An V. 9.

organism; yet Thou dost destroy me! exclamation of reproachful amazement. Remember, I beseech thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay, as a potter fashions a vessel out of clay; and wilt Thou bring me into dust again? Out of dust was man originally formed, and to dust he must return. V. 10. Hast Thou not poured me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? This describes the entire molding of the body before birth, one of God's great mysteries. V. 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews, interweaving them into the pattern of the body in that wonderful process of creation. V. 12. Thou hast granted me life and favor, his life having been preserved by reason of the divine kindness, and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit; by the providence of God his life had been spared and the breath kept in his body. Should all these miraculous acts be in vain? All believers should appreciate the wonderful kindness of God; for to all men He gives body and soul, eyes, ears, and all their members, their reason, and all their senses, and still preserves them.

JOB RENEWS HIS COMPLAINT OF HIS AFFLICTION.-V. 13. And these things hast Thou hid in Thine heart; I know that this is with Thee, that is: In spite of all God's care in the creation and preservation of Job, in spite of all His apparent kindness in the past, His hidden purpose had planned Job's destruction. V. 14. If I sin, then Thou markest me, that is, If Job should sin, God had intended to watch very carefully and immediately charge it against him, and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity; He carefully notes down every evidence of wickedness. V. 15. If I be wicked, woe unto me! He must expect a sudden and violent punishment. And if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head, even if he were right, he would not dare to look up with freedom and confidence, for this would not be acknowledged. I am full of confusion, filled with shame; therefore see Thou mine affliction. He always had his misery in sight and must hang his head in shame, like a wicked sinner who was getting

his just deserts. V. 16. For it increaseth, rather, "and should my head lift itself up," should Job dare to show a cheerful courage, Thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and again Thou showest Thyself marvelous upon me, God would show His wonderful power in destroying him. V. 17. Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me, God would cause ever new witnesses to appear against Job, and increasest Thine indignation upon me, with an ever new amount of displeasure. Changes and war are against me; Job would have to consider ever new troops and a whole army opposed to him. He alone is the mark of God's displeasure. V. 18. Wherefore, then, hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb? He renews his complaint, bewailing the fact that he was ever born. Oh, that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! He would have died, never have seen the light of day, if God had not called him into being. V. 19. I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave, still-born, a corpse, and out of misery. V. 20. Are not my days few? Was not the time of his life short enough? Could not God take from him some of the burden which was weighting him down? Cease, then, and let me alone, turning His attention else. where, that I may take comfort a little, enjoy just a little brightness and cheerfulness, v. 21. before I go whence I shall not return, or, "go hence and return not," even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; v. 22. a land of darkness, as darkness itself, black as the shades of midnight; and of the shadow of death, without any order, filled with chaotic confusion, and where the light is as darkness, literally, “where it is light as midnight," said of the most intense darkness, an utterly sunless gloom. Job here, in the bitterness of his soul, gave way to a hopelessness which should never be found in a believer, but which sometimes threatens to overwhelm him. It is only the remembrance of God's unwavering kindness, as a characteristic of faith, that will keep us from such depths of despair.

