YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY Estate of
Reverend John P. Peters, D.D,

Crown 8vo., cloth, price 4s. 6d.

ffiiforS
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1885

LECTURES ON ECCLESIASTES
DELIVERED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
BY THE VERY REV.
GEORGE GRANVILLE BRADLEY, D.D.
DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

LECTURES ON JOB

BRADLEY

bonbon
HENRY FROWDE

Oxford University Press Warehouse
Amen Corner, E.C.

LECTURES ON THE BOOK OF JOB

DELIVERED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY

BY THE VERY REV.

GEORGE GRANVILLE BRADLEY, D.D.
/'I
DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

SECOND EDITION

<©*fflrfc
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1888
\_All rights reserved}

TO HER
WHOSE CONSTANT SYMPATHY AND ENCOURAGEMENT
HAVE LIGHTENED EVERY EFFORT
TO MEET LIFE'S HEAVY DUTIES
WITH FAITH, INDUSTRY, AND CHEERFULNESS,
THESE PAGES,
IN WHICH SHE TOOK SO PROFOUND AN INTEREST,
ARE DEDICATED BY
HER HUSBAND.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The following pages are intended to form a companion
volume to the Lectures on Ecclesiastes published by the
Clarendon Press two years ago. They contain two courses,
each of six Lectures, on the Book of Job, which were given in
Westminster Abbey in the closing weeks of 1885 and in the
February and March of the following year.
As regards their general object and design, I may be
allowed to repeat what was said in the prefatory notice to
the former volume. I may once more disclaim any pre
tension to have enlarged by independent researches of my
own, whether linguistic or historical, the field of knowledge
open to the theological student, properly so called, of this
portion of the Hebrew Scriptures.
In preparing these Lectures for delivery, and in very carefully
revising them for publication, I have steadily kept before me
a humbler, yet, in some senses, not, I trust, a less useful aim.
Nothing has impressed me more forcibly since I entered on
the multifarious duties of my present post, than the large
number of men and women, of men especially of all ranks
and ages, who are ready on week-day afternoons to form a
singularly attentive, interested, and interesting audience to
any one who with adequate knowledge and power of ex
pression will attempt to put before them the result of a careful
study of any portion of the Old or the New Testament.

Preface to the First Edition.

I am speaking, I feel sure, the sentiments of others who have
tried the experiment, of the Bishop of Sydney, of Arch
deacon Farrar, and of Dr. Westcott, in saying that there is
something exceedingly impressive and encouraging in address
ing such a congregation on such subjects in such a place.
The vast majority of those present are, of course, entire
strangers to the speaker; they vary also in some degree
from week to week; yet a large proportion, some, we have
reason to believe, coming from a considerable distance, attend
with unfailing regularity ; their faces, as seen from the pulpit,
become familiar to the speaker ; they remind him that he has
before him sympathetic and interested listeners, many of them
fully alive to all the inspiring associations of the place
in which they meet ; occasional letters contain at times
a question, or a suggestion ; but for the most part we
feel and must feel that we are addressing those of whose
mode of life, education, opinions, amount of knowledge, we
know absolutely nothing. Yet we feel at the same time that
they must represent a far larger number, who, immersed
in the calls and duties of active life, and with scanty
opportunities for prolonged or methodical study, are thankful
to receive some passing help and guidance towards a clearer
comprehension of the contents of one or another portion of
the Volume which Jerome spoke of as a 'Divine Library,'
and which Edmund Burke described as ' a most venerable, but
most multifarious, collection of the records of the divine
economy, . . . carried through different books, by different
authors, at different ages, for different ends and purposes1.'
1 Burke's Works, Vol. x, Speech on the Acts of Uniformity.

Preface to the First Edition. xi
It is to meet the requirements of such a class that,
encouraged by the reception given to a similar work on
a Book so* far less generally attractive and interesting than
my present subject, I have ventured to print and publish,
with some amount of necessary revision, the following series
of Lectures.
It is possible that a few further words of preface, even
though perhaps unduly personal, may be of interest to some
who may care to pursue the study of the Book of Job. My
own study of that Book dates from the year 1853, in which I
was deeply impressed by a striking paper1 which appeared in
the Westminster Review from the pen of Mr. J. A. Froude.
I can still recall the interest and enthusiasm with which I
devoted whatever scanty leisure was at my disposal from
the engrossing work of a master at Rugby to the attempt
to form an opinion of my own on a subject which Mr.
Froude had treated with such fire and eloquence, even if
from a point of view that was to myself and others new and
startling. I can recall the profound disappointment and
vexation with which I turned from one after another of the
1 standard ' English Commentators, the keen interest with
which, in spite of a very imperfect acquaintance with German,
I toiled through Ewald's Introduction, and welcomed
the aid of an article2 by the late Professor Mozley in the
Christian Remembrancer, brought to my notice by my friend
and colleague, the late Principal Shairp. I even went so
far as to venture to give two or three lectures, if such a name
1 Republished in ' Short Studies on Great Subjects.'
2 Republished in Mozley's Essays, Vol. ii.

xii Preface to the First Edition.
may be given to very informal addresses, on the Book to
my pupils on Sunday evenings. On one of these Sundays,
my dear friend Arthur Stanley, then Canon of Canterbury,
happened to be my visitor. We had much discussion on the
subject of the book. I remember how even then, as in a
sermon preached towards the end of his life in America, he
upheld the claims of Elihu to a more respectful consideration
than was generally awarded to him; and he told me soon
after that he had written one if not two sermons on the
subject of our conversations, in the study of which he en
couraged me to persevere. From that time to this my interest
in the book has never ceased, and I found myself at the close
of my first year at Westminster in possession of a mass of
MS. notes drawn from very different sources, English, French,
and German, including, besides such writers as Ewald,
Dillman, and Renan, various papers in Bible Dictionaries and
Encyclopaedias, the Speaker's Commentary, and a valuable
and suggestive Volume by Dr. Samuel Cox. Armed with
these notes, I ventured in the winter of 1882 at exceedingly
short notice to give an experimental course of lectures, far
too hastily prepared, in the Abbey. I was much impressed,
I may say startled, by the interest, far beyond their merits
or my own expectations, with which they were received. It
is to this course that reference is made in the opening
Lecture on Ecclesiastes. But I felt at once that such a book
as that of Job demanded fuller treatment, more methodical
preparation, and more deliberate and calmer study, than I
had been able to command in a year filled to the full with
other cares and duties. I accordingly returned to my old

Preface to the First Edition. xiii
studies, re-read my old authorities, added to them others,
such as all that I could find of Reuss in French or German,
an admirable little volume by Professor A. B. Davidson, and
the interesting pages of Godet in his Eludes Bibliques. I
also gained much from certain portions of Dr. Cheyne's two
volumes on the Prophet Isaiah, and above all from Dr.
Delitzsch's well-known Commentary on Job. I may add
that I studied with profound interest the Magna Moralia
of Gregory the Great, to which such frequent reference is
made in the following pages. I was greatly encouraged also
by the appearance of the new translation of Job in the Revised
Version, of the importance of which I have spoken, not I
think with undue emphasis, in the first Lecture, as having for
the first time made this great Book intelligible from first to
last to ordinary Enghsh readers. Whatever may be the
merits, whatever the defects, of other portions of the work
achieved by our Revisers, it is not too much to say that by
their translation of Job they have earned the gratitude of
all who speak our language. For they have thrown wide
the doors of every chamber of a treasure-house, the greater
part of which had hitherto been open only to the few.
The Lectures, written mostly during the autumn of 1885,
were delivered at the dates already named, and the reception
which they met encouraged me to look forward to prepare
them for the press. Various causes, however, delayed their
publication. Among others I ventured, after some sheets
had been already printed, to apply to the Delegates of the
Clarendon Press at Oxford and the Syndics ofthe University
Press at Cambridge for permission to print the Revised

xiv Preface to the First Edition.
Version as in the present volume '- Kind and prompt as was
the answer which I received from both these learned bodies,
yet the consequent alteration in the plan of the volume
necessarily involved a further delay.
It was during this interval, and long after the MS. had left
my hands, that I received from Dr. Cheyne a welcome copy
of his important and instructive volume on 'Job and Solomon.'
I must not attempt here to do more than express my grateful
sense of the light which the labours of one so far more
competent than myself to speak with authority on such a
subject have thrown upon the Book with which I have at
tempted to deal in the following Lectures. I rejoice to feel
that, though he speaks, as he has a right to speak, with far
less doubt and hesitation, on such questions as the date and
other points connected with the literary history of Job than I
have felt and expressed myself, yet that in my general treat
ment of the Book as a whole, and of its different sections, I
may claim to find myself in substantial agreement with one
so much more qualified than myself to pronounce an opinion.
Whether I should have delivered these Lectures, if the public
had had access to his volume a few years earlier, I can hardly
say. Had I done so, its appearance would have saved me an
amount of laborious, though interesting study, which I can
hardly estimate. Yet it is more than probable that, valuable
as his aid would have been, I might still have felt that there
was room for the work which I have attempted.
1 The Revised Version ofthe chapters commented on has been inserted
before each Lecture by permission of the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge.

Preface to the First Edition. xv
For the aim of these Lectures was, let me say it once more,
not to add another to the learned and original works which
have been written within the last half-century on the Book of
Job. It was something wholly different. My object was to
assist the reader of ordinary cultivation and intelligence, but
of little leisure for independent study, and unversed in theo
logical literature, English, German, or Patristic, to take up
the Book and read it continuously with such guidance as
would enable him to comprehend the drift and meaning, if not
of every phrase, or of every line, yet at least of every suc
cessive portion and chapter. I have attempted also to keep
steadily before those whom I address, even at the cost of
some perhaps needless iteration, the real purpose of the
book, the great and universal problems with which it deals,
and the manner in which they are treated. The class for
whom the Lectures were designed is so numerous and so
varied, the subjects with which the successive chapters are
concerned are of such enduring and profound importance,
and the contents of the book, of at least its largest portion,
of such matchless majesty and enthralling interest, that I still
venture to hope that there will be many who will extend to
the present volume the same kindly welcome which they gave
to that on Ecclesiastes.
Let me once more express my deep obligation to the
writers whom I have already named, and to many others from
whom I have learned much. Let me add my thanks to the
authorities at either University who have enabled me, as
already mentioned, to preface each Lecture with a reprint of
the Revised Version of the Chapters with which it deals.

xvi Preface to the First Edition.
And, lastly, let me thank those personally unknown to myself,
the Saturday afternoon congregations in Westminster Abbey,
whose patient and sustained interest in the Lectures when
delivered has emboldened me to address through these pages
another and a wider audience.
Deanery, Westminster,
July 30, 1887.

%* I may add that I have thought it best to adhere to the
order in which the Lectures were delivered. But the reader
may be reminded that Lecture VII, the first of the second
series, is almost entirely introductory, and may well be read
immediately after, and in close connection with, Lecture I.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In preparing for the press a second edition of these Lectures,
I have thought it best to make no material alteration in their
form and substance.
It is possible that the convenience, and perhaps the wishes,
of some of my readers might have been consulted by certain
transpositions in the order of the lectures, and by the altera
tion of a few passages, obviously addressed, not so much to
the general public, as to those to whom they were originally
delivered. But on careful consideration I found that even such a
change as, e.g. the removal of Lecture VII to the second
place in the series, so as to place the two general and intro
ductory chapters in what might seem their natural position,
could not be effected without so much alteration in its
language and structure as would have seriously interfered
with the object which I had in view in venturing to bring
the series, of which it forms a part, before the notice of the
general reader.
I was anxious that the Lectures on Job should appear as
far as possible in the actual form in which they were
originally delivered ; as a genuine reproduction of an attempt
to interest in a portion of the Old Testament so mixed and
representative an audience as may be found week after week
b

xviii Preface to the Second Edition.
in the winter months at our afternoon services in the Abbey.
I felt, I confess, a reluctance, which I found it impossible to
overcome, to any such modification or change in the language
of any lecture as would have robbed it of the character which
I had kept before me in every line of its composition, that of
an address to be delivered to the special class of congregation
which I had in view.
I felt also that, if I once attempted to convert, if I may so
express myself, these Lectures into ' Chapters,' I might find
myself tempted to introduce other changes, which might have
commended themselves to the judgment of some of my
readers, but have rather diminished than increased the interest
of the book in the eyes of those to whom, as stated in my
preface to the first edition, it is specially addressed.
I might, for instance, have indulged my own individual taste
by a much larger amount of comment on the interpretation
and illustration of difficult passages in the text ; and I might
also have entered more fully into questions of historical, or
philosophical, or literary, or theological interest, at which
I have been content merely to glance. I might have been
tempted also to follow the example of perhaps the majority
of the most learned of modern commentators, by placing
the chapters which contain the addresses of Elihu by them
selves at the close of the book. There is no doubt that the
preponderance of opinion expressed by the best authorities
of our own time is against these six chapters having formed
a part of, at all events, the earliest form in which the Book of
Job was committed to writing ; and though we may hesitate
to accept their arguments as entirely conclusive, yet the

Preface to the Second Edition. xix
opinion rests, it may and must be admitted, on stronger ground
than that of a merely artistic sense of symmetry, or of any
fanciful and exaggerated craving for such unity of form as
may meet the requirements of modern criticism.
But on the whole I have thought that, here also, it was
better to adhere to my original design, viz., to give to the public
a faithful reproduction of lectures delivered to a congregation
of week-day worshippers in the Abbey. I feel that I may
fairly claim to have spoken with entire freedom of this and
every serious difficulty connected with the interpretation or
history of the book, while at the same time I have deliberately
accepted, and from first to last followed, the text as contained
in the Revised Version, which was accessible to all to whom
I spoke. At the same time, I have not hesitated to alter here
and there a word or a phrase, where I thought that such
a change would better convey the meaning intended. I may
add that I have thankfully corrected an oversight connected
with the use of the Hebrew form of Jehovah, which was
first pointed out to me by an old and valued friend,
Dr. Sharp of Rugby, whose study of that language had begun,
I may be allowed to add, at the age of fourscore, and whose
useful and kindly aid it is a pleasure to me to record.
In addition to this, the reader will find included in the
volume a careful summary of the contents of each lecture,
and indeed, so far as possible, of every page ; as well as
a short analysis of the contents of the Book of Job on
page xxxii.
I have also added a list of the various passages in
b 2

xx Preface to the Second Edition.
which reference has been made to the one patristic authority
whom I have thoroughly consulted throughout the work,
the Magna Moralia of Pope Gregory the Great.
I cannot close these remarks without expressing my very
cordial thanks not only for the indulgence with which the
volume has been received by those most able to judge of
its defects and shortcomings, but for many much valued com
munications which I have received from individual readers.
I rejoice to think that the purpose which I endeavoured, with
God's help, steadily to keep before me in preparing these
lectures has in some measure been fulfilled.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

Introductory.

PAGE

Prefatory remarks .... . .3
Revised Version of Old Testament . 3, 4
Its special importance for the study of Job . . 4, 5
The author of the Book a Hebrew . . . . J5
Both scene and persons belong to a non- Jewish world . . • [ 1j
/TTheir remoteness from, yet essential nearness to, our own age 7
The book in parts the most familiar, yet the most misunderstood,
of Old Testament Scriptures .... 8
Popular impression of Job's character not inadequate only but __^
misleading . . . ¦ ( 9 )
Form of the book ; a Poem : place of Poetry in the education of —
the world and of the Church . . . 10,11
Nature of Hebrew poetry  11
Class of poetry to which the Book of Job belongs . 12
Comparison with Book of Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes . . ... . 12, 13
In what sense it can be called an Epic Poem 13, 14
How far a Sacred Drama ; or a Parable . . J4>-1£^
Lessons to be learned from a study of the book . (16-18^/
Discussion of its age, authorship, etc., postponed for the present
(see Lecture VII) .... ... 18, 19
LECTURE II.
CHAPTERS I, II.
The Introductory Narrative.
Relation of these two chapters to those which follow . . 27,28
Scene of the story ; the Land of Uz ; a Gentile land 28

xxii Contents.

PAGE

Job a non- Jewish saint ... . . 29
His goodness and his prosperity  .29
His wealth and position that of a great Eastern Sheik or Emir . 30
His domestic happiness: his piety: his Patriarchal sacrifices 31, 32
Scene changed to the Courts of Jehovah . ... 32
Significance of the use of the name Jehovah . . . . 32, 33
The ' Sons of God ' and Satan appear before the throne . 33
Jehovah's testimony to Job's character : Satan's challenge . 33, 34
Doth Job fear God for nought? Significance and importance of
the question ... 34,
Position of Satan in the Book of Job ....
Job's trial begins ; his wealth lost ; his sons and daughters 36, 37
Job's piety vindicated .... ... 37
Satan's challenge repeated; the trial renewed ; Job's leprosy . 38
His wife's words ; Blake the painter-poet ; Job's answer ; Satan
disappears  39> 40
Job's Patience and Job's Miseries.
Place of Resignation in the religious life. Dean Stanley • Bp
Butler  . 4°.4I
Arrival of the three friends
Summary of the narrative; the highest goodness combined
with the deepest misery. ... . ,
Problems which it suggests

LECTURE III.
CHAPTERS III— VII.
The Dialogue between Job and his Friends.
The Introduction concluded. The Poem opens in Chapter III «
The abrupt contrast between the Job of Chapters II and III cjj
Chap. III. Job's ory of anguish ; he curses life and longs for
death ... **
The change in Job true to nature 57' "L
The change in the three friends . fij
Chaps IV, V. Eliphaz the Temanite ; his first address ; resem
blance between the three
He remonstrates with Job ; asserts God's justice r ^°
His appeal to a vision . '
61, 62

Contents, xxiii

(Chapters IV, V, continued.)
Warns Job of the doom of the godless . .62
' Despise not God's chastening ' .63
Tender and gentle tone of his language ; yet unavailing . . 64
Chaps. VI, VII. Job's answer to Eliphaz ... 65, 69
' His cries are wrung from him by his torture ; he is innocent ' . 65
' His friends abandon him ; his cause is just ' — a glance back 66,67
' God too is pitiless.' The boldness of his language . 67, 68
Character of Job's language. Contrast with that of Job the
Patient  .... 69
Contrast of Job's tone with that of Eliphaz. Reflections which
it suggests . . . . 7°> 71

LECTURE IV.
CHAPTERS VIII— XI.
The Dialogue continued.
Progress of the dialogue  81
Chap. VIII. Bildad the Shuhite, like Job a son of the East 82
His sharp rebuke ; his solution of Job's sufferings ; they are
'judgments' . . ....... 82
'Thy children had sinned; thou canst repent; the good
prosper ; the wicked suffer. This the teaching of all ages.
Turn to God and all will be well with thee.' The language
of many Psalms .... ... 83, 84
The law of suffering as interpreted by the friends ; perplexity
that it causes to Job  -85
Chaps. IX, X. Job's reply to Bildad . . . 85-92
God too mighty for man, however innocent, to plead with . 86
He is all-powerful, unsearchable, and pitiless ... 86, 87
Worse than this, He is indifferent to guilt and innocence . 88
He sanctions the world's misgovemment ; vain for me to plead
my innocence ; no ' daysman ' between us 88, 89
His tragic wail of misery ; his soul weary of life; before him lies
the land of darkness ... . 9°"92
Chap. XI. Zophar the Naamathite.
His harsh reproaches. ' Thou hast thy deserts ' ... 92
His view that of the other two, but put forth more nakedly . 93

xxiv Contents. PAGE
(Chapter XI, continued.)
Yet he tries to win back Job. ' Turn to God and be happy
yet' . .  93, 94
Reflections on the attitude of the three friends ; often harshly
judged, as by Gregory the Great ; much that is true in their
language ; the type of mind which they represent . . 94-96
The real question at issue. Does suffering prove God's dis
pleasure?  96, 97
Note on St. Gregory ... 97
LECTURE V.
CHAPTERS XII— XV.
The Dialogue continued.
The question at issue between Job and his friends . 109
The effect of its statement upon Job .... 110
Chaps. XII-XIV. Job's answer to Zophar . . 1 11-120
He taunts his friends with their ' contempt for misfortune ' .111
God's omnipotence he too can read, alike in Nature and in the
History of Nations . . . .112,113
But they are pleading unrighteously for God . .114
He will maintain his innocence at the very Bar of God . .115
Yet why these mysterious sufferings ? . . . . .116
His lament over the sadness oflife and the finality of death 116, 117
' Oh that I might hide me for awhile in death ! ' . . .118
But no! destruction and death a universal doom . . 119, 120
Chap. XV. Second address of Eliphaz .... 120^123
His tone altered. Rebukes Job for presumption and self-
confidence . . . . . . . . . .120
' With us are the gray-headed and wise ; ' ' the very Heavens are
unclean in God's sight ' . . . . I2i
His words true but irrelevant. He brings against Job the
traditions of their race . . . I22
God's judgments and terrors are the doom of the wicked 1 23
The mingling of truth and falsehood in his words. Bp. Butler.
Carlyle. ... ... 12+
The problems which they leave unsolved for classes and
individuals. The Man of Sorrows : the Mystery of Suffering I24, "5

Contents.

xxv

LECTURE VI.

CHAPTERS XVI— XXI.

The Dialogue continued.

him

Chaps. XVI, XVII. Job's reply to Eliphaz .
Job's cry of ' miserable comforters ' .
His profound depression under the sense of God's en,mity
He appeals to God for his innocence
Deep pathos of his appeal ....
The ' Patience ' of impatient Job ....
His spirit ' waxeth faint ' . . .
Chap. XVHI. Bildad's second address .
Shocked at Job's language ; his taunts and rebukes .
His pictures of the doom of the wicked ; their meaning
Chap. XIX. Job answers Bildad ....
His indignant protest ... . .
His wrongs and his desolation ; God and man are against
His cry for sympathy 
His appeal to the future. My Bedeemer liveth
I shall see God. True force of the passage .
Warning to his friends ; ' the root of the matter '
Chap. XX. Zophar's second address
He reiterates the universal law of Righteous Retribution
A series of pictures ......
Growing alienation between Job and his friends
Its effect on Job ....
Chap. XXI. Job's reply to Zophar
Effect on Job of his friends' misplaced teaching
He passes from his own sufferings to a more terrible question
His graphic picture of the misrule of the world
The wicked prosper ; ' Dives and Lazarus ' alike food for worms
Your law of Righteous Retribution false ...
Growing darkness of Job's position ; the centre of the tragedy
reached  '57, 1 08

PACE
139-144 • 139
139. H°
. 141
. 142
• 143
143. '44
M4. 145
• H4
• 145
145-150 • H5 146
¦ 147
. 148
• H9 150
i5°-i 5 2
• 15°
¦ 151
• i?2 i52 '57
J52 153
154
155 156

152-

xxvi Contents.

LECTURE VII.
Discussion of some Questions already glanced at.
PAGE
I. General view of the contents of the book.
It falls into five parts ... .161
Two are prose ; three are in verse . . . .162
First Part. — Chaps. I, II, a prose ' tragedy' in five acts or scenes . 163
Second Part.— The Dialogue, Chs. III-XXXI, ending with Job's
Monologue . ..... 164, 165
Third Part.— Elihu, Chs. XXXII-XXXVII, forming a strange
pause in the progress of the story  166
Fourth Part— Jehovah, Chs. XXXVIII-XLII. 6 . .166
Fifth and concluding Part. — The acquittal and restoration of
Job (prose) .... . . . . 167
II. Age to which the book belongs : its Authorship.
Growth of interest in such questions . . 167, 168
Great variety and uncertainty of views . 168, 169
Older view of its extreme antiquity ; its interest and attractive
ness . ... ... 169, 170
Objections to its pre-Mosaic or Mosaic origin . . 171, 173
Other theories. The Age of Solomon. The fall of the national
greatness . . . . . 173, 176
How far Job intended as a type of human or national suffering? 176
The ' servant of God ' in the later chapters of Isaiah . . 1 76, 1 77
III. Interpretation of the book.
What advantages have we in our own day? . 177
Early interpretation entirely allegorical . 178
Gregory the Great .... 179,180
Bishop Warburton's treatment of the book . 180 181
With others the book an example of Patience, or a. Revelation
of a Life to come  jgj g
IV. Language of the book.
Its difficulty; St. Jerome: Luther; light thrown on it by
modern linguistic studies . . 0
Note on St. Gregory . „

Contents. xxvii

LECTURE VIII.
CHAPTERS XXII— XXV.
Summary of the progress of the Argument.
PAGE
The Dialogue resumed : the breach between Job and his
friends has steadily widened ...... 193-196
New world of doubt and perplexity into which Job has travelled 197
Contrast between the real Job and the Job of tradition . 198, 199
Chap. XXII. Third and last address of Eliphaz . . 200-205
He puts aside Job's indictment of the government of the world 200
Presses home the view that Job's sufferings prove past mis
deeds ...... . .
Charges him with spiritual blindness and' ingratitude
Possible reference to the world before the Flood
Exultation of the righteous over the fall of the wicked ;
Gregory's comment . ....
His final effort to win his friend to make his peace
God 
Remarks on his language and that of the other friends
Chaps. XXIII, XXIV. Job's reply to Eliphaz
He would turn from his friends to God
But He dwells in darkness ; is arbitrary and inexorable
Job turns from his own case to the government of the world ; no
signs of a righteous rule ; wrong and misery everywhere 208
Vivid pictures of suffering and oppression in fields and vine
yards . . . . ... 209, 210
City-life also a scene of crime and violence . . . 210,211
Obscurity of his closing words ; crime may bring punishment,
but how often does the oppressor escape . . . 211, 212
Job has emphasised his charges on the moral government of the
world  213
Whence did he draw his pictures ofthe sufferings ofthe masses?
Their great and enduring interest . . . .214
Chap. XXV. Third and last speech of Bildad.
A few sentences only ; God's might and majesty ; man a worm
before Him  2I4> 2I5
The friends are silenced. No speech from Zophar.

201,

202

202,

203

202

; St.

203

with

204,
205
205,
206
206
-214
206
207
xxviii Contents.

PAGE

LECTURE IX.
CHAPTERS XXVI— XXVIII.
Job's ninth and last Speech.
Chaps. XXVI-XXVIII. First half - . 223-228
Job's final speech ; a long monologue, with short pauses and
sharp transitions  223
I. Chap. XXVI. Counter-picture of God's greatness, as
whispered in the universe ...... 224-227
His friends have brought him no help ¦ 224
God's power is everywhere ; the Rephaim : Sheol : Abaddon.
The Pillars of Heaven ; Rahab ; the Dragon, etc. . 224,225
What is the lesson that he draws ? . . • ¦ 226,227
II. Chap. XXVII. His own innocence ; the doom of the
wicked .  228-232
Holds fast to his innocence. This essential to the story of Job 228
No hope for the godless . . ..... 228
Picture of his doom . . . 229,230
Difficulty ofthe passage ; Job seems to adopt his friends' view 230, 231
Dr. Kennicott's theory ; a proposed solution . 231,232
III. Chap. XXVIII. "Wisdom; its abode and nature . 233-237
The chapter unintelligible in our older Version ; its force and
beauty ; its place in Job's speech ...... 233
Its subject ; man's daring and skill ; striking picture of ancient
miners  233, 234
The realms of darkness pierced and invaded . 235
Wisdom man can neither find nor buy ... . 236
(Curious enumeration of precious stones.) Her home unknown ;
man's true wisdom . ... . . 237
Possible connexion of the three passages . .238
Job's calmer mood . . 238, 239
LECTURE X.
CHAPTERS XXIX— XXXI.
Job's Monologue concluded.
Truths which Job has recognised .... 240
Chaps. XXIX, XXX. Beturns now to his own sorrows . 250-257
Recalls the days of God's favour . . . . . .250

Contents. xxix

(Chapters XXIX, XXX, continued.)
His past happiness; honour; beneficence
security ...
His present humiliation .

Interesting picture of some despised race ; St. Gregory's in-

and sense of25I» 253
¦ 253

25425S

terpretation ......
Even to these he is a mark for scorn
God's terrors overcome him ; his utter wretchedness . . 256,257
Chap. XXXI. His last appeal to the innocence of his past
life  ... 257-263
Dignity of his language ; purity of his standard . . 257, 258
Sins. of which he asserts his innocence ; unchastity . . .258
Misuse of riches, or power, or station ; his attitude to his
dependents ... ... 259, 260
The sins of avarice, or Sun- or Moon-worship ; or secret malice;
of niggardliness or inhospitality ; or secret sins . 260,261
His entreaty for trial and judgment . . . . 262
His final cry : the dialogue closed . . • . 263
Recapitulation .... .... 264-269
The friends have upheld God's justice ; hence Job's delinquency ;
have invited him to repentance . . • 264
Put forward as the champions of the religious belief of their
day  • .265
Terrible position of Job : his rebellious and passionate language 266, 267
The true faith that underlies his despair and vehemence . 267, 268
The final award seems at hand ... • 269
LECTURE XI.
CHAPTERS XXXII— XXXVII.
Elihu.
These six chapters a break in the progress of the story of Job . 283
Insertion in the poem of some lines of prose . . . . • 284
A fresh speaker introduced ; his name ; race ; age ; feelings as
cribed to him ... ... . . 285
Chap. XXXH. Elihu's Exordium  286
Are these chapters part of the original book of Job ? Objec
tions  • • 287, 288

xxx Contents.

(Chapter XXXII, continued.)
Great divergence of views as to their intrinsic value 289, 290
Some fresh points which they may be said to contribute . 291
Summary of Elihu's language . . . 292-299
Chap. XXXIII. Job's complaints rebuked. God sends teaching
to men in dreams and visions ; times of sickness may be times
of repentance and renewal . . . . 292,293
Chap. XXXIV. Stem reproof of Job's self-righteousness and re
bellious language ..... . 293-295
Chap. XXXV. Reproof continued ; unsympathetic and inadequate
side of his argument ; censures mere cries of pain. God giveth
' songs in the night ' . . 296
Chap. XXXVI. 1-25. Suffering meant to teach ; n&Bzi ftaBos 297
Chap. XXXVI. 26, and Ch. XXXVII. God all-powerful and all-
righteous ; man's proper attitude submission and awe . 298
Re-statement of objections to these chapters 299
Suggestions as to their bearing on the rest of the book 300, 301

LECTURE XII.
CHAPTERS XXXVIII— XLII.
Jehovah speaks.
Jehovah answers at last out of the whirlwind . 315
Begins by rebuking Job's presumption . 316
He will surely disclose the secret of Job's trials ; justify Himself;
speak to him of a larger life ? .... 316,317
He will do none of these things. He will only convince him of his
ignorance and invite him to a reposeful trust . 317, 318
The answer . . 318-325
Chap. XXXVIII. 1-38. Job placed face to face with the origin
and variety of Creation ; Earth ; Sea ; Day ; Night . . 319
The world of the dead ; light ; darkness ; snow ; hail ; clouds ;
lightning ; rain ; ice and frost ; the stars of Heaven . .' 320
Chap. XXXVIII. 39, and Ch. XXXIX. The world of animated
nature. The lions ; ravens ; rock-goats; wild deer ; the wild
ass ; the wild ox (unicorn) ; the ostrich ; the war horse ;
the hawk ; the eagle . .... ^1, 322
Chaps. XL, XLI. Job humbles himself .
Jehovah's answer resumed. The challenge to Job continued 323

Contents. xxxi

(Chapters XL, XLI, continued.) •
Behemoth and Leviathan ; comment of Mr. Rnskin . . 324,325
Reflections on the answer. Its splendour and magnificence . / 32^
Yet solves none of the questions which the dialogue has started ;
merely a call to trust in God's wisdom and goodness ("326, 327
Chap. XLII. 1-6. Yet Job satisfied and humbled . . 327
CHAPTER XLII (7 to end).
The Conclusion (in prose).
The sentence. The friends censured ; Job accepted 328
Job's ' captivity released ; ' his renewed prosperity 329
Sense of inadequacy shown in the Septuagint Version 330
Concluding reflections on the lessons of the book . 330-334

References to St. Gregory in the course of these Lectures : —
pages 87; 90; 94; 96; '97 note; in note; 118 note; 167, 8;
178,9; 180; 183 no te; 20$note; 2$4note; 256 note; 3i6note.

ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF JOB.
THE INTRODUCTORY NARRATIVE (Prose).
CHAPTERS I, II.
LECTURE II.
THE POEM.
The Dialogue between Job and his Friends.
CHAPTERS III— XXXI.
LECTURES III, IV, V, VI, VIII, IX, X.
The Addeess of Elihu.
CHAPTERS XXXII— XXXVII.
LECTURE XI.
The Answer of Jehovah and Job's submission;
CHAPTERS XXXVIII— XLII. 6 (pp. 315-327).
LECTURE XII.
THE CONCLUDING NARRATIVE (Prose).
CHAPTER XLII. 7-17 (pp. 328-334).
LECTURE XII.

LECTURE I.
INTRODUCTORY.

LECTURE I.. *
INTRODUCTORY.
I do not feel that any apology is needed for undertaking Lecture
for a second time to speak from this place on the subject L
which I propose to bring before you to-day, and in the few "
following weeks. Let me say at once that I have no intention
of merely repeating what I said on the same subject three
years ago. It is not only that it would be strange if much
additional reading and reflection had brought to myself no
fuller mastery ofthe questions that will come before us. But it
is mainly on other grounds that I have felt encouraged to invite
those whom I see around me, to renew a study to which I have
myself returned with, to say the very least, an unabated interest.
The year is drawing to its close amidst the clamour and
tumult of political strife, amidst high hopes and gloomy
anticipations1- Let us not forget that its earlier months
were marked by an event, the results of which may be bearing
fruit when the memory of our present divisions and conflicts
shall have faded from men's minds. It was, I need hardly
remind you, in the spring of this same year that the Revised
Version of the books of the Old Testament was placed in the
hands of all who speak our language. Some time must pass
before the importance of this event can be fully realised. But
it is hardly too much to say that it has brought for the first time
1 The lecture was delivered shortly before the General Election held
at the close of 1885. B 2

The Book of Job.

Lecture within the reach of the ordinary reader the possibility of a really
L continuous and intelligent reading of some portions of the
" Old Testament Scriptures. Let me take for a single and well
marked instance the book on which I am to speak to you.
Three years ago I could not, and I did not, venture to invite
the most interested of those who cheered me by their sympa
thetic attention in this place, to read through the book of Job,
chapter by chapter, verse by verse. I knew that when they
had passed beyond its opening pages, the language of which
is, with few exceptions, perfectly simple and intelligible, they
would, at first occasionally, and still more frequently as they
advanced into the heart of the poem, be brought to a stand
still by passages which could convey to them either no
meaning of any kind, or one quite different from that of the
original text. It is of course easy to miss a verse here, or
to pass over a line there. In reading any version of a work of
such extreme antiquity the reasonable reader will be prepared
to meet with occasional or even frequent difficulties. But in
the older version of the book of Job, these patches of
obscurity and darkness, these quagmires, if I may vary my
metaphor, of unintelligible speech, come so often as to do
more than interrupt the reader's progress ; they break up,
again and again, the whole thread and argument of the
speaker's words. There is hardly a chapter of this great
Dialogue in which they do not do much to destroy the force,
as well as the beauty and pathos, of passages which can now
be read with some approach to a full appreciation alike
of their meaning in themselves, and of their place in the
teaching of the book.
It would be interesting, if it would not detain us too long,
to say a word even now as to the causes which have placed

Iiitrodtictory.

modern translators on a vantage-ground denied to those to Lecturi.
whom we owe the untold debt of our authorised translation '. *
It would be instructive also to read to you some of the
renderings of that older version, absolutely unmeaning in
themselves, and throwing darkness instead of light on the
verses that come before and after, side by side with the form
in which they have appeared in the present year. You would
see at once that those to whom I speak stand in quite a dif
ferent position from an ordinary, or indeed from an unusually
instructed congregation of any previous period. It is not
too much to say, that the reader of to-day has in the book of
Job no longer a collection of moving and magnificent
passages, broken by shorter or longer intervals of uncon
nected and inarticulate utterances, but a series of chapters,
the main argument of which is, with of course occasional
obscurities, clear, systematic, and intelligible. Such a
change must materially affect the attitude of one who wishes
to assist those, who with little leisure for close study, yet
desire to enter into the full meaning and instruction of such
a book as this. He will feel less like the guide who has to *
point out the features of a fair landscape, while, on this side
and on that, point after point is wrapped in impenetrable mist-
May one, who for thirty years has been a constant reader of
the great Book which we have met to study, tender his
thanks to those, who have discharged their momentous task,
if without reaching a perfection which we had no right to
demand or expect, yet with a skill, a courage, and a faithful
ness, which deserve all honour and all gratitude ?
Let me now proceed to call your attention more directly
to the actual subject which I propose to bring before you on
• See below, Lecture VII, pp. 182, 183.

The Book of Job.

Lecture these winter afternoons. We who meet here shall leave
:- behind us for a while, as we pass within these walls, the
special cares and distractions of a time of excitement and
discord. We shall open our ears to accents that will reach us
across an unknown series of centuries, out of the darkness
of a period whose date no man can fix with any approach
to certainty. The voice to which we shall listen will come
to us from a home which has been sought, now beneath the
Pyramids of Egypt, now under the tents of Jethro or even of
Laban, now beneath the shadow of the palace of Solomon, now
in the abode of some wandering exile, by the banks of the Nile
or among Arabian plains, now by the waters of Babylon, or
amidst the humble roofs that rose out of the ruins of Jerusalem.
The language in which it addresses us will be steeped in
the imagery of a patriarchal age. He who speaks to us is, no
doubt, a Hebrew ; a Hebrew who knew, and, in the few
verses in which he will speak in his own person, names his
God by the sacred name, the name of names, by and in
which He was revealed to the covenant people of Jehovah.
But we shall look in vain in these pages for any reference to the
history, or to the laws, or to the leaders, or to the institutions,
of that chosen race, that received its Law amidst the thunders
of Mount Sinai, and ran its marvellous career of national
life on the soil of Palestine. To reach the time and scenery,
we dare not say in which the unknown Author lived, but at all
events to which he seems to summon us, we must pass back
beyond the cradle of Roman greatness and of Greek genius;
back through the whole series of God's dealings with the sons
of Israel ; we must plant our feet outside the furthest limits
of the Holy Land; among men and races who worship
indeed the one God and Ruler of the universe; but who

Introductory.

know nothing of the distinction between Jew and Gentile; Lecture
nothing of the heroic age of Joshua or of Gideon ; nothing L
of the glories of David or of the greatness of Solomon,
nothing of the walls of Zion, or the temple of Jerusalem. We
shall breathe, at every breath we draw, the free air of the
early world, dashed indeed with occasional sounds and scents
of a later age, but in the main the fresh air of a Patriarchal life,
of the land of the fathers and chieftains of the ' Sons of the
East.' The men with whom we shall be brought into con
tact will be the sons of a race with a civilisation and culture
and conquests of its own ; but still familiar with the eagle and
rock-goat, the lion, the primeval ox and the wild ass ; treading
the illimitable plains of Asia, with the dew of the morning still
upon its forehead, and the curtain yet unraised upon the long
centuries that from what we call History. Yet strange to say,
nowhere in the whole course of human literature, sacred or pro
fane, shall we find the inexorable problems of life's painful
riddles more keenly realised, more urgently pressed home,
more freshly pictured, and, last not least, more tenderly listened
to by a divine Teacher. Nor is this all. At every page that
we shall turn, from the first to the last, we shall feel that if we
are transported to another age, other manners, and a far-off
land, we are still among our kindred and our brothers. The
men who will speak to us will be men with the same joys, the
same affections, the same difficulties, the same failings; they will
be children of the same God, exposed to the same temptations,
vexed by the same doubts, the same fears, and upheld, if not
by the same hopes, yet by much at least of the same faith
and the same guidance. The book whose pages we shall
turn is a gift, not to one age or to one race, but to man
kind.

The Book of Job.

Lecture What then, let us ask at once, is the main subject and
*; aim, what the form and structure of this mysterious book?
Let me first say, that owing to various causes it has been, till
what we may fairly call a quite recent period, at once the
most familiar and the least known of all the books of the Old
Testament. The name of Job, with some portion of the story
recorded in the book that bears his name, has been a house
hold possession of mankind for centuries. Proverb after pro
verb has grown out of that story. It is not in our own tongue
only that the 'patience of Job,' the 'poverty of Job,' the
'comforters of Job,' have become familiar phrases. The
image of the Patriarch seated amidst his ashes, with a saintly
glory round his head, has adorned alike the walls of cottages
and the storied windows of stately churches '- Passages of
matchless beauty, or pathos, or majesty, have passed into the
poetry of many languages. Words from our own older version
breathe the hope and comfort which Christians welcome as
they follow their departed dear ones to their graves. Yet in
spite of this, it is not too much to say that the real contents,
the essential teaching, of the book appear to have been
almost or quite 2 lost for ages. Its fate has resembled that of
some ancient picture, a portion of which still stands out
bright and clear; the rest has been overlaid by layer after
layer of the accumulation of generations, yet with the colours
and original design still preserved, untouched and secure for
the first age that should be content to seek for and recover them.
For it is not merely that the general, the almost universal,
1 There is an interesting, but little known, series of windows, whose
subject is the story of Job, as told in the first two and the closing
chapters of the book, in the Church of St. Patrice at Rouen.
2 See note at the end ofthe Lecture, p. 19.

Introductory.

impression as to the contents of the book, has been mainly Lecture
based on or entirely coloured by the study, not of the book L
itself, but of its short introduction and shorter close, and is ' "
therefore not inadequate only but necessarily misleading.
It is more than this. The idea of the character of Job con
veyed by that popular and traditional impression is one not
inadequate only, but almost the very opposite of that which
we shall find set before us, from the moment that we open
the chapters that follow the short and touching narrative with
which we are so familiar. As we read these later and central
chapters, we shall find that we have before us one who, if he
had bowed with entire submission to the greatest of losses,
and the sharpest of sufferings, yet could lay aside the attitude
of the patient sufferer, _tp»>assume that of the indignant and
restless questioner. JTltA^ hardly too much to say, that the
most striking featurem the pages that we shall study will be,
not the patience, but the impatience — not the submission, but
the uprising, almost the rebellion — of him whom from age to
age men of all classes, not those only who have given shape to
the superficial impressions of the untaught, but Fathers of the
Church, great divines, great teachers, have agreed in calling
the Patriarch of Patience£_ We shall watch, no doubt, his
tendp.r aniLdutiful resignation; but we shall listerT'nTrle'ss to
his bitter cries, hisjeverish questionings, to his chaljerj^es-to _
W6-^fe^kEf^2aSJXagojryof_despair. We shall see also some
thing more than this. We shall see how and where he found
at last peace and calm and quiet. We shall restorg__tcuhim

the na.ma-of 'Patjer^. ™>"ch fr>r a timp wpsha.ll have denied
him. But we shall understand by the ' patience or~Job? no
longer the mere sweet submissiveness which we have hitherto
connected with his name. We shall see in the word something

10 The Book of Job.

Lecture more, something other, than that which we have hitherto
L understood by it. And we shall recognise in the Patriarch
" another Job than the Job of our traditions. He will be to us a
greater Job, more sorely tried, more widely taught ; but he will
be another than he was.
The language which I have used may startle some among
you. Let me lose no time in bringing you face to face with
the book itself.
It forms, as you will see, one of a group of five books
which hold a place in our own version between what we are
accustomed to call the Historical and the Prophetical books
of the Old Testament. Those of you who will turn to
the Revised Version will see also that, with the exception of
two or three opening pages and of the last eleven verses, it
resembles the books which immediately follow, and differs from
those which come before it, in being printed and arranged
throughout as poetry. It has a short Introduction and a short
Conclusion, each written in prose ; and the different speakers
are introduced in turn by a few words of prose. But all
the rest, all without exception, is poetry. As the book of
Psalms that follows it in our Bibles, is a collection of lyric,
or hymnic poems, by various authors and of various ages,
from the time of David, to whom it owes its tide, onwards
to a far later date, so on the other hand the main portion of
the book of Job forms one single and continuous poem. It is
as such that we shall study it, as a sacred poem, whose true
and divine teaching you will feel, I trust, as you have never felt
it yet, but whose main teaching is put before us in the form of
poetry. And the recognition of this fact may help to remind
you that that great gift of Poetry, which has cast its spell
over the human soul in every known stage of its progress

Introductory. \ \

holds its place among the appointed means for the divine Lecture
education of our race. The Poets, whose dust or whose l-
monuments are so near us to-day, are and have been, for "
good or evil, in all lands and in all ages, the preachers to
mankind ; in no small measure, consciously or unconsciously,
their moral and spiritual guides and rulers.
Need I say a word to remind you of the form in which
Hebrew poetry, the poetry of the Old Testament, clothes
itself? It is based, as many of you are aware, not, as is
the versification of modern languages, on the number or
accentuation of syllables, or on terminal rhymes; nor, as
the poetry of Greece and Rome, on the quantity, as we
technically name it, the relative time, that is, required for the
pronunciation of successive syllables. Its most charac
teristic feature is a certain parallelism of expression and
thought, a rhyme of sentiment rather than of sound. It is
thrown into the form most commonly of couplets, or com
binations of two lines, each expressing the same thought
under a different aspect. Thus :
There the wicked cease from troubling ;
And the weary be at rest. (iii. 17.)
Or, There is a path which no fowl knoweth ;
A nd which the vulture's eye hath not seen, (xx viii . 7 .)
Or, Did not I weep for him that was in trouble ?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy P (xxx. 25.)
We have occasionally triplets, verses of three lines, e. g.
Let that day be darkness ;
Let not God regard it from above,
Neither let the light shine on it. (iii. 4.)
I need not detain you longer on the subject; but it is well

12 The Book of Job.

Lecture to avoid mere vague phrases, or terms to which no definite
L sense can be attached. You have but to open a copy of the
Revised Version, and the main distinction between the prose
and poetry of the Old Testament, and the nature of the
double-lined verse, which forms the principal feature of the
latter, will readily become plain to you.
The book of Job then, to the study of which you are now
invited, is in its main portion a Poem, not a narrative or
history. For this latter purpose the sacred writers invariably
employed prose1. It opens' indeed and it closes with a
short portion of narrative and therefore of prose, but the
bulk of the book, nearly forty chapters out of forty-two, forms
in the truest and highest yet simplest sense of the word a
Poem, a sacred poem. Moreover it is the longest that has
come down to us in all that varied collection of inspired
literature to which we give the common name ofthe Bible.
But it is as truly and as certainly a poem as the Paradise Lost
or the Iliad are poems of England or of Greece.
And now, if you have so far followed me, a question may
naturally arise ; to what class of poetry does this Poem which
we are to read belong ? The question has been often asked,
and very variously answered. We see at once that, though
we may find imbedded in it, so to speak, passages that
might well find a home in the Book of Psalms or of Proverbs,
yet that it differs from either. It is not like the former, a
series of detached hymns, embodying the very highest medi
tative outpourings, glad or sorrowful, of the human heart,
national or individual, to its God. Nor do we find in its pages
the common-sense ofthe many, framed in verse by the wisdom
1 Such retrospective poems of thanksgiving or humiliation as Psalms
cv. and cvi. can hardly be looked on as exceptions

Introductory. 13

of one or more, as in so large a portion ofthe latter. It is as Lecture
different as possible from the poetry, idyllic or mystic, of the L
Song of Solomon ; or from the meditations on life, placed on "~~
the borderland of prose and poetry, which some of us have
studied in the book of Ecclesiastes. It resembles indeed the
books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, as dealing with the
practical and the speculative interests of human life. But it
differs in other respects fundamentally from both. First, it
gathers all its teaching round a single personage, the hero of
the poem, who from the beginning to the end forms the one
centre of interest. And secondly, whatever problems it raises,
or whatever lessons it teaches, come to us, when once we have
read the first line of the actual poem, through the lips, never of
the author himself, but of the speakers, human or divine or
other, whom he places on the stage. Whoever was the unknown
author of the book, he confines himself to placing before us
the persons who are to speak to us, and to indicating some
thing, where necessary, of their circumstances and characters.
And hence, according as they have fixed their eye on the
first or the second of these considerations, men have named it,
now an Epic Poem, now a Drama. Like Epic Poems, it has
a hero, a struggle, and a conquest. The hero, who, like a
Ulysses or an iEneas, gives his name to the Hebrew poem, is
Job, an Arab Patriarch, a Gentile, of a kindred and yet
different family to that of Israel, whose name and story had
perhaps floated down from some distant age and formed
part of the traditions of the Hebrew race. And round this one
figure, and his conflict with a few friends who are grouped
by his side, and with the stormy and bewildering thoughts
and feelings that stir within his own breast, the whole interest
of the Poem, properly so called, is concentrated and gathered

14 The Book of Job.

Lecture up. No city is besieged or taken, no battles are won,
L no ocean traversed, no nation founded, no adventures re
corded. The scene of the long conflict, which is the theme
of the poem, is a few square feet on the dried heaps of
refuse that may still be seen outside the limits of an Arab
village. The triumph toiled for, and at last secured, is over
the teaching of his friends and his own torturing thoughts.
If then it is an Epic, it is one of the ' inner life ' ; and it
can only claim the name inasmuch as it represents, in the
sublimest and most striking of forms, a struggle and a
triumph, in which men of every age and every nation may
claim an enduring interest. For the issues of that strife are
even now of deeper import to the soul of man than the arbitra
ment of war, or the strife of parties, or the result of revolutions.
And the cause which is at stake is one that extends far
beyond the limits of the human race, or even of the visible
order of creation. It reaches to the very heaven of heavens ;
for it includes in its range the nature and character of the
Creator of mankind, and of the author and upholder of the
' universal frame ' of Nature.
Many, on the other hand, who would refuse to accept the
book as a Hebrew Epic, will speak of it without hesitation
under the title of a sacred Drama. It is doubtless so far like
a drama, that it consists almost entirely of dialogue; and
that the author, as I reminded you just now, will speak to us,
in the poem itself, only to introduce the different speakers
to whose words we shall listen. Yet we cannot without reserve
call that a drama in which there is no change of scene, no
movement, no event, no action. For the action is, in the
usual sense of the word, no action at all ; it is only the torture
and the agony, and the swayings to and fro, the doubts the

Introductory. 15

questionings and the faith, of one single human soul, stretched Lecture
on a rack of misery, and facing sharper pains than those which L
the worst sickness or the worst poverty can bring. And if "
this is the extent of the action, as it is called, of the poem,
what is the catastrophe, what the closing scene? It is
simply the coming face to face of that soul with its God, and
the clearing away of the clouds that had hidden from it a
Father's face. All that there is of progress or of movement,
other than internal and spiritual, is conveyed, not in the
Drama itself, but in the Prologue and the Epilogue, if we may
use the terms, which are attached to it, and which, however
lifelike the picture they convey, and however essential each
may be to the right understanding of the poem, stand outside
its limits.
It has been called also a Parable ; and there is a sense, no
doubt, in which the word, however vaguely and loosely used,
may well be applied to it. Like so many parables of the
Great Teacher, it is set before us without any direct comment
or explanation from him, the unnamed author, who, in an un
known age, was stirred and taught to leave it as an eternal
possession for the study of mankind. It stands quite apart
from the didactic poem, or philosophic dialogue, in which all
points, and all leads up, to some one single and clearly ex
pressed lesson, which is enforced and held forth as its
conclusion and issue. We are left to draw from it our own
lessons, our own teaching ; He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear. I will make then no further attempt to bring the book,
the Poem, which we are to study, under any special class or
denomination. It stands alone in the Bible, alone in the
literature of the world, as the very flower of inspired Hebrew

16 The Book of Job.

Lecture Poetry; and as such let us accept it, seeking for its true
L teaching and its true import in its contents, and in these
only. And in order to do this, we will try and acquaint ourselves
with this teaching and these contents, as we find them in the
book itself. And we will look there, not for the Job of popular
tradition, or of Art, nor we may even say for the Job of great
teachers and writers, who have written into verse after verse
their own thoughts, their own feelings, or, oftener still, the
controversies, the doctrines, and the history of their own day.
We will look for the Job of Holy Scripture, the Job as he
stands before us in the Poem that bears his name. And it is
strange how vast we shall find the difference between the
picture displayed to us on these sacred pages and that which
we have had placed before us, or perhaps formed in our own
minds before turning to the record which those pages offer us.
The book will speak for itself and unfold its own story. It is
one of such intense and eternal interest, that I venture to hope
that some of you, as you read it with such hints as a few words
from this place, the result of much patient and attentive study,
can give you, will feel a new field of thought opened to you
in connection with those Scriptures of the Old Testament, a
fresh access to which has been placed before you in the year
which is drawing to its close. You will find that room is made
in that sacred Record, not only for lessons of sweet and gentle
submission to the most terrible of afflictions, but also for the
cries to God under pain and suffering which still go up from
beds of torture, and long hours of misery. You will find that
room is ma4e-^tlso-"fbr^rjrrbternrisgmngs^and qyipsrionjncrs
which you may have felt stirring deep down in the secrecy of
your own souls, but the dwelling for a moment on which you

Introductory. 17

have supposed to be confined to those whom we call seep- Lecture
tics, infidels, atheists, or in our milder moods rationalists
and neologians ; or else to professedly anti-christian writers
and speakers; or even to the enemies of all existing faiths
and of the whole framework of social order. And you will
find that he who puts forward so vehemently, and feels
so keenly, the very selfsame difficulties and problems which
have perhaps vexed you, is no enemy of the faith once
delivered to God's people, but a Patriarch dear to God and
honoured in all the churches. And you will find also
that he who gives utterance to these questionings was con
demned and rebuked by good men who listened to his
words, and who tried vainly to win him to recall what he had
said, and to recant his errors. But He whom he seemed
at one time almost to blaspheme, looked on his doubts and
cries and agonies ' with larger other eyes ' than the human
advisers and consolers who stood around him. He gives
him, we shall find, no full solution, no key to all that per
plexed him, and perplexes us, in the destiny of man, or in the
history of the universe. But not the less for that does He
draw near to His suffering child, and reveal something of
Himself, and make him feel that through all his pains and
all his sorrows, and all his errors and perplexities, he had
still been dear to Him ; and that to cleave to truth, and to
love justice and righteousness, was better thanblindlyto uphold,
as his friends had done, the imperfect creed and inadequate
interpretation of God's laws which he found around him, or
to 'justify the ways of God to man' at the expense of charity
and truth ; or in defiance of a growing light dawning on the
people of God, and of the voice, the sacred voice, that spoke
to him in his own conscience. c

18 The Book of fob.

Lecture Many more lessons we shall learn as we read its pages.
1 For to us too the book will be, in the truest sense of the
" word, that which a learned Jew once called it, a Parable. We
shall find in it the highest and most needed of all teaching,
conveyed in the form of the story of a Patriarchal life, and of
a dialogue, sustained on both sides with an awful earnestness,
between men who wear the garb, and use the imagery of Arab
Chiefs. It will speak to us through persons and through
modes of thought, as far removed from all around us as
the East is from the West, as that far-off age from this our
modern life. But we may gather from it lessons not only of
calmness and submission, but of a wide and wise sympathy
which may enlarge our hearts and open our understandings.
We shall find in it lessons of confidence and trust in a love
that lies behind the darkest clouds that close around our lives
or around our faith ; a faith dearer, it may be, to us than life
itself. We shallj[jfld.in4£kssons too of humility ; warnings
of our own limited and imperfect vision. -We shall be
reminded again and again of our short-sightedness and
/; ignorance ; of our incapacity to apprehend and map out things
// and laws and dispensations of which we sometimes speak with
a presumptuous readiness ; but, we shall close it with a
deepened sense of repose and calm and hope, of con^
fidence in the law of righteousness and in the law of love.
And having said so much to-day, I must detain you no
further. I would gladly have devoted another afternoon, first,
to putting before you a careful sketch of the actual contents
of the book, next, to saying something of what we might call
its literary history ; the different views, that is, that have been
held of its authorship, its age, and even of its interpretation,
typical, historical, devotional. These are questions on which

Introductory. 19

I could, I am sure, command your attention. But to judge Lecture
by my own experience, I incline to think that a few words on '
one or other of these points will be more interesting to those
who have penetrated some way into the atmosphere of the
book itself, than to those who are merely preparing to do so1.
And therefore, in the course of lectures to which you are at
present invited, I think it may be best to ask you to begin at
once, when next we meet, with some study of its opening
pages ; of those first two chapters of stately prose, which have
impressed themselves on the memory and the language of
every nation to which their short and tragic story has found
a way. They will not lose their hold on the interest of man
kind, as long as tears are shed and hearts are broken. May
we read their simple teaching aright and wisely.

1 See below, Lecture VII, pp. 161-167.
Nov. 13, 1885.

Note to page 8. — A curious illustration of, to say [the least, an im
perfect realisation of the contents of the book occurs in Dean Swift's
writings. Swift's melancholy habit of ' lamenting his birthday ' by
reading the 3rd chapter of Job is familiar to all interested in his life.
Yet in his 'Faithful Narrative' (Scott's Ed., vol. xiii. p. 299) he makes
' a great man ' ' read through the first chapter of Job,' as of all passages
in the Bible a sign of true penitence for his past sins.

