The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 235

Vc?'ll. S, 9.-Though the root thereof wax established 0?<ler of nature ae it exists beforo old in the earth, a•d the etook thereof die his eyes. Till the heaven■ ]:,(, no more, they in the ground ; yet through the ecent of aha_ll not awake. Thie order of things, Job water it will bud, and bring forth boughs be!tcves, rightly enough, will continue as like a plant. After the stump is Retually long ns the heavens nnd the el\rth endure. dead, suckers may be thrown up from the What will happen e.ftorwe.rde he does not roots, if 1mfficicnt wRter be supplied to tbem; so much as iu~uiro. It is remarked, ingeni- and these will put forth branches luxuri- ~msly, that Jobe words, though not intended enth·. m this sense, ex11ctly " coincide with the Yer. 10.-Bnt man dieth. "Man" is decl1mltione of the New Testament, which here ~l, "the brnve, strong man," not c-m make the resurrection simultaneous with the or c:"1lN, and the meaning is that man, how- brealdng up of the visible 1.1nivcrse" (Oanon ever brave and strong, perishes. And Cook). Nor be raised out of their Bleep. wasteth away; i.e. "comes to nought, re- If" the glimmer of e. hope" of the resur- tains no strength or vitality." Yea., man rection appears e.nywhere in vers. 10-12, giveth up the ghost, and where is he 1 it is in the comparison of death to a sleep •• Where ie he?" Job could not answer which is inseparably oouueoted in our mind~ thiE question. He might say," In Shcol." with an awe.kening. But where ,ms Sheol, and what was Sheol? Ver. 13.-0h that thou wouldest hide me There wa.s no written revelation on this in the grave! literally, in Sheol, which here 1mbject, au,l no traditione.l knowledge on does uot so much mean "the gl'ave," e.s the which dependence could be placed. The plaoe of departed spirits, described in oh. L Hebrew notions on the 8Ubject were very 21, 22. Job desires to have God's protec- vague and indeterminate; J oh's notions are tion in that " la.nd of darkness," and to be likely to have been still vaguer. There is "hidden" there by him until his wrath be no reason to believe that he ho.cl any exact past. It has been generally supposed that acqua.intanoe with the tenets of the Egyp- be meaus after his dee.th; but Schultens tians. He may hnve J..--nown the Chaldean thinks his desire was to descend to Sheol t.e&ching, but it woulrl not have curried him alifle, and there remain, while his punish- very fur (see above, pp.178, 179). Doubt and ment continued, hidden from the eyes of perplexity beset him whenever he turned men. That thou wouldest keep me secret, his attention to the problem of man's con- until thy wrath be pa.et. Job assumes that, dition after death, and, excepting when if he is being punished for his youthful sins c.a.rried away by a burst of enthusie.sm, he ( eh. xiii. 26), his punishment will not be for eeems to have regarded it as the highest long-at any rate, not forever; God's anger wisrlom, in matters of this kind, "to know will at last be satisfied e.nd cease. That that he knew nothing." The question, "thou wouldest appoint me a aet time, and "Where is he?" is an acknowledgment of remember me! How long he .may have to this profound ignorance. snffer he does not· greatly care. Only let Ver. 11.-As the waters fail from the it be " a set time "-e. fixed, definite period ■ea. The allusion seems to be to tLe actual -e.nd at the end of it, let God" remember" desiccation of see.a and rivers. Job, ap- him. parently, had known instances of both. A Ver. H.-If a man die, shall he live e.goin? formation of new land in the place of sea The question is clearly intended to be an- is always going on e.t the head of the Per- swered in the negative. It is not a dis- sian Gulf, through the deposits of the Tigris plU!sionate inquiry, but an expression of and Euphrates; e.nd this forme.tion we.s very hopelessness. Let a man once die, ond of rapid in ancient times, when the head of course he cannot live again. Were it other- the gulf was ne.rrower. The desiccation of wise, then, Job says, all the days of my ap- river-courses is common in Mesopotamia, pointed time will I wait; or, rather (as in where arms thrown out by the Tigris and the Revised Version), all tlle day, of my Euphratei! get blocked, and then silted up. warfare would I wait; i.e. I would pa• And the 11.ood decayeth and drleth np ; tiently eudure any sufferings in the lnrger rathu, and t11£ rifier decayeth, elc. (see the hope that would then be open to me. I comment on the preceding clause). would wait till my change (rather, my re• Ver. 12.-So man lieth down, and riaeth ne1Dal) come. The exact nature of the "re- not. This is not e.n absolute denial of e. newal" which Job seems here to expect is final .resurrection, since Joh is speaking of obscure. Perhaps he is pursuing the idea, the world e.s it lies before him, not of even- broached ill ver. 13, of his being conveyed tualities. J ll.6t e.s he sees the land encroach alfoe to He.des, and looks forward to a fur- upon the Bee., and remain land, and the river- ther renewed life after he is released ·from courses, once dried np, reme.in dry, so he that "land of darkness." sees men deecend into the grave and remain Ver. 15.-'.fhou shalt oall,, and I will there, without rising np &gain. Tbis is the anawer thee; rather, thou shoulde,t ooll, a•tJ OB. XIV, 1-22,] THE BOOK OF JOB.