Biblical commentary on the Book of Job;

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BIBLICAL COMMENTARY

ON

foe DUOK OF JOB.

BY

y PELITZSCH. D.D.,

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY THE

REV. FRANCIS BOLTON, B.A,

ELLAND,

VOR LI,

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TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

Ir is with no ordinary feeling of relief and satisfaction that
I am at length able to send forth the second and concluding
volume of this Commentary. And I am confident that the
trifling delay in this year’s issues of the Foreign Theological
Library will be readily pardoned, when the tedious toil
involved in carrying such a work through the press amidst
_the pressure of other duties is considered. No pains have
been spared to render the work worthy its position ; and the
care bestowed upon the work by myself has been fully
seconded by the attention of the printers.

The duties of translation have been carefully discharged,
and it has been my aim to preserve the complexion of the
original as far as possible, even sometimes at the expense of
an easy flow of language. Conscious of imperfection in the
working out of my design, I have nevertheless sought to put
the reader in the position of a student of the original volume.
The task which I imposed upon myself has not been confined
to mere translation; but close attention has been given to
the accurate reproduction of the critical portions, with the
hope of contributing in some small degree to the diffusion of
sound exegetical knowledge for the elucidation of one of the

vi _ TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE,

grandest and most practical books of the Old Testament
Scriptures, and from a conviction of the need there is for the _
cultivation of the cognate Semitic languages. This latter
branch of study is specially applicable and necessary in the
interpretation of the book of Job, and the established scholar-
ship of Dr Delitzsch eminently qualifies him for the effective
execution of the work.

Further explanation need scarcely be added, except in
reference to the retention of the word Chokma, and the
character of the translation of the text. As to the former,
I regret that I did not append a note to vol. i. p. 5, to the
effect that the word Chokma (235, Wisdom) was reproduced
because used technically by the author. I presumed that
students of the volume would at once recognise the word ;
but from the consideration that the Commentary may also
be used, so far as the practical parts are concerned, even by
readers unacquainted with Hebrew, this explanation has been
deemed needful.

And it may further suffice, in connection with the second
section of the Introduction, to define Chokma as the one
word for the lofty spirit of wisdom which dwelt in the minds
of the wise men of Israel in the Salomonic age,—a wisdom
taught, inspired, by the Holy Spirit of God—the culmination
of which is found in Solomon himself. In brief, the Chokma
is the divine philosophy of the Jewish church.

With reference to the new rendering of the text: it aims
at a literal and faithful reproduction of Dr Delitzsch’s trans-
lation, as representing his “sense and appreciation of the
original,” and as the embodiment of the results of the critical
notes. ‘Therefore I have not felt at liberty to use that

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. vil

freedom of expression which I regard as most desirable in
adapting the translation of the original text to the require-
ments of the general reader. This portion of my under-
taking has not been free from difficulty; and occasionally
an amount of stiffness has seemed unavoidable, owing to the
different structure of the Hebrew and English languages,
while, from the plastic nature of the German language,
the author is enabled to mould his translation closely after
the original text, and still render it elegant, and at times
rhythmical.

A note on the transcription of Arabic words will be found
at the end of the Appendix. The references have been
verified, so far as the means of verification have been acces-
sible; and I believe I may speak with confidence of those
that I have not been able to verify, from the general accuracy
I found in the others. |

To clear up the misapprehension which has been mani-
fested in many quarters, I would add that this Commentary
forms a part of the Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament
by Drs Keil and Delitzsch. But the name of the latter only
is appended to these volumes, because Dr Delitzsch is the
writer of this portion, just as Dr Keil only is the author of
the Commentary on the Pentateuch, and all the other volumes
that have appeared to this date.

I have still to acknowledge the kind promptitude with
which my esteemed friend Dr Delitzsch has, in more than
one instance, given me an explanation of a difficult point, and
favoured me with an additional amendment of the original
work during the progress of this translation through the
press.

Vili TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

In the hope that the usefulness of Dr Delitzsch’s valuable
contribution to Biblical Exegesis may be extended beyond
his original design, I commend it to all earnest students of
the Holy Word, with the prayer that the blessing of the
Spirit of Jehevah may rest upon the labours of our hands.

F. B.
ELLAND, November 2, 1866.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

g

SECOND PART.—THE ENTANGLEMENT.—Cazap. Iv.-xxv1.

THE THIRD COURSE OF THE CONTROVERSY.—CHAP. XXII.—XXVI.

(Continued. )
PAGE
Job’s First Answer—Chap. xxiii. xxiv., . : : ‘ 1
Bildad’s Third Speech—Chap. xxv., ° : , - 44
Job’s Second Answer—Chap. xxvi., ; ‘ ; - 49

THIRD PART.—THE TRANSITION TO THE UNRAVELMENT.
CHAP. XXVII.-XXXI.

Job’s Final Speech to the Friends—Chap. xxvii. xxviii., . a,
Job’s Monologue—Chap. xxix.-xxxi., ; ‘ ; e IE
First Part—Chap. xxix., . ; : ; = Paty
Second Part—Chap. xxx., . : ; ‘ Sige
Third Part—Chap. xxxi., . , ; i a.’ 4 h92

FOURTH PART.—THE UNRAVELMENT.—CBHap. xXxXII.-XLil.

THE SPEECHES OF ELInU—CHAP. XXXII.-XXXVIL., ; . 206
Historical Introduction to the Section—Chap. xxxii. 1-6a, . 206
Elihu’s First Speech—Chap. xxxii. 6b-xxxiii., ; - 209
Elihu’s Second Speech—Chap. xxxiv., Fm 2 . 246
Elihu’s Third Speech—Chap. xxxv., . : : . 267

Eliku’s Fourth Speech—Chap. xxxvi. xxxvii., ‘ . 276

x TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Pr PAGE

"THE UNRAVELMENT IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS—CHAP. XXXVIII.-XLII. 6, 311
The First Speech of Jehovah, and Job’s Answer—Chap.

XxXxviii.—xl. 5, ; ; ; . a
The Second Speech of Jehovah, and Job’s Second Penitent
Answer—Chap. xl. 6-xlii. 6, . ; : . 3854
THE UNRAVELMENT IN OUTWARD REALITY—CHAP. XLII. 7 SQQ., 385
APPENDIX.
The Monastery of Job in Hauran, etc., . , ‘ - 895
Note on Arabic Words, etc., ‘ > ‘ . 449
INDEX OF TEXTS, . ‘ : , .

« . 461

THE BOOK OF JOB.

a

SECOND PART.—THE ENTANGLEMENT.
CHAP. IV.-XXVI.

THE THIRD COURSE OF THE CONTROVERSY.—
CHAP. XXII.—-XXVI.

(CONTINUED.)

Job’s First Answer.—Chaps. xxiii. xxiv.
Schema: 8. 8. 8. 8. | 8. 9. 9. 9. 5. 10. 9.

[Then began Job, and said :]
2 Ewen to-day my complaint still biddeth defiance,
My hand lieth heavy upon my groaning.
3 Oh that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come even to His dwelling-place !
4 I would lay the cause before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments :
5) I should like to know the words He would answer me,
' And attend to what He would say to me.

SINCE "1 (fer which the LXX. reads é« rod yeupos pou,
0; Ew. 1119, from his hand) usually elsewhere signifies
obstinacy, it appears that ver. 2a ought. to be explained: My
complaint is always accounted as rebellion (against God) ;

but by this rendering ver. 2b requires some sort of expletive,
Netw it | pe A

2 THE BOOK OF JOB.

in order to furnish a connected thought: although the hand
which is upon me stifles my groaning (Hirz.); or, according
to another rendering of the OY: et pourtant mes gémissements
n égalent pas mes souffrances (Renan, Schlottm.). These inter-
pretations are objectionable on account of the artificial re-
storation. of the connection between the two members of the
verse, which they require; they lead one to expect "1 (as a
circumstantial clause; LXX., Cod. Vat. cat 4 yelp airod).
As the words stand, it is to be supposed that the definition of
time, Of7"D3 (even to-day still, as Zech. ix. 12), belongs to
both divisions of the verse. How, then, is "1 to be under-
stood? If we compare ch. vii. 11, x. 1, where 1», which is
combined with n'y, signifies amarum = amaritudo, it is natural
to take 1» also in the signification amaritudo, acerbitas (Targ.,
Syr., Jer.); and this is also possible, since, as is evident from
Ex. xxiii. 21, comp. Zech. xii. 10, the verbal forms 1» and
m1 run into one another, as they are really cognates.’ But
it is more satisfactory, and more in accordance with the rela-
tion of the two divisions of the verse, if we keep to the usual
signification of %; not, however, understanding it of _ob-

1 4479 and 771 both spring from the root 99 [vid. supra, i. p. 279, note],
with the primary signification stringere, to beat, rub, draw tight. Hence

Gr.
ye, to touch lightly, smear upon (to go by, over, or through, to move by,
etc.), but also niringere palatum, of an astringent taste, strong in taste,

-to be bitter, opp. "ee soft and mild in taste, to be sweet, as in another
eo 7
direction nbn, to be loose, weak, sick, both from the root Je in Ue,
‘solvit, laxavit. From the signification to be tight come amarra, to stretch
tight, istamarra, to stretch one’s self tight, to draw one’s self out in
this state of tension—of things in time, to continue unbroken ; mirreh,

string, cord; 7%, to make and hold one’s self tight against any one,
Br Gre

i.e. to be obstinate: originally of the body, as je ys » to strengthen
thbineel ves in the contest against one another; then of the mind, as

bo aS 5 Less to struggle against anything, both outwardly by contra-
diction and disputing, and inwardly by doubt and unbelief. —FL.

CHAP. XXIII. 2-5. 3

stinacy, revolt, rebellion (viz. in the sense of the friends),
but, like Mb, 2 Kings xiv. 26 (which describes the affliction
as stiff-necked, obstinate), of stubbornness, defiance, con-
tinuance in opposition, and explain with Raschi: My com-
plaint is still always defiance, 7.e. still maintains itself in
opposition, yiz. against God, without yielding (Hahn, Olsh. :
unsubmitting) ; or rather: against such exhortations to peni-
tence as those which Eliphaz has just addressed to him. In
reply to these, Job considers his complaint to be well justified
even to-day, i.e. even now (for it is not, with Ewald, to be
imagined that, in the mind of the poet, the controversy
extends over several days,—an idea which would only be
indicated by this one word).

In ver. 24 he continues the same thought under a different
form of expression. My hand lies heavy on my groaning,
ie. I hold it immoveably fast (as Fleischer proposes to take
the words); or better: I am driven to a continued utterance
of it.’ By this interpretation "1 retains its most natural
meaning, manus mea, and the connection of the two members
of the verse without any particle is best explained. On the
other hand, all modern expositors, who do not, as Olsh., at
once correct ' into 1, explain the suffix as objective: the
hand, 7.e. the destiny to which I have to submit, weighs upon
my sighing, irresistibly forcing it out from me. Then ver. 2b
is related to ver. 2a as a confirmation; and if, therefore, a
particle is to be supplied, it is ‘> (Olsh.) and no other. Thus,
even the Targ. renders it ‘N02, plaga mea. Job’s affliction is
frequently traced back to the hand of God, ch. xix. 21,
comp. i. 11, ii, 5, xiii. 21; and on the suffix used objectively
(pass.) we may compare ver. 14, *~N; ch. xx. 29, OX; and

1 The idea might also be: My hand presses my groaning back (because
it would be of no use to me) ; but ver. 2a is against this, and the Arab.
kamada, to restrain inward pain, anger, etc. by force (e.g. mat kemed,

he died from suppressed rage or anxiety), has scarcely any etymological
connection with 435.

A THE BOOK OF JOB.

especially xxxiv. 6, °37. The interpretation: the hand upon
me is heavy above my sighing, ze. heavier than it (Ramban,
Rosenm., Ges., Schlottm., Renan), also accords with the con-
nection. 5Y can indeed be used in this comparative meaning,
Ex. xvi. 5, Eccl. i. 16; but Sy map is an_ established
phrase, and commonly used of the burden of the hand upon
any one, Ps. xxxii. 4 (comp. ch. xxxiii. 7, in the division
in which Elihu is introduced; and the connection with oN,
1 Sam. v. 6, and O¥, 1 Sam. v. 11); and this usage of the
language renders the comparative rendering very improbable.
But it is also improbable that “my hand” is=the hand [that
_ is] upon me, since it cannot be shown that was directly
used in the sense of plaga; even the Arabic, among the
many turns of meaning which it gives to a, does not support
this, and least of all would an Arab conceive of | a passively,
plaga quam patior. Explain, therefore: his complaint now,
as before, offers resistance to the exhortation of the friends,
which is not able to lessen it, his (Job’s) hand presses upon
his lamentation so that it is forced to break forth, but —
without its justification being recognised by men. This
thought urges him on to the wish that he might be able to
pour forth his complaint directly before God. A") is at
one time followed by an accusative (ch. xiv. 4, xxix. 2, xxxi.
31, 35, to which belongs also the construction with the inf.,
ch. xi. 5), at another by the fut., with or without Waw (as
here, ver. 30, ch. vi. 8, xiii. 5, xiv. 13, xix. 23), and at
another by the per/., with or without Waw (as here, ver. 3a:
utinam noverim, and Deut. v. 26). And ‘AYT is, as in ch.
xxxii. 22, joined with the fut.: scirem (noverim) et invenirem
instead of possim invenire eum (i8$9?), Ges. § 142, 3, ¢. If
he but knew [how] to reach Him (God), could attain to His
throne; 233A (everywhere from f3, not from {2") signifies
the setting up, te. arrangement (Ezek. xliii. 11) or establish-
ment (Nah. ii. 10) of a dwelling, and the thing itself which is

CHAP. XXIII. 6-9. 5

set out and established, here of the place where God’s throne
is established. Having attained to this, he would lay his
cause (instruere causam, as ch. xiii. 18, comp. xxxiii. 5) before
Him, and fill his mouth with arguments to prove that he has
right on his side (Ninn, as Ps. xxxviii. 15, of the grounds of
defence, or proof that he is in the right and his opponent in
the wrong). In ver. 5 we may translate: I would, or: I
should like (to learn); in the Hebrew, as in cognoscerem,
both are expressed; the substance of ver. 5a makes the
optative rendering more natural. He would like to know
the words with which He would meet him,’ and would give
heed to what He would say to him. But will He condescend?
will He have anything to do with the matter ?—

6 Will He contend with me with great power ?
No, indeed; He will only regard me!
7 Then the upright would be disputing with Him,
And I should for ever escape my judge.
8 Yet I go eastward, He is not there,
And westward, but I perceive Him not ;
9 Northwards where He worketh, but I behold Him
not ;
He turneth aside southwards, and I see Him not.

The question which Job, in ver. 6a, puts forth: will He
contend with me in the greatness or fulness of His strength,
i.e. (as ch. xxx. 18) with a calling forth of all His strength?
he himself answers in ver. 6b, hoping that the contrary may
be the case: no, indeed, He will not do that.2 > is here

1 nyt is generally accented with Dechi, oS with Munach, according
to which Dachselt interprets: scirem, que eloquia responderet mihi Deus,
but this is incorrect. The old editions have correctly nyt" Munach,
p's) Munach (taking the place of Dechi, because the Athnach-word
which follows has not two syllables before the tone-syllable; vid. Psalter,
ii. 104, § 4).

2 With this interpretation, x5 should certainly have Rebia mugrasch ;

6 | THE BOOK OF JOB.

followed not by the ‘2, which is otherwise customary after a
negation in the signification imo, but by the restrictive ex-
ceptive 8, which never signifies sed, sometimes verum tamen
(Ps. xlix. 16; comp. supra, ch. xiii. 15, vol. i. p. 215), but
here, as frequently, tantuwmmodo, and, according to the hyper-
baton which has been mentioned so often (vol. i. pp. 72, 238,
and also 215), is placed at the beginning of the sentence,
and belongs not to the member of the sentence immediately
following it, but to the whole sentence (as in Arabic also

the restrictive force of the Wi\ never falls upon what im-
&

mediately follows it): He will do nothing but regard me
(DYN, scil. 22, elsewhere with °Y of the object of regard or
reflection, ch. xxxiv: 23, xxxvii. 15, Judg. xix. 80, and with-
out an ellipsis, ch. i. 8; also with >, ch. ii. 8, or ?, 1 Sam. ix.
20; here designedly with 3, which unites in itself the signi-
fications of the Arab. , and (3, of seizing, and of plunging
into anything). Many expositors (Hirz., Ew., and others)
understand ver. 65 as expressing a wish: “Shall He contend
with me with overwhelming power? No, I do not desire that ;
only that He may be a judge attentive to the cause, not a
ruler manifesting His almighty power.” But ver. 6a, taken
thus, would be purely rhetorical, since this question (shall
He, etc.) certainly cannot be seriously propounded by Job;
accordingly, ver. 6b is not intended as expressing a wish, but
ahope. Job certainly wishes the same thing in ch. ix. 34,
xiii. 21; but in the course of the discussion he has gradually
acquired new confidence in God, which here once more
breaks through. He knows that God, if He could but be
found, would also condescend to hear his defence of himself,
its accentuation with Mercha proceeds from another interpretation, pro-
bably non utique ponet in me (manum suam), according to which the
Targ. translates. Others, following this accentuation, take wb in the

sense of xbn (vid. in Dachselt), or are at pains to obtain some other
meaning from it.

CHAP. XXIII, 6~9. ‘ 7

that He would allow him to speak, and not overwhelm him
with His majesty.
Ver. 7. The question arises here, whether the 0% which

J “7 av
follows is to be understood locally (~) or temporally ( wo) 3

it is evident from ch. xxxv. 12, Ps. xiv. 5, Ixvi. 6, Hos. ii.
17, Zeph. i. 14, that it may be used temporally; in many
passages, e.g. Ps. xxxvi. 13, the two significations run into
one another, so that they cannot be distinguished. We here
decide in favour of the temporal signification, against Rosenm.,
Schlottm., and Hahn; for if ow be understood locally, a
“then” must be supplied, and it may therefore be concluded
that this ny is the expression for it. We assume at the
same time that n3)) is correctly pointed as part. with Kameiz ;
accordingly it is to be explained: then, if He would thus pay
attention to me, an upright man would be contending with
Him, z.e. then it would be satisfactorily proved that an up-
right man may contend with Him. In ver. 7), bd, like Dn,
ch. xx: 20 (comp. 445, to have open, to stand open), is inten-
sive of Kal: I should for ever escape my judge, 7.e. come off
most completely free from unmerited punishment. Thus it
ought to be if God could be found, but He cannot be found.
The }7, which according to the sense may be translated by
“vet” (comp. ch. xxi. 16), introduces this antithetical rela-
tion: Yet I go towards the east (17 with Mahpach, 07? with
Munach), and He is not there; and towards the west (Tink,
comp. DINK, occidentales, ch. xviii. 20), and perceive Him not
(expressed as in ch. ix. 11; ° ?'2 elsewhere: to attend to any-
thing, ch. xiv. 21, Deut, xxxii. 29, Ps. Ixxiii, 17; here, as
there, to perceive anything, so that {5 is equivalent to ink).
In ver. 9 the’ left (anny, Arab. shemdl, or even without
the substantival termination, on which comp. Jesurun, pp.
222-227, sham, shdm) is undoubtedly an appellation of the
north, and the right (}', Arab. jemin) an appellation of the

8 ; THE BOOK OF JOB.

south; both words are locatives which outwardly are undefined.
And if the usual signification of ny and Hy are retained, it is
to be explained thus: northwards or in the north, if He should
be active—I behold not; if He veil himself southwards or in
the south—I see not. This explanation is also satisfactory
so far as ver. 9a is concerned, so-that it is unnecessary to
understand in’ya other than in ch. xxviii. 26, and with
Blumenfeld to translate according to the phrase 1377 ny,
Judg. xvii. 8: if He makes His way northwards; or even
with Umbr. to call in the assistance of the Arab. (i (to
cover), which neither here nor ch. ix. 9, xv. 27, is admissible,
since even then tnvya Siwy cannot signify: if He hath
concealed himself on the left hand (in the north). » Ewald’s
combination of nyy with ny, in the assumed signification “to
incline to” of the latter, is'to be passed over as useless. On
the other hand, much can be said in favour of Ewald’s trans-
lation of ver. 95: “if He turn to the right hand—I see
Him not;” for (1) the Arab. she, by virtue of the radical
notion,’ which is also traceable in the Heb. 4uy, signifies
both trans. and intrans. to turn up, bend aside; (2) Saadia
translates: “and if He turns southwards (‘atafa ‘guniiban);”
(8) Schultens correctly observes : Hy significatione operiendi
commodum non efficit sensum, nam quid mirum si quem occul-
tantem se non conspiciamus. We therefore give the preference
to this Arabic rendering of py’. If ju, in the sense of
obvelat se, does not call to mind the f2n "NN, penetralia austri,

17)

ch. ix. 9 (comp. ys, velamen, adytum), neither will invya

1 The verb she signifies trans. to turn, or lay, anything round, so

that it is laid or drawn over something else and covers it; hence Wille,
“aes

a garment that is cast round one, Wale} with C of a garment : to east

it or wrap it about one. Intrans. to turn aside, depart from, of deviating

from a given direction, deflectere, declinare; also, to turn in a totally —

opposite direction, to turn one’s self round and to go back.—FL.

CHAP. XXIII. 10-18. 9

point to the north as the limit of the divine dominion. Such
conceptions of the extreme north and south are nowhere
found among the Arabs as among the Arian races (vid. Isa.
xiv. 18);* and, moreover, the conception of the north as the
abode of God cannot be shown to be biblical, either from ch.
xxxvii. 22; Ezek..i. 4, or still less from Ps. xlviii. 3. With
regard to the syntax, \Oy’ is a hypothetical fut., as ch. xx. 24,
xxil, 27 sq. The use of the fut. apoc. INN, like OS, ver.
11, without a voluntative or aoristic signification, is poetic.
Towards all quarters of the heavens he turns, ¢.e. with his
eyes and the longing of his whole nature, if he may by any
means find God. But He evades him, does not reveal Him-
self in any place whatever.

The *3 which now follows does not give the reason of Job’s
earnest search after God, but the reason of His not being
found by him. He does not allow Himself to be seen any-
where; He conceals Himself from him, lest He should be
compelled to acknowledge the right of the sufferer, and to
withdraw His chastening hand from him.

10 For He knoweth the way that is with me:
Tf He should prove me, I should come forth as gold.
11 My foot held firm to His steps ;
His way I kept, and turned not aside.
12 The command of His lips—I departed not from it ;
More than my own detérmination I kept the words of His
mouth.
13 Yet He remaineth by one thing, and who can turn Him ?
And He accomplisheth what His soul desireth.

That which is not merely outwardly, but inwardly with

1 Tn contrast to the extreme north, the abode of the gods, the habitation
of life, the extreme south is among the Arians the abode of the prince
of death and of demons, Jama (vid. vol. i. p. 825) with his attendants,
and therefore the habitation of death.

10 THE BOOK OF JOB.

(OY) any one, is that which he thinks and knows (his con-
sciousness), ch. ix. 35, xv. 9, or his willing and acting, ch.
x. 13, xxvii. 11: he is conscious of it, he intends to do it;
here, ver. 10, DY is intended in the former sense, in ver. 14 in
the latter. The “way with me” is that which his conscience
(cvveidnows) approves (cumpaptupe) ; comp. Psychol. S. 134.
This is known to God, so that he who is now set down as a
criminal would come forth as tried gold, in the event of God
allowing him to appear before Him, and subjecting him to
judicial trial. 12292 is the pret. hypotheticum so often men-
tioned, which is based upon the paratactic character of the
Hebrew style, as Gen. xliv. 22, Ruth ii. 9, Zech. xiii. 6;
Ges. § 155, 4, a. His foot has held firmly’ to the steps of
God (7S, together with WW, ch. xxxi. 7, from Ws Piel, to
go on), so that he was always close behind Him as his prede-
cessor (118 synon. 72", Ps. xvil. 5, Prov. v. 5). He guarded,
i.e. observed His way, and turned not aside (O% fut. apoe.
Hiph. in the intransitive sense of deflectere, as e.g. Ps. exxv. 5),

In ver. 12a, *naY Nis) precedes as cas. absolutus (as re-
spects the command of His lips); and what is said in this
respect follows with Waw apod. (= Arab. _3) without the
retrospective pronoun 13% (which is omitted for poetic
brevity). On this prominence of a separate notion after the
manner of an antecedent, comp. vol. i. p. 91, note 1. The
Hiph, 09, like 795, ver. 11, and nen, Prov. iv. 21, is not
causative, but simply active in signification. In ver. 126 the
question arises, whether } jD¥ is one expression, as in ch.
xvil. 4, in the sense of “hiding from another,’ or whether ji
is comparative. In the former sense Hirz. explains: I re-
moved the divine will from the possible ascendancy of my own.

1 On tmx, Carey correctly observes, and it explains the form of the
expression : The oriental foot has a power of grasp and tenacity, because
not shackled with shoes from early childhood, of which we can form but
little idea.

CHAP, XXIII. 10-13. rs

But since j¥ is familiar to the poet in the sense of preserving
and laying by (0°2®¥, treasures, ch. xx. 26), it is more natural
to explain, according to Ps. cxix. 11: I kept the words
(commands) of Thy mouth, i.e. esteemed them high and
precious, more than my statute, z.e. more than what my own
will prescribed for me." The meaning is substantially the
same; the LXX., which translates év 5¢ «dAm@ pov (‘PN2),
which Olsh. considers to be “perhaps correct,” destroys the
significance of the confession. Hirz. rightly refers to the
“law m the members,” Rom. vii. 23: ‘pM is the expression
Job uses for the law of the sinful nature which strives against
the law of God, the wilful impulse of selfishness and evil
passion, the law which the apostle describes as érepos vopos,
in distinction from the vouos tod Ocod (Psychol. 8. 379).
Job’s conscience can give him this testimony, but He, the
God who so studiously avoids him, remains in one mind, viz.
to treat him as a criminal; and who can turn Him from His
purpose? (the same question as ch. ix. 12, xi. 10); His soul
wills it (stat pro ratione voluntas), and He accomplishes it.
Most expositors explain permanet in uno in this sense; the
Beth is the usual 3 with verbs of entering upon and persist-
ing in anything. Others, however, take the 3 as Beth essentia :
He remains one and the same, viz. in His conduct towards
me (Umbr., Vaih.), or: He is one, is alone, viz. in absolute
majesty (Targ. Jer.; Schult., Ew., Hlgst., Schlottm.), which
is admissible, since this Beth occurs not only in the comple-

1 Wetzstein arranges the significations of jp¥ as follows :—1. (Beduin)
intr. fut. 1, to contain one’s self, to keep still (hence in Hebr. to lie in
wait), to be rapt in thought; conjug. II. ¢. acc. pers. to make any one
thoughtful, irresolute. 2. (Hebr.) trans. jut. 0, to keep anything to one’s
self, to hold back, to keep to one’s self ; Niph. to be held back, 7.e. either

concealed or reserved for future use. Thus we see how, on the one hand,
jD¥ is related to j1p1, e.g. ch. xx. 26 (Arab. itmaanna, to be still) ; and,
on the other, can interchange with py in the signification designare

(comp. ch. xv. 22 with xy. 20, xxi. 19), and to spy, lie in wait (comp.
Ps, x. 8, lvi. 7, Prov. i. 11, 18, with Ps. xxxvii. 32).

12 THE BOOK OF JOB.

ments of a sentence (Ps. xxxix. 7, like a shadow; Isa. xlviii.
10, after the manner of silver; Ps. lv. 19, in great number;
Ps. xxxv. 2, as my help), but also with the predicate of a
simple sentence, be it verbal (ch. xxiv. 13; Prov. iii. 26) or
substantival (Ex. xviii. 4; Ps. cxviii. 7). The same con-
struction is found also in Arabic, where, however, it is more
frequent in simple negative clauses than in affirmative (vid.
Psalter, 1. 272). The assertion: He is one (as in the primary
monotheistic confession, Deut. vi. 4), is, however, an expression
for the absoluteness of God, which is not suited to this con-
nection; and if INN. NIN is intended to be understood of the
unchangeable uniformity of His purpose concerning Job, the
explanation :, versatur (perstat) in uno, Arab. hua fi wahidin, is
not only equally, but more natural, and we therefore prefer it.

Here again God appears to Job to be his enemy. His
confidence towards God is again overrun by all kinds of
evil, suspicious thoughts. He seems to him to be a God of
absolute caprice, who punishes where there is no ground for
punishment.. There is indeed a phase of the abiding fact
which he considers superior to God and himself, both being
conceived of as contending parties; and this phase God
avoids, He will not hear it. Into this vortex of thoughts, as
terrible as they are puerile, Job is hurried forward by the
persuasion that his affliction is a decree of divine justice.
The friends have greatly confirmed him in this persuasion ;
so that his consciousness of innocence, and the idea of God
as inflicting punishment, are become widely opposite extremes,
between which his faith is hardly able to maintain itself.
It is not his affliction in itself, but this persuasion, which pre-
cipitates him into such a depth of conflict, as the following
strophe shows.

14 For He accomplisheth that which is appointed for me,
And much of a like kind ts with Him.

CHAP. XXIII. 1417. 13

15. Therefore I am troubled at His presence ;
Tf I consider it, I am afraid of Him.
16 And God hath caused my heart to be dejected,
And the Almighty hath put me to confusion ;
17 For I have not been destroyed before darkness,
And before my countenance, which thick darkness covereth.

Now it is the will of God, the absolute, which has all at
once turned against him, the innocent (ver. 13); for what He
has decreed ‘against him (*?7) He also brings to a complete
fulfilment (Drown, as ¢.g. Isa. xliv. 26); and the same troubles
as those which he already suffers, God has still more abun-
dantly decreed for him, in order to torture him gradually,
but surely, to death. Job intends ver. 145 in reference to.
himself, not as a general assertion: it is, in general, God’s way
of acting. Hahn’s objection to the other explanation, that
Job’s affliction, according to his own previous assertions, has
already attained its highest degree, does not refute it; for
Job certainly has a term of life before him, though it be
but short, in which the wondrously inventive (ch. x. 16)
hostility of God can heap up ever new troubles for him.
On the other hand, the interpretation of the expression in a
general sense is opposed by the form of the expression itself,
which is not that God delights to do this, but that He pur-
poses (182) to do it. It is a conclusion from the present
concerning the future, such as\ Job is able to make with
reference to himself ; while he, moreover, abides by the reality
in respect to the mysterious distribution of the fortunes of
men. | Therefore, because he is a mark for the enmity of
God, without having merited it, he is confounded before His
countenance, which is. so angrily turned upon him (comp.
mp, Ps. xxi. 10, Lam. iv. 16); if he considers it (accord-
ing to the sense fut. hypothet., as ver. 9b), he trembles
before Him, who recompenses faithful attachment by such

14 THE BOOK OF JOB.

torturing pain. The following connection with } and the
mention of God twice at the beginning of the affirmations,
is intended to mean: (I tremble before Him), and He it is
who has made me faint-hearted (779 Hiph. from the Kal,
Deut. xx. 3, and freq., to be tender, soft, disconcerted), and
has troubled me; which is then supported in ver. 17.

His suffering which drews him on to ruin he perceives,
but it is not the proper ground of his inward destruction; it
is not the encircling darkness of affliction, not the mysterious
form of his suffering which disconcerts him, but God’s hostile
conduct towards him, His angry countenance as he seems
to see it, and which he is nevertheless unable to explain.
Thus also Ew., Hirz., Vaih., Hlgst., and Schlottm. explain
the passage. The only other explanation worthy of mention
is that which finds in ver. 17 the thought already expressed
in ch. iii. 10: For I was not then destroyed, in order that
I might experience such mysterious suffering ; an interpreta-
tion with which most of the old expositors were satisfied, and
which has been revived by Rosenm., Stick., and Hahn. We
translate: for I have not been destroyed before darkness (in
order to be taken away from it before it came upon me), and
He has not hidden darkness before my face; or as an excla-
mation: that I have not been destroyed! which is to be equi-
‘valentto: Had I but been ...! Apart from this rendering
of the guod non = utinam, which cannot be supported, (1) It is
doubly hazardous thus to carry the x5 forward to the second
line in connection with verbs of different persons. (2) The
darkness in ver. 174 appears (at least according to the usual
interpret. caliginem) as that which is being covered, whereas
it is naturally that which covers something else; wherefore
Blumenfeld explains: and darkness has not hidden, viz. such
pain as I must now endure, from my face. (3) The whole
thought which is thus gained is without point, and meaning-
less, in this connection. On the other hand, the antithesis

CHAP. XXIII. 14—17. 15

between 1251) and ‘251, 339! and 7WN2512, is at once obvious ;
and this antithesis, which forces itself upon the attention,
also furnishes the thought which might be expected from the
context. It is unnecessary to take N2¥) in a different signi-
fication from ch. vi. 17; in Arabic wo signifies conticescere ;
the idea of the root, however, is in general a constraining de-
priving of free movement. YN is intended as in the question
of Eliphaz, ch. xxii. 11: “Or seest thou not the darkness?”
to which it perhaps refers. It is impossible, with Schlottm.,
to translate ver. 17): and before that darkness covers my
face; j is never other than a prep., not a conjunction with
power over a whole clause. It must be translated: et a facie
mea quam obtegit caligo. As the absolute op, ch. ix. 27,
signifies the appearance of the countenance under pain, so
here by it Job means his countenance distorted by pain, his
deformed appearance, which, as the attributive clause affirms,
is thoroughly darkened by suffering (comp. ch. xxx. 30).
But it is not this darkness which stares him in the face, and
threatens to swallow him up (comp. ywn-5, ch. xvii. 12) ;
not this his miserable form, which the extremest darkness
covers (on DB, vid. ch. x. 22), that destroys his inmost
nature; but the thought that God stands forth in hostility
against him, which makes his affliction so terrific, and
doubly so in connection with the inalienable consciousness
of his innocence. From the incomprehensible punishment
which, without reason, is passing over him, he now again
comes to speak of the incomprehensible connivance of God,
which permits the godlessness of the world to go on un-

punished.

Ch. xxiv. 1 Wherefore are not bounds reserved by the Almighty,
And they who honour Him see not His days?
2 They remove the landmarks,
They steal flocks and shepherd them.

16 THE BOOK OF JOB.

.

3 They carry away the ass of the orphan,
And distrain the ox of the widow.
4 They thrust the needy out of the way,
The poor of the land are obliged to slink away together.

The supposition that the text originally stood Dyehe yyaD
“IW is natural; but it is at once destroyed by the fact that
ver. la becomes thereby disproportionately long, and yet
cannot be divided into two lines of comparatively independent
contents. In fact, myvi> is by no means absolutely necessary.
The usage of the language assumes it, according to which
ny followed by the genitive signifies the point of time at
which any one’s fate is decided, Isa. xiii. 22, Jer. xxvii. 7,
Ezek. xxii. 8, xxx. 3; the period when reckoning is made, or
even the terminus ad quem, Eccl. ix. 12; and oy followed by
the gen. of a man, the day of his end, ch. xv. 32, xviii. 20,
Ezek. xxi. 30, and freq.; or. with mm, the day when God’s
judgment is revealed, Joel i. 15, and freq. The boldness of
poetic language goes beyond this usage, by using O'FY directly
of the period of punishment, as is almost universally acknow-
ledged since Schultens’ day, and 12 of God’s days of judg-
ment or of vengeance;' and it is the less ambiguous, since
j2¥, in the sense of the divine predetermination of what is
future, ch. xv. 20, especially of God’s storing up merited

1 On pny, in the sense of times of retribution, Wetzstein compares the

Arab. <2\.c, which signifies predetermined reward or punishment ;
moreover, My is derived from ny (from YY), and nny is equivalent to
ony, according to the same law of assimilation, by which now-a-days
they say smb instead of mad (one who is born on the same day with me,

\

from 5M, lida), and ‘7 instead of ‘F79 (my drinking-time), since the

assimilation of the 4 takes place everywhere where fis pronounced. The
n of the feminine termination in p\ny, as in n\npw and the like, perhaps
also in p°N3 (baitim), is amalgamated with the root. |

—"

CHAP. XXIV. 1-4. 17

punishment, ch. xxi. 19, is an acknowledged word of our
poet. On j with the passive, vid. Ew. § 295, ¢ (where, how-
ever, ch. xxviii. 4 is erroneously cited in its favour); it is
never more than equivalent to a7, for to use }? directly as
iro with the passive is admissible neither in Hebrew nor in
Arabic. yt (Keri 'YT, for which the Targ. unsuitably reads
‘y1) are, as in Ps. xxxvi. 11, Ixxxvii. 4, comp. supra, ch.
xviii. 21, those who know God, not merely superficially, but
from experience of His ways, consequently those who are in
fellowship with Him. Nn N> is to be written with Zinnorith
over the 5, and Mercha by the first syllable of tn. The Zin-
norith necessitates the retreat of the tone of 11n to its first
syllable, as in MIN, Ps. xviii. 8 (Bir’s Psalterium, p. xiii.) ;
for if wn remained Milra, x> ought to be connected with it
by Makkeph, and consequently remain toneless (Psalter, ii.
507).

Next follows the description of the moral abhorrence which,
while the friends (ch. xxii. 19) maintain a divine retribution
everywhere manifest, is painfully conscious of the absence of
any determination of the periods and days of judicial punish-
ment. Fearlessly and unpunished, the oppression of the help-
less and defenceless, though deserving of a curse, rages in
every form. They remove the landmarks; comp. Deut. xxvii.
17, “Cursed is he who removeth his neighbour’s landmark”
(2°31, here once written with &, while otherwise *#7 from
3¥3 signifies assequi, on the other hand 2D) from np signifies
dimovere). They steal flocks, 9), i.c. they are so barefaced,
that after they have stolen them they pasture them openly. The
ass of the orphans, the one that is their whole possession, and
their only beast for labour, they carry away as prey (173, as
e.g. Isa. xx. 4); they distrain, ic. take away with them as a
pledge (on 23, to bind by a pledge, obstringere, and also to
take as a pledge, wid. on ch. xxii. 6, and Kohler on Zech. xi.

7), the yoke-ox of the widow (this is the exact meaning of
VOL, II. B

18 THE BOOK OF JOB.

niv, as of the Arab. thér), They turn the needy aside from
the way which they are going, so that they are obliged to
wander hither and thither without home or right: the poor
of the Jand are obliged to hide themselves altogether. The
HHiph. 795, with O48 as its obj., is used as in Amos v. 12;
there it is used of turning away from a right that belongs to
them, here of turning out of the way into trackless regions.
Pas (vid. on ch. xxix. 16) here, as frequently, is the parallel
word with 13¥, the humble one, the patient sufferer; instead
of which the Keri is °2, the humbled, bowed down with suffer-
ing (vid. on Ps. ix. 13). ~OS™2Y occurs without any Keri in
Ps. lxxvi. 10, Zeph. ii. 3, and might less suitably appear here,
where it is not so much the moral attribute as the outward
condition that is intended to be described. The Pual 383n
describes that which they are forced to do.

The description of these unfortunate ones is now continued ;
and by a comparison with ch. xxx. 1-8, it is probable that
aborigines who are turned out of their original possessions
and dwellings are intended (comp. ch. xv. 19, according to
which the poet takes his stand in an age in which the original
relations of the races had been already disturbed by the
calamities of war and the incursions of aliens). If the
central point of the narrative lies in Hauran, or, more exactly,
in the Nukra, it is natural, with Wetzstein, to. think of the

Sp oi or pes (2,2, te. the (perhaps Iturean) “races of

the caves” in Trachonitis.

5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert,
They go forth in their work seeking for prey,
The steppe is food to them for the children.

6 In the field they reap the fodder for his cattle,
And they glean the vineyard of the evil-doer.

7 They pass the night in nakedness without a garment,

CHAP. XXIV. 5-8. 19

And have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the torrents of rain upon the mountains,
And they hug the rocks for want of shelter.

The poet could only draw such a picture as this, after
having himself seen the home of his hero, and the calamitous
fate of such as were driven forth from their original abodes
to live a vagrant, poverty-stricken gipsy life. By ver. 5, one
is reminded of Ps. civ. 21-23, especially since in ver..11 of
this Psalm the 0818, onagri (Kulans), are mentioned,—
those beautiful animals’ which, while young, are difficult to
be broken in, and when grown up are difficult to be caught;
which in their love of freedom are an image of the Beduin,
Gen. xvi. 12: their untractableness an image of that which
cannot be bound, ch. xi. 12; and from their roaming about
in herds in waste regions, are here an image of a gregarious,
vagrant, and freebvoter kind of life. The old expositors, as
also Rosenm.; Umbr., Arnh., and Vaih., are mistaken in
thinking that aliud hominum sceleratorum genus is described
in vers. 5 sqq. Ewald and Hirz. were the first to perceive
that vers. 5-8 is the further development of ver. 4d, and
that here, as in ch. xxx. 1 sqq., those who are driven back
into the wastes and caves, and a remnant of the ejected and
oppressed aborigines who drag out a miserable existence, are
described.

The accentuation rightly connects 12702 ownD; by the

omission of the Caph similit., as e.g. Isa. li. 12, the compari-
son (like a wild ass) becomes an equalization (as a wild ass).
The per. °88. is a general uncoloured expression of that
which is usual: they go forth DoypI, in their work (not: to

1 Layard, New Discoveries, p. 270, describes these wild asses’ colts. The
Arabic name is like the Hebrew, el-ferd, or alsc himGr el-wahsh, i.e.
wild ass, as we have translated, whose home is on the steppe. For fuller
particulars, vid. Wetzstein’s note on ch. xxxix. 5 sqq.

20 THE BOOK OF JOB.

their work, as the Psalmist, in Ps. civ. 23, expresses himself,
exchanging 3 for °). aay, “nw, searching after prey, 7.¢. to
satisfy their hunger (Ps. civ. 21), from 51, in the primary
signification decerpere (vid. Hupfeld on Ps, vii. 3), describes
that which in general forms their daily occupation as they
roam about; the constructivus is used here, without any
proper genitive relation, as a form of connection, according’
to Ges. § 116, 1. The idea of waylaying is not to be
connected with the expression. Job describes those who are
perishing in want and misery, not so much as those who
themselves are guilty of evil practices, as those who have
been brought down to poverty by the wrongdcing of others.
As is implied in “nvin (comp. the morning Psalm, lxiii. 2,
Isa. xxvi. 9), Job describes their going forth in the early
morning; the children (03, as ch. i. 19, xxix. 5) are those
who first feel the pangs of hunger. {> refers individually to
the father in the company: the steppe (with its scant supply
of roots and herbs) is to him food for the children; he
snatches it from it, it must furnish it for him. The idea is
not: for himself and his family (Hirz., Hahn, and others) ;
for ver. 6, which has been much misunderstood, describes how
they, particularly the adults, obtain their necessary subsist-
ence. There is no Ms. authority for reading oma instead of
: 1°23 ; the translation “what is not to him” (LXX., Targ.,
and partially also the Syriac version) is therefore to be re-
jected. Raschi correctly interprets shia’ as a general explana-
tion, and Ralbag insvan: it is, as in ch. vi. 5, mixed fodder
for cattle, farrago, consisting of oats or barley sown among
vetches and beans, that is intended. The meaning is not,
however, as most expositors explain it, that they seek to
satisfy their hunger with the food for cattle grown in the
fields of the rich evil-doer ; for 7¥? does not signify to sweep
together, but to reap in an orderly manner; and if they
meant to steal, why did they not seize the better portion of

CHAP. XXIV. 5-8. 21

the produce? It is correct to take the suff. as referring to
the )¥ which is mentioned in the next clause, but it is not
to be understood that they plunder his fields per nefas; on
the contrary, that he hires them to cut the fodder for his
cattle, but does not like to entrust the reaping of the better
kinds of corn to them. It is impracticable to press the Hiph.
isp of the Chethib to favour this rendering ; on the contrary,
‘spn stands to sp in like (not causative) signification as
mn to mn) (vid. on ch. xxxi. 18). In like manner, ver. 6)
is to be understood of hired labour. The rich man pru-
dently hesitates to employ these poor people as vintagers; but
he makes use of their labour (whilst his own men are fully
employed at the wine-vats) to gather the straggling grapes
which ripen late, and were therefore left at the vintage
season. ‘The older expositors are reminded of wipe, late hay,
and explain wipd? as denom. by wip> inna (Aben-Ezra, Im-
manuel, and others) or wip> x28’ (Parchon) ; but how un-
natural to think of the second mowing, or even of eating
the after-growth of grass, where the vineyard is the subject
referred to! On the contrary, WP? signifies, as it were, sero-
tinare, t.e. serotinos fructus colligere (Rosenm.) :* this is the
work which the rich man assigns to them, because he gains
by it, and even in the worst case can lose but little.

Vers. 7 sq. tell how miserably they are obliged to shift
for themselves during this autumnal season of labour, and
also at other times. Naked (O11), whether an adverbial form
or not, is conceived of after the manner of an accusative: in

1 Tn the idiom of Hauran, wd, Sut. 7, signifies to be late, to come late ;
in Piel, to delay, e.g. the evening meal, return, etc.; in Hithpa. telaqqas,
to arrive too late. Hence laqis bpd and logst ‘pd, delayed, of any
matter, ¢.g. bpd and sypd yr, late seed (= vind, Amos vii. 1, in connec-
tion with which the late rain in April, which often fails, is reckoned on),
swpd 31, a child born late (7c. in old age); bakér 931 and bekri 433
are the opposites in every signification —WETZsT. .

z3 THE BOOK OF JOB.

a naked, stripped condition, Arabic “urjdénan) they pass the
night, without having anything on the body (on wand, vid. on
Ps. xxii. 19), and they have no (}8 supply pn?) covering or
veil (corresponding to the notion of 733) in the cold.’ They
become thoroughly drenched by the frequent and continuous
storms that visit the mountains, and for want of other shelter
are obliged to shelter themselves under the overhanging
rocks, lying close up to them, and clinging to them,—an idea
which is expressed here by 329, as in Lam. iv. 5, where, of
those who were luxuriously brought up on purple cushions,
it is said that they “embrace dunghills;” for in Palestine
and Syria, the forlorn one, who, being afflicted with some
loathsome disease, is not allowed to enter the habitations of
men, lies on the dunghill (mezdbil), asking alms by day of the
passers-by, and at night hiding himself among the ashes which
the sun has warmed.’ The usual accentuation, D112 with Dechi,
onn with Munach, after which it should be translated ab in-

1 All the Beduins sleep naked at night. I once asked why they do
this, since they are often disturbed by attacks at night, and I was told
that it is a very ancient custom. Their clothing (kiswe, MD); both of

the nomads of the steppe (bedi) and of the caves (wa r), i is the same,
summer and winter; many perish on the pastures when overtaken by
snow-storms, or by ald and want, when their tents and stores are taken
from them in the winter time by an enemy.—WETzsT.

2 Wetzstein observes on this passage: In the mind of the speaker, ADNID
is the house made of stone, from which localities not unfrequently derive
their names, as El-hasa, on the east of the Dead Sea; the well-known
commercial town Ethasé, on the east of the Arabian ‘petinaula, which
is generally called Lahsd@; the town of El-hasja (MDM), north-east of
Damascus, etc.: so that 7\y¥ }pan forms the antithesis to the comfortable

dwellings of the ¢ J gargs hadari, t.e. one who is firmly settled. The

roots pan, 43n, seem, in. the desert, to be only dialectically distinct,
and like the root pry, to signify to be pressed close upon one another.
Thus npan (pronounced hibisha), a crowd = zahme, and asabi’ mahbike

(nah), the closed fingers, etc. The locality, hibikke (Beduin pro-
nunciation for habdka, MAN with the Beduin Dag. euphonicum), de-

CHAP. XXIV. 9-12. 23

undatione montes humectantur, is false; in correct Codd. n>19
has also Munach ; the other Munach is, as in ch. xxiii. 5a, 9a,
xxiv. 65, and freq., a substitute for Dechi. Having sketched
this special class of the oppressed, and those who are aban-
doned to the bitterest want, Job proceeds with his description
of the many forms of wrong which prevail unpunished on
the earth: .

9 They tear the fatherless from the breast,

And defraud the poor.

10 Naked, they slink away without clothes,
And hungering they bear the sheaves.

11 Between their walls they squeeze out the oil;
They tread the wine-presses, and suffer thirst.

12 In the city vassals groan,
And the soul of the oppressed erieth out—
And Eloah heedeth not the anomaly.

The accentuation of ver. 9a (i with Dechi, win with

scribed in my Reisebericht, has its name from this circumstance alone,
that the houses have been attached to (fastened into) the rocks. Hence
pan in this passage signifies to press into the fissure of a rock, to seek

out a corner which may defend one (dherwe) against the cold winds and
rain-torrents (which are far heavier among the mountains than on the

plain). The dherwe (from V0, to afford protection, shelter, a word fre-
quently used in the desert) plays a prominent part among the nomads;
and in the month of March, as itis proverbially said the dherwe is better
than the ferwe (the skin), they seek to place their tents for protection
under the rocks or high banks of the wadys, on account of the cold
strong winds, for the sake of the young of the flocks, to which the cold
storms are often very destructive. When the sudden storms come on, it
is a general thing for the shepherds and flocks to hasten to take shelter

' GU.

under overhanging rocks, and the caverns (mughr 2) which belong to
the troglodyte age, and are e.g. common in the mountains of Hauran ;
so that, therefore, ver. 8 can as well refer to concealing themselves only
for a time (from rain and storm) in the clefts as to troglodytes, who
constantly dwell in caverns, or to those dwelling in tents who, during
the storms, seek the dherwe of rock sides.

24 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Munach) makes the relation of Din’ WW genitival. Heidenheim
(in a MS. annotation to Kimchi’s Lez.) accordingly badly inter-
prets: they plunder from the spoil of the orphan; Ramban
better: from the ruin, i.e. the shattered patrimony; both
appeal to the Targum, which translates nin’ nan, like the
Syriac version, men bezto de-jatme (comp. Jerome: vim fece-
runt depredantes pupillos). The original reading, however, is
perhaps (vid. Buxtorf, Lex. col. 295) NM2, dad Bufiov, from
the mother’s breast, as it is also, with LX X. (add paorod),
to be translated contrary to the accentuation. Inhuman
creditors take the fatherless and still tender orphan away
from its mother, in order to bring it up as a slave, and so to
obtain payment. If this is the meaning of the passage, it is
natural to understand spam, ver. 9b, of distraining; but (1)
the poet would then repeat himself tautologically, vid. ver. 3,
where the same thing is far more evidently said; (2) D3n,
to distrain, would be construed with 5Y, contrary to the logic
of the word. Certainly the phrase Sy ban may be in some
degree explained by the interpretation, “to impose a fine”
(Ew., Hahn), or “to distrain” (Hirz., Welte), or “to oppress
with fines” (Schlottm.); but violence is thus done to the
usage of the language, which is better satisfied by the ex-
planation of Ralbag (among modern expositors, Ges., Arnh.,
Vaih., Stick., Hgst.): and what the unfortunate one pos-
sesses they seize; but this >Y = Sy We directly as object is
impossible. The passage, Deut. vii. 25, cited by Schultens in
its favour, is of a totally different kind.

But throughout the Semitic dialects the verb 920 also
signifies “to destroy, to treat injuriously” (e.g. Arab. el-
chabil, a by-name of Satan); it occurs in this signification in
ch. xxxiv. 31, and according to the analogy of by yin, 1 Kings
xvii. 20, can be construed with Sy as well as with > The poet,
therefore, by this construction will have intended to distin-
guish the one San from the other, ch. xxii. 6, xxiv. 3; and it

CHAP. XXIV. 9-12. 25

is with Umbreit to be translated: they bring destruction
upon the poor; or better: they take undue advantage of
those who otherwise are placed in trying circumstances.

The subjects of ver. 10 are these o3y, who are made serfs,
and become objects of merciless oppression, and the poet here
in ver. 10a indeed repeats what he has already said almost
word for word in ver. 7a (comp. ch. xxxi. 19); but there the
nakedness was the general calamity of a race oppressed by
subjugation, here it is the consequence of the sin of merces
retenta laborum, which cries aloud to heaven, practised on
those of their own race: they slink away (427, as ch. xxx. 28)
naked (nude), without (22 = "Pan, as perhaps sine = absque)
clothing, and while suffering hunger they carry the sheaves
(since their masters deny them what, according to Deut. xxv.
4, shall not be withheld even from the beasts). Between
their walls (NW like nin’, Jer. v. 10, Chaldee s*W), z.¢. the
walls of their masters who have made them slaves, therefore
under strict oversight, they press out the oil (17%, dz. yeyp.),
they tread the wine-vats (O°, Jacus), and suffer thirst withal
(fut. consec. according to Ew. § 342, a), without being
allowed to quench their thirst from the must which runs out
of the presses (NiM}, torcularia, from which the verb 37 is
here transferred to the vats). Béttch. translates: between
their rows of trees, without being able to reach out right or
left; but that is least of all suitable with the olives. Carey
correctly explains: “the factories or the garden enclosures
of these cruel slaveholders.” This reference of the word to
the wall of the enclosure is more suitable than to walls of the
press-house in particular. From tyrannical oppression in the
country," Job now passes over to the abominations of discord
and war in the cities.

Ver. 124. It is natural, with Umbr., Ew., Hirz., and others,

? Brentius here remarks: Quantum igitur judicium in eos futurum est,
qui in homines ejusdem carnis, ejusdem patrix, ejusdem fidei, ejusdem Christi

26 THE BOOK OF JOB.

to read O'ND like the Peschito; but as mite in Syriac, so also
pnp in Hebrew as a noun everywhere signifies the dead
(Arab. mauta), not the dying, mortals (Arab. maitina); where-
fore Ephrem interprets the pres. “they groan” by the perf.
“they have groaned.”. The pointing 0'N, therefore, is quite —
correct; but the accentuation which, by giving Mehupach Zin-
norith to Vy, and Asla legarmeh to on, places the two words
in.a genitival relation, is hardly correct: in the city of men, °
ae. the inhabited, thickly-populated city, they groan; not: men
(as Rosenm. explains, according to Gen. ix. 6, Prov. xi. 6)
groan; for just because D'N') appeared to be too inexpressive
as a subject, this accentuation seems to have been preferred.
It is also possible that the signification fierce anger (Hos. xi.
9), or anguish (Jer. xv. 8), was combined with YY, comp.
s, a jealousy, fury (=83?), of which, however, no trace is
anywhere visible.’ With Jer., Symm., and Theod., we take
nny as the sighing ones themselves; the feebleness of the
subject disappears if we explain the passage according to
such passages as Deut. il. 34, ili. 6, comp. Judg. xx. 48: it

committunt quod nec in bruta animalia commitiendum est, quod malum in
Germania frequentissimum est. Ve igitur Germanie !
1 Wetzstein translates Hos. xi. 9: I will not come as a raging foe, with

he

3 of the attribute = sol

-

uc.) (comp. Jer. xv. 8, 1y, parall. 1’)
after the form pp, to which, if not this WY, certainly the Wy, éypayopos,

occurring in Dan. iv. 10, and freq., corresponds. What we remarked
above, vol. i. p. 440, on the form pp, is cleared up by the following
observation of Wetzstein: ‘‘The form Dp belongs to the numerous class of —
segolate forms of the form Syn, which, as belonging to the earliest period

of the formation of the Semitic languages, take neither plural nor feminine
' terminations; they have often a collective meaning, and are not originally

abstracta, but concreta in the sense of the Arabic part. act. elre. This

inflexible primitive formation is frequently found in the present day in the

CHAP. XXIV. 9-12. 27

is the male inhabitants that are intended, whom any con-
queror would put to the sword; we have therefore translated
men (men of war), although “people” (ch. xi. 3) also would
not have been unsuitable according to the ancient use of the
word. PS) is intended of the groans of the dying, as Jer. hi.
52, Ezek. xxx. 24, as ver. 12b also shows: the soul of those
that are mortally wounded cries out. pypon signifies not
merely the slain and already dead, but, according to its ety-
mon, those who are pierced through, those who have received
their death-blow; their soul cries out, since it does not leave
the body without a struggle. Such things happen without
God preventing them. mdan pend, He observeth not the
abomination, either — 1253 oy x, ch. xxii. 22 (He layeth it
not to heart), or, since the phrase occurs nowhere elliptically,
— Sy ya or xd, ch. i. 8, xxxiv. 23 (He does not direct His
heart, His attention to it), here as elliptical, as in ch. iv. 20,
Isa. xli. 20. True, the latter phrase is never joined with the
ace. of the object; but if we translate after 2 OY, ch. iv. 18:

non imputat, He does not reckon such roan, i.e. does not
punish it, 02 (073) ought to be supplied, which is still some-
what liable to misconstruction, since the preceding subject

‘idiom of the steppe, which shows that the Hebrew is essentially of pri-

meval antiquity (ural). Thus the Beduin says: ha qitli “Syp xn), he
is my opponent in a hand-to-hand combat; nith? (my), my opponent
in the tournament with lances ; chilfi (spbm) and diddi (my), my ad-
versary ; thus a step-mother is called dir (ny), as the oppressor of
the step-children, and a concubine dirr (47g), as the oppressor of her
rival. The Kamus also furnishes several words which belong here, as tilb
(230), a persecutor.” Accordingly, np is derived from Dip, as also 7*y,
a city, from }}7 (whence, according to a prevalent law of ‘the change of
letters, we haye Wy first of all, plur. Dy, Judg. x. 4), and signifies the
rebelling one, i.e. the enemy (who is now in the idiom of the steppe
called gémdni, from gdm, a state of war, a feud), as 7", a keeper,
and “Sy, a messenger ; y ("'p) is also originally concrete, a wall
(enclosure).

28 THE BOOK OF JOB.

is not the oppressors, but those who suffer oppression. nan
is properly insipidity (comp. Arab. tajfila, to stink), absurdity,
self-contradiction, here the immorality which séts at nought
the moral order of the world, and remains nevertheless
unpunished. The Syriac version reads MSA, and translates,
like Louis Bridel (1818): e¢ Dieu ne, fart aucune attention a
leur priere. ?

13 Others are those that rebel against the light,
They will know nothing of tts ways,
And abide not in its paths.
14 The murderer riseth up at dawn,
He slayeth the sufferer and the poor,
And in the night he acteth like a thief.
15 And the eye of the adulterer watcheth for the twilight ;
He thinks: “no eye shall recognise me,”

And he putteth a veil before his face.

With 725 begins a new turn in the description of the moral
confusion which has escaped God’s observation; it is to be
translated neither as retrospective, “since they” (Ewald), nor
as distinctive, “they even” (Béttch.), i.e. the powerful in dis-
tinction from the oppressed, but “those” (for Hn corresponds
to our use of “those,” ns to “these”), by which Job passes
on to another class of evil-disposed and wicked men. Their
general characteristic is, that they shun the light. Those
who are described in vers. 14 sq. are described according to
their general characteristic in ver. 13; accordingly it is not
to be interpreted: those belong to the enemies of the light,
but: those are, according to their very nature, enemies of the
light. The Beth is the so-called Beth essent.; *) (comp. Prov.
iii. 26) affirms what they are become by their own inclination,
or as what they are fashioned, viz. as admoctdatar pwrds
(Symm.); 72 (on the root 19, vid. on ch. xxiii. 2) signifies
properly to push one’s self against anything, to lean upon, to

? CHAP. XXIV. 1315. 29

rebel ; 16 therefore signifies one who strives against another,
one who is obstinate (like the Arabic mdrid, merid, comp.
mumédri, not conformable to the will of another). The im-
provement Wis "Md (not with Makkeph, but with Mahpach of
Mercha mahpach. placed between the two words, vid. Biir’s
Psalterium, p. x.) assumes the possibility of the construction
with the ace., which occurs at least once, Josh. xxii. 19.
They are hostile to the light, they have no familiarity with
its ways (15, as ver. 17, Ps. cxlii. 5, Ruth ii. 19, to take
knowledge of anything, to interest one’s self in its favour),
and de not dwell (2%, Jer. reversi sunt, according to the false
reading 32%) in its paths, ze. they neither make nor feel
themselves at home there, they have no peace therein. The
light is the light of day, which, however, stands in deeper,
closer relation to the higher light, for the vicious man hateth
TO as, John iii. 20, in every sense; and the works which
are concealed in the darkness of the night are also épya rod
oxorous, Rom. xiii..12 (comp. Isa. xxix. 15), in the sense in
which light and darkness are two opposite principles of the
spiritual world. It need not seem strange that the more
minute description of the conduct of these enemies of the
light now begins with "i8?. It is impossible that this should
mean: still in the darkness of the night (Stick.), prop.
towards the light, when it is not yet light. Moreover, in
biblical Hebrew, 1s does not‘ signify evening, in which sense
it occurs in Talmudic Hebrew (Pesachim la, Seder olam
rabba, c. 5, YIw "IN, vespera septima), like SHS (= 2) in
Talmudic Aramaic. The meaning, on the contrary, is that
towards daybreak (comp. 18 1p2n, Gen. xliv. 3), therefore
with early morning, the murderer rises up, to go about his
work, which veils itself in darkness (Ps. x. 8-10) by day, viz.
to slay (comp. on °P’.. . D1', Ges. § 142, 3, c) the unfor-
tunate and the poor, who pass by defenceless and alone.
One has to supply the idea of the ambush in which the way-

30 THE BOOK OF JOB.

layer lies in wait; and it is certainly inconvenient that it is
not expressed. The antithesis nor, ver. 14c, shows that
nothing but primo mane is meant by 7i8?. He who in the
day-time goes forth to murder and plunder, at night commits
petty thefts, where no one whom he could attack passes
by. Stickel translates: to slay the poor and wretched, and
in the night to play the thief; but then the subjunctivus ™
ought to precede (vid. eg. ch. xiii. 5), and in general it
cannot be proved without straining it, that the voluntative
form of the future everywhere has a modal signification.
- Moreover, here ™ does not differ from ch. xviii. 12, xx. 23,
but is only a poetic shorter form for 7: in the night he
is like a thief, i.e. plays the part of the thief. And the
adulterer’s eye observes the darkness of evening (vid. Prov.
vii. 9), i.e. watches closely for its coming on (1)¥, in the
usual signification observare, to be on the watch, to take care,
observe anxiously), since he hopes to render himself invisible;
and that he may not be recognised even if seen, he puts on a
mask. O35 WD is something by which his countenance is
rendered unrecognisable (LX X. dzoxpu8) rpocwrov), like
the Arab. sitr, stédreh, a curtain, veil, therefore a veil for the
face, or, as we say in one word borrowed from the Arabic

fb se A

5 Swe, a farce (masquerade): the mask, but not in the

proper sense.!

16 In the dark they dig through houses,
By day they shut themselves up,
They will know nothing of the light.

1 The mask was perhaps never known in Palestine and Syria; snp
D°35 is the mendil or women’s veil, which in the present day (in Hawran
exclusively) is called sit, and is worn over the face by all married women
in the towns, while in the country it is worn hanging down the back, and
is only drawn over the face in the presence of a stranger. If this expla-
nation is correct, the poet means to say that the adulterer, in order to

CHAP. XXIV. 16, 17. 31

17 For the depth of night is to them even as the dawn of the
morning,

For they know the terrors of the depth of night.

The handiwork of the thief, which is but slightly referred
to in ver. 14c, is here more particularly described. The
indefinite subj. of 19, as is manifest from what follows, is
the band of thieves. The 3, which is elsewhere joined with
nnn (to break into anything), is here followed by the ace.
D’Ma (to be pronounced bdttim, not bottim),’ as in the Tal-
mudic, 13% 107, to pick one’s teeth (and thereby to make
them loose), 6. Kidduschin, 24 b. According to the Talmud,
Ralbag, and the ancient Jewish interpretation in general,
ver. 166 is closely connected to ona: houses which they
have marked by day for breaking into, and the mode of its
accomplishment ; but 095 nowhere signifies designare, always
obsignare, to seal up, to put under lock and key, ch. xiv. 17,
ix. 7, xxxvii. 7; according to which the Piel, which occurs
only here, is to be explained: by day they seal up, ae. shut
themselves up for their safety (in? is not to be accented with
Athnach, but with Rebia mugrasch): they know not the light,
i.e. as Schlottm. well em: : they have no fellowship with
it; for the biblical ¥3', yuveocxew, mostly signifies a know-
ledge which enters into the subject, and intimately unites

remain undiscovered, wears women’s clothes [comp. Deut. xxii. 5]; and,
in fact, in the Syrian towns (the figure is taken from town-life) women’s
clothing is always chosen for that kind of forbidden nocturnal undertak-
ing, i.e. the man disguises himself in an 7z@r, which covers him from head
to foot, takes the mendil, and goes with a lantern (without which at night
every person is seized by the street watchman as a suspicious person) un-
hindered into a strange house.—WETZST.

1 Vid. Aben-Ezra on Ex. xii. 7. The main proof that it is to be pro-
nounced bditim is, that written exactly it is Dna, and that the Metheg,
according to circumstances, is changed into an accent, as Ex. viii. 7, xii. 7,

Jer. xviii. 22, Ezek. xlv. 4, which can only happen by Kameiz, not by
Kometz (K. chattph); comp. Kohler on Zech. xiv. 2.

32 THE BOOK OF JOB.

itself with it. In ver. 17 one confirmation follows another.
Umbr. and Hirz. explain: for the morning is to them at
once the shadow of death; but 13%, in the signification at the
same time, as we have taken 7M in ch. xvii. 16 (nevertheless
of simultaneousness of time), is unsupportable: it signifies
together, ch. ii. 11, ix. 32; and the arrangement of the words
ine . . . TM (to them together) is like Isa. ix. 20, xxxi. 3,
Jer. xlvi. 12. Also, apart from the erroneous translation of
the 1m, which is easily set aside, Hirzel’s rendering of ver.
17 is forced: the morning, 7.e. the bright day, is to them all
as the shadow of death, for each and every one of them
knows the terrors of the daylight, which is to them as the
shadow of death, viz. the danger of being discovered and
condemned. The interpretation, which is also preferred by
Olshausen, is far more natural: the depth of night is to them
as the dawn of the morning (on the precedence of the pre-
dicate, comp. Amos iv. 13 and v. 8: walking in the darkness
of the early morning), for they are acquainted with the terrors
of the depth of night, i.e. they are not surprised by them,
but know how to anticipate and to escape them. Ch. xxxviii.
15 also, where the night, which vanishes before the rising of
the sun, is called the “light” of the evil-doer, favours this
interpretation (not the other, as Olsh. thinks). The accen-
tuation also favours it; for if 1pa had been the subj., and
were to be translated: the morning is to them the shadow of
death, it ought to have been accented naby 109 ip2, Dechi,
Mercha, Athnach. It is, however, accented Munach, Munach,
Athnach, and the second Munach stands as the deputy of
Dechi, whose value in the interpunction it represents; there-
fore 195 1p2 is the predicate: the shadow of death is morning
to them. From the plur. the description now, with 15, passes
into the sing., as individualizing it. ninba, constr. of ninda, is
without a Dagesh in the second consonant. Mercier admir-
ably remarks here: swnt et familiares et noti nocturne terrores,

CHAP. XXIV. 16, 17. 33

neque eos timet aut curat, quast sibi cum illis necessitudo
et familiaritas intercederet et cum illis ne noceant fodus aut
pactum inierit. Thus by their skill and contrivance they
escape danger, and divine justice allows them to remain un-
discovered and unpunished,—a fact which is most incom-
prehensible.

It is now time that this thought was once again definitely
expressed, that one may not forget what these accumulated
illustrations are designed to prove. But what now follows
in vers. 18-21 seems to express not Job’s opinion, but that
of his opponents. Ew., Hirz., and Hlgst. regard vers. 18-21,
22-25, as thesis and antithesis. To the question, What is
the lot that befalls all these evil-doers? Job is thought to
give a twofold answer: first, to ver. 21, an ironical answer
in the sense of the friends, that those men are overtaken by
the merited punishment; then from ver. 22 is his own
serious answer, which stands in direct contrast to the former.
But (1) in vers. 18-21 there is not the slightest trace observ-
able that Job does not express his own view: a consideration
which is also against Schlottman, who regards vers. 18-21 as
expressive of the view of an opponent. (2) There is no such
decided contrast between vers. 18-21 and 22-25, for vers.
19 and 24 both affirm substantially the same thing concern-
ing the end of the evil-doer. In like manner, it is also not
to be supposed, with Stick., Lowenth., Bottch., Welte, and
Hahn, that Job, outstripping the friends, as far as ver. 21,
describes how the evil-doer certainly often comes to a terrible
end, and in vers. 22 sqq. how the very opposite of this, how-
ever, is often witnessed; so that this consequently furnishes no
evidence in support of the exclusive assertion of the friends.
Moreover, ver. 24 compared with ver. 19, where there is
nothing to indicate a direct contrast, is opposed to it; and
ver. 22, which has no appearance of referring to a direct

contrast with what has been previously said, is opposed to
VOL, II. : o

84 THE BOOK OF JOB.

such an antithetical rendering of the two final strophes. Ver.
22 might more readily be regarded as a transition to the
antithesis, if vers. 18-21 could, with Eichh., Schnurr., Dathe,
Umbr., and Vaih., after the LXX., Syriac, and Jerome, be
understood as optative: “Let such an one be light on the
surface of the water, let . . . be cursed, let him not turn
towards,” etc., but ver. 18a is not of the optative form; and
18c, where in that case mp" would be expected, instead of
mop'-xd, shows that 182, where, according to the syntax, the
optative rendering is natural, is nevertheless not to be so
rendered. The right interpretation is that which regards
both vers. 18-21 and 22 sqq. as Job’s own view, without
allowing him absolutely to contradict himself. Thus it is in-
terpreted, e.g. by Rosenmiiller, who, however, as also Renan,
errs in connecting ver. 18 with the description of the thieves,
and understands ver. 18a of their slipping away, 18d of their
dwelling in horrible places, and 18¢ of their avoidance of the
vicinity of towns.

18 For he is light upon the surface of the water ;
Their heritage is cursed upon the earth;
He turneth no more in the way of the vineyard.

19 Drought, also heat, snatch away snow water—
So doth Sheél those who have sinned.

20 The womb forgetteth him, worms shall feast on him,
He is no more remembered ;
So the desire of the wicked is broken as a tree—

21 He who hath plundered the barren that bare not,
And did no good to the widow.

The point of comparison in ver. 18a is the swiftness of
the disappearing: he is carried swiftly past, as any light
substance on the surface of the water is hurried along by
the swiftness of the current, and can scarcely be seen; comp.
ch. ix. 26: “My days shoot by as ships of reeds, as an eagle

CHAP. XXIV. 18-21. 35

which dasheth upon its prey,” and Hos. x. 7, “ Samaria’s
king is destroyed like a bundle of brushwood (LXX.,
Theod., dpvyavov) on the face of the water,’ which is
quickly drawn into the whirlpool, or buried by the approach-
ing wave.’ But here the idea is not that of being swallowed
up by the waters, as in the passage in Hosea, but, on the
contrary, of vanishing from sight, by being carried rapidly
past by the rush of the waters. If, then, the evil-doer dies
a quick, easy death, his heritage (apbn, from pon, to divide)
is cursed by men, since no one will dwell in it or use it,
because it is appointed by God to desolation on account of
the sin which is connected with it (wid. on ch. xv. 28);
even he, the evil-doer, no more turns the way of the vine-
yard (738, with 375, not an acc, of the obj., but as indicating
the direction = be ; comp. 1 Sam. xiii. 18 with ver. 17 of
the same chapter), proudly to inspect his wide extended do-
main, and overlook the labourers. ‘The curse therefore does
not come upon him, nor can one any longer lie in wait for
him to take vengeance on him ; it is useless to think of vent-
ing upon him the rage which his conduct during life pro-
voked ; he is long since out of reach in Shedl.

That which Job says figuratively in ver. 18a, and in ch.
xxi. 13 without a figure: “in a moment they go down to
Shedl,” he expresses in ver. 19 under a new figure, and,
moreover, in the form of an emblematic proverb (vid.
Herzog’s Real-Encyklopddie, xiv. 696), according to the
peculiarity of which, not {3, but either only the copulative

Waw (Prov. xxv. 25) or nothing whatever (Prov. xi. 22), is

1 The translation : like foam (spuma or bulla), is also very suitable here.
Thus Targ., Symm., Jerome, and others ; but the signification to foam
cannot be etymologically proved, whereas ‘¥P in the signification confrin-
- gere is established by Mayp, breaking, Joel i. 7, and Wa.23; so that conse-
quently ANP, a8 synon. bf FN, signifies properly the breaking forth, and
is then allied to may.

36 THE BOOK OF JOB.

to be supplied before won Siw. 380M is virtually an object:
e0s gui peccarunt. Ver. 19b is a model-example of extreme
brevity of expression, Ges. § 155, 4, 6. Sandy ground (7%,
arid land, without natural moisture), added to it (D3, not:
likewise) the heat of the sun—these two, working simultane-
ously from beneath and above, snatch away (V13, cogn. Ii,

Meee

root 13, to cut, cut away, tear away; Arab. y=, fut. 2, used

of sinking, decreasing water) Pray "2", water of (melted)
snow (which is fed from no fountain, and therefore is
quickly absorbed), and Shedl snatches away those who have
sinned (= 8DN WWTNS not), The two incidents are alike:
the death of those whose life has been a life of sin, follows
as a consequence easily and unobserved, without any painful
and protracted struggle. The sinner disappears suddenly ;
the womb, i.e. the mother that bare him, forgets him (07,
matric = mater ; according to Ralbag: friendship, from 0M,

S ‘

to love tenderly; others: relationship, in which sense p>) =

O™ is used), worms suck at him (jpn for IAPND, according
to Ges. § 147, a, sugit eum, from which primary notion of
sucking comes the signification to be sweet, ch. xxi. 33: Syriac,
metkat ennun remto; Ar. imtasahum, from the synonymous
Gs
eo = ys, Myp, 7M), he is no more thought of, and thus
then is mischief (abstr. pro concer. as ch. v. 16) broken like a
tree (not: a staff, which /¥ never, not even in Hos. iv. 12,
directly, like the Arabic ‘asa, ‘asdt, signifies). Since nowy is
used personally, 3) AY", ver. 21, can be connected with it as
an appositional permutative. His want of compassion (as is
still too often seen in the present day in connection with the
tyrannical conduct of the executive in Syria and Palestine, -
especially on the part of those who collect the taxes) goes the
length of eating up, i.e. entirely plundering, thesbarren, child-

CHAP. XXIV. 18-21. 37

less (Gen. xi. 80; Isa. liv. 1), and therefore helpless woman,
who has no sons to protect and defend her, and never showing
favour to the widow, but, on the contrary, thrusting her away
from him. There is as little need for regarding the verb 7}
here, with Rosenm. after the Targ., in the signification con-
Jringere, as cognate with YY, 81, as conversely to change Dyan,
Ps, ii. 9, into OIA; it signifies pao as in ch. xx. 26, here
in the sense of depopulari. On the form 2" for 2", vid.
Ges. § 70, 2, rem.; and on the transition from the part. to the
v. fin., vid. Ges. § 134, rem.2. Certainly the memory of such
an one is not affectionately cherished ; this is equally true with
what Job maintains in ch. xxi. 32, that the memory of the
evil-doer is immortalized by monuments. Here the allusion
is to the remembrance of a mother’s love and sympathetic
feeling. The fundamental thought of the strophe is this,
that neither in life nor in death had he suffered the punish-
ment of his evil-doing. The figure of the broken tree
(broken in its full vigour) also corresponds to this thought ;
comp. on the other hand what Bildad says, ch. xviii. 16: “his
roots dry up beneath, and above his branch is lopped off”
(or: withered), The severity of his oppression is not manifest
till after his death.

In the next strophe Job goes somewhat further. But
after having, in vers. 22, 23, said that the life of the ungodly
passes away as if they were the favoured of God, he returns
to their death, which the friends, contrary to experience,
have so fearfully described, whilst it is only now and then
distinguished from the death of other men by coming on late
and painlessly.

22 And He preserveth the mighty by His strength ;
Such an one riseth again, though he despaired of life.
23 He giveth him rest, and he is sustained,

And His eyes are over their ways.

38 THE BOOK OF JOB.

24 They are exalted—a little while,—then they are no more,
And they are sunken away, snatched away like all others,
And as the top of the stalk they are cut off.—

25 And if it is not so, who will charge me with lying,

And make my assertion worthless ?

Though it becomes manifest after their death how little
the ungodly, who were only feared by men, were beloved,
the form of their death itself is by no means such as to reveal
the retributive justice of God. And does it become at all
manifest during their life? The Waw, with which the |
strophe begins, is, according to our rendering, not adversative,
but progressive. God is the subject. W2, to extend in
length, used elsewhere of love, Ps. xxxvi. 11, cix. 12, and
anger, Ps. lxxxv. 6, is here transferred to persons: to pro-
long, preserve long in life. O28 are the strong, who bid
defiance not only to every danger (Ps. Ixxvi. 6), but also to
all divine influences and noble impulses (Isa. xlvi. 12).
These, whose trust in their own strength God might smite
down by His almighty power, He preserves alive even in
critical positions by that very power: he (the 28) stands up
(again), whilst he does not trust to life, .e. whilst he believes
that he must succumb to death (2871 as Ps. xxvii. 13, comp.
Genesis, S. 368; 0, Aramaic form, like P30, ch. iv. 2,
xii. 11; the whole is a contracted circumstantial clause for
‘nxbasim). He (God) grants him nya, in security, viz.
to live, or even directly: a secure peaceful existence, since
nod is virtually an object, and the ? is that of condition
(comp. 24, ch. xxvi. 3). Thus Hahn, who, however, here is
only to be followed in this one particular, takes it correctly:
and that he can support himself, which would only be possible
if an inf. with ? had preceded. Therefore: and he is sup-
ported, or he can support himself, i.e. be comforted, though
this absolute use of yw cannot be supported; in this instance

CHAP. XXIV. 22-25. 39

we miss 13%07>Y, or some such expression (ch. vill. 15). God
sustains him and raises him up again: His eyes (7*}Y =12'Y)
are (rest) on the ways of these men, they stand as it were
beneath His special protection, or, as it is expressed in ch.
x. 8: He causes light to shine from above upon the doings of
the wicked. “They are risen up, and are conscious of the
height (of prosperity)—a little while, and they are no more.”
Thus ver. 24a is to be explained. The accentuation in
with Mahpach, nya with Asla legarmeh (according to which
it would have to be translated: they stand on high a short
time), is erroneous. ‘The verb Oo signifies not merely to be
high, but also to rise up, raise one’s self, eg. Prov. xi. 11,
and to show one’s self exalted, here extulerwnt se in altum or
exaliati sunt; according to the form of writing 38), Dm is
treated as an Ayin Waw verb med. O, and the Dagesh is a
so-called Dag. affectuosum (Olsh. § 83, b), while 1194 (like 335,
Gen. xlix. 23) appears to assume the form of a double Ayin
verb med. O, consequently D1 (Ges. § 67, rem. 1). yn,
followed by Waw of the conclusion, forms a clause of itself,
as more frequently 1 bY iy (yet a little while, then... ),
as, é.g. In an exactly similar connection in Ps. xxxvii. 10;
here, however, not expressive of the sudden judgment of the
ungodly, but of their easy death without a struggle (edOa-
-vacia): a little, then he is not (again a transition from the
plur. to the distributive or individualizing sing.). They are,
viz. as ver. 24b further describes, bowed down all at once (an
idea which is expressed by the perf.), are snatched off like all
other men. 95197 is an Aramaizing Hophal-form, approaching
the Hoph. of strong verbs, for 13237 (Ges. § 67, rem. 8), from
12, to bow one’s self (Ps. cvi. 43), to be brought low (Eccl.

x. 18); comp. «<, to cause to vanish, to annul. f¥5P* (for

which it is unnecessary with Olsh. to read PSI, after Ezek.
xxix. 5) signifies, according to the primary signification of

40 THE BOOK OF JOB.

/2P, comprehendere, constringere, contrahere (cogn. YP, YOP,
pnp, comp. supra, 1. 437): they are hurried together, or
snatched off, i.e. deprived of life, like the Arabic a\ aa

/ 2

(o'nds wep) and passive (4:3, equivalent to, he has died.

There is no reference in the phrase to the componere artus,
Gen. xlix. 33; it is rather the figure of housing (gathering
into the barn) that underlies it; the word, however, only
implies seizing and drawing in. Thus the figure which

7G7

follows is also naturally (comp. YP, 428, manipulus) con-

nected with what precedes, and, like the head of an ear of
corn, 7.¢. the corn-bearing head of the wheat-stalk, they are
cut off (by which one must bear in mind that the ears are
reaped higher up than with us, and the standing stalk is
usually burnt to make dressing for the field; vid. Ges. Thes.
s.v. UP),

On 3° (fut. Niph. =P), vid. on ch. xiv. 2, xviii. 16;
the signification preciduntur, as observed above, is more
suitable here than marcescunt (in connection with which sig-
nification ch. v. 26 ought to be compared, and the form
regarded as fut. Kal). Assured of the truth, in conformity
with experience, of that which has been said, he appeals
finally to the friends: if it be not so (on {5 = NiBN in con-
ditional clauses, vid. ch. ix. 24), who (by proving the oppo-
site) is able to charge me with lying and bring to nought

1 Another figure is also presented here. It is a common thing for the
Arabs (Beduins) in harvest-time to come down upon the fields of standing
corn—especially barley, because during summer and autumn this grain
is indispensable to them as food for their horses—of a district, chiefly at
night, and not unfrequently hundreds of camels are laden at one time.

As they have no sickles, they cut off the upper part of the stalk with the
‘aq fe (a knife very similar to the Roman sica) and with sabres, whence

this theft is called gard pp, sabring off; and that which is cut off,

as well as the uneven stubble that is left standing, is called garid.—
WETZST.

_ CHAP. XXIV, 22-25. 41

(Cx? = 2 pd, Ew. § 321, , perhaps by bs being conceived of

as originally infin. from bys (comp. DON), i in the sense of non-

existence, aasil) my assertion ?

The bold accusations in the speech of Eliphaz, in which
the uncharitableness of the friends attains its height, must
penetrate most deeply into Job’s spirit. But Job does not
answer like by like. Even in this speech in opposition to
the friends, he maintains the passionless repose which has
once been gained. Although the misjudgment of his cha-
racter has attained its height in the speech of Eliphaz, his
answer does not contain a single bitter personal word. In
general, he does not address them, not as though he did not
wish to show respect to them, but because he has nothing to
say concerning their unjust and wrong conduct that he would
not already have said, and because he has lost all hope of his
reproof taking effect, all hope of sympathy with his entreaty
that they would spare him, all hope of i aire: and
information on their part.

In the first part of the speech (ch. xxiii.) he occupies him-
self with the mystery of his own suffering lot, and in the
second part (ch. xxiv.) with the reverse of this mystery, the
evil-doers’ prosperity and immunity from punishment. How
is he to vindicate himself against Eliphaz, since his lament
over his sufferings as unmerited is accounted by the friends
more and more as defiant obstinacy ("12), and consequently
tends to bring him still deeper into that suspicion which he
is trying to remove? His testimony concerning himself is
of no avail; for it appears to the friends more self-delusive,
hypocritical, and sinful, the more decidedly he maintains it;
consequently the judgment of God can alone decide between
him and his accusers. But while the friends accuse him by
word of mouth, God himself is pronouncing sentence against
him by His acts,—his affliction is a de facto accusation of

42 THE BOOK OF JOB.

God against him. Therefore, before the judgment of God
can become a vindication of his affliction against the friends,
he must first of all himself have defended and proved his
innocence in opposition to the Author of his affliction. Hence
the accusation of the friends, which in the speech of Eliphaz
is become more direct and cutting than heretofore, must urge
on anew with all its power the desire in Job of being able to
bring his cause before God.

At the outset he is confident of victory, for his conscious-
ness does not deceive him; and God, although He is both
one party in the cause and judge, is influenced by the irre-
sistible force of the truth. Herein the want of harmony
in Job’s conception of God, the elevation of which into a
higher unity is the goal of the development of the drama,
again shows itself. He is not able to think of the God who
pursues him, the innocent one, at the present time with suffer-
ing, as the just God; on the other hand, the justice of the
God who will permit him to approach His judgment throne,
is to him indisputably sure: He will attend to him, and for
ever acquit him. Now Job yields to the arbitrary power of
God, but then he will rise by virtue of the justice and truth
of God. His longing is, therefore, that the God who now
_afilicts him may condescend to hear him: this seems to him
the only way of convincing God, and indirectly the friends,
of his innocence, and himself of God’s justice. The basis of
this longing is the desire of being free from the painful con-
ception of God which he is obliged to give way to. For it is
not the darkness of affliction that enshrouds him which causes
Job the intensest suffering, but the darkness in which it has
enshrouded God to him,—the angry countenance of God
whichis turned'to him. But if this is sin, that he is engaged
in a conflict concerning the justice of the Author of lis
affliction, it is still greater that he indulges evil thoughts
respecting the Judge towards whose throne of judgment he

CHAP. XXIV. 22—25. 43

presses forward. He thinks that God designedly avoids him,
because He is well aware of his innocence; now, however,
he will admit no other thought but that of suffering him to
endure to the end the affliction decreed. Job’s suspicion
against God is as dreadful as it is childish. This is a pro-
foundly tragic stroke.. It is not to be understood as the
sarcasm of defiance; on the contrary, as one of the childish
thoughts into which melancholy bordering on madness falls.
‘From the bright height of faith to which Job soars in ch.
xix. 25 sqq. he is here again drawn down into the most
terrible depth of conflict, in which, like a blind man, he gropes
after God, and because he cannot find Him thinks that He
flees before him lest He should be overcome by him. The
God of the present, Job accounts his enemy; and the God of
the future, to whom his faith clings, who will and must vin-
dicate him so soon as He only allows himself to be found and
seen—this God is not to be found! He cannot eet free
either from his suffering or from his ignominy. The future
for him is again veiled in a twofold darkness.

Thus Job does not so much answer Eliphaz as himself, con-
cerning the cutting rebukes he has brought against him. He
is not able to put them aside, for his consciousness does not
help him ; and God, whose judgment he desires to have, leaves
him still in difficulty. But the mystery of his lot of affliction,
which thereby becomes constantly more torturing, becomes
still more mysterious from a consideration of the reverse side,
which he is urged by Eliphaz more closely to consider, terrible
as it may be to him. He, the innocent one, is being tortured
to death by an angry God, while for the ungodly there come
no times of punishment, no days of vengeance: greedy con-
querors, merciless rulers, oppress the poor to the last drop of
blood, who are obliged to yield to them, and must serve them,
without wrong being helped by the right; murderers, who
shun the light, thieves, and adulterers, carry on their evil

44 THE BOOK OF JOB.

courses unpunished; and swiftly and easily, without punish-
ment overtaking them, or being able to overtake them, Shedl
snatches them away, as heat does the melted snow; even
God himself preserves the oppressors long in the midst of
extreme danger, and after a long life, free from care and
laden with honour, perntits them to die a natural death, as a
ripe ear of corn is cut off. Bold in the certainty of the truth
of his assertion, Job meets the friends: if it is not so, who
will convict me as a liar?! What answer will they give?
They cannot long disown the mystery, for experience out-
strips them. Will they therefore solve it? They might, had
they but the key of the future state to do it with! But
neither they nor Job were in possession of that, and we shall
therefore see how the mystery, without a knowledge of the
future state, struggled through towards solution; or even if
this were impossible, how the doubts which it excites are
changed to faith, and so are conquered.

Bildad’s Third Speech.—Chap. xxv.
Schema: 10.
[Then began Bildad the Shuhite, and said :]

2 Dominion and. terror are with Him,
He maketh peace in His high places.
3 Is there any number to His armies,
And whom doth not His light surpass ?
4 How could a mortal be just with God,
And how could one born of woman be pure?
5 Behold, even the moon, it shineth not brightly,
And the stars are not pure in His eyes.
6 How much less mortal man, a worm,
And the son of man, a worm!

Ultimum hocce classicum, observes Schultens, quod a parte

CHAP, XXV. ! AD

triumvirorum sonuit, magis receptui canentis videtur, quam
prelium renovantis. Bildad only repeats the two common-
places, that man cannot possibly maintain his supposedly per-
verted right before God, the all-just and all-controlling One,
to whom, even in heaven above, all things cheerfully submit,
and that man cannot possibly be accounted spotlessly pure,
and consequently exalted above all punishment before Him,
the most holy One, before whom even the brightest stars do
not appear absolutely pure. oyion is an inf. abs. made into a
substantive, like DPW; the Hiph. (to cause to rule), which is
otherwise causative, can also, like Kal, signify to rule, or
properly, without destroying the Hiphil-signification, to exer-
cise authority (vid. on ch. xxxi. 18); Swwn therefore signifies
sovereign rule. MWY, with Nim to be supplied, which is not
unfrequently omitted both in participial principal clauses (ch.
xii. 17 sqq., Ps. xxii. 29, Isa. xxvi. 3, xxix. 8, xl. 19, comp.
Zech. ix. 12, where ‘38 is to be supplied) and in partic. subor-
dinate clauses (Ps. vii. 10, lv. 20, Hab. ii. 10), is an expression
of the simple pres., which is represented by the partic. used
thus absolutely (including the personal pronoun) as a proper
tense-form (Ew. § 168, c, 306, d). Schlottman refers ny
to inp) Svion; but the analogy of such attributive descriptions
of God is against it. Umbreit and Hahn connect \9i02
with the subject: He in His heights, i.e. down from His
throne in the heavens. but most expositors rightly take it
as descriptive of the place and object of the action expressed :
He establishes peace in His heights, z.e. among the celestial
beings immediately surrounding Him. This, only assuming
the abstract possibility of discord, might mean : facit majestate
sua ut in summa pace et promptissima obedientia psi ministrent
angeli ipsius in excelsis (Schmid). But although from ch.
iv. 18, xv. 15, nothing more than that even the holy ones
above are neither removed from the possibility of sin nor the
necessity of a judicial authority which is high above them, can

46 THE BOOK OF JOB.

be inferred; yet, on the other hand, from ch. iii. 8, ix. 13
(comp. xxvi. 12 sq.), it is clear that the poet, in whose con-
ception, as in Scripture generally, the angels and the stars
stand in the closest relation, knows of actual, and not merely
past, but possibly recurring, instances of hostile dissension and
titanic rebellion among the celestial powers; so that Dow nvvy,
therefore, is intended not merely of a harmonizing reconcilia-
tion among creatures which have been contending one against
another, but of an actual restoration of the equilibrium that
had been disturbed through self-will, by an act of mediation
and the exercise of judicial authority on the part of God.
Ver. 3. Instead of the appellation 12112, which. reminds
one of Isa. xxiv. 21,—where a like peacemaking act of judg-
ment on the part of God is promised in reference to the
spirit-host of the heights that have been working seductively
among the nations on earth,—W3173, of similar meaning to
YNI¥, used elsewhere, occurs in this verse. The stars, accord-
ing to biblical representation, are like an army arrayed for
battle, but not as after the Persian representation—as an
army divided into troops of the Ahuramazdé and Angra-
mainyus (Ahriman), but a standing army of the children of
light, clad in the armour of light, under the guidance of the
one God the Creator (Isa. xl. 26, comp. the anti-dualistic as-
-sertion in Isa. xlv.7).. The one God is the Lord among these
numberless legions, who commands their reverence, and main-
tains unity among them; and over whom does not His light
arise? Umbr. explains: who does not His light, which He
communicates to the hosts of heaven, vanquish (oy Oi? in the
usual warlike meaning: to rise against any one); but this
is a thought that is devoid of purpose in this connection.
wus with the emphatic suff. éhw (as ch. xxiv. 23, 312Y) at
any rate refers directly to God: J7is light in distinction from
the derived light of the hosts of heaven. This distinction
is better brought out if we interpret (Merc., Hirz., Hahn,

CHAP, XXY. 47

-Schlottm., and others): over whom does (would) not His
light arise? i.e. all receive their light from His, and do but
reflect it back. But ™p'="1 cannot be justified by ch.
xi. 17. Therefore we interpret with Ew. and Hlgst. thus:
whom does not His light surpass, or, literally, over whom
(i.e. which of these beings of light) does it not rise, leaving
it behind and exceeding it in brightness (53' as synon. of
py")? How then could a mortal be just with God, de. at
His side or standing up before Him; and how could one of
woman born be spotless! How could he (which is hereby
indirectly said) enter into a controversy with God, who is
infinitely exalted above him, and maintain before Him a
moral character faultless, and therefore absolutely free from
condemnation! In the heights of heaven God’s decision is
revered ; and should man, the feeble one, and born flesh of
flesh (vid. ch. xiv. 1), dare to contend with God? Behold,
nyy (TY, as usually when preceded by a negation, adeo, ne
... guidem, e.g. Ex. xiv. 28, comp. Nah. i. 10, where J. H.
Michaelis correctly renders: adeo ut spinas perplewitate cequent,
and ON used in the same way, ch. v. 5, Ew. § 219, c), even
as to the moon, it does not (xh with Waw apod., Ges. § 145,
2, although there is a reading N> without }) shine bright,
OTs) Bs: bn}, from bay = bon. Thus LXX., Targ. Jer., and
Gecatilia translate; whereas Saadia translates: it turns not in
(Jeu ¥), or properly, it does not pitch its tent, fix its habita-
tion. But to pitch one’s tent is bax or bry, whence om, Isa.
xii. 20, — dn" ; and what is still more decisive, one would
naturally expect OW pix? in connection with this thought.
We therefore render nx as a form for once boldly used in
the scriptural language for 55m, as in Isa. xxviii. 28 U8 once
occurs for v4. Even the moon is only a feeble light before

1 It is worthy of observation, that hilal signifies in Arabic the new
moon (comp. Genesis, S. 807); and the Hiphil ahailla, like the Kal halla,
is used of the appearing and shining of the new moon.

48 THE BOOK OF JOB.

God, and the stars are not clean in His eyes; there is a vast
distance between Him and His highest and most glorious
creatures—how much more between Him and man, the worm
of the dust!

The friends, as was to be expected, are unable to furnish
any solution of the mystery, why the ungodly often live and
die happily ; and yet they ought to be able to give this solu-
tion, if the language which they employ against Job were
authorized. Bildad alone speaks in the above speech, Zophar
is silent. But Bildad does not utter a word that affects the
question. ‘This designed omission shows the inability of the
friends to solve it, as much as the tenacity with which they
firmly maintain their dogma; and the breach that has been
made in it, either they will not perceive or yet not acknow-
ledge, because they think that thereby they are approaching
too near to the honour of God. Moreover, it must be ob- ©
served with what delicate tact, and how directly to the pur-
pose in the structure of the whole, this short speech of Bildad’s
closes the opposition of the friends. ‘Two things are manifest
from this last speech of the friends: First, that they know
nothing new to bring forward against Job, and nothing just to
Job’s advantage; that all their darts bound back from Job; and
that, though not according to their judgment, yet in reality,
they are beaten. This is evident from the fact that Bildad”
is unable to give any answer to Job’s questions, but can only
take up the one idea in Job’s speech, that he confidently and
boldly thinks of being able to approach God’s throne of judg-
ment; he repeats with slight variation what Eliphaz has said
twice already, concerning the infinite distance between man
and God, ch. iv. 17-21, xv. 14-16, and is not even denied by
Job himself, ch. ix. 2, xiv.4. But, secondly, the poet cannot
allow us to part from the friends with too great repugnance;
for they are Job’s friends notwithstanding, and at the close
we see them willingly obedient to God’s instruction, to go to

a

CHAP. XXVI. 2—4. 49

Job that he may pray for them and make sacrifice on their
behalf. For this reason he does not make Bildad at last repeat
those unjust incriminations which were put prominently for-
ward in the speech of Eliphaz, ch. xxii. 5-11. Bildad only
reminds Job of the universal sinfulness of the human race
once again, without direct accusation, in order that Job may
himself derive from it the admonition to humble himself; and

this admonition Job really needs, for his speeches are in many /

ways contrary to that humility which is still the duty of sinful
man, even in connection with the best justified consciousness
of right thoughts and actions towards the holy God.

Job's Second Answer.—Chap. xxvi.
Schema: 6. 6. 6. 6. 3.

[Then Job began, and said :]

2 How hast thou helped him that is without. power,
Raised the arm that hath no strength!

3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And fully declared the essence of the matter !

4 To whom hast thou uttered words,

_ And whose breath proceeded from thee ?

Bildad is the person addressed, and the exclamations in
vers. 2, 3 are ironical: how thy speech contains nothing
whatever that might help me, the supposedly feeble one, in
conquering my affliction and my temptation ; me, the sup-
posedly ignorant one, in comprehending man’s mysterious
lot, and mine! Ad7N?2, according to the idea, is only equiva-
lent to 19 n> (px) xd avi and 197N? yint equivalent to "Nba yt
(5 ty x9); the former is the abstr. pro concreto, the latter the
genitival connection—the arm of the no-power, 7.e. powerless
(Ges. § 152, 1). The powerless one is Job himself, not God

(Mere., Schlottm. )) a as even the choice of the verbs, vers.
VOL. II. D

;
f

50 : THE BOOK OF JOB.

2b, 8a, shows.. Respecting vA, which we have translated
essentiality, duration, completion, we said, on ch. v. 12, that
it is formed from &* (vid. Prov. viii. 21), not directly indeed,
but by means of a verb ‘MA (AW), in the signification sub-
sistere (comp. _,,\f, and Syriac nip’); it is a Hophal-formation
(like 4"), and signifies, so to speak, durability, subsistentia,
substantia, tmrooracts, so that the comparison of w with wux

cw! (whence Wx, Arab. asis, asds, etc., fundamentum) is

forced upon one, and the relationship to the Sanskrit as
(asmi = eiwi) can remain undecided. The observation’ of
J. D. Michaelis’ to the contrary, Supplem. p. 1167: non
placent in linguis ejusmodi etyma metaphysica nimis a vulgari
sensu remota; philosophi in scholis ejusmodi vocabula condunt,
non plebs, is removed by the consideration that vin, which
out of Prov. and Job occurs only in Isa. xxviii. 29, Mic. vi. 9,
is a Chokma-word: it signifies here, as frequently, vera et
realis sapientia (J. H. Michaelis). The speech of Bildad is
a proof of poverty of thought, of which he himself gives the
evidence. His words—such is the thought of ver. 4—are
altogether inappropriate, inasmuch as they have no reference
whatever to the chief point of Job’s speech; and they are,
moreover, not his own, but the suggestion of another, and
.that not God, but Eliphaz, from whom Bildad has borrowed |
the substance of his brief declamation. Since this is the
meaning of ver. 4), it might seem as though ‘278 were

1 Comp. also Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzvaresch-Sprache, 8. 103.

2 Against the comparison of the Arab. lp solari, by Michaelis, Ges.,
and others (who assume the primary significations solutium, auxilium),
Lagarde (Anmerkungen zur griech. Uebersetzung der Proverbien, 1863,

S. 57 f.) correctly remarks that cls is only a change of letters of the
common language for coll; but usm to finish painting (whence

bn g3, decoration), or Mw) as a transposition from py, to be level,
simple (Hitzig on Prov. iii. 21), leads to no suitable sense.

CHAP. XXVI. 5-7. 51

iatended to signify by whose assistance (Arnh., Hahn); but
as the poet also, in ch. xxxi. 37, comp. Ezek. xlili. 10, uses
Th] seg. acc. in the sense of explaining anything to any
one, to instruct him concerning anything, it is to be inter-
preted: to whom hast thou divulged the words (LXX., rive
avyyyetkas phuata), i.e. thinking and designing thereby to
affect him ?

In what follows, Job now continues the description of
God’s exalted rule, which Bildad had attempted, by tracing
it through every department of creation; and thus proves
by fact, that he is wanting neither in a recognition nor reve-
rence of God the almighty Ruler.

5 —The shades are put to pain
Deep under the waters and their inhabitants.

6 Sheol is naked before him,
And the abyss hath no covering.

7 He stretched the northern sky over the emptiness ;
He hung the earth upon nothing. :

Bildad has extolled God’s majestic, awe-inspiring rule in
the heights of heaven, His immediate surrounding; Job con-
tinues the strain, and celebrates the extension of this rule,
even to the depths of the lower world. The operation of the
majesty of the heavenly Ruler extends even to the realm of
shades; the sea with the multitude of its inhabitants forms
no barrier between God and the realm of shades; the mar-
rowless, bloodless phantoms or shades below writhe like a
woman in travail as often as this majesty is felt by them,
as, perhaps, by the raging of the sea or the quaking of the
earth. On O85, which also occurs in Phoenician inscrip-
tions, vid. Psychol. S. 409; the book of Job corresponds with
Ps. Ixxxvili. 11 in the use of this appellation. The sing. is
not ‘S57 (whence ox55, as the name of a people), but 857
(727), which signifies both giants or heroes of colossal stature

52 ) THE BOOK OF JOB.

(from 751 = z+), to be high), and the relaxed (from Am, to

ser

be loose, like ¢,, to soften, to soothe), z.e. those who are bodi-
less in the state after death (comp. npn, Isa. xiv. 10, to be
weakened, i.e. placed in the condition of a rapha).° It is a
question whether poi be Pilel (Ges.) or Pulal (Olsh.); the
Pul., indeed, signifies elsewhere to be brought forth with
writhing (ch. xv. 7); it can, however, just as well signify to
be put in pain. On account of the reference implied in it to
a higher causation here at the commencement of the speech,
the Pul. is more appropriate than the Pil.; and the pausal 4,
which is often found elsewhere with Hithpael (Hithpal.), ver.
14, ch. xxxiii. 5, but never with Piel (Pil.), proves that the
form is intended to be regarded as passive.

Ver. 6a. *i8Y is seemingly used as fem., as in Isa. xiv. 9b;
but in reality the adj. precedes in the primitive form, without
being changed by the gender of Sxw. i728 alternates with
Swi, like 12? in Ps. Ixxxviii. 12. As Ps. cxxxix. 8 tes-
tifies to the presence of God in Shedl, so here Job (comp.
ch. xxxviii. 17, and especially Prov. xv. 11) that Shedl is
present to God, that He possesses a knowledge which extends
into the depths of the realm of the dead, before whom all
things are yuuva nal tetpayndiopéva (Heb. iv. 13). The
following partt., ver. 7, depending logically upon the chief
subject which precedes, are to be determined according to ch.
xxv. 2; they are conceived as present, and indeed of God’s
primeval act of creation, but intended of the acts which con-
tinue by virtue of His creative power.

Ver. 7. By ji8¥ many modern expositors understand the
northern part of the earth, where the highest mountains and
rocks rise aloft (accordingly, in Isa. xiv. 13, pp¥ ‘N37 are men-
tioned parallel with the starry heights), and consequently the
earth is the heaviest (Hirz., Ew., Hlgst., Welte, Schlottm., and
others). But (1) it is not probable that the poet would first

CHAP, XXVI. 5-7. 53

have mentioned the northern part of the earth, and then in
ver. 7b the earth itself—first the part, and then the whole;
(2) ny3 is never said of the earth, always of the heavens,
for the expansion of which it is the stereotype word (783,
ch. ix. 8, Isa. xl. 22, xliv. 24, li. 13, Zech. xiv. 1, Ps. civ. 2;
omy, Isa. xlii, 5; nos, Jer. x. 12, li. 15; 102 "TV, Isa.
xlv. 12); (8) one expects some mention of the sky in con-
nection with the mention of the earth; and thus is ;\pxy,' with
Rosenm., Ges., Umbr., Vaih., Hahn, and Olsh., to be under-
stood of the northern sky, which is prominently mentioned,
because there is the pole of the vault of heaven, which is
marked by the Pole-star, there the constellation of the Greater
Bear (WY, ch. ix. 9) formed by the seven bright stars, there
(in the back of the bull, one of the northern constellations
of the ecliptic) the group of the Pleiades (712'3), there also,
below the bull and the twins, Orion (D2). On the deriva-
tion, notion, and synonyms of 3h, vid. Genesis, S. 933; here
(where it may be compared with the Arab. tehij-un, empty,
and tih, desert) it signifies nothing more than the unmeasur-~
able vacuum of space, parall. nya, not anything = nothing
(comp. modern Arabic ldésh, or even mash, compounded of ¥

or |, and | >*) a thing, e.g. bilds, for nothing, ragul mash,

useless men). The sky which vaults the earth from the
arctic pole, and the earth itself, hang free without support in
space. That which is elsewhere (e.g. ch. ix. 6) said of the
pillars and foundations of the earth, is intended of the in-
ternal support of the body of the earth, which is, as it were,
fastened together by the mountains, with their roots extend-

* The name }\p¥ signifies the northern sky as it appears by day, from
its beclouded side in contrast with the brighter and more rainless south ;
comp. old Persian apGkhtara, if this name of the north really denotes the
“¢ starless” region, Greek fcQoc, the north-west, from the root skap,

onsen dy, oxeraves (Curtius, Griech. Etymologie, ii. 274), aquilo, the north
wind, as that which brings black clouds with it.

54. 2 THE BOOK OF JOB.

ing into the innermost part of the earth; for the idea that
the earth rests upon the bases of the mountains would be,
indeed, as Lowenthal correctly observes, an absurd inversion.
On the other side, we are also not justified in inferring from
Job’s expression the laws of the mechanism of the heavens,
which were unknown to the ancients, especially the law of
attraction or gravitation. The knowledge of nature on the
part of the Israelitish Chokma, expressed in ver. 7, however,
remains still worthy of respect. On the ground of similar
passages of the book of Job, Keppler says of the yet un-
solved problems of astronomy: Hac et cetera hujusmodi
latent in Pandectis evi sequentis, non antea discenda, quam
librum hune Deus arbiter seculorum recluserit mortalibus.
From the starry heavens and the earth Job turns to the
celestial and sub-celestial waters.

8 He bindeth up the waters in His clouds,
Without the clouds being rent under their burden.
9 He enshroudeth the face of His throne,
Spreading His clouds upon it.
10 He compasseth the face of the waters with bounds,
To the boundary between light and darkness. .

. The clouds consist of masses of water rolled together,
which, if they were suddenly set free, would deluge the
ground; but the omnipotence of God holds the waters to-
gether in the hollow of the clouds (178, Milel, according to a
recognised law, although it is also found in Codd. accented
as Milra, but contrary to the Masora), so that they do not
burst asunder under the burden of the waters (Oh); by
which nothing more nor less is meant, than that the physical
and meteorological laws of rain are of God’s appointment.
Ver. 9 describes the dark and thickly-clouded sky that showers
down the rain in the appointed rainy season. ‘® signifies to
take hold of, in architecture to hold together by means of

i

CHAP. XXVI. 8-10. 5D

beams, or to fasten together (vid. Thenius on 1 Kings vi. 10,
comp. 2 Chron. ix. 18, OMS, coagmentata), then also, as
usually in Chald. and Syr., to shut (by means of cross-bars,
Neh. vii. 3), here to shut off by surrounding with clouds:
He shuts off 1b2728, the front of God’s throne, which is
turned towards the earth, so that it is hidden by storm-clouds
as by a 3D, ch. xxxvi. 29, Ps. xviii. 12. God’s throne,
which is here, as in 1 Kings x. 19, written 153 instead of
XB2 (comp. Arab. curst, of the throne of God the Judge, in

distinction from (»,*)|, the throne of God who rules over

the world’), is indeed in other respects invisible, but the
cloudless blue of heaven is His reflected splendour (Ex.
xxiv. 10) which is cast over the earth. .God veils this His
radiance which shines forth towards the earth, 1222 yoy IAB,
by spreading over it the clouds which are led forth by Him.
wb is commonly regarded as a Chaldaism for we (Ges.
§ 56, Olsh. § 276), but without any similar instance in favour
of this vocalization of the 3 pr. Piel (Pil.). Although pv and
pXw, ch. xv. 32, iii. 18, have given up the ¢ of the Pil., it
has been under the influence of the following guttural; and
although, moreover, 7 before Resh sometimes passes into a,
e.g. 81, it is more reliable to regard T75 as inf. absol. (Kw.
§ 141, c): expandendo. Ges. and others regard this wa as
a mixed form, composed from wna and mp; but the verb wp
(with Shin) has not the signification to expand, which is
assumed in connection with this derivation; it signifies to
separate (also Ezek. xxxiv. 12, vid. Hitzig on that passage),

1 According to the more recent interpretation, under Aristotelian in-

fluence, ey) is the outermost sphere, which God as rparov xivody
having set in motion, communicates light, heat, life, and motion to the
other revolving spheres ; for the causz medix gradually descend from God
the Author of being (muhejji) from the highest heaven into the sub-
lunary world.

56 THE BOOK OF JOB.

whereas #5 certainly signifies to expand (ch. xxxvi. 29, 30);
wherefore the reading 112 (with Sin), which some Codd.
give, is preferred by Bir, and in agreement with him by
Luzzatto (vid. Bir’s. Leket zebi, p. 244), and it seems to
underlie the interpretation where Y>y wn. is translated by
poy (e715) wb, He spreadeth over it (eg. by Aben-Hzra,
Kimchi, Ralbag). But the Talmud, 6. Sabbath, 88 6 (wv5
oy wn invsw MD “Ww, the Almighty separated part of the
splendour of His Shechina and His cloud, and laid it upon
him, z.e. Moses, as the passage is applied in the Haggada),
follows the reading 15 (with Shin), which is to be retained
on account of the want of naturalness in the consonantal
combination t”; but the word is not to be regarded as a
mixed formation (although we do not deny the possibility of
such forms in themselves, vid. supra, i. 411), but as an inten-
sive form of #5 formed by Prosthesis and an Arabic change
of Sin into Shin, like ii, 0,3, 1. 3, which, being formed
from (23 = WB (vb), to expand, signifies to spread out
(the legs).

