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DISENTANGLEMENT OF THE MYSTERY THROUGH THE DISCOURSES OF JOB, ELIHU AND JEHOVAH
Job_29:1 to Job_42:6
First Stage of the Disentanglement
Job 29-31
1. Yearning retrospect at the fair prosperity of his former life
a. Describing the outward appearance of this former prosperity
Job_29:1-10
2 O that I were as in months past,
as in the days when God preserved me;
3 when His candle shined upon my head,
and when by His light I walked through darkness;
4 as I was in the days of my youth.
when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my children were about me;
6 when I washed my steps with butter,
and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
7 when I went out to the gate through the city,
when I prepared my seat in the street!
8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves;
and the aged arose, and stood up.
9 The princes refrained talking,
and laid their hand on their mouth.
10 The nobles held their peace,
and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
Job_29:11-17
and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
12 because I delivered the poor that cried;
and the fatherless, and him 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 judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
15 I was eyes to the blind,
and feet was I to the lame.
16 I was a father to the poor;
and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
17 And I brake the jaws of the wicked,
and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
19 My root was spread out by the waters,
and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
20 My glory was fresh in me,
and my bow was renewed in my hand.
21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited,
and kept silence at my counsel.
22 After my words they spake not again;
and my speech dropped upon them.
23 And they waited for me as for the rain;
and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not;
and the light of my countenance they cast not down.
25 I chose out their way, and sat chief,
and dwelt as a king in the army,
as one that comforteth the mourners.
2. Sorrowful description of his present sad estate
a. The ignominy and contempt he receives from men: Job_30:1-15
whose fathers I would have disdained
to have set with the dogs of my flock.
2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me,
in whom old age was perished?
3 For want and famine they were solitary;
fleeing into the wilderness
in former time desolate and waste.
4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes,
and juniper roots for their meat.
5 They were driven forth from among men,
(they cried after them as after a thief);
6 To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys,
in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they brayed;
under the nettles they were gathered together.
8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men;
they were viler than the earth.
9 And now am I their song,
yea, I am their byword.
10 They abhor me, they flee far from me,
and spare not to spit in my face.
11 Because He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me,
they have also let loose the bridle before me.
12 Upon my right hand rise the youth;
they push away my feet,
and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
13 They mar my path,
they set forward my calamity,
they have no helper.
14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters;
in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
15 Terrors are turned upon me:
they pursue my soul as the wind:
and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season;
and my sinews take no rest.
18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed:
it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He hath cast me into the mire,
and I am become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not hear me:
I stand up, and Thou regardest me not.
21 Thou art become cruel to me;
with Thy strong hand Thou opposest Thyself against me.
22 Thou liftest me up to the wind;
Thou causest me to ride upon it,
and dissolvest my substance.
23 For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,
and to the house appointed for all living.
though they cry in his destruction.
25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?
was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me;
and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 My bowels boiled, and rested not:
the days of affliction prevented me.
28 I went mourning without the sun:
I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
29 I am a brother to dragons,
and a companion to owls.
30 My skin is black upon me,
and my bones are burned with heat.
31 My harp also is turned to mourning,
and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
3. Solemn asseveration of his innocence in respect to all open and secret sins
a. He has abandoned himself to no wicked lust: Job_31:1-8
why then should I think upon a maid?
2 For what portion of God is there from above?
and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Is not destruction to the wicked?
and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4 Doth not He see my ways,
and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with vanity,
or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
6 let me be weighed in an even balance,
that God may know mine integrity.
7 If my step hath turned out of the way,
and mine heart walked after mine eyes,
and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;
8 then let me sow, and let another eat;
yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door;
10 then let my wife grind unto another,
and let others bow down upon her.
11 For this is a heinous crime;
yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction,
and would root out all mine increase.
13 If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, 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?
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17 or have eaten my morsel myself alone,
and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:
18 (for from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father,
and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)
19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,
or any poor without 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,
when I saw my help in the gate;
22 then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade,
and mine arm be broken from the bone!
23 For destruction from God was a terror to me,
and by reason of His highness I could not endure.
or 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 the sun when it shined,
or the moon walking in brightness;
27 and my heart hath been secretly enticed,
or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
28 this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge;
for I should have denied the God that is above.
