the verse thus: Τις γαρ εσται καθαρός απο ῥυπου ; ούτε είς, εαν και μιας ἡμερας γενηται ὁ βιος αυτου επι THE YAS "Who is pure from corruption? Not one, although he had lived but one day upon the earth." Verse 5. Seeing his days are determined] The general term of human life is fixed by God himself; in vain are all attempts to prolong it beyond this term. Several attempts have been made in all nations to find an elixir that would expel all the seeds of disease, and keep men in continual health; but all these attempts have failed. Basil Valentine, Norton, Dastin, Ripley, Sandivogius, Artephius, Geber, Van Helmont, Paracelsus, Philalethes, and several others, both in Europe and Asia, have written copiously on the subject, and have endeavoured to prove that a tincture might be produced, by which all imperfect metals may be transmuted into perfect; and an elixir, by which the human body may be kept in a state of endless repair and health. And these profess to teach the method by which this tincture and this elixir may be made! Yet all these are dead; and dead, fraught we know, comparatively young! Artephius is, indeed, said to have lived ninety years, which is probable; but some of his foolish disciples, to give credit to their thriftless craft, added another cipher, and made his age nine hundred! Man may endeavour to pass the bound; and God may, here and there, produce a Thomas Parr, who died in 1635, aged one hundred and fifty-two; and a Henry Jenkias, who died in 1670, aged one hundred and sixtynine; but these are rare instances, and do not affect the general term. Nor can death be avoided. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, is the law; and that will ever render nugatory all such pretended tinctures and elixirs. But, although man cannot pass his appointed bounds, yet he may so live as never to reach them; for folly and wickedness abridge the term of human life; and therefore the Psalmist says, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out HALF their days, Ps. lv. for by indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions, the life of man is shortened in cases in erable. We are not to understand the bounds as applying to individuals, but to the race in general. Perhaps there is no case in which God has determined absolutely this man's age shall be so long, and shall Leither be more nor less. The contrary supposition involves innumerable absurdities. 1779 mortality of man. tender branch thereof will not A. M. cir. 2484. Ante I. Ol. 8 Though the root thereof Ante U.C.c.767. wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. 10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? d Ch. vii. 1.- Le Ver. 14. Heb. is weakened or cut off. Verse 6. Turn from him, that he may rest] Cease to try him by afflictions and distresses, that he may moved from it: and thus, like a hireling, who is perenjoy some of the comforts of life, before he be reof the day, from severe labour, I shall also have a mitted by his master to take a little repose in the heat breathing time from affliction, before I come to that bound over which I cannot pass. See chap. x. 20, where there is a similar request. not, says Calmet, understand this of an old tree, the Verse 7. For there is hope of a tree] We must stem and roots of which are dried up and rotted: but there are some trees which grow from cuttings; and some which, though pulled out of the earth, and having had their roots dried and withered by long extake root and resume their verdure. There are also posure to the sun and wind, will, on being replanted, certain trees, the fibres of which are so solid, that if after several years they be steeped in water, they resume their vigour, the tubes dilate, and the blossoms have often witnessed in what is called the rose of or flowers which were attached to them expand; as I Jericho. There are few trees which will not send forth new shoots, when the stock is cut down level with the earth. Verse 9. Through the scent of water it will bud] A fine metaphor: the water acts upon the decaying and musk, otto of roses, ammonia, &c., act on a fainting perishing tree, as strong and powerful odours from or swooning person. Verse 10. But man dieth] No human being ever can spring from the dead body of man; that wasteth away, corrupts, and is dissolved; for the man dies: and when he breathes out his last breath, and his body is reduced to dust, then where is he? There is a beautiful verse in the Persian poet Khosroo, that is not unlike this saying of Job: رفتم سوي خطيره و بکریستم بزار از هخره دوستان کر اسیر فنا شدند گفتم ایشان کجا شدند کجا شدند و خطر داد از مرا جواب ایشان کجا "I went towards the burying ground, and wept To think of the departure of friends which were captives to death; I said, Where are they? and Fate Gave back this answer by Echo, Where are they?" Thus paraphrased by a learned friend :— I wept, and thought of friends there laid, Where are those friends my heart doth lack, Verse 11. The waters fail from the sea] I believe this refers to evaporation, and nothing else. As the waters are evaporated from the sea, and the river in passing over the sandy desert is partly exsiccated, and partly absorbed; and yet the waters of the sea are not exhausted, as these vapours, being condensed, fall down in rain, and by means of rivers return again into the sea so man is imperceptibly removed from his fellows by death and dissolution; yet the human race is still continued, the population of the earth being kept up by perpetual generations. Verse 12. So man lieth down] He falls asleep in his bed of earth. And riseth not] Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job's belief in the materiality of the soul, and that the whole man sleeps from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, and its sleep till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus's epitaph on the death of Bion: Αι, αι, ται μαλαχαι μεν επαν κατα καπον ολωνται, the general resurrection. that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! b A. M. cir. 2484, 14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, 'till my change come. d 15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: b Ch. xiii. 15.