would read, "as the birds" (or "young eagles") "for soaring aloft." Gesenius thinks it may refer to arrows. However understood, the sense is plainly, that man has the same specific destination to trouble as "the sons of flame" have theirs to fly upward.

23. "The beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee."-This and the following verse evidently refer to the condition of a person on a journey. He shall travel in peace and safety, and will feel confident that his house would not be disturbed in his absence. The contrary so often happens in the East, that this might well be mentioned as a peculiar blessing. In those early ages, when men had not established those dense communities before which the wild beasts of the field" disappear, the danger from them, in travelling, must have been very great, as it still is in many parts of Asia.

CHAPTER VI.

5 Doth the wild ass bray *when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?

6 Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

7 The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.

8 Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me 'the thing that I long for!

9 Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

10 Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him Psal. 38, 2. 4 Heb. at grass. Heb. my expectation.

not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

11 What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

13 Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?

14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty

15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:

17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: 'when it is hot, they are "consumed out of their place.

18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.

19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.

20 They were confounded because they

6 Heb. brasen. 7 Heb. to him that melteth.
11 Or, for now ye are like to them. Heb. to it.

15 That is,

had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

21 "For now ye are "nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?

23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

26 Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

27 Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.

28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is "evident unto you if I lie.

29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.

30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot "my taste discern perverse things? Heb. they are cut off 9 Heb. in the heat thereof. 10 Heb. extinguished. 12 Heb. not. is Heb ye cause to fall upon. 14 Heb. before your face. 16 Heb. my palate.

in this matter.

Verse 17. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.”—The whole passage, from verse 15 to 20, is a beautiful reference to those streams, so common in that part of the world, which in one part of the year, when swollen by rains and dissolved snows, become abounding rivers; but which, when the supply fails during the long and burning droughts of summer, rapidly shrink, and, finally, are completely dried up, their course being only marked by the paiched and desolate bed through which they had flowed. Verses 19 and 20 beautifully express the disappointment and confusion of the caravans, which come to them in the hope of finding water in them, and discover that they are too late-the channel having become quite dry. Boothroyd's version is here very good :

"The companies of Tema anxiously look;
The caravans of Sheba eagerly expect them.
They are ashamed, because of their confidence ;
They come thither and are confounded."

CHAPTER VII.

1 Job excuseth his desire of death. 12 He complaineth of his own restlessness, 17 and God's watchfulness.

Is there not 'an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

2 As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:

3 So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed

to me.

4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am

1 Or, a warfare.
Heb. gapeth after.
Chap. 16.22. Psal. 90. 6, and 102 11, and 103. 15, and 141. 4.
To see, that is, to enjoy.

full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

7 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more 'see good.

8 The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and 'I am not.

9 As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

9 Psal. 8. 4, and 144. 3. Heb. 2. 6.

Verse 2. "As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow," &c.-We may again quote Boothroyd for his beautiful and accurate translation of this verse:

"As the bondslave daily panteth after the shade,
And as the hireling longeth for the end of his work."

We think we can say that, next to water, the greatest and deepest enjoyment we could ever realize in the hot elimates of the east was, when on a journey, any circumstance of the road brought us for a few minutes under some shade. Its reviving influence upon the bodily frame, and, consequently, upon the spirits, is inconceivable by one who 481

has not had some experience of the kind. Often also-during the halt of a caravan in the open air, when the writer has been enabled to secure a station for repose under the shelter of a rock or an old wall-has his own exultation and strong sense of luxurious enjoyment reminded him of this and other passages of Scripture, in which shade is meationed as a thing panted for with intense desire. If this be so with a mere traveller, how much more to a bondslave, engaged under the hot sun in the fatiguing labours of agriculture?-how must he "pant after the shade?"—It is pos sible, however, that the present text refers to the shades of evening, which would bring equally to the bondslave and hireling a cessation of labour: if so, these observations apply to the illustration of other texts, in which the reference to a sheltering shade from the sun's rays is more definitely expressed.

5. "My flesh," &c.-Job undoubtedly refers to his then diseased state. The following is Dr. Good's translation of the verse, which is important, as from the same person whose medical view of Job's case we have already stated:"Worms and the imprisoning dust already clothe my flesh; My skin is become stiff and corrupt."

10. "Neither shall his place know him any more."-The Orientals are distinguished for embodying in the forms of common language, that poetry which exists more or less in the feelings of most people. Persons who return to a scene from which they have long been absent, generally experience strong emotions, and feel (not think) as if their emotions were in some degree subject to the cognizance and reciprocation of those inanimate objects which called them forth. Now this cognizance and reciprocation of feeling, the Oriental does not, as we do, hesitate to assign in plain terms to inanimate objects. Hence, houses, fields, gardens, trees, are said to know their owner-to forget him, to be glad to see him-to be grateful or ungrateful for his care, and so on. This appropriation of consciousness to inanimate objects, which we reserve for poetry, has a pleasing and sometimes touching effect as used, orientally, in the language of common life.