ments be refuted, lest he consider himself justified. V. 4. For thou hast said, My doctrine, the moral teaching, the tenets which Job had expounded, is pure, and I am clean in Thine eyes, Job maintained his purity even over against God. V. 5. But oh, that God would speak and open His lips against thee, since such an action would put an immediate end to Job's boasting, as Zophar confidently believed; v. 6. and that He would show thee the secrets of wisdom, making known the true, divine wisdom over against Job's doctrine, that they are double to that which is, that God's wisdom immeasurably surpasses everything that men consider wisdom! Know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth, literally, "that God consigns to oblivion [a large part of] thy guilt," leaving it out of account against Job, who would otherwise long have been overwhelmed by God's punishment. V.7. Canst thou by searching find out God, reaching the bottom of the mystery of God's wonderful essence? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection, penetrating to the uttermost parts of the divine nature? "The nature of God may be sought after, but cannot be found out; and the end of God is unattainable, for He is both: the perfect or absolute God and the endless or infinite God." (Delitzsch.) V. 8. It is as high as heaven, literally, "heights of heaven," namely, those are the distances which extend between man's understanding and God's infinity; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, far below the realm of the dead the hidden depths of the divine wisdom extend; what canst thou know? Man's utter powerlessness in the face of God's immeasurable essence is here brought out with a force rarely equaled. V. 9. The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea, the length of God's wisdom is unbounded, and its breadth extends far beyond human understanding. V. 10. If He cut off, passing over, or rushing upon, in anger, and shut up, or gather together, that is, if God arrests a man and calls him to judg ment, holds a public trial, then who can hinder Him? Who can turn Him aside, who will oppose Him? God will render judgment, God will pass sentence upon every prisoner whom He summons, in spite of all opposition. V. 11. For He knoweth vain men, such evil men as try to disguise their godlessness; He seeth wickedness also; will He not, then, consider it? The statement is rather affirmative: God sees wickedness without considering it, although it is open before His eyes; He does not immediately punish the transgressors. V. 12. For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt, literally, “And a hollow-headed, witless man will gain wisdom, and the foal of a wild ass a man will be born,"

which means, either: Before an empty head gains understanding, a wild ass's foal will be born a man, or: A witless fool should be filled with understanding, he should be regenerated and made over into a man, though by nature as untamed as the colt of a wild ass. Zophar wanted to make his rebuke as emphatic as possible, even by means of biting comparisons, in order to overcome Job's calm arguments.

ZOPHAR ADMONISHES JOB TO REPENT.-V. 13. If thou prepare thine heart, bringing it into the proper condition over against God, and stretch out thine hands toward Him, in a gesture of pleading, of asking for mercy; v. 14. if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles, for without this evidence of a repentant heart the Lord would not heed his prayer. V. 15. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; having received the assurance of the forgiveness of his sins, his face would show no consciousness of guilt; yea, thou shalt be steadfast and shalt not fear, without wavering, like metals which have hardened in the mold, v. 16. because thou shalt forget thy misery, all the trouble which was now besetting him, and remember it as waters that pass away, that flow by in a stream and make no lasting impression upon the memory, v. 17. and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday, literally, "brighter than noon shall be the duration or way of thy life," his entire future life would be lifted out of the darkness of the present misery; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning, that is, if any darkness should come, if any new adversity should befall him, it would nevertheless resolve itself into the brightness of a clear morning. V. 18. And thou shalt be secure, have the firm confidence, because there is hope, the text emphasizing the real and lasting existence of this hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, looking about through his household to find whether everything was safe and sound; and thou shalt take thy rest in safety, able to lie down and sleep without the slightest worry. V. 19. Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid, in full peace and security; yea, many shall make suit unto thee, literally, "stroke thy face," flattering him and begging a special favor from him. V. 20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, wasting away in a vain search for help, and they shall not escape, every refuge being taken away from them, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost, death remaining as their last hope, as bringing them deliverance from the evils which were laid upon them. This picture of a hopeful future, as painted by Zophar, was also an unconscious prophecy concerning the deliverance which finally came upon Job.

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Job's Reply to Zophar.

