.G341 ^V 5oI)n jF. (3tnun%. TENNYSON'S IN MEMORIAM: ITS PURPOSE AND ITS STRUCTURE. A Study. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.25. THE EPIC OF THE INNER LIFE. Being the Book of Job, Translated Anew. With Introductory Study, Notes, etc. i6mo, gilt top, J51.25. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, Boston and New York. THE EPIC OF THE INNER LIFE THE BOOK OF JOB TRANSLATED ANEW, AND ACCOMPANIED WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY BY JOHN F. GENUNG BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 1891 Copyright, 1891, By JOHN F. GENUNG. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. To THE MEMORY OF MY REVERED INSTRUCTORS IN HEBREW EXEGESIS TAYLER LEWIS AND FRANZ DELITZSCH PREFACE THE kind reception accorded to an article on " The Interpretation of the Book of Job," published in the " Andover Review " for November, 1888, has encouraged the author to hope that a revision and completion of the study therein outlined may not be unaccepta- ble to the reading public. In the carrying out of this work, thanks are due first of all to the editors and publishers of that Review, not only for their ready permission to make such use of that article as may seem necessary, but also for the hearty Godspeed that they have given to the undertaking. And now that the study has assumed the proportions of a book, some questions naturally arising about its form and the general treatment here adopted require, perhaps, the answer of a preface. Those readers to whom the question-begging name Epic, displayed on the title-page, is a stumbling-block that must needs be removed VI PREFACE before they can with complacency read further, are referred to pages 20-26 for a definition of the modified sense in which I have ventured to use the term. The Book of Job, full as it is of religious edification, is also a poem, a work of literary art, to be read and judged as we would read and judge any poem, with the same favoring presuppositions, the same candor of criticism. It has long been my conviction that if we should make for it no demand but the literary demand, seeking in the broad diffused light of every day simply that unity of idea and treat- ment which we have a right to expect in every work of art, the book would prove itself not less sacred, rather more ; while also it would gain greatly by stepping out of its age-con- structed frame of abstruse erudition into com- mon people's homes and hearts. Whether by the present Translation, Notes, and Introduc- tory Study I have in any degree succeeded in verifying this conviction must be left to my readers to judge. The question naturally arises. Why make a new translation } why not use the noble PREFACE VU Revised Version ? Well, this is the answer that a prolonged study of the book has made increasingly evident : The Revised Version, being the work of a company of scholars, rep- resents the average of their views ; it is the somewhat colorless, or perhaps we may say low-relief, product of many minds, all of whom must sink to some extent their individual pref- erences in order to accommodate themselves to a common and composite result. The work as it Ues before us is the verdict of a majority vote. But the original was presumably the work of one mind ; such at least it must be presupposed until critical study compels an- other judgment. To get accurately at that one mind's idea, as a whole and in all its parts, it seemed to me necessary to pass the work anew through the crucible of a single mind, whose business it should be first to find what the book supremely stands for, and then, with- out having to trim and modify in obedience to divergent views, to estimate candidly and cor- rectly every shading of expression, every de- gree of intensity, every transition, every con- nection, in thelighfof that dominant idea. Of Viii PREFACE course this necessitates retranslation. Trans- lation is interpretation ; it cannot be other- wise ; it must take more or less the color of the mind that draws the idea out of the ori- ginal. True as this is of all translation, it is especially the case in translation from the Hebrew, in which language the provisions for finer shadings of thought are so meagre, one particle, for instance, having often to do duty for a variety of relations. The Hebrew lan- guage presents its thought in great unsquared blocks, sublime and simple ; and these the translator has to square and polish, so that they will joint together and make out of many one structure. The only way to do this effect- ually is to live with the author's mind, in self- effacing submission and obedience, until the power is obtained to follow all his sequences, anticipate his turnings and objections, gradu- ally embody all his thoughts into a complex unity wherein every part shall be luminous with the spirit of the whole. This I have endeavored to do, not without a good deal of painstaking labor. And the present transla- tion, whatever other merits or defects it may PREFACE IX have, will, I think, be found at least homoge- neous, the work of one mind interpreting one idea. A new translation, from the " natural " point of view, is also justified, as seems to me, by the fact that there is a strong tendency in a company translation, made in the interests of Church and Christianity, to make every clause at all hazards a source of spiritual and homilet- ical edification. The custom of founding ser- mons on passages of Scripture, which latter for this purpose are torn from their connec- tions, may be legitimate for religious instruc- tion, but its operation is sadly unfavorable to the reading or translation of a book of Scrip- ture as a homogeneous whole. My hope is, that the present attempt to translate the Book of Job, with the sermonizing instinct for the time being effaced, may prove not unfruitful in suggestion. Having made the translation with care, I have then proceeded to treat it as if it were an English poem. That is to say, the notes are not devoted, in any great degree, to telling the reader just how this and that passage got it- X PREFACE self done into English, or how many meanings Dillmann and Delitzsch and Ewald and Zock- ler found admissible, or how much suggestive- ness there is in a certain Hebrew root or idiom. Perhaps in so denying myself I have missed a good chance to display learning ; but for this I do not care, being more concerned with the question what the ordinary reader wants explained. The notes are accordingly designed mainly to trace the sequences and interdependencies of the thought, and to solve briefly the difficulties inherent in the work of a remote age and land. In the numerous cross-references, too, from one part of the book to the other, the reader may see how pre- dominant the endeavor has been to make the book interpret itself. The author of a book, after all, is his own best expositor. As a further help to the reader, I have dis- carded the old division of the poem into chap- ters and verses, which often makes misleading interruptions to the connection, and have adopted a division into sections, according to the natural articulation of the thought, retain- ing, however, for facility in comparison, the old PREFACE XI notation at the bottom of the page. To this division into sections with their subdivisions, a parallel, suggestive alike for its mechanical helpfulness and for its delicate fitness to the nature of the thought so articulated, may be seen in the notation of Tennyson's " Maud," which is a "monodrama " worked out by a con- nected series of lyrics ; another, less closely indicated, in the "In Memoriam," which also portrays a progressive spiritual history by the lyrical method, its individual sections purport- ing to be •' short swallow-flights of song." The value of these suggestions for the Book of Job is obvious. Its method, too, is strongly lyrical ; and by choosing the same manner of division and subdivision as has given fitting physiog- nomy to the above-named poems, I set off the speakers' changing yet progressive moods in such wise that the eye as well as the mind of the reader can better discriminate them. So much for what seems necessary to ex- plain. If the other features of my book are not self-justifying, no preface can justify them. Amherst, Massachusetts. Febniary, 1891. CONTENTS PAGB I. THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY Preliminary— The Treatment required of the Book of Job . » 3 I. Its Central and Ruling Idea ... 