 15:14 16), and to which even Job had assented (Job 9:2; Job 14:4), that in comparison with so transcendently glorious a Being man must for ever be immeasurably insignificant and mean. 1. Guilty. "How then can man be justified with God?" (verse 4). The argument is a fortiori: If these radiant beings constituting God’s celestial armies would never think of contending with him in order to establish the faultless purity of their characters, it is simply monstrous to suppose that a frail man, whose feebleness is the result of a depraved moral constitution, would ever succeed in securing acquittal before the bar of a holy God. The language implies (1) that no man can be justified by works—a doctrine pervading both the Old and New Testaments (Job 9:2; Psalms 143:2; Isaiah 57:12; Romans 3:20; Ephesians 2:9; Titus 3:5); (2) that if a man is to be justified, it must be by grace (Genesis 15:6; Psalms 32:2; Romans 3:24; Romans 5:21; Titus 3:7), i.e. without works and by faith; while it seems also to teach (3) that the legal standing of the angels before the throne is not of works any more than man’s—a doctrine of which obscure hints are believed to be found in Scripture. 2. Impure. "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" (verse 4). In Bildad’s estimation the moral defilement of man is (1) involved in his origin, as being the child of woman—a sentiment in which Job (cf. Job 14:1, Job 14:4) and Eliphaz (Job 15:14) alike concur (cf. homiletics, ’in loc.); (2) proved by his station: "Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight: how much less, then, man?" (verses 5, 6). Bildad, soaring at a lower altitude than Eliphaz (Job 4:18), contrasts the glory of God with the purity of his highest creatures. The incomparable brilliance of an Oriental evening sky is attested by travellers; yet the pale, clear, silver whiteness of the moon’s light, and the sparkling lustre of the starry orbs, become dimmed beside the insufferable radiance of the Divine glory (1 Timothy 6:16). The imperfection of the highest creatures being thus established, it follows that man, one of the lowest (physically considered), cannot be pure. 3. Feeble. "Man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm" (verse 6). Man is compared by Eliphaz to a dweller in a mud hut (Job 4:19), and by Job to a flower springing up from the soil (Job 14:2). He is here likened to a worm bred by putrefaction, i.e. a mean, despicable, and insignificant creature (Psalms 22:6), which he is (1) in comparison with the rest of creation (Psalms 8:3, Psalms 8:4; Isaiah 41:24), but much more (2) in comparison with the God of creation (Isaiah 40:22). Learn: 1. The claim God has on the reverential homage of his creatures. 2. The antiquity of the gospel doctrine of justification by faith. 3. The humility man should cultivate in thinking of himself. 4. The infinite condescension of him who is the Lord of all the armies of light in becoming a worm and no man. 5. The transcendent glory of Divine grace which contemplates the elevation of "man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm," to a position higher than the stars or the angels; yea, to a partnership in that very dominion (Revelation 3:21) which belongs to God. BY E. JOHNSON Verse 14 The majesty of God and the weakness of man. Leaving untouched the perplexing question of the prosperity of bad men, Bildad makes the point of his attack upon Job his assertions of innocence (Job 23:10-12). His object is to insist that, the distance between man and God being infinite, man cannot enter into controversy with God, nor can he be pure in his eyes. The address of Bildad consists mainly of repetitions from the previous discourses of Eliphaz (Job 4:17, sqq.; Job 15:14, sqq.)—descriptions of the majesty and sublimity of God. In reply, Job seizes the opportunity offered by his antagonist, and, after a few bitter words of self-vindication, proceeds to outvie and far surpass Bildad in his description of the greatness of God. I. GOD’S MAJESTY; AND . (Verses 2-4.) 1. Absolute power, carrying with it overwhelming awe into the minds of his subjects—a power which has quelled the earlier discord of heaven and made peace in those heights—is associated with God (verse 2). He is "Lord of hosts," and those hosts are innumerable—the stars of heaven, the angels who inhabit and guide them (Job 15:15); and all the marvellous forces of nature—winds, lightnings, waves (Job 38:19-21; Psalms 104:4), which do his bidding (verse 3). 2. He is the absolute Light, from which all others are but reflected and derived. It is his garment and his glory (Psalms 104:2; Ezekiel 1:27, Ezekiel 1:28; 1 Timothy 6:16). It blesses and cheers all that lives (Matthew 5:45). No living creature is exempt from its all-pervading beams. Then how can a mortal be just with God? How can man, in his feebleness, enter into court and contend with absolute Power (comp. Job 9:2)? Thus the speaker would convict Job of folly. And then comes the second member of verse 4 leading to the second great thought of the speech: "How can he be pure that is born of a woman?" II. GOD’S PURITY; AND . (Verses 5, 6.) The bright silver lustre of the moon seems pale, the stars are dimmed, when compared with the essential and eternal splendour of the Highest—to say nothing of man, the maggot, the worm! The stars are but the outer adornments of the palace and abode of God; and how, then, shall man, living on this dim spot that men call earth, think to meet God on equal terms and dispute with him? If he, like moon and stars, keeps to his rank and order, he may enjoy the benefit of God; if he attempts to travel beyond it, he will be crushed by the weight of the Divine majesty (Cocceius). The view of yonder glory reminds man of his sin and corruption. The celestial lustre is the sign of celestial purity in the inhabitants of heaven; his frailty and mortality are the evidence of his sin. The time has not yet come when, life and immortality being brought to light, man is conscious of the grandeur of his inward faith and of his spiritual destiny, when he refuses to be crushed by the dazzling might and splendour of the material universe because conscious of affinity to the creative thought.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 25:4 Condemnation. If, in the course of Job’s replies to his friends, he has sought to exculpate himself from all blame, and to aver his righteousness in the sight of God, he is now answered by a brief speech of his friend, "How can man be justified in the sight of God?" True, Job holdeth fast his integrity; true, he may be free from the accusations brought against him by his friends, who are unable in any other way to explain his suffering lot; yet, although he is so far clear, he shares the deep humiliation which attaches to all, of standing before the Divine throne a condemned criminal. He is unjust. Alas! the very "stars are not pure in his sight; how much less man, that is a worm?" This condemnation and inability of man to justify himself— I. PUTS AN END TO ALL SELF- BEFORE GOD. How shall the condemned and sinful even enter into controversy with the Most High? How shall the frail child of earth—earth-born and earthly—contend with God. Not Job only, but every one, must be silenced in presence of this truth, which has its witness in each man’s breast. II. IS A CAUSE FOR BEFORE GOD. Truly the place of man—sinful man—is the dust. How shall the unclean dare to draw nigh unto the Holy One? Human feebleness and imperfectness should be sufficient to put men as in the dust; but if sinfulness, if a sense of condemnation before God, be added to this, how much greater cause for self-abasement is there? In penitence man has ground of hope, for the Lord lifteth up the meek; but in presumed self-justification he can only meet with confusion. III. IS A REASON FOR THE EAGER EMBRACE OF THE MERCY OF GOD IN CHRIST. Whither shall a sinner fly? Where is true safety for him? In the revelation of the mercy of God to the penitent sinner there is an assured hope. This graciousness on the part of the Most High holds out the utmost encouragement to the self-condemned to return; while the inability to justify himself is in itself the highest reason why the gracious overture of God should receive from man an eager response. IV. IS A HIGH MOTIVE TO OF LIFE. With how much carefulness and lowliness and effort ought not he to live who by his very nature is so prone to err! "The son of man, which is a worm," ought to seek to order his course before God with the utmost lowliness and care. A pensioner upon the Divine bounty, a criminal at the Divine bar, he has no warrant for rude self-assumption, but has need to seek, in patient, humble effort, to avoid deeper condemnation.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 25:2 Peace in high places. Bildad tries to overawe Job by presenting what is indeed a true idea of God, although, if he had known the patriarch, he would have seen that there was nothing in it that was likely to be accepted as a specific rebuke. Job had maintained his innocence, and had cried out for God to vindicate it: "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" Bildad replies that God is a great Ruler in the heavenly heights, maintaining peace among his angelic armies; how can man be justified with One so great? It is meant to be a rebuke to Job’s presumption in appealing to so awful a Judge. Yet, if Job is innocent, why should he not dare to do so? Bildad is right in saying that God is so holy that none can stand before him without being abashed by shame. The unfairness is in making this truth a ground for accusing Job, not of the general evil of fallen creatures, but of exceptional enormities of guilt, I. GOD RULES OVER ALL. 1. He is above all. We rise through the hierarchy of being from one stage to another, and at the head of all we find God. None can equal him, none can reach up to his might and holiness. Supreme in solitary perfection, he crowns the temple of being. 2. He includes all in his sway. His exaltation does not involve his separation from his creatures. On the contrary, it gives him a wide scope; from his exalted position he surveys the whole panorama of existence, and administers the affairs of the universe. 3. He exerts active influence over all. God is not an ornamental figure-head. He not only reigns, he rules. His government is absolute; not despotic, only because it is paternal. II. GOD’S RULE IS A OF THE . The worlds could not go on without it. Confusion and chaos would follow if he withdrew his hand. 1. It is needed in heaven. Even there it is God who keeps the peace. The best-tempered society needs order and government to save it from falling into confusion. Heaven would become a babel of disorder if no regulating power were supreme there. The highest intelligences and the purest spirits require a regulative influence to keep them all in harmony. However well its harps are tuned, and however perfect is its music, the celestial orchestra needs one great leader. 2. Much more is it needed on earth. If heavenly beings cannot live aright without Divine guidance and rule, much more is this the case with earthly creatures, who are weak, ignorant, and sinful. If God makes his rule felt in maintaining the perfect order of heaven, assuredly he must make it felt in rectifying the wild disorder of earth. III. GOD’S RULE SECURES PEACE. 1. It maintains "peace in high places." There is peace above, though at present there may be confusion below. The heavens are calm, though the earth is storm-tossed. The changeless blue sky is above the shifting rack of clouds. Stars keep to their spheres. Angels perform their functions. The blessed dead are at rest. If we do but look high enough we shall see peace. 2. It will bring "peace on earth." When heaven touches earth the peace of heaven comes down among men. If God can keep peace among the greatest beings, surely he can establish it among puny mortals. He can reconcile all enmity or crush all opposition. Christ has come from the peace of heaven to be "our Peace" (Ephesians 2:14).—W.F.A. Job 25:3 The innumerable armies of God. I. THEIR VAST NUMBERS. We can see no limit to the physical universe. The starry hemisphere dazzles us with its multitudinous splendour, but the telescope greatly increases our idea of its vastness, resolving fleecy mist into galaxies of worlds, and discovering distant suns invisible to the naked eye; and photography carries the process much further, and peoples the interstellar spaces of the telescope with hosts of still more remote stars. It is not reasonable to suppose that all these worlds are destitute of life, that our little planet is the solitary home of living creatures in a terrific desert of dead worlds. But if the material world be peopled, this may be but a small part of the universe. There may be other realms of existence unseen by the eye of sense; there may be material worlds that do not contain properties that can be detected by any of our five senses, although they are perceptible to the different senses of different orders of beings; and there may be creatures of God existing in regions that are not material, spirits that do not require what we understand by bodies. The revelation of Scripture gives us glimpses of inhabitants of other worlds than ours. It is reasonable to think that the great God rules over hosts of such beings. II. THEIR ORDERLY ARRAY. They are armies, not mobs. As the physical universe is regulated by law and maintained in order, it is most probable that the same is true of the unseen universe. All that is revealed about God’s heavenly hosts shows them to us in obedience to God’s will. It is a human figure of speech that represents them as constituting armies. Milton’s poetry, added to the visions of the Apocalypse, have impressed our imaginations with military conceptions of the angelic hosts. But we do not know what tasks may be laid upon those armies of God in subduing the evil of the universe. We may be sure that the vulgar thirst for glory, the pride of brute strength, and the cruel rage of bloodshed that characterize our hideous wars, cannot be found among the hosts of heaven. Therefore the military idea of the angels needs to be received with caution. We are directed rather to the higher warlike qualities, e.g. discipline and obedience joined to courage and strength. III. THEIR DIVINE LIGHT. They all have their light from God. On what earthly multitudes does the sun rise every day l Yet there is light for all. But an infinitesimal proportion of the sunlight and heat is received by our world; by far the greater quantity of it is scattered through realms of space. God’s light of love reaches all his creatures. There are no remote and dark regions of the universe that lie beyond his care. As there seems to be no end to the radiation of light when this is not hindered by obstructing objects, so no limit can be discovered to the radiation of God’s love. Though the hosts of beings are innumerable, there is a share of God’s goodness for each. "Its streams the whole creation reach, So plenteous is the store; Enough for all, enough for each, Enough for evermore." W.F.A. Job 25:5, Job 25:6 The awe of God’s holiness. I. THE OF GOD. This is a thought that cannot be described in human language. When conscience is aroused, some thrill of the awe of it may open our minds to its sublime meaning. We start from the conception of the absolute sinlessness of God. Not a spot of evil can be found on all he is or does. But holiness is more than negative freedom from sin. It is a real excellence, and on its positive side it expands into infinity. We do not know how far goodness may go. It is like light. No one can conceive how intense this may be; after a short time it becomes too brilliant for our eyes, and we are only blinded when we look at it; but it is conceivable that its intensity may be increased a thousandfold beyond the highest degree that we are capable of perceiving. There may be a brilliancy of light compared with which the glare of a tropical noon is as dull and gloomy as an English November. So there may be a holiness which in its positive character rises above all we can conceive or imagine of goodness into infinite regions of perfection. We can see no limit to the strength and depth of love. Human love may be strong as death. Yet compared to God’s love it is but as a feeble, flickering flame lost in the full sunlight. No one can conceive how full and rich God’s love is. All the attributes of the Divine holiness expand into infinity. Their greatness is immeasurable and inconceivable. II. ITS . It is as though the moon cannot shine before such a Divine light. Even that silver shield seems to be tarnished when set by the side of the brightness of God’s holiness. The stars, which are far above the filth and corruption of earth, and move in heavenly spheres, do not seem to be pure in the light of God. This impression is natural, though of Course it is thrown into the form of poetic imagery. It leads to the humiliation of all human pride. If what is brightest looks dark in comparison with the splendour of God’s holiness, what must man be in his sight? Now, it is possible to abuse these conceptions, as Bildad was doing. God does not make men out to be worse than they are. He does not blame his creatures for not being equal to himself. He does not judge them by his own perfection, but only by their capacities. There is also a foolish way of depreciating humanity. There may be much pride in the heart of a man who calls himself "a worm." Such language is only natural and right when it is wrung out of the soul by a deep consciousness of sin, and by an overwhelming perception of God’s holiness. On the other hand, when this is the case, there is no ground for despair. The last stronghold of pride being abandoned, there is room for the mercy of God to come in. God’s holiness is just the perfection of his love. The error has been in the separation of the two attributes. In the present day a shallow conception of holiness is tempting men to think lightly of sin, for it is the awe of God’s holiness that impresses on us the feeling of our own guilt. Out of the humiliation thus produced springs our only hope—the hope of free pardon and gracious renewal. Then the holiness of God becomes our inspiration; we are called to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect.—W.F.A. The long discourse of Job now begins, which forms the central and most solid mass of the book. It continues through six chapters (Job 26-31.). In it Job, after hastily brushing aside Bildad’s last speech as superfluous and out of place (verses 1-4), proceeds to deliver his real sentiments apart from controversial issues. He sets forth, first of all, the might and majesty of God (verses 5-14), after which he proceeds to deal with the questions which concern his own integrity, and God’s dealings with mankind. The former he still maintains; with respect to the latter, he recants his earlier argumentative contention (Job 24:2-24), and admits that retribution always or almost always comes upon the wicked at last (Job 27:1-23.). In Job 28:1-28; after paying a deserved tribute of admiration to man’s intelligence and ingenuity in regard to earthly things and physical phenomena, he pronounces the spiritual world and the principles of the Divine government to be inscrutable by him, and his only true wisdom to be right conduct. Finally, he returns to himself, and having given a pathetic description of his old life, with its prosperity and honour (Job 29:1-25.), and contrasted it with his actual life of degradation, contempt, and suffering (Job 30:1-31.), he concludes with a solemn protestation of his integrity in all the various duties and obligations imposed upon man by natural law and natural religion (Job 31:1-40.). In this way he brings to its termination the colloquy begun with his three friends in Job 3:1-26; and, emphatically to mark that here he closes his own part in the debate, he winds up with the statement, "The words of Job are ended" (Job 31:40). Job 26:1, Job 26:2 But Job answered and said, How hast thou helped him that is without power? Assuming Bildad’s benevolent intentions towards himself, Job asks, how he can suppose that what he has said will in any way be helpful to a person in so helpless a condition? He had told Job nothing that Job had not repeatedly allowed. How savest thou the arm that hath no strengtht? It could not invigorate Job’s arm, any more than it could cheer his heart, to be told that man was a worm, or that he was wholly unclean in God’s sight (Job 25:4, Job 25:6). Job 26:3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? What counsel or advice is there in anything that thou hast said, by following which I might be benefited? Admitting my own want of wisdom, how hast thou bettered my case? And how hast thou plenteously declared the thing as it is? rather, How hast thou plenteously declared sound knowledge? What can there be said to have been in the way of sound knowledge, or good practical common sense (חוּשִׁיָה), in the discourse which thou hast addressed to me?—a discourse made up of truisms. Job 26:4 To whom hast thou uttered words? Whom didst thou intend to address? Surely not me, since thy words touch none of my arguments. And whose spirit came from thee? Who prompted thy speech? Was it Eliphaz (comp. Job 4:17-19)? Job 26:5-14 Job now turns from controversy to the realities of the case, and begins with a full acknowledgment of God’s greatness, might, and inscrutableness. As Bildad seemed to have supposed that he needed enlightenment on these points (Job 26:2-4), Job may have thought it right to make once more a plain profession of his belief (comp. Job 9:4-18; Job 12:9-25, etc.). Job 26:5 Dead things are formed from under the waters; rather, the dead from under the waters tremble. Hehraists generally are agreed that one of the meanings of Rephaim (רְפָאִים) is "the dead" or the departed, considered especially as inhabitants of Hades (comp. Psalms 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 26:14). And if so, this meaning is certainly appropriate here. Blidad had illustrated God’s dominion from his power in heaven. Job shows that it exists alike in heaven and earth (verses 7-13), and in the region under the earth (verses 5, 6). There, in Sheol, under the waters of the ocean, the dead tremble at the thought of the Most High; they tremble together with other inhabitants thereof, as evil spirits, rebel intelligences, east down to Hades, and there held in durance (Jud Job 1:6). Job 26:6 Hell is naked before him; i.e. "can hide nothing from his eyes"—shows all its inmost recesses. And destruction hath no covering; rather, Abaddon hath no covering (see the Revised Version). Abaddon is sometimes "destruction," sometimes "the angel of the bottomless pit" (Revelation 9:11), sometimes "the bottomless pit itself" (Proverbs 15:11). Here the last of these three senses seems to suit best—the deepest depth of the bottomless pit is no secret to God," but "naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13) Job 26:7 He streteheth out the north over the empty place. Over what was "empty space" or "chaos" (תּהוּ) God stretches out "the north"—a portion of his orderly creation—perhaps the northern portion of the heavens, where are the grandest constellations visible to the inhabitants of the world’s northern half. And hangeth the earth upon nothing. "Takes," i.e; "the huge ball of the earth, and suspends it in vacancy, with nothing to support it but his own fixed will, his own firm laws." This is an idea scarcely reached by astronomers in general, at any rate till the time of Hippar-chus; and it has, not without reason, been regarded as "a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science’ (Stanley Loathes). Job 26:8 He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; i.e. he makes the clouds, that we see floating in the atmosphere, contain and hold the waters on which the productiveness of the earth depends, and which he restrains, or allows to fall in fertilizing rain, at his pleasure. And the cloud is not rent under them. The metaphor is, no doubt, drawn from those water-skins, so well known in the East, and especially in Arabia, in which men stored the water for their journeys and other needs, which were liable to be "rent" by the weight of the liquid within them. Job 26:9 He holdeth back the face of his throne; rather, he covereth up. He makes the clouds to gather in the vault of heaven, above which is his throne, and in this way conceals it and covers it up. And spreadeth his cloud upon it; or, over it, so blotting it out from sight. Behind the more obvious meaning lies one which is deeper and more spiritual. God withdraws himself from sight, gathers clouds and darkness around him to be the habitation of his seat, hides from men the principles of his government and administration, makes himself unapproachable and inscrutable, is a mystery and an enigma which man cannot hope to understand or solve. Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds. God restrains within limits alike the "waters that are above the firmament" and those that are beneath it (Job 38:11). The boundary.is placed, somewhat vaguely, "at the confines of light and darkness." Until the day and night come to an end is a mistranslation. Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble. The "pillars of heaven" are the mountains, on which the sky seems to rest. These "tremble," or seem to tremble, at the presence of God (Psalms 18:7; Psalms 114:4; Isaiah 5:25) when he visits the earth in storm and tempest, either because the whole atmosphere is full of disturbance, and the outline of the mountains shifts and changes as rain and storm sweep over them, or because the reverberations of the thunder, which shake the air, seem to shake the earth also. And are astonished at his reproof. To the mind of the poet this "trembling" is expressive of astonishment and consternation. He regards the mountains as hearing the voice of God in the storm, recognizing it as raised in anger, and so trembling and cowering before him. Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power. "Divideth" is certainly a wrong translation. The verb used (־ָגַע) means either "stirreth up" or "stilleth." In favour of the former rendering are Rosenmuller, Schultens, Delitzsch, Merx, and Canon Cook; in favour of the latter, the LXX; Dillmann, and Dr. Stanley Leathes. In either case the general sentiment is that God has full mastery over the sea, and can regulate its movements at his pleasure. And by his understanding he smiteth through the proud; literally, he smiteth through Rahab. (On Rahab, as the great power of evil, see the comment on Job 9:13.) God is said to have "smitten him through by his understanding’" since in the contest between good and evil it is rather intelligence than mere force that carries the day. Power alone is sufficient to control the sea. Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; or, by his spirit the heavens are brightness; i.e. at a breath from his mouth the heavens, lately all cloud and storm (Job 26:8-11), recover their serenity, are calm and clear and bright. Our experience says, "After a storm comes a calm." Job notes that both alike are from God. His hand hath formed the crooked serpent; rather, his hand hath pierced the swift serpent (see the Revised Version). The reference is probably to "the war in heaven," already suggested by the mention of" Rahab" (verse 12). In that war, according to the tradition that had reached Job, a great serpent, like the Egyptian Apepi (Apophis), had borne a part. Job 26:14 Lo, these are parts of his ways; literally, ends of his ways; i.e. the mere outskirts and fringe of his doings. But how small a portion is heard of him? rather, how small a whisper? But the thunder of his power who can understand?, or, the thunder of his mighty deeds. Job implies that he has not enumerated one-half of God’s great works—he has just hinted at them, just whispered of them. If they were all thundered out in the ears of mortal man. who could receive them or comprehend them Job 26:1-14 Job to Bildad: another sermon on the foregoing text. I. THE PREFACE TO THE SERMON; OR, THE OF BILDAD . In Job’s estimation it was: 1. Wholly unserviceable. With stinging irony Job, according to our view, represents it as having been extremely helpful to him in his feebleness, as having imparted strength to his powerless arm and wisdom to his ignorant mind (verses 2, 3); meaning, of course, the opposite—that in these respects the brief but pompous harangue to which he had listened had been of no use whatever to him in the way of assisting him either to bear his own misfortunes or to understand the mysterious enigma of Divine providence. Not only should a good man by his words, and a Christian minister by his sermons, always aim at the edification of his hearers (1 Corinthians 14:3), but the same duty is incumbent upon all (Ephesians 4:29). The world and the Church are full of sorrowful hearts requiring comfort, and ignorant minds in need of counsel. It is sad when neither the disconsolate can find a word of cheer nor the uninstructed hear a note of direction, to help them on in life’s battle. The lips of the wise should disperse knowledge (Proverbs 15:7), and the tongue of the wise should prove health to the feeble and diseased (Proverbs 12:18). 2. Extremely superficial. Bildad had plentifully declared the thing as it was (verse 3); i.e. while imagining he had dived into the heart of a great subject, he had merely skimmed along its surface. Yet superficial and shallow views of men and things are not to be despised. To the mass of mankind, who are themselves commonplace in their capacities, only commonplace ideas are of use. What is called profound or original thinking belongs to another sphere from that which they usually inhabit. Hence to the extent to which it is unfamiliar to their minds it fails to make an adequate impression on their hearts. Still, superficial views of truth cannot satisfy souls of nobler faculty than the uneducated crowd possess; neither can they fully represent the deep things of God on the subject either of religion or of providence. It is, however, doubtful whether all men’s thoughts, those of a Job no less than of a Bildad, are not, in comparison with the unfathomable profundity of Divine truth, at the best superficial. 3. Utterly irrelevant. Correct enough in themselves so far as they went, Bildad’s views were inappropriate to the theme under discussion, were in truth so little pertinent to the great subject by which the thoughts of Job were engrossed, that Job felt constrained to ask to whom they had been addressed (verse 4). Bildad is not the only person against whom the charge of irrelevant talking can be advanced. Modern controversialists, lecturers, preachers, orators, writers, are as prone to commit this fault as were their brethren of antiquity. Discoursing wide of the mark, whether in the pulpit, at the bar, or on the bench, in Parliament, or in common life, usually results from ignorance, want of capacity, lack of preparation, too great fluency in speech or composition, or from deliberate design. Fitness is a higher excellence in speech or writing than eloquence or elegance (1 Corinthians 14:19). "The heart of the righteous studieth to answer" (Proverbs 15:28);and "a word spoken in due season, how good it is!" (Proverbs 15:23). "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver (Proverbs 25:11). 4. Entirely second-hand. Whatever Job was, he was always original; whereas Bildad could only cite proverbs and quote traditionary maxims. Here Job rather wickedly asks him from whom he had borrowed his last brief oration (verse 4). Since it could not be from God—Bildad always swore by the fathers—it must have been either from him (Job) or from Eliphaz, both of whom had already twice descanted on the subject of man’s insignificance as contrasted with the majesty of God. It is not wrong to borrow good thoughts or to repeat them to others, provided their authorship be carefully acknowledged. Good thoughts at second hand are distinctly better than poor thoughts at first hand. Still, ministers and. preachers should aim to set forth their own views of Divine truth rather than those of other men. A clergyman who has no ideas of his own to set forth has mistaken his calling. Much can be done by earnest study and prayer to improve the feeblest capacity, and to enable it to look at truth for itself. II. THE BODY OF THE SERMON; OR, THE MAJESTY OF GOD . Catching up the anthem which Bildad had commenced (Job 25:2), Job continues in a strain of lofty adoration to dilate upon the transcendent greatness of God as absolute and universal Ruler, tracing his governmental power and authority through every department of creation. 1. In the realm of shades. (Verses 5, 6.) Bildad had said that God’s dominion pervaded "the heights," or heavenly places (Job 25:2). Job adds that it also extends to the dark underworld of departed spirits; concerning which may be noted: (1) The names given to this mysterious region—Sheol and Abaddon; the first a subterranean abode, full of Tartarean darkness (Job 10:21, Job 10:22), to which are attributed gates (Isaiah 38:10) and abysmal depths (Proverbs 9:18); and the second a trackless waste, in which wanderers having lost their way stumble forward to destruction (Revelation 9:11). On the exact import of the two terms which are hero used as synonyms for the disembodied state, the Exposition may be consulted. (2) The situation assigned to this invisible region—under the waters, i.e. beneath the ocean (cf. Luke 8:31), or in the lowest parts of the earth (Ephesians 4:9), at the remotest distance from heaven (Psalms 139:8); and therefore, as such, a fitting receptacle for the dead (Romans 10:7), and a proper place of confinement for the wicked (Psalms 55:15). (3) The persons who inhabit this sunless region. While departed spirits generally are commonly represented as descending into Sheol (Job 14:13-15; Job 17:15, Job 17:16), it is here the shades of the wicked that are spoken of as tenanting its chambers. The Rephaim alluded to by Job were not the people of that name, but the pale, flaccid, bloodless ghosts of dead persons (Isaiah 14:10), in particular, it is supposed, of the giants, or mighty ones (Genesis 6:4), who perished in the Deluge, since the word "Rephaim" may also signify heroes of colossal stature. (4) The misery experienced in this doleful region. Besides being a place of darkness (Job 10:21, Job 10:22; Psalms 88:12) and of pain (Job 14:22) generally, it is here exhibited as being specially a place of anguish for the wicked, whose marrowless and bloodless phantoms shiver and writhe, as if they were undergoing the pains of parturition every time the majesty of God is felt by them, "as perhaps by the ragtag of the sea, or the quaking of the earth" (Delitzsch). And certainly in other Scriptures the Hadeau or disembodied state is set forth as a place of woe for the ungodly. So the ancient Egyptians celebrated Ra as "the supreme power who cuts off the head of these who are in the infernal regions". (5) The supreme Lord of this subterranean region; he is not the Abaddon of the Apocalypse (Revelation 9:11), but Shaddai, whose majesty Job depicts, since his eyes penetrate to its darkest depths, and his arm reaches to its remotest corners. As David testifies to God’s presence in Sheol (Psalms 139:8), so Job affirms that presence to be the true cause of the misery of the lost, as John afterwards declares it to be the secret source of happiness to the saved (Revelation 7:15). 2. In the realm of creation. (Verses 7-13.) Rising from the dark underworld, Job expatiates on the great power of God as displayed in the world of light. (1) In spreading out the northern firmament above the self-poised earth (verse 7). That Job here alludes to the northern hemisphere of the sky which he, in common with the ancients generally, believed to be a vast arch, vault, or canopy extended above the earth, and folding it in like a tent, is morn certain than it is that he anticipated the discoveries of modern astronomy concerning the sphericity and revolutions of the earth, although there is some reason for believing that these were understood by the ancient Egyptians. But whether or not Job had attained to a dim guess of the earth’s form, he distinctly understood that it rested with its aerial canopy on no material prop, but was supported solely by the power of God. The continual upholding, not of this globe merely, but of innumerable worlds, of suns and systems past reckoning, by the word of his power, is a signal demonstration of God’s almightiness. (2) In appointing the meteorological laws of the atmosphere (verses 8, 9), by which first rain is collected in the clouds, then the clouds are preserved from bursting before the proper moment beneath the weight of the watery particles they contain, and thirdly, the dark masses are spread around God’s throne, i.e. distributed over the face of the sky previously to bursting forth upon the thirsty soil The clouds are preeminently his clouds, i.e. God’s; since he hath ordained the wonderful mechanism by which they are formed, preserved, dispersed, distributed, and emptied; since he employs them in accordance with his own sovereign will, e.g. to shut off the face of his throne from the gaze of man whensoever it may please him; and since when they descend upon the earth they seem to proceed from his throne. (3) In establishing a bound between light and darkness (verse 10). Job perhaps imagined that the globe was encompassed by an ocean, out of which the sun rose in Oriental splendour, and into which again it descended with Occidental glory, passing at the end of day into a dark world, which its golden beams could not illumine, and emerging at the call of morn into the clear bright realm of light. Passing by the misconception as to the sun’s movements and function, which science better enables us to understand, the truth remains that the boundaries of old ocean have been as firmly fixed (Proverbs 8:29), and the alternations of day and night as securely determined (Genesis 1:14), by the power of the omnipotent Creator, as have been the habitations and the times of man (Acts 17:26). (4) In producing the phenomena connected with storms upon land, sea, and sky (verses 11-13). Such a storm depicted by the poet in three different stages. At its commencement, "the pillars of the heavens," i.e. the mountains towering to the sky, appear to tremble, to sway backwards and forwards as if struck by some sudden impact, by the violent agitations of the wiled, or by the crashing blow of a fiery thunderbolt. Personified, they are pictured as filled with consternation at the token of Jehovah’s anger displayed in the commotion of the elements (Psalms 29:3-8; Psalms 104:32; Nahum 1:5; Habakkuk 3:10). During its continuante, "he divideth the sea with his power." The fierce hurricane let loose among the mountains sweeping down upon the calm, still ocean, cleaves it to its inmost depths. "The fire, and cracks ’Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake." (’Tempest,’ Acts 1. as. 2.) The spirit of evil (Rahab), awakened by the hurly-burly, bellows forth its indignant rage, "lifting up its voice on high, and thundering back to the thundering mountains," but is again wounded to the quick by the stroke of the tempest; for "by his understanding he breaketh Rahab in pieces"—words which are understood by many to point rather to the power of God in calming the troubled waters of the sea. At the close of the storm, he once more brightens up the sky with his breath (verse 13), dispersing the storm-clouds with his wind, and fixing the fugitive Dragon. This may perhaps be understood of the constellation of that name which seems to wind itself in like a sinuous serpent between the Greater and Lesser Bears, as if endeavouring to make its escape from its appointed orbit, where, however, God fixes it, wounding it or slaying it, so that its flight is arrested—a poetical representation of the sublime truth that it is God’s hand that hath beautified the evening sky with stars, and that keeps all the stellar world moving on in harmony and order. Or the ides may be, in accordance with ancient mythology, that this gliding serpent, winding itself round the sun, socks to eclipse its light; but that God wounds it, and so liberates the sun to renew his shining on the earth. SO viewed, the poet’s language suggests the thought which reappears in other parts of Scripture (Matthew 13:39; Romans 8:19-23; Revelation 12:4)—that, in the great conflict width is continually going on between the powers of light and darkness, victory will eventually, through God’s help, incline to the side of the former. III. THE LESSON FROM THE SERMON; OR, THE TRUTH IT APPLIED. Job concludes his lofty anthem in celebration of the majesty of God by two remarks. 1. That man’s knowledge of the power of God is infinitesimally small The magnificent pictures which had been given of the mysterious operation of the Almighty’s hand were only as the edges, fringes, or extremest end-points of the glorious garment in which the incomparable Worker was arrayed, as the faintest whisper of a voice which in the fulness of its tones is as the roaring of the thunder or the grand diapason of the sea. What Job asserts shout his own representations of the transcendent greatness of God is equally correct about the richest and most impressive that have ever yet been given. Man’s understanding of God’s power in nature is at best fragmentary and imperfect (1 Corinthians 13:9). 2. That the wonder-working power of God is infinitely great. So great, in fact, that it passes human comprehension. If these stupendous phenomena he only the whispers of his almighty voice, what must be the thunder-roar of its fully uttered tones? If these be occasioned, as it were, by the mere flutterings of the extreme end of his garment, what must be power residing in his Almighty arm? If the phenomena of nature, as witnessed in this lower sphere, are sufficient to impress the human mind with exalted conceptions of the greatness of God, how much more sublime should our ideas be of the incomparable glory of him who presides over, and work, in, a universe, in which this globe on which man dwells is but as the small dust of the balance to the huge forms of the mountains, as a drop of water to the ocean, as a spark of fire to the blazing sun! Learn: 1. It is the duty of all men to seek, entertain, and, as opportunity offers. set forth, lofty conceptions of the supreme God. 2. If God’s power extends to the underworld of spirits, it cannot be withdrawn from the upper world of men. 3. If the eye of the Omniscient can explore the caverns of hell and the caves of the sea, it must also be able to search the chambers of the heart. 4. The Almighty’s hand that can hold up a world, yea, a universe, will not surely fail in sustaining one who is at best but a worm. 5. He who prepares and distributes the clouds of rain for the earth can also provide and dispense clouds of spiritual blessing for the souls of men. 6. When God draws a cloud before his throne, it is partly for his glory and partly for man’s good. 7. He who hath set a bound to the sea is able also to restrain the wrath of man. 8. If God has divided light from darkness in the physical world, much more will he do so in the intellectual and spiritual 9. If things inanimate, as well as bloodless spirits, tremble at God’s reproof, men possessed of reason should not be callous or indifferent to the same. 10. Those who are proud God is able to abase. 11. The power of God in nature is only an emblem and shadow of a higher power which God wields in the realm of grace, 12. The fullest knowledge of God which a saint attains to on earth is small and insignificant when compared with that which awaits him in heaven. BY E. JOHNSON Job 26:1-14 Praises of the Eternal I. AND REPROOF. (Job 26:2-4.) The tone seems to be ironical: "How well hast thou helped feebleness, supported the arm of him that has no strength, counselled unwisdom, and in fulness given utterance to good sense! To whom hast thou offered words, and whose breath went forth from thee? By whose inspiration?" possibly pointing to the borrowed character of Bildad’s speech. Words may be good in themselves, yet not pleasant or profitable if not spoken in good season. It would have been more to the purpose had Bildad spoken to the wounded spirit of his friend of the tenderness and the compassion rather than the majesty and greatness of God. The minister of God should know how to speak a word in season to the weary (Isaiah 50:4). "We are often disappointed in our expectations of our friends who should comfort us; but the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, never mistakes in his operations, nor misses his ends." Job takes a noble revenge by painting in far more glowing and noble language the sublime greatness of God, thus showing how true in faith was his heart at bottom. His petulance and outcries are the involuntary irritation of pain; they are superficial; at the core of his being piety lives in all its intensity. II. JOB’S OF THE MAJESTY OF GOD. (Verses 5-14.) "Truth, like a torch, the more it’s shook, it shines." "It were well if all disputes about religion might end thus, in glorifying God as Lord of all, and our Lord, with one mind and one mouth (Romans 15:6), for in that we are all agreed." 1. Hell and heaven. (Verses 5-7.) Job begins at the opposite end of the great scale of creation from that with which Bildad began; with the lower world, the region of shadows, thence to rise to the heavenly world. "The shadows are made to tremble below the water and its inhabitants" (verse 5). By the shadows are meant the ghostly, bloodless forms as Homer has described them in the eleventh book of the ’Odyssey,’ leading a joyless, melancholy existence, deprived of the light of the sun (Psalms 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 9:18; Isaiah 26:14, Isaiah 26:19; comp. Job 14:9, Job 14:10). Even in Hades the vast power of the Almighty is felt, and its inhabitants own it and tremble (Psalms 139:8; Proverbs 15:11; James 2:19). This lower world is naked to the eyes of God (Hebrews 4:13), and the chasm of Hades has no covering (Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 15:6). The Northern heaven—taken here by a figure, as the part for the whole—is stretched over the void, and the earth hangs upon nothing (verse 7). The expression "nothing" here denotes the same as the "void"—the vast emptiness of space in which the earth with its heavenly canopy is placed. Compare the classical parallels in Lucret; 2:600, sqq.; Ovid, ’Fast.,’ 6:269, sqq. A Persian poet says— "He stretches out the heaven without pillars as the tent of the earth …. What doth the air bear? it beareth nothing, and nothing on nothing, and absolutely nothing." And an Arab poet, "He has made the heaven out of smoke." And in the Koran, "It is Allah who has built high the heaven, without supporting it on visible pillars." The poets say that Atlas bore the heaven on his shoulders; but we confess the true Atlas, the Lord our God, who by his word upholds both heaven and earth (Brenz). As the work witnesses of the master, so does the universe testify of its Creator, Sustainer, and Governor (Psalms 19:1-6); and no faint-hearted one has contemplated the eternal order which here confronts him and its secret but ever-blessed sway, and no sinner longing for salvation has tarried in the hails of this great temple of God, without being richly blessed with heavenly blessings (Wohlfarth). 2. The clouds and the heavenly region. (Verses 8-10.) Waters are firmly bound up in the clouds as in vast water-skins, according to the conception of the poet, without their bursting with the weight, if God wills to retain the rain (verse 8; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2). God veils the "outer side" of his heavenly throne, the side turned towards earth, by drawing the clouds between (verse 9). He has drawn a circling boundary over the water’s surface to the crossing of the light with the darkness (verse 10; Proverbs 8:27). In both passages the idea is that the earth is surrounded by water (in Homer, by the flowing stream of ocean). Above is the circle of the hemisphere, where sun and stars run their course. Within this circle is the region of the heavenly bodies and of light, and outside it begins the realm of darkness. 3. Mountains; the sea; constellations. (Verses 11-13.) The heaven’s pillars—that is, the great mountains, conceived as bearing up the firmament—fall into trembling, and the earthquake is represented as caused by their affright at his reproof (verse 11; comp. Psalms 29:1-11.; Psalms 104:7; Isaiah 50:2; Nahum 1:4; Revelation 6:12-14; Revelation 20:11). He terrifies the sea by his power, and by his understanding breaks in pieces Rahab (verse 12). Rahab being here not Egypt, as in other places, but some huge monster of legendary fame. His breath makes the heaven bright and clear; and his hand has pierced through the flying serpent (verse 13). This may, perhaps, allude to the mythical representation of eclipses of sun or moon as the attempt of a monstrous dragon to swallow up the heavenly bodies, The ceremony is practised, among the Turks and others, of beating off this dragon at the time of eclipses by cries and noises. These descriptions of the Creation are founded on astronomical myths belonging to the childhood of the world; but our better knowledge of the mechanism of the heavens need not destroy our sense of the reverence and awe which pervade these descriptions, The wonder of ignorance is replaced by the nobler wonder of intelligence, of reason. . (Verse 14.) "Lo, these are ends of his ways"—but the outlines or sketches—the nearest and most familiar evidences of his government of the world; "and what a gently whispering word it is that we hear!—but the thunder of his omnipotence who can understand?" The full unfolding of his power, the thundering course of the heavenly spheres, what mortal ear could bear? "If nature thundered in our opening ears, And stunned us with the music of the spheres, How should we wish that Heaven had left us still The gentle zephyr and the purling rill?" The whole contemplation is fitted to teach us our ignorance, and to lead to humility, to wonder, to adoration. We see but a small part of the immeasurable kingdom of God. We play with a few pebbles on the verge of the infinite ocean of existence. The knowledge of the greatest philosopher is but the short-sighted glance of a tiny insect! Our earth is but a grain of sand in the vast whole, a drop in the bucket. Thus the discoveries made of God lead us to the depth and height of the undiscovered and unknown. A modem philosopher says that religion and science find their point of union and reconciliation here—in the recognition of the unknown, unknowable Power in the universe. This recognition stills vain rivalries and idle controversies. "When we have said all we can concerning God, we must, even as St. Paul (Romans 11:33), despair to find the bottom; we must sit down at the brink and adore the depth: ’Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!’". But, again, the sense of what is unknown should lead us to hold the more firmly to that which is known, especially through the gospel of his grace and love. There he speaks to us from out the vastness and splendour of the creation with a voice that we can understand, that touches the heart—"My child!" This everlasting God is ours-our Father and our Love. Without the knowledge of his grace and mercy in Christ, the knowledge of his majesty and purity must drive us to despair.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 26:2-4 Cruel reproof helps not the sufferer. Job has endured the reproaches of his would-be friends. Their words, instead of calming and comforting his wounded spirit, have only irritated and tried him. He has sought in vain for the refreshment of sympathy. One prolonged attempt to prove his guiltiness, and to establish the justice of his affliction on that ground, he has had to meet by protestations of innocence. But the ill-judged and imperfectly instructed comforters, mistaking the ground of Job’s affliction, had poured gall into his troubled spirit. The testimony of the book is to the insufficiency of human consolation, and to the great truth that there are afflictions which come upon men for other reasons than as punishments of offence. The picture of Job suffering bodily pain is sad enough, but it is heightened by the cruel manner in which the professed words of comfort are turned into keen reproofs. Such reproofs are powerless to help the sufferer, for— 1. THERE IS NO ELEMENT OF REAL IN THEM. The wise consoler may take opportunity to lead the sufferer to a just penitence for his sin; but merely to dwell upon wrong, and to point to it as the sole cause of suffering, is to leave the sufferer devoid of all true consolation. There is no word of hope, no promise of relief, no bracing of the spirit, by the whisper of lofty principles. II. THEY BUT SERVE TO THE ALREADY TRIED SPIRIT. Bowed down by manifold sufferings, the afflicted one is sensitive to every word, even every look, of those around him. Their tender patience, even their very silence, gives them some assurance of kindly feeling; but to speak words of reproof when the spirit is weak and oppressed with anguish is to add weight to weight, and to subject the sufferer to greater pain. He needs the balmy word of friendship, the touch of the tender hand; not to be rudely taunted with keen thrusts of accusation which are as the bite of an adder, nor to be scourged by the severities of an antagonist. III. THEY AFFORD NO OF THAT WHICH IS THE BASIS OF ALL, TRUE . With the words of inspiriting brotherly love the truly afflicted one has borne the heaviest calamity and remained calm under the severest trials. Pain has lost its power in presence of sympathy. To lay the aching head upon the shoulder of a strong friend gives might to the weak. The truest succour for the wounded is tender sympathy, whether the wounds pierce the flesh or the spirit. But sympathy knows nothing of severity or harsh accusation. It hides offence and soothes the self-accused spirit until it has gained strength to bear the weight of condemnation. But no sign of this is present in the words of Job’s friends; no sympathy is expressed by cruel reproof: "How hast thou helped him that is without power?" IV. To all they add THE PAINFUL RECALL OF THE OF THE SOUL AT THE TIME WHEN IT IS AND UNABLE TO MAKE ANSWER. This is not the appropriate time to speak accusingly. When the soul is in its strength it is hard to reply to either just or unjust accusation, but in its weakness and sorrow it is utterly incapable of reply. It is adding weight to weight, and taking unfair advantage of feebleness. This is neither neighbourly, nor brotherly, nor even kind. It shows a faulty judgment and an unsympathetic spirit.—R.G. Job 26:6-14 The Divine ways but partially revealed. Bildad had given Job no comfort. And Job at first (verses 1-3) retorts upon him a reproof for his unhelpful words. He then bursts into an impressive representation of the wonderful works of God to whom Bildad had referred. The works of God in the heavens, the earth, and the deep sea are great and manifold; so are his works amongst the creatures of his power, of whom the serpent alone is mentioned. But the hidden hand of God Job confesses, and the greatness of the Divine works and ways, of which only a part is revealed. We may take a wider sweep than even Job does, and say— I. Parts of the Divine ways are revealed IN THE VISIBLE . His wonderful works. II. IN HIS WAYS TO THE OF MEN. In the working of that providence that ever guards the interests of the human life. III. IN THE OF HOLY . Here light falls especially (1) on the Divine Name; (2) on the mysteries of the Divine providence; (3) on the spiritual future—on God, on human life and duty, on immortality. Yet with all the teachings it must still be said," How little a portion is heard of him?" We have heard the whisper; "but the thunder of his power who can understand?" A plain duty is to judge of that which is hidden by that which is made known. And the question instantly arises to our lips—Are the revelations which God has made of himself and of his ways in nature, in human life, in the Holy Scriptures, such as encourage us to trust in those ways, and in him, where all is covered with clouds and thick darkness? If the revealed things are good and trust worthy, it is most reasonable to demand faith in the hidden and unseen. Faith in the unseen is warranted by (1) the beauty, (2) utility, (3) perfectness, (4) beneficence of the Divine ways, as they are traceable in the works of the Divine hand; but faith’s highest warrant is in the Divine Name—the absolutely good, pure, just, and beneficent One.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 26:2 Helping the weak. Job returns to the old complaint, more than ever justified by the obstinacy of his friends. They came to sympathize and help in the time of trouble; how have they carried out their self-appointed task? I. IT IS A DUTY TO HELP THE WEAK. The worldly maxim is "each for himself." This seems to be natural; but it is not true to our better nature. The higher self is required to rectify the cruel impulses of the lower regions of nature. 1. Because of the solidarity of the race. We are members one of another, and when one member suffers all the members suffer. It is not good for us that any of our fellow-men should fail. 2. Because of the brotherhood of Christians. We are called to more than a care for the whole body; individual needs appeal to our sympathy, and the special cases of those who are known to us come before us with peculiar claims. We have to remember our family relationship as children of our Father. 3. Because of the work of Christ. He came to help the weak, and our standing is only on the ground that he has done so for us. If all had come to us by self-seeking and personal exclusiveness, we should not have had the power to help others, for that power was given to us in our weakness by the grace of God in Christ. II. HELP TO THE WEAK SHOULD BE BY AIDING THEM TO BECOME STRONG. There is an excessive helplessness that can only be relieved by direct aid. But in the main it is not wise to make people simply dependent on us. While we help them materially we may hurt them morally. It is a more difficult task to lift men than to dole out charity while they grovel in destitution; but it is a much more truly helpful thing. When we deal with men in spiritual work the same principle applies. It is not enough to bring consolation and peace and other spiritual blessings. The more important work is to lead feeble, broken-down creatures to the Source of new life and strength, that they may be renewed and converted. It is well to help the weak in their weakness, but it is better to help them out of it. III. IT IS TO FAIL IN TO HELP THE WEAK This is one of the most obvious lessons of the Book of Job, and it is constantly recurring to us from different points of view. Few tasks are more difficult, and therefore it is not surprising that failure is frequent, but the surprising thing is that it is not anticipated. We are astounded at the confidence of Job’s comforters. Their self-assurance is perfectly amazing. They persevere in their conventional assertions without perceiving how utterly useless, how vexatiously mischievous, their whole method of procedure is. Not understanding Job, they cannot help him. Too often blundering attempts at doing good only aggravate the evil they would alleviate. We must study social problems; we must understand the people; we must come to know the individual persons we desire to help. A large part of the duty of Christian angels of mercy is to visit the afflicted, to enter into their condition, see their homes, hear their troubles, know their circumstances and the cause of their misery. The story of Christian charity is full of most disheartening failures which arise simply from neglecting these first conditions of success.—W.F.A. Job 26:6 God’s vision of death. Bildad has just spoken of the exalted dominion of God that reaches to heavenly heights, overawing the very moon and stars. Job now replies, turning his eyes downward, and noticing how the dim underworld is all open to the inspection of God. I. THE DEAD ARE NOT BEYOND THE VISION OF GOD. He lives in light, and they lie in darkness; yet he sees them. There is no escaping from his presence. "If I make my bed in Hades, behold, thou art there" (Psalms 139:8). 1. There is no eluding his observation. A man cannot flee from God by dying. Indeed, is not suicide rightly regarded as rushing into the presence of God? No darkness hides from God, for day and night are alike with him, and no change of sphere removes from the reach of him who rules through all the spheres. 2. There is no loss of his notice. No one can be beneath the attention of God—too low, too degraded, in too dark and desolate a region to be seen by him. Perhaps this was Job’s thought. He was longing for God to come and vindicate his cause; but he could not but admit that death might come first, for his disease was making fearful inroads on his constitution. Still, he would not lose the chance of meeting God. If not on earth, then it should be after death. God will follow his children wherever they go in the next world, as he follows them in this world. II. GOD’S VISION OF THE DEAD IS OF GREAT TO THEM. If Hades and destruction have no covering before God, this means very much to Hades and destruction. It cannot be the same thing whether we are looked upon by God or not. Surely it means much to know that the abode of death is not deserted by God. God cannot look down into this dark region as a mere spectator. He is everywhere a Life, a Power, an Authority. Therefore we must conclude that the rule of God extends over the unseen world. Certain important consequences flow from this truth. 1. Justice will be done there. God will not allow injustice to go on for ever. The process of rectification is slow; but God is infinitely patient, and he has eternity before him. The unpunished sinner will meet his dreadful deserts in the next world, and the ill-used and misunderstood good man will be vindicated there. 2. Life will be given there. God cannot look on the dead and leave them in their natural darkness. His gaze quickens. If he visits the realm of the dead he will bring about a resurrection. The dead are not cast out, forgotten, left to fade and melt out of all being. God touches them, and they awake, like the frost-bound earth at the touch of spring. 3. Mercy will extend to them. How and to what extent this may be received by the dead is a mystery concerning which we have little or no light. But we know that "the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever." We know that God is changeless. His love is unfailing. He must ever desire the recovery of his children. Yet dogmatic universalism is as false to human nature as it is to the warnings of Scripture. For men may harden themselves against the mercy of God; if they do so on earth, how can we say that they will not do so after death?—W.F.A. Job 26:8 Clouds. As we proceed through the poem we cannot but be struck with the wonderful wealth of its nature-imagery, which continues to open out with ever-increasing luxuriance till it reaches its fulness in the burst of splendour that accompanies the final theophany. Each aspect of nature touched by the poet has its special lessons. Now he calls us to look at the gorgeous pageantry of the clouds. Here truths of Divine order and government are displayed before our eyes. I. CLOUDS ARE OF DIVINE ORIGIN. God bindeth up the waters; the thick clouds are his. Whenever we touch nature we should move with reverence, for we are in the temple of God. Whether we understand the clouds, whether we can see the wisdom by which they are shaped and led out over the heavens or not, at least we must discuss them with the humility that becomes a consideration of the works of the infinitely Wise and the perfectly Good. II. CLOUDS ARE TO THE WORLD. In Southern countries they are greatly valued both for their shade and for the much-needed showers they bring to the parched land. The arrangement by which they float overhead, and then descend on broad areas in finely distributed drops of water, makes man’s most advanced system of irrigation look childish and clumsy. Great masses of water are stored aloft and driven through the air, and made to descend so that every minute plant is watered, and not a blade of grass is crushed. Here is the perfection of the art of distribution. III. CLOUDS THE MUTUAL OF NATURE. Drawn up from the sea in invisible vapour, driven over the land by strong winds, condensed against the mountains or in cool currents of the upper air, descending in gentle rain over fields and gardens, over woods and hills and plains, trickling through the soil, breaking out in little springs, streaming down the slopes in minute rills, gathering supplies from all directions in the valleys, and flowing back to the sea in full-fed rivers, the water of the clouds moves through a circuit, every stage of which is of use in the economy of nature, while the whole is completed by the help of many forces and circumstances. IV. CLOUDS COME AS MERCIES IN . Thick clouds are black and ugly, hiding the blue sky, and casting gloom on the earth. They do not always have a silver lining. They may be heavy and lowering, sombre and threatening. Yet they burst in refreshing showers. When shall we believe that it is the same with those apprehensions of trouble which are really the chariots in which God’s love rides? V. CLOUDS ARE IN THE . It is only a difference of light, and their gloom is turned into splendour. When the sun touches the clouds it sets them on fire. Morning and evening unroll leagues of rose and gold curtains on the distant horizon. When God’s love touches our clouds, by a magic alchemy they pass into heavenly beauty. VI. CLOUDS ARE AND . Moulded out of invisible vapours, they melt while we gaze at them. Their high bastions and clustered domes, their silvery lakes and purple mountains, are in rapid dissolution. For they must serve their purpose. They must vanish to fulfil their mission. Earthly joys like palaces of cloudland, earthly terrors like its gloomy shadows, both melt away, and must do so to serve their purpose of blessing and discipline. But beyond the clouds is the blue sky. We are thankful for the clouds. But we must neither cling to them, nor shrink from them. Standing on the solid earth, our lasting hope is in the eternal heavens.—W.F.A. Job 26:14 The thunder of his power. We only see the edges of God’s ways; we hear but a slight whisper of him; the thunder of his power is beyond our comprehension. I. IN NATURE. We can see but a small part of God’s works. Astronomy hints at vast regions of unexplored space. Even in limited regions the variety of teeming life goes beyond our comprehension. We cannot see the infinitely small. Further, we only use our five senses. Who can tell but that a sixth sense would reveal much more of the wonderful works of God? We can conceive of an indefinite multiplication of senses. Suppose there were ten senses, or fifty, or any number more; who can say but that they would discover corresponding objects that are quite unknown to us because we have not the faculty of perceiving them? Next consider how small a period of time our observation extends over. Geology stretches back a long way, but with how meagre a record of immense ages! Then note that all these observations deal with the material universe. But what of the spiritual? How far may this extend? What are its contents? II. IN . The mistake of Job’s friends was that they were both shortsighted and narrow in their vision. They could see but a very small part of God’s work and purpose; yet they drew universal conclusions, and dogmatized. Their mistake is only too common. We have to recollect that we have not the materials with which to form a judgment of God’s actions. In our own lives we see a very small part of the Divine plan. All may look dark and dreadful. But we are only at the early seed-sowing. We have to see the harvest before we can judge of the crop. And the harvest is not yet. III. IN . This was true of the Old Testament in comparison with the New. But a fringe of the grace afterwards revealed in Christ was made known to the ancient Jews. Now it is impossible to say how much more of the nature and thought of God still lies beyond the region of revelation. We have enough to guide us, sufficient for salvation and for duty. But we dare not limit God to his revelations of himself. All attempts to define God, to draw a circle about the Divine, refute themselves, for they would make out that the Infinite is finite. IV. IN . Whispers of God’s judgment make us tremble; and we have only heard whispers as yet. What, then, must the thunder of his power be? At a mere touch from "the Traveller unknown" the sinew of Jacob’s thigh shrank (Genesis 32:25). What would have been the result if the mysterious Wrestler had put forth his full power? Earthly troubles are hard to bear; these are but whispers compared to the thunder of doom! V. IN . There is a bright side to this picture. "God is love," and the half has not been told us of God’s nature. Future ages have yet to explore its marvellous wealth of grace. Throughout eternity it will still stretch beyond all human experience. With the grace is a corresponding blessing. The future blessedness that God offers to his children is also beyond all present estimates. "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be" (1 John 3:2).—W.F.A. Job 27:1-23 This chapter divides itself into three distinct portions. In the first, which extends to the end of Job 27:6, Job is engaged in maintaining, with the utmost possible solemnity (verse 2), both his actual integrity (verse 6) and his determination to hold fast his integrity as long as he lives (verses 4-6). In the second (verses 7-10) he implicates a curse upon his enemies. In the third (verses 11-23) he returns to the consideration of God’s treatment of the wicked, and retracts the view which he had maintained controversially in Job 24:2-24, with respect to their prosperity, impunity, and equalization with the righteous in death. The retractation is so complete, the concessions are so large, that some have been induced to question whether they can possibly have been made by Job, and have been led on to suggest that we have here a third speech of Zophar’s, such as "the symmetry of the general form" requires, which by accident or design has been transferred from him to Job. But the improbability of such a transfer, considering how in the Book of Job the speech of each separate interlocutor is introduced, is palpable; the dissimilarity between the speech and the other utterances of Zophar is striking; and. Job 27:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said. The word translated "parable" (משׁל) is only used previously in Numbers 23:1-30, and Numbers 24:1-25. It is thought to "comprehend all discourses in which the results of discursive thought are concisely or figuratively expressed" (Cook). The introduction of a new term seems to imply that the present discourse occupies a position different from that of all the preceding ones. It is not tentative, controversial, or emotional, but expresses the deliberate judgment of the patriarch on the subjects discussed in it. Note the repetition of the term in Job 29:1. Job 27:2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment, Job has not previously introduced any form of adjuration. His "yea has been yea, and his nay nay." Now, however, under the solemn circumstances of the occasion, when he is making his last appeal to his friends for a favourable judgment, he thinks it not inappropriate to preface what he is about to say by an appeal to God as his Witness. "As God liveth," or "As the Lord liveth," was the customary oath of pious Israelites and of God-fearing men generally in the ancient world (see Judges 8:19; Rth 3:13; 1 Samuel 14:39; 1 Samuel 20:3; 2 Samuel 4:9; 2 Samuel 12:5; 1 Kings 2:24; 1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 5:20; 2 Chronicles 18:13; Jeremiah 38:16). Job adds that the God to whom he appeals is he who has "taken away," or "withheld," his judgment, i.e. who has declined to enter with him into a controversy as to the justice of his doings (Job 9:32-35; Job 13:1-28:31; Job 23:3-7). And the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; or, made my soul bitter. Though he slays him, yet does Job trust in God (Job 13:15). He is his Witness, his Helper, his Redeemer (Job 19:25). Job 27:3 All the while my breath is in me. This verse is parenthetic. Job claims in it to be in possession of all his faculties, notwithstanding his sufferings. The right translation would seem to be, "For my life is yet whole within me" (see the Revised Version). And the spirit of God is in my nostrils. The spirit of God, originally breathed into man’s nostrils, whereby he became a living soul (Genesis 2:7), is still, Job says, within him, and makes him capable of judging and declaring what is right. Job 27:4 My lips shall not speak wickedness. Nothing shall induce him, Job says, to speak knowingly wicked words. Nor my tongue utter deceit. Neither will he be induced, whatever happens, to utter untruth. A confession of guilt, such as his friends have endeavoured to extort from him, would be both wicked and false. Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you; i.e. allow that you have been right all along, and that I have drawn these judgments down upon me by secret sins. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. So long as he continues to live, Job will not cease to maintain his innocence. It has been repeatedly pointed out that he does not mean to declare himself absolutely without sin, but only to deny such heinous guilt as his friends imputed to him (see Job 22:5-9). Job 27:6 My righteousness I held fast, and will not let it go. Not only will Job never cease to maintain his integrity in the past, but he will hold fast to the same course of blameless life in the future. He will not "curse God, and die." Resolutely he will maintain his faith in God, and his dependence on him. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. This is probably the true meaning, though some suggest "My heart doth not reproach me for any of my days" Job determines to "have always a conscience void of offence, both toward God and toward man" (Acts 24:16; comp. Acts 23:1; 1 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:3; 1 John 3:21). Job 27:7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked. The nexus of this passage with what goes before is uncertain. Some suppose Job’s full thought to have been, "Ye try to persuade me to act wickedly by making a false representation of my feelings and convictions; but I absolutely refuse to do so. Let that rather be the act of my enemy." Others regard him as simply so vexed by his pretended friends, who are his real enemies, that he is driven to utter an imprecation against them. And he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. This is another instance of a mere pleonastic hemistich—a repetition of the preceding clause in different words. Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained. The hypocrite and liar may get advantage in this life by his lies and his hypocrisy. He may deceive men; he may raise himself in their opinion; he may derive worldly advantage from having secured their approval But what will he have to look forward rein the end, when God taketh away (i.e. removeth from earth) his soul? Job evidently regards the soul that is "taken away" or removed from earth as still existing, still conscious, still capable of hope or of despair, and asks what hope of a happy future could the man who had lived a hypocrite entertain, when God required his soul, and he felt under God’s judgment. The question reminds us of those words of our blessed Lord’ "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?". Job 27:9 Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon Him? Can he expect that in the day of trouble, "when distress and anguish come upon him" (Proverbs 1:27), God will hear his cry, and respond to it, and give him relief? No; conscious hypocrisy—living a lie—cuts off from God, severs between a man and his Maker, makes all prayers for help vain, until it is repented of and put away from us. The man who dies in it is in a desperate case. Job 27:10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty? A further ill result of hypocrisy is noted. Not only does it alienate God from us, but it nile,ares us from God. The hypocrite cannot "delight in the Almighty." He must shriek from him, tear him, dislike to dwell on the thought of his presence and realize it. His natural inclination must be to withdraw his thoughts from God, and give himself up to the worldliness which has been his attraction to assume the hypocrite’s part. Will he always call upon God? Can be even be depended on not to renounce the service of God altogether? The mutual alienation above spoken of must tend to check communion, to disincline to prayer and calling upon God, to erect a barrier between the hypocrite and the Almighty, which, though for a while it may be insufficient to withstand the force of use and wont, will yet, in the long run, be sure to tell, and will either put an end to prayer altogether, or reduce it to a formality. Job 27:11-23 It is impossible to deny that this passage directly contradicts Job’s former utterances, especially Job 24:2-24. But the hypotheses which would make Job irresponsible for the present utterance and fix on him, as his steadfast conviction, the opposite theory, are unsatisfactory and have no solid basis. To suppose that Zophar is the real speaker is to imagine the absolute loss and suppression of two entire verses—one between verses 10 and 11, assigning the speech to him, and another at the beginning of Job 28:1-28; reintroducing Job and making him once more the interlocutor. That this should have happened by accident is inconceivable. Τὰκατὰτύχηνοὐπάνυσυνδυάζεται To ascribe it to intentional corruption by a Hebrew redactor, bent on maintaining the old orthodox view, and on falsely and wickedly giving the authority of Job to it, is to take away all authority from the existing text of the Hebrew Scriptures, and to open a door to any amount of wild suggestion and conjectural emendation. The other hypothesis—that of Eichhorn—that Job is here simply anticipating what his adversaries will say, though a less dangerous view, is untenable, since Job never does this without following up his statement of the adversaries’ ease with a reply, and here is no reply whatever, but a simple turning away, after verse 23, to another subject. The explanation of the contradiction by supposing that Job’s former statement was tentative and controversial, or else hasty and ill-considered, and that now, to prevent misconception, he determines to set himself right, is, on the other hand, thoroughly defensible, and receives a strong support from the remarkable introduction in verse 11, which "prepares us, if not for a recantation, yet (at any rate) for a modification of statements wrung from the speaker when his words flowed over from a spirit drunk with the poison of God’s arrows". Job 27:11 I will teach you by (or, concerning) the hand of God. Job is now at last about to deliver his real sentiments respecting God’s dealings with men in the world, and prefaces his. remarks with this solemn introduction, to draw special attention to them. He is aware that his previous statements on the subject, especially in Job 24:2-24, have been overstrained and exaggerated, and wishes, now that he is uttering his last words (Job 31:40), to correct his previous hasty utterances, and put on record his true views. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. By "that which is with the Almighty" Job means the Divine principles of action. Job 27:12 Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it. The true Divine scheme of action has been so long and so frequently made manifest—openly set forth in the sight o! men—that Job cannot believe that those whom he addresses are ignorant of it. They must themselves have seen the scheme at work. Why then are ye thus altogether vain? Why, then, do they not draw true inferences from the facts that come under their notice? Job 27:13 This is the portion of a wicked men with God. In "this" Job includes all that follows from verse 14 to verse 23—"this, which I am going to lay down." He pointedly takes up the words of Zophar in Job 20:29, admitting their general truth. And the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. Retribution is "their portion," "their heritage," i.e. the natural result and consequence of their precedent sin. Job 27:14 If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword. Among the items of prosperity which Job had assigned to the wicked man in one of his previous discourses (Job 21:8, Job 21:11) was a numerous and flourishing offspring. Now he feels forced to admit that, frequently at any rate, this flourishing offspring is overtaken by calamity (Job 21:19)—it falls by the sword, either in predatory warfare, to which it was bred up, or as the consequence of a blood-feud inherited from its progenitor. They who "take the sword," either in their own persons or in their posterity, "perish with the sword." And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. If they escape this fate, then, mostly, they fall into poverty, and suffer want, no one caring to relieve them, since they have an ill reputation, the memory of their parent’s wickedness clinging to them long after his decease. Job 27:15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death. Not simply "shall die," but shall "be buried," i.e. lost sight of, and forgotten, "in death." And his widows shall not weep (comp. Psalms 78:64). The deaths of his offspring shall not be lamented by their widows—a very grievous omission in the eyes of Orientals. Job 27:16 Though he heap up silver as the dust. The city of Tyro, we are told by Zechariah, "heaped up silver as the dust" (Zechariah 9:3), i.e. in vast quantities, beyond count. So might the wicked man do. He might also prepare raiment as the clay; i.e. fill his house with rich dresses, partly for his own wear, partly to be given as robes of honour to his friends and boon companions (setup. Genesis 45:22; 2 Kings 5:22; 2 Kings 10:22, Matthew 6:19; James 5:2). Robes of honour are still kept in store by Eastern monarchs, and presented as marks of favour to visitors of importance, Job 27:17 He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on. The raiment thus accumulated shall pass from the wicked into the hands of the just, who at his death shall enter upon his inheritance (Job 20:18, Job 20:28). And the innocent shall divide the silver (see the first clause of Job 27:16). Job 27:18 He buildeth his house as a moth. The moth is the symbol of fragility, decay, and weakness. The wicked man’s attempt to build himself up a house, and establish a powerful family, is no better than a moth’s attempt to make itself a permanent habitation. As moths do not construct dwellings for themselves, it has been proposed (Merx) to read כעכבישׁ, "as a spider," for מעשׁ, "as a moth;" but the change is too great to be at all probable. May not the cocoon, from which the moth issues as. from a house, have been in Job’s mind? The hawk-moth buries itself in a neat cave for the pupa stage; and there may have been even better examples in Uz. But we ourselves have not known these facts long, and therefore we need not be surprised to find Job making a mistake in natural history. And as a booth that the keeper maketh. Huts or lodges of boughs were set up in vineyards and orchards by those who had to watch them (see Isaiah 1:8; Lamentations 2:6). They were habitations of the weakest and frailest kind. Job 27:19 The rich man lieth down; rather, he lieth down rich (see the Revised Version). But he shall not be gathered. If we accept the present text, we may translate, But it (i.e. his wealth) shall not be gathered’ and suppose his wealth to have consisted in agricultural produce. Or we may alter יאסף into יוֹסיף, and translate, He lieth down rich, but he shall do so no more—a correction to which the οὐπροσθήσει of the Septuagint points. He openeth his eyes, and he is not. Some translate, "It is not;" i.e. the harvest, in which his wealth consisted, is not—it has been all destroyed by blight or robbers Those who render, "He is not," generally suppose that he opens his eyes only to find himself in the hands of murderers. Job 27:20 Terrors take hold on him as waters (comp. Job 18:11). Terrors sweep over the wicked man like a flood of waters—vague terrors with respect to the past, the present, and the future. He fears the vengeance of these whom he has oppressed and injured, the loss of his prosperity at any moment by a reverse of fortune, and a final retribution at the hand of God commensurate with his ill desert. He is at all times uneasy; sometimes he experiences a sudden rush upon him of such gloomy thoughts, which overwhelms him, and sweeps him away like a mighty stream. A tempest stealeth him away in the night. While he is off his guard, as it were, in the night, a sudden storm bursts on him, and removes him from his place. Job 27:21 The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth. The khamsin wind, coming with all its violence and burning heat, drives him before it, and is irresistible. And as a storm hurleth him out of his place. This is little more than a repetition of the previous hemistich. The man is swept from the earth by a storm of calamity Job 27:22 For God shall out upon him, and not spare. Some commentators regard the storm as still the subject, and translate, "For it shall east itself upon him [or, ’rush upon him’] and not spore" (Sohultens, Merx). The difference is not great, since the storm represents God’s judgment. He would fain flee out of his hand; or, if the storm is meant, out of its hand. Job 27:23 Men shall clap their hands at him. Applauding, i.e. the just judgment of God upon him. And shall hiss him out of his place. Accompany with hisses his final ruin and downfall—hissing him, while they applaud the action of God in respect to him. Job 27:1-10 Job’s first parable: 1. The transgressions of a godly man. I. A DARING . 1. Against whom directed? Against Eloah, the All-sufficient One; Shaddai, the All-powerful One, the Self-existent, Living One, whose universal dominion, resistless might, and ineffable majesty Bildad (Job 25:1-3) and Job himself (Job 26:5-14) had eloquently pictured. With exalted conceptions of the transcendent greatness of the invisible Supreme, whose continual presence also he vividly realized (Job 23:8, Job 23:9, Job 23:15), Job should have feared to speak rashly, much more accusingly, before him (Deuteronomy 28:58; Psalms 76:7, Psalms 76:11; Jeremiah 5:22). But clear and accurate notions of Divine truth do not always possess that moral force, even over good men, that they should. Job a little while ago was afraid of God and troubled at his presence (Job 23:15); now, having lost, perhaps, his former luminous sense of the Divine presence, he hesitates not to bring against him a serious accusation. 2. By whom uttered? Job, a man who had not only been fashioned by the hands of Shaddai (Job 10:8, Job 10:9), but depended for life every moment on the breath of Eloah in his nostrils (verse 3), and therefore should have paused ere he called into question the conduct of a Being who could any instant cause him to return to the dust; a feeble man, wasted into a skeleton, shivering on the edge of the tomb, expecting every second to pass into God’s presence in the world of spirits—hence one who should have feared to affront the Eternal; a guilty man, i.e. a man who, however conscious of integrity, was yet sinful in God’s sight, and whom accordingly it ill became to question the proceedings of God; and likewise a pardoned man, whom God hath accepted as righteous, in proof thereof sending answers to his prayers (verse 9), which only added to the rashness of Job in impeaching Eloah as he did. 3. Of what composed? The charge preferred against God was twofold in appearance, vexing Job’s soul, and taking away Job’s judgment, though in reality the two things were connected as cause and effect. What irritated and inflamed the patriarch’s spirit was the thought which he here, indirectly indeed but none the less really on that account, utters, viz. that God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, had denied him justice. Already had he complained that God seemed to treat him as an enemy (Job 9:28; Job 13:24; Job 14:16, Job 14:17); never until now does he in terms so explicit accuse God of withholding from him justice. For this sin Job was afterwards reproved by Elihu (Job 34:5) and by God (Job 40:8). II. AN . 1. To declare the truth about himself. There was nothing wrong or extravagantly self-asserting in the declaration that "his lips should not speak wickedness, nor his tongue utter deceit" (verse 4; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:31; Galatians 1:20). Not only should good men tell no lies (Exodus 20:16; Le Exodus 19:11; Psalms 34:13), though, alas! they sometimes do (Genesis 12:13; Genesis 26:7), but they should so hate untruthfulness (Proverbs 13:5) as to render the utterance of falsehoods impossible (Isaiah 63:8; Colossians 3:9). Job, however, claimed that he would state the exact truth about his own inward integrity, forgetting that "the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9), that God alone is competent to pronounce an accurate verdict on its character (Jeremiah 17:10; Job 36:4; Psalms 7:9; Proverbs 15:11), and that not even a saint can be trusted to deliver a perfectly unblessed judgment about himself. "If self the wavering balance shake, It’s rarely right adjusted." (Burns.) 2. To reveal the mind of God concerning others. With an air of authority Job avows his ability to give what he had often stormed at his friends for professing to deliver—an oracular exposition of the Divine mode of action in dealing with ungodly men (verse 11). Though "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" (Psalms 25:14; Proverbs 3:32), it is not absolutely certain that good men do not sometimes mistake their own cogitations for Heaven’s inspirations. Under any circumstances good men, in setting forth what they believe to be Divine truth, should avoid the appearance and tone of dogmatical assertion. Least of all should they speak dictatorially to those whom they have already charged with the same offence (Romans 2:21). III. AN . 1. With solemn adjuration. That Job should have maintained his integrity against the calumniations of his friends was both legitimate and reasonable. That he should even have exhibited a degree of warmth in repelling their accusations was perhaps excusable. But that he should have deemed it fitting to preface his self-vindication by an oath betrayed a degree of confidence, if not of self-righteousness, which was unbecoming in a humble-hearted and truly pious man. The matter was one that did not require more than calm, quiet, modest affirmation. Yet Job, in at least two different forms, adds an oath for confirmation (verses 2, 5), as if the vindication of his (i.e. the creature’s) righteousness were, and ought to be, the supreme end of his existence, and not rather the maintenance of the unchallengable righteousness of God. Nevertheless, Job’s conduct in thus asserting with an oath that he faithfully followed God compares favourably with that or Peter, who with curses affirmed that he knew not the Man (Mark 14:71). 2. With vehement repetition. Not content with one affirmation of his integrity, Job insists upon it with a fourfold asseveration (verses 5, 6), declaring (1) that he could not justify his friends, i.e. admit the truth of their contention with regard to himself without profanity; (2) that he would continue to assert his innocence while he lived; (3) that his righteousness he would on no account let go; and (4) that his heart should not reproach him even one of his days. So Paul protested to the Sanhedrin that he had lived in all good conscience before God up till then (Acts 23:1); and, writing to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1:12), rejoiced in the testimony of his conscience theft in simplicity and godly sincerity he had had his conversation in the world. The words, "not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God," exhibit the difference between St. Paul’s assertion of his personal integrity and Job’s. IV. A WICKED . 1. The persons upon whom it is pronounced. Job’s "enemy;" not the ungodly in general, but the men who rose up against him to impeach his integrity (verse 7). While it is well-nigh certain that a good man will have enemies (Matthew 10:22; John 15:19), who hate him because they first dislike his principles (1 Peter 3:16; 1 Peter 4:4), it is a splendid testimony to a good man’s character when he has no enemies except the ungodly. The mere fact, however, that his integrity is challenged by another is no proof that that other is either wicked in himself or hostilely disposed toward him. Though keenly resenting, therefore, the unjust imputations of his friends, it was wrong in Job to denounce them, as they had denounced him, as inherently ungodly. 2. The malediction of which it consists. Nothing is really gained by endeavouring to soften down Job’s language into a prediction. Supposing him to merely signify that the man who spoke against him was a wicked person who would eventually meet the wicked person’s recompense, he asserts it with a degree of confidence which was not warranted by the facts of the case, and which painfully suggests that the wish was father to the thought. The language of Job towards Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar finds an echo in the terrific outburst of David against his adversaries in the imprecatory psalms (Psalms 69:22-28; Psalms 109:6-15; Psalms 140:8-11), which, in so far as it was directed against individuals, we are not required to regard as entirely free from blame. V. A SELF- . In order further to set forth his integrity, Job tacitly contrasts his own case with that of the hypocrite, indirectly exhibiting himself as possessed of: 1. A better hope. However prosperous the wicked man may be in life, however successful in heaping up wealth, when he comes to die he has no hope whatever to sustain him (cf. Job 8:13; Job 20:5, homiletics), no expectation of acceptance with God; while be, Job, though standing on the verge of the grave, has. Worldly success cannot provide, and will not suffice as a substitute for, hope in death. Accumulated wealth prevents not death’s approach. If God does not cut off a man’s gains before death, he will certainly cut off a wicked man’s soul at death. It is a poor bargain to gain the world which one must soon leave, and lose the soul which one cannot regain throughout eternity (Matthew 16:26). 2. A better privilege. When trouble comes upon the wicked man so severely as to make him cry unto the Lord, the Lord turns a deaf ear to his entreaty (Proverbs 1:28). But the good man, i.e. Job, can reckon that his prayer will find an entrance into God’s ear (Psalms 34:17; Psalms 1:1-6:15; Psalms 107:13; Psalms 145:18, Psalms 145:19); the good man’s supplication being breathed forth in penitence, humility, and faith, the outcry of the hypocrite being merely an exclamation of alarm. 3. A better spirit. The imperilled hypocrite may cry to God when the fear of death is on him, or when trouble crushes him; but he has no true delight in fellowship with God. The good man derives his principal felicity from such communion with Heaven (Isaiah 58:14; 1 John 1:3), as Eliphaz had already admitted (Job 22:15); and such a good man Job distinctly claims to be. Delight in God expresses itself in happy meditation on and cheerful obedience to God’s Law (Psalms 119:16, Psalms 119:35, Psalms 119:47, Psalms 119:70); it is an indispensable condition of receiving answers to prayers (Psalms 37:4). 4. A better practice. The devotion of the hypocrite is only exceptional, whereas Job’s was habitual (verse 10) An occasional prayer is no true mark of piety. The child of God should be instant in prayer (Romans 12:12), and should pray without ceasing (Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Christ’s disciples should pray always, and not faint (Luke 18:1). Learn: 1. That the most eminent saints are not beyond the danger of falling into grievous sins. 2. That good men, while conscious of their integrity, should guard against self-exaltation on that account. 3. That piety as little as impiety stands in need of oaths to support it. 4. That good men should never renounce their integrity while they live, however they may sometimes forbear from asserting it. 5. That however much a wicked man may gain on earth, he loses all at death. 6. That that hope only is good which extends beyond the grave. 7. That God delights in them who delight in him. 8. That a man’s piety can be pretty accurately gauged by the intensity and frequency of his prayers. Job 27:11-23 Job’s first parable: 2. The portion of a wicked man with God. I. JOB’S . The lot, or earthly inheritance, of the ungodly Job exhibits in three particulars. 1. The wicked man’s family. However numerous the children that gather round a sinner’s hearth, they will all be overwhelmed in eventual destruction. (1) Designed. If his sons and daughters multiply, it is not because of any special favour with which they are regarded by Heaven, but only to meet their appointed portion. If the wicked send forth their little ones like a flock (Job 21:11), it is purely that, like oxen, they may be fattened for the slaughter. (2) Violent. Instead of dying peacefully in the course of nature after long, prosperous, and happy lives, they shall perish by the sword, by famine, or by pestilence—the three most usual forms of calamity in the East, and the three customary modes of inflicting Divine punishment (2 Samuel 24:13; Jeremiah 14:12). Job’s children were not removed in either of these ways. (3) Humiliating. Such indignity will fall upon his offspring, when they in turn follow him to the grave, that they shall be "buried in death," meaning either left unburied, or, as is more probable, totally forgotten the instant they are dead. Contrast the picture of the wicked man’s funeral in a previous oration (Job 21:9, Job 21:32). (4) Appalling. Either so complete will the ruin of this ungodly person’s family be that no widows shall remain to mourn for himself and children; or so sudden will be the shock of bereavement, that, paralyzed with grief, they will be unable to weep; or so attended with indications of Divine displeasure that they will fear to indulge in outward tokens of sorrow. 2. The wicked man’s wealth. This also shall be dissipated. (1) His money. Should it be plentiful as the dust (Zechariah 9:3; cf. 1 Kings 10:27), he must leave it behind him, but not to his children, for "his silver the innocent shall divide" (verse 17). The dying millionaire cannot calculate, or secure, that his accumulated treasures will be enjoyed by his family (Psalms 39:6; Luke 12:20). God can scatter a man’s wealth as easily as destroy a man’s life or extinguish a man’s house. (2) His raiment. This is another form of Oriental wealth (vide Exposition), which, though abundant as the mire, must share the same fate, and become the property of the righteous. (3) His palace. Strongly built and gorgeously decorated, it yet is frail and brittle, as easily destroyed and as quickly removed as a moth-web (Job 8:15) or a watchman’s hut (Isaiah 1:8). 3. The wicked man’s person. Equally with his family and possessions, the wicked man himself is engulfed in an awful doom. (1) Surprised by sudden death. At night retiring to bed rich, he knows not that before morning he shall be removed from life and fiches at a stroke; or, if permitted to see the dawn, he is quite unconscious that he does so for the last time, and that, ere the night falls, he shall be no more (verse 19). Death, which comes to all men suddenly (Matthew 24:44), is no surprise to them who habitually look for its approach (2 Timothy 4:6), but a fearful awakening to them who live in careless unconcern about their latter end (1 Thessalonians 5:3). (2) Terrified by impending judgment. While the violent surprise with which death seizes on the sinner is represented by three more metaphors—of a flood from which it is impossible to run (Psalms 18:4), a tempest or whirlwind which stealeth one away by night (Job 21:18; Proverbs 10:25), and an east wind accompanied by destructive storms (Isaiah 41:16), sometimes "so severe as to smite down whole villages and uproot the largest trees" (Cox)—the effect produced upon the sinner’s mind is depicted as one of paralyzing, overwhelming, devouring consternation (Psalms 73:19). This fear is probably the apprehension of something after death (cf. ’Macbeth,’ Acts 1. so. 7). (3) Overtaken by merited punishment. Upon the head of this unhappy wretch God shall rain down calamities so fast and furious that every attempt to escape his doom will be in vain. Such also David thought would be the portion of the wicked (Psalms 11:6); and such St. Paul asserts will be the ultimate reward of the unbelieving and impenitent (Romans 2:9). (4) Pursued by universal execration. Even if we read (Carey) it, i.e. the wind, shall clap its hands at him, and whistle at him in derision, the image must be interpreted to mean that the storm-chased sinner will be beheld with malignant joy and withering scorn; that, in fact, men will clap their hands with infinite delight over his tragic fate, and hunt his guilty spirit from the world with expressions of bitter hatred and contempt. II. JOB’S MEANING CLEARED. 1. The difficulty. The above exposition of the wicked man’s portion bears so close a resemblance to the pictures already sketched by the friends, that much perplexity has been occasioned by Job’s seeming inconsistency; in at this stage admitting the very dogma he had so powerfully assailed in his previous contendings. If this were true, it would only prove that great men sometimes change their rain, Is and modify their opinions. But the contradiction is more apparent than real. 2. The solution. For a detailed statement of the different schemes proposed with a view to either bridge over or remove this difficulty, the Exposition may be consulted. Here it may suffice to say that either we may understand Job as recapitulating the theory of the friends, which he has just characterized as "foolish notions" (verse 12); or, holding that the sentiments he delivers are his own, we may affirm that in previously painting the prosperous fortunes of the ungodly (e.g. Job 12:6; Job 21:7) he was merely placing exceptional cases against the exclusive theory of the friends, that ungodly men have always evil fortunes, which was all that strict logic required as its refutation, but that here he desires to intimate his acquiescence in the main element of their dogma, viz. that as a rule "the retributive justice of God is manifest in the case of the evil-doer" (Delitzsch). Learn: 1. That every man’s portion from God is twofold, relating to the life that is to come as well as to that which now is. 2. That the higher a wicked man rises in worldly prosperity, the more ignominious will be his final overthrow. 3. That God can effect sudden and surprising translers of property on earth. 4. That sudden death may overtake the person who appears best secured against it. 5. That sudden death is not the same thing to a wicked man that it is to a good one. 6. That the wicked man cannot face the future without a fear. 7. That if a wicked man’s death is a cause of joy to the world, the departure of a saint should be a source of lamentation. BY E. JOHNSON Job 27:1-23 Job a victor in the controversy. After the last speech of Job the friends appear to be completely overcome and silenced, and the third of them does not venture to renew the attack. The sufferer therefore continues, in a speech of high poetic beauty, to instruct the friends, while once more insisting on his own innocence. I. . (Verses 2-10.) 1. Conscious rectitude of resolve. (Verses 2-4.) In the profoundest sense that his thoughts are open to the eye of the all-seeing God, and that he need not fear to have his words overheard, Job speaks. He declares that he has still strength and sanity enough to know what he is saying, and to speak as a responsible witness on this quest on of his innocence. And although it has pleased God, as he thinks, to withhold justice from him, and to distress his soul, the light of duty and of conscience shines as brightly as ever. He will be true in word and deed to the last. Truth is the supreme duty we owe to ourselves, to our fellows, to our God, to eternity. The resolve to be true should be inseparable from the resolve to live; and we should part with life sooner than with truth. And no suffering should be allowed to disturb our genuine convictions about ourselves. The discouragement of others’ harsh opinion may well lead us to cast more searching glances into the state of our heart, but ought not to extort confessions of guilt which are exaggerated and unreel. It is only superstition which can suppose such to be acceptable to God. But this is the language of a man who has found, deep below all his doubts, an immovable ground of confidence in God. This makes him bold in the presence of his fellow-men. Happy those whose hearts condemn them not, and who have confidence with God. A false humility is an affectation of being worse than we really are. A genuine humility teaches us to see ourselves as we are; and every recognition of facts as facts, truths as truths, gives confidence. 2. The steadfastness of a good conscience. (Verses 5-7.) Job will never give way to his friends, nor own them in the right. The language of dogged egotism and stupid obstinacy imitates that of conscious right: "I will never give in!" But the one is the mark of folly and weakness, the other is the evidence of vitality and strength. He will not part with the sense of his integrity; it is as the jewel for which he has sold everything, which represents, amidst poverty and suffering and shame, all the property he has in the world. "Conscience is the great magazine and repository of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the soul. When this is calm and serene and absolving, then properly a man enjoys all things, and what is more, himself; for that he must do before he can enjoy anything else. But it is only a pious life, led exactly by the rules of a severe religion, that can authorize a man’s conscience to speak comfortably to him; it is this that must word the sentence before the conscience can pronounce it, and then it will do it with majesty and authority; it will not whisper, but proclaim a jubilee to the mind; it will not drop, but pour in oil upon the wounded heart" (South). 3. Inward peace and joy denied to the wicked. (Verses 8-10.) This is a further argument of innocence. How can Job be numbered amongst the wicked? No hypocrite can possibly enjoy this serenity and unshaken hope in God which have been the portion of his soul amidst all calamities, and in the approach of death (Job 17:1-16. and 19.). When the cords of his life-tent are cut (comp. Job 4:21), the wick d man has nothing more to hope for. His prayers will receive no answer, and joyous and trustful intimacy with God is denied him. Whatever disturbs innocence, in the same degree makes inroad upon ’the comfort of the soul. To be in the dark; to find that the gate of prayer is closed; to carry about a sick, ulcerated mind; to be harassed by the returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair; to be haunted with the dismal apparitions of a reviving guilt—the old black sores of past forgotten sins; to have the merciless handwriting against him, presented in new and flowing characters to his apprehension—is the case and condition of the sinner. But "why should a man choose to go to heaven through sloughs and ditches, briars and thorns, diffidence and desertion, trembling and misgiving, and by the very borders of hell, with death staring him in the face, when he might pass from comfort to comfort, and have all his way paved with assurance, and made easy and pleasant to him by the inward invaluable satisfaction of a well-grounded peace’? (South). II. ON THE FATE OF THE WICKED. (Verses 11-23.) 1. Introduction (Verses 11-13; comp. Job 20:29; Job 16:20.) The theme of discourse is to be the "hand of God"—his power and his mode of moral government as seen by daily examples in the lives of men; and the "sense" or mind of the Almighty—the contents of his thoughts and counsels (Job 10:13; Job 23:10). And experience is to furnish the evidence and the illustrations (verse 12). The facts are open to the view of all, but what was wanting in the friends of Job, as in many others, is a correct understanding and appreciation of them. Wisdom to mark the signs of the times, the hints of God’s will, his meanings, his judgments, not only in the course of nations, the great crises of history, but in the smaller sphere of every day, is what we need. Then the theme is announced (verse 13): "the lot of the wicked man—the heritage of the tyrant." Compare the words of Zopbar (Job 20:29). 2. The instability of the wicked man’s condition His household and family are first mentioned. The corruption working outward is first felt in the nearest circle and surrounding of his life. The sins of the father are visited upon the children. The sword, or famine, or pestilence makes them a prey. All modern as well as ancient experience confirms this law. The doctrine of "heredity" throws light upon many diseases, many vices, many woes. The children’s teeth are set on edge because the fathers have eaten sour grapes. And this law of eternal retribution would seem intolerably stern and harsh did we not perceive that it is thus God constantly warns the world. The connection of causes and effects, constant, unbroken, alike in the physical, the moral, and the spiritual sphere, is the natural revelation of the will of God. But there are compensations, redeeming agencies at work for the individual. He suffers often as the scapegoat of others’ sins externally; he is the victim of a solemn necessity; but in the large realm of inward freedom he may be emancipated, redeemed, and blessed. "His widows weep not" (verse 15) behind his bier, perhaps because in the fearful raw, gee of the pestilence the funeral rites are suspended. The plural is used to indicate the wives of the heads of other families and relatives of the deceased generally. Then, not only is the wicked cursed in his family, but in his property. A picture of immense wealth and profuse display follows (verse 16)—his silver being heaped up like dust, and fine raiment being as common as dirt. Yet there is no more real substantiality in all this than in the frail cocoon of the moth, or the hut which the watchman puts up in the vineyard or orchard (Isaiah 1:8). The striking story is told by Herodotus (6:86) of one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes, who was requested by a man of Miletus to take charge of the half of his fortune. When the sons el the Milesian claimed the money, Olaucus denied all knowledge of it, and consulted the oracle as to the results of perjury, and whether he could safely retain the money. The oracle replied, "Glaucus, son of Epicydes, for the present moment, indeed, it is more profitable to prevail by an oath, and to make the money thy booty. Swear; for death in truth awaits the man who is true to his oath. But, on the other hand, the child of the oath is nameless, and hath neither hands nor feet; yet he swiftly comes on, until he has ruined and destroyed thy whole race, yea, all thy house. With the race of the faithful man it shall fare better hereafter." He restored the money, but was told it was too late; and Leotychides, who related the story to the Athenians, says, "There is now no descendant of Glaucus living, no hearth that owns his name; he has been utterly rooted out, and has passed away from Sparta." 3. Insecurity of life. (Verses 19-23.) "He lies down rich, and—doth it not again," according to the best reading. This is a picture of the evening. The next is a picture of the morning. "Opens his eyes, and—is gone!" Both depict the suddenness of the wicked man’s end (verse 19). A multitude of terrors rush in upon him, like the waters of an inundation (verse 20; comp. Job 20:28; Psalms 18:5; Jeremiah 47:2), and fill his death-bed with horror (comp. Job 18:14; Job 20:25), and the east wind carries him away (verse 21)—the east wind being often mentioned as one of great violence (Job 1:19; Job 15:2; Job 38:24; Isaiah 27:8; Ezekiel 27:26). God slings without sparing the bolts of his wrath against him, and he must flee before his hand (verse 22). The fearful scene closes amidst the scornful laughter and clapping of hands of those who exult in the tyrant’s doom (verse 23; comp. Job 34:37; Lamentations 2:15; Nahum 3:19), and he departs from his place amidst the hisses of execration. The powerful picture of the great moralist, Juvenal, may be compared with this passage (’Sat.,’ 13:210, sqq.). Alter depicting the sufferings of a guilty conscience, he proceeds, "What, then, if the sinner has achieved his purpose? A respiteless anxiety is his, that ceases not, even at the hours of meals; his jaws are parched as though with fever, and the food he loathes swells between his teeth. All wines the miserable wretch spits out; old Alban wine, of highly prized antiquity, disgusts him. At night, if anxious care has granted him perchance some brief slumber, and his limbs, that have been tossing over the whole bed, at length are at rest, immediately he sees in dreams the temple and altar of the deity he has insulted; and, what weighs upon his soul with especial terror, he sees thee [the wronged one]! Thy awful form, of more than human bulk, confounds the trembling wretch, and wrings confession from him!" These pictures of the doom of the godless are fitted to teach patience to all the ill-used and the suffering in this world. God forgets nothing; neither the work of faith and labour of love of his children, nor the rank offences of the rebels against his laws. In due time he will both reward and punish, commonly even in this life (Exodus 32:34; Romans 2:1-29.). Calamity is not a mere accident, as the worldly and the infidel think. It follows sin, according to a fixed connection, by the will of God (Amos 3:6).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 27:5, Job 27:6 Determined integrity. Job is resolved to retain his integrity in spite of every rude assault. He will not suffer himself to be withdrawn from his fixed resolve. By firm resolution integrity may be preserved, though a boastful spirit exposes itself to temptation. Between the perils of presumptuous boasting on the one hand and timid irresolution on the other, lies the path of safety in a lowly, humble determination. I. THE MIND AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF . Evil finds its easiest prey in the irresolute and undetermined. Subtle and sudden suggestions of wrong are instantly rejected by the determined mind. They are cast off. There is a spirit of antagonism—a cherished antipathy to wrong; and before temptation has power to draw away the feet of the unwary, the determined one casts back the oftenting presence. He waits not to parley. There is a law established to cleave to the right; and the presence of the wrong becomes the watchword for an uprising of the whole strength against the usurper. II. , BY ITS , THE MIND FROM THE EFFECTS OF . The mind is kept braced up to its duty. Its judgments are formed beforehand. It has not to wait for any mental process. The instant wrong is suggested, that instant its reply is at hand. While the wavering and uncertain are being overcome, the resolute man walks on his plain path fearlessly and safe. III. TO ARISING OUT OF A JUST OF ITS WORTH FROM BY FALSE VIEWS. Low estimates of the worth of personal integrity make a man the sport of the trafficker in evil. Personal rectitude being held cheaply would be bartered away for any gilded bait. IV. THE OF OF SPIRIT BECOMES AN OBVIOUS AND DUTY. No one can be neglectful of this without doing great wrong to himself. To stand firm, entrenched by a strong will, guards the soul from the delusions that are rife enough; but that the will may be well supported, it is needful to encourage the spirit of resolute, unyielding determination. Then, with a high sense of the preciousness of conscious integrity, and with a mind adjusted to an attitude of proposed resistance against whatever would threaten to impair that integrity, the faithful one holds fast to his possession, and gains, in addition to his own quiet approval, that of all observers, and, above all, that of the great Judge of human conduct. In this Job succeeds, and becomes a pattern to all tempted ones. From the depth of his acute and prolonged suffering arises the cry of holy resolve, "Till I die will I not remove mine integrity from me." So that from his inmost heart cometh no reproach upon his days. He that. thus acts secures (1) peace of mind; (2) consciousness of the Divine approval; (3) the benefit of daily growth in goodness; (4) the final reward of fidelity.—R.G. Job 27:8-12 The hope of the hypocrite. Job, the man of integrity, who was determined to hold fast his integrity until death, saw plainly that the hypocrite had no ground of confidence, and he boldly makes the demand," What is the hope of the hypocrite?" It is an appeal that can receive no satisfying answer. There is no hope for him, indeed; whatever he may imagine it to be, it is as a bubble that floats on the water for a short time, then bursts, and no trace is left of it. His confidence is placed on an unsafe foundation; he may build his expectations upon it, but the inevitable flood of time will wash it away. It is a vain, groundless, lost, disappointed hope. Job directs his inquiry into one channel—What is the hypocrite’s hope as towards God? The earthly hopes of the hypocrite are not safe, though for a time he may prosper. But his hopes towards God are vain indeed. The hypocrite is estranged from God. I. HE HAS NO HOPE IN GOD IN DEATH. When the righteous man filleth his bosom with sheaves, the hope of the wicked is found to be cut off. Beyond the grave all is darkness. II. HE CANNOT TURN TO GOD IN TIME OF TROUBLE. When affliction falls upon the humble and righteous one, he whom he has sought to know and obey proves to be a reality to him. But the hypocrite has made God to be a sham. He has not known or obeyed him, or acted towards him as though he were a reality. To him, indeed, there is no God. How can he call on him in trouble whom he has denied in health? III. HE CANNOT FIND IN GOD A SPRING OF JOY. He cannot delight himself in him whom he has represented to himself as an unreality. God has not been really G-d in the estimate of the hypocrite. The man who is himself conscious of being false makes all false around him. He does not live in a real but a deceitful world. He has deceived himself in respect of it. IV. HE CANNOT CALL UPON GOD IN PRAYER. Thus the hope of the hypocrite perishes. It is vain. In the exigencies of life, when he most needs help, the false foundation which he has laid for himself fails him. The man who acts falsely towards God really acts falsely towards himself, and turns the most substantial grounds of hope into airy nothingness.—R.G. Job 27:13-23 The reward of iniquity. Job’s eye had been open to behold the ways of God with men. He had seen the effects of righteous living and of wickedness. His own suffering, coupled with his consciousness of integrity, would quicken his inquiries and his observations on the relative results of these two methods of living. He now pronounces his judgment on the fruits of ungodly living: "This is the portion of a wicked man." Whatever may be the temporary prosperity of the wicked (and of such prosperity Job had already spoken), yet it lacks permanence, and it is associated with much sorrow. He traces the sorrow in the following particulars. I. UPON HIS FAMILY. A curse is upon his home. The sword, the famine, the pestilence, carry off his children, even if they be multiplied. II. OF HIS WEALTH. Yea, "though he heap up silver as the dust." The Divine retributions are everywhere acknowledge . This, in Job’s view, is the lot of the ungodly; and though he himself has Suffered many things at the hands of the Lord, he is conscious of his righteousness, and has confident hope of final vindication.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 27:1-4 Moral honesty. Job now almost loses sight of his vexatious friends as he breaks out into a long discourse. His first thought is to assert his integrity, without flinching before the charges that have been so recklessly flung at him. He will not confess sins of which he is not guilty. It required some courage for him to take this stand, for he was sorely pressed to yield to insincerity. I. THE TO . This is many-sided, springing from various sources. 1. The desire to conciliate God. Job is persuaded that it is the Almighty who has vexed his soul. If he will abase himself and confess his utter unworthiness, it would seem that perhaps God would be propitiated. 2. The persuasive urgency of others. Each of the three friends had set before Job the same picture, and had suggested that the only security, the only hope, lay in abject penitence. It is difficult to hold to our course when it is resisted and reprobated by our friends. 3. The true humility of a good man. Job knew that he was a frail creature, and that he was as nothing before the might and holiness of God (Job 7:1-8). Good men are more or less conscious of their own littleness. It seems a mark of modesty to depreciate one’s self. Job must have been deeply pained at the unfairness that drove him to take the opposite course and vindicate his own uprightness. We are all tempted to insincere confession of guilt which we do not feel in order to please God or men, or as a sign of humility. II. THE OF TO THIS . All the inducements that may be brought to urge a person to insincerity are just temptations to sin. They are attacks upon the conscience. To yield to them is a sign of weakness. The important point is that insincerity is always wrong, even when it is in the direction of self-humiliation. There may be a hypocritical penitence as well as a hypocritical pride. We cannot be too deeply humble; when the thought of our sin dawns upon us we cannot grieve over the guilt and shame of it too intensely. But if we do not feel this profound penitence it is nothing but falsehood and empty pretence to make a confession of it with our lips. For the language of penitence to exceed the feeling of it is not a mark of real humility. Any insincerity is injurious to the conscience and wrong in the sight of God, and the fact that it tends to self-depreciation rather than to self-exaltation does not alter its essential character. III. THE MORAL HONESTY OF THE TO . We cannot but admire the manliness of Job. It was difficult for him not to be cowed before the array of adverse influences brought to bear upon him. His sickness of body, his mental distress and perplexity, and the unanimous opinion of his friends, might well have deprived him of all courage. Yet he holds up his head and asserts the right. On what is such moral honesty based? 1. Reverence for truth. Truth is imperious and must be respected at any cost. 2. Belief in justice. In the end right must prevail. It cannot be well to renounce it in favour of temporary appearances. 3. Trust in God. Job still clings to his faith, although he believes that all his troubles come from God. Now, no insincerity can please God or deceive him. If we think of our standing in his sight, rather than our position in the eyes of men, we must be true and honest.—W.F.A. Job 27:8-10 An empty hope. The wicked man may have gained much of earthly goods. But all he has is temporal and external. Therefore it is useless to him at death, and in regard to all his spiritual needs. We can see the dark features of his miserable prospect in the picture that Job has drawn. I. HE HAS EARTHLY . The foolish man has made gain; but it is useless to him. He is like the rich man in the parable, who was about to build new barns lot his goods when his life was taken and all his wealth lost at a stroke. If a person trusts to his earthly prosperity he is not prepared to confess his true needs. He thinks he is rich when he is miserable and blind and naked (Revelation 3:17). If he has acquired his wealth for himself, if it is his gain, he is in the greater danger of over-estimating it. Self-made men are tempted to think too much of what they have won by their own hard toil. II. HE HAS NO CLAIM ON THE . There is nothing for the future. Yet life is brief and uncertain. It must end soon; it may end at any moment. Riches may have been got by a man’s own energy; but life is dependent on the will of God. Thus a man gains earthly things; but God disposes of his life. The greater concerns are altogether outside his powers, as they are beyond the region of his calculations. III. HE HAS NO ACCESS TO GOD IN PRAYER. The wicked man has no right to expect God to hear him in trouble. 