15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

16 I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

17 And I brake 'the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

19 My root was 'spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch. 20 My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

22 After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

23 And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

25 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

5 Heb. the jaw-teeth, or, the grinders. Heb. changed.

6 Heb. cast.

Verse 3. When his candle shined upon my head.'-The houses in the towns of south-western Asia and of Egypt are never without lights in the night-time, mostly on a kind of bracket, or in a recess high up the wall, and therefore over the head of a person sitting upon the floor or upon a low seat. This custom, which is probably ancient, sufficiently explains the present text. Scott, however, thinks there is probably an allusion to the lamps which hung from the ceiling in the banqueting-rooms of the wealthy Arabs, not unlike what Virgil mentions in the palace of Dido

Incensi.'

Dependent lychni laquearibus aureis

'From gilded roofs depending lamps display

Nocturnal beams that imitate the day.'-DRYDEN. Lanterns are frequently suspended not only from the ceiling of banqueting rooms, but so as to throw their light upon the bed of a person of rank, as shewn in the annexed engraving; and then certainly the lamps shine, in a very literal sense, 'over the head' of the person lying there.

7. 'I went out to the gate.... prepared my seat in the

street!-What follows describes Job as performing the duties and receiving the honour due to a civil magistrate or chief elder, or rather perhaps as emir or sheikh, of the place where he lived: for it seems as if he was not merely one of the principal persons, but the chief of them. The picture thus offered to us is very interesting, and in strict conformity with the existing usages of such a condition of Oriental society as that which the book describes. For the discharge of his public functions, he is described as proceeding to the gate of the city, the usual seat of judicature and public business, and at or near it 'preparing (or taking) his seat.' Seats thus in the open air are usually prepared by a servant placing a mat or carpet upon the ground, in some shady spot, as under a tree or a wall; or else, at the spot where he usually resorts on such occasions, a bench of masonry is prepared, on which the person sits after the mat or carpet has been laid upon it. Whether Job sat in either of these fashions cannot be known; but both are so simple and peculiarly Oriental as to suggest the probability.

8. The young men saw me, and hid themselves.'-This respect was paid by young men, and was therefore a respect paid not merely to his station but to his age. This kind of respect is still very strikingly manifest in the East. What Savary says of Egypt applies elsewhere: The children are educated in the women's apartment, and do not come into the hall (the divan or public room), especially when strangers are present. Young people are silent when in this hall; if men grown they are allowed to join in conversation; but when the sheikh begins to speak they cease, and attentively listen. If he enters an assembly, all rise; they give him way in public, and everywhere shew him esteem and respect.'-Letters on Egypt, i. 142.

1

- The aged arose, and stood.'-We have seen the young

treat him with respect; but now, stranger still, even the aged, his seniors, themselves objects of reverence, evince their respect for his rank and character. Lowth well remarks here, 'This is a most elegant description, and exhibits most correctly the great reverence and respect which was paid, even by the old and decrepit, to the holy man in passing along the streets, or when he sat in public. They not only rose, which in men so old and infirm was a great mark of distinction, but they stood; they continued to do it, though the attempt was so difficult.'

9. Laid their hand on their mouth.'-This is evidently mentioned as an act of high respect, and as expressing or enjoining silent attention. As such it is in some sort used among ourselves, and has been almost everywhere employed. But the employment of this action is very marked in the East; and chiefly to denote attention and unanswering deference. Mr. Roberts tells us that in India a person listens to the address of a judge with his hand upon his mouth. In some Persian sculptures, the persons attending on the king have their hands held up in a manner which significantly enjoins or expresses silent attention: and in one of the sculptures which we have introduced under Ezra i., the person before the king evidently has his hand held to his mouth. This, as explained by ancient writers, was done even while the person was speaking, in order to prevent his breath from exhaling towards the august personage before whom he stood. The usages of the East abound in such conventional decorums; some of them being very significant and others simply humiliating.

24. If I laughed on them, they believed it not.'—That is to say, the reverence in which he was held was so great, that, if he laid aside his gravity and was familiar with them, they could scarcely believe they were so highly honoured, and received even his smiles with awe.

CHAPTER XXX.

1 Job's honour is turned into extreme contempt. 15 His prosperity into calamity.

BUT now they that are 'younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. 2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? 3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness "in former time desolate and waste.

4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) 6 To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in 'caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. 9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, "and spare not to spit in my face.

11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and

afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

15 Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold

upon me.

17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

19 He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me I stand up, and thou regardest me

not.

