from mine iniquit)'. Thie record of my going from bad t.o WOl'l!e, BO that every d11y otren<'eB thou still ht\St agninst me, and I a new oolamity seemed to befall him. And cannot <'lrp<'Ot thRt thou wilt acquit mo of inoreaBB■t thine indipation upon me ; i.e. theru. Without someone to atonef.>r them, "mnkest it more nnd more evidently to men c11.nnot be no,1uitted of thoir ofl:•nces. appear, that thou art angry with me," Vl"r. 15.--Il I be wicked. woe unto me! Changes and war are against me ; mthor, If, 011 t!l(' whole, this rPoord of my sins be ohangu and a lwMt; i.e. atto.eka that o.ro con- such tliat I am pronounced guilty before tinually changing-a whole host of them, ('Y<ld. then I llroept my doom. Woe unto or "host after host" (Revised Versiou mar- me I I must submit to sutt'er. And if I be gin), come ag-ainst me. righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. Ver. I 8.-Wherefcro then haat thou brought H, on the !'ontmry, it be admitted that I me forth out of the womb 1 A reourreuce have not sinnPd so grievously as to be pro- to his original coruplllint (eh. iii. 8-10): nounced unrigliteous, even then I will not as if, after full consideration, he returned to boost; I will not ei:alt myself; I will not the conviction that the root of the whole bold up my head as if I were sinloes. I am mn.tter-tho real thing of which he might tnll of confusion. This clause shon ltl not jnstly complo.in-was that he ho.d ever been he separated from the last. The sense runs born into the work! alive I Oh that I had on: .. I will not lift up my heacl (being-, as I given up tho ghost! Before birth, or in tha am), full of confusion," or "of shame," act of birth (so eh. iii. 11). And no eye throug-h ronsciousnese of my own imperfec- had seen me ! "No eye," i.e., "ho.d looked tions (see the Revised Version). Therefore upon my living face." For then- ■ee thou mine &11!.iotion; rather, and Meeing Ver. 19.-I should have been as though my ajflicti°"". The sense given in the I had not been; I should have been oarried Authorized Version is maintained by Rosen- from the womb to the gra.ve. So short an miiller, De Wette, Stanley Leathes, and existence would luive been the next thin"' Merx, and defended by Canon Cook ; but to uo existence at all, and would havi opposed by Schultens, Professor Ll"e, and equally satisfiecl my wishes. our Revisers. If we accept the views of Ver. 20.-Are not my days fewt Cease th8Se last, the whole paSB&ge will run thus: then, an<l let me alone, that I may take "If I be [pronounced] wicked, woe nnto comfort a little. Job here returns from me! but if righteous, yet will I not lift up vague longings o.nd idle BBpil'atione to actual my head, being [as I am] full of confusion, realities-the facts of the oase-and asks, and seeing my afflictions." Job still views •· Is not the time that I now have to live his afflictions as signs of God's dilJ'avouz, short? Must not my disi·ase make an end and therefore proofs of his ainfulness. of me in a very brief space? lf so, then Ver. 16.-For itinoreaseth. Thou hllllte&t me.y I not mo.ke a request? My petition is me. This passege is very obscure, and has that God will 'cease• from me, grant me a been taken in several quite different senses. respite, 'let me alone • for a short time, On the whole, it is not clear that any better remove his heavy hand, and allow me to meaning can be assigned to it the.n that of 'take comfort a little,' recover my strength, the Authorized Version, " For my affliction and obtain a breathing-space, before my increuelh," or "is ever increasing. Thon actual end, before the time comes for my .hunt.est me;" i.e. ·thou a.rt continually pur- descent to Sheol." which is then (vers. 21, lllD.ing me with thy plagues, thy "arrows" 22) described. '.l'he parallel with Pe. xxxix. (eh. vL 4), thy "wounds" (eh. ix. 17), thy 13 is striking. poisoned shatt.8 (eh. vi. 4). Thou givest me Ver. 21.-Before I go whence I shall not no rest, therefore I am ever consciollll of my return (comp. eh. vii. 9; and see 2 Sam. affliction.a. As a fierce lion. Schultens re- xii. 23). Even to the land of darkness and gards Job u the lion, o.nd so Jarchi and the shadow of death. Job's idea of the re- others. But ru08t commentators take the ceptacle of the dead, while it has some view that the lion is God ( comp. lea. :uri analogies with the Egyptian under-world, 4; x.uviii. 13; Jer. n:v. 38; Lam. iii. 10; and ev('n more with the Greek and Roman Hoe. v. 14; xiii. 7, 8). And again thou conceptions of Hades or Orcue, was pro- showeat thyNlf m.arvellou 11pon me; or, bably derived from Babylonia, or Che.Idea, tlwu deal&t man,e/J,oUBly with me; i.e. '' in- on which the land that he inhabited bor- 11.ict.est on me strange and marvellous euf- dered (eh. i. 17). It was within the earth, ft:ri.ngs." coneeqnenUy dark and sunless (compare .the VeL. 17.~rhou renewest thJ '11ritne111111 Umbrlll of the Romans, and Euripidee's apin■t 11111. Each fresh calallliiy that'.Job 11/,cpr,,11 1t•"6~11a ul •a,c&.,.o u ,rrl"41), deep lllff1:1r11 is a new witness that God is di&- (eh. xi 8), d:fe&IY; feat.ened wtth bolts and f!laied with him, both in his owu eyea, and ba.rs (oh. xvil. 16). .The Bohylonian11 spoke m tbotie of bis ".oomfarter11," Hi.a - ~ of it u ''the abode of darkness and famine, SU IIQ doubt eoJJtiu,u,ll7 .prog&i!llllling. and where ea.nh wea men'• food, •uci ·,thfit .L·:u OU, X, 1-22,] THE BOOK OF JOB. 179
nourishment olay; ,where lfgM wae not Revised Version). Aud of the shadow of aeen, but in dnrknose thev dwelt; where death, without any order. The absence of ghosts, like birds, fluttered thoir wings; o.nd ordor is e. new and peculiar feature. W 8 whero, on the doors o.nd on the door-posts, do not find it in the other accounts of Hades. the dust lo.y undisturbed" (Tmusactious of Dut it lends a.<lditional horror and weirdness tho Society of Biblioo.1 Arol11:eology, vol. i. to the scene. And where the light is as p. ll8). darkness. Not, therefore, absolntclv with- Vel'. 22.-A lo.nd of darkness, as darkness out light, but with suc,h e. light e.s·lliiltou itself; or, a land of thicli darlcness (see the calls " do.rltness visible, '