tion to him, shows that even this description is not destitute of the higher, religious-didactic object; nay, a reference is made just here to the distinctive idea of the second discourse of Jehovah, cf. obs. at the place. (c) The adduced lengthened query without the interrogative, 40: 25, has its counterpart (even stronger, as in 37: 18.) in the description, 39: 1, 2. But, were it not so, how could a single linguistic peculiarity, and one so entirely unimportant, form the foundation of a critical decision? And how inconsistent, on the other hand, not to give any weight to unusual expressions and forms of words which this description has in common with the earlier portions of the book! cp. RY, 41: 10, with 3: 9:7, 41: 26, with 28: 8; p, 41: 15, 16, with py, 11: 15; the similar change in the second member of 41: 6, and 39:20; the form, 41: 25, with, 15: 22. (d) That the descriptions of the two animals are connected with 40: 14, is indicated by the course of thought and by the remark at 40: 15, as well as the reason of the greater particularity of representation. Ewald's aesthetic grounds Umbreit has properly estimated in the Theol. Stud. and Krit. 1831, p. 833 ss.] On the alleged transposition of 31: 38-40, and 38: 36, see the explanation at the passages. 4. General Plan. The whole book is divided into four principal parts, of which the first and the last are composed in prose, the two middle, as the proper didactic portion of the work, in poetry. (1) The Prologue, or the history of Job's misfortunes, chap. 1: 2. (2) The conversation respecting his misfortune, or the contest between Job and his friends, chap. iii.-xxxi., beginning (chap. iii.) and ending (chap. xxix.-xxxi.) with a monologue from Job. The poet allows the friends to appear as the defenders of the common doctrine of retribution, and to make a gradual application of it to Job, whence arise progress in the action, and the dialogue is distributed into three acts, chap. iv.—xiv. xv.—xxi. xxii. -xxviii. In the first, the friends admonish to resignation and repentance, since the sinner that reforms may expect with certainty a return of happiness, and only the perverse transgressor is lost without remedy; in the second, since their admonitions appear to be fruitless, they speak no more of a return of happiness, but they place before Job's eyes, as a warning, that fearful end of the transgressor which is grounded on the justice of God; in the third, they accuse him openly of the most odious sins, and declare, at the same time, that his misery is the punishment of his guilt. (3) The appearance of God 1 What is contained in brackets is introduced from the Commentary. - TRANS. 1850.] Subject of the Poem. 157 for Job's instruction, chap. xxxviii-xlii. (4) The Epilogue, or the history of the Divine decision of the dispute, and the deliverance of Job, 42: 6—17. Moderns have called the book the Hebrew Tragedy, to which name it seems to have a claim, as well on account of its dramatic form, as because the fundamental idea is that of the struggle of virtue with misfortune. Since, however, the object of the poet was purely instructive, the production of a religious-philosophic conviction, this appellation is suited only to a portion, and the book is more correctly called a didactic poem. 5. Subject of the Poem. Whether the historic frame with which the author has encompassed his didactic poem, is his own invention, or borrowed from the traditional history of his people, has been a disputed question from an early to the present time; but it is of no importance to the understanding of the book. The question turns upon the existence of Job's person, since, if this be denied, all that is related of him appertains to a free poetic invention. The Talmud (Baba batra, chap. 1, sec. 15.) first advanced the assertion that Job is only a feigned, not a historic person; of the same opinion among moderns are Bernstein, Augusti, (Introd. to the O. T. 2. A.), De Wette (Encyc. of Ersch and Gruber, art. Job), who, therefore, treat as poetry all the history that forms the basis of the book. Now, it is true, the mention of Job by Ezekiel, 14: 14, 16, 20, Tobit, (Latin text) 2: 12, 15, James 5: 11, proves nothing in favor of his historic existence, since the books in question are all later than our book, and their knowledge of Job is more than probably obtained from it; still less, the spots pointed out in different places in the East as the grave of Job (v. Winer Bib. Real. 1. p. 581). But just as little can one, in order to prove that the relation is a fiction, refer to the appellative signification of the name Job,2 as containing in itself the [From the mention of Job, along with Noah and Daniel, Ezek. 14: 14, 20, it would seem to follow that Job's history was as well known as that of the two others. Since these two are historical names, so that of Job would not have been added, if his memory rested on a groundless myth, and not on credible tradition. The mention of Job in Tobit 2: 11, and James 5: 11, show at least that the historical recognition of the person of Job as one who had undergone great sufferings, remained unimpaired.