THE STRANGE GOOD FORTUNE OF THE GODLESS. If Zophar's arguments had been valid and Job's suffering was to be regarded as the direct punishment for a specific sin, then his faith in the justice of God would have been severely shaken. For that reason Job answers in a tone of great severity. V. 1. And Job answered and said, in a tone and with words of bitter sarcasm, v. 2. No doubt but ye are the people, that is, the right kind, the representative men, and wisdom shall die with you, since, by their own statements, they possessed it all, and no one dared to differ with them. V. 3. But I have understanding as well as you, he was in no wise lacking in the understanding of which they thought they had the monopoly; I am not inferior to you, he was not meaner in wisdom than they and therefore did not have to give way one inch; yea, who knoweth not such things as these? What they had brought forward was a matter of common knowledge, by no means unusual; they had no reason to take special pride in their remarks. V. 4. I am as one mocked of his neighbor, he had become a laughing-stock to his own friends, who calleth upon God, and He answereth him, that is, I who called to God and found a hearing, who had made the worship of God the rule of my life. The just, upright man is laughed to scorn, a target for the mockery of those who called themselves his friends. V. 5. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease, literally, "For misfortune scorn, according to the opinion of the prosperous, ready for those whose foot wavers," that is, fortunate and successful people ordinarily have nothing but scorn and contempt for the unfortunate, for such as are overtaken with misfortune. V. 6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper, powerful tyrants, men who make it a practise to spoil others, live in safety, and they that provoke God are secure, Ps. 73, 12; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly, rather, "he who has God enter into his hand," trusting in the weapon which he wields with his right hand. The strange good fortune of the godless has often puzzled believing children of God, but the solution of the question is found Ps. 73.

GOD'S GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD. — V. 7. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee, every man can learn from them what Job very well knew, the majesty of God in the government of the world; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; v. 8. or speak to the earth, addressing it for information, and it shall teach thee, and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. All nature unites in declaring the greatPopular Commentary, Old Test., II.

ness of God. V. 9. Who knoweth not in all these, gaining his understanding from observing them, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? The entire visible universe proclaims the creation of Jehovah. V. 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, the life which He has given to all creatures, and the breath of all mankind, literally, "the spirit of all flesh of man." All this must be acknowledged by all observers of nature. V. 11. Doth not the ear try words, prove sayings or proverbs, testing their inner worth, and the mouth taste his meat? Even as the palate discriminates between the foods which are taken into the mouth, so the spirit of man should distinguish between matters brought to its attention. V. 12. With the ancient is wisdom; aged men, in the course of their long life, acquire a true insight into the nature of things; and in length of days understanding; when a person has lived many years and always carefully observed things, his judgment is usually reliable. But now, by way of contrast and in bringing out a climax, Job refers to God. V. 13. With Him is wisdom and strength, He possesses them as His personal qualities, as His essential attributes; He hath counsel and understanding, the ability to discern what is right and wrong, sound and corrupt. V. 14. Behold, He breaketh down, in the irresistible exercise of His almighty power, and it cannot be built again, man being powerless before His might; He shutteth up a man, imprisoning him in troubles as in a cistern or dungeon, and there can be no opening, there is no escape from His power.

V. 15. Behold, He withholdeth the waters, restraining all calamity at His will, and they dry up; also He sendeth them out, releasing their devastating power, and they overturn the earth. V. 16. With Him is strength and wisdom, true, essential knowledge; the deceived and the deceiver are His, both he who errs and he who causes others to err. God's wisdom is far above that of all men, whether they use their knowledge for the good of their fellow-men or abuse it in leading others astray. V. 17. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, stripped of everything they valued, especially the badges of their rank, and maketh the judges fools, depriving them of both their power and prestige. V. 18. He looseth the bond of kings, breaking the fetters, the yoke, with which they kept their subjects in obedience, and girdeth their loins with a girdle, placing them in bonds, in turn. V. 19. He leadeth princes, priests who were at the same time rulers, away spoiled, all their authority being taken from them, and overthroweth the mighty, those who considered themselves firmly established, mighty and influential persons. V. 20.

