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27. Behold, I understand your imputations",

And the thoughts which ye wrongfully imagine against

me.

28. For you will say, "Where is the house of the noble?

"And, where the tent, the habitation of the wicked?"

Such, he is aware, are the thoughts of his friends respecting his calamities; such will be their reflections when they shall point out the ruins of his desolated habitation, once so great! accounting its desolation as a sufficient proof of the wickedness of its former inhabitants. But does the experience of the well-informed allow of such an inference?

29. Surely you have not inquired of those that travel on the road;

Nor have you acquainted yourselves with their proofs. 30. "That the wicked will be drawn to a day of destruction; "To a day of vengeance will he be carried along." You have not found this to be the result of the experience of men of travel, who are best acquainted with what happens to mankind in the different nations among whom they journey or sojourn you have not understood this to be their observation; that a wicked man is sure to come to a miserable end, and to manifest, in his destruction, the visible hand of an avenging God.

31. Who is wont to declare his way to his face?

Who to recompense to him what he hath done?

Where will you find the proof, that, in the customary order of things, it thus happens from God, or from the instruments of his providence, to the notoriously-wicked man?

a Argumenta, probationes. SIM. LEX.

32. He, too, will be borne to the sepulchre,

And the watch will be set over the tumulus ;
The sods of the valley will be sweet for him.
Men of all descriptions will draw after him;

Those' before him be without number.

Even this notoriously-wicked man, of whom we are speaking, shall not only not meet in this life with the just retribution of his crimes, but you shall see him honoured in his death, and witness the last regards of affectionate friends and relations paid to his remains. His tomb will be watched with care, "to keep it clean and nice with plants, flowers, and verdure." A general assemblage of his neighbours will be seen to follow and to precede in his funeral procession. Such scenes as this will be often witnessed in every part of the world. How plain, then, are existing facts against your notions of the present dispensation of Providence.

33. How, then, would you vainly have me alter my views, While in your replies there remaineth a falsehood?

SECTION XIII.

The Third Address of Eliphaz.

Chap. xxii. Ver. 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite,

and said:

.שקר a See Parkhurst in

"The burial-places of the Turks are handsome and agreeable, which is owing chiefly to the many fine plants that grow in them, and which they carefully place over the dead. Cypresses of remarkable height, and an innumerable quantity of rosemary were the plants usually found there," &c. Hasselquist's Travels.

b Or, vainly try to produce in me the sigh, or moan of silent acquiescence or assent,

cy, a deflection from duty and truth.' PARKHURST. 'Fraus,'' prevaricatio.' SIM. LEX.

2. Can a man become profitable unto El,

Because, acting wisely, he may profit himself?

3. Would it gratify Shaddai that thou wert righteous? Or would it be gain to him that thou shouldst make thy way perfect?

4. For fear of thee, would he bring an accusation against thee? Would he enter into judgment with thee?

The spirit of this reply to Job, which is afterwards referred to with approbation by Elihu, I take to be this: that, in forming our judgment of a retributive providence-from matters of fact which are presented to us-we must not conceive of God, as being personally interested in the obedience of his creatures, or himself affected by their departure from him, or by the sins that they may commit; so that we should expect to see, immediately, and in every instance, the blessings of Providence acting as a bounty, as it were, upon human virtue,-that God may, by all means, procure it, as very profitable to himself. On the other hand, we are not to expect that his judgments, in ordinary cases, will be seen to be so speedily dealt out, as always to arrest and check the wicked, as if God were afraid of them, and, like a fellow-mortal, was apprehensive of some hurt to himself, if he left them but for a little while uncontrolled. It was not, such a narrow and unworthy view of the providence of God, that Eliphaz would maintain from the sayings of the ancients. But, still, that God will soon, someway or other, discover, in his providence, that he is an approver of the righteous. And especially will he, as a just judge, not fail, at length, to

punish the wicked, and bring upon their heads the evil of their doings. Such judgments as had now been brought upon Job, after the indulgence of years of prosperity, Eliphaz could not but think, were of this nature; and Job's conscience must tell him, what iniquities he had been indulging in, during the long-suffering of God.

He must know, however he is disposed to conceal it, that he has, in something or other, been a notorious transgressor. He must have been guilty of some crime, of which these extraordinary calamities are a just and equivalent punishment: and Eliphaz argues the greatness of the crime which must have been committed, from the severity of the affliction.

5. Hath not thy wickedness been great,

And without bounds thine iniquities?

6. Surely thou must have oppressed thy brother without

cause,

And have stripped the garment from the naked.

7. Thou must have given to the weary no water to drink, And have denied bread to the hungry.

8. Ay, to a man of violence must have belonged this land, And a respecter of persons have dwelt on it!

9. Thou must have sent away the widows empty,

And have bruised the extended arms of the fatherless. 10. Therefore are snares about thee on every side, And terror on a sudden hath alarmed thee.

11. Light'hath become' darkness, that thou canst not see, And a flood of waters hath overwhelmed thee.

You must have been either an unjust, an uncharitable, or an oppressive man; and it is on this account, that these judgments are come upon you.

Or, to suggest another probable reason for your sufferings, perhaps you lived without the knowledge and fear of God, and had secretly such unworthy thoughts of the Deity as these:

12. "Is not Eloah in the height of heaven?

"And see the elevation of the stars, how lofty are they!

13. "And so thou hast said, How can El know?

"Can he discriminate through the thick darkness? 14. The clouds are a skreen to him, that he cannot see, "And in the circuit of the heavens he will hold on

his course.'

Had Job indulged in the wicked notion, that the omnipresent God was too far removed to be acquainted with his doings; or that he did not concern himself with the affairs of men? Comp. Psalm lxxxiii. 2.

Or, Eliphaz suggests again, hast thou followed the example of the wicked world before the flood? 15. You must have kept the track of the old times, Which the men of wickedness trod;

16. Who were cut off, and are' not now, A flood having melted their foundation.

17. Who said unto El, "Depart from us,"

And," what could Shaddai do for them?"

18. When it was He that filled their houses with good!" Ay, "far from me be the counsel of the wicked."

19. The righteous shall see, and rejoice,

And the innocent hold them in derision.

20. Though our insurgents have not been cut off, Nor the residue of them a fire devoured.

The track of the whole antediluvian world is here

* Or, suddenly, before their season.

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