19. "Let me alone till I swallow down my spittle."-That is, for a very short pause, the briefest interval. The expression answers to our "twinkling of an eye," or "till one can fetch one's breath." In this sense the expression is still proverbial in Arabia. Schultens adduces from Arabian authors various examples of its continued use. One of them (from Teblebi) is contained in the following repartee addressed to a person who, before he answered, said to his companion, "Allow me to swallow my spittle:" to which the other smartly replied, "Ay-swallow the Tigris and Euphrates, if you will."

CHAPTER VIII.

1 Bildad sheweth God's justice in dealing with men according to their works: 8 He alledgeth antiquity to prove the certain destruction of the hypocrite. 20 He applieth God's just dealing to

Job.

10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? 11 Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

12 'Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other

THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite, and herb. said,

2 How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?

3 'Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?

4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;

5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

8 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow :)

Deut. 32 4. 2 Chron. 19. 7. Dan. 9. 14.

4 Deut. 4. 32. 5 Gen. 47. 9. 1 Chron. 29. 15. Chap. 7. 6.
Chap. 11. 20, and 18. 14. Psal. 112. 10. Prov. 10. 28.
11 Heb, shouting for joy.

13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the 'hypocrite's hope shall perish:

14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be 'a spider's web.

15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

16 He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.

17 His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.

18 If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.

20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he "help the evil doers: 21 Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with "rejoicing.

22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked "shall come to nought.

Heb. in the hand of the
Psal. 39. 5, and 144. 4.
Heb. a spider's house.

12 Heb, shall not be.

Verse 1. "Bildad the Shuhite.”—This part in the controversy is thus discriminated by Jahn:-"Bildad, less discerning and less polished than Eliphaz, breaks out at first into accusations against Job, and increases in vehemence as he proceeds. In the end, however, he is reduced to a mere repetition of his former arguments." He certainly reproves Job with more acrimony and less disguise than Eliphaz, and Dr. Hales properly characterizes the present speech as "unkind." This particularly appears in verse 4, where, without any ceremony, he takes it for granted that Job's children were cut off on account of their sins. This must have touched the suffering patriarch to the quick. The force of Bildad's meaning in that verse is weakened by the "If," with which it commences: it should be " As,” or “Since "assuming, not supposing, that Job's children had been "cast away for their transgression."

11. “Rush...flag."-See the notes on Exod. ii.

66

12. “It withereth before any other herb."—" The application of this beautiful similitude is easy, and its moral exquisitely correct and pertinent. As the most succulent plants are dependent upon foreign support for a continuance of that succulence, and in the midst of their vigour are sooner parched up than plants of less humidity; so the prosperous sinner does not derive his prosperity from himself, and is often destroyed in the heighday of his enjoyments, more signally and abruptly than those who are less favoured, and appear to stand less securely." (Good's Book of Job.')

14. “Spider's web.”—Literally, the "spider's house,” or “building," which perhaps it would have been better to retain, as giving more force to the application-" He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand," &c. Too evident an allusion is expressed to the fragility of the spider's web to allow us to suppose that it refers to the houses or nests of the mason-spiders, whose ingenious contrivances are detailed in the volume of Insect Architecture;' but the idea does evidently refer to the web, not merely, or not at all, as a snare, but as the house of the spider, that house being involved in the construction and fragility of the web. The most expressive illustration would therefore be from the webs of some of those diadem spiders, which, besides extending their meshes to entrap unwary insects, spread an awning or canopy of exquisite fineness over their own heads, under which they remain, waiting in patient ambush, to surprise their prey.

18. "His place...shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee."-This is a very striking and beautiful illustration of the remarks we offered under ch. vii. 10.

CHAPTER IX.

1 Job, acknowledging God's justice, sheweth there
is no contending with him. 22 Man's innocency
is not to be condemned by afflictions.
THEN Job answered and said,

2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should 'man be just with God?

3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not which overturneth them in his anger.

6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not and sealeth up the stars.

8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the 'waves of the

sea.

9 Which maketh 'Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. 10 'Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. 11 Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him

not.

12 'Behold, he taketh away, 'who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?

13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the "proud helpers do stoop under him.

1 Psal. 143. 2.

7 Chap. 5. 9.

Or, before God. 3 Gen. 1. 6.

Heb. heights.

14 How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?

15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.

16 If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.

17 For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause. 18 He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.

19 If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?

20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.

21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life. 22 This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. 23 If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?

25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.

26 They are passed away as the "swift ships: as the cagle that hasteth to the prey. 27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I

Chap. 38. 31, &c. Amos 5. 8. Heb. Ash, Cesil, and Cimah. 8 Isa. 45. 9. Jer. 18. 6. Rom. 9. 20. 9 Heb. who can turn him away? 10 Heb. helpers of pride, or strength. 11 Heb. ships of destre. 12 Or, ships of Ebch.