untranslated, or considering it as a proper name. The Chaldee understands, vessels bearing rich fruits,' which, being perishable commodities, required expeditious transport. This is nearly followed by the Vulgate and those modern versions which bow to its authority. There are other interpretations which we need not notice: but that which we incline to prefer, with some good authorities, English and foreign, is, that as a denotes the Egyptian papyrus, we are to understand vessels of reed' or 'papyrus,' of which boats and small vessels were constructed in very ancient times, and which are, even in Scripture, celebrated for their swiftness (Isa. xviii. 2). The great antiquity of these boats, and the little advance that had probably been made in navigation in the time of Job, are much in favour of this explanation.

30. If I wash myself with snow water.'-The white

ness and purity of snow suggested the idea that its water was better suited for purification than any other. For this reason (as Gill states, after Petronius), snow water was anciently preserved in vessels, for personal ablution. It was conceived that it not only whitened the skin, but that it also strengthened by contracting the fibres and preventing perspiration.

33. Daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.'-An arbitrator, umpire, or elected judge, used to be called (and we believe still is in some of the northern counties) a dies-man or days-man. The laying the hand may refer to some particular ceremony; but it is sufficient to understand it to express the power of control which the daysman exercised over both parties. Dr. Good renders, There is no umpire between us, who might lay his control over us both.'

CHAPTER X.

1 Job, taking liberty of complaint, expostulateth with God about his afflictions. 18 He complaineth of life, and craveth a little ease before death.

My soul is 'weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with

me.

3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

5 Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,

6 That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

1 Or, cut off while I live.

2 Heb. the labour of thine hands. 5 Psal. 139. 14, 15, 16.

7 "Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

12 Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. 13 And these things hast thou hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee. 14 If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. 15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I 8 Heb. It is upon thy knowledge. Heb. took pains about me.

Heb. hedged.

be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

7 That is, thy plagues.

19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 'Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

21 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese ?'-The whole passage, including the two following verses, is usually considered to furnish an account, no less just than beautiful, of the origin and growth of the human creature. Dr. Good, who translates, Didst thou not mingle me, as milk, and consolidate me, as cheese?' considers that it refers to milk as the sustaining principle of man's existence. He says:The whole of the simile is highly correct and beautiful; and has not been neglected by the best poets of Greece and Rome. From the well-tempered or mingled milk of the chyle, every individual atom of every individual organ in the animal frame, the most compact and consolidated, as well as the soft and pliable, is perpetually supplied and renewed, through the medium of a system of lacteals or milk-vessels, as they are usually called in

anatomy, from the nature of this common chyle or milk which they circulate. Into the delicate stomach of the infant it is usually introduced in the form of milk; but even in the adult it must be reduced to some such form, whatever be the substance he feed on, by the conjoint action of the stomach and other chylifactive organs, before it can become the basis of animal nutriment. It then circulates through the system, and either continues fluid, as milk in its simple state; or is rendered solid, as milk in its caseous or cheese state, according to the nature of the organ which it supplies with its vital current.'

16. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion,' etc.-Good and Boothroyd seem rightly to consider that the fine passage in this and the following verse refers to the sport which lions, and indeed all the feline tribe, exercise over their prey before they finally devour it.

CHAPTER XI.

repentance.

THEN answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should 'a man full of talk be justified?

3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?

4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.

5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? 8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

10 If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?

11 For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?

12 For "vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt.

13 If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;

14 If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.

15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:

16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:

17 And thine age 'shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.

18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.

3 Heb. the heights of heaven.
7 Heb. shall arise above the noon-day.

4 Or, make a change.

8 Levit. 26. 5. 635

'At

Verse 1. Zophar the Naamathite.'-See the note on ch. ii. 11. Zophar seems inferior even to Bildad in discernment, temper, and charitable consideration. first,' says Jahn, his discourse is characterized by rusticity; his second address adds but little to the first; and in the third dialogue he has no reply to make.' Hales characterizes this, his first speech, as taunting.' 'He, without any reserve, taxes Job openly with loquacity, arrogance, and iniquity, and as justly punished for his sins; and exhorts him to repentance, as the only means of recovering his prosperity.'

·

12. Though man be born like a wild ass's colt.'-The particle of comparison 'like' does not exist in the original, and the boldness and effect of the figure are not seen

unless the interpolation be proved. We make the ass an emblem of stupidity, for which no good reasons have ever been alleged. The Hebrews made the ass, that is the tame ass, a symbol of contented and patient labour (Gen. xlix. 14, 15); but the wild ass of the desert, which is here intended, was with them a symbol of extreme contumacy and ferocity. A wild-ass colt,' 'A wild-ass man' were proverbial expressions to this effect. It is thus applied to Ishmael, and with remarkable appropriateness, if understood of him as a progenitor of the Arabian tribes (Gen. xvi. 12). The proverb still exists among the Arabians to describe an obstinate, indocile, and contumacious person.

CHAPTER XII.

1 Job maintaineth himself against his friends that reprove him. 7 He acknowledgeth the general doctrine of God's omnipotency.

AND Job answered and said,

2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

3 But I have 'understanding as well as you; "I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?

4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him the just upright man is laughed to

scorn.

5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that

is at ease.

6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.

7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:

8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

9 Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?