C 2

LECTURE II.
CHAPTERS I, II. The Prologue.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chaps. I, II.)
1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was l Job ; Chapter
and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, I-
2 and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons 1 ' '
3 and three daughters. His ^substance also was seven thousand 2 qt catt/e
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 greatest of all the children of the east.
4 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
5 sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the
days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sancti
fied 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 3 Or, bias-
hearts. Thus did Job continually. plumed
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present cll - ' '
themselves before the Lord, and 4Satan came also among them. , T]) .
7 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou ? Then the Adver-
Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in sary.
8 the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord
said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? 6for5Or, that
there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright
9 man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil. Then Satan
answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought ?
io 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 ° Or, cattle
II land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch a!l that he hath,

24 The Book of Job. (Revised Version?)

Chapters and he will renounce thee to thy face. And the Lord said 12
I-II. unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy l power ; only
— « — ¦ upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth
1 Heb. from the presence of the LORD.
hand. And ;t fe]1 on a day when his gons and his daughters were 13
eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house, that 14
there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were
3 Heb. plowing, and the asses feeding beside them : and 2the Sabeans 15
Sheba. feji upon them, and took them away ; yea, they have slain the
3 Heb. 3 servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped
young men. alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also 16
another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and
hath burned up the sheep, and the s servants, and consumed
them ; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was 17
yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans
i Or, made made three bands, and 4fell upon the camels, and have taken
them away, yea, and slain the 3servants with the edge of the
sword ; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he 18
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 19
5 Or, over 5from 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 20
mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground,
and worshipped ; and he said, Naked came I out of my mother's 21
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. 22
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present 2
themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them
to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto 2
Satan, From whence comest thou ? And Satan 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 Satan, 3
" Or, that Hast thou considered my servant Job ? "for there is none like
him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth

\,nu,yiers 1,11. 25
God, and escheweth evil : and he still holdeth fast his integrity, Chapter
although thou movedst me against him, a to destroy him without II.
4 cause. And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, ¦ — « —
5 yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth * Heb. to
thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will s™.allo%"
6 renounce thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan,
7 Behold, he is in thine hand ; only spare his life. So Satan
went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with
8 sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he
took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal ; and he sat
9 among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still
io hold fast thine integrity ? renounce God, and die. But he said
unto her, Thou speakest as one ofthe 2foolish women speaketh. 2 Or,
What ? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we lmPl0US
not receive evil ? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
1 1 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was
come upon him, they came every one from his own place ;
Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the
Naamathite : and they made an appointment together to come
12 to bemoan him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up
their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice,
and wept ; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled
13 dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with
him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none
spake a word unto him : for they saw that his 3grief was very 3 Or, pain
great.

LECTURE II.
CHAPTERS1 I, II. The Prologue.
The story of fob's Trials, and of his Patience under them.
I spoke to you last week, I fear at too great length, on the Lecture
form in which the book of Job is cast. I spoke also on the TI-
misconceptions as to its contents and teaching, which have ,,, " . ..
° Chaps. 1, n.
been so long and so widely prevalent. Let us turn at once
from these and kindred questions to the book itself.
We open our Bibles at the first verse of those two chapters
which form, as I have already reminded you, the Introduction,
or Prologue, to all that follows. They are written, as you will
observe, in prose ; and so far they stand apart from the long
poem, the dramatic poem, if with due reservations we care so
to name it, to which they point the way.
But this Introduction, or Prologue, though differing in
form, as a glance at the Revised Version will shew you,
from the chapters that follow, is not a Prologue in such
a sense that we can conceive of it as detached from the
Dialogue or Drama, to which it leads the way. It is not
indeed, as it has been popularly treated, the main portion of
the book of Job. It is not a narrative, or history, to which
nearly all that follows is merely a long appendix of secondary
and subsidiary interest. But it is an essential and integral
1 For the Revised Text of these chapters, see the pages immediately
preceding this Lecture.
For an analysis of the contents of the Lecture, see pp. xxi-xxii.

28 The Book of Job.

Lecture portion of the book. It gives the key to all that follows.
n- The character of Job, as portrayed in what we shall read
' ' . to-day, the successive trials of that character, with the result
Chap. 1. ¦" .
of these trials, as described in the scenes which will now pass
before us, must be studied with attention, and impressed on
our memories, before we pass to the other scenes, with all
that they will bring of totally different thoughts and words
and feelings, which we shall encounter as we proceed. But,
this said, our work to-day will be simple. The obscurities
of language, the darker problems, the seeming contradictions,
the more difficult questions of the book, will meet us not
here but further on. They will claim in due time our full
attention ; yet I have no fear of our finding, even in these
familiar pages, any lack of interest or instruction. Let us
turn to them at once.
The opening words, simple as they are, are suggestive of
much. They mark a point in which the Book stands alone in
ver. i. our Old Testaments. There was a man in the land of Uz, whose
name was fob ; and that man was perfect and upright, and one
that feared God and eschewed evil. The scene you see opens
— the curtain, so to speak, is raised — in the land of Uz. I need
not detain you with a discussion as to its exact locality, still less
as to any mystical meaning which can be attached to the
word. It may have lain, as there is some reason to believe, east
ward of the territory of Edom, in the high plains of what, in the
widest sense, we may call the land of Arabia1. But wherever
Job's home is to be sought for, it lay beyond the confines of
the Land of Israel. We pass therefore at the very threshold
of the book into another region than that with which the Old
1 See an interesting paper by J. G. Wetzstein in the Appendix to
Delitzsch's Commentary.

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 29
Testament Scriptures have familiarised us. There are, no Lecture
doubt, other portions of those Scriptures, such as the Proverbs,
or certain of the Psalms, or Ecclesiastes, in which we shall CnaD ;
look in vain for any local colouring to remind us of the
scenery or associations of Palestine. But in this book, and
in this alone, from the first line to the last, the atmosphere
around us is not merely non- Jewish, but something definitely
and distinctly different. We have before us what we may call
the life of a Saint of the Old Testament ; but it is that of a
Gentile, not of a Jewish Saint. And thus in the very
heart and centre of the sacred record of the Older Covenant
we have enshrined the truth, which, on one eventful day, was
to bring home to those who had been reared under that
Covenant the message that its work was done, its mission
accomplished ; that God is no respecter of persons, but that in Acts x. 34,
every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness,
is accepted of Him. Here then, in this wholly Gentile world,
dwelt Job, the hero of the poem — epic or dramatic, call it
which you will — that is to follow. And his portrait is drawn
at once in two or three bold and clear strokes.
First, he is described, in words which we shall hear again,
as one perfect, — sincere, i. e. and whole-hearted, not of course
in any theological sense of sinlessness — perfect and upright ;
and again as one that feared God and eschewed, or avoided, evil. ver. 1.
Nothing, you will see, is said of his wisdom. We shall hear his
own definition of wisdom in due time ; but it is as the Eastern
Saint, rather than the Eastern Sage, that he is put before us.
I call your attention at once to this ; for this character of Job,
thus painted in its four-fold aspect, this high and blameless
character before God and man, is an essential element in the
tragic story that is to come.

30 The Book of Job.

Lecture His goodness then is the first element in that tragedy. Andthe
IL second is his prosperity. And this prosperity is drawn in greater
. detail, with touch after touch of poetic and vivid colouring.
ver. 2. First, Job is rich in sons and daughters. He has seven sons,
we are told — we are in the world, remember, ofthe East, where,
as in all earlier stages ofthe history of our race, sons are prized
far above their sisters — seven sons and three daughters.
ver. 3. And secondly, he is rich in all the wealth of that early world ;
rich in possessions which mark the stage, a transitional stage,
to use modern language, of human progress in which the
drama of his destiny is to be played. We find, at the very
first, that mingling of the nomadic and the pastoral with the
settled and agricultural, and even with city life, of which we
shall find many traces further on. We have next the full
catalogue of his wealth. It consists in camels, often man's
only means, as African campaigns have taught us, of travers
ing the huge spaces of the thirsty desert ; in asses, for shorter
journies ; in sheep, for the grassy plains and uplands ; and in
yokes of oxen, for the plough. . And the numbers given are all
such as to represent a typical and ideal height of unexampled
affluence. He is rich also, thirdly, in a great household; in
slaves, that is, if I may transfer to such a picture a word
steeped in degrading associations. We shall see how, in
almost his final words, he speaks of his bearing toward and
treatment of these his dependants. We shall hear him speak as
no Greek or Roman, as few modern slave-masters would have
spoken, but as one who respected in his bondsman his brother1
man, as one who, in the Apostle's words, honoured all men s.
And his position is summed up last of all as that of
the greatest of all the Sons ofthe East, the ' Beni-Kedem ' ; a
1 xx*i. I3-I5- ' 1 Pet. ii. 17.

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 31
term often applied to those Arab races, kindred to, but not of Lecture
the same family as, the seed of Jacob, that dwelt or wandered,
then as now, between the Nile and the Euphrates. Chap. i.
And the story goes on next to tell us of the mutual ver- 4-
entertainments and festivities of his children. It is a touch
inserted, as is obvious, to bring out the idea, partly of afflu
ence, but still more of family affection and endearment, as
tending to deepen the impression alike of the happiness of
the Patriarch and of the tragedy that follows. Each in turn,
on each day, it would seem, of the week — the colouring is
somewhat clearer in the Revised Version 1 — each son would
entertain in his own house his brothers and his sisters. And so
the weeks go by. The greatest of the sons of the East has his
family, an unbroken circle, settled around his home- —whether
a tent or house is not quite clear — in peace and well-being.
But the next touch that is added is intended to bring out
afresh the other equally essential element in Job's long
career of happiness ; not his prosperity, but his blamelessness,
his more than blamelessness, his warm-hearted affection, and
his genuine piety. We have in him a character untainted by
riches, unspoilt by success. When the full cycle of seven
days, a number sacred in other Eastern nations than the
Jewish, is complete, the father comes upon the scene. There
is a momentary obscurity in the language; but there is
nothing to mar the picture of fatherly love. At sun-rise on ver. 5.
the eighth day, the first day of a fresh week, the father rises,
and, as it would seem, with his children round him, and after
some simple lustral2, or purifying ceremony, offers in their
1 And his sons went and held a feast in the house of each one upon
his day. — R.V. See p. 23.
2 He sanctified them. — v. 5.

32 The Book of Job.

Lecture behalf a sacrifice for each. As this Patriarchal head of a
n- Gentile family stands by the altar-side, you see how far re-
ch" ; moved we are from the atmosphere of an Aaronic Priesthood
ver. 5. and a Levitical ritual, of that sacerdotal system whose passing
away before the coming of the Great High Priest is even now
the theme of our daily Second Lessons. The freer air of a
larger than the Jewish world already breathes around us, and
with the smoke of the offering goes up the father's prayer as
he intercedes for each child in turn. 7/ may be, he says, that
my sons have sinned and cursed, or renounced, God in their
hearts ; uttered, i. e. some chance or secret words of sin
and folly. Thus, we read, did fob continually. The form of
worship, the language of the worshipper, may have been
those of the region of Uz, of the day and the land of Job.
But who can fail to see beneath these transitory circum
stances the image of the Christian parent, the father or the
mother, anxious for the unguarded hours of thoughtless
youth, and pleading with the same God for present or for
absent children ?
And now the scene shifts, and we are reminded that, though
the narrative, like all other Hebrew narrative, wears the form
of prose, yet we are reading what is after all the first book, so
ver. 6. to speak, of a great and sacred Poem. We are transported
from the plains of Uz to the halls of Heaven; and our
thoughts may go for a moment from these sacred pages to the
Milton or the Dante of another age. There, like an Oriental
Sovereign, Jehovah holds His court.
' The Lord ' is the translation given to His title both in the
old and the new English version; but you will remember all
that the word implies in the original, as answering to the sacred
name represented in English by the word Jehovah. And it is

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 33
worthwhile calling your attention once more J to the fact, that the Lecture
writer, when speaking in his own person, repeatedly uses the •"¦•
name by which God was revealed to Moses in the Bush, and r,
to the chosen people ; speaks, that is, of the most High as a
Hebrew of the Hebrews would speak. In this Prologue also,
he places the same title in the mouth of Job. But elsewhere,
with a single noticeable exception2, all the persons whom he
brings before us will speak of God under titles current in
patriarchal times, and common to other races who wor
shipped the one God. He is not to them the mysterious
Jehovah, but Eloah (or Elohim), the usual term for God, as
representing one supreme over the powers of nature, or else
El-Shaddai, ' the Almighty.' Even in the name of his God
he will soon remind us that the soil we tread is not the soil
of Israel.
But to return to the narrative; before the throne of
Jehovah are gathered the Sons of God. We meet the ver. 6.
phrase elsewhere in the Old Testament3, and we shall
find it again in this book4, as used to designate beings of other
than human mould, employed as God's ministers of mercy
or of judgment, whose creation dates from a period older
than that of the material earth and of us its inhabitants.
And among these beings who come to do homage to their
Lord, is one who bears the title of 'the Adversary,' or
' Opposer,' the Satan, as the word stands in the Hebrew, who ver. 7.
reports himself as fresh from travelling to and fro on the
surface of the earth. And Jehovah Himself calls his attention
to one of whom He speaks as my servant fob, and bears His ver. 8.
own testimony, a more than human testimony, to his
1 See above, p. 6.
* xii. 9 ; in xxviii. 28, the word translated ' the Lord ' is Adonai.
3 Gen. vi. 2 ; Psalm lxxxix. 6. * xxxviii. 7.
D

34 The Book of Job.

Lecture goodness. He repeats, reminding some of us perhaps of
IL similar repetitions in the oldest of classic poets, the very
,,," . words in which the Author had introduced him : Hast thou
Cnap. l.
ver. 9-1 1. considered, he says, my servant fob?for there is none like him
in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, onejhatfeareth God,
and escheweth evil. But ' the Adversary,' clearly a malignant
spirit, has his answer ready. Doth fob fear God, he says,
for nought? He insinuates at once a doubt, and more than
a doubt, as to Job's motives. Hast Thou not, he goes on,
made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
tliat 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. ' I myself,' he seems to say, 'could
be as pious as Job, were I as prosperous as he.' ' It is easy,'
says a character drawn by a modern satirist, ' to be virtuous
on a handsome income, on so many thousands a year.' The
temptations of poverty are obvious, and strike the eye. Satan
sees them at a glance. Those of wealth, that wrung from
the Great Teacher the words, ' How hardly shall they that
have riches enter into the kingdom of God ',' are more subtle
and hidden. Satan read the one, Jesus Christ the other.
Let us look again at his language. He puts at once into
words a view of human springs of action, not confined to a
single age. Doth fob fear God for nought ? ' There is no such
thing,' he says, ' as disinterested goodness.' Such a question,
such a view, is not confined to evil spirits, or to the story of
the man of Uz. The question had been raised when this
book was written. It is one of the main questions, some
have said, the main question of all, with which this book is
1 Mark x. 23.

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 35
meant to deal. But the view embodied in Satan's words is Lecture
one which you may have heard whispered, or loudly spoken, II-
or taken for granted, now and here, as there and then. ct ;
There is no such thing, you may be told, as a love of
goodness for its own sake. There is always some ulterior aim,
some selfish motive. Even religion, you will hear, even the
religion of Christ, is a mere matter of selfish interest. It is
nothing more, even when sincere, than a selfish device to
escape from pain, and enjoy happiness hereafter. Doth Job
serve God for nought ? You see how far the words extend.
They cover a wider range than that of the character of one child
of Adam. They go down to the very springs of human nature;
down to the very essence and even the existence of goodness
itself. ' Can men and women care for goodness and mercy,
or for truth, or for righteousness, for their own sake ? '
Nay, the arrow launched at Job flies further: it is really
pointed at God Himself. If Satan is right, it is not only that
there is no such thing as disinterested goodness, but God
Himself is robbed of His highest and noblest attribute. If
He can no longer win the hearts, and retain in joy and
sorrow the reverential affection of those on whom He showers
His benefits ; if He can no longer inspire anything but a
mercenary love, He may be all-powerful still, but there are
surely those among our fellow creatures, whom some of us know
or have known, who must come before Him in our homage.
Heaven and earth are no longer full of His glory. You see
how vital the question which the challenge stirs, and how
rightly it has been said, that in the coming contest, Job is the
champion, not of his own character only, but of all who care
for goodness, and of God Himself1.
1 See this point forcibly urged by Godet, Etudes Bibliques, p. 203.
D 2

36 The Book of Job.

Lecture The challenge is given and is accepted ; and power is
IL granted to Satan to test the good man, the perfect and
Ch^' . upright Job, with the loss of that on the possession of which
ver. 12. the accuser believes all his goodness to be based.
Satan, you will notice, is not represented in this book as
the suggester of evil to the human soul, nor as the fallen
Angel, his Maker's foe. He is depicted as simply a malicious
! spirit1, whose power for evil is rigidly limited by his Master
; and the Master of the world. And such as he is, he goes
forth to work his will. And once more the scene shifts to
i the land of Uz.
It is a high festival with the children of the unconscious
ver. 13. Job. It is the day apparently on which the father offers his
accustomed sacrifices; the day certainly on which the happy
children gather round their eldest brother. Out of the clear
sky comes the thunder. Blow falls on blow, falls with rapid
ver. 14, 15. and tragic strokes four times repeated. First, a message
comes that Sabceans, plundering Arabs, marauders from the
South, have burst into his cultivated lands, carried off his
oxen and his asses, and slain his servants. I. I only, says
ver. 16. the bringer of the evil tidings, am escaped to tell thee. And in
a moment, another tells of the destruction of his grazing
flocks and shepherds by the fire of God, the terrible lightning.
ver. 17. And while he was yet speaking, another, a sole survivor also,
bursts in with the news that a still wilder tribe, the Chaldeans
or Chasdim, of the North, have made a foray from their
highlands, and dividing their forces like skilled marauders
into three bodies, have swept away his wealth of camels, and
massacred their guardians.
All his wealth, three kinds of wealth, representing, as I
1 Cf. our Lord's words, St. Luke xxii. 31.

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 37
reminded you just now, three stages in the growth of human Lecture
society, is gone from him in a moment. And as seems some- II-
times to happen in real life, so in this typical picture of human c, .
calamity, sorrows come not singly, not as ' single spies ' ver. 18, 19.
but 'in battalions'1. The powers of man and the powers of
nature smite him with alternate strokes. For as he listens to
these tidings, worse follows. The wild wind from the wilder
ness, that howls across the great steppes of Asia, has buried
his children, sons and daughters, in the ruins of the house or
tent where they had met. All are gone. The happy father
is left childless; the rich man is beggared. It is the dark
close of some Greek tragedy, introduced with startling
suddenness, into its opening scene.
And fob arose, we read. The news tore his heart. He made
no attempt to stifle his grief, or bear his sorrow like a Stoic, ver. 20.
There was no need to tell him, like the bereaved father in Mac
beth, to ' give sorrow words.' He rent his mantle and shaved
his head, like a true son of the East in overwhelming affliction.
But this was not all. His past life bore its fruits. Years of
accumulated and genuine piety stood him in good stead in
the moment of sudden, unlooked-for, trial. He fell down, we
read, on the ground and worshipped. Of that scene in heaven,
of those other than human eyes that watched his bearing,
he knew nothing. But he resigned himself to the hand which
afflicted him, in memorable words, which rise at once to the
level and assume the form of poetry, words in which our
Church frames the thoughts of Christian mourners.
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, And naked shall ver. 21.
/ return thither, to my mother Earth. The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away ; Blessed be the name of the Lord.
1 Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5.

38 The Book of Job.

Lecture Blessed, he says, be the name of fehovah. In all this, adds the
IL author, Job sinned not, nor charged God with folly, or ' wrong
. doing,' as the marginal version runs. And thus the Evil
ver. 22. One was foiled. Job's innocence and piety, and all that was
involved in these, were vindicated even at this terrible cost.
But the story is not complete ; the trial is renewed. After
an interval, whose length we know not, and need not ask,
we have once more a vision of the Courts of Heaven. And
Chap. ii. once more we see ' the Sons of God ' presenting themselves
before Jehovah. And as before, with a repetition of the same
words, which will again remind some of us of the simplicity
ver. 2, 3. 0f Homer, Satan is questioned whence he comes ; gives his
answer ; and is called on to turn his eyes to the steadfastness
of God's servant, who still, in spite of undeserved and unex
ampled woes, holds fast his integrity. And Satan's answer
ver. 4. is in the same spirit as before. Skin for skin, he says, yea,
all that a man hath will he give for his life. The phrase is
not easily explained. Possibly it is such a proverb as this.
' He will go on bartering, one thing against another, skin
against skin, whatever is nearest him ; he will submit to any
bargain, to save his life.' And Satan challenges Him, who
has suffered His servant to be so far tried and proved, to go
ver. 5. one step farther. Touch, he says, his own person, his bone
and his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face. Once more
v_t. 6. the challenge is accepted : and the fiat goes forth. Behold, he
is in thy hand ; only spare his life. And the scene shifts
rapidly, and we are brought back once more to Job. From
the sok of his fool to the crown of his head, he is attacked with
the direst form of the sorest of Eastern diseases, the terrible
leprosy, so often spoken of as the mark of divine punishment.
Into all that is told us of it by Eastern travellers or medi-

Chapters I, II. The Prologue.

39

Chap. ii.

eval writers I need not enter. Centuries ago its horrors were Lecture
familiar in Europe. They were not unknown in our own n-
country, even near to these walls1; horrors for which you may
now search in vain the wards of an English hospital. Like
death, this plague was at all times a great leveller. And now
the ' greatest of the Sons of the East ' cowers among the
ashes and refuse, outside his home, loathsome alike to him
self and others.
His cup seemed full. One other turn of the rack, so to
speak, is yet possible. It is not spared him. From the one
human quarter from which comfort might have yet come,
there comes only a vulgar taunt, and suggestion of despair.
' Dost thou still] said his wife, who only comes on the scene
to heighten for one moment the intensity of her husband's
desolation and misery, ' dost thou still retain thine integrity,
thy attitude of pious resignation towards God ? Renounce, she
says, God, and die. Leave the unprofitable service of this
God, Who has left thee to so undeserved a fate. Leave Him,
and quit life, a life that has nothing left worth living for.'
It seems hard indeed, hard above all to those who have known
the blessings of an English and a Christian home, that such
a sneer and such advice should come from such a quarter.
It pains us, as with an unwelcome shock. Let me recall to
you that when, just sixty years ago, the Poet-painter William
Blake 2 drew some wonderfully powerful illustrations to the
Book of Job, he, the English husband of a loyal and affec
tionate wife, refused to follow the course of the story in this
1 On the site of St. James' Palace stood once a ' Hospital for leprous
maids,' an almshouse, i. e. or retreat, for female lepers. See also an
interesting chapter in De Malan's Histoire de S. Francois d 'Assise.
2 See Illustrations of the Book of fob, invented and engraved by
William Blake, 1825.

40 The Book of Job.

Chap. ii.

Lecture terrible detail. All the rest he could portray, step by step.
IL But here he stayed his hand, and those who can turn to his
much prized drawings, will see Job's wife vindicated against
the scorn of centuries, kneeling beside her husband, and
sharing his patient misery. They will see her still by his
side, through each and all of his future pangs and agonies,
and restored with him to a common happiness in the closing
scene. There was something in the record of Job's sufferings
too keen and bitter, too remote, may we not thankfully say,
from the experience of English and Christian married life,
for that sensitive and gifted spirit, so often on the borderland
where genius touches madness, to bear to reproduce.
And it might well be so. Curse God, she said, and die.
The depths of human misery seemed sounded. How many
human souls might, in one way or another, have lent an ear to
the suggestion. A Roman might have turned upon his
unjust Gods and died by his own hand, like Cato, with words
of defiance on his lips. Others might have sought the same
fate in dull despair. Not so Job. Thou speakest, he says,
as one of the foolish (i. e. as always, the ungodly) women
speaketh. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
shall we not receive evil? In all this, adds the writer, who
speaks so rarely in his own person, did not fob sin with his
lips ; not one word of murmur escaped him. Satan is foiled,
and reappears on the scene no more.
We have here then put before us the very highest and
most perfect type of patience in the sense of simple resigna
tion. It is the greatest picture ever drawn of that calm,
unhesitating, and profound acquiescence in the will of God,
which, to borrow the words of him l whom I always rejoice to
1 A. P. Stanley, Sermon preached at Boston, U.S.A., 1878.

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 41
quote from this place, was one of the ' qualities which marked Lecture
Eastern religions, when to the West they were almost unknown,
and which even now is more remarkably exhibited in Eastern ch i;
nations than among ourselves.' Yes ! ' Thy will be done '
is ' a prayer which lies at the very root of all religion.' It
stands among the foremost petitions of the Lord's Prayer.
It is deeply engraven in the whole religious spirit of the Sons
of Abraham, even of the race of Ishmael. In the words,
' God is great,' it expresses the best side of Mahommedanism,
the profound submission to the will of a Heavenly Master.
It is embodied in the very words, Moslem and Islam. And
we, servants of the Crucified One, must feel that to be
ready to leave all in God's hands, not merely because He is
great, but because we know Him to be wise, and feel Him to
be good, is of the very essence of religion in its very highest
aspect. The great English Divine, Bishop Butler 1, has well
said, that though such a passive virtue may have no field for
exercise in a happier world, yet the frame of mind which it
produces, and of which it is the fruit and sign, is the very
frame of all others to fit man to be an active fellow worker
with his God, in a larger sphere, and with other faculties.
And the very highest type of such submission we have
set before us in Job. Poor as he now is, he is rich in trust
and in nearness to his God ; and Christian souls, trained in
the teaching of Christian centuries, will feel that if there is a
God and Father above us, it is better to have felt towards
Him as he felt, than to have been the lord of many slaves
and flocks and herds, and the possessor of unclouded hap
piness on a happy earth.
And there ends, so far as Job is concerned, the Introduction
1 Analogy, Part I, Chapter v.

42 The Book of Job.
Lecture to the Poem which bears his name. It leaves him miserable,
n- yet resigned; seated on his dung-heap. Had the story
„, " .. ended there, it might have remained in our memories as an
Chap. n. ' °
ver. n-13. overdrawn perhaps and excessive, yet not an absolutely im
possible, type of what is sometimes seen in real life : trouble
after trouble coming upon some human soul, and no relief
granted on this side the grave. We might have turned
from the picture ; yet it would have recurred to our minds
once and again in the course of life's experience, as a sample
of what is too possible, too conceivable, in this tangled world ;
as something which after all might be ' an overtrue story,' the
sad end of a saddened life.
But the story does not end here. We are only, as yet,
within the porch. We have not yet entered the gallery of
strange and unlooked for pictures which we are yet to
tread ; and one more touch gives us the transition to all that
ver. 11. is to follow. Three of Job's friends, — the name and abode of
each is carefully given, — men, it would seem, like himself, no
children of the seed of Jacob, but Arab Sheikhs or Emirs,
as we might say, have heard of the calamities which have
befallen their friend, and have come from far to bemoan him,
and to comfort him It is a touch of human nature which we
recognise at once. A touch, it might be added, of a sympathetic
feeling that lay deep in the Hebrew heart 1. But as they drew
ver. 12. near and raised their eyes and saw the change which disease
and misery had worked in his form and face, the horrors of
the spectacle overcame them. They lifted up their voices and
wept. Nor this only; those Eastern chiefs rent every one
his mantle, and threw dust towards Heaven, in sign of their
agony of sympathy. And then they could find no words to
1 See. Lectures on Ecclesiastes, p. 81.

Chapters I, II. The Prologue. 43

comfort him. How could they? They sat or crouched by Lecture
him in silence, in the oriental ' attitude of grief, says the IL
story, seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto „, " ..
z Cnap. 11.
him : for they saw that his grief was very great. ver. 13.
If the imagery is of the East, Eastern, the sentiment that
underlies it is neither of the East nor of the West, but
world-wide. There are troubles in which we can best shew
our sympathy, best aid our friends, not by spoken words, but
by a silent sharing of their pain. We too can sometimes do
little more than 'lift up our voices and weep' and then sit silent.
So far, my friends, we have studied word by word this
immortal story of sorrow and submission. We need not
wonder at the impression which it has made upon mankind.
Let us gather up, for one moment, the results to which it has
led us. Every word of the narrative after the first few verses
has tended in one direction, — to heighten the contrast, to widen
the gap, between Job's deserts, if I may use such a term, and
Job's destiny. The two were brought before us in the
opening verse of the first chapter as in entire and absolute
harmony ; perfect human goodness was wedded to perfect
human happiness. But there came a moment, from which
they have parted company. At every step we have seen
them travel further apart, become more and more divergent.
If his piety was great then, what is it now ? If when first we
knew him, he was perfect and upright, fearing God and
eschewing evil, how much more does he deserve such a
description now ; now when the sad ' sweet uses of adversity '
have done their best wor upon his spirit, and when he
comes before us tried and purified in the very furnace of
affliction? Yet on the other hand, the shadows that so
1 See Ezekiel iii. 15.

44 The Book of Job.

Lecture suddenly darkened the brightness of his life have grown
11 thicker and blacker at every step ; and the spectacle that we
Cha" .. have before us, as we part to-day, is that of one who combines
the highest, sweetest, and most dutiful love of God of which
the human soul in his age was capable, with the very darkest
and most hopeless misery. Such a spectacle would be
not without its own perplexities even to the Christian of our
own day, trained from childhood to the belief in a world
where 'tears shall be wiped from all eyes.' But what a
problem must such a story have presented to a pious Jew of
an age that as yet had no further gospel than that The Lord
order eth a good man's going 1 ; That the righteous are never
forsaken ; that God shews mercy unto thousands in them that
fear Him 2 ,• that whatsoever the good man doeth, il shall
prosper " ; that it is the ungodly whose prosperity is like chaff
which the wind scattereth ; and that it is on those who delight
in wickedness, that God rains down fire and brimstone, storm
and tempest i, all the woes which had fallen on the head of the
guiltless Job. Surely it might well seem as if ' the foundations
were cast dmvn] the very foundations of their faith ; surely
men might well ask, And what hath the righteous done6?
Such is the problem which will soon come before us, and will
work like leaven in the hearts of those to whose words
we shall listen. We close the book at this point to-day.
We leave Job and his friends seated in silence. There
is calm around them, but we feel that the air is heavy,
and that there is tempest in the sky. We shall hear the
storm burst and the thunder roll when next we meet.
1 Ps. xxxvii. 23, 25. a Exod. xx. 6. 8 Ps. i. 4, 5.
1 Ps. xi. 7. « Ps. xi. 3 (Prayer Book).
Nov. 21, 1885.

LECTURE III.
CHAPTERS III— VII.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chaps. III-VII.)
3 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Chapter

2 Job answered and said :
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born,
And the night which said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness ;
Let not God : regard it from above,
Neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and 2 the shadow of death claim it for their own
Let a cloud dwell upon it ;
Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it :
Let it not a rejoice among the days of the year ;
Let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Lo, let that night be 4 barren ;
Let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day,
Who are D ready to rouse up leviathan.
9 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 :
io Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb,
Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.
II Why died I not from the womb?
Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly ?
12 Why did the knees receive me ?
Or why the breasts, that I should suck ?
13 For now should I have lien down and been quiet ;
I should have slept ; then had I been at rest :

III.

1 Or, in-
qtrire after
2 Or, deep
darkness (and so
elsewhere)
3 Some
ancient versions
read, be
joined unto.
4 Or,
solitary5 Or,
skilful

48 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapters III, IV.
* >
1 Or, built
solitary
piles 2 Or,
raging

3 Heb.
wait.
4 Or, unto
exultation

5 Or, like
my meat
6 Or, the
thing which I
feared is
come 6fc.
7 Or, I
was not at
ease . . .
yet trouble
came

8 Heb.
bowing.9 Or, art
grieved

With kings and counsellors of the earth,
Which 1 built up waste places 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 2 troubling ;
And there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together ;
They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and great are there ;
And the servant is free from his master.
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,
And life unto the bitter in soul ;
Which s long for death, but it cometh not ;
And dig for it more than for hid treasures ;
Which rejoice 'exceedingly,
And are glad, when they can find the grave ?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in ?
For my sighing cometh 6 before I eat,
And my roarings are poured out like water.
For 6the thing which I fear cometh upon me,
And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.
7 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest ;
But trouble cometh.
Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
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 9 faintest ;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
Is not thy fear of God thy confidence,
And thy hope the integrity of thy ways ?

14

15

16

17

19

2324
25
26

Chapters III— VII.

49

7 Remember, I pray thee, who rzwperished, being innocent ?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,
And sow 1 trouble, reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish,
And by the blast of his anger are they consumed.
io The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,
And the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
II The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,
And the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.
12 Now a thing was z secretly brought to me,
And mine ear received a whisper thereof.
13 In thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones to shake.
1 5 Then 3 a spirit passed before my face ;
The hair of my flesh stood up.
16 It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance thereof;
A form was before mine eyes :
4 There was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
17 Shall mortal man 5 be more just than God ?
Shall a man 6be more pure than his Maker?
18 Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants ;
And his angels he chargeth with folly :
19 How much more them that dwell in houses of clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust,
Which are crushed 7 before the moth !
20 fi Betwixt morning and evening they are 9 destroyed :
They perish for ever without any regarding it.
21 10 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them ?
They die, and that without wisdom.
5 Call now ; is there any that will answer thee ?
And to which of the n holy ones wilt thou turn ?
2 For vexation killeth the foolish man,
And 12jealousy slayeth the silly one.
3 I have seen the foolish taking root :

Chap

TERS

IV,

V.

'Or,

misch.

iej

2 Heb.
brought by
stealth.

3 Or, a
breath
passed over
'Or, I
heard a
still voice
5 Or, be
just before
God
6 Or, be
pure before
his Maker
1 Or, like
8 Or, From
morning to
evening.9 Heb.
broken in
pieces. 10 Or, Is not
their excel
lency which
is in them
removed ?
1 ' See ch.
xv. 15.
12 Or, indig
nation

50

The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

'According
to many
ancientversions,
the thirsty
swallowup."Ox,iniquity See ch. iv.
8. '¦' Heb. the
sons of
flame or of

4 Or, can
perform nothingof worth

5 Heb. out
of their
mouth.

"Or, reprovelh

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 1fhe snare gapeth for their substance.
For 2 affliction cometh not forth of the dust,
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground ;
But man is born unto trouble,
As s 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 :
Who giveth rain upon the earth,
And sendeth waters upon the fields :
So that he setteth up on high those that be low ;
And those which mourn are exalted to safety.
He frustrateth the devices of the crafty,
So that their hands * cannot perform their enterprise.
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness :
And the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
They meet with darkness in the daytime,
And grope at noonday as in the night.
But he saveth from the sword °of their mouth,
Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor hath hope,
And iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
Behold, happy is the man whom God 6 correcteth :
Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
For he maketh sore, and bindeth up ;
He woundeth, and his hands make whole.
He shall deliver thee in six troubles ;
Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
In famine he shall redeem thee from death ;
And in war from the power of the sword.

10

II

13

H

15

16

17

20

Chapters III— VII.

51

21 Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue ;
Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
22 At destruction and dearth thou shalt laugh ;
Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field ;
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
24 And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace ;
And thou shalt visit thy ^old, and '-'shalt miss nothing.
25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,
And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,
Like as a shock of corn cometh in in its season.
27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is,;
Hear it, and know thou it 3for thy good.
6 Then Job answered and said,
2 Oh that my vexation were but weighed,
And my calamity laid in the balances together!
3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas :
Therefore have my words been rash.
4 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.
5 Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass ?
Or loweth the ox over his fodder ?
6 Can that which hath no savour be eaten without salt ?
Or is there any taste in 4 the white of an egg ?
7 5My soul refuseth to touch them ;
They are as loathsome meat to me.
8 Oh that I might have my request ;
And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
9 Even that it would please God to crush me ;
That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
10 Then should I yet have comfort ;
6 Yea, I would 'exult in pain 8that spareth not:
"For I have not "denied the words of the Holy One.
II What is my strength, that I should wait ?
And what is mine end, that I should be patient ?

Chapters V,VI.

lOr,
habitation2 Or, shalt
not err

3 Heb. for
thyself.

4 Or, the
juice of
purslain 5 Or, What
things my
soul refused
to touch,
these are as
my loath
some meat
6 Or,
Though I
shrink back'Or, harden myself
8 Or,
though he
spare not
9 Or, That
10 Or,
concealed

£ 2

17

19

52 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter Is my strength the strength of stones ? 12
VI- Or is my flesh of brass ?
M Is it not that I have no help in me, 13
•Or, sound And that 'effectual working is driven quite from me?
wisdom To him that is ready to faint kindness should be shewed 14
from his friend ;
2 Or, Else 2Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
might the My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, 15
Or, But he ^s tne channel of brooks that pass away ;
forsaketh Which are black by reason of the ice, 16
And wherein the snow hideth itself:
3 Or, What time they 3 wax warm, they vanish :
shrink When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
4 Or, The *The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside;
Piheirway They g° "P int0 the Waste' and Perlsh-
are turned The caravans of Tema looked,
aside The companies of Sheba waited for them.
They were ashamed because they had hoped ; 2c
They came thither, and were confounded.
5 Another For now ye "are nothing ; 2I
reading is, Ye see a terror, and are afraid.
thereto. Did I say, Give unto me? 22
Or, Offer a present for me of your substance?
Or, Deliver me from the adversary's hand? 23
Or, Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors ?
Teach me, and I will hold my peace : 24
And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
How forcible are words of uprightness ! 25
"Or, for But wnat dotn y°ur aroumg reprove?
the wind Do ye imagine to reprove words ? ,5
\?wM,bd Seeing that the sPeeches of one that is desperate are 6as wind. "
evTdait C Yea' ye would cast lots uP°n the fatherless, 27
unto you z/And make merchandise of your friend.
/ lie Now therefore be pleased to look upon me • ¦>&
8 Heb. my 7For surely I shall not lie to your face
righteous- r> .. t , , .
ness is in Return> 1 Pfay you,, let there be no injustice ;
it. Yea, return again, 8my cause is righteous.

29

Chapters III— VII.

53

30 Is there injustice on my tongue ?
Cannot my taste discern mischievous things ?
7 Is there not a 1 warfare to man upon earth?
And are not his days like the days of an hireling ?
2 As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow,
And as an hireling that looketh for his wages :
3 So am I made to possess months of vanity,
And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 When I lie down, I say,
2When shall I arise ? but the night is long ;
And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning
the day.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust ;
My skin 3closeth up and breaketh out afresh.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
And are spent without hope.
7 Oh remember that my life is wind :
Mine eye shall no more see good.
8 The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more :
Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,
So he that goeth down to 4 Sheol shall come up no more.
10 He shall return no more to his house,
Neither shall his place know him any more.
1 1 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.
12 Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,
That thou settest a watch over me?
13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me,
My couch shall ease my complaint ;
14 Then thou scarest me with dreams,
And terrifiest me through visions :
15 So that my soul chooseth strangling,
And death rather than these my bones.
16 5I loathe my life; I 6 would not live alway :
Let me alone; for my days are 7 vanity.

Chapter VII.
1 Or, time
of service

2 Or,
e When shall
I arise,
and the
night be
gone ?
3 Or, is
broken and
becomeloathsome

4 Or, the
°rave

5 Or, /
waste away
6 Or, shall
7 Or, as a
breath

54 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him, 17
VII. And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him,
— M — And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, ig
And try him every moment?
How long wilt thou not look away from me, ig
Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
1 Or, can If I have sinned, what 1 do I unto thee, O thou 2 watcher of 20
Ido men?
a Or
preserver Why haSt thou set me as a mark for tnee>
So that I am a burden to myself?
And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take 21
away mine iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust ;
And thou shalt seek me diligently, but I shall not be.

LECTURE III.
CHAPTERS1 III— VII.
The Dialogue. Job ; Eliphaz ; Job.
I invited your attention, when we last met, to the two Lecture
opening chapters of the great Book, which we have come II1-
here to study. You will not, I hope, have thought that you
were asked to linger at too great length over the scenes, so
varied, and so impressive, which those chapters placed in such
rapid succession before our eyes. You will scarcely wonder
that such a tale, told so simply and so movingly, should
have become a permanent and prized possession of gene
ration after generation of the human family. You will forgive
me for pausing once more to remind you that, important as
is the bearing of these chapters on all that is to follow, yet
that they do not constitute, as is so often taken for granted,
the main portion of the Book of Job ; that they are simply
the Introduction, the introductory narrative written throughout
in prose, to the sacred and sublime Poem to some study of
which you are now invited. Let us turn at once to the first
pages of that Poem as they lie before us to-day ; printed and
arranged, you will observe, in the Revised Version, no longer
as Prose, but as Poetry.
What is the Poem's opening scene ?
We left Job crouching in utter misery; yet calm and
patient ; the very model to all time of resignation to, and
1 For the Revised Text of these Chapters see pages 47-54.

56 The Book of Job. Chapter III.
Lecture acquiescence in, the Will of an unseen God — a God Whom
HI. he on his part had served so faithfully, and Who on His side
... had recognised so fully, before other than human circles, His
servant's full fidelity. Hast thou considered, we read, My ser
vant fob, that there is none like him on the earth ? In no single
word, we read, had Job sinned with his1 lips or blamed the God
Who had laid this burden on him. Friends also were by his
side, who sympathised with his pain, and shared his attitude
of grief. Overwhelmed by the spectacle of woe, they could
find no words to solace their afflicted friend. None, we read,
spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very
great 2.
So ended what we read last time. And with this picture
impressed upon our memory, we shall now see, if I may so
speak with reverence, the curtain lifted ; the first Act of the
tragedy, of which we hold the prologue — I use the word with
some hesitation 3 — in our hands, will begin to pass into our
view. And in a moment all is changed. One short and simple
line of prose ushers us into another world of feeling and of
language to that in which we moved so lately. Out of that long
and awful silence comes the voice of Job. It is little more
ver. i. than a loud and bitter cry of anguish. After this, we read,
fob opened his mouth and cursed his day. Here then is the
first, the greatest, the most abrupt, of all changes. The very
central figure of those that meet our eye is other than he was.
The silence that had followed his words of calm submission is
changed into deep but passionate moans, or into clamorous
and wild cries of despair. Read, my friends, the third chapter.
Put away all the glosses, all the forced interpretations, by
which good men have tried to rid and empty of its true force
'• 22i "¦ 1°. 3 ii. 13. ! Seep. 27.

Job's first cry of pain. 57
and pathos that long wail of human agony. Where in the Lecture
world will you find a sadder strain of more hopeless, uncon- ***¦
trolled, and unbroken lamentation and mourning; ? He curses „,
° Chap. m.
with all the wealth of Eastern imagery — mingling in his wild ver. 3-10.
cries strange snatches of a long-forgotten astrology1 — the day,
the hated day, that is marked by the memory of his origin and
birth into a world of pain. The short couplets of Hebrew
poetry prolong themselves, and are expanded, as you will see,
into three-lined verses, as though with the vain effort to com
press within due limits the first full and abounding outrush of
his long imprisoned agony. They are filled to the brim,
they run over, with pain. ' Better for this man,' he cries in
terrible accents, ' had he never been born. Had he but died ver. n-16.
on that accursed day, he would have slept the quiet slumber
which Death, the great leveller, brings to monarchs who sleep
each in their solitary pile — to the lordly builder of stately
pyramids, even as to the infant untimely born, or the weary
slave who tastes at last in Death the sleep of freedom.'
For now should I have lien down and been quiet ; ver. 13, 14.
/ should have slept : then had I been at rest,
With kings and counsellors of the Earth,
Which built up solitary piles for themselves.
I quote, as always, from the Revised Version, or from its
marginal rendering.
There, he cries, there in the grave, ver. 17-19.
The wicked cease from troubling,
And there the weary be at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;
1 E. g. ' Let them curse it who have power to ban days, and make them
infausti ; those who have power to rouse the Dragon that swallows up the
Sun, and to bring eclipse and darkness.' — ver. 8.

58 The Book of Job. Chapter III.
Lecture They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
'¦"-¦ The small and great are there ;
„, ... And the servant is free from his master.
Chap. in. J J
Some of the least bitter of all his words have passed, as
you see, just as they stand, into the familiar poetry of our own
land. Others, again, have their echo far and near in the world
wide music of sorrow, from the prophet Jeremiah ' and from
the poetry of Greece to the voices of our own land and
age. And soon he passes for a moment beyond the narrow
sphere of his own solitary trouble.
ver. 20, 21. Why, he cries, is life given to those who are in misery?
Which long for death, but it cometh not,
And dig for it more than for hid treasures.
But he does not, as yet, let his eye range far over the sea
of human misery. He comes back to his own seat upon
the ash-heap, and ends at last the chapter with a plaintive
cry that ease and rest and quiet are lost possessions :
/ am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest ;
ver. 26. But trouble cometh.
It is surely a very moving chapter. It requires, save
for one or two allusions, as I said before, to an astrology
that has passed away and to history that is uncertain,
singularly little explanation. There are no doubt some
obscurities in the language of our older Version, yet fewer,
far fewer, than we shall find in the chapters that await us.
The very intensity of feeling seems to fuse and burn away
peculiarities of expression, and we have before us the simple
and universal language of intolerable pain.
1 Jer. xx. 14-18 ; Soph. Oed. Col. 1225 : —
M^ tpvvat tov airavTa vi-
tf§ AcJ-yoi', *.t.A.

Job's first cry of pain. 59
And we feel also that it is very true to nature. In this Lecture
sudden, startling, and entire change of attitude on the part II1-
of the sufferer, we read a type of the effect of many an _.
unrecorded sorrow, in times and countries nearer to our own. iii, iv.
There are losses, there are blows, which men and women
sometimes meet bravely or calmly at the first shock. They do
not sound the full depth of their bitter import in an hour, or
in a day, or in seven days. How often may we have felt the
need as well as the wisdom and the force of those closing
words of the Burial Service lesson. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord. Job's earlier resignation, Job's later
outcries, may have been reproduced each in turn on a smaller
scale, within the experience of some of those whom I see
before me ; and there is something as natural and lifelike in
what we read, as if the scene had come, not from the pen of
some unknown son of Israel, but from that of the Shake
speare whose monument stands hard by us. At the same time,
every word that we have read helps to impress upon us that
to which I have so often already called your attention. We
are reminded at every step that the portion, the main and
substantial portion of the Book, the threshold of which we
have just passed, is separated by a great gulf from all that
went before and led up to it. We are breathing, and we shall
breathe, another, a more troubled and more stormy atmo
sphere. The skies in those earlier scenes were growing dark
and sombre, but all around was calm and still. Now, as I
warned you would be the case, the winds have begun to
moan, and the thunder to roar.
For the change of which I speak is not confined to Job.
The long and kindly silence of his friends— you will not, I am

60 The Book of Job. Chapters! V, V.

Lecture sure, listen to those who tell us that that silence was other
IIL than the expression of a mute sympathy — is broken at last.
„, " . It is Eliphaz the Temanite, whose name and tribal designa-
Chap. iv. r i
tion point to some district, in or near the land of Edom1,
famed in Scripture for its wisdom, who opens the debate that
is to come. He is the eldest, we may presume, of the three
friends, and his words strike the keynote which they each in
turn are to follow. To follow I say advisedly. All attempts
to make the three friends the representatives of three different
schools of thought, as we might have expected in a modern
dialogue, seem to me, I confess, somewhat illusory. Is it not
rather that they represent the majority, or rather the totality,
, of the religious world, 4s united against the one solitary
' distressful thinker who sits)or stands before them ?
But the words of Eliphaz, whatever remonstrance or
reproof they contain, are not unkindly words : certainly not
meant for such. They are well weighed and dignified, defer
ential and courteous, even apologetic in tone and form. Wilt
ver. 2. thou be grieved, he says, if one assay to commune with thee?
He is shocked at Job's wild outburst of despair. ' Once,' he
ver. 3-5. adds, ' thou didst instruct and sustain others ; '
But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest ;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
In words made for the first time intelligible in our new Ver
sion he suggests to him his former Godfearing and stainless life
as a ground, even in that dark hour, for confidence and hope.
Is not thy fear of God thy confidence?
ver. 6. And thy hope the integrity"*1 of thy ways?
1 Gen. xxxvi. 4; Jer. xlix. 7.
2 Contrast with this the A.V. Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy
hope, and the uprightness of thy ways 't

First speech of Eliphaz. 61
' God will never leave, never has left,' he says, ' the innocent Lecture
to perish.' It is the guilty, he reminds him, on whom His IIL
wrath does its full work. And he gathers up the experience „,
of his simple Arab life in a proverb common1 doubtless to ver. 7-9.
mankind from the days of the earliest husbandman,
According as I have seen, they thai plow iniquity,
And sow trouble, reap the same.
He -pictures the foes ofthe innocent under the guise of the ver. 10, 11.
strong fierce lions, whom he designates, with the rich and varied
vocabulary of an age familiar with them, under five different
names, — the lions, still, when he spoke, over a wide area the
terror of our race ; these the blast of God's anger consumes.
And as he speaks, he begins to point to that which is to be
the ver}' central question of the book. He is handling, even
if thus far tenderly and half-unconsciously, a weapon which is
soon to rive the very heart of his friend, and bring to him a
pang keener than any which has yet torn and tried him. But
he speaks more or less indirectly, obscurely, half-oracularly.
He wishes to warn Job against the vehemence of his own
complaints ; to remind him of the imperfection of man, and
the unapproachable justice and purity of God. He relates
in striking language how a revelation of divine truth came to
himself. In thoughts from the visions of the night, ver, 12-21.
When deep sleep falleth on men,
Fear came upon me and trembling,
Which made all my bones to shake.
He tells him how a strange shuddering had come over
him, and a breath seemed to fan his face, and a formless
shape, 1 For its highest application see Gal. vi. 7, 8.

62 The Book of Job. Chapters TV, V.
Lecture ' If shape it might be called that shape * had none,'
IIL had stood before him. He tells him how, as his hair

,-,, stood erect with awe, a ' still small voice ' broke the silence,
Chap. iv. ' '
and reminded him of the shortcomings and limitations
in God's sight even of Angels, and ofthe blindness and frailty
of man, who passes away like the short-lived moth or butter
fly, that flutters for an hour in the morning and is gone
before the evening — of man, the tent-cord of whose fragile
tenement is withdrawn, and he sinks to nothingness ere he
has laid his hand upon wisdom, too weak and short-lived to
attain to the higher knowledge. You will notice the two
ver. 19, 20. metaphors; that ofthe butterfly, so world-wide; the other, voice
less to us, who have left tent-life so many centuries behind.
Chap. v. And, this said, he goes on in the next chapter to hint
softly that anger and impatience would find no countenance
among God's ' Holy Ones,' i. e. His Angels ; nay, may be fatal
to those who give way to them. For they will place them in
the ranks of the foolish, i. e. the wicked, whose undeserved
prosperity passes, as his own observation has shown him, like
a dream, and is followed by the ruin of himself and of his
ver. 3-5. children. I, he says, have seen the foolish, i.e. Godless, taking
root, But suddenly I cursed, pronounced the doom of, his
habitation. He reminds him also of the inherent sinfulness,
ver. 6, 7. and therefore the inevitable suffering (for suffering does not
grow like a chance weed2), of human nature; and then, in
1 Paradise Lost, ii. 667. We may well believe Milton to have had the
passage before his mind.
2 This appears to be the meaning of verses 6 and 7. The wide
diffusion of fragments of the Book of Job is attested by a singular
quotation of verse 6 in Stanley's Dark Continent, as suggested by the
comparative safety of the solitary river islands, as opposed to the neigh
bourhood of the ferocious natives who lined its banks, vol. ii. ch. xi.

First speech of Eliphaz. €3
very stately and noble and even affectionate lines, he bids Lecture
his friend commit his cause to God, the God which doeth great *
things and unsearchable ; the beneficent Lord of Creation, chaD v
Who giveth rain upon the earth, ver. 8-16.
And sendelh waters on the field ;
the wise and powerful governor of the world, Who taketh the
wise in their own craftiness, Who (how incessantly do we meet
the thought) ' humbles the proud and insolent, but looks with
favour on the oppressed and poor.' And next, in words
which we must all feel to breathe a spirit of tenderness on a
level with their essential, even if misapplied, wisdom and
beauty, he bids his friend accept his suffering as the welcome
chastisement of a loving God, — not put away or despise His
correcting rod.
Behold, he says, happy is the man whom God correcteth : ver. 17.
Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
It is a fruitful thought, this corrective and remedial power
of suffering, which he touches for a moment, even if only
for a moment, with exceeding tenderness and force : ' There
fore despise not the chastening of the Almighty.'
And he promises him, in some ten touching verses, that if
he does this, the great Physician,
Who maketh sore and bindeth up, ver. 18-27.
Who woundeth and His hands make whole,
will even yet heal his wounds, and lead him gently through a
long vista of peace and happiness, described with a rich
prodigality of vivid Eastern images, to a timely and happy
end. ' Like ripe fruit he shall drop into the lap of his
mother-earth.' Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full ag4, ver. 26.
Like as a shock of corn cometh in in its season.

64 The Book of Job. Chapters IV, V.
Lecture Note well, my friends, his language. Can anything seem
at first sight sweeter, tenderer, wiser, more deeply religious ?
Chan ^ne verse °f h*s speech finds its echo, alike in the Book
of Proverbs1 and in an impressive passage of the Epistle
to the Hebrews2 which our Church has borrowed for the
1 visitation ' of those, who, like Job, are sick and afflicted.
Another3 is the one only verse of the whole book which is,
beyond question, directly quoted in the New Testament.
Take his words fairly, and those of Job fairly, each i. e. as
they are spoken ; not as wrested and twisted and tortured
into meanings quite alien to them. Place them side by
side. Do not these seem the language of some thoughtful
Christian friend and consoler? those the mere sick, im
patient, uncontrolled cry of torture? And the questions
which we shall soon have before us are these. How is it
that our sympathies are — is it not so ? — with Job, not with
his friend or friends ? And how is it that God's judgment will
be given, later on, entirely in accordance with our sympathies ?
This is after all one of the grave and real problems of the
book: we shall see it grow into distincter shape as we
read on.
One thing is clear. The words of Eliphaz, however well
meant, fall wide of their mark. Truth after truth has been
uttered by him. But these truths bring no comfort or con
viction to his afflicted friend. To him this wholesome food
seems poison.
Chap. vi. We open chapter vi, and once more Tob speaks. If he
does not return to the mere passionate cry of his first utter
ance, his words have within them something of an even
deeper strain of pain and torture. His meaning is often
1 iiL "• 2 *"• 5- 3 ver. 13 ; see 1 Cor. iii. 19.

ver. 1-10.

Job's reply to Eliphaz.

absolutely lost in the perplexed and perplexing phrases of Lecture
his language as represented by our Authorized Version. You IH"
may trace it without much difficulty in the new Revision. ch Ti_
'Ah! could my cries be once fairly weighed against my ver- 2> 3-
pain, then men would see, why my words have been so wild
and rash. The arrows of God,' he says, as a Psalmist sings1, ver. 4.
'stick fast in the frame; there is poison in my veins; the
terrors of God are embattled against my besieged spirit. I
cry out,' he says, ' even as the dumb creatures, that cry out at ver. 5-7.
nature's prompting in the pangs of hunger. I cry because I
must. The feast of life has been turned to loathsomeness ;
are my lips to smile over the bitter and repulsive banquet of
anguish ? '
The arrows of the Almighty are within me,
The poison thereof my spirit drinketh up.
Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?
Or loweth the ox over his fodder ?
What things my soul refuseth to touch,
These are as my loathsome meat.
' Ah ! ' he cries, ' for the one blessing that God can ver. 8, 9.
give me, the gift of Death. Even that it would please
God to crush me. Place this before me, and I should exult ver. 10.
even in unsparing pain. I should pass away ' — and here we
have the first trace of what he will so often put forth as his
very shield and defence — 'with the sense that I have not
denied or disobeyed the words of the Holy One. I should
die calmly, for I should die innocent/ It is bold language ;
but he does not rest there. 'Why talk to me,' he says to his ver. n-13.
friend, ' of the future ? What end have I in view to make me
patient ? ' 1 Psalm xxxviii. 2.
F

66 The Book of Job. Chapters VI, VII.
Lecture Is my strength the strength of stones ?
Or is my flesh of brass ?
Ch i Or rather of quivering, throbbing, sensitive yet helpless
flesh and blood ? ' ' Ah ! my friends,' he says, apostrophizing
all three, in answer to their leader, ' where is your pity, where
your sympathy for your despairing and much tried friend ? '
ver. 14. To him that is ready to faint kindness should be shewedfrom his
friend; Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty,
ver. 15-21. even, i.e. if for a moment he fail in resignation. ' Surely in
my sorrow, even if in fault, you are to me as the deceitful
torrent to the wayfaring caravan; rushing full at one
season, and turbid with the cold ice, and swollen with snow ;
but dried up and looked for in vain in the hour of need,
when the sun beats down on the thirsty traveller.'
The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside ;
They go up into the waste and perish.
The caravans of Tema looked (but looked in vain).
The companies of Sheba waited for them,
waited for the stream that never came. Ask some Australian
explorer, ask some soldier from the deserts that skirt the Nile,
— he will tell you the deadly significance of the metaphor.
ver. 22-30. And then, in bitter agony, he asks what else but the
precious gift of sympathy had he sought from them. No
gifts of money, no means to ransom him from some greedy
freebooter or powerful foe. 'Do not offer me,' he seems
to say, 'these pious generalities, these good texts, this
good advice; show me my sin, and I will repent of it.
Do not dwell on my hot words of pain, do not take
ver. 27. advantage, make merchandise of, your lost friend. But
begin your course again, do me no wrong ; right is on my
side. Do I not know good from evil? Yes, my cause is

Job's Reply to Eliphaz. 67
righteous, my miseries are undeserved. Return, I pray you, Lecture
go back upon your words; Yea, return again, my cause is II1-
righteous! Our thoughts, as we read this language and are tempted to
condemn its touch, its more than touch, of petulance, must go
back a moment to the character of the speaker as sketched
once and again in the Introduction. And that man was
perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil;
the greatest, but lately, of the sons of the East.
And he turns in the seventh chapter from his friends, false Chap. vii.
friends he already calls them, to the God Who is afflicting him. ver'
' Ah ! how hard,' he says, ' is man's destiny. Life is like the
weary day of the poor soldier, or the hireling toiler, each
doomed to suffer at another's will. And as the slave longs for
the evening shadows that bring him respite, or the hireling for
his pay, so through weary nights of pain, and tossings to and
fro, and cravings for the dawn ' — you will note the vividness
of the picture — ' I yearn for the end.' Listen to him.
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 ver. 4.
of the day.
Some of us may have read but lately of
' Pain that ... at night
Stirs up again in the heart of the sleeper, and stings him
back to the curse of the light 1 ! '
But no singer of any land or age can surpass the simple
pathos of Job. ' Life that should be long and happy is short
and bitter. Swift as a shuttle's flight go the hopeless days
that lead me to my doom.'
' Vastness,' by Lord Tennyson. Macmillan's Magazine, Nov. 1885.