29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,
or lifted up myself when evil found him:
30 (—neither have I suffered my mouth to sin
by wishing a curse to his soul:)
31 if the men of my tabernacle said not,
O that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
32 The stranger did not lodge in the street:
but I opened my doors to the traveller.
by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:
34 did I fear a great multitude,
or did the contempt of families terrify me,
that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?
35 O that one would hear me!
behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me,
and that mine adversary had written a book.
36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,
and bind it as a crown to me.
37 I would declare unto Him the number of my steps;
as a prince would I go near unto Him.
38 If my land cry against me,
or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
39 If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,
or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life;
40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat,
and cockle instead of barley.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2. First Division: The prosperity of the past: Job 29. [“It is very thoughtfully planned by the poet that Job, by this description of his former prosperity, unintentionally refutes the accusations of his friends, inasmuch as it furnishes a picture of his former life very different from that which they had ventured to assume. We have here the picture of a rich and highly distinguished chief of a tribe [or patriarch], who was happy only in spreading abroad happiness and blessing.” Schlottmann].
First Strophe: Job_29:2-10 : The outward appearance of this former prosperity.
Job_29:2. Oh that it were to me [Oh that I were] as in months of yore! lit. “who gives (makes) me like the months of the past,” who puts me back in the happy condition of that time (so Rosenm., Welte, Vaih, etc.). Or, with the dative rendering of the suffix in éִúְּðֵðִé (as in Isa_27:4; Jer_9:1), “who gives to me like the months of the past,” i. e. who makes me to live over such! (so usually). On the construction in b (the constr. state ëéîé before the relative clause), comp. Gesenius, § 116, [§ 114], 3. [Green, §255, 2].
Job_29:3. When it (viz.) His lamp shone above my head.— áְּäִìּåֹ , Inf. Kal of äìì with the vowel a weakened to i (Ewald, § 255, a) [Green, § 139, 2], not Inf. Hiph. as Böttcher would render it, when after the Targ. he translates: “when He caused His lamp to shine.” This Hiphil rendering could only be justified if (with Ewald in his comm.) we should read áָּäִìּåֹ ( áַּäֲäִìּåֹ ). [“Probably alluding to the custom of suspending lamps in rooms or tents over the head. The language of this ver. is of course figurative, and implies prosperity and the divine favor.” Carey]. On the anticipation of the subject ðֵøåֹ by the suffix, comp. Ew., § 309, c. Delitzsch quite too artificially refers the suffix in áäìé to God, and takes ðֵøåֹ as a self-corrective, explanatory permutative: “when He, His lamp shone, etc.”
Job_29:4. As I was in the days of my harvest.— ëַּàֲùֶׁø , “as, according as,” resumes the simple ëְּ in ëéøçé and ëéîé , Job_29:2. “The days of the harvest” are, as Job_29:5 b shows, a figurative expression for ripe manhood [“the days of my prime” Carey], the ætas virilis suis fructibus fœta et exuberans (Schultens): comp. Ovid Metam. XV. 200. [The rendering of E. V. “in the days of my youth” (after Symmach. and the Vulg.) is less correct, as is shown by the reference above to Job_29:5 b, the time referred to being that when he had his children about him, as well as by the word çøó itself, which means the time when the ripe fruit is gathered]. When Eloah’s friendship was over my tent;i. e. dispensed protection and blessing above my habitation. ñåֹã here meaning “familiarity, confidential intercourse,” (as in Job_19:19; Psa_25:14; Psa_55:15 [14]; Pro_3:22), not the celestial council of God, as in Job_15:8 (against Hirzel). [“ áְּñåֹã either by ellipsis for áִּäְéåֹú ñåֹã or ñåֹã having the force of an active [verbal] noun, “His being familiar.” Dillm.—Carey’s explanation, though pushing the literal rendering a little too far, is striking: “lit. in the seat or cushion of God being at my tent; i. e., when God was on such terms of familiar intercourse with me that he had, as it were, his accustomed seat at my tent”].
Job_29:5. On children as a most highly valued blessing, placed here next to God Himself, comp. Psa_127:3 seq.; Psa_128:3. Concerning ðòøéí ): in this sense (not in that of “servants,”) see above Job_1:19; Job_24:5.
Job_29:6. When my steps were bathed in cream (comp. Job_20:17, where however we have the full form äֶîְàָä ), and the rock beside me poured out streams of oil; that which elsewhere was barren poured out costly blessings, and that close by his side, so that he was not compelled to go far; comp. Deu_32:13.
