righteousneee to be filthy rage, and tbne, as ea.lied a" da.ysman," since he appoints tha it were, replunge him in the miro ancl cloy day on which the e.rbitra.tion is to corn<: oil'. from whioh be bad sought to freo himself, The LXX. renders by µ,<1'[-r71,, "medial or." and hold him forth o. more loatheome wretch Tho.t might la.y his hand upon us both. than ever. And mine own olothes shall Modera.te between ns, that is; keep us both abhor me. So loathsome would be be that in check ; assert an a.nthority to which we his very garments, stained and fouled by hi~ must both submit. die0B11e, would shrink away from him and Ver. 31.-Let him take his rod awa.y from hate to touch him. me; rather, who would remm,e hi• rod from Ver. 32.-For he is not e. me.n, 01 I am, me. Job means that it would be a part ot' that I should answer him, and we should the duty of the" claysman "to see that Gr,c\', oome together in judgment (comp. vers. 2- rod was removed from him before he wa8 14). On one of two conditions only, Job called upon to plead, so that he might not thinks1 could the contest be even between labour under so great a disa.dvantage as hia himsel f and Goel. (I) If God, divesting sufferings would place him under. And let himself of all his Divine attributes, be- not his fear terrify me; or, and would not came man ; (2) if some thirclsman could suffer hia fear to terrify me ; i.e. woulrl not be found, some umpire or arbitrator, to allow Job to he placed nn,Icr the disa,lrn.n- preside over the contest, and decide it. tage, either of pa.in or of fe:1r, either of actual Neither condition, however, was (he thought) or prospective suffering. possible ; and therefore no satisfactory Ver. 35.-Then would I spea.k, and not judgment could take place. Recent com- fea.r him. Job ha.a ima,gined conditions mentators observe that the Cbristia.n scheme, which a.re impossible (though they may, to which Job could uot anticipate, provides some extent, be compensated for in the almost a literal fulfilment of both conditions, actual oobeme of man's redemption); and since the God who is to judge us is "true says tho.t, under the circumstances which Man," and is also a Mediator, or "Thirds- he has imagined, he would not fea.r to man," between us and the offended Father, justify himself before God. The assertion with authority to make the final decision, is over-daring, and, as Schultens says, shows "the Father having committed all judg- the pa.triarch to be no longer master of him- ment unto the Son" (John v. 22), and" given self, but carried awa.y by the force of over- him authority to execute judgment also," for wrought feeling. But it is not so with me; the very reason that he is "the Son of man" i.e. "I am not iu such a po,ition as to enter (John v. 27). on my justification." I am weighted by my Ver. 33.-Neither is there e.ny daysman suffcriugs, ancl also by my fears. I therefore betwixt ne; literally, judge, or arbitrator, decline the contest.
HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-4.-Job to Bildad: 1. Bildad's theology refuted. I. AN IRONICAL CONCES- SION. "I know that it is so of a truth." The doctrine propounded by Bildad (eh. viii. 3), that in God's dealings with mankind such a thing as either a perversion or mis- carriage of Justice was impossible, Job in n certain sense allows. Abstractly considered, the sentiment was one which Job cheerfully admitted. As expounded by Bildad, that the Divine government of the world was one of visible retributive justice, he expressly impugned its truth. Yet, in order to expose its fallacious character as well as to demonstrate its worthlessness, he is willing to proceed on the assumption of its truth. II. A PERTINENT INTERROGATION. "How should man [literally, 'frail, perishable man'] be just," i.e. maintaiq his righteousness, establish his innocence, "with God?" Supposing, for the s11,ke of argument, that such a sufferer possessed the inward, ineradi- cable conviction that he was innocent (i.e. free from notorious transgression): by what process could he vindicate his personal integrity so as to arrest the punitive hand of the Almighty? By none that would be availing, Job proceeds to show. In a profounder sense than is here employed, the question of the patriarch possesses a momentous siuni- ficance for man. How shall man, the frail, sinful, a.nd perishing, es ta blis h his rig h ttlius- ness before God? As in Job's case, so in every man's. the attempt to do so is a wild imagination, l,'nd can only result in failure. Not, however, because of the impossibility of establishing what really exists, as in Job's view, but becaase the thing, the righteous- ness, is not thore to be maintained; all the world being m mward consciousness, as well 118 m outward fact, guilty before God. 160 THE BOOK OF JOB. [on. 1x. 1-86.