And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, saying: No eye shall see me! and puts a veil over the face. They break through houses in the darkness: by day they shut themselves up; they know not the light. For morning is death-shade to them all: when one can discern, it is the terrors of death-shade! Light is he on the face of the waters: accursed is the portion of such in the earth; The womb will forget him, when the worm feeds sweetly on him; and iniquity will be broken, as the tree. He despoils the barren that beareth not: They rise high; a little while, and they are gone! V. 17. Death-shade, the darkness of the world of death; hence put for the deepest night. So great is their dread of the light, that morning is to them like the darkness of death. Second member. When one can discern: that is, when there is light enough to distinguish objects. The words may also be translated as in the margin: meaning; they have no dread of the night,-its terrors are known and familiar to them. But the sense is not so pertinent. V. 18, first member. Compare Hos. 10: 7, her king is cut off, as the foam upon the water. Here, the meaning is: he has no firm foundation, no stability, like that of the rich and powerful oppressor. He is like the light substance that floats on the water, and which the current bears whither it will. Third member: his steps are never directed in the way which leads to fruitful fields; for he has no such possessions of the wealthy transgressor. V. 19. As melting snows disappear in the drought and heat, so such transgressors are swept away to the under-world. V. 20. Even maternal fondness cannot cherish the memory of such outcasts from society, and from social laws. The tree, broken and prostrated, is the emblem of their fate. Contrast the end of the evil man of wealth, described in ch. 21: 32, 33. VV. 21-24, describe the oppressions of the man in power. He robs the childless and the widow, who have none to sustain and protect them; and even the strong have no security but in his favor (21-23). However high such may rise in power, they are soon brought down by death to the common level (24). V. 24. Are they gathered: see Numb. 20: 26, and compare V. 24.-(Margin): compare Gen. 49: 33, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and expired.-Third member: in the harvest of death, all are gathered alike, without regard to rank or eminence. The ground thought of the chapter is this: The wrongs committed by those, whom only a higher than human power can reach, escape the punishment which society visits on humbler offenders. V. 3. The question of course implies a negative answer; there is no number to his armies,—that is, they are without number. The meaning of this verse is fully explained by Is. 40: 26. Attention is there directed to the heavenly bodies; and God, it is said, "bringeth out their host by number" (as the commander of an army does his forces); "he calleth them all by names" (they are mustered, each by name); "by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth" (not one is suffered to remain behind). The prophet refers to the beautiful and unvarying order, with which the heavenly bodies follow each other in successive seasons of the year, and in their turn overspread the sky like an embattled host. That this is the meaning of armies here, also, seems to be indicated by the expression in the next member: on whom does not his light arise; that is, on whom do they not shine, in obedience to his command? Compare ch. 38: 31-33. 12 3 4 To whom 5 and whose spirit of higher intelligence and power than man; ministering spirits without number, who acknowledge the sovereignty of God and do his pleasure. See, for example, Gen. 32: 2, Deut. 33: 2, (properly, He came with ten thousands of holy ones); 1 Chron. 12:22; and many other passages of like import. To these we should naturally refer this question (is there any number to his armies ?), if it stood by itself alone; but the connection with the following words seems to require the above reference, suggested by the passage in Isaiah. Compare Ps. 33: 6, and Is. 45: 12. Ch. XXVI. Job's reply. He rebukes his opponent's weak pretensions to superior wisdom (2-4); declares the power and and in the structure and government of the material universe the grandeur of God, as shown in the realm of death (5-6), (7-13); of which all that we observe is to the reality, as a whispered word to the voice of the thunder (14). V. 5. The shades; that is, the spirits of the dead. So they are called in the Old Testament; Is. 14:9; 26: 14, 19; Prov. 2: 18; 9: 18; 21: 16; Ps. 88: 10, 2d member. In all of these passages, as well as here, the word dead is improperly used in the common version. In the first member of Ps. 88: 10, the original word