Job_29:7-10. The honor and dignity which he then enjoyed. When I went forth to the gate up to the city. ùׁòø is equivalent to ùַׁòֲøָä , towards the gate (comp. Job_28:11; Gen_27:3), not: “out at the gate” (as below, Job_31:34 ôֶּúַç ), for Job’s residence was in the country, not in the city with ùׁòøéí . For this same reason he speaks here of his going up òֲìֵé ÷ֶøֶú , “up to the city;” for the city adjoining to him, was on an eminence, as was usually the case with ancient cities. [Comp. Abraham’s relations to Hebron, as indicated in Genesis 23.]. In respect to the use of the space directly inside the gates of these cities as a place for assemblies of the people, comp. above, Job_5:4; also Job_31:4; Pro_1:21; Pro_8:3, and often. When I prepared my seat in the market. øְçåֹá the open space at the gate, as in Neh_8:1; Neh_8:3; Neh_8:16, etc. On the construction (the change from the Infin. to the finite verb), comp. Job_29:3; Job_28:25.
Job_29:8. Then the young men saw me, and hid themselves;i. e. as soon as they came in sight of me, from reverential awe. And the gray-headed rose up, remained standing—until I myself had sat. [“A most elegant description, and exhibits most correctly the great reverence and respect which was paid, even by the old and decrepit, to the holy man in passing along the streets, or when he sat in public. They not only rose, which in men so old and infirm was a great mark of distinction, but they stood, they continued to do it, though the attempt was so difficult.” Lowth]. On the construction, comp. Ewald, §285, b.
Job_29:9. Princes restrained themselves from speaking ( òָöַø áְּîִìִּéí , as in Job_4:2; Job_12:15), and laid the hand on their mouth, imposed on themselves reverential silence; comp. Job_21:5. [“What is meant is not that those who were in the act of speaking stopped at Job’s entrance, but that when he wished to speak, even princes, i. e. rulers of great bodies of men, or those occupying the highest offices, refrained from speech.” Dillmann].
Job_29:10. The voice of nobles hid itself, lit. “hid themselves,” for the verb ðֶçְáָּàåּ is put in agreement with the plur. dependent on ÷åֹì as the principal term, as in the similar cases in Job_15:20; Job_21:21; Job_22:12. [Comp. Green, § 277].— ðְâִéãִéí lit. “those who are visible” (from ðâã ) i. e. conspicuous, noble [nobiles]. On b comp. passages like Psa_137:6; Eze_3:26.
Continuation. Second Strophe: Job_29:11-17. Job’s active benevolence and strict integrity as the inward cause of his former prosperity.
Job_29:11. For if an ear heard—it called me happy—lit. “for an ear heard, and then called me happy;” and similarly in the second member. The object of the hearing, as afterwards of the seeing, is neither Job’s speeches in the assembly of the people [“if this ver. were a continuation of the description of the proceedings in the assembly, it would not be introduced by ëִּé ” Dillm.], nor his prosperity (Hahn, Delitzsch), but as Job_29:12 seq. shows, his whole public and private activity. [For the reason mentioned by Dillmann ëִּé is better translated “for” than “when” (E. V.)]. In regard to àִùֵּׁø “to pronounce happy,” comp. Pro_31:28; Son_6:9. In regard to äֵòִéã , to bear favorable testimony to any one, comp. ìáñôõñåῖí ôéíé Luk_4:22; Act_15:8.
Job_29:12. For I delivered the poor, that cried, and the orphan, who had no helper ( åְìֹàÎòֹæִøִ ìֹå a circumstantial clause, comp. Ew., § 331). [The clause “is either a third new object (so E. V.)], or a close definition of what precedes: the orphan and (in this state of orphanhood) helpless one. The latter is more probable both here and in the Salomonic primary passage Psa_72:12; in the other case åàùׁø àéïÎòæø ìå might be expected.” Delitz.]. The Imperfects describing that which is wont to be, as also in Job_29:13; Job_29:16. As to the sentiment, comp. Psa_72:12.
Job_29:13. The blessing of the lost (lit. “of one lost, perishing;” àåֹáֵã as in Job_31:19; Pro_31:6) came upon me;i. e., as b shows, the grateful wish that he might be blessed from such miserable ones as had been rescued by him, hardly the actual blessing which God bestowed on him in answer to the prayer of such (comp. Hernias, Past. Simil. 2).