1 1-

68 The Book of Job. Chapters VI, VII.
Lecture ' Ah ! remember,' he says with a pathetic cry, ' Thou great
IIL Creator, how frail my life ; how it must end for ever in death.'
„, Oh remember that my life is wind:
Chap. vii. -^ J
ver. 7-1 1. Mine eye shall no more see good.
Soon the eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more :
Thine eye shall be upon me, but I shall not be.
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,
So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
He shall return no more to his house,
Neither shall his place know him any more.
' And therefore,' he says, ' with this final doom so near
ahead, I will speak boldly; with a courage born of the
approach of death.'
7" will speak in the anguish of my spirit,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
And his words are no longer, as heretofore, mere cries of
anguish ; there begins to mingle with his complaints a note
of reproach that will soon wear a still more startling form.
ver. 12-15. 'Am I,' he cries, as in half-delirious pain, ' a raging ocean
or a fierce sea monster, that Thou, my God, must needs
guard against me with these plagues, these nightly terrors,
and these ghastly visions of my dread malady, which make
death, any death, seem a boon after the life I loathe?
No monster I, but a poor weak creature.' And then he
takes the words of an immortal Psalm L, familiar to our ears,
and, as it seems, to his, and turns them from a note of
ver. 16-19. exultant praise to a wild wail of torture. 'Leave me alone', he
cries, ' my days are as a breath. What is man that thou shouldst
magnify him, by making him thus the object of Thy heavy
scourge ? that day by day thou visitest that humble weakling,
1 Psalm viii. 'A bitter parody' is the forcible phrase of Dr. Cheyne.

Job's reply to Eliphaz. 69
yea, visitest him,' as the Psalmist sings, 'but, alas! with the Lecture
wrath of heaven ? Ah ! for one moment give me rest,' for
that brief space which, in Arab phrase, answers to our „, ;.
'twinkling of an eye.'
The pious reader may well shrink back from language
which before was often veiled to him in the safe obscurity of
unmeaning words, and now stands out in its naked and
almost appalling force.
' If 1 have sinned] he goes on to cry, ' what is that to thee, ver. 20, 21.
O stern unfeeling watcher of mankind?'
It is his God, you will remember, whom he, the pious Job, is
thus apostrophizing. ' I, the poor pismire in the dust, will my
error, or my wrong-doing affect Omnipotence ? Ah 1 pardon
my transgression, whatever it be, ere it be too late ! A little
while and I shall lie down in the dust, and even thy keen eye
will look for me in vain.'
What are we to say to such language ? It is a monotone
that you will hardly find monotonous. I have placed it
before you at some length, passing by but little, in order that
you may fully enter into something of the real character, and
the real difficulties, of the book that is before us. You have
listened to two long utterances, measured speeches we can
hardly call them, on the part of Job. What is the character
of his language ? Where is the patience, where the submission,
so calm, so dutiful, so beautiful, of the Job whom we knew
before ? Is there a trace of it left ? Surely from first to last
we have not as yet one touch of such meek acquiescence in
suffering as we have seen, some of us, on beds of pain : such as
we would pray earnestly to attain to, in some measure, in
our own hour of trial. We see nothing of the frame of
mind in which a Moslem, whose very name implies sub-

ro The Book of Job. Chapters VI, VII.
• — ¦ —  — ¦ — ¦
Lecture mission, or a Stoic, a Marcus Aurelius, to say nothing of
nl- a Christian, would wish to meet the sharpest pang. We feel
— do we not ? — that the very object of these wild cries is partly
to intensify our sense of the woes that fell on Job, yet mainly
to make us feel how boundless is his bewilderment at finding
this terrible measure of suffering meted out, as the seeming
recompense for a life of innocence.
And yet we, the readers, are, must be, intended to feel with
him. Admirable, pious, well-intentioned as are the words
of Eliphaz, they seem to belong to another spiritual world
than that of Job's cries. We cannot but feel the sharp con
trast between them, and you will, I hope, feel with me that
some great question must be at stake, some vital problem
stirring in the air, or we should not be called on to listen,
on the one hand to the calm, well-rounded, unimpeachable
teaching of Eliphaz, and on the other side to the bitter,
impassioned complaints, the almost rebellious' cries, of one
whose praise is in all the churches.
This then is one question which will be pressed on us more
and more, as we read the book. How is it that the Saint,
the saintly hero, who stands in the fore-front of the drama,
uses language which we dare not use, which we would pray
to be preserved from using in our bitterest hour of suffering?
How is it that, thus far at least, the foremost of his
opponents speaks nothing which is not to be found on the
lips of Psalmist or of Prophet, little that is not worthy of
lips which have been touched by a still higher teaching?
How is it that for all this, we shall, as we know, in due time
have the highest of all authorities for holding that he and
they, in their insight into the highest truths, fall below the
Job whom they rebuke, and whom we ourselves cannot

Job's reply to Eliphaz.

but reprove ? Surely so far, the great Judge of this debate Lecture
must be listening with full approval to the good Eliphaz ;
with stern, if pitiful, displeasure to the wild cries of Job.
If I have done no more than put before you this one sub
ject for reflection, I shall have not wasted your time to-day.
We shall deal further with the question when we meet again.
For the riddle will grow and grow as the dialogue proceeds ;
though the answer may also in some degree begin to unfold
itself. As we see the most edifying of truths, and the most
earnest of exhortations fail to produce their effect on the spirit
of God's suffering servant, we shall begin to suspect that
the book is meant to bring home to us some lesson that lies
outside these exhortations, and to suggest some truth that
stands apart from those truths. The nature of this truth and
that lesson we shall see less dimly as we read on.

Nov. 28, 18

LECTURE IV.
CHAPTERS VIII— XI.

THE BOOK OF JOB.
(REVISED VERSION. Chapters VIII— XI.)
8 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Chapter
2 How long wilt thou speak these things ? VIII.
And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty — m —
wind?
3 Doth God pervert judgement ?
Or doth the Almighty pervert justice ?
4 x If thy children have sinned against him, x Ox, If thy
And he have delivered them into the hand of their trans- children
gression : s!mff. ¦ ¦ ¦
5 If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God, &c.
And make thy supplication to the Almighty;
6 If thou wert pure and upright ;
Surely now he would awake for thee,
And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
7 And though thy beginning was small,
Yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
g For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched
out :
j (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow :)
io Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,
And utter words out of their heart?
II Can the 2rush grow up without mire? 2 Of>
Can the 3flag grow without water? papyrus
. Or Tced~
12 Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, grass
It withereth before any other herb.
13 So are the paths of all that forget God ;

19

76 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapters And the hope of the godless man shall perish :
VIII, IX. Whose confidence shall : break in sunder, 14
M And whose trust is a spider's '¦'web.
Or, be cut j_je ^u jean UpQn j^g house, but it shall not stand : 15
2 Heb ^e snaU hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure.
house. He is green before the sun, 16
And his shoots go forth over his garden.
'" Or, beside His roots are wrapped 3about the heap, 17
the spring He beholdeth the place of stones.
If he be destroyed from his place, 18
Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Behold, this is the joy of his way,
1 Or, dust And out of the ''earth shall others spring.
Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, 20
Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.
5 Or, Till 5 He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, 2I
he fill And thy ,ips with shoutjng-
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; 22
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.
Then Job answered and said, 9
Of a truth I know that it is so : 2
6 Or, For 6But how can man be just 7with God?
I °r' bTfre 8H he be pleased to contend with him, 3
8 Or, If one TT , . J
should "e cannot answer him one of a thousand.
desire ... He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength : 4
m>t°&c Wh° hath hardened himself against him, and prospered?
Which removeth the mountains, and they know it not, 5
When he overturneth them in his anger.
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, 6
And the pillars thereof tremble.
Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; 7
And sealeth up the stars.
Which alone stretcheth out the heavens, 8
9 Heb. And treadeth upon the "waves of the sea.
highplaces. which maketh the Bearj 0r.on) and the pleiadeS) ^
And the chambers of the south.
Which doeth great things past finding out ; 10

Chapters VIII— XI.

11

Yea, marvellous things without number.
II Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not :
He passeth on also, but I perceive him not.
12 Behold, he seizeth the prey, who can x hinder him?
Who will say unto him, What doest thou ?
13 God will not withdraw his anger ;
The helpers of 2Rahab 3do stoop under him.
14 How much less shall I answer him,
And choose out my words to reason with him?
15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer ;
I would make supplication to 'mine adversary.
16 If I had called, and he had answered me ;
Yet would I not believe that he hearkened unto my voice.
17 'For he breaketh me with a tempest,
And multiplieth my wounds without cause.
18 He will not suffer me to take my breath,
But filleth me with bitterness.
19 "If we speak of the strength of the mighty, 7lo, he is there\
And if of judgement, who will appoint me a time ?
20 Though I be righteous, mine own mouth shall condemn me
Though I be perfect, 8it shall prove me perverse.
21 9 1 am "perfect; I regard not myself;
I despise my life.
22 It is all one ; therefore I say,
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
23 If the scourge slay suddenly,
He will mock at the n trial of the innocent.
24 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 ?
25 Now my days are swifter than a 12post :
They flee away, they see no good.
26 They are passed away as the 13 swift ships :
As the eagle that swoopeth on the prey.
27 If I say, I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad countenance, and 14be of good cheer
28 I am afraid of all my sorrows,

Chapter IX.

1 Or, turn
him back

2 Or, ar-
rogancy See Is. xxx.
7- 3 Or, did
* Or, him
that would
»« me

5 Heb. He
who.6 Or, If we
speak of
strength, lo,
he is
mighty7 Or, Lo,
here am I,
saith he ;
and if of

Who &=c.
8 Or, he
9 Or,
Though I
be perfect,
I will not
regard &*c.
10 See ch. i.
1.
11 Or,
calamity 12 Or,
runner
13 Heb.
ships of
reed. « Heb.
brightenup.

78 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapters IX, X.

1 Another
reading is,
with snow.
2 Heb.
cleanse my
hands with
lye.3 Or,
umpire

4 Heb.
labour.

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.
I shall be condemned ; 29
Why then do I labour in vain?
If I wash myself Jwith snow water, 30
And 2make my hands never so clean ;
Yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, 31
And mine own clothes shall abhor me.
For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, 32
That we should come together in judgement.
There is no 3 daysman betwixt us, 33
That might lay his hand upon us both.
Let him take his rod away from me, 34
And let not his terror make me afraid :
Then would I speak, and not fear him ; 35
For I am not so in myself.
My soul is weary of my life; 10
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; 2
Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, 3
That thou shouldest despise the "work of thine hands,
And shine upon the counsel of the wicked ?
Hast thou eyes of flesh, 4
Or seest thou as man seeth ?
Are thy days as the days of man, 5
Or thy years as man's days,
That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, 6
And searchest after my sin,
Although thou knowest that I am not wicked ; 7
And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand ?
Thine hands have framed me and fashioned me 8
Together round about ; yet thou dost destroy me.
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me as clay ; 9
And wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Hast thou not poured me out as milk, I0
And curdled me like cheese?

Chapters VIII— XI.

79

II Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 Thou hast granted me life and favour,
And thy x visitation hath preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things thou didst hide in thine heart ;
I know that this is with thee :
14 If I sin, then thou markest me,
And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
1 5 If I be wicked, woe unto me ;
And if I be righteous, yet shall I not lift up my head ;
2 Being filled with ignominy
And looking upon mine affliction.
16 And if my head exalt itself, thou huntest me as a lion :
And again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,
And increasest thine indignation upon me ;
3 Changes and warfare are with me.
18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb
1 had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me.
19 I should have been as though I had not been ;
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? * cease then,
And let me alone, that I may 5take comfort a little,
21 Before I go whence I shall not return,
Even to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
22 A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself;
A land of the shadow of death, without any order,
And where the light is as darkness.
11 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2 Should not the multitude of words be answered ?
And should a man full of talk be justified ?
3 Should thy boastings make men hold their peace ?
And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed
4 For thou sayest, My doctrine is pure,
And I am clean in thine eyes.
5 But Oh that God would speak,
And open his lips against thee ;

Chapters X, XI.

Or, care

2 Or, I am
filled with
ignominy,but look
thou . . .
for it in-
creaseth :
thou &c.
3 Or, Host
? after host
is against
me

4 Another
reading is,
let him
cease, and
leave me
alone.5 Heb.
brightentip.

80 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, 6
XI. l That it is manifold in effectual working !
— m — Know therefore that God 2exacteth of thee less than thine
1 Or, For iniquity deserveth.
w^dom is 3 Canst thou by searching find out God? 7
manifold Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?
2 Or, re- 4 It is high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? 8
mitteth Deeper than 5Sheol; what canst thou know?
cause'th to The measure thereof is longer than the earth, 9
be forgot- And broader than the sea.
ten) unto If he through, and shut up, 10
thee of . , * „ . , , , ,.,,.,
thine And "call unto judgement, then who can hinder him ?
iniquity For he knoweth vain men : 1 1
3 Or, Canst He seeth iniquity also, 7 even though he consider it not.
tou7ihend 8But vain man is void of understanding, 12
deep things Yea, man is born as a wild ass's colt.
of God? if thou set thine heart aright, 13
4 Heb. The And stretch out thine hands toward him ;
heaven If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, 14
5 Or, the And let not unrighteousness dwell in thy tents ;
grave Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot ; 15
6 Heb. call Yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear :
an assem- Fqt thou shaI). forget thy m;sery . jg
7 0r and Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away :
him that And thy life shall 9be clearer than the noonday ; 17
sidereth Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.
Or But And tnou snalt be secure, because there is hope ; 18
an empty Yea, thou shalt search about thee, and shalt take thy rest in
man will safety.
Standing', Als0 thou shalt lie down> and none sria11 make thee afraid; 19
when a Yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
wild ass's But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, 20
a0lman°rn And 1<>tney sha11 have n° Way t0 flee>
9 Or, arise And their hoPe sha11 be tne giving up of the ghost.
above i° Heb. refuge is perished from them.

con.7lOt

LECTURE IV.
CHAPTERS VIII— XI.
The Dialogue continued. Bildad the Shuhile (chap. viii).
fob's reply (chap, ix, x). Zophar the Naamathite (chap. xi).
I paused, when last we met here, at the end of the seventh Lecture
chapter, at the close of the second of Job's plaintive wails of

pain and bewilderment. <-., vii;
You will have been struck, I am sure, by the sharp
contrast between his present and his former attitude. You
will have noticed also the collision, already showing itself,
between his own view of the visitation that has fallen upon
him, and that taken by the foremost and kindliest of the
friends who have come to console him. To-day we shall see
this contrast grow more marked, and the breach grow wider
and more insuperable. The language of his friends will
become sterner ; their interpretation of the meaning of his
sufferings will be put forward more harshly and more distinctly ;
their view of his moral and spiritual condition will become
more and more unfavourable. Job's language, on the other
hand, charged as it is to the full with moans of pain, and
ringing already with cries of impatience, will assume by
degrees a more startling form than it has yet worn. We
have seen already Job the Patient give place, we might
almost say, to Job the Impatient. We shall see to-day, in
the chapters that will now come before us, a change that
passes beyond even this. G

82 The Book of Job. Chapter VIII.
Lecture The second of his friends comes forward in the eighth
chapter. Bildad the Shuhite he is called, of the race we may
Chap. viii. conjecture of Shuah, a son of Abraham mentioned in Genesis1
ver. i. as having in his Father's lifetime settled ' in the East country.'
At all events we have in him another of those ' Sons of the
East ' to whom Job himself belonged ; an Arab chieftain of
the seed of Abraham, it may be, but certainly no member of
the chosen race.
He begins, you will notice2, in a very different tone from that
in which Eliphaz had spoken. There is not a word of
apology, or any touch of friendly sympathy. There is no
ver. 2. attempt to soothe and calm the sufferer. ' How long, how long',
he begins, with the very words, Quousque tandem, with which
the great Roman Orator opened his tremendous invective
against Catiline. ' How long shall thy rash railings go by us
like a boisterous and unmeaning wind? Darest thou so
ver. 3. much as hint that God, a Being of absolute justice, sends on
thee, or any child of man, undeserved suffering ? '
Bildad grasps at once, as we say, the nettle. He is quite
sure that he has the key to the secret of the distribution
among mankind of misery and happiness. It is a very simp'e
solution. We shall meet it again and again as we go on.
It is the doctrine that untimely death, that sickness, that
adversity in every form, are alike signs of God's anger ; that
they visit mankind with unerring discrimination ; are all what
we call 'judgments '; are penalties, i.e. or chastisements, meant
either simply to vindicate the broken law, or else to warn and
reclaim the sinner. And so, in what we feel to be harsh and un-
1 XXV. 2, 6.
2 For the Revised Text of these chapters see, as before, the pages
immediately preceding.

First speech of Bildad. 83

RE

feeling terms, he applies at once this principle, like unsparing lectu
cautery, to the wounds of his friend. ' If thy poor children,' he IV.
says, ' have been cut off for their sins, there is still time allowed "
thee for repentance. Turn diligently to God, and He will ^er^-o"
turn to thee ; pray to the Almighty ; show thyself pure and
upright before Him, and His favour will be restored, and this
dark chapter in thy life will end in a brightness that shall
surpass all that went before ;'
' And though thy beginning was small, ver. 7.
Yet thy latter end should greatly increase!
A quite unconscious and unintentional prediction, we may
note, of the closing page of the book.
And then he too, as he who spoke before him, having no
written word to appeal to, no passage from Holy Writ to
quote to the confusion of his friend — for you will not forget
that we are far removed in this book from the land and race
in which the words of the Old Testament were treasured as
the oracles of God— throws himself back upon other authority
than his own. He can of course quote no text, and he
brings forward no vision of the night as Eliphaz did ; but
he calls to his aid the accumulated wisdom of earlier ages, ver. 8-10.
the voice of that older, wiser world, which the ephemeral
generations of men have so often in their turn invoked. And
he tries to overwhelm the restless and presumptuous audacity,
as he calls it, of Job, with a hoard of maxims and of
metaphors drawn from the storehouse of the ' wisdom of the
ancients.' He puts them forward in a form that may remind
us for a moment ofthe Book of Proverbs. 'As the tall ver. 10-15.
bulrush,' it may be the papyrus of the Nile to which the
word points, ' or the soaring reed-grass, dies down, faster than
it shot up, when water is withdrawn, so falls and withers the
g 2

84 The Book of Job: Chapter VIII.
Lecture short-lived prosperity of the forge tters of their God. The
IV- spider's web, frailest of tenements, is the world-old type of
,„ ... the hopes which the ungodly builds. The green climbing
Chap. vm. r °
ver. 16-19. plant that strikes its root so deep, feeling its way through the
bed of stones (or down to earth's secret springs), and spreads
its branches so far in the bright sunlight, and then is destroyed
so easily, and leaves its place for other growths of earth, is
the type of the joy ' — -we feel the irony of the phrase — ' of
those who seem for a while so happy, yet perish beneath the
righteous touch of a God who reads the heart.'
We seem to be reading verses of some one of the many
Psalms that speak in the same tone ofthe sure retribution that
falls on the wicked. Yet his words jar strangely upon our
ears, for our thoughts must needs go back to that scene in
which God Himself had borne testimony, in the very courts of
Heaven, to the faithfulness and goodness of ' His servant Job.'
And now he, who, doubtless with the best intentions,
is playing the part of the frank and plain-spoken but loyal
friend, has reached, he thinks, ground on which he may
suggest words of hope and cheering. He may once more,
without wounding his own conscience, mingle encourage-
ver. 20-22. ment with exhortation and remonstrance. 'God will never
cast away,' he says, ' a perfect man.' ' Be thy true self,' he
seems to whisper, ' once again.' ' He will yet fill thy mouth
with laughter, And thy lips with shouting. Thine enemies
^ and the enemies of all the good, will be clothed with shame.'
Once more we hear the voice of some stern Psalmist of old,
' They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame ;
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more'
If you study closely these words of Bildad you will
see that the plot of the drama, if I may so speak, is

First speech of Bildad. 85

Chaps.
viii, ix.

gradually unfolding itself. The second friend is empha- Lectur
sising what the first had hinted. We shall hear stronger IV-
and clearer language soon. But you may already see the
view which is being disclosed more and more nakedly.
1 There are no mysteries at all, no puzzles, in human life,'
the friends say. 'Suffering is, in each and every case, the
consequence of ill doing. God's righteousness is absolute.
It is to be seen at every turn in the experience of life. All
this impatient, fretful, writhing under, or at the sight of, pain
and loss, is a sign of something morally wrong, of want
of faith in Divine justice. Believe this, Job; act on it,
and all thy troubles will be over; God will be once more
thy friend ; till then He cannot be.'
But Job finds no comfort in this teaching. He had not,
remember, before him the spectacle of One who bore the
sharpest pains in full communion with Him whom He
invoked as ' Abba, Father.' He is rather the solitary leader
of those who were the first to feel and face the mystery
of pain. If he was himself the very type and foreshadowing
of One who, in a deeper sense than his friends had sounded,
was to be ' stricken and afflicted,' yet beloved, he had no
consciousness of this to support him. And his friends'
solution brings him no anodyne; rather it suggests to his
wounded spirit thoughts which bring mere pain, a sharper
pain than the worst pangs which rack him. For they gather
up, and give shape and form to, his own dark misgiving that
God has become his foe.
He answers, in chapter ix, with a touch of irony. ' Doubt- Chap.
less you are right ! Wise are your words ! You bid me ver' 2'
turn to God, and plead with Him. Vain counsel 1 How
can man, though he feels his innocence, make good his

86 The Book of Job. Chapters IX, X.
Lecture cause before such an adversary ? How answer one of the
thousand questions which this dread opponent might put ? '
Chap ix ^e are transPorl:ed, it may be, from Arab tent-life to other
scenes and associations. But we see clearly what is more
important, how far Job is drifting from his earlier relation to
ver. 4-10. God as his friend. ' God,' he says, ' is, I know it well, wise
in heart,' in understanding, as we should say, ' and mighty
in strength. Who hath hardened himself against Him and
prospered? He removes the mountains, and shakes the earth,
and stays the sun, and sealeth up the stars, and spreads
out the heavens, and walks the waves of the pathless sea.
The bright constellations that illumine the skies of night
are His handiwork.' He doeth great things past finding out ;
Yea, marvellous things without number.
He quotes, but in a very different mood, the words of Eliphaz,
just as he had turned to a cheerless and darker meaning the
glad creation-hymn of the thankful Psalmist1. 'Yes,' he
says, ' God is mighty : but He is far away, and invisible,
ver. 11. mysterious and inscrutable. Lo, He goeth by me, and I see
Him not : He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not' He
seems for a moment to be speaking the words of men of our
own day; but we are carried back in another instant to
ver. 13. an early age, to some forgotten myth of a ' Rahab' and his
' helpers ' ; some Titans, as it were, or monsters who vainly
ver. 12-16. braved God's power. ' Yes I the mightiest forms of nature are
weak before Him ; and what am I ? Vain for me to plead
and reason or dispute with such a Being 1 However good,
however righteous my cause, I dare not answer Him ; I could
only grovel in supplication, vain supplication, before Him.'
1 See above, p. 68.

Job's reply to Bildad. 87
And this thought of God's irresistible power begins to Lecture
mingle with the sense of the agonies with which He is IV-
torturing His weak creature, and with the conviction, which „.
that creature will not part with, of his own innocence, ver. 17.
And the result is terrible. ' He breaketh me with a tempest.
He multiplieth my wounds without cause! Is it a pious Patri
arch, or is it a Prometheus nailed to a rock for vultures to
tear, who is speaking ? And then through a short train of
words, unintelligible in our ordinary Bibles, dark, even
though less dark, in the original, but charged with the
thought — one that makes him despise or loathe his life— -that
he can have no fair trial before this Dread Being, he passes ver. 18-21.
to a further and more harrowing stage of hopelessness and
despair. Job has spoken already of God as cruel ; as Almighty, but
no ' Father of all mercies,' as we daily name Him here. But
now his wild and rebellious words, which we might have looked
on as simply half-articulate moans wrung from a tortured
frame, begin to take another and a darker form. This God,
so all-powerful, so unpitying and wrathful, is losing in his
sight the one attribute which makes mere power an object of
reverence or veneration. He is no longer content to question
His Mercy: he questions, he denies, His Righteousness.
And in awful words, which startled a Jerome1 in an early
age, and drove a Gregory into interpretations which will not
bear a moment's calm consideration, he draws nearer and
nearer to, seems indeed to tread on the very edge of, that
fatal act of blasphemy, that entire and open renunciation of
his God, to which Satan pointed as the sure result of the trial
which was to be laid upon him. Listen to him.
1 Nihil asperius {in libra), says Jerome.

88 The Book of Job. Chapters IX, X.
Lecture < // is all one,' he cries, ' all one, guilt or innocence in His
IV' sight. Yes! He destroy eth the perfect and the wicked. If the
Chap. ix. scourge slay suddenly, when some plague i. e. strikes down
ver. 22, 23. mankind, 'He, the Mighty one, mocketh at the destruction of
the innocent. Up to His unregarding ears go the appealing
cries of the pious, and the fierce curses of the wicked.' And
worse remains : ' here below, the earth is given' cries Job,
ver. 24. ¦ into the hand of the wicked! We seem to be invited once
more to look out beyond this Arab life, beyond those plains
of Asia, on a world more like that over which the melancholy
muser of Ecclesiastes uttered his dirge of sadness. And he
passes, in his sharp paroxysm, even beyond the darkest pas
sage of that mournful book of sighs. For, worse still, He,
the Lord of all mankind, ' covereth! he tells us, ' the faces of
the fudges, veils their eyes, and blinds them to the rights and
the wrongs of those whom they are to judge. If it be not
He, who then is it? He alone is answerable for all earthly
wrongs, for mine and for all.'
We hold our breath, brethren — do we not ? — as we read or
listen to his words. As for those earlier cries of pain, so
piercing, so natural, we read in them what Chateaubriand
called ' the cry of suffering humanity ' ; we remember the Eli,
Eli, Lama Sabachthani ? which went up centuries later, in an
awful moment of darkness, from Him who ' bore our griefs
and carried our sorrows.' But we have here something, for
the faintest trace of which we should turn in vain to Geth-
semane or Calvary. It goes beyond the Psalmist's cry, hath
God forgotten to be gracious^? 'He is not ungracious only,'
says Job, ' but unjust ' ; and before the sufferer's distempered
eye rise for a moment all the injustices of Eastern life, with
1 Ps. lxxvii. 9.

Job's reply to Bildad. 89
God as their author behind them. And this from the lips of Lectu re
Job the Patient ! IV-
Once more : ' The earth {whole lands, we are told, is the c] ix
precise meaning) is given into the hand of the wicked! You, ver. 24.
if such there be among us, who sometimes find it hard to
reconcile your faith in God with the spectacle, not of the
miseries only, but of the moral, the political, the social evils
of the world, draw near and see how a Saint of that older
world writhed for a moment under the same misgivings.
And they will return again to him; they will come back,
I will not say in a darker, but in a more abiding shape.
And yet he, he who speaks thus, was dear to the God whose
essential attribute he for a moment questioned in his hour of
torture. For a moment only, so far. The throb of pain calls him
back, as it did the young poet of the last generation, tolls
him back again to his sole self. 'His bitter days,' he cries, ver. 25-31.
' like the sweetest days of old, are running fast away. They
flee away, they see no good ; fast as the runner who carries the
message of victory or defeat ; fast as the light reed-skiffs that
skim the waters of the mighty Nile ; fast as the swoop of the
eagle on its prey. And vain it is to try to put away my looks
of sorrow, and smile under my woes. I feel,' he says, ' I feel
that I must be under Thy displeasure.' See how he yearns
toward the God, whom in the same breath he had almost
defied. ' If Thou holdest me guilty, why should I toil in vain
to justify myself? I may wash myself white as snow ; hold
up hands clean from all defilement ; Thou canst plunge me
in the filth, till my very garments abhor me. He is not a man ver. 32, 33.
as I am, that I should answer Him. There is no judge,
no umpire, no "daysman" betwixt Thee and me ; none who

90 The Book of Job. Chapters IX, X.
Lecture can claim authority over us each and both.' And the chapter
Iv- ends with a pathetic appeal that God would remove His rod,
Cha" ix ease him of his pangs, take away his terrors, and leave him
free to assert his innocence.
Is there a monotony in these prolonged cries, my friends ?
You will hardly, I think, find it a wearisome monotony. It
is too intensely human to fail to touch a fibre in all our hearts.
I need not pause for a moment to point out the boldness,
the freedom, the unrestrained force, with which the sacred
writer paints the conflict of the soul which feels its innocence,
and yet, bred in the faith held so firmly by all around it, that
all suffering is a sure mark of God's displeasure, tosses to
and fro on its bed of perplexity and pain.
Chap. a. And now follows a chapter in which that sick soul pleads
once more with the God to whom, in spite of all, it cleaves so
earnestly. He forgets his friends, and thinks in that awful
hour of misery of Him and of Him only.
ver. i. My soul is weary of my life;
I will give free course to my complaint ;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
It is a tragic chapter, to which these words are the preface.
We can hardly wonder at the temptation felt by a great
Commentator1 to strip it of its meaning and reduce it, now to
a riddling prophecy of heresies to come, now to safe and
feeble and almost common-place counsels of pastoral advice.
Let us listen to the real Job, the half-proud, half-humble chief,
pouring out a torrent, a volcanic torrent, of tumultuous
complaint.
ver. 2-7. He implores and implores his God to teach him wherein
1 The tenth book of Sancti Gregorii Magna Moralia is given entirely
to these two chapters.

Job's reply to Bildad. 91
he has offended. ' Surely He cannot be an oppressor ; He Lecture
cannot smile upon the unjust, and frown upon His true
servant. It cannot be that what I said in my haste is true. „,
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress ?
That thou shouldest despise the loork of thine hands ?
Hast thou eyes of flesh?
Must thou torment me like a human Inquisitor to find
the truth? Are thy days as the days of man? Art thou some
short-lived Master who cannot wait to read my heart in my
life ? And this,
Although thou knowest that I am not wicked , ver. 7, S.
And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand!
And then, in touching accents, he speaks of his Maker, at ver. 8-15.
once his Maker and Destroyer, as having made and fashioned
him in the womb, and nursed his frame to strength and
growth, and crowned him with life and favour ; and all, he
asks, for what ? to overwhelm him with a fixed unalterable
destiny of undiscriminating wrath !
If I be wicked, woe unto me : ver- I5-
And if I be righteous, yet shall I not lift up my head;
' I am to Thee,' he goes on, ' like its helpless prey in the fangs of
a lion; my very sufferings are a troop of witnesses of Thy ver. 16-19.
displeasure, or as a host of foes that leaguer and assault me.
Ah ! that I had never faced the burden of life, but had been
borne in unconsciousness/row the womb to the grave ! And
then, broken down as it seems with pain and despair, and dead
to all but the sense of a sick man's weariness, ' My days,' he ver. 20.
says, 'are few: leave me a space of respite and of calm, ere
I go hence "from sunshine to the sunless land." ' Yet even as
he speaks, nature's pulse of life seems to quiver within him
once more, and light seems dear and darkness dreary;

92 The Book of Job. Chapter XI.
Lecture Before I go whence I shall not return,
IV. Even to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death ;
A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself ;
Chap. x.
ver. 21,22. A land of the shadow of death, without any order,
And where the light is as darkness.
Are those wrong who turn from all attempts to wring from
the words a voice of Christian teaching, and are content to
speak of what we have read as a tragic chapter, this struggle
towards God through wrath and through despair ; ' through
thorns,' as Luther said of a sad Psalmist, ' yea, through spears
and swords ? '
Chap. xi. But his words did not pierce the heart of the third of his
friends who now speaks in answer. He is introduced to us as
Zophar of Naamah. He comes to Job from some unknown
home, which, in a work in which all reference to the scenery
of the Holy Land is so studiously avoided, we can hardly
identify with a village of that name1 in the rich corn-land of
the coast of Palestine. He begins in a sharper tone than those
who went before him. He is ready at once with taunts and
rebukes for what seem to him Job's idle babble and vaunts
ver. 2-4. of innocence. They do not move him at all. ' Away,' he
says, ' with this self-flattery and these profane appeals to God!'
ver. 5, 6. ' Oh that God would answer thy bold prayers and speak to
thee as with human lips ; that He would teach thee some of
the manifold secrets of a wisdom that is hidden from thee 1 '
And then, in plain blunt words, he throws aside all mere hints
and suggestions, and drives home the dart which the others
have only pointed and brandished. ' Know therefore that God
exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. So far
from being unjust and cruel, God has spared thee the full
1 Joshua xv. 41.

First speech of Zophar. 93
measure of thy deserts.' He puts forward, that is, for the Lecture
first time in its naked force, the full and logical conclusion
of the creed which he and his friends held as an essential ,-,,Chap. xi.
tenet of their faith.
It is this. Let us note it carefully once more. Wherever
there is suffering, there is sin, real and tangible sin, pro
portioned to that suffering. God governs this world by rewards
and punishments, and those rewards and punishments are
distributed here below with an unerring justice. It follows
therefore that this Job, this seeming Saint, is really a man of
heinous sin.
And having said this to his brother in his pain, and dis
charged that which Job's words had made, he honestly
believes, the duty of others (v. 3), by speaking sharply where
sharp words were needed, he points Job to the high and
mysterious nature of the God against whom he is in re
bellion. 'High,' he tells him, ' that nature as Heaven, deep ver. 7-12.
as the deep underworld; it stretches beyond the bounds
of earth, and is broader than the broad sea. And His power
too is irresistible, and His eye sees at a glance concealed
iniquity. How small before Him the wisdom, or rather the
ass-like folly and petulance of man.'
Yet even the impetuous Zophar is not introduced as other
than one who seeks his friend's best good. He, like his
companions, is a man full of religious convictions, and of a
genuine, if a narrow, piety. He reads in Job's sufferings,
not mere penal pains, but the rod of chastisement. ' Turn,' ver. 13-16.
he says, ' thy heart, and spread thy hands out to God ; put
from thee evil; and once more shalt thou lift up thy face,
and thy misery shall flow away like a passing stream and
be no more remembered.

94 The Book of Job. Chapter XI.
Lecture And thy life shall be clearer than the noonday :
Though there be darkness, it shall be as the morning.
„, . Also thou shalt lie down and none shall make thee afraid!
ver. 17-19. 'Only remember that this can be granted thee on one
ver. 14. condition, one only. Put away iniquity from thy hands, un
righteousness from thy tents. To the impenitent and to the
wicked there is no hope save in the last sigh of death 1
ver. 20. Their hope, their only hope, shall be the giving up of the ghost!
The three friends have now all spoken. Your sympathies
perhaps are not wholly on their side. Yet do not let us
misjudge them, or assail them with the invectives which
Christian writers hurled against them for centuries. Do
not say, as has been said by the great Gregory, to
whom England owes a debt of measureless gratitude, that
these three men are types of God's worst enemies, or that
they scarcely speak a word of good, except what they
have learned from Job. Is it not rather true that their
words, taken by themselves, are far more devout, far more
fit for the lips of pious, we may even say, of Christian men,
than those of Job ? Do they not represent that large number
of good and God-fearing men and women, who do not feel
moved or disturbed by the perplexities of life; and who
resent as shallow, or as mischievous, the doubts to which
those perplexities give rise in the minds of others, of the
much afflicted, or the perplexed, or of persons reared in
another school than their own, or touched by influences
which have never reached themselves ? So Job's friends try
in their own way ' to justify the ways of God to man '—a
noble endeavour ; and in doing this, they have already said
much which is not only true, but also most valuable. They
have pleaded in their behalf the teaching, if I may so speak,

The attitude of Job's Friends. 9.5
of their Church, the teaching handed down from antiquity, Lecture
and the experience of God's people. They have a firm
belief, not only in God's power, but in His unerring righteous- Ch xi
ness. They hold also the precious truth that He is a God
who will forgive the sinner, and take back to His favour
him who bears rightly the teaching of affliction. Surely,
so far, a very grand and simple creed. We shall watch their
language narrowly, and we shall still find in it much to
admire, much with which to sympathise, much to treasure
and use as a storehouse of Christian thought. We shall
see also where and how it is that they misapplied the most
precious of truths and the most edifying of doctrines;
turned wholesome food to poison ; pressed upon their friend
those half-truths, which are sometimes the worst of untruths.
We shall note also no less that want of true sympathy, of
the faculty of entering into the feelings of men unlike them
selves, and of the power of facing new views or new truths,
which has so often in the history of the church marred the
character, and impaired the usefulness, of some of God's
truest servants. We shall see them lastly, in the true spirit
of the controversialist, grow more and more embittered by
the persistency in error, as they hold it, of him who opposes
them. Job's doubts, Job's questionings, Job's wavering faith —
that fire that, if unquenchable, yet burns at times so low —
will all be to them sure signs of moral evil. They will have
no scruple in bruising the broken reed, in quenching the
smoking flax ! Shocked at what seems to them his failure
in faith, these men, devout men, as their language proves,
orthodox men, as their agreement with each other and their
appeals to antiquity are obviously meant to represent them,

96 The Book of Job. Chapter XI.
Lecture will close round the poor solitary heretic of their day, and
IV' utter, in season and out of season, the truths which they
Cha xi no'^ ^ear- They will never pause to ask whether these
truths are the teaching and the help needed by the soul
which they fain would save. The problem which his own
bitter sufferings has forced upon the unhappy Job, they will
only answer by denying its existence ; and they will think
they are doing God service by trying to win him, by spiritual
terrors or spiritual bribes, to abandon that one truth of
which he is so rightly and so firmly convinced — that this
storm of suffering is not, and cannot be, a proof of the just
anger of a righteous God; that his ancient and life-long
standing towards his Divine Friend was no idle figment,
but a solid fact. He feels out wildly for a solution, and
they ply him with a round of doctrines and truths which
bring his starving soul no nourishment, no light to his
darkened vision. And by a strange fatality, these three
friends, the unflinching champions, in their own age, of
the traditional and orthodox creed of their day, figure in the
great work of one of the very greatest of early leaders of
the Church, as the types of those heretics who were to threaten
with destruction the very Church of God !
Into the further developments of their teaching, its true
side and its false side, and into its effect on the mind of Job,
we shall enter, when next we meet to turn the pages of this
sacred drama of that far-off age. But its true subject is
already — is it not so ? — unveiling itself before our eyes.
Has he who serves God a right to claim exemption from
pain and suffering? Is such pain a mark of God's dis
pleasure, or may it be something exceedingly different?
Must God's children in their hour of trial have their thoughts

The attitude of Job's Friends. 97
turned to the judgment that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, Lecture
or shall they fix them on 'the agony and bloody sweat' of IV-
Him Whose coming in the flesh we so soon commemorate ? ~,
0 Chap. xi.

The strong and masculine spirit of Gregory disengages itself at times
from the system of interpretation which he lays down for himself, and
strongly as he speaks of the almost infallibility of the ' blessed,' i.e. the
saintly, Job, and the errors of his friends, he yet uses language which is
well worth quoting : — ' Not that in all which they (the friends) say they
are devoid of understanding in knowledge of the truth, but for the most
part they blend what is wise with what is foolish, and the true with the
false.' . . . ' Hence, too, what the friends of the blessed Job utter is
at one time worthy of contempt and at another deserves admiration.' —
Bk. XI. Cap. 1. So still more strongly in Bk. XV. Cap. 1,2: ' The
friends of the blessed Job could never have been bad men.' . . . 'Though,
instructed by habituation to his (Job's) life, they knew how to live well,
yet, being uninstructed to form an exact estimate of God's judgment,
they did not believe it possible that any one of the righteous can be sus
ceptible of sufferings here below. Hence they imagined that holy man,
whom they saw scourged, to be wicked! Indeed, it is rather, as is natural, in
his interpretation of Job's words, than in his comments on the langnage
of his friends, that we feel startled by the apparently entire misappre
hension of the real problem of the book and of the character of Job, in
which he leads the way.
Dec. 5, 1885.

LECTURE V.
CHAPTEBS XII— XV.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

REVISED VERSION. Chapters XII— XV.)

12 Then Job answered and said,
2 No doubt but ye are the people,
And wisdom shall die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you ;
I am not inferior to you :
Yea, who knoweth not such things as these ?
4 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.
5 In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for
misfortune ;
It is ready for them whose foot slippeth.
6 The tents of robbers prosper,
And they that provoke God are secure ;
aInto whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee ;
And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee :
8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ;
And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
9 Who knoweth not 2 in all these,
That the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ?
io In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
And the 3 breath of all mankind.
1 1 Doth not the ear try words,
Even as the palate tasteth its meat ?
12 4With aged men is wisdom,
And in length of days understanding.
13 With him is wisdom and might ;

Chapter XII.

1 Or, That
bring their
god in their
hand

'¦ Or, by

3 Or, spirit

1 Or, With
aged men,
ye say, is
wisdom

102 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter He hath counsel and understanding.
XII. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again ; 14
** He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up ; 15
Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
1 Or, sound With him is strength and Effectual working; 16
wisdom jhe deceived and the deceiver are his.
He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, iy
And judges maketh he fools.
He looseth the bond of kings, 18
And bindeth their loins with a girdle.
He leadeth priests away spoiled, jo
And overthroweth the mighty.
He removeth the speech of the trusty, 20
And taketh away the understanding of the elders.
He poureth contempt upon princes, 21
And looseth the belt of the strong.
He discovereth deep things out of darkness, 22
And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them : 23
3 Or, He spreadeth the nations abroad, and 2 bringeth them in.
leadeth He taketh away the heart of the chiefs of the people of the 24
them azoay 3 r r *
3 Or, land earth>
And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is
no way.
They grope in the dark without light, 25
' Heb. And he maketh them to 4stagger like a drunken man.
tvander. Lq> mine ey£ hath segn a]J ^.^ ^
Mine ear hath heard and understood it.
What ye know, the same do I know also : 2
I am not inferior unto you.
Surely I would speak to the Almighty, 3
And I desire to reason with God.
But ye are forgers of lies, 4
Ye are all physicians of no value.
Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace ! c
And it should be your wisdom.

Chapters XII— XV.

103

6 Hear now my reasoning,
And hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will ye speak unrighteously for God,
And talk deceitfully for him ?
8 Will ye J respect his person ?
Will ye contend for God ?
9 Is it good that he should search you out ?
Or as one 2deceiveth a man, will ye 3 deceive him?
lo He will surely reprove you,
If ye do secretly 4respect persons.
ii Shall not his excellency make you afraid,
And his dread fall upon you?
12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,
Your defences are defences of clay.
13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak,
And let come on me what 'will.
14 ''Wherefore should I take my flesh in my teeth,
And put my life in mine hand ?
15 "Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him :
Nevertheless I will 'maintain my ways before him.
16 8This also shall be my salvation ;
'For a godless man shall not come before him.
17 Hear diligently my speech,
And let my declaration be in your ears.
18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause;
I know that I "am righteous.
19 Who is he that will contend with me?
For now -"shall I hold my peace and give up the ghost.
20 Only do not two things unto me,
Then will I not hide myself from thy face :
21 Withdraw thine hand far from me ;
And let not thy terror make me afraid.
22 Then call thou, and I will answer;
Or let me speak, and answer thou me.
23 How many are mine iniquities and sins ?
Make me to know my transgression and my sin.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face,

Chapter XIII.

1 Or, shew
him favour
2 Or,
mocketh3 Or, mock
' Or, shew
favour

:' Or, At all
adventures I will
take &fc.
"Or,Behold he
will slay
me ; I wait
for him, or
according
to another
reading, J
will not
wait, or, /
have no
hope
' Heb.
argue. " Or, He
9 Or, That
"> Or, shall
he justified
u Or, if I
hold my
peace, I
shall give
up £~r-

104 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter And holdest me for thine enemy?
XIV. Wilt thou harass a driven leaf? 25
— ?• — ¦ And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble ?
For thou writest bitter things against me, 26
And makest me to inherit the iniquities of my youth :
Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and markest all my 27
paths ;
Thou drawest thee a line about the soles of my feet :
1 Heb. And 7 Though I am like a rotten thing that consumeth, 28
he is like. Ljk-e a garment that is moth-eaten.
Man that is born of a woman 14
Is of few days, and full of trouble.
2 Or, He cometh forth like a flower, and 2is cut down : 2
wither eth Hg flgg^ aiso as a shadow, and continueth not.
And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, 3
And bringest me into judgement with thee ?
3 Or, Oh 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. 4
that a Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is 5
clean thing ... ,
could come wlth thee>
out of an And thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
unclean! Look away from him, that he may 4rest, 6
,„, Till he shall 6 accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
cease. For tnere ls noPe of a tree> ;f it be cut down, that it will 7
5 Or, have sprcut again,
pleasure in And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, 8
And the stock thereof die in the ground ;
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, g
And put forth boughs like a plant.
6 Or, lieth But man dieth, and "wasteth away : 10
low Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
7 See Is. ''As the waters "fail from the sea, II
Tu u' Anc* the r'ver decayeth and drieth up ;
'one. So man lieth down and riseth not: 12
Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
9 Or the Nor ke rouse^ out °f their sleep.
grave Oh that thou wouldest hide me in 9 Sheol, 13

Chapters XII— XV.

10:-

That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past,
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If a man die, shall he live again ?
All the days of my warfare ] would I wait,
Till my 2release should come.
15 3Thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee :
Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thine hands.
16 But now thou numberest my steps :
Dost thou not watch over my sin ?
17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And thou fastenest up mine iniquity.
18 And surely the mountain falling 4 cometh to nought,
And the rock is removed out of its place ;
19 The waters wear the stones ;
The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth :
And thou destroyest the hope of man.
20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth ;
Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not ;
And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
22 BBut his flesh upon him hath pain,
And his soul within him mourneth.
15 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 Should a wise man make answer with 6vain knowledge,
And fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good ?
4 Yea, thou doest away with fear,
And 'restrainest 'devotion before God.
5 For 9thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I ;
Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
7 Art thou the first man that was born ?
Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
810Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?
And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

Chapters XIV, XV.

1 Or, will
. . . shall
come 2 Or,
change3 Or, Thou
shalt call,
and I will
&>c.
4 Heb.
fadeth away.

5 Or, Only
for himself
his flesh
hath pain,
and for
himself his
soulmourneth
6 Heb.
knowledgeof wind.
1 Heb. di
minishes!.8 Or,
¦meditation9 Or, thy
mouth
teacheth thineiniquity10 Or, Dost
thou hearken in
the council

106 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter What knowest thou, that we know not? 9
XV. What understandest thou, which is not in us ?
— « — With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men, 10
Much elder than thy father.
Are the consolations of God too small for thee, 11
] Or, Or, is JAnd the word that dealeth gently with thee ?
^e'TretThin WIly d°th thine heart CalTy thee aWay ? I2
with thee ? And why do thine eyes wink ?
That thou turnest thy spirit against God, 13
And lettest such words go out of thy mouth.
What is man, that he should be clean ? 14
And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous ?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; 15
Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
2 Or, that How much less 2one that is abominable and corrupt, j6
-which is a man that drinketh iniquity like water !
I will shew thee, hear thou me ; 1 7
And that which I have seen I will declare :
(Which wise men have told 18
From their fathers, and have not hid it ;
Unto whom alone the land was given, 19
And no stranger passed among them :)
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, 20
" Or, And 3Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
^renum- A sound of terrors is in his ears ; 21
bered are In prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him :
laidup&c. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, 22
And he is waited for of the sword :
He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? 23
He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand:
Distress and anguish make him afraid ; 24
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle:
Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, 25
/ v« ^ And "behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty ;
fiance to He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, 36
''Or, Upon °with the thick bosses of his bucklers :
Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, 27

Chapters XII—X V.

107

And made collops of fat on his flanks ;
28 And he hath dwelt in ] desolate cities,
In houses which no man inhabited,
Which were ready to become heaps.
29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
Neither shall 3their produce bend to the earth.
30 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.
31 Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself:
For vanity shall be his recompence.
32 It shall be 4 accomplished before his time,
And his branch shall not be green.
33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
And shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34 For the company of the godless shall be barren,
And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,
And their belly prepareth deceit.

Chapter
XV.
1 Heb. cut
off.'l Or, would
inhabit
n Or, their
possessions be extended
on the
earth

* Or, paid
in full

LECTURE V.

CHAPTERS XII— XV.

The Dialogue continued, fob's reply to Zophar (chap, xii-xiv).
Second address of Eliphaz (chap. xv).
We have gone thus far very carefully and continuously, Lecture
not I hope too minutely, through the first part of the dialogue
between Job and his three friends. The first Act of the chap xii
Drama, if we care to use the term, has passed before us. ,
Job has spoken thrice ; each also of the three has spoken ;
and I have endeavoured, at the risk of taxing unduly your
attention, to set aside all merely allegorising interpretations,
and to put before you the simple and actual meaning of the
words of each. I have made it my one aim to assist you to
take your places, so far as possible, among the bystanders,
and to listen alike to their language and to his.
You will remember that with the speech of the third of those
who address Job, we have reached a point at which all forms
of circumlocution, all mere indirect hints and suggestions, are
being laid aside. The naked truth, as it seems to the
speaker, is being pressed home upon him. His sufferings, he
is told, are the just, and not even excessive chastisement of
some real and actual, if as yet undefined sin. His only hope
of restoration lies, he has also been plainly told, in putting
away evil and turning humbly to a God, if of absolute right
eousness, yet even towards His erring servants of unbounded
mercy.

110 The Book of Job. Chapters XII— XIV.
Lecture What has been so far, what will be, the effect of this on
him to whom they speak ? Alas ! it has been, and it will be
Chap xii ^e very 0PP0Site t° that which his well-meaning friends would
have desired. We shall see this even more clearly to-day.
The whole world, Job feels, is against him, and he is left
forlorn and solitary, unpitied in his misery, unguided in his
perplexity. And he may well feel so. All the religious
thought of his day, all the traditions of the past, all the wis
dom of that Patriarchal Church, if I may use, as I surely may,
the expression, is on one side. He, that solitary sufferer and
doubter, is on the other ; and this is not all, or the worst.
His own habits of thought, his own training, are arrayed
against him. He had been nursed, it is abundantly clear, in
the same creed as those who feel forced to play the part of
his spiritual advisers. The new and terrible experience of this
crushing affliction, of this appalling visitation, falling upon
one who had passed his life in the devout service of God,
strikes at the very foundation of the faith on which that life,
so peaceful, so pious, and so blessed, as it has been put
before us in the Prologue to the Tragedy, has been based
and built up. All seems against him ; his friends, his God,
his pains and anguish, his own tumultuous thoughts ; all but
one voice within which will not be silenced or coerced. How
easy for him, had he been reared in a heathen creed, to say,
' my past life must have been a delusion ; my conscience has
borne me false witness. I did justice, I loved mercy, I walked
humbly with my God. But I must in some way, I know not
how, have offended a capricious and arbitrary, but an all-
powerful and remorseless Being. I will allow with you that
that life was all vitiated by some act of omission or of com
mission of which I know nothing. Him therefore who has

Job's rebuke to his Friends. in
sent his Furies to plague me I will now try to propitiate.' Lecture
But no ! he will not come before his God, a God of right- v-
eousness, holiness, and truth, with a lie on his lips. And so c,
he now stands stubbornly at bay, and in the twelfth and two
following chapters, he bursts forth afresh with a strain of
scorn and upbraiding that dies away into despair, as he turns
from his human tormentors, once his friends, to the God who
seems, like them, to have become his foe, but to whom he
clings with an indomitable tenacity. ' Ah 1 ' he breaks forth
in natural impatience, 'ye doubtless are the people, ye represent ver. 2.
the voice of all the wise, and wisdom will die out with you.
But / too have understanding. Yes,' cries this bold asserter ver. 3.
before his time of the rights of the individual conscience,
' I too, I your laughing-stock! he says bitterly, ' have under- ver. 4.
statiding, even though you, after the hard world's way (how old
the thought), see with calmness the wicked thrive, and turn
with scorn upon the innocent, as he slips down on life's ver. 5.
stony high-way. Yes, it is a hard and puzzling world. The
unfortunate, the defeated are always in the wrong! The
successful are always in the right.'
In the thought of him that is al ease there is contempt for
misfortune,
Il {contempt) is ready for him whose foot slippelh.
The tents of robbers prosper 1, ver. 6.
And they that provoke God are secure;
1 Any reader who would take the trouble to turn to the comments of
the great Gregory, well as he deserves the name, on this passage
(Bk. xi. 3), would see at once the impassable gulf that separates his
mode of treatment of the Old Testament from all modern — may I
not say all reasonable ?— exegesis. There is not a hint that Job is really
questioning God's moral government. ' That which robbers do con
trary to right, the Equal Dispenser no otherwise than justly permits to be

112 The Book of Job. Chapters XII— XIV.
Lecture 'But I who called on God, and He answered me, lie here wrecked
v- and mocked, am tortured and scourged. You need not
Cha xii sPeak to me,' he says, ' of God's power. All creation tells me
ver. 7, 8. that,' and he glances for a moment at the witness which beast
and bird, and all life in sea or land, bear to his Creator's
omnipotence. On the light which that study throws on His
character, on His care for, or His indifference to, those His
creatures, that thinker of the early world is dumb. He says
nothing here either of the cheering or the cheerless side of
the teaching of that spectacle of the whole realm of life, which
filled a Psalmist's heart with joy, which has been to some men
the very mainstay of their faith, but which has produced such
opposite effects on those who have read the book of nature
from its darker side ; who have looked rather at the pain and
struggle, the mutual destruction, the sacrifice of the weak,
which mark its pages.
Yes, God's power he knows, knows only too well. The
Jehovah, whom for the first time since the dialogue began, he
names by that title of the Hebrew Covenant, is Lord of all.
ver. 9, io. 'Who knoweth not,' he says, 'in (or by) all these,
That the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ?
wrought all this visible order which lies before us.' ' He
done by them, that both he who is allowed to rob, being blinded in
mind may increase his guilt, and that he who suffers from his robbery
may now in the mischief thereof be chastised for some sin of which he
had been guilty before.' Indeed, it is not too much to say that so
entirely is the moral problem of the book passed over that the great
Pope ranges himself, quite as it would seem unconsciously, in the ranks
of Job's friends, and compels Job again and again to utter essentially the
same views as they do. In the words that follow it is interesting to
notice that the beasts of ver. 7 are interpreted ' as the men of slow parts,'
the fowls of the air as those ' that are skilled in high and sublime truths.'
He adds, however, here a remark that the verse may be understood to
good purpose even in its literal sense.