Ver. 10 passes from the waters above to the lower waters.
man signifies, as in ch. xi. 7, xxvii. 3, Neh. iii. 21, the
extremity, the extreme sential and the connection of
iN moon is genitival, as the Zarcha by the first word correctly.
indicates, whereas “1% with Munach, the substitute for Rebia
mugrasch in this instance (according to Psalter, il. 503, § 2),

is a mistake. God has marked out (3n, LX X. éyipwcer) a a

law, a.e. here according to the sense: a fixed bound (comp.
Prov. viii. 29 with Ps. civ. 9), over the surface of the waters
(i.e. describing a circle over them which defines their circuit)
unto the extreme point of light by darkness, z.e. where the
light is touched by the darkness. Most expositors (Rosenm.,
Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take n’>an-7y adverbially:
most accurately, and refer 30 to 1\8 as a second object, which
is contrary to the usage of the language, and doubtful and

CHAP. XXVI. 11-13. 57

unnecessary. Pareau has correctly interpreted: ad lucis
usque tenebrarumque conjinia; OY in the local sense, not wque
ac, although it might also have this meaning, as e.g. Eccl.
ii. 16. The idea is, that God has appointed a fixed limit to
the waters, as far as to the point at which they wash the
ierra firma of the extreme horizon, and where the boundary
line of the realms of light and darkness is; and the basis of
the expression, as Bouillier, by reference to Virgil’s Georg. i.
240 sq., has shown, is the conception of the ancients, that the
earth is surrounded by the ocean, on the other side of which:
the region of darkness begins.

11 The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at His threatening.
12 By His power He rouseth up the sea,
And by His understanding He breaketh Rahab in pieces.
13 By His breath the heavens become cheerful ;
His hand hath formed the fugitive dragon.

The mountains towering up to the sky, which seem to sup-
port the vault of the sky, are called poetically “the pillars
of heaven.” 5557 is Pulal, like Poim, ver. 5; the significa-
tion of violent and quick motion backwards and forwards is
secured to the verb §17 by the Targ. ANNs = yoann, ch. ix. 6,
and the Talm. 9157 of churned milk, blinking eyes (comp.

: py 175, the twinkling of the eye, and —4), fut. 7.0. nictare),

flapping wings (comp. —+, and —#;!), movere, motitare alas),
of wavering thinking. ya: is the divine command which
looses or binds the powers of nature; the astonishment of
the supports of heaven is, according to the radical significa-
tion of ADM (cogn. DY), to be conceived of as a torpidity
which follows the divine impulse, without offering any resist-
ance whatever. That ¥21, ver. 12a, is to be understood tran-
sitively, not like ch. vii. 5, intransitively, is proved by the

58 THE BOOK OF JOB.

dependent (borrowed) passages, Isa. li. 15, Jer. xxxi. 35,
from which it is also evident that yn cannot with the LXX.
be translated xaréravoev. The verb combines in itself the
opposite significations of starting up, z.e. entering into an
excited state, and of being startled, from which the significa-
tions of stilling (Niph., Hiph.), and of standing back ‘or
retreat (x=), branch off. The conjecture Yi after the
Syriac version (which translates, go'ar b‘jamo) is superfluous.
37, which here also is translated by the LX X. 70 «fjros, has
been discussed already on ch. ix. 13. It is not meant of the
turbulence of the sea, to which /‘M is not appropriate, but of
a sea monster, which, like the crocodile and the dragon, are
become an emblem of Pharaoh and his power, as Isa. li. 9 sq.
has applied this primary passage: the writer of the book of
Job purposely abstains from such references to the history of
Israel. Without doubt, an denotes a demoniacal monster,
like the demons that shall be destroyed at the end of the
world, one of which is called by the Persians akomano, evil
thought, another taromaiti, pride. This view is supported by
ver. 13, where one is not at liberty to determine the meaning
by Isa. li. 9, and to understand M2 wm), like 725 in that pas-
sage, of Egypt. But this dependent passage is an important
indication for the correct rendering of m9h. One thing is
certain at the outset, that MAY is not perf. Piel = BV, and
for this reason,’ that the Dagesh which characterizes Piel
cannot be omitted from any of the six mute; the translation
of Jerome, spiritus ejus ornavit celos, and all similar ones,
are therefore false. But it is possible to translate: “by His
spirit (creative spirit) the heavens are beauty, His hand has
formed the flying dragon.” Thus, in the signification to
bring forth (as Prov. xxv. 23, viii. 24 sq.), noon is rendered
by Rosenm., Arnh., Vaih., Welte,. Renan, and others, of
whom Vaih. and Renan, however, do not understand ver. 13a
of the creation of the heavens, but of their illumination. By

CHAP. XXVI. 11-13. 59

this rendering vers. 13a and 13d are severed, as being without
connection; in general, however, the course of thought in
the description does not favour the reference of the whole or
half of ver. 13 to the creation. Accordingly, n5n is not to
be taken as Pilel from bin (5'n), but after Isa. lvii. 9, as Poel
from 55n, according to which the idea of ver. 18a is deter-
mined, since both lines of the verse are most closely connected.

(M2) Ma WN) is, to wit, the constellation of the Dragon,’
one of the most straggling constellations, which winds itself
between the Greater and Lesser Bears almost half through
the polar circle. - .

‘* Maximus hie plexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis
Circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos.”
VIRGIL, Georg. i. 244 sq.

Aratus in Cicero, de nat. Deorum, ii. 42, describes it more
graphically, both in general, and in regard to the many stars
of different magnitudes which form its body from head to
tail. Among the Arabs it is called el-hajje, the serpent,
e.g. in Firuzabadi: the hajje is a constellation between the
Lesser Bear (fargadén, the two calves) and the Greater Bear
(bendt en-na‘sch, the daughters of the bier), “or et-tanin, the
dragon, e.g. in one of the authors quoted by Hyde on Ulugh
Beigh’s Tables of the Stars, p. 18: the tanin lies round about
the north pole in the form of a long serpent, with many
bends and windings.” Thus far the testimony of the old
expositors is found in Rosenmiiller. The Hebrew name "on
(the quiver) is perhaps to be distinguished from *>Y and m7,
the Zodiac constellations Aries and Aquarius.’ It is ques-
tionable how 3 is to be understood. The LXX. translates
Spaxovta amoordrny in this passage, which is certainly in-

1 Ralbag, without any ground for it, understands it of the milky way
@adnn Syyn), which, according to Rapoport, Pref. to Slonimski’s Tole-
doth ha-schamajim (1838), was already known to the Talmud b. Berachoth,

58b, under the name of 4495 473. :
2 Vid. Wissenschaft, Kunst, Judenthum (1838), 8. 220 f.

{

60 THE BOOK OF JOB.

correct, since m2 beside wn) may naturally be assumed
to be an attributive word referring to the motion or form
of the serpent. Accordingly, Isa. xxvii. 1, d¢w devyovta is
more correct, where the Syr. version is 82270 SN, the fierce
serpent, which is devoid of support in the language; in the
passage before us the Syr. also has PVT NNN, the fleeing
serpent, but this translation does not satisfy the more neuter
signification of the adjective. Aquila in Isaiah translates
dpi oxAov, as Jerome translates the same passage serpentem
vectem (whereas he translates coluber tortwosus in our passage),
as though it were 92; Symm. is better, and without doubt a
substantially similar thought, ddu cuyxdelovta, the serpent
that joins by a bolt, which agrees with the traditional Jewish
explanation, for the dragon in Aben-Ezra and Kimchi (in
Lex.)—after the example of the learned Babylonian teacher of
astronomy, Mar-Samuel (died 257), who says of himself that
the paths of the heavens are as familiar to him as the places
of Nehardea!—is called pnbpy wm, because it is as though
it were wounded, and m3, because it forms a bar (M21)
from one end of the sky to the other; or as Sabbatai Donolo
(about 940), the Italian astronomer,’ expresses it: “ When God
created the two lights (the sun and moon) and the five stars
(planets) and the twelve morn (the constellations of the Zodiac),
He also created the ‘nm (dragon), to unite these heavenly
bodies as by a weaver’s beam (O°NN 39), and made it
stretch itself on the firmament from one end to another as a
bar (m3), like a wounded serpent furnished with head and
tail.”. By this explanation 12 is either taken directly as
N32, vectis, in which signification it does not, however, occur —
elsewhere, or the signification transversus (transversarius) is

(£
1 Vid. Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, iv. 824. On Isa. xxvii. 1 Kimchi
interprets the m1 differently : he scares (pushes away).
2 Vid. extracts from his moron “pp in Joseph Kara’s Comm. on Job,
contributed by 8. D. Luzzatto in Kerem Chemed, 7th year, 8. 57 ff.

CHAP. XXVI. 11-13. 61

assigned to the M3 (=barriah) with an unchangeable Kameiz,
—a signification which it might have, for m3 on signifies
properly to go through, to go slanting across, of which the
meanings to unite slanting and to slip away are only varia-
tions. "3, notwithstanding, has in the language, so far as
it is preserved to us, everywhere the signification fugitivus,
and we will also keep to this: the dragon in the heavens is
so called, as having the appearance of fleeing and hastening
away. But in what sense is it said of God, that He pierces
or slays it? In Isa. li. 9, where the jn is the emblem of
Egypt (Pharaoh), and xxvii. 1, where n2 wn) is the emblem
of Assyria, the empire of the Tigris, the idea of destruction ,
by the sword of Jehovah is clear. The present passage is to
be explained according to ch. iii. 8, where inno is only another
name for M2 wna (comp. Isa. xxvii. 1). It is the dragon in
the heavens which produces the eclipse of the sun, by wind-
ing itself round about the sun; and God must continually |
wound it anew, and thus weaken it, if the sun is to be set
free again. ‘That it is God who disperses the clouds of
heaven by the breath of His spirit, the representative of
which in the elements is the wind, so that the azure becomes
visible again; and that it is He who causes the darkening of
the sun to cease, so that the earth can again rejoice in the
full brightness of that great light,—these two contemplations
of the almighty working of God in nature are so expressed
by the poet, that he clothes the second in the mythological
garb of the popular conception.

In the closing words which now follow, Job concludes his
illustrative description: it must indeed, notwithstanding,
come infinitely short of the reality.

14 Behold, these are the edges of His ways,
And how do we hear only a whisper thereof !
But the thunder of His might—who comprehendeth it?

62 THE BOOK OF JOB.

These (AB retrospective, as in ch. xviii. 21) are only nixp,
the extremest end-points or outlines of the ways of God,
which Job has depicted; the wondrous fulness of His might,
which extends through the whole creation, transcends human
comprehension; it is only 124 Yow therefrom that becomes
audible tous men. /DY (72) is translated by Symm. here

arOvpiopa, ch. iv. 12, yuOupicpos; the Arab. 205 (to speak

very quickly, mutter) confirms this idea of the word; Jerome's
translation, via parvam stillam sermonis ejus (comp. ch. iv. 12,
venas, tropical for parts), is doubly erroneous: the rendering
of the ynv has the antithesis of D7 against it, and 727 is not
to be understood here otherwise than in 124 NYY, Deut. xxiii.
15, xxiv. 1: shame of something = something that excites a
feeling of shame, a whisper of something = some whisper.
The notion “ somewhat,” which the old expositors attribute to
yow, lies therefore in 127. i is exclamatory in a similar
manner as in Ps, Ixxxix. 48: how we hear (222, not Y2W3)
only some whisper thereof (jz partitive, as e.g: Isa. x. 22),
i.e. how little therefrom is audible to us, only as the murmur
of a word, not loud and distinct, which reaches us !

As in the speech of Bildad the poet makes the opposition
of the friends to fade away and cease altogether, as incapable ~
of any further counsel, and hence as conquered, so in Job’s
closing speech, which consists of three parts, ch. xxvi., xxvii.—
XXVlll., Xxix.-xxxi., he shows how Job in every respect, as
victor, maintains the field against the friends. The friends
have neither been able to loose the knot of Job’s lot of suf-
fering, nor the universal distribution of prosperity and mis-
fortune. Instead of loosing the knot of Job’s lot of suffering,
they have cut it, by adding to Job’s heavy affliction the in-
vention of heinous guilt as its ground of explanation; and
the knot of the contradictions of human life in general with
divine justice they have ignored, in order that they may not

CHAP. XXVI. 14. 63

be compelled to abandon their dogma, that suffering every-
where necessarily presupposes sin, and sin is everywhere
necessarily followed by suffering. Even Job, indeed, is not
at present able to solve either one or other of the mysteries ;
but while the friends’ treatment of these mysteries is untrue,
he honours the truth, and keenly perceives that which is
mysterious. Then he proves by testimony and an appeal to
facts, that the mystery may be acknowledged without there-
fore being compelled to abandon the fear of God. Job
firmly holds to the objective reality and the testimony of his
consciousness; in the fear of God he places himself above
all those contradictions which are unsolvable by and perplex-
ing to human reason; his faith triumphs over the rational-
ism of the friends, which is devoid of truth, of justice, and
of love. :

Job first answers Bildad, ch. xxvi. He characterizes his
poor ‘reply as what it is: as useless, and not pertinent in
regard to the questions before them: it is of no service to
him, it does not affect him, and is, moreover, a borrowed
weapon. For he also is conscious of and can praise God’s
exalted and awe-inspiring majesty. He has already shown
this twice, ch. ix. 4-10, xii. 13-25, and shows here for the
third time: its operation is not confined merely to those
creatures that immediately surround God in the heavens;
it extends, without being restrained by the sea, even down
to the lower world; and as it makes the angels above to
tremble, so there it sets the shades in consternation. From
the lower world, Job’s contemplation rises to the earth, as a
body suspended in space without support ; to the clouds above,
which contain the upper waters without bursting, and veil the
divine throne, of which the sapphire blue of heaven is the re-
flection ; and then he speaks of the sea lying between Shedl
and heaven, which is confined within fixed bounds, at the
extreme boundaries of which light passes over into darkness ;

64 THE BOOK OF JOB.

—he celebrates all this as proof of the creative might of
God. Then he describes the sovereign power of God in the
realm of His creation, how He shakes the pillars of heaven,
rouses the sea, breaks the monster in pieces, lights up the
heavens by chasing away the clouds and piercing the ser-
pent, and thus setting free the sun. But all these—thus he
closes—are only meagre outlines of the divine rule, only a
faint whisper, which is heard by us as coming from the far
distance. Who has the comprehension necessary to take in
and speak exhaustively of all the wonders of His infinite
nature, which extends throughout the whole creation? From
such a profound recognition and so glorious a description of
the exaltation of God, the infinite distance between God and
man is most clearly proved. Job has adequately shown that
his whole soul is full of that which Bildad is anxious to
teach him; a soul that only requires a slight impulse to
make it overflow with such praise of God, as is not wanting
in an universal perception of God, nor is it full of wicked
devices. When therefore Bildad maintains against Job that
no man is righteous before such an exalted God, Job ought
indeed to take it as a warning against such unbecoming
utterances concerning God as those which have escaped him ;
but the universal sinfulness of man is no ground of explana-
tion for his sufferings, for there is a righteousness which
avails before God; and of this, Job, the suffering servant of
God, has a consciousness that cannot be shaken.

CHAP. XXVIL. 2-7. 65

THIRD PART.—THE TRANSITION TO THE UNRAVELMENT.
CHAP. XXVII.—XXXI.

Job's Final Speech to the Friends—Chap. xxvii. xxviii.
Schema: 12. 10. 12. 10. | 10. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 10.

[Then Job continued to take up his proverb, and said :]
2 As God liveth, who hath deprived me of my right,
And the Alinighty, who hath sorely saddened my soul —
3 For still all my breath is in me,
And the breath of Kloah in my nostrils—
4 My lips do not speak what is false,
And my tongue uttereth not deceit !
5 Far be it from me, to grant that you are in the right :
Till I die [ will not remove my innocence from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go:
My heart reproacheth not any of my days.
7 Mine enemy must appear as an evil-doer,
And he who riseth wp against me as unrighteous.

The friends are silent, Job remains master of the dis-
course, and his continued speech is introduced as a continued
iovin my (after the analogy of the phrase ‘p xiv), as in
Num. xxiii. 7 and further on, the oracles-of Balaam. bin is
speech of a more elevated tone and more figurative cha-
racter; here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth of an
elevated solemn mood. The introduction of the ultimatum,
as 5vip, reminds one of “the proverb (el-methel) seals it” in
the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary
to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a
speech.

Job begins with an asseveration of his truthfulness (ie.

VOL. II. E

66 THE BOOK OF JOB,

the agreement of his confession with his consciousness) by
the life of God. From this oath, which in the form bi-hajat
alléh has become later on a common formula of assurance,
R. Josua, in his tractate Sota, infers that Job served God
from love to Him, for we only swear by the life of that which
we honour and love; it is more natural to conclude that the
God by whom, on the one hand, he believes himself to be so
unjustly treated, still appears to him, on the other hand, to
be the highest manifestation of truth. The interjectional
clause: living is God! is equivalent to, as true as God liveth.
That which is affirmed is not what immediately follows: He
has set aside my right, and the Almighty has sorely grieved
my soul (Raschi) ; but ‘wavin Won and ‘v9 1n are attributive
clauses, by which what is denied in the form of an oath intro-
duced by O8 (as Gen. xlii. 15, 1 Sam. xiv. 45, 2 Sam. xi. 11,
Ges. § 155, 2, 7) is contained in ver. 4; his special reference
to the false semblance of an evil-doer shows that semblance
which suffering casts upon him, but which he constantly
repudiates as surely not lying, as that God liveth. Among
moderns, Schlottm. (comp. Ges. § 150, 3), like most of the
old expositors, translates: so long as my breath is in me,.. .
my lips shall speak no wrong, so that vers. 3 and 4 together
_contain what is affirmed. But (1) °2 indeed sometimes intro-
duces that which shall happen as affirmed by oath, Jer. xxii. 5,
xlix. 13; but here that which shall not take place is affirmed,
which would be introduced first in a general form by *3
explic. s. recitativum, then according to its special negative
contents by D08,—a construction which is perhaps possible
according to syntax, but it is nevertheless perplexing; (2) it
may perhaps be thought that “the whole continuance of my
breath in me” is conceived as accusative and adverbial, and is
equivalent to, so long as my breath may remain in me (iP b9,
as long as ever, like the Arab. cullama, as often as ever) ; but
the usage of the language does not favour this explanation,

CHAP. XXVII. 2-7. 67

for 2 Sam. i. 9, ‘2 w52 ny-b2, signifies my whole soul (my full
life) is still in me; and we have a third instance of this pro-
minently placed 53 per hypallagen in Hos. xiv. 3, py xbn-So,
omnem auferas iniquitatem, Ew. § 289, a (comp. Ges. § 114,
rem. 1). Accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., Hahn, and most
modern expositors, we take ver. 3 as a parenthetical confir-
matory clause, by which Job gives the ground of his solemn
affirmation that he is still in possession of his full conscious-
ness, and cannot help feeling and expressing the contradiction
between his lot of suffering, which brands him as an evil-doer,
and his moral integrity. The ‘n2v/2 which precedes the mn
signifies, according to the prevailing usage of the language,
the intellectual, and therefore self-conscious, soul of man
(Psychol. S. 76f). This is in man and in his nostrils, inas-
much as the breath which passes in and out by these is the
outward and visible form of its being, which is in every re-
spect the condition of life (cb. S. 82f.). The suff. of snows
is unaccented; on account of the word which follows being
a monosyllable, the tone has retreated (INN 4D), to use a
technical grammatical expression), as e.g. also in ch. xix. 25,
xx. 2, Ps. xxii. 20. Because he lives, and, living, cannot
deny his own existence, he swears that his own testimony,
which is suspected by the friends, and on account of which
they charge him with falsehood, is perfect truth.

Ver. 4 is not to be translated: “my lips shall never speak
_ what is false;” for it is not a resolve which Job thus strongly
makes, after the manner of a vow, but the agreement of his
confession, which he has now so frequently made, and which
remains unalterable, with the abiding fact. . Far be from me
—he continues in ver. 5—to admit that you are right (> no*on
with unaccented ah, not of the fem., comp. ch. xxxiv. 10, but
of direction: for a profanation to me, i.e. let it be profane to
me, Ew. § 329, a, Arab. hdéshé li, in a like sense); until I
expire (prop.: sink together), I will not put my innocence

68 THE BOOK OF JOB.

(NM, perfection, in the sense of purity of character) away
from me, i.e. I will not cease from asserting it. I will hold
fast (as ever) my righteousness, and leave it not, i.e. let it
not go or fall away; my heart does not reproach even one of
my days. ‘D"2 is virtually an obj. in a partitive sense: mon
cour ne me reproche pas un seul de mes jours (Renan). The
heart is used here as the seat of the conscience, which is the
knowledge possessed by the heart, by which it excuses or ac-
cuses a man (Psychol. S. 134); 424 (whence 477, the season
in which the fruits are gathered) signifies carpere, to pluck =
to pinch, lash, inveigh against. Jos. Kimchi and Ralbag
explain: my heart draws not back (from the confession of
my innocence) my whole life long (as Maimonides explains
npn, Lev. xix. 20, of the female slave who is inclined to,
i.e. stands near to, the position of a free woman), by compari-

” os Ae ap. 7

son with the Arabic pw) deflectere ; it is not, however,

wi >> but 3s, decenpere, that is to be compared in the
tropical sense of the prevailing usage of the Hebrew speci-
fied. The old expositors were all misled by the misunder-
stood partitive ‘2, which they translated ea (= inde a) diebus
meis. There is in ver. 7 no ground for taking ‘), with
Hahn, as a strong affirmative, as supposed in ch. xviil. 12,
and not as expressive of desire; but the meaning is not: let
my opponents be evil-doers, I at least am not one (Hirz.).
The voluntative expresses far more emotion: the relation
must be reversed; he who will brand me as an evil-doer,
must by that very act brand himself as such, inasmuch as:
the yw of a py really shows himself to be a yuh, and by
recklessly judging the righteous, is bringing down upon him-
self a like well-merited judgment. The 3 is the so-called
Caph veritatis, since 3, instar, signifies not only similarity, but
also equality. Instead of "2°?, the less manageable, primitive
form, which the poet used in ch. xxii. 20 (comp. vol. i. 440),

CHAP. XXVII. 8-12. 69

and beside which OP (nip, 2 Kings xvi. 7) does not occur in
the book, we here find the more usual form *2>ipn (comp.
ch. xx. 27).?

The description of the misfortune of the ungodly which
now follows, beginning with *2, requires no connecting thought,
as for instance: My enemy must be accounted as ungodly, on
account of his hostility; I abhor ungodliness, for, etc. ; but
that he who regards him as a yw is himself a yun, Job shows
from the fact of the yy having no hope in death, whilst,
when dying, he can give no confident hope of a divine vindi-
cation of his innocence.

8 For what is the hope of the godless, when He cutteth off,
When Eloah taketh away his soul?
9 Will God hear his cry
When distress cometh upon him?
10 Or can he delight himself in the Almighty,
Can he call upon Eloah at all times?
11 J will teach you concerning the hand of God,
I will not conceal the dealings of the Almighty.
12 Behold, ye have all seen it,
Why then do ye cherish foolish notions ?

In comparing himself with the yw, Job is conscious that
he has a God who does not leave him unheard, in whom he
delights himself, and to whom he can at all times draw near ;
as, in fact, Job’s fellowship with God rests upon the freedom
of the most intimate confidence. He is not one of the god-
less; for what is the hope of one who is estranged from God,
when he comes to die? He has no God on whom his hope

1 In Beduin the enemy is called gémdni (vid. supra, on ch. xxiv. 12,

p- 26), a denominative from gdm 92, war, feud ; but gdm has also the
signification of a collective of gémdni, and one can also say: entum wa-

wand gom, you and we are enemies, and béndina gdm, there is war between
us.—WETZST.

70 ‘THE BOOK OF JOB.

might establish itself, to whom it could cling. The old
expositors err in many ways respecting ver. 8, by taking ys3,
abscindere (root 72), in the sense of (opes) corradere (thus
also more recently Rosenm. after the Targ., Syr., and Jer.),
and referring Duh to Mev in the signification tranguillum esse
(thus even Blumenfeld after Ralbag and others). {w5} is
the object to both verbs, and wa3_yyn, abseindere animam, to
cut off the thread of life, is to be explained according to ch.
vi. 9, Isa. xxxviii. 12. wa ndw, extrahere animam (from

now, whence mow \.u, the after-birth, cogn. boys Js. Seis hud,

us, Jut5), is of similar signification, according to another
figure, since the body is conceived of as the sheath (7273,

Dan. vii. 15) of the soul? (comp. e's in the universal signi-

fication evaginare ensem). The fut. apoc. Kal 2&® (= dv) is
therefore in meaning equivalent to the intrans. °*, Deut.
xxvill. 40 (according to Ew. § 235, ¢, obtained from this by
change of vowel), decidere; and Schnurrer’s supposition that
out, like the Arab. (law, is equivalent to bxv* (when God
demands it), or such a violent correction as De Lagarde’s*
(when he is in distress py’, when one demands his soul with a
curse npwa dw), is unnecessary.

The ungodly man, Job goes on to say, has no God to hear
his cry when distress comes upon him; he cannot delight
himself (42YM, pausal form of 322’, the primary form of
ym) in the Almighty; he cannot call upon Eloah at any

1 On the similar idea of the body, as the kosha (sheath) of the soui,
among the Hindus, vid. Psychol. 8. 227.

2 Anm. zur griech. Uebers. der Proverbien (1863), 8. VI. f., where the
first reason given for this improvement of the text is this, that the usual
explanation, according to which Gyr and yya° have the same subj. and
obj. standing after the verb, is altogether contrary to Semitic usage.
But this assertion is groundless, as might be supposed from the very be-

ginning. Thus, e.g. the same obj. is found after two verbs in ch. xx. 19,
and the same subj. and obj. in Neh. iii. 20.

CHAP. XXVII. 8-12. 71

time (i.e. in the manifold circumstances of life under which
we are called to feel the dependence of our nature). Torn
away from God, he cannot be heard, he cannot indeed pray
and find any consolation in God. It is most clearly manifest
here, since Job compares his condition of suffering with that
of an, what comfort, what power of endurance, yea, what
spiritual joy in the midst of suffering (a2ynn, as ch. xxi. 26,
Ps. xxxvii. 4, 11, Isa. lv. 2, lviii. 13 sq.), which must all
remain unknown to the ungodly, he can draw from his
fellowship with God; and seizing the very root of the dis-
tinction between the man who fears God and one who is
utterly godless, his view of the outward appearance of the
misfortune of both becomes changed; and after having
allowed himself hitherto to be driven from one extreme to
another by the friends, as the heat of the controversy gradu-
ally cools down, and as, regaining his independence, he stands
before them as their teacher, he now experiences the truth of
docendo discimus in rich abundance. I will instruct you,
says he, in the hand, z.e. the mode of action, of God (2 just
as in Ps. xxv. 8, 12, xxxii. 8, Prov. iv. 11, of the province
and subject of instruction); I will not conceal "WW~DY Ww,
i.e. according to the sense of the passage: what are the prin-
ciples upon which He acts; for that which is with (BY) any
one is the matter of his consciousness and volition (vd. on
ch. xxiil. 10, p. 10).

Ver. 12a is of the greatest importance in the right inter-
pretation of what follows from ver. 13 onwards. The in-
struction which Job desires to impart to the friends has
reference to the lot of the evil-doer; and when he says:
Behold, ye yourselves have beheld (learnt) it all,—in con-
nection with which it is to be observed that D2?2 DAY does
not signify merely vos omnes, but vosmet ipst omnes,—he
grants to them what he appeared hitherto to deny, that the
lot of the evil-doer, certainly in the rule, although not with-

iz THE BOOK OF JOB.

out exceptions, is such as they have said. The application,
however, which they have made of this abiding fact of ex-
perience, is and remains all the more false: Wherefore then
(t makes the question sharper) are ye vain (blinded) in
vanity (self-delusion), viz. in reference to me, who do not so
completely bear about the characteristic marks of a yw?
The verb 527 signifies to think and act vainly (without
ground or connection), 2 Kings xvii. 15 (comp. éuatrar@Onoar,
* Rom. i. 21); the combination ban 523 is not to be judged of
according to Ges. § 138, rem. 1, as it is also by Ew. § 281, a,
but oan may also be taken as the representative of the gerund,
as e.g. MY, Hab. iii. 9.

In the following strophe Job now begins as Zophar (ch.
xx. 29) concluded. He gives back to the friends the doctrine
they have fully imparted to him. They have held the lot of
the evil-doer before him as a mirror, that he may behold him-
self in it and be astounded; he holds it before them, that
they may perceive how not only his bearing under suffering,
but also the form of his affliction, is of a totally different
kind.

13 This is the lot of the wicked man with God,
And the heritage of the violent which they receive from the
Almighty :
14 Sf his children multiply, it is for the sword,
And his offspring have not bread enough.
15 His survivors shall be buried by the pestilence,
And his widows shall not weep.
16 If he heapeth silver together as dust,
And prepareth garments for himself as mire:
17 He prepareth it, and the righteous clothe themselves,
And the innocent divide the silver among themselves.
18 He hath built as a moth his house,
And as a hut that a watchman setteth up.

CHAP. XXVII. 13—18. 73

We have already had the combination YY DIS for wx
yw in ch. xx. 29; it is a favourite expression in Proverbs,
and reminds one of dv@pwrros odirns in Homer, and avOpwzros
oreipwv, éxyOpos, europos, in the parables Matt. xii. Pszk
(Pasek) stands under yw, to separate the wicked man and
God, as in Prov. xv. 29 (Norzi). ind, exclusively peculiar to
the book of Job in the Old Testament (here and ch. xxix. 21,
xxxviil. 40, xl. 4), is ° rendered capable of an independent
position by means of 19=7nn, le. The sword, famine, and
pestilence are the three punishing powers by which the evil-
doer’s posterity, however numerous it may be, is blotted out ;
these three, 279, 239, and M1), appear also side by side in
Jer. xv. 2; MY, instead of ‘Hint, diris mortibus, is (as also
Jer. xviii. 21) equivalent to 127 in the same trio, Jer. xiv. 12 ;
the plague is personified (as when it is called by an Arabian
poet umm el-farit, the mother of death), and Vavassor cor-
rectly observes: Mors illos sua sepeliet, nihil preeterea honoris
supremt consecuturos. Bottcher (de.inferis, § 72) asserts that
moa can only signify pestilentie tempore, or better, ipso mortis
momento; but since 2 occurs by the passive elsewhere in the
sense of ab or per, e.g. Num. xxxvi. 2, Hos. xiv. 4, it can also
by 72p) denote the efficient cause. Olshausen’s correction
3p’ NP nya, they will not be buried when dead (Jer. xvi. 4),
is still less required; “to be buried by the pestilence” is equi-
valent to, not to be interred with the usual solemnities, but
to be buried as hastily as possible. Ver. 155 (common to
our poet and the psalm of Asaph, Ixxviii. 64, which likewise
belongs to the Salomonic age) is also to be correspondingly
interpreted: the women that he leaves behind do not cele-
brate the usual mourning rites (comp. Gen. xxiii. 2), because
the decreed punishment which, stroke after stroke, deprives
them of husbands and children, prevents all observance of the
customs of mourning, and because the shock stifles the feeling
of pity. The treasure in gold which his avarice has heaped

74 THE BOOK OF JOB.

up, and in garments which his love of display has gathered
together, come into the possession of the righteous and the
innocent, who are spared when these three powers of judgment
sweep away the evil-doer and his family. Dust and dirt (i.
of the streets, myin) are, as in Zech. ix. 3, the emblem of a
great abundance that depreciates even that which is valuable.
The house of the ungodly man, though a palace, is, as the
fate of the fabric shows, as brittle and perishable a thing, 3
and can be as easily destroyed, as the fine spinning of a
moth, WY (according to the Jewish proverb, the brother of the
DD), or even the small case which it makes from remnants of
gnawed articles, and drags about with it; it is like a light
hut, perhaps for the watchman of a vineyard (Isa. i. 8),
which is put together only for the season during which the
grapes are ripening.’

19 He heth down rich, and doeth it not again,
Fe openeth his eyes and—is no more.

20 Terrors take hold of him as a flood ;
By night a tempest stealeth him away.

1 The watchman’s hut, for the protection of the vineyards and melon
and maize fields against thieves, herds, or wild beasts, is now called
either ‘arishe and mantara (71319) if it is only slightly put together

from branches of trees, or chéme (nn) if it is built up high in order that

the watcher may see a great distance. The chéme is the more frequent ;

at harvest it stands in the midst of the threshing-floors (bejddir) of a
district, and it is constructed in the following manner :—Four poles
(‘awamid) are set up so as to form the corners-of a square, the sides of
which are about eight feet in length. Hight feet above the ground, four
cross pieces of wood (‘awérid) are tightly bound to these with cords, on
which planks, if they are to be had, are laid. _ Here is the watcher’s bed,
which consists of a litter. Six or seven feet above this, cross-beams are
again bound to the four poles, on which boughs, or reeds (gasab), or a
mat (hasira, msn) forms a roof (sath, now), from which the chéme
has its name; for the Piel-forms way, oon, and myiy signify, “to be
stretched over anything after the manner of a roof.” Between the roof
and the bed, three sides of the chéme are hung round with a mat, or with

CHAP. XXVII. 19-23. 75

21 The east wind lifteth him up, that he departeth,
And hurleth him forth from his place.

22 God casteth upon him without sparing,
Before His hand he fleeth utterly away.

23 They clap their hands at him,
And hiss him away from his place.

The pointing of the text 4S? x5) is explained by Schnurr.,
Umbr., and Stick.: He goes rich to bed and nothing is taken
as yet, he opens his eyes and nothing more is there; but
if this were the Phegigns intended, it angi at least to have

andlatiods if while nothing is carried away,’ *enhise the ia
instead of the pret., which was to be expected, none the
more tolerable; also }Ds can indeed signify to gather hastily
together, to take away (e.g. Isa. xxxiil. 4), when the connec-
tion favours it, but not here, where the first impression is
that yuh is the subj. both to 4s" sd) and to ws. Béttcher’s
translation, “ He lieth down rich and cannot be displaced,”
gives the words a meaning that is ridiculed by the usage of the
language. On the other hand, 9DS xt can signify: and he

reeds or straw (gashsh, wp) bound together, in order both to keep off the
cold night-winds, and also to keep the thieves in ignorance as to the num-
ber of the watchers. A small ladder, sullem (oD), frequently leads to
the bed-chamber. The space between the ground and this chamber is
closed only on the west side to keep off the hot afternoon sun, for through
the day the watcher sits below with his dog, upon the ground. Here is
also his place of reception, if any passers-by visit him ; for, like the vil-
lage shepherd, the field-watcher has the right of showing a humble hos-
pitality to any acquaintances. When the fruits have been gathered in,

the chéme is removed. The field-watchman is now called ndtér ( gel),
and the verb is natar, 103, ‘‘to keep watch,” instead of which the quadri-
literal néotar, "O43 (from ‘the plur. le, ‘*the watchers ”), has also been

formed. In one part of Syria all these forms are written with ¥ (d)
instead of , and pronounced accordingly. The y} in this passage is

similarly related to the 9193 in Cant. i. 6, viii. 11, 12.—Werzsr.

76 THE BOOK OF JOB.

is not conveyed away (comp. eg. Jer. viii. 2, Ezek. xxix. 5;
but not Isa. lvii. 1, where it signifies to be swept away, and
also not Num. xx. 26, where it signifies to be gathered to the
fathers), and is probably intended to be explained after the
pointing that we have,'as Rosenm. and even Ralbag explain
it: “he is not conveyed away; one opens his eyes, and he is
not;” ‘or even as Schlottm.: “he is not conveyed away; in
one moment he still looks about him, in the next he is no
more ;” but the relation of the two parts of the verse in this
interpretation is unsatisfactory, and the preceding strophe
has already referred to his not being buried. Since, there-
fore, only an unsuitable, and what is more, a badly-expressed
thought, is gained by this reading, it may be that the expres-
. sion should be regarded with Hahn as interrogative: is he
not swept away? . This, however, is only a makeshift, and
therefore we must see whether it may not perhaps be sus-
ceptible of another pointing. Jerome transl.: dives cum dor-
mierit, nihil secum auferet; the thought is not bad, but MN
is wanting, and ND alone does not signify nihil. Better
LXX. (Ital., Syr.): wrovcovos KkoyunOjcerat Kal od mpoc-
Ojcet. This translation follows the form of reading DN’ =
ADI", gives a suitable sense, places both parts of the verse in
the right relation, and accords with the style of the poet
(vid. ch. xx. 9, xl. 5); and accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., and
Hlgst., we decide in favour of this reading: he lieth down to
sleep rich, and he doeth it no more, since in the night he is
removed from life and also from riches by sudden death; or
also: in the morning he openeth his eyes without imagining
it is the last time, for, overwhelmed by sudden death, he
closes them for ever. Vers. 20a and 200 are attached cross-
wise (chiastisch) to this picture of sudden destruction, be it
by night or by day: the terrors of death seize him (sing. fem.
with a plur. subj. following it, according to Ges. § 146, 3)
like a flood (comp. the floods of Belial, Ps. xviii. 5), by night

CHAP. XXVII. 19-23. 77

a whirlwind (53D 47323, as ch. xxi. 18) carrieth him away.
The Syriac and Arabic versions add, as a sort of interpola-
tion: as a fluttering (large white) night-moth,—an addition
which no one can consider beautiful.

Ver. 21 extends the figure of the whirlwind. In Hebrew,
even when the narrative has reference to Egyptian matters
(Gen. xli. 23), the 0°? which comes from the Arabian desert
is the destructive, devastating, and parching wind xa7’
eEoyry.' 72" signifies peribit (ut pereat), as ch. xiv. 20,
xix. 10. Ww’ (comp. 7b, O storm-chased one) is connected
with the accus. of the person pursued, as in Ps. lviii. 10.
The subj. of 7ee, ver. 22, is God, and the verb stands with-
out an obj.: to cast at any one (shoot), as Num. xxxv. 22 (for
the figure, comp. ch. xvi. 13); LXX. correctly: émuppivrer
(whereas ch. xviii. 7, ofddav = w>wom). The gerundive
with 73" lays stress upon the idea of the exertion of flight:
whithersoever he may flee before the hand of God, every
attempt is in vain. The suff. émo, ver. 23a, both according
to the syntax and the matter, may be taken as the plural
suff.; but the fact that 12°82 can be equivalent to 53 (comp.

1 In Syria and Arabia the east wind is no longer called gadim, but exclu-
sively shargija, i.e. the wind that blows from the rising of the sun (shargq).
This wind rarely prevails in summer, occurring then only two or three
days a month on an average ; it is more frequent in the winter and early
‘spring, when, if it continues long, the tender vegetation is parched up,
and a year of famine follows, whence in the Lebanon it is called semim
(31%), which in the present day denotes the ‘‘ poisonous wind” (= nesme
musimme), but originally, by alliance with the Hebr. pypy’, denoted the
“* devastating wind.” The east wind is dry; it excites the blood, con-
tracts the chest, causes restlessness and anxiety, and sleepless nights or
evil dreams. Both man and beast feel weak and sickly while it prevails.
Hence that which is unpleasant and revolting in life is compared to the
east wind. Thusa maid in Hauran, at the sight of one of my Damascus
travelling companions, whose excessive ugliness struck her, cried: billah,

nahdar el-j6m aqshar ( al), wagahetni (. hige -») sharqija, “* by God,

it is an unhealthy day to-day: an east wind blew upon me.” And in a
festive dance song of the Merg district, these words occur: wa rudd

73 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Pera. :7)); inrdy to roy (comp. ch. xx. 23, xxii. 2), as ind is
equivalent to {> (vid. Isa. xliv. 15, liii. 8), is established, and
there is no reason why the same may not be the case here.
The accumulation of the terminations émo and émo gives a
tone of thunder and a gloomy impress to this conclusion of
the description of judgment, as these terminations frequently
occur in the book of Psalms, where moral depravity is
mourned and divine judgment threatened (e.g. in Ps. xvii.
xlix. lviii. lix. lxxiii.). The clapping of hands (0°83 pay=
Pad, Lam. il. 15, comp. YpA, Nah. iii. 19) is a token of
malignant joy, and hissing (P1¥, Zeph. ii. 15, Jer. xlix. 17)
a token of scorn. The expression in ver. 230 is a pregnant
one. Clapping of hands and hissing accompany the evil-
doer when merited punishment overtakes him, and chases
him forth from the place which he hitherto occupied (comp.
ch. viii. 18).

Earlier expositors have thought it exceedingly remarkable
that Job, in ch. xxvii. 18-23, should agree with the assertions
of the three friends concerning the destiny of the ungodly
and his descendants, while he has previously opposed them

li német hodénik | seb’ lejali bi-‘olija | wa berd wa sherd wa sharqija.. .
‘** And grant me again to slumber on thy bosom,

Seven nights in an upper chamber,

And (I will then endure) cold, drifting snow, and east wind.”
During the harvest, so long as the east wind lasts, the corn that is al-
ready threshed and lying on the threshing-floors cannot be winnowed ;
a gentle, moderate draught is required for this process, such as is only
obtained by a west or south wind. The north wind is much too strong,
and the east wind is characterized by constant gusts, which, as the Hau-
ranites say, “‘jocholi tibn wa-habb, carries away chaff and corn.” When
the wind shifts from the west to the east, a whirlwind (zdba‘a, myain

not unfrequently arises, which often in summer does much harm to the
threshing-floors and to the cut corn that is lying in swaths (unless it is
weighted with stones). Storms are rare during an east wind; they
come mostly with a west wind (never with a south or north wind).
But if an east wind does bring a storm, it is generally very destructive,
on account of its strong gusts; and it will even uproot the largest
trees.—W ETZST.

CHAP. XXVII. 19-23. 79

on this point, ch. xii. 6, xxi. xxiv. Kennicott thinks the con-
fusion is cleared away by regarding ch. xxvi. 2—xxvii. 12 as
Job’s answer to the third speech of Bildad, xxvii. 13 sqq. as
the third speech of Zophar, and xxviii. (to which the super-
scription xxvii. 1 belongs) as Job’s reply thereto; but this
reply begins with ‘3, and is specially appropriate as a striking
repartee to the speech of Zophar. Stuhlmann (1804) makes
this third speech of Zophar begin with xxvii. 11, and imagines
a gap between xxvii. 10 and xxvii. 11; but who then are
the persons whom Zophar addresses by “you”? The three
everywhere address themselves to Job, while here Zophar,
contrary to custom, would address himself not to him, but,
according to Stuhlmann’s exposition, to the others with refer-
ence to Job. Ch. xxviii. Stuhlmann removes and _ places
after ch. xxv. as a continuation of Bildad’s speech; Zophar’s
speech therefore remains unanswered, and Zophar may thank
this critic not only for allowing him another opportunity of
speaking, but also for allowing him the last word. Bernstein
(Keil-Tzschirner’s Analekien, Bd. i. St. 3) removes the contra-
diction into which Job seems to fall respecting himself in a
more thorough manner, by rejecting the division ch. xxvii. 7-
xxviii. 28, which is certainly indissolubly connected as a
whole, as a later interpolation; but there is no difference of
language and poetic spirit here betraying an interpolator ;
and had there been one, even he ought indeed to have pro-
ceeded on the assumption that such an insertion should be
appropriate to Job’s mouth, so that the task of proving its
relative fitness, from his standpoint at least, remains. Hosse
(1849) goes still further: he puts ch. xxvii. 10, xxxi. 35-37,
xxxvili. 1, ete., together, and leaves out all that comes between
these passages. There is then no transition whatever from
the entanglement to the unravelment. Job’s final reply, ch.
xxvii. xxviii, with the monologue ch. xxix.—xxxi., in which
even a feeble perception must recognise one of the most

80 THE BOOK OF JOB.

essential and most beautiful portions of the dramatic whole,
forms this transition.

Eichhorn (in his translation of Job, 1824), who formerly
(Allgem. Bibliothek der bibl. Lit. Bd. 2) inclined to Kenni-
cott’s view, and Béckel (2d edition, 1804) seek another ex-
planation of the difficulty, by supposing that in ch. xxvii. 13-23
Job reproduces the view of the friends. But in ver. 11 Job
announces the setting forth of his own view; and the suppo-
sition that with yes oo pon mr he does not begin the enun-
ciation of his own view, but that of his opponents, is refuted
by the consideration that there is nothing by which he
indicates this, and that he would not enter so earnestly into
the description if it were not the feeling of his heart. Feel-
ing the worthlessness of these attempted solutions, De Wette
(Hinleitung, § 288), with his customary spirit of criticism
with which he depreciates the sacred writers, turns against
the poet himself. Certainly, says he, the division ch.
xxvii. 11-xxviii. 28 is inappropriate and self-contradictory
in the mouth of Job; but this want of clearness, not to say
inconsistency, must be brought against the poet, who, despite
his utmost endeavour, has not been able to liberate himself
altogether from the influence of the common doctrine of
retribution.

This judgment is erroneous and unjust. Umbreit (2d
edition, S. 261 [Clark’s edition, 1836, ii. 122]) correctly
remarks, that “without this apparent contradiction in Job’s
speeches, the interchange of words would have been endless ;”
in other words: had Job’s standpoint’ been absolutely im-
moveable, the controversy could not possibly have come to a
well-adjusted decision, which the poet must have planned,
and which he also really brings about, by causing his hero
still to retain an imperturbable consciousness of his innocence,
but also allowing his irritation to subside, and his extreme
harshness to become moderated. The latter, in reference to

CHAP. XXVII. 19-23. 81

the final destiny of the godless, is already indicated in ch.
xxiv., but is still more apparent here in ch. xxvii., and indeed
in the following line of thought: “As truly as God lives,
who afflicts me, the innocent one, I will not incur the guilt of
lying, by allowing myself to be persuaded against my con-
science to regard myself as an evil-doer. I am not an evil-
doer, but my enemy who regards me and treats me as such
must be accounted wicked; for how unlike the hopelessness
and estrangement from God, in which the evil-doer dies, is
my hope and entreaty in the midst of the heaviest affliction!
Yea, indeed, the fate of the -evil-doer is a different one from
mine. I will teach it you; ye have all, indeed, observed it
for yourselves, and nevertheless ye cherish such vain thoughts
concerning me.” What is peculiar in the description that
then follows—a description agreeing in its substance with
that of the three, and similar in its form—is therefore this,
that Job holds up the end of the evil-doer before the friends,
that from it they may infer that he is not an evil-doer, whereas
the friends held it up before Job that he might infer from it
that he is an evil-doer, and only by a penitent acknowledg-
ment of this can he escape the extreme of the punishment he
has merited. Thus in ch. xxvii. Job turns their own weapon
against the friends.

But does he not, by doing so, fall into contradiction with
himself? Yes; and yet not so. The Job who has become
calmer here comes into contradiction with the impassioned
Job who had, without modification, placed the exceptional
cases in opposition to the exclusive assertion that the evil-
doer comes to a fearful end, which the friends advance, as if
it were the rule that the prosperity of the evil-doer continues
uninterrupted to the very end of his days. But Job does
not come into collision with his true view. For how could
he deny that in the rule the retributive justice of God is
manifest in the case of the evil-doer! We can only perceive.

VOL. II. F

82. THE BOOK OF JOB.

his true opinion when we compare the views he here expresses
with his earlier extreme antitheses: hitherto, in the heat of
the controversy, he has opposed that which the friends one-
sidedly maintained by the direct opposite; now he has got
upon the right track of thought, in which the fate of the
evil-doer presents itself to him from another and hitherto
mistaken side,—a phase which is also but imperfectly appre-
ciated in ch. xxiv.; so that now at last he involuntarily does
justice to what truth there is in the assertion of his opponent.
Nevertheless, it is not Job’s intention to correct himself here,
and to make an admission to the friends which has hitherto
been refused. MHirzel’s explanation of this part inclines too
much to this erroneous standpoint. On the contrary, our
rendering accords with that of Ewald, who observes (S. 252 f.
2d edition, 1854) that Job here maintains in his own favour,
and against them, what the friends directed against him, since
the hope of not experiencing such an evil-doer’s fate becomes
strong in him: “Job is here on the right track for more
confidently anticipating his own rescue, or, what is the same
thing, the impossibility of his perishing just as if he were an
evil-doer.” Moreover, how well designed is it that the deserip-
tion vers. 13 sqq. is put into Job’s mouth! While the poet
allows the friends designedly to interweave lines taken from
Job’s misfortunes into their descriptions of the evil-doer’s
fate, in Job’s description not one single line is found which
coincides with his own lot, whether with that which he has
already experienced, or even with that which his faith pre-.
sents to him as in prospect. And although the heavy lot
which has befallen him looks like the punitive suffering of
the evil-doer, he cannot acknowledge it as such, and even
denies its bearing the marks of such a character, since even
in the midst of affliction he clings to God, and confidently
hopes for His vindication. With this rendering of ch.
xxvii. 18 sqq. all doubts of its genuineness, which is indeed.

CHAP. XXVII. 19-23. 83

admitted by all modern expositors, vanish; and, far from
charging the poet with inconsistency, one is led to admire
the undiminished skill with which he brings the idea of the
drama by concealed ways to its goal.

But the question still comes up, whether ch. xxviii. 1, open-
ing with *3, does not militate against this genuineness. Hirzel
and others observe, that this ‘3 introduces the confirmation of
ch. xxvii. 126: “But wherefore then do ye cherish such vain
imaginations concerning me? For human sagacity and perse-
verance can accomplish much, but the depths of divine wisdom
are impenetrable to man.” But how is it possible that the %5,
ch. xxviii. 1, should introduce the confirmation of ch. xxvii. 120,
passing over ch. xxvii. 13-23? If it cannot be explained in
any other way, it appears that ch. xxvii. 13-23 must be re-
jected. There is the same difficulty in comprehending it by
supplying some suppressed thought, as e.g. Ewald explains it:
For, as there may also be much in the divine dealings that is
dark, ete.; and Hahn: Because evil-doers perish according
to their desert, it does not necessarily follow that every one
who perishes is an evil-doer, and that every prosperous per-
son is godly, for—the wisdom of God is unsearchable. This
mode of explanation, which supposes, between the close of
ch. xxvii. and the beginning of ch. xxviii., what is not found
there, is manifestly forced; and in comparison with it, it
would be preferable, with Stickel, to translate ‘2 “ because,”
and take ch. xxviii. 1, 2 as the antecedent to ver. 3. Then
after ch. xxvii. a dash might be made; but this dash would in-
dicate an ugly blank, which would be no honour to the poet.
Schlottmann explains it more satisfactorily. He takes ch.
xxvii. 13 sqq. as a warning addressed to the friends, lest they
bring down upon themselves, by their unjust judgment, the evil-
doer’s punishment which they have so often proclaimed. If
this rendering of ch. xxvii. 13 sqq. were correct, the description
of the fate of the evil-doer would be influenced by an under-

84 THE BOOK OF JOB.

lying thought, to which the following statement of the exalted
nature of the divine wisdom would be suitably connected as
a confirmation. We cannot, however, consider this rendering
as correct. The picture ought to have been differently drawn,
if it had been designed to serve as a warning to the friends.

It has a different design. Job depicts the revelation of the
divine justice which is exhibited in the issue of the life of the
evil-doer, to teach the friends that they judge him and his lot
falsely. To this description of punishment, which is intended
thus and not otherwise, ch. xxviii. with its confirmatory %3
must be rightly connected. If this were not feasible, one would
be disposed, with Pareau, to alter the position of ch. xxviii.,
as if it were removed from its right place, and put it after
ch. xxvi. But we are cautioned against such a violent mea-
sure, by the consideration that it is not evident from ch. xxvi.
why the course of thought in ch. xxviil., which begins with
‘>, should assume the exact form in which we find it; whereas,
on the other hand, it was said in ch. xxvil. that the ungodly
heaps up silver, 403, like dust, but that the innocent who live
to see his fall divide this silver, }D5, among themselves; so
that when in ch. xxviii. 1 it continues: xyv> 9025 vw 2, there
is a connection of thought for which the way has been pre-
viously prepared.

If we further take into consideration the fact of ch. xxviii.
being only an amplification of the one closing thought to
which everything tends, viz. that the fear of God is man’s
true wisdom, then ch. xxviii. also in reference to this its
special point, is suitably attached to the description of the
evil-doer’s fate, ch. xxvii. 13 sqq. The miserable end of the
ungodly is confirmed by this, that the wisdom of man, which
he has despised, consists in the fear of God; and Job there-
by at the same time attains the special aim of his teaching,
which is announced at ch. xxvii. 11 by Sx“h2 pons mn:
viz. he has at the same time proved that he who retains the

CHAP. XXVII. 19-23. 85

fear of God in the midst of his sufferings, though those suffer-
ings are an insoluble mystery, cannot be a yw. This design
of the confirmation, and that connection of thought, which
should be well noted, prove that ch. xxviii. stands in its original
position. And if we ponder the fact, that Job has depicted
the ungodly as a covetous rich man who is snatched away by
sudden death from his immense possession of silver and other
costly treasures, we see that ch. xxviii. confirms the preceding
picture of punitive judgment in the following manner: silver
and other precious metals come out of the earth, but wisdom,
whose value exceeds all these earthly treasures, is to be found
nowhere within the province of the creature; God alone pos-
sesses it, and from God alone it comes; and so as man can
and is to attain to it, it consists in the fear of the Lorn, and
the forsaking of evil. This is the close connection of ch.
Xxvili. with what immediately precedes, which most expositors
since Schultens have missed, by transferring the central point
to the unsearchableness of the divine wisdom which rules in
the world ; whereas Bouiller correctly observes that the whole
of ch. xxviii. treats not so much of the wisdom of God as of
the wisdom of man, which God, the sole possessor of wisdom,
imparts to him: omnibus divitiis, fluwis et evanidis illis possessio
preponderat sapientic, que in pio Dei cultu et fuga mali est
posita. The view of von Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, i. 96, 2d
edit.) accords with this: “If ch. xxviii. 1, where a confirmatory
or explanatory ‘> forms the transition, is taken together with
xxviii. 12, where another part of the speech is introduced with
a Waw, and finally with ch. xxviii. 28, where this is rounded
off, as forming the unity of one thought: it thus proves that
the final destruction of the godless, who is happy and prosper-
ous in worldly things, is explained by the fact that man can
obtain every kind of hidden riches by his own exertion and
courage, but not the wisdom which is not indigenous to this
outward world, but is known to God alone, and is to be learned

86 THE BOOK OF JOB.

from Him only; and the teaching concerning it is: behold,
the fear of God, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is
understanding.” |

Before we now pass on to the detailed exposition of ch.
XXVill.. we may perhaps here, without anticipating, put the
question, Whence has the poet obtained the knowledge of
the different modes of mining operations which is displayed
in ch. xxviii. 1 sqq., and which has every appearance of being
the result of personal observation? Since, as we have often
remarked already, he is well acquainted with Egypt, it is most
natural that he derived this his knowledge from Egypt and
the Sinaitic peninsula.. The ruins of mines found there show
that the Sinaitic peninsula has been worked as a mining
district from the earliest times. The first of these mining
districts is the Wadi Nasb, where Lepsius (Briefe, S. 338)
found traces of old smelting-places, and where also Graul
and his companions, having their attention drawn to it by
Wilkinson’s work, searched for the remains of a mine, and
found at least traces of copper slag, but could see nothing
more (Reise, ii. 202). EE. Riippell explored the spot at the
desire of the Viceroy Mehemed Ali, and Russegger with less
successful result (vid. the particulars in Ritter’s Lrdkunde,
xiv. 784-788). A second mining district is denoted by the
ruins of a temple of Hathor, on the steep terrace of the rising

1 The valley is not called Wadi nahas (Copper valley), which is only

a supposition of Riippell, but Wadi nasb, 2), which, according to

Reinaud, signifies valley of statues or columns. Thirty hours’ journey
from Suez, says a connoisseur in the Historisch-politische Blitter, 1863,
8. 802 f., lies the Wadi nesb [a pronunciation which assumes the form
of writing W-wW]; it is rare that the ore is so easy to get, and found
in such abundance, for the blocks containing the copper are in many
places 200 feet in diameter, and the ore is almost in a pure state. The
mineral (the black earth containing the copper) abounds in the metal.
. . . . Besides this, iron-ore, manganese, carbonate of lead, and also the
exceeding precious cinnabar, have been discovered on Sinai.

CHAP. XXVIII. 87

' ground Sarbut (Serdbit) el-chdédim, which stretches out into
a spacious valley. This field of ruins, with its many lofty
columns within the still recognisable area of a temple, and
round about it, gives the impression of a large burying-ground,
and it is deseribed and represented as such by Carsten Niebuhr
(Reise, 235, Tafel xliv.). In February 1854, Graul (Reise,
ii. 203) and Tischendorf spent a short time upon this eminence
of the desert, which is hard to climb, and abounds in monu-
ments. It produced a strong impression upon us—says the
latter (Aus dem heiligen Lande, S. 85)—as we tarried in the ~
midst of the grotesque forms of these monuments, while the
setting sun cast its deep red gleam over the wild terrific
looking copper rocks that lay around in their varied shades,
now light, now dark. That these copper rocks were worked
in ancient days, is proved by the large black heaps of. slag
which Lepsius (Briefe, S. 338) discovered to the east and
west of the temple. Moreover, in the inscriptions Hathor
bears the by-name “Queen of Mafkat,” i.e. the copper country
(mafka, copper, with the feminine post-positive article ¢). It
even bears this name on the monuments in the Wadi maghdra,
one of the side-gorges of the Wadi mucatteb (i.e. the Written
Valley, valley full of inscriptions). These signs of another
ancient mining colony belong almost entirely to the earliest
Egyptian antiquity, while those on Sarbut el-chddim extend
back only to Amenemha 111., consequently to the last dynasty
of the old kingdom. Even the second king of the fifth
dynasty, Snefru, and indeed his predecessor (according to
Lepsius, his successor) Chufu—that: Xéowr who built the
largest pyramid—appear here as conquerors of foreign peoples,
and the mountainous district dedicated to Hathor is also
called Mafka't. The remains of a mine, discovered by J.
Wilson, at the eastern end of the north side of the Wad
mucatteb, also belongs to this copper country: they lie near
the road, but in back gorges; there is a very high wall of

88 THE BOOK OF JOB.

rock of granite or porphyry, which is penetrated by dark
seams of metal, which have been worked out from above

downwards, thus forming artificial caverns, pits, and shafts;

and it may be inferred that the yield of ore was very abun-

dant, and, from the simplicity of the manner of working, that

it is of very great antiquity. This art of mining thus laid

open, as Ritter says," furnishes the most important explana-

tion of Job’s remarkable description of mining operations.

As to Egypt itself, it has but few places where iron-ore
was obtained, and it was not very plentiful, as iron occurs
much more rarely than bronze on the tombs, although Wil-
kinson has observed important copper mines almost as exten-
sive as the copper country of Sinai: we only, however, possess
more exact information concerning the gold mines on the
borders of Upper Egypt. Agatharchides mentions them in
his Periplus; and Diodorus (iii. 11 sqq.) gives a minute
description of them, from which it is evident that mining in
those days was much the same as it was with us about a
hundred years ago: we recognise in it the day and night
relays, the structure of shafts, the crushing and washing
apparatus, and the smelting-place.” There are the gold mines
of Nubia, the name of which signifies the gold country, for
NOYB is the old Egyptian name for gold. From the time
of Sethoshi 1., the father of Sesoséris, we still possess the plan
of a gold mine, which Birch (Upon a historical tablet of
Rameses 11. of the x1x. dynasty, relating to the gold mines
of Althiopia) has first of all correctly determined. More-
over, on monuments of all ages frequent mention is made of
other metals (silver, iron, lead), as of precious stones, with
which e.g. harps were ornamented; the diamond can also be

1 In the essay on the Sinaitic peninsula in Piper’s Ev. Jahrbuch, 1852.
The mining district that J. Wilson saw (1843-44) is not one that was
unknown up to that time, but one of the places of the Wadi maghdra
recognised as favouring the ancient Egyptian system of excavation.

2 Thus Klemm, Allgem. Cultur-Geschichie, v. 304.

CHAP. XXVIII. 89

traced. In the Papyrus Prisse, which Chabas has worked
up under the title Le plus ancien livre du monde, Phtha-hotep,
the author of this moral tractate, iv. 14, says: “Esteem my
good word more highly than the (green) emerald, which is
found by slaves under the pebbles.”* The emerald-hills
near Berenice produced the emerald.

But if the scene of the book of Job is to be sought in
-Idumezea proper (‘Gebal) or in Hauran, there were certainly
mines that were nearer than the Egyptian. In Phunon
(Phinon), between Petra and Zoar, there were pits from
which copper (xyadxod pétadra, ris metalla) was obtained
even to the time of Moses, as may be inferred from the fact
of Moses having erected the brazen serpent there (Num.
xxi. 9 sq., comp. xxxili. 42 sq.), and whither, during the per-
secutions of the Christians in the time of the emperors, many
witnesses for the faith were banished, that they might fall
victims.to the destructive labour of pit life (Athanasius ex-
travagantly says: e&0a Kab doveds Kxatadicatopevos ddtyas
Huépas poys Sivarat Goa)” But Edrisi also knew of gold
and silver mines in the mountains of Edom, the ‘Gebel esh-
Shera (3\,2))), i.e. VYY 3. According to the Onomasticon,
amt "1, Deut. i. 1 (UX X. xataypicea), indicates such gold
mines in Arabia Petreea; and Jerome (under Cata ta
chrysea*) observes on that passage: sed et metallo eris
Pheno, quod nostro tempore corruit, montes venarum aurt
plenos olim fuisse vicinos ewxistimant. EKupolemus’ account

(in Euseb. prep. ix. 380) of an island Odpdi, rich in gold, in

1 According to a contribution from Prof. Lauth of Munich.

2 Vid. Genesis, 8. 512; Ritter, Erdkunde, xiv. 125-127; as also my
Kirchliches Chronikon des petriiischen Arabiens in the Luth. Zeitschr.
1840, 8. 133.

3 Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 183. The text of Eusebius is to be amended
according to that of Jerome; vid. Ugolini, Thes. vol. v. col. cxix. sq.
What Ritter says, Erdkunde, xiv. 127, is disfigured by mischievous mis-
takes.

90 THE BOOK OF JOB.

the Red Sea, does not belong here; for by the red sea, épvOpa
Oéracca,' it is not the Arabian Gulf that is meant; and the
reference of the name of the range of hills Telil ed-dhahab
in ancient Gilead to gold mines rests only on hearsay up to
the present time. But it is all the more worthy of mention
that traces of former copper mines are still found on the
Lebanon (vid. Knobel on Deut. viii. 9); that Edrisi (Syria,
ed. Rosenm. p. 12) was acquainted with the existence of a
rich iron mine near Beirut; and that, even in the present
day, the Jews who dwell in Deir el-kamar, on the Lebanon,
work the iron on leases, and especially forge horse-shoes from
it, which are sent all over Palestine.’

The poet of the book of Job might therefore have learned
mining in its diversified modes of operation from his own
observation, both in the kingdom of Egypt, which he had
doubtless visited, and also in Arabia Petreea and in the
Lebanon districts, so as to be able to put a description of
them into the mouth of his hero. It is unnecessary, with
Stickel, to give the preference to the mining of Arabia proper,
where iron and lead are still obtained, and where, according
to ancient testimony, even gold is said to have been worked
at onetime. “Since he places his hero in the country east of
Jordan, the poet may in ver. 2 have thought chiefly of the mines
of the Iron mountain (76 o1dypodv Kadovpevovr pos, Jos. Bell.
iv. 8, 2), which is also called the ‘cross mountain,’ el-mi‘réd,
because it runs from west to east, while the ‘Gebel “Aglin
stretches from north to south. It lies between the gorges of
the Wadi Zerkaé and Wéddi ‘Arabén, begins at the mouths of
the two Wddis in the Ghér, and ends in the east with a pre-
cipitous descent towards the town of Gerash, which from its

1 On the meaning of this appellation, vid. Genesis, 8. 630.

2 Schwarz, Das h. Land (1852), 8. 323. The Egyptian monuments
mention a district by the name of Asj, which paid native iron as tribute ;
vid. Brugsch, Geogr. der Nachbarlinder Azgyptens, §. 52.

CHAP, XXVIII. 91

height, and being seen from afar, is called the Negde (7722).
The ancient worked-out iron mines lie on the south declivity
of the mountain south-west of the village of Burmd, and
about six miles from the level bed of the Wadi Zerkd. The
material is a brittle, red, brown, and violet sandstone, which
has a strong addition of iron. It also contains here and there
a large number of small shells, where it is then considerably
harder. Of these ancient mines, some which were known in
Syria under the name of the ‘rose mines, ma‘ddin.el-ward,
were worked by Ibrahim Pasha from 1835 till 1839; but
when, in 1840, Syria reverted to Turkey, this mining, which
had been carried on with great success, because there was an
abundance of wood for the smelting furnaces, ceased. A
large forest, without a proprietor, covers the back and the
whole north side of this mountain down to the bed of the
Wadi ‘Arabiin; and as no tree has been eut down in it for
centuries, the thicket, with the fallen and decaying stems,
gives one an idea of a primeval forest. We passed through
the forest from Kefrengi to Burmdé in June 1860. Except
North Gilead, in which the Iron mountain is situated, no
other province of Basan admits of a mine; they are exclu-
sively volcanic, their mountains are slag, lava, and basalt;
and probably the last-mentioned kind of stone owes its name
to the word Bacddris, the secondary form of Bacdvtis

(= Basan).”—WeEtzsr.

Ch. xxviii. 1 Lor there is a mine for the silver,

And a place for gold which they fine.

2 Iron is taken out of the dust,
And he poureth forth stone as copper.

3 He hath made an end of darkness,
And he searcheth all extremities
For the stone of darkness and of the shadow of

death.

92 THE BOOK OF JOB.

4 He breaketh away a shaft from those who tarry above :
There, forgotten by every foot,
They hang and swing far from men."

According to the most natural connection demonstrated by
us, Job desires to show that the final lot of the rich man is
well merited, because the treasures which he made the object
of his avarice and pride, though ever so costly, are still
earthy in their nature and origin. Therefore he begins with
the most precious metals, with silver, which has the preced-
ence in reference to ch. xxvii. 16 sq., and with gold. yin
without any secondary notion of fulness (Schultens) signifies
the issuing place, i.e. the place from which anything naturally
comes forth (ch. xxxviii. 27), or whence it is obtained (1 Kings
x. 28); here in the latter sense of the place where a mineral
is found, or the mine, as the parall. Dip2, the place where the
gold comes forth, therefore a gold mine. According to the
accentuation (Rebia mugrasch, Mercha, Silluk), it is not to be
translated: and a place for the gold where they refine it; but:
a place for the gold which they refine. ?, to strain, filter,
is the technical expression for purifying the precious metals
from the rock that is mingled with them (Mal. iii. 3) by
washing. The pure gold or silver thus obtained is called
ppm (Ps. xii. 7; 1 Chron. xxviii. 18, xxix. 4). Diodorus, in
his description of mining in Upper Egypt (iii. 11 sqq.), after
having described the operation of crushing the stone to small

1 Among the expositors of this and the two following strophes, are two
acquainted with mining: The director of mines, von Veltheim, whose
observations J. D. Michaelis has contributed in the Orient. u. eweg.
Bibliothek, xxiii. 7-17; ana the inspector of mines, Rudolf Nasse, in
Studien und Krit. 1863, 105-111. Umbreit’s Commentary contains some
observations by von Leonhard ; he understands ver. 4c as referring to
the descent upon a cross bar attached to a rope, ver. 5b of the lighting
up by burning poles, ver. 6 of the lapis lazuli, and ver. 10a of the earliest
mode of ‘ letting off the water.”

CHAP. XXVIII. 1-4. 93

fragments,' proceeds: “ Then artificers take the crushed stone
and lay it on a broad table, which is slightly inclined, and
pour water over it; this washes away the earthy parts, and
the gold remains on the slab. This operation is repeated
several times, the mass being at first gently rubbed with the
hand; then they press it lightly with thin sponges, and thus
draw off all that is earthy and light, so that the gold dust is
left quite clean. And, finally, other artificers take it up in
a mass, shake it in an earthen crucible, and add a proportion-
ate quantity of lead, grains of salt, and a little tin and barley
bran; they then place a close-fitting cover over the crucible,
and cement it with clay, and leave it five days and nights to
seethe constantly in the furnace. After this they allow it to
cool, and then finding nothing of the flux in the crucible,
they take the pure gold out with only slight diminution.”
The expression for the first of these operations, the separa-
tion of the gold from the quartz by washing, or indeed sift-
ing (straining, Seihen), is P2t; and for the other, the separation
by exposure to heat, or smelting, is 47%. )
Ver. 2. From the mention of silver and gold, the descrip-
tion passes on to iron and ore (copper, cuprum = ces Cyprium).
Tron is called ona, not with the noun-ending eé/ like 213 (thus
Ges., Olsh., and others), but probably expanded from 23
(Fiirst), like 21Y from b’aY = DIY, 71°BD from VED, Bad-
camov from D2, since, as Pliny testifies, the name of basalt
(iron-marble) and iron are related,” and copper is called nvn),

} Vid. the whole account skilfully translated in Klemm’s Allgem.
Cultur-Geschichte, v. 503 f.

* Hist. nat. xxxvi. 7,11: Invenit eadem Acgyptus in ASthiopia quem
vocant basalten (basaniten) ferret coloris atque duritix, unde et nomen et
dedit (vid. von Raumer, Paliistina, S. 96, 4th edition). Neither Seetzen
nor Wetzstein has found proper iron-ore in Basan. Basalt is all the more
prevalent there, from which Basan may have its name. For there is no

special Semitic word for basalt ; Bocthor calls in the aid of os ~) ey.
Spl, ‘a kind of black marble;” but, as Wetzstein informs me, this is

94 THE BOOK OF JOB.

for which the book of Job (ch. xx. 24, xxviii. 2, xl. 18, xli. 19;
comp. even Lev. xxvi. 19) always has "YN (ereum = es,
Arab. nuhds). Of the iron it is said that it is procured from
the “5Y, by which the bowels of the earth are meant here, as
the surface of the earth in ch. xli. 25; and of copper it is
said that they pour out the stone into copper (vid. Ges.
§ 139, 2), 2.e. smelt copper from it: Pi¥) as ch. xxix. 6, fundit,
here with a subj. of the most general kind: one pours; on
the contrary, ch. xli. 15 sq. partic. of Ps. Ver. 3 distinctly
shows that it is the bowels of the earth from which these
metals are obtained: he (man) has made an end of the dark-

ness, since he turns out and lights up the lightless interior

of the earth; and mP3A722?, to every extremity, z.¢. to the
remotest depths, he searches out the stone of deep darkness
and of the shadow of death, i.e. hidden in the deepest dark-
ness, far beneath the surface of the earth (vid. on ch. x. 22;

only a translation of the phrase of a French dictionary which he had, for
the general name of basalt, at least in Syria, is hagar aswad (black stone),
Iron is called hadid in Arabic (literally a pointed instrument, with the ©
not infrequent transference of the name of the tool to the material from
which it is made). Sma (Smp) is known. in Arabic only in the form
Sfirzil, as the name for iron chains and great smith’s shears for cutting
iron ; but itis remarkable that in Berber, which is related to Egyptian,
iron 5 called even in the present day wazzal; vid. Lex. geographicum ed.
Juynboll, tom. iv. (adnot.) p. 64, 1.16, and Marcel, Vocabulaire Frangais-

arabe de dialectes vulgaires africains, p. 249: ‘* Fer Md>, hadyd (en

berbere Ab ouezzal ; my 1s, douzzal).” The Coptic name of iron is
benipi (dialect. plied, according to Prof. Lauth perhaps, as also bardét,

ore, connected with ba, the hieroglyph name of a very hard mineral ; the
black basalt of an obelisk in the British Museum is called bechenen ™ the
inscription. If it really be so, that iron and basalt are homonymous in
Semitic, the reason could only be sought for in the dark iron-black colour
of basalt, in its hardness, and perhaps also its weight (which, however,
is only about half the specific gravity of pure iron), not in the magnetic
iron, which has only in more modern times been discovered to be a sub-
stantial component part of basalt, the grains of which cannot be seen by
the naked eye, and are only detected with the magnetic needle, or by
chemical analysis.

CHAP. XXVIII. 1-4, 95

and comp. Pliny, h. n. xxxiii. proem. of mining: imus in
viscera ejus [terra] et in sede Manium opes querimus). Most
expositors (Hirz., Ew., Hahn, Schlottm., and others) take
mban-5a6 adverbially, “to the utmost” or “most closely,” but
vid. on ch. xxvi. 10; mand might be used thus adverbially,
but man-52$ is to be explained according to moa, Ezek.
v. 10 (to all the winds).

Ver. 4. Job now describes the operation of mining more
minutely ; and it is worthy of observation that the last-men-
tioned metal, with which the description is closely connected,
‘is copper. bm), which signifies elsewhere a valley, the bed of

a river, and the river itself, like the Arab. ol, (not from om3

= bn), to flow on, as Ges. Thes. and Fiirst, but from bm), root
bm to hollow, whence npn = dn, a flute, as being a hollowed
musical instrument), signifies here the excavation made in
the earth, and in fact, as what follows shows, in a perpen-
dicular direction, therefore the shaft. NNasse contends for
the signification “valley,” by which one might very well con-
ceive of “the working of a surface vein:” ‘By this mode of
working, a small shaft is made in the vein (consequently in
a perpendicular direction), and the ore is worked from both
sides at once. At a short distance from the first shaft a
second is formed, and worked in the same way. Since thus
the work progresses lengthwise, a cutting becomes formed in
the mountain which may well be compared to a deep valley,
if, as is generally the case where the stone is firm and the
ways are almost perpendicular, the space that is hewn out
remains open (that is, not broken in or filled in).” But if
bn) everywhere else denotes a valley with its watercourse, it
has not necessarily a like signification in mining technology.
It signifies, perhaps not without reference to its usual signi-
fication, the shafts open above and surrounded by walls of
rock (in distinction from the more or less horizontal galleries

96 ; THE BOOK OF JOB.

or pit-ways, as they were cut through the excavated rocks in
the gold mines of Upper Egypt, often so crooked that, as
Diodorus relates, the miners, provided with lights on their
forehead, were always obliged to vary the posture of the body
according to the windings of the galleries); and 73-DY, away
from him who remains above, shows that one is to imagine these
shafts as being of considerable depth; but what follows even
more clearly indicates this: there forgotten (0°.73¥30 with the
demonstrative art. as ch. xxvi. 5, Ps. xviii. 31, xix. 11, Ges.
§ 109 ad init.) of (every) foot (that walks above), they hang
(comp. Rabb. 2191, pendulus’) far from men, hang and
swing or are suspended; comp. Pliny, h. m. xxxiii. 4, 21, ac-
cording to Sillig’s text: is qui cedit funibus pendet, ut procul
intuenti species ne ferarum quidem sed alitum fiat. Pendentes
majort ex parte librant et linias itineri preducunt. OPA has

here the primary signification proper also to the Arab. J,

deorsum pendére; and Y3) is related to 33, as nuere, vevew, to
nutare. The ‘39 of 2277319, taken strictly, does not correspond
to the Greek vzro, neither does it form an adverbial secondary
definition standing by itself: far away from the foot; but it
is to be understood, as j is also used elsewhere after n>wa,
Deut. xxxi. 21, Ps. xxxi. 13: forgotten out of the mouth,
out of the heart; here: forgotten away from the foot, so that
this advances without knowing that there is a man beneath;
therefore: totally vanished from the remembrance of those
who pass by above. WIND is not to be connected with 43
(Hahn, Schlottm.), but with 14, for AMunach is the represen-
tative of Rebia mugrasch, according to Psalter, ii. 503, § 2;
and %53 is regularly Milel, whereas Isa. xxxviii. 14 is Milra

1 Vid. Luzzatto on Isa. xviii. 5, where ordybr, of the trembling and
quivering twigs, is correctly traced to $$; = 554; on the other hand, Isa.
xiv. 19, ")27 93 is wrongly translated fundo della fossa, by comparison
with Job xxviii. 3. jax does not signify a shaft, still less the lowest
shaft, but stone (rock).

CHAP. XXVIII. 5-8. 97

without any evident reason. The accentuation here follows
no fixed law with equally regulated exceptions (vid. Olsh.
§ 233, ¢).

Moreover, the perception that ver. 4 speaks of the shaft of
the mine, and the descent of the miners by a rope, is due to
modern exegesis ;. even Schultens, who here exclaims: Cim-
merie tenebre, quas me exsuperaturum vie sperare ausim,
perceived the right thing, but only imperfectly as yet. By
Sn he understands the course or vein of the metal, where it
is embedded; and, since he understands 73 after the Arab.
‘garr, foot of the mountain, he translates: rumpit (homo)
alveum de pede montis. Rosenm., on the other hand, cor-
rectly translates: canalem deorsum actum ex loco quo versatur
homo. Schlottm. understands by 73 the miner himself dwell-
ing as a stranger in his loneliness; and if we imagine to
ourselves the mining districts of the peninsula of Sinai, we
might certainly at once conceive the miners’ dwellings them-
selves which are found in the neighbourhood of the shaft in
connection with “3-pyp. But in and for itself 13 signifies
only those settled (above), without the secondary idea of
strangers.

5 The earth—from it cometh forth bread,
And beneath tt is turned up like fire.
6 The place of the sapphire are tts stones,
And it containeth gold ore.
7 The way, that no bird of prey knoweth,
And the eye of the hawk hath not gazed at,
8 Which the proud beast of prey hath not trodden,
Over which the lion hath not walked.

Ver. 5 is not to be construed as Rosenm.: ad terram quod
attinet, ex qua egreditur panis, quod subtus est subvertitur quasi
igne; nor with Schlottm.: (they swing) in the earth, out of
which comes bread, which beneath one turns about with fire ;

VOL. II. G

98 THE BOOK OF JOB.

for ver. 5a is not formed so that the Waw of MANN could be
Waw apod., and 78 cannot signify “in the interior of the
earth” as locativus; on the contrary, it stands in opposition to
mnnn, that which is beneath the earth, as denoting the surface
of the earth (the proper name of which is 7278, from the root
n4, with the primary notion of a flat covering). ‘They are
two grammatically independent predicates, the first of which
is only the foil of the other: the earth, out of it cometh forth
bread (on? as Ps. civ. 14), and beneath it (the surface of the
earth) = that which lies beneath it (Mnnm only virtually a
subj. in the sense of NAN, since ‘ANA occurs only as a
preposition), is turned about (comp. the construction of the
sing. of the verb with the plur. subj., ch. xxx. 15) as (by) fire
(instar ignis, scil. subvertentis) ; te. the earth above furnishes
nourishment to man, but that not satisfying him, he also digs
out its inward parts (comp. Pliny, A. n. xxxiii. prowm.: in sede
Manium opes querimus, tanqgquam parum benigna fertilique
quaqua calcatur), since this is turned or tossed about (comp.
nz, the special word for the overthrow of Sodom by fire)
by mining work, as when fire breaks out in a house, or even
as when a volcanic fire rumbles within a mountain (Castalio:
agunt per magna spatia cuniculos et terram subeunt non secus
ac ignis facet ut in Altna et Vesuvio). The reading 3 -
(Schlottm.) instead of 13 is natural, since fire is really used.
to blast the rock, and to separate the ore from the stone; but,
with the exception of Jerome, who has arbitrarily altered the
text (terra, de qua oriebatur panis in loco suo, ignit subversa
est), all the old translations reproduce 193, which even Nasse,
in opposition to von Veltheim, thinks suitable: Man’s rest-
less search, which rummages everything through, is compared
to the unrestrainable ravaging fire.

Ver. 6 also consists of two grammatically independent
assertions: the place (bed) of the sapphire is itsock. Must
we refer {5 to 18D, and translate: “and it contains fine dust

CHAP. XXVIII. 5-8. 99

of gold” (Hirz., Umbr., Stick., Nasse)? It is posstble, for
Theophrastus (p. 692, ed. Schneider) says of the sapphire it
is @omep ypvodTracTos, as it were covered with gold dust or
grains of gold; and Pliny, h. n. xxxvii. 9, 38 sq.: Inest ex
(cyano) aliquando et aureus pulvis qualis in sapphiris, in tis
enim aurum punctis conlucet, which nevertheless does not hold
good of the proper sapphire, but of the azure stone (lapis
lazuli) which is confounded with it, a variegated species of
which, with gold, or rather with iron pyrites glittering like
gold, is specially valued.’ But Schultens rightly observes:
vie crediderim, illum auratilem pulvisculum sapphiri peculiart
mentione dignum; and Schlottm.: such a collateral definition
to 5D, expressed in a special clause (not a relative one), has
something awkward about it. On the other hand, 23t noay
is a perfectly suitable appellation of gold ore. “The earth,
which is in itself black,” says Diodorus in the passage quoted
before, “is interspersed with veins of marble, which is of such
pre-eminent whiteness, that its brilliance surpasses everything
that glitters, and from it the overseers of the mine prepare
gold with a large number of workmen.” And further on, of
the heating of this gold ore he says: “the hardest auriferous
earth they burn thoroughly in a large fire; thus they make it
soft, so that it can be worked by the hand.” ant may is a
still more suitable expression for such auriferous earth and
ore than for the nuggets of dmupos ypvads (i.e. unsmelted)
of the size of a chestnut, which, according to Diodorus, ii. 50,
are obtained in mines in Arabia (ueraddeverar). But it is
inadmissible to refer 1b to man, for the clause would then
require to be translated: and gold ore is to him = he has,
while it is the rather intended to be said that the interior of
the earth has gold ore. % is therefore, with Hahn and
Schlottm., to be referred to Dip: and this place of the

1 Comp. Quenstedt, Handbuch der Mineralogie (1863), 8. 355 and
302.

100 THE BOOK OF JOB.

sapphire, it contains gold. The poet might have written md,
but 1$ implies that where the sapphire is found, gold is also
found. The following 2) (with Dechi), together with the
following relative clause, is connected with 238, or even
with nip, which through ver. 6b is become the chief subj.:
the place of the sapphire and of the gold is the rock of the
bowels of the earth,—a way, which, etc., i.e. such a place is
the interior of the earth, accessible to no living being of the
earth’s surface except to man alone. The sight of the bird
of prey, the O'Y, derds, and of the M8, ie. the hawk or
kite, reaches from above far and wide beneath;1 the sons of

pride, /NY (also Talmud. arrogance, ferocia, from YAY = jaws,

to raise one’s self, not: fatness, as Meier, after W2s%, to be
fat, thick), 2.e. the beasts of prey, especially the lion, ones (vid.
on ch. iv. 10, from ont, kx, to roar, Arab. of the ass, comp.
the Lat. rudere used both of the lion and of the ass), seek
the most secret retreat, and shun no danger; but the way by
which man presses forward to the treasures of the earth is
imperceptible and inaccessible to them.

9 He layeth his hand upon the pebbles ;

He turneth up the mountains from the root.

10 He cutteth canals through the rocks ;
And his eye seeth all kinds of precious things.

11 That they may not leak, he dammeth up rivers ;
And that which is hidden he bringeth to light.

12 But wisdom, whence is it obtained ?
And where is the place of understanding ?

Beneath, whither no other being of the upper world pene-

trates, man puts his hand upon the quartz or rock. vinbn
(perhaps from nn, to be strong, firm; Arabic, with the re-

1 The m*x—says the Talmud 6. Chullin, 630—is in Babylon, and seeth
a carcase in the land of Israel.

CHAP. XXVIII. 9-12.” 101

duplication resolved, chalnubis, like v*23Y, Arab. ‘ancabith,
vid. Jesurun, p. 229) signifies here the quartz, and in general
the hard stone; 2 7 nbvi something like our “to take in hand”
of an undertaking requiring strong determination and courage,
which here consists in blasting and clearing away the rock
that contains no ore, as Pliny, A. n. xxxiii. 4, 21, describes it:
Occursant . . . silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt, seepius vero,
quoniam id cuniculos vapore et fumo strangulat, cedunt frac-
tartis CL libras ferri habentibus egeruntque umeris noctibus ac
diebus per tenebras proxumis tradentes; lucem novissimi cernunt.
Further: he (man, devoted to mining) overturns (subvertit
according to the primary signification of 457, Cai, Coil, to
turn, twist) mountains from the roots. The accentuation 75"
with Rebia mugrasch, ww with Mercha, is false; it is, ac-
cording to Codd. and old editions, to be accented 45" with
Tarcha, ww with Munach, and to be translated accordingly:
subvertit a radice montes (for Munach is the transformation of
a Rebia mugrasch), not a radice montium. Blasting in mining
which lays bare the roots (the lowest parts) of the mountains
is intended, the conclusion of which—the signal for the flight
of the workmen, and the effective crash—is so graphically
described by Pliny in the passage cited above: Peracto opere
cervices fornicum ab ultumo cadunt ; dat signum ruina eamque
solus intellegit in cacumine ejus montis vigil. Hic voce, nutu
evocart jubet operas pariterque ipse devolat. Mons fractus cadit
ab sese longe fragore qui concipt humana mente non possit eque
efflatu incredibili spectant victores ruinam nature.

The meaning of ver. 10 depends upon the signification of
the DNS. It is certainly the most natural that it should
signify canals. The word is Egyptian; aur in the language
of the hieroglyphs signifies a river, and especially the Nile;
wherefore at the close of the Laterculus of Eratosthenes the
name of the king, Ppovopd (Povopd), is explained by Hroz
Netdos. If water-canals are intended, they may be either

102 THE BOOK OF JOB.

such as go in or come away. In the first case it may mean
water let in like a cataract over the ruins of the blasted auri-
ferous rock, the corrugt of Pliny: Alius par labor ae vel
majoris impendi: flumina ad lavandam hane ruinam jugis
montium obiter duxere a centesimo plerumque lapide; corrugos
vocant, a corrivatione credo; mille et hic labores. But YP is
not a suitable word for such an extensive and powerful flood-
ing with water for the purpose of washing the gold. It suits
far better to understand the expression of galleries or ways
cut horizontally in the rock to carry the water away. Thus
von Veltheim explains it: “The miner makes ways through
the hard rock into his section [in which the perpendicular
shaft terminates], guides the water which is found in abun-
dance at that depth through it [%.e. the water at the bottom
of the pit that hinders the progress of the work], and is able
[thus ver. 10d naturally is connected with what precedes] to
judge of the ore and fragments that are at the bottom, and
bring them to the light. This mode of mining by constantly
forming one gallery under the other [so that a new gallery is
made under the pit that is worked out by extending the shaft,
and also freeing this from water by making another outlet
below the previous one] is the oldest of all, of which anything
certain is known in the history of mining, and the most
natural in the days when they had no notion of hydraulics.”
This explanation is far more satisfactory than that of Herm.
Sam. Reimarus, of the “ Wolfenbiitteler Fragmente” (in his
edition of the Neue Erkl. des B. Hiob, by John Ad. Hoff-
mann, 1734, iv. S. 772): “ He breaks open watercourses in the
rocks. What the miners call coming upon water, is when -
they break into a fissure from which strong streams of water
gush forth. The miner not only knows how to turn such
water to good account, but it is also a sign that there are rich
veins of ore near at hand, as there is the most water by these
courses and fissures. Hence follows: and then his eye sees

CHAP. XXVIII. 9-12. 103

all kinds of precious things.” But there is no ground for say-
ing that water indicates rich veins of ore, and yp2 is much
more appropriate to describe the designed formation of courses
to carry off the water than an accidental discovery of water
in course of the work; moreover, ON’ is as appropriate to the
former as it is inappropriate to the latter explanation, for it
signifies elsewhere the arms of the Nile, into which the Nile
is artificially divided; and therefore it may easily be trans-
ferred to the horizontal canals of the mine cut through the
hard rock (or through the upper earth). Nevertheless,
although the water plays an important part in mining opera-
tions, by giving rise to the greatest difficulties, as it frequently
happens that a pit is deluged with water, and must be aban-
doned because no one can get down to it: it is improbable
that ver. 10 as well as ver. 11 refers to this; we therefore
prefer to understand 0S as meaning the (horizontal) courses
(galleries or drifts) in which the ore is dug,—a rendering
which is all the more possible, since, on the one hand, in Coptic
jaro (Sahidic jero) signifies the Nile of Egypt (phiaro ente
chémi); on the other, tor (eioor) signifies a ditch, duapvé
(comp. Isa. xxxili. 21, on’, LXX. Sudpuyes), vid. Ges.
Thes. Thus also ver. 10d is consistently connected with
what precedes, since by cutting these cuniculi the courses
of the ore (veins), and any precious stones that may also be
embedded there, are laid bare.

Ver. lla. Contrary to the correct indication of the accen-
tuation, Hahn translates: he stops up the droppings of the
watercourses; "23 has Dechi, and is therefore not to be
connected with what follows as a genitive. But Reimarus’
translation: from the drops he connects the streams, is inad-
missible. “The trickling water,” he observes, “is carefully
caught in channels by the miners for use, and is thus brought
together from several parts to the reservoir and the water-
wheel. What Pliny calls corrugus, corrivatio.” On the

104 THE BOOK OF JOB.

contrary, Schlottm. remarks that wan cannot signify such a
connection, ies gathering together of watercourses; it occurs
elsewhere only of uniting, i.e. binding up wounds. Never-
theless, although wan cannot directly signify “ to collect,” the
signification coercere (ch. xxxiv. 17), which is not far from

this idea,—as is evident from the Arab. (i> Fee Sy a dam

7coer

or sluice for collecting water, and sl (wise, a reservoir,

cistern,—is easily transferable to water, in the sense of bind-
ing = catching up and accumulating. But it is contrary to
the form of the expression that ‘229, with this use of wan,
should denote the materia ex qua, and that ni772 should be
referred to the miry ditches in which “the crushed ore is
washed, for the purpose of separating the good from the
worthless.” On the contrary, from the form of the expression, :
it is to be translated: a fletu (not e jletu) flumina obligat,
whether it be that a jletu is equivalent to ne lent s. stillent
(Simeon Duran: 151 Nov), or obligat equivalent to cohibet
(Ralbag : np). Thus von Veltheim explains the passage,
since he here, as in ver. 10, understands the channels for
carrying off the water. “The miner covers the bottom with
mire, and fills up the crevices so exactly [7.e. he besmears it,
where the channel is. broken through, with some water-tight
substance, ¢.g. clay], that it may entirely carry off the water
that is caught by it out of the pit [in which the shaft termi-
nates], and not let it fall through the fissures [crevices] to
the company of miners below [to the vein that lies farther
down]; then the miner can descend still deeper [since the
water runs outwards and does not soak through], and bring
forth the ore that lies below the channel.” This explanation
overlooks the fact that oN’ is used in ver. 10, whereas ver. 11
has nnn. It is not probable that these are only interchange-
able expressions for the channels that carry off the water.

CHAP. XXVIII. 9-12. 105

ON’ is an appropriate expression for it, but not n73, which
as appropriately describes the conflux of water in the mine
itself.

The meaning of ver. 11a is, that he (the miner) binds or —
stops the watercourses which his working out of the pit has
interfered with and injured, so that they may not leak, ze.
that they may not in the least ooze through, whether by build-
ing up a wall or by collecting the water that streams forth in
reservoirs (Arab. mahbas) or in the channels which carry it
outwards,—all these modes of draining off the water may be
included in ver. 11a, only the channel itself is not, with von
- Veltheim, to be understood by nin3, but the concourse of the
water which, in one way or the other, is rendered harmless to
the pit-work, so that he (the miner), as ver. 110 says, can
bring to light (is = iN?) whatever precious things the bowels
of the earth conceals (mIDPYA, according to Kimchi and others,
with euphonic Mappik, as according to the Masora 235
Isa. xxviii. 4, 72W1 Ezek. xxii. 24, and also mba Zech. iv. 2,
only 225 xb) mph mawand, ie. they have Mappik only for
euphony, not as the expression of the su//.).

With the question in ver. 12 the description of mining
attains the end designed: man can search after and find out
silver, gold, and other metals and precious stones, by making
the foundations of the earth accessible to him; but wisdom,
whence shall he obtain it, and which (7%), according to
another reading 1'S)) is the place of understanding? ip2nn
has the art. to give prominence to its transcendency over the
other attainable things. 2n is the principal name, and 733
interchanges with it, as 523", Prov. viii. 1, and other syno-
nyms in which the Chokma literature abounds elsewhere in
Prov. i.-ix. 32 is properly the faculty of secing through
that which is distinguishable, consisting of the possession
of the right criteria; noon, however, is the perception, in
general, of things in their true nature and their final causes,

106 THE BOOK OF JOB.

13 A mortal knoweth not tts price, |
And it is not found in the land of the living.
14 The abyss saith: It is not in me,
And the sea saith: It is not with me.
15 Pure gold cannot be given for it,
And silver cannot be weighed as its price ;
16 And tt is not outweighed with the fine gold of Ophir,
With the precious onyx and the sapphire.

It is self-evident that wisdom is found nowhere directly
present and within a limited space, as at the bottom of the
sea, and cannot be obtained by a direct exchange by means
of earthly treasures. It is, moreover, not this self-evident
fact that is denied here; but the meaning is, that even if a man
should search in every direction through the land of the living,
i.e. (as e.g. Ps. lil. 7) the world—if he should search through
the DIN, i.e. the subterranean waters that. feed the visible
waters (vid. Gen. xlix. 25)—if he should search through the
sea, the largest bounded expanse of this water that wells up
from beneath—yea, even if he would offer all riches and
precious things to put himself in possession of the means and
instruments for the acquirement of wisdom,—wisdom, i.e. the
profoundest perception of the nature of things, would still be
beyond him, and unattainable. 1Y, ver. 13, an equivalent
(from JW, to range beside, to place at the side of), inter-
changes with 1) (from 799, cogn. W1'9, 13, mercari). Wad
is WD 3M, 1 Kings vi. 20 and freq., which hardly signifies
gold shut up = carefully preserved, rather: closed = com-
pressed, unmixed; Targ. PD 3%, aurum colatum (purgatum),

Os, 2

Ewald compares jw, to seethe, heat; therefore: heated,

gained by smelting. On the other hand, 003 from on3, as,
occulere, seems originally to denote that which is precious,
then precious gold in particular, LX X. ypuvoie Adelp, Cod.

CHAP. XXVIII. 13-16. 107

Vat. and Cod. Sinaiticus, Ywpip (Egyptized by prefixing the
Egyptian sa, part, district, side, whence e.g. sa-rés, the upper
country, and sa-hét, the lower country, therefore = sa-o/ir,
land of Ophir). O5¥ is translated here by the LXX. dvvé
(elsewhere capSovvé or odpdvos), of which Pliny, h. n. xxxvii.
6, 24, appealing to Sudines, says, tn gemma esse candorem
unguis humani similitudinem; wherefore Knobel, Rédiger,

and others, compare the Arab. pdle, which, however, does not

signify pale, but lean, and parched by the heat, with which,

in hot countries at least, not pallor, but, on the contrary, a
Gre }

dark brown-black colour, is identified (F'l.). rene, striped

(Mich.), would be more appropriate, since the onyx is marked
through by white veins; but this is a denom. from sahm, a
dart, prop. darted, and is therefore wide of the mark. On
the etymology of BD, vid. Jesurun, p. 61. Nevertheless
both nnv and 2D are perhaps foreign names, as the name
of the emerald (vid. ib. p. 108), which is Indian (Sanskr.
marakata, or even marakta); and, on the other hand, it
is called in hieroglyph (determined by the stone) wot,
the green stone (in Coptic p. auannése, the green colour)
(Lauth).

The transcendent excellence of wisdom above the most
precious earthly treasures, which the author of the introduc-
tion to the book of Proverbs briefly describes, ch. iii. 14 sq.,
is now drawn out in detail.

17 Gold and glass are not equal to it,
Nor is it exchanged for jewels of gold.
18 Pearls and crystal are not to be mentioned,
And the acquisition of wisdom is beyond corals.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia is not equal to tt,
It is not outweighed by pure fine gold.

°108 THE BOOK OF JOB.

20 Whence, then, cometh wisdom,
And which is the place of understanding ?

Among the separate o'yan, Prov. iii. 15, which are here
detailed, apart from am, glass has the transparent name
M331, or, as it is pointed in Codd., in old editions, and by
Kimchi, 321 with Cholem (in the dialects with 3 instead of
3). Symm. indeed translates crystal, and in fact the ancient
languages have common names for glass and crystal; but the
crystal is here called #23, which signifies prop., like the Arab,
'gibs, ice; kptararnos also signifies prop. ice, and this only in
Homer, then crystal, exactly as the cognate MP unites both
significations in itself. The reason of this homonymy lies
deeper than in the outward similarity,—the ancients really
thought the crystal was a product of the cold; Pliny, xxxvii.
2,9, says: non alibi certe reperitur quam ubi maxume Mberne
nives rigent, glactemque esse certum est, unde nomen Greci
dedere. The Targ. translates v3 by porns, certainly in the
sense of the Arabico-Persic bullir (bulér), which signifies
crystal, or even glass, and moreover is the primary word for
PnpudXos, although the identical Sanskrit word, according to
the laws of sound, vaidurja (Pali, velurija), is, according to
the lexicons, a name of the lapis lazuli (Persic, lagurd).
Of the two words nid? and 03°38, the one appears to mean
pearls and the other corals; the ancient appellations of these
precious things which belong to the sea are also blended; the
Persic mergdén (Sanskr. mangara) unites the signification
pearl and coral in itself. The root #5, .,’, which has the

w

primary notion of pushing, especially of vegetation (whence ,..%

a branch, shoot, prop. motion; French, jet), and Lam. iv. 7,
where snow and milk, as figures of whiteness (purity), are
placed in contrast with D335 as a figure of redness, favour
the signification corals for o'28. The Coptic b’ndni, which

CHAP. XXVIII./ 17-20. 109

signifies gemma, favours (so far as it may be compared) corals
rather than pearls. And the fact that nos, Ezek. xxvii. 16,
appear as an Aramzean article of commerce in the market of
Tyre, is more favourable to the signification pearls than
corals; for the Babylonians sailed far into the Indian Ocean,
and brought pearls from the fisheries of Bahrein, perhaps
even from Ceylon, into the home markets (vid. Layard, New
Discoveries; 536). The name is perhaps, from the Western
Asiatic name of the pearl,’ mutilated and Hebraized.’

The name of the 17168 of Ethiopia appears to be derived
from to7ragf by transposition ; Pliny says of the topaz, xxxvii.
8, 32, among other passages: Juba Topazum insulam in rubro
mart a continenti stadiis CCC abesse dicit, nebulosam et ideo
quesitam sepius navigantibus ; ex ea causa nomen accepisse :

1 Vid. Zeitschr. fiir d. Kunde des Morgenlandes, iv. 40f. The recently
attempted explanation of ~op%aasov from S>}3 (to which xAgpos the rather

belongs), in the primary signification Japillus (Arab. ‘garal), is without
support.

2 Two reasons for O'3'95 = pearls (in favour of which Bochart com-
pares the name of the pearl-oyster, t/vyw) and n\o~7— corals, which
are maintained by Carey, are worthy of remark. (1.) That p'3'95 does
not signify corals, he infers from Lam. iv. 7, for the redness of corals
cannot be a mark of bodily beauty; ‘‘ but when I find that there are some
pearls of a slightly reddish tinge, then I can understand and appreciate
the comparison.” (2.) That nys5 signifies corals, is shown by the origin
of the word, which properly signifies reém- (wild oxen) horns, which is
favoured by a mention of Pliny, h. n. xiii. 51: (Tradidere) juncos quoque
lapideos perquam similes veris per litora, et in alto quasdam arbusculas
colore bubult cornus ramosas et cacuminibus rubentes. Although
Pliny there speaks of marine petrified plants of the Indian Ocean (not,
at least in his sense, of corals), this hint of a possible derivation of
NON is certainly surprising. But as to Lam. iv. 7, this passage is to
be understood according to Cant. v. 10 (my friend is nyqN) ny). The
white and red are intended to be conceived of as mixed and overlapping
one another, as our [Germ.] popular poetry speaks of cheeks which
“shine with milk and purple;” and as in Homer, JI. iv. 141-146, the
colour of the beautifully formed limbs of Menelaus is represented by the
figure (which appears hideous to us): a 0 ore tig + EAEPavrae yuvy Dolvine
peiqyn (ebony stained with purple).

110 - THE BOOK OF JOB.

topazin enim Troglodytarum lingua significationem habere quee-
rendt. This topaz, however, which is said to be named after
an island of the same name, the Isle of Serpents in Agathar-
chides and Diodorus, is, according to Pliny, yellowish green,
and therefore distinct from the otherwise so-called topaz.
To make a candid confession, we grope about everywhere in
the dark here, and the ancient versions are not able to help
us out of our difficulty... The poet lays everything under
contribution to illustrate the thought, that the worth of wis-
dom exceeds the worth of the most valuable earthly thing;
beside which, in 0°25 MD2n Ww, “the acquisition or posses-
sion (from WD, Ehuwe, to draw to one’s self, to take hold of)
of wisdom is above corals,’ there is an indication that,
although not by the precious things of the earth, still in some
way or other, wisdom can be possessed, so that consequently
the question repeated at the end of the strophe will not remain
unanswered. This is its meaning: now if wisdom is not to
be found in any of the places named, and is not to be attained
by any of the means mentioned, whence can man hope to
attain it, and whither must he turn to find it? for its exist-
ence is certain, and it is an indisputable need of man that he
should partake of it.

21 lé ts veiled from the eyes of all living,
And concealed from the fowls of heaven.
22 Destruction and death say :
With our ears we heard a report of it.—
23 Elohim understandeth the way to tt,

1 The Targ. translates pnw by pomra, Byovaros; WDD by xray Cees
vid. Pott in the Zeitschr. f. K. d. M. iv. 275); 1b by Pras, 6BpuCov ;
Miox by pIPD, cavoapaxn, red gold-pigment (vid. Rédiger- -Pott, as
just quoted, 8. 267) ; whny again by poora in the sense of the Arabico-
Persic bullar, Kurd. bellér, crystal; 3°35 by per, eapyapirers MDD
by XPV xen (the green pearl); pn3 by ndpp (perhaps i708, ETA,
in the sense of lamina auri).

CHAP. XXVIIL. 21-28. 111

And He—He knoweth its place.
24 For He looketh to the ends of the earth,
Under the whole heaven He seeth.

No living created being (onm>3, as ch. xii. 10, xxx. 23) is
able to answer the question; even the birds that fly aloft,
that have keener and farther-seeing eyes than man, can give
us no information concerning wisdom ; and the world at least
proclaims its existence in a rich variety of its operations, but
in the realm of Abaddon and of death below (comp. the com-
bination prasy disw, Prov. xv. 11, dou xat rod Oavarov, Apoc.
i. 18) it is known only by an indistinct hearsay, and from
confused impressions. Therefore: no creature, whether in
the realm of the living or the dead, can help us to get wis-
dom. There is but One who possesses a perfect knowledge
concerning wisdom, namely Elohim, whose gaze extends to
the ends of the earth, and who sees under the whole heaven,
i.e. is everywhere present (NN, definition of place, not equi-
valent to NOM We; comp. on ch. xxiv. 9b), who therefore,
after the removal of everything earthly (sub-celestial), alone
remains. And why should He with His knowledge, which
embraces everything, not also know the way and place of
wisdom? Wisdom is indeed the ideal, according to which
He has created the world.

25 When He appointed:-to the wind its weight,
And weighed the water according to a measure,
26 When He appointed to the rain its law,
And the course to the lightning of the thunder :
27 Then He saw it and declared it,
Took it as a pattern and tested it also,
28 And said to man: Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding.

It is impracticable to attach the inf. nibvye to ver. 24 as the

112 THE BOOK OF JOB.

purpose, because it is contrary to the meaning; but it is
impossible, according to the syntax, to refer it to ver. 27 as
the purpose placed in advance, or to take it in the sense of
perfecturus, because in‘ both instances it ought to have been
j20' instead of {34, or at least {291 with the verb placed first
(vid. ch. xxxvii. 15). But even the temporal use of 5 in
ni2b? at the turn (of morning, of evening, ¢.g. Gen. xxiv. 63)
cannot be compared, but mivy> signifies perficiendo = quum
perjiceret (as e.g. 2 Sam. xviii. 29, mittendo = quum mitteret),
it is a gerundival inf. (Nagelsb. 5. 197f, 2d edition); and
because it is the past that is spoken of, the modal inf. can be
continued in the perf., Ges. § 132, rem. 2. The thought that
God, when He created the world, appointed fixed laws of
equable and salutary duration, he particularizes by examples:
He appointed to the wind its weight, i.e. the measure of its
force or feebleness; distributed the masses of water by mea-
sure; appointed to the rain its law, z.e. the conditions of its
development and of its beginning; appointed the way, #.e. origin

and course, to the lightning (MN from MN, j=, secare). When

He thus created the world, and regulated what was created
by laws, then He perceived (78) with He Mappic. according
to the testimony of the Masora) it, wisdom, viz. as the ideal
of all things; then He declared it, enarravit, viz. by creating
the world, which is the development and realization of its sub-
stance; then He gave it a place "2°27 (for which Déderl. and
Ewald unnecessarily read 72°37), viz. to create the world after
its pattern, and to commit the arrangement of the world as a
whole to its supreme protection and guidance; then He also
searched it out or tested it, viz. its demiurgic powers, by
setting them in motion to realize itself.

If we compare Proy. viii. 22-31 with this passage, we may
say: the nan is the divine ideal-world, the divine imagination _
of all things before their creation, the complex unity of all

CHAP. XXVIII. 25-23. 113

the ideas, which are the essence of created things and the
end of their development. ‘ Wisdom,” says one of the old
theologians,’ “is a divine imagination, in which the ideas of
the angels and souls and all things were seen from eternity,
not as already actual creatures, but as a man beholds himself
in a mirror.” It is not directly one with the Logos, but the
Logos is the demiurg by which God has called the world
into existence according to that ideal which was in the divine
mind. Wisdom is the impersonal model, the Logos the per-
sonal master-builder according to that model. Nevertheless
the notions, here or in the later cognate portion of Scripture,
Proy. viii. 22-31, are not as yet so distinct as the New Testa-
ment revelation of God has first of all rendered possible. In
those days, when God realized the substance of the nm3n, this
eternal mirror of the world, in the creation of the world, He
also gave man the law, corresponding to which he corre-
sponds to His idea and participates in wisdom. Fearing the
supreme Lord (‘278 only here in the book of Job, one of the
134 pn, i.e. passages, where ‘J78 is not merely to be read
instead of mn, but is actually written’), and renouncing evil
(712 "AD, according to another less authorized mode of writing
y12),—this is man’s share of wisdom, this is his relative
wisdom, by which he remains in connection with the absolute.
This is true human ¢iAoco¢gia, in contrast to all high-flown
and profound speculations; comp. Prov. iil. 7, where, in like
manner, “ fear Jehovah” is placed side by side with “ depart
from evil,” and Proy. xvi. 6, according to which it is rendered
possible p79 1D, to escape the evil of sin and its punishment
by fearing God. “The fear of God is the beginning of wis-
dom” (Prov. i. 7; comp. Ps. cxi. 10) is the symbolum, the
motto and uppermost principle, of that Israclitish Chokma,
whose greatest achievement is the book of Job. The whole

1 Vid. Jul. Hamberger, Lehre Jak. Boéhme’s, 8. 55.
2 Tid. Buxtorf’s Tiberias, p. 245; comp. Bir’s Psalterium, p. 133.

VOL. II. Ss H °

114 THE BOOK OF JOB.

of ch. xxviii. is a minute panegyric of this principle, the
materials of which are taken from the far-distant past; and
it is very characteristic, that, in the structure of the book,
this twenty-eighth chapter is the clasp which unites the half
of the déovs with the half of the Avous, and that the poet has
inscribed upon this clasp that sentence, “The fear of God
is the beginning of wisdom.” But, moreover, Job’s closing
speech, which ends in this celebration of the praise of the
moan, also occupies. an important position, which must now
be determined, in the structure of the whole.

After Job has refuted Bildad, and, continuing his descrip-
tion, has celebrated in such lofty strains the majesty of God,
it can hardly be expected that the poet will allow Zophar
to speak for the third time. Bildad is unable to advance
anything new, and Zophar has already tried his utmost to
terrify Job for the second time; besides, Job’s speech fur-
nishes no material for a reply (a motive which is generally
overlooked), unless the controversy were designed to ramble
on into mere personalities. Accordingly the poet allows Job
to address the friends once more, but no longer in the extreme
and excited tone of the previous dialogue, but, since the silence
of the friends must produce a soothing impression on Job,
tempering him to gentleness and forbearance, in a tone of
confession conscious of victory, yet altogether devoid of
haughty triumph,—a confession in which only one single
word of reproach (ch. xxvii. 125) escapes him. Ch. xxvii.
Xxviil, contain this confession—Job’s final address to his
friends.

Job once again most solemnly asserts his innocence before
the friends; all attempts on the part of the friends to entice
or to extort from him a confession which is against his con-
science, have therefore been in vain: joyous and victorious
he raises his head, invincible, even to death, in the conviction
of that which is a fact of his consciousness that cannot be

CHAP. XXVIII. 25-28. 115

got rid of by denial. He is not an evil-doer; accordingly he
must stand convicted as an evil-doer who treats him as such.
For although he is not far fron death, and is in sore vexation,
he has not manifested the hopelessness and defection from
God in which the evil-doer passes away. Job has indeed
even expressed himself despondingly, and complained of
God’s wrath; but the true essence of his relation to God
came to light in such words as ch. xvi. 19-21, xvii. 9, xix.
25-27. If the friends had not been blind to such brilliant
aspirations of his life in God, how could they regard him as
a godless man, and his affliction as the punishment of such
an one! His affliction has, indeed, no connection with the
terrible end of the evil-doer. Job here comes before the
friends with the very doctrine they have so frequently ad-
vanced, but infatuated with the foolish notion that it is suited
to his case. He here gives it back to them, to show them
that it is not suited to him. He also does not deny, that in
the rule the evil-doer meets a terrible end, although he has
hitherto disputed the assertion of the friends, because of the
exclusiveness with which it was maintained by them. His
counter-assertion respecting the prosperity of the evil-doer,
which from the beginning was not meant. by him so exclu-
sively as the friends meant theirs respecting the misfortune
of the evil-doer, is here indirectly freed from the extreme ap-
pearance of exclusiveness by Job himself, and receives the
necessary modification. Job does not deny, yea, he here
brings it under the notice of the friends, that the sword,
famine, and pestilence carry off the descendants of the evil-
doer, and even himself; that his possessions at length fall
into the hands of the righteous, and contain within themselves
the germ of destruction from the very first ; that God’s curse
pursues, and suddenly destroys, the godless rich man himself.
Thus it comes to pass; for while silver and other precious
things come from the depths of the earth, wisdom, whose

116 THE BOOK OF JOB.

worth far transcends all earthly treasures, is to be found with
no created being, but is with God alone; and the fear of God, —
to avoid evil, is the share of wisdom to which man is directed
according to God’s primeval decree.