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He removeth away the speech of the trusty, taking away the eloquence of the people's orators and counselors, and taketh away the understanding of the aged, so that they no longer have the right judgment. V. 21. He poureth contempt upon princes, upon the nobility of the land, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty, literally, either, "He causes the dam of the canals to sink down," or, "He lets down that which holds together the containing of great capacity"; that is, He disables the mighty for the contest by causing their undergarments to hang down loosely, a fact which hinders them in fighting. V. 22. He discovereth deep things out of darkness and bringeth out to light the shadow of death; that is, all the dark plans and the wickedness of men which they believe hidden from the eyes of men He brings forth into the light. Cp. 1 Cor. 4, 5. V. 23. He increaseth the nations, making them great, giv

ing them prosperity, and destroyeth them; He enlargeth the nations, spreading them abroad, increasing their territory, and straiteneth them again, causes them to be carried away into captivity and to lose all they gained. V. 24. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, the understanding of those who are held together by the ties of a common origin, language, and country, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way, in pathless wastes, following leads which are utterly foolish. V. 25. They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. Cp. Is. 19, 14. The entire passage reminds one of the great hymn of Mary with its praise of the strength and mercy of God, Luke 1, 46-55. Job certainly proved that he was in no wise inferior to Eliphaz in His knowledge of the wisdom and strength of Jehovah.

Job's Further Defense against Zophar. JOB DEFENDS GOD AGAINST THE SUSPICION OF ARBITRARINESS. - V. 1. Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it, gotten the knowledge for itself, namely, concerning all that had been set forth in the last chapter regarding the wisdom and omnipotence of God. V. 2. What ye know, the same do I know also; I am not inferior unto you; Job in no way stood behind or beneath his friends in the proper understanding of the Lord's attributes, chap. 12, 3. V. 3. Surely I would speak to the Almighty, that is, in spite of the fact that Job had this knowledge and in view of the fact that it seemed folly to speak to his friends in their present attitude of antagonism, while they paraded their knowledge of God in order to confound Job, and I desire to reason with God, pleading with Him in defense of himself, confidently hoping for a vindication. V. 4. But ye are forgers of lies, literally, "daubers, smearers, of lies," such as invented falsehoods to gain their ends. Ye are all physicians of no value, miserable quacks, who were entirely unfit and incapable of applying the proper remedy to the wounds of Job. V. 5. Oh, that ye would altogether hold your peace! He would much prefer their saying nothing at all than to have them make matters worse by their bungling talk. And it should be your wisdom; they would then not only have had a higher reputation for wisdom, but would also have come nearer to the solution of Job's difficulty. V. 6. Hear now my reasoning, his apology or defense of himself, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips, as he, in vindicating himself, brought charges against them. V. 7. Will ye speak wickedly for God and

talk deceitfully for Him? Were they really of the opinion that they must act in favor of God by telling lies and by using deceit? V. 8. Will ye accept His person? That is, would they show preference for His countenance, partiality for His person? Will ye contend for God, acting the part of God's advocates or lawyers? Their actions seemed to indicate that such was their intention. V. 9. Is it good that He should search you out? Did they honestly believe that it would be well with them, that they would be safe, if He would really go to the bottom of things and search out their motives? Or as one man mocketh

another, do ye so mock Him? Were they under the delusion that they could deceive God, hide from Him the real disposition and sentiment of their hearts? V. 10. He will surely reprove you, most emphatically denouncing them, if ye do secretly accept persons, showing partiality, the motive driving them being not honest conviction, but selfish interest. V. 11. Shall not His excellency, the display of God's exalted majesty, make you afraid and His dread fall upon you? The dread of God as the great Judge should have deterred them from their course of action in employing dishonest means against Him. V. 12. Your remembrances are like unto ashes, literally, "your axioms, proverbs, or maxims are proverbs of ashes," for such they would become when God would set out to judge and punish them, your bodies to bodies of clay, their bulwarks, their breastworks, of reasoning upon which they relied would prove frail mud, altogether unreliable, incapable of resistance. Note that there is an occasional hint of the final outcome of the matter and the rebuke of Job's friends.

