[3.] The solution of the question at issue is not ex- clusively given in the addresses of God, which contain only the basis of the solution, not the solution itself. In setting forth his majesty, and in showing that imputing to him injustice is repugnant to a correct conception of his nature, these addresses establish that there must be a solution which docs not impair divine justice. This is not, indeed, the solution itself, but everything is thus prepared for the solution. We apprehend that God must be just, but it remains further to be shown how he can be just, and still the riuhtions be miserable.
[4.] Xoryet can we justly n-anl ihc speech of Elihu as affording altogether a coiiivt s.ilutidn of this main ()uestion; for, as the preceding anal3sis has shown, it | falls short of the purpose, and the text itself (xxxviii, 1 2) expressly states its bewilderment and incompetency. Nevertheless, tlie position of this in the poem, and the general agreement of its doctrines with the final residt, indicate that it contains, in germ at least, the correct solution, as far as human sar/acit// can go. The leading princii)lc in Elihu's statement is, that calamity in the shape of trial was inflicted even on the comparatively best men, but tliat God allowed a favorable turn to take place as soon as it had attained its object. Now this is the key to the events of Job's life. Though a pious and righteous man, he is tried by severe afflictions. He knows not for what purpose he is smitten, and his ca- lamity continues; but when he learns it from the ad- dresses of Klihu and God, and humbles himself, he is relieved from tlic burden which oppresses him, and am- ple prosperity atones for the afflictions he has sustained (the last vestige of inj usticc on the part of tlie Almiglity in thus afflicting a good man at the instance of Satan, and fi)r the sake of the example to future ages, disap- pearing with tlie consideration tliat the subject of it himself ref|uired the severe lesson for his own spiritual profit). Add to this that the remaining portion of Eli- hu's speeches, in which he points to God's infinite maj- esty as including his justice, is continued in the ad- dress of God; that Elihu foretells God's appearance; that lie IS not punished by (Jod as are the friends of •lob; in tine, that Job, by his very silence, acknowledges the problem to have been solved bv Eliiui; and his si- ence is the more signiflcanl. because i:iihu had urged him to defend himself (xxxiii. :i-J). an.l because Job had repeatedly declared he would -hold his peace" if it was shown to him wherein he had erred (vi, 24, 25 ; xix, 4) 1 his view of the book of Job has among modem authors been supported chiefly by Stiiudlin {Kntrdqe zur Re- hipons u„d .Sitteulehre, ii, 133) and Stickel {Das Buch llwl,, Lpzcr. 1K12), though in both it is mixed up with
much
erroneous matter; and it is further confirmed by
the whole Old Testament giving the same answer to the question mooted which the speeches of Elihu offer : in its concentrated form it is presented in Psa. xxxvii, xlix, Ixxiii.
At the same time, it must be conceded that the rep- rehension of Elihu's speech by Jehovah himself, as sa- voring of presumption, intimates, as the tenor of the whole succeeding portion of the poem also implies, that there are mysteries in divine providence, the full solu- tion of which, in this life at least, God does not deign nor think best to make to his creatures who are the sub- jects of them. The inscrutabUity of God's ways by hu- man judgment is a necessary inference from his infinity, and the character of this life as a probation requires the withhohling of many of his plans in order to their prop- er disciplinary effects. Especially is the saint required to " walk by ftiith and not by sight," and the growth and fullest exercise of this faith can only occur under such circumstances as those in which Job was placed. While it is pre-eminently the doctrine of both the Old and the New Testament that afflictions are the earthly lot of the righteous, it is equally a maxim under both dispensations that the most ennobling motive for their patient endurance is the simple fact that they are dis- pensed by oiur heavenly Father, who alone fuUy knows why they are best for us. Could the subject of them at the time perceive clearly their necessity and advantage, half their value would be destroyed ; for an assurance of this he must trust the known kindness and wisdom of the Hand that smites him (Heb. xii, 1). It was this sublime position, finally attained by the tried patriarch (Job xxiii, 10), which gilds his character with its most sacred hue. The above is substantially the view of the moral design of the book entertained by the latest ex- positors (e. g. Conant, Delitzsch, etc.), although they do not bring out these ethical considerations with suffi- cient distinctness.
It remains to consider the view taken by Ewald re- specting the design of the book of Job. He justly re- jects the common, superficial view of its design, which has recently been revived and defended by Hirzel (see his Commentar, Lpzg. 1839), and \vhich represents the author as intending to show that man cannot apprehend the plans of God, and does best to submit in ignorance, without repining at afHictions. Nowhere in the whole book is simple resignation crudely enjoined, and no- where does Job say that he submits to such an injunc- tion. The prologue represents his sufferings as trials, and the epilogue declares that the end had proved this ; consequently the author was competent to give a the- odicy with reference to the calamity of Job and if such is the case he cannot have intended simply to recom- mend resignation. The Biblical -wTiters, when engaged on this problem, know how to justify God with refer- ence to the afllictions of the righteous, and have no in- tention of evading the difficulty when they recommend resignation (see the Psalms quoted above, and, in the New Testament, the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap, xii). The view of the book of Job alluded to would isolate it, and take it out of its natural connection. Thus far, then, we agree with Ewald, but we cannot approve of his own view of the design of the book of Job. Accord- ing to his system, " calamity is never a punishment for sins committed, but always a mere phantom, an imag- inary show, above which we must raise ourselves by the consciousness of the eternal nature of the human mind, to which, by external prosperity, nothing can be added, and from which, by external misfortune, nothing can be taken away. It was (says Ewald) the merit of the book of Job to have prepared these somider views of worldly evil and of the immortality of mind, trans- mitting them as fruitful buds to posterity." But such a system as this must be abortive to console under any considerable affliction, and is equally opposed to the whole tenor of Scripture, which, while recognising the reality and naturalness of sorrow, and even allowing its exhibition, yet knows how effectually to cure its