The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 122

are no good to him." It has been concluded e. time soften and break up; an nicer i■ from this thnt some considerable time had then form€-d, and e. discharge follow" of a. elnpsod since Job was stricken by hie dis- virnlentand loathsome character. Pres~ntly ease. Dut he ie perhaps looking to the the discharge stops; the ulcer heals; bnt future o.a much aa to the po.at, anticipating only to break out again in Rnother pl.uce. o. long, lingering illness. Elephantiasis ie a In the Revised Version the pas,,age ia diaeBRe which often lasts for years. And rendered, My akin clm1eth up, and breaketh weariBome nights are appointed to m:i. To out afruh. one stretched on a bed of sickness, the night Ver. 6.-My daya are swifter than a is always more wearisome than the day. It weaver'& shuttle. Though each day ia I\ has no cho.ngee, nothing to mark its flight. weariness, yet, on looking back upon my It seems almost interminable. In elephan- whole life, it seems to have come and gone tiasis, however, it ie o special feoture of the in a moment (comp. eh. ix. 25). And are disease that the sufferings of the patient apent without hope. Job does not s!Jare in 111'0 greatest at night. "In elephantiasia the hopes which Elipbaz has held out (see anlllslhetica," says Dr. Erasmus Wilson, "a eh. v. 17-?:7). He has no hope but in sense of dulness and heat pervades the sur- death. face, and there are sensations of tingling Ver. 7.-0 remember that my li!e is wind! and prickling, and of burning heat. While (comp. Ps. 111:xviii. 39). The wind is an the integument is insensible, there are deep- image of all that is vain, shifting, unstable, seated burning pains, sometimes of' a bone ready to pass away (eh. vi. 36; Prov. xi. 29; or joint, sometimes of the vertebral column. Eccles. v. 16; Isa. u:vi. 18; xii. 9; J er. v. Thue pains are greatest at night; they pre-oent 13, etc.). Mine eye shall no more see good. eleep, and gi'De rise to restleBBnesa and frightful Another protest against the hopes that dreams" (Quain's 'Dictionary of Medicine,' Eliphaz has held out (see the comment on vol. i. p. 817). ver. 6; and comp. eh. ill:. 25). Job is still Ver. 4.-When I lie down, I say, When speaking of this life only, and not touching shall I arise, and the night be gone 1 So the question of another. Gesenius, Rosenmiiller, and Delitzsch. Ver. 8.-The eye of him that bath seen Others translate, "the night is long" (Dill- me shall see me no more ; thot is, I sho.11 mann, Renan), or "the night seems end- go down to the grave, a.nd be no more seen less" (Merx); comp. Dent. x11:viil. 67, "At upon earth. Neither friend nor enemy evening thou shalt say, Would God it were shall behold me after that. Thine eyes. morning I " And I am full of tossings to and God's eyes. God still sees him and watches fro. Professor Lee understands "tossings hi:n; this is a certain consolation ; but will of the mind," or "distracting thoughts;" it last? .AJ'e upon me, and I am not. I am but it is more probable that tossings of the on the point of disappearing. Even now I body are meant. These are familiar to every scarcely eidst. bad sleeper. Unto the dawning of the day. Ver. 9.-As the oloud is consumed and A little rest sometimes visits tile tired eye- vanisheth away. In mountainous countries lids after a long, sleepleas night. Job may one sees clouds clinging to a mountain-side, refer to this, or he may simply mean the.t which do not float away, but gradually he lny tossing on his bed all through the shrink, and at last wholly disappear. They night, till morning came, when he arose. are " consumed " iu the strictest sense of Ver. 5.-My ftesh is olothed with worms. the word-the hot rays of the sun drink The Jona et origo mali in elephantiasis is e. them up. So he that goeth down to the worm called filaria eanguinis homini,. It grave; rather, to Sheol; i.e. to the lower is e. long, fine, thread-like creature, of a. world, the abode of the departed. Whe.t white colour, smooth, and devoid of mark- e11:actly was Job's idea of this world it is ings (Quain's 'Dictionary of Medicine,' vol. impossible to say, or whether it involved i. pp. 512, 513). And oloda of dust. This is the continued separate identity of indi- rother poetical than strictly medical. The vidue.l souls e.nd their continued conscious- 1pecial characteristio of elephantiasis, from ness. In Isaiah's conception both seem which it derives its name, is that the integu- certainly to have been involved (L!a.. xiv. ment, or outer skin, is "formed into large 9-18), ond pe1haps inJacob's(Gen.mvii. masees or folds, with a rugose condition of 85); but Job's creed on the subject ce.n only the surface, not unlike the appearance of an be conjectured. It is certain, however, that elephant's leg" (Qnaiu, vol. i. p. 431). But both the Egyptians and the early Babylon- the swellings do not contain "olods of dust." ians held the continuance after death of lty skin ia broken, and become loathsome. individut\l souls, their separate e11:istence, A common feature in elephantiasis is the e.nd their consciousness (see the author's development and gradual growth of solid • History of' Ancient Egypt,' vol. i. pp. 317 pa.pules or tubercles in the skin. Theee -319; a.nd 'Religions of the Ancient enlarge oe the disee.11e progresses, a.nd Rfter World,' pp. 62--e-l:). Shall oome up nci 122 THE BOOK OF JOB. (cR, TII.1-U