fell from the lips of a mourner — the disease which made him an object of loathing to man, and seemed to desig- nate him as a visible example of divine wrath, is borne without a murmur; he repels his wife's suggestion with the simple words, " What ! shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil ?" " In all this Job did not sin with his lips."
2. The Controversy (ii, 11-xxxi, 40). — Still it is clear that, had the poem ended here, many points of deep in- terest would have been left in obscmity. Entire as was the submission of Job, he must have been inwardly perplexed by events to which he had no clew, which were quite unaccountable on any hypothesis hitherto entertained, and seemed repugnant to the ideas of jus- tice engraven on man's heart. It was also most desira- ble that the impressions made upon the generality of men by sudden and unaccountable calamities shoidd be thoroughly discussed, and that a broader and firmer basis than heretofore should be found for speculations concerning the providential government of the world. An opportunity for such discussion is afforded in the most natural manner by the introduction of three men, representmg the wisdom and experience of the age, who came to condole with Job on hearing of his misfortunes. Some time appears to have elapsed in the interim, dur- ing which the disease had made formidable progress, and Job had thoroughly realized the extent of his mis- erj% The meeting is described with singular beauty. At a distance they greet him with the wild demonstra- tions of sj-mpathizing grief usual in the East; comirg near, they arf' overjiowcred by the sight of his -wretch- edness, and sit seven days and seven nights without ut- tering a wcrd (ii, 11-13). This awful silence, whether Job felt it as a proof of real sympathy, or as an indica- tion of inward suspicion on their part, drew out all his : anguish. In an agony of desperation he curses the day of his birth, and sees and hopes for no end of his misery j but death (ch. iii).
i This causes a discussion between him and his friends I (ch. iv-xxxi), which is divided into three main parts, j each with subdivisions, embracing alternately the speeches of the three friends of Job and his answers: the last part, however, consists of only two subdivisions, the third friend, Zophar, having nothing to rejoin ; a silence by which the author of the book generally des- ignates the defeat of Job's friends, who are defending a common cause. (It has, however, been argued with much force by Wemj-ss, that some derangement has oc- curred in the order of tlie composition ; for chap, xxvii, 13-23, appears to contain Zophar's third address to Job, while ch. xxviii s^ems to be the conclusion of the whole book, containing the moral, added perhaps by some I later hand.) But see below, § 5.
i (a.) The results of the JiVs^ discussion (chap, iii-xiv) ! may be thus summed up. We have on the part of Job's friends a theory of the divine government resting upon an exact and uniform correlation between sin and punishment (iv, 6, 11, and throughout). Afflictions are always penal, issuing in the destruction of those who are radically opposed to God, or who do not submit to his chastisements. They lead, of coiu-se, to correction and amendment of life when the suiferer repents, con- fesses his sins, puts them away, and turns to God. In that case restoration to peace, and even increased pros- perity, may be expected (v, 17-27). Still the fact of the suffering always proves the commission of some spe- cial sin, while the demeanor of the sufferer indicates the true internal relation between him and God.
These principles are applied by them to the case of Job. They are, in the first place, scandalized by the ve- hemence of his complaints, and when they find that he maintains his freedom from wilful or conscious sin, they are driven to the conclusion that his faith is radically imsound ; his protestations appear to them almost blas- phemous; they become convinced that he has been se- cretly guilty of some unpardonable sin, and their tone, 1 at first courteous, though warning (compare ch. iv with
JOB 9
ch. xv), becomes stem, and even harsh and menacing. It U clear that, unless they are driven from their jjartial and exclusive theor\-, they must be led on to an uuqual- ilietl condemnation of Job.
In this part of the dialogue the character of the three friends is clearly developed. Eliphaz represents the true patriarchal "chieftain, grave and dignified, and err- ing unlv from an exclusive adherence to tenets liitherto unTpicstioned, and influenced in the first place by genu- ine regard for Job and sympathy with his affliction. Bildad, without much originality or independence of character, reposes partly on the wise saws of antiquity, partly on the authority of his older friend. Zophar dif- fers from both : he seems to be a young man ; his lan- guage is violent, and at times even coarse and offensive (see, especially, his second speech, ch. xx). He repre- sents the prejudiced and narrow-minded bigots of his age.
In order to do justice to the position and arguments of Job, it must be borne in mind that the direct object of the trial was to ascertain whether he would deny or forsake God, and that his real integrity is asserted b}^ God himself. His answers throughout correspond with these data. He knows with a sure mward conviction that he is not an offender in the sense of his opponents : he is therefore confident that, whatever may be the ob- ject of the afflictions for which he cannot account, God knows that he is innocent. This consciousness, which from the nature of things cannot be tested by others, enables him to examine fearlcsslj' their position. He denies the assertion that punishment follows surely on guilt, or proves its commission. Appealing boldlj' to experience, he declares that, in point of fact, prosperity and misfortune are not always or generally commensu- rate ; both are often irrespective of man's deserts ; " the tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure" (xii, Gj. In the government of Provi- dence he can see but one point clearly, viz. that all events and results are absolutely in God's hand (xii, 9- 25 j, but as for the principles which underlie those events he knows nothing. In fact, he is siu-e that his friends j are equaUy uninformed, and are sophists defending their position, out of mere prcyucUce, by arguments and state- ments false in themselves and doubly offensive to God, being hypocritically advanced in his defence (xiii, 1-13). I Still he doubts not that God is just, and although he \ cannot see how or when that justice can be manifested, j he feels confident that his innocence must be recognised. ' "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, he also I wdl be my salvation" (xiii, 14, IG). There remains, ' then, but one coiurse open to him, and that he takes. He turns to supphcation, implores (iod to give him a fair and open trial (xiii, 18-28). Admitting his habil- ity to such sins as are common to man, being unclean by birth (xiii, 2G; xiv, 4), he yet protests his substan- tial innocence, and in the bitter struggle with his mis- ery he first meets the thought which is afterwards de- veloped with remarkable distinctness. Believing that wall death aU hope connected with this world ceases, he prays tliat he may be hitlden in the grave (xiv 13) and there reserved f..r the day when (iod wiU trv his cause and manifest himself in love (verse 15), 'This prayer represents but a dim, yet a profound alid true presentiment, drawn forth, then evidently for the first time, as the possible solution of the dark problem. As l.T a renewal of life here, he dreams not of it (verse 14) nor will he allow that the possible restoration or pros- ! perity of his descendants at all meets the exigencies of i his case (ver. 21, 22).