But it does not follow that Job has succeeded in settling the great point at issue. The friends are wrong, but he may not be wholly right. What is Job's position, if we consider only chs. 3-:?l '; Omitting for the moment the doulitful sections 27'-28, and rememberinf' in any case that Job's state of mind is set fortli, not in a series of cate- gorical [iropositions, but in the fervent outpourings of a deeply troubled soul, we may say that up to this point he is absolutely certain of his own righteousness, and tliat his sull'enngs are un- deserved. He is deeply convinced also in what the mystics call ' the groun<l of the heart,' that God is righteous and rules rigliteously ; but how tlicse two convictions are to be reconciled, he does not clearly see. Some light has dawned upon him from various quarters in the course of his WTcst- lin^s with the great problem. At one moment he is disposed to hope against hope, and hold fast by what he cannot see. ' Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him,' may or may not be tlie me.m- ing of ch. 13", — for the readings admit of almost opposite interpretations, — but tlie words represent .lob's attitude in certain moods. Not verj- dillerent is his state of mind when he pleads that he might be allowed to come face to face with the Almighty ; he is so sure that he could ' order his cause before him, and fill his mouth with arguments.' At another time he rests in the confidence that his own vindication will come, sooner or later. Whether Job expects this in the luesent life, or more or less va(;uely in a future life, is a very important question in its place, but may for the pur|)ose of this exposition be passed over for the moment. The pa.ssage eh. 19^- -° remains on any translation ambiguous when we ask whether the vindication was to come on this side of the grave or beyond it, though it is glorious in its trium|ili- ant lissurance that the Vindicator will speak at the last — 'he will speak, and cannot lie.' This confidence, however. Job is unable continuously and permanently to preserve. It is not represented as a solution of the problem. Job's la^t words (ch. 31) are a pathetic lament over his vanished greatness, and a reiterated asseveration, strong, though no longer bitter, that he has not ollended. If ch. 28 is to be a.ssigned to .lob, it must imidy that for a time and in a certain niooil he wai prejiared to bow before the inscrutable wisilom of the Most High ; but this is not an abiding frame of mind, and cannot be presented as Job's solution of his own dilhculties.
If the Kliliu section formed a part of tlic original book — which we cannot admit^ — it must be under- stood as a contrilution towards a solution, but one not completely adequate. It forms, in an) case, a kind of side-chapel in relation to tlie whole
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JOB, BOOK OF
Btructnre. The riglitcous man must remember his need of chastiseinent ; Buli'ering is intended to txercise an educative and purifviny influence, and the wise man will not recklessfy rebel or fretfully chafe aj^ainst it. But in the poem no one replies to Elihu, the Almighty disreparda his utterances, no reference is made to them in any other part of the book, and thej* can scarcely be said, on any theory of their origin, to form an intimately organic part of the whole.
On the theory advocated by many modem critics, the original poem left the problem in this undeter- mined condition. The book puts forward no solution, it is a prolonged note of interrogation. There is nothing constructive about the colloriuies when standin" alone, especially in the mutilated form to which some critics would reduce them. But as the poem now stands, what solution does it furnish of the moral dilticulty which it has so powerfully raised T The solution may be said to be threefold ; or rather, three classes of considera- tions may be borne in mind in mitigation of the difhculties propounded. The first is found in the prologue. This lifts the curtain which hides the counsels of Heaven. It su^'gests that the drama of our earthly life has a signiticauce which earth does not exhaust. The government of the Mo.^t High may contemplate issues which are at present beyond us. It may be needful to prove the exist- ence of disinterested goodness to men, to angels, to devils ; or to satisfy that strange personality who on the stage of history represents the great Accuser or Adversary of men, a being hard to persuade that goodness means something more than a pious care for one's own possessions or due consideration for one's own skin. If it were given to the right- eous man, like a greater Prometheus, to suli'er for such a cause, and demonstrate for once to assembled hosts of human spectators of the great drama of human life, or to invisible principalities and powers, that goodness and truth are something more than a cunning provision for the comforts the}' bring in their train, a life of pain and woe might be considered well spent. The vivid picture of tlie heavenly tribunal is only the graphic Oriental way of propounding what would now be called a philosophical or theological thesis. The lesson of Plato's Gorgias is here enforced against the sophis- trr of his Protagoras. Hedonism is not ethics. With magnificent daring Job is conceived as prov- ing this great thesis on the side of God, against the insinuations of the Satan. Utilitarians should be the first to acknowledge that whether this be or be not a tenable solution of the problem of human Buffering, it is a noble one. God knows the hearts of His servants, but on some is conferred the high prerogative of sufl'ering in order to demonstrate to a scoffing world or an incredulous Accuser of the brethren what righteousness really means. This is not, however, represented in tne poem as an ultimate or complete solution. The veU that has been drawn aside to allow a glimpse into the designs of Heaven drops again, and is never re- lifted. Job, by hypothesis, must not know of this procedure. Unless he can hold fast by the Right unaided, unconsoled, the experiment will be a failure. The fact that he never gives in or gives np is the poet's silent way of sayin" that the Adversary has lost his case. With all the odds against him. Job has won. He was content to 'hold hard by truth and his great soul,' beggary and leprosy and desertion and calumny notwith- standing. If the Almighty had never spoken, Job would remain alone upon the field — unconquered, if not victorious.