10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of 'all mankind. 11 'Doth not the ear try words? and the 'mouth taste his meat?

12 With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.

13 With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.

14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he 'shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.

15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.

16 With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his.

17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.

18 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle.

19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.

20 "He removeth away "the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged.

21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and 13 weakeneth the strength of the mighty.

22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.

23 He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and "straiteneth them again.

24 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.

25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to "stagger like a drunken man.

3 Heb. with whom are not such as these. 8 That is, with God.

12

14 Heb. leadeth in.

4 Or, life.

9 Isa. 22. 22. Rev. 3. 7. 13 Or, looseth the girdle of the strong. 15 Heb. wander.

Verse 2. Wisdom shall die with you.'-The Orientals have still many expressions of this kind by which they rebuke or satirise unfounded pretensions. Hence when a man insinuates offensively his superior wisdom, knowledge, or experience, it is not unusual to hear such observations as-Alas! when you die wisdom cannot liveWisdom will be buried with you-Where shall we seek wisdom when you are dead ?--and so on. There is, however, a fine idea involved, which admits of very beautiful applications, as, for instance, in the exquisite Idyl in which Moschus laments the death of Bion:

Bion, the swain, and all, with him, is dead;
Song lives no more, the Doric Muse is fled.'

3. Understanding.'-The Hebrew, as in the margin, has 'heart,' which, and not the head, or brain, is often used in Scripture to express the mind, or understanding.

18. He looseth the bond of kings.'-Not the bonds with which they are bound, but those which they impose. The whole series of verses refers to the changes and reverses which attend all conditions of life. In the present verse this is beautifully expressed; the bonds of authority with which they bound others are unbound, and their own loins are bound with a girdle-not a girdle of royal dignity and ornament, but such a girdle as that with which servants and travellers gird their loins, in the East, for service or travel.

CHAPTER XIII.

1 Job reproveth his friends of partiality. 14 He professeth his confidence in God: 20 and intreateth to know his own sins, and God's purpose in afflicting him.

eye

Lo, mine hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.

2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.

4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

50 that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?

8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?

9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?

10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.

11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?

12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.

13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will. 14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?

Verse 14. Take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand.'-Both these expressions appear to have been proverbially applicable to a case apparently desperate. Whence the former could be derived is not very clear. Some think it may refer to some such fact as that of a man's eating his own flesh in the rage and despair of famine; while others would refer it to the contest which so frequently takes place between dogs and other carnivirous quadrupeds, in consequence of one of them carrying a piece of flesh in his mouth, which instantly becomes a source of dispute and a prize to be fought for.

15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him but I will 'maintain mine own ways before him.

16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.

20 Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.

21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.

22 Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.

23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?

26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.

27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and 'lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.

28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.

5 Heb. roots.

25. Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro?-The word translated to break' is very emphatic, signifying to break terribly, or to beat a thing to powder: to break with power, or to show much power in breaking. And shall this great power of demolition be exerted against a leafweak even on the tree, and still more weak when separated from it, dried up, and driven to and fro by the wind?

27. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks.'-The whole passage seems to describe the feet as so confined in a clog or clogs as not to preclude the power of motion. It may refer to the ancient custom of attaching a sort of clog to 637

the feet of runaway slaves, when found, with the owner's name thereon, so that their flight might be retarded and their course the more easily tracked, if they again attempted to escape. Dr. Good conceives that the figure may have been taken from the mode of treating the wildass, an animal difficult to tame, and which it was necessary to clog in order to keep in subjection. In that case, the last clause of the verse (a print upon the heels of my feet') may imply that some particular mark of ownership or other quality was usually branded on the hoof, or perhaps indented on the shoes. Stocks or clogs for the feet of men were however certainly used in Scripture times. The feet of Jeremiah were put in the stocks. What kind of stocks were used it is difficult to conjecture

-whether they were encumbering clogs, or fetters that did not absolutely prevent but only embarrassed motion, or were fixed frames that kept the prisoner stationary. Both kinds were in use very anciently. The fixed kinds, properly called stocks, were of different sorts, being frames of wood with holes either for the feet only, or for the feet, the hands, and the neck at once. At Pompeii stocks have been found so contrived that ten prisoners might be chained by the leg, each leg separately, by the sliding of a bar. Some of these forms of confinement-particularly that which combined, in some sort, the pillory with the stocks were very painful, and are mentioned in the accounts of the sufferings of the early Christian martyrs. Our woodcut exhibits the sort of stocks used in India, consisting of a frame, which confines the prisoner's hands and feet, and obliges him to lie on the ground in a very distressing posture, notwithstanding the freedom allowed to the head. Of confinement for the head, such as our pillory or the Chinese collar, we do not read in Scripture; but it is not improbable that the phrase thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet' may be illustrated from the practice of the Chinese of putting a seal over the part where the boards joined, so that it could not be opened without detection during the period in which it is appointed to be worn.

CHAPTER XIV.

1 Job intreateth God for favour, by the shortness of life, and certainty of death. 7 Though life once lost be irrecoverable, yet he waiteth for his change. 16 By sin the creature is subject to corruption. MAN that is born of a woman is 'of few days, and full of trouble.

2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

3 And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

4 "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

8 Though the root thereof 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?