Job_29:14. I had clothed myself with righteousness, and it with me;i. e., in proportion as I exerted myself to exercise righteousness ( öֶãֶ÷ ) toward my neighbor, the same [righteousness] took form, filled me inwardly in truth [“it put me on as a garment, i. e., it made me so its own, that my whole appearance was the representation of itself, as in Jdg_6:34, and twice in the Chron., of the Spirit of Jehovah it is said that He puts on any one, induit, when He makes any one the organ of His own manifestation,” Delitzsch. “Righteousness was as a robe to me, and I was as a robe to it. I put it on, and it put me on; it identified itself with me.” Words.] Not: “and it clothed me,” as Rosenmüller, Arnh., Umbr. [E. V., Schlottm., Carey, Renan, Rod., Elz., etc.], arbitrarily render the second ìáùׁ , thereby producing only a flat tautology. [Ewald also: “it adorned me.”—The other rendering is adopted, or approved by Gesen., Fürst, Delitzsch, Dillmann, Wordsworth, Noyes in his Notes]. The figure of being clothed with a moral quality or way of living to represent one as equipped, or adorned therewith, (comp. Isa_11:5; Isa_51:9; Isa_59:17; Psa_132:9), is continued in the second member, where Job’s strict righteousness and spotless integrity (this is what îִùְׁôָּè means; comp. Mic_3:8) are represented as “a mantle and a tiara (turban);” comp. Isa_61:10.
Job_29:15. Comp. Num_10:31. To be anybody’s eye, ear, foot (here “feet”), etc., is of course to supply these organs by the loving ministration of help, and to make it possible as it were to dispense with them.
Job_29:16. On a comp. Isa_9:5; Isa_22:21.— àָá and àֶáְéåֹðִéí seem to form a paronomasia here.—And the cause of the unknown [the strangers, the friendless] I searched out, i. e., in order to help them as their advocate, provided they were in the right.— ìֹà éָãַòְúִּé , attributive clause, as in Job_18:21; Isa_41:3; Isa_55:5, and often. [E. V., “the cause which I knew not” is admissible, and gives essentially the same sense; but the other rendering is to be preferred, as furnishing a better parallel to the “blind, lame, poor,” preceding.—The man whom nobody knew, or cared for, Job would willingly take for his client.—E.].
Job_29:17. I broke the teeth of the wicked (the cohortative, åַֽàֲùַׁáְּøָä , as in Job_1:15; Job_19:20), and out of his teeth I plucked the prey.—For the description of hardhearted oppressors and tyrants (or unrighteous judges, of whom we are to think particularly here), under the figure of ravaging wild beasts, from which the prey is rescued, comp. Psa_3:8 [Psa_3:7]; Psa_58:7 [Psa_58:6], etc.
4. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Job_29:18-25. The honor and the influence which Job once enjoyed, and the loss of which he mourns with especial sorrow.
Job_29:18. And so then I thought [said]: With my neat [“together with my nest,” as implying a wish that he and his nest might perish together, would be “unnatural, and diametrically opposed to the character of an Arab, who in the presence of death cherishes the twofold wish that he may continue to live in his children, and that he may die in the midst of his family,” Delitzsch] (or also: “in my nest”) shall I die;i. e., without having left or lost my home, together with my family, and property (comp. Psa_84:4 [3]), hence in an advanced, happy old age.—And like the phenix have many days: lit., “make many, multiply my days.” The language also would admit of our rendering çåֹì “sand,” understanding the expression to refer to the multiplication of days like grains of sand; comp. “as the sand of the sea” in 1Ki_5:9 [1Ki_4:29 applying to Solomon’s wisdom] and often; also Ovid, Metam. XIV. 136 seq.: quot haberet corpora pulvis, tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi. But against this interpretation, which is adopted by the Targ., Pesh., Saad., Luther, Umbreit, Gesenius, Stickel, Vaih., Hahn, [E. V., Con., Noy., Ber., Carey, Words., Renan, Rodwell, Merx], and in favor of understanding çåֹì of the phenix, that long-lived bird of the well-known oriental legend (so most moderns since Rosenmüller) may be urged: (1) The oldest exegetical tradition in the Talmud, in the Midrashim, among the Masoretes and Rabbis (especially Kimchi); (2) the versions—manifestly proceeding out of a misconception of this phenix tradition—of the LXX.: ùóðåñ óôÝëå÷ïò öïßíéêïò ; of the Itala: sicut arbor palmæ, and of the Vulg.: sicut palma; (3) and finally even the etymology of the word çåֹì (or çåּì , as the Rabbis of Nahardearead, according to Kimchi) which it would seem must be derived (with Bochart) from çåì torquere, volvere, and be explained “circulation, periodic return,” and even in its Egyptian form Koli (Copt.; alloe) is to be traced back to this Shemitic radical signification (among the ancient Egyptians indeed the chief name of the phenix was béni, hierogl. bano, benno, which at the same time signifies “palm”). The phrase—“to live as long as the phenix” is found also among other people of antiquity besides the Egyptians, e. g., among the Greeks ( öïßíéêïò ἔôç âéïῦí , Lucian, Hermot., p. 53); and the whole legend concerning the phenix living for five hundred years, then burning itself together with its nest, and again living glorified, is in general as ancient as it is widely spread, especially in the East. Therefore it can neither seem strange, nor in any way objectionable, if a poetical book of the Holy Scripture should make reference to this myth (comp. the allusions to astronomical and other myths in Job 3:9; 26:28). Touching the proposition that the Egyptian nationality of the poet, or the Egyptian origin of his ideas does not follow from this passage, see above, Introd., § 7, b (where may also be found the most important literary sources of information respecting the legend of the phenix).
