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(ſhe (IDOOern Reader'3 jºible
Wisdom Series
The Book of Job





THE MODERN READER'S BIBLE
A SERIES OF WORKS FROM THE SACRED SCRIPTURES PRESENTED
- IN MODERN LITERARY FORM
** *- : - * , , , , ->
C.
THE BOOK OF JOB
EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A. (CAMB), Ph.D. (PENN.)
Professor of LITERATURE IN ENGLISH IN THE
UNIversity of CHICAGO
'H'
Sctº $30th
M A C M I L L A N A N D C O.
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO.,LTD.
All rights reserved
1896


CopyRIGHT, 1896,
By MACMILLAN AND CO.
Nortocol. 3.}regg
J. S. Cushing & Co. —Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.


IWTRODUCTION
To arrange works of art in order of merit, and discuss
which are to be considered greater and which less, is out-
side formal criticism. All the same it is an elementary in-
stinct of appreciation to express a sense of the greatness of
a particular work by claiming that it is greatest. If then
a jury of persons well instructed in literature were impan-
elled to pronounce upon the question what is the greatest
poem in the world's great literatures, while on such a ques-
tion unanimity would be impossible, yet I believe a large
majority would give their verdict in favour of that which is
the subject of the present volume, the Book of Job.
It deals with the most universal of all topics, the Mys-
tery of Suffering. Even the frivolous are driven by suffer-
ing to think about the meaning of life. For the theologian,
next to the existence of a good God, the most fundamental
question is the presence of pain and evil in a world he has
ordered. The significance of these terms is no less funda-
mental in philosophy. The whole of sociology rests upon
the same basis of human suffering. If the theory of pain
and evil is outside physical science, yet to fight against
these makes great part of its practical application. And of
y


→3 Introduction
poetry the larger half draws its inspiration from the tragedy
of life.
For the treatment of so universal a subject Hebrew
has advantages over other languages. It bases its verse
system on a parallelism which is also a function of prose;
accordingly it constitutes a highly elastic medium, which
can shift at will from the measured beauties of verse to the
freedom of prose, while the verse itself can reflect any
change of feeling in some metrical variation. Again, what
seems at first a defect of Hebrew literature in reality in-
creases its range: the lack of a theatre to specialise drama
has caused the dramatic impulse to spread through other
literary forms, until epic, lyric, discourse, are all drawn to-
gether on a common basis of dramatic presentation. Thus
of the two distinguishing features of Hebrew, the one draws
together the different forms of poetry, and the other tends
to unite poetry with prose. Thus in the Book of Job all
these literary forms can be combined, and all the modes
of thinking of which these forms are the natural vehicles.
The bulk of the work is a philosophical discussion of the
question of suffering, and different mental attitudes to this
question are successively exhibited. But the philosophical
discussion is also a dramatic debate: with rise and fall of
passion, varieties of personal interest, quick changes in the
movement of thought; while a background of nature, ever
present, makes a climax in a whirlwind which ushers us
into the supernatural. Interest of rhetoric is added for
Vl


→8 Introduction
mental vision. The description of Job's wealth displays the
pastoral life united with the settled life of agriculture, and
house or tent is used indifferently to express a dwelling
place. The mention of camels implies traffic and mer-
chandise which would draw out of isolation into world
intercourse. Country has combined with city: we have
the administration of justice in the gate, – simple justice,
with its daysman to lay hands on combatants, its single
witness, its simple infamy of the stocks. The picture
stops short only of the enterprise and competition that
tend to swallow up life in adding to the means of liveli-
hood. The age of the patriarchs seems to make a
borderland in social evolution, from which the whole can
be studied; and a speech of Job describes with scientific
precision the changes from the primitive commune to the
turbulence of crowded life. But for themselves these chil-
dren of the east have adopted a stationary life: absorbed
in higher thoughts they are content to sit still and let the
world go by, as swift posts between great empires hurry
past them, or the caravans of Tema stay a night in their
neighbourhood, passing to and from the desert. In their
thoughts they are familiar with the whole range of the
larger world. They speak of kings and counsellors and
judges and priests; of solitary sepulchral piles where the
great lie with their buried gold; Egypt, under the name
Rahab, is a byword with them. They have marked the
lessons of nations in their rise and fall. They know of
will


Introduction 8–
cities, the abode of the prosperous wicked, who cover their
faces with fatness and have collops of fat on their flanks;
the place also of prisons, slaves, and taskmasters. They
talk familiarly of the gold of Ophir, and the topaz of
Ethiopia, and can picture every detail of the miner's
venture into the earth. War they know: the casting up
of military roads and encampments, the warrior with his
thick bosses of bucklers, his iron weapon and bow of brass;
they know the chances of war, and have perhaps had their
share in redeeming from oppressors, and delivering the
fatherless from the casting of lots. They know also the
robber bands, whose god is their strong right hand, break-
ing upon the prosperous out of their lairs in desolate and
ruinous cities. Their knowledge extends even to the out-
casts of mankind, savages gaunt with want and famine,
gnawing the dry ground in the gloom of wasteness and
desolation, children of fools, driven out of the land. Of
all these extremes they are content only to know : they
have themselves attained the golden mean of restful
serenity, as far from the glitter of life as from its stains.
So, for all its simplicity, it is a stately life that is lived
by these patriarchs in the land of Uz. For the young
there are rounds of feasting on ceremonial days; sisters
lend their presence to their brothers, for their joy is not
sensuous indulgence but festal mirth. The old also have
their days of observance, marked by solemnity and ritual
offerings. As brothers and sisters are in the world of
IX


→8 Introduction
youth, so in mature life is the relationship of friends.
Visits of ceremony are exchanged between these friends,
and they behave with formal dignity of manners; it is an
elementary instinct of order that leads Job's visitors to
move together in their weeping, and rending their gar-
ments, and casting dust upon their heads; they sit down
on the ground “for seven days and seven nights” before
they can break in upon the silent majesty of grief. The
speech of these patriarchs is sparing because it is so
weighty: pointed words of wisdom, inherited riches of
tradition multiplied by long brooding and observation;
if there is occasion for more, it takes the shape of a formal
curse or ritual oath of innocence. Their moral principles
are as fixed as the laws of nature; if one is violated, it is
as if a rock were removed out of its place. Their venera-
tion is for antiquity, for tradition uncorrupted from with-
out. The greatest of them feels that he is but of yesterday;
no disputant can be expected to resist a cause supported
by one “much older than his father”; they or their
fathers have received wisdom from “those to whom the
land was given, and no stranger passed through it.” The
greatest sensation of the poem, short of the supernatural
climax, is when the aged have to endure, in astonished
silence, youth breaking in to plead nervously for a view of
truth separated by but a hair's breadth from their own.
Thus, amid the various ideals which men have formed for
themselves, the ideal of the patriarchs is the stable life: a
X


Introduction 8–
life in league with the very stones of the field, that can
laugh at destruction and dearth; a life of substance increas-
ing in the land, that there may be no lack of relief for the
distressed and hospitality to force upon the stranger: for
what use is there in wealth but this? While the wicked
are snatched away before their time, their own life is to
reach its end with the stateliness of a shock of corn carried
in in its season. Only with this last hope can they stave
off the one thing inevitable, dark horizon bounding the
light of their life—the thought of Sheol, into which every
man must at last go down to return no more, a land of
darkness without order, where in secret isolation he must
abide, half consciously wasting from flesh to shade, stranger
to all that has succeeded to his place, enduring to himself
what pain there may be of flesh, what mourning of spirit.
Life in this land of Uz is a life of poetry; but it is
poetry without books. Not a hint is to be found of named
poets or quoted works. Job speaks of writing in a book
in the same breath with writing on the rock; for inscrip-
tions, or the indictment of an adversary, writing may be
appropriate, but it never occurs to the speakers in this
story to associate it with poetry. The floating literature
of oral speech, in which the foundations of the world's
Voetry were gradually fashioned, is here seen in full sway.
Moreover the people of our story are in close touch with
the fountain of poetry—external nature. Violent things
of nature have been within their experience: lightning
Xl


→8 Introduction
bolts that destroy Job's whole wealth of sheep in a
moment, winds from the wilderness laying low a hall of
feasting, earthquakes, monsters of sea and land, to that
remotest monster on the horizon of the imagination — the
swift, whirling serpent that whirls round the earth and at
times invades it, or darkens the sun in eclipse till pierced
by the might of God himself. And the things of every-
day nature make imagery for the poem: the rush, the flag,
the spider leaning on his web, the flower cut down, the
fallen tree, the landslip, the water wearing the stones.
Nay, so saturated are the speakers with nature sympathies
that they seem to pass beyond imagery; it is more than a
fashion of speech when Job says that his steps are washed
with butter and the rock pours him out rivers of oil, that
his root is spread out on the waters, that God in his anger
lifteth him up to the wind, and causeth him to ride upon
it, and dissolveth him in the storm.
Above all, the life of the patriarchs is a life filled with
God. Though the language of the poem is Hebrew, and
the God worshipped is the God of the Hebrews revealed
under his various names, yet we have not here the Hebrew
religion as we know it in the rest of the Old Testament.
Whatever ‘the land of Uz' may be in geography, in
essence its people are the worshippers of the invisible
God from whom originally Abraham went forth, first of
missionaries, charged with the work of founding a people
who should uphold the worship of the unseen God against
x11


Introduction 8–
nations of idolators, until in his seed all nations of the
earth should be blessed. Meanwhile, the patriarchs have
maintained the worship of the invisible God at home.
Throughout the whole work there is no mention of idols;
the only false religion the most daring impiety can con-
ceive is to offer homage to the fairest works of the Creator
in the lights of heaven. Like Melchisedek, who gave his
blessing to Abraham while the chosen people was yet
unborn, like Balaam testifying from without Jehovah's
care over his own, so these patriarchs worship Israel's
God outside the ranks of Israel; if Abraham was the
Friend of God, Job is before the hosts of heaven pro-
nounced God's Servant on earth. Here then we see the
religion of the Bible as a religion without a Law, without
a Temple, with no national ritual, with nothing in which
the modern mind can recognise a Church. The only
revelation these patriarchs know is the vision vouchsafed
to the individual worshipper; or rarely, at long intervals,
“an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand” raised
up to tell the meaning of some strange experience. Their
creed, as rehearsed in heaven, is to fear God and eschew
evil. Their sense of God is as deep seated as their very
consciousness: when Job's wife, in momentary distraction,
bids him renounce God, it comes as an impulse to suicide.
Their elementary feelings are fresh, and the religious sense
in them is overpowering awe. It makes their whole life one
of hallowed restraint: the besetting God numbers their
X111


→8 Introduction
steps, they “make a covenant with their eyes,” they dread
lest they may for a moment walk with vanity; with more
than the sensitive conscience of a Greek chorus they will
not curse an enemy, lest they may be asking for his life.
Divine providence they conceive as an enlargement of
their own ideals, redressing the wrongs of the poor, tak-
ing the crafty in their counsels; mercy too mingles with
judgment, and he who maketh sore bindeth up. Sickness,
earthquake, and every human event is fraught with mean-
ing. The Divine presence fills the universe, from the
council of the holy ones on high down to the shades
shivering beneath the seas; while in the nature that comes
between it is the Divine hand alone that stretcheth out the
north over empty space, and hangeth the earth upon noth-
ing. And at times there is a more awful sense of his
nearneSS :
Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not:
He passeth on also, but I perceive him not.
For the Tempest is the Presence passing through the
startled earth, shrouded in the clouds with which he closeth
in the face of his throne and the thick darkness cast under
his feet. The craving to enter into that Presence is for
Job religious ecstasy.
In such an atmosphere as this the story is to move,
which shall first exhibit human suffering that is unique,
xiv


Introduction 8–
and then concentrate upon this suffering light from succes-
sive points of view.
The Prologue introduces us to the Court of Heaven,
and presents the Lord surrounded by his council of holy
ones. Two days of the Lord are represented, days of
ceremony and ritual observance, — so it would seem from
the recurrence of formal phrases. The sons of God pass
in review before the throne, and are questioned as to the
provinces of the universe which they have in charge.
Among them comes ‘the Satan.” Most unfortunately,
the omission in English versions of the article has led the
popular mind astray on this incident. Unquestionably in
this passage, and the precisely similar passage in Zecha-
riah, the word is the title of an office, not the name of an
individual. The margin of the Revised Version gives
‘the Adversary”; the word expresses that he is the ad-
versary of the saints in the same way that an inspector or
examiner may be considered as adverse to those he in-
spects or examines. It is easy to understand how such a
title should pass over to form the name of an individual
— the Adversary of God, Satan the prince of Evil. In
the present case he describes his office as the inspection of
earth: “going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and
down in it”: he uses just the language applied in Zecha-
riah to the ministering Spirits who carry out the divine
decrees in our world. He appears on the scene among
the sons of God; and there is nothing to distinguish his
xy


Introduction 8-
in a ‘state of probation”? This much may safely be said:
so vast is the disproportion between the suffering of the
individual and the question of the possibility of earthly
perfection, that Job himself, could he have assisted at
that session of heaven's court, would have gladly assented
to the test of the Adversary.
By permission then of God we have the fire from heaven,
the winds of the wilderness, the forayers of the desert,
concentrating their powers in a single moment to bring
about a colossal ruin. It is encountered by as colossal a
patience. In orderly dignity Job goes through the ges-
tures of bereavement, bidding farewell to all the accessories
of life, which have left him only his naked manhood. But
when he turns to his God, he shows no tearful resignation,
but a grateful courtesy, that hastens to make mention of
the giver when the gift has been taken away.
The LORD hath given, and the LORD hath taken away:
Blessed be the Name of the LORD.
When the Council of Heaven reassembles God triumphs
in his servant. The Adversary no less honours him, in
proposing yet more implacable trial: he acts in the spirit
of some mechanician who tasks himself to devise some
terrific strain, in admiration of a substance which has
stood an extremity of testing. Nor is the Lord any more
doubtful of his servant: and the test is permitted. Job is
smitten in his person, with skin disease at once agonising
xvil


→8 Introduction
and loathsome. He must creep out, as unclean, from the
village, and sit down on the ash-mound with other beggars
and outcasts. There as he sits in his misery, his good
wife — no less patient than Job in all that had touched
herself—breaks down when she gazes on the suffering
which she can neither share nor relieve, and speaks wild
words, which Job gently rebukes. To him it seems mean-
ness that a man should accept from a wise providence
things of good, and draw back when its dispensations are
things of evil.
The Prologue has served its purpose of setting up, by
supernatural machinery, a spectacle of suffering equally
severe and undeserved. The questions generated by such
a spectacle it leaves to be debated in the limited sphere of
human knowledge. But already this prologue has in the
superhuman mysteries it has unveiled suggested a First
Solution of the Mystery of Suffering: Suffering a test of
saintship, made the more severe as the saintship is stronger
to endure.
The materials for our drama are gathering. The suf-
ferer sits on the ash-mound as on a stage, with all sur-
rounding nature for scenery; round about stand a chorus
of silent spectators, gazing on the fallen glory of their
land; travellers too stop to wonder at the sight, some
smiting on their breasts as they go on their way to spread
the sad story abroad, some lingering, like Elihu, to gather
wisdom. At last the three Friends of Job, in the pomp of
xvill