The object of the section, ch. xxviii., is primarily to confirm
the assertion concerning the judgment that befalls the evil-
doer, ch. xxvii. 13-23; the confirmation is, however, at the
same time, according to the delicately laid plan of the poet,
a glorious general confession, in which Job’s dialogue with the
friends comes to a close. This panegyric of wisdom (similar
to Paul’s panegyric of charity, 1 Cor. xiii.) is the presentation
of Job’s predominant principle, and as such, is like a song
of triumph, with which, without vain-glory, he closes the
dialogue in the most appropriate manner. If Job’s life has
such a basis, it is not possible that his affliction should be the
punishment of an ungodly man. And if the fear of God is
the wisdom appointed to man, he also teaches himself that,
though unable to see through the mystery of his affliction,
he must still hold on to the fear of God, and teaches the
friends that they must do the same, and not lay themselves
open to the charge of injustice and uncharitableness towards
him, the suffering one, in order to solve the mystery. Job’s
conclusion, which is first intended to show that he who does
not fear God is overtaken by the merited fate of a fool who,
rebels against God’s moral government, shows at the same
time that the afflictive lot of those who fear God must be
judged of in an essentially different manner from that of the
ungodly.

We may imagine what impression these last words of Job
to the friends must have made upon them. Since they were
obliged to be silent, they will not have admitted that they
are vanquished, although the drying up of their thoughts, and
their involuntary silence, is an actual proof of it. But does
Job make them feel this oppressively? Now that they are

CHAP. XXIX. 2-6. 117

become so insignificant, does he read them a severe lecture?
does he in general act towards them as vanquished? No
indeed, but solemnly, and without vaunting himself over his
accusers, he affirms his innocence; earnestly, but in a winning
manner, he admonishes them, by tempering and modifying
what was vehement and extreme in his previous replies. He
humbly submits himself to the divine wisdom, by setting the
fear of God, as man’s true wisdom, before himself and the
friends as their common aim. Thus he utters “the loftiest
words, which must surprise the opponents as they exhibit
him as the not merely mighty, but also wonderfully calm
and modest conqueror, who here for the first time wears the
crown of true victory, when, in outward victory conquering
himself, he struggles on towards a more exalted clearness of
_ perception.”

Job’s Monologue.—Chap. xxix.-xxxi.

First Part.—CHAP. XXIXx.
Schema: 10. 8. 8. 6. 6. 11.

[Then Job continued to take up his proverb, and said :]
2 O that I had months like the times of yore,
Like the days when Eloah protected me,
3 When He, when His lamp, shone above my head,
By [His light I went about in the darkness ;
4 As I was in the days of my vintage,
When the secret of Eloah was over my tent,
5 When the Almighty was still with me,
My children round about me ;
6 When my steps were bathed in cream,
And the rock beside me poured forth streams of oil.

Since the optative jf") (comp. on ch. xxiii. 3) is connected
with the acc. of the object desired, ch. xiv. 4, xxxi. 31, or of

118 THE BOOK OF JOB.

that respecting which anything is desired, ch. xi. 5, it is in
itself possible to explain: who gives (makes) me like the
months of yore; but since, when ‘238. occurs elsewhere,
Isa. xxvii. 4, Jer. ix. 1, the suff. is meant as the dative
(=% jn, ch. xxxi. 35), it is also here to be explained:
who gives me (= O that one would give me, O that I had)
like (¢nstar) the months of yore, z.e. months like those of the
past, and indeed those that lie far back in the past; for
‘DIN? means more than T2Y (WY) DY, Job begins to
describe the olden times, that he wishes back, with the virtu-
ally genitive relative clause: “when Eloah protected me”
(Ges. § 116, 3). It is impossible to take ‘ona as LHiph.:
when He caused to shine (Targ. 7207283); either ipa
(Olsh.) or even i932 (Ew. in his Comm.) ought to be read
then. On the other hand, bn can be justified as the form
for inf. Kal of bon (to shine, vid. ch. xxv. 5) with a weaken-
ing of the a to i (Ew. § 255, a), and the suff. may, according
to the syntax, be taken as an anticipatory statement of the
object: when it, viz. His light, shone above my head ; comp.
Ex. 1. 6 (him, the boy), Isa. xvii. 6 (its, the fruit-tree’s,
branches), also xxix. 23 (he, his children); and Ew. § 309, e,
also decides in its favour. Nevertheless it commends itself
still more to refer the suf’. of 172 to mins (comp. Isa. Ix. 2,
Ps. 1. 2), and to take 13 as a corrective, explanatory per-
mutative: when He, His lamp, shone above my head, as we
‘ have translated. One is at any rate reminded of Isa. Ix. in
connection with ver. 3;’for as 1912 corresponds to mr there,
so mind corresponds to Tid in the 3d ver. of the same: by
His light I walked in darkness (7¥M locative = JWM3), i.e.
rejoicing in His light, which preserved me from its dangers
(straying and falling).

In ver. 4 "W823 is not a particle of time, but of comparison,
which was obliged here to stand in the place of the 3, which
is used only as a preposition. And °577 (to be written thus,

CHAP. XXIX. 2-6. 119

not *21N with an aspirated 5) may not be translated “ (in the
days) of my spring,” as Symm. év jyuépais veorntos pov, Jer.
diebus adolescentie mee, and Targ. ‘M5 2i'2, whether it be
that mann here signifies the point, dy (from 47M, Wi >,
acuere), or the early time (spring time, from 91n, Ws .s,
carpere). For in reference to agriculture 17h can certainly
sionify the early half of the year (on this, vid. Genesis,
S. 270), inasmuch as sowing and ploughing time in Pales-
tine and Syria is in November and December; wherefore
ant) yS signifies the early rain or autumn rain; and in Tal-
mudic, 7, premature (ripe too early), is the opposite of
PBN, late, but the derivatives of 91n only obtain this signifi-
cation connotative, for, according to its proper signification,
Aan (% + with other forms) is the gathering time, i.e. the —
time of the fruit harvest (syn. 408), while the Hebr. 22s
(A8) corresponds to the spring in our sense. If Job meant
his youth, he would have said ‘AS ‘2°32, or something similar ;
but as ver. 5b shows, he meant his manhood, and this he calls
his autumn as the season of maturity, or rather of the abun-
dance of fruits (Schult.: wtatem virilem suis fructibus fatum
et exuberantum),' which, according to Olympiodorus, also with
Te Hyunv éruSpi0wv odovs (perhaps xapzrods) of the LXX., is
what is intended. Then the blessed fellowship of Eloah (sip,
familiarity, confiding, unreserved intercourse, Ps. lv. 15, Prov.
iii. 32, comp. Ps. xxv. 14) ruled over his tent; the Almighty

1 The fresh vegetation, indeed, in hotter districts (e.g. in the valley of
the Jordan and Euphrates) begins with the arrival of the autumnal rains,
but the real spring (comp. Cant. ii. 11-18) only begins about the vernal
equinox, and still later on the mountains. On the contrary, the late
summer, 7p, which passes over into the autumn, 57/;, is the season for

gathering the fruit. The produce of the fields, garden fruit, and grapes
ripen before the commencement of the proper autumn; some (when
the land can be irrigated) summer fruits, e.g. Dhura (maize) and
melons, in like manner olives and dates, ripen in autumn. Therefore the
translation, in the days of my autumn (‘‘of my harvest”), is the only

120 | THE BOOK OF JOB.

was still with him (protecting and blessing him), His 03
were round about him. It certainly does not mean servants
(Raschi: *nw), but children (as ch. i. 19, xxiv. 5); for one
expects the mention of the blessing of children first of all
(Ps. exxvii. 3 sqq., exxvili. 3). His steps (7°20, dr Ney.) bathed
then Apna = nNDN, ch. xx. 17 (as M2 = NN, 1 Sam. i, 17,
and possibly 713 = 183), and the rocks poured forth, close by
him, streams of oil (a figure which reminds one of Deut.
xxxii. 13). A rich blessing surrounded him wherever he
tarried or went, and flowed to him wonderfully beyond
desire and comprehension.

7 When I went forth to the gate of the city,
Prepared my seat in the market,

8 Then the young men hid themselves as soon as they saw me,
And the aged rose up, remained standing. |

9 Princes refrained from speaking,
And laid their hand on their mouth.

10 The voice of the nobles was hidden,

And their tongue clave to their palate.

When he left the bounds of his domain, and came into the
city, he was everywhere received with the profoundest re-
spect. From the facts of the case, it is inadmissible to trans-
late guum egrederer portam after Gen. xxxiv. 24, comp.
infra, ch. xxxi. 34, for the district where Job dwelt is to be

correct one. If*‘p4nm were intended here in a sense not used elsewhere,
it might signify, according to the Arabic with T, “Gn the days) of my

prosperity,” or ‘‘ my power,” or even with TC, ‘‘(in the days) of my youth-

ful vigour ;” for charafat are rash words and deeds, charfan one who

says or does anything rash from lightness, the feebleness of old age, etc:

(according to Wetzst., very common words in Syria); }7h or 94n, there-
ip | ; :

fore, the thoughtlessness of youth, (\g>, i.e. the rash desire of doing
something great, which mpd won sin (Judg. v. 18). But it is most
secure to go back to 99n, ws, carpere, Viz. fructus.

CHAP. XXIX. 7-10. 124

thought of as being without a gate. True, he did not dwell
with his family in tents, z.e. pavilions of hair, but in houses ;
he was not a nomad (a wandering herdsman), or what is the
same thing, a Beduin, otherwise his children would not have
been slain in a stone house, ch. 1.19. “The daughter of the
duck,” says an Arabian proverb, “is a swimmer,” and the son
of a Beduin never dwells in a stone house. He was, how-
ever, also, not a citizen, but a hadari ("$), ic. a permanent
resident, a large landowner and husbandman. Thus there-
fore Ww (for which Ew. after the LXX. reads 1n’: “when
I went up early in the morning to the city”) is locative, for
myY (comp. T7187 X¥, go out into the field, Gen. xxvii. 3):
when he went forth to the gate above the city; or even, since
it is natural to imagine the city as situated on an eminence:
up to the city (so that NN¥ includes in itself by implication
the notion of ni2y) ; not, however: to the gate near the city
(Stick., Hahn), since the gate of a city is not situated near
the city, but is part of the city itself. The gates of cities
and large houses in Western Asia are vaulted entrances,
with large recesses on either side, where people congregate
for business and negotiations." The open space at the gate,
which here, as in Neh. viii. 1, 3, 16, is called 31M, ie. the
open space within the gate and by the gate, was the forum
(ch. v. 4). )

Ver. 8. When Job came hither to the meeting of the
tribunal, or the council of the elders of the city, within
which he had a seat and a voice, the young men hid them-
selves, conscious of his presence (which efpoyévy réEex, or, is
expressed paratactically instead of as a period), i.e. they
retired into the background, since they feared his look of
salutation ;” and old men (hoary heads) stood up, remained

1 Vid. Layard, New Discoveries, p. 57.
2 Comp. jer. Schekalim ii. 5 (in Pinner’s Compendium des Thalmud,
S. 58): ‘‘R. Jochanan was walking and leaning upon R. Chija bar-Abba,

122 THE BOOK OF JOB.

standing (dovvdérws, as ch. xx. 19, xxviii. 4). Dip signifies
to stand up, “29 to advance towards any one and remain
standing (comp. vol. i. 357, note 1). They rose in order not
to seat themselves until he was seated. OW are magnates
(proceres) of the city. These pYpn2 MY, cohibebant verba (A8P
with Beth of the obj., as ch. iv. 2, xii, 15), and keeping a
respectful silence, they laid their hand on their mouth (comp,
xxi. 5). All stepped back and desisted from speaking before
him: The speech of illustrious men (0°72 from 723, rai, to
be visible, pleasant to the sight, comp. supra, p. 91) hid itself
(not daring to be heard), and the tongue of the same clave
(motionless) to their palate. We do not translate: as to the
voice illustrious men hid themselves, for it is only the appear-
ance produced by the attractional construction [Ges. § 148, 1]
that has led to the rendering of om32~byp as an ace. of closer
definition (Schult., Hahn : guod ad vocem eminentium, com-
primebantur). The verb is construed with the second member
of the genitival expression instead of with the first, as with
sap, ch. xv. 20, xxi. 21, xxxviii. 21, and with ws, ch.
_ xxii. 12; a construction which occurs with Sip not merely in
such exclamatory sentences as Gen. iv. 10, Isa. lii. 8, but
also under other conditions, 1 Kings i. 41, comp. xiv. 6.
This may be best called an attraction of the predicate by the
second member of the compound subject, like the reverse in-
stance, Isa. ii. 11; and it is sometimes found even where this
second member is not logically the more important. Thus
Ew. transl.: “the voice of the nobles hides itself ;” whereas
Olsh., wrongly denying that the partt. in passages like Gen.
iv. 10, 1 Kings i. 41, are to be taken as predicative, wishes to
R. Eliezer perceived him and hid himself from him (‘spp md apy).
Then said R. Jochanan: This Babylonian insulted him (R. Chija) by
two things; first that he did not salute him, and then that he hid him-
self. But R. Jakob bar-Idi answered him, it is the custom with them

for the less not to salute the greater,—a custom which confirms Job’s
words: Young men saw me and hid themselves.”

CHAP, XXIX. 11-14. 123

read "3n3, which is the more inadmissible, as even the choice
of the verb is determined by the attractional construction.

The strophe which follows tells ‘how it came to pass that
those in authority among the citizens submitted to him, and
that on all sides the people were zealous to show him tokens
of respect.

11 For an ear heard, and called me happy ;
And an eye saw, and bear witness to me:
12 For I rescued the sufferer who cried for help,
And the orphan, and him that had no helper.
13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me,
And I made the widow's heart rejoice. :
14 J put on justice, and it put me on;
As a robe and turban was my integrity.

Thus imposing was the impression of his personal appear-
ance wherever he appeared; for (‘3 ewplic.) the fulness of
the blessing of the possession of power and of prosperity which
he enjoyed was so extraordinary, that one had only to hear of
it to call him happy, and that, especially if any one saw it
with his own eyes, he was obliged to bear laudatory testimony
tohim. The futt. consec. affirm what was the inevitable con-
sequence of hearing and seeing; TYi, seg. ace., is used like
Yatn in the signification of laudatory recognition. The ex-
pression is not brachylogical for > YY (vid. on ch, xxxi. 18);
for from 1 Kings xxi. 10, 13, we perceive that yn with the
ace. of the person signifies to make any one the subject of asser-
tion, whether he be lower or higher in rank (comp. the New
Testament word, especially in Luke, waprupeic@as). It was,
however, not merely the outward manifestation of his unusual
prosperity which called forth such admiration, but his active
benevolence united with the abundant resources at his com-
mand. For where there was a sufferer who cried for help,
he relieved him, especially orphans and those who had no

124 THE BOOK OF JOB.

helper. i “HTN is either a new third object, or a closer
definition of what precedes: the orphan and (in this state of
orphanhood) helpless one. The latter is more probable both
here and in the Salomonic primary passage, Ps. Ixxii. 12; in
the other case 1 “1y7}x wisi might be expected.

Ver. 13. The blessing (1372 with closely closed penult.) of
those who stood on the brink of destruction (7258, interiturus,
as ch. xxxi. 19, Prov. xxxi. 6), and owed their rescue to him,
came upon him; and the heart of the widow to whom he gave
assistance, compensating for the assistance of her lost husband,
he filled with gladness (1277 causative, as Ps. Ixv.9). For the
primary attribute, the fundamental character of his way of
thinking and acting, was P73, a holding fast to the will of God,
which before everything else calls for sympathizing love
(root PI¥, jdc, to be hard, firm, stiff, e.g. rumh-un sadg-un,
according to the Kamus: a hard, firm, straight spear), and
bavi, judgment and decision in favour of right and equity
against wrong and injustice. Righteousness is here called
the garment which he put on (as Ps. exxxii. 9, comp. Isa.
xi. 5, lix. 17), and right is the robe and turban with which
he adorns himself (comp. Isa. lxi. 10); as by Arabian poets
noble attributes are also called garments, which God puts on
any one, or which any one puts on himself (albasa).’ Right-
eousness is compared to the v2 (corresponding to the thod,
i.e. garment, indusium, of the nomads) which is worn on the
naked body, justice to the 423, a magnificent turban (corre-
sponding to the kefije, consisting of a thick cotton cloth, and
fastened with a cord made of camel’s hair), and the magnificent
robe (corresponding to the second principal article of clothing,

the ‘abé). The LXX., Jer., Syr., and Arab. wrongly refer

1JIn Beidhawi, if I remember rightly, this expression occurs once,

sein why ey, i.e. “‘ clothing one’s self in the armour of the
fear of God.”

CHAP. XXIX. 15-17. 125

vad to ‘navn of the second half of the verse, while, on the
contrary, it is said of pws, per antanaclasin, that Job put this
on, and this in turn put Job on, induit; for vind, as the
usage of the language, as we have it, elsewhere shows, does
not signify: it (righteousness) clothed me well (Umbr.),
or: adorned me (Ew., Vaih.), also not: it dressed me out
(Schlottm.), but only: it put me on as a garment, é.¢. it made
me so its own, that my whole appearance was the representa-
tion of itself, as in Judg. vi. 34 and twice in the Chronicles, of
the Spirit of Jehovah it is said that He puts on any one, induit,
when He makes any one the organ of His own manifestation.

15 I was eyes to the blind,

And feet was I to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,

And the cause of the unknown I found out,
17 And broke the teeth of the wicked,

And I cast the spoil forth out of his teeth.

The less it is Job’s purpose here to vindicate himself before
the friends, the more forcible is the refutation which the
accusations of the most hard-hearted uncharitableness raised
against him by them, especially by Eliphaz, ch. xxii., find
everywhere here. His charity relieved the bodily and spiri-
tual wants of others—eyes to the blind (may? with Pathach),
feet to the lame. A father was he to the needy, which is
expressed by a beautiful play of words, as if it were: the
carer for the care-full ones; or what perhaps corresponds to
the primary significations of 28 and {'28:* the protector of

Ge

1 There is an old Arabic defective verb, Us’, Which signifies ‘‘ to seek
an asylum for one’s self,” e.g. and baj, I come as one seeking protection,

a suppliant, in the usual language synon. of Jeo, and thereby indicat-
ing its relationship to the Hebr. xj3, perhaps the root of na (ona), the
n of which would then not be a radical letter, but, as according to Ges.

126 THE BOOK OF JOB.

those needing (seeking) protection. The unknown he did not
regard as those who were nothing to him, but went unselfishly
and impartially into the ground of their cause. ‘APTN? is an
attributive clause, as ch. xviii. 21, Isa. lv. 5, xli. 3, and freq.,
with a personal obj. (corn) quos non noveram, for the trans-
lation causam quam nesciebam (Jer.) gives a tame, almost
meaningless, thought. With reference to the suj. in PHS,
on the form ehw used seldom by Waw consec. (ch. xii. 4), and

Thes. in my, used only in the forming of the word, and the original
meaning would be ‘a refuge.” Traced to a secondary verb, Mas (pro-
perly to take up the fugitive, gabila-I-bija) springing from this primitive
verb, 3x would originally signify a guardian, protector; and from the
fact of this ‘name denoting, according to the form OyB, properly in general
the protecting power, the ideal femin. in nias (Arab. abawat) and the
Arabic dual abawain (properly both guardians), which embraces father
and mother, would be explained and justified. Thus the rare phenomenon
that the same ASN signifies in Hebr. *‘ to be willing,” and in Arab. ‘‘ to
refuse,” would be solved. The notion of taking up the fugitive would
have passed over in the Hebrew, taken according to its positive side, into
the notion of being willing, i.e. of receiving and accepting (bap, gabila,
e.g. 1. Kings xx. 8, MONN xb = la tagbal); in the Arabic, however,
taken according to its negative side, as refusing the fugitive to his pur-
suer, into that of not being willing ; and the usage of the language favours

this: abahu ‘aleihi, he protected him against (ges) the other (refused

air

him to the other) ; ato igi ber protected, inaccessible to him who

4&

longs for it ; él, the: protection, ¢.¢e. the retention of the milk in the

S
udder. Hence jas, from the Hebrew signif. of the verb, signifies one
who desires anything, or a needy person, but originally (inasmuch as

MSN is poppepied with ust) one who needs protection; from the Arabic

sgnit: of “gh one who restrains himself because he is obliged, one to
whom what he wants is denied. To the Arab. ibja (defence, being
hindered) corresponds in form the Hebr. mas, according to which
MIN MN, ch. ix. 26, may be understood of ships, which, with all sails
set and in all haste, seek the sheltering harbour before the approaching
storm. We leave this suggestion for further research to sift digas: oe tag
More on ch. xxxiv. 836.—WETzs?.

CHAP. XXIX. 18-20. 127

by the imper. (ch. xl. 11 sq.), chiefly with a solemn calm tone
of speech, vid. Ew. § 250, c. Further: He spared not to
render wrong-doers harmless, and snatched from them what
they had taken from others. The cohortative form of the
fut. consec., MAS), has been discussed already on ch. i. 15,
xix. 20. The form niy2ny is a transposition of niynry, to
render it more convenient for pronunciation, for the Arab.
eb, efferre se, whence a secondary form, i, although used
of the appearing of the teeth, furnishes no such appropriate
primary signification as the Arab. EN, pungere, mordere,
whence a secondary form, -4); the Aithiopic maltdht, jaw-
bone (mawilla), also favours nyndp asthe primary form. He
shattered the grinders of the roguish, and by moral indigna-
tion against the robber he cast out of his teeth what he had
stolen.

18 Then I thought: With my nest I shall expire,

And like the phanix, have a long life. wi tips

19 My root will be open for water,
And the dew will lodge in my branches.

20 Mine honour will remain ever fresh to me,
And my bow will become young in my hand.

In itself, ver. 186 might be translated: “and like to the
sand I shall live many days” (Targ., Syr., Arab., Saad.,
Gecat., Luther, and, among moderns, Umbr., Stick., Vaih.,
Hahn, and others), so that the abundance of days is compared
to the multitude of the grains of sand. The calculation of
the immense total of grains of sand (atoms) in the world was,
as 1s known, a favourite problem of antiquity; and in the
Old Testament Scriptures, the comprehensive knowledge of
Solomon is compared to “the sand upon the sea-shore,”
1 Kings v. 9,—how much more readily a long life reduced to
days! comp. Ovid, Metam. xiv. 136-138: quot haberet corpora
pulvis, tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi. We would

128 THE BOOK OF JOB.

willingly decide in favour of this rendering, which is admis-
sible in itself, although a closer definition like 5°7 is wanting
by ‘ins, if an extensive Jewish tradition did not secure the sig-
nification of an immortal bird, or rather one rising ever anew
from the dead. The testimony is as follows: (1) 6. Sanhedrin
108, according to which ‘in is only another name for the
bird xx vs,! of which the fable is there recorded, that when
Noah fed the beasts in the ark, it sat quite still in its com-
partment, that it might not give more trouble to the patriarch,
‘who had otherwise plenty to do, and that Noah wished it on
this account the reward of immortality (non xo sin sm).
(2) That this bird Sin is none other than the phoenix, is put
beyond all doubt by the Midrashim (collected in the Jalkut on
Job, § 517). There it is said that Eve gave all the beasts to
eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, and that only one bird,
the Sin by name, avoided this death-food: “it lives a thousand
years, at the expiration of which time fire springs up in its
nest, and burns it up to about the size of an egg;” or even:
that of itself it diminishes to that size, from which it then
grows up again and continues to live (Mm O»DS Saano 1m).
(3) The Masora observes, that Sin> occurs in two different

1 The name is a puzzle, and does not accord with any of the mythical
birds mentioned in the Zendavesta (vid. Windischmann, Zoroastrische
Studien, 1863, 8. 93). What Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, 8. 353,
brings forward from the Greek by way of explanation is untenable. The
name of the bird, Vdresha, in an obscure passage of the Bundehesch
in Windischmann, ib. 8. 80, is similar in sound. Probably, however,
xpwaIN is one and the same word as Simurg, which is composed of si
(= sin) and murg, a bird (Pehlvi and Parsi mru). This si (sin) corre-
sponds to the Vedic gjena, a falcon, and in the Zend form, ¢gaéna (gina),
is the name of a miraculous bird ; so that consequently Simurg = Sinmurg,
Parsi Cinamru, signifies the Si- or Cina-bird (comp. Kuhn, Herabkunft
des Feuers, 1859, 8. 125). In s3°w)s the two parts of the composition
seem to be reversed, and “\y§ to be corrupted from 7%. Moreover, the
Simurg is like the phoenix only in the length of its life; another mytho-
logical bird, Kuknus, on the other hand (vid. the art. Phéniz in Ersch u.
Gruber), resembles it also in rising out of its own ashes.

CHAP. XXIX. 18-20. 129

significations (3v*> “In2), since in the present passage it does
not, as elsewhere, signify sand. (4) Kimchi, in his Lew., says:
“in a correct Jerusalem ms. I found the observation: pw
swaqynd odmay yon, ie. an) according to the Nehardean
(Babylonian) reading, 772) according to the western (Palestine)
reading ;” according to which, therefore, the Babylonian Maso-
retic school distinguished Sina) in the present passage from
Sina}, Gen. xxii. 17, even in the pronunciation. A conclusion
respecting the great antiquity of this lexical tradition may be
drawn (5) from the LXX., which translates domep oréde-
xos poivixos, whence the Italic sicut arbor palme, Jerome
sicut palma.

If we did not know from the testimonies quoted that bin is
the name of the phcenix, one might suppose that the LXX.
has explained 5in2 according to the Arab. nachl, the palm,
as Schultens does; but by a comparison of those testimonies,
it is more probable that the translation was @ozep doiné
originally, and that ®omep orédexos potvixos is an interpola-
tion, for doi signifies both the immortal miraculous bird
and the inexhaustibly youthful palm." We have the reverse
ease in Tertullian, de resurrectione carnis, c. xui., which
explains the passage in Psalms, xcil. 13, dixatos as goiné
av@noe, according to the translation justus velut phenix
- florebit, of the ales ortentis or avis Arabie, which symbolizes

1 According to Ovid, Metam. xv. 396, the phoenix makes its nest in
the palm, and according to Pliny, h. n. xiii. 42, it has its name from the
palm: Phenix putatur ex hujus palme argumento nomen accepisse, iterum
mort ac renasci ex se ipsa; vid. A. Hahmann, Die Dattelpalme, ihre Namen
und thre Verehrung in der alten Welt, in the periodical Bonplandia,
1859, Nr. 15, 16. Masius, in his studies of nature, has very beauti-
fully described on what ground ‘ the intelligent Greek gave a like name
to the fabulous immortal bird that rises again out of its own ashes,
and the palm which ever renews its youth.” Also comp. (Heimsdérfer’s)
Christliche Kunstsymbolik, §. 26, and Augusti, Beitrdge zur christl.
Kunst-Geschichte und Liturgik, Bd. i. S. 106-108, but especially AiDet
Mythologie der christl. Kunst (1847), i. 4468.

VOL. II. . I

130 THE BOOK OF JOB.

man’s immortality.’ Both figures, that of the phoenix and
that of the palm, are equally appropriate and pleasing in the
mouth of Job; but apart from the fact. that the palm every-
where, where it otherwise occurs, is called 112", this would be
the only passage where it occurs in the book of Job, which, in
spite of its richness in figures taken from plants, nowhere men-
tions the palm,—a fact which is perhaps not accidental? On
the contrary, we must immediately welcome a reference to the
Arabico-Egyptian myth of the pheenix, that can be proved, in
a book which also otherwise thoroughly blends things Egyptian
with Arabian, and the more so since (6) even the Egyptian
language itself supports Sin or 5: as a name of the pheenix ;
for AAANH, AAAOH is explained in the Coptico-Arabic
glossaries by es-semendel (the Arab. name of the pheenix, or
at least a pheenix-like bird, that, like the salamander, semendar,
cannot be burned), and in Kircher by avis Indica, species
Phenicis in is Hebraized from this Egyptian name of the

1 Not without reference to Clemens Romanus, in his J. Ep. ad Corinth.
¢. xxv., according to which the phoenix is an Arabian bird, which lives’
five hundred years, then dies in a nest which it builds of incense, myrrh,
and spices, and leaves behind it the larva of a young bird, which, when
grown up, brings the nest with the bones of its father and places it upon
the altar of the sun at the Egyptian Heliopolis. The source of this is
Herodotus ii. 73 (who, however, has an egg of myrrh instead of a nest
of myrrh) ; and Tacitus, Ann. vi. 28, gives a similar narrative. Lactan-
tius gives a different version in his poem on the phoenix, according to
which this, ‘the only one of its race, ‘‘ built its nest in a country that
remained untouched by the deluge.” The Jewish tragedy writer, Eze-
kiélos, agrees more nearly with the statement of Arabia being the home
of the phcenix. In his drama Egeyayg, a spy sent forward before the
pilgrim band of Israel, he states that among other things the phoenix
was also seen; vid. my Gesch. der jiid. Poesie, 8. 219.

2 Without. attempting thereby to explain the phenomenon observed
above, we nevertheless regard it as worthy of remark, that in general the
palm is not a common tree either in Syria or in Palestine. ‘* At present
there are not in all Syria five hundred palm-trees ; and even in olden
times there was no quantity of palms, except in the valley of the Jordan,
and on the sea-coast.”—WETzsT.

3 Vid. G. Seyffarth, Die Pheenix-Periode, Deutsche Morgenlind. Zeitschr.

_

CHAP. XXIX, 18-20. 131

phoenix; the word signifies rotation (comp. Arab. haul, the
year; hawla, round about), and is a suitable designation of
the bird that renews its youth periodically after many centu-
ries of life: que reparat seque ipsa reseminat ales (Ovid), not
merely beginning a new life, but also bringing in a new great
year: conversionem anni magni (Pliny); in the hieroglyphic
representations it has the circle of the sun as a crown. In
the full enjoyment of the divine favour and blessing, and in
the consciousness of having made a right use of his prosperity,
Job hoped doivixos érn Biodv (Lucian, Hermot. 53), to use a
- Greek expression, and to expire or die *3?7DY, as the first half
of the verse, now brought into the right light, says. Looking
to the form of the myth, according to which Ovid sings:

Quassa cum fulvé substravit cinnama myrrhé,
Se super imponit finitque in odoribus xvum,

it might be translated: together with my nest (Umbr., Hirz.,
Higst.) ; but with the wish that he may not see any of his
dear ones die before himself, there is at the same time con-
nected the wish, that none of them should survive him, which
is in itself unnatural, and diametrically opposed to the cha-
racter of an Arab, who in the presence of death cherishes the
twofold wish, that he may continue to live in his children (a
proverb says: men chalaf el-weled el-falih ma mat, he who
leaves a noble child behind him is not dead), and that he
may die in the midst of his family. Expressing this latter
wish, 2p7Dy signifies: with = in my nest, i.e. in the bosom
of my family, not without reference to the phoenix, which,
according to the form of the myth in Herodotus, Pliny,
Clemens, and others, brings the remains of its father in a

iii. (1849) 63 ff., according to which alloé (Hierogl. Koli) is the name of
the false phoenix without head-feathers ; béne or béni (Hierogl. bnno) is
the name of the true phoenix with head-feathers, and the name of the
palm also. Alloé, which accords with 5yn, is quite secured as a name of
the phoenix, |

132 THE BOOK OF JOB.

nest or egg of myrrh to Heliopolis, into the sacred precincts
of the temple of the sun, and thus pays him the last and
highest tribute of respect. A different but similar version is
given in Horapollo il. 57, according to which the young bird
came forth from the blood of its sire, ody T@ watpl mopeverat
eis THY “Hvlov rodw ti év Aiyirrw, os Kal maparyevopevos
éxel dua TH WAlov avatonH Tedkevta. The father, therefore,
in death receives the highest tribute of filial respect; and it is
this to which the hope of being able to die with Ge) his nest,
expressed by Job, refers.

The following substantival clause, ver. 19a, is to be under-
stood as future, like the similar clause, ver. 16a, as perfect :
my root—so I hoped—will remain open (unclosed) towards
the water, z.e. it will never be deficient of water in its vicinity,
that it may plentifully supply the stem and branches with
nourishment, and dew will lodge on my branches, i.e. will
descend nightly, and remain npn tHERt to neerie them.
only i in the book of Job, and bck for the fourth and last
time (comp. ch. ili. 22, v. 26, xv. 22). VSP does not signify
harvest here, as the ancient expositors render it, but, like ch.
_ xiv. 9, xviii. 16, a branch, or the intertwined branches. The
figure of the root and branch, the flow of vitality downwards
and upwards, is the counterpart of ch. xviii. 16. In ver. 20
a substantival clause also comes first, as in vers. 19, 16 (for
the established reading is YN, not YN), and a verbal clause
follows: his honour—so he hoped—should continue fresh by
him, i.e. should abide with him in undiminished value and
splendour. It is his honour before God and men that is
intended, not his soul (Hahn); 7333, Sofa, certainly is an
appellation of the YB) (Psychol. S. 98), but VIN is not appro--
priate to it as predicate. By the side of honour stands man-
liness, or the capability of self-defence, whose symbol is the
bow: and my bow should become young again in my hand,

CHAP, XXIX. 21-25. 133

i.€. gain éver new strength and elasticity. It is unnecessary
to supply 42 (Hirz., Schlottm., and others). The verb ¥5n,
Wilt, signifies, as the Arab. shows, properly to turn the
back, then to go forth, exchange; the Hiph. to make pro-
gress, to cause something new to come into the place of the
old, to grow young again. ‘These hopes introduced with
128) were themselves an element of his former happiness.
Its description can therefore be continued in connection with
the 7198) without any fresh indication.

21 They hearkened to me and waited,

And rémained silent at my decision.
22 After my utterance they spake not again,

And my speech distilled upon them.
23 And they waited for me as for the rain,

And they opened their mouth wide for the latter rain.
24 I smiled to them in their hopelessness,

And the light of my countenance they cast not down.
25 I chose the way for them, and sat as chief,

And dwelt as a king in the army,

As one that comforteth the mourners.

Attentive, patient, and ready to be instructed, they
hearkened to him (this is the force of ? yow), and waited,
without interrupting, for what he should say. sn, the
pausal pronunciation with a reduplication of the last radical,
as Judg. v. 7, IN (according to correct texts), Ges. § 20, 2, ¢;
the reading of Kimchi, oO, is the reading of Ben-Naphtali,
the former the reading of Ben-Ascher (vid. Norzi). If he
gave counsel, they waited in strictest silence: this is the
meaning of 197) (fut. Kal of 0127); ind, poetic for re refers
the silence to its outward cause (vid. on Hab. iii. 16). After
his words non iterabant, t.e. as Jerome explanatorily translates:
-addere nihil audebant, and his speech came down upon them
relieving, rejoicing, and enlivening them. The figure indi-

isé:> THE BOOK OF JOB.

cated in *A is expanded in ver. 23 after Deut. xsxii. 2: they
waited on his word, which penetrated deeply, even to the
heart, as for rain, 18, by which, as ver. 230, the so-called
(autumnal) early rain which moistens the seed is prominently
thought of. They open their mouth for the late rain, wipon
(vid. on ch. xxiv. 6), «ec. they thirsted after his words, which
were like the March or April rain, which helps to bring to
maturity the corn that is soon to be reaped; this rain fre-
quently fails, and is therefore the more longed for. na Ws
is to be understood according to Ps. cxix. 131, comp. lxxxi. 11;
and one must consider, in connection with it, what raptures
the beginning of the periodical rains produces everywhere,
where, as e.g. in Jerusalem, the people have been obliged
for some time to content themselves with cisterns that are
almost dried to a marsh, and how the old and young dance
for joy at their arrival !

In ver. 24a a thought as suited to the syntax as to the fact
is gained if we translate: “I smiled to them—they believed
it not,” «ae. they considered such condescension as scarcely
possible (Saad., Raschi, Rosenm., De Wette, Schlottm., and
others); Ph’ is then fut. hypotheticum, as ch. x. 16, xx. 24,
xxi. 27 sq., Ew. § 357, 6. But it does not succeed in putting
ver. 24) in a consistent relation to this thought; for, with Aben-
Ezra, to explain: they did not esteem my favour the less on that
account, my respect suffered thereby no loss among them, is
not possible in connection with the biblical idea of “the light
of the countenance ;” and with Schlottm. to explain: they let
not the light of my countenance, 7.e. token of my favour, fall
away, i.¢. be in vain, is contrary to the usage of the language,
according to which 5°25 Opn signifies: to cause the counte-
nance to sink (gloomily, Gen. iv. 5), whether one’s own, Jer. —
iii. 12, or that of another. Instead of ‘32 we have a more
pictorial and poetical expression here, ‘25 TiN: light of my
countenance, 7.e. my cheerfulness (as Prov. xvi. 15). More-

CHAP. XXIX, 21-25. 135

over, the nm>y: pnivx, therefore, furnishes the thought that he
laughed, and did not allow anything to dispossess him of his
easy and contented disposition. Thus, therefore, those to
whom Job laughed are to be thought of as in a condition
and mood which his cheerfulness might easily sadden, but
still did not sadden; and this their condition is described by
ON? Nb (a various reading in Codd. and editions is Nr), a
phrase which occurred before (ch. xxiv. 22) in the significa-
tion of being without faith or hope, despairing (comp. P81,
to gain faith, Ps. cxvi. 10),—a clause which is not to be taken
as attributive (Umbr., Vaih.: who had not confidence), but as
a neutral or circumstantial subordinate clause (Ew. § 341, a).
Therefore translate: I smiled to them, if they believed not,
i.e. despaired; and however despondent their position appeared,
the cheerfulness of my countenance they could not cause to
pass away. However gloomy they were, they could not make
me gloomy and off my guard. Thus also ver. 25a is now
suitably attached to the preceding: I chose their way, ze. I
made the way plain, which they should take in order to get
out of their hopeless and miserable state, and sat as chief, as
a king who is surrounded by an armed host as a defence and
as a guard of honour, attentive to the motion of his eye ; not,
however, as a sovereign ruler, but as one who condescended to
the mourners, and comforted them (89) Piel, properly to cause
to breathe freely). This peaceful figure of a king brings
to mind the warlike one, ch. xv. 24. W832 is not a conj.
here, but equivalent to WS WN, ut (quis) gui; consequently
not: as one comforts, but: as he who comforts; LX X. cor-
rectly: Oy tpdmov waGewovs wapaxadov. The accentuation
Qwss Tarcha, Da Munach, ony Silluk) is erroneous ; WWx>
should be marked with Rebia mugrasch, and o1x% with Mer-
cha-Zinnorith.

From the prosperous and happy past, absolutely passed, Job
now turns to the present, which contrasts so harshly with it.

136 THE BOOK OF JOB,,

a“

Tue SECOND PART OF THE MONOLOGUE.—CHAP. XXX.

Schema: 10. 8. 9. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8.

1 And now they who are younger than I have me in derision,
_ Those whose fathers I disdained
To set with the dogs of my flock.
2 Yea, the strength of their hands, what should it profit me?
They have lost vigour and strength.
3 They are benumbed from want and hunger,
They who gnaw the steppe,
The darkness of the wilderness and waste ;
A They who pluck mallows in the thicket,
And the root of the broom is their bread.

With 3, which also elsewhere expresses the turning-
point from the premises to the conclusion, from accusation to
the threat of punishment, and such like, Job here begins to
bewail the sad turn which his former prosperity has taken.
The first line of the verse, which is marked off by Mercha-
Mahpach, is intentionally so disproportionately long, to form
a deep and long breathed beginning to the lamentation which
is now begun. Formerly, as he has related in the first part
of the monologue, an object of reverential fear to the respect-
able youth of the city (ch. xxix. 8), he is now an object of
derision (29 pny, to laugh at, distinct from ON pn, ch. xxix. 24,
to laugh to, smile upon) to the young good-for-nothing vaga-
bonds of a miserable class of men. They are just the same.
8 “IY, whose sorrowful lot he reckons among the mysteries
of divine providence, so difficult of solution (ch. xxiv. 40-8).
The less he belongs to the merciless ones, who take advan-
tage of the calamities of the poor for their own selfish ends,
instead of relieving their distress as far as is in their power,

CHAP. XXX, 1-4. 137

the more unjustifiable is the rude treatment which he now
experiences from them, when they who meanly hated him
before because he was rich, now rejoice at the destruction of
his prosperity. Younger than he in days (D2 as ch. xxxii. 4,
with ° of closer definition, instead of which the simple acc.
was inadmissible here, comp. on ch. xi. 9) laugh at him, sons
of those fathers who were so useless and abandoned that he
scorned (° DS, comp. } DN, 1 Sam. xv. 26) to entrust to
them even a service so menial as that of the shepherd dogs.
Schult., Rosenm., and Schlottm. take OY nv for by NY, pre-
ficere, but that ought to be just simply Sy nw; oy mv signi-
fies to range beside, 2.¢. to place alike, to associate; moreover,
the oversight of the shepherd dogs is no such menial post,
while Job intends to say that he did not once consider them
fit to render such a subordinate service as is that of the dogs
which help the shepherds. And even the strength of their
(these youths’) hands (03 is referable to the sug’. of O7";
even; not: now entirely, completely, as Hahn translates), of
what use should it be to him? (78> not cur, but ad quid,
quorsum, as Gen. xxv. 32, xxvil. 46.) They are enervated,
good-for-nothing fellows: n22 is lost to them (iO'2Y trebly
emphatic: it is placed in a prominent position, has a pathetic
suff., and is °Y for °, 1 Sam. ix. 3). The signif. senectus, which
suits ch. v. 26, is here inapplicable, since it is not the aged
that are spoken of, but the young; for that “old age is lost to
them” would be a forced expression for the thought—which,
moreover, does not accord with the connection—that they die
off early. One does not here expect the idea of senectus or
senectus vegeta, but vigor, as the Syriac (‘wshino) and Arabic
also translate it. May not nds perhaps be related to 13, as
NOY to PNY, the latter being a mixed form from 28% and
‘bv, the former from 2 and n>, fresh juicy vigour, or as we
say: pith and marrow (Saft and Kraft)? At all events, if
this is somewhat the idea of the word, it may be derived from

138 THE BOOK OF JOB.

nop = nbs (LXX. cuvrédeva), or some other way (vid. on ch.
v. 26): it signifies full strength or maturity."

With ver. 3a begins a new clause. It is 31003, not pens,
because the book of Job does not inflect this Hebreeo-Arabic
word, which is peculiar to it (besides only Isa. xlix. 21, mnO?3),
It is also in Arab. more a substantive (stone, a mass) than
an adj. (hard as stone, massive, e.g. Hist. Tamerlani in
Schultens: syslad! <wall, the hardest rock); and, similar to
the Greek yépcos (vid. Passow), it denotes the condition or
attribute of rigidity, ze. sterility, ch. iii. 7; or stiff as death,
ch, xv. 34; or, as here, extreme weakness and incapability of

1 From the root JS (on its primary notion, vid. my review of Bern-
stein’s edition of Kirsch’s Syr. Chrestomathie, Ergdénzungsblatt der A.L.Z.
s

1843, Nr. 16 and 17) other derivatives, as MS, iS) wills, ly,
es 5 hes ps etc., develop in general the significations to bring, take,
or hold together, enclose, and the like ; but os in particular the signi-

fication to draw together, distort violently, viz. the muscles of the face
in grinning and showing the teeth, or even sardonic laughing, and draw-

ing the lips apart. The general signification of drawing together, a4,
resolves itself, however, from that special reference to the muscles of the

Di? 6

face, and is manifest in the IV. form os, to show one’s self strict and

firm (against any one); also more sensuously : to remain firm in one’s
place; of the moon, which remains as though motionless in one of its

S yu Sa.

twenty-eight halting-places. Hence os _p>o, a hard season, wes}

Gre at

NA and cs os (the latter as a kind of n. propr. invariably

ending in 7, and always without the article), a hard year, i.e. a year of
failure of the crops, and of scarcity and want. If it is possible to apply

this to nba without the hazardous comparison of hast pssll, etc. [so

supra, i. 103], the primary signification might perhaps be that of hard-
ness, unbroken strength; ch. v. 26, ‘“‘ Thou wilt go to the grave with
unbroken strength,” i.e. full of days indeed, but without having thyself
experienced the infirmities and burdens of the xtas decrepita, as also a
shock brought in ‘tin its season” is at the highest point of ripeness ;
xxx. 2: ‘* What (should) the strength of their hands profit me? as for
them, their vigour is departed.”—FL.

CHAP, XXX. 1-4. 139

working. The subj.: such are they, is wanting; it is ranged
line upon line in the manner of a mere sketch, participles
with the demonstrative article follow the elliptical substantival
clause. The part. O}19 is explained by LXX., Targ.,

Saad. (Ly Js); and most’of the old expositors, after PIY, (5 =,

fut. 37% fugere, abire, which, however, gives a tame and—
since the desert is to be thought of as the proper habitation
of these people, be they the Seir remnant of the displaced
Horites, or the Hauran “races of the clefts”’—even an inap-
propriate sense. On the contrary, 4,¢ in Arab. (also Pael
“arreg in Syriac) signifies to gnaw; and this Arabic significa-
tion of a word exclusively peculiar to the book of Job (here
and ch. xxx. 17) is perfectly suitable. We do not, however,
with Jerome, translate: gui rodebant in solitudine (which is
doubly false), but gui rodunt solitudinem, they gnaw the sun-
burnt parched ground of the steppe, stretched out there more
like beasts than men (what Gecatilia also means by his ye oj);
adherent), and derive from it their scanty food. MNiv vio
msi is added as an explanatory, or rather further descriptive,
permutative to 7%. The same alliterative union of substan-
tives of the same root occurs in ch. xxxviii. 27, Zeph. i. 15,
and a similar one in Nah. ii. 11 (Apia mpi), Ezek. vi. 14,
Xxxili. 29 (Mw How); on this expression of the superlative
by heaping up similar words, comp. Ew. § 313, ¢. The verb
nXw has the primary notion of wild confused din (eg. Isa.
xvil. 12 sq.), which does not pass over to the idea of desola-
tion and destruction by means of the intermediate notion of
‘ruins that come together with a crash, but by the transfer of
what is confusing to the ear to confusing impressions and
conditions of all kinds; the desert is accordingly called also
wh, Deut. xxxii. 10, from ANA = HNXY (vid. Genesis, S. 93).
The noun WP signifies elsewhere adverbially, in the past
night, to grow night-like, and in general yesterday, according

140 THE BOOK OF JOB.

to which it is translated: the yesterday of waste and desola-
tion; or, retaining the adverbial form: waste and desolation
are of yesterday = long since. It is undeniable that PHONNID
and Pons, Isa, xxx. 33, Mic. ii. 8, are used in ‘the sense
pridem (not only to-day, but even yesterday); but our poet
uses Dinh, ch. viii. 9, in the opposite sense, non pridem (not
long since, but only of yesterday); and it is more natural to
ask whether wos then has not here the substantival significa-
tion from which it has become an adverb, in the signification
nightly or yesterday. Since it originally signifies yesterday
evening or night, then yesterday, it must have the primary

CS

signification darkness, as the Arab. (j<! is also traceable

to the primary notion of the sinking of the sun towards the
horizon; so that, consequently, although the usage of Arabic
does not allow this sense,’ it can be translated (comp. nyby,
Jer. lil. 6), “the evening darkness (gloominess) of the waste
and wilderness” (Wi28 as regens, Ew. § 286, a). The Targ.

Cz
4 Lwel is manifestly connected with Lanes Ls, first by means of the
IV. form Lee! ; it has, however, like this, nothing to do with “darkness.”
\.we is, according to the original sources of information, properly the
whole afternoon until sunset; and this time is so called, because in

vw cs Cer

it the sun gu) or Loe, touches, 7.e. sinks towards the horizon

‘

(from the root (jw with the primary notion stringere, terere, tergere,

w Or ~

trahere, prehendere, capere). Just so they say Nas cris, properly

ws Cw
the sun rubs; W2c3, connects itself ; pas , goes to the brink ( pry
‘ 4 ‘ Fs:
hid), all in the same signification. Used as a substantive, mel
followed by the genitive is Ja veille de . . . , the evening before... ,

a «

and then generally, the day before . . . , the opposite of As with the
same construction, le lendemain de —. It is absolutely impossible that it

CHAP. XXX, 1-4. 141

also translates similarly, but takes wx as a special attri-
bute: svn WH NDivN, “darkness like the late evening.”
Olshausen’s conjecture of 78 makes it easier, but puts a
word that affirms nothing in the place of an expressive one.
Ver. 4 tells what the scanty nourishment is which the
chill; desolate, and gloomy desert, with its steppes and gorges,
furnishes them. > (also Talmudic, Syriac, and Arabic) is
the orach, and indeed the tall shrubby orach, the so-called
sea-purslain, the buds and young leaves of which are gathered
and eaten by the poor. That it is not merely a coast plant,
but grows also in the desert, is manifest from the narrative
b. Kidduschin, 66a: “ King Jannai approached moma in the
desert, and conquered sixty towns there [Ges. translates
wrongly, captis LX talentis]; and on his return with great
joy, he called all the orphans of Israel to him, and said: Our
fathers ate n’mbn in their time when they were engaged with
the building of the temple (according to Raschi: the second
temple; according to Aruch: the tabernacle in the wilder-

should refer to a far distant past. On the contrary, it is always used like
our ‘‘ yesterday,” in a general sense, for a comparatively near past, or

a past time thought of as near, as A< is used of a comparatively near
future, or a future time thought of as near. Zamachschari in the Kes-
sch@f on Sur. xvii. 25: It is a duty of children to take care of their aged
parents, ‘‘ because they are so aged, and to-day (el-jawma) require those
who even yesterday (bi-l-emsi) were the most dependent on them of all
God’s creatures.” It never means absolutely evening or night. What
Gesenius, Thes., cites as a proof for it from Vita Timuri, ii. 428—a sup-
posed isl vespertinus—is falsely read and explained (as in general
Manger’s translation of those verses abounds in mistakes) ;—both line 1
and line 9, uel, IV. form of le, is rhetorically and poetically (as
** sister of .. ols”) of like signification with the general ,., \S or uw. An
Arab luli not be able to understand that nevis nie’ WON other-

wise than: ‘on the eve of destruction and ruin, ” i.e. at ‘the breaking i in
of destruction and ruin which is just at hand or has actually followed
rapidly upon something else.—FL.

142 THE BOOK OF JOB.

ness) ; we will also eat om) in remembrance of our fathers!
And n'mp were served up on golden tables, and they ate.”
The LXX. translates, d\ywa (not: dua); as in Atheneeus,
poor Pythagoreans are once called GAupa tpwyovtes Kab Kaka
ToavTa ovdAéyovtes.. The place where they seek for and
find this kind of edible plant is indicated by MY72Y. OY is
a shrub in general, but certainly pre-eminently the ~.x%,
that perennial, branchy, woody plant of uncultivated ground,
about two-thirds of a yard high, and the same in diameter,
which is one of the greatest blessings of Syria and of the
steppe, since, with the exception of cow and camel’s dung, it
is often the only fuel of the peasants and nomads,—the prin-
cipal, and often in a day’s journey the only, vegetation of the
steppe, in the shade of which, when everything else is parched,
a scanty vegetation is still preserved.” The poor in search of
the purslain surround this ~.% (shih), and as ver. 4b con-
tinues: the broom-root is their bread. Ges. understands pone
according to Isa. xlvii. 14, where it is certainly the pausal
form for Dione (“there is not a coal to warm one’s self”), and
that because the broom-root is not eatable. But why should
broom-root and not broom brushwood be mentioned as fuel?
The root of the steppe that serves as fuel, together with the
shih, is called gizl (from $y, to tear out), not retem, which is
the broom (and is extraordinarily frequent in the Belka).
The Arabs, however, not only call Genista monosperma so,
but also Chame@rops humilis, a degenerate kind of which pro-
duces a kind of arrow-root which the Indians in Florida use.’

1 Huldrich Zwingli, in the Greek Aldine of 1518 (edited by Andrea of
Asola), which he has annotated throughout in the margin, one of the
choicest treasures of the Zurich town library, explains za:ue by darcooin,
which was natural by the side of the preceding wepizuxaodyres. We shall
mention these marginal notes of Zwingli now and again.

2 Thus Wetzstein in his Reise in den beiden Trachonen und um das °
Haurangebirge.

° The description of these eaters of the steppe plants corresponds exactly

CHAP, XXX. 1-4. 143

pone in the signification cibus eorum is consequently not
incomprehensible. LX -X. (which throws vers. 4—6 into sad
confusion): of «al pifas EiNwv euaccdvto.' All the ancient
versions translate similarly. One is here reminded of what
Agatharchides says in Strabo concerning the Egyptio-Ethiopian
eaters of the rush root and herb.’

to the reality, especially if that race, bodily so inferior, is contrasted with
the agricultural peasant, and some allowance is made for the figure of
speech élre (i.e. a description in colours, strongly brought out), with-
out which poetic diction would be flat and devoid of vividness in the eye
of an Oriental. The peasant is large and strong, with a magnificent
beard and an expressive countenance, while e.g. the Trachonites of the
present day (i.e. the race of the War, 1p"), both men and women, are a

small, unpleasant-looking, weakly race. It is certain that bodily perfec-
tion is a plant that only thrives in a comfortable house, and needs good
nourishment, viz. bread, which the Trachonite of the present day very
rarely obtains, although he levies heavy contributions on the harvest of
the villagers. Therefore the roots of plants often serve as food. Two

such plants, the gahh (m3) and the rubbe halile (nddn ma), are described
in my Reisebericht. A Beduin once told me that it should be properly
called rubh Jéle ( nips mah), ‘the gain of a supper,” inasmuch as it often
takes the place of this, the chief meal of the day. To the genus rubbe
belongs also the holéwa (serrn1) 5 in like manner they eat the bulbous

plant, gotén (jp) ; of another, the mesha’ (wid), they eat leaves, stem,
and root. I often saw the poor villagers (never Beduins) eat the broad

thick fleshy leaves of a kind of thistle (the thistle is called wo) ge y shok),

the name of which is “aqqub (axpy) ; these leaves are a handbreadth and

a half in length, and half a handbreadth in width. They gather them
before the thorns on the innumerable points of the serrated leaves become
strong and woody; they boil them in salt and water, and serve them up
with a little butter. Whole tribes of the people of the Ruwala live upon
the small brown seed (resembling mustard-seed) of the semh (np). The

seeds are boiled to a pulp.—WETzsT.

1 Zwingli observes here: Sigma only once. Codd. Alex. and Sinait.
have the reading ¢~ecwvro, which he prefers.

2 Vid. Meyer, Botanische Erlduterungen zu Strabons G'eographie, 8.
108 ff. ;

144 THE BOOK OF JOB.

5 They are driven forth from society,
They cry after them as after a thief.

6 In the most dismal valleys they must dwell,
In holes of the earth and in rocks.

7 Among the bushes they croak,
Under nettles are they poured forth,

8 Sons of fools, yea sons of base men:
They are driven forth out of the land !—

If, coming forth from their lurking-places, they allow
themselves to be seen in the villages of the plain or in the
towns, they are driven forth from among men, e medio pellun-
tur (to use a Ciceronian phrase). 13 (Syr. gau, Arab. gaww,
guww) is that which is internal, here the circle of social
life, the organized human community. This expression also
is Hebreeo-Arabic; for if one contrasts a house or district

a so

with what is outside, he says in Arabic, |, \>, guwwd

wa-berrd, within and without, or col, us lash, el-quwwant
wa'l-berrdni, the inside and the outside. In ver. 5), 2335,
like the thief, is equivalent to, as after the thief, or since this
generic Art. is not usual with us [Germ. and Engl.]: after
a thief; French, on erie apres eux comme apres le voleur. In
ver. 6a, jouip is, according to Ges. § 132, rem. 1 (comp. on
Hab. i. 17), equivalent to jw wn, “they are to dwell” =
they must dwell; it might also signify, according to the still
more frequent usage of the language, habitaturt sunt; it here,
however, signifies habitandum est eis, as pibad, Ps. xxxii. ‘9;
obturanda sunt. Instead of YA with Shurek, the reading
yinva with Cholem (after the form 73D, Hos. xiii. 8) is also
found, but it is without. support. /Y is either a substantive
after the form maa (Ges., as Kimchi), or the construct of
yy = yw, feared = fearful, so that the connection of the
words, which we prefer, is a superlative one: in horridissima

CHAP, XXX. 5-8." , 145

vallium, in the most terrible valleys, as ch. xli. 22, acutissime
testarum (Ew., according to § 313, c). The further description
of the habitation of this race of men: in holes (alu = "3)
of the earth (15Y, earth with respect to its constituent parts)
and rocks (LX X. tp@yAar wetpdv), may seem to indicate
the aborigines of the mountains of the district of Seir, who
are called OAT, tpwydodvtae (vid. Genesis, S. 507); but
why not, which is equally natural, 10, Ezek. xlvii. 16, 18,
the “district of caverns,” the broad country about Bosra,
with the two Trachdnes (tpaywves), of which the smaller
western, the Legd, is the ancient Trachonitis, and with
Itureea (the mountains of the Druses) ?

As ch. vi. 5 shows, there underlies ver. 7a a comparison of
this people with the wild ass. The 815, ferd, goes about in
herds under the guidance of a so-called leader (vid. on ch.
xxxix. 5), with which the poet in ch. xxiv. 5 compares the
bands that go forth for forage; here the point of comparison,
according to ch. vi. 5, is their bitter want, which urges from
them the cry of pain; for 3P73', although not too strong, would
nevertheless. be an inadequate expression for their sermo

1 Wetzstein also inclines to refer the description to the Iturseans, who,
according to Apuleius, were frugum pauperes, and according to others,
freebooters, and are perhaps distinguished from the Arabes Trachonitz
(if they were not these themselves), as the troglodytes are from the
Arabs who dwell in tents (on the troglodytes in Eastern Hauran, vid.
Reisebericht, S. 44; 126). ‘‘The troglodyte was very often able to go
without nourishment and the necessaries of life. Their habitations are
not unfrequently found where no cultivation of the land was possible,
e.g. in Safa. They were therefore either rearers of cattle or marauders.
The cattle-rearing troglodyte, because he cannot wander about from one
pasture to another like the nomads who dwell in tents, often loses his
herds by a failure of pasture, heavy falls of snow (which often produce
great devastation, e.g. in Hauran), epidemics, etc. Losses may also arise
from marauding attacks from the nomads. Still less is this marauding,
which is at enmity with all the world, likely to make a race prosperous,
which, like the troglodyte, being bound to a fixed habitation, cannot
escape the revenge of those whom it has injured.” —-WEtzst.

VOL. II. K

146 THE BOOK OF JOB.

barbarus (Pineda), in favour of which Schlottmann calls to
mind Herodotus’ (iv. 183) comparison of the language of
the Troglodyte Ethiopians with the screech of the night-owl
(retplyact xatdrep at vuxtepioes). Among bushes (especially
the bushes of the shih, which affords them some nourishment
and shade, and a green resting-place) one hears them, and
hears from their words, although he cannot understand them
more closely, discontent and lamentation over their desperate

condition: there, under nettles (x90, root In, .>, as urtica

from urere), i.e. useless weeds of the desert, they are poured
forth, i.e. spread about in disorder. Thus most moderns
take MAD = FD, Ars, comp. MD, profusus, Amos vi. 4, 7,
although one might also abide by the usual Hebrew mean-
ing of the verb nap (hardened from mpd), adjungere, associare
(vid. Habak. 8. 88), and with Hahn explain: under nettles ‘
they are united together, te. they huddle together. But
neither the fut. nor the Pual (instead of which one would
expect the Niph. or Hithpa.) is favourable to the latter inter-
pretation; wherefore we decide in favour of the former, and
find sufficient support for a Hebr.-Arabic nap in the signi-
fication effundere from a comparison of ch. xiv. 19 and the
present passage. Ver. 8, by dividing the hitherto latent sub-
ject, tells what sort of people they are: sons of fools, profane,
insane persons (vid. on Ps. xiv. 1); moreover, or of the like
kind (03, not 4%), sons of the nameless, ignobilium or in-
famium, since nv>3 is here an adj. which stands in depend-
ence, not jilii infamie = infames (Hirz. and others), by which
the second ‘33 is rendered unlike the first. The assertion
ver. 84 may be taken as an attributive clause: who are
driven forth . .. 3 but the shortness of the line and the
prominence of the verb are in favour of the independence
of the clause like an exclamation in its abrupt and halting
form, 383) is Niph. of 821=33 (*22), root P, to hew, pierce,

CHAP. XXX. 9-12. 147

strike.’ On 789, of arable land in opposition to the steppe,
wid. on ch. xviii. 17.

9 And now Iam become their song,
_ And a by-word to them.
10 They avoid me, they flee far from me,
And spare not my face with spitting.
11 Kor my cord of life He hath loosed, and afflicted me,
Therefore they let loose the bridle recklessly.
12 The rabble presses upon my right hand,
They thrust my feet away, |
And cast up against me their destructive ways.

The men of whom Job complains in this strophe are none
other than those in the preceding strophe, described from the
side of their coarse and degenerate behaviour, as ch. xxiv. 4-8
described them from the side of the wrong which was prac-
tised against them. This rabble, constitutionally as well as
morally degraded, when it comes upon Job’s domain in its
marauding expeditions, makes sport of the sufferer, whose
former earnest admonitions, given from sympathizing anxiety
for them, seemed to them as insults for which they revenge
‘themselves. He is become their song of derision (72°22 to
be understood according to the dependent passage, Lam.
iii. 14, and Ps. Ixix. 13), and is 129? to them, their 6pdxAnua

Ere
1 The root 3 is developed in Hebr. N23, 730, in Arab. \G and

fe

caus first to the idea of outward injury by striking, hewing, etc.; but
it is then also transferred to other modes of inflicting injury, and in

,

tS /s, to being injured in mind. The root shows itself in its most sen-

,
i ad

suous development in the reduplicated form UG, to strike one with
repeated blows, fig. for: to press any one hard with claims. According

to another phase, the obscene OU fut. i, and the decent cS; signify
properly to pierce.—FL.

148 THE BOOK OF JOB.

(LXX.), the subject of their foolish talk (n> = Arab. mille,
not = melle, according to which Schultens inteprets it, sum
tis fastidio). Avoiding him, and standing at a distance from
him, they make their remarks upon him; and if they come
up to him, it is only for the sake of showing him still deeper
scorn: a facie ejus non cohibent sputam. The expositors who
explain that, contrary to all decent bearing, they spit in his
presence (Hichh., Justi, Hirz., Vaih., Higst.), or with Fie!
spit out before him (Umbr., Hahn, Schlottm.), overlook the
fact of its being ‘25%, not "59, The expression as it stands
can only affirm that they do not spare his face with spitting
(Jer. correctly : conspuere non veruntur), so that consequently
he is become, as he has complained in ch. xvii. 6, a NBA, an
object of spitting (comp. also the declaration of the servant
of Jehovah, Isa. 1. 6, which stands in close connection with
this declaration of Job, according to previous explanations). »

It now becomes a question, Who is the subj. in ver. 1la?
The Chethib n demands an attempt to retain the previous
subj. Accordingly, most moderns explain: solvit unusquis-
que eorum funem suum, 2.e. frenum suum, quo continebatur
antea a me (Rosenm., Umbr., Stick., Vaih., Hlgst., and
others), but it is to be doubted whether 1h can mean frenum ;
it signifies a cord, the string of a bow, and of a harp. The
reconciliation of the signification redundantia, ch. xxii. 20,
and funis, is, in the idea of the root, to be stretched tight
and long.’ Hirz. therefore imagines the loosing of the cord

1 The verb ps shows its sensuous primary signification in »», 4n,
cord, bow-string, harp-string (Engl. string): to stretch tight, to extend,

Str Ge
so that the thing continues in one line. Hence then_~», >») separate,
unequal, singulus, impar, opp. Ee, bint, par, just as fard, single, sepa-
rate, unequal (opp. zaug, a pair, equal number), is derived from farada,
properly, so to strain or stretch out, that the thing has no bends or folds;
Greek 2ZeAody (as in the Shepherd of Hermas: travw rgvriov efnrAw-

lll ies iil

CHAP. XXX. 9-12. 149

rouud the body, which served them as a girdle, in order to
strike Job with it. But whether one decides in favour of
the Chethib nn’ or of the Keri “nm, the persons who insult
Job cannot in any case be intended. The isolated sing. form
of the assertion, while the rabble is everywhere spoken of in
the plur., is against it; and also the ‘2, which introduces it,
and after which Job here allows the reason to come in, why
he is abandoned without any means of defence to such brutal
misconduct. The subj. of ver. lla is God. If 1° is read,
it may not be interpreted: He hath opened = taken off the
covering of His string (= bow) (Ew., Hahn, and similarly
even LXX., Jer.), for sn’ does not signify the bow, but the
string (Arab. muwattar, stretched, of a bow); and while nns,
Ezek. xxi. 33 (usually now or P17), can certainly be said of
drawing a sword from its sheath, MY is the appropriate and.
usual word (vid. Hab. S. 164) for making bare the bow and
shield. Used of the bow-string, 578 signifies to loose what is

peevov Aivoy xepreasvoy), an original transitive signification still retained in

4st

low Arabic (vid. Bocthor under Litendre and Déployer). Then from _ 3,

POL 47

spring the secondary roots J and «¢3, which proceed from the VIII.

For
form (ittatara). The former (tatara) appears only in the adverb 1

sur
and (s¢ Fe sigillatim, alii post alios, singly one after another, so that
several persons or things form a row interrupted by intervals of space or
time; the latter (tara) and its IV. form (atra) are equivalent to wdatara,
to be active at intervals, with pauses between, as the Arabs explain:
ws
“We say oS, \ of a man when he so performs several acts which do not
70F

directly follow one another, that there is always a 5, intermissio, be-
tween two acts.” Hence also jn, }'Ann, duals of an assumed sing. “A,

singulus (um), FAK singula, therefore prop. duo singuli (a), duz singule,

altogether parallel to the like meaning thindni (ithndni), thinaint (ith-
naini), Dw; fem. thintani (ithnatani), thintaini (ithnataini), DAY

instead of p'myw, from an assumed sing. thin-un (ithn-un), thint-un

150 THE BOOK OF JOB.

strained, by sending the arrow swiftly forth from it, according
to which, e.g. Elizabeth Smith translates: Because He hath
let go His bow-string and afflicted me. One cannot, how-
ever, avoid feeling that ‘2399 is not a right description of the
effect of shooting with arrows, whereas an idea is easily gained
from the Keri in’, to which the description of the effect cor-
responds. It has been interpreted: He has loosed my rein
or bridle, by means of which I hitherto bound them and held
them in check; but 1M in the signification: rein or bridle is,
as already observed, not practicable. Better Capellus: meta-
phora ducta est ab exarmato milite, cujus arcis solvitur nervus
sicque inermis redditur ; but it is more secure, and still more
appropriate to the 23» which follows, when it is interpreted
according to ch. iv. 21: He has untied (loosened) my cord
of life, .e. the cord which stretched out and held up my tent
(the body) (Targ. similarly: my chain and the threads of my
cord, i.e. surely: my outward and inward stay of life), and

(ithnat-un), from _ 0, 20%, like bin (ibn), bint (ibnat), ya, na (= nda,
hence ‘M2) from is m2.

The significations of watara which Freytag arranges under 1, 2, 3, 4,
proceed from the transitive application of 4m, as the Italian soperchiare,

soverchiare, from supra, to offend, insult; oltraggiare, outrager, from
ultra ; vGpiCev from dxrép. Similarly, bre Solas and eile Pa) \=s |

(form VI. and X. from Jb), to act haughtily towards any one, to make
him feel one’s superiority, properly to stretch one’s self out over or
against any one.

But in another direction the signif. to be stretched out goes into:
overhanging, surpassing, projecting, to be superfluous, and to be left over,
mepirrov sivas, to exceed a number or bulk, superare (comp. Italian soper-
chiare as intrans.), repisives, varepsives; to prove, as result, gain, etc.,

aes a

mwepieives, etc. Similar is the development of the meaning of (kc and

sr
of bh, gain, use, from Jb, to be stretched out. In like manner, the

German reich, reichlich [rich, abundant], comes from the root reichen,
recken [to stretch, extend].—FL.

CHAP, XXX. 9—12. 151

bowed me down, i.e. deprived me of strength (comp. Ps.
cii. 24); or also: humbled me. ven in this his feebleness
he is the butt of unbridled arrogance: and they let go the
bridle before me (not "5, in my presence, but 25°, before
me, before whom previously they had respect; ‘35 the same
as Ley, xix. 32), they cast or shake it off (nbv as ch. xxxix. 3,
synon. of On ; comp. 1 Kings ix. 7 with 2 Chron. vii. 20).

Is it now possible that in this connection 18 can denote
any else but the rabble of these good-for-nothing fellows?
Ewald nevertheless understands by it Job’s sufferings, which
as a rank evil swarm rise up out of the ground to seize upon
him; Hahn follows Ew., and makes these sufferings the subj.,
as even in ver. 11). But if we consider how Ew. translates;
“they hung a bridle from my head ;” and Hahn: “they have
cast a bit before my face,” this might make us tired of. all
taste for this allegorical mode of interpretation. The stump
over which they must stumble is ver. 13c, where all climax
must be abandoned in order to make the words 5 “yy ~
intelligible in this allegorical connection. No indeed; nmM=
(instead of which M5 might be expected, as supra, ch. iii. 5,
193 for 22) is the offspring or rabble of those fathers
devoid of morals and honour, those ayy of ver. 1, whose
laughing-stock Job is now, as the children of priests are

Cs

called in Talmudic m3 "8, and in Arabic <7 denotes not

only the young of animals, but also a rascal or vagabond.
This young rabble rises pDy-2y, on Job’s right hand, which is
the place of an accuser (Ps. cix. 6), and generally one who
follows him up closely and oppresses him; and they press him
continually further and further, contending one foot’s-breadth
after another with him: anys oN, my feet thrust them forth,
protrudunt (M?¥ the same as ch. xiv. 20). By this pressing
from one place to another, a way is prepared for the descrip-
tion of their hostile conduct, which begins in ver. 12¢ under

152 THE BOOK OF JOB.

the figure of a siege. The fut. consec. ‘DM, ver. 12c, is not
meant retrospectively like 22», but places present with pre-
sent in the connection of cause and effect (comp. Ew. 343, a).
We must not be misled by the fact that io, ch. xix. 12
(which see), was said of the host of sufferings which come
against Job; here it is those young people who cast up the ©
ramparts of misfortune or burdensome suffering (78) against
Job, which they wish to make him feel. The tradition, sup-
ported by the LXX., that Job had his seat outside his
domain él Ths Kxompias, i.e. upon the mezbele, is excellently
suited to this and the following figures. Before each village
in Hauran there is a place where the households heap up the
sweepings of their stalls, and it gradually reaches a great
circumference, and a height which rises above the highest
buildings of the village." Notwithstanding, everything is in-
telligible without this thoroughly Hauranitish conception of
the scene of the history. Bereft of the protection of his chil-
dren and servants, become an object of disgust to his wife,
and an abhorrence to his brethren, forsaken by every atten-
tion of true affection, ch. xix. 13-19, Job lies out of doors;
and in this condition, shelterless and defenceless, he is aban-

1 One ought to have a correct idea of a Hauranitish mezbele. The
dung which is heaped up there is not mixed with straw, because in warm,
dry countries no litter is required for the cattle, and comes mostly from
single-hoofed animals, since small cattle and oxen often pass the nights
on the pastures. .It is brought in a dry state in baskets to the place
before the village, and is generally burnt once every month. Moreover,
they choose days on which the wind is favourable, 7.e. does not cast the
smoke over the village. The ashes remain. The fertile volcanic ground
does not need manure, for it would make the seed in rainy years too luxu-
riant at the expense of the grain, and when rain fails, burn it up. If
a village has been inhabited for a century, the mezbele reaches a height
which far surpasses it. The winter rains make the ash-heaps into a
compact mass, and gradually change the mezbele into a firm mound of
earth, in the interior of which those remarkable granaries, bidr el-ghalle,
are laid out, in which the wheat can be completely preserved against
heat and mice, garnered up for years. The mezbele serves the inhabitants

CHAP. XXX. 18-15. 153

doned to the hideous malignant joy of those gipsy hordes
which wander hither and thither.

13 They tear down my path,
They minister to my overthrow,
They who themselves are helpless.
14 As through a wide breach they approach,
Under the crash they roll onwards.
15 Terrors are turned against me,
They pursue my nobility like the wind,
And like a cloud my prosperity passed away.—

They make all freedom of motion and any escape impossible
to him, by pulling down, diruunt, the way which he might go.
Thus is 3572 (cogn. form of yn3, yn3, wn2) to be translated,
not: they tear open (proscindunt), which is contrary to the
primary signification and the usage of the language. They,
who have no helper, who themselves are so miserable and
despised, and yet so feelingless and overbearing, contribute to
his ruin. Dyin, to be useful, to do any good, to furnish any-
thing effective (e.g. Isa. xlvii. 12), is here united with ? of
the purpose; comp. ° W, to help towards anything, Zech. i. 15.

of the district as a watch-tower, and on close oppressive evenings as a
place of assembly, because there is a current of air on the height. There
the children play about the whole day long ; there the forsaken one lies,
who, having been seized by some horrible malady, is not allowed to enter
the dwellings of men, by day asking alms of the passers-by, and at night
hiding himself among the ashes which the sun has warmed. There the
dogs of the village lie, perhaps gnawing at a decaying carcase that is
frequently thrown there. Many a village of Hauran has lost its original
name, and is called umm el-mezabil from the greatness and number of
these mounds, which always indicate a primitive and extensive cultiva-
tion for the villages. And many a more modern village is built upon an
ancient mezbele, because there is then a stronger current of air, which
renders the position more healthy. The Arabic signification of the root
$37 seems to be similarly related to the Hebrew as that of the old Beduin
seken (ja), ‘‘ashes,” to the Hebrew and Arabic j2w0, ‘a dwelling.”—

WETZsT.

154 THE BOOK OF JOB.

m3 (for which the Keri substitutes the primary form 1), as
was already said on ch. vi. 2, is prop. hiatus, and then bara-
thrum, pernicies, like 3 in the signification cupiditas, prop.
inhiatio. The verb.F¥3, Qs93, also signifies delabi, whence it
may be extended (vid. on ch. xxxvii. 6) in like manner to the
signification abyss (rapid downfall); but a suitable medium
for the two significations, strong passion (Arab. hawa) and
abyss (Arab. hdwije, huwwe, mahwa), is offered only by the
signification of the root flare (whence hawé, air). od ny NO
is a genuine Arabic description of these Idumzean or Hauran-
ite pariahs. Schultens compares a passage of the Hamdsa:
“We behold you ignoble, poor, laisa lakum min sdir-in-nasi
nasirun, i.e. without a helper among the rest of men.” The
interpretations of those who take in> for §2, and this again
for °? (Kichh., Justi), condemn themselves. It might more
readily be explained, with Stick.: without any one helping
them, z.c. with their own strong hand; but the thought thus
obtained is not only aimless and tame, but also halting and
even untrue (vid. ch. xix. 13 sqq.).

Ver. 14. The figure of a siege, which is begun with ver.
12c¢ and continued in ver. 13, leaves us in no doubt concern-
ing 371 7B and nN’, ~The Targ. translates: like the force
of the far-extending waves of the sea, not as though 75 could
in itself signify a stream of water, but taking it as = O% 7B,
2 Sam. v. 20 (synon. diffusio aquarum). Hitzig’s translation :'
“like a broad forest stream they come, like a rapid brook
they roll on,” gives unheard-of significations to the doubtful
words. In ch. xvi. 14 we heard Job complain: He (Hloah)
brake through me pra~ya->y pr, breach upon breach,—by
the divine decrees of sufferings, which are completed in this
ill-treatment which he receives from good-for-nothing fellows,
he is become as a wall with a wide-gaping breach, through

1 Vid. Deutsche Morgenlind. Zeitschr. ix. (1855), S. 741, and Proverbs,
52%,

CHAP. XXX 18-15. 155

which they rush in upon him (instar rupture, a concise mode
of comparison instead of tanguam per rupt.), in order to get
him entirely into their power as a plaything for their coarse
passions, MX is the crash of the wall with the wide breaches,
and OXY NNA signifies sub fragore in a local sense: through
the wall which is broken through and crashes above the
assailants. There is no ground in ver. 15a for dividing, with
Umbreit, thus: He hath turned against me! Terrors drove
away, etc., although this would not be impossible according
to the syntax (comp. Gen. xlix. 22, Myy ni22). It is trans-
lated: terrors are turned against me; so that the predicate
stands first in the most natural, but still indefinite, personal
form, Ges. § 147, a, although ninpa might also be taken as
the accus. of the object after a passive, Ges. § 143, 1. The
subj. of ver. 15 remains the same: they (these terrors) drive
away my dignity like the wind; the construction is like ch.
xxvii. 20, xiv. 19; on the matter, comp. ch. xvii. 11. Hirz.
makes 13 the subj.: quasi ventus aufert nobilitatem meam,
in which case the subj. would be not so much ventus as simili-
tudo venti, as when one says in Arabic, ‘gdéani kazeidin, there
came to me one of Zeid’s equals, for in the Semitic languages
> has the manner of an indeclinable noun in the signification
instar. But the reference to mnb2 is more natural; and
Hahn’s objection, that calamity does not first, if it is there,
drive away prosperity, but takes the place of that which is
driven away, is sophisticated and inadequate, since the object
of the driving away here is not Job’s prosperity, but Job’s
na, appearance and dignity, by which he hitherto com-
manded the respect of others (Targ. 7227), The storms of
suffering which pass over him take this nobility away to the
last fragment, and his salvation—or rather, since this word
in the mouth of an extra-Israclitish hero has not the meaning

7 a

it usually otherwise has, his prosperous condition (from gus,

156 THE BOOK OF JOB.

amplum esse)—is as a cloud, so rapidly and without trace
(ch. vil. 9; Isa. xliv. 22), passed away and vanished. Observe
the music of the expression 772¥ 3¥3, which cannot be repro-
duced in translation.

16 And now my soul is poured out within me,
Days of suffering hold me fast.
17 The mght rendeth my bones from me,
And my gnawers sleep not.
18 By great force my garment is distorted, -
As the collar of my shirt it encompasseth me.
19 He hath cast me into the mire,
And I am in appearance as dust and ashes.

With this third M73" (vers. 1, 9) the elegiac lament over
the harsh contrast between the present and the past begins
for the third time. The dash after our translation of the
second and fourth strophes will indicate that a division of the
elegy ends there, after which it begins as it were anew. The
soul is poured out within a man (oy as ch. x. 1, Psychol.
S. 152), when, “ yielding itself without resistance to sadness,
it is dejected to the very bottom, and all its organization flows
together, and it is dissolved in the one condition of sorrow”
—a figure which is not, however, come about by water being
regarded as the symbol of the soul (thus Hitzig on Ps. xlii. 5),
but rather by the intimate resemblance of the representation
of a flood of tears (Lam. ii. 19): the life of the soul flows in
the blood, and the anguish of the soul in tears and lamenta-
tions; and since the outward man is as it were dissolved in
the gently flowing tears (Isa. xv. 3), his soul flows away as it
were in itself, for the outward incident is but the manifesta-
tion and result of an inward action. *29"")' we have translated
days of suffering, for *3¥, with its verb and the rest of its
derivatives, is the proper word for suffering, and especially
the passion of the Servant of Jehovah. Days of suffering

CHAP. XXX. 16-19. 157

—Job complains—hold him fast; !18 unites in itself, like
punn, the significations prehendere and prehensum tenere. In
ver. 17a we must not, with Arnh. and others, translate: by
night it (affliction) pierces . . . , for »y does not stand suf-
ficiently in the foreground to be the subject of what follows ;
it might sooner be rendered: by night it is pierced through
(Targ., Rosenm., Hahn); but why is not npr to be the sub-
ject, and 123 consequently Piel (not Niph.)? The night has
been personified already, ch. iii. 2; and in general, as Herder
once said, Job is the brother of Ossian for personifications :
Night (the restless night, ch. vii. 3 sq., in which every malady,
or at least the painful feeling of it, increases) pierces his bones
from him, 7.e. roots out his limbs (synon. 0%3, ch. xviii, 13)
so inwardly and completely. The lepra Arabica ((p,s\,
el-baras) terminates, like syphilis, with an eating away of the

limbs, and the disease has its name el dom from ede, trun-

care, mutilare: it feeds on the bones, and destroys the body

in such a manner that single limbs are completely detached.
In ver. 176, L XX. (vedpa), Parchon, Kimchi, and others

translate py according to the Targum. }?1 (= O°), and

the Arab. (4, ,©, veins, after which Blumenf.: my veins are

in constant motion. But ‘PY in the sense of ch, xxx. 3: my
gnawers (J er. qui me comedunt, Targ. ‘M) {DYID4, gui me. con-
culcant, conterunt), is far more in accordance with the predi-
cate and the parallelism, whether it be gnawing pains that
are thought of—pains are unnatural to man, they come upon
him against his will, he separates them from himself as wild
beasts—or, which we prefer, those worms (715°, ch. vii. 5)
which were formed in Job’s ulcers (comp. Aruch, 8?7Y, a leech,
plur. SPY, worms, e.g. in the liver), and which in the extra-
biblical tradition of Job’s decease are such a standing feature,
that the pilgrims to Job’s monastery even now-a-days take

158 THE BOOK OF JOB.

away with them thence these supposedly petrified worms of
Tob:
Ver. 18a would be closely and naturally connected with
what precedes if wand could be understood of the skin and
explained: By omnipotence (viz. divine, as ch. xxiii. 6, Ew.
§ 270a) the covering of my body is distorted, as even Raschi:
16) an 153 monvid, it is changed, by one skin or crust being
formed after another. But even Schultens rightly thinks it
remarkable that wr25, ver. 18a, is not méant to signify the
proper upper garment but the covering of the skin, but nha,
ver. 18), the under garment in a proper sense. The astonish-
ment is increased by the fact that ¥BNN7 signifies to disguise
one’s self, and thereby render one’s self unrecognisable, which
leads to the proper idea of vias, to a clothing which looks
like a disguise. It cannot be cited in favour of this unusual
meaning that wind is used in ch. xli. 5 of the scaly skin of the
crocodile : an animal has no other viad but its skin. There-
fore, with Ew., Hirz., and Hlgst., we take wad strictly :. “by
(divine) omnipotence my garment is distorted (becomes unlike
itself), like the collar of my shirt it fits close to me.” It is
unnecessary to take ‘DD as a compound prep.: according to

1 In Mugir ed-din’s large history of Jerusalem and Hebron (kitab
el-ins el-gelil), in an article on Job, we read: God had so visited him in
his body, that he got the disease that devours the limbs (tegedhdhem),.
and worms were produced (dawwad) in the wounds, while he lay on a
dunghill (mezbele), and except his wife, who tended him, no one ventured
to come too near him. In a beautiful Kurdic ballad ‘‘on the basket
dealer” (zembilfrosh), which I have obtained from the Kurds in Salihije,
are these words: Veki Gergis beshara beri | Jusuf veki abdan keri | bikesr’
Ejub kurman deri | toh anin ser sultaneti | to men chalaski ’j zahmeti.

‘*¢ When they divided Gergis with a saw
And sold Joseph like a slave,
When worms fed themselves in Job’s body,
Then Thou didst guide them by a sure way:
Thou wilt also deliver me from need.”
More concerning these worms of Jcb in the description of the monastery
of Job.— WErzst.

CHAP. XXX. 16-19. 159

(comp. Zech. ii. 4, Mal. ii. 9: “ according as”), in the sense of
193, as ch. xxxiii. 6, since NAD *B is, according to the nature of
the thing mentioned, a designation of the upper opening, by
means of which the shirt, otherwise only provided with arm-
holes (distinct from the Beduin shirt th6d, which has wide and
long sleeves), is puton. Also, Ps. exxxiii. 2, YN °B signifies
not the lower edge, but the opening at the head (WN17 *B, Ex.
xxviii. 32) or the collar of the high priest’s vestment (vid. the
passage cited). Thus even LXX. domep to mepiotopsov
Tov yiTa@vos pov, and Jer.: velut capitio tuniee mew. True,
Schlottm. observes against this rendering of ver. 18, that it is
unnatural according to substance, since on a wasted body it is
not the outer garment that assumes the appearance of a narrow
under one, but on the contrary the under garment assumes the
appearance of a wide outer one. But this objection is not to
the point. If the body is wasted away to a skeleton, there is
an end to the rich appearance and beautiful flow which the
outer garment gains by the full and rounded forms of the
limbs: it falls down straight and in perpendicular folds upon
the wasted body, and contributes in no small degree to make
him whom one formerly saw in all the fulness of health still
less recognisable than he otherwise is. ‘JUN, cingit me, is not
merely the falling together of the outer garment which was
formerly filled out by the members of the body, but its
appearance when the sick man wraps himself in it: then it
girds him, fits close to him like his shirt-collar, lying round
about the shrivelled figure like the other about a thin neck.
On the terrible wasting away which is combined with hyper-
trophical formations in elephantiasis, vid. ch. vii. 15, and
especially xix. 20. The subject of ver. 19 is God, whom
ver. 18 also describes as efficient cause: He has cast me into,
or daubed* me with, mud, and I am become as (2 instead of
the dat., Ew. § 221, a) dust and ashes. This is also intended

1 The reading wavers between 377 and »p97, for the latter form of

160 THE BOOK OF JOB.

pathologically: the skin of the sufferer’ with elephantiasis
becomes first an intense red, then assumes a black colour;
scales like fishes’ scales are formed upon it, and the brittle,
dark-coloured surface of the body is like a lump of earth.

20 Lcry to Thee for help, and Thou answerest not ;
I stand there, and Thou lookest fixedly at me.
21 Thou changest Thyself to a cruel being towards me,
With the strength of Thy hand Thou makest war upon me.
22 Thou raisest me upon the stormy wind, Thow causest me
to drive along
And vanish in the roaring of the storm.
23 For I know: Thou wilt bring me back to death,
Into the house of assembly for all living.

If he cries for help, his cry remains unanswered; if he
stands there looking up reverentially to God (perhaps “y,
with 338 to be supplied, has the sense of desisting or re-
straining, as Gen. xxix. 35, xxx. 9), the troubling, fixed look
of God, who looks fixedly and hostilely upon him, anything
but ready to help (comp. ch. vil. 20, xvi. 9), meets his up-
turned eye. 12297, to look consideringly upon anything, is
elsewhere joined with DN, by, TY, or even with the acc.; here,
where a motionless fixed look is intended, with 3 (= 3). It
is impossible to draw the w, ver. 20a, over to panm (Jer.,
Saad., Umbr., Welte, and others), both on account of the
Waw consec. (aw. § 351a), and on account of the separation
by the new antecedent ‘M72¥. On the reading of two Codd.
ponn) (“Thou settest Thyself against me”), which Houbigant
and Ew. prefer,.Rosenm. has correctly. pronounced judg-
ment: est potius pro mendo habenda. Instead of consolingly
answering his prayer, and instead of showing Himself willing
to help, God, who was formerly so kind towards him, changes

writing is sometimes found even out of pause by conjunctive accents,
é.g. 1 Sam, xxviii. 15, Ps. exviii. 5.

CHAP, XXX. 20-23. 161

towards him, His creature, into a cruel being, sevum ("28 in
the book of Job only here and ch. xli. 2, where it signifies
“foolhardy ;” comp. aN? in the dependent passage, Isa.
lxiii. 10), and makes war upon him (O0& as ch. xvi. 9): by
causing him to feel the strength of His omnipotent hand
(7) OS as Deut. viii. 17, synon. pth).

It is not necessary in ver. 22a to forsake the accentuation,
and to translate: Thou raisest me up, Thou causest me go in
the wind (Ew., Hirz., and others); the accentuation of mn is
indeed nota disjunctive Dechi, but a conjunctive Tarcha, but
preceded by Munach, which, according to the rule, Psalter
ii. 500, § 5, here, where two conjunctives come together, has
a smaller conjunctive value. Therefore: elevas me in ventum,
equitare facis me, viz. super ventum (Dachselt), for one does
not only say by 2273, 1 Chron. xiii. 7, or °, Ps. lxvi. 12, but
also 8, 2 Sam. vi. 3; and accordingly MO’ WNWA is also not
to be translated: Thou snatchest me into the wind or storm
(Hahn, Schlottm.), but: Thou raisest me up to the wind or
storm, as upon an animal for riding (Umbr., Olsh.). Ac-
cording to Oriental tradition, Solomon rode upon the east
wind, and in Arabic they say of one who hurries rapidly
by, racab al-gendhai er-rih, he rides upon the wings of the
wind; in the present passage, the point of comparison is the
being absolutely passively hurried forth from the enjoyment
of a healthy and happy life to a dizzy height, whence a sudden
overthrow threatens him who is unwillingly removed (comp.
Ps. cii. 11, Thou hast lifted me up and hurled me forth).

The lot which threatens him from this painful suspense
Job expresses (ver. 224) in the puzzling words: MWn %223M,
Thus the Keri, after which LXX. transl. (if it has not read
MAUD), ab améppupds pe awd cwrnpias. The modern ex-
positors who follow the Keri, by taking ‘20m for % som
(according to Ges. § 121, 4), translate: Thou causest counsel

and understanding (Welte), happiness (Blumenf.), and the
VOL, Il. L

162 THE BOOK OF JOB.

like, to vanish from me; continuance, existence, duration would
be better (vid. ch. vi. 13, and especially on ch. xxvi. 3). The
thought is appropriate, but the expression is halting. Jerome,
who translates valide, points to the correct thing, and Buxtorf
(Lex. col. 2342 sq.) by interpreting the not less puzzling
Targum translation in fundamento = funditus or in essentia =
essentialiter, has, without intending it, hit upon the idea of the
Hebr. Keri ; 7M is intended as a closer defining, or adverbial,
accusative: Thou causest me to vanish as to existence, ita
ut tota essentia pereat h.e. totaliter et omnino. Perhaps this

was really the meaning of the poet: most completely, most
¢

thoroughly, altogether, like the Arab. ee But it is un-

favourable to this Keri, that mwin (from the verb ‘¥), as
might be expected, is always written plene elsewhere; the
correction of the mwn is violent, and moreover this form, cor-
rectly read, gives a sense far more consistent with the figure,
ver. 22a. Ges., Umbr., and Carey falsely read MWh, terres
me; this verb is unknown in Hebr., and_even in Chaldee is
only used in Jthpeal, “MUS (= Hebr. 729); for a similar
reason Béttcher’s Mn (which is intended to mean: in de-
spair) is also not to be used. Even Stuhlmann perceived
that Mwn is equivalent to TWA; it is, with Ew. and Olsh.,
to be read WA (not with Pareau and Hirz. Mn without the
Dag.), and this form signifies, as NNwn, ch. xxxvi. 29, from
xiv’ = MX’, from which it is derived by change of consonants,
the crash of thunder, or even the rumbling or roar as of a
storm or a falling in (procelle sive ruinew). The meaning is
hardly, that he who rides away upon the stormy wind melts
and trickles down like drops of rain among the pealing of
the thunder, when the thunder-storm, whose harbinger is the
stormy wind, gathers; but that in the storm itself, which
increases in fury to the howling of a tempest, he dissolves
away. Mn for MwN2, comp. Ps. cvii. 26: their soul melted

CHAP. XXX. 24-27, 163

away (dissolved) 13. The compulsory journey in the air,
therefore, passes into nothing or nearly nothing, as Job is
well aware, ver. 23: “for I know: (without ‘5, as ch. xix. 25,
Ps. ix. 21) Thou wilt bring me back to death” (ace. of the
goal, or locative without any sign). If ‘22M is taken in its
most natural signification reduces, death is represented as
essentially one with the dust of death (comp. ch. i. 21 with
Gen. iii. 19), or even with non-existence, out of which man
is come into being; nevertheless 2vn can also, by obliterating
the notion of return, like redigere, have only the signification
of the turn of destiny and change of condition that is effected.
The assertion that 2 always includes an “ again,” and retains
it inexorably (vid. Kohler on Zech. xiii. 7, S. 239), is un-
tenable. In post-biblical Hebrew, at least, it is certain that
aw signifies not only “to become again,” but also “to
become,” as ole is used as synon. of *\>, devenir.' With
nid, the designation of the condition, is coupled the designa-
tion of the place: Hades (under the notion of which that of
the grave is included) is the great involuntary rendezvous of
all who live in this world.

24 Doth one not, however, stretch out the hand in falling,
Doth he not raise a cry for help on that account in his ruin ?
' 25 Or have I not wept for him that was in trouble,
Hath not my soul grieved for the needy ?—
26 For I hoped for good, then evil came ;
I waited for light, and darkness came.
27 My bowels boiled without ceasing,
Days of misery met me.

Most of the ancient versions indulge themselves in strange
fancies respecting ver. 24 to make a translatable text, or find
their fancies in the text before them. The translation of the

1 Vid. my Anekdota der mittelalterlichen Scholastik unter Juden und
Moslemen, S. 347. |

164 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Targum follows the fancies of the Midrash, and places itself
beyond the range of criticism. The LXX. reads ‘2 instead
of yn, and finds in ver. 24 a longing for suicide, or death by
the hand of another. The Syriac likewise reads °2, although
it avoids this absurdity. Jerome makes an address of the
assertion, and, moreover, also moulds the text under the influ-
ence of the Midrash. Agq., Symm., and Theod. strive after a
better rendering than the LXX., but (to judge from the
fragments in the Hewapla) without success. Saadia and
Gecatilia wring a sense out of ver. 24a, but at the expense of
the syntax, and by dragging ver. 246 after it, contrary to the
tenor of the words. The old expositors also advance nothing
available. They mostly interpret it as though it were not
ind, but ond (a reading which has been forced into the Mid-
rash texts and some Codd. instead of the reading of the text
that is handed down to us), Even Rosenm. thinks ine might,
like the Aram. }in?, be equivalent to 89?; and Carey explains
the enallage generis from the perhaps existing secondary idea
of womanly fear, as 2 Sam. iv. 6, 733 instead of 73 is used
of the two assassins to describe them as cowards. But the
Hebr. np is fem.; and often as the enallage mase. pro fem.
~ occurs, the enallage fem. pro masc. is unknown; 39, 2 Sam.
iv. 6, is an adv. of place (vid., moreover, Thenius 7 loc.).
It is just as absolutely inadmissible when the old expositors
combine }3¥ with yy* (YY), or as e.g. Raschi with yw, and
translate, “welfare” or “exhilaration” (refreshing). The
signif. “ wealth” would be more readily admissible, so that
yw, as Aben-Ezra observes, would be the subst. to viv, ch.
xxxiv. 19; but in ch. xxxvi. 19 (which see), YY (as Div Isa.
xxii. 5) signifies a cry of distress (= 'Y), and an attempt
must be made here with this meaning before ever'y other.

On the other hand comes the question whether ‘Y2 is not
perhaps to be referred to the verb y2, whether it be as
subst. after the form 1) (Ralbag after the Targ.) or as part.

CHAP. XXX. 24-27. | 165

pass. (Saad. 2.4) Cag) ai\ ps, “only that it is not de-

sired”). ‘The verb does not, indeed, occur elsewhere in the
book of Job, but is very consistent with its style, which so
abounds in Aramaisms, and is at the same time so coloured
with Arabic that we should almost say, its Hauranitish style.’
Thus taking ‘y2 as one word, Ralbag transl.: prayer stretches
not forth the hand, which is intended to mean: is not able to
do anything, cannot cause the will of God to miscarry. This
meaning is only obtained by great. violence; but when Renan
(together with Bockel and Carey, after Rosenm.) translates :
Vaines prieres! .. . al dtend sa main; & quoi bon protester
contre ses coups? the one may be measured with the other.
Tf *y2 is to be derived from Ay, it must be translated either:
shall He, however, without prayer (sine tmploratione), or:
shall He, however, unimplored (non imploratus), stretch out
His hand? ‘The thought remains the same by both render-
ings of ‘ya, and suits as a vindication of the cry for help in
the context. But ya, in the specific signification implorare,
deprecari, is indeed the usage of the Targum, although strange
to the Hebr., which is here so rich in synonyms; then, in the
former case, 89 for 83 is harsh, and in the other, ‘ya as part.
pass. is too strong an Aramaism. We must therefore con-
sider whether ‘Y2 as ‘Y with the prep. 2 gives a suitable
sense. Since 2 7 nov, e.g. ch. xxviii. 9 and elsewhere, most
commonly means “to lay the hand on anything, stretch out
the hand to anything,” it is most natural to take ‘y2 in de-

1 The verb \e is still extensively used in Syria, and that in two forms:

ist le and lex le. In Damascus the fut. i is alone used; where-
as in Hauran and the steppe I have only found /ut. a. Thus e.g. the
Hauranite poet Kasim el-Chinn says: ‘‘The gracious God encompass thee
with His favour and whatever thy soul desires (wa-l-nefsu ma tebgha), it
must obtain its desire” (tanélu mundahé, in connection with which it is to
be observed that J fut. u is used here in the signification adipisci,
comp. Fleischer on ch. xv. 29 [supra i. 270, note]).—WETzsT.

*

166 THE BOOK OF JOB.

pendence upon 1%} nov, and we really gain an impressive
thought, if we translate: Only may He not stretch out His
hand (to continue His work of destruction) to a heap of
rubbish (which I am already become) ; but by this translation
of ver. 24a, ver. 24b remains a glaring puzzle, insoluble in
itself and in respect of the further course of the thought, for
Schlottmann’s interpretation, “Only one does not touch ruins,
or the ruin of one is the salvation of another,” which is itself
puzzling, is no solution. The reproach against the friends
which is said to lie in ver. 24a is contrary to the character of
this monologue, which is turned away from his human oppo-
nents; then 38¥ does not signify salvation, and there is no “one”
and “another” to be found in the text. We must therefore,
against our inclination, give up this dependent relation of ‘ys,
so that ‘Y2 signifies either, upon a heap of rubbish, or, since this
ought to be sy-by ; by the falling in; *Y (from MY = ‘iw)) can
mean both: a falling in or overthrow (bouleversement) as an
event, and ruins or rubbish as its result. Accordingly Hirz.
translates: Only upon the ruins (more correctly at least : upon
ruins) one will not stretch out his hand, and Ew.: Only—
does not one stretch out one’s hand by one’s overthrow? But
this “only” is awkward. Hahn is of opinion that 8? 78 may
be taken in the signification not once, and translates: may
one not for once raise one’s hand by one’s downfall; but even
this is lame, because then all connection with what precedes
is wanting ; besides, N? JN does not signify ne quidem. The
originally affirmative 8 has certainly for the most part a
restrictive signification, which, as we observed on ch. xviii. 21,
is blended with the affirmative in Hebr., but it is also, as
more frequently j28, used adversatively, eg. ch. xvi. 7, and
in the combination X> 48 this adversative signification coin-
cides with the restrictive, for this double particle signifies
everywhere else: only not, however not, Gen. xx. 12, 1 Kings
xi. 39, 2 Kings xii. 14, xiii. 6, xxiii. 9,26. It would be more

CHAP. XXX. 24-27. 167

natural to translate, as we have stated above: only may he
not, etc., but ver. 245 puts in its veto against this. If, as
Hirz., Ew., and Hahn also suppose, 5, ver. 24a, is equivalent
to NON, so that the sentence is to be spoken with an interro-
gative accent, we must translate JX as Jer. has done, by
verumtamen. He knows that he is being hurried forth to meet
death; he knows it, and has also already made himself so
familiar with this thought, that the sooner he sees an end put
to this his sorrowful life the better—nevertheless does one not
stretch out one’s hand when one is falling? This involuntary
reaction against destruction is the inevitable result of man’s
instinct of self-preservation. It needs no proof that ‘» ndv
can signify “to stretch out one’s hand for help;” nov is
used with a general subj.: one stretches out, as ch. xvii. 5,
' xxi. 22. With this determination of the idea of ver. 24a,
24d is now also naturally connected with what precedes. It
is not, however, to be translated, as Ew. and Hirz.: if one is
in distress, is not a cry for help heard on account of it? If
OX were intended hypothetically, a continuation of the power
of the interrogative x from ver. 24a would be altogether
impossible. Hahn and Loch-Reischl rightly take O8 in the
sense of an. It introduces another turn of the question:
Does one, however, not stretch out one’s hand to hasten the
fall, or in his downfall (raise) a cry for help, or a wail, on
that account? Déderlein’s conjecture, 10? for Mp (praying
“for favour”), deserves respectful mention, but it is not
needed : ne signifies neutrally: in (under) such circum-
stances (comp. 073, ch. xxii. 21, Isa. lxiv. 5), or is directly
equivalent to md, ‘which (Ruth i. 13) signifies propterea, and
even in biblical Chaldee, beside the Chaldee signif. sed, nisi,
retains this Hebrew signif. (Dan. ii. 6, 9, iv. 24). 8, which
signifies dying and destruction (Talmud. in the peculiar
signif.: that which is hewn or pecked open), synon. of TS,
has been already discussed on ch. xii. 5.

168 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Ver. 25. The further progress of the thoughts seems to be
well carried out only by our rendering of ver. 24. The mani-
festation of feeling—Job means to say—which he himself
felt at the misfortune of others, will be still permitted to him
in his own misfortune, the seeking of compassion from the
sympathising: or have I not wept for the hard of day? we.

him whose lot in life is hard (comp. _s’, durus, miser); did

not my soul grieve for the needy? Here, also, > from
ver. 25a continues its effect (comp. ch. iii. 10, xxviii. 17);
DIY is da. yeyp., of like signification with DJ8, whence DIS
Isa. xix. 10, 7238 (sadness) b. Moéd katan 146, Arab. agima,
to feel disgust. If the relation of ver: 25 to ver. 24 is con-
firmatory, ver. 26 and what follows refers directly to ver. 24:
he who felt sympathy with the sufferings of others will never-
theless dare in his own affliction to stretch out his hand for
help in the face of certain ruin, and pour forth his pain in
lamentation ; for his affliction is in reality inexpressibly great:
he hoped for good (for the future from his prosperous condition,
in which he rejoiced),'*then came evil; and if I waited for
light, deep darkness came. Ewald (§ 282, h) regards DS)
as contracted from mons), but this shortening of the vowel is
a pure impossibility. The former signifies rather xat #Amifov
or éBovrounv érrrifew, the latter xal Ama, and that cohor-
tative fut. logically forms a hypothetical antecedent, exactly
like ch. xix. 18, if I desire to rise (MMPs), they speak against
me (vid. Ew. § 357, 6). In feverish heat and anxiety his
bowels were set boiling ("M1 as ch. sli. 23, comp. Talmud.
inm, a hot-headed fellow), and rested not (from this boiling).
The accentuation Zarcha, Mercha, and Athnach is here in-
correct; instead of Athnach, Rebia mugrasch is required.
Days of. affliction came upon him (07) as Ps. xviii. 6), viz.

1LXX. Aldina: tya 08 driyov éyabois, which Zwingli rightly corrects
exexav (Codd. Vat., Alex., and Sinait.). .

CHAP. XXX. 28-81. 169

as a hostile power cutting off the previous way of his pro-_
sperity.

28 I wandered about in mourning without the sun;
L rose in the assembly, I gave free course to my complaint.
29 Iam become a brother of the jackals
And a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin having become black, peels off from me,
And my bones are parched with dryness.
31 My harp was turned to mourning,
And my pipe to tones of sorrow.

Several expositors (Umbr., Vaih., Hgst.) eiidiibant vIP
of the dirty-black skin of the leper, but contrary to the usage
of the language, according to which, in similar utterances (Ps.
xxxv. 14, xxxviii. 7, xlii. 10, xliii. 2, comp. supra, ch. v. 11),

it rather denotes the dirty-black dress of mourners (comp. )33,

conspurcare vestem) ; to understand it of the dirty-black skin
as guast sordida veste (Welte) is inadmissible, since this dis-
tortion of the skin which Job bewails in ver. 30 would hardly
be spoken of thus tautologically. ‘5p therefore means in the
black of the PY, or mourning-linen, ch. xvi. 15, by which, how-
ever, also the interpretation of Mn Na, “without sunburn”
(Ew., Hirz.), which has gained ground since Raschi’s day >)
viovin *snpIwiv’), is disposed of ; for “one can perhaps say of the
blackness of the skin that it does not proceed from the sun,
but not of the blackness of mourning attire” (Hahn). Wp
also refutes the reading 71n N02 in LXX. Complut. (dvev
Oupod),* Syr., Jer. (sine furore), which ought to be understood
of the deposition of the gall-pigment on the skin, and therefore
of jaundice, which turns it (especially in tropical regions) not
merely yellow, but a dark-brown. Hahn and a few others

1 Whereas Codd. Alex., Vat., and Sinait., dvev Qijov, which is cor-
rectly explained by xn“ov in Zwingli’s Aldine, but gives no sense.

170 THE BOOK OF JOB.

render non xba correctly in the sense of qwin2, “without the sun
having shone on him.” Bereft of all his possessions, and finally
also of his children, he wanders about in mourning (apn as ch.
xxiv. 10, Ps. xxxviii. 7), and even the sun had clothed itself
in black to him (which is what Yown IP means, Joel ii. 10 ©
and freq.); the celestial light, which otherwise brightened his
path, ch. xxix. 8, was become invisible. We must not forget
that Job here reviews the whole chain of afflictions which have
come upon him, so that by ver. 28a we have not to think
exclusively, and also not prominently, of the leprosy, since
‘n2dn indeed represents him as still able to move about freely.
In ver. 285 the accentuation wavers between Dechi, Munach,
Silluk, according to which siws onpa belong together, which
is favoured by the Dagesh in the Beth, and Tarcha, Munach,
Silluk, according to which (because Munach, according to
Psalter ii. 503, § 2, is a transformation of Rebia mugrasch)
onp2 ‘M2? belong together. The latter mode of accentuation,
according to which Sapa must be written without the Dag.
instead of 5npa (vid. Norzi), is the only correct one (because
Dechi cannot come in the last member of the sentence before
Silluk), and is also more pleasing as to matter: I rose (and
stood) in the assembly, crying for help, or more generally:
wailing. The assembly is not to be thought of as an assembly
of the people, or even tribunal (Ew.: “before the tribunal
seeking a judge, with lamentations”), but as the public; for
the thought that Job sought help against his unmerited suf-
ferings before a human tribunal is absurd; and, moreover,
the thought that he cried for help before an assembly of the
people called together to take counsel and pronounce decisions
is equally absurd. Welte, however, who interprets: I was as
one who, before an assembled tribunal, etc., introduces a
quasi of which there is no trace in the text. >np2 must
therefore, without pressing it further, be taken in the sense
of publice, before all the world (Hirz.: comp. P32, é

CHAP. XXX. 28-81. 171

davepd, Prov. xxvi. 26); viv, however, is a circumstantial
clause declaring the purpose (Ew. § 337, 6; comp. De Sacy,
Gramm. Arabe ii. § 357), as is frequently the case after np,
ch. xvi. 8, Ps. Ixxxviii. 11, cii. 14: surrexi in publico ut
lamentarer, or lamentaturus, or lamentando. In this lament,
extorted by the most intense pain, which he cannot hold back,
however many may surround him, he is become a brother of
those 5°3h, jackals (canes aurei), whose dolorous howling pro-
duces dejection and shuddering in all who hear it, and a com-
- panion of 733° ni33, whose shrill cry is varied by wailing tones
of deep melancholy. The point of comparison is not the
insensibility of the hearers (.Sforno), but the fellowship of
wailing and howling together with the accompanying idea of
the desert in which it is heard, which is connected with the
idea itself (comp. Mic. i. 8). ’

Ver. 30. Now for the first time he speaks of his disfigure-
ment by leprosy in particular: my skin (NY, mase., as it is
also used in ch. xix. 26, only apparently as fem.) is become
black (nigruit) from me, i.e. being become black, has peeled
from me, and my bones (‘D8Y, construed as fem. like ch.
xix. 20, Ps. cii. 6) are consumed, or put in a glow (7, Milel,

1 Tt is worth while to cite a passage from Shaw’s Travels in Barbary,
ii. 848 (transl.), here: ‘‘ When the ostriches are running and fighting, they
sometimes make a wild, hideous, hissing noise with their throats distended
and beaks open ; at another time, if they meet with a slight opposition,
they have a glucking or cackling voice like our domestic fowls : they seem
to rejoice and laugh at the terror of their adversary. During the loneli-
ness of the night however, as if their voice had a totally different tone,
they often set up a dolorous, hideous moan, which at one time resembles
the roar of the lion, and at another is more like the hoarser voice of other
quadrupeds, especially the bull and cow. I have often heard them groan
as if they were in the greatest agonies.” In General Doumas’ book on the
Horse of the Sahara, I have read that the male ostrich (delim), when it
is killed, especially if its young ones are near, sends forth a dolorous
note, while the female (remda), on the other hand, does not utter a
sound; and so, when the ostrich digs out its nest, one hears a languishing
and dolorous tone all day long, and when it has laid its egg, its usual
ery is again heard, only about three o’clock in the afternoon.

172 THE BOOK OF JOB.

from 119, as Ezek. xxiv. 11) by a parching heat. Thus, then,
his harp became mournful, and his pipe (233) with 1 raphatum)
the cry of the weepers; the cheerful music (comp. ch. xxi. 12)
has been turned into gloomy weeping and sobbing (comp.
Lam. v. 15). Thus the second part of the monologue closes.
It is somewhat lengthened and tedious; it is Job’s last sorrow-
ful lament before the catastrophe. What a delicate touch of
the poet is it that he makes this lament, ver. 31, die away so
melodiously! One hears the prolonged vibration of its elegiac
strains. The festive and joyous music is hushed; the only
tones are tones of sadness and lament, mesto, flebile.

Toe Turrp PART oF THE MONOLOGUE.—-CHAP. XXXI.

Schema: 8. 9. 8. 6. 6. 10. 10. 4. 4. 5. 7. 6.

1 I have made a covenant with mine eyes,
And how should I fix my gaze upon a maiden !
2 What then would be the dispensation of Eloah from above,
And the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights—
3 Doth not calamity overtake the wicked,
And misfortune the workers of evil?
4 Doth He not see my ways
And count all my steps?