means the dead; and should be distinguished, in the translation, from the word meaning shades, in the second member. Of the mode of existence in that separate state, and of its locality (matters of speculation merely, and of no practical There are many allusions, in the Old Testament, to beings utility), the Bible gives us no information, its representations of them being wholly figurative; while, on the contrary, the moral preparation for that state, in which alone we are concerned, is clearly and fully taught. Second member. Beneath the waters and their inhabitants; namely in the mansions of departed spirits, beneath the earth and lower than the ocean depths. (Compare Deut. 5: 8, or that is in the waters beneath the earth.) These, and all that dwell in them, cannot screen from his view, and oppose no barrier to his power. V. 6. Destruction: so that state of existence is called, because in it is swallowed up and lost all that was known and cherished on earth. V.7. He stretched out the north; compare Is. 45: 12, I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens.-The north means the northern part of the heavens: namely, the part visible in the country of the speaker, or writer, and hence put for the heavens above. V. 11. The pillars of heaven: figuratively, for the supports on which it rests. The allusion is to the rolling thunder, by which the vault of heaven seems to be shaken. V. 12. He not only has power to still the raging sea; his superior wisdom subdues and humbles pride in every form. V. 13. His divine power formed the constellations, which adorn the heavens by night. One of the largest of these (the Serpent), is mentioned as an example of his creative power. Compare ch. 9: 9, and 38: 31, 32.-Fleeing: a common epithet of the serpent, and part of the name of the constellation. V. 14. What a whisper &c. It is but a word, and not a spoken but a whispered word, in comparison with the voice of the thunder. It is the object of the sacred writer, in this chapter, to show the power and grandeur of God, as seen in his works. The structure of the material universe, and the processes of nature, V. 9. The throne; the throne of God, namely the heavens are represented as they appear to the eye, and by the impres(Is. 66: 1). He veils at pleasure the face, or front, of the sions which they make on the common mind. So these subthrone with clouds, and shuts it up from the view of mortals.jects are everywhere treated in the Bible; and the lessons thus V. 10. Compare Is. 40: 22, It is he that sitteth upon the given require no other knowledge of nature, than what is apcircle of the earth; and Prov. 8: 27, when he traced a circle parent to every eye. Any other mode would not have answered on the face of the deep (as it should be translated). These expressions are drawn from the apparent figure of the earth, and of the vault of heaven suspended over it. Beyond this boundary was the region of darkness. See remarks at the end of the chapter. the design of the Holy Scriptures, the religious and moral instruction of men in every stage of culture and knowledge. By this exhibition of the power and sovereignty of God, in nature and over all created intelligences, the way is prepared for the topics of the next two chapters. Chs. XXVII and XXVIII. The opponents of Job are now | understood, consistently with what he has said before. As silenced. Zophar, whose turn it is next to speak, has nothing thus understood, they are essential to the completeness of his to reply. view; for his confidence in the principles which had governed his life remains unshaken, and he can still say (ch. 28: 28): Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. Job has fully proved, in answer to the false charges of the three friends, that individual transgression does not receive its just punishment in this life. Is there no choice, then, between the lot of the righteous and the wicked, in the present world? Is the way of transgression, viewed merely with reference to worldly interests, the way of true wisdom and understanding? This Job had not asserted; nor was it necessary to his argument. Having refuted the false positions of his opponents, he now takes up this question, showing the general law of the divine government, and what God himself has declared to be the true wisdom of man, in his earthly relations. The principle itself, on which the wicked act in the pursuit of worldly good, is a law of mutual destruction. One gains by another's loss; and becomes, in turn, the prey of a third. A necessary result of this principle, is individual insecurity; and the certainty that, sooner or later, success will be followed by disaster and ruin. The instances, in which the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, are indeed