8 XL Its Literary Class — the Epic . . . .20 III. Connection and Continuity of its Parts . 29 IV. Considerations regarding its Origin , . .89 II. THE POEM Persons '23 The Argument 125 Translation and Notes ^3^ I THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY " The aim in expounding a great poem should be, not to discover an endless variety of meanings often contradictory, but -whatever it has of great and perenjtial significance ; for such it must have, or it would long ago have ceased to be living and operative, would long ago have taken refuge iti the Chartreuse of great libraries, dumb theiiceforth to all mankind. We do not mean to say that this minute exegesis is useless or unpraiseworthy, but only that it should be subsidiary to the larger wayP — Lowell, Essay on Dante. STUDY OF THE BOOK OF JOB w HEN we see the natural style," says Pascal, *' we are quite astonished and delio;hted ; for we expected to see H?e- tesquelv lar-fetched, that have been chnnical izi- . terpreta- imposed On this long-suffering Book of Job. Nor need I stay to describe at length the arithmetical style of interpreta- tion, which works out the poem's problem, so to say, by the rule of three ; laboriously com- puting the three sections of the book, the three parts of the poem proper, the three cycles of speeches, the three pairs in each cycle, the three discourses of Elihu,^ the three strophes in many of the speeches, and the three temp- tations of Job. On this line of ex- fe^tkejarts posltlon the tcndcncy, already men- tioned, to assign one of Job s speeches to Zophar is augmented by the fact that thereby the third round of debate and the three-times-three speeches of Job and his friends are charmingly completed ; and poor EHhu's tenure is made more precarious by the fact, forsooth, that he is a fourth speaker, who comes unintroduced by the Prologue. All this seems to me the sad result of trying to stretch a living poem on the Procrustean rack of a 1 So reckoned, I suppose, in order to preserve the general symmetry ; though as matter of fact Elihu speaks four times. THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 1/ dead, mechanical plan. I ought not, perhaps, to pass over Elihu with such slight notice here, seeing that just now in the critical realm he is everywhere spoken against ; nor would I venture to leave him thus did I not hope to make clear by and by that the poem, as it now stands, has an artistic unity obvious enough to reconcile him fully to his place. For an artistic unity the poem certainly has ; let not the foregoing criticisms be taken as urged against that fact ; a unity more compre- hensive and poetic, and at the same time not less absolute, than could be obtained Wherein on the lines I have described. Only, centres the •' artistic unt- that unity centres in a person rather tyo/the •' -' poem. than in a system of thought or reason- ing ; it is Job himself, the man Job, with his bewilderment of doubt, his utter honesty with himself and the world, his outreaching faith, his loyalty through all darkness and mystery to what is Godlike, who is the solution of the Job- problem, far more truly than Job's words, or the words of Elihu, or the august address from the whirlwind. How God deals with men, and how men may interpret his dealings ; why God sees fit to afflict the righteous ; these are indeed important questions, and not to be ignored ; but more vital still is the question what Job isy becomes, achieves, in the fiery 1 8 THE BOOK OF JOB trial of God's unexplained visitation. In the answer to that personal question lies the su- preme answer to all the rest. It is not a mere author that we find here, but a man. And as we trace the progress of Job's soul, step by step, revealed to us through his own words and through the attacks of his friends, we shall be brought to a contemplation of great- ness in life and character such as, for sub- limity, it will be hard to parallel in literature, however highly we may value the divinest creations of an ^Eschylus or a Milton. Thus, in the person and spiritual history of Hmvtkis J'^b' ^^ ^^^ brought back to the nar- IZirnarra- ^ativc basis which, so long as we con- tive element, g.^^^. ^^^j^ ^^^ disCOUrSCS of the pOCm, we are in danger of ignoring. Under these discourses we are to trace not the building of a system, but the progress of a character, tried, developed, victorious ; for they reveal how the patriarch works out, or perhaps we may better say embodies, the solution of a great problem. What, then, is the problem, if such is its solu- tion } We need not look far for the answer statement to this qucstiou. Thc problem, pro- 'probtin. pounded by Satan at the outset, and tested by permission of Jehovah, is, '' Doth Job fear God for nought ?" This is, of course, the sneer of utter selfishness against all that THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 1 9 is loyal and disinterested : it asks, in effect, Is there such a thing as whole - souled, self -for getting service of God, just for His sake and for righteousness' sake ? Nor is such a ques- tion, we must admit, very strange in a world where the fear of God is regarded as the sure road to worldly prosperity. Where HowUan- ..... . s-werstothe such an idea prevails it is quite possi- ageifiwhkh it %vas pro- ble for piety to become, to all intents pomided. and purposes, merely a refined selfishness ; how can we tell from the outside whether it is serving God for His sake or because such service is a paying investment } Yes : there is a place in history where the question just fits in ; Satan has found the weak point in that Old Testament standard of piety and its re- ward. And Job's life, as it is traced in the glowing, indignant, faith-inspired words of his complaint, is the triumphant answer, ^j^^ y^^ Job does fear God for nought: that ''^"''''• is, his integrity is no vulgar barter for wages, as Satan supposes, but deeply founded in the truth of things, — so deeply that he takes leave of friends, of family, of life, nay, of God himself, as he has hitherto regarded God, in order to be true. And if Job, a man like our- selves, has wrought out the answer, then the answer exists in humanity. There is such a thing as disinterested piety, and it contains 20 THE BOOK OF JOB whole worlds of faith and insight. Or, to gather the history before us into a sentence : There is a service of God which is not The solution WORK FOR REWARD : IT IS A HEART- ''ap^oposV"' LOYALTY, A HUNGER AFTER God's Hon. PRESENCE, WHICH SURVIVES LOSS AND CHASTISEMENT ; WHICH IN SPITE OF CONTRA- DICTORY SEEMING CLEAVES TO WHAT IS GOD- LIKE AS THE NEEDLE SEEKS THE POLE ; AND WHICH REACHES UP OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND HARDNESS OF THIS LIFE TO THE LIGHT AND LOVE BEYOND. This, if we must chill it down from the glow of its personal and poetic utterance to a gene- ralization, is what, as I conceive, the Book of Job stands for. But of this answer, as of the problem, the hero is as little aware as the rest. Wrought out in darkness and anguish, it is known only to those celestial spectators who rejoice, and to that scoffing spirit who is dis- comfited by it. For the answer is not put in words, nor made a didactic issue : it is lived. u. If, then, this poem centres in a hero, whose //. Its lit- spiritual achievements it makes known Tju'^Epic!