- Vaihinger.] 2 The derivation and signification of the name is not certain. Since the older explanations (v. J. H. Michaelis, Adnott. in Hagiogrr. Voll. II. pref. 3.) have been given up as inadmissible, the derivation wavers at present between 8, and part assigned to him by the poet; since, with equal justice, the names and many others might also be used to transform historic , שְׁלֹמֹה, שָׁאוּל personages into feigned; such names were formed in the mouths of the people, possibly even by contemporaries, and supplanted the original personal names; for the memory of a man could be more easily preserved and handed down to posterity, by an appellation expressive of his character or destiny, than by his original personal name. Further reason, however, to cast doubt upon the existence of Job, does not exist. Since, however, the historic truth of all that is related of him is not involved in the historic truth of his personal existence, since, indeed, the free creative hand of the poet is plainly enough discernible in the prologue (cf. obs. at 1: 2, 3, and 1: 2, with 42: 13.) and epilogue, the correct answer to the question spoken of above is that which Luther has already generally indicated (Table Talk, p. 318): “I hold that the book of Job is a history, in a poetic form, of what happened to a person, but not in such words as those in which it is written." The most of modern interpreters, however, have expressed themselves firm in the opinion, that the poet has freely elaborated an historical subject found in the popular traditions, and has inserted what thoughts he desired to utter, within a frame compounded of elements partly his own and partly received. It may with great probability be inferred that Job's name and residence in particular were given to the poet by the tradition, since the former occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, and the latter, the land of Uz, was too obscure to render it probable that the poet's choice would have fallen upon it in preference to other countries. The tradition, moreover, appears to have placed Job's existence in remote antiquity, which explains the endeavor of the poet to represent the life verted, and, to persecute; consequently, , either, who returns (to God) is converted, as Job did, after he had a long time contended against God, or, the persecuted (of God), hostilely persecuted, chap. 13: 24. 30: 21. The first explanation originated with Cromaier and J. D. Michaelis, and has been lately adopted by Ewald, after the modern interpreters and lexicographers had almost unanimously acceded to the latter, which was proposed by Augusti (Introd. to O. T.). The latter lies nearer, and has in its favor the analogy of, natus,, ebrius, whilst a corresponding noun-formation from a verb is not so natural in Hebrew. When Ewald remarks, in opposition, that "the persecuted would be an extremely indefinite, but little significant, appellation," it must, on the other hand, be remembered, that the name which Job received in the mouth of the people, surely connects itself far more readily with the unexampled misfortune which befel him, the guiltless, than with his "conversion after wicked despondency." Luther introduced the mode of writing Hiob, departing from the LXX. and the Vulgate ('loß, Job), as it seems, in order to distinguish from 1, Gen. 46: 13, whose name he writes Job. 1850.] Time and Place of the Composition. 159 and manner of his hero, as well as the relations in which he appears, in conformity with the character of the patriarchal times; we find parallels to Job's wealth in flocks in Gen. 12: 16. 24: 35. 26: 13 s. 30: 43; to his authority 30: [29] 7 ss. 21 ss. in Gen. 23: 6; to his performance of priestly functions 1: 5. 42: 8. in Gen. 22: 13. 31: 54; to the great age which according to 42: 16 s. he attained, in Gen. 25: 7, 8. 35: 28 s. 50: 26 s.; to the immediate appearance of God which, according to 38: 1, cp. with 42: 5, was granted him, in Gen. xviii. 32: 30. 35: 9 ss., as well as to the vision of Eliphaz 5 [4]: 12 ss. in Gen. 15: 1 ss. 28: 10 ss.; here too belongs the mention of the Kesita 42: 11; in the poem itself, although here the poet desires nothing less than to conceal his own era, but rather allows it frequently and evidently enough to appear (cp. 9: 24. 12: 18, 23. 20: 19. 21: 7 ss. 22: 15 ss. 24: 2-17. 