Introduction 8–
woe and exalted station, have arrived; the spectators rev-
erently make way for them to ascend the mound and sit
opposite their comrade on the bare ground. The scene is
complete: yet all wait for the suffering hero himself to
break the painful silence.
He opens his mouth in a ‘Curse.” Once more an infe-
licity of translation (corrected in the Revised Version) has
led the English reader astray. The word is quite different
from the expression for “renouncing God,” used before.
In what Job proceeds to speak there is not the smallest
approach to the sin which the Adversary thought possible
for Job, and Job thought possible for his children. He
does not renounce God, but appeals to him ; he does not
complain of what has been taken, but only asks for the
stripped and suffering life to be brought to a speedy end;
even Job's Friends attack, not what he says, but what he
has failed to say. What then is his “Curse'? As the
Hecuba of Euripides cries in her total ruin:
Even here the unhappy have a muse,
so Job simply sets his woe to music — the music of an
unsurpassable lyric elegy. All variations of darkening
that fancy can suggest are invoked to blot out that day
which betrayed Job into life. The dreaded Sheol is
viewed as a world of stately rest in comparison with the
singer's crushed life. And why should longer life be
thrust upon a heart that is broken?
xix


→8 Introduction
This last is the starting point of the whole discussion.
Though surely the gentlest of murmurs, it is enough to
show that Job has separated himself from that which is to
the Friends the truth of truths, and which may be here
presented as a Second offered Solution of the Mystery of
Suffering: that all Suffering is judgment upon sin. The
discussion that follows may be analysed in detail, and it
is so analysed in the notes to this volume: notes which
are arranged according to the metrical sections of the
poem, for — as the student of Comparative Literature will
be prepared to find — in so highly wrought a dramatic
poem a change of the metrical system accompanies every
change in the tone or movement of a scene. But it must
at the same time be remembered that this is a dramatic
debate even more than a philosophic discussion: passion
and personality are factors in the movement. The Friends
appear before us as persons absolutely committed to a
fixed theory of life. Their minds are closed: Job's ob-
jections do not disturb their confidence for a moment,
while they pour out in voluble eloquence generalities which
are in accord with their theory. And resistance to their
view of God's action they treat as resistance to God.
Against them is pitted a Job who has been the ideal of the
views they and he had held, but who has spiritual life
enough to cast them aside now that they have proved in-
sufficient; he dares to have an open mind on a funda-
mental question of divine action; though servant of God
XX


Introduction 8–
he can appeal to him against his own visitation, and im-
peach God's providence in the name of God's justice.
Accordingly, minute connections of argument seem to me
less important than to catch the general play of feeling
and prominent trains of thought which are found in Job,
as he is thus tossed to and fro in waves of passionate
utterance, beating against the immovable rock of the
Friends' theory.
Eliphaz opens for the Friends with dignity and tender-
ness. He has the delicate task of hinting that the ideal
of human perfection has been shown by his afflictions to
be a sinner. But his opening words speak of nothing but
Job's kindness with other sufferers, and how he would
strengthen them with the consolation Eliphaz now offers
to himself. Thus the first word of the Friends' doctrine
is made a word of hope: if affliction were an accident,
springing without seed out of the ground, then indeed Job
might despair; but since it is only they who have sown
iniquity that reap its fruit there must lie a way of return to
prosperity by forsaking the sin. The basis on which the
doctrine of the Friends rests — the infinite distance be-
tween God and finite man — is developed by Eliphaz in a
story of a Vision, in which a supernatural voice proclaimed
to the terrified sleeper that mortal man could not be just
before God: that thus from a visitation of God there can
be no appeal. Then Eliphaz passes to the happy restora-
tion which follows the divine correction, and finds a con-
XXI


Introduction 8-
I despise my life,
It is all one; therefore I say,
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
Thus Job is led to what is one of his fixed trains of thought:
that this affliction is persecution: a persecution by God of
God's own handiwork. For God has poured him out like
milk and curdled him like cheese; yet he watches against
him as if he were a sea-monster, and shows himself a mar-
vellous hunter, harassing a driven leaf. As to the doctrine
of judgment on the wicked, the very beasts of the field
know it: yet does that alter the fact that the tents of rob-
bers are found prospering, while the just man is made a
laughing-stock? Job thus recoils from the false friends
who have given him rebuke where consolation was due,
brooks found by the thirsty traveller to have run dry in the
sands of the desert. They will lie on God's behalf: Job
though God is slaying him will wait for him. So, by a
strange irony, Job's antagonism against his friends' miscon-
struction is leading him to appeal from them to the very
God he had before pronounced inscrutable, and in his
almightiness indifferent as between righteous and wicked.
At the climax of this portion of the drama the thoughts of
the hero sway to and fro — and the metre, with its ‘pendu-
lum figure,' sways with them—between the effort to make
this appeal, and the overpowering awe of the Being to whom
he is to address his cause. And at this point the feeling of
awe gains the mastery; in the final section Job falls back
xxiii


→8 Introduction
into the picturing of the hopeless life of man, too short and
feeble to attain the vindication which is its due: the fallen
tree may revive again, but man lieth down and ariseth no
more. Here we get the first gleam of that new thought,
which is to light up Job's despair from time to time: how
happy would Sheol itself be, if only there could come a
vindication of his cause beyond it.
Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol,
That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past,
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me !
— If a man die, shall he live again? —
All the days of my warfare would I wait till my release should
come;
Thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee:
Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thine hands.
But no : the thought is dismissed as unthinkable: man's
hope is destroyed with the slow certainty of the crumbling
landslip, and in the grave he suffers to himself, ignorant
of happiness or woe that is in the world above.
In the second round of speeches there is intensification
of feeling on both sides. The speakers interrupt one an-
other; each supports his views, not with argument only,
but with tours-de-force of sustained rhetoric, enumerating
instances or elaborating pictures. On the side of the
Friends there is no advance except in the expression of
their views. But Job's thoughts and feelings are still de-
veloping. The appeal to God, as to which he had before
xxiv.


Introduction 8–
wavered, is now made: and for the Friends he has only
contempt. Again, whereas his complaint before was the
difficulty of bringing his case before the Divine tribunal, he
now declares in set terms that God subverteth him in his
cause. As he enlarges on the misery of his persecution,
he is so prostrated as to appeal to the Friends themselves
for pity. But, the more hope is excluded in other direc-
tions, the more strongly the strange new hope moves him;
and from his lowest despair he springs suddenly to the
thought of vindication beyond death, before hinted at and
dismissed, now an inspiration and a certainty.
Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
That with an iron pen and lead
They were graven in the rock for ever!
For I know that My VINDICATOR LIVETH,
And that He shall stand up at the last upon the earth;
And after my skin hath been thus destroyed,
Yet without my flesh shall I see God!
Whom I shall see on my side,
And mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
In the last speech of the cycle another important ad-
vance is made by Job. Hitherto he had, almost carelessly,
both recognised the doctrine of judgment and flung out
facts against it. But now that it has been pressed upon
him again and again Job is compelled to look the doc-
xxw


→8 Introduction
trine fairly in the face. He trembles at the doubts which
begin to gather in his mind.
Even when I remember I am troubled,
And horror taketh hold on my flesh.
He begins to describe the visible impunity of the wicked,
nay, their prosperity through life and honourable burial;
the stock objections used to bolster up the appearance of
providential equity he tears to pieces. His own case is
forgotten for the time; what can the Friends say as to
these doubts?
They have nothing to say; nothing at all in their
formal speeches, and even if the arguments Job answers
are supposed to be interjected by the Friends, yet these
are not really arguments, only re-statements of the theory
in other terms. But in this final round of speeches their
heated tone subsides: the case has become too serious for
passion. They seem to speak under a sense of making
final pronouncement; and it would appear as if each
charged himself with bringing to a climax a different ele-
ment of the common contention. Eliphaz feels bound to
drop the general terms he had used in the hope that Job
would be his own accuser; he now enumerates actual
transgressions. But he seeks to soften down the effect
by dwelling on the theme of submission and restoration,
now touched for the last time. Bildad deals with the
basis of the doctrine; and the distance between finite and
xxvi.


In troduction 8e-
infinite overpowers us as we read of the authority that is
arbiter among the sanctities, architect of the universe,
artist finding flaws in heaven's own brightness.
Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways;
And how small a whisper do we hear of him
But the thunder of his power who can understand?
Zophar reiterates for the last time the doctrine of unfailing
judgment on sin, and brings it to a worthy peroration.
This fear of God and his judgments Zophar makes the
foundation of all wisdom, in the most famous passage of
the whole poem. No miner for all his skill can find wis-
dom among the precious things he brings out of the earth.
God alone knows its place; and when he wrought the
structure of his creation he linked wisdom with the fear of
the Lord, understanding with the retreat from evil.
Job also carries to a climax each train of thought which
has appeared in his former speeches. The cruel accusa-
tions of Eliphaz intensify his appeal to the heavenly vindi-
cator; though in this narrow life Job looks forward and
backward, to the left and to the right, without finding him,
yet —
He knoweth the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Calmed by this meditation, Job returns to the doubts
which closed the last cycle; no longer in a hesitating and
xxvii


Introduction 8-
no more, and Job waves his hand in dismissal of the con-
troversy:
The words of Job are ended.
We enter upon another section of the poem, and a new
actor appears upon the scene. Among the spectators
about the ash-mound was Elihu, of the family of Ram.
He is a foreigner, and his speech abounds in Aramaisms.
He is moreover a young man, and the decorum of patri-
archal life is to be broken in upon by the wisdom of youth.
Elihu feels to the full the bashfulness of a young man in-
terposing in a conversation of elders. But he feels also
the fervour of youth, longing to champion orthodoxy; he
has moreover juvenile confidence in the clearer grasp of
truth which his generation possesses. And yet, for all his
dissociating himself from the speeches of the Friends, we
who read at this distance of time need effort to catch
wherein his case differs from that already presented.
Both enlarge upon the immeasurable distance between
God and man. Both are full of the judgment upon sin-
ners. All that Elihu seems to do is to emphasise one side
of the common contention which had been less empha-
sised by the Friends. His contribution to the poem may
then be presented as a Third offered Solution of the Mys-
tery of Suffering: Suffering is judgment warming the sin-
ner by repentance to escape from heavier judgment.
Elihu ascends the mound, and confronts the seated
XXIX


Introduction 8–
Doubly slighted, Elihu can yet, from a single glance at
the sky, draw an inspiration that strengthens him to con-
front both his adversaries.
I will answer thee,
And thy companions with thee.
Look unto the heavens, and see.
His new answer proves to be the old topic, handled so
fully by the former speakers, of the infinite distance be-
tween God and man. He combines it with his own argu-
ment as to the blindness of sinful men, who will complain
of the suffering and yet refuse to read its lessons. And he
continues to hint of worse things to come, if Job should
be visited in anger.
Still he is met by silence. There is something almost
pathetic in the way this youthful disputant, in his struggles
for recognition from his severe elders, is driven to greater
extremes of self-assertion:
Truly my words are not false:
One that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.
Though he is to fetch his knowledge from afar, yet it
proves to be no more than the oft reiterated theme of
God's judgments on the mighty in defence of the weak:
if these be slighted there is reserved a final destruction.
And already Job seems ripe for such destruction: he is
“full of the judgement of the wicked.”
XXXI


→8 Introduction
So far youth has been exhibited on its weaker side: from
this point we see it in another light. The brilliant atmos-
phere around begins to show ominous signs of change, and
Elihu catches the thought that the further judgment of
which he has been warning Job is that moment impending.
With youth's keen responsiveness to nature he eagerly
drinks in every detail of the growing change, and through
his words we are able to see the gradual rise of the whirl-
wind. We have spreadings of clouds, small drops of
water, such lightning and mutter of thunder as makes the
cattle stand expectant of the “storm that cometh up.”
Then some heavier crash makes Elihu tremble and his
heart move out of its place: now beasts go to their dens
as the thunder thunders with a voice of majesty, and
the lightning reaches the ends of the earth. It is a tem-
pest of all the winds of heaven: Elihu and his companions
have to endure the sultry sweep of the south, under which
their garments are felt too warm for them, and the icy
breath of the north, that mingles snow with the mighty
rain. The thick storm cloud overhead balances itself as it
descends and wraps all in a darkness that appals even
Elihu.
Teach us what we shall say unto him,
For we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
Shall it be told him that I would speak?
If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.
xxxii


Introduction 8-
At last there comes a transition beyond even tempest.
The whirlwind, in mystic fashion, spreads the thick clouds
round the horizon like a curtain shutting in holy ground.
From the cleared sky come flashes of intolerable brightness.
Lastly, in that northern quarter from which Hebrew imag-
ination looks for the advance of Divine judgments, is seen
a “terrible majesty” of “golden splendour"; and the roar
of the whirlwind has become an articulate VOICE.
The Divine Intervention is the finale and climax of the
whole drama. But its purport is, I believe, commonly
misunderstood. It is often supposed to be an indignant
denial of Job's right to question the ways of God. That
this is not its significance a single consideration is suf-
ficient to show. Such denial of the right to question had
been the position of the Friends: Job had resisted, and
questioned. Yet in the epilogue God is represented as
declaring that the Friends had not said of him the thing
that was right, as his servant Job had. Nor can this be
met by the suggestion that Job had made submission,
whereas the Friends had not, and were therefore under
the Divine displeasure because of their misinterpretation of
the visitation on Job. The Friends have not been called
upon for submission: no part of the Divine Intervention
is addressed to them, nor does it bear upon their case. It
is impossible to interpret the epilogue except as a pro-
nouncement on the side of Job, however much there may
be of rebuke for his wilder utterances. Unless then we
xxxiii


→8 Introduction
are to say that the Divine Intervention pronounces on one
side and the Epilogue on the other, it cannot be that the
former is a denial of the right to question.
It is a different thing, and nearer the truth, to lay down
that the Divine Intervention denies the possibility of Job's
reading the meaning of God's visitation. Indeed, this is
unquestionably part of the significance of this section.
But to say this is to say nothing: such inscrutability of
providence is a commonplace of the whole poem: the
Friends and Elihu proclaim it, Job himself has recognised
it in strong language. It would seem that the emphasis
upon this topic is a necessity arising from the very char-
acter of the literary task here attempted. The poet has
undertaken to dramatise God's ways in heaven and earth,
God himself being introduced as one of dramatis personae;
the instinct of reverence makes him seek to counterpoise
such bold imagination by making prominent at every
point the awful distance between the creature and the
Creator.
To arrive at the exact significance of this portion of the
Book of Job we must examine further. It must be remem-
bered that we have here, not an outburst of angry rebuke,
but an elaborate and unique poem, with a strong tone of
thought supported by a wealth of details. When we study
these details, we find presented a conception of Deity very
different from what might have been anticipated. The
God of Judgment confounding the mighty in their pride,
XXXIV


→8 Introduction
Creator of the world, he is not here a creator by fiat, but
an earth-builder, rejoicing in his task to secure its founda-
tions and determine its measures, while the corner-stone
is laid with the morning stars singing together and all the
sons of God shouting for joy. There is power in his
shutting up ocean with bars it may not pass: there is
another conception in his watching for it as it issues from
the womb, making a garment for it of cloud, and swad-
dling bands of thick darkness. There is power in the
dayspring taking hold of the ends of the earth and shak-
ing the wicked out of their darkness: there is the artist's
joy also in viewing the earth under this dawning light
change as clay under a seal, while the dulled landscape
suddenly stands forth as a patterned garment. What to
man are the mysteries of the stars, of the ocean depths,
of darkness, of light, of death itself, of the sources of the
snow and hail, these make the common round of this
Nature Power: who walks through the heavens binding
the clusters of the Pleiades, loosing the bands of Orion,
leading the signs of the Zodiac in their season, guiding
the Bear with her train; he enters the springs of the sea,
or walks in the fathomless recesses of the deep; now visits
the gates of death, now takes the way to the dwelling of
light, arranges by what angle the lightning shall fork,
keeps treasuries of hail and snow against the day of battle.
We have here, not the flood and tempest overwhelming
the nations, but the rain with glorious redundancy rejoic-
xxxvi