JOB'S COMFORT AND PRAYER. — V. 13. Hold your peace, let me alone, they should desist from their undeserved attacks, that I may speak, and let come on me what will, he was ready to take the consequences of his open speaking. V. 14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, anxious to save his body and life at any price, and put my life in mine hand, seeking to save his soul or life by one final desperate exertion of all his strength? He had no intention of making such efforts because he did not feel himself guilty of the accusations brought against him. He still trusted in the Lord. V. 15. Though He slay me, namely, through the disease which was now racking him, yet will I trust in Him, he would not give way to dread for the future, hopeless as it seemed; but I will maintain mine own ways before Him, namely, in proving to God the blamelessness of his life. V. 16. He also shall be my salvation; for an hypocrite shall not come before Him; that was Job's trust, his pledge of salvation, of final victory in the trial which he was now undergoing, that an unholy person could not come before the Lord. It is the consciousness of his blamelessness which gives him the confidence to appear before God. V. 17. Hear diligently my speech, they should listen most attentively to his declaration, and my declaration with your ears, his utterance sounding in their ears and demanding the closest application. V. 18. Behold now, I have ordered my cause, he had prepared all the arguments for his side of the case. I know that I shall be justified, finally be given right in this long trial. V. 19. Who is he that will plead with me, contending with him, successfully attempting to prove him to be wrong? For now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost, if any one should succeed in fastening guilt upon him, he would be silent and let death come as a merited punishment. V. 20. Only do not two things unto me, those mentioned in the next verse, calamities and terror; then will I not hide myself from Thee, rather standing forth boldly to maintain his cause. V. 21. Withdraw Thine hand far from me, keeping from Job the heavy chastisements under whose burden he was groaning; and let not Thy dread make me afraid, namely, the dread produced by the revelation of His majesty; for these two factors would take the heart from him. V. 22.

Then call Thou, and I will answer; with these two factors removed, he would gladly obey the summons to stand trial; or let me speak, and answer Thou me, for Job intended to maintain the justice of his cause. V. 23. How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin! He was ready to have not only his general transgressions, but especially his graver offenses, any flagrant wickedness, any open apostasy, set forth. He does not mention ordinary, small, and slight offenses, the sins of weakness to which all believers are subject. He is speaking of specific trespasses of a grave nature, such as take away faith out of the heart and are often punished directly. V. 24. Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, in apparent displeasure and anger, and holdest me for Thine enemy? Such God seemed to him to be, judging from His treatment of Job at that time. V. 25. Wilt Thou break a leaf driven to and fro, shaking him, who was already broken with misery, with further terrors? And wilt Thou pursue the dry stubble? On account of the fearful visitation which had struck him, Job was like dry chaff. V. 26. For Thou writest bitter things against me, in written decrees announcing the sentence of punishment, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth, his old age, as it were, inheriting the accumulated usury and consequence of youthful sins, a treatment which seemed unduly cruel to Job. V. 27. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, treating him like a prisoner who was tortured by having his feet fastened to a block, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths, watching him so closely as not to permit the slightest freedom of action. Thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet, literally, "around the soles of my feet Thou makest marks, or incisions," setting the boundary over which he dared not pass so close that he was really rooted to the ground, so that he was cruelly and narrowly imprisoned. V. 28. And he, namely, Job, the persecuted one, as a rotten thing, consumeth, wasting away, falling into nothingness from rottenness, as a garment that is moth-eaten. The defiant mood of Job once more changes to despair, since God did not answer him, the same feeling which takes hold of believers in our days when they think their prayers for relief are not heeded by the Lord.

Job Deplores Mankind's Common Misery. A COMPLAINT OVER LIFE'S TROUBLES. - V. 1. Man that is born of a woman, feeble, frail mortal that he is, is of few days and full of trouble, Ps. 90, 10. V. 2. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down, coming up

quickly, maturing rapidly, and withering as soon; he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not, as the shadow of a cloud hastens over the landscape in a moment of time. The entire first verse is really the subject of the second, the clauses showing man's frailty, his