1. He will have trouble. All his prosperity cannot exclude the possibility, nay, the certainty, of adversity. 2. He will need God. In trouble he may shriek to Heaven for help, though he never dreams of acknowledging God in times of prosperity. Prayer is so natural to man that it is forced out of the most unaccustomed lips by the pressure of great distress. 3. He will not be heard. Job is right. There are men whose prayers God will not hear. The reason is simply that they do not fulfil the necessary conditions of successful prayer. No man can fall so low, but that if he humble himself and turn and repent, God will hear him. But God will not hear the prayer of the impenitent. When the wicked man fails into trouble, very naturally he will desire to be saved from it. But possibly he may not repent of his sin nor desire to be saved from that; then all his prayer comes from a low, selfish desire to escape what hurts him. Such a prayer cannot be heard. IV. HE HAS NO DELIGHT IN GOD. 1. He misses the one source of perfect good. Though he gains much, his possessions are external; they do not help or Iced his soul. They are but temporal; when he dies he will leave them all behind. But God, as the Portion of his people, is a satisfying and permanent possession. He, and he alone, both fills all their real need now and endures for ever. To miss God in pursuit of any other aim is to light on an empty hope. 2. He will not continue to seek God. In the agony of the moment a miserable, selfish cry to Heaven is wrung from his heart. But when the trouble is past he forgets his prayer. He will not "always call upon God." So-called death-bed repentances are justly viewed with suspicion. Too often the dying man is only afraid of the dread unknown, naturally desirous of being delivered from its terrors. Too often, if he recovers, his penitence is forgotten with his fears of death, and he lives his old evil life again.—W.F.A. Job 27:11 Teachings concerning God. I. THE HIGHEST . Our thoughts am too much chained to the earths and too much centred in self. Even in religion we tend to subjective feelings rather than to worship—the contemplation and the service of God. Now, the chief end of revelation is to make God known to us, and the highest occupation for our minds is to rise to the thought of God. The character of God should make this clear to us. 1. His greatness. Knowledge should seek a worthy object. We should desire to know what is greatest, rather than petty details. 2. His holiness. Teachings about God are teachings about goodness. Here we come to the source of true ethics. We cannot study "the good" till we know God. 3. His love. That is supreme in God, and it is supreme in the universe. To know the love of God is to know what is highest and best of all things. II. . It may be urged that we cannot afford to spend our time in contemplation, that we want to know how to live our present life, and that therefore earthly and human knowledge is the most important knowledge. But this is a mistake. For God is not separated from this world and the affairs of daily life. The knowledge of God is not abstract theology. God is our Father, our Master, our Guide. To know God is to know how to live; it is to know what character and conduct are in harmony with the mind of our supreme King. We cannot live aright without knowing him. Moreover, it is a matter of profound interest to know how God is disposed towards us. Is he gracious and forgiving? how may we best please him? These are practical questions. But apart from the ends of knowledge, the knowledge of God is itself a source of blessedness. To know God is eternal life (John 17:3). III. . Experience shows how grievously men have erred in their teachings about God. Not only has heathenism gone astray in its manifold and monstrous perversions of Divinity, but Christians have set forth the most erroneous conceptions of God. With some he has been regarded as a stern despot, an arbitrary autocrat; with others he has been represented as a mere personification of amiable and compliant good will, without regard to moral considerations. It is not wonderful that the teachings are difficult, considering: 1. The greatness of God. One can know but a very little of so awful a Being. We see but "parts of his ways;" "but the thunder of his power who can understand?" 2. The blindness of men. Sin blinds us; prejudice perverts our notions of God instead of allowing us to see the truth about him. IV. . 1. From revelation. God has not hidden himself in the thick darkness. He has made himself known in his works, by the inspiration of prophecy, and above all in the Person of Christ. Agnosticism is only defensible if all revelation is discarded, and agnosticism cannot account for Christ. 2. By spiritual grace. The knowledge of God is an inward revelation. We can only read nature, the Bible, and Christ aright when the Spirit of God is in our hearts. By the gift of his Spirit God opens our eyes to the knowledge of himself.—W.F.A. Job 27:13-23 The portion of a wicked man. Job seems to be echoing the teaching of his friends which he has previously repudiated. Now he urges that the wicked man does meet with trouble as the wages of his misdeeds. But Job looks further than his friends. He does not associate particular and immediate troubles with guilt as they do; he takes a large view of life; he embraces the whole career; and from that he draws his conclusions. The striking thing about this picture is that success is converted into disappointment. The wicked man prospers. He is not poor and miserable, as the old, conventional, orthodox creed assumed. But his very wealth and success are turned to failure and wretchedness. I. FAMILY . (Verses 13-15.) The wicked man is not childless. He has children who are to be regarded as "a heritage from the Lord." His family grows up about him. But wait for the end. Clouds gather and break over the home. Brave sons are slain by the sword. Famine visits the land, or business failure impoverishes the store, and then many children only mean many mouths to feed. If the calamity does not always come in this visible way, in some way or other the bad man must miss the true blessings of family life, for he has not the pure and generous spirit out of which they are produced. II. USELESS WEALTH. (Verses 16, 17.) He may heap up silver as the dust, but he will not be able to enjoy it. Mere money is not happiness. Money may be married to misery, while peace may dwell with poverty. The wealth may not be forfeited; yet the life of its owner is but brief. After he has gone another will enjoy the product of his labours, Thus, while he has it, it will not satisfy his deepest wants, and at best his tenure of it is temporary and hazardous. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 28:1-28 The connection of this chapter with the preceding is somewhat obscure. Probably we are to regard Job as led to see, even while he is justifying God’s ways with sinners (Job 27:8-23), how many and how great are the difficulties in the way of forming a single consistent theory of the Divine action, which shall be applicable to all cases. Hence he comes to the conclusion that God is incomprehensible by man and inscrutable; and that it is only given to man to know him sufficiently for his practical guidance. To impress this on his hearers is his main object (verses 12-28); and, to impress it the more, he introduces it by a sharp contrast. Wonderful as is man’s cleverness and ingenuity in respect of earthly things and physical phenomena (verses 1-11), with respect to heavenly things and the spiritual world—wherewith true wisdom is concerned—he knows next to nothing. All that he knows is just enough to guide his conduct aright (verse 28). Job 28:1 Surely there is a vein for the silver; literally, an issue for silver? i.e. a place or places whence it is drawn forth from the earth. The silver-mines of Spain were very early worked by the Phoenicians, and produced the metal in great abundance. But Asia itself was probably the source whence silver was obtained in primitive times. And a place for gold where they fine it; or, fuse it. Gold is very widely spread over the earth’s surface, and in ancient times was especially abundant in Arabia (Diod. Sic.. 2.1; 3.42; Strabo, 16.4. § 18; Pit,y, ’Hist. Nat.,’ 6.32, etc.); so that Job might easily have been acquainted with the processes of fusing and refining it. Two processes of refining are mentioned by Diedorus as practised by the Egyptians (3.11). Job 28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth (see the comment on Job 20:24). Iron was found in the hills of Palestine (Deuteronomy 8:9), in the trans-Jordanic region (Josephus, ’Bell. Jud,’ 4.8. § 2), in the sandstone of the Lebanon, and in Egypt, probably also in many other places. It is scarcely ever found except in the shape of iron ore, and so has to be "taken out of the earth." And brass is molten out of the stone. By "brass" we must understand copper, since the amalgam brass is never found in a natural state. Copper was yielded abundantly in very early times by the mines which the Egyptians worked in the Sinaitic peninsula. It was also obtainable from Palestine (Deuteronomy 8:9), Cyprus, and Armenia (Ezekiel 27:13). Sometimes it is found pure, but generally in the shape of copper ore, which has to be "molten" for the pure metal to run off. Job 28:3 He setteth an end to darkness. Man, in his desire to obtain these metals, "setteth an end to darkness," i.e. letteth in the light of day, or the artificial light which he carries with him, upon the natural abode of darkness, the inner parts of the earth. The miner’s first operation is to pierce the ground with a shaft, perpendicular, horizontal, or oblique, as suits his purpose. Through this the light enters into what was previously pitch darkness. And searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death; rather, and searcheth out to the furthest bound the stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of death; explores, i.e.’ the entire murky regina within the earth, notwithstanding its fearful gloom and obscurity. Job 28:4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant. This passage is very obscure; but recent critics suggest, as its probable meaning, "He (i.e. the miner) breaketh open a shaft, away from where men inhabit" (see the Revised Version). The miner does not wish to be interfered with, and therefore sinks his shaft in some wild spot, far from the habitations of men. Even the waters forgotten of the foot; rather, they are forgotten of the foot; i.e. no one visits them; they are left alone; they are "forgotten of the foot" of the passer-by. They are dried up, they are gone away from men; rather, they hang swinging to and fro, far from men. The descent of the shaft is made by a rope, to which they "hang swinging" all the time that they defend. As they have sought secrecy, all this takes place far from the haunts of men. Job 28:5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread. Man’s cleverness is such that he turns the earth to various uses. By tillage of its surface he causes it to produce the staff of life, bread: and by his mining operations the under part of it is turned up as fire, or rather, as by fire. Fire was used in some of the processes whereby masses of material were detached and forced to yield their treasures (see Pliny, ’Hist. Nat.,’ 33.4. § 73). Job 28:6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires. Among the rocks and stones whereof the interior of the earth is mainly composed are found gems of inestinable value, for instance, sapphires. It is doubtful whether the Hebrew sapphire (ספיר) was the gem which bears that name among ourselves, or the lapis lazuli. In either case it was highly esteemed, and appeared in kings’ crowns (Ezekiel 28:13), and in the high priest’s breastplate (Exodus 28:18); Job notes its high value in verse 16. And it (i.e. the earth) hath dust of gold; literally, dusts; i.e. a multitude of small specks or atoms. In the auriferous rocks gold is commonly scattered in such specks. Job 28:7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth; or, his is a path which no bird of prey knoweth (see the Revised Version). The miner’s path through the bowels of the earth is intended. And which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The vulture is probably the most keen-sighted of birds, but it cannot even get a glimpse of the subterraneous path which the miner treads. Job 28:8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it; literally, the sons of the fierce—the whelps of lions, tigers, or leopards may be intended. These beasts would haunt the mountains and penetrate into natural caverns, bat would never adventure themselves in the shafts and adits of miners. Nor the fierce lion passed by it; rather, passed thereby (see the Revised Version). Job 28:9 He putteth forth his hand upon the rock. Our Revisers translate, upon the flinty rock; while Canon Cook maintains that "the word used means either granite or quartz." Probably Job meant no more than that man does not shrink from attacking any—even the hardest—rock; but will subdue it, and cut his way through it, if he has occasion so to do. He overturneth the mountains by the roots. Herodotus, in describing what he had seen of the Phoenician mining operations in the island of Thasos, observes, "a huge, mountain has been turned upside down in the search for ores" (Herod; 6.47). Pliny says of the process employed for detaching huge masses from the metalliferous hills in Spain, "They attack the rock with iron wedges and hammers. When this work is complete, they destroy the supports, and notify by signal that the fall is about to take place. A watchman, stationed on the mountain-top, alone understands the signal; and he proceeds at once to have all the workmen called in, and himself makes a hurried retreat. Then the mountain falls m upon itself with a crash that cannot be imagined, and an incredible concussion of the air. The successful engineers contemplate the ruin which they have achieved" (’Hist. Nat.,’ 33.4. § 73). Job 28:10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks. Some understand this of man’s general ability to cut canals and tunnels, and change the course of rivers. But the allusion is more probably to the works undertaken in mines for the carrying off of the water from them. Diodorus says that when subterranean springs were tapped in mines, which threatened to flood them, it was usual to construct ducts, or tunnels, by which the inconvenient liquid might be carried off to a lower level (Diod. Siculus, 5.37. § 3). And his eye seeth every precious thing. Nothing escapes his notice. Even as he constructs these duets he has his eye open to note any signs of mineral wealth, of metals or of precious stones, that occur along the line of his excavation. Job 28:11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing. This, again, may be either taken generally of man’s ability to create dams, dykes, and embankments, whereby the overflow of waters is prevented; or specially of such works when connected with mines, from which it is possible, in some instances, to dam out water that would otherwise interfere with their working. The word translated "overflowing" means probably "weeping," and seems to point to that leakage from the roofs and sides of galleries and adits which is more difficult to control and stop than even subterranean springs or rivers. And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. This is the final result of mining operations. Things useful or beautiful that are hiddden deep down in the heart of the earth, and that might have seemed wholly inaccessible, are brought out of the pit’s month into the light of day for the service and delectation of mankind. Job 28:12-28 Here we come on an abrupt change. From human ingenuity and contrivance Job turns to the consideration of "wisdom"—that wisdom which has been defined as "the reason which deals with principles "(Canon Cook). "Where," he asks, "is this to be found?" It is a wholly different thing from cleverness and ingenuity. It inquires into causes and origins, into the ends and purposes of things; it seeks to solve the riddle of the universe. Perfect wisdom can, of course, only dwell with God (verse 23). Man must be content with something much below this. With him "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding" (verse 28). Job 28:12 But where shall wisdom be found? "Wisdom is the principal thing," says Solomon (Proverbs 4:7); and again, "It is better to get wisdom than gold" (Proverbs 16:16). But where is it to be found? Job’s three friends thought that it dwelt with them (Job 12:2); but this was a mistake, since God reproaches them with their "folly" (Job 42:8). Job does not claim to possess it (Job 26:3); he only desires it. It is his deep conviction that it is only possessed, in the true sense of the word, by God. And where is the place of understanding? It is not quite clear whether Job intends to make any distinction between "wisdom" (חכמה) and "understanding" (בינה). Canon Cook suggests that "wisdom" is "the reason which deals with principles," and "understanding" "the faculty which discerns and appreciates their application." But refined distinctions of this kind are scarcely suitable to the age of Job. Dean Plumptre, in his comment on Proverbs, accepts the distinction implied in the Septuagint translation of that book, which renders חכמה by σοφία’ and בינה by φρόνησις. This is a much simpler and more easily understood distinction, being that which separates between scientific know. ledge and the practical intelligence which directs conduct. But it may be doubted whether Job does not use the two words as synonyms. Job 28:13 Man knoweth not the price thereof. The real value of wisdom cannot be estimated in terms of ordinary human calculation. It transcends figures. Neither is it found in the land of the living. True wisdom, such as Job is speaking of (see the comment on verses 12-28), does not exist among men. It transcends human faculties, and is among the peculiar possessions of the Most High (verse 23). Hence the Most High is altogether inscrutable by man’’ his ways are past finding out." Job 28:14 The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. The deep abysses of the ocean declare that it is not with them; and the wide reaches of the far-extending sea proclaim that it is not with them either. Job 28:15 It cannot be gotten for gold. No amount of gold can purchase it; no, not of the purest and most refined quality (1 Kings 6:20, 1 Kings 6:21), for it is not a thing that can be bought or sold God must grant it, and find a way of imparting it; which he certainly will not do for a sum of money. Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. If gold cannot purchase it, much less can silver—the less valuable medium of exchange. (On the weighing of silver, in sales, see Genesis 23:16; Jeremiah 32:9; Ezra 8:26.) Job 28:16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir. The locality of Ophir has been much contested, but, on the whole, the weight of evidence would seem to be in favour of Arabia, on the south-east coast (see the article on "Ophir" in Smith’s ’Dict. of the Bible,’ which exhausts all that can be said on the subject). The high estimation in which "gold of Ophir" was held appears not only in this passage, but also in Job 22:24; Psalms 45:9: and Isaiah 13:12. It is to be accounted for by the imperfection of all the anciently known processes of refining, which left the best refined gold inferior to the natural product of the Ophir mines or washings. With the precious onyx, or the sapphire. (On the latter of these two stones, see the comment upon Isaiah 13:6.) The "onyx" is probably the stone now known as the "sardonyx," which was highly prized by the ancients. It had a place in the breastplate of the high priest (Exodus 28:20), and is mentioned among the treasures of the King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:13). The sardonyx presents layers variously coloured, as blue, black, white, and vermilion. Job 28:17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; rather, gold and crystal. This second mention of gold (see verse ]5) seems superfluous, but perhaps the patriarch is thinking of some goblet or ornament in which crystal and gold were combined together. Ornaments of this kind bare been found in Phoenicia. And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold; or, vessels of fine gold. Both in Egypt and Phoenicia vessels of gold were common. Job 28:18 No mention shall be made of coral. The word translated "coral" (רָאמוֹת) means properly "things that are high." It occurs only here and in Ezekiel 27:16. The rabbinical interpretation of the word as "coral" is doubtful, since it was unknown to the LXX. Or of pearls. The word gabish (גָבִישׁ) occurs only in this place. Some identify it with rock-crystal. For the price of wisdom is above rubies. Here we have another obscure word (פָנִינִים), which is variously rendered by "rubies," "pearls," "carbuncles," and "red coral." The balance of authority is in favour of pearls. Job 28:19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it. It is generally allowed that the pithdath (פִטְדַת) is either the "topaz" or the "chrysolite." In favour of its being the chrysolite is the passage of Pliny which mentions its being esteemed for its green tints (’Hist. Nat.,’ Job 37:8). Otherwise "topaz" might have appeared to be the best rendering. By "Cush," here translated "Ethiopia," is probably meant Cushite Arabia, or the southern and south-eastern regions. Neither shall it be valued with pare gold. Of the four words used for "gold" in this passage (Job 28:15-17), one (זהב) seems to be the common name, and to designate the metal by its coleus, "yellow," since צָהַב means "to be yellow" Another (סָגוּר) means properly "what is treasured," or "shut up," from סָגַר, "to shut." The third (פַז) seems to be the name for "native gold," or that found in river-washings and nuggets, which was regarded as the purest. The fourth (כֶּחֶם) is a poetical name only, and designates gold of extreme purity (So Job 5:11), whether highly refined or native. Job uses them all, to show that there was no gold of any kind wherewith it was possible to purchase wisdom. Job 28:20 Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? This is a repetition of Job 28:12, with a mere variant of the verb in the first line. Job’s elaborate inquiry of verses 14-19 having thresh no light on the subject, the original question recurs—Where does wisdom come from? Job 28:21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living. Man cannot see it, because it is immaterial, but he cannot even conconceive of it, because its nature transcends him. And kept close from the fowls of the air. (comp. Job 28:7). The sight of birds is far keener than that of man; but even birds cannot detect where wisdom is. Job 28:22 Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. "Death and destruction" seem to represent the inhabitants of Sheol—the world of the departed. Job personifies them, and represents them as saying, that in their gloomy and remote abode (Job 10:21, Job 10:22) they have heard some dim rumour, some vague report, of the "place" of wisdom and understanding, the nature of which, however, they do not communicate to him. His idea seems to be that their knowledge on the subject does not much transcend the knowledge of living men, whom he regards as profoundly ignorant with respect to it. He thus prepares the way for his assertion in the next verse. Man, neither living nor dead, can make any answer to the great question raised; but— Job 28:23 God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. God only understands what true wisdom is. It is a part of his being, an essential element of his nature. He knows "the way" of it, i.e. how it works and manifests itself; and he knows "the place’ of it, i.e. where it dwells, what limits it has, if any, and how far it is communicable to any beside himself. The highest knowledge is all hid in God (Colossians 2-3); and, except so far as God imparts it to him, man can know nothing of it. Job 28:24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth. Man is conditioned. God is unconditioned. Man’s knowledge has strict and narrow limits. God "looketh unto the ends of the earth." It is the universality of God’s knowledge that makes each item of it perfect. Where knowledge is circumscribed, it is impossible to be sure that some truth outside the circle of the person’s cognizance has not a bearing on that which is within his cognizance—a bearing, which, if he were aware of it, would give the truth a different aspect. With God alone there are no such limits, everything being within his cognizance. And seeth under the whole heaven. As his knowledge of earthly things is unlimited, so is his knowledge of heavenly things also; and not only of heavenly things in a material sense, as of sun, moon, stars, comets, planets, nebulae, etc; but also of causes, principles, ends, laws, and the like, whereby both material and immaterial things are governed, ordered, and maintained in being. Of matters of this kind and character man can only say, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; I cannot attain unto it" (Psalms 139:6). Job 28:25 To make the weight for the winds. God by his wisdom gives to winds their exactly fitting degree of force and violence, so that they perform the work in the world which they were intended to perform, and which would not be performed, were they either of a less or of a greater intensity. And he weigheth the waters by measure (comp. Isaiah 40:12, "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?"). Everything in creation is duly proportioned to every other thing. All is ordered "by weight and with care." Job 28:26 When he made a decree for the rain. God "made a decree for the rain" when be placed the fall of rain under fixed and unalterable laws. In some countries rainy seasons begin almost regularly on a fixed day in the calendar, while for several months in the year it is almost certain that rain will not fall. Even where there is no such exact regularity as this, the rainfall has its laws, since there are maxima and minima which are never exceeded. And a way for the lightning of the thunder. God gave laws to the electric current, and prescribed the "way" that it should take in its passage from heaven to earth, or from cloud to cloud, or from earth to heaven. Everything was ruled beforehand by Infinite Wisdom. Job 28:27 Then did he see it, and declare it. From the creation of the world, and before it, God foresaw all that was necessary to maintain his universe in the perfect order and the perfect beauty that he designed for it. At the Creation he, in a certain sense, "declared it," or set it forth, before such intelligences as then existed. Subsequently, in part to Adam, in part to Noah, in part to Moses, he further declared, by revelation, at any rate a portion of the design of his creation, and of the laws by which it was regulated. He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. This is an inversion of what seems to us the natural order, whereof there are many examples. God must first have investigated and searched out, in his own secret counsels, the entire scheme of creation, and afterwards have proceeded to the "preparation" or "establishment" of it. Job 28:28 And unto man he said. Not in so many words, not by any written or spoken revelation; but by the nature which he implanted in man, and especially by the conscience wherewith he endowed him. Man feels in his heart of hearts that whatever wisdom may be in the abstract, his true wisdom is "the fear of God," his true understanding "to depart from evil." No amount of intelligence, no amount of cleverness, or of information, or of knowledge, or of worldly or scientific wisdom, will be of any avail to him, unless he starts with this "beginning" (Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7), and builds on this foundation. This foundation, at any rate, Job had. since God bore him witness that he had it (Job 2:3). Job 28:1-28 Job’s first parable: 3. A discourse upon true wisdom. I. THE WISDOM BY HUMAN GENIUS. Among the stupendous efforts of human industry and skill with which Job was acquainted, nothing was better fitted to impress the mind with a sense of man’s illimitable daring, resistless might, and wonderful success in searching out all perfection (verse 3), and brining hidden things to light (vet, 11), than the operations of the miner. These, a knowledge of which may have been derived from mines then being worked in Egypt, the Sinaitic peninsula, and Arabia (vide Exposition; and cf. Delitzsch, in loco), are with much accuracy and vividness portrayed. 1. The treasures the miner seeks. These are set forth by their names and the places where they commonly are found. (1) Silver from the issuing place, i.e. from the mine; and gold, which men refine, from its place, i.e. also from the mine. Expositors generally remark upon the accuracy of these statements, which speak of silver as being found in a vein or "issue" at some depth below the ground, and gold as obtained near the surface; of the silver as requiring to be dug from the earth, and of gold as needing to be washed out from the pulverized rock. The first mention in Scripture of "gold and silver" is in connection with Abraham’s return out of Egypt (Genesis 13:2), though gold afterwards abounded in Arabia and Judaea in the time of Solomon (1 Kings 10:2, 1 Kings 10:21, 1 Kings 10:27). If "the use of gold and silver commonly precedes the. discovery of iron (Barnes), then it is probable that those precious metals were not unknown to Tubal-Cain and his contemporaries (Genesis 4:22). It is impossible to say to what extent the art of metal-working had advanced in Job s time, but the mention of ear-rings and bracelets in the days of Abraham (Genesis 24:30), and of silver cups, gold rings, and gold chains in the age of Joseph (Genesis 41:42; Genesis 44:2), makes it obvious that considerable proficiency had been attained prior to the era of Moses. In the estimation of Job the procuring and preparing of these precious metals were signal illustrations of the power and skill of man. (2) Iron from the dust, i.e. from the bowels of the earth, and copper from the stone, i.e. from the ore by smelting. Tubal-Cain is the first known worker in brass (copper) and iron (Genesis 4:22). Iron is afterwards mentioned in the time of Og King of Bashan, B.c. 1350. The working of iron and copper mines is more difficult than those of gold or silver; hence the use of the former metals indicates a more advanced state of civilization. (3) Stones of darkness and of the shadow of death. These may be the copper and iron ores which are fetched up from the lowest depths of the earth; the miner in pursuit of them penetrating into the remotest regions, making an end of darkness, lighting up the lightless interior of the earth, and carrying his search into every extremity, i.e. into every nook and corner (verse 3). Or they may include all kinds of precious stones, such as the sapphire (verse 6), lying buried in the dark recesses of the earth, which, in order to appease man’s insatiable thirst of acquisition, are turned up as it were by fire, although out of it, i.e. from the surface of the earth, there cometh forth bread (verse 5). 2. The path the miner follows. A solitary path. (1) Remote from human ken (verse 4). Out amid the solitudes of the Sinaitic peninsula the miner sinks his shaft down beneath the surface of the ground, leaving behind him the homes and habitations of men. There, forgotten by travellers overhead, he swings himself down the pit-shaft by a rope, descending to his lonely toil; or, perhaps, sitting suspended at his work, he swings to and fro, far removed from human-kind. (2) Withdrawn from creature-observation (verses 7, 8). Sweeping far and wide in search of prey, the eagle’s or the vulture’s eye cannot gaze on the hidden path by which the miner presses towards his spoils; nay, in quest of earth’s treasures he travels by a road inaccessible to, and even imperceptible by, the lion and other proud beasts of prey. That man can penetrate to secret retreats in pursuit of wealth, where neither quick-sighted bird nor keen-scented beast can follow, is a striking testimony to man’s superiority over the brute creation. 3. The works the miner executes. Some of these have been mentioned already, but for the sake of continuity may be here repeated. (1) Sinking a shaft (verse 4), down which he descends by a rope. (2) Exploring the interior of the earth’s crust (verse 5), turning it up as it were by fire. (3) Blasting and clearing away the rock that contains no ore (verse 9), laying his hand upon the quartz and turning up the mountains by the roots. That blasting was practised in ancient times is stated by Pliny (vide Exposition; and of. Delitzsch). (4) Cutting channels, or galleries, in the rock to drain off the water (verse 10), or, according to another view, to bring in water to wash the gold ore. (5) Guarding against the flooding of the mine (verse 11), by binding up the watercourses that they weep not (a technical term still used among colliers), i.e. damming up the water that percolates through the roof and sides of the pit, which would otherwise interfere with the operations of the miner, but which, being restrained, enables him to bring to light whatever precious things the bowels of the earth conceal. And now, having finished this vivid and instructive sketch of the enterprise, skill, and power with which the miner explores the deep places of the earth in search of wealth, the poet tarns to ask in triumph—Where are man’s corresponding successes in the pursuit of wisdom? Man can dig and cut and blast his way through rocks and mountains till he reaches the place of sapphires; but the haunt of wisdom, i.e. of the true principles of the Divine administration, and the place of understanding, i.e. the faculty of applying these to particular cases, are and must remain for ever beyond his ken. II. TRUE WISDOM IN ITS VALUE. Picturing a pearl-merchant anxious to purchase this heavenly treasure (of. Matthew 13:45, Matthew 13:46), Job remarks: 1. That it cannot be discovered in order to be valued. Should one roam through the land of the living, i.e. traverse the face of earth in every direction in pursuit of it, it would still elude his observation. Should he "take the wings of the morning, and flee to the uttermost parts of the sea" (Psalms 139:9), inquiring after it, the sea with every rippling billow would reply, "It is not with me." Nay, should he dive into the subterranean abyss of waters (Psalms 139:8), still prosecuting his research after wisdom, up from those dark depths would sound the answer, "Not in me." 2. That, if it could be discovered, man cannot estimate its worth. "A mortal knoweth not its price" (verse 13). So transcendent in its excellence is this heavenly wisdom, so l at surpassing man’s ordinary conceptions, that the task of appreciating its essential value is beyond the capacities of his finite understanding. "Man is the measure of the universe," said Pythagoras. "Be it so," is Job’s thought; "here is something outside of the universe of which the vastest human intelligence is not the measure "—the Divine wisdom, in accordance with which it has been framed, and by which it is continually governed, including the Divine intelligence that devised the ideal plan of the world, the ideal plan or pattern itself, and the combined wisdom and power by which that plan is carried forward into minute and complete realization. 3. That, even if its price could be told, its equivalent could not be found by man. "The poet lays everything under contribution to illustrate the thought that the worth of wisdom exceeds the worth of the most valuable earthly thing" (Delitzsch). Nothing that the miner can bring up from the bowels of the earth, nor aught that the merchant can import from foreign climes; nay, not all of these together can be set in comparison with heaven’s jewel of eternal wisdom (Proverbs 3:14, Proverbs 3:15). Gold and silver of the rarest, purest, brightest quality; costly pearls of most delicate hue and of fabulous worth; the entire wealth of a world, cannot purchase it (Proverbs 8:10, Proverbs 8:11). What Job asserts of the wisdom which enables one to understand and appreciate the. principles of Divine government on earth is more true of that wisdom which maketh wise unto salvation. It also is in itself undiscoverable by man (1 Corinthians 1:21). Its true worth cannot properly be appreciated by man (Romans 11:33). Its mercantile equivalent cannot be offered or even found by man (Matthew 16:26). The price of him who is the Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24) is above rubies. III. TRUE WISDOM BY GOD ALONE. Since wisdom can neither be discovered by man’s intelligence nor purchased by man’s gold, the question naturally recurs, "Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?" in response to which Job affirms: 1. That true wisdom is the secret of God alone. God’s exclusive knowledge of wisdom is impressively represented by a renewed declaration of the utter ignorance of all created beings concerning this transcendent theme. (1) Man is absolutely powerless to speak a profitable word upon the subject, "seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living" (verse 21). So the Divine plan of redemption is one which it never would have entered into the mind of man to conceive (1 Corinthians 2:8, 1 Corinthians 2:9). And hence human schemes of salvation have ever proved insufficient and worthless. (2) The creatures generally are unable to afford information on this lofty question. Even the far-seeing birds, to which ancient diviners were wont to turn in their perplexities, have no oracle to utter, seeing it is "kept close from the fowls of the air" (verse 21). (3) The inhabitants of the underworld are equally at a loss on this high matter. "Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears" (verse 22). That is to say, the dwellers in the realms of the dead are aware of its existence, but can communicate no knowledge of its nature and worth. And, having thus shut off all created beings from participation in this wisdom, the poet ends by solemnly declaring: 2. That true wisdom is the property of God alone. "God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof" (verse 23). Besides stating that God knows whence true wisdom is to be obtained, Job designs to convey the thought that God alone is in possession of this wisdom. Looking to the ends of the earth and searching under the whole heaven, he not only comprehends with his omniscient glance "where wisdom dwelleth;" but, in virtue of that knowledge, he is himself the infinitely wise and understanding One (Job 12:13). 3. That true wisdom has been exemplified by God alone. The creation of the world was a sublime manifestation of this wisdom (Proverbs 8:27-31). In particular the establishment of those laws which regulate the force of the wind, the distribution of land and water, the collecting and emptying of the rain-clouds, and the origin and course of the lightning, was a signal display of celestial intelligence (verses 25, 26). Nay, when the almighty Artificer fashioned the universe, then did he search out this wisdom, assign to it a place and function in his grand creative work, and commit to it the production, preservation, and providential government of all finite things (verse 27). With this unbeginning Wisdom St. John (John 1:1-4) identifies the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. IV. TRUE WISDOM TO MAN. Though undiscoverable by human genius, and unpurchaseable by human gold, true wisdom has not been withheld from man. He has received it by revelation. 1. The Divinity of this revelation. It has not been imparted by nature. The material fabric of creation is a product and a display of celestial wisdom; but it is not sufficient for man as a law by conforming to which he too may attain unto wisdom. Nor has man himself discovered it, either by physical or scientific research, or by philosophical or religious speculation, or by heathen and superstitious divination. The law which should constitute man a participator in eternal wisdom was and is something distinct from the laws which regulate matter. It was a something communicated to man over and above all that God said to him indirectly through the medium of nature. 2. The antiquity of this revelation. At various subsequent periods, as e.g. at Sinai, and again at the Advent, repeated and enlarged, it was yet first delivered in the day of man’s creation, when God, having made man an intelligent and responsible creature, placed him under the law of right, engraven on the fleshy tablets of his heart. 3. The import of this revelation. That heavenly wisdom has for man an inward essential principle, and an outward permanent expression. (1) The inward essential principle: "the fear of the Lord (Adonai)." This fear is not a slavish dread, but a filial and reverential awe, based upon a just conception of God’s greatness (Job 25:2), and of man’s relation to him as moral Governor (Psalms 33:8). Such fear is the root and mainspring of all piety in souls (Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 10:12; 2 Kings 17:36; Psalms 96:4, Psalms 96:9; Psalms 147:11; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Matthew 10:28; 1 Peter 1:17). It is also the true source and commencement of all genuine wisdom (Psalms 111:5; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10). Hence "wisdom "and "piety" "or religion" are synonymous terms. Nor can it be doubted that for a human soul to fear God, in the comprehensive and exalted sense above referred to, is supremely reasonable in itself, and incontestably wise as a principle for the regulation of life. The term briefly defines the attitude intelligent beings should maintain towards God, the all-glorious moral Governor of the universe. Originally implanted in man at creation, and afterwards obliterated by the Fall, it is now being reimplanted or reawakened in man by the gospel. (2) The outward permanent expression: "to depart from evil." To fear God and yet continue in sin is a moral contradiction. The soul that reveres God’s majesty and trembles at God’s power, much more that admires God’s character and loves God’s Person, will of necessity find its highest happiness in respecting God’s Word and doing God’s will. Hence a prompt, earnest, decisive, complete, and final separation from evil (i.e. from errors both in doctrine and practice) of every kind is largely insisted on as the only satisfactory evidence of genuine religion (Job 11:14; Job 22:23; Psalms 4:4; Isaiah 1:16; Proverbs 3:7; Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 16:6), while the truly pious, whose hearts are really possessed by holy fear, are ever characterized by a more or less resolute determination to keep the Divine Law (Psalms 112:1; Psalms 119:63; Proverbs 14:2, Proverbs 14:16; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:17). Cf. the language of an ancient religious hymn to Amen: "I cry, The beginning of wisdom is the way of Amen". Learn: 1. To admire God’s wisdom and goodness in the construction and arrangement of this material globe. Besides being fashioned by Divine wisdom, the earth is also full of the Divine riches. 2. To see in the monuments of man’s engineering skill, mechanical industry, commercial enterprise, and scientific research at once a striking testimony to man’s dominion over the creatures, and an admirable confirmation of the truth of Scripture. 3. To rate material wealth at its true value, observing both its weakness and its power. While contributing largely to man’s physical comfort and social influence, it cannot impart either wisdom or happiness, and still less can it serve as a substitute for religion and salvation. 4. To reason that the same Divine wisdom which placed the material creation under law would not forget to institute a rule of life for man. Hence morality and religion are not accidental and relative, but absolute and eternal, being inseparably bound up with man’s constitution as an intelligent and responsible creature. 5. To recognize the inborn foolishness of those who neither fear God nor depart from evil. "The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." 6. To gratefully acknowledge the Divine loving-kindness in making known to man the manifold wisdom of God in Christ and his salvation. The secret of the Divine administration which Job could not fathom has been clearly discovered in the gospel. 7. To perceive that ever since the Fall the world has been governed on substantially the same principles. Christ conducts mundane affairs to-day as he did in Job’s time by the law of grace and in the interests of holiness. BY E. JOHNSON Job 29:1 -28 Praises of Divine wisdom. Amidst the darkness of suffering, and the deep sense of the mysteries of life, inexplicable by human wisdom, Job rises to the contemplation of that Divine wisdom which has founded all things, which knows all things, and in the reverent acknowledgment of which man may find for himself the true path both of wisdom and of power. Already the spirit of Job, purified by long suffering and experience, is rising into that presence where there is light and no darkness at all; and from this height of calm contemplation is fitted to become the teacher of his teachers, the "instructor of many." I. TRUE WISDOM TO BE FOUND NOWHERE ON EARTH. (Verses 1-11.) To illustrate this, we are pointed, in a fine description, to the art of mining, by which man lays open the costly treasures of the earth (Deuteronomy 8:9), but cannot gain possession of this highest and best treasure of all. Gold, silver, iron, and copper are dug out of the bowels of the earth, and melted from their ores; the miner’s lamp dispels the darkness, as in every direction he searches for the "ore of darkness and deadly night." It is a picture of the eager, industrious, untiring toil with which men in all ages in the mines of Egypt, of Palestine, of the old and the new worlds, have sought to gather and to lay up treasures on earth for themselves. There is often even a frenzy, a reckless disregard of health and of life, in this passionate pursuit. With what eagerness should we rather pursue the quest of the heavenly treasures, the inward blessings which make men truly rich and happy (Matthew 16:26)! The description proceeds. The shaft (verse 4) is broken away from those who dwell above; the miners plunge deeply into the earth, further and further from the habitations of men, so that they are forgotten by the step of every one who walks above. They are depicted as hanging far from mortals by ropes on the perilous descent of the shaft in their way to obtain the ore (Pliny, ’Hist. Nat.’ 33.4. 21). Above, upon the bright earth, the bread-corn is growing, while belong. men are stirring, and rummaging in its bowels, using sometimes the disturbing and destructive force of fire (verse 5). Precious stones as well as metals, sapphires as well as golden ore, fall a prize to the diligent miner (verse 6). Then, to heighten the description, the inaccessibility of these subterranean ways is depicted. The all-roaming birds and beasts of prey have not discovered them (verse 8). But undaunted man lays his hand on the flint, uproots the mountains, and bursts open paths through the rocks, and the fire of eager desire glitters in his eye as it falls on each precious thing. He toils to keep the water out of his shafts, by which they are so readily overflowed and spoiled; and thus he brings the hidden treasures to light (verse 11). Such are the splendid capabilities of man—the courage, the energy, the defiance of danger—called out by his desires. His reward comes; but does it correspond to his exertions? Having passed the best of his days in these severe toils and anxieties and dangers, he thinks to sit down and solace his age with the acquisitions of his younger and more daring yea, s; but does the enjoyment of the poor remainder of life balance these struggles which perhaps brought age upon him before his time, and cut him off from pleasure in the proper days of pleasure, and from the youthful satisfactions that were then denied? "I am this day fourscore years old, and can I yet taste what I eat and what I drink?" (2 Samuel 19:35). "Whoever lives to Parzillai’s years shall not be able, with all Barzillai’s wealth and greatness, to procure himself a quicker and better relish of what shall be set before him than Barzillai had" (South). II. WISDOM NO OUTWARD GOOD, AND BY NO OUTWARD MEANS TO BE FOUND. (Verses 12-22.) Practical wisdom, the principle of right conduct, and theoretical wisdom, or insight,—where in all the wide world shall they be found (verse 12)? None knows the purchase-price, nor the market for wisdom in all the wide land of the living. "Put money in thy purse" is the one maxim which applies in everything but this. "Money answereth all things;" but there are exceptions, and this is one. Gold and silver have no more power than stones and clods in this spiritual commerce. Cross the seas; visit the great cities; enter the churches; study at the schools; see and hear all; yet still the aching heart will cry, "Where is wisdom to be found? and what is its price?" All the gold and jewels of the Indies cannot buy it. Its worth is incomparable. Weight nor measure can be applied to it; it has no place in the business and exchange of the world (verses 13-19). Again, then, and again tie question recurs, "Whence comes wisdom? where is the place of understanding?" Science cannot answer, with all her keenness of vision and wealth of knowledge; no brightest eagle-eye has searched out its locale. Neither the living nor the kingdom of the dead can bring us news of its site (verses 20-22). It must, then, be immaterial. And being real, it must be sought for and found by that which is real and spiritual in ourselves. The things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor imagination conceived, God reveals to the spirit. We must be conscious of a spiritual life and of spiritual needs; of a destiny for heavenly as well as earthly things; we must yield to the spiritual impulse, and labor for the satisfaction of the spiritual hunger as well as for the bread that perisheth, if this great question is ever for us to be answered. III. WISDOM IS IN THE FEAR OF GOD. (Verses 23-28.) 1. The question answered. God knows the way to wisdom, for he knows its seat and place. (Verse 23.) He is himself the All-wise One. His wisdom is seen in the marvellous construction and arrangement of the natural world. He regulates the winds and the waters (Isaiah 40:12), the rain, the lightning, and the thunder (verses 24-26). And his absolute wisdom is the rule for the inward life of man, the still more wonderful world of the spiritual life. In the creation as a whole he announces typically his eternal will to all rational creatures (verse 27). 2. The Divine declaration. (Verse 28, "The fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.") God would not keep his wisdom altogether secret. He reveals, as well as is, wisdom. This is the original eternal command, the law that "is not of yesterday," and which has never been unknown in any generation of mankind. LESSONS. 1. The eternal wealth of God’s nature. He needed no model or copy from which to frame his world. "He spake, and it was done; commanded, and it stood fast ’ (verse 27). 2. There is a wisdom which is an example and end, and a wisdom which is a shadow and means. The former is in God, the latter from God in us. So are we "partakers of the Divine nature" in reflection from him, union with him, and enjoyment of him (2 Peter 1:4). 3. Wisdom is the nature of God (Proverbs 8:25, sqq.), uncreated, essential; with us it is an acquisition, a derivation. 4. True wisdom for us depends on the living, moral communion of the heart with God. Without this it is vain to seek to know him. An Eastern proverb says, "He who would learn the secrets of the mighty, must diligently keep watch at his doors." Blessed they who thus wait continually at God’s doors l 5. True wisdom is not to be obtained without its price. It must be wrought for by the endeavour of a holy and pious life. The departing from evil, the mortification of sin, the weeding out of vices, lays out work enough for us in this life, and makes the toils of man for perishable good seem small in comparison. "But the end is noble, and the reward is great." 6. The energy of man in the pursuit of earthly good should be a constant reminder to us of the need for like zeal in the pursuit of the eternal good (Matthew 6:19, sqq.; 1 Timothy 6:1-21.; James 5:1-20.).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 29:1-12 The path of true wisdom. With singular fulness Job describes the early methods of mining, and the knowledge man had already gained of the hidden treasures of the earth, and the power he could wield over them. In this recognition of the power of man, and of his deep insight into the nature and constitution of the earth, and its many treasures and processes, he prepares the way for a setting forth of the limits beyond which man cannot go. With all his searching he finds not out the path of "wisdom," and with all his getting he fails to get "understanding." And this further prepares for a setting forth of the true sources of wisdom and the place of understanding. The path of true wisdom does not lie in those dark recesses of the earth where the vein of the silver lies hidden. It is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s keen eye hath not seen, and over which the beasts of prey have not trodden; nor hath the fierce lion passed by it. God alone miderstandeth the way thereof, and he alone knoweth its path. The plain inference, then, is—Man must ask wisdom of God. I. THE ERROR OF THAT A OF THE OF NATURE GIVES A TRUE AND PERFECT WISDOM. In all these man may be deeply learned, and yet there be a path hidden from him. The danger of this day is a supposing that science truly so called is a sufficient knowledge for man. An accurate acquaintance with "the laws of nature" still leaves man ignorant of many necessary truths. For the right use of material substances, a knowledge of those substances and the laws of their combination is necessary; and for the safety of the animal life, a knowledge of its structure and processes—the laws of animal life—is equally needful. But the total idea of the human life is not reached by these. Fie who is capable of moral and spiritual acts has a moral and spiritual nature; and he has need of the knowledge of the laws of the moral government under which he is placed, and of the spiritual nature with which he is endowed. II. THE LOWLY FOE THIS HIDDEN WISDOM WILL LEAD MEN TO A OF THEIR TO ARRIVE AT A PERFECT WITH IT. It is hid from the eyes of all living. Very humbling is this to the proud heart of him who has obviously a supreme position amidst the works of God—who is above all creatures, subduing them to his authority; and above "nature," compelling it to be subservient to his wish. To know that he knows not, and to know that by searching he cannot find out the knowledge he desires, brings down his high looks. Here he must sit in the seat of the scholar; here, confessing his ignorance, ask. III. THE TRUE , BAFFLED IN HIS MANY EFFORTS, TURNS AT LAST TO GOD, AND FINDS THE SOURCE OF WISDOM IN HIM; and learns that the fear of the Lord is the possession of the true wisdom, and the careful keeping of the path of righteousness the true understanding. That is to say, the highest wisdom is a moral state, and the truest understanding a religious obedience. From how many is this "hidden," and how unwilling are the ignorant to ask, and the proud to acknowledge their need! While he who consciously lacks this highest wisdom, and asks of God, proves that he giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not any for asking.—R.G. Job 29:20 -27 Wisdom hidden from man. Skilful is the hand of man. His researches are profound. He has digged deep into the earth. He tracks the vein of the silver and the place for the gold. He taketh iron out of the earth, and brass he melteth from the stone. He searcheth amidst the stones of darkness and the very shadow of death. His eye seeth what escapes the eye of the vulture, and he knoweth the path which no fowl knoweth. His power is over the hills, for he putteth his hand upon the rock, and overturneth the mountains by the roots. Rocks and rivers and flood are under his power, and the hidden things he bringeth to light. But with all his powers of research he is baffled in the pursuit of wisdom, and he knows neither the place nor the price of understanding. The perfect knowledge of the nature of things, and the high wisdom to guide in the proper use of’ things, is not within the human grasp. Such knowledge is too high for him. It belongs unto God. It cannot be gotten for gold, nor purchased with the price of silver. This reflection may— I. TURN AWAY OUR HOPES OF GAINING WISDOM FROM MAN. We cannot gain it there; for "it is hid from the eyes of all living." II. IT IS A FOR ON THE PART OF MAN. Vain man, who can do so much, is baffled here. III. IT IS A MOTIVE FOR THE OF THE WISE. There are men to whom God has discovered the hidden springs of wisdom. Happy they, and happy all who learn of them. IV. BUT ITS SUPREME LESSON IS TO DRIVE US IN OUR SEARCH FOR WISDOM TO GOD, to whom alone it appertains. "God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof"—even the wisdom that is "hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air."—R.G. Verse 28 The true wisdom. Wisdom—the "principal thing"—wisdom that "cannot be gotten for gold," or valued with "the precious onyx, or the sapphire," which "the topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal"—wisdom "belongeth unto God," and must be taught us by him, for we are ignorant. Wisdom consists in "the fear of the Lord," and in departing from evil. This wisdom man findeth not in the rocks nor in the depth of the sea. This is to man his truest, his highest, wisdom. This is the wisdom for the price of which "silver cannot be weighed." The fear of the Lord is the very beginning and end of wisdom to man— I. BECAUSE IT IS FOUNDED IN A JUST OF THE DIVINE , , AND POWER. The most foolish thing a man can do is to deny, either by word or by conduct, the authority of God. He who truly acknowledges the Divine supremacy will humble himself, and take his rightful place, free from presumption and self-asserting independence, which is the basis of all disobedience. II. BECAUSE IT AFFORDS HIM THE TRUEST BASIS FOR FAITH AND HOPE. He who fears, and therefore reverences God, will learn how to commit himself into the Divine hands for all needful blessing. As far from presumption as from fear, he will be able calmly to trust in God and do good. He can have no real hope towards God who in irreverence and self-conceit cherishes not "the fear of the Lord" in his heart. III. BECAUSE WITHOUT THE FEAR OF THE LORD THERE CAN BE NO TRUE LOVE FOR THE DIVINE NAME. That cannot be loved which is not respected and honoured. The true respect towards God is holy fear—the sacred reverence for the majesty, sanctity, and authority of the Divine Name. IV. BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST BARRIER AGAINST EVIL-DOING. V. BECAUSE OF THE SPECIAL OF MADE TO THEM THAT FEAR HIS NAME. From all this springs the duty of cherishing due regard for all things sacred, that the heart may be suitably and profitably impressed by them. "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 29:1-11 The miner. This passage is justly famous for its graphic description of ancient mining. It gives us a picture of the miner’s toil and peril, his industry, his skill, and his adventure. Let us see what lessons may be learnt from the miner and his craft. I. GOD HAS LAID UP GREAT RICHES FOR MAN. People talk foolishly about exhausting the mines. Particular mines may come to an end, and certain lodes may be worked out. But the earth is not one mine or one English county. No one can calculate what vast stores of metal lie under the surface of the ground. The great treasury has scarcely been touched; ages upon ages will not suffice to ransack its stores. When we learn about Australia, Asia Minor, South America, etc; we discover that there is still boundless wealth under the soil. Thus God has made ample provision for the wants of his children. II. THESE RICHES ARE HIDDEN BENEATH THE EARTH. Men must sink shafts and blast racks. God gives us great possessions, but we must put forth energy in acquiring them. Thus Israel had to fight for Canaan. Wisdom is got through toil and effort. Spiritual wealth is won at the cost of spiritual conflict. Though the chief conflict was Christ’s, and though the best treasures are freely given, we must seek if we would find (Matthew 7:7). III. THE MINER’S WORK IS . Few men have so disagreeable or hard a task. In dark subterranean regions, often breathing a close, unwholesome atmosphere, suffer’-ing from tremendous heat, labouring with axe and shovel, the miner has no idle lot. He may be forgotten by those who tread the greensward over his head. But we all profit by his industry. It is only right that his brave and arduous work should be generously recognized. In our happy homes and beautiful churches we should do wall to think of the miner, and pray for him just as we pray for "those in peril on the sea." IV. AND THE WORK OF THE MINER. What thought and effort and daring are put into mining! Surely this is nobler work than the killing which all the world honours in the soldier? We can understand why God has hidden the precious metals in the bowels of the earth, when we see what manly traits are evolved in the work of obtaining them. But if so, should not the same high qualities be brought forth in the search for the hidden treasure of the kingdom of heaven? Its gold, and silver, and iron, and copper are worth so much trouble, are not wisdom and goriness and eternal life deserving of the most strenuous efforts? V. THERE IS PERIL IN THE MINER’S LIFE. Mining disasters are more fatal than shipwrecks. The miner needs to know a refuge more secure than any that art or science can contrive. He, indeed, should have his trust in God. But for others his peril is an occasion to rouse interest and deepen sympathy. We all profit by his labours; at least, then, let us all do what we can to protect him from the dangers which carelessness and selfishness create.—W.F.A. Job 29:7, Job 29:8 The miner’s path. The vulture’s eye is keen, the lion’s whelps are daring; yet a path which these wild creatures never saw is known to the miner, and climbed by him in his search for precious metals. He penetrates into fearful ravines, climbs dizzy cliffs, follows dark passages far into the mountain-side, descends deep shafts down to the hidden regions of the earth. I. THE OF MIND TO . The senses of animals are keener than those of men; the sight of the bird and the scent of the wild beast greatly exceed our seeing and smell. Animals are stronger than men; we cannot emulate the vulture’s flight or the stroke of the lion’s paw. Yet, with duller senses and weaker muscles, we can rule over the animals; we can even beat them on their own ground. The superiority of man is the superiority of mind. Therefore, if he would retain and perfect this superiority, he must not sink down to the level of the beasts that perish. Sottish sensuality robs man of his supremacy. If it is by the mind that man conquers, it is disgraceful to live for the sake of the body. Only mental power gives so weak a creature as man any chance in the struggle for existence. Then it is most incongruous that bodily appetite should be permitted to enslave this power for its own low pleasures. Moreover, if the inner man is the higher man, that which is highest within is our truest and best self. The highest powers scale the highest peaks. II. THE TRIUMPH OF ENERGY. The miner knows his secret path and climbs it, because he is determined to search out the precious metals, no matter where he may have to go in pursuit of them. Here is manly vigour. Now, it is just this vigour joined to intelligence that gives man success in the battle of life. No one deserves to be prosperous without it. It is only a, artificial state of society that allows the idle to be pampered in luxury. The healthy rule is that of St. Paul, "If any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). In the miner’s path we have an evidence of what effort can do. This same effort is needed in every branch of life. Industry is healthy and fruitful, and the old-fashioned duty can never be lessened by any change of circumstances. If men shrink from work they proclaim that their better nature is conquered in them. It will be a bad day for England when her old spirit of enterprise is given up. In the Christian life there is a call for the miner’s daring and energy. Here, too, heroic enterprises are undertaken by the nobler spirits. There are paths in spiritual experience that no one with a merely animal nature can ever see; but the brave sons of God walk thereon and find rare treasures by the way. Browning tells us— "Life is—to wake, not sleep; Rise, and not rest; but press From earth’s level, where blindly creep Things perfected, more or less, To heaven’s height, far and steep." W.F.A. Job 29:12-15 The search for wisdom. I. WISDOM IS . Men sink shafts and traverse hazardous paths in search of the precious metals simply because of their value. The costly and difficult processes of mining would not be carried on unless an adequate reward were expected. Unless men appreciate wisdom they will not take much trouble in attempting to acquire it. The first thing is to see that "the price of wisdom is above rubies" (Job 29:18). Knowledge is good, as the food of the intellect. The knowledge of God is most precious as the food of the soul. Practical knowledge is essential for guidance in life. Wisdom is more than the satisfaction of curiosity; it is the light of life. II. WISDOM DOES NOT LIE ON THE SURFACE OF THE WORLD. It is like the treasures of deep rallies, and therefore it is not seen by the superficial. God does not cast his pearls before swine. There are blessings that all men—even the most heedless—have a share in. But the greatest blessings are not stumbled on unawares. These are for all who will seek them; but they must be sought. Hidden treasures are sometimes dug up from beneath ancient ruins—vessels of gold and silver that have lain for ages buried under heaps of rubbish. So Divine treasures have been hidden beneath piles of earthly and comparatively worthless things. Sin and worldliness have buried them. They need to be rediscovered. Thus man has both to recover lost spiritual riches and to mine in virgin soil for new wisdom. III. WISDOM IS NOT EASILY FOUND. It is not enough to sink a mine, for perhaps we may not strike a lode; we must discover where the precious metal lies. The mining engineer must bring his science and experience to bear on the great problem as to where the shaft is to be made, and if he makes a mistake all the costly work of preparing the mine will be thrown away. Now, we want some divining-rod to show us where to seek for the Divine wisdom. Philosophers have dug their mines in various regions of life and thought. No doubt they have brought much precious ore to the surface. But the great treasure of Divine knowledge has not been struck by any human inquiry without the guiding of a special heavenly revelation. Seas may be dredged and strange wonders of the deep brought to light, but these additions to natural history do not help us much in coming to know spiritual truth. IV. WISDOM CANNOT BE BOUGHT. Precious stones may be purchased for money. Knowledge may be obtained in classes for which fees are charged; and yet the fees cannot purchase real education, and unless the scholar uses his mind he cannot profit by his lessons. No subscriptions to churches and missions and charities can buy Divine wisdom. V. WISDOM IS A DIVINE GIFT SEEKING SOULS. It is like the precious metals in the earth which God has given to man freely. The treasures of God are for all, without money and without price. Moreover, God shows us where to find these treasures. Christ "is made unto us wisdom" (1 Corinthians 1:30). When we receive Christ, we have the Treasure for which philosophers and saints toiled and mined. He brings the Divine wisdom to the surface, to cur very doors. If we would acquire wisdom, we have but to open our hearts to welcome Christ.—W.F.A. Job 29:18 The high price of wisdom. In the main, prices are determined by two causes—by the value set on things on account of their utility and attractiveness, and by the difficulty of acquiring them. Both these elements enter into the high price of wisdom. I. WISDOM IS ON ACCOUNT OF ITS UTILITY AND . People will not give a high price for what is not valued highly. Appreciation implies the perception of some equivalence in value. If wisdom is sought at a great price, wisdom is highly prized. Otherwise it would be left alone as not worth purchasing. Let us, then, observe the elements of value in wisdom. 1. Guidance. We need knowledge to save us from blundering. Bight principles are charts by which to steer. Moral folly plunges men headlong down to ruin; moral wisdom is the safe guide to life. We must know the heavenly way, we must see how to climb the steep hill, we must have skill to navigate the vessel of life. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 29:1-25 From these deep musings upon the nature of true wisdom, and the contrast between the ingenuity and cleverness of man and the infinite knowledge of God, Job turns to another contrast, which he pursues through two chapters (Job 29:1-25; Job 30:1-31.)—the contrast between what he was and what he is—between his condition in the period of his prosperity and that to which he has been reduced by his afflictions. The present chapter is concerned only with the former period; and gives a graphic description of the life led, in Job’s time and country, by a great chieftain, the head of a tribe, not of mere nomads, but of perseus who had attained to a considerable amount of civilization. The picture is one primitive in its features, but not rude or coarse. It is entirely un-Jewish, and has its nearest parallel in some of the early Egyptian records, as the Stele of Beka, and the Instructions of Amen-em-hat. Job 29:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said (see the comment on Job 27:1). Job 29:2 Oh that I were as in months past! or, in the months of old. To Job the period of his prosperity seems long, long ago—some-thing far away in the mist of time, which he recalls with difficulty. As in the days when God preserved me. Job never forgets to refer his prosperity to God, or to be grateful to him for it (see Job 1:21; Job 2:10; Job 10:8-12, etc.). Job 29:3 When his candle shined upon my head (comp. Psalms 18:28, "For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness"). A "candle," or "lamp," is a general symbol in Scripture for life and prosperity. God is said to light men’s candles when he blesses them and maizes his countenance to shine upon them; conversely, when he withdraws his favour he is said to put their candles out (Job 18:6; Job 21:17). And when by his light I walked through darkness. The light of God’s countenance shining about a man’s path enables him to walk securely even through thick darkness, i.e. through trouble and perplexity. Job 29:4 As I was in the days of my youth; literally, in the days of my autumn—by which Job probably means the days of his "ripeness" or "full manhood"—which he had reached when his calamities fell upon him. When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle; or, the counsel of God; when, i.e; in my tent I held sweet counsel with God, and communed with him as friend with friend (comp. Psalms 25:14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant;" and Proverbs 3:32, "For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous"). Job 29:5 When the Almighty was yet with me. These are terribly sad words. Job, in his afflictions, has come to look on the Almighty as no longer "with him "—no longer on his side; but rather against him, an enemy (see Job 6:4; Job 7:19; Job 9:17; Job 10:16, etc.). When my children were about me (comp. Job 1:2, Job 1:4, Job 1:5). Job 29:6 When I washed my steps with butter. Trod, as it were, upon fatness, moved amid all that was gladsome, joyful, and delicious. And the rock poured me out rivers of oil. "The rock" is probably the ground, rugged and stony, on which his olives grew. "Olives," says Dr. Cunningham Geikie, "flourish best on sandy or stony soil" They brought him in so great a quantity of oil that the rock seemed to him to flow with rivers of it. Job 29:7 When I went out to the gate through the city; rather, by the city, or over against the city. The "gate" was the place where justice was administered, and public business generally despatched. It would be "over against" the city, separated from it by a large square or place (רְחוֹב), in which a multitude might assemble (sue Nehemiah 8:1). Hither Job was accustomed to proceed from time to time, to act as judge and administrator. When I prepared my seat in the street. On such occasions a seat would be brought out and "prepared," where the judge would sit to hear causes and deliver sentences (comp. Nehemiah 3:7). Job 29:8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves; retired, i.e. withdrew to corners, that they might not obtrude themselves on one so much their superior. Compare the respect paid to age by the Spartans. And the aged arose, and stood up. Here the respect paid was not to age so much as to dignity. Men as old as himself, or older, paid Job the compliment of standing up until he was seated, in consideration of his rank and high office. So. in many assemblies, as in our own courts of justice, in Convocation, and elsewhere, when the president enters, all rise. Job 29:9 The princes refrained talking. The other head-men of the tribe, recognizing Job’s superior rank and dignity, refrained from words as soon as he made his appearance, and in silence awaited what he would say. Perhaps we are scarcely to understand literally the further statement that they laid their hand on their mouth, which is probably as much an idiom as our phrase, "they held their tongues "(comp. Job 21:5). Job 29:10 The nobles held their peace. The other leading men followed the example of the "princes," and equally kept silence till Job had spoken. And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their month. A pleonastic repetition. The meaning is simply they said nothing, they stood in rapt attention. Job 29:11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me. Job, having described his reception by the nobles and chief men of the city, proceeds to speak of the behaviour of the common people. The former were respectful and attent, the latter rejoiced and made acclamation. Being of the class most exposed to oppression and wrong, they hailed in the patriarch a champion and a protector. They were sure of redress and justice where he was the judge. And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. The eye of the poor man lighted up with joy and rejoicing as Job sat down upon the seat of judgment, thus hearing witness to his fairness, candour, and integrity. Job 29:12 Because I delivered the poor that cried. And again the Inscription of Ameni-Amenemha: "No little child have I injured; no widow have I oppressed; no fisherman have I hindered; no shepherd have I detained; no foreman have I taken from his gang to employ him in forced labour" (ibid; vol. 12.63). And the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. Championship of the poor was anciently regarded as characteristic of the wise, good, strong ruler. Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me (comp. Job 29:11). Oppression in the East sometimes drives its victims to actual starvation or to suicide. Isaiah calls the oppressors against whom he inveighs "murderers" (Isaiah 1:21). These "perishing" ones Job often saved, and they "blessed" him. And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. How cold are the words of Ameni, "No widow have I oppressed," compared with these! Job was not content with mere abstinence from evil, mere negative virtue. He so actively and effectually relieved distress that affliction was turned into happiness, and lamentation into rejoicing. Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me (comp. Isaiah 61:10; Psalms 132:9, etc.). Job "put on righteousness;" i.e. made it as the garment wherewith he clothed himself withal (Psalms 109:18, Psalms 109:19), covered up with it all his own natural imperfections, and made it part and parcel of his being. It was a beautiful covering, and, when once he had put it on, it clung to him, and could not be removed. It "clothed him," or rather, if we translate the Hebrew literally, "clothed itself with him." putting him on, as he had put it on. It was not merely external; it was internal, a habit of his soul and spirit. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem; rather, my justice (see the Revised Version). My "justice," or "righteousness" (for the words are synonymous), was at once my robe and my crown, my necessary clothing and my ornament. Job 29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. The Persian kings had officials, whom they called their "eyes" and their "ears"—observers who were to inform them of all that went on in the provinces. Job acted as "eyes" to the blind of his time, giving them the information which their infirmity hindered them from obtaining. He was also feet to the lame, taking messages for them, going on their errands, and the like. He was kind and helpful to his fellow-men, not only in great, but also in little matters. Job 29:16 I was a father to the poor (comp. Job 29:12, and see below, Job 31:16-22): and the cause which I knew not I searched out; rather, the cause of him that I knew not I searched out (see the Revised Version). When men were quite unknown to him, Job still gave to their causes the utmost possible attention, "searching them out," or investigating them, as diligently as if they had been the causes of his own friends. Job 29:17 And I brake the jaws of the wicked (comp. Psalms 58:6). It is scarcely meant, as Canon Cook supposes, that Job was himself the executioner. "Quod facit per allure facit per so." Job would regard as Age doing what he ordered to be done. And plucked the spoil out of his teeth. Either by disappointing him of a prey which he was on the verge of making ms own, or by compelling him to make restitution of a prey that he had actually laid hold of. Job 29:18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest. The metaphor of "nest" for "dwelling-place" occurs in Numbers 24:21; Jeremiah 49:16: Obadiah 1:4; and Habakkuk 2:9. It is also employed by Healed (’Op. et Di.,’ 1.301). And I shall multiply my days as the sand. Some translate, "I shall multiply my days as the phoenix," the fabulous bird which was supposed to live for five hundred years (Herod; 2:72), to burn itself on a funeral pile of spices, and then to rise again from its ashes. But the view seems to be a mere rabbinical tradition, and is unsupported by etymology. Khol (חוֹל) means "sand" in Genesis 22:17; Jeremiah 33:22; and elsewhere. It is taken in this sense by Rosenmuller, Schultens, Professor Lee, Canon Cook, and our Revisers. Job 29:19 My root was spread out by the waters (comp. Psalms 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8); rather, to the waters—so that the waters reached it and nourished it. And the dew lay all night upon my branch. Job compares himself, in his former prosperous state, to a tree growing by a river-side, which receives a double nourishment—from the actual water of the stream, which reaches its roots, and from the moisture evaporated from the stream, which hangs in the air, and descends in the shape of dew upon its leaves and branches. Both sources of refreshment represent the grace and favour of God. Job 29:20 My glory was fresh in me; i.e. "my glory remained fresh"—received no tarnish, continued as bright as it had been at the first. And my bow was renewed in my hand. My strength did not fail. When it seemed on the point of failing, it was secretly and mysteriously "renewed." Some commentators regard Job 29:19 and Job 29:20 as a portion of the speech begun in Job 29:18, and view the verbs, not as past tenses, but as futures (compare the translation of the Revised Version). The general meaning is much the same, whichever of the two views we take. Job 29:21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel (comp. Job 29:9, Job 29:10). Job, however, does not repeat himself, sines in the previous passage he is speaking of his work and office as judge, whereas now he declares the position which he had occupied among his countrymen as statesman and counsellor. Job 29:22 After my words they spake not again. When Job had spoken, the debate commonly came to an end. It was felt that all had been said, and that further remark would be superfluous. And my speech dropped upon them (comp. Deuteronomy 32:2, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew"). The silent, penetrating influence of wise counsel is glanced at. Job 29:23 They waited for me as for the rain; i.e. "they were as eager to heat’ me speak as the parched ground is to receive the winter rain, which it expects and waits for and absorbs greedily." And they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain. They drank in my discourse as the spring vegetation drinks in the spring showers, known in the East generally as "the latter rains." Job 29:24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not; rather, if I smiled on them. If, as a mark of favour, I smiled on any, they thought it such graciousness and condescension that they could scarcely believe it possible. And the light of my countenance they cast not down. They never put me out of countenance, or made me sad and gloomy, by opposing my views and ranging themselves against me. Job 29:25 I chose out their way, and sat chief. Though not an absolute monarch, but only a patriarchal head, I practically determined the course which the tribe took, since my advice was always followed. I thus "sat chief"—nay, dwelt as a king in the army (or, in the host, i.e. among the people), as one that comforteth the mourners; i.e. as one to whom all looked for comfort in times of distress and calamity, as much as for counsel and guidance at other times (Job 29:21-23). Job 29:1-25 Job’s second parable: 1. Regretful memories of bygone days. I. DAYS OF . In tender elegiActs strains Job resumes his monologue of sorrow, casting a pathetic glance upon "the times of yore," already faded in the far past and gone beyond recall; not the days of his youth (Authorized Version), hut the autumn season of his mature manhood, when, like a field that the Lord had blessed (Genesis 27:27), groaning beneath the exuberance of its harvest fruits, he was loaded with an abundance of good things (Psalms 103:1-5). Heaven’s blessings were so many and so varied, so ripe and so ready, that it seemed to him like a very time of vintage for his soul. But, alas! these bright days of golden sunshine were departed, carrying with them all the treasures of felicity they had brought; and of these that which by its loss now struck the keenest pang of anguish into his melancholy soul was the blessed fellowship, the familiar, confiding, unreserved intercourse which he then enjoyed with Eloah, who, in the threefold capacity of Guardian, Guide, and Friend, was an habitual Visitor at his tent. 1. As a Guardian. Then Eloah preserved, or protected, him, as Satan, in the cloning of the fundamental controversy of the poem, complained (Job 1:10), and as Eliphaz (Job 5:11-21; Job 22:25), followed by Zophar (Job 11:18), assured him God would again do, if he returned in penitential submission to Eloah’s ways. This Divine guardianship must not be limited to the setting up of a fence around the patriarch’s estate, but extended to that of which it was a symbol, the casting of a shield around the patriarch’s soul. In the happy days of old Job nestled beneath the shadow of the Almighty’s wings (Rth 2:12; Psalms 91:1), body, soul, and spirit, feeling himself secure against calamity of every sort, inward or outward, spiritual or material. What God was to Job he likewise proved himself to be to David and other Old Testament saints, and to-day offers himself to be to all Christ’s believing followers—a Defender against the charges of the Law, of conscience, or of Satan (Psalms 32:1-5; Psalms 65:3; Psalms 85:2, Psalms 85:3; Isaiah 44:22; Romans 8:1, Romans 8:31, Romans 8:33); a Protector against the ills and temptations of life (Psalms 46:1; Psalms 48:3; Psalms 121:3; Proverbs 3:6, Proverbs 3:23, Proverbs 3:24; Isaiah 54:14 17; Zechariah 9:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Peter 3:13). 2. As a Guide. Job also recollects that, in the bright days whose departure he laments, Eloah’s candle (or lamp) shone above his head, enabling him to walk with perfect safety even in nights of thickest darkness. The allusion probably is to the custom of suspending lamps in rooms or tents over the head (Carey); and the meaning is that, while rejoicing in Heaven’s favour and fellowship, Job’s feet never stumbled in the path of duty. If perplexities arose around or before him, through Divine grace he was always able to resolve them, threading his way through the deepest intricacies, and moving straight on in an even path. This was no doubt owing partly to the circumstance that his consciousness of inward peace and sincerity permitted him to make the best possible use of his natural faculties, and partly to the fact that he enjoyed the special illumination of Heaven. If piety does not confer new powers, it enables old ones to be turned to the best advantage Then the singleness of aim which a good man possesses largely facilitates the discovery of light in times of darkness. And, finally, saints have special promises guaranteeing providential guidance when placed in situations of perplexity m’ peril (Psalms 25:8, Psalms 25:9; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 37:23; exit. 4). 3. As a Friend. More particularly Job mentions that, in the times of blessedness referred to, "the secret," or favour (Cox), or blessed fellowship (Delitzsch), or counsel (Fry) of Eloah was upon his tent. Whether Job was honored like Abraham to receive theophanies (Genesis 18:1, Genesis 18:2), so that he might actually speak of God being a Visitor at his tent (Carey), the language (literally, "in the seat or cushion of God being at my tent") obviously points to an intercourse of the most friendly and familiar kind between him and God—such a dwelling together as Eliphaz affirmed should take place (Job 22:21) if Job and God were to be at peace. The friendship here depicted as having existed between Job and Eloah was realized in the case of Abraham and Jehovah (2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23), and is in a certain sense still realized in the experience of Christians and the Saviour (John 15:15). As one result of this friendly intercourse between Eloah and Job, Job became acquainted with Eloah’s counsel or secret purpose, as Abraham was informed of Jehovah’s determination concerning Sodom (Genesis 18:17), as the prophets generally were afterwards instructed about the mind of God (Amos 3:7), as "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" (Psalms 25:14; Proverbs 3:32), and as on believers is conferred an unction from the Holy One, enabling them to know all things (1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27; 1 John 5:20), but more particularly the mind of Christ (John 16:13-15; 1 Corinthians 2:16). II. DAYS OF . It is a special mark of piety in Job that, enumerating his lost blessings, he begins with what the worldly or wicked man would have plied last, viz. the Divine friendship. As to David (Psalms 63:3) and to Asaph (Psalms 73:25), so to Job the favour and fellowship of God constituted the principal ingredient in his full cup of blessing. But next to fellowship with a God of mercy and salvation, no earthly happiness can be compared to a home illumined by the sunshine of genuine religion, and gladdened by the cheery voices of loving and obedient children. Job cannot recall the time when the Almighty was still with him (verse 5) without remembering that then also his children (his young men, his boys) were about him—a numerous, happy, loving, united, and, it may be hoped, a pious family (Job 1:1-5; vide homiletics). It is contrary to religion for a good man, or any man, to prize his wife and children above his Saviour and his God (Matthew 10:37); it is contrary to nature to behold them taken from his side by the hand of death without weeping (Genesis 23:2; John 11:1-57:81, 83, 35); it is contrary to neither nature nor religion to cherish them with loudest affection, and to mourn for their death with sincere lamentation. III. DAYS OF . Guarded by Divine care and guided by Divine light, like Jacob in Padan-aram (Genesis 31:5, Genesis 31:7, Genesis 31:11, Genesis 31:12, Genesis 31:42), Job attained to extensive wealth, the poetic imagery employed (verse 6) to depict it meaning, when converted into unadorned prose, that his flocks became so abundant, and their yield of milk so rich and plentiful, that he might almost be said to wash his steps in butter, which among the Arabs was mostly a liquid preparation, and that everywhere throughout his domain the crags were clothed with olive trees so prolific that the very rocks appeared to pour forth oil It was another mark of Job’s fervent piety and well-balanced judgment that he preferred his children to his flocks and trees, giving these latter only the third place in his esteem, and that he ascribed his material prosperity, no less than his domestic felicity, to the circumstance that then the Almighty was with him. So did Jacob when serving with Laban (Genesis 31:5), and Joseph when ruling for Pharaoh (Genesis 45:8), recognize God as the Author of their temporal advancement. So does Scripture habitually trace to God every blessing which the saint enjoys (Psalms 75:6, Psalms 75:7; James 1:17). IV. DAYS OF CIVIC HONOUR. A saint of eminent piety, the father of a numerous family, and the proprietor of vast possessions, Job had likewise been the chief magistrate, or supreme dispenser of law and justice, in his clan. Passing beyond the bounds of his own private domain, and entering the adjacent city, when he took his seat among the elders in the broad way, i.e. in the open space usually reserved in Oriental cities, either in front of the gate (2 Chronicles 32:6; Nehemiah 8:1, Nehemiah 8:8, Nehemiah 8:16), or in the vaulted recesses beneath the archway (Genesis 19:1; 1 Kings 22:10), for the transaction of business (Rth 4:1), the dispensing of justice (Proverbs 31:23), or the conducting of other negotiations, he was saluted with marked tokens of respect. The younger men, conscious of his greatness, retired into the background; the old men amongst the councillors received him standing; the voice of the greatest magnate amongst them was silent until he had uttered his opinion. A remarkable testimony to the high esteem in which Job was held for his personal qualities and commanding abilities. V. DAYS OF PUBLIC . What Eliphaz once admitted (Job 4:3, Job 4:4), Job is now constrained to avow, that his whole by-past career had been one of unwearied benevolence. In his magisterial capacity he had: 1. Espoused the cause of the poor and needy. In conspicuous contradiction to Eliphaz, who had charged him (Job 22:5-9) with intolerable oppression and cruelty, with robbing the poor, and inhumanly suffering the naked and hungry to perish, he had taken, it might be said, the whole family of the unfortunate under his protection. When a poor man oppressed by his neighbour had cried out for help, when an orphan had poured into his ear a tale or pitiful distress, when a miserable outcast half-dead through cold and nakedness, or through hunger and thirst, had found the way to his door, when a broken-hearted widow had appealed to him for assistance, he had had an ear for every cry, a heart for every sorrow, and a hand for every need. Job’s sympathies had inclined him to feel for the defenceless and the poor. And in this Job had shown himself to be a good man (Psalms 40:1), and an eminent type of Christ (Psalms 72:4; Matthew 8:16, Matthew 8:17). Nay, Job had considered no care or trouble too much to expend on behalf of his clients. He had both taken pains to understand their complaint, and had not been satisfied till he had rectified their grievance. And with such skill, energy, and perseverance had he conducted their causes, that he commonly carried them forward to success, delivering the poor and fatherless who cried to him (verse 12), causing the widow’s heart to sing for joy (verse 13), breaking the jaws of the wicked and plucking the spoil out of his teeth (verse 17). And in all that Job had said or done in his magisterial capacity he had: 2. Acted with the most scrupulous regard to justice. He had not met chicanery and oppression by resorting to the same dishonest weapons. If he had stood forth for justice to the poor, he had not attempted to withhold it from the rich. So unchallengeably just had been his decisions, and so unimpeachable the principles of equity by which these were guided, that he felt himself entitled to say he had literally clothed himself in righteousness, and assumed integrity as a robe and turban; in this, again, typifying strikingly the Lord Jesus Christ (Psalms 72:2; Psalms 96:13). And so successful had Job been in his determination to combine "mercy and truth, righteousness and peace," in his magisterial capacity, that he had: 3. Gained the good opinion and respect of all. Unlike Aristides, whom his fellow-countrymen ostracized because they could not longer bear to hear him called the "just" the fellow-citizens of Job had saluted him on every side with words and looks of commendation and esteem (verse 11). VI. DAYS OF EVIL. Pious, rich, honoured, useful, trusted, revered, Job was unconscious of a single gloomy foreboding. All round him, above him, before him, the prospect was clear and exhilarating. Not a speck of cloud lay upon the bright horizon that encompassed him. Job had no thought but that he should live a long, prosperous, and honoured life, multiplying his days like the sand, or like the phoenix, the fabulous bird of Egyptian mythology, or, perhaps, like the. palm tree, and at last dying calmly in his nest, i.e. like Abraham (Genesis 25:8), m the bosom of his family. Two things contributed to foster such a pleasing anticipation in the mind of Job. 1. The apparent stability of his outward or material prosperity. Comparing himself to a tree planted by the rivers of waters—a frequent biblical emblem of a good man (Psalms 1:3; Psalms 92:12; Jeremiah 17:8)—he had hoped that, since his roots were open to the waters, whence they could always draw a plentiful supply of moisture, and since his branches were nightly laden with dew (verse 19), nothing ever would or even could occur to interrupt the outward course of his temporal greatness. The sources of his wealth appeared so permanent and inexhaustible that he never imagined they could either be diminished or dried up. His honours were so fresh upon him (cf. ’Henry VIII.,’ Acts 3. sc. 2) that he dreamt not of their decline. And his manly vigour, his capability of warding off danger, represented by the bow which he carried in his hand, was so full and so easily renewed that he feared not an overthrow to his unexampled fortune, or an eclipse to the shining splendour of his honourable name. 2. The unlimited extent of his authority and influence. The autobiographical fragment introduced in verses 21-25 is not designed as a continuation or resumption of the theme treated of above (verses 7, 8), but is intended to explain how dark forebodings never crossed the mind of Job when reposing in the brilliant sunshine of his earthly glory. The profound veneration in which his countrymen held him, causing them with patient silence and eager expectation to wait for his counsel (verses 21, 23); the awful respect in which they held his words, regarding them as final on every subject they handled (verse 22); the effect which his decisions never failed to produce upon those who heard them, his speech distilling upon them with reviving and enlivening influences, and being welcome to their hearts as the early and the latter rains (verse 23); the influence he wielded over them by his kindly manners, his very smile being regarded as an act of gracious condescension which they could hardly believe was meant for them, but which, nevertheless, they were loth to lose, and which seemed to have a talismanic power in dispelling their sadness (verse 24); and the unquestioning, nay, joyous, submission with which they hailed his instructions, his position among them being at once that of a monarch and a friend (verse 25);—all these considerations rendered it difficult for Job to think that ever for him an evil day should dawn. Learn: 1. The propriety and profit of recalling and reviewing the past. 2. In enumerating blessings, much depends upon assigning to each its exact place in the order of importance. 3. To a good man the things of God ever stand in the front rank. 4. Having flint obtained Heaven’s favour, a man may legitimately aspire to acquire the riches of the world and the good opinions of his fellow-men. 5. An upright and useful life seldom fails to meet its recompense, even upon earth. 6. He whom God has enriched with wealth, ability, and influence should devote them to the service of the poor and needy. 7. The blessings of those whom a good man relieves are greater riches than accumulated gold and silver. 8. The retrospect of a well-spent life is a great consolation in the season of adversity. 9. It is dangerous to look for permanence in anything on earth. 10. It is well when great men can combine love with authority, and sympathy with power. BY E. JOHNSON Job 29:1-25 Wistful retrospect of past happy days. I. OF MEMORY; FOUNDED ON THE OF GOD. (Job 29:1-10.) 1. Friendship with God the source of happiness. (Job 29:1-5.) This is beautifully indicated in figurative expressions. He thinks of the days when God’s light beamed upon his brow, by God’s light he walked through the darkness; the days of his ripe and mellow age (rather than of his "youth"), when the secret, i.e. the intimacy, of the Almighty was a shelter and a blessing to his home. The word "secret" means "intimacy," confidential intercourse (see Job 19:19; Psalms 25:14; Psalms 55:15; Proverbs 3:32). God was near to him, and the next greatest blessing to that favour of God, viz. the blessing of children, was granted to him. (Compare on the blessing of children, Psalms 127:3, sqq.; Psalms 128:3.) The outward blessings of life are chiefly to be valued as signs of the deeper, the inward good; the constant nearness of God, the consciousness of his approval, the certainty of his guidance. 2. Features of outward happiness. (Job 29:6-10.) (1) Abundance of means. Here the favourite Oriental figures are employed. He bathed his steps in butter, and the rock at his side gushed with streams of oil (comp. Deuteronomy 32:13). (2) Respect and dignity. When he went to the gate of the city, the great public place of assembly in Oriental cities, corresponding to the agora of the Greeks, the forum of the Romans, and the market-place of Our old towns (Job 5:4; Job 31:21; Proverbs 1:21; Proverbs 8:3); when he placed his seat in the market—the wide open place close by the gates—the young men retired in reverential respect before him, and the old men rose and remained standing until he had taken his seat; while princes ceased their conversation, laying the hand upon the mouth (Job 21:5); the voice of persons of consideration was hushed, their tongue cleaving to the roof of their mouth. The possession of the respect of others is one of the noblest kinds of wealth, as the consciousness of being despised, looked down upon, scouted, and flouted is an element of the deepest misery. Out of the dark present Job looks back to those sunny days. His life is "in the sere and yellow leaf," and his is "the crown of sorrow," the "remembering happier things." "It is the pensive autumn feeling, the sensation of half-sadness that we experience when the longest day of the year is past, and every day that follows is shorter, and the light fainter, and the feebler shadows tell that Nature is hastening with gigantic footsteps to her winter grave." As Christians, we should learn to look forward, and forget the past, in so far as its recollection paralyzes or depresses (Philippians 3:13, Philippians 3:14). (Read F. W. Robertson’s sermon on this: ’Christian Progress by Oblivion of the Past.’) "Not backward are our glances bent, But onwards to our Father’s home." The past is gone for ever; but there is a present and a future which is still our own. II. THE SOURCE OF IN . (Verses 11-17.) His benevolence and his strict integrity were mediately the cause of his prosperity. For although God is the one and only Cause of all things, the gracious Author of our bliss, yet his dispensations are not arbitrary. Blessing is conditioned by faith; and faith is proved by conduct. Job’s public and private life was known and seen and elicited approval from all. He was the succourer of the poor and the helpless orphan; the blessing of the forlorn and the wretched was breathed forth on his behalf. He had clothed himself with rectitude (compare for this figure, Isaiah 11:5; Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 59:17; Psalms 132:9). It was to him like a robe and a turban. He was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame; a father to the needy. He searched out the cause of unknown men, to help them as surety or otherwise if their cause was good. He put down men of violence and oppression, and recovered their ill-gotten booty from them, as one snatches the prey from the jaws of the wild beast. Despite the mournful mood of Job, what solace is there not, even in the greatest affliction, through the memory of having been permitted to do some good and reap some reward of affection from others in the world? And, looking to the sequel of the story, let us remember that God is not unrighteous to forget the labour of love. Every cause has its effect; every act of benevolence will be followed in due time by its bright flowers of peace and joy in the conscience and the memory. Go on, then, in the work of doing good, steadfast and immovable in the work of the Lord. Be like fountains watering the earth and spreading fertility. "Subdue discord, mutiny, widespread despair by manfulness, justice, mercy, and wisdom. Chaos is dark, deep as hell; let light be, and there is instead a green, flowery world. Oh, it is great, and there is no other greatness! To make some work of God’s creation a little more fruitful, better, more worthy of God; to make some human hearts a little wiser, more manful, happier, more blessed; it is a work for God!" (Carlyle). III. THE MEMORY OF BRIGHT HOPES; THE RESPECT AND IN FORMER DAYS. (Verses 18-25.) 1. Everything in that happy period pointed with seeming prophetic power to a long life’ to a blessed old age. He thought within himself that he should end his days in his nest. in the besom of his family, in peace and security; and like the sand (or the days of the phoenix) would be their number. If the word be taken as denoting the phoenix, then the allusion is to the legend of the bird living five hundred years, then burning in its nest, and rising from the ashes. Peace and prosperity bred in his mind great hopes. Like a well-watered tree, he thought his life would spread, the refreshing dew resting by night upon its branches, and that his honour would ever freshly remain with him; that his bow—the symbol of lusty manhood and strength (1 Samuel 2:4; Psalms 46:9; Psalms 76:3; Jeremiah 49:35; Jeremiah 51:56)—would renew itself in his hand. We learn here, in passing, the lesson not to build on the constancy of earthly things, not to lay up treasures of hope here. If it be well with us now, let us be prepared for reverses (Sirach 11:25). This lesson comes back to us from many a saying of the ancient world, mixed no doubt with much of superstition, and ignorance of the nature of God, but still in the main expressed with the truth of experience. "There is nothing secure in the world, no glory, no prosperity. The gods toss all life into confusion, mix everything with its reverse, that all of us, from our ignorance and uncertainty, may pay them the more worship and reverence". "God hath power to change the lowly for the lofty; he weakens the distinguished, he brings the obscure to the light; Fortune with shrill sound here removes the towering crest, and here she sets it up" (Horace, ’Od.,’ 1:35). The brief sum of life’s days forbids us to cherish a long hope (ibid; Job 1:4). We must learn in a Christian sense to "pluck the day, and have the smallest confidence in what is to come" (ibid; Job 1:11). What the morrow may bring we should shun to inquire, and count as a gain every day that may be given us (ibid; Job 1:9). "Too late is the life of to-morrow; live to-day!" (Martial). 2. A further picture of the social esteem and respect in which his past days had been spent. The members of his tribe or clan all looked up to him, listened in silence to his address, and had nothing to add alter he had spoken. His speech fell upon them like the refreshing rain for which the thirsty pastures long—the late rain which in March or April blesses the ripening crops (comp. Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 3:3; Jeremiah 5:24; Joe 2:23; Hosea 6:3). His cheerful smile dismissed men’s rising fears, the light of his countenance was like the sun dispelling the clouds of doubt or alarm. He sat in the midst of the assembly of his tribe, guiding, commanding, directing, like a king in the midst of his battle-host; or, as if this picture were too warlike and remote from the peaceful scenes of the patriarch’s life, he sat among them as a general consoler, a comforter of the mourners. Thus— "Remembrance wakes with all her busy train, Sucks at his breast, and turns the past to pain? But we have a power over this "bosom-spring," and may cheer or sadden ourselves with retrospect, according as we take the golden key of faith or the iron key of despondency wherewith to unlock the door of the past. Do not these bright memories of a well-spent past afford solace to the afflicted hero, though they also touch the nerves to pain? Let it be ours so to use memory that it still yield instructive joy and hope. As we turn over her mixed records, let us say to ourselves, "The joys we have possessed are ever ours—out of the reach of chance and change. Let past years, so far as they are marked with the greatness of God, with acts of piety, works of love, breed in us perpetual benedictions."—J. BY R. GREEN Job 29:1-25 A mournful reflection upon a happy past. Job had lived in honour and great respect. He was "the greatest of all the men of the East." The Divine testimony concerning him was, "There is none like him in the earth." Job’s was an enviable condition, and his own words indicate how sensible he was of it. In his mournful utterance, made as he looks back upon a dead past, we see wherein consisted his happiness; and we learn what arc the elemental conditions of the highest felicity in human life—at least at that period of the world’s history. Nor can we think of loftier conditions to-day. The conditions of happiness on the loss of which Job mournfully reflected are— I. THE ASSURED FAVOUR OF JEHOVAH. The proof of this to Job was in his abounding prosperity. II. . If the joy of home be destroyed, all joy must wither. III. THE RESPECT OF SOCIETY. It is always painful to a right-minded man not to be held in respect by his fellow-men; and although it may minister to pride in the unwary, it is to the prudent a source of the greatest satisfaction, especially when it is subordinated to the honour that cometh from God only. IV. THE REGARD EVEN OF THE GREAT. The very princes and nobles held silence when he spake. He who is so highly honoured cannot but honour himself. Happy the man whose self-respect so ripens. V. THE OF CHARITY, without which the heart would become selfish. VI. THE OF MEN, sweet as nard of great price. VII. OF AND —a conscience void of offence. VIII. THE OF HIS POWER AND WEALTH FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE NEEDY AND . Every kind act leaves a fragrance on the hand of him who does it. IX. THE OF HOPE. It might be said the hope of the permanence of these precious possessions. X. A CAUSE OF TO OTHERS. In these lies the secret of the truest happiness, but many deserve them not, and having them are not able to retain their integrity and simplicity. Hence how often are they withdrawn! The absence of these Job is called to mourn. To hold fast his integrity in the loss as truly as amidst the possession of these things marks the true greatness and goodness of the man, and ultimately brings him the highest honour.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 29:2-4 Regrets for the happy past. I. IT IS NATURAL TO LOOK BACK WITH REGRET ON THE HAPPY PAST. The memory of past joy is not wholly pleasant. If the joy is gone, the memory only adds pain to the present sense of loss. Several things contribute to give intensity to the feeling of regret. 1. Many of the best blessings are not appreciated while we possess them. We have to lose them to learn their value. This is especially true of great common blessings, such as the buoyancy of youth, health, affluence. When all goes well with us we do not consider how many gifts of God we are enjoying. The charm of summer is appreciated when dull November makes us look back on the lost days of brightness. We wake up to the value of our loved ones when they have been taken from us by the hand of death. Adversity reveals the privileges of prosperity. Declining years teach the value of youth. 2. Reflection grows with years. It has been remarked upon as a misfortune that so many of the best things in life seem to be lavished upon an age that is carelessly negligent of them. Strength, energy, health, happiness, in abundance are enjoyed in youth without a thought. When these treasures are more scarce they are carefully economized and highly valued. In later years the habit of looking backward grows upon us, and reflection takes the place of heedless activity. Thus we consider find appreciate with regret in the later years of life what we disregarded in the earlier times of possession. 3. Memory throws a delusive glamour over the past. The distant hills are beautiful; we see their purple shadows, we do not observe their stony paths. Youth is not so sunny as age paints it. Keen pains of youth are forgotten in after-years, especially if those years have brought with them the fortitude that despises such sufferings. For there is a gain in years, and this very gain leads to an over-valuation of youth. Patience and self-control are acquired by experience, and while they help us to bear much that would be intolerable to youth, they also lead us to smile at and under-estimate the wild distresses of earlier years. IX. IT IS GOOD TO THE DIVINE OF THE HAPPY PAST. Job acknowledged that God had preserved him in past days. The candle of the Lord had then shone upon his head. He enjoyed God’s friendship when he came to maturity. 1. This adds poignancy to the grief of regret. God has not been sufficiently appreciated. His blessings have not been acknowledged with merited gratitude. Or if no self-accusations arise on these points, still the loss of God’s favour seems to accompany the loss of his gifts. The regret has deeper thoughts than those concerning earthly good things. Apparently deserted by God, the troubled man cries, with poor Cowper— "Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and his Word?" 2. This should really inspire hope. God is not fickle. His constancy is deeper than appearances. We may have lost hold of his goodness through our own sin or distrust. Perhaps, however, we are deluding ourselves; he is really nearer to us in adversity than he was in prosperity, only we cannot understand the mysteries of his providence. Assuredly, if God once loved and cared for his children, he will never forsake them. 3. This should urge the young to appreciate their privileges. It is not desirable that any should reflect overmuch on their present happy condition, because the charm of it is its unconscious freedom and activity. But it is only right to acknowledge the goodness of God with thankfulness; and to so use early privileges that we shall not afterwards look back with regret on a misspent youth.—W.F.A. Job 29:8-12 The character that wins respect. Job paints a glowing picture of his honoured condition in past days. Then he was more than prosperous. He was treated with great deference. Let us gather up the traits of the character that wins respect, and in order to do so let us distinguish them from false grounds of deference. I. FALSE GROUNDS OF . 1. Power. Multitudes cringe before mere power, either in fear of giving offence or with a hope of gaining some advantage. The Oriental makes his humble salaam to the infidel whom in his heart he despises. This deference is no credit to either party. 2. Wealth. The worship of mammon may be less visibly cruel than the worship of Mars, and yet in some respects it is more degrading, for it calls out no heroic qualities. The deference shown to the rich simply because they are rich is one of the most unworthy characteristics of human weakness. It is not peculiar to our own age; this miserable sycophantic spirit was ridiculed by Roman satirists and reprobated by New Testament writers (e.g. James 2:2). Its sordid meanness humiliates all who are enslaved by it. 3. Self-assertion. The world is often too easy in taking men at their own valuation of themselves. Because a great claim is made it is often tacitly assented to, simply because people are too indolent or too cowardly to question it. But self-importance is not greatness. 4. Success. There is more in this when it is not merely a business matter, when it indicates sterling qualities of ability and energy. Still, good fortune may have much to do with it, and conscientious scruples may have been trampled down in the fierce determination to win it at any cost. Then the failure that would not stoop to the lower and more easy means of success is infinitely more worthy of honour. II. THE TRUE THAT WINS RESPECT. it is portrayed in Job’s description of his own happy past. Why was this hushed deference of old men as well as young, of princes and nobles? The answer is to be found in the conduct of Job. 1. Active benevolence. "Job delivered the poor that cried," etc. Here was more than princely generosity. It costs a man absolutely nothing to leave a big legacy to the poor, and it does not hurt him much to give freely during his lifetime out of his superfluous cash. On the contrary, the money may be profitably laid out, even from a purely worldly and selfish point of view, in the honour of standing well in subscription-lists. But the greater honour is due to those who exert themselves for the good of their brother-men. Lord Shaftesbury was a man of small means. His fame is not founded on money gifts; it rests on the more solid foundation of self-denying labours. 2. Integrity. Job put on righteousness, and it clothed him. Without this, benevolence is of little value. We must be just before we are generous. A Christian man of business should see to it that his name is without reproach in the commercial world. Truth and honesty are primary conditions of respect. 3. Wisdom. "Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel" (verse 21). Had Job been a foolish, though a well-meaning man, deference to his counsel would have been asign of weakness on the part of others. But he proved himself to be a man of strong mental power and of true wisdom. We owe respect to the "men of light and leading" when their leading is determined by their light.—W.F.A. Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish. I. WHY IT IS . We cannot but be struck with this beautiful trait in Job’s autobiographical sketch. It is better than all renown. The clamours of the multitude are poor plaudits compared with the blessing of the poor. Many people may be indifferent to it. They may be satisfied if only they can grasp power, and compel the homage of the great, although their path is followed by "curses not loud, but deep." Cruel conquerors, ruthless tyrants, hard-hearted men of the world, know nothing of the blessing Job here describes. Yet it is solid and real. 1. It springs from true appreciation. This is no superficial praise required by custom or prompted by shallow motives. It arises out of a genuine perception of goodness. 2. It is characterized by gratitude. Thus it con-talus warmer feelings than those of admiration. An element of awakening affection enters into it. Now, it is better to be loved by the obscure than to be merely honoured by the great; it is better to be loved by a few than to be applauded by a multi-rode. 3. It is accompanied by the approval of Christ. He tells us that what we do to one of the least of his brethren we do to him. He commends the good Samaritan to us as an approved example. Therefore the gratitude of the humble poor carries with it the smile of Heaven. 4. It is powerful for good. Men try to win the favour of the great who can do much for them, and selfishly disregard the opinions of the poor who seem to have power to do them but little good or harm. Yet the blessings of the helpless are prayers to the great Friend of the helpless. They bring down the blessings of God. Happy is the man who lives under these conditions! II. HOW IT IS EARNED. 1. By means of genuine goodness. Clamours of applause may be won by very equivocal conduct. Superficial things may excite extraordinary admiration. People rush to stare and shout after any celebrity. But they want to know more before they will bless one. This devout well-wishing and praying for a person which we call blessing can only be earned by real and solid goodness. 2. Through the exercise of sympathy. The helpless and perishing may be constrained to avail themselves of favours tossed to them from a distance by a hand of proud patronage, and perhaps even of scornful contempt, But if there is no grace in the gift there will be little gratitude in the reception of it. If we would earn the blessing of the helpless we must win their love, and in order to do that we must manifest love to them. Sympathy unlocks the fountains of the heart. 3. In deeds of active helpfulness. If the sympathy is genuine it will lead spotaneously to such deeds. We cannot truly sympathize with a person in trouble without desiring to help him. Now, the active helpfulness will be the sign and seal of the sympathy. This it was that secured Job’s place in the heart of the poor. Men have heaped honours on the head of the "Happy Warrior." The time has come when we should revive the better glories of Job’s days. If we desire to win a position in the world, let us save our ambition from sordid or even wicked aims. Let him be first in love and service who would be first in honour. This is Christ’s rule (Mark 9:35).—W.F.A. Job 29:14 Clothed with righteousness. I. CLOTHES A MAN AS WITH A GARMENT. 1. It covers. If a man has but a good character, we can pardon much else in him. He may be weak, foolish, unfortunate. He may have failed in the world, and have come down to poverty. Yet he is not in rags. A royal robe covers him, and, in the eyes of those who can appreciate true worth, this is the one thing seen about him. 2. It protects. The garment is to keep off the chill winds and damping mists and scorching sun. Righteousness is more than a stout garment. It is a piece of armour—a breastplate, protecting the heart (Ephesians 6:14). When once a man is assured of the integrity of his cause he can look the whole world in the face; he can dare to go through fire and water; he is strong and safe where one with an evil conscience may well tremble and cower. 3. It adorns. This righteousness is not only decent and comforting, like a thick, warm, homespun garment; it is more beautiful than a king’s clothing of purple and silk and gold embroidery. There is no beauty so fair as that of goodness. 4. It cannot be hidden. It is not a secret confined to the heart. It must be there first, it must spring from the heart. But it is not hidden within. Character is visible, like a garment worn in the street. II. THE WHICH THUS CLOTHES MUST BE REAL. It is only the perversity of an erroneous theology that could ever make it necessary to utter so obvious a sentence as this. There is a way of referring to the imputed righteousness of Christ as though this dispensed with the necessity of our being ourselves righteous. Surely such a doctrine would be immoral. In what respects could this so-called robe of righteousness be distinguished from the hypocrite’s cloak? If Christ’s righteousness were only to hide our unrighteousness without curing it, not only would a great deception be practised, but no real good would be done. The result would be an unmitigated evil. For what is our curse and our ruin? Is it not our sin? If so, nothing can benefit us that does not destroy that sin. Therefore an attempt to cover it up and leave it unaltered will do us no good, but will injure us by drugging our conscience and giving us a false assurance. In Eastern cities an open drain runs down the middle of the street, and is not so offensive as one might think, because it is always being oxidized and purified by the fresh air. We cover over our drains, but make ventilating holes in our streets, through which gases of concentrated foulness, unmixed with pure air, are continually rising among the passers-by. Have we gained much? III. ONLY CHRIST CAN CLOTHE US WITH . Self-righteousness is a delusion. We cannot make ourselves righteous, nor can any law put us right with God. St. Paul demonstrated this in the opening chapters of his Epistle to the Romans. But he also showed that God had given us righteousness in Christ (Romans 3:21, Romans 3:22). Now, this comes first of all in forgiveness. We are then put in a right relation with God, before we have overcome all the sin that dwells within us. Christ is the promise of our future righteousness. In this way his righteousness means much to us. God cannot be taken in by any fiction. He can only regard us just as we are. But he can treat us for Christ’s sake better than we deserve. So through Christ we are placed in right relations with God, and those right relations are the channels through which real righteousness comes into us.—W.F.A. Job 29:18 The phoenix. Accepting the rendering that is now adopted by most of the abler commentators—that which is given in the margin of the Revised Version—we see Job comparing himself in his earlier days to the phoenix, which, "according to the Egyptian legend, lived five hundred years, and then, setting fire to its nest, renewed its youth in the funeral pyre." Youth cannot believe in death, unless, indeed, it falls into a sentimental mood, or is startled by the ugly fact itself. Naturally, when health is unbroken, and all goes well, life seems to open up an endless vista of days to the young man. This view contains both a foolish delusion and a Divine truth. I. THE FOOLISH . The phoenix was only a fabulous bird; no such creature exists in nature. No one has ever found the elixir of life. The idea that life is long is a delusion of youth. It springs in part from the freshness of things, and in part from the overflowing vitality of youth. In his address to a butterfly, Wordsworth says— Sit near us on the bough! We’ll talk of sunshine and of song, And summer days, when we were young; Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now." Perhaps there is no reason to shatter this delusion. Why should we spoil the sunshine of youth with the shadow of coming years? The world could not go on without young enthusiasm, and hope is essential to young enthusiasm. Yet it is possible to be led into practical mistakes by this delusion. The young may think that there is plenty of time before them, and the thought may be used as an excuse for indolence, negligence, and the postponement of duty. Then a sudden awakening comes with a shock of alarm, as it is perceived only too late that the golden opportunities of youth are gone—for ever! II. THE DIVINE TRUTH. Clement of Rome appealed to the phoenix as a witness for the resurrection. We smile at his credulity. But may we not appeal to the legend of the phoenix as an evidence of the instinct of immortality? Why is it so natural to us to believe that life will go on for ever? Shall we put this idea down entirely to the delusion of circumstances and of our own vitality? Does it not spring from something deeper in our nature? Be that as it may, however, Christ has come to satisfy the desire and to confirm the hope. Job confessed the foolishness of his youthful dreams, yet even he in those old-world days had occasional glimpses of the life beyond the grave, and we have a grand assurance of that life in Christ and his resurrection. The mistake is to dream of an earthly immortality. The old man who cherishes fond hopes of living a little longer is not much better off than the drowning man catching at a straw. But he who has a hold on the life eternal can afford to see the years rushing away, swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. He must make the best of them while he has them; for this life is with him but once, and he will have to give an account of it hereafter; for there is a hereafter—a great day of God’s eternity that knows no sunset.