The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 260

33). 3, Oertain; i.e. verified by experience. In the preceding colloquy Eliphaz he.d treated Job to wisdom he bad learnt in ecstatic vision (eh. iv. 12); here be Jaye before him the results of observation through the ordinary channels of information. He does not claim for hie approRChing utterances the high authority of messages from the spirit-world; still, he guarantees their veracity on the double testimony of eye and ear. What tho wise men had reported to hie sense of hearing he had taken care to verify by the organ of seeing; so that practically he seems to say," In the mouth of two witnesses is every word established." II. 'fBE PURPORT OF THIS WISDOM, Briefly, it is the dogma that a moral order exists in the world, that good always comes to the !(Ood, and in particular that evil never fails to overtake the evil. 1. The wicked man's doom. Painted in lurid colours, as consisting mainly in two things. (1) The terrors of an evil conscience, which are represented as: (a) Self-inflicted. " The wicked man writhes or torments himself" ( ver. 20). Conscience always is its own avenger. Gagged for a season, it eventually speaks out with greater power because of previous repression. "No man ever offended his own con- science, but first or last it was revenged upon him for it" (South). (b) Excruciatingly paiuful, like the pains of parturition. "Conscience is a thousand swords " (' King Richard III.,' act v, sc. 2). "Methought a legion of foul fiends environed me" (ibid., act i. so. 4). "The mind that broods o'er guilty woes is like the scorpion girt by fire" (Byron ' Giaour '). (c) Never ceasing; the anguish of the stricken wretch continuing "all his days." Except in rare instances, this part of Eliphaz's description can scarcely be regarded as literally correct. Yet it teaches that, from one end of life to the other, the wicked man enjoys no security against his guilty fears, which may spring forth upon him at any moment, the exact instant when they shall do so being hidden from his view (ver. 20). (d) Horribly terrifying; filling him with dismal forebodings of evil. The sound of approaching calamity ever ringing in his ears (ver. 21), every footfall appears to be that of a destroyer: "How is't with me, when every noise appals me?" (' Macbeth,' act ii. sc. 2); and "The wicked flee when no man pursueth" (Prov. xxviii. 1). His imagination suggests, even in the midst of prosperity, that the devastator is upon him (ver. 21), that every one who finds him shall slay him (Gen. iv. 14), that his destruction will be sudden and complete---a fate reserved for unbelievers in the great day of the Lord (1 Thess, v. 3). His guilty conscience peopling the dark with assassins causes him to live in constant terror of the sword (ver. 22)-" 'l'hus conscience does make cowards of us all" (' Hamlet,' act iii. sc. 1). His feeble spirit agonized by feard of starvation even in the midst of abundance (ver. 23), roams abroad in search of bread, saying," Where is it?" and he becomes a fugitive aml a vagabond on the earth, like another Cain (Gen. iv. 12), and iike wicked men generally whose evil hearts are restless as the troubled sea (Isa. \vii. 20). His crowding fears of impending calamity so unman him that when trouble and anguish gather round like royal armies prepared for battle, they paralyze him with dread, and render resiRtance or escape impossible (ver. 24). (2) The miseries of an evil fortune form the second ingredient in his unhappy lot. He shall never attain to true, permanent, or abundant wealth. If he make money, he shall make nothing else. And that money shall take wings aud flee away. So that, notwithstanding his apparent success, he shall be always a poor man. It is often true of the wicked that they make money only to put it into a bag with holes (Hag. i. 6). Ill-gotten wealth never lasts long. The wicked man shall never be out of misfortune, in himself or in his family. " He shall not escape darkness" (ver. 30). He shall eventually be overwhelmed in ruin; painful, like the burning of a flame; speedy, like a blast of wind; divinely sent, the agent of hia destruction being the breath of God's mouth, which will ultimately consume the enemies of Christ (2 Thess. ii. 8; Rev. xix. 15); and therefore complete and final, the wicked perishing utterly, as all the ungodly will do hereafter. 2. The wicked man's crime. (1) Tyrannical oppression of men (ver. 20). The ungodly persons alluded to by Etlphaz were proud imperious sinners who trampled recklessly on the rights of others. All sin is more or less an infringement of the rights and liberties of men• and much of the wickedness with which earth is overrun partakes of this char~cter-the strong tyrannizing over the weak, the ambitious making stepping- stones of those who are humble the powerful treading down the feeble and unresisting (cf. Cowper, • Task,' bk, ii.). The giants of Noah's (Gen. vi. 4) and the Arabian  270 TH'tl nook o, JOA