After Job has described and bewailed the harsh contrast
between the former days and the present, he gives us a
picture of his moral life and endeavour, in connection with
the character of which the explanation of his present affliction
as a divinely decreed punishment becomes impossible, and the
sudden overthrow of his prosperity into this abyss of suffer-.
ing becomes to him, for the same reason, the most painful
mystery. Job is not an Israelite, he is without the pale of
the positive, Sinaitic revelation ; his religion is the old patri-
archal religion, which even in the present day is called din
Ibrahim (the religion of Abraham), or din el-bedu (the

CHAP. XXXI. 1-4, 173

religion of the steppe) as the religion of those Arabs who are
not Moslem, or at least influenced by the penetrating Islamism,
and is called by Mejanishi el-hanifije (vid. supra, i. p. 216,
note) as the patriarchally orthodox religion.’ As little as
this religion, even in the present day, is acquainted with the
specific Mohammedan commandments, so little knew Job of
the specifically Israelitish. On the contrary, his confession,
which he lays down in this third monologue, coincides re-
markably with the ten commandments of piety (el-felah)
peculiar to the din Ibréhim, although it differs in this respect,
that it does not give the prominence to submission to the
dispensations of God, that teslim which, as the whole of this
didactic poem teaches by its issue, is the duty of the per-
fectly pious; also bravery in defence of holy property and
rights is wanting, which among the wandering tribes is
accounted as an essential part.of the hebbet er-rih (inspiration
of the Divine Being), i.e. active piety, and to which it is
similarly related, as to the binding notion of “honour” which
was coined by the western chivalry of the middle ages.

Job begins with the duty of chastity. Consistently with the
prologue, which the drama itself nowhere belies, he is living in
monogamy, as at the present day the orthodox Arabs, averse to
Islamism, are not addicted to Moslem polygamy. With the

1 Also in the Merg district east of Damascus, which is peopled by
an ancient unmixed race, because the fever which prevails there kills
strangers, remnants of the din Ibrahim have been preserved despite the
penetrating Islamism. There the mulaqgin (Souffleur), who says the
creed into the grave as a farewell to the buried one, adds the following
words: “* The muslim is my brother, the muslima my sister, Abraham is
my father (abi), his religion (dinuh) is mine, and his confession (medh-
hebuh) mine.” It is indisputable that the words muslim (one who is sub-
missive to God) and islam (submission to God) have originally belonged
to the din Ibrahim. It is also remarkable that the Moslem salutation
_ selém occurs only as a sign in war among the wandering tribes, and that
the guest parts from his host with the words: ddimd besat el-Chalil, 1a
magti® wala memnii’, i.e. mayest thou always have Abraham’s table, and
plenty of provisions and guests.—Werzsr.

174 THE BOOK OF JOB.

confession of having maintained this marriage (although, to
infer from the prologue, it was not an over-happy, deeply
sympathetic one) sacred, and restrained himself not only from
every adulterous act, but also from adulterous desires, +his
confessions begin. Here, in the middle of the Old Testa-
ment, without the pale of the Old Testament vduos, we meet
just that moral strictness and depth with which the Preacher
on the mount, Matt. v. 27 sq., opposes the spirit to the letter
of the seventh commandment. It is ‘Dye, not "DY (comp.
ch. xl. 28), designedly ; DY N23 M3 or NS is the usual phrase
where two equals are concerned; on the contrary, ° na ms
where the superior—Jehovah, or a king, or conqueror—binds
himself to another under prescribed conditions, or the cove-
nant is made not so much by a mutual advance as by the one
taking the initiative. In this latter case, the secondary notions
of a promise given (e.g. Isa. lv. 3), or even, as here, of a law
prescribed, are combined with nm2 m2: *“as lord of my
senses I prescribed this law for my eyes” (Ew.). The eyes,
says a Talmudic proverb, are the procuresses of sin (™)D7D
m3 MXpN); “to close his eyes, that they may not feast on
evil,” is, in Isa, xxxiil. 15, a clearly defined line in the picture
of him on whom the everlasting burnings can have no hold.
The exclamation, ver. 10, is spoken with self-conscious indig-
nation: Why should I... (comp. Joseph’s exclamation,
Gen. xxxix. 9); Schultens correctly : est indignatio repellens
vehementissime et negans tale quicguam committi par esse; the
transition of the m9, \., to the expression of negation, which
is complete in Arabic, is here in its incipient state, Ew.
§ 325, 5. oy 2137 is intended to express a fixed and inspect-
ing (comp. ON, 1 Kings iii. 21) gaze upon an object, combined
with a lascivious imagination (comp. Sir. ix. 5, wapOévov pH
katapavOave, and ix. 8, améotpeov dpOadpov amd yuvatKkds °
evuoppou Kal my KaTawavOave Kdddros addOTpLOV), a BrérrELY
which issues in éwiOuphoat avtjv, Matt. v.28. <Adulterium

CHAP, XXXI. 1-4, 175

reale, and in fact two-sided, is first spoken of in the third
strophe, here it is adulterium mentale and one-sided ; the object
named is not any maiden whatever, but any npina, because
virginity is ever to be revered, a most sacred thing, the holy
purity of which Job acknowledges himself to have guarded
against profanation from any lascivious gaze by keeping a
strict watch over his eyes. The Waw of 13 is, as in ver. 14,
copulative: and if I had done it, what punishment might I
have looked for ?

The question, ver. 2, is proposed in order that it may be
answered in ver. 3 again in the form of a question: in con-
sideration of the just punishment which the injurer of female
innocence meets, Job disavows every unchaste look. On pon
and mond used of allotted, adjudged punishment, comp. ch.
xx. 29, xxvii. 13; on 132, which alternates with 78 (burden of
suffering, misfortune), comp. Obad. ver. 12, where in its stead
133 occurs, as Arab. nukr, properly id quod patienti paradoxum,
insuetum, intolerabile videtur, omne ingratum (Reiske). Con-
scious of the just punishment of the unchaste, and, as he adds
in ver. 4, of the omniscience of the heavenly Judge, Job has
made dominion over sin, even in its first beginnings and
motions, his principle.

The sin, which gives prominence to the subject, means
Him who punishes the unchaste. By Him who observes his
walk on every side, and counts (7i8D', plene, according to
Ew. § 138, a, on account of the pause, but vid. the similar
form of writing, ch. xxxix. 2, xviii. 15) all his steps, Job has
been kept back from sin, and to Him Job can appeal as a
witness.

5 If I had intercourse with falsehood,
And my foot hastened after deceit :

6 Let Him weigh me in the balances of justice,
And let Eloah know my innocence.

176 THE BOOK OF JOB.

7 If my steps turned aside from the way,
And my heart followed mine eyes,
And any spot hath cleaved to my hands:
8 May I sow and another eat,
And let my shoots be rooted out.

We have translated 81Y (on the form vid. on ch. xv. 31,_
and the idea on ch. xi. 11) falsehood, for it signifies desolate-
ness and hollowness under a concealing mask, therefore the
contradiction between what is without and within, lying and
deceit, parall. 7127, deceit, delusion, imposition, ‘The phrase
niw-by 721 is based on the personification of deceit, or on
thinking of it in connection with the sw-nn (ch. xi. 11).
The form WOM) cannot be derived from vin, from which it
ought to be wnn, like 1DN Judg. iv. 18 and freg., 10
(serravit) 1 Chron. xx. 3, BY" (increpavit) 1 Sam. xxv. 14.
Many grammarians (Ges: § 72, rem. 9; Olsh. 257, 9) ex-
plain the Pathach instead of Kametz as arising from the
virtual doubling of the guttural (Dagesh forte implicitum),
for which, however, no ground exists here; Ewald (§ 232, d)
explains it by “the hastening of the tone towards the begin-
ning,” which explains nothing, since the retreat of the tone
has not this effect anywhere else. We must content ourselves
with the supposition that UNM is formed from a MWN having
a similar meaning to WiN (eM), as also DYN, 1 Sam. xv. 19,
comp. xiv. 32, is from a 8Y of similar signification with 0’Y,
The hypothetical antecedent, ver. 5, is followed by the con-
clusion, ver. 6: if he have done this, may God not spare
him. He has, however, not done it; and if God puts him to
an impartial trial, He will learn his 54, integritas, purity of
character. The “balance of justice” is the balance of the
final judgment, which the Arabs call Slac¥) Gljrc, “the
balance of actions (works).” *

1 The manual of ethics by Ghazzali is ‘entitled miz@n el-a'mél in the

CHAP, XXXI. 5-8. 177

Ver. 7 also begins hypothetically: if my steps (HWS from
"WN, which is used alternately with WW without distinction,
contrary to Ew. § 260, b) swerve (8A, the predicate to the
plur. which follows, designating a thing, according to Ges.
§ 146, 3) from the way (i.e. the one right way), and my heart
went after my eyes, z.e. if it followed the drawing of the lust
of the eye, viz. to obtain by deceit or extortion the property
of another, and if a spot (BIND, macula, as Dan. i. 4, = ow,
ch. xi. 15; according to Ew., equivalent to 5:9, what is
blackened and blackens, then a blemish, and according to
Olsh., in WAND... N?, like the French ne... point) clave
to my hands: I will sow, and let another eat, and let my
shoots be rooted out. The poet uses O'SSN¥ elsewhere of off-
spring of the body or posterity, ch. v. 25, xxi. 8, xxvii. 14;
here, however, as in Isaiah, with whom he has this word in
common, ch. xxxiv. 2, xlii. 5, the produce of the ground is
meant. Ver. 8a is, according to John iv. 37, a Adyos, proverb.
In so far as he may have acted thus, Job calls down upon
himself the curse of Deut. xxviii. 30 sq.: what he sows, let
strangers reap and eat; and even when that which is sown
does not fall into the hands of strangers, let it be uprooted.

9 Tf my heart has been befooled about a woman,
And if I lay in wait at my neighbour's door :
10 Let my wife grind unto another,
And let others bow down over her.
11 For this is an infamous act,
And this is a crime [to be brought before] judges ;
12 Yea, it is a fire that consumeth to the abyss,
And should root out all my increase.

As he has guarded himself against defiling virgin innocence

original, PT¥ ‘31ND in Bar-Chisdai’s translation, vid. Gosche on Ghazzali’s
life and works, 8. 261 of the volume of the Berliner Akademie d. Wis-
sensch. for 1858.

VOL. Il. M

178 THE BOOK OF JOB.

‘by lascivious glances, so is he also conscious of having made
no attempt to trespass upon the marriage relationship of his
neighbour (37 as in the Decalogue, Ex. xx. 17): his heart
was not persuaded, or he did not allow his heart to be per-
suaded (M5) like mei@ecOar), i.e. misled, on account of a
woman (HU as US NYS, in post-bibl. usage, of another's
wife), and he lay not in wait (according to the manner of
adulterous lovers described at ch. xxiv. 15, which see) at his
neighbour’s door. We may here, with Wetzstein, compare the
like-minded confession in a poem of Muhadi ibn-Muhammel :

ioe Yo Lae jladl Cly Si le, ie. “The neighbour’s dog

never barked (23, Beduin equivalent to n23 in the Syrian
towns and villages) on our account (because we had gone by
night with an evil design to his tent), and it never howled
(being beaten by us, to make it cease its barking lest it should
betray us).” In ver. 10 foliows the punishment which he
wishes might overtake him in case he had acted thus: “may
my wife grind to another,” 7.e. may she become his “ maid
behind the mill,’ Ex. xi. 5, comp. Isa. xlvii. 2, who must
allow herself to be used for everything; adetpis and a
common low woman (comp. Plutarch, non posse suav. viv.
c. 21, nal mayvonedns adeTpls mpos mUANY KiVoUMévN) are
almost one and the same. On the other hand, the Targ.
(coeat cum alio), LX X. (euphemistically apécar érépe, not,
as the Syr. Hexapl. shows, ddécav), and Jer. (scortum sit
altertus), and in like manner Saad., Gecat., understand jhbA
directly of carnal surrender; and, in fact, according to the
traditional opinion, 6. Sota 10a: map nv NON MND PN, te.
«1m everywhere in Scripture is intended of (carnal) trespass.”
With reference to Judg. xvi. 21 and Lam. v. 13 (where inv,

like see, signifies the upper mill-stone, or in gen. the mill),

this is certainly incorrect; the parallel, as well as Deut.

7

CHAP. XXXI. 9-12. 179

xxviii. 30, favours this rendering of the word in the obscene
sense of wvAAew, molere, in this passage, which also is seen

/ 4@

under the Arab. synon. of grinding, 20 (trudere); accord-

ing to which it would have to be interpreted: let her grind
to another, i.e. serve him as it were as a nether mill-stone.
The verb jf, used elsewhere (in Talmud.) of the man, would
here be transferred to the woman, like as it is used of the mill
itself as that which grinds. This rendering is therefore not
refuted by its being }0DM and not j78A, Moreover, the word
thus understood is not unworthy of the poet, since he de-
signedly makes Job seize the strongest expressions. Among
moderns, jnon is thus tropically explained by Ew., Umbr.,
Hahn, and a few others, but most expositors prefer the proper
sense, in connection with which molat certainly, especially
with respect to ver. 90, is also equivalent to jiat pellex. It is
hard to decide; nevertheless the preponderance of reasons
seems to us to be on the side of the traditional tropical render-
ing, by the side of which ver. 10d is not attached in progressive,
but in synonymous parallelism: et super ea incurvent se alti, Y1D
of the man, asin the phrase U>3\ (Ji sla) C$ (curvat
se mulier ad virum) of the acquiescence of the woman; [18
is a poetical Aramaism, Ew. § 177, a. The sin of adultery,
in case he had committed it, ought to be punished by another
taking possession of his own wife, for that (817 a neutral masce.,
Keri 8 in accordance with the fem. of the following pre-
dicate, comp. Lev. xviii. 17) is an infamous act, and that (87
referring back to 73, Keri sm in accordance with the masce.
of the following predicate) is a crime for the judges. On
this wavering between sin and x‘ vid. Gesenius, Handworter-
buch, 1863, s. v. sin, S. 225. Nt is the usual Thora-word
for the shameless subtle encroachments of sensual desires
(vid. Saalschiitz, Mosaisches Recht, S. 791 f.), and prvdp hy
(not fY), according to the usual view equivalent to erimen et

-

180 | THE BOOK OF JOB.

erimen quidem judicum (however, on the form of connection
eaantnonally avoided here, where the genitival relation might
easily give an erroneous sense, vid. Ges. § 116, rem.), signifies
a crime which falls within the province of the penal code, for
which in ver. 28 it is less harshly yar) }W: a judicial, ze.
criminal offence. DPB is, moreover, not the plur. of a
(Kimchi), but of DOB, an arbitrator (root bp, findere, dirimere).

The confirmatory clause, ver. 12, is co-ordinate with the
preceding: for it (this criminal, adulterous enterprise) is a
fire, a fire consuming him who allows the sparks of sinful
desire to rise up within him (Proy. vi. 27 sq.; Sir. ix. 8),
which devours even to the bottom of the abyss, not resting
before it has dragged him whom it has seized down with it
into the deepest depth of ruin, and as it were melted him
away, and which ought to root out all my produce (all the
fruit of my labour). The function of 2 is questionable.
Ew. (§ 217, f) explains it as local: in my whole revenue, @.e.
throughout my whole domain. But it can also be Beth objecti,
whether it be that the obj. is conceived as the means of the
action (vid. on ch. xvi. 4, 5, 10, xx. 20), or that, “ correspond-
ing to the Greek genitive, it does not express an entire full
coincidence, but an action about and upon the object” (Ew.
§ 217, S. 557). We take it as Beth obj. in the latter sense,
after the analogy of the so-called pleonastic Arab. C (e.g.

garaa bi-suwart, he has practised the act of reading upon the

Suras of the Koran): and which ought to undertake the act
of outrooting upon my whole produce.”

1 It is something characteristically Semitic to express the notion of
destruction by the figure of burning up with fire [vid. supra, i. 877, note],
and it is so much used in the present day as a natural inalienable form of
thought, that in curses and imprecations everything, without distinction
of the object, is to be burned; e.g. juhrik, may (God) burn up, or juhrak,
ought to burn, bildduh, his native country, bedenuh, his body, ‘énuh, his
eye, shawdribuh, his moustache (7.e. his honour), nefesuh, his breath,
‘omruh, his life, etc. —WETzsT.

2 On this pleonastic Beth obj. (el-Ba el-mezide) vid. Samachschari’s

CHAP, XXXI. 18-15. 181

13 If I despised the cause of my servant and my maid,
When they contended with me:
14 What should I do, if God should rise up,
And if He should make search, what should I answer Him?
15 Hath not He who formed me in the womb formed him also,
And hath not One fashioned us in the belly?

It might happen, as ver. 13 assumes, that his servant or
s/t

his maid (8, 4e\, denotes a maid who is not necessarily a

slave, ‘abde, as ch. xix. 15, whereas "MSY does not occur in
the book) contended with him, and in fact so that they on
their part began the dispute (for, as the Talmud correctly
points out, it is not DY ‘272, but Wy 033), but he did not
then treat them as a despot; they were not accounted as res
but persone by him, he allowed them to maintain their per-
sonal right in opposition to him. Christopher Scultetus ob-
serves here: Gentiles guidem non concedebant jus servo contra
dominum, cui etiam vite necisque potestas in ipsum erat; sed
Job amore justitie libere se demisit, ut vel per alios judices aut
arbitros litem talem curaret decidi vel sibi tpsi sit moderatus,
ut juste pronuntiaret. If he were one who despised (BND,
not ‘ADN) his servants’ cause: what should he do if God
arose and entered into judgment; and if He should appoint
an examination (thus Hahn correctly, for the conclusion
shows that 3p) is here a synon. of jna Ps. xvii. 38, and 1pn Ps,
xliv. 22, aa:, V., VIIL., accurate inspicere), what should he
answer ?

Mufassal, ed. Broch, pp. 125, 182 (according to which it serves ‘‘ to give
intensity and speciality”), and Beidhawi’s observation on Sur. ii. 191.
The most usual example for it is alga bi-jedeihi ila et-tahlike, he has
plunged his hands, 7.e. himself, into ruin. The Ba el-megdz (the meta-
phorical Beth obj.) is similar ; it is used where the verb has not its most
natural signification but a metaphorical one, e.g. ashada bidhikrihi, he
has strengthened his memory: comp. De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, i. 397.

182 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Ver. 15. The same manner of birth, by the same divine
creative power and the same human agency, makes both
master and servant substantially brethren with equal claims:
Has not He who brought me forth in my mother’s womb
(also) brought forth him (this my servant or my maid), and
has not One fashioned us in our mother’s belly? ‘78, wnus,
viz. God, is the subj., as Mal. ii. 10, 7M (28) 8 (for the
thought comp. Eph. vi. 9), as it is also translated by the
Targ., Jer., Saad., and Gecat.; whereas the LXX. (év 77
avth Kotdia), Syr., Symm. (as it appears from his translation
év opoim Tpo7r@), construe 7M as the adj. to 02, which is
also the idea of the accentuation (Rebia mugrasch, Mercha,
Silluk). On the other hand, it has been observed (also
Norzi) that it ought to be 798" according to this meaning;
but it was not absolutely necessary, vid. Ges. §111,2, 6. Ans
also would not be unsuitable in this combination ; it would, as
e.g. in ins on, not affirm identity of number, but of character.
But 7nx is far more significant, and as the final word of the
strophe more expressive, when referred to God. The form
WAIN is to be judged of just like WHOM, Isa. lxiv. 6; either
they are forms of an exceptionally transitive (as 2, Ps.
Ixxxv. 5, and in maw 1) use of the Kal of these verbs (vid.
e.g. Parchon and Kimchi), or they are syncopated forms of
the Pilel for 33233", 333319), syncopated on account of the same
letters coming together, especially in 12223" (Ew. § 81, a, and
most others); but this coincidence is sought elsewhere (e.g.
Ps. |. 23, Prov. i. 28), and not avoided in this manner (e.g. Ps.
exix. 73). Beside this syncope 33333" might also be expected,
while according to express testimony the first Nun is raphatum:
we therefore prefer to derive these forms from Kal, without
regarding them, with Olsh., as errors in writing. The suf.
is rightly taken by LXX., Targ., Abulwalid, and almost all
expositors,’ not as singular (ennu = éhu), but as plural (ennu

1 Also in the Jerusalem Talmud, where R. Johanan, eating nothing

CHAP, XXXI. 16-18. 183

= énu); the Babylonian school pointed 23"), like 32 where
it signifies a nobis, 32! (Psalter ii. 459, and further informa-
tion in Pinsker’s works, Zur Geschichte des Karaismus, and
Ueber das sogen. assyrische Punktationssystem). Therefore:
One, z.e. one and the same God, has fashioned us in the
womb without our co-operation, in an equally animal way,
which smites down all pride, in like absolute conditionedness.

16 If I held back the poor from what they desired,
And caused the eyes of the widow to languish,

17 And ate my morsel alone
Without letting the fatherless eat thereof :—

18 No indeed, from my youth he grew up to me as to a father,
And from my mother’s womb I guided her—

The whole strophe is the hypothetical antecedent of the
imprecative conclusion, ver. 22 sq., which closes the following
strophe. Since 2912 127 V2, cohibere aliquid ab aliquo (ch.
xxii. 7), is said as much in accordance with the usage of the
language as 727 i312, cohibere aliquem ab aliquo (Num.
xxiv. 11, Eccl. ii. 10), in the sense of denegare alicui aliquid,
there is no reason for taking ord Yan together as a geni-
tival clause (a voto tenuiwm), as the accentuation requires it.
On 75M, vid. on ch. xxi. 21; it signifies solicitude (what is
ardently desired) and business, here the former: what is
ever the interest and want of the poor (the reduced or those
without means). From such like things he does not keep the
poor back, i.e. does not refuse them; and the eyes of the widow

which he did not also share with his slave, refers to these words of Job.
Comp. also the story from the Midrash in Guiseppe Levi's Parabeln
Legenden und Ged. aus Thalmud und Midrasch, S. 141 (Germ. transl.
1863): The wife of R. Jose began a dispute with her maid. Her husband
came up and asked the cause, and when he saw that his wife was in the
wrong, told her so in the presence of the maid. The wife said in a rage:
Thou sayest I am wrong in the presence of my maid? The Rabbi
answered: I do as Job did.

184 THE BOOK OF JOB,

he did not cause or allow to languish (73, to bring to an end,
z.e. cause to languish, of the eyes, as Lev. xxvi. 16, 1 Sam.
ii. 83); he let not their longing for assistance be consumed
of itself, let not the fountain of their tears become dry
without effect. If he had done the opposite, if he had eaten
his bread (13 = pnp NB) alone, and not allowed the orphan
to eat of it with him—but no, he had not acted thus; on
the contrary (‘3 as Ps. cxxx. 4 and frequently), he (the
parentless one) grew up to him (223 == 213, Ges. § 121, 4,
according to Ew. § 315, 6, “by the interweaving of the
dialects of the people into the ancient form of the declining
language ;” perhaps it is more correct to say it is by virtue
of a poetic, forced, and rare brevity of expression) as to a
father (= aN? 193), and from his mother’s womb he guided
her, the helpless and defenceless widow, like a faithful child
leading its sick or aged mother. The hyperbolical expression
‘OS p03! dates this sympathizing and active charity back to
the very beginning of Job’s life. He means to say that it
is in-born to him, and he has exercised it ever since he was
first able to do so. The brevity of the form 20, brief to in-
correctness, might be removed by the pointing Prat) (Olsh.) :
from my youth up he (the fatherless one) honoured me as
a father; and Prat] instead of °3733 would be explained by the
consideration, that a veneration is meant that attributed a
dignity which exceeds his age to the 1p) who was not yet
old enough to be a father. But bay signifies “to cause to
grow” in such a connection elsewhere (parall. D2), to raise),
wherefore LXX. translates éérpedov (CAPA) ; and 227 has
similar examples of the construction of intransitives with the
acc. instead of the dat. (especially Zech. vii. 5) in its favour:
they became me great, 7.e. became great in respect of me,
Other ways of getting over the difficulty are hardly worth
mentioning: the Syriac version reads 283 (pain) and Minis ;
Raschi makes ver. 18a, the idea of benevolence, the subj.,

CHAP, XXXI. 19-23. 185

and ver. 180 (as 179, attribute) the obj. The suff. of 73728
Schlottm. refers to the female orphan ; but Job refers again
to the orphan in the following strophe, and the reference to
the widow, more natural here on account of the gender, has
nothing against it. The choice of the verb (comp. ch.
xxxvili. 32) also corresponds to such a reference, since the
Hiph. has an intensified Kal-signification here." From
earliest youth, so far back as he can remember, he was wont
to behave like a father to the orphan, and like a child to the
widow.

19 Tf I saw one perishing without clothing,
And that the needy had no covering ;
20 If his loins blessed me not,
And he did not warm himself from the hide of my lambs ;
21 If I have lifted up my hand over the orphan,
Because I saw my help in the gate:
22 Let my shoulder fall out of its shoulder-blade,
And mine arm be broken from its bone ;
23 For terror would come upon me, the destruction of God,
And before His majesty I should not be able to stand.

On 73i8 comp. on ch. iv. 11, xxix. 13; he who is come
down from his right place and is perishing (root 12, to sepa-
rate, still perfectly visible through the Arab. bdda, ba‘ida, to
perish), or also he who is already perished, periens and perdi-
tus. The clause, ver. 195, forms the second obj. to MSN DX,
which otherwise signifies st video, but here, in accordance

1957 and 4'53n, to remember ; yp and yn, to sow, to cover with
seed ; won and pnn, both in the signification silere and fabricari ; gpd
and yyon, to mock, ch. xxi. 3; byiny and Swipn, dominari, ch. xxv. 2;
m3 and ANN, to extend, to bow; 3p and Aypn (to obtain by purchase) ;
“yp and “ypn, to reap, ch. xxiv. 6, are all similar. In Arab. the Kal
nahaituhu signifies I put him aside by going on one side (vahw or néhije),
the Hiph. anhaituhu, I put him aside by bringing him to the side (comp.
pny, ch. xii. 23). |

186 THE BOOK OF JOB.

with the connection, signifies sit videbam. The blessing of the
thankful (ch. xxix. 13) is transferred from the person to the
limbs in ver. 20a, which need and are benefited by the warmth
imparted. xo-ox here is not an expression of an affirmative
asseveration, but a negative turn to the continuation of the
hypothetical antecedents. The shaking, 425, of the hand,
ver. 21a, is intended, like Isa. xi. 15, xix. 16 (comp. the Pilel,
ch. x. 32), Zech. ii. 18, as a preparation for a crushing stroke.
Job refrained himself from such designs upon the defenceless
orphan, even when he saw his help in the gate, i.e. before the
tribunal (ch. xxix. 7), i.e. even when he had a certain prospect
of powerful assistance there. If he has acted otherwise, his
N2, ze. his upper arm together with the shoulder, must fall
out from its DY, i.e. the back which bears it together with
the shoulder-blades, and his Y°18, upper and lower arm, which
is considered here according to its outward flesh, must be
_ broken out of its 73, tube, ze. the reed-like hollow bone which
gives support to it, ze. be broken asunder from its basis (Syr. a
radice sua), this sinning arm, which did not compassionate the
naked, and mercilessly threatened the defenceless and helpless.
The n raphatum which follows in both cases, and the express
testimony of the Masora, show that 722¥12 and 729 have no
Mappik. The He quiescens, however, is in both instances
softened from the He mappic. of the suff., Ew. § 21, f. 793 in
ver. 23 is taken by most expositors as predicate: for terror is
(was) to me evil as God, the righteous judge, decrees it. But
‘by: is not favourable to this. It establishes the particular thing
which he imprecates upon himself, and that consequently
which, according to his own conviction and perception, ought
justly to overtake him out of the general mass, viz. that terror
ought to come upon him, a divinely decreed weiwht of afflic-
tion. SS TSisa permutative of NS = DON 7n5, and Ss with
Dechi equivalent to ON (ND?) mi, comp. Jer. ii. 19 (where it
is to be interpreted: and that thou lettest no fear before me

CHAP. XXXI. 21428. . 187

come over thee). Thus also ver. 23d is suitably connected
with the preceding: and I should not overcome His majesty,
i.e. L should succumb to it. The } corresponds to the pre
in prevalerem; MSY (LXX. falsely, AF#upa, judgment, de-
cision = nwn, Jer. pondus) is not intended otherwise than ch.
, xiii. 11 (parall. tn as here).

_ 24 If I made gold my confidence,
And said to the fine gold: O my trust;
25 If I rejoiced that my wealth was great,
And that my hand had gained much ;—
26 If I saw the sunlight when it shone,
And the moon walking in splendour,
27 And my heart was secretly enticed,
And I threw them a kiss by my hand:
28 This also would be a punishable crime,
For I should have played the hypocrite to God above.

Not only from covetous extortion of another’s goods was he
conscious of being clear, but also from an excessive delight in
earthly possessions. He has not made gold his ?D3, confidence
(vid. on qnoDd3, ch. iv. 6); he has not said to 093, fine gold
(pure, ch. xxviii. 19, of Ophir, xxviii. 16), 7212 (with Dag.
forte implicitum as ch. viii. 14, xviii. 14): object (ground) of
my trust! He has not rejoiced that his wealth is great (21,
adj.), and that his hand has attained 133, something great
(neutral masc. Ew. § 172, 6). His joy was the fear of God,
which ennobles man, not earthly things, which are not worthy
to be accounted as man’s highest good. He indeed avoided
mreovetla as cihkwroraTpeta (Col. iii. 5), how much more
the heathenish deification of the stars! “ix is here, as ch.
xxxvil. 21 and daos in Homer, the sun as the great light of
the earth. J is the moon as a wanderer (from m= mw),
i.e. night-wanderer (noctivaga), as the Arab. tdrik in a like
sense is the name of the morning-star. The two words

188 THE BOOK OF JOB.

3p Ip describe with exceeding beauty the solemn majestic
wandering of the moon; ‘1p’ is ace. of closer definition, like
pvon, Ps. xv. 2, and this “brilliantly rolling on” is the ace. of
the predicate to WN8, corresponding to the bm ‘3, “that (or
how) it shoots forth rays” (Hiph. of bon, distinct from 2
Isa. xiii. 20), or even: that it shot forth rays (fwé. in signif.
of an imperf. as Gen. xlviii. 17).

Ver. 27 proceeds with futt. consec. in order to express the
effect which this imposing spectacle of the luminaries of the
day and of the night might have produced on him, but has
not. The Kal "5% is to be understood as in Deut. xi. 16
(comp. 7b. iv. 19, M2): it was enticed, gave way to the
seducing influence. Kissing is called P¥2 as being a joining
of lip to lip. Accordingly the kiss by hand can be described
by np? 1? mpv; the kiss which the mouth gives the hand is
to a certain extent also a kiss which the hand gives the mouth,
since the hand joins itself to the mouth. ‘Thus to kiss the
hand in the direction of the object of veneration, or also to
turn to it the kissed hand and at the same time the kiss which
fastens on it (as compensation for the direct kiss, 1 Kings
xix. 18, Hos. xiii. 2), is the proper gesture of the rpooxdvnots
and adoratio mentioned ; comp. Pliny, A. n. xxviii. 2,5: Inter
adorandum dexteram ad osculum referimus et totum corpus
circumagimus. Tacitus, Hist. iii. 24, says that in Syria they
salute the rising sun; and that this was done by kissing the
hand (Hv xyelpa Kbcavres) in Western Asia as in Greece, is
to be inferred from Lucian’s ITep) épyijcews, c. xvii.” In the
passage before us Ew. finds an indication of the spread of the
Zoroaster doctrine in the beginning of the seventh century
B.C., at which period he is of opinion the book of Job was
composed, but without any ground. The ancient Persian

1 Vid. Freund’s Lat. Wérterbuch s. v. adorare, and K. Fr. Hermann’s
Gottesdienstliche Alterth. der Griechen, c. xxi..16, but especially Excursus
123 in Dougteus’ Analecta.

CHAP, XXXI. 24-28. 189

worship has no knowledge of the act of adoration by throw-
ing a kiss; and the Avesta recognises in the sun and moon
exalted genii, but created by Ahuramazda, and consequently
not such as are to be worshipped as gods. On the other
hand, star-worship is everywhere the oldest and also com-
paratively the purest form of heathenism. That the ancient
Arabs, especially the Himjarites, adored the sun, wow, and the
moon, } (}D, whence ‘)'D, the mountain dedicated to the
moon), as divine, we know from the ancient testimonies,’ and
many inscriptions” which confirm and supplement them; and
the general result of Chwolsohn’s? researches is unimpeachable,
that the so-called Sabians ((.)4.le with or without Hamza of
the Jé), of whom a section bore the name of worshippers
of the sun, shemsije, were the remnant of the ancient
heathenism of Western Asia, which lasted into the middle
ages. This heathenism, which consisted, according to its
basis, in the worship of the stars, was also spread over Syria,
and its name, usually combined with D'9W7 N2¥ (Deut. iv. 19),
perhaps is not wholly devoid of connection with the name of
a district of Syria, 7218 D8; certainly our poet found it
already there, where he, heard the tradition about Job, and
in his hero presents to us a true adherent of the patriarchal
religion, who had kept himself free from the influence of the
worship of the stars, which was even in his time forcing its
way among the tribes.

It is questionable whether ver. 28 is to be regarded as a con-
clusion, with Umbr. and others, or as a parenthesis, with Ew.,
Hahn, Schlottm., and others. We take it as a conclusion,
against which there is no objection according to the syntax,

1 Vid. the collection in Lud. Krehl’s Religion der vorislamischen Araber,
1863.

* Vid. Osiander in the Deutsche Morgenl. Zeitschr. xvii. (1863) 795.

3 In his great work, Ueber die Ssabier und den Ssabismus, 2 Bdd.
Petersburg, 1856.

190 THE BOOK OF JOB.

although strictly it is only a confirmation (vid. vers. 11, 23)
of an implied imprecatory conclusion: therefore it is (would
be) also a judicial misdeed, i.e. one to be severely punished,
for I should have played the hypocrite to God above (sd
by, recalling the universal Arabic expression allah ta‘dla,
God, the Exalted One) by making gold and silver, the sun
and moon my idols. By rbyoB both the sins belonging to the
judgment-seat of God, as in évoyos TH cuvedpia, Matt. v. 22,
are not referred to a human tribunal, but only described kav’
avOpwrov as punishable transgressions of the highest grade.
> wind signifies to play the hypocrite to any one, whereas to
disown any one is expressed by 2 UN>. His worship of God
would have been hypocrisy, if he had disowned in secret the
God whom he acknowledged openly and outwardly.

Now follow strophes to which the conclusion is wanting.
The single imprecatory conclusion which yet follows (ver. 40),
is not so worded that it might avail for all the preceding
hypothetical antecedents. There are therefore in these
strophes no conclusions that correspond to the other clauses.
The inward emotion of the confessor, which constantly in-
creases in fervour the more he feels himself superior to his
accusers in the exemplariness of his life hitherto, struggles
against this rounding off of the periods. A “yea then —!”
is easily supplied in thought to these strophes which per
apostopesin are devoid of conclusions.

29 TfL rejoiced over the destruction of him who hated me,
And became excited when evil came upon him—

30 Yet I did not allow my palate to sin
By calling down a curse upon his life.

The aposiopesis is here manifest, for ver. 29 is evidently
equal to a solemn denial, to which ver. 30 is then attached as
a simple negative. He did not rejoice at the destruction

CHAP. XXXI. 29, 30. 191

(5, Arab. ds3, féd,! as ch. xii. 5, xxx. 24) of his enemy who

was full of hatred towards him (‘8)¥, elsewhere also 82”),
and was not excited with delight (119N7, to excite one’s self,
a description of emotion, whether it be pleasure, or as ch.
xvii. 8, displeasure, as a not merely passive but moral incident)
if calamity came upon him, and he did not allow his palate
(19 as the instrument of speech, like ch. vi. 30) to sin by
asking God that he might die as a curse. Love towards an
enemy is enjoined by the Thora, Ex. xxiii. 4, but it is more
or less with a national limitation, Lev. xix. 18, because the
Thora is the law of a people shut out from the rest of the
, world, and in a state of war against it (according to which
Matt. v. 43 is to be understood); the books of the Chokma,
however (comp. Prov. xxiv. 17, xxv. 21), remove every limit
from the love of enemies, and recognise no difference, but
enjoin love towards man as man. With ver. 30 this strophe
closes. Among modern expositors, only Arnh. takes in ver,
31 as belonging to it: “ Would not the people of my tent
then have said: Would that we had of his flesh?! we have
not had enough of it,” i.e. we would eat him up both skin
and hair. Of course it does not mean after the manner of
cannibals, but figuratively, as ch. xix. 22; but in a figurative
sense “to eat any one’s flesh” in Semitic is equivalent to
lacerare, vellicare, obtrectare (vid. on ch. xix. 22, and comp.
also Sur. xlix. 12 of the Koran, and Schultens’ Erpenius,
pp- 592 sq.), which is not suitable here, as in general this
drawing of ver. 31 to ver. 29 sq. is in every respect, and

1 Gesenius derives the noun °5 from the verb ‘4%5, but the Arabic,
which is the test here, has not only the verb fdda as med. u and as med. %
in the signification to die, but also in connection with el-feid (féd) the
substantival form el-fid (= el-mét), which (= fiwd, comp. p. 26, note) is
referable to fada, med. u. Thus Neshwdn, who in his Lezicon (vol. ii.
fol. 119) even only knows fadda, med. wu, in the signif. to die (comp. infra
on ch, xxxix. 18, note).

192 THE BOOK OF JOB.

especially that of the syntax, inadmissible. It is the duty of
beneficence, which Job acknowledges having practised, in
ver. 31 sq.

31 If the people of my tent were not obliged to say:
Where would there be one who has not been satisfied with
his flesh? !—
32 The stranger did not lodge out of doors,
I opened my door towards the street.

Instead of 328, it might also be 712N* (dicebant) ; the perf.,
however, better denotes not merely what happens in a general
way, but what must come to pass. The “people of the tent”
are all who belong to it, like the Arab. ahi (tent, metonym.
dwellers in the tent), here pre-eminently the servants, but
without the expression in itself excluding wife, children, and
relations. ‘The optative jf", so often spoken of already, is
here, as in ver. 35, ch. xiv. 4, xxix. 2, followed by the ace.
object, for Ya”) is part. with the long accented @ (quis ex-
hibebit or exhibeat non saturatum), and 3 is not meant of
the flesh of the person (as even the LXX. in bad taste
renders: that his maids would have willingly eaten him, their
kind master, up from love to him), but of the flesh of the cattle
of the host. Our translation follows the accentuation, which,
however, perhaps proceeds from an interpretation like that of
Arnheim given above. His constant and ready hospitality is
connected with the mention of his abundant care and pro-
vision for his own household. It is unnecessary to take Mk,
with the ancient versions, for 78, or so to read it ; maw? sig-
nifies towards the street, where travellers are to be expected,
comp. Pirke aboth i. 5: “May thy house be open into the
broad place (nnn), and may the poor be thy guests.” The
Arabs pride themselves on the exercise of hospitality. “To
open a guest-chamber” is the same as to establish one’s own
household in Arabic. Stories of judgments by which the

CHAP. XXXI. 83, 34. 193

want of hospitality has been visited, form an important ele-
ment of the popular traditions of the Arabs.’

33 If I have hidden my wickedness like Adam,
Concealing my guilt in my bosom,

34 Because I feared the great multitude
And the contenupt of families affrighted me,
So that I acted secretly, went not out of the door.—

Most expositors translate D382: after the manner of men;
but appropriate as this meaning of the expression is in Ps.
Ixxxii. 7, in accordance with the antithesis and the parallelism
(which see), it would be as tame here, and altogether expres-
sionless in the parallel passage Hos. vi. 7’—the passage which
comes mainly under consideration here—since the force of
the prophetic utterance: “they have O1N3 transgressed the
covenant,” consists in this, “that Israel is accused of a trans-

1 In the spring of 1860—relates Wetzstein—as I came out of the
forest of Gélan, I saw the water of Ram lying before us, that beautiful
round crater in which a brook that runs both summer and winter forms
a clear but fishless lake, the outflow of which underground is recognised
as the fountain of the Jordan, which breaks forth below in the valley
out of the crater Tell el-Kadi; and I remarked to my companion, the
physician Regeb, the unusual form of the crater, when my Beduins, full
of astonishment, turned upon me with the question, ‘‘ What have you
Franks heard of the origin of this lake?” On being asked what they
knew about it, they related how that many centuries ago a flourishing
village once stood here, the fields of which were the plain lying between
the water and the village of Megdel Shems. One evening a poor traveller
came while the men were sitting together in the open place in the middle
of the village, and begged for a supper and a resting-place for the night,
which they refused him. When he assured them that he had eaten nothing
since the day before, an old woman amidst general laughter reached out
a gelle (a cake of dried cow-dung, which is used for fuel), and drove him
out of the village. Thereupon the man went to the village of Nimra
(still standing, south of the lake), where he related his misfortune, and
was taken in by them. The next morning, when the inhabitants of Nimra
woke; they found a lake where the neighbouring village had stood.

2 Pusey also (The Minor Prophets with Commentary, P. i. 1861) im-
proves ‘‘ like men” by translating ‘‘ like Adam.”

VOL, Il. N

194 THE BOOK OF JOB.

gression which is only to be compared to that of the first
man created: here, as there, a like transgression of the ex-
pressed will of God” (von Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. 412f.);
as also, according to Rom. v. 14, Israel’s transgression is that
fact in the historical development of redemption which stands
by the side of Adam’s transgression. And the mention of
Adam in Hosea cannot surprise one, since he also shows him-
self in other respects to be familiar with the contents of
Genesis, and to refer back to it (wid. Genesis, S. 11-18).
Still much less surprising is such a reference to primeval
history in a book that belongs to the literature of the Chokma
(vid. Introduction, § 2). The descent of the human race from
a single pair, and the fall of those first created, are, moreover,
elements in all the ancient traditions; and it is questionable
whether the designation of men by beni Adama (children of
Adam), among the Moslems, first sprang from the contact of .
Judaism and Christianity, or whether it was not rather an
old Arabic expression. ‘Therefore we translate with Targ.,
Schult., Bouillier, Rosenm., Hitz., Kurtz, and von Hofm.:
if I have hidden (disowned) like Adam my transgression.
The point of comparison is only the sinner’s dread of the
light, which became prominent as the prototype for every
succeeding age in Adam’s hiding himself. The jinn? which
follows is meant not so much as indicating the aim, as gerun-
dive (abscondendo) ; on this use of the inf. constr. with >, vid.
Ew. § 280, d. an, bosom, is dz. yeyp.; Ges. connects it with
the Arab. habba, to love; it is, however, to be derived from
the 3n, occulere, whence chabibe, that which is deep within,
a deep valley (comp. 825, chabaa, with their derivatives) ; in
Aramaic it is the common word for the Hebr. PA.

Ver. 34a. With °3 follows the motive which Job might
have had for hiding himself with his sin: he has been neither.
an open sinner, nor from fear of men and a feeling of honour
a secret sinner. He cherished within him no secret accursed _

CHAP. XXXI. 35-87. 195

thing, and had no need for playing the hypocrite, because he
dreaded (jW only here with the acc. of the obj. feared) the
great multitude of the people (737 not adv. but adj.; 07 with
Mercha-Zinnorith, consequently jfem., as DY sometimes, Ew.
§ 174, 6), and consequently the moral judgment of the
people; and because he feared the stigma of the families, .
and therefore the loss of honour in the higher circles of
society, so that as a consequence he should have kept himself
quiet and retired, without going out of the door. One might
think of that abhorrence of voluptuousness, with which, in
the consciousness of its condemnatory nature, a man shuts
himself up in deep darkness ; but according to ver. 33 it is
im general deeds that are intended, which. Job would have
ground for studiously concealing, because if they had become
known he would have appeared a person to be scouted and
despised: he could frankly and freely meet any person’s gaze,
and had no occasion to fear the judgment of men, because he
feared sin. He did nothing which he should have cause for
earefully keeping from the light of publicity. And yet his
affliction is to be accounted as the punishment of hidden sin!
as proof that he has committed punishable sin, which, how-
ever, he will not confess!

35 O that I had one who would hear me!
Behold my signature—the Almighty will answer me—
And the writing which my opponent hath written !
36 Truly I will carry tt wpon my shoulder,
I will wind tt about me as a crown.
37 The number of my steps I will recount to Him,
As a prince will I draw near to Him.

The wish that he might find a ready willing hearer is put
forth in a general way, but, as is clear in itself, and as it
becomes manifest from what follows, refers to Him who,
because it treats of a contradiction between the outward

196 THE BOOK OF JOB.

appearance and the true but veiled fact, as searcher of the
heart, is the.only competent judge. It may not be trans-
lated: e¢ libellum (the indictment, or even: the reply to Job’s
self-defence) scribat meus adversarius (Dachselt, Rosenm.,
Welte)—the accentuation seems to proceed from this render-
ing, but it ought to be 98D 3N31; if AND governed by "233" were
intended to be equivalent to 243‘, and referred to God, the
longing would be, as it runs, an unworthy and foolish one—
nor: (O that I had one who would hear me . . .) and had
the indictment, which my adversary has written (Ew., Hirz.,
Schlottm.)—for 75D) is too much separated from {FY ) by
what intervenes—in addition to which comes the considera-
tion that the wish, as it is expressed, cannot be referred to
God, but only to the human opponent, whose accusations
Job has no occasion to wish to hear, since he has already
heard amply sufficient even in detail. Therefore {7 (instead
of {3} with a conjunctive accent, as otherwise with Makkeph)
will point not merely to ‘A, but also to liber quem scripsit
adversarius meus as now lying before them, and the paren-
thetical °224" "IY will express a desire for the divine decision
in the cause now formally prepared for trial, ripe for discus-
sion. By 4, my sign, z.e. my signature (comp. Ezek. ix. 4,
and Arab. tiwa, a branded sign in the form of a cross), Job
intends the last word to his defence which he has just spoken,
ch. xxxi.; it is related to all his former confessions as a con-
firmatory mark set below them; it is his ultimatum, as it were,
the letter and seal to all that he has hitherto said about his
innocence in opposition to the friends and God. Moreover,
he also has the indictment of the triumvirate which has come
forward as his opponent in his hands. Their so frequently
repeated verbal accusations are fixed as if written; both—their
accusation and his defence—lie before him, as it were, in the
documentary form of legal writings. Thus, then, he wishes
an observant impartial hearer for this his defence; or more

CHAP, XXXI. 38-40. 197

exactly: he wishes that the Almighty may answer, z.e. decide.
Hahn interprets just as much according to the syntax, but
understanding by “n the witness which Job carries in his
breast, and by 3) 15D the testimony to his innocence written
by God in his own consciousness ; which is inadmissible, be-
cause, as we have often remarked already, ‘2% ws (comp. ch.
xvi. 21) cannot be God himself.

In ver. 36 Job now says how he will appear before Him
with this indictment of his opponent, if God will only con-
descend to speak the decisive word. He will wear it upon
his shoulder as a mark of his dignity (comp. Isa. xxii. 22,
ix. 5), and wind it about him as a magnificent crown of
diadems intertwined and heaped up one above another (Apoc.
xix. 12, comp. Kohler on Zech. vi. 11)—confident of his
victory at the outset; for he will give Him, the heart-searcher,
an account of all his steps, and in the exalted consciousness
of his innocence, he will approach Him as a prince (27? in-
tensive of Kal). How totally different from Adam, who was
obliged to be drawn out of his hiding-place, and tremblingly,
because conscious of guilt, underwent the examination of the
omniscient God! Job is not conscious of cowardly and slyly
hidden sins; no secret accursed thing is cherished in the
inmost recesses of his heart and home.

38 If my field cry out against me,
And all together its furrows weep ;
39 If I have devoured its strength without payment,
And caused the soul of its possessor to expire :
40 May thistles spring up instead of wheat,
And darnel instead of barley.

The field which he tills has no reason to cry out on account
of violent treatment, nor its furrows to weep over wrong done
to them by their lord.t_ 948, according to its radical signifi-

1 Tn a similar figure a Rabbinic proverb says (with reference to Mal.

198 THE BOOK OF JOB.

cation, is the covering of earth which fits close upon the body
of the earth as its skin, and is drawn flat over it, and there-
fore especially the arable land ; pon (Arab. telem, not how-
ever directly referable: to an Arab. root, but as also other
words used in agriculture, probably borrowed from the North
Semitic, first of all the Aramaic or Nabataic), according to
the explanation of the Turkish Kamus, the “ ditch-like crack
which the iron of the ploughman tears in the field,” not the
ridge thrown up between every two furrows (vid. on Ps.
Ixv. 11). He has not unlawfully used (which would be the
reason of the crying and weeping) the usufruct of the field
(92 meton., as Gen. iv. 12, of the produce, proportioned to
its capability of production) without having paid its value, by
causing the life to expire from the rightful owner, whether
slowly or all at once (Jer. xv. 9). The wish in ver. 40 is
still stronger than in vers. 8, 12: there the loss and rooting
out of the produce of the field is desired, here the change of
the nature of the land itself; the curse shall and must come
upon it, if its present possessor has been guilty of the sin of
unmerciful covetousness, which Eliphaz lays to his charge in
ch, xxii. 6-9.

According to the view of the Capuchin Bolducius (1637),
this last strophe, vers. 38-40, stood originally after ver. 8,
according to Kennicott and Eichhorn after ver. 25, according
to Stuhlmann after ver. 34. The modern expositors retain it
in its present position. Hirzel maintains the counter argu-
ments: (1) that none of the texts preserved to us favour the
change of position ; (2) that it lay in the plan of the poet not
to allow the speeches of Job to be rounded off, as would be
the case by vers. 35-37 being the concluding strophe, but to
break off suddenly without a rhetorical conclusion. If now
we imagine the speeches of Elihu as removed, God interrupts

ii, 18), that the altar of God weeps over him who separates himself from
the wife of his youth.

CHAP. XXXI. 38-40. 199

Job, and he must cease without having come to an end with
what he had to say. But these counter arguments are an
insufficient defence: for (1) there is a number of admitted
misplacements in the Old Testament which exceed the Masora
(e.g. 1 Sam. xiii. 1, Jer. xxvii. 1), and also the LXX. (e.g.
1 Sam. xvii. 12, owoxa, LXX. év dvdpacu, instead of pv);
(2) Job’s speech would gain a rhetorical conclusion by vers.
38-40, if, as Hirzel in contradiction of himself supposes, vers.
35-37 ought to be considered as a parenthesis, and ver. 40
as a grammatical conclusion to the hypothetical clauses from
ver. 24 onwards. But if this strange view is abandoned, it
must be supposed that with ver. 38 Job intends to begin the
assertion of his innocence anew, and is interrupted in this course
of thought now begun, by Jehovah. But it is improbable that
one has to imagine this in the mind of such a careful poet.
Also the first word of Jehovah, “ Who is this that darkeneth
counsel with words without knowledge?” ch. xxxviii. 2, is
much more appropriate to follow directly on ch. xxxi. 37 than
ch. xxxi. 40; for a new course of thought, which Jehovah’s
appearing interrupts, begins with ver. 35; and the rash utter-
ance, ver. 37, is really a “darkening of the divine decree.”
For by declaring he will give an account to God, his judge,
concerning each of his steps, and approach Him like a prince,
Job does not merely express the injustice of the accusations
raised by his human opponents, but he casts a reflection of
injustice upon the divine decree itself, imasmuch as it appears
to him to be a de facto accusation of God.

Nevertheless, whether Elihu’s speeches are to be put aside
as not forming an original portion of the book, or not, the
impression that vers. 38-40 follow as stragglers, and that
vers. 35-37 would form a more appropriate close, and a more
appropriate connection for the remonstrance that follows,
whether it be Jehovah’s or Elihu’s, remains. For the assertion
in vers. 38-40 cannot in itself be considered to be a justifiable

200 THE BOOK OF JOB.

boldness; but in vers. 35-37 the whole condition of Job’s
inner nature is once more mirrored forth: his longing after
God, by which Satan’s prediction is destroyed ; and his over-
stepping the bounds of humility, on account of which his
affliction, so far as it is of a tentative character, cannot end
before it is also become a refining fire to him. Therefore we
cannot refrain from the supposition that it is with vers. 38-40
just as with Isa. xxxvilil. 21 sq. The LXX. also found these
two verses in this position ; they belong, however, after Isa.
XXXvill. 6, as is clear in itself, and as is evident from 2 Kings
xx. 7 sq. There they are accidentally omitted, and are now
added at the close of the narration as a supplement. If the
change of position, which is there an oversight, is considered as
too hazardous here, vers. 35-37 must be put in the special and
close relation to the preceding strophe indicated by us in the
exposition, and vers. 88-40 must be regarded as a final round-
ing off (not as the beginning of a fresh course of thought) ;
for instead of the previous aposiopeses, this concluding strophe
dies away, and with it the whole confession, in a particularly
vigorous, imprecative conclusion.

Let us once more take a review of the contents of the three
sharply-defined monologues. After Job, in ch. xxvii. xxviii.,
has closed the controversy with the friends, in the first part
of this trilogy, ch. xxix., he wishes himself back in the months
of the past, and describes the prosperity, the activity, for the
good of his fellow-men, and the respect in which he at that
time rejoiced, when God was with him. It is to be observed
here, how, among all the good things of the past which he
longs to have back, J ob gives the pre-eminence to the fellow-
ship and blessing of God as the highest good, the spring and
fountain of every other. Five times at the beginning of ch.
xxix. in diversified expressions he describes the former days as
a time when God was with him. Look still further from the
beginning of the monologue to its close, to the likewise very

CHAP. XXXI. 38-40. 201

expressive ony oSax -wixo. The activity which won every
heart to Job, and toward which he now looks back so long-
ingly, consisted of works of that charity which weeps with
them that weep, and rejoices not in injustice, ch. xxix. 12-17.
The righteousness of life with which Job was enamoured, and
which manifested itself in him, was therefore charity arising
from faith (Liebe aus Glauben). He knew and felt himself
to be in fellowship with God; and from the fulness of this
state of being apprehended of God, he practised charity.
. He, however, is blessed who knows himself to be in favour
with God, and in return loves his fellow-men, especially the
poor and needy, with the love with which he himself is loved
of God. Therefore does Job wish himself back in that past,
for now God has withdrawn from him; and the prosperity,
the power, and the important position which were to him the
means for the exercise of his charity, are taken from him.
This contrast of the past and present is described in
ch. xxx., which begins with nny. Men who have become
completely animalized, rough hordes driven into the moun-
tains, with whom he sympathized, but without being able ta
help them as he had wished, on account of their degeneracy,
—these mock at him by their words and acts. Now scorn
and persecution for the sake of God is the greatest honour of
which a man can be accounted worthy; but, apart from the
consideration that this idea could not yet attain its rightful
expression in connection with the present, temporal character
of the Old Testament, it was not further from any one than
from him who in the midst of his sufferings for God’s sake
regards himself, as Job does now, as rejected of God. That
scorn and his painful and loathsome disease are to him a decree
of divine wrath; God has, according to his idea, changed to
a tyrant; He will not hear his cry for help. Accordingly,
Job can say that his welfare as a cloud is passed away. He
is conscious of having had pity on those who needed help, and

202 THE BOOK OF JOB.

yet he himself finds no pity now, when he implores pity
like one who, seated upon a heap of rubbish, involuntarily
stretches forth his hand for deliverance. In this gloomy
picture of the present: there is not even a single gleam of
light; for the mysterious darkness of his affliction has not
been in the slightest degree lighted up for Job by the treat-
ment the friends have adopted. Also he is as little able as the
friends to think of suffering and sin as unconnected, for which
very reason his affliction appears to him as the effect of divine
wrath; and the sting of his affliction is, that he cannot con-
sider this wrath just. From the demand made by his faith,
which here and there breaks through his conflict, that God
cannot allow him to die the death of a sinner without testify-
ing to his innocence, Job nowhere attains the conscious con-
clusion that the motive of his affliction is love, and not wrath.

In the third part of the speech (ch. xxxi.), which begins
with the words, “I had made a covendnt,” etc., without every-
where going into the detail of the visible conjunction of the
thought, Job asserts his earnest struggle after sanctification,
by delivering himself up to just divine punishment in case
his conduct had been the opposite. The poet allows us to
gain a clear insight into that state of his hero’s heart, and
_ also of his house, which was well-pleasing to God. Not
merely outward adultery, even the adulterous look; not
merely the unjust acquisition of property and goods, but
even the confidence of the heart in such things; not merely
the share in an open adoration of idols, but even the side-
glance of the heart after them, is accounted by him as con-
demnatory. He has not merely guarded himself from using
sinful curses against his enemies, but he has also not rejoiced
when misfortune overtook them. As to his servants, even
when he has had a dispute with any of them, he has not for-
gotten that master and servant, without distinction of birth,
are creatures of one God. Towards orphans, from early

CHAP. XXXI. 38-40. 203

youth onwards, he has practised such tender love as if’ he
were their father; towards widows, as if he were their son.
With the hungry he has shared his bread, with the naked
his clothes; his subordinates had no reason to complain of
niggardly sustenance ; his house always stood open hospitably
to the stranger; and, as the two final strophes affirm: he
has not hedged in any secret sin, anxious only not to ap-
pear as a sinner openly, and has not drawn forth wailings
and tears from the ground which he cultivated by avarice
and oppressive injustice. Who does not here recognise a
righteousness of life and endeavour, the final aim of which is
purity of heart, and which, in its relation to man, flows forth
in that love which is the fulfilling of the law? The right-
eousness of which Job (ch. xxix. 14) says, he has put it on
like a garment, and it has put him on, is essentially the same
as that which the New Testament Preacher on the mount
enjoins. As the work of an Israelitish poet, ch. xxxi. is a
most important evidence in favour of the assertion, that a life
well-pleasing to God is not, even in the Old Testament,
absolutely limited to the Israclitish nation, and that it enjoins
a love which includes man as man within itself, and knows
of no distinction.

If, now, Job can lay down the triumphant testimony of
such a genuine righteousness of life concerning himself, in
opposition to men’s misconstruction, the contrast of his past
and present becomes for the first time mysterious; but we
are also standing upon the extreme boundary where the knot
that has been tied must be untied. The injustice done to
Job in the accusations which the friends bring against him
must be laid bare by the appearance of accusation on the
part of God, which his affliction casts upon him, being de,
stroyed. With the highest confidence in a triumphant issue,
even before the trial of his cause, Job longs, in the conclud-
ing words, vers. 35-37, for the judicial decision of God. As

204 THE BOOK OF JOB,’

a prince he will go before the Judge, and bind his indictment
like a costly diadem upon his brow. For he is certain that
he has not merited his affliction, that neither human nor
divine accusation can do anything against him, and that he
will remain conqueror—as over men, so over God Himself.

Thus has the poet, in this threefold monologue of Job,
prepared the way for the catastrophe, the unravelment of the
knot of the drama. But will God enter into a controversy
respecting His cause with Job? This is contrary to the
honour of God; and that Job desires it, is contrary to the low-
liness which becomes him towards God. On this very account
God will not at once acknowledge Job as His servant: Job
will require first of all to be freed from the sinful presumption
concerning God with which he has handled the problem of
his sufferings. But he has proved himself to be a servant. of
God, in spite of the folly into which he has fallen; the design
of Satan to tear him away from God is completely frustrated.
Thus, therefore, after he has purified himself from his sin
into which, both in word and thought, he has allowed himself
to be drawn by the conflict of temptation, Job must be proved
to be the servant of God in opposition to the friends.

But before God Himself appears in order to bring about
the unravelment, there follow still four speeches, ch. xxxii—
XXXVil., of a speaker, for whose appearance the former part
of the drama has in no way prepared us. It is also remark-
able that they are marked off from the book of Job, as far as
we have hitherto read, by the formula 318 25 4A, are ended
the words of Job. Carey is of the opinion that these three
words may possibly be Job’s own closing divi. According to
Hahn, the poet means to imply by them that Job has now
said all that he intended to say, so that it would now have
been the friends’ turn to speak. These views involve a per-
plexity like that of those who think that Ps. Lxxii. 20 must be
regarded as a constituent part of the Psalm. As in that posi-

CHAP, XXXI. 88-40. 205

tion the words, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are
_ finished,” are as a memorial-stone between the original collec-
tion and its later extensions, so this 2% "27 won, which is
transferred by the LXX. («al éravcato ’I@8 prjpacw) to
the historical introduction of the Elihu section, seems to be
an important hint in reference to the origin of the book of
Job in its present form. Since Job has come to an end with
his speeches, and is silent at the four speeches of a new
speaker, although they strongly enough provoke him to reply ;
according to the idea of the poet, Elihu’s appearance is to be
regarded as belonging to the catastrophe itself. And since a
hasty glance at the speeches of Jehovah shows that they do
not say anything concerning the motive and object of Job’s
affliction, these speeches of Elihu, in so far as they seem to be
an integral part of the whole, as they cast light upon this dark
point, will therefore prove in the midst of the action of the
drama, what we know already from the prologue, that Job’s
- affliction has not the wrath of God as its motive power, nor
the punishment of Job as ungodly for its object. If the four
speeches really furnish this, it is still not absolutely decisive in
favour of their forming originally a part of the book. For it
would be even possible that a second poet might have added a
part, in harmony with its idea, to the work of the first. What
we expect, moreover, is the mark of the same high poetic
genius which we have hitherto regarded with amazement. But
since we are now passing on to the exposition of these speeches,
it must be with the assumption that they have a like origin
with the whole, and that they also really belong to this whole
with which they are embodied, in the place where they now
stand. We shall only be able to form a conclusive judgment
concerning the character of their form, the solution of their
problem, and the manner of their composition, after the ex-
position is completed, by then taking a comprehensive and cri-
tical review of the impressions produced, and our observations.

206 THE BOOK OF JOB.

FOURTH PART.—THE UNRAVELMENT.

CHAP. XXXII.-XLII.

THE SPEECHES OF ELIHU WHICH PREPARE THE WAY FOR
THE UNRAVELMENT.—CHAP. XXXII.-XXXVII.

LMistorical Introduction to the Section.—Chap. xxxil. 1—6a.

A short introduction in historical prose, which introduces
the speaker and justifies his appearance, opens the section.
It is not, like the prologue and epilogue, accented as prose ;
but, like the introductions to the speeches and the clause, ch.
xxxi. 40 ewtra, is taken up in the network of the poetical
mode of accentuation, because a change of the mode of
accentuation in the middle of the book, and especially in a
piece of such small compass, appeared awkward. The oppo-
sition of the three has exhausted itself, so that in that respect
Job seems to have come forth out of the controversy as
conqueror.

Vers. 1-3. So these three men ceased to answer Job, because
he was righteous in his own eyes. And the wrath of
Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of
Ram, was kindled: against Job was his wrath kindled,
because he justified himself at the expense of God. And
against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because
they found no answer, and condemned Job.

The name of the speaker is AON (with Mahpach), son of
boa (with Munach) the 2 (with Zarka). The name Elihu
signifies “my God is He,” and occurs also as an Israelitish

name, although it is not specifically Israelitish, like Llyah
(my God is Jehovah). Bérach’el (for which the mode of

writing ayaa with Dag. implic. is also found) signifies “ may

CHAP. XXXII. 1-3. 207

God bless!” (Olsh. § 277, S. 618); for proper names, as the
Arabian grammarians observe, can be formed both into the
form of assertory clauses (ichbar), and also into the form of
modal (inshdé); the name OND72 is in this respect distinguished
from the specifically Israelitish name 373 (Jehovah blesseth).
The accompanying national name defines the scene; for on
the one side na and yy, according to Gen. xxii. 21, are the
sons of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, who removed with him
(though not at the same time) from Ur Casdim to Haran,
therefore by family Aramzans; on the other side, na, Jer.
xxv. 23, appears as an Arab race, belonging to the MND ‘Sy?
(comp. Jer. ix. 25, xlix. 32), ze. to the Arabs proper, who cut
the hair of their heads short all round (aepetpoyadka, Hero-
dotus ii. 8), because wearing it long was accounted as dis-
- graceful (vid. Tebrizi on the Hamédsa, p. 1°04, 1. 10 sqq.).
Within the Buzite race, Elihu sprang from the family of 5,
Since 55 is the name of the family, not the race, it cannot be
equivalent to DVS (like 0% , 2 Chron. xxii. 5, = now), and
it is therefore useless to derive the Aramaic colouring of
Elihu’s speeches from design on the part of the poet. But
by making him a Buzite, he certainly appears to make him
an Aramzan Arab, as Aristeas in Euseb. prep. ix. 25 calls
him ’E)voby tov Bapaywyr tov ZwRirny (from naw ow). It
is remarkable that Elihu’s origin is given so exactly, while the
three are described only according to their country, without
any statement of father or family. It would indeed be pos-
sible, as Lightfoot and Rosenm. suppose, for the poet to
conceal his own name in that of Elihu, or to make allusion
to it; but an instance of this later custom of Oriental poets
is found nowhere else in Old Testament literature.

The three friends are silenced, because all their attempts
to move Job to a penitent confession that his affliction is the
punishment of his sins, have rebounded against this fact, that
he was righteous in his own eyes, ze. that he imagined him-

208 THE BOOK OF JOB.

self righteous; and because they now (NY of persons, in
distinction from 51n, has the secondary notion of involuntari-
ness) know of nothing more to say. Then Elihu’s indigna-
tion breaks forth in two directions. First, concerning Job,
that he justified himself DTONN, 2.¢@. not a Deo (so that He
would be obliged to account him righteous, as ch. iv. 17),
but pre Deo. Klihu rightly does not find it censurable in
Job, that as a more commonly self-righteous man he in
general does not consider himself a sinner, which the three
insinuate of him (ch. xv. 14, xxv. 4), but that, declaring him-
self to be righteous, he brings upon God the appearance of
injustice, or, as Jehovah also says further on, ch. xl. 8, that
he condemns God in order that he may be able to maintain
his own righteousness. Secondly, concerning the three, that
they have found no answer by which they might have been
able to disarm Job in his maintenance of his own righteous-
ness at the expense of the divine justice, and that in con-
sequence of this they have condemned Job. Hahn translates:
so that they should have represented Job as guilty; but that
they have not succeeded in stamping the servant of God as a
yuh, would wrongly excite Elihu’s displeasure. And Ewald
translates: and that they had nevertheless condemned him
(§. 345, a); but even this was not the real main defect of
their opposition. The fut. consec. describes the condemnation
as the result of their inability to hit upon the right answer;
it was a miserable expedient to which they had recourse.
According to the Jewish view, 2"N"N8 WYN is one of the
eighteen DAD ‘PN (correctiones scribarum), since it should
be onbxnvns wes. But it is not the friends who have been
guilty of this sin of Y¥70 against God, but Job, ch. xl. 8, to
whom Elihu opposes the sentence yw} 5s, ch. xxxiv. 12.
Our judgment of another such t:qgiin, ch. vil. 20, was more
favourable. That Elihu, notwithstanding the inward con-
viction to the contrary by which he is followed during the

CHAP. XXXII 4-7, 209

course of the controversial dialogue, now speaks for the first
time, is explained by what follows.

Vers. 4-6. And Elihu had waited for Job with words, for
they were older than he in days. And Elihu saw that
there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, then
his wrath was kindled. And Elihu the son of Barachel
the Buzite began, and said.

He had waited (perf. in the sense of the plusquampery.,
Ew. § 135, a) for Job with words (0273 as elsewhere Dena,
p02), i.e. until Job should have spoken his last word in the
controversial dialogue. Thus he considered it becoming on
his part, for they (73, ili, whereas nDN according to the
usage of the language is hi) were older (seniores) than he in
days (DD? as ver. 6, less harsh here, instead of the acc. of
closer definition, ch. xv. 10, comp. xi. 9). As it now became
manifest that the friends made no reply to Job’s last speeches
for want of the right solution of problem, and therefore also
Job had nothing further to say, he believes that he may
venture, without any seeming want of courtesy, to give utter-
ance to his long-restrained indignation; and Elihu (with
Mahpach) the son of Barach’el (Mercha) the Buzite (with
Rebia parvum) began and spoke (728 not with Silluk, but
Mercha mahpach., and in fact with Mercha on the accented
penult., as ch. ili. 2, and further).

Elilws First Speech—Chap. xxxii. 6)-xxxiii.
Schema: 5. 6. 10. 6. 10. | 6. 8. 10. 13. 8. 6. 10. 10.

Ch. xxxii. 64 Iam young in days, and ye are hoary,
Therefore I stood back and was afraid
To show you my knowledge,
7 I thought: Let age speak, -

And the multitude of years teach wisdom.
VOL, II. oO

210 THE BOOK OF JOB.

It becomes manifest even here that the Elihu section has
in part a peculiar usage of the language. ont in the signi-
fication of \>}, cogn. with +o, 21", to frighten back ;! and
ya for nya (here and vers. 10, 17, ch. xxxvi. 3, xxxvil. 16)
occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament; r-by (comp. 122,
ch. xlii. 3) is used only by Elihu within the book of Job.
nb’, days = fulness of days, is equivalent to advanced age,
old age with its rich experience. 35 with its plural genitive
is followed (as 52 usually is) by the predicate in the plur.; it
is the attraction already described by 15d», ch. xv. 10, xxi. 21,
Ges, § 148, 1.

8 Séll the spirit, tt is in mortal man,

And the breath of the Almighty, that giveth them under-
standing.

9 Not the great in years are wise,

~

And the aged do not understand what is right.
10 Therefore I say: O hearken to me,
I will declare my knowledge, even I.

The originally affirmative and then (like Doi) adversative
128 also does not occur elsewhere in the book of Job. In
contradiction to biblical psychology, Rosenm. and others take
ver. 8 as antithetical: Certainly there is spirit in man, but...

1 The lexicographers explain the Arab. >} by 2ala (by), to stand
away from, back, to retreat, or tanahha, to step aside; Piel, Hiph., to
push any one aside, place anything back ; Hithpa., to keep one’s self on
one side; adj. ont rar amt, etc., standing back. Thus the town of

Zahla in the plain of the Lebanon takes its name from the fact that it
does not stand out in the plain, but is built close at the foot of the
mountain in a corner, and consequently retreats. And zwhale (according
to the Kamus) is an animal that creeps backwards into its hole, e.g. the
scorpion ; and hence, improperly, a man who, as we say with a similar
figure, never comes out 6f his hole, always keeps in his hole, ¢.e. never
leaves his dwelling, as zwhal in general signifies a man who retires or
keeps far from active life; in connection with which also the planet
Saturn is called Zuhal, the retreating one, on account of its great distance

\

CHAP, XXXII. 8-10. 211

‘The two halves of the verse are, on the contrary, a synonymous
(“the spirit, it is in man, viz. that is and acts”) or progressive
parallelism (thus according to the accents: “the spirit, even
that which is in man, and... .”). It is the Spirit of God to
which man owes his life as a living being, according to ch.
xxxili. 4; the spirit of man is the principle of life creatively
wrought, and indeed breathed into him, by the Spirit of God;
so that with regard to the author it can be just as much God’s
mm or mW3, ch. xxxiv. 14, as in respect of the possessor:
man’s Mi or pv. All man’s life, his thinking as well as
his bodily life, is effected by this inwrought principle of life
which he bears within him, and all true understanding, with-
out being confined to any special age of life, comes solely
from this divinely originated and divinely living spirit, so far
as he acts according to his divine origin and basis of life.
a7 are here (as the opposite of ayy, Gen. xxv. 23) grandes
= grandevi (UXX. wodvypdvor). 8 governs both members
of the verse, as ch. ii. 10, xxvili. 17, xxx. 24 sq. Under-
standing or ability to form a judgment is not limited to old
age, but only by our allowing the veda to rule in us in its
connection with the divine. Elihu begs a favourable hearing
for that of which he is conscious. 1, and the Hebr.-Aramaic
mn, which likewise belong to his favourite words, recur here.

from the rest. Slippery (of ground) is bont, because it draws the foot
backwards (muzhil) by its smoothness, and thus causes the walker to fall.
A further formation is obni, to be slippery, and to slip in a slippery place ;
beside which, nbt, a word of similar meaning, is no longer used in Syria.

According to this Arabic primary notion of J}, it appears PON vonp,
Mic. vii. 17, is intended to describe the serpents not as creeping upon the
earth, but as creeping into the earth (comp. the name of the serpent,
achbi’ at el-ard, those that hide themselves in the earth) ; but in Talmud.
and Aram. 5m} used of animals has the general signification to creep,
and of water, to glide (flow gently down). The primary notion, to glide
(to slip, creep, flow gently, abi), is combined both in the derivatives of
the root mp and in those of the root 5; with the notion of a departing and
retreating motion.—WeETzs?. and FL,

912 THE BOOK OF JOB.

11 Behold, I waited upon your words,
Hearkened to your perceptions,
While ye searched out replies.

12 And I attended closely to you,
Yet behold: there was no one who refuted Job,
Who answered his sentences, from you.

13 Lest ye should say: “ We found wisdom,
God is able to smite him, not man!”

14 Now he hath not arranged his words against me,
And with your sentences I will not reply to him.

He has waited for their words, viz. that they might give
utterance to such words as should tend to refute and silence
Job. In what follows, 7 still more emphatically than .
refers this aim to that to which Elihu had paid great atten-
tion: I hearkened to your understandings, i.e. explanations
of the matter, that, or whether, they came forth, (I hearkened)
to see if you searched or found out words, %.e. appropriate
words. Such abbreviated forms as PI8 = [SS (comp. [2 =
PD for PIN, Prov. xvii. 4, Ges. § 68, rem. 1, if it does not
signify nutriens, from }t) we shall frequently meet with in
this Elihu section. In ver. 12, 12a evidently is related as an
antecedent to what follows: and I paid attention to you
(Q22°1Y contrary to the analogy of the cognate prep. instead of
oy, moreover for D>"ON, with the accompanying notion:
intently, or, according to Aben-Duran: thoroughly, without
allowing a word to escape me), and behold, intently as I paid
attention: no one came forward to refute Job; there was no
one from or among you who answered (met successfully) his
assertions. Every unbiassed reader will have an impression
of the remarkable expressions and constructions here, similar
to that which one has in passing from the book of the Kings
to the characteristic sections of the Chronicles. The three,
Elihu goes on to say, shall not indeed think that in Joba

CHAP. XXXII. 15-17. 213

wisdom has opposed them—a false wisdom, indeed—which
only God and not any man can drive out of the field (973,
WI, discutere, dispellere, as the wind drives away chaff or
dry leaves); while he has not, however (srr followed directly
by av. fin. forming a subordinate clause, as ch. xlii. 3, Ps.
xliv. 18, and freq., Ew. § 341, a), arrayed (72¥ in a military
sense, ch. xxxili. 5; or forensic, xxiii. 4; or even as ch.
xxxvil. 19, in the general sense of proponere) words against
him (Elihu), i.e. utterances before which he would be com-
pelled to confess himself affected and overcome. He will not
then also answer him with such opinions as those so fre-
- quently repeated by them, i.e. he will take a totally different
course from theirs in order to refute him.

15 They are amazed, they answer no more,
Words have fled from them.

16 And I waited, for they spake not,
For they stand still, they answer no more.

17 Therefore I also will answer for my part,
L will declare my knowledge, even I.

In order to give a more rapid movement and an emotional
force to the speech, the figure asyndeton is introduced in
ver. 15, as perhaps in Jer. xv. 7, Ew. § 349, a. Most ex-
positors render 3p passively, according to the sense: they
have removed from them, i.e. are removed from them; but
why may pnyn not signify, like Gen. xii. 8, xxvi. 22, to
move away, viz. the tent = to wander on (Schlottm.)? The
figure: words are moved away (as it were according to an
encampment broken up) from them, i.e. as we say: they
have left them, is quite in accordance with the figurative
style of this section. It is unnecessary to take ‘nonin,
ver. 16a, with Ew. (§ 342, c) and Hirz. as perf. consec. and
interrogative: and should I wait, because they speak no
more? Certainly the interrog. part, sometimes disappears

214 THE BOOK OF JOB.

after the Waw of consequence, e.g. Ezek. xviii. 13, 24 (and
will he live?); but by what would snbmm be distinguished as
perf. consec. here? Hahn’s interpretation: I have waited,
until they do not speak, for they stand .. ., also does not
commend itself; the poet would have expressed this by sy
a7 N>, while the two %, especially with the poet’s predilec-
tion for repetition, appear to be co-ordinate. Elihu means to
say that he has waited a long time, surprised that the three
did not speak further, and that they stand still without speak-
ing again. Therefore he thinks the time is come for him
also to answer Job. 32Y8 cannot be fut. Kal, since where
the 1 fut. Kal and Hiph. cannot be distinguished by the
vowel within the word (as in the Ayin Waw and double Ayin
verbs), the former has an inalienable Segol; it is therefore
1 fut. Hiph., but not as in Kecl. v.19 in the signification to
employ labour upon anything (LX -X. vepiorav), but in an
intensive Kal signification (as P'Y' for PY, ch. xxxv. 9, comp.
on ch, xxxi. 18): to answer, to give any one an answer when
ealled upon. LEwald’s supposedly proverbial: I also plough
my field! (§ 192, c, Anm. 2) does unnecessary violence to
the usage of the language, which is unacquainted with this
my, to plough. It is perfectly consistent with Elihu’s
diction, that pon beside 28 as permutative signifies, “I, my
part,” although it might also be an acc. of closer definition
(as pro parte mea, for my part), or even—which is, however,
less probable—ace. of the obj. (my part). Elihu speaks more
in the scholastic tone of controversy than the three.

18 For I am full of words,
The spirit of my inner nature constraineth me.

19 Behold, my interior is like wine which is not opened,
Like new bottles it is ready to burst.

20 I will speak, that I may gain air,
I will open my lips and reply.

Or

CHAP. XXXII. 18-22. 1

21 No, indeed, I will aecept no man’s person,
And I will flatter no man.

22 For I understand not how to flatier ;
My Maker would easily snatch me away. ,

The young speaker continues still further his declaration,
promising so much. He has a rich store of D’3n, words, i.e.
for replying. nbn defective for ‘N89, like NS. for ‘DNs,
ch. i. 21; whereas 992, Ezek. xxviii. 6, is not only written
defectively, but is also conjugated after the manner of a
Lamed He verb, Ges. §§ 23, 38, 74, rem. 4, 75, 21, ¢. The
spirit of his inner nature constrains him, since, on account of
its intensity and the fulness of this interior, it struggles to
break through as through a space that is too narrow for it.
}O2, as ch. xv. 2, 35, not from the curved appearance of the
belly, but from the interior of the body with its organs, which
serve the spirit life as the strings of a harp; comp. Arab. data,
the middle or interior; bdtin, inwardly (opposite of zéhir, out-
wardly). . His interior is like wine MNB* 85, which, or (as an
adverbial dependent clause) when it is not opened, i.e. is kept
closed, so that the accumulated gas has no vent, LXX.
Sedeuévos (bound up), Jer. absque spiraculo ; it will burst like
new bottles. P32! is not a relative clause referring distribu-
tively to each single one of these bottles (Hirz. and others),
and not an adverbial subordinate clause (Hahn: when it will
explode), but predicate to 202: his interior is near bursting
like new bottles (nias masce. like nitN3, Josh. ix. 13), i.e. not
such as are themselves new (aoxol xawol, Matt. ix. 17, for
these do not burst so easily), but like bottles of new wine,
which has to undergo the action of fermentation, LXX.
aomep puontyp (Cod. Sinait.. dvontns) yarkéws, te. DWAIN
(whence it is evident that a bottle and also a pair of bellows
were called 318). Since he will now yield to his irresistible
impulse, in order that he may obtain air or free space, ie.

216 THE BOOK OF JOB.

disburdening and ease ("9 my), he intends to accept no
man’s person, i.e. to show partiality to no one (vid. on ch.
xiii. 8), and he will flatter no one. 33 signifies in all three
dialects to call any one by an honourable name, to give a
surname, here with Oy, to speak fine words to any one, to -
flatter him. This Elihu is determined he will not do; for x?
mas ‘nyt, I know not how to flatter (French, je ne sais point
flatter), for N32 or niz2>; comp. the similar constructions, ch.
xxiii. 3 (as Esth. vill. 6), x. 16, 1 Sam. ii. 3, Isa. xhi. 21,
lii. 1, Ges. 142, 3, c; also in Arabic similar verbs, as “to be
able” and “to prepare one’s self,” are thus connected with the
fut. without a particle between (e.g. anshaa jef‘alu, he began
to act). Without partiality he will speak, flattery is not his
forte. If by flattery he should deny the truth, his Maker
would quickly carry him off. 623 followed by subjunct.
fut.: for a little (with disjunctive accent, because equivalent
to haud multum abest quin), i.e. very soon indeed, or easily
would or might... ; 28" (as ch, xxvii. 21) seems designedly
to harmonize with ‘ty.

Ch. xxxili. 1 But nevertheless, O Job, hear my speeches,
And hearken to all my words.
2 Behold now, I have opened my mouth,
My tongue speaketh in my palate.
3 Sincere as my heart are my utterances,

And knowledge that is pure my lips declare.

The issue of the impartial discussion which Elihu designs
to effect, is subject to this one condition, that Job listens to
it, and observes not merely this or that, but the whole of its
connected contents; and in this sense Dow}, which is used just
as in ch. i. 11, xi. 5, xii. 7, xill. 4, xiv. 18, xvii. 10, in the
signification verwmtamen, stands at the head of this new turn
in his speech. Elihu addresses Job, as none of the previous
speakers have done, by name. With 827739 (as ch. xiii. 18),

CHAP. XXXIII. 4-7. 217

he directs Job’s observation to that which he is about to say:
he has already opened his mouth, his tongue is already in
- motion,—cireumstantial statements, which solemnly inaugu-
rate what follows with a consciousness of its importance.
Job has felt the absence of Y's, ch. vi. 25, in the speeches
of the three; but Elihu can at the outset ensure his word
being “the sincerity of his heart,” ¢.e. altogether heartily
well meant : and—thus it would be to be translated according
to the accentuation—the knowledge of my lips, they (my lips)
utter purely. But “ the knowledge of the lips” is a notion
that seems strange with this translation, and 12 is hardly
intended thus adverbially. Mv, contrary to the accentuation,
is either taken as the accusative of the obj., and 12 as the
acc. of the predicate (masc. as Prov. ii. 10, xiv. 6): knowledge
my lips utter pure; or interpreted, if one is not willing to
depart from the accentuation, with Seb. Schmid: scientiam
labiorum meorum quod attinet (the knowledge proceeding from
my lips), puram loquentur sc. labia mea. The notions of
purity and choice coincide in 173 (comp. Arab. tbtarra, to
separate one’s self; asfa, to prove one’s self pure, and to
select). The perf’, vers. 2 sq., describe what is begun, and
so, as relatively past, extending into the present.

4 The Spirit of God hath made me,
And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
5 If thou canst, answer me,
Prepare in my presence, take thy stand !
6 Behold, I am like thyself, of God,
Formed out of clay am J also.
7 Behold, my terror shall not affright thee,
And my pressure shall not be heavy upon thee.

He has both in common with Job: the spirituality as well
as the earthliness of man’s nature; but by virtue of the
former he does not, indeed, feel himself exalted above Job’s

218 THE BOOK OF JOB,

person, but above the present standpoint taken up by Job;
and in consideration of this, Job need not fear any unequal
contest, nor as before God, ch. ix. 34, xiii. 21, in order that
he may be able to defend himself against Him, make it a
stipulation that His majesty may not terrify him. It is man’s
twofold origin which Elihu, vers. 4, 6, gives utterance to in
harmony with Gen. ii. 7: the mode of man’s origin, which is
exalted above that of all other earthly beings that have life;
for the life of the animal is only the individualizing of the
breath of the Divine Spirit already existing in matter. The
spirit of man, on the contrary (for which the language has
reserved the name )¥), is an inspiration directly coming
forth from God the personal being, transferred into the bodily
frame, and therefore forming a person.’ In the exalted con-
sciousness of having been originated by the Spirit of God,
and being endowed with life from the inbreathed breath of
the Almighty, Elihu stands invincible before Job: if thou
canst, refute me (25 with acc. of the person, as ch. xxxiii. 82);
array thyself ([27Y for AY, according to Ges. 63, rem. 1)
before me (here with the additional thought of mane, as
ch. xxiii. 4, in a forensic sense with 08D), place thyself in
position, or take thy post (imper. Hithpa. with the ah less
frequent by longer forms, Ew. § 228, a).

On the other side, he also, like Job, belongs to God, i.e. is
dependent and conditioned. ‘JN"} is to be written with Segol
(not Ssere) ; DN? is intended like ib, ch. xi. 16; and 7°53 signi-
fies properly, according to thine utterance, ¢.e. standard, in
accordance with, 7.¢. like thee, and is used even in the Pen-
tateuch (e.g. Ex. xvi. 21) in this sense pro ratione; ‘D3, ch.
xxx. 18, we took differently. He, Elihu, is also nipped from
the clay, z.e. taken from the earth, as when the potter nips off

1 God took a small piece of His own life—says the tradition among the

Karens, a scattered tribe of Eastern India—blew into the nostrils of His
son and daughter, and they became living beings, and were really human.

CHAP. XXXII. 8~12. 219

a piece of his clay (comp. Aram. }P, a piece, Arab. gurs, a
bread-cake, or a dung-cake, vid. supra, vol. i. p. 377, from
garasa, to pinch off, take off, cogn. garada, to gnaw off, cut
off, i. p. 40). Thus, therefore, no terribleness in his appear-
ing will disconcert Job, and his pressure will not be a burden
upon him. By a comparison of ch. xiii. 21a, it might seem
that BIN is equivalent to BS} (LX X. 7 yelp mov), but 123 is
everywhere connected only with 7°, never with 42; and the
am. yeyp. is explained according to Prov. xvi. 26, where 28
signifies to oppress, drive (Jer. compulit), and from the dialects
differently, for in Syr. ecaf signifies to be anxious about any-
thing (ecaf li, it causes me anxiety, cure mihi est), and in
Arab. accafa, to saddle, ucéf, Talmud. 4338, a saddle, so that
consequently the Targ. translation of ‘B28 by ‘2, my burden,
and the Syr. by "352)8, my pressing forward (Arabic version
igbali, my touch), are supported, since 42% signifies pressure,
heavy weight, load, and burden; according to which it
is also translated by Saad. (my constraint), Gecat. (my
might). It is therefore not an opponent who is not on an
equality with him by nature, with whom Job has to do. If
he is not able to answer him, he will have to be considered as
beaten.

8 Verily thou hast said in mine ears,
And I heard the sound of thy words:
9 “Lam pure, without transgression ;
“ Spotless am I, and I have no guilt.
10 “ Behold, He findeth malicious things against me,
“ He regardeth me as His enemy ;
11 “ He putteth my feet in the stocks,
“ He observeth all my paths.”
12 Behold, therein thou art not right, I will answer thee,
For Eloah is too exalted for man.

With MOS WS Elihu establishes the undeniable fact,

220 THE BOOK OF JOB.

whether it be that 48 is intended as restrictive (only thou hast
said, it is not otherwise than that thou .. .), or as we have
translated, according to its primary meaning, affirmative
(forsooth, it is undeniable). To say anything ‘283 of another
is in Hebrew equivalent to not saying it secretly, and so as
to be liable to misconstruction, but aloud and distinctly. In
ver. 9, Elihu falls back on Job’s own utterances, as ch. ix. 21,
m8 On; xvi. 17, norondan; xii. 4, where he calls himself
pon py, comp. x. 7, xill. 18, 23, xxiii. 10 sqq., xxvii. 5 sq.,
ch. xxix. xxxi. The expression 59, tersus, did not occur in
the mouth of Job; Geiger connects §n with the Arab. hanif
(vid. on ch. xili. 16); it is, however, the adj. of the Semitic

verb 4M, ae ie to rub off, scrape off; Arab. to make smooth by

scraping off the hair; Targ., Talm., Syr., to make smooth by
washing and rubbing (after which Targ. "v, lotus). 338
has here, as an exception, retained its accentuation of the
final syllable in pause. In ver. 10 Elihu also makes use of a
word that does not occur in Job’s mouth, viz. Nisin, which,
according to Num. xiv. 34, signifies “alienation,” from 13
(8°22), to hinder, restrain, turn aside, abalienare, Num. xxxii. 7;

and according to the Arab. s\; (to rise heavily),? III. to lean

one’s self upon, to oppose any one; it might also signify directly,
“hostile risings;” but according to the Hebr. it signifies
grounds and occasions for hostile aversion. Moreover, Elihu
here recapitulates what Job has in reality often in meaning

1 Vid. Néldecke in Benfey’s Zeitschrift, 1863, 8. 383.

2 Nevertheless Zamachschari does not derive uss, to treat with
Ss

enmity, from 9, but from $9), so that ndwa fuldnan signifies “to have
evil designs against any one, to meditate evil against one.” The phrases
iluh ‘aléji nijat, he has evil intentions (wicked designs) against me, nijetuh
zertje aleik, he has evil intentions against thee, and similar, are very
common.—WETZST.

CHAP. XXXIII. 3-12. 221

said, e.g. ch. x. 13-17; and ver. 10d are his own words, ch..
xiii, 24, 95 sux5 wavinm; xix. 11, myo ib vavinn; xxx. 21,
4 spond yonn. In like manner, ver. 11 is a verbatim quota-
tion from ch. xiii, 27; 0% is a poetic contracted fut. for
oe”. Itis a principal trait of Job’s speeches which Elihu
here makes prominent: his maintenance of his own righteous-
ness at the expense of the divine justice. In ver. 12 he first
of all refutes this DDN WEI PAY in general. The verb PTS
does not here signify to be righteous, but to be in the right
(as ch. xi. 2, xiii. 18)—the prevailing signification in Arabic
(sadaga, to speak the truth, be truthful). nt (with Munach,
not Dechi) is acc. adv.: herein, in this case, comp. on ch.
xix. 26. 227 is like Deut. xiv. 24 (of the length of the
way exceeding any one’s strength), but used, as nowhere else,
of God’s superhuman greatness; the Arabic version has the

preposition we in this instance for }2. God is too exalted to
enter into a defence of. Himself against such vainglorying
interwoven with accusations against Him. And for this
reason Elihu will enter the lists for God.

13 Why hast thou contended against Him,
That He answereth not concerning all His gas ?
14 Yet no—in one way God speaketh,
And in two, only one perceiveth it not.
15 In the dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed:
16 Then He openeth the ear of men,
And sealeth admonition for them,
17 That He may withdraw man from mischief,
And hide pride from man ;
18 That He may keep back his soul from the pit,
And his life from the overthrow of the sword.

222 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Knowing himself to be righteous, and still considering
himself treated as an enemy by God, Job has frequently
inquired of God, Why then does He treat him thus with
enmity, ch. vii. 20, and why has He brought him into being
to be the mark of His attack? ch. x. 18. He has longed for
God’s answer to these questions; and because God has veiled
Himself in silence, he has fallen into complaint against Him,
as a ruler who governs according to His own sovereign
arbitrary will. This is what Elihu has before his mind in
ver. 13. 3" (elsewhere in the book of Job with OY or the
acc. of the person with whom one contends) is here, as Jer.
xii. 1 and freq., joined with ON and conjugated as a contracted
Hiph. (Mi instead of FIX, Ges. § 73, 1); and 72Y with the ace.
signifies here: to answer anything (comp. ch. xxxii. 12, xl. 2,
and especially ix. 3); the suf’. does not refer back to Vix of
the preceding strophe (Hirz., Hahn), but to God. 1725 are
the things, z.e. facts and circumstances of His rule; all those
things which are mysterious in it He answers not, i.e. He
answers concerning nothing in this respect (comp. xd 53, ch.
xxxiv. 27), He gives no kind of account of them (Schnurr.,
Ges., and others). ‘2, ver. 14a, in the sense of imo, is
attached to this negative thought, which has become a ground
of contention for Job: yet no, God does really speak with
men, although not as Job desires when challenged and in His
own defence. Many expositors take NNN2 and Dav after
LXX., Syr., and Jer. in the signification semel, secundo
(thus also Hahn, Schlottm.) ; but semel is NOs, whereas nna
is nowhere equivalent to nns oya3, for im Num. x. 4 it signi-
fies with one, viz. trumpet; Prov. xxviil. 18, on one, viz. of
the many ways; Jer. x. 8, in one, ze. in like folly (not:
altogether, at once, which 1583, Syr. bachdo, signifies) ; then
further on it is not twice, but two different modes or means
of divine attestation, viz. dreams and sicknesses, that are
spoken of; wherefore it is rightly translated by the Targ.

CHAP. XXXIII. 13-18. 223

una loquela, by Pagn. uno modo, by Vatabl., Merc., una via.
The form of the declaration: by one—by two, is that of the
so-called number-proverbs, like ch. v. 19. In diverse ways
or by different means God speaks to mortal man—he does
not believe it, it is his own fault if he does perceive it. %>
myuw*, which is correctly denoted as a separate clause by
Rebia mugrasch, is neither with Schlottm. to be regarded as a
circumstantial clause (without one’s . . .), nor with Vatablus
and Hahn‘as a conditional clause (if one does not attend to
it), nor with Montanus and Piscator as a relative clause (to
him who does not observe it), but with Tremellius as a co-
ordinate second predicative clause without a particle (one
might expect 38): he (mortal man) or one observes it not
(nw with neut. suf. exactly like ch. xxxv. 13).

Vers. 15 sqq. Elihu now describes the first mode in which
God speaks to man: He Himself comes forward as a witness
in man’s sleep, He makes use of dreams or dream-like visions,
which come upon one suddenly within the realm of nocturnal
thought (vid. Psychol. S. 282 sq.), as a medium of revelation
—a usual form of divine revelation, especially in the heathen
world, to which positive revelation is wanting. The reading
fina (Codd., LX X., Syr., Symm., Jer.), as also the accentu-
ation of the mona with Mehupach Legarme, proceeds from the
correct assumption, that vision of the night and dream are
not coincident hotions; moreover, the detailing ver. 15, is
formed according to ch. iv. 13. In this condition of deep or
half sleep, revelat aurem hominum, a phrase used of the pre-
paration of the ear for the purpose of hearing by the removal
of hindrances, and, in general, of confidential communication,
therefore: He opens the ear of men, and seals their admoni-
tion, z.e. the admonition that is wholesome and necessary for
them. Elihu uses 2 090 here and ch. xxxvii. 7 as 193 00n
is used in ch. ix. 7: to seal anything (to seal up), comp. pia,
oppayifeww, in the sense of infallible attestation and confirma-

224 THE BOOK OF JOB.

tion (John vi. 27), especially (with W) of divine revelation or
inspiration, distinct in meaning from yi, opparyiferv, in the
proper sense. Elihu means that by such dreams and visions,
as rare overpowering facts not to be forgotten, God puts the
seal upon the warning directed to them which, sent forth in
any other way, would make no such impression. Most ancient
versions (also Luther) translate as though it were D9 (LXX,
éfepoBnce avtovs), 0D is a secondary form to 7D%9, ch,
xxxvi. 10, which occurs only here. Next comes the fuller
statement of the object of the admonition or warning delivered
in such an impressive manner. According to the text before
us, it is to be explained: in order that man may remove (put
from himself) mischief from himself (Ges. § 133, 3); but
this inconvenient change of subject is avoided, if we supply
a 1 to the second, and read nyynn pis, as LX X. aroctpéras
— avOpwrrov aro adixias abtod (which does not necessarily pre-
suppose the reading inyynn), Targ. ab opere malo; Jer. not so
good: ab his que fecit. NYY signifies facinus, an evil deed, as
1 Sam. xx. 19, and 5yb, ch. xxxvi. 9, evil-doing. The infin.
constr. now passes into the v. fin., which would be very liable
to misconstruction with different subjects: and in order that
He (God) may conceal arrogance from man, 2.¢. altogether
remove from him, unaccustom him to, render him weary of,
the sin of pride (713 from 113 = nN3, as ch. xxil, 29, according
to Ges., Ew., Olsh., for M8) = 83), Here everything in
thought and expression is peculiar. Also 79, ver. 180 (as
vers. 22, 28), for 8" (ver. 80) does not occur elsewhere in the
book of Job, and the phrase nova 72y here and ch. xxxvi. 12
(comp. NNW2 12Y, ver. 28) nowhere else in the Old Testament.
nov (Arab. sildh, a weapon of offence, opp. meta‘, a weapon
of defence) is the engine for shooting, from nov, emitterey to
shoot; and nwa ray is equivalent to ndvin sya da, Joel ii. 8,
to pass away by (precipitate one’s self into) the weapon
for shooting. To deliver man from sin, viz. sins of carnal

CHAP. XXXIII. 19-22. 225

security and intaginary self-importance, and at the same time
from an early death, whether natural or violent, this is the dis-
ciplinary design which God has in view in connection with this
first mode of speaking to him; but there is also a second mode.

19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
And with the unceasing conflict of his limbs ;
20 And his life causeth him to loathe bread,
And his soul dainty meat.
21 His flesh consumeth away to uncomeliness,
And his deranged limbs are scarcely to be seen.
22 Then his soul draweth near to the grave,
And his life to the destroyers.

_ Another and severer lesson which God teaches man is by
painful sickness: he) is chastened with pain (2 of the means)
on his bed, he and the vigorous number of his limbs, i.e. he
with this hitherto vigorous (Raschi), or: while the multitude
of his limbs is still vigorous (Ew.). Thus is the Keri 25) to
be understood, for the interpretation: and the multitude of
his limbs with unceasing pain (Arnh. after Aben-Ezra), is
unnatural. But the Chethib is far more commendable: and
with a constant tumult of his limbs (Hirz. and others). Ver.
19d might also be taken as a substantival clause: and the
tumult of his limbs is unceasing (Umbr., Welte); but that
taking over of 2 from 218313 is simpler and more pleasing, 2”
(opposite of bib, eg. Ps. xxxvili. 4) is an excellent description
of disease which consists in a disturbance of the equilibrium of
the powers, in the dissolution of their harmony, in the excite-
ment of one against another (Psychol. S. 287). {08 for jn
belongs to the many defective forms of writing of this section.
In yer. 20 we again meet a Hebreo-Arabic hapaxlegomenon,
Dnt from OFt. In Arab. zahuma signifies to stink, like the
Aram. D7? (whence 5%, dirt and stench), zahama to thrust

back, restrain, after which Abu Suleiman Datid Alfasi, in his
VOL. II. P

226 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Arabic Lexicon of the Hebrew, interprets: “kis soul thrusts
back (np) nnn) food and every means of life,”* beside which
the suf. of 725) is taken as an anticipation of the following
object (vid. on ch. xxix. 3): his life feels disgust at it, at bread,
and his soul at dainty meat. The Piel has then only the
intensive signification of Kal (synon. 3¥A, Ps. evii. 18), ac-
cording to which it is translated by Hahn with many before
him. But if the poet had wished to be so understood, he
would have made use of a less ambiguous arrangement of the
words, inn ond inoan. We take Om with Ew. § 122, 5, as
causative of Kal, in which signification the Piel, it is true,
occurs but rarely, yet it does sometimes, instead of Hiph.;
but without translating, with Hirz., n'n by hunger and wa) by
appetite, which gives a confused thought. Schlottm. appro-
priately remarks: ‘It is very clearly expressed, as the proper
vital power, the proper avy, when it is inwardly consumed
by disease, gives one a loathing for that which it otherwise
likes as being a necessary condition of its own existence.”
Thus it is: health produces an appetite, sickness causes
nausea; the soul that is in an uninjured normal state longs
for food, that which is severely weakened by sickness turns
the desire for dainties into loathing and aversion.

-Ver. 21a. The contracted future form 23%, again, like Db,
ver. lla, is poetic instead of the full form: his flesh vanishes
19, from sight, i.e. so that it is seen no longer; or from
comeliness, i.e. so that it becomes unsightly ; the latter (comp.
1 Sam, xvi. 12 with Isa. lili. 2, myo-xd) might be preferred.
In ver. 216 the Keri corrects the text to 18%, et contrita sunt,
whereas the Chethib is to be read ‘vA, et contritio. The
verb 75Y, which has been explained by Saadia from the Tal-
mudic,” signifies conterere, comminuere ; Abulwalid (in Ges.

1 Vid. Pinsker’s Likkute Kadmoniot, p. 3p.

2 He refers to 6. Aboda zara 42a: If a heathen have broken an idol to
pieces (MAY) to derive advantage from the pieces, both the (shattered)

: CHAP, XXNIII. 19-22. 227

Thes.) interprets it here by sulifet wa-baradet, they are con-
’ sumed and wasted away, and explains it by "3, The radical
notion is that of scraping, scratching, rubbing away (not to
be interchanged with \a., nap, which, starting from the radical
notion of sweeping away, vanishing, comes to have that of
wasting away; cognate, however, with the above Cis,
whence suhdé/, consumption, prop. a rasure of the plumpness
of the body). According to the Keri, ver. 210 runs: and his
bones (limbs) are shattered (fallen away), they are not seen,
i.e. in their wasting away and shrivelling up they have lost
their former pleasing form. Others, taking the bones in their
strict sense, and MSY in the signification to scrape away = lay
bare, take 1x1 85 as a relative clause, as Jer. has done: ossa
que tecta fuerant nudabuntur (rather nudata sunt), but this
ought with a change of mood to be 19 ais) 29) Bw, To the
former interpretation corresponds the unexceptionable Chethib:
and the falling away of his limbs are not seen, i.e. (per
attractionem) his wasting limbs are diminished until they are
become invisible. %) is one of the four Old Testament words
(Gen. xliii. 26, Ezra viii. 18, Lev. xxiii. 17) which have a
Dagesh in the Aleph; in all four the Aleph stands between
two vowels, and the dageshing (probably the remains of a
custom in the system of pointing which has become the pre-
vailing one, which, with these few exceptions, has. been suf-
fered to fall away) is intended to indicate that the Aleph is
here to be carefully pronounced as a guttural (to use an
Arabic expression, as Hamza), therefore in this passage ru-’é.’

Thus, then, the soul (the bearer of the life of the body) of the

idol and the fragments (j»32W) are permitted (since both are deprived of

their heathenish character).

1 Vid. Luzzatto’s Grammatica della Lingua Ebraica (1853), § 54.
Ewald’s (§ 21) view, that in these instances the pointed Aleph is to be
read as j (therefore ruju), is unfounded ; moreover, the point over the
Aleph is certainly only improperly called Dagesh: it might at least just as
suitably be called Mappik. |

228 THE BOOK OF JOB.

sick man, at last succumbing to this process of decay, comes
near to the pit, and his life to the O'n2, destroying angels
(comp. Ps. Ixxviii. 49, 2 Sam. xxiv. 16), «ec. the angels who
are commissioned by God to slay the man, if he does not
anticipate the decree of death by penitence. To understand
the powers of death in general, with Rosenm., or the pains of
death, with Schlottm. and others, does not commend itself,
because the Elihu section has a strong angelological colouring
in common with the book of Job. The following strophe,
indeed, in contrast to the o'n’n, speaks of an angel that
effects deliverance from death.

23 If there is an angel as mediator for him,
One of a thousand,
To declare to man what is for his profit :
24 He is gracious to him, and saith:
Deliver him, that he go not down to the pit—
I have found a ransom.

The former case, vers. 15-18, was the easier; there a
strengthening of the testimony of man’s conscience by a
divine warning, given under remarkable circumstances, suf-
fices. This second case, which the LXX. correctly dis-
tinguishes from the former (it translates ver. 19, wddw dé
HreyEev avtov év padaxia éml xoirns), is the more difficult :
it treats not merely of a warning against sin and its wages of
death, but of a deliverance from the death itself, to which the »
man is almost abandoned in consequence of sin. This de-
liverance, as Elihu says, requires a mediator. This course of
thought does not admit of our understanding the Non of a
human messenger of God, such as Job has before him in
Elihu (Schult., Schnurr., Boullier, Kichh., Rosenm., Welte),
an “interpreter of the divine will, such as one finds one man
among a thousand to be, a God-commissioned speaker, in one
word: a prophet” (von Hofmann in Schriftbew. i. 336f.). The

CHAP. XXXIII. 23, 24. 229

45 appears not merely as a declarer of the conditions of
the deliverance, but as a mediator of this deliverance itself.
And if the Dn», ver. 220, are angels by whom the man is
threatened with the execution of death, the qx> who comes
forward here for him who is upon the brink of the abyss
cannot be aman. We must therefore understand 4xbo not
as in ch. i. 14, but as in ch. iv. 18; and the more surely so,
since we are within the extra-Israelitish circle of a patriarchal
history. In the extra-Israelitish world a far more developed
doctrine of angels and demons is everywhere found than in
Israel, which is to be understood not only subjectively, but
also objectively; and within the patriarchal history after
Gen. xvi., that (nndx) mn’ qxdo appears, who is instru-
mental in effecting the progress of the history of redemption,
and has so much the appearance of the God of revelation,
that He even calls himself God, and is called God. He it is
whom Jacob means, when (Gen. xlviii. 15 sq.), blessing Joseph,
he distinguishes God the Invisible, God the Shepherd, ie.
Leader and Ruler, and “the Angel who delivered (833) me
from all evil;” it is the Angel who, according to Ps. xxxiv. 8,
encampeth round about them that fear God, and delivereth
them; “the Angel of the presence” whom Isaiah in the
Thephilla, ch. Ixiii. 7 sqq., places beside Jehovah and His
Holy Spirit as a third hypostasis. ‘Taking up this perception,
Elihu demands for the deliverance of man from the death
which he has incurred by his sins, a superhuman angelic
mediator. The “Angel of Jehovah” of primeval history is
the oldest prefigurement in the history of redemption of the
future incarnation, without which the Old Testament history
would be a confused guodlibet of premises and radii, without
a conclusion and a centre; and the angelic form is accordingly
the oldest form which gives the hope of a. deliverer, and to
which it recurs, in conformity to the law of the circular con-
nection between the beginning and end, in Mal. iii. 1.

230 | _ THE BOOK OF JOB.

The strophe begins withont any indication of connection
with the preceding: one would expect D8! or DN tS, as we felt
the absence of 98 in ver. 14, and DP in ch. xxxii. 17. We might
take y"70 FN? together as substantive and epitheton; the ac-
centuation, however, which marks both yx$m and yo with
Rebia magnum (in which case, according to Bir’s Psalteriuwm,
p. xiv., the second distinctive has somewhat less value than
the first), takes 7x59 as subj., and yp as predicate: If there
is then for him (¥y, pro co, Ew. § 217, 2) an angel as »">n,
i.e. mediator; for "50 signifies elsewhere an interpreter, Gen.
xlii. 23; a negotiator, 2 Chron. xxxii. 31; a God-commissioned
speaker, 7.e. prophet, Isa. xliii. 27 ;—everywhere (if it is not
used as in ch. xvi. 20, in malam parte) the shades of the
notion of this word are summarized under the general notion
of internuncius, and therefore of mediator (as the Jewish —
name of the mediating angel jhpyn, probably equivalent. to
mediator, not petdpovos, which is no usable Greek word).
The Targ. translates by str>prp, wapdedntos (opp. VP,
KaTnyopos, KaTiywp). Therefore: if an angel undertakes the
mediatorial office for the man, and indeed one of a thousand,
i.e. not any one whatever of the thousands of the angels
(Deut. xxxiii. 2, Ps. Ixviii. 18, Dan. vii. 10, comp. Tobit
xii. 15, eis éx ta&v émta), but one who soars above the thou-
sands, and has not his equal among them (as Eccl. vii. 28).
Hirz. and Hahn altogether falsely combine: one of the thou-
sands, whose business it is to announce... The accentua-
tion is correct, and that forced mode of connection is without
reason or occasion. It is the function of the ys5v itself as
y5p, which the clause which expresses the purpose affirms:
if an angel appears for the good of the man as a mediator, to
declare to him i, his uprightness, 2c. the right, straight
way (comp. Prov. xiv. 2), in one word: the way of salvation,
which he has to take to get free of sin and death, viz. the
way of repentance and of faith (trust in God): God takes

CHAP. XXXIII. 23, 24. 231

pity on the man ... Here the conclusion begins; Rosenm.
and others erroneously continue the antecedent here, so that
what follows is the intercession of the angel; the angel, how-
ever, is just as a mediator who brings about: the favour of
God, and therefore not the }25 himself. He renders pardon
possible, and brings the man into the state for receiving it.
Therefore: then God pardons, and says to His angel: De-
liver him from the descent to the pit, I have found a ransom. Y
Instead of 34Y78, it would be admissible to read 37978, let him
free (from 75, & 3), if the angel to whom the command is
given were the angel of death. 72 is a cognate form, per-
haps dialectic, with M8, root 75 (as YB, MD’, abe (ds, from
the common root 4", 9). The verb N¥!) (S012) signifies to
come at, ch. xi. 7, to attain something, and has its first signi-
fication here, starting from which it signifies the finding on
the part of the seeker, and then when weakened finding
without seeking. One is here reminded of Heb. ix. 12,
aioviay Wrpwow ebpdwevos. 153 (on this word, vid. Hebrder-
brief, S. 385, 740), according to its primary notion, is not a
covering = making good, more readily a covering = cancel-
ling (from 723, Talmud. to wipe out, away), but, as the usual
combination with >y shows, a covering of sin and guilt before
wrath, punishment, or execution on account of guilt, and in
this sense AvTpov, a means of getting free, ransom-money.
The connection is satisfied if the repentance of the chastened
one (thus e.g. also von Hofm.) is understood by this ransom,
or better, his affliction, inasmuch as it has brought him to re-
pentance. But wherefore should the mediatorship of the angel
be excluded from the notion of the 9853? Just this mediator-
ship is meant, inasmuch as it puts to right him who by his

' Weizstein is inclined to regard 345 as a metathesis of y55, Ee:
thrust (tear, hold) him back from the grave. A proper name, fed’dn,
‘which often occurs among the Beduins, is of uncertain signification ;
perhaps it would serve as an explanation of }ny75.

al

232 THE BOOK OF JOB.

sins had worked death, i.e. places him in a condition in which
no further hindrance stands in the way of the divine pardon.
If we connect the mediating angel, like the angel of Jehovah
of the primeval history, with God Himself, as then the logos
of this mediating angel to man can be God’s own logos com-
municated by him, and he therefore as y">», God’s speaker
(if we consider Elihu’s disclosure in the light of the New
Testament), can be the divine Logos himself, we shall here
readily recognise a presage of the mystery which is unveiled
in the New Testament: “God was in Christ, and recon-
ciled the world unto Himself.” A presage of this mystery,
flashing through the darkness, we have already read in ch.
xvil. 3 (comp. ch. xvi. 21; and, on the other hand, in order
to see how this anticipation is kindled by the thought of the
opposite, ch. ix. 83). The presage which meets us here is
like another in Ps, evii.—a psalm which has many points of
coincidence with the book of Job—where in ver. 20 we find,
“He sent His word, and healed them.”* At any rate, Elihu
expresses it as a postulate, that the deliverance of man can
only be effected by a superhuman being, as it is in reality
accomplished by the man who is at the same time God, and
from all eternity the Lord of the angels of light.