—W.F.A. Job 29:21-23 Welcome counsel. Among the happy circumstances of Job’s sunny days of prosperity, he recalls the welcome that was accorded to his words of advice. Too often advice is more freely offered than thankfully received. Let us, then, consider the quality, the utility, and the acceptance of welcome counsel. I. THE QUALITY OF WELCOME COUNSEL. What conditions must be fulfilled to make advice worthy of acceptation? 1. It must be full of knowledge. A glib tongue is ready enough to offer gratuitous advice, but we want to ascertain whether a full mind is inspiring it. Religious teachers must know for themselves before they can safely lead others. The doubt that is pardonable in the private person may be fatal to the public instructor. 2. It must be based on experience. Evidently Job was a man of wide experience. He spoke out of the fulness of his own observation of the world. Armchair counsellors are not much valued. An apprenticeship must be served to the affairs on which we would give advice. 3. It must be accompanied by practical wisdom. Knowledge and experience may find a man very foolish, and leave him so. We have to learn how to apply our acquisitions. We need practical tact in dealing with men and affairs. 4. It must be offered in sympathy. It is very little good to give preaching advice. We must talk to a man as a brother. We must let people see that we care for them, and that we are truly studying their good. A suspicion that the advice is not disinterested vitiates it entirely. II. THE UTILITY OF WELCOME COUNSEL. Bushels of advice have to be thrown on one side as so much burdensome rubbish. Nevertheless, the rare value of really good advice is beyond all reckoning. 1. Right living is supremely important. Counsel deals with life rather than with opinions. It touches conduct. Now, as Matthew Arnold quaintly says, "conduct is three parts of life." Anything that really helps conduct must be valuable. 2. Right living is not easy. We are often perplexed and in uncertainty. Our prejudices and interests warp our judgments. 3. External advice brings new light. It may not be better than what we already possess; but it is an addition. The wise counsellor helps us to look at our affairs from a fresh point of view. At the same time, he comes with a certain calmness and detachment that enable him to take a fair view of the situation. III. THE OF WELCOME ADVICE. 1. It needs humility to receive it. We are all ready to receive the advice that concurs with our previous opinions; but that advice is scarcely needed. The difficulty is to accept the advice that contradicts our notions or wishes. Pride resents it; yet it may be most needful to us. 2. It should be taken with discrimination. Well-meant advice may be very foolish; even wise advice is not infallible. We have to select what commends itself to our judgment. 3. It ought not to supersede independent thought and choice. We may be advised by counsellors; but we have no business to let ourselves be ruled by them. After all, it is we and not they who will be responsible for what we do. Let us, then, preserve independence of judgment, and cultivate strength of will. 4. It deserves to be treated with gratitude. For the sake of its value. Also because, if it is worth much, it must have cost our counsellor time and pains. Too often giving advice is a very thankless task. N.B.—All earthly counsel is useful only in so far as it follows the heavenly, of which it is a type. The most welcome counsel should be that which comes through the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.—W.F.A. Job 30:1-31 Job 30:1-31 The contrast is now completed. Having drawn the portrait of himself as he was, rich, honoured, blessed with children, flourishing, in favour with both God and man, Job now presents himself to us as he is, despised of men (verses 1-10), afflicted of God (verse 11), a prey to vague terrors (verse 15), tortured with bodily pains (verses 17, 18), cast off by God (verses 19, 20), with nothing but death to look for (verses 23-31). The chapter is the most touching in the whole book. Job 30:1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision. As Job had been speaking last of the honour in which he was once held, he beans his contrast by chewing how at present he is disgraced and derided. Men who are outcasts and solitary themselves, poor dwellers in caves (verse 6), who have much ado to keep body and soul together (verses 3, 4), and not men only’ but youths, mere boys, scoff at him, make him a song and a byword (verse 9). nay, "spare not to spit in his face" (verse 10). There seem to have been in his vicinity weak and debased tribes, generally contemned and looked down upon, regarded as thieves (verse 5) by their neighbours, and considered to be of base and vile origin (verse 8), who saw in Job’s calamities a rare opportunity for insulting and triumphing over a member of the superior race which had crushed them, and thus tasting, to a certain extent, the sweetness of revenge. Whose fathers I would have disdained (rather, I disdained) to have set with the dogs of my flock. Job had not thought their fathers worthy of employing even as the lowest class of herdsmen, those reckoned on a par with the sheep-dogs. Job 30:2 Yes, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? Men, who had no such strength in their hands as to yield an employer any profit—poor, weak creatures, in whom old age (rather, manly vigour) was perished. An effete race seems to be pointed at, without strength or stamina, nerveless, spiritless, "destined to early decay and premature death;" but how they had sunk into such a condition is not apparent. Too often such remanents are merely tribes physically weak, whom more powerful ones have starved and stunted, driving them into the least productive regions, and in every way making life hard for them. Job 30:3 For want and famine they were solitary; rather, they were gaunt (see the Revised Version). Compare the descriptions given to us of the native races of Central Africa by Sir S. Baker, Speke, Grant, Stanley, and others. Fleeing into the wilderness; rather, gnawing the wilderness; i.e. feeding on such dry and sapless roots and fruits as the wilderness produces. In former time desolate and waste; or, on the eve of wasteness and desolation. Job 30:4 This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 30:1-31 The contrast is now completed. Having drawn the portrait of himself as he was, rich, honoured, blessed with children, flourishing, in favour with both God and man, Job now presents himself to us as he is, despised of men (verses 1-10), afflicted of God (verse 11), a prey to vague terrors (verse 15), tortured with bodily pains (verses 17, 18), cast off by God (verses 19, 20), with nothing but death to look for (verses 23-31). The chapter is the most touching in the whole book. Job 30:1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision. As Job had been speaking last of the honour in which he was once held, he beans his contrast by chewing how at present he is disgraced and derided. Men who are outcasts and solitary themselves, poor dwellers in caves (verse 6), who have much ado to keep body and soul together (verses 3, 4), and not men only’ but youths, mere boys, scoff at him, make him a song and a byword (verse 9). nay, "spare not to spit in his face" (verse 10). There seem to have been in his vicinity weak and debased tribes, generally contemned and looked down upon, regarded as thieves (verse 5) by their neighbours, and considered to be of base and vile origin (verse 8), who saw in Job’s calamities a rare opportunity for insulting and triumphing over a member of the superior race which had crushed them, and thus tasting, to a certain extent, the sweetness of revenge. Whose fathers I would have disdained (rather, I disdained) to have set with the dogs of my flock. Job had not thought their fathers worthy of employing even as the lowest class of herdsmen, those reckoned on a par with the sheep-dogs. Job 30:2 Yes, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? Men, who had no such strength in their hands as to yield an employer any profit—poor, weak creatures, in whom old age (rather, manly vigour) was perished. An effete race seems to be pointed at, without strength or stamina, nerveless, spiritless, "destined to early decay and premature death;" but how they had sunk into such a condition is not apparent. Too often such remanents are merely tribes physically weak, whom more powerful ones have starved and stunted, driving them into the least productive regions, and in every way making life hard for them. Job 30:3 For want and famine they were solitary; rather, they were gaunt (see the Revised Version). Compare the descriptions given to us of the native races of Central Africa by Sir S. Baker, Speke, Grant, Stanley, and others. Fleeing into the wilderness; rather, gnawing the wilderness; i.e. feeding on such dry and sapless roots and fruits as the wilderness produces. In former time desolate and waste; or, on the eve of wasteness and desolation. Job 30:4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes. One of the plants on which they feed is the malluch, not really a "mallow," but probably the Atriplex halimus, which is "a shrub from four to five feet high, with many thick branches; the leaves are rather sour to the taste; the flowers are purple, and very small; it grows on the sea-coast in Greece, Arabia, Syria, etc; and belongs to the natural order Chenopodiace". And juniper roots for their meat. Most moderns regard the rothen as the Genista monosperma, which is a kind of broom. It is a leguminous plant, having a white flower. and grows plentifully in the Sinaitic desert, in Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. The root is very bitter, and would only be used as food under extreme pressure, but the fruit is readily eaten by sheep, and the roots would, no doubt, yield some nourishment. Job 30:5 They were driven forth from among men. Weak races retreat before strong ones, who occupy their lands, and whose will they do not dare to dispute. They are not intentionally "driven out," for the strong raecs would gladly make them their drudges; but they retire into the most inaccessible regions, as the primitive population has done in India and elsewhere. They cried after them as after a thief. Outcast tribes naturally, and almost necessarily, become robber-tribes. Deprived of their productive lands, and driven into rocky deserts, want makes them thieves and marauders. Then those who have made them what they are vilify and decry them. Job 30:6 To dwell in the cliffs of. the valleys; of in the clefts (Revised Version). Western Asia is full of rocky regions, seamed with deep gorges and clefts, the walls of which rise abruptly or in terraces, and are themselves pierced with caves and cracks. The tract about Petra is, perhaps, the most remarkable of these regions; hut there are many others which closely resemble it. These places afford refuges to weak and outcast tribes, who hide in them, either in caves of the earth, or in the rocks. The Greeks called these unfortunates "Troglodytes", the Hebrews "Horim," from חוֹר "a hole." Job 30:7 Among the bushes they brayed. The sounds which came from their mouths sounded to Job less like articulate speech than like the braying of asses. Compare what Herodotus says of his Troglodytes: "Their language is unlike that of any other people; it sounds like the screeching of bats." Under the nettles (or, wild vetches) they were gathered together; rather, huddled together. Job 30:8 They were children of fools. The physical degeneracy whereof Job has been speaking is accompanied in most instances by extreme mental incapacity. Some of the degraded races cannot count beyond four or five; others have not more than two or three hundred words in their vocabulary. They are all of low intellect, though occasionally extremely artful and cunning. Yea, children of base men; literally, children of no name. Their race had never made for itself any name, but was unknown and insignificant. They were viler than the earth; rather, they were scourged out of the land. This must not be understood literally. It is a rhetorical repetition of what had been already said in verse 5. The expression may be compared with the tale in Herodotus, that when the Scythian slaves rebelled and took up arms, the Scythians scourged them into subjection (Herod; 4.3, 4). Job 30:9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword (see above, Job 17:6; and comp. Psalms 69:12). Job 30:10 They abhor me, they flee far from me; rather, they abhor me, they stoat aloof from me (see the Revised Version). And spare not to spit in my face. This has generally been taken literally, as it seems to have been by the LXX. But it, perhaps, means no more than that they did not refrain from spitting in Job’s presence. Job 30:11 Because he hath loosed my cord. "He," in this passage, can only be God; and thus Job turns here to some extent from his human persecutors to his great Afflicter, the Almighty. God has "loosened his cord," i.e. has relaxed his vital fibre, taken away his strength, reduced him to helplessness. Hence, and hence only, do the persecutors dare to crowd around him and insult him. And afflicted me. God has afflicted him with blow after blow—with impoverishment (Job 1:14-17), with bereavement (Job 1:18, Job 1:19), with a sore malady (Job 2:7). They have also let loose the bridle before me. This has given his persecutors the courage to east aside all restraint, and lead him with insult after insult (verses 1, 9, 10). Job 30:12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; literally, the brood; i.e. the rabble—a crowd of half-grown youths and boys, such as collects in almost any town to hoot and insult a respectable person who is in trouble and helpless. In the East such gatherings are very common and exceedingly annoying. They push away my feet; i.e. they try to throw me down as I walk. They raise up against me the ways of their destruction. They place obstacles in my way, impede my steps, thwart me in every way that they find possible. Job 30:13 They mar my path; i.e. interfere with and frustrate whatever I am bent on doing. They set forward my calamity, Professor Lee translates, "They profit by my ruin." They have no helper. If the text is sound, we must understand, "They do all this, they dare all this, even though they have no powerful men to aid them." But it is suspected that there is some corruption in the passage, and that the original gave the sense which is found in the Vulgate," There is none to help me." Job 30:14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters; i.e. with a force like that of water when it has burst through a bank or dam. In the desolation they relied themselves upon me. Like the waves of the sea, which follow one after another. Job 30:15 Terrors are turned upon me Job seems to pass here from his human persecutors to his internal sufferings of mind and body. "Terrors’ take hold upon him. He experiences in his sleep horrible dreams and visions (see Job 7:14), and even in his waking hours he is haunted by fears. The "terrors of God do set themselves in array against him" (Job 6:4). God seems to him as One that watches, and "tries him every moment" (Job 7:18), seeking occasion against him, and never leaving him an instant’s peace (Job 7:19). These terrors, he says, pursue my soul as the wind; literally, pursue mine honour, or my dignity. They flutter the calm composure that befits a godly man, disturb it, shake it, and for a time at any rate, cause terrors and shrinkings of soul. Under these circumstances, my welfare passeth away as a cloud. It is not only my happiness, but my real welfare, that is gone. Body and soul are equally in suffering—the one shaken with fears and disturbed with doubts and apprehensions; the other smitten with a sore disease, so that there is no soundness in it. Job 30:16 And now my soul is poured out upon me (comp. Psalms 42:4). My very soul seems to be gone out of me. "I faint and swoon away, because of my fears" (Lee). The days of affliction have taken hold upon me. All my prosperity is gone, and I am come to "the days of affliction." These "take hold on me," and, as it were, possess me. Job 30:17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season. In Elephantiasis anaesthetics’ says Dr. Erasmus Wilson, "when the integument is insensible, there are deep-seated burning pains, sometimes of a bone or joint, and sometimes of the vertebral column. These pains are greatest at night; they prevent sleep, and give rise to restless,less and frightful dreams". And my sinews take no rest; rather, my gnawings, or my gnawing pains (see the Revised Version; and comp. Job 30:3, where the same word is properly rendered by "gnawing [the wilderness]"). Job 30:18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed; or, disfigured. The purulent discharge from his ulcers disfigured and made filthy his garment, which stiffened as the discharge dried, and clung to his frame. It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. The whole garment clung to his body as closely as it is usual for a mall’s collar, or "neck-hole" (Professor Lee), to cling about his throat. Job 30:19 He (i.e. God) hath cast me into the mire. "The mire" here is the lowest depth of misery and degradation (comp. Psalms 40:2; Psalms 69:2, Psalms 69:14). Job feels himself cast into it by God, but nevertheless does not forsake him nor cease to call upon him (verses 20-23). And I am become like dust and ashes; i.e. unclean, impure, offensive to my fellow-men, an object of dislike and disdain. Job 30:20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me. It is the worst of all calamities to be God-forsaken, as Job believed himself to be, because he had no immediate answer to his prayers. The bitterest cry upon the cross was "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" But no good man is ever really God-forsaken, and no rightful and earnest prayers are ever really unheard. Job "had need of patience" (Hebrews 10:36), patient as he was (James 5:11). He should have trusted God more, and complained less. I stand up, and thou regardest me not; rather, I stand up, as the manner of the Jews usually was in prayer (Luke 18:11), and thou lookest at me (see the Revised Version). Job’s complaint is that, when he stands up and stretches out his hands to God in prayer, God simply looks on, does nothing, gives him no help. Job 30:21 Thou art become cruel to me; literally, thou art turned to be cruel to me. In other words, "Thou art changed to me, and art become cruel to me." Job never forgets that for long years God was gracious and kind to him, "made him and fashioned him together round about," "clothed him with skin and flesh, and fenced him with bones and sinews," "granted him life and favour, and by his visitation preserved his spirit" (Job 10:9-12); but the recollection brings, perhaps, as much of pain. as of pleasure with it. One of our poets says— "Joy’s recollection is no longer joy; But sorrow’s memory is a sorrow still." At any rate, the contrast between past joy and present suffering adds a pang to tile latter. With thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me; literally, with the might of thy hand dost thou persecute me (see the Revised Version). "Haec noster irreverentius" (Schultens); comp. Job 19:6-13. Job 30:22 Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou tensest me to ride upon it; i.e. thou makest me to be storm-tossed. I am as it were a straw caught up by a whirlwind, and borne hither and thither in the wide regions of space, unknowing whither I go. I am treated as I have described the wicked man to be treated (Job 27:20, Job 27:21). And dissolvest my substance. "Dissolvest me entirely" (Professor Lee); dissolvest me in the storms (Revised Version). Job 30:23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death. Job has all along expressed his conviction that he has nothing to look for but death. He feels within himself the seeds of a mortal malady; for such, practically, was elephantiasis in Job’s time. He is devoid of any expectation of recovery. Death must come upon him, he thinks, ere long; and then God will bring him to the house appointed for all living. This, as he has already explained (Job 10:21, Job 10:22), is "the land of darkness and the shadow of death, a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." It is a melancholy prospect; but we must regard it as cheered by the hope of an ultimate resurrection, such as seems indicated, if not absolutely proclaimed, in Job 19:25-27 (see the comment on that passage). Job 30:24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. This is one of the most obscure passages in the entire Book of Job, and scarcely any two independent commentators understand it alike. To give all the different renderings, and discuss them, would be an almost endless task, and one over-wearisome to the reader. It will, per-Imps, suffice to select the one which to the present writer appears the most satisfactory. This is the rendering of Professor Stanley Leathes, who suggests the following: "Howbeit God will not put forth his hand to bring a man to death and the grave, when there is earnest prayer for them, not even when he himself hath caused the calamity." The same writer further explains the passage as follows: "I know that thou wilt dissolve and destroy me, and bring me to the grave (verse 23), though thou wilt not do so when I pray to thee to release me by death from my sufferings. Thou wilt surely do so [some time or other], but not in my time, or according to my will, but only in thine own appointed time, and as thou seest fit." Job 30:25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? i.e. do I claim a sympathy which I do not deserve? When men wept and entreated me, did not I do my best to give them the aid which they requested? Did not I weep for them, and intercede with God for them? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? (comp. Job 29:12-17; Job 31:16-22). Job 30:26 When I looked for flood, then evil came unto me. Job was "looking for good," expecting fully the continuance of his great wealth and prosperity, when the sudden shock of calamity fell upon him It was wholly unexpected, and therefore the harder to bear. And when I waited for light, there came darkness. This may refer to periods, after his calamities began, when he had hopes that his prayers would be answered, and a rest or pause, an interval of repose, be granted him (Job 9:34; Job 10:20), but when his hopes were disappointed, and the darkness closed in upon him thicker and murkier than ever. Job 30:27 My bowels boiled, and rested not; rather, boil and rest not (see the Revised Version). It is his present condition of which Job speaks from verse 27 to verse 31. His "entrails," i.e. his whole innermost nature, is disturbed, tormented, thrown into confusion. The days of affliction prevented me; rather, are come upon me (comp. verse 16). Job 30:28, Job 30:29 I went mourning without the sun; rather, I go about blackened, but not by the sun. Grief and suffering, according to Oriental notions, blackened the face (see Lamentations 4:8; Lamentations 5:10; Psalms 119:83; and below, Psalms 119:30). I stood up, and I cried in the congregation; rather, I stand up in the assembly’ and cry for help (see the Revised Version). Job feels this as the most pitiable feature in his ease. He is broken down; he can no longer endure. At first he could sit in silence for seven days (Job 2:13); now he is reduced to uttering complaints and lamentations. He is a brother, not to dragons, but to jackals. His laments are like the long melancholy cries that those animals emit during the silence of the night, so well known to Eastern travellers. He adds further that he is a companion, not to owls, but to ostriches; which, like jackals, have a melancholy cry. Job 30:30 My skin is black upon me (see the comment on Job 30:28, Job 30:29, ad init.), and my bones are burned with heat. The "burning pains" in the bones, which characterize at least one form of elephantiasis, have been already mentioned (see the comment on Job 30:17). In ordinary elephantiasis there is often "intense pain in the lumbar region and groin," which the patient might think to be in his bones. Job 30:31 My harp also is turned to mourning. The result of all is that Job’s harp is laid aside, either literally or figuratively. Its music is replaced by the sound of mourning (see verses 28, 29). And my organ (or rather, my pipe) into the voice of them that weep. The pipe also is no longer sounded in his presence; he hears only the voice of weeping and lamentation. Thus appropriately ends the long dirge in which he has bewailed his miserable fare. Job 30:1-15 Job’s second parable: 2. A lamentation over fallen greatness. I. THE OF JOB’S . 1. Juniors in respect of age. (Verse 1.) These were not the young princes of the city (Job 29:8), by whom he had formerly been held in reverential regard, but "the young good-for-nothing vagabonds of a miserable class of men" (Delitzsch) dwelling in the neighbourhood. Job’s inferiors in point of years, they should have treated him with honour and respect (Leviticus 19:32), especially when they beheld his intense wretchedness and misery. That they failed to accord him such veneration as was due to seniority in age, and much more that they made him the butt of their contemptuous derision, was not only an express violation of the dictates of nature and religion, but a special mark of depravity in themselves, as well as a certain index to the social and moral degradation of the race to which they belonged. The good qualities of an advancing and the bad qualities of a retrograding people, infallibly discover themselves in the moral characteristics of the youthful portion of the community. 2. Base in respect of ancestry. (Verses 1, 8.) The foregoing inference from the ribald behaviour of the younger men Job confirms by describing them as "children of fools, yea, children of base men," literally, "of men without a name," and as men "whose sires" he "would have disdained to set with the dogs of his flock." It is doubtful if Job does not in this and other expressions of this passage (verses 1-8) repay the contempt of his scornful assailants with fourfold liberality, thereby failing to evince that meekness in resenting injuries which good men should study to display, and perpetrating the same offence which he imputes to others, as well as talking about his fellow-men (God’s creatures and God’s children no less than himself) in a way that was scarcely excusable even in a patriarchal sage. Nevertheless, what he purposes to convey through the medium of his heated, if also poetic, language is that his revilers were the offspring of a vile, worthless, degraded, brutalized race, who had well-nigh sunk to the level of the beasts that perish. 3. Worthless in respect of service. (Verse 2.) Like their fathers whom Job would have disdained to rank with the dogs of his flock, i.e. whom he regarded as not worthy of being compared to these wise and faithful animals who watched his sheep, they (i.e. these younger vagabonds) were idle and effeminate triflers, lazy, worthless rascals, as little able to work as willing, the ethnic deterioration they were undergoing revealing itself in enervated physical constitutions no less than in depraved moral dispositions. The truth here enunciated with regard to nations and communities is also true of individuals, that sin, vice, immorality, has a tendency to impair the bodily strength, mental vigour, and moral power of such as yield to its fatal fascinations. 4. Furnished in respect of food. (Verses 3, 4.) Strangely blending pity with scorn, Job informs us that in great part the feebleness of those wretched creatures, who "could bring nothing to perfection" (Cox), and were not worth employing to do the work of a shepherd’s dog, was due to the difficulty they had in finding nourishment. Lean and haggard, benumbed from want and hunger, they literally gnawed the desert, picking up such scanty sustenance as the barren steppe afforded, plucking mallows in the thicket, i.e. "the salt-wort from off the stalk" (Fry), the salt-wort, or sea-purslain,- being a tall shrubby, plant which thrives in the desert as well as on the coast, "the buds and young leaves of which" also "are gathered and eaten by the poor" (Delitzsch); and taking the roots of broom for their bread, the broom abounding in the deserts and sandy places of Egypt and Arabia, and growing to a height sufficient to afford shelter to a person sitting down. A melancholy picture of destitution, which has its counterpart not only among expiring races, effete desert tribes, and wretched Troglodytes, but also in many a centre of modern civilization. It is hardly questionable that in the lower strata of society in our large cities there are thousands for whom the physical conditions of life are as severe as those just depicted by the Poet. 5. Outcasts in respect of society. (Verse 5.) In consequence of their pilfering and marauding habits, they were banished forth from the pale of the organized community Nay, when it happened that they ventured near the precincts of civilized life, they at once became the objects of a hue and cry, men hallooing after them as they did after a thief, and chasing them away to their own miserable haunts of poverty and vice. It is clear they were the criminal classes of patriarchal times, and were regarded with much the same abhorrence as the pariahs of modern society, who wage war against all constituted authority, prey upon the industry of the virtuous and law-abiding, and as a consequence live in a perpetual state of social ostracism. 6. Troglodytes in respect of habitation. (Verse 6.) Driven beyond the pale of civilized society, they were compelled "to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys," literally, "in the horror of glens," i.e. in dismal and gloomy gorges, like the Horites (or cave-men) of Mount Seir (Genesis 14:6), betaking themselves for shelter to the caves of the earth and the holes in the rocks. According to modern scientific theory, they would exemplify man in the earliest or lowest stage of his development; according to the testimony of revelation, the Troglodytes would attest man’s degeneracy from a primeval standard of perfection. And so persistent is this downward tendency in man apart from Divine grace, that almost every civilized community has its social and moral Troglodytes, who dwell in dismal valleys—its wretched outcasts, children of sin and shame, whose lurking-places are dens of infamy and haunts of vice. 7. Dehumanized in respect of nature. (Verse 7.) Having previously (Job 24:5) described these evicted aborigines as leading a gregarious life, like wild asses roaming the desert under the guidance of a leader (Job 39:5), Job recurs to the comparison to indicate, not the eager ferocity with which they scour the steppe for fodder, but how near to the brutes they have been brought by their misery, representing them as huddling themselves together under the bushes, and croaking out, in unintelligible jargon like the brayings of an ass, a doleful lamentation over their miserable condition. Herodotus compares the language of the Troglodyte Ethiopians to the screeching of bats. The speech of savage races is mostly composed of "growling gutturals and sharp clicks" (Cox). As a nation advances in civilization its tongue purifies and refines. Like the cave-men of Western Asia and Ethiopia, the moral Troglodytes of society have a jargon of their own; e.g. the language of thieves. II. THE OF JOB’S . 1. Mockery and contempt. (Verses 1, 9, 10.) Physically and morally degraded, this worthless rabble of marauders, half men and half beasts, having fallen in with Job in their wanderings, were so little touched by sympathy for his misfortunes, that they turned his miseries into merry jests, and made bywords of his groans. It is a special mark of depravity when youth mocks at age (2 Kings 2:3) and laughs at affliction. The experience of Job was reproduced in the eases of David (Psalms 35:15; Psalms 69:12), Jeremiah (Lamentations 3:14, Lamentations 3:63), and Christ (Matthew 27:43; Luke 23:35). 2. Insult and outrage. (Verse 10.) They gave open and undisguised expression to the abhorrence with which they regarded him, by fleeing far from him, or standing at a distance, and making their remarks upon him. If they ventured to come near him it was either to spit in his presence, "the greatest insult to an Oriental" (Carey), or perhaps to spit in his face (cf. Numbers 12:14; Deuteronomy 25:9), thus carrying their contempt and scorn to the lowest depth of indignity. Job had fallen low indeed to be thus outraged by the vilest dregs of society; but not lower than did Christ, who was similarly treated by the rabble of Judaea (Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:30), as long before it bad been predicted that he should be (Isaiah 1:6). No doubt in all this Job’s sufferings were typical of Christ’s. 3. Hostility and violence. (Verses 12-15.) Not content with words and gestures, the young vagabonds proceeded to acts of open violence. Having found the poor fallen prince groaning in wretchedness and misery upon the ash-heap outside his house, they abstained not from direct hostility. Like a crowd of witnesses starting up on his right hand, they overwhelmed him with accusations; like an army of assailants thrusting his feet away, they disputed with him every inch of ground, compelling him to retire ever further and further back; pressing on like a tumultuous besieging host, they cast up their ways of destruction, i.e. their military causeways, against him, tearing down his path so as to render escape impossible, breaking in upon him as through a wide breach, and causing him to flee in terror before their irresistible approach, so that his nobility was dispersed like the wind, and his prosperity swept away like a cloud. III. THE MOTIVE JOB’S . 1. Not Job’s unkindness. It was true that these insolent vagabonds, with their fathers, had been summarily evicted from their pristine settlements—had been compelled, not without cruel oppression and intolerable hardship, to retire before the superior race who had dislodged them; it may also be that of that conquering Arab tribe Job was a conspicuous member, and might on that account be held responsible for the indignities and wrongs that had been heaped upon the wretched aborigines; but, in point of fact, Job disclaims having taken part in those ruthless acts of tyranny which caused the poor of the land to slink away and hide themselves, naked and shivering, in the dens and caves of the earth, in the holes and crevices of the rocks (Job 24:4-8), and rather indicates that he regarded their sorrowful lot with compassion, even while, with disgust and aversion, he shrank from any contact with themselves. But: 2. Their own wickedness. They simply saw that he, whom they once knew as a powerful prince, was overtaken by evil fortune, and they turned upon him accordingly. That they traced Job’s calamities, as Job himself did, to the hand of God (verse 11), was unlikely. Yet the result was the same. God, according to Job—according to them, fate—had unloosed iris bow and sent a shaft through the heart of this imperious autocrat, or had loosened the cord which upheld the tent of his hitherto vigorous body, and had laid him prostrate beneath a loathsome and painful disease; and so they, casting off restraint, assailed him with unbridled arrogance, acting out, in these early times, the familiar story of the kicking ass and the dead lion, "But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world; now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence." (’Julius Caesar,’ Acts 3. sc. 2.) Learn: 1. The certainty that man may decade himself beneath the level of the beasts. 2. The right of society to protect itself against the lawless and depraved. 3. The tendency of all wickedness to lead to misery even on earth. 4. The infallibility with which moral depravity perpetuates itself. 5. The instability which attends all human greatness. 6. The length to which wicked men will go in persecuting and oppressing others when God grants permission. 7. The inevitable approach of a nation’s doom when its youth has become corrupt and depraved. Job 30:16-31 Job’s second parable: 3. A sorrowful survey of present misery. I. JOB’S BODILY . 1. Overpowering. It was no trifling ailment that wrung from the heart of this fallen great man the exquisitely plaintive lament of the present section. The malady which had struck its fangs into his vitals was one that made his bowels boil, and rest not (verse 27); that caused his heart to melt like wax in the midst of his bowels (Psalms 22:14); yea, that dissolved his soul in tears (verse 16). Most men have reason to be thankful that the afflictions they are called to endure are not absolutely intolerable; for which the praise is due to God’s mercy alone. Yet not unless the soul is suitably affected by the ills that assail the body do these latter bring forth their designed results, the peaceable fruits of righteousness. The case of Job suggests that through the union and sympathy of soul and body man possesses an almost infinite capacity for suffering pain; while the fact that pain may minister to man’s improvement is a testimony to man’s superiority over the creatures. 2. Sudden. This was one of the circumstances that rendered Job’s affliction so unmanning. It had sprung upon him unawares, apprehending him, and holding him fast as a detective might do a criminal (verse 16), at the very moment when he had been saying to himself, "I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand" ( Job 29:18), and offering congratulations to himself on the apparently permanent as well as inexhaustible sources of his wealth, and on the palpably stable and unfading character of his glory. 3. Wasting. A second circumstance which tended to dissolve the soul of Job as he reflected on his physical trouble was the revolting character of the disease by which he had been overtaken. According to one view, Job by a strong poetic figure personifies the night (verse 17; cf. Job 3:2) as a wild beast, which had leapt upon him in the darkness, and rent him limb from limb—the allusion being to the terrible nature of the Lepra Arabica, which "feeds on the bones and destroys the body in such a manner that single limbs are completely detached" (Delitzsch). To this, also, the wasting character of the disease (verse 18) is believed by the just-named commentator to refer. 4. Unsightly. An additional source of grief to the patriarch in thinking over his malady was the disfigurement of his person which it had occasioned. "By its great strength the garment (of his skin) was changed" (Gesenius), probably through frequent purulent discharge, or through the foul incrustations which covered his body; his skin also had become black, and was peeling off from his emaciated skeleton, while his bones within him were being consumed by a parching heat (verse 30). It is a special cross when God, through disease, readers a man of displeasing aspect to his fellows. 5. Incessant. The pain which Job suffered was seemingly continuous and without interruption. Already frequently insisted on in previous discourses (Job 3:24; Job 7:3, Job 7:4, Job 7:13, Job 7:15; Job 10:20, etc.), it is here presented in a fresh series of images, Job describing his sinews as taking no rest (verse 17), literally, "my gnawers," meaning either his tormenting pains (Gesenius), or the gnawing worms formed in his ulcers (Delitzsch), "rest not," and speaking of his disease as binding him fast, and sticking closely to him like the collar of his coat (verse 18), and finally adding that his bowels, as the seat of pain, boiled and rested not (verse 27). 6. Manifold. In this his last lament Job confines not his attention to the one point of his bodily ailment, but makes a survey of the whole course of his affliction—from the day when, bereft of his family and possessions, he went about the streets as a mourner, arrayed in sackcloth, without the sun (verse 28), i.e. in such a state of grief and dejection that even the gladdening sunshine failed to give him pleasure, to that moment when he had become as "a brother to dragons and a companion to owls" (verse 29). 7. Degrading. By reason of this terrible disease he had been cast into the mire, and had become like dust and ashes (cf. Job 16:15, Job 16:16); nay, lower even than that, he had been reduced to the level of jackals and ostriches, creatures whose dolorous howlings fill men with shuddering and dejection. II. JOB’S MENTAL ANGUISH. The thought which most keenly lacerated Job’s bosom was the fixed and immovable idea which had fastened on his soul, that the God whom he had loved and served had become to him a changed God, who treated him with unsparing cruelty (verse 21). Of this the proof to Job’s mind lay in several considerations. 1. That God was the real Author of Job’s sufferings. It was he and no other who had cast Job into the mire (verse 19). In a very real sense this was true, since Job’s malignant and unsleeping adversary could have had no power over him, except it had been given him from above; but in the sense which Job meant it was a hideous misconception, Satan and not God having been the enemy who had touched his bones and his flesh. Saints should be careful not to impute to God the blame of what he only permits. 2. That God remained deaf to Job’s entreaties. "I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me;" i.e. lookest fixedly at me (verse 20), meeting my earnest reverential upward glance with a stare of stony indifference, if not of hostile intent (cf. verse 24). A fearful perversion of the truth which Job’s prolonged misery cannot justify. God is the enemy of no man who does not first make himself an enemy of God. "The face of God is set against them that do evil;" but "God’s eyes are ever towards the righteous" with looks of love and benignant compassion. Even when he forbears to help, and seems to be deaf to the good man’s supplications, he hears and pities. If God answers not, it is in love rather than in hate. Whatever befalls a saint he should hold fast by the unchanging and unfaltering love of the Divine Father. Believers under the gospel should find this easier to do than Job did. 3. That God was insensible to Job’s feebleness. With the strength of his omnipotent arm he Appeared to be making war upon one who was insignificant and frail, heedless of the agonies he inflicted or the terrors he inspired, lifting up his victim upon the fierce hurricane of tribulation, causing him to drive along before its howling blasts and to vanish in the crashing of the storm, as a thin cloud is caught by the whirling tempest, "blown with restless violence found about the pendent world," and finally dispersed by the violent agitation it endures (verses 21, 22). 4. That God had fixedly resolved on Job’s destruction. In Job’s anguish-laden mind it was a foregone conclusion that God had determined to pursue him to the grave, to bring him down to the dust of death; to shut him up in the house of assembly for all living (verse 23). Job’s conception of the grave was sublimely true. It was and is "the great involuntary rendezvous of all who live in this world." Job’s belief that God would eventually conduct him thither was likewise correct. "It is appointed unto all men once to die." Job’s apprehension that his immediate dissolution was decreed was wrong. The times of all are in the hand of God; and it is not given to any to anticipate with certainty the day and the hour of departure from this sublunary scene. So also was Job’s inference erroneous that prayer was unavailing when God had determined on a creature’s destruction (verse 24). It was not so in the case of Hezekiah, to whom God, in answer to his fervent supplication, added fifteen years (2 Kings 20:1-7; Isaiah 38:1-5). But even should God decline to move the shadow on the dial backward, it is still not in vain for dying men to call aloud to him in prayer, inasmuch as he can help them by his grace to meet that which by his hand he will not avert. 5. That God took no account of Job’s philanthropies. Job had wept for him that was in trouble or whose day was hard, and his soul had been grieved for the needy (Job 29:12, Job 29:13). Yet God was to all appearance indifferent. This, however, was only another misconception on the part of Job. The Almighty notes with loving eye every kind deed performed by his servants on earth, and will reward even a ernst of bread or a cup of cold water given in his name to a poor one. Only the time of recompense will be hereafter. Hence no one is entitled to expect, like Job, that his good actions shall be rewarded here. "Do good, hoping for nothing again," is the maxim prescribed to Christ’s followers. Acted upon, it will save them from the disappointment which almost crushed the soul of Job (verse 26). Learn: 1. The absolute impossibility of avoiding days of suffering. 2. The ease with which God can remove happiness from the lot of man. 3. The inability of any one to sustain the burden of affliction without Divine help. 4. The foolishness of glorying in either strength or beauty, since both can at a word be transformed into dust and ashes. 5. The extreme danger of allowing affliction to pervert the mind’s views of God. 6. The error of supposing that God can regard any creature, much less any child of his own, with hate. 7. The propriety of frequently considering where life’s journey terminates. 8. The certainty that death cannot be turned aside by either piety or prayers. 9. The evil case of him who can find no enjoyment in Heaven’s mercies. 10. The sinfulness of giving free course to one’s complaint, especially against God, in the time of affliction. 11. The inevitable tendency of trouble to deteriorate and debase those whom it does not exalt and refine. 12. The possibility of one who thinks himself a brother of jackals and companion of ostriches becoming a son of God and fellow of the angels. 13. The certainty that for all saints mourning will yet be turned into joy. BY E. JOHNSON Job 30:1-31 The troubles of the present. In contrast to the happy past of honour and respect on which he has been so wistfully dwelling in the previous chapter, Job sees himself now exposed to the scorn and contempt of the meanest of mankind; while a flood of miseries from the hand of God passes over him. From this last chapter we have learned the honour and authority with which it sometimes pleases God to crown the pious and the faithful. From the present we see how at other times he crucifies and puts them to the proof. They must be tried on "the right hand and on the left" (2 Corinthians 6:7; comp. Philippians 4:12). We are reminded, too, of the transiency of all worldly good. The heavens and the earth shall perish; how much more the glory, power, and happiness of the flesh (Isaiah 40:1-31.)! I. THE OF MEN. (Verses 1-10.) The young men, who were wont to rise in his presence, laugh him to scorn; youths whose fathers, the lowest of mankind—thievish, faithless, and worthier, a—were of leas value than the watch-dogs of his flock (verse 1). Themselves, the young men had been of no service to him; they had failed of the full strength of manhood; dried up with want and hunger, they had derived their scanty subsistence from the desolate and barren steppe (verses 2, 3); plucking up the salt herbs and bushes and juniper roots for food (verse 4). These wretches led the life of pariahs; driven forth from the society of men, the hunt-cry was raised after them as after thieves. Their place of dwelling was in horrid ravines and caves and rocks (verses 5, 6). Their wild shouts were heard in the bush; they lay and formed their plots of robbery among the nettles (verse 7). Sons of fools and base men, they were scourged out of the land (verse 8). A fearful picture of the dregs of human life! Perhaps those Troglodytes (comp. Job 24:4:) were the Horites, the original inhabitants of the mountainous country of Seir, conquered by the Edomites (Genesis 36:6-8; Deuteronomy 2:12, Deuteronomy 2:22). Of these degraded beings Job has now become the scoffing-song, the derisive byword (verse 9). They show towards him every mark of abhorrence, retreating from him, or only drawing near to spit in his face with the silent coarse language of contumely and disgust (verse 10; comp. Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:30). Had Job in any way brought this treatment upon himself from the vilest of mankind? Certainly there is nothing in the story which leads us to cast the blame of haughty or heartless conduct upon the hero. Still, it is ever true that we reap as we sow; but the sower and the reaper may be different persons. The cruel measure meted out to these unfortunates is now measured to the innocent Job. It is not in human nature to requite love with hatred or to give loathing in return for kindness. The responsibility of society for its outcasts is a deep lesson which we have only begun in modern times to learn. All men, however fallen and low, must be treated as the creatures of God. If we treat them as wild beasts, we can but expect the wild-beast return. Said Rabbi Ben Azar, "Despise not any man, and spurn not anything. For there is no man that hath not his hour, nor is there anything that hath not its place." Says our own Wordsworth— "He who feels contempt For any living thing, hath faculties That he hath never used, and thought with him Is in its infancy." And again— "Be assured That least of all can aught that ever owned The heaven-regarding eye and front sublime Which man is born to, sink, howe’er depressed, So low as to be scorned without a sin, Without offence to God, cast out of view." "Condescend to men of low estate." Gentleness and compassion to our inferiors is one of the chief lessons of our holy religion. II. TO MISERY BY GOD. (Verses 11-15.) Health and happiness are ours when God holds us by his hand; sickness, languor, and mental misery when he loosens his grasp. Job’s nerves are relaxed. The war-bands of the Almighty have loosed the bridle; angels and messengers of ill, diseases and plagues, hunt the unhappy sufferer down (verse 11). This dark throng seems to rise up at his right hand—the place of the accuser (Psalms 109:6)—and to push away his feet, driving him into a narrow space, laying open before him their ways of destruction, heaping up against him besieging ramparts, thus tearing down his own path, his formerly undisputed way of life. They help forward his ruin, needing no assistance from others in the pernicious work (verses 12, 13). On comes this terrible besieging host, as through a wide breach in the wall of life—rolls on with loud roar, while the defences fall into ruin (verse 14). Terrors turn against him, sudden horrors of death (comp. Job 18:11, Job 18:14; Job 27:20) hunting after his honour—the honour depicted in Job 29:20, seq. His happiness, in consequence of these violent assaults, passes away suddenly and tracklessly as a cloud from the face of heaven (Job 29:15; comp. Job 7:9; Isaiah 44:22). If God lays his hand upon the body or outward happiness of his children, there will seldom be release without inward conflict, anguish, fear, and terror. It is with such persons as with St. Paul; without is conflict, and within is fear (2 Corinthians 7:5). III. INWARD . (Job 29:16-23.) His soul is melted and poured out within him; his frame is dissolved in tears. Days of pain hold him in their grip, refuse to depart and leave him in peace (Job 29:16). The night racks and pierces his bones, and allows his sinews no rest (Job 29:17). By the fearful power of God he is so withered up that his garment hangs loose about him, wraps him like the collar of a coat, nowhere fitting his body (Job 29:18). God has cast him upon the ash-heap—a sign of the deepest humiliation (Job 16:15)—till his skin resembles dust and ashes in its hue (Job 29:19). In this nerveless condition prayer itself seems unable to stir its loftiest, most hopeful energies. He can but cry, grievously and in supplication, but without the hope of being heard. "I stand, and thou lookest fixedly at me"—no sign of attention in thy glance, of favour in thine eye (Job 29:20). The aspect of the almighty Father, seen through the medium of intense suffering, becomes one of cruelty and horror (Job 29:21). Lifting him upon the storm-wind as upon a chariot, God causes him to be carried away, and dissolved as it were in the yeasty surging of the storm (Job 29:22). He knows that God is carrying him to death, the place of assembly for all the living (Job 29:23). IV. FAILURE OF ALL HIS HOPES. (Job 29:24 -31.) According to human calculation, he must despair of life. But can the unhappy man be blamed if he stretches out his hand for help amidst the ruin of his fall, and sends forth his cry as he passes into destruction? Is not this a law for all living creatures (Job 29:24)? Did not Job show compassion in all the misfortunes of others, and has he not, therefore, a right to complain, and expect compassion in his own (verse 25)? All the suffering of Job is condemned in the thought that, after the happiness of former days had bred hopes of the like future, he was visited by the deepest misery, and cast into the lowest distress (verses 26-31). The light of former days glances upon him again, and so his address reverts to its beginning (Job 29:1-25.). Hoping for good, there ensued evil (Isaiah 59:9; Jeremiah 14:19); waiting for the light, deeper darkness came on. There is an inward seething of the mind. Days of affliction have fallen upon him. He goes darkened, without the glow of the sun; his swarthy appearance is due to another cause—he is smeared with dust and ashes. He stands in the assembly, giving loud vent to his lamentation amidst the mourning company who surround him. A "brother to the jackals, a comrade of the ostriches," these desert creatures of the loud and plaintive cry, is be. His black skin parts and falls from him; his bones are parched by a consuming heat. And then, in one beautiful poetic touch, the whole description of his woe is summed up, "My harp became mourning, and my shalm mournful tones." But he will yet learn to tune his harp again to gladness and praise. Now, however, his melancholy haunts him; and not one kindly glance pierces the gloom of his dark thoughts to give him comfort. But despair of self has never led Job to despair of God. There is still, therefore, a glimmering spark of hope amidst this wild storm. He carries in his hand a bud which will yet unfold into a flower. This is no example of the fatal sorrow of the world, but of the life-giving power of the sorrow that is after God (compare Robertson’s sermon on the ’Power of Sorrow,’ vol. 2.).—J. BY R. GREEN Job 30:1-31 A sorrowful contrast. Job’s condition has become one of sorrowfulness, the humiliation of which stands in direct contrast to his former state. He graphically expresses it in a few words: "But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock." The picture of sorrowful humiliation, standing in contrast, to previous honour, wealth, and power, is very striking. It is a typical example, showing to what depths the loftiest may be reduced. The details are as follows. I. THE OF MEAN AND MEN. "They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. And now am i their song, yes, I am their byword. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my race.’ It requires the utmost strength of righteous principle, and the most complete self-command and self-restraint, to endure such treatment without violent outbreaks of passion. II. GREAT MENTAL . "Terrors are turned upon me;" "My soul is poured out in me." III. GREAT BODILY PAIN. a My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest." IV. OF GOD TO HIS PRAYER. Saddest hour of all the sad hours of the human life is that when the one unfailing Helper closes his ear. The lowest depth of sorrow reached by the Man of sorrows found expression in "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" V. To this is added THE FEAR THAT GOD HIMSELF TURNS HIS HAND AGAINST HIM. "Thou art become cruel to me.’ His afflictions appear to him as Divine judgments; yet he knoweth not why he is afflicted. VI. THE GLOOMY THAT ALL WILL END IN DEATH. "Thou wilt bring me to death." No brightness in the afar-off cheers the sufferer. There is no prospect of light at eventide. VII. To all is added THE SITTER OF . He is an outcast. There is no help for him in man. "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls." Bitter, indeed, is the cup mixed of such ingredients. Strong the heart that can thus suffer and not break.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 30:1-10 The fall from honour to contempt. I. BRINGS , Job has just been reciting the honours of his happier days. With the loss of prosperity has come the loss of those honours. He who was slavishly flattered in wealth and success is cruelly scorned in the time of adversity. This is monstrously unjust, and Job feels it to be so. Nevertheless, it is only true to life. Men do judge by the outward appearance. Therefore any who experience in some proportion what Job experienced need not be taken by surprise. The judgment of the world is of little worth. The good opinion of men may shift like a weathercock. We need to look for a higher, more sure and true and lasting glory than that of man’s honour. II. PRIDE FOR . There is a note of pride in verse 1, "Whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock." A relic of aristocratic hauteur creeps out in this utterance of the humiliated patriarch. If we treat men like dogs, we may expect that, when they get the chalice to do so, they will turn on us like dogs. They may cower and cringe when we are strong, but they waft be eager to snap at us when our time of weakness comes. III. MEAN NATURES JUDGE . As Job describes them, the miserable creatures who turned upon him were the very dregs of the populace. They were outlaws and thieves and worthless people who had been driven to mountain-caves—idlers and degraded beings who grubbed up weeds to live on. Plainly these men are to be distinguished from the poor whose only defect is their want of means. Yet among them may have been some of those who in his more prosperous days blessed Job for helping them when they were ready to perish (see Job 29:13). Ingratitude is only too common among all men, and we cannot be surprised at finding it in persons of low and brutal habits. IV. IT IS PAINFUL TO SUFFER FROM . In his prosperity Job would have despised the opinion of those who now vex him with their insults. Yet he could never have been complacent under contempt. It has been well said that the greatest man in the world would receive some discomfort if he came to know that the meanest creature on earth despised him from the bottom of his heart. The pride that is quite indifferent to the good or ill opinion of others is not a virtue. Humility will set some value on the favour of the lowest. If we have a spirit of brotherliness we cannot but desire to live on good terms with all our neighbours. V. IT IS TO TURN FROM THE OF MAN TO THE OF GOD. The Christian should learn to bear contempt, since Christ bore it. He was "despised and rejected of men" (Isaiah 53:3). Like Job, he was insulted and spat upon. Yet we feel that all the insults with which he was loaded did not really humiliate him. On the contrary, he never appears to us so dignified as when "he opened not his mouth" in the midst of contumely and outrage. In that awful scene of the night before the crucifixion, it is the enemies of Christ who appear to us as lowered and degraded. Now we know that the cross was the ground of Christ’s highest glory. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him" (Philippians 2:9). The Church crowned the memories of her martyrs with honour. Despised, suffering Christians may learn to possess their souls in patience if they are walking in the light of God’s countenance.—W.F.A. Job 30:16 The thraldom of affliction. Job is not only passing through the waters of affliction; he feels that he is laid hold of and overpowered by his troubles. Let us see what this condition involves—the stale of thraldom and its effects. I. THE STATE OF . This simply results from the fact that the affliction has mounted to such a height that it has overpowered the sufferer. 1. The trouble cannot be thrown off. There are troubles from which we can escape. Often we can beat down our adverse circumstances. We can face our enemy and defeat him. But other troubles cannot be driven back. When the enemy comes in like a flood, no human effort can stem the torrent. 2. The distress cannot be calmly endured. Milder troubles may be simply borne in patience. We cannot drive them away, but we can learn to treat them as inevitable. There is a strength that is born of adversity. The oak grows sturdy in contending with the storm. The muscles of the wrestler are strong as iron. But distress may reach a point beyond which it cannot be mastered. Patience is broken down. 3. The affliction absorbs the whole life. The pain rises to such a height that it dominates consciousness and excludes all other thoughts. The man is simply possessed by his agony. Huge waves of anguish roll over his whole being and drown every other feeling. The sufferer is then nothing but a victim, Action is lost in fearful pain. The martyr is stretched on the rack. His torturer has deprived him of all energy and freedom. II. THE EFFECTS OF THIS . Such a state of thraldom must be an evil. It is destructive of personal effort. It excludes all service of love and submission of patience. And yet it may be a means to a good end. 1. It should be a wholesome chastisement. For the time being it is grievous. In its acutest stage it may not allow us to learn its less,ms. But when it begins to abate its fury, and we have some calmness with which to look back upon it, we may see that the storm has cleared the air and swept away a mass of unwholesome rubbish. 2. It should be a motive to drive us to God. Such a tremendous affliction requires the only perfect refuge for the distressed. So long as we can bear our troubles we are tempted to trust to our own strength; but the miserable collapse, the utter break-down, the humiliating thraldom, prove our helplessness and our need of One who is mightier than we are. Now, the very possibility of such overwhelming troubles is a reason why we should seek the refuge of God’s grace. It is hard to find the haven when the tempest is raving around us. We need to be fortified beforehand by the indwelling strength of God. 3. It should make us sympathetic with others. If we have escaped from the thraldom, it is our part to help those who are in it. We know its terrors and its despair. 4. It should lead us to make the best use of prosperous times. Then we can learn the way of Divine strength. Martyrs have triumphed where weaker men have been in bondage. The life of unselfish service, loyalty, and faith is a life of freedom. God will not permit such a life to be utterly enthralled by affliction. That awful late is the doom of the lost.—W.F.A. Job 30:21 Charging God with cruelty. At the first onset of his afflictions it could be said of the patriarch, "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly" (Job 1:22). But the aggravation of his troubles, followed by the vexatious advice of his friends, has since then more than once forced unwise words from his lips, and now he is directly charging God with becoming cruel to him. I. GOD’S ACTION MAY APPEAR CRUEL TO MAN. God permits or inflicts pain. When man cries for relief, relief does not come—at least in the way expected. It is not easy to see why the suffering is sent. To us it seems unnecessary. We think we could have done our duty better without it. There appears to be an iron fate bearing down upon us regardless of our needs, or deserts, or helplessness. This is brought home to us with peculiar poignancy, under the most trying circumstances. 1. An accumulation of troubles. One man has more than his share of them. Blow follows blow. The fallen is crushed. Tender wounds are chafed. This was Job’s experience. 2. The suffering of the innocent. Bad men are seen to be flourishing while good men are in distress. This looks like indifference to moral claims. 3. The overthrow of the useful. Job had been a most helpful man in his time; his downfall meant the cessation of his kind services for many people in trouble. We see valuable lives cut off or made useless, while mischievous people thrive and grow fat. 4. The refusal to deliver. Job had not been proud, unbelieving, self-contained. He had prayed. But God appeared not to hear or regard him (verse 20). II. GOD IS NEVER CRUEL TO MAN. Job was now charging God foolishly. We have to judge of a man’s character by his deeds till we know him. Then, if we become fully assured that he is good, we reverse the process, and estimate any dubious-looking conduct by the clear character of the man In the same way, after we have come to know that God is a true Father, that his nature is love, our wisest course is not to fling off our faith, and charge God with cruelty when he deals with us in what looks to us like a harsh manner. He cannot be false to his nature. But our eyes are dim; our sight is short; our self-centred experience perverts our judgment. We have to learn to trust the constant character of God when we cannot understand his present conduct. III. NARROW VIEWS LEAD TO UNJUST CHARGES AGAINST GOD. Job’s three friends were to a large extent responsible for the patriarch’s condition of mind, in which he was driven to charge God with cruelty. They had set up an impossible rule, and the evident falsehood of it had driven Job to desperation. A harsh orthodoxy is responsible for very much unbelief. Self-elected advocates of God have thus a good deal of mischief to answer for. In attempting to defend the Divine government some of these people have presented it in a very ugly light. Whilst they have been dinning their formal precepts into men’s ears on what they regard as the authority of revelation, they have been rousing a spirit of revolt, till what is most Divine in man, his conscience, has risen up and protested against their dogmas. From the days of Job till our own time theology has too often darkened the world’s idea of God. If we turn from man to God himself, we shall discover that he is better than his advocates represent him to be. When it is our duty to speak of religion, let us be careful not to fall into the error of Job’s friends, and generate hard thoughts of God by narrow, un-Christ-like teachings.—W.F.A. Job 30:23 The house of death. Job expects nothing better than death, which he regards as "the house appointed for all living," or rather as the house for the meeting of all living. I. THE JOURNEY OF LIFE ENDS IS THE HOUSE OF DEATH. The living are marching to death. In a striking passage of ’The City of God,’ St. Augustine, following Seneca, describes how we are always dying, because from the first moment of life we are drawing nearer to death. We cannot stay our chariot-wheels. The river will not cease to flow, and it is bearing us on to the ocean of death. It is difficult for the young and strong to take in the idea that they will not live for ever, and we come upon the thought of death with something of a shock. But this only means that we cannot see the end of the road while it winds through pleasant scenery that distracts our attention from the more distant prospect. II. THE HOUSE OF DEATH IS IN DARK WITH THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. It is the living who are destined to enter this dreadful house. Here is one of the greatest possible contrasts—life and death; here is one of the most tremendous transitions—from life to death. All our revolutions on earth are as nothing compared with this tremendous change. Death is only the end and cessation of life, while all other experiences, even the greatest and most upsetting, are but modifications of the life which we still retain. It is not wonderful, then, that this dark house of death has strongly affected the imagination of men. The surprising thing is that so many should be indifferent to it. III. THE HOUSE OF DEATH IS FOR EVERY LIVING MAN. No truism is more hackneyed than the assertion that all men are mortal. Here is a commonplace which cannot be gainsayed, yet its very evident character should emphasize its significance. Death is the great leveller. In life we go many ways; at last we all go the same way. Now some pass through palace gates and others through dungeon-portals; at the end all must go through the same narrow door. Should not this commonness of destiny help to bring all mortals nearer together in life? This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ The conclusion of Job’s long speech (ch. 26-31.) is now reached. He winds it up by a solemn vindication of himself from all the charges of wicked conduct which have been alleged or insinuated against him. perhaps it may be said that he goes further, maintaining generally his moral rectitude in respect of all the principal duties which a man owes either to God (verses 4-6, 24-28, 35-37) or to his fellows (verses 1-3, 7-23, 29-34, 38-40). He protests that he is innocent of impure thoughts (verses 1-4); of false seeming (verses 5-8); of adultery (verses 9-12); of injustice towards dependants (verses 13-15); of hardness towards the poor and needy (verses 16-23); of covetousness (verses 24, 25); of idolatry (verses 26-28); of malevolence (verses 29, 30); of want of hospitality (verses 31, 32); of hiding his transgressions (verses 33, 34); and of injustice as a landlord (verses 38-40). In conclusion, he once more makes a solemn appeal to God to pronounce judgment on his case (verse 35), promising to give a complete account of every act in his life (verse 37), and calmly to await his sentence. An accidental dislocation of the last three verses disturbs the order hero assumed to be the proper one. This will be further considered in the comment. Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; rather, for mine eyes. The covenant must have been with himself. Job means that be came to a fixed resolution, by which he thenceforth guided his conduct, not even to "look upon a woman to lust after her" (Matthew 5:28). We must suppose this resolution come to in his early youth, when the passions are strongest, and when so many men go astray. How then should I look upon a maid! Having made such a resolution, how could I possibly break it by "looking upon a maid"? Job assumes that he could not be so weak as to break a solemn resolution. Job 31:2 For what portion of God is there from above? The meaning seems to be, "For what portion in God would there be to me from above, if I were so to act?" i.e. if I were secretly to nurse and indulge my lusts. Impurity, perhaps, more than any other sin, cuts off from God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity" (Habakkuk 1:13). And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high! What should I inherit, i.e. what should I receive, from on high, if I were so sinful? The next verse gives the answer, Job 31:3 Is not destruction to the wicked? The inheritance of the wicked is "destruction"—ruin both of soul and body. This is what I should have to expect if I yielded myself to the bondage of lust and concupiscence. And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? The rare word neker (גכר), translated here by "strange punishment," seems to mean "alienation from God"—being turned from God’s friend into his enemy (comp. Buxtorf, ’Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum,’ who explains גכר by "alienatio;" and the comment of Schultens on Job 31:3, "Necer, a Deo alienatio"). Job 31:4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? (see above, Job 7:18-20; and below, Job 34:21. Comp. also Psalms 139:3; Proverbs 5:21; Proverbs 15:3, etc.). Job 31:5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit. "If I have been a living lie, i.e. if, under a fair show of piety and righteousness of life, I have, as you my friends suppose, been all along a deceiver and a hypocrite, cloaking my secret sins under a mere pretence of well-doing, then the sooner I am exposed the better. Let me be weighed," etc. The painful suggestion of hypocrisy has been made by Job’s friends repeatedly during the colloquy (Job 4:7-9; Job 8:6, Job 8:12; Job 11:4-6, ’11-14; Job 15:30-35; Job 18:5-21; Job 20:5-29, etc.), and has deeply afflicted the patriarch. It is a charge so easily made, and so impossible to refute. All that the righteous man, thus falsely accused, can do is to appeal to God: "Thou, God, knowest. Thou, God, wilt one day show forth the truth." Job 31:6 Let me be weighed in an even balance; literally, let him (i.e. God) weigh me in the balances of justice. The use of this imagery by the Egyptians has been already noted (see the comment on Job 6:2). It is an essential part of every Egyptian representation of the final judgment of souls by Osiris. Each man’s merits are formally weighed in a balance, which is carefully depicted, and he is judged accordingly. Job asks that this may be done in his case, either immediately or at any rate ultimately. He would have the act performed, that God may know his integrity; or rather, may recognize it. (So Professor Leo.) Job has no doubt that a thorough investigation of his case will lead to a, acknowledgment and proclamation of his innocence. Job 31:7 If my step hath turned out of the way. If; i.e; I have at any time knowingly and voluntarily departed from the way of thy commandments, as made known to me either by godly men or by thy law written in my heart, then let the consequences follow that are mentioned in the next verse. Or if mine heart hath walked after mine eyes, and if consequently any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; i.e. if I have been guilty of any plain act of sin. It is to be remembered that Job has the testimony of God himself to the fact that he was "a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil (Job 2:3). Job 31:8 Then let me sow, and let another eat (comp. Job 5:5; Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:33, Deuteronomy 28:51, etc.). The expression is proverbial. Yea, lot my offspring be rooted out; rather, my produce, or the produce of my field (see the Revised Version). Job 31:9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman; rather, enticed, or allured unto a woman. If, that is, I have suffered myself at any time to be enticed by the wiles of a "strange woman" (Proverbs 5:3; Proverbs 6:24, etc.), and have so far yielded as to go after her; and if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door—watching for an opportunity to enter unseen, while the goodman is away (Proverbs 7:19) Job is not speaking of what he has done, but of what men may suspect him of having done. Job 31:10 Then let my wife grind unto another; i.e. "let the wife of my bosom be brought so low as to be compelled to do the servile work of grinding the corn in the household of another woman." The condition of the female slaves who ground the corn was regarded as the lowest point in domestic slavery (see Exodus 11:5; Isaiah 47:2). And let others bow down upon her. Let them, i.e; claim the master’s right, and reduce her to the extremest degradation There would be a just nemesis in this punishment of an adulterer (see 2 Samuel 12:11). Job 31:11 For this is an heinous crime. The crime of adultery subverts the family relation, on which it has pleased God to erect the entire fabric of human society. Hence, in the Jewish Law, adultery was made a capital offence (Le Job 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22), both in the woman and in the man. Among other nations the adulteress was commonly punished with death, but the adulterer escaped scot-free. In modern communities adultery is mostly regarded, not as a crime, but as a civil wrong, on account of which an action lies against the adulterer. It is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; literally, it is an iniquity of judges; i.e. one of which judges take cognizance. Job 31:12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction; i.e. it is a thing which brings down the wrath of God upon a man, so that "a fire is kindled in his anger, which shall burn unto the lowest hell" (Deuteronomy 32:22). Compare the sentence on David for his great transgression (2 Samuel 12:9-12). And would root out all mine increase; i.e. "would destroy all my estate;" either by leading me to waste my substance upon my companion in sin, or by bringing down God’s judgments upon me to my temporal ruin. Job 31:13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant. Job now disclaims a fourth sin—the oppression of his dependants. Eliphaz had taxed him generally with harshness and cruelty in his relations towards those weaker than himself (Job 22:5-9), but had not specially pointed to this kind of oppressiveness. As, however, this was the commonest form of the vice, Job deems it right to disclaim it, before addressing himself to the several charges brought by Eliphaz. He has not ill used his slaves, either male or female. He has not "despised their cause," but given it full consideration and attention; he has heard them when they contended with him; he has allowed them to "contend;" he has been a just, and not a hard master. The slavery of which he speaks is evidently of a kind under which the slave had certain rights, as was the ease also under the Mosaic Law (Exodus 21:2-11). Job 31:14, Job 31:15 What then shall I do when God riseth up? Job regards God as the Avenger and Champion of all the oppressed. If he had been harsh and cruel to his dependants, he would have provoked God’s anger, and God would assuredly "rise up" one day to punish. What, then, could he (Job) do? What but submit in silence? When he visiteth, what shall I answer him? There could be no valid defence. The slave was still a man, a brother—God’s creature, equally with his master. Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? God "hath made of one Mood all nations of men," and all individual me, "to dwell on the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26). All have rights—in a certain sense, equal rights. All are entitled to just treatment, to kind treatment, to merciful treatment. Job is before his age in recognizing the substantial equality of the slave with the freeman, which otherwise was scarcely taught by any until the promulgation of the gospel (see 1 Timothy 6:2; Philemon 1:16). Job 31:16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire. As Eliphaz had maintained (Job 22:6, Job 22:7), and as Job had already denied (Job 29:12, Job 29:16). The duty of relieving the poor, solemnly enjoined upon the people of Israel in the Law (Deuteronomy 15:7-11), was generally admitted by the civilized nations of antiquity. In Egypt it was especially insisted on. "The Egyptian’s duties to mankind," says Dr. Birch, "were comprised in giving bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, oil to the wounded, and burial to the dead". Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail. "Thou hast sent widows away empty," was one of the accusations of Eliphaz (Job 22:9). "I caused the widow’s heart," replied Job, "to sing for joy" (Job 29:13). The widow’s weakness has always been felt to give her a special claim on man’s benevolence (see Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 16:11, Deuteronomy 16:14; Deuteronomy 24:19; Deuteronomy 26:12, Deuteronomy 26:13; Psalms 146:9; Proverbs 15:25; Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 7:6; Malachi 3:5; 1 Timothy 5:16; James 1:27). Job 31:17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. With the widow, the fatherless is usually conjoined, as an equal object of compassion (see Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalms 68:5; Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 22:3; Ezekiel 22:7; Zechariah 7:10, etc.). Eliphaz had specially charged Job with oppression of the fatherless (Job 22:9), and his charge had been denied by Job (Job 29:12). He now claims to have always shared his bread with orphans, and made them partakers or his abundance. Job 31:18 For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb; i.e. I have always, so long as I can remember, protected the orphan and done my best to help the widow. It has been my habit from my earliest years so to act. The language is exaggerated; but it had, no doubt, a basis of fact to rest upon. Job was brought up in these principles. Job 31:19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing (scrap. Job 22:6, where Eliphaz taxes Job with so acting; and, on the duty of clothing the naked, see Isaiah 58:7; Ezekiel 18:7, Ezekiel 18:16; Matthew 25:36). Or any poor without covering. A pleonastic parallelism. Job 31:20 If his loins have not blessed me (see above, Job 29:11, Job 29:13), and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep. Clothed, i.e; with a garment spun from wool yielded by my own sheep. A great sheikh like Job would keep in store many such garments, ready to be given to such as were naked or poorly clad, when they came under his observation (Isaiah 58:7). Job 31:21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless; i.e. if I have in any way oppressed him. When I saw my help in the gate; i.e.. when I had the power to do so—when I saw my friends and hangers-on mustered in force at the gate where causes were being tried. The wrong and robbery which the poor suffer in the East have always been camel, to a large extent, by failure of justice in the courts, where might, and not right, carries the day. Job 31:22 Then let mine arm (rather, my shoulder) fall from my shoulder-blade. Job was, perhaps, led to make this rather strange imprecation by the fact that, in the disease from which he was suffering, portions of bone sometimes detach themselves and come away. And mine arm be broken from the bone. My forearm, i.e, detach itself from the bone of the upper arm, and come away from it. Job 31:23 For destruction from God was a terror to me. I could not, i.e; have acted in the way charged against me by Eliphaz, since I was always God-fearing, and should have been deterred, if by nothing else, at any rate by dread of the Divine vengeance. And by reason of his highness I could not endure. God’s majesty and excellency are such that I could not have had the face to resist them. If! had begun such a course of life as Eliphaz laid to my charge (Job 22:5-9), I could not have persisted in it. Job 31:24 If I have made gold my hope. This is a sin with which the patriarch had not been directly charged. But it had been more or less insinuated (see Job 15:28; Job 20:10, Job 20:15, Job 20:19; Job 22:24, etc.). He may also, perhaps, have felt some inclination to it. Or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence. Job 31:25 If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much. Job feels that it is wrong even to care greatly for wealth. He seems almost to anticipate the saying of St. Paul, that "covetousness is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5); and hence he passes on without pause from this sort of creature-worship to others common in his day (verses 26, 27). which he likewise disclaims. Job 31:26 If I beheld the sun when it shined; literally, the light; i.e. the great light, which God made to rule the day (Genesis 1:16). Sun-worship, the least ignoble form of idolatry, was widely spread in the East, and in Egypt, from a very early date. According to the views of some, the religion el’ t e Egyptians was little else than a complicated sun-worship from its earliest inception to its very latest phase. "The religious notions of the Egyptians," says Dr. Birch, "were chiefly connected with the worship of the sun, with whom at a later period all the principal deities were connected. As Hag, or Harmachis, he represented the youthful or rising sun; as Ra, the midday; and as Turn. the setting sun. According to Egyptian notions, that god floated in a boat through the sky or celestial ether, and descended to the dark regions of night, or Hades. Many deities attended on his passage or were connected with his worship, and the gods Amen and Khepr, who represented the invisible and self-produced god, were identified with the sun". Even those who do not go these lengths admit that the solar worship was, at any rate, a very main element in the cult of Egypt. In the Babylonian and Assyrian religion the position of the sun-god was leas prominent, but still, as San, or Shamas, he held an important place, and was the main object of religious veneration to a largo body of worshippers. In the Vedic system the sun figured as Mitra, and in the Zoroastrian as Mithra, in both holding a high position. Among the Arabians the sun, worshipped as Orotal, is said to have been anciently the only god, though he was accompanied by a female principle named Alilat (Herod; 3.8). Or the moon walking in brightness. The worship of the moon has. in most countries where it has prevailed, been quite secondary and subordinate to that of the sun. In Egypt. while nine gods are more or less identified with the solar luminary, two only, Khons and Thoth, can be said to represent the moon. In the Vedic and Zoroastrian systems the moon, called Soma, or Hems, almost dropped out of the popular religion, at any rate as a moon-god. In the Arabiun, Alilat, a goddess, probably represented the moon, as did Ashtoreth, a goddess, in the Pheonician. In Assyria, however, and in Babylonia, moon-worship held a higher position, Sin, the moon-god, taking precedence over Shamas, the sun-god, and being a very much more important personage. Thus both moon-worship and sun-worship were prevalent among all, or almost all, Job’s neighbours. Job 31:27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand. The sin of the heart is placed first, as the fens et origo mali, the spiritual root of the matter. On this naturally follows the outward act which, in the case of idolatry, was commonly the act exactly expressed by the word "adore"—the movement of the hand to the mouth in token of reverence and honour. Job 31:28 This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge (see the comment on Job 31:11, adfin.). It is rightly concluded from this expression that, in the country and age of Job, the sort of idolatry which is here mentioned was practised by some, and also that it was legally punishable. For I should have denied the God that is above. The worship of any other god besides the supreme God is, practically, atheism, since "no man can serve two masters." Moreover, to set up two independent gods is to destroy the idea of God, which implies supremacy over every other being. Job 31:29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me. "If at any time I was malevolent, if I wished evil to others, and rejoiced when evil came upon them, being (as the Greeks expressed it) ἐπιχαιρέκακος—if I so acted even in the case of my enemy—then," etc. The apodosis is wanting, but may be supplied by any suitable imprecation (see Job 31:8, Job 31:10, Job 31:22, Job 31:40). Or lifted up myself—i.e. was puffed up and exalted—when evil found him. In the old world men generally regarded themselves as fully entitled to exult at the downfall of an enemy, and to triumph over him with words of contumely and scorn (camp. Judges 5:19-31; Psalms 18:37-42; Isaiah 10:8-14, etc.). There appears to be but one other passage in the Old Testament, besides the present, in which the contrary disposition is shown. This is Proverbs 17:5, where the writer declares that "he who is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished." Job 31:30 Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. Much less, Job means, have I gone beyond the thought to the word, and imprecated a curse upon him with my mouth, as the manner of most ,hen is towards their enemies (see 2 Samuel 16:5; 1 Samuel 17:43; Nehemiah 13:25; Psalms 109:28; Jeremiah 15:10, etc). Job 31:31 If the men of my tent said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. A very obscure passage, but probably to be connected with the following verse, in which Job boasts of his hospitality. Translate, If the men of my tent did not say, Who can find a man that has not been satisfied with his meat? The apodosis is wanting, as in verse 28. Job 31:32 The stranger did not lodge in the street; i.e. "I did not suffer any stranger who came under my notice to lodge in the street, but, like Abraham (Genesis 18:2-8), went out to him, and invited him in, to partake of my hospitality." This is still the practice of Arab sheikhs in Syria, Palestine, and the adjacent countries. But I opened my doors to the traveller; literally, to the way; i.e. "my house gave on the street, and I kept my house door open." Compare the Mishna, "Let thy house be open to the street" (’Pirke Aboth,’ § 5). Job 31:33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam; or, after the manner of men It does not seem to me likely that Job had such a knowledge of Adam’s conduct in the garden of Eden as would have made an allusion to it in this place natural or probable. The religious traditions of the Chaldees, which note the war in heaven, the Deluge, the building of the Tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues, contain no mention of Adam or of Paradise. Nor. so far as I am aware, is there, among other ancient legends, any near parallel to the story of the Fall as related in Genesis 4:1-26. Much less does the subordinate detail of Adam hiding himself make its appearance in any of them. The marginal rendering, "after the manner of men," is therefore, I think, to be preferred. By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom. This is not particularly apposite to the case of Adam, who "hid himself from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 4:8). Job 31:34 Did I fear a great multitude! rather, because I feared the great multitude’ or the great assembly; i.e. the gathering of the people in the gate on occasions of public business. It’ Job had been conscious of any great and heinous sins’ he would not have led the open and public life which, previously to his calamities, he had always led (Job 29:7-10, Job 29:21-25); he would have been afraid to make his appearance at public meetings, lest his sins should have become known, and should draw upon him scorn and contempt, instead of the respect and acclamations to which he was accustomed. Or did the contempt of families terrify me? rather, and the contempt of families terrified me. The contempt of the assembled tribes and families, which might have been poured out upon him at such meetings, would have been quite sufficient to prevent his attending them. If by any accident he had found himself at one, and had seen that he was looked upon with disfavour, he must have kept silence in order to avoid observation. Prudence would have counselled that more complete abstention which is implied in the phrase, and went not out of the door; i.e. "stayed at home in mine own house." Job 31:35 Oh that one would hear me! i.e. Oh that I had an opportunity of plea, ling my cause before a just judge l of having charges openly brought against me, and having "one" to hear my reply to them! Job does not regard his "comforters" as such persons. They are prejudiced; they have even made themselves his accusers. Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me; rather, behold’ here is my signature I let the Almighty answer me. This passage is parenthetic. Job would prefer to be judged by God, if it were possible, and therefore throws out the wish. Here is his plea in ch. 29-31.; and here is his attestation by word of mouth, which is equivalent to his signature. And that mine adversary had written a book; or, had penned an indictment against me. Job would have matters brought to an issue. In default of a Divine trial and sentence, which he cannot expect, it would suffice tot him that his arraigner should formally draw out his list of charges, and present him with a copy, and so give him an opportunity of making answer to it. If this were done, then (he says)— Job 31:36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder—the place of honour (see Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 22:22)—and bind it as a crown to me; i.e. adorn my head with it, as with a diadem. Job 31:37 I would declare unto him the number of my steps; i.e. I would conceal nothing. I would willingly divulge every act of my life. I would make full and complete answer to the indictment in every particular. As a prince would I go near unto him. There should be no timidity or cringing on my part. I would face my accuser boldly, and bear myself as a prince in his presence. Job 31:38-40 It is generally supposed that these verses, with the exception of the last clause of Job 31:40, are misplaced. As a termination, they form an anti-climax, and greatly weaken the peroration. Their proper place would seem to be between Job 31:32 and Job 31:33. Job 31:38 If my land cry against me; i.e. if my land disclaim my ownership, as having been acquired by wrong or robbery. If the furrows likewise thereof complain; or, weep, as having been torn from their rightful proprietors, and seized by a stranger. The apodosis is in Job 31:40. Job 31:39 If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money; i.e. without acquiring a title to them by purchase. Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life. Either by actual violence or by depriving them of the means of support (see the comment on Job 29:13). Job had been accused of robbery and oppression both by Zophar (Job 20:12-19) and Eliphaz (Job 22:5-9). He had not, however, been accused of actual murder. Job 31:40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockles instead of barley. Then let me be appropriately punished by finding the land, whereof I have wrongfully become possessed, produce nothing but thistles (or thorns) and noxious weeds, such as cockles (Authorized Version) or hemlock (Professor Lee). The words of Job are ended. This may be regarded either as Job’s own conclusion of his long speech, or as a remark of the author’s. On the whole, the former view is to be preferred. Job 31:1-40 Job’s second parable: 4. A solemn protestation of innocence. I. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF . (Verses 1-4.) 1. The wickedness he eschewed. Not alone the crime of seduction, or the actual defilement of virginal innocence, but even the indulgence of so much as a lascivious desire in connection with an unmarried female, was an ungodliness which Job regarded with abhorrence and indignation. Job’s morality on this point, as also upon some others, is a remarkable anticipation of the sermon on the mount, which forbids the unchaste look, the unclean imagination, the impure desire, as well as the lewd and incontinent act (Matthew 5:28). Job’s interpretation of the Law of God is like St. Paul’s (Romans 7:14)—the precepts of the Decalogue covered the entire realm of the inner no less than of the outer life. 2. The rule he observed. That he might the better guard against the uprise within his heart of any prurient desire or lustful imagination, Job "made a covenant with his eyes," as their lord and master prescribed for them a law that they should not" fixedly gaze upon a maiden." Considering bow much of evil enters by the eye (e.g. the cases of Eve, Genesis 3:6; of the wife of Lot, Genesis 19:26; of Achan, Joshua 7:21), the wisdom of Job’s resolution cannot be questioned. In particular the eye has often proved itself "the inlet of lust" (Robinson), of according to a Talmudic proverb, "the procuress of sin;" as, for instance, it did with Judah (Genesis 38:5), Samson (Judges 16:1), David (2 Samuel 11:1-5), Amnon (2 Samuel 13:1-20). Few things are more dangerous to an unprincipled, or indeed a principled, mind, than the too ardent contemplation of female beauty, which, besides being a deceitful vanity in itself (Proverbs 31:30), is prone to inflame the heart with unlawful passions. Hence the propriety of the royal preacher’s counsel (Proverbs 6:25), the Hebrew psalmist’s prayer (Psalms 119:37), and the Divine Saviour’s warning (Matthew 18:9). 3. The motives he possessed. In thus habitually exercising self-restraint, gob was actuated by two considerations. (1) Fear of the Divine power. "It was no fear of man, no dread of temporal consequences, no respect for public order and well-being, no pure and stately self-respect even, which made and kept him pure" (Cox). It was the calm, clear, deliberate conviction that such wickedness could hot escape the just and righteously allotted punishment of Eloah, and that sooner or later, if he should enter on such a course of impiety, he would find himself overwhelmed by some strange, startling, intolerable calamity; nay, that he should deserve to be so overwhelmed (verses 2, 3). Job was manifestly no milk-and-water moralist, like some of the nineteenth century, who regard fornication and seduction as indiscretions, and uncleanness generally as an infirmity rather than a sin. Instead of being leniently judged and softly scolded, if not lovingly caressed, as, alas] is too frequently his portion and inheritance from modern society, the violator of virgin innocence, in Job’s estimation, was a monster of iniquity, who deserved to be castigated by some horrible and degrading punishment, and who, he believed, would ultimately get his deservings. Nor was Job too spiritual, on the other hand, to admit that this formed one of the arguments which drove him to strict watchfulness over his heart and eyes. He was afraid of t he just judgment of Almighty God upon them that committed such appalling wickedness; and accordingly he acted on the principle of resisting its first beginnings. So St. Paul, knowing the terror of the Lord, persuaded men (2 Corinthians 5:11); and Christ counselled his apostles to fear him who could destroy both soul and body in hell (Luke 12:5). If not the highest motive for leading a chaste and virtuous life, it is still a sound and good one, and the only one by which many are capable of being impressed. (2) Respect for the Divine omniscience. Job knew that, though it might be possible to elude the utmost vigilance of man, he could not evade him who beheld all his ways, and counted all his steps (verse 4). The Divine omniscience is not dependent on, but co-ordinate with, the Divine omnipresence. God’s minute and universal knowledge of mundane affairs, and in particular of all that enters into the complicated texture of a human life, frequently denied by the ungodly (Job 22:13), and sometimes forgotten by the pious (Isaiah 40:27), is emphatically asserted in Scripture (1 Kings 8:39; Psalms 11:4; Psalms 139:1 4), and nowhere more so than in this book (Job 21:22; Job 23:10; Job 24:1, Job 24:23; Job 28:24; Job 34:21, Job 34:22, Job 34:25). Rightly viewed, it operates as a powerful deterrent from sin, not only by proving the certainty of detection, and therefore the impossibility of escaping punishment, but also by filling the mind with a constant sense of the Divine presence, forgetfulness of which is perhaps one of the most frequent causes of sin. II. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF JUSTICE. (Verses 5-8.) 1. An explicit declaration. Hypothetical in form, Job’s language amounts to a vehement assertion that his life was as unimpeachable with regard to equity as with regard to chastity. With falsehood in every shape and guise he had lived at open war. With deceit and imposition in either word or deed he had had no dealings whatever. From the straight path of integrity he had never turned aside. Never once under the dominion of secret avarice had he suffered his heart to be beguiled into hankering alter his neighbour’s property, as Ahab coveted the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kings 21:2). Not so much as a speck of defilement cleaved to his palm after any transaction in which he had been engaged. No living man could accuse him of underhand dealings or extortionate practices. So Samuel called his countrymen (1 Samuel 12:3), and St. Paul challenged the elders of Miletus (Acts 20:33-35), to attest his personal integrity. So are Christ’s people exhorted to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty (2 Corinthians 4:2), to provide things honest in the sight of all men (2 Corinthians 8:21), and to carefully maintain a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly (Hebrews 13:18). 2. A solemn invocation. So confident does Job feel that he has not swerved a hair’s breadth from the law of equity, that he does not hesitate to appeal to God, challenging Eloab, as few men besides would have done (Psalms 130:3), to weigh him in an even balance, literally, in the scales of righteousness, when his integrity, or moral perfection, would become apparent. If Job meant this absolutely, it was presumption and self-righteousness; but the probability is he understood, by preferring such a claim, no more than God himself did when he declared Job to be perfect and upright; though the vehemence with which he asserted and protested his blamelessness insensibly obscured his vision of the truth which he at other times acknowledged, that in God’s sight no flesh living could be justified. 3. A dreadful imprecation. Not content with calmly submitting the question of his innocence to the severe and impartial arbitrament of Heaven, he invokes upon himself a curse of extreme severity. If by legal chicanery or violent extortion he has robbed another of his land, the commonest and most valuable sort of property, then he desires that he himself may be made the victim of a like oppression, that he may sow and another reap, and that his "things which spring up," not his descendants or children, as elsewhere the word is employed (Job 5:25; Job 21:8; Job 27:14), but, as the parallelism demands, the produce of his ground, his harvest, may be rooted up. God’s punishments are often similar in kind to the offences they follow. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). III. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF . (Verses 9-12.) Different from the opening section, which treated of seduction, the present stanza alludes to the sin of adultery. In the former instance it is an unmarried virgin, in the latter it is a wedded wife, that is sinned against. The adulterous enterprise, which Job for himself disavows, is described in detail. 1. By its origin. It takes its rise in a bewitched or befooled heart. "Out of the heart proceed adulteries" (Matthew 15:19). Therefore "keep the heart with all diligence" (Proverbs 4:23). This beguilement of the heart may be deliberately effected by the adulterous woman displaying her charms so as to fascinate her lover’s eye (Proverbs 7:10-21); or, as in the case of David, it may result from lascivious admiration of the married woman’s beauty. 2. By its practice. The adulterous lover, waiting for the twilight, disguiseth his face, and lieth in wait at his neighbour’s door, obviously a common crime in Job’s time (Job 24:15), as it afterwards was in David’s and Solomon’s (Psalms 50:18; Proverbs 6:24-29; Proverbs 7:5-9), Jeremiah’s (Jeremiah 5:8) and Ezekiel’s (Ezekiel 18:6), Christ’s (John 8:3-9) and the apostles’ (1 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Peter 2:10). 3. By its criminality. Job stigmatizes it as an act of infamy, and an iniquity to be brought before the judges (verse 11), meaning that, besides being a violation of the moral law (Exodus 20:17), it is likewise an offence falling within the penal code of the land. Punished by death under Moses (Le Job 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22), in patriarchal times it was visited by burning (Genesis 38:24). Probably this was the penalty attached to it in the land of Uz (verse 12). Most heathen nations of antiquity pronounced it a capital offence. 4. By its demerit. The sinner who defiled his neighbour’s wife deserved to have the same sorrow meted out to himself—a thought euphemistically expressed in verse 10 (vide Exposition). So David’s sin against Uriah’s wile was punished by Absalom’s wickedness in lying with his father’s concubines (2 Samuel 16:22). 5. By its results. In addition to civil penalties and providential retributions, its ultimate issue is widespread sorrow, if not fatal ruin. Like a consuming fire, if persevered in, it has nothing but physical, moral, and eternal destruction for the perpetrator (Proverbs 6:32; Proverbs 7:23, Proverbs 7:26, Proverbs 7:27; 1 Corinthians 6:18; Hebrews 13:4; Revelation 21:8). Even a solitary act is like the taking of a hot coal into one’s bosom (Proverbs 6:27-29). Not only does it demoralize the nature of him who commits it, but it spreads sorrow and desolation through the heart of her against whom it is committed. It breaks the peace of otherwise happy families. It awakens the demon of jealousy, even when it is not discovered. Detected or concealed, it is a secret fountain of death. IV. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF MASTER AND SERVANT. (Verses 13-15.) 1. The case supposed. Job instances a state of matters that might readily have occurred in his household, viz. the existence of some ground of complaint against him, the master, on the part of his manservant or maidservant, i.e. his bondman or bondwoman. Such contendings and disputings between master and servant, which are not unusual in modern free society, were much more likely to arise in ancient times when servants were simply slaves. 2. The course pursued. In the event of any such charge or complaint being preferred against him, Job protests that he neither crushed it out by the strong hand of oppression nor tossed it aside with contemptuous indifference, but gave it the most kindly attention and the most patient, careful, and impartial examination. If his accusers proceeded to impeach him at a bar of justice, he did not deny them the right of public redress, as other masters might have done and as the Israelitish master was entitled by the Law to do. But counting them as persons, not as goods and chattels, he accorded to them equal rights in this matter with himself. Slavery in Job’s house, as also in Abraham’s, was a widely different thing from that practised in modern times. 3. The reasons allied. (1) He was answerable to God for the treatment he accorded to his servants. He should tremble when God arose to judgment, arid be speechless when God came round as an Inspector, to examine into the controversy pending between him and his servants, unless he acted on the principles of strictest equity. That God will one day hold such a court of inquiry, in which masters and servants, rulers and ruled, will be judged, is announced in Scripture (Psalms 96:13; Ecclesiastes 11:9; Acts 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Hence masters are responsible for their treatment of servants (Colossians 4:1); and this thought should deter them, as it did Job, from inflicting upon those who serve, or are dependent upon them, either injustice or severity (Ephesians 6:9). (2) His servants were possessed of the same human nature with himself. They had been fashioned by the same Divine power as himself. Both alike were God’s handiwork (Job 34:19; Psalms 33:15), God’s creatures (Isaiah 45:12), God’s offspring (Malachi 2:10; Acts 17:29). Both had been produced by the same human agency. Both had been curiously and secretly elaborated in a woman’s womb (Psalms 139:13). Both had been made of one blood (Acts 17:26). Hence both belonged to a common brotherhood. Physically, intellectually, morally, the slave is the fellow of his master, having on the ground of a common humanity equal rights with that master in the light of God and before men. The language of Job is a powerful condemnation of the modern kind of slavery. V. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF . (Verses 16-220. 1. The objects of Job’s compassionate regard. The poor and the needy, the hungry and the naked, the fatherless and the widow. The care of such persons is a dictate of nature, which, however, is frequently powerless to enforce obedience to its own precepts. Among heathen nations generally the helpless and the destitute have been neglected and left to perish, if not openly oppressed and destroyed. Religion, however, both natural and revealed, prescribes kindness to the poor and needy as one of its essential virtues. The Mosaic code provided special legislation for the poor (Le Job 19:10, Job 19:13; Job 23:1-17:22; Exodus 23:11; Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Deuteronomy 14:28, Deuteronomy 14:29), for the widow (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:17; Deuteronomy 27:19), for the orphan (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Deuteronomy 14:29). In the Hebrew Church these were the objects of God’s peculiar care (Psalms 68:5; Psalms 146:9; Jeremiah 49:11; Malachi 3:5). In the Christian Church they are regarded as Christ’s brethren (Matthew 25:40). The care of them a special duty of the pious (James 1:27). 2. Job’s habitual behaviour towards the poor and needy. Previously described (Job 29:11-17), it is here again set forth both negatively and positively. (1) Negatively, by reciting the special acts of unkindness towards the poor which he was careful W avoid, such as (a) withholding the poor from their desire (verse 16), it might be from the wages for which they had toiled or the aims which they had craved; (b) causing the eyes of the widow to fail, by denying her assistance or refusing her redress against her powerful oppressor (Job 24:3); (c) eating his morsel alone, "in misery and grudging seclusion," lest the fatherless should see it and require to be invited to partake (verse 17); (d) looking on with heartless unconcern while the naked shivered in their rags, and perished for want of clothes (verse 19); (e) shaking the hand, i.e. using a threatening gesture towards the orphan who sued him in a court of justice, the moment he recognized the judges to be his friends (verse 21). (2) Positively, by sketching the manner of life towards them which from his youth up he had pursued (verse 18), and which in large measure had become a second nature to him; according to which Job had been a father to the orphan and a son to the widow (verse 18), training up the one with paternal solicitude and comforting the other with filial devotion, while the bunny never failed to find a meal at his hospitable board (verse 17), or the naked to exchange their rags for the warmest fleeces of his sheep (verse 20), his own heart finding its truest joy and amplest reward in the happiness he conferred on others. 3. The Spirit that inspired Job in his charitable deeds. He was afraid of the Divine retribution, and he stood in awe of the Divine majesty. It was the fear, not of man, but of God, that deterred him; the apprehension, not of unpleasant consequences in time, if he acted otherwise, but of the all-devouring wrath of the Almighty in the future. 4. The proof that Job offered of his veracity in what he said. He invoked upon himself a curse if he had sinned in any of the ways above named, but more particularly if he had lifted up his hand against the orphan; he desired that his shoulder might fall from its shoulder-blade, and that his arm might be broken from its bone (verse 22). VI. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF WORSHIP. (Verses 24-28.) 1. The twofold idolatry from which Job had abstained. (1) Mammonism, or the worship of money. Formerly possessed of great wealth (Job 1:3; cf. Job 22:24), Job had carefully avoided those particular sins which great wealth is prone to foster. (a) He had not allowed his confidence for time or for eternity to rest in the abundance of his gold. Probably money, in consequence of the seeming almightiness which belongs to it (Ecclesiastes 7:2; Ecclesiastes 10:19), is the most formidable rival God encounters in his demands upon the human heart (Matthew 6:24), which almost universally betrays a disposition to trust in uncertain riches rather than in the living God (1 Timothy 6:17). But Job had never permitted his gold to usurp the throne el his affections, had never even esteemed it as the chief good, and certainly had not accorded it the homage due to the Supreme. The all-absorbing devotion of a human soul to the pursuit or possession of wealth is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5), is incompatible with true piety (Mark 10:24; 1 John 2:15), and should be carefully eschewed by all followers of Christ. (b) He had not exultingly rejoiced in the greatness of his wealth. A person might stop short of actually reposing his heart’s trust in his money, and yet be guilty of excessive delight therein. But not even of the common sin of setting too high an estimate upon his gold and silver, of looking on with inward gratification at the growing pile of his material goods, was Job guilty. Having the Almighty as his gold and his silver of strength (Job 22:25), i.e. esteeming the Divine favour and fellowship as greater riches than any earthly treasures, it was impossible that the mere increase of material possessions could fill him with extravagant rejoicing. The most effectual way to prevent the soul from delighting in a creature is to teach it to delight in the Creator. (c) He had not even arrogantly taken credit to himself for achieving his immense fortune. No doubt his personal industry and sagacity had contributed to the grand result (Proverbs 10:4; Proverbs 13:4), but he piously refrained from saying. "My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17), probably remembering, as the Israelites were counselled to do (Deuteronomy 8:18), that it was the Divine blessing alone which enabled him to become rich (Proverbs 10:22). (2) Sabaeism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies. "The eldest and also comparatively the purest form of heathenism" (Delitzsch), the adoration of the stars, prevailed amongst the Chaldeans in the time of Abraham, Uruk, one of the early monumental kings of Babylonia, having found, it at Ura temple of the moon, at Larsa a temple of the sun, and at Erech a temple of Venus, called Bitanna, or the house of heaven. It was practised by the ancient Arabians, who "adored the sun and the moon as Divine," ancient testimonies being witness. It was diffused throughout Syria in the time of Moses, so that the Israelites, prior to their occupation of Canaan, were specially warned against it (Deuteronomy 4:19). Nevertheless, under the monarchy, Israel frequently relapsed into this abomination (2 Kings 23:5, 2 Kings 23:11). In later Babylonia it was rampant (Ezekiel 8:16), as again the monuments attest, Nebuchadnezzar having erected in the centre el Babylon "a great temple of Ninharissi (wife of the sun)," "to the moon-god a large house of alabaster as his temple," and "to the sun a house of cement and brick". The customary method of paying homage to these stellar deities was by kissing the hand to them (1 Kings 19:18; Hebrews 13:2), which, it may be noticed, is the literal import of the English verb" to, adore." The early and widespread diffusion of this particular form of idolatry affords a striking testimony to man’s need of a God outside of himself. Perhaps also, in the absence of revelation, it is not surprising that the human heart, impressed with the brilliance of the sun, the great light, shining in meridian splendour, and the exceeding beauty of the moon, the solemn and majestic night-wanderer, should ascribe to them supernatural Power and dignity. Yet man’s position at the crown and summit of creation renders all devotion offered to the creatures not only sinful, but absurd. From such impiety Job declared that he had kept himself free. 2. The twofold argument by which Job had been deterred. Had Job been addicted to either of the above specified forms of idolatry, he would have been guilty (1) of a punishable crime. Probably Job means that in his day sun-worship was an offence against the statute law of the land (vide on verse 11), as under the Mosaic code in Israel it could be expiated only by death (Deuteronomy 17:2-7); but possibly the phrase, "an iniquity for judges." may only signify a transgression deserving to be punished, in which case it will hold good of both forms of idolatry. Job shrank from making a god to himself out of either the gold and silver which he possessed, or the celestial luminaries which he beheld, because of the penal consequences to which he knew such a misdeed would lead. And also because he felt that he would be guilty (2) of a detestable hypocrisy in professing to worship God while secretly he was adoring the sun and kissing hands to the moon. A noble testimony to Job’s spirituality of mind and sincerity of heart! He could easily have offered homage to the host of heaven without exposing himself to observation by his fellows; or if, wanting courage to risk detection, he had refrained from outward gestures of devotion, he might have inwardly with his heart acknowledged their supremacy. But Job understood that God could read the heart as well as interpret the outward act, and that only that was acceptable worship which was inwardly sincere as well as outwardly correct. Here, again, the doctrine of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 6:6) and of the New Testament generally (John 4:23, John 4:24) has been marvellously anticipated. VII. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF LOVE. (Verses 29, 30.) Job declares his manner of life in dealing with his enemies. 1. Their treatment of him. They hated him. Their enmity was in all likelihood excited and fostered by his piety. Good men seldom pass through the world without meeting adversaries and opponents. David did not (Psalms 38:19, Psalms 38:20). St. Paul did not (1 Corinthians 16:9). Even Christ did not (John 15:18). Neither can Christ’s followers expect to live without molestation (John 15:20). They that will live godly shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). 2. His treatment of them. Not only did he not rejoice in their destruction when evil fortune overtook them (verse 29), but he was conscious of never having wished that such evil fortune should overtake them (verse 30). To exult in the downfall of an enemy, if natural to the sinful heart, is yet heathenish, fiendish, diabolic (Micah 7:8); it was sorely punished in the case of Edom when she rejoiced over Judah (Obadiah 1:12, Obadiah 1:13); it is explicitly condemned in the Old Testament (Proverbs 24:17, Proverbs 24:18); and is directly antagonistic to the spirit of the Mosaic Law (Exodus 23:4; Le Exodus 19:18), and much more to that of Christ’s gospel (Matthew 19:19; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 3:8), which enjoins not only a negative abstinence from wishing harm to one’s enemies, the virtue which Job claimed (verse 30), but the positive bestowment on them of acts of kindness (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:20), which also we may be sure Job practised. Job’s doctrine is here again a striking approximation towards the teaching of Christ, and Job’s conduct a lofty exhibition of the spirit of Christianity, which will only shine out with brighter lustre if the reading (verse 31) be adopted which supposes Job was urged by the men of his tabernacle to avenge himself upon his adversary. VIII. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF . (Verses 31, 32.) This also Job maintained he had observed: 1. With conspicuous publicity. So open-handed had been his beneficence that with triumphant confidence he appealed to the members of his vast household to give witness in his behalf. They could testify, he was certain, that they had never seen a poor man depart unsatisfied from his mansion gate, but rather that they had every day beheld the contrary. So Job allowed his light to shine before men. 2. With unrestricted liberality. So lavish had been his hospitality that his domestics could fairly ask—Where was the man whom their master had not sumptuously entertained? His table had stood open for all comers—for friends and relatives, as a matter of course, but also for strangers and travellers of every sort and degree. So did Abraham and Lot invite travellers and strangers to their tents (Genesis 18:1-4; Genesis 19:1); so are Christians exhorted to be gives to hospitality (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2). 3. With unstinted generosity. Not simply had he practised hospitality, but he had done so with no niggard band. The stranger he had welcomed to a lodging in his house. To the hungry traveller by the way he had extended, not a crust of bread merely, but a full meal, yea, a rich feast. So are Christians commanded to use hospitality without grudging (1 Peter 4:9). IX. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF . (Verses 33-37.) The Language may be understood as conveying: 1. An important admission. Job’s use of the phrase, "my transgressions," is by some (Canon Cook) regarded as tantamount to an acknowledgment that, notwithstanding his blameless character and life, he was not free from sin—a statement which was certainly correct in itself, since "there is not a just man on earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Ecclesiastes 7:20), and hopeful as an indication of the mind of Job, inasmuch as it proved he was not depending on his virtues for salvation, as well as comforting for those who should afterwards peruse the story of his life, and who but for this recognition of the fact of sin might be prone to think that Job’s morality was beyond their reach. Still, it is open to grave question whether Job really intended to make this admission, or whether he did not rather design to convey an opposite idea, viz. that, as he had perpetrated no open crime, so neither was he hiding any secret wickedness. In either case his words contain: 2. An emphatic protestation. He was not attempting, and never had attempted, to play the hypocrite by either denying his guiltiness in general, or concealing his wicked acts in particular. In all he had said to them about the manner of his life, as in all the approaches he had ever made to God, he had acted with transparent sincerity. There was no secret stain upon his soul which he had not confessed to God; there was no undivulged crime which he feared to make known to man. Pre-eminently Job claimed to be one in whose spirit there was no guile (Psalms 32:2). Job’s accents contain a ring of defiance, which seems to ask whether he was likely to be afraid of either the hootings of the mob or the contempt of the aristocratic families of the land, that he required to skulk within doors, and keep silent about anything that he had ever done. Doubtless Job was universally recognized as a man of courage; and, because it was so, he could appeal to that in proof of his sincerity. But beyond this his utterance, if really intended, exhibits: 3. An instructive comparison. The contrast which Job institutes between himself and Adam, if the translation of the Authorized Version be followed, is a valuable authentication of the biblical tradition of the Fall. It proves that the writer of the Book of Job, to whatever age he belonged, accepted the story in Genesis concerning Adam as historically correct. By putting the name Adam into the mouth of one who flourished in pre-Mosaic times, it also demonstrates that, in the judgment of the author at least, the contents of the Hebrew narrative were credited beyond the bounds of Palestine at a time when the First Book of Moses was probably not yet composed. And now, having strenuously asserted that he was guilty of no concealment, he adds, in authentication of his truthfulness: 4. A personal subscription. "Behold my signature!" he exclaims, alluding to the practice in ancient courts of law of submitting a defence in writing, attested by the signature or mark of the accused party, and meaning that, so far as he was concerned, so confident did he feel in his own integrity, and so well prepared was he to reply to any indictment that might be brought against him, that he was willing to see the case go to trial without delay. Nay, having tendered his defences, he closes with a shout of triumph, throwing out as his ultimatum: 5. A sublime proclamation, in which he challenges his unseen adversary, God (Job 9:15; Job 16:9), to draw up an indictment against him (Carey, Cox), or, according to another interpretation (Delitzsch), in which he draws attention to the already prepared indictment of his opponents, viz. the three friends. In either case he offers, if only God will allow the matter to go to trial, not to shrink from the ordeal of examination, but binding the indictment (God’s or what of the friends) on his shoulder as a badge of distinction, "winding it around his head like a magnificent crown of diadems, (Delitzsch), to approach God with all the princely majesty of one who is conscious of innocence, and to lay bare before his searching gaze, with the most assured confidence of ultimate vindication, every step in his by-past career. X. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF , (Verses 38-40.) 