Introduction 8-
ing to rain on the wilderness where no man is, satisfying
the waste and lonely land with his gift of the tender
springing grass; or he watches the sport of the dust run-
ning into a mass, and the clods having their time of
embracing, as he pours out for them the bottles of heaven.
Man has his ox, that eats out of his crib, and harrows after
him the valleys: but here is sympathy with the passionate
liberty of the wild ass which scorns the noisy city and the
driver's shout, finding a palace of freedom in the salt
wilderness and a pasture meadow in the rocky tableland.
Here is sympathy with the hawk soaring southwards, with
the eagle in her spy-house of inaccessible crags, with the
lioness crouching for the spring, with the food-winning
anxieties of the raven, with all the family cares of the
desert goat—the numbering of the months, the bowing
in travail, the moment of casting out her sorrows, the
young ones growing in good liking, their going forth at
last to return to the parent no more. The stupid ostrich,
with not enough of nature's first instinct to guard her eggs
against the chance footfall, even she has her time, when
she lifteth up herself on high and puts to scorn the horse
and his rider. But what of this war horse with the quiv-
ering mane, who has his joy in the terrors of mankind,
swallowing the ground in the fierceness of his spirit as the
trumpet and shouting tell of battle at hand! What of the
nature monsters on the dim border of man's knowledge—
Behemoth, “which I made with thee,” with man's strong-
xxxv.11


→8 Introduction
est things for but fragments of his frame, the cedar's swing
for his tail, bones of brass, limbs of iron bars, with the
mountain for his storehouse of food, the waterflood a care-
less trifle to him; Leviathan himself, with a panoply that
all man's ways of war cannot break through, ocean turn-
ing white as he passes!
When such a conception of Deity has been taken in-
joyous sympathy with the infinities of great and small
throughout the universe — then we are able to see how
this Divine Intervention makes a distinct section of the
whole work. For the hopeless suffering in which there is
nothing of guilt what treatment can be better than to lose
the individual pain in sympathetic wonder over nature in
her inexhaustible variety? But the connection can be more
logically indicated. The mystery of suffering is not to be
solved within the limits of human knowledge; and an im-
perfect or tentative solution could not be put into the mouth
of Deity. But what the Divine Intervention in this drama
does is to lift the discussion into a wider sphere. Job
and his friends had fastened their attention upon suffering
and evil, and had broken down under the weight of the
mystery: but the individual experience now seems a small
thing in the range of all nature's ways. Hence we have a
Fourth Solution of the Mystery of Suffering: That the
whole universe is an unfathomed mystery, and the Evil in
it is not more mysterious than the Good and the Great.
The problem of the poem may be insoluble; but there is
XXXWill


Introduction 8:-
an advance towards a solution when it can be compre-
hended in a wider category.
But it may be objected, Job makes submission and re-
pents: of what sin, according to this reading of the Divine
Intervention, does he repent? Sin might be found, if nec-
essary, in the wild picturings of providence into which his
helplessness under false accusations betrayed him. But
surely it lowers the tone of the climax to look for positive
transgressions. Job, conscious of innocence as regards
the contentions of the Friends, had passionately desired to
come into the very presence of his Judge. His desire is
granted: but in the purity of that presence the whiteness
of innocence abhors itself in dust and ashes.
The drama terminates, and the narrative story is re-
sumed, to introduce a brief Epilogue. The purport of
this Epilogue has been already anticipated. God is rep-
resented as declaring that his anger is kindled against the
Friends of Job, because they had not said of him the thing
that was right, as his servant Job had ; they are com-
manded to offer sacrifice, and Job is to intercede for them.
We have here a Fifth Solution of the Mystery of Suffer-
ing—the right attitude to this Mystery: That the bold
faith of Job, which could aft/eal to God against the justice
of God's own visitation, was more acceptable to Him than
the servile adoration of the Friends, who had sought to dis-
tort the facts in order to magnify God. As Job intercedes
for his Friends, God also turns his own captivity; wealth
xxxix


→8 Introduction
and prosperity are granted him greater than before, and
he dies happy and full of years.
The whole of the Book of Job has now been traversed.
It remains to speak of its relation to the rest of Wisdom
literature.
That we have here a Hebrew poem outside the system
of Hebrew religion seen in the rest of the Old Testament
need create no difficulty. The other books of wisdom are
associated with an order of wise men who stand apart
from the distinctively religious life of Israel, in full har-
mony with it, but not resting on it for their philosophy.
It makes no difference to the framework of Ecclesiasticus
that the son of Sirach identifies Wisdom with the Law,
or celebrates the succession of the Fathers. Ecclesiastes
and Wisdom use Solomon only as an illustration; and
though the latter elaborately reads providential meaning
into the deliverance of the chosen people, yet it does this
without in any way resting on the Law or the Prophets.
It is obvious that the subject matter which is worked up
into the speeches of job is wisdom in its most technical
sense. The habits of thought and turn of sentences are
the same here and in the other wisdom books; many times
the same sentences are common to both, with expansions
or condensations. As the original gnomic couplets were
found to have developed into the essays of Ecclesiasticus,
so here they have developed into dramatic speeches and
xl


Introduction 8-
rhetoric perorations. Moreover, the very special concep-
tion of wisdom which the earlier books associated with
the harmony of all creation enters into the final section
of job : the germ of the Divine Intervention is found in
the great monologue of Proverbs, though in the drama
the ordering of the universe is directly attributed to God
himself, and not to any mediating “Wisdom.”
Further, the topic of job is the main thought of Wisdom
literature, brought into question by a particular application
of it in actual life. In all books of wisdom the real subject
is judgment, the sifting between the evil and the good.
The violation of this judgment in the visible prosperity of
the sinner is mentioned as a thought not to be entertained
in Proverbs, is provided against in the arguments of Eccle-
siasticus; it drives the Preacher to his despair, while the
Wisdom of Solomon devotes a discourse to the reversal of
the seeming prosperity hereafter. In job the converse
of this—the affliction of the righteous—makes the whole
situation discussed; and in the actual discussion it is the
prosperity of the wicked which is the most prominent
topic.
Again, the attitudes of mind successively exhibited to
the question at issue in the dramatic debate have their
relations to the other books of wisdom. The Friends, in
their immovable dogma that all suffering must be judg-
ment upon sin, are precisely at the mental standpoint of
the earliest wisdom. The slight variation from this of
xli


Introduction 86-
for him beyond the grave. Four times such elevation of
faith flashes out. The first time the new thought comes
as little more than a figure of speech. Job is recoiling
from his Friends and their false pleas on God's behalf;
for himself he cries,
Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him:
Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him.
What Job actually says here might have been said by
Ecclesiastes : that he will never give in to the untruth
urged upon him. But as an exaggerated way of saying
this he uses words which imply a waiting beyond death
for God. At the close of the same speech the thought
comes out, now as a fancy dwelt upon with lingering love
—how Sheol would be sweet, were he but waiting in it for
a release when his time of justification should arrive: but
the fancy is dismissed with emphasis of despair. Later in
the discussion he rises out of his deepest distress with a
sudden inspiration; and here the vindication after his
flesh has been destroyed by death has become a sure
hope, which he would grave deep in the rock for ever.
Once again his confidence in future vindication appears,
and it has now passed to the still higher stage of calm
assurance: though the Judge is not to be seen in his
searchings through the world, yet
He knoweth the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
xliii


→8 Introduction
The hope of immortality which was to crown the latest
work of Scriptural philosophy is seen struggling into birth
in the Book of job.
We may say then, taking a general survey, that the
philosophical observation of life, which is the basis of all
Wisdom literature, enters into the Book of job in applica-
tion to a particular situation; that the various stages of
development in the philosophic attitude which had made
the separate books of wisdom, have, in general though not
exact correspondence, their reflections in the poem, em-
bodied in the dramatic personages and the attitudes they
take to the mystery of life's sufferings; and these varying
attitudes to the question of life are drawn into a unity by
the movement of a dramatic plot. The Book of job is
Wisdom literature dramatised.
But it is more than this; it contains an element which
is no part of wisdom. The hymns to Wisdom of Proverbs
and Ecclesiasticus may be termed devotion, but in job we
have the devout life itself in all its fulness: the personal
relation of the individual soul to God, and its correlative,
the relation of God to the individual soul; the stages of
spiritual struggle and doubt, of triumph and reconciliation.
We have yet more. The prologue invades the sphere of
Prophecy, which, in discourse or dramatic vision, under-
takes to reveal what transcends human knowledge. So
here amid the sanctities of heaven is presented a solution
of life's mysteries which human minds may guess at, but
xliv


Introduction 8-
not know. The Book of job dramatises the spirit of Wis-
dom literature; and then encircles this with the wider
spirit of Prophecy and the devout life.
sk *
sk
The text in this as other volumes of the Modern Read-
er's Bible is that of the Revised Version, for the use of
which I must express my obligations to the University
Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. From this text (in-
cluding the marginal alternatives) I never depart, as re-
gards the individual sentences; but the form in which the
matter is presented I adapt to modern literary presenta-
tion. In the present case such editing involves slight
change in the division of the matter between the different
speakers. This is fully explained at the commencement
of the Notes. The poem is divided according to its
metrical sections; but a Reference Table at the end con-
nects these with the Chapters and Verses of the Bible.
xlv.





The Book of Job





THE BOOK OF /OB
A DRAMATIC POEM
FRAMED IN
AAV EPIC STORP’


PERSOAVS OF 7:HE STORP”
THE LORD
The Sons of God, or Guardian Spirits
The Adversary: Guardian Spirit of the Earth
Job
The Wife of Job
The Friends of Job
Messengers
The SCENE of the Story changes between Heaven and the
Bouse of job in the Land of Uz.


PERSOAVS OF THE DA’AMA
Job
Eliphaz the Temanite
Bildad the Shuhite Friends of Job
Zophar the Naamathite
Elihu the Buzite: a Young Man
Spectators (mute)
VOICE OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND
Scene of the Drama: The Ash-Mound outside a Village in
the Zand of Uz.


STORY PROLOGUE . - e -
I. THE CURSE . - •
II. THE DEBATE .
III. THE OATH OF CLEARING
IV. THE INTERPOSITION OF ELIHU
V. THE DIVINE INTERVENTION
STORY EPILOGUE . • - -
PAGE
I5
I9
85
89
IoW
I2I





STORY PROLOGUE
THERE was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was
Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that
feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born
unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance
also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels,
and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses,
and a very great household; so that this man was the great-
est of all the children of the east. And his sons went and
held a feast in the house of each one upon his day; and
they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to
drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their
feastings were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified
them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt
offerings according to the number of them all; for Job
said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced
God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the LORD, and the Adversary
came also among them.
And the LORD said unto the Adversary, “Whence
comest thou?”
Then the Adversary answered the LORD, and said,
9


-6 The Book of Job
“From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it.”
And the LORD said unto the Adversary, “Hast thou
considered my servant Job? for there is none like him
in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God, and escheweth evil.”
Then the Adversary answered the LORD, and said,
“Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made
an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
that he hath, on every side? thou hast blessed the work
of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath,
and he will renounce thee to thy face.”
And the LORD said unto the Adversary, “Behold, all
that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not
forth thine hand.”
So the Adversary went forth from the presence of the
LORD. And it fell on a day when his sons and his
daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
brother's house, that there came a messenger unto Job,
and said:
The oxen were plowing,
and the asses feeding beside them;
and the Sabeans fell upon them
and took them away;
yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword;
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee!
IO


Story Prologue 8-
While he was yet speaking, there came also another and
said:
The fire of God is fallen from heaven,
and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants,
and consumed them;
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee!
While he was yet speaking, there came also another and
said:
The Chaldeans made three bands,
and fell upon the camels,
and have taken them away,
yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword;
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee!
While he was yet speaking, there came also another and
said:
Thy sons and thy daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house;
and behold,
there came a great wind from the wilderness,
and smote the four corners of the house,
and it fell upon the young men,
and they are dead;
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee!
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his
head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped;
and he said:
II


* The Book of Job
Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return thither!
The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away:
Blessed be the Name of the LORD !
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God with foolishness.
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the LORD, and the Adversary
came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
And the LoRD said unto the Adversary, “From whence
comest thou?”
And the Adversary answered the LORD, and said,
“From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it.”
And the LoRD said unto the Adversary, “Hast thou
considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in
the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God, and escheweth evil: and he still holdeth fast his
integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to
destroy him without cause.”
And the Adversary answered the LORD, and said,
“Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for
his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his
bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face.”
And the LORD said unto the Adversary, “Behold, he
is in thine hand; only spare his life.”
I2


| _ — ———— ）=======


M
THE COWA’SE
JOB
Let the day perish wherein I was born ;
And the night which said, There is a man child conceived!
Let that day be darkness;
Let not God regard it from above,
Neither let the light shine upon it!
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for
their own;
Let a cloud dwell upon it;
Let all that maketh black the day terrify it!
As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not come into the number of the months!
Lo, let that night be barren ;
Let no joyful voice come therein!
Let them curse it that curse the day,

I5


I, 2 -6 The Book of Job
Who are ready to rouse up leviathan!
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark!
Let it look for light, but have none;
Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb,
Nor hid trouble from mine eyes! |
2
Why died I not from the womb?
Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the
belly?
Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should suck?
For now should I have lien down and been quiet;
I should have slept; then had I been at rest,
With kings and counsellors of the earth,
Which built solitary piles for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver;
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been ;
As infants which never saw light.
There the wicked cease from troubling;
And there the weary be at rest.
I6





II
THE DEBATE
ELIPHAZ
3
If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
Behold, thou hast instructed many,
And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
And thou hast confirmed the feeble knees.
But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
Is not thy fear of God thy confidence,
And thy hope the integrity of thy ways?
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?
Or where were the upright cut off?
According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,
And sow trouble, reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish,
And by the blast of his anger are they consumed.
I9


3 * The Book of Job
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,
And the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,
And the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.
Now a thing was secretly brought to me,
And mine ear received a whisper thereof.
In thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth on men,
Fear came upon me and trembling,
Which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face;
The hair of my flesh stood up.
It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance
thereof;
A form was before mine eyes:
There was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
“Shall mortal man be just before God?
Shall a man be pure before his Maker?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants;
And his angels he chargeth with folly:
How much more them that dwell in houses of clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust,
Which are crushed before the moth!
Betwixt morning and evening they are destroyed:
2O


The Debate 86-
They perish for ever without any regarding it.
Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them?
They die, and that without wisdom.”
Call now: is there any that will answer thee?
And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
For vexation killeth the foolish man,
And jealousy slayeth the silly one.
I have seen the foolish taking root:
But suddenly I cursed his habitation.
His children are far from safety,
And they are crushed in the gate,
Neither is there any to deliver them.
Whose harvest the hungry eateth up,
And taketh it even out of the thorns,
And the snare gapeth for their substance.
For affliction cometh not forth of the dust,
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
But man is born unto trouble,
As the sparks fly upward.
But as for me, I would seek unto God,
And unto God would I commit my cause:
Which doeth great things and unsearchable:
Marvellous things without number:
2I


The Debate 8- 3, 4
At destruction and dearth thou shalt laugh:
Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field;
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace;
And thou shalt visit thy fold and shalt miss nothing.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,
And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,
Like as a shock of corn cometh in in its season.
Lo this, we have searched it, so it is ;
Hear it, and know thou it for thy good
JOB
4
Oh that my vexation were but weighed,
And my calamity laid in the balances together!
For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas:
Therefore have my words been rash.
For the arrows of the Almighty are within me,
The poison whereof my spirit drinketh up :
The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?
Or loweth the ox over his fodder?
23