^' to US, we have thus indicated the lit- erary class to which it is to be predominantly assigned. I regard this ancient book as the THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 21 record of a sublime epic action, whose scene is not the tumultuous battle-field, nor the arena of rash adventure, but the solitary soul of a righteous man. It contains, though in some- what unusual form, the governing elements of an epic poem. This designation of the poem as an epic, however, is not to be made without rheword some confession of how little, as well taken in a as how much, there is to justiiy it. se7ise. The whole genius of the Hebrew literature is so different from that of the Greeks that it is only by an accommodation of terms that we can apply to it the categories derived from the forms of the latter. This poem, for instance, looks at first sight more like a drama than an epic ; it contains fairly individualized char- acters, and its thought is developed by means of dialogue or colloquy. It has been called a didactic poem ; and such undoubtedly it is, if, as many think, it is preeminently a debate. Nor is there lacking in every part a lyric in- tensity which not infrequently seems almost to sweep the action away from its logical moor- ings into its own headlong utterance of a mood. Yet in spite of these unto- Matthew ward modifications, it is fruitful and saysinCrm- . „ _ , cisfn, second significant to refer the poem to a pre- series, p. 137- vailing type. " We may rely upon it," says 22 THE BOOK OF JOB Matthew Arnold, " that we shall not improve upon the classification adopted by the Greeks for kinds of poetry ; that their categories of epic, dramatic, lyric, and so forth, have a nat- ural propriety, and should be adhered to. It may sometimes seem doubtful to which of two categories a poem belongs ; whether this or that poem is to be called, for instance, narra- tive or lyric, lyric or elegiac. But there is to be found in every good poem a strain, a pre- dominant note, which determines the poem as belonging to one of these kinds rather than the other ; and here is the best proof of the value of the classification, and of the advantage of adhering to it." To the view of the poem's class which I Seeming havc vcuturcd here to take, there lack of epic , , . _ , , actio7i, presents itself at first thought a grave objection. The narrative, the action, seems lacking. The whole course of the poem is developed through what Job and Eliphaz and Bildad and the rest " answered and said." and hem ex- ^^7 thcrc uot, howcvcr, be an action plained. dlsgulscd, au action wherein the speaker's words, like windows, reveal the great spiritual events that are taking place in the speaker's soul t I think I shall be able to show that there is, and a grand one. An un- usual action it indeed is, for poetry ; perhaps, THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 23 therefore, requiring just that union of struc- tural types, the narrative and the argumenta- tive, which I have already pointed out. Fur- ther, the Hebrew poetic style, with its basis the parallehsm, which pauses at the riie Hebrew end of every line and develops the ^«'-^^^^^««^' thought by perpetual repetition and antithesis, is singularly unadapted to narration, iudhad- — so unadapted, that when the He- ^^"^^^^-^ brew author has a simple story to tell, as, for instance, in the Prologue and Epilogue to our poem, he has spontaneous recourse to prose. On the other hand, for a sententious lesson, or mashal, for the brief and telling utterance of emotion, aspiration, precept, the Hebrew poetic style is a remarkably felici- tous medium. Now in the Book of Job we have indeed a story, an action, but of very peculiar kind : the scene, so far as appears to the eye, only an ash-heap outside an Arab city, but to the inner view the soul of man, with all its warring passions, beliefs, convictions. It is the spiritual history of the man of Uz, his struggles and adventures, unknown to sense, but real to faith, as his fervid thoughts "go sounding on, a dim and perilous way." For portraying such an action, so as to lay the in- most thoughts and feelings of one soul upon another, this mashal style, with its trenchant 24 THE BOOK OF JOB parallelisms, so far -from being a disadvantage, is perhaps the unique and only adequate me- dium. Through it not the author speaks, but the man himself, laying bare the secrets of his own heart, and charging his words with his whole inner history. Curiously enough, a somewhat similar method of developing a nar- rative action has been largely employed by the poet of our own day who has done most to sound the depths of spiritual experience, Robert Browning, whose so-called " dramatic method " is merely his deliberately adopted way of bodying forth at once the inner and outer elements. of a story, — . "By making speak, myself kept out of view, Sordello, be- The very man as he was wont to do, ginning. ^^^^ leaving you to say the rest for him ; " and every student of Browning will testify to the wonderful vividness with which each one of his chosen characters is made to live a chap- ter of his life before our eyes. But if so much is conceded to the dramatic element, why not frankly call the poem a drama ? Well, I am not disposed to quarrel about the terms in which we are to designate its form ; either term, epic or drama, has to be accommodated to a new application. Yet why call it a drama, and deny the term to the Pla- tonic dialogues } for it is in these, I think, that THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 25 our poem, as to structure, finds its nearest dramatic parallel. It is because the action, though to a degree dramatic in form, moves for the most part independently of the impact of mood on mood or of tion, mver- theless, of character on character, that 1 am un- the term epic. able to regard the poem as in the truest sense dramatic ; and on the other hand, it is because of the vigorous onset of spiritual forces under the dialogue, self-moved even more than set in motion from other minds, val- iantly meeting hostile doubts and trials, mak- ing memorable conquests in integrity and faith, that I discern in this testing and triumph of Job a predominating epic strain. Is it less truly epic than that conflict of temptation in the wilderness which Milton has sung:, — n- ^ ^ ■ Milton^ s a conflict whose weapons were pier- Paradise cing words and whose battle-ground was the soul of the Son of Man } I use the term epic, because, whatever its technical .type, the poem is the embodiment of a veritable epos^ of a history which, whether real or invented, lies at the very basis of pure religion, full of sig- nificance for its integrity and perpetuity. What I mean by this may be seen illustrated m.^sirated in the Prometheus Bound of yEschy- %ttealuf lus, which is truly the embodiment of ^''""'^• a national epos, albeit in dramatic form. In that 26 THE BOOK OF JOB poem as in this, quite apart from the dialogue or narrative manner of presentation, which is determined by the vogue of the age and the conditions under which the work is published, our paramount interest is centred in the legend or saga which lies at the foundation, in the he- roic action which glorifies some revered name of universal tradition, and in the national or religious significance of the whole. These are marks of the epos ; and these are what give its basal literary character to the Book of Job. That the poem before us was not the pure invention of its author, but founded on The legeitd- t i i i t • • i ary basis of 3. Job Icgcud or traditiou, IS the con- thepoem. . . i • , , elusion most m accord with what we know of the literary ways of the Hebrew writ- ers. They wrote with practical objects in view, appealing from real life to real life, and not in order to please the world with the power or fe- licity of their literary achievements. Having a history marvelously rich in life-lessons, whose details and spirit had been faithfully instilled by fathers into generations of sons, they had a store of material which would ill brook to be supplanted by mere efforts of the fancy ; es- pecially when, as in this case, the past was to influence the destiny of the future. It is into this treasure heap of tradition that Ezekiel dips, when, in threatening calamity on the rec- THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 27 reant land, he says, " Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in EzeMeixiv. it, they should not deliver but their ^'^• own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God." This we know because the Book of Daniel was not yet written : Daniel was a widely revered name ; Noah was an historic name; and this mention of Job seems to de- rive its significance more from an age-filling tradition than from a book. '* When we inquire, however," says Professor Davidson, "what elements of the book really belono: to the tradition, a job^carn- , . . •' ^ , „ . bridge Bible definite answer can hardly be given, /or schools), A tradition could scarcely exist which did not contain the name of the hero, and the name 'Job' is no doubt historical. A mere name, however, could not be handed down with- out some circumstances connected with it ; and we may assume that the outline of the tradition included Job's great prosperity, the unparal- leled afflictions that befell him, and possibly also his restoration. Whether more was em- braced may be uncertain." It was probably a tradition full enough so that to those who were familiar with it, as to thf Aposub X , 1 , . James z/. ^ir James s later age, coiili^ be said, '' Ye have heard of t.te patience of Job, and have seen the end ^f the Lord." Further