1. The crime which Job disowns. The fraudulent appropriation of land, by either withholding the stipulated rent or murdering the legal proprietor, was apparently not unknown in the days of the patriarch, as, alas I in our time it is both known and practised. But of any such iniquity Job’s hands were clear. For every rood of soil he cultivated be had honestly paid the market price; and, of course, he had never dreamt of killing his landlord to get his farm, as Jezebel despatched Naboth to secure his vineyard. 2. The curse which Job invokes. Had Job been guilty of any such wickedness, not only would his fields have cried out against him, and the furrows which he ploughed have wept over his ungodliness, but he would have richly deserved that Heaven’s blight should descend upon his acres; and such a blight he prays to descend upon his broad domain if he has been guilty of any such wickedness as that which he has just disowned. "May thistles spring up instead of wheat, and darnel instead of barley!" Learn: 1. That the Law of God, i.e. the moral Law, or the law of holiness, has been the same from the beginning of the world until now. 2. That the spirituality of the Law el God is only concealed from them who make no attempt to keep it. 3. That the Law of God takes cognizance of man in every department of his being and every sphere of his life. 4. That the Law of God is as certain and severe in its penalties as it is stern and imperative in its requirements. 5. That the Law of God is the one absolute and invariable rule of life for men under the Christian as well as under the Mosaic or patriarchal dispensation, for the pardoned believer no less than for the unconverted sinner. 6. That the true gauge of a soul’s piety is the earnestness with which it endeavours to keep the Law of God in all its precepts. 7. That the loftiest incentive to such a keeping of the Law of God is a reverential regard for the Lawmaker, especially as he is seen in Christ. 8. That no mere man is able to keep the Law of God perfectly, even Job’s performances being not altogether unmixed with sin. 9. That the most dangerous thing a man can do with his transgressions of the Law of God is to cover them. 10. That that man is grossly deceived who imagines God could not indict him for violations of his Law, because he (the man) cannot indict himself. 11. That those who are advancing in holiness, or sincere keeping of the Law of God, should guard against being either too proud of, or too reliant on, their own attainments. 12. That the loftiest morality attainable on earth will not enable man to dispense with the services of a Daysman or Mediator. BY E. JOHNSON Job 31:1-40 Solemn assurances of innocence. Job can discover no connection between his present sufferings and those well-founded hopes of his former life to which he has been referring; but there remains the assumption of his guilt as an explanation. In his intense longing for redemption he is led, in conclusion, to affirm in the most solemn and sacred manner his innocence, invoking the sorest punishments upon himself if his words are untrue. Thus, in effect, he makes a final appeal to God as his Judge. In this solemn assurance of innocence, he begins with that which is the root and source of sin—evil lust; he then touches on the sins proceeding from it, and explains the rule of life and the disposition of heart which rendered him incapable of the commission of such sins. I. LUST : THE HEART GIVEN TO VIRTUE. (Verses 1-4.) 1. He had governed the eye and restrained its lust. He had guarded that noble organ, which may be either the avenue of purest pleasures or the tempter to most shameful vice. He had prescribed to the eye its conduct and its law. The eye seems almost as much the receptacle and scat of our passions, appetites, and inclinations as the mind itself; at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the mind within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out. Love, anger, pride, avarice, all visibly move in those little orbs (Addison). It is not enough to watch over the heart, the inner citadel of the man, but all its avenues—the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot—must be guarded against the approach of sin. 2. He had referred himself in this to the judgment and the all-seeing eye of God (compare Joseph, Genesis 39:9; and Psalms 139:2, sqq.). The thought of men’s knowledge is often a more powerful deterrent from actual crime; it is the thought of God which alone can sanctify and keep in safety the heart. Job rises above the mere commandments of the Law. Law forbids the desire of others’ goods (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21)—a negative virtue; Christ carries us directly to God, and bids us be pure in heart that we may behold him. To live consciously in the eye of God is to have a pure and right direction for our own. II. FIRST : EVIL DESIRES HAVE NOT BEEN YIELDED TO. (Verses 5-8.) He did not "go about with falsehood," nor did his foot hasten to deceit. May God, he says, pausing, weigh him in a just balance, and, instead of being found wanting like Belshazzar (Daniel 5:27), may his integrity be known and proved! Among the Greeks, Themis, or Dike, held the scales symbolical of judgment; the Arabs speak of judgment as the "balance of works." Every man’s work, every man’s character, shall finally be tried, proved, made known; and many that are last shall be first, and the first last. His steps had not turned out of the right way, the way marked out and appointed by God; no stain of ill-gotten wealth had cleaved to his hands (Psalms 101:5; Deuteronomy 13:17). Another imprecation, ratifying his assurances of innocence: "Then let me sow, and let another eat"—let another enjoy the fruit of his ill-spent, dishonest toil (comp. Job 27:16, Job 27:17; Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:33; Amos 5:11); and let his shoots—the plants of the earth which he has set—be rooted out! III. His PURE AND RIGHT CONDUCT IN LIFE. (Verses 9-15.) 1. His chastity. (Verses 9-12.) He had not been befooled into any gross sin against the marriage-tie. He expresses the utmost detestation of such sin. "It would be a crime, and a sin before the judges." It would be as a devouring fire, resting not in its course until it had brought the criminal to the pit of hell, and all his property had been rooted out (comp. Proverbs 6:27, et sqq.; Proverbs 7:26, Proverbs 7:27; James 3:6). 2. His conduct towards his domestic slaves. He had not abused the rights of his menservants or maidservants. His relation to them was patriarchal, like that of Abraham to Eliezer of Damascus (Genesis 15:2; Genesis 24:2, et seq.). He felt that he and they, masters and slaves, were of one blood, the children of one Father, offspring of one Creator; how could he, were he guilty of sin against them, face the dread tribunal of God? "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?" (Malachi 2:10). Refer to St. Paul’s exhortation to masters (Ephesians 6:9). The relations of masters and servants, employers and employed, have undergone vast changes since those ancient days. We all live under the equal protection of the laws of the land, and the general spirit of the law is to protect the weaker against the stronger, the poor against the encroachment of the rich. But in Christianity this relation receives a new meaning and sanctity by being brought under the great central relation in which we stand to Christ. And we have a beautiful example of the Christian treatment of the servant in St. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ A new personage is now introduced upon the scene, who speaks in a new style and almost in a new language. No previous mention has been made of him; no subsequent notice is taken of his arguments; and nothing is said of him in the historical section wherewith the work concludes (Job 42:7-17). It is therefore scarcely surprising that some exception has been taken to the genuineness of the entire passage (Job 32-37), or that it has been regarded by many excellent critics as an interpolation into the Book of Job, made by one who was not the original author, at a date considerably later than the rest of tile composition. A modification of this extreme view is suggested by M. Renan, who thinks that the original author may have added the passage in his old age. This view is entitled to consideration. The subject has been discussed at some length in the Introduction, so that no more need be stated here. We are confronted with the fact that the passage has come down in us as a substantive portion of the Book of Job, in all the Hebrew manuscripts that have reached our time, as well as in all the ancient versions—the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Chaldee, the Arabic, the AEthiopic, the Vulgate, etc. To excise it, therefore, would be too bold a measure, though some moderns have not shrunk from doing so. Job 32:1-5 The discourse of Elihu is prefaced by a short introduction in plain prose, explaining who he was, and giving the reasons which actuated him in coming forward at this point of the dialogue. Job 32:1 So these three men ceased to answer Job. Zophar had been silenced earlier. Eliphaz and Bildad now felt that they had no more to say. They had exhausted the weapons of their armoury without any effect, and were conscious that nothing would be gained by mere reiteration. All their efforts had aimed at convincing Job of sin; and he was still unconvinced—he remained righteous in his own eyes. Job 32:2 Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu. The name "Elihu" was not uncommon among the Israelites. It is found among the ancestors of Samuel (1 Samuel 1:1), among the Korhite Levites of the time of David (1 Chronicles 26:7), and as a variant for Eliab, one of David’s brothers (1 Chronicles 27:8) The meaning of the word was, "He is my God" (אליהוא). The son of Barachel. Barachel is also a significant name. It means, "Bless, O God," or "God blesses" (ברך אל). Both names imply that the new interlocutor belonged to a family of monotheists. The Buzite. "Huz" and "Buz" were brothers, the sons of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, by Maleah, the daughter of Haran (Genesis 11:29; Genesis 22:20, Genesis 22:21). Of the kindred of Ram. By "Ram" we are probably to understand "Aram," who was the son of Kemuel, a brother of Huz and Buz. (On the connection of Huz and Buz with the Arabian tribes of Khazu and Bazu, see the comment on Job 1:1.) Against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. Elihu was well-intentional; and it is perhaps not surprising that he had been shocked by some of Job’s expressions. Job had himself apologized for them (Job 6:26); and certainly they went perilously near taxing God with injustice (see Job 40:8). But it is to be remembered that finally God justifies Job’s sayings, while condemning those of his "comforters." "My wrath is kindled," he says to Eliphaz, "against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" (Job 42:7). Job 32:3 Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer. Elihu thought that Job’s reasonings and complaints admitted of being satisfactorily answered, and was vexed that the three "friends" had not made the right replied It is the main object of his speech to supply them. And yet had condemned Job. They had condemned him on wrong grounds and of sins that he had not committed (Job 22:6-9). Elihu condemns him as much (Job 33:9-12; Job 34:7-9, etc.), but for entirely different reasons. Job 32:4 Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken; rather, to speak to Job (see the Revised Version) He had waited impatiently until the three special "friends" had said their say, and be might come forward without manifest presumption. Because they were elder than he. (On the respect paid to age at this time in the land wherein Job lived, see the comment on Job 29:8.) Job 32:5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled (comp. Job 32:3 and the comment). Job 32:6-22 The speech of Elihu now begins. In the present chapter, after a short apologetic exordium, excusing his youth (Job 32:6-9), he addresses himself exclusively to Job’s friends. He has listened attentively to them, and weighed their words (verses 11, 12). but has found nothing in them that confuted Job. They had not "found wisdom"—they had not "vanquished Job"—at the last they had been "amazed, and had not had a word more to say" (verses 13-16). Elihu, therefore, will supply their deficiency; he has kept silence with difficulty, and is full of thoughts, to which he would fain give utterance (verses 17-20). In all that he says he will show no favouritism—he will "accept no man’s-person," "give no flattering titles," but express sincerely what he believes (verses 21, 22). Job 32:6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old. We can only guess at the exact ages of Job and his friends. From the fact that God at the last "gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10), and the further fact that he lived, after he had recovered his prosperity, a hundred and forty years (Job 42:16), it has been conjectured that he was seventy years of age at the time of his conference with his friends, and that he died at the age of two hundred and ten. But this clearly is quite uncertain. He may not have been much more than fifty when his calamities fell upon him. If this were so, the age of his friends need not have exceeded from sixty to seventy. Perhaps Elihu was himself not more than thirty. Wherefore I was afraid, and durst not show you mine opinion; rather, I held back and was afraid to utter what I knew in your presence. Elihu would have been thought unduly pushing and presumptuous if he had ventured to come forward until his seniors had ended their colloquy. Job 32:7 I said; i.e. "I kept saying to myself, when the desire to interrupt came upon me." Days should speak. Age should give wisdom, and the speech of the old should be most worthy of being attended to. Elihu had been brought up in this conviction, and therefore refrained himself. And multitude of years should teach wisdom. "Old experience should attain to something of prophetic strain." "One ought to give attention," says Aristotle, "to the mere unproved assertions of wise and aged men, as much as to the actual demonstrations of others" (’Eth. Nit.,’ Job 6:11, ad fin. comp. also Job 10:12; Job 15:10; Proverbs 16:31). Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man. But, after all, it is not mere age and experience that make men wise and able to teach others. "There is a spirit in man" (see Genesis 2:7); and it is according as this spirit is or is not enlightened from on high that men speak words of wisdom or the contrary. The inspiration of the Almighty—this it is, which—giveth them understanding. And such inspiration it is in the power of God to bestow, as he pleases, on the old or on the young, on the great of the earth, or on those of small reputation. Hence Elihu’s conclusion— Job 32:9 Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged (always) understand judgment. Elihu lays down the universal law, before applying it to the particular instance. True wisdom is from God, not from observation and experience. Therefore many aged men are not wise; many experienced men, great in position, versed in affairs, do not possess understanding. It is a trite remark, "With how little wisdom the world is governed!" Job 32:10 Therefore I said, Hearken to me. Elihu evidently claims, not exactly what is ordinarily understood by inspiration, but that his spirit, is divinely enlightened, and that therefore he is more competent to take part in the controversy that has been raised than many of the aged. I also will show mine opinion. "I also," or "even I"—i.e. I, young as I am, "will show my opinion," or "utter what I know on the subject." Elihu does not speak of his convictions as mere "opinions," but claims to be in possession of actual "knowledge." Job 32:11 Behold, I waited for your words; i.e. "I was full of expectation; I waited impatiently to hear what you would say." Then, while you spoke, I gave ear to your reasons—or, your reasonings; I did my best to apprehend your meaning—whilst ye searched out what to say. Professor Lee translates, "whilst ye examined Job’s conclusions; but the Authorized Version is probably correct. Elihu means that he listened carefully while the friends hunted out all the arguments they could think of in order to confute Job. Job 32:12 Yea, I attended unto you—or, lent you my attention—and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job; rather, that convicted (or, confuted) Job. Or that answered his words. In Elihu’s opinion, the argumentative value of all the long speeches of the three friends was nil; they had entirely failed to answer Job’s arguments. Job 32:13 Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom; or, beware lest ye say, We have found wisdom (see the Revised Version). "Do not suppose, i.e; that you have triumphed in the controversy, that your mode of meeting Job’s complaints is the wise and right one. The exact reverse is the case. You have not vanquished Job. On the contrary, he is unvanquished, and remains master of the field. If he is ever to be vanquished, it will not be by you. God thrusteth him down, not man. A true prophecy! (see Job 40:1-14). Job 32:14 Now he hath not directed his words against me. Elihu thinks that he can interfere in the controversy with the better prospect of a good result, since he is untouched by any of Job’s words, and can therefore speak without passion or resentment. Neither will I answer him with your speeches. He is also going to bring forward fresh arguments, which, as they avoid the line taken by the three friends, may soothe, instead of exasperating, the patriarch. Job 32:15 They were amazed, they answered no more. A change from the second to the third person, possibly as seeming less disrespectful. Or perhaps Elihu turns from the three friends at this point, as Professor Lee supposes, and addresses himself to Job. Job’s "comforters," he says, "were amazed" by his last speech, and could find nothing to say in reply to it. Consequently, they left off speaking. Job 32:16 When I had waited (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more); rather, as in the Revised Version, and shall 1 wait’ because they speak not, because they stand still’ and answer no more? Am I to wait until they shall have recovered themselves, and found something to answer? Surely this is not necessary. Neither courtesy nor etiquette prescribes it. Especially when I have waited so long, and have so much to say, and am so exceedingly anxious to say it (see Job 32:18-20). Elihu shows all the impatience and ardour of a young speaker (see Job 32:6), and feels the confidence that young men so often feel in the wisdom and persuasiveness of their words (comp. Job 33:1-6). Job 32:17 I said, I will answer also my part, I also will show mine opinion. The initial "I said" is superfluous. Elihu, having asked himself the question, "Shall I wait?" in Job 32:16, here gives the answer. He will not wait any longer, he will take the word, he will set forth his conviction. Job 32:18 For I am full of matter; literally, I am full of words; i.e. I have very much to say. The spirit within me constraineth me; literally, the spirit of my belly; i.e. "my inward feelings and emotions." Compare Zophar’s statements in Job 20:2, Job 20:3; and Job’s own declarations in Job 13:1-28; that he must speak (Job 13:13, Job 13:19). There is a state of internal excitement, when reticence becomes impossible. Job 32:19 Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent. The process of fermentation properly takes place in the vat, from which the gas evolved in the operation can freely escape. When wine was put into skins before fermentation was complete, and gas continued to be evolved, the effect was that the skins became distended, as the gas had no vent, and then not unfrequently the skins would burst, especially if they were old ones (see Matthew 9:17). It is ready to burst like new bottles. Even if the skins were new, they would undergo distension, and would appear as if "ready to burst," though the actual catastrophe might be avoided. Elihu’s pent-up feelings seem to him, if they do not obtain a vent, to threaten some such a result. Job 32:20 I will speak, that I may be refreshed; rather, that I may obtain relief; or, according to some, "that I may be able to breathe" (Cook, Rosenmuller). Elihu feels almost suffocated by conflicting feelings of rage (Job 32:1-3), disappointment (Job 32:11, Job 32:12), and anxiety to vindicate God’s honour (Job 32:2). I will open my lips and answer. In the remainder of Elihu’s discourse the attempt is made to "answer" Job (see ch. 33-37), with what success will be considered elsewhere. Job 32:21 Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person. Elihu hopes that, in what he is about to say, he will not permit himself to be swayed by any personal bias; that he will neither unduly favour the upper classes nor the vulgar, but will treat all fairly and equitably. Neither let me (he says) give flattering titles unto man. Professor Lee observes on this: "The Oriental practice of giving long and fulsome titles is too well known to need anything beyond the mere mention of the fact." Elihu certainly, in the whole of his address, flatters no one. Job 32:22 For I know not to give flattering titles; i.e. it is not my habit to give flattering titles, nor have I any knowledge of the art. I should expect that, if such were my habit, my Maker would soon take me away; would soon, i.e; remove me from the earth, as one whose influence was not for good, but for evil. Flattery is condemned by Job, in Job 17:5: by David, in the Psalms (Psalms 3:9; Psalms 12:2, Psalms 12:3; Psalms 78:36); and by Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 7:21; Proverbs 20:19; Proverbs 28:23, etc.). Job 32:1-5 The intervention of Elihu. I. THE OF THE FRIENDS. "So these three men"—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—"ceased to answer Job;" i.e. did not respond to the lamentations and protestations which he uttered in his parable. 1. The reason they perhaps assigned for their silence. "Because he," i.e. Job, "was righteous in his own eyes." If this was scarcely accurate in the strict theological sense of the expression, since Job had more than once acknowledged himself a sinner (Job 7:20, 24; Job 9:2, Job 9:3), and even subscribed to the sentiment of Eliphaz and his associates that no mortal man can be just before God (Job 9:20; Job 14:3, Job 14:4), it is yet difficult to exonerate the patriarch entirely from the charge here preferred against him; for, though righteous to the extent of being free from flagrant transgression, which his friends alleged he was not, and sincerely devoted to the ways of holiness, as God himself had testified (Job 1:1), he nevertheless insisted on his blamelessness of life and uprightness of character with such pertinacity as to overstep the bounds of true humility, advancing these as a ground or reason why God should have dealt with him differently from what he had done, and thus, as it were, constructing out of them a claim of merit, or self-righteousness before God. 2. The reason they forgot to assign for their silence. "Because they had found no answer," i.e. to Job. For this explanation of their conduct we are indebted to the observation of Elihu, a new interlocutor who appears upon the scene. Unable to convince Job of immorality and hypocrisy, they were likewise, in Elihu’s judgment, incompetent to reply to his arguments and protestations. Doubtless the matter did not so present itself to the contemplation of the friends. According to their theology, Job, being a great sufferer, must have been a great sinner; and any declarations on his part to the contrary only proved that he had not been sufficiently humbled before God, and was indulging in self-deception. This, however, as Job explained, entirely failed in its applicability to him, whose past life of stainless purity, fervent piety, and unwearied philanthropy gave conspicuous demonstration of the falsehood of their allegations, and whose present consciousness reproached him with no dereliction of duty, but rather loudly proclaimed the steadfast character, untarnished beauty, and unmixed sincerity of his integrity to Heaven. But, inasmuch as the above-cited nostrum was the only specific which remained in the pharmacopoeia of the friends, they judiciously abandoned the case as beyond their skill. They had spent every weapon in their quiver without overthrowing their antagonist; and, accordingly, with commendable prudence, observing a discreet reticence as to the secret motive of their behaviour, they retired from the contest. II. THE OF ELIHU. "Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram." 1. The personality of Elihu. Details such as these—concerning the name (Elihu, equivalent to "He is my God"), parentage (son of Barachel, or "God blesseth"), country (the Buzite, probably a descendant of Nahor through his second son (Genesis 22:21), and therefore of Aramsean extraction, though by birth an Arabian, Buz being mentioned with Dedan and Tema as a city of Idumea in the time of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 25:23), kindred (of the family of Ram, otherwise unknown, unless connected with Aram, the son of Shem, Genesis 10:23, the brother of Buz, Genesis 22:21, or the grandfather of Nahshon, cf. Numbers 1:7 with 1 Chronicles 2:9, 1 Chronicles 2:10)—dispose of the patristic conceit that the new interlocutor was Jesus Christ. Equally, however, do they preclude the hypothesis (Cox) that he was simply one of the young men of Job’s city (Job 29:8). They rather hint that be "belonged to a family which had retained the knowledge of the God of heaven" (Cook); and, indeed, when it is considered that Elihu distinctly claims to speak under Divine impulse (Job 32:8; Job 33:4), proposes himself as a response to Job’s oft-repeated demand for a daysman (Job 33:6), and unfolds views of Divine truth concerning the remedial character of affliction and the doctrine of atonement (Job 33:14-30) that seem like anticipations of gospel discoveries, it is hard to resist the inference that in Elihu we have a young Arabian prophet who had been providentially brought upon the scene, as the friends were, and was moved at the appropriate juncture to deliver certain preliminary judgments on the cause then pending. 2. The time of his appearing. We are inclined to think that, as the result of the strife of tongues between the patriarch and his friends, to which also we can suppose that Elihu had listened, the citadel of Job’s integrity, if not in danger of being captured, was at any rate rudely shaken, and that victory, in the grand fundamental debate or controversy of the poem, was inclining to the side of the devil But as God never leaves his people in their hour of need, so neither was Job suffered to be taken captive by the craft of Satan. And accordingly Elihu is at this point introduced upon the stage. 3. The purpose of his introduction. (1) Doctrinal completeness. Considered as a theological discussion, nothing could have been less satisfactory than the position of matters at the close of Job’s monologue. On the one hand, the friends had exhausted themselves in an attempt to demonstrate their particular theory without convincing Job. On the other hand, Job had uttered his last word without converting them to his way of thinking. On the one side, they remained exactly as they were, both as to the truth of their dogma and as to its bearing on the case of Job. On the other side, Job himself was hopelessly entangled in a futile endeavour to reconcile the seemingly insoluble contradiction which existed between his outward lot and his inward condition. So far as the right relation of suffering to sin was concerned, neither of the disputants had discovered it. Occasionally, indeed, Job seemed to get a glimpse of it (Job 23:10), as also did Eliphaz (Job 5:17); but for the most part the remedial, corrective, beneficent, paedagogic uses of adversity were not understood. This view of affliction, therefore, required to be prominently exhibited, if the poem were at all to be redeemed from a charge of incompleteness, of starting a problem it could not answer, of propounding an enigma it could not solve; and this was done by setting forth Elihu to clear away the doctrinal fogs which had gathered around the otherwise acute mind of Job, no less than round the less penetrative intellects of his friends. (2) Dramatic unity. Recurring to the problem lying at the basis of the poem, the controversy represented as existing between God and Satan, and solemnly put to trial in the person of Job, was not whether man, standing alone and unaided on the platform of nature, could maintain his integrity to Heaven, but whether man could do so on the platform of grace (vide Job 1:9, homiletics). It was needful, therefore, that, just at the moment when Job seemed to be on the eve of giving way, he should receive such assistance as grace could impart; and this, again, was done by Elihu, who, speaking from a Divine impulse, "sets before Job clearer, fuller, and more accurate views of the Divine character and modes of procedure in dealing with the children of men, and thereby seeks to reinforce him in his struggle with his friends, and to prevent him from succumbing beneath the temp-rations of the foe". Thus the interlocution of Elihu is not so much "what Job had repeatedly called for, a confutation of his opinions, not effected by an overwhelming display of Divine power, but by rational an "human argument" (Canon Cook, in ’Speaker’s Commentary’), or "the human verdict on the controversy between Job and the friends, which we want to hear almost as much as the Divine verdict, (Cox), as the special illumination which Divine grace had to shed upon the problem agitated between him and them, which illumination was conveyed to him through the instrumentality of Elihu, as it is now more amply and luminously unfolded to us in the gospel. 4. The spirit of his intervention. (1) His wrath was kindled. That Elihu should have given way to an uncalled-for ebullition of anger, if such be the view adopted of his passionate excitement, was no more a proof that he did not speak under inspiration than was the fact that he made use of Aramaisms, and committed certain inelegancies of style. "It is good to be zealously affected in a good thing," and Elihu’s indignation was amply vindicated by the conduct first of Job (verse 2), and secondly of the friends (verse 3). Yet (2) his modesty was conspicuous. The style of severe animadversion adopted by many commentators, beth ancient and modern, in stigmatizing Elihu as "an emblem of confident arrogance" (Gregory the Great), as an example of the ambitious orator (Strigei), as "arrogant and bold" (Herder), as "a conceited prater" (Umbreit), and his addresses as "the weak and rambling speeches of a boy," is quite unwarranted. Not only had he waited respectfully until his elders had concluded their disputations (vex. 4), but with much humility he attributed any value his contributions might Possess, not to the intrinsic excellence of his own genius, but to the fact of his inspiration (verse 8), which rendered him little more than the mouthpiece of Heaven. Learn: 1. It is one mark of true wisdom to know when to be silent. 2. It is specially becoming in young men to be deferential towards their elders. 3. It is quite possible for good men to be righteous in their own eyes. 4. It is commonly the case that of two controversialists both are wrong. 5. It is not unseemly fur even young men to be jealous of the Divine honour. 6. It is no sin for young men who know the truth to instruct old men who know it not. 7. It is right in those who speak for God to be raised above the fear of man. 8. It is certain that God never suffers saints to be tempted without reinforcing them by Divine grace and teaching. 9. It is observable that heavenly succour mostly comes to men when human resources are exhausted. Job 32:6-22 The apology of Elihu. I. THE REASONS OF HIS . Elihu had been an earnest listener to the controversy Job waged with his three friends, "waiting for Job with words" (verse 4), i.e. eager to pour out in speech the arguments that trembled on his lips; and now he declares that two things had restrained him from joining earlier in the discussion. 1. A modest respect for their superior age. He was but a young man (literally, "few of years"), while they were very old. Their venerable aspect had inspired him with such awe that he feared to utter his opinion in their presence. Young men in modern times are not always so deferential towards their elders. But seniores priores is a maxim which should be of universal application. While it is at all times unbecoming and impertinent for a youth to interrupt or precede an elder in conversation, it is a special mark of rudeness in religious discussion for an inexperienced Boy to "show his opinion" before men of mature years have delivered theirs. Jesus, at the age of twelve, among the doctors in the temple, was not delivering his convictions, but "hearing and asking them questions." 2. A lofty esteem for their superior knowledge. He considered that old age, with its rich experience, should have had wise and weighty thoughts immeasurably more worthy of being listened to than any crude sentiments and immature judgments that he could utter. A young man who thus accurately gauges the relative importance of the wisdom of age and the "opinions" of youth is a rare phenomenon. It is characteristic of youth, though born like a wild ass’s colt, to fancy itself as wise as Solomon. For the most part, the education of a lifetime is required to enable any one to gather successfully the ripe fruits of wisdom; and even then, the wisdom one gathers is chiefly this, that what one knows is as nothing in comparison to that of which one is ignorant. Occasional examples may be found of amazing talent, immense learning, extraordinary genius, in youth; but ripe wisdom, i.e. carefully verified, well-digested, skilfully arranged knowledge, is preeminently the property of age. II. THE MOTIVES FOR HIS PRESENT . In justification of his behaviour, he offers the following considerations. 1. That true wisdom in its ultimate analysis is an inspiration of Heaven. "Truly it is the spirit in man [literally, ’weak, feeble, mortal man’], and the breath of Shaddai that giveth them [i.e. man collectively] understanding" (verse 8). That is to say, human life in all its departments—physical, intellectual, spiritual—is not an evolution or development from dead matter, but is the creation of God’s Spirit (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Almighty that sustains the thinking principle in man no less than the principle of purely animal existence. Hence wild, m, spiritual insight, intellectual penetration, religious understanding, has its origin rather from within than from without. It is dependent not so much (it at all) upon accidental circumstances, such as age, capacity, opportunity, as upon the quickening influence of the vitalizing and enlightening Spirit. Nay, it demonstrates the possibility of a supernatural communication of wisdom to whomsoever Shaddai wills, and upon whatsoever theme he may please. It proves that no man can justly, or without presumption, claim a monopoly of wisdom. The doctrine of Elihu, that all intelligence in man, and much more all spiritual understanding, proceeds from a Divine afflatus which breatheth when, where, and how it wills, was the doctrine of Pharaoh (Genesis 41:38), of Moses (Exodus 31:3), of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:20), of Isaiah (Isaiah 11:2), of Christ (John 16:13), of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 2:10), and of St. John (1 John 2:20). 2. That true wisdom is not necessarily the property of age. "Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment" (verse 9). This was an advance upon the previous thought. Not only was wisdom not the property of age alone; the discourses to which he had listened had painfully convinced him it was not necessarily a characteristic of age at all. This witness is true. If juvenile witlings abound among all ranks and classes of society, there is unfortunately no lack of aged dullards. Partly through lack of capacity, partly from defective education, partly from long-continued negligence, many come to old age without acquiring wisdom (Job 4:21), and sometimes without possessing common sense. It is not, therefore, wrong for young men of piety and culture to offer to instruct these persons in Divine truth or secular information; only even to such as these it becomes young men to manifest the courtesy and deference that are always due to age. 3. That in particular the old men before him had not displayed a high degree of wisdom. He had hearkened to their "understandings," i.e. their explanations of the subject-matter in dispute, and had carefully examined the replies with which they had endeavoured to convince and silence Job; but in no single instance had they fairly combated his position. It was not reasonable to say, "Lo! we have found out wisdom," and here it is: "God thrusteth him down, not man," so that from this his punishment we infer his guilt (verse 13); because that was exactly the point at issue throughout the entire course of the discussion. Nor, again, was it reasonable to assert that their dogma was the absolute wisdom, though Job was of so obstinate a temper that only God could convince him, since obviously man could not. That, again, was to beg the question entirely; and, in default of argument, to abuse the plaintiff’s attorney. Job’s words must be fairly and honestly controverted. But these old preachers did not understand the business. A well-known interpretation of verse 13 makes Elihu say that only God could overthrow Job, while he really means that only such uncommon genius as he (Elihu) possessed could vanquish a disputant so obstinate as Job (Umbreit); but this is putting the worst construction possible on language which may legitimately signify that in Elihu’s judgment Job’s position could not be turned by merely human wisdom, but demanded the light of inspiration such as he was about to shed upon the theme. 4. That the contribution he proposed to offer was entirely fresh and original. The position he intended to occupy was not one against which Job had already directed his attacks; nor had the arguments he designed to use in confutation of the patriarch occurred to any of the friends. The new thoughts Elihu proposed to introduce into the discussion related chiefly to the disciplinary character of affliction; and it is doubtful if such a view of life’s tribulations could have occurred to any one apart from Divine revelation. The interpretation which understands Elihu to say that, inasmuch as he had not been personally interested in the debate which Job and the friends had conducted, he was able both to deliver an impartial verdict on the point at issue, and to preserve a more equal temper than they, the friends, had been able to do, though perhaps admissible, is not so forcible or apt. 5. That the strength of his convictions would no longer admit of his keeping silence. So powerfully had the truth seized upon him, and so long had he endeavoured to restrain it, that now his soul (literally, "his belly," as the seat of spiritual emotions) seemed like a wine-skin on the eve of bursting through the fermentation of the liquor it contained (verses 17-19). So every Heaven-born idea, to whomsoever it is first communicated, irresistibly strives after utterance. For a season the living thought may be kept in abeyance, carefully secluded from the world at large, but ultimately there comes a moment when it asserts its Heaven-granted supremacy over the mind of the man that has received it, and, refusing to be longer concealed, eventually drives that mind to speak forth the God-imparted message. So the Word of the Lord was in Jeremiah’s heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones (Jeremiah 20:9). So SS. Peter and John told the Sanhedrin they could not but speak the things which they had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). So St. Paul felt that necessity was laid upon him to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16). So Mahomet proclaimed to the rude Arab tribes of a later day the sublime discovery of the unity of God; and Luther could not keep back the truth which God’s Spirit had flashed into his soul on Pilate’s Staircase, that "the just shall live by faith." So when God gives to any man—prophet, poet, preacher, writer, inventor, discoverer, or man of genius generally, a new idea, it renders him uncomfortable until it has been liberated, brought to the birth, as it were, and sent forth to wander through the world on its Heaven-designed mission. If the possessor of such an idea would have ease and comfort in his soul, he must give it voice. As Elihu says, he must speak in order to be refreshed. III. THE OF HIS . The two closing verses are by some understood to contain an additional reason for Elihu’s interposition, viz. that continued silence would evince such a mean and cowardly deference to merely human authority, that he could not hope to escape punishment for it at the hands of God (’Speaker’s Commentary;’ Cox); but it seems preferable to view them as setting forth first the principles he intended to observe in his proposed interlocution, and, secondly, the reasons or arguments on which those principles were based (Delitzsch, Carey, Fry, etc.). 1. The principles he intended to observe. These were: (1) The strictest impartiality as between man and man: "Let me not, I pray thee, accept any man’s person" (verse 21). The acceptance of persons, or the favouring of the great at the expense of the small, of the rich at the expense of the poor, of the powerful at the expense of the weak, results either from moral cowardice, intellectual vanity, or personal dishonesty. Condemned in the Word of God (Proverbs 18:5), it is specially unbecoming in the followers of Christ (James 2:1). Charged by Job against the friends (Job 13:8), it was a sin which Elihu felt it incumbent upon him to avoid. (2) The directest honesty as regards the individual himself. "Neither let me give flattering titles to any man." Unlike his Oriental countrymen, Elihu would be guilty of no adulation or compliment to any man; but with simplicity and godly sincerity would deliver the sentiments with which he had been charged. So Elijah preached to Ahab (1 Kings 18:18), and the Baptist to Herod (Matthew 14:4). So did St. Paul preach the gospel at Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:12), Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:4), Athens (Acts 17:22), and elsewhere. So preached Luther to the princes of Germany, Latimer to Henry VIII. of England, and John Knox to Mary Queen of Scots. 2. The reasons he alleged for his intended behaviour. These were extremely creditable to himself. (1) He had not learnt the art of flattery. He possessed a soul too large, honest, and independent to reside in a courtier’s bosom. Adulation was abhorrent to his nature. Such souls are scarce. Yet there is no better mark of true spiritual nobility than an incapacity to either give or receive the honeyed words and fawning courtesies of flattery. (2) he would certainly be punished if he did commit the wickedness alluded to—punished, according to the interpretation of the last clause (Carey, Fry), with the richly merited contempt of God: "How little would my Maker esteem me!"—according to another rendering (Delitzsch, Cook, Cox), with some signal manifestation of his displeasure, as e.g. by sudden death. Learn: 1. There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence, even in regard to the most sacred matters. 2. It is a high proof of wisdom to be able to recognize whence all wisdom comes. 3. It is proper to sift the opinions and doctrines of even the oldest and wisest of men; to prove all things, and hold last that which is good. 4. It would largely contribute to the world’s happiness if those who undertook to teach others never spoke until they were impelled by the force of inward conviction. 5. The men who move the world are those whose souls are illumined and inflamed by the light and fire of great ideas. 6. One of the greatest pleasures a human soul can enjoy on earth is that of propounding and diffusing new and lofty thoughts. 7. Sincerity of mind and heart is an indispensable qualification for the teacher whom God employs. 8. Want of fidelity to the truth and to those who hear is one of the greatest crimes a preacher can commit. 9. God despises and will punish those who yield to fear or favour. 10. God can easily remove those who are unfaithful to the trust they have received. BY E. JOHNSON Verse 1-37:24 Elihu and his discourse. In the person of the young Elihu a new speaker comes forward, who mediates between Job and his friends. Calmer and juster in thought than either, he takes up the word when "wit and reason" on both sides are at an end; he shows the weakness of the friends, but at the same time reproaches Job with his past wild speeches, and refutes certain of his errors. Thus he prepares the way for the appearance of Jehovah himself. In Job 32:1-22 and Job 33:1-33; after a long introduction, he advances an argument for the truth that man may not esteem himself pure and just in the presence of God.—J. Verse 1-33:7 Appearance of Elihu: the motives of his address. I. HIS . (Job 33:1-6.) In a few touches the temper and spirit of this new speaker are set before us. 1. His warm piety, which could not tolerate the confidence and the self-justifying spirit of Job. His sense of the greatness of God and his holiness is so profound that he cannot endure what seems to be the bold and haughty attitude of the creature. His feeling seems to be, "Let God be true, and every man a liar!" 2. His spirit of justice, which was indignant at the unfairness of the friends, who held Job for guilty, and condemned him without being able to give an answer to his plea. These are two grand elements in a noble character. Without zeal for God and his righteousness, our sympathy for the suffering may degenerate into a sickly and immoral sentimentalism. But without feeling for the wrongs of the oppressed, without the passion for justice, our zeal for God will become an unholy and pernicious fire. This last has been the cause of many of those terrible persecutions which have defaced the history of the world. Let us beware in our spirit and temper of these extremes-and avoid either dishonouring God through a weak pity for mere suffering, or being cruel to men through a zeal for God. Zeal is a good servant, but a bad master; the spring of heroic deeds or of dreadful crimes. 3. His modesty and respect, shown by his keeping silence in the presence of his elders, so long as they might desire to speak. As the shade to a figure in a picture, so does modesty impart a strength and beauty to the character; it adds to virtue the charm that chastity adds to beauty. But there is a limit to every grace; and modesty becomes a weakness if it leads a man to withhold truth from the world, or to keep his mouth shut whoa flue "word in season" ought to be spoken. II. THE OF ELIHU’S (Verses 6-10.) His modest sense of his own youth and his respect for their age held him back in the presence of his seniors. But, on the other hand, conscience and the inspiration of God’s truth within him impelled him to speak. This little fragment is very instructive, and yields several important lessons. There is a lesson of prudence and tact. The speaker should ever seek to gain the good will of his audience, by laying aside every appearance of assumption or conceit, by testimonies of graceful respect for his audience. Especially should this rule be kept in mind by those who have the most important truths to deliver. Before sowing the seed let the ill weeds be rooted out, and the soil be well broken up. We must try to soften the minds of our hearers as a preparative for impressing them. Augustine says, "He who strives to persuade others to goodness should neglect none of these three things: to please, to teach, to sway their minds; thus he will be heard gladly, intelligently, obediently." But higher than these is the lesson of conscientiousness—attention to the voice within. The Spirit of God finds its truest echo in the conscience. All distinctions of persons and of age fade away in presence of this supreme truth. For wisdom depends not on age, but on the Divine illumination. Well for us if we can forget in whose presence we are speaking, whether younger or elder, richer or poorer, wiser or more unlearned, because absorbed like Elihu in the sense of God’s truth and the desire for his glory. "Let no man despise thy youth" (1 Timothy 4:12). If young men have a sound knowledge of Divine things, the elder need not be ashamed to listen and learn from them. III. THE OF ELIHU’S . (Verses 11-22.) In this passage his character and spirit are further unfolded in points that are worthy of admiration and imitation. 1. His love of reason: He waited expectantly to hear some satisfactory reply from the friends to Job’s clear arguments and statements in self-vindication. He expected either that they would confute him, or that they would candidly admit they were worsted in the strife. "We found wisdom (in Job); God can strike him, not man." His wisdom is so superior to ours that God only can drive him from the field (verse 13). This is a lesson on the morals of controversy. Meet your antagonist with resin for reason; and, when you can do so no longer, be willing to own yourself beaten. Reasonableness and candour, the desire to persuade others or to be persuaded one’s self of the truth,—this is the chivalry of controversy; these are the jewels that shine amidst the cloud of words; the precious balsam-drops that these woeful wars distil. A sullen conspiracy of silence is the retreat and fortress of the dishonourable and the coward. 2. His depth of heart. Elihu is not convinced by Job; his mind teems with matter of deep and living truth. His is no shallow logic of the schools, which falls powerless upon the true heart armed with the justice of its cause. His is no fool’s bolt, soon shot, and leaving him in helplessness. His bosom is like a skin of new wine; he is bursting to tell forth all that experience and reflection have taught him concerning the truths of life. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Let us harvest the instruction of time, lay up a good store of heart-memories, that we may ever have a good and useful word to speak in season. Let us take care of those strong impulses that they are true and pure before we speak; but never hesitate to speak when we are conscious that God is inspiring us. To be led by the Spirit, we must walk in the Spirit. 3. His fearless sincerity. He has no respect of persons when truth is concerned, reverential as he otherwise is in the presence of his elders. He will not flatter; he does not understand the base art. The fear of God is before his eyes. "Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors," says Sir Walter Raleigh. He who is true to God and to himself will never distil this poison from his tongue. In Elihu, then, we have the picture of what a man should be, of what we all should desire in a friend—fairness, honour, candour; sympathy and affection based upon the only sure foundation, love of truth, piety toward God. IV. ELIHU’S SPECIAL APPEAL TO JOB FOR A PATIENT HEARING. (Job 33:1-7.) Here we see the following traits: 1. Intense earnestness. (Verses 1, 2.) For these opening words, which might seem to our Western ears like a "beating about the bush," are in fact Oriental phrases by which the speaker calls the most solemn attention to, and lays the greatest weight upon, what he is about to speak. Such opening formulae may be found in Matthew 5:2; Acts 10:34; 2 Corinthians 6:11. Let it be clear in one way or another to those who listen that we mean what we say, that we are not talking to fill up time, or using words to conceal the void of thought. 2. Perfect sincerity. (2 Corinthians 6:3.) His sayings am the straightforward utterances of his heart, very different from the stale and secondhand commonplaces of the three friends. True eloquence, like the substance of every virtue and every art, is in the heart. The bullet finds its way to the mark, according to the old legend, that has been first dipped in the marksman’s blood. Words that come from the heart will reach to the heart. 3. The sense of dependence upon God (2 Corinthians 6:4), for all light and wisdom, which, while it makes a man humble, makes him truly confident and strong. God’s Spirit has made him. He appeals to no special inspiration, however, bat simply to that genuine human wisdom, that common sense which he recognizes to be a Divine endowment. It is a mark of true piety to own the presence of the Divine Spirit in all the ordinary as well as the extraordinary gifts of intelligence. It is this that chastens, sweetens, and sanctifies the use of every bright talent of the mind and heart. 4. Fellow-feeling. (2 Corinthians 6:6, 2 Corinthians 6:7.) He does not pretend to stand nearer to God than the fellow-man he has arisen to comfort and instruct. He is made of the same clay, moulded by the hand of the Divine Potter. Therefore Job has not to fear an unequal struggle with Elihu as he has with God. Would that all teachers would remember this! The artificial distinctions of life, as prince or peasant, lettered or unlettered, mean but little; those of talent, character, and attainment have a certain value; but the common constitution God has given us is the great ground of appeal, the great source of authority. Those are the best teachers who most deeply read and interpret this common nature; and every truth must at last be certified, not by the ipse dixit of a dogmatizing teacher, but by the utterance of the universal heart and conscience.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 32:1-22 The voice of juvenile self-confidence. We now approach the solution of the mystery, the untying of the knot, the end of the controversy. Job’s three friends have failed to convince Job that he is suffering the wellmented consequences of evil-doing; and he has failed to convince them of his integrity. Now a younger friend speaks with kindled wrath because the three friends "had found no answer." He speaks with the undue confidence of youth; but he weaves many words of truth and wisdom into his speech, from which we may gather some for our guidance. With some hesitation, and a complimentary reference to the claims of age, Elihu nevertheless reveals the impatient self-confidence of youth. Even though truth may be on its side, youthful self-confidence is an error. The error manifests itself here as so often elsewhere— I. IN AN UNDUE OF WITH AGE, The "spirit" that is "in man" and "the inspiration of the Almighty," is assumed to give them "understanding" equally. At least Elihu puts himself on their level, though he afterwards affirms their inferiority. II. IN A OF THE OF AGE. So the young lips are ready to affirm, "Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment." III. IN AN SELF-. How ready is youth to give its judgment! "I also will show mine opinion." IV. IN AN TO GIVE TO . "I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me," etc. V. IN A OF FREEDOM FROM . "I know not to give flattering titles." Thus speaks youth in a confidence which is so often the effect of ignorance and inexperience. The true attitude for youth is (1) lowliness and humility; (2) teachableness; (3) patience; (4) reverent regard for age and for the counsels of experience.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 32:1 Silence after the storm. The three friends first comforted Job with seven days of silence (Job 2:13). They relapse into silence after their painful controversy with the suffering man. We feel a sense of relief, and breathe freely now that their dogmatic delusions are done with, and we have silence after the storm. I. IT IS WISE TO KNOW WHEN TO BE SILENT. We cannot attribute much of this wisdom to the three friends. They would have been more commendable if they had practised it throughout. Still, they were not wholly senseless and heartless. They were able to perceive at length that no more words of theirs would help their case. Part of the art of speaking is to perceive the time for ceasing to speak. It is difficult for many people to come to an end of their words. Let us note some of the times for silencing our speech. 1. When we have no more to say. A man should only speak because he has something to say, never because he has to say something. 2. When our words are not heard. If we speak to heedless ears we waste our breath. It is vain to pour out words that our auditors cannot or will not drink in. 3. When our words are not accepted. If we cannot persuade men by what we say, we shall not do so by mere reiteration. We may find that no words will move our hearers; then further words are wasted on them. If we are altogether out of sympathy with our audience we cannot benefit them by adding words to words. 4. When the time for action has arrived. It will not be wise for the general to be haranguing his men when the enemy are already in the field. Words have their place; but this is not to usurp the place of deeds. 5. When another should be heard. Elihu has been waiting patiently while the old men have been talking. Now his time has come. Talkative people are tempted to be selfish. St. Paul ordered that when many wished to speak in the Church at Corinth each should have his turn, one giving place to another (1 Corinthians 14:30). II. SILENCE IS MOST WHEN IT FOLLOWS A STORM. This second silence has not the beauty of the first silence of sympathy. But it has a deeper significance in some respects. 1. It is a relief from distressful controversy. It is painful to be perpetually arguing with our friends. When the controversy rises to angry words the best thing is to break it off and relapse into silence. 2. It affords time for reflection. If anything worth remembering has been said, it is well that people should have time to think over it. Probably our religious services would be more fruitful if people would only have patience to allow of pauses for quiet meditation. 3. It is a means of establishing peace. When words only irritate, peace will be best secured by silence. If the three friends wished to be reconciled to Job, their wisest course was to wait for the heat of discussion to cool down. 4. It is itself a blessing. Other voices speak in the silence. Then the unseen world draws near to us. After the storm is hushed the heavens open. We all need more silence, especially after times of strain and difficulty.—W.F.A. Job 32:2, Job 32:3 Elihu the young man. We now reach another act in the drama. The vexatious controversy between Job and his three friends is over. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly a new character appears on the stage. We need not trouble ourselves with the question as to whether the Elihu episode was an original part of the poem or whether it was inserted later by the author or even by another hand. We may be thankful that we have it, and we may make use of its lessons with confidence; for we do not know who was the author of any part of the Book of Job, and yet we find the grand work alive with Divine inspiration and rich in spiritual lessons. Let us consider the character of Elihu. Most contradictory opinions have been expressed about him. I. A YOUNG MAN. The elders have spoken; now is the time for youth. Wisdom does not wholly reside with age. In the present day an American freedom is doing away with old-fashioned restraints upon youth, and young people are enjoying a prominence which was once regarded as not becoming. Whether the change is wholly profitable may be gravely questioned. But most assuredly it is not without some advantages. There is an elan, a freshness, and a vivacity which only the young can contribute to life; all the world should be thankful for the breezy vigour that accompanies youthful activity, for all the world is the better for it. II. A MAN. Elihu waited in modesty while the old men were speaking; yet there is a touch of satire in his tone of humility. For, in fact, he has a supreme contempt for the droning commonplaces of the elder advisers. Even Job comes under his lash. He hits out all round. It is exceedingly difficult for young people to believe that they are not infallible. The confidence that is natural to youth tends to develop into censoriousness. III. A KEEN-SIGHTED MAN. Elihu had some ground for his confidence. He could see that the three friends had blundered most outrageously. Job, too, was in error. Elihu comes forward with a new truth. The friends should not accuse Job; Job should not accuse God. The sufferings of Job were not penal at all; they were medicinal. Thus this young man lifts the question on to a new stage. He it is who introduces the great thought of the disciplinary character of suffering. IV. AN MAN. Elihu claimed a direct inspiration—not one that is peculiar to seers like Eliphaz, and that comes in startling vision, but one that is vouchsafed to man as man. He claims to have a share in this inspiration himself. Thus he too would speak for God; and to a certain extent he is right. Hence the truth and value of his words. We can only reach truth when we touch God. We must be free from worldly maxims and selfish prejudices, and open to the voice of Heaven, if we would possess Divine truth.—W.F.A. Job 32:6 Youth and age. Elihu speaks with becoming modesty in these words, although most of his discourse shows that he is perfectly self-confident, and full of contempt for the old censors of Job. He cannot but admit at least the conventional distinctions between the claims and dues of youth and age. Let us look at these distinctions. I. IS DUE TO AGE. We all feel that this is appropriate, even though age does not always appear in a light that fully justifies its claims. On what grounds does this deference rest? 1. The experience of age. Certainly age has had opportunities of gaining wisdom that are not afforded to youth. Whether a good use has been made of those opportunities is another matter. Still, it is scarcely possible to pass through the world without learning something, if only from one’s own blunders. 2. The maturity of age. There is a certain rawness about youth. Apart from its acquisitions from without, the growth of the inner life of a man should ripen, and time should mellow his temperament. 3. The dignity of age. Age is not always dignified; still, the fatherly relation implies a certain rank that is only found with added years. We must respect the orderly arrangement that gives places of honour to years. 4. The achievements of age. The old hero may have become a feeble invalid. Yet he still wears the scars of the battles of bygone days, and we must respect him for what he has done. 5. The infirmities of age. These claim considerate and sympathetic treatment, not slighting and scornful disregard. II. MODESTY IS IN YOUTH. This is especially fit on two grounds. 1. The claims of age. If these are to be respected, youth must stand back for a time. However it might desire to assert itself, youth here finds itself confronted by an obstacle that must not be rudely thrust aside. It may chafe against the restraints, and think them most unreasonable. Perhaps it would be well for the young to consider that they will be aged some day, and will need the consideration shown to age. Meanwhile their advantages are greater than those of the aged in many respects, so that the attempt to surround a naturally melancholy lot of increasing infirmities with honours is really a pathetic confession of the loss of many of the solid boons of life. The young need not envy the honours of age, seeing that they have the powers and opportunities and delights of the sunny spring-time of life. 2. The imperfection of youth. New and untried powers promise great things, hut they need regulating and guiding. It is possible to do immense harm by rushing forward ignorantly and without circumspection. It is wiser to begin quietly, and feel our way by degrees. III. NEITHER THE DUE TO AGE NOR THE MODESTY IN YOUTH SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO WITH DUTY. Old men should be careful not to suppress the generous enthusiasm of youth. They should rather mourn that they have lost it, if it is no longer with them. No venerable position can justify the obstruction of good works. The young have to learn to combine a suitable modesty with fidelity to truth and right. There will be no progress if the constitutional timidity of age is permitted to stand in the way of every proposed improvement. Deference does not mean absolute submission. After all, the consequences of actions are much more important to the young, who will live to reap them, than to the old, who will soon leave the world. The future is for the young; the young must be allowed to shape it.—W.F.A. Job 32:8 The common inspiration of man. Elihu here utters a great and daring thought. He turns from the dogmas of the ancients to the present Divine inspiration; from the teaching of authority to the voice of truth in the heart of man. I. THERE IS A DIVINE OF MAN. Elihu affirms its existence. The old men had grown stiff in thought, worldly, and dim-sighted. If ever they had quivered beneath the touch of inspiration this was in bygone days, and they had forgotten the experience. But the young, enthusiastic Elihu is alive to spiritual influence. Here we are at the root of religion, which does not spring from man’s worship of God, but from God’s touching man. II. THIS IS FOR ALL MEN. Elihu is not thinking of the special and rare vision of the seer which Eliphaz had described as so awe-inspiring (Job 4:12-16). He is thinking of something more simple, more natural, and more common. God does not only teach us indirectly by means of prophets and intermediate messengers. He has not left himself without witness in the heart of man. Conscience is the voice of God in the soul. Reason in man is a spark from the Logos, the great Word and Reason of God. Whenever men read truth they are in contact with the ever-present Spirit of truth. We do not live in a God-deserted world, nor in one that is only visited at rare intervals by Divine influences. God is nearer to us than we suspect. Job has been crying out for God; Elihu shows that God is not far off’ III. THE COMMON OF MAN IS SEEN IN VARIOUS FORMS. It does not make every man a prophet, much less does it always confer the gift of infallibility. In Bezaleel it was a faculty for artistic workmanship (Exodus 35:30-35). Samson found it a source of physical strength (Judges 13:25). God gives his Spirit in science, leading men to truth; in art, teaching what is beautiful, and helping men to discriminate between meretricious, hurtful art and true, fruitful art; in daily life, affording guidance in perplexity and strength in difficulty; in religion, not only under the Jewish and Christian dispensations, where indeed it is most gloriously developed, but in every truly religious life. God has not abandoned India, nor did he abandon Greece or Egypt. Even amidst the monstrous delusions and the gross corruptions of heathenism the still small voice of God may be detected. Whatever is good and true in the world is an inspiration of God. IV. DEEPENS AND THE OF MAN. Joel predicted the time when God’s Spirit should be poured out on all flesh (Joe 2:28), and St. Peter claimed that that time had come on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16-18). St. Paul tells us that all Christians together constitute a temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19). If the Spirit of God is felt in the world, much more must the gracious Divine presence be enjoyed in the Church. Every Christian is, indeed, an inspired man. He is not infallible. But he has a Guide to truth, a Comforter in distress, a Strength for service, and a Grace for holiness.—W.F.A. Job 32:20 The refreshment of speech. Elihu will speak that he may be refreshed. Let us consider some of the ways in which this refreshment may be experienced. I. THE SENSE OF RELIEF. 1. In utterance of what is strongly felt. It is difficult to restrain powerful emotions. Passion inspires speech. We long to tell out what burns in our hearts. Difficulty of utterance often arises from deadness of soul—often, but not always, for many of the best men have no facility of speech. Still, the surest road to eloquence is through emotion. 2. In confession of what is deeply distressing. It is hard to hide a dark secret. Criminals have been known to confess their evil deeds simply because they could not endure to keep silence about them. Great sorrows find relief in utterance. While the sufferer suppresses himself in stony grief his reason is in danger; let him weep and speak, and the worst anguish or his soul will find some relief. Prayer in great distress is not only appealing to God for help; it is also relieving the overburdened soul by utterance. It is much to be able to unbosom one’s self to God, to open out sad secrets to Heaven. II. THE OF POWER. No doubt the lower motive of desiring to feel his power was influencing Elihu, though he would have been too vain to have admitted it. Some people delight to hear the sound of their own voices. The importance and publicity of speaking before others is found to be attractive. When the speaker discovers that he can move an audience by his eloquence, a new fascination lays hold of him, and if he can influence by means of speech, he will find a pleasure in wielding so powerful an instrument. But there is great danger in all this, lest the speaker should idolize his own eloquence, and try to influence others merely for the sake of making them feel the weight of his utterance. It must be remembered that there is great. responsibility in speech. A hasty utterance may be followed by a long repentance, when the speaker will give worlds to recover his mischievous words. III. THE OF GOOD. A good man will desire to speak for the profit of others. He who knows God’s truth will long to declare it to others. So great a treasure is not to be hidden. For Christ’s sake and for the world’s sake it must be made known far and wide. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 33:1-33 In this chapter Elihu, turning away from the "comforters," proceeds to address Job himself, offering to reason out the matter in dispute with him, in God’s stead. After a brief exordium (verses 1-7), he takes exception (1) to Job’s self-assertion (verses 8, 9); and (2) to his charges against God (verses 10-13), which (he says) are unjust. He next brings forward his theory of God-inflicted sufferings being, in the main, chastisements proceeding from a loving purpose, intended to purify, to strengthen, to purge out faults, to "save from the pit," to improve, and to enlighten (verses 14-24). He points out in what spirit chastisement should be received (verses 25-30); and concludes with a recommendation to Job to remain silent, and hear him out, while at the same time he expresses a willingness to listen to what Job has to say, if he has objections to offer (verses 31-33). Job 33:1 Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches; rather, howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech (see the Revised Version); i.e. "However you regard me personally, hear what I have to say." And hearken to all my words. Give me your full attention; do not suffer aught that I say to escape you. Elihu has a deep conviction of the importance of what he is about to utter (comp. Job 32:8, Job 32:10, Job 32:17). Job 33:2 Behold, now I have opened my mouth. (On the solemnity of the phrase, "opened my mouth," see the comment upon Job 3:1.) My tongue hath spoken in my mouth; literally, in my palate (comp. Job 6:30). Each word has been, as it were, tasted; that is, seriously considered and examined beforehand. My remarks will not be crude, extempore remarks; so may they be the better worth attending to. Job 33:3 My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart. Moreover, whatever I say will be said with entire sincerity. My heart is upright, and I shall speak "from the uprightness of my heart," without pretence, deception, or concealment of any kind. And my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. I shall say only what I know’ and shall endeavour to say it simply and clearly, so that no one can mistake my meaning. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God hath made me. This is assigned as the main reason why Job should give his best attention to Elihu’s words. Elihu claims to be quickened and informed by the Divine Spirit which was once breathed into man (Genesis 2:7), whereby man became a living soul (comp. Job 32:8). And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life; or, quiekened me—originated and preserved my life. Elihu does not, however, claim that his words are actually inspired, or that he has a message to Job from the Almighty. Job 33:5 If thou canst answer me; rather, if thou canst’ answer thou me (see the Revised Version). Set thy words in order before me, stand up (comp. Job 23:4). Job 33:6 Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead; i.e. I am the antagonist for whom thou hast asked (Job 9:33; Job 13:19), ready to enter into controversy with thee, instead of God. I am thine equal, a creature like thyself. I also am formed out of the clay (comp. Genesis 2:7). Therefore— Job 33:7 My terror shall not make thee afraid. Thou canst feel no alarm at me; I cannot terrify thee, as God would (Job 6:4; Job 7:14; Job 9:34. etc.). Neither shall my hand (literally, my pack-saddle) be heavy upon thee. Thou wilt not feel my presence a burden, or be crushed under the weight of my words. Job 33:8-12 His exordium over, Elihu proceeds to point out what he blames in Job’s discourses, and at present notices two departures from truth and right only. Job, he says, asserts his absolute innocence (verse 9); he also maintains that God deals with him harshly, as an enemy (verses 10, 11). Neither assertion is justifiable. Job 33:8 Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying. Elihu does not quote exactly what Job had said. He probably intended to be perfectly fair and just, but in reality he greatly overstates the truth. Job had never said the words he ascribes to him in verse 9; at best they are an inference, or deduction, from what he had said. And he had said a great deal on the other side, which Elihu overlooks (see the comment on verse 9). Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent. Job had not said that he was "clean," or "without transgression," or "innocent." With respect to "cleanness," he had observed, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one," implying that all men were unclean (see Job 14:4). Concerning ,’transgressions," he had declared, "I have sinned … Why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?" (Job 7:20, Job 7:21); and again, "Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth" (Job 13:26). Further, he had asked to be told the number of his iniquities and sins (Job 13:23), and declared that God kept his transgressions and iniquities sewn up and sealed in a bag (Job 14:17). With regard to "innocence," the only observation that he had made was, "I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent" (Job 9:28). What he had really asserted was his uprightness, his integrity, his "righteousness" (Job 12:4: Job 16:17; Job 23:7; Job 27:5, Job 27:6; Job 31:5-40). And these are exactly what God bore witness to (Job 1:8; Job 2:3). It is plain, then, that Elihu overstated his ease, and, whatever his intentions were, was practically almost as unfair to Job as the "comforters." Neither is there iniquity in me. Nor had Job said this. He had frequently acknowledged the contrary (see Job 7:21; Job 13:26; Job 14:17). Job 33:10 Behold, he findeth occasions against me. This charge may perhaps be justified by reference to Job’s complaints in Job 7:17-19 and Job 10:3-6; but the exact words are not Job’s. He counteth me for his enemy. Certainly, Job had said this more than ones (see Job 16:9; Job 19:1-29. l 1). But he cannot really have believed it, or his trust in God must have failed. The fact that to the last he clung to God, appealed to him, hoped to receive judgment from him (Job 31:2, Job 31:6, Job 31:28, Job 31:35-37), is proof sufficient that he knew God was not really alienated from him, but would in the end acknowledge him and vindicate his character. Job 33:11 He putteth my feet in the stocks. A reference to Job’s words in Job 13:27. He marketh all my paths (comp. Job 31:4, and Job 7:17-19). Job 33:12 Behold, in this thou art not just. It would certainly not have been a just charge to make against God, that he counted Job as an enemy; and, so far as Job’s statements go, it must be admitted that he had laid himself open to Elihu’s rebuke. But it is no logical "answer" to Job’s charge to say, in reply to it, I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Might does not constitute right, and it is a poor way of justifying God to urge that he is all-powerful, and may do what he likes. So Cambyses was justified in his worst acts by the royal judges (Herod; 3:31); and so in an absolute monarchy it is always possible to justify the extremest acts of tyranny. Certainly God cannot act unjustly; but this is not because his doing a thing makes it right, but because his justice, is a law to his will, and he never wills to do anything that he has not previously seen to be just (see Cudworth’s ’Immutable Morality,’ which deserves the careful study, not alone of moralists, but also of theologians). Job 33:13 Why dost thou strive against him? Why dost thou insist on taking the attitude of one who contends with God, who would fain enter into a controversy with him, and force him to plead in his own defence? It is not alone his omnipotence that makes such conduct folly, but his remoteness, his inaccessibility. He cannot be forced to make answer; it is not his wont to do so; he giveth not account of any of his matters. It is presumptuous to suppose that God will condescend to reveal himself from heaven and make answer to thy overbold challenges. Job 33:14 For God speaketh once, yea twice. God has his own ways of speaking to man, which are not those that Job has been expecting. He speaks silently and secretly, not in thunders and lightnings, as at Sinai (Exodus 19:16-20), not by extraordinary theophanies, but nevertheless quite as effectually. Yet man perceiveth it not. Man often does net recognize God’s action in this silent teaching of his. Man wants something more startling, more sensational. In our Lord’s time, the Jews demanded "a sign"—"a sign from heaven;" but no sign of the kind was given them. Job now did not understand that God, whom he called upon to answer him (Job 10:2; Job 13:22; Job 23:5, etc.), was already speaking to him in various ways—by his judgments, by thoughts suggested inwardly to his heart, by the dreams and visions whereof he complained (Job 7:14). Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the sight. So God spoke to Abimelech (Genesis 20:3-7), to Jacob (Genesis 31:11), to Laban (Genesis 31:24), to Joseph (Genesis 38:5, Genesis 38:9), to the Pharaoh whom Joseph served (Genesis 41:1-7), to Solomon (1 Kings 3:5), to Daniel (Daniel 2:19), to Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:28; Daniel 4:5-18), and to many others. Sometimes men recognized such visions as Divine communications; but sometimes, probably quite as often, they regarded them as mere dreams, fancies, phantasies, unworthy of any attention. Elihu seems to hold that Divine visions came only when deep sleep falleth upon men; and similarly Eliphaz, in Job 4:13. This method of revelation seems to belong especially to the more primitive times, and the earlier stages of God’s dealings with men. In the New Testament dreams scarcely form any part of the economy of grace. In slumberings upon the bed. A pleonastic addition, which must not be regarded as diminishing from the force of the precedent clause. Job 33:16 Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction. At such times, Elihu holds, God gives men spiritual wisdom, instructs them, makes them understand his dealings with them and his purposes with respect to them. If Job is perplexed concerning the Almighty’s ways with himself, and desires explanations, let him have his ear open to the Divine teaching on such occasions, and seriously lay it to heart. He will thus, it may be, find his perplexity diminished. Job 33:17 That he (i.e. God) may withdraw man from his purpose; literally, from his work, assumed to be a wrongful work. Elihu regards the Divine teaching through visions as intended to elevate and purify men. Sometimes God so works upon them as to make them abandon an evil course on which they had entered. Sometimes his object is to save them from indulgence in an evil temper into which, without his help, they might have fallen. In this latter case he may occasionally hide pride from man. Elihu, perhaps, thinks that Job is unduly proud of his integrity. Job 33:18 He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. By these interpositions God may even save a man from utter ruin, when, but for them, he would have rushed upon it. He may cause a person -to give up designs or enterprises which would have brought him into danger, and perhaps led to his being slain with the sword. Job 33:19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed. God also speaks to men, secretly and silently, in another way, viz. through chastisements. He afflicts the strong man with a grievous sickness, causes him to take to his bed, racks him with pain there, and wrings the multitude of his bones with strong pain. But here again his purpose is kind and loving. Job 33:20 Be that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. Eating and drinking are detestable to the man who is stretched on a bed of sickness (comp. Psalms 107:18, "Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death"). The chains that bind to earth fall off, and the soul is left open to loftier influences. Job 33:21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; literally, from the sight; but the Authorized Version gives probably the correct meaning. And his bones that were not seen stick out. These are general features of a wasting illness. Such illness gives the sufferer time to review thoroughly his life and cow duct, and see to it "if there be any way of wickedness in him," or any particular form of sin to which he is tempted. Job 33:22 Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. "The destroyers" are probably the angels to whom the task is assigned of ultimately inflicting death, if minor chastisements prove insufficient. Job 33:23 If there be a messenger with him; rather, an angel (see the Revised Version). It is generally supposed that "the angel of the covenant" is meant, and that the whole passage is Messianic; but much obscurity hangs over it. The Jews certainly understand it Messianically, since they read it on the great Day of Atonement, and use in their liturgies the prayer, "Raise up for us the righteous Interpreter; say, I have found a ransom." Elihu’s knowledge of an Interpreter, or Mediator, one among a thousand, who should deliver the afflicted man from going down to the pit, and find a ransom for him (Job 33:24), is certainly very surprising; and we can scarcely imagine that he understood the full force of his words; but it cannot be right to denude them of their natural signification Elihu certainly did not mean to speak of himself as an "angel-interpreter, one among a thousand;" and it is not probable that he intends a reference to any merely human helper. To show unto man. his uprightness; either "to show to a man what it is right for him to do," or "to indicate to a man in what true righteousness consists." Job 33:24 Then he is gracious unto him; and saith. Some interpret, "Then he (i.e. God) is gracious unto him, and he (i.e. the angel) saith. Others make God the subject of both clauses. But the angel is the natural subject. Deliver him from going down to the pit. The mediating angel thus addresses God, and adds, I have found a ransom, leaving the nature of the ransom unexplained. Some notion of ransom, or atonemeat, underlay the whole idea of sacrifice, which appears to have been universally practised from the remotest times, by the Oriental nations. Job 33:25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s. The chastisement having done its work, and the sufferer being delivered from death by the mediating angel, a restoration to health follows. The recovery of "flesh fresher than a child’s" stands as the natural antithesis to Job’s leprosy. He shall return to the days of his youth. Youthful strength, youthful vigour, youthful feelings, shall come back to him. He shall be once more as he was in the days of his prime. Job 33:26 He shall pray unto God, and he (i.e. God) will be favourable unto him, Being restored to God’s favour, he will once more be able to address him in "effectual fervent prayer," and obtain whatever he desires of him. And he shall see his face with joy. God’s face shall no longer be a terror to him, but he shall look upon it with joy and gladness. For he (i.e. God, will render unto man his righteousness. That is, will both account and make him righteous—both justify and sanctify him. Job 33:27 He looketh upon men; rather, he (i.e. the restored penitent) singeth before men. He is jubilant, and confesses his former offences with a light heart, feeling that now he is pardoned and restored to God’s favour. And if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right. This is altogether a mistranslation. The construction of the Hebrew is simple enough, and runs thus: And he (the penitent) saith, I have sinned and perverted that which was right. And it profited me not; i.e. "I gained nothing by my transgressions—they brought me us advantage." Compare St. Paul’s inquiry (Romans 6:21), "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?" Some, however, translate, "And it was not requited to me," which also gives a good meaning° Job 33:28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light; rather, as in the margin, he hath delivered my soul from going into the pit (comp. Job 33:24), and my life shall see the light. The restored penitent is still speaking. Job 33:29 Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes (literally, twice and thrice) with man. Elihu, from this point to the end of the chapter, speaks in his own person. God, he says, thus works with man, through visions or through chastisements oftentimes—not in the latter case, taking vengeance on them for their sins, but graciously leading them on to a better mind and a higher spiritual condition. This is part of God’s ordinary moral government, and Job has no need to suppose himself exceptionally dealt with. Elihu has reason on his side in all this, and his words may have given Job some comfort. But they did not exactly fit Job’s ease. Elihu, unless supernaturally enlightened, could not possibly penetrate into the special circumstances of Job’s trial. He could only try to bring his case under general laws, of which it was not an illustration; and so, though well-meant and probably of some service, his argument was no complete answer to Job’s difficulties. Job 33:30 To bring back his soul from the pit. For discipline and correction, not for vengeance—in love and not in anger (comp. Hebrews 12:5-11, where the doctrine is set forth fully). To be enlightened with the light of the living; or, that he may be enlightened. This is God’s purpose, ordinarily, in afflicting men; or, at any rate, a part of his purpose He aims at enlightening their understandings, and so enabling them to comprehend his ways, and clearly see the path which it is their true wisdom to walk in. Job 33:31 Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me; i.e. "Mark well what I say. Note it, and lay it up in thy heart." Hold thy peace, and I will speak. It may be conjectured that Job at this point showed some inclination to break silence and answer Elihu. But Elihu thought that he had a great deal more to say, which was of importance, and wished not to be interrupted. He therefore checked Job’s utterance. Then, fearing lest he had gone too far, he made the concession of the next verse. Job 33:32 If thou hast anything to say, answer me. Nevertheless, i.e; if there is really anything that thou wouldst fain urge on thine own behalf at this point, speak—I am ready to hear—for I dare to justify thee; i.e. "I am anxious, if possible, or so far as possible, to defend and justify thy conduct." Then, probably, Elihu made a pause, to allow of Job’s speaking; but, as the patriarch kept silence, he continued. Job 33:33 If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom. Elihu is certainly quite sufficiently impressed with the sense of his intellectual capacity. Job’s silence may have been meant as a sort of tacit rebuke to him. Considering his youth (Job 32:6), there is something of arrogance in the whole tone of his address, and especially in his notion that he could "teach Job wisdom." It is significant that neither now, when expressly invited to reply, nor at any subsequent point of the discourse, nor even at its close, does Job condescend to make any answer at all to Elihu’s speech. Job 33:1-13 Elihu’s first address to Job: 1. An exposure of Job’s sin. I. ELIHU JOB’S . This he does on four distinct grounds. 1. That what he was about to say had been deliberately, thoroughly, and impartially weighed. (Verse 2.) He was not about to open his mouth at random or under any feeling of excitement, but after having tasted every word, as it were, in his palate—a metaphor suggestive of the wise discrimination with which both his thoughts had been prepared and his language selected. "A fool’s mouth poureth forth foolishness: but the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright" (Proverbs 15:2). The conduct of Elihu is worthy of imitation by all, but especially by preachers of the gospel, who should never speak on sacred things without long, wise, painful, prayerful premeditation and preparation. 2. That what he was about to say would be uttered with the utmost sincerity. (Verse 3.) The harangues of the friends had been conspicuously lacking in words of uprightness (Job 6:25). Elihu’s orations should be the uprightness of his heart. (1) They should be pure and unmixed truth, not fancies or speculations, ancient maxims or wise apothegms, such as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had dealt in, but ascertained facts, established doctrines, verified experiences. (2) They should be clearly and simply stated, without any adventitious mixture of rhetoric or eloquence, without any meretricious graces of language or ornaments of diction that would only serve to hide the truth which they pretended to convey. (3) They should be honestly and honourably meant, not advanced simply for the sake of argument, or in order to exhibit the speaker’s skill, and still less with any sinister purpose as regards the hearer, but as believed to have a direct and important bearing on the subject in hand. The determination of Elihu again deserves the earnest study of Christian ministers, who, in the prosecution of their sacred callings, should remember to set forth the pare and unadulterated truth of God, like St. Paul (1 Corinthians 2:2), like St. Peter (1 Peter 4:11), and to do so with "great plainness of speech" (2 Corinthians 3:12), never seeking to exalt self (1 Corinthians 2:1-5; 1 Corinthians 9:16) or to please men (Galatians 5:11; i Thessalonians Galatians 2:4), but always to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31) and edify the hearer (1 Corinthians 14:3; 2 Corinthians 13:10). 3. That what be was about to say was, in a certain sense, an inspiration of the Almighty. (Verse 4.) To redeem the language from a charge of superfluity, if not of presumption, it must he held that Elihu here claims to be the subject of a Divine afflatus, which so excited within his breast the convictions he then possessed that they were completely irrepressible. Once more Elihu stands forth as a pattern to the messengers of Christ, who, though not perhaps inspired exactly as Elihu was, are yet dependent on that same Spirit’s teaching for a perfect understanding of what through the prophets and apostles has been revealed (1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 Corinthians 2:10; John 16:13-15), and who should aim, in addressing their fellow-creatures on Divine things, to have their hearts illumined, excited, and warmed by the light, fire, and heat of the Holy Ghost. That preacher most nearly approaches the ideal of a genuine gospel minister who can in a measure adopt Elihu’s words, and describe himself as moved by the Spirit of God, enlightened and set on fire by the breath of the Almighty. II. ELIHU JOB’S . Job had frequently asserted that he could triumphantly repel any charges that might be brought against him (Job 13:22; Job 23:4-7; Job 31:35-37). Accordingly Elihu requests him to prepare such a vindication of himself as he had spoken of. On the supposition that Job was right, such a task should not be difficult. 1. Elihu was the sort of antagonist whom Job had desired to meet. (Verse 6.) Job had urged that his invisible opponent was not a man like himself (Job 9:32), and had craved the intervention of a daysman who might lay his hand upon both (Job 9:33). In reply, Elihu says, "Behold, I am according to thy mouth to [’of,’ ’for,’ or ’by’] God," meaning either (1) I am according to thy wish unto, i.e. for or instead of God (Authorized Version); or (2) I am like thee (sc. created) by God (Gesenius), or what appears preferable, I am as thou art unto God, i.e. I stand to him in the same relation as thou dost—I, like thyself, am his creature (Carey); or I, like thee, belong to God (Delitzsch), i.e.. I am a human being like thyself, fashioned by the hand of God, nipped off from the clay as when a potter nips off a piece of clay from the larger lump to construct of it a vessel or a human figure. Elihu’s language in a striking manner recalls the Mosaic account of the creation of man (Genesis 2:7). 2. There was nothing about Elihu to intimidate Job or prevent him from replying if he could. "Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee;" literally, "and my burden, pressure, or load upon thee shall not be heavy." Job would have nothing to overpower or discourage him in making the fullest statement of his case; he would feel himself to be dealing with an equal, with one who would scorn, even if he could, to take undue advantage of his opponent. In Elihu we seem to see a type, or at least a resemblance, of the Man Christ Jesus, who, endowed with the Holy Ghost without measure, has become the Mediator and the Judge of men. III. ELIHU JOB’S OFFENCE. 1. That Job justified himself. He had said, "I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me" (verse 9). That Elihu does not greatly misrepresent the patriarch may be proved by comparison of the statements here made with Job’s utterances previously recorded (Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 12:4; Job 16:7). But Elihu, it is said, does not sufficiently allow for certain other declarations in which Job admits a consciousness of natural sinfulness (Job 9:2; Job 14:4). The object of Elihu, however, was not to indicate the portions of Job’s addresses and appeals that were doctrinally and practically correct, but to point out where Job had overstepped the bounds of rectitude and truth; and this he does by citing what he regards as the substance of Job’s own utterances, as language that even a justified sinner conscious of his own integrity and moral purity should be chary in adopting, and should never be over-vehement in maintaining. 2. That Job condemned God. Under this head Elihu refers to the ipsissima verba of the patriarch. Infinitely jealous of his own reputation, Job had been fearfully reckless with regard to God’s. Resenting with a fierce indignation the faintest whisper that might be breathed against himself, he did not hesitate to impeach the Almighty of harshness, saying, "Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy. He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths," language taken directly from the lips of Job (Job 10:13-17; Job 13:24-27; Job 19:11; Job 30:21). IV. ELIHU JOB’S ERROR. Probably the mere reproduction of Job’s words was enough to convince him of their impropriety. In addition, he is reminded of the superhuman greatness of God, in which, as in a mirror, he may behold the fallacy of all that he has maintained. 1. The mistake of concluding that he himself was righteous. "Behold, in this thou art not just," i.e. thou art not right in supposing thyself to be clean and free from transgression, because, even though thy heart condemn thee not, God is greater than thy heart, and knoweth all things (1 John 3:20). "Even when we have confidence before God respecting our own integrity, our confidence may be misplaced, and our own hearts may have deceived us’ (Fry). Cf. the language of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 4:4). 2. The foolishness of thinking God regarded him as an enemy. The exalted character and infinite power, not to say immeasurable grace, of God should have delivered him from any such misconception. Had Job adequately reflected on the Divine greatness, he would never have suffered himself to think, far less to speak, of God as an unkind Adversary and ever-vigilant Assailant. 3. The absurdity of expecting God to respond to his interrogations. God is too exalted, too lofty and glorious a being, to be questioned by man. Hence Elihu offers himself to answer Job in God’s stead. Hence also preposterous is the delusion of thinking to contend with him in any court of justice, since "he giveth not account of any of his matters." Learn: 1. That if Elihu was deserving of Job’s attention, much more is Christ deserving of ours. 2. That Christ’s humanity affords to sinful men the greatest encouragement to approach his throne without fear. 3. That they who come to plead with Christ must be prepared to acknowledge their offences. 4. That Christ is well informed concerning all the transgressions of those for whom he intercedes. 5. That one of the greatest mistakes a human soul can commit is to say that God regards him as an enemy. 6. That the deepest folly a finite creature can perpetrate is to strive against God. 7. That the highest tribunal before which any of God’s actions can be brought is his own just, holy, and loving Godhead. Job 33:14-33 Elihu’s first address to Job: 2. The philosophy of Divine instruction. I. THE METHODS OF DIVINE . 1. Through the medium of dreams. The dreams, or visions, referred to were supernatural revelations in early times imparted to men, when the spirit, probably wrapt in meditation on Divine things, was cast into a deep sleep, such as fell on Adam at the creation of Eve (Genesis 2:21). That nocturnal dreams usually find their psychological basis in the mental idiosyncrasies of the individual, and in large degree borrow their shapes and colours from the phenomena of waking existence, is no proof that God may not sometimes have employed them, and may not still employ them, as channels for imparting instruction to men. That they were so employed in early times, not only for instructing heathens like Abimelech (Genesis 20:6), Laban (Genesis 31:24), Pharaoh (Genesis 41:1), and Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:5), but also saints like Abraham (Genesis 15:12), Jacob (Genesis 31:10), Joseph (Genesis 37:5), Eliphaz (Job 4:13), and Joseph the husband of Mary (Matthew 1:20), is explicitly declared in Scripture. That men cannot readily distinguish between such dreams and visions as are the creations of their own excited imaginations, and such as are sent from above, does not demonstrate the impossibility of God still in the same supernatural fashion "opening the ears of men, and sealing instruction upon their souls." 2. Through the instrumentality of affliction. The sufferer described by Elihu passes through an experience similar to Job’s. The disease which assails him has many of the characteristics of elephantiasis. (1) Painful. "He is chastened also with pain upon his bed" (verse 19), which pain, if we may take advantage of the various readings and translations of the following clause, is represented as sudden, "while the multitude of his limbs is still vigorous" (Ewald); universal, "and the multitude of his limbs with strong pain" (Authorized Version); vehement, "so that he writheth in great agony" (Cox); and incessant, "and with the unceasing conflict of his limbs" (Delitzsch); or, "and the contest never resteth in his bones" (Umbreit); or, "and the racking of his bones is incessant" (Fry). (2) Nauseating. "So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat;" literally, "meat of desire" (verse 20). The case of IsaActs (Genesis 27:4) was exceptional. Loss of appetite and nausea are usual concomitants of a weak and sickly condition of body. (3) Wasting. "His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen"—literally, "out of sight," which may also signify "from comeliness, so that it becomes unsightly "(Delitzsch)—"and his bones that were not seen stick out" (verse 21); or, according to another reading, "his bones waste away and disappear" , i.e. they lose their beautiful form, till eventually he becomes little better than a fleshless, bloodless, marrowless, emaciated skeleton. (4) Destroying. "Yea, his soul draweth near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers" (verse 22); either to those angels whom God commissions to slay man when he continues impenitent, or to those destructive agencies which God employs to terminate the vital functions. 3. Through the friendly offices of an interpreter. The word "interpreter" has obviously in this place the sense of "internuncius," i.e. ambassador, or representative, who communicates the will of a superior, and indicates the special office entrusted to the "messenger" alluded to by Elihu as that of authoritatively making known, as a Heaven-commissioned teacher or prophet, the will of God. Diversity of view prevails as to whether the messenger to whom this task is deputed should be regarded as human, angelic, or Divine (vide Exposition), as a teacher, prophet, or minister like Elihu, a superhuman angelic being, or the angel of the Presence, the Messenger of the covenant. Against the first, there can be no insuperable objection; only it is obvious that in this case Elihu cannot refer to himself without extraordinary self-conceit, since he characterizes the messenger whom the sick man requires as meditator as "one of a thousand," i.e. not one of many, bat one without an equal, one possessed of pre-eminent gifts of insight and teaching. Nor is it impossible that Elihu, remembering the language of Eliphaz (Job 4:18), may have been thinking of an angelic helper; only the qualifying clause," one of a thousand," determines that one to be the Angel of Jehovah, who alone among the myriad hosts of angels stands without a peer. That a young Arabian prophet of Aramaean extraction should be familiar with the angel-interpreter is no more remarkable than that the Angel of the Lord should be known to the patriarchs. II. THE OF DIVINE . 1. To deter man from sin. In particular the withdrawing of man from his purpose (verse 17), literally, from his work, generally in an evil sense, is exhibited as the specific object aimed at by God’s supernatural warnings to the soul, as e.g. in the cases of Abimelech (Genesis 20:6) and Laban (Genesis 31:24); but none the less is affliction designed to exercise on wicked men a deterrent influence, restraining them from sin, as in the cases of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:16) and Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:12); while the third method of instruction referred to, that of spiritual enlightenment (whether human or Divine as to its agency,) distinctly contemplates as its aim, among other things, the subjugation of evil impulses in the soul, and the obliteration of evil deeds from the life, of man (John 15:3; John 17:17; i Thessalonians John 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16). 2. To withdraw man from pride. Pride is the homage which a human soul pays to itself, the arrogant assumption by self of that worship which is due to God. The great sin to which man in innocence was tempted by the devil (Genesis 3:5), it has ever since been a characteristic of the fallen heart (Psalms 10:2), which, seemingly oblivious of its weakness, is always looking out for symptoms of its power, styling itself a geber, "a strong one," a valiant hero, when in reality it is an enosh, "a frail and feeble creature" (cf. the Laodicean Christians). Besides being extremely foolish in itself, and infinitely dangerous to the subject of it, such a disposition and mind is intensely hateful to God (Psalms 101:5; Proverbs 8:13; Isaiah 13:11; Jeremiah 50:31; 1 Corinthians 1:29; James 4:6), who, by the threefold ministry above specified, aims at its complete extirpation from the human heart—first checking its outward manifestations by providential warnings, supernatural or otherwise, as in the cases of Hagar (Genesis 16:9), Miriam and Aaron (Numbers 12:2-10), David (2 Samuel 24:10), and Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:13; 2 Chronicles 30:1-27, 2 Chronicles 1:1-17:31); then striking at its inward roots by the sharp axe of affliction, as he did with Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1-25; et seq.), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30-34), Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:19-35); and finally, by the personal example and teaching of Christ (Matthew 11:29) casting it out, and hiding it, from the souls of those in whom such affliction is sanctified. 3. To deliver man from ignorance. More specifically is this declared to be the’ object contemplated by the "Maleach Malitz." Sinful man is pre-eminently in darkness concerning "his uprightness;" i.e. either God’s rectitude and justice in dealing with individuals (Carey), or, what seems preferable, man’s right course to be followed (cf. 1 Samuel 6:12; Proverbs 14:2)—the path which he ought to pursue when lying under God’s chastening hand; "in one word, the way of salvation, which he must take in order to get free of sin and death, the way, viz; of repentance and of faith" (Delitzsch, Good, Fry, Cox, and others). In large measure this absence of moral and spiritual enlightenment as to the way of salvation accounts for man’s hardness and impenitence of heart. Consequently, the Divine administration has provided for bringing the needful illumination to man’s benighted soul by means of a special Angel-Interpreter (first Christ, then the Holy Ghost, and, under them, the angels or ministers of the Churches); and the time selected for sending in a flood of heavenly light upon man’s darkened understanding is the season of affliction, when, his pride having been laid low, his heart has become soft and amenable to instruction. 4. To save man from death. It is unreasonable to insist that Elihu knew nothing of a spiritual deliverance of the soul from condemnation and everlasting death, and that his language (verses 18, 24, 30) about the pit must be confined exclusively to the grave. On the other hand, it would be equally preposterous to deny that Elihu does hero allude to the temporal and physical recovery of a sick man as the result of accepting with penitence and faith the teaching of the Angel-Interpreter; as e.g. in the case of Hezekiah, to whom Isaiah acted in the capacity of a "Maleach, Malitz," and who, in answer to his prayers and tears, was restored to health (Isaiah 38:5), and as in early Christian times the invalid who called for the elders of the Church and listened to their instructions was directed to hope that in response to the prayer of faith God would raise him up (James 5:14, James 5:15). The probability is that both forms of deliverance were in the contemplation of Elihu: (1) of the sinful man’s soul from the pit of condemnation of which David sings (Psalms 40:2), and (2) of the sick man’s body from the pit of corruption into which Hezekiah looked (Isaiah 38:18)—the latter being the consequence as well as the sign of the former. III. THE RESULTS OF DIVINE . 1. Emancipation. When the purpose aimed at by the Divine warnings, afflictions, and teachings is accomplished, the penitent is liberated like a captive from his bondage, like a prisoner from his confinement, this being in all probability the import of the word translated "deliver," which occurs nowhere else; and this emancipation of the chastened soul is minutely depicted by the speaker. (1) Its primal source is the grace of God (verse 24). To the true penitent God is pitifully inclined, regarding him with tender mercy and foraying love; and in this Divine emotion towards man all redemption has its rise (Psalms 3:8; Psalms 68:19, Psalms 68:20; Psalms 86:15; Isaiah 45:21; Ephesians 2:5, Ephesians 2:8; Titus 2:11). Not that God either can or will pardon any on the ground simply of their penitence, without the intervention of an atonement; but that, wherever genuine contrition exists, there God is merciful and gracious (Psalms 51:17; Isaiah 57:15), while he neither is nor can be forgiving and benignant towards the impenitent and rebellious (Isaiah 1:20). (2) Its essential nature is deliverance; both physical and spiritual, both temporal and eternal (vide supra), the latter being symbolized by the former, the recovery of the soul to God’s favour and fellowship by the restoration of the body to health and vigour. The sick man, who has been reduced by disease to a thin, feeble, emaciated, transparent skeleton, begins to put on flesh till his well-covered bones become fat and plump, as if he had returned to the days of his youth like Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5:14); and in this is vouchsafed to him a visible token of God’s returning favour. (3) Its meritorious ground is the ransom or redemption-price paid for getting free from captivity or death (Exodus 21:30; Exodus 30:12; Isaiah 42:3), that ransom being not the repentance (Hofmann, Carey) or the sufferings (Umbreit) of the chastened one, but the mediatorship of the Angel (Delitzsch, Cook, Fry)—a thought in which "we readily recognize a presage of the mystery unveiled in the New Testament, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." To pronounce such a doctrine in the mouth of Elihu "an anachronism," is to forget the protevangel of Eden (Genesis 3:15), and to gratuitously assume that outside the line of the chosen family in patriarchal times faith in this sublime gospel had become entirely extinct. To affirm that such an anachronism (so-called) is "rebuked by the plain and obvious sense of the passage itself, and of the meaning and intention of the chapter in general" (Cox), is to demonstrate that one has failed to distinctly grasp the scope and purpose both of this particular section and of Elihu’s interlocution as a whole. If Elihu spoke by inspiration, why should not the Spirit of Christ which was in him (1 Peter 1:11) have testified beforehand of the work of him who, when he came to earth, was to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28), and all the more that the finding of such a ransom was a work transcending human ability, and requiring as is here declared the intervention of God himself? 2. Acceptation. As a next result of Divine teaching, of accepted warnings, sanctified afflictions, improved instructions, the subdued penitent, now admitted into the Divine favour, receives a recompense for his righteousness, i.e. a gracious reward for his having turned to God in contrition (cf. Isaiah 64:5), and for his upright conversation generally, or is henceforth regarded and treated as a righteous or justified person; the treatment accorded to him and the reward bestowed upon him being the same, and comprised in three inestimable privileges. (1) Free access, to God’s throne. "He shall pray unto God (verse 26). Prayer is the language of the newborn spirit (Acts 9:11); a necessary characteristic of God’s children (Romans 8:15); the imperative duty of all men (Psalms 62:8; Isaiah 65:6; Luke 18:1-43:l); and a special privilege of believers (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 10:22). The pardoned slither enjoys the fullest liberty to address God in prayer when, where, and how he will (Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17), provided always, of course, he does so in faith (Hebrews 11:6), in the Name of Jesus Christ (John 14:13, John 14:14), and for things agreeable to God’s will (1 John 5:14). (2) Certain enjoyment of God’s favour. "He," i.e. God, "will be favourable unto him" and to his petitions. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye me in vain" (Isaiah 45:19), but, on the contrary, expressly engages to fulfil the desires of them that fear him (Psalms 81:10; Psalms 91:15; Isaiah 65:24; Jeremiah 29:12; Zechariah 13:9; Matthew 7:7; John 16:23; 1 John 5:14). "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight n (Proverbs 15:8). "The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous" (Proverbs 15:29). Greater encouragement to "continue instant in prayer" can scarcely be imagined. (3) Filial joy in God’s presence. "He," i.e. the pardoned sinner, "shall see his," i.e. God’s "face with joy." Now by faith coming before him as a happy child exulting in a father’s love (Ephesians 2:18); and hereafter in heaven when as one of the glorified he shall stand before the throne (Psalms 17:15; Revelation 22:4). 3. Jubilation. Like Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:20) and like David (Psalms 40:3; Psalms 104:33), the recovered sick man and accepted penitent breaks forth into singing. "He chanteth unto men and saith" (verse 27), the burden of his anthem being: (1) A humble acknowledgment of sin. "I had sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it was not requited unto me." Confession of sin, though indispensable to forgiveness (Leveticus 26:40-42; Joshua 7:19; Proverbs 28:13; Psalms 32:5; Hosea 5:15; Luke 18:13; 1 John 1:9), is never so frank, full, or fervent before conversion as after it. The justified sinner sees more clearly than the newly awakened penitent the exceeding heinousness of sin, realizes more acutely the greatness of his own personal guilt, and appreciates more highly the Divine clemency in passing by the transgression he might justly have visited with condign punishment. (2) A hearty acknowledgment of grace. Not only does he magnify the Divine clemency in not requiting to him his evil deeds, but he extols the Divine loving-kindness in delivering his guilty soul from condemnation and death. "He hath delivered my soul from going down into the pit, and my life rejoiceth in the light." Cf. David’s anthem (Psalms 103:1-5). Learn: 1. The extreme anxiety with which God seeks man’s instruction. 2. The natural insensibility of man to Divine teaching. 3. The efficiency with which God can seal instruction on the human heart. 4. The indebtedness of wicked men to God’s restraining grace. 5. The folly as well as sin of indulging in pride. 6. The inevitableness of man’s destruction unless God interposes to save. 7. The beneficent design of affliction. 8. The facility with which God can destroy the pleasantness of life, and conduct even the strong man to the grave. 9. The infinite mercy of God in providing man with an Angel-Interpreter and a ransom. 10. The impossibility of any man escaping the pit unless God says, "Deliver." 11. The blessedness of the man whose sins are pardoned, and whose transgression is covered. 12. The obligation lying on all saints to declare what great things God hath done for their souls. BY E. JOHNSON Job 33:8-33 Elihu’s first discourse: the guilt of man in the sight of God. I. JOB’S IN HAS . (Job 33:8-11.) Elihu gathers up in brief some of those sayings of Job which had shocked his ear and scandalized his spiritual conscience. Job had asserted his own purity, and had accused God of enmity against his person (compare Job’s words, Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 16:17; Job 23:10; Job 27:5, Job 27:6; Job 10:13, seq.; Job 19:11; Job 30:21). II. THE TRUE OF MAN TO GOD SET FORTH. (Verses 12-30.) By many intimations of inward and outward experience God seeks to warn man and to bring him to himself He is no Being of passions such as Job represents him; "higher than a mortal," it is no part of his nature to crush in anger and revenge a defenceless creature. Nor is he dumb, voiceless, cold to his creatures’ cries and appeals, as Job thinks. He speaks again and again; but the fault is in the deafness and dulness of the listener (verses 12-14). Some medes of Divine instruction are then described. 1. The voice of conscience in dreams. (Verses 15-18.) The ear is opened; the sensuous nature is stilled, the imagination is kindled into life; memory unlocks her stores; the past suggests the future; and thus hints and warnings are" stamped upon the instruction" of the soul. These are not merely facts of a past age of the world. If the Divine instruction by dreams was ever real, it is real still. The study of the physiology and psychology of our dream-life may yield a fund of interest of a directly religious kind to all who believe our nature to be in immediate intercourse with the unseen and the Divine. We are still warded and comforted of God in dreams. The purpose of these communications is to restrain man from evil; to hide pride from him, that is, so that he ceases to indulge it; to keep back his soul from the grave; to warn him against death and all that is deadly—against the sudden oncoming of the fatal blow. Whatever view be taken of the subject of special visions and communications from the other world, it is open to us all to observe how in our physical constitution we are never without warnings, forebodings, timely hints, of coming pain and disease; how in our moral constitution in like manner coming events of retribution cast their shadows before, and rouse us from the stupor of guilt and shame. A kindly voice is ever calling us in these ways to flee from the wrath that is to come. 2. Severe sickness as the visitation of God. (Verses 19-22.) Buffering is felt to be chastisement. When all the frame is unstrung, when the sweet sense of life turns to loathing, and the body wastes away, and death draws near, then man feels his dependence on a higher power; then often for the first time learns to pray, to believe in God, and to feel his nearness and his goodness. No doubt there was much of superstition in ancient times with regard to supposing suffering to be a direct visitation of the anger of God. But while we get rid of the superstition, let us preserve the truth of which it is a distortion—that in this mixed constitution of ours the proper effect of pain is to lead the mind to the Author of all that we both enjoy and suffer. "In some constitutions affliction seems peculiarly necessary as a hint of God. Some trees will not thrive unless their roots be laid bare; or unless, besides pruning, their bodies be gashed and sliced. Others that are too luxuriant need their blossoms to be pulled off, or they will yield nothing. Rank corn, if it be not timely eaten down, may yield something to the barn, but little to the granary. Every man can say he thanks God for ease; but for me, I bless God for my troubles" (Bishop Hall). 3. The ministry of angels. (Verses 23-28.) Literally in the last verse the "destroyers" are the "angels of death," sent upon their fatal errand by the Almighty. In contrast we have now the mention of the good, delivering angel who brings release from the doom. The ministering angel draws near to the penitent sufferer in compassion, and says, "Relieve him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom? In the forms of the poetical imagination, an unexpected recovery from deadly sickness is thus described. Then returning health covers his flesh again with the bloom of youth; the sorrow vanishes from his mind; it is once more summer in the soul. He prays to the Almighty, and is graciously heard and accepted; he basks in the sunshine of God’s countenance; and the lost peace is restored to the purified conscience. And the heart breaks out into singing, for a new song is put into the restored one’s mouth—a song of praise to God. And this is its burden: "I had sinned and perverted right; but it was not requited to me; he redeemed my soul, that I might not go into the grave, and my life sees his pleasure in the light" (comp. Isaiah 22:23, seq.; Isaiah 51:17). Such is the portion of the man who hears the rod, and who has appointed it; who bows beneath affliction only to rise to s purer height of spiritual joy. His sins are pardoned, his good endeavours accepted, his crosses sanctified, his prayers heard; everything that he has is a blessing to him, everything that he suffers an advantage. . (Verses 31-33.) These are the dealings of God with man; this the purport of all his afflictions. Experience seals the truth. Let Job or any other gainsay or refute it if he will or can! But rather this strong deep personal conviction of Elihu will vibrate and awake a response in the sufferer’s heart. There is a contagion in true faith. Oh for the victory that overcomes the world! Once realize God to be our God, our Refuge and Strength, our present Help in trouble, and earth or hell in vain labour to make us other than blessed.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 33:1 -38, The Divine correction. In the self-assurance of his competency to give wisdom to Job, and to correct his errors and to solve the mystery of his affliction, Elihu continues his speech and invites reply. "If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up." He makes his accusation against Job that he has not only affirmed his own innocence, but that he has also made charges against God. He then proceeds to vindicate the purposes of God in human affliction. "God speaketh once, yea twice;" the error is on man’s part, who "perceiveth it not." He gives a view of the Divine corrections. I. AS TO THEIR METHOD. The God that "is greater than man," who worketh secretly and "giveth not account of any of his matters," giveth instruction: 1. In a dream, in the visions of the night; opening the ears of men, and sealing their instruction. 2. By the severities of affliction; when man is "chastened with pain upon his bed." This is applicable to Job; and the former may have been mentioned gently to introduce this. II. AS TO THEIR PURPOSE. This is always gracious. It is to save from impending danger, and to lead in safe and good ways. 1. To restrain man from evil paths. "To withdraw him from his purpose." 2. To hide pride from man. To bring down the high looks of the self-complacent and the wicked. 3. To save from untimely death, and from the weapons of destructive violence. To keep "his life from perishing by the sword." Sin tends to death both by natural causes and by violence. Then Elihu views these corrections— III. IN THEIR HAPPY RESULT. (1) Should the mediating Counsellor be near, and the way of life, the right way—the way of righteousness—be pointed out; and (2) the smitten one return with repentance, saying, "I have sinned, and perverted that which was right;" and (3) lifting up his voice "pray unto God;" then (4) shall the Divine deliverance come: (a) in an expression of the Divine forbearance; (b) in admission to the Divine favour—"he shall see his face with joy;" (c) in a gracious restoration, delivering "his soul from going into the pit’" and bringing him to rejoice in the light. This is the Divine response to repentance which Elihu urges upon Job. Happy is every smitten one who, returning to God, finds a ransom price paid for his soul, and rejoices in a deliverance which restores to him the days of his youth, when "his very flesh becometh fresher than a child’s."—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 33:4 The inspiration of creation. Elihu assures Job that he is a man, made by God, and by his very creation having the Spirit of God in him. There is some pretentiousness in the manner of Elihu. Yet what he says is important, because it is not true of him alone, but of every man. I. MAN IS MADE BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 1. His origin is outside himself. Whatever man can do for himself, he certainly cannot make himself. When we come back to the question of origins, the most self-reliant person must confess that he could not have caused his own being. 2. His origin is from God. Man derives his life originally from the First Cause of the whole series of living creatures. Whether man was created immediately out of the dust of the earth, or, as evolutionists teach, mediately, through other creatures, he in common with all things living derives his being from the great Parent of nature. Evolution does not destroy creation; it only describes the process, and throws back the time of the beginning of creation. 