27: 16. 20: 24. 39: 21 ss. 23: 10. 28: 1 ss. 31: 11, 28), there are not wanting passages in which the coloring of Job's mode of life and the neighborhood in which he lived are firmly retained, as 29: 6. 30: 1. 31: 26 s. 5: 22 ss. 21: 10 s. Finally, it is manifest in itself that the poet would not have chosen the tradition respecting Job for elaboration, if he had not been represented by it as an innocent man, visited, notwithstanding his especial piety, by the most grievous misfortune; and, since the disease under which Job appears as suffering was, on the one hand, of an unusual kind, and hence lay farther from the poetic fiction, than to many other diseases, and since, on the other, the description given of it in the discourses of Job is carefully and accurately retained, cp. 6: 7. 7: 4, 5. 13: 27. 16: 13 ss. 19: 19. 30: 17, 30. 18: 13, we may admit with Ewald, that this feature also in the history of Job was delivered to the poet in the tradition. All the rest, however, that is related of Job in the Prologue and Epilogue, as well as the principal scene itself, the visit of the friends, the dispute between them and Job, and Jehovah's final appearance, must be considered as appertaining to the free elaboration of the poet; in addition to which it may be granted, that the name of the three and their residence, were not invented by the poet himself, but were found by him in another tradition, and adopted on account of the geographic suitableness of the names of the places attached to their personal names to the land of Uz. 6. Time and place of the composition of the Book. The time of the composition of the book can be determined only by internal evidence; but these point with some degree of certainty to the last times of the kingdom of Judah, more precisely, perhaps, to the borders of the 6th and 7th centuries before Christ. That the book was written at a time when the connection of the Hebrew with the nations of eastern Asia was not only commenced, but when many of the religious conceptions prevalent there had become incorporated with the Hebrew ideas, is widened by the enlargement of the doctrine of spirits in the representations of Satan, occurring here for the first time, and of the interceding angels, whom man addressed in order to obtain their mediation with God, 1: 6. 5: 1. On the other hand the mention of star-worship, 31: 26, does not refer necessarily to the spread of the Zoroastic doctrine among the Hebrews, since this worship had its home also in Arabia, the theatre of Job's life. The era of the poet is designated 15: 18 s, as a time when foreigners had already penetrated the country, the Hebrews no longer the sole possessors of their fatherland, and when those were seldom found by whom the wisdom of their ancestors had been preserved pure and unmixed. Expressions, as 9: 24. 12: 6, questions, as 21: 7, 16-18. 24: 1, descriptions, as 12: 14-25, bespeak evidently a time of long-continued misfortune, filled with distress and oppression, disheartening the pious and causing them to go. astray; and it can scarcely be doubted that his own experience had made the poet acquainted with that power "which binds kings in chains, carries off counsellors and priests as booty, and causes people to go away into captivity." If the appearance of these points to very late times in the history of the kingdom of Judah, the passages Jer. 20: 14-17, (cp. with Job 3: 3-10), Jer. 20: 18, (cp. with Job 10:18), Jer. 17: 1, (cp. with Job 19: 24), presuppose the existence of the book of Job, since they clearly have the character of imitations, or reminiscences; and similar ones from other books are also to be met with in Jeremiah. The same is made to appear by a comparison of Jer. 31: 29, 30, Ezek. 18: 1, with Job 21: 19; for, upon the assertion which is established by Job by a reference to the divine justice, that the sinner meets personally the reward of his deeds, but that the children do not atone for the sins of their parents, a thought uttered here for the first time,Jeremiah founds his promise that it shall proceed still further; and by Ezekiel the doctrine hitherto current is without hesitation declared to be erroneous and antiquated. If now the book of Job was written in Egypt, as will be shown further on to be probable, it is quite possible that the author was carried away into Egypt at the time of the deportation of king Jehoahaz in the year 611, by Pharaoh Necho; and the composition of the book, which, on account of the varied knowledge of Egypt which it exhibits, pre-supposes a long residence of the author in that country, would have taken place accordingly, at the point of time above designated. The language, indeed, agrees with a late age of the book, but brings it |