The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 16

Lee tr,melBfAle, "U not, he will bl8118 thee unto lob, and said, The oxen were plough- to thy foce;" the LXX., "81ll'ely he will ing, and the aasea (literally, the •he-a..ea) bless thee to thy foco ; " Oanon Cook, " See feeding beside them (literally, at thei'r hand.). if ho will not renounce thee openly." But Note that, notwithstanding the festival tho mnjodty of Hebrt1ists t1grce with the labour wae still going on ; there wae n~ Authorized Version. 8t1tun suggests that, if geneml holiday; the oxen were at work in Job bo etripped of his possessions, he will the field, not perhaps all of them, but the openly curso God, o.nd renounce his worship. greater nnmber, for the ploughing-time ie Hero he did not so much calumnie.te, or lie, short in the Oriental countries, and tho ns show the evil thoughts thnt were in hie " earing" is oJI done at the eame lime. own henrt. No doubt he believed thnt Job The bulk of Job's labourers were probably would t1ct as he snid. engaged in the business, o.nd they had Ver. 12.-And the Lord said unto Satan, brought the a.seea with them, probably to Behold, all that he hath is in thy power ; keep them under their eye, lest thieves liternlly, in thy hand, e.s in the margin. should carry them off, when the catastrophe God withdraws hie protection from Job's related in the next verse occurred. possessions; he does not himself take them Ver. 15.-And the Sa.beans (literally, a.way, e.e Satan had suggested (ver. 11); but Sheba) fell upon them, and took them a.way. he allows Satan, who can do nothing with- The Sa.beans were the principal people of out his allowance, to deal with them as he Arabia in ancient times, and the name pleases. As God dispenses blessings through seems to be used sometimes in the general the angelic host (Ps. xci. II, 12; Heh. i. 14), sense of" Azabs" (see Ps. lxxii. 10, 15; so he, sometimes at any rate, allows spirits Jer. vi. 20). We may suppose that here, of evil to be the ministers of hie chastise- either the general sense is intended, or, if mhts. ODly upon himself put not forth the specific one, then that, at the date thlne hand. The person of Job WllS not to whereto the story of Job belongs, there we, e be touched as yet. He we.a to be injured Sa.beans in Eastern as well as in Sonthe:m only in his belongings. So Satan went Arabia, in the neighbourhood of the Upper forth from the presenoe of the Lord. Having Persian Gulf as well as in the neighbour- obtained a permission which he thought hood of the Indian Ocean. The plundering would serve his purpose, Satan did not habits of all the Arab tribes a.re well known. delay, but promptly departed, to take advan- Strabo says that the Sa.beans, even at the tage of the permiseion given him. To be in height of their prosperity, made excnrsiollS the presence of God must be an intense for the sake of plunder into Arabia Petnea pain to the evil one. and even Syria (Strab., xvi. 4). Yea, they Ver. 13.-And there was a day when his have slain; rather, they slew, or they smote. sons and his daughters were ea.ting and The servants; literally, the young men; i.e. drinking wine in their eldest brother's the labourers who were engaged in plough- house, One of the birthdays, the eldest ing, and would be in duty boUlld to resist brother's probably, had come round, and the the carrying off of the cattle. With the ordinary gathering (see ver. 4) had taken edge of the sword. The lance is the chief place-the feasting and drinking had begun, weapon of the modern Bedouin, but it may while the father, remaining in hie own house, have been different anciently. Or the ex- was perhaps interceding with God for his pression used may merely mean "with children, or anxiously considering the pos- weapons of war." And I oDly am escaped sibility that, in their light-hearted merri- a.lone to tell thee. Professor Lee trans- ment, they might have put God away lates, "And I have hardly escaped a.lone to altogether from their thoughts, and so have tell thee." practically renounced him, when the series Ver. 16.-While he was yet speaking; of calamities began. How often calamity literally, he, yet speaki,'!f; fr, -ro.J-rou comes to us when we are lenst expecting it, AC1Aoiiv-ros, LXX. The wnter hurries his when all seems quiet a.bout us, when every- words to express the rapidity with which thing is prospering-nay, even when 11 high one announcement followed another (see festival-time has come, and the joy-bells tll'e vers. 17, 18). There oame also another, and aoundiug in OUJ' ears, and OUJ' hearts a.re said, The fire of God ie fe.llen from heaven. ela.teod within us I Job was, at any rate, " The fire of God " is Ulldonbtedly light- spa.red the sudden plunge from exuberant ning (oomp. Numb. xi. 1-3; 2 Kings i. joy into the depths of woe. It was hie ha.bit 10, 14; Ps. lx:niii. 21). This Sa.tun, under to preserve an even temper, and neither to permission, might wield, as being "the be greatly exalted, nor, unless under an prince of the power of ~he air " (Eph. ii. 2); extremity of suffering, to be greatly depressed. but there is, no doubt, eomething very extra- He was now, however, a.bout to be subjected 01dinary in a storm extending over the t.o a fiery trial. pastures ocoupied by nine thousand eheep, Ver. 14.-And there oame a mel88enger end destroying the whole of them (Oook).  THE BOOK OF JOB. [ou, J. t-2a. 1