Job_29:19-20 continue the expression, begun in Job_29:18, of that which Job thought and hoped for. [According to E. V., Job_29:19 resumes the description of Job’s former condition: “My root was spread out, etc.” But these two verses are so different from the passage preceding, (Job_29:11-25), in which Job speaks of his deeds of beneficence, and from the passage following (Job_29:21-25) in which he describes his influence in the public assembly, and so much in harmony with Job_29:18, in which he speaks of his prospects, as they seemed to his hopes, that the connection adopted by Zöckler, and most recent expositors, is decidedly to be preferred.—E.].
Job_29:19. My root will be open towards the water:i. e., my life will flourish, like a tree plentifully watered (comp. Job_14:7 seq.; Job_18:16), and the dew will lie all night in my branches (comp. the same passages; also Gen_27:39; Pro_19:12; Psa_133:3, etc.)
Job_29:20. Mine honor will remain (ever) fresh with me ( ëָּáåֹã = äüîá , consideration, dignity, honor with God and men—not “soul” as Hahn explains [“to which çָãָùׁ is not appropriate as predicate,” Del.], and my bow is renewed in my hand—the bow as a symbol of robust manliness, and strength for action, comp. 1Sa_2:4; Psa_46:10 [Psa_46:9]; Psa_76:4 [Psa_76:3]; Jer_49:35; Jer_51:56, etc.— äֶçֱìִéó , to make progress, to sprout forth (Job_14:7); here to renew oneself, to grow young again. It is not necessary to supply, e.g., ëֹּçַ , as Hirzel and Schlottmann do, on the basis of Isa_40:31.
Job_29:21. seq., exhibit in connection with the joyful hopes of Job, just described, which flowed forth directly out of the fulness of his prosperity, and in particular of the honor which he enjoyed, a full description of this honor, the narrative style of the discourse by åָàֹîַø , Job_29:18, being resumed. Job_29:21-23 have for their subject others than Job himself, the members of his tribe, not specially those who took part in the assemblies described in Job_29:7-10; for which reason it is unnecessary to assume a transposition, of the passage after Job_29:10.
Job_29:21. They hearkened to me, and waited ( éִçֵìּåּ , pausal form, with Dagh. euphonic for éִçֲìåּ , comp. Gesen. § 20, 2 c), and listened silently to my counsel (lit. “and were silent for or at my counsel”).
Job_29:22. After my words they spoke not again—lit. “they did not repeat” ( åִùְׁðåּ , non iterabant). On b comp. Deu_32:2; Son_4:11; Pro_5:3.
Job_29:23. Further expansion of the figure last used of the refreshing [rain-like] dropping of his discourse. They opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.—The îַìְ÷åֹùׁ , or latter rain in March or April, is, on account of the approaching harvest, which it helps to ripen, longed for with particular urgency in Palestine and the adjacent countries; comp. Deu_11:14; Jer_3:3; Jer_5:24; Joe_2:23; Hos_6:3, etc. On ùָׁàַó = ôָּòַø ôֶּä , to gape, pant, comp. Psa_119:131.