4, 5 -8 The Book of Job
Can that which hath no savour be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
What things my soul refused to touch,
These are as my loathsome meat.
Oh that I might have my request;
And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
Even that it would please God to crush me;
That he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
Then should I yet have comfort;
Yea, I would exult in pain that spareth not:
For I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
What is my strength that I should wait?
And what is mine end, that I should be patient?
Is my strength the strength of stones?
Or is my flesh of brass?
Is it not that I have no help in me,
And that sound wisdom is driven quite from me?
5
To him that is ready to faint kindness should be shewed
from his friend;
Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook,
As the channel of brooks that pass away;
24


The Debate 8- 5
Which are black by reason of the ice,
And wherein the snow hideth itself:
What time they wax warm, they vanish:
When it is hot, they are consumed out of their
place.
The paths of their way are turned aside,
They go up into the waste and perish.
The caravans of Tema looked,
The companies of Sheba waited for them;
They were ashamed because they had hoped;
They came thither and were confounded.
For now ye are nothing;
Ye see a terror, and are afraid.
Did I say, Give unto me?
Or, Offer a present for me of your substance?
Or, Deliver me from the adversary's hand?
Or, Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?
Teach me and I will hold my peace;
And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
How forcible are words of uprightness
But what doth your arguing reprove?
Do ye imagine to reprove words?
Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are
as wind.
Yea, ye would cast lots upon the fatherless,
And make merchandise of your friend.
25


5 -3 The Book of Job
Now therefore be pleased to look upon me;
For surely I shall not lie to your face.
Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice;
Yea, return again, my cause is righteous.
Is there injustice on my tongue?
Cannot my taste discern mischievous things?
Is there not a time of service to man upon earth?
...And are not his days like the days of an hireling?
As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow,
And as an hireling that looketh for his wages,
So am I made to possess months of vanity,
And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise?
But the night is long;
And I am full of tossings to and fro
Unto the dawning of the day.
My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;
My skin closeth up and breaketh out afresh.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
And are spent without hope.
Oh remember that my life is wind:
Mine eye shall no more see good.
The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more:
Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.
26


The Debate 86- 5
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,
So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no
more.
He shall return no more to his house,
Neither shall his place know him any more.
Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,
That thou settest a watch over me?
When I say, My bed shall comfort me,
My couch shall ease my complaint:
Then thou scarest me with dreams,
And terrifiest me through visions:
So that my soul chooseth strangling,
And death rather than these my bones.
I loathe my life;
I would not live alway;
Let me alone;
For my days are vanity.
What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him,
And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him,
And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,
And try him every moment?
How long wilt thou not look away from me,
Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
27


5, 6 →8 The Book of Job
If I have sinned, what can I do unto thee, O thou watcher
of men?
Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee,
So that I am a burden to myself?
And why dost thou not pardon my transgression,
And take away mine iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust;
And thou shalt seek me diligently, but I shall not be!
BILDAD
6
How long wilt thou speak these things?
And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a
mighty wind?
Doth God pervert judgement?
Or doth the Almighty pervert justice?
If thy children have sinned against him,
And he have delivered them into the hand of their
transgression:
If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God,
And make thy supplication to the Almighty;
If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would
awake for thee,
And make the habitation of thy righteousness pros-
perous.
28


The Debate 8– 6
And though thy beginning was small,
Yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched
Out:
(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow :)
Shall not they teach thee and tell thee,
And utter words out of their heart?
Can the rush grow up without mire?
Can the flag grow without water?
Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down,
It withereth before any other herb.
So are the paths of all that forget God;
And the hope of the godless man shall perish:
Whose confidence shall break in sunder,
And whose trust is a spider's web.
He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not
stand:
He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure.
He is green before the sun, and his shoots go forth over
his garden;
His roots are wrapped about the heap, he beholdeth the
place of stones.
29


6, 7 -8 The Book of Job
If he be destroyed from his place,
Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Behold, this is the joy of his way,
And out of the earth shall others spring.
Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,
Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.
He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter,
And thy lips with shouting.
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame,
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.
JOB
7
Of a truth I know that it is so:
But how can man be just with God?
If he be pleased to contend with him,
He cannot answer him one of a thousand.
He is wise in heart and mighty in strength:
Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered?
Which removeth the mountains and they know it not,
When he overturneth them in his anger.
3o


The Debate 8-
Which shaketh the earth out of her place,
And the pillars thereof tremble.
Which commandeth the sun and it riseth not;
And sealeth up the stars.
Which alone stretcheth out the heavens,
And treadeth upon the waves of the sea.
Which maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south.
Which doeth great things past finding out;
Yea, marvellous things without number.
Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not:
He passeth on also, but I perceive him not.
Behold he seizeth the prey, who can hinder him?
Who will say unto him, What doest thou?
God will not withdraw his anger;
The helpers of Rahab do stoop under him.
How much less shall I answer him,
And choose out my words to reason with him!
Whom, though I were righteous,
Yet would I not answer;
I would make supplication to mine adversary.
31


The Debate 86– 7, 8
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked:
He covereth the faces of the judges thereof.
If it be not HE,
WHO then is it?
Now my days are swifter than a post:
They flee away, they see no good.
They are passed away as the swift ships:
As the eagle that swoopeth on the prey.
If I say,
“I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad countenance,
And be of good cheer:”
I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent;
I shall be condemned;
Why then do I labour in vain?
If I wash myself with snow water,
And make my hands never so clean :
Yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch,
And mine own clothes shall abhor me.
D 33


8, 9 →8 The Book of Job
For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer
him,
That we should come together in judgement;
There is no daysman betwixt us,
That might lay his hand upon us both :
Let him take his rod away from me,
And let not his terror make me afraid,
Then would I speak and not fear him:
For I am not so in myself.
9
My soul is weary of my life;
I will give free course to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;
Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress,
That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands,
And shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Hast thou eyes of flesh,
Or seest thou as man seeth?
Are thy days as the days of man,
Or thy years as man's days,
That thou inquirest after mine iniquity,
And searchest after my sin,
34


The Debate 8- 9
Although thou knowest that I am not wicked;
And there is none that can deliver out of thine
hand?
Thine hands have framed me
And fashioned me together round about;
Yet thou dost destroy me.
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me
as clay;
And wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Hast thou not poured me out as milk,
And curdled me like cheese?
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews.
Thou hast granted me life and favour,
And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
Yet these things thou didst hide in thine heart;
I know that this is with thee:
If I sin,
Then thou markest me,
And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
If I be wicked,
Woe unto me;
And if I be righteous,
Yet shall I not lift up my head,
Being filled with ignominy,
And looking upon mine affliction.
35


The Debate 8– II
ZOPHAR
II
Should not the multitude of words be answered?
And should a man full of talk be justified?
Should thy boastings make men hold their peace?
And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee
ashamed?
For thou sayest, My doctrine is pure,
And I am clean in thine eyes.
But Oh that God would speak,
And open his lips against thee;
And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom:
For sound wisdom is manifold.
Know therefore that God exacteth of thee
Less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Canst thou by searching find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
It is high as heaven;
What canst thou do?
Deeper than Sheol;
What canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
And broader than the sea.
If he pass through, and shut up,
37


II
→8 The Book of Job
And call unto judgement, then who can hinder him?
For he knoweth vain men:
He seeth iniquity also, and him that considereth not.
But vain man is void of understanding,
Yea, man is born as a wild ass's colt.
If thou set thine heart aright,
And stretch out thine hands toward him;
If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away,
And let not unrighteousness dwell in thy tents;
Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot;
Yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:
For thou shalt forget thy misery;
Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away:
And thy life shall be clearer than the noonday;
Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.
And thou shalt be secure,
Because there is hope;
Yea, thou shalt search about thee,
And shalt take thy rest in safety.
Also thou shalt lie down,
And none shall make thee afraid;
Yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail,
And they shall have no way to flee,
And their hope shall be the giving up of the ghost.
38


The Debate 8- 12
JOB
12
No doubt but ye are the people,
And wisdom shall die with you.
But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you:
Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbour,
A man that called upon God, and he answered him,
The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock.
In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt
for misfortune,
It is ready for them whose foot slippeth.
The tents of robbers prosper,
And they that provoke God are secure,
That bring their god in their hand.
But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;
Or, speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee:
39


I4 -3 The Book of Job
Surely I would speak to the Almighty,
And I desire to reason with God.
But ye are forgers of lies,
Ye are all physicians of no value.
Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace!
And it should be your wisdom.
Hear now my reasoning,
And hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
Will ye speak unrighteously for God,
And talk deceitfully for him?
Will ye respect his person?
Will ye contend for God?
Is it good that he should search you out?
Or as one deceiveth a man, will ye deceive him?
He will surely reprove you,
If ye do secretly respect persons.
Shall not his excellency make you afraid,
And his dread fall upon you?
Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,
Your defences are defences of clay.
Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak,
And let come on me what will.
At all adventures I will take my flesh in my teeth,
And put my life in mine hand.
Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him:
42


The Debate 86- I4
Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him.
He also shall be my salvation;
For a godless man shall not come before him.
Hear diligently my speech,
And let my declaration be in your ears.
Behold now, I have ordered my cause;
I know that I shall be justified.
Who is he that will contend with me?
For now if I hold my peace I shall give up the ghost.
Only do not two things unto me,
Then will I not hide myself from thy face:
Withdraw thine hand far from me;
And let not thy terror make me afraid:
Then call thou, and I will answer;
Or let me speak, and answer thou me.
How many are mine iniquities and sins?
Make me to know my transgression and my sin.
Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
And holdest me for thine enemy?
Wilt thou harass a driven leaf
And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
For thou writest bitter things against me,
And makest me to inherit the iniquities of my
youth :
Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks,
And markest all my paths;
Thou drawest thee a line about the soles of my feet:
43


I4, I5 →8 The Book of Job
Though I am like a rotten thing that consumeth,
Like a garment that is moth-eaten.
I5
Man that is born of a woman
Is of few days and full of trouble;
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down,
He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not.
And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one,
And bringest me into judgement with thee?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not
one!
Seeing his days are determined,
The number of his months is with thee,
And thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot
pass;
Look away from him, that he may rest,
Till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down,
That it will sprout again,
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease;
44


The Debate 86- I5
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth,
And the stock thereof die in the ground,
Yet through the scent of water it will bud,
And put forth boughs like a plant.
But man dieth, and wasteth away:
Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
As the waters fail from the sea,
And the river decayeth and drieth up,
So man lieth down and riseth not;
Till the heavens be no more they shall not awake,
Nor be roused out of their sleep.
Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol,
That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be
past,
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember
me!
— If a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare would I wait, till my release
should come;
Thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee:
Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thine
hands.
45


15, 16 →8 The Book of Job
But now thou numberest my steps:
Dost thou not watch over my sin?
My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And thou fastenest up mine iniquity.
And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought,
And the rock is removed out of its place,
The waters wear the stones,
The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the
earth:
And thou destroyest the hope of man:
Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth;
Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away;
His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not;
And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them ;
Only for himself his flesh hath pain,
And for himself his soul mourneth.
ELIPHAZ
I6
Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge,
And fill his belly with the east wind?
Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
46


The Debate 8- I6
Yea, thou doest away with fear,
And restrainest devotion before God.
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I;
Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
Art thou the first man that was born?
Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?
And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
What knowest thou, that we know not?
What understandest thou, which is not in us?
With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men,
Much elder than thy father.
Are the consolations of God too small for thee,
And the word that dealeth gently with thee?
Why doth thine heart carry thee away?
And why do thine eyes wink?
That thou turnest thy spirit against God,
And lettest such words go out of thy mouth.
What is man, that he should be clean?
And he which is born of a woman, that he should be
righteous?
47


16, 17 -6 The Book of Job
Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones;
Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
How much less one that is abominable and corrupt,
A man that drinketh iniquity like water!
17
I will shew thee, hear thou me;
And that which I have seen I will declare:
(Which wise men have told from their fathers, and
have not hid it;
Unto whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger passed among them :)
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,
Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
A sound of terrors is in his ears;
In prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him:
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,
And he is waited for of the sword:
He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?
He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand:
Distress and anguish make him afraid;
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle:
Because he hath stretched out his hand against God,
And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
He runneth upon him with a stiff neck,
48


The Debate 8- 17
With the thick bosses of his bucklers:
Because he hath covered his face with his fatness,
And made collops of fat on his flanks;
And he hath dwelt in desolate cities,
In houses which no man inhabited,
Which were ready to become heaps.
He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
Neither shall their produce bend to the earth.
He shall not depart out of darkness;
The flame shall dry up his branches,
And by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself:
For vanity shall be his recompence.
It shall be accomplished before his time,
And his branch shall not be green.
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
And shall cast off his flower as the olive.
For the company of the godless shall be barren,
And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
They conceive mischief,
And bring forth iniquity,
And their belly prepareth deceit
E 49


18 →8 The Book of Job
JOB
18
I have heard many such things:
Miserable comforters are ye all.
Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?
I also could speak as ye do;
If your soul were in my soul's stead,
I could join words together against you,
And shake mine head at you.
But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips should assuage your grief.
Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged:
And though I forbear, what am I eased?
But now he hath made me weary:
Thou hast made desolate all my company.
And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness
against me:
And my leanness riseth up against me, it testifieth to my
face.
He hath torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me;
He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth:
Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
5o


The Debate 86- 18
They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully:
They gather themselves together against me.
God delivereth me to the ungodly,
And casteth me into the hands of the wicked.
I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;
Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces:
He hath also set me up for his mark.
His archers compass me round about,
He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;
He poureth out my gall upon the ground.
He breaketh me with breach upon breach ;
He runneth upon me like a giant.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,
And have laid my horn in the dust.
My face is foul with weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
Although there is no violence in mine hands,
And my prayer is pure.
O earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry have no resting place.
Even now, behold, my Witness is in heaven,
And He that voucheth for me is on high.
My friends scorn me:
But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,
That one might plead for a man with God,
As a son of man pleadeth for his neighbour.
5.I


I8 →8 The Book of Job
For when a few years are come,
I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,
The grave is ready for me.
Surely there are mockers with me,
And mine eye abideth in their provocation.
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself;
Who is there that will strike hands with me?
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:
Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
He that denounceth his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
He hath made me also a byword of the people;
And I am become an open abhorring.
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,
And all my members are as a shadow.
Upright men shall be astonied at this,
And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and
stronger.
But return ye, all of you, and come now!
And I shall not find a wise man among you.
My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the thoughts of my heart.
They change the night into day:
The light, say they, is near unto the darkness.
52


The Debate 8- 18, 19
If I look for Sheol as mine house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;
To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
Where then is my hope?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.
BILDAD
I9
How long will ye lay snares for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
Wherefore are we counted as beasts,
And are become unclean in your sight?
Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the spark of his fire shall not shine.
The light shall be dark in his tent,
And his lamp above him shall be put out.
53


I9 -6 The Book of Job
The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
And he walketh upon the toils.
A gin shall take him by the heel,
And a snare shall lay hold on him.
A noose is hid for him in the ground,
And a trap for him in the way.
Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
And shall chase him at his heels.
His strength shall be hungerbitten,
And calamity shall be ready for his halting.
It shall devour the members of his body,
Yea, the firstborn of death shall devour his members.
He shall be rooted out of his tent wherein he trusteth;
And he shall be brought to the king of terrors.
There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his :
Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
His roots shall be dried up beneath,
And above shall his branch be cut off.
His remembrance shall perish from the earth,
And he shall have no name in the street.
He shall be driven from light into darkness,
And chased out of the world.
He shall have neither son nor son's son among his
people,
Nor any remaining where he sojourned.
54