to un- 28 THE BOOK OF JOB ravel the various threads, traditional and other, of which the book is woven together, could serve no practical end. Suffice it for us that out of these simple materials, because they represent a spiritual experience that taxes the whole gamut of expression to utter, soijie un- known author, grandly regardless of the tech- nical restraints of drama or lyric or narrative, has given to the ages what we may regard as the Hebrew national Epic, expressed in a style and spirit peculiarly Hebrew. Every nation according to its genius. We often speak of that idea of symmetry As an Epic, , . Job an expo- aud bcauty whose evolution seems to neiit of the . . , naiio7iai havc bccu the mission ot the Greeks ge7iius. in the world, and of that idea of law and organism which we get from the Romans. Not only through their art and their institu- tions, but also through the spirit of their liter- ature, these nations have impressed upon the world their distinctive character. We know also that no other nations have ever approached the Hebrews in their genius for apprehending spiritual truth. If the Hebrews were to give to the world an epic, would it be a story of battle ^nfa' blood shea, or of strange adventures beyond the seas } These by no means repre- sent their national character. For the most genuine expression of their lifevou must look THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 29 under the surface, in the soul, where worship and aspiration and prophetic faith come face to face with God. And what epos could more truly gather into itself the most sacred ideal of such a nation than this story of Job, the man in whom was wrought the supreme test of what it is to be perfect and upright, who on his ash- heap, a veritable Hebrew Prometheus, contin- ued honest with himself, true to what he saw in the world, loyal to what his soul told him was divine, until the storm was past and his foe shrank baffled away ? Is not such a theme worth singing ? The Epic of the Inner Life, — by this name we may designate the book before . , . . . f, . The Epic us. As such Its Significance is more 0/ the inner Life. than Hebrew ; it extends far beyond national bounds to the universal heart of hu- manity ; nay, it is with strange freshness and application to the spiritual maladies of this nineteenth century of Christ that the old Arab chief's struggles and victories come to us, as we-turn the ancient pages anew. III. That the narrative type of structure, which is the basis of the poem, also preponderates throughout, or at least is present in every part, so far as the peculiar poetic style will admit, 30 THE BOOK OF JOB is a not unreasonable conjecture. Let us see ///. Con- if this is so, by tracing what I have TofJinlfty'^ ventured to call its action, with spe- ofusparts. ^j^j refercncc to its continuity and the interdependence of its parts. Job, a man perfect and upright, who has always feared God and shunned evil, and basis of aud whosc rightcous life has always the aciioH. . , . . . , reaped its natural fruitage oi honor and prosperity, is suddenly overwhelmed with the deepest afflictions ; one stroke following hard upon another — loss of property, loss of children, and finally the most loathsome and painful bodily disease — until he can only long for death. At first he accepts his afiflictions devoutly, attributing no injustice to God, and sharply rebuking any suggestion of disloyalty ; but as months of wretchedness pass, and friends bring up in vain the commonplaces of explanation which he and they have hitherto held in common, his musing spirit finds itself girt round with a darkness and mystery wholly impenetrable. It is a problem which men's wisdom has not yet solved. Consider the diffi- culties into which he is plunged. Of invoiveJ7u thc sccuc lu heavcii, where Satan has Job^s case. t i t i i i • moved the Lord *' to destroy him causelessly," Job has of course no knowledge. No Satanic agency is visible ; all the data THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 3 1 point to God as the direct inflicter of the stroke. The four calamities occurring in one day cannot be an accident ; the fire from heaven and the wind from beyond the desert cannot be casualties of this world, like the vio- lence of men ; and, most indubitable of all, his disease, elephantiasis, is universally regarded as the most dread sign of God's immediate vis- itation. It is taken for granted by all, Job, his wife, and his friends, that he is for some reason the object of God's wrath. Here, then, is Job's difficulty : God is punishing him, — and for what .-* He is conscious of no sin to deserve it ; his " heart does not reproach one of his days." It is strange that he should perish without knowing his crime ; strange, too, that the heavens should be shut to every call of his for explanation. To be so treated is to be shut off- from the "friendship of God," which has always been the most cherished blessing of his life. But this is only the beginning of his dis- tress. If he, a righteous man, is treated as if he were wicked, then the world is out of joint ; the bounds of right and wrong, of justice and iniquity^ are wholly confused ; and where is the truth of things.? Are the powers that work unseen arrayed after all on the side of evil, and against godliness } Is it falsehood that wins in this universe } Such is the laby- 32 THE BOOK OF JOB rinth of '' dreadful and hideous thoughts " through which Job must grope his way to the light. The course that Job takes is set off very sug- gestively, by contrast, in the characters of the dramatis personcB with whom he is associated. Of these, the most deeply contrasted to Job Contrast be- is Satan, the Accuser, at whose insti- tween Job . . , ^ , . . and Satan, gation thc trial of his integrity is made. In studying this character, we need to dismiss from our minds, for the time being, the Satanic traits that come to light in other parts of Scripture, and confine ourselves to the record before us. The being who appears Satan's ^crc SO familiarly among the sons of character. Q^^ jg ^^ Mlltonic Satan, no mon- ster of black malignity and unconquerable ha- tred. The most striking trait of his character seems to be simply restlessness, unquiet. In his " roaming to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it," and in his eager- ness to try experiments with Job, we are re- minded of that New Testament evil spirit, who being cast out of a man " walketh through See Lnke ^ry placcs, sccking rest." •A home- •^'- ^^- less, unquiet spirit : may we not say, then, that in Satan our author portrays a spirit unanchored to any allegiance, a spirit who has lost his moorings } Being attached to no THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 33 Father of spirits, to steady him and give him principle, all his regards centre ^in self-gratifi- cation ; having no goal beyond the present, he lives simply to appease the restlessness of the moment. So we find him, naturally enough, a mocking, detracting, reckless, impudent being, observing and criticising all things, yet sympa- thizing with none, caring for no sufferings, responding to no deep movements of heart, — what Goethe calls a *'schalk." ^ For a being like this, such a thing as disinterested good- ness is simply non-existent ; he has no faculty to comprehend it. When he asks the sarcastic question, " Doth Job fear God for nought } " and when he lays the wager with God to sever the patriarch from his allegiance, he is merely speaking out of his own shallow selfishness, and interpreting men as good or evil, just as it happens, for a price. In polar contrast to this stands Job. His soul is so Job''s con- deeply anchored to what is o^ood trasted ^ -^ ^ traits. and true that the idea of barter, of work and wages, finds no room in the calcu- lation, — nay, so deeply that he is forced to 1 Goethe's imitation of this opening scene of the Book of Job, in his Prologue to Fanst, brings out the traits of Satan's character in several suggestive ways, which will be traced more particularly in the notes to this section of the transla- tion. 34 THE BOOK OF JOB cut loose from what his friends say of God, to take his life in his hand and remonstrate with God himself, as he looks out on a confused world; and thus, putting -uttermost faith in goodness, he " voyages through strange seas of thought alone," finding radiant landing-places of faith one after another, until a new world is discovered in which he comes to see that