numerous enough to disprove the assertion, that the good and evil of this life are distributed according to personal merit. But still the course of Providence shows, and God himself declares, that the only law which makes individual prosperity sure, is that by which men mutually help and strengthen each other, the Law of Right, the principle of obedience to God. This Job could assert, as the general law of Providence, in terms no less strong than his friends had used; though without conceding the special application which they claimed for it, and on which they grounded their accusations against him. V. 2. Has taken away my right: as explained in the note on ch. 19: 6. V. 3. The spirit of God; namely, that which he imparts. The vital spirit is meant; the living principle, or principle of Gen. 7 : 22 (as the words should be translated), all in whose animal life. As this is dependent on the breath, it is said in nostrils was the breath of a living spirit; that is, the breath by which the living spirit, or spirit of life, is sustained. This principle of animal life is, therefore, figuratively represented by the breath in the nostrils (Gen. 2: 7, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life), as it is also by the blood in the veins (Gen. 9: 4, flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof); both being essential to its maintenance. Hence it is said, Is. 2: 22 (as properly translated): cease ye from man, in whose nostrils is breath; that is, nothing but breath; so feeble a principle of life, and so easily extinguished! V. 5. Should justify you; in these false accusations, is meant.-I will not put away my integrity: either by departing from rectitude, or by yielding my claim to innocency. V. 7 is a common form of expression, meaning: this is the worst that I could desire for an enemy. It is not to be regarded as an imprecation; but as expressing Job's estimate of the real (not the merely outward and apparent) condition and prospects of the wicked man. The sentiment is: could I This is, clearly, the only sense in which his words can be desire to be such an one! Will he delight himself in the Almighty? I will teach you, concerning God's hand; and why then speak ye what is utterly vain? In the pestilence shall they that remain to him be buried, If he heap up silver, as the dust, and prepare raiment, as the clay; he may prepare, but the just shall put it on, and the silver shall the innocent divide. 18 He builds, like the moth, his house; and as a booth, which the watchman makes. If his children grow up 14 15 V. 10. Will he call on God? Job on the contrary, though in the deepest affliction, and apparent abandonment on the part of God, could still say, I know my Redeemer lives (19:25): Even now, behold my witness is on high; unto God my eye poureth tears (16: 19, 20). His own purity of heart and life is thereby made manifest, as well as the miserable end of the wicked man, for whom there is no refuge in God. V. 11. The hand is the instrument with which one effects his purpose. Concerning God's hand means, therefore, concerning the use he makes of his power.—I will not conceal: that is, I will not refuse to acknowledge and openly assert it, on account of the false and perverted use already made of it. V. 12. The course of Providence had been open to them, and they had witnessed for themselves God's dealings with men; but the lessons which they had drawn therefrom were vain, and practically of no account. are often mentioned as the threefold scourge of God (Ezek. 5: 12, 17; 6: 11; Jer. 42 : 17).—His widows (called his, because the widows of his own deceased offspring), shall not bewail: that is, the dead "shall be cast forth in silence" (Amos 8: 3), with no funeral rites, and with no lamentation over them. V. 16. For the same comparison, see Zech. 9: 3. V. 18. As a booth: the temporary shelter for one who watches over a garden or vineyard. Such a lodge is alluded to in Is. 1: 8.-His splendid mansion is no more secure, than the web of the tiny moth, or the watchman's fragile hut. V. 19. And shall not be gathered; that is, he shall lie neglected and unburied. He shall not be gathered; namely to his fathers, in the burial-place where their remains repose. Compare ch. 24: 24, and Ezek. 29: 5, Jer. 8: 2. He opens his eyes, and he is gone; so suddenly does de V. 13. With God: namely, in the mind of God, in his pur-struction follow the first alarm of danger. pose, as developed in the course of Providence.-The heritage Sr.; the possession which they receive and transmit to others. VV. 14, 15. War, with famine and pestilence in its train, V. 20. Like the waters: the rushing, overwhelming floods, frequent in those countries during the rainy season. V. 21. The East-wind: see the references on ch. 15: 2. |