3. His origin is in the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God at first brooded over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). When man appeared God breathed into him the spirit of life (Genesis 2:7). The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life. In his spiritual nature man is especially related to the Spirit of God. He is a spark from the eternal Sun. 4. His very existence is maintained by the Spirit of God. Man lives only because God lives in him. By nature his life is an inspiration from heaven. At any moment, if God were to withdraw, man would perish. "In him we five, and move, and have our being." Thus not only the original creation, but also the present life, should be regarded as inspired by God. II. THE OF IS A SOURCE OF . 1. The Maker may be known by his work. All creation reveals God; but man, the highest creature, most fully expresses the Divine. To us there can be no higher revelation of God than that which is made through a perfect man. Therefore the incarnation of Christ is our most complete vision of the Father. But all men are in a measure revealers of the hand that made them. 2. The spiritual nature of man is a type of God. All nature reveals God; suns and stars, trees and flowers, birds, beasts, and fishes, give lemons of the Divine; but they do so through their material structures. Man reveals God in the constitution of his spiritual nature. He is not merely the building that sets forth the ideas of the Architect; he is the child, himself made in the image of the Father. His spiritual nature is essentially like God. who is Spirit. Thus he is made in the image of God. 3. The indwelling of the Spirit of God is a permanent revelation of God. God not only makes himself known by what he has done, he is daily revealing himself by his present life in our midst. Nature is not like a fossil that shows in its dead lineaments the traces of an old-world life; she is a mirror of the Divine activity. Our own souls are witnessing to God by their vitality. The dwelling of God within us is a continuous proof that he lives, that he works, that he loves. We know what God is now by what God is now doing in our hearts and lives.—W. F. A Job 33:6, Job 33:7 The human mediator. Elihu declares that his attitude towards God is just the same as Job’s. He stands like Job in respect of God. He is a mortal man formed out of the clay. Then, though Job dreads the awful, invisible God, he may listen to a fellow-creature without fear. If he cannot find God in the darkness, he may be cheered and strengthened by feeling the presence of a brother-man. He may take his lessons from Elihu quite simply and naturally as from one like himself. In these ideas Elihu shadows forth what may be perfectly realized in Christ. It was a mark of Elihu’s confident vanity for him to speak as he did. But his words, somewhat superfluous as regards himself, set him forth in a striking light as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. I. WE NEED HUMAN IN . Although man is made in the image of God, and although his very life is a constant inspiration, and depends on the presence and power of God, still God is invisible, God is great, God is an infinite Spirit. The soul of man hungers for brotherly sympathy. We all want to feel the fellowship of one who is like ourselves. 1. That we may understand aright. We cannot understand a being of a different species from ourselves. We cannot even comprehend the meaning of our own dog when he looks up at us with pathetic eyes, for we are of another species. 2. That our affections may be awakened. We most naturally love one who is kindred to ourselves. The difficulty of loving God is to perceive that there is that in him which is akin to our own natures. When he appears strange to us we shrink from him; we cannot reach out to him in confidence and joyous emotion. II. CHRIST BRINGS US HUMAN IN . We must not think of him as standing half-way between us and God. Such a Christ would be a monstrous being—neither one with us nor one with God. United with the Father on the Divine side. our Lord is a perfect Man on the human side. 1. He is intelligible to us. We can see him, hear him, understand him. And he has told us that when we see him we see the Father (John 14:9). 2. He wires our heart’s affections. His kinship makes this possible; his brotherly love makes it actual; his great work and death for us perfect his hold upon us. Thus our hearts are drawn out to God by the sympathy of Christ. III. MEN SHOULD SHOW HUMAN IN . What Elihu aimed at, what Christ realized, that is the ideal for us. Without the ostentation of the young Buzite, we are called upon to remember our human nature when we try to help our fellow-men in religious as well as in others matters. There is a sort of sanctimonious spirituality which ignores humanity. This is disgusting to men, and it is the cause of much popular aversion to religion. We cannot help our fellow-men till we recollect we are human like them—frail, fallible, mortal; nay, sinful, fallen, ourselves needing a Saviour. Brotherly sympathy is the first essential for helpful religious influence.—W.F.A. Job 33:14-17 Divine voices. I. THE ADVENT OF THE DIVINE VOICES. Elihu reminds us of Eliphaz, yet with a difference. Both men believe in superhuman influences, in God-sent messages, But Eliphaz tells of a stately vision, an awful and overwhelming apparition; Elihu, on the other hand, is satisfied with dream-voices. God approaches man in various ways. The most awe-inspiring is not necessarily the most instructive. Dreams have been continually recognized among the channels of Divine communication, e.g. the stories of Joseph and Daniel and the prediction of Joel (Joe 2:28). It is very easy to misinterpret a dream, and to attribute to a Divine impulse what only springs from the vagaries of one’s own fancy. We need some assurance that the voices are from God. Now, the test is in their character. All holy thoughts proceed from God, and none that are unholy. When we are visited by a holy thought, whether in sleep or in waking hours, we may rejoice with gratitude to know that God has spoken to us. II. THE OF THE DIVINE VOICES. "God speaketh once, yea twice." Pharaoh’s dreams were repeated (Genesis 41:32). Joseph’s different dreams reiterated the same message (Genesis 37:9). Prophet followed prophet with warning and promise for Israel. The new Christian voice followed the old Jewish voice. God is speaking now, sending one message after another in his providence. We have all heard from God more than once. His was the Voice that instilled the first eager desires for goodness in childhood, and his the voice that pleaded amid the passionate enthusiasms of youth. It has sounded in our ears repeatedly among the varied scenes of life warning against sin, and calling to Christian service. It is repeated whenever the Bible is read, whenever Divine truth is preached, whenever conscience is aroused. III. THE OF THE DIVINE VOICES. Too often they are unheeded. "Man perceiveth it not." A mood of spiritual dulness may let the voices pass unheard. But this is not a natural condition. The little child is not thus deaf. "Heaven lies about us in our infancy." Later years deaden our perceptions, not indeed by the simple wear and tear of life, but by the evil things that are engendered. Distracting worldliness and sin, the deadliest foes to the heavenly voices, make us careless of the messages from God. IV. THE PURPOSE OF THE DIVINE VOICES. They are to guide and save. "To withdraw man from his purpose," when that purpose is evil or dangerous. "To hide pride from man," i.e. to save man from his pride. Thus the voices are warning and deterrent. They remind us of the "demon" of Socrates, which, he said, told him when he was not to do something, but did not prompt him to do anything. We know that God inspires for action, that heavenly voices summon to toil and battle. Yet perhaps we may perceive that the inner voice is more often a restraining than a stimulating voice. For the stimulus we look to the living Christ. Yet the restraint is sent in mercy. God warns, that he may save.—W.F.A. Job 33:19-22 Chastisement. Elihu now approaches his own special and new contribution to the great controversy. God addresses man in various ways. First he speaks with the still, small inner voice of conscience. But when the repetition of this voice is unheeded he proceeds by another method, and calls attention through the rousing voice of chastisement. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 34:1-37 In this chapter Elihu turns from Job to those whom he addresses as "wise men" (verse 2), or "men of understanding" (verse 10). Whether these are Job’s three special friends, or others among the company which had perhaps gathered to hear the debate, is uncertain. He makes the subject of his address to them Job’s conduct—scarcely a polite thing to do in Job’s presence. Job, he says, has scorned God and charged him with injustice (verses 5-9). He will vindicate him. This he proceeds to do in verses 10-30. He then points out what Job’s course ought to be (verses 31-33), and winds up by an appeal to the "men of understanding" to endorse his condemnation of Job as a sinner and a rebel (verses 34-37). Job 34:1, Job 34:2 Furthermore Elihu answered and said, Hear my words, O ye wise men. Having, as he may have thought, reduced Job to silence by the fame of his reasonings, Elihu, wishing to carry with him the general consent of his audience, makes an appeal to them, or, at any rate, to the wise among them, to judge Job’s conduct and pronounce upon it. It is probable, as Schultens remarks, that a considerable number of influential persons had by this time collected together to hear the discussion which was going on. To these Elihu specially addresses himself: Give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. Job 34:3 For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat. A proverbial expression, already used by Job in the dialogue (Job 12:11). "It is as much the business of the ear to discriminate between wise and foolish words, as of the palate to distinguish between wholesome and unwholesome food." Job 34:4 Let us choose to us judgment; i.e. "Let us seek to come to a right conclusion (mishphat) on each subject that comes before us for consideration." Let us know among ourselves that which is good. "Let us know, discern, and recognize that which is right and good." Excellent sentiments, but somewhat pompously put forth by a young man addressing elder ones. Job 34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous. Job had maintained his "righteousness" in a certain sense, i.e. his integrity, his honesty, his conviction that God would ultimately acquit him; but he had not maintained his sinlessness (see the comment on Job 33:9). He had not even said, in so many words, "I am righteous." The nearest that he had come to saying it was when (in Job 13:18) he had exclaimed, "I know that I shall be held righteous," or "justified." And God hath taken away my judgment. Job had said this (Job 27:2), but in the sense that God had withheld from him the judgment on his cause which he desired, not that he had perverted judgment, and wrongfully condemned him. Job 34:6 Should I lie against my right? This was an essential portion of Job’s argument (see Job 27:4). Against the theory of his secret heinous wickedness put forward by his "comforters," he maintained consistently his freedom from conscious deliberate opposition to the will of God, and refused to make the confessions which they suggested or required, on the ground that they would have been untrue—in making them he would have "lied against his right." In this certainly Job "sinned not." But it was essential to the theory of Elihu, no less than to that of Eliphaz and his friends, that Job was suffering on account of past iniquity, whether he were being punished for it in anger or chastised for it in love (see Job 33:17, Job 33:27). My wound (literally, my arrow; comp. Job 6:4) is incurable without transgression; i.e. without my having committed any transgression to account for it. Job 34:7 What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water? This comment is not only unnecessary, but unfair. It was not for Elihu, who professed a desire to "justify" (or completely exonerate) Job, to aggravate his guilt by means of rhetorical comment; and the comment itself was unfair, for Job had not indulged in scorn to any extent, much less "drunk it up like water" (comp. Job 15:16). He had in no respect scorned God; and if he had occasionally poured some scorn upon his "comforters" (Job 6:21; Job 12:2; Job 13:4-13; Job 16:2; Job 21:2-5; Job 26:2-4), must it not be admitted that they had deserved it? It was the duty of Elihu to act as moderator between Job and the "comforters," whereas he here seeks to exasperate them, and lash them up to fury against their afflicted friend. Perhaps Job’s impassive attitude has embittered him. Job 34:8 Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity. It is impossible to supply any other antecedent to "which" than Job himself. Elihu therefore accuses Job of having turned aside from righteousness, and betaken himself to the "counsel of the ungodly, the way of sinners, and the seat of the scornful" (Psalms 1:1). This is grossly to exaggerate Job’s faults of temper, and puts Elihu very nearly on a level with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar in respect of misconception and rudeness. And walketh with wicked men. If no more is meant than that Job has adopted principles and arguments commonly used by wicked men (Canon Cook), the language employed is unfortunate. Job 34:9 For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. Again it must be remarked that Job had not said this. The nearest approach to it is to be found in Job 9:22, where this passage occurs: "It is all one; therefore I say, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked" (Revised Version). Elsewhere Job speaks, not generally, but of his own individual case, remarking that his righteousness has not saved him from calamity (Job 9:17, Job 9:18; Job 10:15; Job 17:9 -17, etc.). And the fact is one that causes him the deepest perplexity. Job 34:10 Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding (comp. Job 34:2). Elihu repeats himself, wishing to call special attention to his justification of God (Job 34:10-30). Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness. Elihu probably means that to do wickedness is contrary to the very nature and idea of God; but he does not express himself very clearly. And from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. An evil God, a God who can do wrong, is a contradiction in terms—an impossible, inconceivable idea. Devil-worshippers, if there are or ever have been such persons, do not conceive of the object of their worship as really God, but as a powerful malignant spirit. Once rise to the height of the conception of a Power absolutely supreme, omniscient, omnipresent, the Author of all things, and it is impossible to imagine him as less than perfectly good. Job 34:11 For the work of a man shall he render unto him. God "rewardeth every man according to his work" (Psalms 62:13), renders to each one good or evil, according as his own deeds have been the one or the other. But this must be understood of the man’s whole conduct, and God’s entire treatment of him. Such an absolute rectitude of God’s moral government, considered as a whole, is implied and involved in his absolute and perfect justice. And cause every man to find according to his ways. We "find according to our ways" when, having "ploughed iniquity, and sown wickedness, we reap the same" (Job 4:8), or when, on the other hand, having "sown in righteousness, we reap in mercy" (Hosea 10:12). Exact retribution is the law of God’s rule; but the exactness cannot be seen, or tested, or demonstrated in this life. It will appear, however, and be recognized by all, at the consummation of all things. Job 34:12 Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. Elihu is fond of rhetorical amplification, like most young speakers. Job 34:11, Job 34:12 contain nothing that is really additional to the statement in Job 34:10. Job 34:13 Who hath given him a charge over the earth? The argument seems to be that if God had "received a charge," and were in possession of a mere delegated authority, like the subordinate gods of heathen nations, he might have an interest apart from that of those whom he governs, and so be tempted to be unjust; but as he is the Author of all and the sole Ruler of all, his interest must be bound up with the true interests of his creatures, and cannot clash with them. He can thus never be unjust, since he can have no temptation to be unjust. Or who hath disposed the whole world? rather, Who hath laid upon him the whole world?. Elihu repeats the idea of the previous clause in other words. Job 34:14 If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath. Two renderings are proposed, both supported By about equal authority: (1) "If he (i.e. God) set his heart upon himself, if he should gather to himself his own spirit, and breath," then all flesh would perish, etc. (2) "If he [i.e. God] set his heart upon [or, ’against’] man, if he were to gather to himself man’s spirit and man’s breath," then, etc. The difference is not great. God could, either by withdrawing from man the breath and spirit which he has given him, or simply by withholding from man the quickening and sustaining influences which he is perpetually putting forth, reduce all humankind to nothingness. Being so completely master of man, he would surely not condescend to treat him with injustice. Injustice implies something of opposition, struggle, rivalry. Job 34:15 All flesh shall perish together (comp. Psalms 104:29). Without God’s sustaining hand, all creatures would fall back into nothingness. And man shall turn again unto dust. Either Elihu refers here to Genesis 3:19, or else he has a traditional knowledge of man’s origin, handed down from a remote antiquity, which is in entire conformity with the Hebrew belief. Job 34:16 If now thou hast understanding, hear this. The appeal is not to Job, but to any wise and intelligent man among the many hearers who were present (see the comment on verses 1, 2). Hearken to the voice of my words (comp. verses 2, 10). Job 34:17 Shall even he that hateth right govern? Is it conceivable that there can be at the head of the universe, its Ruler and Guide, One who hates justice? The appeal is to the instinctive feeling that in the one God perfect goodness and omnipotence are united. Its spirit is exactly that of Abraham’s question, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (see Genesis 18:5). And wilt thou condemn him that is most just? rather, him that is both just and strong (see the Revised Version). Job 34:18 Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? Would any subject of an earthly king deem it fitting to accuse his sovereign of wicked and unjust conduct? Would he even tax those who stood next to the king—the princes and great officers of the court—with ungodliness? If a sense of what is becoming and seemly would restrain a man from the use of language of this sort towards his earthly ruler, can it be right that he should allow himself in such liberty or speech towards his heavenly King, his absolute Lord and Master? Job had not really used such language of God, though the complaints which he had made with respect to God’s treatment of him might not unreasonably be held to imply some such accusation. Job 34:19 How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes! How much less becomingly is such language used of One so far above princes that he regards them as on a level with all other men, and pays them no special respect! Worldly rank is, of course, nothing with God. All mankind are his subjects and servants, whom he differentiates one from another solely by their moral and spiritual qualities. Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor. If earthly rank is of no account with God, much less is abundance of possessions. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus places his complete indifference in a strong light. For they all are the work of his hands. All classes of men, rich and poor, powerful and weak, are equally God’s creatures, brought into the world by him, given by him their several stations, and regarded by him with favour or disfavour, according as they conduct themselves in their various occupations and employments. Job 34:20 In a moment shall they die. All lie under the same law of death— "Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres." (Horace,’Od.,’ 1.4, 11. 13, 14.) "In a moment," whenever God wills, they pass from life and disappear, the rich equally with the needy, the powerful prince as much as the outcast and the beggar. And the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away. (comp. Exodus 12:29; 2 Kings 19:35). Such sudden catastrophes are infrequent; but it is within the power of God to produce them at any time. When they occur, they strikingly exemplify the equality of his dealings with all classes of men, since none escape (Exodus 11:5; Exodus 12:29). And the mighty shall be taken away without hand; i.e. without human agency (comp. Daniel 2:34). Job 34:21 For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. Elihu proceeds to a fresh argument. The omniscience of God is a security against his acting unjustly. He knows exactly each man’s powers, capacities, temperament, temptations, circumstances He can exactly me, sure each man’s due, and will assuredly mete it out to each without partiality or prejudice. Job 34:22 There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). However careful wicked men may be to conceal their misdeeds by "waiting for the twilight" (Job 24:15), or doing them "in the dark" (Job 24:16), they will find it quite impossible to escape the all-seeing eye of the Almighty, which is as clear-sighted in the deepest darkness as in the brightest light ("Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day; the darkness and light to thee are both alike," Psalms 139:11, Prayer-book Version). Job 34:23 For he will not lay upon man more than right; rather,for he needeth not further to consider a man (see the Revised Version). He has no need to consider any man’s case twice; he sees it at the first glance, and judges it infallibly. That he should enter into judgment with God. Were it not so, a man might perhaps claim to have a second trial, and, pleading in his own defence, might "enter into judgment with God," or (according to others) "go before God in judgment;" but God’s absolute omniscience precludes this. Job 34:24 He shall break in pieces mighty men without number; rather, in ways that are unsearchable, or in ways past finding out (see the Revised Version). And set others in their stead. Job 34:25 Therefore (i.e. to that end’ or with that object in view) he knoweth (rather, taketh knowledge of) their works. As God governs the world, and governs it, to a large extent, by exalting some men and depressing others, he is bound to take strict account of their conduct, that he may exalt the worthy and depress the unworthy. And he overturneth them in the night (comp. Job 34:20). So that they are destroyed; literally, crushed. God’s judgments fall on men suddenly, either "in the night," or as "In the night, i.e. suddenly, unexpectedly, when they are quite unprepared; and fall on them with "crushing" force, with a might that is wholly irresistible, Job 34:26 He striketh them as wicked men; i.e. as open and acknowledged malefactors. In the open sight of others; literally, in the place of beholders; i.e. publicly, openly, where their fate is an example to others. Job 34:27 Because they turned back from him (On the sin of "turning back," see 2 Kings 17:15, 2 Kings 17:16; Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22.) And would not consider any of his ways (comp. Psalms 28:5; Isaiah 5:12). The folly and wickedness of such conduct is reproved by Solomon in the strongest terms, "Because I have called, and ye refused: I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Thou shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their Own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them" (Proverbs 1:24-32). Job 34:28 So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him. Elihu views the wicked man as almost certainly an oppressor, whose misdeeds "cause the cry of the poor to come before God," and provoke God, the Avenger of the poor and needy, to visit him with chastisement. And he heareth the cry of the afflicted (comp. Exodus 2:23, Exodus 2:24; Exodus 22:23, Exodus 22:24; Psalms 12:5, etc.) God’s ears are ever open to the cry of the oppressed, and his hand is ever heavy upon those who "afflict" the weak and defenceless (Isaiah 1:24; Isaiah 3:12-15; Amos 5:11, Amos 5:12; Micah 3:1-4; Habakkuk 1:13). Job 34:29 When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? literally, Who then can condemn? The sentiment is the same as that of St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, "If God be for us, who can be against us?… Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" (Romans 8:31-34). And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? When God hideth away his face, then all flesh is troubled (Psalms 104:29); man shrinks into himself, and despairs of happiness; nature itself seems to fail and fade. None nan behold him when he hides himself; none can do more than deprecate his anger, and pray, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us" (Psalms 4:6). Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only. The results are similar, whether God withdraws the light of his countenance from a nation or from an individual. In either case, there is no help from without; ruin and destruction follow. Job 34:30 That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared; rather, that an ungodly man reign not, that a people be not a snare. (So Schultens, Professor Lee, and others.) The passage is obscure from its brevity; but this seems to be the best sense. God withdraws his favour from an ungodly king or from a wicked nation, that the king may cease to injure men by his rule, and the nation cease to be a snare to its neighbours. Job 34:31 Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement. (So Rosenmuller and others.) If the passage be thus rendered, Elihu must be considered as, like Eliphaz (Job 5:8), Bildad (Job 8:5), and Zophar (Job 11:13-15), counselling Job to submit himself to God, acknowledging his sin, accepting his punishment, and promising amendment for the future (verse 22). But perhaps it is better to regard the passage as interrogative, and Elihu as asking—What man, among those whom God has cast down and punished, has ever sought to deprecate his wrath by contrition, confession, and promise of amendment, implying that, had they done so, God would have relented and forgiven them? (see the Revised Version). In this case no direct counsel is offered to Job; but still an indirect hint is given him. I will not offend any more. This is preferable to the marginal rendering of the Revised Version, "though I have not offended." Job 34:32 That which I see not, teach thou me; i.e. "If in anything I fail to see thy will, teach thou it me. Make thy way plain before my face." If I have done iniquity, I will do no more. The hypothetical form seems to be preferred, as more acceptable to Job, who maintained his righteousness, than a positive confession of sin. Job 34:33 Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it. The two clauses should be taken together, and the translation should run, "Should God recompense" (i.e. make his awards) "according to thy pleasure’" or "as thou wiliest?" Elihu turns to Job and directly addresses him, "Can he expect that God will make his decrees—condemn and absolve men—just as Job thinks right?" Whether thou refuse; rather, since thou refusest them. Job had refused to acknowledge the justice of God’s awards and decisions. Or whether thou choose; and not I; rather, but thou must choose, and not I. It is Job who must determine how he will act. Elihu, a friend, can only point out and recommend a course, as he had done in verses 31, 32. It is for Job himself to determine what course he will take. Therefore speak what thou knowest; i.e. "Say what thou hast determined on." Job 34:34 Let men of understanding tell me, and let a wise man hearken unto me. As Job does not answer him, Elihu turns to his "men of understanding" (supra, verses 2, 10). He feels sure that he will at least have carried them with him, and that they will join in the condemnation of Job’s words as wanting in true wisdom. "Men of understanding," he says, "will say unto me, yea, every wise man that heareth me will say, Job speaketh without knowledge," etc. (see the Revised Version). Job 34:35 Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom; literally, not in wisdom. The words intended are, of course, those in which Job has seemed to tax God with injustice (see the comment on verse 9). Job 34:36 My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end; literally, Would that Job were tested to the uttermost!—"tested’" i.e; as gold is tested, by the touchstone, and "to the uttermost," so that there should be no doubt as to the result. Elihu had his wish. Job was tried as severely as possible, and the issue was pronounced by God himself. "Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" (Job 42:8, Revised Version). Because of his answers for wicked men; rather, after the manner of wicked men (comp. above, verses 5, 6, 9.). This was the view which Elihu took of Job’s rash words. Job 34:37 For he addeth rebellion unto his sin. Elihu holds that it is Job’s "sin" which has brought on him his chastisement, and regards his expostulations and complaints as flagrant "rebellion" against the Most High. He clappeth his hands among us; i.e. he applauds himself, approves of his own conduct, and, instead of repenting, makes a boast of it. And multiplieth his words against God. Job had continued to the last (Job 31:1-40.) to justify himself and protest his integrity; which, in the view of Elihu, was to tax God with injustice. Job 34:1-37 Elihu to the bystanders: the case of Job tried. I. THE COURT . 1. The panel. Job, a good man, a great sufferer, sorely calumniated deeply perplexed, involved in doubt and darkness, and guilty of much presumption. 2. The judges. Either the three friends ironically addressed as "wise men," or the bystanders, among whom were doubtless many possessed of sound wisdom and discretions" wise" and "knowing ones" (verse 2), "men of understanding," literally, "men of heart," i.e. persons of intelligence and ripe experience, capable of forming a judgment upon so high a matter as that about to be submitted to them. 3. The prosecutor. Elihu. Details of his personality have been given in Job 32:2. A young Arabian prophet claiming to speak under a Divine impulse, end introduced for the purpose of delivering a preliminary verdict upon Job’s case, with a view to preparing Job for the subsequent theophany of Jehovah (Job 38:1). 4. The address. Elihu invites the court of jurymen to attend to the details of the case, as he should present it for their consideration, to use discrimination in sifting what the ear heard, so as to separate the essential from the accidental, the important from the unimportant, the pertinent from the irrelevant, the ear being endowed with a faculty of trying words as the palate is with a capacity for tasting meats (verse 3), and, in the exercise of a sound judgment, to resolve upon arriving at the truth (verse 4). What are here commended to the listeners and spectators beside the "ash-heap" as indispensable qualifications for judging the case of Job aright, viz. attention, discrimination, and probation, are needful for all inquirers after truth, and are specially enjoined upon believing students of the Word of God, who are commanded not only, like the Beroeans, "to receive the Word with all readiness of mind," and "to search the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11), but, like the Thessalonians, to "prove all things, and hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). II. THE . 1. That Job had declared himself to be righteous. Elihu doubtless alludes to those passages in which Job had asserted his innocence as against the baseless aspersions of his friends (Job 9:17, Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 13:18; Job 16:17). Though true in the sense that Job was guiltless of flagrant wickedness, yet in the judgment of Elihu such vehement protestations of stainless integrity as had fallen from his lips were hardly becoming in a sinful creature (vide Job 32:2, homiletics). 2. That Job charged God with injustice. Again Elihu faithfully reports what he regards as the substance of Job’s contention, that he would be guilty of falsehood and hypocrisy were he to admit the correctness of his friends’ allegations (Job 27:4); that the seemingly incurable malady which had overtaken him (God’s arrow, as in Job 6:4; Job 16:9; Job 19:11) had come upon him although he was "without transgression" (Job 10:17), and that consequently God had taken away his right (Job 27:2), which he supposes to mean, had denied him justice and treated him as a criminal, while in reality he was innocent. 3. That Job had indulged in blasphemy. In charging Job with "drinking up scorning like water," i.e. uttering blasphemous censures against God, Elihu, it has been said (Canon Cook), "goes now for the first time far beyond the truth," since "Job’s words" of fierce and bitter remonstrance "were wrung from him by agony, and by the taunts of his unfriendly counsellors," while "his scorn was altogether directed against them, not, as Elihu seems to assume, against God." But it may be questioned whether this is not an illustration of forgetting to act upon Elihu’s canon, "Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is fight." Excusable as was the scornful contempt Job hurled against the friends, it is impossible to recall the wild, passionate, often reckless and unreasonable appeals and expostulations he addressed to God without agreeing with Elihu that at such moments he did overstep the limits of a just and holy moderation, and came perilously near, if he did not actually touch, the bounds of an impious and blasphemous irreverence. "We cannot but feel that he often pushed his inferences against the Divine justice and providence much too far, as indeed he himself confessed he had when at last he saw Jehovah face to face" (Cox). 4. That Job had adopted the sentiments and maxims of the ungodly. Without explicitly asserting that Job had himself been a ribald and profane jester at holy things, Elihu affirms that by maintaining that "it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God" (verse 9), Job had practically gone over to the side of the irreligious. Though nowhere is the above declaration stated in so many words, it is by no means an unnatural inference from Job’s words (Job 9:22; Job 21:7; Job 24:1; Job 30:26). A reasoner is not unfairly held responsible for what may be deduced by just and necessary consequence from his premises, even though he himself should tail to perceive, or, perceiving, should not mean, what these premisses involve. Now, Job had relatedly insisted on the apparently anomalous distribution of good and evil among mankind; and while, as an answer to the friends, that was perfectly legitimate, it was possible to so exhibit that perplexing circumstance as to make it carry the conclusion that the supreme Governor of the universe was indifferent to the characters of his subject intelligences, and that a good man derived no advantage from his piety, while a wicked man suffered no disadvantage in consequence of his irreligion. This, in the judgment of Elihu, Job had done, and against this Elihu proceeded to protest. III. THE COUNTER- STATED. The position taken by Elihu was the negative of Job’s, viz. that the perpetration of wrong against any of his creatures was on the part of God simply impossible, that with him such a thing as perversion of judgment was inconceivable, and that, when rightly comprehended, the principle of the Divine administration was one of absolute equity. The three friends maintained, not only that such was the principle of the Divine administration, but that its operation was always visible. Job contended that the operation of such a principle was not always visible in God’s dealings with mankind, and hence Job sometimes doubted whether that was the principle on which the universe was governed, though in his inmost soul he felt that it ought to be. Elihu affirms that, whether visible or not to human intelligence and in particular cases, such and no other was the law or rule of the Divine procedure. IV. THE NEEDFUL OFFERED. 1. The absolute supremacy of God. (Verses 13-15.) The argument has three points. (1) God governs the world with no delegated authority. No one hath given him a charge over the whole earth, or committed to him, as to a satrap or underling, the viceroyalty of the globe (verse 13). On the contrary, he rules with a right that is essential and underived, indisputable and irresponsible. (2) God governs the world with no insufficient power. Were God selfishly to fix his attention on himself alone (Grotius, Eichhorn, Delitzsch, Umbreit, Carey, Cook, Cox), rather than on man, regarding him as an enemy (Vulgate, Targums, De Wette, Rosenmuller), and in consequence to gather unto himself his Spirit and his breath, by which all living creatures are sustained (Job 12:9, Job 12:10), the result would be the complete extinction of all animated being on the face of earth (verse 15). The meaning is that God has all creatures so entirely in his hand that they are nothing, and can do nothing except in so far as they are upheld by him. Hence (3) God governs the world for no selfish end. If he did, he could easily dispose of a rebel universe by reducing it to dust or consigning it to annihilation. That he does not is proof that he regards not himself alone, or, in other words, that he is impelled by considerations of unselfish love for man. And this being so, it is manifestly impossible that God can inflict injustice on a creature whom he loves. 2. The immaculate purity of God. (Verse 17.) Elihu’s argument amounts to this: that the necessary basis of all government is right—integrity in the Person and equity in the Law of the Ruler; that without this every administration, human or Divine, would fall into anarchy and confusion; and that, consequently, unless these conditions were supplied by the supreme Governor of mankind, the administration he conducted would sooner or later be overwhelmed in ruin. If it be true that the stability of any government depends ultimately upon the righteous character of its rulers and the equitable nature of its laws, much more must the moral administration of the universe be founded on the immaculate holiness of God and the unchangeable justice of his laws. 3. The strict impartiality of God. According to Elihu it is little short of lese-majesty, or high treason, for a subject to accuse either kings or princes of corruption (Exodus 22:28), thereby denying them the first and most indispensable qualification of a ruler. "The king-becoming graces Are justice, verity, temperance, stableness." (Shakespeare.) And "he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God ’ (2 Samuel 23:3). What, then, must it be to impeach him who "accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?" (verse 19). Respect of persons, a common enough failing even with good people (Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 16:19; James 2:1, James 2:9), is impossible with God (2 Samuel 14:14; Acts 10:34; 1 Peter 1:17), whose impartiality towards men is based on the consideration that they are all alike "the work of his hands" (verse 19), therefore all alike possessed of the same essential dignity, amenable to the same high authority, and entitled to be cared for by the same paternal government. And as It is based on the fundamental equality of men in the sight of Heaven, so is it proved by the palpable fact that all alike are subjected to the same impartial doom (verse 20); great and mighty potentates dying in a moment, like Belshazzar (Daniel 5:30) or like Pharaoh (Exodus 14:28), or, being taken away without hand (cf. Daniel 2:34; Daniel 8:25), i.e. by some supernatural visitation, like the rebellious princes of the congregation (Numbers 16:29) or like Herod (Acts 12:23), and their peoples being troubled at midnight, like the Egyptians (Exodus 12:29), or soddenly and unexpectedly overthrown, like the antediluvians (Genesis 7:22) and the inhabitants of the cities of the plain (Genesis 19:24, Genesis 19:25). 4. The all-encompassing omniscience of God. (Verse 21.) The eyes of the Supreme are constantly on the ways of man. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where workers of iniquity can hide themselves from his penetrating glance. With such accuracy can he read the human heart, that he does not require to regard a man twice in order to understand his character and conversation. He has no need to pause before bringing the individual into judgment. Job’s demand that God should hold a court of assizes and put his case to trial was wholly superfluous. So thoroughly does God comprehend man by the glance of his omniscient eye that he can proceed to break the mighty without investigation, making short work of their trial, and setting others in their stead (verse 24). Clearly, reasons Elihu, a God who thus exactly and fully comprehends every case that is brought before him is not likely to be guilty of committing wickedness by perverting judgment. 5. The unchallengeable righteousness of God. (Verses 24-30.) Elihu means that the absolute integrity of God may be established by a consideration of the character of his judgments, which are: (1) Sudden. "He overturneth the wicked in the night" (verse 25); i.e. instantaneously and unexpectedly, which, of course, he would not and could not do unless he were completely satisfied with the righteous character of his judgments. But "he knoweth their works" without investigation, in virtue of his omniscience; and hence he does not hesitate, as if fearing miscarriage of justice, to proceed to swift execution. (2) Public. "He striketh them as wicked men"—i.e. as convicted malefactors, about whose criminality there can be no question—"in the open sight of others," literally, "in the place of spectators." "He that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." But God, whose works are all of them verity and judgment, and done in truth and uprightness (Psalms 111:7, Psalms 111:8), has no need to shun observation or be afraid of criticism. Hence he never does resort to star-chambers or secret inquisitions, but courts the greatest possible publicity for all he does. (3) Retributive. When God steps out of his place to inflict sufferings on men, it is never for the gratification of any private feeling of revenge, never in the reckless exercise of merely arbitrary power, but always for the vindication of insulted justice, always for the punishment of some outrageous display of wickedness. When mighty tyrants are struck down in the open sight of others, it will generally be found, says Elihu, that it has been "because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways," but proceeded to such a height of daring impiety, oppressing and trampling on the poor, that they "caused the cry of the poor to come unto him," and in a manner obliged him to hear the cry of the afflicted (verse 28). Examined into, every such case will be found in its most essential features to be in complete accord with the eternal fitness of things. (4) Unimpeachable. They are so evidently right, so self-justifying, in fact, that no one can venture to assail them on the ground of inequity. "When he giveth quietness"—i.e. maketh peace by striking down the oppressor of the poor (Delitzsch, Gesenius, Carey), rather than "when he striketh to the earth" (Umbreit)—"who then will condemn him?" or "who then will make a noise?" as if he had perpetrated an injustice. And vice versa, "when he hideth his face," in the sense of being angry with and punishing an individual or a nation (Psalms 30:8; Psalms 104:29), "who then can behold him, i.e. make him visible, and cause him to restore his favour, as if by withdrawing his regard he had been guilty of doing wrong? The universal conscience feels, says Elihu, that the Almighty in so acting is acting rightly. (5) Beneficent. And not only so, but God’s judgments evince the most benevolent and philanthropic design, being dictated by a lofty regard for the general welfare of mankind, to the end that "the hypocrite’[literally, ’the ungodly,’ such as lead others to impiety] reign not, that they be not snares to the people" (verse 30), as wicked rulers commonly are; e.g. Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:28), Omri (1 Kings 16:25, 1 Kings 16:26), Ahab (1 Kings 16:31), Jehoahaz (2 Kings 13:2), and other monarchs both of Israel and of Judah. It is a special mercy to a people when God cuts short the lives of wicked kings. V. THE COUNSEL GIVEN. To adopt the model confession next recited (verses 31, 32), in which are three things worthy of consideration. 1. A humble submission to God’s chastisements. "Surely it is meet to be said unto God; I have borne!" (sc. chastisement). Resignation in affliction is the duty of all (Proverbs 3:11); it is specially incumbent on God’s people (Luke 21:19), indispensable as a condition of returning favour (Leviticus 26:40 42), and one of the surest signs of a truly penitent heart (Jeremiah 31:18). Nothing enables one to manifest genuine resignation like the clear recognition of God’s hand in affliction (Micah 6:9; 1 Samuel 3:18; James 4:7), and of the true design of affliction to chastise rather than punish (Hebrews 12:5; Psalms 119:75). Resignation in affliction and submission to Divine chastisement were exemplified by Aaron (Le Job 10:3), the children of Israel (Judges 10:15), Eli (1 Samuel 3:18), David (2 Samuel 15:26), Job (Job 1:21; Job 2:10), Micah 7:9. St. Paul (Acts 21:14). 2. A hearty promise of amendment. "I will not offend any more" (verse 31); "If I have done iniquity, I will do no more" (verse 32). Such a promise distinctly involved the confession that one had offended; and without confession there can be no forgiveness (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9), as, on the other hand, without amendment there is no evidence that confession is sincere (Job 22:23; Isaiah 1:16; Ezekiel 14:6; Hosea 14:8). 3. An earnest desire after Divine instruction. "That which I see not teach thou me" (verse 32). Converted souls are always more or less deeply sensible of their ignorance, especially in regard to spiritual things, as e.g. the wickedness of their own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9), the subtlety of sin (Psalms 19:12), the specific purposes of providential dispensations (John 13:7), the right path of holy living (Jeremiah 10:23); and with reference to all these and many other points they are ever ready to receive heavenly enlightenment, saying, "Teach me to know thy way" (Psalms 27:11), and "to do thy will" (Psalms 143:10). VI. THE MADE. 1. An appeal to Job. (1) A question. "Shall he"—i.e. God—"recompense it ’ (so. man’s wickedness, and actions generally) "according to thy mind?" i.e. shall God adopt a mode of government or principle of administration to please thee? (2) A reason. "For thou hast found fault" (Delitzsch); "For thou hast despised" (sc. his judgments) (Cook). That is, Job had expressed dissatisfaction with God’s dispensations. Whence the obvious inference arose that Job deemed these dispensations should have been framed according to his ideas. (3) A duty. "So that thou hast to choose, and not I," meaning that in the circumstances Job had better make up his mind about that better plan of government for the world than God’s, and publish it as soon as possible: "And what thou knowest speak out." 2. An address to the bystanders. Finding Job silent, Elihu turns to the listeners and spectators, whom he dexterously salutes as "men of understanding’ and "wise ones," asking them to say whether it is not the case that they agree with him in the verdict, "Job speaketh without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom" (verses 34, 35). A severe verdict, whether the audience appealed to endorsed it or not! Yet Jehovah afterwards affirmed its truth (Job 38:2). And surely it is an index of folly for puny man, as Job did, to sit in judgment on God. 3. A declaration by Elihu. (1) Elihu’s desire. That Job’s trial might be further continued, which may signify either that Job’s sentiments might be more thoroughly examined, or that Job’s afflictions might be further prolonged—the first, a wish becoming a genuine seeker after and an earnest preacher of the truth; and the second, though seemingly harsh, yet not necessarily unkind or inconsistent with the obligations and claims of friendship. (2) Elihu’s reason. Generally, that Job’s affliction had not yet produced that beneficial effect upon him for which it was intended. Particularly, that (a) his sentiments were irreligious—"his answers were "after the manner of evil men;" (b) his wickedness was great—"he addeth rebellion," or the most aggravated form of transgression, "that of blasphemous speeches" (Delitzsch), "unto sin," i.e. his unconscious and unintentional errors; (c) his scorn was conspicuous—" among us he clappeth" (se. his hands), expressive of triumphant contempt, showing that "though victorious in the argument," he was "not yet humbled in spirit" (Robinson); and (d) his irreverence was extreme—he "multiplieth his words against God," "carrying himself as victor, not only over men, but also over God" (Robinson). Learn: 1. That good men, in pronouncing judgment upon their fellows, should proceed with the utmost care and caution. 2. That God’s people should be studious in giving utterance to words calculated to leave wrong impressions in the minds of hearers. 3. That saints may sometimes be mistaken for sinners because of the indiscreetness of their talk. 4. That the justice of God is a fundamental maxim in all sound theology. 5. That equally the unselfishness (or graciousness) of God must in every adequate conception of his character stand correlative with his justice. 6. That the God of the Bible is the only Deity possessed of qualifications adequate for the government of the world, not to say the universe. 7. That God’s judgments, as exhibited in his providential government of the earth, are admirably fitted to teach man righteousness. 8. That God is profoundly interested in the welfare of nations and communities as well as of private persons. 9. That the Divine administration is ever carried on in the interests of holiness. 10. That the true attitude of man in presence of the Divine government is meek and cheerful submission. BY E. JOHNSON Job 34:1-37 Elihu’s second discourse: man has no right to doubt of God’s fustier. I. CENSURE OF JOB’S DOUBTS. (Job 34:1-9.) In silence Job has listened to the reproof of his friend, and has apparently taken to heart the lesson that in justifiable self-defence we may carry our protests beyond the true boundary, and exaggerate our innocence while rejecting false imputations. Elihu therefore rises again, and proceeds with his second reproof. Job has represented God as a cruel, unjust persecutor of his innocence. He doubts then of the justice of the world-ruling dominion of God. To the refutation of this position the present discourse is directed. Elihu appeals to the common sense of men, to the unbiassed wisdom of experience. The ear has a power of trying words, the mind has a faculty of judgment and taste, analogous to that of the body, whereby we discriminate the false from the true, and the good from the evil, This, indeed, must be the last appeal in every controversy whether on Divine or human things. A written word, a positive revelation, is always open to diverse interpretations; and this makes it the more necessary to ascertain the broad dictates of conscience and of the common judgment, with which every true revelation agrees. The question now is—Does this common religious sense condemn the utterances and the attitude of Job or not? He has asserted, "I am innocent, and yet God has denied me justice, has taken away my right. In spite of the fact that right is on my side, I shall be a liar if I maintain it. The wound caused by the shaft of God’s wrath is incurable." This, according to the speaker, was the effect of Job’s language. He indignantly repels it. Borrowing an expression from Eliphaz (Job 15:16), he denounces Job as one who drinks scoffing like water; and by these blasphemies associates himself with the wicked. Job denies, according to the speaker, that there is any profit or use in piety—in living in friendship with God. He had never said this in so many words; but the sense of much that he had said resembled this (Job 9:22, Job 9:23; Job 21:7, Job 21:8; Job 24:1, sqq.). Such expressions seemed to deny the very foundation of religion. Job was turning against the light within. And though he had several times censured and half recalled his own words, the offence had nevertheless been repeated. II. PROOFS OF THE DIVINE JUSTICE. (Verses 10-30.) 1. From the creative goodness of God. (Verses 10-15.) The point is to show that God is incapable of doing wrong, of perverting justice and right in his dealings with men; to show that he rewards men according to their works, gives them the proper fruit of their sowing, causes the life-path they choose to conduct to the happy or unhappy issue, according to the rightness of their choice or otherwise. He sets before them blessing and cursing; and the responsibility of the result is theirs alone. But how may we have the conviction that all this is so? The answer is by showing that the works of God exclude the thought of selfishness; and selfishness alone can explain the perversion of right. We cannot conceive of self-seeking in God. None entrusted to him the charge of the earth; none but he has founded the circle of the earth. As first and absolute Cause, all things am his; there is no division of power, profit, or glory. Ambition, greed, jealousy—every passion that tempts men to wrong their fellows—is shut out of the very idea of God. He is ever pouring forth out of the fulness of his life and blessedness upon his creatures—the very opposite action to that of selfishness, which draws as much as possible into itself of good, and parts with as little as possible. Only suppose for a moment that God were to become a self-absorbed Being, "directing his heart only to himself, taking in his spirit and breaths" instead of giving it forth, universal death must at once ensue; men must perish, returning to the dust. The very impossibility of such a supposition shows the impossibility of ascribing self-seeking and self-love to God. He is the Eternal Father; and as the pure parent’s love has the least alloy of self in it of any earthly love, we are to take this as the type of the nature of God. These are sublime and inspiring thoughts. God cannot injure man, or do wrong, because he would thus injure himself and sully his own glory. No one can consciously betray or wrong himself. All that we call wrong-doing implies that man has his equals as free beings by his side, and disposes of the property of others. This is impossible with God, because all things belong to him, being the product of his loving activity, his self-giving fulness of life. 2. From the idea of God as the supreme Ruler. (Verses 16-30.) As the Governor of the world, he cannot be unjust, because government can only be maintained by constant and equal righteousness, and must be destroyed by the lack of it. God is at once the Just and the Mighty, because he could not exercise the one quality without the other. Experience, the great teacher, shows this by the constant course of events. III. . THE FOLLY AND NATURE OF JOB’S AGAINST GOD. (Verses 31-37.) A reluctant confession is introduced, as if uttered by Job: "I am chastised, without doing evil; what I see not, that do thou show me! If I do wrong, I wilt do so no more!" (verses 31, 32.) He seems to say that he will repent provided only wrong be pointed out (comp. Job 7:20; Job 19:4). But, asks Elihu, shall God pass unpunished thy discontented complaint against his mode of retribution, and adopt a mode that is agreeable to thy mind? Are the laws of the Divine government to be dictated by individual wishes or notions of what is right? Is man to choose, and not God, the way in which he is to be rewarded or punished?. And say, then, what is the true retribution? Speak! But this direct appeal must convince the murmurer of his inability to suggest a better method of administering the world. God’s ways may not be clear to us in many particulars; but we should recollect, as Bishop Butler teaches, that we See only "parts of a scheme imperfectly understood." Were all known, doubt and distress would cease. In conclusion, the speaker sums up his meaning in the words of the men of understanding to whose judgment he appeals, condemning the want of true insight in the words of Job, and expressing the hope that he may be further tried, because of his replies "in the manner of the reprobate," because he adds insult to sin, adopts the tone of the scoffer, and multiplies words against God. Whether this view of Job’s state of mind be right or wrong, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.’’ Blessed he who can exclaim, amidst sufferings which he cannot but feel to he dissociated from guilt, "Search me, O God, and try me; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."—J. BY R. GREEN Job 34:10 The righteousness of the Divine dealings. Elihu’s words continue. His accusation against Job is that he saith, "I am righteous." He "addeth rebellion unto his sin" (verse 37). And in his own self-justification he casts a shadow upon the Divine procedure. "He multiplieth his words against God ’ (verse 37). Such is Elihu’s contention. He says Job declares," God hath taken away my judgment." To defend the Divine work and so bring Job to acknowledge his sin is the purpose of Elihu. He here declares the righteousness of the Divine dealings. "Far be it from God to do wickedness." The righteousness of God’s ways is seen— I. IN HIS TOWARDS MAN. "He accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor." Truly there is no respect of persons with God. "The work of a man shall he render to him n (verse 11), be it good or evil. II. IN THE PERFECT OF THE DIVINE NAME is to be found the utmost pledge of justness. "Surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment" (verse 12). "For he will not lay upon man more than right" (verse 23). This is further illustrated— III. IN THE SELF-IMPOSED OF THE WORLD. "Who hath given him a charge over the earth?" If he please he can "gather unto himself his spirit and his breath." Then would "all flesh perish together, and man would turn again to dust." He has no temptation to depart from right in his dealings with men, since all are entirely in his hand. But a further and striking evidence of the righteousness of the Divine ways is seen— IV. IN THE UPON THE UNGODLY, The evil ones "he striketh as wicked men in the open sight of others’ (verse 26). Elihu finds a further confirmation of this— V. IN THE OF THE DIVINE . "When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" etc. (verse 29). All this is done "that the hypocrite reign not." From all this he would lead Job to confession. "If I have done iniquity, I will do no more." So must the purpose of the righteous ways of God be to lead: 1. To consciousness of evil. 2. To confession of known wrong. 3. To amendment of life. 4. To patience under Divine afflictions. This Elihu teaches, though he knows not yet the purpose of Job’s suffering.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 34:3 The test of truth. I. IT IS LEFT FOR MAN TO TEST TRUTH. There is no unmistakable oracle. In the multitude of voices we have to discover which is the cry of truth, which that of error. We know the voice of God, not because we are assured beforehand that it is he and he only who will speak to us, but because we detect the heavenly utterance in contrast with the many syren-songs that would fain allure us to destruction, detect it by its own tones, and not merely because of any authority that assures it to us. The Church may claim to guide us in this important quest; but the Church consists of human members, who have to use those faculties which God has given them, although no doubt the Church is aided with the presence of the Holy Spirit in her midst. So when individual men seek for truth, God’s Spirit is for them a Light and Guide. Still, the search must be made; words must be tried and sifted. 1. This is a warning against credulity. Many voices claim our attention. Let us be careful that we are not deceived. 2. This is a stimulus to thought. We are not to be like the dull earth that gives growth to whatever seeds fall into it—ugly weeds as much as beautiful flowers, poisonous plants as well as fruitful crops. We have an independent capacity to sift and winnow, choose and reject. Therefore let us use our minds. 3. This is for the cultivation of our souls. The very effort of testing truth contributes to mental and spiritual growth. When we hold it after testing it, the truth is more real to us than if we had received it without an effort. 4. This should drive us to prayer. How shall we distinguish between the many specious voices? Our unaided faculties are likely to err. Therefore let us seek light from above, not to supersede our own powers, but to strengthen and illuminate them. II. THE TEST OF TRUTH IS LIKE THE TASTE OF FOOD. 1. It is natural. God has given us a natural sense of taste by which to discriminate between what is wholesome and what is noxious in our food, and he has implanted in us a similar faculty of mental and spiritual discernment. 2. It should be trained. In some respects the natural appetite is not a safe guide. The child may delight in sweet but unwholesome delicacies. Some poisons are not distasteful. Therefore the mere perception of agreeableness is not sufficient. Some very pleasant because flattering ideas are very false and hurtful. What is "just to our taste" may be neither true nor good for us. To select favourite ideas is not to obtain certain truths. We have to train the truth-testing faculty to recognize sterling worth in what is not attractive, and to reject meretricious charms. 3. It may be corrupted. The appetite may be vitiated. An unhealthy liking for unwholesome food may be engendered by practice; good, wholesome food may seem disgusting to one who is in a bad state of health. Corrupt thoughts and feelings lead to a degeneration of the truth-testing faculty. Even the natural sense for truth is blunted. The needle ceases to point to the north. The chemical reagent is impure, and so it fails to act as a test. The false and impure soul chooses lies and rejects truth. 4. It needs correction. After all, the test of truth is not like a bodily sense. It is not immediate. It involves reflection. But, in order that the reflection may be true and sound, the whole spiritual nature needs to be pure and simple and healthy. It is dangerous to rely too much on our private faculty of testing truth. Our only safety is in keeping close to Christ, who is the Truth, and to Christ’s Church. which he bade us "hear" (Matthew 18:17).—W.F.A. Job 34:10 The certain justice of God. Job appeared to have arraigned the Divine justice. Elihu emphatically asserts its absolute perfection. Whatever else we may fail to see, one landmark must not be lost sight of. God is perfectly free from all evil. We may not understand his ways of action, but most assuredly he is acting justly. I. THE GROUNDS OF FAITH IN THE CERTAIN JUSTICE OF GOD. Why can we thus dogmatically assert that God is perfectly just? Notice three grounds of assurance. 1. The essential character of God. We understand the very idea of God to involve justice. He would not be God if he ceased to be just. Now, his absolute justice is like his infinite power. There is no reason for limiting it. If either attribute exists at all, it is most natural to suppose that it exists in perfection. There is nothing to limit God. God is too great to be tempted to be unjust. 2. The revealed character of God. All through the Bible the justice of God is asserted and reasserted. Those men who knew God best affirmed most clearly that he was just. 3. The tried character of God. We know God in life. We may not be always able to assure ourselves of the justice of what God does while he is doing it. Then it may look dark and dreadful. But how often have we found, on looking back on the most gloomy tracts of life, that the clouds have passed, and the justice of God has been made clear as the noonday! II. THE TRIAL OF FAITH IN THE CERTAIN JUSTICE OF GOD. To each individual man the fact of God’s justice must be a matter to be taken on faith. That is to say, though there is good evidence for it, we cannot see how it obtains in our own personal circumstances. This is to be expected, however, and may be accounted for by various causes. 1. Partial views. We cannot see the whole pattern at which God is working, and therefore the crossing threads often seem to us confusing and wrongly placed. 2. Perverted ideas. We judge of God by our own standard. But that standard may have been warped. Then what is straight in God looks crooked to us, simply because our rule is crooked. 3. Trial of faith. There is a reason in God’s providential government why he should permit us to be in the dark as to the meaning and purpose of some of his actions. He wishes to lead us to trust him. If we could see all, faith would have no scope, no exercise, and therefore no development. It would perish for want of use. III. THE OF FAITH IN THE CERTAIN JUSTICE OF GOD. 1. In our own lives. Here we are called upon to walk by faith. When the way is hard and painful, let us call to mind the truth that God is doing well with us, though we cannot see how. 2. In history. Nations are led by the King of kings. Through strange revolutions he is bringing about his righteous will. If we could believe this, we should view the dark and threatening aspect of the world without dismay. 3. In nature. Here, too, God is acting for the good of the whole, and in justice to each. The fierce strife of nature looks cruel. But peace! God is just. 4. In redemption. Here God shows himself both a just God and a Saviour, upholding righteousness while he has pity on sinners.—W.F.A. Job 34:29 The peace of God. I. PEACE IS A OF THE HIGHEST VALUE. There is a quietness of death; the defeated are stilled; lethargy and inertness are quiet. And there is no blessedness in these things. True peace is alive, watchful, full of power and faculty, yet calm. The peace which our souls crave is inward restfulness. This may be found with much external activity, with much life and thought within also, but without confusion or tumult. The activity is harmonious. It is possible for peace to coexist with many sorrows. Peace is deeper than pain. When it dwells within it gives a strength as well as a sense of satisfaction, so that suffering which otherwise would seem intolerable becomes quite bearable, though it can never cease to be distressful. The deepest desire is not for joy; it is . Now he seems to turn round on this principle and repudiate it. Yet he is not inconsistent, for there must be limits to private judgment. We cannot sit in judgment on Providence. Let us, then, consider in what respect the decision as to truth is to be removed from the court of our own reason and judgment. What are the limits to private judgment? We may consider these from two points of view—from that of our own imperfection, and from that of God’s greatness. I. THE LIMITS THAT RESULT FROM OUR OWN . 1. Ignorance. The best judge cannot decide aright till all the facts are laid before him. We know but a few of the circumstances that determine the action of Providence; and we do not know the laws and principles that have to be applied. 2. Prejudice. We are not impartial judges; our justice is not blindfold; our scales are not even. Pride, self-interest, and passion blind our eyes and warp our judgment. 3. Sin. This is worse than prejudice; it is a directly deceiving influence. It leads us to ignore moral distinctions, and even to call evil good. We are unjust judges concerning truth when we are the enemies of the highest truth and justice. 4. Natural weakness. Apart from all these defective conditions, there are natural conditions that limit our powers of judgment. With all possible enlightenment and moral rectification we should still remain human, i.e. we should still be creatures of very small capacity in regard to the great problems of the universe. These problems are too high for us; we cannot attain unto them. They baffle thought. II. THE LIMITS THAT RESULT FROM THE OF GOD. Our imperfection limits us in judging all questions; but more especially does it limit us in estimating the action of God. The special idea of Elihu is that we cannot judge of God’s providential dealings with us. The three friends were wrong in their defence of it—as Job said, "speaking wickedly for God; ’ and Job was wrong in thinking hardly of it. For neither party was in a position to decide about it. We cannot choose our own course in the world wisely, much less can we decide how God shall act. The greatness of God and of his works far exceeds the range of our view. 1. Supreme wisdom. Ideas quite above our comprehension rule in the purposes of God. 2. Large designs. God is not confined to the consideration of a single individual or a little circle; he administers a universe. Therefore his schemes and purposes must far exceed our view in the extent of their range as well as in the character of their aim. 3. Perfect goodness. God must decide aright, for in him is no evil. His holiness and love should make us feel that we dare not sit in judgment on his actions. If they are dark to us, they are so from excess of light.—W.F.A. Job 34:36 The completion of trial. Elihu wishes Job to be "tried unto the end." His desire strikes us as cruel. Yet, perhaps unknown to himself, great good may come out of the fulfilment of it. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 35:1-16 In this short chapter, once more Elihu addresses himself to Job, first (verses 1-8) answering his complaint that a life of righteousness has brought him no correspondent blessings; and then (verses 9-14) explaining to him that his prayers and appeals to God have probably not been answered because they were not preferred in a right spirit, i.e. with faith and humility. Finally (verse 15, 16), he condemns Job for haughtiness and arrogance, and reiterates the charge that he "multiplies words without knowledge" (comp. Job 34:35-37). Job 35:1, Job 35:2 Elihu spake moreover, and said, Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s? Once more it is to be observed that Job had said no such thing. At the worst, he had made statements from which it might be argued that he regarded himself as having a more delicate sense of justice than God (e.g. Job 9:22-24; Job 10:3; Job 12:6, etc.). But Elihu insists on pushing Job’s intemperate phrases to their extremest logical issues, and taxing Job with having said all that his words might seem to a strict logician to involve (compare the comment on Job 34:5, Job 34:9). Job 35:3 For thou saidst What advantage will it be unto thee? i.e. What advantage will thy righteousness be unto thee? Job had certainly argued that his righteousness brought him no temporal advantage; but he had always a conviction that he would ultimately be the better for it. Elihu, however, does not acknowledge this; and, assuming that Job expects to receive no advantage at all from his integrity, argues that God is not bound to afford him any. And, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? rather, And what profit shall f have, more than if I had sinned? (see the Revised Version, and compare the comments of Rosenmuller and Canon Cook). Job 35:4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee; i.e. "thy comforters, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar." Elihu has pledged himself to confute their reasonings, no less than those of Job (Job 32:5-20), and now proposes to carry out this intention. But it is not very clear that he accomplish, s his purpose. In point of fact, he does little more than repeat and expand the argument of Eliphaz (Job 22:2, Job 22:3). Job 35:5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou; i.e. "look to the material sky and heavens, so far above thee and so unapproachable, and judge from them how far the God who made them is above thy puny, feeble self—how incapable he is of being touched by any of thy doings." Job 35:6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? Man’s sins against God cannot injure him, diminish from his power, or lower his dignity. They can only injure the sinner himself. God does not punish them because they harm him, but because they are discords in the harmony of his moral universe. Or even if thy transgressions be multiplied; i.e. if thou persistest in a long course of sin, and addest "rebellion" to transgression, and self-complacency to rebellion, and "multipliest thy words against God" (Job 34:37)—even then, what doest thou unto him? i.e; what hurt dost thou inflict upon him? None. Job 35:7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? By parity of reasoning, as our sins do not injure God, so our righteousness cannot benefit him. As David says, "My goodness extendeth not to thee" (Psalms 16:2). Or what receiveth he of thine hand? All things being already God’s, we can but give him of his own. We cannot really add to his possessions, or to his glory, or to his felicity. We cannot, as some have supposed they could, lay him under an obligation. Job 35:8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son (rather, a son) of man. Job must not think, Elihu means, that, because his good actions benefit and his bad actions injure his fellow men, therefore they must also in the one case injure and in the other benefit God. The cases are not parallel. God is too remote, too powerful, too great, to be touched by his actions. Job has done wrong, therefore, to expect that God would necessarily reward his righteousness by prosper us, happy life, and worse to complain because his expectations have been disappointed. It is of his mere spontaneous goodness and bounty that God rewards the godly. Job 35:9-14 Job had made it a frequent subject of complaint that God did not hear, or at any rate did not answer, his prayers and cries for relief. Elihu answers that Job’s case is not exceptional. Those who cry out against oppression and suffering frequently receive no answer, but it is because they "ask amiss." Job should have patience and trust. Job 35:9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry; rather, by reason of the multitude of oppressions, men cry out. It is not Job only who cries to God. Oppressors are numerous; the oppressed are numerous; everywhere there are complaints and outcries. They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. The oppressors are, for the most part, the mighty of the earth—kings, princes, nobles (see Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 3:14, Isaiah 3:15; Hosea 5:10; Amos 4:1, etc.). Job 35:10 But none saith, Where is God my Maker? The oppressed, in many eases, do not appeal to God at all. They mutter and complain and groan because of their afflictions; but they have not enough faith in God to cry to him. Or, if they do so cry, it is not in a right spirit; it is despondingly, despairingly, not confidently or cheerfully. God is one who giveth songs in the night. The truly pious man sings hymns of praise in his affliction, as Paul and Silas did in the jail at Philippi, looking to God with faith and a lively hope for deliverance. Job 35:11 Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. Elihu probably alludes to Job’s defence of his complaints as natural, like the instinctive cries of beasts and birds (Job 6:5). God, he says, has given to man a higher nature than he has bestowal on the brutes; and this nature should teach him to carry his griefs to God in a proper spirit- a spirit of faith, piety, humility, and resignation. If men cried to him in this spirit, they would obtain an answer. If they do not obtain an answer, it must be that the proper spirit is lacking (comp. James 4:3). Job 35:12 There they cry. "There," smitten by calamity, they do at last cry to God. But none giveth answer. They "ask, and receive not." Why? Because of the pride of evil men. Because, i.e; they ask proudly, not humbly; they claim relief as a right, not as a favour; they approach God in a spirit that offends him and prevents him from granting their requests. Job 35:13 Surely God will not hear vanity. God will not hear prayers that are rendered "vain" by sin or defect in those who offer them, as by a want of faith, piety, humility, or resignation. Neither will the Almighty regard any such petitions. Job 35:14 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him; rather, How much less when thou sayest thou canst not see him! (compare the Revised Version); i.e. how much less will God attend to thy prayers when thou sayest that thou canst not see or find him (Job 9:11; Job 23:3, Job 23:8-10), that he is altogether hid from thee, and treats thee as an enemy (Job 33:10)! Still, judgment (or, the cause, i.e. "thy cause’) is before him, or "awaits his decision." Therefore trust thou in him. Wait on, in patience and trust. The last word is not yet spoken. Job 35:15, Job 35:16 Leaving his advice to sink into Job’s mind, Elihu turns from him to the bystanders, and remarks, with some severity, that it is because Job has not been punished enough, because God has not visited him for his petulance and arrogance, that he indulges in "high swelling words of vanity," and continues to utter words which are foolish and" without knowledge." Job 35:15 But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger. This is an impossible rendering. The Hebrew is perfectly plain, and is to be translated literally as follows: But now, because he hath not visited his (i.e. Job’s) anger. (So Schultens, Canon Cook, and, with a slight difference, our Revisers.) God had not visited Job with any fresh afflictions on account of his vehement expostulations and overbold and reckless words. Yet he knoweth it not in great extremity. The Authorized Version again wholly misses the meaning. Translate, with the Revised Version, Neither doth he greatly regard (Job’s) arrogance. Job 35:16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; or, in vanity (comp. verse 13). He multiplieth words without knowledge; i.e. he is bold to speak words that are vain and insensate, because God has not, as he might have done, punished him for his previous utterances. Job 35:1-16 Elihu to Job: the trial of Job continued. I. JOB’S OFFENCE . Returning to the charge, Elihu accuses Job of having given utterance to two dangerous assertions. 1. That his (Job’s) righteousness was greater than God’s. "Thinkest thou this to be right?"—dost thou hold this for a sound judgment?—"that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?" (verse 2). That Job never used this expression may be true; but that Elihu does not unfairly represent the patriarch’s meaning may be inferred from the circumstance that even at an earlier stage in the controversy Eliphaz distinctly understood this to be the import of his language (Job 4:17). Besides, it is a legitimate deduction from those passages in which Job, maintaining his own integrity, complains that God does not accord to him even-handed justice, but treats him, though innocent, as a criminal; so that practically it is involved in the milder rendering, "I am righteous before God" (LXX; Umbreit, and others), Job meaning thereby to affirm that he failed to discern in God a corresponding righteousness to that which he beheld in himself, or, in other words, that his righteousness was more (visible and real) than God’s. Whether designed or not, the inevitable result of regarding with too much admiration one’s own righteousness (natural or gracious, legal or evangelical) is to obscure one’s perceptions of the righteousness of God, as, on the other hand, the more exalted views a saint entertains of the righteousness of God, the less will he feel disposed to magnify his own. 2. That his (Job’s) piety was of no advantage to himself. "For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?" literally, "(from it) more than from my sin" (verse 3). This, which Job himself had put into the mouth of the ungodly (Job 21:15), adding, "The counsel of the wicked be far from me," had already been assigned to Job by Elihu (Job 34:9; vide homiletics), and might well seem to be implied in such utterances as Job 9:22-31, in which God is represented as involving "the perfect and the wicked ’ in one indiscriminate destruction, and in a time of sudden and overwhelming calamity "laughing at the trial of the innocent" (Job 21:7-13; Job 24:18-24), and in which the prosperous lives and happy deaths of the ungodly are set over against the evil fortunes commonly allotted to the good. Such questions as these of Job about the profit of religion, though common in the mouths of saints (e.g. Asaph, Psalms 73:13; St. Peter, Matthew 19:27), proceed from mistaken views as to the essential character of piety, which is nothing if not disinterested. Yet, in the truest and most comprehensive sense, "godliness is profitable unto all things" (1 Timothy 4:8; cf. Matthew 19:28). II. JOB’S FOLLY EXPOSED. Reversing the order of Elihu’s words, we discover: 1. A sound premiss. That a man may be hurt by the irreligion, and benefited by the godliness, of his neighbour. Nothing more demonstrable, or indeed less demanding demonstration, than that moral character is contagious, and evil character even more so than good. Every wicked man does an injury, directly as well as indirectly, unconsciously even when not consciously, to the world in which he lives, the neighbourhood in which he dwells, the Society in which he moves, the individuals with whom he comes in contact. The ungodly man may be compared to a walking pestilence. On the other hand, "the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life" (Proverbs 11:30). However humble the position he occupies or the talents he possesses, the good man, whose breast is the seat of fervent piety, is a distinct gain to the world and the age (Matthew 5:13, Matthew 5:14). 2. A fallacious deduction. Correct. enough in thinking that a man might make his fellow a debtor by his goodness, or incur towards his fellow obligations in consequence of damage done by his wickedness, Job was utterly at fault in inferring that the same relations could exist between man and God. "If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?" (verses 6, 7). That is, human piety cannot add to the blessedness of God in such a way as to make God the debtor of his creature, and lay him under obligation to make the good man happy; neither can man’s impiety so diminish the Divine felicity as to require God to protect himself against the machinations of the wicked by always entailing on them misery as the recompense of their wickedness (vide homiletics on Job 22:2-4). If God makes a good man happy, he does so of grace and favour; if he allows him to pass his life in misery, he does not thereby commit an act of injustice. 3. A complete refutation. Elihu disposes of Job’s bad logic by reminding him first of the lofty elevation of the heavens (verse 5), and a fortiori of the infinite exaltation of him who dwells above the heavens beyond the highest and purest creature on the earth. Since God thus transcends even the best of men, it is clearly impossible to suppose that he can be tried by purely human standards. III. JOB’S . 1. Dwelling too exclusively upon the greatness of his misery. "By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry;" or they, i.e. the oppressed, raise a cry: "they cry out by reason of the arm," i.e. violence, "of the mighty" (verse 9). So Job had complained (Job 24:12), animadverting severely on the seeming indifference of God to what he could not but be cognizant or; viz. man’s inhumanity to man; and to this Elihu now alludes with the view of suggesting to the mind of Job the direction in which to look for an explanation of this remarkable phenomenon—God’s silence in the presence of human sorrow. The cry which rises from the oppressed is in no sense a believing appeal to the Creator for assistance. It is simply a groan of anguish. Instead of turning with hope and expectation to their Maker, they fix their thoughts upon their misery and raise a shout. It is impossible not to think that, in holding up such a mirror before the mind of Job, Elihu designed the patriarch to catch a reflection of himself. Had not he too been crying out under the severity of the stroke which had fallen on him, rather than anticipating the hour of deliverance when God would fill his mouth with rejoicing? The mistake of magnifying one’s troubles, and dwelling too exclusively upon them, is one which even Christians, no less than Job, are not careful to avoid. Besides springing from unbelief, it has a tendency to hinder their beneficent design, and commonly obscures the soul’s discernment of the source as well as of the first approaches of relief. 2. Neglecting to repair to God for succour. "None saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?" Instead of giving way to wailing, the victim of oppression (and such Job deemed himself to be) ought to turn in believing confidence and with hopeful expectation, not to his fellows, like Asa the King of Israel (2 Chronicles 16:12), or to false gods, like Ahaziah the son of Ahab (2 Kings 1:2), or to any form of creature-help whatsoever (Psalms 146:2), but like David to the living God (Psalms 121:2), remembering (1) who God is in himself—Eloah, the all-powerful and all-sufficient One; (2) the relation in which he stands to the sufferer, that of Maker; and (3) the gracious character in which he delights to present himself to his creatures, viz. as a God "who giveth songs in the night," i.e. who, by granting deliverance to afflicted sufferers in the night of tribulation, gives them occasion to celebrate his praise in anthems of gratitude and joy. Such nights of sorrow and tribulation occur in all men’s lives (Job 5:7), but especially in the lives of saints (Acts 14:22). Yet no night is too dark for God to turn the shadow of death into the morning (Amos 5:8). God, who caused Israel to sing upon the shores of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1), and David after escaping from the hands of Saul (2 Samuel 22:1), and Paul and Silas in prison at Philippi (Acts 16:25), can cause the most despairing sufferer to shout "Hallelujah!" Still nothing is more frequent than for saints to forget God, and turn to almost every other quarter before they seek unto him (Isaiah 51:13), though one principal end of affliction is to impel men to seek unto him who alone can put a new song into their mouths. 3. Forgetting the superior dignity of his nature. Simply to howl over one’s miseries. Elihu intends to say, is to reduce one’s self to the level of the brute creation, which express their natural sense of pain by means of such bellowings (Job 6:5). But man belongs to an order of creation loftier than the wild ass or the ox: and, being possessed of nobler faculties and larger intelligence than these, should not be content with such modes of giving utterance to emotion as are shared in by them, but should address himself to God in the filial confidence of prayer. And to this the example of the beasts, viewed in another light, may be said to urge him. Another rendering supplies the thought that God "teacheth us by the beasts of the earth"—by the young lions, e.g; who roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God (Psalms 145:21); "and maketh us wise by the fowls of heaven"—for instance, by the ravens who cry to God for food (Psalms 147:9). 4. Offering prayers that spring from vanity and pride. "There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it" (verses 12, 13). Again under the general ease Elihu deals with the ease of Job. Job had repeatedly complained that his prayer had not been answered (Job 19:7; Job 30:20). Elihu indirectly meets his objection by explaining why the prayers of sufferers in general remain unheard. They are not prayers in the proper sense of the expression, being dictated by wounded pride rather than by conscious need, and consisting of emptiness and wind, mere "sound and fury signifying nothing," rather than the aspirations and desires of a believing heart. It is impossible to resist the impression that Job’s outcries and entreaties were sometimes inspired by lacerated pride and insulted vanity rather than by lowly humility and fervent piety. Hence they were suffered to ring through the vault of heaven unheeded. So are all similar prayers by whomsoever presented (Psalms 66:18; Isaiah 1:15; Proverbs 28:9; John 9:31; James 4:3). A prayer, to be acceptable, must be sincere, lowly, reverent, and devout. 5. Supposing God did not understand his case. This an extremely natural inference from the oft-reiterated demand that God would permit Job to lay his cause before him. But Elihu assures him that this was quite unnecessary; that, although he did not, and apparently could not, see God, i.e. come to God’s presence (Job 23:3-9), the whole case he wished to submit to God was already before him, and all he (Job) needed to do was simply to wait for God’s gracious intervention (verse 14)—words suggestive of (1) a great temptation to which suffering saints are not seldom exposed, viz. a temptation to despond of Divine succour and Divine favour, like Job himself (Job 23:3), like David (Psalms 42:6), Asaph (Psalms 77:7-9), Heman (Psalms 88:6), Jonah (Jonah 2:4), and others; (2) a great consolation which all desponding and despairing ones may cling to, viz. that God perfectly understands their case in all its minutest details, as he knew the cases of Job (Job 23:10), Hagar (Genesis 16:13), and Israel (Exodus 3:7); and (3) a great duty which is equally incumbent on all, to wait patiently on God till he is pleased to come with deliverance and favour (Psalms 62:5; Lamentations 3:26; Micah 7:7; Habakkuk 2:3). 6. Misimproving the Divine clemency. Understanding Elihu to say, "And now, because he, i.e. God, "does not visit" (i.e. hostilely, in the sense of punishing) "his," i.e. Job’s, "anger, and does not know" (in the sense of regarding or taking notice of) "his wickedness or pride greatly; therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain, he multiplieth words without knowledge" (verses 15, 16), the meaning is that Job’s sufferings have not been severe enough, and that the Divine clemency in dealing sparingly with Job has only been recompensed by the continuatior. and manifestation in Job of a rebellious and refractory spirit. Learn: 1. That God’s servants ought to cry aloud and spare not in exposing the wickedness of men, whether saints or sinners. 2. That it is of great advantage when a faithful reprover can particularly specify the sin which be condemns. 3. That men’s words commonly afford a good index to the state of their hearts. 4. That by the quality of their speech shall men eventually be either acquitted or condemned. 5. That preachers of the gospel should ever, like Elihu, be able to defend as well as recommend the faith which they proclaim. 6. That God is not too high to bless man, though he is certainly too exalted to be injured by man. 7. That while man can enrich God with nothing, God both can and does enrich man with all things. 8. That "man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." 9. That God is perpetually cognizant of all the wickedness and misery, crime and wretchedness, that exists on earth. 10. That the only power competent to banish sin and sorrow from the heart of from the world is the power of God. 11. That men have usually themselves to blame when their prayers are not heard. 12. That God is infinitely worthy of the unwavering confidence of men. Job 35:10 Man’s forgetfulness of God’ and God’s remembrance of man. I. MAN’S OF GOD. "None saith, Where is God my Maker?" 1. The cause of it. (1) Generally, the sinfulness of the human heart. That man should so habitually neglect God is inexplicable except upon the hypothesis of a fall. But sin, having intervened to separate man from God, has caused man to turn his back upon God, and to contrive to live without any sort of acquaintance with him. (2) Particularly, man’s neglect of God may be traced to three things: (a) a sense of guilt, which instinctively urges man to shun God’s presence (Genesis 3:8); (b) the dominion of the world, which over every sinful heart exercises an almost resistless fascination (1 John 2:15); and (c) an absorption in self, which, by magnifying all its own little interests and concerns, its sorrows no less than its joys, prevents the human soul from seeking after God. 2. The criminality of it. (1) The character of God as Eloah, the all-sufficient and all-powerful One, demonstrates the wickedness of man in living so habitually in neglect of his service. (2) The relation of God to man as his Maker attests the sinfulness of such behaviour on the part of man. (3) The favour of God to man in first bestowing upon him a superior nature to that possessed by the animal creation, and secondly in making these lower creatures his instructors, gives additional evidence of man’s heinous guilt in thus neglecting to inquire after God. (4) The power of God to assist man by giving "songs in the night" is a further proof of man’s amazing criminality in not remembering God. II. GOD’S OF MAN. He "giveth songs in the night." 1. In the night of natural day. By spreading out the star-illumined canopy above man’s head, he stirs, at least in thoughtful minds, such exalted ideas and holy emotions as frequently break out in anthems of praise: witness David (Psalms 8:3, Psalms 8:4), Job (Job 9:4-10), Isaiah (Isaiah 40:26), and the unknown Hebrew singer (Psalms 147:4). 2. In the night of devout meditation. "Let the saints sing aloud upon their beds" (Psalms 149:5); and oftentimes when wrapt in heavenly contemplation, remembering God upon their beds, and meditating on him in the night-watches, the mouths of saints praise him with joyful lips (Psalms 63:5, Psalms 63:6). 3. In the night of spiritual conviction. In such a night David sang some of his sweetest songs (Psalms 51:1-19.). And as God put a new song into David’s mouth when he was lifted out of the horrible pit and miry clay (Psalms 40:3), so does he put a happy anthem of praise for forgiving mercy into the lips of every believing penitent: witness the jailor of Philippi (Acts 16:34). 4. In the night of temporal affliction Israel, escaping from the land of Egypt in a night which at one period seemed dark enough (Exodus 14:10), sang a song of deliverance before the morning dawn had fully risen (Exodus 15:1). A dark dismal night of adversity it was for David when he was driven forth from his palace, from his capital, from his people, from the temple (2 Samuel 15:30); and yet then it was that David sang, "But thou, O Lord, art a Shield for me, and the Lifter-up of mine head "(Psalms 3:3). Paul and Silas had their songs in the prison of Philippi (Acts 16:25); and there is not a saint, however feeble, that may not chant in the darkest night of trouble a psalm of holy confidence in God. 5. In the night of approaching dissolution. Job himself at times was not without his song, though he felt that he was standing on the verge of the tomb (Job 19:25-27). So did God give an anthem to Hezekiah, when he raised that weeping and praying monarch from what seemed a couch of death (Isaiah 38:20). David, too, had a song ready for that dark sad night which he knew to be inevitable (Psalms 23:4). It was a noble hymn which St. Paul sent forth from the Roman prison to his young son Timothy (2 Timothy 4:6). And so does God give to all saints, who seek after him in humility, penitence, and faith, a song to cheer them in the dying hour (1 Corinthians 15:55); and when the dark night of death breaks away, puts into their mouths the never-ending song of Moses and the Lamb. Learn: 1. The advantage of seeking after God. 2. The kindness of God in thinking upon man. BY E. JOHNSON Job 35:1-16 Elihu’s third speech: the profit of godliness. I. FOLLY OF THE OPINION THAT THERE IS NO PROFIT IN . (Job 35:1-8.) A good man, says Elihu, would not speak as Job has done, questioning whether godliness is more profitable than sin. But what is the refutation of this dangerous notion? The speaker points to the blessed self-sufficiency of God, the exalted One in the heavens. In this light man must appear alone as one who draws advantage from his righteousness (comp. Job 7:20; Job 22:2, sqq.). Our evil deeds cannot injure God, neither can our good deeds add to his blessedness. To expect a return or recompense from God for obedience, as if we had given him a pleasure or conferred on him an advantage, is, according to Elihu, a sign that we have altogether forgotten the distance between ourselves and him, and the true relation in which we stand to him. A modern philosopher, indeed, says, using a bold expression, "Put God in your debt!" But this means only—Conform to God’s laws, and expect that God will be true to those relations expressed by his laws. The misery of Job is that he cannot, for the present, see that God is true to those relations. He has sown righteousness, but not, as it seems, reaped mercy. He is half in the right, and so is his present instructor. It remains for these two halves of truth to be united into a whole. Meanwhile Elihu points to a great canon of conduct, a great motive of right. Piety is always beneficial, ungodliness always hurtful to our fellow-men, in a sense in which this, of course, cannot be said of God. And this should sustain us in suffering: the thought of the example we may be permitted to set, the light that may shine out of our darkness, the image of those who may be deterred from evil or allured to good by what they see in us. II. REASONS FOR PRAYERS. (Verses 9-16.) 1. Want of true reverence for God. (Verses 9-14.) The cry of the oppressed goes up to heaven, and it is long before an answer comes. Help is delayed or denied. Why? In most cases it is probably the fault of the sufferer himself. There is something defective in the substance or in the spirit of his prayers. He does not cry: "Where is the Almighty, my Creator?" (Verse 10). This is the complaint which Jehovah makes by the mouth of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2:6, Jeremiah 2:8). There is no injustice in him; but there is inconsistency in men. They do not trust him. They ungratefully forget his past providences. They disobey his laws, they meddle with forbidden things. There are conditions, moral conditions, under which alone it is possible for men to be heard, delivered, blessed. "Have I been a wilderness to Israel?" Behind these figures lies the truth that Divine blessing is conditioned by our own moral state and endeavour. Those grand relations of mercy in which God stands to men—their Deliverer, the Giver of songs in the night of natural distress and emergency, the Instructor of their spirits in that life above that of the brutes who lead a blind life within the brain—can only be realized by the faithful and the true. To know God as our Saviour, we must humbly and constantly trust him; to know him as our Teacher and Guide, we must diligently follow him. Pride, vain or evil desires in the heart, these, then, are the only permanent causes of unanswered prayers. And how much less are advantage and deliverance possible for Job, if he reproaches God with iniquity in being unwilling to regard his cause; if he waits as if that cause were not already laid before God (verse 14)! For he knows all; and we must commit our way to him, in the assurance that he will in due time bring it to pass. 2. Presumptuous language against God. (Verses 15, 16.) Though such folly has hitherto passed unpunished, it does not follow that God has not observed it. According to Job’s way of thinking, Elihu says, in effect, this would follow. But he will soon see the contrary. The passage is instructive as giving us searching admonition on the subject of unanswered prayer, unrelieved distress. It is a time for heart-searching. The fault cannot be with God; if fault there be, it lies at our door. The Word comes with power in such moments, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners! Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." Read Isaiah 1:1-31. But to the true and contrite heart, mercy and deliverance may be delayed, never denied. And the lesson, then, is—Be patient, wait, and hope.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 35:9-11 The cry that is not unto God. Elihu continues to press Job severely. His teachings run in the lines of truth, and they approach more nearly to the design of Job’s suffering than those of Job’s friends, but they fail actually to reach it. He makes many sagacious reflections on human conduct. This is one. There is a cry raised by the suffering ones under the heavy burden of their multiplied oppressions, and "by reason of the arm of the mighty." How often is it that these address not their cry to God! It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that relief does not come. Job seems to imply that God does not vindicate the sufferers. Here is a reason. They cry not to God. "None saith, Where is God. my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?" I. THE ERROR OF SUCH A CRY. God only is able truly to respond to the cry of suffering. It is expending the breath in vain to invoke help from other sources. Man is often utterly powerless; and, even when able, is not always willing to help. If the cry is to a false god, it is a still greater error, and can only end in disappointment. II. BUT THE CRY WHICH IS AN ERROR IS ALSO A FOLLY. Such a cry ends in vexation; the unheard cry aggravates the sorrow and makes the burden greater. Why should man in his feebleness appeal to his feeble fellow? and why forsake the Maker of all, who alone can give songs of joy in the night of mourning? III. THIS CRY IS ALSO A WRONG. It is a moral wrong for man to turn his face away from God in the time of his trouble. It reflects upon the Divine goodness and upon the ability and willingness of God to help. It casts an unjust reproach upon a loving Creator, "who teacheth us" lessons by "the beasts of the earth," and "maketh us wise" by the very "fowls of heaven." IV. BUT THIS IS A VAIN CRY. "None giveth answer." Evil men in their pride will not humble themselves to call upon Jehovah; they will not acknowledge their dependence upon him, will not submit to him. Their cry is as one made to the wind. Even if addressed to God, it is void of all truth and meaning. It is the cry of vanity. "God will not hear, neither will the Almighty regard it." From all which comes the great lesson, Though God is hidden, and men see him not, "yet judgment is before him": therefore may men trust in him, and, believing "that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him," make their supplication unto God, their cry to the Almighty.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 35:2 An unjust inference. Elihu represents Job as saying that his righteousness is greater than God’s, and he asks whether the patriarch thinks it right to use such language. I. IT IS UNJUST TO ASCRIBE TO OUR FELLOW-MEN WHICH THEY HAVE NOT . Job had not used such blasphemous language as Elihu attributed to him, and he would have repudiated the ideas that it conveyed. His young monitor was rudely asserting what he thought Job meant, what he took to be the underlying opinion of Job. But this was unjust. Half the controversies of the Church would have been avoided if people had not put into the mouths of others words that they never uttered. The only fair way is to listen to a man’s own statement of his case. The common injustice is to charge an opponent with holding all the opinions which we think can be deduced from his confessed beliefs. Thus we make him responsible for our inferences. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." II. WE SHOULD SEE THE NATURAL OF OUR , Although it was unjust to draw conclusions as Elihu was doing, it might be helpful for Job to see what conclusions were drawn from his hasty words. He would revolt from such ideas with horror. Then the question may well arise—Did he not provoke them? Though Elihu did wrong to make his assertion, Job may also have done wrong in speaking words that Elihu could use in such a way. We may learn from the false charges that are brought against us. Possibly these have been provoked by us. They are caricatures of our conduct. Therefore they show up the salient features of that conduct in a strong light. The very exaggeration calls attention to the points that have been unduly magnified. We need to consider the tendencies of what we say, and test the tendencies of our opinions by the inferences that are drawn from them. III. MAN IS TEMPTED TO THINK HIMSELF MORE JUST THAN GOD. He would not own to such an idea openly, nor even in his own private thought. Nevertheless, in the heat of excitement, he acts as though this were his belief. Otherwise, why does he murmur? Why does he rebel? Why is he cast down into despair? We magnify our own opinions and we justify our own actions when these arc counter to the truth and will of God. Virtually this is making ourselves more just than God. IV. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS THE TYPE OF ALL JUSTICE. Evidently Elihu assumes that what is justice to man is in itself justice to God. This is assumed throughout the Bible, which makes no attempt to escape from the difficulties of providence by means of the "regulative ideas" advocated by Dean Mansel. Here we do not see that justice means one thing in God and another thing in man. But the perfection of justice may be applied to circumstances that are beyond our understanding. Then it may look unjust. Yet, if we knew all, we should see that it is the type and pattern of the very justice we are called to strive after.—W.F.A. Job 35:3, Job 35:4 Is goodness profitable? I. A NATURAL . Job is driven to put this question; or, rather, Elihu concludes that Job’s language shows that the patriarch is debating it within himself. Satan had sneered at the notion of disinterested goodness, and had asked, "Doth Job fear God for naught?" (Job 1:9). Now Job is begin-nine to see that the profits of goodness, as they are commonly believed in, do not accrue, for good men suffer as much as other men, if not more. The utilitarian question crops up in practice, whatever ethical theory we may have adopted. People will ask—What is the advantage of religion? Why should they deny their passions? What will they be the better for refraining from evil? The inquiry is natural for two reasons. 1. We naturally desire to see results. Men wish to know that some good end is to be reached. They are not satisfied with a good road; they must know where it leads to. 2. We naturally desire our own advantage. The instincts implanted in us encourage such a desire. In itself it is not bad, but natural. Evil comes from the abuse or the supremacy of it. II. A . Although the question is natural, we ought to be able to rise above it. After all, our chief concern is not with results, but with duty. Our part is to do the right, whether it leads to failure or to success. Obedience is our sphere; results are with God. We sow and water; he it is who gives the increase. It is difficult to learn this lesson, for we all gravitate to selfish and material ends unless we are lifted out of ourselves. Still, the lesson must be learnt. If a man is only virtuous on account of the rewards of virtue, he is not really virtuous at all. He who does not steal simply because be is persuaded that "honesty is the best policy," is a thief at heart. Conscience is independent of advantage, and true goodness is only that which rests on conscience. III. AN . Elihu is ready with his reply. Perhaps it is not quite so simple a matter as he assumes, for he is one of those fearless talkers who handle the most difficult problems with jaunty confidence. Still, he helps us towards a reply. Goodness is not ignored by God. This Elihu show, in three ways. 1. God is too great to unjustly deprive men of the rewards of their deeds. These may not come at once; but God can have no conceivable motive for withholding them (verses 5-8). 2. The absence of immediate blessings is an proof of Divine negligence. While complaining that their rewards are not given them, men may not be treating God aright, and so nor deserving his blessing (verses 9-13). 3. God’s watchfulness ensures his righteous treatment of his creatures. (Verses 14-16.) Thus according to Elihu goodness is ultimately for the advantage of its possessor. But may we not go further, and say that even if it brings no ultimate reward it is infinitely better than sin, for goodness is in itself a blessing? Few of us can be great, or rich, or very successful. But it is better to be good than to be great, or rich, or successful; for to be good is to be like Christ, like God.—W.F.A. Job 35:5-8 God’s independence of man. I. GOD IS NOT ON MAN’S CONDUCT. We must agree in the main with what Elihu here states. God is serf-sufficient, and he owns all things. "The cattle upon a thousand hills are his." If he were hungry he would not need to tell us. Our most active service is not necessary to God, our most virulent malignity cannot really touch him. He dwells in the fulness and serenity of his own perfection. II. GOD CANNOT BE BRIBED BY MAN’S GIFTS. The huge mistake of heathen worship is that it consists for the most part in attempts to buy off the anger and secure the favour of the gods by means of gifts and sacrifices. We meet with the same heathenish idea in all religious exercises that aim at being really profitable to God, not for his own sake, but to purchase his favour. III. GOD IS UNDER NO TO BE UNJUST TO MAN. Between man and man injustice is common, because one man is much affected by the conduct of another. But if man can neither profit nor injure God, God can have no motive for dealing in any unequal way with man. IV. GOD HIMSELF WITH OUR CONDUCT BECAUSE HE LOVES us. Elihu’s description of God is one-sided. True in regard to the nature of things, it is false as it concerns the action and sympathy of God. Elihu’s God is too much like an Epicurean divinity. The love which is most characteristic of the Divine character, as it is revealed in the Bible, is here quite ignored. God may not be dependent on us. Yet his love leads him to be deeply concerned in what we do, and to entrust his designs to us as his servants. At the same time, seeing that love is his leading motive, there can be no need for us to try to bribe God, even if it were possible for us to do so; and we may be sure that, so far from dealing with harsh injustice, God will only desire our good. V. GOD ACCEPTS MAN’S OF HIS BROTHER-MAN AS THOUGH THIS HIMSELF. Christ has taught us that what is done to one of the least of his brethren is done to our Lord himself (Matthew 25:40). God’s love for his children makes him regard any injury done to them as though it were an injury to his own person. The Father feels in the sufferings of his children. Thus we may benefit or injure God by benefiting or injuring our fellow-men. At the same time, this only results from the position which God voluntarily assumes towards us. VI. MAN IS ON GOD, AND HIS CONDUCT SHOULD BE A TO GOD’S. Religion does not begin with our worship of God. Its commencement is earlier, in God’s goodness to man. All true worship springs from gratitude. Thus, while we cannot be useful or hurtful to God, excepting in so far as his love and sympathy permit us, we are urged to consider how completely our lives are in his hands, and how essential it is for us to live so that we may enjoy his continued favour.—W.F.A. Job 35:10 Songs in the night. I. SONGS IN THE NIGHT ARE HELPFUL. The thought is of a lonely and desolate night—a night of weary watching or painful suffering, when sleep cannot, or should not, be enjoyed. Travellers who dare not sleep in a perilous region infested by wild beasts, sing songs as they sit round their camp fire. Poor sufferers on beds of sickness welcome strains of well-known hymns in the long, wakeful night. The dreadful night of sorrow needs the cheering of some song of Zion. In the sunny day songs come readily enough; but then we could dispense with them. It is when darkness lies about our path that we need some uplifting and cheering influence. II. SONGS IN THE NIGHT MAY BE ENJOYED. Elihu speaks in the present tense. Christian history tells of many a soul cheered by heavenly songs in darkest hours. Paul and Silas sang in prison with their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:25). "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage." Sufferers have been cheerful with interior joy, even when their outer life has been hard and cruel The joy of God is never so real as when it breaks out in the midst of the deepest earthly trouble. This is an actual experience that lies within the reach of benighted souls, if only they will seek its cheering helpfulness. III. SONGS IN THE NIGHT DO NOT ARISE . There is something paradoxical in the phrase, "songs in the night," for of course the context shows that it does not point to the noise of those who turn night into day with unseemly revelry. Elihu’s night-songs are of holy thoughts and heavenly music, or at least of pure and refreshing gladness, as his indication of the Source of them proves. Now, sorrow is not the parent of gladness. If we are to enjoy deep harmonies of thought, or to soar into high heavens of emotion among the depressing influences of treble, we must not look for the trouble to produce the songs. We must turn elsewhere, and if we have no higher than earthly supplies, we shall have no songs such as Elihu spoke of. IV. SONGS IN THE NIGHT ARE GIVEN BY GOD. In the still hours of darkness he draws near to the soul. When the desolation and misery are greatest, God is most compassionate. He is not dependent on external circumstances. Night and day am alike to him. Thus it is possible for him to inspire his sweetest songs when we are drinking the most bitter cup. We must not delude ourselves into the notion that we shall not feel suffering if God is with us, although martyrs have been known to lose consciousness of the devouring flames in the ecstasy of their spiritual joy. The song does not dispel the darkness of night. But it drives out the terror and the despair, and brings peace and a deep joy that is nearer the true heart of man than the waves of sorrow which sweep over the surface of his life. The lark that soars to heaven’s high gate rises from a lowly nest on the ground. The sweetest songs of Zion that ascend to the gates of glory begin on the tearful earth.—W.F.A. Job 35:11 The superiority of men to animals. Man is naturally superior to animals ― I. IN . We cannot but admire the intelligence of the horse, the dog, the elephant, the ant. There seems to be more than instinct in these creatures; we notice in them the germs of a reasoning power, because they can adapt means to ends, accommodate themselves to fresh circumstances, and overcome unexpected difficulties. Yet man’s intelligence far exceeds that of the animal world. Two striking characteristics which are peculiar to it may be noted. 1. The supremacy of man. Man is one of the weakest and most defenceless creatures. He has not the hide of the rhinoceros, nor the horns of the bull, nor the fangs of the lion, nor the strength of any of these creatures. Yet he masters them and rules the world, simply by means of superior intelligence. 2. The progress of man. Only man among the animals advances in civilization. Ants build now as their ancestors built ages ago. Man only moves onward. The savage may seem to be as low as the baboon; but he is susceptible of an education that his humble cousin can never enjoy. II. IN . There seems to be a trace of conscience in the shame of the dog when he has done what he knows has been forbidden him. But though the animal may know shame, he does not know sin. Purity is an idea quite foreign to his nature. He may be generous, and he may sacrifice his life in devotion to his master. Yet he cannot feel the hunger and thirst after righteousness. The deep sense of sin and the great desire for holiness are peculiar to man. III. IN . A dim religious feeling may be dawning in the dog when he raises adoring looks to his master, often to a very unworthy master—like poor Caliban worshipping drunken Stephano. But the animal cannot know God. Man alone of all God’s creatures knows his Maker. All nature praises God unconsciously, only man blesses him consciously. To man it is given to feel the love of God, and to love God in return. Man is permitted to hold communion with God; he is God’s child. Nature is the work of God; man his son. Nature is dependent on her Creator; man is sus-rained by his Father. IV. IN DIVINE FAVOUR. This is implied by all that precedes. All the superiority of man is from God. Intelligence, conscience, and religion are Divine endowments. We could not raise ourselves above the animal world, for no creature could transcend its own nature. If our nature is superior to that of animals, this fact is wholly owing to the grace of God. But we may go further, and see that grace not only in our original creation and natural endowments, but also in our history. By his providence God has been adding to his favour. Not for the animals, but for man, and man alone, Christ came. The Incarnation was a fact of the human world, and in it man is supremely honoured by being united to God. Man is redeemed by the death of the Son of God. V. IN . Much is expected from him to whom much has been given. What is innocent in the animal may be sinful in man. It is a degradation for man to sink down to animalism. Brutal violence and bestial vice are utterly unworthy of a being exalted far above the animals by nature and the grace of God. When man sinks down to the level of the animals he really falls much lower. It is an insult to innocent brutes to associate them with the habits of corrupt men.—W.F.A. Job 35:14 From despair to trust. Job had often expressed a deep desire to meet with God. He had longed for an opportunity of making his case clear, and having it tried by his great Judge. He had felt like a prisoner languishing in gaol without a trial, greatly wishing for an habeas corpus; and he had despaired of ever being brought face to face with his Accuser, who, as he thought, was also his Judge. Now Elihu tells him that God is already attending to his case, and therefore that he should have faith. I. THE ’S DESPAIR. Job despairs of seeing God. He has indeed expressed a confident assurance that he will behold his Redeemer with his own eyes; he himself, and not another (Job 19:25-27). We need not be startled at the contradiction. In such darkness as that of Job’s faith ebbs and flows. For a moment the clouds break and a gleam of sunshine falls on the sufferer’s path, and at the sight of it he leaps up triumphant; but soon the blackness closes in again, and then the despair is as deep as ever. 1. God is not seen by the bodily eye. We may sweep the heavens with the most powerful telescope, but we shall never discover their King seated on his throne among the stars. 2. God does not give an immediate solution of our difficulties. We ask him to decide our case, to justify the right, and to destroy the false. Yet he does not seem to be interfering; for the confusion and the injustice remain. Then the weary waiting leads us to think that he will never appear. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and in its sickness it loses its hope. II. THE TO FAITH. 1. God is not neglecting us. Elihu assures Job that his case is already before his Judge. It is neither forgotten nor postponed. It is now being tried. Elihu was quite justified in making this statement, as we know from the prologue (Job 1:8-12). Job was being tried before God throughout; and so also were his friends, as the conclusion of the book shows (Job 42:7-9). Perhaps one lesson to be taught by this great poem is that God is watching man, and dealing justly with him, even when no indication of Divine interest or activity is vouchsafed to him. The verdict is not yet given nor the judgment pronounced; but the case is proceeding, and the Judge is carefully attending to it. That is what this book teaches concerning the great problem of life. 2. We should learn to trust God. We cannot see cur Judge as yet. We must wait for the verdict. All is dark to the eye of sense. But if we know that God is watching over us and considering our condition, we ought to be assured that we cannot suffer from neglect. The special region for faith is this present scene of darkness, and we are to expect the darkness to continue as long as the faith is to be exercised. But this will not be for ever. Job was right when, in a moment of strange elation, he leaped to the assurance that his Redeemer lived, and that he would see him at the latter day.—W.F.A. Job 36:1-33 The two chapters, Job 36:1-33; Job 37:1-24, form a single discourse, and ought not to have been separated; or, at any rate, not so unskilfully as they are, in the middle of a description of a thunderstorm. They constitute a final appeal to Job, who is exhorted to submission, resignation, and patience, in consideration of God’s inscrutability, and of his perfect justice, wisdom, and strength. Job 36:1-33 begins with a short preface (Job 36:1-4), in which Elihu seeks to prove his right to offer counsel to Job, after which God’s justice is demonstrated (verses 5-16), and Job warned that his petulance may lead to his complete destruction (verses 17-25). Finally, in illustration of God’s might and unsearchableness, the description of a thunderstorm is commenced (verses 26-33), which is carried on into the next chapter. Job 36:1, Job 36:2 Elihu also proceeded, and said, Suffer me a little, and I will show thee that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf; literally, that there are yet words for God. The controversy, i.e; is not exhausted; there is yet much that may be urged on God’s behalf, in respect of the charges thou hast made against him. Job 36:3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar. In neither case does the performance justify the pretentious character of the preface. Elihu’s arguments are, for the most part, trite and commonplace. And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. I will show, i.e; that God is righteous and just (comp. Job 34:10, Job 34:12). Job 36:4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee. The words sound arrogant; but perhaps Elihu does not mean any more than W pledge himself to speak truthfully, and to say only what he has perfect knowledge of. It is clear that he speaks of himself, net of God (Stanley Loathes). in the second clause of the verse, as in the first. Job 36:5 Behold, God is mighty. The preface over, the argument to prove God’s justice begins. First, he "is mighty." How unlikely that any one who is mighty—nay, almighty—should be unjust! Next, he despiseth not any. Job has wrongly charged him with "despising the work of his own hands." In truth, he despises nothing that he has made. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:29, Matthew 10:30). Much less, then, is any man despised. Moreover, God is mighty in strength and wisdom; or rather, in strength of undertaking’ and therefore above the weakness of being unjust. Job 36:6 He preserveth not the life of the wicked. There is no special providence over the life of the wicked, as Job had supposed, or pretended to suppose (Job 21:7; comp. Job 12:6). On the contrary, God "overturneth" wicked men "in the night, so that they are destroyed; he striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others" (Job 34:25, Job 34:26). But giveth right to the poor. The poor and afflicted, the meek and humble, God vindicates. They are his special charge. So far is he from favouring the ungodly. Job 36:7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous. Under no circumstances does God cease to keep an eye upon the righteous, as Job had seemed to imply when he exclaimed, "Oh that I were as in months of old, in the days when God preserved me!" or "watched me!" (Job 29:2). "The eyes of the Lord are" always "upon the righteous, as his ears are open unto their cry" (Psalms 34:15). With kings are they on the throne. In some cases, God shows his care of the righteous by "setting them with princes, even with the princes of his people" (Psalms 113:8), raising them, that is, to high station, and making them companions of the great of the earth. Yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted. They are permanently established in their high positions, like Joseph and Mordecai and Daniel; and they are exalted to the highest pitch of prosperity. Job 36:8 And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction. On the other hand, there are doubtless eases where the righteous suffer adversity—are even "bound in fetters," and "holden in cords of affliction" (Genesis 39:20; Jeremiah 40:1: Daniel 3:21; Matthew 14:3; Acts 12:6; Acts 16:24; Acts 24:27, etc.). But even here God’s vigilance is not relaxed. On the contrary, he watches with the utmost care over their afflictions, apportioning them according to the needs of each, and making every possible effort, by means of them, to work their reformation (see the two following verses). Job 36:9 Then he sheweth them their work. God, by his chastisements, makes men see what has been faulty in their life’s work, in what respects they have been negligent, where they have lapsed into actual sin. Signal afflictions are a call to men to "consider their ways," and search out the nature of their offences. Some afflictions, as sickness and imprisonment, by depriving men of active employment, almost force them to engage in such a retrospect. And their transgressions that they have exceeded; rather, and their transgressions’ wherein they have behaved themselves proudly (compare the Revised Version). In all sin, as it is a contempt of God’s Law, there is an element of pride. The temptation to pride especially besets those whose conduct is, in outward appearance, correct and virtuous. Job 36:10 He openeth also their ear to discipline. It is the especial merit of Elihu’s theory of suffering that he views it as far less penal than disciplinary and restorative. Job’s sufferings especially he views in this light. Instead of looking upon Job, like his other friends, as a heinous sinner, upon whom Go, I is taking vengeance, he regards him as a person who is being chastised, in love, for some fault or faults that he has committed, to his ultimate advantage and improvement. This, though not exactly the truth, is far nearer the truth than the view taken by the other three "friends." And commandeth that they return from iniquity. God’s chastisements are to be viewed as commands to men to "go and sin no more." Job 36:11 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures (comp. Job 12:13-19; Jeremiah 7:23; Jeremiah 26:13). Under the old covenant, prosperity was promised to the righteous, and even to the repentant, frequently, and in the most definite terms. Under the new, when any such promise is made, it is carefully guarded (Mark 10:30); while in many passages the promise is of an opposite character—the righteous are told to expect tribulations and persecutions (John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:12: Hebrews 12:1-11; 1 Peter 4:12, 1 Peter 4:13, etc.). Job 36:12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword. Not, necessarily, by a material sword, but by the sword of God’s vengeance, which slays in a thousand different manners, piercing through all obstacles, and reaching to the heart and spirit. And they shall die without knowledge. Either without knowing that they are about to die, or in their wilful ignorance of God’s intentions in chastising them. Job 36:13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath. In his vindication of God’s justice, Elihu here passes from the case of the righteous (Job 36:7) to that of the "hypocrites," or rather the ungodly. They, he says, "heap up wrath," i.e. "treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath" (Romans 2:5), continually intensify God’s anger against them, and, as it were, lay in a store of it, which will one day be outpoured upon them. They cry not when he bindeth them. They do not cry to him, they do not deprecate his anger, when they first find themselves bound with the "cords of affliction" (Job 36:8), but allow his wrath to increase and accumulate. Job 36:14 They die in youth; literally, their sold dieth in youth. The result is that, while they are still young, the vital strength of their soul is sapped; they "come to a premature end, like youths who have destroyed the spring of life by licentiousness" (Cook). And their life is among the unclean. (On the particular "uncleanness" intended, see Deuteronomy 23:17.) Job 36:15 He delivereth the poor in his affliction; rather, he delivereth the afflicted by his affliction (see the Revised Version). Elihu recurs to what he had said in Job 36:10 with respect to the discipline of affliction. The bulk of the afflictions sent by God are, according to him, intended to act medicinally. If the afflicted man receives them aright, they are the very means of his deliverance (comp. Psalms 119:67, Psalms 119:71; Hebrews 12:11). And openeth their ears in oppression; rather, by suffering. Their sufferings lead them to God, cause them to pay more attention to his Word, lead them to open their ears to his inward voice. Job 36:16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad pine, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. Another quite different interpretation has been proposed by Ewald, and adopted by Dillmann and Canon Cook, who suppose Elihu to speak, not of what would have happened to Job under certain circumstances, but of what had actually happened to him, and render, "Thee moreover hath thy unbounded prosperity seduced from listening to the voice of affliction, and the ease of thy table which was full of fatness." But the rendering of the Authorized Version, which is substantially that of Schultens and Rosenmuller, is still upheld by many scholars, and has been retained by our Revisers. If we adopt it, we must understand Elihu as assuring Job that he too would have been delivered and restored to his prosperity, if he had accepted his afflictions in a proper spirits and learnt the lesson they were intended to teach him (see verses 9, 10). Job 36:17 But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked; i.e. but, as thou hast not so acted, the result has been different. Thy hardness and impenitence have brought upon thee the judgments reserved by God for the wicked—judgment and justice take hold on thee—thou art suffering the just penalty of thy obstinacy. Job 36:18 Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke. The original is exceedingly obscure, and three or four quite distinct renderings have been proposed; but one of the latest critics (Professor Stanley Loathes) prefers to all the other translations that of the Authorized Version. Job is threatened by Elihu with a coming judgment which shall remove him from the earth altogether. Then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. Once let destruction fall, and there is no longer any place for ransom. Nothing can then deliver thee from thy just punishment. Job 36:19 Will he esteem thy riches! rather, Will thy riches suffice? (Revised Version); or Will they stand the shock of battle? (Schultens). Will they be a sufficient strength to thee in the time of trouble? No, not gold. This rendering is now generally given up, and the words, lo betsar (לא בצר), are taken in connection with the preceding sentence, thus: Will thy riches suffice’ that thou be not in distress? or, in other words, Will they keep thee out of trouble? If not, will all the forces of thy strength suffice to do so? Assuredly, nothing will avail against the "stroke" of God (Job 36:18). Job 36:20 Desire not the night, when people (rather, peoples) are cut off in their place. This is an allusion to Job’s repeatedly expressed desire to be cut off at once, and laid in the grave (Job 6:9; Job 7:15; Job 14:13, etc.). Elihu holds that such a desire is wrongful. It certainly implies a want of complete resignation to the Divine will. Job 36:21 Take heed, regard not iniquity; i.e. be on thy guard. Whilst thou art careful to preserve thy integrity and faith in God, do not fall into sin in other respects—as by impatient desires, or proud thoughts, or rash accusations of God. For this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. Rather than acquiesce in thy afflictions and bear them patiently, thou hast elected to murmur, to complain, to question the justice of God, and speak overboldly concerning him. There is some ground for Elihu’s condemnation; but it is excessive; it fails to make allowance for the extremity of Job’s sufferings, and the disturbing influence of extreme suffering on the mind and judgment. It is, at any rate, more severe than God’s judgment upon his servant (Job 38:2; Job 42:7). Job 36:22 Behold, God exalteth by his power; rather, behold, God doeth loftily in his power (see the Revised Version). Who teacheth like him? This has been called "the key-note of Elihu’s whole discourse" (Cook). The entire providential government of the world by God he views as didactic, as a series of moral lessons addressed to men by their Maker (see Job 33:14, Job 33:16; Job 35:11; Job 36:9, etc.). If the lessons intended are taken to heart, then all goes well with men; if they are rejected, then very sad and terrible results follow (Job 36:12). Job 36:23 Who hath enjoined him his way? (comp. Job 34:13). While God is thus the universal and all-perfect Teacher, there are some who would fain instruct him, dictate the course which he ought to pursue, improve and amend his universe. Something of this spirit has appeared in Job’s remonstrances, which seem to insinuate that the Divine government of the world might be carried on better than it is (see Job 9:22-24; Job 10:3; Job 13:20-26; Job 16:11-17, etc.). Elihu’s intention is to reprove Job for his presumption. Or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? Job has not said this; but he has gone near to saying it (Job 9:24; Job 10:3; Job 21:7-26; Job 24:2-12, etc.); compare the comment on Job 34:5-12. Job 36:24 Remember that thou magnify his work. Instead of murmuring, Job should "magnify God’s work." He should recognize the mercy of God, even in his own afflictions, and praise him for it. Which men behold. Men are looking on, anxiously considering Job’s sufferings; he is a spectacle to them, as the apostles were to men and angels (1 Corinthians 4:9), and the more reason therefore that he should, by patient endurance, by submission and confession, cause his sufferings to redound to the glory and honour of God. Job 36:25 Every man may see it; rather, sees it, or has seen it. Man may behold it afar off; rather, beholds it, or has beheld it, from afar. Job’s afflictions have drawn all eyes upon them—not only those of his neighbours, but of many who look on "from afar." Job 36:26-33 Elihu passes now to a description, which must be allowed to be eloquent, of the power and providence of God, and especially of his power in the natural world. It is suggested that the storm, which ultimately broke at the theophania (Job 38:1), was already beginning to gather, and turned the thoughts of Elihu in this direction. He begins with the consideration of how rain is generated, passes rapidly to the gathering of the clouds from all quarters, and thence to the loud crashing of the thunder, and the dazzling flashes of the lightning, which illumine even the lowest depths of the sea (Job 36:30). The effects of the storm are then spoken of, in words the exact meaning of which is very obscure (Job 36:31-33). Job 36:26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not. This is the final lesson which Elihu seeks to impress on his hearers. God is so great their fully to comprehend him transcends the power of the human understanding. However much we know of him, there is more that we do not know. His nature is unsearchable; his depths (1 Corinthians 2:10) are inscrutable; try as we may, we can never "find him out" (Job 37:23). Neither can the number of his years be searched out. Even his duration, being eternal, is beyond us. We cannot realize the thought of pre- and post-eternity. Job 36:27 For he maketh small the drops of water; rather, he drawth up the drops of water; i.e. by the heat of his sun he causes exhalations to arise from the sea and the moist earth, and draws them up into the higher regions of the atmosphere, where they are condensed into clouds, that hang suspended in the air. They pour down rain according to the vapour thereof; literally, they flow down as rain for his mist. The water collected in the clouds flows down in the shape of rain for the purpose of watering the earth (see Genesis 2:6, where the same word (אד) occurs). Job 36:28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. All is done for man, for his benefit and advantage. Job 36:29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds? The rapid generation of clouds, their gathering together, seemingly, from all quarters, and the way they almost suddenly overspread the heavens (1 Kings 18:45). are among the most remarkable phenomena of nature, and are very difficult to "understand" and account for. Or the noise of his tabernacle. The awful crash of the thunder, which echoes along the sky—God’s "tabernacle," or pavilion (Psalms 18:11)—is, if not as inexplicable, even more fearful and astounding. Man shrinks and quails before the terrible sound, and feels himself in the presence of a mighty and inscrutable power. Job 36:30 Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it. God flashes the weird brilliance of his lightning over the heaven—not over himself, as some translate (Rosenmuller, Cook). He lights up the whole sky at once with the electric splendour, and even covereth with it the bottom (literally, the roots) of the sea. This is, of course, hyperbole; but it seems to be Elihu’s meaning. Job 36:31 For by them judgeth he the people. By his clouds God works two opposite effects. On the one hand, he executes judgment upon the peoples, destroying their crops, causing widespread ruin by inundations, smiting and slaying numbers with his thunderbolts; on the other, he giveth meat in abundance, restoring to the parched earth its fertility by means of copious and refreshing showers, stimulating vegetation, and so furthering the harvest. Job 36:32 With clouds he covereth the light; rather, he covereth both his hands with light, i.e. with the lightning. So Vul was represented in Assyrian and Zeus in Greek mythology, as filling their hands with thunderbolts, and hurling them upon their foes in their wrath. And commandeth it not to shine, etc. This rendering is wholly indefensible. Translate, And layeth command upon it that it strike the mark (compare the Revised Version). Job 36:33 The noise thereof showeth concerning it; or, concerning him. The loud crash proclaims the fierceness of God’s anger. The cattle also concerning the vapour; rather, it sheweth the cattle also concerning him that goeth up; i.e. the very cattle also feel that God is in the storm, rides upon it, and "goeth up" (comp. Psalms 47:5). The rendering of the Revised Version, "(it showeth) the cattle also concerning the storm that cometh up," is very weak, and unworthy of such an orator as Elihu. Job 36:1-21 Elihu to Job: 3. A sermon on the Divine administration. I. THE HIMSELF. 1. As having something further to say. A man who has nothing to communicate should not emerge from the safe regions of obscurity which Providence designs he should adorn. But alas! of preachers, orators, lecturers, talkers, who babble on without contributing anything to elucidate their themes or enlighten their hearers, however much to gratify themselves, the number is legion. The first requirement in one who aspires to be a teacher of men, whether from the pulpit or from the platform, is that he have something to impart. When in Zechariah’s vision the angel was directed to "run," and "speak to the young man" with the measuring-line, he was at the same time entrusted with a message (Zechariah 2:4). The preacher who habitually delivers sermons of the vacuous and windy order affords perfectly sufficient evidence of having mistaken his calling. Neither God nor Christ ever commissioned an ambassador without giving him a message. 2. As proposing to speak in God’s behalf. Of the controversy which Job carried on with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Elihu disposed by a simple expression of indignation (Job 32:3, Job 32:12). The full strength of his ability was directed to maintain the cause of God against Job, and to ascribe righteousness to One whom Job had charged with want of equity. So the mission of the Christian pulpit is not to plunge into the labyrinthine intricacies of theological discussion, in the hope of definitely pronouncing upon long-standing, world-famous controversies like those which engaged the attention of Milton’s erudite devils (’Paradise Lost,’ bk. 2:559), but to speak with men on God’s behalf-on the one hand, to ascribe right to God, i.e. to vindicate the Divine character, the Divine administration, the Divine redemption as being in perfect accord with right and truth; and on the other hand, to bring sinful men to a right state of mind and heart towards God. It is a profanation of the sacred office of the ministry when it is employed to diffuse philosophy, to propagate science, to advance politics, to promote what is called culture as distinguished from religion—in short, to do anything that does not directly contribute to either the vindication of God or the salvation of man. 3. As offering a wide and comprehensive view of his subject. The chief fault of controversialists, and one requiring to be guarded against even by the wisest and fairest, is that of one-sided presentation, commonly resulting in exaggerated statement, rash generalization, unwarranted deduction. Such a fault usually proceeds from incapacity to perceive that truth is many-sided, or inability to grasp more sides than one; from unwillingness to admit that aspects of truth may be presented to one which are denied to another, or from overweening self-conceit which supposes nothing can be accurate which self does not see. Job and the three friends are good illustrations of men who look at the same object (e.g. the Divine administration) from different standpoints, and pronounce each other wrong. Elihu undertook to present views derived from an extensive induction of particulars, from a many-sided contemplation of truth, from long and deep reflection. So should preachers aim at setting forth only such expositions of Divine truth as have been gathered by patient industry and diligent research, of the widest and minutest sort, in the volume of the Scriptures, in the books of nature and history, in the records of experience; and even these only after they have been subjected to careful inspection and personally absorbed by deep meditation. 4. As speaking with the utmost sincerity. Elihu promised that his words should not be false as to matter, disingenuous as to aim, or beguiling as to form (verse 4); and neither should the utterances of a preacher in any one of these respects deviate from the straight path of rectitude. What he offers to the acceptance of his audience should be the unmixed truth of God (1 Corinthians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 2:7; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:2), presented not "with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4, 1 Corinthians 2:13), and exhibited with no ulterior motive of personal aggrandizement, but with honest endeavour to advance God’s glory in man’s salvation (2 Corinthians 4:2). Soundness of doctrine, simplicity of speech, singleness of aim, are qualifications indispensable for an efficient ministry. 5. As possessed of an adequate acquaintance with his theme. In claiming to be "perfect in knowledge" (verse 4), Elihu may be only asserting his honesty of purpose (Umbreit, Carey, Cook), but the application of the same phrase to God (Job 37:16) makes it probable that he here alludes to the "faultlessness and clearness of perception" (Delitzsch) with which he apprehends "the theodicy which he opposes to Job," and the intensity of that inward conviction which he holds as to its truth (Cook). So again should God’s prophets and Christ’s preachers, by prayerful study of the Divine Word, by prolonged cogitation on the themes they design to discuss, and in particular by humble dependence on that Spirit who instructed Elihu, labour to arrive at the veritable truth of God, and to have as complete an understanding thereof as possible, that so, in all their utterances, they may be able to say, like Christ, "We speak that we do know" (John 3:11); like David, "I believed: therefore have I spoken" (Psalms 116:10); and like St Paul, "We also believe, and therefore speak" (2 Corinthians 4:13). II. THE HIS THEME. 1. The character of the Divine Being. Introduced by a "Behold!" to mark its worthiness of Job’s attention and admiration. (1) Mighty. Meaning exalted in station, lofty in rank or quality of being, and resistless in power—a point frequently descanted on by Job himself (e.g. Job 9:4; Job 12:13), as well as by the friends. (2) Condescending. Despising not any, acting not scornfully, as Job insinuated God did in turning a deaf ear to his entreaties, and regarding his misery without concern (Job 10:3; Job 19:7; Job 23:13). But the Supreme Governor of the universe, according to Elihu, is too exalted a Being to act unjustly, or even unkindly, towards any, even the meanest, of his creatures. On the contrary, his very greatness is the best guarantee for his absolute impartiality and condescending kindness. That God despises nothing he has made, neither man nor beast, but watches with loving care over the least as well as the greatest of his works, was asserted by Christ (Matthew 10:29), and experienced by David (Psalms 40:17), and may be confirmed by a reference to nature itself, in which the smallest objects (e.g. flowers and insects) have lavished on them the largest amount of skill in their construction, decoration, and preservation. This combination of strength and beauty, of power and gentleness, of dignity and condescension, which Elihu proclaims to be characteristic of God, was eminently exemplified in Christ, and lies at the foundation of all moral greatness into an. (3) Wise. "Mighty in strength of heart" (verse 5), the Divine Being can penetrate through all disguises, discovering right and wrong everywhere, at all times, and altogether. Besides being of infinite power and of great kindness, he is also of omniscient understanding. 2. The character of the Divine administration. (1) Punitive, or destructive towards the ungodly: "He preserveth not the life of the wicked"—the doctrine of the friends (Job 5:2; Job 8:12, Job 8:13; Job 11:20), but here advanced with greater fairness of statement (vide infra); and (2) gracious, or preservative towards the pious: "He giveth right to the poor," or afflicted, i.e. he allotteth to them what is just, what is in moral and spiritual harmony with their condition, viz. deliverance and salvation—also a tenet of the friends (Job 5:17-27; Job 8:5-7; Job 11:13-19), though here again set forth with more precision and moderation than by them. III. THE HIS . 1. The Divine treatment of the righteous. (1) Watching over them while doing right. "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous"—a frequently stated doctrine of Scripture (2 Chronicles 16:9; Psalms 1:6; Psalms 34:15; Proverbs 10:3; Isaiah 26:7; Isaiah 27:3); illustrated by the cases of Noah (Genesis 7:1), the Israelites (Exodus 3:7), David (Psalms 139:1), and even Job himself (Job 23:10); and here declared to be of universal application, whether the objects of his observation are kings on the throne, like David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah, or prisoners in affliction, like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, or St. Paul in Philippi. (2) Rewarding them for their piety, "With kings are they [i.e. the righteous] on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted" Sooner or later, the righteous are advanced to a state of regal prosperity; sometimes literally, as with Joseph, David, Daniel; but always spiritually, like the chosen people, who were made "a kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6), and like Christians, who are constituted "kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6; Revelation 5:10; 1 Peter 2:9) and appointed to reign for over and ever. (3) Instructing them when afflicted. Assuming that the cords and fetters which hold them have been imposed as an act of mercy by God (Job 5:17; Psalms 94:12; Proverbs 3:11; Revelation 3:12), Elihu directs attention to a richer benefaction than the affliction, viz. the special education they receive from God during its continuance—an education in its character (a) gracious, being imparted by God, chiefly through his Word and Spirit; (b) convincing, unfolding to them the sin of which they have been guilty; (c) humbling, pointing out the foolish pride and vainglory from which it has proceeded; (d) admonitory, warning them of the danger in which they continue while impenitent; (e) authoritative, enabling their awakened consciences to feel the urgent duty of departing from evil; and (f) efficacious, leading m the case of every genuine child of God to a hearty return to God s ways. (g) Restoring them when penitent. Defining that submission they accord to God as a hearing and serving (the essential ingredients of all true contrition), Elihu depicts them as finishing their days in the midst of "good," i.e. of every sort of pure enjoyment, and their years in the midst of pleasures, or things of loveliness and true delight. 2. The Divine treatment of the unrighteous. One principal aim of affliction is to sift the unrighteous from the righteous. As the latter are distinguished by their penitential return to God, so the former are recognized by opposite characteristics, neither hearing God’s voice (verse 12; cf. John 18:37) nor submitting to God’s hand, but cherishing wrath and indignation against God’s justice in afflicting them (verse 13), nor praying for God’s help (verse 13) when he has bound them, but either enduring in sullen silence or howling in impatient anguish. Accordingly, God leaves them to their richly merited and naturally evolved doom, of dying (1) suddenly: "They shall pass away by the sword," the allusion being not so much to the violent manner of their departure, as to its being the result of a judicial visitation; (2) hopelessly: "They shall die without knowledge"—"without having attained to wisdom" (Job 4:21), having missed the true end of their existence, having failed to reach that knowledge of God in which alone lies salvation (John 17:2), like the Gentiles of whom Paul writes, "Having no hope, and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12); (3) prematurely: "They [literally. ’their souls’], die in youth" (verse 14), being cut down while as yet they are only standing on the threshold of life, their sun going down while it is yet noon (Amos 8:9), like Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:26), Alexander the Great, and others; (4) filthily: "Their life is among the unclean" i.e. having spent their days in sensuality and prematurely enervating incontinence, like the sodomites (margin), like the consecrated men who practised nameless lewdness in heathen temples (1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 22:47), like those whom St. Paul describes as "dishonouring their own bodies between themselves" (Romans 1:24-27), they were permitted to die as they had lived, and to find a grave in the moral filthiness in which they had wallowed, thus "receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." IV. THE APPLIES HIS . Generally, to the whole body of the righteous (verse 15), but more particularly to Job, by setting forth: 1. The blessing he had missed. If instead of murmuring and repining under God’s chastisements, he had yielded penitential submission, God would ere now have interposed for his deliverance, and rescued him from the mouth of distress, inciting him forward till he had reached a broad place where, literally, whose "beneath" (ground) would have been no straitness, and where the letting down of his table, i.e. the food set thereon, should have been full of fatness (verse 16). So God engages to do for all who humbly trust his grace and power (1) to deliver them in time of trouble (2 Kings 20:6; Psalms 34:19; Psalms 41:1; Psalms 91:14; Psalms 97:10), as he snatched David from the jaws of the lion and the bear (1 Samuel 17:37; Psalms 18:16, Psalms 18:17); (2) to establish them in ease and comfort, setting them down in large places, as he did David (Psalms 18:19) and a later Hebrew bard (Psalms 118:5), as he did with Israel when he brought her out of Egypt first into the wilderness and then into Canaan (Exodus 3:8; Judges 18:10), and as he does with believers when he frees them from condemnation and introduces them into the liberty of the children of God; and (3) to provide for them a table in the wilderness, as again he did for Israel (Psalms 78:19) and for David (Psalms 23:5), as he has done for all the world in the gospel (Isaiah 25:6; Matthew 22:1), and for Christ’s people in the Holy Supper (1 Corinthians 10:21; 1 Corinthians 11:20). 2. The sin he had committed. Job had "fulfilled the judgment of the wicked" (verse 17); i.e. like the wicked, he had pronounced a judicial sentence upon God and his dealings. Instead of humbly acquiescing in the Divine dispensations, he had, according to another rendering of the previous verse, suffered himself to be seduced from listening to the voice of affliction by his boundless prosperity and by the ease of his table, which was full of fatness (Ewald, Dillmann, Canon Cook), so that he had filled up the measure of his iniquity like a common evil-doer. It reveals a terrible declension on the part of a good man when he can behave no better under God’s chastisements, and think no better of God because of them than an ordinary sinner. Yet good men, if left to themselves, may come to this. Therefore let us not be high-minded, but fear. 3. The danger he had incurred. In consequence of Job’s insensate obstinacy and impenitent censoriousness towards God, "justice and judgment had taken hold on him;" he was now really undergoing such punishments as were due to wicked men from the even hand of justice. If good men by their ill behaviour place them. selves amongst the wicked, it need not surprise them if God should beat them, i.e. judge and punish them, as the wicked. Such judging as Job had been guilty of bordered close upon, and was commonly followed hard by, the judgment of God. The only judging that a good man can with safety perform is upon himself (1 Corinthians 11:31, 1 Corinthians 11:32). 4. The admonitions he required. (1) Against declining into infidel scoffing. "Because there is anger [sc. in thy heart], let it not entice thee to scorning" (verse 18). Of this he had indeed been accused by Zophar (Job 11:3), and not entirely acquitted by Elihu (Job 34:37), who now, however, solemnly advertises him that that would be the certain issue of it if he yielded to his passionate feelings against God. The scorner’s chair is the common terminus of such as begin by walking in the way of the ungodly. (2) Against undervaluing the Divine wrath. "Because there is wrath" (sc. with God), beware "lest he take thee away with a stroke." "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11). But the wicked man has no guarantee that, the Divine indignation against sin may not flame forth suddenly against him, as it did against Cain, the antediluvians, the cities of the plain, Pharaoh, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Haman, Herod, and others. (3) Against trusting to any self-provided ransom or atonement. "Then a great ransom cannot deliver thee" (verse 18). Neither wealth (verse 19) nor suffering (verse 18) can avert the Divine wrath. Only one Ransom has sufficient merit to turn aside the sword of judgment. (4) Against thinking that either wealth or any personal efforts can secure salvation. "Shall thy riches place thee beyond distress, and all the efforts of thy strength?" (verse 19). No; nothing will except repentance and faith. (5) Against longing for a speedy death. "Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place" (verse 20). of this verse, of which a commentator (Schultens) gives fifteen different explanations, the sense clearly is that Job had better be careful of foolishly indulging in any such wish as that God should cut him off (Job 6:9; Job 7:15), since God might take him at his word and remove him from his place below, i.e. from the earth (Delitzsch), or to a place below (Carey). Death removed whole peoples, and would have no difficulty in removing him. And Job might find his expectation disappointed. Instead of going up to an ameliorated condition, he might rather at death descend into a worse (Umbreit). No man that knows what death is will desire it sooner than God is pleased to send it. (6) Against preferring wickedness to misery. "Take heed, regard not iniquity; for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction" (verse 21). That is, rather than endure with meekness God’s chastening hand, Job had sinfully desired to die, independently altogether of whether or not it was God’s will. A common temptation to saints no less than to ordinary men, to choose sin rather than suffering. To elect to die rather than sin is the triumph of grace. Learn: 1. The true dignity of a gospel minister as one who speaks for God and Christ. 2. The special business of a gospel minister, viz. to vindicate the ways of God with man. 3. The binding duty of a gospel minister, to give himself to reading and meditation. 4. The lofty aim of the gospel minister, always to speak from personal conviction. 5. The supreme glory of the Godhead, as combining infinite justice and infinite mercy, infinite greatness and infinite condescension. 6. The extreme anxiety God manifests to bring men to repentance and salvation. 7. The undoubted certainty that the impenitent and unrighteous will ultimately perish. 8. The absolute impossibility of salvation for those who despise the divinely provided ransom. 9. The great danger of indulging in wrath against either God or his dispensations. 10. The deep delusion of those who imagine death to be a blessing to any but God’s people. Job 36:22-33 Elihu to Job: 4. A sermon on the greatness of God. I. IN HIS . 1. Ruling by his own power. "Behold, God exalteth" (se. himself), i.e. showeth himself to be exalted, "acteth loftily" (Delitzsch) "in his strength" (verse 22). The universal empire of God is based on his omnipotence. With him might and right are co-ordinate and coextensive. "He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves" (Psalms 66:7). 2. Holding dominion from no superior. "Who hath enjoined him his way?" (verse 23). Princes and potentates of earth derive their authority from him (Proverbs 8:16); the ever-blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, derives his from none. "Dominion and fear are with him" (Job 25:2). Yea, saith Jehovah, "I am the Lord, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:18). 3. Admitting of no inspection. "Who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?" (verse 23). As the Almighty brooks no superior or rival on his throne, so admits he of no opposition to his work. "Whatsoever his soul desireth, that he doeth" (Job 23:13). As none can interpose to say, "What doest thou?" (Daniel 4:35), so none can claim a right to subject his work to critical inspection. To pass judgment on it is for a creature to be guilty of the highest arrogance. Substantially this was the sin of Job. II. IN HIS . "Who teacheth like him?" (verse 22). In the judgment of Elihu, one of the principal ends contemplated by God’s providential government of the world was the education of men (Job 33:14; Job 35:11; Job 36:9). Hence by Elihu God is styled an Instructor or Teacher—Moreh, translated by the LXX. "Lord." So God represented himself to Moses (Exodus 4:15), to Israel (Exodus 20:1), to David (Psalms 32:8). So is God to his people generally (Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:33, Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 4:2; John 6:45). As a Teacher of men, God surpasses all other instructors, possessing qualifications never found, unitedly or severally, to perfectly exist except in himself. 1. Ability. Many undertake to instruct others who are wholly destitute of the capacity to understand either their subjects, their pupils, or themselves. But no such deficiency can be with God, who, besides knowing himself, comprehends all things and accurately gauges all men. This qualification was possessed in an eminent degree by Christ. 2. Authority. The Divine authority to teach and the authoritative character of’ the Divine teaching are based upon God’s Lordship over man, and God’s perfect knowledge of that which he teaches. So Christ, for exactly the same reasons, spake with authority, and not as the scribes (Matthew 7:29). 3. Variety. Like every intelligent instructor, God employs different methods in teaching—his works (Job 35:11), his Word (Psalms 94:10), his providential dispensations (Job 33:16), his Spirit (Nehemiah 9:20; Proverbs 1:23). So did Christ instruct his followers, by his works (Matthew 6:26-31), by his Word (Luke 24:27), by his providences (Luke 13:1-5), by his Spirit (Luke 12:12; John 14:26). 4. Suitability. God’s teaching is always adapted to the occasion (Psalms 32:8; Isaiah 48:17); and to the capacities of his scholars (Isaiah 28:9, Isaiah 28:10); and so likewise was Christ’s. The Holy Spirit also proceeds in the same gradual fashion in the work of illuminating darkened minds. 5. Simplicity. Aiming at the good of those who hear, God always teaches in the plainest and directest manner possible, speaking so clearly, distinctly, and intelligibly, that he requires, as with Adam (Genesis 3:9) and with Noah (Genesis 6:13), with Abimelceh (Genesis 20:3) and with Laban (Genesis 31:24), to speak only once; with such earnestness and eagerness that he often speaks twice, as he did with Abraham (Genesis 22:11), and as Christ did with Saul (Acts 9:4); yea, with a patience and gentleness so admirable that he even condescends to speak thrice, as he did with Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10). 6. Desirability. The teaching God gives is on subjects which it most behoves man to know, in particular on that which maketh wise unto salvation—the Being, character, and purpose of God; the original dignity, present condition, and future destiny of man; the nature, guilt, and penalty of sin; the Person, offices, and work of Christ; the source, means, and end of salvation; the law of life and the rule of duty; the way to die and the path to glory everlasting. 7. Efficiency. Desirable and complete as such a programme of instruction is, no one can learn it by his own unaided powers (1 Corinthians 2:14). But God can guide his people into the understanding of it in all its fulness (Psalms 25:9). III. IN HIS . "Who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?" (verse 23). 1. Holiness inseparble from the idea of God. A Being who can be charged with iniquity cannot possibly be Divine. Hence God can, in no sense or degree, be the author of sin. 2. Men prone to connect sin with God. The heathen do so when they worship deities like themselves—"gods fierce, rapacious, cruel, and unjust." Philosophers do so when they hold God responsible for everything that exists. Even good people do so when they charge God with inequality or injustice in his ways. 3. God’s holiness largely insisted on in scripture. The inveterate tendency of the fallen heart to forget the Divine purity demands that this be frequently held up for contemplation (Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 32:4; 1 Samuel 2:2; Job 4:17; Job 34:10; Psalms 92:15; Psalms 111:9; Isaiah 57:15; Revelation 4:8). IV. IN HIS BEING. "Behold, God is great, and we know him not" (verse 26). 1. We know him not directly. "No man hath seen God at any time," said Christ (John 1:18); with which agrees God’s word to Moses (Exodus 33:20), and John’s word to Christians (1 John 4:12). God reveals himself to man in creation (Psalms 19:1; Romans 1:20), in providence (Job 9:11, sqq.), in Christ (John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Colossians 1:15), through the Spirit (Matthew 11:27). 2. We know him not completely. It is certain that the infinite God will never be entirely comprehended by a finite creature. But of even such a measure and degree of knowledge as is possible to man, it is likewise true that we have not reached the full measure. "Now we know in part" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Hereafter all that can be known of God by finite creatures will be realized. 3. We know him not clearly. Even what we do apprehend of the Divine Being is involved in much obscurity. "Now we see through a glass darkly" (1 Corinthians 13:12). Hereafter his servants shall behold his face with open vision (Revelation 22:4). Yet for all that, notwithstanding these limitations: 4. We know him not imaginarily, but really. That is, our knowledge of the Divine Being, though neither direct, nor adequate, nor perfectly clear, is real, accurate, and reliable so far as it goes. V. ETERNAL IN HIS . "Neither can the number of his years be searched out" (verse 26). The language which ascribes years to God is, of course, anthropomorphic (Psalms 102:24). Both Elihu and the Hebrew bard intend to represent God as "without beginning of days or end of years," as existing "from everlasting to everlasting," as exalted high above all the permutations and vicissitudes of created, life, and therefore as removed completely beyond the sphere of man’s judgment or criticism. VI. IN HIS WORKING. To this thought Elihu recurs in detail in the ensuing chapter (vide homiletics). In the mean time he alludes to certain natural phenomena as indicative of God’s excellent power in working. 1. Rain. "For he maketh small [literally, ’he draweth up,’ sc. by evaporation] the small drops of water," after which "they pour down rain [or, ’as rain’], according to the vapour thereof," or "for this mist" (Cook), or "in connection with its mist" (Delitzsch). It is not the understanding of how rain is formed that constitutes either the wonder or the difficulty of the phenomenon; it is the making of rain, the institution and maintenance of those material laws and forces which produce rain. It is here that Divine power is required and seen. 2. Clouds. "Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly" (verse 28). Not the least interesting among those objects which attract the student of nature are the clouds of heaven, which receive the evaporated moisture of earth, and retain it floating in the atmosphere until it is again required by the parched soil. Objects of beauty in themselves, they strikingly attest the almighty power, matchless wisdom, and essential goodness of God. 3. Thunder. "Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?" (verse 29). The appearance of the sky in a thunderstorm is what the poet aims at depicting, when the dark clouds spread across the firmament, and the first thunder-crash falls upon the ear (vide homiletics on next chapter). 4. Lightning. "Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it," or over himself (Habakkuk 3:4), "and covereth the bottom [literally, ’the roots ’] of the sea" (verse 30); i.e. he lights up the whole heaven, and even illuminates the hidden depths of the ocean by the glare of his lightning. VII. IN HIS . "The two ideas of power and goodness are associated closely in Elihu’s mind; whereas the three friends dwell more upon the combination of power and justice, and Job upon that of power and wisdom. Goodness, righteousness, wisdom, are one in God; various aspects under which the essential principle of love is manifested" (Canon Cook). The beneficence of the Divine administration in nature is represented in a twofold form. 1. Negatively, as judgment upon the nations. "For by them judgeth he the people" (verse 31). Seemingly severe in themselves, God’s judgments upon the wicked men and nations are to righteous men and nations acts of grace and kindness. It is for the benefit of the world that sin should be chastised. Love no less than justice demands that the wicked should be overthrown. 2. Positively, as kindness to his people. "He giveth meat in abundance." In this aspect Elihu thinks of the rain, the clouds, the thunder, the lightning. The beneficent uses of these and other ordinary phenomena of nature are patent to the slightest reflection. The rain is the great fertilizer of the soil; the cloud, besides serving as a screen to moderate the warmth of the sun, operates to prevent the too speedy radiation of the earth’s heat, while it also acts as the great rain-collector and distributor for the parched ground; the thunderstorm is the most effective of all atmospheric purifiers and rectifiers. VIII. IN HIS . Taking advantage, as usual, of the extreme obscurity of the last two verses (vide Exposition), and availing ourselves of the more probable of the offered interpretations, we find Elihu suggesting concerning the Divine manifestations that they are: 1. Announced by the elements. Elihu alludes, it is thought, to an approaching theophany, of which the thunderstorm was the herald. "With clouds he covereth the light," etc.; literally, "Upon both hands he spreadeth as a covering the light" (i.e. the lightning), "and commandeth it as one who hitteth the mark" (Delitzsch) against his enemy (Gesenius, Umbreit), in striking (Carey)whom it shall reach (Canon Cook). So was God’s approach to Adam after he had fallen announced by a rush of wind through the garden (Genesis 3:8); to Israel by thunders and lightnings and the noise of a trumpet (Exodus 20:18); to Elijah by a wind, an earthquake, and a fire (1 Kings 19:11). So was God’s advent to the world at the Incarnation proclaimed by signs and wonders both in heaven and on earth. The descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was accompanied by a rushing mighty wind. The return of God to judge the world will be attended with alarming prodigies. 2. Recognized by the irrational oration. To the herds the rumble of the thunder is pictured by Elihu as announcing the arrival of God. So when Christ the Son of God came to earth, not only did the winds and the seas obey him (Mark 4:41), but the wild beasts gathered round him and forgot their ferocity (Mark 1:13). Among the signs that shall foretell his second coming will be the lying down of the wolf with the lamb, and of the leopard with the kid (Isaiah 11:6-9). 3. Presented to man. Neither the inanimate creation nor the irrational animals can consciously apprehend the glory of God. Hence the Divine manifestations, though heralded and unconsciously recognized by them, are not specifically meant for them, but for man, the head and crown of the material globe. To man alone of all God’s creatures on the earth belongs the power of apprehending the Divine glory. Hence God’s self-revelations are always for the sake of man. The one now approaching was for Job’s sake. The Incarnation was for the sake of humanity. The second advent will be for the sake of the Church. 4. Directed against unrighteousness. "The sound thereof (i.e. the thunder-crash) announces concerning their fierceness of wrath against unrighteousness" (Cook). Even so the first Divine manifestation in the Incarnation and cross was a revelation of the wrath of God against all unrighteousness of men (Romans 1:18); though of this character much more will the next Divine apocalypse partake. 5. Designed for the salvation of the righteous. According to another rendering (Umbreit), Elihu is understood to say that, while God fills both his hands with light, in the one hand he holds the lightning-shaft wherewith to strike the wicked, but in the other the cheering light of the sun to reveal to his friend, and even unto cattle and to plants. It may remind us again of the double purpose of all God’s manifests-tions. The pillar of cloud and fire meant destruction to Egypt, but emancipation to Israel. Even the gospel is a savour of life unto some, but of death unto others. When Christ next comes, it will be not alone to punish his foes, but also to save his friends. Learn: 1. To magnify the work of God. 2. To celebrate the praise of God. 3. To reverence the Name of God. 4. To delight in the revelation of God. 5. To acquiesce in the purpose of God. 6. To listen to the teaching of God. 7. To accept the salvation of God. BY E. JOHNSON Verse 1-37:24 Elihu’s fourth speech: God the Loving, the Just, and the Holy. In the preceding discourses of Elihu, be has dwelt chiefly upon the moral relations of man to God, and the view presented of God has been chiefly that obtained through the medium of human feelings and analogies. His present discourse rises to a sublime view of him as the infinitely mighty One, the wise and just Father of mankind. If we suppose that during this address the storm is brewing out of which Jehovah presently speaks, then all Elihu’s references to the lightning, the thunder, the storm and rain receive, as he proceeds, their splendid illustration from the sublime scene around, and heighten the force of his appeals. I. . (Job 37:1-4.) The speaker begins by announcing that he has something further of weight to say in justification of the ways of God to man. He has "words for God" to utter. Though God’s works are his justification, and he needs no defence at the hands of man, yet it may be said that the free exercise of reason, in setting forth the glory of his goodness and justice, is an acceptable service to him. If he delights in the unconscious testimony of babes and sucklings (Psalms 8:1-9.), still more must he delight in the conscious spontaneous offerings of man’s matured thought at his shrine, The great works of Christian theologians and apologists, such as Calvin’s ’Institutes’ or Butler’s ’Analogy,’ are the tributes of reason to the honour of God. But they are valueless unless they have that quality which Elihu so emphatically claims, sincerity, truth. He who ventures to speak for God must speak, not with the purpose of temporary expediency, but out of the consciousness of eternity. II. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IN THE HISTORY OF MAN. (Job 37:5-21.) The course of life, argues the speaker, shows that a chastening, a purifying, but at the same time a loving, Power is at work in the world. This is supported: 1. By a general view of human life. (Job 37:6-15.) God is revealed in the different courses of men’s lives as Power, but not as arbitrary Power. His greatness is not associated with contempt for the lowliness of man. It is not reckless of right and wrong. It upholds the moral order—the godless sink unsupported into the ruin their own conduct has prepared for them; while those who suffer from the injustice of others are succoured and defended. God’s watchful eye is upon all just men, from the king whose throne he establishes, whose dignity he guards, to the captive in his chains, to the beggar in his misery. This, as we have so often seen, is the firm foundation-truth which runs beneath the whole of this book, and through the whole of the Bible. And the seeming exceptions to these principles of the Divine administration are now explained as merely seeming; for they come under the principle of chastisement, which is but another illustration of love. According to this view—never more feelingly set forth than here-suffering may be, not the brand of guilt, but the silent token of love in the form of discipline. Without positive guilt there may be moral stagnation, in which the germs of future evil are discovered by the eye of the Divine Educator. Evil is forming in tendency or thought when it has not blossomed into deeds. Then comes the visit of God in suffering to warn, to hint of danger, to "open the ear" to instructions that were thought unnecessary in the days of perfect peace and self-complacency. And if the mind yields to this gracious leading, and bends itself to docility to this new revelation of the holy will, all shall yet be well. The season of depression and disaster will be passed through, and the sheep who have heard the Shepherd’s voice will find themselves led once more into the green pastures of content (Job 37:6-11). But the God who is revealed to us in this tender and gracious aspect in the course el experience, under the condition of obedience, becomes clothed in sternness and severity to those who resist. Those who venture to war with law, to rebel against omnipotence and justice, can but meet an unhappy doom. In wondrous ways, unknown to man, God is able to bring men to their destined goal (Job 37:12-14). The great lesson, then, is to betake one’s self to self-examination (the opening of the ear) and to prayer when the visitants of God’s chastening love are knocking at the door of our heart. The lesson is expressed by pointing to the sad examples of unsubmissive, prayerless lives! These, like spots where the dew falls not, cannot thrive. Hearts, like bare rocks, that will not melt in the sun, callous, impenitent, heedless, perish for want of knowledge, of faith, of God; but those whose whole nature has been broken up and laid open by suffering are prepared to receive the seed of eternal wisdom which the Divine Husbandman seeks in such times to implant (Job 37:15). 2. By reference to Job’s vicissitudes. (Verses 16-21.) In these verses, which are so obscure in meaning in our version, a deduction is made from the foregoing principles in reference to the case of Job. In verse 16 the verb should be taken in the present, "God’s leading," or "is for leading" him out of his present straitened and distressed condition; but what if the conditions of submission, penitence, and docility are wanting in Job? Assuming that there is this want, solemn warnings are given—that he cannot, if in a state of sin, escape the judgment of God; that if he allows the fire of suffering to madden him into impiety instead of purifying his spirit, he will find himself in an evil plight, for no cries nor efforts can avail to extricate him from the fangs of doom. Let not Job, then, says the speaker (verse 20), perhaps pointing to the dark warning of the sky, long after the night (of judgment); for whole peoples pass away in that terrible darkness when the wrath of God is outpoured! And to conclude the warnings, let Job beware of the turning of the heart to vanity—the natural thoughtlessness of mankind in presence of the judgments of God. The application is unfair as regards Job; still, we are reminded indirectly that it is not sufficient to hold a true theory of God’s moral government in general, without applying it to the facts of our own lives. Men may harshly apply great principles to our character and condition in the world; this cannot absolve us from the duty of applying them truly and honestly for ourselves. III. THE OF GOD IN NATURE. (Verse 22- Job 37:24.) 1. The wisdom and power of God as seen in nature’s wonders. (Verse 22- Job 37:13.) Introduction. (Verses 22-25.) The sublime power of God fills every observer of Nature with awe. Who is a Ruler as he? Who can improve upon Nature? She is the great mechanist, artist, designer, executor. Man may produce new varieties of plants and, to some extent, of animals by the exercise of intelligence, but "o’er that art which men call nature is another art which nature makes." Art is the highest effort of human nature; and what nature can he honour who honours not the human? If, then, you have a quarrel with God, what is this but to dispute the beauty and the good of things, which all men delight to celebrate, on which no eyes are weary of looking with wonder? 2. Look, then, at the grandeur of the phenomena of nature—the rain the clouds’ the storms. (Verse 26- Job 37:5.) Read the words of the description, compare them with your own feelings. In the very vagueness and vastness of nature there is a power to impress the imagination. This array of beauty and of grandeur is not only far beyond, but totally unlike, anything that man can conceive or accomplish. No words can better set forth these profound and unutterable impressions than the words of great poets, "thrown out" as it were at a distant, illimitable object which cannot be defined. "God thunders with his voice wondrously, doth great things that we understand not:" this is the sum of all. The indefinite grandeur of images and sounds, which is so impressive in the highest poetry, represents the inarticulate but overwhelming voice of nature which tells of the Being and the goodness of God. Again, these effects point to causes; and the regularity of effects to the regularity of causes; and the whole series of effects and causes resolves itself into the conception of law, high, unerring, unbroken. Even with a very imperfect knowledge of the structure of the cosmos, there is some dim perception of these truths: how much more should consummate science impress them upon the spirit! Every phenomenon that strikes with awe the senses, or that gently excites the wonder and curiosity of the mind, hints at an Intelligence which is ever at work. The snow, the rain-torrents, which give pause to the labours of man, and compel his gaze to the sky; the crouching of the wild beast in his lair before the fury of the storm; the rushing forth of the blasts as from some hidden repository (as the Greeks fabled, the cave of AEelus); the congelation of the waters; the clouds discharging their weight of moisture or flashing forth their lightnings;—all speak of superhuman power, ell-controlling and still guiding the march of nature by a principle of right; now scourging men’s folly, and now rewarding and blessing their obedience. In the fearful and beautiful scenes of the storm and of winter we indeed no longer see signs of the personal displeasure of God. We explain them by the "laws of nature." But none the less do these phenomena tell of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God, and hint to us the duty and the need of prayer to him who gave to Nature her laws. 3. Inferences; exhortations. (Job 37:14-24.) If this be the view Nature gives us of her God and of our Creator, instead of murmuring at him or disputing his dealings, let Job and all sufferers draw the true conclusions amidst the dark enigmas of their lives. Let the preceding impressions be laid well to heart, and in quiet contemplation let the mystery of the Divine operations be reviewed. Can man explain the secrets of nature? If not, why should he expect to explain fully that which is a part of the same system, under the same rule, controlled by the same God, namely, his own life and its mingled web of weal and woe (verse 14, sqq.)? "We have but faith; we cannot know." "If man is not called by God to his side in other matters of his daily doing, to be as a judge and counsellor, and this can be expected by none, and none presumes to murmur against that order, it is right that man should not demand that the method of God’s government should be shown him in this world, but that he should acquiesce in it, whether he understands it or no; that he should believe his Word, and await his good in patience" (Cocceius). This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 37:1-24 It has been already remarked that there is no natural division between Job 36:1-33 and Job 37:1-24.—the description of the thunderstorm and its effects runs on. From its effect on cattle, Elihu passes to its effect on man (Job 37:1-5); and thence goes on to speak of other natural manifestations of God’s power and marvellousness—snow, violent rain, whirlwind, frost, and the like (Job 37:6-13). He then makes a final appeal to Job to acknowledge his own weakness and God’s perfection and unsearchableness, and to bow down in wonder and adoration before him (verses 14-24). Job 37:1 At this also; i.e. at the thunderstorm or at the particular crash mentioned in Job 36:33. My heart trembleth. A violent peal of thunder produces in almost all men a certain amount of nervous trepidation. Elihu seems to have been abnormally sensitive. His heart trembled so that it seemed to be moved out of his place. Job 37:2 Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth; or, Hearken ye, hearken ye to the noise of his voice (comp. Psalms 77:18: Psalms 104:7; and below, Psalms 104:4, Psalms 104:5). We need not suppose Elihu to speak otherwise than poetically. He does not, like the Indian of " … untutored mind, See God in clouds or hear him in the wind." He does not mean that the thunder is actually God’s voice, but that it tells of him, reminds of him, brings naturally to men’s minds the thought of his marvellous greatness and power, and should therefore be listened to with awe and trembling, not passed over lightly, like any other sound. Job 37:3 He directeth it under the whole heaven. The reverberations of the thunderclap roll along the entire cloud-canopy, from one end of the heavens to the other, beginning often faint in the distance, then growing loud over our heads, finally sinking into low muttered rumblings on the far horizon. And his lightning unto the ends of the earth. Similarly, the lightning, though originating in a flash at some definite spot, sets the whole sky aglow, shining from side to side of the heavens, and, as it were, to the very "ends of the earth." Both have a character of universality which is marvellous, and which makes them fitting emblems of him of whom they are the messengers and ministers (see Matthew 24:27). Job 37:4 After it a voice roareth. After the lightning-flash has been seen, the thunderclap comes. In their origin they are simultaneous; but, as light travels faster than sound, unless we are close to the flash, then is an interval, the thunder following on the lightning. He thundereth with the voice of his excellency (see the comment on Job 37:2). And he will not stay them when his voice is heard. The words are plain, but the meaning is obscure. What will not God stay? His lightnings? His thunderings? His rain? His hail? There is no obvious antecedent. And in what sense will he not "stay" them? Some explain, "He will not slacken their speed; "others, "He will not cause them to Cease." Job 37:5 God thundereth marvellously with his voice. In finishing off his description of the thunderstorm, Elihu dwells upon its marvellousness. Each step in the entire process is strange and wonderful, beyond man’s comprehension; and the lesson to be drawn from the consideration of the whole series of phenomena is that great things doeth he (i.e. God), which we cannot comprehend. Even after all that has been done of late years to advance the science of meteorolegy, it cannot be said that the rationale of storms is fully grasped by the scientific intellect Job 37:6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth. The phenomenon of snow is always full of marvel to an Oriental. It comes before him so seldom; it is in itself so strange; it involves things so inexplicable as the sudden solidification of a liquid, crystallization, a marked expansion of bulk, and the sudden assumption by what was colourless of a definite and dazzling colour. In Arabia and the countries bordering on Palestine snow very seldom falls; but in Palestine itself the mountain ranges of Lebanon and Hermon are never without it; and in the region occupied by Job and his friends then is reason to believe that ice and snow were not altogether infrequent (see Job 6:16, and the comment ad loc). Likewise to the small rain; or, to the light shower of rain—"the spring rain," as the Chaldee paraphrast explains it. And to the great rain of his strength; or, "the heavy winter rain," according to the same authority. "The former and the latter rain"—the rain of winter, and the rain of spring—are often mentioned by the sacred writers (see Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24; Hosea 6:3; Joe 2:23; Zechariah 10:1; James 5:7). God gave both, ordinarily, in due course. Job 37:7 He sealeth up the hand of every man. In the winter season, when the snow falls, and the heavy rains pour down (Job 37:6), God "seeleth up the hand of every man;" i.e. puts an end to ordinary out-of-doors labour, and establishes a time of pause or rest (comp. Homer, ’II.,’ 17.549). He does this with the object that all men may know his work; i.e. that, during the time of their enforced idleness, men may have leisure for reflection, and may employ it in meditating upon him and his marvellous "work." Job 37:8 Then (i.e. in winter) the beasts go into dens. The very beasts shut themselves up, and remain hidden in their places, i.e in their lairs, on account of the inclemency of the season. Job 37:9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind; rather, out of the secret chamber—the storehouse where God keeps his tempests. Nothing is said of "the south" here, though elsewhere, no doubt, whirlwinds are said to come especially from that quarter (see Isaiah 21:1 and Zechariah 9:14). And cold out of the north; rather, and cold from the scatterers. "The scatterers" seem to be the violent winds which clear the heavens of clouds, and bring in a clear frosty atmosphere. Or the word used may designate a constellation (comp. Job 38:32). Job 37:10 By the breath of God frost is given (comp. Psalms 147:16-18). "The breath of God," which is a metaphor for the will of God, causes alike both frost and thaw. And the breadth of the waters is straitened; or, congealed. A broad expanse of water is suddenly turned by frost into a stiff and solid mass. Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud; rather, also with moisture he ladeth the thick cloud. Elihu returns from his description of the winter season to the more ordinary condition of things. Rain is the chief necessity of Eastern countries; and God is ever providing it, causing moisture to be drawn up from earth and sea, and safely lodged in the clouds, whence it descends, as needed, and as commanded by God, upon the fields and plains that man cultivates. He scattereth his bright cloud. Most commentators see a reference to lightning here; and it is possible, no doubt, that such a reference is intended. "His bright cloud"—literally, "the cloud of his light"—may mean "the cloud in which his lightning is stored." But perhaps no more is meant than that God spreads abroad over the earth the clouds on which his sunlight rests. The genial showers of spring fall generally from clouds that are, in part at any rate, steeped in the sun’s rays. Job 37:12 And it is turned round about by his counsels, "It" (i.e. the cloud) is "turned round" (or directed in its course) "by his counsels," or under the guidance of his wisdom, and so conveys his rain whither he pleases. That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. There is no expressed antecedent to "they." Perhaps the showers are intended, or the atmospheric influences generally. Job 37:13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy. God has different purposes in directing the rain hither or thither. Sometimes his object is to punish by violent or excessive rainfall: sometimes it is to fertilize his own special land; sometimes it is out of kindness to men generally. Job 37:14-24 Elihu ends with a personal appeal to Job, based on the statements which he has made. Can Job imagine that he understands the workings of God in nature? If not, how can he venture to challenge God to a controversy? Would it not be better to recognize that his ways are inscrutable? Job 37:14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. Consider the marvels of God’s works in nature, as I have set them forth to thee (Job 36:27-33; Job 37:2-13); the mysteries of evaporations, of cloud formation and accumulation, of thunder, of lightning, of snow and frost, of genial showers and fierce downpours, of summer and winter, of the former rain and the latter, of the gentle breeze and the whirlwind; and then say if thou comprehendest the various processes, and canst explain them, and make others to understand them (verse 19). If not, shouldest thou not own, as we do, that "we cannot find him out" (verse 23), cannot reach to the depths of his nature, and therefore are unfit to pronounce judgment on his doings? Job 37:15 Dost thou know when God disposed them; rather, disposes them—gives them their orders, arranges for their course and sequence? Or dost thou know when he caused (or rather, causes) the light of his cloud (either the lightning, or perhaps the rainbow, as Schultens suggests) to shine? Thou canst not pretend to any such knowledge. Job 37:16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds? i.e. "how they are poised and suspended in the sky" (Stanley Loathes). The wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge (comp. Job 36:5). Job 37:17 How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind? Dost thou even know how it is that, while the breeze from the north chills thee (Job 37:9, Job 37:10), the breath from the south makes thee feel thy garments too warm? If thou canst not explain a physical matter, wherein thine own comfort is concerned, how much less canst thou comprehend the workings of God in his moral universe! Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky? Didst thou assist in the spreading out of the sky, that great and magnificent work of the Creator, transcending almost all others (see the comment on Job 9:8)? Or did not God effect this work alone, without even a counsellor (Isaiah 40:13, Isaiah 40:14), so that thou hadst no part in it? Which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass. The sky is "strong" or "firm;" i.e. enduring or permanent, though not really hard like a mirror. Elihu, however, seems to have regarded it, like many of the ancients, as a solid mass, resembling a concave mirror of metal. The translation, "looking-glass," is wrong, both here and in Exodus 38:8, since glass was not used for mirrors until the period of the early Roman empire. The earlier mirrors were of polished metal. Job 37:19 Teach us what we shall say unto him. Elihu indulges in irony. If thou art so wise as thou pretendest to be, then he pleased to "teach us." We acknowledge our ignorance—we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Enlighten us, if thou canst. Job 37:20 Shall it be told him that I speak? rather, that I would speak (comp. Job 31:35). Job had expressed the wish that God would "hear him, and answer him." Elihu, intending to rebuke this presumption, yet shrinking from doing so directly, puts himself in Job’s place, and asks, "Would it be fitting that I should demand to speak with God?" If not, it cannot be fitting that Job should do so. If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up. This is probably the true meaning, though another has been suggested by some commentators, who prefer to render, "Or should a man wish that he were destroyed?" (So Ewald, Dillmann, Canon Cook, and our Revisers.) If we adopt this rendering, we must understand Elihu as appending to his first rebuke a second, levelled against Job’s desire to have his life ended. Job 37:21 And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds; rather, and now men cannot behold the light which is bright in the skies. Now, i.e; here in this world, men cannot look straight at the sun, since he dazzles them. How much less, then, would they be able to face God on his throne in heaven! Yet this is what Job had proposed to do (Job 9:32-35; Job 13:18-22; Job 22:3-7, etc.). But the wind passeth, and cleanseth them; rather, when the wind passeth and cleareth them; i.e. when, the wind having swept away the clouds and cleared the sky’ the sun shines forth in all its splendour. Job 37:22 Fair weather cometh out of the north; literally, out of the north cometh gold. The bearing of this is very obscure, whether we suppose actual gold to he meant, or the golden splendours of the sun, or any other bright radiance. No commentator has hit on a satisfactory explanation. With God is terrible majesty. This is sufficiently plain, and it is the point whereto all Elihu’s later argument has been directed (see Job 36:22-33; Job 37:1-18). God’s majesty is so great that men can only tremble before him. Job 37:23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. This is the "conclusion of the whole matter." God is inscrutable, and man must hide his face before him and not presume to judge him. He is also excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice. His moral perfection is on a par with his might and majesty. He will not afflict; rather, he will not answer; i.e. he will not account to men for his doings, or condescend to justify himself in their eyes. His acts cannot but be righteous. Job 37:24 Men do therefore fear him; or, let men therefore fear him. Let them see in his unsearchableness, his almighty power, his absolute moral perfection, and his superiority to all human questioning, ample grounds for the profoundest reverence and fear. And let them remember that he respecteth not any that are wise of heart. However "wise of heart" men may be, God does not "respect" them, at any rate to the extent of submitting his conduct to their judgment, and answering their clues-tionings (see Job 37:20). Job 37:1-24 Elihu to Job: 5. The wonderful works of God. I. IN RESPECT OF THEIR VARIETY. Beginning with the thunderstorm (verse 2), with its quickly spreading clouds (Job 36:29), its sharp, gleaming bolts (verse 3), its crashing and reverberating peals (verse 4), Elihu passes on to descant upon other natural phenomena—such as the falling of the snow and the rain upon the earth (verse 6); the sweeping of the whirlwind, or hot simoom, from the remote regions of the southern desert, alternately with the rushing of the cold blasts from "the scatterers," or north winds (verse 9); the congelation of the water-drops by the breath of winter, and the straitening of the rivers by thick blocks of ice (verse 10); the replenishing of the emptied rain-cloud with fresh loads of water, and the distribution far and wide of the cloud of his light, i.e. of the cloud that is pregnant with lightning (verse 11). And yet such phenomena are only an infinitesimally small portion of that endless variety which Nature in her movements and manifestations affords. This variety, too, besides being an eminent enhancement of nature’s beauty, contributes in a high degree to nature’s usefulness, and is a testimony by no means unimportant in favour of nature having been the production of an all-wise Artificer, since the suggestion is little short of inconceivable that a world so wondrously fair, so exquisitely diversified, so harmoniously adjusted in all its parts, could have been the work of blind, unintelligent force, directed in its operations by purposeless chance, or could have emanated from any other source than that of an infinite mind. II. IN RESPECT OF THEIR ORIGIN. The presumption above created is explicitly confirmed by Elihu, who commends to Job’s attention the entire circle of nature’s interesting phenomena as "the wondrous works of God" (verse 14), "the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge" (verse 16), and "his work" (verse 7), i.e. as the productions of his almighty finger. Does the thunder cannonade along the sky? It is God who roareth with the voice of his excellency (verse 4). Do the heavens shake their snowflakes, distil their gentle showers, or pour their copious floods upon the earth? It is God who saith to the snow and rain, "Be thou on the earth" (verse 6). Does the frost arrest the flowing river, congeal the water-drop, lie like crisp white beads upon the ground, or trace its fairy pictures on the windowpane? It is God’s breath that sends the frost into the air (verse 10). Do the rain-clouds fill and empty themselves upon the earth? It is God who loadeth them with liquid burdens (verse 11). Does the lightning-shaft, leaping from the dark bosom of the storm-cloud, career through the murky sky? It is God who directeth it under the whole heaven (verse 3). Nor is this simply superstition, like that which caused the untutored savage and the cultured Greek alike to transform every mountain and stream into the abode of a divinity. And just as little is it merely poetry which, personifying dead things, deals with them as beings endued with life and intelligence. It is piety which, with a keener and truer discernment than is sometimes evinced by modern scientists, overleaping every intermediate cause, takes its station with adoring wonder beside the throne of him who is the absolute and uncreated Author of this universal frame. The characteristic here ascribed to Elihu, the youthful prophet of Arabia, was one which in an eminent degree pertained to the Hebrew mind. The psalms of David, in particular, are distinguished by the boldness with which they recognize the hand of God in the ever-varying phenomena of this terrestrial sphere (cf. Psalms 8:1-9.; 19.; 29.; 65.; 68.). Nor was this peculiarity awanting to the later poets of the period of the exile (cf. Psalms 104:1-35.). Even New Testament writers (e.g. St. Paul, Acts 14:17; Acts 17:28) are not strangers to this devout practice. Above all, it was habitual with Christ (Matthew 6:30; John 5:17). It is much to be re,tied that modern scientists should so frequently overlook the fact that in investigating nature’s laws they are merely informing themselves as to the specific methods in which the supreme Creator has been pleased to work. III. IN RESPECT OF THEIR . If the phenomena of nature are in themselves such as to demand an infinite mind for their conception, much more does their production call for a supreme Artificer of unlimited resources as to wisdom and power. Elihu declares them to be "doings" positively incomprehensible by the finite mind (verse 5); and, notwithstanding all the results of scientific observation, it is still true that the chief secrets of nature continue to baffle man’s intelligence. Take the thunderstorm, for instance, to which Elihu alludes. Almost any scientific treatise touching on the subject will explain how the dark masses of cloud that pile themselves above the horizon and gradually spread along the sky are filled with water and charged with electricity, how the lightning is produced by the meeting of positive with negative electricity, and how the thunderclap results from the explosion of the overcharged clouds. But, after all, this does not impart a great deal of information to the mind. It leaves unresolved the deepest mysteries connected with the problem, such as the way in which the storm-cloud is formed, and the structure of the particles of which it is composed, the mode in which the earth and the air have been charged with different kinds or degrees of electricity, what electricity itself is, and what are the laws of its production and distribution. And even though all these matters were explored by the patient intellect of science, there would still remain the question how the phenomena themselves can be made, clearly showing that the utmost that is attainable by man is to understand the works of God (at least in part) when they are made, not to arrive at the wisdom by which they might be reproduced. The meteorologist can observe how God makes his thunder, but he cannot himself thunder with a voice like God’s. He can descant upon the cause of snow, can expatiate upon the beauty of the snowflakes, and can tell that their crystals assume five leading forms; but with all his learning and amid all his researches he has never laid his finger on the art of making snow, or of saying to a single flake, "Be thou on the earth." IV. IN RESPECT OF THEIR CONTROL. If nature is not a vast machine from which God has departed, still less is it an engine which he has suffered to escape from his hand. Conceived by infinite wisdom and fashioned by almighty power, it has by the same combination of qualities been kept in complete subordination. Elihu instances the lightning-cloud as a work of God that is "turned round about by his counsels, and that doeth whatsoever he commandeth upon the face of the wide earth" (Verse 12). But it is the same with the snow and the rain, the frost and the wind. These are as submissive to his command as the thunder when it roars, or the lightning when it gleams. So, according to the concurrent testimony of Scripture, are all his works in all places of his dominion (Job 23:13; Psalms 33:9; Psalms 119:90, Psalms 119:91; Isaiah 40:26; Daniel 4:35; Ephesians 1:11). V. IN RESPECT OF THEIR . More especially is this the case with the grandee and sublimer phenomena. The thunderstorm, with its ominous gloom, its lurid fires, its terrific detonations, carries a sense of awe to every sentient creature. At its first approach the cattle manifest their fear by herding together in the most sheltered spots that they can find. The birds, as they fly with sager haste to screen themselves among the boughs, give evidence that they are smitten with an unknown dread. Even the wild beasts that roam through the forest or scour the plain, the shaggy lion and the ferocious tiger, slink away to hide themselves within their dens Nay, man, whether civilized or barbarian, religious or unbelieving, cannot witness the dread commotion of the elements, cannot look upon "the sulphurous and thought-executing fires, vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts" as they flash across the murky vault of heaven, or listen to the "all-shaking thunder" as it crashes, rolls, and roars across the pavement of the skies, without instinctively holding his breath and feeling solemnized, as if he stood in presence of the supernatural. Even the heart of Elihu trembled and tottered from its place before the awe-inspiring manifestation of Divine power which was then taking place (verse 1), very much as Moses did in the presence of Mount Sinai, when it shook beneath the feet of the God of Israel (Psalms 68:8), and he gave expression to his horror, saying," I exceedingly fear and quake" (Hebrews 12:21). But scarcely less impressive to a thoughtful and devout mind is Nature in her quieter moods. "The meanest floweret of the vale, The simplest note that swells the gale, The common sun. the air, the skies, To him are opening Paradise." Elihu speaks of God sealing up the hand of every man by the terrors of his thunder or the rigours of his winter (verse 7); that is, arresting man’s customary occupations, and compelling man, by a period of enforced leisure, to meditate upon his work, so as to know and recognize it to be his. One reason why men fail to trace God’s presence in his own creation is the want of a religious contemplation of his works. The supreme Creator has so constructed every portion of nature that, if rightly interpreted, it will speak of him. VI. IN RESPECT OF THEIR DESIGN. It is a fundamental article in biblical theology that the supreme Artificer never acts without a purpose (Acts 15:18; Ephesians 1:11). The universe was not summoned into existence without a specific end in view (Revelation 4:11). The earth was not created in vain, but formed to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18). So every single work of God has its particular aim. Elihu again recurs for an example to the thunder-cloud. When God causes a thunderstorm to burst upon a land, it is not an accident, or a haphazard operation, but an event with a well-defined object in contemplation. It is either as a punishment for sin, or as an act of mercy towards man, or as a means of fertilizing the land and thus conferring benefit on an entire population. That is to say, it is employed as an instrument in the execution of God’s prearranged design, whether that be specific in its destination or general, i.e. for the benefit of an individual or the good of a country, and whether it be punitive or merciful. And every other phenomenon of nature is in like manner connected with the silver line of God’s eternal purpose. Science may not be able to see how the two are linked together. But, if faith can, it is enough. It is not unscientific to affirm that God sends the thunderstorm and the whirlwind, the earthquake and the pestilence, since the hand of God confessedly is outside the cognizance of science; it is not required by religion to deny that all these phenomena are due to immediately preceding causes. Science traces back the links of the chain to the verge of its material domain. When science falters and becomes blind, faith, catching up the quest, penetrates the regions beyond, and discovers the last link of the chain to be the hand of God. VII. IN RESPECT OF THEIR . These may be summed up in one word, "ignorance." Whatever else they attest, they emphatically proclaim man to be destitute of true knowledge. 1. Concerning the phenomena of nature. Elihu asks Job with a touch of irony if he could explain what to men in general was incomprehensible-how God had imposed laws upon the cloud and the lightning, and by what means he caused "the light of his cloud" to shine—if he knew so much about meteorology as to be able to comprehend "the balancings of clouds"—nay, if he could tell how the action of the south wind, or hot simoom, made him warm (verses 15-17). Doubtless on every one of these points science has laid open to us much that was concealed from the mind of Job and even of Elihu; but still it is relatively true that in comparison with what remains to be explored man is as yet profoundly ignorant of the great secrets of nature. 2. Concerning the position of himself. Man, Elihu reminds Job, was not distinguished from nature’s phenomena as God was, being not the creator as God, but only himself a creature like nature. "Hast thou with him spread out the sky, strong and as a molten mirror?" (verse 18). Consequently, it was sheer presumption to imagine that man was competent to enter into judgment or controversy with God. If Job knew how to address God, Elihu would be glad to be instructed; as for himself, he would as soon think of saying that he wanted to be swallowed up as that he wished to speak with God (verses 19, 20). It is ever precisely in proportion as we understand the feebleness, insignificance, and sinfulness of our position before God that we are withheld from the offences of presumption and irreverence. 3. Concerning the administration of providence. Exactly as the clear firmament overhead with its shining sun is obscured from view by the storm-clouds that intervene, so the principles on which God governs the world, allotting suffering to one and happiness to another, cannot be distinctly perceived by man. By-and-by they will be made to shine forth with resplendent lustre, as soon the darkened heavens will be swept of clouds, and the bright light, beaming clown from the ethereal heights, will in all its radiant glory be disclosed. Meantime man stands beneath the clouds, where all is dark, though above, i.e. to the mind of God, everything is clear (1 John 1:5). 4. Concerning the character of God. Elihu means to say either that fair weather effulgent as gold (or disclosing the golden sun), cometh out of the northern quarters of the sky, or that men out of the northern regions of the earth extract gold; but that neither can the Divine Being, with whom is terrible majesty, be steadily looked upon by man, as man can contemplate the orb of day, nor can the nature of God be fathomed as men dig out gold from the mine. "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out." Not that this implies an utter ignorance of the attributes pertaining to the Supreme. On the contrary, man may gather from his wondrous works in creation and providence that God is "excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice;" nay, that he is compassionate and merciful also, being indisposed to afflict either willingly or severely, and never except as a means to an end. 5. Concerning the rule of duty. "Men do therefore fear him." Such homage rests on the three pillars of God’s power, God’s justice, and God’s mercy. Yet man, like Job, is prone to forget the reverence due to God. Hence it is ever needful to enforce attention to duty by reminders of God’s supremacy and majesty. "He respecteth not any that are wise of heart." Self-righteousness and pride are wholly inconsistent with a right fulfilment of human duty towards the Supreme. "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off" (Psalms 138:6). Learn: 1. That nature is the handiwork of God. 2. That nature contains revelations of beauty, power, wisdom, goodness, justice, to the soul of man. 3. That it is man’s duty to study that which God has revealed. 4. That the best preparation for a study of nature, as of any other revelation, is a deep conviction of personal ignorance. 5. That the more we learn of the works of God, the less shall we think of ourselves. 6. That rightly prosecuted, the study of nature leads to God. 7. That the glory of God is ever greater than the grandeur of his works, or of Nature in her sublimest moods. 8. That the sum of human duty, as expounded by nature, is to fear God and keep his commandments. 9. That the discoveries of nature have been eclipsed by the revelations of the gospel. 10. That if it behoves man to study God in nature, much more does it behove him to study God in Christ. BY R. GREEN Job 37:14 On considering the works of God. Elihu in his continued address would teach Job to hearken to the Lord rather than reply to him. to learn rather than teach, and more especially to consider his wonderful works. The greatness of the Divine works causeth Job’s teacher’s heart to tremble; so he would it were with Job. To the greatness of the Divine voice, to the wonder of the Divine works, he directs him. The works of God may be considered— I. AS A OF THE DIVINE . This is one of the purposes in Elihu’s mind. He would lead Job to "tear." It is only by a contemplation of the works of God that we can rise as by successive steps to any adequate conception of the greatness of the Divine power or the grandeur of the Divine Name. They are beyond our comprehension, and so give us a notion of the infinite; they are multiplied, and great and wonderful. In them is hidden the parable of the Divine greatness. They may be considered— II. AS A OF THE DIVINE . With great beauty the Divine goodness is traced in this book. A goodness extended not only to man, but also to the beasts of the field, to the fish of the sea, to the bird of the air. It is from this contemplation that man may return to himself, and learn that the goodness everywhere displayed around him may be truly at work within and for him, though its processes are not made known. So the Divine works may be considered— III. AS A OF THE HIDDEN PURPOSE OF GOD. In all the wonderful works around, much as men know, there is much that is hidden. To this Elihu calls Job’s attention. "Dost thou know when God disposed them?" "Dost thou know the balancing of the clouds? Dost thou know "the wondrous works of him that is perfect in knowledge"? IV. Hence is revealed (1) the ignorance of man; (2) his littleness; (3) his consequent inability to contend with God. This is the process of Elihu’s argument. "With God is terrible majesty." His work is deep. He is "the Almighty," whom we cannot find out. His purposes we cannot fathom. Therefore-so the argument terminates—therefore bow and wait and trust. God "is excellent in power, and in judgment and in justice." These he perverts not. Therefore may men reverence him with lowly fear and with silent mouth, and the wise will wait on him for the unfolding of his own wise ways.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 37:1-5 The voice of the thunder. I. A VOICE OF TERROR. The deep roar, the wide volume of sound, the mystery and the majesty of the thunder, combine to make it strike us with awe. Thunder accompanied the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16). Men are naturally alarmed at any voice from heaven. God sometimes speaks to us in thunderous notes, i.e. through great calamities. Then we tremble as before an irresistible majesty. II. A VOICE OF NATURE. The thunder is part of the economy of nature—as much a part of it as the whisper of the wind or the hum of the insect. It struck the ancient world with the greater alarm because it was wholly inexplicable. Now that we know its connection with time electric currents of the atmosphere, we do not think of it as so fearful. The artillery of the heavens is all obedient to fixed laws of nature. Yet it is not the less fired by the hand of God, who is the Spirit of nature as well as its Maker. The reduction of the thunder to a place among natural phenomena suggests a lesson in faith. We may be reassured when we see that what looks lawless is part of the Divine order. We often alarm ourselves with needless fears; but all must be well when God rules over all. III. A VOICE. The silent lightning is deadly. On the other hand, the, re are no thunderbolts; it was ignorance that attributed the effects of the electric flash to the thunder that followed it. But this was in accordance with a common way of thinking. We pay most attention to that which makes most noise. Yet when the noise is heard the power is past. Men are always undervaluing the lightning and overvaluing the thunder. Sin is ignored, its consequences are made much of. Goodness is forgotten, fame is worshipped. Fidelity is not seen, success makes the welkin ring with applause. IV. A VOICE OF MERCY. The thunder cannot do anything directly, with all its noise and fury. The deeds are done by the swift, subtle electricity; and the boasting thunder is nothing but noise. Still, there is a message in the thunder. The noise of the thunder tells us that the lightning has come and gone! The fearful flash has passed, and still we live untouched, unhurt. Moreover the storm, of which the thunder is one element, is a most refreshing influence, clearing the atmosphere, cooling the temperature, bringing rain to thirsty fields and gardens. Thus the voice that seems only to roar in rage is to be associated with grateful thoughts. The same may be said of other thunderous voices. Calamities burst over our heads like thunderstorms. At first they stun us; but by degrees we begin to see that they have brought showers of blessing, and that they have not crushed us as we expected. Here we stand, in spite of the storm, still living and still enjoying the loving-kindness of God.—W.F.A. Job 37:11-13 The rainstorm. I. ITS SOURCE. It is produced by God, and it is directed by God. He brings it about, and he guides it. 1. It comes from God. Now, this is most certainly an integral part of nature. We have seen that the thunder belongs to nature. That was not always apparent to men; there seemed to be something so weird and awful about it that men attributed it to supernatural agencies. But the rain is manifestly in the order of natural phenomena. Yet this is as Divine as the thunder. God is in all nature, and as much in its quiet, normal occurrences as in what is startling and exceptional. 2. It is piloted by God. The clouds seem to pass over the heavens in wild confusion. We can see no reins to hold them in, nor any whip to drive them on. The science of meteorology is about the most backward of all the sciences, because it is so difficult to reduce the phenomena of the weather to their place in an orderly scheme, on account of their ceaseless variations and apparently boundless irregularities. But we are already seeing that there are laws behind the weather, and some of them are already known. Hence our weather prognostications in the newspapers. Now, the Scripture view of the weather, as much as that of the most orderly and changless phenomena, attributes all its movements to the will of God. God is in what looks to us most conflicting and purposeless. If he is steering it, we can trust to him to bring it to a happy end. II. ITS PURPOSE. 1. This is determined by God. The march of the clouds is commanded by their great Captain. In nature as well as in human life God works with a purpose, and the end is with him. 2. It is obscure. We cannot tell whether the rain is for one particular purpose which we have in mind, or for another that has never occurred to us. In all life God works out many purposes quite beyond the reach of our thoughts. 3. It may be "for a scourge." God sends what we regard as untimely rain—rain in harvest; or too much rain—floods that devastate fields, drown crops, and invade houses. For God sometimes looks very stern in his actions, whatever his thoughts may be. In other ways God chastises his people by natural calamities. Let us not be amazed when these things happen to us. They are predicted, and therefore they should be expected. 4. It may be in mercy. "For the good of his land." The dry soil needs rain. Thirsty crops are refreshed by the downpour that is distressing to the traveller. What looks like a calamity may be a blessing. Instead of complaining of the inconvenience of what happens to us, let us look round us and see if it is bringing good in some other direction. 5. In any case it is for a blessing. The scourge is a blessing in disguise. Though various results may issue from God’s various actions, in so far as they are designed by God they all make for righteousness and the welfare of his children. Thunder and rain bless even by their calamities. Sorrow and loss, pain and tears, scourges and thorns, are instruments of discipline that bless when they hurt.—W.F.A. Job 37:14 The wondrous works of God. I. THE NATURE OF THESE WORKS, 1. Material things. We cannot live for ever in a realm of ideas. It is well to come down to the solid earth and look at physical facts. There are lessons to be learnt from the stones and trees and living creatures of nature. Mountain and stream, forest and flower, speak to the soul of man. 2. Created things. "Works." These things were made. They are not eternal; they are manufactured articles. They are not chance products of chaos; they have been designedly made. 3. Divine things. The glory of them is their Maker. God has condescended to put his hand to this earth of ours. and the result has been all the life and beauty with which it abounds. The character of the Maker is impressed on his work. God owns what he has made. Therefore his works belong to him. They are but lent to us. We are stewards who will have to give an account of all that we use and of how we use it. 4. Wonderful things. God’s works are "wondrous." They are stamped with the impress of thought. The most advanced science is but man’s blundering attempt to spell out God’s hieroglyphics written in the great book of nature. The very difficulties of nature spring from its vast complexity. The Architect of the universe is an infinite Artist, Mathematician, Physiologist. II. HOW THESE WORKS SHOULD BE . 1. With attention. "Hearken unto this." The sin of the world distracts our thoughts, so that we fall to perceive what God is saying to us through the many voices of nature. We miss the voices of God in nature and life through heedless indifference. 2. With patience. "Stand still." We hurry to and fro, and so fail to gather the treasures that come to him who waits. The life of rushing haste is superficial. The best things do not come at a call, nor can they be snatched up in a moment. We must "wait on the Lord" if we would have his blessing, and "be still" if we would know that he is God (Psalms 46:10). Thus hearkening, and standing still, we are to wait for God to speak to us through his works. We talk too much about the works of God; it would be better if we would be silent and let them speak to us. 3. With thought. "And consider." Note the "and." Attention and patience should precede and prepare the way for the consideration. But then this must follow and be joined on to the earlier passive conditions. We must not be stilt in mental indolence. When God speaks to us through his wondrous works, our part is to receive his message intelligently and think over it. The study of nature in science is commended to us. But we need to rise above this, to meditate over the Divine voices in nature and in all the works of God.—W.F.A. Job 37:19 The prayer for prayer. Seeing Jesus in prayer, and noticing how different his prayer was from theirs, the disciples besought him to reach them to pray (Luke 11:1). Their request implied a high estimation of true prayer, and at the same time a deep sense of their own inability to pray aright. The same feelings are expressed to us by Elihu. I. WHAT IS IN TRUE PRAYER. The greatness of God suggests to Elihu the importance of speaking to God in the right way. The vastness and splendour o( the heavens, as well as the majesty of the thunder and the government of the cloud, impress us with the majesty of God; and yet his greatest glory is not seen in these phenomena, hut it is revealed in his moral rule and his fatherly goodness. It would be a foolish thing for us to shrink from approaching God on account of his majesty in the physical universe. He is not like a stately monarch who surrounds himself with the ceremony of a court. Formal manners are an abomination in prayer. God does not look for the courtier’s obsequiousness; he seeks the child’s confidence. At the same time, his kingly state is crowned by holiness. We have to approach him in awe of his purity. He dwells in light eternal. This fact, much more than his power and wide sway over the physical universe, calls for a deeply reverent spirit in prayer. Then the spiritual nature of God requires spiritual worship, and we must be true in heart if we would pray acceptably. II. THE OF TO TRUE PRAYER. Elihu and the disciples of Christ both felt this difficulty. Job’s friend gives the cause of it—"for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness." 1. Ignorance. We do not know what God wills; nor do we know our own hearts. Not only is the spiritual realm strange to us; we even need to know what are our needs. 2. Sin. This is the darkness that really hinders and ruins prayer. The father is not vexed at his child’s helpless prattle when the child is loving and obedient. He does not look for pompous phrases; he prefers the natural, simple outpouring of the child’s heart. But he is grieved at duplicity, insincerity, unreality. When our hearts are far from God we cannot pray acceptably to him. The great difficulty is want of sympathy with God; want of sympathy is the one hindrance to all human intercourse, and it is the one thing that prevents us from praying acceptably. III. THE WAY TO REACH TRUE PRAYER. This is by prayer. We must pray to be taught to pray. The confession of our inability to pray is the first step towards doing so acceptably. Pride and self-sufficiency keep us back from the right spirit of prayer. We have to learn to bow our wills as well as to bend our knees. But the prayer to be taught this lesson may be answered in unexpected ways. We may learn what we should say to God in a school of adversity. Humbled and subdued by sorrow, we may be brought down to the right spirit of prayer in the experience from which we shrink with dismay. Or perhaps the lesson may come through more directly spiritual influences. We need to contemplate the character of God in order to pray to him aright. The revelation of God in Christ shows us how we should approach God. When we see Jesus we learn how to pray.—W.F.A. Job 37:21 Unbearable light. When clouds are cleared from the face of the sun we cannot bear to look up at the splendour of unveiled light. This is the case even in our thick and humid atmosphere; but it is much more so in the East, where the sun shines in its terrible strength. The unbearable light is a type of the majesty of God. I. GOD VEILS HIS GLORY IN CLOUDS. The day often beans with clouds about the sun. Then we can look at the splendour of the dawn, because the ever-shifting panorama of crimson and gold that heralds in the day is visible to us in colours that our eyes can endure to look at. God begins the education of his children in a light that is tempered to suit their feeble vision. But a common mistake is to forget that God is condescending to our weakness, and to limit our conception of God to the measured revelation. Thus we form partial and human ideas of God. If his cloud is thick and dark we do not see his glorious light, and then we accuse him of the darkness, and narrow and unjust thoughts of God spring up in our hearts. Difficulties in nature and providence trouble us. Vexations thoughts about the apparent imperfection of God’s works fill our minds with doubt. And all the while the simple truth is that God is merciful and considerate, veiling himself in clouds for the very purpose of sparing us. II. GOD’S GLORY WOULD BE AN LIGHT. This we commonly say and instinctively feel. Let us now ask how it should be so. 1. Ignorance is dazzled by absolute knowledge. The beginner is not helped, he is only perplexed, when he is favoured with the most advanced thoughts of the ripe scholar. If all God’s truth were suddenly flashed out to us it would be incomprehensible and overwhelming. 2. Sin shrinks from perfect holiness. The centre of God’s eternal light is his purity. In our sin we cannot bear to look upon this. 3. Finite life cannot endure the fulness of infinite life. Our sympathies endeavour to respond to the appeals that draw them out. But when those appeals are infinite, our own life is swallowed up in the response. If we entered fully into the life of God, our life would be extinguished as the light of the stars is quenched in that of the sun. III. GOD US BY HIS GLORY. The clouds are rolled back by degrees. Twilight is a merciful gift of providence, tempering the first approach of the light, and saving us from the shook of the sudden exchange of night for day. God’s education of his people is gradual. 1. Revelation is progressive. Adam could not endure the light which Christ brought. Early ages were trained by degrees to fit them for the growing light of God’s truth. We have not reached all knowledge. Christ has many things to tell us, but we cannot bear them now (John 16:12). "God has yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word." 2. Individual lives are prepared for growing light. We cannot endure on earth the glory that shall be revealed in heaven. Our early Christian experience is not capable of receiving all that God wishes to reveal to us; therefore he rolls back the clouds by slow degrees, preparing for the great apocalypse. "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12).—W.F.A. Job 37:23 The mystery of God. We cannot find out God. In his great strength and perfect equity he will render an account to no man. Here is a mystery, but one that is saved from terror by a sufficient revelation to reassure us of the true righteousness of God. I. THE MYSTERY IS IN THE ACTION OF GOD. His nature is mysterious. But we are not distressed by the difficulty of comprehending it, for we know it must be beyond our grasp, and we may be content to live in peace without solving the most abstruse problems of theology. It is very different with the action of God. This affects us closely. We see it in our common life in the world. Yet here too is mystery. 1. Nature is a mystery. Not only cannot we understand its origin, but we cannot see whither it is tending. The great machine rolls on to a future beyond our imagination. What is God doing with it? How is he using all the pain and failure of it? 2. Providence is a mystery. We cannot see why God acts as he does, giving prosperity to one and adversity to another without reasons that we cat, discover. Why does he permit the simple, honest man to fail, and the clever rogue to succeed? 3. Religion is a mystery. There are mysterious doctrines in it; these we can endure. But there are also mysterious experiences. We cannot understand the dark days of strange thoughts and sad feelings, the weariness and failure, through which we have to pass. II. THE OF GOD IS TO US. Let us be fair and see what is known before we sit down and despair over the mystery of God. It is better to fix our eyes on the light we have than to brood in helpless melancholy over the darkness that surrounds it on every side. Now we know what it most concerns us to know about God. We need not understand the exact process if we can see the end. But if the character of God is revealed, we may be sure that the end of God’s actions will agree with it. God has made himself known to us as perfect righteousness. That is enough. Then all he does must be righteous—"in plenty of justice." We can trust God for what he is, even when we do not understand what he does. III. THE MYSTERY OF GOD IS IN HARMONY WITH THE OF GOD. There is a close connection between the two. They do not contradict one another. On the contrary, the revelation leads up to the mystery. That revelation shows equity. Now, equity implies a fair treatment of all things. It is not a simple notion like love or anger. It God is just, he must take into account others besides the one person he is dealing with, and more than the pleasure or pain of the present moment. Large issues are at stake, wide interests are involved. These must go beyond our small world of observation. Therefore, because we believe in the equity of God, we must expect him to act in mystery. It is not for us to call him to account. The idea of dome so suggests an unworthy doubt. We should trust his righteousness without asking him to solve the mystery of his action.—W.F.A. CLOSE OF THE BY THE OF THE . The discourse, by which the Almighty answers Job and rebukes his "friends," occupies four chapters (ch. 38-41.). It is broken into two parts by the interposition of a-short confession on Job’s part (Job 40:3-5). Job 38:1-41 and Job 39:1-30 are closely connected, and form a single appeal—a sort of argumentum ad verecundiam—to Job’s profound ignorance of God’s natural government, which incapacitates him from passing judgment upon what is far more incomprehensible and mysterious, God’s moral government. The points adduced, in which Job is challenged to claim that be has knowledge, or confess that he is ignorant, are: (1) The creation of the material world (Job 38:4-7). (2) The control and government of the sea (verses 8-11). (3) The bringing forth of the dawn (verses 12-15). (4) The formation of Sheol, of light and darkness, Of snow, hail, floods, rain, lightning, thunder, ice, dew, hoarfrost (verses 17-30). (5) The government of the stars and of the clouds (verses 31-38). (6) The creation, endowment with instincts, and general direction of the animal world—wild goats, hinds, wild asses, wild cattle, ostriches, horses, hawks, eagles (Job 39:1-30.) The tone of the appeal is sustained at a high pitch, and the entire passage is one of extraordinary force and eloquence. Job 38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. It is remarked, with reason, that the special mention of Job as the person answered "implies that another speaker had intervened" (Wordsworth); while the attachment of the article to the word "whirlwind" implies some previous mention of that phenomenon, which is only to be found in the discourse of Elihu (Job 37:9). Both points have an important bearing on the genuineness of the disputed section, ch. 32-37. And said. The question whether there was an objective utterance of human words out of the whirlwind, or only a subjective impression of the thoughts recorded on the minds of those present, is unimportant. In any case, there was a revelation direct from God, which furnished an authoritative solution of the questions debated to all who had been engaged in the debate. Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? It is very noticeable that God entirely ignores the reasonings of Elihu, and addresses himself, in the first instance, wholly to Job, with whom he begins by remonstrating. Job has not been without fault. He has spoken many "words without knowledge" or with insufficient knowledge, and has thus trenched on irreverence, and given the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme. Moreover, he has "darkened counsel." Instead of making the ways of God clear to his friends and companions, he has east doubts upon God’s moral government (Job 21:7-26), upon his mercy and loving-kindness (Job 16:7-14), almost upon his justice (Job 19:7; Job 31:1-35). He is thus open to censure, and receives censure, and owns himself "vile" (Job 40:4), before peace and reconciliation can be established. Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man. Job had desired to contend with God, to plead with him, and argue out his case (Job 9:32-35; Job 13:3, Job 13:18-22; Job 23:4-7; Job 31:35). God now offers to grant his request, and bids him stand forth "as a man’" and "gird himself" for the contest, which he has challenged. For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. He will begin with interrogatories which Job must answer; then Job will be entitled to put questions to him. Job, however, on the opportunity being given him, shrinks back, and says, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken: but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further" (Job 40:4, Job 40:5). The confident boldness which he felt when God seemed far off disappears in his presence, and is replaced by diffidence and distrust. Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Wast thou present? Didst thou witness it? If not, what canst thou know concerning it? And if thou knowest nothing of creation, what canst thou know of deeper things? The metaphor, by which the creation of the earth is compared to the foundation of an edifice, is a common one (Psalms 102:25; Psalms 104:5; Proverbs 8:29: Isaiah 48:13; Isaiah 51:13, Isaiah 51:16; Zechariah 12:1; Hebrews 1:10, etc.), and is to be viewed as a concession to human weakness, creation itself, as it actually took place, being inconceivable. Declare, if thou hast understanding. That is, if thou hast any knowledge on the subject (comp. Job 38:18). Job 38:5 Who determined the measures thereof? Everything in creation is orderly, measured, predetermined, governed by law and will The actual weight of the planets is fixed by Divine wisdom, with a view to the stability and enduringness of the solar system (comp. Isaiah 40:12). If thou knowest; literally, for thou knowest—an anticipation of the lofty irony which comes out so remarkably in Job 38:21. Or who hath stretched the line upon it? Human builders determine the dimensions of their constructions by means of a measuring-line (Ezekiel 40:3-49, etc.). The writer carries out his metaphor of a building by supposing a measuring-rod to have been used at the creation of the earth also. Some find a trace of the idea in Genesis 1:9, where they translate קָווּ הַמַּיִם, "Let the waters be marked out with a line." Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? These details follow naturally upon the adoption of the particular metaphor of a house or building. They are not to be pressed. The object is to impress on Job his utter ignorance of God’s ways in creation. Or who laid the corner-stone thereof? Who gave the last finishing touch to the work (see Psalms 118:22; Zechariah 4:7)? Canst thou tell? If not, why enter into controversy with the Creator? Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together. The stars generally, or the actual stars visible on the morn of creation, are probably meant. They, as it were, sang a song of loud acclaim on witnessing the new marvel. Their priority to the earth is implied, since they witness its birth. Their song is, of course, that silent song of sympathy, whereof Shakespeare speaks when he says, "Each in its motion like an angel sings" (’Merchant of Venice,’ Acts 5. sc. 1). And all the sons of God shouted for joy. "The sons of God" here must necessarily be the angels (see Job 1:6; Job 2:1), since there were no men as yet in existence. They too joined in the chorus of sympathy and admiration, perhaps lifting up their voices (Revelation 5:11, Revelation 5:12), perhaps their hearts only, praising the Creator, who had done such marvellous things. Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors? From the earth a transition is made to the sea, as the second great wonder in creation (comp. Genesis 1:9, Genesis 1:10; Exodus 20:11; Psalms 104:24, Psalms 104:25). God’s might is especially shown in his power to control and confine the sea, which rages so terribly and seems so utterly uncontrollable. God has blocked it in "with doors"—i.e. with "bounds that it cannot pass, neither turn again to cover the earth" (Psalms 145:9). Sometimes the barrier is one of lofty and solid rock, which seems well suited to confine and restrain; but sometimes it is no more than a thin streak of sliver sand or a bank of loose, shifting pebbles. Yet, in both eases alike, the restraint suffices. "The sand is placed for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it" (Jeremiah 5:22); the beach of shifting pebbles remains as firm as the rock itself, and never recedes or advances more than a few feet. When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb; i.e. at its birth, when it was first formed, by the gathering together of the waters into one place (see Genesis 1:9). Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof. The account of creation here given is certainly not drawn wholly from Genesis It is to be viewed as a second, independent, account of the occurrences, in fuller detail, but vaguer, by reason of the poetical phraseology. And thick darkness a swaddllng-band for it. The infant sea, just come from the womb (verse 8), is represented as clothed with a cloud, and swaddled in thick darkness, to mark its complete subjection to its Creator from the first. Job 38:10 And brake up for it my decreed place; rather, as in the margin, and established my decree upon it; or, as in the Revised Version, and prescribed for it my decree. The decree itself is given in Job 38:11. And set bars and doors (see above, Job 38:8, where the imagery of "doors" has been already introduced). As Professor Lee observes, "The term דְּלָתַיִם contains a metaphor taken from the large folding-doors of a city, which are usually set up for the purpose of stepping the progress of an invading enemy, and are hence supplied with bolts and bars". Representations of such folding-doors are common in the Assyrian sculptures; and in one instance the doors themselves, or, to speak more exactly, their outer bronze easing, has been recovered. These gates were twenty-two feet high and six feet broad each. Job 38:11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou corns, but no further. The law is not quite absolute. Wherever the sea washes a coast-line, there is a continual erosive action, whereby the land is, little by little, eaten away, and the line of the coast thrust back. But the action is so slow that millennia pass without any considerable effect being produced, and encroachments in some places are generally counterbalanced by retrenchment in others, so that the general contour of laud and water, with the proportion of the one to the other, remain probably very much the same at the present day as when the earth first became the habitation of man. And here shall thy proud waves be stayed. The waves of the sea "rage horribly," and every now and then topple down a rock or undermine a cliff, and seem proud of their achievements; but how little do they effect, even in thousands of years! The little islet of Psyttaleia still blocks the eastern end of the straits of Salamis. The Pharos island lies off the westernmost mouth of the Nile. Even the low, fiat Aradus, on the Syrian coast, has not been swept away. Everywhere the waves are practically "stayed," and all the menaces of the sea against the land come to nought. Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days? rather, by reason of ray length of days—a similar irony to that observable in Job 38:5, Job 38:21, etc. The third marvel of creation brought before us is the dawn, or daybreak—that standing miracle of combined utility and beauty. Has Job authority to issue his orders to the dawn, and tell it when to make its appearance? Has he caused the dayspring to know his place? Job cannot possibly pretend to any such power. Job 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? The idea seems to he that the dawn, suddenly appearing, seizes hold of all the ends of the earth "at one rush" (Canon Cook), and lights up the whole terrestrial region. The wicked, lovers of darkness, are taken by surprise, and receive a shock from which they recover with difficulty (comp. Job 24:16, Job 24:17). That they are "shaken from the earth" must be regarded as Oriental hyperbole. Job 38:14 It is turned as clay to the seal; rather, it changes as the clay of a seal. The seals of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and others were commonly impressed upon clay, and not upon wax. As the seal changed the clay from a dull, shapeless lump to a figured surface, so the coming of the dawn changes the earth from an indistinct mass to one diversified with form and colour. As M. Renan explains, "L’aurore fair our la terre l’effet d’un sceau sur la torte sigillee, en dormant de laforme, et du relief, a la surface do l’univers, qui pendant la nuit est somme un chaos indistinct." And they stand as a garment; rather, and things stand out as a garment’ or as on a garment—a richly embroidered dress is intended, on which the pattern stands out in relief. Job 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withholden. Then, when the dawn bursts forth, "from the wicked, their light"-which is darkness (Job 24:13-17)—"is withholden," and the consequence is that the high arm—the arm that is proud and lifted up—shall be broken. Detection and punishment fall upon the wicked doers who are surprised by the daylight. Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? The emphasis is on the word "springs," which means sources, origin, or deepest depths. Canst thou go to the bottom of anything, explore its secrets, explain its cause and origin? Or hast thou walked in the search (rather, the deep places) of the depth? Art thou not as ignorant as other men of all these remote and secret things? Physical science is now attempting the material exploration of the ocean-depths, but "deep-sea dredgings" bring us no nearer to the origin, cause, or mode of creation of the great watery mass. Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? By "the gates of death," Sheol, the abode of the dead, seems to be intended (comp. Job 10:21, Job 10:22; Job 17:16). Has Job explored this region, and penetrated its secrets? Or is it as unknown to him as to the rest of mankind? The second hemistich—Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?—is a mere echo of the first, adding an new idea. Job 38:18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? literally, the breadths; i.e. the dimensions generally. The exact dimensions are probably not even yet known. Job can scarcely have had any conception of them. To him the earth was probably a vast plain, extended, he knew not how far, in all directions. Declare if thou knowest it all (comp. verses 4, 5, and 21). Job 38:19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? or, Which is the way to the dwelling-place of light ’? Where, i.e; does light dwell? What is its original and true home? Light is a thing quite distinct from the sun and moon and planets (Genesis 1:3, Genesis 1:16). Where and what is it? Dost thou know the way to its dwelling-place? If not, why, once more, dost thou pretend to search out the deep things of God? And as for darkness, where is the place thereof? Darkness, too, light’s antithesis, must not that have a home—a "place" of abode, as Job himself had postulated, when he spoke of "a land of darkness and the shadow of death, a land of darkness as darkness itself … Where the light is as darkness" (Job 10:21, Job 10:22)? If so, can Job point out the locality? Job 38:20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof. Can Job "take" light and darkness, and lead them to their proper places, and make them observe their proper "bounds," as God can (Genesis 1:4)? And that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof (comp. verse 19). Job 38:21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? The irony that has underlain the whole address comes here to the surface, and shows itself palpably. Job, of course, is as old as the Almighty, or, at any rate, coeval with creation; otherwise he could not presume to take the tone which he has taken, and arraign the moral government of the Creator. Or because the number of thy days is great? Compare the sarcasm of Eliphaz (Job 15:7). Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? The "treasures of the snow" are the storehouses, wherein the snow is, poetically, supposed to be laid up. Vast accumulations of snow actually exist in various portions of the earth’s surface, but the fresh snow that falls is not taken from these treasuries, but newly generated by the crystallization of floating vapours in the atmosphere. Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail? This expression is to be explained similarly, as poetical. Hail is nowhere kept in store. It is generated by the passage of rain-drops through a layer of freezing air. Job 38:23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble. Hail is reckoned throughout Scripture as one of the ministers of the Divine vengeance (see Exodus 9:18-29; Exodus 10:5-15; Joshua 10:11; Psalms 18:12, Psalms 18:13; Psalms 78:47, Psalms 78:48; Psalms 105:32; Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 32:19; Ezekiel 13:11, Ezekiel 13:13; Ezekiel 36:22; Haggai 2:17; Revelation 8:7; Revelation 11:19; Revelation 16:21). Its destructive effect upon crops, even in temperate latitudes, is indicated by the insurances against damage from hail, which, even in our own country, so many farmers think it worth their while to pay. In tropical and semi-tropical regions the injury caused by hailstorms is far greater. Against the day of battle and war. Compare especially Joshua 10:11, which, however, we need not suppose to have been in the mind of the writer. In ancient times, when the bow held the place in war which is now occupied by the rifle or the musket, a heavy hailstorm, striking full in the face of the combatants on one side, while it only fell on the backs of their adversaries, must of tea have decided a battle. Job 38:24 By what way is the light parted? or, distributed, so as to be enjoyed by all the inhabitants of the earth (Stanley Loathes). Which scattereth, etc.; rather, or by what way is the east wind scattered over the earth? (see the Revised Version) Job is asked to explain God’s modus operandi in nature, which, of course, he cannot do. Hence his answer in Job 40:5. Job 38:25 Who hath divided a water-course for the overflowing of waters? rather, as in the Revised Version, Who hath cleft a channel for the water-flood? i.e. Who has furrowed and seamed the ground (in Western Asia) with deep gullies, or "water-courses," for the rapid carrying off of the violent rains to which those regions are subject? The wadies of Syria and Arabia seem to be alluded to. They too are God’s work, not Job’s. Or a way for the lightning of thunder? The "way" for the passage of the electric current is not marked out beforehand, like the way for the escape of the superfluous waters; but it is equally determined on and arranged previously by God, who has laid down the laws which it is bound to follow. Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man. God not only causes his rain to fall equally on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45), but equally, or almost equally, on inhabited lauds and uninhabited. His providence does not limit itself to supplying the wants of man, but has tender regard to the beasts, and birds, and reptiles, and insects which possess the lands whereon man has not yet set his foot. Job 38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground. Parched ground seems to cry aloud for water, and so to make a piteous appeal to Heaven. Perhaps rain is not wholly wasted, even on the bare sands of the Sahara, or the rugged rocks of Tierra del Fuego. It may have uses which are beyond our cognizance. And to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. Where the rain produces herbage, it is certainly of use, for wherever there is herbage there are always insects, whose enjoyment of life has every appearance of being intense. Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? How do rain and dew come into existence? Can Job make them, or any other man? Can man even conceive of the process by which they were made? If not, must not their Maker, who is God, be wholly inscrutable? Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? Modern scientists admit that the process by which a liquid is metamorphosed into a solid transcends their utmost power of thought. They know nothing more than the fact that at the temperature of 32° Fahr. water, and at other temperatures other liquids, are solidified. It is thus not only creation itself, but the transformations of created things, that transcend the scientific intellect and are inexplicable. And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? This is the same question as that of the previous clause, expressed in different words Job 38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone; rather, the waters are hardened, like unto stone. When the frost comes, the waters are congealed and rendered as hard as stone. (So Dillmann and Canon Cook.) And the face of the deep is frozen. By "the deep" (תּהוֹם) is certainly not meant here either the open ocean, which, in the latitudes known to the dwellers in South Western Asia, never freezes, or the Mediterranean. Some of the lakes which abound in the regions inhabited by Job and his friends are probably meant. These may occasionally have been thinly coated with ice in the times when the Book of Job was written (see the comment on Job 6:16). Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades? (On the almost certain identification of the Hebrew Kirnah with the Pleiades, see the comment on Job 9:9.) Whether the "sweet influences" of the constellation are here spoken of is very doubtful. Schultens and Professor Lee support the rendering; but most critics prefer to translate the word employed (מעדנים) by "chains" or "fastenings" (Rashi, Kimchi, Rosenmuller, Dillmann, Canon Cook). If we adopt this view, we must suppose the invisible links which unite the stars into a constellation to be intended. Job is asked whether he can draw the links nearer together, and bind the stars closer to one another. Or loose the bands of Orion? The identity of Kesil with Orion is generally allowed. Job is asked if he can loosen the tie which unites the several members of this constellation together. Of course, he can pretend to no such powers. Job 38:32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? The context implies that "Mazzaroth" is a constellation on a par with the Pleiades, Orion, and the Bear (Kimah, Kesil, and ’Aish). This makes it impossible to accept the meaning, so generally assigned, of "the twelve signs of the Zodiac." Again, the plural form is fatal to the conjecture that "Mazzaroth" designates a single star or planet, as Jupiter, Venus, or Sirius (Cook). The word is derived probably from the root zahar, "to shine," "to be bright," and should designate some especially brilliant cluster of stars Whether it is to be regarded as a variant of Mazzaloth (2 Kings 23:5) is uncertain. Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? (On the identity of ’Ash or ’Aish with the Great Bear, see the comment on Job 9:9.) The "sons" of ’Aish are conjectured to be the three large stars in the tail of Ursa Major (Stanley Leathes); but the grounds on which the conjecture rests are very slight. Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? i.e. the physical laws by which the course of nature is governed (comp. Psalms 119:90, Psalms 119:91; Psalms 148:6). The general prevalence of law in the material world is quite as strongly asserted by the sacred writers as by modern science. The difference is that modern science regards the laws as physical necessities, self-subsisting, while Scripture looks upon them as the ordinances of the Divine will. This latter view involves, of course, the further result that the Divine will can at any time suspend or reverse any of its enactments. Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? If Job does not even know the laws whereby the world is governed, much less can he establish such laws himself, and make them work. Job 38:34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of water may sever thee? Will the clouds take their orders from thee, listen to thee, obey thy voice? None but the "medicine-men" of savage tribes profess to have any such power. Elijah, indeed, "prayed, and the heaven gave rain" (James 5:18); but this was a very different thing from "commanding the clouds of heaven." His prayer was addressed to God, and God gave the rain for which he made his petition. Job 38:35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Hers we are? If Job cannot command the clouds, much less can he send (or rather, send forth) lightnings—these marvellous and terrible evidences of almighty power. Even now, with all our command of electricity, our savants would, from the best electrical ms-chine, find it difficult to produce the effects which often result from a single flash of lightning. Job 38:36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? Some refer this to human wisdom, and understand the Almighty as asking—Who has put man’s wisdom into his inward parts? literally, into his kidneys, or as our idiom would express it, "into his heart." But there is great difficulty in supposing a sudden transition from clouds and lightning in Job 38:34, Job 38:35 to the human understanding in Job 38:36, with a return to clouds and rain in Job 38:37. Hence many of the best critics understand Job 38:36 of the purpose and intelligence that may be regarded as existing in the clouds and rain and lightning themselves, which are God’s ministers, and run to and fro at his command, and execute his pleasure. (So Schultens, Rosenmuller, Professor Lee, and Professer Stanley Leathes.) To obtain this result, we must translate the word טוּחוֹת By "tempest" or "thunder-belts," and the word שׂכוי, in the next clause, by "storm n or something similar (see the Revised Version, where "dark clouds" is suggested as an alternative for "inward parts’" and "meteor" as an alternative for "heart"). The whole passage will then run thus: Who hath put wisdom in the thunderbolts? or who hath given understanding to the tempest? Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? i.e. Who is wise enough to number the clouds, and say how many they are? Or who can stay the bottles of heaven? rather, Who can pour out? (see the Revised Version). The "bottles," or "water-skins," of heaven are the dense clouds heavy with rain, which alternately hold the moisture like a reservoir, and pour it out upon the earth. God alone can determine when the rain shall fall. Job 38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness. ’Aphar (עָפַר) here, as often, means "earth," or "soil," rather than "dust." When by the heat of the sun’s rays the ground grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together, baked into a compact mass, then is the time when rain is most needed, and when the Almighty in his mercy commonly sends it. The consideration of inanimate nature here ends, with the result that its mysteries altogether transcend the human intellect, and render speculation on the still deeper mysteries of the moral world wholly vain and futile. Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? A new departure. Job 39:1-30 should commence from this point. What does Job know of the habits and instincts of animals? Can he arrange so that the lion (rather, lioness) shall obtain its proper prey, and thus fill the appetite—or, satisfy the appetite (Revised Version)—of the young lions, which depend on their dam? Certainly not. "The lions, roaring after their prey, do seek their meat from God" (Psalms 104:21). Job 38:40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait (comp. Psalms 10:9, Psalms 10:10; Psalms 17:12). Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? (comp. Luke 12:24, "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them"). God’s mercy is "over all his works," not only over those whereof man sees the utility; but also over beasts of prey, and birds thought to be of ill omen. Especially he cares for the young of each kind, which most need protection. When his young ones cry unto God. So Psalms 147:9, "He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry." The young ravens are driven to cry out, when they, i.e. the parent birds, wander for lack of meat, and have a difficulty in finding it. Job 38:1-3 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the theophany. I. THE LORD’S TO JOB. 1. The time of this appearance. At the close of Elihu’s address. Not too soon, when neither had Elihu finished his expositions nor had Job’s heart been suitably prepared for such an interview as he was on the eve of obtaining, but precisely at the moment when the purpose of his coming was most likely to be effected. God never mistimes any of his visits to his people, whether he comes for judgment or for mercy. In this case the preaching of Elihu had begun to tell upon the turbulent spirit of the patriarch. The thunderstorm had helped to solemnize his mind, and lay him prostrate before the majesty of that Worker who had hitherto remained invisible. Then, amid the crashing of the thunder and the lurid gleams of the lightning, while the fierce whirlwind swept up from the southern desert—then was the moment God selected for making his presence known to his afflicted servant. 2. The mode of this appearance. Whether there was a visible form presented to the patriarch’s eye it is impossible to say. Probably there was only a voice, like that which spoke to Adam in the garden (Genesis 3:9,Genesis 3:10), to Abraham on Moriah (Genesis 22:11), to Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19:19; Exodus 20:1; Deuteronomy 4:12), and to Elijah at Horeb (1 Kings 19:12); like that which spoke to Christ at the Jordan (Matthew 3:17), on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), and in the city of Jerusalem (John 12:30); like that which arrested Saul (Acts 9:4), and afterwards St. John (Revelation 1:10). That this voice should have issued from the midst of a whirlwind (by the way, an indirect confirmation of the authenticity of the Elihu section) was doubtless designed (1) to arrest Job’s attention, (2) to convey some impression of the majesty of God, and (3) to indicate the weighty character of the truth about to be communicated. 3. The reality of this appearance. It has been suggested that there was no objective appearance presented to any of Job’s senses except what was afforded by the phenomena of the thunderstorm; that the voice was purely subjective—the inner voice of Job’s own spirit, as it were, rising up within him to proclaim the overpowering sense of the Divine majesty under which it lay. "As the storm passes away with a vehement wind, clearing the heavens and presenting a lively symbol of the terrible majesty of God, Job feels the near presence of his Maker; the word rings through his heart, it brings back all that he had ever ]earned of his works; creation arises before him to witness for its Maker, the Spirit of God moulds his thoughts and completes his knowledge," and leads him to pour forth the sentiments here recorded in that "methodical and artistic form which pertains to the highest order of Hebrew poetry" (Canon Cook). To such an interpretation of the dramatist’s language there is no very serious objection; but, on the other hand, it is permissible to hold that the entire phenomenon was objective. 4. The object of this appearance. (1) To meet Job’s desires. Repeatedly and earnestly had the patriarch expressed a wish, at first dubiously, but afterwards with something like defiance, that God would admit him to an interview, that he might have an opportunity of stating his case and pleading his cause (Job 9:34, Job 9:35; Job 13:3, Job 13:22; Job 23:3; Job 31:37). Well, in amazing condescension to this almost impious demand, Jehovah, "who giveth not an account of his matters" (Job 33:13), chines down from the serene altitudes of his eternal palace, riding on a whirlwind, thundering with his voice, sending forth his lightnings, causing the solid globe to tremble beneath the tread of his glowing feet (Psalms 18:9-14). (2) To complete Job’s instruction. Elihu had been sent to begin the work of educating God’s ill-informed servant. That work had been performed with some considerable measure of success. Accordingly, to deepen the impressions made upon the mind of Job, Jehovah takes up the line of argument pursued by his ambassador, thus in a manner confirming all that had been by him advanced, and opening up before the mind of Job the full import of that teaching in a way that was impossible to Elihu. (3) To humble Job’s pride. Although the Lord had expressly come to afford Job an opportunity to vindicate himself, if he could, he begins by aiming at the reduction of Job’s self-righteous vanity. With a creature filled as Job was at the moment with such intolerable haughtiness and presumption, it was impossible that God could treat. The first thing to be attempted was to bring Job down from the lofty pedestal of self-complacent dignity on which he had established himself; and this was aimed at partly by the sublime character of the Divine manifestation, and partly (perhaps chiefly) by the elevated tenor of the Divine teaching. (4) To effect Job’s restoration. That in the terrible ordeal through which Job had passed his integrity had not been to some extent shaken, no candid reader will affirm. Satan at the outset alleged that it would wholly fail. Jehovah maintained that it would stand. When the last trial (the preaching of the friends) had ended, Job was far from being in a state of stable equilibrium as to his integrity. Accordingly, Elihu, in perfect harmony with the original conditions of the problem, was sent to his assistance; and now, when all things had been prepared for his coming, God himself arrives upon the scene. "Who can teach like him?" said Elihu; and so discerning the approach of the great King, the faithful ambassador withdraws, leaving Job to get his last lesson from him who alone teacheth to profit (Isaiah 48:17). If after this Job still continues unhumbled, then Satan will have proved victorious; but if God shall be able to restore his servant to a proper frame of mind, then the final verdict will go with him, and not only the devil, but the intelligent universe, be forced to own that "A good man, in the darkness and dismay Of powers that fail, and purposes o’erthrown, May still be conscious of the proper way;" (Goethe’s ’Faust,’ Prologue.) that a man through the grace of God may become possessor of a piety against which even the gates of hell shall not prevail. II. THE LORD’S REPROOF OF JOB. 1. Sin charged. Jehovah begins the interview by distinctly specifying Job’s offence. He had "darkened counsel" (verse 2); that is, he had obscured and misrepresented the prearranged plan and underlying principles of the Divine administration. The language reminds us: (1) That there is a well-defined plan in accordance with which everything on earth comes to pass. As the primordial atoms of matter did not fortuitously fashion themselves into that brilliant host of suns and systems which we name the universe, or even into this wondrous globe which in comparison with the whole is but as a drop in the ocean, so neither do the events of time which compose human history occur by chance, but each one falls into the place prepared for it in the universal scheme. (2) That this plan, or creation-programme, has been arranged in accordance with the highest wisdom. It is not a random plan that God has selected for his universe, or even for the earth, as an architect might build a house agreeable to the first idea or sketch that came into his mind; it is the best possible plan that omniscient wisdom could devise. (3) That this creation-programme or world-plan in all its details has been constructed in accordance with the fundamental principles of truth and equity. Otherwise it could not have been the production of the highest wisdom. Hence it is deducible that the existence neither of sin nor of suffering is incompatible with eternal right. (4) That the harmonious accordance of this Divine plan with law and justice shines forth in God’s administration with sufficient clearness to convince every one who studies that administration with fairness and impartiality. (5) That if in any case the luminous radiance of God’s counsel is obscured, it must be owing to the shadow cast thereon by the intellectual and moral darkness of those by whom it is beheld. 2. Ignorance affirmed. Exactly this was the case with Job, for the challenge is not addressed to the friends, and still less to Elihu. Job had asserted more than once that the Divine government of the world was not in accordance (at any rate, not in visible accordance) with the eternal principles of equity, adducing instances, as he supposed, which no amount of ingenuity could harmonize with absolutely impartial justice. "But God pronounces that these words were ’without knowledge.’ The instances that Job had appealed to as being obvious to the sight of all men of God’s giving prosperity to the wicked, and causing the innocent to suffer wrongfully, and without redress, are pronounced to be untrue" (Fry). 3. Astonishment expressed. "Who is this?" The words carry in them (1) "a rebuke or reprehension," "as if God, pointing at Job, had said, Is it you? I could not have believed that my servant Job would have so much forgotten himself;" and (2) "a slight or diminution," as though Job, otherwise a man of an excellent spirit, "had been too bold with God, and therefore no wonder if God spake contemningly to him" (Caryl). III. THE LORD’S DEMAND FROM JOB. 1. To display the courage he had previously vaunted. "Gird up thy loins now like a man," i.e. like a valiant hero (a geber), as you frequently affected to be. Job had formerly professed to be ready for an interview with God (Job 13:18, Job 13:22); had complained that God acted towards him like an invisible assailant (Job 19:7), whom he knew not how to meet or where to find (Job 23:3, Job 23:8, Job 23:9); nay, had declared that nothing would rejoice him more than to hear that his unseen adversary had opened a tribunal for the hearing of his case and prepared an indictment for the exposition of his guilt—that such an indictment he would wind around his brow like a regal crown, and march into God’s presence with the stately steps of a prince (Job 31:35-37). Brave words, O Job! But most men, like Falstaff, are valiant in the absence of the foe. Jehovah had now come to ask Job to evince the sincerity of his boast. So will God one day come, upon the clouds of heaven, with great power and glory, to afford all the presumptuous ungodly an opportunity of showing whether they can meet without fear him whom they now despise without shame. 2. To recite the answers he had formerly professed to have prepared. Job had declared his perfect indifference as to whether the Almighty when he came should assume the position of assailant or defendant. If he preferred that Job should open the case, Job was ready; if he elected to assume the initiative, Job had his defences at hand. "Well," exclaims Jehovah, "as you gave me the choice, I decide upon the latter. I am ready to begin the hearing of your cause. Therefore stand forth. I will demand of thee, and answer thou me ]" "I will come shortly," wrote Paul to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4:19), "if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power" In the like spirit had Jehovah come to Job, to see whether the reality corresponded in any degree with the loud-sounding profession he had made. Learn: 1. That God keeps the times and seasons of all things connected with his kingdom in his own hand. 2. That nature with all its phenomena is under service to God. 3. That God’s voice in nature, much more in the Word, and most of all in the conscience, is full of majesty. 4. That for God to answer any of his creatures, much more sinful dust and ashes, is an act of amazing condescension. 5. That God will not hide the faults of any of his people when he enters into judgment with them. 6. That ignorance lies at the root of much, if not all, of man’s misunderstanding of, and murmuring against, God’s ways. Job 38:4-15 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 1. Concerning the creation. I. THE OF THE EARTH THE OF GOD. 1. An exclusively Divine work. Jehovah claims not simply to have been the Framer of the mighty fabric of the globe, but to have shared the honour of that stupendous achievement with no co-worker. Hence certainly not with Job. "Where wast thou when I established the earth?" Not taking part or even looking on, since thou wast not then in existence. That this terrestrial world, and indeed the vast universe of which it forms a part almost infinitesimally small, has not existed from eternity, and did not spring into being fortuitously and without adequate cause, hut was summoned from the womb of nothingness by the fiat of Omnipotence, besides according with the plainest declarations of Scripture (Genesis 1:1), harmonizes more exactly than any other theory with the dictates of reason. 2. A perfectly finished work. As in the Mosaic cosmogony Elohim is represented as beginning, carrying forward through successive stages, and completing the preparation of the newly made earth as man’s abode, so here Jehovah advances a like claim in behalf of himself. Under the image of a building he describes the earth, in its construction, as having been planned by him: "Who," i.e. but me, "hath determined its measure?" founded by him: "Where wast thou when I established the earth?" erected by him: "Whereupon are the foundations," i.e. the bases of its pillars, "fastened?" finished by him: "Who hath laid the cornerstone thereof?" 3. A firmly secured work. Not, however, in the sense of standing still and without motion (Caryl), but in that of being permanently established. The constitution and course of nature, though not unalterable at the will of him by whom it hath been decreed, is yet so definitely settled that man can reckon on its uniformity. It can be overthrown by neither accident nor design. The properties and laws of matter are so certain in their operation, that some reasoners have falsely concluded them to be immutable. II. THE OF THE EARTH WAS THE SONG OF THE ANGELS. 1. The singers: the angels. The race of spiritual intelligences who inhabit the heavenly world (Psalms 68:17; Matthew 18:10; John 1:51), who are here described by: (1) Their place in creation; being styled (according to one exposition of the passage) "morning stars," as having been first created, the first beings summoned into the broad expanse of dependent existence (Genesis 3:24; Isaiah 8:5), as the morning stars appear to swim out first into the vault of heaven; as being possessed of incomparable excellence of nature (Psalms 103:20), as the morning stars outshine all other stars in brilliance; or as being the harbingers or heralds of succeeding and perhaps higher creatures than themselves (John 1:51), as the morning star serves to usher in through the portals of the dawn the golden chariot of the sun. (2) Their relation to God; being designated his "sons," not as Christ is, who is the Father’s Only Begotten (Psalms 2:7; John 1:18; Acts 13:33)—an honour never conferred upon the angels (Hebrews 1:5); or as saints are, by regeneration and adoption (John 1:12)—an experience which the unfallen angels do not need, and the fallen ones do not get; out probably as Adam was (Luke 3:38), and as men in general are (Acts 17:28) to indicate their dependence upon, and constitutional likeness to, God their Creator. 2. Their song: an anthem of creation. Which also is characterized in a twofold way: (1) By its outward expression, as vocal," they sang," giving utterance to their emotions in the tongue of immortals; as choral, "they sang together," preserving harmony in their singing, maintaining a delightful concord of sweet sounds; as universal, "all the sons of God shouted" there was not a voice in the innumerable throng that was silent (cf. ’Merchant of Venice,’ Acts 5. sc. 1); as cordial, "they shouted," expressive of the hearty vehemence and exuberant gladness with which they poured forth their heavenly melodies. (2) By its inward inspiration, as proceeding from the full tide of joy which rose and swelled within their breasts, which joy was occasioned by admiration of the great Creator’s power, contemplation of the Divine Artificer’s wisdom, appreciation of the Infinite Father’s goodness, anticipation of the supreme God’s purpose, in calling forth from the wide womb of non-existence, by a single fiat of omnipotence, a world so wondrously fair, for an end of which it may have been given to their angelic minds to form some by no means, dim conception, viz. to be the future home of man. III. THE OF THE EARTH A STUDY FOB MAN, As such it was propounded to Job, who was asked to receive lessons from it as to three points. 1. The brevity of man’s life as compared with the existence of God. "Where wast thou when I founded the earth? Thou wast not then born! Thy days on earth are as a Shadow. A few years ago thou hadst no existence. But I, thy Creator, whom thou dost foolishly arraign, bad a being before the world was!" Nothing is more fitted to impress man with a sense of the utter vanity and insignificance of this terrestrial existence of which he partakes than a contemplation of the eternity of God. 2. The ignorance of man’s mind as compared with the omniscience of God. Jehovah asks the patriarch if he could tell how the pillars of the globe were fastened in their sockets, or how either the foundation or corner stones of the stupendous fabric were laid in their places, and fixed so as to continue permanent and immovable. "Declare, if thou hast understanding." But all these were comprehended by eternal wisdom. How immeasurably foolish, then must it be for man to presume that he either can, or ought to be able to, understand the moral administration of a world of whose original construction he is entirely ignorant! Nothing is better calculated to humble the pride of human wisdom than we reflect both how small is the circle of knowledge surveyed by the wisest in comparison with the vast sphere of ignorance by which he is still encompassed, and in particular how infinitesimal is the largest quantity of science collected by man when weighed against the immeasurable omniscience of God. 3. The impotence of man’s arm as compared with the omnipotence of God. Vast in contrivance and execution as are many of the works of man, the building of the pyramids, the exploration of mines, the construction of locomotives, the tunnelling of mountains, and other mighty achievements of human genius, it is certain that man himself must regard these as puny and insignificant beside the gigantic works of nature, the piling up of Himalayas, the formation of oceans, the establishment of those mysterious influences which men in their ignorance denominate physical forces, the peopling of earth, air, and sea with their myriad forms of life. And yet these are all the handiwork of God, effected by his power with infinite ease and with such consummate skill that man cannot hope to improve them, cannot oven imitate them, yea, can hardly succeed in making a perfect copy of them. Nay, modern astronomy, by enlarging our conceptions of the stellar world, reminds us that stupendous a work as is the formation of this material globe, it is in reality one of the smallest of the productions that have come from his creative hand, being in fact but as a drop in a bucket, or as the small dust of a balance, in comparison with the boundless universe to which it belongs. Learn: 1. That the first of all beings is God. 2. That the primal cause of all things is the power of God. 3. That only the mind which planned the world can perfectly understand its government. 4. That all God’s works, in the moral world no less than in the material, are characterized by wisdom. 5. That God’s works should never fail to excite the admiration and rejoicing of God’s children. 6. That, though man cannot be saved, he may yet be instructed, by the angels. 7. That if the old or material creation required the power of God, much more does the new or spiritual creation. Job 38:7 The songs of the angels. I. AT THE OF THE WORLD. II. AT THE OF THE SAVIOUR. III. AT THE OF SINNERS. IV. AT THE OF THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH. Job 38:8-11 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 2. Concerning the sea. I. THE OF THE SEA. 1. The place whence it issued. The sea, by a bold metaphor, is represented as a child proceeding from its mother’s womb. The allusion apparently is to the third day’s creative work, when the terrestrial waters were collected into seas by "the upheaval of the land through the action of subterranean fires, or the subsidence of the earth’s crust in consequence of the cooling and shrinking of the interior mass" (’Pulpit Commentary: Genesis,’ Genesis 1:9). The hitherto quiet surface of the deep being thrown into violent commotion, on the one hand the upward rush of waters occasioned by the sinking of the solid particles would seem like an irruption from the interior of the earth, while on the other hand the backward sweep produced by the sudden upheaval of mountain-peaks would appear as if effected by the superior restraint of some mighty hand. Hence, the whole is depicted as the birth of a young giant, who is no sooner ushered into life than he requires to be restrained and confined. 2. The violence of its irruption. The word employed by Jehovah to describe its evolution from the still chaotic mass of the globe is the same which Scripture writers use to represent the bursting forth of a river from its source (Job 40:23), the emerging of a child from its mother’s womb (Psalms 22:10), the rushing of a soldier into battle (Ezekiel 32:2), the springing of a warrior from ambush (Judges 20:33). The language conveys a vivid picture of the vehement and sudden manner in which the land and water of our globe were separated, which, according to both revelation (Psalms 104:7) and science, was most probably effected by volcanic agency. 3. The appearance it presented. Still adhering to the metaphor of a new-born infant, which the nurse wraps in swaddling-bands and baby-clothes, Jehovah tells the patriarch that he too had provided suitable apparel for the new-born sea, giving it clouds for a garment and darkness for a band, meaning that at its first separation from the solid earth it was overhung by heavy vapours and thick mists which served to enshroud it like a pall. II. THE OF THE SEA. 1. The preparation of its place. The received translation, which is clearly inspired by Genesis 1:9 and Psalms 104:8, understands God to say that the newly formed sea was not left to roll its waters at will across the surface of the globe, but was withdrawn into the ocean beds in which at the present time it rests, and that these beds, besides being constructed by Divine agency, acting, no doubt, through natural means, had also been definitely prearranged by Divine wisdom, which had "broken up for it my decreed place," and were permanently fixed by Divine power, which had "strictly measured its boundary" (Umbreit), or broken over it a Divine decree (Delitzsch), i.e. imposing upon it a statute of limitation. 2. The restraining of its waters. This again is represented as the imprisoning within strongly built walls and firmly barred doors of the aforesaid young and vigorous giant, who cannot be permitted unchecked liberty, but must be kept within bounds, being afforded so much freedom and no more—freedom, that is to say, within the precincts of his prison, but not beyond. In the case of the sea, the imprisoning walls and doors are the rocks and sands and beaches which line the coasts of the great ocean waters. And yet it is not these that repel the sea from overflowing its banks, but the voice of God who says, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed;’ as it is not the prison walls that really confine the young giant, but the sovereign will of him, the Parent or Nurse, by whom they have been constructed and the infant monster has been immured. Learn: 1. That God is the Maker of the sea as well as of the dry land. 2. That God can control the sea even in its fiercest moods. 3. That the sea, no less than other creatures, cannot overstep the bounds assigned it by its Maker. 4. That God’s hand upon the sea, and God’s voice to the sea, are all that keep its waters from overflowing the earth. Job 38:12-15 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 3. Concerning the light. I. THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING THE SERVANT OF GOD. 1. The light of the morning is a servant to some one. It is under the commandment of a Superior. Every movement that it makes proclaims it to be under law. Modern science is even able with much precision to formulate the laws to which it renders obedience. And these operate with such unfailing regularity and such irresistible potency, that even this subtlest, nimblest, and most powerful of creatures is unable to elude their grasp or repel their sway. Morning after morning does the dawn appear like a sentinel returning to his place. Day after day does the golden sun push his disc above the horizon, never mistaking the time when or the exact spot where he should first begin to tip the mountain-tops with roseate hues. From whatever source the laws emanate it is clear that the sun yields them submission. 2. The light of the morning is not the servant of man. "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days? hast thou caused the day-spring to know its place?" inquires Jehovah of Job, as if he meant ironically to suggest that, although Job could have had no hand in either the first formation of the globe or the production of the sea, inasmuch as he was not then in existence, perhaps since he had arrived on earth he had been the lord paramount, to whom the powerful king of day did obeisance, and from whom the roseate dawn received its daily charge. At the same time, the interrogation is so phrased as to point to the appropriate reply that not only was Job not the director-general of the solar movements, but throughout the entire course of his career he had not been able to impose his authority on the morning light for so much as a single day. And, of course, what was true of Job is likewise true of all. The student of the heavens may contemplate the beauty and investigate the laws of the solar beam; but he cannot hinder it on its mission or turn it aside from its path. He can neither instruct nor direct it as to when, where, or how it is to shine. It may serve him in obedience to the Divine command which has made all creatures wait on man; but man cannot make of it his servant in the sense of subjecting it to his ordinances. Hence the inference that follows is inevitable. 3. The light of the morning is exclusively the servant of God. The voice it obeys is that which addressed Job from the whirlwind. The rule it follows is that prescribed for it by him who at the first said, "Let light be," and light was. The law it recognizes and fulfils is that of him who set the sun in the heavens to give light upon the earth. II. THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING THE ENEMY OF EVIL-DOERS. 1. The expressive metaphor. The light, personified as a powerful servant or minister of God, is represented as coming forth every morning from the chambers of the dawn, as seizing the broad and beautifully variegated carpet of the earth by the edges, as forcibly lifting it up, and as effectively shaking from it the evil-doers who, under cover of darkness, had laid themselves down to rest, or had gone forth on errands of wickedness, upon its surface. 2. The authorized interpretation. So completely does the dawn of day surprise the night-birds, or workers of iniquity, who prey upon society that their outstretched arms are broken, i.e. are arrested in the very act of perpetrating their nefarious deeds. When the darkness vanishes, the light in which they work is removed from them; and, shunning the dawn of day as if it were the shadow of death (Job 24:17), they slink away into their dens, disappearing as effectually from the world of light as if they had been shaken violently from the surface of the earth. III. THE LIGHT OF THE MORNING THE OF THE EARTH. 1. The imprinting seal. Analyzing the Divine metaphor, one may say that the spreading of the dawn is compared to the rolling of a cylindrical seal across the surface of a prepared sheet of clay. The figure indicates the gradual and progressive opening of the dawn, the silent and onward march of the light, the continually widening diffusion of day, the uprising of objects on the earth’s surface into clearness and distinctness of outline. 2. The printed clay. As the seal when it passes over the smooth clay ]eaves behind it an impression winch seems to start up from the clay, so the sweeping of the dawn across the plains of earth causes object after object, mountain, rock, tree, grass, flower, everything that earth supports on its bosom, to start up in succession into prominence of vision. 3. The radiant garment. The result is expressed by a change of figure. The illuminated earth is compared to a richly embroidered garment, whose variegated hues and deftly woven figures, concealed by the preceding darkness, are now brought to light by the effulgent day. Learn: 1. That the constitution and course of nature in all its parts and details rest upon the command of God. 2. That apart from this Divine commandment the sons of men could not enjoy so much as a single day. 3. That the power of man can interfere with little things no more than with great things in nature. 4. That man has many servants who obey not his command. 5. That light plays an important part in the moral administration of earth. 6. That the main source of beauty in material things is the light of day. 7. That evil-doers generally and instinctively hate the light. Job 38:16-30 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 4. Concerning the mysteries of creation. I. THE OF ARE IN THEIR VARIETY. Jehovah directs Job’s attention to some examples of these hidden things, or secrets, of nature. 1. The depths of the ocean. The sea, perhaps more than any other object in nature, the universal emblem of the mysterious, in respect of its immensity, inconstancy, potency, harmony, is specially invested with a veil of wonder when the mind reflects upon its unfathomable profundity. Ever sounding and singing on its surface, now chanting weird melodies as its tiny wavelets break upon the shore, now bellowing and roaring with discordant fury when the raging winds catching the ruffian billows by the top bid them clash in mortal conflict, underneath all is still, silent, solemn, voiceless, and, except where there are currents, motionless as the grave. Above inviting man’s approach and investigation, below it has deep and dark recesses, untraversed by human foot, unscanned by mortal eye. Continually sending forth its treasures to the upper air in magic trains of mist, doing homage to the golden sun, it has "springs" or "fountains" underneath (Genesis 7:11), whence its waste is supplied. 2. The realms of the unseen world. The grim and gloomy subterranean regions so eloquently described by Job (Job 10:22; Job 26:5) as the abodes of disembodied spirits, are here similarly represented as the habitations of the dead, who are shut. within the sunless receptacles by means of doors and bars. Without expressly asserting that the two places," the interior parts of the earth" and "the realm of shades," were identical, the language of Jehovah imports that both alike were among the secret things as yet unveiled to man. And this witness is true. To saint and sinner equally the manner of existence, when the now embodied spirit shall have shuffled off this mortal coil, is an unfathomable mystery. A terra incognita is the country beyond the tomb. Nor has man yet been able to explore the innermost recesses of the earth. His investigations and researches have been confined to the earth’s crust, possessing a thickness of only a few thousand feet. Whether the central substance of the globe is a solid mass or a glowing fire is yet with physicists a quaestio vexata. 3. The extent of the earth. That the earth was in patriarchal times popularly believed to be a plain is no proof that even then its sphericity was not guessed at, though perhaps not definitely ascertained by geographers and astronomers (vide Job 26:7, homiletics). Still, with all the appliances of modern science for observing the transit of Venus, upon which calculations for the earth’s dimensions depend, the most that can be thus obtained is only an approximation towards the truth—an approximation no doubt sufficiently accurate for working purposes, but still an approximation as distinguished from the absolute truth. 4. The origin of light and darkness. Among the discoveries of modern science few surpass in interest those relating to the composition and the laws of light. The prism by untwisting a solar beam, and the spectrum by analyzing its very substance, have widened man’s knowledge in this department of physics to an astonishing extent. Yet what light itself is, what are its physical causes, and how it produces its particular effects, are still among the unascertained facts of nature. 5. The sources of snow and hail. Here again it is not the physical power or force which causes snow or hail which constitutes the mystery; but the fact that they seem to descend upon earth in inexhaustible supplies at the moments when they are most required, viz. when God has some time of trouble in store for man or some terrible judgment to inflict on earth. Scripture speaks of hail as having been employed by God for the destruction of his enemies (Exodus 9:18; Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:10). 6. The distribution of light and wind. Jehovah alludes to the laws in accordance with which the beams of light and the air-currents spread themselves across the surface of the globe, and exercise their respective influences upon the earth and its inhabitants. 7. The inner principles of rain, dew, ice, and frost. The causes that immediately produce these phenomena were probably to a large extent unknown in the days of Job, though they are now understood by persona of a moderate degree of culture. But it is the power behind the immediately operating material causes after which Jehovah inquires. II. THE OF ARE BY MAN. 1. The oldest man was not present at their formation. "Knowest thou it [i.e. where the light dwelleth] because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy months is great?" Jehovah means that neither Job nor any other human intelligence was cognizant by personal observation of the institution of this or any other of the above-named mysteries. The establishment of nature’s laws took place before the birth or creation of man. Each individual as he opens his eyes upon the theatre of existence witnesses their operation. When they first began to operate no man was there. 2. The wisest man does not know them through intuition. "Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth?" Has the knowledge of this or of any of these mysteries flashed in upon thee, or risen up within thee by a kind of scientific intuition? The human understanding we believe to be sent into the world with a definite amount of mental furniture in the shape of mental and moral intuitions, which gradually assert their presence in and power over the soul; but among these innate ideas are not to be discovered solutions of the physical problems of the universe. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Job 39:1-30 This chapter completes the survey of animate nature begun at Job 38:39. The habits and instincts of the wild goat, the wild ass, and wild cattle are first noticed (Job 38:1-12); then a transition is made to the most remarkable of birds, the ostrich (Job 38:13-18). Next, the horse is described, and, as it were, depicted, in a passage of extraordinary fire and brilliancy (Job 38:19-25). Finally, a return is made to remarkable birds, and the habits of the hawk and eagle obtain mention (Job 38:26-30). Throughout, the object is to show the infinite wisdom of God, and the utter incompetence of man to explain the mysteries of nature. Job 39:1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? The wild goats of Western Asia are of two kinds, the Capra segagrus, and the Asiatic ibex, or Capra Sinaitica. The latter is probably the animal hero intended, which is called yael sela, "the wild goat of the rocks," and was known to the Assyrians as ya-e-li. It is an animal with large rough horns curving backwards, closely allied to the steinbock, or bouquetin, of the Swiss and Tyrolian Alps. It is very shy and wild, difficult of approach, and inhabiting only the most rocky and desolate tracts of Syria and Arabia. Representations of the animal, which was hunted by the Assyrian kings, are common upon the Ninevite monuments Job 39:4 Their young ones are in good liking; i.e. healthy and strong (comp. Daniel 1:10). They grow up with corn; rather, they grow up out of doors, or in the open air. They go forth, and return not unto them. They quit their dams early, and "go forth" to provide for themselves—an indication of health and strength. Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Two kinds of onager’ or wild ass, seem to be intended—the one called pore’ (פִרֶא), and the other ’arod (עָרוֹד). These correspond probably to the Asinus hemippus and the Asinus onager of modern naturalists, the former of which is still found in the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Northern Arabia, while the latter inhabits Western Asia from 48° N.lat. southward to Persia, Beloochistan, and Western India. Sir H. A. Layard describes the former, which he saw, as a "beautiful animal, in fleetness equalling the gazelle, very wild, and of a rich fawn colour, almost pink". The latter (Asinus onager) was seen by Sir R. K. Porter in Persia, and is described in very similar terms. The two, however, appear to be distinct species. Both animals are remarkable for extreme wildness; and all attempts to domesticate the young of either have hitherto failed. Job 39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness. The Mesopotamian regions inhabited by the Asinus hemippus are those vast stretches of rolling plain, treeless, producing a few aromatic shrubs and much wormwood, which intervene between the Sinjar mountain-range and the Babylonian alluvium. Here the wild ass was seen by Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, in company with ostriches, gazelles, and bustards (Xen; ’Anab.,’ 1.5); and here Sir Austin Layard also made its acquaintance. The Asians onager frequents the deserts of Khorassan and Beloochistan, which are even more barren than the Mesepotamian. And the barren land his dwellings; rather, the salt land (see the Revised Version). The great desert of Khorassan is largely impregnated with salt, and in places encrusted with it. The wild ass licks salt with avidity. Job 39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city. Avoids, that is, the haunts of men, and is never seen near them. Neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. Nothing will induce the wild ass to submit to domestication. Job 39:8 The range of the mountains is his pasture. By "mountains" we must here understand rocky ranges like the Sinjar and the mountains of Beloochistan, or again those of the Sinaitic peninsula. Wild asses do not frequent the regions which we commonly call mountainous. And he searcheth after every green thing; i.e. he seeks out the small patches of pasture which are to be found in such rocky regions. Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? This is an unfortunate translation, since there is no word etymologicallly correspondent to "unicorn" in the original. The word used is rem or reyrn; and the rem is distinctly said in Deuteronomy 33:17 to have "horns." All that is said of the rim in Scripture points to some species of wild cattle, and recent critics are almost universally agreed thus far at any rate. Assyrian investigation carries us a step further. It is found that the wild bull so often represented on the monuments as hunted by the Ninevite monarchs was known to the Assyrians by the name of rimu or rim. Careful examination of the sculptures has resulted in the identification of this animal with Bos primigenius, an extinct species, probably identical with the urus of the Romans, which Caesar saw in Gaul, and of which he has left a description. "These uri," he says, "are scarcely less than elephants in size, but in their nature, colour, and form are bulls. Great is their strength, and great their speed; nor do they spare man nor beast, when once they have caught sight of him. … Even when they are young, they cannot be habituated to man and made tractable. The size and shape of their horns are very different from those of our own oxen" (’De Bell. Gall.,’ 6.28). Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? That is, "as thou bindest the ox?" Canst thou make him plough for thee? Or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Another common employment of oxen. Job 39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? If a man could bind the urns to his plough or to his harrow, still he could not "trust" him. The huge brute would be sure to prove unmanageable, and would only cause damage to his owner. Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? As thou leavest many labours to thy oxen, confiding in their docility. Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him—rather, Wilt thou confide in him (see the Revised Version)—that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barns? i.e. convey the harvest from the field to the homestead, that it may be safely lodged in thy barn. The "strength" of the urns (Job 39:11) would make all such labours light to him, but his savage nature would render it impossible to use him for them. Job 39:13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? rather, the wing of the ostrich (literally, of ostriches) is exultant; i.e. a thing that it glories in. The allusion is, perhaps, to the flapping of its wings by the ostrich, as it hurries over the ground, which is sore, thing like that of a cock before crowing or after beating an antagonist. Or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? This clause is very obscure, but may perhaps mean, Are her feathers and plumage kindly? (see the Revised Version); i.e. does she use them for the same kindly purpose as other birds—to warm her eggs, and forward the process of hatching them? Job 39:14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust. The best authorities tell us that in tropical countries ostriches, having scratched a hole in the sand, and deposited their eggs in it, cover the eggs over with a layer of sand, sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and, leaving them during the daytime to be kept warm by the heat of the sun, only incubate at night. It is evidently this habit of the bird that is here alluded to. That in cooler countries ostriches do not do this is not to the point. The habit was known in Job’s time, and was so noticeable as to characterize the bird to a large extent. Job 39:15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. Where the eggs are covered by a layer of sand a foot thick, this danger is not incurred. But when the eggs are numerous—and they are sometimes as many as thirty—they are apt to be very poorly covered, and the results follow which are described in the text. Job 39:16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers. This is a deduction from what has preceded, and discloses no new fact. Recent careful observation of the habits of the ostrich indicates that the parental instinct is not wanting, though it may be weaker than in most birds. Both the male and the female incubate at night, and, when the nest is approached by the hunter, the parent bird or birds will leave it, and try to draw him away from it by running on in front of him, or feigning to attack him, much as peewits do in our own country. Her labour is in vain without fear; or, though her labour is in vain, she is without fear (see the Revised Version); i.e. though she is often disappointed of her immediate hope of offspring, through her eggs being crushed and destroyed, yet she grows no wiser, she does not fear for the future. Job 39:17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. There is an Arab proverb—"As stupid as an ostrich"—which the Arabs justify on five grounds: (1) The ostrich, they say, will swallow iron, stones, leaden bullets, and other things, which injure and sometimes prove fatal to it. (2) When hunted, it thrusts its head into a hush, and iron,nee that the hunter does not see it. (3) It allows itself to be captured by transparent devices. (4) It neglects its eggs. (5) Its head is small, and contains but a small quantity of brains. To these grounds I may add that in the South-African ostrich-farms, the birds allow themselves to be confined within a certain space by a fence of sticks and string raised about a foot from the ground. They seem to think that they cannot step over it. Job 39:18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider. The ostrich sometimes tries to elude pursuit by crouching and hiding behind hillocks or in hollows, making itself as little conspicuous as possible; but, when these attempts fail, and it starts off to run in the open, then it "lifts itself up" to its full elevation, beats the air with its wings, and scours along at a pace that no horse can equal. The Greeks with Xenophon, though well mounted, failed to catch a single ostrich (’Anab.,’ 1.5. § 3). Job 39:19 Hast thou given the horse strength? (comp. Psalms 147:10). Geburah means, however, more than "strength." It includes courage and all martial excellence. Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Many objections have been taken to this expression; and endeavours have been made to show that the word used (דַעְמָה) does not mean "thunder," but" a tremulous motion," "quivering muscles and a tossing mane," or else "scorn," "indignation." But as רַעַם always means "thunder" (Job 26:14; Job 39:25; Psalms 77:19: Psalms 81:8; Psalms 145:7; Isaiah 29:6), it seems unlikely that רעמה means anything else. To the objection that the metaphor is "incongruous" (Professor Lee), it would appear to be enough to reply that one of our greatest prose-poets has seen in it peculiar fitness. So true every way’" says Carlyle, on the passage: "true eyesight and vision for all things; material things, not less than spiritual; "the horse—Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?’". Job 39:20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? rather, Canst thou make him leap forward as a grasshopper? The bound with which a war-horse rushes to battle seems intended. The glory of his nostrils is terrible. When the war-horse snorts, men tremble (see Jeremiah 8:16, "The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones"). Job 39:21 He paweth in the valley. Canon Cook appositely compares Virgil’s "carat tellurem" (’Georg.,’ 3:87, 88), and Professor Lee Pope’s expression, that "ere they start a thousand steps are lost." The verb is in the plural, because a line of cavalry, all pawing and eager to be off, is intended to be represented. And rejoiceth in his strength. Nothing is more remarkable than the eagerness and joy which war-horses show when the battle approaches. They are generally more excited than their riders. He goeth on to meet the armed men; literally, he rusheth upon the weapons. Equally true in ancient and in modern warfare. The main use of cavalry is in the charge. Job 39:22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. "The cavalry of modern times will rush undismayed upon the line of opposing bayonets" (Professor Lee). "We do not believe that a body of infantry ever existed that, with the bayonet alone, unsupported by fire, could have checked the determined charge of good horsemen". Job 39:23 The quiver rattleth against him. In the Aasyrian sculptures the quiver of mounted archers is often hung at the side, instead of at the back. In this position it would rattle against the neck of the war-horse. The glittering spear and the shield would occasionally strike against his neck or his shoulders. Job 39:24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and. rage. This is a common metaphor to denote the rapidity with which the horse covers the space that lies before him. Virgil has, "Corripiuut spatia" (’AEnid,’ 5.316); Silius ltalions, "Campum volatu rapucre" (3.308); Shakespeare, "He seemed in running to devour the way." Arab poets have similar expressions (see Bochart, ’ Hieroz.,’ pt. 1. bk. 2. c. 8). Neither beiieveth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. (So Schultens, Canon Cook, and our Revisers.) But most recent critics prefer to render, "He standeth not still when the trumpet soundeth," and compare Virgil’s "Stare loco nescit" (’Georg.,’ 3.84). Job 39:25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! literally, at the trumpet; i.e. at the sound of the trumpet. The utterance, "Ha, ha!" (heakh)’ is an imitation of the horse’s snort or neigh. And he smelleth the battle afar off. Not merely presages it, as Pliny Bye ("Equi praesagiunt pugnam, ’Hist. Nat,’ 8.42), or perceives it. but seems to scent it. The open and quivering nostrils raise this idea. The thunder of the captains, and the shouting. On the great noise made by advancing armies in ancient times, see 2 Kings 7:6; Isaiah 5:28-30: Jeremiah 8:16, etc. Job 39:26 Doth the hawk fly (or, soar) by thy wisdom? The hawk’s strength of wing is extraordinary, and one of the greatest of natural marvels. Can Job claim to have contrived it? Many as have been the attempts made, human ingenuity has not yet devised anything that can fly. And stretch her wings toward the south? Migrate, i.e; when winter approaches, to the warmer southern regions. Few things in nature are more remarkable than the instinct of migratory birds. Job 39:27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command? The enumeration of natural marvels ends with the eagle, the monarch of birds, as it began with the lion, the king of beasts (Job 38:39). The power of the eagle to "mount up," notwithstanding its great size and weight, is very surprising. The species intended in this place is probably the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) or else the imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca), which arc both of them common in Syria and Mesopotamia. And make her nest on high? The nests of eagles are almost always built on lofty, generally on inaccessible, rocks. Aristotle says, Ποιοῦνταιδεαὐτὰς (sc, τὰςνεοττίας), οὐκἐνπεδινοῖςτόποιςἀλλἐνὑψηκοῖςμάλισταμὲνκαὶἐνπέτραιςἀποκρήμνοις (comp. Jeremiah 49:16). Job 39:28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rook, upon the crag of the rook, and the strong place; literally, the tooth of the rock. The craggy summits of rocks bear a resemblance to the fangs of a tooth. Hence we have in France the Dent du Chat, and in Switzerland the Dent de Jaman and the Dent du Midi. Job 39:29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Aristotle gives this as a reason for the lofty flight of the eagle, Ὑψοῦπέταταιὁπωςἐπὶπλεῖστοντόπονκαθορᾷ. The keen sight of the eagle is recognized by modern savants: "Aquila, genre d’oiseaux de proie … caracterise par un bec sans denlelure et droit a sa base jusquaupres de l’extremite, ou il se corbe beaucoup; par des pieds robustes armes d’ongles aigus et tranchants, par leur rue percante et leur grands envergure". Job 39:30 Her young ones also suck up blood. It has been asserted that this is not the case, since they are fed on carrion (Merx). But, as eagles are known to seize fawns, hares, lambs, and other small animals, and transport them to their eyries, their young must certainly be nourished, in part, on the flesh of animals newly killed. And where the slain are, there is she (comp. Deuteronomy 21:18; Matthew 24:28; Luke 17:37). Eagles, or at any rate birds "more resembling eagles than vultures," are commonly represented on the Assyrian monuments, especially in battle-scenes, where they either feed on the dead bodies of the slain, or tear out their entrails, or sometimes carry up aloft the decapitated head of some unfortunate soldier. Job 39:1-30 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the examination: 6. Concerning certain wild animals. I. THE GOAT AND THE HIND. (Verses 1-4.) 1. The creatures intended. It is generally agreed that these are the steinbock, or ibex, and the stag. The former, inhabiting exclusively the more rocky and desolate parts of the country, possesses fore legs considerably shorter than its hinder, which enable it to ascend with more facility than to descend, and lead it, when pursued, to attempt to gain the summits of the mountains. In accordance with this peculiarity, it is interesting to note that Jehovah describes the animals as "rock-climbers." 2. The circumstance alluded to. This is not so much the secrecy of their gestation as the ease and facility with which they bring forth. "They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows," i.e. those things which cause their labour-pains, viz. their offspring; and these young animals thus easily born, though not without pain, "are in good liking," i.e. grow up lusty and strong, not by feeding upon corn, as the Authorized Version seems to imply, but in the open country, away from their dams, whom they early forsake, going forth and not returning unto them. 3. The question thereanent. Jehovah asks Job if he knows the time when these mountain goats, or rock-climbers, bear, or can number the months that the hinds fulfil Clearly not designed to test the amount or accuracy of Job’s information concerning natural history, this interrogation seems as little meant to affirm that everything connected with the pregnancy of these creatures was a mystery. Its intention rather is to emphasize the fact that the whole process of conception and parturition is carded on with such admirable regularity, ease, and success, as to suggest the thought that it must be owing to the wise guidance and watchful care of some presiding mind. "Well" asks Jehovah, "whose is it? Is it thine, O Job? or is it not rather mine?" II. THE WILD ASS (Verses 5-8.) 1. Its swiftness of foot. This characteristic is alluded to in the name pere. Consul Wetstein (quoted by Delitzsch) describes the wild ass as a dirty yellow creature with a white belly, single-hoofed and long-eared, its hornless head somewhat resembling that of a gazelle, though much larger, and its hair having the dryness of the hair of the deer. Like the wild ox, a large soft-eyed creature, horned and double-hoofed, it is remarkable for its swift running, which enables it to out-distance the fleetest rider. 2. Its love of freedom. This feature is referred to in the second name, ’arod, which denotes its shyness and untamableness, and is further represented by depicting it an scorning the tumult of the city, i.e. as fleeing from the haunts of men, and regarding not the crying of the driver, i.e. refusing to be subjected to the yoke, as scouring the desert in its boundless independence, and finding for itself a home in the barren land or salt places, i.e. uncultivated and uncultivable regions. 3. Its means of support. The wild ass licks the natron of the desert, as "all wild animals that feed on plants have a partiality for licking salt" (Delitzsch); and in quest of herbage it roams to the uttermost limit of the mountains, "sniffing after every green thing" 4. Its possession of a Master. This thought is suggested by Jehovah’s interrogations. "The wild ass loves liberty; but who made him free? Who loosed his bands? Who sent him forth to scour the plain and range the hills? Was it thou, O Job? or was it I? The wild ass scorns the yoke of the driver; but who inspired him with this indomitable instinct? Who taught him to lick the salt and crop the herb? Are not these my doings, O my censurer? Canst thou bind this ass that I have loosed? Canst thou set a yoke upon him as I do? Art thou able to give him food as I am, or to build for him a stall as I have done in the vast steppe? It is clear, then, that thou art not the master of a wild ass, much less of a world," III. THE UNICORN. (Verses 9-12.) 1. The name of the animal explained. The rem, which our translators have erroneously supposed to be a one-horned beast, was undoubtedly two-horned—a wild, fierce, untamable brute, "resembling an ox as a wild ass resembles an ass" (Gesenius). Regarded by some commentators as the buffalo (Schultens, De Wette, Umbreit, Gesenius), though this animal "only came from India to Western Asia and Europe at a more recent date," and is besides "tamable" (Delitzsch), it is more probably to be identified with the Bos primigenius Tristram affirms that the rem was the urns of Caesar, the aueroch, of which "the nearest extant representative is the bison, which still lingers in the forests of Lithuania and the Caucasus" (Cox). 2. The strength of the animal described. This, with inimitable irony, Jehovah depicts by asking Job if he thought he could master this prodigious brute—first drive him home like a peaceful ox to be shut up and fed within the narrow precincts of a stall, then take him out, as a farmer now does his horses, or then did his oxen, and yoke him to his wains or carts, setting him to plough his fields or draw home his harvest-sheaves. IV. THE OSTRICH. (Verses 13-18.) 1. The description of the bird. In this are noted three points: (1) Its want of parental affection. "The wing of the ostrich [female] exulteth," i.e. vibrates briskly; "is she pious, wing and feather?"—the allusion being to the pious bird, the stork, which the ostrich resembles in its stilt-like structure, the beauty of its plumage, the quivering of its wings, and the gregarious habit of its life, but from which it differs in its lack of maternal affection. Depositing her eggs in the sand, where the foot of any passer-by may crush them, or they may fall a prey to jackals, wild cats, and other animals, although she does not entirely abandon the work of hatching them to the sun or her male companion, but also really incubates herself, at least during the night, yet, so easily is she startled from her nest, and so readily induced to forsake it, that she may be truthfully described as "hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers," and as being quite indifferent to the fact that her labour is without result. In consequence of this peculiarity, the hen ostrich is called by the Arabs "the wicked bird." (2) Its remarkably defective intelligence. This is emphasized as the cause of the above-described unnatural behaviour of the bird. "God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding;’ and yet that the above-described are not the only stupidities of which the creature is guilty may be reasonably inferred from the circumstance that the foolishness of the ostrich is quite proverbial throughout the East, as the Arab proverb indicates, "More stupid than an ostrich" (3) Its power of speedy flight. This also is certified by an Arab proverb, "Swifter than an ostrich," and is here poetically set forth with much beauty. Starting from her nest in alarm, and lifting up herself on high, i.e. as the language probably imports, flapping the air with her wings, "she scorneth the horse and his rider," leaving them behind her with perfect ease. 2. The reason of its introduction. Job’s attention appears to be directed to the ostrich to suggest the thought that here, too, in the world of birds, there are mysteries and seeming anomalies which he cannot understand. Why should the ostrich be so differently constituted from the stork? Why should it be devoid of intelligence and parental affection, while excelling most birds in speed of foot and beauty of wing? When Job can answer that, he will have a title to challenge God for making enigmas in human life, and dark problems in the moral history of earth. V. THE WAR-HORSE. (Verses 19-25.) 1. The poetical representation. The oldest description of the war-horse, it is also the most beautiful, the most brilliant, the most impressive that has in any language been penned. As Carlyle says, "Such a living likeness has never since been drawn," "It deserves the praise of majestic simplicity, which is the first feature of classic superiority" (Delitzsch). Ancient authors supply occasional touches which remind one of the language here employed (vide Exposition). In respect of fulness and accuracy of details, the present sketch stands unrivalled. So intensely vivid is the picturing, that the splendid beast appears to the imagination as a living, breathing reality, a richly caparisoned steed, a perfect model of physical strength and beauty, curveting and caracoling in the very exuberance of its animal spirits, pawing the ground in its impatience, snorting through its dilated nostrils, sniffing the battle from afar, bounding as with conscious exultation when the trumpet soundeth, at every blast thereof making known by a joyous neigh, as if it cried, "Ha, ha!" the fierceness of its lust for battle, advancing without a fear to meet an armed host, dashing in among the glancing spears, and shaking from its sides the rattling quiver. 2. The Divine meaning. It is easy enough to find sermonic uses for this piece of brilliant word-painting about the war-horse, as e.g. to derive from it lessons of courage in confronting difficulties, and enthusiasm in defying opposition; but the first question needing answer is—For what specific object is it here introduced? and this was obviously to impress the mind of Job with a sense of his (and also man’s) weakness in comparison with God. Whence had such a noble creature as this war-horse sprung 9 Job had not produced its resistless strength, its heroic beauty, its visible terror, its indomitable courage, its fierce enthusiasm? Nay, what could Job or any other man do as against such a powerful animal? Well, if Job cannot contend with the war-horse, how unreasonable it must be to suppose that he can strive with him whose handiwork the war-horse is! VI. THE HAWK. (Verse 26.) 1. Its power of flight. The name netz denotes "the soaring one," the high-flyer, and "includes, besides the hawk proper, all raptorial birds" (Cox), "which, even including the shortest-winged, have great powers of flight, are remarkably enterprising, live to a great age, are migratory, or followers upon birds of passage" (Kitto’s ’Cyclopaedia,’ art. "Netz"). "The rapidity with which the hawk and many other birds fly is probably not less than at the rate of a hundred and fifty miles an hour" (Robinson). The adaptation of a bird’s wing for flying is a singular instance of the Creator’s skill. 2. Its instinct of migration. Moved by a secret impulse, not received from or understood by man, the hawk stretches her wing, and seeks a sunny clime at every approach of winter. This also a striking evidence of creative intelligence. VII. THE EAGLE. (Verses 27-30.) 1. Its lofty flight. The king of birds, which closes the Divine picture-gallery of animals, as the king of quadrupeds opened it, "soareth aloft," its great strength of body and breadth of wing giving it power to sustain itself at a high elevation in the air. 2. Its inaccessible eyrie. Mounting upwards, "she buildeth her nest in the height, upon the crag or tooth of the rock" and fastness, and there, by reason of its remoteness, "she dwelleth and abideth" securely. 3. Its keen vision. From the cliff’s edge she can scan the depths below, looking far across the plain in search of food for herself and young ones (cf. Job 28:7, Job 28:21). 4. Its sanguinary appetite. "Her young ones also suck up blood; and where the slain are, there is she." In the East eagles follow armies in order to feed upon the corpses of the slain (cf. Matthew 24:28). Learn: 1. That he can best describe the creatures who knows all about them, because he made them. 2. That every creature on the face of the earth has its peculiar nature, instincts, habitat, by Divine appointment. 3. That wherever God assigns dwelling to a creature, there also he provides means of subsistence. 4. That a large portion of the world’s beauty consists in the variety of animal-life which it supports. 5. That the study of zoology is fitted to convey important lessons concerning the power, wisdom, goodness, and sovereignty of God. BY R. GREEN Job 39:1-30 The creatures not dependent upon man. We truly know that of man it is written, "Thou hast put all things under his feet;" and "We see not yet all things put under him." The creatures over whom dominion was given to man are not wholly submissive. And man must learn his littleness in presence of the great creatures of God whom he fails to subdue. "The wild goats" and "the hinds" and "the wild ass," "the unicorn," even "the ostrich," "the horse" and the birds of the air, "the hawk" and "the eagle," are all alike independent of man. They have neither their beauty nor their strength, their flight nor their instinct, from him. With all his knowledge, his skill, his inventiveness, his cunning, still the creatures are independent of him, though he is not independent of them. They can do without him, but not he without them. It is another step in the course of the humiliation through which the Lord is leading Job. Man may sling with the stone, or shoot with the arrow, or entrap with his skill, or train and conquer by his superior wisdom, yet is he miserably impotent in their presence. And most certainly they derive neither their life nor any of their powers from him. Shall vain man, then, contend with the Creator of all? Shall he whose are all things find him to whom none belong entering the lists with him? Shall he contend? shall he instruct? shall he reprove? and answer? Nay, verily. His place is tire dust, and to the dust God will humble him; and in doing so, he brings man into the presence of his many and beautiful and powerful creatures, and shows him how independent they are of him. This is the teaching of the entire chapter. Humility, therefore, is due— I. BECAUSE MAN CANNOT CREATE ANY ONE OF THEM. II. BECAUSE THEY ARE OF MAN FOR THEIR AND . III. BECAUSE IN MANY OF THEIR POWERS THEY EXCEED THE MIGHT OF MAN, who cannot give them their speed, their strength, or their great beauty. How little is man amidst the wonders of the Divine hands! and how truly wise is be who, in presence of the divinely wrought creatures, bows down confessing, "How wonderful are all thy works, O Lord!"—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 39:5-8 The wild ass. The special characteristic of the wild ass is said to be untractability. While no animal is more tame than the poor, ill-treated donkey of the London street, no animal is more essentially untamable than the Syrian ass of the desert. It is said that though one of these creatures bad been captured when young and kept for three years in confinement, it remained "as untractable as when it was first caught, biting and kicking furiously at every one who approached it." It is the type of the untamable. I. GOD RULES OVER THE WILDEST . When we look at the wild ass we see a creature that is quite beyond the range of man’s dominion. The "lord of creation" has no authority here. His dominion ceases at the border of the wilderness. His will is scorned by the free animals of the desert. Yet they are under the rule of God, who has implanted in them their instincts; they live only according to the laws of the nature that he has made. Men break from God’s laws in self-will and thus they fall into sin. Untractable as the wild ass is to man, it is absolutely obedient to the will of God, like the sea that obeys the laws of waves and tides. II. GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF LIBERTY. The very wildness of the creature is a gift of God. He has given it its high spirits, its fleet running, its love of the wilderness. God does not keep his creatures like cowed and tamed beasts in a menagerie. He aires them a wide field, and he permits them to enjoy a large freedom. To beings of spiritual nature he also gives liberty, and that of a higher order. Men are set free from external constraints. God treats us not as slaves, but as children. Further, God gives the highest liberty—liberty of soul. He sets men free from the chains of ignorance and the crushing burden of sin. In his glorious grace he deals most liberally with his children. Not like the despot who fears a whisper of the word "liberty," God grieves over the self-made slavery of souls, and sends his gospel for the very purpose of giving "liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). Surely liberty is a prize to be eagerly sought and jealously guarded in government, in thought, and in spiritual life. Dryden writes— "The love of liberty with life is given, And life itself th’ inferior gift of Heaven." III. GOD INTENDS US TO USE OUR LIBERTY IN . We must combine the two previous thoughts to see how the wild ass is provided for by God. It follows tire laws of its nature, and so obeys God absolutely, albeit unconsciously, while it enjoys the largest liberty. Thus it cannot be said to abuse its liberty, but only to use it. Roaming over the desert on its swift feet, it espies the green oasis and revels in the fresh pasturage. God expects us to use our liberty in obedience to his will. He does not poor food into our mouths; we must seek it. He does not force iris grace upon us; we have to follow the method he has laid down, and turn to him in faith. But in doing this we are to use the utmost freedom of thought, and to be absolutely independent of the constraints of man on our religion, while we ask for help to be free from the bondage of evil, in obedience to the will of God.—W.F.A. Job 39:11 Trusting in mere strength. This chapter of natural history carries us on from one graphic picture to another, in which we see the glorious strength and freedom of God’s creatures, altogether outside the domain of man’s rule. Now we are to look at the urus. In bodily form he is very like the docile ox; yet how different in habit and temper! Will he serve us, lodge in our stall, plough our field and drag our harrow like his homely cousin, the drudge of the farm? Yet he is immensely strong. We cannot trust mere strength. I. IS NOT THE GIFT OF NATURE. There is energy in nature. But before we can use it we must apply mind to nature. A Samson may do good work in hard, rough times, but he cannot be the Redeemer of man. The worship of muscle has grown to enormous proportions in this age of athletics. Good as it is to be in health and to be strong, and natural as the reaction is from extreme. ascetic views, our modern glorying in health and strength does not touch what is highest in man, and it may lead to a neglect of this. It may humble the idolizer of strength for him to consider how enormously his greatest power is outdone by that of the urus. At best he is creeping up far behind one of the most senseless of animals. II. IS UNLESS IT IS TURNED TO USEFUL SERVICE. The urus may be stronger than the domestic ox, yet he wastes his powers in blundering about in the wilderness. He cannot be put to any good service, because he will not be controlled. There are men of great power who flitter away their energies aimlessly and fruitlessly, because their minds and wills have never been subdued and bent into some worthy service. They have ability, but they do nothing effectively. It is as important to train the will as it is to cultivate the faculties. The most useful service of God and man is not always performed by those who have the greatest gifts. The disposition to serve will enable the less gifted to do more in life than their brilliant companions who will not stoop to wear the yoke. III. CAN ONLY BE OF SERVICE WHEN IT IS WISELY . The urus is wild, senseless, untamable, and not susceptible to educative influences; therefore he cannot use his strength for profitable work. Human strength needs Divine guidance. So long as the soul is wild and self-willed, the powers of mind and body cannot be spent fruitfully. The humble ox looks a less noble beast than the wild and daring bison, with his shaggy mane, his flashing eye, his powerful neck, his thunderous charge; yet the former is useful because it is obedient. The first lesson we have to learn in life is to obey; this, too, is the last lesson. As the ox looks to its master, we have to look to our Master; and when we follow his guidance, whether our strength be great or small, it will not be fruitless.—W.F.A. Job 39:13-18 The careless ostrich. Each creature has its own distinctive features determined for it by the wisdom and conferred on it by the power of God. Some of these features are not attractive, nor what we should have selected if we had had the ordering of creation. They are the more significant on this account, because they show us the more clearly that nature is not ordered according to our thought, and yet the whole description shows that it is ordered well, and for a grand total result of life far beyond anything we could have imagined. Now, we have the special characteristics of the ostrich sketched with a master-hand in view of these considerations. I. . Here is no caricature, exaggerating eccentricities. Though what look like the defects of the ostrich are to be referred to, its goodly wings are first mentioned. Let us see merit wherever we can. In giving blame, let us not condemn wholesale. Although all may not be as we should wish, let us generously acknowledge that all is not bad. It is better to admire the good in the world than to be only on the look out for the evil. We shall be more helpful friends if we rejoice to lay hold of what is admirable in others, and seek this first, instead of pouncing upon the ugly faults, like vultures who have eyes for nothing but carrion. II. DEFECTS. The ostrich is not perfect, according to man’s idea of perfection. There are defects in nature, and these defects are not ignored in the natural theology of "Job;" It is wiser to admit them frankly than to gloss them over. Although they may not be the principal characteristics, they startle us by their very existence, The ostrich appears to be lacking in maternal care; it is a foolish creature, leaving its eggs without imagining the danger they are in of being trampled on by the wild animals of the desert. God is leading nature on to perfection, but it is not yet perfect. The law of nature, like that of man, is progress, not stationary completeness. III. . Things are not so bad with the ostrich as they appear to us at first sight. Although the ostrich-eggs are left in the sand, they do not perish as the eggs of most birds under ordinary circumstances would do. Beneath the tropical heat of the sun they can be deserted during the day, the bird returning to sit on them at night. Thus by the wonderful balancing of influences in nature the careless maternity of the ostrich does not seriously endanger its offspring. If God has not given the bird wisdom, it does not need it. So long as we keep to the lines that God has laid down, we shall see that most defects have ample compensation in other directions. The culpable carelessness is that which goes against the laws of God; the fatal folly is that which departs from his ways. This carelessness and this folly are not found in the ostrich; they are only seen in man.—W.F.A. Job 39:19-25 The war-horse. This magnificent picture of the horse shows him to us as he is about to rush into battle. Whilst asses, oxen, and camels were employed for peaceable work on the farm and as beasts of burden, the horse was almost confined to war. He was rarely used excepting to dash with the charioteer into the thick of the fight. In the poet’s picture he is scenting the battle from afar. Let us look at his striking features. I. . There are two kinds of strength—mere brute strength of muscle, and the strength that is vitalized by nervous and mental influences. The urus is an instance of the former. In simple contractility of muscle he may exceed the horse. But the strength of the horse is nervous strength. It cannot well be measured, for it is continually fluctuating. It varies in degree according to the extent to which the sensitive animal is excited. We meet with the two kinds of strength in men, and especially in women. When the mind fires the body, unheard-of feats are performed. In moments of heroism naturally feeble people seem to have the strength of a giant. God gives strength through spiritual influences. II. COURAGE. We may be surprised to meet with this characteristic in a description of the horse. Is he not a timid creature, shying at any unusual object by the wayside? This is true when he is dull and subdued. But our picture shows him to us as the war-horse rushing in to battle. Then he is brave as a lion. His courage is not the dull indifference to danger that is a trait of stupidity, but the fiery courage of intense excitement. It is difficult to be brave in cold blood. It is not easy to face the troubles and dangers of life without some inspiring influence. The Spirit of God in him makes the most timid brave. III. . The life of the picture is its enthusiasm. The horse is impatient for the rage of the battle, excited by the distant sound of it to a strong desire to rush into it. That is the spirit which will give him strength and courage to go right into the midst of the danger. Nothing succeeds like enthusiasm. Nothing is so beautiful, so inspiriting, so full of life and hope. It needs guidance or it may plunge into disaster; it is not enough without the direction of wisdom. But wisdom is vain without enthusiasm. In the Christian life men are uplifted and borne onward when they are reached by a wave of enthusiasm. Christ inspires the "enthusiasm of humanity," because he first inspires an enthusiasm for himself. Now, the first essential in a worthy enthusiasm is the perception of a worthy object. The horse scents the battle, and the horse knows its master. We see the great battle of sin and misery, and we have a glorious Captain of salvation. The need of the world calls us to the fight; the presence of our Lord gives us strength and courage, and ensures the victory.—W.F.A. Job 39:26-30 The hawk and the eagle. I. NATURE’S OF MAN. This is the leading lesson of the whole chapter, impressed upon us by means of a series of most graphic illustrations; and it reaches its climax at the concluding paragraph, in which the high-flying birds of prey, the hawk and the eagle, are described. These above all other creatures are independent of man. Denizens of the air, they soar far above his reach. No human hand could give that might of pinion, that keenness of vision, that rush of life, which we see in the two birds—the one the terror of all small creatures, the other the dangerous foe of the young of larger animals. But nature throughout is quite beyond the skill and power of man. By the intelligence God has given us we may employ many of the great natural forces, and subdue fierce and powerful animals. But this is a small thing compared with the thought that planned and the energy that wrought in the making of those creatures. Surpassing us in many enviable qualities, the kings of the wilderness teach us our littleness in the presence of the wonderful Creator. II. THE TRIUMPH OF . Birds illustrate this most conspicuously. Cleaving the air with swift, strong strokes, rising and falling at will, floating like atmospheric fishes, darting hither and thither with the speed of an express train, birds are the very opposite of creatures that spend a merely vegetative existence. Their lively energy is seen in dazzling movements. Now, the movements of nature are typical of those that take place in spiritual regions. Stagnation is death. It is not enough to have been set right once for all. The bird will droop and fail if it is always moping on the perch. Souls must be in movement, seeking fresh enterprises, pressing on to new fields of service, or at least diligently pursuing the line of duty. Souls want wings. We can only live our fullest life when we rise. It is not easy to soar into the higher regions. The hawk mounts in a spiral. We cannot reach the altitude of spiritual experience at a bound; and we too may have to work our way up laboriously. But rise we must, if we would not fail in our Christian calling. III. THE VICTORY OF VISION. The eyes of the hawk and the eagle are proverbial for strength and keenness. These birds can see their prey from afar. They would perish if they were blind, nay, even if they became dim-sighted. Souls must have eyes, strung to gaze at the light, keen to detect what is valuable. We blunder through the world in spiritual blindness, seeing neither the glory of God nor the best blessings he has given us. With clipped wings and hooded eyes, how can we enter into the large heritage that God has provided for us? Our souls need a purging of their vision from the sin that blinds and maims. Then regenerated by the Spirit of God, they have before them a glory of sight and life that leave the struggling attempts of hawk and eagle far beneath.—W.F.A. Job 40:1-5 Between the first and the second part of the Divine discourse, at the end of which Job wholly humbles himself (Job 42:1-6), is interposed a short appeal on the part of tile Almighty, and a short reply on Job’s part, which, however, is insufficient. God calls upon Job to make good his charges (verses 1, 2). Job declines, acknowledges himself to be of no account, and promises silence and submission for the future (verses 3-5). But something more is needed; and therefore the discourse is further prolonged. Job 40:1, Job 40:2 Moreover the Lord. Jehovah’ as in Job 38:1 and in the opening chapters (see the comment on Job 12:9). Answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? rather, Can he that reproveth contend with the Almighty? (see the Revised Version). Does Job, the reprover, think that he can really contend with the Almighty? If so, then he that reproveth God, let him answer it; or, let him answer this; let him answer, that is, what has been urged in Job 38:1-41 and Job 39:1-30. Job 40:3, Job 40:4 Then Job answered, the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; literally, I am light; i.e. I am of small account (see the Revised Version). It would be absurd for one so weak and contemptible to attempt to argue with the Almighty. What shall I answer thee? or, What should I answer thee! What should I say, if I were to attempt a reply? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth (see the comment on Job 21:5). Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but l will proceed no further. The meaning is, "I have already spoken, not once, but more than once. Now I will be silent; I will say no more.’ There is a sort of recognition that the arguments used were futile, but not a full and complete confession, as in Job 42:3. Job 40:6-24 Job’s confession not having been sufficiently ample, the Divine discourse is continued through the remainder of this chapter, and through the whole of the next, the object being to break down the last remnants of pride and self-trust in the soul of the patriarch, and to bring him to complete submission and dependence on the Divine will. The argument falls under three heads—Can Job cope with God in his general providence (verses 6-14)? can he even cope with two of God’s creatures—with behemoth, or the hippopotamus (verses 15-24); with leviathan, or the crocodile (Job 41:1-34)? Job 40:6 Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said (comp. Job 38:1). The storm still continued, or, after a lull, had returned. Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man (see the comment on Job 38:3): I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Job is given every opportunity of making good his pleas before God. If he has anything to say that he really wishes to urge, God is ready, nay, anxious, to hear him. Job 40:8 Wilt thou also (rather, even) disannul my judgment? i.e. maintain that my judgment towards thee has not been just and equitable, and therefore, so far as it lies in thy power, disannul it? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Dost thou think it necessary to accuse me of injustice, and condemn me. in order to establish thine own innocence? But there is no such necessity. The two things—my justice and thy innocence—are quite compatible. Only lay aside the notion that afflictions must be punitive. Job 40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? The might of God’s arm is often dwelt upon in Scripture. He brought Israel out of Egypt ,’ with a mighty hand and stretched-out arm" (Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 7:19, etc.). "Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand," says one of the psalmists (Psalms 89:13). "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!" says Isaiah (Isaiah 51:9). No human strength, not the strength of all men put together, can compare with it. Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? (comp. Job 38:34, Job 38:35; and for the idea of thunder being the actual "voice of God," see Job 37:4, Job 37:5; Psalms 68:33; Psalms 77:18, etc.). Job 40:10 Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. God is at all times "clothed with majesty and strength" (Psalms 93:1), "with glory and beauty" (Psalms 104:1). He "decks himself with light as with a garment" (Psalms 104:2). Job is challenged to array himself similarly. Job 40:11 Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath. "Give vent," i.e; "to thy anger against the wicked, and let it be seen what thou canst do in the way of restraining evil and punishing transgressors." Behold every one that is proud, and abase him. If my moral government does not satisfy thee; Improve upon it. Put down those wicked ones whom thou sayest that I allow to prosper (Job 24:2-23); "abase" them in the dust; do what thou accusest me of not doing. Then wilt thou have established something of a claim to enter into controversy with me. Job 40:12, Job 40:13 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret. The idea of Job 40:11 is still further insisted on. Lot Job manifest himself as a power among men, if he cannot rival God in nature. Let him set the world to rights. Then he may claim to be heard with respect to the moral government of God. Job 40:14 Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand and save thee. When he has done what he has been challenged to do in Job 40:9-13, then Job may venture to contend with God. He will have established his own independence, and God will acknowledge him as an antagonist entitled to argue with him. Job 40:15-24 This passage, together with the whole of Job 41:1-34; has been regarded by some critics as an interpolation. Its omission would certainly not affect the argument; and it is thought, in some respects, to contain traces of a later age than that which most commentators assign to the remainder of the book, or, at any rate, to the greater portion of it. The recurrence to the animal creation, when the subject seemed to have been completed (Job 39:30), is also a difficulty. But, on the other hand, as there is no variation, either in the manuscripts or in the versions, and no marked difference either of style or tone of thought between the rest of the book and this controverted passage, it is best regarded as an integral portion of the work, proceeding from the same author, although perhaps at a later period. No one denies that the style is that of the best Hebrew poetry, or that the book would be weakened by the excision of the passage. "Le style," says M. Renan, "est celui des meilleurs endroits du poeme. Nulle part la coupe n’est pins vigoreuse, le parallelisme plus sonore.’ Job 40:15 Behold now behemoth. "Behemoth" is ordinarily the plural of behemah "a beast;" but it is scarcely possible to understand the word in this sense in the present passage, where it seems to be a noun singular, being followed by singular verbs, and represented by singular pronouns. Hence modern critics almost unanimously regard the word here as designating "some particular animal." The mammoth, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the elephant have been suggested. Of these the mammoth is precluded by the want of any evidence that it existed in Job’s day, and the rhinoceros by the absence of any allusion to its peculiar feature. Authorities are divided almost equally between the elephant and the hippopotamus; but the best recent Hebraists and naturalists incline rather to the latter. Which I made with thee; i.e. "which I created at the same time as I created thee". He eateth grass as an ox; i.e. he is graminivorous, not carnivorous. This is admitted to be true of the hippopotamus, which lives in the Nile during the day, and at night emerges from the river, and devastates the crops of sugar-cane, rice, and millet. Job 40:16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins. The strength of the hippopotamus is its principal characteristic. Weighing often two thousand kilogrammes, and of a short thick make, when roused to anger it has a force which is irresistible. In the water it upsets large beats; on land it forces its way through dense thickets and fences of all kinds. The loins are especially strong, being deep, broad, and immensely muscular. And his force is in the navel of his belly; rather, in the muscles of his belly. The word used (שׁרידים) occurs only in this place. It is a plural form, and therefore cannot designate a single object, like the navel. The root seems to be the Syriac serir, "firm," whence Schultens proposes to translate שׁרירים by firmitates. Job 40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar. The tail of the hippopotamus is remarkably short and thick. It only bends slightly, being stiff and unyielding, like the stem of a cedar. The sinews of his stones (rather, of his thighs) are wrapped together; or, interwoven one with another (so Professor Lee and Mr. Houghton). Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; rather, as tubes of bronze. The great thigh-bones—μηρία of the Greeks—are probably intended. These are hollow, being filled with marrow, and are so strong that they may be well compared to "tubes of bronze." His bones (rather, his ribs) are like bars of iron. Either the ribs, or the solid bones of the lower leg, forearm, etc; are intended. Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God. This is the main argument in favour of the elephant, rather than the hippopotamus, being intended (see Schultens, ad loc.). It has, indeed, been argued that some specimens of the hippopotamus exceed the elephant in height and bulk; but no modern naturalist certainly would place the former animal above the latter in any catalogue raisonée of animals arranged according to their size and importance. The elephant, however, may not have been known to the author of Job, or, at any rate, the Asiatic species, which seems not to have been imported into Assyria before the middle of the ninth century b.c. In this case, the hippopotamus might well seem to him the grandest of the works of God. He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. This is explained to mean, "Only God can attack behemoth with success and slay him; man is powerless to do so" (Canon Cook, Stanley Leathes, Revised Version). But the Egyptians, from very early times, used to attack the hippopotamus and slay him. It is better, therefore, to translate the passage, with Schultens, "He that made him hath furnished him with his sword," and to understand by "his sword" those sharp teeth with which the hippopotamus is said to "cut the grass as neatly as if it were mown’ and to sever, as if with shears’ a tolerably stout and thick stem". Compare the ’Theriaca’ of Nicander, 11. 566, 567— ἪἵππουτὸνΝεῖλοςὑπὲρΣάΐναἰθαλόεσσαν Βόσκειἀρούρησινδὲκακὴνἐπιβάλλεταιἅρπην Job 40:20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food. Neither the hippopotamus nor the elephant is an inhabitant of "mountains,’’ according to our use of the word. But the harim (הָרִים) of the original is used of very moderate eminences. In the highly poetical language of Job, and especially of this passage, the term may well be applied to the hills on either side of the Nile, which approach closely to the river, and to this day furnish the hippopotamus with a portion of its food. Where all the beasts of the field play. By "the beasts of the field" seem to be meant the cattle and other do-mastic animals which are not driven from their pasture-grounds by the "river-horse". Job 40:21 He listh under the shady trees; or, under the lotus trees (Revised Version). The Lotus sylvestris, or Lotus Cyrenaiea, "grows abundantly an the hot banks of the Upper Nile" (Cook). and is thought to be the tree here intended (Schultens. Cook, Houghton, and others). But the identification is very doubtful. The dense shade of trees is sought alike by the hippopotamus and the elephant. In the covert of the reed, and fens. This is exactly descriptive of the hippopotamus; far less so of the elephant. Gordon Cumming says, "At every turn there occurred deep still pools, and occasional sandy islands, densely clad with lofty reeds Above and beyond these reeds stood trees of immense age. beneath which grew a rank kind of grass, on which the sea-cow (hippopotamus) delights to pasture". Job 40:22 The shady trees (or, the lotus trees) cover him with their shadow (see the comment on Job 40:21); the willows of the brook compass him round about. The "willow of the brook" (Leviticus 23:40) is probably the Saliz Aegyptiaca, or safsaf, which grows plentifully in the Nile valley, fringing the course both of the Nile itself and of the many streams derived from it. The Saliz Babylonica, or "weeping willow," is less likely. Job 40:23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not; rather, behold, let a river overflow, he trembleth not (ἐὰνπλημμύραγεηται, οὐμὴαἰσθηθῇ’ LXX). As an amphibious animal, the overflowing of a river has no terrors for the hippopotamus. But it would have some terrors for an elephant. He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. It is better to translate, he is steadfast (or, confident)’ though Jordan swell even to his mouth. "Jordan" probably stands for any large and strong-flowing river. The conjecture that ירדן is a corruption of יר, which often stands for "the Nile," is ingenious, but unnecessary. Job 40:24 He taketh it with his eyes; rather, Shall one take him when he is looking on? "Can he be captured." i.e.’ "when his eyes are open, and when he sees what is intended? No. If captured at all, it must be by subtlety, when he is not on the watch." His nose pierceth through snares; rather, Or can one bore his nostril with cords? i.e. can we lead him away captive, with a ring or hook passed through his nose, and a cord attached (compare the next chapter, Job 40:2)? Job 40:1-5 Jehovah to Job: the first answer-the application. I. JEHOVAH’S TOWARDS JOB. 1. In listening with patient silence to Job’s censures and complaints. "Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?" literally, "Shall the reprover [i.e. of God] contend in contending with the Almighty?" This is the first formal notice taken by Jehovah of the fact that Job had indulged in censorious reflections against the Divine character and administration. They had all been heard by that ever-listening ear which no sound can escape. But no sign or indication had been given that the Deity was cognizant of the reflections cast upon him by his angry servant. Patiently he had suffered Job to proceed against him as far as he thought good. And the like meek, uncomplaining attitude does he still preserve towards them, whether ungodly unbelievers or backsliding professors, who cast reproaches on his Name (Psalms 50:21). The Divine patience in the face of man’s provocations to wrath is a sublime miracle of condescension. 2. In seeking rather to remove Job’s censures by instruction than to silence them by chastisement. When at length Job had ended his long arraignment of the Divine government of the world, it would not have been surprising had God descended on him by way of punishment, calling him to account for his over-bold behaviour. Instead of that, the Almighty causes an ambassador, Elihu, to deal with him by way of education, imparting to him such views of God’s character and ways as might serve to correct his misapprehensions. Nay, himself, the supreme Jehovah, stoops to become his own Ambassador for the selfsame purpose, that he might set before the mind of his servant such an image and presentment of himself that the misconceptions which gave rise to his censures might be removed. What God gave to Job out of the whirlwind he has in the Person of Jesus Christ given to the world—a manifestation of himself—and for a like purpose, not condemnation, but salvation (John 3:17), through the removal of those erroneous ideas which hinder men from giving him their confidence and love (2 Corinthians 4:6). 3. In submitting to discuss the question of his own character with his creature. "He that reproveth God, let him answer it;" i.e. if Job had anything to urge in reply to the representation which God had given of himself, God was ready to attend to it. Surely here was a depth of self-abasement to which only a God of love and grace could stoop! A prefigurement, may it not be said, of the stupendous condescension of the Incarnation, when God, not arrayed in majesty, but clothed in the lowly garb of humanity, stooped to talk with sinful man, as a man talketh with his friend! II. JOB’S TO JEHOVAH. 1. An acknowledgment of insignificance. "Behold, I am vile;" literally, "I am mean, small, of no account, a being to be despised in comparison with thee." It is not yet a sense of moral imperfection that fills the breast of Job, as afterwards, when the second Divine remonstrance ends (Job 42:6), but simply a vivid realization of his utter feebleness and contemptibleness before a God of such incomparable majesty as Jehovah, of such far-reaching power and wide-ranging wisdom. Man never knows his real littleness until he understands the greatness of God. 2. A confession of ignorance. "What shall I answer thee?" Job meant that he felt utterly unable to reply to the arguments which God had adduced in support of his right to govern the world on principles of his own without taking Job or any other creature into his confidence. Hence the resolution, "I will lay my hand upon my mouth," was designed to intimate both his resolution to be silent and his inability to reply. The less men attempt to answer God the better. When God brings his heavenly teachings home to the spirit, the proper attitude is silent admiration and submission. "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." 3. An admission of error. "Once have I spoken; but I will not answer [literally. and I will not answer,’ i.e. I will not reply again]; yea, twice; but [literally, ’and’] I will proceed no further." Whether Job intended to say that he had twice, or only once, answered God, he certainly meant that he had spoken wrongly in his previous utterances. It was much that he had now arrived at a clear perception of his error. It was a good preparation for his ultimate complete withdrawal from the false position which all throughout the controversy with God he had maintained. 4. A profession of amendment. He had done wrong in the past; he would do so no more—at least in this respect. This becoming resolution was "a fruit meet for repentance," a promise of the final soul-surrender which was drawing nigh. Learn: 1. That God deals with men on the principles of grace, even when they richly deserve to receive only justice. 2. That for a puny creature to find fault with God is an amazing act of presumption. 3. That the first sign of goodness in a human soul is a perception, however faint, of its own insignificance. 4. That they who have fallen into sin once should, like Job, endeavour to do so no more. Job 40:6-14 Jehovah to Job: the second answer: 1. A sublime challenge. I. A SUMMONS ISSUED. "Gird up thy loins like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." Here again appears a series of gracious wonders. 1. That Jehovah should propose to continue further the instruction of his servant. But so God deals with all whom he undertakes to educate, teaching them with patience, perseverance, minuteness, giving them line upon line, and desisting not until their spiritual enlightenment is complete. 2. That Jehovah should advise his servant of the searching character of the examination to which he was about to be subjected. He had done so on the first occasion. But after Job’s partial submission it might have been expected that the second ordeal would be easier than the first. In order to prevent the rise of any such misunderstanding, Job is a second time advised that the forthcoming inter. view, like the first, wilt require on his part the most strenuous resolution and endeavour. God seldom takes his people unawares except with mercy. 3. That Jehovah should a second time invite his servant to become his instructor. This is practically what he does in giving Job another opportunity to reply to his interrogations. But there is no limit to God’s grace in stooping to help his creature man. II. A ASKED. "Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" Jehovah means by this to say that Job’s conduct, in maintaining as he had done his own righteousness, really involved two tremendous assumptions. 1. That he (Job) could govern the world better (i.e. more justly) than God. Hence Jehovah inquires if Job proposed to disannul the Divine judgment, and take upon himself the task of administering mundane affairs. Even good men do not always understand how much is involved in the statements they rashly utter. Nor can any interpreter so clearly tell them as God. 2. That he (Job) was a more righteous being than his Maker. No doubt Job would have shrunk from any such deification of himself, had be clearly foreseen how much his utterances meant. Job’s example should teach saints to keep the door of their lips. That Jehovah still urged these interrogations on his servant was a proof that the work of reducing him to complete subjection was not yet accomplished. III. A MADE. That Job should for once take God’s place, and show what he could do in the way of governing the world. "Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" On the supposition that Job is competent to exchange places with the Supreme, he is invited: 1. To array himself in the royal robes of Deity. "Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty." Whatever glory man possesses is not inherent, but derived, and is really as no glory by the reason of the glory that excelleth, viz. the glory of the supreme Creator. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." God "covereth himself with light as with a garment," and is "clothed with honour and with majesty." Jehovah means that Job should similarly array himself in splendours like those of the material creation, or that he should occupy the throne of which these constituted, as it were, the external trappings and visible decorations. 2. To display the righteous wrath of Deity. "Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath;" literally, "Let the overflowings of thy wrath pour themselves forth." A characteristic attribute of Deity to manifest holy indigtation against evildoers (Isaiah 2:10-21), it is here suggested to Job for imitation. This, however, does not warrant good men to usurp the place and function of him who says, "Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord." God’s people may pour forth their righteous indignation against iniquity; upon the evil-doer they are only warranted to pour forth pity. 3. To exercise the judicial functions of Deity. "Behold every one that is proud, and abase him;" or, "Behold all pride and abase it; behold all pride and bring it low; and tread," or cast down, "the wicked in their place." The language sets forth (1) the principle of the Divine administration, which is to humble pride (Leviticus 26:19; Psalms 18:27; Proverbs 8:13; Isaiah 2:11; Matthew 23:12); (2) the certainty of its operation, indicated by the repetition of the challenge, "Behold all pride, and abase it," i.e. as I do without failing; (3) the ease with which it is carried into execution, "Behold pride, and abase it," cast it down with a look, as I do; (4) the efficiency with which it is performed, "Hide them in the dust together, and bind their faces in secret," the allusion being either to the shutting up of prisoners (Umbreit, Delitzsch), or perhaps to the bandaging of mummies or shrouding of corpses (Carey). IV. A RESULT . "Then will I also confess unto thee [or, ’extol thee’] that thine own hand can save thee [or, ’bring to thee help’]." The words imply: 1. That man cannot save’ or even effectually help, himself. The human heart is prone to think it can effect its own deliverance from misery and sin; but the utter helplessness of man to escape condemnation and free himself from the moral pollution in which he naturally lies, or even to surmount the calamities of life, is not only declared by Scripture, but confirmed by all experience. "Without me," said Christ, "ye can do nothing." 2. That nothing short of Divine power is required to accomplish man’s salvation. Only on the hypothesis that Job was possessed of powers and attributes that were Divine does Jehovah admit that he might achieve his own emancipation from either the afflictions that assailed his body or the fears that disturbed his mind. This thought lays the axe to the root of the doctrine of the self-regenerative power of human nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." 3. That such power belongs exclusively to Jehovah. Hence he alone is a God of salvation. "I am a just God and a Saviour, and there is none beside me." Hence also he alone is the quarter to which man should look for succour. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." 4. That, as a consequence’ to God alone belongs the praise of man’s salvation. Jehovah admits that to save a man like Job would be a creditable achievement, an extremely praiseworthy deed, and offers, moreover, to extol him if he can perform it. But to God alone pertains the power that is able to redeem. Hence also to God alone pertains the glory (1 Chronicles 29:11; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 5:9, Revelation 5:12). Learn: 1. That the proper subject of man’s judgment is not God, but himself. 2. That he who thinks to rival Goat is self-deceived. 3. That the visible part of God’s glory is as nothing in comparison to what is yet to be revealed. 4. That God’s government of the world is always in the interests of meekness, truth, and righteousness. 5. That man should not stint the praise of him who hath brought salvation nigh to a fallen world. Job 40:15-24 Jehovah to Job: the second answer: 2. Concerning behemoth. I. THE OF TO OTHER ANIMALS. "He is the chief of the ways of God" (verse 19). This huge monster, this giant among beasts, as perhaps the above-cited phrase indicates, is commonly supposed to have been the hippopotamus, or Nile-horse. It is here described by a variety of particulars. 1. Its terrific strength. Concerning this are noted: (1) its seat or source, the creature’s inward parts—"Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel [literally, the cords,’ i.e. the sinews or muscles] of his belly;" "the sinews of his stones," or legs, "are wrapped together," or firmly interwoven; "his bones are as strong pieces," tubes, "of brass; his bones are like bars of iron" (verses 16-18); and (2) its exercise or manifestation—"he moveth his tail like a cedar," with as much ease "as the mighty tempest is able to drive hither and thither the loftiest trees" (Umbreit). 2. Its herbivorous appetite. "He eateth grass as an ox" (verse 15); "Surely the mountains bring him forth food" (verse 20). Though an animal of such gigantic proportions, the hippopotamus is not carnivorous as might have been anticipated. The quantity of food, however, which he does devour is enormous. "He makes sad havoc among the rice-fields and cultivated grounds, when be issues forth from the reedy fens" (Tristram). 3. Its peaceful disposition. Whereas one might naturally have expected to find him ferocious, "all the beasts of the field play around" (verse 20) while he grazes. If unmolested, he is harmless. How much of the ferocity of even wild animals is the natural response to the cruelty of man! The creatures would seldom rise against man if he did not first tyrannize over them. 4. Its amphibious nature. While capable of living on the land, its peculiar habitation is under the lotus-bushes, and among the reeds and fens of the river. "The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about" (verse 22). 5. Its absolute fearlessness. So much at home among the water is the brute that it matters nothing whether the river is in flood or not. "Behold, if the stream be strong, he doth not quake: he remaineth cheerful, though a Jordan burst upon his mouth" (verse 23). II. THE OF TO MAN. 1. Created along with man. "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee" (verse 15). The language might certainly mean that behemoth was one of those primeval animals which were called into existence with man on the sixth of the creative days (Carey), but probably it implies nothing more than that behemoth had been created to be with man (Bochart, Delitzsch), or as well as man (Umbreit). Though the firstling of the ways of God, a very masterpiece of the Divine Artificer’s hand, he was still a creature like Job. 2. Subordinated at first to man. Though not stated in the passage, it is worthy of being here recalled, that man was by an original appointment of the Creator constituted lord of the creatures (Genesis 1:28). What is suggested by the passage is the loss of this divinely given supremacy over the animals. 3. Untamable by man. "He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares" (verse 24). This may signify that the animal when swimming receiveth the water up to his eyes, and is able to drive right through any snares or nets that may be spread to catch him (Carey); but the rendering of the margin is commonly preferred, "Will any take him in his sight?" i.e. can one catch him while he is watching? "or bore his nose with a gin?" "Neither the open face, nor the stratagem, which one employs with effect with other animals, is sufficient to overpower this monster" (Delitzsch). III. THE OF TO GOD. 1. Behemoth was God’s creature. Job at the best was nothing more. Jehovah had made Job; Jehovah had also made behemoth. This was fitted to remind Job (1) of his dependence upon God; (2) of the humility he should cherish when reflecting on his origin; (3) of the relation he sustained to the animals; and (4) of the kindness he owed to the creatures. 2. Behemoth was God’s masterpiece. "The chief of the ways of God" (verse 19), as above hinted, points to superiority of nature rather than to priority of time. The behemoth was, in its sphere or world, one of the noblest productions of God. Was man also, in his sphere or world, a masterpiece of God? Here was food for reflection to the patriarch, for self-examination, and doubtless also for self-humiliation. 3. Behemoth was God’s subject. "He that made him can make his sword approach unto him" (verse 19). Though this verse, when properly translated, points rather to the peculiar sword which God has bestowed on behemoth, viz." the gigantic incisors ranged opposite one another, with which it grazes upon the meadow as with a sickle" (Delitzsch), yet the sentiment, as it stands, is correct, and was probably one Jehovah intended to suggest, viz. that though Job could not master behemoth, yet he, Jehovah, could. Learn: 1. That he who made the world of creatures is best able to describe them. 2. That God rejoices in the strength and beauty of the lower creatures. 3. That in every sphere of creation there are gradations of excellence among the works of God. 4. That from the study of zoology we may learn much concerning the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator. 5. That when man can put a saddle on behomoth he may begin to cherish the hope of being able to rule the world. BY E. JOHNSON Job 40:1-5 Conclusion of Jehovah’s address: reply of Job: lowliness in the presence of Jehovah. The words of Jehovah express this— I. THAT THE DIVINE WORKS PRESENT A TO HUMAN . (Verse 2.) Can man surpass them? Can he even imitate them? What can he do but silently admire them, and adore the Author of them? Therefore the serious contemplation of the works of God is well fitted to silence an ignorant criticism, and quell the idle murmurs of discontent. To trace his power, wisdom, and fatherly love through the various departments of the visible universe is to deepen in our minds faith in his order. We in some way are instruments for promoting that order, and shall be blessed in proportion to our active or resigned compliance with its laws. II. THE STUDY OF THE DIVINE ORDER, THEN, IS FITTED, NOT ONLY TO SILENCE THE CAVILS OF A SHORT-SIGHTED , BUT TO PRODUCE BOTH FAITH AND . (Verses 3-5.) This is the effect on the mind of Job. He feels his littleness in presence of the infinite Intelligence; and, laying his hand upon his mouth, makes the resolve of silence for the future from all questioning of his Maker. Thus silently, as the storms and frosts of winter give place to the genial warmth and gentle influences of spring, is this proud and passionate heart, which want of sympathy and injustice at the hands of man had stung into proud self-consciousness and presumptuous appeals to God, softened by the voice and revelation of God himself into the heart of a little child. When we see ourselves as we are, because seeing ourselves in relation to him; when we are convinced of our insignificance in ourselves, and of the greatness of that grace which alone sheds a true value and significance upon our lives, peace begins to be shed through the heart, and in the silence of a true submission we wait for that which God may further have to speak to us, instead of assailing him with the clamour of passion and ignorance.