being anchored to the good and true is being anchored to God after all. The other contrast is afforded by the friends Contrast ^^^ comc to visit him. They repre- a«Tl2 ^"^ sent, with its outcome in character, /runds. ^j^g Ymd. of philosophy that the whole devout world. Job with the rest, has hitherto held, a philosophy which ages of wisdom and reflection have evolved. A philosophy, more- over, that through a long period of advocate's o/ national prosperity has crystallized the IVisdojn , r i i i philosophy: mto a very comtortable and conve- compare be- , ti i ^ r • iow,pp.Q2, nient creed, well adapted to lair wea- ther and to the routines of life. That God deals with men by an unchanging and in the main calculable law, — good receiving its sure reward in prosperity, wickedness receiv- ing its unfailing desert in woe, — this we may depend upon as the principle on which to build our life. It is a good belief by which to key men up to law and duty, a very effectual THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 35 police regulation for the world. ^ But the fierce light of Job's affliction, so strange and job takes undeserved, opens his eyes to see in \Z''ivfsdom this philosophy imperfections hitherto '^''^^^''^• unsuspected. First of all he sees that it rests on an incomplete induction of facts : for there are afflicted righteous, — he is one, — and there are unpunished wicked, filling the land with their evil deeds. Then, secondly, — and here is where his self-forgetting integrity evinces its insight, — he sees that this beUef may be so held, nay, is actually so held by these very friends, as to become merely a refined sort of work-and-wages theory. Serve God, and you will prosper ; if woes come, betokening God's displeasure, turn to God anew, and prosper again. If this were all, — and it very nearly sums up the friends' creed, — we might with only too much reason ask, Does such a be- liever fear God for nought ? But to Job's quickened spiritual sense this is not all. The old imperfect wisdom must be lifted to a higher than worldly plane. In the black shadows that surround him come flashes of unspeakable things, new resting-places for faith, truths that the unchastened soul cannot appreciate. Here, then, is the contrast : the friends, who have never been quickened by suffering, are conven- tional, speculative believers, their God a tradi- 36 THE BOOK OF JOB tional God, remote, undelighted-in, their creed a hide-bound system, essentially worldly and selfish, for the sake of which they deny both the righteousness of Job and the mystery of evil that is in the world ; Job, whose affliction has startled him with the sense that God's face is darkened, turns loyally to God as flowers turn to the sun, is in agony of doubt untfl he can identify God with goodness and love, and seeking supremely after light, reality, personal communion, advances with increasing insight until at the end he can say, '' I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee." The voyage of Job's soul to God, his anchor- Theactwfi ^S^ ^^^ ^^^ lig^t, which is the action ^inThTsf'^"''^ foreshadowed in the foregoing con- contrasts. trasts, wc arc now ready to trace somewhat in detail. The first feeling of a soul thus plunged into How Job undeserved misery we can readily ^hisZart7n dlviuc, — thescnscof utter bewilder- '^''^^'- ment. This is the feeling that finds expression in Job's first speech, wherein he opens his mouth and curses his day. Weariness of life, passionate desire for death with its rest and its oblivion, which are the emotions that shape his utterance, are after all but the surface-waves of his agitation ; THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 37 its deep cause lies in his feeling that his life has lost its guidance and direction. He is like one whose way, hitherto free and clear, is sud- denly shut in by cloud and darkness. "Wherefore giveth He light to the wretched, And life to. the bitter in soul ? . . . 4^, 42^47] 48- To a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in ? " It is worthy of remark that Job's question is not, why he is punished, but why a life so bit- ter and dark should have been given at all. Punishment implies desert, or if not desert, then injustice. To have given his affliction the name of punishment would have set him at once in the attitude of seeking for its cause, either in himself or in God. That the cause should be in himself, either as wicked, or even as unconsciously corrupt through the innate sinfulness of men, has never entered his mind; on the contrary, one great element of his be- wilderment is his consciousness of the watch- ful solicitude with which he has hitherto led a life of faithful integrity before God : — " For I feared a fear, and it hath overtaken me ; . And what I dreaded is come upon me. 51-34. I was not heedless, nor was I at ease. Nor was I at rest, — yet trouble came." No more is he ready to fasten the cause, even by remote implication, upon God. His friends 38 THE BOOK OF JOB have not been at him yet with their theodicies ; and Job is unwilling to theorize or to accuse where there is no ray of light. The only out- let for his overburdened heart, in this opening speech, is just to sigh over a life that contains no reason for living. Thus, with the mournful comfort that sym- Effectof pathizing friends are still about him IfAe^"""^ to share his woe, Job pours out the friends. ^-^^^j. f^Hncss of hls soul. As he pauses, however, he is surprised to find, not murmurs of sympathy, but silence and averted faces. The three friends have scented evil. Here is a man who when the stroke comes is not all submission, does not own that it is clear and deserved. He must be set right, let friendship stand ' or fall. Accordingly, with very conciliatory words, as of one who would do an unpleasant duty in the gentlest way, Eliphaz, the eldest and wisest of the three, takes him in hand, and reminds him of his in- consistency : — " If one essay a word with thee, wilt thou be offended ? Section Hi. Yet who Can forbear speaking ? ^~9- Behold, thou hast admonished many, And thou hast strengthened feeble hands ; Thy words have confirmed the faltering, And bowing knees hast thou made strong ; But now it is come upon thee, — and thou faintest j It toucheth thee, and thou art confounded." THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 39 Then he goes on to read Job a lecture, in which he presents — in general terms, Euphazs and leaving Job to make his own ap- '^"^^«^^''- plications — the prevailing doctrine, hitherto unquestioned, of sin and retribution. It is the most elaborate discourse of the friends, and anticipates substantially their whole argument, Elihu's included. It is the argument that everything in the world comes by justice and desert ; that punishment has its sufficient cause in sin, open or secret ; and that thus in God's wrath we may read and measure man's wickedness. This is what Job has always accepted as the fundamental principle of the Hebrew philosophy ; nor is it to be called un- true, so much as inadequate and aside from the present case. Of course it can have but one implication. To talk of sin and punish- ment now, though in ever so general terms, is merely to accuse Job of sin. It is meaningless otherwise. So little is this implication dis- guised that forthwith Job is solemnly admon- ished to make his peace with God — as if he had ever been at war with God ! But there is the tell-tale leprosy ; the friends cannot get over that. If it does not mean that some one has sinned, it seems to mean some- thing about God which it were impiety to think of. • 40 THE BOOK OF JOB The three friends all ply Job in turn with essentially the same interpretation Essential r ^ ^ • i • t • identity of 01 thc case, their one object being at friends' ar. all hazards to justify God. They vary mainly in the manner of enfor- cing their views. Eliphaz, who assumes the calmest and most judicial tone, draws his arguments from the universal "natural law in the spiritual world : " — *' Bethink thee now : who that was guiltless hath perished } Section Hi. And where have the upright been cut off } IZ-I5- As I have seen, — they that plough iniquity, And that sow wickedness, reap the same." He has also a deep spiritual view, revealed Section Hi. ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^Y^ ^Y ^ visiou, of the ^^^•^- corruption that lurks unseen in the heart, rendering even angels unclean, and making desert of punishment an inevitable ac- companiment of the creature. Such Calvinism before Calvin as this, which reappears more than once in the friends' arguments, is the hardest blow directed at Job's sturdy con- sciousness of innocence; it "poisons the wells." Bildad, whose anger is roused by Job's assumption of righteousness and complaint to God, emphasizes the perfect justice that orders all things : — THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 41 " Will God pervert the right ? Or will the Almighty pervert justice ? Section v. If thy children have sinned against Him, 4-7- So hath He given them over into the hand of their trans- gression," — and corroborates his words by quoting from the wisdom of the ancients. Zophar, who is still more incensed by Job's passionate remonstrances with God and call for explanation, urges the folly of seeking the mystery of God's ways : — " But oh that God might indeed speak, And open His lips against thee, Section vii. And show thee the hidden things of wisdom, — ^~^^- For there is fold on fold to truth ; — Then know thou, that God abateth to thee of thine iniquity. Canst thou find out the secret of God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection .-* Heights of heaven ; — what canst thou do ? Deeper than Sheol ; — what canst thou know ? Longer than the earth is its measure, And broader than the sea." So by their triply bulwarked argument the friends seem to take away all of Job's stand- ing-ground. If he falls back on what his heart assures him of his innocence, he is confronted by the unescapable corruption of the creature ; if he besieges the heavens for some explana- tion of his undeserved misery, he is driven back by the mystery which forbids profane approach. All that is permitted to him is to free course to his own thoughts. 42 THE BOOK OF JOB bless the brazen hardness by which he is en- compassed, and to call it justice. To these arguments of the friends Job does Be/ore an- ^ot rcply at Icugth uutll all have y"obgk>es spoken. He is musing onward in a way of his own. Yet he marks what they say, and it has its effect in kindling his own thoughts, which in this part of the poem rise to their highest intensity. Nor does it occur to him to deny their asser- tions : to what they say he answers, " Of a truth I know it is so, — who knoweth not things like these .^" And yet from the begin- ning their well-rehearsed words are strangely insipid ; familiar to him always, they have sud- denly shriveled into the commonest common- place, with no vitality, no power to reach the source of his trouble : — " Doth the wild ass bray over the fresh grass ? Section iv. Or loweth the ox over his fodder ? ^ays been his '^'''"^^• life. The desire to leave this intact and be- yond the reach of temptation sharpens even his longing for death : — " Oh that my request might come ! And that God would grant my longing Section iv. That it would please God to crush me ; 13-21- That He would loose His hand and cut me off. For then it would still be my comfort, — Yea, I should exult in pain, though He spare not, — That I have not denied the words of the Holy One." 44 THE BOOK OF JOB Here, then, at the outset Job has struck the key-note ; has reached the intrenchment where the battle is to be fought out to the end : loy- see section ^^^y to his own ideal of godlike and iv. 22-27. holy. It is with trembling conscious- ness of his own weakness that he sees the long conflict before him ; but to live necessitates it. As the friends go on with their pitiless ex- position of God's dealings with men, ing order Job is bccoming aware of the full sig- outof chaos. nmcance 01 his case. It is a season of testing, when his own state, physical and spiritual, the doctrines in which he has always believed, and the interpretations that the friends are pressing upon him, all come up in' a disordered review before his mind and grad- ually crystallize into a definite conclusion. Eliphaz has already recounted what was re- sectioniii. vealed to him by vision, and intimated "^^^ that Job, by his anger, is losing the ability to see as the immortals see. But Job will not let himself be cut off from the judgment e ,. ■ of his own case. He avers that in c>ectio7i IV. •^9-6^- calling himself righteous he is speak- ing out of a spiritual perception of good and evil that is still sane and true. Strong in such Section iv. confidencc, he addresses himself to loo-iob. ^^g enigma before him. He cannot understand why that unknown sin of his, if in- THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 45 deed he is guilty, a sin which at the worst is so venial that forgiveness may be sought almost as a right, should be pursued relent- lessly, like a heinous crime, down to death. Then, too, why will such a God give no ac- count, no explanation, no standard for man to live by? Bildad says that nevertheless God is just ; but in such a mystery as this The spirit of where is justice to be found? If ^^^^^■^«^'- this is justice, why, then justice means God's arbitrary will, God's infinite caprice ; and the only way one can recognize justice is by noting which way God's favor happens to set. No man can maintain his ways before such a tri- bunal. Let him have never so righteous a cause, it is but the turn of a hand for God to prove him perverse. Nay, and into what hideous confusion does such a government throw the whole world ! No resource left for what has been called righteousness ; the bounds of good and evil, of right and duty, are wholly obliterated. With such a state of things Job will not have alliance. Thus, in re- joPsevr- cording his protest against a world ^'''^'"s no. so governed, he reaches his everlasting No.^ ^ The expression is adopted from Carlyle, whose chapter on The Everlasting No, xnSai'tor Resartus (Book ii., chapter vii.), reproduces with remarkable vigor the spirit of Job's pro- test. In both Carlyle and Job we trace the same fearlessness 46 THE BOOK OF JOB Nothing can exceed the tremendous energy To which of Job's arraignment of God, as it is 'i-!>i7orre- givcn in the ninth chapter. The sponds. whole chapter ought to be cited to illustrate it ; here are a few lines : — " Is the question of strength, — behold, the Mighty One He ! Of judgment, — ' Who will set Me a day ? ' 3(^47!^ ^^ Were I righteous, mine own mouth would con- demn me ; Perfect were I, yet would He prove me perverse. Perfect I am, — I value not my soul — I despise my life — It is all one — therefore I say, Perfect and wicked He consumeth alike. If the scourge destroyeth suddenly, He mocketh at the dismay of the innocent. The earth is given over into the hands of the wicked ; The face of its judges He veileth ; — If it is not He, who then is it .'' " Nor does he stop with mere censure in the third person. Turning directly to God, with of death, the same honesty of spirit, the same remonstrance against a supposed unrighteous order of things, though Job's is the sweeter and more temperate spirit. " Thus," says Carlyle, "had the Everlasting No pealed authoritatively through all the recesses of my Being, of my Me ; and then was it that my whole Me stood up, in native God-created majesty, and with emphasis recorded its Protest. Such a Pro- test, the most important transaction in Life, may that same Indignation and Defiance, in a psychological point of view, be fitly called. The Everlasting No had said: * Behold, thou art fatherless, outcast, and the Universe is mine (the Devil's) ; * to which my whole Me now made answer : */am not thine, but Free, and forever hate thee ! ' " THE INTR OD UC TOR V S TUD Y '47 amazing boldness he brings the Creator him- self to that bar of judgment which his stand- ard of justice, his sense of the godlike, has erected : — " Is it beseeming to Thee that Thou shouldst oppress ; That Thou shouldst despise the labor of Thy , J Section vi. nanus, 73-77. Whilst Thou shinest on the counsel of the wicked ? " A sorely bewildered heart it is, bewildered by its very integrity, that speaks through these burning words ! This is the passage, in especial, that com- mentators have referred to, when, tak- r^ M T Are Job's ing exception to Gods own dictum, words i>ias- ••11 T 1 T 1 phemous. they have maintained that Job did not always " speak of God the thing that is right," but sometimes what is wrong, even blasphemous. But consider : Job is not ar- raigning that God who is recognized as truth and holiness ; rather, he is speaking in the in- terests of truth and holiness, against that con- ventional God whom his friends have