A third point is that for dramatic completeness the action had to bring Job to full acquittal in view of his friends. Nothing less will satisfy the sense of poetic justice which rules the whole work.
Finally, a biographical reminiscence may have given colour to the epilogue. If, as we have supposed, the author was once a man of substance and power in Israel, and, reduced to poverty in the time of the Assyrian conquest, found himself an exile in Arabia--the wistful sense of impotence in the world must have touched all his thinking. Perhaps he could not expect for himself renewed power and place; perhaps he had regretfully to confess a want of faithfulness in his own past. All the more might he incline to bring his great work to a close with a testimony to the worth and design of the earthly gifts of God, the temporal life which He appoints to man, that present discipline most graciously adapted to our present powers and yet full of preparation for a higher evolution, the life not seen, eternal in the heavens.
Abraham faith of, 27.
Accadian psalms, 3.
Acquittal, Job expects, 285.
Agnostic, 117.
Amiel quoted, 88, 288.
Amos, chap. iv. 4, 44.
Angel-interpreter, 351.
Argument, the reconciling, 392.
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 95.
Assize, the Great, 292.
Astrology, neglected, 317.
Author, his greatness, 6; lives in the poem, 7; member of Northern Kingdom, 15; in the desert, 17; inspiration of, 32; paints his own trials, 68; his brave truthfulness, 224; his prophetic insight, 303.
Bene-Kedem, 23.
Bible, universality of, 17.
Bigot, the, 244.
Bildad, character of, 102; his first speech, 135; his second speech, 215; his bitterness, 216; his third speech, 298.
Boethius quoted, 288.
Book of Job, a poem of the soul, 3; precursors of, 3; poetical art of, 5; date of, 6; autobiographical, 7, 411; style of, 8; problem of, 11; personality in, 12; place in canon, 27; main controversy of, 101; inspiration of, 122; logic of, 295; prepares for Christ, 265, 404.
Bunyan quoted, 144.
Bushnell, H., quoted, 259.
Carlyle, T., quoted, 68, 223.
Catholic theologian, 135.
Chaldæans, 65.
Chaos, no moral, 273.
Christ, sacrifice of, 62; mediation of, 121; his preaching, 276; Redeemer, 242, 404; preparation for, 265.
Church, the Jewish, 14.
Church, complaints against, 264; its duty, 295.
Cliff in the desert, 231.
Consolation, 80.
Corporate sympathy, 230.
Creed of Job's friends, 155.
Criticism of first author, 346.
Dante, 60.
Davidson, Dr. A. B., 11, 96, 311, 333.
Davidson, Dr. S., 6.
Death, finality of, 187.
Deism and positivism, 365.
Delay of the Almighty, 269.
Dogmatism, 136.
Doughty, Mr. C. M., 20.
Dualism, 166.
Duty, keep close to, 88.
Edwards, Jonathan, quoted, 274.
Egyptian "Book of the Dead," 212.
Elihu, who was he? 343; inspiration claimed by, 342.
Eliphaz, character of, 102; his first speech, 99; vision of, 106; apparently right, 113; his religion, 114; his second speech, 187; a pure Temanite, 189; jealous for God, 191; his third speech, 269.
Eloah, the righteous, 232; and the work of His hands, 233; opening Sheol, 233.
Emerson, R. W., quoted, 257.
Eschatology, rose-water, 55.
"Everlasting Yea," 67.
Evolution, spiritual, 58; of religion, 180; physical, completes nothing, 241; reveals Divine wisdom, 318.
Ewald, H., 11, 15.
Failure of old world, 280.
Fairbairn, Dr. A. M., 57.
Faith, and happiness, 45; three barriers of, 235.
False judgments, 86.
Fate of the wicked, 219.
Festus quoted, 290.
Finality and progress, 193.
Funeral in the desert, 264.
God, no despot, 149; seems to persecute, 176, 204; and nature, 301.
Godliness, earthly reward of, 245.
Goël, the, 234.
Happiness and faith, 45.
Hauran, 20.
Hebrew thought, limitations of, 164; realism, 410.
Hokhma, 9, 16.
Human frailty, 177.
Idealism, 65, 79.
Idolatry, 333.
Idumæa, religion of, 25.
Individualism of psalms, 13.
Inherited opinions, 169.
Inquiry and reverence, 389.
Inspiration, of author, 32, 33; within limits, 224, 384, 387; claimed by Elihu, 342.