Job's rebuke to his Friends. 113
too has listened to the wisdom of his elders with an Lecture
ear that can appreciate and discriminate their teaching. v-
He too has seen God's power. He has read it as „,
r Chap. xn.
revealed in the more terrible phenomena of nature; in ver. 14-16.
the dreary drought, in the destroying flood. He has
read it also in the dark page of history, that tremendous
power, so terrible, so irresistible, that extends alike over
folly and wisdom, over the dupe and his deceiver.' And
here for a moment, we look eagerly, but look in vain, for
some touch or word that shall disclose the secret of the age
to which the mysterious book we read belongs. ' He has
seen,' he says, or seems to say, 'Empires overthrown, the ver. 17-19.
trusted counsellors of courts, the judges of nations, fall from
their high estate ; kings exchange their royal girdle for the
cord that encircles each of the captive horde ; priests led away
stripped of their priestly robes. He has seen power and ver. 20-22.
eloquence and wisdom, and princely state and strength, and
counsels secret as the very shadow of death, prove unavailing.'
'And he has seen nations spread out their swarms and ver. 23.
enlarge their borders and then pass into insignificance. And
finally he has seen their chiefs and leaders, giddy with the ver. 24, 25.
infatuation of self-confidence, and drunken with success,
stagger and wander into the policy of madmen.'
They grope in the darkness without light,
And he maketh them lo stagger like a drunken man.
At what point in human history is this, its weary watcher,
looking back upon its course? Is it from the narrow and
simple experience of the Patriarchal tent? Or from that
of a civilised and settled community that has come into
collision with great Eastern Empires ? Or from that of a
nation still reeling with a shock of ruin ? We ask, and ask
1

ill The Book of Job. Chapters XII— XIV.
Lecture in vain. Human history from its dawn to to-day, even in what
V- we call the 'unchanging East,' is the history of change
c. •¦• vicissitude, decay, and growth.
ver. 1,2. ' AH this,' he says, as we turn to the next, the 13th chapter,
' he knows as well as his vain consolers. They can teach
him nothing new. All that they can say sheds no light on
the mystery that torments him. How is he to connect,1 how
reconcile, his own sad experience with the secret counsels of
God's righteousness ? It is to Him, to this Being, the sense of
whose awful and illimitable power brings no consolation, only
ver. 3. misery, to Him, not to them, that he would turn.' They are,
as he says, and says surely not without some reason, pleading
unfairly for God, ' respecting His person' as he dares to say,
ver. 7, 8. justifying what shocks the human conscience by simply
dwelling on His power ; trying to force the sufferer to accept
what no force on earth can win him to believe. ' Surely to
ver. 4. me ye are, one and all, Physicians of no value, and as regards
God, forgers of lies. How vain your hopes that you can
please a God of truth by these false pleadings, by these
ver. 10. proverbs', he says, ' these moral maxims, of ashes, these
ver. 12. defences of clay! 'Beware,' he adds, 'lest a God of truth,'
— see how the half-blasphemer of yesterday clings to the
idea that God must needs be this — ' beware lest He visit you
with His sore displeasure.'
ver. 9. As one deceiveth a ma?i, will ye deceive Him?
ver. n. Shall not his excellency make you afraid,
And his dread fall upon you ?
And then, almost Titan-like, Prometheus-like, in his boldness,
yet with a sacred courage which makes our hearts thrill with
sympathy, he bids them stand aside.
ver. 13, 14. 'Let come on me what will, I will speak, even though,'

His assertion of his innocence. 115
he adds, in words as obscure to us as they are forcible, Lecture*
' I fake my flesh in my teeth, though f put my life in my hand! v-
I had intended, my friends, to put before you a far shorter _,
summary of these words. I have found their interest so
intense, the crisis of Job's mental conflict so pathetic, so
instructive, that I dare not compress its details more closely.
And see what follows. In words that must take the place of
an ancient, a venerable and dearly prized, but, I fear, erro
neous rendering of his thoughts, he continues ; ' Though He slay ver. 15.
me, though He strike me down, will f yet wait for Him and
hear His sentence. I will make my way into that awful
presence where no mortal can stand and live, but where
Eternal Justice must find its truest shrine. Whatever comes,
/ will maintain my ways, I will plead my cause, the cause of
my conscience, before Him! ' And surely,' he whispers with a
noble trustfulness, ' this shall be my salvation, no hypocrite dare ver. 16.
stand before that awful bar! And then, wound up to the
highest pitch by the thought that he is already standing there,
he calls passionately on all around to listen to his words.
' Let them ring,' he cries, ' in your ears.' He knows that he ver. 17-19.
will gain his cause. Shall the judge of all the earth do wrong ?
' Who will plead against me ? Could any arise and confute me,
I would be content to be silent and die unacquitted.' But as
he speaks, and no answer comes out of the infinite silence, the
high-strung spirit begins to droop, and his pains and weakness
once more assert their power to unneive his soul. ' Do Thou! he ver. 20, 21.
cries, ' Great Being, withdraw Thy heavy hand ; rack me not
with these pains ; cow not my soul with these haunting terrors ;
let me breathe freely for one moment.'
Then call thou, and I will answer ; ver. 22.
Or let me speak, and answer thou me.
1 2

116 The Book of Job. Chapters XII— XIV.
Lecture How many are my iniquities and sins ?
Make me to know my transgression and my sin.
„, ... And as still no answer comes, his unfriended and solitary
ver. 23. spirit shrinks back into its tenement of pain, and he cries,
and cries in piteous accents :
ver. 24. ' Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
And holdest me for thine enemy ?
ver. 25. Wilt thou harass a driven leaf ?
And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble ?
ver. 26. For thou writest bitter things against me,
And makest me to inherit the iniquities of my youth.
Canst Thou be scourging me for some unremembered sin of
unconscious youth ? Why dost Thou thus keep me as a
ver. 27, 28. prisoner for my doom, marking round my feet a circle which
I cannot pass, and within which my captive life moulders
steadily away, like a garment fretted by the moth ? '
But it is all in vain ; no answer reaches him. And as the
spirit that had risen so high sinks down, blinded and dizzied,
paralysed and overwhelmed — sinks down into the very
deepest depths of unutterable despair, he pours forth in the
following chapter a mournful elegy over the sadness and
frailty of human life. We know, some of us, right well
the words ; may we never be suffered to taste the full sense
of desolation out of which they first took their rise.
Chap. xiv. ' Man that is bom of a woman
Is of few days, and full of trouble.
ver. 2. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down :
He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Sad and unrestful his days, and short and soon forgotten his
ver. 3, 4. life ! ' ' And canst Thou,' he cries, in a changed mood from
the fearless guise which he wore just now, ' canst Thou enter

Job's elegy on human life. 117
into judgment with one so feeble ? Canst Thou look for Lecture
perfection in one so imperfect ? Surely Thou, who hast fixed v-
so narrowly the limits of his days and strength, who hast set „,
. . Chap. xiv.
him to walk in a vain shadow and disquiet himself in vain,
might but let him rest till the short swift day of life's toil is
over, and the night comes on that knows no morn.'
And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, ver. 3-6.
And br ingest me into judgment 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.
And then, in words of solemn and mournful hopelessness,
that have their echoes in the sad poetry of every age and
every nation under heaven, he paints the frailty of life and
the sad finality of Death.
There is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will ver. 7.
sprout again,
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, ver. S.
And the stock thereof die in the ground ;
Yet through the scent of water it will bud. ver. 9.
Through (at) the scent of water — how natural the language in
one familiar with the vivifying touch of rain in the sun-
parched East —
// will bud and put forth boughs like a {young) plant.
But man dieth, and wasteth away : ver- I0_I2-
Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he ?
Yea, as the waters fail, in some inland sea, or sea-like mere,

118 The Book of Job. Chapters XII— XIV.
Lecture As the river decayeth and drieth up;
So man lieth down and riselh not :.
Chap xiv -^^ ^he heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
ver. 12. JYor be roused out of their sleep.
It is a world-old lamentation, that has echoed from East to
West, from the dawn of poetry to our own day.
Yes ! we are in presence of a gloomy thought, my friends.
Death, it tells us, ends all active life, all true consciousness ;
ends it for ever and for ever. And it is here before us in all
its oppressive darkness ; till the heavens be no more, they shall
not awake. Do not let us mis-read lines which surely tell their
own sad story ; or try to wring from them some fictitious
anticipation of a revelation made in Christ of Life and
Immortality ; or listen to those who have found in their sad
tones a veiled and riddling assertion of the glorious resur
rection from the dead \ Yet in this his darkest hour there
flashes out of his very gloom a momentary brightness. ' Can
it be that God would let one who had once been in such
close communion with Himself, pass away under His anger,
pass away for ever and for ever ? Ah ! that for a while He
would hide His servant in the dark underworld of the
dead.' —
ver. 13. Oh ! that thou wouldest hide me in that world,
That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past —
ver. 14. ' and then, when the appointed time was come, would call him,
were it but possible, from that dreary prison. How gladly,'
he cries, ' would I wait through that gloomy time.'
1 Ergo resurget, says Brentius, at the epoch of the Reformation,
on the 12th verse. The whole passage is, as a matter of course, inter
preted by Gregory as u mere assertion of the doctrine of the Resur
rection.

The finality of Death. 119
Thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee ; Lecture
Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thine hands.
-/ — * 1

How pathetic, how moving, the appeal ! How strong the Chap. xiv.
yearning of that soul not for mere life, but for its true life, ver' I5-
reconciliation to its God, to Him who ' is not the God of the
dead, but of the living.' But no ! it is only a passing gleam of
hope. His dark hour returns. ' God is watching him as a
criminal ; numbering his steps as he moves forwards to his ver. 16,
doom, sealing up and treasuring the secret record of his
unconscious offences ! ' And then, in cold despair, he turns ver- J7-
to his Maker, and sees in Him, as others have seen, the
dispenser not of universal life, but universal death. He is no
longer the great Creator, but the great Destroyer.
Surely, he says, the mountain falleth and fadeth away, yer- l8> I9-
The waters wear the stones I
If the words are those of the ancient Patriarch, the thoughts
are those ofthe modern man of science, ofthe geologist, — shall
we say ? — who looking back through immeasurable aeons to
types of a far-off fife, long extinct — to upheaved mountains, and
vanished continents — smiles at such phrases as the ' everlasting
hills,' and the ' changeless sea.' Inanimate Nature, says already
this dismal voice out of the old world, tells everywhere the
same tale. Decay and destruction are the laws that rule the
universe ; ' I bring to life, I bring to death.' And then, turning
once more from the book of nature to the fate of man,
Thou destroyest, he adds, the hope of man.
Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth ; ver- 30-
Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
' Decay's effacing fingers ' put the seal upon his doom ;
His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not ; ver- "•
And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

120 The Book of Job. Chapters XI V, X V.
Lecture < All his interest in life is gone. All that can be left him,' he
V- seems to cry in the last verse, ' is some dull sense of decay and
r, ¦ pain as his poor flesh passes mutely into dust 1 ' We have
ver. 22. reached — have we not ? — the very deepest dungeon of the
Castle of Despair. Job stands face to face with ' the veil that
is spread over all nations,' and the doom that hangs over all
life. And he sees no hope. In vain do we attempt to read
his language backwards, or follow the steps of expositors,
who find in tones of despair the voice of hope and certainty,
All thy works praise Thee, O Lord, says the Psalmist, Thou
givest life unto all flesh ! ' All Thy works pass away,' says
our sad Patriarch, ' and Thou regardest it not.' ' Life's swift
shortness, Life's awful changes, are alike unpitied, unregarded.'
Yet one other thought, linked closely with this, but darker
still, the very darkest of all his thoughts, has not yet taken
full possession of his soul. It has passed before 1 him, and
has gone ; we shall see it revisit him ere long.
Chap. xv. And now, before we part, let us turn from these awful cries
of despairing humanity, and let us listen again to the eldest
of his friends, the Eliphaz who spoke so softly and gently when
we heard him first. Even he throws aside in Chapter xv the
delicate reserve and tenderness for his friend that marked his
earlier mood. He speaks sharply and severely ; he doubtless
feels it his duty to do so. I will summarise his language
ver. 2, 3. very briefly. He accuses Job, not only as his friends had
done, of wild and random utterances, oi filling, as he puts it,
his breast with the east wind, but of having struck by his
impious language at the ver)- root of all piety and all prayer.
ver. 4. Thou doest away zviih fear,
And restrainest devotion before God.
1 Chap. ix. 22-34 ; xii. 6.

Second speeck of Eliphaz. 121
Job's own words have, he tells him, shown that what his Lecture
friends had hinted was all too true. ' Out of the abundance v-

of the heart, the mouth speaketh.' And Job's words seem c, xv
to him quite enough to prove his guilt and justify his suffer- ver. 5-10.
ings. He taunts him with his presumption in venturing to put
his own private judgment against the universal voice, the quod
semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus, of those early times ; to
question dogmas which were so firmly rooted in the convictions
of his religious friends, and held by them in common with
Gray-headed and very aged men, ver. IO-
Much elder than thy father.
It is an old taunt, my friends, that which passes in various
forms from the lips of Job's ancient counsellor, stung to
anger by the audacity of his friend. He accuses him, I
need hardly say, of self-sufficiency and pride, in wandering
from 'the old paths,' and of petulance in rejecting the 'con- ver. 11.
solations of God! so he styles them, which they had so gently
put before him. But still more he is shocked by Job's im- ver. 12-14.
patient and indignant outcries ; and most of all by his assertions
of innocence. The good Eliphaz, for so I venture to call
him, confounds Job's outspoken, persistent, and clamorous
cry, that he has done nothing to bring down on his head
these terrible blows, with what is quite different, an assertion
of sinlessness and perfection which Job has never for one
moment made. And he dwells therefore, in language which
those who have lived under Christian influences will welcome
with all their souls, on the sense of inborn weakness and
sinfulness with which man should come before Him Who
Putteth, he says, no trust in his angels,
findeth imperfection even in them ; ' Yea,' he adds,
The heavens are not clean in his sight. ver. 15.

122 The Book of Job. Chapter XV.
Lecture True enough, we feel, as we read his words. It was easy then
v- to rebuke Job for his tempestuous language. It is easy for
ZT*"" us, who have in our consciences the result of nineteen cen-
Chap. xv. turies of Christian teaching, to echo his language as to human
sinfulness. But it was hard to convince Job, and it is hard
to convince us, that that fair and dutiful life had been based on
guilt and hypocrisy ; that all this misery was the well-deserved,
well-measured requital of a life that was a lie.
ver. 16. And having sternly rebuked his friend, Eliphaz goes on to
set before his eyes a picture that shall confute Job's passionate
cry, that the world is misruled, that the innocent are afflicted
and mocked ;
While the tents of robbers prosper,
And they that provoke God are secure1.
ver. 17-19. The teaching that he sets before him is, he tells him, no mere
optimistic imagination of his own. It is drawn from the trea
sures of the unalloyed and venerable traditions of their race —
handed down through generations from those to whom the land
was given, the true and ancient Lords of the soil ; no idle tale
borrowed from the loose fancy of some travelling stranger, or
born of admixture with some baser race. The teaching for
which this consensus, as it were, of Catholic antiquity, is
claimed so loudly, is this. It is, you will remember, that which
the three friends have, each in turn, put forth as the central truth
which it is their duty to defend and uphold. For it is the basis
and foundation on which their view of God's character and
ver. 20. of the government of the world reposes. ' The wicked cannot be
prosperous : God's Providence measures out certain retribution!
He gives to every man, between the cradle and the grave,
that which he deserves. This, remember, is the cardinal
1 xii. 6.

Second speech of Eliphaz. 123
position which the friends, representing the unanimous voice Lecture
of good men of their day, are bound to maintain, and round v-
which they rally all their forces to meet Job's impetuous „, xv
onsets. This it is which Job has dared to impugn. The
present visible order of things is, they say, perfectly just ; Job
says, that it is unjust. And to prove the point, the speaker
draws two pictures. The first, dimmed by age, but yet, if I
read aright, a very striking one, is perhaps the oldest in the
world, of the agonies of a guilty conscience haunting sue- ver. 20-25.
cessful crime, even in the high tide of outward success.
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, ver. 20, 21.
Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
A sound of terrors is in his ears ;
' The phantom of an unknown spoiler flits before the spoiler
of men. Each passing cloud of darkness breeds despair : he
sees a ghostly sword waiting for him in the shadow.'
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, ver. 22.
And he is waited for of the sword:
' while surrounded by riches, he pictures himself seeking in
vain for bread ; and in the full light of success, he sees the
black day of darkness, as it were but a step removed.
And terrible images of distress and anguish beset his soul. ver. 23, 24.
The horrors of conscience prevail against him, like the
embattled host of a king ready for the battle! And then in
a second picture, through image after image, drawn in turn ver. 25-35.
from the human, the animal, and the vegetable world, he
dwells alike on the insolent impiety, and on the certain retri
bution, of the rebellious sinner ; of him who stretched out his
hand against God, and chose for his habitation places ac
cursed by God's judgment, of him of whose impunity Job had ver. 28
dared to speak so bitterly. ' He whom I describe is,' says

124 The Book of Job. Chapters XV, X VI.
Lecture Eliphaz, ' but the type of a class who are doomed to suffer
alike the pangs of conscience and the blows of chastisement.'
c] There is, my friends, as we know, a certain measure of
truth in what this Arab sage and chieftain says. Con
science has its stings. The night-scene from Macbeth is
not false to nature. Great criminals often meet their doom,
their just doom, even here. There are traces no doubt, as
Bishop Butler reminds us, traces and indications of a divine
and just government, even here below. There is a power
revealed even in this life that ' makes for righteousness.'
' Might and right differ frightfully from hour to hour,' says
Carlyle, ' but give them centuries to try it in, and they are
found in the end to be identical.' But meanwhile, how
many are there to whom the stings of conscience are an un
meaning word. How many, Job will yet come forward and
remind us, amass wealth by unrighteous means, and die in
peace, rich and prosperous.
And meantime there is the lot of those, who, if the friends
are right, must be under the just frown of God. There is
Job himself, bereft of all that made life worth living. There
are those in our own day, the sick, the poor, the oppressed,
the down-trodden, all who are forced for a time to sit down
upon the ash-heap, and cry that life is a burden hard to bear,
who are ready to echo Job's sighs for the rest of death. And
there are the friends or champions in all times of lost causes,
the martyrs to truth, those who have died in dungeons, or at
the stake, or in the lost battle, or in cheerless solitude
among races whom they have tried vainly to raise and
christianise. You see how long might be the list. But if the friends
are right, these and the army of the defeated whom they

The qttestion between Job and his Friends. 125
represent, those too, the victims of the chances, as we say, Lecture
of life, those 'on whom the Tower1 of Siloam fell,' are all v-
rejected of God, all sinners beyond their brethren. And „.
Chap. xv.
behind these is the form of One, who was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief , from whom
zve — his fellow-men who stood around His cross — hid as it
were our faces ; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not 2.
And the Job who listens to this teaching of his friends, finds
in it no Gospel. It is no wonder that he bursts forth with the
cry that has echoed so far,
/ have heard many such things : Chap. xvi.
Miserable comforters are ye all. ver' 2'
And round this point the conflict will rage even more keenly
than heretofore. God Himself will be called in to decide
the quarrel.
Is there no hope for those who fail in the struggle for
existence ? Is there no Gospel for those who succeed in that
struggle, when their own hour of darkness comes ? It is,
as this book has reminded and will remind us, a question
as world-old as it is momentous; this mystery of suffering,
this sense of a 'whole creation groaning and travailing in
pain together until now.'
Over those whose words we are reading hung the lustrous
skies of Asia, glittering with innumerable stars. But no day-
star from the East had as yet arisen ; no Christmas night, no
Easter morning, had brought light to souls that sat in darkness
and in the shadow of death. It is the sense of that darkness to
which so much of this book gives a voice, to the desire for
fuller light, and to the craving for a more perfect righteousness.
1 St. Luke xiii. 4. 2 Isaiah liii. 3.
December 12, 1885.

LECTURE VI.
CHAPTERS XVI — XXI.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chapters XVI— XXI.)

16 Then Job answered and said,
2 I have heard many such things :
'Miserable comforters are ye all.
3 Shall zvain words have an end ?
Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?
4 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.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips should assuage your grief.
6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged :
And though I forbear, 3what am I eased?
7 But now he hath made me weary :
Thou hast made desolate all my company.
8 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
9 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.
1° They have gaped upon me with their mouth ;
They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully :
They gather themselves together against me.
ii God delivereth me to the ungodly,
And casteth me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he brake me asunder ;
Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces
K

Chapter XVI.

'Or, Wearisome
2 Heb.
words of
wind.

3 Heb.
what de-
parteth
from me ?
4 Or,
shrivelled me up
5 Or, haled

130 The Book of Job. {Revised Version^

Chapter XVII.

' Or, have
no more
place

e Ox, That
one might
plead for
a man
with God,
as a son of
manpleadeth
for his
neighbour7 Heb.
mockery.

* Heb.
iortion.

' Or, one
in whose
face they
spit

He hath also set me up for his mark.
His 1 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 3Iaid my horn in the dust.
My face is 4foul 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 5have 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 ;
6That he would maintain the right of a man with God,
And of a son of man with his neighbour !
For when a few years are come, 22
I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, 17
The grave is ready for me.
Surely there are 'mockers with me, 2
And mine eye abideth in their provocation.
Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; 3
Who is there that will strike hands with me?
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding : 4
Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
He that denounceth his friends for a fprey, 5
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
He hath made me also a byword of the people ; 6
And I am become "an open abhorring.
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, 7
And all my members are as a shadow.
Upright men sh_.ll be astonied at this, 8

1314
15
16
17
iS
19
20
21

Chapters XVI— XXI.

131

And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
10 But return ye, all of you, and come now :
'And I shall not find a wise man among you.
II My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the 2thoughts of my heart.
12 They change the night into day :
The light, say they, is near 'unto the darkness.
13 *If I look for 5Sheol as mine house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness ;
14 If I have said to "corruption, Thou art my father ;
To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister ;
15 Where then is my hope ?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
16 It shall go down to the bars of 6 Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.
18 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 How long will ye lay snares for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts,
And are become unclean in your sight ?
4 Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place ?
5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the ' spark of his fire shall not shine.
6 The light shall be dark in his tent,
And his lamp "above him shall be put out.
7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
And he walketh upon the toils.
9 A gin shall take him by the heel,
And a snare shall lay hold on him.
10 A noose is hid for him in the ground,
And a trap for him in the way. K 2

Chapter XVIII.

1 Or, For
I find not
3 Heb.
possessions .
3 Or, be
cause of
1 Or, If I
hope, Sheol
is mine
house; I
have spread
. . . I have
said .
and where
now is my
hope ?
5 Or, the .
grave 6 Or,
the pit

'Or,
flame 8 Or.
beside

132 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, ii
XIX. And shall chase him at his heels.
— h — His strength shall be hungerbitten, 12
1 Or, at his And calamity shall be ready 2for his halting.
£V5 , . It shall devour the '•'members of his body, 13
of his skin. Yea, the firstborn of death shall devour his members.
He shall be rooted out of his tent wherein he trusteth; 14
3 Heb. it And 3he shall be brought to the king of terrors.
thou shalt) 4 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his: 15
bring him. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
* Or, It His roots shall be dried up beneath, !6
shall dwell And above shall his branch 5be cut off.
that it be ' ^'s remembrance shall perish from the earth, 17
no more his And he shall have no name in the street.
ox, because He shall be driven from light into darkness, 18
it is none . , , , r , , ,
0f his And chased out of the world.
5 Qr, He shall have neither son nor son's son among his people, 19
wither Nor any remaining where he sojourned.
'"'Or, They 6They that come after shall be astonied at his day, 20
in the west As they that went Defore 7were affrighted.
are . . . as Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, 21
they that And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
the* la™ are Then Job answered and said, 19
&c. How long will ye vex my soul, 2
' Heb. laid And break me in pieces with words ?
hold on These ten times have ye reproached me : 2
horror. ,,. , , , J
Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.
And be it indeed that I have erred, 1
Mine error remaineth with myself.
" Or, Will 8lf indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, 5
ye m ee ^n(j pjea(j agamst 1Tie my reproach :
proach? Know now that God hath "subverted me in my cause, g
9 Or, over- And hath compassed me with his net.
thrown me Behold, I 10cry out of wrong, but I am not heard : 7
10 Or, cry j cry for rieip> but tjjere ;s nQ jurjgement.
Violence! He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, g
And hath set darkness in my paths.

Chapters XVI— XXI. 133
9 He hath stripped me of my glory, Chapter
And taken the crown from my head. XIX.
10 He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone : — M —
And mine hope hath he plucked up like a tree.
11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me,
And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together, and cast up their way against me,
And encamp round about my tent.
13 He hath put my brethren far from me, 1 or
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me. sojourn
14 My kinsfolk have failed, 2 Or, /
And my familiar friends have forgotten me. ")"¦ e s.aP~
IS They that T dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for Or, I am
a stranger : loathsome
I am an alien in their sight. * Ox, of my
*6 I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, ° J'
. 4 Heb. the
Though I intreat him with my mouth. men 0fmy
17 My breath is strange to my wife, council.
And 'my supplication to the children "of my mother's womb. 5 Or, For
18 Even young children despise me ; 6 Or, vin-
Tr T . , , . dicator
If I arise, they speak against me. ~B.sb.goel.
19 All *my inward friends abhor me : ^ jje^
And they whom I loved are turned against me. dust.
20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, 8 Or, And
And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. "fkin hath
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends ; bem de_
For the hand of God hath touched me. stroyed,
.,_ , r- a this shall
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, be> mm
And are not satisfied with my flesh ? from &>c.
23 Oh that my words were now written ! Or, And
Oh that they were inscribed in a book! after my
24 That with an iron pen and lead skin this
They were graven in the rock for ever ! body be
, ,• .i_ destroyed,
25 5But I know that my "redeemer hveth, yet from
And that he shall stand up at the last upon the 7earth : &c.
26 "And after my skin hath been thus destroyed, 9 Or,
Yet "from my flesh shall I see God:

without

134 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapter XX.

27

1 Or, on my
side 2 Ox, as a
stranger3 Or, And
that 4 Many-
ancientauthorities read, him.
5 Or,
wrathful
are6 Or, And
by reason
of this my
haste is
within me
7 Or, But
out of my
under-standing
my spirit
answereth me

" Or, as
otherwise
read, The
poor shall
oppress his
children

28

29

20

4

5

Whom I shall see ]for myself,
And mine eyes shall behold, and not 2another.
My reins are consumed within me.
If ye say, How we will persecute him !
3 Seeing that the root of the matter is found in 'me ;
Be ye afraid of the sword :
For 6 wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword,
That ye may know there is a judgement.
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
6 Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame,
7And 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.
8 His children shall seek the favour of the poor,
And his hands shall give back his wealth.
His bones are full of his youth,
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 15
up again :

13

14

Chapters XVI— XXI. 135
God shall cast them out of his belly. Chapter
16 He shall suck the poison of asps : XXI.
The viper's tongue shall slay him. — v —
17 He shall not look upon the rivers,
The flowing streams of honey and butter.
18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not
swallow it down ;
According to the substance hhat he hath gotten, he shall not x Heb. of
rejoice. !"s ,
exchange.
19 For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;
He hath violently taken away an house, 2and he shall not build 2 Or, which
it up. he buildcd
20 Because he knew no quietness s within him, .
He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth. his greed
21 There was nothing left that he devoured not; Heb. in
Therefore his prosperity shall not endure. belly.
22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits :
The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him.
23 4When he is about to fill his belly, '.Or, Let
God shall cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him, fiiimrof"
And shall rain it upon him 6while he is eating. his belly
24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, that God
And the bow of brass shall strike him through. ^_
25 He draweth it forth, and it cometh out of his body : 6 Qr> as
Yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall ; his food
Terrors are upon him.
26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures :
A fire not blown by man shall devour him ;
6 It shall consume that which is left in his tent. 6 Or, It
27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, wilhfim
And the earth shall rise up against him. that is
28 The increase of his house shall depart, left
His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
And the heritage appointed unto him by God.
21 Then Job answered and said,
2 Hear diligently my speech ;

136 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter And let this be your consolations.
XXI. Suffer me, and I also will speak ; 3
M And after that I have spoken, 1mock on.
/ // l°ock ^s ^or me' ls my complaint 2to man? 4
2 Or of And why should I not be impatient ?
'¦' Heb. Look s Mark me, and be astonished, 5
unto me. And lay your hand upon your mouth.
or, z» Even when I remember I am troubled, 6
peace, with- '
out fear And horror taketh hold on my flesh.
5 Heb. lift Wherefore do the wicked live, 7
uf. "le Become old, yea, wax mighty in power ?
c Qr ' t. Their seed is established with them in their sight, 8
grave And their offspring before their eyes.
7 Or, Ye Their houses are 4safe from fear, o
»o' L°J?C' Neither is the rod of God upon them.
oft is the Their bull gendereth, and faileth not ; 10
lamp ofthe Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
wicked put They send forth their little ones like a flock j t
out, and „¦,,.,.,¦,,
how oft And 'heir children dance.
cometh They 5sing to the timbrel and harp, 12
their _ ^nd rej0;ce at the sound of the pipe.
calamityupon them! 'They spend their days in prosperity, 13
God dis- And in a moment they go down to 6 Sheol.
tributeth_ yet they said unto God, Depart from us ; 14
sorrows in . '
his anger. F°r we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
They are What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? 15
as stubble And wllat fit sriOUid we have, if we pray unto him ?
. . . away . ¦ r 3
9 Or God ^°> their prosperity is not in their hand: 16
layeth up The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
for&-scA7 BH°W °ft 'S '' that the kmp °f the wicked ,1S Put out? 17
dren: he That their calamity cometh upon them?
rewardeth That God distributeth sorrows in his anger ?
him, and That they are as stubble before the wind, 18
know it. •^nd as chaff that the storm carrieth away ?
His eyes "Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children. 19
lustruct^n Let him recomPense lt unt0 himself, that he may know it.
ancfheVhall Let his own eyes see his destruction, 20
drink oVe.

Chapters XVI— XXI.

137

And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what pleasure hath he in his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
22 Shall any teach God knowledge ?
Seeing he judgeth those that are high.
23 One dieth in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and quiet :
24 His 1 breasts are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 And another dieth in bitterness of soul,
And never tasteth of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
And the worm covereth them.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts,
And the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince ?
And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt ?
29 Have ye not asked them that go by the way ?
And do ye not know their tokens ?
30 That the evil man is 'reserved to the day of calamity ?
That they are 3led forth to the day of wrath?
31 Who shall declare his way to his face?
And who shall repay him what he hath done ?
32 "Yet shall he be borne to the grave,
And °shall keep watch over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,
And all men shall draw after him,
As there were innumerable before him.
34 How then comfort ye me 6 in vain,
Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood?

Chapter XXI.

' Or, milk
pails 2 Or,
spared in
&°c.
3 Or, led
away in
&*c. 4 Or,
Moreoverlie is
borne to
the grave,
and keepeth
watch over
his tomb.
Tlie clods
of the
¦valley are
sweet unto
him ; and
all men
draw &c.
5 Or, they
shall keep
0 Or, with
vanity 7 Ox, faith
lessness

LECTURE VI.
CHAPTERS XVI— XXI.
TJie Dialogue continued, fob's reply to Eliphaz (chaps, xvi,
xvii). Second address of Bildad (chap, xviii). fob's
answer (chap. xix). Second address of Zophar (chap. xx).
fob's reply (chap. xxi).
We open to-day the sixteenth chapter, at the memorable Lecture
cry with which Job rejects with indignation the teaching — the VL
vain words he calls it — set before him by the oldest and the c] xvi
wisest of his friends. ' Miserable comforters,' he calls them ;
I have heard many suck things :
Miserable comforters are ye all.
' I, too,' he goes on, ' even I, whose cries and words you ver. 4.
blame and scorn, could proffer, were I in your place, you
in mine, the cheap, contemptuous comfort which you bring
me. I, too, could shake the head, and heap up words, and '
— if we may venture to depart from our new Revision1 — ' give
you mere wordy relief, mere lip-consolation.' But his heart ver- 5-
is sick within him. He knows not what to do. He feels in
a sad extremity. Silence and speech, he says, are alike ver. 6.
unavailing. He needs help so sorely, and he finds none,
no guidance, no solace. He turns from his friends to his
God. ' It is Thou,' he says, ' that hast left me thus forlorn.
He it is who hath made me weary ; yea, Thou hast made ver. 7, S.
desolate all my company. It is Thy heavy hand, marring
thus my frame and face, that bears witness against me before
this human tribunal.' 1 See ver. 5, page 129.

140 The Book of Job. Chapters XVI, X VII.
Lecture And as his spirit flags and droops, he can no longer speak
face to face even with his God. He covers, as it were, his
Chap xvi eyes' an(^ Passm8') y°u W'M notice, from the second to the
ver. 9. third person — from ' Thou ' to ' He ' — no longer wavering
between the two, he broods over the dealings of Him
who has done worse than stand far off in his hour of
trial, who is worse than a God ' Who hidelh himself1.' He
describes how, what seems to be God's wrath, has torn
him too, as, in the language of his friends, it tears the
wicked. God is his adversary, man his foe. He sees him
self at last alone in the world, an object of abhorrence to
mankind ; like the Psalmist whose accents rang upon the
ver. 10, 11. Cross, he too sees men gape upon him with their mouths, and
smite him on the cheek reproachfully 2- The ungodly rabble close
in contempt round him. All count him 'stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted3.' 'And are they not right? He
surely has declared against me ; ' and successive images of
God's hostility trouble his soul, and find expression on
ver. 12. his lips. Now, as a beast of prey, his Maker seems to
his distempered fancy to glare at, and seize him ; now His
ver. 13. arrows pierce his vitals; now, as a giant assailant, He beats
ver. 14. down with breach after breach the citadel of life. And Job
has yielded to the storm. Body and spirit alike are prostrate.
ver. 15. In the language of his day, sackcloth is on his skin, his horn
ver. 16. is in the dust, his face is disfigured with weeping, on his eyelids
is the shadow of death. Abject misery can sink no lower.
' Was ever^ he seems to say, ' sorrow like unto my sorrow 4 ? '
Yet even then, as he heaves this sigh, this de profundis,
there is one thing that he will not let go— the testimony of
1 Isaiah X'V. 15. 2 Ps. xxii. 6, 7, 12, 13, etc.
3 Isaiah liii. 4. * Lamentations i. 12.

Job's appeal to God. 141
his conscience, that he has lived as the friend of God, not as Lecture
His enemy. He is certain that he does not belong to the VL
class whose sins and punishment his friends have set before r,
him for a warning. To this certainty he clings as to a plank
in the devouring waves. Deep is his anguish, but he is
conscience-free. There is no violence, he says passionately, on my hands, ver. 17.
My prayer is pure.
And then, with a cry of almost bewildering boldness, he
appeals to his mother-earth, from which the blood of
righteous Abel once cried up to God, not to cover his .
blood, when the end comes at last, but to let the cry of his
wronged life go up from her bosom, and find no rest till it
has pierced the ear of God.
O earth, cover not thou my blood, ver- l8-
And let my cry have no resting place!
' Yea,' he says, finding hope even in despair, ' there at least,
there in God's heavenly home, I feel that I have a witness, ver. 19.-
and a voucher, and an advocate.' And before his storm-
tossed and beclouded soul, there rises through the driving
mists of pain a double vision. One is of a God who seems
to be his enemy ; and one is of a righteous God, whom he
feels to be, who needs must be, his friend. Is he the last
who has felt this inward conflict and tumult ?
My friends scorn me, he says in the 20th verse,
But mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
Nay, to God he appeals, the God who reads his heart, to
maintain his cause, the cause of a son of man, a poor human ver. 21, 22
creature, against the God who wrongs him ; to do this, ere
the few years of his pilgrimage are ended, ere,
/ go the way whence I shall not return.

142 The Book of Job. Chapters X VI, X VII.
Lecture It seems to me, brethren, a passage, when once its meaning
VI- is made clear to us, of a spiritual pathos almost matchless
ch ¦• even in this pathetic book ; this appeal, as it has been well
called, of the poor solitary Patriarch from wrath to love,
from God to God *. The winds beat him, the billows break
over him, but the anchor of Faith still holds.
And now, in the next chapter, the paroxysm of torture
gives way to a duller pain, and his loud cry is changed
ver. i, 2. into a lower moan. ' Death is near me,' he says, ' and the
grave is open; and around me are those who mock me
with the hope of restoration to God's favour, from which
ver. 3. I am banished. Thou, Thou alone, canst be my friend,
ver. 4, 5. my surety, my advocate ; Thou it is whose stroke has
estranged the hearts of earthly friends, and made them
tempt a traitor's doom by turning so cruelly against him
with whom they once held sweet converse. Thou it is who
ver. 6, 7. hast left me to be a by-word of abject misery to the rabble
of mankind ; left me with these eyes dimmed with sorrow,
and this wasted frame.' ' And what,' he asks, ' will be the
teaching of my story, the moral of Job's life? Well,
ver. 8. indeed, may the upright be astonied as they read it ; well
may the innocent, whose life has been like mine, be dis
comfited and dismayed, as they turn from my sad lot to
the unrebuked career of the godless. But for all that,
and for all the wrongs and puzzles of life,
ver. 9. Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and
stronger!
It is a memorable saying, my friends, and goes to the very
1 For a very different, yet analogous, conflict of thought and feeling, see
' In Memoriam,' LIII-LV.

Job's appeal to God. 143
heart of the teaching of the book ! Doth fob serve God for Lecture
nought? said Satan. Here is his answer. Deserted, as it VI-
seems, and more than deserted, treated as a foe, by God and _,
J Chap. xvn.
man, he will not say that goodness is merely that which
wins reward; wickedness merely that which brings punish
ment. Let rewards and punishments be awarded as they
may, yet shall the righteous hold on his way through all,
yet shall the heart of the pure wax stronger and stronger ;
sure that somehow, though he knows not how, he must be
walking in the right way ; sure that some day, he knows not
when, God will declare for him and vindicate his cause.
The words 'mount like a rocket,' cries a commentator \
who has looked with rarely keen glance into the secrets
of the book, above the tragic darkness that surrounds them.
But they do more than this ; even as they mount, they shed
a momentary light on the sense in which, even through
these mournful chapters, we may yet speak of the patience,
in its noblest sense, of poor impatient Job. For we may
use the word no longer to denote a mere calm submissive
resignation, but rather the firm, tenacious, unconquerable
hold which his spirit keeps on the essential truth to which
that spirit clings ; that behind all the perplexing sights of life
must live a God who loves justice and works righteousness.
And we remember words, spoken by One who was looking
forward to a time of ' great tribulation ; ' ' in your patience
possess ye your souls * ; ' and again, ' he that endureth to the
end the same shall be saved 3.'
But then once more his 'spirit waxeth faint.' He ends ver. 10, n.
the chapter by turning mournfully to his friends, and
addressing to them a few sad closing words. ' Ye bid me
1 F. Delitzsch. 2 St. Luke xxi. 19. 3 St. Matthew xxiv. 13.

144 The Book of Job. Chapter XVIII.
Lecture hope,' he says, ' and tell me of the approach of light, on
condition of my following your counsel ; '
 M 
Chap. xvii. They change the night into day :
ver. 12. ^fy light, say they, is near unto the darkness.
ver. 13-16. ' It is all in vain. My course is run, my earthly ties are
severed. My home is the grave ; my bed is spread in dark
ness ; decay and corruption and the worm, are to me father,
and mother, and sister, and kindred; where is my hope?
It will go down with me past the bars of the gates of the
underworld, down with me to man's last rest in the dust of
death.' ' No hope,' he seems to say, ' of answer or redress.'
Chap, xviii. His piteous words, that remind us, sometimes ofthe Passion-
Psalms, sometimes of the picture put before us in the closing
chapters of Isaiah, win no sympathy or pity from his friends.
Bildad, who followed Eliphaz before, does so for the second
ver. 2, 3. time. He, too, like his friend, even more than he, is shocked
and outraged at what seems to him Job's presumptuous and
scornful attitude. He, too, thinks it enough to repeat and
enforce what seems to him the eternal truth, that suffering
is the sure concomitant, the sure result, of evil-doing.
'Against this law Job frets and "tears himself" in vain.
God's immutable laws •will hold good : the solid order of
the earth will not be changed for him.'
ver. 4. Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee ?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place ?
'The principles of the moral world will not be set aside,
ver. 5-11. because Job rails against them!' He is content, therefore,
to hold up once more a vivid picture of the fate of the
ungodly, of the darkness that shall quench his light, of
the snares that wait for his steps, of the terrors that haunt

Second speech of Bildad. Job's reply. 145
his soul, of the calamities that wait for his fall. ' Sore Lecture
disease, first-born of the progeny of death, fastens on his VI-
limbs, and brings its victim into the presence of the King „,
of Terrors! He is not merely, in these verses, declaring a ver. 12-14.
general law — he is holding up a mirror before the eyes of
the shuddering Job, as he goes through the list of Job's own
pains and miseries.
There shall dwell in his tent, he goes on, that which is
none of his.
Is it a strange tribe, or the wild creatures of the desert ?
And again, ' a rain of brimstone ' (an allusion, it may be, to
the fate of Sodom) ' shall doom his home to shame and
sterility.' Figure after figure is exhausted to express the
extinction of his race. ' Nor son, nor son's sons {nephews ver. 16-19.
in its older sense is the word in our older version) shall
survive to prolong his name, and far and wide and long
shall men look with horror on the doom of the wicked.' ver. 20, 21.
It is a powerful picture. Its substance seems exactly
the same as that drawn by Eliphaz ; but it is obvious, far
more than it was before, that Job's demeanour under his
sufferings has done more than pain and shock and alienate
his friends ; that the parable which Bildad utters is no mere
general teaching ; that, as has been well said, the ' Thou art
the man ' trembles on the speaker's lips.
And Job feels this keenly. The sore sense of a spirit Chap. xix.
wounded to the very quick is revealed in every word of his
answer. ' How long will you, my ancient friends, crush me
with your taunts ? ' he asks in the 1 9th Chapter ;
How long will ye vex my soul, ver. 1, 2.
And break me in pieces ivith words ?
' If I have erred, mine is the error : again and again, without ver. 4, 5.
L

146 The Book of Job. Chapter XIX.
Lecture shame or pity, have ye poured out your insults; but if ye
VI- needs must sit in judgment on me, listen to my solemn
ChaD ' words ; once more hear the sad deliberate judgment of my
ver. 6., soul. Know this,, you who are so sure that all suffering is
the result of wickedness, know that in this case it is God who
has done His servant wrong. It is He, not my heinous
wickedness, as you say, which has cast me into the net. Yes !
ver. 7. I raise a cry that I am wronged, even as one of our tribe
would cry, if wrongfully attacked; I cry out of wrong, but I
am not heard; I cry for justice, but there is none.' ' And is this
ver. 8-12. God's world ?' he seems to ask. ' There is darkness round
me, and a fence before me, and no escape ; and shame and
despair are my portion ; and God — if you and my own sick
heart are right — counts me as a foe, and launches against me
ver. 13-20. His legion of pains. And all the world is changed. Brethren
and acquaintance and kinsfolk and familiar friends are all
estranged, all turned to foes.' How the closing words of the
one most melancholy of all Psalms ' come back to us ;
My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me ;
And hid mine acquaintance out of my sight !
He draws a picture, a counter-picture, as it would seem, to
that of his friends, of his own sufferings. He describes them
as those of some poor leper, in his own Eastern land then
as now, and in other lands, our own amongst them, for
centuries yet to come, looked on as one stricken of God,
and loathsome to mankind. He speaks of himself as vainly
supplicating those who were once at his beck, a stranger ttf
his wife and brethren, scorned and mocked by the careless
cruelty of children, abhorred and repulsed by his friends ;
1 Ps. lxxxviii. 18.

Job's appeal to his Friends. 147
All my inward friends abhor me: Lecture
And they whom I loved are turned against me t
And then, for the first and last time, he utters a short, ™ xix
pathetic, yearning cry for human sympathy. In his self-pity ver. 19.
at his isolation from the God who had once loaded him with
benefits, he appeals for one moment to the common ties of
humanity and friendship ;
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends: ver. 21, 22.
For the hand of God hath touched me.
Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh ?
' Have you not eaten my heart enough with your causeless
accusations ? ' But he pleads in vain ; there is no human
comforter to dry his tears, and all seems lost. The terrible
threat seems to. have come home ; The heaven that is above
him is brass, and the earth beneath him is iron1. Yet even
then, in this his darkest and most hopeless hour, he will not
abandon the faith which he had grasped before, that the
eternal laws of right and justice will yet be vindicated ; that
neither ' life nor death, nor things temporal nor things io
come,' shall wholly part him from his God. He appeals from
the present to the future, from the malice of ephemeral man,
from what seems the momentary wrath of God, to the fatherly
and just heart of Him, Who lives for ever, and Who must
surely one day own His servant. We draw near at the 23rd
verse to perhaps the most memorable, and one of the most
disputed, of all Job's utterances. Let us then study it carefully.
' Oh that my words, my cry to God, were written down ! Oh ver. 23
that they were recorded in some scroll; yet not on frail
papyrus-leaf, or perishable parchment, but graven and
1 Deut. xxviii. 23.
L 2

148 The Book of Job. Chapter XIX.
Lecture chiselled in monumental letters on some hard rock-side ;
VI- filled in with lead, to meet the eye of far distant ages.' And
Chap xix t^len inele Pass *"rom k's *'PS worClS mto which Christian
ver. 24. translators have breathed a distinctness, a hope and certainty,
which doubtless far transcends the sublime, but dim, faith of
the original, and which I will endeavour to put before you in
what seems to be their true sense, as spoken by him whose
heart refuses wholly to fail him in those deep water-floods.
ver. 25. '/ know^ he cries, 'I know that my Redeemer, my Rescuer, my
Vindicator, liveth ;' liveth, for He is none other than the living
God — no mere mute inscription, no human 'Goel,' or avenger
— on whom Job rests his faith. ' And He, at the last, when all
this bitter conflict is over, will stand upon the earth; or rather,
'on the dust, the dust of death into which I am sinking. Andeven
ver. 26. after my skin, this poor skin with all that it encases, is destroyed —
even when "the first-born of death," and the " King of terrors"
himself, of whom you speak, have done their worst— -yet even
then,' not ' in,' but rather 'from', (in the sense most probably
of removed from, without) ' my flesh, though my body moulder
in the dust, / shall see my God ' — the God now hidden, the
God to whom he had appealed before x to hide him for awhile
in the world of the dead, and then to call him forth. ' He
will manifest Himself at last to His forgotten friend, who will
ver. 27. have survived for this the shock ofthe great Destroyer; Whom
I shall behold; he goes on, ' yea I, the prey of death, shall see
Him, see Him for myself (or 'see Him on my side', the
phrase is ambiguous). 'Yea, mine eyes shall behold Him, I and
not another. My reins, my very inmost heart, consume
and melt within me at the vision.' The sick heart faints
with joy. Despair gives way to gladness. The poor tortured
1 Chap. xiv. 13.

I know that my Redeemer liveth. 149

sufferer, who again and again has looked on the inevitable Lecture
death which is waiting for him, as the limit of his days, VL
as the final severer between himself and his God, rises „, " .
Chap. xix.
to the region of a sublime, a rapturous hope. We dare not
write into his words all the 'sure and certain hope of a joyful
resurrection,' which the Christian utters ; still less that anti
cipation of a bodily rising from the grave, of a re-clothing of
his spirit in flesh, which the passage breathes in the great
Latin1 translation, dear for ages to Western Christendom.
We recognise even in the familiar words of our own
older version2, phrases and thoughts, which outrun the
Patriarch's aspirations, the Patriarch's faith. But for all
that, when we have stripped the passage of all that is
adventitious — all that even unconsciously imports into its
framework the ideas and faith of another and a later age —
we still hear the sublime cry of the Saint of the old
world, as he stands face to face with the king of terrors :
' Though my outward man decay and perish, yet God shall
reveal himself to me, to my true self — Oh grave, where is
thy victory ? He plants, it has been well said, the flag of
triumph on his own grave. And his words, in one form or
another, have lived, my friends, longer than he looked for.
They will outlive the scroll for which he sighed, the very
rock on which just now he wished to see them engraved.
Job has reached the climax of passionate clinging to his
1 Scio enim quod Redemptor meus vivit, et in novissimo die de ten-a
surrecturus sum, et rursum circumdabor pelle mea, et in came mca
videbo Dominum. Vulgate.
2 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in rny flesh
shall I see God. — A.V. A glance at the italics will show how much
has been introduced by the translators : — And after my skin hath been
thus destroyed, Yet from my flesh shall I see God, is the literal, if am
biguous, rendering adopted by the R.V. See p. 133.

150 The Book of Job. Chapter XX.
Lecture God. ' His heart,' as he says, ' is on fire within him.' He
VI- adds two verses of warning to his friends, to whom the day
Ci of his vindication may bring judgment. They are memor-
ver. 28, 29. able, in spite of their almost impenetrable obscurity, as
containing a phrase which, like others in the book, has gone
the round alike of our literature and of our common speech.
The root of the matter is here, no doubt, the cause of Job's
sufferings; in his friend's eyes, his guilt; and he seems to warn
them against the judgment which they may incur by treating
him as guilty.
He has now given full vent to his anguish. He has
clung for all that to his sense of innocence ; and he has
risen from his despair to a height from which he sees, for one
brief moment, ' the land that is very far off,' the better shore
Chap. xx. that lies beyond the dark stream of death. And then, silent
and exhausted, he has to listen once more to the voice of the
third of his counsellors.
Zophar, who spoke harshly and rudely before, is unmoved
alike by his friend's appeal for pity and by his reproaches.
I will not ask you to enter into any detailed discussion
ver. 2, 3. of what he says, but he is much stirred, he says, by
Job's reproof, which he makes haste to answer. His
answer is from first to last a repetition, in another form, of
what we have had so often put before us. It is one more
series of pictures of the doom that surely waits upon the
wicked. It begins with,
ver. 4. Knowest thou not this of old time,
Since man was placed upon earth,
That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
ver. 5. And the joy of the godless but for a moment ?

Second speech of Zophar. 151

And then follows a train of images, often, even in the Revised Lecture
Version, requiring much care to read clearly. The aim of each VL
and all is to paint the certain misery that befalls the great fT"
criminals of earth, the wanton oppressor, the avaricious, and
the fraudulent. The laborious student can trace out the
thought of line after line. As he pores over word after word,
he can read, beneath the superficial obscurity of the language,
a picture, often exceedingly vivid and striking, of power and
greatness cut short, and of ambitious hopes defeated by
terrible retribution.
But it is not well that we, who meet here, should lose our
grasp of the general progress of the' dialogue, by lingering
too long over these less important questions. It is clearly
undesirable that we should allow the necessary difficulty of
rendering Eastern imagery into modern language, to tempt
us into assigning to subordinate details a significance
beyond their due. It is enough to say that through a series
of impressive images of calamity and disappointment, we
see before us, now the vanished tyrant's children crouching ver. 10.
before the poor : now himself cheated of the golden vision,
the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter, for ver. 17.
which he had looked. We see at last the guilty — 'in
the lost battle, borne down by the flying,' and struck, as he
flees from the iron sword, by an arrow from the bow of ver. 24.
brass — drawing forth the glittering point from a mortal wound,
with heaven and earth leagued against him. Last of all ver. 25-27.
come the words,
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, ver. 29.
And the heritage appointed unto him by God.
It is the old story, as we might say, and leaves quite out of
sight ' the root of the matter,' the contrast, i. e. between Job's

152 The Book of Job. Chapter XXI.
Lecture earlier life, as pourtrayed in the Prologue to the Dialogue,
VI- and that of the tyrant and oppressor whose fall is described
... . so eloquently. And meanwhile all cries and appeals on the
part of Job are, in his friends' eyes, mere proofs that he
refuses to read aright the universal law as revealed in the
experience of life. They no longer, as they once did, hold
forth to him hopes of reconciliation and restoration. The
images that they put before him grow darker and darker,
their arguments are more strictly limited and narrowed to a
single and uniform line of thought. His soul sways this
way and that ; he is beset on all sides by a very host of
conflicting doubts and fears, of aspirations and hopes. They
utter, repeat, enforce, and emphasize the one single truth in
which they find a key to all the seeming contradictions of life,
and to all Job's sufferings. ' Great calamities mean great
misdeeds. This and nothing less than this,' they say, ' is the
one lesson which God's just rule reveals. Lay this, Job,
to heart.' And under this bitter and reiterated teaching, Job's soul
passes once more into a state of ferment and revolt. The
speech with which he answers Zophar is one of unrestrained,
outspoken, unmeasured questioning of God's righteous govern
ment of the world. It is this, and nothing less. It is a
terrible doubt, as he says himself. All else is insignificant
before it. It is not in his power, remember, to deny or
doubt the existence of God as the Ruler of the world. Such
a thought would have been impossible to him. He cannot
look on his losses, or his sufferings, as merely the result of
physical laws, electrical discharges here, barometric de
pressions there; or again of accidental contact with some
germ of disease, or of the natural desire of plunder on the

Job's reply. 153

part of Bedouin tribes. He cannot look on pain, or on in- Lecture
justice, as seen in the world around him, as merely the
result of the necessary conflict among creatures endowed c,
with life, he knows not how, and left to struggle with each
other for existence in a godless world, where the one hope of
progress lies in the extinction of the weak, in the survival of
the fittest.
That God rules the world is the first article of his creed ;
and as his friends, Avith a wearisome iteration, enforce
upon him their ' reading of God's laws, and try to bring
this reading home to, what seems to them, the slumbering
conscience of their friend, their hard dogmatism forces
on him a question for an answer to which his soul travails
and tortures itself in vain. It is a lesson for us all, for
all who have to deal, either with pain which we do not
feel, or with doubts which we have left behind us, or have
never shared.
He too looks forth, even as they bid him look, into the
world outside himself. He passes from his own individual
pangs to the vast theatre of life to which his friends point
his gaze. And as he looks, the most disquieting and most
appalling of all visions, one that had crossed his view once
or twice already x for an agonising moment, comes back
and stands before him arrayed in all its terrors. Dark
thoughts stir within him. They cloud his eyes, and
shake for a while a faith against which all the malice of
Satan had spent itself in vain.
' Listen, listen quietly,' he says, ' to my words. Let your ver. 2-4.
silence give me ease; your speech brings none. Then,
when I have spoken, mock my misery, Zophar, if thou
1 ix. 22-24. xn' &•

154 The Book of Job. Chapter XXI.

Lecture canst. It is not to man I make my moan. I have reason,
VI- terrible reason, for my impatient words.'
" . 'Mark me; he says, 'and lay your hands, glib pleaders
Chap. xxi.
ver. 5. for God's providence, uponyour mouths in awe-struck silence.
ver. 6, 7. For me, even as I speak, a shudder comes across me, and
horror taketh hold of my flesh ; ' and well it may !
Wherefore, he asks, do the wicked live,
Become old, yea, wax mighty in power ?
ver. 8-10. ' Their seed is established, their families founded before
their eyes, all goes well with them, their wealth increases, all
prospers ; '
ver. n. They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
ver. 12. They sing to the timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
We see, beneath the Eastern imagery, the picture of the
prosperous and powerful family in all lands and ages,
founded in violence, or by fraud and wrong. ' They do
not see their children die,' says the childless parent. ' They
are stretched upon no rack of lingering pain,' says the
tortured leper.
ver. 13. They spend their days in prosperity,
And in a (painless) moment they go down to the grave.
ver. 14, 15. And this though they have neglected or defied their Maker.
What is the Almighty, they have said, that we should
serve him ?
And what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him ?
' Well know I,' he says too, ' that their prosperity is not in
their own hands. It comes, must come, from God ; and their
ver. 16. impiety I abhor. The council ofthe wicked is far from me.
Yes, / abhor, but where is God's abhorrence shewn ? '

Job arraigns God' s government of the world. 155
How oft, he asks the despairing question, How oft is Lecture

Chap. xxi.
ver. 17.

ver. 19.
ver. 20.

it that the lamp of the wicked is put out ?
That their calamity cometh upon them ?
' How oft is it,
That God distributeth sorrows in his anger?
That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?'
' The Psalmist's words,' we might imagine him to say, as with a
glance at many psalms, 'your words, may come true at times;
but how terribly often is the reverse the true picture of
human life.' ' Vain,' again he says, ' to tell me that man's
wrong-doing will be visited on his children ; '
Let his own eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink himself of the wrath of the Almighty.
' When once the thread of life is cut,
When the number of his months is cut off in the midst, ver- 2I-
what pleasure, what concern, hath the evil-doer in that
unfelt future ? '
'Vain for you to try to teach God, the Judge who rules ver. 22.
the very heavens, by holding up a perfect law, and calling it
His ! Look at life ! ' And he puts before their eyes a
picture of the terrible inequalities, the baffling injustices of
the world. His words suggest the opening scene of Dives
and Lazarus — the opening scene without its sequel. Are
we listening to a Saint and Patriarch, or to some preacher
of anarchy who is trying to madden a starving crowd by
pictures of the contrasts between the rich and the poor?
' It is not for a time only that the contrast lasts, it endures
till the very end of all, till death.'
One dieth in his full strength, ver- 23» 25
Being wholly at ease and quiet.

156 The Book of Job. Chapter XXI.
 ,  > 
Lecture And another- dieth in bitterness of soul,
And never tasteth of good.

Chap. xxi. They lie down alike in the dust,
ver. 26-28. And the worm covereth them.
' I know,' he goes on to say, ' the meaning of your words ;
that your pictures of desolate hearths and overthrown
palaces are aimed at me, seated here in misery by the ruins
of my home. But step out of the narrow experience of your
own tribe, of which you speak so proudly; ask those who
ver. 29. have travelled far, and read the destiny of man under other
skies. They will tell you,' he seems to say, ' of many
ver. 30, 33. an evil-doer spared in the day of doom ; erect when others
fall around him. None can question or call him to account
in life; he is laid at last to rest in a tomb of honour; his
effigy,' he seems to add, ' keeps watch over his remains. Yea,
softly lies the earth upon his grave ; the clods of the valley
shall be sweet unto him, as he shares the common lot of
the millions who went before him, of the millions who shall
follow ; ' or it may be, ' as his body is laid in its tomb, pre
ceded and followed by thousands who do him honour.'
' Ah, what avails,' he cries, ' your comfort, which leaves but
ver. 34. the sense that it is all hollow, all a false reading of the page
of life ? ' So he ends what is, in some ways, the very gloomiest
of all Job's utterances. You will see why I say this. It is not
that he cries so loud in his own personal anguish as he has
done before. Indeed there is not a word of his own pains,
bodily, mental, or spiritual, in the whole chapter. They
seem forgotten, quite lost in the deeper gloom that is
gathering so closely round his soul. He no longer cries,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There is that
within him, that would forbid even this sacred cry to pass his

Job in his darkest hour. 157
lips. If He, who rules the world, habitually leaves it to Lecture
misrule, if it is a world in which favour is lavished on the
bad, and the tide of misery flows at random on His best „,
servants, what avails the complaint, the prayer, the appeal,
the cry ?
The righteous must hold on his way, in gloom and darkness.
He must do what he can, bear what he can of his burden of
sorrow or of doubt. For clouds and darkness are around
him, and his eye cannot pierce to the sky that lies behind 1
And here, my friends, we must needs leave him for awhile
in his gloom. He caught but lately, caught for a moment,
a glimpse of a better hope; of a God who would reveal
Himself as his friend and champion even in, even after, death.
It was so far exceedingly precious ; but it was, as we saw, a
mere fitful gleam of personal hope, born of intense and
personal clinging to the God, ' Who is not the God of the
dead but of the living ; ' it was like flashes which came from
time to time to Psalmist after Psalmist1 That sure and
certain hope of a general resurrection, that sense that we see
here" but a part of the great order of the Universe, was no sure
part of the heritage that had come down to that ancient
Patriarch. He had to fight the battle against pain, and doubt,
and the misdirected teaching of his friends, without the promise
that in his Father's house were many mansions, and that
beyond the gate of death lay the entrance to another world.
He had no spectacle before him of One who had trodden the
path of defeat, and death, and shame, and pain, and yet
had been unspeakably dear to God His Father. He knew
not that, as his earlier submissiveness and resignation had
won the attention of the dwellers in other spheres than earth,
1 Ps. xvii. 16 ; xlix. 15 ; lxxiii. 25.

158 The Book of Job. Chaps. XVI— XXI.
Lecture so his wild complaints could win the sympathy and touch the
VI- heart of far distant ages. He knew not, but he was soon to
«, .be taught, that his Heavenly Father looked gently on His
erring child ; on his wild perplexity and despairing words ;
and that the spark of faith, which would not be extinguished,
was infinitely dear in that Father's sight. We know this as
we leave him for awhile in his hour of trial.
I have asked you, my friends, to travel far to-day, it may
be too far. But I was anxious that you should reach before
we parted the very heart of this great tragedy; that you should
penetrate into the inmost secrets of that valley of the Shadow
of Death through which Job is being led by an unseen hand,
an unfelt guidance. Before us lies an untrodden region, the
remaining portion of this marvellous book. It contains
chapters rich in varied interest, in passages of tragic pathos,
in rapid bursts of lyrical poetry, in calm, majestic, and stately
utterances, in vivid pictures of a world that has passed away.
But I have taxed your attention long enough; and for the
present may be well content if any here have recognised
something of the wealth of thought, of teaching, and of
wisdom, that may lie buried in a single portion of that most
familiar of volumes which we call the Bible.
December 19, 1885.
*/ With this lecture ended 'the first course of weekly Lectures on Job,
given in the Abbey towards the close of 1 885. Those which follow form
a second series, and were delivered, not as originally intended, at a cor
responding period of 1886, but at an earlier date. To this second
course the following Lecture was introductory.

