The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 91

marvels. When for months and months while the godly, their intended prey, "eace.pe togethn the sun hlLll blazed e.ll de.y long out them." And •his is God's doing-it la hie of a clou,ilees sky, when the hee.ven that is providence whioh bringa it to paee. And over his hee.d has been brass, e.nd the earth the oounnl of the froward· ii oarried head- that is under him iron (Dent. :rniii. 33), e. long; or, " put to oonfuaion" (Lee). gn,at despair oorues upon him, and the.t it Ver. H.-'l'hey meet with darme■• in the should ever rain a.gain eeems Rlmost e.n daytime (oomp. Dent. xxviii. 29 o.nd lam. impossibility. Where is the rain to come lix. 10). The metaphor exP.resses the be- from? From that cruel, gle.ring sky, which wilderment of the cre.fty, when they find bes pursued him with its hostility week their schemes foiled, and all their subtlety after wc>ek. and month Rfter month? Or of no ave.ii. Suddenly their light goes out; from that parched ee.rth in whioh, e.s it they know not whe.t to do, or which way seems. no atom of moisture is left? When to tum ; "their v.ay is hid" (eh. iii. 28); God at length gives rain, he ecnrcely they are be.ffled, perplexed, confounded. And believe!! hie eyes. Whe.t? The blessed grope in the noondaylLll in the night (oomp. moisture is onoe more descending from the eh. xii. 25). A ve.riant form of the preced- sky, and watering the ee.rth, and quickening ing hemistieh. • •• what seemed dead. and turning the desert Ver. 15.-But he saveth the poor from the into a garden ! All Eastern poetry is full sword, from their mouth ; ro.ther, from' the of the praises of rain, of its blessedness, of BtDord of t1&eir mouth; i.e. from their cruel and it.s me.rvellousness, e.nd of it.s quickening destructive worda (Ps. lvii. 4; !xiv. 3; Prov. power. Very naturally Eliphaz, in speaking xii. 18), which cut "like a sharp razor" of God's marvellous works of mercy, men- (Ps. Iii. 2). By calumuy, innuendoes, lies, tiolll! rain first, as, within bis experience, fre.ndulent representations, o.nd the like, the one of the chief. And aendeth waters upon ungodl_y work, perhaps, more injury the.n by the fields. This is either the usual pleo- their actions. And from the hand of the DILlltic repetition of the second hemistil'h, or mighty. God delivers the poor· both from (perhaps) a reference to the fountains and their words and from their deeds. rills of water, which spring into being as a Ver. 16.-So the poor hath hope. With consequence of the min. the fall of each cre.fty oppressor, the poor Ver. 11.-'l'o set up on high those that be man's hopes revive. He feels thnt "God low. God's physica.1 blessings Oie intended ruleth in Jacob, and unto the ends of the to eubservc moral ends. He gives his rain, world " (Ps. lix. 13). He recognizes the fact both the former and the latter, to raise up that the Almighty "mo.intains the cause of ruen from despair, to enable them to see in the afllicted, and the right of ·the· poor" him II Gtid of mercv as well as a God of (Ps. cxl. I 2), that he is " a Refuge for the op• vengeance; and with the ea.me object, after pressed, a Refuge in times of trouble" (Ps. withholding it from us for a while, he po1ll'II ix. 9). And iniquity atoppeth her mouth into our pe.rched bee.rte the dew of his Holy (comp. Pa. cvii. 42). Either "the opl'res- Spirit. That those whioh mourn may be sors themselves are struck dumb, reoognjzing ua.lted 1;o safety; or, .. raised t.o se.fety" the fa.et that God is against them ; " or (Lee). "those who pervers!>lyquestiun God'1t ways Ver. 12.-118 disappointeth the devioes of e.re struck dumb, seeing his retributive the crafty; or, frustrateth-me.kes them justice." If we understand the pa.~se.ge iil of no effect (comp. Ps. x:u:iii. 10; lee.. viii. the le.tter sense, we may see in it e. reproof 10). Some suppose Eliphaz to insinuate of Job's murrulll'I! against his treatment by here that Job's apparent wisdom h&.B not God (eh. iii. 11-26). - been true wisdom, butcllllning or craft, aud Ver. 17.-Behold, happy is the manwhoi;il. that therefort, God has brought it to nought. God oorrecteth ! Thjs "opens," as ProfeB'IIOr l:lut to us it rather seems that he enunciates Lee observes," a new view of the subject." a general sentiment, and a true one. He is Hitherto Eliphaz has regarded afflictions giving examJJles of the "marvellous thiogs" as simply puniti'l"e. Now it occurs to him which God does (ver. 9), e.nd naturally that they are sometimes chastisements. enumerates o.mong them his victories over The difference is that punishment has regard tl:.c, craft and cunning of his adversaries only to the past, to the breach of the more.I (cowp. Isa. rliv. 25). So that their hands law committed, and the retribution whicll cannot perform their enterprise; literally, has to follow it. Chastisement looks to a,ui tliei.r l,ll.fi/U ~pliBh flOthing eolid. the future. It aims at producing on effect No substantial result is effected by e.11 their in the mind of the person chastised, at scheming. benefiting him, and raising him in the scale Ver. 1::1.-He te.keth the wiaein their own of moral being. In this point of view oraftineu. Men are, as Shakespeare 11ays, afflictions are blessinga (see Heh. xii. 5-11). .. hoi.at with their own pete.rd." 'fhey " fall Recognizing this, Eliphaz suddenly bursts iutu iheir own nets together" (P11. crli. 11), out with the aeknowledgment, "Happy la on."· 1-27.] THE BOOK OF JOB. 87