The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 106

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER VI. thine annws stick fliat in me"). So Bhsk~- epeare speaks or " the slings anrl arrn,n• of Oh. vi. ond vii. contain Job's reply to outrageous fortnne" for cal11mitieA generlllly. Eliphoz. In eh. vi. he confines himself The metaphor is ll. very common one (see Ueut. xxxii. 23, 42; Pe. vii. 13; xxi. 12; to three points: (I) o justification of his xiv. 5: Lam. iii.13, 14). The poison whereof. "grief"-i.e. of his vexo.tion ond imp11ti1mce Poisoned arrows, 8Uch as are now employer! (vers. 1-7); (2) a declo.rntion tho.t the de- by the savage tribes of Central Africa., were struction with whioh ho hns been threo.tened common in antiquity, though seldom nserl (oh. iv. 9-11, 21 ; v. 2), is exactly the by civilized nations. Ovid declares that thing which he most longs for (vers. 8- the Scytbians of his time made nse of them (' Tristia,' i. 2). Drinketh up my spirit; 13); and (3) a retort upon hie friends, whom rather, my 1-pirit drinl<eth up. Job's spirit he rego.rde ns having a.JI spoken by the absorbs the poisrm that festers in his mouth of Eliphaz, and whom he reproaches wonnds, ond therefore loses control over with-their want of sympathy (vers. 14-23), itself. This is his apology for bis vehe- and with the weo.knees of their orgumen~ mence; be is well - nigh distraught. He adds, The terrors of God do set themselves (vera. 24-30). in array against me. Besides actual pa.ins Vcrs. 1, 2.-BU.t J'ob answered and said, and sufferings, he is assailed by fears. Oh tlla.t my grief were throughly weighed! God's terrors. i.e. all the other evils that he rather, my anger, or my '!>exation-the same has at his disposal, are drawn up a.gainst word os . tho.t used by Eliphaz when re- him, as it were, in battle array, and still proaching Job, in eh. v. 2. Jobwisbestbat, further agitate and distract his soul. What before men blame him, they would calmly further troubles may not God bring npon weigh the force of bis feelings and expres- him? sions_ against the weight. of tbe calamity Ver. 5.-Doth the wild ass bray when he which oppt~sses him. His words may seem hath grass l literally, o-r,er qrass; i.e. when too s1rong and too violent: but are they he has grass under his feet, and hB.B conse- more than a just counterpoise to the extreme quently no cause of complaint. Job means to character of. his afflictions? The weighing say that his own complainiogs are as natuml of words and thoughts Wits an essential and instinctive os those of animals. (On element in the Egyptian conception of the the species of wild asses known to Job, see juclgment, where Thoth held the balnnce, the comment on eh. x:xxix. 5.) Or loweth and in the one scale were placed the merits the ox over his fodder l The lowing of the of the deceased, in the other the image of ox, like the braying of the wild ass, is a Ma, or Truth, and his fate was determined complaint-a sign. of distress and discomfort. by the side to which the balance inclined Ver. 6.-Co.n that whioh is 1ll1Savoury be (' Ritual of the Dead,' eh. oxxv.; Wilkinson, eaten withont salt l or, that wl,ich is insipid. • Ancient Egypticms,' vol. v. p. 252). And Many critics suppose that in this 11ud the my c!l.lamity laid in the balances together. following verse Job reproaches Elir•haz with My calamity placed in one scale, and my the insipidity of his remarks, and declares vexation in the other, and so weighed, ea.oh that his soul refuses to touch such !o.,th- against e11ch, some food. Others regard him as still Ver. 3.-For now it wonld be hes.vier speaking in his own defence, and justifying than the sa.nd of the sea (comp. Prov. xxvii. his expressions of disgnst by the nauseous 3, '' A stone is heavy, 11.nd the sand weighty; character of the food which had been put but a fool's wrath is heavier than them before him: i.e. of the treatment which he both;" see e.lso Eoclus. n:ii. 15). There- has received. Either explanation produces fore my words are swallowed Ut> ; rather, as a good sense ; but perhaps the former is the in the Revised Versfon, therefore have my more natural. Or is there o.ny taste in the words been rash. Job here excuses without white of a.n egg l So our Revisers; and so justifying himself. The excessive character Dillmann and Ca.non Cook. Professor Lee of his sufferings hos, be declares, forced him su~gests "tl,e whey of cheese" for "the to utter re.sh ond violent words, ns those wl,ite of an egg;" others, "the juice of wherein he cursed his day ond wished that purslaine." We have certainly no other he ho.d never been born (oh. iii. 1, S-11). evidence that eggs were eaten in primitive Some o.llowanoe ought to be made for mah times. speech uttered under such oircumslonoes. Ver. 7.-The things that my soul refused Ver, 4.-For the arrows of the Almighty to touch a.re as my aorrowfnl meat; rather, are within me (oomp. Ps. xxxviii. 2, "For as in the Revised Ver11ion, my soul ref11,3eth  TRE BOOK. OF JOB. [on. VT. 1-30.