4 Heb. holes.

4. Mallows. The original word malluakh, is found only here, and we have therefore not the advantage which usually results from the comparison of texts. The particular plant is uncertain; but as the word, both in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac, denotes a saline or brackish tasted plant, we may infer that it was a species of salsola or saltwort. The Septuagint sanctions this conjecture by translating the word by aλua, the plural of the word Auor, by which Theophrastus indicates a plant of this kind. The salsola, saltwort, or kali, is an extensive genus of plants, comprising not fewer than twenty-two or twentythree different species, of which some are herbaceous and others shrubby. Several of them are common to Asia, and not a few indigenous to a dry sandy soil. They have all a saline and bitter taste. Bochart (Hieros. I. iii. 16) has brought no small amount of his prodigious erudition to bear on this subject. He shews that the Talmud describes the Jews as in the habit of eating the plant called malluach or malluch in times of need; he cites Ibn Beitar as shewing that the plant known by the same name among the Syrians was a shrub not unlike the bramble, and with which fences are made; but it has no thorns. Its leaf is like that of the olive, but wider. It grows near the seashore and in hedges. Its tops are eaten when fresh.' This, he shews, applies equally to the aλuov of the Greek writers, which, according to Athenæus, was plucked and eaten by the poorer Pythagoreans, who abstained from animal food. These references are supposed to meet in the Atriplex halimus of botanists, or tall, shrubby Arache, commonly called Spanish sea-purslain, having been introduced into this country from Spain, and, according to Parkinson, was cultivated here as a shrub in 1640, and by some was formed into hedges, and constantly sheared. The principal objection was, that the young shoots grew so prodigiously fast that it was difficult to keep them in order. Now, these fastgrowing young shoots were the very parts which, according to the preceding intimations, were in Syria, Arabia, and Greece used for food. The present text also, rightly

CHAPTER XXXI.

Job maketh a solemn protestation of his integrity in several duties.

I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

10. And spare not to spit in my face.'--The Rev. Vere Monro, when insulted by the people at Hebron, on account of his Frank dress, found that spitting was among their modes of insult, although none of them came near enough to reach him. This mode of maligning,' he remarks, is still common in the East, as it was eighteen (thirty) centuries ago; and I once witnessed it curiously applied. When travelling in the Faioum, one of the dromedaries did something which displeased the Bedouin who had the care of him, and instead of beating the offender he spat in his face!

11. He hath loosed my cord.'-This seems a proverbial expression taken from desert life, and refers to the overwhelming downfal which ensues when the cords of a tent are cut or broken. This sense is supported by Jer. x. 20, 'My tabernacle (tent) is spoiled, and all my cords are broken.'

22. Thou liftest me up to the wind.'-Here Job represents his miseries under the image of a person caught up into the air by a tempest, and driven about like stubble, or like a cloud by the wind.

29.Dragons.-The word here is D tannim, and is variously rendered, whales, dragons, sea-monsters, crocodiles, serpents, jackals, wolves, etc. The first three significations are those usually given to it in our version. After this we need not add that it is altogether uncertain what animal is denoted; and perhaps, from the indefinite and uncertain ideas we attach to the word 'dragon,' it becomes the best that could be chosen to represent the Hebrew tannim, which, after all, may be imagined not to denote any particular animal, but to be a general word for any strange or prodigious creature, answering perhaps to our word monster.'

2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

4 'Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit ;

6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

7 If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

10 Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

11 For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine in

crease.

13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

14 What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and "did not one fashion us in the womb?

16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

18 (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided 'her from my mother's womb ;)

19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

22 Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

23 For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; 25 If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or 'my mouth hath kissed my hand:

28 This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30 Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32 The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors "to the traveller.

33 If I covered my transgressions "as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: 34 Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35 Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

37 I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

38 If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

14

39 If I have eaten "the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and "cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

7 Heb. the light.

Or, to the way. 14 Heb. weep.

Heb. found much. 10 Heb. my palate. Almighty will answer me. expire, or, breathe out.

Verse 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?'-Throughout Western Asia, when ladies appear in public they always envelop themselves so closely in their ample coverings (more or less

like sheets) that, even without their face-veils, their features cannot be discovered. But in the summer months, when they retire to their country seats, they walk abroad with less caution; though even then, on the approach of a

stranger, they always drop their veils, as Rebecca did on the approach of Isaac. But although they are so closely wrapped up that those who look at them cannot even see their hands, still less their face, yet it is reckoned indecent in a man to fix his eyes upon them; he must let them pass without seeming at all to observe them. In allusion to this rigorous custom, Job says, 'I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I look upon a maid?' 'When a lady of distinction,' says Hanway, 'travels on horseback, she is not only veiled, but has generally a servant, who runs or rides before her to clear the way; and on such occasions the men, even in the market-places, always turn their backs till the women are passed, it being thought the highest ill manners to look at them.'