The Debate 86- I9, 20
They that come after shall be astonied at his day,
As they that went before were affrighted.
Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
JOB
2O
How long will ye vex my soul,
And break me in pieces with words?
These ten times have ye reproached me:
Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.
And be it indeed that I have erred,
Mine error remaineth with myself.
If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,
And plead against me my reproach:
Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause,
And hath compassed me with his net.
Behold, I cry out of wrong,
But I am not heard;
I cry for help,
But there is no judgement.
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass,
And hath set darkness in my paths.
55


2O →8 The Book of Job
He hath stripped me of my glory,
And taken the crown from my head.
He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone:
And mine hope hath he plucked up like a tree.
He hath also kindled his wrath against me,
And he counteth me unto him as one of his adver-
saries.
His troops come on together, and cast up their way
against me,
And encamp round about my tent.
He hath put my brethren far from me,
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
My kinsfolk have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me
for a stranger;
I am an alien in their sight.
I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,
Though I intreat him with my mouth.
My breath is strange to my wife,
And my supplication to the children of my body.
Even young children despise me;
If I arise, they speak against me.
All my inward friends abhor me:
And they whom I loved are turned against me.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,
And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
56


21 →8 The Book of Job
ZOPHAR (interrupting)
2I
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame,
And the spirit of my understanding answereth me.
Knowest thou not this of old time,
Since man was placed upon earth,
That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,
And his head reach unto the clouds;
Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung:
They which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:
Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
The eye which saw him shall see him no more;
Neither shall his place any more behold him.
His children shall seek the favour of the poor,
And his hands shall give back his wealth.
His bones are full of his youth,
58


The Debate 86- 2I
But it shall lie down with him in the dust.
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,
Though he hide it under his tongue;
Though he spare it, and will not let it go,
But keep it still within his mouth ;
Yet his meat in his bowels is turned,
It is the gall of asps within him.
He hath swallowed down riches,
And he shall vomit them up again:
God shall cast them out of his belly.
He shall suck the poison of asps:
The viper's tongue shall slay him.
He shall not look upon the rivers,
The flowing streams of honey and butter.
That which he laboured for
Shall he restore,
And shall not swallow it down;
According to the substance that he hath gotten,
He shall not rejoice.
For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;
He hath violently taken away an house which he
builded not.
Because he knew no quietness in his greed,
He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth.
There was nothing left that he devoured not,
Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
In the fulness of his sufficiency
59


21, 22 -8. The Book of Job
He shall be in straits:
The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon
him.
When he is about to fill his belly,
God shall cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him,
And shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
He shall flee from the iron weapon,
And the bow of brass shall strike him through;
He draweth it forth and it cometh out of his body:
Yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall;
Terrors are upon him;
All darkness is laid up for his treasures:
A fire not blown by man shall devour him;
It shall consume that which is left in his tent.
The heavens shall reveal his iniquity,
And the earth shall rise up against him.
The increase of his house shall depart,
His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
And the heritage appointed unto him by God.
JOB
22
Hear diligently my speech,
And let this be your consolations.
Óo


The Debate 8- 22
Suffer me, and I also will speak:
And after that I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should I not be impatient?
Mark me, and be astonished,
And lay your hand upon your mouth.
Even when I remember I am troubled,
And horror taketh hold on my flesh.
Wherefore do the wicked live,
Become old, yea, wax mighty in power?
Their seed is established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their bull gendereth, and faileth not,
Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
They sing to the timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
And in a moment they go down to Sheol.
Yet they said unto God, “Depart from us,
For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
61


22, 23 -8. The Book of Job
What is the Almighty that we should serve him?
And what profit should we have if we pray unto
him P”
23
ELIPHAZ (interrupting)
Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand:
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
JOB
How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity cometh upon them?
That God distributeth sorrows in his anger?
That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
BILDAD (interrupting)
God layeth up his iniquity for his children.
JOB
Let Him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it.
Let his own eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
62


The Debate 8– 24
For thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought,
And stripped the naked of their clothing.
Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,
And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
But as for the mighty man, he had the land,
And the honourable man, he dwelt in it.
Thou hast sent widows away empty,
And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Therefore snares are round about thee,
And sudden fear troubleth thee.
Or darkness that thou canst not see,
And abundance of waters cover thee.
Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
And thou sayest, “What doth God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth
not;
And he walketh in the circuit of heaven.”
Wilt thou keep the old way
Which wicked men have trodden?
Who were snatched away before their time,
Whose foundation was poured out as a stream:
Who said unto God, Depart from us;
And, What can the Almighty do for us?
F 65


24, 25 -6 The Book of Job
Yet he filled their houses with good things:
But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
The righteous see it, and are glad;
And the innocent laugh them to scorn:
Saying, Surely they that did rise up against us are cut off,
And the remnant of them the fire hath consumed.
25
Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace:
Thereby good shall come unto thee.
Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth,
And lay up his words in thine heart.
If thou return to the Almighty,
Thou shalt be built up;
If thou put away unrighteousness far from thy tents.
And lay thou thy treasure in the dust,
And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks;
And the Almighty shall be thy treasure,
And precious silver unto thee.
For then shalt thou delight thyself in the Almighty,
And shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him,
And he shall hear thee;
And thou shalt pay thy vows.
Thou shalt also decree a thing,
66


26, 27 →8 The Book of Job
Behold I go forward,
But he is not there;
And backward,
But I cannot perceive him:
On the left hand, when he doth work,
But I cannot behold him;
He hideth himself on the right hand,
That I cannot see him.
But he knoweth the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
27
My foot hath held fast to his steps;
His way have I kept, and turned not aside.
I have not gone back from the commandment of his
lips;
I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than
my necessary food.
But he is in one mind,
And who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth,
Even that he doeth.
For he performeth that which is appointed for me:
And many such things are with him.
68


The Debate 86- 27, 28
Therefore am I troubled at his presence;
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
For God hath made my heart faint,
And the Almighty hath troubled me;
Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
28
Why are times not laid up by the Almighty?
And why do not they which know him see his days?
There are that remove the landmarks;
They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
They drive away the ass of the fatherless,
They take the widow's ox for a pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way:
The poor of the earth hide themselves together.
Behold, as wild asses in the desert they go forth to their
work,
Seeking diligently for meat;
The wilderness yieldeth them food for their children.
They cut his provender in the field;
And they glean the vintage of the wicked.
69


28 -3 The Book of Job
They lie all night naked without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast,
And take in pledge that which is on the poor;
So that they go about naked without clothing:
And being an-hungered they carry the sheaves;
They make oil within the walls of these men;
They tread their wine-presses, and suffer thirst.
From out of the populous city men groan,
And the soul of the wounded crieth out:
Yet God imputeth it not for folly.
These are of them that rebel against the light;
They know not the ways thereof,
Nor abide in the paths thereof.
The murderer riseth with the light,
He killeth the poor and needy;
And in the night he is as a thief.
The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight:
Saying, No eye shall see me;
And he putteth a covering on his face.
7o


The Debate 86- 30, 3.I
He stretcheth out the north over empty space,
And hangeth the earth upon nothing.
He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds;
And the cloud is not rent under them.
He closeth in the face of his throne,
And spreadeth his cloud upon it.
He hath described a boundary upon the face of the
waters,
Unto the confines of light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at his rebuke.
He stirreth up the sea with his power,
And by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab.
By his spirit the heavens are garnished;
His hand hath pierced the swift serpent.
Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways;
And how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?
JOB
31
How hast thou helped him that is without power!
How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength!
How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And plentifully declared sound knowledge!
73


3I, 32 →8 The Book of Job
To whom hast thou uttered words?
And whose spirit came forth from thee?
As God liveth,
Who hath taken away my right;
And the Almighty,
Who hath vexed my soul;
All the while my breath is in me,
And the Spirit of God is in my nostrils:
Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness,
Neither shall my tongue utter deceit.
God forbid that I should justify you;
Till I die I will not put away mine integrity from me;
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go :
My heart shall not reproach me, so long as I live.
ZOPHAR
32
Let mine enemy be as the wicked,
And let him that riseth up against me be as the
unrighteous!
For what is the hope of the godless, when God cutteth
him off,
When he taketh away his soul?
Will God hear his cry,
When trouble cometh upon him?
74


The Debate 86- 32
Will he delight himself in the Almighty,
And call upon God at all times?
I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;
Why then are ye become altogether vain?
This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
And the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from
the Almighty.
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword;
And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
Those that remain of him shall be buried in death,
And his widows shall make no lamentation.
Though he heap up silver as the dust,
And prepare raiment as the clay;
He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,
And the innocent shall divide the silver.
He buildeth his house as the moth,
And as a booth which the keeper maketh.
He lieth down rich, but he shall not be gathered;
He openeth his eyes, and he is not.
Terrors overtake him like waters;
A tempest stealeth him away in the night;
75


The Debate 8– 33
The proud beasts have not trodden it,
Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby.
He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock;
He overturneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out passages among the rocks;
And his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the streams that they trickle not;
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The deep saith, It is not in me:
And the sea saith, It is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it,
Neither shall the exchange thereof be jewels of fine
gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal :
Yea, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
Whence then cometh wisdom?
77


33, 34 -6 The Book of Job
And where is the place of understanding?
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,
And kept close from the fowls of the air.
Destruction and Death say,
We have heard a rumour thereof with our ears.
GOD understandeth the way thereof,
And he knoweth the place thereof.
For he looketh to the ends of the earth,
And seeth under the whole heaven;
To make a weight for the wind;
Yea, he meteth out the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain,
And a way for the lightning of the thunder:
Then did he see it and declare it;
He established it, yea, and searched it out.
And unto man he said,
BEHOLD, THE FEAR OF THE LORD, THAT IS wisDOM:
AND TO DEPART FROM EVIL IS UNDERSTANDING.
JOB
34
Oh that I were as in the months of old,
As in the days when God watched over me;
When his lamp shined upon my head,
78


The Debate 86- 34
And by his light I walked through darkness;
As I was in the ripeness of my days,
When the secret of God was upon my tent;
When the Almighty was yet with me,
And my children were about me;
When my steps were washed with butter,
And the rock poured me out rivers of oil!
When I went forth to the gate unto the city,
When I prepared my seat in the street,
The young men saw me and hid themselves,
And the aged rose up and stood;
The princes refrained talking,
And laid their hand on their mouth ;
The voice of the nobles was hushed,
And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me;
And when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me:
Because I delivered the poor that cried,
The fatherless also, that had none to help him.
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came
upon me:
And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness and it clothed me:
My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
79


34 -3 The Book of Job
I was eyes to the blind,
And feet was I to the lame.
I was a father to the needy,
And the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.
And I brake the jaws of the unrighteous,
And plucked the prey out of his teeth.
Then I said, I shall die in my nest,
And I shall multiply my days as the phoenix:
My root is spread out to the waters,
And the dew lieth all night upon my branch:
My glory is fresh in me,
And my bow is renewed in my hand.
Unto me men gave ear and waited,
And kept silence for my counsel.
After my words they spake not again;
And my speech dropped upon them;
And they waited for me as for the rain;
And they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
If I laughed on them they believed it not;
And the light of my countenance they cast not down.
I chose out their way, and sat as chief,
And dwelt as a king in the army, as one that com-
forteth the mourners.
8o


The Debate 8- 35
35
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,
Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my
flock:
— Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto
should it profit me,
Men in whom ripe age is perished?
They are gaunt with want and famine;
They gnaw the dry ground,
In the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
They pluck salt-wort by the bushes;
And the roots of the broom are their meat.
They are driven forth from the midst of men;
They cry after them as after a thief.
In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell,
In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray;
Under the nettles they are gathered together.
They are children of fools, yea, children of base
men;
They were scourged out of the land —
And now I am become their song,
Yea, I am a byword unto them.
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
And spare not to spit in my face.
For he hath loosed his cord and afflicted me,
And they have cast off the bridle before me.
G 8I


35, 36 -6 The Book of Job
Upon my right hand rise the rabble; they thrust aside my
feet,
And they cast up against me their ways of destruction:
They mar my path, they set forward my calamity,
Even men that have no helper —
As through a wide breach they come:
In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
Terrors are turned upon me,
They chase mine honour as the wind;
And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
36
And now my soul is poured out within me;
Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
By the great force of my disease is my garment dis-
figured:
It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
He hath cast me into the mire,
And I am become like dust and ashes.
I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me:
I stand up, and thou lookest at me.
Thou art turned to be cruel to me:
With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.
82


The Debate 8- 36
Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to
ride upon it;
And thou dissolvest me in the storm.
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death,
And to the house appointed for all living.
Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall?
Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
When I looked for good, then evil came;
And when I waited for light, there came darkness.
My bowels boil and rest not;
Days of affliction are come upon me.
I go mourning without the Sun:
I stand up in the assembly, and,cry for help.
I am a brother to jackals,
And a companion to ostriches.
My skin is black, and falleth from me,
And my bones are burned with heat.
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning,
And my pipe into the voice ºf them that weep.
83


The Oath of Clearing 8– 37
And if he were not warmed with the fleece of my
sheep;
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,
Because I saw my help in the gate:
THEN LET MY SHOULDER FALL FROM THE SHOULDER
BLADE,
AND MINE ARM BE BROKEN FROM THE BONE.
For calamity from God was a terror to me,
And by reason of his excellency I could do
nothing.
If I have made gold my hope,
And have said to the fine gold, Thou art my con-
fidence;
If I rejoiced because my wealth was great,
And because mine hand had gotten much ;
If I beheld the sun when it shined,
Or the moon walking in brightness;
And my heart hath been secretly enticed,
And my mouth hath kissed my hand:
This also were an iniquity to be punished by the
judges:
For I should have lied to God that is above.
If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,
Or lifted up myself when evil found him;
(Yea, I suffered not my mouth to sin
By asking his life with a curse;)
87


37
–3 The Book of Job
If the men of my tent said not,
Who can find one that hath not been satisfied with
his flesh?
The stranger did not lodge in the street;
But I opened my doors to the traveller;
If, like Adam, I covered my transgressions,
By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom;
Because I feared the great multitude,
And the contempt of families terrified me,
So that I kept silence, and went not out of the door:
—Oh that I had one to hear me!
Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer
me;
And that I had the indictment which mine adver-
sary hath written!
Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder;
I would bind it unto me as a crown!
I would declare unto him the number of my steps;
As a prince would I go near unto him!—
If my land cry out against me,
And the furrows thereof weep together;
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,
Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
LET THISTLES GROW INSTEAD OF WHEAT,
AND COCKLE INSTEAD OF BARLEY!
The words of Job are ended! [He sits down.
88


38 -8 The Book of Job
I said, Days should speak,
And multitude of years should teach wisdom.
But there is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth them under-
standing. -
It is not the great that are wise,
Nor the aged that understand judgement.
Therefore I say, Hearken to me;
I also will shew mine opinion.
Behold, I waited for your words,
I listened for your reasons,
Whilst ye searched out what to say.
Yea, I attended unto you,
And, behold, there was none that convinced Job,
Or that answered his words, among you.
Beware lest ye say, “We have found wisdom;
God may vanquish him, not man: ”
For he hath not directed his words against me;
Neither will I answer him with your speeches.
They are amazed, they answer no more:
They have not a word to say.
And shall I wait because they speak not,
Because they stand still, and answer no more?
I also will answer my part,
I also will shew mine opinion.
90


