the more fruitful country, where the seven thousand sheep, the three thousand camels of Job, with his five hundred yoke of oxen, and of she-asses, had formerly pastured. Job designates the fathers of his young deriders, as not having been worthy to be set with the dogs of his flock; and he dwells upon the description of this upstart tribe, from whom he was receiving so many insults. He tells us why they were not fit to be employed in the lowest offices about his flocks, which, perhaps, from their extreme poverty, they would have been glad to have occupied. 2. Ay, what strength of hand had they 'to offer' me? In them it had perished by premature age*. b 3. And in the hunger of the barren rock were they gnawing the dry morsel, In a land desolate and waste. 4. Plucking the salt-wort from off the stalk, a And the roots of the retama e for their food. ona nɔ, I take the words together, the effects of old age brought on by want and famine. in Hebrew, is used generally for old age, as chap. v. 26. ; but, on reference to the Arabic, we discover its proper meaning to be the contracted, shrivelled, or wrinkled state of the countenance,' whether from old age, grief, or any other cause. In this passage, I have no doubt it describes the effects of the hard and austere fare, on which these wretches, driven from the more fruitful parts of the country, had been obliged to subsist. The picture given by M. Volney, of the Arab of the remote desert, will much illustrate this scripture. bFlinty famine.' Mr. Good. cs, ager.' Compare Syr. x, ager. "Cf. Schindleri Lex. et Heath in loco." d Supposed to be the SIM. LEX. halimus,' or 'sea-purslain,' a salt herb 5. Men' would drive them from the midst of them, 6 And cry after them as after' a thief'. 6. That they might dwell in the rough places of the torrent, In the caves of the earth, and in the rocks. 7. Among the bushes they brayed, Under the thorns they huddled together". 8. Children of crime ! ay, children of infamy, They had been beaten out of the country. 9. But now I have been their song, And become for them a term of reproach. 10. They have abhorred me, and gone at a distance from me, They refrained not to spit in my presence 1. 11. For my cord has been opened, that it may afflict me, And they have slackened the curb before me. 12. On the right have risen up the youth', And thrust away my feet ". 13. They have cast up for me paths of destruction", They have destroyed my road, that I might fall from on high". of the desert, the tops of which were eaten in occasions of extreme distress. See PARKHURST. • As it is thought, a species of genista, or broom. f Mr. GooD," they were cast out from the people," "they slunk away from them, like a thief." 8 Or, the horrid, tremendous places.' the steeps." Mr. GOOD. "Fearfulness of Vallis arboribus obsita,' vel 'locus impervius,' propriè locus obstans incedenti.' h Mr. GOOD. The highest insult among the Orientals.' k On certain occasions, a cord is drawn across the door of a tent, and universally respected as barring all excess. I imagine this to be the allusion, reading . The riding into the tent, or dwelling, was also another great indignity. 1 Or, the petulant youth. See SIM. LEX. m Or, perhaps, "thrust out their feet in order to throw me down," excusserunt.' SIMON. 6 n Or,' of their destruction,' containing some dangerous trap of theirs, which may throw me down. "Subverterunt." SIMON. Tear up.' GOOD. , from, sidit, ex alto decidet, ", 'calamitas 14. They have attacked me on a sudden, there was no help against them, As a wide breach they came upon me: 15. A tumultuous ruin they have rolled themselves along, Which has been overturned upon me with alarm. Such was the strange reverse that Job had experienced, and such the insults to which the, so lately, much-venerated patriarch was now exposed, from the lowest of the rabble, which possessed the country where he had formerly reigned as chief. My munificence has gone by like a breeze, And my welfare has passed away as a cloud. All my greatness and prosperity is so departed, as to be entirely extinct, and to return no more. 16. And now my soul has been dissolved within me; Days of affliction have seized upon me. 17. Nightly hath my substance been eaten from off me, And my corrodings have known no rest. 18. With great force must my garment be stripped off', Like a tight vest would it gird me about. mea.'" SIMON. Perhaps, that I might meet with an accident.' pertinet ad rad. Arab. repentè invasit.' SIM. LEX. b Mr. Good, from the Arabic, renders nnn, a ruin,' in this place. 8, disruptus,' laceratus cum fragore,' (v. c. de veste, muro, cet.) SIM. LEX. Perhaps, beneath, with a loud crash, they roll themselves along.' , Hoph. conversus est, Mr. Good renders, "the turn is come, destructions are upon me." I have sometimes thought it should be rendered as a single line by itself, making the last line belonging to a triplet, and concluding the subject. "What a reverse! I am overwhelmed with confusion." But very probably, the whole describe the insults of the low rabble. d'Auctoritas mea.' SIMON. My nobility.' GooD. The idea is that of an abundant, spontaneous flowing, united to the ideas of affluence and liberality;' see under . Effundit se, "my heart within me is melting wax." a 19. It has swelled me into a mass' of dirt, b And I have seemed to myself as dust and ashes. Thus Job again describes his painful and loathsome disorder. All this had he to bear, in addition to the remembrance of his losses, and the ill-treatment he received from his neighbours. Nor would God, in whom he trusted for salvation and the better life to come, condescend at present to hear his cry, but appeared as a determined enemy. 20. I have cried unto THEE, but thou wouldst not hear me ; I knelt, but thou wouldst not regard me". 21. Thou art turned into a most implacable enemy to me, Thou hast persecuted me with the strength of thine hand. 22. Thou hast taken me up on the wind, and wafted me away', Ay, THOU hast dissipated my substance. 23. For I have perceived that thou art bringing me unto death, And unto the house appointed for all the living. 24. Ah! but not to the grave will he stretch out his hand, When men' cry out in their calamity ! b C Ab, intumuit.' My disorder, &c. Comparavi me, similis mihi visus sum. SIM. LEX. 6 Literally, I stand.' But it is the attitude of prayer which is designated. "Thou lookest on upon me." GOOD. But I prefer the .ולא various reading • "Inexorabiliter, durus et crudelis, (propriè effractor durus). fis literally thou makest me to ride.' The metaphor is evidently taken from the dispersion of a heap of chaff, or other light matter, by a storm, or whirlwind. • Or, " If under his afflicting providence, there is to them a "calamitas ab eo immissa." SIMON. Mr. Good renders," But not into the sepulchre will he thrust his hand." ,פירן ".cry Expressing, as I understand it, the greatest severity on the part of God against him; that though the stroke of his chastisement is mortal, yet he will not put an end to the life of his miserable victim, but suffers him to linger on in pain and torture. SECTION XX. Job's Remonstrance. In this place, we should be careful to remark, Job's direct description of his sufferings finishes: he proceeds to what may be called his 'remonstrance.' To such a state of distress and misery am I reduced! But wherefore has all this come upon me? What can I have been guilty of, to deserve such treatment at the hand of God? He puts the question to himself, and proceeds to the examination of his character, with regard to several points. Suggesting various species of delinquency, he asks-Have I been guilty of this, or of this? no; far from it; my character and conduct have been totally opposite.And thus, to the end of his address, Job still maintains his own righteousness. He first asks-Have I been an hard-hearted, unfeeling man, who turned, with cruel unconcern, from the sufferings of my fellow-creatures? And is it this that has provoked God to afflict me? 25. Have I not wept at the day of adversity, My soul been grieved for the distressed? Surely, there," in its ruin, is freedom." Taking the various ישוע reading of |