LECTURE VII.

LECTURE VII.
Discussion of some questions glanced at in Lecture I. General
view of the contents of the Book. Question of its author
ship, age, and aim. Its interpretation in early and more
recent times. The difficulties of the language in which it
is written.
I believe that I am carrying out the wishes of some of Lecture
those whom I address by resuming at once our study, our
joint study, let me rather say, of the Book of Job, instead of
waiting, as was my first intention, for the close of the year
on which we have so lately entered. But before taking up the
thread of the great argument which we have so far followed
steadily to the close of Chapter xxi, we shall, I think, do well
to-day to consider two or three questions which were either
merely glanced at, or designedly passed by, when first we
met here. And first of all, we have not, I hope, advanced so
far as to make a somewhat more detailed summary than has
yet been put before you of the contents of the Book 1, other
than welcome to many of my hearers. You will forgive me
if a certain amount of repetition is unavoidable. I will state
the matter as briefly and as clearly as possible.
The whole book consists, as a glance will show you, of
forty-two chapters.
And these chapters, when looked at more attentively, divide
themselves readily and naturally into five parts of unequal
length. We may call them Acts, or Books, or Parts, or
Sections. I have already given you reasons which make it
1 For short analysis see p. xxxii.
M

162 The Book of Job.
Lecture difficult to class the whole work, from a merely literary point
VH- of view, as either, strictly speaking, a Dramatic, or an Epic,
or a Didactic Poem1.
And of these five divisions, the two shortest, the first and the
last, are written in prose. They, and they only, are so printed
in the Revised Version, in order to distinguish them from the
long Poem, in three distinct parts, which they introduce and
close. And in these two short portions, the prose Introduction
and the prose Conclusion, in these, and in these only, the
Author speaks in his own person. In the rest, in the Poem
which forms the body of the work, he speaks to us only
through the lips of the six different interlocutors, or dramatis
persona;, who each and all speak in the original in the language
and form of poetry. By this I mean that they use the form,
not merely of poetical prose, but of genuine Hebrew versifica
tion. Of the nature of this I have already spoken2- The
only exceptions are the short occasional lines or verses in
which, from time to time, the separate speakers are introduced.
We have, therefore, five parts or divisions ; two, by far the
shortest, in the form of prose ; three, of unequal length, in
Chapters that of poetry. The first of these five parts, the first two
!' "' . chapters, we have already gone through with something of
the attention which they claimed. You will remember that
they comprised a series of separate scenes, laid now on Earth,
now in Heaven, by the aid of which were gathered together,
within the short compass of some five and thirty verses, the
materials of one great and moving tragedy. And this tragedy,
which has set its mark on the literature and current phrase
ology of many ages and nations, falls itself, as we can easily
see, like many more fully developed tragedies of later
1 See above, pp. 13-15. a See above, p. 11.

A summary of its contents. 163
literature, into five separate parts or acts. We had first the Lecture
picture of Job, surrounded by his patriarchal family, pre- VIL
senting the highest type of human goodness and human „,
prosperity. He was the greatest of all the children of the East i, ii-
for prosperity, and there was none like him on the earth for J0 na '
goodness. And, secondly, we were transported to the Courts of
Heaven, and allowed to read the secret of the tragic tale
that was to follow. Its purpose, the sifting and testing of the
patriarch's character, as a matter of the deepest interest to
other than human circles, was clearly disclosed to us. And in
the third act the curtain was raised once more on scenes from
Arab life. We saw a series of overwhelming calamities fall
suddenly and almost simultaneously on the hapless hero of
the drama. We saw him stand the test, and come out
unconquered. And, fourthly, we were once more lifted up into
the presence of Jehovah. We heard the result questioned,
and the fiat go forth for a further trial. And in the fifth act we
saw the furnace of affliction heated sevenfold, and Job come out
once more, finally, as it seemed, and definitely victorious.
We watched him bear each successive blow, not merely with
a sobriety and evenness of mind for which a Stoic philosopher,
or a Mahommedan saint, might have sighed in vain, but
with a sweet and dutiful submissiveness to the will of
God, which has made him the traditional type and model
to all ages of that form of resignation which is popularly
called patience. So closed, or seemed to close, the tragedy
of Job's story. Are there any pages in the whole world of
literature, in which so rich and varied a series of pictures is
gathered into so small a compass, without causing a moment's
sense of undue compression or inartistic incompleteness ?
But at its close, or what seemed its close, there are
M 2

164 The Book of Job.
Lecture added a few verses, a fresh or sixth scene, which form
vn- the transition to the great poem, to the long and unbroken
Cha ter ii dialogue in verse, to which this tragedy in prose is after all but
ver. 11-13. the introduction. It is the scene in which we have described
Trip Friends. t0 us *e visit °* *ree chiefs — sons of the East, they too,
like Job himself — who came from far to mourn with their
afflicted friend in his hour of trouble.
So far we have not the Poem itself, but merely the in
troductory narrative that leads up to the Poem which is to
follow.
Chapters And in Chapter iii we saw the form of the Book change.
111-xxxi. -yye passecj at one step from prose to Poetry. Job and his
Dialogue, friends have been placed on the stage. Hints have been
given that the far-off Courts of Heaven are interested in the
little circle that gathers round that Arab dungheap. And
there follows a Dialogue between the sufferer and those
who have come to comfort him. And it is this Dialogue
that forms the longest portion, the heart and kernel, of the
book. It extends over twenty-nine chapters. Job is still its
central figure. It begins with the first verse of the third
chapter, After this fob opened his mouth ; it ends with, The
words of fob are ended, at the close of the thirty-first.
And this Dialogue, or Drama, is extremely symmetrical
and carefully planned. Job speaks first; and then each
of the friends steps forward and speaks in turn ; and each is
answered in turn and separately by Job ; and this takes place
three times over. You might, by introducing a pause, of
which, however, there is no trace in the poem itself, easily
divide the dialogue into three separate scenes. It was at the
close of the second of these scenes, at the end of Chapter xxi,
that we paused when last we met here. We shall begin the

A summary of its contents. 165

third scene, or third cycle of speeches, when next we meet. Lecture
Only we shall find that in this last scene one of the three VIL
friends has disappeared, as though silenced, or convinced that „, '\
Chapters
words are useless ; and Job will wind up the dialogue with a xxvi-xxxi.
long monologue, divided into three separate parts by a line J1°0b's^[on"
of prose, in which, after the first few verses, he will leave his
friends entirely aside. He will assume the attitude, so far as
they are concerned, of master of the field, addressing him
self to God, and to Him only.
Of the nature of this Dialogue, and of the part played by Chapters
his friends and by Job, enough has been already said. You T!' ~x'
have not forgotten that the speakers, the three friends on one Dialogue.
side, Job on the other, drift farther from each other at every
step, as the plot, if we may so speak, of the drama steadily
unfolds itself. You remember how, with growing force and
increased peremptoriness, they urge the view that God is
absolutely righteous, and dispenses happiness and misery,
even here on earth, not arbitrarily, but with perfect justice,
and that Job's only hope of restoration and happiness is to
confess, and to repent of, the sins of his former life. And you
remember the growing torture and agony with which Job,
trained in the same creed, yet strong in the memory and
consciousness of his former life, receives their language. You
have not forgotten how, writhing under the sense of his own
misery and of his friends' hints and accusations, he passes
beyond the sphere of his own exceeding bitter sufferings, and
faces the whole problem of life's baffling riddles. We had
before us no longer fob the patient, but Job as the agonised,
tortured, rebellious, clamorous, pathetic questioner; clinging
to a God who seems to his darkened vision to be a God of
misrule, and who yet, deep down in his soul he feels it, is and

166 The Book of Job.
Lecture must be, a Just God and a Holy. And we shall soon follow
VH- him and his friends to the close of the great dialogue, to the
end of what we might call the second part of the book,
treating the Prologue, or first tragedy of Job, as the first. It
leaves these three good men, and the good Job, facing each
other, standing amidst the ruins of their former friendship, all
sympathy and union gone, any hope of agreement further off
than ever. And then, when all seems ripe for the final
and decisive intervention of the Great Judge, there will come
what will seem a strange pause in the action of the drama, in
the progress of the Poem.
Chapters A fresh speaker, unnamed before, unnoticed afterwards,
xxxvu\ stePs forward from among the bystanders. He belongs, we
Elihu. are expressly told, to a younger generation than Job and his
friends. He blames both. The position which he maintains
in the six chapters throughout which he will speak at length,
pausing at times to challenge Job for a reply, but winning
no answer, we shall consider in due time. It is enough to
say that in this, the speech or speeches of Elihu, from the
thirty-second to the end of the thirty-seventh chapter, we
have the third part or division of the Book.
And with the thirty-eighth chapter, Jehovah Himself, riding
on the whirlwind, shrouded in the storm of which the Psalmist
speaks as His veil and covering, appears on the scene.
Chapters But His voice is heard, not in thunder or in tempest, but
xxx viii 
xiii. 6. in human accents. Through four more chapters, from the
Jehovah, thirty-eighth to the close of the forty-first, He will speak face
to face with Job. Once during His speech, once more at its
close, we have words, on each occasion words of profound
self-abasement, from Job. And with these the fourth division
of the Book ends, and, as a glance at the Revised Version

A summary of its contents. 167
will show, the poetical portion is brought to a close at the Lecture
end of the sixth verse of the last chapter. But there VIL
remains a fifth part, a short but exceedingly important ch^'
and interesting section. A Conclusion, too essential a portion xiii. 1-17.
to be called an Epilogue, is added in prose. And in this ^g;Con"
Conclusion we shall read what, to those who have carefully
weighed Job's language, will be, to say the least, suggestive
of much thought and consideration. We shall be told how
Jehovah justifies Job, not of course for his earlier sub-
missiveness — that needed no justification — but for his language
in the dialogue with his friends ; justifies him, and condemns
his friends. Ye have not, we shall read, spoken of me the
thing that is right, as my servant fob hath. And the book
ends with a short account of Job's restoration to more than
his former prosperity ; to doubled wealth, to peaceful life and
lengthened days.
I have put before you, as I might have done at an earlier
stage, this summary or sketch of the contents of the book
which we are studying. Of the problems which it discusses
I have already said, and shall have to say, so much that I
will add no word at present. But there are still one or two
topics on which you would, I feel sure, be glad of a few
words before we return to the actual text of the book itself.
There is the exceedingly interesting question, perhaps the
very first which would occur to a modern theological or
literary student, that of the authorship of the book, or rather
of the age in which it was written. There was a time when
such a question would have been at once set aside as of
no real moment or interest. 'It is as superfluous, as im
pertinent,' said the foremost voice in Western Christendom
thirteen centuries ago, ' as to ask what pen some great man

168 The Book of Job.
Lecture had used when he wrote a letter which lies before us.
vn- The book is the work of the Holy Spirit, and its pages are
M in our hands. The name, nationality, or age, of the human
instrument through which the utterances of that Spirit have
reached us is a matter of no moment. The inquiry is waste
of time, and savours even of irreverence1.' Yet such an
answer will hardly satisfy those who, while humbly recognising
the beneficent work of God's Spirit in the gradual and
growing revelation made to the human spirit in the books
of the Old Testament, yet feel the deepest interest in tracing
the history of that Revelation, in studying it alike in its
successive stages, and from its human side. They will abso
lutely decline to look on the individual portions of that
Revelation, the separate books of that 'Divine Library,' as
St. Jerome so fitly called it, as devoid each of its own
character, its own place, its own teaching, and its own history.
Yet the question which I have suggested as regards the
Book of Job is one which it is impossible to answer with any
certainty. The riddle has never been solved. There is
not a hint in the book itself as to its author. The vague
traditions that have reached us can hardly be called traditions ;
they are little beyond the guesses or the assertions of this
Rabbi, or that Father, uttered centuries after the book had
formed a part of the Jewish canon, and resting on no secure
foundation of any kind. Its date has been carried back
into ages anterior to the very origin of the Hebrew or
the Greek alphabet, when the literature of the 'wisdom of
the Egyptians' was written in hieroglyphics upon stone or
papyrus. Some, again, have held that it was born beneath
Arab tents, and received its Jewish form from Moses during
1 See note at the end of this Lecture, p. 183.

Its age and authorship. 169
his long sojourn with his Arabian father-in-law; or that Lecture
even earlier, Jacob brought it back, with his two wives, his VH'
children, his flocks and herds, from the land of Laban.
Others have looked for its author at the court of Solomon,
and have even ventured to attempt to identify him with one
ofthe Psalmists of that age1. On the other hand, its com
position has been carried down to the Babylonian exile,
and even to the days of Ezra, and the return from the
Captivity. And each and any of these conflicting theories
is as fully compatible as the others with the deepest reverence
for the contents of the book, and with the profoundest sense
of the greatness of its teaching. The birthday of what has
been called the most splendid flower of Hebrew poetry, of
what some have called the greatest poem in the world, has
been sought for up and down among the centuries, and no
certain conclusion has yet been reached. ' It is a point,'
says one among the best and the latest of the commentators
on Job, ' on which even this omniscient age must be content
to remain in doubt 2.'
You will notice that in our own Bibles it stands first
among that series of Books which divides the Prophets from
the Sacred Historians. It takes precedence there even ofthe
Book of Psalms, which from the sanctity attached to the
name of David, and from its early use in Jewish worship,
appears at times to have given its name to the third division
of Holy Scripture, which is spoken of as consisting of the Law,
the Prophets, and the Psalms 3, though more usually, in the
New Testament, as the Law (or Moses), and the prophets.
1 See Godet, fltudes Bibliques, p. 193.
2 Introduction to Dr. A. B. Davidson's excellent Commentary on Job.
3 Cf. St. Luke xxiv. 44.

170 The Book of Job.
Lecture And this place, no doubt, was assigned to it from the
VI1- prevailing impression of its extreme antiquity. Nor can we
wonder at this. I have already called your attention more
than once to the entire and remarkable absence of any
reference in its pages to Jewish History, or to the traditions,
the institutions, or the localities, of the Land of Palestine \
It is hardly necessary to enlarge further on this subject. We
have felt at every page, we shall feel it even more as we read
on, that we are breathing quite another atmosphere than that
of the hills and vallies of the land of David. And we can
readily understand how naturally the belief arose that the
almost entire absence of any Jewish colouring in the scenery,
either of the Poem itself, or of its introduction or its close,
was due to its great antiquity. If it came down from the
days of some Arab sage, or even from the pen of Moses,
familiar alike with the civilisation and marvels of Egypt, and
with the patriarchal life of Arabia, the difficulty seems solved
at once. We have a work written before the very origin of
the Mosaic Law, before the thunders of Sinai had been heard,
or the conquest of Palestine had been dreamed of. It is
no wonder that in the very earliest poem, written in any
widely intelligible language, which is in possession of our race,
there should be no reference to events which, old as they
seem to us, had not yet sprung from the womb of time.
It is a most interesting and attractive theory. It held its
ground for ages. I feel, I confess, a pang at finding myself
forced, even, I might almost say, against my will, to abandon
it. How striking to think that the chapters which we have been
and shall be reading— those outpourings of thought and feeling,
so fresh and vivid, that it has been truly said that the ink with
1 See above, p. 7.

Its age and authorship. \i\
which they are written seems hardly dry — had come down to Lecture
us through such an enormous lapse of centuries, from a mind VH-
that had faced these world-old, yet still modern problems, in M
the days when Pyramids were rising from the low level ofthe
Nile valley, when the Sphinx was yet uncarved — in the era of a
civilisation that was old when the tale of the Trojan War was
yet unsung, when Greece and Rome were yet unborn. You
feel, I am sure, as I do, a wish that we could believe it to
be true.
But the arguments on the other side have left few thought
ful supporters of this view at the present time. It is not
merely that the language in which the book is written is not,
we are assured, that of the oldest extant form of Hebrew,
but, at the very earliest, that not of the morning but of the
high noon of Jewish literature. It is not merely that the
author, when speaking in his own person, speaks invariably
of God by the name in which he was revealed to Moses 1 as
the Covenant God of the people of Israel ; nor merely that he
seems to have been familiar, if not with many other portions
of the Old Testament, certainly with at least one Psalm 2 ; or
that expressions occur, such as that of Ophir, as the recog
nised name for gold, which would have been inconceivable
before, at the very earliest, the reign of Solomon. It is more
than this. The very problem which the book discusses, the
riddle which vexes the soul of Job, is not one which springs
into full life, or would form the subject of a long and
studied, an intensely argued and elaborate discussion, in
any early or simple stage of a nation's progress. The work
is clearly by a Hebrew. It bears no signs of being a
translation. The stamp of originality is on every page.
' Exodus iii. 14. a See above, p. 68.

172 The Book of Job.
Lecture When, or where, could a Hebrew have found a place for such
vn- a work in the infancy of his nation ? The struggle between
a traditional Creed which told him that all suffering was a
penalty for actual sin, all prosperity a reward for goodness,
and the spectacle of undeserved suffering as seen in the world
of a more complex experience — the question of the inherent
value and sacredness of goodness in itself, as apart from the
outward or inward happiness which it brings — the very
character of the awful Ruler of the Universe, His justice and
His goodness as distinct from his sovereignty and greatness
— these are scarcely problems which would force themselves,
like armed intruders, on the human soul, in the simpler
and earlier stages of social or national progress. We smile as
we read the assertions of doctor after doctor of the Jewish or
Christian Church, that the awful questionings, which you and
I have faced and shall face in the words of the tortured Job,
were read to comfort oppressed and ignorant bondsmen in
the slave gangs of Egypt ; or to cheer the ' stiffnecked ' tribes
of half civilised wanderers in the forty years of their desert life.
How little can those who tell us so have faced the full meaning
of the largest and the central portion of the book. The
elements doubtless of such perplexities may have existed from
the day when the blood of some unavenged successor of
righteous Abel cried in vain for retribution. But we can
hardly imagine that their full and elaborate discussion would
have found voice or echo or hearing, still less enshrined itself
in a nation's sacred literature, till a sadder and more per
plexing experience had opened men's eyes to darker and
more tangled thoughts than come to the childhood of nations.
God's Spirit does not transport men out of their own epoch.
Great men may mould their age, may see further than their

Its age and authorship. 173
contemporaries, but they are moulded also by, are the children Lecture
of, their age. And they are not summoned to do their work VI1'
till the ' fulness of time ' has come. Great and lofty as are
the utterances, profound as are the thoughts of the Book
of Job, they would have, may we not say, been 'born out
of due time,' till the problems with which they deal had
been brought home to the hearts of thinkers by familiarity
with much unexplained and inexplicable suffering, by
long and painful musing over the mysteries and riddles, let
me use the phrase once more, of human life. To myself,
I own, that to look for the spiritual conflicts of Job in the
dawn of the national life of Israel, is like demanding the
revelations of modern science, astronomical, geological, or
physiological, in the teaching of Moses.
Yet if we set aside this earlier date, we must still suspend
our judgment. We shall still be left to set conjecture against
conjecture, theory against theory. Shall we say that this
great work is the ripe and golden fruit of the days of Solo
mon ? that its seed-bed was the rush, the first and fertilising
inrush, of new ideas and widening influences that poured in
upon the Hebrew race as, for a moment in its long history,
it rose to something of an imperial position ; as the Vine that
was- brought out of Egypt ' sent out her boughs unto the
sea, and her branches unto the river1?' Did a school of
writers spring up at the court of the wise Monarch, who like
him strained after a wider range of thought than the tight
trammels of their national system could embrace ? who tried
to look on man as the child of Adam, not merely as the son
of Israel ? And did one of these searchers after the Wisdom
which is personified in the Book of Proverbs, and whose
1 Ps. Ixxx. 8, 11.

174 The Book of Job.
Lecture praises we shall find sung in a marvellous lyric through a
"II- chapter which we have yet to study, rise ' to the height of the
? «  great argument ' of this book, and leave to his race and to
mankind the immortal legacy of this magnificent monument
of the golden, the Augustan, age of the Hebrew monarchy ?
Was the author whom we are now studying one of those who
saw rise from the ground the solid fabric of the mighty temple
which his own mighty work was to outlive by centuries upon
centuries ? Exegitne monumentum acre perennius ? Or shall
we rather say that we see traces of a deeper sadness, of a more
melancholy and perplexing, of a more brooding and longer ga
thered, experience of the darker side of human life and human
history, than was compatible with the heyday of the nation's
early manhood, with the full pulse of life that must have
throbbed in its veins in the bright days of Solomon ? Shall we,
in the entire absence of external evidence, lean rather to the
thought that he who was to give a voice to the most agonising
questions which can perplex the soul of the human thinker, was
born into a sadder and more sombre age, less sunlit skies, a
more clouded and stormy atmosphere? Shall we say that
he lived late enough to have seen wave after wave of trouble
beat against the divided and worn, the much tried and weary
remnants of that shortlived empire ? Had his nation's life,
in its long passage down the sad declivity of suffering and
decay, brought home to his own burdened brain questions
which would have sat lightly on the glad heart of the poet and
thinker of an earlier age ? Had some such son of Abraham
brooded over the woes of his own race, till the sharpest
pangs of suffering humanity had been worked into his life-
blood, and become part and parcel of his own individual
experience ? We may think, at least for a moment, of our

Its age and authorship. 175

inspired poet, as one who had watched and pondered some Lecture
portion at least of human history. He had seen calamities VIL
strike, not nations only as punishments for national sins,
but visit indiscriminately the individuals who compose them,
the units in those aggregations of units which together make up
the family of nations. He had seen them fall alike, deserved
or undeserved, on the most innocent and the most guilty.
Such an one we can conceive to have suffered much himself;
and the intense and unapproachable sadness in which not a few
of his utterances are steeped, may be the echo of feelings that
had haunted his own soul, as he too was tried and proved in
the slow fires — may we Englishmen never know them — alike
of a patriot's humiliation and of personal affliction. And he
had learned, we may believe, much in that stern school of shame
and suffering, and from the feelings and thoughts borne in
upon the soul of such a thinker from the spectacle of a world
in misery. And he had found peace at last — not in a return to
a belief in which he could no longer find a resting-place, and
whose powerlessness to bring tranquillity he exhibits in every
page that we have read or shall read — not in any philosophical
mastery of questions against which the human intellect has
beaten itself in vain for ages — not in a gloomy pessimism
which accepts the inevitable with the cold smile of hopeless
ness — but in that reposeful and trustful attitude towards the
wisdom and the goodness of an unseen God, which is after all
the one great and final lesson of the book of Job.
In what dark hour of his nation's story did these sad
experiences haunt his vision? Did they come to some
survivor of the final fall of Samaria, of the crash of the
Northern Kingdom? to one who, driven by storms of war
from his ancient home, had wandered far, travelled much,

176 The Book of Job.
Lecture observed much, suffered much, meditated much ? Did some
"IJ- such exile paint in the calmer evening of his life the agonies
of his own darker hours, as seen in the peaceful light of
resignation and of faith? Or was it one who had outlived
a sharper pang, had seen the sacred walls of Jerusalem
levelled with the dust ; who had heard the cry of Edom in
the day of doom, and had wept with the captive exiles
by the waters of Babylon? Did he, one or other of such
sorrow-taught sons of Abraham, seize on a name, even
then ancient, a name which we see from a verse in Ezekiel1
had already grown into a tradition for piety and goodness;
and did he embody the higher teaching, teaching beyond his
age, which God's Spirit had breathed into his own soul, in
scenes purposely and designedly detached from the events
and associations that bounded the narrow horizon of his own
age and nation? Did he try to summon those to whom
he spoke into a serener atmosphere than that of the troubled
skies and driving mists that met their eye ?
One more question. Did he, whose legacy to the ages
that were to follow was this immortal tale, of 'a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief,' whose friends despised
his moans and hid from him their faces — one against whose
guiltless head such a sea of troubles seems to roll and
break — did he see in him not only the one figure which
he drew, but also a personification in him of all the un
explained and mysterious woes of suffering humanity ? And
did he see something more? Does there stand behind the
figure of Job any shadow of all that was most sacred in the
present and the future destiny of his own race — made to
possess, to inherit, like Job, the bitter fruits of ' the sins of its
1 xiv. 14.

Its interpretation. m
youth1?' And more still. Have we in these chapters a Lecture
sister-image to that of the ' servant of God,' who, in those VI1'
later and profounder Chapters that bear the name of Isaiah,
represents, now the suffering remnant of God's people, now a
form, shrouded and mysterious, but bearing a mould and type
that was to find its true fulfilment in One who, centuries
later, was to drink the very dregs of the cup of suffering,
and through all those sufferings to be infinitely dear to the
God by whose gracious will He was afflicted2 ? We ask and
ask these questions. And as we ask the interest grows, and
we would fain pierce the darkness, fain speak with the easy
dogmatism of this or that Hebrew Rabbi, this or that Father,
or Doctor, of the Christian Church. But we have no certain
answer; and the age, and the authorship, and much of the
history of this mysterious book is veiled in almost impene
trable obscurity.
And now, long as I have already detained you, I should
like to add a few words on a question that will, I feel sure,
have a real interest in the eyes of many here. How is
it that a curtain seems to have hung so long over so much
of the real meaning and purport of the book of Job? Is
there not something that savours of presumption in using
language, such as you have heard me venture to use, which
implies that the present generation has found its way to the
true teaching and essential lessons of the book, in a manner
and to a degree which was denied to the great teachers of
Christendom in former ages? You can easily imagine the
sneer with which such a claim might be set aside.
1 xiii. 27.
2 See on this question an interesting essay in vol. ii. of Professor
Cheyne's Prophecies of Isaiah. N

178 The Book of Job.
Lecture And indeed the question requires an answer; but that
V11- answer is a very simple one.
Those teachers of whom I speak took a totally different
view of the whole design, nature, and value of the book
which we are studying, indeed, I may say of the whole Old
Testament Scriptures, to that in the light of which we have
attempted to deal with its contents.
To them the book of Job was above all things a great
allegory. As such the Christian student was to treat it.
It was not his business, certainly not his first and primary
duty, to inquire into the direct and literal meaning of
what lay before him, and to expect to find by this process
the teaching that marked a single stage in God's progressive
and gradual revelation of truth to the world. What he had to
study was a mystical narrative, in each separate verse,
in every word, of which, was wrapped up another meaning
to that which the words conveyed. It was this other
meaning, this prophetical, symbolical, and mystical sense,
* not the mere integument of language in which it was swathed
and concealed, which the devout reader was called on to
explore. His duty was not to expound what lay before him,
but to search diligently beneath its surface for types,
foreshadowings, analogies to the ideas or the truths which
he had brought with him to the study, or to the facts and
persons of the world which was familiar to him. Let me take
as, for our own subject, the most signal of all instances,
the famous work of the Great Gregory, Bishop of Rome,
from 590 a.d. to 604 a. d. He was no imaginative Greek,
no fanciful dreamer, but a Roman Patrician of ancient
race, a Praetor of Rome before his conversion, a great
statesman, and a great Pope. To him, to his apostolic zeal,

St. Gregory's interpretation of the Book. 179
to his masterly sagacity, and untiring energy, we owe the Lecture
mission of Augustine, the founding of the Metropolitan See VI1,
of Canterbury, in a word the conversion of a great portion of
our own heathen forefathers of England, properly so called,
to the Christian Faith. Yet in his voluminous work on Job
you will find, after you have read the first few pages, hardly
ten consecutive lines of what we should call interpretation
of the text as it stood before him. He says expressly that
the sense of its contents is quite other than what lies on the
surface : aliud intimant, aliud sonant. Job is to him no mere
historical personage, or the leading character in a sublime
and inspired poem, least of all an Arab chief. He is a repre
sentative, now of the Christ who was to come, now of the true
Church which He was to found. The man who is intro
duced as dwelling in the Land of Uz is no Eastern Patriarch.
The opening words, which seem to describe him as such, are
written with another object than to specify the name and
country of any inhabitant of earth. They convey, to those
who can read them aright, the higher truth of Christ dwelling
in the hearts of the wise. His three friends may to the eye of
sense be Eastern Chiefs, Arab Sheikhs. To the pious reader
they are the heretics who, in the first ages of Christendom, beset
and imperilled Catholic Truth. Job's seven sons are, now
the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, now, by a strange rearrange
ment of numbers, they are the twelve apostles, preaching
the Adorable Trinity in the four quarters of the globe. The
sheep, the camels, the oxen, the asses, represent different
classes; the true disciples, the Gentiles, the Jews, the
Samaritans. All is allegory; every word and every act is
symbolical. And more than this. Every word that. Job
says is dictated by the Holy Spirit. We must not dream
N 2

180 The Book of Job.
Lecture of his having spoken rashly or over-vehemently or auda-
VH- ciously for a moment. He who says he erred says God erred ;
and his wild cries, his daring questionings, are merely forms,
misleading forms, in which the Holy Spirit has concealed
the most gracious truths, the most pregnant teaching, the
most unerring prophecies \ The friends, on the other hand,
he tells us, if ever they speak a word of truth, only do so
because they have learned something from their long
converse2 with the saintly Job. And while they represent
the heretics, Elihu is the type, not of the avowed heretic,
but of the arrogant and misleading teacher within the
Church. Yet St. Gregory was a great thinker and a great man.
And we Englishmen, who remember how, and with what
great results, he found a deeper meaning in words heard
in a Roman slave market3, though we would approach the
book on which he built up his great work in a profoundly
different attitude, shall not be surprised to find great thoughts
and noble lessons side by side with a mode of interpretation,
once universal, that seems to us to belong to a world of
thought that has passed away; passed away, never, we may
feel sure, to return in the form which once it wore. I have
spoken to you of one who lived between the earliest and the
middle ages of the Church. Let us pass on, at a single step,
to the very last century. To Bishop Warburton l the book
is a historical parable of a very different kind. Job is the
' See note at the end of this Lecture, p. 183.
' For a passage in which Gregory somewhat modifies this view, see
note to p. 97.
3 See the story as told in Stanley's Memorials of Canterbury , or Blight's
Early English Church.
1 In the ' Divine Legation. of Moses.'

Bishop War bur tons interpretation. 181

Jewish people, released from their Captivity, and for the Lecture
first time living the ordinary life of other nations. Up to VIL
the Captivity, he supposes them, indeed the theory lies at the
very basis of his great work, to have lived under a special
dispensation of their own. The ' Divine Legation of Moses,'
the older dispensation, which lasted to the Babylonian
Captivity, dispensed, he says, entirely with any doctrine of
future rewards or punishments. And why? Because God
ruled that one nation and its individual citizens under a
system which gave to the nation and to its children their
rewards in this life. With the Captivity that system came
to an end ; and the book of Job represents the trials and
agonies of the Jewish nation when first launched upon the
new experiences of a world whose wrongs will be redressed,
whose imperfections remedied, in another sphere of life,
another world. With Bishop Warburton, Job is the Jewish
nation. Job's wife represents the foreign wives of whom we
read in the book of Ezra. The three friends are Sanballat,
Tobiah, and Geshem, the three implacable enemies of the
returned exiles. Elihu represents the Prophets, Ezra is the
auth r.
You smile as you listen to such a theory. Yet its author
at least laid his hand on the real and central problem of the
book — the perplexity caused to the human soul by the sight
of affliction falling on the innocent. For my own part, I
would rather study the book under such guidance, which,
with all its fringe of absurdity, yet at least recognises the true
meaning of the position which Job holds through speech
after speech, chapter after chapter, than under that of those
who, as the great mass of the commentators who follow him,
absolutely ignore the most striking and characteristic and

182 The Book of Job.
Lecture longest portion of the book, and tell us that it was written to
vn- hold up to our eyes Job as an example of unbroken patience
and humility, or to reveal to his own age the secret of
another life. Whatever else is right, this we feel is wrong.
Better, it seems to me, to treat the book as a mere pro
phetic vehicle for thoughts quite other than it expresses;
better to find in it a mere riddling historical parable, than
to profess to expound it as it stands, and yet so wholly
to misread its meaning and purpose.
May I add one word more ? The Hebrew of the book of
Job is exceedingly difficult. St. Jerome in the fourth century
complains that, having engaged a Jewish Rabbi's help, and
having laboured long with him, he knew at the end what he
knew before, and nothing more. Luther, whose few words
on the book are as keensighted as they are precious, speaks
in his own quaint way of the difficulties of the Hebrew. ' Job,'
he says, ' is suffering more from my version than from the
taunts of his friends, and would prefer his dunghill to my
translation of his lamentations.' But the difficulty ofthe Hebrew
consists very largely in the number of words which, as they do
not occur again in the Old Testament writings, long baffled
all attempts to translate them. But even for the last hundred
and fifty years, and still more for the last half century, the
difficulty has been greatly lessened by bringing to bear on
these unknown words and phrases the light gained by a
careful study of kindred dialects ofthe sister language, Arabic,
the other great daughter of the parent Semitic stock. It is
as though ages hence, when Modern European tongues had
become dead languages, a number of French words which
had defied the attempts of future scholars, familiar only with
the surviving literature of that tongue, had surrendered their

Its language. 183

meaning when challenged by those who had been able to Lecture
study their cognate words in Italian or in Spanish, or some VIL
other of the Romance languages. ~~ M —
We have here one of the great causes of what I venture
to call the immeasurable superiority of our Revised Version
of Job, as compared with the older translation. The
scholars of the present day are enabled to explore a mine
which was absolutely closed to the Divines of the Re
formation and of earlier ages.
I must bring this long, far too long, lecture to a close. I
rejoice to think that on this day week we may hope no longer
to search for the age or the history of him who speaks
to us in the pages which we shall read : but that we shall
once more sit at his feet and listen to his words, once more
watch the measure and the fashion in which God's Holy
Spirit spoke to His servants of old.
February 6, 1886. Note to pages 168 and 179.
I hope I have not overstated St. Gregory's view. I quote a few of
his words. Quis haec scripserit, valde supervacue quaeritur, cum tamen
auctor libri Spiritus Sanctus fideliter credatur. -Ipse igitur haec scripsit
qui scribenda dictavit, etc. The comparison to the pen used by a great
writer follows in the same chapter, Praefatio, Cap. ii.
His language in his prefatory letter to Leander of Seville as to his
mode of interpretation is exceedingly interesting. Nothing can illustrate
more forcibly the gulf that separates the exegesis of his age from our own
than his remarks on the objections to merely literal interpretations, and the
instances which he gives. So again in his Praefatio, Cap. iii. 7, we read :
Et quidem quaedam verba responsionum illius imperitis lectoribus,
aspera sonant, quia sanctorum dicta pie intelligere, sicut dicuntur,
ignorant. I may refer my readers to a translation of the whole work in
the ' Library of the Fathers,' published by Parker and Rivington.

LECTURE VIII.

CHAPTERS XXII— XXV.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chapters XXII— XXV.)

22 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 Can a man be profitable unto God?
Surely he that is wise is profitable unto himself.
3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous ?
Or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?
4 Is it 1 for thy fear of him that he reproveth thee,
That he entereth with thee into judgement ?
5 Is not thy wickedness great ?
Neither is there any end to thine iniquities.
6 For thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought,
And stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,
And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
8 But as for 2the mighty man, he had the s earth;
And 4the honourable man, he dwelt in it.
9 Thou hast sent widows away empty,
And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
io Therefore snares are round about thee,
And sudden fear troubleth thee,
u 5Or darkness, that thou canst not see,
And abundance of waters cover thee.
13 Is not God in the height of heaven ?
And behold the 6 height of the stars, how high they are !
13 And thou sayest, What doth God know ?
Can he judge through the thick darkness ?
14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not ;
And he walketh 7 in the circuit of heaven.
15 8Wilt thou keep the old way

Chapter XXII.

1 Ox, for
fear of thee

2 Heb. the
man of
arm.3 Or, land
' Heb. he
whose
person is
accepted. 5 Or, Or
dost thou
not see the
darkness,and the
flood of
waters that
coveretkthee ?
6 Heb.
head.7 Or, on the
vault8 Or, Dost
thou mark

188 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter Which wicked men have trodden ?
XXII. Who were snatched away before their time, 1 6
— M — Whose foundation was poured out as a stream :
3 hV° ^k° sa-id unto God, Depart from us ; 17
them. And, What can the Almighty do 1for zus ?
3 Or, that Yet he filled their houses with good things : 1 8
which re- gut the counsei 0f tfe w;cked is far from me.
mained to .
them Ox I"e righteous see it, and are glad; 19
their And the innocent laugh them to scorn :
abundance Saying, Surely they that did rise up against us are cut off, 20
otherwise And Stne remnant of them the fire hath consumed.
read, Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace : 21
IhaUthine "Thereby ?ood sha11 come unt0 thee-
increase be Receive, I pray thee, 6the law from his mouth, 22
good. And lay up his words in thine heart.
structZ'n If thou return to tne Almighty, thou shalt be built up ; 23
6 Or, Thou 6If thou put away unrighteousness far from thy tents.
shalt put And lay thou thy 'treasure 8in the dust, 24
and shalt And ^e S0^ °f Ophir among the stones of the brooks ;
lay up And the Almighty shall be thy 'treasure, 25
Heb. ore. And "precious silver unto thee.
Or 07z
the earth ^or t^ien s^a"- t'10u delight thyself in the Almighty, 26
9 Or, And shalt lift up thy face unto God.
precious Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee ; 27
silver shall . , ., , ,. .,
be thine And thou shalt Pa^ tn^ vows-
10 Or, are Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto 28
made low thee •
Hen hxTit
that is '^¦nd ^&kt s^a^ snme upon thy ways.
lowly of When they 10cast thee down, thou shalt say, There is lifting up ; 29
W'fi And "the humble person he shall save.
ancient7 He sha11 dellver 12^ven him that is not innocent : ,Q
versions Yea, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of thine hands.
read, him Then Job answered and said, 23
innocent. Even to"day is my complaint "rebellious : 2
13 Ox, bitter1* My stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Or, ac- oh that I knew where I might find him, ,
counted „,, . T . , . t , . J
rebellion That *¦ might come even to his seat !
14 Or, My hand is heavy upon (or because of) The Sept. and Syr. read, His hand.

Chapters XXII— XXV.

189

4 I would order my cause before him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words which he would answer me,
And understand what he would say unto me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power ?
Nay; abut he would give heed unto me.
7 There the upright might reason with him ;
So should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ;
And backward, but I cannot perceive him :
9 On the left hand, when he doth work, but I cannot behold him :
He 2hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.
ios But he knoweth 4the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
n My foot hath held fast to his steps ;
His way have I kept, and turned not aside.
12 I have not gone back from the commandment of his lips ;
I have treasured up the words of his mouth 5more than my
6 necessary food.
13 But 7 he is in one mind, and who can turn him ?
And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
14 For he performeth that which is appointed for me :
And many such things are with him.
15 Therefore am I troubled at his presence ;
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
16 For God hath made my heart faint,
And the Almighty hath troubled me :
17 'Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
04 9Why are times not laid up by the Almighty?
And why do not they which know him see his days?
2 There are that remove the landmarks ;
They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless,
They take the widow's ox for a pledge.
4 They turn the needy out of the way :
The 10poor of the earth hide themselves together.

Chapter XXIV.

1 Or, he
would only
give heed
2 Or, turn-
eth him
self to . . .
him, but
3 Or, For
4 Heb. the
way that is
with me.
5 Or, more
than my
own law
The Sept.
and Vulgatehave, in
my bosom.
6 Or,
portion See Prov.
xxx. 8.
1 Or, he
is one
8 Or, For
I am not
dismayedbecause of
the dark
ness, nor
becausethick dark
ness cover
eth my face
" Or, Why
is it, seeing
times are
not hidden
from the
Almighty,that they
which
know him
see not his
days ?
10 Or, meek

190 The Book of Job. {Revised- Version)
Chapter Behold, as wild asses in the desert 5
XXIV. They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for ' meat ;
— M — The wilderness yieldeth them food for their children.
'Heb. prey. They cut 2their provender in the field ; 6
Or, his Ariel they glean the vintage of the wicked.
They lie all night naked without clothing, 7
And have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, 8
And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast, 9
3 Or, take And 3take a pledge of the poor :
'thf/which 'So tJlat they go about naked without clothing, io
is on the And being an-hungred they carry the sheaves ;
poor They make oil within the walls of these men ; 1 1
They tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
4 Heb. city From out of the 4 populous city men groan, • 12
of men. And the souj of {he wouncjed crieth out :
Yet God imputeth it not for folly.
These are of them that rebel against the light ; 13
They know not the ways thereof,
Nor abide in the paths thereof.
The murderer riseth with the light, he killeth the poor and 14
needy ;
0 0r And in the night he is as a thief.
putteth a The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, j r
covering on Saying, No eye shall see me :
"1 e And he °disguiseth his face.
Which they In the dark they dig through houses: l6
had mark. "They shut themselves up in the daytime;
edfor Th know nQt the j- ht>
t/l€'J7lS€l'VCS'Or, Ye For the mornmg is t0 al1 ot" them as the shadow of death; 17
say, He is For they know the terrors of the shadow of death.
&c. 7 He is swift upon the face of the waters ; ,H
ft ti L . . . ' IO
., ¦ , Their portion is cursed in the earth :
violentlytake away. "-^ turnetn not by the way of the vineyards.
•¦< Or, the Drought and heat 8 consume the snow waters : lq
grave So doth 9 Sheol those which have sinned.

Chapters XXII— XXV.

191

20 The womb shall forget him ; the worm shall feed sweetly on
him ;
He shall be no more remembered :
And unrighteousness shall be broken ' as a tree.
21 He devoureth' the barren that beareth not ;
And doeth not good to the widow.
22 2 He drawetfr away the mighty also by his power :
He riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
23 God giveth them to be in security, and they rest thereon ;
3 And his eyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted ; yet a little while, and they are gone ;
4 Yea, they are brought low, they are 'taken out of the way
as all other,
And are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
25 And if it be not so now, who will prove me a liar,
And make my speech nothing worth?
25 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 Dominion and fear are with him ;
He maketh peace in his high places.
3 Is there any number of his armies ?
And upon whom doth not his light arise?
4 How then can man be just 6 with God ?
Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman ?
5 Behold, even the moon hath no brightness,
And the stars are not pure in his sight :
6 How much less man, that is a worm !
And the son of man, which is a worm !

Chapter XXV.
 M 
1 Or, as a
tree ; even
he that
devoureth 6fc.
3 Or, Yet
God by his
power maketh the
mighty to
continue :
they rise
up, when
they be
lieved not
that they
should live
3 Ox, But
* Or, And
when they
are &c.
" Or,
gathered in
6 Or, befor

LECTURE VIII.
CHAPTERS XXII-XXV.
The Dialogue resumed. Third and final address of Eliphaz
(chap. xxii). fob's reply (chaps, xxiii, xxiv). Bildad ' s
closing words (chap. xxv). Zophar is silent.
Those of you who joined in our earlier studies of the book Lecture
which we now once more open, will remember that we IIJ-
— ** —
left Job, at the close of Chapter xxi, in an hour of gloom, q^v xxj;
we may almost say of despair. His friends had brought
him no comfort. Each in turn had addressed him twice ;
and each in turn had added gall to the bitterness of his
cup. Again and again they had enforced upon him what
seemed to them to be the cardinal and central truth on
which all religion rested — that the course of this world
is so ordered by an all-powerful and righteous God, that
each man receives here below the measure of success or
failure, of happiness or misery, which is justly due to him.
And if so, the conclusion was clear. The appalling blows
which had fallen upon their friend, which had left him
childless, beggared, and prostrate under a disease so widely
associated with God's direct visitation, could have only
one meaning. These things must have answered, they
felt and could not but feel, to something in Job's life
which called for and justified them. So the only course
open to them was, it might well seem, that which they
o

194 The Book of Job. Chapter XXII.
Lecture followed. Gently and indirectly at first, more sternly and
vm- more clearly afterwards, they call upon him to recognise
~ '.. the justice of the God whom he and they alike worship ;
v Imp. XXII- to put away whatever evil has marked his life, and turn
to One who will surely pardon and accept His erring
but repenting servant. And as they reason thus with their
friend, the gulf between him and them widens at every
word. And it is no wonder that it should be so. His
soul is becoming, as it were, a stage on which strange and
dreadful phantoms flit to and fro. Sorrow, which came
to him at first with such sweet and chastening influences,
has introduced him to a world of new and terrible ideas.
Undreamed of problems wring his heart and perplex
his brain, and drive him to the very verge of madness and
despair. But these torturing questions do not disturb his friends
at all. The world is to them a good and well-ordered
world; or indeed, to borrow a phrase famous once, not
yet forgotten, 'the best of all possible worlds.' They do
not see why they should give up one of the main articles
of their ancestral creed, because their poor afflicted and
sick friend breaks down under his own personal trials,
and chooses to launch wild and unmeasured words against
the Providence of God, and the government of the universe.
They came to him full of sympathy, and desirous to show
their sympathy. His first loud and bitter cry of pain startled
them. It was not what they had expected from one who,
in happier days, had instructed many, strengthened the weak
hands and the feeble knees1 But they had tried to bring
him back to his own true and better self, by gentle hints
1 Ch. iv. 3, 4.

Position of Job and his Friends. 195
of the infirmity and imperfection inherent in humanity ; Lecture
and by a touching and sympathetic call to welcome God's vnl'
chastening rod 1, and to look to Him for a return to even c, xxi;
greater happiness than that which had so suddenly, and
by a sentence so unmistakeably judicial and providential,
been snatched away. But such advice had been quite
useless. Job had turned on his friends with reproaches,
and on his God with still wilder cries of agony and bewilder
ment. Like them, he can dwell on the power, the omni
potence, the omniscience of God; but every word which
his advisers say to him on this head, and every corresponding
word with which he joins them in emphasising this article
of their common creed, widens the breach between him
and them. What to him, to his spiritual nature, is the
stay or comfort of knowing that God is omnipotent, if
He shows His power by arbitrarily torturing His true ser
vant, by chasing him hither and thither as a driven leaf?
Have there been none since Job's day whom this repre
sentation of God, simply as a Being of unlimited power and
arbitrary will, has kept aloof from the God of all mercies
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ?
And his friends, irritated and embarrassed by his words,
can merely repeat, each in his turn, the long drawn out
assertion of God's unerring justice. Each paints his vivid
pictures of the calamities that fall upon evil-doers, till the
sense of the wrong which they are doing by implicitly
or explicitly classing him with such, gathers a darker
shape in the mind of Job, and transfers itself from them
to God. He knows and feels that he is not a malefactor ;
not a sinner, in the sense in which they use the word;
1 See especially iv. 12-21, v. 17-26, and xi. 13-19.
0 2

196 The Book of Job. Chapter XXII.
Lecture that he has served his God simply, sincerely, and devoutly.
We must not look in the heart of this Arabian Patriarch
Chap xxii ^or '^at subtier and deeper sense of inward sinfulness
and unworthiness, which rises like a ceaseless spring in
the hearts of those who have once come within the teaching
of Christ and the influence of His Spirit. Nor is this the
question which is at stake. The issue between himself
and his friends is something quite different. They dwell,
often in very beautiful language, on the imperfection of all
created things, even of Angels, before God, and on the general
sinfulness of man. But it is not this which they would
have Job acknowledge. Nor is it any consequence of,
or any judgment on, ' original sin,' if I may use a phrase
unknown to them, that they see in his terrible calamities.
God, they tell Him, reserves His chastisement for the wicked,
for the secret or the open offender; and by degrees they
enclose Job within a narrowing circle of darker and darker
pictures of suffering like, or analogous to, his own; and
they underwrite them all with the expressive words :
This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
And the heritage appointed unto him by God1-
And Job knows well their meaning. God, he is told,
has declared against him, and his own heart echoes the
dread announcement. Let me recall to you language which
he has already used :
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.
1 Ch. XX. 2Q.

The government of the world. 197
He hath torn me in his wrath and persecuted me ; Lecture
He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth : VIII.
Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me. „,
v, ricip. xxn.
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 castelh me into the hands of the wicked1.
But if so, what then ? It is not his friends only who are
unjust. There is injustice elsewhere. The solid earth
seems to pass from beneath his feet. He feels himself
wronged, wronged not merely by his friends, but by his God.
Earnestly, therefore, and passionately he cries to God to clear
his doubt, to listen to his pleading, to send him some
word of light and guidance. And as no answer comes,
we have heard him pass outside the limits of his own
individual sufferings, and question and deny the existence
of any rule of justice in the world ; and in the last chapter
which we read we had a long and elaborate picture of
what seem to him the dismal inequalities and heart-rending
injustices of life.
There is no room for doubt as to the point on which the
controversy is now turning. ' The world,' say the friends,
' is a well-ruled world. Everywhere in the experience
of life are to be seen, not the traces merely, but the clear
proofs of an undeviatingly just administration. Everywhere
well-being is the reward of goodness, suffering the penalty
of moral evil.' ' The world,' says Job, ' is an ill-ruled world.
Heavy calamities may fall, do fall, upon the innocent. Great
prosperity may be, often is, the lot of the wicked.' The
1 Ch. xvi. 7-1 1.

Chap, xxii

198 The Book of Job. Chapter XXII.
Lecture combatants have joined issue on the most vital of all
VI11- questions. You see how far we have left behind us those serene
heights, where Job, bereft of all that gave life its value,
bowed meekly and gently before the stroke, and blessed Him
that smote him. Yes ! He has travelled far since then !
By what storms have we seen him tossed ! What volcanic
outbursts have sent their scorching blasts, their blinding
showers across his path ! Where is the man of patience
now? What one word has he spoken, since his first sad
outcry, that breathes the faintest trace of his earlier calm?
Storm and tempest, and agony and passion and self-asser
tion — of these his utterances have been full. Dismal pictures
of human life ; dark and dismal pictures of death ; eager
and impatient appeals to God to withdraw His heavy hand,
and vindicate His justice ; cries, groans, shrieks we might
almost say, of rebellion and revolt, loud protestations of his
innocence — these have met us at every step. It is a sublime
impatience, and stirs our souls as we read it; but it is
impatience. It is a sublime despair; but it is, or it verges
on, despair.
For he cannot, remember, this Prometheus of the Old
Testament, speak, act, or feel as did the Prometheus of the
Greek. He cannot, as the vulture tears his vitals, gather
himself to his full height, and hurl his proud, half-smiling
defiance at a hostile God. He cannot, like a Hamlet, take
refuge in moody and half cynical musings ; or meekly accept
'The heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world.'
His pain lies deeper ; for the God, Whose dealings with him
and with the world seem so baffling and so mysterious, is

The change that Job has undergone. 199

still the one God, Whose Spirit fills heaven and earth ; Who Lecture
has no rival claimant to the Lordship of the Universe ; and VIIL
He is a God to Whom Job's whole spirit turns with a rJ~*' •¦
yearning and a passion which intensify his bewilderment and
darken his despair. Whom have I in Heaven but thee ? and
there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee1,
is still the feeling that lies deep down in the centre of his
being. And there we left him, when last we listened to his
pathetic accents.
Far behind us, let me say again, lies the Job of popular,
of ecclesiastical, of artistic tradition. That stately figure,
majestic even when prostrate in its utter misery, has passed
into the heart and brain, I might almost say, of our race, as
the highest type of a noble and saintly resignation. Now it
is marred with other and deeper lines than those which mere
sorrow draws. And we too, like his friends, may look on
that familiar face, ' and know him not ; ' and we too, in a far
deeper sense than they, may ' see that his grief is very great2.'
What were his last words ? They were such, that before
he uttered them, he bade his friends lay each his hand on his
mouth3 in awe-struck silence; and trouble seized on his own Chap. xxi.
soul, and his very flesh crept as the thoughts to which he ver- 5' 6-
gave expression forced their way into his spirit. And so
shuddering, he spoke. And he drew a picture, not with a
word or a touch as before, but one worked out in full detail,
of a misruled world. And he placed it before his God, and
before those who, in the name as they felt of outraged
religion and insulted piety, had undertaken to plead the
cause of God.
1 Psalm Ixxiii. 25. " Ch. ii. 12, 13. , Ch. xxi. 5, 6.

200 The Book of Job. Chapter XXII.
Lecture And now, each having already spoken twice, the eldest
and the most thoughtful of the three rises for the last time
Chap xxii to re°uke and win back, if he may, his erring friend.
His words are calm and well-weighed. In the form in
which they are now accessible to the English reader, this
final discourse of the most dignified of Job's reprovers,
deserves, and will reward, our attentive study. It lies before
us here in Chapter xxii. You will notice at once that
the speaker does not attempt to grapple wdth the problem
which Job has placed before him — his graphic and terrible
picture of the ' fundamental hold which injustice and dis
order have over this visible order of things.' I am translating,
you see, Job's fervid poetry into the plain prose of our own
age, and quoting the very words of one of its most thoughtful
writers1. But this picture which Job puts forward as a faith
ful copy of human life does not seem to produce any effect at
all upon Eliphaz. How or why this is so, it is not for us to
say. It is enough that Job's troubles and pains had carried
him, and were designed to carry him, into a region as far
from the circle of thought in which his friends' religious life
revolved, as was the land of Uz from the city of David. He
sees sights and shapes which they cannot see ; he hears
voices which they cannot hear.
Let us listen at once to the words of Eliphaz. He begins
with what amounts to a blank denial of the existence of any
ground for Job's perplexity, or Job's bewilderment. ' Speak
ver. 2, 3. not,' he says, ' presumptuous Job, as though thy fancied,
innocence were some gain to God; something that has made
Him thy debtor. It is to himself, not to God, that the wise
ver. 4. man's goodness is profitable. HE hath no rule but that
1 The late Professor Mozley in his Essay on the Book of Job.

Third and last speech of Eliphaz. 201
of high impartial justice. Dream not that He would have Lecture
thus rebuked and afflicted thee for thy piety; a monstrous VI11'
thought!' And then he meets all Job's difficulties, by an ~,
answer, which, if true, would dispose of them at once and
finally ; and which he now brings forward in the form of
a well-weighed and careful indictment against his friend's
former career. Untrue and unfeeling as his language seems
to us, it was to him, and to those who stood by him —
representing, as they are clearly intended to represent, the
current religious thought of their time — the one natural key
to all that had come to pass. He entrenches himself behind
the facts that he sees — Job's heaven-sent calamities ; and he
presses home, in this his last utterance, the principle which
he upholds, to its full and rigorous conclusion. ' Great,' he
says, ' are thy sufferings ; great, therefore, must have been
thy misdeeds : '
Is not thy wickedness great ? ver. 5.
Neither is there any end to thine iniquities.
And then he charges him with a significant list of such
offences as would naturally be put in the forefront by a
Hebrew writer, the groundwork of whose language is based
on the experience of Hebrew life, but whose scenery and
diction are drawn from and adapted to a patriarchal age.
' Job,' he says, ' has played the part of the hard usurer ; ver. 6.
for a mere nothing he has taken a security, the forfeiture of
which has left a brother naked. He has let the thirsty ver. 7.
perish for lack of a cup of water. He has denied the hungry
a morsel of bread. The land,' says Eliphaz, ' and all its ver. S.
fruits, Job has looked on as a mere chattel of the powerful (Margin).
and the respected, of him whose person is accepted, i. e. of
himself and men like himself. The rights of property have

202 The Book of Job. Chapter XXII.
Lecture been everything to him, its duties nothing. What to him,' he
VIII. g0es orlj i tne wi(j0w's cry, the cry for help, or the cry for
„, .. justice ? What against his wealth has availed the orphan's
ver. 9. slender store ? '
It is a very terrible indictment ; yet it is one couched in
terms familiar to all readers of the Old Testament, or of the
New ; and it is one which Job will not, as we shall see, allow
to pass unchallenged. But it goes, as you see, to borrow a
phrase old as this ancient book, to ' the root of the matter.'
If Eliphaz is right, we may close the book ; for it is so far
merely the history of the just punishment of a Pharisee, 'who
had devoured widows' houses,' had offered a tainted sacrifice,
and played false with God and man. It is the history of no
Saint, but of a long undetected, and now convicted male
factor. And having at last said this, the speaker naturally
presses home the lesson of his words. ' Thy sins,' he says in
verse 10, 'have found thee out. These snares (a common
figure for sudden heaven-sent pains), these spiritual terrors,
ver. 11. this black darkness, these deep waters' — how familiar the
images ! — ' these floods that roll over thee, seest thou not in
them thy just retribution ? ' And then — we can imagine that
we hear the voice of some spiritual adviser or ' director ' of
centuries later — he tries to read to Job the secret of his inner
life ; the history of the frame of mind which had brought him
to his doom. ' Far above the starry heavens,' he reminds him,
ver. 12. 'is the dwelling-place of God ; Behold the height of the stars,
how high they are. But this thought, instead of solemnising
thy soul, and deepening thy piety, led thee to question His rule
ver. 13. on earth. Distance, thou thoughtest, and the clouds of earth
ver. 14. would hide thee from the eye of Him who walketh on the vault
of heaven. And in thy deeds,' he goes on, ' then, as in thy

Eliphaz. 203
language now, thou wast not alone; nay, thou folio wedst — is Lecture
it not so ? — the old broad way of wickedness that so many had VI11'
trodden before thy time.' It is conceivable, but far from clear, „,
J ' Chap. xxii.
that the reference is to the bad men of the evil days before the ver. 15.
Flood. ' They too were cut down,' he says, ' by God's just
stroke before their day; the solid foundation of their prosperity
was swept away — even as thine,' he seems to say — ' as by a
rushing flood. And they too, had said avaunt 1 to God — to
them too, a far-off God had seemed an ineffectual force.
And yet,' he cries — it is his friend doubtless, who is in his
eye — 'He had filled their houses with good! And as he ver. 17, 18.
speaks, he utters, as though in stern rebuke, the same
indignant words which had passed once from Job's lips,
as he drew his picture of triumphant and unpunished
wickedness '.
'Yes! like thee, I say, far from me to be the counsel, the ver. iS.
thought, of the wicked; only, unlike thee, I add that their
doom is sure — that the righteous see their fall and are glad ; ver. 19.
and the innocent laugh them to scorn; for they see the
enemies of God's cause cut down, and His fire consuming ver. 20.
their utmost remnant.'
It is a sentiment common, as we know, to Psalm after
Psalm. It has too often forced its way through all the
teaching of Jesus to the hearts and lips of the disciples of
Jesus, and Christians have exulted over what have seemed the
judgments of God falling on fellow-Christians, in whom they
have seen the enemies of God and of His Church2.
1 Ch. xxi. 16.
2 It is instructive to note the words of Gregory on the passage (Book
XVI. xiii), ' The righteous, when they see the unrighteous erring here,
cannot be glad for the errors of persons ruining themselves. For if they
rejoice in erring they cease to be righteous.' Again, ' If in the feeling of

204 The Book of Job. Chapter XXII.

Lecture And having so far, in the first twenty verses, discharged his
VIIL duty, and tried, as he no doubt believed, to reach and quicken
„, .. the slumbering conscience of his friend, he pleads with him
in very gentle and even affectionate language to make his
peace with God.
ver. 2i. Acquaint now thyself with Him, make Him thy friend, and
be at peace :
Thereby good shall come unto thee.
A singularly beautiful and suggestive couplet, is it not ? We
think of that knowledge of God, for which an Apostle sighed.
' Then shall I know even as also I am known ; ' or of the
blessing promised to the pure in heart that ' they shall see
God.'
ver. 22. And then, begging him to receive and lay to heart, what is,
he feels sure, teaching that comes from God Himself through
human lips, the good man — good, I must needs call him,
however blinded and mistaken — proceeds to pour forth
words of exhortation and advice, as admirable in themselves
as they are ill-timed and misplaced. Is he the last well-
intentioned teacher or adviser, who has poured vinegar instead
of oil into the wounds of the troubled heart, or of the restless
intellect ?
ver. 23. Put, he says to the poor guiltless leper on his dung-heap,
ver. 24. iniquity far from thy tents : Lay thy treasured gold-ore in the
dust. Thine Ophir — you will let me remind you that the use
triumph they are glad for this, that they are not such as they see others
are, they are altogether full of pride.' .... Again, ' if we say that the
righteous can triumph with a perfect joy over the death of the wicked,
what sort of thing is joy for vengeance on sinners in this world, wherein
the life of the righteous is still uncertain ? ' Gregory, however, meets
the difficulty, not by marking the difference between ' them of old time '
and Christ's disciples, but by postponing the feeling of exultation on the
part of the righteous to the ' Final Inquest,' the Day of Judgment.