Inter position of Elihu 8- 38
For I am full of words;
The spirit within me constraineth me;
Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent;
Like new bottles which are ready to burst.
I will speak that I may find relief;
I will open my lips and answer.
Let me not, I pray you, respect any man's person;
Neither will I give flattering titles unto any man.
For I know not to give flattering titles;
Else would my Maker soon take me away.
Howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech,
And hearken to all my words.
Behold now, I have opened my mouth,
My tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart:
And that which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
The spirit of God hath made me,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.
If thou canst, answer thou me;
Set thy words in order before me, stand forth.
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead.
I also am formed out of the clay:
Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid,
Neither shall my pressure be heavy upon thee.
9I


39, 40 →8 The Book of Job
39
Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing,
And I have heard the voice of thy words, saying,
“I am clean without transgression;
“I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me:
“Behold, he findeth occasions against me,
“He counteth me for his enemy;
“He putteth my feet in the stocks,
“He marketh all my paths.”
Behold, I will answer thee, in this thou art not just;
For God is greater than man.
Why dost thou strive against him,
For that he giveth not account of any of his matters?
40
For God speaketh once,
Yea twice, though man regardeth it not.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed;
Then he openeth the ears of men,
And sealeth their instruction,
That he may withdraw man from his purpose,
And hide pride from man;
92


Inter position of Elihu 8– 40
He keepeth back his soul from the pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword.
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
And with continual strife in his bones:
So that his life abhorreth bread,
And his soul dainty meat.
His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen;
And his bones that were not seen stick out.
Yea, his soul draweth near unto the pit,
And his life to the destroyers.
If there be with him an angel,
An interpreter, one among a thousand,
To shew unto man what is right for him;
Then he is gracious unto him, and saith,
“Deliver him from going down to the pit,
I have found a ransom.”
His flesh shall be fresher than a child's;
He returneth to the days of his youth :
He prayeth unto God,
And he is favourable unto him;
So that he seeth his face with joy:
And he restoreth unto man his righteousness.
He singeth before men, and saith, “I have sinned,
And perverted that which was right, and it profited me
not :
93


Inter position of Elihu 8– 4I
Let us choose for us that which is right:
Let us know among ourselves what is good.
For Job hath said, “I am righteous,
And God hath taken away my right:
Notwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar;
My wound is incurable, though I am without trans-
gression.”
What man is like Job,
Who drinketh up scorning like water?
Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity,
And walketh with wicked men.
For he hath said,
“It profiteth a man nothing
That he should delight himself with God.”
Therefore hearken unto me,
Ye men of understanding:
Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness;
And from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
For the work of a man shall he render unto him,
And cause every man to find according to his ways,
Yea, of a surety, God will not de wickedly.
Neither will the Almighty pervert judgement.
Who gave him a charge over the earth 2
Or who hath disposed the whole world?
95


4I →8 The Book of Job
If he set his heart upon man,
If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
All flesh shall perish together,
And man shall turn again unto dust.
If now thou hast understanding, hear this:
Hearken to the voice of my words.
Shall even one that hateth right govern?
And wilt thou condemn him that is just and mighty?
Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art vile,
Or to nobles, Ye are wicked?
How much less to him that respecteth not the persons
of princes,
Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor.
For they all are the work of his hands.
In a moment they die, even at midnight;
The people are shaken and pass away,
And the mighty are taken away without hand.
For his eyes are upon the ways of a man,
And he seeth all his goings.
There is no darkness, nor shadow of death,
Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
For he needeth not further to consider a man,
That he should go before God in judgement.
96


Inter position of Elihu 8- 4I
He breaketh in pieces mighty men in ways past find-
ing out,
And setteth others in their stead.
Therefore he taketh knowledge of their works;
And he overturneth them in the night, so that they are
destroyed.
He striketh them as wicked men
In the open sight of others;
Because they turned aside from following him,
And would not have regard to any of his ways:
So that they caused the cry of the poor to come unto
him,
And he heard the cry of the afflicted.
When he giveth quietness,
Who then can condemn?
And when he hideth his face,
Who then can behold him?
Whether it be done unto a nation,
Or unto a man, alike:
That the godless man reign not,
That there be none to ensnare the people.
For hath any said unto God,
“I have borne chastisement, though I offend not:
H 97


4I, 42 -3 The Book of Job
That which I see not teach thou me:
If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more?”
Shall his recompence be as thou wilt, that thou refusest it?
For thou must choose, and not I:
Therefore speak what thou knowest.
Men of understanding will say unto me,
Yea, every wise man that heareth me:
Job speaketh without knowledge,
And his words are without wisdom.
Would that Job were tried unto the end,
Because of his answering like wicked men.
For he addeth rebellion unto his sin,
He clappeth his hands among us,
And multiplieth his words against God.
[Elihu looks to the three Friends: they give no sign.
He looks upward and continues.
ELIHU
42
Thinkest thou this to be thy right,
Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than God's,
That thou sayest, What advantage will it be unto thee?
And, What profit shall I have more than if I had sinned?
98


Inter position of Elihu 8- 42
I will answer thee,
And thy companions with thee.
LOOK UNTO THE HEAVENS, AND SEE ;
And behold the skies, which are higher than thou.
If thou hast sinned,
What doest thou against him?
And if thy transgressions be multiplied,
What doest thou unto him?
If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?
Or what receiveth he of thine hand?
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art;
And thy righteousness may profit a son of man.
By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out;
They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
But none saith, “Where is God my Maker,
Who giveth songs in the night;
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
And maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?”
There they cry, but none giveth answer,
Because of the pride of evil men.
Surely God will not hear vanity,
Neither will the Almighty regard it.
99


Inter position of Elihu &- 43
And if they be bound in fetters,
And be taken in the cords of affliction;
Then he sheweth them their work and their trans-
gressions,
That they have behaved themselves proudly.
He openeth also their ear to instruction,
And commandeth that they return from iniquity.
If they hearken and serve him,
They shall spend their days in prosperity,
And their years in pleasantness.
But if they hearken not,
They shall perish by the sword,
And they shall die without knowledge.
But they that are godless in heart lay up anger:
They cry not for help when he bindeth them.
They die in youth,
And their life perisheth among the unclean.
He delivereth the afflicted by his affliction,
And openeth their ear in oppression.
Yea, he would have led thee away out of distress
Into a broad place, where there is no straitness;
And that which is set on thy table should be full of
fatness.
IOI


43, 44 -3 The Book of Job
But thou art full of the judgement of the wicked:
Judgement and justice take hold on thee.
For beware lest wrath lead thee away into mockery.
Neither let the greatness of the ransom turn thee aside.
Will thy riches suffice that thou be not in distress,
Or all the forces of thy strength?
Desire not the night, when peoples are cut off in their
place.
Take heed, regard not iniquity:
For this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
[From this point the signs of an approaching
storm become visible in the sky.
44
Behold, God doeth loftily in his power:
Who is a teacher like unto him?
Who hath enjoined him his way?
Or who can say, Thou hast wrought unrighteousness?
Remember that thou magnify his work,
Whereof men have sung.
All men have looked thereon;
Man beholdeth it afar off.
Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
The number of his years is unsearchable.
IO2


Inter position of Elihu 8- 44
For he draweth up the drops of water,
Which distil in rain from his vapour:
Which the skies pour down
And drop upon man abundantly.
Yea, can any understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The thunderings of his pavilion?
Behold, he spreadeth his light around him;
And he covereth the bottom of the sea.
For by these he judgeth the peoples;
He giveth meat in abundance.
He covereth his hands with the lightning;
And giveth it a charge that it strike the mark.
The noise thereof telleth concerning him,
The cattle also concerning the storm that cometh up.
[A loud peal of thunder: the storm steadily increases.
At this also my heart trembleth,
And is moved out of its place.
Hearken ye unto the noise of his voice,
And the sound that goeth out of his mouth.
He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven,
And his lightning unto the ends of the earth.
After it a voice roareth ;
He thundereth with the voice of his majesty:
And he stayeth them not when his voice is heard.
God thundereth marvellously with his voice;
IO3


44
-8. The Book of Job
Great things doeth he,
Which we cannot comprehend.
For he saith to the snow,
Fall thou on the earth;
Likewise to the shower of rain,
And to the showers of his mighty rain.
He sealeth up the hand of every man;
That all men whom he hath made may know it.
Then the beasts go into coverts,
And remain in their dens.
Out of the chamber of the south cometh the storm:
And cold out of the north.
By the breath of God ice is given:
And the breadth of the waters is congealed.
Yea, he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture;
He spreadeth abroad the cloud of his lightning:
And it is turned round about by his guidance,
That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them
Upon the face of the habitable world:
Whether it be for correction,
Or for his land,
Or for mercy, that he cause it to come.
[The storm has become a whirlwind; the whole scene
is wrapped in thick darkness, broken by flashes of
lightning.
IO4


45 →8 The Book of Job
And to judgement and plenteous justice he doeth no
violence.
Men do therefore fear him :
He regardeth not any that are wise of heart.
[The roar of the whirlwind gives place to a VOICE.
IoS


46 →8 The Book of Job
And prescribed for it my decree,
And set bars and doors,
And said, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?”
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began,
And caused the dayspring to know its place;
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it?
It is changed as clay under the seal;
And all things stand forth as a garment:
And from the wicked their light is withholden,
And the high arm is broken.
Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?
Or hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed unto thee?
Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth?
— Declare, if thou knowest it all —
Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
And as for darkness, where is the place thereof;
That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof,
And that thou shouldest discern the paths to the house
thereoff
— Doubtless, thou knowest, for thou wast then born,
And the number of thy days is great! —
Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow,
Or hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail,
Io8


46 →6 The Book of Job
Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who hath given understanding to the mind?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,
When the dust runneth into a mass,
And the clods cleave fast together?
Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lioness?
Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
When they couch in their dens,
And abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Who provideth for the raven his food,
When his young ones cry unto God,
And wander for lack of meat?
Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock
bring forth?
Or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
Canst thou number the months that they fulfil?
Or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
They bow themselves, they bring forth their young,
They cast out their sorrows.
Their young ones are in good liking,
They grow up in the open field;
They go forth, and return not again.
Who hath sent out the wild ass free?
Or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
Whose house I have made the wilderness,
And the salt land his dwelling place;
IIo


46 -6 The Book of Job
Hast thou given the horse his might?
Hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane?
Hast thou made him to leap as a locust?
The glory of his snorting is terrible.
He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his
strength:
He goeth out to meet the armed men.
He mocketh at fear and is not dismayed;
Neither turneth he back from the sword.
The quiver rattleth against him,
The flashing spear and the javelin.
He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage;
Neither standeth he still at the voice of the trumpet.
As oft as the trumpet soundeth he saith, Aha!
And he smelleth the battle afar off,
The thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
Doth the hawk soar by thy wisdom,
And stretch her wings toward the south?
Doth the eagle mount up at thy command,
And make her nest on high?
She dwelleth on the rock, and hath her lodging
there,
Upon the crag of the rock and the stronghold.
From thence she spieth out the prey;
Her eyes behold it afar off.
Her young ones also suck up blood:
And where the slain are, there is she.
II2


Divine Intervention 8– 46, 47, 48
Shall he that cavilleth contend with the Almighty?
He that argueth with God, let him answer it.
[A lull in the storm.
JOB
47
Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee?
I lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Once have I spoken, and I will not answer;
Yea twice, but I will proceed no further.
[The whirlwind continues.
VOICE OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND
- - 48
Gird up thy loins now like a man:
I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Wilt thou even disannul my judgement?
Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be justified?
Or hast thou an arm like God?
And canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
I II3


48, 49 →3 The Book of Job
Deck thyself now with excellency and dignity;
And array thyself with honour and majesty.
Pour forth the overflowings of thine anger:
And look upon everyone that is proud, and abase him.
Look on everyone that is proud, and bring him low;
And tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them in the dust together;
Bind their faces in the hidden place.
Then will I also confess of thee
That thine own right hand can save thee.
49
Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee;
He eateth grass as an ox.
Lo now, his strength is in his loins,
And his force is in the muscles of his belly.
He moveth his tail like a cedar:
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are as tubes of brass;
His limbs are like bars of iron.
He is the chief of the ways of God;
He only that made him can make his sword to ap-
proach unto him.
Surely the mountains bring him forth food;
Where all the beasts of the field do play.
II4


Divine Inter vention 8– 49
He lieth under the lotus trees,
In the covert of the reed, and the fen.
The lotus trees cover him with their shadow;
The willows of the brook compass him about.
Behold, if a river overflow, he trembleth not:
He is confident, though Jordan swell even to his mouth.
Shall any take him when he is on the watch,
Or pierce through his nose with a snare?
Canst thou draw out leviathan with a fish hook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?
Canst thou put a rope into his nose?
Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
Will he make many supplications unto thee?
Or will he speak soft words unto thee?
Will he make a covenant with thee,
That thou shouldest take him for a servant forever?
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?
Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
Shall the bands of fishermen make traffic of him?
Shall they part him among the merchants?
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons,
Or his head with fish spears?
Lay thine hand upon him;
Remember the battle,
And do so no more.
115





STORY EPILOGUE
AND it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these
words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite,
“My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two
friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is
right, as my servant Job hath. Now, therefore, take unto
you seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant
Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my
servant Job shall pray for you; for him will I accept, that I
deal not with you after your folly; for ye have not spoken
of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.”
So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and
Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the
LORD commanded them: and the LORD accepted Job.
And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he
prayed for his friends: and the LORD gave Job twice as
much as he had before. Then came there unto him all
his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been
of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in
his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him
concerning all the evil that the LORD had brought upon
him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and
everyone a ring of gold.
I2I


-3 The Book of Job
So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than
his beginning: and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and
six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and 2
thousand she-asses. He had also seven sons and three
daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah;
and the name of the second, Keziah ; and the name of
the third, Keren-happuch. And in all the land were no
women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their
father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
And after this Job lived an hundred and forty years,
and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four gel crations.
So Job died, being old and full of days.
I22


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tied from
*Is in A
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it to
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Then
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The
ºws.


