The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 234

herent weakness. He is "bom of a woman," neee e.nd inllrmity a.re recognized; but the who is "the weaker vessel" (1 Pet. iii. 7). uncleanness is material, e.nd removable by Ho is oonoeived by her in anolennness (Pe. material expiation (Lev. xii. 2-8). It is Ii. 5; oomp. below, ver. 4), brought forth in rather mcm'e wee.kne88 the.n his sinfulness sorrow nod pnin (Gen. iii. 16), suckled at that is here nnder discneeion. her breasts, placed for yenra under her Ver. 5.-9eeiDg hill daJII a.re determined. guidance. No wonder that he shares the Job here retnrns to the consideration 0f the weakness of which eho is a sort of type. shortness of me.n'e life. "His de.ye a.re de- Is of few days ; liternlly, short of day,. termined;" i.e. they are a limited period, Length and shortness of days a.re, no doubt, known to e.nd fi.xed beforehand by God. relative; and it is difficult to say whnt They are not like God's days, which "en- term of-life would not have seemed short dare throaghoat all generations" (Ps. cii. to men ns they looked hnck upon it. To 24). The number of his months are with j Jo.cob, ut the ege of n hundJ:ed e.nd thirty, thee. "With thee" means here "known 1• it appeared that "feta and evil had the to thee," "laid up in thy counsels." Thon 'do.ye_ of the years of hie life been" (Gen. he.at appointed his boUllds that he cannot / xlvii. 9). Methuselah, perhaps, thought the eame. We a.II, as we come towards old e.ge, pass. "His bounds" are " the limit or his lifetime." The three clauses are pleone.etic. end death «haws mo.nifestly near, feel as if One idea pervades them all. we had only just begun to live, as if, e.t Ver. 6.-Tnm from him, that he ma.y , any rate, we had not done half our work, rest; litere.lly, look au:ay /rlYm him; i.e. ' and were a.bout to be cut off before our "Cee.ee to watch him and search him ont time. But would the case be serionely dif- so continually" (comp. eh. vii. 17, 18). fl)rent if our tale of yee.rs were doubled? "Then he will be able to have e. breathing. And full of trouble (comp. eh. v. 7). time, e.n interval of pee.oe e.nd rest, before Ver. 2.-He cometh forth like e. :Bower, his departure from the earth." What Job and is out down. Few similes are more fre- had previously desired for himself (eh. x. quently used in Scripture (oomp. Pe. oilL 20) he now a.eke for all humanity. Till he 15; Isa. :uvili.1, 4; xl. 6, 7; Jas. L 10, 11; she.ll accomplish, a.a an hirelill.g, his day. -1 Pet. i. 24), end certainly none could he.ve Hired hibourers a.re glad when their day's more poetio beauty, Eastern :Bowers do not work is over. So me.n rejoices when life often fast much more the.n e. de.y. Xe :Beath comes to e.n end. also 11.S a shadow, and continueth not (comp. Ver. 7.-For there is hope of e. tree, if it .eh. vii. 2; viii, 9; 1 Chron. x..rix. 15; Ps. be cut down. God's vegetable creation is oil. ll; cix. 23; Eoclee. vi. 12, etc.). Sha- better off, in respect of length of de.ys, tho.n dows a.re nlwo.ys ohe.uging; but the shadows man. Let e. tree be cnt down, it is not which flee a.way the fastest, and which Job therefore of necessity destroyed. There is he.s. probably in his. mind, are those of yet hope for it. The be.re dry stump will olouds, or other· moving objects, which seem sometimes put forth tender branches, which tq chose ea.eh other over the earth, e.nd will grow e.nd flourish, e.nd renew the old never to continue for a. single minute in one life. Or, if the stump be quite deod, suckers stay. may spring up from the root e.nd grow into Ver. 3.-And dost thou open thine eyes new trees as vigorous as the one the.t they upon BDch e. one t Is it compatible with repl11ce (comp. Isa.. :ri. 1). Herodotus con- God's greatness, unohe.ngeo.bleness, e.nd ma- sidered that all trees had this recuperative jesty to take any notice of so poor, weo.k, power, except the T(-n,s, e. species of fir and unstable e. creature oe mortal me.n? (Herod., vi. 37), e.nd the trsveller Shaw The question has been often osked, end says the.t when a po.Im tree dies there is answered by me.ny in the negative, os by a.I woys a sucker ready to te.ke its pince. the Epiouree.ne of old. Job does not really Pliny also observes of the le.urel, "Viva- entertain any doubt upon the point ; but cissimn est rad~ ite. ut, si truncns ina- only intends to express his wonder the.t it ruerit, reoise. arbor mo::s: lretius frntificet" should be e.o (comp. Pe. viii. 4, and above, (' Hist. Nat.,' i. 15. § 30). That it will uh. vii. 17). And bringest me into judg- sprout a.gain. The.t is, from the spool or meil.t with thee t Eepeoially ostoniehin" is stump. Some trees, as the Spanish chest- it, Job says, thot Gcd should condescend to nut, if cut down flush with the ground, try, po.as judgment on, aud punish so weo.k, throw up shoots from the entire circle of worthless, e.ud transitory a creature e.s him- the stump, often as many e.s fifteen or aelf. twenty. And the.t ihe tender bre.neh ihereof Ver, 4.-Who oan bring e. olean thing out will not oease. The vigour of such shoots of an Ullolean 1 not one, It is soe.roely true is very great. In a few yee.rs they grow to to lie.y the.t "the fnct of origine.l ein is thus the height of the po.rent tree. If they a.re distinctly recognized" (' Speaker's . Com- then removed they nre quiokly reple.ceu by mentary,' vol. iv. p. 61). Original unolce.u- e. fresh growth.  24-4 THE BOOK OF JOB. [CR, XlV, 1-2!,