17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone.'-In the state of Oriental society represented in this book no person of consideration thinks of eating his meal alone. Besides those who usually dine with him, any one who happens to be present, any stranger that calls, sits down and partakes as a matter of course, with very slight invitation or without any; and a person who should attempt to put any check upon this custom would be universally despised as a selfish churl. Any one who has satisfied his appetite withdraws from the table, and his place is taken by a later comer so long as there is anything left. Shaw relates, 'No sooner was our food prepared, whether it was potted flesh, boiled with rice, or lentil-soup, the red pottage, Gen. xxv. 30, or unleavened cakes, served up with oil or honey, than one of the Arabs, after having placed himself on the highest spot of ground in the neighbourhood, called out thrice with a loud voice to all their brethren, the sons of the faithful, to come and partake of it, though none of them were in view or perhaps within a hundred miles of them.

26. If I beheld the sun when it shined,' etc.-Here we have a distinct and beautiful reference to the earliest form of idolatry that was known in the world; and, from all that appears, the only form of idolatry that existed in the time of Job. It is not to be overlooked that the patriarch refers, not only to the existence of this corruption, but to the seducing character of those impressions in which, partially, it originated, and through which votaries were obtained, If I had beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart had been secretly enticed,' etc., thus distinctly alluding to the force of the temptation to render to these visible glories some act of worship, due only to Him who created them to fill an appointed place and perform an appointed office in the universe. It is from the great glory which God has given to these objects, and the enticing influence of those profound impressions made by their grandeur and beauty, no less than from the presiding part which they seem to bear in that physical system to which man belongs, that we are enabled to understand how it was that men first of all turned themselves to worship the sun, the moon, and the host of heaven, when they had begun to forget GOD,' and by forgetting Him had rendered their own minds vacant and weak. There is no idolatry so intelligible as this; and none that has been so universal: for it may be said that there is no nation, of the old world or the new, which has not at some time or other paid to the sun and moon religious homage.

Much has learnedly been written on the questions when and where this earliest idolatry originated. As to the former question, it is usually conceived that it commenced in Chaldæa; because the Chaldæans were always much addicted to astronomy, and were the first by whom astronomical observations were made. This is probable; though not exactly on this ground alone: for it does not appear very evident that astronomy was required to enable men to admire the seducing glory of the sun and beauty of the moon. And as to the time of its origin, we are content to find that it existed in the time of Job, as an absolute idolatry, tantamount to a denial of the God that is above.'

As all the idolatries of the ancient world, so often mentioned in Scripture, sprung from this, and were modifications and applications of it, we will endeavour to explain,

as briefly as we can, what appear to have been its leading principles. It does not seem that, when men first became idolaters, they had forgotten' the existence of God; but had become unmindful of his character and attributes. They were aware of his existence: but they saw him not, and began to suspect that he was too high and too distant to concern himself in their affairs, or in the management of the world in which they lived. They imagined that he must have left these small matters to beings inferior, greatly, to himself, but incomparably higher than man in their nature and condition of existence. They sought for these; and naturally looked for them in the most glorious objects of the universe-the sun when it shined, and the moon walking in brightness'; to which, in process of time, the planetary bodies were added. Witnessing their glory, the regularity of their motions, and sensible of their beneficent influence, they believed them to be animated by, or at least to be the residence of, exalted intelligences, to whom the most High God had intrusted the charge of the world and its inhabitants. To these therefore, as the regent-governors, who took an immediate interest in their concerns, they turned in prayer: and, no longer practically acknowledging the God that is above,' the knowledge even of his existence faded from the popular mind. And if some thoughtful men knew from tradition, or inferred by reasoning, that there was one Great God, they knew it obscurely and erroneously-they ceased not to be idolaters-and they retained the original error, believing him too high to be honoured by adoration or to be moved by prayer. And even that which they knew or suspectedthe bare fact of his existence-they disguised under the mythus and the fable, hard to be understood; or taught it only as a deep mystery, which only an elected and banded few might learn.

At first the sun and moon were worshipped in the open air, and their altars blazed upon the mountains. But in time, symbolical representations and statues were introduced, as supplying their place when absent, temples were erected, gods were multiplied, and the actual worship of the heavenly bodies more or less ceased for still lower depths of idolatry. But this not everywhere; for the observations we have made are general, not universal. The Persians, for instance, worshipped the sun, and also the elemental fire; yet they ever abhorred images as much as the Jews could do; and when at last they had temples, it was merely to preserve the sacred fire from extinction. Moreover, with this great simplicity of external worship, the Persians seem to have departed considerably less than other ancient nations from the original truths which had been known concerning God, and to have possessed clearer and less dishonouring ideas concerning his being and attri butes. It is indeed alleged that they did not worship the

FIRE WORSHIPPER.

о

sun or the fire absolutely, but only worshipped God (so far as they knew him) before these-the most glorious visible symbols of his energies and perfections. This may have been the regular doctrine: but a practice has more