Final words of Eliphaz. 205
of the word for gold points to an age in which language had Lecture
already received the impress of the age of Solomon1 —
Lay thine Ophir among the mere pebbles of the brook. c, ..
' Set not thy heart on riches,' he says to the soul struggling ver. 24, 25.
with darker trials than the loss of all the mines of the Old
World or the New :
Then the Almighty shall be thy treasure, ver. 25-27.
And precious silver shall He be unto thee.
Thou shall delight in Him, and lift thy face, with frank
and loving confidence, unto God ;
¦ ' Thou shalt make thy prayers to Him and be heard, and
have good reason to pay thy vows. Whatever thou pro- ver. 28.
posest He will bring to pass, and light once more shall shine
upon thy path. Yea 1 when others are cast down, thy cheering ver. 29.
words shall refresh and encourage the despondent. Thou
shalt comfort the " poor in spirit ; " yea, so dear shalt thou ver. 30.
be to God, that for thy sake, for the cleanness of thy hands,
he will spare and forgive thy less innocent neighbour.'
The closing words, though somewhat obscure in the original,
and meaningless in our Authorised Version, remind us of the
words of a wiser Teacher. ' I made supplication for thee,
that thy faith fail not, and thou, when once thou hast turned
again, stablish thy brethren 2.'
It is surely a most attractive picture of a promised near
ness of man to God.
I have gone through the words of Eliphaz with unusual
care, both for their own sake and because they sum up, and
seem to be intended to do so, the whole position which the
friends have finally taken up, its strength and its weakness.
They seem quite sincere, quite heart-whole, so to speak.
1 See above, p. 171. 2 Luke xxii. 32. (Revised Version.)

206 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXII, XXIII.
Lecture They cannot help believing, that if God, whom they worship
vii-1- with entire and absolute reverence, is a just God, Job must
Chap xxii nee<^s nave deserved his sufferings.
The riddle of the world, let me remind you once more,
has never entered into their souls ; and therefore all Job's
complaints, and cries, and questionings, are in their eyes mere
profanity. They are signs in fact, when taken with his
sufferings, that there is something radically wrong in his
whole past life, and in his present spiritual state. The
scenes to which he points them, of successful wickedness,
they do not care to look at, or to trouble themselves with.
The world seems to them to be ruled not merely 'in the
long run,' but in each generation, in each human life, ' in
accordance with veracity and justice;' and all doubts on such
a subject are criminal in the highest degree ; are the natural
outcome of a tainted life. They have no choice, therefore,
but to do what they do ; to come forward with reflections,
suggestions, advice, warnings, admirable of their kind, often
exceedingly beautiful and touching, only quite misapplied.
They are like physicians with excellent remedies, but no
power of reading symptoms ; no gift for diagnosis, as we
should say. Poor Job lies before them with the lamp of life
dim and half extinguished ; his spiritual vitality is ' fluttering,
faint, and low.' They treat him as one suffering from a
wholly opposite form of malady ; from a redundance, so to
speak, of feverish vitality, that finds an outlet in wanton
violence and rank rebellion. They were not the first,
perhaps, certainly not the last, to make the same mistake.
And now we turn once more to him at whom these shafts
have been levelled. Job has listened to the third and last
address of the eldest and soberest of his friends. What is its

Job's reply to Eliphaz. 207
effect on him ? He answers in the opening verses of Chapter Lecture
xxiii as though he had heard it not. After one single

. xxm.

indignant ejaculation, which, as it is the despair of translators ch 3
and commentators, I shall pass over, he turns from his friends ver- 1-
to the God who dwells in the thick darkness, far above the
misrule and disorder of this lower world ; far also, alas ! from
the reach of His troubled servant.
Oh that f knew where I might find him, ver- 3-
That f might come even to his seat of judgment.
Once more he is sure that God, could he but gain a hearing,
would listen to him, and answer him, not merely overwhelm
him with His power. Strong in his conscience, strong in the ver. 4-6.
sense of innocence, he feels that his Great Judge would give
him a patient hearing and a final acquittal. But alas ! ver. 7.
' where is this awful yet righteous Being to be found ? East
ward I turn, but He is not there ; Westward, but I cannot ver- 8> 9-
perceive Him ; in the North I may see His works, but Himself
I find not ; Southward I turn, and there He hides Himself.'
'Yes,' he cries in the bitterness of his anguish, 'He hides
Himself, that He may not have to acknowledge my inno
cence, and to withdraw His heavy hand.' For innocent f am,
he cries aloud once more with redoubled vehemence,
Let him try me and I should come forth like gold. ver. 10-12.
' For I have walked in His steps, followed His commandments,
treasured them, as my very daily food. But it is all in vain !
Can the potsherd strive with the potter ? He has doomed me
by an inflexible decree.'
He is in one mind, and who can turn him ? ver. 13, 14.
And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job, you see, is down in depths to which many souls, gifted
souls, of men for whom Christ died, have sunk since his day.

208 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIII, XXIV.
Lecture Many such things are with Him, he adds ; ' my lot, i. e. is but
VIIL a sample of the irresistible law of God's sovereign will, to
Chap xxiii wr"ch human innocence and guilt are nothing.' ' And this,'
ver. 14-16. he says, as well he may, 'is a still darker thought, than even
r ' v. the darkness that has covered my own face ; '
margin. ym / q0/j ^a^ ma(pe vly heart faint,
And the Almighty hath troubled me.
You see into what a further stage of despair and misery he
has passed. ' God has foredoomed me to these sufferings.
By His sovereign will He has predestined me to perdition.
He will not let me plead with Him ; will not listen to me ;
hides Himself from me.' And from this gloomy and dark
conviction, which has ere now fixed itself so firmly in the
human soul as to dethrone reason from her seat, he turns, by
a natural transition, to another aspect of an ill-governed world.
The God who leaves Job to his torments, leaves the wide
world to violence and wrong.
The panorama of life that he once more unrolls before us
in Chapter xxiv is exceedingly vivid and realistic. You and
I can hardly accept the view that it is an allegorical picture of
the mischief wrought on God's faithful people by heretical
teachers. Yet we ask in vain, from what special age, or
from what race or land in a world long passed away, it
is drawn. To our own generation almost every detail,
thanks to the efforts of laborious workers in the field, not of
Hebrew only, but of other kindred languages, stands out
with a sharpness and clearness for which our fathers would
have looked in vain. It forms a dark and sombre picture of
the condition of the labouring classes, the ' toiling masses,' to
use a too familiar expression, of some unknown date long
before the Christian era.

The sufferings of the rural poor. 209
' Why is it,' he asks in Chapter xxiv, ' that limes and Lecture
periods for just retribution are not laid up and observed

by the All-powerful ? Why is it that those who recognise ch xxiv
His power see not His days ? ' You know how often the word ver- ' •
Day is used in this sense in the Bible — for God's own time
of meting out doom and retribution. ' Look out,' he goes
on, 'on the spectacle of life; do you see the clock-work
regularity of goodness and reward, evil and penalty, of which
my friends and comforters speak so glibly ? Alas 1 the whole
" world is out of joint." It is a mere selfish struggle ; the
weaker always overpowered ; the strongest always surviving,
Here you see the rich landowner removing his neighbour's ver. 2.
landmark, curtailing by fraud, in a hedgeless, unfenced land,
the narrow possessions of his poorer countrymen.' Cursed,
you remember the solemn words1, cursed be he that re-
moveth his neighbour's landmark. And all the people shall
say, Amen ! But Job sees no curse fall ! ' And another,' he
tells us, ' takes by force his neighbour's flock, and feeds it as
his own, and with his own. And mean avarice has neither
shame nor pity. The one ass of the orphan is driven away, ver. 3.
the widow's one remaining ox is led off as security (or as
forfeited) for some petty loan. And deeper and deeper
sink into the mire of misery the " poor of the earth," the needy ver. 4.
and he that hath no helper. They are driven off from the
haunts of men, and slink away to hide themselves out of the
oppressor's sight.' He sees them chased from settled homes, ver. 5.
to lead the lives of homeless outcasts, or the merely animal
and precarious existence of the wild asses of the desert.
' At the first dawn,' he tells us, ' they must rise to the weary
task of searching the wild steppe for food for their little ones, ver- 6-
1 Deut. xxvii. 17.
P

210 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIII, XXIV.
Lecture finding here and there some scanty sustenance on the face of
the unfilled earth ; and picking here and there (or contemp-
— * *
Chap. xxiv. tuousty employed to gather in) the last remaining grapes that
hang on the rich man's vine. And as the winter draws on,
the cold pierces them; the chill, soaking shower, creeping
ver. 7, 8. down the mountain side, drives them to crouch close to the
hard rock for a miserable shelter.' Read, my friends, the
touches, so life-like, so full of feeling, as they follow each
ver. 9. other under this sad artist's hand. ' Yes,' he says, ' there are
those who will take, not the ox only, but the very babe from
the mother's breast; and the dead man's child will be
brought up in bondage.' And there follows a series of
panels, on which are burnt in scenes from the life of slaves,
as it would seem, or if not technically slaves, yet of a labour
ing rural population, reduced to a state of slavish bondage
ver. 10, 11. which seems quite alien to Arab life. Here, naked and
hungry, we see them carrying home the bounteous sheaves ;
there, with lips parched with thirst, pressing within lofty
walls the rich kindly olive; there again, athirst and faint,
treading the bounteous grape.
ver. 10. Being an-hungred they carry the sheaves ;
ver. 11. They make oil within the walls of these men;
They tread their winepresses and suffer thirst.
Is he who speaks to us aware of the words, Thou shalt not
muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn ? He makes no sign
of quoting them.
And then suddenly he turns his gaze on city life — cities
ver. 12. 0f what land, we ask in vain. 'From cities too,' he says,
from the populous city, goes up a groan, and the death-
cry of the wounded mounts up to Heaven. Yet God, the
just God, for Whose presence I search in vain — the just God

The evils of city life. Retributive justice. 211
Who rules, you tell me, the world so righteously — yet God Lecture
regardeth it not, imputeth it not to folly, enters it not in His

book as crime.' The momentary cry bursts from his laden Cn xxiv
heart. But his eye is fixed again on the confused and ver- I2-
disordered scene before him in some Eastern city. With the
early dawn, he sees misrule and crime. 'Violence and ver. 14.
murder are abroad. Sins of impurity and lust creep under ver- '5-
shelter of the evening twilight. Through the darkness of the
night, the stealthy plunderer plies his guilty task, digs — that ver. 16.
Eastern burglar — digs after his manner through the wall of
hardened earth. Thou shalt not kill ; Thou shalt not commit
adultery ; Thou shalt not steal ; these are the commandments
of Him Who said Let there be light. But what are His laws,
what is He, to men who hate the light ; who are familiar with
darkness, with moral darkness as with all darkness ? '
They know not the light. ver- r3> l6'
For the morning, the light of dawn, is to all of them as
the shadow of death.
The chapter, and the whole speech of Job, is so far, and
as we now read it, abundantly clear. But it ends with a ver. 18-25.
passage, the precise force and bearing of which are con
fessedly difficult to decipher. I will not pause for a moment
to discuss the various theories of misplaced verses, erroneous
readings, manuscripts in disorder, which have in turn oc
curred to commentators.
' It may be quite true,' he seems to say, musing to himself
over human life, ' quite true as you tell me, that the triumph
of wickedness does not last for ever. Short, I know it as
well as you, is often the success of the human beast of prey.
Swift as a light feather, he is swept along by the river of ver. 18.
oblivion. If the spot on which he dwelt recalls him, it
p 2

212 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIII, XXIV.
Lecture js 0nly with a curse. He treads no more the path that
leads to the vine-clad slope. As snow melts and disappears

Chap xxiv before the summer heat, so he sinks into the dark under-
ver. 19, 20. world. The very mother that bare him, forgets him; the
worms hold on him their ghastly banquet; and none re
member him. Yea, as a tree snapped short in its prime,
lies he who had no pity on her whom no sons protected ;
had no word or act of kindness for her whom no husband
shielded. Yes ! this may be so,' he seems to say. ' I can
draw this picture as well as you. You may represent the
ver. 21. death that, "come he soon, or come he fast," comes to all,
as the punishment of their sin. But what do we see for all
that ? What is the evidence of experience ? '
' God does ' (I follow here the line of interpretation
adopted, under the authority of the most 1 sagacious of
commentators, in the margin of the Revised Version), ' God
ver. 22. does often uplift and sustain the great oppressor. He rises
again, even when he despaired of life. God gives such men
ver. 23. rest and security : His eyes are on their ways, they walk
under, as it seems, His protection. True, they share the
common lot. When life's brief span is over, and the harvest-
time of death comes, they are cut off as the ripe ears of corn.
ver. 24. -They are taken out ofthe way as all other. They pass away,
for they are men, and as men born to the doom of death.'
' But does this,' he seems to say, ' solve the riddle of life ?
And yet is not this picture also true ? If it is false, who will
ver. 25. prove me in the wrong ? Who will make me a liar, and make
my speech nothing worth ? '
I need not comment on Job's words. He has once more
cried to God to hear his cause and solve his doubts. He
1 Professor Delitzsch.

Whence did Job draw his pictures f 213
has once more protested his innocence of any conscious Lecture
offence that could have drawn down His anger ; and once  n 
more, with an almost passionless calm, he has followed out, c, ^.
to their terrible result, the suggestions of his friends, and the
promptings of his own bewildered brain. If God's justice is
to be measured, as his friends tell him, by the measure of
happiness or of misery dealt out to every man on this
earthly scene, then it is an evil world, and Job has a weight
on his soul, heavier than any burden which his own pain or
misery can lay upon him. For the world is a scene of
suffering, oppression, violence, and wrong; and the con
clusion to which this points is very terrible. You see at
once its full force ; you see how he lays his hand, this Saint
of the Old Testament, on the world-old problem of the
existence of evil. And I will not linger over the very
interesting, but it seems insoluble question, whence the
author of the book drew those life pictures by the aid of
which he drives home this problem. He must have been
familiar, as we see, with phases of experience that lay
beyond the circle of Arab life. The crowded city, the very
factory, we might almost say, the miseries of the cultivators
of field and vineyard, the hard usurer, the oppressed and
toiling masses — these are pictures, which can hardly have
fallen on his mental retina, from a mere effort of the imagi
nation. Had he been a dweller among the swarming
millions of Egypt, or in the cities that lined the banks of the
Tigris and Euphrates? Had he been a sojourner under
Arab tents, and a dweller also in the homes of Northern or
Southern Palestine ? From what age, from what scene, we
ask once more, and ask in vain, comes this mysterious figure
of the Arab patriarch, rich in pastoral wealth, yet familiar

214 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIV, XXV.
Lecture with the thoughts and customs, the sins and woes, of the
VI11- multitudes who dwell within the walls of cities ; who speaks
... .at one time as a desert sage, at another as a very tribune of
C hap. xxiv. ° '
the oppressed masses ? We ask, and ask in vain.
Yet the question recurs with increasing interest as we
listen to his words, words that are the expression of no
extinct or obsolete range of ideas, but of feelings that are
as strong and living to-day, in and outside the crowded
capitals of Europe, as they were when they first found
utterance. What a fresh force they lend to the words of
Him to whom the poor man's cause was dear. ' The poor
ye have always with you.'
Yet how strange this unlooked for and sympathetic descrip
tion of the suffering, of the despised, the unbefriended, the
downtrodden, breaking out suddenly from the desolate and
bewildered heart of him who bore but lately the name of the
'greatest of the sons of the East' It has no parallel, we
may fairly say, in the whole of ancient literature outside the
Bible. And there, we might almost say, ends the controversy.
Job has yet much to say, but his friends have reached the
limit of their arguments. They see too well that their words
make no impression on him to whom they are addressed.
Accordingly, supposing the book to have reached us in its
original form, with its order and arrangement unaltered, the
second friend, Bildad, will now come forward for a moment,
utter a few words, and leave Job in possession of the field.
Of the third, of Zophar, so eager and impetuous when the
dispute began, we shall hear no more.
Chap. xxv. There is little new in Bildad's short and parting address.
He attempts no answer to Job's questioning, or Job's denial—

Bildad's last words. 215

for his words almost amount to this — of the justice with which Lecture
the world is administered. Nor does he take up again the V1IL
weapon which Eliphaz had handled, of charging Job with ch
special guilt. He simply entrenches himself behind the great
ness and majesty of God. ' God is so powerful,' he says, ' and ver. 2, 3.
so awful, rules with such entire control over the heights of
Heaven and the battalions of angels and of stars ' — you will
notice how often the starry host is identified with the angelic
armies — ' that there is no rebellion dreamed of there. It is vain
then for man, a mere pismire down here in the dust, a worm and
the child of worms, to talk of innocence and right and wrong
before Him. His light pervades all creation ; the moon and
stars are dim, their rays impure, before Him ; what room ver. 4-6.
is there for man that is born of woman to question His
righteousness?' How then can man be just with God?
Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman ?
It is the last word which either of the three friends will
utter. They have played each in turn their part. We shall
listen in due course to Job's final response to them, and
to his final appeal to Him for whom they believe themselves
to be pleading. One and another fresh phase and aspect of
this ancient record of the travail of the human soul will pass
before us. Job will pour forth his soul through six chapters,
in a monologue that will travel through a range of varied and
almost conflicting thoughts. But from his three friends we
shall hear no more.

February 13, 18

LECTURE IX.
CHAPTERS XXVI— XXVIII.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chapters XXVI— XXVIII.)
26 Then Job answered and said,
2 How hast thou helped him that is without power !
How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength !
3 How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
And plentifully declared sound knowledge !
4 To whom hast thou uttered words ?
And whose 'spirit came forth from thee?
5 2They that are deceased tremble
Beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof.
6 3Sheol is naked before him,
And 4 Abaddon hath no covering.
7 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.
9 He closeth in the face of his throne,
And spreadeth his cloud upon it.
io He hath described a boundary upon the face of the waters,
Unto the confines of light and darkness.
II The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at his rebuke.
12 He "stirreth up the sea with his power,
And by his understanding he smiteth through 7Rahab.
13 By his spirit the heavens are 'garnished ;
His hand hath pierced the 9 swift serpent.
14 Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways :
And 10how small a whisper ndo we hear of him !
But the thunder of his 12power who can understand ?

Chapter XXVI.

1 Heb.
breath.
¦' Or, The
shades Heb. The
Rephaim.3 Or, The
grave 4 Or,
Destruction 5 Or, over
°Or, stilleth
7 See ch.
ix. 13.
8 Heb.
beauty.
9 Or,
fleeing Or,
gliding 10 Or, how
little a
portion 11 Or, is
heard12 Or,
mighty
deeds

220 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter And Job again took up his parable, and said, 27
XXVII. As God liveth, who hath taken away my right ; 2
— m — And the Almighty, who hath 1 vexed my soul ;
1 Heb. 2(For my life is yet whole in me, 3
made my And the sp;rit of God ;s in my nostriIs ;)
-O All' Surely my lips 3 shall not speak unrighteousness, 4
the while Neither *shall my tongue utter deceit.
my breath God forbid that I should justify you : 5
u in Till I die I will not put away mine integrity from me.
nostrils; My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go : 6
surely My heart 5 shall not reproach me so long as I live.
J Or, do Let mine enemy be as the wicked, 7
Or, doth And iet hjm tnat riseth up against me be as the unrighteous.
¦' Or, doth jror what ;s the hope of the godless, 6 though he get him s
not re- . °
proach me galn>
for any of When God taketh away his soul ?
my days wm God hear his cryj g
^GodZtteth When trouble cometh upon him ?
him off, Will he delight himself in the Almighty, lo
when he And call upon God at all times ?
1 e I will teach you concerning the hand of God ; x l
That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it ; I2
Why then are ye become altogether vain ?
This is the portion of a wicked man with God, 13
And the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the
Almighty.
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword ; I4
And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
Those that remain of him shall be buried in death, 15
And his widows shall make no lamentation.
Though he heap up silver as the dust, 16
And prepare raiment as the clay ;
7 Some He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, I7
ancient ^nd tj,e jnnocent shall divide the silver.
versions TT , ., , , , . , „
have -"e buildeth his house as the 7moth, xg
spider. And as a booth which the keeper maketh.

Chapters XXVI— XXVIII.

221

l9 He lieth down rich, but he 1 shall not be gathered;
He openeth his eyes, and he is not.
20 Terrors overtake him like waters ;
A tempest stealeth him away in the night.
21 The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth ;
And it sweepeth him out of his place.
22 For God shall hurl at him, and not spare :
He would fain flee out of his hand.
23 Men shall clap their hands at him,
And shall hiss him out of his place.
28 2Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place for gold which they refine.
2 Iron is taken out of the searth,
And brass is molten out of the stone.
3 Man setteth an end to darkness,
And searcheth out to the furthest bound
The stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of death.
4 4He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn ;
They are forgotten of the foot that passeth by ;
They hang afar from men, they "swing to and fro.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread :
And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
6 The stones thereof are the place of sapphires,
6 And it hath dust of gold.
7 That path no bird of prey knoweth,
Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it:
8 The 'proud beasts have not trodden it,
Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby.
9 He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock ;
He overturneth the mountains by the roots.
10 He cutteth out "channels among the rocks;
And his eye seeth every precious thing.
11 He bindeth the streams 9that they trickle not;
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
1 2 But where shall wisdom be found ?
And where is the place of understanding ?
13 Man knoweth not the price thereof;

Chapter XXVIII.

* Some
ancient versionshave, shall
do so no
more.

2 Or, For
3 Or, dust

1 Or, The
flood breaketh out from
where 7nen
sojourn ;
even the
waters
forgotten of
the foot :
they are
minished,they are
gone away
from man
5 Ox, flit
6 Or, And
he winneth
lumps of
gold 'Heb.
sons of
pride. 8 Or,
passages 9 Heb.
from weeping.

222 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter Neither is it found in the land of the living.
XXVIII. The deep saith, It is not in me : 14
— m — And the sea saith, It is not with me.
1 Or It cannot be gotten for 1gold, 15
treasure Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, 16
2 Or, beryl With the precious 2onyx, or the sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it : 17
3 Or, vessels Neither shall the exchange thereof be 'jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal: 18
4 Or, red Yea, the price of wisdom is above 'rubies.
nra* -l ^e topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, 19
Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
Whence then cometh wisdom ? 20
And where is the place of understanding ?
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, 21
And kept close from the fowls of the air.
5 Heb. 5 Destruction and Death say, 22
Abaddon. We haye heard a rumour thereof with our ears.
God understandeth the way thereof, 23
And he knoweth the place thereof.
For he looketh to the ends of the earth, 24
And seeth under the whole heaven ;
6 Or, When «To make a weight for the wind ; 25
he maketh Yea; he meteth out the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain, 26
And a way for the lightning of the thunder :
7 Or, Then did he see it, and 7 declare it ; 27
recount He established it, yea, and searched it out.
And unto man he said, 28
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ;
And to depart from evil is understanding.

LECTURE IX.
CHAPTERS XXVI— XXVIII.
The first part of Job's long Monologue.
The vastness and variety of the Universe, fob's innocence.
The doom of the wicked. Where is Wisdom to be found ?
We enter to-day on Job's last speech, the longest and the Lecture
most deliberate of all his utterances. He will pause in its IX-
course once and again, to give his friends an opening for ,
reply. But they have exhausted, as I reminded you, their
arguments, and will stand aside, if not helpless and dis
concerted, at all events silenced. And through six chapters,
Job will pour forth his soul in a prolonged strain, portions of
which may appear at first sight tangled and obscure, but
which, when carefully read, will be seen, I think, to grow and
grow in interest, till its last word is spoken — till one short
clause, the words of fob are ended, marks its close. I shall not
for a moment disguise from you the difficulties which will
meet us, in one or two places, in following the thread of what
he says. I may not be able to remove them, but I shall
certainly not make light of them, or pass them by in silence.
And in order to avoid doing what I have done more than
once, extending the lecture to an undue length, I will
take to-day the first half of this long monologue, its first
three chapters — each of which forms a separate portion or
speech, with no obvious connexion with either of the other

224 The Book of Job. Ch. XX VI— XX VIII.
Lecture two — and will try to enable you to grasp the meaning of
IX- each, and its relation to what goes before.
Chan xxvi ^e begins then, in Chapter xxvi, with three verses of
scornful irony, addressed apparently to the last speaker, but
obviously intended for each of the three. ' Poor indeed,' he
says — and we cannot but echo his words — ' poor the help that
thou hast brought to him of whose weakness and unwisdom
thou speakest so fluently.'
ver. 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power !
How hast thou saved the arm that hath no strength !
ver. 3. How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom,
A nd plentifully declared sound knowledge !
ver. 4. ' Whose,' he asks, ' was the spirit that came from thee ? What
voice spoke from thy lips ? It needed no illumination from on
high to see what thou seest; no heaven-sent inspiration to
say what thou hast said.' His opening words are full, we see,
ver. 5. of a deep, if natural bitterness ; and he passes on at once
to place side by side with Bildad's picture of God's majesty
and greatness, a companion-picture of his own. ' All this,' he
seems to say, ' I, even I, know as well as thou, the wise man,
knowest it.'
And so, in calm and majestic accents, he enlarges on the
plenitude of His power, Who rules, not only those Hosts of
Heaven, to which his friend had pointed, but other realms.
ver. 5. ' Far beneath the ocean,' he says, ' teeming with its finny
tribes, lies the deep underworld of the dead. There, they
that are deceased, the shades, the Rephaim, as we read in
the margin of the Revised Version, the thin bloodless
ghosts— you see how near we are for a moment to the
conception of the Hades to which Ulysses descends in
the Odyssey— writhe and tremble at His might.'

Job's picture of God's greatness. 22;

Sheol is naked before him,
And Abaddon hath no covering.
You will perhaps join with me for a moment in regretting that ff*
two Hebrew words should have been retained throughout ver. 6.
untranslated by our Revisers. The former, if translated, as in
our older version, by the word ' Hell,' is no doubt exceedingly
misleading; but 'the grave,' or 'the underworld,' or 'the
world of the dead,' would have at least the advantage of
being intelligible ; while the latter, Abaddon, might surely have
been turned by 'Destruction,' or 'the Abyss,' whichever is
nearest to its true meaning in the Hebrew. But I pass on.
' All things,' Job has said, in words akin to the language ver. 6.
of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ' are naked and laid open before
the eyes of Him ivith whom we have to do1! And then he
draws out at length the familiar idea of God as the Creator
of the Earth and Heavens. ' That Northern sky,' he says, ver. 7.
' so richly studded with constellations, He stretches over the
void; the earth too He hangs beneath it, in the free fields
of space : ' He hangeth the earth upon nothing. ver. 7.
You see how nearly the Poet-philosopher lays his hand on the
yet unveiled secrets of Nature. We can hardly wonder that the
passage caught the eye of a Kepler, fresh from removing a
portion of the veil. ' The Lord of Nature,' he goes on, 'binds ver. 8-10.
up and stores the vast rain floods in the thin cisterns of the
clouds. He veils behind those clouds the splendour of His
throne. Far below, He sets bounds to the restless sea; to
the dim limits of light and darkness ; to the remote horizon
of the flat disc-like ocean, where the sun sinks into the
regions of darkness, whence with dawn he rises from (the
1 Hebrews iv. 13.
Q

226 The Book of Job. Ch. XXVI— XXVIII
Lecture brightening east.' Each line adds, I think you will agree
with me, its own graphic touch. ' Yea,' he says, ' the pillars
Chap xxvi °f heaven, the towering mountains, totter and tremble before
ver. 11-13. Him.' It is the pealing thunderstorm, rather than the
earthquake, to which the words seem to point. ' He stirs the
deep with His power, and the vast sea-monster, the serpent
Rahab1, He pierces through. Yea 1 His spirit lights up
the nightly sky, and His hand transfixes among the stars, the
long wreathed and winding length of the eclipse-threatening,
sun-devouring, Dragon.' We are, you see, in the very midst
of the ruins and fragments of a primeval and mythical
astronomy — the ' footless fancies ' — of a far-off age.
Lo, these, he adds, with a sublimity which Bildad had
never reached,
ver. 14. 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 ?
So closes the chapter. There is no special obscurity so
far about his language. But the motive, as we say, of the
picture that he draws, the object of this elaborate description
of God's mysterious and all-pervading power, is not clearly
indicated. Is it the same lesson that Bildad drew ? ' Such is God's
greatness 1 humble thyself before Him, presumptuous self-
asserting mortal.' Or is it a darker suggestion ? Is it, ' what is
man that Thou art so mindful of him, that thou stoopest to
regard him ? ' Or is it rather, • what place in this vast universe
1 I have not entered into the question ofthe verse containing a reference
to the passage ofthe Red Sea, which is based on recognising Rahab as
being here a symbol of Egypt, as in Psalm Ixxxvii. 4. I cannot but think
the more general sense the more natural and probable, as in Ch. ix. 13.

What is the lesson of the picture ? 227
has man's welfare, have man's wrongs, man's sufferings ? ' Is Lecture
it a thought like that of another Psalmist, IX-
Oh remember how short my time is ; Chap, xxv
Wherefore hast thou made all men for nought1?
Or is it akin to, is it the germ of, that which has so often
found a voice in our own time : that —
Many a planet by many a sun, may roll with the dust of a
vanished race
— that ages of living sentient beings have felt all we feel,
and have passed into the void unregarded by Him Who made
them — that ' this poor earth's pale history',
' What is it all but the trouble of ants, in the gleam of a
million million suns ? '
At all events he has launched his words, and he pauses for
an answer. But no man replies. He stands alone, and after
awhile he ' again took up; we are told, ' his parable! By
parable, you must remember, is meant, not, as sometimes, a
story, or, as at other times, a sententious proverb, but any
teaching conveyed in metaphorical or elevated language. You
may remember how Balaam took up his parable*, as once and
again he poured forth, his rapt and involuntary utterances.
His next words are of a piece with much that he has Chap.xxvii.
said before. He starts, in Chapter xxvii, with one more
solemn protestation of his innocence. It is couched in the ver. 2.
form of an adjuration, we might almost say of an indignant
adjuration, an upbraiding appeal to the Being whom he does
not shrink from taxing with having done him sore wrong :
As God liveth, who hath taken away my right ; ver. 2.
And the Almighty who hath vexed my soul ;
' I speak,' he goes on, ' as one still of sound mind, though ver. 3.
1 Ps. lxxxix. 46. 2 Numbers xxiv. 3, 15, 20.
Q 2

228 The Book of Job. Ch. XXVI— XXVIII.

Lecture doomed to die ; life still throbs in my veins ; the breath of
IX- God is still in my nostrils. My assertion of my innocence is
,Z~" .. as deliberate as it is true.' He utters what he feels to be the
Chap.xxvii. ver. 4. last solemn words of a dying man, of one whose lips will not
speak unrighteousness, will not falsify his conscience, neither
will his tongue utter deceit.
And, after this exordium — its force and solemnity you
will all feel — he turns for a moment, with an absolute but
determined calmness, from the Divine Friend who seems to
have deserted him, to the human friends whose ill-timed
charges have sunk into his heart :
ver. 5. God forbid that I should justify you :
Till f die, I will not put away mine integrity from me.
ver. 6. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go :
(Margin). j^ heart doth not reproach me for any of my days.
You see how he clings to that on which the whole problem of
the book turns, to his sense of being at once innocent and
afflicted, to the confirmation added by his own conscience to
the description given of him by God and man — that he had
feared God and hated evil1.
And then follows a passage which forms one of those
difficulties, which I warned you just now would confront us
from time to time, and which I promised myself and you
neither to evade nor undervalue. It begins simply enough
ver. 7. in verse 7. ' Let my enemies,' he says, ' take their side, if
they will, with the evil-doers and profane, with whom they
class me. Let others join the ranks of God's enemies. I will
ver. S, 9. nor- Can such men,' he asks, ' have any trust at all in God ?
Could they raise their voices to Him, in all time of their
tribulation, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment ?
1 Ch. i. 1, 8 ; ii. 3.

Job's picture of righteous retribution. 229
For zvhat is the hope of the godless, though he get him gain, Lecture IX
When God taketh away his soul ?

Will God hear his cry, Chap.xxvii.
When trouble cometh upon him ? ver- 8> 9-
Will he delight himself in the Almighty, ver. lo.
And call upon God al all times?
As we read the words, we cannot but recall Job's own
complaints — they still ring in our ears — that his own cries in
his hour of need had been unheard of God, his own prayers
unanswered. But then, from the i ith verse to the end ofthe chapter, there
follows a passage which may well cause us some real perplexity.
It is a picture which their own experience, he says, will
confirm — behold, all ye yourselves have seen it — ofthe doom, ver- I2i J3-
the sure doom, that waits on the wicked, here on earth.
Its separate details are familiar to you, and I will not do
more than indicate them briefly. ' His children may be nu- ver
merous, but they will fall by the sword, or by famine, or by
pestilence, the three terrible symbols and ministers1 of God's
wrath. The strokes will fall so fast, that ' — some of us may re
member the pathetic touch in the Greek historian's description
of the plague at Athens — 'even the widows of his house ver- J5-
will have no time to wail2. His treasures, and his changes ver. 16, 17.
of raiment,' the familiar marks of Eastern wealth, ' will be
divided amongst, and worn by, the just. His sumptuous ver- l8-
palace shall pass away, as the thin covering from which
the moth slips forth — or as the frail tenement of boughs, the
lodge'6 in a garden of cucumbers, that shelters for a while
1 2 Sam. xxiv. 13 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 12.
2 The meaning may be : ' There shall be no widows, they too shall
fall.' Psalm Ixxviii. 64. Cf. Thucydides, ii. 5 1 , Kal tcLs o\o<pvpO£is twv
diroyiyvofiivcov Kal ol olicaoL l£eKap.vov, virb tov noWov Kaicov viKwpwoi.
3 Isaiah i. 8.

ver. 20-22.

230 The Book of Job. Ch. XXVI— XXVIII.
Lecture the watchman. He lies down rich, but he lies down no
IX- more.' Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.
Cha 'xxvii ' The mormng brings to him, with its dawning light, the dark-
ver. 19 ness of death.' Death and its terrors are likened, first, to a
(Margin). floQ(j of waterg . next; t0 tne gerce and devastating wind from
the desert steppes, of which we read in the details of Job's
own tragedy; and thirdly, to a storm of arrows launched
on him by God. 'Vain will be his attempts to fly. His
doom is sealed, and he falls amidst universal execration : '
Men shall clap their hands at him,
And shall hiss him out of his place.
The picture, as you see, when once a few patches of obscurity
are removed, is exceedingly vivid and striking. It may well
hang side by side with many such, to be found alike in this
book and in the Psalter.
But you feel the difficulty ? Job seems suddenly to have
joined hands with the very friends against whose teaching his
words have been one long passionate protest. He is using
the precise language which they use. Not once, but again
and again, they have placed before him the very self-same
picture which he now holds up to them. It is in fact nothing
more than the expansion of words used by the first who
spoke to him1. It is the forcible reiteration of language used
by each in turn of those with whom he has engaged in such
terrible conflict. These ' deep waters,' these ' arrows of God,'
that 'raging storm' — who is their victim, but the very Job
who now speaks of them as the sure and certain penalty of
the wicked ? And what was his language but lately ? He
spoke of God as protecting the wicked in2 life ; of their going
down softly to the grave ; of their children dancing to the
1 Chap. iv. 7-11. 2 Chap. xxi. 5-13.

What is the object of the picture? 231
sound of the timbrel and the pipe. The thought goaded Lecture
him to madness. A 'great shuddering ' came over him, he said, IX-
as he dwelt on it. Yet now he speaks of God's judgments, „,
the very strokes, some of them, that have fallen on himself,
as falling on the guilty ! He speaks even as his friends have
spoken, even as so many Psalmists speak. How is this?
Have all the doubts that perplexed him disappeared ? Does
he too see no puzzle, no inequality, no anomalies in human
fife ? He has left, some of you may add, those of us who do
feel these doubts, and joined those who say : ' men get their
deserts in life. The successful deserve their success, the
prosperous their prosperity, the rich their riches. Loss,
sorrow, poverty, bereavement, pain, mean defeat ; and God is
on the side of the victorious, of the " strongest battalions," not
of the defeated. The fit survive ; the unfit perish.' Perhaps
all this means, we may say, that Job has passed into a serener
air. He is taking a truer and less morbid view of life. His
friends were right, he wrong, and he allows it.
I do not think, my friends, that this will quite satisfy you.
Such sentiments could scarcely come from the lips of one
who, in the same breath, speaks in very different language of
the Almighty as having taken away, refused him, i. e. his
right, and who protests so solemnly his own innocence in the
face of his unexampled sufferings. It is impossible that he
can accept so calmly, and so unreservedly, the existence of a
law of which his own case seems so flagrant a violation.
So grave is the difficulty that even very thoughtful and
reverent and sober-minded commentators have felt it quite
insoluble. It was not some daring German ' Neologian,' but
an English Divine1 of unimpeached orthodoxy, who sug-
1 Dr. Kennicott, founder of Hebrew Scholarships at Oxford; died 1784.

232 The Book of Job. Ch. XX VI— XXVIII.
Lecture gested long ago that the whole passage is one which, having
TX • .
gone astray in some misplacement of ancient manuscripts,

Chap.xxvii. ^d been ascribed to Job, but was really the missing address
of the third friend — of the Zophar, who in the third and final
cycle of speeches was, you remember, unaccountably silent.
I mention the suggestion that you may see how keenly the
difficulty has been felt. For myself it seems to me almost
impossible to detach the passage from the words of Job
which immediately precede it, without some laceration of the
text, and I would rather place it side by side with the last
Chap. xxvi. chapter. As there he drew a companion-picture to his
friends' representation of the omnipotence of God, so here
he sketches the fate that no doubt often falls, and falls
deservedly, on the wicked.
' I too,' he says, ' have seen their doom as well as you.
Vain to preach to me of the greatness of God, I know it well !
Vain to describe to me the penalty that awaits on crime, I
know that too! All this have I seen; it is, so far and in a
measure, true. But God's greatness does not prove that
there is no injustice on this low earth; and God's just punish
ments, falling from time to time on great criminals, do not
disprove my innocence, or dispose of the sight too common
still of unpunished wickedness and afflicted righteousness.'
The way ofthe world still exists, we all know, as a sad phrase
to express what is not just, but unjust. It is still a proverb
for something that falls far short of, is even the very reverse of,
absolute justice. It is hard for us, it was hard for Job, to identify
this with God's rule — with absolute justice, absolute beneficence.
I do not know how far you can accept this solution. It seems
to me that the two passages, the two chapters, so read, each in a
measure obscure, obscure i. e. so far as their object and purpose

Man's search after wisdom. 233

is concerned, assist to explain, and account for and illustrate, Lecture
each other. *

And after this, speaking with a sustained calm and „, ,
dignity for which, as I have reminded you already, we xxviii.
look in vain in his earlier speeches, Job breaks forth in the
next chapter into what may be called a hymn, a stately lyric,
on the greatness and unsearchableness of Wisdom. After
reading it through, as it stands in our older translation,
you may not improbably lay it down with a blank feeling of
mingled admiration and despair. To attach to it any consecu
tive meaning, to find for it as a whole any fit place in Job's
meditations, seems impossible. If, however, you read it care
fully in the New Version, you will, I think, soon learn to
appreciate its exceeding force and beauty. You will be
struck by the fresh region, the new world of imagery, into which
it invites you. You will understand how it is that Hebrew
scholars have placed it side by side with St. Paul's immortal
chapter on Love or Charity.
And, so read, we find ourselves able to see something of
its connexion with what goes before. ' Yes,' he seems to Chap. xxvi.
say, ' God is great.' ' Yes,' he says again, ' God does, as you Chap.xxvii.
tell me, bring retribution on the guilty.' But ' Ah,' he feels ^hap.
and adds, ' how scanty our power of reading His nature and
His purposes. Man can wring treasures from the earth ; he
can explore regions which no eagle's eye has scanned, no lion's
foot has trodden; but wisdom is beyond his grasp.' And
then, as this thought stirs within him, he gives it utterance in
lines whose force and power a few words of explanation may
help you fully to realise. They may remind some here of a
very different, yet analogous chorus of the poet Sophocles1.
1 Antigone, 332-375, IIoAAcl ra Seiwi k.t.a.

XXVIII.

234 The Book of Job. Ch. XXVI— XXVIII.
Lecture He too speaks of the conquests that man's restless brain has
lx- achieved, and he too recognises the inexorable limits that
ch^' shut in so closely the range of his domain.
xxviii. ' Silver,' he says, in the opening verse, ' has a source that
ver' T' 2' may be tracked. Its veins run beneath the earth ; man finds
them. Gold can be searched for and crushed from the hard
quartz, or separated from the mud in which it lurks. Man
finds it : and from the earth he treads on, he wins the iron,
and smelts and pours in liquid streams the copper that he
covets.'
ver. 3. ' Where is the bound to his daring and his skill ? Deep
beneath earth's surface, he plunges into the dismal mine.'
You see at once that we are called away from the sur
roundings of desert life, and of the life, so far as we can
judge, of any dweller in Palestine, to the experiences of early
miners. Whither are we called ? Shall we say to the work of
Phenicians in Lebanon, or to Upper Egypt, or to the penin
sula of Sinai, or even further still from the centre of Hebrew
life ? ' Yea,' he goes on, ' from the very entrails of the earth
he brings his treasures; the metals that advance his civili-
ver. 3. sation and embellish his life. He setteth an end to darkness ;
the sunless subterranean realms, the stones of thick darkness
and of the shadow of death, he lights up with his flaring
ver. 4. torches. He breaks open, and drives, as we say, with his
multitudinous and incessant blows, the deep-sunk shaft and
long tunnelled gallery, and there swings lo and fro on his
adventurous path, forgotten of the foot of him who treads
earth's surface above him.' How graphic this ancient picture
of the bold miner of the early world ! How wholly it is lost
ver. 5. in our older version. But he goes on : ' Above spreads the
surface of mother earth, with her waving cornfields, rich with

Man ' s triumphs over nature. 235
human sustenance. Below, her very entrails are torn and Lecture
devastated as by flames.' The words seem to carry us on IX-
through the ages to the blasting processes of modern engi- "
neering. The real reference is, I presume, to rocks rent and xxviii.
split by the application of fire, with which more primitive
toilers had become familiar. But ' rich,' he says, ' is the
reward. Among those riven rocks is the place of sapphires ; ver. 6, 7.
in that upturned dust lie the grains of gold. Keen and
searching is the vulture's sight ' — as he soars above Babylon,
it is written in the Talmud, he will descry a carcase in the
land of Israel — ' but man has pierced for himself a path, which '
No bird of prey knoweth,
Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it:
' along that darksome path no young lion hath stalked in his ver- 8-
pride, no king of beasts hath prowled thereby. But man
is there. He lays his conquering hand upon the flinty ver. 9.
rock. The very roots of the mountains he overturns. He
drives his tunnels deep through earth's stony bed; her ver. 10.
precious treasures his keen eye detects; he binds up her ver. n.
subterranean watercourses ; he forbids their dripping springs
to weep (so runs the original), to ooze and trickle through
his galleries, and mar his work. Yea, whatever is hidden —
put away, as, it were, by the hand of nature, to conceal it ver. 1 2.
from his view — he tracks to its home, and brings it to the
light! It is, you will all agree with me, a very remarkable
passage. Its thoughts are clothed of course in an ancient
form ; but some here would believe it to be no impossible
task to translate its language into that of an ode or speech in
commemoration of the triumphs of applied science over the
secrets of nature, such as might be uttered by Poet or Orator

236 The Book of Job. Ch. XXVI— XXVIII.
Lecture towards the close of the nineteenth century. It might furnish
Ix- hints for no mere rhapsody, but for an account in plain prose
ch^ of the progress of engineering science, such as might be put
xxviii. before a gathering of some scientific association, or of civil
engineers met to celebrate the completion of some tunnel
driven beneath an Alpine range, or an English estuary.
' Yes,' he now goes on to say, ' all this man can do.
He can lay open the hidden secrets of earth ; but does he,'
he asks abruptly, ' come nearer by one step to true wisdom ?
Is there not a region to which no miner's path points the
way ? '
ver. 12. Where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding ?
And to us also, my friends, the question is ' a parable.'
We too must say in the words of a leader of modern
science *, that ' when science has completed her mission
upon earth, the finite known will still be embraced by the
infinite unknown.' And in this ' infinite unknown ' the
Patriarch Job places the abode of true wisdom, of the know
ledge of the full relation between God and human destiny, of
which science can tell us nothing. ' Where,' he asks in the
second strophe, so to speak, of this great hymn, ' where is
ver. 1 2. Wisdom to be found ? It cannot be bought or.trafficked for.
It has no local habitation like a material substance : '
ver. 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
And on both these ideas he enlarges in a series of short
stanzas, if I may so call them, whose substance I need only
briefly indicate. ' Man cannot track her to her home in the
habitable earth, in the underworld, or in the rolling sea : '
1 Professor Tyndall. Speech at the unveiling of T. Carlyle's statue.

The unsearchableness of wisdom. 237

The Abyss says, ft is not in me: Lecture
And the sea says, ft is not with me.
' It is vain to try and purchase her with gold of Ophir, c, .
to weigh out bars of silver, to spread out as her price xxviii.
the costly gems.' You will find in the passage a curious ver' l3'
enumeration of, we may conjecture, every precious stone
which was familiar to the age at which the book is written ;
on the careful identification of each of these much time, ver. 16-iy.
learning, and labour has been expended. And having said
so much, he asks once more : ' where then is the home of ver. 20.
this Wisdom ? From the keen-eyed birds that soar aloft, It ver. 21.
is hidden. To the world of death below comes only a dull ver. 22.
inarticulate, murmur of Its secrets. God alone can read ver. 23.
them, He whose eye pierceth through heaven and earth, ver. 24,
And on the day when He impressed His laws upon Nature,
when He gave the winds their force, and meted out the ver. 25.
waters, and set in order the hidden forces which rule the rain,
the lightning, and the thunder, then Wisdom was by His side, ver. 26.
and He revealed her in the material creation, gave to her her
place, established, proved, and tested her. But unto man He ver. 27.
said — and here lies the sum of the whole chapter — ' toman
the highest wisdom is to fear God, the truest understanding
is to depart from evil : '
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ;
And to depart from evil is understanding.
And having reached this point he pauses, and we will follow
his words no further to-day. I have not attempted to con
ceal from you, that, magnificent as I am sure you will feel
these three chapters to be, they have their difficulties.
Judging by the standard of modern thought, or of the
master-pieces of Greek literature, we should take each

238 The Book of J ob. Ch. XX VI— XXVIII.
Lecture chapter separately, and ask in turn : Why this description,
IX- sublime if you will, of God's power and majesty ? Or why
Chapter t^'s s^-eicn or" tne doom of evil-doers ? Or why this lyrical
xxviii. outburst on the unattainableness of the highest wisdom?
What place has each in turn in the development of Job's
thoughts, of Job's character and story, which it is the aim of
this book to put before us ?
As regards the first two of these passages, I have ven
tured to offer you some clue. I do not know how far you
have found in that which I have suggested a satisfactory
solution. The place of this last chapter, we can, I think,
recognise. Job in his calmer mood feels that he has attempted
to deal with questions too high for him. He forgets for a
while his own pangs and sorrows; the pressure of God's
heavy hand is withdrawn, and there rises before him a vision
of that wisdom, which, as in the opening portion of the Book
of Proverbs, so here, and in later generations, as for instance
in the age at which the ' Book of Wisdom ' was written,
embodied to the pious Jew, the combination of the highest
knowledge with the truest goodness.
And this, in his baffled and wearied, yet more tranquil,
frame, he feels to be beyond his reach. There is a touch at
once of hopelessness and of cheering faith in his closing
words. He dwells on the unapproachable, the inscrutable nature
of true wisdom, in terms which the most enlightened Christian
may in one sense fully echo. ' We know ' — to borrow at
random words whose interest lies in their having been used
by my illustrious Predecessor to an American audience 1—
' we know that what we see forms but the outskirts of creation;
1 Stanley's Sermons and Addresses in America, p. 141.

Man's best wisdom. 239
that the power and the wisdom which rule this vast universe Lecture
must lie beyond the reach, not only of our understanding, *x-
but also of our furthest speculation.' Yet we know also how „, "
r Chapter
much of God's nature, which was hidden from Job, has been xxviii.
revealed to us in Christ ; that if we ' know in part ' only, yet
in part we do know ; and we may thankfully welcome and
accept the vast revelations of that book of nature which we
have received from the progress of human science.
But when all this has been fully acknowledged, we still
feel the force of Job's closing words, that there is something
higher yet than any knowledge regarded as knowledge,
whether it be scientific, or whether it be theological know- Ver. 28.
ledge. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to
depart from evil is understanding. To that best wisdom may
we all attain ; may we learn to realise in even a deeper sense
than was revealed to the Prophet L, that the truest wisdom is
lo do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our
God. ' Micah vi. 8.
February 20, 18S6.

LECTURE X
CHAPTERS XXIX— XXXI.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chapters XXIX— XXXI.)

29 And Job again took up his parable, and said,
2 Oh that' I were as in the months of old,
As in the days when God watched over me ;
3 When his lamp shined 1 upon my head,
And by his light I walked through darkness ;
4 As I was in 2the ripeness of my days,
When the 3 secret of God was upon my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me,
And my children were about me ;
6 When my steps were washed with butter,
And the rock poured me out rivers of oil !
7 When I went forth to the gate unto the city,
When I prepared my seat in the 4 street,
8 The young men saw me and hid themselves,
And the aged rose up and stood;
9 The princes refrained talking,
And laid their hand on their mouth ;
io The voice of the nobles was 5 hushed,
And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
1 1 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me ;
And when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me :
12 Because I delivered the poor that cried,
The fatherless also, "that had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me
And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it ' clothed me :
My justice was as a robe and a " diadem.
15 I was eyes to the blind, r 2

Chapter XX] X.
— f* — ¦
1 Or, above
2 Heb. my
days of
autumn.3 Or,
counsel
Or,
friendship

4 Or, broad
place

' Heb. hid.

6 Or, and
him that
had &c.
7 Or,
clotheditself with
me "Or,turban

i6

244 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter And feet was I to the lame.
XXX. I was a father to the needy :
— m — And xthe cause of him that' I knew not I searched out.
' Or, the And I brake the 2jaws of the unrighteous, 17
'which I And Plucked ttie Prey out of his teetn-
knew not Then I said, I shall die 3 in my nest, 1 8
3 Heb. And I shall multiply my days as 4 the sand :
sofb7id My root is 6sPread out Gt0 the waters> x9
Heb. with. And the dew lieth all night upon my branch :
4 Or, the My glory is fresh in me, 20
i^n;x And my bow is renewed in my hand.
opened. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, 21
0 Or, by And kept silence for my counsel.
¦j j After my words they spake not again; 22
them when And my speech dropped upon them.
they had no And they waited for me as for the rain ; 23
confi ence ^n(j ^ opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
^MJr, were J r
' confi- 7 If I laughed on them, they 8 believed it not ; 24
at.tt And the light of my countenance they cast not down.
!' I chose out their way, and sat as chief, 25
t ytur J 7 ' J
10 Or, They And dwelt as a king in the army,
flee into the As one that comforteth the mourners.
intone'"' But now they that are y°unser tnan J nave me in derision, 30
11 Or, Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
which Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me ? 2
yesternight Mgn in whom oripe age is perjsried.
Or, on They are gaunt with want and famine ; ,
the eve of 10They gnaw the dry ground, "in the gloom of wasteness and
1 Ot,t0 desolation.
war ?n
them They pluck salt-wort by the bushes ; 4
13 Or, In And the roots of the broom are 12 their meat.
gloomy They are driven forth from the mids* of men ; 5
valleys They cry after them as after a thief.
14 Or, wild « in the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, 6
¦vetches Tn holes of the earth and of ^ roc]jS>
stretch Among the bushes they bray ; „
themselves Under the "nettles they I5are gathered together.

Chapters XXIX— XXXI.

245

8 They are children of fools, yea, children of 1 base men ; Chapter
They 2were scourged out of the land. XXX.
9 And now I am become their song,
Yea, I am a byword unto them.
io They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
And spare not to spit 8in my face.
ii For he hath loosed *his cord, and afflicted me,
And they have cast off the bridle before me.
12 Upon my right hand rise the "rabble;
They thrust aside my feet,
And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They "mar my path,
They set forward my calamity,
Even men that have no helper.
14 7 As through a wide breach they come :
In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
15 Terrors are turned upon me,
8 They chase 9 mine honour as the wind ;
And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out 10 within me ;
Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
In the night season my bones are "pierced 12in me,
And 13the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
14 By the great force of my disease is my garment disfigured : "^Or, corrd-
It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. ded and
He hath cast me into the mire, ^rop away
And I am become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me :
I stand up, and thou lookest at me.
21 Thou art turned to be cruel to me :
With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.

17

19

1 Heb. men
of no name.
2 Or, are
outcasts
from the
land
3 Or, at the
sight of me
* According
to another
reading,my cord
(or bow
string) .
5 Or, brood
6 Or, break
up7 Or, As a
wide break
ing in of
waters
8 Or, Thou
chasest9 Or, my
nobility
10 Heb.
upon.

from me
12 Heb.
from off.
13 Or, my
sinews take &pc.
11 Or, By
22 Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to ride upon it ; fgr* is -
And thou dissolvest me in the storm. 15 Or, the
23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, house, °f
And to 15 the house appointed for all living. ^ mgjor
24 16 Surely against a ruinous heap he will not put forth his hand ; 16 Or,
Though it be in his destruction, one may utter a cry because Howbeit
, .. ... doth not
of these things. one stret(h
out the hand in his fall? or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

246 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapter XXXI.

'Or,
blackened,but not by
the sun

2 Or, For
what
portion should I
have of
God . . .
and what
heritage &>c. ? Is
there not
calamity

' Ox, my
offspringHeb. my
produce.

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.
I made a covenant with mine eyes ;
How then should I look upon a maid?
2 For what is the portion of God from above,
And the heritage of the Almighty from on high ?
Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,
And disaster to the workers of iniquity ?
Doth not he see my ways,
And number all my steps ?
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 s the produce of my field be rooted out
If mine heart have been enticed unto a woman,
And I have laid wait at my neighbour's door :
Then let my wife grind unto another,
And let others bow down upon her.
For that were an heinous crime ;
Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges

25
26
27
28
29
3°
31
31 2
3
4 5
6
7

Chapters XXIX— XXXI.

247

12 For it is a fire that consumeth unto destruction,
And would root out all mine increase.
13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maid
servant,
When they contended with me :
14 What then shall I do when God riseth up ?
And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him ?
15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him?
And did not one fashion us in the womb ?
16 If I have withheld 2the poor from their desire,
Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail ;
17 Or have eaten my morsel alone,
And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;
18 (Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
And I have been her guide from my mother's womb ;)
19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing,
Or that the needy had no covering;
20 If his loins have not blessed me,
And if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep ;
21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,
Because I saw my help in the gate :
22 Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade,
And mine arm be broken from the bone.
23 For calamity from God was a terror to me,
And by reason of his excellency I could do nothing.
24 If I have made gold my hope,
And have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence ;
25 If I rejoiced because my wealth was great,
And because mine hand had gotten much ;
26 If I beheld 3the sun when it shined,
Or the moon walking in brightness ;
27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed,
And i my mouth hath kissed my hand :
28 This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges :
For I should have 5lied to God that is above.
29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,
Or lifted up myself when evil found him ;

Chapter XXXI.