→8 The Book of Job
either as actually spoken by the other speakers, or as imaginary ob-
jections of theirs cited by Job for the purpose of answering them.
The absence of any break in the received text has little weight:
the considerations adduced in the last note show that the head-
ings of speeches have not the same authority as the speeches
themselves. The evidences on this question seem to me uncer-
tain; on the whole, I have been led to different conclusions in
respect to the different passages.
The clearest case seems to be section 23: and I have here
assigned the three passages to the three Friends respectively.
(1) The fact that there are three is significant: the sense of
symmetry running through the whole poem is so distinct that it
is easier to understand a triple interruption than the interven-
tion of a single objector. (2) It comes as a confirmation that
the three passages fit in with the individual speakers in the
order in which they always speak. The words falling in this
arrangement to Eliphaz are:
Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand:
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Now the first of these lines is an echo of the picture painted by
Eliphaz in his speech of this cycle (page 48, line Io), and the
second line occurs in his next speech (page 66, line 2). Bil-
dad's interruption is:
God layeth up his imiquity for his children.
It will be remembered that Bildad is the only one to allude (in
his first speech, section 6) to the overthrow of Job's children;
I28


→8 The Book of Job
jections making irregular breaks, and the answers advancing by
augmentation (5, 5, 8, 11).
The most difficult case is the first four lines of section 13.
Here the rhythmic form is interruption, as in 23. The words
would suit Zophar, who seems to admit interrupting at the com-
mencement of his speech in section 21. But it is a solitary
break, and can perfectly well be read as a citing of objection by
Job. The evidence here seems equally balanced, and I have
left the arrangement to stand as in the received text.
A kindred question, but much more difficult, indeed, to me
the most perplexing question of form in the whole poem,-
arises in the last section (50). Job's speech of submission is
interrupted by the words:
Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge 2
and again, later, by the words:
I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Are we to understand these words to be spoken at the time by
the Voice out of the Whirlwind; or are they echoes by Job of
the Divine words spoken before? It seems to me that the
considerations on both sides of the question are very evenly
balanced.
It will be noted that these sentences are the opening words of
the Divine Intervention, the first slightly, and the second con-
siderably abridged; the second also commences the Divine
speech following Job's former submission, and the word “de-
I3o


-8 The Book of Job
another metre is to rule means a change of thought, as clearly
as when the reader of a printed book comes upon a new chap-
Metrical ter with a fresh title. In the Book of job this
Variations usage is so fundamental that it makes the basis on
in Job which the whole can be analysed: the changes of
metre tally with the stages in the argument. I have accordingly
arranged the poem on this principle. I have divided it into
metrical units, numbered from one to fifty: the meaning of the
term is only that between one of these divisions and the next
the metre changes, as for example from antistrophic to stanza
system, or vice versa. Such an arrangement enables me, in
the notes which follow, to treat together points of metre and
steps in the progress of the argument.
First it may be well to pass in review the leading features of
metrical effect, the details of which will be analysed in the
notes.
In the opening volume of this series I laid down the princi-
Recapitula- ples of the metrical system which is found to pre-
tion of Prin- vail in Wisdom poetry; and to this the reader is
ciples of Wis- referred. The distinction was made between the
dom Metres stanza structure, familiar in modern poetry, and
the Antistrophic structure, in which, as in Greek, the stanzas
run in pairs; the passage from strophe to antistrophe being in
harmony with grammatical or rhetorical relations in the thought
expressed. It was seen that the antistrophic structure admitted
Introductions and Conclusions of independent form; and at
any point of Wisdom verse might be found single independent
couplets, like passages of musical recitative breaking strict time.
I34


Notes 8-
These elementary structures were found to be intensified by
distinct Elaborations. The simple succession of strophes each
followed by its antistrophe (aa' bb' cc'), which is so common in
Greek, associates itself with the Pendulum Structure which is
prevalent through all Hebrew literature, the swaying to and fro
between two thoughts; and Wisdom poetry also exhibits the
Irregular Pendulum, where there is the swaying backwards and
forwards without the equality of stanzas. Other arrangements
of strophes were those named Interlacing and Inversion, the
one represented by the scheme ab a'b' and the other by the
scheme ab bla'. Duplication naturally expresses an arrange-
ment by which in a series of stanzas (say) of the form 2, 3 one
is found of the form 4, 6. A single example was found in Pro-
verbs of Augmenting—a succession of stanzas in which the
number of lines continually increased. Variation was found
where two stanzas, equal in the number of their lines and
agreeing in the proportion of their dissimilar parallelism, yet
distributed this dissimilar parallelism differently, as where a
stanza abaaab was answered by the form ababaa. One more
elaboration was named Interruption: the regularity of a stanza
interrupted by a mass of independent form, the interrupting
mass representing a corresponding break in the thought.
The same metrical elements, and the same elaborations of
metre, appear in the dramatic poetry of job, with
greater variety and elasticity. And a slight addi-
tion is to be made to the list.
The antistrophic and stanza structures are the basis of the
whole. The famous celebration of Wisdom with which Zophar
Metrical feat-
ures of Job
I35


~6 The Book of Job
brings to a conclusion the arguments of the Friends is a com-
plete sonnet, of complex strophe, antistrophe, and conclusion.
Antistrophic The very special form of sonnet designated Num-
and Stanza ber Sonnet is found once, in the opening speech
Structures of Eliphaz; this is constructed on the number
seven, and is worked out in couplets. Recitative couplets are
freely used, and twice (19, 46) they are extended to triplets.
Considerable use is made in job of Alternate
Parallelism. In Proverbs this was confined to
passages not prominent; but in Ecclesiasticus
it made up the body of the great monologue of Wisdom, while
this rose to a climax in stanzas. So in job some of the cli-
maxes or sustained outbursts are in alternate parallelism. And
it is extensively used for transitional passages, between one
division and another of a lengthy argument, or where a speaker
at the commencement of his speech notices half contemptuously
the words of the last speaker before he enters upon his own
line of attack.
The elaborations mentioned above appear, with more fulness
and variety, but always in harmony with the elaboration of the
thought. The regular Pendulum is not found in
job; but the irregular form of this structure is
several times employed in the sustained outbursts.
And there is an extension of this structure in what may be called
the Triple Pendulum. Here the swaying of thought is between
three and not two ideas. Job's Oath of Clearing is of this form.
This is, as it were, a song constructed on three notes: one de-
scribes the sins to be disavowed; a second invokes penalties if
Alternate
Parallelism
Pendulum
Structure
136


Notes 8-
the speaker has been guilty of them; while a third note is made
by a recoil from the very thought of entertaining such sins
against God.
If I have walked with vanity,
And my foot hath hasted to deceit,
(Let me be weighed in an even balance,
That God may know mine integrity;)
If my step hath turned out of the way,
And mine heart walked after mine eyes,
And if any spot hath cleaved to mine hands:
Then let me sow, and let another eat;
Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
The same figure seems to underlie the first part of the Divine
Intervention: one note is made by the startling questions of
nature mysteries, another subsides into exquisite picturing of
details in these wonders of nature, while for a third there is an
occasional word of challenge to Job to answer.
Where the structure is antistrophic, Interlacing and Intro-
version are regularly used. In a single instance the two are
found to be combined (see note to section 34).
Duplication of stanzas regularly occurs. In Job’s answer (5)
to Eliphaz an extension of it is found in a group of verses taking
the forms I, 6; 2, 12, 3, 18. The effect is in-
creased by the order of the stanzas: Job having
three times used the form 2, 12, in an accession of bitterness
rises to the form 3, 18, and then subsides into despair in a verse
of the form 1, 6. A new variety of duplication is to be noticed,
Duplication
I37


Notes 8-
five lines, then of eight lines, finally of eleven. And here must
be noted the Augmenting Alternation of Elihu. This speaker,
it must be remembered, occupies the position of
a young man intervening uninvited in a debate of
old men. With the almost superstitious reverence
for old age that belongs to early civilisations, it is natural to find
that Elihu has great difficulty in nerving himself to this effort;
and it takes him fifty-two lines to complete his apology for
speaking at all in so venerable a presence. The stanzas which
express this gradual conquest over nervousness are found to take
the highly suggestive forms, 1, 1 ; 1, 1 2, 2, 2, 2 4, 4, 4, 4
6, 6; 6, 6. Later on he has been threatening Job with judg-
ment, when a rumble of distant thunder darts into his mind the
idea that the judgment is that moment impending. His thoughts
now become engrossed with the advancing signs of the storm;
and the growing excitement expresses itself in stanzas of the
forms, 1, 3, 1, 3 2, 6, 2, 6 4, 12, 4, 12. This second ex-
ample is duplication combined with augmenting. It would be
impossible to imagine any closer harmony between the outer
form of a scene and its inner spirit (sections 38, 44).
Of Variation it is enough to say that it is used as in other
Wisdom literature, but to a much less extent than we should
have expected. Interruption plays an important variation
part in the dramatic poetry of job. Its first and Interrup-
appearance is at the opening of the Curse. The *
essence of this whole section is contained in two couplets.
Augmenting
Alternation
Zet the day perish wherein I was born ;
And the night which said, There is a man child conceived:
I39


~g Tne Book of Job
Brief Conspectus of the Argument
A dramatic debate may have all the force, but will certainly
not have the logical order, of a philosophic discussion; irrup-
tions of personal feeling, and glancings at details of attack and
defence, will sway the main argument out of its regular course.
It will be well then for the reader, before he enters upon the
detailed analysis of the poem, to fix in his mind the leading
lines of thought, which, with whatever interruptions, are followed
from the beginning to the end.
The starting-point is the position taken up by Job in his Curse:
his misery, and claim for a speedy end. To this position Job is
continually subsiding after outbursts of passionate argument.
The Friends treat this as ignoring a visitation of God.
First Round of Speeches
The Friends Job
The Doctrine: All calamity is Opposition of facts to the Doc-
judgment upon sin. trine: impunity of the wicked
exists.
Basis of the Doctrine: The in- Helplessness of short-lived
finite distance between God man to bring his cause be-
and man. fore Omnipotence — mo-
mentary thought: a Vindi-
cation beyond death (dis-
missed).
I42


N Ote S Re-
Personal bearing of the Doc-
trine: Job a sinner, with a
sinner's hope of restoration
upon submission.
Wavering courage for Appeal
to the inflicting God against
the Friends' misinterpreta-
tion of the infliction.
Second Round
All three lines of argument
maintained.
Job's opposition of facts against
the Doctrine enhanced to a
doubt whether impunity of
the wicked is not a general
thing.
His helpless position enhanced,
his cause is actually sub-
verted—thought of a Vin-
dication beyond death en-
hanced to a glorious cer-
tainty.
Appeal to God from the
Friends now passionately
made, and the Friends
treated with contempt.
Third Round
All three lines of argument
advanced to a climax.
The Doctrine [Zophar] made
identical with all wisdom.
Job rises to corresponding
climaxes.
The visible impunity of the
wicked formulated as one
of the laws of providence.
I43


Notes 8-
THE STORY PROLOGUE
The dramatic poem of job rests upon a basis or frame of nar-
rated story, which appears at the beginning, the end, and briefly
at the passage from the Debate to the Interposition of Elihu.
Dramas regularly contain (or imply) a trace of story element in
the ‘stage directions,' which in modern literature there is a
growing tendency to expand (compare Wagner, Ibsen). This
story frame to job is partly an enlargement of such stage direc-
tions.
[The Story Prologue is in prose. The only exceptions
are: (1) The Messengers' Speeches exhibit a form inter-
mediate between verse and prose, external without inter-
nal parallelism; the lines correspond not with others in
the same speech, but with similar lines in other speeches.
(2) Job's first words of submission make two recitative
couplets; a form which suggests a pause between the two.
The same form is taken by his first submission at the end of
the poem (section 47); his later submission (50) enlarges
from this by augmentation, with interruptions. The same
form (interrupted) underlies the Curse (1).]
The greatest of all the children of the east. The name children
of the east seems to be given in Scripture to the Arabian nomad
peoples to the east of Palestine. Their present successors claim
descent from Abraham. (Genesis, chapter xxix. I; Jeremiah,
chapter xlix. 28.) — It may be that my sons have . . . renounced
L I45


Notes 8–
aries through whom God's government is carried on. (3) In
Psalms lxxxii and lviii the sphere of government of these sons
of God would seem to be the different peoples of the earth.
They are in these poems regarded as neglecting their duties,
and (in Psalm lxxxii) threatened with degradation from their
rank of immortals. But in job the suggestion is rather that the
various parts of the universe, of which our earth is only one, are
under their charge; and that “Satan,’ or ‘the Adversary,' has
the oversight of ‘the earth.” In support of this view, compare
the regular association of angels with stars (implied in such a
phrase as ‘the host of heaven,' and in such passages as Deuter-
onomy, chapter iv. 19; Isaiah, chapter xxxiv. 4; Psalm cylviii. 3)
with the picture later in this poem of the rejoicings over creation:
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy.
And the Adversary came also among them. The Adversary is
the marginal alternative of R. V. for “Satan’ in the text. Either
‘the Adversary’ or ‘the Satan’ will convey the right impression.
The essential points are: (1) The word is not a proper name,
but a common noun, the name of an office. (2) This officer is
represented as coming amongst the other sons of God, and there
is nothing in his reception to suggest any difference between
him and the rest. (3) His office is that of Inspector or Guard-
ian of the earth: the words From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it, besides being in them-
selves just descriptive of such an officer, are close to the words
(“walk to and fro through the earth,” five times repeated) in
I47


-6 The Book of Job
the vision of Zechariah (chapters i. 7 to vi. 8), which undoubt-
edly are a formula expressing spirits of ministration of God on
the earth. (4) When associations with the other use of the
word “Satan’ are dismissed, it is easy to see that there is no
malignity or sin in the Adversary's action in the present inci-
dent. To be suspicious is the function of an inspector; and he
only does his duty in suggesting a possible flaw in the apparent
integrity of Job. The Lord is not represented as showing any
displeasure. The position of the Adversary is exactly that of the
Advocatus Diaboli in the usages of the Roman Church, who has
the function of making opposition to the canonisation of a
saint, lest any flaw should be passed over. He is an ‘adversary’
only in the sense in which any inspector or examiner is opposed
to those on whom he exercises his office. The same title of an
officer of heaven, and the same functions, appear in other pas-
sages of Scripture: compare Zechariah, iii. 1; I Chron. xxi. 1,
and I Kings, xxii. 19. Finally (5) it is intelligible how the name
of an office should in time come to be applied as the name of
an individual: the Adversary of God, and so champion of evil.
With regard to the whole incident, it may be remarked that
the views presented above are assisted by the ritualistic charac-
ter of the narrative. The exact repetition of questions and for-
mularies in the description of the two days suggests that these
are to be regarded as periodical gatherings, with formularies of
ritual, as each son of God presents himself. It may be added,
that the popular notions of ‘Satan,” and his connection with
the early stages of the world history presented in the Bible, are
derived from Milton's working up of Scripture into Paradise
I48


Notes 8-
Lost, rather than from the Bible itself. Bishop Bickersteth, in
his Yesterday, To-day, and Forever, has reconstructed the bib-
lical story of Milton, and harmonised the conception of Satan
in job with the conception in the N. T. It is unnecessary to
point out that the prologue to Goethe's Faust is wholly founded
on the ideas of this incident of job.
Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his
life. The general sense is clear enough; but the exact force of
the proverb is difficult to catch. Cox quotes a Jewish proverb
which is helpful: “One gives one's skin to save one's skin, and
all to save one's life.”— And he sat among the ashes. David-
son quotes from Wetzstein a passage which brings this clearly
before our imagination.
The dung which is heaped upon the Mezbele of the Hau-
ran villages is not mixed with straw, which in that warm
and dry land is not needed for litter, and it comes mostly
from solid-hoofed animals, as the ſtocks and oxen are left
over-night in the grazing places. It is carried in baskets in
a dry state to this place before the village, and usually burnt
once a month. . . . The ashes remain. . . . If the village
has been inhabited for centuries the Mezhele reaches a height
far overtopping it. The winter rains reduce it into a com-
pact mass, and it becomes by and by a solid hill of earth.
The Mezbele serves the inhabitants for a watchtower,
and in the sultry evenings for a place of concourse, because
there is a current of air on the height. There all day long
the children play about it; and there the outcast, who has
I49


→8 The Book of Job
swift, in the quotation from Isaiah) with the sea itself, twisting
round the land, and at times invading and destroying.
2 The feeling expressed in the first section is carried for-
ward: If he was doomed to be born, why was the luxury of
immediate death denied him? Why now is life forced upon
the miserable?
[After a transitional quatrain the metre is antistrophic :
each of the thoughts, death denied, life forced on him, has
a strophe of the form 2, 4, 2, 6.]
THE DEBATE
3 Eliphaz
Eliphaz opens the Doctrine of the Friends: that all calamity
is a judgment on sin — but this is made a source of hope for
Job through submission. — A climax passage makes a Basis
for the Doctrine by a supernatural vision setting forth the infinite
distance between God and man: there can be no human plea
against a visitation of God. — The strain of hope yields another
climax passage in the picture of Job's restoration.
[Stanza system, with duplication and climax passages.
(It is unnecessary to mention recitative couplets, which
may occur anywhere.) The doctrine (with its hope) ap-
pears in quatrains; the enlargement in stanzas of 2, 6
duplicating into 4, 12. The climax vision is antistrophic
(2, 9); the other climax passage is a number sonnet (see
I52


