2. It may be granted that the primary design of the poem is that which is distinctly intimated in the intro- duction, and confirmed in the conclusion, namely, to show the effects of calamity m its worst and most awful form upon a truly religious spirit. Job is no Stoic, no Titan (Ewald, p. 26), struggling rebelliously against God; no Prometheus victim of a jealous and unrelent- ing Deity: he is a suffering man, acutely sensitive to
j all impressions inward and outward, grieved by the loss j of wealth, position, domestic happiness, the respect of I his countrymen, dependents, and followers, tortured by : a loathsome, incurable, and all but unendurable disease, I and stung to an agony of grief and passion by the in- sinuations of conscious guilt and hypocrisy. Under such provocation, being wholly without a clew to the cause of his miser\', and hopeless of restoration to hap- ; piness on earth, he is shaken to the utmost, and driven I almost to desperation. Still in the centre of his being I he remains firm and unmoved — with an intense con- sciousness of his own integritj' — without a doubt as to the power, wisdom, truth, or absolute justice of God, I and therefore a^vaiting with longing expectation the ' final judgment which he is assured must come and bring I him deliverance. The representation of such a charac- ter, involving the discomfiture oP man's great enemy, I and the development of the manifold problems which i such a spectacle suggests to men of imperfect knowl- j edge, but of thoughtful and inquiring mind, is the more direct object of the writer, who, like all great spirits of j the ancient world, dealt less with abstract propositions than with the objective realities of existence. Such is I the impression naturally made by the book, and which j is recognised more distinctly in proportion as the reader I grasjjs the tenor of the arguments, and realizes the char- acters and events.
3. Still, beyond and beneath this outward and occa^ sional design there evidently lies a grander problem, which has exercised the reflection of all pious and con- siderate minds, and which we know was vividly pressed u]jon the contemplation even of the Oriental saint of early times (Psa. xxxvii). Hence the nearly unani- mous voice of critics and readers has decided that the
I ultimate object of the book is the consideration of the question how the afflictions of the righteous and the 1 iirosperity of the wicked can be consistent with (Jod's j justice. But it should be observed that the direct jirob- lem exclusively refers to the first point, the sccoiul 1»> j ing only incidentally discussed on occasion of the leading i theme. If this is overlooked, the author would apijear j to have solved only one half of his problem : the case 1 from which the whole discussion proceeds has reference i merely to the leading problem.
JOB
929
JOB
There is another fimdamental error which has led < nearly aU modern interpreters to a mistaken idea of the ^ design of this book. They assume that the jiroblem could be satisfactorily solved only when the doctrine of j retribution in another life had been first established, which had not been done bj' the author of the book of Job : a perfect solution of the question was therelbre not to be expected from him. Some assert that his solution is erroneous, since retribution, to be expected in a future world, is transferred by him to this life ; others say that he cut the knot which he could not unloose, and has been satisfied to ask for implicit submission and devo- tedness, showing at the same time that every attempt at a solution must lead to dangerous positions: blind resignation, therefore, was the short meaning of the lengthened discussion. Upon the doctrine of retribu- tion after death our author does not enter; but that he knew it may be inferred from several passages with great probability; as, for instance, xiv, 14, "If a man die, shall he Uve again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." The if here shows that the writer had been before engaged in con- sidering the subject of life after death ; and when such is the case, a pious mind will necessarily indulge the hope, or will, at least, have an obscure presentiment of immortality. Tlie truth also of God's undoubted grace, on which the doctrine of immortality is based, will be found clearly laid down in chap. xix. Still the author does not recur to this hope for the purpose of solving his problem ; he did not intend in his discussion to ex- ceed the limits of what CJod had dearly revealed, and this was in his time confined to the vague notion of life contmued after death, but not connected with rewards and punishments. From these considerations it appears that those interpreters who, with Bernstein, De Wette, and Umbreit, assume that the book of Job was of a sceptical nature, and intended to dispute the doctrine of retribution as laid domi in the other books of the Old Testament, have entirely misunderstood it.
On nearer examination, however, it appears that the doctrine of retribution after death is not of itself alone calculated to lead to a solution of the problem. The be- lief in a final judgment is firm and rational only when it rests in the belief in God's continued providential government of the world, and in his acting as sovereign Lord in all the events of human life. Temporary in- justice is stiU injustice, and destroys the idea of a holy and just God. A God who has something to redress is no God at all. Even the ancient heathen perceived that future awards would not vindicate incongruities in divine providence here (see Barth, Notes to Claiidian, 1078 sq.). God's just retribution in this world is extol- led throughout the Old Testament. The New Testa- ment holds out to the righteous promises of a future life, as well as of the present ; and our Saviour himself, in setting forth the rewards of those who, for his sake, for- sook ever_ything, begins with this life (Matt, xix, 29). A nearer examination of the benedictions contained in the Sermon on the Mount (JIatt. v) shows that none of them exclusively refer to future blessings; the judg- ment of the wicked is in his view proceeding without interrujjtion, and therefore his examples of the distribu- tion of divine justice in this world are mingled with those of requital in a future order of things. The Gali- laeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their own sacrifices (Luke xiii, 1), were in Christ's opinion not ac- cidentally kUled ; and he threatens those who would not repent that they should in like manner perish. That sickness is to be considered as a punishment for sin we are clearly taught (John v, 14 ; Luke v, 20, 24) : in the former passage it is threatened as a punishment for sins committed; in the latter it is healed in consequence of pimishment remitted.. The passage in John ix, 2, 3, which is often appealed to in proof that our Lord did not consider sickness as a punishment for sin, does not prove this, but only opposes the Jewish position — found- ed on the mistaken doctrine of retribution — that all se-