—J. Verse 6-41:34 Second discourse of Jehovah: the righteous government of’ God. In the previous discourse we have had especially the universal power and wisdom of God impressed upon us; in the present the thought of the justice of his rule is to be more fully brought into the light: in order thus to bring Job to full conviction, and expel the last remains of anger and pride from his heart; while Divine love triumphs in his repentance (Job 42:6). I. REBUKE OF THE WHICH DOUBTS OF THE JUSTICE OF GOD. (Verses 6-14.) Once again is Job summoned to gird up his loins and prepare for the contest with Divine reason. Let, then, these questions receive an answer from the murmurer’s and the doubter’s lips. Will man "disannul" or bring to nought the justice of God? For this he seems to aim at who would place his own notions of what is right in the place of the Divine. Or, if man would enter on this competition, has he the means to carry out the strife? has he the arm, the power of God? can he wield the thunder of Omnipotence? Let the experiment be tried. Let man clothe himself with the Divine attributes, at least in fancy; let him put on glory and pride, splendour and pomp. Let his anger break forth in fiery floods, and let him overwhelm all the pinnacles of human pride. Let him as just judge cast the wicked clown; strew them in the dust before his righteous retribution. Let man do these things, and Jehovah will praise him, and there will be no need of self-praise and boasting, because his right hand helps him; because he actually possesses the power to carry out his ideas of justice and make them prevail on the earth (comp. Psalms 45:4; Isaiah 59:18; Isaiah 63:5). If man can do none of these things, how can he venture to challenge him who alone can and does execute judgment in the earth? God does ever punish and destroy the wicked, and is ever ready to help the faithful; can man excel or equal God in his ideas or practice of righteousness? "The Lord says to Job, Shall my judgment, by which I either afflict the godly or declare all men to be liars, be empty and vain in thy opinion? Doth it behove me to be unjust, that thy justice may stand? Thou art indeed just, and thou hast my testimony to this (Job 2:1-13.), but it shall not therefore be lawful for thee to slander the judgments of God in affliction." "They who ascribe to themselves in their own strength righteousness before God, simply condemn God and make his judgment void, as if he had not the competence and power to judge and condemn them (Romans 3:4)" (Cramer). II. REBUKE OF JOB’S PRIDE; OF THE GREAT BEASTS. (Verse 15-41:84.) These two vast monsters, behemoth and leviathan, are types of God’s creative power. Their gigantic strength fills feeble man with wonder; and yet they are but as toys in the hand of the Almighty. They are subject to the Divine will; and in them we are to see an exemplification of the manner in which God subdues the pride of the creature. The behemoth. (Verses 15-24.) This huge and terrible animal is a fellow-creature of Job, an effect of the same almighty power. Let Job consider him, and perceive how small and feeble in the presence of God are all created existences, and of how little avail is all haughty and proud confidence in external things before him. Then follows the striking description of the power of the hippopotamus, or horse of the Nile, uniting elasticity with firmness, so that he is "a firstling of the ways of God’" or a masterpiece of the Creator. Everything about this creature is noteworthy; his sword-like, gigantic teeth; his fodder, which whole mountain tracts supply. As he lies among the reeds and lotus-plants, taking his noonday repose, he is the very image of living force. Were a river, a very Jordan, to force its way into his mouth, he could make light of it. Yet this huge beast is entirely in the power of God. His size and strength avail him nought, if God has determined to destroy him. How aptly says the Roman poet, "Force devoid of judgment sinks beneath its own weight; while that which is self-controlled Heaven advances in greatness. God hates the strength that sets in motion ill with the mind" (Her; ’Od.,’ 3. 4)! He, amidst the obscure notions of the pagan mythology, still sees clearly the truth here and in so many Scriptures set forth, that no might, bestial, human, or superhuman, can stand against that will which is of almighty power and absolute righteousness.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 40:3-5 Humility. Job, unconvicted of a lack of integrity or willing departure from the law of rectitude, is nevertheless capable of self-humiliation, and, like all sensitive spiritual persons, is quick to mark his own faults in presence of a purer model. He is now bowed to the very earth. The Lord had spoken and showed Job his littleness and insignificance, and yet Job had ventured to defend himself in presence of the dealings of Jehovah. Now he is humbled and subdued. The process of the Divine discipline of the righteous ’is being unfolded. Job knows that though he can reply to his companions and friends, if he would contend with God "he cannot answer him one of a thousand." The voice of the Lord has brought Job to the dust. He is convicted of his error in pretending to justify himself in presence of the Lord’s dealings. He, not Jehovah, must have been in the wrong. Then, in the attitude of conscious sinfulness before the Holy One, he confesses himself "of no account." Henceforth he will "answer" no more, but lay his hand upon his mouth and keep silence. Job’s attitude of lowly humility before the Lord is another instructive feature in the drama. The man who could stand up before his fellow-men may welt bow down before the Lord. The attitude of humility before the Lord the true one for sinful man. I. IT IS AN MAN IN OF THE AND MAJESTY OF THE DIVINE NAME. II. IT IS AN TO THE OF MAN. Where should the creature so full of imperfection be found but in the dust? III. IT IS AN ONE, WHO HAS A JUST OF HIS OF UPON THE WISDOM AND POWER OF JEHOVAH. One so wholly frail and dependent—a poor worm—may well bow in lowly, humble prostration before the Lord of the whole earth. IV. IT IS AN TO HIM WHO HAS RIGHTLY UPON THE , MAJESTY, AND GLORY OF GOD, AND HIS OWN AND IN THEREOF. This was precisely Job’s case. And it is the precursor of that lifting up which is granted only to them who are truly bowed down.—R.G. Verse 15-41:34 The creatures of his power. Out of the storm and tempest, just symbols of the Divine power, the Lord answers Job in words calculated further and deeper to humble the prostrate one. The Divine hand is tempering the already yielding clay and preparing it for the impress of the Divine stamp. The Lord calls Job to compare himself with him. This Job cannot venture to do. The next process is to show how weak is man in presence of the creatures of the Divine power. In prolonged words the great might of "behemoth" and "leviathan" are set forth; but it is with a view to set forth the Divine might as illustrated in these the creatures of his hands. The process of reasoning is—If the creature of God is mighty, how much more so is the Creator himself! Thus the Divine works speak for God; and their voice every wise one will hear and heed. The greatness of nature, the marvellous works of the Divine hands; their unnumbered and innumerable hosts; their multiplied variety; their wonderful structure; their beauty; their continuous preservation; their mutual adaptation and service;—all declare the wonders of the Divine hand. In later days the eyes of men were directed to the insignificant sparrow, the ,here bird on the house-top, and from the Divine care over it men were led to learn lessons of faith and trustful hope. So here, by reference to the greater creatures of the Divine power, frail man is led lower and lower into the depths of humiliation and self-abasement. The creatures display— I. THE DEPTH OF THE WISDOM OF GOD. II. THE OF THE DIVINE POWER. III. THE OF THE DIVINE . "All thy works praise thee, O God." IV. THEY TEACH THE LESSON TO MAN OF AND LOWLY TRUST. He who cares for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the field will not neglect frail man. Happy is he who has learnt to trust in the Lord and do good, knowing that he shall dwell in the land, and verily he shall be fed.—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 40:1, Job 40:2 Contending with the Almighty. Job has been contending with the Almighty, and now God confronts him with the fact. This is the practical point to which we have come after being led through the picture-gallery of nature which has revealed to us the greatness of God in contrast with the littleness of man. I. WE ARE TEMPTED TO CONTEND WITH GOD. 1. By our liberty. We have freedom of thought as well as freedom of will. Thus we seem to be able to turn round and take up a position of our own in opposition to God. 2. By our trouble. It was great distress that drove Job into a contention with God. We do not find him attempting or desiring anything of the kind in the opening scene of the story. When trouble comes upon us we are displeased, and not seeing why it is sent we are tempted to murmur. 3. By our sin. Even Job, innocent as regards the gross charges of his three censors, was imperfect, as he is now brought to admit. Now, sin is opposition to God, and the attempt to justify it leads to contention with God. 4. By God’s forbearance. Because he is long-suffering we presume upon his patience. We are like Jacob wrestling with the "Traveller unknown," who only maintained the conflict so long as his mysterious Antagonist refrained from putting forth his strength (Genesis 32:24-32). II. WE ARE WRONG IN WITH GOD. This contention shows faults in us. 1. Ignorance. If we knew all, we should see how foolish the whole contention was. But we stumble into it in our confusion and folly. 2. Rebellion. Oar business is to submit and obey. When we dispute we are resisting, if only mentally. 3. Distrust. God is not trusted when we venture to oppose ourselves to him; for if he were we should be silent, not perhaps understanding his action, but possessing our souls in patience, and waiting for the final disclosure that is to explain God’s treatment of his children. III. IT IS USELESS FOR US TO CONTEND WITH GOD. Our position in relation to God does not offer us a chance of success. 1. Inequality. This is a contest of feebleness with almightiness. How can the finite hope for a victory in wrestling with the Infinite? 2. Incompetence. We do not know how to put our ease before God, and his action is not understood by us. Therefore our contention is confused and misleading. There is only one way of coming to terms with God, and that is to accept his terms. IV. IT IS FOR US TO CONTEND WITH GOD. We are not left with the doleful prospect of simply submitting to the inevitable. Although we cannot see the good in God’s action, if only we have faith in him we may rest assured that he is doing just the very best thing for us and all his creatures. This assurance depends on his nature and character. He is a just God and a Saviour, and therefore he cannot be acting unjustly and injuriously. Our indictment of God’s goodness is a huge blunder from beginning to end. Let us but trust his goodness in the dark and in the face of the most distressful events, and in the end we shall see that our safety lies in submission.—W.F.A. Job 40:4 Humbled before God. At length Job is brought near to the state of mind that God desires to see in him. Proud and defiant before the unwise and unjust attacks of his human accusers, he is humbled in the dust in presence of the revelation of God. I. THE VISION OF GOD IN HIS WORKS HUMBLES US. Job has seen a succession of vivid pictures of the works of God in nature. They all transcend human efforts. Then how great must the Author of nature be! How small are we in his awful presence! Pride is always a form of godlessness. We forget God when we exalt ourselves. Our self-exaltation is only possible while we shut ourselves up in a little world. When we see God we are humbled. Now, this is not only because God is supremely powerful. There is some heroism in the weak maintaining their right in the presence of the strong. But God’s greatness in nature is seen in intellectual and moral features. The wonderful thought of God impressed upon his works reveals a mind infinitely greater than the human mind; and the care with which God provides for all his creatures—wild asses, heedless ostriches, and repulsive ravens, as well as those creatures that seem more deserving of his providence—shows us how good God is. Thus the wisdom and goodness of God, added to the power that makes resistance useless, crown the revealed character of God with glory, and invite our humble adoration. II. SILENCE BEFORE GOD IS THE TRUE OF . It cannot be said that Job is as yet deeply conscious of sin. The "vileness" of which he makes confession is rather his mean estate, his poor, feeble, human helplessness, than moral guilt. Therefore it does not need to be made much of, or regarded as anything like a full confession. It is, however, the mark of humility to admit it, and then to relapse into silence. This is the Condition to which the great argument of the drama is designed to bring its readers. We are too busy with our own performances in religion. In prayer we have too many words to speak to God. We are always telling him what he knows already, and often dictating to him what we think he should be doing, instead of patiently waiting for his voice and humbly submitting to his will. There is room for more silence in religion and in all life. III. SILENT IS A FOR , At the end of the book we discover that God exalts Job and loads him with favour and prosperity. But he must be humbled first. The later honour is only possible after Job has abased himself. So long as he justified himself and arraigned the justice of God, he could not be restored and exalted. Thus the poem shows to us the way in which God disciplines his servants and prepares them to enjoy his goodness. Humility is the door to honour. This is a very Christian truth. It is taught by Christ: "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." It is gloriously illustrated in the life and death and exaltation of Christ (see Philippians 2:5-11).—W.F.A. Job 40:8 Impugning God’s justice. I. AT IS GOD’S JUSTICE. This may not be clearly seen or admitted at once. The connection between the occurrences of human history and the Divine mind that controls them is not visible to the eye of sense. Thus we may complain freely of what God does without intending to charge God with wrong. And yet this is what the complaint leads to and involves. If we do not believe that things fall out by chance, and if we do not hold that the world is administered at present by a lower providence, we must be virtually impugning the justice of God when we object to what we cannot deny to be his actions. It may be desirable that complaints should be pushed to their ultimate results, for then we shall see whether they are reasonable or not. If we are persuaded that God is just, we shall see that it is unwise and wrong to murmur at what happens to us in the course of providence. II. WE ARE TEMPTED TO IMPUGN GOD’S JUSTICE. God seemed to be acting unjustly to Job. The present aspect of the world is not that which we should expect from a fair and equitable ruler. Our own lives are subjected to rude shocks that strike us as perplexingly unjust. 1. There is injustice arising from unjust men. Job was unjustly treated, not by God, but by his three friends. We should not charge God with the sins of our own brethren. 2. We cannot see the whole of God’s plan. The opening appears to be unfair. But wait for the end. God’s justice is large and far-reaching. It will be revealed when the whole sweep of his dealings with us is comprehended. The arc ends in an acute angle. Only the complete circle is without a break and smooth throughout. III. IT IS BOTH FOOLISH AND WRONG TO IMPUGN GOD’S JUSTICE, 1. It is foolish. We are not in a position to judge; we do not know all the facts, and our standard of judgment is perverted by our own prejudices and unjust claims. The tyro cannot wisely criticize the achievements of the master. 2. It is wrong. If we knew God we should not charge ]aim foolishly. But we should know him if we drew near to him in the right spirit. Too often our doubt of God’s justice is not so much the product of a purely intellectual difficulty as the result of a moral fault. It shows lack of faith in his goodness, and it springs from a miserable weakness that will not venture to trust God. IV. FAITH FORBIDS US TO IMPUGN GOD’S JUSTICE. Even Christ does not clear up the mystery, and still we have to walk by faith. We cannot yet see that God is dealing justly with us. But we have good grounds for confidence in our Lord’s revelation of the nature and character of God. Christ shows us the fatherly nature of God. He makes us see that God is good and full of love for his children. At the same time, he exalts the perfect rectitude of God. Such a knowledge of God as we have in Christ should fill our souls with faith and hope, because such a God as Christ has made known cannot act unjustly, although for a time he may appear to do so. He who knows God in Christ cannot fall into pessimism. He should be able to say with Browning— " … This world’s no blot, Nor blank: it means intensely, and means good." W.F.A. Job 40:12 The humiliation of the proud. The idea is something like this: If Job can sit as a judge over what God does, he ought to be able to take God’s judgment-seat and execute justice among men. But can he do this? Can he humiliate the proud? If he is incapable of this act of justice, how small a creature he is before the great God who raises up and casts down! I. THE OF THE PROUD IS GREATLY NEEDED, This particular act of justice is singled out as though it were pre-eminent in importance. It is important on many accounts. 1. For the sake of the proud. Pride is ruinous to the heart in which it has taken up its abode, eating up the better feelings and preparing for the incoming of other sins. The only hope for a proud man is that he should be brought low, and so emptied of self. 2. For the sake of others. The proud spirit is domineering. Pride is at the root of tyranny. If men are to have their rights, the pride of the exalted must be brought down. 3. For God’s sake. Pride is an insult to God, a usurpation of the Divine rights and honours. Before God man is small, weak, sinful. His only titling condition is one of humility and complete self-abasement in the sight of Heaven. II. THE OF THE PROUD IS MOST TO , Can Job do this? It is not to be supposed that he can. Pride is doubly strong. 1. In its own character. It is of the nature of pride to induce self-confidence. Even while the world is pointing the finger of scorn at the proud man, he wraps himself in the mantle of his own self-importance, and despises contempt. Here is a great difference between pride and vanity, for vanity is easily cast down, because it lives on the admiration of the world, while pride is self-contained, and may be most intense when it is least honoured. 2. In its circumstances. There are poor and unfortunate proud men. But, as a rule, success and power are the temptations to pride. Thus the proud man is entrenched behind his good fortune, and he uses all the means that prosperity has given him to defend his position. III. THE OF THE PROUD IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY GOD. This is most decidedly a Divine work. It is beyond the reach of Job or of any man. God humbles pride: 1. By his power. The proud man is helpless before his Maker. His resources are as poverty itself, and all his self-importance is but childish pretence. God lifts up the lowly, and sets down the mighty with a word. 2. In his justice. Man’s pride is not attacked simply because God is jealous of it, but because it is an evil thing. An insult to God, an injury to man, it needs to be cast out in order that a right spirit of humility and obedience may take the place of it. 3. For the sake of his love. God humbles the proud man because he loves him. The abasement is not a vindictive act, but a merciful preparation for salvation. The goodness of God leads him to cast down all pretence and self-importance, so that he may raise up a new and more stable structure of solid merit in place of these empty shows. The proud but useless forest is cleared that the precious grain of wheat may be sown in its place. God cuts down man’s pride to make room for Christ’s grace.—W.F.A. Job 40:14 Self-salvation. When Job is strong enough to humble the proud he may be able to save himself; but as he cannot do the first work he is not equal to the second. Thus we are introduced to the impossibility of self-salvation. I. THE VAIN ATTEMPT. Men are continually trying to save themselves. 1. In danger. We feel that we need deliverance. Job desired to be saved from disease, poverty, injustice, cruelty. We all wish to escape from trouble. Some of us may be more anxious to escape from sin, our greatest enemy. There are evils, then, and the perception of them urges us to save ourselves. 2. In distrust. We ought to look to the Almighty for strength, and to the All-merciful for deliverance. But if we forget God we are tempted to rely on the arm of flesh. If we had a due appreciation of God’s ability and willingness to save, we should not dream of trying to save ourselves. 3. In self-confidence. We must think little of our sin, or much of ourselves, if we imagine that we can effect our own salvation. We have not yet discovered our own weakness, nor the depth of our fall, if we suppose that there is no greater mischief with us than what we can remedy. II. THE CERTAIN FAILURE. No man has yet saved himself. Is it likely that the latest to try the experiment will succeed? We have not yet conquered our own hearts, although we have often determined to do so. Is it probable that our next attempt will be more successful? There are good grounds for being assured that it will not. 1. The greatness and power of sin. No one who has not tried to break its yoke knows how terrific this is. We simply cannot get away from our own sin. Not only does the sin harden into a habit and so become a second nature, but it weakens the moral fibre of the soul. The prisoner languishing in the dungeon is not only held in by stone walls and iron bars, but the unhealthy condition of his confinement weakens his body so that he has not strength to break away from even smaller constraints. 2. The justice of God. This does not hold us to our sin, but it binds us to its consequences. We cannot deny that we deserve the wrath of Heaven. We cannot atone for sin. All our subsequent service is no more than is due from us, and the old debt still remains uncancelled. III. THE . We have to learn that we cannot save ourselves, not merely to discourage useless efforts, but to lead us to the true salvation of God. What we cannot do for ourselves God can and will do if we will let him. 1. Though Jesus Christ. He was called Jesus because he would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). He is the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Christ delivers from sin as well as from its result—death. His power to save springs from his atoning sacrifice; but he saves now as a living, present Redeemer. He is the hand of God put forth to deliver the helpless and ruined. 2. In regeneration. We need to be born again (John 3:3). So great a change cannot be brought about by ourselves; Christ alone can effect it. He has not come so much to bestow on us gifts as to change our whole life, so that we may become new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).—W.F.A. Job 40:15-24 Behemoth the great. Two monster animals, the hippopotamus and the crocodile, are set before us in typical characteristics, to idealize the great works of God in the animal kingdom. I. GOD IS THE CREATOR OF THE ANIMAL WORLD. "God made the beast of the earth after his kind" (Genesis 1:25). We have not left the presence of God when we have come to study natural history. Here we may see indications of Divine thought. Even the coarsest wild animals are under the care of God. 1. Therefore let no one hurt them needlessly. 2. If God provides for behemoth, will he not much more provide for man? II. AND HAVE A PLACE IN THE DIVINE ECONOMY. Behemoth is famous first for his size, and secondly for his physical strength. Now, these two qualities are among the lowest of good things. Still, they are good. God is glorified even by the physical greatness of his works. The chief glory of the stars is in their magnitude and in the vastness of the space which they occupy. A mere mass of flesh is the lowest excellence. Yet even this may be good if it is not abused. How much more may higher gifts? III. IN LOWER IS NO FOE IN HIGHER . Behemoth is big and strong. But he is stupid and brutal. When he opens his cavernous jaws and his dull eyes appear over them, set in a mountain of black, shapeless flesh, he is positively hideous. The gravity of his unconscious attitudes of supreme ugliness has almost a touch of humour in it. We begin to wonder how the Divine Artist who shaped the graceful gazelle and gave the perfection of motion to the swallow could have fashioned the ugly and clumsy hippopotamus. Perhaps one object was to show what a poor thing bulk of body is in comparison with brains, with thought and soul. The young man who is more proud of his biceps than of anything else belonging to him may see his ideal humiliated in behemoth. For no man can attain to the strength of a hippopotamus. IV. THERE IS A HARMONY IN ALL GOD’S WORKS. Behemoth is suited to his home among the coarse grasses or the Nile. There his voracious appetite can find ample sustenance. God provideps for all his creatures, and he suits all his creatures for the spheres in which he has called them to live. Behemoth is naturally of a low and stupid nature, and he has all that his nature requires. Man is of a higher nature. He must not be content to dream his existence away in the sleepy land where soul-life is stifled. The true "lotus-eaters" are not refined Sybarites, but hippopotami. V. GOD, WHO WORKS IN THE GREAT, WORKS ALSO IN THE LITTLE. He made the monsters of the deep. He also made the microscopic cell. From behemoth to the amoeba all the living creatures of nature are" fearfully and wonderfully made." When we think of God behind the tiny cell, quickening its mysterious life, "The small becomes dreadful and immense." VI. BULK AND POWER ARE NOT THE MOST THINGS. Behemoth is a vegetarian. He is not cruel, like his much smaller fellow-creature, the lion. The little asp that he tramples beneath his feet is far more deadly. Big troubles may not be so hurtful as troubles that we can scarcely see till they have bitten us.—W.F.A. Job 41:1-34 The crowning description of a natural marvel—the "leviathan," or crocodile—is now given, and with an elaboration to which there is no parallel in the rest of Scripture. It forms, however, a fit climax to the gradually more and more elaborate descriptions of Job 38:39-41; Job 39:1-30; and Job 40:15-24. Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? The word leviathan, or more properly livyathan, which has previously occurred in Job 3:8, and is found also in Psalms 74:14; Psalms 104:26; and Isaiah 27:1, seems to be derived from לוי, "twisting," and תן, "a monster," whence the תּנּין or תּנּים of the Pentateuch and also of Job (Job 7:12), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:11), and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 29:3). It is thus a descriptive epithet rather than a name, and has not unnaturally been used to designate more than one kind of animal. The best modern critics regard it as applied sometimes to a python or large serpent, sometimes to a cetacean, a whale or grampus, and sometimes, as hero, to the crocodile. This last application is now almost universally accepted. The crocodile was fished for by the Egyptians with a hook, and in the time of Herodotus was frequently caught and killed (Herod; 2:70); but probably in Job’s day no one had been so venturous as to attack him. Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? rather, or press down his tongue with a cord? (see the Revised Version); i.e. "tie a rope round his lower jaw, and so press down his tongue." Many savage animals are represented in the Assyrian sculptures as led along by a rope attached to their mouths. Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? rather, a reed, or a rope of reeds. The exact meaning is doubtful. Or bore his jaw through with a thorn? A hook or ring is meant, rather than a "thorn"—such a "hook" or "ring" as was commonly used for keeping fish captive in the water, or for bringing prisoners of rank into the presence of the monarchs who had captured them. Job 41:3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Ironical. Will he behave as human captives do, when they wish to curry favour with their captors? Job 41:4 Will he make a covenant with thee? As captive monarchs do. Wilt thou take him as a servant for ever? (comp. Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:17). Job 41:5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? The Egyptians were especially fond of pet animals, and Job’s countrymen, it may be assumed, were the same. Besides dogs, we find the Egyptians keeping tame antelopes, leopards, and monkeys. A tame crocodile would certainly seem to be an extraordinary pet, but Herodotus says that the Egyptians tamed them (2:39), and Sir Gardner Wilkinson informed me that he had known some tame ones at Cairo. The Mesopotamian Arabs domesticate falcons to assist them in the chase of the bustard and the gazelle. And this usage, though not represented on the Assyrian monuments, is likely to have been ancient. Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? i.e. Wilt thou so secure him that he may be delivered over to thy handmaidens, to be made their pet and playfellow? Job 41:6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? rather. Shall the companions make a traffic of him? By "the companions" we may understand either the guilds or companies of fishermen, which might be regarded as engaged in making the capture, or the travelling bands of merchants, who might be supposed willing to purchase him and carry him away. As no one of these last could be imagined rich enough to make the purchase alone, a further question is asked, Shall they part him among the merchants? i.e. allow a number to club together, each taking a share. Job 41:7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? The hippopotamus was captured in this way by the Egyptians at an early date, and hence the idea of trying the same mode of capture with the crocodile would naturally arise; but in the time of Job it would seem that no one had been bold enough to attempt it. The skin of the crocodile is penetrable in very few places, and his capture by a single man with a harpoon, though now sometimes practised, is still a work of danger and difficulty. Or his head with fish-spears? Fish-spears would have small effect on the head of a crocodile, which is bony and covered by a very tough skin. There is a vulnerable place, however, at the point where the head joins the spine, at which the ancient Egyptians, when they ventured to attack the crocodile, were wont to strike. Job 41:8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. This is again ironical, like Job 41:3-6. "Only just put forth thy hand against him—bethink thee of war—do it once and no more.". The idea is that once will be enough. A man will not live to do it a second time. Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain; i.e. the hope of capturing or killing him. Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? The very sight of the savage and invulnerable animal is enough to make a man fall to the ground with fear. Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up. The crocodile is often seen asleep, or nearly asleep, upon sand-banks washed by the Nile. He would be a bold man who should creep near, and stir him up. Who then is able to stand before me? Here we reach the point whereto the whole argument has been working up. If man cannot cope with creatures, which are the work of God’s hands, how much leas can he presume to cope with him who is their Maker! Job 41:11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? i.e. "Who hath laid me under any obligation, so that I should be bound to fall in with his views, and take such a course as he might prescribe?" The allusion is to Job’s persistent demand for a hearing—a controversy (Job 9:34, Job 9:35; Job 10:3; Job 13:3, Job 13:22; Job 23:3-7, etc.)—a trial, in which he shall plead with God, and God with him, upon even terms as it were, and so the truth concerning him, his sins, his integrity, his sufferings, and their cause or causes, shall be made manifest. God resists any and every claim that is made on him to justify himself and his doings to a creature. He is not a debtor to any. If he explains himself to any extent, if he condescends to give an account of any of his doings, it is of pure grace and favour. It has been observed that we might have expected this to be the conclusion of the entire discourse begun in Job 38:1-41; and that no doubt would have been, according to ordinary laws of human composition, its more proper place. But Hebrew poetry is erratic, and pays little regard to logical lawn If anything important has been omitted in its more proper place, it is inserted in one which is, humanly speaking, less proper. The details concerning the crocodile, which are calculated to deepen the general impression, having been passed over where we might have expected them, are here subjoined, as filling out the description of Job 38:1-10. Job 41:12 I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. The further description is introduced by this formal announcement, which is perhaps best rendered, I will not keep silence concerning his limbs’ nor concerning the matter of his might’ or the comeliness of his proportion (see the Revised Version); i.e. I will enter upon these points seriatim, and set them forth severally. Job 41:13 Who can discover the face of his garment? Some critics understand this in a general sense, "Who can lay him open to assault?" Others suggest a more definite meaning," Who can strip off his outer covering?" the scaly coat, that is, which forms his special defence, and expose the comparatively tender skin below? If this were done, he would then be at the hunter’s mercy; but who will undertake to do it? Who, again, can come to him with his double bridle? Come, i.e; with a double bridle in his hand, and place it in the monster’s jaws. (So Schultens and Professor Lee.) Others translate, "Who will come within [the range of] his double bridle? and understand by "his double bridle" his two rows of teeth—Homer’s ἑρκοςὀδόντων (Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, Professor Stanley Leathes, etc.). Job 41:14 Who can open the doors of his face? Who can make him open his huge, gaping jaws, if he chooses to keep them shut? Who would dare to do so? His teeth are terrible round about. The crocodile has "two rows of sharply pointed teeth, thirty or more on each side". They are "so formed and disposed as to tear their prey rather than masticate it". The voracity of the full-grown crocodile is great; and.he will not scruple to attack and devour men, if they come in his way. The natives of Upper Egypt have a wholesome terror of him. Job 41:15 His scales are his pride; or, his pride is in the channeling of his scales (literally, of his shields). The scales of the crocodile are arranged in five rows along his entire back, with a depression between the rows which is like a "channel." Each individual scale resembles a shield. They are shut up together as with a close seal; each, i.e.’ closely attached to its fellow,so that there is no space between them. "A rifle-ball," according to Canon Tristram, "glances off from them as from a rock". Job 41:16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them (see the comment on the preceding verse). Job 41:17 They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered; literally, they are soldered one to another (comp. Isaiah 41:7). Job 41:18 By his neesings a light doth shine. "Neesings" is old English for "sneezings." According to Aristotle, the crocodile is in the habit of sneezing, but I do not find this fact noted by modern writers Boehart asserts it very positively, but he does not profess to speak from his own knowledge. And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. This probably does not mean more than that his eyes flash with light upon occasion, which is no doubt true, though the eyes, being small, have not generally attracted very much attention. Job 41:19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. The description now becomes highly poetical, and it would be a mistake to endeavour to substantiate it. The intention is to represent the impression which the animal would make on an impressible but unscientific observer viewing it in its native haunts for the first time. Splashing, snorting, and throwing up spray all around, it would seem to be breathing out steam and smoke, from which the idea of fire is inseparable (see the next verse). Job 41:20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron; rather, as from a seething pot and rushes; i.e. as from a pot heated by burning rushes. Job 41:21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. All the representations of dragons breathing smoke and flames, found in the myths and sagas of so many countries, probably rest upon the observed fact of ,team or spray streaming forth from the mouth and widely opened nostrils of the crocodile. The steam has seemed to be smoke, and smoke has naturally suggested flame and fire. Job 41:22 In his neck remaineth strength. It has been well remarked that the whale has no neck, or at any rate none that is visible, while the crocodile has one that is of great strength, and that naturally attracts observation. "Le cou assez marque," says the ’Dictionnaire des Sciences’ (l.s.c.). It is nearly of the same diameter with the head at the point of junction, and where it adjoins the body is still larger. And sorrow is turned into joy before him; rather, and terror danceth before him (see the Revised Version). Whithersoever he proceeds, he causes terror; people tremble, take to flight, and disappear. Job 41:23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together. Even the softer muscles, and parts which in most animals are yielding and flabby, in the crocodile are bound up, and, as it were, soldered together (comp. Job 41:17). They are firm in themselves; rather, they are firm upon him; literally, fused upon him, like detached pieces of metal, which are melted one into another. They cannot be moved. His whole body is so firmly compacted together that it is all one piece; the separate parts cannot be moved separately. One result is that the crocodile has great difficulty in turning. Job 41:24 His heart is firm as a stone. Some regard this as intended physically, and note that the great saurians, with their cold and sluggish circulation, have hearts which are comparatively torpid, not contracting or expanding readily. Others take the "stony heart" to mean a fierce and obstinate disposition. In either case, the description will well suit the crocodile. Yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. A repetition and slight exaggeration of the preceding idea. Job 41:25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid. Egyptian historians said that one of their early kings had been slain by a crocodile. The worship paid to crocodiles in some parts of Egypt, and the hatred felt towards them in others, were probably alike inspired by fear. AElian says that, in the districts where crocodiles were worshipped, it was not safe for any one to wash his feet or to draw water at the.river, and that in the vicinity of some towns people did not dare to walk along the bank of the stream (’Nat. An.,’ 10.24). In modern times they have been known to precipitate men from the bank into the water by a sweep of their tail, and then to devour them at their leisure. By reason of breakings they purify themselves; rather, they are confounded. The "breakings" may by either the breakings forth of the animal from his lair among the Nile rushes, or his "breaking" of the weapons of his assailants. Job 41:26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold. It either makes no impression or it snaps in his hand. Equally vain are the spear, the dart, and the javelin. Habergeon is a mistranslation. Job 41:27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass (rather, bronze) as rotten wood. Even the hardest metals are useless against the crocodile. Moderns observe that even firearms are of little avail against him. The back and tail, at any rate, resist musket-balls (Bochart); and a rifle-bullet will glance aside if it strikes one of the scales (Tristram); see Job 41:15. Job 41:28 The arrow cannot make him flee; literally, the son of the bow (comp. Lamentations 3:13, where arrows are called "sons of the quiver"). Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble. (On "stubble" as a metaphor for weakness, see above, Job 21:18, and compare the next verse.) Job 41:29 Darts are counted as stubble; rather, the club is counted as stubble. Maces, either of hard wood or of metal, were used by the Assyrians. They had heavy heads, and were quite as effective weapons as either swords or spears. If a strong man could have succeeded in dealing a blow with one on the head of a crocodile, it would probably have proved fatal; but intending assailants were doubtless charged, and scattered "as stubble," before they could find opportunity to strike. He laugheth at the shaking of a spear; rather, at the rushing of the javelin (see the Revised Version). Job 41:30 Sharp stones are under him; rather, jagged potsherds are under him; i.e. "his belly is covered with jagged scales"—a thing which is true of the crocodile, but scarcely of any other beast. He spreadeth sharp pointed things (rather, a threshing-wain, or a corn-drag) upon the mire. He leaves on the mud on which he has lain, i.e.’ an impression as of an Oriental threshing-wain, or corn-drag, which is "a thick plank of timber, stuck full on the under side, of flints or hard cutting stones arranged in the form of the palate or rough tongue of a cow". The mud-banks on which crocodiles have been lying are said to be scored all over with such impressions. Job 41:31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. The rush of the crocodile through the water of the stream or pool in which he dwells causes a stir and a commotion which is forcibly compared to the boiling of water in a caldron. He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. It is generally allowed that by "the sea" here is meant the Nile, as in Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 19:5; and Nahum 3:8. The swirl of the Nile, as the crocodile makes his rush, is like the heaving of a pot of boiling oil or ointment Job 41:32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. He leaves a white trail behind him as he passes from sand-bank to sand-bank through the shallows. It is as if the Nile had grown old and put on hoar hairs. Job 41:33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear (comp. Job 41:24-29). Job 41:34 He beholdeth all high things He looks without fear on everything that is high and great. Nothing alarms him; nothing disturbs his equanimity. He is a king over all the children (literally, sons) of pride (comp. Job 28:8). He feels himself superior to all other animals that come within his ken. They may be "sons of pride," but he has more to be proud of than the proudest of them. Ordinarily, the lion poses as "the king of beasts;" but here he is, as it were, deposed, and relegated into the second position (Job 38:39), the crocodile being exalted into his place. From different points of view, there are several great beasts which might be regarded as the lords of the animal creation. Job 41:1-34 Jehovah to Job: the second answer: 3. Concerning leviathan. I. THE ANIMAL . 1. A serpentine creature. This implied in the name leviathan, which signifies "a wreathed or twisted animal," as distinguished from the tannin, or "long-extended monsters" (Genesis 1:21). 2. An aquatic monster. Though amphibious as to its habits, the behemoth was essentially a land animal; the entire description of leviathan points to a tenant of the deep (verses l, 2, 31, 32). 3. A gigantia crocodile. Believed by earlier interpreters to be the whale, it is now commonly accepted as the crocodile, which, equally with behemoth, frequented the Nile. II. THE MONSTER . 1. Its untamable ferocity. (Verses 1-9.) The idea is presented in a variety of ways. (1) The impossibility of catching the animal is his tongue with a cord exhibited. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or which thou lettest down?’ literally, "or with a cord pressest thou down his tongue," The meaning is that the crocodile cannot be caught like a fish; hence men cannot do with it as fishers do with fish, "put a hook [literally, ’a rope of rushes’] into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn," rather "with a hook or ring "—the allusion being to the Egyptian mode of dealing with fish that have been caught. "They passed the stalk of a rush through the gills, and thus attached them together, in order more conveniently to carry them home’. (2) The impossibility of utilizing the animal is next represented. "Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?" in order to be spared when caught?—persuading thee, perhaps, that thou canst turn him to good and profitable account. Well, what canst thou make of him? A bond-servant like one of the domesticated animals? "Will he make a covenant with thee, to take him as a perpetual slave?"—a toy or plaything for thyself or children? "Wilt thou play with him as a little bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?" an article of trade for the merchants? Wilt thou kill him and cut him up for the fish-market? "Shall the companions [literally, ’ the partners,’ i.e. of the fish-guild] banquet of him [or rather, as the parallel shows, ’ trade upon or with him ’]? shall they part him among the merchants?" literally, "the Canaanite" or Phoenician merchants. (3) The impossibility of destroying him is further portrayed. "Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish-spears?" Nay, wert thou only to lay thine hand upon him, thou shouldst have speedy cause to repent thy rashness; "thou shouldest remember the battle" so decidedly that thou wouldst not care to repeat it. Nay, the hope of any assailant being able to prevail against the formidable creature is absolutely vain, the very sight of it being such as to fill one with dismay. Probably no one in Job’s time had ever thought of attacking the monster, although crocodiles were caught in Egypt prior to the days of Herodotus. 2. Its terrifying aspect. (Verses 12-24.) Jehovah invites attention to three points: the parts of the animal, i.e. the separate limbs or members; the power of the brute, i.e. the great strength of which it is possessed; and the comely proportion of the creature, i.e. the beauty of his armour, or hide. (1) The limbs of the animal. Its massive jaws set round with a twofold row of teeth: "Who can come to him with [or, ’within’] his double bridle?" i.e. who can enter within his double teeth, which "are terrible round about"? Its mouth emitting violent puffs of hot breath: "Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth." Its nostrils sneezing as it lies basking in the sun: "By his neesings a light doth shine." Its eyes flashing in the morning light as they rise above water. "His eyelids are like the eyelids of the morning;" i.e. they appear first above the water, intimating that the creature’s body is about to rise as the first streaks of dawn announce the approach of day. Hence to describe the dawn the Egyptians depict two eyes of the crocodile. (2) The strength of the brute. "In his neck remaineth strength," so that "sorrow rejoiceth before him" (margin), which falls below the original—"On his neck strength dwells, and horror danceth before him," meaning that wherever the monster appears he spreads consternation before him, which is represented by a lively poetic fancy as if those who ran before the animal were dancing before him. The effect of his appearance is likewise vividly portrayed. "When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves," literally, "from (or by) breakings" i.e. the breakings forth of the creature from his lair, they miss the way, becoming utterly confounded in presence of the huge brute. (3) The comely proportion of the creature. The impenetrable hide of the crocodile is one of its most characteristic features. Jehovah describes its close-fitting scales, which, like strong shields soldered together (verse 15), are so close that no air can come between (verse 15), and so fast together that they cannot be sundered (verse 17), and so impervious that "darts are counted as stubble, and he laugheth at the shaking of a spear" (verses 26-29). Even the under parts of this creature’s body, unlike those of other animals, are compact and firm (verse 23), being furnished also with splinters of potsherd, i.e. sharp scales, so that on the mud-bank where it lies it leaves the impression of a threshing-sledge (verse 30); while its "heart is firm as a stone; yea, as a piece of the nether millstone" (verse 24). 3. Its impetuous movement. One who saw two alligators fighting says "that their rapid passage was marked by the surface of the water as if it were boiling" (verse 23). The animal also moves with such velocity as to leave behind it a bright white trail of foam, as if the deep were hoary (verse 32). 4. Its incontestable supremacy. "Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear." Hence all other creatures shrink before him. "He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride," i.e. over all other beasts of prey. III. THE LESSON . 1. The impossibility of contending with God. If no man can hope successfully to encounter a crocodile, how foolish must it be to think of striving against God (verse 10)! 2. The sovereignty of God’s procedure in the world. If God in fashioning so wonderful a beast had acted solely on his own irresponsible will, was it not probable that he might in the same manner act in connection with man (verse 11)? 3. The probability of God’s works in providence being marked by wisdom. If in the structure of a crocodile there was so much appearance (and reality) of design, it was not surely unreasonable to hope that the same characteristic of design would not be absent from the Creator’s doings in the higher realm of intelligence. 4. The likelihood of finding mysteries in God’s dealings with men. If Job had been asked to say why God had made so ferocious a beast, he could not have done so. It is doubtful if any one can satisfactorily explain the introduction of carnivorous animals among other peaceful creatures. Why, then, should there not be found enigmas in the higher world of human life? Learn: 1. The great power of God, who can control the fiercest of creatures. 2. The weakness of man, whom an unreasoning animal can affright. 3. The wisdom of faith, which always trusts where it cannot understand. BY E. JOHNSON Job 41:1-34 Description of the leviathan, or crocodile. The description is in two parts. I. The first part shows THE OR WELL-NIGH OF AND THIS HUGE AND . (Job 41:1-7.) In language of irony and almost of taunt this fact is set forth. Here, then, is a mere creature of God before which man must feel his helplessness. If man cannot overcome the creature, how much less shall he pretend to vie with the Creator, make his imperfect will the rule of the world, and bend the pride of the wicked beneath him? II. The second part (Job 41:8-34) is A IN DETAIL OF THE PARTS, THE ORGANS, THE ASPECT, THE FURY, THE POWER OF DEFENCE, AND THE PROUD OF THIS OVER ALL OTHERS IN HIS RIVER-HAUNTS. Without at all straining the language or the sense, the crocodile may be regarded as the type or allegory of the wicked—in his destructive fierceness and passion, his callousness, his place of pride and worldly defences—the alarm and confusion which he spreads around him. So fearful and so real does wickedness seem in the high places of the earth. Inwardly, the good man may escape from its power and influence; outwardly, he seems exposed to its baneful sway, and seeks in vain for dominion over it. The leviathan is the symbol of those "kings of the children of pride." The conquest over the kingdoms of force and fraud is reserved for the Divine might of righteousness alone. The great lesson of this chapter is, then, that almighty power and justice are inseparable. Separate in thought for a moment these principles, and imagine either without the other to be associated with the nature of God, and we have a world that is horrible to contemplate—a world where force without right is the only law, or a world where right is ever vainly struggling against force. Put these cases before the mind, and we at once see that they are not only dreadful but impossible alternatives, Neither is that human world, in which, with all its mysteries and seeming inconsequences, pious and dutiful souls are thankful and content to live, the world that is firmly and broadly based upon the eternal will of absolute power and justice. Thus, too, we are taught the truth concerning ourselves. Till we know both our weakness and our moral frailty, we know nothing truly about ourselves. To be conscious of impotence in presence of evil is to confess that we are unrighteous. And this leads to that humble conviction of dependence in which is the great root of piety. Dependence, in the natural and in the moral life, is the law of our being. In the recognition of it, in the acceptance of those relations and the fulfilment of those duties which the gospel builds upon this foundation, consists man’s health and peace. The thought of a God who is mere arbitrary power, as the gods and fates of the heathen, can never inspire loving trust or holiness. The thought of a God who is just, but not all-powerful, so that he cannot carry out his righteous purposes (as in ancient Manichaeism and in the strange theory, e.g; of J. S. Mill), can never support the feeble soul in the midst of the temptations of the world, in its struggle against evil. The foundation laid in Zion is built of no such crumbling material; it is raised upon a truth on which to rest is to be secure from disturbance, for upon it all the history of time and the life of mankind are built. "Praise, everlasting praise, be paid To him that earth’s foundations laid; Praise to the Lord whose strong decrees Sway the creation as he please." J. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 41:1-34 Leviathan the terrible. This terrible monster has a whole chapter to himself. His portrait is painted on a broad canvas, and it is as full of life and movement as it is of form and colour. Representing the crocodile, though enlarged and idealized, leviathan is a picture of the most terrible of the works of nature. I. THERE ARE THINGS IN NATURE. When we look at the cruel jaws of the crocodile, gaping in readiness for its prey, and the little snake-like eyes watching intently, in spite of an inert attitude of body that tempts us to despise the creature as no better than a log of wood, we have before us the mystery of natural terror. Could God have made this horrible monster? Is there something in the animal world like the tares in the field, that an enemy sowed in the night? The unity and harmony of nature forbid such a thought. Moreover, the crocodile has as much right to live as the fish or the calf that it feeds on. Even when it snaps at an innocent and beautiful young creature, it is but fulfilling that great natural instinct of hunger, without which the world would perish. Far more terrible than the crocodile is the old serpent, who brought into the world not natural death, hut sin and the death of the soul. II. NATURE IS IN BEAUTY AND JOY. Both behemoth and leviathan—the idealized hippopotamus and the idealized crocodile—are survivals of a more ancient order of creatures than those which now inhabit our globe. Geology teaches us that once such creatures, and greater ones, were the chief if not the sole inhabitants of the earth. They are really akin to the huge mastodon, a monster that would dwarf an elephant; and the dinosaurus and ichthyosaurus, in comparison with which the most tremendous reptile of our own day is an insignificant animal. While these monsters crashed through the forests or plunged in the rivers the world was no fit place for man. But since their time God has peopled the earth with a fairer and more docile fauna. At all events, with such animals as now inhabit it, he has made it possible for so weak a being as man to rule the world. The older ugly and fearful creatures remain to bear witness to the past. But by their contrast with the general life of the present they show how God is improving the earth. III. THE MOST FEARFUL HAVE THEIR LIVES BY GOD. There is poetry in the magnificent description of leviathan, especially because the whole hangs together in harmony. There are no real "freaks of nature." The most eccentric creatures have their spheres. The terror and fury of the lower life of nature is all calmly provided for by God. We may, perhaps, think that something must have been wrong, "When dragons in their prime Tare each other in their slime." To us this fury, this agony of nature, is fearful and mysterious. But in the sight of God it is innocence itself compared with fury of sin and the agony of remorse. The terrible things of nature may possibly prove to have come from some perversion of God’s original plan by the influence of evil beings; this, however, is but a will conjecture. But the terrible sin of man is a certain fact, and the evil of the heart from which it springs is worse than the cruel rage of leviathan, just because the human evil is quite out of harmony with the will of God and in direct antagonism to his law.—W.F.A. Job 41:11 The universal rule of God. This is witnessed to even by leviathan. The splendid terror of the water-master is depicted in order that we may be made to feel in some way how great God must be, who made him and who rules over him. I. IT THE . All nature is as much under the hand and power of God to-day as when it first appeared at the dawn of creation. Even the disorder and confusion that have entered into nature have not been able to tear it away from the rule of God. God rules through terror and confusion and death as truly as through beauty and life. God does not confine himself to what we call the spiritual. He is not only concerned with that which, in the narrow sense of the word, we understand as "the religious." He is the great Architect, Mechanic, Engineer, of the universe. II. IT IS NOT ALWAYS VISIBLE TO MAN. The hand that guides is unseen. The reign of law seems to drive back the reign of God. Thus Matthew Arnold writes— "The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full and round earth’s shore, Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled; But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world." III. IT IS NOT THE LESS REAL BECAUSE IT IS UNSEEN. We cannot see the guiding hand, but often we can most thankfully detect its presence by the providential result. We may not be able to discern the steersman for the driving spray, but if we have come safely into port we may be sure that he is at-the helm. The reign of law cannot dispense with the rule of God, if God is the great Lawgiver. The most wonderful scientific truth that has been brought home to recent generations is the fixed and uniform system of law in nature. How came this to be so? and how is it that the rigorous laws make for the well-being of God’s creatures, as they obviously do? Surely law itself points to a ruling mind. The world is not left to itself, or it would be in chaos. The order of the world throughout, extending to the most distant galaxy of stars, proclaims the universal rule of its one Lord. IV. IT WILL MAKE ITSELF FELT BY THOSE WHO DO NOT IT AT PRESENT. Our denial of God’s universal rule does not destroy it. We do not abrogate God’s laws by ignoring them. The existence of an atheist does not mean the non-existence of God. For the present God waits, giving us our trial, and opportunities for knowing him peaceably and happily. But some day we must behold his throne of glory, if that throne exists at all. Then it will be well for us to have acknowledged it first, and to approach it as his obedient servants coming home from their toil.—W.F.A. Job 41:34 A king over all the children of pride. This magniloquent title crowns the elaborate description of leviathan, which occupies the whole chapter. It gives us a vivid idea of the supremacy and kinship that are to be found in nature. I. THERE ARE OF RANK IN NATURE. Nature is not democratic or communistic. Among her various orders we observe ascending ranks of living creatures. There is a natural aristocracy; there is a natural kingship. All creatures are not endowed alike. Some are gifted with powers that lift them above their fellows. We see the same facts in the human world. All men are not endowed equally. Some have five talents, some two talents, some but one talent. There are men who seem born to rule; power is native to them. Now, these facts may seem to justify a rigid adherence to differences of rank and a repression of efforts to bring about a state of equality. But we must modify the application of them to men in two or three respects. 1. Men are all of one greatly, and are therefore am! brethren, whereas in the animal world we have been considering differences of species. 2. Men have a moral nature, and can discern a higher right than that of might. 3. Men have a religion, which teaches them that their own instincts and wills are to be subordinate to the will of God. II. THE HIGHEST IS MENTAL AND MORAL. It is only in a highly rhetorical description that the crocodile, even when idealized, can be described as "a king over all the children of pride," for he does not really rule over the beasts and birds and fishes of the Nile. It is his dragon-like size and form and power that suggest to us an idea of royalty. And what royalty! Here we have the reductio ad absurdum of the kingship of force. It is natural and right in the crocodile, who lives up to his nature. Yet with all his toughness and terror this animal is one of the most senseless of creatures. It is not much to be able to boast of physical supremacy. The born kings of men are the great leaders in the higher life—leaders of thought, as Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Bacon, Newton, Kant; leaders of religious life and conduct, as St. Paul, Athanasius, Luther, Wesley. III. GOD IS KING OF KINGS. It would be a fearful thing if the power and supremacy that are entrusted to the larger animals had been given to them without limits or restraints. But the kingly animals, the lion and the eagle, as well as leviathan himself, are all obedient subjects of the Lord who rules over all the works of nature. They could not rebel against their Suzerain if they would. Their kingdoms are but satrapies of the grand empire of nature which God rules absolutely. Hence the order of the worm in spite of the power of these monstrous creatures. Man alone is able to rebel. Yet God overrules the rebellion even of the human world, and brings kings to do his will, although they may recognize him as little as leviathan recognizes his Lord and Maker. Thus God gives power within limits. Men of the largest liberty and the highest privileges will be called to account before their supreme Master. Therefore it is for us to look up above all earthly greatness and rule to that perfect kingship and that one supreme authority which has been revealed to us in Christ for the guidance of our lives into the path of loyal obedience.—W.F.A. SECTION VII.— SEQUEL TO THE DIALOG Job 42:1-17 This concluding chapter divides into two parts. In the first part (Job 42:1-6) Job makes his final submission, humbling himself in the dust before God. In the second (verses 7-17) the historical framework, in which the general dialogue is set, is resumed and brought to a close. God’s approval of Job is declared, and his anger denounced against the three friends, who are required to expiate their guilt by a sacrifice, and only promised forgiveness if Job will intercede on their behalf (verse 8). The sacrifice takes place (verse 9); and then a brief account is appended of Job’s after life—his prosperity, his reconciliation with his family and friends, his wealth, his sons and daughters, and his death in a good old age, when he was "full of days" (verses 10-17.). The poetic structure, begun in Job 3:3, is continued to the end of Job 3:6, when the style changes into prose of the same character as that employed in Job 1:1-22; Job 2:1-13; and in Job 32:1-5. Job 42:1, Job 42:2 Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou caner do every thing; i.e. I know and acknowledge thy omnipotence, which thou hast set forth so magnificently before me in ch. 38-41. It is brought home to me by the grand review of thy works which thou hast made, and the details into which thou hast condescended to enter. I know also and acknowledge that no thought can be with-holden from thee; i.e. I confess also thy omniscience—that thou knowest even the thoughts of all created beings (comp. Psalms 44:21; Psalms 139:2; Hebrews 4:13, etc.). Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? As these are nearly the words of God in Job 38:2, some suppose that they must be his words again here, and imagine a short dialogue in this place between Job and the Almighty, assigning to Job verse 2, the latter half of verse 8, and the whole of verses 5 and 6, while they assign to God verse 4 and the first clause of verse 8. But it is far more natural to regard Job as bringing up the words which God had spoken to him, to ponder on them and answer them, or at any rate to hang his reply upon them, than to imagine God twice interrupting Job in the humble confession that he was anxious to make. We must understand, then, after the word "knowledge," an ellipse of "thou sayest." Therefore have I uttered that I understood not. Therefore, because of that reproof of thine, I perceive that, in what I said to my friends, I "darkened counsel,"—I "uttered that I understood not," words which did not clear the matter in controversy, but obscured it. I dealt, in fact, with things too wonderful for me—beyond my compre-hension—which I knew not, of which I had no real knowledge, but only a semblance of knowledge, and on which, therefore, I had better have been silent. Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me, Job refers to God’s words in Job 38:3 and Job 40:7, and realizes the humbling effect which they had had on him. They made him feel how little he knew on the subject of God’s works and ways, and how little competent he was to judge them. Hence he bursts into the confession- Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. Hitherto, i.e; I have had nothing but hearsay knowledge of thee; I have not known thee in any true sense; but now—now that thou hast revealed thyself—mine eye seeth thee; my spiritual eye is opened, and 1 begin to see thee in thy true might, thy true greatness, thy true inscrutableness. Now I recognize the distance which separates us, and feel how unreasonable it is that I should contend with thee, argue with thee, assume myself to be competent to pass judgment on thy doings. "Wherefore I abhor myself," etc. Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself; or, I loathe my words (see the Revised Version). And repent in dust and ashes. Job was still sitting on the ash-heap on which he had thrown himself when his disease first smote him (Job 2:8). He had thrown himself on it in grief and de, pair; he will remain seated on it in compunction and penitence. His self-humiliation is now complete. He does not retract what he has said concerning his essential integrity, but he admits that his words have been overbold, and his attitude towards God one unbefitting a creature. God accepts his submission, and proceeds to vindicate him to his "friends," and to visit them with condemnation. Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job. The "words" intended seem to be those of ch. 38-41; not any words in the earlier portion of this chapter. God heard Job’s confession in silence, and, without further speech to him, addressed Eliphaz and his "friends." The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends. The superior position of Eliphaz is here very strongly recognized—he alone is mentioned by name, he alone addressed directly. The precedence thus given to him accords with that which he holds, both in the earlier historical narrative (Job 2:11) and in the dialogue (Job 4:1; Job 15:1; Job 22:1). For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Job had, on the whole, spoken what was right and true of God, and is acknowledged by God as his true servant. The "comforters," consciously or unconsciously, had spoken what was false. Even if they said what they believed, they ought to have known better. Job 42:8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams. (On the early and widespread prevalence of the rite of sacrifice,-see the comment upon Job 1:5.) (On the preference, for sacrificial purposes, of the number seven, see Leviticus 23:18; Numbers 23:1, Numbers 23:14, Numbers 23:29; Numbers 28:11, Numbers 28:19, Numbers 28:27; Numbers 29:2, Numbers 29:8, Numbers 29:36; 1 Chronicles 15:26 2 Chronicles 29:21; Ezra 8:35; Ezekiel 45:23, etc.) It is noticeable that "seven bullocks and seven rams" was exactly the offering of the Moabite king Balak, and his prophet Balaam, contemporary with Moses. And go to my servant Job. Humble yourselves before the man whom you have striven to abase and bring low. Go to him—make application to him, that he will be pleased to come to your aid, joining and assisting in the offering which I require at your hands. And offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. Do as Job had done for his sins (Job 1:5), "offer a burnt offering;" and then my servant Job shall pray for you. Present at your sacrifice, and sharing in it, he shall assume the highest priestly function, and intercede on your behalf. For him will I accept; literally, his face, or his person, will I accept. It is implied that, apart from Job, the three "comforters" would not have been listened to, much less have obtained pardon. Lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job (see the comment on the preceding verse). Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them; i.e. "went" to Job, and asked his aid and interposition, and obtained it. The Lord also accepted Job; i.e. looked favourably on Job’s intercession, and for his sake pardoned those for whom he made his prayer. Job is thus a type of Christ, not merely in his sufferings, but also in his mediatorial character. Job 42:10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job. The literal use of this phrase is common, the metaphorical use of it uncommon, in Scripture. Still, it is so simple a metaphor, and captivity so common a thing among ancient peoples, that it may well have been in general use among the nations of Western Asia from very primitive times. It signifies, as Professor Lee remarks, "a restoration to former happy circumstances.’’ When he prayed for his friends. Perhaps his complete forgiveness by God was contingent on his own complete forgiveness of his "friends" (Matthew 6:12, Matthew 6:14, Matthew 6:15; Matthew 18:32-35); at any rate, his restoration immediately followed his intercession. Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before; literally, added to all that had been Job’s to the double (comp. verse 12). Job 42:11 Then came there unto him all his brethren. Job’s "brethren," and his desertion by them in his misfortunes, had been mentioned in Job 19:13. Now these fair-weather friends flocked to him again, and professed affection and interest, ignoring probably, or excusing, their long absence and neglect. And all his sisters. One sex had behaved no better to him than the other. His nearest female relatives had failed to show themselves the "ministering angels" that they are commonly accounted, even when "pain and anguish" most "wrung his brow." And all they that had been of his acquaintance before. Job, like other wealthy and prosperous men had during the time of his prosperity had "troops of friends" (see Job 29:8-10, Job 29:21-25). When adversity swooped down they fell away. Now they had the effrontery to claim his acquaintance once more, and to come and be his guests; they did eat bread with him in his house. Nay, more, they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him, whereof the worst part was their own coldness and desertion (Job 19:13, Job 19:14, Job 19:19). Finally, to establish the renewed friendship, every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear-ring of gold. The money given is said to have been a kesitah, which means probably a certain weight of silver, though whether a shekel or not is uncertain. The word belongs to the earlier Hebrew, being found only in Genesis 33:19; Joshua 24:32, and in the present passage. Ear-rings were commonly worn in the East by men as well as women, as appears from the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian sculptures. Job 42:12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning (comp. above, verse 10). The restoration of prosperity, prophesied by Eliphaz (Job 5:18 26), Bildad (Job 8:20, Job 8:21), and Zophar (Job 11:13-19), but not expected by Job, came, not in consequence of any universal law, but by the will of God, and his pure grace and favour. It in no way pledged God to compensate worldly adversity by worldly prosperity in the case of any other sufferer; and certainly the general law seems to be that such earthly compensation is withheld. But, in combination with the instinct which demands that retributive justice shall prevail universally, it may be taken as an earnest of God’s ultimate dealings with men, and a sure indication that, if not on earth, at least in the future state; each man shall receive "the deeds done in the body," according to that he hath done, whether it be good or evil. For he had (rather, and he had) fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. In every case the exact double of his original possessions (see Job 1:3; and comp. above, Job 1:12). We need not suppose, however, that either the round numbers, or the exact duplicity, are historical. Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. The same number as previously (Job 1:2), neither more nor fewer. Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima. The name "Jemima" is probably derived from yom (יוֹם), "day," and means "Fair as the day." And the name of the second, Kezia. "Kezia" (rather, "Keziah") was the Hebrew name of the spice which the Greeks and Romans called "cassia," a spice closely allied to cinnamon, and much esteemed in the East (see Herod; 3.110). And the name of the third, Keren-happuch; literally, horn of stibium—stibium being the dye (antimony) with which Oriental women have from a remote antiquity been in the habit of anointing the upper and lower eyelids in order to give lustre to the eye. The three names, according to Oriental notions, implied either sweetness or beauty. Job 42:15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job. Beauty has always been highly valued in the East; and Job would feel himself highly favoured in having three beautiful daughters. It may have been on account of their great beauty that their father gave them inheritance among their brethren, which was certainly an unusual practice in the East. Job 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years. It has been concluded from this statement, combined with that at the close of verse 10, that Job was exactly seventy years of age when his calamities fell upon him; but this is really only a conjecture, since the statement that "God added to all that had been Job’s to the double," does not naturally apply to anything but his property. We may, however, fairly allow that (as Professor Lee says) he "could scarcely have been less than seventy" when his afflictions came, having then a family of ten children, who were all grown up (Job 1:4). In this case, the whole duration of his life would have been 210 years, or a little more, which cannot be regarded as incredible by those who accept the ages of the patriarchs, from Peleg to Jacob, as respectively 239, 230, 148, 205, 175, 180, and 147 years. And saw his sons, and his sons’ sons; i.e. his descendants—grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Even four generations. According to the Hebrew inclusive practice of reckoning, we may regard his own generation as included. Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days. The lowest estimate places the occurrence of the afflictions of Job at the time when he was a little more than fifty ("Supponitur quinquagenario hand multo majorem fuisse Nostrum, quum conflictari coepit," Schultens). Thus his age at his death would be at least a hundred and ninety, Job 42:1-17 The conclusion of the drama. I. THE OF THE THIRD BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND JOB. (Job 42:1-6.) This controversy, it will be remembered, arose out of the intensity of Job’s sufferings and the perplexity of Job’s spirit, which caused him on the one hand to form too favourable an opinion of his own, and on the other hand too unfavourable an opinion of God’s, righteousness; to misinterpret the facts of providence almost as egregiously as, though in an opposite direction from, the friends; to misapprehend the fundamental principle of the Divine administration, which, if it was not strictly retributive justice, as the friends alleged, was still less a heartless indifference to human happiness, as Job occasionally seemed to insinuate, but, as Elihu maintained, a principle of grace; to misconstrue the purpose at which God aimed in his affliction, and, as a consequence, to recklessly charge God with partiality, injustice, and enmity. Accordingly this, the last controversy to emerge, was the first which required to be disposed of; and this is done by Job’s unconditional surrender to Jehovah. 1. A clear recognition of the Divine supremacy, "I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee." The conception of Jehovah’s omnipotence and omniscience, of his infinite capability of elaborating plans and carrying them forward into execution, though not wholly unfamiliar to the mind of the patriarch, now stands out before his quickened imagination with a luminosity which was previously wanting. The contemplation of a wisdom that could fashion and a power that could govern such strange and wondrous monsters as behemoth (the hippopotamus, or Nile-horse) and leviathan (the crocodile or alligator), had enabled him to see that in the higher sphere of man also similarly elaborated thoughts, counsels, plans, might be formed by the Supreme, and even projected into actual realization. That Job’s affliction was one such exquisitely fashioned thought of God had at last dawned upon the troubled soul of the patriarch. 2. A humble acknowledgment of sin. "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?" So Jehovah at the opening of the theophany had charged the patriarch with doing (Job 38:2); and to this at length the patriarch, with sorrow in his heart, assents. It is a sure sign that a man has entered on the path of penitence when he owns himself prepared not alone to admit his fault, but also to accept the rebukes of God (Leviticus 26:41). So David did when God reproved him for his great transgression in the matter of Uriah. And here Job with perfect frankness concedes that God’s language concerning him, however severe, was not undeserved; that in speaking as he did about God and his transcendently glorious administration of mundane affairs he had simply been babbling in ignorance, talking about sublimities immeasurably beyond his conception. "Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." 3. An earnest desire for Divine illumination. A second time taking up the words of God (Job 38:3), Job, as it seems to us, applies them to himself. Formerly he had deemed himself qualified to answer God, so confident did he feel as to the fulness of his knowledge and the clearness of his convictions. On this assumption God had challenged him to stand forth and submit to examination. Now, however, Job has been brought to see what every one must be brought to see before he can be either wise or good, viz. his native ignorance, his mental and moral darkness, his comparative blindness, especially as regards the things of God. Hence, with the true spirit of a penitent, he exclaims, "Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." So did Asaph confess his ignorance and supplicate instruction (Psalms 73:22). So David (Psalms 25:4), and either he or a later Hebrew poet (Psalms 119:12, Psalms 119:18, Psalms 119:19, Psalms 119:27, Psalms 119:33). God instructs not the wise in their own conceits; or, if he does, the first lesson he imparts is to show them their folly. Hence the words of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 3:18). 4. A penitential expression of self-abasement. The insight Job had gained from the Divine teaching had completely revolutionized his soul. From being proud and self-confident, he had become humble and subdued. Prostrate in the dust of contrition, he was full of spiritual self-loathing. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job felt ashamed of his behaviour in condemning God; he was not less ashamed of his own moral weakness and imperfection. Thus practically he confessed that, in the controversy he had waged with God, the right lay with God, the wrong with him. II. THE OF THE SECOND BETWEEN JOB AND THE THREE FRIENDS. (Verses 7-9.) This controversy, as formerly explained (Job 2:11, homiletics), turned upon the relation existing between sin and suffering; the friends maintaining that suffering, in the Divine administration, was so invariably connected with sin by the principle of a strictly retributive justice, that it was always possible to estimate the amount of an individual’s guilt by the depth of his calamity; while Job, on the other hand, not only rejected the application of such a principle to himself, but contended that many facts existed which were wholly irreconcilable with such a principle. On this controversy also Jehovah pronounces an authoritative verdict, to the effect that truth lay upon the side of Job rather than upon that of the friends, to whom accordingly he now, in turn, directs his address. 1. The imputation made. Eliphaz and his friends had not spoken concerning him that which was right, as Job had. They had erred in two ways—in presenting an erroneous view of the Divine dealings with mankind in general, and in maintaining it at the expense both of God and of Job. In order to make good their theory, they had alleged, in defiance of all evidence to the contrary, that Job was a wicked man, and that God was incensed against him with righteous indignation—both of which assertions were incorrect. Neither was God punishing Job, nor was Job a wicked man, but one whom all through the tremendous ordeal God recognized as his servant. And if Eliphaz and his friends had transgressed against God in misrepresenting the Divine character and ways, they had offended scarcely less by misjudging the character and ways of Job. If Job himself was not entirely free from blame in the views he was sometimes driven in anguish to express, it midst still be remembered that he was nearer the truth than they were, and that occasionally he was able to recognize the Divine justice and love in his tribulation. 2. The direction given. "Therefore take unto you now seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering." Interesting as showing the antiquity of sacrificial worship beyond the bounds of the Holy Land, this statement is also valuable. as pointing out the close correspondence as to fundamental ideas and prevailing forms between the worship observed in heathen countries and that subsequently practised in Israel. Here, as afterwards in the Mosaic cultus, the burnt offering is the appointed medium of pardon and acceptance, proclaiming to Job and his contemporaries, as later to Abraham’s descendants, that without shedding of blood there is no remission, that reconciliation is impossible except upon the ground of an atoning sacrifice. Here, as afterwards, bullocks and rams are the animals selected for the sacrificial ritual, perhaps also for a like purpose, to typify the holy Lamb of God who should in the end of the ages become the world’s Propitiation, while at the same time they suggested forcibly their own insufficiency (Hebrews 9:11-14; Hebrews 10:1-5)to cleanse the conscience from sin. Here also, as afterwards, the offering is directed to be presented through an officiating priest (in this case Job), to signify that no man can come to God except through the intervention of a Mediator. Thus the rudiments of the gospel may be said to have existed in that early age—the work of Christ being clearly symbolized, his great propitiation by the sacrificial victims, his heavenly intercession by the prayer of Job. 3. The encouragement offered. "My servant Job shall pray for you: for him [literally, ’his face or person’] will I accept." Having graciously constituted Job a Mediator between himself and the friends, Jehovah guarantees that if they will avail themselves of his services, he will be accepted, and of course they also in him. Here, again, it is impossible not to descry another shadow of the gospel. God, having constituted Christ a High Priest for ever, distinctly engages to accept all who through him supplicate his favour. Hence Christ says, "I am the Way: … no man cometh unto the Father, but by me;" and the writer to the Hebrews declares that "he is able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God through him." 4. The warning appended. "Lest I deal with you after your folly." That is to say, unless they fit d for refuge to this hope set before them, they could not escape the punishment their folly merited. If they complied with the Divine instruction, they were safe; if they declined, they would suffer. So likewise has the gospel its warbling. If sinful men flee to Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, they will certainly be delivered; if they do not, they shall just as certainly be destroyed. 5. The obedience rendered. "So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them." And in so doing they expressed their penitence—they tacitly acknowledged their offence; their faith—they acted precisely as the Lord had commanded; their humility—they sought the friendly offices of one whom they had regarded as an outcast; their submission—they acquiesced in the Divine verdict, though it had gone against them. In all this they show to sinful men a pattern of how the guilty should draw near to God. III. THE OF THE FIRST OR BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND SATAN. (Verses 9-17.) It has been repeatedly explained (Job 1:9, homiletics) that controversy is here also ended by the action of God, who, by delivering his servant from the furnace of affliction and reinstating him in even more than his former prosperity, virtually pronounces judgment against the devil. Job has not been a fair-weather professor of religion, but an earnest and sincere follower of Heaven, clinging to his piety amidst the severest reverses, and not only serving God for nought, but adhering to him even when it seemed that God had cast him off. It was, therefore, useless to continue the experiment a moment longer. Accordingly it is stated, "The Lord also accepted Job." Four things are mentioned as giving unmistakable evidence el Jehovah’s acceptance of his servant. 1. The cessation of his trial. "And the Lord"—that marks the Author of Job’s deliverance—"turned the captivity of Job;" that describes its joy, it was like the coming home from exile; "when he prayed for his friends;" that specifies its time, when Job was interceding with Heaven in behalf of others. 2. The return of his prosperity. "Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before;" "fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses;" but only the same number of children as before—"seven sons and three daughters," perhaps because the former seven and three were not lost, but only gone before. They who lose all for God on earth will not be losers in the end. Job received twice as much as he had before. Christ’s followers are promised "an hundredfold more in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting." 3. The sympathy of his friends. "Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before." During the time of his desolation they had deserted him, as he pathetically complained (Job 19:13-19), thinking him an object of Divine displeasure. Now they return with the first symptoms of returning prosperity. "And they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him." A little of this would have cheered him when in the depths; but, alas! then it was awanting. Let it not, however, be asserted that their display of sympathy was purely superficial, that in fact they were a company of hypocrites, since they at least offered a small token of their honesty in every one presenting him with gifts. "Every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold." 4. The happiness of his old age. Surrounded by a family of fair daughters and noble sons, as in the beginning of his days, and possessed of a constantly augmenting estate, the devout patriarch glided peacefully along the stream of life, till at length he reached the grave an old man and full of days, having lived after the cessation of his afflictions a hundred and forty years, and seen his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations. Learn: 1. That only that piety is sincere which exalts God and abases self. 2. That no man can truly know himself until he has first known God. 3. That true repentance ever springs from a believing apprehension of God. 4. That God is deeply displeased with those who misrepresent either himself or his ways. 5. That a good man may commit many faults without forfeiting the Divine favour. 6. That the Law of Moses was not the first or the only shadow of the good things to come. 7. That from the first the sinful world possessed a way of salvation. 8. That the essential element in justifying faith is for all men the same, viz. obedience to the revealed will of God. 9. That God’s people are commonly most blessed themselves when trying to promote the good of others. 10. That God will yet turn the captivity of all his suffering people, causing their night of sorrow to be followed by a morning of joy. 11. That God will not forsake his people who adhere to him. 12. That a peaceful old age in the bosom of a pious family is one of the choicest blessings a saint can enjoy on this side of heaven. 13. That notwithstanding God can give a saint on earth unspeakable felicity, it is better that the saint should ultimately die and go to heaven. Job 42:5, Job 42:6 Hearsay and vision. I. HEARSAY IS NOT VISION. Hearsay may be distinguished from vision two ways. 1. In respect of its nature. Hearsay, as the term signifies in common speech, is information received at second hand, by report, in contrast to that derived from personal observation and experience, which it is usual to describe as seeing. When applied to our knowledge of Divine things* the former may be understood as signifying all that instruction which comes to us from without, all that we receive from tradition, whatever is imparted to us by parents, teachers, ministers, that which we extract from catechisms, religious books, and even from our Bibles by our ordinary faculties of perception and reason—in short, everything commonly included in the phrase, "the letter of the truth;" the latter points to such a direct, personal, intimate acquaintance with God and truth as the soul obtains when, breathed on by that heavenly breath which, according to Elihu, is the source of all spiritual illumination, it looks outward and upward through the opened window of faith. 2. In respect of its effects. "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear," exclaims the patriarch; but what then? This hearsay knowledge left me a prey to serious misconceptions both as to thyself and myself—permitted me to fancy thee an unjust Judge, an inequitable Sovereign, an arbitrary Ruler, an implacable Foe; and myself a harshly treated and cruelly oppressed saint. And so for the most part that knowledge of God which is purely external, intellectual, dogmatical, has little power to change the heart and life, or even to conduct the mind to just conceptions of the character of God. But, on the other hand, when this hearsay has been transmuted into vision, and the soul has arrived at a truthful idea of the character of God as a Being all-powerful, holy, wise, just, and loving,l! immediately the self-righteous sinner is discovered prostrate in the dust, like Job, crying, "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes;" like Isaiah in the temple, "Woe is me!" like St. Peter in his boat upon the sea of Galilee, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" II. HEARSAY MAY BECOME VISION. This may be held as proved by the ease of Job. 1. The manner of its transmutation. An experience similar to that of Job must take place in every instance in which a soul passes from a mere hearsay knowledge to a believing vision of God. (1) As Jehovah came to Job in the whirlwind, and made to him a personal revelation of his character as a Being of awful majesty, ineffable wisdom, and infinite power, so must God with a like disclosure of himself approach the human soul. This God has done; not, however, "in rainbow wreath and robe of storm," but in the meek and lowly form of a sinless, suffering humanity—in the Person of Jesus Christ. (2) As in Job’s case there must have been a corresponding influence exerted on the mind of Job to enable him to apprehend the revelation given, so in that of all who attain to his position of spiritual Perception, "the eyes of the understanding must be opened." 2. The time of its transmutation. The season in which Job was honoured to receive the sublime theophany which exerted such a marvellous, subduing influence upon his soul, was one of intense bodily affliction, and deep mental and spiritual anxiety; and so mostly it is found that such are the seasons God selects for discovering himself and his grace to the soul. As Christ came to his disciples on the sea of Galilee when they were toiling in rowing, and said to them, "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid," no does he still come to souls when they are tossed upon the sea of doubt and fear. BY E. JOHNSON Job 42:1-6 Job’s answer and confession. It Consists of— I. THE HUMBLE OF GOD’S POWER. (Verse 2.) God can do everything; and no "beginning," no germinating or budding thought, is hidden from him; he sees it alike in its origin, development, and end. Both the fearful forms of force in the animal life of nature, and the striking destinies of individual men, are constant proofs of the presence of him who governs the world in power and in justice. II. AS OF HIS OWN AND . (Verse 3.) Justly did God rebuke him in the question, "Who darkeneth counsel without understanding?" He has been passing judgment on matters he did not understand, drawing conclusions from imperfect premisses, dealing with things that are and must remain to us mysterious, as if they could be explained by the rules of a limited experience. [t is this haste, this childish impatience of suspense, which drives some into discontent and murmuring, others into unbelief and atheism. A haste to speak before our thought is ripe, a haste to judge before the materials of judgment are at hand,—these lead in human intercourse and in Divine relations to false positions, which must be sooner or later abandoned. But we see in Job— III. THE AND THE ACT OF . (Verses 4-6.) Quoting (verse 4) the summons of Jehovah at the beginning of his discourses (Job 38:3 and Job 40:7), he gives the answer alone befitting and required. He had before heard of God, i.e. had had an indirect and imperfect acquaintance with God. There is a knowledge of God at second hand, which is insufficient to bring us to the sense of our true relations to him (comp. Psalms 48:9). We hear about God from the sources of early instruction, parents, teachers, pulpits, and books, and yet may thus not be brought into personal communication with God. In contrast to this is the personal vision of God. Not with the eyes of the body, but with the deeper view of the mind—the intellectual intuition, the contemplation of the Invisible through his creative manifestations (Romans 1:19, Romans 1:20). This immediate view of God produces at once a new view of sell. To see that God is infinite is to see that we are finite; to behold his perfection is to be sensible of our own imperfection; to acknowledge him to be in the right is to confess that our thoughts are wrong; to be amazed and enraptured with his glory is to loathe our own meanness. Yet these thoughts may exist in the mind, and yet be without result except that of conscious misery. But their tendency and their purpose are to produce repentance, as we see in the example of Job. And here we mark the traits of a true repentance. It is to" recall" the idle word, the impious thought; and it is to reverse the attitude of the mind from that of presumption and pride to that of submission and humility. So in dust and ashes, with pride abased, overcome by the Divine majesty, would Job offer those sacrifices which God does not despise (Psalms 51:1-19.). In returning to God he returns to his true spirit and attitude of patience. Out of this, by the provocation of his friends, he had allowed himself to be mused. But now hearing the rod, and who hath appointed it, kissing the hand that hath smitten, he waits in silence until the blessing of the Most High anew exalts the sincere penitent.—J. Job 42:7-17 Conclusion of the story. I. THE DIVINE OF JOB. (Job 42:7-10.) The cure of the inward sickness of the sufferer’s spirit is followed here, as we often see in the course of life, by outward health and happiness. 1. The reproof of the friends. (Job 42:7.) Addressing Eliphaz, as their chief spokesman, Jehovah declares his displeasure that they have not spoken the truth concerning him. Not that they have spoken with wilful dishonesty, but that they have been in error. There has been a want of heart, and therefore a want of right thought. They have refused to receive the testimony of a brother’s substantial innocence; have persistently tried to fix on him a guilt which did not exist. The habit of censeriousness, the habitual exclusion of charity from our feelings, vitiates and falsifies the whole course of our thought. The grave question arises, whether any intellectual error can in the end escape condemnation; whether the very definition of such error is not the thought arising from an evil state of heart. But Job, on the other hand, has spoken the substantial truth, and for the opposite reason. Again and again we have seen how his contention is for truth; and how, beneath all the irritation of his hasty words, there has been throbbing a heart true to God. And now comes the hour of recognition, as it ever will come for every faithful soul. What a blissful sound is there in those words of recognition and of pardon and of justification, "My servant Job"! What grace in the long-delayed, but now fully granted answer to the prayer (Job 16:21) that right may be done before God and his friends! But let us clearly grasp and retain the principle and the contents of this Divine judgment. The friends spoke ill, and Job spoke well. This is the Divine judgment. On what ground is it based? Their one point was this: affliction is the evidence of God’s wrath, and of the afflicted one’s guilt. And they were wrong. Job’s insistence is that afflictions are not always the sign of the sufferer’s guilt nor of the anger of God. And Job is right. And there remains the grand principle illustrated by the discourses of Jehovah, and on which this judgment rests, that affliction comes from the will of supreme power and justice. And this is so, although the reasons of affliction cannot by our imperfect intelligence be fully known. At the same time, the judgment on this great point at issue does not exclude the elements of truth and beauty to be richly found in the discourses of the friends; nor does it excuse the passion and the hasty speeches of Job. 2. Sacrifice for sin and intercessoty prayer. (Verses 8, 9.) The friends are directed to perform an act of worship, the character el which appears to point back to early times (comp. Numbers 23:1; Genesis 7:2, Genesis 7:3; Genesis 8:20, et seq.). All outward sacrifices were the visible expression of inward feelings, of thankfulness and joy, of reverence, and especially, as here, of the desire of the penitent to renounce his sin and be at one with his God. Blood was the most sacred symbol, because it was the expression of life. The life of the animal offered in sacrifice represents the life of the worshipper surrendered to God. Hence for us the deep significance of the "blood of Christ;" and the highest act of worship is the presenting ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, to God through Christ and his sacrifice; that is, with his spiritual sacrifice present to the eye of the spirit, as the ancient animal sacrifice was present to the bodily eye of the early worshipper. Then, on the other hand, sacrifice as divinely ordained is a language from God to us, as well as one on our part to God. It bespeaks the willingness of God to enter into relations of peace with man. It therefore announces the possibility of repentance and of forgiveness conditional upon repentance; and so calls man to turn, to be converted and healed. Thus regarded and used, the great Christian sacrament is a powerful means of grace, and is most appropriately resorted to at such great epochs of spiritual history as that here set before us. Again, the passage brings to notice the privilege of intercession. "Pray for one another, that ye may be healed" As the intercession of Abraham for Abimelech is honoured, so now is Job appointed a mediator and intercessor for those who have forfeited a measure of Divine grace, and thus the prophecy of Eliphaz (Job 22:30) is realized. We are encouraged in the New Testament to pray for one another. The great law of mediation runs through life (comp. Butler’s ’Analogy’), and this is one of its illustrations. A value is justly attached to good men’s prayers. How far this privilege extends, and what are its limits, we do not know. It belongs to spiritual laws, the operation of which cannot be fully verified in the field of experience. It is a truth revealed in the heart and for the heart; and the heart has reasons, as Pascal says, which reason knows not. Let us sacredly guard the oracles of the heart, and thankfully receive every ray of confirmatory light that actual experience affords. The song of a tiny bird by the wayside which brings us comfort, may be a messenger of God to the soul; and the prayer of our feebleness for those whom we know not otherwise how to assist may effect a far-working good, as may theirs for us. But what a beautiful touch is this in the narrative, "Jehovah turned the captivity of Job while he was praying for his friends"! For it points to the fact that amongst the best moments of our life are those in which we lose sight of self in thought for others; when we can forgive and forget the injuries we have received from others, and seek their good in deeds of kindness, in words of prayer. II. OF OUTWARD . (Verses 11-17.) "Twice as much as he had before." God takes away only to enrich, never to ruin and destroy, the faithful heart. He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation; and as we have seen throughout the book the powers by which he leads souls to himself more nearly, so here we see his "end" (James 5:7-11; 1 Corinthians 10:13). The swallow-like friendship of men, vanishing as the winter of trouble draws on, returning when the sun of prosperity gains power once more, is contrasted with t he enduring, never-changing friendship of the eternal, one God. The life, then, the sufferings, the triumph and happy end of Job, are a type for all ages of the lot of the Christian, of the child of God. A harmony of the inward spirit with the outward surroundings is necessary to the completeness of life. This restored possession of wealth and honour is a happier state than his life’s beginning, because it is a state more truly in relation to God. All that he has and enjoys he now possesses for God’s sake. God is revealed in his gifts, and from his presence and love they derive their savour. Deus meus et omnia! "My God and my all!" is the motto of the heart purified and humbled by affliction. The darkness and the mystery pass away from the life when the great secret is discovered that in all outward changes "God is God to me." Here is a type of him who was humbled to the death of the cross, and who, because he, though a Son, learned obedience by the things he suffered, received a name above every name. What, then, have we to do, as followers of him, but to commit ourselves to God as to a faithful Creator; to receive what he assigns us humbly, and enjoy it thankfully, knowing that by denying us many things on which our hearts are set, he is doing us the greatest kindness in the world, which is to "keep us from temptation," and by keeping us from temptation, to "deliver us from evil," and by delivering us from evil, to prepare and fit us for all the good that can be desired, and for himself, the endless inexhaustible Fountain of it, "in whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore"? To whom be ascribed all praise, might, majesty, and dominion for ever. Amen.—J. BY R. GREEN Job 42:1-6 Contrition. Job, chastened with severe afflictions, harassed by the biting words of incompetent teachers, and now by the Divine voice humbled into the very dust, makes his lowly confession unto Almighty God, and casts himself upon the Divine forbearance and mercy. The confession of this truly humble, lowly, contrite, and obedient heart embraces— I. A JUST OF THE DIVINE POWER. The ability of God to work all in all—to do whatsoever he pleaseth. "Now I know that thou canst do everything." II. A LOWLY OF THE DIVINE . "No thought can be withholden from thee." Not only the visible works of the world are before the eye of the Almighty, but the very thoughts and intents of the mind (verse 2). III. A OF , ERROR, AND . (Verse 3.) Before God Job confesses his faults, though in presence of man he maintained his untarnished integrity. But he who may feel himself able to answer to his fellow may fall silent before the infinitely Holy One. Job’s confession reveals— IV. A LOWLY , which finds its expression in fervent prayer (verse 4). Job is willing to be taught of God. He abandons his own self-confident boasting. He is truly humbled. All this is produced by— V. A VIVID OF THE SUPREME NATURE OF GOD. He is not dependent for this upon the teachings of friends. "Now mine eye seeth thee." The true vision of God humbles the proudest heart. It is finally perfected— VI. IN SELF- AND SINCERE . This is the end of all When man has reached his lowest estate he may be lifted up. The whole course of Job’s affliction with the whole teaching of the poem brings the sufferer in penitent, contrite humiliation to the footstool of Divine mercy. "In dust and ashes" Job repents, renounces all his claim to self-righteousness, and casts himself upon that God who has declared himself to be just, to care for his creatures, and to wait as with open ear to listen to the voice of their cry. Job is truly broken before God. All his pride is crushed. He is a lowly suppliant. He justifies God in his own self-condemnation.—R.G. Job 42:7-17 The Divine vindication of Job. The poem ends in undimmed brightness. The great ends of suffering have been answered. Job has been put to the proof and tried, and he has been found faithful. God has permitted all the joy and light of his life to be wiped out. His faithful servant of whom it was said, "There is none like him in the earth," has been subjected to the severest tests; yet, according to the Divine assertion, he has spoken of God "the thing that is right." Now he who had appeared to be Job’s enemy appears as his true Vindicator, and bears his witness and high testimony to Job’s fidelity. The Divine vindication of Job embraces— I. AN OF THE ERROR OF HIS ENEMIES. (Verse 7.) They had not spoken of God the thing that was right, and their unjust accusations of Job are found to have had no foundation in truth. II. A TO JOB’S . (Verses 7, 8.) As the heart is so the lips speak; and Job had spoken that which was right. To this Jehovah bears witness. But a higher testimony is forthcoming— III. IN THE OF THE OF HIS SERVICE. "Him will I accept." Even the self-assured teachers who could find so many faults with Job are now directed to bring their offering to him that he may intercede for them. It was the utmost humiliation of them (verse 9) and the utmost elevation of him. "The Lord also accepted Job." IV. A further vindication is given IN THE SPECIAL MARKS OF THE DIVINE FAVOUR SHOWN TO JOB. 1. His affliction was removed. "His captivity was turned." 2. He was enriched with abundant possessions. "The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before" (verse 12). 3. His friendships were restored (verse 11). 4. He was enriched by the tokens of sympathy and good will. "Every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear-ring of gold." 5. His family joys were restored to him (verses 13-16). 6. His life was prolonged in honour and happiness (verses 16, 17). "So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning."—R.G. Job 42:17 The gathered lessons. This remarkable book we close with the persuasion that whilst its separate statements are full of teaching, the whole idea is to be summed up in a few plain and obvious lessons; such as the following:— I. THE GOOD MAN MAY RECEIVE TOKENS OF THE DIVINE IN THE FORM OF HEALTH, HONOUR, AND FAMILY JOY. II. THE GOOD MAN, THOUGH HIS , MAY LOSE HIS , HIS HEALTH, AND HIS FAMILY JOY THROUGH THE AND OF SATAN. III. THAT THE HONOR OF EVEN A GOOD MAN MAY BE BY . IV. THAT THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS, AND THE OF BY THE , ARE NOT ALWAYS TO BE INTO TOKENS OF THE DIVINE . V. THAT IT IS FOR THE GOOD TO THEIR AMIDST GREAT LOSS, PAIN, AND SORROW. VI. THAT TO HIM WHO HIS AND IN THE TIME OF GOD WILL GIVE A FINAL OF . VII. THAT THE END OF AND SORROW IS THE OF THE , AND THE GLORY OF GOD. VIII. THAT THE OF THE OF THE GOOD IS IN THE HANDS OF THE LORD. So the Book of Job harmonizes with the general teaching of the entire Word of God. Its many beautiful, simple truths scattered in such profusion are as so many separate flowers; but the whole presents the appearance of a well-watered garden. The book has its place of high importance in that book which is for the education of the world. It has served its purpose as a medium for the revelation of important truths, and it has been made a means of blessing to thousands of afflicted ones who have "heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; how that the Lord is full of pity, and merciful" (James 5:11).—R.G. BY W.F. ADENEY Job 42:1, Job 42:2 The confession of God’s supremacy. At last the end has come to the discipline of Job. He is brought to more than resignation—to a clear perception of the supremacy of God, and to a humble submission to it. I. THE FACT OF GOD’S . This is what Job has now come to see. God is supreme both in power and in wisdom. 1. In power. There is no resisting his might. He does as he will with the children of men. Even "the king of the children of pride" is one of his creatures, endowed with the might he has given, and subject to the laws he has imposed. All rebellion against God’s will must be futile. It can be no better than dashing one’s self against a granite cliff. But if God is so powerful when opposed to us, he is equally powerful as our Saviour. He uses his might to further what is good as well as to thwart what is evil. If he can cast the mighty down, he can lift. the helpless up. 2. In knowledge. There is thought in all the work of God. But God’s thought also penetrates to all that we do. No excuses or subterfuges can enable us to elude his searching glance. He knows the hidden sin. But he also knows the hidden sorrow; and the misjudged sufferer is quite understood by God. Friends may calumniate, as they calumniated Job; but God knows all. II. THE OF THIS FACT. Job is now brought to see that God is supreme in power and knowledge. He may have admitted the truth in words all along. But he did not appreciate it until the end of his long trial. In his very natural but very foolish complaints he was virtually ignoring the great truth which he is now confessing. How, then, has he come at length to perceive it as by the flash of a new revelation? 1. Through suffering. Many lessons are being taught by the strange experience of Job; among them some are for his own benefit. Suffering opens our eyes to our own littleness and to the greatness of God. 2. By means of the works of nature. The great theophany, wherein God called to Job out of the whirlwind, led to a display of some of the grandest works of God, first in the physical forces of the universe, and then in the most wonderful creatures of the animal world. A study of nature should lead us to perceive both the power and the wisdom of God. III. THE . It is one thing for God to be supreme, and another thing for man to know that he is. Yet a third stage is reached when the truth is-frankly admitted and openly confessed. It is our duty to confess the supremacy of God. 1. For the glory of God. We rob him of his own when we ignore his great power and wisdom. Worship, which acknowledges the greatness of God, and adores him, not only for might and knowledge, but also for righteousness and love, is a right and fitting exercise for all spiritual beings. 2. For our own guidance and assurance. The confession will help us to obey God. It will also aid us in the attempt to bear the strange distresses of life. When the confession advances beyond what Job saw, surely submission should be more perfect. If we are to be patient when we see that God is almighty and all-wise, we should be confident when we go on to see that he is just and merciful.—W.F.A. Job 42:5 The soul’s experience of God. This is a grand experience for Job to attain to. It is worth all the agony and mystery of his bitter affliction. Suddenly the black clouds break open and the glorious vision of God appears beyond them. Job now contrasts his new, direct seeing of God with his former hearsay knowledge. I. A HEARSAY OF GOD. This is what Job possessed in the old days. Not that he was without any religious experience in those prosperous times. But the shallowness of it in comparison with what he has now attained makes it look of little worth. Most of us begin in this way. We hear of God "by the hearing of the ear." This is especially true in a Christian country. Here we seem to breathe a Christian atmosphere, and Christian ideas float in upon us unsought. But the faint perception of God that is acquired in this way cannot be of very great value to us. Historical facts can only be known by testimony, and the facts of the gospel must reach us through "the hearing of the ear." But we have got a very little way when we have only come to understand and believe in the historical character of those facts. We are still only among the antiquarian relics at a museum. There is no life in such a knowledge, and it has little influence over us. II. A VISION OF GOD. "Now mine eye seeth thee." Job had longed for a revelation of God; at length he has received one. But this was not in a vision like those of Jacob at Bethel or Moses at Horeb. It was not after the manner of the startling apparition that Eliphaz describes with so much pomp and self-importance (Job 4:12-21). It was the calm inward vision of spiritual experience, which is indeed an experience of God. 1. This has been brought about through trouble. In his great distress Job has been continually seeking God. His grief has strengthened his hold upon the unseen world by making him feel that world to be most real. 2. God has spoken and manifested himself, Religion is not a one-sided effort of man to reach after God. God descends to man, and the communion of God’s Spirit with man’s spirit is the deepest fact in religious experience. 3. This interior vision of God is what all our souls need. We have to go beyond the hearing of sermons to our own personal experience of God. Then we begin to understand him; then he becomes real to us; then we can say with Tsuler, "I am more certain of the being of God than I am of my own existence." III. THE EFFECT OF THE NEW . 1. It leads to self-humiliation It is vain any longer to boast of our own rights and to make the most of ourselves. We cannot think of ourselves but with shame and. confusion of face in the light of the new vision of God. When once he manifests himself to us, he is everything. 2. It awakens repentance. In the light of God we not only see our littleness, we perceive our sire This vision had done for Job what all the harangues of his three friends had failed to effect. They had charged him falsely, and his pride had been hardened by their unjust accusations. God had not charged him at all, but the very vision of the Divine at once revealed his mistaken position to Job. He saw that he had been wrong in arraigning the justice of God. So it will ever be. We never know ourselves till we see ourselves in the light of God.—W.F.A. Job 42:7-9 The accusers accused. Job is first dealt with; when he has Been brought to a right state of mind, God turns to the three friends. They have been permitted to play their Part without any interference on the part of God, and perhaps they have regarded his silence as a mark of acquiescence. Now their time has come. I. THEY WHO ACCUSE OTHERS LAY OUT TO BE ACCUSED. Even when they act innocently this is the case. The censor should be above reproach. His action shows that he is awake to moral considerations, that he is not unable to perceive them, that he sets a high value on them. Then he should apply them to himself. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things" (Romans 2:1). Further, the habit of censoriousness provokes accusations. It shows an unkind and a proud spirit. There is not the motive of compassion to lead us to pass lightly over his faults in the case of a censorious person, which influences us when we have to do with one of a modest and kindly disposition (Matthew 7:1-7). II. GOD IS ANGRY WITH THOSE WHO HIS CAUSE . This was the great fault of the three friends. They represented themselves as God’s champions, and professed to speak for God when they arraigned Job. Yet they spoke what was not right. God cannot hut be angry when he is thus misrepresented. He does not seek the low-toned homage of the courtier who cares only to propitiate his Master, regardless of right and truth. Some of the people who think themselves God’s best friends will have a great deal to answer for when their just and righteous Lord calls them to account. No falsehood can please God, and least of all can one please him that professes to be uttered for his benefit. This is not a case in which the end justifies the means. It is most grievous in the sight of God, because it dishonours his Name. We cannot depend on unjust actions By representing them as beneficial to the cause of religion. A false theology is not redeemed by the pretext that it glorifies God. III. THE TRUE REVENGE IS TO "HEAP COALS OF FIRE" ON MEN BY DEEDS OF . Job is fully and gloriously avenged. Not only is his innocence of the gross charges brought against him by his friends made clear, not only are they condemned by God, but Job is called upon to intercede for their pardon. Thus in the first place they are thoroughly humiliated, as Haman was when he was condemned to lead the horse of Mordecai Esther 6:9, Esther 6:10). But Job is far too magnanimous to triumph over their defeat, Even when he is interceding for them, we may be sure that his action betrays no pride. For has he not been repenting himself in dust and ashes (verse 6)? Assuredly Job’s intercession was generous and heartfelt. He could afford to forgive when he had himself been graciously accepted by God. The best vengeance we can have on those who ill-treat us is to pray for them, not in hypocritical self-righteousness, but in true-hearted, unaffected kindness. This is Christ’s method. He subdues his enemies by dying for them.—W.F.A. Job 42:10 The captivity turned. I. THE . 1. A true reversal. Job’s troubles have come to an end. That was a long avenue of fire which he was made to pass through; but the terminus was reached at last. Man may be "born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7); but he is not born to everlasting trouble. St. Paul writes of "our light affliction, which is but for a moment" (2 Corinthians 4:17). Present distress is not a presage of future evil. The very blackness of the clouds that gather about our heads in the dark hour prevents us from seeing the distant prospect where sunshine awaits those who are faithful in trial. There is room for hope, even if we see no light, for though trouble may be lengthy, love outlasts it; "the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever." 2. A Divine reversal. Satan inflicted the blows, though with the permission of God. It is God himself who brings back prosperity. Through whatever channels and instruments evil may come upon us, good comes from the hand of God. Satan simply disappears from the drama. His bold assertions are so absolutely refuted, and he is so completely discomfited, that he passes into oblivion. In the day of the Lord, God’s action is everything. II. ITS . Why did the reversal come when it did? Why not earlier? Why not later? The note of time is significant. God reversed the fortune of Job "when he prayed for his friends." 1. In humility. Job was first brought very low. His fidelity had been severely tested, and it had stood the strain. Job did not "curse God and die." Satan’s charge was abundantly refuted. Job was not serving God only for the profits accruing from religion. Disinterested devotion was proved to be possible. Yet Job was not faultless. At least there were advantages to be gained by discipline. It would have been cruel to have used him as an unconscious example for the settlement of a question with which he had no concern, like the victim of vivisection. This was not the case. Elihu showed how God trained and educated his children in the school of affliction. Job had been to that school, and there he had learnt humility and a true appreciation of the greatness of God, whom man cannot judge. 2. In kindness. Job bears no grudge against his three friends. He intercedes for them in genuine concern for their condition under the wrath of God. When he shows a forgiving spirit God is most merciful to him. This is not the formal return of payment; but it is a gracious reward, and it is a favour shown to one who is fit to accept it. For we are never so fit to receive good fortune as when we are chiefly occupied in kindly concern for others. Selfish prayers do not bring a blessing. We are most blessed when we forget ourselves in praying for others. III. ITS EFFECTS. Job’s fortune is doubled. God never blesses imperfectly. He does not simply mend and patch up the broken life. He heals and renews and blesses with superabundant kindness. Job’s fortune was but external. This was according to the ideas of primitive time& Christ has led us to look for higher blessings. The Christian Job may never recover his property or his health; and yet in his afflictions he may receive his greatest heritage of blessing from Heaven. But whatever be the form of God’s blessing, it is great and wonderful. The Christian has more than a Paradise regained. The second Adam brings a kingdom of heaven that is more precious than the lost Eden. The soul that has been tried by fire has a richer inheritance in God than it ever had in the old days of peace. The discipline of sorrow is the key to wonderful treasures of heavenly joy.—W.F.A. Job 42:11-17 The return of prosperity. Job is now restored to the favour of God. The result is earthly prosperity. With our Christian light we know that this does not always follow, nor is it the best blessing. But as the portrait of Job is painted in the colours of his day, we must accept the lessons which it contains in sympathy with his age and circumstances. Let us, then, look at the ingredients of the new prosperity. I. A REVIVAL OF OLD . We are horrified to have it brought distinctly before us on the last page of the book that Job had had brothers and sisters as well as other acquaintances during the whole time of his affliction; and yet they had discreetly retired from the unpleasant neighbourhood of the afflicted man. Now they reappear with his prosperity. This common experience of life is often commented on with some bitterness. But Job shows no bitterness. His grand soul forgets the previous unkindness In his own humility he ignores the faults of his brethren. With princely magnanimity he accepts their presents when he does not need them, though they had not thought fit to offer them him in the time of his dire necessity. This is the Christ-spirit. There is no true happiness in selfish isolation. Even though our acquaintances may not deserve much attention, it is a miserably selfish thing to throw them off. Generosity is a mark of genuine health of soul. The Christian must learn to be brotherly and to cultivate social sympathies. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/