- --c Ver. 7. 1 Cor. xv. 51. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 21.-d Ch. xiii. 22. Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die, Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum's pride, Blooming in vigour, wake again to life, And flourish beauteous through another year: But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise, When once we die, unknown in Earth's dark womb Sleep, long and drear, the endless sleep of death. J. B. B. C. A more cold and comfortless philosophy was never invented. The next verse shows that Job did not entertain this view of the subject. Verse 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave] Dreadful as death is to others, I shall esteem it a high privilege; it will be to me a covert from the wind and from the tempest of this affliction and distress. Keep me secret] Hide my soul with thyself, where my enemies cannot invade my repose; or, as the poet expresses it, "My spirit hide with saints above, My body in the tomb." Job does not appear to have the same thing in view when he entreats God to hide him in the grave; and to keep him secret, until his wrath be past. The former relates to the body; the latter, to the spirit. That thou wouldest appoint me a set time] As he had spoken of the death of his body before, and the secreting of his spirit in the invisible world, he must refer here to the resurrection; for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust? And remember me!] When my body has paid that debt of death which it owes to thy divine justice, and the morning of the resurrection is come, when it may be said thy wrath, appecha," thy displeasure," against the body is past, it having suffered the sentence denounced by thyself: Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; then remember me-raise my body, unite my spirit to it, and receive both into thy glory for ever. Verse 14. If a man die, shall he live again?] The Chaidee translates, If a wicked man die, can he ever live again? or, he can never live again. The Syriac and Arabic thus: "If a man die, shall he revive? Yea, all the days of his youth he awaits till his old age come." The Septuagint: "If a man die, shall he live, having accomplished the days of his life? I will endure till I live again." Here is no doubt, but After death man has no concern A. M. eir. 2484. Ante U.C. c. 767. over my sin? thou wilt have a desire to the dust of the earth; and thou 16 For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch e destroyest the hope of man. 20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: A. M. cir. 2484. thou changest his countenance, and sendest 17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, him away. and thou sewest up mine iniquity. C 18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place. 19 The waters wear the stones: thou est away the things which grow out d washof the f 21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. 22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn. * Ch. x. 6, 14. exix. 1, 2, 3. I. 34. xiii. 27. xxxi. 4. xxxiv. 21. Ps. lvi. 8. flowest.- -e Ch. xi. 20. xxvii. 8.- fEccles. ix. 5. Isai. a strong persuasion, of the certainty of the general land. Some suppose the allusion is to money, sealed resurrection. All the days of my appointed time] wax tsebai, "of my warfare;" see on chap. vii. 1. Will I await till chaliphathi, my renovation, come. This word is used to denote the springing again of grass, Ps. xc. 5, 6, after it had once withered, which is in itself a very expressive emblem of the resurrection. Verse 15. Thou shalt call] Thou shalt say, There shall be time no longer: Awake, ye dead! and come to judgment ! And I will answer thee] My dissolved frame shall he united at thy call; and body and soul shall be rejoined. up in bags; which is common in the East. This includes two ideas: 1. Job's transgressions were all numbered; not one was passed by. 2. They were sealed up; so that none of them could be lost. These bags were indifferently sewed or sealed, the two words in the text. Verse 18. The mountain falling cometh to nought] Every thing in nature is exposed to mutability and decay:-even mountains themselves may fall from their bases, and be dashed to pieces; or be suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake; and, by the same means, the strongest and most massive rocks may be removed. Verse 19. The waters wear the stones] Even the common stones are affected in the same way. Were even earthquakes and violent concussions of nature wanting, the action of water, either running over them as a stream, or even falling upon them in drops, will wear these stones. Hence