John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: February 8

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John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: February 8


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Traveler’s Token

Job_21:29

The reply to Job this time devolved on Zophar, who, although he had nothing essentially new to advance, rose up to answer the afflicted man in such a manner, as plainly showed too much warmth and resentment, although he makes some endeavor to conceal his passion. He goes over the old ground, and reproduces the old arguments, which it is useless to repeat in a summary which must necessarily divest them of the circumstantial imagery, by which they are varied in the mouths of the different interlocutors. Some readers, indeed, of not very discerning taste, may be apt to weary at these repeated declamations on the transient prosperity and fearful catastrophe of great oppressors. But it will be borne in mind, that these three men have the same ideas of the course of the Lord’s providence, and of the case of their unhappy friend, and must therefore needs speak with a certain general uniformity on the subject. Meanwhile, these very iterations have the important effect of carrying on the main design of the poem. They tease and exasperate the good man’s spirit, and carry him further into those excesses of complaint and self-justification, which, being subsequently properly represented to him, draw from him the memorable expressions of his conviction and repentance. The subject, however, in this second speech of Zophar, is placed in so many different points of view, and illustrated by emblems and images so entirely his own, that these at least have the attraction of freshness. Upon the whole, there is great poetical merit in thus speech. It is a torrent of oriental eloquence, rushing on with the vehemence of a fiery temper, inflamed by resentment and mistaken zeal.

Job’s reply to this is essentially argumentative. The friends had alleged that destructive calamities were the portion of the wicked only, and that the seeming prosperity with which they were indulged soon passed away. This he denies, by showing that, so far as appeared, their prosperity was as durable as that of the righteous, as proved by instances of irreligious men, who are not only favored with welfare and affluence, but leave the world by easy deaths, and are borne down to the grave with honor. But although this is reasoning, it is not calm and cool reasoning. It is the reasoning of a man under great emotion of mind, and is mixed up with a sort of indignation at the miserable lot which lays him open to injurious imputations.

The careful reader will notice an interesting and very natural circumstance towards the close of this speech. Job seems to have closed his argument with Job_21:26; but perceiving by their interchange of looks that his friends were not satisfied, he resumes with, “Behold, I know your thoughts;” and goes on to produce a new species of testimony in favor of his conclusions, “Have ye not asked them that go by the way, and do ye not know their tokens?”

Perhaps not many uncritical readers attach very distinct ideas to these words. Who are those that “go by the way,” and what are “their tokens?” The former were undoubtedly travellers, particularly such as came from distant journeys in caravans, a mode of travel which is shown by Job_6:19, to have existed in the time of Job, and which first historically appears as an established mode of travel in the time of Jacob, when Joseph was sold for a slave to a travelling company of merchants. Such travellers, in the absence of newspapers, and in the paucity of written knowledge, as well as of epistolary communications between distant parts, were the chief sources of information respecting the circumstances of foreign countries. This is still the case in a very important degree, although other sources of information have, in the lapse of ages, become more open, but yet in a far less extent than one might be apt to suppose. We can well remember the anxiety felt in the East in times of public distress or excitement, to learn the intelligence which the travellers by any newly-arrived caravan brought, respecting the movements of hostile armies, or the progress of the cholera or plague. They may bring letters, but these are addressed to individuals, and the contents, even if of public importance, transpire but slowly; but the travellers themselves are the popular intelligencers, and very soon all that they know, and often a great deal more, is speedily extracted from them by eager inquirers. Those also who are known to have travelled much, become the oracles of their respective circles, and their information is constantly appealed to in discussion, for the settlement of points in dispute. And it frequently happens that one who has returned from a long or unusual journey, is sent for by the king or local governor, to answer such questions as may be put to him respecting what he has seen and heard in foreign parts.

The idea of Job clearly is, that if the friends urged that his observation was too limited in his scope to justify the conclusions which he had reached, they could resort to the testimony of travellers as to what they had observed of God’s dealings with men, and what they had heard of the sayings of the wise in other lands.

As to the “tokens,” the reference appears to be to the memorials of persons and events which they had seen in their travels, and the evidence afforded by which, he doubted not, would give support to the positions he advanced. Hence some translations have “monuments” instead of “tokens;” and it is certain that such memorials as Job appears to have had in view existed in his time, for he repeatedly alludes to them, and we can indeed trace them up to the earliest historical time.

A very ingenious and learned writer Note: Charles Peters, A.M., in his Critical Dissertation on the Book of Job, 1751, a work leveled at the views advanced by Warburton in his Divine Legation of Moses. takes the key to the allusion to be this: “It was the custom of the ancients to bury near the high-roads, and in the most public and conspicuous places, and to erect a pillar or monument over the dead to preserve his memory. These pillars, if they had any inscription at all upon them, recorded, no doubt, the names and titles of the person, and perhaps some of the happiest circumstances of his life, or what was more remarkable in his life or death. And, moreover, these inscriptions usually bespoke the [attention of the] travellers with siste viator, or to that purpose. These, then, I apprehend, are the marks or tokens to which Job directs his friends; and which he would have them either consult themselves, or to ask the travellers about them…. To strengthen this exposition, I might observe that the tombs or monuments erected for the dead, are in Homer, the most ancient writer next to the sacred, called Óῆìáôá , marks or tokens, Óῆìá ôέ ìïé ÷åõ ͂ áé , etc.—says the ghost of poor Elpenor to Ulysses (Od. xi. 75)—‘Erect a tomb for me on the sea-shore, and set up the oar with which I rowed on the top of it; that it may be a monument to posterity of an unfortunate man.’”

This is better given by Cowper—

“Burn me, and raise

A kind memorial of me on the coast

Heaped high with earth: that an unhappy man

May yet enjoy an unforgotten name.

This do at my request, and on my hill

Funereal, plant the oar with which I rowed

While yet I lived a mariner of thine.”

This writer further refers, in a note, to the speech of Bildad, Note: Job_18:17. as plainly pointing at this custom. “Speaking of the calamities that befall the wicked, he says—‘His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street,’—that is, he shall have no monument erected for him, to preserve his name or memory. The Hebrew is very expressive—‘And there shall not be a name to him upon the face of the street or public place.’ This shows that it cannot be meant of his name tossed upon the tongues of the people (as some explain it), but rather perpetuated by some public inscription.”

It may be added that some learned men have supposed that when Job Note: Job_19:24. desires that his words should be engraven on the rock, he means to express a wish that the memorable declaration which he then made should be inscribed upon his monument.