1 Heb.
Abaddon.See ch.
xxvi. 6.

2 Or, aught
that the
poor desired

3 Heb. the
light.

* Heb. my
hand hath
kissed my
mouth.
5 Or,
denied God

248 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapter XXXI.

1 Heb.
palate. ' Or, Oh
that we
had of his
flesh ! we
cannot be
satisfied.
3 Heb. the
way.
1 Or, after
the manner
of men
5 Heb.
¦mark.6 Heb.
book.

7 Or,
present it
to him
8 Heb.
strength.9 Or,
thorns"Or,noisome weeds

3°

32

33

34

(Yea, I suffered not my 'mouth to sin
By asking his life with a curse ;)
If the men of my tent said not, 31
2 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 3the traveller;
If 4like 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 f had the "indictment which mine adversary 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 I7 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 I0cockle instead of barley.

35

36

37

3S

39

40

The words of Job are ended.

LECTURE X.
CHAPTERS XXIX— XXXI.
fob's Monologue continued, and the Dialogue concluded.
The contrast between fob's lost happiness and his present
humiliation. His final protestation of the innocence of his
former life. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; Lecture
And to depart from evil is understanding. X-
So, you will remember, Job ended his great 'Hymn to
Wisdom,' if I may so call it, which we read when last we met.
And in saying this, and in much that led up to this, he has
soared for a while above himself; risen to a calmer and
serener level. For he has recognised, implicitly at least, that
there may be infinite perplexities and anomalies which human
and finite intelligence can never solve ; that there are locked
doors around him to which he has no key.
And in so doing he has anticipated in no small degree the
answer, the healing answer, which later on he is to receive.
He has emphasised also the great truth, in which, may we
not say, all true members of God's Church are agreed, that
Duty stands, if we may dare to say so, on a higher level than
even Knowledge ; that it is to him who would do the will of
God, that God reveals Himself most fully. Is it not true,
even now, that the highest aim of those who would teach the
Gospel of Christ is not the acceptance of a code of doctrines,

250

The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.

Lecture however sacred, but the rising through that Gospel to a new
x- life? And now, having said so much, he returns, through three
final chapters, to that which for a time he has left in the
background, his own individual destiny. His friends are still
silent; and he pours out his full soul in a long and un
interrupted soliloquy. How does he begin ?
fob bemoaneth himself, is the expressive heading of our
Authorised Version, of his former prosperity and honour. It
is a familiar element in many tragedies :
This is truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier
things.
Never has that sad office of the human memory been put
forward more movingly than in the prolonged monologue of
this memorable tragedy.
Chap. xxix. ' Oh,' he says, in the first words of Chapter xxix, ' Oh that
ver. i. j were as in the months ' — the moons is the word in the
original — 'as in the moons of old,
fn the days when God watched over me ;
ver. 3. when His light shone high above my head, and guided my
steps through the encircling gloom ; '
When his lamp shined upon my head,
And by his light I walked through darkness.
You see the touching contrast to the present lot of him who
once more feels himself forsaken of God, and plunged in that
' outer darkness,' which to the Eastern mind is the type of all
ver. 4. that is terrible and painful. ' Oh that I were; he continues,
' as in the summer ripeness of my earlier days, in the fulness
and fruitfulness of life, when the secret of God, His familiar
fellowship and friendship, rested upon and hallowed my tent ' —

Job recalls his past happiness and honour. 251
the last word brings us once more within the circle of the Lecture
patriarchal age — ' when He, the Almighty, was yet with me ; ' x-
and then he adds, with ' a touch of nature ' that ' makes us ~ ' .
Chap. xxix.
kin ' across the ages with that bereaved Father, ' when my ver. 5.
children were about me; and when a now lost wealth and
abundance came to me unbidden, as I walked along life's
common highway ; '
When my steps were washed with butter, ver. 6.
And the rock poured me out rivers of oil.
And then — no wandering Bedouin Sheikh, remember, but one
who dwelt in his own domain outside city walls — he recalls
in expressive accents the days, when — as he entered the
Gate, and took his seat in the broad space l within it, where ver. 7.
the chiefs met in council, and where justice was adminis
tered — the young retired in awe, the aged rose up and stood, ver. 7-9.
and princes and chiefs were silent till he spoke. And it was
not the great only and the powerful who honoured him as
one greater, more powerful, than themselves :
When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; ver. 11.
And when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me ;
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: ver. 13.
And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
And why ? Because he cared for them :
Because I delivered the poor that cried, ver. 12.
The fatherless also, that had none to help him.
' Because,' he goes on to say, ' I made righteousness and
justice' — the thirst for which is inherent in human nature,
and the need for which is so sorely felt in Eastern lands — ' I
made these part of my very nature; I clothed myself in them ;'
1 See margin to Revised Version.

252 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI,
Lecture / put on righteousness, and it clothed me :
x- My justice was a robe and a diadem.
„, " . It is, I need hardly remind you, a common figure in the
lli* j i. XXIX- . . ,
ver. 14. sacred writings. We remember the magnificent description
of the king that was to arise ' out of the stem of Jesse ' in the
eleventh chapter of Isaiah : how, righteousness was to be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins —
how St. Paul bids us put on, more than the breastplate of
righteousness, more than the armour of light ; bids us put
on the Lord fesus'.
ver. 15. 'Yes,' he adds, I was eyes to the blind,
And feel was I to the lame.
ver. 16. / was a father lo the needy :
And the cause of him that T knew not I searched out.
' Even the unbefriended stranger I could not bear to leave with
wrongs unrighted, while to the oppressors I was a terror : '
/ brake the jaws of the wicked,
ver. 17. And plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
' And all seemed to go well with me.' Even as the Psalmist 2
said in his prosperity, I shall never be removed : Thou, Lord,
of thy goodness hast made my hill so strong; so ' I too,' says
Job, ' thought that I should die in my nest; even as' — so some
ver. 18. interpreters turn the 18th verse — 'the sacred phcenix3 that
dies after five centuries of life, dies in flames in its nest of
spices. Yes 1 I felt as a tree deep-rooted in watered ground,
ver. 19. with heaven's dews resting on my branches ; my glory seemed
ver. 20. fresh and growing, my bow, my strength i. e. renewing itself
with the strength4 of youth.' 'Yes,' he says, in the last
1 Eph. vi. 14; Rom. xiii. 12, 14.
2 Ps. xxx. 6. (Prayer Book Version.)
3 See margin, Revised Version.
4 The idea seems that of Isaiah xl. 31, or Psalm ciii. 5.

His present degradation. 253
stanza of this picture of his happier days, ' men waited in Lecture
silence for my words ; they welcomed them, as men welcome X'
in a dry land the long looked for, life-giving rain. I smiled c, xxix
when their hearts failed them, and my untroubled calm, proof ver. 20-24.
against all their fears, restored1 their courage. I chose their ver. 25.
way for them in their perplexity; I sat as chief among them ;
I was as a king at the head of his host ; but I was as a king
who could do more than command and lead, who could bring
comfort to those who were in distress and mourning.' So
ends the chapter. You will all recognise the antique sim
plicity and homely dignity of the picture which it draws.
' Such was I once,' he resumes in Chapter xxx, ' What Chap. xxx.
am I now ? Behold me here on this dung heap ! He,
before whom princes and nobles kept silence, is a butt to-day
for the scorn of the very boys of a degraded race, whose ver- *¦
fathers I had classed,' he adds in scorn, ' below the very sheep
dogs of my flock ; too nerveless and debased to be of profit, ver- 1> 2-
even as slaves.' The Psalmist's soul was filled with the
scornful reproof of the wealthy, and with the despitefulness
of the proud 2. Job feels himself even more utterly despised
than he.
And then follows a most curious and life-like picture of
some tribe, oppressed and despised by the robuster and more
civilised community, in whose close neighbourhood it drags
out a precarious existence ; a feeble, half-starved, dislodged,
and outcast remnant, it would seem, of some aboriginal
race. He pauses in the recital of his own sad sorrows to
put before us this strange fragment, photographed, as it
were, from the life of that far-off world. It has found its
1 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. (R. V., margin.)
2 Psalm cxxiii. 3, 4.

254 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.

Lecture parallel in later ages, in our own colonies and elsewhere, and
x- doubtless again and again in many an unwritten history.
„, We see before us the few and feeble ' natives,' as we might
\_.flcip. XXX.
ver. 3. say, gaunt, says Job, with want and famine, ' gnawing the dry
and naked steppe, like hunger-bitten goats or cattle; now
ver. 4. plucking the poor weeds that grow beneath the scanty shade
of the desert bushes ; now feeding upon roots ; driven away
ver. 5. with curses ; halloed after as thieves', he says, ' if they venture
among the habitations or fields of a more settled people;
ver. 6. forced to make their home among dismal ravines, in holes in
the rocks', very troglodytes, as we should say. ' There among
ver. 7. the bushes,' he tells us, ' in among the tall nettles, where they
swarm, may be heard the inarticulate chatter of the barbarous
ver. 8. braying language of these children of base men; or rather
of men of no name ; without, that is, any knowledge of their
forefathers — a memory dearly prized, as essential to the dignity
of man, in all Eastern races — 'wretched outlaws who are
ver. 8. driven wdth blows from the settled haunts of civilised man.'
Am I wrong in reproducing to you at length the graphic
details of this strange side-picture ? It is a companion one,
though given with a different motive, to that of the oppressed
labourers which we had in Chapter xxiv. I hardly know
which is the more interesting, as a fragment, so to speak, of
primeval social history1.
1 It is once more interesting to notice the entire indifference to the
literal and historical meaning of this striking passage, of one so capable
himself of a large-hearted enthusiasm for what to a Roman Patrician
must have seemed merely barbarous races as was the great Gregbry.
To him these miserable outcasts are a foreshadowing of heretics and
heresiarchs, of Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius, Eutyches, etc. The
' gnawing the bark of trees ' represents the looking merely to the literal
or external sense of Scripture, and missing the internal and spiritual
meaning. The whole passage is singularly characteristic of a mode of

The very outcasts make scorn ' of him, 255
' Yet even these,' he says, ' make me the sport of their Lecture
coarse jests, the burden of their rude songs of scorn.' You X'
remember how a Psalmist x says — 0,
J Chap. xxx.
They that sit in the gale talk of me : ver- 9-
And I am the song of the drunkards.
' So even these,' says Job, ' stand aloof and avoid me, or if ver. 10.
they come near, spare not to spit at me.' So low has he
fallen, the Job who was once put before us as ' the greatest
of the sons of the East.'
And as he points to the contrast between former happiness
and present misery, the calm that he has preserved throughout
his recent words becomes ruffled once more ; and he pours
out his lamentations and appeals in words troubled as the
heart from which they issue. 'God,' he cries once more,
' even my God, hath forsaken me ; and even as He has let fly ver. n.
His arrows against me, and loosed His bowstring, so mankind
shake off the bridle of respect and pity. At my right hand, ver. 12.
that on which I would lean, as I tread the hard steep path of
life, the rabble press against me ; they trip up my feet ; they
make that rugged path more rugged still. Yea 1 ' he says,
' men that have no helper, objects, in whom the Psalmist 3 found ver. 13.
his worst foes, hardened by their own hard lot, come to
gether against one who is so fallen from his high estate.
High and low refuse their sympathy, and break in upon
my solitary soul, as foemen force their way through a
gaping breach : '
thought and of interpretation once almost universal — which at one
time even extended to commentators on the Homeric Poems — and to
which it is difficult for a modern reader to assign its real value in educating
the mind of Christendom.
1 Ps. lxix. iz. (R. V.) 2 Ps. xxxv. 15. (Prayer Book.)

256 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.
Lecture As through a wide breach they come :
X- In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
»« —
Chap. xxx. ' And as men who once held me in respect and awe, now
ver. 14, 15. scorn me; so my own Spirit has lost its calm. Terrors are
turned upon me. They drive me this way and that, like wild
winds. Mine ancient courage,' says poor Job, ' has gone like
the fleeting cloud, that is the fit image of my past prosperity.
ver. 16. My very soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction are
ver. 17, 18. followed by nights of gnawing1 torture. My mantle clings
ver. 19. to my emaciated frame ; in the mire where He has cast me I
lie, like the refuse that is round me.'
And then he turns for a moment to address, to apostro
phise, to adjure Him who is answerable for all these sufferings.
ver. 20. ' I cry to Thee,' he says, ' and no answer comes. I stand
before Thee ; and with stern, fixed, unalterable eye Thou
regardest thine ancient friend :
ver. 21. Thou art turned to be cruel lo me !
Thou, who didst once load me with Thy blessings, Thou
ver. 22. tossest me on high,' he cries wildly, ' as a sport to the fierce
tornado of calamity ; even now Thou art destroying me in
this cruel storm. Back to the dust, I know it well, back to
the dust of death, art Thou, my Creator, bringing me ;
hurrying me to the bourne whither all travel, whence none
return :
ver. 23. To the house appointed for all living.
Yet surely,' he seems to say in a couplet of extreme obscurity,
' even in falling, even as I sink for ever, I may throw out
1 ' They that gnaw.' The words were perhaps the foundation of a
revolting yet touching tradition, that the worms, bred in Job's leprous
ulcers (a sense accepted by Gregory), made him unapproachable to all
but his wife who lovingly tended him. Delitzsch, in loco.

Job's final lamentation. 257
my hand ; even in the hour of ruin, I may raise a cry. For,' Lecture
Did not I weep, in happier days, for him that was in trouble ? x-
Was not my soul grieved for the needy ? \s ti n. 1 1 . xxx •
' And is all sympathy gone from God and man ? — sore is my ver. 24
need of it. In the hour of my confidence came my ruin, ^j^,1"
When I looked for good, then evil came: ver. 26.
And when I waited for light, there came darkness!
' My heart ' — so we speak of the seat of the emotions — ' my
heart is on fire within me. I need no mourning garments, ver. 27, 28.
Grief has parched and darkened me, as no sun's rays could
have power to do. I cry aloud, even when, as now, men are
gathered around me; I cry on this vile heap, even as the ver. 29.
howling jackal and screeching ostrich, whose brother I have
become. For a fever parches my skin, and burns within ver. 30.
my bones. No wonder that I utter this doleful elegy ! '
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, ver. 31.
And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
I have gone carefully with you through every word of this
sad contrast which Job has drawn between his present and
his former lot. I have spared you none of its details. It
seemed to me well that we should realise the full force of
this, his final and parting utterance of intense and unutterable
distress, of wild and uncontrollable misery.
And we are now near to his closing words. He gathers
himself up, once more, after this pathetic cry. Folding, as it
were, his mantle round him, like the dying Caesar, he speaks
with an impressive calm and dignity of the life which has
been blasted by the east wind of these heavy trials in which
his friends read the just judgment of his God. And as he
describes those earlier days, in which, to use his own words,
the Almighty was yet with him, and his children were about
s

258 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.
Lecture him \ he uses language that paints, and is obviously meant
x- to paint, the ideal of a saintly life, as measured by the
Cha "xxx. stanc,ard of that far-off age. Indeed we may say more than
this. The chapter that we now open breathes, almost or
quite throughout, a spirit that belongs rather to the New
than to the Old Covenant. It is a practical anticipation
of much of the teaching that was to come from Him Who
' sat down and taught ' His disciples on the mountain. It is
the picture of one perfect and upright, who feared God, and
eschewed evil.
Chap. xxxi. He begins, in Chapter xxxi, with a glance at sins of
ver. 1-3. uncjlastity. It was not on his acts only, but on his eyes and
thoughts, that he had imposed a law, with which he had
made a covenant. For in those days, he knew well, he tells
us, that God had assigned His heaviest judgments as the
sure inheritance of those who infringed the noble law of
purity which lifts man above the brute ; and he felt ' that He
was about his path and about his bed,' saw all his ways, and
ver. 5. numbered all his steps. ' The path too in which he had
walked was that of uprightness ; falsehood and hollow shams
had never been his companions.' ' Let his life,' he says
ver. 6. deliberately, ' be weighed in a just balance — not judged by the
insinuations or charges of his friends — that God may judge
ver. 7. of his innocence. If he has left that path, and his eye hath
misled his heart, some wandering desire carried with it his
will, and found shape in act, and so soiled the hands which he
now lifts up to God,'
ver. 8. Then let me sow, and let another eat ;
Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
He is speaking, you see, as though swept back by the strong
1 xxix. 5.

Job's last appeal to his former life. 259
deep current of his feelings to his former position ; not as Lecture
the poor leper, destitute and despised upon his dunghill, but x
as the master of many herds and of broad lands, and the „,
' ' Chap. xxxi.
father of happy children.
And so again, the sin of adultery he repudiates — with a ver. 9-12.
sternly uttered imprecation — as a crime which even human
judges would punish, punish not in one sex only, but in his
own, and which would also calt down a heavier penalty from
God. And then, in ten striking couplets, full to the very brim ver. 13-22.
of such a sense of the brotherhood of all mankind, as we may
look for elsewhere in vain through the pages of the Old
Testament, he speaks of his innocence of all abuse of the
power which wealth and station had placed in his hands.
' Had those beneath him, his very servants, male or female,
brought a complaint against him? When had he despised ver. 13.
their cause ? Had he done so, he should have felt condemned,
when his own cause came before his God : '
What then shall f do when God riseth up ? ver. 14.
And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him ?
Is it not the very spirit in which St. Paul, centuries later,
bids the Christian masters of bondsmen held under the ter
rible tenure of the Roman slave law, remember 'that both
their Master and yours is in Heaven, and that there is no
respect of persons in His sight1! Nay more; 'Did not',
adds Job, He that made me in the womb make him ? ver. 15.
And did not one fashion us in the womb ?
Think of this, and contrast it with the laws, or the feelings,
of slaveholders in Greece or Rome ; or in times much nearer
1 Ephesians vi. 9.
S 2

260 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI
Lecture our own — in a Christian Jamaica in the days of our fathers,
in a Christian North America in our own.
 M 
Chap, xxxi - ^ what has been his attitude towards the poor and
ver. 1 6. unbefriended ? ' Had he ever scorned their craving for relief,
or let the widow's eyes fade and languish with undried tears ?
ver. 17. Had he ever eaten,' as he graphically puts it, ' his own daily
bread alone, and banished the orphan from his table ?' I put
his language in the form of indignant questions. In the
original the if's all point to an imprecation of God's judg
ment, had he done so.
ver. 18. ' Had he not rather been as a father to the orphan, and,
far back as he could recall his earliest days, treated the widow
ver. 19. with the tenderness of a son ? Had he left the poor to
ver. 20. shiver in nakedness, or had he not rather clothed him with
the fleeces of his sheep ? Had the sight of friends all around
him on the seat of justice made him insolent to the un-
ver. 21. friended? Had he lifted his hand to strike the fatherless,
in the sense that his victim would find no redress ? '
ver. 22. Then let my shoulder, he cries, fall from the shoulder blade,
And mine arm be broken from the bone !
ver. 23. ' For surely,' he goes on, ' I was one who feared God, who
knew well what wrath I should have incurred— that for
these things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children
of disobedience1! And then, for a moment, he turns aside
to two sins closely connected by St. Paul, covetousness
ver. 24, 25. and idolatry. ' Gold, he had never made his trust ; wealth
had never filled his heart with joy.' He had learnt thus early
the lesson that he could not serve God and Mammon. ' No !
ver. 26. never had he put his trust in other powers than God. The
sun when it shined, the moon walking in brightness through
1 Colossians iii. 6.

Job's last appeal. 261
the lustrous skies of Asia, had never stolen his heart from Lecture
the Lord of sun and moon alike ; never drawn from him the x-
primeval salutation of ancient heathendom to the powers of ' M
Chap. xxxi.
nature ; ' Never had my heart been secretly enticed, ver- 21-
And my mouth kissed my hand.
' Well know I, that to do so, to fall back, like so many of ver. 28, 29.
my race, into the snare of polytheism, would have been a
crime deserving judgment. I should have been false to the
one God who created the heaven of heavens.' And then
he turns back once more to human duties; but even here
he stands rather on the level of one whose heart had been
touched by the spirit of the Christ who was to come, than of
a mere child of the covenant made with Abraham. ' Never
had he rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated him, never ver. 30.
even asked his life in a secret prayer.' We feel that we are
breathing the ' difficult air ' of a lofty region, which many a
Psalmist, many others of God's children of old time, found
too high to scale.
And once more he calls God to witness that he had
' ministered to the necessities ' of his fellow creatures with an
unstinting hand ; that he had never seen his Maker's image
an-hungered, and refused him food. ' The men of his tent,
his household, knew well,' he says, 'their master's mind. How ver. 31.
can we find,' they would say, ' one who has not tasted of his
flesh — of the smoking kid or fatted calf — that he has ready
for the stranger? No traveller was left to lodge beneath the ver. 32.
open sky; his door was never closed to him who needed shelter.'
It is a fully drawn picture of Arab hospitality. ' Nor,' he adds
in answer lo those who had charged him with cherishing
some secret sin, ' did I lead a solitary and moody life, hiding ver. 33, 34.

262 The Book of J ob. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.
Lecture myself as Adam in the garden' (or — for the interpretation is
x most doubtful — ' as men have done ere now '), ' from the

Chap xxxi. rebuke of men, behind the doors and curtains, that closed
my abode ;
ver. 34. 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.
No, I lived in the sight of day, under the eyes of all.' And
as his thoughts go back from these dark hours of worse than
solitude to those earlier 'moons,' his wounded spirit bursts
forth into its last loud and bitter cry :
ver. 35. Oh that I had one to hear me I
' Here is my pleading 1 Here is my formal written statement
of my innocence 1 Here my hand and seal ! ' We are once
more, you see, carried forwards into the imagery of the
written proceedings of the law court of some settled and
long civilised nation. 'Here is my signature ? Let the Almighty,
let Him Who knows my life, and yet has laid this burden
of sorrow on me, let Him answer me. Oh that I had
the indictment, the schedule, which He, my Adversary, had
framed and filed against me' — banish for ever from your
minds the misleading book of our older version — ' so sure am
I that it would urge no crime against me, no treason to my
ver. 36. Master, that I would bear it ' — that strip of parchment or that
open scroll of papyrus— 'as a badge of honour on my shoulder,
yea, fix it on my brow, as a very diadem ! How gladly would
ver. 37. I declare unto Him the number of my steps ; each step that I
have taken in the path of life. Yea, as a prince, proudly and
fearlessly, would I go near unto Him, to meet my judge,
strong in the sense of innocence, bold with the courage of
an unclouded conscience.'

Job's last words. 263
You will see that such language, though it would be an Lecture
anomaly, an impossibility on the lips of a Christian, born x-
into the teaching of the Spirit that has opened the eye of „, — .
v.. nni}. xxxi*
humanity to a deeper sense of personal sinfulness, is
perfectly harmonious and natural on those of Job. For the
whole meaning and burden of the Prologue, is the innocence,
the freedom, i. e. from crime, which he pleads. And his
friends have forced him into the terrible dilemma, that
either that God-fearing life was a dream and a lie, or that
God is unrighteous. And so, after this supreme effort, this
last uplifting of his wounded heart to God, he returns once
more, before he ends, to the calmer review of his former
life. ' If, he says, ' my land cry against me ; if it echo the
complaint of some dispossessed and impoverished owner, ver. 38.
whom I have supplanted; if the furrows thereof weep together,
if my ploughs are driven through a soil that still seems
to bemoan the hard lot of some long established cultivator '
— some village Naboth, driven by Job's hand from his
ancestral home — ' if I have eaten the fruits thereof without
money, withheld payment to the vendor, or wages to the ver. 39.
labourer ; if my violence or my fraud has robbed the owner
of his life— then let thorns and brambles grow in those
fields instead of wheat, and weeds spring up instead of ver. 40.
barley. Cursed to me be the fields which I have won by
removing my neighbour's landmark 1 Cursed to me the
lands which I have made my own by smiting my neighbour
secretly V
And suddenly, with these simple yet impassioned words,
impressive in their very naked directness and simplicity, he
ends. 1 Commination Service.

264 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.
Lecture We need not discuss the views of critics, who would re- •
x- arrange the order of the chapter which we have just read,
in order to furnish Job with a peroration more in accord
ance with the rules of a later rhetoric. You will be con
tent, I think, to accept his closing words even as we find
them.
ver. 40. And now he has done. The words of fob, we read, art
ended. The dialogue with the three friends is over. They
have long been silent. Again and again they have urged
their view, that God is just ; ' that He is a God of faithfulness,
and there is no iniquity in Him1;' and therefore, that as He
is the ruler of the world, the fate of Job must be in entire
accordance with strict justice. They have also reminded
him, that — while it is impossible for any human being to be
innocent in the sight of Him,
Who putteth no trust in his servants,
And his angels he chargeth with folly,
How much more them that dwell in houses of clay 2 ? —
yet that Job's unexampled sufferings must point to some
unexampled delinquency, which, however, may even yet be
forgiven him. If only punishment will wean him from his
sin, he may still be restored to God's greater favour. You
will remember that this has been their main position, towards
which they steadily advanced, and from which they have
never receded for a single moment.
And you will not forget how often they have maintained
their position very eloquently and very forcibly. They have
been defending what they felt to be the priceless heritage
of an hereditary faith. They have upheld it with much
richness of thought and beauty of imagery. They have
1 Deut. xxxii. 4. 2 Job iv. 18, 19.

The final position of Job's friends. 265
been deaf to the voice of Job's conscience, blind to their Lecture
own knowledge of his former life, resolute against opening x-
their minds to any new idea, firmly convinced that they had M
God's nature and God's dealings laid out as in a map before
them. Yet narrow and inadequate as is their creed, fatal
as its narrowness would have proved to the expansive and
enlarging influence of God's progressive teaching, they have
duly brought out its true and its noble side, and they have
satisfied themselves that they are pleading throughout the
cause of God, and the cause of true religion. They have
felt no doubt at all on this point, and have retired silenced
before what seemed to them their friend's impenitent,
obdurate, and rebellious mood, but in no way convinced
by him. It is impossible also to deny that the greater part
of their language, all in fact that deals with the general
question at issue, is in accordance with much that is to be
found elsewhere in the Old Testament, and that they are
put before us as the champions, not of some new and
heretical teaching, but of the accepted, and if I may so
speak, the orthodox creed of their day. Are they not
bringing to bear upon the individual soul the very teaching
which prophet after prophet had been divinely commissioned
to impress upon the Hebrew nation — the very lessons which,
as addressed to the community, God's messengers had
laboured to work into the very life blood of their people ?
I have, therefore, not for a moment attempted to represent
them to you, either as three heretical teachers, or even as
some have done, as the types of three different schools of
religion or philosophy. For with some slight touch of
individuality, noticed as we met them, they appear to
urge, and to be intended to urge, one and the same view.

266 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI.
Lecture They stand before us, as representing not three distinct
x- forms of thought — such as the Philosopher, the man of the
world, and the Priest — but rather a compact, and united,
and overwhelming majority of religious men, of one mind
and one view on the question which is at stake. ' It is im
possible,' they all assert— let me remind you once more — ' that
under the government of a just God, the life of an innocent
man can be other than happy and prosperous. There is
no such thing in the world,' they are quite certain, ' as un
deserved calamity, or unpunished wickedness.'
And it is against this view, in which he himself has been
nursed and trained, that Job — the Job, remember, who was
set before us in the Prologue as the friend and servant of
God — has been forced to plead. His position has been cruel.
That God does no wrong, that no injustice can be ascribed
to Him, is a doctrine that must have been as dear to that
lonely servant of God as to those three friends. And yet he
has found himself involved in the very destiny which both
he and his friends are agreed in believing to be the portion of
the wicked \ Yet he knows that, making all allowance for
human infirmity, his life has been both in act and thought
pure and upright, that the counsel of the wicked has in very
truth been far from him 2. And as we review his language, we
see in it much that is the mere outcry of bodily pain and
torture ; but much also that naturally shocked, inevitably and
justifiably startled and offended, his friends. The intensity of
his misery, and the keenness of his perplexity, have wrung
from him not only cries of pain, wild almost to delirium, but
assertions, that while he himself is sorely wronged, the
Almighty denies him justice, and even that his own unmerited
1 xx. 20; xxvii. 13. 2 xxi. 16.

Job's final position. 267
sufferings are but a sample of a wider misrule. I need not Lecture
do more than remind you of the many passages in which he x-
has spoken of God as ' destroying good and wicked alike l ; '
as 'laughing at the trial of the innocent,' leaving the un
righteous to live and die in unbroken 2 prosperity, condemning
others, for no fault of their own, to live and die in hopeless
misery, and as closing man's short and random destiny by
a death which leaves no hope of redress or change. No
where in the whole range of literature have such charges
against the government or misgovernment of the world
been urged in a more passionate or more unflinching in
dictment. It is no wonder that Christian commentators
have refused to accept his words — verging on, to say the
least, or, if taken by themselves, passing the verge of actual
impiety — in the sense, or any approach to the sense, in
which they were plainly uttered; or that Jewish sages have
more frankly written on them such comments as, ' here dust
should have filled the mouth of Job,' ' here Job denied
the resurrection of the dead,' ' here Job commences to
blaspheme.' Yet, running like a golden thread through all this vehement
and passionate language, we have seen a vein of thought
which has given this half rebellious questioner a claim upon
our sympathy ; and which even had the book ended here,
would have prevented thoughtful men from joining his oppo
nents, and from abandoning the solitary and tortured sufferer
to the reproaches of his friends, and to the condemnation ofthe
future readers of this great controversy. His soul, ripened
by the hot blast of cruel affliction, is being prepared for a
step, a long step forward, in that progressive revelation of
1 ix. 22, 23. '' xxi. 7-26.

268 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXIX— XXXI
Lecture Himself to man, given to us by God in Holy Scripture.
x- He sickens at the sight and sense of wrong, and clinging
M to the conviction that, in spite of all appearances, God must
be just — juster than his friends, or his own creed, or his own
experience have declared Him to be — he struggles to be true
at once to himself, to his conscience, and his God. He yearns
for a clearer sight of, and a nearer approach to, the Divine
Being against Whom, as seen in the insufficient light yet
given him, he has launched so vehement an indictment, so
terrible a flood of fervid and poetic wrath. And while he has
no sure and certain hope of a life beyond the grave, such as
was revealed to the world in Christ, yet his pathetic moans at
the finality of death give place1, once to a dim aspiration, and
once and again to a more loud assertion of his conviction —
bursting forth like a flash of light from his darkest mood —
that even if he is to die, die in his misery and desolation, God
will yet be his ' Goel,' his Vindicator ; that somehow, he knows
not how, he shall even after the shock of death have sight of
God, and have his wrongs redressed ; and therefore that he
who has once been so dear to Him, and who has fallen so low in
this life, will not be left to be ' of all men the most miserable.'
And we have noticed, I need not say, for it will be fresh in
your memories, how in his description of his early life, he
moves in a serene and lofty atmosphere, puts before us a
moral standard of practice and even of thought, which a
Christian might be thankful to attain and realise. And now
he and his friends alike are silent, silent but unconvinced.
Neither the one side or the other have won the adhesion,
even the modified adhesion, of those against whom they argue.
They cannot point to any guilt on Job's part. He cannot
1 xiv. 13 ; xvi. 19 ; xix. 25.

The award seems near. 269
convince them of his innocence. Neither one side or the Lecture
other have, we cannot but feel, laid their hands upon
the whole truth. Yet each has exhausted his store of
arguments, shot his arrows, and emptied his quiver. And
deep as is the hold which Job has gained upon our in
terest and sympathy, yet ' the light and shade has been so
graduated that those sympathies are not entirely confined to
one side.'
It would seem as though, at our next meeting, the time
must needs have come when we shall hear the voice of the
great Judge — when the final award and decision must
needs be given.
February 27, 1886.

LECTURE XI.

CHAPTERS XXXII— XXXVII.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chapters XXXII— XXXVII.)

32 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was
2 righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu
the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram : against
Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather
3 than God. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled,
because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
4 Now Elihu had 1 waited to speak unto Job, because they were
5 elder than he. And when Elihu saw that there was no answer
in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.
6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said,
I am young, and ye are very old ;
Wherefore I held back, and durst not shew you mine opinion.
7 I said, Days should speak,
And multitude of years should teach wisdom.
8 But there is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
9 It is not the great that are wise,
Nor the aged that understand judgement.
io Therefore I zsaid, Hearken to me;
I also will shew mine opinion.
II Behold, I waited for your words,
I listened for your reasons,
Whilst ye searched out what to say.
12 Yea, I attended unto you,
And, behold, there was none that convinced Job,
Or that answered his words, among you.
J3 3Beware lest ye say, We have found wisdom ;

Chapter XXXIL

1 Heb.
waited for
Job with
words.

2 Or, say
3 Or, Lest
ye should
say, We
have J "
out wis
dom ; God
thrust eth\
him down,
not man :
now he
&c.

274 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter God may vanquish him, not man :
XXXIII. For he hath not directed his words against me ; 14
— M — Neither will I answer him with your speeches.
They are amazed, they answer no more : 15
They have not a word to say.
And shall I wait, because they speak not, 16
Because they stand still, and answer ho more ?
I also will answer my part, 17
I also will shew mine opinion.
For I am full of words ; jg
1 Heb. of The spirit 1 within me constraineth me.
my belly. Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent ; 19
2 Or, wine- Like new 2bottles sit is ready to burst.
f™s I will speak, that I may 4be refreshed ; 20
which are l wil1 °Pen my !iPs and answer.
ready Let me not, I pray you, respect any man's person ; 21
4 Ox, find Neither will I give flattering titles unto any man.
relief j-or j know not to give flattering titles ; 22
Else would my Maker soon take me away.
Howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech, 33
And hearken to all my words.
Behold now, I have opened my mouth, 2
5 Heb. My tongue hath spoken in my "mouth.
palate. My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart : 3
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 ; 5
Set thy words in order before me, stand forth.
* Ox, lam Behold, 6I am toward God even as thou art- 6
ZThfZsh 1 also am formed out of the cIay-
in Gods Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, 7
stead Neither shall my pressure be heavy upon thee.
Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, j-
And I have heard the voice of thy words, saying,
I am clean, without transgression ; q
I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me :

Chapters XXXII— XXXVII. 275

10 Behold, he findeth 1 occasions against me,
He counteth me for his enemy ;
II He putteth my feet in the stocks,
He marketh all my paths.
12 2 Behold, I will answer thee, in this thou art not just ;
For God is greater than man.
13 3 Why dost thou strive against him ?
For he giveth not account of any of his matters.
14 For God speaketh *once,
Yea twice, though tnan regardeth it not.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed ;
16 Then he "openeth the ears of men,
And sealeth their instruction,
17 "That he may withdraw man from his purpose,
And hide pride from man ;
18 7He keepeth back his soul from the pit,
And his life from perishing by the 8 sword.
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
9 And with continual strife in his bones:
20 So that his life abhorreth bread,
And his soul dainty meat.
21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen;
And his bones that were not seen stick out.
22 Yea, his soul draweth near unto the pit,
And his life to the destroyers.
23 If there be with him 10an angel,
An interpreter, one "among a thousand,
To shew unto man 12what is right for him ;
24 13Then he is gracious unto him, and saith,
Deliver him from going down to the pit,
I have found a ransom.
25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child's ;
He returneth to the days of his youth :
26 He prayeth unto God, and he is favourable unto him ;
So that he seeth his face with joy :
uprightness " Or, And he be gracious . . . and say... ransom :
T 2

Chapter XXXIII.

1 Or, causes
of alien
ation2 Or,
Behold, in
this thou
art not
just ; I
willanswer thee : for
&c.
3 Or, Why
dost thou
strive
againsthim, for
that he . . .
matters ?
4 Or, in one
way, yea,
in two
5 Heb.
uncovereth.
6 Or, That
man may
put away
his pur
pose, and
that he
may hide
1 Or, That
he may
keep back
8 Or,'
weapons8 Another
reading is,
While all
his bones
are firm.
lu Or, u.
messenger
11 Or, ofthe
thousand 12 Or, his
his flesh &*c.

276 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapter XXXIV.  M 
1 Or, He
looketh
upon men
2 Or, it
was not
requitedunto me
Or, it was
not meet
for me
3 Or, life

'Or,
Should I
lie against
my right ?
5 Heb.
Mine

"Or,consent with
See Ps. 1.
18.

And he restoreth unto man his righteousness.
1He singeth before men, and saith, 27
I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,
And 2 it profited me not :
He hath redeemed my soul from going into the pit, 28
And my life shall behold the light.
Lo, all these things doth God work, 29
Twice, yea thrice, with a man,
To bring back his soul from the pit, 30
That he may be enlightened with the light of 3 the living.
Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me : 31
Hold thy peace, and I will speak.
If thou hast any thing to say, answer me : 32
Speak, for I desire to justify thee.
If not, hearken thou unto me : 33
Hold thy peace, and I will teach thee wisdom.
Moreover Elihu answered and said, 34
Hear my words, ye wise men ; 2
And give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge.
For the ear trieth words, ¦ •- 3
As the palate tasteth meat.
Let us choose for us that which is right : 4
Let us knew among ourselves what is good.
For Job hath said, I am righteous, 5
And God hath taken away my right :
4 Notwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar ; 6
6 My wound is incurable, though I ant without transgression.
What man is like Job, 7
Who drinketh up scorning like water ?
Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity, 8
And walketh with wicked men.
For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing 9
That he should ° delight himself with God.
Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: 10
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, 11

Chapters XXXII— XXXVII. 277

And cause every man to find according to his ways.
12 Yea, of a surety, God will not do wickedly,
Neither will the Almighty pervert judgement.
13 Who gave him a charge over the earth ?
Or who hath l disposed the whole world ?
14 2 If he set his heart " upon * man,
If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath ;
15 All flesh shall perish together,
And man shall turn again unto dust.
16 5 If now thou hast understanding, hear this :
Hearken to the voice of my words.
17 Shall even one that hateth right govern?
And wilt thou condemn him that is just and mighty?
18 6Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art vile?
Or to nobles, Ye are wicked?

Chapter XXXIV.

1 Or, laid
upon him
2 Accord
ing to
another
reading, If
he cause
his heart
to return
unto himself.3 Or, upon
himself4 Heb. him
19 How much less to him that respecteth not the persons of 5 Qr q,
understand0 Or, as
read by
someancientversions, Who saith
to . . . vil&,
and to . . .
wicked ;
that re
specteth &>c.7 Or, and
at mid-
nig~

princes,
Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor ?
For they all are the work of his hands.
20 In a moment they die, 'even at midnight ;
The people are shaken and pass away,
And the mighty are taken away without hand.
21 For his eyes are upon the ways of a man,
And he seeth all his goings.
22 There is no darkness, nor shadow of death,
Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
23 For he needeth not further to consider a man,

That he should go before God in judgement.
24 He breaketh in pieces mighty men "in ways past finding out>^^™4.
And setteth others in their stead. » or>
25 Therefore he taketh knowledge of their works ; without
And he overtumeth them in the night, so that they are inquisition
"destroyed. 9 HeJ>-
, , • 1 j crushed.
26 He stnketh them as wicked men
10 In the open sight of others ; 10 Heb. In
27 Because they turned aside from following him, the place
And would not have regard to any of his ways :

ofbeholders

278 The Book of Job. {Revised Version?)

Chapter XXXV.  M 
1 Or, That
they might
cause . . .
and that
he might
hear
2 Or,
though I
offend not

1 So that they caused the cry of the poor to come unto him, 28
And he heard the cry of the afflicted.
When he giveth quietness, who then can condemn ? 29
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, 30
That there be none to ensnare the people.
For hath any said unto God, 31
I have borne chastisement, 2I will not offend any more:
That which I see not teach thou me : 32
If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more ?
Shall his recompence be as thou wilt, that thou refusest it ? 33
For thou must choose, and not I :
Therefore speak what thou knowest.
Men of understanding will say unto me, 34
Yea, every wise man that heareth me :
Job speaketh without knowledge, 35
And his words are without wisdom.
Would that Job were tried unto the end, 36
Because of his answering like wicked men.
For he addeth rebellion unto his sin, ,7
He clappeth his hands among us,
And multiplieth his words against God.
Moreover Elihu answered and said,
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 ?
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?

25 2

5

Chapters XXXII— XXXVII. 279

8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art ; Chapter
And thy righteousness may profit a son of man. XXXVI.
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out ; — m —
They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
io But none saith, Where is God my Maker,
Who giveth songs in the night ;
li Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
And maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven ?
12 There they cry, xbut none giveth answer,
Because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God will not hear vanity,
Neither will the Almighty regard it.
14 How much less when thou sayest 2thou beholdest him not,
The cause is before him, and thou waitest for him!
15 But now, because he hath not visited in his anger,
'Neither doth he greatly regard arrogance;
16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vanity ;
He multiplieth words without knowledge.
36 Elihu also proceeded, and said,
2 4 Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee ;
For 5 1 have yet somewhat to say on God's behalf.
3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words are not false :
One that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.
5 Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any :
He is mighty in strength of "understanding.
6 He preserveth not the life of the wicked :
But giveth to the afflicted their right.
7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous :
But with kings upon the throne
He setteth them for ever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they be bound in fetters,
And be taken in the cords of affliction ;
g Then he sheweth them their work,
And their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves
proudly.

1 Or, but
he answer
eth not

2 Or, thou
beholdest him not !
The cause
is before
him ;
thereforewait thou
for him.
3 Or, Thou
sayest, He doth
not greatly
regard ar
rogance. Thus doth
&c.'Heb.
Wait for.
5 Heb.
there are
yet words
for God.
« Heb.
heart.

280 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter He openeth also their ear to instruction, 10
XXXVI. And commandeth that they return from iniquity.
— m — If they hearken and serve him, n
They shall spend their days in prosperity,
1 Or, And their years in 4 pleasures.
pleasant- gut jf they hearken not, they shall perish by 2the sword, 12
2 And they shall die without knowledge.
weapons But they that are godless in heart lay up anger : 13
They cry not for help when he bindeth them.
3 Heb. 3 They die in youth, 14
Their ^nd their life perisheth 'among the "unclean.
. ' He delivereth the afflicted 6by his affliction, 15
5 0r' And openeth their ear 7 in oppression.
sodomites Yea, he would have 8led thee away "out of distress 16
See Deut. jnto a broad place, where there is no straitness ;
xxin. 7. ^n(j tkat wn;cn ;s set on tny table should be full of fatness.
Or %ti
7 0r' b But thou 10art full of the judgement of the wicked : 17
adversity Judgement and justice take hold on thee.
* Or, n Because there is wrath, beware lest thou be 12led away by 18
allured thy sufficiency;
0 H b / Neither let the greatness of the ransom turn thee aside.
ofthe 13Will thy riches suffice, uthat thou be not in distress, 19
mouth of. Or all the forces of thy strength ?
fiZ'up^ Desire not the n«ht> 2°
u Qr For When peoples 15 are cut off in their place.
beware lest Take heed, regard not iniquity : 21
wrath lead jror this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.
into Behold, God doeth loftily in his power : 22
mockery Who is a teacher like unto him ?
12 Or, Who hath enjoined him his way ? 23
u n v ^r w^° Can say' T^ou ^ast wrought unrighteousness ?
thy I'ry ' Rememher that thou magnify his work, 24
avail Whereof men have sung.
14 Or, that All men have looked thereon ; 25
arewithout Man beholdeth it afar off.
io Heb Behold, God is great, and we know him not ; 26
go up. The number of his years is unsearchable.

Chapters XXXII— XXXVII. 281

27 For he draweth up the drops of water,
Which distil in rain 1from 2his vapour :
28 Which the skies pour down
And drop upon man abundantly.
29 Yea, can any understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The thunderings of his pavilion ?
30 Behold, he spreadeth his light 3around him ;
And he 4 covereth the bottom of the sea.
31 For by these he judgeth the peoples ;
He giveth meat in abundance.
32 He covereth his hands with the "lightning ;
And giveth it a charge 6that it strike the mark.
33 The noise thereof tellefh concerning 7him,
The cattle also concerning 8the storm that cometh up.
37 At this also my heart trembleth,
And is moved out of its place.
2 Hearken ye unto the noise of his voice,
And the 9 sound that goeth out of his mouth.
3 He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven,
And his "lightning unto the "ends of the earth.
4 After it a voice roareth ;
He thundereth with the voice of his majesty :
And he stayeth them not when his voice is heard.
5 God thundereth marvellously with his voice ;
Great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
6 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.
7 He sealeth up the hand of every man ;
That all men whom he hath made may know it.
8 Then the beasts go into coverts,
And remain in their dens.
9 Out of 12 the chamber of the south cometh the storm :
And cold out of the 13 north.
10 By the breath of God ice is given :
And the breadth of the waters is "straitened.
II Yea, he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture;

Chapter XXXVII.
' Heb.
belonging
to. 2 Or, the
vapour
thereof 3 Or,
thereon
4 Or,
covereth it
with the
depths of
the sea
5 Heb.
light.cOr, against the
assailant 7 Or, it
8 Or, him
9 Or,
muttering 10 Heb.
light. 11 Heb.
skirts.

12 See ch.
ix. 9.
13 Heb.
scattering winds.
"Or, congealed

282 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter He spreadeth abroad the cloud of his ] lightning:
XXXVII. And it is turned round about by his guidance, 12
— m — That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them
'Keb.light. Upon the face of the habitable world :
•¦ Or, earth . . . .
3 Qr 7%<?a Whether it be for correction, or for his 2land, 13
»/»k Or for mercy, that he cause it to come.
garments Hearken unto this, O Job : 14
are &'c. ^
4 Or When Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
he quieteth Dost thou know how God layeth his charge upon them, 15
t£ef?rth And causeth the •lightning of his cloud to shine ?
south wind Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, 16
5 Or, If a The wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?
Turel^ht' 3H0W thy Sarments are warm> 17
shall be 4When the earth is still by reason of the south windl
swallowed Canst thou with him spread out the sky, ;g
"f)r Which is strong as a molten mirror?
cannot look Teach us what we shall say unto him ;
on the light For we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
bright in Shall it be told him that I would speak ? ,0
the skies, 5Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
when the And now men 6 see not the light which is bright in the skies : 21
passed and ^ut l^e wmd passeth, and cleanseth them.
cleansed Out of the north cometh 7golden splendour : 22
J^J*, God hath upon him terrible majesty.
gold. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out ; he is ex- 23
" Or, to cellent in power :
judgement And 8in judgement and plenteous justice he will not afflict.
doeth no Men do therefore fear him : 24
violence He regardeth not any that are wise of heart.

19

LECTURE XI.
CHAPTERS XXXII— XXXVII.
The Intervention of Elihu.
We seemed, you will remember, at the close of the last Lecture
chapter that we read together, to be on the very verge XL

of the final scene of this great book. The catastrophe of cha t(
the drama, of which we had so long been spectators, seemed xxx«
close at hand. We had watched on the part of Job the
spiritual and mental agony, the searching conflict, the alter
nations of submission and revolt, of despair and hope, which
take the place of human action in the progress of that drama.
We had listened to the reiterated utterances of his friends, as
they upheld in turn their united view of the secret of his
sufferings, and at last returned to the silence which they
have so vainly broken. And as we had been witnesses of
their mute appeal from their friend, their rebellious and pre
sumptuous friend, as they esteemed him, to Him of whose
undeviating righteousness they had felt and avowed them
selves to be the champions, so we had listened to Job's last
deliberate and solemn assertion of his innocence. We heard
his appeal, his final and pathetic appeal, from the judgment of
man to the tribunal of his God. The crisis, we might well
believe, must surely be at hand. But at this moment, at the
very place where we open the book to-day, there comes an
unlooked for pause. Indeed, it is something more than

er

284 The Book of Job. Chapter XXXII.
Lecture a pause. It takes the shape of a prolonged argument,
XI- coming from a fresh and a wholly unexpected quarter ; and
„. " it carries us back, as by a strong counter current, meeting
xxxii. us at the last moment of our course, into the very heart of
a controversy, which seemed by this time to have been left
behind us. We have to turn over no less than six whole
chapters before the short clause, the words of fob are ended,
is replied to, by that which seems its natural and immediate
response, then fehovah answered fob out of the whirlwind.
I must, therefore, put before you to-day, as fairly and
shortly as I can, the nature of this long interruption, this
unaccountable break, as it seems, in the progress of the
narrative. And I must not attempt to conceal from you the
perplexity which it has caused to many of the wisest and
most thoughtful students of the book.
And, first of all, you will notice that the commencement of
these six intervening chapters is marked — as you will see by
a glance back at our new version — by the insertion of the
longest passage of prose which we have met since we closed
the second chapter. It extends over the first five verses of
Chapter xxxii. It tells us how the three friends remained
ver. i. silent, shocked at Job's assertion of his innocence. After all
that we have read, this hardly needs further explanation ; yet
it may be well to state the case once more. Job's innocence,
innocence as opposed to the guilt which they imputed to him,
is of course the pivot on which the whole idea ofthe book turns.
It is the one theme, the one motive, so to speak, of the first
two chapters. But to deny this innocence is essential to the
argument of his friends. For if Job is what he claims to be,
one article of their creed, and one held by them to be absolutely
essential to their faith, viz. that this visible order of things here

Elihu. 285
below is administered throughout by the rules of divine and Lecture
absolute justice, falls to pieces. Room must be found for XI-
the discomfiting and unsettling confession, that there is „ "
place in a world wholly ruled by a righteous God for xxxii.
unmerited suffering, and for undeserved prosperity. But at
this moment, when both sides have exhausted their pleadings,
and are waiting for the verdict of Him to whose judgment
they have each repeatedly appealed, a fresh speaker is
brought on the stage. He is introduced with an unusually
full description.
Elihu, he is called. The name is Hebrew, and its
signification, My-God-is-He, is as clear in Hebrew as that of
some names of analogous meaning in our own language,
that for a time found place among English and Scottish
homes, and were not quite unknown in the last days of the
ancient Monastery of Westminster1. From the genealogy
which is carefully given he appears to be placed before us as
descended from Nahor, a brother of Abraham2; to be, like
the other personages of the story, of a patriarchal, but not
a Jewish, race, no son of Israel, yet no heathen.
He is represented, you will see, as a bystander ; younger ver. 2-5.
than any of those who have as yet spoken. He had listened
with more than disapproval, we are told, and he tells us
himself, to the words alike of the three and of Job. He was
indignant with Job, because he asserted his own innocence at
the expense of God's justice, because he justified himself rather
than God. He was indignant with his friends, because, though
1 Among the surnames of the Monks who subscribed the Act of Sur
render in January, 1540, are those of Charity, Faith, Godhaps, and
Godluck. 2 See Gen. xxii. 21, 22, with Jeremiah xxv. 23.

286 The Book of Job. Chapter XXXII.
Lecture they condemned Job, they found no sufficient answer to his
words.
Chapter But he had listened with the reverential deference to
xxxii. age, so universal in oriental countries, till at last, when
both parties had ceased to speak, he could restrain himself
no longer ; and he comes forward, beginning what he has
to say with a laboured, yet not uninteresting apology.
ver. 7, 8. Length of days, he says, should bring wisdom : ' but after all it
ver. 13. jg ^ ireai}l^ or spirity or inspiration of God that gives both
life and wisdom, and God may speak through the lips of the
young, even as of the old.' And then, warning the friends
that their attitude of disconcerted silence, at which he points
his finger in the 1 5th verse, seems to mean that none but
God can answer what Job has said ; he feels bound, he says,
ver. 16-20. to play his part ; not bound only, but constrained. He 'feels
within his breast ' — I venture to translate his eastern imagery
into metaphors more in accordance with western and
modern sentiment —
'A power that will not be repressed,
It prompts his voice, it swells his veins,
It burns, it maddens, it constrains1.'
He must needs, therefore, come forward, dismissing the
awe inspired by the age and rank of the three Chiefs, and of
him who was so lately the greatest of them all. He must
ver. a 1. speak the truth that burns within him, with no respect, as he
says, for any man 's person, with no flattering titles. ' Woe is
unto him ' if he do not.
It is a very long and somewhat laboured exordium. But in
spite of an eastern metaphor in the 19th verse that jars upon
modern ears, it is not without a force and dignity of its own,
1 Lord of the Isles. Canto II.

Elihu. 287
not wholly unworthy, it seems to myself, of the rest of the Lecture
book. XL

Why then is it, we may at once ask, that this episode of cha ter
Elihu has caused such difficulty, such perplexity, I might xxxii.
almost say such consternation, to critics and commentators?
Why is it that the majority of the most thoughtful among
them incline to believe that these six chapters were not part
of the original book, but were added, either by the author
himself, or soon after by one of the same school of thought,
or by some later hand ?
There is first the intrusion, so to speak, of this long
interlude, this disturbing element, in the very crisis of the
book. It is against, critics tell us with one voice, all the
rules of art. It is quite true that in more than one master
piece of Greek tragic poetry, there is introduced on the very
eve of the crash of some appalling catastrophe, a light and
almost frolicsome chorus l, as though with the view of relieving
the strain and tension ofthe feelings of those who have followed
the progress of the plot. But I need not say that there is no
analogy to this, either in the long address of Elihu, or in what
follows. It is also true, and far more to the purpose, that the
objection might be met by saying that, if once we begin to try
and remodel the Old Testament according to the rules of Greek
art or modern criticism, we shall rewrite, not the book of Job
only, but much of that great and sacred literature, that divine
library, to use again Jerome's words, which we call the Bible.
And we shall do this with very unsatisfactory results. We
might as well complain that the Temple of Solomon could
not have had a just claim on the affections of the Jews, and
1 See those beginning at 1. 1086 of he Oedipus Rex, or at 1. 1115 of
the Antigone.

288 The Book of Job. Chapter XXXII.
Lecture the memory of mankind, because it was so wholly unlike
XI- the Parthenon of Athens, or the edifice in which we meet.
But the objection becomes, doubtless, more formidable,
when stated in another form. After this long and detailed
introduction on the part of the author, and this long, and as
some call it, pretentious exordium on his own part, the
speaker's words seem to count for nothing. When Jehovah
pronounces His verdict, Eliphaz is mentioned by name with
his two friends. Job receives his sentence. The Lord, we
shall read, accepted fob. But there is not one word of him
who had appeared as the young, the ardent, the inspired and
final champion of God's cause. The others 'have their
reward ; ' he is simply unnoticed, is passed over in entire and
absolute silence. Was this conceivable, if his long discourse
had formed part, and so large and important a part, of the
original work ? It is to be remembered too, that the language
in which he condemns Job is extremely strong, and that if
he blames the friends, yet that he places himself wholly
on their side ; yet they are condemned, he not even named.
To this it has been added by some, not, I think, conclusively,
that he only repeats their arguments; that he contributes
nothing to the real progress of the drama ; while his style,
and this must be admitted, differs from theirs, and from the
rest of the book, in being more involved and more obscure,
only rising towards the close to the level of that of the other
speakers ; and that even there, it is merely an anticipation of
the words of Jehovah that are yet to come.
I have not shrunk from putting these arguments plainly*
before you. No educated person in the present generation
can read the book of Job without having to take them into
consideration. They stand on quite a different level from the

Elifal. 289
theories of critics who would reject chapter after chapter till Lecture XI
they had reduced this great work to a mere unintelligible
and formless torso, on which we are to suppose various chapter
authors to have built up by degrees the great and noble xxxii.
poem which we are studying. Such theories have had in turn
their day, and have passed, or are rapidly passing, into
oblivion. But the position and significance of the next six
chapters are wholly different and far more perplexing.
Nor is the difficulty diminished, if, instead of carefully
weighing for ourselves the words of Elihu, we consult
different authorities for their opinion as to the intrinsic
merits of the thoughts advanced by him. The candid in
quirer will find a perfect chaos of opinion among both the
fathers of the Church and later critics. If Saint Augustine
speaks of his language being ' as wise as it was modest,' to
Gregory the Great he seemed the type of foolish and arro
gant teachers within the Church, even as the friends repre
sented the heretical teachers outside her limits. Our own
Bede saw in him the representative of the foes of the Church
of Christ, and even echoes an extraordinary Talmudic tradition,
which identified him with Balaam. Others have gone further,
and seen in poor Elihu nothing less than Satan himself,
reappearing in disguise. Such views are largely, no doubt,
based on the supposition, taken for granted by many readers,
not I think shared by you and me, that every word
uttered by Job must somehow be right and true, and that
every one who opposes him must needs be wholly in the
wrong. On the other hand, one of the greatest of Jewish mediaeval
writers1 speaks ' of his profound and wonderful discourse ; '
* Maimonides. U

290 The Book of Job. Chafs. XXXII— VII.
Lecture while in the eighteenth century Warburton saw in him
XL one who was put forward as the type of the Old Testament
Chapter ProPner-s J and later on, a commentator1, widely read in the
xxxii. last generation, says, ' it is evident that he was a young man
of singular modesty and wisdom,' and looks on him as
representing the deliberate views of the author of the whole
book, as distinct from those of the different interlocutors.
Nor indeed has there been any lack of writers who have held
that under the mask of Elihu the author has concealed his
own person2 and views, and has come forward to modify
the dramatic and bewildering boldness with which Job has
put forward his denial of any inseparable connexion between
crime and suffering, and to suggest some hints of the true
solution of the cruel problems of life. Others adopt a some
what similar view, and deaf to those who in recent times
have spoken of this new personage as a 'mere wordspinner3,'
' a babbling stream to be passed by without notice, as he
was in Jehovah's verdict,' believe that some pious Hebrew,
feeling that neither Job nor his friends had laid their hands on
the true secret of heaven-sent suffering, introduced these chap
ters as a contribution towards a higher teaching on the subject.
Such readers have recognised in his discourse much that is most
pure and true, more profoundly conceived and more strikingly
presented, they have ventured to say, than by the three, even
if no single wholly new thought is to be found within its
compass4. In presence of such unbounded discrepancy of views,
1 Thomas Scott.
2 Among others, Lightfoot and Rosenmiiller.
3 Herder and many others, with whom Mr. Froude in his interesting
essay entirely agrees.
* This view is taken among others by Ewald.

