The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 139

wherein thou, a righteous me.n N: h!IJ)OtMri, six, eevrn, 0entllr iae (Gen. xi. 10-17), whl0h clwelle,t. enablad them to ·give their attention to Ver. 7.-Though thy beginning WU IIDl&ll i everything in its tum, and to exhaust all mther, toere fmall. Bilde.d does not refer the experiences that human life has to offer, to the past. bnt to the present. Though, And know nothing; i.e. comparatively. Si.r if God were now to set to work to prosper Ise.ac Newton mid that he felt liko a child Job, his beginning would be slender indeed, gathering shells upon the seashore, while Jet what the outcome might be none could the gre..'\t O0ean of truth lny unexplored know. God might prosper him greatly. Yet before him. Because our days upon earth thy latter end should greatly inorease, Here, are a shadow (comp. oh. xiv. 2: Pe. oii. once more. Bilde.d docs but follow in the 11 : lsR. xl. 6). So brief 1md 11.eeting that steps of EliphRz (see oh. v. 18-26), pro- thry can ecnrcoly be called a reality. phesying smooth things, ae he hr.d done. It Ver. 1O.-Shall not they teaoh thee, and is diffirult to believe that either comforter tell thee, and utter words out ot their heart 1 put any faith in the prospect which be held (see the comment on 'l"er. 8). 0ut, m imagined that Job would really be Vor. 11.-Can the rnsh grow up withont restored to prosperity. Rn,ther there is a mire! The wor,l translated "rush" (NCJ) ro,·ert 11&l'CIU!m in their words. If thou wert is that which oocure nlso in Exod. ii. S; iuJ ced so free from guilt llB thou claimest lsn. xviii. 2 and x:i;:xv. 7, as designating a to be, then thou wouldst be confident of a plant common in Egypt, and whioh is only happy issue out of tl,y affliotion.s. If thou found in these four places. It is gencr:i.lly srt not coufident of such an issue, it ia be- admitted that the " papyrus" is meant "o cause thou art conscious of guilt. plant of the Cyperacet£, or sedge family, Yer. 8.-For inquire . . . of the former which wn,s formerly common in Egypt" age. Put the matter to the test of e:i;:peri• (Hooker, in Smith's • Diet. of the Bible,' ence-not the short-lived experience ofliving vol. iii. p. 1019). The chief peculiarity of men. but the treasure of experience which the papyrus is its triangular stem, which has been handed down from genern.tion to rises to the height of six: or seven, some- generation since the remotest times, and times even of thirteen or fourteen, feet, and which is embodied in proverbs-the expres- terminates in a bnuch of thread-like.flower• sion of the concentrated wisdom of antiquity. ing branchlets. The pith of these stems Search out and see what has in fonner ages was the material of which the ancient been thought conoerning prosperons men, Egyptians me.de their paper. The papyrus like thyself, when suddenly cast down and is a water-plant, and needs an abundant affiic.ted. And prepare thyself to the search supply, but would often spring up out of of their fathers. Go back, i.e., to the past any small pool which the Nile left as it age, but do not stop tbere-pursne thy re- retired, nnd, when the water failed from the searches further and further to their remote pool, would rapidly wither. away. A fine ancestors. Bildad implies that the records papyrus plant we.a on vielV, with other of ti,~se remote times have been, in some water-plants, in tbe circular greenhouse in way or other, preserved, either in writings Kew Gardens, towards the end of tlle sco.son or by oral tradition. Writing was certainly of 1890. Can the flag grow without water 1 known in Egypt and Babylonia from a time '' The fl.ag" (m~) seems to be the ordinary anterior to Abraham, and to the Hittites at sedge, or marsh-plant. Like the papyrus, it a Jate not very much later. Books of advice would often spring up in all it~ greenness and instrnction embodied in proverbs, or from a pool or pond left by the retiring moral precepts, were e.wong the earliest, in river, and then in a few days, when the Egypt certainly. See the "Instructions of water was dried up, would wither awo.y. Amen-em-hat," in the • Records of the Paet,' Both images represent the prosperity of the vol. ii. pp. 11-16, and the 'Proverbs of wicked, and were probably proverbial. .Aphc,l,i~,' published by the Rev. Du_nb~r Ver. 12.-Whilst it is yet in his green- Hrni!J. Bildad's s;,eech is thought to mdi- ne&&, and not out down. It grows ·and e11tt: •· spc::cio.l familiarity wit!J Egypt." flourishes in a rich greenness up to a certain Yer. 9.-For we are but of yesterday. point; no one touches it: but the water ""' "," i.P-. "of tlie present generation, old fails from the root, and it fa.dee, collapses, men though we way be, are but of yester- aud is gone. It withereth before any other day; our experience is as nutl,ing compared herb. The ground may be all green around with the long, long experience of the past it with ordinary grass and other herbs, since centuries, wherein the men of old "hived they only need a little moisture-the water- wisdom with each stndione year," not, like plaut will collapse unle8e it has its full ourselves, hurried and pressed by the short- supply. ness of the term to which life is now re- Ver. I 3.- So are the paths of all that duced, but having ample time for refl.ection forget God. So, that ie, d,) those proceed on r.ud coDBi.deration in their loug lh-es of five, their way by whom God l!a& been fcrgotteu. OB. ffll, 1-22,] THE BOOK OF JOB. 141