the proverb :— Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpe cadendo. Thou wilt have a desire] on tichsoph, "Thou wilt pant with desire;" or, "Thou wilt yearn over the work of thy hands." God has subjected the creature to vanity, in hope; having determined the resurrection. Man is one of the noblest works of God. He has exhibited him as a master-piece of his creative skill, power, and goodness. Nothing less than the strongest call upon justice could have induced him thus to destroy the work of his hands. No wonder that he has an earnest desire towards it; and that although man dies, and is as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again; yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Even God is represented as earnestly longing for the ultimate reviviscence of the sleeping dust. He Thou washest away the things] Alluding to sudden cannot, he will not, forget the work of his hands. falls of rain occasioning floods, by which the fruits of Verse 16. For now thou numberest my steps] ny the earth are swept away; and thus the hope of man ki attak, ALTHOUGH thou, &c. Though thou, by thy-the grain for his household, and provender for his conduct towards me, seemest bent on my utter de- cattle, is destroyed. struction, yet thou delightest in mercy, and I shall be saved. Verse 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag] An allusion to the custom of collecting evidence of state transgressions, sealing them up in a bag, and presenting them to judges and officers of state to be examined, in order to trial and judgment. Just at this time (July, 1820) charges of state transgressions, sealed up in a GREEN BAG, and presented to the two bouses of parliament, for the examination of a secret committee, are making a considerable noise in the "From frequent dropping, as the proverb says, perpetually falling, even a stone is hollowed into a hole." Verse 20. Thou prevailest for ever against him] It is impossible for him to withstand thee: every stroke of thine brings him down. Thou changest his countenance] Probably an allusion to the custom of covering the face, when the person was condemned, and sending him away to execution. See the case of Haman, in the note on Esther, chap. vii. 8. Verse 21. His sons come to honour] When dead, he is equally indifferent and unconscious whether his children have met with a splendid or oppressive lot in life; for as to this world, when man dies, in that day all his thoughts perish. Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain] The sum of the life of man is this, pain of body and distress of soul; and he is seldom without the one or the other, and often oppressed by both. Thus ends Job's discourse on the miserable state and condition of man. The last verse of the preceding chapter has been differently translated and explained. Mr. Good's Version is the following, which he vindicates in a learned note: For his flesh shall drop away from him; And his soul shall become a waste from him. The Chaldee thus: "Nevertheless his flesh, on account of the worms, shall grieve over him; and his soul, in the house of judgment, shall wail over him." In another copy of this Version it is thus: "Nevertheless his flesh, before the window is closed over him, shall grieve; and his soul, for seven days of mourning, shall bewail him in the house of his burial." I shall give the Hebrew :— אך בשרו עליו יכאב Ach besaro alaiv yichab, ונפשו עליו תאבל : Venaphsho alaiv teebal. Which Mr. Stock translates thus, both to the spirit and letter: But over him his flesh shall grieve; And over him his breath shall mourn. "In the daring spirit of oriental poetry," says he, "the flesh, or body, and the breath, are made conscious beings; the former lamenting its putrefaction in the grave, the latter mourning over the mouldering clay which it once enlivened.” This version is, in my opinion, the most natural yet offered. The Syriac and Arabic present nearly the same sense: "But his body shall grieve over him; and his soul be astonished over him." with impiety Coverdale follows the Vulgate: Whyle he lyveth his flesh must have travayle; and whyle the soul is in him, he must be in sorowe. On ver. 2 I have referred to the following beautiful lines, which illustrate these finely figurative texts:He cometh forth as a FLOWER, and is CUT DOWN; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. All flesh is GRASS, and all the goodliness thereof is as the FLOWER of the field. The GRASS withereth, the FLOWER fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever. The morning flowers display their sweets, The short-lived beauties die away. The short-lived beauties die away. Safe from diseases and decline. Let sickness blast, let death devour, If firm the word of God remains. See A Collection of Poems on Sundry Occasions, by the Rev. Samuel Wesley, Master of Blundell's School, Tiverton. CHAPTER XV. Eliphaz charges Job with impiety in attempting to justify himself, 1-13; asserts the utter corruption and abominable state of man, 14-16; and, from his own knowledge and the observations of the ancients, shows the desolations to which the wicked are exposed, and insinuates that Job has such calamities to dread, 17-35. THEN answered Eliphaz the 2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his a Heb. knowledge of wind. NOTES ON CHAP. XV. A. M. cir. 2484. Ante I. Ol. cir. 744. Ante U.C.c.767. which we translate belly, is used to signify any part of the cavity of the body, whether the region of the thorax or abdomen; here it evidently refers to the lungs, and may include the cheeks and fauces. The beten, east wind, p kadim, is a very stormy wind in the 5 For thy mouthuttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. 