Elihu. 291
of which I have given you only a few instances, I must Lecture XI
speak with diffidence. I cannot, I confess, account for the
silence with which this long address will be dismissed in the
award of Jehovah. Why do Job and his friends receive
their meed of praise or blame, he neither ? Why is the last
speaker of all dismissed, after a speech of extraordinary
length, absolutely unnoticed ? To this objection I have
no where met with a fully satisfactory answer. Yet at
the same time, I cannot but think, that ' stammering and
confused1' at times, as may be the accents of one who is
evidently introduced as representing the feelings of a younger
group among those who surrounded Job, that they have yet
a real claim on our attention and respect. I believe that we
may gather from his words some grains of fresh views,
not yet advanced by Job's friends. Whether those words
formed, or did not form, a part of the first shape given to the
original work, I dare not reject them as the merely worthless
addition of another and far later age. Nor is this all. There
is something ahke interesting and instructive in the very
manner in which this fresh speaker comes forward. I am
young, he says, and ye are very old, yet for all that, as
he listened, his anger was kindled, not only against fob,
but against his three friends ; and in his attempt to mediate
between them, and in the language in which he speaks of the
aged being not always wise in judgment, he may be to us a
type of epochs in which a younger generation has been more
open to new ideas, less resolutely set against new forms of
truth, and more fit to act as a means of transition from one
* See Dean Stanley's Sermons, etc., in America, Sermon III, The
Perplexities of Life. U 2

292 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXXII— VII,
Lecture stage of religious knowledge and spiritual light to another,
XI- than that which preceded it1.
A very short summary of at least the leading portions of
xxxiii. the words of the young speaker, will, I think, be enough to
convince you that they certainly contain no Satanic poison,
but rather the germ of ideas which have been largely de
veloped under Christian teaching. We may recognise these
thoughts, struggling, as it were, for utterance in an age which
was as yet not enabled by God's spirit to formulate, or even
receive them : an age separated, we may believe, by no great
interval of time, or dissimilarity of sentiment, from that to
which the rest of the book must be assigned.
When Elihu has completed his exordium, which runs into
the opening verses of a second chapter, he proceeds in
Chapter xxxiii to challenge the attention of Job, whom,
unlike the other speakers, he addresses by name, and some
of whose former language, he carefully, and not on the whole
unfairly, epitomises.
ver. 8-n. 'You have spoken,' he says, 'of your own entire innocence,
of God as your enemy ;' and he seems also to have in mind
Job's complaints that God will not answer his cries, but
leaves him alone in misery and bewilderment. 'Not so,'
ver. 12, 13. replies Elihu, 'though God is greater than man, and you
have no right to challenge Him as an equal, yet He does
ver. 14. reveal Himself from time to time in various ways. Some-
ver. i5. times He gives men strange warnings in the silence of night.
in the hours, When deep sleep falleth upon men
In slumberings upon the bed.
1 The reader will find an interesting page on the subject in the
sermon quoted on the preceding page.

Elihu. 293
He wakes up the sleeping conscience by startling dreams.' Lecture
We, as we read, may carry on our thoughts through many XI-
tales of many ages, to such lives in our own land as those _,, "
of Colonel Gardiner or John Newton. ' Sometimes,' he xxxiii.
continues, 'He sends His warnings in the form of a chastening ver. 19-24.
sickness ; and some spiritual influence,' embodied by the
speaker in a heavenly or angelic messenger, ' reveals to the
sick man, in and through his very pain and weariness, the
right path which he has long neglected. The ransom of ver. 24-30.
his penitence is accepted; health comes back to body and
soul; the leper's flesh "comes again like unto the flesh of ver. 25.
a little child1," and he reconciles himself to God, and pours
forth his thanks, in a Psalm of repentance and thankfulness.'
There is nothing surely here, in this picture so true to life,
which is unworthy of the teaching of the book, or of the
prompting of God's Spirit, nothing arrogant, windy, or
heretical. May we not rather say that Elihu is darkly inti
mating what so many souls have fully realised in Christ, that
times of mortal sickness, or pain, or bereavement, are those
which God sometimes chooses for pouring into the human
heart new views of truth, and fresh streams of spiritual yet ver. 31-33.
substantial joys ? May we not hear a voice ' stammering,'
it may be, and half articulate, hinting that 'of which the
Cross of Christ is to us the surest of pledges, that the deepest
suffering may be the condition of the highest blessing : the
sign not of God's displeasure, but of His most compassionate
love 2 ? '
But to return. After a call to Job to answer, if he can, Chapter
and an assertion that, if it were possible, the speaker would
fain acquit him, he once more, in Chapter xxxiv, after a
1 2 Kings v. 14. 2 A. P. Stanley, ibid.

294 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXXII— VII.
Lecture fresh but short exordium, quotes or summarises Job's former
language. He recalls Job's loud assertions of his own inno-
Chaoter cence an0- °f God's injustice, and he does this with a cry of
xxxiv. protest. Job has pictured himself as lying wounded, mortally
' •"" ' wounded, by the stroke of God, though guiltless. Elihu
hardly misrepresents the poor patriarch, who, remember,
could lay his pains on no hostile power of evil, and who was
ignorant of that scene in heaven which was the key to all his
bitter sufferings. ' Horrible ! ' cries Elihu. And then, in lan
guage even stronger than that of his elders, the youthful
speaker attacks Job, not for some concealed guilt in his past
life — of this, unlike his three elders, the youthful speaker says
ver. 7. nothing — but as uttering blasphemy with delight, as drinking
up scorning, as one athirst beneath an Eastern sun drinks water,
and by so doing throwing himself on the side of the wicked.
He adds that Job had laid down the principle that man was
no gainer by God's friendship. And no doubt, one or two of
his passionate cries had been, or seemed, almost, or quite, the
ver. 8-1?. equivalent x of this. ' This,' he says, ' is inconceivable. The
great and all-powerful Author and Giver of life, no Viceroy
of another power, but the Lord of all, cannot in the nature of
ver. 14, 15. things be malevolent or inequitable. He has but to with
draw the afflatus of His breath, and life would die out of the
ver. 16-21. world. Is it credible that such a God, so omnipotent, so
omniscient, Whose mere word can bring destruction alike to
monarchs and to nations, Whose eye sees at a glance all
their goings, and pierces even the very shadow of death, would be
morally imperfect or unjust ? No, He is too lofty. He looks
down on kings and princes with equal and impartial eye.
He is too great for caprice or partiality.' Shall not the judge
1 E.g. ix. 22, and xxi and xxiv throughout.

Elihu.

295

Is God Lecture XI.

Chapter xxxiv.

ver. 35-37.

of all the earth do right ? he cries with Abraham 1
unrighteous ? God forbid I he cries with St. Paul 2.
It is an appeal, after all, to the sense of God's perfection
as imprinted on the human conscience. The thought, he
says, with Bishop Butler, that God can be unjust, is one that
contradicts our most primary instincts. We may refuse our
sympathy to Job's youthful assailant ; but is there no trace
of truth or wisdom in his words ?
And then after asserting, or seeming to assert — for the
words that follow are exceedingly obscure — that, as a matter
of fact, God does strike down the wicked, and does listen to ver. 22-28
the cry of the oppressed, he ends the chapter by once more
rebuking Job with a stern severity that exceeds even that of
his friends. fob speaketh without knowledge,
And his words are without wisdom.
Would that fob 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.
But Job is still silent. And once more, in Chapter xxxv,
his young reprover attacks him for his denial of a righteous
rule on earth. ' Thee,' he says, ' thee and those, the wicked,
whose ranks thou joinest by such language, I will answer.'
We feel at once that he has seized with undue asperity on one
Undoubted side of Job's language ; has overlooked Job's horror
of all that is evil ; his clinging in his darkest mood to the God
who afflicted him. Elihu is not the last religious and God
fearing controversialist who has not shrunk from asserting that
1 Gen. xviii. 25. 2 Rom. iii. 5.

Chapter xxxv.
ver. 2-4.

296

The Book of Job. Chaps. XXXII— VII.

Lecture he— it may be some truth-loving brother Christian— who
XL perhaps rightly, perhaps mistakenly, differs from him, places
"7" himself at once in the ranks of non-believers, even worships
xxxv" another God. And we feel also that his own answer is as far
from being adequate as it is hard and unsympathising ; that
his ' pleadings for God,' however interesting, will hardly bring
much peace to Job's troubled soul. ' Look up,' he says,
ver. 5, 6. ' through the height of sether to the heaven above. Can thy
innocence, thy guilt, affect the infinite Being Who sits above
them ? Is He in thy debt, because thou hast served Him ?
ver. 7. If thou be righteous, what givest thou him ?
Or what receiveth he of thine hand ?
ver. 8. Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art ;
And thy righteousness may profit a son of man.
Yet it seems as if Elihu feels that he is pressing in a wrong
direction the argument to be drawn from God's greatness.
If it is true that because God is so great and so high, the
innocence or guilt of a petty human being is a matter
of profound indifference to his Maker, on the ground that it
can bring Him neither gain nor loss, we are landed, we see at
once, on a very gloomy shore. We reach a conclusion fatal to
all religion. If there is this impassable gulf between God and
man, what room is left in human life for devotion, or faith,
or prayer? for all that unites earth to heaven? It is the
Creed, that died almost at its birth, of the Deism of the early
part of the eighteenth century.
So he proceeds to alter his course, and to feel his way to
some higher explanation of the unredressed miseries of life.
ver. 9. His words deserve full attention. ' True,' he says, ' a voice of
wailing goes up from earth, a groan of suffering under
injustice and oppression. But it is a mere cry of pain, not a

Elihu. 297
turning to God, man's Maker, to Him ^Nho giveth songs in the Lecture
night, brings i. e. a joyful sense of sudden deliverance in the X1,
very darkest hour of tribulation. God would have men cry cha
to Him with something more worthy of those whom He has xxxv.
made in His own image, than the mere inarticulate cries of ver- IO-I5-
the beast of the earth, the fowls of heaven. He has taught ver- "•
us more than the one, He has made us wiser than the other.
Empty moans, empty cries, will not reach His ear. Thy
passionate words give thee no claim, Job,' he seems to say,
' on God ; and thy prayers to Him, have not risen above mere
childish brute-like cries of pain.'
Therefore, so ends the chapter, doth fob open his mouth ver. 16.
in vanity ;
He multiplieth words without knowledge.
Whatever be the position of Elihu in the book, he clearly
represents one who, while he had little more tenderness for
the distress and perplexity of the patriarch than the older
friends who stood silent by his side, yet was sincerely anxious
to shew him a more excellent way.
He has yet, he says, starting again with a fresh statement Chapter
of his eagerness ' to justify the ways of God to man,' somewhat
to say on God's behalf. ' Mighty as God is, mighty as I have
pictured Him, He is yet no scornful or arrogant Being ; He
despiseth not any ; He uplifts the righteous, even as He once
did thee,' he seems to mean, ' and places them high in wealth
and estate like kings upon their thrones. And if affliction ver. 7.
comes upon them ' — an affliction described under the image of
cords and fetters, reminding us of the fast-bound in misery ver. 8.
and iron of the Psalmist 1— ' He would have them take it as a
chastening and corrective and instructive discipline, and if ver. 9, 10.
1 Psalm cvii. 10. (Prayer Book.)

298 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXXII— VII.
Lecture they do this, they spend their days in prosperity and their years
XI' in pleasantness. But if not, they die in their infatuation. God
Chapter 's a'wavs ready to deliver the pious sufferer and to make his
xxxvi. sufferings a means of teaching.' nddet /idBos, said the Greek ;
15. , teaching comes by suffering,' says Elihu. ' So thee too, Job,
hadst thou continued in thy submissive frame, and taken
thy pains as a means of discipline, He would have led out of
ver. 16. the jaws of distress, into a broad place where there is no
straitness, and thy table ' — like that of the thankful Psalmist —
' should have been richly spread with blessings. But now, a
ver. 17-18. just judgment keeps hold of thee. Ere it is too late, beware
lest thy wrathful fretfulness lead thee into rebellion, nor
shrink from the ransom which He asks, thy full submission
and humiliation. Offer this ere it be too late, and challenge
ver. 19-21. not His judgment. Provoke not that wrath against which
human riches ' — he seems for a moment to forget Job's present
destitution — ' and human strength are unavailing ; that wrath
that can cut off nations, as some black night cuts short the
sunlight. Beware, beware, impatient Job ! '
How strange his language would sound to those who only
knew the patriarch through the first two chapters, and had
heard of him only as the type of patience 1
ver. 22-26. And then he reminds Job that there is no teacher like
God — that none can teach Him, that God is great, unknow
able, eternal. And having said this, he breaks forth into
a lengthened description of the wisdom and mightiness of
ver. 27-31. God, as shewn in the phenomena of rain, and cloud, and
mist, and tempest. He speaks of the lightning that strikes
its mark, of the sounds and signs, read by the startled
xxxvii? cattle> lhat foretell the storm. And then, in the next chapter,
ver. 1-5. the young speaker throws his whole force into a picture of

Elihu. 299
that at which his heart trembleth and is moved out of its place- Lecture
He tells of the thunder which, following fast upon the light- XI-
ninar that flashes unto the ends of the earth, is to him, as to the „,
° J ' Chapter
Psalmist, the very voice of God. He points him to the winter, xxxvii.
with its snow and rain, that sealeth up the ha?id of every ver. 6, 7.
man, suspends, as we know too well, all labour, and drives
the wild beasts to the coverts of their dens. He tells of the ver. 8.
winds that obscure or clear the sky, of the clouds that bring ver. 8-13.
alike fertility and ruin, correction or mercy. And thus>
anticipating what is to come, and speaking as the very
precursor of Him Who has yet to speak, he appeals to ver. 15-19.
Job to confess his ignorance of the secrets of God's working
in nature ; of cold and heat, of light and darkness ; and ends —
ending, as some would have us believe, while the very
storm out of which Jehovah is to speak was gathering — with
reasserting that great as God is, and past human compre
hension as is His nature, yet for all that, He is infinitely just
and righteous, and incapable of wrong :
Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent ver. 23.
in power :
And in judgement and plenteous justice he will not afflict.
'Awe of Him, therefore, is man's proper attitude, and He
regardeth not those who,' like Job, he seems to say, ' are
wise in their own sight.'
So end the chapters which have caused, as I have already
said, such controversy and perplexity to commentators, and
have elicited such irreconcilable judgments alike from older
and from modern critics. I have tried, not to trace their
meaning through verse after verse, but to put their main sub
stance before you, and have not ventured to give a dogmatic
or contemptuous answer to the objections that have been so

300 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXXII— VII.
Lecture often made against recognising them as part of the original
XL book of Job.
I allow the force of these objections. It is startling, let me
say so once more, that one who blames Job so fiercely, and
at such length, should be absolutely unnoticed in the final
award, and that the chapter which follows his long address
should pass back at once to Job's last words, and should
begin — then fehovah answered fob out of the whirlwind.
It is true also that the style, as we may see even in an
English version, is different from, more perplexed and obscure
than, what has gone before. We cannot refuse our assent
to the remark that ' his accents are somewhat trembling and
hesitating, his arguments somewhat confused and compli
cated.' Is it not, moreover, very easy to deny that much of
his language looks like that of a careful reader of Job's
speeches, rather than of a listener ; or that his final chapter
is in a great measure a mere anticipation of what follows.
It is true at the same time, that strongly as the young
speaker blames the elder friends, yet the essential difference
between his line of thought and theirs, is that without aban
doning the view, which they have urged so vehemently, that
even in this life men receive their full deserts, he seems to
sit more loosely to it. He prefers rather to try to lift Job
out of and above the question of his own personal guilt or
innocence. He expounds and dwells upon the larger
question, the chastening, warning, and educational intention
of suffering, in a more full and developed form than had been
reached by the occasional hints of his elders ; and it may well
be, that by so doing, he is helping to lead the distracted
sufferer, whose soul has been so beclouded by the sense of
wrong, if not into light, yet out of the thickest darkness, and

Elihu. 301
to guide him towards the fuller light which is soon to be Lecture
vouchsafed to him. XL
And I think you will agree with me that, even supposing
these chapters to be the work of one other than the actual
author, of one who felt moved to feel out for some fuller
solution of the mystery of suffering than Job's friends had
reached — one who may have craved for something more
positive, more wholly satisfying than is to be found even in
the chapters that follow — yet that they are not unworthy of
their place in this great drama ; and that they may not un
fitly pourtray the feelings of a younger generation, not ready
to echo the wild cries of Job at the perplexities of life, but
eager to grope for, and find, if possible, some nearer ap
proach to an answer to those cries, and led in the process
of doing so, even as Alchemists of old, to some real truths.
And if so, we may recognise in the young Elihu no unfit
picture of those who, whether present to the mind of the author
himself, or of a somewhat later generation, would blame, with
all the impetuosity of pious youth, the rashness, as it seemed,
of Job, and would venture, with something also of the boldness
of youth, to believe that they had laid their hands on a secret
that would solve his perplexities; and who might yet contribute
something solid, valuable, and worthy of the patient study
which the confessed difficulty and obscurity of the language
of these chapters imposes on the student. We shall feel that
the words before us, even if lacking in sympathy with trials
into which the inexperience of youth could hardly enter with
entire fulness, yet are not the words of an evil spirit, nor
those of a mere babbler, but of one of those who, in a far-off
age, searched diligently after truth, and laid their hands on
some portion at least of what they sought.

302 The Book of Job. Chafs. XXXII— VII.
Lecture One word more. These chapters break, doubtless, what
x*- seems to us the natural progress of this immortal story. Yet
one touch of interest they add. They intensify our sense of
the loneliness and solitude of Job. He stands there, silent and
alone, with none to sympathise with him, none to enter into
his perplexities ; condemned as impious, heretical, and even
blasphemous, by the concordant voice of friends and by
standers ; alike by his own generation, and by that which was
growing up to take its place; yet 'enduring to the end,'
contra mundum — contra ecclesiam, we may almost add — unus,
and awaiting with trust and confidence the verdict of Him to
whom he has made his appeal. What that verdict is to be,
we shall hear next time we meet.
March 6, 1886.

LECTURE XII.

CHAPTEBS XXXVIII— XLII.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

(REVISED VERSION. Chapters XXXVIII— XLII.)

38 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel
By words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now thy loins like a man ;
For I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?
Declare, 1if thou hast understanding.
5 Who determined the measures thereof, 2 if thou knowest ?
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon were the 'foundations thereof 4fastened ?
Or who laid the comer stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy ?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors,
When it brake forth, sas if it had issued out of the womb;
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof,
And thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
io And 6 prescribed for it my 'decree,
And set bars and doors,
II And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ;
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began,
And caused the dayspring to know its place ;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it ?
14 It is changed as clay under the seal ;
And all things stand forth "as a garment :
15 And from the wicked their light is withholden,

Chapter
XXXVIII.

1 Heb. if
thou know
est under-

2 Or, seeing
3 Heb.
sockets. 4 Heb.
made to
sink. 5 Or, and
issued
"Heb.
brake.
7 Or,
boundary

* Or, as in
a garment

306 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)
Chapter And the high arm is broken.
XXXVIII. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? 16
— m — Or hast thou walked in the 1 recesses of the deep?
1 Ox, search Have the gates of death been revealed unto thee? 17
Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death ?
Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth? 18
Declare, if thou knowest it all.
Where is the way to the dwelling of light, 19
And as for darkness, where is the place thereof;
That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, 20
And that thou shouldest discern the paths to the house thereof?
Doubtless, thou knowest, for thou wast then born, 21
And the number of thy days is great !
Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, 22
Or hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail,
Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, 23
Against the day of battle and war ?
2 Or, 2By what way is the light parted, 24
the way" 0r the east wind scattered uP°n the earth ?
to the Who hath cleft a channel for the waterflood, 25
place Or a way for the lightning of the thunder ;
where the t- •.. . , , .
light is &>c. cause ram on a and wnere no man is; 26
On the wilderness, wherein there is no man ;
To satisfy the waste and desolate ground; 27
3 Or, And to cause the 3 tender grass to spring forth ?
f""™"^ Hath the rain a father? ,»
1 Or, given .-.,,,
it birth fJr wn0 hath begotten the drops of dew ?
5 Or, are Out of whose womb came the ice ? 29
congealed And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath * gendered it ?
,'„"" The waters "are hidden as with stone, 30
cohereth. And the face of the deep 6is frozen.
7 Or, chain Canst thou bind the 'cluster of the Pleiades, 31
Or, sweet Or loose the bands of Orion ?
¦lw*T CanSt th°U kad f°rth Sthe Mazzaroth in their season? 32
signs ofthe 0r canst thou Suide the Bear with her 9train ?
Zodiac Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens ? 33
' Heb. sons Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in the earth ?

Chapters XXXVIII— XLII. 307

34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover thee ?
35 Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go,
And say unto thee, Here we are ?
36 Who hath put wisdom in the 1 inward parts ?
Or who hath given understanding to the zmind ?
37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom ?
Or who can spour out the bottles of heaven,
38 When the dust runneth into a mass,
And the clods cleave fast together ?
39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lioness ?
Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they couch in their dens,
And abide in the covert to lie in wait?
41 Who provideth for the raven his food,
When his young ones cry unto God,
And wander for lack of meat ?
39 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring
forth?
Or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve ?
2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil?
Or knowest thou the time when they bring forth ?
3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young,
They cast out their sorrows.
4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up in the
open field;
They go forth, and 4return not again.
5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free ?
Or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass ?
6 Whose house I have made the wilderness,
And the salt land his dwelling place.
7 He scorneth the tumult of the city,
Neither heareth he the shoutings of the 5 driver.
8 The range of the mountains is his pasture,
And he searcheth after every green thing.
9 Will the 6 wild-ox be content to serve thee?
Or will he abide by thy crib ?

Chapter
XXXVIII.

1 Or, dark
clouds 2 Or,
meteor3 Heb.
cause to lie
down.

4 Or,
return not
unto them

5 Or, task
master

6 See Num.
xxiii. 22.

X 2

308 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapter XXXIX.

1 Or, like
the stork's

2 Or,
dealethhardlywith3 Heb.
made her
to forget
wisdom.
4 Or,
rousethherself up
to flight
5 Heb.

6 Heb.
They paw.
7 Or, the
weapons
6 Or, upon

9 Or,
Neither standethhe still at
6>y.

Canst thou bind the wild-ox with his band in the furrow?
Or will he harrow the valleys after thee ?
Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great?
Or wilt thou leave to him thy labour?
Wilt thou confide in him, that he will bring home thy seed, 12
And gather the corn of thy threshing-fl'oor ?
The wing of the ostrich rejoiceth ;
But are her pinions and feathers 1 kindly?
For she leaveth her eggs on the earth,
And warmeth them in the dust,
And forgetteth that the foot may crush them,
Or that the wild beast may trample them.
She 2is hardened against her young ones, as if they were
not hers :
Though her labour be in vain, she is without fear;
Because God hath 'deprived her of wisdom,
Neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
What time she 4lifteth up herself on high,
She scorneth the horse and his rider.
Hast thou given the horse his might?
Hast thou clothed his neck with 5the quivering mane ?
Hast thou made him to leap as a locust ?
The glory of his snorting is terrible.
6 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 ;
9Neither believeth he that it is 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,

11

13

M

15

16

17

19

24

25

26

27

Chapters XXXVIII— XLII. 309

And make her nest on high? Chapter
28 She dwelleth on the rock, and hath her lodging there, XXXIX.
Upon the crag of the rock, and the strong hold. — M —
29 From thence she spieth out the prey ;
Her eyes behold it afar off.
3° Her young ones also suck up blood :
And where the slain are, there is she.
^q Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
2 Shall he that cavilleth contend with the Almighty ?
He that argueth with God, let him answer it.
o Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
4 Behold, I am of small account ; what shall I answer thee ?
I lay mine hand upon my mouth.
c Once have I spoken, and I will not answer;
Yea twice, but I will proceed no further.
5 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
7 Gird up thy loins now like a man :
I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
8 Wilt thou even disannul my judgement ?
Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be justified ?
9 Or hast thou an arm like God?
And canst thou thunder with a voice like him ?
10 Deck thyself now with excellency and dignity ;
And array thyself with honour and majesty.
1 1 Pour forth the overflowings of thine anger :
And look upon every one that is proud, and abase him.
12 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low ;
And tread down the wicked where they stand.
13 Hide them in the dust together ;
Bind their faces in the hidden place.
14 Then will I also confess of thee
That thine own right hand can save thee.
15 Behold now 1 behemoth, which I made with thee; > That is,
He eateth grass as an ox. tht hiPP°-
° ....... polamus.
16 Lo now, his strength is m his, topis,
And his force is in the muscles of his belly.

310 The Book of J ob. {Revised Version)

Chapter XL. 41
1 Or, ribs

2 Or, He
that made
him hath
furnished him with
his sword

3 Or, be
violent

[Ch. xl. 25
in Heb.]
4 That is,
the
crocodile. 5 Heb. a
rope of
rushes.
6 Or,
spike

17

18

[Ch. xii. 1
in Heb.]

23

24

41

He moveth his tail like a cedar:
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are as tubes of brass ;
His 1 limbs are like bars of iron.
He is the chief of the ways of God: 19
2 He only that made him can make his sword to approach
unto him.
Surely the mountains bring him forth food ; 20
Where all the beasts of the field do play.
He lieth under the lotus trees, 21
In the covert of the reed, and the fen.
The lotus trees cover him with their shadow; 22
The willows of the brook compass him about.
Behold, if a river 3 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 5a rope into his nose?
Or pierce his jaw through with a 6 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 for ever?
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.
Behold, the hope of him is in vain :
Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him ?
None is so fierce that he dare stir him up:
Who then is he that can stand before me?

5

Chapters XXXVIII— XLII. 31 1

H Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him?
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.
12 I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
Nor his mighty strength, nor his comely proportion.
13 Who can 1 strip off his outer garment?
Who shall come within his double bridle ?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
2 Round about his teeth is terror.
15 His 3 strong scales are his pride,
Shut up together as with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another,
That no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another ;
They stick together, that they cannot be sundered.
18 His neesings flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning torches,
And sparks of fire leap forth.
20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goeth,
As of a seething pot and burning rushes.
21 His breath kindleth coals,
And a flame goeth forth from his mouth.
22 In his neck abideth strength,
And terror danceth before him.
23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together :
They are firm upon him ; they cannot be moved.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone ;
Yea, firm as the nether millstone.
25 When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid :
By reason of consternation they are beside themselves.
26 If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail ;
Nor the spear, the dart, nor the 4 pointed shaft.
27 He counteth iron as straw,
And brass as rotten wood.
28 The 6 arrow cannot make him flee :
Slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble :

Chapter XLI.

•Heb.
uncover the
face of his
garment. 2 Or, His
teeth are
terrible round
about 3 Or,
courses of
scales Heb.
channelsof shields.

4 Or, coat
of mail
5 Heb. son
of the bow.

U2 The Book of Job. {Revised Version)

Chapter He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin.
XLI. His underparts are like sharp potsherds: 30
— m — He spreadeth as it were a threshing wain upon the mire.
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: 31
He maketh the sea like ointment.
He maketh a path to shine after him; 32
One would think the deep to be hoary.
Upon earth there is not his like, 33
That is made without fear.
He beholdeth every thing that is high : 34
1 See ch. He is king over all the 1 sons of pride.
xxviii. 8. Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 42
I know that thou canst do all things, 2
And that no purpose of thine can be restrained.
2 Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? 3
Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak; 4
3 1 will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; 5
But now mine eye seeth thee,
4 Or, loathe Wherefore I *abhor myself, and repent 6
my words ln dust and ashes.
And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words 7
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, 8
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 9
the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord com
manded them : and the Lord accepted Job. And the LORD 10
turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends : and

2 See ch.
xxxviii. 2.

3 See ch.
xxxviii. 3
xl. 7.

Chapters XXXVIII— XLII. 313
II the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came Chapter
there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they XLII.
that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with — M —
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 1piece of money, and every one l Heb.
12 a ring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more "es*ia'1-
than his beginning : and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and
six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a
13 thousand she-asses. He had also seven sons and three daugh-
14 ters. And he called the name of the first, Jemimah ; and the
name of the second, Keziah ; and the name of the third, Keren-
15 happuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as
the daughters of Job : and their father gave them inheritance
16 among their brethren. And after this Job lived an hundred and
forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four
17 generations. So Job died, being old and full of days.

Chapter xxxviii.

LECTURE XII.
CHAPTERS XXXVIII— XLII.
fehovah (chaps, xxxviii-xli). fob (chap. xiii. 1-6).
The Conclusion (xiii. 7-17).
We open to-day Chapter xxxviii. It begins with a line lecture
that at once calls back our thoughts from all side issues to xn-
the central question of the Book. For a moment its un
known author speaks to us in his own person.
Then Jehovah — he uses after his wont the most sacred
designation of the God of the covenant race, so rarely placed
on the lips of the speakers in the dialogue 1 —
Then Jehovah answered fob out of the whirlwind.
The Lord of all is to end the controversy. But we have
no mediaeval mystery-play before us. No Divine Being,
figured in some familiar human guise, will tread the stage.
As with Psalmist after Psalmist, clouds and darkness are
round about him2; he rides upon the wings of the wind3 ;
His voice is heard in the rolling thunder * ; His presence is
veiled, as so often, in thick darkness.
But from that veil His voice comes at last, and reveals His
presence. It is the voice, and it is the presence, for which
Job has sought so long and so earnestly. Human advisers
have done their best and their worst. The Divine Counseller
comes at last to the sufferer's side. The hour is come, and
his desire is granted. We bend forward to listen to the
answer. What is it ?
1 See pp. 32, 33. ' Psalm xcvii. 2.
3 Psalm xviii. 10. 4 Psalm xxix ; lxxvii. 18.

316 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXXVIII-XLI.
Lecture It begins with words of stern and majestic rebuke :
XII. Who is this that darkeneth counsel
By words without knowledge ?
xxxviii.1 Darkeneth counsel; 'throws a shadow across, hides from
ver. 2. view,' or, as we should say, ' distorts, misrepresents, misreads,
puts in a false light, my wise designs.'
The first words seem of evil omen for Job 1- He has his
wish: Call thou, he had said long since, and I will answer,
Or let me speak, and answer thou me'1.
And now the challenge comes from on high. It comes in
the form of questions :
ver. 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man ;
For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
And what are the questions in which Jehovah's answer is
framed ? Those who have followed Job's sad story and feverish
questionings, might well have hoped that, with such a knot to
untie, the voice of God would not have been heard unless to
solve the whole enigma that had so perplexed him. Now,
at last, we say, the clouds will be rolled away, and those
scenes in Heaven will no longer be a secret to Job and to
his friends. He will know, and they will know, that his early
and supreme patience under loss and suffering' had been a
spectacle to other worlds than his own, and had taught both
Satan and the sons of God, that a man might care for God
without bribe or gratuity. Surely too, he will hear something
that, if it does not swallow up death in victory, will at least
lift the covering that is cast over all peoples, and the veil that is
spread over all nations s Some glance will be given him into
1 Indeed, by Gregory, and even by some later critics, they are taken
as addressed not to Job, but to Elihu.
2 Job xiii. 22. 3 Isaiah xxv. 7.

Jehovah. 317
the world beyond the grave, that will answer his own eager Lecture
and passionate aspirations, will give shape to his own half-
articulate words, reveal something of the mystery of pain and cb.«nter
death, and will tell him plainly that this life is but a fragment xxxviii.
of a larger life, and that those of God's children who suffer
here, suffer that they may be glorified1 hereafter. Such an
answer we ourselves might have framed for the lips of Him,
Who has now come forward to reveal Himself to His ancient
friend, and by doing so shews him that he is not left alone —
alone as in his despair he deemed himself — in a world ruled
by hazard, or ruled by evil.
But for such an answer we shall look in vain. Of the
witness to immortal truths, which Job's submission had borne
in those earlier scenes, there is not a word. Nor does
his Maker and his Judge deign to justify Himself; nor does
He for a moment lift the veil that hangs before the gate
of death. Let us listen carefully to the message which
at least brought peace and rest to him who heard it.
It begins, as we have seen, with a rebuke to Job for
his presumption ; for this and this only. I need hardly say,
that of any approach to his friends' hints, any accusations of
a sinful life, there is not, there could not be, a trace.
His divine friend saw what was amiss in him, they did
not. They tried their remedies long and vainly. He laid
His hand upon the sick man, and healed him with a touch.
And how did the Divine Healer work ? Job has asked for
a solution of his own hard destiny ; he has shrieked at times
against the puzzles and anomalies of human life. ' Can he,'
asks that still small voice, ' can he read other mysteries ? Are
these, over which he frets and chafes, the only questions
1 Rom. viii. 17.

318 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXX VIII-XLI.

Lecture which are dark to him, beyond his power to read— beyond, it
xn- may be, his faculties to grasp, if read to him syllable by
Ch^' ter syllable ? Is this difficulty, against which his soul is beating
xxxviii. itself so fiercely, the one dark spot in a universe radiant
elsewhere and transparent to his view ? Or is he surrounded
on all sides with clouds which his eye cannot penetrate ? Can
he read the secrets of Creation, of the dawn and history of the
universe, of life in its manifold and vigorous forms, fair and
monstrous, that swarm around him ? ' ' Can he,' he is asked
later on, ' abase the proud, tread down the wicked 1 ? Is he
qualified to penetrate into the central chamber of the govern
ment of the world, and guide the forces which impart and
give shape to life, which rule the distribution of good and
evil ? Or is he weak and ignorant, able to read only a frag
ment of the mighty laws which shape alike the course of the
stars, the whole range of organic life, and the destiny of man ?
Which is best ? To proclaim that all this array of nature and
of life is a realm of disorder or misrule, because thou canst
not unravel the secret of thine^bwn pains, and of earth's
seeming wrongs ? Or to trust in Him, thine ancient Friend,
Who without aid of thine, called into being " this universal
frame ? " To trust in Him as the sender, for His own wise
purposes, of this, thy sore affliction ? ' Such is the substance
of the answer he receives, the mere substance, when we strip
it of its splendid imagery, and its magnificent illustrations.
Let us now follow that answer shortly through the various
forms in which it is clothed.
First, if you glance at Chapter xxxviii, you will see that Job
is placed face to face with the immensity of nature— not, I
need hardly say of nature, as studied in the light of modern
1 Job xl. II, 12.

Jehovah. 319

science — but of the vast and infinite, and overpowering Lecture
phenomena of nature and of life, as revealed to human eyes •

in those early days. He is carried back to the very origin of chapter
earth, and sea, and hght ; and at each successive stage comes xxxvm.
a majestic question, with a lightning flash, as it were, of the
primeval poetry of Creation. ' Where wast thou when I laid
the foundations, and planted the corner stone, of the solid earth ?
When the angelic hosts,' so often identified with the stars of
heaven, ' hailed the dawn of a new-born world ? '
When the morning stars sang together, ver. 7.
And all the sons of God shouted for joy ?
' Was it thou, who, when the Ocean first emerged from Chaos, ver. 8-10.
bade the flying sea-mists sweep across it, and imprisoned
it within its rocky, broken, rugged shores ? Thou, who sub
jected the wild and capricious waves to the supremacy of
law ? And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ; ver. n.
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed ?
Some of you may recall the story of the Danish king, which
one tradition placed within a few yards of the place where
you are seated. Back too, he is called to the birthday of
the sunlight :
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began, ver. 12.
And caused the day spring to know its place ?
We see, through the mist which envelopes the words in our ver. 12-15
older version, the sudden eastern dawn, scaring with its fierce
light the nightly thief or prowling assassin ; bringing out,
as with an instantaneous touch, in a land where twilight is
none or little, the features of the landscape, sharp and
clear as clay beneath the impress of a seal ; and giving to each
object its own special raiment of form and colour :

320 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXX VIII-XLI.
Lecture // is changed as clay under the seal,
XI1- And all things stand forth as in a garment.
Chapter Then his brain is made dizzy by challenges, now to pene-
xxxviii. trate the springs that feed the ocean ; now to guide the way
ver 16-20 to ^e Gates of Death, the Gates of the Shadow of Death ;
now to the mysterious homes of Light and Darkness.
Doubtless, comes in stately irony the taunt,
ver. 21. Thou knowest, for thou wast then born,
And the number of thy days is great !
ver. 22-27. Or he is called on to tell the secrets, now of the airy treasure-
houses of snow and hail, and of all the terrible artillery of
the skies ; now of the storms that bring the rain — the rain, that
here feeds the torrents that cleave the mountains and shape the
earth; there falls far away on the untenanted steppe, on a
land where no man is, in the form of fertilising shower —
ver. 27. To satisfy the waste and desolate ground ;
And to cause the tender grass to spring forth ?
We seem, as we read, to hear the
' Sound of vernal showers
On the twinkling grass/
ver. 28-30. ' The rain, the dew, the ice, the hoar frost, the winter's cold
that turns to stone the inland seas — what knows Job of their
origin, what of their laws ? '
And for a moment his gaze is turned upward to the stars
of Heaven, and we catch once more dim faint traces of
world-old legends, still lingering among Arab races that from
immemorial time have looked through that dry cloudless air
ver. 31, 32. on the clustering Pleiades, on Orion rising from his prison-
house or his grave, or on the train of stars that we call the
ver. 33-38. Bear. Back he is called from those nightly stars, that have
revealed to us secrets of the immensity of nature, unknown

Jehovah. 321

to Job ; back once more through the phenomena of clouds, and Lecture
lightning, and rain, to his own ignorance and insignificance. XIL
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven ? ™
J Chapter
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds ? xxxviii.
Canst thou send forth lightnings that they may go ? ver' 33~35"
I only pause for a moment, not to discuss one or two
doubtful expressions — their number is happily not great —
but to remind you how every step made by modern science has
written, as it were, a tenfold meaning into the words which we
are reading ; how much we have learned alike of the ' mar
vellous complexity ' and of the ' unbroken orc'er ' of the
material world x which was dark to Job ; how much also of
our own ignorance.
And then, in what should clearly be the beginning of a
fresh chapter, at verse 39, he is called on to survey the
innumerable forms of wild, untamed, untamable life, that ver. 39-41.
tenanted in those early days so large a portion of earth's
surface. He is bidden to fix his eye on the kingly lions that ver. 39, 40.
need no aid from man — on the wild ravens, whose young ones' ver. 41.
cry mounts up, to the poet's ear, as prayer to he Father of all
life — on the wild rock-goats, who bring forth their vigorous Chapter
race, untended, unmarked by man — on the indomitable wild
ass, who with the range of the mountains for his pasture,
scorneth the tumult of cities and heareth not the shoutings of the ver.
driver — creatures so strong, so rude, so free, rejoicing in
a liberty to which man can bring no bonds. And then,
adding to each picture touch after touch, dr_wn each in turn,
as we see from the trackless plains, and rolling acclivities,
and wild mountains of Arabian lands, he puts before him,
1 Dean Stanley's Sermon ' On the Perplexities of Life,' referred to in
Lecture XI. Y

XXXIX.
ver. 1-4.

322 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXX VIII-XLI.
Lecture first the mighty primeval buffalo L — rendered unfortunately so
often in our familiar version by the meaningless heraldic
Chapter unicorn — <a creature whom none dare harness to draw
xxxix. the plough — whom none dare trust to carry home the
ver. 9-12. „arnere(j wheat.' And next we see the sullen ostrich, so
ver. 13-18. °
like, yet so unlike the pious stork2, so dull to natural feeling
that she leaves her eggs to be crushed by the passing foot of
man or beast ; hardened, we read, against her young ones, as if
they were not hers ; yet when once roused to speed, able
to scorn alike the horse and its rider. And his closing words
lead up to the immortal picture, the oldest and the most
magnificent, may we not say in all literature, of the Arab
ver. 19-25. steed. It is not a picture, we must remember, ofthe horse as
the servant of man in the peaceful toil of industry, as his
comrade in subduing nature 3, but in the one form known to
Arabian, or Hebrew, or Egyptian races, as the fiery, snorting,
ver. 19-25. neighing war horse of the boundless desert — with his strong
neck clothed with the quivering mane, bounding from side to
side with the agility of the leaping and devouring locust ;
pawing in the valley and rejoicing in his strength, answering
undismayed the trumpet's call with his far-pealing neigh;
swallowing, as it were, the plain as it disappears beneath his
feet, smelling the battle afar off, the thunder ofthe captains and
the shouting. ' Was it thou,' comes the question, ' that gave
him his strength, his comeliness, his speed, his courage?'
ver. 26-30. ' Or was it thou,' he is asked, ' that taught the hawk to soar
so high, and wing his course to the warm south after his
1 I have followed onr Revisers. But there is still some question as to
whether it is the bos primigena, or some powerful animal of the deer kind
that is intended. The unicorn of our older version, here and elsewhere,
is evidently used to represent an animal of great strength and ferocity.
2 See Revised Version, Margin. » Antigone, 338-341.

Jehovah. 323
migratory prey ? Was it thou who taught the eagle to make Lecture'
her nest on the homeless peak ? To shelter her fierce brood XI1-
on the tall bare crag ? ' And so the series of pictures that _,
° r Chapter
began with the king of beasts, ends with that of the queen xxxix.
of birds, sighting the prey afar off, and leaving her eyrie to
hover over the smokeless battles of that distant day :
Her young ones also suck up blood : ver. 30.
And where the slain are, there is she.
We almost lose, do we not, the thought of all besides,
in the lyrical splendour of the poetry ?
So far then, the mysterious phenomena of the universe,
the varied forms of animal life, have been flashed before the
eyes of Job, and for a moment he is asked whether he will
persist in upbraiding Him, Whose power and wisdom lies
behind all that he has seen. And there comes from him, in Chap. xl.
chapter xl, a humble answer. ' He will lay his hand on his
mouth. Once he has spoken, but it is enough ; yea twice,
but he will cavil no more.' And once more he is bidden to
have his will ; to listen to the voice for which he had called
so persistently. He has appealed from the God Who seemed
to him to misgovern the world, to the God of righteousness,
who must, he felt, some day answer His forlorn and bewil
dered servant. And that God asks Job now whether, because
he is innocent and yet afflicted, he is ready to condemn
his Master, or ready to take His place, and administer that
world. ' Can he,' he is asked, ' assume the royal robe of the ver. 8-13
Universal Monarch, can he array himself with honour and
majesty ? Can he with a glance abase the proud, and tread
down the wicked? Has he the knowledge, has he the
wisdom, has he the power, to seat himself in God's seat, and
Y 2

ver. 2.
ver. 4, 5.

324 The Book of Job. Chaps. XXX VIII-XLI.
Lecture right the wrongs of earth ? ' The questions may remind
XI1- some of us of one or two powerful passages of most dis-
Ch , similar, yet analogous irony, in one of the least poetical and
imaginative of philosophical works, the Analogy of Bishop
Butler. And then after the words,
ver- J4- Then will I also confess of thee
That thine own right hand can save thee,
we are suddenly carried away alike from human life and
from the plains of Asia, to two elaborate and long-drawn de
scriptions of monstrous, irresistible, untamable creatures, the
Behemoth and Leviathan, the hippopotamus and crocodile, of
the river of Egypt and ./Ethiopia.
I will not ask you to follow these descriptions throughout ;
¦ nor will I bring before you the views of those who, trying to
reconstruct the great poem which we are reading, or to adapt
it to the canons of later art and the standard of modern taste,
would either set them wholly aside, or place them elsewhere
in the poem. The general force of these vivid delineations
of uncouth creatures, creatures of a world unknown to the
untravelled Hebrew, is clear enough ; it is of a piece with
much that has gone before.
'Thou to whom the laws of nature are so dark — thou
for whom earth teems with monsters, against which thou
art so powerless — wilt thou rashly judge thy God ? Wilt
thou pronounce, with thy narrow experience, and with
thy puny strength, that He misgoverns this mysterious
world, and that thou, not He, canst read its secrets
aright ? '
And I wish that time allowed me to read to you at full
length the striking words of a great living writer and thinker,

Jehovah. 325
as suggested by these very chapters. Mr. Ruskin1 has been Lecture
speaking of the tendency of what he looks on as ' the true and xn-
great sciences, to make men gentle and modest, in pro- „, ,
portion to the largeness of their apprehension, and just per
ception of the infiniteness of the things they can never
know.' He has been speaking of this as ' a great, the great,' he
names it, ' lesson of the Book of Job, in which we are shewn
that no suffering, no self-examination, however honest, how
ever stern, no searching out of the heart by its own bitter
ness, is enough to convince man of his nothingness before
God ; but that the sight of God's creation will do it.' And he
ends thus. ' For, when the Deity himself has willed to end
the temptation, and to accomplish in Job that for which it
was sent, He does not vouchsafe to reason with him, still
less does he overwhelm him with terror, or confound him by
laying open before his eyes the book of his iniquities. He
opens before him the arch of the dayspring, and the
foundations of the deep ; and amidst the covert of the reeds,
and on the heaving waves, He bids him watch the kings of
the children of pride — Behold now behemoth, which I made
with thee, and the work is done.'
Yes ! thus ends, suddenly and simply, Jehovah's answer. Chap. xii.
Its language has reached at times, we may all feel, the ' high
water mark' of poetic power and beauty. Nothing can
exceed its dignity, its force, its majesty, the freshness and
vigour of some of its pictures of nature and of life. But
what shall we say next ? It is no answer, we may say, to
1 See Ruskin's Stones of Venice, vol. ii. chap. 2. I had to thank
one of the hearers of these lectures for reminding me beforehand of the
passage.

Chap.

326 The Book of Job. Chaps. XLI, XLII.
Lecti b)e Job's agonised pleadings. It is no answer to the riddle and
XII V | problem which the experience and history of human life
suggests, even to ourselves. Quite true. There is no direct
answer at all. Even those partial answers, partial yet instruc
tive, which have been touched on from time to time, by
speaker after speaker, are not glanced at or included in these
final words. It is as though the voice of God did not deign
to repeat that He works ' on the side of righteousness.' He
only hints at it. Job is not even told of the purpose of the
fiery trial through which he himself has passed, of those in
other worlds than his own who have watched his pangs. No !
God reveals to him His glory, makes him feel where he had
gone wrong, how presumptuous he had been. That is all.
He does not say 'all this has been a trial of thy righteousness ;
thou hast been fighting a battle against Satan for me, and
hast received many sore wounds.' Nothing is said of the
truth, already mooted and enforced 'Snth]s~~"rjrj©k, that
sufferinglIoesTtsl>er^^
the human soul, and draws it nearer to the God Who sends or
permits the suffering. Nor is any light thrown on that faint
~am3~fe&le~#roi^ fully borrThito^he
^^^^^MsJasjond^ST&)ie ; of a life where there shall
be no more sorrow or sighing, where Job and his lost sons and
daughters shall be reunited. The thoughts that we should
have looked for, perhaps longed for, are not here. Those who
tell us that the one great lesson of the whole book is to hold
up the patriarch Job as the pattern of mere submission, mere
resignation— those who search in it for a full Theodice, a final
vindication, that is, and explanation of God's mode of govern
ing the world- those lastly, who find in it a revelation of the
sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality, can scarcely

Jehovah. Job's final words. 327

have studied either Job's language, or the chapters which Lecturi4
have lain before us to-day. One thought, and one only, is XIL
brought into the foreground. The world is full of mysteries, c, ,¦
strange, unapproachable, overpowering mysteries that you
cannot read. Trust, trust in the power, and in the wisdom,
and in the goodness of Him, the Almighty One, who rules it.
' Turn from the insoluble problems of your own destiny,' the
voice says to him, and says to us. ' Good men have said
their best, wise men have said their wisest. Man is still left
to bear the discipline of some questions too hard for him to
answer. We cannot solve them. We must rest, if we are to
rest at all, in the belief that He Whom we believe to be our
Father in heaven, Whom we believe to have been revealed in
His. Son, is good, and wise, and merciful ; that one day, not
here, the riddle will be solved ; that behind the veil which
you cannot pierce, lies the solution in the hand of God.'
Such in substance was the answer that came to Job; so
inadequate, so unscientific, so unsatisfying asiTrB2y~seern tot
someT* YeTsfrange'"asit~rnay ; ^eem7jg"^m~jinvas sufficient.
It was something that God. had answered him at all. As he I
listens, his troubled heart is calmed, and he turns trustfully to
his answerer :
/ know, he says, that thou canst do everything, Chap. xiii.
And that no purpose of thine can be restrained. ver- 3-
Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge ? ver. 3.
He repeats as though against himself, Jehovah's own
chastening words. ' I have uttered things beyond my know
ledge. No longer do I claim, as I once did, to speak before
Thee, to plead my cause. I revoke my words. Before, I knew
Thee as a far-off God; now Thou hast made me feel the
presence which I have so long desired, for which I craved

328 The Book of Job. Chapter XLII.

Lecture so earnestly. I repent my rash words, do thou forgive
XIL them.

Ch xiii Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not,
ver. 3, 5,6. Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
********
/ have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ;
But now mine eye seeth thee.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent
In dust and ashes.
And then comes the short and memorable conclusion. We
are once more taken back to prose. The author comes
forward for the last time in his own person. He takes up and
concludes the story. He tells us how Job is reconciled to
God, how he is ' accepted ' and his friends are censured. All
their genuine zeal for God, all the truths which they had
uttered, did not compensate for their hard dogmatism, and
for their ill-judged application of those truths to God's
afflicted servant. And Job's faults, very grave faults, his
intemperate, his impatient, his despairing, his audacious, his
arrogant and wild words, his beclouded faith, his forgotten
humility, are all forgiven him ; forgiven freely by Him Who
had watched the feverish alternations of his troubled spirit
with ' larger, other eyes than ours,' and had welcomed back
to His feet the humbled and repentant patriarch. They are
forgiven not least — may we not feel sure ? — in consideration of
the firm and unconquerable tenacity with which he had clung
to the conviction that, somehow or other, righteousness and
mercy were and must be dear to God, and that if, under any
pretext or under any system, they were not dear to Him, the
result would be a hideous universe under the misrule of an
ver. 7. unjust Master. Ye have not spoken of me, we read, the thing that

The Epilogue. 329

is right, as my servant fob hath. For even when he seemed to be Lecture
challenging and assailing his Divine Friend, he was pleading XIL
for his unchangeable attributes of justice and goodness, in ch xlii
virtue of which most of all, not merely of his power or of his
wisdom, he claims our reverence and has a right to our
homage. And fehovah, we read, turned the captivity of fob : a ver. 10.
well-known and suggestive phrase, pointing to the hapless
lot, ' the sorrowful sighing of the prisoner ' in those early
and in far later days, 'fast bound in misery and iron.'
He released him, that is, from all his sufferings, and
brought him back to the glad free air of health and well-
being. Yes, Job is reconciled to God. And God's unfailing ver. 10-16.
love for His afflicted servant, over whom His heart had
yearned in all his pains, through all his outcries, and not
less in all his doubts and questionings, is shewn and vindicated
by his renewed prosperity, restored health, greater riches,
other sons and daughters, sympathising friends and kindred,
honoured and lengthened days, by all the conditions of
patriarchal happiness. The Lord blessed the latter end of fob, ver. 12.
we read, more than the beginning.
And these things prove, as I said, God's love for one who
had sorely suffered. Something also they do to relieve the
pang which we should all have felt, had Job been left to die,
even in submissive resignation, there upon his dunghill.
But they do not cancel the story of his sufferings ; they do
not efface the record of his words. The lost child does not
come back; the 'vanished hand,' 'the voice that is still,'
are not, cannot be, replaced. Poignant sorrow, agonising
doubts, may have purified Job's spirit, lifted it into higher

330 The Book of Job. Chapter XLII.
Lecture regions; but the wounds must have left their marks, the
XII father's heart have sometimes ached.
t » —
Chap. xiii. And not this only, but if we look beyond the figure of
Job to those multitudinous forms of human sorrow, of which
he was in a sense the type, we see no lack of instances
where the gathering shadows of a darkened life are not
followed by any such bright close of countervailing sunshine.
And it is perhaps from the sense of this inadequacy of
recompense that in the most ancient translation of this very
book — the Septuagint version, which formed so long, to
so large a portion even of the Jewish race, the authorised
version of the Old Testament scriptures — we find a clause
added that strikes another key, hints that we have before
us only the first scenes in a drama not yet played out,
only the first few stages of an endless life ; and it is written
that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raiseth up.
One word before we part. We close the book with a sense
— may I not hope a heightened sense — alike of its marvellous
treasures of interest and instruction ; and, must I not also add,
a feeling also of some natural disappointment ? It contains,
we say, after all, no complete and cheering answer to
questions which the human soul has asked in vain from Job's
days to ours; to which many are returning even now the
very gloomiest of all answers. It stirs, we may say if we
choose, as has been said of other vindications of God's
mysterious rule, more doubts than it solves.
Let us gather up then once more its final teaching. We see
Job led as it were to the verge of an impassable sea. A
limitless and pathless ocean which he cannot cross is before
him. He can go no further. All that we are told is, that
God most surely loves him : that He will not answer his

Conclusion. 331

eager and passionate questions ; but that through them and Lecture
in spite of them, he is dear to Him, because he has loved XIL
righteousness and hated iniquity, and that for this God cares, " " ...
^ J Chap, xlu
and cares infinitely. In the sense of this, and of God's
power and wisdom, he must rest content.
And he is taught also, and we are taught through him,
that trouble and affliction do not prove God's displeasure ;
that the very heaviest, the most overwhelming blows may
come from a Maker and a Master, Who is full of love to him
on whom they fall ; may come, as Job's sorrows came, from
causes and for purposes far beyond our power to comprehend
or guess; that the darkest clouds may gather over human
life ; but that behind them may be a calm, serene, unchanging
sunshine ; that the sufferer need not look on God as his
enemy, but may draw closer to Him and trust Him wholly.
How hard a lesson, and yet how true in the experience of
many sufferers ! And the story reminds us also of God's
infinite tenderness and forbearance to those who are under
trial ; of the patience, not of Job, but of God ; of the loving
and fatherly eye with which He can look on the impatience,
the fretfulness, the bewilderment, even on the doubts and
questionings of His servants. The impatience of Job is
answered by the patience and ' pitifulness ' of Job's God :
The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy l.
And this is surely much. The book marks, as I have
reminded you more than once before, an era, an epoch, a
stage of progress, in God's gradual education of His people.
It suggests lessons that must have been precious beyond
words to those who had been trained and taught to identify
in each special case suffering with ill-doing, sorrow with
1 St. James v. ii.

332 The Book of Job.
Lecture God's anger. And for ourselves — for us who have left
xn- far behind us that simple answer to the problems of life,
Chap. xiii. which satisfied Job's friends, and nearly broke Job's heart —
we too feel our darkness still. Life is still full of strange
reverses, inexplicable wounds. Yet as we too feel inclined to
take our places by Job's side in his hour of doubt, we feel that
we have light vouchsafed to us that was withheld from him.
The light given in this book was dim and scanty. We see in
it the dawn of one of those new and healing truths, fragments
of which are flashed upon the human soul in hours of pain.
But we see the dawn only. The effect of its teaching on the
Jewish Church was clearly small. Men still needed, centuries
later, to be warned against looking for special judgment in the
fall of a tower, in the mercilessness of a Roman governor1
More, far more, was needed to complete the teaching which
the story of Job had inaugurated1. The whole revelation of the
Christian life, of the life of Christ — the upward course of One
Who was despised, and humiliated, and scourged, and slain,
Who was 'made perfect through sufferings' — has brought
a new idea into the world, one whose future fulness is only
indicated and foreshadowed in this book. But it was one
which the age of Job could hardly have conceived, and which
centuries later the Jewish nation steadfastly rejected. It has
leavened race after race with the ennobling sense that, as this
great tale, as this ' flower of Old Testament poetry,' has its
root in sorrow, so the highest, the divinest life may be com
patible with sorrow, may rest on pain and self-sacrifice. To
how many sufferers has the lesson come like spring airs to a
frozen soil— taught them that the truest use of pain, yea
sometimes of spiritual pain, and racking doubts and dis-
1 St. Luke xiii. 1-4.

Conclusion. 333

turbing questions, is not to paralyse but to strengthen the Lecture
soul, to brace us to do good work for God and man. XIL
And even as that life of Christ would be so meaningless if ~, " ...
° Chap. xiii.
the other world of which He spoke were a mere delusion ; if
the God, Whose nature He revealed to us, had suffered His
Holy One to see corruption and extinction ; so to us these
difficulties and mysteries are inseparably united, not only
with the sense of God's undying love for the human race,
but also with the hope which He has given us of another and
a larger and an unseen world ; of a larger dispensation, of
which life's puzzles and difficulties form but a part. Even as
we are told that prophets and kings had desired to see the
truths which we see — see so dimly — and did not see them, so
we too must be content to wait for fuller light. ' What I do,
thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' Mean
time we must repose with Job, in the sense of God's love and
goodness, as in that of His power and wisdom — of the love
and goodness of a God, Who has been manifested to us, as
He was not to Job, in Christ Jesus His Son. Let me add
one word more ; it shall be my last.
I would cherish the hope that among those who, strangers
for the most part to each other and to myself, have been
drawn together through the winter that is now passing, by a
sympathetic interest in a common study, there may be not a
few who will carry away with them lessons that extend beyond
the immediate aim of these weekly meetings. I trust that one
and another will have derived from the study of this striking
book something beyond its own impressive and enduring
lessons. May they have gained here a deepened sense of the
treasures yet untouched, of the mine of instruction of help and
of delight yet unexplored, which are contained in that mani-

334 The Book of Job.
Lecture fold collection of sacred writings which we call the Bible.
XIL May they realise, more than ever heretofore, how priceless are
Chap xiii tnose treasures, how unexhausted is that mine. May they
feel how true it is that in age after age, in our own age not
least of all, the Spirit of God can still speak to the human
Spirit in and through those ancient pages.
March 13, 1886.

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Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae. The oc
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of Salisbury, the Prymer in English, and other prayers and forms,
with dissertations and notes. By W. Maskell, M.A. Second
Edition. 3 vols. 8vo. cloth, 2I. ios.
The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church. By
F. E. Warren, B.D. 8vo. cloth, 14s.
The Christian Platonists of Alexandria. Being the
Bampton Lectures for 1886. By Charles Bigg, D.D. 8vo. cloth,
ios. 6d.

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