Job_29:24. I laughed upon them when they despaired—lit. “when they did not have confidence” ( äֶàֱîִåï , absol. as in Isa_7:9; comp. Psa_116:10; and éַàֲîִéðåּ a circumstantial clause without åְ —this lacking åְ , however, being supplied in many MSS. and Eds.). The meaning can be only: “even when they were despondent, I knew how to cheer them up by my friendly smiles.” This is the only meaning with which the second member agrees which cannot harmonize with the usual explanation: “I smiled at them, they believed it not” (LXX., Vulg., Saad., Luther [E. V., Noy., Rod., Ren., Merx], and most moderns). [“The reverence in which I was held was so great, that if I laid aside my gravity, and was familiar with them, they could scarcely believe that they were so highly honored; my very smiles were received with awe” Noyes]. And the light of my countenance (i. e., my cheerful visage, comp. Pro_16:15) they could not darken; lit. “they could not cause to fall, cast down,” comp. Gen_4:5-6 Jer_3:12.—[“However despondent their position appeared, the cheerfulness of my countenance they could not cause to pass away.” Del.]
Job_29:25. I would gladly take the way to them (comp. Job_28:23); i. e., I took pleasure in sitting in the midst of them, and in taking part in affairs. This is the only meaning that is favored by what follows;—the rendering of Hahn and Delitzsch: “I chose out for them the way they should go” [“I made the way plain which they should take in order to get out of their hopeless and miserable state.” Del This is the meaning also suggested by E. V.] is opposed by the consideration that áçø , “to choose,” never means “to prescribe, determine, enjoin.” In the passage which follows, “sitting as chief” ( øֹàùׁ ) is immediately defined more in the concrete by the clause, ëְּîֶìֶêְ áַּâְּãåּã , “like a king in the midst of the army;” but then the I altogether too military aspect of this figure (comp. Job_15:24; Job_19:12) is again softened by making the business of the king surrounded by his armies to be not leading them to battle, but “comforting the mourners.” Whether in this expression there is intended a thrust at the friends on account of their unskilful way of comforting (as Ewald and Dillmann think), may very much be doubted.
Second Division: The wretchedness of the present. Chap. 30. First Strophe (or Double Strophe). Job_30:1-15. The ignominy and contempt which he receives from men, put in glaring contrast with the high honor just described. The contrast is heightened all the more by the fact that the men now introduced as insulting and mocking him are of the very lowest and most contemptible sort; being the same class of men whose restless, vagabond life has already been described in Job_24:4-8, only more briefly than here.
Job_30:1. And now they laugh at me who are younger than I in days—the good-for-nothing rabble of children belonging to that abandoned class. What a humiliation for him before whom the aged stood up! [“The first line of the verse which is marked off by Mercha-Mahpach is intentionally so disproportionately long to form a deep and long-breathed beginning to the lamentation which is now begun.” Del.] They whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock ( ùִׂéú òִí , “to make like, to put on a level with,” not to set over, ùִׂéú òַì , præficere, as Schultens, Rosemn., Schlottm. explain). From this strong expression of contempt it does not follow that Job was now indulging in haughty or tyrannical inhuman thoughts [the considerate sympathy expressed by Job in Job_24:4-8 regarding this same class of men should be borne in mind in judging of Job’s spirit here also; yet it cannot be denied that the pride of the grand dignified old Emir does flash through the words.—E.], but only that that rabble was immeasureably destitute, and moreover morally abandoned, thievish, false, improvident, and generally useless.
Job_30:2. Even the strength of their hands—what should it be to me?—i. e. “and even (LXX. êáß ãå ) as regards themselves, those youngsters, of what use could the strength of their hands be to me?” Why this was of no use to him is explained in b:for them full ripeness is lost, i. e., enervated, miserable creatures that they are, they do not once reach ripe manly vigor ( áֶּøַä as in Job_5:26). [Hence not “old age,” as in E. V., which is both less correct and less expressive.] Why they do not, the verses immediately following show.