6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee. 7 Art thou the first man that was born? Heb. thou makest void. -bOr, speech.c Heb. teacheth.- d Luke xix. 22. Ps. xc. 2. Levant, or the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, supposed to be the same with that called by the Greeks evporÀvdwv, euroclydon, the east storm, mentioned Acts xxvii. 14. Eliphaz, by these words, seems to intimate that Job's speech was a perfect storm or tempest of words. Verse 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk?] Should a man talk disrespectfully of his Maker, or speak to him without reverence? and should he suppose that he has proved any thing, when he has uttered words of little meaning, and used sound instead of sense? Verse 4. Thou castest off fear] Thou hast no reverence for God. And restrainest prayer] Instead of humbling thyself, and making supplication to thy Judge, thou spendest thy time in arraigning his providence, and justifying thyself. When a man has any doubts whether he has grieved God's Spirit, and his mind feels troubled, it is much better for him to go immediately to God, and ask forgiveness, than spend any time in finding excuses for his conduct, or labouring to divest it of its seeming obliquity. Restraining or suppressing prayer, in order to find excuses or palliations for infirmities, indiscretions, or improprieties of any kind, which appear to trench on the sacred limits of morality and godliness, may be to a man the worst of evils: humiliation and prayer for mercy and pardon can never be out of their place to any soul of man who, surrounded with evils, is ever liable to offend. Verse 5. For thy mouth uttereth] In attempting to justify thyself, thou hast added iniquity to sin, and hast endeavoured to impute blame to thy Maker. The tongue of the crafty.] Thou hast varnished thy own conduct, and used sophistical arguments to defend thyself. Thou resemblest those cunning pereme, y arumim, who derive their skill and dexterity from the old serpent, "the nachash, who was Dry arum, subtle or crafty, beyond all the beasts of the field;" Gen. iii. 1. Thy wisdom is not from be, but from beneath. Verse 7. Art thou the first man that was born?] Literally, "Wert thou born before Adam?" Art thou in the pristine state of purity and innocence? Or art thon like Adam, in his first state? It does not become the fallen descendant of a fallen parent to talk as thou dost. pretensions to wisdom. or wast thou made before the hills? 8 f Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain. wisdom to thyself? A. M. cir. 2484. B. C. cir. 1520. Ante I. Ol. cir. 744. Ante U.C.c.767. 9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us? 10 "With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than thy father. 11 Are the consolations of God small with e Prov. viii. 25.- f Rom. xi. 34. 1 Cor. ii. 11.-8 Ch. xiii. 2.- h Ch. xxxii, 6, 7. Made before the hills?] Did God create thee the beginning of his ways? or wert thou the first intelligent creature which his hands have formed? Verse 8. Hast thou heard the secret of God?] "Hast thou hearkened in God's council?" Wert thou one of the celestial cabinet, when God said, Let us make man in our image, and in our likeness? Dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?] Dost thou wish us to understand that God's counsels were revealed to none but thyself? And dost thou desire that we should give implicit credence to whatsoever thou art pleased to speak? These are all strong sarcastic questions, and apparently uttered with great contempt. Verse 9. What knowest thou] Is it likely that thy intellect is greater than ours; and that thou hast cultivated it better than we have done ours? What understandest thou] Or, Dost thou understand any thing, and it is not with us? Show us any point of knowledge possessed by thyself, of which we are ignorant. Verse 10. With us are both the gray-headed] One copy of the Chaldee Targum paraphrases the verse thus: "Truly Eliphaz the hoary-headed, and Bildad the long-lived, are among us; and Zophar, who in age surpasseth thy father." It is very likely that Eliphaz refers to himself and his friends in this verse, and not either to the old men of their tribes, or to the masters by whom they themselves were instructed. Eliphaz seems to have been the eldest of these sages; and, therefore, he takes the lead in each part of this dramatic poem. Verse 11. Are the consolations of God small with thee?] Various are the renderings of this verse. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: "Are then the mercies of God of no account with thee?" or, addresses of kindness before thee?" "the The VULGATE thus:-"Can it be a difficult thing for God to comfort thee? But thou hinderest this by thy intemperate speeches." The SYRIAC and ARABIC thus :-" Remove from thee the threatenings (Arabic, reproaches) of God, and speak tranquilly with thy own spirit." The SEPTUAGINT thus:-"Thou hast been scourged lightly for the sins which thou hast committed; and thou hast spoken greatly beyond measure; or, with excessive insolence." Houbigant thus:-"Dost thou not regard the |