The following strophe now describes the results of the
favour wrought out for man by the pn xd. |

25 His flesh swelleth with the freshness of youth,
Fe returneth to the days of his youth.
26 If he prayeth to Eloah, He showeth him favour,
So that he seeth His face with joy,
And thus He recompenseth to man his uprightness.
1 In his introduction, p. 76, Schlottmann says: ‘‘ The conceptions of
Wisdom and of the Revealing Angel were already united in that of the
Eternal Word in the ante-Christian, Jewish theology. Therein the fact

of the divine revelation in Christ found the forms in which it could
accommodate itself to the understanding, and stimulate succeeding ages

7

CHAP, XXXII 25-28. 233

27 He singeth to men and saith:
“T had sinned and perverted what was straight,
“ And it was not recompensed to me.

28 “ He hath delivered my soul from going down into. the pit,
“ And my life rejoiceth in the light.”

Misled by the change of the perf. and fut. in ver. 25, Jer.
translates 25a: consumta est caro ejus a suppliciis ; Targ.: His
flesh had been weakened (wAPnNN), or made thin (WANN),
more than the flesh of a child; Raschi: it had become burst
(French svipws, in connection with which only ws appears
to have been in his mind, in the sense of springing up,
prendre son escousse) from the shaking (of disease). All
these interpretations are worthless; 73, peculiar to the Elihu
section in the book of Job (here and ch. xxxvi. 14), does not
signify shaking, but is equivalent to DY2 (ch. xii. 26,
xxxi. 18); and W507 is in the perf. only because the passive
quadriliteral would not so easily accommodate itself to in-
flexion (by which all those asserted significations, which suit
only the per/. sense, fall to the ground). The Chateph
instead of the simple Shevd is only in order to give greater
importance to the passive u. Lut as to the origin of the
quadriliteral (on the four modes of the origin of roots of
more than three radicals, vid. Jesurun, pp. 160-166), there is
no reason for regarding it as a mixed form derived from two
different. verbs: it is formed just like W715 (from wB, by
Arabizing = 718) with a sibilant termination from 407 =
37, and therefore signifies to be (to have been made) over
moist or juicy. However, there is yet another almost more
commendable explanation possible. In Arab. (i,) signifies

to further thought and penetration.” Thus it is: between the Chokma
of the canonical books arid the post-biblical development of the philosophy
of religion (dogmatism) which culminates in Philo, there is an historical
connection, and, indeed, one that has to do with the development of re-
demption. Vid. Luth. Cone 1863, S. 219 ff.

934 —~ THE BOOK OF JOB.

to recover, prop. to grow green, become fresh (perhaps from
tarufa, as in the signification to blink, from tarafa). From
this Arab. tarfasha, or even from a Hebr. ¥B19,' pinguefacere
(which may with Fiirst be regarded as springing from VD,
to be fleshy, like 9273, 0523), va might have sprung by
transposition. In a remarkable manner one and the same
idea is attained by all these ways: whether we regard wan
as a mixed form from 207 and wap, or as an extended root-
form from one or other of these verbs, it is always according
to the idea: a superabundance of fresh healthfulness. The
1 of 13 is chiefly regarded as comparative: more than
youth, z.c. leaving this behind, or exceeding it, Ew. § 221, a;
but ver. 25), according to which he who was hitherto sick
unto death actually renews his youth, makes it more natural
to take the j) as causal: it swells from youth or youthfulness.
In this description of the renovation which the man ex-
periences, it is everywhere assumed that he has taken the
right way announced to him by the mediating angel. Ac-
cordingly, ver. 26a is not intended of prayer that is heard,
which resulted in pardon, but of prayer that may be heard
continually, which results from the pardon: if he prays to
Eloah (fut. hypotheticum as ch. xxii. 27, vid. on xxix. 24),

He receives him favourably ("¥), _.3), with 2, C+, to have |

pleasure in any one, with the acc. ew gratum vel acceptum
habere), and he (whose state of favour is now established
anew) sees God’s countenance (which has been hitherto veiled

1 The Talmud. x54 Swany (Chullin, 49d) signifies, according to the
customary rendering, the pericardium, and 72355 Nw Dd (2b. 46a) the
diaphragm, or rather the little net (omentum minus). Originally, how-
ever, the former signified the cushion of fat under the pericardium on
which the heart rests, especially in the crossing of the furrows; the latter
the accumulation of fat on the porta (zvan) and between the laming of
the little net. For wp is correctly explained by jor, fat. It has
nothing to do with rp4vref (an old name for a part of the liver), with
which Ges. after Buxtorf connects it.

CHAP, XXXIIT. 25-28. 235

from him, ch. xxxiv. 29) with rejoicing (as Ps. xxxiii. 3 and
freq.), and He (God) recompenses to the man his upright-
ness (in his prolonged course of life), or prop., since it is not
pum, but aw, He restores on His part his relation in accord-
ance with the order of redemption, for that is the idea of
np3s; the word has either a legal or a so-to-speak evangeli-
cal meaning, in which latter, used of God (as so frequently
in Isaiah II.), it describes His rule in accordance with His
counsel and order of redemption; the primary notion is strict
observance of a given rule.

In ver. 27a the favoured one is again the subj. This
change of person, without any indication of the same, belongs
to the peculiarities of the Hebrew, and, in general, of the
Oriental style, described in the Geschichte der jud. Poesie,
S. 189 | History of Jewish Poetry]; the reference of 814, as
Hiph., to God, which is preferred by most expositors, is con-
sequently unnecessary. Moreover, the interpretation: He
causes his (the favoured one’s) countenance to behold joy
(Umbr., Ew.), is improbable as regards the phrase (MN7)) nN
1 25, and also syntactically lame; and the interpretation:
He causes (him, the favoured one) to behold His (the divine)
countenance with joy (Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and others),
halts in like manner, since this would be expressed by 187
Gast). By the reference to psalmody which follows in
ver. 27 (comp. ch. xxxvi. 24), it becomes natural that we
should understand ver. 265 according to such passages in the
Psalms as xcv. 2, Ixvii. 2, xvii. 15. 7% is a poetically con-
tracted fut. after the manner of a jussive, for WW; and per-
haps it is a dialectic form, for the Kal 7% = 7 occurs only
besides in 1 Sam. xviii. 6 as Chethib. With >y (comp. Prov.
xxv. 20) it signifies to address a song to any one, to sing to
him. Now follows the psalm of the favoured one in outline;
ver. 28 also belongs to it, where the Keri (Targ. Jer.), without
any evident reason whatever, gets rid of the 1 pers. (LUXX.,

236 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Syr.). I had sinned—he says, as he looks back ashamed ‘and
thankful—and perverted what was straight (comp. the con-
fession of the penitent, Ps. cvi. 6), > my NA, et non equale
jactum s. non equatum est mihi,’ i.e. it has not been recom-
pensed to me according to my deserts, favour instead of right

4‘¢

iscome upon me. MY (Lsaw) is ‘intended neutrally, not so that

God would be the subj. (LXX. cat ot« déa ijracé pe av
npaptov). Now follows, ver. 28, the positive expression of the
favour experienced. The phrase nnva 72y, after the analogy
of nbvia ray above, and also 70 for 0", are characteristic of
the Elihu section. Beautiful is the close of this psalm in
nuce: “and my life refreshes itself (2 7 as ch. xx. 17 and
freq.) in the light,” viz. in the light of the divine counte-
nance, which has again risen upon me, i.e. in the gracious
presence of God, which I am again become fully conscious of.

29 Behold, God doeth all
Twice, thrice with man,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit,
That it may become light in the light of life.
31 Listen, O Job, hearken to me;
Be silent and let me speak on.
32 Yet if thou hast words, answer me ;
Speak, for I desire thy justification.
33 If not, hearken thou to me;
Be silent and I will teach thee wisdom.

After having described two prominent modes of divine in-

1 In Arabic So (sawa) is the most general expression for ‘to be
worth, to cost,” usually with the acc. of price, but also with li, e.g. in the —
proverb hal ka'ke mé tiswe li-hal da‘ke, this (wretched) bite of bread (of
subsistence) is not worth this (excessive) pressure after it. Accordingly

% my xb) would signify : it (what I suffered) came not equal to me.
(did not balance me),.which at any rate is equivalent to “ it did not cost
my life” (Wetzst.), but would be indistinctly expressed.

CHAP, XXXIII. 29-33. 237

terposition for the moral restoration and welfare of man, he
adds, vers. 29 sq., that God undertakes (observe the want of
parallelism in the distich, ver. 29) everything with a man
twice or thrice (asyndeton, as e.g. Isa. xvii. 6, in the sense of bis
terve) in order to bring back his soul from the pit (NY, here
for the fifth time in this speech, without being anywhere inter-
changed with Diny or another synonym, which is remarkable),
that it, having hitherto been encompassed by the darkness of
death, may be, or become, light (rN, inf. Niph., syncopated
from Tine, Ew. § 244, b) in the light of life (as it were bask
in the new and restored light of life)—it does not always
happen, for these are experiences of no ordinary kind, which
interrupt the daily course of life; and it is not even repeated
again and again constantly, for if it is without effect the first
time, it is repeated a second or third time, but it has an end
if the man trifles constantly with the disciplinary work of
grace which designs his good. , Finally, Elihu calls upon
Job quietly to ponder this, that he may proceed; neverthe-
less, if he has words, i.e. if he thinks he is able to advance
any appropriate objections, he is continually to answer him
(21 with ace. of the person, as ver. 5), for he (Elihu) would
willingly justify him, z.e. he would gladly be in the position
to be able to acknowledge Job to be right, and to have the
accusation dispensed with. Hirz. and others render falsely ::
I wish thy justification, i.e. thou shouldst justify thyself; in
this case 72] ought to be supplied, which is unnecessary :
YB, without a change of subject, has the inf. constr. here
without ?, as it has the inf. absol. in ch. xiii. 3, and P3¥ signi-
fies to vindicate (as ch. xxxii. 2), or acknowledge to be in the
right (as the Piel of PTS, ver. 12), both of which are blended
here. The LXX., which translates 0é\w yap SixavwOjvai
ce, has probably read 4P1¥ (Ps. xxxv. 27). If it is not so
(MSDS as Gen. xxx. 1), viz. that he does not intend to defend
himself with reference to his expostulation with God on

238 THE BOOK OF JOB.

account of the afiliction decreed for him, he shall on his part
(Hs) listen, shall be silent and be further taught wisdom.

Quast hac ratione Heliu sanctum Job convicerit! exclaims
Beda, after a complete exposition of this speech. He regards
Elihu as the type of the false wisdom of the heathen, which
fails to recognise and persecutes the servant of God: Sunt
alii extra ecclesiam, gui Christo ejusque ecclesie similtier
adversantur, quorum umaginem preiulit Balaam ille ariolus,
gui et Elieu sicut patrum traditio habet (Balaam and Elihu,
one person—a worthless conceit repeated in the Talmud and
Midrash), gui contra ipsum sanctum Iob multa improbe et
injuriose locutus est, in tantum ut etiam displiceret in una ejus
et indisciplinata loquacitas... Gregory the Great, in his
Moralia, expresses himself no less unfavourably at the con-
clusion of this speech:? Magna Eliu ac valde fortia protulit,
sed hoc unusquisque arrogans habere proprium solet, quod dum
vera ac mystica loquitur subito per tumorem cordis quedam
inania et superba permiscet. We also regards Elihu as an
emblem of confident arrogance, yet not as a type of a heathen
philosopher, but of a believing yet vain and arrogant teacher.
This tone in judging of Elihu, first started by Jerome, has
spread somewhat extensively in the Western Church. In the
age of the Reformation, eg., Victorin Strigel takes this side:
Elihu is regarded by him as exemplum ambitiost oratoris qui
plenus sit ostentatione et audacia inusitata sine mente. Also
in the Greek Eastern Church such views are not wanting.
Elihu says much that is good, and excels the friends in this,
that he does not condemn Job; Olympiodorus adds, mAjv
otk evinae tod Simatov thy Sicvotav, but he has not under-
stood the true idea of the servant of God!°

1 Bedz Opp. ed. Basil. iii. col. 602 sq. 786. The commentary also bears
the false name of Jerome [Hieronymus], and as a writing attributed to
hin is contained in tom. v. Opp. ed. Vallarsi.

* Opp. ed. Paris, i. col. 777. |

8 Catena in Job. Londin. p. 484, where it is further said, “Odev royiGe-

CHAP. XXXIII. 29-33. 239

In modern times, Herder entertains the same judgment.
Elihw’s speech, in comparison with the short, majestic, solemn
language of the Creator, he calls “the weak rambling speech
of a boy.” “Elihu, a young prophet”—he says further on
in his Geist der Ebr. Poesie, where he expounds the book of
Job as a composition—“ arrogant, bold, alone wise, draws fine
pictures without end or aim; hence no one answers him, and
he stands there merely as a shadow.”* Among the latest
expositors, Umbreit (Edition 2, 1832) consider’s Elihu’s ap-
pearance as “an uncalled-for stumbling in of a, conceited
young philosopher into the conflict that is already properly
ended; the silent contempt with which one allows him to
speak is the merited reward of a babbler.” In later years
Umbreit gave up this depreciation of Elihu.” Nevertheless
Hahn, in his Comm. zu Job (1850), has sought anew to prove
- that Elihu’s speeches are meant indeed to furnish a solution,
but do not really do so: on the contrary, the poet intentionally
represents the character of Elihu as that “of a most. conceited
and arrogant young man, boastful and officious in his un-
deniable knowingness.” The unfavourable judgments have
been carried still further, inasmuch as an attempt has even
been made to regard Elihu as a disguise for Satan in the
organism of the drama ;° but it may be more suitable to break
off this unpleasant subject than to continue it.

In fact this dogmatic criticism of Elihu’s character and
speeches produces a: painful impression. Jor, granted that
it might be otherwise, and the poet really had designed to
bring forward in these speeches of Elihu respecting God’s

pede noel Tov Ozdv ponte) Erccivéoces Tov EAsove, éres0y od) vevonns Tov Id6 rods
AGYOUS, LTE iy naTadincool, Ered) oy dosBelus avTOv xeTExpive.
1 Edition 1805, S. 101, 142. :
2 Vid. Riehm, Blatter der Erinnerung an F. W. C. Umbreit (1869),
8. 58.
3 Thus the writer of a treatise in the 8d vol. of Bernstein’s Analekien,
entitied: Der Satan als Irrgeist und Engel des Lichts.

240 THE BOOK OF JOB.

own appearing an incontrovertible apology for His holy
love, as a love which is at work even in such dispensations
of affliction as that of Job: what offence against the deep
earnestness of this portion of Holy Scripture would there be
in this degradation of Elihu to an absurd character, in that
depreciation of him to a babbler promising much and per-
forming little! But that the poet is really in earnest in
everything he puts into Elihu’s mouth, is at once shown by
the description, ch. xxxiii. 13-30, which forms the kernel of
the contents of the first speech. This description of the
manifold ways of the divine communication to man, upon a
contrite attention to which his rescue from destruction depends,
belongs, to the most comprehensive passages of the Old Testa-
ment; and I know instances of the powerful effect which it
can produce in arousing from the sleep of security and
awakening penitence. If one, further, casts a glance at the
historical introduction of Elihu, ch. xxxii. 1-5, the poet
there gives no indication that he intends in Elihu to bring
the odd character of a young poltroon before us. The
motive and aim of his coming forward, as they are there given,
are fully authorized. If one considers, further, that the poet
makes Job keep silence at the speeches of Elihu, it may also
be inferred therefrom that he believes he has put answers
into Elihu’s mouth by which he must feel himself most
deeply smitten; such truths as ch. xxxii. 13-30, drawn
from the depths of moral experience, could not have been
put forth if Job’s silence were intended to be the punishment
of contempt. 7

These counter-considerations also really affect another pos-
sible and milder apprehension of the young speaker, inasmuch
as, with von Hofmann, the gravitating point of the book of Job
is transferred to the fact of the Theophany as the only satis-
factory practical solution of the mystery of affliction: it is
solved by God Himself coming down and acknowledging Job

CHAP. XXXIII. 29-53. 241

as His servant. Elihu—thus one can say from this point of
‘view—is not one of Job’s friends, whose duty it was to com-
fort him; but the moral judgment of man’s perception of
God is made known by this teacher, but without any other
effect than that Job is silent. There is one duty towards
Job which he has not violated, for he has not to fulfil the
duty of friendship: The only art of correct theorizing is to
put an opponent to silence, and to have spoken to the wind is
the one punishment appropriate to it. ‘This milder rendering
also does not satisfy; for, in the idea of the poet, Elihu’s
speeches are not only a thus negative, but the positive pre-
paration for Jehovah’s appearing. In the idea of the poet,
Job is silent because he does not know how to answer Elihu,
and therefore feels himself overcome.! And, in fact, what
answer should he give to this first speech? Elihu wishes to
dispute Job’s self-justification, which places God’s justice in
the shade, but not indeed in the friends’ judging, condemna-
tory manner: he wishes to dispute Job’s notion that his
affliction proceeds from a hostile purpose on the part of God,
and sets himself here, as there, a perfectly correct task, which
he seeks to accomplish by directing Job to regard his afflic-
tion, not indeed as a punishment from the angry God, but as
a chastisement of the God who desires his highest good, as
disciplinary affliction which is intended to secure him against
hurtful temptation to sin, especially to pride, by salutary
humiliation, and will have a glorious issue, as soon as it has
in itself accomplished that at which it aims.

It is true one must listen very closely to discover the dif-
ference between the tone which Elihu takes and the tone in

1 The preparation is hegative only so far as Elihu causes Job to be
silent and to cease to murmur ; but Jehovah draws from him a confession
of penitence on account of his murmuring. This positive relation of the
appearing of Jehovah to that for which Elihu negatively prepares the way,

is rightly emphasized by Schlotim., Ribiger (De l. obi sententia primaria,
1860, 4), and others, as favourable to the authenticity.

VOL. II. Q

242 THE BOOK OF JOB.

which Eliphaz began his first speech. But there is a dif-
ference notwithstanding: both designate Job’s affliction as a
chastisement (1019), which will end gloriously, if he receives
it without murmuring; but Eliphaz at once demands of him
humiliation under the mighty hand of God; Elihu, on the
contrary, makes this humiliation lighter to him, by setting
over against his longing for God to answer him, the pleasing
teaching that his affliction in itself is already the speech of
God to him,—a speech designed to educate him, and to bring
about his spiritual well-being. What objection could Job,
who has hitherto maintained his own righteousness in oppo-
sition to affliction as a hostile decree, now raise, when it is
represented to him as a wholesome medicine reached forth to
him by the holy God of love? What objection could Job
now raise, without, in common, offensive self-righteousness,
falling into contradiction with his own confession that he is
a sinful man, ch. xiv. 4, comp. xiii. 26? Therefore Elihu
has not spoken to the wind, and it cannot have been the
design of the poet to represent the feebleness of theory and
rhetoric in contrast with the convincing power which there is
in the fact of Jehovah’s appearing.

But would it be possible, that from the earliest times one
could form such a condemnatory, depreciating judgment con-
cerning Elihu’s speeches, if it had not been a matter of
certainty with them? If of two such enlightened men as
Augustine and Jerome, the former can say of Elihu: wt
primas partes modestie habuit, ita et sapientie, while the
latter, and after his example Bede, can consider him as a
type of a heathen philosophy hostile to the faith, or of a
selfishly perverted spirit of prophecy: they must surely have
two sides which make it possible to form directly opposite
opinions concerning them. Thus is it also in reality. On
the one side, they express great, earnest, humiliating truths,
which even the holiest man in his affliction must suffer him-

CHAP. XXXIII. 29-33. 243

self to be told, especially if he has fallen into such vain-
glorying and such murmuring against God as Job did; on
the other side, they do not give such sharply-defined expres-
sion to that which is intended characteristically to distinguish
them from the speeches of the friends, viz. that they regard
Job not as yw, and his affliction not as just retribution,
but as a wholesome means of discipline, that all misunder-
standing would be excluded, as all the expositors who acknow-
ledge themselves unable to perceive an essential difference
between Elihu’s standpoint and the original standpoint of
the friends, show. But the most surprising thing is, that
the peculiar, true aim of Job’s afiliction, viz. his being proved
as God’s servant, is by no means thoroughly clear in them.
From the prologue we know that Job’s affliction is designed -
to show that there is a piety which also retains its hold on
God amid the loss of all earthly goods, and even in the face
of death in the midst of the darkest night of affliction; that
it is designed to justify God’s choice before Satan, and bring
the latter to ruin; that it is a part of the conflict with the
serpent, whose head cannot be crushed without its sting being
felt in the heel of the conqueror; in fine, expressed in New
Testament language, that it falls under the point of view of
the cross (eravpés), which has its ground not so much in the
sinfulness of the sufferer, as in the share which is assigned to
him in the conflict of good with evil that exists in the world.
It cannot be supposed that the poet would, in the speeches of
Elihu, set another design in opposition to the design of Job’s
affliction expressed in the prologue; on the contrary, he
started from the assumption that the one design does not
exclude the other, and in connection with the imperfectness
of the righteousness even of the holiest man, the one is easily
added to the other; but it was not in his power to give
expression to both grounds of explanation of Job’s affliction
side by side, and thus to make this intermediate section “ the

244 THE BOOK OF JOB."

beating heart”’* of the whole. The aspect of the afiliction as
a chastisement so greatly preponderates, that the other, viz. as
a trial or proving, is as it were swallowed up by it. One of
the old writers? says, “Elihu proves that it can indeed be
that a man may fear and honour God from the heart, and con-
sequently be in favour with God, and still be heavily visited
by God, either for a trial of faith, hope, and patience, or for
the revelation and improyement of the sinful blemishes which
now and then are also hidden from the pious.” According
to this, both aspects are found united in Elihu’s speeches;
but in this first speech, at least, we cannot find it.

There is another poet, whose charisma does not come up
to that of the older poet, who in this speech pursues the well-
authorized purpose not only of moderating what is extreme in
Job’s speeches, but also of bringing out what is true in the
speeches of the friends.” While the book of Job, apart from
these speeches, presents in the Old Testament way the great
truth which Paul, Rom. viii. 1, expresses in the words, ovdéy
KaTaKptua Tots év Xpiot@ Inood, this other poet has given
expression at the same time, in the connection of the drama,
to the great truth, 1 Cor. xi. 32, xpwopevoe tad tod Kupiou
matdevopeba, iva pn oly TO Koop KataxpiOduev. That it
is another poet, is already manifest from his inferior, or if it
is preferred, different; poetic gift. True, A. B. Davidson has
again recently asserted, that by supporting it by such obser-
vations, the critical question is made “a question of subjective
taste.” But if these speeches and the other parts of the book
are said to have been written’ by one:poet, there is an end to
all critical judgment in such questions generally. One cannot

1 Vid. Hengstenberg, Lecture on the Book of Job.

2 Jacob Hoffmann (of St Gallen), Gedult Jobs, Basel, 1663 (a rare little
book which I became acquainted with in the town library of St Gallen).

3 On this subject see my Art. Hiob in Herzog’s Real-Encyklopddie,

vi. 116-119, and comp. Kahnis, Dogmatik, i. 8306-309, and my Fur und
wider Kahnis (1863), 8. 19-21.

CHAP, XXXIII. 29-33. 245

avoid the impression of the distance between them; and if it
be suppressed for a time, it will nevertheless make itself con-
stantly felt. But do the prophecies of Malachi stand lower
in the scale of the historical development of revelation, be-
cause the Salomonic glory of prophetic speech which we
admire in Isaiah is wanting in them? Just as little do we
depreciate the spiritual glory of these speeches, when we find
the outward glory of the rest of the book wanting in them.
They occupy a position of the highest worth in the historical
development of revelation and redemption. They are a per-
fecting part of the canonical Scriptures. In their origin,
also, they are not much later ;! indeed, I venture to assert
that they are by a cotemporary member even of the Chokma-
fellowship from which the book of Job has its rise. For
they stand in like intimate relation with the rest of the book
to the two Ezrahite Psalms, lxxxviii., Ixxxix.; they have, as
to their doctrinal contents, the fundamental features of the
Israelitish Chokma in common; they speak another and
still similar Aramaizing and Arabizing language (hebraicum
arabicumque sermonem et interdum syrum, as Jerome expresses
it in his Pref. in 1. Jobi); in fact, we shall further on meet
with linguistic signs that the poet who wrote this addition
has lived together with the poet of the book of Job in one
spot beyond the Holy Land, and speaks a Hebrew bearing
traces of a like dialectic influence.

1 Seinecke (Der Grundgedanke des B. Hiob, 1863) places it, with
’ Ewald, 100-200 years later; and, moreover, asserts that the book of
Job has no foundation whatever in oral tradition—Job is the Israel of
the exile, Uz is Judea, etc.

246 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Elihw’s Second Speech.—Chap. xxxiv.
Schema: 6. 10. 5. 8. 12. 6. 10. 9. 13.

[Then began Elihu and said :]
2 Hear, ye wise men, my words,
And ye experienced ones, give ear to me!
3 For the ear trieth words,
As the palate tasteth by eating.
4 Let us find out what is right,
Let us explore among ourselves what is good.

After his first speech Elihu has made a brief pause; now
since Job is silent, he begins anew. ‘8% jy", L-XX. cor-
rectly, here as in all other instances where the phrase occurs:
imoraBav Aéyer, taking up the word he said. The wise and
the knowing (Arab. “ulamd), whose attention he bespeaks,
are not Job and the three (Umbr., Hahn), who are indeed a
party, and as such a subject for the arbitrative appearance of
Elihu; also not every one capable of forming a judgment
(Hirz.); but those in the circle of spectators and listeners
which, as is assumed, has assembled round the disputants
(Schlottm.). In ver. 3 Elihu does not expressly mean his
own ear, but that of the persons addressed: he establishes
his summons to prove what he says by the general thought
brought over from ch. xii. 11, and as there (comp. ch. v. 7,
xi. 12), clothed in the form of the emblematic proverb,—that
as there is a bodily, so there is also a mental organ of sense
which tries its perceptions. DDN? is not intended as expressing

ste

a purpose (ad vescendum), but as gerundive (vescendo). The
phrase 05¥2 903, occurring only here, signifies neither to
institute a search for the purpose of decision (Schult. and
others), since 1N2 does not signify to decide upon anything,
nor to investigate a cause (Hahn), which would be 73n23,
but to test and choose what is right, Soxwafew kal To Kadov

CHAP. XXXIV. 5-9. 247

catéyew, 1 Thess. v. 21, after which the parallel runs:
cognoscamus inter nos (i.e. in common) guid bonum.

5 For Job hath said: “I am guiltless,
“ And God hath put aside my right.
6 “ Shall I lie in spite of my right,
“ Incurable is mine arrow without transgression.”
7 Where is there a man like Job,
Who drinketh scorning like water,
8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity,
And walketh with wicked men,
9 So that he saith: “A man hath no profit
“ From entering into fellowship with God” ? !

That in relation to God, thinking of Him as a punishing
judge, he is righteous or in the right, i.e. guiltless (APTS
with Pathach in pause, according to Ew. § 93, c, from PT¥ =
PIS, but perhaps, comp. Prov. xxiv. 30, Ps. cii. 26, because
the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job
has said verbatim in ch. xiii. 18, and according to meaning,
ch. xxiii. 10, xxvii. 7, and throughout; that He puts aside his
right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one
coming under punishment): ch. xxvii. 2. That in spite of
his right (5y, to be interpreted, according to Schultens’ ex-
ample, just like ch. x. 7, xvi. 17), 7.e. although right is on his
side, yet he must be accounted a liar, since his own testimony
is belied by the wrathful form of his affliction, that therefore
the appearance of wrong remains inalienably attached to him,
we find in idea in ch. ix. 20 and freq. Elihu makes Job call
his affliction *37, z.e. an arrow sticking in him, viz. the arrow
of the wrath of God (on the objective suf’. comp. on ch.
xxill, 2), after ch. vi. 4, xvi. 9, xix. 11; and that this. his
arrow, 7.¢. the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad,
desperately malignant without (3 as ch. viii. 11) YWB, te.
sins existing as the ground of it, from which he would be

gi

248 THE BOOK OF JOB.

obliged to suppose they had thrust him out of the condition
of favour, is Job’s constant complaint (vid. e.g. ch. xiii. 23 sq.).
Another utterance of Job closely connected with it has so
roused Elihu’s indignation, that he prefaces it with the ex-
clamation of astonishment: Who is a man like Job, 7.e. where
in all the world ("2 as 2 Sam. vii. 23) has this Job his equal,
who... The attributive clause refers to Job; “to drink
scorn (here: blasphemy) like water,’ is, according to ch.
xv. 16, equivalent to to give one’s self up to mockery with
delight, and to find satisfaction in it. mane M8, to go over
to any one’s side, looks like a poeticized prose expression.
nae? is a continuation of the MS, according to Ew. § 351, ¢,
but not directly in the sense “and he goes,” but, as in the
similar examples, Jer. xvii. 10, xliv. 19, 2 Chron. vii. 17, and
freq., in the sense of : “he is in the act of going;” comp. on
ch. xxxvi. 20 and Hab. i. 17. The utterance runs: a man
does not profit, viz. himself (on the use of j2D of persons as
well as of things, vid. on ch. xxii. 2), by his having joyous
and familiar intercourse (iN873, as little equivalent to 773 as
in Ps. 1. 18) with God. Job has nowhere expressly said this,
but certainly the declaration in ch. ix. 22, in connection with
the repeated complaints concerning the anomalous distribution
of human destinies (vid. especially ch. xxi. 7 sqq., xxiv. 1 sqq.),
are the premises for such a conclusion. That Elihu, in vers.
7 sq., is more harsh against Job than the friends ever were
(comp. e.g. the well-measured reproach of Eliphaz, ch. xv. 4),
and that he puts words into Job’s mouth which occur nowhere
verbatim in his speeches, is worked up by the Latin fathers
(Jer., Philippus Presbyter, Beda,t Gregory) in favour of their

1 Philippus Presbyter was a disciple of Jerome. His Comm. in Iobum
is extant in many forms, partly epitomized, partly interpolated (on this
subject, vid. Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 895 sqq.). The commentary
of Beda, dedicated to a certain Nectarius (Vecterius), is fundamentally
that of this Philippus.

CHAP. XXXIV. 10, 11.0 249

unfavourable judgment of Elihu; the Greek fathers, how-
ever, are deprived of all opportunity of understanding him
by the translation of the LXX. (in which puxrnpiopdv
signifies the-scorn of others which Job must swallow down,
_ comp. Prov. xxvi. 6), which here perverts everything.

10 Therefore, men of understanding, hearken to me!
Far be it from God to do evil,
And the Almighty to act wrongfully.
11 No indeed, man’s work He recompenseth to him,
And according to man’s walk He causeth it to be with him.

“Men of heart,” according to Psychol. S. 249, comp. 254,
is equivalent to vonpmoves or vonpot (LX X. cuverol xapdias).
The clause which Elihu makes prominent in the following
reply is the very axiom which the three defend, perfectly true
in itself, but falsely applied by them: evil, wrong, are incon-
ceivable on the part of God; instead of mavioy it is only "IW
in the second member of the verse, with the omission of the
prep.—a frequent form of ellipsis, particularly in Isaiah (ch.
xv. 8, xxviii. 6, xlviii. 14, Ixi. 7, comp. Ezek. xxv. 15). Far
-removed from acting wickedly and wrongfully, on the con-
trary He practises recompense exactly apportioned to man’s
deeds, and ever according to the walk of each one (MS like
373 or ‘31, e.g. Jer. xxxii. 19, in an ethical sense) He causes
it to overtake him, 7.e. to happen to him ('¥27 only here
and ch. xxxvii. 13). The general assertion brought forward
against Job is now proved.

12 Yea verily God acteth not wickedly,
And the Almighty perverteth not the right.
13 Who hath given the earth in charge to Him?
And who hath disposed the whole globe ?
14 If He only set His heart upon Himself,
If He took back His breath and His inspiration to Himself :

250 THE BOOK OF JOB.

15 All flesh would expire together,

And man would return to dust.

With D228 4S (Yea verily, as ch. xix. 4, “and really”)
the counter-assertion of ver. 11 is repeated, but negatively .
expressed (comp. ch. viii. 3), '¥90 signifies sometimes to
act as YY, and at others to be set forth and condemned as a
yun; here, as the connection requires, it is the former. Ver.
13 begins the proof. Ewald’s interpretation: who searcheth,
and Hahn’s: who careth for the earth beside Him, are
hazardous and unnecessary. "IPB with >Y of the person and
the acc. of the thing signifies: to enjoin anything as a duty
on any one, to entrust anything to any one, ch. xxxvi. 23,
Num. iv. 27, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 23; therefore: who has made
the earth, z.c. the care of it, a duty to Him? 7398 (Milel) is
not to be refined into the meaning “to the earth” (as here
by Schultens and a few others, Isa. viii. 23 by Luzzatto: he
hath smitten down, better: dishonoured, to the earth with a
light stroke), but is poetically equivalent to 78, as mor (comp.
modern Greek 7) viy@a) is in prose equivalent to 2. Ver.
136 is by no means, with Ew. and Hahn, to be translated:
who observes (considers) the whole globe, 0°” as ver. 23, ch.
iy. 20, xxiv. 12—the expression would be too contracted to
affirm that no one but God bestowed providential attention
upon the earth; and if we have understood ver. 13a correctly,
the thought is also inappropriate. A more appropriate thought
is gained, if Y2¥ is supplied from ver. 13a: who has enjoined
upon Him the whole circle of the earth (Saad., Gecat., Hirz.,
Schlottm.); but this continued force of the >y into the second
independent question is improbable in connection with the re-
petition of "2. Therefore: who has appointed, i.e. established
(o¥ as ch. xxxviil. 5, Isa. xliv. 7),—a still somewhat more
suitable thought, going logically further, since the one giving
the charge ought to be the lord of him who receives the com-

CHAP. XXXIV. 12-15. 251

mission, and therefore the Creator of the world. This is just
God alone, by whose 1 and 52 the animal world as well
as the world of men (vid. xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 4) has its life,
ver. 14: if He should direct His heart, i.e. His attention (0'’
aN 23> as ch. ii. 3), to Himself (emphatic: Himself alone),
draw in (ADS as Ps. civ. 29; comp. for the matter Kccl.
xii. 7, Psychol. S. 406) to Himself His inspiration and breath
(which emanated from Him or was effected by Him), all
flesh would sink together, i.e. die off at once (this, as it
appears, has reference to the taking back of the animal life,
ny), and man would return (this has reference to the taking
back of the human spirit, 7v2) to dust Oy instead of ON,
perhaps with reference to the usual use of the “BY-OY, ch.
xvii. 16, xx. 11, xxi. 26).

Only a few modern expositors refer YON, as Targ. Jer. and
Syr., to man instead of reflexively to God; the majority
rightly decide in favour of the idea which even Grotius per-
ceived: st sibi ipsi tantum bonus esse (sui unius curam habere)
vellet. O% followed by the fut. signifies either si velit (LUXX.
et BovdAotTo), as here, or as more frequently, sz vellet, Ps.
]. 12, exxxix. 8, Obad. ver. 4, Isa. x. 22, Amos ix. 2-4. It
is worthy of remark that, according to Norzi’s statement, the
Babylonian texts presented 2°, ver. 14a, as Chethib, nv’ as
Keri (like our Palestine text, Dan. xi. 18), which a ms. of
De Rossi, with a Persian translation, confirms; the reading
gives a fine idea: that God’s heart is turned towards the
world, and is unclosed ; its ethical condition of life would then
be like its physical ground of life, that God’s spirit dwells in
it; the drawing back of the heart, and the taking back to
Himself of the spirit, would be equivalent to the exclusion of
the world from God’s love and life. However, D'’ implies
the same; for a reference of God’s thinking and willing to
Himself, with the exclusion of the world, would be just
a removal of His love. LElihu’s proof is this: God does

252 THE BOOK OF JOB.

not act wrongly, for the government of the world is not a
duty imposed upon Him from without, but a relation entered
into freely by Him: the world is not the property of another,
but of His free creative appointment; and how unselfishly,
how devoid of self-seeking He governs it, is clear from the
fact, that by the impartation of His living creative breath He
sustains every living thing, and does-not, as He, easily might,
allow them -to fall away into nothingness. There is therefore
a divine love which has called the world into being and keeps
it in being; and this love, as the perfect opposite of sovereign
caprice, is a pledge for the absolute righteousness of the
divine rule.

16 And oh understand now, hear this;
Hearken to the sound of my words.

17 Would one who hateth right also be able to subdue?
Or wilt thou condemn the All-just ?

18 Is t¢ becoming to. say to a king: Worthless One! ?
Thou evil-doer! to princes?

19 Yo Him who accepteth not the person of rulers,
And regardeth not the noble before the poor:
For they are all the work of His hands.

20 In a moment they die, and at midnight

The people are overthrown and perish,
And they put aside the mighty—not by the hand of man.

This strophe contains several grammatical rarities. At
first sight it appears that ver. 16a ought to be translated:
“and if there is understanding (viz. to thee = if thou hast), |
then hear this.”. But 73°2 is accented as Milel and with
Mercha, and can therefore not be a substantive (Hirz., Hahn,
and others); for the retreat of the accent would be absolutely
incomprehensible, and instead of a conjunctive, a distinctive,
viz. Dechi, ought to be expected. Several of the old ex-
positors, therefore, interpret with Nolde: quod quum ita sit,

CHAP. XXXIV. 16-20. 253

intellige ; but this elliptical O81, well as it might also be used
for ch. xxi. 4, is unsupportable; the Makkeph between the two
words is also against it, which rather arises from the assump-
tion that 12°2 is the imperat., and DS as an exception, like Gen.
xxiii. 18, is an optative particle joined to the imper. instead
of to the fut.: “and if thou shouldst observe” (= PanOs)).
To translate ver. 17a with Schultens: num iram osor judicit
frenabit, is impracticable on account of the order of the words,
and gives a thought that is inappropriate here. |S is a
particle, and the fut. is potentialis: is it also possible that an
enemy of right should govern? (W2M, imperio coercere, as VY
1 Sam. ix. 17,008 Ps. cv. 22); right and government are
indeed mutually conditioned, without right everything would
fall into anarchy and confusion. In ver. 17d this is applied
to the Ruler of the world: or (O88), an, as ch. vill. 3, xxi. 4,
xl. 9) wilt thou condemn the mighty just One, i.e. the
All-just? As Elihu calls God 75 s3¥, ch. xxxvii. 23,.as
the Almighty, and as the Omniscient One, O'Y3 Opn, ch.
xxxvii. 16, so here as the All-just One, 123 py. The two
adjectives are put side by side adovydeTws, as is frequently the
case in Arabic, and form one compound idea, Ew. § 270, d.

Ver. 18a. The interrogative 3 is joined to the inf., not,
however, as ch. xl. 2 (num litigare cum Deo castigator, scil.
vult), with the inj. absol., but with the inf. constr.; the form
ios for WX occurs also in Prov. xxv. 7, and is also otherwise
not rare, especially in combination with particles, e.g. ODN,
Num. xxvi. 10, Olsh. § 160, 6. It is unnecessary to suppose
that the inf. constr., which sometimes, although rarely, does
occur (Ges. § 131, rem. 2), is used here instead of the inf.
absol.; it is thus, as after 110, e.g. Judg. ix. 2 (een), Prov.
xxv. 7, Ps. exxxili. 1, and Ps. xl. 6 after PS, used as n.

‘1 Ezek. xxv. 8 is also to be read “iON according to the Masora and old
editions (as Tay Deut. vii. 20, Dox xii. 23, thy 1 Kings vi. 6), for dis-
tinction from the imperatives, which have Chateph-Segol.

254 THE BOOK OF JOB.

actionis, since 1 in a pregnant sense is equivalent to nwm
licet (2\0N), if one does not prefer, with Olsh., to suppose an
aposiopesis: ‘(dare one be so bold as) to say to a king: Thou
worthless one! Thou evil-doer! to princes?” The reading
1OkF is an unnecessary lightening of the difficulty. It were
a crimen les, if one reproached a king with being unjust,
and therefore thereby denied him the most essential requisite
of a ruler; and now even Him (Mere. correctly supplies
tanto minus et) who does not give the preference to the
person (‘25 SY2 as ch. xiii. 8, xxxii. 21) of princes, and does
not (with preference) regard (on 13) vid. on ch. xxi. 29, also
here Piel, and according to the statement of the Masora,
Milel, for an acknowledged reason which can be maintained
even in remarkable instances, like Deut. x. 5 in 1", Ezek.
xxxii. 26 in *$Snp, whereas 1 Sam. xxiii. 7 is Milra) the rich
‘before (*28? in the sense of pre) the poor! therefore the King
of kings, who makes no partial distinction, because the king
and the beggar are the work of His hands: they stand equally
near to Him as being His creatures, and He is exalted above
both alike as their Creator, this order and partiality are ex-
cluded ;—what a nota bene against the doctrine of the decretum
absolutum, which makes the love of the Creator a partial
love, and turns this love, which in its very nature is perfect
love, into caprice! In ver. 20 Elihu appeals to human his-
tory in favour of this impartiality of the Ruler of the world.
It may there appear as though God with partiality suffered
rulers and peoples in authority in the world to do as they
please ; but suddenly they die away, and in fact in the middle
of the night (here Mercha-inahpach), the individuals of a
great people (thus must DY be understood in accordance
with the prominently-placed plur. predicate, Ges. § 146, 1)
tremble and perish; and they remove ('"D" instead of the
passive, as ch. iv. 20 and frequently) the mighty—TI"N?, It
is not the hand of man which does this, but an invisible

CHAP. XXXIV. 21-23. 255

higher power (which, if it is called 7°, only bears this name
per anthropomorphismum) ; comp. Dan. ii. 34, tT NP ; Dan.
viii. 25, 3? DBN2; and also ch. xx. 26, like the New Testament
use of ov yetporointos. The subj. of ver. 20a are the pre-
viously mentioned princes. The division according to the
accents may be received with hesitation, since the symmetry
of the stichs, which it restores, is not unfrequently wanting
in the Elihu section. Ver. 20c refers back to the possessors
of power, and in the interval, ver. 20 describes the fate of
those who belong to the people which has become subservient
to their lust of conquest, for OY cannot signify “in crowds”
(Ew., Hahn); it is therefore, and especially when mentioned
as here between princes and rulers, the people, and in fact,
in distinction from "3, the people together forming a state. .

21 For His eyes are upon the ways of each one,

And He seeth all his steps.
22 There is no darkness nor shadow of death

Wherein the workers of iniquity might hide themselves.
23 For He needeth not long to regard a man

That he may enter into judgment with God.

As the preceding strophe showed that God’s creative order
excludes all partiality, so this strophe shows that His omni-
science qualifies Him to be an impartial judge. He sees
everything, nothing can escape His gaze; He sees through
man without being obliged to wait for the result of a judicial
investigation. 0” with 2¥ does not here signify: to lay upon
(Saad., Gecat.), but as ch. xxxvii. 15, and as with oN (ver. 14)
or 3 (ch. xxiii. 6): to direct one’s attention (supply i3?, ch.
i. 8) towards anything; the fut. has here a modal significa-
tion; ‘iy is used as eg. Gen. xlvi. 29: again and again, con-
tinuously ; and in the clause expressive of purpose it is ONO
(instead of YOR, a very favourite combination used through-
out the whole book, ch. v. 8, viii. 5, xiii. 3, and so on) from

256 THE BOOK OF JOB.

the human standpoint: He, the all-seeing One, needs not to
observe him long that he should enter into judgment with
God—He knows him thoroughly before any investigation
_ takes place, which is not said without allusion to Job’s vehe-
ment longing to be able to appear before God’s tribunal.

24 He breaketh the mighty in pieces without investigation
And setteth others in their place.
25 Thus He seeth through their works,
And causeth their overthrow by night, thus they are crushed.
26 He smiteth them after the manner of evil-doers
In the sight of the public.
27 For for such purpose are they fallen away from Him
And have not considered any of His ways,
28 To cause the cry of the poor to come up to Him,
And that He should hear the cry of the needy.

He makes short work (1P7-N? for N>3, as ch. xii. 24,
xxxvill. 26: without research, viz. into their conduct, which
is at.once manifest to Him; not: in an incomprehensible
manner, which is unsuitable, and still less: imnumerabiles, as
Jer., Syr.) with the mighty (0°23, Arab. kibar, kubard),
and in consequence of this (fut. consec.) sets up (constituit)
others, z.e. better and worthier rulers (comp. 118, ch. viii. 19,
Isa. Ixv. 15), in their stead. The following 12) is not equi-
valent to ws 305, for which no satisfactory instance exists;
on the contrary, 325 here, as more frequently, introduces not
the real consequence (ch. xx. 2), but a logical inference,
something that directly follows in and with what precedes
(corresponding to the Greek dpa, just so, consequently),
comp. ch. xlii. 3, Isa. xxvi. 14, Ixi. 7, Jer. ii. 33, v. 2, Zech.
xi. 7 (vid. Kohler in loc.). Thus, then, as He hereby proves,
He is thoroughly acquainted with their actions (7a, nowhere
besides in the book of Job, an Aramaizing expression for
nvyio). This abiding fact of divine omniscience, inferred

CHAP, XXXIV. 24-28. 257

from the previously-mentioned facts, then serves again in its
turn, in ver. 250, as the source of facts by which it is verified.
mo%) is by no means an obj. ‘The expositions: et inducit
noctem (Jer.), He walks in the night in which He has veiled
Himself (Umbr.), convertit eos in noctem (Syr., Arab.), and
such like, all read in the two words what they do not imply.
It is either to be translated: He throws them by night (n>%
as ch. xxvii. 20) upon the heaps (783 as Prov. xii. 7), or,
since the verb has no objective suj’.: He maketh a reforma-
tion or overthrow during the night, «ec. creates during the
night a new order of things, and they who stood at the head
of the former affairs are crushed by the catastrophe.

Ver. 26. The following D°¥% nNm cannot signify: on the
place of the evil-doers, z.e. in the place where evil-doers are
punished (Hirz., Hahn, and others), for NF CANA) only has
this signification with the suff. (vid. on Hab. iii. 16); but not
otherwise than: in the evil-doers’ stead, taking them and
treating them as such, as Jer. has correctly translated: quasi
impios (comp. Isa. x. 4, Jerome, cum interfectis). The place
first mentioned afterwards is not exactly the usual place of
judgment, but any place whatever where all can see it.
There He smites those who hitherto held positions of emi-
nence, as of unimpeachable honour, like the common criminal ;
PED, (aie, complodere, and then ictw resonante percutere, as
the likewise cognate -2~ signifies first to box the ear (as (iw
= (sic), then so to strike that it smacks. As little as 120,
ver. 25a, was = wis 395, just so little is ra-by WWE, ver. 27a,
= awh yooby (vid. on the other hand what is said on Gen.
xvill. 5 concerning jy"), Elihu wishes to say that they
endure such a destiny of punishment, because they therefore,
i.e. i order to suffer such, have turned aside from following
after God, and have not thought on all His ways, ¢.e. guidings,
by which He manifested Himself to them: they have thus
sought to cause the cry of the poor to come (Jer. well renders:

VOL. It. R

258 THE BOOK OF JOB.

ut pervenire facerent ad eum) before Him (ndy, perhaps with
the idea of urging forward = PIED or Y3I83), and that He
may hear the cry of the lowly (eprisiznction exactly like ch.
xxxill. 17), de. have sought to bring forth His avenging
justice by injustice that cries aloud to heaven.

29 If He, however, maketh peace, who will then condemn?
And if He hideth His countenance—who then can behold
Him?—
Both concerning numbers and individuals together :
30 That godless men reign not,
That they be not nets to the people.
31 For one, indeed, saith to God,
“ T have been proud, I will not do evil ;
32 “ What I see not, show Thou me ;
“ If I have done wrong, I will do tt no more” !?—

If God makes peace (O‘p* as Ps. xciv. 13, comp. Isa.
xiv. 7, PINTeD nopw, viz. after the overthrow of the tyrant)
in connection leith sedis crying oppression of the poor, who
will then condemn Him without the rather recognising there-
in His comprehensive justice? The conjecture YY' is not
required either here or 1 Sam. xiv. 47 (where »'w0 signi-
fies to punish the guilty); v1 is also not to be translated
turbabit (Rosenm.), since YY" (ens 2p znnsy) according to its
primitive notion does not signify ‘to be restless, to rage,” but
“to be relaxed, hollow” (opposite of pty, 440, to be hard,
firm, tight). Further: If God hides His countenance, i.e. is
angry and punishes, who can then behold Him, z.e. make Him,
the veiled One, visible and claim back the favour withdrawn ?
The Wa of ">, if one marks off the periods of the paratactic
expression, is in both cases the Waw of conclusion after hypo-
thetical antecedents, and ver. 29 refers to Job’s impetuous
challenging of God. Thus exalted above human controversy

1 Vid. Gritz in Vrankel’s Monatsschrift, 1861, i.

CHAP, XXXIV. 29-82. 259

and defiance, God rules both over the mass and over indivi-
duals alike. ‘0. gives intensity to the equality thus correlatively
(et — et) expressed (Targ., Syr.); to refer it to DIN as gene-
ralizing (LXX., Jer. et super omnes homines), is forbidden by
the antithesis of peoples and individuals. To the thought,
that God giveth rest (from oppressors) and hides His counte-
nance (from the oppressors and in general those who act
wrongly), two co-ordinate negative final clauses are attached:
in order that godless men may not rule (790, as e.g. 2 Kings
xxiii. 33, Keri), in order that they may no longer be (© = ni",
under the influence of the notion of putting aside contained
in the preceding final clause, therefore like Isa. vii. 8 oyn,
xxv. 2 ‘yn, Jer. xlviii. 2 "39, and the like) snares of the
people, ze. those whose evil example and bad government
become the ruin of the community.

In ver. 3la the view of those who by some jugglery con-
cerning the laws of the vowel sounds explain "287 as wmper.
Niph. (= 87), be it in the sense of TIONT?, dicendum est
(Rosenm., Schlottm., and others, after Raschi), or even in
the unheard-of reflexive signification: express thyself (Stick.,
Hahn), is to be rejected. The syncopated form of the injin.
mma, Ezek. xxvi. 15, does not serve as a palliation of this
adventurous imperative. It is, on the contrary, V8 with
M interrog., as Ezek. xxviii. 9 XO85, and probably also WONKA
Mic. ii. 7 (vid. Hitz.). A direct exhortation to Job to peni-
tence would also not be in place here, although what Elihu
says is levelled against Job. ‘The ‘3 is confirmatory. Thus
God acts with that class of unscrupulous men who abuse their
power for the destruction of their subjects: for he (one of
them) says (or: has said, from the standpoint of the execution
of punishment) to God, ete. Ew. differently: “for one says
thus to God even: I expiate what I do not commit,” by
understanding the speech quoted of a defiance which reproach-
fully demands an explanation. It is, however, manifestly

260 THE BOOK OF JOB.

a compendious model confession. And since Elihu with ‘5
establishes the execution of punishment from this, that it
neyer entered the mind of the 439 O18 thus to humble himself
before God, so ‘82 here cannot signify: I have repented
(put up with and had to bear what I have deserved); on the
contrary, the confession begins with the avowal: I have
exalted myself (8W3, se efferre, in Hos. xiii. 1, Ps. lxxxix. 10),
which is then followed by the vow: I will not (in the future)
do evil (e2n synon. MY, as Neh. i. 7, and probably also supra,
ch. xxiv. 9), and the entreaty, ver. 32: beside that which I
behold (elliptical object-clause, Ew. § 333, 6), i.e. what lies
beyond my vision (= NiAD2 or DDry, Ps. xix. 13, xe. 8,
unacknowledged sins), teach me; and the present vow has
reference to acknowledged sins and sins that have still to be
acknowledged: if I have done wrong, I will do it no more.
Thus speaking—Elihu means—those high ones might have
anticipated the punishment of the All-just God, for favour
instead of wrath cannot be extorted, it is only reached by
the way of lowly penitence.

33 Shall He recompense it as thou wilt? For thou hast found
fault,
_So that thou hast to determine, not J,

And what thou knowest speak out !
34 Men of understanding will say to me,

And a wise man who listeneth to me:
35 “ Job speaketh without knowledge,

“ And his words are without intelligence.”
36 O would that Job were proved to the extreme

On account of his answers after the manner of evil men;
37 For he addeth transgression to his sin,

Among us he clappeth

And multiplieth his speeches against God.

The question put to Job, whether then from him « or sccord-

CHAP. XXXIV. 38-37. 261

ing to his idea (DY in 72¥ as ch. xxiii. 10, xxvii. 11, which
see) shall God recompense it (viz., as this “it” is to be under-
stood according to ver. 32b: man’s evil-doing and actions in -
general), Elihu proves from this, that Job has despised
(shown himself discontented with it) the divine mode of
recompense, so that therefore (this second *3 signifies also
nam, but is, because extending further on account of the
first, according to the sense equivalent to ita ut) he has to
choose (seek out) another mode of recompense, not Elihu (who
is perfectly satisfied with the mode with which history fur-
nishes us); which is then followed by the challenge (027 not
infin., but as ch, xxxii. 33) : what (more corresponding to just
retribution) thou knowest, speak out then! Elihu on his part
knows that he does not stand alone against Job, the censurer
of the divine government of the world, but that men of heart
(understanding) and (every) wise man who listens to him will
coincide with him in the opinion that Job’s talk is devoid. of
knowledge and intelligence (on the form of writing awn as
Jer. iii. 15, vid. Ges. § 53, rem. 2).

In ver. 36 sq. we will for the present leave the meaning of
‘a8 undecided ; j3! is certainly intended as optative: let Job
be tried to the extreme or last, i.e. let his trial by affliction
continue until the matter is decided (comp. Hab. i. 4), on
account of the opposition among men of iniquity, ze. after the
manner of such (on this. Beth of association comp. 0°V1p3, ch.
xxxvi. 14), for to N88, by which the purpose of his affliction
is to be cleared up, he adds Yt, viz. the wickedness of blas-
phemous speeches: among us (therefore without fear) he
claps (viz. his hands scornfully together, Pi®D’ only here thus
absolute instead of 18D PB, ch. xxvii. 23, comp. para ch.
xxxvi. 18 with 1pap xx. 22') and multiplies (AY, fut. apoc.
Hiph. as ch. x. 17, and instead of the full fut., as "W*, ch.

1 The mode of writing with p instead of jy is limited in the book of
Job, according to the Masora, to ch. xxxiv. 26, 37.

262 THE BOOK OF JOB.

xxxili. 27) his speeches against God, #.e. exceeds himself in
speeches which irreverently dictate to and challenge God.
But we now ask, what does that ‘38, ver. 36a, signify ?
According to the accentuation with Rebia, it appears to be
intended to signify pater mt (Jer.), according to which Saad.
(jé rabbi) and Gecat. (munshii, my Creator) translate it.
This would be the only passage where an Old Testament
saint calls God ‘aN; elsewhere God is called the Father of
Israel, and Israel as a people, or the individual comprehend-
ing himself with the nation, calls Him 12x. Nevertheless
this pater mi for Elihu would not be inappropriate, for what
the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. xii. 7, says to
believers on the ground of Prov. ili. 11: eis wasdelav drropévete,
ye suffer for the purpose of paternal discipline, is Elihu’s
fundamental thought; he also calls God in ch. xxxii. 22,
xxxvi. 3, with a like reference to himself, :ivy and *Syp—this
ejaculatory “ my Father!” especially in conjunction with the
following wish, remains none the less objectionable, and only
in the absence of a more agreeable interpretation should we,
with Hirz., decide in its favour. It would be disproportion-
ately repulsive if ver. 36 sq. still belonged to the assenting lan-
guage of another, and Elihu represented himself as addressed
by/’ax (Wolfson, Maur.). Thus, therefore, ‘2% must be taken
somehow or other interjectionally. It is untenable to compare
it with “a8, Prov. xxiii. 29, for nas) 8 (Arab. Gh wa-dwah)
is “ah! and alas!” The Aramaic 92 x2, ve v@ (Buxtorf,
col. 294), compared by Ges. to °3, signifies just the same.
The Targ. translates 82°28, I wish; after which Kimchi, among
moderns, Umbr., Schlottm., Carey, and others derive *28 from
Has, a wish (after the form 7¥?, 717), but the participial sub-
stantival-form badly suits this signification, which is at once
improbable according to the usage of the language so far as
we at present know it. This interpretation also does not well
suit the "2, which is to be explained at the same time. Ewald,

CHAP. XXXIV. 33-87. 263

§ 358, a, regards °28 as the fuller form of °3, and thinks ‘28
is dialectic = 12? = "? = %, but this is an etymological leger-
demain. The two Schultens (died 1750 and 1793) were on
the right track when they traced back a8 to s12, but their
interpretation: rem eo adducam ut (38 = NIN, as it is cer-
tainly not unfrequently written, e.g. 1 Kings xxi. 29, with
the assumption of a root ‘2 cognate with sa), is artificial
and without support in the usage of the language and im the
syntax. Ko6rber and Simonis opened up the right way, but
with inadequate means for following it out, by referring (vid.
Ges. Thes. s.v. ‘2) to the formula of a wish and of respect,
bawwék allah, which, however, also is bajjdk.. The Kamus
interprets bajjdk, though waveringly, by bawwdak, the meaning
of which (may he give thee a resting-place) is more trans-
parent. In an annotated Codex of Zamachschari hajjdk
allah wa-bajjak is explained: God preserve thy life and grant

47 Err

thee to come to a place of rest, bawwaaka (therefore us? = \y)

menzilan. ‘That ‘38 (as also °2) is connected with this bajjdk
since the latter is the Piel-form of an old verb bajja (vid. supra,
p- 125), which with the forms =) (whence dx, a sheltering
house) and ty (css) has one root similar in signification with
sa, the following contributions of Wetzstein will show.

In elucidation of the present passage he observes: The
expressions abi, tebi, jebi; nebi, tebi, jebi, are so frequent in
Damascus, that they very soon struck me, and on my first
inquiry I always received the same answer, that they are a
mutilation of x, abgii, I desire, etc. [vid. supra, p. 165],
until one day a fugitive came into the consulate, and with
these words, abi wdlidék, seized me in that part of the body
where the Arabs wear the girdle (zunndar), a symbolic action
by which one seeks some one’s protection. Since the word
here could not be equivalent to abghi (“I desire” thy parents),
I turned to the person best acquainted with the idiom of

264 THE BOOK OF JOB.

the country, the scribe Abderrahmdn el-Midani, whose father
had been a wandering minstrel in the camps for twenty years;
and he explained to me that abghi only signifies “1 desire;”

on the contrary, abi, “I implore importunately, I pray for
Ge

God’s sake,” and the latter belongs to a defective verb, 3,

from which, except the forms mentioned, only the part. and
baj, “I come as a suppliant,” and its plur. nahn bajin, is used.
The poet Musa Raré from Kréje in the south of Hauran, who
lived with me six months in Damascus in order to instruct
me in the dialect of his district, assured me that among the
Beduins also the perf. forms bit, bind (I have, we have en-
treated), and the fut. forms tabin (thou, woman .. .), jaben
(they, the women ...), and taben (ye women ...), are used.
In the year 1858, in the course of a journey in his native
country, I came to Dimds, whither they had brought: two
strange Beduins who had been robbed of their horses in that
desert (Sahra Dimds), and one of them had at the same time
received a mortal gunshot-wound. As I came to these men,
who were totally forsaken, the wounded man began to express
his importunate desire for a surgeon with the words jd shéch
nebi ‘arabak, “Sir, we claim the protection of thy Arabs,” 7.e.
we-adjure thee by thy family. Naturally abi occurs most
frequently. It generally has its obj. in the ace., often also
with the propos. _ Js, exactly like \+o (to enter, to flee any-
where and hide), which is its correct synonym and usual
substitute in common life, It is often used without an obj.,
and, indeed, very variously. With women it is chiefly the
introduction to a question prompted by curiosity, as: adi (ah,
tell me), have you really betrothed your daughter? Or the —
word is accompanied by a gesture by the five fingers of the
right hand, with the tips united, being stretched out towards
the hasty or impatient listener, as if one wished to show some
costly object, when adi signifies as much as: I pray thee wait

CHAP. XXXIV. 83-37. 265

till I have shown thee this precious thing, ze. allow me to
make one more remark to thee in reference to the matter.
Moreover, *2 (probably not corrupted from *2%, but a derived
‘nomen coneretum in the sense of dachil or mustagir, one seek-
ing protection, protégé, after the form 'S, *¥, from m2 = 813)
still exists unaltered in Hauran and in the steppe. ‘The
Beduin introduces an important request with the words and
bi ahlak, I am a protégé of thy family, or and bt ‘irdak, I
trust to thine honour, etc.; while in Damascus they say, and
dachil ahlak, harimak, aulddak, etc. The Beduin women
make use of this d¢ in a weakened signification, in order to
beg a piece of soap or sugar, and and bt lihjetak, I pray by
thy beard, ete., is often heard.

If now we combine that ‘28 of Elihu with abght (from las,
Hebr. Ya, Aram. 83, fut. ‘YD, as °2 with ‘Y3) or with ali =
Nas, from the verb bajja = 813 ('2),' it always remains a re-

«markable instance in favour of the Arabic colouring of the
Elihu section similar to the rest of the book,—a colouring, so
to speak, dialectically Hauranitish ; while, on the other hand,
even by this second speech, one cannot avoid the impression
of a great distance between it and the rest of the book: the
language has a lofty tone, without its special harshness, as
there, being the necessary consequence of a carefully concen-
trated fulness of thought; moreover, here in general the usual

1 We cannot in any case, with Wetzst., explain the ‘38 ‘3s, 2 Kings
ii. 12, xiii. 14, according to the above, so that the king of Israel adjured
the dying prophet by the national army and army of the faithful not to
forsake him, as an Arab is now and then adjured in most urgent and
straitened circumstances ‘‘ by the army of Islam ;” vid. on the other hand,
2 Kings vi. 21, comp. v. 18, viii. 9 (3a). Here rather, if an Arabian

parallel be needed, the usual death wail, bi-alt anta (thou wast dear as
a father to me), e.g. in Kosegarten, Chrestom. p. 140, 3, is to be com-
pared. %3s, 1 Sam. xxiv. 12, might more readily, with Ew. § 101, c, be
brought in here and regarded as belonging to the North Palestine pecu-
liarities of the book of Kings; but by a comparison of the passages cited,
this is also improbable.

266. THE BOOK OF JOB.

regularity of the strophe-lines no longer prevails, and also the
usual symmetrical balance of thought in them.

If we confine our attention to the real substance of the
speech, apart from the emotional and rough accessories, Elihu
casts back the reproach of injustice which Job has raised, first
as being contradictory to the being of God, ch. xxxiv. 10 sq. ;
then he seeks to refute it as contradicting God’s government,
and this he does (1) apagogically from the unselfish love with
which God’s protecting care preseryes the breath of every
living thing, while He who has created all things might bring
back all created things to the former non-existence, ch. xxxiv.
12-15; (2) by induction from the impartial judgment which
He exercises over princes and peoples, and from which it is
inferred that the Ruler of the world is also all-just, ch. xxxiv.
16-20. From this Elihu proves that God can exercise justice,
and from that, that He is omniscient, and sees into man’s in-
most nature without any judicial investigation, ch. xxxiv.
21-28; inaccessible to human accusation and human defiance,
He rules over peoples and individuals, even over kings, and
nothing turns His just punishment aside but lowly penitence
blended with the prayer for the disclosure of unperceived sin,
ch. xxxiv. 29-32. For in His retributive rule God does not
follow the discontented demands of men arrogant and yet
devoid of counsel, ch. xxxiv. 33. It is worthy of recognition,
that Elihu does not here coincide with what has been already
said (especially ch. xii. 15 sqq.), without applying it to another
purpose; and that his theodicy differs essentially from that
proclaimed by the friends. It is not derived from mere
appearance, but lays hold of the very principles. It does not
attempt the explanation of the many apparent contradictions
to retributive justice which outward events manifest, as
agreeing with it; it does not solve the question by mere
empiricism, but from the idea of the Godhead and its relation
to the world, and by such inner necessity guarantees to the

CHAP, XXXV. 2-4. 267

mysteries still remaining to human shortsightedness, their
future solution.

Elihws Third Speech.—Chap. xxxv.
Schema : 6. 8. 10. 6.

[Then began Elihu, and said :]
2 Dost thow consider this to be right,
Sayest thou: my righteousness exceedeth God's,
3 That thou sayest, what advantage is it to thee,
What doth it profit me more than my sin?
4 I will answer thee words,
And thy companions with thee.

The neutral nxt, ver. 2a, refers prospectively to WNN™9,
ver. 3a: this that thou sayest. WN with ace. of the obj. and
of the predicate, as ch. xxxiii. 10, comp. xiii. 24, and freq.
The second interrogative clause, ver. 26, is co-ordinate with
the first, and the collective thought of this ponderous con-
struction, vers. 2, 3, is this: Considerest thou this to be right,
and thinkest thou on this account to be able to put thy
righteousness above the divine, that, as thou maintainest,
no righteousness on the side of God corresponds to this thy
righteousness, because God makes no distinction between
righteousness and the sin of man, and allows the former to
go unrewarded? ‘P78 (for which Olsh. wishes to read ‘APTS,
as ch. ix. 27 ‘MN for Ws) forms with ox a substantival
clause : justitia mea est pre Deo (pre divina); }2 comparative
as ch. xxxii. 2, comp. on the matter xxxiv. 5, not equivalent
to dé as ch. iv. 17. “xn is first followed by the oratio
obliqua: what it (viz. 7pts) advantageth thee, then by the or.
directa (on this change vid. Ew. § 338, a): what profit have I
(viz. ‘PIS2), pre peccato meo ; this }) is also comparative; the
constantly ambiguous combination would be allowable from
the fact that, according to the usage of the language, “ to

. 268 THE BOOK OF JOB.

obtain profit from anything” is expressed by 2 yin, not by
wo 2yN, Moreover, pre peccato meo is equivalent to plus
quam inde quod pecco, comp. Ps. xviii. 24 ‘22, Hos. iv. 8
DIY-ON, We have already on ch. xxxiv. 9 observed that Job
has not directly said (he cites it, ch. xxi. 15, as the saying of
the ungodly) what Elihu in ver. 3 puts into his mouth, but
as an inference it certainly is implied in such utterances as
ch. ix. 22. Hlihu’s polemic against Job and his companions
(TY are not the three, as LX-X. and Jer. translate, but the
ps *IN, to whom Job is likened by such words as ch. xxxiv.
8, 36) is therefore not unauthorized; especially since he
assails the conclusion together with its premises. In the
second strophe the vindication of the conclusion is now
refuted.

5 Look towards heaven and see,
And behold the ethereal heights: they are high above thee.
6 If thou sinnest, what dost thou effect with Him ?
And if thy transgressions are many, what doest thou to Him?
7 If thou art righteous, what dost thou gwe Him,
Or what doth He take from thy hand?
8 Yo man like thee thy godlessness availeth,
_ And to thee, a son of man, thy righteousness.

Towards heaven he is to direct his gaze, to obtain from the
height of heaven a notion of the exaltation of God who dwells
above the heavens. The combination O87) 6°27 is like Ps.
Ixxx. 15 and freq. OD’pny (pn, (=, to rub in pieces, make
thin, therefore the opposite of D°3Y) are the thin transparent
strata of the atmosphere above the hanging clouds. jf) after
maa denotes the height that is on the opposite side to the
beholder. From the exaltation of God it is then further
inferred that it is impossible to exercise any human influence
upon Him, by which He might suffer. The pointing wavers
here between OyaA (the common fut. form) and oyaA (as a con-

CHAP. XXXV. 5-8. 269

traction of SYR after the form DY, Num. xxiii. 8).-« Human
wrong or right doing neither diminishes nor increases His
blessedness; injury or advantage is only on the side of man,
from whom it proceeds. Others, whom his conduct affects,
are not included in ver. 8: righteous or ungodly doing, Elihu
means to say, as such and with its consequences, belongs
solely to the doer himself, the man “like thee” (WAN? with
Munach, 722 with Munach), the son of man, i.e. man, capable
of evil as of good, and who always, after deciding in favour of
the latter or the former, determines his fortune or misfortune,
in distinction from God, who ever remains unchangeably the
same in His perfect righteousness. What Elihu here says we
have already heard from Eliphaz, ch. xxii. 2 sq., and Job
even expresses himself similarly in ch. vii. 20; but to Elihu’s
mind it all becomes for Job new and powerful motives to
quiet submission, for what objection should Job raise in justi-
fication of his complaints concerning his affliction against such
sentiments as these, that goodness bears its reward and evil
its punishment in itself, and that God’s reward of goodness
is not a work of indebtedness, nor His punishment of evil
a work of necessity? Before such truth he must really hold
his peace.

9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they raise a ery,

They call for help by reason of the arm of the great,

10 But none saith: Where is Eloah my Creator,
Who giveth songs of praise in the night,

11 Who teacheth us by the beasts of the earth,
And maketh us wise by the fowls of heaven?

12. Then they cry, yet He answereth not,
Because of the pride of evil men.

13 Vanity alone God heareth not,
And the Almighty observeth it not.

In ver. 9a the accentuation of 29 with Dechi, according

270 THE BOOK OF JOB.

to which Dachselt interprets: pre multitudine (oppressionum)
oppressi clamabunt, is erroneous; it is to be written 219, as
everywhere else, and this (according to Codd. and the editions
of Jablonski, Majus, Michaelis, and others) is to be accented
with Munach, which is followed by O*%)1Y with a vicarious
Munach: pre multiiudine oppressionum (apy like Keel.
iv. la, and probably also Amos iii. 9) edunt clamorem (Hiph.
in the intensive Kal signification, as e.g. 1217, to commit forni-
cation, Hos. iv. 10, and freq., comp. p. 185, note). On pint,
ver. 9b, vid. vol. i, 432; 0°22 are the great or lords (Arab.
arbab). The plur. with a general subj. is followed by the
sing. in ver. 10a: and no one says (exactly as in 1287, ch.
xxxiv. 31). Elihu weakens the doubt expressed by Job in
ch. xxiv. 12, that God allows injustice to prevail, and op-
pressed innocence remains without vindication. The failure
of the latter arises from the fact of the sufferers complaining,
but not seeking earnestly the only true helper, God their
maker (O'WY, intensive plur., as Isa. xxii. 11, liv. 5, Ps.
exlix. 2), who gives (to which may be compared a passage
of the Edda: “ Wuodan gives songs to the Scalds”) songs
(ninDt, from the onomatopoetic 1) in the night, ze. who in
the night of sorrow puts songs of praise concerning the dawn-
ing light of help into the mouth of the sufferers. The singing
of the glory of the nightly heavens (Stick., Hahn) is to be as
little thought of as the music of the spheres; the night is, as
ch. xxxiv. 20, 25, the time of unexpectedly sudden, change.
In ver. 11 most expositors (last of all Schlottm.) take the
two } as comparative. Elihu would then, since he feels the
absence of the asking after this God on the part of the suf-
ferers, mean the conscious relation in which He has placed
us to Himself, and in accordance with which the sufferer
should not merely instinctively complain, but humbly bow
himself and earnestly offer up prayer. But according to ch,
xii. 7 (comp. Proy. vi. 6, o5M), it is to be translated: who

CHAP, XXXV. 9—13. 271

teaches (EPID = WAPNND, comp. 2 Sam. xxii. 40, Psalter 1. 160)
us from the beasts of the earth (so that from them as a means
of instruction teaching comes to us), and makes us wise from
the birds of heaven. The fut. interchanging with the part.
better accords with this translation, according to which ver.
11 is a continuation of the assertion of a divine instruction,
by means of the animal creation; the thought also suits the
connection better, for of the many things that may be learned
from the animal creation, prayer here comes under considera-
tion,—the lions roar, Ps. civ. 21; the thirsty cattle cry to
God, Joel i. 20; the ravens call upon God, Ps. cxlvii. 9.
If we now determine the collective thought of vers. 10 sq.,
that affliction does not drive most men to God the almighty
Helper, who will be humbly entreated for help: it is more
natural to take OW (vid. on ch. xxiii. 7) in the sense of then
(rore), than, with reference to the scene of oppression, in the
sense of there (LX X., Jer.: ibi). The division of the verse
is correct, and H. B. Starcke has correctly interpreted: Zune
clamabunt (sed non respondebit) propter superbiam (insolen-
tiam) malorum. ‘*32'D is not to be connected with 7)" in the
sense of non exaudiet et servabit, by which constr. pragnans
one would expect f, Ps. xxii. 22, instead of ‘25d, nor in the
sense of non exaudiet propter (Hirz., Schlottm.), for the arro- -
gant DY are not those who complain unheard: but, as the
connection shows, those from whom the occasion of complaint
proceeds. Therefore: not allowing themselves to be driven
to God by oppression, they cry then, without, however, being
heard of God, by reason of the arrogance of evil men which
they have to endure. Ver. 13 gives the reason of their obtain-
ing no answer: Only emptiness (i.e. mere motion of the lips
without the true spirit of prayer) God heareth not, and the
Almighty observeth it not. Hahn wrongly denies 38 the
significations certo and verumtamen; but we prefer the re-
strictive signification (sheer emptiness or hollowness) which

272 THE BOOK OF JOB.

proceeds from the affirmative primary signification’ here, to
the adversative (nevertheless emptiness), since the adversative
thought, verumtamen non exaudit, has found its expression
already in 72} NO,

14 Although thou sayest, thou seest Him not:

The cause lieth before Him, and thou mayest wait for Him.
15 Now, then, if His wrath hath not yet punished,

Should He not be well acquainted with sullenness ?
16 While Job openeth his mouth without reason,

Without knowledge multiplieth words.

The address is not directed to Job exclusively, for it here
treats first of the acts of injustice which prevail among men
and remain apparently unpunished; but to Job, however,
also, so far as he has, ch. xxiii. 8-10, comp. xix. 7, xxx. 20,
thus complained concerning his prayer being unanswered.
*D AN signifies elsewhere quanto minus, ch. iv. 19, or also
guanto magis, Prov. xv. 11, but nowhere quanto minus si
(Hirz., Hlgst.) or quanto magis si (Hahn), also not Ezek.
xv. 5, where it signifies etiamne quum. As it can, however,
naturally signify etiam quum, it can also signify etiamsz,
etsi, as here and Neh. ix. 18. This quamvis dicas (opineris)
is followed by the oratio obliqua, as ch. xxxv. 8a. The rela-
tion of the matter—says the conclusion, ver. 144—is other
than thou thinkest: the matter to be decided lies before Him,
is therefore well known to Him, and thou mightest only wait
for Him (din instead of 5m or bnin only here, comp. Ps.
xxxvii. 7, 1 Soinnm); the decision, though it pass by, will not
fail. In vers. 15 sq., ver. 15 is taken by most modern com-
mentators as antecedent to ver. 16, in which case, apart from
the distortions introduced, two interpretations are possible:
(1) However now, because His (God’s) wrath does not
visit . . . Job opens his mouth; (2) However now, because

1 Vid. Hupfeld in the Zeitschr. fiir Kunde des Morgenl. ii. 441 f.

CHAP, XXXV. 14-16. 273

/

He (God) does not visit his (Job’s) wrath (comp. on this refer-
ence of the i58 to Job, ch. xviii. 4, xxxvi. 18, 18) . . . Job
‘opens, ete. That a clause with a confirmatory ‘3 is made to
precede its principal clause is not without example, Gen.
iii. 14, 17; but in connection with this arrangement the verb
is accustomed always, in the principal clause or in the conclu-
sion, to stand prominent (so that consequently we should
expect 31's AYD); although in Arabic this position of the
words, m¥5’ 2s}, and in fact C4:(3 instead of C+s)\, (in con-
nection with a difference of the subj. in the antecedent and
in the conclusion, vid. De Sacy, Gramm. Arabe, § 1201, 2),
is regular. ‘Therefore for a long time I thought that ver. 15
was to be taken interrogatively: And now (MM) as logical
inference and conclusion, which is here its most probable
function, Ew. § 353, 6) should His wrath not punish (7?5 as
absolute as ch. xxxi. 14), and should He not take notice, etc.,
‘D interrogative as 1 Sam. xxiv. 20, xxviii. 13, 1 Kings xi. 22,
as "21 (is it so that, or: should it be so that), ch. vi. 22, and
freq., in connection with which, what is said on Gen. xxi. 7
concerning the modal use of the pret. might be compared
on the two prett. But by this rendering the connection of
ver. 16 with what precedes is awkward. Ewald has given
the correct rendering (apart from the misunderstanding of
vp): Therefore, because His wrath has not yet punished, He
does not know much about foolishness! Ver. 15d requires
to be taken as the conclusion to ver. 15a, yet not as an ex-
clamation, but as an interrogative. The interrogative use of
x1 is not unusual, 2 Sam. xix. 44, Ezek. xvi. 43, 47, 56,
xxxil. 27; and just as here, this interrogative xb is found
after a hypothetical antecedent clause, 1 Sam. xx. 9, Ex.
vill. 22.

In connection with this interrogative rendering of ver. 15,
it still remains questionable whether it refers to Job’s sin, or
sin which prevails among men. The theme of this third

VOL. II. 8

274 THE BOOK OF JOB.

speech of Elihu requires the latter reference, although per-
haps not without a side-glance at Job’s own arrogant be-
haviour. ‘The translation shows how suitably ver. 16 is
connected with what precedes: ver. 16 is a circumstantial
clause, or, if one is not willing to take it as a subordinate
clause, but prefers to take it as standing on a level with
ver. 15, an adversative clause attached with Waw, as is fre-
quently the case: but (nevertheless) Job... ; 1B 8B of
opening the mouth in derision, as Lam. ii. 16, iii. 46 ; oan is
the acc. of closer definition to it (= 22713), and the 23),
which occurs only here and ch. xxxvi. 31, signifies without
distinction magnijicare and multiplicare: Job multiplies high
emotional words. As this 123! is, so to speak, Hebraeo-
Arabic (Arab. akbara), so is ver. 15 full of Arabisms:
(1) The combination 728 }8, which has not its like in the
Hebrew language (whether it be originally intended as re-
lative or not: non est quod visitaverit, Ew. § 321, bd), corre-
sponds to the popular Arabic use of (ws for J, Ges. Thes.
i. 82, 5; probably {8 has the value of an intensive negation
(Carey: not at all). (2) The combination 2 YT, to know
about anything, to take knowledge of anything (differently
ch. xii. .9, but comp. ch. xxiv. 12 on the idea), is like the
‘Arab. construction of the verb ‘alima with bi (concerning)
or bianna (because that) of the obj.; TH (on this vid. on Ps.
xxxi. 12) belongs not to war (which is indeed possible), but,
according to Ps. cxxxix. 14, to yt’. (3) WB is especially to
be explained from the Arabic. The signification a multitude
(Jewish expositors, after wap, Niph. se diffundere, Nah. ii. 18)
is not suitable; the signification evil (LX X., Jer., and others:
wp = yw) presents a forcibly mutilated word, and moreover
one devoid of significance in this connection; whereas the

Arab. (se (but not in its derivatives, fashsh, empty-headed ;

fashish, empty-headedness, imbecility, with its metaphorical

CHAP. XXXV. 14-16. 275

sense) indicates a development of signification which leads to
the desired end, especially in the Syro-Arabic usage most

natural here. The verb (is (vp, cogn. 43, (4,5, to ex-

tend, expandere) is used originally of water (fashsh el-md) :
to overflow its dam, to overflow its banks, whence a valley by
the lake of e/-Higdne, into which the waters of the lake flow
after the winter rains, is called e/-mefeshsh ; then of a leathern
bottle: to run out (tarf mefshish, an emptied bottle), of a
tumour (waram): to disperse, disappear, and tropically of
anger (el-chulg): to break forth, vent itself on anything,
hence the phrase: dost thou make me a mefeshshe (an object

for the venting) of thine anger? From this Gis (distinct

from (»\s med. Waw, to swim on the surface, trop. to be
above, not to allow one’s self to be kept down, and med. Je,
comp. vis, Hab. i. 8, Jer. 1. 11, Mal. iii. 20, signifies to be
proud) is YB, formed after the forms 73, 12, D2, a synon. of
itt, or even of 173Y in the signification of excessive haughti-
ness, pride that bursts forth violently."

Thus, even at the close of this third speech of Elihu, the
Arabic, and in fact Syro-Arabic colouring, common to this

1 The signification expandere also underlies the noun jishshe, the lungs
(in Egypt.); the signification discutere (especially carminare, to card
wool), which the Talmud. yinyp also has, is only a shade of the same
signification; the origin of the trop. signification fatuum esse is clear
from ‘gaus fashish, empty nuts. The rice from the Palestine valley of
Hile, it is somewhere said, is worse than the Egyptian, because (what is
a fault in the East) in cooking tufesh/ish, i.e. it bursts, breaks in pieces
(comp. on the other hand: if the seed for sowing sinks to the bottom
when put into water, it is good; if it swims on the surface, je/ish, it is
bad). The Piel of this fashsha signifies to cause the water to overflow,
trop. fashshasha galbahu, he gave air to his heart, 7.e. he revealed a secret
which burdened him. A proverb says: the market (with its life and
changing scenes) is a feshshdsh of cares, i.e. consoles a troubled heart. In
the Hiph. one says in like manner proverbially, el-bukd jujishsh, weeping
removes the anguish of the soul.—Wevzsr.

276 THE BOOK OF JOB.

section with the rest of the book, is confirmed; while, on the
other hand, we miss the bold, original figures which up to
ch. xxxi. followed like waves one upon another, and we per-
ceive a deficiency of skill, as now and then between Koheleth
and Solomon. The chief thought of the speech we have also —
heard already from the three friends and Job himself. That
the piety of the pious profits himself without involving God
in any obligation to him, Eliphaz has already said, ch.
xxli. 2 sq.; and that prayer that is heard in time of need
and the unanswered cry of the godly and the ungodly are
distinct, Job said, ch. xxvii. 9 sq. Elihu, however, deprives
these thoughts of their hitherto erroneous application. If
piety gives nothing to God which He ought to reward, Job
dare not regard his affliction, mysterious as it is to him, as
unjust; and if the godly do not directly experience the
avenging wrath of God on the haughtiness of their op-
pressors, the question, whether then their prayer for help is
of the right kind, is more natural than the complaint of a
want of justice in God’s government of the world. Job is
silent also after this speech. It does not contain the right
consolation ; it contains, however, censure which he ought
humbly to receive. It touches his heart. But whether it
touches the heart of the idea of the book, is another question.

Elihws Fourth Speech.—Chap. xxxvi. xxxvii.
Schema: 6. 7. 6. 6. 6. 7. 6. 8 8. 8. | 11. 11. 8 6. 8. 11.

[Then Elihu continued and said :]
2 Suffer me a little, and I will inform thee,
For there is something still to be said for Eloah.
3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
And to my Creator will I ascribe right.
4 For truly my words are not lies,
One perfect in knowledge stands before thee.

CHAP. XXXVI. 2-7. 277

Elihw’s preceding three speeches were introduced by i} ;
this fourth, in honour of the number three, is introduced only
as a continuation of the others. Job is to wait yet a little
while, for he still has (= iv), or: there still are, words in
favour of Eloah; 7.e. what may be said in vindication of God
against Job’s complaints and accusations is not yet exhausted.
This appears to be the only instance of the Aramaic 193 being
taken up as Hebr.; whereas 71, nunciare (Arab. | >, I.IV.),
is a poetic Aramaism occurring even in Ps. xix. 8 (comp. on
the construction ch. xxxii. 6); and ‘Yt (a diminutive form,
after the manner of the Arab. zw‘air) belongs in Isa. xxviil.
10, 13 to the popular language (of Jerusalem), but is here
used poetically. The verb 8, ver. 3a, is not to be under-
stood according to Syn wbx, but according to 1 Kings x. 11;
and pinie signifies, as also ch. xxxix. 29, Isa. xxxvil. 26, e
longinquo, viz. out of the wide realm of history and nature.
The expression PTS {02 follows the analogy of (ty) 39 jn).
nyt, ver. 4b, interchanges with the 31 which belongs exclu-
sively to Elihu, since Elihu styles himself niva DA, as ch.
xxxvii. 16 God D'y3 DF (comp. 1 Sam. ii. 3, iva ON). Don
in this combination with mys cannot be intended of purity
of character; but as Elihu there attributes absolute perfection
of knowledge in every direction to God, so here, in reference
to the theodicy which he opposes to Job, he claims faultless-
ness and clearness of perception.

9 Behold, God is mighty, and yet doth not act scornfully,
Mighty in power of understanding.
6 He preserveth not the life of the ungodly,
And to the afflicted He giveth right.
7 He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous,
But with kings on the throne
He establisheth them for ever, and they are exalted.

The obj. that must be mentally supplied to DD ND} is, as

278 THE BOOK OF JOB:

in ch. xlii. 6, to be derived from the connection. The idea of
the verb is, as in ch. viii. 20: He is exalted, without however
looking down disdainfully (non despicit) from His height, or
more definitely: without setting Himself above the justice
due to even the meanest of His creatures—great in power of
heart (comp. ch. xxxiy. 33 225 ‘wax, Arab. dld-l-elbab), i.e.
understanding (vods, 7vedua), to see through right and wrong
everywhere and altogether. Vers. 6, 7 describe how His rule
among men evinces this not merely outward but spiritual
superiority coupled with condescension to the lowly. The
notion of the object, 8D3? D’D:o-nN) (as Isa. ix. 11 the subject),
becomes the more distinctly prominent by virtue of the fut.
consec. which follows like a conclusion, and takes it up again.
Ewald thinks this explanation contrary to the accents and the
structure of the sentence itself; but it is perfectly consistent
with the former, and indisputably syntactic (Ges. § 129, 2, d,
~ and Ew. himself, § 344, b). Ps. ix. 5, comp. exxxii. 12, Isa.
xlvii. 1, shows how son is intended (He causes them to sit
upon the throne). Ch. v. 11, 1 Sam. ii. 8, Ps. cxiii. 7 sq. are
parallel passages.

8 And if they are bound with chains,
Holden in éords of affliction :
9 Then He declareth to them their doing
And their transgressions, that they have been vainglorious ;
10 Then He openeth their ear to warning,
And commandeth them to turn from uiquity.

The subj. is in no case the byw (Hahn), but the np" y, or
those who are as susceptible to discipline as it is needful to
them, just as in Ps. cvii., which in general presents many
instances for an extensive comparison with the speeches of
Elihu. The chains, ver. 8a, are meant literally, and the
bands, ver. 8b, figuratively; the Psalmist couples both in
Pam ‘3 “NYDN, evii. 10. The conclusion begins with ver. 9,

CHAP. XXXVI. 11, 12. 279

and is repeated in another application, ver. 10. byb in the

4st

sense of maleficium, as Arab. dx, recalls nya, facinus, ch.

xxxill, 17. %3, ver. 96, is, as in ver. 105, an objective quod.
It is not translated, however, quod invaluerint (Rosenm.),
which is opposed to the most natural sense of the Hithpa., but
according to ch. xv. 25: quod sese extulerint. DM, wadeia,
disciplina, interchanges here with the more rare 10) used in
ch. xxxiii. 16; there we have already also met with the phrase
ytis nds, to uncover the ear, i.e. to open. °2 78 corresponds
to the Arab. amara an (bi-an), to command that. The fun-
damental thought of Elihu here once again comes unmistake-
ably to view: the sufferings of the righteous are well-meant
chastisements, which are to wean them from the sins into
which through carnal security they have fallen—a warning
from God to penitence, designed to work their good.

11 Jf they hear and yield,
They pass their days in prosperity
And their years in pleasure.
12 And tf they hear not,
They pass away by the bow
And expire in lack of knowledge.

Since a declaration of the divine will has preceded in ver.
to do the will of another (as 1 Kings xii. 7, comp. 722 from
Tay in the generalized sense of facere), than, with Umbr., in
the sense of colere scil. Deum (as Isa. xix. 23, Arab. ‘dbid,
one who reveres God, a godly person). Instead of 152, Isa.
Ixy. 22 (on which the Masora observes mn‘, i.e. “ nowhere
else”) and ch. xxi. 13 Chethib, it is here without dispute
Dey (Targ. peer, peragent, as Ezek. xliii. 27). OD Y2 is, as
Ps. xvi. 6,a neutral mase.: amena. On ndvia13y, to pre-
cipitate one’s self into the weapon, z.e. to incur peremptory

280 ; THE BOOK OF JOB.

punishment, comp. ch. xxxiii. 18. On nyt ‘S22 comp. xxxv.
16, iv. 21. Impenitence changes affliction, which is intended
to be a means of rescue, into total destruction; yet there are
some who will not be warned and affrighted by it.

13 Yet the hypocrites in heart cherish wrath,
They ery not when He hath chained them.

14 Thus their soul dieth in the vigour of youth,
And their life is like that of the unclean.

15 Yet He delivereth the sufferer by his affliction,
And openeth their ear by oppression.

He who is angry with God in his affliction, and does not
humbly pray to Him, shows thereby that he is a 43, one
estranged from God (on the idea of the root, vid. i. 216),
and nota py. This connection renders it natural to under-
stand not.the divine wrath by 48: @ncavpifovew dpynv
(Rosenm. after Rom. ii. 5), or: they heap up wrath upon
themselves (Wolfson, who supplies piney), but the impa-
tience, discontent, and murmuring of man himself: they
cherish or harbour wrath, viz. para (comp. ch. xxii. 22, where
aba n'y signifies to take to heart, but at the same time to
preserve in the heart). Used thus absolutely, O°” signifies
elsewhere in the book, to give attention to, ch. iv. 20, xxiv.
12, xxxiv. 23, or (as ss) to lay down a pledge; here it
signifies reponunt s. recondunt (with an implied in ipsis), as
also ales fut. i, to conceal with the idea of sinking into
(immittentem), e.g. the sword in the sheath. With non, for
niom (Isa. 1, 2) or MM, the punishment which issues forth
undistinguished from this frustration of the divine purpose
of grace follows dovvdérws, as eg. Hos. vii. 16. 79 in-
terchanges with wa3, as ch. xxxiii. 22, 28; Y2 (likewise a
favourite word with Elihu) is intended just as ch. xxxili. 25,
and in the Ps. Ixxxviii. ver. 16, which resembles both the Elihu
section and the rest of the book. The Beth of D'¥1p2 has

CHAP. XXXVI. 16-18. 281

the sense of aque ac (Targ. 3"), as ch. xxxiv. 36, comp. NNN,
ch. xxxiv. 26. Jer. translates inter effeminatos ; for DWP
(heathenish, equivalent to O'vi7P, as 023, heathenish, equi-
valent to 0°33) are the consecrated men, who yielded them-
selves up, like the women in honour of the deity, to passive,
prematurely-enervating incontinence (vid. Keil on Deut.
xxiii, 18), a heathenish abomination prevailing now and
again even in Israel (1 Kings xiv. 24, xv. 12, xxii. 47),
which was connected with the worship of Astarte and Baal
that was transferred from Syria, and to which allusion is
here made, in accordance with the scene of the book. For
the sufferer, on the other hand, who suffers not merely of
necessity, but willingly, this his suffering is a means of rescue
and moral purification. Observe the play upon the words
yn and yno3, The Beth in both instances is, in accordance
with Elihu’s fundamental thought, the Beth instrum.

16 And He even bringeth thee out of the jaws of distress
To a broad place, whose ground hath no straitness,
And the adorning of thy table shall be full of fatness.

17 Yet thou art become full of the judging of the evil-doer :
Judging and judgment lay hold on one another !

18 For let not anger indeed entice thee to scorning,

And let not the greatness of the ransom mislead thee.

With ver. 16a Elihu passes over to the application to Job
of what he said in the preceding strophe. Since it is usual
to place 8 (like 3 and 38) at the beginning of the sentence,
although not belonging to the member of the sentence which
immediately follows, 77D 48) for JS AX MDM cannot be
remarkable. The pret. 7n'Dn is not promissory, but Elihu
- says with what design God has decreed the present suffering
for Job. j2 MDM is like 2 Chron. xviii. 31: out of distress
(S$ for ¥ by Rebia magnum), which has him in its jaws,
and threatens to swallow him, God brings him away to great

282 THE BOOK OF JOB.

prosperity; a thought which Elihu expresses in the imagery
of the Psalms of a broad place and a bountiful table (comp.
e.g. Ps. iv. 2, xxiii. 5). 3 is locative, and ANA pyrornd
is either a relative clause: whose beneath (ground) is not
straitened, no-straitness (in which case P31) would not be
constr. from the n. hophal. P¥2, Isa. viii. 23, but adsol. after
the form p22, ch. vii. 15, Ew. § 160, c, Anm. 4), Saad.
ede o& ids J (cujus in loco non angustie) ; or it is virtually
an adj.: without (8? = Noa, as ch. xxxiv. 24, comp. on ch.
xii. 24) straitness of what is beneath them, eorum que sub se
habet (comp. on ch. xxviii. 5). 27 is fem., like 21M, Dan.
ix. 25. A special clause takes the place of the locative, ver.
16c: and the settling or spreading, z.e. the provision (from
m2, to come down gradually, to seat one’s self) of thy table
shall be full of fatness. 20 (whether it be adj. or verb) is
treated by attraction, according to the gender of the governed
noun; and it is unnecessary, with Rosenm. and others, to
derive NM) from nM} (Aram. for 7).

In ver 17, {1 is intended of Job’s negative judgment con-
cerning God and His dealings (comp. Ps. Ixxvi. 9, where it
signifies a judicial decision, and Prov. xxii. 10, where it sig-
nifies a wrangling refusal of a fair decision). Ver. 17a is not
a conditional clause (Hahn), in which case the pret. hypothet.
would have a prominent position, but an adversative predica-
tive clause: but (nevertheless) thou art full of the judging of
the evil-doer (evil judging) ; after which, just as dovvdétas as
ver. 14a, the sad issue in which this judging after the manner
of evil-doers results is expressed: such judging and judgment
border closely upon one another. Réd., Dietr., and Schlottm.
have wrongly reproduced this idea, discerned by Ges., when
they translate: judgment and sentence (guilt and punish-
ment) shall seize thee. %550!, prehendunt scil. se (Ebr.: put
forth the hand), is used like the Aram. 32D, to draw nearer,
fasten together (Rabb. 79D, near at hand), Arab. tamdsaka

CHAP. XXXVI. 16-18. : 283

(from Chive = JOD, as e.g. hanash = UM), In ver. 18 we
leave the signification thick milk or cream (72) = ANN,
as ch. xxix. 6) to those who persuade themselves that
cream can be metaphorically equivalent to superfluity (Ew.,
Hirz., Vaih., Higst). Renan’s translation: N’espére pas
détourner la colére de Dieu par une amende, we also leave
as a simple puzzle to its discoverer, who, with this one ex-
ception, is destitute of thoughts proper to the book of Job.
In general, the thought, “do not imagine by riches, by a
great ransom, to be able to satisfy the claims of God,” is
altogether out of place here. Moreover, 70, which, as e.g.
Mast, Prov. xii. 25 (Ew. § 174, g), is construed as masc.,
eannot be understood of God’s wrath, since the poet by MDA
will not at one time have ascribed to God a well-meant
incitation, at another an enticement in malam partem. That
which allures is Job’s own 127, and that not the excitement
of his affliction (Hahn), but of his passion; comp. 58, ver. 13.
pa’ is, however, to.be explained according to ch. xxxiv. 37,
comp. xxvii. 23 (clapping of hands = derision); and 153
signifies reconciliation or expiation, as ch. xxxiil. 24. Elihu
admonishes Job not to allow himself to be drawn by the heat
of passion into derision, or to deride; nor to be allured from
the right way by the ransom which is required of him as the
price of restoration to happiness, viz. humble submission to
the divine chastisement, as though this ransom were exceed-
ing great. The connection is clear: an adverse verdict
(7) and condemnation (02D) are closely connected; for
(*2) hastiness of temper, let it not (}2) lead thee astray .. .
thou wouldst not escape the judgment of God!

19 Shall thy erying place thee beyond distress,
And all the efforts of strength ?

20 Long not for the night to come,
Which shall remove people from their place!

284 THE BOOK OF JOB.

21 Take heed, incline not to evil ;
For this thou hast desired more than affliction.

Those expositors who found in ver. 18d the warning, that
Job should not imagine that he would be able to redeem
himself from judgment by a large ransom, go on to explain:
will He esteem thy riches? (Farisol, Rosenm., Umbr.,
Carey, Ebr., and others) ; or: will thy riches suffice? (Hirz.,
Schlottm.) ; or some other way (Ew.). But apart from the
want of connection of this insinuation, which is otherwise
not mentioned in the book, and apart from the violence
which must be done to 7.7 to accommodate it to it, say,

ar hte 4

although it might, as the abstract of viv, ch. xxxiv. 19, sig-
nify wealth (comp. dew, amplitudo), is, however, according to

the usage of the language (vid. ch. xxx. 24), so far as we
can trace it, a secondary form of ¥ (MMW), a cry for help;
and ch. xxxv. 9 sq., ver. 13, and other passages, also point
to this signification. What follows is still less appropriate
to this thought of ransom; Hirz. translates: Oh, not God
and all the treasures of wealth! But 7¥2 is nowhere equi-
valent to 83, ch. xxii. 24; but 7¥, ver. 16, signifies distress ;
and the expression 7¥2 ND, in a condition devoid of distress,
is like nosna x, ch. iv. 21, and w2 ws, ch. xxxiv. 20.
Finally, 13 "8 signifies mighty in physical strength, ch.
ix. 4, 19, and M3°¥ONd strong proofs of strength, not “ trea-
sures of wealth.” Stick. correctly interprets: “ Will thy
wild raging cry, then, and all thine exertions, as a warrior
puts them forth in the tumult of battle to work his way out,
put thee where there is an open space?” but the figure of a
warrior is, with Hahn, to be rejected; 7 is only a nice
word for DY, Nv, to place, set up, ch. xxxvii. 19.

Ver. 20. Elihu calls upon Job to consider the uselessness
of his vehement contending with God, and then warns him

CHAP. XXXVI. 22-25. 285

against his dreadful provocation of divine judgment: ne
anheles (ch. vii. 2) noctem illam (with the emphatic art.)
sublaturam populos loco suo. nidy? i is equivalent to futuram
(M3 or WPNYT) ut tollat = sublaieinain (vid. on ch. v. 11,
nie, séllaodihinmx sx xxx. 6, jaw, habitandum est), syncopated
faved niryne, i in the sense of Ps. cii. 25; and OANNM signifies,
as ch. xl. 12 (comp. on Hab. iii. 16), nothing ‘but that just
where they are, firmly fixed without the possibility of escape,
they are deprived of being. If whole peoples are overtaken
by such a fate, how much less shall the individual be able
to escape it! And yet Job presses forward on to the tribunal
of the terrible Judge, instead of humbling himself under His
mighty hand. Oh that in time he would shrink back from this
absolute wickedness (j!8), for he has given it the preference
before °2¥, quiet, resigned endurance. oY 12 sicnifies, 2 Sam.
xix. 39, to choose to lay anything on any one; here as 3 ‘13,
elsewhere to extend one’s choice to something, to make some-
thing an object of choice; perhaps also under the influence
of the phrase oY 43ayn5, and similar phrases. ‘The construc-
tion is remarkable, since one would sooner have expected
ssp-by nina Mt, hanc elegiste pre toleratione.

22 Behold, God acteth loftily in His strength ;
Who is a teacher like unto Him?
23 Who hath appointed Him His way,
And who dare say: Thou doest iniquity ! ?
24 Remember that thou magnify His doing,
Which men have sung.
25 All men delight in it,
Mortal man looketh upon it from afar.

Most modern expositors, after the LX X. duvderns, give
m2 the signification lord, by comparing the Arab. mar-un
(imru-un), Syr. mor (with the art. moro) or more (with the
art, morjo), Chald. 82, Talmud. 72 (comp. Philo, ii. 522, ed.

286 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Mangey : otras, viz. wdpw, pact tov Kvpiov dvopaveo Bar Tapa
Svpors), with it; but Rosenm., Arnh., Lowenthal, Wolfson,
and Schlottm., after the Targ., Syr., and Jer., rightly abide
by the signification: teacher. For (1) 77D (from 770,’Ps.
xxv. 8, 12, xxxil. 8) has no etymological connection with 19
(of S71, ie opimum, robustum esse); (2) it is, moreover,
peculiar to Elihu to represent God as a teacher both by
dreams and dispensations of affliction, ch. xxxiii. 14 sqq.,
xxxiv. 32, and by His creatures, xxxv. 11; and (8) the
designation of God as an incomparable teacher is also not
inappropriate here, after His rule is described in ver. 22a
as transcendently exalted, which on that very account com-
mands to human research a reverence which esteems itself
lightly. Ver. 23a is not to be translated: who overlooketh
Him in His way? (7P2 with >Y of the personal and ace. of the
neutral obj.), which is without support in the language; but:
who has prescribed to Him (5y 4pa as ch. xxxiv. 13) His way?
ie. aS Rosenm. correctly interprets: quis et prescripsit que
agere deberet, He is no mandatory, is responsible to no one,
and under obligation to no one, and who should dare to say
(quis dixerit; on the perf. comp. on ch. xxxv. 15): Thou
doest evil ?—man shall be a docile learner, not a self-satisfied,
conceited censurer of the absolute One, whose rule is not to
be judged according to the laws of another, but according to
His own laws. Thus, then, shall Job remember (memento =
cura ut) to extol (S'2N, ch. xii. 23) God’s doings, which have
been sung (comp. eg. Ps.. civ. 33) by 0°38, men of the right
order (ch. xxxvii. 24); Jer. de quo cecinerunt viri. WW no-
where has the signification intweri (Rosenm., Umbr.); on the
other hand, Elihu is fond of direct (ch. xxxiii. 27, xxxv. 10)
and indirect allusions to the Psalms. All men—he continues,
with reference to God’s bye, working—behold it, viz., as i2
implies, with pleasure and astonishment; mortals gaze upon

CHAP. XXXVI. 26-29. 287

it (reverentially) from afar,—the same thought as that which
has already (ch. xxvi. 14) found the grandest expression in
Job’s mouth.

26 Behold, God is exalted—we know [Him not entirely ;
The number of His years, it is unsearchable.
27 For He draweth down the drops of water,
They distil as rain in connection with its mist,
28 Which the clouds do drop,
Distil upon the multitude of men.
29 Who can altogether understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The crash of His tabernacle ? ©

The Waw of the quasi-conclusion in ver. 264 corresponds
to the Waw of the train of thought in ver. 26a (Ges. § 145, 2).
YY IBD is, as the subject-notion, conceived as a nominative
(vid. on ch. iv. 6, vol. i. 91, note 1), not as in similar quasi-
antecedent clauses, e.g. ch. xxiii. 12, as an ace. of relation.
sx” here and ch. xxxvii. 23 occurs otherwise only in Old
Testament Chaldee. In what follows Elihu describes the
wondrous origin of rain. “If Job had only come,” says a
Midrash (Jalkut, § 518), “to explain to us the matter of the
race of the deluge (vid. especially ch. xxii. 15-18), it had
been sufficient; and if Elihu had only come to explain to us
the matter of the origin of rain (O%Mw3 NI Hwy), it had
been enough.” In Gesenius’ Handwérterbuch, ver. 27 is
translated: when He has drawn up the drops of water to
Himself, then, ete. But it is ¥73, not ¥23; and 73 neither in
Hebr. nor in Arab. signifies attrahere in sublime (Rosenm.), but
only atirahere (root 13) and detrahere; the latter signification
is the prevailing one in Hebr. (ch. xv. 8, xxxvi. 7). With
‘D the transcendent exaltation of the Being who survives all
changes of creation is shown by an example: He draws
away (draws off, as it were) the water-drops, viz. from the
waters that are confined above on the circle of the sky, which

288 THE BOOK OF JOB.

pass over us as mist and cloud (vid. Genesis, S. 107); and
these water-drops distil down (Pt, to ooze, distil, here not in
a transitive but an intransitive signification, since the water-
‘drops are the rain itself) as rain, FTN?, with its mist, z.¢. since
a mist produced by it (Gen. ii. 6) fills the expanse (#P), the
downfall of which is just this rain, which, as ver. 28 says,
the clouds (called O’phY on account of its thin strata of air,
in distinction from the next mist-circle) cause to flow gently
down upon the multitude of men, z.e. far and wide over the
mass of men who inhabit the district visited by the rain;
both verbs are used transitively here, both br as Isa. xlv. 8,
and 4, as evidently Prov. iii. 20. O8 48, ver. 29a, com-
-mences an intensive question: moreover, could one under-
stand = could one completely understand; which certainly,
according to the sense, is equivalent to: how much less ("3 8).
DS is, however, the interrogative an, and O8 58 corresponds
to "8 in the first member of the double question, ch.
xxxiv. 17, xl. 8 sq. *5) are not the burstings, from #718 =
Dib, frangere, findere, but spreadings, as Ezek. xxvii. 7 shows,
from 18, expandere, Ps. ev. 39, comp. supra on ch. xxvi. 9.
It is the growth of the storm-clouds, which collect often from
a beginning “small as a man’s hand” (1 Kings xviii. 44), that
is intended; majestic omnipotence conceals itself behind these
as in a N2D (Ps. xviii, 12) woven out of thick branches; and
the rolling thunder is here called the crash (Mixwn, as ch.
xxxix. 7, is formed from xiv, to ramble, whence also 7Niv, if
it is not after the form mpi, migration, exile, from ANY, vid.
on ch. xxx. 3) of this pavilion of clouds in which the Thun-

derer works.

30 Behold, He spreadeth His light over Himself,
And the roots of the sea He covereth.

31 For thereby He judgeth peoples,
He giveth food in abundance.

CHAP. XXXVI. 30-33. 289

32 Both hands He covereth over with light,
And directeth it as one who hitteth the mark.
33 His noise announceth Him,
The cattle even that He is approaching.

A few expositors (Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.) understand the
celestial ocean, or the sea of the upper waters, by 5’, ver. 300 ;
but it is more than questionable (vid. on ch. ix. 8) whether
n’ is used anywhere in this sense. Others as (Umbr., Ew.)
the masses of water drawn up to the sky out of the depths of
the sea, on which a Persian passage cited by Stick. (who,
however, regards the Waw of Wt as Waw adequationis) from
Schebisteri may be compared: “ an exhalation rises up out of
the sea, and comes down at God’s command upon the deserts.”
In both cases 183 would be equivalent to YoY ADD, obtegit se,
which in and of itself is possible. But he who has once wit-
~ nessed a storm in the neighbourhood of the sea, will decide
in favour of one of the three following explanations: (1.)
He covereth the uprooted ground of the sea (comp. Ps. xviii.
15 sq.) with the subsiding waves (Blumenf.) ; but then ver.
30a would require to be understood of the light of the brighten-
ing sky following the darkness of the storm, which is impro-
bable in respect of ver. 32a. (2.) While the sky is brilliantly
lighted up by the lightning; the abysses of the ocean are
veiled in a so much deeper darkness; the observation is correct,
but not less so another, that the lightning by a thunder-storm,
especially when occurring at night, descends into the depths
- of the sea like snares that are cast down (0°83, Ps. xi. 6), and
the water is momentarily changed as it were into a sea of
flame; accordingly it may be explained, (3.) Behold, He
spreadeth over Himself His light (viz. the light which inces-
santly illumines the world), and the roots of the sea, i.e. the
sea down to its depths, He covers with it, since He makes it

light through and through (Stuhlm., Wolfs.). Thus, as it
VOL, II. T

290 THE BOOK OF JOB.

appears, Jerome also interprets : Et (st voluerit) fulgurare
lumine suo desuper, cardines quogue maris operiet.*

This, that He makes the light of the lightning His mani-
festation ("2 #8), and that He covers the earth down to the
roots of the sea beneath with this light, is established in ver.
31 from the design, partly judicial, partly beneficial, which
exists in connection with it. 02 refers as neuter (like,da,
ch. xxii. 21) to the phenomena of the storm; 122 (with the
adverbial 5 like 24?, ch. xxvi. 3), what makes great =
making great, abundance (only here), is n. hiphil. after the
form MND, perdens = perditio. In ver. 32 God is represented
under a military figure as a slinger of lightnings: He covers
light over both hands, i.e. arms both completely with light

(comp. JD2D and i, totum se operire armis), and directs it

cmdy referring to nix as fem. like Jer. xiii. 16, and sometimes
in the Talmud). But what is the meaning of 32522? Hahn
takes p'150 as n. hiphil. like "22: an object of attack; but
what then becomes of the original Hiphil signification? It
ought to be ¥352 (ch. vii. 20), as Olsh. wishes to read it.
Ew., Hirz., and others, after the example of Theod. (LXX.),
Syr., Jer., translate: against the adversary; y’5D signifies
indeed the opposite in Isa. lix. 16: intercessor (properly, one
who assails with prayers) ; however, it would be possible for
this word, just as pip c. acc. (which signifies usually a hostile
meeting, Ex. v. 3 and freq., but sometimes also a friendly,
Isa. xlvii. 3, Ixiv. 4), to be an évavtidonuov. We prefer to
abide by the usage of the language as we have it, according —

1 The Targ. translates “jx, vers. 30, 382, by Salalay pluvia, according
to the erroneous opinion of R. Jochanan : 43° sipoyea assy ise 55
pws nS soy. Aben-Ezra and Kimchi explain even TIN7Y, Isa.
XViii. 4, according to this passage. The LXX, translates ver. 30a: idod
lurevel ex abrov G00 (Cod. Alex. ex aurov ro roZov ; Cod. Sinait. ex aurny
ywdn with the corrections yd and roZov), probably according to the read-
ing ys for NN. But what connection have 4)@ and rainbow ?