created before his eyes out of their arid theologies, the God who by His own confession has see section been " moved against Job to destroy '• ^°^' him causelessly," and of whose mysterious vis- itation, whatever its purpose, no man has yet found a meaning in which the consciously up- 48 THE BOOK OF JOB right soul can rest. It is the godlike in Job rising up in remonstrance against an appar- ently misgoverned world. Is it, then, so far out of the way ? Prometheus, a god, chained on Mount Cau- casus, could defy the rage of a god Job com- ^aredivith whosc cumity and supremacy he was Prometheus. . . . ^ .. ''_.,-' , destined to outhve ; Job, a mortal ready to die on his ash-heap, does not defy, does not hate, does not forswear allegiance, but sends into the darkness the immortal pro- test of the creature against what is ungodlike and unjust. I confess the hero of the old He- brew epos seems to me the sublimer of the two. Thus, by the time two of the friends have spoken, their words, combined with Job's an- guish and bitter sense of wrong, have pressed from him his remonstrance against w4iat he must recognize as the unjust order of things. As yet he has not called in question the truth Job's eves ^^ what they say. But when the third /rkndl'er^ frlcnd, Zophar, follows in the same ''''''■ hard strain, with his angry rebuke of Job for daring to call himself pure, and for pre- suming to pry into the secret of God, Job's eyes are suddenly opened. He begins to see that they do not know everything after all ; that, in fact, their spiritual insight is no more to be trusted than his own : — THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 40 a " Of a truth, ye are the people, And wisdom will die with you ! ^j^l^'"*" ""'"'^^ ' I also have understanding, as well as you ; I am not inferior to you ; And who knoweth not things like these ? " What is true in their argument is not new ; the "things Uke these" are the long-estab- lished commonplaces of doctrine. That the whole world is God's handiwork ; that when ■ He doeth there is no undoing ; that He deals with righteous and sinful, with wise and fool- ish, with individual and nation, just as He will, — these things none will question. Accord- ingly, his first answer to them, after section viu. hearing what all have to say, is to re- ^^'■^^' capitulate and indorse their general position, summing up with these words : — " Behold, all this hath mine eye seen ; Mine ear hath heard and understood it well. f^'J^^^ ^»^*- What ye know, that know I also ; I am not inferior to you." But all this has failed to touch his real issue with them. In spite of the abstract what the correctness of their doctrine, they are r^r^Iv.^ ^'^ wholly wrong. " But ye too, — forgers of lies are ye ; Section viii. Patchers-up of nothings are ye all." 5Q, 60, For as he sees them maintaining God's jus- tice through thick and thin, and denying Job's righteousness in order to do it, the thought 50 THE BOOK OF JOB flashes upon him that their term righteousness is merely a conventional name for tJie winning side ; they are calling his transparent integrity sin, not because what is righteous in their na- ture compels them to see it so, but because, forsooth, he is a leper. They have found out by this affliction which way God's favor seems to point, and they are hastening to ally them- selves with it and be safe. Such a selfish use of God rouses Job's soul to stinging rebuke : — *' Hear ye now my rebuke, gc^/<7« via. ^^^ j-'g^gj^ tQ ^j^g charges of my lips : Will ye speak what is wrong, for God } And will ye, for Him, utter deceit ,-* Will ye respect His person, Or will ye be special pleaders for God ? Would it be well, if He should search you out } Or will ye mock Him, as man mocketh man ? He will surely convict you utterly, If in secret ye are respecters of persons. Shall not His majesty make you afraid, And the dread of Him fall upon you ? ^ Your wise maxims are proverbs of ashes ; Your bulwarks turn to bulwarks of clay." Thus, piercing by the insight of truth to the joPs break hcart of his friends' life, Job finds "With his friends. that thcy are not serving God for nought ; they are shrewdly calculating where 1 " There is nothing good that is not entirely honest. Bet- ter for a man that all the world should grin at him for ever, than that, failing in honesty, God should laugh him to scorn but only once." {'i^Wvck, Ethics and Msthetics of Modern Poetry, p. 87.) THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 5 I the chances of reward and prosperity lie, and shaping their views of right and wrong accord- ingly. This is enough ; no more alliance with them. From this point onward Job's attitude towards his friends is changed. He no longer regards them as wise, nor does he let any more words of theirs go unquestioned. Henceforth he regards them as spiritually blind, — " For their heart hast Thou hid from understand- Section x. ing,"- ^7- and treats them with the scorn due to those whose pretensions have far outrun their wis- dom : — "But you — all of you — return ye! and come „ . , Section X. now ! 69, 70. For I shall not find a wise man among you." He can no more look for help from friends ;' the question lies henceforth between his soul and God. Nor has this encounter with the selfishness of his friends left Job the man he was. ^^^.^ ^^^^. It has carried him over from the ever- ^"^'^'"'^ ^'^'^^ lasting No to the everlasting Yea. Farewell, now, fear and complaining ; farewell trust in the outworn maxims of men : face to face with death and the worst that his unseen enemy can do, Job turns solemnly from his fellows, and commits himself anew to the righteous- ness that has hitherto been his life, in supreme 52 THE BOOK OF JOB faith that its issue, though at present he sees it not, must be salvation : — "Be silent ; let me alone ; and speak will I, fj-sl^ """* Let come upon me what will. "Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, And put my life in my hand ? Behold — He may slay me ; I may not hope ; But my ways will I maintain to His face.i Nay, that shall be to me also for salvation, For no false one shall come into His presence." It is an appeal from the God who works in the impenetrable darkness without to the God who has put holy impulses within, and a trust in Compare I ^he guidauce of that honest human John in. 21. j^g^j.^ ^j^j^^ ''condemns him not." " Hear, oh hear my speech, 83-83!^ ^'" -^"^ ^^^ '"'^y declaration sound in j'our ears. Behold, now have I set in order my cause ; I know that I shall be justified." 1 To maintain his ways, to be true in the face of God and the iron universe to that perfect and upright ideal which has hitherto shaped his life, is in Job's soul the supreme impera- tive, compared with which the desire for restored health and property or any earthly happiness never once comes to men- tion. " There is in man a Higher than Love of Happiness : he can do without Happiness, and instead thereof find Bless- edness ! Was it not to preach forth this same Higher that sages and martyrs, the Poet and the Priest, in all times, have spoken and suffered ; bearing testimony, through life and through death, of the Godlike that is in Man, and how in the Godlike only has he Strength and Freedom } . . . Love not Pleasure ; love God. This is the Everlasting Yea, wherein all contradiction is solved : wherein whoso walks and works it is well with him." (Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, B. ii., chap, ix.) THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 53 This declaration we may regard as the bed- rock, so to say, of the Book of Job. To appre- ciate what it means for Job to make it, reflect that the wisdom of man, the testimony of the past, the utterance of trusted friends, have all raised their voice in unison with a mysterious visitation of God to declare the contrary. Job is launching out into the darkness alone, stak- ing life and destiny on the belief that the pow- ers that work unseen, in spite of inexorable appearances, are for righteousness. Doth Job fear God for nought } The sneer of Satan is more than answered. But having traced the progress of Job's soul to this point, let us be clearly aware Estimate o/ what is done, what remains. And, in '^gfesJ'Zs fact, we find that he still has, as ■^''''" Browning expresses it, " all to traverse 'twixt hope and despair." The achievement j^j^^^iy ^^. that we have noted thus far has been "'^^^^• mainly negative. By remonstrance against an arbitrary God, and by reaction against