The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 205

There oan be no opening, No other power nbjoots, and then lets them lie carried away Cft.n give releneo. oopti ve by their enemies. The latter i■ Yer. 15. -Behold, he withholdeth the perhaps the more probable sense. water1, 11nd they dry up. God, 11t his pie&• Ver. 19.-He leadeth princea away ■polled; !lnrt1, "Rllses ~eat droughts, whioh 11re rather, priests (D•ln:i), as in the Revised Ver- 11mong the worst onle.mitiPs that CRn h11ppen. ~ion. Thie is the only mention of" priests 11 H,· ,dthhnl<fs the bl&'l!!ed rnin from he&ven m the Book of Job, and a prieet-oosto, suoh (Deni. xi. 17; I Kings viii. 35; xvii. 1), 118 tho.t of Egypt or of Israel, can soaroely Rnrl th<' springs shrink, Rnd the rivers dry be meant. Tile priests ll.ro plaoed among np. and II fruitful land is turned int.o 11 the mighty, on a par with kings (l'er. 18), desert,, and famine stalks through the le.nd. princes (ver. 2 I), nnd '' tha strong" (ver. and m<>n perish by thousands. Also he 21). This oontext makes us nature.Uy think ■endeth them out, and they overturn the of those priest-kings whom we hear of in earth ; i.e. he causes floods o.nd inundations. the olden times, such as were Melchizedek Once upon a time he overwhelmed the whole (Gen. xix. 18-20) and Jethro (Exod. iii. earth, and destroved e.lmost the entire race of 1; xviii. 1-27), and the Egyptian kings mankind, by a deluge of an e:i:tre.ordino.ry of the twenty-first dynasty (' History of cbamct.er, which so fixed itsolf in the human Ancient Egypt,' vol. ii. pp. 408--415), and consoinusness. tho.t traces of it are to be Etbbaal of 'l'yre (' History of Phmnicia,' found in the trA<litions of almost all the p. 435), and Sethos (Herod., ii. 141), o.nd various "'""s of men. But, beside this great others. Job's allusion is probably t.o persons OCCMion. be o.lso in ten thousand other cases, of this exalted ola.sa, who no doubt were causes, by means of floo<!s, tremendous ruin sometimes defeo.ted and dragged into cap- 11nd dcvestation, sweeping away crops and tivity, like other rulers and govemora. And cattle, and even villages and cities, some- overthroweth the mighty, Sohultens under- times even "overturning the ea.rth," causing stands by ethanim (D•ln•N) "great teachers; l lakes to burat, rivers t.o ohange their oonrse, but the ordinary meaning of the word is ve.st tro.cts of land t.o be permanently sub- "strong" or "mighty" (see eh, xxxiii. 19; merged, and the contour of coasts to be Micah vi. 2). altered. Ver. 20.-He ramoveth awa.y the apeech Ver. 16.-With him is strength and wis- ot the trusty, God deprives trusted states- dom; rather (e..s in the Revised Version), men of their eloquence, deatroys their repu- 1mtl1 him u strength and effectual working. tation and their authority. And taketh God has not only the wisdom to design the &way the understanding ot the aged. He course of events (ver.13), bnt the power and turns wiee and aged men into fools· and nhili!y to carry out all that he desigDB. The drivellera, weakening their judgments o.nd deceived and the deceiver a.re hi& Not only reducing them to imb.!cility. does God rnle the course of external nature, Ver. 21.-He poureth oontempt upon but also the doings of men. " Shall there prinoes; literally, upon the munijicen,t. But be evil in a citv, and shell not be have done the word has often the more generic sense iP" (A.mos iii 6) He allows some t.o de- of "princes," "great men" (see 1 S!Lm. ii. ceive, and othen to be deceived. Moml evil 8; Prov. xxv. 7, etc.). And weakeneth the is thus nnder his control, and, in a -eertain strength ot the mighty; litero.lly, looseth the @ef&Me, may be called his doing. Bnt it belt of the strong. But our version suffi- behoves men, when they approach such ciently expresses the meaning. - great mysteries, to be very cautions and Ver. 22.-He discovereth deep thing■ out wary in their speech. Job tonchBB with of darkneBB, By "deep things II are pro- &omewbat too bold 11, band the deepest bably meant the "deeply laid sohemes " problems of the universe. which wicked men concoct in darkness (or Yer. 17.-He leadeth c01Ulllellors away secrecy). These God often "discovers," or llpOiled. The wise of the earth cannot re- causes to be laid be.re. English hist,.,ry can sist or eacape him ; he frustrotes their de- point to such a. ca.se in the discovery of the signs and overthrows them, and, as it were, fa.moue "Gunpowder Plot" in the second leads tl,em awo.y captive. And ma.keth the year of King Jo.mes L And bringeth out to judges fools; rather, and judges maketh he light the ahadow ot death. There lil nothing jOOUJ. There is no article, and no particular aecret which God cannot, if he choose, re- jndges are referred to (comp. Isa. xliv. 25). veal ; nor ie there anything hid which he Ver. 18.-He lOOl8th the bcnui ot kings, cannot make known. Dark, murderous and girdeth their loins with & gird.le. This schemes, on which lies a shadow as of deo.th, may either mean that God at his pleasure which men plan in secret, and keep hidden both lOOllell kingii from e&ptivity, and also in their inmost thoughts, he can, 11,nd often bind, them with a oord and can&eS them .does, caW!e to be brought t.o light and made to be ea.rried a.way captive; or that he looses maoifeiit in the sight of all, Every sµch the authority which kinga have ov81' their scheme, however carefully guarded 11,nd OB. :m. 1-26,] THE BOOK OF JOB. 211