CHAP. XXXVI. 30-383. 291

to which yan signifies facere ut quid incurset s. petat, Isa.
liii. 6 ; yo therefore is one who hits, in opposition to one who
misses the mark. The Beth is the Beth essentie (vid. on ch.
xxiii. 13), used here like Ex. vi. 3, Ps. lv. 19, Isa. xl. 10.
With both hands He seizes the substance of the lightning, fills
them with it so that they are completely covered by it, and
gives it the command (appoints it its goal), a sure aimer!
Ver. 33a. Targ., Syr., Symm., Theod. (from which .ver.
32 sq. is supplied in the LXX."), Jer., Luther, and others
destroy the idea, since they translate 1!] = wy), “his friend
(companion).” Among moderns, only Umbr. and Schlottm.
adopt this signification; Béttch. and Welte, after the example
of Cocceius, Tingstad, and others, attempt it with the signi-
fication “thought = determination;” but most expositors, from
Ew. to Hahn, decide in favour of the rendering as simple as.
it is consistent with the usage of the language and the con-
nection: His noise (i!) as Ex. xxxii. 17) gives tidings con-
cerning Him (announces Him). In ver. 33) Theod. (LXX), ©
Syr., and Jer. point mp like our text, but translate possessio,
with which we can do nothing. It seems that in the three
attempts of the Targ. to translate ver. 33, the translators had
ms2P and 83? before their mind, according to which Hahn
translates: the arousing of anger (announces) the comer,
which assumes 7)? instead of 7p; and Schlottm.: fierce
wrath (goes forth) over evil (according to Symm. {jrov areph
adtxias), which assumes the reading new (MAY), aSucla, adopted
also by Syr., Theod. (LXX.). Schultens even renders simi-
larly : rubedinem flammantem nasi contra elatum, and Ting-
stad: zelum ire in iniquitatem. But it is not probable that the
language was acquainted with a subst. 92P%, exciting, although
in Ezek. viii. 3 12721 is equivalent to §2P197,.so that one might

1 Vid. Bickel, De indole ac ratione versionis Alex. in interpretando 1.
Tobi, p. 50. Cod. Sinait. has, like Cod. Vat.: avayycass epi avrov Qidov
(corr. Qiros) avrov xo xrnole nos Eps edixiag. |

292 THE BOOK OF JOB.

more readily be tempted (vid. Hitz. in loc.) to read 48 7312,
“ one who excites anger against evil,” if one is not willing to
decide with Berg, and recently Bleek, in favour of (3p!) S321
npwya BIN, excandescens (zelans) ird contra iniquitatem. But
does the text as it stands really not give an appropriate idea?
Aben-Ezra and Duran have understood it of the foreboding
of an approaching thunder-storm which is manifested by
cattle, 73p2. Accordingly Ew. translates: His thunder an-
nounces Him, the cattle even, that He is approaching; and
peculiarly new (understanding 1 not of a foreboding but of
a thankful lowing) is Ebrard’s rendering: also the cattle at
fresh sprouting grass. But such a change of the position of
AN is without precedent. Hirz. and Ges.: His ramble (rumble
of thunder) announces Him to the herds, Him, and indeed as
Him who rises up (approaches). But this new interpunction
destroys the division of the verse and the syntax. Better
Rosenm. like Duran: pecus non tantum pluviam proximam,
sed et anteqguam nubes in sublime adscenderint adscensuras
presagit, according to Virgil, Georg. 1. 374 sq.:
illum (imbrem) surgentem vallibus imis
Aeriz fugere grues.

But yoy refers to God, and therefore mpiym dy also, viz. Him who
leads forth the storm-clouds (Jer. x. 13, li. 16, Ps. cxxxv. 7),
and Himself rising up in them; or, what nby frequently sig-
nifies, coming on as to battle. It is to be interpreted: His
thunder-clap announces Him (who is about to reveal Himself
as a merciful judge), the cattle even (announce) Him at His
first rising up, since at the approach of ‘a storm they herd
together affrighted and seek shelter. The speakers are
Arabian, and the scene is laid in the country: Elihu also
refers to the animal world in ch. xxxv. 11; this feature of
the picture, therefore, cannot be surprising.

CHAP. XXXVII. 1-5. 293

Ch. xxxvii. 1 Yea, at this my heart trembleth
And tottereth from its place.
2 Hear, O hear the roar of His voice, |
And the murmur that goeth out of His mouth.
3 He sendeth tt forth under the whole heaven,
And His lightning unto the ends of the earth.
4 After it roareth the voice of the thunder,
He thundereth with the voice of His majesty,
And spareth not the lightnings, when His voice is heard.
5 God thundereth with His voice marvellously,
Doing great things, incomprehensible to us.

Louis Bridel is perhaps right when he inserts after ch.
xxxvi. the observation: L’éclair brille, la tonnerre gronde.
nite does not refer to the phenomenon of the storm which is
represented in the mind, but to that which is now to be per-
ceived by the senses. The combination yin’ wv can signify
both hear constantly, Isa. vi. 9, and hear attentively, ch.
xiii. 17; here it is the latter. 1239 of thunder corresponds to
the verbs j=, and (ws), which can be similarly used. The
repetition of Sip five times calls to mind the seven mbip (érra
Bpovrat) in Ps. xxix. The parallel is 735, ver. 2b, a mur-
muring, as elsewhere of the roar of the lion and the cooing
of the dove. The suf’. of 371% refers to the thunder which
rolls through the immeasurable breadth under heaven; it is
not perf. Piel of 1% (Schlottm.), for “to give definite direc-
tion” (2 Chron. xxxii. 30) is not appropriate to thunder, but
jut. Kal of MW, to free, to unbind (Ew., Hirz., and most
others). What ver. 3a says of thunder, ver. 30 says of light,
i.¢. the lightning: God sends it forth to the edges, mrépvyes,
i.e, ends, of the earth. WMS, ver. 4a, naturally refers to the
lightning, which is followed by the roar of the thunder; and
Day to the flashes, which, when once its rumble is heard, God
does not restrain (2p¥ = 33Y of the Targ., and Arab. ‘aggaba,
to leave behind, postpone), but causes to flash forth in quick

294 THE BOOK OF JOB.

succession. Ewald’s translation: should He not find (prop.
non investigaverit) them (the men that are to be punished),
gives a thought that has no support in this connection. In
ver. 5a niNDD3, mirabilia, is. equivalent to mirabiliter, as Dan.
viii. 24, comp. Ps. Ixv. 6, exxxix. 14. 72 Nr is intended to
say that God’s mighty acts, with respect to the connection
between cause and effect and the employment of means,
transcend our comprehension.

6 For He saith to the snow: Fall towards the earth,
And to the rain-shower
And the showers of His mighty rain.

7 He putteth a seal on the hand of every man,
That all men may come to a knowledge of His creative work.

8 The wild beast creepeth into a hiding-place,
And in tts resting-place it remaineth.

9 Out of the remote part cometh the whirlwind,
And cold from the cloud-sweepers.

10 From the breath of God cometh ice,

And the breadth of the waters is straitened.

Like ‘38, ch. xxxiv. 36, and WB, ch. xxxv. 15, 817, ver. 6a

(is falsely translated “be earthwards” by LX X., Targ., and
Syr.), also belongs to the most striking Arabisms of the Elihu
section: it signifies delabere (Jer. ut descendat), a signification

which the Arab. sym does not gain from the radical signifi-

cation placed first in Gesenius-Dietrich’s Handworterbuch, to
breathe, blow, but from the radical signification, to gape,
yawn, by means of the development of the meaning which
also decides in favour of the primary notion of the Hebr. 734,
according to which, what was said on ch. vi. 2, xxx. 13 is to
be corrected.! The 5 of 228 influences ver. 6c also. The

4a
1 Usgd is originally xx/ve, to gape, yawn, hiare, e.g. hawat et-ta'natu,
the stab gapes (imperf. tahwi, inf. huwijun), “* when it opens its mouth”

CHAP, XXXVIJ. 6-10. 295

Hebr. name for rain, 0¥%3 (cogn. with Chald. ows, Arab.
‘gism, a body), denotes the rain collectively. The expression
ver. 65 is exceeded in ver. 6c, where Nib) does not signify
rain-drops (Ew.), but, like the Arab. amtdr, rain-showers.
The wonders of nature during the rough season (7h, YD,
Cant. ii. 11, comp. p. 119), between the autumnal and vernal
equinoxes, are meant; the rains after the autumnal equinox
(the early rain), which begin the season, and the rains. before
the vernal equinox (the late rain, Zech. x. 1), which close it, with
the falls of snow between, which frequently produce great
desolation, especially the proper winter with its frosty winds
and heavy showers, when the business of the husbandmen as of
the nomads is brought to a stand-still, and every one retreats
to his house or seeks a sheltering corner (vid. p. 23, note).
This is the meaning of ver. 7: He sealeth up (2 ON as

—the Turkish Kamus adds, to complete the picture: like atulip. Thence
next hdwijatun, xeivovon, yaivov, te. xyeoue = hiwatun, uhwijatun,
huwaatun, mahwatun, a cleft, yawning deep, chasm, abyss, Beépedpov,
vorago ; hawijatun and hauhdtun (a reduplicated form), especially a very
deep pit or well. But these same words, hdwijatun, hawatun, uhwijatun,

4¢

mahwdtun, also signify, like the usual a) >, the xaoua between heaven

and earth, i.e. the wide, empty space, the same as 'gauwun. The wider
significations, or rather applications and references of hawd: air set in
motion, a current of air, wind, weather, are all secondary, and related to
that primary signification as samd, rain-clouds, rain, grass produced by
the rain, to the prim. signification height, heaven, vid. Mehren, Rhetorik
d. Araber, 8.107, Z.14 ff. This hawd, however, also signifies in general:
a broad, empty space, and by transferring the notion of ‘‘ empty” to
mind and heart, as the reduplicated forms hiihatun and hauhdtun : devoid
of understanding and devoid of courage, e.g. Koran xiv. 44: wa-af"i-
datuhum hawdun, where Beidhawi first explains hawé directly by chalé,
emptiness, empty space, 7.¢., as he adds, ch@lijetun ‘an el-fahm, as one says
of one without mind and courage galbuhu hawdun. Thence also hauwun,
emptiness, a hole, 7.e. in a wall or roof, a dormar-window (kauwe, kiwe),
but also with the genit. of a person or thing: their hole, ¢.e. the space left
empty by them, the side not taken up by them, e.g. ga’ada fi hauwihi,
he set himself beside him. From the signification to be empty then
comes, (1) hawat el-mar’atu, i.e. vacua fuit mulier = orba liberis, as x4pe,

296 THE BOOK OF JOB.

ch. xxxiii. 16) the hand of all men that they cannot, viz. on |
account of the cold out of doors, be opened for work, that all
people of His work (7.e. thanking Him for their origin as His
handiwork, ch. xxxiv. 19) may come to the perception (of
Him who doeth all things). The expression is remarkable,
and by the insertion of a 1 may be as easily cleared up as ch.
xxxiii. 17; sy DVN ny, in order that each and every
one may acknowledge His work; after which even Jer.
translates: ut noverint singuli opera sua. The conjecture
invy owas (Schultens junior, Reiske, Hirz.) is inferior to the
former (Olsh.) by its awkward synecdoche num. The fut.
consec. in ver. 8 continues the description of what happens in
consequence of the cold rainy season; the expression calls to
mind Ps. civ. 22, as ch. xxxiv. 14 sq. does Ps. civ. 29. The
winter is also the time of the stormy and raw winds. In
ver. 9a Elihu means the storms which come across from the
great wide desert, ch. i. 19, therefore the south (Isa. xxi. 1,

vidua, properly empty, French vide; (2) hawd er-ragulu, i.e. vacuus,

inanis factus est vir = exanimatus (comp. & 5, he became empty, euphe-
mistic for he died).
From this variously applied primary signification is developed the

generally known and usual .¢92, loose and free, without being held or
holding to anything one’s self, to pass away, fly, swing, etc., libere ferri,
labi, in general in every direction, as the wind, or what is driven hither
and thither by the wind, especially however from above downwards, labi,
delabi, cadere, deorsum ruere. From this point, like many similar, the
word first passes into the signification of sound (as certainly also INw,

sw): as anything falling has a dull noise, and so on, dovrsiv, rumorem,

Fragorem edere ( fragor from frangi), hence hawat udhnuhu hawijan of a

singing in the ears.
ge

Finally, the mental .s52 (perf. hawija, imperf. jahwa@ with the ace.),
animo ad or in aliquid ferri, is attached to the notion of passing and
falling through space (though by no means to hiare, or the supposed
meaning ‘‘to breathe, blow”). It is used both emotionally of desire,
lust, appetites, passions, and strong love, and intellectually of free opinions
or assertions springing from mere self-willed preference, caprices of the
understanding.—FL,

CHAP. XXXVII. 6-10. 297

Zech. ix. 14), or rather (vid. p. 77, note) south-east winds
(Hos. xiii. 15), increasing in violence to storms. 1799 (properly
the surrounded, enclosed space, never the storehouse,—so that
Ps. exxxv. 7 should be compared,—but adytum, penetrale, as
Arab. chidr, e.g. in Vita Timuri ii. 904: after the removal of
the superincumbent earth, they drew away sitr chidrihd, the
curtain of its innermost part, z.e. uncovered its lowest depth)
is here the innermost part of the south (south-east),—comp.
ch. ix. 9 jon “IN, and xxiii. 9 jy AMY’ (so far as HH there
signifies st operiat se),—especially of the great desert lying to
the south (south-east), according to which F719 (8, Zech.
ix. 1, is translated by the Targ. sont syns. In opposition to
the south-east wind, O12, ver. 9b, seems to mean the north
winds; in and of itself, however, the word signifies the
scattering ‘or driving, as also in the Koran the winds are
called the scatterers, dhdrijdt, Sur. li. 1... In n 10, Reiske,
without any ground for it, traces the Arab. mirzam (a name
of two stars, from which north wind, rain, and cold are de-
rived); the Targ. also has one of the constellations in view:
Ont ma (from the window, z.e. the window of the vault of
heaven, of the mezarim); Aq., Theod. dio pafotp (= nin,
ch. xxxviii. 82); LX -X. amo Sé tév axpwrnpiov, we know not
wherefore. Concerning anne’ (with causal }'2) with refer-
ence to the wind, vid. on ch. iv. 15. {M, it gives, z.e. comes
to light, is used as in Gen. xxxviii. 28, Prov. xiii. 10. The
idea of P82 (not fusum from P¥}, but coarctatum from pry)
cannot be doubtful in connection with the antithesis of 255,
comp. ch. xxxvi. 16, the idea is like ch. xxxviii. 30 (comp.
Mutenebbi: “the flood is bound by bands of ice”); the 2 of
P¥i03 is, as ch. xxxvi. 32, the Beth essentiw, used far more
extensively in Hebr. than in Arab. as an exponent of the

1 This dha@rijat is also differently explained; but the first explanation
in Beidhawi (ii. 183, Fleischer’s edition) is, ‘‘ the winds which scatter
(blow away) the dust and other things.”

298 THE BOOK OF JOB.

predicate: the breadth of the water is (becomes) straitened
(forcibly drawn together).

11 Also He loadeth the clouds with water,
He spreadeth far and wide the cloud of His light,
12 And these turn themselves round about,
Directed by Him, that they execute
All that He hath commanded them
Over the wide earth.
13 Whether for a scourge, or for the neg! of His earth,
Or for mercy, He causeth it to discharge ttself.

With 48 extending the description, Elihu, in the presence
of the storm that is in the sky, continually returns to this one
marvel of nature. The old versions connect 12 partly with
12, electus (LUXX., Syr., Theod.) or frumentum (Symm.,
Jer.), partly with ™2—=2 in the signification purttas,
serenitas (Targ.); but "2 is, as Schultens has already per-

Ss
w

ceived, the Hebr.-Arabic ", cs 9 rij-un (from mn = riw)),

abundant irrigation, with 2; and Ob» does not signify, ac-
cording to the Arab. abinalits “to hurl down,” so that what is
spoken of would be the bursting of the clouds (Stick.),! but,

according to 1, a burden (comp. Arab. taraha ala, to load),
“to burden;” with fluidity (Ew., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm.),
better: fulness of water, He burdens the clouds (comp. rawij-
un as a designation of cloud as the place of rain). ‘iis 12,
His cloud of light, is that that is charged with lightning, and
y57 has here its Hebr.-Arab. radical signification effundere,
diffundere, with a preponderance of the idea not of scattering,
but of spreading out wide (Arab. faid, abundance). 837}, ver.
12a, refers to the cloud pregnant with lightning; this turns

1 This ‘* atraha” is, moreover, a pure invention of our ordinary Arabic
lexicons instead of ittaraha (VIII. form): (1) to throw one’s self, (2) to
throw anything from one’s self, with an ace. of the thing. —FL.

CHAP. XXXVII. 11-13. 299

round about (niapi, adv. as 2D, round about, 1 Kings vi. 29)
seeking a place, where it shall unburden itself by virtue of
His (God’s) direction or disposing (ndyann, a word belong-
ing to the book of Proverbs; LXX., Cod. Vat. and Alez.,
untranslated: ev @eeBovrtabwO, Cod. Sinait. still more mon-
strous), in order that they (the clouds full of lightning) may
accomplish everything that He commands them over the sur-
face of the earth; M8 as ch. xxxiv. 13, and the combination
TYAS ban as Prov. viii. 31, comp. oan} ys, Ps. xc. 2. The
reference of the pronominal suj. to men is as inadmissible
here as in ver. 4c. In ver. 13 two ON have certainly, as. ch.
xxxiv. 29, two 1, the correlative signification sive... sive
(Arab. in . . . wa-in), and a third, as appears, a conditional,
but which? According to Ew., Hirz., Hahn, Schlottm., and
others, the middle one: if it (the rod) belongs to His land, i.e.
if it has deserved it. But.even the possessive suf. of WIN?
shows that the , is to be taken as dat. commodi: be it for a
rod, be it for the good of His land; which is then followed by
a conditional verbal clause: in case He mercifully causes it
(the storm) to come, i.e. causes this His land to be overtaken
by it (8827 here with the acc., the thing coming, whereas in
_ ch. xxxiv. 11 of the thing to be overtaken). The accentua-
tion, indeed, appears to assume a threefold sive: [whether He
causeth it to discharge itself upon] man for punishment, man
for mercy, or His earth for good with reference to man.
Then Elihu would think of the uninhabited steppe in con-
nection with iw? Ox, Since a conditional O8 by the side
of two correlatives is hazardous, we decide finally with the
LXX., Targ., and all the old versions, in favour of the
same rendering of the threefold 58, especially since it cor-
responds to the circumstances of the case.

14 Hearken unto this, O Job;
Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God!

300 THE BOOK OF JOB.

15 Dost thou know when God designeth
To cause the light of His clouds to shine?
16 Dost thou understand the balancings of the clouds,
The wondrous things of Him who ts perfect in knowledge?

Job is to stand still, instead of dictating to God, in order
to draw from His wondrous acts in nature a conclusion with
reference to his mystery of suffering. In ver. 15a 2 YT does
not, as ch. xxxv. 15 (Ew. § 217, S. 557), belong together,
but 2 is the temporal Beth. nmi is equivalent to 425 DY (vid.
on ch. xxxiv. 23); poy does not refer to nindpy (Hirz.) or
the phenomena of the storm (Ew.), but is intended as neuter
(as D2 ch. xxxvi. 81, 093 xxii. 21), and finds in ver. 150 its
distinctive development: “the light of His clouds” is their
effulgent splendour. Without further support, Y YT is to
have knowledge concerning anything, ver. 16a; eDn is also
am. yeyp. It is unnecessary to consider it as wrongly written
from ‘W715, ch. xxxvi. 29, or as from it by change of letter (as
nino = nik, Isa. xiii, 22). The verb pbs signifies to make
level, prepare (viz. a way, also weakened: to take a certain
way, Prov. v. 6), once: to weigh, Ps. lviii. 3, as denom. from
DDB, a balance (and indeed a steelyard, statera), which is
thus mentioned as the means of adjustment. yoED accord-
ingly signifies either, as synon. of “pwn (thus the Midrash,
vid. Jalkut, § 522), weights (the relations of weight), or even
equipoised balancings (Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, and others), Lat.
quomodo librentur nubes in aére.' nix?DD is also a word that
does not occur elsewhere; in like manner 3) belongs exclu-

1 The word is therefore a metaphor taken from the balance, and it may
be observed that the Syro-Arabic, on account of the most extensive appli-
cation of the balance, is unusually rich in such metaphors. Moreover, the
Arabic has no corresponding noun : the teflis (a balance) brought forward
by Ges. in his Thes. and Handwérterbuch from Schindler’s Pentaglotton,
is a word devoid of all evidence from original sources and from the
modern usage of the language, in this signification.

CHAP, XXXVII. 17-20. 301

sively to Elihu. God is called D°Y3 5%" (comp. ch. xxxvi. 4)
as the Omniscient One, whose knowledge is absolute as to
its depth as well as its circumference.

17 Thou whose garments become hot,
When the land is sultry from the south:
18 Dost thou with Him spread out the sky,
The strong, as it were molten, mirror?
19 Let us know what we shall say to Him !—
We can arrange nothing by reason of darkness.
20 Shall it be told Him that I speak,
Or shall one wish to be destroyed?

Most expositors connect ver. 17a with ver. 16: (Dost
thou know) how it comes to pass that... 3 but W after
yt signifies quod, Ex. xi. 7, not quomodo, as it sometimes
occurs in a comparing antecedent clause, instead of ws,
Ex. xiv. 13, Jer. xxxiii. 22. We therefore translate: thou
whose . . .,—connecting this, however, not with ver. 16 (wid.
e.g. Carey), but as Bolduc. and Ew., with ver. 18 (where 4
before P70 is then the less missed): thou who, when the
land (the part of the earth where thou art) keeps rest, i.e. in
sultriness, when oppressive heat comes (on this Hiph. vid.
Ges. § 53, 2) from the south (i.e. by means of the currents
of air which come thence, without 0197 signifying directly
the south wind),—thou who, when this happens, canst endure
so little, that on the contrary the heat from without becomes
perceptible to thee through thy clothes: dost thou now and
then with Him keep the sky spread out, which for firmness is
like a molten mirror? Elsewhere the hemispheric firma-
ment, which spans the earth with its sub-celestial waters, is
likened to a clear sapphire Ex. xxiv. 10, a covering Ps. civ. 2,
a gauze Isa. xl. 22; the comparison with a metallic mirror —
(ps2 here not from psy, ver. 10, ch. xxxvi. 16, but from Py")
is therefore to be understood according to Petavius: Calum

302 THE BOOK OF JOB.

aéreum otepcwpa dicitur non a nature propria conditione, sed
ab effectu, quod perinde aquas separet, ac st murus esset solid-
issimus. Also in y*prn lies the notion both of firmness and
thinness; the primary notion (root p>) is to beat, make thick,
stipare (5), to stop up in the sense of resarcire, e.g. to mend
stockings), to make thick by pressure. The 5 joined with
span is nota acc.; we must not comp. ch. viii. 8, xxi. 22, as
well as ch. v. 2, xix. 3.

Therefore: As God is the only Creator (ch. ix. 8), so He
is the all-provident Preserver of the world—make us know
Quysin, according to the text of the Babylonians, Keri of
‘y°T1) what we shall say to Him, viz. in order to show that
we can cope with Him! We cannot arrange, viz. anything
whatever (to be explained according to pop WW, ch. xxxii. 14,
comp. “to place,” ch. xxxvi. 19), by reason of darkness, viz.
the darkness of our understanding, cxdtos Tijs Svavolas; °2B'
is much the same as ch. xxiii. 17, but different from ch.
xvii. 12, and 4Wn different from both passages, viz. as it is
often used in the New Testament, of intellectual darkness
(comp. Eccl. ii. 14, Isa. Ix. 2). The meaning of ver. 20
cannot now be mistaken, if, with Hirz., Hahn, and Schlottm.,
we call to mind ch. xxxvi. 10 in connection with "3 28; can
I, a short-sighted man, enshrouded in darkness, wish that
what I have arrogantly said concerning and against Him
may be told to God, or should one earnestly desire (8, a
modal perj., as ch. xxxv. 150) that (an jusserit s. dixerit quis
ut) he may be swallowed up, i.e. destroyed (comp. sya}, ch.
ii. 3)? He would, by challenging a recognition of his un-
becoming arguing about God, desire a tribunal that would be
destructive to himself.

21 Although one seeth not now the sunlight
That is bright in the ethereal heights :
A wind passeth by and cleareth them up.

CHAP, XXXVII. 21-24. 803

22 Gold is brought from the north,—
Above Eloah is terrible majesty.

23 The Almighty, whom we cannot find out,
The excellent in strength,
And right and justice He perverteth not.

24 Therefore men regard Him with reverence,
He hath no regard for all the wise of heart.

He who censures God’s actions, and murmurs against God,
injures himself—how, on the contrary, would a patiently
submissive waiting on Him be rewarded! This is the con-
nection of thought, by which this final strophe is attached to
what precedes. If we have drawn the correct conclusion
from ch. xxxvii. 1, that Elihu’s description of a storm is
accompanied by a storm which was coming over the sky,.
Amy, with which the speech, as ch. xxxv. 15, draws towards
the close, is not to be understood as purely conclusive, but
temporal: And at present one does not see the light (is of
the sun, as ch. xxxi. 26) which is bright in the ethereal heights
(772 again a Hebr.-Arab. word, comp. béhir, outshining, sur-
passing, especially of the moon, when it dazzles with its
brightness) ; yet it only requires a breath of wind to pass over
it, and it clears it, 7.e. brings the ethereal sky with the sun-
light to view. Elihu hereby means to say that the God who
is hidden only for a time, respecting whom one runs the risk
of being in perplexity, can suddenly unveil Himself, to our
surprise and confusion, and that therefore it becomes us to
bow humbly and quietly to His present mysterious visitation.
With respect to the removal of the clouds from the beclouded
sun, to which ver. 21 refers, 371, ver. 22a, seems to signify
the gold of the sun; esh-shemsu bi-tibrin, the sun is gold,
says Abulola. Oriental and Classic literature furnishes a
large number of instances in support of this calling the sun-
shine gold; and it should not perplex us here, where we have

304 THE BOOK OF JOB.

an Arabizing Hebrew poet before us, that not a single
passage can be brought forward from the Old Testament
literature. But f5¥2 is against this figurative rendering of
the amt (LXX. védn ypvcavyodvra). In Ezek. i. 4 there
is good reason for the storm-clouds, which unfold from
their midst the glory of the heavenly Judge, who rideth
upon the cherubim, coming from the north; but wherefore —
should Elihu represent the sun’s golden light as breaking
through from the north? On the other hand, in the con-
ception of the ancients, the north is the proper region for
gold: there griffins (ypu7és) guard the gold-pits of the
Arimaspian mountains (Herod. iii. 116); there, from the
narrow pass of the Caucasus along the Gordyzan moun-
tains, gold is dug by barbarous races (Pliny, h. n. vi. 11),
and among the Scythians it is brought to light by the ants
(ib. xxxiil. 4). Egypt could indeed provide itself with gold
from Ethiopia, and the Pheenicians brought the gold of
Ophir, already mentioned in the book of Job, from India;
but the north was regarded as the fabulously most productive
chief mine of gold; to speak more definitely: Northern Asia,
with the Altai mountains." Thus therefore ch. xxviii. 1, 6
is to be compared here.

_What Job describes so grandly and minutely in ch. xxviii,
viz. that man lays bare the hidden treasures of the earth’s
interior, but that the wisdom of God still transcends him, is
here expressed no less grandly and compendiously: From
the north cometh gold, which man wrests from the darkness
of the gloomy unknown region of the north (i2¥, Sodos, from
}DY, Cogn. OY, IY,” vid. p. 53, note, comp. p. 11, note); upon |

1 Vid. the art. Gold, 8. 91, 101, in Ersch and Gruber. The Indian
traditions concerning Uttaraguru (the ‘‘High Mountain”), and concern-
ing the northern seat of the god of wealth Kuvéra, have no connection

here; on their origin comp. Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, i. 848.
? The verb Mpy, obducere, does not belong here, but to npy, and signi-

fies properly to flatten (as yp, to make thin and thick by striking),

CHAP. XXXVII. 21-24. 305

Eloah, on the contrary, is terrible majesty (not genitival:
terror of majesty, Ew. § 293, c), 7.e. it covers Him like a
garment (Ps. civ. 1), making Him inaccessible (in, glory as
resounding praise, vid. on ch. xxxix. 20, like 1123 as imposing
dignity). The beclouded sun, ver. 21 said, has lost none of
the intensity of its light, although man has to wait for the
removing of the clouds to behold it again. So, when God’s
doings are mysterious to us, we have to wait, without murmur-
ing, for His solution of the mystery. ‘While from the north
comes gold—ver. 22 continues—which is obtained by laying
bare the interior of the northern mountains, God, on the
other hand, is surrounded by inaccessibly terrible glory: the
Almighty—thus ver. 23 completes the thought towards which
ver. 22 tends—we cannot reach, the Great in power, t.e. the
nature of the Absolute One remains beyond us, the counsel
of the Almighty impenetrable; still we can at all times be
certain of this, that what He does is right and good: “ Right
and the fulness of justice (“21 according to the Masora, not
“32n) He perverteth not.” The expression is remarkable:
bavi my is, like the Talmudic } 73¥, equivalent elsewhere
to bavID NON; and that He does not pervert NPI¥"2, affirms
that justice in its whole compass is not perverted by Him;
His acts are therefore perfectly and in every way consistent
with it: NPIS" is the abstract. to "23 pyy, ch. xxxiv. 17,
therefore summa justitia. One may feel tempted to draw
pawn to MD suv, and to read 3) according to Prov. xiv. 29
instead of 2, but the expression gained by so doing is still
more difficult than the combination 73)" Race Daw; not
merely difficult, however, but putting a false point in place
of a correct one, is the reading 73y° xo (LXX., Syr., Jer.),

comp. cites to strike on something flat (whence el-musdfaha, the salu-

tation by striking the hand), and rie, to strike with the flat hand on
anything, therefore diducendo obducere.
VOL. II. U

306 THE BOOK OF JOB,

according to which Hirz. translates: He answers not, i.e.
gives no account to man. The accentuation rightly divides
ver. 23 into two halves, the second of which begins with
pavini—a significant Waw, on which J. H. Michaelis observes:
Placide invicem in. Deo conspirant infinita ejus potentia et
justitia que in hominibus sepe disjuncta sunt.

Elihu closes with the practical inference: Therefore men,
viz. of the right sort, of sound heart, uncorrupted and un-
affected, fear Him (AN), verentur eum, not WANT veremini
eum); He does not see (regard) the wise of heart, ze. those
who imagine themselves such and are proud of their a: their
understanding. The gui sibi videntur (Jer.) does not lie in
25 (comp. Isa. v. 21), but in the antithesis. Stick. and others
render falsely: Whom the aggregate of the over-wise beholds
not, which would be 387. God is the subj. asin ch. xxviii. 24,
xxxlv. 21, comp. xli. 26. The assonance of 17187) and AN,
which also occurs frequently elsewhere (¢.g. ch. vi. 21), we
have sought to reproduce in the translation.

In this last speech also Elihu’s chief aim (ch. xxxvi. 2-4)
is to defend God against Job’s charge of injustice. He shows
how omnipotence, love, and justice are all found in God.
When judging of God’s omnipotence, we are to beware of
censuring Him who is absolutely exalted above us and our
‘comprehension ; when judging of God’s love, we are to beware
of interpreting His afflictive dispensations, which are designed
for our well-being, as the persecution of an enemy; when
judging of His justice, we are to beware of maintaining our

own righteousness at the cost of the Divine, and of thus
avoiding the penitent humbling of one’s self under His well-
meant chastisement. The twofold peculiarity of Elihu’s
speeches comes out in this fourth as prominently as in the
first: (1) They demand of Job penitential submission, not by
accusing him of coarse common sins as the three have done,
but because even the best of men suffer for hidden moral

CHAP. XXXVII. 21-24. 307

defects, which must be perceived by them in order not to
perish on account of them. Elihu here does for Job just
what in Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress) the man in the Inter-
preter’s house does, when he sweeps the room, so that Chris-
tian had been almost choked with the dust that flew about.
Then (2) they teach that God makes use of just such suffer-
ings, as Job’s now are, in order to bring man to a knowledge
of his hidden defects, and to bless him the more abundantly
if he will be saved from them; that thus the sufferings of
those who fear God are a wholesome medicine, disciplinary
chastenings, and saving warnings; and that therefore true,
not merely feigned, piety must be proved in the school of
affliction by earnest self-examination, remorseful self-accusa-
tion, and humble submission.

Elihu therefore in this agrees with the rest of the book,
that he frees Job’s affliction from the view which accounts it
the evil-doer’s punishment (vid. ch. xxxii. 3). On the other
hand, however, he nevertheless takes up a position apart from
the rest of the -book, by making Job’s sin the cause of his
affliction ; while in the idea of the rest of the book Job’s afilic-
tion has nothing whatever to do with Job’s sin, except in so
far as he allows himself to be drawn into sinful language
concerning God by the conflict of temptation into which the |
affliction plunges him. For after Jehovah has brought Job
over this his sin, He acknowledges His servant (ch. xlii. 7)
to be in the right, against the three friends: his affliction is
really, not a merited affliction, it is not a result of retributive
justice ; it also had not chastisement as its design, it was an
enigma, under which Job should have bowed humbly without
striking against it—a decree, into the purpose of which the
prologue permits us an insight, which however remains unex-
plained to Job, or is only explained to him so far as the issue
teaches him that it should be to him the way to a so much the
more glorious testimony on the part of God Himself.

308 THE BOOK OF JOB.

With that criticism of Job, which the speeches of Jehovah
consummate, the criticism which lies before us in the speeches
of Elihu is irreconcilable. The older poet, in contrast with
the false doctrine of retribution, entirely separates sin and
punishment or chastisement in the affliction of Job, and
teaches that there is an affliction of the righteous, which is
solely designed to prove and test them. His thema, not
Elihu’s (as Simson’ with Hengstenberg thinks), is the mystery
of the Cross. For the Cross according to its proper notion
is suffering &vexev Sixatoctvns (or what in New Testament
language is the same, évexey Xpiotod). Elihu, however,
leaves sin and suffering together as inseparable, and opposes
the false doctrine of retribution by the distinction between dis-
ciplinary chastisement and judicial retribution. The Elihu
section, as I have shown elsewhere,” has sprung from the
endeavour to moderate the bewildering boldness with which
the older poet puts forth his idea. The writer has felt in
connection with the book of Job what every Christian must
feel. Such a maintaining of his own righteousness in the
face of friendly exhortations to penitence, as we perceive it
in Job’s speeches, is certainly not possible where “the dust
of the room has flown about.” The friends have only failed
in this, that they made Job more and more an evil-doer de-
servedly undergoing punishment. Elihu points him to vain-
glorying, to carnal security, and in the main to those defects
from which the most godly cannot and dare not claim exemp-
tion. It is not contrary to the spirit of the drama that Job
holds his peace at these exhortations to penitence. The
similarly expressed admonition to penitence with which Eli- -
phaz, ch. iv. sq., begins, has not effected it. In the meanwhile,
however, Job is become more softened and composed, and in
remembrance of his unbecoming language concerning God,

1 Zur Kritik des B. Hiob, 1861, 8. 34.
2 Vid. Herzog’s Real-Encyklopddie, art. Hiob, S. 119.

CHAP. XXXVII. 21—24. 309

he must feel that he has forfeited the right of defending
himself. Nevertheless this silent Job is not altogether the
same as the Job who, in ch. xl. and xlii., forces himself to
keep silence, whose former testimony concerning himself, and
whose former refusal of a theodicy which links sin and calamity
together, Jehovah finally sets His seal to.

On the other hand, however, it must be acknowledged, that
what the introduction to Elihu’s speeches, ch. xxxii. 1-5, sets
before us, is consistent with the idea of the whole, and that such
a section as the introduction leads one to expect, may be easily
understood really as a member of the whole, which carries
forward the dramatic development of this idea; for this very
reason one feels urged to constantly new endeavours, if pos-
sible, to understand these speeches as a part of the original
form. But they are without result, and, moreover, many
other considerations stand in our way to the desired goal ;
especially, that Elihu is not mentioned in the epilogue, and
that his speeches are far behind the artistic perfection of the
rest of the book. It is true the writer of these speeches has,
in common with the rest of the book, a like Hebreeo-Arabic,
and indeed Hauranitish style, and like mutual relations to
earlier and later writings; but this is explained from the
consideration that he has completely blended the older book
with himself (as the points of contact of the fourth speech
with ch. xxviii. and the speeches of Jehovah, show), and that
to all appearance he is a fellow-countryman of the older poet.
There are neither linguistic nor any other valid reasons in
favour of assigning it to a much later period. He is the
second issuer of the book, possibly the first, who brought to
light the hitherto hidden treasure, enriched by his own inser-
tion, which is inestimable in its relation to the history of the
perception of the plan of redemption.

We now call to mind that in the last (according to our

310 THE BOOK OF JOB.

view) strophe of Job’s last speech, ch. xxxi. 35-37, Job de-
sires, yea challenges, the divine decision between himself and
his opponents. His opponents have explained. his affliction
as the punishment of the just God; he, however, is himself so
certain of his innocence, and of his victory over divine and
human accusation, that he will bind the indictment of his
opponents as a crown upon his brow, and to God, whose hand
of punishment supposedly rests upon him, will he render an
account of all his steps,.and go forth as a prince to meet
Him. That he considers himself a py is in itself not cen-
surable, for he is such: but that he is oynds wins pry, ie.
considers himself to be righteous in opposition to God, who
is now angry with him and punishes him; that he maintains
his own righteousness to the prejudice of the Divine; and
that by maintaining his own right, places the Divine in the
shade,—all this is explainable as the result of the false idea
which he entertains of his affliction, and in which he is
strengthened by the friends; but there is need of censure and
penitence. For since by His nature God can never do wrong,
all human wrangling before God is a sinful advance against
the mystery of divine guidance, under which he should rather
humbly bow. But we have seen that Job’s false idea of God
as his enemy, whose conduct he cannot acknowledge as just,
-does not fill his whole soul. The night of temptation in which
he is enshrouded, is broken in upon by gleams of faith, in
connection with which God appears to him as his Vindicator
and Redeemer. Flesh and spirit, nature and grace, delusion
and faith, are at war within him. ‘These two elements are
constantly more definitely separated in the course of the con-
troversy; but it is not yet come to the victory of faith over
delusion, the two lines of conception go unreconciled side by
side in Job’s soul. The last monologues issue on the one side
in the humble confession that God’s wisdom is unsearchable,
and the fear of God is the share of wisdom appointed to man;

CHAP, XXXVIII. 2, 3. 311

on the other side, in the defiant demand that God may answer
for his defence of himself, and the vaunting offer to give Him
an account of all his steps, and also then to enter His presence
with the high feeling of a prince. If now the issue of the
drama is to be this, that God really reveals Himself as Job’s
Vindicator and Redeemer, Job’s defiance and boldness must
be previously punished in order that lowliness and submission
may attain the victory over them. God cannot acknowledge
Job as His servant before he penitently acknowledges as such
the sinful weakness under which he has proved himself to be
God’s servant, and so exhibits himself anew in his true cha-
racter which cherishes no known sin. This takes place when
Jehovah appears, and in language not of wrath but of loving
condescension, and yet earnest reproof, He makes the Titan
quite puny in his own eyes, in order then to exalt him who is
outwardly and inwardly humbled.

THE UNRAVELMENT IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS.—
CHAP. XXXVIII.-XLII. 6.

The First Speech of Jehovah, and Job’s Answer.—
Chap. xxxviil.-xl. 5.

Schema: 4, §. 8. 8. 12. 12. 6. 6. 10. 7. | 8. 8. 8. 12. 15. 10. | 2. 4.

[Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, and said:]
2 Who then darkeneth counsel
With words without knowledge ?
3 Gird up now thy loins as a man:
I will question thee, and inform thou me!

“ May the Almighty answer me!” Job has said, ch. xxxi. 353
He now really answers, and indeed out of the storm (Chethib,
according to a mode of writing occurring only here and ch.
xl. 6, Myon, arranged in two words by the Keri), which

312 THE BOOK OF JOB.

is generally the forerunner of His self-manifestation in the
world, of that at least by which He reveals Himself in His
absolute awe-inspiring greatness and judicial grandeur. The
art. is to be understood generically, but, with respect to
Elihu’s speeches, refers to the storm which has risen up in
the meanwhile. It is not to be translated: Who is he who
. , which ought to be }vinnn, but: Who then is darken-
ing; 7? makes the interrogative ‘2 more vivid and demon-
strative, Ges. § 122, 2; the part. 7'YM2 (instead of which it
might also be 7m) favours the assumption that Job has
uttered such words immediately before, and is interrupted
by Jehovah, without an intervening speaker having come.
forward. It is intentionally O¥¥ for ‘SY (comp. oy for “ny,
Isa. xxvi. 11), to describe that which is spoken of according
to its quality: it is nothing less than a decree or plan full
of purpose and connection which Job darkens, 2.¢. distorts
by judging it falsely, or, as we say: places in'a false light,
and in fact by meaningless words.’
When now Jehovah condescends to negotiate with Job
by question and answer, He does not do exactly what Job
wished (ch. xiii. 22), but something different, of which Job
never thought. He surprises him with questions which are
intended to bring him indirectly to the consciousness of the
wrong and absurdity of his challenge—questions among
which “there are many which the natural philosophy of the
present day can frame more scientifically, but cannot satis-
factorily solve.”” Instead of 7333 (the received reading of
Ben-Ascher), Ben-Naphtali’s text offered 13 (as Ezek. xvii.

10), in order not to allow two so similar, aspirated mute to ~~

come together.

1 The correct accentuation is }wn with Mercha, myy with Athnach,
ropa with Rebia mugrasch, 153 (without Makkeph) with Munach.

2 Alex. v. Humboldt, Kosmos, ii. 48 (1st edition), comp. Tholuck,
Vermischte Schriften, i. 354.

CHAP. XXXVIII. 4-7. 313

4 Where wast thou when I established the earth?
Say, if thou art capable of judging !
5 Who hath determined its measure, if thou knowest tt,
Or who hath stretched the measuring line over it?
6 Upon what are the bases of its pillars sunk in,
Or who hath laid its corner-stone,
7 When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy ?

The examination begins similarly to ch. xv. 7 sq. In oppo-
sition to the censurer of God as such the friends were right,
although only negatively, since their conduct was based on
self-delusion, as though they were in possession of the key
to the mystery of the divine government of the world. y?
M2°2 signifies to understand how to judge, to possess a com-
petent understanding, 1 Chron. xii. 32, 2 Chron. ii. 12, or
(yt? taken not in the sense of novisse, but cognoscere) to
appropriate to one’s self, Prov. iv. 1, Isa. xxix. 24. *3, ver.
5a, interchanges with O8 (comp. ver. 18d), for YIN *3 signi-
fies: suppose that thou knowest it, and this si forte scias is
almost equivalent to an forte scis, Prov. xxx. 4. The found-
ing of the earth is likened altogether to that of a building
constructed by man. The question: upon what are the
bases of its pillars or foundations sunk (20, ey, according
to its radical signification, to press with something flat upon
something, comp. (1b, to lay two flat things on one another,
then both to form or stamp by pressure, vid. i. 377, note,
and to press into soft pliant stuff, or let down into, immergere,
or to sink into, immergi), points to the fact of the earth
hanging free in space, ch. xxvi. 7. Then no human being
was present, for man was not yet created; the angels, how-
ever, beheld with rejoicing the founding of the place of the
future human family, and the mighty acts of God in ac-
cordance with the decree of His love (as at the building of

314 THE BOOK OF JOB.

the temple, the laying of the foundation, Ezra iii, 10, and
the setting of the head-stone, Zech. iv. 7, were celebrated),
for the angels were created before the visible world (Psychol. —
S. 63; Genesis, S. 105), as is indeed not taught here, but
still (vid. on the other hand, Hofmann, Schriftbew. i. 400)
is assumed. For DDN 22 are, as in ch. i. ii., the angels, who
proceeded from God by a mode of creation which is likened
to begetting, and who with Him form one sratpia (Genesis,
S. 121). The “morning stars,” however, are mentioned in
connection with them, because between the stars and the
angels, which are both comprehended in nvin way (Genesis,
S. 128), a mysterious connection exists, which is manifoldly
pane in Holy Scripture (vid. on the other hand, Hofm. i.
S. 318). 7p2 3353 is the morning star which in Isa. xiv. 12
is called bon (as extra-bibl. 923) from its dazzling light, which
exceeds all other stars in brightness, and 1NW7j3, son of the
dawn, because it swims in the dawn as though it were born
from it. It was just the dawn of the world coming into being,
which is the subject spoken of, that gave rise to the mention
of the morning star; the plur., however, does not mean the
stars which came into being on that morning of the world
collectively (Hofm., Schlottm.), but Lucifer with the stars
his peers, as D’D3, Isa. xiii. 10, Orion and the stars his peers.

cre

~~ (Canopus) is used similarly as a generic name for

stars of remarkable brilliancy, and in general suhél is to the
nomads and the Hauranites the symbol of what is brilliant,
glorious, and beautiful ;* so that even the beings of light of
the first rank among the celestial spirits might be understood.
by apr ‘ans. But if this ought to be the meaning, ver. 7a

1 A man or woman of great beauty is called suhéli, suhelije. Thus I
heard a Hauranitish woman say to her companion: nahdr el-j6m ned, |

shuft ledsch (c2)!) wahid Suhéli, To-day is dew, I saw a Suhéli, i.e. a
very handsome man, for thee.—WETzstT.

CHAP. XXXVIII. 8-11. 815

and 7b would be in an inverted order. They are actual
stars, whether it is intended of the sphere belonging to the
earth or to the higher sphere comprehended in Down, Gen.
i. 1. Joy and light are reciprocal notions, and the scale of
the tones of joy is likened to the scale of light and colours;
therefore the fulness of light, in which the morning stars
shone forth all together at the founding of the earth, may
symbolize one grandly harmonious song of joy.

8 And [who] shut up the sea with doors,
When it broke through, issued from the womb,
9 When I put clouds round it as a garment,
And thick mist as its swaddling clothes,
10 And I broke for tt my bound,
And set bars and doors,
11 And said: Hitherto come, and no further,
And here be thy proud waves stayed ! ?

The state of 112) mn was the first half, and the state of
ninn the second half of the primeval condition of the forming
earth. The question does not, however, refer to the pin, in
which the waters of the sky and the waters of the earth were
as yet not separated, but, passing over this intermediate con-
dition of the forming earth, to the sea, the waters of which
God shut up as by means of a door and bolt, when, first
enshrouded in thick mist (which has remained from that
time one of its natural peculiarities), and again and again
manifesting its individuality, it broke forth (13 of the foetus,
as Ps. xxii. 10) from the bowels of the, as yet, chaotic earth.
That the sea, in spite of the flatness of its banks, does not
flow over the land, is a work of omnipotence which broke
over it, %.¢. restraining it, a fixed bound (ph as ch. xxvi. 10,
Prov. viii. 29, Jer. v. 22, = 433, Ps. civ. 9), viz. the steep
and rugged walls of the basin of the sea, and which thereby
established a firm barrier behind which it should be kept.

316 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Instead of nb, Josh. xviii. 8, ver. 116 has the Chethib sb.
ph is to be understood with n'v*, and “one set” is equivalent
to the passive (Ges. § 1387*): let a bound be set (comp. nv,
Hos. vi. 11, which is used directly so) against the proud
rising of thy waves.

12 Hast thou in thy life commanded a morning,
Caused the dawn to know its place,

13 That tt may take hold of the ends of the earth,
So that the evil-doers are shaken under it?

14 That tt changeth like the clay of a signet-ring,
And everything fashioneth itself as a garment.

15 Their light is removed from the evil-doers,
And the out-stretched arm is broken.

The dawn of the morning, spreading out from one point,
takes hold of the carpet of the earth as it were by the
edges, and shakes off from it the evil-doers, who had laid
themselves to rest upon it the night before. 12, combining
in itself the significations to thrust and to shake, has the
latter here, as in the Arab. n@téra, a water-wheel, which fills
its compartments below in the river, to empty them out
above. Instead of 1nY¥ nHAYI with He otians, the Keri sub-
stitutes 1085 nyt. The earth is the subj. to ver. 14a: the
dawn is like the signet-ring, which stamps a definite impress
on the earth as the clay, the forms which floated in the
darkness of the night become visible and distinguishable.
The subj. to ver. 146 are not morning and dawn (Schult.),
still less the ends of the earth (Ew. with the conjecture:
wan, “they become dazzlingly white”), but the single ob-.
jects on the earth: the light of morning gives to everything
its peculiar garb of light, so that, hitherto overlaid by a uni-
form darkness, they now come forth independently, they
gradually appear in their variegated diversity of form and
hue. In waa2p 103, wi? is conceived as accusative (Arab. kemd

CHAP, XXXVIII. 16-21. 3172

libdsan, or thauban), while in vind (Ps. civ. 6, instar vestis)
it would be genitive. To the end of the strophe everything
is under the logical government of the 9 of purpose in ver.
13a. The light of the evil-doers is, according to ch. xxiv. 17,
the darkness of the night, which is for them in connection
with their works what the light of day is for other men.
The sunrise deprives them, the enemies of light in the true
sense (ch. xxiv. 13), of this light per antiphrasin, and the
carrying out of their evil work, already prepared for, is
frustrated. The y of myer, vers. 13 and 15, is andn fy
[Ayin suspensum], which is explained according to the Mid-
rash thus: the oywh, now a wy (rich), become at a future
time ov (poor); or: God deprives them of the py (light
of the eye), by abandoning them to the darkness which
they loved.

16 Hast thou reached the fountains of the sea,
And hast thou gone into the foundation of the deep ?
17 Were the gates of death unveiled to thee,
And didst thou see the gates of the realm of shades?
18 Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth?
Speak, in so far as thou knowest all this !
19 Which is the way to where the light dwelleth,
And darkness, where is its place,
20. That thou mightest bring it to rts bound,
And that thou mightest know the paths of its house?
21 Thou knowest it, for then wast thou born,
And the number of thy days is great !—

The root 2) has the primary notion of obtruding itself
upon the senses (vid. Genesis, S. 635), whence 723 in Arabic
of a rising country that pleases the eye (nabaka, a hill, a hill-
side), and here (cognate in root and meaning ya), Syr. Tal-
mud. 333, i, xi, scatwrire) of gushing and bubbling water.
Hitzig’s conjecture, approved by Olsh., ‘923, sets aside a word

318 THE BOOK OF JOB.

that is perfectly clear so far as the language is concerned.
On 1PM vid. on ch. xi. 7. The question put to Job in ver. 17,
he must, according to his own confession, ch. xxvi. 6, answer
in the negative. In order to avoid the collision of two
aspirates, the interrogative 1 is wanting before mann, Ew.
§ 324, b; TY PAnn signifies, according to ch. xxxii. 12, to
observe anything carefully; the meaning of the question
therefore is, whether Job has given special attention to the
breadth of the earth, and whether he consequently has a
comprehensive and thorough knowledge of it. mp3 refers
not to the earth (Hahn, Olsh., and others), but, as neuter, to
the preceding points of interrogation. ‘The questions, ver. 19,
refer to the principles of light and darkness, ¢.e. their final
causes, whence they come forth as cosmical phenomena.
ninja" is a relative clause, Ges. § 123, 3, c; the noun that
governs (the Aegens) this virtual genitive, which ought in
Arabic to be without the art. as being determined by the
regens, is, according to the Hebrew syntax, which is freer in
this respect, 777 (comp. Ges. § 110, 2). That which is said
of the bound of darkness, zc. the furthest point at which
darkness passes away, and the paths to its house, applies also
to the light, which the poet perhaps has even prominently
(comp. ch. xxiv. 13) before his mind: light and darkness
have a first cause which is inaccessible to man, and beyond
his power of searching out. The admission in ver. 21 is
ironical: Verily! thou art as old as the beginning of crea-
tion, when light and darkness, as powers of nature which are
distinguished and bounded the one by the other (vid. ch.
xxvi. 10), were introduced into the rising world; thou art as
old as the world, so that thou hast an exact knowledge of its
and thine own cotemporaneous origin (vid. ch. xv. 7). On
the fut. joined with ™ regularly in the signification of the
aorist, vid. Ew. § 184, 6. The attraction in connection
with “BD)-is like ch. xv. 20, xxi. 21,

CHAP. XXXVIII. 22-27. 319

22 Hast thou reached the treasures of the snow,

And didst thou see the treasures of the hail,
23 Which I have reserved for a time of trouble,

For the day of battle and war?
24 Which is the way where the light 1s divided,

Where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
25 Who divideth a course for the rain-jlood

And the way of the lightning of thunder,
26 That wt raineth on the land where no one dwelleth,

On the tenantless steppe,
27 To satisfy the desolate and the waste,

And to cause the tender shoot of the grass to spring forth?

The idea in ver. 22 is not that—as for instance the peasants

of Menin, four hours’ journey from Damascus, garner up the
winter snow in a cleft of the rock, in order to convey it to
Damascus and the towns of the coast in the hot months—God
treasures up the snow and hail above to cause it to descend
according to opportunity. Mins (comp. Ps. cxxxv. 7) are the
final causes of these phenomena which God has created—the
form of the question, the design of which (which must not be
- forgotten) is ethical, not scientific, is regulated according to
the infancy of the perception of natural phenomena among the
ancients; but at the same time in accordance with the poet's
task, and even, as here, in the choice of the agents of destruc-
tion, not merely hail, but also snow, according to the scene of
the incident. Wetzstein has in his possession a writing of
Muhammed el-Chatib el-Bosrawi, in which he describes a
fearful fall of snow in Hauran, by which, in February 1860,
innumerable herds of sheep, goats, and camels, and also many
human beings perished. “¥"NY might, according to ch.

1 Since the Hauranites say of snow as of fire: jahrik, it burns (brillant
in French is also used of extreme cold), ch. i. 16 might also be understood
of a fall of snow; but the tenor of the words there requires it to be
understood of actual fire,

320. THE BOOK OF JOB.

xxiv. 1, xix. 11, signify a time of judgment for the oppressor,
i.e. adversary ; but it is better to be understood according to
ch. xxxvi. 16, xxi. 30, a time of distress: heavy falls of snow
and tempestuous hail-storms bring hard times for men and
cattle, and sometimes decide a war as by a divine decree
(Josh. x. 11, comp. Isa. xxviii. 17, xxx. 30, Ezek. xiii. 13).
In ver. 24a it is not, as in ver. 19a, the place whence light
issues, but the mode of the distribution of light over the
earth, that is intended; as in ver. 240, the laws according to
which the east wind flows forth, z.e. spreads over the earth.
"is is not lightning (Schlottm.), but light in general: light
and wind (instead of which the east wind is particularized,
vid. p. 77) stand together as being alike untraceable in their
courses. "53, se diffundere, as Ex. v. 12, 1 Sam. xiii. 8,
Ges. § 53,2. In ver. 25a the descent of torrents of rain
inundating certain regions of the earth is intended—this
earthward direction assigned to the water-spouts is likened to
an aqueduct coming downwards from the sky—and it is only
in ver. 25), as in ch. xxviii. 26, that the words have reference
to the lightning, which to man is untraceable, flashing now
here, now there. This guiding of the rain to chosen parts of
the earth extends also to the tenantless steppe. winged (for
N>2) is virtually an adj. (vid. on ch. xii. 24). The superlative
combination ANvin ANY (from Ni’ = TN, to be desolate, and
to give forth a heavy dull sound, ze. to sound desolate, vid.
on ch. xxxvii. 6), as ch, xxx. 3 (which see). Not merely for
the purposes of His rule among men does God direct the
changes of the weather contrary to human foresight; His
care extends also to regions where no human habitations are _

found.

28 Hath the rain a father,
Or who begetteth the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb cometh the ice forth,

CHAP. XXXVIII. 28-30. 321

And who bringeth forth the hoar-frost of heaven ?
30 The waters become hard like stone,”
And the face of the deep is rolled together.

Rain and dew have no created father, ice and hoar-frost
no created mother. The parallelism in both instances shows
that ‘Tin " asks after the one who begets, and. mp 2 the
one who bears (vid. Hupfeld on Ps. ii. 7). {62 is uterus, and
meton. (at least in Arabic) progenies uteri; ex utero cujus is
") 1030, in distinction from }02 MIMND, ea quo utero. SY7P2I8
is excellently translated by the LX-X., Codd. Vat. and Sin.,
Baxrovs (with Omega) Spscov; Ges. and Schlottm. correct to
Borous, but Bares signifies not merely a clod, but also a
lump and a ball. It is the particles of the dew holding
together (LXX., Cod. Alex.: cuvvoyds kai Bo. dp.) in a
globular form, from Day, which does not belong to D3, but to
eI, retinere, II. colligere (whence agil, standing water,
ma'gal, a pool, pond) ; DIN is constr., like ‘bay from Day. The
waters “hide themselves,” by vanishing as fluid, therefore:
freeze. The surface of the deep (LXX. doeSods, for which
Zwingli has in marg. a8iccov) “takes hold of itself,’ or
presses together (comp. Arab. lekda, crowding, synon. hugém,
a striking against) by forming itself into a firm solid mass
(continuum, ch. xli. 9, comp. xxxvil. 10). Moreover, the
questions all refer not merely to the analysis of the'visible
origin of the phenomena, but to their final causes.

31 Canst thou join the twistings of the Pleiades,
Or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Canst thou bring forth the signs of the Zodiac at the right
time, )
And canst thou guide the Bear with its children?
33 Knowest thou the laws of heaven,

Or dost thou define its influence on the earth ?
VOL. It. “ x

322 THE BOOK OF JOB,

That nist here signifies the bindings or twistings (from
fy = 729, ch. xxxi. 36) is placed beyond question by the
unanimous translations of the LXX. (Seouév) and the Targ.
(‘YY = cepas), the testimony of the Masora, according to
which the word here has a different signification from 1 Sam.
xv. 32, and the language of the Talmud, in which potyn,
Kélim, ce. 20, signifies the knots at the end of a mat, by
loosing which it comes to pieces, and Succa, 13), the bands
(formed of rushes) with which willow-branches are fastened
together above in order to form a booth (succa); but ‘3870,
Sabbat, 33a, signifies a bunch of myrtle (to smell on the
Sabbath). 1° M7" is therefore explained according to
the Persian comparison of the Pleiades with a bouquet of
jewels, mentioned on ch. ix. 9, and according to the compari-
son with a necklace (‘igd-eth-thurajja), e.g. in Sadi in his
Gulistan, p. 8 of Graf’s translation: “as though the tops of
the trees were encircled by the necklace of the Pleiades.”
The Arabic name thurajja (diminutive feminine of tharwan)
probably signifies the richly-adorned, clustered constellation.
But °2 signifies without doubt the clustered group,’ and
Beigel (in Ideler, Sternnamen, S. 147) does not translate
badly: “Canst thou not arrange together the rosette of

_} The verb pjp is still in general use in the Piel (to heap up, form a
heap, part. mukauwam, heaped up) and Hithpa. (to accumulate) in Syria,
and kém is any village desolated in days of yore whose stones form a
desolate heap [comp. Fleischer, De Glossis Habichtianis, p. 41 sq.]. If,
according to Kamus, in old Jemanic kim in the sense of mukdwim signifies
a confederate (synon. chilt, gils), the aye) would be a confederation,

or a heap, assemblage (coetus) of confederates. Perhaps the 7193 was
. regarded as a troop of camels; the Beduins at least call the star directly
before the seven-starred constellation of the Pleiades the hédi, i.e. the
singer riding before the procession, who cheers the camels by the sound of
the hadwa (77), and thereby urges them on.—WETZsT.

On zAassedec, which perhaps also bear this name as a compressed group
(figuratively @érpus) of several stars (Gr: rAcious Omod nerd cuvayay yay
elas), vid. Kuhn’s Zeitschr. vi. 282-285.

CHAP, XXXVIII. 31-33. 323

diamonds (chain would be better) of the Pleiades?” As to
D3, we firmly hold that it denotes Orion (according to which
the Greek versions translate ’Qpiwv, the Syriac gaboro, the
Targ. NB? or NOD), the Giant). Orion and the Pleiades are
visible in the Syrian sky longer in the year than with us, and
there they come about 17° higher above the horizon than
with us. Nevertheless the figure of a giant chained to the
heavens cannot be rightly shown to be Semitic, and it is
>. questionable whether p> is not rather, with Saad., Gecat.,
Abulwalid, and others, to be regarded as the Suhél, i.e. Cano-
pus, especially as this is placed as a sluggish helper (pa,
Hebr. a fool, Arab. the slothful one, ignavus) in mythical
relation to the constellation of the Bear, which here is called
wry, as ch. ix. 9 YY, and is regarded as a bier, UY) (even in
the present day this is the name in the towns and villages of
Syria), with the sons and daughters forming the attendants
upon the corpse of their father, slain by Gedi, the Pole-star.
Understood of Orion, nisv (with which Ghue, tenere, de-

tinere, is certainly to be compared) are the chains (4Gu<,

compes), with which he is chained to the sky; understood of
Suhél, the restraints which prevent his breaking away too
soon and reaching the goal.’ ninyd is not distinct from niem,

‘In June 1860 I witnessed a quarrel in an encampment of Mo'gil-
Beduins, in which one accused the others of having rendered it possible
for the enemy to carry off his camels through their negligence ; and when
the accused assured him they had gone forth in pursuit of the marauders
soon after the raid, and only turned back at sunset, the man exclaimed:
Ye came indeed to my assistance as Suhél to Gedi (SnD yrp %S onyrp
19955). TI asked my neighbour what the words meant, and was informed
they are a proverb which is very often used, and has its origin as follows :
The Gedi (i.e. the Pole-star, called mismar, 11D, in Damascus) slew
the Na'sh (wy), and is accordingly encompassed every night by the
children of the slain Na‘ sh, who are determined to take vengeance on the
murderer. ‘The sons (on which account poets usually say ben? instead of

bendt Nash) go first with the corpse of their father, and the daughters
follow. One of the latter is called waldéne, a lying-in woman; she has

324. ‘THE BOOK OF JOB.

2 Kings xxiii. 5 (comp. 37%, “Thy star of fortune,” on
Cilician coins), and denotes not the twenty-eight mendzil
(from ,}53, to descend, turn in, lodge) of the moon," but the
twelve signs of the Zodiac, which were likewise imagined as
mendzil, i.e. lodging-houses or burtig, strongholds, in which
one after another the sun lodges as it describes the circle of
the year” The usage of the language transferred $19 also to
the planets, which, because they lie in the equatorial plane of
the sun, as the sun (although more irregularly), run through
the constellations of the Zodiac. The question in ver. 32a
therefore means: canst thou bring forth the appointed zodi-
acal sign for each month, so that (of course with the variation
which is limited to about two moon’s diameters by the daily
progress of the sun through the Zodiac) it becomes visible
after sunset and is visible before sunset? On ver. 33 vid. on
Gen. i. 14-19. v is construed after the analogy of 3 71,
“yy, vid; and DD, as sing. (Ew. § 318, d).

only recently given birth to a child, and carries her child in her bosom,
and she is still pale from her lying-in. (The clear atmosphere of the
Syrian sky admits of the child in the bosom of the walddne being distinctly
seen.) In order to give help to the Gedi in this danger, the Suhél appears
in the south, and struggles towards the north with a twinkling brightness,
but he has risen too late; the night passes away ere he reaches his goal.
Later I frequently heard this story, which is generally known among the
Hauranites.— WETZST.

We add the following by way of explanation. The Pleiades encircle
the Pole-star as do all stars, since it stands at the axis of the sky, but
- they are nearer to it than to Canopus by more than half the distance.
This star of the first magnitude culminates about three hours later than
the Pleiades, and rises, at the highest, only ten moon’s diameters above
the horizon of Damascus—a significant figure, therefore, of ineffectual
endeavour.

1 Thus A. Weber in his Abh. tiber die vedischen Nachrichten von den
naxatra (halting-places of the moon), 1860 (comp. Lit. Centralbl. 1859,
col. 665), refuted by Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibliogrcphie, 1861, Nr. 22,
8. 93 f. ,

2 The names “ the Ram, the Bull,” etc., are, according to Epiphanius,
Opp. i. p. 84 sq. (ed. Petav.), transferred from the Greek into the Jewish
astrology, vid. Wissenschaft Kunst Judenthum, 8. 220 £.

CHAP. XXXVIII. 34-88. 325

84 Dost thou raise thy voice to the clouds
That an overflow of waters may cover thee?

35 Dost thou send forth lightnings, and they go,
And say to thee: Here we are?

36 Who hath put wisdom in the reins,
Or who hath given understanding to the cock?

37 Who numbereth the strata of the clouds with wisdom,
And the botiles of heaven, who emptieth them,

38 When the dust flows together into a mass,

: And the clods cleave together ?

As ver. 25b was worded like ch. xxviii. 26, so ver. 346 is
worded like ch. xxii. 11; the J of o2n is dageshed in both
passages, as ch. xxxvi. 2, 18, Hab. ii. 17. What Jehovah
here denies to the natural power of man is possible to the
power which man has by faith, as the history of Elijah shows:
this, however, does not come under consideration here. In
proof of divine omnipotence and human feebleness, Elihu con-
stantly recurs to the rain and the thunder-storm with the light-
ning, which is at the bidding of God. Most moderns since
Schultens therefore endeavour, with great violence, to make
nin and yoy mean meteors and celestial phenomena. LEichh.
(Hirz., Hahn) compares the Arabic name for the clouds,

taché (tachwa), Ew. ‘det sunshine, with the former; the

latter, whose root is N2¥ (NID), spectare, is meant to be some-
thing that is remarkable in the heavens: an atmospheric
phenomenon, a meteor (Hirz.), or a phenomenon caused by
light (Ew., Hahn), so that eg. Umbr. translates: “ Who
hath put wisdom in the dark clouds, and given understand-
ing to the meteor?” But the meaning which is thus extorted
from the words in favour of the connection borders closely
upon absurdity. Why, then, shall mnv, from Md, sib,
oblinere, adipe obducere, not signify here, as in Ps. li. 8, the

326 THE BOOK OF JOB.

reins (embedded in a cushion of fat), and in fact as the seat
of the predictive faculty, like niv23, ch. xix. 27, as the seat of
the innermost longing for the future; and particularly since
here, after the constellations and the influences of the stars
have just been spoken of, the mention of the gift of divina-
tion is not devoid of connection; and, moreover, as a glance
at the next strophe shows, the connection which has been
hitherto firmly kept to is already in process of being resolved ?

If ninv signifies the reins, it is natural to interpret "3% also
psychologically, and to translate the intellect (Targ. I., Syr.,
Arab.), or similarly (Saad., Gecat.), as Ges., Carey, Renan,
Schlottm. But there is another rendering handed down
which is worthy of attention, although not once mentioned
by Rosenm., Hirz., Schlottm., or Hahn, according to which
"a¥ signifies a cock, gallum. We read in b. Rosch ha-Schana,
26a: “When I came to Techfim-Kén-Nishraja, R. Simeon
b. Lakish relates, the bride was there called ‘5 and the
cock 2, according to which Job xxxviii. 386 is to be inter-
preted: “av = Syn.” The Midrash interprets in the same
way, Jalkut, § 905, beginning: “R. Levi says: In Arabic
the cock is called S130.” We compare with this, Wajikra
rabba, c. 1: “12D is Arabic; in Arabia a prophet is called
83D ;” whence it is to be inferred that “a, as is assumed,
describes the cock as a seer, as a prophet.

“As to the formation of the word, it would certainly be
without parallel (Hw., Olsh.) if the word had the.tone on
the penult., but Codd. and the best old editions have the
Munach by the final syllable; Norzi, who has overlooked
this, at least notes !2¥ with the accent on the wilé. as a various
reading. It is a secondary noun, Ges. § 86, 5, a so-called
relative noun (De Sacy, Gramm. Arabe, § 768): “2¥, specu-
lator, from ny aay, nay), speculatio, as NPB, Judg. xiii. 18
(comp. Ps. exxxix. 6), miraculosus, from NPB, a cognate form
to the Chald. 3D (9813), of similar meaning. In connection

CHAP. XXXVIII. 34-38. 327

with this primary signification, speculator, it is intelligible
how "2D in Samaritan (vid. Lagarde on Proverbs, S. 62) can

signify the eye; here, however, in a Hebrew poet, the cock,
~ of which e.g. Gregory says: Speculator semper im altitudine
stat, ut quidquid venturum sit longe prospiciat.. That this
signification speculator = gallus’ was generally accepted at
least in the Talmudic age, the Beracha prescribed to him who
hears the cock crow: “Blessed be He who giveth the cock
(2%) knowledge to distinguish between day and night!”
shows. In accordance with this, Targ. II: translates: who
has given understanding 812 ain, gallo sylvestri (whereas
Targ. I. N29, cordi, scil. hominis), to praise his Lord? and
Jer.: (quis posuit in visceribus hominis sapientiam) et quis
dedit gallo intelligentiam. This traditional rendering, con-
demned as talmudicum commentum (Ges.), we follow rather
than the “phenomenon” of the moderns who guess at a
meaning. What is questioned in Cicero, de divin. ii. 26:
Quid in mentem venit Callisthent dicere, Deos gallis signum
dedisse cantandi, quum id vel natura vel casus efficere potuisset,
Jehovah here claims for Himself. The weather-prophet kav’
éfoynv among animals appropriately appears in this. astro-
logico-meteorological connection by the side of the reins as,
according to the Semitic view, a medium of augury (Psychol.
S. 268 f.). The Koran also makes the cock the watchman
who wakes up the heavenly hosts to their duty; and Masius,
in his Studies of Nature, has shown how high the cock is
placed as being prophetically (for divination) gifted. More-
over, the worship of cocks in the idolatry of the Semites was
a service rendered to the stars: the Sabians offered cocks,
probably (vid. Chwolsohn, ii. 87) as the white cock of Jezides,

1 No Arab. word offers itself here for comparison: tuchaj, a cock, has
different consonants, and if \C% in the sense of ls, Sortem esse, were

to be supposed, \3 would be a synon. of 923, which is likewise a name
of the cock. oer

328 ; THE BOOK OF JOB.

regarded by them as a symbol of the sun (Deutsch. Morgen-
lind. Zeitschr. 1862, S. 365 f.).

In ver. 375 Jerome translates: et concentum caelorum quis
dormire faciet ; "33, however, does not here signify harps,
but bottles; and 22W7 is not: to lay to rest, but to lay down
= to empty, pour out, which the Kal also, like the Arab.
sakaba, directly signifies, p32 might be taken actively:
when it pours, but according to 1 Kings xxii. 35 the intran-
sitive rendering is also possible: when the dust pours forth,
i.e. flows together, pyine, to what is poured out, i.e. not: to
the fluid, but in contrast: to a molten mass, ¢.e. as cast metal
(to be explained not according to ch. xxii. 16, but according
to ch. xxxvii. 18), for the dry, sandy, dusty earth is made

firm by the downfall of the rain (Arab. Crnwoy Jirmata est

terra imbre, comp. ds, pluviam emisit donee arena cohereret).
ban, glebe, as ch. xxi. 33, from 221, >), in the primary
signification, which as it seems must be supposed: to bring
together, from which the significations branch off, to thicken,
become firm (muraggab, supported), and to be seized with
terror.

39 Dost thou hunt for the prey of the lioness
And still the desire of the young lons,
40 When they couch in the dens,
Sit in the thicket lying in wait for prey?
41 Who provideth for the raven its food,
When its young ones cry to God,
They wander about without food ?

On the wealth of the Old Testament language in names
for the lion, vid. on ch. iv. 10 sq. Nya? can be used of the
lioness; the more exact name of the lioness is m2, for sad
is = 20, whence Dna, lions, and nixa?, lionesses. The lioness
is mentioned first, because she has to provide for her young

CHAP, XXXIX, 1-4, 329

ones (03); then the lions that are still young, but yet are
left to themselves, 0°23, The phrase 79 NID (comp. ™5
of life that needs nourishment, ch. xxxiii. 20) is equivalent
to WEI xbD, Prov. vi. 30 (Psychol. 5. 204 ad fin.) The book
of Psalms here furnishes parallels to every word: comp. on
ver. 39), Ps. civ. 21; on 7%, Ps. x. 10;* on niziya, lustra,
Ps. civ. 22 (compared on ch. xxxvii. 8 already); on 73D, 9b,
which is used just in the same way, Ps. x. 9, Jer. xxv. 38.
The picture of the crying ravens has its parallel in Ps.
exlvii. 9. °2, guum, is followed by the fut. in the signif.
of the pres., as Ps. xi. 3. As here, in the Sermon on the
Mount in Luke xii. 24 the ravens, which by their hoarse
croaking make themselves most observed everywhere among
birds that seek their food, are mentioned instead of the fowls
of heaven.

Ch. xxxix. 1 Dost thou know the bearing time of the wild goats
of the rock?
Observest thou the circles of the hinds?
2 Dost thou number the months which they fulfil,
And knowest thou the time of their bringing forth?
3 They bow down, they let their young break through,
They cast off thew pains.
4 Their young ones gain strength, grow up in the
desert, .
They run away and do not return.

The strophe treats of the female chamois or steinbocks,
tbices (perhaps including the certainly different kinds of
chamois), and stags. The former are called D'Py, from by,

1 The Semitic is rich in such words as describe the couching posture of
beasts of prey lying in wait for their prey, which then in general signify

to lie in wait, lurk, wait (yn, pan, 2) )> JN; ANS 9) 3 a) Ae3, subsedit
ei, 1.€. insidiatus est ei, which corresponds to \avi, ver. 400, also belongs
here, comp. Psalter, i. 500, note.

330 THE BOOK OF JOB.

se, (a secondary formation from nby, ce), to mount, there-
fore: rock-climbers. obin is inf. Pil.: To wdivew, comp. the
Pul. ch. xv. 7. V2, to observe, exactly as Eccl. xi. 4, 1 Sam.
i. 12, Zech. xi. 11. _ In ver. 2 the question as to the expiration
of the time of bearing is connected with that as to the time of
bringing forth. WSDM, plene, as ch. xiv. 16; mA (litténa, like
ny = AY, vid. p. 16, note) with an euphonic termination for
iAP, as Gen. xlii. 36, xxi. 29, and also out of pause, Ruth
i. 19, Ges. § 91, 1, rem. 2. Instead of nanan Olsh. wishes
to read MIDPBA, but this (synon, nbn) would be: they let
slip away; the former (synon. mypan): they cause to divide,
te. to break through (comp. Arab. feléh, the act of breaking
through, freedom, prosperity). On 373, to kneel down as
the posture of one in travail, vid. 1 Sam. iv. 19... “They
cast off their pains” is not meant of an easy working off of
the after-pains (Hirz., Schlottm.), but ban signifies in this
phrase, as Schultens has first shown, meton. directly the

foetus, as Arab. 4 Pell plur. ahdal, and @div, even of a child

already grown up, as being the fruit of earlier travail, e.g.
in /Kschylus, Agam. 1417 sq.; even the like phrase, pias
adiva = edere fortum, is found in Euripides, Jon 45. Thus
born with ease, the young animals grow rapidly to maturity
(Den, pinguescere, pubescere, whence nion, a dream as the result
of puberty, vid. Psychol. S. 282), grow in the desert (733,
Targ. = 2, vid. i. 329, note), seek the plain, and return
not again ind, sibi h. e. sui juris esse volentes (Schult.),
although it might also signify ad eas, for the Hebr. is rather
confused on the question of the distinction of gender, and
even in oman and on’22 the masc. is used émixoivws. We,
however, prefer to interpret according to ch. vi. 19, xxiv. 16.
Moreover, Bochart is right: Non hic agitur de otiosa et mere
speculativa cognitione, sed de ea cognitione, que Deo propria
est, qua res omnes non solum novit, sed et dirigit atque gubernat.

CHAP: XXXIX. 5-8. 331

5 Who hath sent forth the wild ass free,
And who loosed the bands of the wild ass,
6 Whose house I made the steppe,
And his dwelling the salt country ?
7 He scorneth the tumult of the city,
He heareth not the noise of the driver.
8 That which is seen upon thé mountains is his pasture,

And he sniffeth after every green thing.

On the wild ass (not: ass of the forest), vid. p. 19, note."
In Hebr. and Arab. it is S18 (feré or himér el-wahsh, ie.
asinus ferus), and Aram. Tiny; the former describes it as a
swift-footed animal, the latter as an animal shy and difficult
to be tamed by the hand of man; “Kulan” is its Eastern
Asiatic name. JX X. correctly translates: ris 6¢ éorw 6
adels dvov dyptov EdevOcpov. “WEN is the ace..of the predi-

1 Tt is a dirty yellow with a white belly, single-hoofed and long-eared ;
its hornless head somewhat resembles that of the gazelle, but is much
larger; its hair has the dryness of the hair of the deer, and the animal forms
the transition from the stag and deer genus to the ass. It is entirely
distinct from thie mahé@ or bagar el-wahsh, wild ox, whose large soft eyes
are so much celebrated by the poets of the steppe. This latter is horned
and double-hoofed, and forms the transition from the stag to the ox
[distinct from the ri’m, own, therefore perhaps an antelope of the kind
of the Indian nilgau, blue ox, Portax tragocamelus]. I have not. seen
both kinds of animals alive, but I have often seen their skins in the tents
of the Ruwald. Both kinds are remarkable for their very swift running,
and it is especially affirmed of the fer@ that no rider can overtake it.
The poets compare a troop of horsemen that come rushing up and vanish
in the next moment to a herd of ferd. In spite of its difficulty and
hazardousness, the nomads are passionately given to hunting the wild ass,
and the proverb cited by the Kamis: kull es-séd bigdf el-fera (every
hunt sticks in the belly of the ferd, i.e. compared with that, every other
hunt is nothing), is perfectly correct. When the approach of a herd, which
always consists of several hundred, is betrayed by a cloud of dust which
can be seen many miles off, so many horsemen rise up from all sides in
pursuit that the animals are usually scattered, and single ones are obtained
by the dogs and by shots. The herd is called gemile, and its leader is
called ‘anitid Cray), as with gazelles.— WETZST.

-332 THE BOOK ‘OF JOB.

cate (comp. Gen. xxxiii. 2, Jer. xxii. 30). Parallel with
HY (according to its etymon perhaps, land of darkness,
terra incognita) is nnn, salt [adj.] or (sc. y8) a salt land,
z.e. therefore unfruditfal and incapable of culture, as the
country round the Salt Sea of Palestine: that the wild ass
even gladly licks the salt or natron of the desert, is a matter
of fact, and may be assumed, since all wild animals that feed
on plants have a partiality, which is based on chemical laws
of life, for licking salt. On ver. 8a Ew. observes, to render
“an as “ what is espied” is insecure, “on account of the struc-
ture of the verse” (Gramm. 8. 419, Anm.). This reason is
unintelligible; and in general there is no reason for rendering
"am, after LX X., Targ., Jer., and others, as an Aramaic
3 fut. with a mere half vowel instead of Kametz before the
tone = WN’, which is’without example in Old Testament
Hebrew (for 81, Eccl. xi. 3, follows the analogy of 7), but
aM signifies either abundantia (after the form a2, pind ch.
xx. 23, from 1M’, ys, p. 148) or investigabile, what can be
searched out (after the form O%p!, that which exists, from
min, ,U, to go about, look about), which, with Olsh. § 212,
and most expositors, we prefer.

9 Will the oryx be willing to serve thee,

Or will he lodge in thy crib?

‘10 Canst thou bind the orys in the furrow with a leading rein,
Or will he harrow the valleys, following thee?

11 Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great,
And leave thy labour to him?

12 Wilt thou confide in him to bring in thy sowing,
And to garner thy threshing-floor ?

In correct texts 0") has a Dagesh in the Resh, and 738
the accent on the penult., as Prov. xi. 21 19 1p, and Jer.
xxxix. 12 2 SimN, The tone retreats according to the rule,

Ges. § 29, 8, 6; and the Dagesh is, as also when the second

CHAP, XXXIX. 9~12. 333

word begins with an aspirate,’ Dag. forte conj., which the
Resh also takes, Prov. xv. 1 7772Y2, exceptionally, according
to the rule, Ges. § 20, 2, a. In all, it occurs thirteen times
with Dagesh in the Old Testament—a relic of a mode of
pointing which treated the 1 (as in Arabic) as a letter capable
of being doubled (Ges. § 22, 5), that has been supplanted in
the system of pointing that gained the ascendency. 5" (Ps.
xxii. 22, 0) is contracted from D8 (Ps. xcii. 11, plene, O'S),

which (= 8) is of like form with «1, (Olsh. § 154, a).

Such, in the present day in Syria, is the name of the gazelle
that is for the most part white with a yellow back and yellow
stripes in the face (Antilope leucoryz, in distinction from (¢,4c,
“tfri, the earth-coloured, dirty-yellow Antilope oryz, and _¢ 41>,
himsi, the deer-coloured Antilope dorcas); the Talmud also
(b. Zebachim, 1186; Bathra, 74d) combines Nos and NOM

or NSN, a gazelle (JI 133), and therefore fees te the reém to

the antelope genus, of which the gazelle is a species; and

1 The National Grammarians call this exception to the rule, that the
muta is aspirated when the preceding word ends with a vowel, p'm71D "NN
(veniens e longinquo), i.e. the case, where the word ending with a vowel
is Milel, whether from the very first, or, when the second word is a
monosyllable or has the tone on the penuit., on account of the accent that
has retreated (in order to avoid two syllables with the chief tone coming
together) ; in this case the aspirate, and in general the initial letter (if
capable of being doubled) of the second monosyllabic or penultima-
accented word, takes a Dagesh; but this is not without exceptions that
are quite as regular. Regularly, the second word is not dageshed if it
begins with 2s 4, 2, or if the first word is only a bare verb, ¢.9. nivy

sb, or one that has only } before it, e.g. nbs my ; ; the tone of the first
word in both these examples retreats, but without the initial of the second

being doubled. This is supplementary, and as far as necessary a correc-
tion, to what is said in Psalter, i. 392, Anm.

* Since ra’ima, inf. ri’mdn, has the signification assuescere, OX, DY,
310 (Targ.) might describe the oryx as a gregarious animal, although
all ruminants have this characteristic in common. On DN", ely vid.
Seetzen’s Reise, iii. S. 393, Z 9ff., and also iv. 496. }

334 THE BOOK OF JOB.

the question, ver. 104, shows that an animal whose home is
on the mountains is intended, viz., as Bochart, and recently
Schlottm. (making use of an academic treatise of Lichtenstein
on the antelopes, 1824), has proved, the oryx, which the LX X.
also probably understands when it translates wovoxépws; for
the Talmud. wip, mutilated from it, is, according to Chullin,
59b, a one-horned animal, and is more closely defined as
‘ND 37 NAD, “ gazelle (antelope) of Be (Beth)-Ilai” (comp.
Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talmuds, 1858, § 146). The oryx
also appears on Egyptian monuments sometimes with two
horns, but mostly with one variously curled; and both Aris-
totlet and Pliny describe it as a one-horned cloven-hoof ;
so that one must assent to the supposition of a one-horned
variety of the oryx (although as a fact of natural history it is
not yet fully established), as then there is really tolerably
certain information of a one-horned antelope both in Upper
Asia and in Central Africa ;? and therefore there is sufficient
ground for seeking the origin of the tradition of the unicorn
in an antelope,—perhaps rather like a horse,—with one horn
rising out of the two points of ossification over the frontal
suture. The proper buffalo, Bos bubalus, cannot therefore

1 Vid. Sundevall, Die Thierarten des Aristoteles (Stockholm, 1863),
S. 64 f.

2 J. W. von Miiller (Das Einhorn von gesch. u. naturwiss. Standpunkte
betrachtet, 1852) believed that in a horn in the Ambras Collection at
Vienna he recognised a horn of the Monocerés (comp. Fechner’s Central-
blatt, 1854, Nr. 2), but he is hardly right. J. W. von Miiller, Francis
Galton (Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, 1853), and
other travellers have heard the natives speak ingenuously of the unicorn,
but without seeing it themselves. On the other hand, Huc and Gabet
(Journeyings through Mongolia and Thibet, Germ. edition) tell us ‘‘a horn
of this animal was sent to Calcutta: it was 50 centimetres long and 11
in circumference ; from the root it ran up to a gradually diminishing
point. It was almost straight, black, etc. . . . Hodgson, when English
consul at Nepal, had the good fortune to obtain an unicorn. . . . Itisa
kind of antelope, which in southern Thibet, that borders on Nepal, is

called Tschiru. Hodgson sent a skin and horn to Calcutta; they came
froin an unicorn that died in the menagerie of the Raja of Nepal.” The

CHAP. XXXIX. 9-12. 339

be intended, because it only came from India to Western
Asia and Europe at a more recent date, but also not any
other species whatever of this animal (Carey and others),
which is recognisable by its flat horns, which are also near
together, and its forbidding, staring, bloodshot eyes; for it is
tameable, and is (even in modern Syria) used as a domestic
animal. On the other hand there are antelopes which
somewhat resemble the horse, others the ox (whence Sov-
Baros, BovBarts, is a name for the antelope), others the
deer and the ass. Schultens erroneously considers O87 to be
the buffalo, being misled by a passage in the Divan of the
Hudheilites, which gives the 77m the by-name of dhu chadam,
i.e. oxen-like white-footed, which exactly applies to the A. oryzx
or even the A. leucoryx; for the former has white feet and
legs striped lengthwise with black stripes, the latter white
feet and legs. Just as little reason is there for imagining
the rhinoceros after Aquila (and in part Jerome); pwoxépws
is nothing but an unhappy rendering of the povorépws of the
LXX. The question in ver. 100, as already observed, re-
quires an animal that inhabits the mountains.

On 3s, to be willing = to take up, receive, vid. p. 125,

detailed description follows, and the suggestion is advanced that this
Antilope Hodgsonii, as it has been proposed to call the Tschiru, is the
one-horned oryx of the ancients. The existence of one-horned wild sheep
(not antelopes), attested by R. von Schlagintweit (Zoologischer Garten,
ist year, 8. 72), the horn of which consists of two parts gradually
growing together, covered by one horn-sheath, does not depreciate the
credibility of the account given by Huc-Gabet (to which Prof. Will has
called my attention as being the most weighty testimony of the time).
Another less minute account is to be found in the Arabic description of
a journey (communicated to me by Prof. Fleischer) by Selim Bisteris
(Beirfit, 1856): In the menagerie of the Viceroy of Egypt he saw an
animal of the colour of a gazelle, but the size and form of an ass, with a
long straight horn between the ears, and (what, as he says, seldom go

together) with hoofs, viz.—and as the expression j#l>, horse’s hoof (not

“~~

«a5, a camel's hoof), also implies—proper, uncloven hoofs,—therefore
an one-horned and at the same time one-hoofed antelope.

336 THE BOOK OF JOB.

note. The “furrow (DoR, sulcus, not porca, the ridge between
the furrows, vid. p. 198) of his cord” is that which it is said
to break up by means of the ploughshare, being led by a rein.
Wns refers to the leader, who goes just before or at the side;
according to Hahn, to one who has finished the sowing which
precedes the harrowing; but it is more natural to imagine
the leader of the animal that is harrowing, which is certainly
not left to itself. On °D, ver. 12a, as an exponent of the obj.,
vid. Ew. § 336, 6. The Chethib here uses the Kal 23% transi-
tively : to bring back (viz. that which was sown as harvested),
which is possible (vid. ch. xlii. 10). 1273, ver. 120, is either a
locative (into thy threshing-floor) or acc. of the obj. per
synecd. continentis pro contento, as Ruth iii. 2, Matt. iii. 12.
The position of the question from beginning to end assumes
an animal outwardly resembling the yoke-ox, as the ON" is
also elsewhere put with the ox, Deut. xxxiii. 17, Ps. xxix. 6,
Isa. xxxiv. 7. But the conclusion at length arrived at by
Hahn and in Gesenius’ Handwérterbuch, that on this very
account the buffalo is to be understood, is a mistake: A. oryx
and leucoryx are both (for this very reason not distinguished by
the ancients) entirely similar to the ox; they are not only rumi-
nants, like the ox, with a like form of the hoof, but also of a
plump form, which makes them appear to be of the ox tribe.

13 The wing of the ostrich vibrates joyously,
Ts she pious, wing and feather ?
14 No, she leaveth her eggs in the earth
And broodeth over the dust, |
15 Forgetting that a foot may crush them,
And the beast of the field trample them.
16 She treateth her young ones harshly as if they were not hers ;
In vain is her labour, without her being distressed.
17 For Eloah hath caused her to forget wisdom,
And gave her no share of understanding.

CHAP, XXXIX. 18-18. 337

18 At the time when she lasheth herself aloft,
She derideth the horse and horseman.

As the wild ass and the ox-like oryx cannot be tamed by
man, and employed in his service like the domestic ass and
ox, so the ostrich, although resembling the stork in its stilt-
like structure, the colour of its feathers, and its gregarious life,
still has characteristics totally different from those one ought
to look for according to this similarity. 0°29, a wail, prop.
a tremulous shrill sound (vid. ver. 23), isa name of the female
ostrich, whose peculiar cry (vid. p. 171) is calléd in Arabic
zimdr (1). boys (from DY, which in comparison with yoy,
12Y, rarely occurs) signifies to make: gestures of joy. D8,
ver. 130, is an interrogative an; TDN, pia, is a play upon
the name of the stork, which is so called: pia instar ciconice
(on this figure of speech, comp. Mehren’s Rhetorik der Araber,
S. 178). °3, ver. 14a; establishes the negation implied in the
question, as e.g. Isa. xxviii. 28.. The idea is not that the hen-
ostrich abandons the hatching of her eggs to the earth (° ay
as Ps. xvi. 10), and makes them “glow over the dust”
(Schlottm.), for the maturing energy compensating for the
sitting of the parent bird proceeds from the sun’s heat, which
ought to have been mentioned; one would also expect a Hiph.
instead of the Piel DNA, which can be understood only of hatch-
ing by her own warmth. The hen-ostrich also really broods her-
self, although from time to time she abandons the O19 to the
sun.’ That which contrasts with the duAocTopyla of the stork,
which is here made prominent, is that she lays her eggs in a
hole in the ground, and partly, when the nest is full, above
round about it, while AN'3 Dw Aton, Ps. civ. 17. D3 is

1 Tt does, however, as it appears, actually occur, that the female leaves
the work of hatching to the sun by day, and to the male at night, and
does not sit at all herself; vid. Funke’s Naturgeschichte, revised by
Taschenberg (1864), S. 243 f£.

VOL. II. Yy >

338 THE BOOK OF JOB.

construed in accordance with its meaning as fem. sing., Ew.
§ 318, a. Since she acts thus, what next happens consistently
therewith is told by the not aoristic but. only consecutive
navm: and so she forgets that the foot may crush (74, to
press together, break by pressure, as 7759, Isa. lix. 5 = 7710,
that which is crushed, comp. i mp = = mab, Zech. v. 4) them (és
the eggs, Ges. § 146, 3), patch tle beast: of ‘the field may
trample them down, crush them (v4 as (wi, to crush by
treading upon anything, to tread out).

Ver. 16. The difficulty of MPN (from Nvp, dead hardened
from WP, 5) being used of the hen-ostrich in the mase.,
may be removed by the pointing Mp (Ew.); but this
alteration is unnecessary, since the Hebr. also uses the mase.
for the fem. where it might be regarded as impossible (vid.
ver. 3b, and comp. e.g. Isa. xxxii. 11 sq.). Jer. translates
correctly according to the sense: quasi non sint sui, but ° is
not directly equivalent to 2 (vid. vol. i. pp. 325, 398, note 1);
what is meant is, that by the harshness of her conduct she
treats her young as not belonging to her, so that they become
strange to her, Ew. § 217, d. In ver. 160 the accentuation
varies: in vain (PrP with Rebia mugrasch) is her labour
that is devoid of anxiety; or: in vain is her labour (p%) with
Tarcha, *Y". with Munach vicarium) without anxiety (on her
_ part); or: in vain is her labour (p> with Mercha, ny» with
Rebia mugrasch), yet she is-without anxiety. The middle of
these renderings (pr? in all of them, like Isa. xlix. 4 =p), Isa.
Ixv. 23 and freq.) seems to us the most pleasing: the labour
of birth and of the brooding undertaken in places where the
egos are put beyond the danger of being crushed, is without
result, without the want of success distressing her, since she |
does not anticipate it, and therefore also takes no measures to
prevent it. The eggs that are only just covered with earth,
or that lie round about the nest, actually become a prey to
the jackals, wild-cats, and other animals; and men can get

CHAP. XXXIX. 18-18. 339

them for themselves one by one, if they only take care to
prevent their footprints being recognised; for if the ostrich
observes that its nest is discovered, it tramples upon its own
eggs, and makes its nest elsewhere (Schlottm., according to
Lichtenstein’s Sidafrik. Reise). 'That it thus abandons its
eges to the danger of being crushed and to plunder, arises,
according to ver. 17, from the fact that God has caused it to
forget wisdom, @.¢..as ver. 175 explains, has extinguished in
it, deprived it of, the share thereof (1 as Isa. liii. 12a, LXX.
év, as Acts viii. 21) which it might have had. It is only one
of the stupidities of the ostrich that is made prominent here ;
the proverbial ahmag min en-na‘dme, “more foolish than the
ostrich,” has its origin in more such characteristics. But if -
the care with which other animals guard their young ones is
denied to it, it has in its stead another remarkable character-
istic: at the time when (N¥2 here followed by an elliptical
relative clause, which is clearly possible, just as with nya, ch.
vi. 17) it stretches (itself) on high, i.e. it starts up with
alacrity from its ease (on the radical. signification of N17 =
N19, vid. p. 2, note), and hurries forth with a powerful flap-
ping of its wings, half running half flying, it derides the
horse and its rider—they do not overtake it, it is the swiftest
of all animals; wherefore pall wre osas! (zalim, equivalent
to delim according to a less exact pronunciation, supra, p. 171,

note) and dele| ye ,ai|, fleeter than the ostrich, is just as
proverbial as the above cle) oye (3ae}; and “on ostrich’s
wings” is equivalent to driving along with incomparable
swiftness. Moreover, on N2A and phn, which refer to
the female, it is to be observed that she is very anxious, and
deserts everything in her fright, while the male ostrich does
not forsake his young, and flees no danger.’

1 We take this remark from Doumas, Horse of the Sahara. The fol-
lowing contribution from Wetzstein only came to hand after the exposi-
tion was completed: “The female ostriches are called 337 not from

340 THE BOOK OF JOB.

19 Dost thou give to the horse strength ?
Dost thou clothe his neck with flowing hair ?

20 Dost thou cause him to leap about like the grasshopper?
The noise of his snorting is a terror !

21 He paweth the ground in the plain, and boundeth about with

strength.

He advanceth to meet an armed host.

22 He laugheth at fear, and is not affrighted,

And turneth not back from the sword.
23 The quiver rattleth over him,

The glittering lance and spear.
24 With fierceness and rage he swalloweth the ground,
And standeth not still, when the trumpet soundeth.

the whirring of their wings when flapped about, but from their piercing
screeching cry when defending their eggs against beasts of prey (chiefly
hyzenas), or when searching for the male bird. Now they are called rubd,
from sing. rubda (instead of rabd@), from the black colour of their long

wing-feathers ; for only the male, which is called pm (pronounce hésh),
r 7Uur

has white. The ostrich-tribe has the name of myn n3 (dic | uu);

‘inhabitant of the desert,’ because it is only at home in the most lonely
parts of the steppe, in perfectly barren deserts. Neshwdn the Himjarite,
in his ‘ Shems el-ol@m’ (mss. in the Royal Library at Berlin, sectio

Wetzst. I. No. 149, Bd. i. £. 110), defines the word el-wa'na by: pax
sw noon xd ya, a white (chalky or sandy) district, which brings

. forth nothing; and the Kdmiés explains it by nabs PN, a hard (unfruit-

ful) district. In perfect analogy with the Hebr. the Arabic calls the
ostrich abu (and umm) es-sahdrd, ‘ possessor of the sterile deserts.’ The
name O°3), Lam. iv. 3, is perfectly correct, and corresponds to the form

nidy» (steinbocks) ; the form Syn (_\xi) is frequently the Nisbe of Syp

and mbya, according to which y ss nye na and by = ney na,
‘inhabitant of the inaccessible rocks.’ Hence, says Neshwdn (against.
the non-Semite Firtizdbadi), wa'l (bys and wala) is exclusively the high
place of the rocks, and wa‘il (yy) exclusively the steinbock. The most
common Arabic name of the ostrich is na’ dame, may3, collective naam,
from the softness (nw dima, MDY3) of its feathers, with which the Arab
women (in Damascus frequently) stuff cushions and pillows. Umm

CHAP. XXXIX. 19-25. 341

25 He saith at every blast of the trumpet: Ha, ha!
And from afar he scenteth the battle,
The thundering of the captains and the shout of war.

After the ostrich, which, as the Arabs say, is composed of
the nature of a bird and a camel, comes the horse in its
heroic beauty, and impetuous lust for the battle, which is
likewise an evidence of the wisdom of the Ruler of the world —
—a wisdom which demands the admiration of men. This
passage of the book of Job, says K. Léoffler, in his Gesch.
des Pferdes (1863), is the oldest and most beautiful descrip-
tion of the horse. It may be compared to the praise of the
horse in Hammer-Purgstall’s Dujtkdrner ; it deserves more

thelathin, ‘mother of thirty,’ is the name of the female ostrich, because as
a rule she lays thirty eggs. The ostrich egg is called in the steppe dahwa,
MYTT (coll, dahé), a word that is certainly very ancient. Nevertheless the

Hauranites prefer the word medha, nm. A place hollowed out in the

ground serves as a nest, which the ostrich likes best to dig in the hot
sand, on which account they are very common in the sandy tracts of Ard
ed-Dehana (277), between the Shemmar mountains and the Sawdd

(Chaldzea). Thence at the end of April come the ostrich hunters with
their spoil, the hides of the birds together with the feathers, to Syria.
Such an unplucked hide is called gizze (3}). The hunters inform us that

the female sits alone on the nest from early in the day until evening, and
from evening until early in the morning with the male, which wanders
about throughout the day. The statement that the ostrich does not sit
on its eggs, is perhaps based on the fact that the female frequently, and
always before the hunters, forsakes the eggs during the first period of
brooding. Even vers. 14 and 15 do not say more than this. But when
the time of hatching (called el-fags, PB) is near, the hen no longer

_ leaves the eggs. The same observation is also made with regard to the
partridge of Palestine (e/-hagel, ban), which has many other character-

istics in common with the ostrich. That the ostrich is accounted stupid
(ver. 17) may arise from the fact, that when the female has been
frightened from the eggs she always seeks out the male with a loud cry;
she then, as the hunters unanimously assert, brings him forcibly back to
the nest (hence its Arabic name zalim, ‘the violent one’). During the
interval the hunter has buried himself in the sand, and on their arrival,
by a good shot often kills both together in the nest. It may also be

342 THE BOOK OF JOB.

than this latter the praise of majestic simplicity, which is
the first feature of classic superiority. Jer. falsely renders
ver. 190: aut cireumdabis collo ejus hinnitum; as Schlottm., who
also wishes to be so understood: Dost thou adorn his neck
with the voice of thunder? The neck (8:3, prop. the twister, _
as Persic gerddn, gerdan, from “8, jlo, to twist by pressure,
to turn, bend, as Pers. from gerdiden, to turn one’s self,
twist) has nothing to do with the voice of neighing. But
nay also does not signify dignity (Ew. 113, d), but the
mane, and is not from OY7 = O87 = 04, the hair of the mane,
as being above, like Aodid, but from OY, tremere, the mane
as quivering, trembling (Eliz. Smith: the shaking mane) ;

accounted as stupidity, that, when the wind is calm, instead of flying
before the riding hunters, the bird tries to hide itself behind a mound or
in the hollows of the ground. But that, when escape is impossible, it is
said to try to hide its head in the sand, the hunters regard as an absurdity.
If the wind aids it, the fleeing ostrich spreads out the feathers of its tail
like a sail, and by constantly steering itself with its extended wings, it
escapes its pursuers with ease. The word x™19n, ver. 18, appears to be

a hunting expression, and (without an accus. objecti) to describe this
spreading out of the feathers, therefore to be perfectly synonymous with

the yiyn (te x3 ) of the ostrich hunters of the present day. Thus

sings the poet Rashid of the hunting race of the Sulubat: ‘And the
head (of the bride with its loosened locks) resembles the (soft and black)
feathers of the ostrich-hen, when she spreads them out (‘arrashann@). |
They saw the hunter coming upon them where there was no hiding-place,
‘| And stretched their legs as they fled.’ The prohibition to eat the
ostrich in the Thora (Lev. xi. 16; Deut. xiv. 15) is perhaps based upon
the cruelty of the hunt; for it is With the rarest exceptions always killed
only on its eggs. The feenahee which, as has been said already, does not
flee towards the end of the time of brooding, stoops on the approach of
the hunter, inclines the head on one side and looks motionless at her
enemy. Several Beduins have said to me, that a man must have a hard
heart to fire under such circumstances. If the bird is killed, the hunter
covers the blood with sand, puts the female again upon the eggs, buries
himself at some distance in the sand, and waits till evening, when the
male comes, which is now shot EA beside the female. The Mosaic
law might accordingly have forbidden the hunting of the ostrich from
the same feeling of humanity which unmistakeably regulated it in other
decisions (as Ex. xxiii. 19, Deut. xxii. 6 sq., Lev. xxii. 28, and freq.).

CHAP, XXXIX. 19-25. 343

like dd8n, according to Kuhn, cogn. with ody, the tail,
from oPeiv (coBeiv), to wag, shake, scare, comp. diccedOar
of the mane, J/. vi. 510.

Ver. 20a. The motion of the horse, which is intended by
WAIN (YI, Cwey Urs» tremere, trepidare), is determined
according to the comparison with the grasshopper: what is
intended is a curved motion forwards in leaps, now to the
ght, now to the left, which is called the caracol, a word
used in horsemanship, borrowed from the Arab. hargala-l-
farasu (comp. 257n), by means of the Moorish Spanish ;
moreover, (wc, is used of the run of the ostrich and the
flight of the dove in such “successive lateral and oblique
motions” (Carey). M3, ver. 208, is not the neighing of the
horse, but its snorting through the nostrils (comp. Arab.
nachir, snoring, a rattling in the throat), Greek ¢pvaypa,
Lat. fremitus (comp. /Eschylus, Septem c. Th. 374, according
to the text of Hermann: {a7os yadwav Sas xatacOuaivey
Bpéuer); in, however, might signify pomp (his pompous
snorting), but perhaps has its radical signification, according
to which it corresponds to the Arab. hawid, and signifies a
loud strong sound, as the peal of thunder (hawid er-ra‘d),
the howling of the stormy wind (hawid er-rijdh), and the
like.* The substantival clause is intended to affirm that its
dull-toned snort causes or spreads terror. In ver. 21a the

1 A verse of a poem of Ibn-Dichi in honour of Dékan ibn-Gendel runs :
Before the crowding (lekdata) of Taijar the horses fled repulsed, | And
thou mightest hear the sound of the bell-carriers (hawida mubershemat)
of the warriors (el-mendir, prop. one who thrusts with the lance). Here
hawid signifies the sound of the bells which those who wish to announce
themselves as warriors hang about. their horses, to draw the attention of
the enemy to them. Jubershemdat are the mares that carry the buréshi-
médn, i.e. the bells. The meaning therefore is: thou couldst hear this
sound, which ought only to be heard in the fray, in flight, when the
warriors consecrated to death fled as cowards. Taijdr (Téjar) is Salih
the son of Cana an (died about 1815), mentioned in vol. i. p. 390, note 1,
a great warrior of the wandering tribe of the ‘Aneze.—WEtzst.

344 THE BOOK OF JOB.

plur. alternates with the sing., since, as it appears, the repre-
sentation of the many pawing hoofs is blended with that of
the pawing horse, according to the well-known line,
Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum
(VirGIL, Zn. viii. 596) ;
or, since this is said of the galloping horse, according to the
likewise Virgilian line,
— Cavatque “
Tellurem, et solido graviter sonat ungula cornu
(Georg. iii. 87 sq.).
"pM is, as the Arab. hdjir, hoof, shows, the proper word for
the horse’s impatient pawing of the ground (whence it then,
as in ver. 29, signifies rimart, scrutart). PY is the plain as
the place of contest ; for the description, as now becomes still
more evident, refers to the war-horse. The verb MY (bay)
has its radical signification exsultare (comp. (ls, oxipray,
of the foetus) here; and since 923, not 753, is added to it,
it is not to be translated: it rejoices in its strength, but:
it prances or is joyous with strength, LXX. yavpid év
isyvi. The difference between the two. renderings is, how-
ever, scarcely perceptible. P32, armament, ver. 210, is meton.
the armed host. of the enemy; MBs, “the quiver,” is, how-
ever, not used metonymically for the arrows of the enemy
whizzing about the horse (Schult.), but ver. 23 is the con-
cluding description of the horse that rushes on fearlessly,
proudly, and impetuously in pursuit, under the rattle and
glare of the equipment of its rider (Schlottm. and others).
m1 (cogn. of {21), of the rattling of the quiver, as Arab.
ranna, ranima, of the whirring of the bow when the arrow
is despatched; to point it 735M (Proy. i. 20, viii. 3), instead
of 731n, would be to deprive the language of a word sup-
ported by the dialects (vid. Ges. Thes.). On ver. 24a we
may compare the Arab. dltahama-l-farasu-l-arda, the horse
swallows up the ground, whence lahimm, lahim, a swallower

CHAP. XXXIX, 19-25. 345

= swift-runner; so here: with boisterous fierceness and
angry impatience (1371 YY13) it swallows up the ground, i.e.
passes so swiftly over it that long pieces vanish so rapidly
before it, as though it greedily sucked them up (8) inten-
sive of 813, whence §i, the water-sucking papyrus) ; a some-
what differently applied figure is nahab-el-arda, i.e. according
to Silius’ expression, rapuit campum. The meaning of ver.
24d is, as in Virgil, Georg. ii. 83 sq. :
Tum st qua sonum procul arma dedere,
Stare loca nescit ;

and in Aischylus, Septem, 875: doris Boy cddrriyyos oppai-
ve. (Hermann, dpyaiver) wévwv (impatiently awaiting the call
of the trumpet). 287 signifies here to show stability (v¢d.
Genesis, S. 367f.) in the first physical sense (Bochart,
Rosenm., and others): it does not stand still, ze. will not be
held, when (13, guwm) the sound of the war-trumpet, é.e.
when it sounds. 5\t’ is the signal-trumpet when the army
was called together, e.g. Judg. iii. 27; to gather the army
that is in pursuit of the enemy, 2 Sam. ii. 28; when the
people rebelled, 2 Sam. xx. 1; when the army was dismissed
at the end of the war, 2 Sam. xx. 22; when forming for
defence and for assault, e.g. Amos iii. 6; and in general the
signal of war, Jer. iv. 19. As often as this is heard (°73, in
sufficiency, 7c. happening at any time = quotiescunque), it
makes known its lust of war by a joyous neigh, even from
afar, before the collision has taken place; it scents (presagit
according to Pliny’s expression) the approaching conflict,
(scents even in anticipation) the thundering command of
the chiefs that may soon be heard, and the cry of battle
giving loose to the assault. “ Although,” says Layard (New
Discoveries, p. 330), “docile as a lamb, and requiring no
other guide than the halter, when the Arab mare hears the
war-cry of the tribe, and sees the quivering spear of her
rider, her eyes glitter with fire, her blood-red nostrils open

\

346 THE BOOK OF JOB.

wide, her neck is nobly arched, and her tail and mane are
raised and spread out to the wind. The Bedouin proverb
says, that a high-bred mare when at full speed should hide
her rider between her neck and her tail.”

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,
Doth tt spread its wings towards the south?
27 Or is it at thy command that the eagle soareth aloft,
And buildeth its nest on high?
28 It inhabiteth the rock, and buildeth its nest
Upon the crag of the rock and fastness.
29 From thence it seeketh food,
Its eyes see afar off.
30. And its young ones suck up blood;
And where the slain are, there is tt.

The ancient versions are unanimous in testifying that,
according to the signification of the root, 72 signifies the
hawk (which is significant in the Hieroglyphics): the soaring

one, the high-flyer (comp. ye , to rise, struggle forwards, and

oi, to raise the wings for flight). The Hiph. 28. (jussive
form in the question, as ch. xiii. 27) might signify: to get
feathers, plumescere (‘Targ., Jer.), but that gives a tame
question; wherefore Gregory understands the plumeseit of the
Vulgate of moulting, for which purpose the hawk seeks the
sunny side. But 287 alone, by itself, cannot signify “to
get new feathers ;” moreover, an annual moulting is common
to all birds, and prominence is alone given to the new feather-
ing of the eagle in the Old Testament, Ps. ciii. 5, Mic. i. 16,
comp. Isa. xl. 31 (LXX. srepodurjcovew ds detoi). Thus,
then, the point of the question will lie in wo"n?: the hawk is

1 Less unfavourable to this rendering is the following, that M71N
signifies the long feathers, and 728 the wing that is composed of them

CHAP. XXXIX, 26-30. 347

a bird of passage, God has endowed it with instinct to migrate
to the south as the winter season is approaching.