the self- seeking theology of his friends, he has reached a landing-place where he can say, " I know that I shall be justified." That is much to say ; but how or when } His suffering remains a fact, all too palpable ; he is at the gates of death, with no outlook ; and all his importu- nate demand for explanation of the mystery is 54 THE BOOK OF JOB but " shouting question after question into the Sybil-cave of destiny, and receiving no answer but an echo." Where shall he find some poii sto whereon to lift the weary weight of the problem that presses upon him ? To see how, even along with his negative remonstrances, he has been taking steps to- ward evolving a positive solution, let us turn back a little and trace some elements of the poem hitherto unmentioned. The problem all comes from his absorbing Basis of a qucst for that divine presence and {Ton of its'" communion from which this affliction problem. j^^g sccmcd to shut him out. " But I, — to the Almighty would I speak, — I long to make plea unto God," is the constant bur- den of his desire. Two questions there are, to which his mind turns and returns with perti- nacious inquiry, and whose answer he must in some way find, on his soul's way to God and hght. In his musings on these questions we may trace what may be called Job's positive achievements in faith, his impetuous efforts to enter the darkness that closes him round and create what he sees ought to be. This part of the action constitutes its most remarkable and significant feature ; it admits us, as it were, behind the veil of God's world-plan, where we get a glimpse of revelation in the making. THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 55 And we see therein the part that man plays, as co-worker with God ; for what the book be- fore us reveals of unseen things comes not through the whirlwind ; it reaches us by way of that darkened yet loyal and yearning heart of Job. The first question — implicit, of course — is, How to bridge the chasm that has /^ ■» TIte question opened between his soul and God? howtoap- , proach God. From the beginning of his affliction this question has presented itself in various forms until it has become agonizing. God has fenced up his way, that he cannot pass. To his frantic inquiries why he is afflicted, God vouchsafes no answer. Then the friends, fail- ing him as comforters, go on portraying a God who is a grotesque projection of their own hard selves, a Being throned above all judg- ment, all defense of the creature ; until Job is constrained to raise against such a conception his everlasting No. It is in the midst of this protest that constructive faith begins to image a solution, — negative at first, fond dwelling of fancy on a state of things that he must confess is not, but how good if it were. It is the idea of a Daysman between him and God, who could represent the cause of both. *' For He is not a man, like me, that I should answer Him, That we should come together in judgment; 56 THE BOOK OF JOB Nor is there any Daysman between us, Section vi. Who might lay his hand on both of us ; b2-bq. Who might remove His rod from upon me, That the dread of Him should not unman me. Then would I speak, and would not fear Him; For as I am now, I am not myself." How necessary he considers to be the office that a Daysman should fulfill is seen in the request that he urges, as soon as his solemn committal to his righteousness brings him to a point where, having **set in order his cause," he can address himself definitively to God : — " Only these two things do not Thou unto me, — Section viii. Then will I not hide myself from Thy face ; — 97-96. Remove Thou Thy hand from upon me, And let not Thy terror unman me ; Then call Thou, and I will answer Thee, Or I will speak, and return Thou answer to me." Here is the need, the feeling of which has evidently sunk deep into Job's heart. If only there were in God something like man to ap- peal to ! The second question, or questioning, centres Theques- ^bout thc cuigma of death. Like tionof death, ^^ny a perplexed soul after him, Job has to beat his wings against the barriers of the grave. Even if he were a transgressor, the mystery is that God will not " look away from him," will not forgive his sins and leave him alone. Why pursue him so cruelly, if he is THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 57 destined so soon to drop into "the jaws of vacant darkness and to cease ? " In this very fact that God watches and judges such a " driven leaf " as man, and pursues him out of the world, there is a strange inconsistency. The care seems so out of proportion to the object ; it is like bending all the forces of the universe to pick up a straw. Who shall solve such a discrepancy ? Yet stay ; here is what would be a solution, if it were only true, which, alas, he cannot say : suppose man should live again after death, as the tree that is cut down sprouts anew ! " Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave, Wouldst keep me secret till Thy wrath is past, Section vUL Wouldst set me a time, and remember me ! ^37-^44- If a man die — might he live again ? All the days of my service would I wait, Until my renewal came ; Thou wouldst call, and I would answer ; Thou wouldst yearn after the work of Thy hands ! " This solution, like the other, is suggested only negatively, only as a radiant fancy, at first ; but both are germinating seeds, and when we meet them again they will have grown, by a kind of unconscious cerebration on Job's part, into greater things. So much has Job achieved, in protesting and creating, by the time the three friends have 58 THE BOOK OF JOB spoken once. They are of course moved to Summary ^nswcr ; but it makcs little difference awSSf now what they say. It is not so cer- %%tioft tain to Job as it once was that they have the secret of wisdom. Until they all have spoken again, he does not address himself to their arguments at all, being en- gaged in exploring the new region that his questioning and his faith have opened. Let us first follow him. Ehphaz having spoken a second time. Job, Examina- stoppiug for ouly a word in scorn of *worfs?of>' his unavailing speech, turns to the ttnued. ever-present subject of his affliction. So severe, so pitiless, so inveterate is his an- guish, that he can only count its inflicter as his enemy ; and that enemy he can do no other than identify with God. He seems to tax the power of language to its utmost to Job's faith portray the deadly conflict that God 'SoZ::n is waging with him. Yet, by a ^"^^' strange antinomy, he draws steadily nearer to God for refuge. The very whirl- wind and tempest of his remonstrance seems only to lay bare more and more the inner deeps of his essential godliness. Nay, he seems almost to divide God against Himself, to set God the Advocate over against God the Chastiser, in his eager confidence that his hu- THE INTRODUCTORY STUDY 59 man ideals and affections must be represented on High, and that he must have a Friend who is the friend of righteousness. " Earth, cover not thou my blood, And let my cry have no resting-place ! Section x. Even now, behold, in heaven is my Witness, 41-4^- And mine Advocate is on high. My friends are my scorners. But unto God mine eye poureth tears. That He would plead for man with God, As the son of man for his neighbor." Is not this the Daysman, whom Job was so de- spairingly dreaming of a little while see section ago, now no longer in fancy but in full '"'" ^''" assurance } Job has advanced from despair to confidence ; he has a representative on high. But that equally obtrusive fact of death re- curs : here he stands, with an Advo- cate in heaven, but with his life's rin/tk^I'^hi plans broken off and the eternal darkness at hand. of death. " If I have any hope, the grave is my house ; I have spread out my bed in the darkness ; Sf '^ ''' To corruption I have said, ' My father thou ! ' * My mother, and my sister ! ' — to the worm. And where is now my hope ? Yea, my hope — who shall discover it "i Will the bars of Sheol fall down, When together there is rest in the dust? " Here he pauses while Bildad makes his second 6o THE BOOK OF JOB speech ; and then, with the recurring thought Section xii. ^^ God's cnuiity, comes upon him* the J2-4I. crushing consciousness that his soul is alone, alone in the ruins of a life ; friends, brethren, wife, kinsfolk, servants, all have for- saken him. One despairing cry he sends forth, — " Have pity on me, have pity on me, O ye my Section xii. ^^-^^^