Job_30:3. Through want and hunger (they are) starved; lit. they are “a hard stiff rock” âַּìְîåּã , as in Job_15:34); they, who gnaw the dry steppe;i. e., gnaw away ( ò÷ø as in Job_30:17) what grows there; comp. Job_24:5; which have long been a wild and a wilderness.—According to the parallel passages Job_38:27; and Zep_1:15 ùׁåֹàָä åּîְùׁåֹàָä unquestionably signifies “waste and devastation,” or “wild and wilderness” (comp. úäå åáäå , Gen_1:2; áå÷ä åîáå÷ä , Nah_2:11; and similar examples of assonance). The àֶîֶùׁ preceding however is difficult. Elsewhere it is an adverb of time: “the past night, last evening [and so, yesterday],” but here evidently a substantive, and in the constr. state. It is explained to mean either: “the yesterday of wasteness and desolation,” i. e., “that which has long been wasteness,” etc. (Hirzel, Ewald) [Schlott., Renan, to whom may be added Good, Lee, Carey, Elzas, who connect àֶîֶùׁ with the participle, translating—” who yesterday were gnawers,” etc.], or: “the night, the darkness of the wilderness” (Targ., Rabbis, Gesen., Del.) [Noyes, Words., Barnes, Bernard, Rodwell, the last two taking ùׁ× , àîùׁ and îù× as three independent nouns,—“gloom, waste, desolation”]. Of these constructions the former is to be preferred, since darkness appears nowhere else (not even in Jer_2:6; Jer_2:31) as a characteristic predicate of the wilderness,” and since especially the “gnawing of the darkness of the wilderness” produces a thought singularly harsh. Dillmann’s explanation: “already yesterday a pure wilderness” (where therefore there is nothing to be found to-day), is linguistically harsh; and Olshausen’s emendation— àֶøֶõ ùׁ× åî× —arbitrary. [E. V. following the LXX. Targ., and most of the old expositors, translates äָòֹøְ÷ִéí “fleeing,” a rendering which besides being far less vivid and forcible, is less suitable, the desert being evipently their proper habitation. òø÷ in the sense of “gnawing” reminds of èøó , Job_24:5. It will be seen also that E. V. follows the adverbial construction of àîùׁ but “the wilderness in former time desolate and waste” suggests no very definite or consistent meaning. If a verbial, the force of àîùׁ must be to enhance the misery and hopelessness of their condition. They lived in what was not only now, but what had long been a desert—a fact which made the prospect of getting their support from it all the more cheerless.—E.].
Job_30:4. They who pluck the salt-wort by the bushes—in the place therefore where such small plants could first live, despite the scorching heat of the desert sun; in the shadow, that is, of larger bushes, especially of that perennial, branchy bush which is found in the Syrian desert under the name sîh, of which Wetzstein treats in Delitzsch.— îַìּåּçַ is the orach, salt-wort (also sea-purslain, atriplex halimus L. comp. LXX.: ἅëéìá ), a plant which in its younger and more tender leaves furnishes some nourishment, although of a miserable sort; comp. Athenæus, Deipnos. IV., 161, where it is said of poor Pythagoreans: ἅëéìá ôñþãïíôåò êáὶ êáêὰ ôïéáῦôá óõëëÝãïíôåò .—And broom-roots are their bread.—That the root of the broom (genista monosperma) is edible, is indeed asserted only here; still we need not doubt it, nor read e. g., ìַçֲîַí , “in order to warm themselves” (Gesenius), as though here as in Psa_120:4, or the use of the broom as fuel was spoken of, Comp. Michaelis. Neue orient. Bibl. V, 45, and Wetzstein in Del. [II., 143.—And see Smith’s Bib. Dic., “Juniper,” “Mallows”].
Job_30:5. Out of the midst (of men) they are hunted, e medio pelluntur. ðֵּå , lit. that which is within, i. e., here the circle of human social life, human society.—They cry after them as (after) a thief. ëַּâַּðָּá , as though they were a thief; comp. ëַּîָּèָø , Job_29:23.
Job_30:6. In the most horrid gorges they must dwell—lit. “in the horror of the gorges (in horridissima vallium regione; comp. Job_41:22; Ewald, § 313, c) it is for them to dwell;” comp. Gesen., § 132 (§ 129], Rem. 1.—In holes of the earth and of the rocks. Hence they were genuine troglodytes; see below after Job_30:8. Concerning òָôָø , “earth, ground,” see on Job_28:2.