In vers. 27 sqq. the circle of the native figures taken from
animal life, which began with the lion, the king of quadru-
peds, is now closed with the eagle, the king of birds. It is
called Wa, from WW, j3, vellere; as also vultur (by virtue of a
strong power of assimilation = vultor) is derived from vellere,
—a common name of the golden eagle, the lamb’s vulture, the
carrion-kite (Cathartes percnopterus), and indeed also of other
kinds of kites and falcons. There is nothing to prevent our
understanding the eagle car éfoynv, viz. the golden eagle
(Aquila chrysaétos), in the present passage ; for even to this,
corpses, though not already putrified, are a welcome prey.
In ver. 27) we must translate either: and is it at thy com-
mand that . . .? or: is it so that (as in "37) at thy command
... ? The former is more natura] here. iA¥D, ver. 280,
signifies prop. specula (from 3¥, to spy) ; then, however, as
Arab. masdd (referred by the original lexicons to masada),
the high hill, and the mountain-top. The rare form oY, for
which Ges., Olsh., and others wish to read Wye or ayy
(from yd, deglutire), is to be derived from yby, a likewise
secondary form out of oyey (from sy, to suck, to give suck Py

like YY out of WW (from NW, .., to make firm), Ew.
§ 118, a, comp. Fiirst, Handworterbuch, sub Sy, since instances

(perhaps, since the Talm. N28 signifies wings and limbs, artus, from
TAS = 127, 2, to divide, furnish with joints), although mis (from
v2, to fly) 3 is the more general designation of the feathers of binds.

1 The Arab. ‘alla does not belong here: it gains the signification iterum
bibere from the primary signification of ‘t coming over or upon anything,”
which branches out in various ways: to take a second, third, etc., drink
after the first. More on this point on Isa. iii. 4.

Supplementary note: The quadriliteral ayby to be supposed, is not to
be derived from poy, and is not, as it recently has been, to be compared

with nye! tit> drink.” "Pig Aya! verb does not signify ‘to drink” at all,

348 | THE BOOK OF JOB.

are wanting in favour of yoy being formed out of ybyd
(Jesurun, p. 164). Schult. not inappropriately compares
even 353 = $53. in Nm303, Toryoa = NPI, The concluding
words, ver. 30, are perhaps echoed in Matt. xxiv. 28. High
up on a mountain-peak the eagle builds its eyrie, and God
has given it a remarkably sharp vision, to see far into the
depth below the food that is there for it and its young ones.
Not merely from the valley in the neighbourhood of its
eyrie, but often from distant plains, which lie deep below on
the other side of the mountain range, it seizes its prey, and
rises with it even to the clouds, and bears it home to its nest.’
Thus does God work exceeding strangely, but wondrously,
apparently by contradictions, but in truth most harmoniously
and wisely, in the natural world.

[Then Jehovah answered Job, and said :]

Ch. xl. 2 Will now the censurer.contend with the Almighty ?
Let the instructor of Eloah answer it!

With ver. 1, ch. xxxviiil. 1 is again taken up, because the
speech of Jehovah has now in some measure attained the end
which was assigned to it as an answer to Job’s outburst of
censure. 2° is inf. abs., as Judg. xi. 25; it is left to the
hearer to give to the simple verbal notion its syntactic rela-
.tion in accordance with the connection ; here it stands in the
sense of the fut. (comp. 2 Kings iv. 43): num litigabit, Ges.
§ 131, 4, 0. The inf. abs. is followed by "8 as subj., which

but, among many other branchings out of its general primary significa-

tion, related to by, dlc, also signifies: ‘to take a second, third, etc., drink
after the first,” concerning which more details will be given elsewhere.
bybyy goes back to Say, lactare, with the middle vowel, whence also Sy,
ch. xvi. 11, xii. 18, =xi. 11 (which see). The Hauran dialect has “lal
(plur. ‘awdilil), like the Hebr. Oty (d5y = SSiyn), in the signification
juvenis, and especially juvencus (comp. infra, p. 359, note 1, ‘‘but they are
heifers,” Arab. 7a ‘awalil).

1 Vid. the beautiful description in Charles Boner’s Forest Creatures, 1861.

CHAP. XL. 4, 5. 349

(after the form “iD¥) signifies a censurer and fault-finder,
popntis. The question means, will Job persist in this con-
tending with God? He who sets God right, as though he
knew everything better than He, shall answer the questions
put before him.

[Then Job answered Jehovah, and said :]

4 Behold, I am too mean: what shall I answer Thee?
I lay my hand upon my mouth.

5 Once have I spoken, and will not begin again ;
And twice—I will do it no more.

He is small, i.e. not equal to the task imposed, therefore he
keeps his mouth firmly closed (comp. ch. xxi. 5, xxix. 9), for
whatever he might say would still not be to the point. Once
he has dared to criticise God’s doings; a second time (D!AY =
nv, Ges. §.120, 5) he ventures it no more, for God’s won-
drous wisdom and all-careful love dazzle him, and he gladly
bows.

But how? Is not the divine speech altogether different
from what one ought to expect? One expects to hear from
the mouth of Jehovah something unheard of in the previous
course of the drama, and in this expectation we find ourselves
disappointed at the outset. For one need only look back and
read ch. ix. 4-10, where Job acknowledges and describes God
as a wise and mighty Lord over the natural world, especially
as an irresistible Ruler over everything great in it; ch.
xii. 7-10, where he refers to the creatures of the sky and
deep as proofs of God’s creative power; ch. xii. 11-25, where
he sketches the grandest picture of God’s terrible doings in
nature and among men; ch. xxvi. 5-14, where he praises
God as the Creator and Lord of all things, and describes
_ what he says concerning Him as only a faint echo of the
thunder of His might; ch. xxviii. 23 sqq., where he ascribes
absolute wisdom to Him as the Creator and Ruler of the

350 THE BOOK OF JOB.

world. If one ponders these passages of Job’s speeches, he
will not be able to say that the speech of Jehovah, in the
exhibition of the creative power and wisdom of God, which
is its theme, would make Job conscious of anything which
was previously unknown to him; and it is accordingly asked,
What, then, is there that is new in the speech of Jehovah
by which the great effect is brought about, that Job humbles
himself in penitence, and becomes ready for the act of
redemption which follows ? |

It has indeed never occurred to Job to desire to enter into
a controversy with God concerning the works of creation ;
he is far from the delusion of being able to stand such a test;
he knows in general, that if God were willing to contend
with him, he would not be able to answer God one in a thou-
sand, ch. ix. 38. And yet God closely questioned him, and
thereby Job comes to the perception of his sin—how comes
it to pass? Has the plot of the drama perhaps failed in this
point? Has the poet made use of means unsuited to the
connection of the whole, to bring about the needful effect,
viz. the repentance of Job,—because, perhaps, the store of
his thoughts was exhausted? But this poet is not so poor,
and we shall therefore be obliged to try and understand the
disposition of the speech of Jehovah before we censure it.
_. When one of Job’s last words before the appearing of
Jehovah was the word ‘339 Sw, Job thereby desired God’s
decision concerning the testimony of his innocence. This
wish is in itself not sinful; yea, it is even a fruit of his hidden
faith, when he casts the look of hope away from his affliction
and the accusation of the friends, into the future to God as
his Vindicator and Redeemer. But that wish becomes sinful
when he looks upon his affliction as a de facto accusation on
the part of God, because he cannot think of suffering and
sin as separable, and because he is conscious of his innocence,
looks upon it as a decree of God, his opponent and his enemy,

CHAP. XL. 4, 5. d51

which is irreconcilable with the divine justice. This Job’s
condition of conflict and temptation is the prevailing one;
his faith is beclouded, and breaks through the night which
hangs over him only in single rays. The result of this con-
dition of conflict is the sinful character which that wish
assumes: it becomes a challenge to God, since Job directs
against God Himself the accusation which the friends have
directed against him, and asserts his ability to carry through
his good cause even if God would enter with him into a
judicial contention; he becomes a 7D and mbx mv, and
raises himself above God, because he thinks he has Him for
an enemy who is his best friend. This defiance is, however,
not common godlessness; on the contrary, Job is really the
innocent servant of God, and his defiant tone is only the
result of a false conception which the tempted one indulges
respecting the Author of his affliction. So, then, this defiance
has not taken full possession of Job’s mind; on the contrary,
the faith which lays firm hold on confidence in the God
whom he does not comprehend, is in conflict against it; and
this conflict tends in the course of the drama, the nearer it
comes to the catastrophe, still nearer to the victory, which
only awaits a decisive stroke in order to be complete. There-
fore Jehovah yields to Job’s longing ‘23 “Ww, in as far as He
really answers Job; and even that this takes place, and that,
although out of the storm, it nevertheless takes place, not in
a way to crush and destroy, but to instruct and convince, and
displaying a loving condescension, is an indirect manifestation
that Job is not regarded by God as an evil-doer mature for
judgment. But that folly and temerity by which the servant
of God is become unlike himself must notwithstanding be
destroyed; and before Job can realize God as his Witness
and Redeemer, in which character his faith in its brighter
moments has foreseen Him, his sinful censuring and blaming
of God must be blotted out by penitence; and with it at the

352 THE BOOK OF JOB.

same time his foolish imagination, by which his faith has
been almost overwhelmed, must be destroyed, viz. the ima-
gination that his affliction is a hostile dispensation of God.
And by what means is Job brought to the penitent recog-
nition of his gloomy judgment concerning the divine decree,
and of his contending with God? Is it, perhaps, by God’s
admitting to him what really is the case: that he does not °
suffer as a sinner the punishment of his sin, but showing at
the same time that the decree of suffering is not an unjust
one, because its design is not hostile? No, indeed, for Job
is not worthy that his cause should be acknowledged on the
part of God before he has come to a penitent recognition
of the wrong by which he has sinned against God. God
would be encouraging self-righteousness if He should give
Job the testimony of his innocence, before the sin of vain-
glory, into which Job has fallen in the consciousness of his
innocence, is changed to humility, by which all uprightness
that is acceptable with God is tested. Therefore, contrary
to expectation, God begins to speak with Job about totally
different matters from His justice or injustice in reference
to his affliction. Therein already lies a deep humiliation for
Job. But a still deeper one in God’s turning, as it were,
to the abecedarium nature, and putting the censurer of His
doings to the blush. That God is the almighty and all-
wise Creator and Ruler of the world, that the natural world
is exalted above human knowledge and power, and is full of
marvellous divine creations and arrangements, full of, things
mysterious and incomprehensible to ignorant.and feeble man,
Job knows even before God speaks, and yet he must now
hear it, because he does not know it rightly; for the nature °
with which he is acquainted as the herald of the creative and.
governing power of God, is also the preacher of humility;
and exalted as God the Creator and Ruler of the natural
world is above Job’s censure, so is He also as the Author of

CHAP. XL. 4, 5. 853

his affliction. That which is new, therefore, in the speech of
Jehovah, is not the proof of God’s exaltation in itself, but
the relation to the mystery of his affliction, and to his conduct
towards God in this his affliction, in which Job is necessitated
to place perceptions not in themselves strange to him. He
who cannot answer a single one of those questions taken
from the natural kingdom, but, on the contrary, must every-
where admire and adore the power and wisdom of God—
he must appear as an insignificant fool, if he applies them
to his limited judgment concerning the Author of «his
affliction.

The fundamental tone of the divine speech is the thought,
that the divine working in nature is infinitely exalted above
human knowledge and power, and that consequently man
must renounce all claim to better knowledge and right of
contention in the presence of the divine dispensations. But
at the same time, within the range of this general thought,
it is also in particular shown how nature reflects the good-
ness of God as well as His wisdom (He has restrained the
destructive power of the waters, He also sendeth rain upon
the steppe, though untenanted by man); how that which
accomplishes the purposes for which it was in itself designed,
serves higher purposes in the moral order of the world (the
dawn of day puts an end to the works of darkness, snow and
hail serve as instruments of divine judgments) ; how divine
providence extends to all creatures, and always according to
their need (He provides the lion its prey, He satisfies the
ravens that cry to Him); and how He has distributed His
manifold gifts in a way often paradoxical to man, but in
truth worthy of admiration (to the steinbock ease in bringing
forth and growth without toil, to the wild ass freedom, to the
antelope untameable fleetness, to the ostrich freedom from
anxiety about its young and swiftness, to the horse heroic

and proud lust for the battle, to the hawk the instinct. of
VOL. IL. Z

354 THE BOOK OF JOB.

migration, to the eagle a lofty nest and a piercing sight).
Everywhere the wonders of Ged’s power and wisdom, and
in fact of His goodness abounding in power, and His provi-
dence abounding in wisdom, infinitely transcend Job’s know-
ledge and capacity. Job cannot answer one of all these
questions, but yet he feels to what end they are put to him.
The God who sets bounds to the sea, who refreshes the
desert, who feeds the ravens, who cares for the gazelle in
the wilderness and the eagle in its eyrie,is the same God
who now causes him seemingly thus unjustly to suffer. But
if the former is worthy of adoration, the latter will also be so.
Therefore Job confesses that he will henceforth keep silence,
and solemnly promises that he will now no longer contend
with Him. From the marvellous in nature he divines that
which is marvellous in his affliction. His humiliation under
the mysteries of nature is at the same time humiliation
under the mystery of his affliction; and only now, when he
penitently reveres the mystery he has hitherto censured, is
it.time that its inner glory should be unveiled to him. The
bud is mature, and .can now burst forth, in order to disclose
the blended colours of its matured beauty.

The Second Speech of Jehovah, and Job’s Second Penitent
Answer.—Chap. xl. 6—xlii. 6.

Schema: 6. 10. 9. 12. 10. 9. | 4. 6. 6. 8. 8. 8. 10. | 6. 6.

[Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, and said :]

This second time also Jehovah speaks to Job out of the
storm ; not, however, in wrath, but in the profound conde-
scension of His majesty, in order to deliver His servant
from dark imaginings, and to bring him to free and joyous
knowledge. He does not demand blind subjection, but free
submission; He does not extort an acknowledgment of His
creatness, but it is effected by persuasion. It becomes manifest

Ee

CHAP. XL. 7-9. 355

that God is much more forbearing and compassionate than
men. Observe. the friends, the defenders of the divine
honour, these sticklers for their own orthodoxy, how they
rave against Job! How much better is it to fall into the
hands of the living God, than into the hands of man! For

. God is truth and love; but men have at one time love with-

out truth, at another truth without love, since they either
connive at one or anathematize him. When a man who,
moreover, like Job, is a servant of God, fails in one point,
or sins, men at once condemn him altogether, and admit
nothing good in him; God, however, discerns between good
and evil, and makes the good a means of freeing the man
from the evil. He also does not go rashly to work, but waits,
like an instructor, until the time of action arrives. How
long He listens to Job’s bold challenging, and keeps silence!
And then, when He does begin to speak, He does not cast
Job to the ground by His authoritative utterances, but deals
with him as a child; He examines him from the catechism
of nature, and allows him to say for himself that he fails in

this examination. In this second speech He acts with him

as in the well-known poem of Hans Sachs with St Peter:
He offers him to take the government of the world for once
instead of Himself. Here also He produces conviction ; here

also His mode of action is a deep lowering of Himself.

It is Jehovah, the God, who at length begets Himself in
humanity, in order to convince men of His love.

7 Gird up thy loins manfully :
L will question thee, and do thou answer me!
8 Wilt thou altogether annul my right,
Condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous ?
9 And hast thou then an arm like God,
And canst thou with the voice thunder like Him?

The question with 481 stands to ch. xl. 2 in the relation of

356 THE BOOK OF JOB.

a climax: Job contended not alone with God, which is in
itself wrong, let it be whatsoever it may; he went so far as
to lose sight of the divine justice in the government of the
world, and in order not to be obliged to give up his own
righteousness, so far as to doubt the divine. 8), ver. 9a,
is also interrogative, as ch. viii. 3, xxi. 4, xxxiv. 17, comp.
xxxix. 13, not expressive of a wish, as ch. xxxiv. 16. In the
government of the world, God shows His arm, He raises His
voice of thunder: canst thou perhaps—asks Jehovah—do
the like, thou who seemest to imagine thou couldst govern the
world more justly, if thou hadst to govern it? 33 >ipm are
to be combined: of like voice to Him; the translation follows
the accents (pn with Rebia mugrasch).

10 Deck thyself then with pomp and dignity,
And in glory and majesty clothe thyself !
11 Let the overflowings of thy wrath pour forth,
And behold all pride, and abase tt!
12 Behold all pride, bring it low,
And cast down the evil-doers in their place ;
13 Hide them in the dust together,
Bind their faces in secret:
14 Then I also will praise thee,
That thy right hand obtaineth thee help.

He is for once to put on the robes of the King of kings
(TY, comp. NYY, to wrap round, Ps. civ. 2), and send. forth
his wrath over pride and evil-doing, for their complete re-
moval, "50, effundere, diffundere, as Arab. afdda, vid. ch.
xxxvii. 11. i929, or rather, according to the reading of Ben- .
Ascher, ni72Y, in its prop. signif. oversteppings, ¢.c. overflow-
ings. In connection with vers. 11-13, one is directly reminded
of the judgment on everything that is high and exalted
in Isa. ii., where 15¥3 O32 also has its parallel (Isa. 1. 10).
Not less, however, does ver. 146 recall Isa. lix. 16, Ixin. 5

CHAP. XL, 15-18. 357

(comp. Ps. xeviii, 1); Isaiah I. and II. have similar descrip-
tions to the book of Job. The da rey. TM is Hebrao-Arab.;
hadaka signifies, like hadama, to tear, pull to the ground. In
connection with }120 (from j22; Aram., Arab., 112), the lower
world, including the grave, is thought of (comp. Arab. mat-
murat, subterranean places) ; 27 signifies, like (uss IV., to
chain and to imprison. Try it only for once—this is the
collective thought—to act like Me in the execution of penal
justice, I would praise thee. - That he cannot do it, and yet
ventures with his short-sightedness and feebleness to charge
God’s rule with injustice, the following pictures of foreign
animals are now further intended to make evident to him :—.

15 Behold now the behéméth,
Which I have made with thee:
He eateth grass like an ox.
16 Behold now, his strength is in his loins,
And his force in the sinews of has belly.
17 He bendeth his tail like a cedar branch,
The sinews of his legs are firmly interwoven.
18 His bones are like tubes of brass,
His bones like bars of iron.

ninna (after the manner of the intensive plur. niddin, nipon,
which play the part of the abstract termination), which sounds
like a plur., but without the numerical plural signification,
considered as Hebrew, denotes the beast xar’ é£oynv, or the
viant of beasts, is however Hebraized from the Egyptian p-ehe-
mau, (muau), t.e. the (p) ox (ehe) of the water (mau as in the
Hebraized proper name 7), It is, as Bochart has first of all
shown, the so-called river or Nile horse, Hippopotamus am-
phibius (in Isa. xxx. 6, 233 i003, as emblem of Egypt, which
extends its power, and still is active in the interest of others),
found in the rivers of Africa, but no longer found in the Nile,
which is not inappropriately called a horse; the Arab. water-

358 ' THE BOOK OF JOB.

hog is better, Italian bomarino, Engl. sea-cow [?], like the
Egyptian p-ehe-mau. The change of p and 6 in the exchange
of Egyptian and Semitic words occurs also elsewhere, e.g.
pug and 713, harpu and 319 (apn), Apriu and DY (ac-
cording to Lauth). Nevertheless p-ehe-mau (not mau-t, for
what should the post-positive fem. art. do here?) is first of
all only the nyona translated back again into the Egyptian
by Jablonsky; an instance in favour of this is still wanting.
In Hieroglyph the Nile-horse is called apet; it was honoured
as divine. Brugsch dwelt in Thebes in the temple of the
Apet.' In ver. 15 JY signifies nothing but “with thee,” so
that thou hast it before thee. This water-ox eats YS, green
grass, like an ox. That it prefers to plunder the produce of
the fields—in Arab. chadir signifies, in particular, green
barley—is accordingly self-evident. Nevertheless, it has
gigantic strength, viz. in its plump loins and in the sinews
("2, properly the firm constituent parts,’ therefore: liga-
ments and muscles) of its clumsy belly. The brush of a tail,
short in comparison with the monster itself, is compared to a
cedar (a branch of it), ratione glabritiei, rotunditatis, spissi-

1 In the astronomical representations the hippopotamus is in the neigh- |
bourhood of the North Pole in the place of the dragon of the present

day, and bears the name of hes-mut, in which mut = t. mau, ‘the mother.”
Hes however is obscure ; Birch explains it by: raging.

“2 Starting from its primary signification (made firm, fast), ye
xv can signify e.g. also things put together from wood: a throne, a
hand-barrow, bedstead and cradle, metaphor. the foundation. Wetzst.
otherwise: ‘** The wan w are not the sinews and muscles, still less
‘the private parts’ of others, but the four bearers of the animal body
= arkdn el-batn, viz. the bones of the p°3n1, ver. 16a, together with the
two shoulder-blades. The Arab. sarir is that on which a thing is sup-
ported or shen on which it stands firmly, or moves about. Neshwdn _
(i. 280) says: ‘sarir is the substratum on which a thing rests,’ and
the sarir er-ra’s, says the same, is the place where the head rests upon the
nape of theneck. The Kamis gives the same signification primo loco,

y petal’ ¢ cw

which shows that it is general ; then follows in gen. ethics, “the
support of a thing.” | at

- CHAP. XL, 15-18. 359

tudinis et firmitatis (Bochart); since the beast is in general
almost without hair, it looks like a stiff, naked bone, and yet
it can bend it like an elastic cedar branch; 759 is Hebreeo-
Arab., (48> 1 is a word used directly of the bending of wood
(eld). Since this description, like the whole book of Job,
is so strongly Arabized, 1nd, ver. 170, will also be one word
with the Arab. fachidh, the thigh; as the Arabic version also
translates: ‘uriku afchddhihi (the veins or strings of its thigh).
The Targ., retaining the word of the text here,” has }178 in
Ley. xxi. 20 for JW, a testicle, prop. inguina, the groins; we
interpret: the sinews of its thighs or legs’ are intertwined
after the manner of intertwined vine branches, oyny.* But

1 Wetzst. otherwise: One may compare the Arab. (ars, fut. i, to
hold, sit, lie motionless (in any place), from which the signification of
desiring, longing, has been developed, since in the Semitic languages the
figure of fixing (ta alluq) the heart and the eye on any desired object is at
the basis of this notion (wherefore such verbs are joined with the prep. 3).

According to this, it is to be explained, “‘ his tail is motionless like (the
short and thick stem of) the cedar,” for the stunted tail of an animal is a
mark of its strength toa Semite. In.1860, as.I was visiting the neighbour-
ing mountain fortress of el-Hosn with the octogenarian Féjad, the sheikh
of Fik in Géldn, we rode past Féjad’s ploughmen ; and as one of them
was letting his team go slowly along, the sheikh cried out to him from a
distance: Faster! faster! They (the steers, which thou ploughest) are
not oxen weak with age, nor are they the dower of a widow (who at her
second marriage receives only a pair of weak wretched oxen from her
father or brother); but they are heifers (8-4 year-old steers) with stiffly
raised tails (wadhujiluhin mugashmare, avin an intensive aw or WPI
*[comp. NOW, ch. xxi. 23]).

2 Another Targ., which translates py aywA AMI, penis et testiculi ejus,
vid. Aruch s.v. }yv’.

8 According to Fleischer, jfachidh signifies properly the thick-leg
(= thigh), from the root fach, with the general signification of being
puffed out, swollen, thick.

_ *Tn the choice of the word sy, the mushdgarat ed-dawdli (from
“3 = my), ‘the interweaving of the vine branches ” was undoubtedly
before the poet’s eye; comp. Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr. xi. 477: ‘‘ On
all sides in this delightful corner of the earth (the Ghita) the vine left
to itself, in diversified ramifications, often a dozen branches resembling
so many huge snakes entangled together, swings to and fro upon the

360 THE BOOK OF JOB.

why is "IND pointed thus, and not WIND (as eg. MY)? It is
either an Aramaizing (with "WS it has another relationship)
pointing of the plur., or rather, as Kohler has perceived, a
regularly-pointed dual (like yor), from O°778 (like OvDyB),
which is equally suitable in connection with the signification
femora as testiculi. myn, ver. 180, is also Hebreeo-Arab. ;
for Je signifies to forge, or properly to extend by forging
(hammering), and to lengthen, undoubtedly a secondary
formation of Si, téla, to be long, as makuna of kana, madana
of dana, massara (to found a fortified city) of sdra, chiefly
(if not always) by the intervention of such nouns as makdn,
medine, misr (= N82), therefore in the present instance by
the intervention of this metil (= memtél'), whence probably
pérarrov (metal), properly iron in bars or rods, therefore
metal in a wrought state, although not yet finished.? Its
bones are like tubes of brass, its bones (1273, the more Aram.
word) like forged rods of iron—what an appropriate descrip-
tion of the comparatively thin but firm as iron skeleton by
which the plump mass of flesh of the gigantic boar-like grass-
eater is carried!

shining stem of the lofty white poplar.” And ib. S. 491: “ a’ twisted
vine almost the thickness of a man, as though formed of rods of iron
(comp. ver. 18).”

_} The noun pala is also found in the Lexicon of Neshwdn, i. 68 : byt
is equivalent to Sonn, viz. that which is hammered out in length, used of
iron and other metals ; and one says now mn of a piece of iron that
has been hammered for the purpose of stretching it.” The verb Neshwan
explains: ‘ by said of iron signifies to stretch it that it may become
long.” The verb bn can be regarded as a fusion of the root 74 (Yn,
rw, comp. myin, and bee Beduin: to take long steps) with the root
Sym, to be long.—Wetzst. The above explanation of the origin of the
verb ban seems to us more probable.

2 Ibn-Koreisch in Pinsker, Likkute, p. 9p, explains it without exact-

ness by sebikat hadid, which signifies a smelted and formed piece of
iron.

CHAP. XL. 19-24. 361

19 He is the jirstling of the ways of God;
Fe, his Maker, reached to him his sword.
20 For the mountains bring forth food for him,
And all the beasts of the field play beside him.
21 Under the lote-trees he lieth down,
In covert of reeds and marsh.
22 Lote-trees cover him as shade,
The willows of the brook encompass him.
23 Behold, if the stream is strong, he doth not quake ;
He remaineth cheerful, if a Jordan breaketh forth upon his
mouth,
24 Just catch him while he is looking,
With snares let one pierce his nose !

God’s ways is the name given to God’s operations as the
Creator of the world in ver. 19a (comp. ch. xxvi. 14, where
His acts as the Ruler of the world are included); and the
firstling of these ways is called the Behéméth, not as one of
the first in point of time, but one of the hugest creatures, wn
chef-d’ auvre de Dieu (Bochart) ; MWS not as Prov. viii. 22,
Num. xxiv. 20, of the priority of time, but as Amos vi. 1, 6,
of rank. The art. in i¥Y" is, without the pronominal suff.
being meant as an accusative (Ew. § 290, d), equal to a
demonstrative pronoun (comp. Ges. § 109, init.): this its
Creator (but so that “this” does not refer back so much as
forwards). It is not meant that He reached His sword to
behémoth, but (on which account 1) is intentionally wanting)
that He brought forth, i.e. created, its (behémoth’s) peculiar
sword, viz. the gigantic incisors ranged opposite one another,
with which it grazes upon the meadow as with a sickle:
dpovpynow Kaki émiBdrnetat dpmnv (Nicander, Theriac. 566),
dpm is exactly the sickle-shaped Egyptian sword (harpu =
21m). Vegetable food (to which its teeth are adapted) is
appointed to the behémoth: “for the mountains produce

)

362 THE BOOK OF JOB.

food for him ;” it is the herbage of the hills (which is scanty
in the lower and more abundant in the upper valley of the
Nile) that is intended, after which this uncouth animal climbs
(vid. Schlottm.)., ya is neither a contraction of a3 (Ges.),
nor a corruption of it (Kw.), but Hebrao-Arab. = baul, pro-
duce, from bala, to beget, comp. aballa, to bear fruit (prop.
seed, bulal), root 52, to soak, wet, mix.! Ver. 205 describes
how harmless, and if unmolested, inoffensive, the animal is;
oY there, viz. while it is grazing.

In ver. 21a Saadia correctly translates: J\d} c=; and

ver. 22a, Abulwalid: 4 Wie. cl! arbe, tegit eum lotus

obumbrans eum, by interpreting _\4)\, more correctly ,}\al\,
with es-sidr el-berri, i.e. Rhamnus silvestris (Rhamnus Lotus,
Linn.), in connection with which Schultens’ observation is to
be noticed: Cave intelligas lotum Aigyptiam s. plantam Niloti-
cam quam Arabes ,+43. The fact that the wild animals of the —
steppe seek the shade of the lote-tree, Schultens has supported
by passages from the poets. The lotus is found not only in
Syria, but also in Egypt, and the whole of Africa.? The

1 Whether bibs, ch. vi. 5, xxiv. 6, signifies mixed provender (farrago),
or perhaps ripe fruit, i.e. grain, so that jabol, Judg. xix. 21, in the signi-
fication ‘‘ he gave dry provender consisting of barley- grain,” would be
-the opposite of the jahushsh (wn) of the present day, “he gives green
provender consisting of green grass or green barley, hashish,” as Wetzst.
supposes, vid. on Isa. xxx. 24.

2 The Jk or Dim-tree, which likes hot and damp valleys, and hence
is found much on the northern, and in great numbers on the eastern, shores
of the Sea of Galilee, is called in the present day sidra, collect. sidr ; and
its fruit, a small yellow apple, dima, collect. dim, perhaps ‘‘ the not
ending, perennial,” because the fruit of the previous year only falls from -
the tree when that of the present year is ripe. Around Bagdad, as the,
told me, the Dém-tree bears twice a year. In Egypt its fruit is |
nebq (p23, not nibg as in Freytag), and the tree is there far stronger and
taller than in Syria, where it is seldom more than about four and twenty
feet high. Only in the Wédi’s-sidr on the mountains of Judea have I
seen several unusually large trunks. The Kémés places the signification

CHAP. XL. 19-24. 363

(= Ble), a as nispys (iw. § 189, 2). Ammianus Mare. xxii. i
coincides with ver. 21b: Inter arundines celsas et squalentes
nimia densitate hee bellua cubilia ponit. iy, ver. 22a (re-
solved from #33, as i203, ch. xx. 7, from iba), is in apposition
with the subj.: Lote-trees cover it as its shade (shading
it). The double play of words in ver. 22 is [not] repro-
duced in the [English] translation. {9, ver. 23a, pointing to
something possible, obtains almost the signification of a con-
ditional particle, as ch. xii. 14, xxiii. 8, Isa. liv. 15. The
Arabic version appropriately translates 1 (2b (|, for

denotes exactly like PUY, excessive, insolent behaieue
and is then, as also ib, lic, and other verbs given by
Schultens, transferred from the sphere of ethics to the over-
flow of a river beyond its banks, to the rush of raging waters,
to the rising and bursting forth of swollen streams. It does
“the sweet Dém-tree” first of all to (J\é, and then “ the wild D.” In
hotter regions there may also be a superior kind with fine fruit, in Syria
it is only wild—Neshwan (ii. 192) says: ‘‘ dala, collect. dal, is the wild
Dim-tree,”—yet I have always found its fruit sweet and pleasant to the

taste. —W ETZST.
i Forms like 202, by, are unknown to the language, because it was more

natural for ease of pronunciation to make the primary form 33D into 3D
than into 23D; bby (vid. i. 877), bby, might more readily be referred to bbs,
bby (in which the first a is a helping vowel, and the second a root vowel) : :
but although the form Sup and the segolate forms completely pass into

one another in inflection, ‘still there does not exist a safe example in favour
of the change of vowels of oOP into Syp; wherefore we have also derived

Oa, ch. xxxviii. 28, from be not from as, although, moreover, é fre-
quently enough lagna with ¢ (e.g. We), and a transition into é of
like ‘59 = "N32 from m3 Pe reality, although they would be possible
according to the laws of vowels. In Ges. Handwérterb. (1863) bby
stands under 703 (according to the form 32), which, however, forms
4225) and bby under Oby (a rare noun-form, which does not occur at all
form verbs double Ayin).

364 ¥ THE BOOK OF JOB.

not, however, terrify the behémoth, which can live as well in
the water as on the land; tam Nd, properly, it does not spring
up before it, is not disturbed by it. Instead of the Jordan,
ver, 230, especially in connection with 13, the 'Gathin (the
Oxus) or the 'Gathdn (the Pyramus) might have been men-
tioned, which have their names from the growing force with
which they burst forth from their sources (13, 3, comp.
gacha, to wash away). But in order to express the notion
of a powerful and at times deep-swelling stream, the poet
prefers the {11 of his fatherland, which, moreover, does not
lie so very far from the scene, according to the conception
at least, since all the wadis in its neighbourhood flow directly
or indirectly (as Wadi el-Meddén, the boundary river between
the district of Suwét and the Nukra plain) into the Jordan.
For ft? (perhaps from 7!) does not here signify a stream
(rising in the mountain) in general; the name is not deprived
of its geographical definiteness, but is a particularizing ex-
pression of the notion given above. |

The description closes in ver. 24 with the ironical challenge:
in its sight ('¥2 as Prov. i. 17) let one (for once) catch
it; let one lay a snare which, when it ‘goes into it, shall
spring together and pierce it in the nose; ze. neither the
open force nor the stratagem, which one employs with effect
- with other animals, is sufficient to overpower this monster.
D'vpid is generally rendered as equal to O'NN, Isa. xxxvii. 29,
Ezek. xix. 4, or at least to the cords drawn through them, but
contrary to the uniform usage of thelanguage. The descrip-
tion of the hippopotamus? is now followed by that of the croco-
dile, which also elsewhere form a pair, e.g. in Achilles Tatius,

1 Certainly one would have expected ee like meD while a like 2)"
“iy, appears formed from {115 nev ertheless ime (with changeable Ssere)
can be understood as a change of vowel from ry (comp. aw for aw).

2 Vid, Brehm, Aus dem Leben des Nilpferds, Gartenlaube 1859, Nr.
48, ete.

CHAP. XL. 25-29. 365

iv. 2, 19. Behemoth and leviathan, says Herder, are the
pillars of Hercules at the end of the book, the non plus ultra
of another world [distant from the scene]. What the same
writer says of the poet, that he does not “mean to furnish
‘any contributions to Pennant’s Zoologie or to Linneus’
Animal Kingdom,” the expositor also must assent to.

25 Dost thou draw the crocodile by a hoop-net,
And dost thou sink his tongue into the line? !

26 Canst thou put a rush-ring into his nose,
And pierce his cheeks with a hook?

27 Will he make many supplications to thee,
Or speak flatteries to thee?

28 Will he make a covenant with thee,
To take him as a perpetual slave?

29 Wilt thou play with him as a little bird,
And bind him for thy maidens ?

In ch. iii. 8, inne signified the celestial dragon, that causes
the eclipses of the sun (according to the Indian mythology,
rdhu the black serpent, and ketu the red serpent); in Ps.
civ. 26 it does not denote some great sea-saurian after the
kind of the hydrarchus of the primeval world,’ but directly
the whale, as in the Talmud (Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talm.
§ 178 sq.). Elsewhere, however, the crocodile is thus named,
and in fact as 34 also, another appellation of this natural
wonder of Egypt, as an emblem of the mightiness of Pharaoh
(vid. on Ps. Ixxiv. 13 sq.), as once again the crocodile itself is
called in Arab. el-fir‘aunu. The Old Testament language
possesses no proper name for the crocodile; even the Talmudic
makes use of XNpIIP = xpoKxodetAos (Lewysohn, § 271). nnd
is the generic name of twisted, and jn long-extended mon-
sters. Since the Egyptian name of the crocodile has not
been Hebraized, the poet contents himself in 3M with

1 Vid. Grasse, Beitrdge, 5. 94 ff.

366 THE BOOK OF JOB.

making a play upon its Egyptian, and in ~lusi, timséh,!
Arabized name (Ew. § 324, a). To wit, it is called in Coptic
temsah, Hierogl. (without the art.) msuh (emsuh), as an animal
that creeps “out of the egg (suh).”? In ver. 255, Ges. and

others falsely translate: Canst thou press its tongue down

with a cord; pwn does not signify demergere = deprimere,
but immergere: canst thou sink its tongue into the line, ie.
make it bite into the hook on the line, and canst thou thus
draw it up? Ver. 255 then refers to what must happen in
order that the 72 of the msuh may take place. Herodotus
(and after him Aristotle) says, indeed, ii. 68, the crocodile
has no tongue; but it has one, only it cannot stretch it out,
because the protruding part has grown to the bottom of the
mouth, while otherwise the saurians have a long tongue, that
can be stretched out to some length. In ver. 26 the order of
thought is the same: for first the Nile fishermen put a ring
through the gills or nose of valuable fish; then they draw a
cord made of rushes (cyotvov) through it, in order to put
them thus bound into the river. “As a perpetual slave,”
ver. 280 is intended to say: like one of the domestic animals.

1 Herodotus was acquainted with this name (yaar = xpoxdesAos) ;
thus is the crocodile called also in Palestine, where (as Tobler and Joh.
Roth have shown) it occurs, especially in the river Damér near Tantéra.

2 Les naturalistes—says Chabas in his Papyr. magique, p. 190—comptent
cing espéces de crocodiles vivant dans le Nil, mais les hieroglyphes rapportent
un plus grand nombre de noms déterminés par le signe du crocodile. Such
is really the case, apart from the so-called land crocodile or cx/yxos
(Arab. isgangiir), the Coptic name of which, hankelf (according to Lauth
ha. n. kelf, ruler of the bank), is not as yet indicated on the monuments.
Among the many old Egyptian names for the crocodile, Kircher’s charuki
is, however, not found, which reminds one of the Coptic karus, as xpoxd-
desAos Of xpoxos, for xpoxcdesros is the proper name of the Lacerta viridis
(Herod. ii. 69). lLauth is inclined to regard charuki as a fiction of
Kircher, as also the name of the phoenix, waaroy (vid. p. 180). The
number of names of the crocodile which remain even without charuki,
leads one to infer a great variety of species, and crocodiles, which differ
from all living species, have also actually been found in Egyptian tombs ;
vid. Schmarda, Verbreitung der Thiere, i. 89.

—— a i

CHAP. XL. 30—XLI. 1. 367

By “18%, ver. 29a, can hardly be meant 02735 M53, the little
bird of the vineyard, z.e. according to a Talmud. usage of the
language, the golden beetle (Jesurwn, p. 222), or a pretty
eatable grasshopper (Lewysohn, § 374), but, according to the
words of Catullus, Passer delicie mee puelle, the sparrow,
Arab. ‘asftir—an example of a harmless living plaything
(2 phv, to play with anything, different from Ps. civ. 26,
where it is not, with Ew., to be translated: to play with it,
but: therein).

30 Do fishermen trade with him,
Do they divide him among the Canaanites ?
31 Canst thou fill his skin with darts,
And his head with fish-spears ?
32 Only lay thy hand upon him—
Remember the battle, thou wilt not do it again!
Ch. xli. 1 Behold, every hope becometh disappointment :
Is not one cast down even at the sight of him?

Cow

The fishermen form a guild (Cir, sunj’), the associated

members of which are called 830 (distinct from ®3N).
On >Y 773, vid. on ch. vi. 27. “When I came to the towns
of the coast,” says R. Akiba, 6. Rosch ha-Schana, 26),
“they called selling, which we call m0, m3, there,” ac-
cording to which, then, Gen. 1. 5 is understood, as by the
Syriac; the word is Sanscrito-Semitic, Sanscr. kri, Persic
chirtden (Jesurun, p. 178). LXX. évottodvrat, according to
2 Kings vi. 23, to which, however, yoy is not suitable. 223
are Phoenicians; and then, because they were the merchant
race of the ancient world, directly traders or merchants.
The meaning of the question is, whether one sells the croco-
dile among them, perhaps halved, or in general divided up
(vid. i. 409). Further, ver. 31: whether one can kill it
niava, with pointed missiles (Arab. shauke, a thorn, sting,

368 THE BOOK OF JOB.

dart), or with fish-spears (Oxdy, so called from its whizzing,
bby, salla). In ver. 32 the accentuation is the right indica-
tion: only seize upon him—remember the battle, i.e. thou
wilt be obliged to remember it, and thou wilt have no wish to
repeat it. 5? is a so-called émperat. consec.: if thou doest it,
thou wilt . . ., Ges. § 180, 2. DIM is the pausal form of

ADIN (once ¢ésp, Prov. xxx. 6), of which it is the original —

form. .

Ch. xli. 1. The suff. of inpnin refers to the assailant, not
objectively to the beast (the hope which he indulges concern-
ing it). M3123, ch. xli. 1, is 3 pret. like nDeNs, Isa. lili. 7
(where also the participial accenting as Milra, occurs in
Codd.) ; Fiirst’s Concord. treats it as part., but the participial
form nowy, to be assumed in connection with it, along with
noyp3 pe “bps, does not exist. 37, ver. 10, is, according to
the sense, dunivalent to D3 Nn ; vid. on ch. xx. 4. SW (ac-
cording to Ges., Ew., and Olsh,, sing., with the plural swu/f.,
without a plu’. meaning, which is natural in connection with
the primary form ‘S72; or what is more probable, from the
plur, O82 with a sing. meaning, as 0°28) refers to the croco-
dile, and rey (according to a more accredited reading, obs =

D3’) to the hunter to whom it is visible.

What is said in ver. 30 is perfectly true; although the
crocodile was held sacred in some parts of Egypt, in Ele-
‘phantine and Apollonopolis, on the contrary, it was salted
and eaten as food. Moreover, that there is a small species
of crocodile, with which children can play, does not militate
against ver. 29. Everywhere here it is the creature in its
primitive strength and vigour that is spoken of. But if they

also knew how to catch it in very early times, by fastening a

bait, perhaps a duck, on a barb with a line attached, and
drew the animal to land, where they put an end to its life
with a lance-thrust in the neck (Uhlemann, Thoth, S. 241):

this was angling on the largest scale, as is not meant in

ie) Ms

CHAP. XLI. 2, 3. 369

ver. 25. If, on the other hand, in very early times they
harpooned the crocodile, this would certainly be more difficult
of reconcilement with ver. 31, than that mode of catching it
by means of a fishing-hook of the greatest calibre with ver. 25.
But harpooning is generally only of use when the animal can
be hit between the neck and head, or in the flank; and it is
very questionable whether, in the ancient times, when the race
was without doubt of an unmanageable size, that has now
died out, the crocodile hunt (ch. vii. 12) was effected with
harpoons. On the whole subject we have too little informa-
tion for distinguishing between the different periods. So far
as the questions of Jehovah have reference to man’s relation
to the two monsters, they concern the men of the present,
and are shaped according to the measure of power which
they have attained over nature. The strophe which follows
shows what Jehovah intends by these questions.

2 None is so foolhardy that he dare excite him!
And who is tt who could stand before Me?

3 Who hath given Me anything jirst of all, that I must requite it?
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

One sees from these concluding inferences, thus applied,
what is the design, in the connection of this second speech of
Jehovah, of the reference to behémoth and leviathan, which
somewhat abruptly began in ch. xl. 15. If even the strength
- of one of God's creatures admits no thought of being able to
attack it, how much more should the greatness of the Creator
deter man from all resistance! or no one has any claim on
God, so that he should have the right of appearing before
Him with a rude challenge. Every creature under heaven
is God’s; man, therefore, possesses nothing that was not
God’s property and gift, and he must humbly yield, whether
God gives or takes away. Nd, ver. 2a, is not directly equi-

valent to }'8, but the clause is exclamatory. ny Chethib,
VOL. II. ‘ 2A

370 THE BOOK OF JOB.

wy Keri, is the Palestine reading, the reverse the Baby-
lonian; the authorized text (chiefly without a Keri) is 333,
from 4y in a transitive signification (éye/pew), as aw, ch.
xxxix. 12, comp. xlii. 10. The meaning of 22"1PI is de-
termined according to Down : : to anticipate, viz. by cifts pre-
sented as a person is approaching the giver (Arab. agdama).
nin, ver. 36, is neutral, as ch. xiii. 16, xv. 9, xxxi. 11, 28.
non is virtually a subj.: that which is under... After
these apparently epiphonematic verses (2 and 3), one might
now look for Job’s answer. But the description of the
leviathan is again taken up, and in fact hitherto it was only
the invincibility of the animal that was spoken of; and yet
it is not so described that this picture might form the exact
pendent of the preceding.

4 Iwill not keep silence about his members,
The proportion of his power and the comeliness of hie struc-
ture.
5 Who could raise the front of his coat of mail?
Into his double teeth—who cometh therein?
6 The doors of his face—who openeth them?
Round about his teeth is terror.

The Keri 15 authorized by the Masora assumes an inter-
rogative rendering: as to it, should I be silent: about its
members (15 at the head of the clause, as Lev. vii. 7-9, Isa.
ix. 2),—what perhaps might appear more poetic to many.
vein (once, ch. xi. 3, to cause to keep silence) here, as
usually: to be silent. 173, as ch. xviii. 13, vol. i. p. 328.
127 signifies the relation of the matter, a matter of fact, as _
"24, facts, Ps. Ixv. 4, cv. 27, cxlv. 5. 1 (compared by Ew.
with }}, a measure) signifies grace, xapus (as synon. DM),
here delicate regularity, and is made easy of pronunciation
from {3}, just as the more usual j7; the language has avoided
the form }f, as observed above. vine, clothing, we have

CHAP. XLI. 7-9. 371

translated “coat of mail,” which the Arab. libés usually
' signifies ; wand 28 is not its face’s covering (Schlottm.),
which ought to be 128 wan; but ‘28 is the upper or front
side turned to the observer (comp. Isa. xxv. 7), as Arab, ¢>,
(wag'h), si rem desuper spectes, summa ejus pars, st ex adverso,
prima (Fleischer, Glosse, i. 57). That which is the “doubled
of its mouth” (jD7, prop. a bit in the mouth, then the mouth
itself) is its upper and lower jaws armed with powerful teeth.
The “doors of the face” are the jaws; the jaws are divided
back to the ears, the teeth are not covered by lips; the im-
pression of the teeth is therefore the more terrible, which
the substantival clause, ver. 65 (comp. ch. xxxix. 20), affirms.
YY gen. subjecti: the circle, &pxos, which is formed by its

teeth (Hahn).

7 A pride are the furrows of the shields,
Shut by a rigid seal.

8 One joineth on to the other,
And no air entereth between them.

9 One upon another they are arranged,
They hold fast together, inseparably.

Since the writér uses PDS both in the signif. robustus,
ch. xii. 12, and canalis, ch. xl. 18, it is doubtful whether it
must be explained robusta (robora) scutorum (as e.g. Ges.),
or canales scutorwn (Hirz., Schlottm., and others). We now
prefer the latter, but so that “furrows of the shields” signi-
fies the square shields themselves bounded by these channels;
for only thus is the WD, which refers to these shields, con-
sidered, each one for itself, suitably attached to what pre-
~ cedes. ¥ ONIN is an acc. of closer definition belonging to it:
closed is (each single one) by a firmly attached, and there-
fore firmly closed, seal. LXX. remarkably do7rep cpuupirns
AiOos, i.e. emery (vid. Krause’s Pyrogeteles, 1859, S. 228).
Six rows of knotty scales and four scales of the neck cover

3tZ THE BOOK OF JOB.

the upper part of the animal’s body, in themselves firm, and
attached to one another in almost impenetrable layers, as is
described in vers. 7 sq. in constantly-varying forms of expres-
sion (where 33° with Pathach beside Athnach is the correct
reading),—a M183, i.e. an equipment of which the animal
may be proud. Umbr. takes msi, with Bochart, = 3, the
back; but although in the language much is 5s possible, yet
not everything.

10 Mis sneezing sendeth forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn ;
11 Out of his mouth proceed flames,
Sparks of fire escape from him ;
12 Out of his nostrils goeth forth smoke
Like a seething pot and caldron ;
13. His breath kindleth coals,
And flames go forth out of his mouth.

That the crocodile delights to sun itself on the land, and
then turns its open jaws to the sunny side, most Nile travel-
lers since Herodotus have had an opportunity of observing ;*
and in connection therewith the reflex action of sneezing
may occur, since the light of the sun produces an irritation
on the retina, and thence on the vagus; and since the sun
shines upon the fine particles of watery slime cast forth in
the act of sneezing, a meteoric appearance may be produced.
This delicate observation of nature is here compressed into
three words; in this concentration of whole, grand thoughts
and pictures, we recognise the older poet. WY is the usual

1 Dieterici, Reisebilder, i. 194: ‘‘ We very often saw the animal lying

in the sand, its jaws wide open and turned towards the warm sunbeams,
while little birds, like the slender white water-wagtail, march quietly
about in the deadly abyss, and pick out worms from the watery jaws.”
Herodotus, ii. 68, tells exactly the same story ; as the special friend of
the crocodile among little birds, he mentions rev rpoxiAov (the sand-piper,
Pluvianus Aigyptius).

iit» i =

CHAP. XLI. 10-13. 373

Semitic word for “sneezing” (synon. 1, 2 Kings iv. 35).
20h shortened from ona, ch. xxxi. 26, Hiph. of >2n (comp.
p- 47). The comparison of the crocodile’s eyes with "NY BYySY
(as ch. il. 9, from *YBY, to move with quick vibrations, to
wink, i.e. tremble), or the rendering of the same as eédos.
éwspopov (L.XX.), is the more remarkable, as, according to
Horus, i. 68, two crocodile’s eyes are the hieroglyph’ for
dawn, dvatody: émewdimep (probably to be read ézreid) mpo)
mavrTos copatos Saou oi dpOaryol éx Tod BvO0d avadaivovras.
There it is the peculiar brilliancy of the eyes of certain
‘animals that is intended, which is occasioned either by the
iris being furnished with a so-called lustrous substance, or
there being in the pupil of the eye (as eg. in the ostrich)
that spot which, shining like metal, is called tapetum lucidum.
For avapatverOar of the eyes éx tod BuGod, is the lustre of
the pupil in the depth of the eye. The eyes of the crocodile,
which are near together, and slanting, glimmer through the
water, when it is only a few feet under water, with a red glow.

Nevertheless the comparison in ver. 106 might also be
intended differently. ‘The inner (third) eyelid? of the croco-

1 The eyes of the crocodile alone by themselves are no hieroglyph: how
could they have been represented by themselves as crocodile’s eyes? But
in the Ramesseum and elsewhere the crocodile appears with a head point-
ing upwards in company with couching lions, and the eyes of the croco-
dile are rendered specially prominent. Near this group it appears again
in a curved position, and quite small, but this time in company with a
scorpion which bears a disc of the sun. The former (xpoxode/aov dvo
6Pbarwol) seems to me to be a figure of the longest night, the latter
(xpoxddesAog xexvQa¢ in Horapollo) of the shortest, so that consequently
dverory and dvers do not refer to the rising and setting of the sun, but to
the night as prevailing against or succumbing to the day (communicated
by Lauth from his researches on the astronomical monuments). But since
_ the growth of the day begins with the longest night, and vice versd@, the
notions dévaroay and Overs can, as it seems to me, retain their most
natural signification; and the crocodile’s eyes are, notwithstanding, a
figure of the light shining forth from the darkness, as the crocodile’s tail
signifies black darkness (and Egypt as the black land).

2 Prof. Will refers the figure not to the third eyelid or the membrana

374 THE BOOK OF JOB.

dile is itself a rose red; and therefore, considered in them-
selves, its eyes may also be compared with the “eyelids of
the dawn.” What is then said, vers. 11-13, of the crocodile,
Achilles Tatius, iv. 2, says of the hippopotamus: pu«rhp émt
peya Kexnvos Kal TrVéwv TUpwdN KATTVOY OS ATO THYHS Tupos.
Bartram has observed on the alligator, that as it comes on the
land a thick smoke issues from its distended nostrils with a
thundering sound. This thick, hot steam, according to the
credible description which is presented here, produces the im-
pression of a fire existing beneath, and bursting forth. The
subjective truth of this impression is faithfully but poetically
reproduced by the poet. On iT (root 12, escudere), vid.
i, 408. pponn signifies no more than to disentangle one’s
self, here therefore: to fly out in small. particles. fiox,
ver. 110, is rendered by Saad., Gecat., and others, by gumqum
(mypnrp), a caldron; the modern expositors derive it from O38
= agama, to glow, and understand it of a “heated caldron.”
But the word signifies either heat or caldron ; the latter sig-
nification, however, cannot be linguistically established; one
would look for ja8 (Arab. tggdne, a copper [Germ. Wasch-
kessel]). The noun fi038 signifies, ch. xl. 26, the reed cyoivos,
and in the Jerusalem Talmud, Sota ix. 12, some menial ser-
vice (comp. Arab. ugum); Ew. rightly retains the former
signification, like a pot blown upon, z.e. fired, heated, and
beside it (in combination with it) reeds as fuel, which in
themselves, and especially together with the steaming water,
produce a thick smoke. The Waw is to be compared to the
Arabic Waw concomitantie (which governs the aec.).

nictitans, but to that spot on the choroidea, glistening with a metallic .

lustre, which the crocodile has in common with most animals of the night
or the twilight, therefore to the brilliancy of its eye, which shines by
virtue of its lustrous coating; vid. the magnificent head of a crocodile in
Schlegel’s Amphibien-Abbildungen (1837-44).

ES se ee

CHAP. XLI. 14-17. 375

14 Great strength resteth upon his neck,
And despair danceth hence before him.

15 The flanks of his flesh are thickly set,
Fitting tightly to him, immoveable.

16 His heart is firm like stone,
And firm like the nether millstone.

17 The mighty are afraid of his rising up ;
From alarm they miss their aim.

Overpowering strength lodges on its neck, i.e. has its
abiding place there, and before it despair, prop. melting away,
dissolution (7283 from 384, wis = 25 Aiph., is IL, to
bring into a loose condition, synon. D7), dances hence, i.e.
springs up and away (717!, Arab. jadisu, to run away), i.e. it
spreads before it a despondency which produces terror, and
deprives of strength. Even the pendulous fleshy parts (Bn),
especially of its belly, hang close together, P27, ze. they are
not flabby, but fit to it, like a metal casting, without moving,
for the skin is very thick and covered with thick scales;
and because the digestive apparatus of the animal occupies
but little space, and the scales of the back are continued
towards the belly, the tender parts appear smaller, narrower,
and closer together than in other animals. 5¥) here is not,
as ch. xxviii. 2, xxix. 6, the fut. of pry, but the part. of P%,
as also ver. 16ab: its heart is firm and obdurate, as though
it were of cast brass, hard as stone, and in fact as the nether

millstone (nop from nba, falacha, to split, crush in pieces),

which, because it has to bear the weight and friction of the
upper, must be particularly hard. It is not intended of actual
stone-like hardness, but only of its indomitable spirit and
great tenacity of life: the activity of its heart is not so easily
disturbed, and even fatal wounds do not so quickly bring it
to a stand. int (from ny = nxv = nx), primary form
AX’, is better understood in the active sense: afraid of its
rising, than the passive: of its exaltedness. Ds (according

376 . THE BOOK OF JOB.

to another reading p>) is not, with Ew., to be derived from
Oy (Arab. ija/), a ram; but pds Ex. xv. 15, Ezek. xvii. 13
(comp. 5°%3 2 Chron. ii. 16, 72 2 Sam. xxii. 29), D'S Ezek.
xxxi, 11, xxxii. 21, and Das Cheth. 2 Kings xxiv. 15, are
only alternating forms and modes of writing of the parti-
cipial adject., derived from bx (°S) first of all in the pri-
mary form awil (as 14 = gawir). The signif. assigned to the
verb bis: to be thick = fleshy, which is said then to go
over into the signif. to be stupid and strong (Ges. Hand-
worterb.), rests upon a misconception: dla is said of fluids
“to become thick,” because they are condensed, since they
go back, z.e. sink in or settle (Ges. correctly in Thes.: notio
crassitiet a retrocedendo). The verb dla, jaélu, unites in
itself the significations to go backward, to be forward, and
to rule; the last two: anteriorem and superiorem esse, pro-
bably belong together, and aN signifies, therefore, a possessor
of power, who is before and over others. Sn, ver. 176,
has the signif., which does not otherwise occur, to miss the

mark (from son, hs to miss, opp. We, to hit the mark),

viz. (which is most natural where pds is the subject spoken
of) since they had designed the slaughter and capture of the
monster. 02¥ is intended subjectively, as NT2n = 775 Ex.
xv. 16, Targ. IL, and also as the Arab. thubir, employed
more in reference to the mind, can be used of pain.

18 If one reacheth him with the sword—it doth not hold;

Neither spear, nor dart, nor harpoon.
19 He esteemeth iron as straw,

Brass as rotten wood.

20 The son of the bow doth not cause him to flee,
Sling stones are turned to stubble with him.

21 Clubs are counted as stubble,
And he laugheth at the shaking of the spear.

CHAP. XLI. 18-21. 377

3712, which stands first as nom. abs., “ one reaching him,”
is equivalent to, if one or whoever reaches him, Ew. § 357, ¢,
to which O3pn va, it does not hold fast (3 with v. fin., as
Hos. viii. 7, ix. 16, Chethib), is the conclusion. 27 is in-
strumental, as Ps. xvii. 13. Yd, from YD), ¢}, to move on,
hasten on, signifies a missile, as Arab. minz‘a, an arrow,
manza, asling. The Targ. supports this latter signification
here (funda que projicit lapidem); but since yop, the hand-
sling, is mentioned separately, the word appears to mean
missiles in general, or the catapult. In this combination of
weapons of attack it is very questionable whether "7 is a
cognate form of. iY ({Y), a coat of mail; probably it is
equivalent to Arab. sirwe (surwe), an arrow with a long
broad edge (comp. serije, a short, round, as it seems, pear-
shaped arrow-head), therefore either a harpoon or a pecu-
liarly formed dart.! “The son of the bow” (and of the 75¥x,
pharetra) is the arrow. That the dz. yeyp. Min signifies a
club (war-club), is supported by the Arab. watacha, to beat.
iD (vid. i. 408), in distinction from 12M (a long lance),
is a short spear, or rather, since YY implies a whistling
motion, a javelin. Iron the crocodile esteems as /34, tibn,
chopped straw; sling stones are turned with him into wp.
Such is the name here at least, not for stumps of cut stubble
that remain standing, but the straw itself, threshed and
easily driven before the wind (ch. xiii. 25), which is cut up
for provender (Ex. v. 12), generally dried (and for that
reason light) stalks (e.g. of grass), or even any remains of
plants (e.g. splinters of wood). The plur. 3203, ver. 21a,

1 On the various kinds of Egyptian arrows, vid. Klemm. Culturgeschichte,
v. 371 f. .

2 The Egyptio-Arabic usage has here more faithfully preserved the
ancient signification of the word (vid. Fleischer, Glossx, p. 37) than
the Syro-Arabic ; for in Syria cut but still unthreshed corn, whether
lying in swaths out in the field and weighted with stones to protect it
against the whirlwinds that are frequent about noon, or corn already

378 THE BOOK OF JOB,

does not seem to be occasioned by nnin being conceived
collectively, but by the fact that, instead of saying }\7') nnn,
the poet has formed ‘2 into a separate clause. Parchon’s
(and Kimchi’s) reading "nmin is founded upon an error.

22 His under parts are the sharpest shards,
He spreadeth a threshing sledge upon the mire.
23 He maketh the deep foam like a caldron,
He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
24 He lighteth up the path behind him,
One taketh the water-flood for hoary hair.
25 Upon earth there is not his equal,
That 1s created without fear.
26 He looketh upon everything high,
He is the king over every proud beast.

Under it, or, ANF taken like NA, ch. xli. 3, as a virtual
subject (vid. ch. xxvili. 5, p. 98): its under parts are the
most pointed or sharpest shards, ze. it is furnished with
exceedingly pointed scales. ‘1 is the intensive form of 15
(Arab. hadid, sharpened = iron, p. 94, note), as pin, 1 Sam.
xvii. 40, of P2A (smooth),! and the combination ban “BAN
(equal the combination #707 "WN, comp. ch. xxx. 6) is
moreover superlative: in the domain of shards standing pro-

minent as sharp ones, as Arab. chairuw ummatin, the best
"people, prop. bon en fait de peuple (Ew. § 313, ¢, Gramm.
Arab. § 582). LXX. 4 orpapvy airod d8erickor d€eis, by
drawing 727° to ver. 22a, and so translating as though it
were INT (Arab. vifdde, stratum). The verb 721 (rafada),

brought to the threshing-floors but not yet threshed, is called gashsh.—
WETZST.

1 In Arabic also this substantival form is intensive, e.g. lebbin, an
exceedingly large kind of tile, dried in the open air, of which farm-yards
are built, nearly eight times larger than the common tile, which is called
libne (71930).

CHAP, XLI. 22-26. 379

cogn. 13), signifies sternere (ch. xvii. 13), and then also
fulcire ; what is predicated cannot be referred to the belly of
the crocodile, the scales of which are smooth, but to the tail
with its scales, which more or less strongly protrude, are
edged round by a shallow cavity, and therefore are easily and
sharply separated when pressed; and the meaning is, that
when it presses its under side in the morass, it appears as
though a threshing-sledge with its iron teeth had been driven
across it.

The pictures in ver. 23 are true to nature; Bartram, who
saw two alligators fighting, says that their rapid passage was
marked by the surface of the water as it were boiling. With
nowy, a whirlpool, abyss, depth (from DY = bby, to hiss, clash ;
to whirl, surge), 5° alternates; the Nile even in the present
day is called bahr (sea) by the Beduins, and also compared,
when it overflows its banks, toa sea. The observation that
the animal diffuses a strong odour of musk, has perhaps its
share in the figure of the pot of ointment (LXX. do7ep
éEddertpov, which Zwingli falsely translates spongia); a
double gland in the tail furnishes the Egyptians and Ameri-

cans their (pseudo) musk. In ver. 24a the bright white trail

that the crocodile leaves behind it on the surface of the water
is intended; in ver. 24) the figure is expressed which under-
lies the descriptions of the foaming sea with zroduds, canus, in
the classic poets. 2’, hoary hair, was to the ancients the
most beautiful, most awe-inspiring whiteness. ‘vin, ver. 25a,
understood by the Targ., Syr., Arab. version, and most
moderns (¢.g. Hahn: there is not on earth any mastery over
it), according to Zech. ix. 10, is certainly, with LXX., Jer.,
and Umbr., not to be understood differently from the Arab.
mithlahu (its equal); whether it be an inflexion of puna, or
what is more probable, of obit (comp. ch. xvii. 6, where this
nomen actionis signifies a proverb = word of derision, and
Bion, to compare one’s self, be equal, ch. xxx. 19). npynoy

380 THE BOOK OF JOB.

is also Hebr.-Arab.; the Arabic uses turbe, formed from
turab (vid. on ch. xix. 25), of the surface of the earth, and
et-tarbd-u as the name of the earth itself. syn (for sbyn,
as 32¥, ch. xv. 22, Cheth. = “®¥, resolved from WWY, ‘astiw,
1 Sam. xxv. 18, Cheth.) is the confirmatory predicate of the
logical subj. described in ver. 25a as incomparable; and
nna? (from 5, the @ of which becomes 7 in inflexion),
absque terrore (comp. ch. xxxviii. 4), is virtually a nom. of the
predicate: the created one (becomes) a terrorless one (a being
that is terrified by nothing). Everything high, as the nn~a},
ver. 25a, is more exactly explained, it looketh upon, i.e. re-
mains standing before it, without turning away affrighted; in
short, it (the leviathan) is king over all the sons of pride, i.e.
every beast of prey that proudly roams about (vid. on ch.
xxvill. 8).

[Then Job answered Jehovah, and said :]
Ch. xlii. 2 Now I know that Thou canst do all things,
And no plan is impracticable to Thee.
3 “ Who then hideth counsel—
Without knowledge?”
Thus have I judged without understanding,
What was too wonderful for me, without knowing. .

He indeed knew previously what he acknowledges in ver. 2,
but now this knowledge has risen upon him in a new divinely-
worked clearness, such as he has not hitherto experienced.
Those strange but wondrous monsters are a proof to him that
God is able to put everything into operation, and that the
plans according to which He acts are beyond the reach of
human comprehension. If even that which is apparently
most contradictory, rightly perceived, is so glorious, his
affliction is also no such monstrous injustice as he thinks; on
the contrary, it is a profoundly elaborated !, a well-
digested, wise 73Y of God. In ver. 3 he repeats to himself the

CHAP, XLII. 4-6. 381

chastening word of Jehovah, ch. xxxviii. 2, while he chastens
himself with it; for he now perceives that his judgment was
wrong, and that he consequently has merited the reproof.
With 122 he draws a conclusion from this confession which
the chastening word of Jehovah has presented to him: he
has rashly pronounced an opinion upon things that lie beyond
his power of comprehension, without possessing the necessary
capacity of judging and perception. On the mode of writing
AYT, Cheth., which recalls the Syriac form jed’et (with the
pronominal suff. cast off), vid. Ges. § 44, rem. 4; on the ex-
pression ver. 2b, comp. Gen. xi. 6. The repetition of ch.
XXxvilil. 2 in ver. 3 is not without some variations according
to the custom of authors noticed in Psalter, i. 330. ‘A737,
“T have affirmed,” zc. judged, is, ver. 3c, a closed thought,
which, however, then receives its object, ver. 3d, so that the
notion of judging goes over into that of pronouncing a judg-
ment. The clauses with NOY are circumstantial clauses, Ew.

§ 341, a.

4 O hear now, and I will speak:
I will ask Thee, and instruct Thou me.

5 [had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear,
And now mine eye hath seen Thee.

6 Therefore I am sorry, and I repent
In dust and ashes.

The words employed after the manner of entreaty, in ver.
4, Job also takes from the mouth of Jehovah, ch. xxxviii. 3,
xl. 7. Hitherto Jehovah has interrogated him, in order to
bring him to a knowledge of his ignorance and weakness.
Now, however, after he has thoroughly perceived this, he is
anxious to put questions to Jehovah, in order to penetrate
deeper and deeper into the knowledge of the divine power
and wisdom. Now for the first’ time with him, the true,
living perception of God has its beginning, being no longer

382 THE BOOK OF JOB.

effected by tradition (? of the external cause: in conse-
quence of the tidings which came to my ears, comp. Ps.
xviii. 45, comp. Isa. xxiii. 5), but by direct communication
with God. In this new light he can no longer deceive him-
self concerning God and concerning himself; the delusion
of the conflict now yields to the vision of the truth, and only
penitential sorrow for his sin towards God remains to him.
The object to DNDN is his previous conduct. 0M) is the exact
expression for peravoeiv, the godly sorrow of repentance not
to be repented of. He repents (sitting) on dust and ashes
after the manner of those in deep grief. :
If the second speech of Jehovah no longer has to do with
the exaltation and power of God in general, but is intended
to answer Job’s doubt concerning the justice of the divine
government of the world, the long passage about the hippo-
potamus and the crocodile, ch. xl. 15=xli. 26, in this second
speech seems to be devoid of purpose and connection. Even
Eichhorn and Bertholdt on this account suppose that the
separate portions of the two speeches of Jehovah have fallen
into disorder. Stuhlmann, Bernstein, and De Wette, on the
other hand, explained the second half of the description of the
leviathan, ch. xli. 4-26, as a later interpolation ; for this part
is thought to be inflated, and to destroy the connection between
Jehovah’s concluding words, ch. xli. 2, 8, and Job’s answer,
‘ch. xii, 2-6. Ewald forcibly rejected the whole section,
ch. xl. 15-xli. 26, by ascribing it to the writer of Elihu’s
speeches,—an opinion which he has again more recently
abandoned. In fact, this section ought to have had a third
poet as its writer. But he would be the double (Doppel-
gdnger) of the first; for, deducting the somewhat tame x
ya wins, ch. xli. 4,—which, however, is introduced by
the interrupted description being resumed, in order now to
begin in real earnest,—this section stands upon an equally
exalted height with the rest of the book as a poetic production

CHAP. XLII. 4-6. 383

and lofty description; and since it has not only, as also
Elihu’s speeches, an Arabizing tinge, but also the poetic
genius, the rich fountain of thought, the perfection of tech-
nical detail, in common with the rest of the book; and
since the writer of the book of Job also betrays elsewhere
an acquaintance with Egypt, and an especial interest in
things Egyptian, the authenticity of the section is by no
means doubted by us, but we freely adopt the originality of
its present position.

But before one doubts the originality of its position, he
ought, first of all, to make an earnest attempt to comprehend
the portion in its present connection, into which it at any
rate has not fallen from pure thoughtlessness. The first
speech of Jehovah, moreover, was surprisingly different from
what was to have been expected, and yet we recognised in
it a deep consistency with the plan; perhaps the same thing
is also the case in connection with the second.

After Job has answered the first speech of Jehovah by a
confession of penitence, the second can have no other pur-
pose but that of strengthening the conviction, which urges
to this confession, and of deepening the healthful tone from
which it proceeds. The object of censure here is no longer
Job’s contending with Jehovah in general, but Job’s con-
tending with Jehovah on account of the prosperity of the
evil-doer, which is irreconcilable with divine justice; that
contending by which the sufferer, in spite of the shadow
which affliction casts upon him, supported the assertion of his
own righteousness. Here also, as a result, the refutation
follows in the only way consistent with the dignity of Jehovah,
and so that Job must believe in order to perceive, and does
not perceive in order not to be obliged to believe. Without
arguing the matter with Job, as to why many things in the
government of the world are thus and not rather other-
wise, Jehovah challenges Job to take the government of the

384 THE BOOK OF JOB.

world into his own hand, and to give free course to his
wrath, to cast down everything that is exalted, and to render
the evil-doer for ever harmless. By thus thinking of him-
self as the ruler of the world, Job is obliged to recognise the
cutting contrast of his feebleness and the divine rule, with
which he has ventured to find fault; at the same time, how-
ever, he is taught, that—what he would never be able to do
—God really punishes the ungodly, and must have wise pur-
poses when, which He indeed might do, He does not allow
the floods of His wrath to be poured forth immediately.

Thus far also Simson is agreed; but what is the design
of the description of the two Egyptian monsters, which are
regarded by him as by Ewald as out of place here? To
show Job how little capable he is of governing the world,
and how little he would be in a position to execute judgment
on the evil-doer, two creatures are described to him, two un-
slain monsters of gigantic structure and invincible strength,
which defy all human attack. These two descriptions are,
we think, designed to teach Job how little capable of passing
sentence upon the evil-doer he is, who cannot even draw
a cord through the nose of the behémoth, and who, if he
once attempted to attack the leviathan, would have reason to
remember it so long as he lived, and would henceforth let it
alone. It is perhaps an emblem that is not without connec-
’ tion with the book of Job, that these mona and jnnd (psn), in
the language of the Prophets and the Psalms, are the sym-
bols of a worldly power at enmity with the God of redemp-
tion and His people. And wherefore should Job’s confes-
sion, ch. xlii. 2, not be suitably attached to the completed
description of the leviathan, especially as the description is
divided into two parts by the utterances of Jehovah, ch.
xli, 2, 3, which retrospectively and prospectively set it in the
right light for Job? visi

CHAP. XLII. 7 SOQ. 385

THE UNRAVELMENT IN OUTWARD REALITY.—
CHAP. XLII. 7 SQQ.

Job's confession and tone of penitence are now perfected.
He acknowledges the divine omnipotence which acts accord-
ing to a wisely-devised scheme, in opposition to his total
ignorance and feebleness. A world of divine wisdom, of
wondrous thoughts of God, now lies before him, concerning
which he knows nothing of himself, but would gladly learn
a vast amount by the medium of divine instruction. To
these mysteries his affliction also belongs. He perceives it
now to be a wise decree of God, beneath which he adoringly
bows, but it is nevertheless a mystery to him. Sitting in dust
and ashes, he feels a deep contrition for the violence with
which he has roughly handled and shaken the mystery,—
now will it continue, that he bows beneath the enshrouded
mystery? No, the final teaching of the book is not that
God’s rule demands faith before everything else; the final
teaching is, that sufferings are for the righteous man the
way to glory, and that his faith is the way to sight. The
most craving desire, for the attainment of which Job hopes
where his faith breaks forth from under the ashes, is this,
that he will once more behold God, even if he should suc-
cumb to his affliction. This desire is granted him ere he
yields. For he who hitherto has only heard of Jehovah, can
now say: Jn y Any; his perception of God has entered
upon an entirely new stage. But first of all God has only
borne witness of Himself to him, to call him to repentance.
Now, however, since the rust of pollution is purged away
from Job’s pure soul, He can also appear as his Vindicator
and Redeemer. After all that was sinful in his speeches is
blotted out by repentance, there remains only the truth of
his innocence, which God Himself testifies to him, and the

VOL. II. 2B

386 THE BOOK OF JOB.

truth of his holding fast to God in the hot battle of tempta-
tion, by which, without his knowing it, he has frustrated the
desion of Satan.

Ver. 7. And it came to pass, after Jehovah had spoken these
words to Job, that Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanite,
My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two friends: for
ye have not spoken what is correct in reference to Me, as
My servant Job.

In order that they may only maintain the justice of God,
they have condemned Job against their better knowledge
and conscience; therefore they have abandoned truth in
favour of the justice of God,—a defence which, as Job has
told the friends, God abhors. Nevertheless He is willing to
be gracious.

Ver. 8. And now taxe unto you seven bullocks and seven
rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer an offering for
yourselves, and Job My servant shall pray for you; only
his person will I accept, that I recompense not unto you
your folly: for ye have not spoken what is correct in
reference to Me, as My servant Job.

Schlottm., like Ew., translates 72132 what is sincere, and
_ understands it of Job’s inward truthfulness, in opposition to
the words of the friends contrary to their better knowledge
and conscience. But i) has not this signification anywhere:
it signifies either directum = rectum or erectum = stabile, but
not sincerum. However, objective truth and subjective truth-
fulness are here certainly blended in the notion. “correct.”
The “correct” in Job’s speeches consists of his having denied
that affliction is always a punishment of sin, and in his hold-
ing fast the consciousness of his innocence, without suffering
himself to be persuaded of the opposite. That denial was
correct; and this truthfulness was more precious to God than

i

i a

CHAP, XLIL 8. 3887

the untruthfulness of the friends, who were zealous for the
honour of God.

After Job has penitently acknowledged his error, God
decides between him and the friends according to his previous
supplicatory wish, ch. xvi. 21. The heavenly Witness makes
Himself heard on earth, and calls Job by the sweet name of
“ay. And the servant of Jehovah is not only favoured
himself, but he also becomes the instrument of grace to
sinners. As where his faith shone forth he became the
prophet of his own and the friends’ future, so now he is the
priestly mediator between the friends and God. ‘The friends
against whom God is angry, but yet not as against D'ywn, but
only as against those who have erred, must bring an offering
as their atonement, in connection with which Job shall enter
in with a priestly intercession for them, and only him (88 °3,
non alium sed = non nisi), whom they regarded as one
punished of God, will God accept (comp. Gen. xix. 21)—
under what deep shame must it have opened their eyes !

Here also, as in the introduction of the book, it is the "ey
which effects the atonement. It is the oldest and, according
to its meaning, the most comprehensive of all the blood-
offerings. Bullocks and rams are also the animals for the
whole burnt-offerings of the Mosaic ritual; the proper animal
for the sin-offering, however, is the he-goat together with
the she-goat, which do not occur here, because the age and
scene are strange to the Israelitish branching off of the
nson from the ny. The double seven gives the mark of the
profoundest solemnity to the offering that was to be offered.
The three also obey the divine direction; for although they
have erred, God’s will is above everything in their estimation,

and they cheerfully subordinate themselves as friends to the
friend.

1 Hence the Talmudic proverb (vid. Fiirst’s Perlenschniire, 8. 80): 43
NNN UW AY “IAD NIN, either a friend like Job’s friends or death! |

388 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Ver. 9. Then Eliphaz of Teman, and Bildad of Shuach,
[and] Zophar of Naamah, went forth and did as Jehovah
had said to them; and Jehovah accepted the person of Job.

Jehovah has now risen up as a witness for Job, the spiritual
redemption is already accomplished ; and all that is wanting
is, that He who has acknowledged and testified to Job as His
servant should also act outwardly and visibly, and in merey
show Himself the righteous One.

Ver. 10. And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he
prayed for his friends; and Jehovah increased everything
that Job had possessed to the double.

/ MY] is to be understood generally, as ch. xvi. 21, and the 3
signifies not “ because,” but “when.” The moment in which
Job prayed for his friends became, as the climax of a life
that is well-pleasing with God, the turning-point of glory to
him. The Talmud has borrowed from here the true proverb :
nbnn my: nan sya S$annn-y, i.e. he who prays for his fellow-
men always finds acceptance for himself first of all. The
phrase (M’2Y) Mav IW signifies properly to turn captivity,
then in general to make an end of misery; also in German,
elend, old High Germ. elilenti, originally signified another,
foreign country (vid. Psalter, ii. 192), since an involuntary
removal from one’s native land is regarded as the emblem of
a lamentable condition. This phrase does not exactly stamp
Job as the Mashal of the Israel of the Exile, but it favoured
this interpretation. Now when Job was recovered, and doubly
blessed by God, as is also promised to the Israel of the _
Exile, Isa. xi. 7 and freq., sympathizing friends also appeared
in abundance.

Ver. 11. Then came to him all his brothers, and all his sisters,
and all his former acquaintances, and ate bread with him

CHAP. XLII. 11. 389

in his house, and expressed sympathy with him, and com-
forted him concerning all the evil which Jehovah had
brought upon him; and each one gave him a Kesité, and
each a golden ring.

Prosperity now brought those together again whom calamity
had frightened away; for the love of men is scarcely anything
but a number of coarse or delicate shades of selfishness. Now
they all come and rejoice at Job’s prosperity, viz. in order to
bask therein. He, however, does not thrust them back; for
the judge concerning the final motives of human love is God,
and love which is shown to us is certainly more worthy of
thanks than hatred. They are his guests again, and he
leaves them to their own shame. And now their tongues,
that were halting thus far, are all at once become eloquent:
they mingle congratulations and comfort with their expres-
sions of sorrow at his past misfortune. It is now an easy
matter, that no longer demands their faith. They even bring
him each one a present. In everything it is manifest that
Jehovah has restored His servant to honour. Everything is
now subordinated to him, who was accounted as one forsaken
of God. OYP is a piece of metal weighed out, of greater
value than the shekel, moreover indefinite, since it is nowhere
placed in the order of the Old Testament system of weights
and measures, adapted to the patriarchal age, Gen. xxxiii. 19,
in which Job’s history falls.‘ 012 are rings for the nose
and ear; according to Ex. xxxii. 3, an ornament of the women
and men.

The author now describes the manner, of Job’s being
blessed.

1 According to b. Rosch ha-Schana, 26a, R. Akiba found the word ny wp
in Africa in the signification my (coin), as a Targ. (vid. Aruch, s.v.
my'wp) also translates; the Arab. gist at least signifies balances and
weight.

390 THE BOOK OF JOB.

Ver. 12. And Jehovah blessed Job’s end more than his begin-
ning ; and he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand
camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-
asses.

The numbers of the stock of cattle, ch. i. 3," now appear
doubled, but it is different with the children.

Ver. 13. And he had seven sons and three daughters.

Therefore, instead of the seven sons and three daughters
which he had, he receives just the same again, which is also
so far a doubling, as deceased children also, according to the
Old Testament view, are not absolutely lost, 2 Sam. xii. 23.
The author of this book, in everything to the most minute
thing consistent, here gives us to understand that with men
who die and depart from us the relation is different from
_ that with things which we have lost. The pausal Myaw
(instead of nY2Y), with paragogic dna, which otherwise is a
fem. suff. (Ges. § 91, rem. 2), here, however, standing in a

1 Job, like all the wealthier husbandmen in the present day, kept she-
asses, although they are three times dearer than the male, because they
are useful for their foals; it is not for the sake of their milk, for the
Semites do not milk asses and horses. Moreover, the foals are also only
a collateral gain, which the poor husbandman, who is only able to buy a .
he-ass, must forego. What renders this animal indispensable in husbandry
is, that it is the common and (since camels are extremely rare among the
husbandmen) almost exclusive means of transport. How would the hus-
bandman, e.g., be able to carry his seed for sowing to a field perhaps six
or eight miles distant? Not on the plough, as our farmers do, for the
plough is transported on the back of the oxen in Syria. How would he ~
be able to get the corn that was to be ground (tachne) to the mill, per-

haps a day’s journey distant; how carry wood and grass, how get the .

manure upon the field in districts that require to be manured, if he had
not an ass? The camels, on the other hand, serve for harvesting (ragad),
and the transport of grain (ghalle), chopped straw (tibn), fuel (hatabd),
and the like, to the large inland towns, and to the seaports. Those
village communities that do not possess camels for this purpose, hire them
of the Arabs (nomads).—WETzsr.

CHAP, XLII. 14, 15. 391

prominent position, is an embellishment somewhat violently
brought over from the style of the primeval histories (Gen.
xxi. 29; Ruth i. 19): a septiad of sons. The names of the
sons are passed over in silence, but those of the daughters are
designedly given.

Ver. 14. And the one was called Jemima, and the second
Kezia, and the third Keren ha-pich.

The subject of 81?" is each and every one, as Isa. ix. 5
(comp. supra, ch. xli. 25, existimaverit quis). The one was
called 72"2* (Arab. jemdéme, a dove) on account of her dove’s
eyes; the other 7}"S?, cassia, because she seemed to be woven
out of the odour of cinnamon; and the third {59 fp, a horn
of paint (LX X. Hellenizing: «épas duadOelas), which is not
exactly beautiful in itself, but is the principal cosmetic of
female beauty (vid. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern
Egyptians, transl.) : the third was altogether the most beauti-
ful, possessing a beauty heightened by artificial means. They
were therefore like three graces. The writer here keeps to
the outward appearance, not disowning his Old Testament
standpoint. ‘That they were what their names implied, he
says in

Ver. 15. And in all the land there were not found women so
fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them
inheritance among thew brothers.

On 83123, followed by the ace., vid. Ges. § 143, 1, d. pnp,
etc., referring to the daughters, is explained from the de-
ficiency in Hebrew in the distinction of the genders. Ver.
15d sounds more Arabian than Israelitish, for the Thora only
recognises a daughter as heiress where there are no sons,
Num. xxvii. 8 sqq. The writer is conscious that he is writ-
ing an extra-Israelitish pre-Mosaic history. The equal dis-
tribution of the property again places before our eyes the

392 THE BOOK OF JOB.

pleasing picture of family concord in the commencement of
the history; at the same time it implies that Job will not
have been wanting in sons-in-law for his fair, richly-dowried
daughters,—a fact which ver. 16 establishes :

And Job lived after this a nundred and forty years, and saw
his children and his children’s children to four genera-
tions.

In place of 81, the Keri gives the unusual Aorist form
AX), which, however, does also occur elsewhere (e.g. 1 Sam.
xvii. 42). The style of the primeval histories, which we here
everywhere recognise, Gen. 1. 23 (comp. Isa. liii. 10), is re-
tained to the last words.

Ver. 17. And Job died, old, and weary of life.

In the very same manner Genesis, xxy. 8, xxxv. 29, records
the end of the patriarchs. They died satiated of life; for
long life is a gift of God, but neither His greatest nor His
final gift.

A New Testament. poet would have closed the book of Job
differently. He would have shown us how, becoming free
from his inward conflict of temptation, and being divinely
comforted, Job succumbs to his disease, but waves his palm
of victory before the throne of God among the innumer-
able hosts of those who have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. The Old Testament
poet, however, could begin his book with a celestial scene,
but not end it with the same. True, in some passages, which
are like New Testament luminous points in the Old Testa-
ment poem, Job dares to believe and to hope that God will —
indeed acknowledge him after death. But this is a purely
individual aspiration of faith—the extreme of hope, which
comes forth against the extreme of fear. The unravelment
does not correspond to this aspiration. The view of heaven

CHAP. XLII. 17. 393

which a Christian poet would have been able to give at the
close of the book is only rendered possible by the resurrection
and ascension of Christ. So far, what Oehler in his essay
on the Old Testament Wisdom (1854, S. 28) says, in opposi-
tion to those who think the book of Job is directed against
the Mosaic doctrine of retribution, is true: that, on the con-
trary, the issue of the book sanctions the present life phase
of this doctrine anew. But the comfort which this theo-
logically and artistically incomparable book presents to us is
substantially none other than that of the New Testament.
For the final consolation of every sufferer is not dependent
upon the working of good genii in the heavens, but has its
seat in God’s love, without which even heaven would become
a very hell. Therefore the book of Job is also a book of
consolation for the New Testament church. From it we
learn that we have not only to fight with flesh and blood, but
with the prince of this world, and to accomplish our part in
the conquest of evil, to which, from Gen. iii. 15 onwards, the
history of the world tends; that faith and avenging justice
are absolutely distinct opposites; that the right kind of faith
clings to divine love in the midst of the feeling of wrath; that
the incomprehensible ways of God always lead to a glorious
issue; and that the suffering of the present time is far out-
weighed by the future glory—a glory not always revealed in
this life and visibly future, but the final glory above. The
nature of faith, the mystery of the cross, the right practice of
the care of souls,—this, and much besides, the church learns
from this book, the whole teaching of which can never be
thoroughly learned and completely exhausted.

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MAP OF THE COUNTRY
round the MONASTERY OF JOB in the Nukra.

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Seite tn Miles (English),

MB. Lhe paces untied cre inated

WHMEarlane Binv ss SDrawn by Wetzstein.

APPENDIX.

—————

THE MONASTERY OF JOB IN HAURAN, AND
THE TRADITION OF JOB.

(WITH A MAP OF THE DISTRICT.)

By J. G. WETZSTEIN.

THE oral tradition of a people is in general only of very
subordinate value from a scientific point of view when it has
reference to an extremely remote past; but that of the Arabs
especially, which is always combined with traditions and
legends, renders the simplest facts perplexing, and wantonly
clothes the images of prominent persons in the most wonder-
ful garbs, and, in general, so rapidly disfigures every object,
that after a few generations it is no longer recognisable.
So far as it has reference to the personality of Job, whose
historical existence is called in question or denied by some
expositors, it may be considered as altogether worthless, but
one can recognise when it speaks of Job’s native country. By
the 73 US the writer of the book of Job meant a definite
district, which was well known to the people for whom he
wrote; but the name has perished, like many others, and all
the efforts of archeologists to assign to the land its place in
the map of Palestine have been fruitless: Under these cir-
cumstances the matter is still open to discussion, and the

tradition respecting Job has some things to authorize it,
895

396 APPENDIX.

True, it cannot of itself make up for the want of an histori-
cal testimony, but it attains a certain value if it is old, ze. if
it can be traced back about to the time of the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans, when reliable information was
still obtainable respecting that district, although its name was
no longer in use.

In all the larger works of travel on Palestine and Syria,
we find it recorded that Hawrdn is there called Job’s father-
land. In Hauran itself the traveller hears this constantly ;
if any one speaks of the fruitfulness of the whole district, or
of the fields around a village, he is always answered: Is it
not the land of Job (biléd Ejab)? Does it not belong to
the villages of Job (did Hijab)? Thus to Seetzen! Bosrd
was pointed out as a city of Job; and to Eli Smith? even the
country lying to the east of the mountains was called the
land of Job. In Kanawat, a‘ very spacious building, be-
longing to the Roman or Byzantine period, situated in the
upper town, was pointed out to me as the summer palace of
Job (the inscription 8799 in Corp. Jnser. Grae. is taken from
it). The shepherds of Dda‘il, with whom I passed a night on
the Wéddi el-Lebwe, called the place of their encampment
Job’s pasture-ground. In like manner, the English traveller
Buckingham, when he wandered through the Nukra, was
shown in the distance the village of Gherbi (i.e. Chirbet el-
~ ghazale, which from its size is called el-chirbe kar’ éEoyny)
as the birthplace and residence of Job,’ and it seems alto-
gether as though Hauran and the Land of Job are
synonymous. But if one inquires particularly for that part
of the country in which Job himself dwelt, he is directed
to the central point of Hauran, the plain of Hauran (sahl

1 Seetzen, Reisen durch Syrien, etc., i. 66.

2 Ed. Robinson, Paléstina, iii. 911 [Germ. edit.].

3 C. Ritter, Geogr. von Syr. u. Pal. ii. 842 [= Erdkunde, xv. Pt. 2,
p- 842].

TESTIMONY OF MUHAMMEDAN WRITERS. 397

Haurén),' and still more exactly to the district between the
towns of Nawd and Edre‘dt, which is accounted the most
fertile portion of the country, covered with the ruins of
villages, monasteries, and single courts, and is even now
comparatively well cultivated. Among the nomads as well
as among the native agricultural population, this district is
called from its formation Nukra or Nukrat esh-Shdm,’ a name
by which this highly-favoured plain is known and celebrated
by the poets in the whole Syrian desert, as far as ‘Irak and
Higiz.

But even the national writers are acquainted with and
frequently make mention of the Hauranitish tradition of
Job; yet they do not call Job’s home Nukra,—for this
word, which belongs only to the idiom of the steppe, is un-
known to the literature of the language,—but Bethenije
(Batanea). It is so called in a detailed statement of the
legends of Job:* After the death of his father, Job journeyed
into Egypt* to marry Rahme (121) the daughter of Ephraim,
who had inherited from her grandfather Joseph the robe of
beauty; and after he had brought her to his own country, he
received from God a mission as prophet to his Cont YBIGMS
viz. to the inhabitants of Haurdn and Batanea (aN\ ae
EIN lye Lal ads doy’ cA Vue) 25). The historian of
Jerusalem, Mugir ed-din ekvambeli: in the chapter on
the legends of the prophets, says: “Job came from el-‘Ks,

1 Whether the word yi, Deut. iii. 10, only signifies the plain of

Hauran or its southern continuation, the eastern Belk@, may be doubtful,
because in that passage both the Amorite kingdoms are spoken of. But
since it is the ‘‘cities” of the plain, of which the eastern Belka can have had
but few or none, that are spoken of, 4y19 will surely exclude the latter.

? On this name, which belongs to the modern geography of the country,
comp. my Letsebericht tiber Hauran u. d. Trachonen, 8. 87.

3 Catalogue of Arab. Mss. collected in Damascus by J. G. Wetzstein.
Berlin 1863, No. 46, p. 56.

4 [The connection with Egypt, in which these legends place Job, is
worthy of observation.—DEL. |

398 APPENDIX.

and the Damascene province of Batanza was his property.”
In like manner, in the Geography of Jakit el-Hamawi,!
under the art. Bethenije, it is said: “and in this land lived
Job (wakén Eyjaib minha).”

Modern exegetes, as is known, do not take the plain of
Hauran, but the mountain range of Hauran with its eastern
slope, as the Provincia Batanea. Ihave sought elsewhere? to
show the error of this view, and may the more readily confine
myself to merely referring to it, as one will be convinced of
the correctness of my position in the course of this article.
One thing, however, is to be observed here, that the supposition
that Basan is so called as being the land of basalt rocks, is an
untenable support of this error. The word basalt may be
derived from Bacdvris, or a secondary formation, Bacddrtis,
because Basan is exclusively volcanic ;* but we have no more
right to reverse the question, than to say that Damascus may
have received its name from the manufacture of damask.*

1 Orient. Mss. in the Royal Library in Berlin, Sect. Sprenger, No.
7-10.

2 Reisebericht, 8. 83-87.

8 Vid. vol. ii. p. 91, comp. p. 98, note 2, of the foregoing Commentary.

4 Tn the fair at Muzérib we again saw the sheikh of the Wésije-Beduins,
whose guest we had been a week before at the Springs of Joseph in
western Gélién, where he had pitched his tent on a wild spot of ground
that had been traversed by lava-streams. In answer to our question
_ whether he still sojourned in that district, he said: ‘‘ No, indeed! NGzilin
el-jém bi-ard bethéne shéle (we are now encamped in a district that is
completely bethéne).” I had not heard this expression before, and in-

Ore

quired what it meant. The sheikh replied : bethéne (44a) is a stone-
less plain covered with rich pasture. I often sought information
respecting this word, since I was interested about it on account of the
Hebrew word wa, and always obtained the same definition. It is a

diminutive form, without having exactly a diminutive signification, for
in the language of the nomads it is an acknowledged fact that sucha
form takes the place of the usual form. The usual form is either bathne
or bathane. The Kamiis gives the former signification, ‘‘a level country.”
That the explanation of the Kamus is too restricted, and that of the
Sheikh of Wésije the more complete, may be shown from the Kamus

TESTIMONY OF MUHAMMEDAN WRITERS. 399

The home of Job is more definitely described in the follow-
ing passages. Muhammed el-Makdeshi’ says, p. 81 of his
geography: “And in Haurdn and Batanea lie the villages
of Job and his home (did‘* Ejab wa-didruh). The chief place
(of the district) is Nawa, rich in wheat and other cereals.”
The town of Nawé is still more definitely connected with
Job by Jakit el-Hamawi under the article Nawd: “ Be-
tween Nawa and Damascus is two days’ journey; it belongs
to the district of Hauran,” and is, according to some, the

itself. In one place it says, The word moreover signifies (a) the thick of
the milk (cream); (0) a tender maiden; (c) repeated acts of benevolence.
These three significations given are, however, manifestly only figurative
applications, not indeed of the signification which the Kamus places primo
‘loco, but of that which the Sheikh of the Wésije gave; for the likening
of a ‘‘ voluptuously formed maiden,” or of repeated acts of benevolence,
to a luxurious meadow, is just as natural to a nomad, as it was to the
shepherd Amos (ch. iv. 1) to liken the licentious women of Samaria to
well-nourished cows of the fat pastures of Basan. Then the Kamus

brings forward a collective form buthun (oils perhaps from the sing.

bathan=jwa, like du! from asad) in the signification pastures ( uel y) ;

pastures, however, that are damp and low, with a rich vegetation. That
the word is ancient, may be seen from the following expression of
Chalid ibn el-Welid, the victor on the Jarmak: “‘Omar made me
governor of Damascus; and when I had made it into a buthéne, i.e. a
stoneless fertile plain (easy to govern and profitable), he removed me.”
Jakit also mentions this expression under Bethenije. Chéalid also uses
the diminutive as the nomads do (he was of the race of Machzim); pro-
bably the whole word belongs only to the steppe, for all the women who
were called buthéne, e.g. the beloved of the poet Gemil, and others men-
tioned in the ‘‘ Diwan of Love” (Diwan es-sababe), were Beduin women.

After what has been said, we cannot assign to the Hebr. wa any other

signification than that of a fertile stoneless plain or low country. This
appellation, which was given, properly and originally, only to the heart
of the country, and its most valuable portion, viz. the Nukra, would then
a potiort be transferred to the whole, and when the kingdom of
Basan was again destroyed, naturally remained to that province, of
which it was the proper designation.

1 Orient. Mss. in the Royal Library at Berlin; Sect. Sprenger, No. 5.

2 If writers mention Haurdn alone, they mean thereby, according to
the usage of the language of the Damascenes, and certainly also of the

400 APPENDIX.

chief town of the same. Nawé was the residence (menzil)
of Job;” and Ibn er-Rabi says, p. 62 of his essay on the
excellences of Damascus:* “To the prophets buried in the
region of Damascus belongs also Job, and his tomb is near
NawéA, in the district of Hauran.” Such passages prove at
the same time the identity of the Nukra with Batanea;
for if the latter is said to be recognisable from the fact of
Job’s home being found in it, and we find this sign in con-
nection with the Nufra in which Nawa with its surrounding
country is situated, both names must denote one and the
same district.

That, according to the last citation, Job’s tomb is also shown

in the Nukra, has been already observed in my Reisebericht, .

S. 121. Jakat, under Dér Hijab, thus expresses himself:
“'The Monastery of Job is a locality in Hauran, a Damascene

province, in which Job dwelt and was tried of God. There

also is the fountain which he made to flow with his foot, and
the block of rock on which he leant. There also is his tomb.”
What Kazwini says in his Wonders of Creation (‘agdib el-
machlikdé), under Dér Bad, accords with it: “The Monas-
tery of Job lies in one of the Damascene provinces, and was
the place of Job’s residence, in which God tried him. There

prophet Ezekiel (ch. xlvii. 16, 18), the plain of Haurdn as far as the
borders of the Belka, including the mountains of Haurdn, the Lega, and
Gédir ; it is only in the district itself, where special divisions are rendered
necessary, that the three last mentioned parts are excluded. If writers
mention Hawraén and Bethenije together, the context must determine
whether the former signifies the whole, and the latter the part, as in the
above quotation from Makdeshi, or whether both are to be taken as co-
ordinate, as in a passage of Istachri (edited by Moller, Gotha 1839):

‘‘ And Haurdn and Bethenije are two provinces of Damascus with .

luxuriant corn-fields.” Here the words are related to one another as
Auranitis (with the chief town Bostra) to Batanza (with the chief

town Adratum, i.e. Edre Gt), or as the Haurfn of the Beduins and the

Nukra of thesame. The boundary between both is the Wadi ‘Ird, which

falls into the Zédi south of Edre dt.
1 Catalogue of Arab. ss. collected in Damascus, No. 26.

Se

PROSPECT FROM TELL EL-GUMU.. 401
’ Ff

also is the fountain which sprang forth at the stamping of
his foot, when at the end of his trial God commanded him,
and said: Strike with thy foot—(thus a fountain will spring
forth, and) this shall be to thee a cool bath and a draught
(Koran, xxxviii. 41 sqq.). There is also the rock on which
he sat, and his tomb.” Recurring to. the passage of the
Koran cited, we shall see that the stone of Job, the fountain
and the tomb, are not situated in the Monastery itself, but at
some little distance from it.

I came with my cortége out of Gdlan, to see the remark-
able pilgrim fair of Muzérib, just when the Mekka caravan
was expected; and since the Monastery of Job, never visited
by any one now-a-days, could not lie far out of the way, I
determined to seek it out, because I deluded myself with the
hope of finding an inscription of its founder, ‘Amr 1., and in
fact one with a date, which would have been of the greatest
importance in reference to the history of the Ghassanides,—a
nope which has remained unfulfilled. In the evening of the
8ih of May we came to Zésil. Here the Monastery was for
the first time pointed out to us. It was lighted up by the
rays of the setting sun,—a stately ruin, which lay in the dis-
tance a good hour towards the east. The following morning
we left Tesil. Our way led through luxuriant corn-fields
and fields lying fallow, but decked with a rich variety of
flowers in gayest blossom, to an isolated volcanic mound, Tell
el-Gumi,' from which we intended to reconnoitre the surround-
ing country. From this point, as far as the eye could reach,
it swept over fields of wheat belonging to the communities of
Sahm, Tell Shihab, Tesil, Nawd, and Sa‘dije, which covered a
region which tradition calls the home of Job. True, the
volcanic chaos (e/-wa‘r) extended in the west to the distance

1 “¢ Ffill of the heaps of riders.” The hill is said to have been named
after a great engagement which took place there in ancient days. Among
the‘Aneze the gem, 3193, plur. guméa‘, is a division of 400-600 horsemen.

VOL. II. 20

402. | APPENDIX.

of some three miles up the hill on which we stood, and on
the north the plain was bounded partly by Tell el-Gabva and
the “tooth of Nawa” (sinn Nawd), a low ridge with a few
craters; but towards the E. and s. and s.w. the plain was
almost unbounded, for isolated eminences, as Tell “Ashtard,
T. Ash'ari, T. Shihab, T. el-Chammén, and others, rose above
the level of the plain only like mole-hills; and the deep gorges
of the Meddan, Jarmik, Hit, and Muchébi, were sudden and
almost perpendicular ravines, either not seen at all, or ap-
_ peared as dark marks. The plain slopes gently and scarcely
perceptibly towards Kufr el-md, Kufr es-sémir, Zéziin, and
Bendek; and the Naher el-Owérid, a river abounding in
water in its level bed, resembles a glistening thread of silver.
If this district had trees, as it once had,—for among the ruins
one often discovers traces of vineyards and garden walls,
which it can have no longer, since the insecurity and injustice
of the country do not admit of men remaining long in one
and the same village, therefore not to take hold upon the soil
and establish one’s self, and become at home anywhere,—it
would be an earthly paradise, by reason of its healthy climate
and the fertility of its soil. ‘That even the Romans were
acquainted with the glorious climate of Hauran, is proved by
the name Palestina salutaris, which they gave to the district.’
_ The inhabitants of Damascus say there is no disease whatever
in Hauran; and as often as the plague or any other infectious
disease shows itself in their city, thousands flee to Hauran,
and to the lava-plateau of the Lega. This healthy condition
may arise from the volcanic formation of the country, and
from the sea-breeze, which it always has in connection with

1 This appellation is erroneously given to the province of Petra
(Palestina tertia)in Burckhardt's Travels (Gesenius’ edition, 8. 676).
Bocking also, Not. dign. or. pp. 139, 345, and 378, is guilty of this
oversight. Comp. thereon, Mommsen, Verzeichniss der rim. Provinzen

aufgesetzt um, 297, in the Transactions of the Berlin Acad. der Wissensch.
1862, 8. 501 f.

THE FERTILITY OF THE NUKRA. 403

its position, which is open towards the west. Even during
the hottest days, when e.g. in the Ghita a perfect calm pre-
vails, so that no breeze is felt, this cool and moist sea-breeze
blows refreshingly and regularly over the plain; and hence
the Hauranitish poet never speaks of his native country
without calling it the “cool-blowing Nukra” (en-nukra el-
‘adije), But as to the fertility of the district, there is indeed
much good arable land in the country east of the Jordan, as
in Irbid and Suwét, of the same kind as between Salt and
‘Ammdn, but nowhere is the farming, in connection with a
small amount of labour (since no manure is used), more pro-
ductive than in Hauran, or more profitable; for the trans-
parent “ Batanzean wheat” (hinta bethenije) is always at least
25 per cent. higher in price than other kinds. Hence the
agriculture of that region also, in times of peace and security
(during the first six centuries after Christ), produced that
fondness for building, some of the magnificent memorials of
which are our astonishment in the present day; and, in fact,
not unfrequently the inscriptions testify that the buildings
themselves owe their origin to the produce of the field. Thus,
in the locality of Néhite in the Nukra, I found the following
fragment of an inscription: ... Macanréuov PaBBov kricpa é&
iStov Komrav yewpyucav év ért or, Masalemos son of Rabbos
set up (this memorial) out of the produce of his farming in
the year 280. Of a like kind is the following remains of
two distichs in Murduk:... Spds re caddpav | . . . weyapov
|... wo dvdrravpa péyiotov |... yewrovins. In Shakka
the longer inscription of a mausoleum in a state of good pre-
servation begins: :

Bdaoos éhs matpns peyaxvdeos aydaov Oya
? / / / / . es
Ex odetépov Kapatowo yewmrovins Té pw ederpev.

Bassos, beaming eye of the honourable city of his birth,
Has built me out of the produce of his own tillage.

404 APPENDIX.

Similar testimonies are to be found in the inscriptions in
Burckhardt.

After a long sojourn on the hill, which was occasioned by
the investigation of some interesting plants in the crater of
the mound, we set out for Sa‘dije, which is built on the slope
of a hill. After a good hour’s journey we arrived at the
Makém Vyjad, “the favoured tomb of Job,” situated at the
southern base of the hill, and rendered conspicuous by two
white domes, and there we dismounted. The six attendants
and alumni of the Makaém, or, as the Arabs thoughtfully call
them, “the servants of our master Job” (chddimin séjidna
hijab), received us, with some other pilgrims, at the door of
the courtyard, and led us to the basin of the fountain of Job,
by the side of which they spread out their mantles for us to
rest upon under the shade of a walnut tree and a willow.
While the rest were engaged in the duties of hospitality, the
superior of the Makém, the Sheikh Sa‘id el-Darftri (from
Darfir) did not leave us, and made himself in every way
obliging. Like him, all the rest of the inhabitants of the
place were black, and all unmarried; their celibacy, however,
I imagine, was only caused by the want of opportunity of
marrying, and the limited accommodation of “the place.
Sheikh Sa‘id believed himself to be fifty years of age; he
-left his home twenty years before to go on pilgrimage to
Mekka, where he “studied” four years; the same length
of time he sojourned in Medina, and had held his present
_ office ten years. Besides his mother tongue, he spoke
Arabic and a little Turkish, having been in Constantinople
a few years before. His judgment of the inhabitants of
that city is rather harsh: he charges them with immorality,
drunkenness, and avarice. In one year, said he, I could
hardly save enough to travel by the steamer to Chédscha
Bék (Odessa). How different was my experience of the
inhabitants of this city! I was there three months, during

JOBS TOMB, ITS RESIDENTS, AND THE TEKARINE PILGRIMS. 405

which time I had nothing to provide for, and left with ninety
Ménét (imperials), which just sufficed to set up these dilapi-
dated relics again. A Russian ship brought me to Smyrna,
whence I travelled by the Nemsdwi (Austrian Lloyd steamer)
to Syria.

According to the account given by the inhabitants of
Sa‘dije, the Makam has been from ancient times a negro
hospice. ‘These Africans, commonly called “Adid in Damas-
cus, and in the country Tekdrine, come chiefly from Tekrir
in Sadan; they first visit Mekka and Medina, then Da-
mascus, and finally the Makim of Job. Here they sojourn
from twenty to thirty days, during which time they wash
themselves daily in Job’s fountain, and pray upon Job’s stone;
and the rest of the day they either read or assist the dwellers
in the Makam in their tillage of the soil, When they are
about to leave, they receive a testimonial, and often return
home on foot across the Isthmus of Suez, often by water,
chiefly from Jafa, by the Austrian Lloyd ship to Egypt, and
thence to their native country. These pilgrims, so far as the
requirements of their own country are concerned, are literatt ;
and it appears as though by this journey they obtained their
highest degree. Ihave frequently met them in my travels.
They are known by their clean white turban, and the white
broad-sleeved shirt, which reaches to the ankles, their only
garment. ‘They carry a small bundle over the shoulder upon
a strong staff, which may serve as a weapon of defence in
case of need. In this bundle they carry a few books and
other effects, and above this their cloak. They are modest,
taciturn men, who go nimbly onward on their way, and to
whom one always gladly gives a supper and a night’s lodging.

We visited the holy places in the company of the Sheikh
Said. The Makam, and the reservoir, which lies fifty paces
to the front of it, are surrounded by a wall. This reservoir
is filled by a strong, rapid, and cold stream of water, which

Nn

406 APPENDIX.

comes from the fountain of Job, about 400 paces distant.
The fountain itself springs up by the basalt hill on which the
village and the Job’s stone are situated; and it is covered in
as far as the reservoir (called birke), in order to keep the
water fresh, and to guard against pollution. Between the
fountain and the Makaim stand a half-dozen acacias and a
pomegranate, which were just then in full bloom. The
Makam itself, on which the wretched habitations for the
attendants and pilgrims adjoin, is a one-storey stone building,
of old material and moderate circumference. The first thing
shown us was the stone trough, called gurn, in which Job
bathed at the end of his trial. The small space in which this -
relic stands, and over which, so far as I remember, one of
the two domes is raised, is called wadjet séjidnd Bjab, “the
lavatory of our lord Job.” Adjoining this is the part with
the tomb, the oblong mound of which is covered with an old —
torn green cloth. The tomb of Sa‘d was more carefully
tended. Our Damascene travelling companions were divided
in their opinions as to the person whose tomb was near that
of Job, as in Syria it is hardly possible to find and distin-
guish the makams of the many men of God (rigdl Allah) or
favoured ones of God (aulid) who bear the same names; but
a small white flag standing upon the grave informed us, for
it bore the inscription: “This is the military emblem (réje)

‘of our lord Sa‘d abt Merziika.”

Perhaps the preservation of the Mak&ém of Job is due to
the tomb of Sa‘d, as its endowments have long since disap-
peared, while the tomb of Sa‘d still has its revenues. From
‘Aglin it receives tribute of oil and olives yearly. And
several large vegetable gardens, which lie round about the:
Makam, and are cultivated by its attendants, must also con-
tribute something considerable towards its maintenance. In
these gardens they grow dura (maize), tobacco, turnips,
onions, and other things, for their own use and for sale.

—_

EEE ———— ee CU
s . 7

THE STONE OF JOB. . 407

The plants, which can be freely watered from the fountain
of Job, are highly esteemed. The government levies no
taxes on the Makim, and the Arabs no tribute; and since,
according to the popular belief, the Beduin horse that is
watered from the birke dies, the Beduins do not even claim
the rights of hospitality,—a fortunate circumstance, the re-
moval of which would speedily cause the ruin of the hospice.
From nightly thieves, who not unfrequently break through
the walls of the stables in the villages of the plain, and carry
off the smaller cattle, both the Maksim and the village are
secure; for if the night thieves come, they see, as every one
in Hauran testifies, a surging sea around the place, which
prevents their approach.

From the Makam we ascended the hill of the village, on
the highest part of which is the stone of Job (Sachrat Kydd).
It is inside a small Mussulman hall of prayer, which in its
present form is of more modern origin, but is undoubtedly
built from the material of a Christian chapel, which stood
here in the pre-Muhammedan age. It is an unartistic struc-
ture, in the usual Hauranitish style, with six or eight arches
and a small dome, which is just above the stone of Job. My
Mussulman attendants, and a Hauranite Christian from the
village of Shemiskin, who had joined us as-we were visiting
the Sachra, trod the sacred spot with bare feet, and kissed
the rock, the basaltic formation of which is unmistakeable.
Against this rock, our guide told us, Job leaned “when he
was afflicted by his Lord” (hin ibteld min rabbuh).! While
these people were offering up their “Asr (afternoon) prayer
in this place, Said brought me a handful of small long round:

/

1 As is generally known, the black stone in Mekka and the Sachra
in Jerusalem are more celebrated than the stone of Job; but less revered
are the Mebrak en-ndka in Bosra, the thievish stone of Moses in the
great mosque at Damascus, the doset en-nebi on the mountain of el-Higane,
and others.

408 APPENDIX.

stones and slag, which the tradition declares to be the worms
that fell to the ground out of Job’s sores, petrified. “Take
them with thee,” said he, “as a memento of this place; let
them teach thee not to forget God in prosperity, and in mis-
fortune not to contend with Him.” The frequent use of
these words in the mouth of the man might have weakened
them to a set phrase: they were, however, appropriate to the
occasion, and were not without their effect. After my at-
tendants had provided themselves with Job’s worms, we left
the Sachra. These worms form a substantial part of the
Hauranitish tradition of Job, and they are known and revered
generally in the country. Our Christian attendant from
Shemiskin bound them carefully in the broad sleeve of his
shirt, and recited to us a few verses from a kaside, in which
they are mentioned. The poem, which a member of our
company, the dervish Regeb, wrote down, is by a Hauranite
Christian, who in it describes his unhappy love in colours as
strong as the bad taste it displays. The lines that are appro-
priate here are as follows :—

Min ‘azma nari nara jém.el-gijama,
Tifana Niha ’dmit'a ‘éni ‘anuh zéd.
Ja giba min hozni hizanuh giséma
Min belweti Ejiiba jerta’ bihe ’d-ditd.+
The fire of hell at the last day will kindle itself from the glow of my pain,
~ And stronger than the flood of Noah are the tear-streams of mine eyes.