Notes 8–
Proverbs volume, page xxiii) on the base 7, worked out in
couplets.]
Is not thy fear of God thy confidence, etc. The tenderness
and grace of Eliphaz must be noted. He has the delicate task
of suggesting to this pattern of the world that he has been
secretly a sinner. His first hint of this is conveyed under the
form of a hope for Job: if this overwhelming disaster were a
capricious accident, the sufferer would indeed be hopeless. But
now his confidence in God's justice shows him penitence as a
way of escape. — To which of the holy ones will thou turn : see
above, page 146. — Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly
upward: that is, the visitation of calamity is no accident, but
is as much a law of nature (viz. its connection with sin) as that
of the upward tendency of fire.
4, 5 Job
4 Job [in antistrophic interlacing: 7, 6, 7, 6], as if speak-
ing to himself, justifies the position taken up in the Curse: his
sufferings give him a right to complain and ask for a speedy end.
5 Speaking aloud, Job now expresses disappointment at the
Friends who have given him rebuke instead of comfort— then,
after a transitional passage challenging them to look him in the
face and accuse him, Job turns to God, and justifies the position
taken in the Curse: man's life is that of one hired for a period
of service — after another transitional passage of misery, Job
rises to a climax of bitter appeal against what he presents as
God's persecution of the helpless — finally he subsides into a
I53


-6 The Book of Job
cry for pardon of whatever transgression he may have com-
mitted, in view of the near end.
[The transitional passages, as always, are of alternate
parallelism. The rest is in stanzas with extreme duplication
(1, 6, 2, 12, 3, 18). The protests against the Friends and
the first appeal to God make three stanzas of 2, 12, then
the climax intensifies to 3, 18, and the final subsidence is
in 1, 6.]
Am I a sea or a sea-monster: see above, page 151.
6 Bildad
The doctrine of the Friends reasserted, with appeals to
nature and tradition. Hope of restoration not omitted.
[Stanzas of 2, 4, with very curious examples of inter-
ruption. The first stanza, which is a conditional sentence
(If thou wert pure and holy, etc.), has the interruption of
conditional sentences more remote (If thy children, etc.).
Similarly, the fourth stanza, which is to work out the pre-
viously suggested illustration of the rush, is interrupted (at
the beginning) with a further illustration of the spider's
web.]
7–10 Job
7 Job [in antistrophic introversion: 4, 6, 6, 4 and 4, 3;
3, 4 bis] dwells on the hopelessness of submitting his cause to
Overpowering Strength.
I54


→8 The Book of Job
[The figure is antistrophic inversion: 2, 3, 3, 2 3, 2;
2, 3. This is a curious example, almost amounting to in-
troverted introversion.]
Who knoweth not in all these that “the hand of the ZORD hath
wrought this 2" Delitzsch makes the excellent suggestion that
there is a proverb quoted here (comparing Isaiah, chapter
xli. 20); this turns what seems a vague weakness (in the this)
into a fine stroke of argument. This line must be connected
with the previous line, Who knoweth not such things as these ?
They have offered Job commonplaces of Divine judgment; he
retorts with commonplaces of impunity, bringing out their com-
monplaceness by the phrase of a current proverb.
13 Continuing, Job confronts the “wisdom of the aged,’
which has been cited to him, with another wisdom seen in the
actions of Irresistible Strength (as it were, the logic of events).
[The form may be called Augmenting Interruption. An
objection (as if in the objector's words) interrupts the
speaker: his reply makes two rhetoric masses, augmenting
from 2, 8 to 2, 20. Compare sections 23 and 50.]
14 The idea is gathering strength of an appeal to God
against God's own visitation as interpreted by the Friends—Job
sways between longing to make the appeal, and awe of the Power
to be appealed to.
[Two pendulum figures. In the first the swaying is be-
tween the idea of appealing to God against God himself
(left) and the Friends making false pleas out of subservi-
I56


→8 The Book of Job
as relating to some one present, though, of course, they need
not have this meaning. Zophar seems to speak with the tone of
extreme age; and it would be in accordance with this idea that
to him is given the peroration (so to speak) of the Friends'
case, as Eliphaz has its formal opening. But of course this
whole idea rests on very slender foundation.
17 Doctrine of the Friends emphasised: Judgment is descend-
ing on the impious, while all appearances are to the contrary.
[Pendulum figure, with quintett opening and conclusion.
The pendulum sways between the secret or open misery of
the wicked (left) and his proud sin (right).]
He hath covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of
fat on his flanks. The same association of fat and sin is promi-
nent in Psalm lxxiii.
18 Job
After a transitional passage [alternate parallelism] of con-
tempt for the Friends, Job gives himself to a sustained appeal to
God: swaying [in pendulum figure] between the misery of his
visitation [left] and his appeal to the visiting God rather than
the misinterpreting Friends [right].
19 Bildad
After a passing rebuke to Job's contempt [alternate parallel-
ism] Bildad supports the doctrine in a sustained outburst [triplet
recitative and alternate parallelism]: Shall Job be an exception
to universal law P
I58


→6 The Book of Job
[in alternate parallelism] his doubt whether the impunity of the
wicked is not a general principle.
23 The thought is continued, in the way of dealing with stock
objections against such alleged impunity. According to the
note above (page 128) I understand these objections to be
actually spoken by the three Friends.
[The form, as in the similar section 13, is augmenting in-
terruption: the objections (four) appear irregularly as in-
terruptions; the answers augment in the proportions 5, 5,
8, 11.]
24, 25 Eliphaz
24 Falling back on the basis of the doctrine, the awful dis-
tance of God from man, Eliphaz then brings the personal bear-
ing of the Friends' doctrine to a climax in direct accusations of
offences on Job's part.
[Stanza system: stanzas of 2, 4 contain the basis ideas;
stanzas of 8, 4 the direct accusations.]
25 Then Eliphaz puts for the last time the hope that lies for
Job in submission. [Transitional quatrain and pendulum figure,
swaying between Job's submissive attitude (right) and his restora-
tion (left).]
26–29 Job
26 This attack has brought back Job to his own case; he falls
back [in antistrophic inversion: 2, 8; 8, 2] upon the thought
of the heavenly Vindicator, who is not to be found in this
world, but will certainly clear him.
I6o


Notes 8–
27 The meditative strain is continued [in quatrain stanzas] :
Job feels his innocence and yet his helplessness against the
Almighty.
28 Then he passes from his personal case to the general
impunity of the wicked; and what before was a doubt, is now
calmly formulated as apparently one of the laws of mysterious
providence.
[After the question has been opened in a recitative coup-
let, the section falls into triplet stanzas with duplication.
But the duplication is irregular in the first of the two sex-
tetts: instead of the parallelism running aabbbb, it runs
abbbaa. I suppose this may be classed as a form of varia-
tion; but there is no similar case in job.]
Why are times not laid up by the Almighty P On the word
times, see a note in Volume III of this series, pages 143–8. The
use here is close to that in Essay II of Ecclesiastes (page 19):
“God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a
time there for every purpose and for every work.” In the whole
passage the steps of social evolution are scientifically discrimi-
nated: (a) encroachment, by removing boundaries, on the com-
mon land; (b) the consequent formation of a class sinking into
hardship and poverty; (c) the intensification of this hardship
by close contact with wealth :
And being an-hungered they carry the sheaves;
They make oil within the walls of these men;
They tread their wine-presses and suffer thirst.
M I61


-8 The Book of Job
(d) Next we have the crowding of population in cities, and
the violence of city crime; (e) finally, the rise of a distinctly
criminal class, whose whole existence is a warfare against the
light: in this way the morning is to all of them as the shadow of
death.
29 The stock objections against this view of the impunity of
the wicked as part of God's providence are cited and answered.
[Unlike the previous sections dealing with objections
(13, 23) the form of this passage is antistrophic inversion:
8, 2, 2, 8.]
3o Bildad
Bildad brings to a climax the basis of the Friends' doctrine:
the infinite distance between God and man [in a single pendu-
lum figure: God's infinite greatness (right), inability of man to
maintain his cause against such power (left)].
The Shades tremble: see note above, page 157—beneath
the waters and the inhabitants thereof. this is the location of
Sheol as the lowest conceivable region. Compare Amos, chap-
ter ix. 3; Psalm crxxix. 8. — Destruction hath no covering: below
(section 33) this term is used as a synonym of Sheol. — He
closeth in the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it:
the idea is, that the storm is the moving Presence of God, but
the clouds conceal him from our eyes; compare Psalm xviii. 9.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down ;
And thick darkness was under his feet.
And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly:
I62


Notes 8–
Yea, he ſlew swiftly upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion round about
him ;
Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
He hath described a boundary upon the face of the waters, unto
the confines of light and darkness. This is the mystery of the
horizon: which is associated with ocean, because there only is
it visible without interruption. Compare below (46):
As for darkness, where is the place thereof *
That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof,
And that thou shouldest discern the paths to the house thereof.”
The idea of this last is, being able to carry darkness forward to
the horizon, and back again to the place from which it came.
So Milton's Satan, wandering on the outer surface of the “World,'
sees the light of the Empyrean streaming through the opening
passage from heaven to earth:
So wide the op'ning seem’d, where bounds were set
To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.
His hand hath pierced the swift serpent: see note above,
page 15I.
31 Job
As the Friends persist in ignoring his doubts, Job, after a
transitional passage of contempt [alternate parallelism], briefly
returns to the assertion of his own personal case: he will never
be moved from the position that God has subverted his cause
[antistrophic].
I63


-8. The Book of Job
32, 33 Zophar
Zophar, on behalf of the three Friends, prepares to bring the
discussion to a conclusion. He first (32) calmly states over
again the doctrine of Judgment on the wicked; and then (33)
makes the fear of God and his judgments the basis of universal
wisdom. This makes the climax or peroration of the Friends'
CaSe.
[Alternate parallelism as Zophar begins to speak (32),
followed by quatrain stanzas for the simple statement of the
Doctrine. The climax (33) is a complete sonnet, consisting
of elaborate strophe, antistrophe, and conclusion. Here is
one of the few examples of variation in this poem (above,
page 139 and Proverbs volume, page 168). The couplets
of the strophe are broken by two successive triplets, and
the same thing occurs in the antistrophe, but not at the
same place.]
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye become
altogether vain 2 These words are in accordance with the idea
that Zophar is summing up the case for the Friends, as the ma-
terials of the debate are evidently exhausted, and Job is more
immovable than ever. He has said, I will teach you, and then
turns to include his colleagues in his views: Ye yourselves have
seen it; why then, he asks, are ye become altogether vain P that
is, why are your united attestations to go for nothing with Job?
—The difficulty of these words in the Bible arrangement of the
speeches, by which all this falls to Job, is felt by all commenta-
I64


→8 The Book of Job
38–45
The Interposition of Elihu takes the form of a succession of
speeches: there is no speaker beside Elihu, but the multiplication
of his addresses is due to circumstances connected with the
scene and the demeanour of the auditors.
After he has gradually introduced and then expounded his
argument, he then (at the close of 40) appeals to Job, and
pauses for his reply:
If thou hast anything to say, answer me:
Speak, for I desire to justify thee.
If not, hearken thou unto me.
Job's silence evidently nettles Elihu, and he turns to the Friends:
Afear my words, ye wise men . . . what man is like job, who
drinketh up scorning like water 2 The speech so provoked
deals with presumption; and at the end Elihu again tries to
take the Friends with him in his condemnation of Job:
Men of understanding will say unto me,
Yea, every wise man that heareth me:
job speaketh without knowledge . . .
For he addeth rebellion unto his sin
He clappeth his hands among us.
But the Friends evidently ignore this appeal. Accordingly the
next speech (42) is directed against them as well as Job:
I will answer thee,
And thy companions with thee.
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→8 The Book of Job
39 In this short section Elihu briefly states Job's position,
and briefly opposes to it what is the basis of the Friends' doc-
trine: the distance between God and man.
[A case of antistrophic suspension: see above, page 141.]
40 Here Elihu reaches his real answer to Job, and con-
tribution to the argument. It is that calamity is a warning, just
as truly so as Eliphaz's vision, which was the foundation for the
doctrine of the Friends. He urges this view on Job, and
pauses for his reply.
[The form is antistrophic duplication, set in a suspended
introductory sextett. As to the latter, the couplet—
For God speaketh once,
Yea twice, though man regardeth it not —
is clearly continued in the four lines:
Lo, all these things doth God work,
Twice, yea thrice, with a man ;
To bring back his soul from the pit.
That he may be enlightened with the light of the living.
Between comes the whole doctrine of Elihu. Similarly, in
section 39, his negation of Job's doctrine was contained in
a sextett, which was suspended to interpose in the middle
of it the statement of Job's position. — The antistrophic
duplication which is the form of Elihu's main argument is
fully explained above; see page 138. Note also the reitera-
17o


Notes 8–
present disturbance: to a certain extent Elihu may generalise
upon what the visible scene presents (e.g. He sealeth up the
hand of every man is most naturally understood of winter in
general). Of course, in regard to a large proportion of lines,
the language would be the same whether Elihu were speaking
of the general works of God in nature or of a tempest then
rising. But some of the lines cannot be interpreted in this
general sense; for example:
At this also my heart trembleth,
And is moved out of its place.
Hearken ye unto the noise of his voice, etc.
And again:
Hearken unto this, O job :
Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
Again:
We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
These being necessarily called forth by present phenomena, the
rest of the description goes with them.
The most important point is to note the order of the natural
phenomena pictured by Elihu, and how this agrees with the
approach of the whirlwind. The transition to this section is
made by the words:
Behold, God doeth loftily in his power.
Who is a teacher like unto him 3
I73


Notes 8-
Out of the north cometh golden splendour :
God hath upon him terrible majesty.
They recognise this blaze of glory, golden yet too bright to
gaze upon, as the visible glory of God. The north must not be
taken of the north wind cleansing the skies, but of the north
as in prophetic imagination the quarter specially associated
with the Divine abode, or the direction from which the God of
Judgment makes his appearance. This is perfectly clear from
Isaiah, chapter xiv. 13:
And thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throme above the stars of God; and I will
sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts
of the north : I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the Most High.
(Compare Ezekiel, chapter i. 4; }eremiah vi. I; i. 13–14, etc).
It is a regular feature of the theophanies of Scripture to have
a supernatural brightness as a stage beyond the natural tempest.
Thus in Ezekiel's vision (i. 4):
Behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud,
with a fire ſlashing continually, and a brightness round
about it, etc.
Again, in the appearance to Elijah the order is, wind rending
the mountains, then earthquake, then fire, and then the Voice.
(Compare verses 11 and 12 of Psalm xviii. In the Ode of
Habakkuk there is the combination of supernatural brightness
and nature convulsion, but the wind and darkness are wanting.)
I75





The order in which it is proposed to issue the volumes
is as follows:
WISDOM SERIES
IN FOUR VOLUMES
THE PROVERBS
A Miscellany of Sayings and Poems embodying Isolated Obser-
vations of Life. Ready
ECCLESIASTICUS
A Miscellany including longer compositions, still embodying
only Isolated Observations of Life. Ready
ECCLESIASTES — WISDONT OF SOLONION
Each is a Series of Connected Writings embodying, from dif-
ferent standpoints, a Solution of the Whole Mystery of Life.
Ready
THE BOOK OF JOB
A Dramatic Poem in which are embodied Varying Solutions of
the Mystery of Life. April
DEUTERONOTTY
The Orations and Songs of Moses, constituting his Farewell to
the People of Israel. May
BIBLICAL IDYLS
The Lyric Idyl of Solomon's Song, and the Epic Idyls of Ruth,
Esther, and Tobit. june
HISTORY SERIES
GENESIS IN FIVE VOLUMES
Bible History, Part I: Formation of the Chosen Nation. July


- … • •