Job_30:7. Among the bushes they cry out. ðä÷ above in Job_6:5 of the cry of the wild ass, here of the wild tones of the savage inhabitants of the steppes seeking food,—not their sermo barbarus; Pineda, Schlottmann [who refers to Herodotus’ comparison of the language of the Ethiopian troglodytes to the screech of the night-owl. According to Delitzsch the word refers to their cries of lamentation and discontent over their desperate condition. There can be but little doubt that the word is intended to remind us of the comparison of these people to wild asses in Job_24:5, and so far the rendering of E. V. “bray,” is not amiss]. Under nettles (brambles) they herd together; lit. “they must mix together, gather themselves.” Most of the modern expositors render the Pual as a strict Passive, with the meaning, “they are poured [or stretched] out,” which would be equivalent to—“they lie down” [or are prostrate]; comp. Amo_6:4; Amo_6:7. But both the use of ñôç in such passages as 1Sa_26:19; Isa_14:1, and the testimony of the most ancient Versions (Vulg., Targ., and indeed the LXX. also: äéῃôῶíôï ) favor rather the meaning of herding, or associating together. [“But neither the fut. nor the Pual (instead of which one would expect the Niph., or Hithpa.) is favorable to the latter interpretation: wherefore we decide in favor of the former, and find sufficient support for a Heb.-Arabic ñôç in the signification effundere from a comparison of Job_14:19 and the present passage.” Del.].
Job_30:8. Sons of fools, yea, sons of base men,—both expressions in opposition to the subject of the preceding verse. ðáì is used as a collective, and means the ungodly, as in Psa_14:1.— áְּìִéÎùֵׁí , equivalent to ignobiles, infames, a construction similar to that in Job_26:2 [lit. “sons of no-name”]; comp. § 286, g.—They are -whipped out of the land; lit. indeed an attributive clause—“who are whipped,” etc.; hence exiles, those who are driven forth out of their own home. [The rendering of E. V., “they were viler than the earth” was doubtless suggested by the use of the adjective ðָëֵà in the sense of “afflicted, dejected”]. In view of the palpable identity of those pictured in these verses with those described in Job_24:4-8, it is natural to assume the existence of a particular class of men in the country inhabited by Job as having furnished the historical occasion and theme of both descriptions. Since now in both passages a troglodyte way of living (dwelling in clefts of the rock and in obscure places, comp. above Job_24:4; Job_24:8) and the condition of having been driven out of their former habitations (comp. Job_24:4) are mentioned as prominent characteristics of these wretched ones, it be comes particularly probable that the people intended are the Choreans, or Chorites (Luther: Horites) [E. V.: “Horims”] who dwelt in holes, the aborigines of the mountain region of Seir, who were in part subjugated by the Edomites, in part exterminated, in part expelled (comp. Gen_36:5; Deu_2:12; Deu_2:22). Even if Job’s home is to be looked for at some distance from Edomitis, e. g. in Hauran (comp. on. Job_1:1) a considerable number of such Chorites ( çåֹøִéí , i. e. dweller in holes, or caves) might have been living in his neighborhood; for driven out by the Edomites they would have fled more particularly into the neighboring regions of Seir-Edom, and here indeed again they would have betaken themselves to the mountains with their caves, gorges, where they would have lived the same wretched life as their ancestors, who had been left behind in Edom. It is less likely that a cave-dwelling people in Hauran, different from these remnant of the Horites, are intended, e. g. the Itureans, who were notorious for their poverty, and waylaying mode of life (Del. and Wetzst.).
Job_30:9. In the second half of the Long Strophe, which also begins with åְòַúָּä Job turns his attention away from the wretches whom he has been elaborately describing back to himself. And now I am become their song of derision, I am become to them for a byword.— ðְâִéðָä , elsewhere a stringed instrument, means here a song of derision, óßëëïò (comp. Lam_3:14; Psa_69:13 [12], îִìָּä , malicious, defamatory speech, referring to the subject of the same (LXX.: èñýëëçìá ).
Job_30:10. Abhorring me, they remove far from me (to wit, from very abhorrence), yea, they have not spared my face with spitting;i. e. when at any time they come near me, it is never without testifying their deepest contempt by spitting in my face (Mat_26:67; Mat_27:30). An unsuitable softening of the meaning is attempted by those expositors, who find expressed here merely “a spitting in his presence” (Hirzel, Umbreit, Schlottmann); this meaning would require ìְôָðַé rather than îִôָּðַé . Comp. also above Job_17:6, where Job calls himself a úֹּôֶú ìְôָðִéí for the people.
Job_30:11 seq. show why Job had been in such a way given over to be mocked at by the most wretched, because namely God and the divine powers which cause calamity had delivered him, over to the same. For these are the principal subject in Job_30:11-14, not those miserable outcasts of human society just spoken of (as Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, Stickel, Schlottm., Del. [Noy Car., Rod. and appy. E. V.] explain). The correct view is given by LXX. and Vulg., and among the modern