The grief of Jacob for his son was but a small part of my grief ;
And, visited with my misery, Job was once the prey of worms.”

The village, which the peasants call Shéch Sa‘d, and the
nomads Sa'dije, is, as the name implies, of later origin, and
perhaps was founded by people who fled hither when op-
pressed elsewhere, for the sake of being able to live more
peacefully under the protection of the two tombs. That the

1 The metre forms two spondeo-iambics and trochzo-spondaics.
2 Comp. vol. ii. p. 158 of the foregoing Commentary.

VISIT TO THE MONASTERY OF JOB: INSCRIPTION. 409

place is not called Hjédéje, is perhaps in order to distinguish
it from the Monastery of Job.

In less than a quarter of an hour we rode up to the Dér
jab, a square building, standing entirely alone, and not sur-
rounded by ruins. When the Arabian geographers call it a
village, they reckon to it the neighbouring Sa‘dije with the
Makim. It is very extensive, and built of fine square blocks
of dolerite. While my fellow-traveller, M. Dérgens, was
engaged in making a ground-plan of the shattered building,
which seemed to us on the whole to have had a very simple
construction, I took some measurements of its sides and
angles, and then searched for inscriptions. Although the
ground-floor is now in part hidden in a mezbele,' which has
been heaped up directly against the walls, on the east side,
upon the architrave, not of the chief doorway, which is on
the south, but of a door of the church, is found a large Greek
inscription in a remarkable state of preservation. ‘The archi-
trave consists of a single carefully-worked block of dolerite,
and at present rests almost upon the ground, since the rub-
bish has filled the whole doorway. ‘The writing and sculp-
ture are hollowed out.

In the centre is a circle, and the characters inscribed at
each side of this circle are still undeciphered ; the rest of the
inscription is easy to be read: airy 4 mvdn K(upio)v Sixato
eicehevoovte ev avTh TovUTO TO bTépOupov éréOn ev yYpovois
’Hylov eihaBeor(drov) syyoup(évov) u(nvt) ’Iovrle xe iv8(0)K-
(riwvos) Le TOD TOUS THVTAKOTLOGTOD TPLKOTTOD EXTOU K(Upt)oU
’I(no)od X(pct)od Bacidevovtos. ‘The passage of Scripture,
Ps. exviii. 20, with. which this inscription begins, is fre-
quently found in these districts in the inscriptions on church
portals.

This inscription was an interesting discovery; for, so far
as 1 know, it is the oldest that we possess which reckons

1 On the word and subject, vid. vol. ii. 152 of the foregoing Commentary.

410 APPENDIX.

according to the Christian era, and in the Roman indiction
(indictio)! we have an important authority for determining its
date. Now, since there might be a difference of opinion as
to the beginning of the “kingdom of Christ,” I was anxious
to have the judgment of an authority in chronology on the
point; and I referred to Prof. Piper of Berlin, who kindly
furnished me with the following communication: —“... The
inscription therefore furnishes the following data: July 25,
indict. xv., year 536, xvpiov Iod Xod Bacirevovtos. To
begin with the last, the Dionysian era, which was only just
introduced into the West, is certainly not to be assumed here.
But it is also by no means the birth of Christ that is in-
tended. Everything turns upon the expression PaciAcvovtos.
The same expression occurs once in an inscription from
Syria, Corp. Inser. Gree. 8651: Baciredovtos Iovetwavod
7 wa &ret. The following expression, however, occurs later
concerning Christ on Byzantine coins: Rex regnantium
and Bacwreds Bacidéwv (after Apoc. xvii. 14, xix. 16), the
latter under John Zimiszes (died 975), in De Saulcy, Pl.
xxii. 4, But if the Bacirela of Christ is employed as the
era, we manifestly cannot refer to the epoch of the birth of
Christ, but must take the epoch of His ascension as our
basis: for with this His Racv)ela first began; just as in the
West we sometimes find the calculation begins a passione.
~ Now the fathers of the Western Church indeed place the
death (and therefore also the ascension) of Christ in the
consulate of the two Gemini, 29 a.p. Not so with the
Greek fathers. Eusebius takes the year of His death, ac-
cording to one supposition, to be the 18th year of Tiberius,
i.e. 785 A.U.C. = 32 A.D. Supposing we take this as the
first year regnante Jesu Christo, then the year 536, of the
inscription of the Monastery of Job, is reduced to our era,
after the birth of. Christ, by adding 31. Thus we have the
1 Vid. Gibbon, ed, Smith, ii. 333.—Tr.

FESTIVAL OF THE MONASTERY OF JOB. 411

number of the year 567, to which the accompanying xv.
indictio corresponds, for 567 -- 3 = 570; and %/ has no re-
mainder. _XV. is therefore the indiction of the year 567,
which more accurately belongs to the year from 1st Sept.
566 to 3lst Aug. 567. And since the day of the month is
mentioned in the inscription, it is the 25th July 567 that is
indicated. For it appears to me undoubted that the indic-
tions, according to the usual mode of computation among the
Greeks, begin with the Ist Sept. 312. Thus a Sidonian
inscription of Dec. 642 a.p. has the I. indiction (Corp.
Entcn Gao 9153)c le.”

Thus far Prof. Piper’s communication. According to this
satisfactory explanation of its date, this inscription is perhaps
not. unqualified to furnish a contribution worth-notice, even
for the chronology of the life of Jesus, since the Ghassinides,
under whom not only the inscription, but the Monastery
itself 300 years earlier, had its origin, dwelt in Palestine, the
land of Christ; and their kings were perhaps the first who
professed Christianity.

The “festival of the Monastery of Job,” which, according
to Kazwini’s Syrian Calendar,’ the Christians. of the country
celebrated annually on the 23d April, favours the pre-
Muhammedan importance of the Monastery. This festival
in Kazwini’s time, appearing only by name in the calendar,
had undoubtedly ceased with the early decline of Christianity
in the plain of Hauran, for the historically remarkable exodus
of a large portion of the Ghassinides out of the cities of
_ Hauran to the north of Georgia had taken place even under
the chalifate of Omar. The Syrian Christians of the present
day celebrate the festival of Mar Gorgius (St George), who
slew the dragon (éennin) near Beirfit, on the 23d April. A
week later (the 1st May, oriental era) the Jews of Damascus
have the sém Ljab (the fast of Job), which lasts twenty-

1 Calendarium Syriacum Cazwinii, ed. Guil. Volck, Lips. 1859, p. 15.

412 APPENDIX.

four hours. In Kazwini’s calendar it is erroneously set down
to the 3d May.

Moreover, with reference to the Monastery, it must be
mentioned that, according to the history of Ibn Kethir,* the
great Greco-Ghassinide army, which, under the leadership of
Theodorie, a brother of the Emperor Heraclius, was to have re-
pulsed the attack of the Mussulmans on Syria, revolted in its —
neighbourhood in the 13th year of the Hegira (Higra), while
the enemy was encamped on the south bank of the Medddn,
and was drawn up near Edredt. After several months had
passed came the battle known as the “battle of the Jarmik,”
the issue of which cost the Byzantines Syria. The volcanic
hollows of the ground, which for miles form a complex net-
work of gorges, for the most part inaccessible, offer great
advantages in defensive warfare; and here the battle near
Edre%, in which “Og king of Bashan lost his kingdom, was
probably fought.

According to the present division of the country, the
Monastery of Job and the Makam are in the southern part of
Gédir, an administrative district, which is bounded on the
north by the Wddi Bériit, on the east by the W. el-Horér
and the high road, on the south by the Jarmik, and on the
west by the W. Hit and by a range of volcanic mounds,
which stretch to the south-east corner of the Snow-mountain
(el-Hermén) ; this district, however, has only a nominal exist-
ence, for it has no administration of its own. LEither it is
added to Hauran, or its revenues, together with those of
Golan, are let out to the highest bidder for a number of
years. Gédir is the natural north-western continuation of
the plain of Hauran; and the flat bed of the Horér, which
does not form a gorge until it comes to the bridge of Sira,
forms no boundary proper. Moreover, the word is not found
in ancient geography; and the Arabian geographers, even

1 Comp. A. v. Kremer, Mittelsyrien, etc., Vienna 1853, 8. 10. |

RESIDENTS AT THE MONASTERY. 413

the later ones, who recognised the idea of Gédir, always
so define the position of a locality situated in Gédir, that
they say it is situated in the Haurin. Thus Jakit describes
the town of el-Gabia, situated in western Gédiir, and in like
manner, as we have seen above, Nawa and the Monastery of
Job, etc.! There is no doubt that, as the Gédfir of the
present day is reckoned in the Nukra, so this country also
in ancient days, at least as far as its northern watershed, has
belonged to the tetrarchy of Batanca.

The Monastery of Job is at present inhabited. A certain
sheikh, Ahmed el-Kddiri, has settled down here since the
autumn of 1859, as partner of the senior of the Damascene
“Omarije (the successors of the Chalif ‘Omar), to whose
family endowments (wagf) the Monastery belongs, and with
his family he inhabits a number of rooms in the inner court,
which have escaped destruction. He showed us the decree
of his partner appointing him to his position, in which he is
styled Sheikh of the Dér Eijib, Dér el-Lebwe, and ‘Ashtard.
Dér el-Lebwe, “the monastery of the lion,” * was built by the
Gefnide Mihem ibn el-Hadrith; and we shall have occasion to
refer to ‘Ashtard, in which Newbold,* in the year 1846,
believed he had found the ancient capital of Basan, ‘A shtarét,
further on. But the possessor of all these grand things was
avery unhappy man. While we were drinking coffee with
him, he related to us how the inhabitants of Nawa had left

1 Jakit says under Gédir, ‘It is a Damascene district, it has villages,
and lies in the north of Hauran; according to others, it is reckoned
together with Hauran as one district.” The last words do not signify
that Gédir and Haurdn are words to be used without any distinction ; on
the contrary, that Gédir is a district belonging to- Hauran, and compre-
hended*in it.

2 The name of this monastery, which is about a mile and a half north-

east of the Dér Ejub, is erroneously called D. el-lebi in Burckhardt’s
Travels in Syria (ed. Gesenius, 8. 449). The same may be said of D.

en-nubuwwe in Annales Hamze, ed. Gottwaldt, p. \\A.
$C. Ritter, Geogr. v. Syr. u. Pal. ii. 821 [Erdk. xv. Pt. 2, p. 821].

414 APPENDIX.

him only two yoke (fedddn) of arable land from the territory
assigned to him, and taken all the rest to themselves. The
harvest of that year, after the deduction of the bedhdr (the
new seed-corn), would hardly suffice to meet the demands of |
his family, and of hospitality; and for his partner, who had
advanced money to him, there would be nothing left. In
Damascus he found no redress; and the Sheikh of Nawa,
Dhidb el-Medhjeb, had answered his last representation with
the words, ‘“‘ He who desires Job’s inheritance must look for
trials.” Here also, as in Arabia generally, I found that
intelligence and energy was on the side of the wife. During
our conversation, his wife, with one of her children, had
drawn near; and while the child kissed my hand, according
to custom, she said: To-morrow thou wilt arrive at Muzérib;
Dhiab will also be going thither with contributions for the
pilgrims. We put our cause in thy hands, arrange it as
seems thee best; this old man will accompany thee.’ And
as we were riding, the Sheikh Ahmed was also obliged to
mount, and his knowledge of the places did us good service
on Tell Ashtardé and Tell el-Ash‘ari. In Muzérib, where the
pilgrim fair and the arriving caravans for Mekka occupied
our attention for five days, we met Dhiab and the Jchtidrtje
(elders of the community) of Nawa; and, after some opposi-
tion, the sheikh of the Monastery of Job obtained four fedddn
of land under letter and seal, and returned home satisfied.
The case of this man is no standard of the state of the
Hauranites, for there are so many desolated villages that
there is no lack of land; only round about avd it is insuf-
ficient, since this place is obliged to take possession of far
outlying fields, by reason of its exceedingly numerous agri-
cultural population. The more desolate a land exposed to

1 That the Sheikh Atmed was permitted to take up his abode in the
Monastery, was owing to a religious dread of his ancestor (gidd), ‘Abdel-
Kddir el-Giléni, and out of courteousness towards his partner.

AGRICULTURE IN HAURAN. 415

plunder becomes, the more populous must its separate towns
become, since the inhabitants of the smaller defenceless
villages crowd into them. Thus the inhabitants of the large
town of Kendkir at the present time till the fields of twelve
neighbouring deserted villages; and Salt, the only inhabited
place in the Belké, has its corn-fields even at a distance of
fifteen miles away. The poet may also have conceived of
Job’s domain similarly, for there were five hundred ploughmen
employed on it; so that it could not come under the category
of ordinary villages, which in Syria rarely have above, mostly
under, fifty yoke of oxen. According to the tradition, which

_ speaks of “Job’s villages” (did* hijab), these ploughmen

would be distributed over several districts; but the poet, who
makes them to be overwhelmed by one ghazwe, therefore as
ploughing in one district, will have conceived of them only as
dwelling in one locality.

It might not be out of place here to give some illustration
of the picture which the poet draws of Job’s circumstances
and position as a wealthy husbandman. Hauran, the scene
of the drama (as we here assume), must at that period, as at
present, have been without protection from the government
of the country, and therefore exposed to the marauding
attacks of the tribes of the desert. In such a country there
is no private possession ; but each person is at liberty to take
up his abode in it, and to cultivate the land and rear cattle
at his own risk, where and to what extent he may choose.
Whoever intends doing so must first of all have a family, or
as the Arabs say, “men” (rigdl), i.e. grown-up sons, cousins,
nephews, sons-in-law; for one who stands alone, “the cut off
one” (makté‘), as he is called, can attain no position of emi-
nence among the Semites, nor undertake any important enter-
prise." Then he has to make treaties with all the nomad

1 Jn the present day the household is called ‘ashira, and all families of
importance in Hauran are and call themselves ‘ashdir ( 7 lac) ; but the

416 APPENDIX.

tribes from which he has reason to fear any attack, é.e. to
pledge himself to pay a yearly tribute, which is given in
native produce (in corn and garments). Thus the com-
munity of el-Higdne, ten years since, had compacts with
101 tribes; and that Job also did this, seems evident from
the fact that the poet represents him as surprised not by
neighbouring, but by far distant tribes (Chaldeans and
Sabzeans), with whom he could have no compact. Next he
proceeds to erect a chirbe, i.e. a village that has been forsaken
(for a longer or shorter period), in connection with which,
excepting the relations, slaves, and servants of the master,
all those whom interest, their calling, and confidence in the
good fortune of the master, have drawn thither, set about

ancient word batn does also occur, and among the Semitic tribes that .

have migrated to Mauritania it is still in use instead of the Syrian
‘ashira. Batn, collect. butén, is the fellowship of all those who are traced
back to the jya of one ancestral mother. Thus even in Damascus they

say: nahn ferd batn, we belong to one family; in like manner in the
whole of Syria: this foal is the batn of that mare, 7.e. its young one; or:
I sold my mare without batn, or with one, two, three-fourths of her
batn, i.e. without her descendants, or so that the buyer has only 6 or 12
or 18 kirdt right of possession in the foals she will bear. In all these
applications, batn is the progenies uteri, not the uterus itself ; and, accord-
ing to this, 9302 572, ch. xix. 17, ought to be explained by ‘‘all my
relations by blood.” ;

1 These sudden attacks, at any rate, do not say anything in favour of
. the more southernly position of Avwsitis. If the Beduin is but once on
his horse or delél, it is all the same to him whether a journey is ten days
longer or shorter, if he can only find water for himself and his beast,
This, however, both bands of marauders found, since the poet distinctly
represents the attacks as having been made in the winter. The general
ploughing of the fallow-lying wagiha of a community (it is called shigag
el-wagiha), ready for the sowing in the following autumn, always takes
place during January and February, because at this time of the year the
earth is softened by the winter rains, and easy to plough. While engaged

in this work, the poet represents Job’s ploughmen as being surprised and

slain. Hence, for the destruction of 500 armed ploughmen—and they
were armed, because they could only have been slain with their weapons
in their hands in consequence of their resistance—at least 2000 horsemen
were necessary. So large a ghazwe is, however, not possible in the summer,

-~

ee ne

et a
.

na i aa

THE PROPRIETOR OF A VILLAGE AND HIS LABOURERS, 417

the work. Perhaps ch. xv. 28 has reference to Job’s
settlement.’

With reference to the relation of the lord of a village
(ustdd beled, or sadhib dé‘a) to his work-people, there are
among the dependants two classes. The one is called zurrd’,
“sowers,” also fellahin kism, “ participating husbandmen,’
because they share the produce of the harvest with the ustdd
thus: he receives a fourth while they retain three-fourths,
from which they live, take the seed for the following season,
give their quota towards the demands of the Arabs, the
village shepherds, the field watchmen, and the’ scribe of the
community (chatib); they have also to provide the farming
implements and the yoke-oxen. On the other hand, the wstéd
has to provide for the dwellings of the people, to pay the
land-tax to the government, and, in the event of a failure
of the crops, murrain, etc., to make the necessary advances,
either in- money or in’ kind at the market price, and without

but only in the winter, because they could not water at a draw-well,
only at the pools (ghudrén) formed by the winter rains. For one of
these raids of the Chaldeans, Haurdn, whither marauding bands come
even now during the winter from the neighbourhood of Babylon in six
or seven days, lay far more convenient than the country around Ma‘dn
and ‘Akaba, which is only reached from the Euphrates, even in winter,
by going a long way round, since the Nufid (sandy plains) in the east,
and their western continuation the Hdldt, suck in the rain without
forming any pools. On the other hand, however, this southern region
lay nearer and more convenient for the incursions of the Sabeans, viz.
the Ketursean (Gen. xxv. 3), 7.e. Petreean tribe of thisname. The greater
or less distance, however, is of little consequence here. Thus, as the

Shemmar of Negd from time to time make raids into the neighbourhood

of Damascus, so even the tribes of Wadi el-Koré might also do the same.
Moreover, as we observed above, the poet represents the sudden attacks
as perpetrated by the Sabzans and Chaldeans, probably because they
only, as being foreign and distant races which never had anything to do
with Job and his men, and therefore were without any consideration,
could practise such unwonted barbarities as the robbery of ploughing
heifers, which a ghazwe rarely takes, and the murder of the ploughmen.

- 1[Verbally, ch. iii. 146, which we, however, have interpreted differently,
accords with this.—DEL. ]

VOL. II. 2D

418 APPENDIX.

any compensation. This relation, which guarantees the main-
tenance of the family, and is according to the practice of a
patriarchal equity, is greatly esteemed in the country; and
one might unhesitatingly consider it therefore to be that
which existed between Job and his ploughmen, because it
may with ease exist between a single ustédd and hundreds,
indeed thousands, of country people, if ch. i. 3 did not neces-
sitate our thinking of another class of country people, viz.
the murdbi‘in, the “quarterers.” They take their name from
their receiving a fourth part of the harvest for their labour,
while they have to give up the other three-fourths to the
ustéd, who must provide for their shelter and board, and in
like manner everything that is required in agriculture. As
Job, according to ch. i. 8 (comp. on ch. xlii. 12), provided
the yoke-oxen and means of transport (asses and camels), so
he also provided the farming implements, and the seed for
sowing. We must not here think of the paid day-labourer
of the Syrian towns, or the servants of our landed pro-
prietors; they are unknown on the borders of the desert.
The hand that toils has there a direct share in the gain; the
workers belong to the auldd, “children of the house,” and
are so called; in the hour of danger they will risk their life
for their lord.

This rustic labour is always undertaken simultaneously by
all the murdbi‘in (it .is so also in the villages of the zurrd‘)
for the sake of order, since the ustdd, or in his absence the
village sheikh, has the general work of the following day
announced from the roof of his house every evening. Thus
it is explained how the 500 ploughmen could be together in
one and the same district, and be slain all together.

The ustdd is the sole judge, or, by deputy, the sheikh. An
appeal to the government of the country would be useless,
because it has no influence in Hauran; but the servant who
has been treated unjustly by his master, very frequently

a ee

THE TRADITION OF JOB: EUGESIPPUS. 419

turns as dachil fi’l-haqq (a suppliant concerning his right)
to his powerful neighbour, who is bound, according to the
customs of the country, to obtain redress for him (comp. ch.
xxix. 12-17). If he does not obtain this by persuasion, he
cries for force, and such a demand lies at the root of many
a bloody feud.

Powerful and respected also as the position, described in
ch. xxix., of such a man is, it must, according to the nature
of its basis, fall in under strokes of misfortune, like those
mentioned in ch. i. 14-19, and change to the very opposite,
as the poet describes it in ch. xxx.

After these observations concerning the agricultural rela-
tions of Hauran, we return to the tradition of Job. As we
pursue the track of this tradition further, we first find it
again in some of the Christian writers of the middle ages,
viz. in Eugesippus (De distance. loc. terr. sanct.), in William
of Tyre (Histor. rerum a Francis gest.), and in Marino Sanuto
(De secretis fid. cruc.). The passages that bear upon the
point are brought together in Reland (Palest. pp. 265 sq.) ;
and we would simply refer to them, if it were possible for the
reader to find his way among the fabulous confusion of the
localities in Eugesippus and Sanuto.

The oldest of these citations is from Eugesippus, and is as
follows: One part of the country is the land of Hus, out of
which Job was; it is also called Sweta, after which Bildad
the Suhite was named. Sanuto tells us where this locality
is to be sought. “ Sueta is the home of Baldad the Suite.
Below this city (civitas), in the direction of the Kedar-tribes,
the Saracens are accustomed to assemble out of Aram, Meso-
potamia, Ammon, Moab, and the whole Orient, around the
fountain of Fiale; and, on account of the charms of the
place, to hold a fair there during the whole summer, and to
pitch their coloured tents.” In another place he says: fontem
Fialen Medan, 1.e. aquas Dan, a Saracenis nuncupari.

420 APPENDIX.

Now, since according to an erroneous, but previously preva-
lent etymology, “the water of Dan” (1 2 = 71 18) denoted
the Jordan, and since we further know from Josephus (Bell.
iii. 10, 7) that the Phiala is the small lake of Ram, whose sub-
terranean outflow ‘the tetrarch Philip is said to have shown
to be the spring of the Jordan, which comes to light deeper
below, we should have thought the country round about the
lake of Ram, at the south foot of Hermén; to be the home of
Job and Bildad.: This discovery would be confirmed by the
following statement of Eugesippus (in Reland, loc. cit.): “The
river Dan flows under ground from its spring as far as the
plain of Meldan, where it comes to light.. This plain is named
after the fair, which is held there, for the Saracens call such an
one Meldan. At the beginning of the summer a large num-
ber of men, with wares to sell, congregate there, and several
Parthian and Arabian soldiers also, in order to guard the people
and their herds, which have a rich pasture there in the summer,
The word meldan is composed of mel and dan.” It is indeed
readily seen that the writer has ignorantly jumbled several
words together in the expression meldan, as mé Dan, “water
of Dan,” and méddan or middan, “market-place;” perhaps even
also ledddn, the name of the great fountain of the Jordan
in the crater of the Tell el-Kddi.. In like manner, the state-
ment that the neighbourhood of Phiala, or that of the large
- fountain of the Jordan, might formerly have been a fair of
the tribes, is false, for the former is broken up into innumerable
craters, and the latter is poisoned by the swamp-fevers of the
Hale; but as to the rest, both Eugesippus and Sanuto seem
really to speak of a tradition which places: Job’s or Bildad’s
home in that region. And yet it is not so: their tradition
is no other than the Hauranitish; but ignorance of the lan-
guage and geography of the country, and some accidental
circumstances, so confused their representations, that it is
difficult to find out what is right. The first clue is given us

WILLIAM OF TYRE: THE CAVEA ROOB. 421

by the history of William of Tyre, in which (1. xxii. c. 21)
it is said that the crusaders, on their return from a maraud-
ing expedition in the Nukra, wished to reconquer.a strong
position, the Cavea Rood, which they had lost a short time
before. ‘This place,” says the historian, “lies in the pro-
vince: of Suite, a district distinguished by its pleasantness,
ete.; and that Baldad, Job’s friend, who is on that account
called the Suite, is said to have come from it.” This passage
removes us at once into the neighbourhood of Muzérib and the
Monastery of Job, for the province of Suete is nothing but
the district of Swwét (G24c),' the north-western boundary
of which is formed by the gorge of the Wadi Rahib. The
Cavea Roob, which was first of all again found out by me on
my journey in 1862, lies in the middle of the steep bank of
that wadi, and is at present called maghdéret Rahab, “the
eave of R.,” or more commonly mu‘allakat Rahib, “the
swinging cave of R.,” and at the time of the Crusades com-.
manded the dangerous pass which the traveller, on ascending
from the south end of the Lake of Galilee to Edre‘dt by the
nearest way, has to climb on hands and feet. In another
passage (xvi. 9), where the unhealthy march to Bosré is
spoken of, Will. of Tyre says: “After we had come through
the gorge of Roob, we reached the plain which is called
Medan, and where every year the Arabs and other oriental
tribes are accustomed to hold a large fair.” This plain is
in the vicinity of Muzérib, in which the great pilgrim-fair
is held annually. We find something similar in xiii. 18:
“ After having passed Decapolis’? we came to the pass of
Roob, and further on into the plain of Medan, which
stretches far and wide in every direction, and is intersected

1 Reisebericht, 8. 46; comp. Ritter, Syr. u. Pal. ii. 1019 [Erdk. xv.
Pt. 2, p. 1019].

? Here in the more contracted sense, the district of Gadara, Kefarat,
and Jrbid. |

422 . APPENDIX.

by the river Dan, which falls into the Jordan between
Tiberias and Scythopolis (Bisdn).” This river, the same as
that which Sanuto means by his aque Dan (Mé Dan), is
none other than the Wadi el-Meddan, called “the overflow-
ing one,” because in the month of March it overflows its
banks eastward of the Gezzdr-bridge. It is extremely strange
that the name of this river appears corrupted not only in all
three writers mentioned above, but also in Burckhardt; for,
deceived by the ear, he calls it Wadi Om el-Dhan." The
Meddan is the boundary river between the Suwét and Nukra
plains; it loses its name where it runs into the Makran; and
where it falls into the valley of the Jordan, below the lake
of Tiberias, it is called el-Muchébi.

We have little to add to what has been already said. The
Fiale of Sanuto is not the Lake Ram, but the round begge, the
lake of springs of Muzérib, the rapid outflow of which, over
a depth of sixty to eighty feet, forms a magnificent waterfall,
the only one in Syria, as it falls into the Meddan near the
village of Tell Shihab.

The unfortunate confusion of the localities was occasioned
by two accidental circumstances: first, that both, the springs
of the Jordan below Béanids and the lake of Muzérib, have a
village called Rahéd (21m) in their vicinity, of which one is
mentioned in Judg. xviii. 28.sq., and the other, about a mile
below the Cavea Roob, is situated by a fountain of the same
name, from which village, cavern, and wadi derive their
names; secondly, that there, as here, there is a village Adil
(oa): that near Dan is situated in the “meadow-district of
‘Tjon” (Merg ‘Ijin); and that in the Suwét lies between
Rahéib and the Makran, and was visited by Seetzen as well -
as by myself. Perhaps the circumstance that, just as the

environs of Muzérib have their Middn,? so the environs of

1 Burckhardt, Travels in Syr. and Pal. (ed. Gesenius, 8. 392).
2 The word el-midén and el-méddn signifies originally the hippodrome,

THE TRADITION OF JOB. 423

Béanids have their Ard el-Mejddin, “region of battle-fields,”
may also have contributed to the confusion; thus, for example,
the country sloping to the west from the Phiala towards the
Hile, between Gubbdid ez-zét and Za‘ira, is called, perhaps
on account of the murderous encounters which took place
there, both in the time of the Crusades and also in more
ancient times. It is certainly the ground on which the battle
narrated in the book of Joshua, ch. xi., took place, and also
the battle in which Antiochus the Great slew the Egyptian
army about 200 B.c. |

What we have gained for our special purpose from this
information (by which not a few statements of Ritter, K. v.
Raumer, and others, are substantiated), is not merely the fact
that the tradition which places Job’s home in the region of
Muzértb existed even in the middle ages (which the quota-
tion given above from Makdeshi, who lived before the time
of the Crusades, also confirms), and even came to the ears of
the foreigners who settled in the country as they then passed
through the land, but also the certainty that this tradition
was then, as now, common to the Christians and the Mussul-
mans, for the three writers previously mentioned would hardly
have recorded it on the testimony of the latter only."

then the arena of the sham-fight, then the place of contest, the battle-
field, and finally a wide level place where a large concourse of men are
accustomed to meet. In this sense the Damascenes have their el-midan,
the Spanish cities their almeiddn, and the Italians their corso.

1 [Estéri ha-Parchi, the most renowned Jewish topographer of Pales-
tine, in his work Caftor wa-ferach, completed in 1322 (newly edited by
Edelmann, published by Asher, Berlin, 1852, S. 49), says ays Nt lies
one hour south of 433, since he identifies Nawd with the Reubenitish
Nebé, Num, xxxii. 38, as Zora’ with spy’, Num. xxxii. 35; so that he
explains piy fos by Wty’ pos, although he at the same time considers
the name, according to Saadia, as one with mods (el-Ghuta). His
statements moreover are exact, as one might expect from a man who
had travelled for seven years in all directions in Palestine; and his con-
clusion, $2 7335 Sain vans DIP PIN NT Py prs, perfectly accords
with the above treatise.—DEL. ]

424. APPENDIX.

There can be no doubt as to which of these two religions
must be regarded as the original mother of this tradition.
The Hauranite Christians, who, from their costume, man-.
ners, language, and traditions, undoubtedly inherited the
country from the pre-Muhammedan age, venerate the Makém
perhaps even more than the Muhammedans; which would be
altogether impossible in connection with the hostile position
of the two religious sects towards one another, and in con-
nection with the zealous scorn with which the Syrian Chris-
tians regard the religion of Islam, if the Hauranitish tradition
of Job and the Makam were of later, Muhammedan origin.
It is also possible that, on a closer examination of the Makam
and the buildings about the Sachra, one might find, besides
crosses, Greek inscriptions (since they are nowhere wanting
in the Nukra), which could only have their origin in the time
before the occupation of Islam (635 a.p.); for after this the
Hauranite Christians, who only prolong their existence by
wandering from chirbe to chirbe, have not even built a single
dwelling-house, much less a building for religious worship,
which was forbidden under pain of death in the treaty of
Omar. But in connection with the pre-Islam Monastery of
Job, which owed its origin only to the sacred tradition that
held its ground in that place, are monumental witnesses that
this tradition is pre-Islamic, and has been transferred from
.the Christians to the Mussulmans, required? We may go
even further, and assert that Muhammed, in the Sur. xxxviii.
41 sqq. of the Kordn, had the Hauranitish tradition of Job
and the localities near Sa‘dije definitely before his mind.

We must regard the merchandise caravans which the
inhabitants of Tehama sent continuously into the “north.
country,” esh-shdm,' and the return freight of which con-
sisted chiefly of Hauranitish corn, as proof of a regular

1 Tn Jemen and Higadz, Syria may have been called Sham in the earliest
times. The name was taken into Syria itself by the immigration of the

INTERCOURSE BETWEEN HAURAN AND TEHAMA., 425

intercourse between the east Jordanic country and the west
of the Arabian peninsula in the period between Christ and
Muhammed. Hundreds of men from Mekka and Medina
came every year to Bosrd; indeed, when it has happened
that the wandering tribes of Syria, which were, then also
as now, bound for Hauran with the kdl, i.c. their want of
corn, got before them, and had emptied the granaries of
Bosra, or when the harvests of the south of Hauran had
been destroyed by the locusts, which is not unfrequently the
case, they will have come into the Nukra’ as far as Nawé,
sometimes even as far as Damascus, in order to obtain their
full cargo.

If commerce often has the difficult task of bringing together
the most heterogeneous peoples, and of effecting a reciprocal
interchange of ideas, it here had the easy work of sustaining
the intercourse among tribes that were originally one people,
spoke one idiom, and regarded themselves as all related; for

Jemanic tribes of Kudé‘a, and others, because they brought with them
the name of Syria that was commonly used in their native land.

4 The remarkable fair at Muzérib can be traced back to the earliest
antiquity, although Bosra at times injured it ; but this latter city, from its
more exposed position, has been frequently laid in ruins. It is- probable
that the merchants of Damascus pitched their tents for their Kasaba,
i.e, their moveable fair, twice a year (in spring and in autumn) by the
picturesque lake of Muzérib. If, with the tradition, we take the Nukra
to be the home of Job, of the different ways of interpreting ch. vi. 19
there is nothing to hinder our deciding upon that which considers it as
the greater caravan which came periodically out of southern Arabia to
Hauran (Bosra or Muzérib). Zéméd with its well, Heddag (comp. Isa.
xxi. 14), celebrated by the poets of the steppe, from which ninety camels
(saniat) by turns raise a constantly flowing stream of clear and cool
water for irrigating the palms and the seed, was in ancient times, per-
haps, the crossing point of the merchant caravans going from south to
north, and from east to west. Even under the Omajad Chalifs the
Mekka pilgrim-route went exclusively by way of Témd, just as during the
Crusades so long as the Franks kept possession of Kerak and Shobak,
An attempt made in my Reisebericht (S. 93-95) to substitute the
Hauranitish Témé in the two previously mentioned passages of Serip-
ture, I have there (S. 131) given up as being scarcely probable.

496 APPENDIX.

the second great Sabzean migration, under “Amr and his son
Ta‘labe, had taken possession of Mekka, and left one of their
number, Rabi‘a ibn Haritha, with his attendants (the Chuza’-
ites), behind as lord of the city. In the same manner they
had become possessed of Jathrib (el-Medina), and left this
city to their tribes Aus and Chazreg: the remainder of the
people passed on to Persea and took possession of the country,
at that time devastated, as far as Damascus, according to Jbn
Said, even including this city. By the reception of Chris-
tianity, the Syrian Sabzeans appear to have become but slightly
or not at all estranged from their relatives in the Higaz, for
Christianity spread even here, so that the Czesars once ven-
tured to appoint a Christian governor even to the city of
Mekka. This was during the lifetime of the Gefnite king
‘Amr ibn Giebele. At the time of Muhammed there were
many Christians in Mekka, who will for the most part have
brought their Christianity with the Syrian caravans, so that
at the commencement of Islam the Hauranitish tradition of
Job might have been very well known in Mekka, since many
men from Mekka may have even visited the Makim and
the Sachra, and there have heard many a legend of Job like
that intimated in the Koran xxxviii. 43. Yea, whoever will
give himself the trouble to investigate minute commentaries
on the Koran, especially such as interpret the Koran from
the tradition (hadith), e.g. the Kitab ed-durr el-muchtér, may
easily find that not merely Kazwini, Ibn el-Wardi, and Jakat,
whose observations concerning the Monastery of Job have
been given above, but also much older authorities, identify
the Koranish fountain of Job with the Hauranitish.

A statement of Eusebius, of value in connection with this
investigation, brings us at one stride about three hundred
years further on. It is in the Onomastikon, under Kapvacip,
and is as follows: “ Astaroth Karnaim is at present (about
310 a.p.) a very large village (koun peyiorn) beyond the

TESTIMONY OF EUSEBIUS. 427

Jordan, in the province of Arabia, which is also called Bata-
nea. Here, according to tradition (é« mapadocews), they fix
the dwelling (ofxos) of Job.” On the small map which
accompanies these pages, the reader will find in the vicinity
of the Makain the low and somewhat precipitous mound, not
above forty feet in height, of Tell “Ashtard, the plateau of
which forms an almost round surface, which is 425 paces in
diameter, and shows the unartistic foundations of buildings,
and traces of a ring-wall. Here we have to imagine that
‘Astarot Karnaim. Euseb. here makes no mention what-
ever of the city of Astaroth, the ancient capital of Basan, for
this he does under “Acrapo@; the hypothesis of its being the
residence of king ‘Og, which Newbold* set up here, conse-
quently falls to the ground. The coun peyictn of Eusebius
must, in connection with the limited character of the ground,
certainly be somewhat contracted; but the identity of the
localities is not to be doubted in connection with the great
nearness of the ofxos (the Makém).? Let us compare another
statement that belongs here; it stands under ‘Acrapoé
Kapvaeip, and is as follows: “There are at the present time
two villages of this name in Batanea, which lie nine miles
distant from one another, weraEu AAAPOQN cai ABIAHC.”
Jerome has duo castella instead of two villages, by which at

10©. Ritter, Geogr. v. Syr. u Pal. ii. 819 sqq. [Erdk. xv. 2,
p- 819 sqq.]. The information of Newbold, which is printed in the
Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellschaft, i. 215 sq., is unfortunately
little to be relied on, and is to be corrected according to the topography
of the mound given above.

2 A small, desolated stone village, situated a quarter of an hour's "
journey from the mound of ‘Ashtard, which however has not a single
house of any importance, has two names among the inhabitants of that
region, either Chirbét ‘Ijin en-JNile (the ruins near the Nila-springs) or
Chirbét ‘Ashtara@, which can signify the ruins of ‘Ashtaré and the ruins
near ‘Ashtarad. Since it is, however, quite insignificant, it will not be the
village that has given the name to the mound, but the mound with its
buildings, which in ancient days were perhaps a temple to Astarte, sur-
rounded by a wall, has given the name to the village.

428 APPENDIX.

least the coun jpeyiorn is somewhat reduced; for that it is
one of these two castles’ can be the less doubtful, since they
also regulate the determining of the respective localities. If
the reading ABIAHC is correct, only Abil (538) in the north
of Suwét can (since, without doubt, the Arabian names of the
places in Hauran‘existed in Eusebius’ day) be intended; and
AAAPQN ought then to be changed into AAAPNON, in _
order to denote the large village of L/-hdard, on the lofty peak
of the same name in the plain of Gédfir. i-hdré lies to the
north, and Abil to the south of “Ashtard. If, however, as is
most highly probable, instead of ABIAHC (which form
Kuseb. does not use elsewhere, for he calls the town of Adil
"Aer, and the inscription in Twrra,has the form édews
"ABéus), ABIAHC is to be read, which corresponds to the
"ABWa of Ptolemy (ed. Wilberg, p. 869) and the modern
‘Abidin near Bétirrd, thus the name of the other village is to
be changed from AZAPQN to APAPNN (for which the
Cod. Vat. erroneously has A4PAPQN), the modern ‘Arar.?
‘Abidin, however, lies nine miles west, and “Ardr nine miles
east of ‘Ashtard.

Now, as to the second village, and its respective castle, which
is mentioned in the second citation from the Onomastikon, I
believe that both Euseb. and Jerome intend to say there are
two villages, of which the one has the byname of the other;
consequently the one is called Astardt (Karnaim), and the
other Karnaim (Astarét). Twelve miles west of ‘A shtaré lies

1 [The meaning of ‘‘castle,” as defined by Burckhardt, Travels in Syr.
ete. p. 657, should be borne in mind here. “The name of Kala‘at or
castle is given on the Hadj route, and over the greater part of the desert,
to any building walled in and covered, and having, like a Khan, a large
courtyard in its enclosure. The walls are sometimes of stone, but more
commonly of earth, though even the latter are sufficient to withstand an
attack of Arabs.”—Tr. ]

2 Some, in connection with this word, have erroneously thought of the
city of Edre' dt, which Eusebius calls ’ Adpee 3 in the immediately preceding
article ’Adped, and in the art. ’Edpaci.

TESTIMONY OF EUSEBIUS. 429

the Golanite village of Kornije (727?), which in old Kanétra
I have taken up in my trigonometrical measurements. —

We find also a third passage in the Onomast. which belongs
here; it is under *Ia@o« in Cod. Vat., under "Idovpala in
Cod. Leid. and Vallarsi, and runs: “ According to the yiew
of a certain one (cata Twos), this region is the land of Asitis
(Ausitis), the home of Job, while according to others it is
Arabia (} ’ApaSia); and again, according to others, it is the
Land of Sikén.” Whether genuine or not, this passage
possesses a certain value. If it is genuine, Jerome would
have left it accordingly untranslated, because he would not
be responsible for its whole contents, for he not unfrequently
passes over or alters statements of Eusebius where he believes
himself to be better informed; but, taken exactly, he could
only have rejected the views of those who seek Job’s native
country on the Jabbok (if the passage belongs to the art. ’Ia-
Bex) or in Edom (if it belongs to "Idovpa/a), or in the Belkd,
the land of Sihén; but not the view of those who make Arabia
(Batanwa) to be Ausitis, for the statement of Eusebius with
reference to this point under Kapvaeiy he translates faith-
fully. If the passage is not. genuine, it at any rate gives the
very early testimony of an authority distinct from Eusebius
and Jerome in favour of the age of the Hauranitish tradition
concerning Job, while it has only a single (card Tuvos) autho-
rity for the view of those who make Edom to be Ausitis, and
even this only when the passage belongs to “ISoupaia.

By means of these quotations from the Onomastikon, that
passage of Chrysostom (Homil. V. de Stud. § 1, tom. ii. p.
59), in which it is said that many pilgrims from the end of
the earth come to Arabia, in order to seek for the dunghill
on which Job lay, and with rapture to kiss the ground where
he suffered (— — dod mepdrov tis yas eis tiv “ApaBiav
TpéxorTes, va THY KoTplay iSwor, Kal Peacdpevor KaTabina-
wou THY yhv), appears also to obtain its right local refer-

430 APPENDIX,

ence. This Arabia is certainly none other than that which
Eusebius explains by 4) «at Baravaia, and that xorpia or
mezbele to be sought nowhere except near the Makdm Byab.
And should there be any doubts upon the subject, ought
they not to be removed by the consideration that the proud
structure of the Monastery of Job, with its spring festivals
mentioned above, standing like a Pharos casting its light —
far and wide in that age, did not allow either the Syrian
Christians or the pilgrims from foreign parts to mistake the
place, which tradition had rendered sacred, as the place of
Job’s sufferings ?

_ There is no monastery whose origin, according to an un-
impeachable testimony, belongs to such an early date as that
of the Monastery of Job. According to the chronicles of
the peoples (ta’rich el-umem), or the annals of Hamze el-
Isfahaini (died about 360 of the Hegira), it was built by
‘Amr 1., the second Gefnide. Now, since the first Ghassa-
nitish king (Gefne 1.) reigned forty-five years and three
months, and ‘Amr five years, the Monastery would have
been in existence about 200 a.D., if we place the beginning
of the Gefnide dynasty in the time 150 a.p. Objections are
raised against such an early date, because one is accustomed
on good authority to assign the origin of monasteries to
about the year 300 a.p. In the face of more certain -tis-
* torical dates, these objections must remain unheedea, for
hermit and monastery life (rahbanija) existed in the country
east of Jordan among the Essenes and other societies and
forms of worship, even before Christianity; so that the latter,
on its appearance in that part, which took place long before
200 A.D., received the monasteries as an inheritance: but
certainly the chronology of the Gefnide dynasty is not re-
liable. Hamze fixes the duration of the dynasty at 616
years; Ibn Sa‘id,' in his history of the pre-Islamic Arabs, at

1 Wetzstein, Catal. Arab. Mss. collected in Damascus, No. 1, p. 89.

THE GEFNIDE DYNASTY. 431

601 years; and to the same period extends the statement of
Mejanishi,! who, in his topography of the Ka‘be, says that
between the conquest of Mekka by Za‘lebe and the rule of
the Kos? in this city was 500 years. On the contrary,
however, Jbn Jusef? informs us that this dynasty began
“earlier” than 400 years before Islamism. With this state-
ment accord all those numerous accounts, according to which
the “rupture of the dyke” (sé/ el-‘arim), the supposed cause
of the Jemanic emigration, took place rather more than 400
years before Islamism. If therefore, to content ourselves
with an approximate calculation, we make Islamism to begin
about 615 (the year of the “Mission” was 612 a.p.), and the
Gefnide dynasty, with the addition of the “earlier,” 415 years
previous, then the commencement of the reign of Gefne 1.
would have been 200 a.p., and the erection of the Monastery
shortly before 250.

When the tribe whose king later on built the Monastery
migrated from Jemen into Syria, the Trachonitis was in the
hands of a powerful race of the Kudda‘ides, which had settled
there in the first century of our era, having likewise come
out of Jemen, and become tributary to the Romans. This
race had embraced Christianity from the natives; and some
historians maintain that it permitted the Gefnides to settle
and share in the possession of the country, only on the con-
dition that they likewise should embrace Christianity. In
those early times, these tribes, of course, with the new religion
received the tradition of Job also from the first hand, from
the Jews and the Jewish Christians, who, since the battle of
the Jewish people with the Romans, will have found refuge
and safety to a large extent in Petreea, and especially in the
hardly accessible Trachonitis. The Nutra also, as the most
favoured region of Syria and Palestina, will have had its

1 Wetzst. Catal. Arab. Mss. collected in Damascus, No. 24, p. 16.
2 Hamzex Isfahan. Annales, ed. Gottwald, Vorrede, p. xi.

432 APPENDIX.

native population, among which, in spite of the frequent
massacres of Syrians and Jews, there will have been many
Jews. Perhaps, moreover, the protection of the new Jemanic
population of Hauran again attracted Jewish settlers thither;
Nawa’ at least is a place well known in the Talmud and
Midrash, which is mentioned, as a city inhabited by the
Jews among those who are not Jews, and as the birth-place
of several eminent teachers.’ Moreover, in Syria the venera-
tion of a spot consecrated by religious tradition is indepen-
dent of its being at the time inhabited or desolate. The
supposed tombs of Aaron near Petra, of Hud near Gerash,
of Jethro (Suéb) in the valley of Mimrin, of Ezekiel in
Melihat Hiskin, of Elisha on the el-Jesha’ mountains, and
many other mezdre (tombs of the holy, to which pilgrims
resort), are frequently one or more days’ journey distant
from inhabited places, and yet they are carefully tended.
They are preserved from decay and neglect by vows, by the
spring processions, and especially by the piety of the Beduins,
who frequently deposit articles of value near the mezdre, as
property entrusted to the care of the saint. The Matdm of
Job may also have been such a consecrated spot many cen-
turies before the erection of the Monastery, and perhaps not
merely to the Jews, but also to the Aramean and Arab

population. The superstitious veneration of such places is

~ not confined among the Semites to a particular religious sect,
but is the common heritage of the whole race; and the tra-

1 If Naw@ is not also of Jewish origin, its name is nevertheless the old
Semitic m3, “Sa dwelling” (ch. v. 3, 24, viii. 6, xviii. 15), and not, as

Jakéit supposes, the collective form of nawdat, ‘* the kernel of a date.”
2 (No less than three renowned teachers from Nawd appear in the
Talmud and Midrash: m9 bv ‘4, Schila of Nawa (jer. Sabbath cap. ii.,
Wajikra rabba cap. xxxiv., Midrasch Ruth on ii. 19a), M37 Ra) Pi
(Midr. Koheleth on i. 4b) and 7y34 Syne ‘= (ib. on xii. 9a). 7x9 is men-
tioned as an enemy of the neighbouring town of wpdn in Wajikra
rabba ¢. xxiii, Midr. Echa on i. 17a, and Midr. Schir on ii. 1.—DEL.]

loa

TESTIMONY OF JOSEPHUS. 433.

dition of Job in particular was, originally, certainly not
Israelitish, but Aramzan. |

Job is not mentioned in the writings of Josephus, but we
do find there a remarkable passage concerning Job’s native
country, the land of the Usites, viz. Ant. i. 6: “ Aram, from
whom come the Arameans, called by the Greeks Syrians,
had four sons, of whom the first was named Odons, and pos-
sessed Trachonitis and Damascus.” The first of these two,
Trachonitis, has usually been overlooked here, and attention
has been fixed only on Damascus. The word el-Ghita
(aL,21), the proper name of the garden and orchard district
around Damascus, has been thought to be connected in.
sound with ‘Us, and they have been treated as identical: this
is, however, impossible even on philological grounds. Ghita
would certainly be written 1: in Hebrew, because this lan-
guage has no sign for the sound Gh (¢); but Josephus,
who wrote in Greek, ought then to have said Tovons, not
Ovens, just as he, and the LXX. before him and Eusebius
after him, render the city ny by 'éfa, the mountain Say by
Tawar, the village *y by Tai, etc. In the same manner the
LXX. ought to have spoken of a Tavotris, not Avciris, if this
were the case. Proper names, also, always receive too definite
and lasting an impress for their consonants, as 7 and », to be
easily interchanged, although this is possible with the roots
of verbs. Moreover, if the word pry had had the consonant
(.4), Josephus must have reproduced it with + or 6, not
with o, in accordance with the pronunciation (especially if
he had intended to identify py and Ghéita). And we see
from Ptolemy and Strabo, and likewise from the Greek
mode of transcribing the Semitic proper names in the Hau-
ranite inscriptions of the Roman period, e.g. Md@os and
Nérapos for _.cbe and di, that in the time of Josephus
the sound of 7 had already been divided into _» and (4;

comp. Abhandl.. der Berlin. Acad. d. Wissenschaft, 1863,
VOL. Il. \ 98

434 APPENDIX.

S. 356 f; Hence it is that Josephus manifestly speaks only
of one progenitor Ovcns, therefore of one tribe; while the
word Ghita, often as a synonym of bug‘a (“YP2), denotes a
low well-watered country enclosed by mountains, and in this
appellative signification occurs as the proper name of several
localities in the most widely separated parts of Arabia (comp.
Jakit, sub voce), which could not be the case if it had been
= py ypix.t The word Ausitis used by the LXX. also has
no formation corresponding to the word Ghita, but shows its
connection with /{Y 7S by the termination; while the word
Ghitta rendered in Greek is Tov@ara (in Theophanes Byzant.
Tov0a0a), in analogy e.g. with the form ‘PeSrdabd for Ribla
(Jos. Ant. x. 11).’

But why are we obliged to think only of Damascus, since
Josephus makes Trachonitis also to belong to the land of the
Usites? If-we take this word in its most limited signification,
it is (apart from the eastern Trachon) that lava plateau, about
_ forty miles long and about twenty-eight broad, which is called
the Legdé in the present day. This is so certain, that one is
not obliged first of all to recall the well-known inscription of ~
the temple of Mismia, which calls this city situated in the
Lega, Mytpoxepn tod Tpdyevos. From the western border
of this Trachon, however, the Monastery of Job is not ten
miles distant, therefore by no means outside the radius that
“was at all times tributary to the Trachonites (Arab el-wa‘r),
a people unassailable in their habitations in the clefts of the

1 On the name‘ Us, as the name of men and people, may be compared
the proper names ‘As and ‘Aus, together with the diminutive ‘Owés, taken
from the genealogies of the Arabs, since the Old Testament is wanting
in words formed from the root yyy, and none of those so named was a’
Hebrew. In Hebr. they might be sounded jy, and signify the “‘ strong

one,” for the verbal stems Gary _o9% (ace (comp. Cwats nae»
, and others) have the signif. ‘‘ to be compressed, firm, to resist.” _
2 On this word-formation comp. Retsebericht, 8. 76. _

MEANING OF TRACHONITIS IN JOSEPHUS. 435

rocks. According to this, the statement of Josephus would
at least not stand in open contradiction to the Hauranitish
tradition of Job. But we go further, and maintain that the
Monastery of Job lies exactly in the centre of Frachonitis.
This word has, viz. in Josephus and others, a double signifi-
cation—a more limited and a wider one. It has the more
limited where, together with Auranitis, Batanea, Gamalitica,
and Gaulonitis, it denotes the separate provinces of the ancient
kingdom of Basan. Then it signifies the Trachonitis kar’
é£oynv, i.e. the wildest portion of the volcanic district, viz.
the Lega, the Haurdéx mountain range, the Safé and Harra of
the Ragil. On the other hand, it has the wider signification
- when it stands alone; then it embraces the whole volcanic
region of Middle Syria, therefore with the more limited
. Trachonitis the remaining provinces of Basan, but with the
exception, as it seems, of the no longer volcanic Galadine
(North Gilead). In this sense, therefore, as a geographical
notion, Trachonitis is almost synonymous with Basan.

Since it is to the interest of this investigation to make the
assertion advanced sure against every objection, we will not
withhold the passages in support of it. Josephus says, Ant.
xv. 10, 3, the district of Hiile (Otiafa) lies between Galilee
and Trachonitis. He might have said more accurately, “be-
tween Galilee and Gaulonitis,’” but he wished to express that
the great basaltic region begins on the eastern boundary of
the Hiile. The word Trachonitis has therefore the wider sig-
nification. In like manner, in Bell. iii. 10 it is said the lake
of Phiala lies 120 stadia east of Paneion (Bdanids) on the
way to the Trachonitis. ‘True, the Phiala is a crater, and
therefore itself belongs to Trachonitis, but between it and
Banids the lava alternates with the chalk formation of the
Hermén, whereas to the south and east of the Phiala it is

1 Comp. Jos. Ant. xv. 10, 3; Zeitschr. fir allg. Erdkunde, New Series,
xii. 213.

436 APPENDIX.

everywhere exclusively volcanic; Trachonitis has therefore
here also the wider signification. Ant. xvii. 2, it is said

Herod had the castle of Ba@vpa built in Batanza (here, as
often in Josephus, in the signification of Basan), in order to
protect the Jews who travel from Babylon (vid Damascus) to
Jerusalem against the Trachonite robbers. Now, since this

castle and village (the Bétirré mentioned already), which is —

situated in the district of Gamalitica on an important ford of
the Muchébi gorge between ‘Abidin and Sebbite, could not be
any protection against the robbers of Trachonitis in the more
limited sense, but only against those of Golan, it is manifest
that by the Trachonites are meant the robbers of Trachonitis
in the wider sense. Aurelius Victor (De Hist. Cos. xxvii.)
calls the Emperor M. Julius Philippus, born in Bosrd, the
metropolis of Auranitis, quite correctly Arabs ' Trachonites ;
because the plain of Hauran, in which Bosra is situated, is
also of a basaltic formation, and therefore is a part of the
Trachonitis. The passage of Luke’s Gospel, iii. 1, where it
says Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip tetrarch of Itureea
and Trachonitis, also belongs here. That Philip possessed not
perhaps merely the Trachonitis (similar to a province assigned

to a man as banishment rather than for administration, pro-

ducing little or no revenue) in the more limited sense, but
the whole Basanitis, is shown by Josephus, who informs us,
Ant. xvii. 11, 4 and freq., that he possessed Batanza (in the
more restricted sense, therefore the fruitful, densely popu-
lated, profitable Nukra), with Auranitis, Trachonitis, etc. We
must therefore suppose that in the words ris "Itovpaias nat
Tpaxywvitidos yopas in Luke, one district is meant, which

by "Irovpaias is mentioned according to the marauding por- -
tion of its population, and by Tpaywviridos more generally,

according to its trachonitic formation.! Joannes Malalas

1 Eusebius in his Onomast. also correctly identifies the two words, at
one time under "Irovpate, and the other time under Tpaxwvirsc. After

a Pe

“—-— - i. —- .

IMPORTANCE OF JOSEPHUS’ TESTIMONY, 437

(Chronogr. ed. Dindorf, p. 236), who, as a Syrian born,
ought to be well acquainted with the native usage of the
language, hence calls Antipas, as a perfectly adequate term,
only toparch of Trachonitis; and if, according to his state-
ment (p. 237), the official title of this Herod was the follow-
ing: YePaords “Hpwdns tordpyns Kal Oecpoddrns Ioviaiwv
re Kal ‘EAAjver, Bacirers Ths Tpaywvitioos, it is self-evident
that “king of Trachonitis” here is synonymous with king
of Basan. In perfect harmony with this, Pliny says (Hl. N.
v. 18) that the ten cities of Decapolis lay within the extensive
tetrarchies of Trachonitis, which are divided into separate
kingdoms. Undoubtedly Pliny adds to these tetrarchies of
Trachonitis in the wider sense, which are already known to
us, Galadine also, which indeed belonged also to the pre-
Mosaic Basan, but at the time of Josephus is mostly reckoned
to Perea (in the more limited sense).

On the ground of this evidence, therefore, the land of the
Usites of Josephus, with the exception of the Damascene
portion, was Trachonitis in the wider sense; and since the
Makim Ejib is in the central point of this country, this
statement accords most exactly with the Syrian tradition. It
is clear that the latter remains untouched by the extension of

what we have said elsewhere (Reisebericht, 8. 91 ff.) on the subject,
surely no one will again maintain that the peaceful villages of the plain
of Gédir were the abodes of the Iturzans, the wildest of all people (Cic.
Phil. ii. 11; Strabo, xvi. 2). Their principal hiding-places will have been
the Trachonitis in the more restricted sense, but one may seek them also
on the wooded mountains of G‘éldn and in the gorges of the Makran.
That Ptolemy and Josephus speak only of the Trachonites and never of
the Iturzeans (in the passage Ant. xiii. 11, 3, "Idovgasa is to be read
instead of ’Irovpe/a), and Strabo, on the other hand, speaks only of the
latter, favours the identity of the two; of like import is the circumstance,
that Pliny (H. WN. v. 23) makes the inhabitants of the region of Beetarra
(Bétirra) Iturzeans, and Josephus (Ant. xvii. 2) Trachonites. But in
spite of the identity of the words Trachonitis and Jiurwa, one must not
at the same time overlook the following distinction. If the Trachonites
_are called after the country, it must be the description of all the inhabit-

438 APPENDIX.

the geographical notion in Josephus, for without knowing
anything more of a “land of the Usites,” it describes only a
portion of the same as the “native country of Job;” and
again, Josephus had no occasion to speak of Job in his com-
mentary on the genealogies, therefore also none to speak of

his special home within the land of the Usites. Eusebius,

on the other hand, in his De Originibus (ix. 2, 4), refers to
this home, and says, therefore limiting Josephus’ definition:
Hus, Traconitidis conditor, inter Palestinam et Colesyriam
tenuit imperium ; unde fuit ob.

With this evidence of agreement between two totally in-
dependent witnesses, viz. the Syrian tradition and Josephus,
the testimony of the latter in particular has an enhanced
value; for, although connected with the Bible, it nevertheless
avails as extra-biblical testimony concerning the Usites, it
comes from an age when one might still have the historical
fact from the seat of the race, and from an authority of the
highest order. True, Josephus is not free from disfigure-
ments, where he has the opportunity of magnifying his people,
himself, or his Roman patrons, and of depreciating an enemy ;
but here he had to do with nothing more than the statement

of the residence of a people; and since the word Ovens also

ants of the country, whereas the Itureeans, if they gave the name to the
country, are not necessarily its exclusive population. The whole of the
district of which we speak has a twofold population in keeping with
its double character (rugged rock and fruitful plain), viz. cattle-rearing
freebooters in the clefts of the rocks, and peaceful husbandmen in the
plain ; the former dwelling in hair tents (of old also in caves), the latter
in stone houses; the former forming the large majority, the latter the
minority of the population of the district. If writers speak of the Jtu-

rans, they mean exclusively that marauding race that hates husbandry; _

but if they speak of the Trachonites, the connection must determine,
whether they speak of both classes of the population, or only of the
marauding Trachonites (the Iturzeans), or of the husbandmen of the
plain (of the provinces of Batanza and Auranitis). The latter ara

rarely intended, since the peaceful peasant rarely furnishes material for —

the historian.

a es

2 tae
oe,

‘ * Z
: = “a
a SS eS, ee ee oe

POSTSCRIPT OF THE LXX. TO THE BOOK OF JOB. 439

has no similarity in sound with the words Damascus and
Trachonitis, that might make a combination with them plaus-
ible, we may surely have before us a reliable historical notice
here, or at least a tradition which was then general (and
therefore also for us important), while we may doubt this in
connection with other parts of the genealogies, where Josephus
seems only to catch at that which is similar in sound as
furnishing an explanation. |

But that which might injure the authority of Josephus is
the contradiction in which it seems to stand to a far older
statement concerning Ausitis, viz. the recognised postscript
of the LX -X. to the book of Job, which makes Job to be the
Edomitish king Jobab. The identification, it may be said, can
however only have been possible because Ausitis was in or near
Edom. But the necessity of this inference must be disputed.
It is indeed unmistakeable that that postscript is nothing
more than a combination of the Jews beyond Palestine (pro-
bably Egyptio-Hellenistic), formed, perhaps, long before the
-LXX.,—such a vagary as many similar ones in the Talmud
and Midrash. From the similarity in sound of "Iw848 with
-?Ié, and the similarity in name of Zapd, the father of Jobab,
with a son of Re'dél and grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 13),
Job’s descent from Esau has. been inferred. That Esau’s
first-born was called Eliphaz and his son Temédn, seemed to
confirm this combination, since (in accordance with the custom!
of naming the grandson as arule after his grandfather) Hliphaz
the Temanite might be regarded as grandson of that Eliphaz,
therefore like Job as great-grandson of Esau and wéyaros
amo ’ABpadp. ‘The apparent and certainly designed advan-
tages of this combination were: that Job, who had no pedi-

1 From this custom, which is called the grandfather’s “‘ living again,”
the habit, singular to us, of a father calling his son j@ abi, ‘‘ my father!”
or ja béi, ‘*my little father,” as an endearing form of address, is
explained. ‘

440 | APPENDIX.

gree, and therefore was to be thought of as a non-Israelite,
was brought into the nearest possible blood-relationship to
the people of God, and that, by laying the scene in the time
of the patriarchs, all questions which the want of a Mosaic
colouring to the book of Job might excite would be met.
Now, even if the abode of Job were transferred from the land
of “Us to Edom, it would be only the consequence of his com-
bination with Jobab, and, just as worthless as this latter
itself, might lead no one astray. But it does not seem to
have gone so far; it is even worthy of observation, that _
myan (from Bosra, the Edomite city’), being attached to the
misunderstood vids Zapa éx Boodppas, Gen. xxxvi. 33, is
reproduced in the LX X. by pytpds Bocopfas, as also that
Job’s wife is not called an Edomitess, but a yuri “ApdBicoa.
And it appears still far more important, that Ausitis lies ép
Trois opiows Ths Idovpaias cal’ ApaBias, so far as the central
point of "I[dovpaia is removed by the addition nat ris ’Apa-
Bias, and Job’s abode is certainly removed from the heart of
Idumexa. The Cod. Alex. exchanges that statement of the
place, even in a special additional clause, for ét trav opiar
tov Evdparov, therefore transfers Ausitis to the vicinity of
the Euphrates, and calls the father of Jobab (= Job) ZapeO
é€ avatoX@v 7dlov (O7P 9310)... Nevertheless we attach no
importance to this variation of the text, but rather offer the
‘suggestion that the postscript gives prominence to the ob-
servation: ovTos (viz. "I@B) épunvederar ex Tihs Zupiakhs

BIBXov.?

i Tt need hardly be mentioned that one is not to think of the Hauran-

itish Bosra ( LS; 2); since this name of a city only came into use some
-centuries after Christ. +

2 [It is indeed possible that the Hebrew text is meant here, for Philo
usually calls: the Hebrew Xaadwior/, and the Talmud describes the
Jewish country-dialect as ‘p7\p ; it is possible, and even more probable,
that it is a Syrian, i.e. Aramgan Targum—but not less possible that it
is a Syrian original document. According to Malalas (ed. Dindorf,

THE ESAUITISH GENEALOGY OF JOB. 441

4

If we compare the postscript of the LX X. with the legend
of Islam, we find in both the Esauitish genealogy of Job;
the genealogy of the legend is: hyjad ibn Zarih (MM) thn
- Rett‘il ibn el-Ais ibn Ishdk ibn Ibrahim; and we may sup-
pose that it is borrowed directly from the LXX., and that it
reached Arabia and Mekka even in the pre-Islamic times by
means of the (Arabian) Christians east of Jordan, who had
the Old Testament only in the Greek translation. Even the
Arabic orthography of the biblical proper names, which can
be explained only on the supposition of their transfer from the
Greek, is in favour of this mode of the transmission of the
Christian religion and its legends to the people of the Higaz.
Certainly there can be no doubt as to an historical connection
between the postscript and the legend, and therefore it would
be strange if they did not accord respecting the home of Job.
The progenitor e/- Ais (/*Y), in the genealogy of the legend, is
also a remarkable counterpart to the Ausitis év Tois oplous Tihs
*Tdovp. nat’ Ap., for it is a blending of WY and j4¥, and it has
to solve the difficult problem, as to how Job can be at the
same time an Usite and an Hsauite; for that Job as an Aisite
no longer belongs to Idumza, but to the district of the more
northern Aramzans, is shown e.g. from the following passage
in Mugir ed-din’s History of Jerusalem: “Job belonged to
the people of the Romans (i.e, the Aisites*), for he sprang

p- 12), Origen understands éx ris Supsexys BiBrov elsewhere of a Hebrew
original, but in c. Celsum iii. 6 he describes.the Hebrew language in
relation to the Syriac and Phoenician as érépu wap céuQorépas, and the
Homilies on Job in Opp. Origenis, ed. Delarue, ii. 851, say: Beati Iob
scriptura primum quidem in Arabia Syriace scripta, ubi et habitabat.
—DEL. |

1 We will spare ourselves the ungrateful task of an inquiry into the
origin of this “Ais and his Protean nature. Biblical passages like Lam.
iv. 21, or those in which the readings nix and py are doubtful,
or the erroneous supposition (Jos. Ant. viii. 7) that the Ben-Hadad
dynasty in Damascus is of Edomitish origin, may have contributed to his
rise. Moreover, he is altogether one and the same with the Edom of the

442 APPENDIX.

from el-'Ais, and the Damascene province of Batanewa was
his property.”

The xompia of the LXX., at ch. ii. 8, leads to the same
result; that it is also found again as mezbele in the later
legend, is a further proof how thoroughly this accords with
the LX X., and how it has understood its statement of the
position of Ausitis. It may also be maintained here, that it
was only possible to translate the words naxn-qin2 by émil rijs
xoTrplas éw ths modews when “heap of ashes” and “dung-
hill” were synonymous notions. This, however, is the case
only in Hauran, where the dung, as being useless for agri-
cultural purposes, is burnt from time to time in an appointed
place before the town (vid. ii. p. 152"), while in every other
part of Syria it is as valuable and as much stored up as
among us. If the LXX. accordingly placed the «ompia of
Job in Hauran, it could hardly represent Ausitis as Edom.

But how has the Ausitis of the LX X. been transferred
hither? Certainly not as the “land of ‘Us” (in the sense of
the land of Basan, land of Haurdn), for without wasting a
word about it, there has never been such an one in the
country east of the Jordan: but as “the land of the Usites”
in the sense of the Arabic didr ‘Us (dwelling-place of the
Usites) or ard beni ‘Us. A land receives designations of

Jewish tradition: he is called the father of Ram, Asfar, Séfar, Siftin
(payn on), and Nidr (Hamz. Isfah. Ann. p. V4, 1. 18, read ya for

_yai, and Zeitschr. d. d. m. Geselisch. ii. 239, 3, 6, read ennidr for ennefer),
i.e. of the Messiah of the Christians (according to Isa. xi. 1).

1 Comp. ii. p. 158, note, of the foregoing Commentary. [The Arabic
version of Walton’s Polyglot translates after the Peschito in accordance
with the Hebr. text: ‘‘on the ashes (er-rema@d),” whereas the Arabic
translation, of which Tischendorf brought back fifteen leaves with him
from the East, and which Fleischer, in the Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr.
1864, S. 288 ff., has first described as an important memorial in reference _
to the history of Mss., translates after the Herapla in accordance with
the LXX.: “on the dunghill (mezbele) outside the city.”— DEL. ]

EE SC

CONFIRMATIONS OF THE HAURANITISH TRADITION. 443

this kind with the settlement of a people in it; they run
parallel with the proper name of the country, and in the rule
vanish again with that people. These designations belong,
indeed, to the geography of the whole earth, but nowhere
have they preserved their natural character of transitoriness
more faithfully than in the lands where the Semitic tongue
is spoken. It is this that makes the geographical knowledge
of these countries so extremely difficult to us, because we
frequently take them to be the names of the countries, which
they are not, and which—so far as they always involve a
geological definition of the regions named—can never be dis-
placed and competently substituted by them. In this sense
the land of the Usites might, at the time of the decay of both
Israelitish kingdoms, when the pyo7 O18 possessed the whole
of Persea, very easily extend from the borders of Edom to
the gates of Damascus, and even further northwards, if the
Arameean race of ‘Us numbered many or populous tribes (as
it appears to be indicated in yn yON ‘nbn 53, Jer. xxv. 20),
in perfect analogy with the tribe of Ghassdn, which during
five hundred years occupied the country from the /#lanitic
Gulf to the region of Tedmor, at one time settling down, at
another leading a nomadic life, and Hauran was the centre ~
of its power. By such a rendering the ’Apafia of the post-
script would not be different from the later provincia Arabia,
of which the capital was the Trachonitish Bostra, while it
was bounded on the south end of the Dead Sea by Edom
(Palestina tertia).

But should any one feel a difficulty in freeing himself from
the idea'that Avwsitis is to be sought only in the Ard el-Hdlat
east of Ma‘én, he must consider that the author of the book
of Job could not, like that legend which places the miraculous
city of Jram in the country of quicksands, transfer the corn-
fields of his hero to the desert; for there, with the exception
of smaller patches of land capable of culture, which we may

444 ; APPENDIX,

not bring into account, there is by no means to be found that
husbandman’s Eldorado, where a single husbandman might

find tillage for five hundred (ch. i. 3), yea, for a thousand

(ch. xlii. 12) yoke of oxen. Such numbers as these are not:

to be depreciated; for in connection with the primitive agri-
culture in Syria and Palestine,—which renders a four years’
alternation of crops necessary, so that the fields must be
divided into so many portions (called in Hauran wdgihdt, and
around Damascus auguh, 4>,'), from which only one portion
is used annually, and the rest left fallow (bér),—Job required

several square miles of tillage for the employment of his _

oxen. It is all the same in this respect whether the book of
Job is a history or poem: in no case could the Ausitis be a
country, the notorious sterility of which would make the state-
ment of the poet ridiculous.

Our limited space does not admit of our proving the worth
which we must acknowledge to the tradition, by illustrating
those passages of the Old Testament scriptures which have
reference to jy and py pax. But to any one, who, following
the hints they give, wishes again to pursue the investigations,
elsewhere useless, concerning the position of the land of the
Usites, we might indicate: (1) that py the first-born of

Aram (Gen. x. 23) is the tribe sought, while two others of

_ this name—a Nahorite, ch. xxii. 21, and a Horite, ch.
xxxvi. 28—may be left out of consideration; the former
because the twelve sons of Nahor need not be progenitors of
tribes, and the latter because he belongs to a tribe extermi-
nated by the Edomites in accordance with Deut. 1. 12, 22:
(2) that ;yn pox, Jer. xxv. 20, is expressly distinguished
from DIN in the 21st verse, and—if one compares the round
of the cup of punishment, Jer. ch. xxv., with the detailed
prophecies which follow in ch. xlvi-li., to which it is a pro-
cemium that has been removed from its place—corresponds to
pent (with Hamdét and Arpad), ch. xlix. 23: (3) that there-

> -
OO a ee es ee

ea re

THE PASSAGES CONCERNING UZ. 445

fore Lam. iv. 21, where ;y yas navi would be devoid of pur-
pose if it described the proper habitable land of Edom, must
describe a district extending over that, in which the Edom-
ites. had established themselves in consequence of Assyria
having led away captive the Israelitish and Aramzan popu-
lation of the East Jordanic country and Ccele-Syria. In
connection with Jer. xxv. 20 one must not avoid the question
whether py is the name of the pynt ox that has been
missed. Here the migration of the Damascene Aramzans
from Kir (Am. ix. 7) ought to be considered, the value of
the Armenian accounts concerning the original abode of the
Usites tested, what is erroneous in the combination of 1?
with the river Kur shown and well considered, and in what
relations both as to time and events that migration might
have stood to the overrunning of Middle Syria by the
Aramzan Sébean tribes (from Mesopotamia) under Hadad-
ezer, and to the seizure and possession of the city. of
Damascus by Rezon the Sdbean? Finally, one more tra-
dition might be compared, to which some value may perhaps
be attached, because it is favoured by the stone monuments,
whose testimony we are not accustomed otherwise to despise
in Palestine and Syria. The eastern portal of the mosque of
Beni Uméja in Damascus, probably of the very temple, the
altar of which king Ahaz caused to be copied (2 Kings
xvi. 10), is called Géréin or the Gerun gate: the portal in
its present form belongs to the Byzantine or Roman period.
And before this gate is the Géréinije, a spacious, vaulted
structure, mostly very old, which has been used since the
Mussulman occupation of the city as a méda’a, i.e. a place for
religious ablutions. The topographical writings on Damascus
trace these two names back to a Gérin ibn Sa‘d ibn ‘Ad ibn
‘Aus (yw) thn Lram (ons) ibn Sam (a) ibn Nih (m3), who
settled in Damascus in the time of Solomon (one version of
the tradition identifies him with Hadad, Jos. Ant. viii. 7),

446 APPENDIX.

and built in the middle of the city a castle named after
him, in which a temple to. the planet (kékeb) Mushteri, the
guardian-god of the city, has been erected. That this temple,
which, as is well known, under Theodosius, at the same time
with the temple of the sun at Ba‘lbek, passed over to the
Christians, was .actually surrounded with a strong, fortified
wall, is capable of proof even in the present day. In this
tradition, which has assumed various forms, a‘more genuine
counterpart of the biblical jy appears than that “Ais which
we have characterized above as an invention. of the schools,
viz. an ‘Aus ( 29), father of the Adite-tribe which is said
to have settled in the Damascene district under that Gérin,
and also ancestor of the prophet Hid, lost to the tradition,
whose makém on the mountains of Suét rises far above
Gerash the city of pillars, this true ram dhdt el-iméd, the
valley of the Jabbok and the Sawéd of Gilead.

It is with good reason that we have hitherto omitted to
mention the Aictrav of Ptolemy v.18 (19). The Codd. have
both Aicetras and Aiciras; different Semitic forms (e.g. the

name of the air ists which, according to Jakit, ones

dwelt in the Harra of the Ragil) may lie at the basis of this
name, only not the form py, which ought to be Odctras, or
at least Avatras (which no Cod. reads). As to the abodes.of
‘the Aiciras, Ptolemy distributes them under nine greater
races or groups of races, which in his time inhabited the
_ Syrian steppe. Three of these had their settlements in the
eastern half of the Syrian steppe towards the Euphrates or
on its western banks: the Kavya@nvoi in the north, the
Aiciras in the middle, and the ’Opynvol in the south. Ac-
cording to this the Aiotras would have been about between
Hit and Kéjfa, or in that district which is called by the
natives Ard el-Wudjan, and in which just that race of the
Chaldeans might have dwelt that plundered Job’s camels.

EXPLANATION OF THE MAP. 447

There we are certainly not to seek the scene of the drama of
Job; and if the Edomites were dispersed there (Lam. iv. 21),
they were not to be envied on account of their fortune. But
if the Aictras are to be sought there, we may not connect

arcs

the KavyaSnvoi with the village of Cochabe (\S,$) on the

Hermon (Epiphan. Her. x. 18), in order then to remove the
Aicirat, dwelling “ below them,” to Batanza.

And now, in concluding here, I have still to explain, that
in writing these pages I was not actuated by an invincible
desire of increasing the dull literature respecting the pry pos
by another tractate, but exclusively by the. wish of my
honoured friend that I should furnish him with a contribution
on my visit to the Makém Ejad, and concerning the tradition
that prevails there, for his commentary on the book of Job.

As to the accompanying map, it is intended to represent

the hitherto unknown position of the Makam, the Monastery,
and the country immediately around them, by comparing it
with two localities marked'on most maps, Nawd and the
castle of Muzérib. The latter, the position of which we
determined in 1860 as 32° 44’ north lat. and 35° 51' 45” east
long. (from Greenwich), lies three hours’ journey on horse-
back south of the Monastery. The Wadi Jarmik and Wadi
Hit have the gorge formation in common with all other wadis
that unite in the neighbourhood of Zézén and form the
Makran, which is remarkable from a geological point of view :
a phenomenon which is connected with the extreme depres-
sion of the valley of the Jordan. For the majority of the
geographical names mentioned in this essay I refer the reader ©
to Carl Ritter’s Geographie von Syrien und Paldstina ;* others
will be explained in my Jtinerarien, which will be published
shortly. |

1 Translated by W. L. Gage, and published by T. and T. Clark, Edin-
burgh, 1866, 4 vols. :

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THE MODE OF TRANSCRIBING THE
ARABIC WORDS.

t=F, ot; th=n, 4%; 'g [soft, the’ over the g has been
generally omitted, as liable to be mistaken for an accent in
connection with vowels], or, in accordance with the predomi-
nant pronunciation, g = ro horth=~; ch= 2; dh=3s;
z=, 33 sh or sch = _ 3 8 or ss = }', (23 d or dd= . 4; t
Or tf == Bb 5 gy bs: " = Y, cy eng. Ain = PY, Gumi‘ = yr;
gh=¢; k(k) or g=P, 33 k(c) =. The exact trans-
cription is sometimes omitted where the word occurs more
frequently, e.g. Haurdén, Makdm. Instead of ijj and www are
written 7j and iw. The vowels a and e correspond tothe Fath
(nnd), and w and o to the Damm ; nevertheless the use of 0 is
limited to the emphatic and guttural consonants, including 7,
while a, according to rule, is subject to this limitation only in
nominal forms,—in verbal forms it is also combined with the

rest of the consonants; d, é (ei, ai), and 6 (au) are = Fath

followed by Elif, Jod, or Waw, 4 = Damm followed by Waw.
The sign for Hamza is’, e.g. mala’a = ‘Le (xdo). The Tenwin

(Nunation) is only expressed exceptionally, e.g. ‘gelle = mbps
as it is generally pronounced, especially when the word stands
out of its connection as the root form, not ‘gellat-un (the
nunized nominative). Perfect consistency has not been at-
tainable in a book, the printing of which, together with the
working in of constantly accumulating material, has occupied
nearly two years.
VOL. II. 449 2F

450 ABBREVIATIONS,

[The consonantal notation is given above according to the
variation that has been rendered necessary by the want of
casts for printing according to the system adopted by Dr
Delitzsch. -We were obliged to have recourse to the old
notation, which is clumsy and confusing, e.g. hh = ~, t = 0,
L, and in one or two instances a* has been used in the ¢é

thus, tt, to represent | (with Zeshdid).. This applies to the

first volume; but in the second I have adopted a change,
which occurred to me later, viz. to use Roman letters among
the Italics to represent the stronger consonants, or vice versd,
Italics among Roman letters. The advantage of this will be
seen more especially in the exact reproduction of geographi-
cal names, as by means of it the spelling is not affected, and
at the same time the Arabic letters are fairly distinguished.
Suffice it to remind the student that the 7 is to be pronounced
as Engl. y, being = cs.

ABBREVIATIONS

Have been rarely used in the translation, and those used are

mostly familiar and self-evident. The names of critics are

given in full in the earlier part, and though abbreviated,
as constantly recurring, need no explanation here. “The
_ Arabic Version referred to is that of the London Polyglot;
the Syriac, the ancient Syrian version. 6. and j. in con-
' nection with Talmud citations signify respectively the Baby-
lonian and Jerusalem Talmuds; b. with the names of persons,
ben (bar), son.” The Biblical references are according to
the Hebrew divisions, e.g. Ps. xcii. 11 (10), as also the division
of ch. xl. xli.

ERRATUM.
Vol. i. 72, note, for: Alters, read: early times—TR.]

INDEX OF TEXTS.

——_@-————.

Gen. i. 1, vol. ii. page 315 | Gen. xxv. 27, vol. i. page 48
i. 26, i, 53 xxv. 32, ii. 137
li. 2, i 166 XXvi. 22, i. 110, 186
ii. 5, i. 198 xxvii. 39, i 361
ii. 6, ii. 288 Xxvii. 46, ii 137
ii. 7, i 164 xxx. 30, i. 58, 321
iii. 14, 17, ii. 273 xxxi. 42, i 80
iii. 15, i. 154, ii. 393 Xxxiii. 2, li 332
iv. 7, i. 169 xxxili. 19, ii 389
iv. 10, i. 289, ii. 122 xxxv. 11, i 6
iv. 12, li. 198 xxxv. 29, ii 392
vi. 2, i. 52 Xxxvi. 28, i 46
vi. 15, i. 257 xxxvi. 33, ii 440
ix. 6, i. 260, ii. 26 xxxvii. 35, i 122
ix. 19, i. 163 Xxxviii. 28, ii 297
ix. 27, i. 205 xxxix. 6, i 156
yee 2 i. 60 xxxix, 9, ii 174
x. 23, i. 46, ii. 444 xl. 1, i. 388
x. 28} i. -60 xlii. 15, ii. 66
xi. 6, 7, i. 163, ii. 381 xlii. 33, i 199
xi. 30, ii. 37 xlii. 36, ii 330
xiv. 14, i, 341 xliii. 10, i 80
xiv. 15, i. 62 xliii. 26, ii 227
xv. 8, i, 199 xlvi. 29, ii 255
xvi. 2, i. 79 xlviii. 2, i 419
xvi. 12, i, 207 xlviii. 17, li 188
xvi. 13, i. 122 xlix. 6, i. 78
xvii. 1, i. 6 xlix. 15, i 435
xvii. 11, i; 163 xlix. 22, i 198
xviii. 5, ii. 257 xlix. 23, ii 39
xviii. 13, i. 336 1. 5, ii 367
xviii. 24, i. 378 1.23, i. 80, ii. 392
xix. 9, i 404 | Exod. ii. 6, ii 118
xix, 2i, ii. 387 ii. 3, i 136
xix. 24, i. 326 ili. 22, i 341
xx. 12, il. 166 v. 3, ii. 290
> 2 ay Ye i. 199, ii. 273 v. 12, ii, 320, 377
xxi. 29, ii. 330, 391 vi. 3, i. 7, ii. 291
xxii. 21, i 46 ix. 16, i 373
xxiii. 2, ii 73 x52; i 173
xxiii. 13, li 253 xi. 5, li 178
xxiv. 63, ii 112 > a 2 li 301
xxv. 3, i 60 xiii. 8, i 257
xxv. 8, i. 392 xiv. 13, li 801

452

Exod.

Deut. ii

xiv. 28,
xv. 14,
xv. 15,
xvi. 5,

xvi. 21,
Xviii. 4,
Xviii. 9,
xix. 14,
xx. 5,

xxii. 30,

xxii. 3,

xxiii. 8,

xxiv. 4, 16,
6,

vol. ii.
i.

TES pe pete pete pee SSS SS ee BS nae pene ee

oe. . _
fee ee mn E = eo BOB: BiB: fete pete FS pete ca eee EE [Hs te tote pete bate bate bat Ee

INDEX OF TEXTS.

page 47
330

376

4

218

12

Deut. v. 26,
vi. 4,

vii. 10,
vii. 13,

viii. 2, 16,

li.
i.

i,

2

viii. 5 i.
viii. 12, os
viii. 17, ii.
x:HD; ii.
xi. 16, ii.
xili. 13, 19 i.
xiv. 24, li.
xix. 15, i.
xx. 3, ii.
xxiii. 15, ii.
xxiii. 18, ii.
xxiv. l, ii.
xxiv. 5, zs
xxiv. 16, i.
xxv. 4, a
xxvi. 5, i.
xxvii. 17, li.
xxviii. 27, 35, i.
XXvili. 30, ii.
xxviii. 40 ii.
xxviii. 55, i.
XXviii. 66, i.
Xxvili. 67, A
xxix. 22, i.
xxxi. 21, ii.
Xxxii. 2, il.
Xxxii. 7, i.
xxxii. 10, il.
xxxii. 13, ii.
xxxii. 27, i,
Xxxii. 29, ii.
xxxil. 34, i,
Xxxii. 37, i.
xxxii. 39, i.
Xxxiii. 2, li.
Xxxiii. 19, i.
Josh. i. 18, i.
vi. 17, i.
ix, 13; ii.
x. 21, li.
xv. 18, i.
xviii. 8, li.
xxi. 10, i.
xxii. 22, i.
Judg. ii. 1, i.
iii. 22, i,
iii. 27 ii.
iv. 6, i.
iv. 10, i.
iv. 18, il.
iv. 21, i.
v. 5, i.
Weds ii.
¥. Aas i.

—— ee

INDEX OF TEXTS. 453

Judg. v. 15, vol. i. page 320, 383 | 1 Sam. xv. 26, vol. ii. page 137
v. 26, i. 389 xvi. 7, i. 165
vi. 31, i 209 xvi. 12, ii. 226
vi. 34, ii 125 Xvii. 25, i 155
vii. 16, i 62 xvii. 40, ii 378
vii. 25, i 363 xvii. 42, ii 392
viii. 1, i. 387 xix, 3, i 262
viii. 3, i 255 xix. 5, i. 212
viii. 5, i 320 xx. 9, ii 273
ix, 2; ii 253 xx. 14, i 225
ix. 33, 34, i. 62 xxii. 15, i 94
x. 16, i. 398 xxiii. 7, ii. 254
xi. 25, ii. 348 xxiv. 14, i. 330
xi. 26, ; i 60 xxiv. 20, ii. 273
xil..B, i. 212 xxv. 12, i 201
xiv. 18, i. 148 xxv. 14, ii. 176
xvi. 21, ii. 178 xxv. 18, ii. 380
xvii. 8, li. 8 xxv. 33, i. 204.
xviii. 28, li. 422 xxv. 34, i. 110
xix. 20, i. 294 xxv. 42, i. 321
xix. 30, ii. 6 xxviii. 13, ii. 273
xx. 38, i. 210 xxviii. 21, +. 212
xx. 48, ii. 26 | 2Sam. i. 22, i. 186, 361

Ruth i. 13, ii. 167 i. 23, i: 213

i. 19, ii. 330, 391 i. 26, i 44]
ii. 9, ii. 10 ii. 27, i 110
ii. 19, il. 29 li. 28, ii 341
iii. 2, ii. 336 iii. 8, i. 404
iv. 7, i. 49 v. 24, i 388

1 Sam. i. 3, % 49 vi. 3, ii 161
i.'5; i. 79 vii. 23, ii 248
i. 6j i. 373 a i 373
: li. 330 xi. 11, li 66
i. 16, i. 83, 95 xii: 23, ii 390
i. 7, i. 447, ii. 120 xiii. 13, i 72
ii. 3, i, 265, ii. 216 xiii. 26, i. 225
ii. 4, i. 261 xiv. 14, i. 187, 394
ii. 33, ii. 184 xvi. 11, ¥ 95
iv. 12, i. 74 xvii. 12, i 378
iv. 19, il. 330 xvii. 16, i 294.
vi GTi, ii. aa xviii. 29, ii 112
vii. 3, 7 185 xix. 39, ii 285
ix. 3, ii. 137 xix. 44, ii 273
i. 17, li. 253 set, 22, il 345
ix. 20, ii. 6 xx1/'3; i 170
xi. 15, i. 62 xxii. 29, ii 376
xiii. 1, ii. 199 xxii. 41, i 91
xiii. 8, ii. 320 Xxili. 4, i 206

xiii. 11, i. 163 xxiy. 14, i 241
xiii. 14, "is 268 xxiv. 16, il 228
xiii. 18, il. 35 | 1 Kings i. 41, li 122
xiii. 21, i. 266 ii. 8, i 118
xiv. 19, i, 62 iii. 9, i. 201
xiv. 30, i. 80 iii. 21, ii. 174
xiv. 42, i. 119 v. 9, i 21
xiv. 44, i. 186 v. 10, i 49
xiv. 45, ii. 66 v. 11, i 23
xiv. 47, ii. 258 vi. 10, ii 55
xv. 22, i. 428 vi. 29, ii 299

454

1 Kings vii. 16,

2 Kings i

viii. 15,
ix. 7,

xxiv. 15,

1 Chron. ii. 30, 32,

xii. 32,
xiii. 2,
xiii. 7,
2X. a,
eri. 1.
xxviii. 18,
xxix. 4,

2 Chron. ii. 12,

vol. i.

1.

fete
~

pee ee ES te pte ee ES pte pee ES pe ee ee EE ee BE ge °

te
ate

ae .
wee qe BE: oe r

Bs post

il

DBie Bie EIB Es af

i.
il.
il.

INDEX OF TEXTS.

page 186
272

151

166

60

176

27, 53, 67
92

92

313

2 Chron. ii. 16,

vii. 17,
vii. 20,
xi. 5, 6,
xiv. 10,
xviii. 31,
xx. 33,
xxvii. 5,
xxviii. 2],
xxxii. 31,
Xxxvi. 23,

Ezra iii. 10,

viii. 18,

Neh. i. 3, 16,

i. 17,
iii. 21,
vii. 3,
ix. 18,

b

rs

: = me co nape
te et COMP FN ONS tore bo
#

a

4.5.5.5 4°3° FBS BBS”
fo

noe

es: e: e: : :

HMMM ee

20,

ESE pe pee pee EEE pepe ie te BAS pe pe BASE ee BS ES SS EE pee eB pee Bt

= ute BE: tte bate

i, 326, ii.
i, 389, ii

vol. ii. page 376
ii 248

151
385

329
289

. 78

i 104
i. 428
ij 225
ii. 7
i 225
i 337
ii. 188
i, 407
i, 343, ii. 181
ii. 377
i. 391, 440
i. 371, ii. 235
ii. 76
ii. 186

INDEX OF TEXTS.

Ps. xviii. 7, vol. i. page 317
xviii. 8, ii. 17
Xviii. 10, i, 149
xvii. 12, ii. 55
xviii. 15, ii. 289
xviii. 23, + 92
Xvili. 24, ii. 268
xviii. 31, ii. 96
Xviii. 35, i. 389
xviil. 45, ii. 382
xix. 3, il. 277
xix. 10, i. 250
xix. 1], ii. 96
xix. 13, il. 260
xxi. 10, ii. 13
xxii. 8, i. 279, as 284, 308
xxii. 10, 315
xxii. 19, ii 22
xxii. 20, il. 67
xxii. 22, ii. 271, 333
xxii. 29, li. 45
xxi. 31, i. 333
xxiii. 4, i. 173
xxiv. 6, i, 183
xxv. 7, i. 220
xxv. 8, ii, 71, 286
xxv. 14, i. 347
xxvii. 2, i, 351
xxvii. 5, i. 236
xxvii. 12, i. 354
xxvii. 13, i. 262, ii. 38
xxix. I, i. 53
xxix. 6, ii. 336
xxx. 10, i. 130, 353
xxxi. 10, i. 299
xxxi. 12, 1. 12%, 213, 322
xxxi, 13, li, 96
xxxi. 19, i. 265
xxxi. 21, i. 230
Xxxii. 4, ii. 4
XXxiil. 3 li. 235
xxxiil. 15, i. 306
xxxiv. 15, i. 48
xxxv. ll, i. 354
xxxy. 14, ii, 169
xxxv. 15, i. 323
xxxv. 26, i. 140
XXxv.: 27, li. 237
xxxvi. 8, 9, i. 196
xxxvi. 11, ii. 17, 38
xxxvii. ], i. 300
XXXvii, 2, i. 223
XXXvii. 4, i. 416
xxxvii. 4, 11, li. 71
xxxvii. 10, ii. 39
Xxxvii. 20, i, 110
Xxxvii. 27, ce 48
XXXviii. 2, i. 105
XxXXviii. 3, i 404

Ps. xxxviii. 7,
Xxxviii. 12,
xxxviii. 15,
Xxxviii. 18,
xxxix. 6,
xxxix. 7,
xxxix. 12,
xxxix, 14,
xl. 6,

xli. 3,

xlii. 6,

xlii. 10,
xiii.
xliv.
xliv.

15,
lv. 19, i.

Ixxii. 12,
lxxii. 16,

455

vol. ii. page 169, 170
340

ii. 5
i, 323
i. 187, 392
ii. 12
i. 386
i. 172
i. 113, ii. 253
i, 383
i. 140
ii. 169
ii. 169
a 432
i. 312
ii. 213
ii. 181
i. 188
ii 9
i. 187
i. 403
i. 317
i, 325, ii. 371
li. 6
ii. 118
ii. 251
ii. 325
i. 113, 280
i. 119
i. 122, ii. 106
i 337
i. 333, 347
i 329
170, 200, ii. 12, 291
231, ii. 45

4 . 196
i. 101
ii, 300
i 91
i. 121
li. 77
i. 439
i. 408
ii, 20
i, 329
i, 101
li. 370
ii, 294.
ii, 198
ii. 7
ii. 161
li, 230
i, 439
i. 66
i. 340, 346
ii. 147
i. 133
ii. 122
i, 103

. lxxiii. 4-7,
lxxiii. 10,
Ixxiii. 11,
lxxiii. 12,
lxxiii. 16,

Ixxviii. 9,
lxxviii. 38,
Ixxviii. 40,
lxxviii. 49,
lxxx. 5,
lxxx. 7,
lxxx. 9,
Ixxxii. 6,
lxxxii. 7,
Ixxxiii. 9
Ixxxv. 6,
Ixxxvii. 4,
lxxxviii. 5,
Ixxxviii. 9, 19,
Ixxxviii. 11,
lxxxviii. 12,
Ixxxviii. 16,
Ixxxviii. Se

INDEX OF TEXTS,

vol. i. page 266
i. 256
i 434 |
i. 400°
i, 187, 281
i, 237
i, 378
i. 362, 371
ue 257
i. 96
i. 336
ii. 365
i. 408
ii. 38
ii. 282
ii. 18
ii. 170, 235
i. 122
i, 432
i, 185 |
i. 383
i. 152
i. 406
ii, 228
i. 125
i. 439
i. 92
i. 207
ii. 193
i. 432
ii. 38
i. 152, ii. 17
i. 23
i. 333

i, 22, ii. 51, we

980
304

= epee fanlee dar

Ps. xciv. 16,

vol. i. page 170, 290

xciv. 20, 1. 392
xev. 2, ii. 235
xev. 4, i. 445
xevili. 1, ii. 357
cii. 1, i. 250
cii. 6, ii. 171
cii. 11, ii. 161
cii. 14, li. 171
cii. 24, li. 151
cii. 26, ii. 247
cli. 27, i. 229
cii. 28, i. 82
ciii. 5, ii. 345
ciii. 14-16, Ps 131
civ. 1, 305
civ. 2, i. 149, i 33, 301, 356
civ. 5, 148
civ. 9, ii 56, 360
civ. 14, ii. 98
civ. 17, ii. 337
civ. 21, ii. 271, 329
civ. 21-23, ii. 19, 296, 329
civ. 26, i. 257, ii. 365, 367
Civ. 29, il. 251

cv. 22, i, 203, ii. 253
cv. 39, ii. 288
evi. 43, i. 278, ii. 39
evii. 26, i. 150, ii. 162
evii. 40, i. 204
cix. 6, i. 27, ii. 151
cix. 7, i. 160
cix. 9, i. 297
cix. 12, ii. 38
cix. 24, ii. 308
eix. 29, i. 140
cix. 30, i. 342
exv. 17, i. 130
exv. 27, ii. 370
exvi. 10, li. 135
exvi. 16, i. 336
exviii. 7, ii. 13
exviii. 10-12, i. 186
exix. 51, ¥ 190
exix. 57, 3 156
exix. 103, i. 118
exix. 109, i. 212
cxix. 122, i. 295
exix. 131, ii. 134
exix. 176, i. 92
cxxii. 6, * 196
exxv. 5, ii. 10
cexxvi. 2, i. 140
cxxvii. 3, ii. 120
cxxviil. 2, i. 186
exxviii. 3, ii. 120
CXXxviii. 4, i. 193
exxix. 2, o 319
cxxx. 4, ii. 184

Ps. exxxii. 18,

Cxxxiii. 1, ~ RR 253
cxxxv. 7, ii. 297
cxxxvii. 7, i. 110
cxxxix. 3, i 441
exxxix. 11, i. 154
exxxix, 13-16, i. 166
exxxix. 14, li. 294
exxxix. 15, i. 65, 164, 167
exl. 4, i. 382
exl. 6, i. 262
exl. 10, i. 306
exli. 10, e 140
exlii. 3, i. 250
exliii. 2, i. 146, 250
exlv. 5, ii. 370
exlvii. 9, ii. 271, 329
exlviii. 6, i. 229
Prov. i. 3, i. 428
Pa f li. 113
Eig ii. 364
i. 20, i. 441, ii. 344
li. 6, i. 442
ii. 10, ii. 217
iii. 3, 25, i. 383
111.7 ii 113
lii. 8, 1 414
iii. 11-13, i. 101, 106, ii. 262
iii. 15, ii. 108
lii. 20, li. 288
iii. 26, ii. 12, 28
iv. 1, li. 313
iv. 11, ii. 71!
iv. 12, i. 319
iv. 21, ii. 10
v. 2, i. 251, 415
v. 5, ii. 10
v. 6, ii. 300
v. 23, i. 96
vi. 1, i. 295
vi. 6, ii. 270°
vi. 11, i. 264
vi. 12, i 394
vi. 16, 1 102
vi. 26, i 68
vi. 27, ii 180
vi. 30, li 329
vii. 4, i 304
vii. 9, ii 30
viii. 1, li 105
viii. 3, li 344
viii. 12, i 415
viii. 13, i 447
viii. 21, li 50
viii. 22, ii 361
viii. 22, 31, li 112
viii. 24, 1. 252, ii. 58
viii. 26, i 328
viii. 29, ii 315

INDEX OF TEXTS.

vol. i. page 140

Prov. viii. 31,

x. 19,
xi. 3,
xi. 6,
x2. UT;
pa Re ES
xt. 21,
xi. 22,
xii. 2,
11.37,
xii. 25,

XXvii. 2,
XXvVili. 3,
xxviii. 11,
XXViil, 22,
xxix, 21,
xxxi 5,
xxx. 15,
xxx. 15, 18,

457

vol, ii. page 299
i 179

186, 361

ii. 191
58

99, ii. 35
118

256

251

171

362

235

210

262

134

6

122

102

fate bate E: ae
| edt achat hall tl by fete fete Fete. fete fete tate tnd pat

458

Prov. xxx. 27,
xxxi. 2,

Eccles. i. 16,
ii. 10,

vol. i. page

i
li.

il.

ete
~

. . . te ete . . wee le + hee . ee . .
Mee ete es = ve E: aa te | a eg ie wae BE: <5 ae pie ri | te pee rg pete pate - sd pte pte pe ibe Sa - BE: sag pee f: Sse gee sas omg = = BE: ee fete pee ote oate pote ad fae pve ple bes r

INDEX OF TEXTS.

187,

120,

197,

409
346
4
183
302
414
57
232
330
179
213
188
26
255
272

Isa. xi. 5,
xi. 16,
xi; 22;
xiii. 2,

EEEEED

BiB seh:

xxvii. 13,
XXvili. 4,

XXvili. 6,

xxviii. 15,
xxviii. 17,
Xxviii. 28,
XXviii. 29,

vol. i. 124
i. 110, 1. 186
i. 436, ii. 53°
i, 416
i. 268
li. 188
ii. 16, 300
i. 326, ii. 52
ii. 52
ii. 314
i. 376, ii. 52
i. 150
li. 156
li. 249
ii. 118
i. 394.
ii. 139
i. 136
i. 403
i. 163
i. 25
i. 137
ii. 168
i. 203, 272
i. 304
li. 186
ii. 279
ii. 17
i. 93, ii. 296
i. 401
ii. 270
i. 263
ii, 197
ii. 382
i. 206
< 389
ii. 46
ii. 259
i. 255
li. 371
i. 160
i. 376
ii. 45
i. 20, 184
ii. 312
fi 439
ii. 256
i. 22
i. 230
‘i 289
ii. 60.
ii. 118
i. 92
ii. 105
ii. 249
i. 156, 262, 325
ii. 320

ii. 47, 337
i. 100

INDEX OF TEXTS. 459

Isa. xxix. 7, vol. i. page 378 | Isa. xliv. 9, vol. i. page 386
xxrks 16;) i, 434, ii. 29 xliv. 15, ii. 78
xxix. 24, ii. 313 xliv. 20, i 211
xxx. 5, i. 207 xliv. 24, i. 149, 207, ii. 53
xxx. 6, ii. 357 xliv. 25, i. 203
xxxil], i. 152 xliv. 26, i 13
xxx. 10, i. 293 xlv. 7, i. 59, ii. 46
xxx. 14, i. 113 xlv. 8, ii 288
Xxx, 22, 1. 112 xlv. 9, % 151
xxx. 27, i. 210 xlv. 18, i. 318
xxx. 30, il. 320 xlv. 23, ii 338
xxx; 33, li. 140 xlv. 24, i 156
xxxi. 3, il. 32 xlvi. 12, ii 38
xXxxii. 7, . i. 213 xlvii. 2, ii 178
xxxii. 11, ii. 338 xlvii. 3, li 290
Xxxii. 20, i. 402 xlvii. 7, i 227
xxxiii. 1, i. 269, 294 xlvii. 12, i 153
Xxxili. 3, 5. 163 xlvii. 14, il 143
Xxxiii. 4, ‘ii. 75 xlviii. 12, i 353
XXxiii. 9, 1. 393 xlviii. 14, ii 249
xxxiii. 10, i, 354 xlix. 4, ii 338
xxxiii. 11, i, 271 xlix. 7, i 161
Xxxiii. 12, i, 404 xlix, 21, i 273
xxxiv. 4, i, 235 1. 8, i. 309
xxxiv. 7, il, 336 1. 9, i 217
xxxiv. 15, i, 238 li. 9, i, 159, ii. 58, 61
Xxxv. 3, i. 90 ii, 12; ii. 19
Xxxv. 7, x 136 li. 13, ii. 53
XXXvVii. 29, ii. 364 li. 15, ii 58
XXXViii. 6, li, 200 li. 8, i 122
XXxvili. 12, i. 96, 112 lii. 14, 1. 312
Xxxvili. 14, 1. 290, 295, ii. 96 liii. 2, li. 226
Xxxvili. 15, i, 122 liii. 7, ii 368
Xxxviii. 16, i. 442 liii. 8, ii, | 78
Xxxviii, 21, ii. 200 liii. 9, i. 165, 288, 309
xl. 10, ii. 291 liii. 10, ii. 392
xl. 14, i. 20, 41 liii. 11, i. 336
xl. 19, ii. 46 liii. 12, ii. 339
xl. 20, i. 120 liv. 1, ii. 37
pi a ii. 301 liv. 5, ii. 126, 270
xl. 23, i. 203 liv. 6, i. 164
xl, 24, i. 228 liv. 15, ii. 363
xi, 27, i 85 lvii. 1, i. 95, ii. 76
xl, 29, i. 448 lvii. 9, ii 59
xix 3}, li 346 lvii. 15, i 434
xii, i 212 lvii. 19, i 280
xli. 2, 1 321 lvii. 20, 1 81
xh; 3, i. 126, 400 lviii. 3, 13, i 409
xli. 4, i, 82 lviii. 12, i. 442
xli. 20, : 199, ii. 27 lviii. 13, ii. 71
xli. 21, 211 lix. 4, i. 274
xlii. 5, ii 53 lix. 16, ii. 290, 356
xlii. 21, il. 216 ex; 17; il. 123
xlii. 25, i. 95 lix. 18, i. 373
xliii. 12, i. 421 leu 2) li. 302
xliii. 13, ij 82 lxiii. 5, ii. 356
xliii. 27, ii. 230 lxiii. 10, li. 161
xliv. 6, i, 353 lxiv, 4, i. 442, ii, 290
xliv. 7, ii. 250 Ixiv. 5, ii, 167

Jer. 7

xvii. 1,

xvii. 10,
xviii. 14,
xviii. 15,
xviii. 16,
xviii. 21,
xx. 10,

xx. 14, 18,

SE 17;
xxi. 13,
xxii. 5,
xxii. 30,
xxiii. 29,
xxiv. 6,
xxv. 20,
xxv. 23,
xxv. 38,
xxvi. 11,
xxvii. l,
xxvii. 7,
xxix. ll,
xxx.’ 3;
xxxi. 29,
xxxi. 35,
xxxii. 19,
Xxxiii. 7,

Xxxili, 22,
XXXVIiL 2,

INDEX OF TEXTS.

vol. i. page 58
ii. 256
i. 403
i. 199
ii. 140
ii. 186
ii. 256
ii. 134
ii, 261
ii. 345
il. 256
ii. 315
i. 81
i. 437
i. 384
ii. 76
4 89
ii. 118
ii. 207
ii. 222
ii. 53
ii. 292
i. 105, 106
i. 424
i. 66, ii. 290
i. 447
ii. 73.
ii. 73
ii. 213 ,
ii. 26
ii. 198
i. 233
ii. 248
i. 229
iL 437
1, 279, 280:
ii. 73)
i. 297 |
i, 25, 86.
i. 80°
4 404
il. 66
ii. 332
i. 285
i. 442

i. 46, ii. 443, 444, 445
i. 74
ii. 329
1 217
il. 199
ii. 16
i. 106
1s 355
i. 426
i, 229, ii. 58
a 249
i. 442
ii. 301
i, 212

Jer. xxxviii. 6,
xxxix.' 12,
xliv. 12,
xlvi. 12,
xlviii. 2, .
xviii. 45,
xlix. 7,
xlix. 13,
xlix. 17,
xlix. 19,
xlix. 32,
Lia
1, 13, 39,
1, 29,

1. 44,

li. 15,

li. 16,

li. 39, 57,

li. 52,
Lam. i. 13,

i. 17,

i. 20,

xvi: 43, 47, 56,
XVii. 10,

Xvii. 13,

vol. 4 page 201
332

i. 207, 444, &

ii.

li. ae
i. 361
i. 73
li. 78
i, 155
ii. 207
ii. 275
i. 268
i. 286
i, 155
li. 53
li. 292
i. 230
li. 27
i. 388
i. 280
i, 288
i. 286, 288
ii. 78
ii. 274
ii. 156
i. 85
i. 82
i. 338
i. 131
i. 125, 285
ii. 147
i, 124
i, 284
i. 101
i. 337
i. 255
li. 274
i. 287
i, 201
i. 353
li. 22 -
li. 13
i. 46
li. 178
1. 338
li. 9

= ag 75
i. 337
ii. 139
i. 434
li. 320
he 25

ii. 272
i, 183
i. 122
il. 273
ii. 312
ii. 376

Ezek. xx. 26,

Hos. ii

xxi. 26,
xxi. 30,
xxi. 33,
xxii. 3,
xxii. 24,
xxiii. 14,

INDEX OF TEXTS.

vol. i. page 148
i. 409

ll.
il.

pte ee . . . we ae
BE: FE pate pete pe ES ee SES a ES ES pe pe

Hos. viii. 6,
viii. 7,
ix; 4,
ix. 7,
ix. 16,
xi. 9,
xii. 9,
xii. 12,
xiii, 1,

bo
mt TOO HOD

mt”

oot
rs

i

Obad. 4,
12,
16,

Jonah iii, 6,
iv. 2,

Hab.

P's
i. 24, 173, ii. 32

7)

~~

461

vol. i. page 213

li. 377
i. 82
i. 408

li. 377
ii. 26
i 268
i. 272
ii. 260
i. 170
ii. 144
i, 233
li. 297
li. 73
li. 16
i. 294
i, 102
i. 232, 283
i. 98
i. 328
i. 385
ii. 345
ii. 270
i, 444
i. 441 —
i. 188

213

i. 24, ii, 32
i xin 18
ii. 361
i. 188
i. 389, ii. 251
i. 376, ii. 251

li. 175
i 408
i 64, 70
i 62
i 301
il 346
ii. 140
i 118
i 188
i 346
i, 100
ii. 47
ii. 4
ii. 139
i. 447, ii. 78
i, 338
ii. 261
1. 159, ii. 275
i. 424.
i. 100, ii. 144, 248
z 424
& 355
i. 122
ii. 45
i. 235

462

Hab. ii. 17,
iii. 5,
iii. 9,
iii. 14,
ili. 16,

Zeph, i. 14,
Pe FR
ie
ii, 3,
ii. 9,
ii. 15,
iii. 13,

Zech. i. 15,

il. 3

iii. 13-15,
iii. 16,
iii. 20,

Matt. iii. 12,
vo il;

v. 27,

v. 43,

vii. 2,

: ix. 17,

xiii. 52,
xxiv. 28,
xxv. 41,
xxvii. 39,

Mark xv. 29,
Luke iii. 1,

INDEX OF TEXTS.

vol. ii, page 325 | Luke xii. 20,

i. 321 xii. 24,
i. 394, ii. 72 xxii. 31,
i. 321 | John i. 15, 30,
li, 183, 257, 285 iii. 4,
il. 7 iii. 20,
li. 139 iv. 37,
i. 377 viii. 15,
ii. 18 xv. 18,
i. 327 | Acts viii. 21,
li. 78 ix. 1,
i. 188 | Rom. i. 21,
li 153 i. 5,
li 186 v. 14,
i. 27 viii. 34,
i. 182, ii. 105 x S,
li. 314 xiii. 12,
ii. 184 | 1 Cor. iii. 9,
ii. 297 xi. SQ;
li. 74 | 2 Cor. v. 19,
i. 73 x. 4,
ii. 45 | Gal. vi. 7,
ii. 297 | Eph. iii. 18,
li. 295 | 2 Thess. ii. 9,
ii. 17, 256 | 1 Tim. vi. 4,
i, 398 | 2 Tim. ii. 14,
li. 2 | Heb. iv. 18,
li. 10 v. 14,
li. 163 vii. 22,
i. 53 xi. 3,
‘ss 122 xii.
ii. 182 xii. 6,
ii. 92 | James i. 12,
i. 400 a» eS,
i. 211 v.11
li. 275 | 1 Peter i. 6,
ii. 336 iv. 19,
i. 107 v. 8,
ii. 174 | Rev. iii. 19,
i, 191 iv. 6,
i. 156 xii. 9,
ii. 215 xii. 10,
i. 135 xiii. 13,
li. 348 xv. 2,
i. 30 xx. 3,
i. 279, 308 xx. 8,
i. 308 xx. 10,
ii. 436 xxii. l,

END OF VOL. II.

MURRAY AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

vol. 1. page 329
ii 329

il.
i. 84
i. 252
i.
il. 177
i. 165.
i. 252
li. 339
i 255
i. 72
i. 233, ii. 280
i. 194

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